Last night, the PC Gamer Mint Imperials united to celebrate the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sadly I missed it, but Rich and Owen were in attendance as the guild massed on the steps to the Sith Academy on Korriban and posing dramatically. Afterwards they retired to a lightsaber lit rave in the nearby cantina, before streaking through the academy halls like some sort of terrifying Sith fraternity. Apologies to all those new players scared by our mad naked dash across the planet, here's a Old Republic beginner's guide to make up for it.

Check inside for a selection of crazy naked PC gaming news.


Bioware founders Dr Ray and Dr Greg do a lecture and Q&A over at BAFTA.
RockPaperShotgun spot an excellent Skyrim UI mod, we'll be adding it to our Skyrim mods list soon.
Ubisoft's community manager tweets that Assassin's Creed Revelations has been updated with new maps.
Shacknews caught the end of Star Wars Galaxies on video.
VG247 say Borderlands 2 will drop enemies on you from the moon.

Did you make it to the party readers? What did you think?

Bioware's multi-million dollar Star Wars MMO is alive and kicking. Throngs of players are battling through its vast zones, looting and levelling and making "I used to play Skyrim but then I took a TOR in the knee" jokes. It's hard to imagine that it all began with three men sitting in a room in Edmonton, Canada, drawing up design documents. We caught up with game director James Ohlen to discover to discover what The Old Republic could have been, and how Bioware decided on Star Wars.

"We had backup plans," said Ohlen. "In all the design team was like three of us at that point, in total. So we were looking at doing a Lord of the Rings MMO, a Silmarillion MMO, a kind of a Gunslinger-esque Dark Tower MMO, a Game of Thrones MMO."

"Each setting has different strengths, " Ohlen added, describing the 10 page documents that the team drew up at an early design stage. "If we were going to do a Game of Thrones MMO, what kind of rules and what kind of gameplay elements would really bring that world to life? Each one had that, but we always focused on the story at the fore." In those early stages, a compelling narrative was more important than the setting. "When we were first were deciding on what kind of game we were going to build, I really wanted to do a story-based massively multiplayer game because hey, it hadn't been done before," Ohlen said. "I thought: hey, good way to innovate - that's what Bioware stands for and that's what we're good at."

Star Wars provided the perfect fit. The rich canon of the Star Wars extended universe provided plenty of scope for heroic narratives, and the natural dual faction set-up would give players something to fight for. There were other advantages, too. "We had an in-built fanbase with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic," Ohlen said. "In fact, when you ask our fans "what kind of MMO would you like us to build?" they almost always say "how about Knights of the Old Republic massively multiplayer game?"



That would involve a long period of negotiations with Lucasarts, during which time Bioware went further afield, looking to George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels and Stephen King's Dark Tower series for inspiration. Eventually, Lucasarts came back with a deal, and Star Wars was the choice the developers made. But it's interesting to think that somewhere in Bioware's vaults there's a design document for a Game of Thrones MMO gathering dust. If things had gone differently, we could be battling dragons instead of Rancors in Bioware's first MMO.

If you're playing The Old Republic, you can apply to join our guilds. You'll find the evil Mint Imperials and the glowing Revel Alliance on the Nightmare Lands server if you're based in Europe. If you're logging on in the US, check out The Coconut Monkeys in The Crucible pits. You can enjoy lots of Star Wars: The Old Republic jolliness on the TOR section of our forums.

The launch of an MMO is a confusing time. The world is fresh and new, and everyone is still learning how to play it. Which is why, now that The Old Republic has launched, we've put together a list of our top 50 tips, learned from hours of beta play to help you get to grips with the new game. For MMO newcomers and veterans alike, we've created a definitive guide to classes, companions, conversations, crafting and every other aspect of the game.

Check inside for the full list of our fifty things you need to know about The Old Republic.


