But, the problem I find is that PC Gamer won’t have their October issue our for another few weeks. This means I have to wait to find out what type of space combat there is going to be. And I just couldn’t have that. So, I began to speculate. I’ve come up with my own speculation on what space combat is going to look like. To begin with, though, we have to consider what space flight might be like. To have combat, one must first have flight.

The space flight, in my opinion, is going to be free to an extent. One of the things people talk about is flying around the galaxy freely. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible. The galaxy is massive, so to fly around freely would take forever. Legitimately, it would take many life times. Therefore, space travel will be free flying around the planet. If you want to fly around the planet and see other people flying around as well, all the better. But, if you are on Coruscant and you want to go to Alderaan, you’ll have to enter hyperspace. This will be similar to how travel was done in KOTOR and in Mass Effect.

So, what happens when there is a space battle going on? Good question.

Sean, the community manager at SWTOR, mentioned in the thread that you “fly” to the combat hot spot. “In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map,” Sean said. That would suggest control over the ship on your way to combat. So, you leave hyper space and then you fly to the hot spot on the map, enter it and voila, combat begins. But, what will combat look like?

Space combat will be a mouse and keyboard operation. While many people have been hoping and praying for a joystick game, the truth is, this is a MMO, not a flight simulator. We’re going to be getting space combat to begin with, so I think that’s plenty. Maybe in future expansions BioWare will make it with a joystick, but right now, it won’t be.

Combat will probably be similar to what it looked like in Star Wars Galaxies. You’ll fly around in your ship and you’ll do damage to ships bigger than yours and smaller. It might not be as good–I’ve heard great things about it–but the space combat, overall, will probably be like that. They can’t do something more basic because people are hardcore expecting to enjoy the space combat. If they do something simple like an asteroids game, people will be very upset. I know I would be.

Because ship customization is going to be added to the game, this is where you’ll be able to make your ship stronger. While you will be able to make it look cool, you’ll also be able to add stronger shields, better weapons, and other things to make you a more formidable opponent in space. So, if you have the credits, you might be able to buy a stronger shield generator.

This is speculative. While I think the above might be what they do–it just seems like a basic, but still enjoyable experience–BioWare can really surprise us sometimes. I don’t think it’ll be a stupid mini-game, but it might not be as extravagant as I described. We’ll have to wait until PC Gamer releases their next issue so we can be better learned on what space combat is going to be all about.

I’ll touch more on the space combat at a later point–PC Gamer is doing an exclusive on it–so for now, let’s focus on what was revealed at “Crafting the Multiplayer Story.”

• Each of the classes in SWTOR have enough content to fill an entire KOTOR. While this is nothing new, it really is amazing to imagine how much content that means. There are currently eight classes and that means, in theory, they’ve created eight KOTORs for this game. That’s pretty sweet in my opinion.
• The story arcs are both worldly and galactic. What this means is that some of the quest arcs that you’ll be doing will be specific to the planet you are on. But, others that you will be doing are galactic.
• Your ship is customizable. This goes hand in hand with everything they’ve been talking about. They want you to truly appreciate your experience. I actually had some notes prepared about Fatal Alliance that fit in with this. There was too much mention of “modified ships,” but we’ll get to that when I finish.
• There is space combat. It should be noted, though, that the space combat doesn’t appear to be free-roaming. So, don’t expect to fly through space, happen upon a Sith/Jedi ship and open fire. Sean described it as, “Space combat is an alternative gameplay experience to the primary game of storytelling, questing, and ground-based combat. In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map. From there, you will blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, frigates, destroyers, and a variety of other obstacles that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars™ space battles.” So, maybe I’ll be sitting in my cockpit dog fighting? We’ll have to wait and see.
• Once you are a part of a faction, you cannot switch. This, too, was also a question of mine. I’m at the part of the book where Shigar Konshi is with Darth Chratis and it’s obvious Chratis is trying to turn Konshi to the dark side. That would suggest faction change, but according to this panel, that is simply not possible.
• Not every class can play every race. This could potentially go against what I wrote about yesterday pertaining to aliens being open to mane different races, but we’ll have to wait and see. It could also suggest that they are, in fact, releasing races that are not force sensitives. We’ll have to wait and see on this. They wouldn’t reveal any other races, though.
• Mandalorians will play a huge part in this game. They are definitely going to be an interesting addition to the game.
• Progression is important. Crafting, tons of gear and other things. There are rewards for all of this.
• When grouping, if the group does something bad, if you choose good, you get light side points. This was an issue some were concerned about. When in a group, if three chose to do an evil act and you chose to do a good act, the evil act would be done. But, you’d get light side points for wanting to do the good act.
• Alderaan’s families are split. Family Organa is on the Republic’s side. Family Thulu is on the Sith side. Easily a great way for there to be serious problems.
• Lightsabers will be visually restricting. Double bladed Jedi Consular is a DPSer. Therefore, if you see a single bladed Jedi Consular, that means that they are geared toward something else.

