After 6 long years of of waiting, online gamers can finally rejoice. Star Wars;The Old Republic (SW;TOR) has arrived. Bioware spared no expense to create what they promised would be the ultimate Star Wars MMO (Massively Multi-player Online game) and players are hoping that the end results actually live up to the hype.

The official launch is scheduled for December 20th., 2011 but Bioware gave gamers a special Christmas present by offering up to 7 days of Early Access to anyone who pre-ordered the game when it went on sale, July 20th., 2011. Early access started on December 13th, 2011 and during the first 24 hours the demand was so high that Bioware was only able to invite players who pre-ordered the first day the game was on sale.

Bioware plans to invite players in waves from December 13th. until December 19th,  giving everyone who pre-ordered an opportunity to get a head start over the legions of gamers who will join them on December 20th.; when SW;TOR starts its official run.

From all accounts, SW;TOR is on target for success. While exact figures are not yet available, Electronic Arts (EA) has said that the SW;TOR pre-order has broken all their sales records. Demand was so high that EA was forced to limit the total number copies available until the game is fully launched and stable.

“We are targeting Star Wars: The Old Republic to be one of the biggest launches of holiday 2011,” said BioWare’s Dr. Ray Muzyka in the announcement. “Our teams at BioWare and EA, along with our partners at LucasArts, are laser-focused on creating a high quality game, but just as importantly, they are resolute in delivering a high quality service. We are taking all of the necessary steps to make sure The Old Republic has a thriving community built on a stable online foundation from day one, including limiting supply at launch to ensure that players easily transition into the servers. So whether you’re waiting to join the Empire or the Republic, pre-order now to ensure you can enter the galaxy at launch!”

Now !!! Lets get to the nitty gritty. Is SW;TOR worth your time and a subscription fee of $14.99 a month? The answer is an unequivocal, YES. To put it simply, Star Wars; The Old Republic has finally brought the Star Wars universe to life for gamers. The game is solid, stable and exciting. It is fun to play from the moment you enter the game and create you first character. Playing SW;TOR is addictive; once you start, you wont want to stop.

Players must decide if their character will join the Sith Empire or The Republic. There are 4 main classes available for each faction. On the Empire side players can choose from Sith warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter or Imperial Agent. Those who prefer the Republic may select among Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler or Trooper. When players complete their quests on their starting world, (around level 9 or 10) they will be able to further specialize their character by picking one of the two sub classes offered to each class. For example, Sith Inquisitors will be able to choose between Sith Assassin and Sith Sorcerer. A Republic Trooper may specialize either as a Vanguard or as a Commando. Each sub class unlocks a three tiered skill tree that offers new, highly potent skills that will allow a player to tweak a character to their hearts content.

One of the things that makes SW;TOR so enjoyable is that you start off the game feeling powerful. Unlike many games, where  you have to wait forever to get decent skills, players will find themselves successfully soloing packs of 4 and 5 mobs from the very first level. The Star Wars Universe is supposed to be populated by almost invincible heroes or anti-heroes and SW;TOR lives up to the tradition.

As players advance through the game, they will follow a quest line that is specific to their class. Each one of these exciting quest lines unravels a story that will reveal much about who the player is, where the player is going and what the player may become. Filling in the blanks depends, to an extent, on the choices the player makes as he or she progresses towards the level cap of 50.

Early access is now in its third day and things are running like a well oiled machine. Server Crashes have been virtually non-existent and I personally have yet to experience any glitches or lag. The game looks great, sounds great and is free of major bugs.

After extensive conversations with many players the Port Nowhere server, we were only able to find two minor issues. There are still a few bugged resource nodes scattered around the various planets in the galaxy, most of which were also bugged in beta. The only other glitch is with the Guild Interface, which isnt updating the names of online guild members properly. Considering the size of this game and the millions of people who will be playing, it is remarkable that these are the only issues we could find in the game 3 days into launch.

