Rise of the Hutt Cartel, the first expansion to The Old Republic, was released last month with a promise of fresh content to play through and more carrots to chase by upping the level cap from 50 to 55. So, with the galaxy saved and level 50 reached, my character headed back to his starship, to find a holocall waiting for him. After a cutscene featuring a delightful action sequence with some training droids, and a conversation about the imminent destruction of Makeb, my giant green Jedi zoomed off to the newest entry in Star Wars lore.

Well, what do we have here? Only a whole new playable race for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Please don your Darth Vader mask as you lecture less well-educated Star Wars fans on the canon of the Cathar – or just watch the video below. The sharp-eyed aliens arrive in Update 2.1: Customization, which has not been dated.

Source: Facebook

From now until April 14, anybody who pre-ordered Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s expansion Rise of the Hutt Cartel on or before January 7 can jump in and start playing the latest expansion. Rise of the Hutt Cartel adds five new levels, a whole new planet by the name of Makeb, new content, and of course same-sex romance options.

As part of the launch SW:TOR 2.0 has been released, which brings with it a number of new features — most of which seem to be restricted purely to level 55 characters, at least according to the official patch notes.

Since you can of course only reach level 55 by purchasing the Hutt Cartel expansion, this means that free-to-play players will not get access to a lot of the new content. That said there is of course a huge laundry list of changes, tweaks and bugfixes, so make sure to read it in full if you’re keen on getting back into it.

BioWare revealed last month that the APAC server for SW:TOR were to be shut down, a decision not well received by the community.

Source: SW:TOR

Sad news today for the Asia-Pacific Star Wars: The Old Republic community as BioWare announces their decision to shut down the APAC servers due to low player populations, and to merge the playerbase into the North American ones.

“We have evaluated all of the options and determined that the best solution, that will offer the best long term play experience, is to merge the APAC servers with higher populated North American servers,” reads the post by Eric Musco on the official forums. “Getting to the point of being able to merge the servers is going to be a multistep process. First off we need to update our Free Character Transfer System to include the game changes that we have made recently along with the upcoming changes in Game Update 2.0 and the Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel.”

“We will then offer Free Character Transfers to anyone currently playing on an APAC server to a North American server of the same gameplay type, specifically: Mastar Dar’Nala (PvP) will transfer to The Bastion (PvP). Gav Daragon (RP-PvE) will transfer to Begeren Colony (RP-PvE). Dalborra (PvE) will transfer to The Harbinger (PvE).”

This announcement comes only days after BioWare’s executive producer Jeff Hickman described their new super-servers as “teeming with people” and announcing the creation of two million new accounts.

Musco explains that BioWare decided against merging the players into one single APAC super-server, saying that not only would this force players to change their play style and doesn’t serve the longer-term goals of the company. A quick browse through the thread seems to show that the majority of players are unconcerned about the play style issue and just want to be able to play with low ping, but it remains to be seen whether BioWare will change their mind.

Source: SWTOR Forums (thanks Simon)

Makeb is the central planet in Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel. In this new development diary lead writer Hall Hood and lead concept artist Ryan Dening meet to discuss the new setting, including graphical enhancements that will be shipping as part of the expansion, and how your character’s storyline will continue on this new world. Makeb has gained some notoriety as “the same-sex romance planet”, as it’s the first (and only) part in the game that same-sex romances are currently planned to be available. But there is of course more to this expansion than that, which you can learn here.

Rise of the Hutt Cartel is due in Spring, and will cost you $20 (or $10, if you’re a current subscriber).

The latest update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is set to go live within 24 hours and developer BioWare has released a short video in support of the package. Known as Relics of the Gree, this new recurring event will see players travel to the icebound (and wompa infested) world of Ilum. There they will discover a mysterious new starship, clash with other players for resources and help some adorable aliens with their scientific enquiries. According to BioWare, players should attain at least level 45 before attempting Relics of the Gree. The event will run through Tuesday 26 February and then return periodically thereafter.

