Almost 20 years after its release, Star Wars Episode 1: Racer is back in the news thanks to a collaboration between Lucasfilm, Disney and GOG.com.
GOG brought the 1999 original game into the shop and fine tuned a few things to make sure that it plays nice on more modern operating systems and chipsets.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the features of Episode 1: Racer provdied by GOG’s game page:
Hang on tight – with afterburners on, Podracers max out at a simulated 600 mph!
Relive all the thrill and excitement of the Podracer sequence from STAR WARS™: Episode I.
Race in furious competition against 21+ opponents.
Take on over 21 tracks on 8 unique worlds!
Avoid hazards such as methane lakes, meteor showers and Tusken Raiders.
Spectacular 3D environments.
Vehicle sound effects and epic soundtrack taken directly from Episode I.
Originally released in April 1999, Star Wars Episode 1: Racer was released on the Nintendo 64, SEGA Dreamcast and Windows PC. The original PC Port had LAN multiplayer support but this no longer works due to the depreciation of the IPX protocol across multiple Windows releases since 99. On Nintendo 64 Episode 1 Racer lacked a number of pre-rendered cutscenes seen in the other two releases but did make us of the N64 Expansion pass for higher resolution output and textures.
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.
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.
LEGO games have gone through many adventures. It’s a hit phenomenon that has even spun off a “toys to life” NFC game with LEGO Dimensions. The main franchise has kept a good track record of adding new content instead of just rehashing the tried and true gameplay. Sure, LEGO games feel familiar, but if you look back to the early days they really have come a long way.
In LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the franchise adds some new and interesting goodies to once again expand upon that experience. Obviously the main reason to pick up this latest release is to play through comical renditions of the movies memorable scenes. It may seem like there wouldn’t be much content just drawing from one film, but TT Fusion has added enough interesting content along the way to make it feel like you’re playing the adventure, rather than just watching one movie play out.
One of the biggest additions that has fans excited is missions that expand the story of The Force Awakens. The first unlockable sees Poe Dameron rescuing Admiral Ackbar from a Star Destroyer. Gold Bricks unlock this content and it makes replaying old levels worthwhile to get these new stories. It’s actually quite a nice reward instead of just getting one bonus level at the end of the game after gaining 100% or what not in previous titles. Most of all, it’s the new content that you’ll want to see so it makes it a draw to want to get those levels open.
As noted above, it’s the additions that really make this yet another LEGO title that’s worth picking up. For one, there are first person shooter scenes. That’s right! A LEGO game with FPS moments. They’re more like Gears of War really, but that shouldn’t scare any parents away from picking up the game. Naturally everything is still in a light hearted LEGO style. It just means characters take cover behind obstacles and can pop out into first person mode to blast away at some nearby storm troopers. Auto aim typically gets you right on target, but you can aim around as well to blast around the environment.
Using scout binoculars is a fun little addition as well which allows certain characters to go into first person to find weak points on enemies or hidden objects. The view finder beeps quicker and closes in two arrow icons to indicate when you’re on the right track. It’s a basic addition, but still something that adds variety to the gameplay. Other things like computer hacking which focuses on a couple matching games, or even language translation with C-3PO gives gamers different things to focus on.
The Force Awakens like many Star Wars movies focused on visiting many planets. Of course this makes including a free roam world something a bit more difficult. TT Fusion did find a way to include that experience as well though! Throughout your adventure there are free roam areas to explore in the different sections. One even sees you completing tasks around the Millennium Falcon. Like with many games, this gives a sense of home locations that feel calmer and familiar between all the battle scenes. There’s gold bricks to find in these places and new characters to recruit to use in free play, so they’re enjoyable to wander around.
Like with many LEGO games, Dimensions included, I always play them multiplayer with my wife. LEGO The Force Awakens usually has that spinning split screen that decides where you are in relation to the other player and splits the screen to give you both the largest view of your area. When you get close to each other, the view merges together again. I think in freeplay areas it’s split down the middle of the screen though since you can wander a lot further in those levels. It’s good to see that the co-op experience still remains strong.
There is vehicle combat in the game as well. So you’ll occasionally take to the skies and blast away at incoming fighters. Both sections where you’re constantly flying in one direction and all range battle arena style combat is included. These are typically quite fun and even allow the second player to take over rear facing guns on the Millennium Falcon. The only down side I found was that it was hard to shake some enemies that had flown into formation behind you. That’s probably just me though not being sure what to do.