There are a few items that Bioware has promised to address in the future such as User Interface customization, adding a combat log, color matching of player clothing and the ability to sort items by level on the in-game vendors. These are all matters of player convenience and not issues with the functioning of the game.

To put it all in a nutshell, Star Wars, The Old Republic is an outstanding game and the launch has been virtually flawless. Bioware and Electronic Arts can be proud of the effort that went into building this game. They have succeeded in bringing the never ending struggle between the Light Side and the Dark Side to life. SW;TOR is Star Wars as it is meant to be; exciting and mysterious with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance. So grab your lightsaber. Strap on your blaster. Get ready for fun. Star Wars The Old Republic is here.

(Special thanks to the members of the Guild Star Forge on the Port Nowhere Server and to my good friend Ares, who took time out from leveling to patiently answer a barrage of questions. A tip of the hat also to unicron, mexy, ghodzilla, pharaoh and rinzler. The community is what makes online gaming so special and it is my pleasure to introduce some of them to my readers.)

Get Out Your Lightsabers And Blasters: Star Wars; The Old Republic Rocks The Galaxy is a post from: The Inquisitr

The year long beta test for Star Wars; The Old Republic came to a successful conclusion on Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 11:59 PM CST. The final weekend of beta testing drew over 2 million participants, according to figures released by the MMO’s developer, Bioware. The long anticipated game began its now legendary development cycle way back in 2006 and it is rumored to have run up $135 million dollars in development costs, easily making it the most expensive video game of all time. Judging by the reactions of the final weekend’s beta testers, the money has been well spent and millions of gamers are chomping at the bit to get into the game when it starts its official general release on December 20th, 2011.

Those of us who pre-ordered the game, when it became available for purchase on July 20, 2011, will be able to gain early access to Star Wars; The Old Republic starting on Tuesday, December 13, 2011. Due to the incredible demand, Bioware sent out the following statement on how it will handle the multitude of players who are eligible for early access. “Early Game Access will begin on December 13th at 7:00AM EST, 2011 and ends on December 19th, 2011 at 10:01PM EST. During this time, we will be emailing invitations to join Early Game Access based on the order in which you redeemed your Pre-Order Code. Pre-load the game client now, so you’re ready to play when your Early Game Access invitation arrives.” Players with the foresight to pre-order the game on its first day of availability back in July, will probably be checking their email inbox quite often in the early hours leading up to 7:00AM, this coming Tuesday.

This writer was able to participate in the closed beta for several months and I must say, I am really looking forward to playing Star Wars; the Old Republic. I intend to make SW;TOR my primary online game and expect to dedicate long hours, playing along side my fellow guild members from the guild Star Forge. As with many other great MMO’s, SW;TOR has a well developed guild system in place that encourages players to group together and team up regularly to enjoy every aspect of the game.

To give you a good idea of just how much I enjoy playing SW;TOR, I will tell you that during my time in beta testing, I actually cancelled my accounts to all the other online games that I was playing. What really made everything clear to me was the downtime between SW;TOR beta builds. During the week or 2 between builds, I would log in to other games and after a few minutes of aimless play, I realized that in comparison to SW;TOR, I no longer enjoyed the other games. All I wanted to do was get back into SW;TOR and kill more Jedi with my Sith Character. The instant I got the email for the next beta build, my face lit up in a broad smile and I rushed to the SW;TOR website to re-install the game.

During the beta, I tried every class available on the Sith side and two classes on the Jedi side. I concentrated on the Sith Sorcerer, which is the class I intend to play at launch. Over the course of several beta builds, I leveled 4 different Sith Sorcerers to the level cap of 50 in order to learn all I could about the class. Although every class is fully fleshed out, offers a wide ranging set of skills and has it’s own story based quest line, I found that the Sith Sorcerer is the one I enjoy the most. The class is well balanced, wonderfully powerful and feels the most “Star Wars-ish” of all the different classes. Every single class, no matter if Jedi or Sith, is well designed and offers a totally unique play style. Players may find themselves trying all the different classes before they decide on their favorite or rolling several alternate characters, so they can enjoy even more of the richness SW;TOR has to offer.

