Star Wars Darth Bane: Rule of Two

'Recommended... A puzzle from the Star Wars series is explained in greater depth: Why are there only two Sith at any one time?... Fans of the Star Wars series of novels will find a great deal to enjoy in Rule of Two' SFRevu

As the last surviving Sith, Darth Bane promulgated a harsh new directive: the Rule of Two. Determined to put this policy into action, Darth Bane thinks he has found the perfect apprentice. Zannah, though young, possesses an instinctive link to the dark side that rivals his own. Under Darth Bane's tutelage, she will become essential in his quest to destroy the Jedi and dominate the galaxy.

But there is one who determined to stop Darth Bane: Johun Othone, Padawn to Jedi Master Lord Hoth, who died at Bane's hand in the Sith War. Though the rest of the Jedi scoff at him, Johun's belief that there are suriving Sith is unshakeable. But not even Johun could foresee the astonishing new knowledge and power that Darth Bane discovers though Force-induced visions -  power that will alter him in ways he could never have imagined. - Drew Karpyshyn.

If you have read the Path of Destruction then reading this is a must... Trust me it gets better and better as it goes along. I have only just finished this book and I have already started reading the next one to get my fix! It gives a really good inside into a Sith Sorcerer. You can get this book on Amazon

Star Wars Bounty hunter

Star Wars Bounty hunter - First person shooter.

For those of you that might be thinking of playing bounty hunter in the Old republic, I highly recommend playing: Star Wars bounty hunter. The game set between The Phantom menace and attack of the clones, you play the role of the famous bounty hunter Jango Fett. The back story to the game is that Darth Sidious and his apprentice Darth Tyranus need to get rid of the leader of the Bando Gora, Komari Vosa (A dark jedi) and they need to find a suitable candidate for the clone army to be based around. Tyranus believe that this can be done all in one go! A bounty is placed on Komari Vosa of 5 million credits which Jango happily accepts the challenge! This game has to be said is not a walk in the park and will take a few attempts to get through it.

In addition to Jango's trademark dual blaster pistols, your armor bristles with gadgets and weaponry: darts, flamethrower, blowtorch, scanner, cable snare, and--of course--a missile-launching jetpack. Use this arsenal to battle hordes of uncooperative guards, fend off rival bounty hunters, scale precipitous skyscrapers, and capture fugitives--dead or alive. The basic controls are surprisingly easy to master, and you've got enough armament at your disposal to fight your way out of almost any situation. Still, some finesse is required: as fun as it is to walk into a room and blast everything in sight (and it is fun--especially when you're the one wearing the jetpack), you may discover when the smoke clears that the guy you just fried was worth twice as much alive. Oh well...
The complex storyline is revealed by extended cutscenes that let you rest your thumbs while Jango follows up the next lead. (Star Wars fans will appreciate the quality and detail of these scenes, as well as the fidelity of the story arc--namely how Jango is chosen as the model for the clone troopers in Episode II.) And anyone familiar with the Lucas Arts suite of games will not be disappointed by the superior graphics, music, sound effects, and fully realized characters and locations. The pace of the game is up to you: methodically seek out the secrets of each level, or ruthlessly blast your way to the big payoff. --Maile Bohlmann

For those that are interested can find Star wars bounty hunter on Amazon for both the PS2 & Gamecube.

SWTOR PVP tips

As a PvP most of the time in MMO's I will try to give you my best tips and tricks to help with PVP.

1. Learn every class inside and out and PVP with them all and I promise you, that you will become a much better PVPer. This is due to the fact that you will know all of the abilities that your opponents going to use. Making them more predictable and easier to counter and time your burst damage and your CC better. If you know that a Jedi has one interrupt and they have already used it then you will know that for the next (I am guessing here) 30 seconds you will be able to cast what ever you want. 
2. Learn to fake cast a move in order to lure you opponent into countering NOTHING. The amount of times just this has won me a battle.
3. Use your environment to your advantage, if you can get out of line of sight then do so!
4. If your a ranged class KITE as much as physically possible, if your a melee class then DON'T let them KITE you. The amount of people that will whine at you for kiting them and think that you need to man up and fight them like a man is stupid... Just ignore these people they cannot PVP. 
5. Find out where all the best PvP players on the server go to duel and start taking them on.
6. Learn from your mistake, if your losing to a certain class get more practice vs that class, I would quite regularly duel the same person 10 times in a row until I started winning.
7. Join premade PvP teams and don't just treat the game as a FFA... Work as a team and aim to win by completing the objective.

