Earlier this afternoon, there was a livestream event for a combo ‘play demo’ and Q&A session. Daniel Erickson spent some time running around Tatooine showing it off, and answering questions. Here’s the archived version over on Livestream:
I’m embedding it as well, but I don’t know how long it’ll be available.
Ask A Jedi has a breakdown as well that looks pretty good. Here’s what I noticed while watching the video/Q&A:
Tatooine 2nd to the last planet in Chapter 1.
“Contested Zone” (PvP realms) first time Republic/Empire together with minimal restraints.. Dune Sea real hotbed of PvP activity
Jawa companion for Bounty Hunters.. named Blizz
Mini speeder personal vehicle.. like a Seque on speed or an airbike kind of thing, pretty cool actually.
World map can go transparent so you can leave it up, covering your screen, and still see where you’re going to help with navigation.
UI looks pretty good.
Tatooine looks to be a pretty decent sized planet.
No Ewoks (I guess that could be good or bad… Ewok Punting anyone?)
Speeders are faction specific, but, can be obtained by the other faction
Mounts currently available at level 25
I like the ‘loot indicator’ with the big light beam coming down, as opposed to the WoW style sparklies
Landscape/terrain looks really good.. even at the low res flash stream quality.
there is a Sarlacc on Tatooine to throw people into.
The Jetpack driven ‘charge’ ability, looks fun
You control companion gear, there are some ‘sets’ for the more non-human companions
The font used for the “Bonus Sandpeople Killed xx/xx” looks to be the traditional star wars font, in all capital letters.. a nice touch, in my opinion.
No actual ‘backpacks’ dedicated ‘slot’ for quest items that doesn’t fill up! =)
Stated that you can pay to expand your inventory. Not clear if that’s a micro transaction, or via ingame currency.
Currently you can start PvP at level 1.. can’t level PvP only.
Still at least one unannounced warzone
Tatooine visible by all classes… Republic hub is Anchorhead.
One more major pass to companion characters still planned.
Red or Blue on screen indicator for earning dark side/light side points
Force using companions are available for some classes
Stephen Reid’s fault the Devs are in fire ;)
Dedicated Crew window for changing companions, don’t need to go back to your ship like in KOTOR.
Cannot sell your companion (nor actively participate in slavery)
Once your ship is unlocked, you can visit any planet you want, regardless of where you’re at in the story arc.
Daniel likes RP-PVP servers, not confirming if they’re in yet or not
after death, two options.. call in medical probe or return to med center. Using med probe gives you 12 secs of full immunity/stealth to run away from what killed you.
There is a ‘rez timer’ that increases with the amount of times you die.
There are world bosses.
On track for 2011 release
Starships cannot be summoned wherever you want, stay at spaceport.
Tatooine 24-28
If your companion dies, you can rez them (assuming you survive). All classes have out of combat rez.
Demo machine has video settings turned down, bad internet connection.
In my opinion, the game looks fairly far along development wise. I know we’re going to get some end game raid information during E3, so I’m looking forward to that information.
Really can’t wait to play.. this game looks pretty awesome so far.. time to go refresh the swtor.com/tester page, repeatedly to see if I got a beta invite yet!