It's Official Bioware announces Star Wars MMO

So long SWG

So long SWG

Must. Have.

NAO!

Must. Have.

NAO!

enjoy! can i have ur stuffz's

Must. Have.

NAO!

enjoy! can i have ur stuffz's

I love how the quote for this image is 'The fights are thrillingly cinematic.'. Personaly that image looks boring to me.

Yeah, I'm hoping that the picture is just a taster and elements like the lightsabers will be sorted appropriately. They are fine in KOTOR and SWG so no reason to have big fat versions, unless it's an option for the player to choose. Personally I like the small versions or the slightly curved versions.

Got this in my email today lol

I don't think anyone has said this, so I will...

Impressive... most impressive.

The link in that email goes here: http://www.swtor.com/info

Clearly they're going for something that can run on a phone by the look of those graphics.

On closer inspection I may be mistaken... not a fan of the armoured spandex jumpsuit look though. Jedi Adventurer robes and Sith robes/training garb should be the norm.

Jedi Academy and Force Unleashed are the kind of flavour I like in StarWars games.

I was really really stoked to hear about this, then I saw the screenshots.  What is this Star Wars: Toontown Online?  Look at the lightsabres.  TOO BIG.

Should of gone with an improved KOTOR engine, this cartoon *CENSORED* is not cutting it anymore.  Every game doesn't need to look like a *CENSORED* cartoon.  I want graphics that push the limit in a Star Wars MMO.  Not that remind me of WoW but even worse.

I'm not a SW fan by any means, and on the surface this doesn't appeal to me much at all.. after reading some of the proposed details, however, I wouldn't mind giving it a try.  Can't see grabbing it straight off the shelf though.

And I agree the graphics are a little.. actually a lot of meh at this point.  While I realize "realistic" graphics don't age as well as cartoony graphics, and thus tend to fare better in an MMO due to it's extended creation time and hoped for life length after release, they just don't look very good.  Okay, we get it, it works in WoW, that doesn't mean it's a good design choice.  While MxO isn't anywhere near as popular as it should be, it still looks great even now compared to pretty much any (every?) other MMO out there and *gasp* it has a more realistic graphical style.  Do it right, and you don't need to comprimise.

Shinryu wrote:

I'm not a SW fan by any means, and on the surface this doesn't appeal to me much at all.. after reading some of the proposed details, however, I wouldn't mind giving it a try.  Can't see grabbing it straight off the shelf though.

And I agree the graphics are a little.. actually a lot of meh at this point.  While I realize "realistic" graphics don't age as well as cartoony graphics, and thus tend to fare better in an MMO due to it's extended creation time and hoped for life length after release, they just don't look very good.  Okay, we get it, it works in WoW, that doesn't mean it's a good design choice.  While MxO isn't anywhere near as popular as it should be, it still looks great even now compared to pretty much any (every?) other MMO out there and *gasp* it has a more realistic graphical style.  Do it right, and you don't need to comprimise.

Shinryu, I hope you're not insinuating that the MMORPG be restricted to only players that have $5,000+ to get a recent top-of-the-line PC hardware compatible with the game.  I mean, I have a three-year-old PC that I spent $4,000 on just to play MxO when it was under Monolith's control, and the recent technical decisions made by the powers that be for MxO really dwarfed my PC in half (i.e. "ZOMG, combine nine small servers into three large ones!" being the main problem), and I am not interested in shelling out a similar amount of money to get another top-of-the-line PC to deal with the pain in the rear  problem that is Windows Vista, and/or suffering with a similar fiasco for the Old Republic should relationships with LucasArts and BioWare get sour. I really want the game to be as accessible as WoW in terms of being able to play the freaking game without having to steal a PC from NASA (I'm looking at FEAR, Company of Heroes, and Crysis for being that problematic). As it is, I've already abandoned PC gaming mainly because of Vista, lack of time for extensive gaming, and money problems.

