The passing of this weekend also marks the conclusion of the notorious PAX Convention, a huge attraction for both the casual and the hardcore, as well as a celebration of the mouse, keyboard, controller, and of course, the pen & paper. For many diehard fans, the first order of business upon entry is a mad rush to the coveted demo booths. Here, developers and publicists stand ready to immerse each and every visitor in their respective products, from console platformers to Real-Time Strategy games to our beloved MMORPGs.
This weekend, BioWare offered attendees a hands-on gameplay session in the Taral V Flashpoint (That’s SWTOR-ian for an instance), wherein players exercised group tactics and reveled in the dynamic cutscene/conversation system. This video is a 16-minute session that was recorded and spliced together specifically for those of us who couldn’t be there. This being the first time I’ve witnessed the current UI, I was interested to watch as the character as he executed skills and other abilities using the spiffy new layout. Another feature to note is the aforementioned conversation system; in Star Wars: The Old Republic, players will each select a reply in conversation with a quest-giver. The catch is that only one person can reply at a time, so players will effectively “roll” (as with loot) to decide who speaks. This can lead to a single conversation taking multiple paths depending not just on who speaks, but what they say.
Check out the video above or head over to the official site to sniff out the details.