Hot on the heels of the recent Star Wars: The Old Republic discussions happening here at LoreHound, I decided to go ahead and do a video compilation of what beginners can expect from BioWare’s first entry into the MMOG genre. Unfortunately, this brilliant idea didn’t strike me while I was doing the various Flashpoints found at certain points in the game. However, you get to see how gameplay feels from the perspective of three different classes and from the two different factions. From the Empire, we have the Sith Inquisitor and the Bounty Hunter. The Republic is represented by the Trooper. Some PvP action is represented and the level design is expressed by a couple of shots displaying  the impressive architecture followed by some story cut scenes.

And yes, the story cut scenes are worth your time!

Now that SWTOR has officially launched, I figured it would be a good time to give my first impression review for Star Wars: The Old Republic. While I had the opportunity to get into the last two beta weekends, I wasn’t able to due to other obligations, so my first real taste of the game was when the early access began.

Going into it I was expecting to dislike it; boarder-line hate it, so I’m actually quite surprised that I’m enjoying myself and even more surprised that I’m still listening to a good portion of the voice-overs.  Being one of the biggest selling points for BioWare, the billions of hours (ok, maybe not billions) of voice-over acting was going to be what separated it from all other MMORPGs and quite frankly has to be because so much of the gameplay features have been done before.

Currently my Sith Bounty Hunter is at level 21 and while I still listen to the main story-line, for just about every other quest I’m hitting the next button after a few words. The NPCs tend to ramble on and in most cases I really don’t care what they have to say, but that sort of fits my characters persona, so I don’t feel too bad. So in terms of the voice-over acting, I’m happy to report that it’s a big plus and being able to select the answers for yourself in conversations is also fun, or maybe it’s fun because I’m playing a Sith.

One of the new features that I haven’t seen before are the “personal zones” in the game that don’t revert back after you complete your mission. In many MMORPGs when completing a quest it resets back to normal for the next person to complete, but not so for SWTOR. Once you enter one of these zones, marked by a green force-field, you enter a zone that is personalized to your progress and the choices your make. Meaning if you leave that area and go back later, it doesn’t reset, which is nice as it feels you’re decisions in the game actually mean something.

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Here’s our new Live Cast format: Lore Cast! Below is the video to begin season 1, and it’s a doozy. It’s almost 30 minutes long, so be ready for such a long episode. There’s plenty to keep you glued. Most of our Monday episodes will be around this length. Come back Wednesday for Episode 2: Enunciate!

You can check below the video for the text version of today’s episode topic agenda.

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Rabid for more footage from Star Wars: The Old Republic? We now have a little bit more to feed you, courtesy of GameTrailers.com.

First up, check out this new trailer on the Belsavis raid that shows you what some of the later-game challenges you’ll be up against.

And if that doesn’t get you pumped, this will: BioWare is ramping up excitement about The Old Republic with an on-camera interview with Gabe Amatangelo, lead PvP designer for the game. The interview is a good starting point to get up to speed on the game for anyone who hasn’t been following the news as it comes out. But he also talks a bit about the Belsavis raid as the video shows clips from the trailer above. He explains about how the raid centers around an ancient prison that has a compromised security situation.

Beyond the raid, the video also has a couple of clips of other scenes, including some from a world which Star Wars fans will be very interested to see in-game: Alderaan. And Amatangelo also talks a little bit about the aspects of the game that he thinks will draw in both experienced MMO players and those who are new to the genre.

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