This whole event turned into a huge Q&A which is always cool. Very little was provided about the overall “multiplayer” experience, but at least we know that there isn’t a problem if you choose to do something light sided and the rest of the team does something dark. This will put some people’s fears to rest. And, most importantly, there’s space combat! Wait until August when PC Gamer’s issue comes out. You can bet I’ll devour that for information for you guys!

The overall purpose of the game is to bring your Star Wars fantasy to life. Now you can play as a Jedi Knight. Or, you can play as Darth Vader–I’ll admit, seeing a bunch of heavy breathing robotic Sith Warriors is going to irk me. And, you can shoot lightning. It would be incredibly limiting if I had to play the Sith Warrior role as only one or two alien species.

Therefore, I don’t see them making that a possibility. That doesn’t mean, though, that there won’t be faction-specific species.

First off, as mentioned in the article, Daniel Erickson specifically stated that, “The Chiss are actually the only aliens we’ve shown that are fully allied with the Empire, the Empire tends to actually be very anti-alien.” This is very much a grab from the Empire from the movies. It makes no sense for the Empire to be very anti-alien because the Emperor fought alongside the likes of original Sith such as Naga Sadow who was a Sith/Human hybrid.

But, I get that the Chiss are a faction based species. But, that’s about as far as that can go. If BioWare tries to take the Chiss and say, “Well, since Admiral Thrawn was a Chiss and he was similar to the Imperial Agent, we’re going to make the Chiss all that,” it defeats the overall experience. There have been Chiss force users. For example, Sev’Rance Tann was a Chiss who learned the Dark Side. So, there’s no reason why a simple switch could allow a Chiss user to be also a Force user.

Now, I can understand where Matt is coming from. Little evidence currently presented to us suggests that alien races are open to everything. But, there is also little evidence to suggest that BioWare is trying to create a game that goes with the archetypes. Its classes were archetypal–if you want to play as a smuggler, chances are, it’s because you love Han Solo–but there’s no evidence to suggest the same for the species. As mentioned above, Thrawn is the favorite Chiss. So, when talking about archetypes, he is the Imperial Agent. But, since there isn’t any evidence to suggest that species has to be connected to an archetype, I see no reason why it is going to appear.

As his evidence goes on to show in a lot of the work there after, it appears as if the aliens won’t be class specific. Sure, the media has shown some instances of class specific aliens, but in reality, it’s shown only single instances. So, it’s not likely that the class will be the deciding factor for the alien.

Instead, what you will see are classes only available as NPCs. For example, you won’t be able to play as a Hutt. You won’t be able to play as a Wookiee. The Hutt will be too difficult to play because you’d have to create entirely new armor for it and the Wookiee because everyone would play as a Wookiee then. If I am wrong and there are Wookiees, you at least have your smuggler or bounty hunter role because there won’t be any force sensitive Wookiees.

I am with Matt when I say that I really hope BioWare doesn’t make class specific aliens. They will limit the aliens to bipedal ones because that’s the easy to suit in armor. But, they won’t do much to limit who can play as what species. A Jedi Knight Rattataki won’t be impossible even if everything suggests that they are always dark side. Unless BioWare says otherwise, I see them being free to everyone. So, while the Gormak does look a bit evil, there’s nothing stopping him from being a Trooper–if he is even released as a playing species.

