It's where both Luke and Anakin Skywalker got their starts, and where an unfortunate incident with some Sand People set the latter off on a path that would eventually have him sounding suspiciously like James Earl Jones. Back in the Old Republic timeline, Tatooine is even wilder and more desolate than it was in the movies. The Republic uses the former Czerka Corporation outpost at Anchorhead as a pit stop, while Imperial forces have garrisoned a regiment in Mos Ila, using the Jawa-restored spaceport there as a base of operations as they seek the ruins of Czerka's weapon labs.

Between the two? A terrible secret. Insert dramatic incidental music here.

Check out Tatooine's Holonet page at Star Wars: The Old Republic for more on the planet where love and just about everything else is like sand.

Fans following the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic are probably already familiar with Threat of Peace, the weekly web-comic written by BioWare's Rob Chestney and drawn by Alex Sanchez. Dark Horse Comics will be publishing the first portion of the series as a 96-page trade paperback in April. Dark Horse also delves into the Old Republic universe on a monthly basis with its Knights of the Old Republic comic series, in publication since 2006.

Fans of words without pictures are in for a treat as well. In July, Del Rey Books will be publishing Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, a hardcover novel by bestselling author Sean Williams, and there's another book already in the early planning stages from Paul Kemp. know for his work on the Forgotten Realms series of AD&D novels.

That's two novels. The Old Republic's script alone has enough text for forty. Looks like someone has a lot of writing to do to catch up!

The Expanded Universe of The Old Republic [Star Wars: The Old Republic]

I get that they're supposed to be a more badass version of a Sith Warrior with different ranged abilities. But if that's the case, wouldn't all players playing as Sith Warriors graduate to Inquisitors after playing long enough? Jedi Consular — the other new class revealed — confuses me less. "Consular" sounds like a political position; one you'd have to train for specifically as opposed to a rank you achieve over time.

So I guess I'll be playing on the Jedi faction simply to avoid asking myself uncomfortable questions.

What Is It?
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a massively multiplayer online game set way, way back in the ancient history of the galaxy far, far away. The Sith and the Jedi are rival factions and apparently things are getting explosive between the two. Enough so that players who choose to play on one faction side or the other will have plenty to shoot at, lightsaber cut or otherwise inconvenience on various planets in the Star Wars universe.

The classes are Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor, Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior, Smuggler/Bounty Hunter, Trooper/Imperial Agent. Companion characters will figure heavily into gameplay, as will storytelling (come on, it's BioWare). Space travel has yet to be revealed or discussed.

What We Saw
I played through about 95% of a quest we'll call "The Tomb of Tulac Horde" because I'm not sure what its official name is, but that just about sums it up. I was in the role of a Sith Inquisitor acolyte with a nice rack and red hair — and I was role playing her with an attitude problem that somehow didn't get her Force-choked even once during the play through. The quest involves going into a tomb to collect three tablets and returning to your Sith master. Additionally, you could accept a quest to activate something in the tomb called the Red Machine for some other dude standing outside the tomb. Also, you could talk to and accept another quest involving mind-raping a Jedi being held in a Sith dungeon, but I was told by a LucasArts representative not to pursue that quest.

How Far Along Is It?
It's hard to say with so limited an experience. Furthermore, no release date has been suggested and while names have been collected for the closed beta, there's no word on how that's progressing. I think I was playing on a very unfinished product on account of some missing text, the fact that I wasn't allowed to explore very much and the part where I was playing an MMO strangely devoid of other players.

What Needs Improvement?
I can't tell the difference between Sith Warrior and Inquistor: Just looking at the list of powers suggests that the class difference between Warrior and Inquisitor is supposed to exist. But while playing my big jugged female character, I just didn't feel any different from a Sith. I shocked people, I drained life force, I cut ‘em up with lightsabers. How is this different whether I'm a Warrior or Inquisitor?

