Detailed last week and set to release next week, Star Wars: The Old Republic's first major update, Rise of the Rakghouls, looks pretty spectacular. It's a pity it won't look this good to players.
Ah, Rakghouls, the zombies of the Star Wars universe. Folks getting attacked, getting infected, and turning into mindless (for the most part) savages living only to feed. They're the titular stars of The Old Republic's first update, aimed at adding new content for the folks sitting around at level 50 twiddling their thumbs. Come January 17 those folks will be able to team up with three friends or strangers and travel to the planet Kaon to keep the savage infection from spreading and win the hearts of the local populace in the new Flashpoint: Kaon Under Siege.
The update also brings the game's second rain, Operation: Karagga's Palace, which sees teams of 8 or 16 players finding out what happens when the Hutts stop being neutral and start getting aggressive.
All this plus some tweaks to open-world PVP combat on Ilum and the introduction of a level 50-only PVP bracket so they can leave us little folk alone.
So that's looking good. Almost too good, really. Since players are getting low resolution textures in their normal gameplay, isn't it only fair that BioWare's marketing materials look the same? I'll allow that these shots and the video may have been prepared before the change, but until players get a high resolution option back, I want some uglier screenshots.