Star Wars Battlefront: Review

I played the first two Battlefronts A LOT because they offered a lot of repeat entertainment when I was a poor college student (and because I was only coming down from my Star Wars fan high. Hard to quit cold turkey you know?). Neither of them are really great games, but they are enjoyable and worthwhile for the price.  There isn't a lot too them, but I feel like I got my money's worth.

So why is it, that the new Star Wars: Battlefront feels so....shallow?  The first two were just as shallow, especially the first one which didn't even have online multiplayer.  Is it maybe because what we get is what we expected a decade ago?  Or maybe, because this concept still hasn't moved past the novelty of playing famous Star Wars battles?

For $60 dollars, or $120 if you're an idiot who bought the Premium Addition (Are you gonna tell me there is a SECOND game's worth of DLC coming?  Get the fuck out EA), SW:B is maybe half a dozen maps, another half a dozen maps for the modes with small maps, and 10 modes that have been used over and over since Unreal goddamn Tournament.  It's just the same shit...but it looks and sounds great!  

Here are the modes:

• Supremacy - A large map mode where you try to capture control points like any other Battlefront/Battlefield game.
• Cargo - Which is capture the flag on small maps.
• Droid Run - Which is capture three droids and defend them. Basically a randomized, small map, Supremacy.
• Drop Zone - Which is the exact same thing as droid run but no defending needed.
• Hero Hunt - King of the hill but with Star Wars heroes.
• Heroes vs Villains - An awful mode where you need to keep your hero alive as long as possible but anybody playing as a hero just wants to fight everybody.
• Blast - Deathmatch
• Turning Point - A variation on Supremacy except Rebels are offense and Imperials are defense only with a time limit. I like it but it has ONE FUCKING MAP.  One.  Hard to find a fullish server since people tire of playing the same map over and over.  (this is only available on a free DLC too).  

It's Tatooine with wreckage

The other two modes are Fighter Squadron, which is blegh*, and Walker Assault which could have been cool.  Walker Assault is a mode where the rebels try to activate nodes so that their bombers can, well, bomb an AT-AT Walker.  The Imperial side's job is to shut those off and defend the walkers.  It sucks.  The maps always put the Walkers on the very edge of the map making it impossible to defend or to even use the map strategically on the imperial side.  The rebel side can just activate nodes and camp, forever.  It's so poorly scaled.  

*Fighter Squadron is just X-wings vs Tie fighters in the air kill, kill, kill the end.  Oh, there are transports you need to defend or destroy but goooood fucking luck defending one.  It's impossible.  It's like shooting a slow moving sky whale. Also, flying in Battlefront has always been weird.  I SUCK hard at it and according to end game leaderboards, so does almost everybody else.  Funny how one of the mainstay aspects of Battlefront is it's wonky flying.  The few that are good though absolutely DESTROY on Supremacy maps with their air strike runs.  It's almost unfair.

More like: "AAAHHH, AAAHHH, WHAT DO I DO?  WHAT DO I-" dead.

The combat mechanics are casual, as they should be for a Star Wars game like this.  It's not a complaint just, whatever.  Although I must say, 1st person is the default but I play in 3rd person like a Battlefront game is supposed to be played.  Unfortunately, the game is not optimized for 3rd person so I spend a lot of time shooting into my cover.  It's so dumb.  So many games get 3rd person shooters right so if the option is there, what's Battlefronts excuse?  It's worse than previous Battlefront games!

As for those hand full of maps, they're meh.  Jakku and Hoth are my favorites even though they both have easily exploitable weaknesses with a good team.  The "lava one" is heavily in favor of the imperial side, but it's okay.  The wastes are just a shooting gallery with narrow corridors everywhere.  Then there is Endor.....FUCK this map.  It's too big.  It's so easy to flank and so easy to get murked in the middle.  You can walk out to the edges of this map and never see another person.  How do I know?  I DID IT, just as an experiment.  I thought something was off and decided to try it.  That was a fun 0-0 kill/death ratio for 15 minutes.

This feels more like Predator than Star Wars.

