Star Wars: The Old Republic - Improvements I Would Like Too See

Sooner rather than later. Some of these are necessary immediately, while some are just hopeful things that could be added in the future (such as guild levels). I think TOR is a great game so far, but it does have a lot of issues as many new MMOs do.

-PvP brackets (fighting level 50s or even 40s as a low level isn't fun Bioware)

-Get rid of the loot bag buying to get PvP rewards (RNG is not fun)

-Lowered mission skill costs

-Lowered repair costs

-Lowered skill training costs

-Better performance in Warzones

-Better performance on ability activation (which means fixing animation bugs which cause issues as well)

-Combat logs

-Addon support

-Mount scaling with level

-Fix the graphics options so they actually work, add more of them, and add AA support

-Fix the lighting issues on Tatooine (and other planets)

-Improved GTN (better search functionality, as well as price per unit sorting, remembering what you last listed an item for etc)

-PvP armor stats need to be fully removable (everyone shouldn't be forced to wear it, what's the point of all that orange armor customization if we get shut out as soon as we need to wear PvP gear)

-Same with raid gear if it suffers from the same issues (either that or make a limited appearance tab which lets you use armor types within your class)

-Allow more interface windows to be opened at once (stack them if you have to, but stop closing my windows for me)

-Right clicking an inventory item with my bank open should automatically put that item in my current stack in the bank, not make a new stack.

-More guild functions, such as:

-Guild bank

-Guild levels or rank (not fully necessary, but I think it's kind of interesting)

-Different ways to sort your guild list, such as last online which also shows how long since they were last on (this also helps for clearing out character who haven't played for months)

-Guild logs (shows all promotions, demotions, invites, kicks, and bank transactions)

-Options to silence individuals in guild chat (guild officers should have the option to silence someone causing problems until they can discuss kicking them with the guildmaster)

I'm sure I will think of more in the next few days, but that is what I have come up with since early access started. Also, please fix the bug that kicks me off of my speeder if I press forward at the exact time the animation is over and the bug that causes your guild list to not display online players properly which fixes itself when the user interface is reloaded.

Many of these issues The Old Republic has are very minor, but when comparing to more established MMORPG titles such as World of Warcraft they can become readily apparent.
  
Please feel free to add your own in the comments.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Datacron Locations

So I got to play two of the beta weekends in TOR recently and I decided to screenshot the locations of all of the datacrons on the Republic home worlds, Tython and Ord Mantell. I enjoyed my time playing The Old Republic and plan to write a full review on it towards the end of next week, but until then here are those datacron locations!


TYTHON:


Endurance +2
Location: X -34 Y -35

Willpower +2
Location: X -641 Y 36









Blue Matrix Shard
Location: X -92 Y 94

ORD MANTELL:

Presence +2
Location: X -976 Y 204

Aim +2
Location: X -656 Y 44

Red Matrix Shard
Location:  X 778 Y 8










Most on Ord Mantell are in pretty easy to get to locations. The only one that might give you a small issue is the +2 Aim and all you have to do is walk around the mountain clockwise until you find the path up. The ones on Tython were a little trickier to find so I am going to post some extra information for those.


To get to the +2 Endurance datacron you go through the cave located here.

To get to the +2 Willpower datacron go up this ramp in the ruins, take a right, then go up the long ramp and follow along the cliff.

Please note that my graphics were turned down a bit and AA was off in those shots. When I post my review the shots will be much higher quality. Hope this helps you guys looking for those datacrons. Thanks for reading and check back for more locations soon!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

Story: 10
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10 
Gameplay: 9
Overall: 9.75

Skyrim takes place in the land of Skyrim, a very Nordic like land in the middle of a war for control. Just as the war is about to end, the dragons of legend return and you just happen to be the one and only Dragonborn capable of stopping them. It is a great story and a rich setting for fantasy and adventure. There are also a ton of side quests and storylines outside of the main quest that are very well written. You could easily spend hundreds of hours doing everything there is to do in this game. It really is that big.

The graphics in Skyrim are both beautiful and inspiring. The mist covered mountains, streams, and rivers look amazing and what's even better is there is nothing preventing you from exploring every mountain you see in the distance. The developers took a very hand crafted approach to designing the game world and you can really tell from all the little details. Things like dynamic snowfall and salmon swimming up stream really make a difference in the look and feel of the game. Something as simple as a horse looks so perfectly animated that it amazed me.

The sound is pretty amazing. Everything sounds exactly like you think it should. If you happen to get in a fight that may be a little tough for you, the heroic music will kick in and make it that much better. I have to say that the music is a major highlight here. It just fits the game so well. The voice overs were done well, the are definitely a lot better than they were in previous Elder Scrolls games. There are a lot of surprising world voice overs as well, such as running past a guard and having them yell, "What's the hurry?" as you pass. I wouldn't say they are perfect or anything, but they aren't too repetitive and get the job done without being an annoyance.

The leveling system is a perk based system. There is a tree for everything you could possibly use in the game and you receive one point to invest every level. As you raise skills, you gain experience towards your level, and those skills consist of everything from blacksmithing and heavy armor to enchanting and destruction magic. I wasn't a big fan of the leveling system in previous Elder Scrolls games and I feel this is a major improvement.

Combat is about what I expect from the series, not too much has changed there. Not to say that is a bad thing, just that is is very familiar. The addition of dual wield is a welcome one to my sneaky bow wielding thief, if for no other reason than it just feels right. Assassination scenes are slightly disturbing and make it feel more real. Having a sprint this time around makes things a lot more interesting.

My only major complaints with gameplay would have to be the user interface. While it is functional, I feel it could have been designed a little better. It feels like the UI was designed for a console and then just ported over with little thought as to how it could be improved for the PC version. The only other complaint I really have is that the game tends to be a little buggy at times. Especially when it comes to the physics in the game. Often I will hear items bouncing around in another room when nobody is there or I open a door and the items fly off the shelves and scatter across the room. It can get bad enough at times that you start feeling like the entire game is full of ghosts knocking things off of bookshelves and tables.
 

Skyrim is easily one of the best games ever made but I do feel that some of the bugs can sometimes distract from the game. I'm sure most of those bugs will be fixed with official patches and for the ones that get missed there are always unofficial patches for the PC version. The game runs surprisingly well on my not so current PC and looks a lot better than the Xbox 360 version I played at my brothers house. If you haven't played this game I suggest you run out and buy it, whether it be for PC, Xbox 360, or PS 3, you really can't go wrong. This is not a game you want to miss and really does show how far western RPGs have come over the years. If I could buy only one game this year, Skyrim would definitely be at the top of my list.