Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Regolyth]

Yeah, I figured it'd be 2011. I'm guessing summer, now that they've confirmed it. Although, I'd be okay with later, if it means they get things running smoothly.

[Morreion]

Can BioWare Put The RPG Back in MMORPG? (Ten Ton Hammer)

With story based MMOGs, I had hoped games would give us direction and purpose without losing the ability to make choices. Alas this was not to be--most current quest-based games give you little more than a choice between taking a quest or not taking a quest. I want to take a quest to kill a target and then be faced with the decision whether to actually kill them or let them go. Either way, there could be consequences for my actions. Let me piss off an NPC and have to face him or his minions later. Let me refuse to take a quest from an NPC vendor and then be forced to pay higher prices from then on. I want the quests I do to have some impact. It doesn’t have to be some world shattering impact like in single player games, but let me make a choice that affects me. In most MMOGs right now, nothing I do affects anything other than my XP bar.

BioWare has promised that in TOR we will be able to make choices, take choices, and decide how we want to accomplish our quests. This sounds exciting and is exactly what I want to see in game. However, this is a monumental task for any developer to accomplish and, call me jaded, but as the old proverb goes, “Talk is cheap.” Still, BioWare has piqued my interest with their video showing 2 players inside a starship on a quest. During the quest, both players got to make decisions that affected how the quest played out--decisions that had consequences for the players! This was exciting and had me hooked. This was was a glimpse of the game I had longed for.

However, after watching the video many times, and drooling over actually seeing what I’ve wanted for years, questions start to arise. We saw a two man instance where each got to make a decision, but what about 5 man instances, or raids? Will each member of the party get to make a choice, or only a lucky few? How will PUGs work? Can some asshat in my PUG screw up the story for my character? It is hard to imagine that TOR could be much more than a single player game with the ability to take a friend or two along on certain quests. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a game like Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 that I could play online with my friends, but that’s not really an MMOG. MMOGs require cooperative play, not just playing in the same place at the same time.

Of course, for any of this to work, TOR will have to make use of a lot of instancing. I have no problem with instances as long as they are designed for groups of 5+. The question is, can thousands of players play together, and every player still feel as though they are having some impact on their characters? These are all questions that need answers, but I guess we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I mean, what Bioware has shown us is already much more than we have gotten from any other AAA MMOG.

[Morreion]

Star Wars: The Old Republic EA's Most Expensive Project to Date (1up)

Of all the MMORPGs vying for World of Warcraft's crown, Star Wars: The Old Republic stands a pretty fair chance against Blizzard's juggernaut. But being a contender doesn't come cheap, as EA's chief financial officer Eric Brown explained in today's meeting with Wedbush Morgan Securities in New York. In fact, Brown called The Old Republic the "largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company."

Star Wars: The Old Republic: GDC 2010: Hands On With The Trooper (MMORPG.com)

Still, the armor set looked great and definitely had that Star Wars feel to it, something the team at Bioware and LucasArts are working very hard to capture in the game. I was equipped with a pretty heavy blaster rifle which has a rocket launcher on it and some grenades that stuck to the targets when I threw them. These features were all specific to the Trooper class making him a great ranged and AoE fighter. If enemies got too close, I was able to knock them down with the butt of my blaster and continue shooting as they tried to pick themselves up. Also on the Trooper class, several different styles of shots were available to choose from. The Hammer Shot, from what I remember, was a great burst of lasers which pummeled my foes.

[Morreion]

BioWare and EA expect 2+ million subs, potential pricing model 'twists' (Massively)

Star Wars: The Old Republic's 'heady' sneak peek at character customization (Massively)

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Friday Update: Game vs. World and Community (MMORPG.com)

This week's update is a new developer blog from Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert, who opens up by discussing the often controversial topic of MMO design philosophies: i.e. designing a "game" vs. a "world"...

In the end, Damion takes issue with both philosophies.With worlds, Damion finds these games can be much more harsh, less forgiving, and hard for newer players to get into. They are only as "good as the people who arrived before you." This makes designers nervous.

On the other hand, MMORPGs designed as "games" also have issues, mainly the lack of freedom, which is really the hallmark of MMOs.

