Ah, you didn't think I'd given up gaming entirely did you?

Gone (and gladly, to be honest) are the days of logging in immediately on arriving home from work (and rushing home to boot) and staying on until sleepytime, but I still do game, and lately, I've been playing SWTOR.

All throughout the development process, I was very skeptical of Bioware's claims that they were going to bring hardcore, deep story to the MMO genre. I couldn't fathom how they'd do it - and their main marketing claim was that it'd be done by making every single quest dialog fully voiced. That didn't seem like it would "do it" to me.

Then I got invited to one of the late-stage beta weekends and the doubt all dissolved. I can't really convey in text how well it worked out. Just try the game!

I'm also very impressed with how well done the Sith side is done. So many MMOs and even single player RPGs really sugar coat "evil" character. Yeah, not here. Some of the things you can do as a Sith are truly horrifically evil. They pull no punches. You really are evil - and sometimes I find myself needing a break from it!

The voice acting is top notch, though if you've played any of Bioware's single player RPGs you know what to expect.

The mechanics are very good - nothing super new or innovative, but definitely good, standard MMO type stuff. The classes are well done and fun and different enough to make trying other things worthwhile.

The UI needs work. It's a totally standard MMO UI like you've seen in every other MMO you've played. But you can't change it. There's no user-skinning. Almost none of the elements are moveable or resizeable. There's definitely no plugins. But, it's instantly familiar and useable - so at least it's not some weird, unfamiliar, hard to use, fixed UI. :)

I can't say enough good about this game. I'm late to the party in blogging about it, so just go read other blogs and reviews, and you'll see - you need to give it a try.