Star Wars: Battlefront (2015)

Major hype actually. Here is what I say to make people upset:

No space battles, no bots in multiplayer, 20v20 battles only, no galactic conquest. As opposed to Battlefront II that had all of that and more. This game is Starwars Battlefield Hardline, not Battlefront.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking after hearing about these reveals. hwell: They are probably putting some of these things off for DLC, which is a dick move as always. I have higher hopes for the new film trilogy, but not too high as I don't want to get disappointed (the two Hobbit movies I've seen were good, however they felt disappointing in comparison to the LotR trilogy - I feel this might end up to be a similar case). The new teaser is nice and it shows more than the previous one, but like I said I don't want to get too excited.

 

The fact that you can't play with bots in multiplayer is just silly when they're already in there for Single Player. There's no way that will stick, having bots fill in the cracks is a pretty iconic part of the franchise and it can't be that absurdly complicated to work them into MP if they've already programmed in pathfinding and all that.

 

I hope they will. Bots are always a nice addition in multiplayer games - even if their AI isn't really up to scratch. I remember being really (pleasantly) surprised when I started up Killzone 3 for the first time and realised it had bot modes. As you say, Battlefront and Battlefield have used bots in the past... not including them in the new game, along with all the other stupid design choices/DLC plans, makes it seem as though EA/Dice want to shoot themselves in the foot. Then again, that's nothing new.

 

Since we started talking about this upcoming game in the thread about the movie, I thought it would be best to make a separate topic for it so that the original stays relevant. It would be great if someone with moderator privileges could move the posts about the game here as well. There were some valid criticisms there (plus I just learned that the AT-ATs will be on-rails). Overall, I really regret the fact that BF3 died all those years ago and now we're getting this unfinished thing instead. It will probably be pretty fun and the graphics look nice (although the actual graphics are not quite as good as those shown in the trailer, according to journalists who got to see the game behind closed doors), but half of the stuff you'd expect to find in a Battlefront game is missing from this.

For those who have not yet seen it, I've embedded the reveal trailer below:
[YOUTUBE]?v=ZwWLns7-xN8[/YOUTUBE]

 

Thanks!

 

It looks fun and really nice; but, to me, the trailer doesn't show anything but cinematic movies from the game (possible singlplayer mode) and those usually look and run better than the actual game itself -unless they are embedded, to play out with slight player interaction, during the game like metro 2033/LL.

I got a question: Was Dice involved in the previous Battlefront games? Or is this their first one?

 

There will be no real singleplayer campaign, but there will be co-op "missions" or something. And yep, that is really scripted and not real gameplay footage, at least according to Chris and Rob from GameSpot who've seen the game in action:

[YOUTUBE]?v=wEZ2kaIxMOU[/YOUTUBE]

Nope, this is the first time DICE does a Battlefront game. The first two games in the series were made by Pandemic Studios (a pretty cool independent dev that was closed by EA shortly after being bought and ruined by them). The PSP spin-offs were developed by Rebellion Developments (the guys & girls who brought us the original AvP PC title from 1999 - they're still alive and kicking, thankfully). Of course, the Battlefront franchise owes much to the older Battlefield games as the gameplay borrows a lot from them, but it still always had an identity of its own with plenty of awesome additions and obviously all the Star Wars licensed stuff. This will be the first time DICE are working on BF.

 

Drat. Well, I'm sure it'll be many years before Dice decides to stop supporting Battlefront and knocks out the game's servers -like they've done with many of their previous games. If the game is good enough though, I hope their will be some access to the source code so that modders could find a way to put the game back up online.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up

 

A bit of news posted on GameDebate today details some of the benefits of using "physically based rendering" for the upcoming Battlefront title to create more realistic visuals, as well as revealing a new game mode called "Fighter Squadron". Both things sound pretty cool to me personally and I'm sure that fighter dogfights with gorgeous graphics will be exciting, but I don't see how they could make up for the amount of awesome possibilities lost by not including traditional space battles like there were in the original Battlefront games. Flying in an X-Wing down a linear canyon like in one of those trailers doesn't sound as enticing as the things I could do in Battlefront II (clear the hangar of my faction's capital ship by blasting the invading troops, jump into a fighter, fly out into the open battle and take down some enemy fighters, destroy weak points of the main enemy starship, only to board it by crashing my ship into their hangar, getting out and finishing the job by blasting the command centre within on-foot). hwell:

Read more about the news here: http://www.game-debate.com/news/?ne...iled And Fighter Squadron Game Mode Announced

 

At E3 2015, EA showed off actual gameplay (though it does seem as though they placed some scripted elements in there as well). What they presented is the "Walker Assault" multiplayer game mode, set on Hoth, "As the Empire, you must accompany AT-AT walkers as they march towards the Rebel base to destroy it. And as a Rebel, you must do everything you can to stop them". Hero characters in the form of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader make a return (most probably vary with each map like in Battlefront II). Sessions range from 8 to 40 players. Looks like we can also play in third-person just like in the previous games. Fighters - at least in the mode shown - function like jets in Battlefield games. This looks sweet and beautiful as DICE know how to make a pretty game, but it's not really compensating for the decrease in features from BFII (I want my space battles!).