So how does Star Wars: The Old Republic fall with regards to these two design philosophies? According to Damion, the game will be in the middle of the road, with the aim of utilizing the strength of both design philosophies, more specifically, providing "a directed and balanced game experience inside a lush, free-form Star Wars world."

Getting the best from a theme park and a sandbox combination- that sounds good, if they can pull it off.

[Morreion]

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Some Concerns about The Old Republic
MMORPG.com's resident Star Wars aficionado Michael Bitton writes this article expressing some of the concerns that he, as a major Star Wars geek, has about the upcoming Bioware MMO.

It seems like the inclusion of a singleplayer-esque storyline could actually be a detriment to grouping while leveling if just for the simple fact it would ruin replayability in some ways, though I do see the draw of having other classes along for what benefits their skills may bring when faced with certain situations. I simply get the feeling that grouping will feel like flipping between five channels, watching five movies at once, all at different points. For example, popping into a group with a guy whose current mission ends up with him being betrayed by a character that had been their most trusted ally for at least 10 hours of storyline would really ruin the experience for me starting a new character of the same class.

In the end, there are many things to consider, but with BioWare’s projected release date of Spring 2011 being a year away, they’ve got quite some to figure it all out! And at least as far as this writer is concerned, they’ve got all the benefit of the doubt in the world!

[url=http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/advanced-classes
advanced classes]Advanced Classes (SWTOR site)[/url]

Advanced Classes are specialized careers that your characters can choose in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. As your character becomes more seasoned through adventure, you will be given the opportunity to undertake one of two Advanced Classes. This decision is equally as important as when you originally created your character. This is because your choice will not only make your character more distinct and powerful, but it will also help further define the role you wish to play in The Old Republic.

In addition to your Class-specific Skills and Abilities, your chosen Advanced Class will grant you access to role-defining Abilities that represent additional areas of expertise and some may even grant new weapon and armor types. Additionally, each Advanced Class will also have three sets of Skills available to further customize your character.

Complement your Star Wars: The Old Republic character with companions (Massively)

"Companion characters have a significant impact on the player's experience. They are integral to the player's storyline."

"Each companion has a specific role, whether it be additional DPS, tanking, healing or crowd control. Companions also have special abilities that can be activated to significantly change what's going on during a battle."

SWTOR Companions’ true nature are still a mystery (Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog)

There’s a lot of “look how cool these companions look and what they can do” but there really is not one bit of how these companions will actually work with MMO mechanics. These are the tough questions because you can’t BS them without people knowing seeing them for what they really are and not for what we’re being told to see them as. Cut the crap and speak plainly already. When is someone finally going to speak up about how these companions are really going to work? We know how they worked in Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon Age but this is a MMO and the more questions you leave unanswered, the more I’m beginning to lose faith that this isn’t more than a multiplayer RPG and just a way to charge a subscription for the exact same thing Bioware has been selling for years.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: What We Know
MMORPG.com's Eric Barnett kicks off a new column this week focusing on Star Wars: The Old Republic. This week, Eric gives a brief overview of the information we already have at our disposal.

Bioware and Lucas Arts are companies with laundry lists of solid triple A titles, The Old Republic is Bioware's first venture into the MMO sphere and a bold one at that. Trying to appease both fans of their old games as well as Star Wars fanatics is no easy task however. Bioware seeks to intertwine their own versions of game play and storytelling into a goulash of force-wielding madness that both hardcore and non hardcore gamers can fall in love with. Early on, players debated whether or not the game was going to be a sandbox, a theme park, or a linear rail style MMO. It turns out that we are getting an amalgamation of all three; linear yet branched story lines, theme park styled quests, and what is described as "a sandbox feeling" game world. Lead Writer Daniel Erickson was quoted at this years Game Developers Conference saying, "One of the real things we wanted to show at GDC this year is that our worlds are huge, actually. They are giant, you can explore. They are massive. You can just wander off one direction and go forever." This, as a lover of exploration in games, was music to my ears. I for once was worried that this was going to be another Aion style rail game that just shuffled you along the story line, seeing all of this amazing scenery, but being unable to explore it due to being blocked in by boundaries.

