Video Games

In this video, released this week during the latest in beta testing, the Jedi Consular class is featured and it shows that a fully talented Jedi is certainly a force to be reckoned with.


Not only do they have the unique ability to be able to foresee the blaster shots and deflect them with their light sabers, but they have incredible push powers according to the video.

I’ll say one thing for Bioware. They sure aren’t letting any grass grow under their feet in their daily quest to make sure that everyone on the planet is interested in their soon to be released MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Usually we see maybe two or three trailers for a game, but Bioware releases one just about every day or so it seems like. Now, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that. In fact I applaud their courage as it gives new fodder for their critics to tear apart, and I really enjoy seeing what is possible in the new worlds of the Lucas Empire.

Their latest trailer focuses on the battle techniques and differences between the Sith Inquisitor and the Republic Trooper. These two characters stand in stark contrast to each other as you can see below. To me, the trooper is basically just a foot soldier with a huge gun and some heavy armor. His whole thing is just to go in there and kick butt and chew gum and he’s out of gum. For those...

One of the big draws is obviously going to be the chance to test your skills against others in the ring of battle and The Old Republic will have three facilities in which to get your war credibility in the game against other live players in group and in individual duels.


We’ve already discussed Huttball, the new sport created by the Hutts that is a cross between American Gladiators, Wipe Out and Instant Death. It’s an arena whose object is very simple. Get the ball into the other team’s goal. But to get there is very hazardous with all sorts of things that will kill you like firepits, electric shocks, and of course, the defenders. The main rule is to survive. Violence is not only allowed, but encouraged much to the delight of the audience who doesn’t have to participate.


In the latest trailer...

In a fit of good sense, Bioware decided that players should be able to have a companion by their side to help them out in their time of need. And today, they gave us a bit more information on how these characters would work and how they evolved. This is their story.

Their first thought was just to let these companions be there to help in the fighting by offloading some of the work from your shoulders onto theirs. Each has his own special talents and abilities that come in handy in various situations. For instance, a Wookie might help fight with his strength. But a lot of people wanted better control over these guys, but others didn’t.
And so they decided to put in a system by which players can select how they will control their companions. It ranges from complete autonomy with no micromanagement whatsoever to pretty good control with several settings that you can make. This is especially true in the fighting.

Companions can be told to use a special...

As you know, we’ve reported here many times that Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently conducting beta tests of their MMO in anticipation of their now assured holiday release date. And while they have been slowly inviting people, they have kept it to a minimum to insure a good ramp up. So when a strange email concerning the beta showed up in the inbox of their newsletter subscribers, confusion and anger raged supreme until Bioware realized the mistake they’d made.

It seems that an email that was meant for current beta testers, and not possible invites, was sent by EA and Bioware asking them how they were getting along in the testing and requesting any feedback that they would like to share. This created a lot of confusion as you can imagine for those receiving the letter. They thought they’d been invited, but never got the mail to tell them so. That they had been missing out all this time. Since the invitation process is ongoing, it seemed logical and...

Even though it was EA that was showing hesitation at setting a date, and whose head had floated the idea of a possible delay, Bioware and LucasArts are apparently very confident of the progress made and announced in a joint conference, that it will be December 20, 2011 for the final release date of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Of course, this change of heart and official announcement does bring our speculation to an end, but it also sets a high bar for the game to reach that goal.

This does not mean that they’ve given up on beta testing after their big weekend at the start of the month. While they don’t have any official dates planned, they have said that they will be giving those that have signed up to be beta testers their due before the game starts. Also those with a pre-order will also be allowed to have early access to the game before the official opening of the MMO, but they have not said what that date will be. But the promise is in all three...

I’m not sure you can really consider a game delayed that never had a specific release date to begin with, but Eric Brown, who is CEO for EA hinted during an investment call that there is a possibility that the game could be held over until 2012 if conditions warranted. EA has always been concerned that releasing the game before it’s properly ready will have a negative impact for the players and thus doom the game before it even starts. Even when they do finally start sending copies, they plan to limit the number of players at first.