But, you can expect to see some faction specific aliens. The Chiss have to be Empire because they are in the Empire territory. It doesn’t mean you might not see a Chiss NPC who is Republic, though. Players just won’t have the opportunity to play that.

With such little information available right now about aliens, it’s hard to make a choice on what is going to happen. But, because BioWare has talked about fulfilling that Star Wars fantasy and, more importantly, allowing customization where ever they can, I don’t see them infringing on people’s playing by limiting aliens to different classes. So, it is with great enthusiasm that I say aliens won’t be class specific.

The only problem I can see coming from this is that creating that much music and sound for such a large MMO should be a daunting task. While it might have been, it seems as if BioWare and LucasArts had no problem doing it. The composers of LucasArts all got together and worked on writing a ton of music. And, the sounds people made unique sounds that really are great. The music and sound, while it won’t make or break the game, will really add so much to the experience.

Music in TOR

To begin with is the music. Music is so important when it comes to Star Wars. I can remember first popping A New Hope into the VHS–oh yeah, the VHS–and listening as the opening words crawled up the screen with that epic music. Or, how about when we first are introduced to Darth Vader? The Imperial March? All of these different songs had such an impact on the experience and added to what made the movies as amazing as they were.

Fortunately, we can expect to see the exact same, epic type of music in TOR. In their most recent Developer’s Dispatch, BioWare released a bunch of information on what the music is going to be like. The five minute video talked about the composition of music and about what went into making the music.

To begin with, the game is going to have five and a half hours of original music to complement KOTOR music as well as music written by John Williams. In other words, we will hear music that was from the KOTOR games as well as stuff John Williams wrote for the original movies. But, on top of that, five and a half hours of music was recorded just for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

John Williams’ music was included because, as they said in the video, he really created the emotional landscape for the movies. We got attached to what was going on because of the music. When you hear that Cantina Band play, you know it even if you don’t see their funny faces. Williams made that possible and the game wouldn’t be the same without the music.

We can expect to see choral music as well as orchestra music. One of the choral pieces demonstrated has a similar sound to the Duel of the Fates song found in Phantom Menace. I can remember watching Darth Maul fight Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui Gon Jinn with this song in the background. At the same time, there are full, romantic orchestras performing music. There are fifteen first violins and fourteen second violins to just describe the strings. There are so many pieces coming together to make the music.

The overall point of the music is to add to the landscape. If you are walking through Dromund Kaas and suddenly the music changes, you know that something is bound to happen. It helps to add to the suspense of the game and to provide warnings to the game.

Overall, the music really adds to the game and makes the game stand out as a unique experience. When I am fighting against a Sith Warrior as a Jedi Knight, the music will be epic. But, what would the game be without some equally epic sound effects?

Sound in TOR

The developer blog written about sound is in depth and quite enjoyable. It opens with a small quote by George Lucas that really is so true. “Sound is 50 percent of the moviegoing experience, and I’ve always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.” When that lightsaber turns on, we know what it is and it excites us.

The first section was about the voice. As we all know by now, the game is completely fully voiced. That is just awesome. When I talk to a NPC and then talk to a different one, there will be two different voices. In my opinion, that rocks. It takes an “army to do something like this.” And it really does. They need so many different people. While one voice actor might do different roles for the same project, they might change their voice to still make it sound unique. The voice is going to be awesome.

The next section is about aliens. This is so important. We are talking about the unique different voices that are not speaking basic. We are talking about communicating in an entirely different language. We are talking about different species talking in their native language. Without these different languages, the game would sound dry. Why would a Wookie speak in basic? Exactly.

Combat sound is so important. One of the things that is exciting about the sound they are creating is that different weapons will have different sounds. It’s more detail they don’t need but are adding regardless. If I use a pistol, it’ll sound one way. If I use a massive rifle, it will sound an entirely different way. But, it’s also exciting because different lightsabers will make different sounds. This just adds to the experience.

One of the things they do say, though, is that they are not looking to drown the game out with sounds. While you might hear lightning in the background on Dromund Kaas, that doesn’t mean it’s all you’ll hear. It just adds a little to the experience without being overpowering.

