And, of course, the Empire and the Republic will be duking it out in the swampy wasteland of Taris.

Will the Sith defeat the Republic? Will the rakghouls and plagues slow progress? I can’t wait to see!

The video covers art, design, lore, background and more. It’s a great little mini-documentary about the game. I love how they’re releasing these kinds of videos!

Enjoy!

Both G4 and Massively are reporting that spring will be the season. Lets just hope they can avoid delays.

I remember waiting for over a year for Wrath of the Lich King the World of Warcraft expansion and the anticipation was palpable. But I’m more excited for SWTOR. It looks like it’ll be a better day.

A long time from now, in a game store probably not too far away… you might be getting your copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Well, all right, spring of 2011 might not be all that far along, but if you’re one of the many eagerly looking forward to Bioware’s entry into the MMO arena, it certainly feels like an eternity. [Massively]

Want to be a tester? BioWare is still accepting applications.

Ask The Gamers: Now that all the player classes have been revealed, do you know which one you want to play? Comment at the bottom!

Well that’s certainly a novel way to make sure you don’t have a huge overpopulation of Jedi Knights and Sith Warriors. The Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor are both force-active classes, one fulfilling a support role while the other seems to be more of a DPS class. [ZergWatch]

The final two are:

• Jedi Consular
• Sith Inquisitor

Both of these classes are Force users but focus more on ranged attacks. So if you play an Inquisitor, which is modeled off of Emperor Palpatine, you will be able to sling Force Lightening at the Jedi scum!

Consulars, shown in the picture below, are based on Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda which should make for some amazing skills as well. Best part is that they can still wield lightsabers.

When it comes to combat tactics, BioWare isn’t very descriptive other than saying, “…the Knight is capable of achieving extraordinary feats.” Really? I never could have guessed.

But seriously, the Knight is clearly a melee combat class which will likely include some amount of minor ranged attacks.

From SWTOR.com:

For thousands of years the Knights of the Jedi Order have been the guardians of peace and justice in The Old Republic. Through disciplined training and meditation, the Jedi Knights achieve perfect union of body and mind, allowing them to meet any situation with focused, fearless attention. Strengthened by the Force, they are able to turn this training into brilliant displays of lightsaber combat inspiring allies and disheartening those who would see the Republic fall.

See Also:

• MMO News – Jedi Knight, Defender
• Crispy Gamer – Jedi Knights
• Overly Positive – Excellently Expected

When it comes to game development, says Dalton, “For any game these days, we have very large teams. For MMOs, in particular, we have a lot of stuff going on. Everything everybody does is challenging. Producing the art, source code… [More from Gamasutra]

Christian Nutt over at Gamasutra delved into how development teams come together on such a massive project. And when it comes to games, it doesn’t get much bigger than an MMO! The article uses SWTOR as a case study.

The deep storyline progression is one of the main ways your character progresses.

Get more information about the story from Jake Neri (courtesy of G4TV).

The demo shows off only a few of the class abilities but it’s nice to see how things might play out in the release. The graphics look good and the sound effects were pretty solid too.

The Sith Warrior utilizes two lightsabers in combat along with an impressive set of armor. Then, the warrior unleashes his fury in battle to crush his foe.

As a leader, the warrior understands that numbers can work to his advantage. Even a warrior can use a hand now and then.

Topics Covered:

• Depth of Content
• Rich History of the Game Setting
• Aspects of an MMO
• Stylized Realism
• Combat and Storyline

Even at this early stage, the game play shots look awesome. I’ll be heading to the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and I’m really hoping to get a chance to check out the game in more depth or at least see some great footage. Anyway, enjoy the documentary!