As has become the norm with LEGO games as they progress through the years, boss battles are typically puzzle based. You’ll try to find objects to destroy or build around the area to deal some damage to the enemy. This is great since it adds more to what would otherwise be a quite basic beat ’em up section. It makes boss battles an event instead of just another enemy to fight.
One thing I did notice was that puzzles never really became too frustrating in this outing. The very rare time in previous LEGO games you could get pretty lost on what to do or even have a glitch leave a puzzle unsolvable. I think in all our time we had one puzzle that tripped us up a bit, but probably in single player we would have received a bigger hint from the computer controlled characters doing their part instead. As a co-op team, that focus fell on us and we had to work together to figure out what to do. So all in all not a bad thing, and certainly an improvement over those rare frustrations of the past.
We also found stud collection to not be that much of an issue this time. Sure, you do still need to break everything and collect as much as you see to get your True rating in a level, but it didn’t feel like we were going to not accomplish that. There was only about one level we didn’t get enough studs on before unlocking our x2 red brick multiplier. Even then, by the time we unlocked that red brick it only took running through one level to have the studs to purchase it. So for that strategy, the game is very well paced out.
Multi-builds are the other new gameplay feature which we both loved and hated at times. Basically they are piles of bricks that can be build into more than one object. That object can then be destroyed and rebuilt into one of the other forms. I admit, there were times that characters would indicate that you needed to build a different object first instead of what you did make, but at times it felt like a chore. We weren’t too sure what would do what. Also playing co-op limited the multi-build outlines we could see at times. I don’t think we ever couldn’t see one on screen, but it did lead to us just holding in one direction to see if we could build left, right or center. In general they are fun. But any time we weren’t sure if the object we made was what we wanted first, it kind of slowed us down. Multi-builds aren’t bad, and it’s a clever idea considering it is an actual LEGO feature for the real brick sets you can buy. We just wished that you could get more hints to speed things along or even build more of a story around the puzzle. Yes, I get that it would detract from it being a puzzle however. Perhaps even a small title under each multi-build could have helped so we could see things like, “Water tank”, “Pump”, “Power source”, and decide which was important to build first.
Overall the game is great! There’s lots going on, enjoyable moments with a wide variety of characters, and a good mix of gameplay that keeps each level entertaining. Some previous games could feel a bit exhausting in longer levels, but thanks to mixing things up with the first person shooter like sections and aerial combat, the levels kept us interested. There’s a lot of fun to be had here and the season pass adds even more interesting levels into that mix. LEGO TFA is a worthy addition to the Traveller’s Tales games and this one celebrates the return to the Star Wars universe.
Remember Star Wars the Old Republic? The now free to play BioWare MMO that was the successor to Knights of the Old Republic, but lacked all of its charm, story and fun? Well, I do. That game actually soured me on playing any more Star Wars games. I havent touched any since, so poorly handled was the game. Well, now BioWare wants you to come back, and play a little more. Announcing today their new expansion for the already free to play game, which will be called.
Knights of the Eternal Throne
There you go. This is a five year old game people. Im surprised I even saw this story on the news wire today at all. Though ToR still has a small dedicated fan group. It is by no means a successful MMO. What started out as a paid monthly wow like game, eventually devolved in to the worst free to play garbage that existed.
Following on from the story-driven Knights of the Fallen Empire, the latest entry will feature more of BioWare’s trademark cinematic storytelling, as well as exciting new game features. So I expect a lot of running around doing things, and talking to people. Can we be done with story driven MMO’s yet?
Right now all you can really do is sign up at the website and see a fancy animation. Go here to do that if for some reason you are a serious Star Wars fan, or still playing this game.
When KOTET does arrive, it will align with The Old Republic’s fifth anniversary which EA and Bioware have marked with a celebratory blog post from director of design James Ohlen; an infographic which, among other things, notes players have sunk an impressive 1.5 million hours into SW:TOR since 2011; a handy collection of the game’s trailers; and this video.
So good luck out there, hopefully this expansion doesn’t suck as much as the last one did. Knights of the Eternal Throne is expected to launch in “Fall 2016”.