I'm embedding the new gameplay trailer below:

[YOUTUBE]jXU5k4U8x20[/YOUTUBE]

Right, looks like they also showed off the survival mode at Sony's conference, though much of it looks scripted as fuck - vid below:

[YOUTUBE]lg_ht2GfQJU[/YOUTUBE]

 

New screenshot and a new game mode announced:



It's called Blast and it amounts to basic TDM (10 vs 10) with smaller maps and weapon-pickups scattered about, reminding me of the classic CoD games. It will probably be decent, but like everything else we know so far, it sounds kinda disappointing in comparison to what the previous two games offered.

 

Smart move. I generally avoid almost all pre-orders, so far the only times I made an exception to that were Skyrim, Last Light and Wiedźmin 3. As for DICE games, I bought Battlefield 3 a long time after release (the premium edition) - it was a much better deal with all the DLC bundled together and most glitches fixed at a much lower price overall. By the time the new Battlefront comes out, I'll probably check out Battlefield 4: Premium Edition. I find that's the best way to try new DICE games because they really play quite well and always look stunning, but have tons of glitches at launch and are flooded with DLC later.

 

Battlefront will have no server browser... seems like news about this game are only one disaster after another.

 

So the open beta of Battlefront-Not-3 came out 2 days ago and I decided to try it out today. Played for 2 hours, crashed once. Judging the beta on its own merits, I have to say it's actually really good.

The graphics are gorgeous, however as expected the official statement about needing a GTX 970 and 16 gigs of RAM for 60 fps on medium settings at 1920x1080 is absolute bullshit. I'm using a GTX 770 and 8 GB RAM, I can run the beta maxed with an average of 55 fps in 1080p. It's actually at 60 frames plenty of times, but there are occasional drops, though I haven't noticed anything lower than 45. If I lowered the anti-aliasing a little then I'd probably get an average of 60 frames per second. Not saying this to detract from the fact that the game looks stunning, I'm just saying that the final release would have to be optimised considerably worse than this beta if the recommended requirements were to be true. It's always annoying when devs give minimum system specs that are way higher than what you need in reality.

Gameplay is pretty sweet too. It does feel a bit like Battlefield 3, though - at least with the modes available in the beta - it is much more objective focused rather than conquest. However, you are actually quite more mobile thanks to the really fun jump packs. Thermal detonators (nades), a sniper rifle and such things can be unlocked as secondary gear that recharges; the same applies to all ammo in the game in that it never runs out, you just have to wait for the cooldown once the weapon overheats. You can also pick up temporary power-ups during the match, some of them really cool like a squad shield or deployable turrets. If that wasn't enough to feel different, you have all the sounds and art design that feel authentically Star Warsy. On top of that, the third person mode (which looks just as great) feels a lot like the previous Battlefront games and on Walker Assault you can turn into Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker (each with their own set of abilities) for a set amount of time when playing on the Imperial or Rebel side respectively.

I guess the most noticeable flaw of the beta is the lack of a server browser that was already confirmed before the opening, there is only matchmaking. This is simply unacceptable on PC. In fact, console shooters would benefit from server browsers too, but they are almost nonexistent on those platforms anyway whereas they are still pretty standard on PC. Once you got past the fact that it used your internet browser, Battlefield 3 actually had a very good server browser that allowed you to really filter through what you're looking for. In comparison it now looks as though DICE is basically neglecting the PC version of the upcoming Star Wars game. Moreover, Battlefront-Not-3's GUI, although aesthetically pretty, is clearly made with a controller in mind. All of this makes it quite clear which platforms were the focus of the game's development, which is a real shame considering the fact that technically the PC version of the beta is superior in practically every other way (better graphics and potentially 60 frames per second throughout all modes, as opposed to 30 fps for co-op missions on consoles).

Above all, looking at the beautiful visuals and sweet core gameplay mechanics, I can't help but feel disappointed. If they didn't have to rush this thing to luanch it in time before the new movie hits cinemas, they could add galactic conquest, optional bots for most multiplayer modes, a story mode and - most importantly - space battles (fighters on Walker Assault are nice, but it's not the same complex and thrilling experience as a space battle in Battlefront II). Furthermore, DICE is only covering one time period of the Star Wars history with Battlefront-Not-3, whilst both of the previous games allowed you to fight factions from the prequel era. DICE has the groundwork and gameplay model for a true successor to Battlefront II, but without those features it is going to feel lacklustre and incredibly bare in contrast to its elders.

Because of the reasons above I come away from the beta with mixed feelings; what I played I definitely enjoyed, but the finished product may end up being a missed opportunity. Maybe they will add some of that stuff through DLC, which is crap but it's better than not having it at all, so I recommend not buying this on release. Like I said earlier, DICE games are actually in best shape and offer the most bang for the buck much later after release (Battlefield 3 and 4 "premium" editions are a good case in point).

 

Very informative review -as always . I've never owned a Battlefront game, but have only played a game of the franchise, once, at a friends house when we were still in elementary school. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it has left a long-lasting, good impression, on me till this day. From what you've said, Battefront seems quite exciting. I was never really into Star Wars, but the games always seemed somewhat interesting to me. For sure, I'll wait until this goes down, in price, a couple years down the road before I decide to buy it. Hopefully, though, Dice includes an outer-space campaign. That would be pretty epic.

 

I played a few matches with a few of my friends, I think it's a great game, but it needs a bit of work.