Source: SWTOR

January/February is usually a really slow time for releases, with few AAA titles hitting shelves before March and even fewer of them being RPGs. In recent years the number of early year releases has noticeably grown, with numerous publishers pushing pre-Christmas release dates a little so that there is some space between major releases. Unfortunately that hasn’t really lead to more RPGs being released in this slot. In the place of releases, however, seems to have come a heap of interesting news and controversy. Let’s take a look at some of that, shall we?

Star Wars: The Old Republic is getting its first expansion later this year, and it’s set on the planet Makeb. The expansion, which will cost $10 for subscribers or $20 for free players, adds five new levels, more content, and brings the game’s first same-sex romances which are, for the moment, only available on Makeb. And it looks a bit like this…

BioWare’s Jeff Hickman has used the recent Star Wars: The Old Republic State of the Game Address to discuss some issues important to the community, including end-game content, PVP, and of course the long-awaited same-sex romance options.

“We’ve got new Operations, new Flashpoints, new difficulty modes, new PvP areas, and of course, the entire Digital Expansion: Rise of the Hutt Cartel (which is targeted at our high level players),” says Hickman. “Overall, we’re aiming to introduce a more diverse array of activities – more stuff to do with your Companion, more challenges to tackle with groups, and more reasons for guilds to recruit.”

On the subject of PVP, Hickman explains that open-world PVP has not been forgotten, but has proven more complex than they anticipated. “We will be experimenting with a different approach to Open World PvP, something that encourages organic PvP in contested areas in a new and interesting way, but do not look for massive new Open World PvP this year (outside of what I mentioned above). It is still on our design wall, but is taking a back seat to other forms of PvP.”

Finally, same-sex romances will be making their first appearance in the upcoming 1.7 patch, as Hickman apologises for the delay. “Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realized at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. As we have said in the past, allowing same gender romance is something we are very supportive of.”

“I want to reveal today that we are adding SGR with some NPCs on Makeb and do intend on pursuing more SGR options in the future. More details to come!”

Source: SW:TOR Blog

Well, Star Wars: The Old Republic has now gone free-to-play and with that comes the inevitability of paid expansions. The first of those is now revealed: ‘Rise of the Hutt Cartel’ is coming in Spring 2013, and it’ll cost you $10 if you’re a subscriber, or $20 if you’re a free player.

The expansion, which is detailed here on the official site, adds five new levels to the level cap and bumps it up to 55 with new story-driven missions. These will take place on the new planet Makeb, against “a frightening new enemy”, as well as “never-before-seen Droids and monstrous battle stations”.

Do you want to know more? Here’s the Official ‘Rise of the Hutt Cartel’ FAQ.

We all knew it was coming, they announced the date and then, just like magic — here it is. Yes, Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone free-to-play as of right now, and to celebrate they’ve rolled out Game Update 1.5: ‘HK-51 Activated’.

The new Game Update, as you might have guessed, adds HK-51 to the list of available companions. HK-51 can be found on Belsavis in the wreckage of a derelict ship, but Belsavis also has a new ‘Section X’ where you can explore the prison world and help (or presumably, hinder as well) the Dread Masters’ servants as they search for a “powerful and ancient weapon”. How many powerful and ancient weapons can one universe have?

Also, there’s a new Nightmare Mode for Operation: Explosive Conflict, and teams who complete in this mode will earn the final pieces of the Dread Guard gear set — and a new mount that “will be sure to cause tank envy”. Is it a tank? Sources say: yeah, probably.

Anyway, what’s important is that the game is now free-to-play, finally! So hit up the official website and get in.

Source: Press Release

We all knew it was on the way, but we were all waiting for a final date — and now we have it. As of November 15, Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a free-to-play option. The switch over to F2P will be simultaneous across all territories and countries.

Those who are still paying the subscription fee on November 15 will be granted all their Complimentary Cartel Coins and a one time pay-out of 250 Complimentary Cartel Coins. Also, if you reactivate your subscription by December 20, you will be granted Complimentary Cartel Coins for prior paid months up to November 15.

What we should really take away from this is that, finally, SW:TOR is going free-to-play. What do you think about that? Do you think you’ll re-download now that there’s no subscription fee? I’m certainly considering it. How do you think it will stand up to other F2P fare? Let us know below.

Source: SW:TOR Blog