01 Your choice of faction isn’t as simple as just goodies and baddies. You’re just as likely to meet corrupt Republic politicians as you are to meet hardworking and downtrodden Imperials. You can’t change your mind either, so go with whichever matches your long-term ambitions: do you want to be a respected Jedi Master, a feared Darth, or a legendary smuggler?
02 The Old Republic’s character progression system provides a wide range of potential roles: three of the four classes can heal, three of the four can tank, and three of the four can deal damage, depending on the advanced class you choose at level 10.
03 Warriors and Knights tank and do melee damage; Inquisitors and Consulars do ranged damage, heal, and can specialise in stealth; Troopers and Bounty Hunters provide fire support and tanking; Smugglers and Imperial Agents heal, provide crowd control, and can specialise in long-range damage, or stealth and melee.
04 Gender has an obvious impact on your character’s voice, and each race has a unique cosmetic emote: humans can cheer, cyborgs can scan people, and Twi’leks can dance. Oh man, can those Twi’leks dance.
05 Your starting planet depends on your faction and class. Jedi begin on Tython, which is the current home of the Order; Sith begin at the academy on Korriban, in the ancient excavation that you last explored in the original Knights of the Old Republic. Troopers and Smugglers find themselves in the middle of a civil war on Ord Mantell, and Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents work for the approval of a crime lord on Hutta.

 


06 There is no auto-attack: instead, every character has a basic ability that fires or swings the currently-equipped weapon. This is in the ‘1’ slot by default, and any ability in that slot can also be used by right-clicking an enemy in range.
07 Every class has a buff that lasts an hour and significantly increases certain stats. You should always keep this up, and cast it as soon as you enter a group: that way it’ll automatically apply to everyone.
08 Imperial Agents and Smugglers play significantly differently to other classes as a result of the cover system. By using your ‘Take Cover’ ability (F by default) you can crouch or roll behind a handy obstacle, increasing your defensive stats and unlocking coverbased abilities.
09 Both classes should drop into cover first thing in group fights, and when engaging foes at long-range. They soon unlock the ability to drop portable cover. Do this in hard-to-reach places, but you’ll still need line-of-sight to shoot.
10 If a conversation choice has a blue or red icon next to it, this means it will earn you Light Side or Dark Side points. These unlock alignment-specific equipment later in the game. Pick a side: there are no rewards for neutrality.

 



11 During non-story group conversations, you’ll roll a die to determine whether you get to speak. Either way, you’ll earn social points used to access new emotes and costumes. If your group makes a Dark Side decision and you choose the Light option, you’ll still get Light points, so don’t disengage your moral compass.
12 You’ll earn planet-specific commendations by doing missions. These are medals specific to a planet that can be traded for high-quality equipment. You can view all of your commendations on the ‘Currency’ tab in your inventory.
13 TOR is a pretty game, but it can look even better. If your graphics card can handle it, we definitely recommend enabling anti aliasing with some simple tweaks. Click here for our handy guide.
14 Every planet has hidden items called Datacrons. These glowing artefacts offer permanent increases to your stats. Some are found after a few minutes of solo exploration, some require fourplayer cooperation for upwards of an hour to snag.
15 Some items have modification slots for upgrades. These can be tailored to fit your play style – like fitting your lightsaber with a crystal that boosts willpower and subsequently your Force powers.

 



16 High-quality modifications can be bought from commendation vendors. The best ones can be crafted after level 10.
17 If a doorway has a red forcefield over it, you’re not the right class or on the right mission to enter. Players of other classes can accompany you on your story missions, but you’ll need to tick a menu option before players of the same class can join you...
18 ...But other players won’t get credit for completion of your story missions. That means all loot and XP is yours. They will, however, get experience from the enemies they kill, and the warm glow that comes from helping a chum.
19 Through story missions and certain achievements, you’ll earn titles to indicate that you’re a Jedi, a Sergeant, or just very nice. Set these by clicking the arrow next to your character’s name on the inventory screen.
20 Missions designated as Heroic are designed for groups. ‘Heroic 2+’ can be tackled by two or more players and their companions, or soloed by careful players. ‘Heroic 4’ is intended for a full group of four.

