The voice over feature is a very good idea.  It helps with immersion as it takes boring old text and gives it life and personality.  However what people fail to realize is that this is about the only interesting and redeemable feature that SWTOR has to offer.  It merely serves as a distraction and cover-up to all the features it lacks or is rehashing from previous generic mmos.  Bioware are gonna make a shit ton of money of that fact, the voice over, and the star wars ip, but this game will most likely not serve any long term interests.  It just doesnt have anything.  And people who think that Bioware is going to or will even be capable to add significant updates that will have a large effect on the games mechanics or playability are fooling themselves.

That being said, yes I am looking forward to GW2.  The main thing is that it has been said to and even shown to in most cases have many new and interesting mechanics to make it worth playing.  That and the fact that it is B2P means it will be way more significant than SWTOR.

Originally posted by Randallt3mp

The voice over feature is a very good idea.  It helps with immersion as it takes boring old text and gives it life and personality.  However what people fail to realize is that this is about the only interesting and redeemable feature that SWTOR has to offer.  It merely serves as a distraction and cover-up to all the features it lacks or is rehashing from previous generic mmos.  Bioware are gonna make a shit ton of money of that fact, the voice over, and the star wars ip, but this game will most likely not serve any long term interests.  It just doesnt have anything.  And people who think that Bioware is going to or will even be capable to add significant updates that will have a large effect on the games mechanics or playability are fooling themselves.

That being said, yes I am looking forward to GW2.  The main thing is that it has been said to and even shown to in most cases have many new and interesting mechanics to make it worth playing.  That and the fact that it is B2P means it will be way more significant than SWTOR.

I don't think Bioware is going to add a lot of new game mechanics in updates. But they do plan to make SWTOR the most frequently updated MMO with content. If they add story content, voice overs, and events fast enough then SWTOR would be the best value MMO on the market to me.

I am interested in GW2 but only for the new combat mechanics. Cinematic stories in games and MMOs with changing camera angles, closeups, panning shots, detailed face textures, realistic facial expressions, realistic body language has 100% spoiled me. It's too difficult to become immersed in a game's story if it's NOT a cinematic presentation. And GW2's story isn't quite there. But I think the combat mechanics will be fun.

Originally posted by Normike

Originally posted by Randallt3mp

The voice over feature is a very good idea.  It helps with immersion as it takes boring old text and gives it life and personality.  However what people fail to realize is that this is about the only interesting and redeemable feature that SWTOR has to offer.  It merely serves as a distraction and cover-up to all the features it lacks or is rehashing from previous generic mmos.  Bioware are gonna make a shit ton of money of that fact, the voice over, and the star wars ip, but this game will most likely not serve any long term interests.  It just doesnt have anything.  And people who think that Bioware is going to or will even be capable to add significant updates that will have a large effect on the games mechanics or playability are fooling themselves.

That being said, yes I am looking forward to GW2.  The main thing is that it has been said to and even shown to in most cases have many new and interesting mechanics to make it worth playing.  That and the fact that it is B2P means it will be way more significant than SWTOR.

I don't think Bioware is going to add a lot of new game mechanics in updates. But they do plan to make SWTOR the most frequently updated MMO with content. If they add story content, voice overs, and events fast enough then SWTOR would be the best value MMO on the market to me.

 

I am interested in GW2 but only for the new combat mechanics. Cinematic stories in games and MMOs with changing camera angles, closeups, panning shots, detailed face textures, realistic facial expressions, realistic body language has 100% spoiled me. It's too difficult to become immersed in a game's story if it's NOT a cinematic presentation. And GW2's story isn't quite there. But I think the combat mechanics will be fun.

I agree, reading is overrated..

Originally posted by allegria

Originally posted by Normike

Originally posted by Randallt3mp

The voice over feature is a very good idea.  It helps with immersion as it takes boring old text and gives it life and personality.  However what people fail to realize is that this is about the only interesting and redeemable feature that SWTOR has to offer.  It merely serves as a distraction and cover-up to all the features it lacks or is rehashing from previous generic mmos.  Bioware are gonna make a shit ton of money of that fact, the voice over, and the star wars ip, but this game will most likely not serve any long term interests.  It just doesnt have anything.  And people who think that Bioware is going to or will even be capable to add significant updates that will have a large effect on the games mechanics or playability are fooling themselves.

