Twas the last day of SW:TOR’s beta, and I found myself not wanting to move the story forward anymore (despite the fact that I’m playing Republic at launch. So I finished up the arc I was on and went on walk about. There’s a lot of fun details and environmental touches that the game holds if you take a few moments to look around. The gem above struck me because from far away I thought it was an AT-AT.

Amused by the show of imperial force I headed into local Imperial city to snap some other shots. The cities, space ports and cantinas are some of the finest places to find some interesting characters. These folks apparently had caught some rebel scum and the female Captain seemed determined to lecture them until their ears bled.

 

Making my way into the local cantina I found some poor guy who had been assigned to clean up the floors outside what might have been the bathrooms. Rebel or not – that’s a horrible job. Cleaning a cantina has got to be a terrifying, humbling, and disgusting job. I decided to stand over him and share the lecture I had seent he Capt give him outside to help with morale. He didn’t seem interested.

 

But that wasn’t the only interesting sight the cantina held, oh no. Per the usual Star Wars experience there were slutty

twi’leks. Everywhere. Now I get it – that’s what that race is known for, but I played one of them in SWG so they have a special place in my heart. Seeing them objectified just doesn’t sit well with me. So I took pictures and threw credits at them. You know. For taxi fare.

 

But it’s not enough to have half nekkid Twi’leks. No, that wont do! This is the future, or the past or this has all happened before and will all happen again – whatever.

 

The point is – holowhores.

 

For some reason the Twi’leks needed to be objectified further in a holographic for where they can properly be ogled? Again I did the only human thing and threw some credits at them and told them I could /flourish better then them.

But it wasn’t enough to ogle the women-folk, I had to see what the band members had going on. There was a Twi’lek and a Rodian going at it on the kloo horn and key-tar with the usual number of dancers. But

there… back int he corner dancing alone next to the jukebox was some corn-fed wide-shouldered creepy guy. He bopped and shook in the shadows, possibly watching the guys on stage, possibly eyeing the reveler in black? Who knows. But Mr. Beefcake is that guy in the club. You know the one. Sometimes I scam him for drinks.

Tired of half nekkid women, I headed to the starport to see what was going on over there. I bumped into a threesome of imperials who seemed to be reprimanding their own peers. This was not the first time I had run past this group. Last time the gentleman on the right was outright cussing her out, waving his hands and accusing her of something. I didn’t stop to ask. This time around I was more stuck by the early Leia hair and the fact that now the two guys seemed to be considering how to punish her. Since server reset was coming I threw her a gun, some credits, and some advice.

“Alvis shot first”

 

Boarding my ship for places unknown, I stopped to take a photo of this neat looking droid. Nothing nifty about him – just

thought he looked cool. It’s clear that a lot of work went into creating a lot of the characters around the game. Even the dewbacks looked good!

It was then that I discovered that I could do space combat. Now I’ve never really enjoyed space combat in other games (SWG:JTL most notably) but I did play a lot of flight/fighter sims as a kid so I usually try them at least once. (I suck at BF:1942 despite my best efforts) I was shocked to find that i really really loved the space combat in SWTOR. It’s not really like flying at all, it’s more like a mini game you’d find in a browser or in an RPG for a console, but clicking away like a madwoman – I found myself repeating quests in space out of sheer entertainment.

The ship flies on rail and you have to shoot targets, take out fighters and place your missiles wisely. Maybe I enjoyed it because I felt good at it. Maybe it was really easy – either way I’m going to have a LOT of ship upgrades come launch.

 

It was a really great last day of Beta. I was grateful to get to see more of the game (I got to 20, woo!) and even got my “love interest” companion. Who I promptly flirted with until he was awkward. I’m getting this game, and I miss it’s warm embrace already. But I know the wait will be well worth it. And when that time comes – I already logged the time off request.

See you in SWTOR!