Wow, is the whole galaxy a size D or just the Sith chicks? I'm not as annoyed as I am bemused by the boobs I saw in Old Republic. I almost missed half of what my acolyte was saying during the opening quest cinematic because I was watching her bosom stay oddly stationary while the rest of her body would shift when she sighed in boredom at her boss. Then, I practically ran into the bosom of another Sith female just trying to walk out the door. Finally, the Sith who assigned me the Jedi mind-rape quest I wasn't permitted to explore must've been using the Dark Side to keep her rack from sagging. Seriously, they took up one third of the screen in some camera angles during her quest-assignment cinematic.

What Should Stay The Same?
Excellent Voice Work: This is where BioWare really feels different than other MMOs to me. Every character I talked to had a different voice and sounded like they could actually act. It definitely speaks to the quality of the product LucasArts is encouraging BioWare to produce.

Good Use of Camera Angles: During cinema scenes, the camera would cut angles – much like they do in Mass Effect cut scenes. It kept things interesting and gave me more opportunities to look at things other than my character's chest. Also, they didn't over-use it, which is crucial to its success as a storytelling tool.

Hey, It's A Star Wars MMO: The quest involved navigating a series of rooms around an open space. The enemies were all slime-filled worms, reprogrammed droids or escaped Sith slaves. There was also a larger worm near the Red Machine — but it died just as quickly with a quick life drain followed by a lightsaber ground pound. Overall, the experience felt exactly like I'd expect an MMO to feel. The controls worked exactly like you'd expect them to (WASD to move, M for map, numbers or clicking for attacks, etc.), the menu system was familiar and it wasn't hard to master the combat once you got used to lightsaber fighting. Old hats of MMOs will have zero trouble adjusting and the rest of us will overcome the learning trauma for the sheer joy of swinging a lightsaber around.

Final Thoughts
I'm happy I got to see the game, but I'm sad that it was such a limited experience that basically amounts to your average fetch quest in any other MMO (only with more story behind it and higher production values). Also, I would've really liked to see that Jedi mind-rape quest because that sounded like it would yield more of the BioWare dialogue I'm addicted to.

But, from what little I saw, I can say that it's coming along. And no matter how many times I see that E3 trailer, it still looks badass. They actually let us re-watch it in LucasArts' super-huge theater with surround sound. LucasArts Old Republic Producer Jake Neri actually cautioned me when I headed for the third row back from the screen, "Don't sit there, you'll throw up." It was awesome.

The planet of Alderaan wasn't always a smoldering cloud of debris. No, back in the day it was a lovely, peaceful planet - perhaps the closest thing in the galaxy to a Utopian society. Then the Great War occurred, and the Sith tried to invade, and while the Republic handed the Empire their asses, the face of Alderaan changed forever. The peaceful rulers began to support talk of war; the crown prince was assassinated for storming out of the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant; and now everything is up in the air.

It looks like Alderaan will be a contested planet in the massively multiplayer online game, with players on both sides fighting against each other for a planet that will one day be used as Death Star target practice.

Holonet - Alderaan [Star Wars: The Old Republic]

Well that's certainly a novel way to make sure you don't have a huge overpopulation of Jedi Knights and Sith Warriors. The Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor are both force-active classes, one fulfilling a support role while the other seems to be more of a DPS class. Note that all of the information here comes from a translation of a scan of the PC Games article from The Old Republic forum member Petrosis.

According to said translation, the Jedi consular can be geared towards a healing or damage role, depending on how useful the player feels like being.

The article calls the Sith Inquisitor a second line fighter, and from looking at its powers (seen below) it seems almost like a crowd controller with some area-of-effect (AOE) damage thrown in.

Check out the descriptions from the translation below, or hit up the link for the full post.

Update: BioWare has confirmed the classes in a forum post.

Jedi Consular page:
Image top:
With sword, charm and the force! The Jedi Consular fights from the second line.
Image middle:
The seventh class is the Jedi Consular. Contrary to the revealed Jedi Knight, several weeks ago, is the Consular not to be found in the first line. Although he can swing the lightsaber too, he masters several ranged fighting skills like "Sleep", "Lift" or "Smash". The class can be tuned into damage or healing. Thus is the Jedi Consular one mighty support class in the Old Republic.

Abilities:
Sleep
Lift
Smash
Force Push
Reflect

Both images bottom:
Beatiful type! The Jedi Consular stretches his arms, focuses his force, and throws the attacking droids with one strike through Force Push on the ground.

