Star Wars : The Old Republic Launch – Your Saga Begins

The wait is finally over. Million of gamers have been waiting for this game for so long, almost too long for some of them. But all this waiting and digging deep into the internet for info is now over, because today, December 20th 2011, Star Wars : The Old Republic goes live.

Below you can watch the video Bioware has chosen to share with the SWTOR fanbase for the launch day.Have fun playing SWTOR guys!
 



Rumors have it that Cpt. BetaCake was once a mere mortal. In human years he would be 28 years old. Nowadays, he finds peace in sharing gaming news and leaks.

  • Rain

    Ty for the cake, for this slice and every other slice served!

  • I’m sooooooooo happy I know the owner of this sight dislikes this game and instead likes some crappy korean mmo but I’m so happy it’s finally out! It’s been a loooooooooong wait…

    • Anonymous

      Its called a site.

      And ArcheAge is about 10 thousand times better that what SWTOR will ever be.

      I have played both for at least two weeks each and can back my opinion up with facts.

      Can you?

      • Yak

        So you can back up with facts that it will be 10 thousand times better? Hilarious

      • Ms.JacksonIfyourNasty

        pretty sure that sounds like opinion, not fact.

        hey, at least they have rowboats! jackpot!

        • Anonymous

          Jackpot indeed.

          Rowboats are just an example.

          Fact is, you cannot even swim in SWTOR, while in ArcheAge, not only you can swim, dive, explore underwater content and sail small boats but you can also build ships mounted with cannons and launch a long range attack to your enemy’s property, or engage in naval combat with their “navy”.

          In fact, while playing SWTOR, I could only run in the water i found in Ord Mantel and when I went either deep enough or (even worse) far enough, I would start taking damage for no apparent reason.

          Another fact is that in SWTOR there’s instances and even worse, zone channels. So what happens if I want to meet my buddy who just came back from work and logged in? That’s right, one of us is forced to stare at a loading screen while he is being moved to “Corruscant 3″.

          Fact also is that in ArcheAge, the only loading screens you’ll get are when you log in, restart, recall or die and just for the beta – when you try to enter the locked map locations and the game teleports you back to your bindstone.

          I could keep going all night, but its pointless and I have a lot of work to do.

          Enjoy Star of Warcraft mate, I honestly hope its everything you ever wished for in an MMORPG.

          • Godot

            Is there at least an oaring simulator, or maybe an oar peripheral?

          • Kermit

            I could respect your opinions if they weren”t so troll based. You can’t swim and you look at a load screen for 5-10 seconds to transfer to a different phase so theres less lag and mob contestion. You do understand the lack of lag and contestion of quests ect not only makes up for that 5-10 seconds but also improves the quality of your playing exiperence overall. From what your say Archeage sounds intestesting but swtor doesn’t have rowboats and swiming for a reason it would be stupid. It’s sci-fi we want space exotic locations not to get wet. I do wish the star ships has more customisation thats dissapointing but perhaps in the future. Just to clarify having an opinion is far from unprofessional you can prefer whichever game your find more enjoyable and of higher quality. What is unprofessional is giving the most troll/ mundane reason why then expecting people to accept your biased opinion as personal tase when its nitpicking at the smallest elements out there. Imagine if i said i dislike star wars the original trilogy compared to the prequels because in the prequels there was a specific cameo appearance of a actor for a single scene this has no bearing at all on the quality of the movies and how they compare. If you want to list small reasons like thats fine but state here is the lsit of small elements i like in such and such don’t say i prefer AA over swtor because you can swim which makes it 10000 better thats stupid no matter what way you look at it.

      • When having a site like this you shouldn’t be biased… i come to this site to see videos of games and screenshots and whatnot of beta, but i get turned off by a moderater who is continually telling people not to play this game and to play this game coz this game is better… That is extremely unprofessional I must say… forum members can do that coz they’re just people watching but seeing as your presenting the videos etc. I find it rather… yes unprofessional…

        • Anonymous

          Are you going to keep distorting whatever I say?

          I never told people what to play, I’m comparing the two games simply because I have played both.
          If you disagree with me I’m totally OK with it, just don’t put words that I never said in my mouth. Its rude to say the least.

          Like I mentioned earlier, I sincerely hope SWTOR is everything people hoped it would be.

          Also, this is a blog, opinions are being expressed here all day, every day. Mine included.

          I don’t see how expressing my opinion suddenly makes me less professional than before. Could it be that it simply bothers you only because you disagree with me?

