The Old Republic has a free trial going on now. Capped at level 15, and only good from now until Sunday, but at least it's something other than the absolute nothing they've done demo-wise before now.

www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/weekendpass

i am going to check it out, dl now,.gonna take another 8 hours...  24 GB download

Installed and played for about three hours...suprisingly good,

they handled some difficult problems of how to allow multitudes to play single player storeis AND do social gaimng...you trigger your own main plot events with key figures who are there ...and cinimatics advance your story....it is well donea nd the graphics on medium seting are remarkable...i plan to play thru the weekend...and i may sign up..we will see

the opening cinematics were superb, movie quality and very exciting...

My early impressions are similiar. I wasn't sure how well the game would run on my lower end graphics card, but it does extremely well on the default settings, and looks surprisingly good at that. I too was struck by the cinematic nature of the game (I was blown away by the opening movie) but also in how conversations with major NPC's involve fully voiced cut scenes, a very nice touch.

uhoh 

I should ignore this topic, I don't want to hear how good it is, first of all i'm still a little bit pissed of at bioware and EA for ME, so giving them money would be a bad signal.

And secondly i don't want to have a second disaster like Star Trek Online. Also a sci-fi MMORPG which I loved a lot, but a few months after I bought an expensive lifetime subscription, the game became free to play. The stuff they're offering for lifetime subscribers are things that don't interest me as a casual gamer. 

So I'll defenitely wait a few years, because every MMORPG seem to become free to play after a while.

Originally Posted By markornikov (17 MAR 2012 4:35am)

uhoh 

 

I should ignore this topic, I don't want to hear how good it is, first of all i'm still a little bit pissed of at bioware and EA for ME, so giving them money would be a bad signal.

And secondly i don't want to have a second disaster like Star Trek Online. Also a sci-fi MMORPG which I loved a lot, but a few months after I bought an expensive lifetime subscription, the game became free to play. The stuff they're offering for lifetime subscribers are things that don't interest me as a casual gamer. 

 

So I'll defenitely wait a few years, because every MMORPG seem to become free to play after a while.

Oh, it's amazing! You don't know what you're missing! It's everything that was fun about Knights of the Old Republic, but bigger! (OK, I'll stop.)

I'm torn about this game as well, it looks like something I'd love to play regularly, but right now I'm tied up in Lord of the Rings and couldn't dream of taking on another MMORPG right now. And I find the current monthly subscription model unacceptable -- I want a model similiar to LOTRO which lets me more or less pay for portions of the game as I advance.

I am enjoying it a lot..or was...unti I hit the Forsaken Den and that one level 10 Bladeweilder who can use Force.

I just cant get him. any tips on that?  I am at level 7 and may have to just keep grinding the fleshhunters in the first area until i can level up to Level 9 or so...i am really tired of trying again and again for no hope

they did a realy good job on the game but i am NOT a great fighter and this is a definite dead end with a boss that is too strong this early in the game....

any advice?

Originally Posted By Andromus (17 MAR 2012 1:28pm)

 

Oh, it's amazing! You don't know what you're missing! It's everything that was fun about Knights of the Old Republic, but bigger! (OK, I'll stop.)

 

I'm torn about this game as well, it looks like something I'd love to play regularly, but right now I'm tied up in Lord of the Rings and couldn't dream of taking on another MMORPG right now. And I find the current monthly subscription model unacceptable -- I want a model similiar to LOTRO which lets me more or less pay for portions of the game as I advance. 

Good thing i never played KOTOR then, otherwise i would get tempted to try out the demo 

I guess they will change their subscription scheme after a while, they would attract a lot more subscribers if they were a bit cheaper. And why do we even have to pay for extra account security?!

Originally Posted By CrisGer (17 MAR 2012 11:51pm)

I am enjoying it a lot..or was...unti I hit the Forsaken Den and that one level 10 Bladeweilder who can use Force.

 

I just cant get him. any tips on that?  I am at level 7 and may have to just keep grinding the fleshhunters in the first area until i can level up to Level 9 or so...i am really tired of trying again and again for no hope

 

they did a realy good job on the game but i am NOT a great fighter and this is a definite dead end with a boss that is too strong this early in the game....

 

any advice?

Yeah, your level is probably a little low for that point -- you should be level 9 or 10 for that part, I think. You shouldn't have to grind much if at all -- there should be some more side quests popping up as you go.

When I played at release I never had to "grind" on a mob. You get faaaaar more exp doing quests then killing things.

You should have plenty of quests to get you to lv 10 without having to grind. Did you explore at every drop off location ? (IE where hte vehicles drop you off). There are numerous quests at most each of them and the generical storyline leads you to each area.

i am going to do that aftter another break..i had a couple of quests on hold from the village and there were two more i could do....so i will try that, i am tired of harveting Fleshmonsters and kiling the least fun part of the game for me..i just hope to see more of the universe....

thanks....

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2012 3:49am)

 

Good thing i never played KOTOR then, otherwise i would get tempted to try out the demo 

 

Never played KOTOR?    If you have any interest in RPG's or even just Star Wars, I'd say it's a game you should definitely play.