In the end, music and sound is so important for the game. Star Wars had great music and the sounds were such a big part of the experience. This game is going to include things that the games had, only this time, it’ll be so much larger than any movie or game could ever be. I am so pumped for this.

What I am finding very interesting about their testing is that they are doing it in phases. Perhaps other games do it the same way, but I think it is really going to be an effective way of doing it. They had this to say:

Game Testing is an on-going process being rolled out in several phases. These phases began with smaller, more focused tests with community members from North America, and later will expand to other territories. Users selected for the test program will be notified via email with more information on accessing the Game Testing Portal. If you’ve not been chosen yet, you may be selected in the next wave!

They are going to start with very small groups and then expand. So, their first step is to find the large bugs that might not have been found in Alpha testing. So, the small groups will go around and when they find that the big alien can’t be destroyed, they’ll note that so BioWare can go in and fix it. But, these small groups won’t stress the servers at all. The rumors posted a few weeks ago suggested this type of system with only around 200 people testing.

As the game testing expands, they’ll begin to find what levels of people start to stress the servers out. With their latest reveal about Monolith-Monitoring for TOR, they will definitely get the information they need during testing to try and alleviate the launch problems that most games are cursed with.

One of the things that I can truly appreciate about BioWare is that they do reveal amazing games. Because of that, I am confident that this testing is really going to do a good thing. And, when the game is released, while there will be problems–there are always problems–I am confident that the game will be less glitchy than many others.

If you get the email asking you to be a tester, that’s fantastic. If you don’t, that’s alright. Rest easy knowing that those that do get the job will do the best they can to make the game you get to experience that much greater. And, if you are chosen to test, please do your job the best way you can. The better you work, the better the game will be for us. And, the harder you work, the sooner we can get the game.

Yes, that’s right…The greatest MMO is going to be at another festival. It seems that instead of focusing on the story of each individual class, what they are instead looking to do is achieve a greater understanding about the story for multiplayer action and the overall story of the galaxy at that time. Here’s what Sean had to say:

Comic-Con International is coming to San Diego, California! Meet up with The Old Republic team at the panel entitled “Beyond Solo: Crafting the Multiplayer Story in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™” on July 23rd from 1:00 to 2:00pm in Room 7AB. Morgan Webb (G4’s X-Play) moderates a discussion with James Ohlen (Studio Creative Director and Lead Designer, BioWare), Drew Karpyshyn (Principal Writer, BioWare), and Alexander Freed (Managing Editor, BioWare) about the creation of the multiplayer, planet-spanning story in Star Wars: The Old Republic. While much attention has been paid to the unique individual stories of each of the eight classes in the game, the team is excited to share their approach to the broader stories players will experience in The Old Republic.

Other things going on at Comic-Con for The Old Republic:

• Blood of the Empire signing by Alexander Freed at the Dark Horse booth
• “Hope” Cinematic Trailer displayed at the Star Wars™ booth

And don’t forget, Friday, July 23rd is Star Wars Day! Arrive dressed as your favorite class or character from The Old Republic to show your support!

Stay tuned for more details!

In my book, this is awesome for so many different reasons. To begin with, they are going to be talking about the overall story. While I am interested in how each class is going to have their own, unique experience, what I am even more interested in is how all of these different stories collide together into one super, mega story. That’s what is most important to me.

Another reason this is so awesome is because they have Drew Karpyshyn. I’m a bit of a fan since I read his Darth Bane books. If you haven’t read them, check them out. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Anyway…He was the lead writer for KOTOR and I know anything he touches is going to have some amazing writing. So, it’s definitely great that he will be on the panel.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that they are going to be signing some Blood of the Empire comics. Dark Horse is an awesome comic book company and all of the comics they create are great. The ones we’re giving away are done by Dark Horse (actually, all Star Wars comics are done by them). So, all in all, that’s awesome. I’d love to get my hands on some signed comics, but I won’t be able to get out there.

All in all, this is going to be a story-driven hour that will really provide insight into the multi-player experience in regard to story. I am looking forward to it and if anyone is going, totally leave a comment. I’d love to get your opinion on it after the show.

