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The Old Republic plans world of new content

BioWare's showing of Star Wars: The Old Republic was grand on promises, but offered little in the way of actual new content except an interesting hands-on look Hero mission coming later this year.
John Keefer
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QUICKTAKE: The focus of BioWare's E3 presentation this year was about all the grand things they had planned through the end of 2012--from the new planet of Makeb, taken over by the Hutt Cartel, through a new 8v8 war zone on Selene, to a new playable race called the Cathar. Unfortunately, what was missing was any actual footage or gameplay aside from the quickest of cuts in the E3 trailer. What was shown was a small snippet from a new heroic mission, where players must thwart the Dread Masters from getting control of a super weapon called the Aurora Cannon on the planet of Belsavis. THE DEMO: The demo was hands-on for four people chosen from the attendees at a behind-closed-doors showing of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The mission was on the planet of Belsavis and required the players--in the traditional roles of tank, healer and two support classes--to stop the Dread Masters from activating a super weapon called the Aurora Cannon. The players, who had never played together before, were able to make it through the first several mobs in the level, using crowd control and the tank on the heaviest hitting mobs, while the support classes took out the lesser trash. In one interesting spot, the players activated an energy bridge, only to deactivate it when mobs started running across towards them, sending them plummeting to their deaths. The players were only able to get through three or four encounters like that before they wiped, and no bosses were shown or other specific mechanics. THE DETAILS: Sadly, there weren't many details other than bullet points of what will be coming later in the year. It was revealed that the 1.3 Allies update was going into public beta today, and that server transfers for character will begin soon, but very few other specifics were revealed. The laundry list of upcoming additions included a new HK-51 assassination droid companion--with an all new personality program--will be unlocked for all players through completion of a set of quests. There's a new operation called Terror From Beyond, where the Dread Masters have opened some ancient gates and let some crazy huge creatures through. Plus there'll be a new 8v8 war zone on the planet of Selene, a new playable cat-like race called the Cathar, and an all-new planet called Makeb, which has the Hutt cartel as its new masters. The new planet will have quite a bit of new content and story, which will require a higher level cap and new abilities, but again, no details were released and no specific dates were given. However, if BioWare keeps up with its current cycle of an update every three months, that would put 1.3 out in July, with any combination of the above mentioned features in the October time frame.

The new HK-51 assassination droid companion

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  • Shacknews legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
    reply
    June 6, 2012 9:00 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Star Wars: The Old Republic preview.

    BioWare's showing of Star Wars: The Old Republic was grand on promises, but offered little in the way of actual new content except an interesting hands-on look Hero mission coming later this year.

    • DragonSire legacy 10 years
      reply
      June 6, 2012 5:52 PM

      I saw this headline and is was like umm...isn't it already out? Maybe a slight change such as "the future of..."

    • Frenegade42 legacy 10 years
      reply
      June 7, 2012 1:38 AM

      . . . . . and not a single shit was given.

      Poor SWTOR.

      • MOOMANiBE legacy 10 years
        reply
        June 7, 2012 2:16 AM

        This game definitely got the short end of the MMO Market Saturation stick.

    • GodZilly legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      June 7, 2012 2:42 AM

      A shame they didn't say anything regarding the server transfer/merger, that's what's keeping me from activating my SW:TOR account.

    • azshack legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      June 7, 2012 2:55 AM

      This sounds like a goddamn terrible demo.

    • Saldrin legacy 10 years
      reply
      June 7, 2012 4:31 AM

      They have been saying new content was coming since before launch. Hard to trust them at this point. And new races to play? For the most part, IIRC, the only reason to choose different races was looks and some non-combat action (cheer?!). Give them different stats (str, dex....), more/ less energy....strong/weaker force powers....

    • rottdcorpse legacy 10 years
      reply
      June 7, 2012 4:58 AM

      Ok, need an honest opinion. I loved KotOR.

      If I'm not that arsed about grouping or anything and probably will just start a new character after a little fun with the endgame, is TOR worth buying?

      • Saldrin legacy 10 years
        reply
        June 7, 2012 5:26 AM

        For the most part, ToR is a single player game. There are areas that require a group, but they are not mandatory for story progression. They give you companions to help you along the way, a tank, healer, dps....Its not a bad game, it just get really boring end game, as you NEED other people to do the lvl 50 dungeon runs to get get the epic gear. If you don't care about that then give it a shot, in fact if you dislike grouping, the server populations are low enough that you probably never will.

    • frdranger legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      June 7, 2012 6:29 AM

      I tried SWTOR since launch and the first two or three weeks found it great. But again, the big issue here is that it doesn't give us any reason to go out and "explore" the world. Heaven forbid you wonder out from the main path it sets you on, you'll find yourself walking into a "group zone" surrounded by elites. When playing an MMO you want to go out, explore the world, etc.

    • radar legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      June 8, 2012 11:49 AM

      https://account.swtor.com/user/subscription/cancel

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