That being said, yes I am looking forward to GW2.  The main thing is that it has been said to and even shown to in most cases have many new and interesting mechanics to make it worth playing.  That and the fact that it is B2P means it will be way more significant than SWTOR.

I don't think Bioware is going to add a lot of new game mechanics in updates. But they do plan to make SWTOR the most frequently updated MMO with content. If they add story content, voice overs, and events fast enough then SWTOR would be the best value MMO on the market to me.

 

I am interested in GW2 but only for the new combat mechanics. Cinematic stories in games and MMOs with changing camera angles, closeups, panning shots, detailed face textures, realistic facial expressions, realistic body language has 100% spoiled me. It's too difficult to become immersed in a game's story if it's NOT a cinematic presentation. And GW2's story isn't quite there. But I think the combat mechanics will be fun.

I agree, reading is overrated..

Reading = Awesomeness

Reading + Gaming = Awkward

I tried going back to single player games that had no voice overs, just text, and it was a miserable failure. At the time they were released they were great. Years later, now that single player games are mostly all voiced, it's different. In visual arts, once you go voice-over you never go back. Silent movies with text just don't appeal to many people. Games with NPCs that are non-talking or only say one sentence are not going to appeal to many people anymore.

It's different with books, where there is only text. It's easy to enjoy a book when the only visuals are coming from your imagination. But comic books, that mix visuals with text are even dying. Marvel's been trying to go digital with comic books, and adding voice actors to narrate them.

The same things are probably true about cinematic work. Once you see that kind of movie effect applied to a game, it's hard to go back to games that don't pull you into the scene like that.

swToR is a "ok" WoW clone. took me about 5 hours of game play to see that and cancel my preorder. This game has peaked and now we watch it die.

Originally posted by bigbenz

swToR is a "ok" WoW clone. took me about 5 hours of game play to see that and cancel my preorder. This game has peaked and now we watch it die.

I hope your a patient man because your going to be waiting a long time to watch this one die and the fact you use WoW-clone to describe it shows you know next to nothing about mmos . WoW itself isn't paticulary innovative it borrowed many features from games that came before it and has since borrowed many features from games released since it . What the bets they borrow the character storylines idea from ToR at some point in the furture . This game really is on course to be a huge success . Lets not forget people said exactly the same thing your saying now about WoW seven years ago . Its still early days but I can see this potentially replacing WoW as the most popular mmo but I have my doubts it will top WoWs record of 12 + million subs .

Originally posted by Wrender

funny thing is less than 80 people online here at mmorpg.com at this very moment? I think that might be a record here. I guess all the cool people are playing SW-ToR and the rest of the bitter disfunctional whining haters are all here doing what they do best...whining and hating and generally spreading misery to the already deppressed. Me I'm going back to hang with the "cool"peoples!

See ya! Wouldn't want to be ya!

Don't you want to join all the cool kids first by bashing everyone else that doesn't agree with you.

Oh wait.

Originally posted by Wrender

funny thing is less than 80 people online here at mmorpg.com at this very moment? I think that might be a record here.

75 now, and yeah that's the lowest i've seen online for a very long time. Either people are bitching on here to hide the fact that they are playing a 'filthy themepark' or wow released an SWG expansion so they're out hitting the bottle somewhere.

I haven't played this game yet because I can't find a source where I can pay for the game using Paypal. Origin.com doesn't allow paypal for this game for some reason.

Anyways:

1. Darkfall is the best MMORPG before the community dwindled.. that's sad.
2. Second would be Anarchy Online and Ultima Online.

I've wanted to get back in to AO, but now SWTOR looks like AO and probably could fill that void nicely. Can anyone confirm if the game feels like AO?

I hated WoW. Does this mean I will hate SWTOR? Is it exactly like WoW?

I loathe the direction they went with the graphics. WoW's graphics are not the reason it's popular, so why did they have to make it look like WoW ith a Star Wars wrapper? (Unlike WoW, where in exchange for the cartoony graphics, you get smooth frame rates on very outdated PCs, this game performs sluggishly, while not looking that great).

I hate most of the armor graphics and design, low resolution and some just plain ugly, which is very bad in a game with very limited looks available for each class.

