Posts Tagged ‘Star Wars Galaxies’

SWG Draws to a Close

So three days ago it was announced that SWG was going to be shut down on December 15th. Didn’t see that coming! wink wink.

So anyway, where are some screenshots from the game. This is just a small selection, as going through the entire collection would take hours and hours. Click any of the images for a better look.

You mad?

At-St rampage on testcenter. Most players were not impressed...

I tried to tell them Spy was overpowered, but nobody listens.

Killing Teesquared to demonstrate the overpowered-ness of spy.

Rather than listen, he tried to get some Sher Kars to save him.

That didn't work so well.

Doing an ISD run with our medic friends.

Doing Exar with a group of seven as the weapon switcher and only medic.

Killing Sammyboy, what a Noob.

Aheivvo needed help expanding BLUE, so i set to work. Also sent out some messages with the new guild's rules.

NEFT Climbing the ranks. At one point we had more than 250 members.

Admiiral-Grot, the fearless leader of NEFT

An Artisian in Neft peacefully working away.

It was noob season, so he had to be farmed.

The fearless leader leading the troops into battle.

Carrying my glorious group to victory.

Showing the Chilastra noobs a thing or two about the effectiveness of Jedi.

Brewergamer. Sigh

Micshaz saves the day once again.

My group was not feeling very helpful...

Icide, what was he thinking?!

Some JG clowncar buying into the Advanced War Intelpad craze.

Attending a wedding on Bria as a cross server dignitary. I was their most popular guest.

Danos trying his hand at BH ganking. Things didn't go the way he'd planned.

I'dont Know what he was thinking.

Riding my mutant rancor like a champ.

The seething sea of Holograms.

People falling for the old hide in the NPCs trick.

1337 Kills in a week.

Sharing the joy of lifeday with my PVP friends.

Got a warning for time travelling on the forums. How rude.

Lone'Star not impressed by an impenetrable fort.

A front view of the flying castle.

YEP, YOU MAD!

And here is that dog Scout that just will not shut up when speaking on vent.

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Star Wars Galaxies

Star Wars Galaxies

Unlinke SWTOR, Star Wars Galaxies has been around for a long time. Released in 2003, it has had seven years to mature and grow. Nobody will argue that these years have been a wild ride for the game. There were some ups, as well as a few very well known downs. These were of course the combat upgrade and new game enhancements, which were met with unanimous negative reviews, and saw a serious drop in subscriber numbers. If anything is learned by the developers of SWTOR from their predecessor, it is to avoid changes like this.

That aside, Star Wars Galaxies provided an unparalleled Star Wars universe, where players could really choose their own path unlike any game, then or now. This is one area in which SWTOR falls down, as it seems it is not trying, and will never be able to, compete with the sandbox nature of Galaxies which attracted many in the first place.

SWG Space Ship with 3D Enabled

In many ways, Galaxies seems superior to the upcoming Old Republic. It’s space system was far more open, players were free to do what they pleased, and there were complex and challenging resource and crafting systems. Also incorporated were involved and detailed ship customisation sub-games which were both interesting, and generated a lot of repeatable content for players to continue optimising their craft.

The Player versus Player system in Star Wars Galaxies was also one of the better ones from any MMORPG today. Like the rest of the game, it was very open, and battles could and did take place anywhere around the galaxy, although they did tend to concentrate at a few heavily contested locations (Restuss anyone?). Large fights were possible anywhere, although there was usually significantly latency due to the poor servers employed by SOE (One of the games major flaws). So far, SWTOR does not seem to support such large scale conflicts, which has displeased many of its most avid supporters.

Player Combat in SWG

The graphics of galaxies were also somewhat more realistic than those of SWTOR, which has chosen to take a more cartoon-esque approach to visuals. As can be seen in the space ship screen-shot above, the game also supported various forms of 3D viewing, with cheap anaglyph methods available to all, whilst those with more advanced computer monitors could take advantage of polarised or shutter glasses.

Although the developers of Star Wars Galaxies did make many mistakes, they also did many things right. Their MMORPG still having a steady subscriber base as it approaches its eighth anniversary only confirms this. There are many things that Bioware can learn from Galaxies, and if done well and with patience, they should be able to, in SWTOR, avoid many of the problems of their predecessor, and incorporate many of the positive points.

Over all SWG achieves a 8.5/10 rating. Although a lot has changed since its release 7 years ago, the current game is well made and entertaining.

Pros:

• Involved crafting, equipment and space customisation systems.
• Entertaining player combat.
• Large open range game world.
• Good grouping, guilding and community tools.

Cons:

• Excessive lag.
• Very demanding on computer resources.
• Currently low-ish subscriber numbers.
• Some irritating bugs and game mechanics

A screenshot from Star Wars Galaxies

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