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 10, 2011

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Friday Update – E3 Wrapup, SW:TOR Peripherals And Game Features

This Friday’s update is all about wrapping it up!

It was a busy week for our friends at BioWare, with new info and media being released nearly every day this week, so they took this opportunity to wrap it all up for folks that may not have had the time during the week to follow closely!

The Old Republic at E3 2011

A full-scale overview and wrapup of everything TOR coming out of E3, this is the place to check if you want to brought back up to speed! Click here.

Game Features Trailer

Although released last week through GameSpot, this video has been added to SWTOR.com and is a great preview of features of The Old Republic, and was the first source to bring us the reveal of Operations!

Star Wars: The Old Republic Peripherals from Razer

Revealed during E3, fans have some very cool and well-designed TOR-themed peripherals to look forward to! Click through for the official preview!

Bonus: Fan Reaction From E3 2011!

In case you missed it, Electronic Arts also released a video of some fan reactions after they had a chance to get their hands-on Star Wars: The Old Republic for the first time. Check it out!

 

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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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Jun 8, 2011

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E3 2011 – Official Eternity Vault Gameplay Video

BioWare has just released the official Eternity Vault gameplay video that we’ve caught glimpses of on the web and that was shown behind closed-doors here at E3.

This trailer provides a beautiful, hi-res look at the environments and action, and I can tell you that seeing it in person is even more awe-inspiring. It looks like BioWare is going to provide true, best-in-class raiding, er, Operating!

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Jun 8, 2011

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E3 2011 – EA Analyst Event

Earlier this morning, Electronic Arts held an analyst event here in Los Angeles during E3. While it covered questions on full gamut of EA’s portfolio, TOR is obviously a large potential revenue stream going forward.

EA’s CFO Eric Brown talked a bit about how the company’s financial performance will be much higher at the end of fiscal 2012 with TOR in full-swing. In addition, he confirmed that TOR will only be available as a digital download via EAʼs brand new digital-distribution platform Origin.

For TOR fans, the meat of the call was a presentation on Star Wars: The Old Republic delivered by BioWare Co-Founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk.

Muzyka discussed BioWareʼs priority focus on SW:TOR and worded the target goal as:

… to combine the most powerful IP in the form of LucasArts with the power of EA and the quality of BioWare to build sustainable success.

Ray went on to list many reasons why “SW:TOR will be awesome” – story and characters, choice that matters, epic, heroic combat, PvP and PvE, exploration of fantastic new worlds and space. All this inspired by iconic locations from the movies. Personalized progression to advance through your class.

After his short presentation, the latest gameplay trailer was shown and his partner in crime Dr. Greg Zeschuk took the stage to talk about the guiding principles that were used in building the SW:TOR.

He also talked about player retention strategy, outlining it in three steps:

  1. Delivering a great game
  2. Delivering a great service
  3. Continuing to deliver content

Finally, Greg talked about beta testing, noting that over a million users are already signed up, and thousands of players already participated in beta, which is more than enough to fill BioWareʼs testing needs. He also mentioned that most of the information about beta testing is still under the NDA, but as we get closer and closer to launch, more information will be revealed.

Greg ended his presentation with the following sentence:

The game is on track to launch in quality and thatʼs all we got, thank you.

You’ll be able to listen to the call for yourself once EA posts it here. You can currently download the accompanying slide presentation there as well.

EA Logo

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