What You Will Win

TFAW has agreed to send me two copies of the The Old Republic comic books each month for six months. Two lucky winners will receive one of these two comics every month for six months. So, if you are the winner, every month for six months, you will get a comic mailed to your house courtesy TFAW and TORUniverse.

How Do I Win

Winning is very easy and doesn’t require very much on your part. The contest is a point based system. The more things you do, the more chances you get to win. Here are the steps to win:

1. Subscribe to the TOR Universe newsletter on the right sidebar. This is a requirement because I will be picking–at random–the lucky winner from the people that are subscribed to the newsletter. Everyone who is subscribed gets one chance. You must confirm your subscription in your email to be added.
2. Follow @TORUniverse and @TFAW on Twitter. +1 Point.
3. Copy and tweet this text once: “@TORUniverse and @TFAW are giving away free #SWTOR comics. Click here: http://is.gd/dbOoG” +1 Point
4. Join the TOR Universe Facebook group. +1 point
5. After doing everything above, leave a comment on this article with the email you subscribed to the newsletter with. In the comment, leave a link to your tweet and if you joined the Facebook group of not. This step is mandatory to be entered. NOTE: Your email address will not appear to the public when you comment.

When Does the Contest End

The contest ends on July 9th which is a Friday at 11:59 PM EST. All comments must be in before this time period or they will not be tallied. Over the weekend, I will put together an excel sheet with all of the points people won. Then, I will visit RANDOM.ORG and select two random integers, compare it to the excel sheet to see who won.

If you do win, I will send an email to you requesting your shipping information so that I can send the comics to you. I will post on the site with the winners as well by first name, but won’t publish your emails.

A Few Notes

Please remember that so long as you have an email address and subscribe to the newsletter, you’ve got a chance to win. However, every other step you do–Following on Twitter, Tweeting the text and Following the Facebook group–will give you  more points and chances toward winning the comic books.

Another note: If you are from outside the United States, I will send you the comics in two shipments. So, once every three months, I’ll mail it to you. International shipping can get expensive.

If you are like me and can’t wait for this contest to occur and want to reserve your comics now, head on over to TFAW to purchase them. They are so much cheaper than you’ll find in any comic book store and you’ll get them as soon as they’re released.

Thank you so much TFAW for the chance to give these comic books away to these great readers. If anyone has any questions, please leave a comment. However, I think this is pretty straight forward.

The “Hope” Trailer

While this was, technically, yesterday, I figured I’d group it with today. This trailer was, by the far, better than last year’s trailer. Don’t get me wrong, Deceived was awesome. But, this was just…It was longer and it was just wonderfully done. I liked seeing the Trooper thrown in there. And we get some insight into what the Sith have for weaponry: that robot anyone? It’s definitely looking cool. There were a few parts that were odd for me such as the Trooper charging Darth Malgus, but hey, the trooper is a bad ass. We get that. Take a look at the video yourself and appreciate it.

What do you think? Pretty awesome, right?

Ships

So, we have it confirmed that we will be getting access to ships in the game. Each player will get to fly around the galaxy in their own ship. We will get to customize it so that my ship doesn’t look like yours. And since I can make minor customizations that you might not make, there’s a good chance that we will both truly have completely custom ships. In an interview on Massively, Rich Vogel said that they weren’t going to be talking much about space at E3 because they are working on it now. But, and in his own words, “That’s pretty much where we like to have it because we are actually working right now on some cool stuff for space, and we’d rather talk about it when we get it finalized.” That looks like to me that they are planning some pretty epic things. We’ll just have to wait and see.

PvP

Going hand in hand with the release of the information about ships is the fact that there is going to be some interesting PvP. There is going to be these things known as Battlezones where two factions–obviously the Republic and the Empire–fight each other. PvP isn’t mandatory, but you do get some special gear and things of that nature for participating, so it doesn’t hurt to get involved. But, because you are not forced to do anything, you can probably go the entire game without it. In that interview, Vogel was very quiet about the type of system, but he did say that there would be both open PvP play and instances, so it’s going to be very interested in my opinion. We’ll just have to wait and see.