 



21 You’ll receive your first companion around level 8. These are summoned and dismissed using the blue portrait at the bottom-left of the screen. Click the ‘plus’ icon to see their full range of abilities – here you can set which ones you want them to use.
22 Click your companion’s portrait and use the button in the bottom-right to send them to sell your trash loot. They’ll return in a minute with your credits, the faithful buggers.
23 Companion customisation items dramatically alter the appearance of your allies. You’ll receive one on your starting planet, and others are available from specialist vendors.
24 Each companion has a particular key stat that affects the majority of their skills. You can tell which it is by mousing over each item on their character sheet to see where the bonuses are coming from. Prioritise this stat over all else when looking for equipment.
25 Equipment will change appearance to match the class equipping it. If you give your Bounty Hunter companion a piece of Trooper armour, it’ll look handmade rather than shiny and white.







26 Your companion’s approval rating changes based on your decisions in conversations. Low approval won’t cause them to leave, but you won’t get access to their missions. Gift vendors sell trinkets that can save failing relationships.
27 If your companion tells you they want to talk, head to a bar or rest area. You can then talk to them like any other NPC.
28 At the end of your starting planet, you’ll receive a very high-quality weapon with four upgrade slots. Hold on to it, and jam it full of upgrades.
29 Your first contact with players from the other starting planet will be on your faction’s fleet station. Here you can choose an advanced class and pick your Crew Skills.
30 Each class has two advanced classes, and they change the way you play. The Imperial Agent, for example, can be a long-range DPS sniper or stealthy operative with the option to heal.

 



31 You’ll pick up companions along the way, characters you can call on to help you out in fights, chat with on your ship, or get busy with once the day is done. Companions have their own abilities: Crew Skills.
32 Crew Skills are divided into three categories: Gathering, Mission and Crafting. Gathering allows you to harvest resources; mission lets you send your companion off in pursuit of rarer items or dark and light side boosts; crafting lets you create weapons and armour.
33 These categories are further split into subcategories. Crafting Skills include Armormech, Biochem, and Cybertech; Mission skills include Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting. Each skill ties into another: Diplomacy rewards can be used for crafting Synthweaved items.
34 From the fleet station, you can either travel direct to the capital planet or choose to do a Flashpoint: a faction-specific instance designed to be played in groups. These dungeons tell a selfcontained story, but can be repeated if you want to try a different approach or to score more loot.
35 TOR has a greed/need system for loot snaffled during grouped play. It’s fine to take loot for your companion, but ask first: players always take priority.

 



36 At the end of the first Flashpoint, you’ll have the choice to proceed to your faction’s capital planet or to return to the fleet. If you want to trade in your Flashpoint-specific commendations, go for the latter.
37 The capital planet is where your personal story will really kick into gear, but pay attention: the circumstances affecting your whole faction will be described here, and will impact you and your allies later on.
38 Some zones have world bosses: high-ranked enemies that can drop rare loot and commendations. Ask in general chat to see if any groups are forming to take them down – they’ll munch on your bones if you go up against them solo.
39 You’ll get your very own ship at the end of the capital planet story arc. Inside you can craft, rest, and talk to your companions. Use the bridge console to travel between every planet in the game. Bring a friend back to your bedroom by grouping with them before entering your class-specific hangar.
40 Your ship comes with a protocol droid. He’s useless in battle, but he can undertake missions and crafting on your behalf. Use him if you’re keen to free up your main companions for fights.

