EA kicked things off yesterday afternoon with the first gameplay demo of the upcoming Battlefield V. We already knew that BFV wold set during World War II and will feature playable female soldiers both in the campaign mode and online. While no gameplay of the rumored Battle Royale mode was shown during the conference, nor were concrete details divulged, developers from DICE did confirm that BFV will ship with a Battle Royale mode when the game arrives this fall.
DICE’s Frostbite Engine once again provides the near photo-realistic graphics and physics for Battlefield V. Improvements made to the engine for this year’s title include the ability to vault your soldier through pane of glass and now larger vehicles like tanks can also destroy entire buildings – which admittedly does look really freaking cool.
The Battlefield franchise has never really been my shooter of choice, I much prefer arcadey and up-close titles like Quake and older Call of Duty titles but for those looking for large scale, 64 player mayhem, BFV should have them covered. It will be released on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. An Origin Access Trial Version is set to be released on October 11th, one week before BFV’s general release on October 19th.
During the EA Play Pre-E3 press conference a former RTS mainstay made its return in the form of Command & Conquer: Rivals – A presumably Free to Play title similar to Clash of Clans and other action hybrid titles.
Longtime staples of the genre like resource collection and unit production are still present in this scaled down, e-sports focus take on Real time Strategy. Two players square off against each other on a small map to claim a central point and launch a pair of nukes at their opponents to claim victory. Several iconic units from C&C history did make an appearance in Rivals brief appearance on EA’s stage – groups of marines, the mammoth tank, tiberium harvesters and flamethrower units were all accounted for.
No word on how Command & Conquer: Rivals will be monetized and the game is still in pre-alpha. North American Google Android users can head on over to the Play Store and pre-register for access to the pre-alpha release. An iOS release is set to follow sometime later this summer.
EA’s last attempt at reviving the long dormant Command & Conquer franchise happened half a decade ago, all the way back in 2013. Originally announced as “C&C: Generals 2”, 2013’s cancelled entry was focused entirely on multiplayer and was cancelled soon after a closed alpha test concluded.
The world of The Sims 4 is about to get a lot more dynamic with the announcement of The Sims 4: Seasons, due out on June 22nd.
The Sims 4: Seasons will add the four seasons – Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter to Electronic Art’s latest “people simulator” complete with new features like Holidays and even a count-down clock that will allow your sims to countdown until the next big celebration. Outfits available to sims will also change depending on the season – in the Winter they’ll bundle up tight in layers upon layers while in the Spring they might put on a yellow rain jacket and rubber boots. Players will also be able to create their own holidays in addition to the existing Winterfest (Christmas), Harvestfest (Halloween), Love Day (Valentine’s Day)/
Also included in The Sims 4: Seasons is a brand new career path – The Gardener. By taking on the Gardening career path sims will be able to analyze different types of plants, make groundbreaking discoveries, deliver flower arrangements around town and curate their own special arrangements as well.
Speaking about the new dynamic weather system, Grant Rodiek, a producer on The Sims 4 had this to say:
“With a vast variety of weather elements that empower the ways players can play with life, The Sims 4Seasons will allow players to use their Sims to tell relatable stories like those they’ve experienced in real life. The ever-changing weather will transform worlds in unique ways by impacting gameplay choices, Sim’s relationships, and Sim’s daily life, while also delivering new challenges,”
Included below are 3 screenshots provided by EA as well as the official trailer. According to the The Sims 4 website, Seasons has an MSRP of $49.99 CDN.
Electronic Arts has turned off real money purchases of the premium currency “crystals” within Star Wars: Battlefront II which launches in just a couple of hours time. Their brief statement outlines that the game is built upon player feedback and that in-game purchases will not be re-enabled until they evaluate the state of the game with the community.
Right now Star Wars Battlefront II holds the dubious honors of having the most downvoted comment in Reddit history and for and kickstarting a conversation throughout gaming communities & tech press alike about the nature of progression and purchasing power within multiplayer-centric titles.
If a listing that briefly appeared on the Australian PlayStation Network is accurate this whole shit show is about to get a little messier with the accidental reveal of a “Starter Pack”. No, it’s not a free to play or price reduced entry into the game’s multiplayer – but rather Electronic Arts selling players power as they begin their epic 40-hour quest to unlock Darth Vader.
For the proposed price of $23.95 AUD (price subject to change, of course, since it was de-listed) you’ll receive a guaranteed 3 rare star cards of an unspecified type and 1500 Crystals for the purchase of RNG loot crates.