Star Wars: The Old Republic : E3 2010: Player Ships Trailer
Posted Jun 18, 2010 by Michael Bitton

Bioware announced player housing in the form of player starships at this year's E3. Take a tour of the the Republic's Corellian Vanguard-class Light Corvette and the Fury-class Imperial Transport in this latest trailer.


Star Wars: The Old Republic : E3 Star Wars: The Old Republic Interview
Posted Jun 21, 2010 by Jon Wood

The Old Republic's Senior Producer Jake Neri sat down to answer some of our questions at this year's E3.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: E3 Imperial Agent Hands On (MMORPG.com)

...The Agent delivers in this regard, even at the low level one or two they started us out at I had a number of skills at my disposal. I could fire your basic rifle shot, shiv enemies up close, take cover, debuff enemies to take more damage by using the "Laze Target" ability, and use a sniper shot from cover to deal ridiculous amounts of damage, often resulting in a one shot kill. It felt like using a backstab from range really. The cover system takes some getting used to, but is pretty neat overall. My only criticism is that the cover ability only seems to work with a target selected, and so you often times want to roll into cover near a group of enemies you want to take out and realize you can't until you actually tab a target. Otherwise, it's pretty intuitive, with green silhouettes denoting nearby cover positions.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Hands On With the Smuggler (MMORPG.com)

In the boss fight we saw as part of the demo, the Trooper really held agro on the attack droids while the Jedi Knight took out the adds and the Smuggler blasted the heck out of the boss droid from cover. It was definitely a good group running through the encounters. However, it started my general feeling on the Smuggler which was, all I get to do is duck and cover? As I continue through my hands-on section I tried to find other tactics to use.

SWTOR Looking Decent Now (Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog)

Am I looking forward to SWTOR now? Yeah, I am. I know that SWTOR will be highly instanced. I know that it will not be a big open world. I know that a lot of what Bioware wants to accomplish can only happen in a game that resembles one of their (very well made) single-player RPG’s. It’s not going to be my ideal MMO, but it’s going to be one that I think will be polished beyond belief and feature rich. I know that I have the opportunity to find something that I can enjoy in SWTOR. I’m not hyped about it, but I’m also not going to purposefully rag on the game all the time just because it’s not being made how I want.

Now that the opportunity for me to find something I enjoy about MMO’s has been shown in SWTOR, I’ll be able to evaluate it based upon those standards. I’m happy that I have good things to say about SWTOR and I hope that others will be able to join me in evaluating the game and talking about the game much in the same way without being too polarized one way or another.

PS. I find myself liking that UI a lot.

[Morreion]

E3: Hands On Impressions (Darth Hater)

The Bounty Hunter was a very fast paced, run and gun class with very low downtime. I ran close enough to grab aggro, and then proceeded to terrorize the groups of enemies. I started off with the trusty Wrist Rocket ability, which fired a rocket that caused an AoE explosion and knockback, and then proceeded to run up close and finish them off with the Flamethrower ability. After attacking the first group of three, I noticed the heat bar. I decided to start testing it out, trying to find the most efficient and fastest way to move group to group with the least downtime. Just by using the wrist rocket and flamethrower back to back put me at about 80 or so heat out of 100 and left me unable to use anything but my primary firing ability. After a while I began to use the Vent Heat ability in my rotation, which vents all the heat out of your armor and weapons and sets the heat level to 0 on a one minute cooldown. After each Vent Heat I was able to use my abilities normally.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Quests & Companions (MMORPG.com)

There are three basic types of story arcs and hence quests in SW:TOR, the class quests in which your personal story arcs are also covered: the world quests which are one-off quests and are shared, that is anyone can do the quests. These quests tell the overall story of the world. Players participate in the overall conflict and these will also tailor to your class in that they will react differently depending on your class; and finally, what Bioware is calling Flash Points – these are your group stories, similar to a dungeon and are repeatable. So yes, you can kill the Captain (the very first demo revealed by Bioware) over and over again.

Throughout the presentation, the panelists reiterated that the Bioware touch will permeate SW:TOR. “We will keep track of what you’ve done,” said Drew. “You will feel the consequences of your history with and NPC and your actions will be revealed in multiplay dialog.” Which is to say that your group mates might find out what you’ve really been doing if an NPC growls at you while welcoming them in a Flash Point quest.

