Star Wars: The Old Republic's first cinematic trailer rereleased in 4K
If only MMOs looked this good all the time.
Star Wars: The Old Republic came out in December of 2011, and to celebrate the 10th anniversary all its classic cinematic trailers are being enhanced and re-released in 4K. The first to receive the treatment is 'Deceived', a trailer that came out two years before the game's release, which depicts the sacking of Coruscant by the Sith.
Set a decade before BioWare's MMO, it shows Darth Malgus leading the Sith force that assaults the Jedi Temple, with assistance from his twi'lek partner Eleena Daru and a Mandalorian bounty hunter named Shae Vizla. The outcome of this battle is the simmering Cold War that begins to boil over as the game begins.
The cinematic was the work of Blur Studio, whose impressive fight choreography was based on motion-capture. You can see how Blur Studio worked in the behind-the-scenes footage of the 'Return' trailer. They're also responsible for such memorable videos as the intros to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the trailer for the never-released Prey 2, a trilogy of trailers for The Elder Scrolls Online, and plenty more.
Though it's no longer part of the Star Wars canon these days, BioWare has no plans to end The Old Republic. The MMO will soon receive a combat style revamp and a new expansion called Legacy of the Sith, which will involve uncovering "the ultimate plan" of Darth Malgus, bringing it all back to where it began with that first trailer.
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Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.