Thegameveda plays the Star Wars The Old Republic Beta : but is not a Jedi ...yet!
Prologue
And presently the docs at Bioware emailed me an invite , finally after my registering in I think 2009 , the email arrived in advance of the test , on a week day and so you get the 20gb download out of the way far in advance of the beta test which starts on the weekend but you suffer the anticipation , thusly I was able to load 3 machines up with the 20gb download , in order to kill myself or become stronger with the Force trying at the weekend testing the game , it takes more than a 48 hour game binge across 2 operating systems , and 3 different PC form factors to take this gamer out ! Although strangely I seemed to have lost the need to sleep ..ever again... It is by will alone I set my mind in motion...
test machines
1. Acer Iconia 6120 Dual Screen first gen i5 2.67 ghz CPU Intel GMA HD GPU with 4gb DDR 3 Windows 8 Developer Preview 64 bit OS game and OS running from a 5400 rpm spindle 640gb hard drive game played on Wifi N 50 meg using the Iconias Broadcom Wifi N modem. All game settings were on low
On the dual screen Acer Iconia not only can one play the game , but we can do 3 games at once and surf the website at the same time ... what ? doubt ? I find your lack of faith..wait and see!
2. Lenovo X220 T 2nd gen i7 CPU Intel HD3000 GPU , 4gb DDR3 Windows 8 Developer Preview 64 bit OS game and OS running from a Runcore msata ssd game played with Wifi N using the Intel® Centrino®Advanced-N 6205 modem
the i7 powered IPS panelled X220T sounds like the Empire built it and comes with no less than 5 forms of input , so we can play The Old Republic , with multitouch , the red nubbin , trackpad , keyboard , pen and external mouse! All games settings were on high the res was 1366 by 768
3. Intel Skulltrail DX5400S Intel QX9775 EXTREME at 3.2GHZ cooled with a Coolit Boreas Skulltrail edition MTEC chiller, 4gb DDR 2 , Ati 5970 Black Edition , two 30 inch 2560 by 1600 monitors WIndows 7 Ultimate 64 bit OS game and OS running from 2 1 Terabyte Samsung HDD in Raid. Played hardwired to 50meg broadband
It is nice when developers actually use your hardware , and TOR scales up nicely if you have what passed as for gaming rig before this sentence began...
on with the saga then: all videos and hi res pictures taken during my weekend of Beta Testing
Episode I : Sith , Jedi,Batman,Snipers and Fallout victims duelling on a Dual Screen Tablet ...bless the maker !
Test 1 : Playing the game whilst surfing the website
Bearing in mind most people will know little of the games setting , having a second screen to check out the background lore and details is very coo...and gives you a certain je ne sais Paul Atreides feeling .. So we are on a planet called Tython , we touch the second screen and check out its`s background , I decided to be a Jedi something or other so we tap the lower screen and find out what they get up too... like my Jedi master guru Cartman says ..how coo !
next we play the game on screen 1 whilst we take and edit a screen shot on screen 2 and write into blogger about the experience all before the door bell rings and I have to stop recording to answer it ,,without using my Force powers!
this is the screen cap taken in the above video :
an F12 Screen cap shows you more detail of what this looks like without my ageing but faithful camera :
Next we finally blast off Tython to the space station that forms a transit hub for travel and trade in screen 1 whilst in screen two we continue to read up on Jedi , and take more snapshots
and here are is our vacation snap note hitting f12 on the Iconia snaps both screens !
TOR has very very big game spaces , which whilst realistic can take an age to traverse , say you arrive at the Coruscant hangar it can take a minute to reach the door , that takes you out of the hangar !At running speed! So with a dual screen tablet we set our character running in the direction of the door on screen 1, whilst we peruse more game lore on screen 2 and take some more snapshots , by the time we finish reading our would be Jedi has reached the door or is stuck in some furniture ..either way we just saved some time! No Bothans died (of laughter ) to bring you this vital information:
Right , now we are cooking , having discovered the door out of the corridor that leads our from the Coruscant hangar ( is it me or were text adventures/MUDDS easier to navigate), I am touring Coruscant on screen 1 , whilst taking more snapshots in screen two and learning more about the game background , at this rate I might even start playing the game for real but I am in no hurry , this is one of the most beautifully detailed gaming environments ever , and I gotta be me ...I gotta be free.. time enough to play later right now I am having enough fun exploring:
and here are the snapshots of the dual screens of the Iconia , we play in the top screen whilst mess with the official site in
Now for the impressive stuff . lets play Batman Arkham Asylum , and a little Fallout ( the original ) whilst we play Star Wars The Old Republic , thanks to the magic of onlive , note this is also a test of of how TOR handles Wifi load , the onlive service hogs your Wifi , but as you can see TOR does not lose connection or lag , and most impressively on the Iconia the game does not slow down! take a look this is multiscreening !
So we tried playing 2 games at once , so how about 3 ? In the next video we are going to play Star Wars The Old Republic whilst playing Batman Arkham City using onlive , and the new demo of Sniper Ghost Warrior on Gaikai , so we have java and html high band with streaming stressing out our Star Wars TOR Beta , is the Force strong with this one ? let`s find out:
conclusions : playing SWTOR on Intel GMA hardware is more than possible , the game is played at low settings , but even on these settings the game retains the awe you feel walking round it`s vast environments . Stressing the wifi on my Iconia and the game itself buy playing two other Internet intensive streamed games did not place a dent Star Wars The Old Republic.
