Star wars might be delayed till 2012

[Gogan]

Played a Bounty Hunter till level 10. Pretty good game, but I'm afraid it's not the WoW-killer everyone was hoping for. Obviously 10 levels is not very much to judge the game by -- maybe 6 hours or so (it's much slower paced than WoW). But Rift felt much more impressive and exciting in the early game than SWtoR has so far. Rift's graphics are much better, for example -- awe inspiring at times. SW is pretty disappointing in that regard.

The gameplay is pretty fun. Plenty of abilities and cooldowns to manage, even early on. The quests are fairly interesting too. Very story driven and immersive -- not your typical "go here and kill X enemies" or "go there and gather Y things". In fact, I think I've only had a couple gathering quests so far. The voice acting is all really well done. Clearly, the story is the big draw in this game, and so far, it's pretty good.

Overall, I give it a solid B grade. The graphics and overall feel of the game leave much to be desired, but the gameplay works, servers seem quite stable, and the story-driven approach is novel enough to stick with it to see what the end-game is like.

[Megasteve]

I agree. I've got a level 11 Sith Assassin. The starting areas do a pretty good job of getting you used to the game. There is definitely an emphasis on the story, and I think it's a cool change from the normal "WoW"-style mmo.

There's so much interaction with NPCs which is a plus in my book. They had to have spent so much time with the voice overs, because every bit of dialogue so far has been spoken.

I've done 3 "heroic" quests. The first 2 were easily doable with my companion around level 8. The 3rd required a full party as the Mandalorian elites fucking rape. I ran the first Empire Flashpoint - Black Talon earlier at level 10. It was pretty solid, neat to see everyone in the group participate in the story line that takes place. I think it took us about an hour to complete. None of the bosses were hard, save for the "bonus" boss that actually required someone to heal throughout the fight.

My only gripes so far have to be the advanced class change, since you would expect something popping up telling you where to go. It took me about 30 minutes of running around to find the starting point for the change.

I'd be playing more, but right now no one can log in who is in Drumond Kass (10+ zone).