The Friday update is live and it’s time for future Sith Inquisitors to get another glimpse at their class of choice, this time from a writer’s perspective. Sean Dahlberg posted about the update earlier today on the official forums, including a brief preview from the author of this developer blog, Rebecca Harwick.

Writer Rebecca Harwick takes us down the path to the dark side as she composes the Sith Inquisitor!

” How to explain the Sith Inquisitor?

I could tell you that the Sith Inquisitor is the Emperor Palpatine to the Sith Warrior’s Darth Vader, but that sells it short. The archetype is just inspiration. It’s not the destination, or the road we take to get there, but the guide. The Sith Inquisitor is Raistlin. The Sith Inquisitor is Lucifer. The Sith Inquisitor is Julius Caesar. The Sith Inquisitor is what you make him. – RebeccaHarwick“

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It is podcast time this week, and as always, we’re looking for questions from the community. If you have any Star Wars: The Old Republic or website related questions you would like to have answered on the podcast, then feel free to ask them in the comment section of this post.

This week’s community poll/discussion after the jump.

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Episode 20 – ‘Mass Republic’ of the Darth Hater podcast is now up for stream and download. Check the bottom of the post for the stream and download links. Podcast notes after the jump.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:19 — 33.3MB)

The twenty-fifth issue of Threat of Peace™ begins in the heat of the fight between the Jedi and the Sith in Dantooine’s crystal caves. Lord Baras confronts Satele Shan with the fact that her Master was responsible for the attacks that threatened the peace process. When Satele hesitates, Lord Baras tries to urge her towards the dark side, even as Master Dar’Nala screams at Satele to strike the Sith Lord down…

Check out the latest issue of Threat of Peace now.

Late last night, Sean Dahlberg made a post on the Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums regarding today’s Friday Update. In addition to covering the actual update, Threat of Peace 25, he also briefly discussed how BioWare will be approaching the release of information over the coming weeks.

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Story has to drive choice, and choice has to drive action.

– BioWare’s Dallas Dickinson to Gamasutra

In a previous article, we presented a chart showing the depth of customization players might expect after making the path choice in Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare’s RPG signature usually includes foreshadowing an important decision with prior experiences and choices made during one’s personal story, so the major decision of path choice shouldn’t result in a surprise. Although we expressed our opinion of the depth and variety of customization that should exist after making this permanent decision, we didn’t detail how we suspect you will initially acquire and progressively improve skills in what we call the “core class.” Therefore, we here at Darth Hater decided to elaborate on our prior class combat speculations and delve deeper into what we feel “core class” really means.

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The majority of the Darth Hater staff will be doing “research” this week on the newly released BioWare title Mass Effect 2. We could give you some line about gaining insight into BioWare’s approach to story or possibly examining their graphic style, but the truth is we are just RPG gamers who love a great game. So /afk, and we’ll be right back…

While we’re talking about Mass Effect 2 feel free to speak about the game in the comments section of this post. No spoilers please.

Note: No podcast this week but we will be returning next week with a surprise if everything goes as planned .

Today’s update is the latest timeline entry, Onslaught of the Empire:

A new holorecord in the Jedi Archive tells the story of the Sith Empire’s surprise attack at the start of the Great War over 28 years before the Sacking of Coruscant. Master Gnost-Dural notes the brilliance of the Imperial military’s carefully orchestrated assault which put the Republic at a disadvantage for the duration of the conflict.

BTC 28 – Centuries after being driven into exile, the Sith Empire returned from deep space to launch the most calculated military assault in Republic history. Strategically revealing its attack in a menacing manner, the Sith struck fear into the hearts of the Republic’s defenders even while orchestrating surprise attacks at carefully targeted locations across the galaxy. When the Republic fleet rushed to respond, they discovered the Sith had established puppet governments on several planets in the Outer Rim. Surrounded by enemies and traitors, the Republic fleet was forced to scatter, allowing the Sith Empire to sweep through most of the Outer Rim without further challenge. The Empire’s initial victories put the Republic at a disadvantage for the duration of the Great War.

Watch the sixth Timeline holorecord, Onslaught of the Sith Empire, narrated by actor Lance Henriksen.

