With E3 hitting this past week, us gamers had our chance to listen anxiously for any tidbits of information that gave us more insight on mechanics, plot points, and more from developers of the games that we love the most.
Last years, E3 left every Star Wars fan drooling in his or her seat as BioWare revealed precious information on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Since then, we’ve seen little on the actual gameplay, but BioWare has shown us a bit more much on the content and planets we will be playing on.
E3 ’10 has been even better to those loyal to Lord Lucas’ franchise — although perhaps not in the way that fans expected. Amatera covered the newest highlights previewed at E3 a few days ago.
I’ll preface these comments by first stating that I am a devout George Lucas fan and in no way intend to downplay the Star Wars franchise. With that said, watching the MMO’s newest cinematic trailer, “Hope,” has left me questioning how eager I really am to play Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Those who read the comments can guess what I’m thinking: Instead of an MMO, the trailer left me craving another Star Wars movie.
Read on for my reasoning plus another look at The Old Republic (movie) trailers.
I’m one of those people who played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (I and II) and was chewing my nails at every plot twist and turn. The end of the sequel left me with the feeling of unfinished business; there was story still to be told.
When I saw the first full CGI trailer at the announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I was shouting for joy. After seeing the first of the gameplay footage, I’ve become more hesitant, and the game has slid a bit down my list of “most awesome game footage”.
Comparing the CGI footage vs. the gameplay – I’d much rather watch the ‘movie’ of the same plot and time slot (300 – 303 years after KoToR II) than play the Online rendition.
Watch these in order from a different prospective: The first as an extended movie trailer, and the second as a scene from the movie with commentary like what you would find on a DVD bonus feature.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll at least play the trial, but so far I don’t see The Old Republic drawing me away from WoW anytime soon.
What about you? I’d love to hear whether you readers agree — and I’m open to criticism if you completely disagree.
So because they won’t make the game super graphically demanding which will restrict the amount of paying users they will get, you don’t want to play the game?
You already play WoW with it’s horrible graphics system, whats the difference if you play another MMO that looks similar but will no doubt have a better story line. Sounds to me like you’ve been jaded by shiny console games or something good sir.
Out of all the ‘current’ MMO’s WoW’s graphics are by far the worst when compared to games like Aion, Lineage, Guild Wars, and what ever others there are still out there. Yet you still play it. Don’t tell me it’s because of the gameplay, because overall, WoW is so unbalanced it’s not even funny.
Either way, to each is their own. But I’d like to point out. Has Bioware EVER released something that didn’t get amazing reviews by almost everyone? Not that I can think of. Has Bioware ever released 1/3 of a game that should have been out 7 years ago at full price?(COUGH STARCRAFT COUGH) No. Only a company that thinks it’s the king of the industry would try to pull that off, and that my friends is Blizzard at the moment.
Don’t judge the game due to graphics until you’ve actually played it.
/rant
First of all WoW graphics system has been being updated since its release date. granted the graphics arent top grade.but they get the job done. the design was ment to resemble that of the old Warcraft RTS games. Secondly, graphically SWtOR looks fine. gameplay sticks with the KotOR console games. and if im not mistaken i think bioware intended it to be that way.
@ Dan
I’m sorry you feel that way about Blizzard© and their products.
Looking through my post, I don’t recall ever specifically saying anything about graphics.
I’m referring to how the game is played – mechanics if you will. They feel like all other Bioware games I have played. (Dragon Age: Origins, KoToR I & II) I do not want to play another of the same style of gameplay that I would find in their console games; I am looking for something akin to WoW, or completely different. From what I’ve seen of the attacks / abilities / skills, it’s much alike WoW, and I’m not sure if I just want another WoW in a different universe.
@ Vayder
Bioware probably intended it to be designed much alike their console counterparts. They made serious success in those fields and have ‘perfected’ their gameplay design. Like I said just now, I am not looking for KoToR Online, I’m looking for SW: ToR – a new style.
Again, I will still try it out, and my opinion is due to change as things are released and move closer towards the retail date.
@Dan There is a difference between artistic style and graphical “prettiness” in a game. Most games usually give one or the other. WoW, when released was a very “pretty” game, both in graphics and artistic style. Now, though not as shiny as other games, the artistic style still holds up.
