newsfeed: 20 minutes of gameplay footage at IGN

[adamqd]

Quality of VO is of little consequence to me, as the fact that it is an MMO means the Character voice and set lines they give me are irrelevant to the character I create. I will be interacting with real people as myself... not Tom Kane as Sith Voice/Male Human_03.

 

The only things that caught my eye as bad, were the Running animation, the Lightsaber blade, the lightsaber clash animation and the fact that I have size 19 feet and a 15 inch waist lol.

[Hallucination]

Well, my expectations took a bit of a hit there. Why is Bioware even still trying to show videos from E3? Who decided that moving your upper body whilst running was a bad idea?

How do people judge the Voice Over as bad i'm seeing alot of people saying this whats so bad about it reason people please?

The writing sounds like something out of a high school creative writing class and the acting is about one level above that of Microsoft Sam.

[Fredi]

Niceeeee! look's good for me.

[Lord of Hunger]

The writing sounds like something out of a high school creative writing class and the acting is about one level above that of Microsoft Sam.

By what standard? What exactly are you expecting? How would you do it?

[jrrtoken]

By what standard? What exactly are you expecting? How would you do it?

I'd put some thought into the writing, for one, and make dialogue sound like a natural conversation, warts and all. As far as the more "dark-side" parts go, I'd add more exposition and pathos coming from Sith; it makes them seem more sociopathic and deranged, almost like quirky serial killers.

 

KotOR II is a fairly good example of decent writing, and it's set in-universe, so if anything, BioWare should follow that example. Still, the stating of the obvious with "The captain's dead!" isn't exactly a good notion of better quality, especially when it seems to parallel a schlocky B-movie:

 

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[Hallucination]

By what standard?

High school ones.

What exactly are you expecting?

Good writing.

How would you do it?

Well.

 

On a more serious note, I just feel that the actors were expressing themselves like they had a monologue (i.e. the universe freezes and everyone is listening) for one sentence, plus they can't yell properly (how were the captain and lieutenant heard on a bridge that big?). On top of that the writing wasn't up to the 'I-want-to-go-out-and-spend-money-on-that-game' level.

 

Edit: Also they totally timed it to crash Blizzcon and failed miserably, which is a bit of a low thing to do. Now I don't think I'd mind if Blizzard crashed TOR's release like they did with WAR.

[DAWUSS]

The gameplay looks like a cross between SWG's NGE and KOTOR

[RogueJedi86]

The gameplay looks like a cross between SWG's NGE and KOTOR

 

Doesn't that mean it basically looks like Mass Effect's gameplay then? Mass Effect's combat is a mix of KotOR's and a shooter(like the NGE).

[Kado Sunrider]

Well, I for one, was impressed. Too the people who are complaining. This is an MMO. You should NOT (and I repeat NOT) be comparing this in any way to K1, K2, or Mass Effect, or whatever else you can conjure up to make this seem like a pitiful attempt at an MMO. Have any of you even played an MMO before? This is WAY above and beyond current MMO standards. When was the last time you heard an NPC in an MMO actually talk to you instead of having you read a paragraph? Seriously, I don't want to seem like this is the most amazing game ever, but its not as bad as you make it out to be, AND its still in development, so there!

[RogueJedi86]

Well I always compare to Mass Effect as a good thing, a way to successfully blend RPG and Shooter gameplay. MMOs have to be partially RPG just by the nature of the character skill system, so finding a way to blend other genres in only helps to make the game more variable.

 

And I hear EQ2 was fully voiced, but I guess not since TOR is boasting as being the first fully voiced MMO. If you check IMDB, EQ2's cast is HUGE, with pretty much every VA in the industry voicing multiple characters. If it wasn't even fully voiced and had that much VA work, TOR's cast will probably take an hour to read in the credits.

 

I'd love for BioWare to spill some of the VA names. Some of them are obvious(like Steve Blum as the player character Bounty Hunter in the various videos), but I'd love for them to confirm the actors. It's not like it breaks some game NDA with elite secret info just by saying X-actor/actress voices the male/female of X-class.

[Hallucination]

You should NOT (and I repeat NOT) be comparing this in any way to K1, K2, or Mass Effect, or whatever else you can conjure up to make this seem like a pitiful attempt at an MMO.

That's what Bioware seems to want us to do.

[jrrtoken]

This is an MMO. You should NOT (and I repeat NOT) be comparing this in any way to K1, K2, or Mass Effect, or whatever else you can conjure up to make this seem like a pitiful attempt at an MMO.

BioWare is treating this as an MMO with single-player elements; as such, when the elements in question are half-baked, at best, then there is merit in criticizing TOR, to an extent.

Have any of you even played an MMO before?

If a very brief dabbling in Guild Wars counts, then, yes, I have.

This is WAY above and beyond current MMO standards.

To be honest, if TOR is considered a new bastion of gameplay in MMOs, then it truly shows what a horrible excuse for gameplay that are MMOs. I mean, I felt that most of quests that we shown in the demo were quite banal; if this is considered a godsend, then obviously most other MMOs are incredibly abysmal.

