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SDCC 2011: BioWare Base Q&A #4 Video

BioWare just wrapped up their 4th and final Q&A session of San Diego Comic-Con 2011, and while it was live-streamed, it’s now available for playback on the BioWareTV channel on Livestream.

Game Director James Ohlen and Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid subjected themselves to over 40 minutes of torture by taking questions direct from fans at BioWare Base, but also from Twitter.

We’re compiling some notes, but in the mean time, enjoy!

 

 

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SDCC 2011: GameSpot Video Of TOR Panel Now Available

GameSpot has posted the video of yesterday’s Star Wars: The Old Republic: Join Us, It’s Your Destiny panel. Great HD and audio, of course!

No more words I can say will help… just watch!

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SDCC 2011: Star Wars: The Old Republic Panel Recap

Comic-Con has long been a venue for fans connecting with the actors and creators of their favorite things… so it makes perfect sense that BioWare might use this venue to do some of the same!

During the panel, for the first time, BioWare introduced some of the actors who will be voicing characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic!

New Jedi Consular romanceable companion revealed named Nadia, voiced by actress Holly Fields

Some other voice actors in the game:

• Lacey Chabert – Mako
• David Hayder – Jedi Knight
• Catherine Taber – Vette

Other New Information

• New pre-order trailer with all classes
• New vehicles – including a land speeder!
• You can change appearance of companions, not just through gear but also skin color
• 19 major worlds and many more small worlds – sounds like 2 more are yet to be announced
• Companions may get AI control similar to Dragon Age
• Solo players have an entire endgame planet to themselves
• Quick travel system between planets – NOT map travel though
• Some type of bonus for re-rolling (Legacy system?)
• Free pre-order codes to the crowd!
• Beta weekends in September will be huge – lots of people
• Pre-order now! (This was their big announcement, if it hadn’t leaked)
• Release – “Holiday 2011”

There will no doubt be some new media and assets such as trailers and screens released, and we’ll post them here as soon as we can!

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PAX East 2011: A Conversation With James Ohlen

Although it is no doubt a busy time for James Ohlen, Game Director for Star Wars™: The Old Republic, he still managed to fit a visit to PAX East into his schedule in order to spend time talking with fans about everyone’s favorite upcoming MMO.

We met James in a secret, undisclosed location deep within the bowels of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and he was nice enough to have a conversation with us about the game… some of the topics we covered:

• Guild System
• Guild Progression
• Possibility of Web/Mobile Tools
• Achievements
• Advanced Class Swapping
• Melee vs. Range Combat
• Cover
• Guild Capital Ships
• User Interface & Customization
• Mac Support
• Crew Skills & “Critting” During Crafting
• … and more!

We just wanted to say thanks to James and wish him and the entire BioWare team good luck as they head into the home stretch toward release of The Old Republic later this year!

The general transcript is after the jump, but the listening to the audio is better for capturing the spirit of the conversation and some of the details!

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PAX East 2011: BioWare Panel Participation

Last night, BioWare Senior Community Coordinator Stephen Read posted late notice that although there are no panels or events dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic at PAX East, several BioWare employees will be taking part in some more broad panels:

With PAX East 2011 just a day away – well, give or take about eight hours, given my late post – I’m very pleased to tell you about a few guest appearances BioWare staff members will be making on various panels over the weekend.

The panels run the gamut:

• Rob Chestney: Video Game Comics: Lifting the Curse, Wyvern Theater, Friday @ 10:30am
• Daniel Erickson: Interactive Drama: Dialogue as Gameplay, Cat Theater, Saturday @ 5:00pm
• James Ohlen: MMORPG.com: The Future of Online Gaming, Naga Theater, Saturday @ 5:00pm

There’s a conflict between two of the panels Saturday at 5:00pm , which makes it a very tough choice!

Click on over to SWTOR.com for the full details, or you can check it out on the official PAX East schedule here.

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