...Just wanted to let you guys know that 3dgamers.com and fileplanet.com are offering a 10-day trial for Star Wars Galaxies and fileplanet.com is offer a 10-day trial (14 days if you are a subscriber) for World of Warcraft.

SWG Links:
- Fileplanet: http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/starwarsgalaxies/trial/
- 3D Gamers: http://dnet.3dgamers.com/promotions/starwarsgalaxies/trial/

WoW Link:
- Fileplanet: http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/worldofwarcraft/trial/trial.aspx

I hate fileplanet with a deep passion. 3D Gamers is a bit better.

I wish I could get 14 free days on my existing WoW account. I'm dying to jump back into BWL... but must... find job... first...

[QUOTE=Connection Problem]I wish I could get 14 free days on my existing WoW account. I'm dying to jump back into BWL... but must... find job... first...[/QUOTE]

LOL, me too. My subscription ended yesterday and I haven't found a job in ages.

I'm tempted by SWG....but I heard it sucks ***.

You have 10 days to formulate an opinion for yourself.

This fileplanet crap is annoying as hell.

Also, couldn't, in essance, someone try many many many 10 day free trials?

[QUOTE=Kieran Horn]I'm tempted by SWG....but I heard it sucks ***.[/QUOTE]

It's pratically a totally different game now. It has a new UI and some updated graphics. The first 30 combat levels are now quest based (and profession specific). In fact, the tutorial starts with you being an imperial captive (one of the stormtroopers calls you a recruit) and Han, Chewie, & R2 break you out. Then (after killing 3 stormtroopers) you get on the Falcon and take out some ties before making the jump to Ord Mantel. That's where the tutorial ends and the quests begin.

Instead of 30+ professions, there are now only 9 iconic Hero/Villian professions: Jedi, Smuggler, Commando, Entertainer, Medic, Bounty Hunter, Trader, Spy. Gone are the days of allocating skill points. It's now a liniear character evolution.

Gone are the days of "target your enemy & start macro, walk away from you computer, fix something to eat, eat while your character fights, watch your favorite 30min TV show, and then come back to find your character victorious."

The new combat system requires you to actually keep a crosshair on your target AND left click every shot. You arm your highest special ability into your right click and there you go. A new, faster, skill based combat system. And if you like 3rd person cameras but don't like your characters big fat head to be in the way, they now place you in "over-the-shoulder" camera mode but then recenter your character as you zoom out further.

It really is worth the free-trial...IMHO

P.S., oh yeah, I forgot JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED IS NOW FREE!

No because you have to make a new account everytime. When your trial is over, you have to subscribe in order to keep playing with the characters you made in the trial.

As for SWG, yes it is a VERY different game now. I was shocked how much they changed it because they last time I played was over a year ago before any of the expansions came out. The combat system is much different now. Its more like a FPS than an RPG since you have to keep your target on your crosshair and hold down the left mouse button to attack.

I kinda like the sound of the new SWG. I'm going to be downloading this trial when I get my computer.

Edit : How hard / easy is it now to become a Jedi?

Oh man I'm bustling with questions aren't I.

What kinda of a graphic update? Just a slight (don't notice anything really) new, or better looking character models, lighting, etc.? Or what?

You can start the game as a Jedi. They just added in 9 iconic classes that include Jedi, Commando, Spy, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Trader, Entertainer, Officer, and Medic so you no longer have to go through multiple professions to get the one you want.

So you basically start with a lightsaber and whatnot?

Is it just me or is fileplanet broken?

Spy's rule You drop a flashbang on a jedi and they're like "wtf? where did teh spy go I can't see!!1"

It's not just you:

Server Error in '/betas' Application.
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Object reference not set to an instance of an object.



LOLLER, ANOTHER IIS/ASP SERVER BITES THE DUST.

/me does the Apache/PHP dance

Meh..

Jedi should be a random occurance, for the few and the lucky.

MMO nerds need to learn that life bites, and get used to it. Instead of hanging themselves cause someone stole all their loooootz.

You're only saying that because coh/cov doesn't have any loot

It does now.

You get "Salvage" which you combine in your Super Group's workshop to make temporary powers.

Anyhow, badges are infinitely cooler than loot.

Meh, I'd rather have a game where you get badgers.

Now that would be cool, don't you all agree?

So that's what salvage is for. My SG needs to hurry up and get a base. How much do bases cost, rob?

ba...baba...badgers...?

