Look out WoW, there's a new game in town.

I will confess there's another reason I've been neglecting my blog, and it's a big one. In December, Bioware released a new MMO game,  Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Up to this point, I've been a World of Warcraft (WoW) fanatic, only playing Aion and Rift for a short time. But WoW, there's a new kid on the block nipping at your heels. The mechanics of Star Wars are more-or-less the same as WoW with fighting, moving, buying items in an Auction House and crafting items such as weapons and armor. But the biggest difference between the games is that Star Wars has story lines  for the individual classes, several companions you can choose from that assist you in your quests and fights (usually every class gets a healer, dps, tank), and dialogue options to converse with your companions and the quest givers , not to mention there's a romance option with one of your companions for all the classes.

I initially rolled up a Jedi Consular Sage (basically a healing class) and had a hard time getting into the game. The storyline was slow and I didn't care that much for my companions. I played the game maybe 3 weeks and was about to let my monthly subscription expire when I rolled up a Trooper. Holy crap. That changed everything. The story had me enraptured, I liked the companions, especially cat man  Aric Jorgan, (Timothy Omundson, incidentally does the voice for this character) with Yuun and Elara as close followups.

But this entry isn't about the classes you can play or their companions. I may do entries on them at a later date. Rather, I meant for  this to be an overview and to share the point at which I really got into the game. Yes, it was the trooper that rallied my enthusiasm, but the quests on Tatooine really got me going. Tatooine brought back all the memories from the original Star Wars movie. I grew up on Star Wars. I was Princess Leia for Halloween one year, I had a poster of her on my wall, and my sister and I played with our Star Wars figurines.

Remember hot, arid, sandy Tatooine from the movie?

It's here and there are bad guys. Remember the Sand People, the guys who beat up Luke Skywalker and rooted through his land speeder before Obi-Wan Kenobi saved his ass? Yeah, they're all over the place and they hate everyone who isn't part of their clan.

The Jawas are here too, but the game portrays them as annoying, but loveable scamps, similar to the goblins in WoW. I thought they were mean in the movie, but it's been awhile since I watched it.

And there are Banthas too!

The game has many of the same aliens, cantinas, space ships, blasters, lightsabers as the movies too. It's a nice walk down memory lane.  Yup, I'll be writing more about the game in future entries.

You've been warned.