As I will mentioned in the next section, during an interview, it was alluded to that there could be PvP on ships. He was talking about PvP and then talking about ships, so I did get a bit confused, but if that’s the case, it could mean some interesting features for space flight. Can anyone say boarding party?

G4TV Interview

As I mentioned above, I was a little disappointed with this. I was following someone on Twitter–and watching it for that matter–who was live blogging it. And we both had the same opinion. “Pretty much all information that we already did know.” Now, I can understand that this was necessary for the sake of new people wanting to get involved. But, for avid followers like me and other site owners–and you guys who read these sites–it wasn’t all that amazing. But, while I sat there with my notepad in hand, I was able to jot down a couple of notes that really were important in my opinion.

The big line that stood out for me when Dallas Dickinson was talking was when he said, “We have announced eight classes thus far.” Now, I don’t know about you, but unless eight is all that I have planned to release, thus far suggests there might be more. Is this a guarantee? Of course not. But, it just seems odd that he would even suggest throwing “thus far” in there unless he was making an uber-quiet hint. Does anyone have any opinion on this? Could BioWare be working on more classes? With space now mentioned, could a class be “captain” and your entire life be in space? That would be interesting.

The other thing that I liked was his explanation as to how a smuggler could beat a Sith. There are lots of Sith out there. And since there isn’t one TOP Sith other than the Emperor, there could be stronger ones. But in this game, you are the BEST smuggler since there aren’t many. So, it’s possible for you to beat a Sith. But, at the same time, he did say that rock does sometimes beat scissors when talking about a Sith vs. a Smuggler. Head on, the smuggler will lose. With tactics, though, the smuggler should win.

With a little other discussion about the Inquisitor–with some interesting game play that looks awesome–we got some bits and pieces of information that we already knew. The starting planets are supposed to be like boot camps. Epic game play that teaches you the history of your class and how to play the game. A tutorial without boring you to death.

For those that watched it, were you impressed with this interview or was it just meh for you as well?

Actual Game Play

Because I am not at E3, I can’t say that I had the pleasure of playing the game. However, the people over at Darth Hater were able to play and they have created an exceptional check list of the different aspects of game play. I won’t go into it because there’s is awesome, but it looks as if this game is going to be somewhat similar to WoW’s platform, only much better and more polished. That’s to be expected, though, because BioWare makes amazing games. The one thing that seemed different was the loot. Instead of a roll of the dice, everything is just divvied up and that’s that. It’s definitely interesting. But anyway, check out their check list and when I can get my hands on some game play, I’ll post my own review.

Some Extra Videos

What would a post be without a bunch of extra videos? I thought I’d post the videos that TheGalacticStruggle.com put together. They’re just some videos of the different classes–except for the Jedi Knight and Consular of course–in action. I know I loved checking them out, so I am sure you’ll love them too.

Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent in Combat

Sith Warrior and Inquisitor Quest

Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent in Combat

Bounty Hunter Armor Progression

So, what do you think? Good stuff? Bored yet? I didn’t think so. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think of all the information thus far. Also, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter on the right sidebar to get up to the minute email updates. When we’ve got news, we’ll get it to you immediately. If email isn’t your thing, check out our RSS feed. Using whatever feed you want, get updates right to your reader. And as always, feel free to follow us on Twitter.

We learned a lot of great things, but that was last year. A lot has changed in one year. Specifically, the release date for TOR has been narrowed down. Because we now know that the release date is targeted for Spring of 2011, this could be the last E3 that TOR gets to have. While the game might not come out then and they might have another E3, since the target is Spring, we can imagine that this will be their big display of what the game has to offer. Therefore, we can expect to see some great footage of the game. However, there will also be things that, despite people’s hopes, will not be seen.