NOTE: All download options will be available later today.

We noticed a few more planets mentioned, specifically in the Tingel Arm sector: Belkadan, Sernpidal, and Ruuria. A green planet is shown, referred to as located in the Sluis sector of the Outer Rim. We think this is Sluis Van (find credit: bigbaldpapa).

Official forum poster armenak reported that while taking a casual glance at this year’s E3 Expo Exhibitor List, he noticed both LucasArts and BioWare’s parent company Electronic Arts booked their meeting rooms.

Although there isn’t a booth confirmation yet listed, both meeting rooms are in close proximity to one another: LucasArts will be in Meeting Room 404AB, while Electronic Arts booked Room 406AB, and no one is listed for Room 405 yet.

E3 Expo is June 15-17 at the LA Convention Center.

Episode 19 – ‘The Hype Train’ of the Darth Hater podcast is now up for stream and download. Check the bottom of the post for the stream and download links. Podcast notes after the jump.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:36 — 17.5MB)

It is podcast time this week, and as always, we’re looking for questions from the community. This week is special community centric podcast. We are looking for comments and questions regarding the latest news about the release date. Also, if you have any Star Wars: The Old Republic or website related questions you would like to have answered on the podcast, then feel free to ask them in the comment section of this post.

This week’s community poll/discussion after the jump.

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For today’s update, BioWare returned to Fan Friday for the first time in quite awhile. Along with that, we also received a Developer Corner and a new issue of the Threat of Peace webcomic.

Fan Friday/Developer Corner.

Threat of Peace.

Devtracker so you can find all the Polls Sean made.

Go check out the work from the fan community and let the Developers know what your opinion in the polls. The Developer Corner has a nice video of a shield generator located on Balmorra and a brief look at some facial customization in the form of battle scars.  You can also read the next Threat of Peace to continue the story leading up to the game and check out a few new class avatars for use on the official forums.

On this episode of the Darth Hater podcast, we had the great opportunity to be joined by David Ellis. You may know David Ellis from 4guys1up, Sports Anomaly, and 1up. Episode 18 – ‘The Emo Planet’ of the Darth Hater podcast is now up for stream and download. Check the bottom of the post for the stream and download links. Podcast notes after the jump.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:30 — 37.1MB)

Earlier today, Electronics Arts updated their outlook for fiscal year 2010 with a press release and a conference call. The majority of the call dealt specifically with the slew of titles releasing this spring, however, a bit of Star Wars: The Old Republic news found it’s way into the Q&A section at the end. After being asked about their lower expectations for 2010, EA CEO John Riccitiello said the following:

A couple other thoughts on fiscal ‘11 that I think might be helpful. We are very cognizant of a need to drive growth margins and operating margins, and some of our distribution businesses have provided us luxury profitability that we like. So for now at least we are planning our distribution businesses to be sharply down in fiscal ‘11.

On the digital side, while we’ve got a great number of initiatives, one key driver will be the launch of our major MMO. As it stands today, the game is making great progress towards a spring 2011 launch. But given the volatility of this particular sector, and the fact that we haven’t yet provided a specific launch date, at least for now, we’re excluding the revenue from our FY’11 plan for guidance.

With no other known “major MMO” in development, this can be interpreted to mean that they are working towards a Spring 2011 launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, a fiscal conference call is an unlikely venue for an announcement of this gravity, and this comment is bracketed by talk of fiscal year 2011, which is predominately calendar 2010.

We contacted LucasArts and BioWare for an official comment, and we will keep you updated with any developments.

Update (Jan 12 – 11:09 AM EST): Sean posted an update just minutes ago regarding the news -

While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It’s not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today. We can’t wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details. [Source]

It is podcast time this week, and as always, we’re looking for questions from the community. If you have any Star Wars: The Old Republic or website related questions you would like to have answered on the podcast, then feel free to ask them in the comment section of this post.

This week’s community poll/discussion after the jump.

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Dromund Kaas was recently announced as the ninth planet for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although this planet isn’t fairly well-known, Dromund Kaas embodies the idea of the dark side; its corrupting power, its intrigue, and its deadly nature. Identifying how this planet is connected to the Sith Empire helps to understand why this planet belongs in game.

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