Last Monday was nothing short of amazing! As part of a small group of media we were able to visit an exclusive event at The Rogers Center in downtown Toronto. That’s right, the exact field the Toronto Blue Jays play at became a fantastic spectacle to highlight Traveller’s Tales upcoming new LEGO Star Wars release. We entered to the familiar John Williams score, making our way up into the TD Comfort Clubhouse to enjoy an all star treatment while being some of the first in Canada to play the new game.Read More
With only one week until launch we now have a character spotlight focused on everyone’s favorite new Dark Side apprentice, Kylo Ren! He is still an apprentice, right? Anyway, you can check out the action below and be sure to tune in later for Darkain Arts Gamers coverage of the LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens event at Toronto’s Roger’s Centre last night!
Remember, LEGO The Force Awakens releases on June 28th! Next Tuesday you can learn more about the storyline around the new Star Wars movies!
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released a new trailer today for the upcoming June 28th release of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This character profile highlights BB-8 in a short but sweet video. While the game in general seems to be a retelling of thew hit movie, there has been mention of additional story content as well. It seems the game will bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens with some backstory to the new cast.
That aside, here is a look at the new BB-8 trailer:
It is no big secret that EA’s Battlefront edition set in the Star Wars universe is pretty. barren. right. now. Most of the peopel who are still playing the game are experiencing long load match load times, low population counts, and difficulty even finding a game. Perhaps in response to this or perhaps because its spring and everyone loves a sale EA have decided to take the age old startegy of selling it for a low price to attract more people. Currently Star Wars Battle Front a game which sold for 60USD on retail is on sale for 24USD. Its a rare chance for people who may not have gotten the game (which is less than 6 months old) to get in to it before its gone forever.
Everyone who plays shooters knows that as the game ages the community shrinks, but usually you can get at least a year out of most games. Even the most recent COD has a player base large enough to support half a dozen modes or game play at once with it only taking a few minutes to get to the game. Perhaps this 60% off sale will reinvigorate the game.
Yesterday was May the 4th, which is as close to a real Star Wars holiday as fans will ever get, so EA chose it to announce they will be making another Star Wars IP. Their exact quote was “all-new third-person action adventure game set in the Star Wars universe.” what does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but id guess its going to be another shooting game, possibly something in the vein of republic commando but set around the time of this years Star Wars installment (Rouge One) and following a story with single player and action and adventure styling.
Respawn is already hard at work on Titan Fall 2 which is set for a release date later this year. So once they wrap that we can expect to see news for this new IP to start ramping up. Lets just hope this game is not a disaster on the level of Star Wars Battlefront which currently sits basically empty with player counts so low its difficult to even find games. There are so many Star Wars related games on the way that I think I have lost track of them but just in EA’s house alone you have EA-owned studios Capital Games, Visceral Games, DICE, BioWare, and Motive also currently working on Star Wars projects. That is a lot of games, I expected a large number of games to show up after the sucess of The Force Awakens kick started Disneys want for more money, but my most fervent hope is that this doesn’t turn in to a shovel ware situation.
Soderlund also said in his announcement post “Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Vince Zampella and his group, their obsession with making games that feel amazing has helped make Titanfall one of the most successful new game launches of this generation.” We do know that Stig Asmussen former director for the God of War series will be leading this project and having played most of the amazingly fun God of War games I feel confident that he has the experience to bring third person combat to the Star Wars universe.
Mr. Asmussen did publish a lengthy blog post on the Respawn blog about the game, but it doesnt really say anything you need to read. There is however at least one very encouraging line in the blog post “I have been playing Star Wars games my whole life, now I get to make a Star Wars game,” lets hope that love translates over to the game, and we dont get a bit of shovel ware pushed out EA’s door to just try and ride on the back of the Star Wars hype.
So the first trailer for the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dropped yesterday and after amassing 23 million views in just one day and featuring what looks to be a great performance by Felcity Jones in the lead role you’d think that the internet would be ecstatic to see the franchise continue its return to form. Sadly on the dark side of the internet fake nerd boys rage at ‘feminist propaganda’ in a social network not so far far away.
Gamers were upset earlier this year when EA announced it would not be bringing any content from The Force Awakens into Star Wars BattleFront. An announcement this week of the road map of DLC content did not include any thing from newest Star Wars film. Now EA is providing their reason& this puts and end to all of the speculation (some of which we did here).
On on earnings call with EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said:
“On Star Wars, the one thing that we are adhering to, and I think this is part of our arrangement with Lucas and Disney, is you can’t make a game in Star Wars that violates the canon of Star Wars. Meaning you can’t take something from the future and bring it back into the past unless it’s a reference. Not knowing yet exactly what the storyline in [Star Wars:] Rogue One is going to be, I can’t comment on how that could come in. But to the extent that it’s in the future… Our current Battlefront game is all based on the historical Star Wars canon, which is 30 years before the most recent movie, that will limit our ability to bring some new content into that.”
