The two level 24 Jedi Knights waiting outside the instance portal told me I wasn’t ready for this. The class quest, one said, was terribly overpowered and not worth trying for several more levels. One had obviously just taken a beating himself, and for a moment I contemplated jumping back into my starship and contenting…

Many years from now, perhaps in some footnote (if such things manage to survive), one of the things we’ll be remembered for is our love of using the oddest things to kill zombies for entertainment. Sometimes we use plants, sometimes we slap them with a shovel, and sometimes we resort to boring them with weighty…

Just what do scientists and engineers do in the Star Wars galaxy? In the 3,500 or so years that have passed between the events of The Old Republic and Anakin Skywalker’s extended angsty teenager phase, droids mostly remain clunky automatons and starships still resemble Texas-sized paper airplanes. If our humble universe followed the same progression,…

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Companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic? The idea originally struck me as ludicrous as developing deep relationships with a Warlock’s Voidwalker in World of Warcraft or a Lore-master’s raven in Lord of the Rings Online. But now, 24 levels in, it’s clear that the companion system is one of the game’s strongest points, particularly…

Today my Jedi Guardian learned the “Taunt” ability and the “Soresu Form” defensive stance, which means he’s now officially a pain-sponging tank and not just some dude who wears heavy armor and dishes out slightly less damage than his companions. That also means he’s already in high demand. During my first day as a “real”…

Forrest Gump would love Coruscant. Despite my best efforts, I was only able to level from 11 to 15 last night largely because of the lengthy marathons required to get anywhere in the sprawling capital city of the Republic. I won’t deny that the monumental scale of the red carpet leading up to the Senate…

Another MMO, another gut-wrenching decision as to what server to play on. After frowning at the hordes flocking to the Empire’s Sith Inquisitor class and shrugging off the dog-kicking attitude of the Empire in general, I followed my heart to play on for the Republic side — and I knew I wanted to play as…

It’s finally time — for some of us, at least. Five years and nine months after BioWare first announced it was working on an unnamed MMORPG project at its new Austin studio, Star Wars: The Old Republic today began the process of letting millions of players into its universe. We took the opportunity to ask…

Few historical settings seem so appropriate for videogames as Viking-age Scandinavia. Even if you disregard its grim mythology and sagas stuffed with stoic comitati, it’s hard to dismiss the entertainment potential offered by a society that produced kings with names like Eric Bloodaxe. And yet, until Skyrim, videogame developers have done exactly that for the…