Sith Inquisitor page:
Image top left:
I have the force! As a Sith Inquisitor one masters the use of elecricity with ease.
Image top right:
The Sith Inquisitor is the alst of the eight classes tottaly with which SWTOR will launch. The Inquisitor is the opposite of the Consular and is a fighter from the second line. Equipped with force abilities like the "Shock" or the "Lightning Charge" heats his enemies properly, in which we could assure ourselves in one play session. One quest sent us into an ancient Sith-tomb, where crawled with killer worms (K'lor'slug Ravager) and imperial deserters. With the help of the area attack "Overload" near enemies we can not only damage them, but knock them back and stun them for several seconds, and so we cleaned the nest quickly.

Abilities:
Saber Blow
Shock
Execute
Overload
Lighting Charge
Whirlwind
Dark Gift
Call a fare(?)
Dark Meditation

Image middle:
Bad chance! In close combat has the Trooper against the Inquisitor the bad cards
Image bottom:
Electricuted! With electrical hit one does not only damage but stuns the enemies

PC Games article fully translated [The Old Republic Forums - Thanks Venom!]

Revealed last Friday, the Imperial Agent is a powerful player in the Empire's ploy for universal power. Whether working in the shadows with his or her trusty sniper rifle or boldly calling in an orbital strike, the Imperial Agent has the full power of the Empire behind them at all times, in exchange for their undying loyalty.

Hit up the link for some videos of the Agent's skills in action.

The Imperial Agent [Star Wars: The Old Republic]

The Imperial Agent is all about high-tech gear, subterfuge, and subversion. They are the assassins of the Star Wars universe, prowling the seedy underbelly of the Empire as they go about their dirty deeds. They're probably the closest thing to a rogue you're likely to find in BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Looking at the screens posted over at IncGamers, the Imperial Agent reminds me of the Agent class in Anarchy Online, which also specialize in sniper rifles and have a flair for concealing their identities. Slap a balaclava on that guy's head and the resemblance is uncanny.

The class was revealed during a European press tour earlier this week. Expect more information to show up on the SWTOR website with next Friday's update.

The Imperial Agent Revealed! [Star Wars: The Old Republic Forums]

For many Star Wars fans, this is the end-all and be-all of character classes. The Jedi Knights are the warrior monks of the Republic, transforming combat into an art form and using their powers to impress their sisters the ladies. A serene, highly-skilled and extremely powerful force striving for peace in the universe, I've always found them a bit boring. Give me a charming smuggler any day.

Find out more about the Jedi Knights at BioWare's official Star Wars: The Old Republic web page. May the force be...you know.

The fiercely independent planet of Balmorra hasn't had much time to exercise that fierce independence over the course of Star Wars history. It's what they get for being the top manufacturers of weapons and droids, two of the primary military resources in the galaxy. During the time of The Old Republic, the planet is struggling under the oppression of a full Imperial occupation force, reluctantly accepting support from Republic forces who had abandoned them years earlier. It looks like BioWare is setting Balmorra as the stage for one of the most important conflicts in the game. You'd think they'd hang some Christmas lights or something.

BALMORRA: ON THE EDGE OF ALL-OUT WAR [Star Wars: The Old Republic]

From a design perspective, Coruscant is a planet with zero percent terrain, which poses its own challenge. The city also has an enormous vertical dimension to incorporate, with skyscrapers soaring overhead, and unruly, bombed-out subterranean areas underneath.

The Making of Corsuscant [swtor.com]

According to DarthHater, the terms (above) state

:• You acknowledge and agree that all points acquired during the Game Program are non-refundable and have no monetary value.

• You acknowledge and agree that all items acquired for points during the Game Program are non-refundable and non-tradable.

• You acknowledge and agree that [BioWare] reserves the right to add or remove points to your account at any time and without warning.

• You acknowledge and agree that [BioWare[ reserves the right to change/add/remove points rewarded in the Game store at any time and without warning.

Sounds pretty definite that some sort of Old Republic game store is at least being pondered for The Old Republic. This is language for a testing program of course, and DarthHater points out BioWare could be testing out how the system works by deliberately glitching it, thus requiring this kind of protection in the TOS.

