Well, I guess I should do a Christmas post as well, right? Even though I am a day late LOL. Anyway, Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone had a great day, whatever it is you do on Christmas.
As most of you that actually visit me know, the hubby and I don't do the whole gift thing. We don't buy a lot of stuff, but generally if we want something, like a game or movie or whatnot when it comes out, we just buy it. So that kinda takes the whole "I can't wait for Christmas to get this" feeling out lol.
We had a pleasant day though. We decided not to go to his parents house and just stayed home. We had our own dinner so it was still nice. Mainly we spent the whole day playing The Old Republic. That's what I've been doing this whole week too lol, if anyone has wondered were I disappeared too.
Cause... OMG STAR WARS IS AWESOME.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm about to go off on a nerdie gamer rave here, so forgive me ahead of time lol.
Ranma, this Star Wars rant is for you, cause I know you were interested in the game. And for anyone else thinking of playing The Old Republic, which I have to say upfront.... YES, DO IIIITTTT.
First off, the easy stuff, the game is as visually pretty as we were expecting. The graphics are no problem whatsoever. And it runs very smooth, at least on this computer. One thing you have to hand it to Bioware for, is that they make really freaking stable games, and this is no exception, even though it is an MMO. Couple little graphics glitches once in a while, like a laser beam stuck on screen, meh nothing big though. And occasionally your companion might get wonky. But logging out and back in seems to always fix it. So for a new MMO opening up to the mass public the first week.... really stable game. Awesomeness.
Bioware did an amazing job on this game. It is very much WoW quality in content and game play. There are some things that wow does better that Bioware could have improved on... and since the game just opened, they might indeed given some time. But then, they got some stuff right over wow. Like 2 and 4 man instances. The hubby and I did a two man instance the other day, it was fantastic. I really love that you don't have to form a whole 5 man group to do an instance, that just rocks. So if you are just out there traveling around with a buddy, you can still do cool stuff.
And the story and dialog! The game plays sorta like Mass Effect where your character will physically talk after you choose which dialog option you want. When you talk to a quest giver in a group, each person will choose what they want to say or do, then the game will roll for each player. And whoever gets the highest roll will speak for the group, or make a decision if that's the case. Which is fucking awesome! That way the whole group actually gets to participate in conversations. It makes the game so much more immersive, and some times you forget your actually playing an MMO.
The game still has it's light side and dark side choices like the original Knights of the Old Republic games, but it's neat cause you can still be light or dark side whether you play the Empire or the Republic. So you can have some goodie goodie Sith out there and some dbag jedi lol.
The game still has it's "holy trinity" though, of the healer/tank/dps, so that's all familiar. Most of the classes can be all three as well, so you can pick which of the three you want to be. There are only like two classes in the whole game that are strictly dps. And one thing I do like, is there isn't a huge difference in dps from the dps classes so far, or a big difference in ranged or melee dps. So unlike WoW you don't have certain dpsers doing lots more damage than other classes. They've also done a good job at making each class fun to play with unique skills. But then, they would have had to or there would be nothing but Jedi running around lol. I'm playing a healing Jedi and got my ass handed to me by a trooper in a one on one duel lol.
And may I say, you get your OWN SHIP. Hello. And your own crew of NPC companions that you can make do all kinds of stuff for you, like sell junk and make your crafting goods. And you can take one of them with you questing. So even if you are by yourself, you'll still always at least have your companion.
So overall?
The game is physically nice looking and immersive with dialog, story, and individual class storylines. It's very stable and the bugs so far have been minor ones that don't effect gameplay. It's different enough with the Star Wars atmosphere, companions and crew skills to be refreshing and new. But at the same time, to those who have played MMOs before, it's familiar enough that you won't have any trouble playing this game at all. You'll jump right in and take off. For those who haven't played MMOs before, it does have a nice tip and tutorial help when you first make a character to help you along. With the two and four man questing you can still accomplish group stuff without having to pull together a large group just to do so. The game gives you enough light and dark sided options to make the gameplay different depending on which side you want to go. And there is lots of gear and benefits to playing either one as well, so you won't be penalized for playing a light sided Sith or a dark sided Republic officer.
Oh and I should mention the music is pretty awesome as well. Very Star Wars. If you've played the first two KoTORs, you'll recognize a lot of the songs.
So yeah overall, stable, well balanced, and immersive. A game I definitely recommend to Star Wars and/or MMO fans.
