Many people playing this game are either (a) new to massively multiplayer online gaming (MMO) or (b) come from either World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies. Thus, there is a lot of room for expectations to become let downs. I'd like to take a moment and explain exactly what SWTOR is, at this point in its evolution.

MMO titles go through many iterations. The most difficult time for an MMO is almost always at launch. When Warcraft launched, it included 60 levels and two raids (MC + Onyxia had been created for launch but not enabled, wowiki more or less agrees). The equipment didn't look exciting and the world was quite small compared with its size today. Before purchasing SWTOR, it is important to realize that the title is at this point in its evolution.

These games go through many iterations. Part of the reason we pay a monthly subscription fee is because the game never stops being developed. Our monthly dues ensure that many of the features that didn't make it into the launch are developed later. Bioware has focused exclusively on core game play features, steadfastly refusing to be distracted that the fluff that will allow for a lush universe a couple of years from now. As a result, the game can tend to feel stripped down to its most basic elements if you are used to a seven year old game like WoW. If the bare-bones feeling of a new virtual world is a deal breaker for you, then seriously consider waiting until December 2012 before purchasing this game.

Many impressions around the internet include flaws from beta. These should be taken with a grain of salt. There were several different beta groups and all were testing different versions of the game's features in order to determine what would work best at launch.... The danger of a large scale beta is that many players will nit pick at it as though they are seeing a final product after nine months of post-launch support. SWTOR has often been judged in this harsh light.

When you enter the game world for the first time, you will find out whether or not your computer needs an upgrade. The lowest system spec I have comfortably played this game on is an E6750 (Core 2 Duo 2.66) with a modern video card (nVidia 550TI). Anything beneath this line is going to feel jerky. Please be aware of this before purchasing the game as it will severely impact your experience if the camera movements are not smooth.

One of the most questioned features of SWTOR is also one of the favorites at launch. Between the musical score and the voice acting, this game captures a level of emotion that has not been accomplished in past online worlds. The first time I played through the Sith Inquisitor class during beta, I tried make dark side decisions for their own sake, knowing that some gear required greater devotion to the dark path. On the third planet, this caused me to have to kill an arrogant young Sith apprentice, whose father I was working for, and all I got in return was a common (green item type) lightsaber. The man was furious in his pain, his voice acting was beautifully done. By that decision, my dark alignment moved to 2 and the Sith corruption on my character's face turned his sunken eyes a deep bruised purplish black. Surprisingly, I had a strong emotional reaction to this. I began to make light side choices when the most horrible dark side choices were presented and as a result started to play a far more rational Sith force user. It was as though I had actually hit a turning point in my character's development where he moved from being a bitter former slave towards being a future leader.

On the flip side, the Jedi experience is cannon to a point of feeling like a Norman Rockwell painting. Without making an occasional dark decision, the player is faced with a character who does the right thing no matter the cost and no matter who is hurt. The Jedi are blind religious justice when played as lightside for lightside. These nuances were not something I expected to find and to be honest, they were not something I particularly recognized until I had played through several of the character classes. As an aside, playing the Imperial Agent as lightside is very much a James Bond experience.

Your first or second time through, it will be easy to criticize what you think is a plot on rails. Keep going and you'll find there are subtle gradations that really change the feel of the game depending on how you play and you may regret that some decisions cannot be taken back without starting over again. This is a good thing.

From a pure mechanics standpoint, the game is similar to Warcraft. Blizzard really wrote the book on how a game should operate. Many players have been upset that they were able to sit down and feel immediately at home in SWTOR. To them, I would point out that on the rare occasion in my life when I have driven a Ferrari or a Lamborghini I have not been disappointed that the car still had a steering wheel and a gas pedal. The point of building a supercar is not to create an alien experience but, rather, to heighten all that makes the driving experience so exhilarating. SWTOR has taken the best of Warcraft's mechanics and super-powered them. There are subtle differences, especially in the crafting and companion systems, but the game is truly a collection of seven years worth of homage to Blizzard. It doesn't significantly diverge until around level 30. If you feel that this is a bad thing then perhaps this is not the game for you.

Many people have worried that boss mechanics would be ho-hum and as a result the game would plateau after level 50, losing subscribers back to Warcraft, as has happened to a great many titles. Were we talking about boss mechanics four months ago, I would have been inclined to agree. My guildmates from Warcraft are very accomplished raiders though and even they had to own up to the fact the last boss on the second major Flashpoint (Bringing Down the Hammer) was a surprisingly tough fight. They declined to repeat the Flashpoint in hard mode, instead electing to move on with the game content, because they realized they were not yet ready to take the content up a notch based on their gear to level ratio. If the boss design can sustain that level of increasing complexity up through endgame operations then this title will have a truly special raiding component.