Thanks to the thousands of people who came out to read my early Battlefront II review. I knew it was risky, posting a review based on the Origin trial and before whatever embargo EA has set for those who received review copies or attended a “capture event”.
Here’s what I had to say about my experience with Battlefront II’s multiplayer after ten hours:
“Locking iconic Heroes & other playable characters behind a hard in-game paywall that either requires the purchases of dozens of loot boxes or playing hundreds of multiplayer matches immediately sours the experience…. Don’t buy this game new, don’t pay full price for it, Electronic Arts are going to sell millions of copies based on the Star Wars license alone. PerhapsBattlefront II will also see “success” as an example of how a publisher should not monetize a highly anticipated title. Battlefront II has all of the psychological manipulation and shady practices found within free to play and mobile games and they’re asking you to fork over $59.99 USD for the “privilege””
Star Wars Battlefront II is set to be released on November 17th.. Unless you purchased the ‘Elite Trooper Edition’ for a premium, then you get three days early access.
A Word Regarding Review Copies: Electronic Arts acknowledged Broken Joysticks’ request for a review copy of Star Wars: Battlefront II but did not provide the site with a review code in time for publication. This review is based on several hours of play time with the 10-hour “Origin Trial”, which is too my knowledge the final retail code that players will experience on November 17th. I played the PC version of Battlefront II but the EA Access trial was also available to owners of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox One X consoles as well.
Update 11.13.2017 3:50 MST:
Electronic Arts have issued a blog post detailing changes coming to Star Wars Battlefront II in an immediate patch after the massive backlash from online communities and outlets like ours. Prices for heroes are to be decreased by 75% across the board. Below is a portion of EA’s official statement followed by my original review. It should be noted that these changes do not affect the time it will take to earn achievements that are solely tied to kill, does not affect the core criticism of selling in-game power via loot boxes and certainly does not restore any of the cut features from the first game. I believe that my core criticism of Battlefront II stands even with the price of heroes being reduced.
“We’re reducing the amount of credits needed to unlock the top heroes by 75%. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will now be available for 15,000 credits; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa for 10,000 credits; and Iden at 5,000 credits. Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible to all players.”
Version Reviewed: PC (10-hour Origin Access Trial)
Coming almost exactly two years after the tepid reception of the original Star Wars Battlefront this highly anticipated sequel looks to not repeat the mistakes of DICE’s 2015 reboot while also sharing the pre-release hype surrounding upcoming film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While Battlefront II‘s campaign is still shrouded in mystery, the game’s multiplayer mode and offline arcade have been available to Origin Access subscribers for the past few days. After spending a considerable amount of time with the final build of Battlefront II, what follows is my review of the multiplayer component of DICE’s sophomore effort – blemishes and all.
Battlefront II’s grand scale combat will come as no surprise to anyone who played the 2015 iteration or any of their modern entries in their flagship Battlefield series. Two sides take up arms against each other over a series of objectives, boiled down to their most simplistic forms, the two games can sound very similar but BFII tries to distinguish itself from DICE’s other main franchise by introducing a couple of unique twists to the developer’s long-running formula. In a science fiction world where space wizards can shoot lightning from their fingertips, not everything goes according to plan.
Game Modes
The main mode that Electronic Arts showed off several times during the E3 hype cycle and last month’s open beta is known as Galactic Assault. Like conquest, it is still down to two large forces vying for objectives but unlike conquest in the Battlefield games, BFII’s Galactic Assault mode sees the map, objectives, and options available to either side shift depending on the outcome of several different stages. Resistance fighters might be tasked with stealing a shuttle or shutting down First Order communication arrays – this initial object does change depending on the map. Secondary objectives are determined based on the outcome of that initial push. It could see either the Order wait for stronger reinforcements or the Resistance falling back to designated defensive positions in the hopes of evacuating as many unseen NPCs as possible. These hypothetical situations aren’t exact descriptions of the situations featured on Galactic Assault maps but an amalgamation of several different scenarios to give you the idea of the scale that DICE is going for with this mode, without spoiling the surprises that await you on each map.
Starfighter Assaultis an expanded version of the dogfighting combat that was introduced in the last game. Returning players might be disappointed to learn that just like in the last entry – fighters are restricted to their initial airspace. What I mean by this is that there is no seamless transition from say fighting over the orbit of Naboo in large capital ships to seamlessly transition over the skies of the capital city. What was teased in Free Radical’s canceled Xbox 360 vision for Battlefront III will have to remain the wishes of hopeful fans because it is not to be found here.
