Tralmek's blog

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a great game. I take that back. SWTOR is a good game, but with some deep flaws going beyond simple bugs and reaching deep into the basic design of the game.

I'll back up to the beginning. When SWTOR was announced, I knew my first, and much beloved (however gutted) MMO would be going away. Star Wars Galaxies was finally canned on SWTOR's launch day. So I did have a deep-seated resentment for SWTOR going back many years since it was first announced that a new Star Wars MMO was going into development.

Although I have yet to experience PvP in Star Wars the Old Republic first-hand, I've been watching as a friend competes in PvP matches, and am not impressed. Neither is he.

Well, two beta weekends, actually.

I had the duty of play-testing the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta for two weekends, the second of which just concluded. All-told, I played over the course of about six days, probably 30-40 hours of actual in-game playtime.

Let me just start out by saying I've been incredibly jaded about this game since it was first announced, doubly so when I learned that LucasArts was shutting down my (formerly) beloved SWG in an attempt to drive players from that MMO to their new one: SWTOR.

Is EVE the game of the future? Will EVE fulfill its full potential as a sandbox sci-fi simulator? Can EVE attract more users from different genres to flesh out its legs game?

The rumor mill has been spinning since September that Sony Online Entertainment is working on another Star Wars MMO. This one is to be built on the same browser-based game engine they use for Free Realms and will be called Clone Wars.

Set in the Clone Wars era, the game will focus on a casual-social gameplay style much like Free Realms, and will therefore not be a direct competitor for the existing Star Wars licensed SOE MMO, Star Wars Galaxies, nor the upcoming Knights of the Old Republic game from Bioware.

Bioware & LucasArts say they're making another Star Wars MMO...actually the way they talk, you'd think they were making the first Star Wars MMO. They like to ignore SWG.

Click on the thumbnails to view the full pictures.

Freddie Frost stands alone.

So I tried the City of Heroes trial again for like the fourth time over the game's life, and I finally took the bait and subscribed. I've been playing a tank which isn't my usual role in games--more often than not I find myself in a support-only role. But I've been enjoying the experience for the most part. The game is a lot of fun, despite the fact that it is clearly showing its age, and has a lot of bugs for a game that seems to be entering the "maintenance" stage of its lifespan.