Yes, there are bugs. Some of the bugs during early access have been frustrating because we squashed them two months ago in beta but they have returned (un-clickable mining nodes come to mind). Others are based on newer systems that were refined just in time for launch. Sometimes, at the right camera angle, all of the walls disappear leaving only the background image for the planet. Is it frustrating? If you are used to XBox type launches, yeah. Is it game breaking? No, not for an MMO. This is all par for the course.

All in all, Bioware has created a worthy heir to the throne of World of Warcraft. The game is young and it lacks the complexity of a mature title but it has lots of positive momentum in the right direction. If you love the Star Wars universe and enjoy MMO gaming then there is absolutely no reason not to pick up this title right now. If, however, you are someone who needs a bug free, mature, later stage title to be fulfilled then you should wait a while before buying Star Wars: The Old Republic.

[12/21 Update: 12/20 brought severe sever queues with new players exercising their first month free. This is a situation that will stabilize by 2/1 but it *will* degrade your retail experience. Bioware seems to have increased realm caps to deal with the situation, however, it will likely repeat itself with holiday accounts signing in for the first time four days from now]

[12/24 Update: Sever queues have been well under control, however, the 25th is coming. More on that in a bit. I wanted to add the following to my review:

Space is really a mini game and as such it falls outside of the MMO experience. Most recently, Star Trek tried to fully develop a space + ground MMO. The dev teams were clearly split and neither one created a particularly good experience. Like Star Wars Galaxies before it, I suspect Bioware will focus on space in a couple of years when the ground game is fully developed.

Until then, think of Space as a mini-game that is good for picking up XP and credits between planets. You'll enjoy it more that way. If you try to think of space as a part of the MMO experience, you will be sorely disappointed.

Finally, if you have not played past level 30, do not assume you are fit to judge the game. The first 10 levels are spent learning the interface. The next 20 are spent learning your advanced class. 30-40 is spent learning the advanced stats and 40-50 is spent honing your rotation.

I am normally not a big fan of YA, but when I'd received my copy of "The Chosen", I decided to put away my preconceived notions and read it with an open mind.

I am glad to say that this book managed to dampen my preconceived notions that I have about YA.

I found the plotting to be very smooth, the writing strong and the pacing fast. Most importantly, I found that Andrea didn't talk down to me. I know that sounds strange, but I believe it's very important for a writer not to talk down to a reader, no matter what the age.

As for the story itself, I found it be a quick read and it kept my attention all the way to the end in one sitting. I found it to be very good fantasy that had just the right balance of action that wouldn't turn off a reader or a parent.

If you have a child or young adult, I highly recommend this fantasy for them. If you don't have children, I still higly recomment this fantasy, as it is a very nicy intro to the genre.

Sentinel Marshall Sabira Lyet d'Deneith is called upon to perform a mission only she can do but has to return to a person and place she promised herself she never would. Eight years ago she watched the murderous Nightshard die and saved a life that earned her the nicknamed "The Shard Axe". Now a series of murders in Stormreach are all too similar to Nightshard and Sabira must return to face her demons in order save a life. In a city full of enemies can she keep the past from repeating itself?

This is a book to be devoured in one setting. It is fast paced with bits of backstory dropped in at choice moments that flesh out Sabira's story perfectly. While I am not as familiar with Eberron as I am the Forgotten Realms, this book required no previous knowledge of the Eberron setting and can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. The key element of the story is Sabira, to say that her methods are unorthodox and she is a "bit of a rule breaker" is an understatement but she has a fierce sense of duty that guides her actions. So her prisoners are brought in a little worse for wear? It is part of her charm...

If you are looking for a faced paced story featuring a great fantasy action heroine that will keep you engaged and turning the pages until the very end, then The Shard Axe is the book for you. I hope to see Sabira, The Shard Axe, in more adventures.

My only complaint on this purchase was that I was unclear from the product description whether or not it was non-fiction or fiction. It may have been listed somewhere and I missed it. But when I went to read it, I wasn't sure if I was reading a short story or a short essay on this guy's real life experience.

Turns out it is a short fictional story that is intended to be read like it is a true story. It reads in first person present narration so you are witnessing events as they happen.

I found it to be very intriguing and enjoyable. It is about a man who designed a great online video game and the consequences in his life because of it. It is only 17 pages long so you can read it in just a few minutes. But it was a pleasurable 17 pages that I think was worth the .99 that I paid for it. I would give more plot details, but it is so short that I don't want to give anything away. I will simply say this, while it isn't earth-shattering prose or anything, I liked it enough that I would gladly purchase and read a full length novel about this story and its background, or any other book by this author.

