Posted By Shaun K. about 4 months, 1 week ago
If years of popular culture intake has taught me anything, its that the combination of glowing yellow eyes and a seemingly decaying mouth is seldom a good one.
After a highly successful launch and almost first month in service, the time for the first major content update for Star Wars: The Old Republic has come and Blistered Thumbs has all the information you need.
Titled Rise of the Rakghouls, this update will go live on Tuesday, January 17 and will focus primarily on the addition of new high level content for players to enjoy. The centerpiece of the update will be a new Flashpoint (TOR’s name for 4 player focused instances) titled Kaon Under Siege and a new Operation (TOR’s name for 8 to 16 player instances) titled Karagga’s Palace. Both of these instances will serve as the opening salvo to two major new story arcs that players can expect to see continue to play out on in the months ahead. Full official descriptions, plus a trailer for Kaon, follow:
Flashpoint: Kaon Under Siege is a completely new and unique group combat experience located on Kaon, a planet in the Tion Hegemony, a strategically important sector of the galaxy that has remained neutral, groups of up to four Republic or Imperial players must race to Kaon to eliminate the Rakghouls outbreak, securing the allegiance of the Tion Hegemony for their respective sides. This Flashpoint will be available for level 50 characters only and will feature Normal and Heroic modes.
Operation: Karagga’s Palace, is a continuation of the game’s second launch Operation. In the Operation, teams of 8 or 16 players will face off against Karagga and the Hutt Cartel after the Hutts abandon their famous neutrality and breach agreements with both the Republic and Empire. Concerned by the threat of another combatant in the war for galactic control, both factions send teams of their most powerful heroes to confront Karagga and determine his intentions. This Operation will feature Normal, Heroic and Nightmare difficulty modes.
While both of these sound like great additions to The Old Republic, I have to admit that of the two, it is Kaon Under Siege that has me the most excited. In an interview with the website IGN, Gabe Amatangelo, Lead Designer on PvP, Operations and Flashpoints, had the following to say about Kaon Under Siege:
Kaon is a post-apocalyptic city planet. It’s a new setting, a new atmosphere, a new kind of gameplay experience. Players are going to be going around in these dark environments with flashlights, and there’s going to be monsters jumping out at them from corners and stuff like that. It’s my personal favorite flashpoint. You’re going through broken-down movie theater settings with this sort of creepy ambiance. It’s (also) a full story Flashpoint – you make choices along the way, they have consequences. One of the boss fights is an overgrown, mutated Rakghoul, and you’ve got to use the environment to bring him down. There’s explosive materials, and various ledges and stuff you have to use to beat the boss fight.
While I am not the biggest survival horror fan, I do rather love the idea of Star Wars meets Dead Space if for no other reason it speaks to how BioWare is actually trying to go beyond the typical mold of MMOs. That alone would have me excited but the fact that both of these additions will feature encounters that require more than just the standard spam attack approach to get through them is also heartening. I also appreciate that The Old Republic’s best feature (which is to say its rich, sprawling, and truly epic storylines) is not being neglected. Check out some additional screens for Kaon below:
Oh dear. He does not look friendly, does he?
Perfect place for pleasant stroll, right?
All Gary the Trooper could think to himself as the group ran from the horde of slavering monsters behind them was ‘I knew I should learned Summon Bigger Fish when I had the chance.’
‘Gun?’ Gary the trooper asked. ‘What gun? Oh. You mean this gun. Heh, heh, heh. Sorry about that whole shooting you in the face thing…’ Even once Gary got his gun unjammed from the place where it had been shoved, he never was able to quite walk the same way again.
Other additions planned for Rise of the Rakghouls include level 50 bracketing for PvP WarZones, improved anti-aliasing, and changes to the high level Open World PvP on Ilum. The next major update for The Old Republic is planned for March 2012 and will include more new Flashpoints and Operations along with new WarZones, game systems, and UI improvements. In the meantime, Rise of the Rakghouls will be released on Tuesday, January 17. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of this major MMO and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Source(s): BioWare . http://www.swtor.com/
IGN. http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1216349p1.html
MMO Grinder Sidequest is a quick look at MMOs I wouldn’t normally review, be it through limited trial accounts, or Closed Beta games. First up, it’s the oft requested Star Wars The Old Republic.
At the Star Wars Guild Summit there was a video shown to the attendees that detailed the upcoming 1.2 Mega-Patch. Finally, after much waiting, comes the actual clear and HD version of that video…
Last week saw EA and BioWare’s investors receiving a few updates on their many investments.
After a highly successful launch and almost first month in service, the time for the
The Disciples of Hatred and it’s Roleplayers Contingent take on some PvP in the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta
Announcing the first gathering of the Disciples of Hatred during the Beta Weekend Stress Test! …and of course that silly Jedi Consular progression video too.
Your questions FINALLY answered! What are the best aspects of the game? Why this MMO than any other? Do we get to kill Jar Jar? All this and more in ToR Q&A #1!
At the Star Wars Guild Summit there was a video shown to the attendees that detailed the upcoming 1.2 Mega-Patch. Finally, after much waiting, comes the actual clear and HD version of that video…
Last week saw EA and BioWare’s investors receiving a few updates on their many investments.
After a highly successful launch and almost first month in service, the time for the
The Disciples of Hatred and it’s Roleplayers Contingent take on some PvP in the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta
Announcing the first gathering of the Disciples of Hatred during the Beta Weekend Stress Test! …and of course that silly Jedi Consular progression video too.
