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Star Wars Battlefront

Daedalos

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
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Apr 18, 2007
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Soooooooo

Dis releasin' in like 2 days, and EA has been out for 5 days.. Anybody played the full version yet?

I'm gonna get this. THink it's gonne be decent fun to jump into now and then.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Gunplay is terrible in this game. Not recommended.
 

Daedalos

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Not sure if I found the gunplay that terrible, it's definitely arcadey as hell and dumbed down..

But you shouldn't expect BF levels of weaponry and mechanics. It's a star wars game after all.
 

Wolfe

Arbiter
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Oct 21, 2015
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432
The game is actually really fun. Sure, it lacks depth and I don't think it has enough content to keep me interested over a long period of time, but I've been playing with two buddies and we had a blast every time.

It's also the best looking game of the year by far, and everything sound related is amazing.
 

Daedalos

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I'm enjoying this alot. It's casual, it's not mega deep. But's it's tons of fun. It looks, sounds and plays great. And I'm a huge SW nerd.

The presentation is top notch. I think the DLCs will bring more content, but eh, we'll see.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Decent review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/11/19/star-wars-battlefront-pc-review/

And that’s symptomatic of my feelings about Battlefront as a whole. It presents one of the most fantastic stages in gaming history, yet it’s littered with frustrating or bewildering decisions, both design and business, that hold it back from being the sweetly explosive nostalgia-fantasy it aims to be. It does achieve that aim, but only for a little while. So I have made a list of reasons Battlefront is a bit boring despite being the most exciting-looking and sounding game in the whole wide world. Some of these things are minor, some are more major, but the point is they all combine to rob Battlefront of some of its initial sheen.

1) There are, ultimately, only four different environments, and though some are carved into different shapes for different modes, they very obviously repeat very quickly. That’s OK if you’re someone who primarily wants to master every map, but it’s a drag if you’re looking for a relatively unpredictable experience every time you fire this thing up.

2) You can’t unlock an alien avatar for your character until level 40, which for most people will require a couple of dozen hours of play. This means that a game based on Star Wars, a series of films set across multiple planets and starring many weird and wonderful alien races, primarily features humans vs humans. Even once unlocked, there are only a handful of alien species available. The rich visual variety of the universe is knee-capped right out of the gates.

3) You can’t shoot the NPC Ewoks, Jawas or Tusken Raiders who pop-up on some maps. They just endlessly loop their little animations.

4) The weapons all bear instantly forgettable numerical names and, worse, many of them feel extremely similar. I appreciate the game’s hamstrung by canon here, but it does mean that there’s no thrill to unlocking a new blaster: it’ll just be a tweaked variant of something you already had.

5) You don’t get into spaceships and vehicles; you definitely don’t get to take-off or land them. You just hoover up a floating icon, hit a number key and then zaaaap, you’re suddenly a spaceship. It saves time, and stops players queuing for vehicles, but it undermines the fantasy that you are here, in this battle. There’s none of that will-I-make-it-to-the-cockpit-in-time tension, no last-minute escapes, no stealing vehicles from under enemies’ noses. It’s an arcade with near-photorealistic trappings.

6) Floating icons are its answer to everything. That’s OK, that’s a broadly-accepted game thing, but there is an incongruity to having all that lovely scenery and all those wonderful explosions then what you’re actually looking for is transcluent blue spinny things.

7) Though actual sniper rifles are kept at arm’s length, the combat model is heavily weighted in favour of those who can routinely headshot. Close-quarters skirmishing is plausible but highly unlikely, as you’ll invariably be picked off by someone else from a distance. On PC especially, enough of the Battlefield 3/4 playerbase has drifted over already that less skilled players may find themselves doomed to dwell at the bottom of the leaderboards, completely unable to have the heroic battles they’d dreamed of. An online shooters is an online shooter, but given how many genre complexities Battlefront has shed in the hope of appealing to Star Wars fans above and beyond Battlefield fans, the single shot to the head’n’dead structure is a little perplexing.

8) The game unashamedly boasts about how expensive, as-yet-unreleased DLC is needed in order to obtain the complete experience – and whether that’s a result of corporate cynicism or because there genuinely was only so much the developers could create with the time and budget available them to we simply cannot know. But whatever the cause, the consequence is that the same few maps, vehicles and characters start to repeat themselves very, very quickly, and no amount of visual or sonic beauty can cauterise that wound. Combine that with the headshot-or-bust combat model, the samey weapons and the icon-based vehicle pick-ups and Battlefront’s overriding problem is that it, moment-to-moment, it almost always feels the same.

All that said – I can’t agree with the overwhelming negative response we’re seeing from some players, and nor can I shake the suspicion that much of is primarily motived by (entirely understandable) discontent about the DLC business model. Battlefront is fine. It’s repetitive and a little too simplistic, and again it’s bewilderingly focused on highly-skilled players despite clearly targeting as mass a market as possible, but equally those grievances could be interpreted as ‘aw, but it’s not just like Battlefield.’ It’s not, no. It’s just like Star Wars.

The 20 vs 20 battles are amazing to behold, and even if the instant death can be fatiguing, scurrying to cover under a hail of AT-AT blasts or taking down a jet-speed X-Wing with a well-time rocket has big fat movie magic to it. The cracks and the simplicity show in the smaller fights, the looping infantry-only battles, and the even simpler, bot-based singleplayer modes exhaust themselves almost immediately, but the biggest maps, the biggest fights: Star Wars.