But, DarthHater points out, nothing confirms that the currency used in this store is pegged to anything of real world value. They point out the TOS' statement that Bioware retains the right to "add or remove points from your account without warning," whereas Microsoft's Xbox Live TOS only reserves the right to "cancel suspend or ... limit access" if fraud is suspected. "This would suggest that these [Bioware] points are connected to purely in-game actions, more similar to "gold", "isk" or "Credits" then something purchased with real money."

Either way, it's an interesting find. It's still worth reminding that this is not final code at all, just a testing program.

Could Star Wars: The Old Republic have BioWare Bucks? [Darth Hater via MMORPG.com]

Signing up for the Star Wars: The Old Republic community is your first step towards become a closed beta tester for the next big Star Wars MMO. BioWare wants active community members as testers, as active community members are more likely to provide feedback than dirty, stinking lurkers who lurk and stink. Once you've become a member of the community, you can visit the Game Testing Portal to sign up for your chance to be a part of Star Wars history or something.

Mind you there are no guarantees, but such is life.

Sign up to test STAR WARS: The Old Republic! [Official Website]

The following material all comes from an interview between myself and BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk conducted in Seattle a couple of weeks ago at the Penny Arcade Expo.

Mass Effect DLC: Pinnacle Station - A Quick Post-Mortem

"We wanted to make something different,' Zeschuk said of the recently released expansion to the first Mass Effect, Pinnacle Station. "The reaction's been quite vigorous from a lot of folks. I think part of it was the time. The expectation was that it took so long that [people thought] it would be something very grand. But what we want to do in Mass Effect was just riff on stuff a bit and do a combat simulator. We thought it would be neat to have this neat little encapsulated thing .... It [contained] a few things we weren't able to get in the full game."

Zeschuk said Pinnacle Station took longer than expected because, he laughed, "Games are hard to make." He said that BioWare didn't find it easy to incorporate downloadable content in the base game of Mass Effect. The team wanted to keep everything in the fiction — to make it accessible through the natural exploration in the game — but didn't find the most accessible hooks to attach the new content. "From a structural perspective, Mass Effect the game — even though we had one piece out pretty early — it wasn't ideally structured for downloadable content. I think, pretty early, we've been saying that Dragon Age is a platform. I would say Mass Effect 2 is as well. We took the learning from how tricky it is to put things into the game in Mass Effect and that was a very big factor."

In my review of Pinnacle Station I had guessed that BioWare was testing possible multiplayer mechanics in their still-single player Mass Effect squad combat battle system. Not quite. "I wouldn't say exactly multiplayer, but definitely taking the combat further [with] some kind of competitive mode," Zeschuk said. "We do a lot of story at BioWare. Sometimes we want to do something different than just a story."

Dragon Age: Origins - The Potential Of Cross-Platform Mods

BioWare already has some paid DLC lined up for Dragon Age: Origins, the company's fall console and PC role-playing game, Zeschuk said.

He said he's been playing through the Xbox 360 version of the game, "staying up to stupid late hours" to go through it. He's excited about the game's community site, which, as previously reported here, will help players of the single-player adventure compare the paths they took to completion. The site is designed to take that BioWare trademark of malleable narrative and let gamers more easily compare the narrative contortions they made. "What's interesting is [going] back to our classic things like KOTOR and Mass Effect, and I talk to [BioWare co-founder] Ray [Muzyka] and say, 'How did you do this part?' And he goes, 'Well I did this.' And 'I did that.' That's what we want."

Zeschuk also sees a lot of community potential in the mod-making tools in the PC version of Dragon Age. The game's community site is being built to make the modding process easier, counteracting the problem of making content for visually complex games. "User-created content is down from where it used to be," Zeschuk said. "It used to be a bunch of generalists, but game development for our stuff and all the HD stuff is a bunch of specialists. What we were trying to do is create a community where the specialists can connect with each other." A good texture artist could connect with a talented modeling person and then find a talented sound person... that kind of thing. Zeschuk said BioWare intends to talk to Microsoft and Sony about bringing some of those PC-modded creations to consumers playing the game on an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

Mass Effect 2 - The Mysterious Future

We talked about Mass Effect 2 some, with Zeschuk teasing that there is more to the game than meets the eye. Read more on that in an earlier post.