Your questions FINALLY answered! What are the best aspects of the game? Why this MMO than any other? Do we get to kill Jar Jar? All this and more in ToR Q&A #1!
Angry Joe shares his SWTOR Beta Gameplay impressions as he creates his Sith Lord, engages in combat as a warrior and partakes in joyful prisoner torture!
MMO Grinder Sidequest is a quick look at MMOs I wouldn’t normally review, be it through limited trial accounts, or Closed Beta games. First up, it’s the oft requested Star Wars The Old Republic.
Angry Joe shares his SWTOR Beta Gameplay impressions as he creates his Sith Lord, engages in combat as a warrior and partakes in joyful prisoner torture!
Pledge your Allegiance to either Darth Joe and the Sith Empire or Spoony Wan and
Last week saw EA and BioWare’s investors receiving a few updates on their many investments.
The Disciples of Hatred and it’s Roleplayers Contingent take on some PvP in the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta
Announcing the first gathering of the Disciples of Hatred during the Beta Weekend Stress Test! …and of course that silly Jedi Consular progression video too.
Your questions FINALLY answered! What are the best aspects of the game? Why this MMO than any other? Do we get to kill Jar Jar? All this and more in ToR Q&A #1!
Angry Joe shares his SWTOR Beta Gameplay impressions as he creates his Sith Lord, engages in combat as a warrior and partakes in joyful prisoner torture!
Much like the Jedi, you were deceived. I was in the beta test all along! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums have been updated with a new post from Allison Berryman who has written that the beta invites for the third beta weekend for SWTOR are being sent out to hungry fans everywhere…
Back from the Con, and it’s time for more Star Wars goodness! Bring on the trailers!
One of the coolest bars in gaming also happens to be one of the most interesting.
My problem with this is that I have to gain 39 more levels to play this. sigh
we, we so excited, we so excited.
I am reading these comments like “oh no not zombie horror, where is that bandwagon for me to jump on” They are mutants not zombies as we all know so stfu with your bitching.
Why anything, why don’t we fight some guys with blasters or some rogue sith/jedi? Fuck it just enjoy the fact there is content so soon after a successful launch and be grateful by the time you reach 50 you will have something to do…
Anyway I am looking forward to this, it is something fun for my guild to focus on and something to do at 50 other than pvp.
Wait, you think people being sick of zombie invasions is “jumping on the bandwagon”? I’m genuinely sick of such content because including a zombie-like invasion is itself jumping on the bandwagon!
Oh sure, we all know that rakghouls are mutants… but why make them so zombie-like in this trailer, then? In KOTOR, nobody acted like a rakghoul until they fully (and rather suddenly) transformed into the grotesque monster. Here, I see pale humanoids yet untransformed acting like zombies. IT COUNTS.
Actually multiple stages has always been a part of the Rakghoul transformation so that is not something new for The Old Republic. Indeed the game already features these stages, albeit in a less explicitly horror fashion, when it has players revisit Taris, a fact which leads me to wonder if you even play the game. Its not a big deal if you do not but if that is the case, why does this bother you? The whole idea of Rakghouls has always been disturbing and potentially terrifying from the beginning, so this is just their original creators taking the idea and running with it in a clever fashion.
Do I want to see an entire Survival Horror Star Wars game? Gods no but that is the beauty of an MMO. It can present players with a wide variety of experiences, both from a gameplay and story basis, all within a single package. I am amazed that you see this as some sort of act of uncreativity on the parts of BioWare when nothing could be further from the truth. After all, this is not how the game normally plays nor is it within the regular wheelhouse of the company. Which means that creating this Flashpoint is an example of the company expanding their horizons and trying something different and new. It also points to the way a variety of different genres could be incorporated into the larger whole of the game, a prospect that I find genuinely exciting.
I can respect someone who is tired of endless zombie games; heck I am like that myself. But just because a game is trying to take on some horror elements for a specific mission in a much larger game does not meant they are simply copying Call of Duties Zombie Mode as I believe you are eluding to. Using Rakghouls in this manner is both consistent with the mythology of the universe and clever in the context of the larger game. This is not ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ any more then Silent Hill 1 was when it was released following the success of Resident Evil 1. Rakghouls have always been zombie analogs and using them to create a survival horror-esque mission just makes sense in my opinion.
I’m depressed now. Even Star Wars isn’t immune to “zombie mode” now. *sigh* Why? Rakghouls were creepy and interesting in the original KOTOR, but they were diseased mutants living in the dank undercity… and now they’re another stupid zombie invasion like every other bonus content permeating the market.
I am excited for this. Though I must say I can’t wait till the big March update to see what changes they have in store. I would love a more customizable UI along with minor improvements here and there. And the ability to choose which warzone you queue for instead of randomly doing one of the three would be nice as well.
While Kaon sounds really cool, why rakghouls? And since it’s level 50 why are characters, who at that point would be some of the most powerful people in the galaxy, fighting rakghouls?
I do see what you mean, but rakghouls ARE creepy ass hell. If I have to think of one mob that I have encountered in my swtor adventures that I do NOT want to jump at me from the dark it’s a rakghoul. I do not think I am the only one so they made it so, and I think it’s a good thing
.
I looking forward to this update, happy to see the wait is short.