 



41 Space missions are accessed through the bridge. These are on-rails spaceflight sessions that net you XP and fleet commendations, used to buy ship upgrades. Daily missions compile several space missions into one, with greater rewards.
42 key stat that affects their skills. Use the space bar to barrel roll during a dogfight, especially when flying into enemy gun batteries. Conserve your missiles for high-value targets and use blasters for everything else. Don’t get cocky, kid.
43 Buy all of the ship upgrades available on your capital planet. You may have to hunt around for them, but the missile bay expansion is especially important.
44 Warzones are TOR’s PVP battlegrounds. Queue using the icon on the bottom-right of the minimap. Once inside, your stats will be normalised, so the level isn’t important – but skills are, and the more advanced you are, the more you’ll have.
45 Warzone commendations, earned through PVP can be traded for some powerful equipment at the fleet station. DPS characters in particular can benefit from these, and they’re some of the best-looking outfits in the game.

 



46 Use the raid channel to co-ordinate your efforts with the rest of the team. TOR’s PVP is objective-based: make sure you know where you’re focusing your efforts and when to push.
47 On Alderaan, you have to capture anti-ship gun batteries to take down an enemy cruiser. Agree with your team which of the guns you’re going to lock down and which you’re going to scrap over. Getting split up will see your flagship brought down before you can say “we can’t repel firepower of that magnitude!”.
48 In one of the Warzones, Huttball, you’ll help your team deliver a ball into a scoring zone at the far end of the map. It’ll add a new ability, ‘pass’, to your action bar. Use it to throw the ball to a teammate when you get in trouble.
49 The Voidstar Warzone has a long bridge with a drop on either side. It’s a bad idea to fight Force users here, as everyone enjoys punting foes into a ravine.
50 Right-click your character portrait and activate your PVP flag in order to fight rival human faction members in normal levelling zones. On PVP servers, it’s always on.

Hyper-realistic flight simulator X-Plane 10 is sharing parts of its brain with an in-flight navigation system that will help aircraft find a safe landing spot during an emergency. The technology is the brainchild of X-Plane creator and aeronautical engineer Austin Meyer, who has incorporated it into his own plane.

The same physics engine that supports X-Plane 10 forms the basis for the tech, which also uses the simulator for extensive testing. As you fly, a stripped-down version of the code is constantly assessing nearby airfields based on landing strip length, quality, and local weather. It then uses the simulator’s flight model to plot a safe course down to the ground, painting ‘croquet hoops’ on the heads-up display to guide the plane down - turning a potentially terrifying situation into a game of Pilot Wings.

The next step - to incorporate this technology into a fully-fledged autopilot system - is already underway. “You can have an engine failure or a pilot failure,” explains Meyer, “hit this button and the airplane will use artificial intelligence to land itself. In X-Plane, I’m achieving about a 90% success ratio. In other words, if you fly at a reasonable altitude then 90% of the time this artificial intelligence will get you down on the runway in such condition that if you’re good enough to get on the breaks, you’ll stop the airplane - and if not, you’ll roll of the end of the runway at fifty knots, which is probably a survivable outcome after an engine failure or a heart attack or a stroke or something like that.”



“Another area this could be used, is if you’re flying the aeroplane and all of a sudden you wish you weren’t. Maybe you’re hungover, maybe you’re having a panic attack - maybe you think you’re having a heart attack but aren’t sure. Maybe your passenger has suddenly decided to start vomiting all over the cockpit. Maybe you think you smell smoke but you’re not sure. Any of these are cases where you’d rather not deal with having to fly the airplane at that moment. You can hit the red button, and know that the airplane will do the smartest thing it can think to do to get you down, to leave you free to debug your problem, whatever it is. Maybe you got batted in the face by a bird. I mean, a bird comes through the windshield, bats you in the face - all you can see is bits of cracked glass in your eyes and blood. Well, that doesn’t mean you want to die, but you also don’t want to be having to fly an airplane at that point.”

One thing’s for sure: I'm never getting in a plane that doesn’t have a big red button installed ever again.

This competition is now closed, check out our PNY graphics card giveaway instead.