          Just be sure for one thing, I will never censor myself, whether you like it or not.

  • Peter

    “And ArcheAge is about 10 thousand times better that what SWTOR will ever be.”

    Seriously? You really are very biased. Even more than I expected. Bad showing for a site covering the genre, really.

    SWTOR is an awesome game for what it is; a second generation themepark but a very rich and diverse one. AA is more like a “sand-park” and appeals to a slightly different crowd. If it will be as good as SWTOR in it’s own neck of the woods, all the better. But I’ve yet to see and read more of it. Its payment model, to give an example.

    • Anonymous

      Actually, that comment is as objective as possible. We’re a week away from the year 2012.

      SWTOR belongs to 2006. Just like you said, its a 2nd generation game.

      I expected way more that what Bioware offers, especially for the amount of $$ they spent on developing the game.

      Maybe you missed the massive threads on Reddit and official forums titled “That’s it?” “Where did all the development money go?” etc ?

      I won’t lie about it, playing SWTOR was more of a chore to me. Unbelievably boring gameplay, I only put up with it because I needed content for the website.

      I do the same with ArcheAge. But its actually tons of fun waking up in the morning and having the opportunity to play a true 3rd generation MMORPG.

      ArcheAge’s list of features is just massive and its not like they’re all buggy and broken. Everything I tried so far in-game simply works. Might need some tweaking, but it works.

      In ArcheAge, you have row boats, speed boats, battleships and who knows what else.

      In SWTOR, you can’t even swim…

      • Muppet21

        See I was right the whole time and all you did was delete my posts. Thanks for agreeing with me next time just tell the truth and don’t lie.

        • Anonymous

          O_O What?

      • Tyrell

        In all honesty, I laugh everytime I hear people complain about wanting to know where the development money went.

        Well how about it all went to what could be described as the largest, most ambitious voice over project ever!

        I respect your opinions because not everyone is going to like the game, but to sit there and act like a fully voiced over game [including your NPC] brings nothing to the MMO genre is just filth. I would have NEVER thought that I would be playing MMOs because I am more of a single player RPG gamer myself and even though I am a HUGE Star Wars fan, I was never interested in Galaxies. However SWTOR has captured my attention and I have been playing this game intensely since Day 1 of early access.

        So does SWTOR completely revient the wheel for the MMO genre? No, because it doesn’t have to. What it will do is show that you can have an MMO with great focus on story instead of just “endgame”. What it does do is open the door for future MMOs to incorporate some sort of story to draw in the single player crowd, Finally, what it will do is create possibilities for some future major MMO project [Blizzard perhaps?] that is fully voiced and takes what SWTOR does and magnifies it 10x.

        • Anonymous

          Why does the “single player crowd” want to play an MMORPG anyway?

          That’s exactly what’s wrong with MMORPGs these days. They focus on single player content, in a game meant to be played with 20+ people. That’s why guilds exist.

          I believe that the “single player crowd” should stick with Skyrim and Mass Effect if they enjoy playing solo all the time.

          • Tyrell

            So is that why many “MMO Traditionalist” like you like to discount SWTOR by default, because it is “solo friendly” or is bringing in the “single player” crowd? This might irk you, but by opening the doors for the single player people, the genre will only benefit from a larger audience.

            But yeah, I will not argue with you that SWTOR is solo friendly, and that is a reason to not like the game if you are more of a traditionalist. However, that does not mean it isn’t a great game that is doing something unique for the genre.

            I don’t like Modern Warfare 3 as I am more of a Battlefield 3 guy. But I have to admit, as much as I hate Call of Duty, I have to give it to Infinity Ward for creating a FPS that can appeal to the masses and deliver a John Woo style action packed campaign.

          • Anonymous

            Nobody should open that door.

            Single player games exist for those who enjoy being the unique snowflake with the forgotten past that grows up to be the hero who saves the whole universe.

            MMORPGs were made so people can play alongside their friends, online. Nobody is unique by default, what makes them special is the role they play in their team. If they really want to become the equivalent of the single player game hero, then they must achieve it through teamwork and collaboration.

            For the last time, soloing does not belong to MMORPGs.

          • opinion, I love soloing in mmos, you can solo while peopel play around you it’s actually more exciting than playing a single player mmo imo. The problem with you is you shove your opinion down people’s throats and call it ‘fact’ it is not fact, some people enjoy soloing mmos, therefore the fact that soloing shouldn’t be in mmos in opinion not fact.