DICE has expanded the selection of ships and the roles that they play during dogfights. In one instance while playing as the Original Trilogy era empire I was given the choice between becoming a Tie-Fighter and engaging X-wings directly, filling the pilot seat of a TIE-Bomber and laying waste to the Rebellion’s capital fleet or taking on the challenge of flying the TIE-Interceptor with its’ electronic warfare kit. Yup, large capital ships join in on the space combat this time around and provide large objective points but also vast set pieces for skilled pilots to weave in and out of. Starfighter Assault retains the tight flight controls that made flying in a ship in the first Battlefront so fun while transporting pilots to large-scale battles befitting the climax of a Star Wars film or novel.
Arcade Mode is Battlefront II’s offline non-campaign single player component and just like Battlefront I it allows players to set up a custom game with tweakable options to battle against A.I opponents. Several options are tweakable including the amount of respawns each side has, whether Heroes are enabled / turned-off or regular troops are disabled – which leads to some hilarious all out hero brawls- time limit and even smaller details right down to the amount of time it takes abilities to refresh. Sadly the multi-stage objective based Galatic Assault and ship to ship combat of Starfighter Assualt are entirely absent from Arcade Mode. This is kind of perplexing for two reasons: 1) Battlefront II had its signature mode Walker Assault and Ship Battles playable with A.I opponents, in fact, they were the only two modes available offline. Secondly, you’d think DICE and EA would want to put the mode they spent so much time, energy and money promoting into the highly accessible Arcade Mode for new players to experience.
Onslaught Mode is one of the key pillars of Arcade Mode’s customizable experience. Onslaught mode might sound like an objective based mode but sadly it’s not. It’s a fancy way of saying that you’ll spawn alone in one of the beautifully crafted environments and fight off an endless wave of enemies until the score limit has been reached. Battle Points, the new per-match reward for kills, assists, and objectives (which are then spent as spawning as special classes and any of the era-specific Heroes regardless if you’ve unlocked them in regular multiplayer while playing in Onslaught mode. This provides Arcade Mode players with an endless sandbox of enemies to help them find the optimial strategies for murdering their opponets using Darth Mauls’ double sabre.
Lastly Arcade Mode also offers a ladder of prepared challenges in both Light Side and Dark Side flavors. DICE has matched up their roster of Heroes with environments that fit with their character but also their era as well. During the opening segments of both ladders, you’ll assault Starkiller base as Rey, defend the Mos Eisley Catina as Han Solo and defeat waves of Galatic Republic Battle Droids as Darth Maul. Out of all of the content found in Arcade Mode the Light Side and Dark Side challenges were probably the most enjoyable and they did bring a smile to my face. Rank one challenges are rather easy and can be completed in only a handful of minutes but once you’ve finished the entire ladder there are two more difficulty tiers waiting for you. Arcade Mode can also dole out small amounts of credits, usually about 100 per challenge on Rank 1, but these have a daily cap complete with a 20-hour refresh timer – YIKES.
EA Finds Your Lack of Continuing Payment Disturbing
No discussion about Star Wars Battlefront II can really be had without discussing how EA and DICE have decided to monetize the game. A big deal was made during their E3 2017 press conference that there would be no separate season’s pass or purchasable downloadable content for the game that would split the userbase. They wanted us to know that they weren’t going to split up the Battlefront community again – unlike the first game which had a stand-alone version, 4 add-on DLC packs or a Season’s Pass that included the four DLC packs at a discounted price. A unified community sounds like an admirable and awesome goal for an online game to have but in the case of Battlefront II it comes at a great cost (to either your wallet or your patience).
For the most part, this section of my review is going to be a discussion about progression, how it worked in the previous Battlefront title on PS4 / Xbox One and how the “progression” system in Battlefront II isn’t progression at all. BF II’s progression system is throwing you against a nearly immovable paywall to grind for minuscule amounts of in-game currency unless you open up your wallet and potentially deposit more than the price of the base game into EA’s coffers and pray you get good RNG.
Best Hope Your Favorite Hero Isn’t Locked Behind Hours of Grinding.