When was the last time you heard an NPC in an MMO actually talk to you instead of having you read a paragraph?

To be frank, I doubt that most MMO players even have the patience to read a brief paragraph of text; do you really think that they'll bother with a few seconds of prerecorded audio?

Seriously, I don't want to seem like this is the most amazing game ever, but its not as bad as you make it out to be, AND its still in development, so there!

TOR has been in-development for... what, three and a half years now? I would've expected a lot more given that BioWare had the funds to open a brand new studio to simply work on this game alone; there are companies that are able to create complex CRPGs in less than half that time, and with a skeleton crew, to boot.

[Mandalore_]

I tust in Bioware that they will releasy a high quality star wars MMORPG, there is still alot of improvement, and I dont think it is wise to judge a game from a 20min preview.

[darthfergie]

Good lord people. Jumping off the bandwagon because of a demo that was clearly mocked up for E3 to demonstrate the game in motion and to illustrate that "hey people talk." You arn't seeing any real story lines, you arn't involved in the quest or past quests that were used to get you there. You have no context to criticize it in this huge storyline that everyone is in. You saw one small part of a multipart quest that was blitzed by higher level characters who barely took any damage.

 

That said, I enjoyed the footage. It really made me excited to see it in motion and to see how the various classes work. After coming from playing WoW the graphics are a huge relief, you may say it looks weird, by now though I'm really starting to get used to it and I kinda like it.

 

The combat was interesting. It was a good to see the special moves. As for not being able to follow the moves very well of the sith. I think once you get behind the controls of one you'll have no trouble as the special moves will all start to become distinctive. I loved the all out blitz that the Sith Warrior seems to be able to do. It'll get him in trouble though charging through too many mobs too quickly.

 

I want to know how it benefits the BH to do the "Death From Above" attack over his normal attacks though. I mean is it just a concentrated attack of blasterfire and rockets all at once or does it prevent him from getting hit while in the air?

 

Anyways, I'm getting stoked for this game. As long as one of the classes announced ISN'T creature handler, I'm in.

[Insignia_Enithma]

I was overall impressed what really bugged me is how little damage a character takes,especially against the Jedi Knight :/

[Jeff]

I was overall impressed what really bugged me is how little damage a character takes,especially against the Jedi Knight :/

I am guessing that was fixed for the demo, none of the characters they showed through the demo took hardly any damage and I am guessing you'll have to be a bit more careful in the actual game.

[darthfergie]

I am guessing that was fixed for the demo, none of the characters they showed through the demo took hardly any damage and I am guessing you'll have to be a bit more careful in the actual game.

 

I'm sure. The dev mentions the Death from Above move being a higher level BH move. They basically did the equivalent of my lvl 80 taking on a lvl 60 quest in WoW for demo purposes because even the boss Jedi Knight barely touched his HP.

[RogueJedi86]

I assume they just turned on God Mode. Game developers love to do that for Game Convention demos. Why use a high level character when you can just turn on god mode that makes your health and damage 1 billion?

[Hallucination]

Good lord people. Jumping off the bandwagon because of a demo that was clearly mocked up for E3

And released for GamesCon. They could have released it after E3, but then they'd have to either pass on GC or (heaven forbid) make a new video/announcement.

 

You arn't seeing any real story lines, you arn't involved in the quest or past quests that were used to get you there. You have no context to criticize it in this huge storyline that everyone is in.

They showed what they called the first bounty hunter quest, and we don't know whether or not the Sith flashpoint will show up in-game.

 

After coming from playing WoW the graphics are a huge relief, you may say it looks weird, by now though I'm really starting to get used to it and I kinda like it.

I like cartoon-ish graphics, but I like models who don't have broomsticks for spinal cords more.

 

As long as one of the classes announced ISN'T creature handler, I'm in.

IIRC Bioware wants no one pet class, instead everyone gets a companion.

[Kado Sunrider]

To be honest, if TOR is considered a new bastion of gameplay in MMOs, then it truly shows what a horrible excuse for gameplay that are MMOs. I mean, I felt that most of quests that we shown in the demo were quite banal; if this is considered a godsend, then obviously most other MMOs are incredibly abysmal.

 

Actually, most MMO's are abysmal, to use your word, compared to a standard SPRPG. In fact, if MMOs were single-player, they would be so abysmal that it would make games like pong feel like an epic adventure. What makes an MMO so great is the community, and the escapism effect you can have while still communicating with other people. Its kind of like the most basic form of alternate reality in a way.

 

Anyways, rant over. Im looking forward to this game, and Im hoping to see a couple things change (lightsabers and weapon size, running animations, etc.) but other than that it looks pretty solid for an Alpha-stage MMO.

[Sith'ari Darth Bane]

Just checked out the videos, very cool!

[WraithPrince]

They did say they were high level, but they probably made the characters have uber health in the demo so they wouldn't die even if the guy playing sucked.