Vinia wrote:

I loved KOTOR 1&2 and, as long as Bioware don't rush this, I think it should be a superb game. Definitely one to look forward to.

i completely agree with everything said here

Canbus wrote:

Shinryu wrote:

I'm not a SW fan by any means, and on the surface this doesn't appeal to me much at all.. after reading some of the proposed details, however, I wouldn't mind giving it a try.  Can't see grabbing it straight off the shelf though.

And I agree the graphics are a little.. actually a lot of meh at this point.  While I realize "realistic" graphics don't age as well as cartoony graphics, and thus tend to fare better in an MMO due to it's extended creation time and hoped for life length after release, they just don't look very good.  Okay, we get it, it works in WoW, that doesn't mean it's a good design choice.  While MxO isn't anywhere near as popular as it should be, it still looks great even now compared to pretty much any (every?) other MMO out there and *gasp* it has a more realistic graphical style.  Do it right, and you don't need to comprimise.

Shinryu, I hope you're not insinuating that the MMORPG be restricted to only players that have $5,000+ to get a recent top-of-the-line PC hardware compatible with the game.  I mean, I have a three-year-old PC that I spent $4,000 on just to play MxO when it was under Monolith's control, and the recent technical decisions made by the powers that be for MxO really dwarfed my PC in half (i.e. "ZOMG, combine nine small servers into three large ones!" being the main problem), and I am not interested in shelling out a similar amount of money to get another top-of-the-line PC to deal with the pain in the rear  problem that is Windows Vista, and/or suffering with a similar fiasco for the Old Republic should relationships with LucasArts and BioWare get sour. I really want the game to be as accessible as WoW in terms of being able to play the freaking game without having to steal a PC from NASA (I'm looking at FEAR, Company of Heroes, and Crysis for being that problematic). As it is, I've already abandoned PC gaming mainly because of Vista, lack of time for extensive gaming, and money problems.

Mate...
Upgrading your computer is a part of PC gaming.  If you're not willing to deal with that buy a console, it will last you longer.


I'm tired of developers trying to reach a 'larger' group of players because they refuse to upgrade their PC.  If you can't run FEAR at this point in time, you need to upgrade.


I miss the days when games were about innovation, not money and corporate lust for it.  I miss when games pushed to have something new, IE MxO with it's cutting edge realistic graphics, interlock system, and on the fly class changes.  Now they're all 'four button' clones.  WoW has it's piece of the pie, and it can't be bitten into.  I want companies to start pushing the graphics line for MMOs again, like AoC (ran like butter for people who knew what to customize, don't give me that bad engine bs)


Like I said in the begining.  Upgrading your computer is a part of PC gaming.  It has been since the first AGP slot was created.  If you're not willing to fork out the change for your hobby, then play with old toys.  Some of us enjoy progression, not regression.

KanoR wrote:

Canbus wrote:

Shinryu wrote:

I'm not a SW fan by any means, and on the surface this doesn't appeal to me much at all.. after reading some of the proposed details, however, I wouldn't mind giving it a try.  Can't see grabbing it straight off the shelf though.

And I agree the graphics are a little.. actually a lot of meh at this point.  While I realize "realistic" graphics don't age as well as cartoony graphics, and thus tend to fare better in an MMO due to it's extended creation time and hoped for life length after release, they just don't look very good.  Okay, we get it, it works in WoW, that doesn't mean it's a good design choice.  While MxO isn't anywhere near as popular as it should be, it still looks great even now compared to pretty much any (every?) other MMO out there and *gasp* it has a more realistic graphical style.  Do it right, and you don't need to comprimise.

Shinryu, I hope you're not insinuating that the MMORPG be restricted to only players that have $5,000+ to get a recent top-of-the-line PC hardware compatible with the game.  I mean, I have a three-year-old PC that I spent $4,000 on just to play MxO when it was under Monolith's control, and the recent technical decisions made by the powers that be for MxO really dwarfed my PC in half (i.e. "ZOMG, combine nine small servers into three large ones!" being the main problem), and I am not interested in shelling out a similar amount of money to get another top-of-the-line PC to deal with the pain in the rear  problem that is Windows Vista, and/or suffering with a similar fiasco for the Old Republic should relationships with LucasArts and BioWare get sour. I really want the game to be as accessible as WoW in terms of being able to play the freaking game without having to steal a PC from NASA (I'm looking at FEAR, Company of Heroes, and Crysis for being that problematic). As it is, I've already abandoned PC gaming mainly because of Vista, lack of time for extensive gaming, and money problems.

