Release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic officially announced

By Mike Flacy September 24, 2011

Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Earlier today, LucasArts and Bioware announced the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic on December 20, 2011 for North America and December 22, 2011 for all launch territories in Europe. BioWare co-founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka released this information at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo in London, England during a keynote address to many Star Wars fanatics. The game has been undergoing extensive beta testing from a small group of fans. The beta testing phase is likely to continue throughout October while the development team continues to tweak the gameplay settings and locate bugs within the code.

Each copy of the game comes with 30 days of subscription time and fans that preorder the title will be allowed early access into the game before the launch date. Subscriptions start at $14.99 per month or players can purchase multiple months for a discounted rate. For instance, a 3-month subscription will cost $13.99 a month and a 6-month subscription will cost $12.99 a month, both billed as a one time fee. In addition, there are three versions of the game tiered for fans. While all additions include early access for preordering, the Digital Deluxe edition ($79.99) also includes five digital items to help players get a jump on the competition. The Collector’s edition ($149.99) includes access to a unique online store for special items as well as several collectibles including a Darth Malgus statue, Old Republic galaxy map and Star Wars: The Old Republic CD.

While Electronic Arts is limiting the amount of digital and physical copies available for the initial launch, preorders are still available through Origin and physical retailers like Best Buy. For fans interested in the narrative around Star Wars: The Old Republic, check out the story in this mission video. For fans interested in the class structure within the game, take a look at this gameplay trailer highlighting the different classes.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Gaming

All Baobab Tree locations in Tales of Kenzera

Zau fights a dragon in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

While it wasn't marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face -- especially the bosses -- are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren't prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
All Baobab Tree locations
There are six Baobab Trees to find in Tales of Kenzera: Zau and each adds a small segment of health to your total. When you collect them all, you will roughly double your HP bar. Here are each of their locations in the rough order you should naturally find them in. Most can be picked up on your first time through that area.
Ikakaramba

This one is very hard to miss as it is directly on your critical path. If you do, you can fast travel to the nearby campfire to grab it.
The Great Cliffs

Gaming

All Fallout games, ranked

The courier in his nuclear gear and holding his gun in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

Who would've thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max-like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late '90s, and yet we've had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team's focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again. What better time, then, to look back at the franchise and rank all the games from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

Gaming

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is as fun to watch as it is to play

Monkeys race one another in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.

I couldn’t tell you what the last Super Monkey Ball game I played was, but I can still talk your ear off about the series. That’s thanks to the speedrunning community that has formed around the franchise, making it into the most exciting game to watch when it's played at a high level. After spending close to a decade watching old games turned inside and out, I’m ready to finally dig into a new entry for myself.

Thankfully, I’m getting that chance on June 25 when Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble launches on Nintendo Switch. The latest entry in Sega’s precise platforming series comes loaded with content, from an adventure mode with 200 stages to multiple 16-player multiplayer modes. That’s all exciting, but my attention was on one question when I sat down to demo all of that last week: How fun will it be to watch players master it?