“But more to come there obviously,” he continued. “We’re trying to stay tightly connected to the Star Wars beat for future movies and we’ll obviously in future Star Wars games be able to tap the new characters and vehicles and so forth. But in our current game and for that manner the DLC associated with that current game obviously we’ll have to be careful that we don’t violate the cannon.”
So there it is you have your answer. Its not complicated, its not a conspiracy, its just the fact that EA was specifically instructed that they were not to damage star wars cannon directly with their game. If they allowed you to run around battling during the few major battle scenes in the movie, Lucas Film thinks it would confuse players into thinking they could get back in to the universe and change it.
Jorgensen went on to suggest that EA would be making a second Battlefront game (so surprised, I am) and hinted that it might have content from the new movies including the upcoming Rogue One.
It looks like Star Wars: Battlefront fans will be receiving some much-welcomed news tomorrow, if a post on the official Battlefront Twitter account is to be believed.
Although not much detail was given aside from a mysterious tweet that read “Prepare for a cold front coming through #StarWarsBattlefront tomorrow… “, a recent community event held by DICE challenged players to play over 500,000 hours as both Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. The community shattered that goal, and with that accomplishment came the suggestion to “look to Hoth to show the fruits of your labor once the January update has been released.”
Given the hint of a cold front in the Tweet, it’s likely that the news coming tomorrow could be directly related to the reward for the community event. DICE has promised more free content in addition to the Force Awakens tie-in Battle of Jakku as well as content coming in the paid Season Pass. Whatever is announced tomorrow, we’re excited to get back into Battlefront with some new toys.
Recently released, Star Wars Pinball: The Force Awakens pinball pack for Zen Pinball 2 is Zen Studio’s newest themed offering for players. This pack features the two aptly named tables Star Wars Pinball: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Pinball: Might of the First Order, with themes from Jakku and a Star Destroyer respectively. As with the the previous licenses for Zen Pinball 2, these two tables are not only top notch, but stunningly beautiful as to be expected from Zen Studios. First thing I’ve noticed, is it’s either because of the board layouts for the two, or my eyes are fooling me but both tables seem to be a bit larger than their last release in comparison
The first table covers parts of the first act from The Force Awakens and upon loading it up, I was greeted with John William’s orchestral score. As with standard pinball fare, completing various objectives will advance the certain bits in the story, the movie plotline in this case, and make things entertaining. For this table, some of the stuff that can be done to rack up a high score are hitting Orbits to collect scrap metal, hitting tentacles after enough times will bring out the creatures to hit for high scores. Loading up the second table brings up a very nice Star Destroyer-themed layout. In comparison, having a dark contrast to this table with a light one for the first table offset each other just enough to compliment each other very well. One of the more entertaining objectives for this table is after sinkhole shots are made, Poe will sneak onto the table to engage with the Stormtroopers in a firefight. After Poe is captured, he’ll need to be recaptured by hitting the bumpers.
Both tables are are very nice, and stack up just as good with the others available for purchase. One thing that I noticed in comparison to my previous table set review is that voice samples are spaced out a bit more, which provides a smoother experience when trying to rack up points and complete objectives. An issue, albeit a very small one, is that it sounds like Kylo Ren’s voice sampling isn’t up to par and volume is louder in relation to all the other voice samples out there, which doesn’t adversely affect the entertainment value of this set. For any fans of Star Wars and pinball, I would definitely recommend getting this pack.
Star Wars Pinball- The Force Awakens is now available for Zen Pinball 2 on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.
The first table covers parts of the first act from The Force Awakens and upon loading it up, I was greeted with John William’s orchestral score. As with standard pinball fare, completing various objectives will advance the certain bits in the story, the movie plotline in this case, and make things entertaining. For this table, some of the stuff that can be done to rack up a high score are hitting Orbits to collect scrap metal, hitting tentacles after enough times will bring out the creatures to hit for high scores. Loading up the second table brings up a very nice Star Destroyer-themed layout. In comparison, having a dark contrast to this table with a light one for the first table offset each other just enough to compliment each other very well. One of the more entertaining objectives for this table is after sinkhole shots are made, Poe will sneak onto the table to engage with the Stormtroopers in a firefight. After Poe is captured, he’ll need to be recaptured by hitting the bumpers.