In the first game, players earned Credits, an in-game currency, based on their actions completed while in the match. Just showing up and standing around or intentionally dying over and over without assisting your team on the objective would earn you the absolute bare minimum of credits – a small bonus awarded for completing a match. I imagine this was designed in such a way to discourage idle farming for credits and encourage team-based gameplay. BFII takes this system throws it entirely out the window. Now credit payouts are seemingly random ranging anywhere from 150 to 300 credits per match regardless of leaderboard position, # of kills, amount of time spent on the objective points or other measurable metrics. Any upsides to this brand-new system – such as new players and those without experience of the genre earning the same amount of credits as a seasoned pro – are quickly discarded when you realize that by drip feeding players only a handful of credits (as opposed to the 1000+ that were common in BFI) EA can sell us all more loot boxes.
Participating in one of the worst gaming trends of 2017, Battlefront II has not one, not two or even three kinds of loot boxes – but four different kinds of RNG based loot boxes that you are encouraged to spend real world money on! There are boxes that will provide you with Star Cards (additional power-ups and statistical advantages) for your heroes, a separate box for your Star Fighters and the third kind of box reserved for Heroes. Oh and Star Cards now have the usual rarity colors assigned to them as well – from grey to blue and even epic orange. The rarer the level of your Star Card the higher your statistical advantage in a given category or the more powerful the certain ability that you’ve equipped. Crates are priced at between 2000 and 4000 credits meaning that they’re asking you to grind out between 15 and 30 games for the CHANCE at decent upgrades or part with real-world cash for an immediate infusion of cards. Oh and there’s the Daily Login crate as well, but as you’d probably expect, be prepared to be flooded with basic grey cards and the occasional green if you are lucky.
Opening One of Battlefront II’s Many Different Crate Types, [Image Source]
If you’ve stuck with the game and decided “it’s fine I just won’t spend any real-world cash on loot boxes and stash my credits away”, be prepared for one of the worst psychological waiting torture tests to be found in a video game, well ever. In the previous Battlefront, you could spend your credits on a number of cosmetic options for your troop classes such as new weapons, playable races and even the option to be a Rebellion / Imperial unit without a helmet. All of those cool little rewards – yeah, they’ve been completely removed. In their place: Iconic heroes like Luke & Vader are locked behind a 60,000 credit wall that could take upwards of 200 matches to unlock just one of them. (Correction – the 60,000 credit figure for Luke & Vadar was true when this review was published. Due to community backlash EA reduced the # of credits required to unlock heroes by 75% in a pre-release patch.) Purchasing weapons for credits have also been got the axe – in favor of tying weapon unlocks to the # of kills performed as that class. Objective time? Kill assists? Helping out teammates? Nah, none of that matters as it is all about your KDR!! Want to play the Rebellion Assault class as a female Twi’lek like you could in the first game? Too bad, all of the gender & racial unlocks from BFI have been removed entirely and now base classes are completely gender locked for no discernable reason.
Conclusion
Star Wars Battlefront II provides a highly polished multiplayer experience that is probably the closest we’ve ever gotten to a cinema quality interactive Star Wars experience in the past thirty years. Characters are recreated faithfully; iconic weapons and starfighters feel great to fly and the rush of adrenaline and nostalgia that comes with buzzing past a Star Destroyer cannot be denied. The moment to moment gameplay, soundtrack and graphics are all polished & shined to near perfect level. Battlefront II had the potential to be one of the greatest Star Wars games ever, to sit alongside 2003’s Knights of the Old Republic as one of the few Star Wars titles that not only represented Lucas’ fictional universe nearly flawlessly but also appealed to fans of its genre outside of the weighty license it carries.
All of the goodwill with fans surrounding their DLC policy, all of the love & care that obviously went into recreating the Star Wars experience so faithfully is immediately irreversibly tarnished by Electronic Arts’ monetization “strategy” with Battlefront II. Locking iconic Heroes & other playable characters behind a hard in-game paywall that either requires the purchases of dozens of loot boxes or playing hundreds of multiplayer matches immediately sours the experience. Taking away customization options, earnable rewards and extras from players in the transition to BFII leave players with a multiplayer shooter that doesn’t offer them an outlet to express themselves at all. EA has turned Battlefront II into a psychological waiting test that you don’t have to endure, it’s not worth it for the fantastic moment to moment gameplay that is present because chances are some of the content you want to experience is locked away.