So far....everything I've said is about on par with the first two Battlefronts, but here is why THIS Battlefront sucks.  Missing content and my own personal gripes with multiplayer.  I know, one can't be helped, but the other can.

Starting with the ladder, I get annoyed when other players ignore the objectives in multiplayer.  I never want to be a guy that wants to tell another how to play, but this is stupid.  One time, our team was losing so I singlehandedly rushed a control point to capture it and win in the last two minutes.  I was there, alone, thinking maybe some of my teammates would come help me capture it faster.  I sat there, for a full minute, watching the point get slowwwwly captured since I was the only one there.  One minute later, instead of reinforcements, I get attacked by six players from the opposing team who knew I was about to steal their win in the last minute.  I took out two of them and went out in epic glory at the very least.  More importantly, WHERE WAS MY TEAM?  This isn't a complex MOBA.  Capture this ONE point and win.  The fuck were the rest of them doing?*

*Before you ask, you can see teammates on your minimap and they weren't even trying to help.  It wasn't like they were pinned down and just couldn't get to me.

In an opposite scenario, most of the best players typically have around 35-45 kills to 10-15 deaths. For four straight games, I played against possibly the best player ever who topped the leaderboard around 75-3.  A K/D ratio like that in a casual game is unreal....anyway, that dudes team lost, every, single, time.  What did this guys amazing play do to help his team win?  Nothing.*  This has always been a something I've hated in multiplayer games.  Sure, it works for Counter-Strike but for little else.  And if all he wanted to do was rack up a kill count, THERE IS A DEATHMATCH MODE FOR THIS GAME.  

*Why not play a MOBA you ask?  Well....that's a whole other argument.  The team aspect still gets lost there when most of them build with RPG like skill trees yet "there is only one build you are allowed to do otherwise you're the worst."**

**I know some of my Twitter buds are looking at me funny right now.  MOBA's just aren't my thing okay.  Also, I really don't understand jungling and bots?  Why are there bots?  Also, also, there are going to be 14 shooter MOBA's coming out in 2016 and they all have the 3 lanes, towers, jungle, minions thing going on.....we sure there is NO OTHER WAY to do this??????

Finally, the missing content.  Where are space battles?  Where is goddamn Galactic Conquest, aka, the main mode of previous Battlefronts?  I know it's just a singleplayer version of multiplayer except it's with and against all bots but common.  It had some depth and ideas to it.  The singleplayer in this game!?!?  Yeah, it exists, I guess, like strapping a dildo to a horses head means Unicorns exist.  The fuck is this?  Fight some bots with the WORST AI I have seen in years, collect the tokens over their bodies and oh hey!  Look!  A Tattooine map only available for this stupid ass mode......Wh....wha....what the fuck?

Like it.  Love it.  Fuckin pay ALL the money for it.  Yeah baby.

Why is this here instead of a Galactic Conquest mode?  For as shallow as the Battlefront games have always been, this is even more shallow.  It's 2016.  Why does this game feel worn out after 10 hours of play?  People complain about linear games being too short but what about multiplayer only games?  Why does the media give these kinds of games a pass?  You can do every mode on every map in maybe 3 hours.  This is a game that once sold at $120 for more things to come because apparently they released half a game....but at full price.

I don't usually review games this way but EA wants us to treat Battlefront like a toy so I'm reviewing it like a toy.  Games don't have to be like this.  Even if some games are nothing but toys, they shouldn't be ripping us off.

Fuck this game.  It's an okay game as is, don't get me wrong, but it's everything I hate about modern AAA development.  At least there are no microtransactions.  What a pathetic win for us.  

  

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Here I am being way nicer to another Star Wars property.  

5 Games I'm Looking Forward To In 2016

I declare 2016 as "The Year of Jason".  Somehow, someway, there are five sequels to video games all coming out in the same year that I really want to play.  Three of them are sequels to games in my top 10 list, while the other two are sequels to games I really liked but thought a sequel would never happen in a million years.  What is going on here?