Mass Effect And Other BioWare Projects On Portables

Zeschuk said that the Mass Effect Galaxy, the recently-released iPhone game, is doing "so-so" in Apple's store, but said he's excited to try more content there. "You have to be cranking a lot of things because you don't know what's going to work on it," he said. "We're all still learning. And it's evolving every month."

Portable and smaller gaming remains of interest to BioWare. "One goal we've set for ourselves at a high level is to capture the things we do on the big giant console releases on the smaller format. And try to understand how those things interconnect. Clearly you can't do a direct port. And in some ways Mass Effect [on iPhone] would be almost an abstracted [take]. Now we're thinking of cutting it different ways. For us, we don't want to be just doing giant franchises."

Smaller development could be thrilling if not always that easy, he noted. "From our perspective lately, we're interested in DSi and the direct to digital. Chunking stuff smaller we always have to reconcile that with what we're good at. We do these gigantic, complicated productions and then try to fit it into a thumbnail, it's not easy."

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Competitive Conversation

I've been behind in following news about BioWare's Star Wars MMO, so I just asked Zeschuk to say anything he wanted about that game. He described his enthusiasm for the game's multiplayer, scripted, branching conversation and morality system.

'The moment to moment experience of conversing with people is not painful and frustrating," he said, saying he has trouble playing text-based MMOs now. To explain how The Old Republic's system worked he pretended that he and BioWare PR man Erik Eisendel were both playing the MMO. "Say Erik and I are talking to the guy," he posited, beginning to illustrate an example that put the life of a captain on the line. (Kotaku chief Brian Crecente had already described the captain scenario in an Old Republic preview.) The dialogue options available in this scenario to Zeshuck and Eisendel would be determined by the skills of their characters and some randomization. "You can either agree or compete on what game dialogue you want to have and what direction the story goes. Because at the end of the day you are making a decision on whether I'm going to kill the captain or save the captain… that's a dark side choice, Erik doesn't want that. It's neat to have that potential interaction."

The emotional heat of such a moment will be intensified not just by the potentially competing interests of two players engaged in the linked conversation but in the improved rendering and voice-over work of the characters involved. This is an MMO we'll connect with on a more emotionally engaged level, he hopes.

That exhausted the announced BioWare projects, I believe. And so our interview concluded.

Yes. Yes you can.

Not only do we have footage of the Trooper, which is The Old Republic's version of the Clone and eventual Storm, Sand, Snow, and Marshmallow Troopers, but we captured a little bit of Sith Warrior gameplay as well, in case you are more of a Dark Side of the Force kind of person.

Sorry about the quality, but this was taken off a screen, and you get what you pay for.

The Sith Warriors are front line fighters who inspire fear and loyalty in their comrades, which certainly sounds like your standard MMO definition of a death knight. Unlike their light-sided counterparts, the Sith Warrior has no qualms with wearing heavy armor, often replacing bits of themselves with cybernetic devices to help keep their opponents on their toes. And like a death knight, the Sith Warrior uses the Force to terrify, paralyze, and kill his or her enemies.

Head on over to the official web page for the Sith Warrior and memorize what you read there; I've a feeling you'll be seeing a great many of these guys once Star Wars: The Old Republic goes live.

Twenty minutes is a long time to take a look at a single game. But being that The Old Republic is an MMO, and considering the unbelievable amount of time players will be spending with it, this is just the bat of an eyelash.

A larger size of this is available at IGN, where the videos will play in sequence automatically.

Part 1

Senior writer Hal Hood talks about creating the Smuggler class in the latest developer diary on the Star Wars: The Old Republic website, demonstrating the completely different approach that BioWare is taking in crafting the game's story. They want dramatic moments, romantic encounters, and a charming rogue to crack a joke at the worst possible moment, which as charming rogues knows, is the best possible moment.