Old Republic, on the other hand, has yet to show intense graphics or a artistic style unique to itself. Although to early to give final judgement, the game as it stands does not give anything new or “fun” to look at. Though it doesn’t necessarily need the top-of-the-line graphics, a nice look and feel would give it a good second leg to stand on (The other being the fact that it is a Star Wars game).
Oh, and in response to “WoW is so unbalanced it’s not even funny”, you obviously never played Warhammer at release. Wrath of the Lich King is not the only thing that killed that game.
My two cents: Though there is not much known really in the scheme of things with this game. I played both KOTR I and II, Actually to this very day they are the only reasons I even purchased an x-box. Now I have no experience in game design, but as a hard core gamer I have noticed that the MMO’s that have huge graphics limit themselves allot, and I mean graphics on my scale of an MMO is very low (granted some people are more visual then others). I have been waiting about 5 years for a new KOTR to come out. With that said my opinion may be a little bias. Now we can all agree that it is not going to be perfect this is Biowares first real venture into the MMO genre, which is something Blizzard has had time to prefect.
You always have to keep that in mind when testing a game, as far as unique from Blizzard games. I believe it is very unique it is the Star War universe, any who has played KOTR has learned the Star Wars universe is probobley one of the most Dynamic universes ever. I mean take what you learned from the movies, you really learned nothing from the movies about the Jedi order. The order was a mystery, in KOTR you learned that many times in history the order fell, but also you learned that the Jedi order has had some pretty big hard asses in it besides Yoda. KOTR explains that in the past some of the Jedi maybe even made Yoda look like a pussy, and we all know to make Yoda look like a pussy has got to be hard as hell. I am so excited about these game words can’t describe it. I have not spoiled myself on to much about it, because I really want the experience to be something worthwhile. I would love to see maybe some Raven story line, or maybe even about where you yourself left off in KOTR II to get the lore feeling and to also allow you to feel more a part of the game; like “hey I did that, that person telling the lore is talking about what I did in KOTR II”.
They can do some amazing things with this game, and I personally think that if anyone can get me away from WoW (even though I am on indefinite hideous from WoW) Bioware is probobley the only company that I know of that could do such a thing. Also ITZKOOPA I thought of a topic maybe you guys could talk about. Witch all the things that you guys talk about that are staples in MMO’S to succeed, how would you guys rate lower graphics to allow more people to play the game? Sorry for the wall of text this is a game title that is very dear to me, not only was it entertaining but if you really pay attention there are many great lesions of life that are in KOTR I and II.
Sorry that question did not come out very good.
The question: With all the staples that are must have in MMO’s, In the players view how do you feel about the lack of graphics to inhance the social aspect of the game? IE. Lower graphics allows more people to play.
@Flex,
the acronym MMO defines ‘social aspect’ of these games. Therefore, it follows, that if lower graphics allow more people to play, lower quality graphics are a must as more players are intergral to keeping the companies that make the games profitable and also keeping the games online.
Myself, I don’t mind so much. As warped as the social aspect of many MMO’s can be, I’d still take a larger social scene over higher quality graphics. If I wanted graphics, I’d purchase a console and play nothing but that.
@Mordil
Sorry I must have misunderstood your point. I took it as since the game doesn’t look like these movies they are putting out why bother playing it.
Personally I was never a fan of WoW’s cartoony art style of the game until my 3rd year into the game. You may say it looked great when it first came out, but Lineage 2 was out when WoW came out and it looks WAY better, so age can’t be an argument for that in my opinion.
Like it’s been said over and over, we’ll have to wait to see how the game plays out when we get closer to the Beta or release of the game. Star War’s lore is infinate and they gave them selves a 300 year time gap between the game and known lore. That is plenty of space for expansions and new content, lets just hope they pull through with it and don’t release a dud(ala Star Trek Online).
@Highwayman
See that is what I though as well but then I went to try EQ2 and even Star Trek online, both have some huge system requirements. I was really surprised at EQ’s system requirements are high even today, much less when it came out. I am not sure what is going on with EQ but Star Trek may be because it is a newer age game.