Aug 16, 2011

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gamescom 2011: Total Access Coverage

We are at the very peak of convention season, and arguably none is bigger than gamescom, Europe’s largest gaming convention, which kicks off its 2011 show this week. And of course, we know that BioWare and Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a big presence there!

Keep up with Ask A Jedi as we track all of the important news and announcements coming out of the show, and hopefully bring a few surprises of our own as well! We already know that BioWare will be showing some in-game operation footage of the Eternity Vault, but what other announcements or reveals will we see?

This post will serve as ground-zero for overall gamescom coverage, so bookmark it and visit often. Click past the jump for total access!

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Jul 25, 2011

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SDCC 2011: Ask A Jedi Interviews Producer Cory Butler (Video)

San Diego Comic-Con this week has been nothing short of amazing for the TOR faithful. The biggest news this is of release is that pre-orders are now available!

But, there was still information to be mined! To that end, we were lucky to be able to have some time with BioWare Producer Cory Butler to work him over ask him some questions about new stuff we’ve seen and some older stuff lingering on our minds.

Here’s a quick overview, with the video below and a full transcript after the jump as well!

  • Companion control
  • Companion customization
  • HoloCam workings
  • Collector’s edition vendor
  • Planet count confirmation
  • Mysterious endgame content not yet revealed (hint: its still not revealed!)
  • How the “story owner” works
  • Return intro cinematic order
  • Bagless inventory
  • Mac version update

Special thanks to Jeff from TORWars.com for his awesome assistance! If you’re not reading TORWars, you’re missing out.

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Jul 21, 2011

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Pre-Order Now Available For Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Well folks, it looks like we’re rounding the corner and heading into the home stretch!

The cat is officially no longer in the bag! Earlier tonight, ads offering the ability to pre-order Star Wars: The Old Republic started showing up on popular sites such as MMORPG.

So finally, as been widely speculated this week and exactly 33 months after it was announced, today BioWare and LucasArts announced the details of the Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-order program, along with detail of the various versions of the product.

There are 4 versions of the game available:

  • Collector’s Edition – $149.99 – Pre-Order Exclusive: Early Game access, Color Stone (virtual item), 30 Days Game Time included Limited Collector’s Edition Includes: Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue, Game disks collectible metal case, The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan, The Old Republic galaxy map, Custom Security Authentication Key, Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD, High-quality Collector’s Edition box.Includes 7 Additional Digital Items: Flare Gun, Training Droid, HoloDancer, HoloCam, STAP, Exclusive Mouse Droid, Exclusive Collector’s Edition Store
  • Digital Deluxe Edition – $79.99 – Pre-Order Exclusive: Early Game access, Color Stone (virtual item), 30 Days Game Time included. Includes 5 Additional Digital Items: Flare Gun, Training Droid, HoloDancer, HoloCam, STAP.
  • Digital Standard Edition – $59.99 – Pre-Order Exclusive: Early Game access, Color Stone (virtual item), 30 Days Game Time included.
  • Standard Edition – $59.99 – Pre-Order Exclusive: Early Game access, Color Stone (virtual item), 30 Days Game Time included.

Each has a Pre-Order link that pop open a list of retailers you can pre-order from.

If you order the Collector’s Edition via Origin.com, you’re placed into a “queue”with a guestimate as to if you’re likely to receive your order based on demand.

A pre-order FAQ is set up, and the BioWare team is updating it live with questions that are no doubt on fans’ minds. Items of note:

  • There is a limited listing of countries where the game will initially be available in, and curiously Australia is not on the list. (We have a message into BioWare about this.)
  • You can choose to play on any world-wide server, but performance may be impacted (multiple data centers confirmed!)

System requirements have also been posted:

OS Windows XP, Vista/7 CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better · Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better RAM Windows XP: 1.5GB · Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB · PCs using a built-in graphical chipset, 2GB RAM recommended. Video ATI X1800 or better* · nVidia 7800 or better* · Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better* DVD-ROM 8x or better *Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

 

 

 

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Jul 20, 2011

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San Diego Comic-Con 2011: Full Frontal Coverage!

Convention season is in full swing, and the world’s largest pop culture convention is now upon us. For fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic, San Diego Comic-Con promises to be a show to remember!

Of course, Ask A Jedi has troops on the ground in San Diego poised to bring you interviews, news and pics direct from the show. And hopefully a few surprises…

But we also want to provide the most comprehensive coverage of TOR @ SDCC. To that end, we’ll keep this post updated with the very best coverage we find from around the web, and if you see something we missed please let us know and we’ll add it!

So what’s going on that we need to pay attention to? Glad you asked! This is the only post you’ll need to keep up with it all… Read on!

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Jun 10, 2011

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E3 2011 – Daniel Erickson Video Interview

During E3 this week, we had a chance to sit down (well, actually, we stood up) with Daniel Erickosn and talk about some of the new stuff that we were seeing at the show.

Specifically, we focused on Operations (raiding in The Old Republic) and player Vehicles. We think there are some gold nuggets of information here, but we’ll let you be the judge of that!

Here’s an overview, with the video below and a full transcript after the jump as well!

  • Operations overview
  • Operations narrative & story
  • Faction details for Operations
  • Party size & difficulty settings
  • Resistances & special mechanics
  • Progression tracking
  • When and how you obtain vehicles (including theft!)
  • Class-specific vehicles
  • Atmospheric vehicles (flying mounts)
  • Types of vehicles
  • Multi-player vehicles
  • Vehicle-based combat
  • Vehicle customization
  • … and more!

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Jun 9, 2011

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E3 2011 – Tattooine Developer Walkthrough

The E3 train keeps rolling for the TOR faithful with yet another special update from BioWare: a developer walkthrough of the Tattooine content being enjoyed by visitors to E3!

Hosted by Dallas Dickenson, this almost twelve minute video takes you through a good chunk of the playable content available on the show floor, and really gives a good feel for the level of quality, polish and sheer scale of the worlds! Needless to say, if you’re reading this, it’s a must see!

This is also the same content I had the privilege of playing through twice (as that same Sith Sorcerer no less!) So if you have any questions, post them below and I’ll try to answer!

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