Originally Posted By Andromus (18 MAR 2012 1:06pm)

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2012 3:49am)

 

Good thing i never played KOTOR then, otherwise i would get tempted to try out the demo 

 

 

Never played KOTOR?    If you have any interest in RPG's or even just Star Wars, I'd say it's a game you should definitely play.

 

Yeah i know, shame on me 

It's on my 'to buy' list since quite some time, but my backlog is already huge so...

Because Oblivion was the first RPG i had played, i missed out on a lot of good RPG's that came before.

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2012 6:50pm)

 

Yeah i know, shame on me 

It's on my 'to buy' list since quite some time, but my backlog is already huge so...

Because Oblivion was the first RPG i had played, i missed out on a lot of good RPG's that came before.

 

Well, I have to admit my situation was similar. I didn't really start playing RPG's for the PC until a few years ago. So I'm still catching up to some extent too. I have yet to play Oblivion, actually.

As a long time player and student of the SW series, and having modded and worked to support major mod projects on both KoTOR games, this is fantastic, what shoudl and could have been all along, finally a game that lives up to the story and the potential of the MMORPG medium. It is simply amazing.

I am signing up and getting the Collectors edition, and will look forward to a long and intereseting number of play thrus....a truly amazing game, worth of Biowar and the publisher and everyone connected to it. I have had aquaintences working on it for years now, and I can see why they were so excited about it and why the management was do dedicated to doing the very best possible, from both Bioware and LucasArts...everyone  stepped up and the game sure shows. it. 

all I can say in conclusion is WOW>  

I am going to write up a FAQ Beginners Guide for this game, as there were a lot of things that were not explained that were neccessary to know ....the in game help was NO help at all just about, did not have basic things covered...and there was no starting guide available and I had to spend a lot of time learning things that were needed to operate the game.

But...it was worth it. and i want to make it easier for others to enjoy it.

Once I am subscribing, there are options to invite people to play for free, three at a time, for specific times of three days each, and I will be happy to invite fellow forum members if you are interested in seeing it in action. I will include the info on that too when i get the Start Guide written up with pictures and explanations of the GUI.

Originally Posted By CrisGer (19 MAR 2012 2:25pm)

I am going to write up a FAQ Beginners Guide for this game, as there were a lot of things that were not explained that were neccessary to know ....the in game help was NO help at all just about, did not have basic things covered...and there was no starting guide available and I had to spend a lot of time learning things that were needed to operate the game.

 

But...it was worth it. and i want to make it easier for others to enjoy it.

 

Ah, then it wasn't just me. I found the game help, whether in game or on the official site almost useless, too.

Yes it is i am going to write up everything i can and then give it to them to try to get them to uppdate the support.....

i am sure many people are very confused by basics...and they need to give more info on that.

I'd love to try this out, but there's just no way my stupid bandwidth would cope...   

Trav you might do better than you think if you are at all interested in trying it i will be happy to send you a free pass to one of the trials we can invitie friends to and help you in the game if you want to try..once i get signed up and on with the game myself.

Originally Posted By CrisGer (22 MAR 2012 7:01pm)

 

 

 

Trav you might do better than you think if you are at all interested in trying it i will be happy to send you a free pass to one of the trials we can invitie friends to and help you in the game if you want to try..once i get signed up and on with the game myself.

 

 

That's very sweet of you, Chris, but , I meant that my monthly bandwidth quota is extremely limited, and for instance just the download alone would eat too much out of it, sadly.  I hope this will improve soon, but in the meantime, I'm a bit hamstrung.   

ok keep me posted and try to get a better monthly scheme...

if you enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic I that Bioware did, this is even better imagine that quality but made universe wide, for many planets and for instance the space terminals are FULL size, identical to a modern airport in floor plan and scale but with typical star wars universe scale overall, immense....all of it is really well done with no cutting of corners in quality and they plan to run it for years online and to add new content often, there is a huge addition to the game being made already in April, and each update adds new features and expands old ones and you can play single player OR multiplayer and the multiplayer have what they call Flas Events that are new plot events in the story line...

so it is quite remarkable and I am quite excited about it....

the collectors Box Edition of SWTOR has arrived..now i just have to figure out how to open the box.....

that case on the table in front of it is a standard sized game case so you get an idea of the size of this monster, weights about 8 lbs.

Wow!  That really looks impressive Chris!  So tell - what's in the box?

I havent opened it yet... i promised myself i wouild finsih two paintings i must do first...but i heard there is an art book, custom digtial assets including a customized speeder only collectors get, custom weapons, a month free play time, the game disks, and other goodies....

as it is a historic and likey very popular game  i decided to grab one of these while they were available, they had 1 million people sign up in the first month making it the most popular MMO ever....

i have to start over because there are 15 servers and the one that has the official guild from the Lucas Forums that I plan to play with is on a differnt server from what i did for the trail but it will be good practice and I can do a detaild and illustred beginners guide at the same time as the in game help is very limited.

i will report on the contents soon.