Of all the stories in our game, the Smuggler ones are specifically written with an emphasis on humor and romance. If you're playing this class, you get to say the funniest things (usually at the least appropriate times), and are always on the lookout for people who find charming rogues irresistible. You'll be flirting with or laughing at the most exciting personalities in the galaxy: crime lords, gamblers, Bounty Hunters, senators, nobles, spies, Jedi and even Sith.

Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe I've found my Star Wars: The Old Republic class.

Not only are the Smugglers dashing adventurers, they even come with a posse. All this and a posse?

The most successful Smugglers surround themselves with trusty companions who are handy with a blaster when deals go sour. Han Solo had Chewbacca as backup, and Smugglers in our game will have their pick of several memorable sidekicks.

It really seems like BioWare is striking all the right chords, delivering what fans truly crave...their own place in the Star Wars universe. When I was a child, I dreamt of growing up to be Han Solo.

The Old Republic is the first Star Wars video game to let players truly live the dream of being Han Solo or Lando Calrissian. Other games have let you engage in a bit of smuggling for profit or simulate "scoundrels" as a collection of stat bonuses, but none come close to delivering the humor, romance and just plain fun of being a wisecracking Smuggler who triumphs against all odds. Every member of The Old Republic team is committed to crafting the defining rendition of the Smuggler archetype.

I love these guys.

Developer Blog: Creating the Smuggler [Star Wars: The Old Republic]

By nearly 100 they actually mean 90, with everyone from 2K Games to Zalman USA packing the show floor with stuff to see and do. Notable events include Bioware's first public showing of Star Wars: The Old Republic, demonstrations of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II and Splinter Cell: Conviction, and concerts and parties galore. Totilo and I will be there as well, so be on the lookout for his good looks and my astounding sweatiness. Seriously, it's like I am walking around with another me made entirely of water.

You want a full list of exhibitors? You can't handle the full list of exhibitors! But go ahead and try.

Full List Of PAX 2009 Exhibitors

- 1up
- 2K Games
- Aeria Games & Entertainment
- Alienware
- Alteil
- Ankama Games
- Antec
- Astro Gaming
- Atari, Inc.
- Bethesda Softworks LLC
- Big Fish Games
- Bioware
- Black Sheep Studios
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Capcom Entertainment, Inc.
- CCP Games
- CDV Software Entertainment USA
- Chessex
- Disney Interactive Studios
- Dolby Laboratories
- ECA
- Electronic Arts
- Eminence Group Pty. Ltd.
- Fallen Earth LLC
- Flying Frog Productions
- Flying Lab Software
- Frogster America
- Funcom
- Garage Games
- Geek Chic HQ
- Gunnar Optiks
- Harmonix Music
- Hi-Rez Studios
- Hothead Games
- Hudson Entertainment
- iGlove Inc.
- Ignition Entertainment
- ITT Technical Institute
- Jones Soda Co.
- Klei Entertainment
- Mana Energy Potions
- Mega64
- Microsoft
- Microsoft-XNA
- Mythic Entertainment
- Namco Bandai Games America inc
- Namco Networks America Inc.
- NCsoft
- Nexon
- Nintendo of America Inc
- NVIDIA
- Omni Consumer Products (Tru Blood)
- Oni Press
- Patriot Memory
- Phantom EFX, Inc.
- Pink Gorilla LLC
- Playlogic Entertainment Inc.
- Privateer Press
- Riot Games
- Rockstar Games
- Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC
- Runic Games
- SEGA
- Sony Computer Entertainment America
- Stardock Entertainment
- SteelSeries
- Sweet Kitty
- Swell Games / Simon Fraser University
- Telltale Games
- The Behemoth
- The Dreaming Comics and Games
- The Guildhall at SMU
- THQ
- TN Games
- Tozai, Inc.
- Tritton Technologies
- True Games Interactive
- Turbine
- Turtle Beach
- Twisted Pixel Games, LLC
- Ubisoft Entertainment
- Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Inc.
- Upper Deck Entertainment
- Valve Software
- Vancouver Film School
- Wacom Technology
- Warner Bros. Games
- Wizards Of The Coast
- Y-Bot Classic Video Games
- Zalman USA Inc.

All that and more in Seattle next month, September 4th through the 6th.