Part of me wonders if this is the last year I can look forward to a loaded slate of games that appeal to me.  This is a climate that is constantly pushing games in a direction that I don't care too much about.  Multiplayer only games. Open world games that put quantity over quality.  Microtransaction laden mobile games.  Annualized games.  Square Enix continuously making every mistake possible (lemme give you money!).  Approximately 17,000 shooter MOBA's are coming out this year as well which I'm sure the crowded marketplace will let all these games do well......

Because of these trends though, the games I list here might actually attract others as they stand apart from the rest.  And maybe, just maybe, this may keep me interested in AAA games for years to come.

Persona 5 

If I'm completely honest, I'm probably more excited about this game than any other on this list.  Every trailer and interview makes this game look like Persona.  It doesn't look like it could have been fucked up.  All the cool life sim, dungeon crawling. turn based RPG combat seems to be intact.  Atlus, the studio who makes Persona, is on a roll and doesn't seem to know how to make a bad game (the gamblers fallacy in me says they are due for a stinker but, again, fallacy).

Yes, this game is anime as hell so some of you are already passing on this one.

I still need to temper expectations.  Persona 4 is GREAT and expecting Persona 5 to even match that game, nevermind surpass it, is stupid.  There is something in the trailers and developer interviews that has me worried.  Atlus has a tendency to add something new to every game and for Persona 5 that new thing is.........................................

Okay, you know me right?  What is the one thing I continuously complain about in almost every blogpost?  I love games that use it but I'm always annoyed when they do it "Shitally"....

You guessed it, Persona 5 is going to have stealth mechanics because reasons.  I hope these are isolated incidents and not a main part (kinda like Persona 3's full moon events) because this can really defeat the purpose of EXP.  You gain EXP through battles, yet, a good stealth game wants you to AVOID combat.  What is the purpose of stealth in a game like this?

I hope Atlus knows what they're doing here.  They have never done stealth before.  It's the part I'm the most worried about.

Mirrors Edge: Catalyst

I'm not sure if this game counts as a "sequel".  It seems more like a reboot, which pisses me off because the story of the original Mirrors Edge is pretty damn good but there are loose ends.  You never see the "governor" who is in control of the city and the guy who is pulling the strings.  I want to explore more of that damnit!

Still though, this game sold poorly, so a sequel/reboot is a minor miracle.  This game has easily one of the most fascinating free run systems I've ever seen, requiring the player to input commands to do climbing, jumping, wall running, flipping, etc.  It's the exact OPPOSITE of the Assassins Creed free run system which is press forward to do everything.  The combat system is ass, yes, but the beauty of Mirrors Edge was that most of the time you could avoid combat not by stealth, but by pure fucking speed and your ability to parkour.  There were times using combat was mandatory though, which sucked, but the great parts of this game were not overshadowed by them in my opinion.

That said....looks like VICE fixed the combat because that is all they fucking talk about leading into this game.  But, why tho????

Mirrors Edge is about the parkour damnit.  I don't give two shits about the combat*.  And what is this open world nonsense?  Mirrors Edge had great level design due to mostly linear levels.  I am beyond worried on this one.

*I'm fine with them fixing a broken combat system but the previews seem overbearing to the point that combat is a major feature of the game.  THAT'S A PROBLEM.  I'd like more great level design where you can run away and parkour away from guards spraying bullets at you rather than giving you a better way to fight them....because that eats into your parkour controls and all of a sudden we are playing Assassins Creed again.

Dishonored 2

Uh....spoiler for this game even existing.  The main trailer shows the girl you go out to save becoming your apprentice like some sort of Leon:The Professional shit except she's like a teenager or early 20's which makes Corvo ancient......whatever.

Dishonored was awesome.  It seemed to be a spiritual successor to Deus Ex (wait for it) and handled stealth beautifully.  As an assassin, you often can take a route that leads you to not kill your target, and the game GODDAMN CHANGES.  Unlike some other heavy choice orientated games, that only affect dialogue, actual GAMEPLAY changes according to your actions.  It is amazing.  Kill most targets and overall people?  More zombies show up in town.  Go a pacifist route, and it's a bit easier in town but harder to pull off in missions since seemingly every cool toy is for the homicide route.

