I also have three laptops, but none of them have a graphics card. My work laptop also doesn't allow me to install stuff without an administrator password (which I don't have) and my wife has kind of taken over the other one. The third one is old and the wifi card is broken, so it's good for doing some things, but not really something I can use for gaming except for some older offline games that are installed on it already. So having a second desktop with a good graphics card that's just my very own computer completely under my control and only my control is a welcome addition to our collection.
Sadly, it's taken longer to come my way than I expected (I first hoped to have it over the Christmas break; I now hope to have it before the end of next week, if I'm lucky). One of the very first things I'll do once I've got my "basics" set up, installed and running is to install Steam and download the games that I'd had (95%+ of the time, my Steam account was used just for Street Fighter IV) and The Old Republic. Given my "Star Warsy mood" of the last few months, the latter is what I'm most excited about, and I plan on getting a two-month one-time subscription. Not only the subscriber benefits will be welcome on their own right, but I'm also excited about it permanently unlocking the extra content and preferred player status. I'm also likely to throw a few bucks at the cartel market to get a few additional perks here and there that are direct purchase microtransactions, just for either convenience or because it's something that I want.
What I probably won't buy, because I have no plans to use them, are the three cartel market expansion race selections. Let's go over the race and class selections briefly, just for fun, and because it's nice to review that kind of thing and compare it to my PnP AD ASTRA options to see if I'm in the same ballpark in terms of quantity and other similar features.
RACES (in alphabetical order, base races first, then cartel races)
- Chiss—as a base race, only usable for the bounty hunter and Imperial agent, although you can unlock it for all classes.
- Cyborg—every class can play a cyborg, although the little electronic gadgets that show on your face look different for every class too, unless you unlock the full gamut for all classes.
- Human—of course, you can play a human for every class, although you need to buy some of the hair styles, colors, etc. and if you don't, your options are much more (too) limited.
- Miraluka—the eyeless but otherwise human-looking race is a little weird; you can only use them as the Jedi without unlocking them. Although I'm not very interested in every using them, honestly.
- Mirialan—the green-skinned and tattoo-faced aliens are only usable for Republic without unlocking. They just look, like the Chiss, like an exotic human ethnic group, though.
- Rattataki—bald and gray-skinned aliens that are not Dathomiri women, but look exactly the same as them. Usable for Imperial only (but not Sith Warrior) without unlocking. I would consider using this race for a male character. Maybe a bounty hunter, for instance.
- Sith Pureblood—only the two Sith classes can normally use this, although I believe you can unlock them and use them for anything, even Jedi, which one of these days might be fun to try just for the novelty value alone.
- Twi'lek—Without unlocks, the class selection available to this race is kinda odd; all Republic classes except Trooper, and none of the Imperial classes except Agent.
- Zabrak—although available to all classes, the Imperial and Republic zabraks are two different ethnic groups (without unlocks to get them to be available for everyone); the Imperial zabraks being dark and red like Darth Maul and Savage Opress and the Republic zabraks being lighter, like Eeth Koth or Sugi (the Clone Wars bounty hunter).
The Cartel races are a little bit less humanoid, in general. Because of that, I find them less interesting; they look too weird. That doesn't mean that I dislike non-human characters in general, but I don't think they work quite as well for this particular game. For instance, I wish you could be a droid bounty hunter, agent, smuggler or trooper, but how could you do anything with the character romances, etc.? So what you can do in this CRPG shouldn't necessarily map to what you can do in a PnP RPG. Besides, I might prefer alien races that aren't as weird or cringy as the ones we did get, perhaps.
- Cathar—look like the characters from Cats, except with elf ears instead of cat ears. Mostly really pretty cringy as an option.
- Togruta—the race of Shaak Ti or Ahroka Tano. Colorful, and has head ornamentation that's even more bizarre than the twi'leks, but I think they look weird. I'm not very interested.
- Nautolan—the Kitt Fisto race, with big dark fish eyes and loads of tentacles coming out of the back and top of the head instead of hair.
CLASSES (there isn't really as much variety as you'd like; there are four classes for each faction, Imperial and Republic, and each class has now been split in two developmental/progression models, but each one mirrors one that's in the other faction. This, again, works well for the kind of game that this is, and the classes are often as much about having a different story as it is about having a different experience in terms of combat and abilities. Which is fine, but probably not exactly something that I can compare to my AD ASTRA system. I have my Knight class works just as well for the "Sith", the "Jedi" and every other order without any change whatsoever, for instance. SWTOR has half of the class list making fine distinctions between them all.
- Jedi Knight—the more combat oriented Jedi class with a story that is the most "protagonist" for the entire game, with
- Jedi Guardian—a heavily armored tank or DPS spec using one lightsaber
- Jedi Sentinel—a medium armored DPS spec using two lightsabers
- Jedi Consular—the more "wizard" oriented Jedi class, with
- Jedi Sage—a lightly armored (robed?) heal or DPS spec using a single lightsaber
- Jedi Shadow—a lightly armored tank (not sure how a lightly armored tank works, but it seems to be class progression of shield type abilities) or DPS spec using a double-bladed lightsaber.
- Smuggler—the stereotypical "rogue" archetype, with a great treasure hunt/pirate storyline, and
- Gunslinger—a medium armored DPS spec with double pistols
- Scoundrel—a medium armored heal and DPS spec with a blaster pistol in one hand and a shotgun in the other.
- Trooper—a heavily armored soldier who goes heavily into special forces type storylines (although it's considered by most one of the poorer stories in the game), has
- Commando—a heal and DPS spec with an assault cannon, a very iconic look
- Vanguard—a tank and DPS spec with a blaster rifle
While the Imperial classes line up in terms of abilities perfectly with the Republic classes, the look and weapons are occasionally a little different. (And the graphics for the abilities look very different; Force pushes vs. lightning attacks, etc.)
- Sith Warrior—lines up perfectly with the Jedi Knight in terms of spec, armor and weapon use, including
- Sith Juggernaut—the Imperial guardian, and
- Sith Marauder—the Imperial sentinel
- Sith Inquisitor—lines up perfectly with the Jedi consular in terms of spec, armor and weapon use, including
- Sith Sorcerer—the Imperial sage
- Sith Assassin—the Imperial shadow
- Imperial Agent—the Imperial smuggler, although with more of a James Bond in space story, and a few differences in equipment, although in terms of spec and armor they match up exactly with the smuggler.
- Sniper—instead of double pistols, has a sniper rifle and a vibroknife
- Operative—instead of an off-hand shotgun, has a vibroknife
- Bounty Hunter—although their story (and role personally) couldn't be more different than the Trooper; a rugged individualist vs. part of a well-oiled team, the Bounty Hunter, like the trooper, uses heavy army, the same specs, and cosmetically different but otherwise identical abilities. There is a slight different in equipment, too.
- Mercenary—the Imperial commando, but with double blaster pistols instead of a low-slung cannon (more's the shame)
- Powertech—the Imperial vanguard.
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