This year end has been all about adventures in space with November and December giving us a number of updates and releases to explore.
The first and least impressive was EVE Online's Crucible an "expansion" that touted a collection of new ships for players to construct, a font change and some minor improvements to the games graphics. Unfortunately, for EVE, it's still the same exact game. An open PVP space combat game with PVE elements added secondary. Only those who don't mind spending real money to succeed and are ok with paying a subscription for several months before you can compete with others will enjoy the game.
The second space themed announcement came with Star Trek Online releasing a revamped version of their game's economy system and a plethora of new micro transaction offerings. If "Pay to Win" hadn't been in your vocabulary before with this title, it will be now. Lots of new holiday treats are also in store for those who like to get their snow racing on.
Of course the real adventure in space that everyone has been anticipating to take part in is without a doubt Star Wars, The Old Republic, a.k.a. TOR.
As an early pre-order I was involved in a couple of the beta weekends and able to get into the head start as of 4am on the 12th. Yes, I did set my alarm to wake up at this horrible hour. While I had originally expected the game to be "WoW in space" I was pleasantly surprised to find it's more like a multiplayer KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic), but with Mass Effect 3 graphics and voice acting.
My likes of the game include the unique story-lines of each class, and with the choice of playing with a focus towards light, neutral or dark side, your character feels unique. If you like role playing in games I'd highly recommend TOR. The voice acting is amazing, even my own characters talk back to NPCs, and while I'm not certain it seems as if they hired the entire voice acting cast of the animated Clone Wars series. Another boon to the voice acting is that if your character puts on a mask that covers their face the voice will change to sound like it is talking through an actual mask similar to the likes of Darth Vader.
The game pace is slow, but it's fun. Leveling is a lot slower in TOR than in other MMO's do to the in-game voice dialogue and options that you can't skip through. However it doesn't feel slow but rather like a long enjoyable choose your own adventure movie.