Mate...
Upgrading your computer is a part of PC gaming.  If you're not willing to deal with that buy a console, it will last you longer.


I'm tired of developers trying to reach a 'larger' group of players because they refuse to upgrade their PC.  If you can't run FEAR at this point in time, you need to upgrade.


I miss the days when games were about innovation, not money and corporate lust for it.  I miss when games pushed to have something new, IE MxO with it's cutting edge realistic graphics, interlock system, and on the fly class changes.  Now they're all 'four button' clones.  WoW has it's piece of the pie, and it can't be bitten into.  I want companies to start pushing the graphics line for MMOs again, like AoC (ran like butter for people who knew what to customize, don't give me that bad engine bs)


Like I said in the begining.  Upgrading your computer is a part of PC gaming.  It has been since the first AGP slot was created.  If you're not willing to fork out the change for your hobby, then play with old toys.  Some of us enjoy progression, not regression.

Uh, if you haven't been keeping up with current events, the U.S. has a very bad economy right now which makes it moot (i.e. no job= no cash to spend). Even as of today, Vista is still touted as being problematic and unless you have been working as a member of Geek Squad or managed to have the spare time doing computer work as an "engineer in training."  I'm not technically savvy with installing a new graphics card or motherboard mainly because I don't have the training or proper knowledge to do such things (does that make me an idiot? Hell no. I'm just not good at that stuff, never will be.)

My current PC is technically supposed to run FEAR, and was slightly above minimum spec requirements from SystemRequirementsLab.com website, but it only does the bare minimum at best without any major slowdowns. PC gaming has been dying mainly due to bad programs, system-hogging resources, targetting only at least 5% of the population that can afford said hardware, the crap that is SecuRom, and gaming in general is just too expensive as it is already. No one should have to buy or upgrade a new PC yearly just to play the next recent game only to find out that the game three months later will render the recent computer obsolete. BTW, that mentality is why we're facing global warming.

Canbus wrote:

Shinryu wrote:

And I agree the graphics are a little.. actually a lot of meh at this point.  While I realize "realistic" graphics don't age as well as cartoony graphics, and thus tend to fare better in an MMO due to it's extended creation time and hoped for life length after release, they just don't look very good.  ...

Shinryu, I hope you're not insinuating that the MMORPG be restricted to only players that have $5,000+ to get a recent top-of-the-line PC hardware compatible with the game.  I mean, I have a three-year-old PC that I spent $4,000 on just to play MxO when it was under Monolith's control, and the recent technical decisions made by the powers that be for MxO really dwarfed my PC in half (i.e. "ZOMG, combine nine small servers into three large ones!" being the main problem)...

Quoting clipped to avoid massive walls of text.

I'm not advocating that at all, Canbus.  I haven't honestly upgraded my PC in years either beyond a new gfx card that is now weaker than what you get on board in even newish PCs.  I don't have the cash to do it, and I honestly don't play enough PC games to have the interest even if I was rolling in dough.

Take MxO as an example though.  MxO has "realistic" graphics that look, in many cases, better than what we're seeing in new MMOs and it was made how many years ago now?  Plus, MxO can run on pretty much any PC you can buy now a days, even baseline off the shelf systems (barring the Vista incompatibility situation anyways).  Sure it's got issues of it's own, but using MxO as a baseline we know an MMO with extremely good realistic graphics can be made that can run and run well on almost any PC out there today.

Like I said, I feel your pain on the PC power side of things but choosing cartoony graphics is not a technical choice, it's a stylistic one and something of a cop out.   