The first 10 levels are a real drag and set a poor first impression for the game. Has to be one of the worst early level experiences of any major AAA MMO the past six years.

That all said, I'm having fun with the game. At level 24, the world(s) are opening up and there does seem to be some choice available in what course you set for your progressions. (At least in the 20s, it could tighten again as the leveling curve accelerates, won't know until I progress further).

I'm impressed with the depth of the crafting system and the modifiable armor and weapons. (Too bad, with the exception of Light Sabers, players don't get much access or exposure to modifiable equipment until later in the game).

PvP is a mixed bag. Some maps are fun, some are not and there is no way to filter out the ones you don't like. There are balance issues galore in the PvP arena combat. Class balancing is going to be a major headache moving forward, along with all the moans and groans as the nerf bat starts bashing skulls.

Space combat is an on rails mini game, but it looks pretty good and I actually have a lot of fun playing. Too bad that once you finish your small handful of dailies, continued participation yields you almost nothing. I would play some of those battles more often if the rewards were, say, a third of what you get from doing them with a mission.

I'm opening my mind a bit for the posibbility the game may surprise me in longevity, but in some ways, it just makes the things I hate more annoying, because they drag down a title with a lot of positives.

Originally posted by adam_nox

 

First login and opening scene of shuttle landing was an eyeshock.  It looked so bad and bland coming from Skyrim, I thought there was something wrong with my graphics options, but no they were all set to high.  The ship and character movement animations were clunky and awkward, and the general style was too close to clone wars cartoons with severely reduced quality, for me to be at all impressed.

Why are you comparing two completely different art designs, designed to accomplish completley different things?

I love skyrim, believe me I do, but in no way would I want every game to be like skyrim in scope as far as the art design goes. I just don't.

It's like all you guys want vermeer when there is so much else out there.

You want to be impressed by detail when thats' not the point at all.

Whether you like the art design or not is one thing. But let's not be so closed minded as to want everything to be high detailed realism. Otherwise we would miss out on so much.

Originally posted by fiontar

I loathe the direction they went with the graphics. WoW's graphics are not the reason it's popular, so why did they have to make it look like WoW ith a Star Wars wrapper? (Unlike WoW, where in exchange for the cartoony graphics, you get smooth frame rates on very outdated PCs, this game performs sluggishly, while not looking that great).

I hate most of the armor graphics and design, low resolution and some just plain ugly, which is very bad in a game with very limited looks available for each class.

The first 10 levels are a real drag and set a poor first impression for the game. Has to be one of the worst early level experiences of any major AAA MMO the past six years.

That all said, I'm having fun with the game. At level 24, the world(s) are opening up and there does seem to be some choice available in what course you set for your progressions. (At least in the 20s, it could tighten again as the leveling curve accelerates, won't know until I progress further).

I'm impressed with the depth of the crafting system and the modifiable armor and weapons. (Too bad, with the exception of Light Sabers, players don't get much access or exposure to modifiable equipment until later in the game).

PvP is a mixed bag. Some maps are fun, some are not and there is no way to filter out the ones you don't like. There are balance issues galore in the PvP arena combat. Class balancing is going to be a major headache moving forward, along with all the moans and groans as the nerf bat starts bashing skulls.

Space combat is an on rails mini game, but it looks pretty good and I actually have a lot of fun playing. Too bad that once you finish your small handful of dailies, continued participation yields you almost nothing. I would play some of those battles more often if the rewards were, say, a third of what you get from doing them with a mission.

I'm opening my mind a bit for the posibbility the game may surprise me in longevity, but in some ways, it just makes the things I hate more annoying, because they drag down a title with a lot of positives.

I agree with some points, disagree with others. Maybe do a semi-review tomorrow. Overall, being a long time star trek fan, I wish some game developer could have done for star trek what bioware did for star wars. The combat actually feels like a star wars movie. The story is decent and actually makes missions feel more fun than seeing a quest text box, but it's not dumbed down because the player can still ask a one or two questions to get more info, gain social points, gain companion affection points. Everything feels very polished.

The PvP is starting to feel stale with just 3 warzones, but I haven't reached the pvp planets yet. Force powers feel very star wars-y. I  have some negatives, but will save them for the semi-review lol.