BioWare has frequently mentioned that, with Star Wars: The Old Republic, they're not just making Knights of the Old Republic 3, they're making 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. During our gameplay demo at E3 last week we got a taste of that metaphorical content pie and boy did it taste good! Obviously there is a major difference between a great demo at a convention and a solid game; however, if BioWare can continue with the progress they've already made, there is no doubt in my mind that the game will be a success. Maybe even a success comparable to World of Warcraft.

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Our demo started with a viewing of the now famous geekgasm of a trailer which was so significant, it undoubtedly interrupted Mr. Lucas' money counting. After the demo, our host, Dallas Dickinson, gave us a look at the Bounty Hunter and the recently announced Smuggler class. It's important to note that the Smuggler is going to be amazingly fun to play. I'm sure there is some naiveté in that statement, but hear me out. BioWare has created a "cover system" in which the Smuggler can see around walls, behind trees and other objects. To clarify, I'm talking about a cover system like within Gears of War. I can't speak to whether or not it has that much depth, but it will definitely be a key part of playing a Smuggler.

The meat and potatoes portion of our demo was called a "flashpoint", which is essentially a customized story event that can be both instanced and un-instanced forms of gameplay. In the particular scenario we were shown, a Sith and his Bounty Hunter friend were aboard an Imperial ship. We were notified that the Captain of the ship had been ordered to track down and apprehend a nearby Jedi, but he had refused said order. Our mission was to deal with the traitor and track down the Jedi.

We battled our way through Imperial Soldiers in order to get to the bridge, at which point we were faced with something Knights of the Old Republic fans will be familiar with: Dialogue, followed by a choice. That's right. I'm talking real, professional voice over dialogue that made me want to wet myself slightly. I digress…

Our choices were simple, either kill the traitor Captain, or spare his life. Our Guide, Dallas Dickinson, let us decide and informed us that whatever we decided would have a permanent impact on our character, and it would change the rest of the "flashpoint".

The obvious choice for me was to kill that dirty traitor. I mean, this is an MMO … right? That brings me to a reminder.  Every choice that you make in Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a lasting effect on your character and the world around you. There is no save button. You'll gain loyalty (faction) and you'll see a familiar Dark/Light meter that existed in KOTOR. After shouting "Off with his head!" we took command of the ship and began to discuss how we would track down the Jedi. That is … until the counter-offensive began.

At this point we were again asked to make a choice.  We decided to leave our newly promoted Captain in charge of things on the deck and head out to fight the soon to be boarding invaders.

One of the coolest parts of combat that we saw was how smoothly different classes complimented each other. In this example, our guide, playing the Sith character, was putting our enemies in an elevated force choke as the Bounty Hunter planned a strategic rocket that propelled our already air born combatant into a wall. The potential for popular combos that will promote teamwork was evident and will probably be a key aspect of competitive play.

After fighting countless enemies, we came to the big finish at long last. The very Jedi that we were looking for had come to us. Our fight with the Jedi was exciting and full of action. He had many unique abilities that kept us on our toes. In the end, however, he was no match for a Sith and a Bounty Hunter duo. After the defeat we looted his corpse for any treasure and to everyone's delight, we found an additional light saber. Since we were now duel wielding lightsabers and had completed our primary objective, it was clear that our Captain killing tour was now at an end.

Our Director of Content, Ryan Bohmann, had the opportunity to sit in on a demonstration in which the Captain was saved. However, the rest of the mission was nearly identical. After he read my article, he mentioned that the biggest difference was likely the cut scene. That said, all and all our first look at Star Wars: The Old Republic was an amazing experience that had me captivated from the beginning. Of all the games we saw at E3 this year, Star Wars: The Old Republic was definitely the most exciting.

Yutori wrote:

If they retain the sandbox elements of the original SWG then it might be worth playing.

pm me if you do play shu :)

Last month, LucasArts and Bioware showed off the final two classes to be added to Star Wars: The Old Republic during a demonstration in San Francisco. There, we had the chance to get hands-on with the Sith Inquisitor, take a good long look at the Jedi Consular and talk to the team that put them together.

"[We wanted to] make sure we fulfill the fantasy first," they told us during a presentation on a massive movie screen inside the LucasArts compound. Many MMOs take the basic RPG roles that a game needs and designs classes that fit those roles. With Star Wars, the team felt it important to deliver that authentic Star Wars experience first. While they made sure everyone has a role to play, they didn't want to be trapped by MMO archetypes and miss something Star Wars fans really wanted.

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The Jedi Consular is Yoda to the Jedi Knight's Luke, or as Associate Producer Tim Tiemmerman put it, "the ying to the Jedi Knight's yang."

Where a Knight dives in, lightsaber whirring, the Consular seems to use his mostly to swat away stray fire. That's not to say he cannot cut them down, but he is far more focused on using the Force to control the battlefield and dominate his enemies.