But Bioware has also put their two cents in, saying that there was never a promise at all of a date, and that their target of Holiday 2011 was always just a best case scenario, not an official announcement. It is their hope to still make that date and they are certainly working toward that goal, but it’s not a guarantee because of the many things that have to be checked by players and developers alike. That is the reason for the...

Hasbro, who makes a ton of licensed toys for the Star Wars brand is once again mixing two popular action series together with some new action figures that allow Darth Vader and others to transform into their related ships.

We always knew that all that extra hardware on Vader’s chest did more than just help him breathe and now this figure demonstrates the additional parts he can add on. He’s not exactly the Dark Lord as we know him. He’s been buffed up in a Mech suit that allows him to turn into a Sith Fighter, by bending his appendages and probably yelling “Owwwwwww!” Okay, he doesn’t actually make a noise, but if Lucas keeps up, he probably will. Anyway, he wouldn’t be complete without his light saber, but in this one, he actually gets two, one for each hand. The weapons look like they have to be dropped, however, for the transformation to into ship to go smoothly.

And on the Jedi side of things is a Council member who was much more active in the Clone...

Imagine if you took American Gladiators, Wipeout and a whole lot of dangerous materials, and put it into one arena, you may start to get the idea of the new game Huttball.

Devised by the Hutts in their twisted version of extreme sports, the idea is to take the ball and put it into your opponent’s base while avoiding the dangers of the game field. What dangers? Well there’s fire, acid, and all sorts of things that can kill you instantly, while the audience laughs and chuckles at your demise. But someone crafty could certainly avoid these pitfalls you say. After all, isn’t there a lot of games that require such avoidance?


Okay, fair enough, but it’s not just the field itself you have to worry about. Your opponent is not a robot, but live players in a team event and they are out to make sure that you don’t get to your goal. And because this is meant to be a kill or be killed type...

You may not have been aware of this, but Lego Star Wars also has two online games that you can play for free as a promotion for the actual game. Ace Assault pits you up against your favorite bounty hunters as you try to destroy their ship in this Asteroids like adventure. The other, the Quest for R2-D2, takes you on a quest through various missions to find the elusive droid that is calling for help while carrying the plans to a new weapon.

Ace Assault allows you to first pick and customize your pilot. You can give your guy a name, a chosen helmet, weapon, pants and shirt. There are a lot of different options. The face ones, for example, give you different expressions. Once you’ve chosen what your character looks like, you’ll be given a chance to choose a ship. Each ship has different strengths that will effect how you do against your foes. Some ships are locked until you reach certain goals, presumably getting through the three rounds of combat presented...

The Jedi Consular class has been added to the new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic in their latest update. The purpose of this class is to bring a peace to the universe through calm and concise thought. Words speak louder than actions and that will be the challenge to the player supposedly, but you wouldn’t know it by the trailer. In it, as you can see below, they forego any of that nonsense, opting to instead show the character as a guy who kicks a heck of a lot butt to get to his goal.

Of course, from a player perspective just going around sharing words of wisdom would be pretty boring. After all, Qui Gon didn’t go around picking fights and chopping off arms with his light saber, but when challenged he was pretty awesome until Maul killed him. And those that advocate peace in a game like this are probably not popular in a world that is leaning toward the Sith. So we can see where having these talents can be pretty fun and necessary to survive. We would...

Well as we mentioned in earlier articles, there were several panels surrounding Star Wars and the revelations were interesting to say the least about the Lucas empire. We’ll touch on a few of them right here.

Of course, the big news for gaming fans was Kinect Star Wars, which was finally given a release timeframe of Christmas 2011 although there was no specific date. They showed off a new portion of the game that included pod racing where gamers could race as any of the characters and over 20 pods on a variety of courses. In this one, you’ll even be able to play the Sebulba trick of actually throwing things at your opponent to wreck their racer. You can do all of this, as well as yielding a light saber, driving a flying car, and more with the Kinect motion tracking system that is only on the Xbox 360. The Star Wars Bundle, announced at the show, will include a R2D2 modded Xbox 360, a C3PO modded controller and a white cased Kinect to match, as well as two...