Star Wars: The Old Republic had a huge presence at this year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Fans were able to experience play from both the origin worlds as well as the Alderaan Warzone. And to top it all off, the game won the 2011 GamesCom Award for Best Online Game. Check out the video below to see what all went down, and let us know if you were able to attend!

EA exec Frank Gibeau has revealed that the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic is “definitely tied” to fan reaction of the ongoing beta.

“We’re driving towards a date,” said Gibeau in an interview with CVG, “but the very issue you raised is why we’re not announcing a date yet because you want to make sure that these services can last a decade.”

EA is being very careful about avoiding what has happened with other games, and wants to ensure as smooth a launch as possible. “We don’t want to happen to us what happened to WoW and a couple of other services where in the first week there were queues trying to get on to the servers, the entire service crashed – we don’t want that to happen. So we need to nail and make sure that it’s up 24/7 and it’s high quality.

“We need to nail and make sure that it’s up 24/7 and it’s high quality.”

While Gibeau says feedback from the beta has been “so far, so good,” they are “totally focused on quality” and will not make concessions to get the game out the door.

This week’s Facebook Image features a Jedi Shadow cutting down his foe, emphatically closing out the month of August for us with anticipation for the game’s release on the rise.

Concluding a fierce battle on the battered world of Corellia, a Jedi Shadow strikes down the last of an Imperial patrol.

There has been much controversy of late surrounding EA’s new download service and storefront, Origin. It is the exclusive source for the digital download version of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the desktop application is required to play another upcoming EA game, Battlefield 3. This has had many gamers up in arms. With EA riding do much on Origin, many were questioning whether they would be forced to use the service to get their Star Wars fix.

Luckily, the issue has been cleared up and is in fact a non-issue. Stephen Reid has confirmed on the official forums that Origin will not be required in any form to run Star Wars: The Old Republic, even the digital download version.

World PvP has been something we’ve all known will be in The Old Republic, but have had few details up until this point. That changed this past weekend at PAX, where designer Gabe Amatangelo delved into what world PvP would entail in SWTOR.

Some highlights:

• There will be specific objectives in some open world PvP areas
• Ilum is the first confirmed planet with open world PvP objectives
• Zones have bases for each side, which have defenses and ways to get past the opponents defenses (like a bombing run)
• Mercenary commendations can be earned for open world PvP, will be equivalent with Warzone Commendations

Check out this section of the panel as filmed by Ask a Jedi.

Remember the announcement of those beta weekends starting in September? Well September is now right around the corner, and this weekend at PAX in Seattle, BioWare confirmed that many more beta invites will go out starting Friday, September 2nd. That is this weekend! Invites will be going out throughout the entire month, so don’t fret if you don’t receive one right away, and make sure to keep an eye on your inbox.

If there is actually anyone out there who hasn’t yet signed up for the game testing program, get on that before this weekend!

That’s the main thrust from BioWare’s co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk, in an interview with Eurogamer at last week’s Gamescom. Zeschuk also went on to explain that it was vital that The Old Republic was “available, reliable” and “really solid”.

When asked about the release, Zeschuk said that it will be “one of the biggest launches ever in the history of gaming”.

This week’s update is a developer walkthrough of one of the high-level Operations in The Old Republic. The Eternity Vault sees players investigate an ancient underground prison on the ice planet Belsavis. This particular video shows the first part of the operation from an Imperial perspective, as the players are ordered to investigate the prison by General Thredoldt, head of the Imperial Reclamation Service, who explains that the prison may hold an ancient and deadly evil…

A lone Jedi stands ready to face more Imperials after attacking an Imperial Camp.

The Jedi Shadow stands alone after an intense battle inside an Imperial encampment.

A shot of a dark and mysterious temple on the planet Dromund Kaas receives a bit of lime light as today’s featured Facebook Image of the Week.

The Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas holds ancient and powerful secrets that Sith Lords have sought to unlock for centuries.