There was not a single crash or drop out to desktop , this is rock solid code , Skyrim hang your horned head in shame , Dragonborntocrashtodesktop!
The only thing that could dent this code is the sheer amount of people who are going to be playing .As you can see from the videos you can quite happily play this game on the dual screen Acer Iconia and in a way that you cannot on any other machine
Episode II : Jedi and Sith vs the Lenovo X220 T
The XX20T is a deadly tablet , if it were an Ace Combat pilot it would be called Akula ... packing an i7 , Intel HD3000 an IPS panel that Macbook owners can only dream of. , 5 ways to control in put a mysterious red nubbin , trackpad and 3 buttons , the finest ultraportable keyboard known to man , multitouch screen , pen and external mouse input . It is a machine that would make any young or old in the tooth Sith very happy....
So how does it handle Star Wars The Old Republic?
well it goes a little something like this :
at this point I discovered the taxi service
Episode III : The Return of the Desktop Jedi ....
At 5120 by 1600 on twin Ion ..sorry twin 30 inch monitors ...on my desktop Star Wars TOR simply flies , the videos here are silent as by this test ran from around 3 am to 7 am ! and I needed my best Princess Leia Headphones.. but you should get a feel for the speed that is possible , note the frame rate of the video is only 25fps , but the actual game frame rates are much higner.
Result? The game recognised the resolution and ran without a hiccup , or dropped frame , the fmv is not stretched at the moment and I have no figured out how to re size the interface.All the screens from this point on are captured at 5120 by 1600 using Fraps , the videos cannot convey the detail ! but check them out to get a feeling
Bioware`s The Old Republic certainly gets the Star Wars magic of losing its audience in vast weird and wonderful yet familiar surroundings . The worlds here are full of faith , mumbo jumbo and weird science none of which needs explanation in that annoying Star Trek TNG tech manual quoting manner ( note to Mr Lucas) . The Old Republic , benefits from our complete familiarity with its source material , a new story arc for starved fans decades too old now to keep Tivoing Clone Wars when the kids are not looking, and yet another way to hook newbies or younglings I think they are called to the old franchise . Can it survive as a subscription based MMO in a galaxy of freeplay MMOs ? Yes , this is Bioware and a setting that is going to be too enticing to ignore , and it is not like we are getting Episode VII, VIII and IX any time soon . The sad thing is that Star Wars Galaxies had to be killed off to make way for this , in the politest of Douglas Adams styles of course. The Vogons , sorry Lucasarts need to remove the competition , and give EA , Bioware and their 100 million dollar investment gamble a chance at succeeding, and free enough core Star Wars fans and move them to TOR , this is a shame , as Galaxies was in it`s original form quite the Star Wars Escape , you really could go be a hermit in that Tatooine desert , or fly that starship you always wanted to. To many the era that Galaxies is set in is Star Wars , thus killing it leaves a gap in the market. Also mass movement to TOR from Galaxies is not guaranteed , as fans are non too happy about it`s death , and we all know that a brand like Star Wars , which is THE ultimate brand , would easily allow a for a profitable free to play model for both Galaxies and TOR ,
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| we used to chase bubble gum cards of Ralph McQuarrie paintings like this ! Now you just hit F10 from FRAPS! |
Having lived through the horror of rushed programming or lack of programming that Skyrim is ( I am up to almost 1000 random crashes ..how about you? And losing the Battle of Getting Battlefield 3 to work ) , starting, installing , playing the Star Wars the Old Republic Beta has been a dream.
These days if you have bled and suffered to actually build a decent gaming machine , you often spend more time tweaking and patching and restarting your behemoth , glad that no one is actually around to see your embarrassment at more time getting games to work than actually playing them .
This does not happen with Star Wars The Old Republic , it is a slick experience , and runs beautifully fast at 5120 by 1600 as you can see below . This is just a first intro video showing how easily the game engine scales . On some levels with the dual screen setup there was some flickering of shadows , but this is probably a gpu driver issue . And it certainly did not keep me from getting lost in the worlds of The Old Republic.
Oh an the intro videos are some of the best Star Wars experiences since you were Red 5 taking out the death star in your bunk bed aged 7.
So let`s try a mission out for size at 5120 by 1600 res :
This game is consistently beautiful , the worlds and levels of this size , with this much going on could only be done on PC . In short it is the best thing to happen to PC gaming in a long time, if you need a reason to upgrade this is not it , for the engine that Bioware have used scales from the fastest gaming desktop down to even Intel GMA based laptops and tablets as I have attempted to show you ...but if you feel tempted to order a third 30 inch LCD and play at resolutions beyond 7000 horizontal pixels , then yours is the Galaxy my son..
All in all EA and Bioware could be on the brink of the most successful PC exclusive launch in recent gaming history , in the short term this should allow EA to recoup investment costs , but in the long term The Old Republic will have to move to a free play model , to mop up the masses , using the power of the Star Wars brand to find new ways to monetise the game .
Collectors buy the Star Wars The Old Republic Collectors Edition now from thegameveda ebay store or Game whilst stocks last .
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