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction

'Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody the power the other to crave it.' - Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith.

On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel, a cortosis miner, vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi champions. There, Dessel's brutality, cunning, and exceptional command of the force swiftly win him renown as a warrio. But in the eyes of his watchful masters, a far greater destiny awaits him.

     As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and skills of the dark side, Dessel embraces his new identity: Bane. But the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, he must defy the most sacred traditions and reject all he has been taught. It is a trial by fire in which he must surrender fully to the dark side - and forge from the ashes a new era of absolute power. - Drew Karpyshyn.

'A solid space adventure that charts the evolution of an antihero almost as chilling as Darth Vader. - Publisher weekly.

The book is a brilliant read for any avid Star Wars fan, I really enjoyed this book and gives a great background to those who are wanting to play Sith. I cannot wait to start reading the next one. I found my self zoning out and getting lost in a world of chaos even in the loudest of places, I literally could not put this book down for hours on end.You can find this book on Amazon.

A slicing start? Crew skills

The other day my friend who knows a guy who knows a guy was telling me about the fact that slicing is a great money maker for some one when the game firsts starts. This is because it generates you credits rather than items, these credits are balanced around all the crafting skills being on par with other gathering skills as money makers. When your servers economy first starts all the players will not have enough credits to pay large amounts of credits for ithems that other gathering crew skills will loot. But a few weeks down the line these items will be worth a fair bit more as players will have more and more credits. The slicing is balanced around a fully functional economy and rather than a starting server due to this the credits that you recieve are a fair bit more than the value of any items you might gather along the way. Making it a very profitable starting profession!

I have decided that I will be picking up slicing because of this fact, hopefully this should help me get my speeder skill alot quicker.

Also I believe that I am going to go with Cybertech, Scavenging and Slicing.

Then maybe at level 50 I think I will be dropping slicing and picking up Underworld Trading which should be easy to level compared to the pain I have had to endure in the past with picking up a gathering skill and trying to level it up from start to finish.

will you be wise? swtor credits

In many of the MMO's I have played the way you spend just a few credits can rapidly change how rich or poor you are through out the game. I am going to give you my tips on how to make the most of your few starting credits.

1. DON'T buy gear while leveling from anywhere! I know it may make level a little slower and you won't have the best gear but while your leveling you will keep leveling and replacing gear. Every time you buy something that isn't for level 50 it will be replaced quite rapidly, making that purchase earlier pointless. Do you self a favor and just use what you find and make do with that. Their will be plenty of gear to choose from while questing.

2. SELL SELL SELL, if you loot some items with stats on them or some items that you got from gathering skills or something that will have a demand. Then stick them on the auction house with a bid and buy out, don't sell it to a vendor. Please stick a buy out on it, the amount of people that don't do this is silly as you just lose out on so many people who want the item their and then. In all honesty for the first few weeks the prices will be really shaky, so try to under cut if the same item or similar is already for sale. After a while your will start to get a feel for what items are worth.

3. Get your self all the gathering/mission crew skills and get a crew crafting skill. Don't be a fool and skip it because you can't be bothered. You will miss out on so many credits just because of this mistake. If you not into crafting then get your self some gathering skills. If you are into crafting choose a skills that you think will be profitable and stick with it. Try to level these up with the idea to make profit don't just go for what ever is going to level you up quickest. What ever you create or gather stick on the auction house, again to start with try to under cut as competition many be tough to start with.

4. Check the auction house for cheap deals! Now I know to start with this will be difficult and you may make a loss but try to buy cheap and resell for more and make a profit doing this. It is far better to make a loss when your first starting off then find your making a massive loss on something that cost a fortune. Best times to check for cheap deals is late at night just before the server is about to shut down for weekly maintenance. When they reboot up, likely hood is that your the only one bidding on it and you will win the item due server been at it quietest times.

5. If you do have crafting crew skills then try and get people to know your name, go out your way to get your self a happy customer. Happy customers will come back or recommend you to friends bring you repeat trade, If possible create your self a macro with a advertisement and use it in general or trade chat if it exists in swtor.