When I first heard that Cryptic Studios was taking over production of STO from Perpetual Entertainment, I was thrilled. Perpetual had effectively done everything in its power to alienate the Trekkers who would be playing the game, and Cryptic had a solid reputation with me from their work done on City of Heroes/Villains.

Star Trek Online ultimately proved disappointing to me. I bought the Collector's Edition, which is very nicely packaged and includes a slew of freebie passes to hand out to your friends, a cool-looking replica of the new combadge featured in the game, and a very nice selection of production art. The game installs easily and once the patcher finishes updating, you're ready to go. Character creation is very involved, enabling you to customize virtually to your heart's content. Human, Vulcan, Bolian, Betazoid, non-joined Trill, Andorian...or get really creative & invent your very own 100% original Star Trek alien species! You choose Tactical, Engineering or Science career path, the only difference between which is the powers granted for use in space & ground combat.

Combat is the primary focus of STO, with a greater subjective focus on ground combat over space--which was sad for me, because I enjoyed space combat so much more. There's minimal "exploration", really no boldly going anywhere 100's of players haven't already been. There is an economy, which is strange really, but nice work has been done trying to shoehorn it into the canon. The levelling pace in STO is INSANE. You begin as a lowly Ensign. You're rapidly promoted to Lieutenant, and from there you'll go to Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, and finally Rear Admiral. Each rank (aside from Ensign, which has 1, and RA which has 5) has 10 ranks.... I rocketed all the way through to RA5 in what felt like no time at all, and I soloed 98% of the game. (This from the guy who took ~4 years to finally get 1 character to level 50 in City of Villains.) Unfortunately, STO suffers the exact same disease as any other MMO: Once you get to max level, there are only two things to do: PvP & large-scale raids. Since I'd rather gouge out my heart with a plastic butterknife than do either of those, I guess I'm done.

Klingon play is 99% PvP. There's some minimal PvE content, and they say there's more coming, but...meh.

I liked my time in STO. I want to love this game. Unfortunately, it was all over too fast & wound up feeling really rather empty. There's very little "Star Trek" feeling to the game; I know that's a meaningless statement without some examples to back it up, but I suppose it's more subjective than anything else. There are other players in the game--you see them whizzing past in their own starships--but there's no real conversation. No chatter, no roleplay, no...nothing. It's a Massively Single-Player Online Not-Quite-Role-Playing Game.

Got my copy this morning, finished it by this afternoon. It was an engaging read. I think appreciation of it benefits from being an ArenaNet/Guild Wars fan, especially with the lore touches. If you've been following ArenaNet's gradual release of information about the upcoming Guild Wars 2, I think you'll really get the most out of this novel. I loved seeing this new and updated world of Tyria, along with just the right amount of touches and callbacks to the amazing lore and history of the original. The characters were well-realized and the various new races quite intriguing. I think this will mostly appeal to existing fans or those that are interested in the new game...

Sentinel Marshall Sabira Lyet d'Deneith is called upon to perform a mission only she can do but has to return to a person and place she promised herself she never would. Eight years ago she watched the murderous Nightshard die and saved a life that earned her the nicknamed "The Shard Axe". Now a series of murders in Stormreach are all too similar to Nightshard and Sabira must return to face her demons in order save a life. In a city full of enemies can she keep the past from repeating itself?

This is a book to be devoured in one setting. It is fast paced with bits of backstory dropped in at choice moments that flesh out Sabira's story perfectly. While I am not as familiar with Eberron as I am the Forgotten Realms, this book required no previous knowledge of the Eberron setting and can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. The key element of the story is Sabira, to say that her methods are unorthodox and she is a "bit of a rule breaker" is an understatement but she has a fierce sense of duty that guides her actions. So her prisoners are brought in a little worse for wear? It is part of her charm...

If you are looking for a faced paced story featuring a great fantasy action heroine that will keep you engaged and turning the pages until the very end, then The Shard Axe is the book for you. I hope to see Sabira, The Shard Axe, in more adventures.

Coming from someone who has been playing all type of MMORPG games from MUD to WoW and all that are in between. RIFT is a great game by its own rights. It's been a long time since the MMO community has a very successful launch. I'm not going to compare features between this game and that game, but here are the good and the bad from my playing experience.

Default UI is a great. Although many of the goodies are turned off by default, you can easily turn them on through the interface setting. No need to go to addon website to install extra stuff. Things like target of target, AoE auto loot, auto sell gray items, etc. The UI layout editor is very easy to use. I'm actually really happy with it out of the box. It's not perfect, but a great starting point.

Public groups. I thought it was dumb when I first saw it, but there's a plus sign above everyone's avatar. You can click this and invite yourself to create an auto-group with the person. This is great when you see someone doing the quest you're looking to do, you can just auto group and you both and help each other. When you're done, just leave and be on your way. You can turn this feature off if you don't like a random stranger joining you. This also works for Public Group when taking down world events, such as RIFTs and Invasions. If there are multiple public groups, it merges them in to one.

