The beta is so great! I have the game on preorder. What do you think?

Running around as a soldier is fun until you fly a starfighter, at which point I just want to ditch the rest of the game and just play a modern version of Rogue Squadron/X-Wing. I wonder why thee aren't many flight sim/dogfighting games nowadays, even on consoles.

Don't have the computer to run it and don't have Xbone or PS4. So I can't do the beta.

So I'm going to ask your thoughts on it. Do you think there's enough depth-wise to warrant to price of pre-order, even based on your limited experience? I know the Battlefront series have always been arcade-like and more for jump-into-battle-and-dick-around entertainment, but watching clips, the gameplay for the new one seems really shallow for the game's appeal to last long enough. Looks and sounds good visually though.

It's a personally weird question because I assume all of Massassi's remaining community have careers in which $60 purchase isn't such an impact (anymore). But I dunno. Buying a MP-focused game from EA and expecting the game to be more or less fleshed-out before the next installment is like assuming a condom will stop the spread of herpes. Does the sex warrant the price, Grismath?

Ew, preordering.

If you pre-order, I think you get some sort of tax credit. Totally worth it.

Good question, ECHOMAN.

I don't typically preorder games, but am preordering this and Rainbow Six: Siege. Both are multiplayer-focused games.
I enjoy playing multiplayer games the day they come out, because there's a higher likelihood of playing with players who are unfamiliar with the maps.

In a real battlefield, soldiers typically don't know the best vantage points, where everyone will respawn, where powerups appear, etc. I don't enjoy games like Counter-Strike because people have spent so much time playing a few maps that experienced players are effectively "going through the motions" of a path they've optimized.

Also, a couple of my friends have either preordered or expressed interest in preordering, so we will get familiar with the game around the same time. In contrast, I had a friend who was between jobs and basically played Destiny all day. He was so much more skilled, higher/leveled, etc. that I no longer could keep up with him/participate in the same missions.

The Hoth battle map is a lot of fun and suggests to me that the other 20v20 maps will be good. There are just so many things you can be doing (and I haven't played a Battlefront type game since BF1942), so I might spend one round playing as a ground troop, one round operating an AT-ST, and one round providing air support. Flying starfighters made me really nostalgic for Rogue Squadron/X-Wing, etc. and the game will include a starfighter-only mode.

I'm definitely aware I've become a sucker for the business model of releasing AAA derivative games in well-established franchises (I am most looking forward to Battlefront, Rainbow Six, and Fallout in the next quarter). But I'm having fun, so who cares?

I really like all the screenshots and videos I've seen, and boy does it make me wanna play the battle of Hoth with modern graphics (instead of the same ol' SotE, which is still pretty good, of course), but eh. Not gonna put in money for a multiplayer game.

I tried the beta on the PS4 in the game mode where you capture and hold spots in the level. To me it just felt very dull and repetitive, I didn't get much of anything out of it. Which is a shame, considering I was a little hyped for this game.

Seems like you nailed it. This is the primary complaint type by many of the reviews that are coming out today.

Aren't you forgetting the fantastic Jedi Academy Siege Mode Battle of Hoth? Classic map, that.

I'm not sure I even played that... did it have snowspeeders and tow cables?

No dude, it was ****e.



I swear, the difference in quality between the best and the worst JA levels is shocking. I have to believe they just had to **** out like 1/3 or 1/2 of those levels in a hurry due to a release deadline. The undetailed, blocky, poorly textured mess you see in this video was present in SP too. Korriban, aghh.

You know, here's one reason why I'll never forgive JA.



That's not f***ing Coruscant you Raven s***-tards. Sorry, it actually gets me quite angry to just remember that screenshot (or even worse, the level itself) exists. Boh!

Also, I'm still sort of on the edge with this Battlefront issue. I sort of really want to try a modern version of the Hoth snowspeeder scenario, but apparently the beta version is PvP only and doesn't have bots, and I hate playing with other people. Oy.

Oh all the 3 Siege maps, Korriban was the most playable, if that makes sense. The Hoth map had so many exploits. You could halt the entire Imperial side by spamming "use" on the elevators, making sure they never came down. Horrible bottlenecks galore.

It's funny in that video the AT-ST walks around. You could force the thing directly up to the door straight, thus making the whole area pointless.

Honestly, it's the weirdest interpretation of the Hoth battle I've seen, almost beautiful in its abstractness. The shield generator was this thing stuck on the mountain the size of a family van. Lando Calrissian was there for NO REASON, and he was a selectable class (so I guess it was his twin brothers on Hoth). The AT-ST had to go to an area where Rebels spawned (literally on top), so whoever driving it had to do this game of whack-a-mole stomping players.

I felt the same way about the Drop Zone gameplay mode, but had a lot of fun in the Hoth battle, flying around in TIE fighters, manning turrets, and operating a walker. To each his own, I suppose!

So the Season Pass for Battlefront is $60.

Honestly, a price increase beyond $60 seems like the better scenario than have developers and/or publishers lock content away behind a "season pass" wall and ask money for it. The season pass offer games do these days seem really dishonest; no player knows what the season pass content holds (unlike previews of the base game) and the future DLC content can be pure garbage for all EA cares, as long as people buy it. I mean, yeah I won't go for it and people have that choice, but the fact that "season pass" has become a thing...

Don't buy a season pass, don't preorder.

but, but, but..

yeah, sure.

I agree with saberopus. I wish everyone adhered to that principle so the practice would end.

Isn't this analogous to the crowdfunding model for games, though?

You get hyped up about a product that doesn't yet exist. You pay upfront. And you get the product later, at whatever quality.

Instead of forking over money to a developer of yesteryear or an indie developer, you just happen to be paying EA or the like.

Their ability to make the game isn't contingent on your preorder, though, like it ostensibly is in crowdfunding. Preorders are just a way for them to guarantee more sales irrespective of post-launch enthusiasm, reviews, etc.

The game looks polished and nice. If you had fun, go for it. For me, I just wished it was a better deal.

This.

I'm glad people are down on the game, I've been boycotting EA for a few years now and this was really the only recent game that stung.

Instead of battlefronts u pplz should be playing Deus Ex: Revision

Did you work on this, Figurubeki?

Negatory, I'm merely a special thank.

I'm not in any form a current generation new release game purchaser. I'm barely a last-gen unused game purchaser. However, I do intend to purchase some current gen hardware at some point but I can virtually guarantee that I will never be a pre-order, season pass purchaser. I have only ever preordered one game. Rebel Strike for the Nintendo Gamecube and that was to get a bonus disc that came with a port of the original vector graphics Star Wars Arcade game. After Jedi Outcast for the PC I think I only ever purchased The Two Towers (Xbox) and Halo 3 at time of new release. Obviously could be missing a few over two decades but the point is clearly that I usually wait for fuller releases, price drops, and/or used titles.

Now, I can see that if one is big into multi-player that it is so much better to get in at the beginning. Still, is that pretty meaningless joy worth fueling such an atrocious model? I wonder, wouldn't it be just as profitable, if not more, to release a game, provide free (or at least cheaper) updates, support for a longer period, lower the price over time but kept above the sort of Game of the Year compilation dying breaths cash grabs level, and continue a higher and longer level of sales? Seems to me that is what Blizzard did with World of Warcraft to unparalleled success. Of course this sort of model requires a real commitment to quality. That could be a deal breaker right there.