Old republic on mac

I know what your thinking, why game on a Mac when you can get on a Windows, well I for one was a IT student at the time and I though it would be a great idea to get my self to grips with another operating system. Now that is done, I do see my self going back to the ways to a windows computer eventually when I can put the money together. Almost two years ago I bought my self a Mac book Pro. This was brilliant for while I was in University but now that SWTOR is just over two months away it wasn't looking good! Especially seeing as their won't be a mac client. This being said their is still hope at the end of the tunnel, I decided to boot camp my mac and allow it to dual boot both Windows 7 and Mac snow leopard. Once Windows 7 was installed and all the drives I got onto the web and googled "Can I Run It." Once on there I search for "Star Wars: The Old Republic." After taking the test the results seem to be in my favor for now! Below you can see that my 2009 MacBook Pro should be able to run SWTOR.

 

This being said I am going to start saving up just in case I find out that I cannot run it on my MacBook Pro. 

Now that the Weekend beta is being released to everyone that has signed up, I will be doing a update so stay tuned!

The Old Republic Collectors Edition

If this isn't your first MMO like me, you might remember back to some of your past MMO's and remember the great days of being a newbie. When everything seemed liked a adventure, your would team up with people and feel like a king! You would then run in to some one who had a Collectors edition and they would be showing off their cool sun glasses in SWG or awesome mini pet in WOW. You would ask them how you could get this awesome item and they would tell you to get a collectors edition. Then you would run on to e-bay and find out it costs half a grand! But when it first came out it was only a few extra hours at work.

Well this time it won't be me who misses out! That it one of the reasons why I have pre ordered the collectors edition. If SWTOR is going to be as awesome as it is meant to be, it will be a great investment. If it flops it won't be great but this is the risk in the MMO industry now days. In all honesty I have not played a MMO for at least 2 years now after hearing about SWTOR and due to this I am willing to risk it. Plus BioWare and StarWars cannot be a bad combination.

So the The Old Republic Collectors Edition costs £129 or $150 which is a horrible exchange rate for us Brits! Wishing I could buy a US version.... But never mind that!

You get the standard game in costing £40
Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue which has rumored to be valued at around £60
Already you can see you have £100 worth of value.

Custom Security Authentication key - The amount of times I was hacked as a WOW player... or friend would use my account when I didn't say they could and mess everything up. Stopping this from happening has to be worth it's weight in credits.

Old republic Galaxy map - This would be nice to have a good look at and maybe turn into a poster above my computer, so I can use it as inspiration when leveling!

The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural - This will be interesting to read and gain more background knowledge on what is being said here.

Music of Star Wars : The Old Republic CD - I always like a good bit a classical music to chill me out and as it relates to StarWars even better, this is going on my Iphone for sure!

I will be honest the Map, Journal, Music plus state doesn't really interest me but I can always stick these back on e-bay and get some money back. Hopefully quite a bit if demand is short in the future. (All depending on if SWTOR is a hit or not)

Lastly we have the in game items, both Mouse Droid and Collectors Edition store.

Back when I played WOW I collected mini pets and not being able to get hold of a mini pet for my collection sucked really bad. After looking up the some of the WOW collectors editions and being out raged at the price in which people extort the supply and demand. I will never miss out on a Collectors Edition again!

The in-game store may be only Vanity items but it might be a supply of the most awesome stuff, or it could be full of really useful items, we will have to wait a find out.

In my opinion the CE is well worth the extra cash you have to pay. A few months down the line people may as me were I got my awesome mini pet (Maybe the only one in-game!?!) and they will have missed their chance.

You can find the collections edition at Amazon

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived

Malgus brought down the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in a brutal assault that shocked the galaxy. But if war crowned him the darkest of Sith heroes, peace would transform him into something far more heinous—something Malgus would never want to be, but cannot stop, any more than he can stop the rogue Jedi fast approaching.

Her name is Aryn Leneer—and the lone Knight that Malgus cut down in the fierce battle for the Jedi Temple was her Master. And now she’s going to find out what happened to him, even if it means breaking every rule in the book. - Paul S. Kemp

This book portrays the love affair of ones of the most Evil Sith lords ever named Darth Malgus. Even those with no passion may find them selves passionate about something.... The book also shows the rage in which a single Jedi might seek revenge, switching the norm of Sith and Jedi roles and how desperate even the most daring smugglers in the universe can get when the old acquaintances team up and try to get onto the planet of Coruscant which at the time is under heavy Sith control. The book is set in the Old republic time line and is a must read for any one who find them selves wanting to play the old republic. If this interests you, you can find this book on Amazon.