Don’t buy this game new, don’t pay full price for it, Electronic Arts are going to sell millions of copies based on the Star Wars license alone. Perhaps Battlefront II will also see “success” as an example of how a publisher should not monetize a highly anticipated title. Battlefront II has all of the psychological manipulation and shady practices found within free to play and mobile games and they’re asking you to fork over $59.99 USD for the “privilege” of possibly playing as your favorite Heroes & Villans after hours of grinding. If you must play Battlefront II I’d suggest either subscribing to Origin Access / EA Access and only giving EA the $5 they as for one month or waiting a few weeks and buying it used, thus denying EA a cut of the sale. “Voting with your wallet” is just as much B.S. as Battlefront II’s progression system and it doesn’t work when gigantic corporations like EA aren’t going to even notice the lack of a single full-price sale, it’s a drop in the bucket. But by speaking out, taking a stand, posting on social media and other platforms we can let DICE & EA know that this type of grindy paywall isn’t alright.
Battlefront II’s economy may change closer to Friday’s launch or sometime down the line with a future patch (such is the way of “Games As A Service”) but that doesn’t excuse what they’ve presented to players now as a “premium AAA experience”. Should BFII‘s life stealing grind wall disappear I will update this review with a notice right at the top stating as such. While the gameplay, presentation, and mood are spot-on, in the shape Battlefront II’s multiplayer experience is in now, it isn’t worth recommending.
Star Wars Battlefront II isn’t out for another two weeks but thanks to a quote from Blake J. Jorgenson ( E.VP and Chief Financial Officer at Electronic Artes) during a recent inventors call, we now know that the publisher may offer some form of discount to tie into the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Retailers dropping the price on AAA titles during the rush of pre-Christmas shopping is increasingly common, especially with things like Black Friday. Electronic Arts itself has a history of discounting their popular titles: last year Titanfall 2 could be found for under $40CDN during EA’s own Origin Holiday Sale last year. Two years ago, when The Force Awakens released, the original Battlefront was discounted to $40 USD during the launch week of the film.
Here’s the full quote from Blake Jorgenson:
“We will most likely discount the game like we did last time around the movie launch, and maybe you’ll even see some selective discounts around the holidays, either Thanksgiving or Christmas. That’s the way the games business always has worked. And so if you see the title on discount, don’t read anything into that other than the fact that that’s the way you sell games in the holidays.”
Will you pick up Star Wars Battlefront II on release day, November 17th, or wait for the holiday discounts a few short weeks later?
The Sims has been a staple for simulation fans for the better part of two decades now, the original (released in 2000) is almost old enough to drink in the United States. While I’ve been a fan since the first iteration, I can’t profess to have partaken in any of the mobile entries in the franchise with the sole exception being The Sims 3 on the Nintendo 3DS, which I found to be so sub-par it wasn’t worth playing. Perhaps that is why it is so perplexing to me that my mobile vice at the moment is a five-year-old Sims mobile title from 2011 – The Sims Free Play.
Recreating friends and family has always been my go-to activity when enjoying brief obsessive periods with The Sims and the week I’ve spent with Free Play is no exception. Within the first 20 minutes of booting up Free Play, 3I had a pretty good facsimile of both myself and my wife, ready to go. This is where I found one of the first roadblocks that this game was going to throw in my way – at the start of the game a ‘family’ consists of only one Sim and you can’t move in with another sim until you’ve obtained the rank of ‘good friend’ or higher. As frustrating as that is (and for simple enjoyment purposes – it is frustrating) – I labored forward and purchased two lots for my wife & I, but elected to only build one house – SUCCESS!
Gameplay in The Sims Free Play will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played either The Sims 2 or The Sims 3. You guide your simulated people through the minutia of daily life – everything from making breakfast to sleeping, to skipping work entirely and watching a movie marathon is available to you at just the tap of the screen. On the bright colors, plum-bobs, interface design, and available actives give the impression of the same depth as this mobile game’s PC counterparts. It all works as you would expect: Sims sleep in beds, can enjoy passive time on the computer and chill in the Jacuzzi when times get rough. After assigning your first set of tasks you’ll probably instantly notice one of the key differences…
Actions in The Sims Freeplay take place in real time and players have no control to speed up the passage of time or slow it down. In essence, this makes playing with multiple Sims an exercise in managing various timers to see your chosen task completed. Activities in game roughly correspond to their real life counterparts: Watching a movie takes 2 hours in real world time, making dinner can take half an hour etc. While this would be super annoying – *sarcasm* luckily you can PAY EA money to avoid waiting around for your tasks to complete – making this one of the friendliest-looking Skinner boxes around. Testing your patience to wait for several hours versus the options of opening your wallet and dumping out pocket change for micro transactions.