What to Expect at E3

To begin with, we know that there will be a trailer. Chances are, that trailer will appear later today–specifically around 7:00 PM EST–because of that timer on the SWTOR.com homepage. The reason we can conclude this–and it’s not confirmed, but it’s pretty obvious I’d say–is because of the logo. That logo is of Havoc Squad, the confirmed squad that all of the trooper class starts out in. Since this trailer shows some hefty trooper action, we can hopefully connect the dots that the trailer is today. If not, and I’m wrong, then we’re going to get something else today at 7:00 PM. Regardless, what we will see in this trailer is how Darth Malgus got his mask. We’ll see troopers in action. As you remember from last year’s Deceived trailer, Blur makes an amazing trailer.

We can expect to see extended game play footage. While they’ve shown some footage in the past, now that the game has been in development for so many years, they’re bound to have a lot of available footage to show what the game is going to be like. Chances are, they’ll allow people to play the game for some time to get used to the controls. It wouldn’t surprise me if they set up a series of computers so that multiple people could try it.

Some of the game play footage that we can expect to see is how the companions interact with the player. More importantly, we can expect to see how the different classes fight each other. I know how a Jedi vs. a Sith will fight. But, how will a smuggler fight against a Sith Warrior? We can expect to see a lot of that type of footage. Some are even suggesting that they might show footage of all eight classes grouped together fighting each other. That’ll prove to be rather interesting, I’d say.

Races will finally be explained. They’ve been slipping out bits and pieces of information about different races in the game. We know that there will be Chiss. We know there will be Twi’lek. We know these things. Chances are, BioWare will explain their rationale for the races that they’ve chosen and, more importantly, what future races will be there. No, you will not be allowed to play as a Wookiee. George Lucas has already made it clear that no Wookiee will ever be a Jedi, so that erases the chances of playing as one. But, there will be races.

Going hand in hand with game play footage, one of the things we might see is some of what the PvP will look like. While it’s not a guarantee, many people are dying to understand the PvP of the game. Therefore, we might see some footage and game play of what PvP might look like. This, though, I can’t say for certain. It’d be nice, but it might not make it in there.

Travel, though, does have a possibility of appearing at E3. In a Gamespot exclusive, a particular quote stands out. Gamespot had the privilige of playing some pre-E3 game play. The quote suggests firmly that there will be space travel in The Old Republic.

This one was a Han Solo-like ship captain who lands her Millennium Falcon-esque ship on Ord Mantell to drop off a weapon shipment to the Republic fort. Gamespot.

Because this is actual game play footage, I feel that this firmly backs up the idea that there will be space travel. And it makes sense. This is Star Wars! Hello!

What Not to Expect at E3

Unfortunately, there are going to be things that we’re unable to get access to at E3. And, while many people will really want to know about it, it’s just not likely to pop up. While it would be cool if I was wrong, there’s little reason for them to reveal this information.

To begin with, there will be no discussion of beta other than a “we’re hoping to have a beta around fall” in some passing interview. There’s never been a “Beta Announcement” before at E3; at least, not to my knowledge. And there’s no reason to. BioWare is going to get a whole bunch of new people to their site. They only want those that are actually committed to do beta. Therefore, when they do announce a beta, it’s going to be to the community, not to the entire world. I’ve been a member on the SWTOR forum since December of 2008. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask me to do a beta than some random person? I’ve been invested in the game for a while. While I might not get picked personally, that’s a pretty simple to understand mentality to have.

Another thing we might not see is end of game content. While they have a good idea of what’s going to happen, I just don’t think it’s done. With a year to go before the game comes out and E3 here now, chances are they worked hard on middle of the game content and beginning of the game content. They get all of that out of the way now so they can focus on the end of the game content leading up to beta. So, as much as people want to know what’s going to happen at the end of the game or after, I don’t see that being revealed just yet.

Finally, don’t expect to find out what type of payment system they’re going to have. While I’ve heard whispers of micro-transactions, that’s not likely. Regardless, that’ll probably be a press release at some point in the future or at a separate EA conference. I can’t imagine BioWare or EA taking the time to talk about the payment structure, especially with the game still so far away.

In the end, there is a lot to expect at E3 and a lot that probably won’t make it. This list isn’t extensive and it might not even be true. But, I can see no reason why the things not to expect would pop up. If I’m wrong, that’s cool. But, with so many things more important, we can anticipate a great E3 and some awesome Star Wars: The Old Republic news.