The game itself looks great and plays smoothly, with all the bells and whistles you would expect from a top of the line MMO. The graphics are excellent and finely detailed. Bioware made a decision not to go for a hyper realistic look and the characters in the game have a painterly feel instead of a real world appearance. The backgrounds, buildings, vehicles, props, weapons, furnishings and landscapes are all meticulously drawn, right down to proper shadows and clouds that move in sync with the prevailing winds. Every world in the galaxy has its own climate, look and flavor along with its own set of flora and fauna. Those players who expect an MMO to look great in addition to playing great will not be disappointed. SW;TOR certainly looks great and it plays great as well.

One aspect that really sets this game apart from other MMOs is the incredibly rich dialogue system that Bioware has built into SW;TOR. Gamers who played Mass Effect 2 will have a basic idea of the conversation system that Bioware developed for SW;TOR. Working from this solid foundation, Bioware expanded the system used in Mass Effect 2 exponentially. It would be like comparing a 2 story house (Mass Effect 2) to the Empire State Building. (SW;TOR) Recording the voices for SW;TOR involved hundreds of well known voice actors and the script they used is the equivalent in length of 40 good sized novels. Bioware has taken in-game voice acting to an entirely new level with SW;TOR.

Every time a player stops to interact with an npc as part of a quest, the player will activate a fully voiced dialogue system that allows the player and the npc to participate in a multi-part, back and forth conversation. At each stage of the conversation, the player is able to choose one of several possible responses. Each choice may directly affect the quest and even change the player’s level of dark side or light side influence.  When in a group, each player chooses a response and the games decides which player’s response to use based on a system of behind the scenes rolls. By selecting group responses with rolls, the game opens itself up to some very funny moments. There were many occasions where the answer coming out of a player’s mouth had everyone in my group rolling on the floor in laughter or shaking their heads at the sheer ruthlessness of the response.

The game is set in a time period that is more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Wars films. The Jedi and the Sith are holding to a shaky peace treaty called the “Treaty of Coruscant”, which was negotiated after the Sith launched a surprise attack and sacked the Republic capitol of Coruscant. The badly beaten Jedi lost a great deal of prestige and have fallen out of favor due to this disaster. They have been forced to relocate to the planet of Tython, where they are trying to rebuild and find new strength in the force. The victorious Sith have returned, at long last, to their home world of Korriban and re-established the infamous Sith Academy to turn out new and more powerful users of the dark side. The Republic remains mystified as to why the Sith chose to accept the Republic’s desperate pleas for peace and players will be anxious to find out the real motivation behind the actions of the Sith Empire.

The pieces are in place for a massive conflict between the Jedi, users of light and the Sith, wielders of the dark side. The tenuous peace is on the verge of crumbling into a planet shattering, galaxy wide, all out war between the two opposing factions. All that remains is for you to log in to the game and become one of the millions of lucky players who will be able to experience all the Star Wars universe has to offer. Star Wars, The Old Republic has been six years in the making and it is about to explode into every gamers life. With all the hype and anticipation, Bioware has a big job ahead to continue to develop end game content and turn out regular updates to keep the game growing and vital. Judging by the effort that Bioware made to develop this game, they are more than capable of doing what it takes to make Star Wars; The Old Republic a major success. Enjoy yourself and may the force be with you.

Do you plan to be one of the millions who will be joining the Star Wars; The Old Republic universe? Are you excited by this new MMO or are you a dedicated player of another game with no plans to try SW;TOR?

Star Wars; The Old Republic Wraps Up Beta Testing; Millions Anxiously Await December 20, 2011 Release Date is a post from: The Inquisitr

Electronic Arts, not content with letting Steam have all of the fun, announced the company’s “biggest sale ever” earlier today.

The sale will kick off on July 4 across several platforms, including iOS devices, Xbox Live Marketplace and, of course, EA’s digital distribution service Origin. It’s admittedly not quite as ridiculous as Steam’s sale, but there’s still plenty of good deals to be had, including a 40% price drop on many of the publisher’s most recent titles, including Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and a whole lot more.