"[The Jedi Consular uses] telekinetic Force powers to take down the enemy," we were told as we watched him grasp and slam enemies into the ground with invisible force powers, or grasp on and pull them in close for the kill.

When in a group, the Jedi Consular focuses predominantly on crowd control and managing the battle. While other classes can be a bit more hectic, the Jedi Consular is "the thinking man's Jedi," explained Temmerman. You're the archetypal general supervising everyone else, coolly surveying the battlefield and reading the situation before dropping some poor bastard on his head for getting too close.

The Sith Inquisitor is inspired by Emperor Palpatine, exploring the "mystical" side of the Dark Side of the Force by shooting lightning out of your hands and tapping into a deeper understanding of what the Dark Side is all about. If this were a fantasy game, he'd be one part Wizard, one part light-fighter. The class has elements of both. He can stand back and fire off DPS, but he can also hurt you in close.

Our characters (myself and MMORPG.com contributor Shannon P. Drake took in the event) were exploring an old Sith temple looking for artifacts, so ruins and sand were in abundance, and naturally people were trying to stop us. Our young Sith were pretty low level and had only a few skills to choose from, but recognizable MMO skills were there, from short range AoEs to classic crowd control spells, with a Star Wars flavor. I easily developed a routine of running into a room, firing off the AOE knockdown, and using my other skills as need dictated.

Combat was fast-paced and felt like Star Wars - lots of humming lightsabers, chirping blasters, and crackling force lightning - but it was far too early to judge in any depth. It was recognizable MMO combat, however, it was just a matter of figuring out what my "stun" "knockdown" and "crowd control" were and learning how to apply them.

It goes without saying that the game is still at a very early stage, and the level we saw was rough around the edges. Developers frequently had to nudge us back on the right track because it was easy to get lost, and monsters would respawn behind and beside you, complicating your progress through the level. The AI was similarly rough, seeming restricted to "Someone is shooting me? I should shoot them back!" That will (hopefully) change before launch.

The interface was similarly recognizable, a hotbar at the bottom of your screen with spells and skills, fired off as necessary to kill the monster. The demonstration was too short to form a detailed opinion, but it seemed to do what you wanted without getting in the way and learning to play was easy, just a matter of figuring out what button to push when.

What I can say with confidence though is that they've gone a long way to capture the mood and feel of Star Wars. The spells looked and felt powerful, the animations are as good as any game out there (single-player and MMO). Just seeing a character flick away lasers with the lightsaber as he ran toward an enemy was satisfying.

The dialogue though struck me as a bit odd. I'm used to the old Bioware standard of having a silent character that the world bounces off of. In Dragon Age, for example, your character never actually talks. It's kind of silly, in a way, but it's the standard Bioware themselves set for RPGs. To be fair though, this dialogue system is far more like Mass Effect, which didn't have silent protagonists.

In Old Republic, your character is fully voice acted. It was well done, the acting was serviceable, and maybe this is only because I was using a pre-fabricated character and not one of my own creation, but it only served to remind me that I was playing a game and was not a part of the experience. In an RPG, I want to sink into my character fully, and when he has his own voice and acting, it felt like I was watching a movie starring someone else. That complaint though could well just be a personal quirk. I am sure others will love the fully voice acted PCs.

The dialogue trees themselves were also done much like Mass Effect. The NPC speaks, and you select from a wheel of dialogue options that more or less summarize what your guy is about to say. That said, those summaries might need some buffing. Avatars say the darndest things. Occasionally, I'd pick what I thought was a nice response and he'd spout off something I never would have chosen. The dialogue options fit the usual range, from, "Of course I will do what you say as I comply with every request an NPC makes of me because I am a boot licking lackey that loves EXP" to "My, my, my I am a lippy and saucy lad." But I digress, it's still early in development.

While the demonstration and hands on time were still very rough, I wouldn't worry too much given the amount of time left in development. MMOs tend to come together over the last few months. There is a long way to go and the theme of their demonstration was "theme" itself. So, if the question is, "Does this game feel and look like Star Wars?" the answer is an emphatic "Yes!" If the main Star Wars Galaxies complaint was "I wanted to be Luke or Han running around killing bad guys, not Uncle Owen farming moisture," they seem to have taken it to heart and all the classes we've seen seem to map to recognizable figures from the movies.

Star Wars: the Old Republic: Designing the Dark Side

New Features

1. Defensive Skill

The Sith Warrior can parry the melee attack with his lightsword.

Sith Inquisitor nullifies the attack from enemies.

2. Game UI Unveiled

There are two avators at the coboundary of the quick bar. This means your adventure will be with a NPC teammate. Furthermore you can add an extra quick bar if you need.

You can add extra quick bars.

"We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It’s not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today," Dahlberg said. Have you signed up to be a tester? What are your thoughts on the release date?