Greetings Axeheads and welcome to Force Feedback! This is the show where we give you the spotlight so you can Cry Havoc and Let Your Voice Be Heard! This week, the EBA community checks in for the win with poetry, sweet-ass GOG withdrawal, the final word on what the internet thinks of Bobby Kotick, and so, so much more.

Buckle up, release the bees, and hold on to your face, Force Feedback has been unleashed!
Read the rest of this entry…

Star Wars: The Old Republic is diversifying its ranks by revealing four new playable non-human characters: the Sith Pureblood, Miraluka, Mirialan, and Zabrak.

As Bioware describes them, the Sith Pureblood is an aggressive, angry race signified by their red skin, while Miraluka are sightless beings with a strong grasp of the Force, allowing them to see despite having veils over their vestigial eye sockets. The Mirialan race is green-skinned and has a natural agility and insight as Jedi Knights. Zabrak Sith Inquisitors are proud, ferocious and ruthless, with horns and facial tattoos much like Darth Maul.

Check out full descriptions of The Old Repbulic’s new characters and let us know what you think of your choices!

Source

BioWare has released a video detailing the musical score of Star Wars: The Old Republic. As many of you are aware, we here at the Axe are HUGE fans of musical scores for games, as apparent in our EBA Trax player (for those of you who haven’t, you should really check it out).

The score appears to be coming together nicely, merging some of the original music from the movies and game (KOTOR), then creating something completely new – but that’s not the only thing that got us excited about the video. Several new in game shots popped up throughout, including a player zooming across the Tatooine desert on a swoop (near the end of the video) and some footage from Hoth.

Nice!

It’s not like we needed yet another reason to get excited about the game, but this new video is extra special, especially for our Axeheads that have an appreciation for music in games. So, check it out right here and let us know what you think, and how you feel about the direction BioWare is taking with the game’s musical score.

Raise your axes, raise your glasses, its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s Skirmish we banter on Enslaved, which now has a release date, prepare for Red Dead Redemption’s own zombie apocalypse, reflect on the announcement of Dragon Age 2, and discuss the Blizzard Real ID fiasco from last week.

With the release late last week of Blacklight: Tango Down, and plenty of chatter in the EBA Forums on the subject, we sit down to talk about wether or not gamers are ready to give up discs in favor of Downloadable Games. Services like Steam are doing well on the PC, but are console gamers onboard with DLG?

The Battle Cry of the Week goes to the devs behind Super Stardust HD for making everything better (in 2d or 3d), Microsoft’s (and Valve’s) Summer Sales, the beginning of beta testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and John Marston, for being quite the character.
Read the rest of this entry…

Believe it or not, the game testing phase for what is, quite honestly, perhaps the most highly-anticipated game in the industry has begun. That’s right, as this news post indicates on the game’s official site, those already selected to test Star Wars: The Old Republic are currently being granted access to the game in order to provide feedback and help tune particular areas of gameplay while beginning the process of tweaking actual content.

The good news? It’s not too late to get in. Just check out the official news post for details on the testing roll out and how to get involved. Good luck!

Thx Parker!

Fell deeds awake! Now for wrath. Now for ruin. And the red dawn! Its time once more, for another Skirmish of EpicBattleCry! This week, we get a release date for DeathSpank, ponder the laundry list of new features announced for Gran Turismo 5, make some Ice-T in Gears of War 3 jokes, and discuss if Sony’s rumored move to prioritize the PlayStation Move over Heavy Rain’s next DLC is a portent of things to come.

With E3 2010 over, we look back and discuss our take-away moments and games from this year’s show. What inspired us; what infuriated us; what made us question the nature of the universe? We’ve got everything from Zelda: Skyward Sword, to Marvel vs. Capcom 3, XCOM, and even Onlive; five things each, in no particular order, that we had to share from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Read the rest of this entry…

As you may know, we had some trouble getting our vids uploaded during the week, so here, at last, is our final day’s wrap up vid from E3 2010. As the show came to a close, we discussed our take on SOCOM 4 and the PlayStation Move, 3D gaming, the presence of download-only titles at this year’s conference and much, much more. Also be on the look out for our first live and in-person Member Battle Cry, courtesy of Tyson, a fan who we happened to bump into at the show.

About twenty-five of us file into a small room. Its quite hot; the prefab walls Lucasarts has brought in to create their E3 space are cutting off the building’s air-cooling system. The three benches fill quickly so we file down the left aisle and stand against the room’s only transparent wall; it takes a moment to register than on the other side there are ten PC stations set up where people are playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.

A lot of things at E3 are shown behind closed doors, away from the crowds on the show floor. Reuben and I are behind those doors on one of the upper levels of the LA Convention Center where Lucasarts has transformed some of the meeting space into their E3 offices. Far from the noise of the South Hall, we’re about to get a peek at one of the most highly anticipated games of the last decade.
Read the rest of this entry…

Now here’s the kind of trailer that makes you feel like you’re at E3! Today, Bioware and LucasArts released 5 minutes and 42 seconds of new Star Wars love, and it definitely didn’t suck. Set on the planet Alderaan, the footage featured some great battle sequences complete with all the requisite lightsabers and “against the odds” heroism!

Check the trailer out right here, and let us know what you think. Was this years Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer as inspiring as last years? Sound off below!!

Characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic are growing up fast – BioWare’s recently revealed Advanced Class system offers specialized careers for powerful characters, allowing users to define their roles and battle personalities on top of existing skills and abilities.

Once a character is strong enough, users have a choice between two Advanced Classes that will further customize their experience. For example, there are plenty of Smugglers in The Old Republic, but now players can decide if their Smuggler rushes into the middle of a battle and attacks enemies face-to-face or if he sticks to the fringe and selects his prey from yards away. Choosing one Advanced Class locks out the other class option, though there are Shared Skill Sets that draw from both pools to strengthen the main traits of the class itself.

Basically, now your character in The Old Republic almost has enough personality to have a conversation with your WoW character. So, is this a step in the right direction for The Old Republic, or is there another area in the game that deserves more attention? Let us know what you think!

via Kotaku