Summary of E3 2010

Hey guys!
As promised, I will now do a summary of all the news and 'stuff' from E3 2010.

To start right, I have to say - It was a great expo for ToR fans. We got so much new material, features and info that we really still can't recover from it. Bioware is continuing a great advertising campaign, keeping us updated all the time on their website and giving us this special moments like 2 weeks ago. In order to gather everything in this post, I'll try ennumerating:

1 - New trailer 'Hope' that was already briefly discussed in previous posts is a short cinematic piece of art. It present the events couple of decades before Sacking of Coruscant. Darth Malgus makes his move on Aldeeran, which we all know so well from the original saga. Finally, we see Republic giving us a grand show. And not only that, it is not the Jedi that shine brightest this time - at last we have a chance to see the legendary Havoc Squad. Those guys really make an impression. Personally, I love the trailer. It was bitter, epic - perfect. We now understand why Malgus wears a mask and we get to grasp the meaning of victory for the 'good guys'. From the interesting facts it is rumored that the Consular in this video is in fact Satelle Shan - but it has not been confirmed yet. Anyway, you gotta love her Ka-me-ha-me-ha shockwave on the Emperor.

2 - Next up are the player ships. All of you will have their own, it will be customizable and it will serve as your hideout. Cool... kinda. I don't know why, but I have problems with this idea. I mean - imagine first week of the game. Let's say the game is a massive success and there are 3000 people playing on one server. We've got 2 factions and 2 start-up planets, so in the primary area, we'll have (oh noez! math!) ~750 players. Out of them 1/3 will go very fast with leveling (theoretising!). So what happenes when 200 people get to get their ship around the same time. Will we have a gigantic parking lot for those rides? Or will it be instance-based? (The second one would be my guess - Sliv) And how will it influence the MMO part of the game? Let's say I invite Sliv to my ship. We fly from Tatooine to Nar Shadda. What happenes to his ship? If I leave him there with dozens of gangsters, will he be unable to go back home (btw - epic perspective)? I don't know, I find this idea a bit problematic. I just hope they won't do 'out-of-your-pocket' ships like in previous MMOs! On the other hand, it will be fun to play pazaak sometimes in a safe place, to customize the ship and to interact with your Companions inside a friendly environment. However, I am still very sceptical about this idea. I know that they had to make it an easy solution to transfer from planet to planet, but public transports would be just enough. Moreover, what about the Guild-Ships that we have talked about in a podcast not so long ago? Will they be allowed? Well, we'll have to wait to see that.

3 - RACES! I was so afraid that like in Kotors they would only allow us to play humans. And before E3 we've only seen human gameplay and screenshots. I know that a bunch of you would like that, because for some strange reason while playing a fantasy game u like to look like yourself, but there are others around, who like to get a fur or some spikes on their backs. But yeah, Bioware has not failed at that point. We've seen a lot races to be played - Chiss, Twi'lek, Calamari, Nautolians... Hope I got the names right. It really looks like customization is going to be awesome in the game. I just hope they add a few more races like Kel'dor, Wookie, Zabraks, Rodians and more. NO YODA RACE, EWOKS (personally I'd like to see them :D - Sliv) OR JAWAS PLS!!!

4. Another element that they have announced are warzones. And, to be compltely honest with you - I see this on the same level as my favourite 'advanced leveling system'. It is something that is bound to appear in an MMO. I am really happy that they have shown us some PvP and said how it would look like. But we kinda expected that, didn't we? Anyway, I am wondering - will it be like a Battleground in WoW or more like an RvR lake in WAR? Will I be able to join the fight at any time and zerg the other faction or rather, will it be scenario-based? I hope the latter. And not only that - I hope they will go a step further than previous MMOs. I see a group of, let's say, 7 players from the Empire. Their goal is to disable a froce-field around some important Republi'c factory. They enter without deception - they want to take the place by the sheer force. The alarm is sound and the factor's guards are summoned. And now, we'll have a nice scenario, where the Emps will have to disable some critical system within the complex and Reps's goal will be to eliminate the threat or summon reinforcements from a different location (improvising here). And, as I imagine it, it would not come down just to the point where u have to stay near an important place to 'capture' it, but rather use someone's computer slicing skills to move to a different part of the factory or sth like that. I hope you get the idea :) Too much rumbling and dreaming and not enough facts - in warzones we'll get a chance to kick some ass. EOT.

5. Scripted combat is another thing that I want to mention. So, we've seen the 4-man Rep group fighting some mobs and what could be called 'bosses'. And I must be honest - what they did with the ideas of combat in this game is something that few of us expected I think. First of all, a ranged tank? Hells yeah! A great idea and it can work out so nicely. Really, they surprised me and it was nice. The gameplay of the tank looked quite fun and tricky as he has to keep his distance. I can see this working very well in instances. I don't see it working in PvP. We'll see. Next off, the Smuggler's gameplay. It looked plain fun. Hiding behind obstacles, providing major CC and nice dps and, as the commentator said, being able to 'drop a heal in from time to time' - damn it! this class has so many utilities and is so flexible thay I already know that it is going to be mega fun to play them. Plus the mobility of theirs is something that always brings a lot of satisfaction to the players as they keep doing somehting throughout every encounter. Me like it. Then there were the Jedis. And, in my opinion, their gameplay was dull. Maybe its due to the encounter or to the players, but it was just typical instance role filling. Nothing heroic and epic about it - Jedi Knight was clearing the adds and the Consular was healing. Booooring! Hope they make it more demanding. For example (yes, inventing again, get over it) I imagine Consular's healing same as the one of a Warrior Priest in WAR. The more he is involved in the combat, the more healings he can do. Because standing in the back and pressing sequence of 2-4 keys is not fun. Believe me, I play as ToL in WoW now. In PvP its cool but in PvE not at all. Anyway, the gameplay looked nice, hope they get it in the right direction.

6. We have also seen some other videos, but they were not very exciting, to me at least. Some quests, BH's armor progression and sth else I can't remember - maybe nice hints of what we'll see in the game but really, nothing that we did not expect or know already.

All in all, E3 2010 was amazing for Star Wars. The new SW: Lego Game got announced (I love those games!), The Force Unleashed II and it looks good and a browser-based MMO for the kids focused around the events from the Clone Wars cartoon. But for The Old Republic E3 was not good - it was freakin amazing. I hope they keep updating the website with even more exciting materials and that they make a couple more cinematic teasers for the game, because they are just epic.

I think that is it, soon (I hope) Sliv will add a word or two (fourteen words to be exact :P - Sliv) to this post but I am done!

Thanks for reading,

Menti