As far as this sequel goes...I have no idea what to expect because we know nothing.  I just hope it's as good as the original.  Anybody who has played the original Dishonored might wonder how this game can even exist with the endings but OH MAN, it gets way worse.

Authors note:  Thanks for not letting me embed your TRAILER video Bethesda.

Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided

Calling it now...DELAYED UNTIL 2017...or, it seems like the game that is most likely to be delayed.

How does this game exist considering the multiple endings to Deus Ex: Human Revolution?  What we know is this game takes place a few years later where augmented humans are ostracized lower class citizens.  This of course leads to a terrorist group and Adam Jensen gets involved though he probably didn't ask for it.  The Illuminati's involvement has been kept hidden of course and who knows what Megan is doing.  Luckily, this has potential to tell another existential, question your morals, social commentary, type of game that was done SO well in DE:HR. I really love the story in Deus Ex.

However, a world like this makes one of the endings to DE:HR impossible.  Another ending makes this outcome highly unlikely.  Out of the 4 endings to DE:HR, only 2 are really viable, maybe 2.5*

*SPOILER to the endings of Deus Ex: Human Revolution (highlight to read).  [I always liked the refusal ending.  It seemed more like what Adam Jensen would choose rather than play god and control the message.  Too bad the game treated it like the bad ending.  I guess the developers hated it too cause Jensen dies in this version. Also, the Sarif ending makes this world highly unlikely because it eluded to society becoming more accepting of augments.]

The trailers are annoying me more than hyping me though.  It looks like the game is a 3rd person cover shooter which, yes, DE:HR was sort of that, but it was a stealth game first. If it goes more shooter heavy, will it even be Deus Ex anymore?  Hopefully the trailers are only showing off one style of play because that stealth system is SOOOO good.  I can see some people being put off from the game because the shooting mechanics were kinda wonky IF you wanted to treat the game as a shooter, so maybe they are appealing to those people?  Just don't let it come at the expense of the stealth please.  MGSV did it.  You can too.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Have you seen my blogs header?  You knew this was coming.

While absolutely nothing other than "in development" is confirmed about this game, leaked information makes it sound like this game is going to be a Dragon Age: Inquisition clone in space.  A push back to the first Mass Effect's heavier exploration aspects is a mixed feeling.  Looks like the Mako is definitely back, which gives me nightmares, especially if exploring means taking 10 minutes to drive to an anomaly for 1,000 credits or medi-gel.  A lot of the exploring in DA:I lead to a whooooole lotta nothing (those fucking shards) so if ME:A really wants to go that route, please make it worthwhile instead of the same old repetitve bullshit.  The game will likely have a gazillion side quests that have little or nothing to do with the main story, not have a meaningful story themselves, or even worthwhile rewards if DA:I is a good predictor.  I'd prefer more time spent into things with substance than dozens of cookie cutter side quests PLEASE don't let it go here.

One of the best parts of the Mass Effect trilogy has been its intriguing story, its superbly made universe, and its fantastic characters.  Open world games have difficulty being good in these categories even though ME1 did it well and MGSV was open world and came pretty damn close to being great here.  Things are getting better when it comes to story and open world games.  I hear even Fallout 4 improved (or at least gave it some thought).

I will write more about this game and the fact that it's set in the Andromeda galaxy raising a FUCK LOAD of questions I have another time.  For now, let me just say this, this game has the highest potential to be disappointing.  Simply by putting it in Andromeda (fuck it - why are we going there?  Are we getting a new list of aliens?  How many of the old ones are in the game?  HOW did we get there?  Was it a Mass Relay?  What about the Reapers if they should or shouldn't exist?) it makes us look like we are playing the role of the invaders.  This is going to be really tricky if Bioware wants us to be the "good guys"

Authors note:  Thanks for not letting me embed your TRAILER video EA.  

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Click on August of 2015 on the right to see my Mass Effect Month posts.

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