The view distance has increased significantly. I haven't done any test to determine exactly by how much but I'll put it this way. If you go over a land mass and you can see the terrain where a city is suppose to be, then it'll be there. This also (especially) includes player houses ( & player city structures). Also, they've improved the terrain any many areas (including cities). No longer are Tatooine cities a flat zone with buildings in them. The sand (seems to) now flow naturally around the buildings and the city. I haven't had a chance to thoroughly check out everywhere, but there's deffenitly been some inprovements. Oh yeah, outside of Mos Eisley it looks like their preparing to add more to the city. Making it look more like the movies with tents and junk and stuff all over the place.

There's new shader support.

There's also new support for other effects such as Bloom, Heat Shimmer, etc.

They also adjusted the default brightness/contrast/gamma (though I really can't tell much of a difference).

Oh yeah, and I forgot something earlier that I'll go back and add...

JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED IS NOW FREE!

I strongly recommend checking out their new website:
starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com

Assloads of prestige.

define 'assloads' plz.

Thats where you load your... .. you get the picture.

Either way is, final verdict, the new SWG sounds like its worth a new try so as soon as I get my new computer I will try it out.

Large ammounts.

Prestige is gained by either recruiting members, (20,000 prestige for every member you have upto 15 members I think) Or by killing mobs in SG mode.

You have to pay prestige to start the base, and there is another monthly fee your SG pays in prestige to keep the base.

Everything useful costs hundreds of thousands of prestige.

The bright side is, in an active SG with active members, you generate prestige like a mofo. Also, the SG window shows how much prestige each individual member has contributed. So you can tell who is being a slacker and what not.

Eventually you get a vault, and "Items of Power" which provide extra benefits to ALL SG members for as long as you keep the item. Once you get to a certain point, other SG's can raid your base and try to steal your items of power. However, these raids are scheduled and what not. So like some jerks can't raid you in the middle of the night and cop all your loooootz.

my copy of WoW arrived today... subscription expires in about 7 months :p

Anyone who's got SWG: what server are you on?

Just downloaded the SWG trial, and after an hour or two my impression is, it bites.

If only I had time to play it... thats why I don't do subscriptions... money isn't much of a problem any more... time is now... my stupid school is always barking at me... I'm sick of this... trying to change schools at the moment you see...

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

LOLLER, ANOTHER IIS/ASP SERVER BITES THE DUST.

/me does the Apache/PHP dance[/QUOTE]

Sounds more like poor testing/debugging to me. It's a pretty stupid error, though.

What's all this talk of new graphics but NO PIX?

This sounds interesting...
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/news_archive.vm?id=66857&month=current

Ok... I tried it out... it looks cool and all... and by far is of the best mmorpg I've ever played but... two things that make it suck are:
THERE IS A DAMN LOADING SECTION EVERY 5 M!
and
WTF?

Oh mai. So I tried SWG out last night. I would've loved it a year ago but now the graphics just annoy me and for some crazy reason that game lagged beyond reason even with the graphics down to minimum. One thing I did not grasp was the really really oh so damn aweful combat animations. LIke they kep the old ones and did not bother making it smoothly. You hit then the animation just cuts and hits again so you make a lot of half-moves. Lol. Its almost hilarious to watch, looks like a dance.

There's a hotfix that's coming that's suppose to fix several issues. One of which being the respec rewards for vetaran players. The other being the framerate issues.

Jepman, try some of the following to get your framerate up until the hotfix:

-Change Pixel shaders to 1.1 or 1.4
-Disable Heat Shimmer
-Try other graphic driver versions (perhaps even Beta versions)
-Also, to give a more realistic feel, try adjusting your Brightness, Contrast, and Gamma. You can get a much more realistic feel out of the game that way. It also makes the bump mapping and shader effects look 100 times better.

From what I've been told (and since I didn't have a chance to try it out on TC myself) is that from the way the people that played it on TC said, that they didn't include all of the new terrain and object changes on the TC versions.

So, chances are, give it a week and by the end of your trial, everything should be pretty much where it should be.

I'm on Chilastra, my alias is Daventry. I'm not on much since it doesn't run well on my laptop but I get on when I go home a bit.

I'm enjoying the bit that I've played so far. It feels a /lot/ like MP kotor. Which is nifty. Doricly, I uninstalled Kotor2 to free up space for it.

We should coordinate servers so that I'll know some people on.

Right now I'm Qhnemu Aanh the Rodian Spy on Starsider

Damn, the WoW trial is North America only.

I still have a character on the Scylla server on an old account I started back in July of last year named Leeza Haynes. I was training her up to become a smuggler and Jedi (back when it was possible that is). If I decide to buy SWG, I'll probably revive her. I wonder though if the guild that she joined back then is even still around and if it is, would she still be in the guild? I hope not because the guy that introduced me to the guild asked if he could marry me. He gave me a bra and wanted me to learn how to dance so he could regen his wounds while camping. I highly doubt that was his only motive though, lol.