Welcome to the PC Gamer Ultimate Christmas Giveaway! This is the biggest competition we've ever done: packed with peripherals, games, and exclusive items signed by some very important people. Why are we doing this? Because it's Christmas! And we love you.

The Ultimate Christmas giveaway will run until Christmas Eve. Every day we'll be posting about a new prize that's up for grabs, and you'll have 24 hours after the time of publishing to enter. Sadly, we're only able to open this competition to UK residents.

Merry Christmas readers! Why not sit down, have fun and pull on a PCG cracker. Wait, what's this? It seems there was a gift inside, four copies of Men of War: Assault squad! That's right, we're offering four special editions of this RTS to you lucky readers.

Check inside for details of what's on offer and how to win:

Here's what's inside each special edition:

A copy of Men of War: Assault Squad
A copy of the Men of War soundtrack
A Men of War T-Shirt
A Men of War poster
A set of Men of War playing cards

 
To enter, simply answer this question:

Tell us your best worst Christmas cracker joke! Most groanworthy one wins.

If you win, you'll get a private message via the forums. Let us know your address and we'll send you your prizes shortly after Christmas. Remember, this competition is open to UK readers only. Also, if you don't claim your prize within three weeks of being notified we'll offer it to someone else. Full terms and conditions can be found here.

Good luck soldier! Now don't forget to report back tomorrow for the final prize, a massive bundle of goodies from the world's most popular MMO.

We first looked a the US Army’s Dismounted Soldier Training System back in May, but two new trailers have just been recruited onto the internet. Or something. It’s all powered by the CryEngine 3, which isn’t just a pretty games engine, but a complete environment simulator.

The first trailer, above, is billed as an in-game “cinematic”. It features all your usual manshoot elements, but it does look rather gorgeous. You need to remember that the engine’s rendering huge areas, too, rather than Battlefield 3 or CoD’s comparatively constrained maps.

The second trailer shows off the game’s technology, including firefighting, environments, and a groovy little convertible submarine thing with the top down. Did they really think that through? It’s astonishing just how real it all looks, especially when nightvision and forward-looking infrared sensors are activated.

Of course, this $57 million “game” is being developed especially for US Army training, so as much as we’d love to be able to play it, we won’t be able to. Unless we become US Army colonels. Career re-think begins right now.

Updated: Now including comments from the BBFC

EA and Starbreeze’s upcoming reboot of classic top-down tactical strategy game has effectively been banned in Australia - and EA won’t be censoring the game to ensure it gets a release in the antipodean country.

The decision came from the Australian Classification Board (ACB), who refused to classify the game. According to Kotaku Australia, the reason for the banning is the game’s violent scenes, which include dismemberment, decapitation, bisection, exposure of flesh and bone and arterial sprays of blood. Which all sound awesome.

“In the opinion of the Board, the game contains intense sequences of violence which include detailed depictions of decapitation and dismemberment that are high in playing impact. The game also contains the ability to inflict repeated and realistic post mortem damage which exceeds strong in playing impact. It is therefore unsuitable for a minor to see or play and should be Refused Classification pursuant to item 1(d) of the computer games table of the Code,” the board told Kotaku.

It’s a similar situation to exploitation horror film Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence, which was refused a classification by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). In that case, the BBFC recommended two minutes and 37 seconds of cuts to ensure an 18 rating. The BBFC has yet to make a decision on Syndicate, when asked they told us: "As we are yet to classify the video game we are unable to give further comment."

They did, however, explain why Syndicate was unable to receive a classification in Australia. "Unlike the BBFC the Australian Classification Board have no '18' category for video games so this means they are much more likely to reject a video game," the BBFC said. "In Australia computer games may only be classified G, PG, M or MA 15+."

The BBFC’s rules regarding violence in film are, basically, that if it’s brief or “fantasy” violence (against robots or orcs) it’ll get a 12A certificate, if it dwells on the violence for longer then it gets a 15, and if it shows someone in pain for a sustained amount of time then it’s awarded an 18. The latter seems to apply to Syndicate, as well as other 18-rated games such as Bulletstorm and Saints Row: The Third.