Warfronts. Essentially, it's instance battlegrounds. The queues are very quick since its cross-servers. You need to be at least level 10 to do your first Warfront. There are brackets from 10-19, 20-29, and so on. It's pretty much the same old same old here, so nothing exciting about it. The experience gain is enough that you could level from just playing the warfronts if you choose to.... I don't recommend it though, it gets boring pretty fast if playing it back to back... to back. Plus, you'll be pretty weak because you can't get gear efficiently if this is all you're doing.

Rifts and Invasions are pretty cool at first. After awhile it's just a zerg fest. I don't mind doing this, but again, in moderation. The blue and purple tokens you get from it are zone specific, so spend those to get yourself stronger. Not a lot of experience from invasions, so you can't level off of it like you can from warfronts. If you farm the invasion currencies you can buy items to make yourself stronger.

Quests are pretty much a straight shot. What is great about them is that you get pretty decent gears from following quests line. It will continually upgrade your gear as you go along. So this is the most effective way to get decent gear if you're playing by yourself or with a friend.
Dungeons are also pretty much like other games, but a lot prettier! It's hard to describe in words. The first instance is the Realm of the Fae, and the winter top mountain is pretty amazing, a must see! I won't spoil it.

This brings me to another point. The graphic and game effects in this game look very nice. Warrior's cleave bring up dust from the ground looks amazing. If your computer can handle ultra setting, the game is very pretty. I enjoy the graphic a lot. The last game I play that I thought was pretty was LotRO, this beats it.

Sound effects is pretty good, nothing that stands out. The script events and voice over is a nice touch, but nothing special. I turn music off when playing so I can't comment on that.

The loot is pretty also straight forward. The nice touch here is that all souls in the class use the same stat no matter what you're doing. For example, all clerics will use WIS gear. So I won't have to haul STR/DEX gear when tanking, WIS when healing, and INT/DEX when trying to DPS. All cleric uses WIS as the main attribute and that gets converted depending on the souls. If I'm tanking as Cleric Justica my WIS converts to STR for tanking. All I have to worry about is if I want to tank with 2H weapon or 1H and shield. Pretty awesome!

The Classes and Souls system is also nice, because it's very flexible. You can also purchase new roles to swap out from Tank to Healer on the fly. Since you're using pretty much the same gear from one role to another, it's painless.

In my opinion, this game doesn't bring anything new or innovative. It takes all the things other games done well and implement them in a nice package. There are a lot of improvements to be made. Like I said, it's not perfect, but it's a great start.

NOTE: If you are looking to buy this game, I recommend getting the Digital Collector's edition for $60. An extra $10 will get you a mount right off the bat (no level restriction) for all new characters that you make. The cheapest mount you can get is about 2.5 plat. I didn't get 2.5 plat until about level 20 from a normal play. I created 3 characters to level 20, and it's pretty much the same pace. Having the mount as soon as you can get to the mailbox is awesome.

Sentinel Marshall Sabira Lyet d'Deneith is called upon to perform a mission only she can do but has to return to a person and place she promised herself she never would. Eight years ago she watched the murderous Nightshard die and saved a life that earned her the nicknamed "The Shard Axe". Now a series of murders in Stormreach are all too similar to Nightshard and Sabira must return to face her demons in order save a life. In a city full of enemies can she keep the past from repeating itself?

This is a book to be devoured in one setting. It is fast paced with bits of backstory dropped in at choice moments that flesh out Sabira's story perfectly. While I am not as familiar with Eberron as I am the Forgotten Realms, this book required no previous knowledge of the Eberron setting and can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. The key element of the story is Sabira, to say that her methods are unorthodox and she is a "bit of a rule breaker" is an understatement but she has a fierce sense of duty that guides her actions. So her prisoners are brought in a little worse for wear? It is part of her charm...

If you are looking for a faced paced story featuring a great fantasy action heroine that will keep you engaged and turning the pages until the very end, then The Shard Axe is the book for you. I hope to see Sabira, The Shard Axe, in more adventures.

Got my copy this morning, finished it by this afternoon. It was an engaging read. I think appreciation of it benefits from being an ArenaNet/Guild Wars fan, especially with the lore touches. If you've been following ArenaNet's gradual release of information about the upcoming Guild Wars 2, I think you'll really get the most out of this novel. I loved seeing this new and updated world of Tyria, along with just the right amount of touches and callbacks to the amazing lore and history of the original. The characters were well-realized and the various new races quite intriguing. I think this will mostly appeal to existing fans or those that are interested in the new game...