Starwars: Fatel alliance

Tassaa Bareesh, a matriarch in the Hutt crime cartel, is holding an auction that’s drawing attention from across the galaxy. Representatives of both the Republic and the Sith Empire are present, along with a Jedi Padawan sent to investigate, a disenfranchised trooper drummed out of the Republic’s elite  Blackstar Squad, and a mysterious Mandalorian with a private agenda. But the Republic’s envoy is not what he seems, the Empire’s delegate is a ruthless Sith apprentice, the Jedi Padawan is determined to do the right thing and terrified that he can’t, the trooper hopes to redeem her reputation, and the Mandalorian is somehow managing to keep one step ahead of everyone.
                                                
None of these guests—invited or uninvited—have any intention of participating in the auction. Instead they plan to steal the prize, which is locked inside an impregnable vault: two burned chunks of an exploded star cruiser, one of which may hold the key to the wealth of an entire world.

But the truth about the treasure is dangerous and deadly. And in the end, Sith and Jedi, Republic and Empire, must do something they’ve never done before, something that all the agents of good and evil could never make them do: join together to stop a powerful threat that could destroy the galaxy. - Sean Williams

At first I was not sure if I would enjoy this book or not, but I wanted to learn more lore before starting to play The Old Republic due to this I force my self into reading this book. I must say that I that I glad I did as it was a really enjoyable.

This is very different to other Starwars movies and highly recommended, you can find the book on Amazon.

SWTOR background

A lot of games now day want to know much more information about whats going on in the storyline of games they play. The same can be said for SWTOR.

I really recommend reading these comics as they give so good background to SWTOR and also they are a good read and give the characters more depth. Click here to read them.

Also if your really getting into the comics and want more information  Click here but these ones you have to buy but well worth it for the small amount it costs.

Starwars MMO

The main reason I am such a massive fan of this MMO is for two main reasons.

Firstly, because of the fact that it is StarWars. This just gives the game this amazing lore that I have loved since a kid. Every Starwars game that I have ever played I have had a obsession with for a good while, especially StarWars Galaxies(SWG) now that was a good game! I remember working hard to unlock my Jedi on that... So many hours poored into that game, the PVP in that game was brilliant, especially with the Bounty hunter system, something I think should be in SWTOR (Please bioware if your reading do it!)...

Secondly, KOTOR and KOTOR2 were in my eyes the best console games I have ever played, I played those games though atleast 5 times each. At the time the graphic and game play was amazing and It had such a good story! Usually when playing a game i skip though all the story but with these two I wanted to know more and more! Any one considering playing SWTOR please do your self a favour and buy Knights of the old republic (KOTOR) and Knights of the old republic 2 (KOTOR2). They will give you a great background to what the game is like and they are just brilliant games within their selves.

When I was playing SWG I remember playing KOTOR on the side and I was loving it, I kept thinking to my self I wish this was a MMO that I could play with my friends... Finally that dream is coming true!

For any of you that have not played SWG or KOTOR and KOTOR2 I hightly recommend them, althought SWG is no where near as good as it used to be... As they changed the game play for it and ruined their own game (Millions of subscribers went down to thosands)

“Do or do not... there is no try.” Yoda

YOu can find both Star wars galaxies and Kotor at Amazon.

Star wars chick

As the release date for SWTOR gets closer and closer, it seemed a fitting time for me to introduce the Star Wars to my girlfriend. She actually really enjoyed it, she seemed to think the ewoks were "Cute" which I guess they are!

These are some of the issue you might come across if you introduce your beloved Star Wars to your girlfriend.

She thought the originals were lame compared to the prequels... I will have to educate her more about that! 

Also she now thinks if were to plan our wedding I would make it Star Wars themed... I do love Star Wars but not quite to the extent that I would get married in a Darth Vader costume! 

On the bright side apparently shes ordered me a dressing gown which is styled as Jedi robes.

I think I am going to force my girlfriend to watch the clone wars next!

Shes still cannot understand why I am obsessed by Star Wars... But to be quite honest I don't even think i know why... If you had any similar experience introducing some one to Star Wars then please share it with us.

Oh and for all you Ewok lovers out there!