Economic upheaval is coming to the galaxy in Star Wars: The Old Republic’s patch 1.1.5. A series of rumors and announcements from major organizations across the galaxy have been published on the official site in order to give players some insight into the upcoming changes. From all of the delicious lore tidbits, we find out that the speeder manufacturer Korrealis is retiring its Sovereign, Prince, Baron, and Commander speeders, while the Tirsa Industrial Consortium has quietly removed its Prime model speeders from the market. As a result of this decision, all of the aforementioned models are now steeply discounted, so grab them while they last.

Meanwhile, the Republic Senate’s Committee on Transportation and Public Safety has decided to lower the cost of speeder licenses. Speeder purchase taxes, however, are being raised in response to this move. The Imperial Transportation Authority recently passed a similar law. To top it off, the Republic has recently come into possession of some previously Empire-owned purple color crystals, and both Republic and Empire merchants have some into possession of some very rare — and very expensive — white color crystals. Market speculators, start your engines; there’s money to be made!

New Star Wars Game To Be Announced

The Disney Parks blog has revealed the fifth wave of Star Tours toys casting the studios’ icons as Star Wars characters. Following four earlier lines covering A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, this fifth wave focuses mostly on Clone Wars characters. Rounding out the line is Donald Duck as Clone Trooper Commander Cody, Stitch of Lilo and Stitch fame as General Grievous, Goofy as Cad Bane, Daisy Duck as Aurra Sing, and Huey, Duey and Louie as Jawas (with destroyed R5-D4, naturally). Surprisingly, there’s not a mouse in the bunch this time.

Set for a March debut, fans can get their hands on the figures principally at Disney’s main theme parks (Disneyland and Walt Disney World). For those who can’t make it, Merchandise Services has you covered with phone call or e-mail options found at the Disney Parks blog.

Each of the figures will be single-packed, with the exception of Donald’s Jawa nephews. Check out larger images of the upcoming figures below.

SYDNEY — Today, BioWare™ a Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), is proud to turn on the servers for the critically-acclaimed Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong & Singapore. Fans in those regions will now be able to experience the award-winning massively multiplayer online game that has captivated millions of fans worldwide on regional servers, giving them better game performance with decreased network latency. Australia’s AusGamers has scored the game at a 95%, saying The Old Republic is “arguably the most complete and polished MMO ever launched.”

“We have been incredibly pleased with the response to the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic from fans and critics, as players are finding that immersive story and personal choice are a real innovation for the genre,” said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, General Manager of the BioWare Label’s MMO Business Unit and Co-Founder of BioWare. “Just as important to our success has been the smoothness of our launch. Now after months of testing, we’re excited to be able to bring both a high quality game experience and service to our fans in the Asia Pacific region.”

Players in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore will be able to choose from the Standard Edition ($79.99 AUD, $89.99 NZD, $389.00 HKD, $64.90 SGD) and the Digital Deluxe Edition ($89.99 AUD, $99.99 NZD, $465.00 HKD, $76.90 SGD) of Star Wars: The Old Republic at participating retailers. The Digital Deluxe Edition is exclusive to Origin.com. Players in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore will also be eligible for the Founder’s medal*, a distinction given to the early members of The Old Republic community.

Set thousands of years before the classic Star Wars movies, players will be immersed as they team up with friends online to fight in heroic battles reminiscent of the films, exploring a galaxy of vibrant planets and experiencing visceral Star Wars combat. Players join forces with either the Galactic Republic or Sith Empire and choose one of eight iconic Star Wars characters, including the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, Trooper, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Poster

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Popular characters from the movie thrill fans, young and old GEORGE TOWN: HUNDREDS of people comprising children and their family members were entertained by members of  The Star Wars Club, 501st Legion, a Kuala Lumpur-based group, at the Queensbay Mall here recently.

Fourteen members, who were dressed up as various characters from the movie, thrilled the crowd during the Epic Star Wars Freeze Mob session, organised by the mall to promote the screening of the movie, Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace 3D, at the Golden Screen cinemas.