It is not all doom & gloom and waiting hours for your bars to fill up, however. There is a very positive upside to how The Sims Freeplay’s core mechanics work that can actually bring quite a bit more enjoyment out of the game without having to close it. Just like in the PC versions, you’ll need to manage a number of meters like thirst, hunger, cleanliness, social time for each of your Sims. Thankfully the shortest activities (say eating a snack for 1 minute vs cooking dinner for half an hour) still count towards these metered needs. I’ve had the most fun simply telling my sim to do one short activity after another to meet their needs. This strategy not only cuts down on the amount of time you are outside of the game but also provides a similar feeling to playing the PC titles – watching your Sims interact or do other daily activities without having to go through the laborious time commitment.
The Sims Freeplay has a few glaring downsides to it: the inability to spawn infinites amount of money or speed up time takes some of the creativity and humorous moments from the core experience. Sims themselves lack any kind of will of their own or even the ability to cue multiple actions in a chain to automatically carry them out – this means you’ll literally be guiding each of their actions independently. EA’s constant reminders that “HEY YOU CAN SKIP THIS TIMER IF YOU JUST PAY US MONEY” can be more than a little obnoxious as well. Despite all of these negatives I’ve enjoyed my time with The Sims Freeplay enough that is has been my go-to time waster for the past week or so. Without paying any real world cash I’ve got a mobile Sims experience that on the surface resembles its’ larger counterparts while still including elements that have made the series so enjoyable these past 20 years (seriously if I could get a pinball table in my living room I would so DO IT).
My best advice if you decide to try out The Sims Freeplay is to adjust your expectations accordingly. Know that you will be pestered to buy micro transactions, with some creative gameplay choices you can get around these for the most part, none of the self driven or goal focused A,I exists in this game and that in the end The Sims Freeplay doesn’t offer parity with the PC Versions, even if you were to buy EA’s post expensive micros transaction. Still, a stripped down mobile Sims is a stripped down mobile Sims and I’ll be playing it for the next little while at least.
If you’ll excuse me – I’ve got a house to burn down….
It’s an overused and clichéd shorthand to call any game the ‘GTA of [X]’ or the ‘Grand Theft Auto but [Y]’ yet after watching two different demonstrations of Need For Speed Payback that is exactly the direct comparison I find myself making.
Need For Speed Payback was unveiled during the EA Play Keynote and live stream earlier today. In what has become an annual franchise as of late, this latest NFS title sees the player take control of three different protagonists (just like a certain Rockstar game) who are down on their luck. To get the titular payback against a rival group the trio must stage elaborate, almost action movie like, heists (just like a Rockstar developed game that I won’t mention again in this article). Oh and Payback also happens to be “the most open-world NFS titled developed [by Ghost Games]” according to one of the developer during EA’s presentation.
From what they’ve shown of the experience so far, it feels like a mix between a high action movie, the burnout games of yore and the open world– “go anywhere”- gameplay of 2013’s Need For Speed: Rivals. All told this entry looks very promising and since Rivals was one of my favorites in recent memory next to 2010’s Hot Pursuit remake – Need For Speed Rivals could turn out to be a high-octane thrill ride.
Need For Speed Payback will be out on Xbox One / Scoprio, PS4 /PS4 Pro and PC. It will be released on November 11th 2017
EA dedicated a very lengthy section of their four hour livestream this afternoon to DICE’s sequel to 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront reboot. This included an on-stage presentation and featurette about the group of skilled players who helped provide input to developers about the type of changes needed to make Battlefront II’s multiplayer a success. We also got our first look at an actual full multiplayer battle thanks to their Battle on Theed promotion.
DICE has made a number of fundamental changes to how the gameplay systems work in Star Wars Battlefront II. The most obvious is that units, heroes, maps and technology from all three eras (A New Hope Era, Prequels Era, The Force Awakens Era) are all present within a single match. Want to have Rey fight alongside Han Solo? You can do that! Want the Emperor to electrocute Jar Jar Binks, GO FOR IT (okay.. even in my wildest fan dreams we don’t know if there is an actual playable Jar Jar.) Power-ups and ship combat have changed as well – instead of picking up a token on the battlefield to spawn a special weapon, vehicle or hero, players are provided “battlepoints” for almost every action they perform . Whether you’re shooting an enemy player, blowing up a ship with a tracked missile or capturing an objective you’ll earn battlepoints for all of them – at one point during the livestream we saw a ship simply spawn and then crash into a building, and that player still earned BP. The amount of MP to spawn with a different class, weapon, hero or vehicles differs – so we don’t have a clear sense as to how much each of the specific types of purchases cost.