          • Kermit

            Why should they avoid mmorpgs how about mmo’s drop the rpg to be more realistic of there current state. If i had to choose between NPC’s and PC’s I’d pick pc’s at least until the point of which NPC’s are more capable then PC’s the fact is a massively multiplayer online game is more then just grouping up with 900 different players to do content thats a small part as far as im concerned its more about the immersion and the fact theres life within the game something single player games lack. I like to play with other people because there unpredictible and react differently and can perform complex actions things NPCS can’t at this stage. My first thought in an mmo isn’t oh i can’t wait to get max level to get to fight the same boss over and over (with no or little reason story behind it) with other players just to fight over who gets loot. It’s more along the lines of, How vast is this world? look real player performing tasks. I wonder what the limits are? Can i walk anywhere or if restricted will i notice the restrictions with every jarring dead end or will i be blissfully unaware because of there immersion, story and gameplay. If it’s sandbox or themepark i don’t mind it just needs to be alive, have story and be fun/intriguing. Swtor has me hopeful for the future of mmo’s as mmorpgs. GW2 looks like it could be fun hopefully 2012 blizzcon will reveal Titan which could be the next ground breaking mmo or any up and comming niche games. Call me an optimist for the future of mm’s as quality life like worlds i guess. It’s up to what you want large ammounts of repetaive hack and slash combat/gameplay or a more vibrant life like world.

      • Kermit

        Very disappointed betacake you have always seamed unbiased and that’s why i come here for unbiased news for many different games. Swtor is without doubt the best mmo ive ever played could it be better yes, Could a better mmo come along thats better yes. Its the best out there as of now. It is handsdown the most refined mmo to date including wow after seven years for a game just released it has less issues then wow after seven years. Currently it needs address (1) Add ons – These are needed badly to improve the ui and provide useful tools like damage charts and battle logs. (2) A complete guild system – Although it’s nice to not be forced into large guilds like wows joke of a system swtors system is the bare minimum. (3) Healing improvement – The only area of combat i find below biowares level of quality, needs to be improved (Customisable ui would help). (4) End game – Difficulty needs to be better balanced (It’s too easy much like wow with three levels of raiding this shouldn’t be hard). (5) Content heres the big one there has to be solid consistant content – Operations, Flashpoints, Warzones, Quests, Planets, Hotfixes, Bug fixes, Wall of crazy, More minigames, New unique ideas like huttball (doesn’t have to be pvp). These are there main concerns and although there large concerns and requirements, These short term issues show the portential if there improved. Compared to the most refined mmo out there wow this is rather good. Wow has so many concerns now days I’ll only list a few. Bad guild system, Stat inflation, Gold inflation, Lack of story direction (Pandaria), Raiding quality waning considerbly (4.3 especially), Horrible pvp mainly caused from the stat inflation (High health pools), Runing out of ideas for expansions/Refuse to release expansion/content that would be well recieved but would end storylines/game itself (Old gods outright losing facing demons and sargeras) The list goes on and on and this is the leading mmo after seven years. Swtor needs to address those five main areas i talked about and always ask three quesions (1) Is it fun (2) Can we implement it well (3) Does it make sense lore,gameplay wise ect. My hope is swtor makes other mmo’s raise the bar employ skilled professional writers consider V/O and more cinematics and push the limit for there game to strive for perfection. Because one thing is for certain developers like blizzard have stoped striving for that and thats unacceptable in an genre of gaming with so much future portential.

  • Vginnwy

    SWTOR has already lost half of it’s subscribers.

    • Toggy_

      lol source? :P

  • guest

    Yeah, SWTOR didn’t live up to the hype. It’s ok I guess, but nothing special. Waiting for Guild Wars 2.

  • I love how my bad trolling created a huge arguement between betacake and a whole load of fans its awesome :) btw I’m actually not hugely fussed by either game (tor hasn’t got depth and archeage is fantasy and has crappy cutesy character models) those are opinionistic reasons some people may love them but i dont because of opinion. I’m more a secret world fanboy…

  • Black_dragon_nathan

    lol secret world…Ok, there goes your opinion.

    • I don’t like the makers but the setting sounds amazing! and they seem to have some good ideas… but i do doubt they will do it well… it is failcom…

  • Johngr

    Its really funny to read all those comments. Swtor is allready one of the biggest mmo. Chinese games maby looks nice at the start but its so boring from some point. Too much farming and repeat. Anyway those comments has no meaning when all that matters is the gamer opinion and what he like to play. Betacake you do a nice job with the site but comments “OMG this game is better than this one” better keep them as personal opinion.