Star Wars : The Old Republic : NERDGASM!

So it's finally official and there was an all mighty disturbance in the force as millions of Star Wars fans simultaneously nerdgasmed with BioWare and LucasArt's announcement that the 'not so' secret project they've been working on for the past few years is in fact Star Wars : The Old Republic

Nerdgasm Nerdgasm Nerdgasm Nerdgasm Nerdgasm..

Sorry, I couldn't contain myself!

So you may have guessed by now that I am super excited about this game. In fact that's an understatement! As someone who wasted thousands of hours in Star Wars Galaxies creating a Jedi character only to have Sony Online Entertainment heartlessly and viciously wipe out my hard earned investment in a single day with the NGE in what can only be described as a greedy attempt to pull in more subscribers at the expense of it's current player base, I, like many other bitter SWG players have been crying out for a company like BioWare to finally put SOE and SWG out of their misery and show these amateurs how it SHOULD be done!

Of course LucasArts have announced that SWTOR isn't designed to replace SWG, but many, like me (who still reluctantly play SWG simply because it's Star Wars) suspect that it's the long over due and final nail in SWG's coffin. And though the initial press release from BioWare indicates that STWOR will be quite a different experience from SWG, I still don't think it's going to be enough to save SWG! (Muhahahaha).

Ok with my SOE rant out the way (I'll save that for another blog), lets talk about Star Wars : The Old Republic.

The first thing that's really exciting as I've already mentioned is that it's being developed by none other than BioWare, a company which has a solid reputation for highly polished and quality games and responsible for KOTOR I & II. We can be confident that SWTOR is in good hands!

Reading through the material on the official website and the many news articles that have been published, it's clear that the game is going to be heavily story driven, something that will please a lot of fans. Players will be able to play as Jedi, Sith or a 'variety of other classic Star Wars roles' picking up NPC (Non Player Character) companions as they go. The companion system is definitely going to be interesting and although they have a similar system in Guild Wars, it sounds as though there's going to be much more interaction between player and companion in SWTOR which will hopefully lead to an emotional connection, something that Guild Wars fails to do. It looks as though you'll have to work hard at the relationships too as they may betray you depending on your actions. This kind of detail is likely to please the minority of players who actually prefer to role play in MMO's as lets face it, your NPC companion isn't going to turn round and say "OMGZ, N00BZ!" when you interact with them. Quite how these NPC companions will work in relation to other players will be interesting to see.

Another thing that interests me is the fact that although some of the stories / quests can only be completed with help from other players, the majority of them will be achievable alone. Now I know the age old argument that MMO's are supposed to be about players joining forces, but for someone who holds down a 9 till 5 job and has kids, being able to play the game at my own pace and not having to wait around for help definitely appeals and is something SWG's seriously lacks, something that's even more apparent now the servers are almost empty! An MMO were advancement doesn't mean killing thousands of bugs in a mindless grind is something I'm really looking forward to. Are you listening SOE??

There's still a great deal we don't know about SWTOR and it's hard not to wonder just how this game will compare to SWG. Will there be player cities, vehicles, space combat? Will the worlds be giant sandboxes or linier in design? Will I need a new PC to play the thing? Who knows?!

These and many more questions are yet to be answered and I personally cant wait to find out.