  Characters like Darth Vader, Storm Troopers, the Imperial Guards, Obi Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and other Jedis met and greeted their fans.

  Fans also had a chance to witness the amazing “light sabre” duels.

  The mall’s marketing and communications manager Wendy Wong said the Star Wars saga has created a sense of awe and wonder for generations of movie goers.

  Wong added that besides helping to educate people about technology in an entertaining way, the movie also unearthed a sense of imagination and creativity.

While not a true sequel, this game is a spiritual successor to the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games for Xbox.

One major difference though is that The Old Republic is a massive multiplayer-online role playing game.  If you ever wished to play the Xbox games with your friends, or assume the persona of your favorite Star Wars character then this is your game.

From experience, playing with friends is very satisfying, since you get separate classes and abilities to use.  My character is a Jedi knight, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, and my roommate is a smuggler, like Han Solo, so we enjoy pretending to being those characters and making the choices they would make.

If you don’t have friends to group with, have no fear.  The game plays surprisingly well for a solo player, since the story is different for each class of character.

There are four separate classes for each side, empire or republic.  You can even be a good or bad character no matter which side, such as a dark Jedi or a light Sith.

The story is outstanding, as to be expected from any Bioware game and that is what pulls you into the game, allowing you to visit planets from the movies such as Tatooine or Hoth.

You get a separate story for each class, with each side also having a different story, so if you are a fan of the story or games with a high replay value, you get eight separate stories.

It makes you love to complete quests and get to the next part of the story.  The graphics are not the best, but there are worse out there, and combat is fairly simplistic, especially for a beginner.

Pros: story, combat, playing with friends. Cons: Internet: if your connection is bad, good luck playing, glitches periodically.  Overall a 4 out of 5, very fun, but just lacking in a few areas that stops it from getting a 5.

The latest Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A has turned up a couple of useful additions Bioware are planning for patch 1.2, including unlockable emotes tied to the Legacy system, faster travel options for high level planets and new endgame crafting features for all professions.

One of the major annoyances for high level crafters is the fact that that top level PvE and PvP gear is superior to the best buildable items. Bioware say that this is going to be addressed in next month’s update.

“We are adding endgame crafting for all professions. This includes augment crafting, the ability to crit-craft custom (orange) gear with augment slots, new endgame schematics, new color crystals, expanded and improved research and reverse engineering and much more,” they say.

TOR’s 1.2 update will contain four pages of patch notes devoted to crafting alone. When the patch lands we’ll be able to “extract base-mods from purple items,” letting players take top level base mods out of endgame gear and place them in any customisable set of orange armour. Essentially, if you don’t like the look of a piece of TOR endgame gear you can use crafting skills to rip out the stat-boosting mods and plug them into a more stylish suit. Set bonuses will carry over, too.

Patch 1.2 will add extra emotes that can be unlocked using the Legacy system including a “special dance” that will allow you to bust moves in perfect sync with your companion. Bioware have previously mentioned that legacy can also be used to unlock extra race options for different classes.

The patch will also provide the option to skip the annoying orbital stations that act as interim locations between some planetary surfaces and your ship. “We’ll be adding an option for players to go directly to their ships from the surface shuttles as opposed to having them run through the Orbital Station to their airlocks,” say Bioware. They’re also considering allowing speeders in spaceports, but that hasn’t been decided yet.

The ships themselves aren’t likely to change in a hurry, however. The number of carefully choreographed cutscenes tied to each vessel’s interior makes it very, very difficult for Bioware to add new ships, or allow for any changes to each boat’s internal design. “We will probably look at addressing this instead by providing a greater sense of ship customization at some point well in the future,” they say. That’ll likely mean external customisation such as decals or alternative paint jobs rather than entirely new ships.

Update 1.2 is set to arrive sometime next month. It’ll also add support for multiple specs, a new Warzone and more. You can submit a question to the TOR devs ahead of next week’s Q&A on the Bioware forums.