During the livestreamed Assault on Theed multiplayer match, which takes place on the planet of Naboo the Separatists (which include clone troopers from Episode II, the Rebels from A New Hope era and The Resistance from The Force Awakens era) must defend the palace from a large mobile bomb being escorted by the forces of the Galatic Republic (Empire from A New Hope Era, The New Order from Force Awakens Era). Matches on Theed are divided into three distinct phases: a large open urban area where aerial dog fights happen alongside multi-unit battles in the streets of Theed. If the Galactic Republics continues their push the courtyard near the palace gate will unlock, funnels ground units into a narrower space. The final phase of Assault on Theed takes place in the Queen’s throne room and is designed for full on close-quarters combat. It is quite interesting to see Battlefront II adopt three distinctly different gameplay flows and map styles within a single match, very similar to what DICE tried to achieve with the Death Star DLC for the original Battlefront.
Other interesting tidbits included the inclusion of Episode I’s Battle Droids and Darth Maul as selectable units after accumulating enough battlepoints. It was also confirmed during the match that both Han Solo and Boba Fett will return from the first title as Hero Units alongside newcomer Rey. With EA promising 3 times as much content as the original title and free Hero, Mode and Map updates for all players without a season’s pass Battlefront II should have Star Wars fans excited. Star Wars Battlefront II will be out on November 17th 2017 on Xbox One, PS4, PS4 Pro, PC and Xbox Scorpio.
Titanfall 2 pilots who might have lapsed in their combat training or perspective pilots who have yet to get behind the controls of giant mecha have a reason to suit up with news of the game’s next content drop & free trial hitting consoles & PC next weekend.
Respawn Entertainment will release an updated version of The Colony map from the 2014 original alongside a new execution that will be available to all players. Other additions in this latest content drop include a selection of new premium (as in real world $) Titan skins & nose artwork as well as the new R-101 Carbine rifle which will be available to all players as well.
For Titanfall 2’s second free trial weekend new pilots will have access to the multiplayer suite from March 30th through April 3rd as well as the training course and “Beacon” single player mission. Both the training course and Beacon will stay unlocked for trial participants after April 3rd, although multiplayer will no longer function.
Electronic Arts has released the official minimum and recommended specs for Bioware’s upcoming space epic Mass Effect Andromeda on their support website. It might seem that this information is hidden but it didn’t take the internet long to unearth what kind of rig we will need to experience Andromeda at 30FPS at 1080p.
Here is Andromeda’s minimum requirements:
Minimum Requirements
Predicted performance 30 FPS at 1280×720 on Low Settings
Operating System 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
Processor Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-6350
Memory (RAM) 8 GB
Graphics Card GTX 660 2 GB
and here are the recommended specs:
Recommended
Predicted performance 30 FPS at 1920×1080 on High Settings
Operating System 64-bit Windows 10
Processor Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD FX-8350
Memory (RAM) 16 GB
Graphics Card GTX 1060 3 GB / RX 480 4 GB
So how are these specs? Well on the surface they do appear a bit on the higher end considering that these are targeting 30 FPS and not the 60 FPS that many dedicated PC gamers feel provide the superior experience. Also worth noting is the fact that these minimum / recommended specs do not mention 4K resolution at all, even though we know that Mass Effect: Andromeda will support the burgeoning resolution.
My personal gaming rig falls just above the recommended specs, so when it comes time to write up my impressions of Mass Effect: Andromeda – please don’t expect 4K Ultra screenshots, as that is probably not going to happen. As PC Gamer points out – both Andromeda and Battlefield 1 share the same Frostbite 3.0 engine and BF1 was fully playabale @ 1080 60FPS on Ultra settings. Perhaps the ‘high quality’ recommended settings are a typo on Electronic Arts part.
Mass Effect Andromeda will release in just 12 days – On March 21st for PC , Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
During Electronic Art’s most recent earnings call executives from the company discussed the company’s view on Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall 2. It turns out that despite large amounts of critical acclaim, especially for its’ single player campaign, and high user satisfaction scores this FPS sequel failed to live up to EA’s expectations.
Even in the face of disappointing sales numbers, EA has recommitted itself to the support not only the already released 2016 sequel but also the franchise as a whole. Titanfall 2 will continue to see new maps, modes and cosmetic DLC released throughout its life, it is not known if the next Titanfall title will be developed internally at Respawn but their deal with EA does provide Respawn with the ownership rights to the franchise.