Star Wars is science-fiction for everyone. Star Wars, even at its absolute best, is silly and simple and unbelievable and shallow. It can be delightful and it can be tragic, but it is as broad as Tatooine’s endless desert, as straight as a lightsaber’s blade, as obvious as Luke’s jealousy of Han. It is also one of the most successful and shamelessly commercial businesses of all time. Let us not be blinded by romance: Star Wars is Battlefront. And maybe we can only see Star Wars for what it is when it bears another company’s name.

EA! The Empire! The evil overlord of videogames! The Dark Side! The Sith to Valve’s Jedi!

Bloody hell, get a grip. Star Wars is about all the money. Star Wars is about the constant consumption of Star Wars. Battlefront is just more Star Wars, and while there is an argument to be made that we’re not getting enough for our money from the base package, the reality is that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will play it every night for weeks or months, then splash out on the DLC because they want to keep doing that, because it’s Star Wars.

Battlefront nails Star Wars: The Aesthetic, but it also nails Star Wars: The Business. EA tried this business model before with Titanfall, and it didn’t entirely work out, but they’ll get away with it this time because of Star Wars.

Because the idea of getting to fly another familiar vehicle will make people breathless with excitement, even though they know from the base game that controlling every spaceship feels like waving around an Airfix model on a pole.

That visiting another Trilogy-famous planet will be too irresistible, even if the reality is “being repeatedly shot in the head while running across some very pretty rocks.”

That the chance to play as another famous face – the likes of Lando, Chewbacca, Tarkin and Dengar are surely on their way – cannot be refused, even if the existing Heroes look, play and sound like an over-enthusiastic fan-mod.

Battlefront is a beautiful tribute to Star Wars. It’s also a simple game, because it reasons that most of its players simply want to be in those places, looking like those characters, flying those spaceships: that’s the fantasy it sells.

It’s also a shopfront, because the Star Wars audience has proven time and again that if you build it, they will come back for more. Battlefront: the base game might sell itself frustratingly short on variety, and it seems confused about exactly who its audience is, but its spectacle is such that I’ll spend the night inside a Taun-Taun’s tummy if it doesn’t get away with it.
 

Daedalos

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
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Denmark
Good review, and valid points.. though much of it basically, like all the negative reviews, the butthurt boils down to DLC TOO EXPENSIVE, SHIT GAEM !!1

I got the game for like 30 dollars, I'm rich, and I don't give a shit. When the DLCs come, this game is going to be even more fun. You can probably get the full season pass + game for like 60 bucks if u search cdkey shops.

That's a good price for a fun game.
 

Makabb

Arcane
Shitposter Bethestard
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Sep 19, 2014
Messages
11,753
Plus it's not like Vader ran around shooting lightning. Or even using Force Choke much. Most of his offensive use of the Force was just throwing heavy shit around. Which is a "Light Side Power."

That's because Vader was a fighter type like Luke, while Emperor was a force user type like Yoda.

Also force throw in EU is common for both sides and not locked to one specific.
 

kris

Arcane
Joined
Oct 27, 2004
Messages
8,835
Location
Lulea, Sweden
The stormtroopers are supposed to be elite badasses but they're usually portrayed as utterly incompetent in the movies and can't aim for shit.

but for movies that is just like every other villian aiming at an hero, ever. when up against Rebels the first time they slaughter them.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,164
But you shouldn't expect BF levels of weaponry and mechanics. It's a star wars game after all.

And that's where the game fails. It should have BF levels of weaponry and mechanics (whatever they are), precisely because this is a Star Wars game and it would be cool to have that kind of stuff in this universe.
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
5,871
I don't know why people are praising that review - it is emblematic of decline. "Game is shit, but we love it because it looks good and we realize that Star Wars is all about money! Pay through the nose to eat shit, everyone!"

Game is fucking awful. The fact that it looks so good is depressing and a damn shame.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
254
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Norfolk
Are there valid development reasons why it has a significant reduction in features than battlefront 2? Making a Star Wars game was more relevant than making a well reviewed, good game?
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
I never really got Battlefront. The Jedi Knight series had pretty good multiplayer all the way through, but they had a huge amount of singleplayer content as well.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,164
Wonder if this is just the result of EA fucking DICE over. Those idiots still think they can force every franchise into the same business model they have for their sport games. Battlefied 4 was released two years after Battlefield 3, which was a huge WTF moment considering 5 years went by between Battlefield 2 and 3, and then one year later they come up with Hardline and Battlefront. Really? And i guess next year they are going to release Battlefront 2 cause why the fuck not.
 

StrongBelwas

Savant
Patron
Joined
Aug 1, 2015
Messages
482
Wonder if this is just the result of EA fucking DICE over. Those idiots still think they can force every franchise into the same business model they have for their sport games. Battlefied 4 was released two years after Battlefield 3, which was a huge WTF moment considering 5 years went by between Battlefield 2 and 3, and then one year later they come up with Hardline and Battlefront. Really? And i guess next year they are going to release Battlefront 2 cause why the fuck not.
Battlefield 5 is coming out next year, so I guess the Battlefronts will get each two years development time and release with the mainline SW movies. Huge improvement, I know. :P
 
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Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,164
Is Battlefield 3 still going? I actually had mind of trying that. Looks like a military version of Unreal Tournament 2004, which i wouldn't mind. Saw the premium edition going as low as 9 bucks. If it goes on sale again i might give the game a whirl. Last decent DICE game from the looks of it.
 

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