Star Wars Battlefront Released Today

JimLynch writes "Everybody's jazzed up about the DVD releases but Star Wars Battlefront came out today too. There are reviews at IGN and GameSpy."

Comments

xbox demo

[sw33tjimmy]

included with the bonus disk in the DVD collection is an demo for the Xbox version of battlefront. Most of what I've read says that the console versions of this game are better than the PC version... :/

Re:xbox demo

[Deraj DeZine]

From the IGN review:

On Xbox and PlayStation, Battlefront offers a distinct style of play that has not yet been exploited or overdeveloped as it has on the PC. On PlayStation 2 and Xbox, all this works extremely well, despite its inherent AI and longevity shortcomings. On PC, unfortunately, the problems are all amplified by an overwhelming amount of competition that simply makes Battlefront look a bit simplistic.

It's not that the PC version is worse, it's just that the PC already has Battlefield 1942, Vietnam, etc., so Battlefront isn't breaking new ground on the PC, like it is on the PS2 and Xbox.

Battlefield 1942.

[HaloZero]

The game is almost exactly like Battlefield 1942, almost tit-for-tat. Battles are fought on the ground. There are two sides, obviously, with a possibilty of a third party indigenous to the area stepping in. Vehicles are sometimes available, but those who are flight-capable are rather... shifty, and difficult to control. Each battle, infact, is based on a ticket-counter-system (Thank you, BF1942).

The game is riddled with _major_ balance issues, from the five classes of warrior you can choose and their respective weapon configurations, and weapon lag. (Weapon lag is sighting a target, firing your weapon, and somehow, the target having enough time to SIDE STEP OUT OF THE WAY OF YOUR SHOT, even after it's been fired). I do have to respect the way the game is modeled, giving the player the ability to experience almost any battle, in sequence, throughout any generation of the Star Wars galaxy. That's neat.

Final opinion: The game needs serious polish, and rebalancing. If you've played Battlefield 1942, and liked it, give this a shot. 4/5? Yeah, that'll do.

On a side note: the version of DirectX that came with the game was MASSIVELY BROKEN and lead to SERIOUS STABILITY ISSUES with Windows XP. Downloading the (allegedly) same version of DirectX (9.0c) from the Microsoft website seems to have fixed the problem.

Re:Any word on a demo?

[Marc_Hawke]

The rumor is within the week. I'd say hold on to your cash.

Battlefield 1.0 had issues too...

[Iscariot_]

Keep in mind that many of the issues you describe existed in BF1942 1.0 as well. After a couple point releases, I'm sure the game will be more than up to par.

Major Issues

[Chi Hsuan Men]

I pre-ordered this game and quickly installed it when I got home from work. One of the first gripes I had about the game was the ATROCIOUS in-game browser. I am not a GameSpy fan (I use ASE, ASE usually releases support the day after a game is released), so I decided to try the in game browser. Forget about a buddy list, searching by server name, or even getting an actual number for pings. None of that. Nor can you stop the servers refreshing. You just have to wait until all of them refresh. Absolutely terrible.

Once in game, the graphics were absolutely horrible, and I have a 6800! Come to find out, it was because of certain default settings the game will put on depending upon your graphics card. Once I disabled "motion blur" things looked a lot better; however, they're nothing to write home about.

As another poster commented, the game is pretty much like BF:1942, except that when you are contesting a spawn point, enemies still seem to spawn, which is extremely frustrating. In addition, the play balance is awful. The Imperials literally walk all over the Rebels on Hoth and Endor, due to their mechanical advantage. There was another level (I forgot the name) where the Imperials have three walkers and the Rebels have absolutely nothing except foot soliders.

Personally, I don't think the game should have made it to the public in this format, but that has been the trend in the gaming industry as of late. With some patches, the game could possibly be good, but the state it is in now, the game is very mediocre.

Re:Major Issues

[servognome]

I had the exact same experience
I also bought the game for PC and found it is fun, but very lacking in polish.
Terrible interface, bad AI (even at hardest difficulty), even had little issues with installation (for some reason had to insert Disc 1 back in after installing Disc 2, before I could continue onto Disc 3.
I have an x800, and the graphics are nice, but not up to what I would expect, and multiplayer is laggy, and movement choppy.
Playing it is fun, so I'd agree it's a patch or two away from being what I expected in the first place.

Great Game

[BladesP9]

I picked up the game for Xbox yesterday (yes, I'm a heretic I know) and I am really pleased with it. I played through some of the solo campaign to get a feel for the controls before embarrasing myself on Xbox Live. But running around killing Jar Jar Binx is a RIOT... thats my new favorite shooting gallery. I can imagine how fun this will be co-oping with a bunch of my friends who will have this game by week's end.

After hearing about all the problems with other Star Wars games, I have to say that everything from the Vehicles to the weapons seem very impressive so far. I've not had a chance to drive many of the vehicles, but I'm really looking forward to it! :-D

XBox Version

[jfsather]

My friend and I both picked up the XBox version yesterday. I have to say, it is pretty fun. One of the best parts is shooting Ewoks and Jar Jars. We had too much fun taking them out.

I'm not too sure about the game types, but the only ones were played were Onslaught (UT2004) style games. They are pretty fun and the maps are huge.

I had some problems controlling some of the flying vehicles (X-Wings, Ties, etc.), but I'm sure it will get easier. Some of the battle areas seemed a bit too confined for flying (Cloud City maps), but other ones were great. I was actually moving toward the shield generator on the Hoth map and saw one of the AIs fly a snow speader in to take down an AT-AT with the cable. That was pretty cool from a distance.

The AI at the non-hard levels is far to easy. In order for us to actually have to work we had to kick it up as high as it would go. Just FYI.

I'm also not sure how it works if you don't have Live, but when you put in the disc, it connects immediately to Live. Not sure if it just recognizes your account and starts it up on Live or what.

We had a pretty good time playing, but had to quit to watch some poker on ESPN.

Now if I can just figure out how the heck an Ewock an kill me with one damn rock I will be happy. Lets just say that once I got my AT-ST he was toast. :)

Price Discounts

[jfsather]

Oh, one other note. I picked my copy up at Target and got a $10 gift card with the purchase. My friend got his at EB and if he got another game they were giving $20 off. He used his on a pre-order so if you want Halo 2 or something, you can get the $20 off then it comes out next month.

Re:Kill Jar Jars!

[jfsather]

If you go through the little training movies, it gives most of the differences. I think for Wookies, the biggest is that the weapon can be charged to do a spread show if you happen to be facing more than one person. I think there is a droid that has the same ability. On the XBox, I think you just hold down the right trigger to charge and then release. Sort of like some of the MechAssault weapons.

Another Review of Battefront

[pdawerks]

You can also see a reveiw of Star Wars Battlefront here http://www.mmgn.com/review.php?id=32 at MMGN.com.