Hi folks,

I got into the early access Friday evening and have played maybe 20 hours [or less] since that time. Leveled a Trooper to 8 and a Jedi to 11. I have a few things to say about SW:TOR - most are good, some are bad but all are constructive in nature. First off, TOR is without a doubt the most polished pre-launch I've ever seen or been a part of. Period. Everything is running extremely smoothly, with no crashes or bugs thus far. Apart from the odd queue, everything is solid.

Upon entering the game after creating my character [character creation was okay, not as good as Aion's though] first thing that struck me [playing as Republic] was that I had expected the animations to be a little bit better, coming from Bioware. They seem very rigid to me - with little 'character' to your jaunts and movements. Again, not as bad as say Warhammers God-awful character animations but not as good as World of Warcrafts distinctive characteristic shenanigans.

Combat, on the other hand, is very good and you definitely feel like your a powerful adversary off the bat. Taking on three or four Droids at a time without breaking a sweat, and here the animations definitely improve. The mechanics feel meaty and satisfying without being confusing.

Of course one of the best aspects of the game so far [and wasn't it always going to be this way really] is the Sound. Little trickles of trademark SW themes popping up now and then, old-famed sound effects harping in as you complete an activity or enter a new zone are handled really well. The sound was obviously something Bioware couldn't really get wrong but still, it's a real treat to hear old favorites as you adventure your way through the starting areas.

*** That was really about as far as I got before I just hit the Republic Fleet late last night for a bit of PvP [which I thought was average, Warzones are just like all the other isolated PvP events of other MMOs - I'm definitely more a fan of open World PvP] - All in all the game is very polished and has potential, however - I do have a few concerns and gripes:

- Travel the Stars

I'm definitely not a fan of segregated and heavily instanced Worlds. Granted it's impossible to do Space fare without slicing and dicing the game world as you can't expect people to fly to planets light-years away every time then proceed to a new zone - but still, it all just seems a little impersonal. I'm sure it's not a major issue for most, and it'll probably grow on me but for the time being everything just feels a little un-connected.

- MMO Lite

I immediately got the Guild Wars vibe when on my starting planet as a Jedi. Separate instanced versions of areas and more concentrated population of players in towns while hardly anyone out in the Wilds. For my starting 10 levels I really didn't interact with many people - I had a conversation or two but it certainly felt more like a Lobby based Co-Op game as opposed to an MMO. I'm not sure how open World PvP is going to work in this scenario.