Canbus wrote:

Uh, if you haven't been keeping up with current events, the U.S. has a very bad economy right now which makes it moot (i.e. no job= no cash to spend). Even as of today, Vista is still touted as being problematic and unless you have been working as a member of Geek Squad or managed to have the spare time doing computer work as an "engineer in training." I'm not technically savvy with installing a new graphics card or motherboard mainly because I don't have the training or proper knowledge to do such things (does that make me an idiot? Hell no. I'm just not good at that stuff, never will be.)

My current PC is technically supposed to run FEAR, and was slightly above minimum spec requirements from SystemRequirementsLab.com website, but it only does the bare minimum at best without any major slowdowns. PC gaming has been dying mainly due to bad programs, system-hogging resources, targetting only at least 5% of the population that can afford said hardware, the crap that is SecuRom, and gaming in general is just too expensive as it is already. No one should have to buy or upgrade a new PC yearly just to play the next recent game only to find out that the game three months later will render the recent computer obsolete. BTW, that mentality is why we're facing global warming.

From your last paragraph I can tell you're just splurting whatever you can think of to sound smart. I'm sorry, I'm not going to get in a tout with you, but you're completely wrong.

#1 about Vista. http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/
Until you've tried Vista for at least two to three months, you cannot comment on its integrity as an operating system.
#2 about PC gaming dying.
It's quite the opposite as a matter of fact. Just recently Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning came out, which is now boasting nearly ONE MILLION subscribers in a month, making it the fastest growing MMO to date. Guess what, you need a pretty nice PC to run it.
#3 With the introduction of DX10, most computers can last 3-4 years without even a graphics card change. If you've got an 8800+ or a 4850+, you'll be set for at least 3 generations.

I'd rather you know what you're talking about before you pull facts from no where.

Shinryu wrote:

Quoting clipped to avoid massive walls of text.

I'm not advocating that at all, Canbus.  I haven't honestly upgraded my PC in years either beyond a new gfx card that is now weaker than what you get on board in even newish PCs.  I don't have the cash to do it, and I honestly don't play enough PC games to have the interest even if I was rolling in dough.

Take MxO as an example though.  MxO has "realistic" graphics that look, in many cases, better than what we're seeing in new MMOs and it was made how many years ago now?  Plus, MxO can run on pretty much any PC you can buy now a days, even baseline off the shelf systems (barring the Vista incompatibility situation anyways).  Sure it's got issues of it's own, but using MxO as a baseline we know an MMO with extremely good realistic graphics can be made that can run and run well on almost any PC out there today.

Like I said, I feel your pain on the PC power side of things but choosing cartoony graphics is not a technical choice, it's a stylistic one and something of a cop out.   

Ah, okay. I'm sorry for misunderstanding. I started going, "Wait a minute, am I reading this right?". After reading your current post, I do agree with you that MxO does have realistic looking graphics that looks better than most new MMOs to some extent for a three-year-old game.If MxO didn't have its own set of technical problems, I'd definitely agree with you on the "almost any PC can run it" department. As far as cartoony graphics is concerned, I can understand why you dislike it, as I normally hate those myself (namely Wind Waker's cel-shaded art).  As of what I've seen in the recent screenshots, I feel slightly indifferent to the issue, but if it does make the game more playable than a resource-intensive engine (namely the Unreal engine), I'll be content with that if BioWare says it is the only option they have.

Yoouur my herooo Feris Kanooor!

KanoR wrote:

Canbus wrote:

Uh, if you haven't been keeping up with current events, the U.S. has a very bad economy right now which makes it moot (i.e. no job= no cash to spend). Even as of today, Vista is still touted as being problematic and unless you have been working as a member of Geek Squad or managed to have the spare time doing computer work as an "engineer in training." I'm not technically savvy with installing a new graphics card or motherboard mainly because I don't have the training or proper knowledge to do such things (does that make me an idiot? Hell no. I'm just not good at that stuff, never will be.)