EA won’t play ball with the ACB. In a statement EA said, “The game will not be available in Australia despite its enthusiastic response from fans.” They also said, “Syndicate is a game made for a mature audience and any changes to would significantly affect the game's quality and appeal.”

If Australian gamers want to get their hands on Syndicate, it looks like they’ll have to take a trip to neighbouring New Zealand, where the game will be released on 24 February with a confirmed R18 certificate.

After years of pricey map packs, Call of Duty fans can look forward to some more varied DLC next year. Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling has been talking about plans for new Spec Ops missions and "a variety of things that players have never seen before." Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven will all be working on producing regular updates throughout 2012.

"The way we're doing downloadable content this year is unlike we've never done before," he said, speaking in a Call of Duty Elite video spotted by CVG. "Not only in how you can get it - in content drops or choose for the collection - but also the type of content you're getting."

This year we've become used to Call of Duty map packs arriving on Xbox a month before the PC version, a trend that may continue for Modern Warfare 3. Bowling says that the first DLC will be arriving on Xbox Live on January 24. No mention of a PC release date yet.

There's another issue. Call of Duty Elite doesn't exist on PC, and when it's eventually released, we won't be getting the subscription service. Activision have announced plenty of exclusive bits and pieces for Call of Duty Elite, including videos, tournaments and map packs. It's still unclear how or when they'll arrive on our machines.

Still, Modern Warfare 3 fans have plenty to look forward to, and the new DLC packs bound to be successful. In an earnings call earlier this year, Activision announced that they'd sold 20 million map packs for Black Ops. Some of the DLC may even be free. A new Drop Zone game mode was added recently with no price tag attached.

2012 looks like it’s going to be the year of the bigger studios self-publishing games on the PC. Rebellion Studios have already told us their plans to omit a publisher for the PC edition of Sniper Elite V2. Now Alan Wake developers Remedy have discussed the intricacies of their self-publishing arrangement for the PC version of the much-vaunted episodic Xbox 360 thriller.

Alan Wake was published on the Xbox 360 by Microsoft, so it seems a little odd that Remedy are publishing it themselves on the PC. We assumed that Microsoft’s vested interest in PC gaming (after all, they make that Windows thing) would put them at the forefront of publishing it, just as they have with Fable 3.

Matias Myllyrinne - Remedy’s chief executive officer - assures us that there’s no bad blood between the two companies, though. Microsoft have given Remedy free reign when it comes to publishing the game. “We were thrilled when Microsoft gave us the freedom to pursue this opportunity,” says Myllyrinne.

Alan Wake was planned for the PC since its inception, but Microsoft infamously said that the game was better suited to a “couch experience”. Remedy beg to differ, saying that many gamers asked for a PC version. “So many people have reached out to us and asked to be able to play Alan Wake on the PC,” says Myllyrinne. “That's where our roots are - in PC gaming- starting with Death Rally and Max Payne one and two. So, of course, this is a great thing for us - sadly it took a little longer. But this is still something that is close to our hearts.”

The biggest concern about any console port onto the PC is that it’s going to fall flat on its face, with low-resolution textures and poorly-mapped controls. Remedy is working hard to ensure it plays as smoothly on a keyboard and mouse as it does on an Xbox 360 controller. “The biggest things that we want to nail down are things like controls,” says Myllyrinne. “If this is not tuned to perfection, all the visuals are lost and the emotional touchstones are missed. A smooth camera and tight controls are crucial and some of the things that we need to look at from a different perspective when compared to a console game.”

This is the full length version of the Left 4 Dead fan film that was teased two weeks ago. With Bill's tragic demise, the Left 4 Dead crew are a member short. On the way to a safe room three blocks away they find a replacement. And then another one. And then another, until everything's gone a bit mad. Which one would you pick to become the crew's new fourth member?