Stay tuned to TORUniverse.com as we update as news come out from E3. Subscribe to our newsletter on the right sidebar to get emails sent to you when there is something new. Consider following us on Twitter. And as always, please feel free to chime in with an opinion right in our comments.

Jedi and Sith

To start with, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what appears to be some incredible things planned for the Jedi and the Sith. To begin with, the lightsabers. They look a heck of a lot better than they did when BioWare began releasing their art and images of what the lightsabers looked like. When looking at the video, take a quick look at them. They don’t look bulky. They don’t look cartoonish. They look…A lot more real than they used to.

Now onto the actual fighting. The one thing that really looks good is how smooth things are. You could be deflecting lasers and in a movement as smooth as a real Jedi or Sith might do it, you’ll do a force push, sending the enemy flying back. It appears as if there is no hesitation. You’re really there it feels like.

While talking about the deflecting lasers, you have to really appreciate what they’ve done here. One of the things I remember was so cool about Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the video game, was how real the Jedi felt. They were really deflecting; they were really doing force pushes. The same can be said about the Force Unleashed. You were a legitimately bad ass force user who was able to do so much. Apparently, BioWare has taken that and really worked with it because the scene in the documentary where the two Jedi Consulars are walking toward their enemies while deflecting laser bolts is just awesome.

Lightsaber on lightsaber combat is what is really looking cool. At first, I was skeptical of the whole MMO because since the game is so large, they can’t make it look that great. But, as one of the developers of the game said, there is lightsaber choreography. They’ve taken actual people, made them do different combat moves and then the animators went in and made that into the game. In other words, it’s not going to be chop, chop, chop and that’s it. There are going to be a huge slew of different attacks that really look awesome.

Finally, for those that love the Sith, appreciate the force lightning. They’ve made it look really cool. It’s bigger than what we remember from the Star Wars movies, but it looks really awesome and is going to be an incredible tool to use when wanting to get rid of multiple enemies.

Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, Agent and Troopers

The thing that really looks great for these guys is how diverse they are. Yeah, the bounty hunter and the trooper are both that heavy class that is supposed to balance each other out, but they are still so different. The trooper is hardcore the run in and blow everything up guy. The bounty hunter is more of a jack of all trades in regard to the different weaponry. But, what can be seen from the video is that they both rely heavily on…well…heavy weapons. Rockets, heavy guns and grenades are all great. They are so great actually that you can use a sticky grenade.

What is revealed in this video for these four roles are the many different types of weapons there are. You can hide behind a shield and then rise up and start shooting at your enemies. Or, you can charge up your rifle and then send a large blast at the enemy. Want to pull the enemy toward you? Go ahead. Want to freeze them? Go ahead. In other words, there are a ton of different ways that you can really fight in this game and I think that was the big thing BioWare was going for. They have this great story, but how do they make game play awesome? This seems like how they’ve done just that.

Repetition

As I’ve said already, one of the big problems with combat in a lot of MMOs is that it becomes button mashing. Okay, now I’ll hit 2. Then 3. Let’s go back to 2. They’ve decided to get away from the “step and repeat type of combat” as one of their animators explained. It’s more than just attack, attack, attack. There is actually more to it.

For me, this is a big thing. I don’t want to sit there and just keeping hit 2 because that’s my favorite attack. I want the attacks to be a multitude of ones where I can really mix and match. I want to be able to make decisions that will affect me when playing because if I make a wrong attack, I might lose. I want it to be tough and repetition takes away from that. According to what the BioWare developers are saying, that’s not going to be something to worry about.

Combat in Conclusion

I know that this was a shorter feature than most others have been, but I can’t do as much credit as the video. In the end, the single most important thing that I got from this documentary is that all classes are equals. As they said, it won’t just be Jedi fighting Sith. A trooper might very well beat the crap out of a Sith. An agent might really beat a Jedi. It all depends on the different attacks and, more importantly, how each player plays the game.

In the end, the only way to really appreciate and gauge how the combat is going to be is to play the game. When the game is released, I am sure people are going to hate it, but I am sure many are going to love the combat. BioWare really is a great game developer and I have a feeling this game is going to be amazing.