To see what all EA is offering up at a discount, head over to this link.

Electronic Arts starts a summer sale of their own is a post from: The Inquisitr

EA Play, Electronic Arts’ casual gaming label, announced yesterday that the fourth full-fledged expansion for 2009′s wildly popular life simulation The Sims 3, titled Generations, will be available for purchase on PC and Mac beginning next week worldwide.

The fourth expansion adds new careers, new traits, new types of celebrations, graduation ceremonies and a whole bunch of other new features. The expansion is designed to give a more complete story for your Sim, from childhood to the rebellious teen years and on up into adulthood, where you’ll further flesh out your Sim’s story as you choose to tell it.

“The Sims 3 Generations gives us an opportunity to expand every life stage and the chance for players to delve deeper into each of their special moments,” said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio at EA, about the expansion. “From exploring the creative and playful childhood years, the angst-ridden defiant teenager years, to the moment of time when adults celebrate life through bachelor parties and weddings, we wanted players to have the tools to tell the richest stories possible for any life stage.”

If you’ve been looking for something to pull you right back into spending countless hours in The Sims 3, this expansion sounds like it just might do the trick.

The Sims 3 Generations Expansion Pack Coming to Stores Next Week is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’m not what you would call a serious gamers. I like playing my Civilization and every once in awhile firing up a good FPS and go on a blood and guts rampage. I will say that my gaming has increased (shhh don’t tell Duncan) since finding out that Valve’s Steam game story takes PayPal but I still wouldn’t qualify for hardcore gamer status.

However if what Electronic Arts (EA) CEO, Eric Brown, had to say the other day I’m not the only one spending more money and hours on PC games. According to Brown digital game distribution has nearly doubled in revenues year-over-year to $80 million. As well he said that the EA online business is growing by as much as 60 percent year over year.

“In terms of distribution, the way we look at a lot what’s happening in the future is, we’ve got probably a billion PCs out there in the world,” he continued. “Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product.”

Source: VG247.com

Take that consoles.

PC gaming to be the largest gaming platform in the world is a post from: The Inquisitr

In what is supposed to be a modern interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy Electronic Arts has finally debuted a real trailer for the game which you can view below. An interesting side story to this is that last year there was apparently a big bidding war going on in Hollywood over the rights to bring the game to the movie theatres. Universal ended up winning the bidding and is still planning on adapting the game after it is finally released.

If the game comes anywhere close to being as good as what the trailer leads one to believe it looks to be one hellva game.

hat tip to FirstShowing.net

EA releases game trailer for Dante’s Inferno is a post from: The Inquisitr

Electronic Arts confirms today that it has purchased ThreeSF and its video game-based social network startup Rupture — a move predicted nearly a full month ago. EA plans to add the site into its growing arsenal of gaming services. The company bought Mythic Entertainment in 2006.

Fanning has struggled since the glory days of Napster, back when widespread free music sharing was in its infancy. He tried his hand at another music service, albeit with download fees, called SnoCap. That venture, though, never took off and was eventually sold as well.

Whether or not Fanning will continue to work at ThreeSF after the acquisition has not yet been made clear.

Image: Wikipedia

Electronic Arts Acquires Fanning’s ThreeSF is a post from: The Inquisitr

EA has just extended its $2 billion offer to the Grand Theft Auto developer. The proposed deal, which had expired Friday, will now remain open until June 16. EA says the delay is to allow the Federal Trade Commission to complete its review of the acquisition. This is the third time the deadline’s been pushed back.

Take-Two isn’t hiding the fact that it’s in talks for a takeover, but the New York-based business may be holding out for a better offer. The company had indicated its successes with titles like Grand Theft Auto demonstrate a higher value than what EA is proposing. As such, executives are suggesting shareholders shoot down the offer, saying the proposal “undervalues [their] company.”

Take-Two Proposal Extended Again is a post from: The Inquisitr