SpikeDelight

Here's an article I wrote for my site Press Play. Bit unconventional as I'm new to the genre, but I think it shows a unique perspective. Not a review, more of a casual reflection on my experience.

Completely new to MMOs, Nick gives his thoughts on the recently released Star Wars: The Old Republic after getting some solid hours logged.

All-out galactic war looms over the head of every being in existence, and politically neutral world Nar Shaddaa brims with the kind of chaotic power balance that can only be bought, bribed and bullied by gangsters like the Hutt family. Donning his cloak, hands ever-grazing his twin lightsabers, Sith Warrior Udun prowls the hovering metropolis, a harsh neon glow illuminating his red tattooed skin. Then he kills 10 droids. Then he kills 20 insects. Then he disables 5 computers, with a bonus mission to kill 10 droids.

As someone who values the little free time I do have in my day, I’d always sworn to myself that I wouldn’t be wooed by the loot-whoring, dungeon-raiding, part game, part full-time job that is the massively multiplayer online game. Yet here I am, rounding my 50 hour of Bioware’s recent epic, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m carrying out the same monotonous tasks known by fans of every other MMO, thinly veiled by new Lucasarts toy opportunities and a sleek conversation system, with no end in sight. Why did I do it, you may ask? The answer is simple: Because it’s Star Wars.

As in the Mass Effect series (but magnified in this case), the combat in this game is not what interests me. In fact, I hate the combat and find it a chore to run around pressing strings of number keys to make my “Marauder” flail his lightsaber around wildly. The game pays no attention to portraying a ‘realistic’ or visually compelling Star Wars fight. I suppose this is a trapping of MMOs in general, but it doesn’t make the bulk of my missions any less boring for a fan of ‘twitch,’ ‘stylish,’ or ‘tactical espionage’ schools of action.

What keep me coming back are the conversations and story threads, which are fully voiced, and have been consistently interesting so far. Systems in place for light-dark actions and how they affect you or your companions are brilliant, and decisions have a sobering amount of weight when there is no ability to load a quicksave. Talking in groups is always fun, as each person has the ability to contribute, though your group’s actions can never affect your personal light-dark meter. If I buddy up with someone of a different build and join him for a class-exclusive mission, I can still participate in his battles and watch him make decisions in his cutscenes, giving a taste of just how different the game could have been should I have chosen another path.

Space combat felt refreshingly polished when I first gained the ability to use my ship, but daily missions with limited variety ensured that these became more chore than treat very quickly. There are also several UI wrinkles that need ironing before I’m completely satisfied with the way I go about my day as a Sith, but I expect these will be patched in the coming months.

When I was waiting for this game to come out, I wanted to subscribe for a few months, beat the storylines I wanted to see, and move on to the rest of my ‘unfinished games’ stack. I can see now that this game is designed to prevent this, and I am likely to never see the end of even my current character’s storyline. I hear that this game implements a healthy amount of changes on the typical MMO formula, but I can’t comment on that. All I know is, after playing for a considerable amount of time, I can definitely recommend this game to fellow Star Wars fans. If the lightsaber combat isn’t as exciting as most Star Wars properties portray it, the universe and storylines definitely make up for this shortcoming. I feel like I’m in a living, breathing world where I am the star, even when there are 15 other high-level Sith Warriors crowded around a guy I’m talking to, all there for the same mission.

Nick Hawryluk is the co-pruducer, director and editor of Press Play the Webseries. He also runs and contributes articles to the Press Play website. For more Press Play content, visit us online at www.pressplaytv.com

I apologize for resurrecting this, but is there an actual suggestions area where we can ask for this to be implemented? This problem just happened to me again, haha!

I mean, with all the user achievements and stuff they've put into the site since its inception, maybe a member-specific ability to save your place or allow a video to stay paused would be another good incentive to get people to buy subscriptions... especially because of how long the subscriber videos tend to get!

Am I really the only GB member who's thought about this? Like, for example on the recent 90 minute video where Jeff answers questions, I had to write down the time where I was, because if I left my chrome window open and paused, it would restart if I came back later.

I don't know... maybe it is just me

Hey I've been wanting this sort of thing for some time, and I wonder if anyone else has thought about this:

I watch a LOT of Giant Bomb videos, but due to the longer nature of the videos on the site I usually can't watch a whole video in one sitting. I've always wanted a way to bookmark my place in a video so I can return to it later, instead of having to just remember where I was. I'm not sure if there's some crazy web development stuff going on with making this actually happen, but I would definitely appreciate a feature like this if it was implemented.

Any thoughts?

Hey I put this article up earlier yesterday about the new GTA V trailer, which really digs deep into each significant image we see. What do you guys think? And is there anything I missed? I'd love to hear some insights.

Most importantly, who else is rooting for a GTA/Dead Rising crossover? :P

http://www.pressplaytv.com/gta-v-in-depth-trailer-breakdown/

I was checking out the Yakuza 4 review and I noticed the reviewer's portrait is of Cupid and there's no by-line. I was wondering if anybody knows who wrote this or what the deal is with not giving this individual credit for his work.

Link: http://www.giantbomb.com/yakuza-4/61-27487/reviews/

It's cool that the proceeds go to charity, and if enough people are really that passionate about CoD I'm glad they have something to bring them all together. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

I appreciate the comments, guys!

For those of you who were asking, the Korean influence draws specifically from films like A Bittersweet Life (getting hit with the cinderblock at the beginning is a direct nod to the warehouse scene) I Saw the Devil, and The Man From Nowhere. We closely studied what made fights fundamentally Korean for this and the other 2 fight scenes we've choregraphed. The conclusion I've drawn is that the hero comes in, does exactly what he needs to do as quickly as possible and leaves, usually disregarding typical fight etiquette, to the surprise of his enemies. No slow-mo shots where a big hit lands, and no stare downs like in Japanese cinema. The chaos of battle is usually played up through extremely fast and disorienting camera work. Typically by the end of a fight the "hero" shows a wanton disregard for human life, murdering where he could have accomplished the same task knocking someone out. The hero ALWAYS gets hurt or hurts himself by doing his fight moves as well, which shows itself in the second screen test to be shot in a few weeks. The biggest Korean thing, which doesn't show itself as much in this fight because of its length, is that at least two actions always happen at once. For example, if the hero is punching a guy, another enemy should miss him with a knife because of the way the hero's body moved while punching. This isn't a Japanese or "Assassin's Creed" honor system where everybody stands in a circle and waits for the hero to kick his friend in the groin. We found that the hallway fight everybody knows from Old Boy, while hitting on a lot of bullet points typical of Korean cinema fighting, was more of an exception with its minimal camera movement and editing, so we stayed away from doing something to that effect.

I'll be sure to post the next screen test, where the hero sustains a lot more damage, and see if the Korean influence resonates with you guys a bit more!

Hey guys -  
 
My brother and I made this screen test for a short Korean-Style Action Film we're making in the near future. Basically a proof of concept for our choreography and editing/VFX, as the lighting, props, location and actors are different. Let me know your thoughts though, and if you're interested in seeing the finished project. I'd love to hear from you!