Star Wars: The Old Republic impresses fans with combat AI (Massively)

Although Darth Hater's reporters say that most of the functions are quite impressive, they seemed most astounded by the versatility and awareness of the artificial intelligence of mobs. Sado, a reporter for Darth Hater, comments about the aggro system in the article, "[NPCs] watched you, but as long as you passed by and did not get too close to them or their buddies there was no issue. On the other hand, the roaming Separatist sentry droids would aggro from quite the distance and give chase." Presumably, if you do actually cross the attack threshold, there are a variety of reactions depending on the type of mob. Sado continues a bit later in the article, "The [NPC] Separatist's actions varied once engaged in battle. It seemed as if it often depended on what cover was around them at the time to get behind. If there was no cover and I was near them, one of them would often run away to go get more of their friends." In contrast he says the creature mobs have a larger attack radius and do not take cover.

Space Combat in The Old Republic! (SWTOR official site)

If you’ve been following the news coming out of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ panel at Comic-Con International, you’ve heard the announcement that we will indeed have Space Combat as part of the TOR experience! But what does that mean? Space combat is an alternative gameplay experience to the primary game of storytelling, questing, and ground-based combat. In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map. From there, you will blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, frigates, destroyers, and a variety of other obstacles that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars™ space battles.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Space Combat Cont'd: On Rails Edition! (MMORPG.com)

Not long after the initial announcement came rumors that described SW:TOR’s space combat as a “tunnel shooter.” These rumors originated from German fansite Online Welten which discovered the details in PC Action magazine. This, of course, stirred up the hornet’s nest over on the official SW:TOR forums, and BioWare’s Sean Dahlberg wasn’t saying anything to deny the rumors. It was only a day later that we learned the same thing from the October issue of PC Gamer, a magazine well known to gamers. The scans confirmed the unfortunate truth: Star Wars: The Old Republic’s space combat will be nothing more than an on-rails shooter.

Sounds of the Old Republic (SWTOR official site)

Voice

Audio in The Old Republic, just as with the rest of the game, begins with the storytelling. As you all know by now, for the first time ever in an MMO, every quest and character will come to life fully voiced. This is a Star Wars saga that gives new meaning to the word ‘epic’: eight unique class storylines, thousands of hours of gameplay, and hundreds of thousands of dialogue lines. It is likely the largest voiceover project in entertainment history. BioWare’s Senior Director of Development Operations, Shauna Perry, remarked last year that it takes an army of people to pull this effort together, and we’ve only grown since then.

Music

Speaking of the Cantina, as memorable as its customers are, there’s also the entertainment. There are few original songs in movie history as memorable as John Williams’ “Cantina Band” and we’re happy to say there is original Cantina music in The Old Republic. Star Wars veteran Peter McConnell, from Bay Area Sound, has worked crafted songs that will sound familiar to fans of the original trilogy while playing with the idea that we’ve got three thousand years before A New Hope and the Modal Nodes. My particular favorites are vocalized cabaret songs that you might hear in dim Imperial bars on worlds like Dromund Kaas: imagine an off-duty Imperial officer kicking up his feet with a Corellian Brandy, watching his troops whoop it up to a Twi’lek Dietrich, one wary eye on the Mandalorian sitting in the back. That’s the iconic atmosphere we want to create.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Great Expectations
MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton continues his look at Star Wars: The Old Republic. In this week's column, Mike discusses expectations and the effect that recent announcements from Bioware have had on those expectations. Find out what Mike dreams about for SWTOR, the current state of those dreams based on new information and then add your own thoughts to the discussion on our forums.

I, like many of you, have been following the game excitedly since the rumors began to surface, but I must confess (if it’s not obvious to you by now) that I am in the Star Wars Galaxies vet camp, and so my expectations may very well differ from your own in a number of areas. I do have to clarify though, that while I am an ex-SWG vet, there is a difference between someone like myself in the press and some of the SWG vets clamoring for a new ultimate sandbox experience. Whatever your feelings about this genre of games, or gaming in general, when you work on this side of the curtain you learn a lot of things about how “the business” works. While I’d love to see a game as ambitious as Star Wars Galaxies appear again, I made my peace with the fact that wouldn’t happen many moons ago, so don’t get me twisted for someone who wouldn’t be happy with Star Wars: The Old Republic if it turned out to be anything less than a total sandbox experience, which believe it or not is something some gamers still expect of it.

