‘Lo Axeheads, as you know, this week, we’re exploring the potential-packed-picks (three times fast) we each have our sights set on in the gaming realm. Titles that may be unproven thus far, but that have dramatically cool possibilities. We’ve already seen a trove of great ideas submitted by the community in this week’s topic starter post, so head there and be sure to let your voice be heard if you’ve got a particular game that has the potential to deliver the kick-ass.

Since Reuben “EpicAxeMan” Moretz and I co-chair the EpicBattleAxe council on domestic Star Wars affairs related to awesome, I’m going to abuse my authority and use my position to advance an agenda for purely selfish reasons (just like your representatives in government). Today’s MBC , therefore, can be about nothing else but the game that showed zero gameplay, but conquered E3 2009 anyway; the game that mentioning the developer and the property in the same sentence is forbidden in 23 nations for fear it will drive the fanboy population to frenzy. I’m going to pass the mic to Bacbi to tell us why Star Wars: The Old Republic has the potential to bruise reality itself with its epicness.
Read the rest of this entry…

UPDATE: If you’ve watched the episode already and wanna get our response to the PS3 region lock thingy-ma-bob, please take a second to check out this post on EpicBattleAxe.com. Thx!

Prepare the second wave and loose the beserkers, its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s Skirmish we try not laugh as Splinter Cell: Conviction is delayed again, contemplate non-HD streaming from Netflix on the Wii, revel around the rumor of a Tecmo Super Bowl remake, make the most of the news that Star Wars: The Old Republic is looking at a spring 2011 release window, and discuss the news that a new Zelda is on the way.

With our skepticism, facetiousness, and loathing of Project Natal firmly on the record we change gears this week. Since Microsoft has, thus far, failed to demonstrate how Natal could be not only workable, but even desirable as a controller for traditional games, we discuss some uses suggested by several forum members that may actually have merit for gamers.

Then, we take a look at some recent EBA Poll results and find out what gamers think about the recently released Army of Two: The 40th Day as well as the news that Splinter Cell: Conviction has been delayed once more.

The Battle Cry of the Week goes to the gang at ScrewAttack for their excellent parody of the Natal documentary screened at CES 2010, Out of this World and other under-the-radar classics, SCEE for region locking Demon’s Souls and refusing to sell it in all territories.

Read the rest of this entry…

Yeah, sure, we got QUITE A WHILE to go before the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, but at least the good news is that we get to geek out over each and every little snippet that is released between now and then. Case in point, BioWare/LucasArts have released a new DevDiary of sorts that explores what it was like to create two different stories pertaining to the Dark Side within the sprawling game universe. It’s pretty sweet, so if you’re remotely interested in playing the game when it comes out, you probably ought to give it a watch after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry…

During a financial update conference call yesterday, EA CEO John Ricitiello mentioned a “Spring 2011″ release window for the highly-anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Well, today the boys at BioWare stepped up to confirm that release window via a post on the official SWTOR message boards.

From the post:

While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It’s not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today. We can’t wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details.

So, there ya go…No SWTOR in 2010, but will it make it THAT MUCH BETTER once the game finally arrives in 2011? Let us know what you think below.

via Kotaku

BioWare has updated the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website today with a post detailing the recently revealed Jedi Consular.

From the post:

Channeling the power of the Force for strength and wisdom, the Consulars of the Jedi Order cut to the truth of any complicated situation as cleanly as their double-bladed Lightsabers cut down an army of Imperial foes. Whether unlocking long forgotten mysteries of the Jedi, raising armies to fight for the Republic, or engaging in mortal combat with Dark Lords of the Sith, the Jedi Consulars’ deep attunement to the Force gives them all the power they need to rise to any battle with poise and balance.

New footage and archived reports pertaining to the class can be found over here on SWTOR.com, so check it out if you’re interested.

Fans anxiously awaiting the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic would probably enjoy checking out Joystiq’s brief hands-on impressions of the game from a recent trip to the LucasArts HQ in SF. The write up mainly revolves around the the two most recently revealed classes, the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor, and provides some insight into what it’s like to play as these characters.

Interested? You should go check it out.

BioWare has made it a point to update their fans every Friday with new information regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic via the game’s official website.  Well, following an earlier announcement revealing the final two classes available at launch (Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor), another playable planet was revealed late last week – Alderaan.

For those that don’t know, Alderaan has always played a major role in the expanded universe of Star Wars – and briefly in the films, before obviously being the ‘test’ planet to be destroyed by the first death star as our friends Vader, Tarkin and Princess Leia looked on.

The in-game footage along with the concept art look amazing – the thought of a Jedi and Bounty Hunter duking it out on a snow capped mountain seems very intriguing.  Check out the screen shots and back story for the planet HERE and stop by the EBA forums to chime in on how you feel about the newest addition to the list of playable planets in SWTOR.

Not too keen on the idea of playing as an Imperial Agent, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Sith Warrior, Bounty Hunter, or Tropper in BioWare’s upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic (what the hell is wrong w/you?). Well, fear not, it appears that the two final playable classes have been revealed to deliver even more options while exploring the galaxy. According to DarthHater.com, the Sith Inquisitor & Jedi Consular will round out the playable class offering while fan translations of PC Games, a German game mag, reveal that abilities range from Execute, Shock, Dark Meditation and Sabrestrike (Sith Inquisitor) to Sleep, Force Push, and Lift (Jedi Counsular).

“We thought as core classes the Consular and the Inquisitor made the most sense,” said producer Jake Neri. “We thought they balanced well against the other two. You can think of the Jedi Knight and the Sith Warrior as more of a melee-style Jedi, and the other two maybe more of the ranged-style Jedi. I think it made a lot of sense.”

So, cool or not cool? Does it really make a lot of sense? Where you hoping for something else? How bad ass is this game gonna be?

Discuss.

via Shacknews

Last Friday was a big Friday for fans of the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Not only were we presented with a new episode of the web comic, as well as a more in depth look at the Republic Jedi Knight class, but more details emerged for yet another class for the Sith Empire; the Imperial Agent.  The initial release for the new class was announced earlier last week at the Electronic Arts European Press Tour and highlighted for us on Darthhater’s blog post.

Now, the Imperial Agent class itself was officially described as being, “heavily inspired by several classic Star Wars characters such as Zam Wessel and Grand Moff Tarkin.”.   We can only speculate, but the combination of Wessel and Tarkin most likely means the class will rely heavily on subtle combat (maybe stealth?) and the cold, calculated evil we know and love about the ‘Moff.  It doesn’t appear they have added combat footage for the class as of yet, but I am sure we can expect that sort of thing very soon.  In the meantime, check out some very detailed images of the class in action inside the game’s image gallery on EBA and also poke around inside the official SWTOR forums HERE for additional information about what’s shaping up to be a rather intriguing class.

Of course, we’ll keep you posted as more details emerge.

As if to prove its own awesomeness, BioWare and LucasArts today announced the opened beta signups for Star Wars: The Old Republic and subsequently crashed its own site due to the amount of interest. As of this posting, the game’s official site, SWTOR.com, has been flooded with peeps like you and I looking to get in on the pre-release action and the fine folks behind the game have paused from the 10,000 voice actor auditions to announce that they are making adjustments to the site due to the “overwhelming response to the testing announcement”. In other words, the site is broke at the moment, but once back live, those interested in signing up will need to select the pre-release testing option form their account page and then pray there are still slots left. Judging by the whole site crashing thing though, you might already be out of luck…May the force be with you.