No particular reason for the less than expected sales figures was provided but could it have something to do with the fact that Titanfall 2 was released one week after EA’s other massively successful shooter Battlefield 1 and a week prior to the launch of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare? With so many shooters releasing in such a short time I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a couple of folks decided to only pick up one of the three excellent FPS titles released back-to-back-to-back last Fall.
Here is a quote from the investor’s call:
“Titanfall 2 delivered the next important step in this new franchise we are building with our partners at Respawn – a highly-rated, action-packed experience that has thrilled players in the year’s biggest category. Player satisfaction scores for Titanfall 2 are among the highest in our portfolio, showing just how much fun players are having with this game. Titanfall 2 will be played for a long time to come, with new maps, modes and content updates continuing to expand the experience and engage our players. We’re excited about our long-term plans for the Titanfall franchise.”
Respawn Entertainment’s absolutely excellent first person mecha shooter Titanfall 2 will be getting a limited time multiplayer trial for PS4, Xbox One and Windows PC via the Origin Client. Players who subscribe to the Origin Access (PC) or EA Access (Xbox One) can start the multiplayer trial – which is the full multiplayer suite – on November 30th, with everyone else getting access to the trial on December 1st. This time limited multiplayer trial will run until the end of next weekend, December 4th.
A brand new map, Angel City, will also be available for Titanfall 2 on November 30th for pilots who pre-ordered the game, everyone else will get access to the new map before the end of the trial on December 3rd.The remainder of the December 3rd DLC drop will include the Wingman Elite Pistol, six new Titan kits and a new unlockable pilot execution. All of Titanfall 2’s DLC will be provided for free on all platforms.
It turns out that Respawn Entertainment posted an official blog post describing the multiplayer trial thusly:
“Titanfall 2 will host a free trial of the game’s full multiplayer offering. The trial* will begin for EA Access and Origin Access members on November 30th, and become available for all players starting December 2nd on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Origin for PC. This will feature a full offering including all maps, modes, weapons and more including brand new content from Angel City’s Most Wanted DLC on December 3rd. “
Also as the blog post points out, any progress made by trial users make will carry over to the full version should they choose to buy it:
“Progress from the trial carries over to the full game when you upgrade, so you can keep going right where you left off.”
DICE and Electronic Arts have revealed the minimum PC specs for the upcoming Worldwide 1 inspired first person shooter Battlefield 1. In terms of minimum specifications the game doesn’t require top of the line hardware to run on the lowest settings – either a Radeon 7850 or NVidia 660, so those running video cards four generations or newer should be good. In terms of the recommended settings – NVdidia’s newer 1060 3GB and AMD’s surprise launch of the summer the Radeon 480 are the recommended cards.
OS: 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
Processor (AMD): AMD FX-6350
Processor (Intel): Core i5 6600K
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB
Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce® GTX 660 2GB
DirectX: 11.0 Compatible video card or equivalent
Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Hard-drive space: 50GB
RECOMMENDED SPECS
OS: 64-bit Windows 10 or later
Processor (AMD): AMD FX 8350 Wraith
Processor (Intel): Intel Core i7 4790 or equivalent
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ RX 480 4GB
Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 1060 3GB
DirectX: 11.1 Compatible video card or equivalent
Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Available Disk Space: 50GB
DICE also took some time to thank the millions of users who played the Open Beta on PC, PS4 and Xbox One earlier this Summer. Over 13 million players logged in and tried the game out before its retail release and player feedback have lead to some major changes for Battlefield 1’s conquest mode.
Here is what DICE’s Lead World Designer Daniel Berlin had to say about the changes coming to Battlefied 1’s conquest mode prior to release:
“We’re going to be making changes to the Conquest game mode ticket system for launch. The next time you play the game, capturing the objectives AND getting kills will both contribute towards the final score of a Conquest match. You have spoken, we have listened!” That is why we’re going to be making changes to the Conquest game mode ticket system for launch. The next time you play the game, capturing the objectives AND getting kills will both contribute towards the final score of a Conquest match. You have spoken, we have listened!”
Changes are also coming to the light tank, which DICE feels was a bit too powerful in the open beta and horses which also could a bit of balancing considering they could take rockets directly to the face.
Here’s a bit about what’s coming in terms of vehicle balancing:
“We’re also looking into balancing other elements, including the weapons and vehicles. The Light Tank, which is a bit too effective in the Open Beta, will definitely receive some work, and we agree that Horses can take a few too many rounds at the moment. ”
What did you think of the Battlefield 1 open beta? Does your rig meet the minimum specifications outlined by EA and DICE? Let us know in the comments section.