With that said, I’m still a bit of an idealist and I strongly appreciate developers that can reconcile the reality of developing a AAA MMO in 2010 in a post-World of Warcraft world with the ability to dare to dream. This is the crux of why I am personally disappointed with the extent of space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic, as well as a number of other things.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Five Reasons to Be Stoked for The Old Republic (MMORPG.com)

5.) Personal Story for Your Character

BioWare has always been synonymous in videogames with storytelling. While some might be quick to point out the sameness of many of BioWare’s epic tales, there’s little denying that the developer is one of the best in the industry at tying compelling narratives to their games. And perhaps that’s one of the most obvious reasons for gamers to get excited about The Old Republic. BioWare is promising that their first crack at an MMORPG will do everything their offline offerings have come to do so competently, and that includes offering a continuing narrative throughout the game and for your characters. The story will be class specific, which means that there will be more than enough reason to play through the content multiple times should the mood strike you, other than just being able to say you have two or more characters “at the level cap”.

2.) Player Ships as Housing

Sure they’re not exactly like piloting your own X-Wing throughout the Star Wars universe, since player ships in The Old Republic will only be initially little more than a player’s safe haven, but that’s more than most games offer fans of player housing at launch these days. I’m personally expecting them to function something like the Normandy from the Mass Effect series, where the player was able to mill about, chat with his companions, progress characters’ back-stories, and in general relax in between intense fights and missions to save the galaxy. Even if that’s all the player ships serve as at launch, with maybe a bit more personalization and customization available, it’s more than just about every AAA release has had at launch for years. Add to that the obvious expansions and content updates that could have players scooting about the cosmos and engaging in dogfights, and it’s hard not to get excited about the potential of this seemingly and deceivingly small feature.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Five Reasons to be Wary of The Old Republic (MMORPG.com)

2.) Companion Characters

Companion Characters are a staple of BioWare games, dating back to the good ol’ days of Baldur’s Gate. No other developer shows such deft skills in making players care about the game’s characters. But in a genre where the player’s own character is supposed to matter the most are these companions going to wind up as extraneous, or worse detrimental, to the point of MMO gaming? The benefits of having characters in the game which can help flesh out story are obvious, but what about the actual gameplay? Will companion characters prove to be little more than pets to help classes solo, or will they be a way in which many players avoid interacting with others in what’s supposed to be a cooperative (at times) experience.

1.) Will It Just Be WoW with Lightsabers?

It’s still too early to tell, but my personal biggest fear is that BioWare’s first foray into MMORPGs will be little more than WoW with lightsabers and a much tighter focus on narrative. There are worse things to shoot for, I suspect. And I know many fans of Star Wars might have already written off The Old Republic because at first glance it certainly seems than BioWare is aping a lot of what has made WoW such a behemoth. Personally, it’s not that the game might end up playing like most every traditional MMORPG when it comes to combat. While I’d love to see a Star Wars MMO that had the freedom of something like “The Force Unleashed”, I know that’s just not going to happen because it can’t… yet.

[Regolyth]

That really sucks about the space combat. I'm surprised BioWare is going to produce something as crappy as that. On the other hand, "yay" to all of the quests being narrated in such a manner!

[Morreion]

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Hands On With the Sith Warrior
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller had some time to get up close and personal with the Sith Warrior class in Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. Today, he brings us his impressions of the class.

Fighting slugs in a cave with light sabers

Space Combat (SWTOR official site)

Statement: Snarky assassin droid steals the show in PAX TOR trailer (Massively)

2:15 video trailer at link.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: PAX Interview
At last weekend's PAX convention in Seattle, Washington, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy had the chance to chat with Star Wars: The Old Republic Lead Writer Daniel Erickson about cinematics and the overall experience that Bioware is trying to create for players in the game. Check it out!

Cinematic and personal story-driven were important concepts in this interview.