My current PC is technically supposed to run FEAR, and was slightly above minimum spec requirements from SystemRequirementsLab.com website, but it only does the bare minimum at best without any major slowdowns. PC gaming has been dying mainly due to bad programs, system-hogging resources, targetting only at least 5% of the population that can afford said hardware, the crap that is SecuRom, and gaming in general is just too expensive as it is already. No one should have to buy or upgrade a new PC yearly just to play the next recent game only to find out that the game three months later will render the recent computer obsolete. BTW, that mentality is why we're facing global warming.

From your last paragraph I can tell you're just splurting whatever you can think of to sound smart. I'm sorry, I'm not going to get in a tout with you, but you're completely wrong.

#1 about Vista. http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/
Until you've tried Vista for at least two to three months, you cannot comment on its integrity as an operating system.
#2 about PC gaming dying.
It's quite the opposite as a matter of fact. Just recently Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning came out, which is now boasting nearly ONE MILLION subscribers in a month, making it the fastest growing MMO to date. Guess what, you need a pretty nice PC to run it.
#3 With the introduction of DX10, most computers can last 3-4 years without even a graphics card change. If you've got an 8800+ or a 4850+, you'll be set for at least 3 generations.

I'd rather you know what you're talking about before you pull facts from no where.

#1. Did Mojaveexperiment target gamers? Was there any article from G4 or any other internet websites that Vista's problems just went away? No.

#2. From The U.S. Census Bureau's Popclock website, the population for the United States is305,484,522, while the global population is6,732,139,449. From those numbers, only less than 1% of either population can afford expensive PCs and/or the expertise to build them.

#3. What's to stop someone from creating Direct X 11 three months from now?

Uh can we get back on topic please? If you guys want to argue about Vista you should make a thread for it. I really feel like a lamer even making a post like this as Im not a fan of it but honestly were talking about a Star Wars MMO here not trying to defend the honor of Lord Gates.

Also to anyone who was showing concern like me regarding the art direction of the game I would suggest checking out IGN they have a full feature interview with the person in charge of art direction for the game now.

SWG team reacts to the news.

Oops, necro.

Anyways... not sure if anyone else has been following up on this game, but they gave it a title, "The Old Republic", which takes places 300 years AFTER the second game. They've toned down the lightsaber sizes greatly to a better size and just released new screenshots this morning.

http://www.swtor.com/community/show...read.php?t=8499

Dámn it... I do not need another MMO eating my life.

And if this thing comes off as nicely as the KOTOR series, it's going to do just that.

I can honestly say that I'm really looking forward to this one, in a way I haven't since MxO was announced.

Also, to those who are complaining about the graphics, realize that those are early screenshots. I'm sure they'll resize things appropriately as the process continues into some kind of playable beta...

- Void

Bonus: Google images + Photoshop = new character concept.

Looking better all the time. It may replace Star Trek as my most anticipated MMO

Gerik wrote:

They've toned down the lightsaber sizes greatly to a better size

The last ones were *censored* huge, those look way better, agreed.

DONT BREAK MY HEART AGAIN, NOT LIKE AOC OR WARHAMMER!

Gerik wrote:

Oops, necro.

Anyways... not sure if anyone else has been following up on this game, but they gave it a title, "The Old Republic", which takes places 300 years AFTER the second game. They've toned down the lightsaber sizes greatly to a better size and just released new screenshots this morning.

http://www.swtor.com/community/show...read.php?t=8499

Now this is amazing!Great improvement...

Ballak wrote:

DONT BREAK MY HEART AGAIN, NOT LIKE AOC OR WARHAMMER!

It's a Star Wars game, it's guaranteed to take off. So long as the product is quality, it'll likely remain strong, too.

As long as SoE don't get their hands on it.

It's interesting to me mainly because this is a movie property like mxo.  Imagine if Valve announced a new matrix mmo called Matrix Chronicles or something like that. 

ZaneZavin wrote:

It's interesting to me mainly because this is a movie property like mxo.  Imagine if Valve announced a new matrix mmo called Matrix Chronicles or something like that. 

I hope Valve never releases an MMO.

The first Video Documentary is here.

Woot!

TonyJaa wrote:

The first Video Documentary is here.

Woot!

epic Nuff said