PAX 2010: Your questions answered by SWTOR's Blaine Christine (Massively)

Crafting will be non-standard and not what players expect; there should be 'a pretty wide array' of high-level armor.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Story Problem
In his latest Star Wars: The Old Republic column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton expresses some concerns about the game's story. Bioware is known as THE storytelling game maker and Mike wonders whether the ambitious story for SWTOR will diminish the overall player experience. Read Mike's thoughts and then add your own on our forums!

This is a fair point that the author is making. How a personal story-driven template will fit into an MMO is an open question, even though lots of commenters seemed to dismiss any concerns along this line of thought.

[Morreion]

Star Wars: The Old Republic: I, Jedi
In his latest Star Wars: The Old Republic column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton takes a look at probably the most recognizable character archetype from the game: The Jedi. While acknowledging some reservations about the overarching story, Mike figures that the Jedi adventure just might make the whole game worthwhile. Find out why in Mike's latest look at Star Was: The Old Republic.

Newly "smuggled" information from Star Wars: The Old Republic (Massively)

SWTOR - The Comfort of Companions (Ten Ton Hammer)

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Never Tell Me The Odds!
In his latest column covering Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton takes a closer look at the Smuggler class. The Smuggler recently received some attention on the official SWTOR site with more information revealed about advanced classes, available ships for flight, companions and more. See what Mike thinks about the new information and then join in the discussion!

Exploring advanced class concepts with SWTOR lead systems designer (Massively)

Hyperspace Beacon: Star Wars Galaxies 2 (Massively)

[Morreion]

The Soapbox: Episode II - A New Hype (Massively)

Jeff Reahard: "Even though I'm a roleplayer more often than not, I couldn't care less about BioWare's MMO stories, nor the gobs of money it's reportedly spending on voice-acting to bring those stories to life. Why? Because the story my friends and I will create is better, assuming we're given the tools to do so."

SWTOR: A New Hope (For Numbers?) (Keen & Graev's Gaming Blog)

Keen: "The gameplay of SWTOR will not justify the price. It just won’t. It’ll be the name, the new technological stunts, the marketing, and the ability to claim these amazing feats that brings about the price tag. What I want to see is gameplay that justifies the cost. You could cut the price more than half and achieve superior gameplay without question, then spend that money actually innovating or improving upon/reviving the virtual world feel."

TOR Might Wind Up a “Clone”– Why Is That Bad, Again? (Game By Night)

"I don’t know about you, but I don’t need SW:TOR to reinvent the wheel. I need it to be a fun game with a great story. I think they’re on track with that."

Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Legacy System: Journey vs. Destination
In this week's Star Wars: The Old Republic column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton discusses the buzzing of the SW:TOR community over the game's oft-rumored about Legacy System.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Things SWTOR Isn't
In his latest MMORPG.com column, Managing Editor Jon Wood takes a look at the Internet's perception of Star Wars: The Old Republic. There is a lot of hype, speculation and misinformation floating around the 'Net these days and Jon takes those things and the people who post them to task. Find out which issues Jon has a bone to pick with and then let us know your thoughts on the forums.

SWTOR lore expands with more biographies (Massively)

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Two Years and Counting
In his latest column regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton talks about the game's two year journey to where it is today. The official site debuted almost exactly two years ago and Mike questions whether or not Bioware and LucasArts tipped their developmental hands a bit too early. Check out Mike's thoughts and then tell us what you think.

Spy the SWTOR Imperial Agent! (Massively)

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Intel on the Imperial Agent
In his latest look at Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com's Community Manager, Michael Bitton, checks out the new information recently revealed about the Imperial Agent and its advanced classes, companion, ship and the Chiss playable race. Mike has a lot to say about the Chiss playable race for Imperial Agents so head on in to read it, then let us know what you think on our forums.

This ain't like dusting crops, boy: The Old Republic expounds on crafting and PvP (Massively)

Details on SWTOR Warzones and Crafting Revealed (Darth Hater)

Crafting is different- it involves your companions.

SWTOR's Crafting Sounds Like... (Keen & Graev's Gaming Blog)

Warzone Video (SWTOR Official Site)

1:44 video of SWTOR's battlegrounds-style PvP.

BioWare doctors "disappointed" in EA Louse (Massively)

BioWare Doctors talk EA Louse, Mass Effect 3, SWTOR (Eurogamer)