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Elite Jedi

By Elite Jedi
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Elite Jedi Newbie

Elite Jedi

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Since the links do not change i am unable to post a link to the web page and therefore have posted the previews here.

 

http://pcmac.gamehelper.com/

 

 

Single player

 

The game is looking great. We clarified some of our concerns about the look of the Xbox version as seen at the multiplayer event a few weeks ago. It seems the Xbox version is still using about 90% of its textures from the PS2 version. Once these are replaced the devs promised it would look much better.

 

At today’s event Lucas decided to focus on demonstrating the single-player components.

 

Battlefront offers three different single-player modes for your solo frag experience: Galactic Conquest, Instant Action and Historical Campaign. Each mode offers diverse gameplay which will cater to a wide-array of gamer play-styles and tastes. Each of the modes was demonstrated on two new levels, Tatooine and Rhen Var (home to a dark Jedi master), which are shown in the accompanying screenshots.

 

Galactic Conquest (aka Star Wars Risk)

If you didn’t get the board game version then save your ‘duckies’ as it will be built into your Battlefront experience regardless of platform purchased. Galactic Conquest plays much like the board game Risk as alluded to in the title above. Players choose a faction they wish to represent from either the Galactic Civil War timeline (Imperials or Rebels) or the Clone Wars timeline (Republic Clone Army or Separatist Droids) and battle it out to see who will ultimately rule the galaxy.

 

Players can battle it out against a human opponent (console versions only ) or the AI (console and PC versions) to become the controller of the eight planets in the Galaxy represented in the game. Planets represented are classics such as Yavin, Hoth and new-comers like Kamino and Rhen Var. Once chosen the battle will begin taking both sides down to the surface on one of 16 maps in the game. The maps, character classes and gameplay are all taken directly from the online multiplayer modes (see previous article.) The winner will then choose the next planet they’d like to compete for until one player finally controls all eight planets. This can literally take hours as one developer revealed to me; he and his son regularly had 3-4 hour play-sessions with this mode!

 

The strategy element comes in the choice of planet for which to compete. Each planet offers a different bonus to the victor such as ‘Sabotage’ on Bespin which has all of your opponents vehicles starting at 10% health on the next map played. This can be a very useful tactic when choosing to target a planet you know to be heavily controlled by enemy vehicles such as Hoth or Geonosis. Other bonuses include: Radar Jam - blocks all enemy radar for the next map played (won on Rhen Var), Jedi – invites Luke to come and knock at least 20 of your opponents men out of the box on the next map (won on Tatooine); these are only a few examples as each planet carries it’s own bonus. Choose your next planet wisely young one.

 

 

 

Historical Conquest

 

Historical Conquest works along two timelines: The battles presented in the original movie trilogy represented as the Galactic Civil War, or the battles presented within the new prequel movies represented as the Clone Wars. Once you’ve chosen the timeline you’d like to play out you’ll be taken through a series of battles according to the timeline in which they occur during the storylines. Each map you’ll play a separate faction depending upon the planet or battle visited. Choosing your side is not an option here. This should be a fun mode for those who want to experience an entire campaign as it relates to their favorite trilogy – can anyone guess which one is mine?

 

Instant Action

Instant action, much like its name applies, is as simple as you can get. Choose the map you want to play and get in the game. The option to play the map as represented in the Old or New timeline allows one to experience each map as up to four different military factions, whether it be the Imperials, Clone Army, Republicans or… oh wait, wrong war! Either way, you’ve got a bevy of play options available allowing for some nice variation in strategy and map play as some objectives will be altered depending upon the timeline chosen.

 

All modes offer split-screen gameplay (PC version not-included) so you can duke it out against a friend – or – get some co-op action on and take on the enemy together! This part is one we really dig at the office – if I can’t get some serious online action in at least we can work together. Overall we can understand why split-screen doesn’t exist on the PC version (duh!) but we would have loved to play the Galactic Conquest mode against a single friend on LAN or across the internet. When you’re looking for a nice diversion from your four hour MMO session this could have been just the ticket…oh well, they did mention perhaps it could be added in an expansion.

 

 

The game is looking great. We clarified some of our concerns about the look of the Xbox version as seen at the multiplayer event a few weeks ago. It seems the Xbox version is still using about 90% of its textures from the PS2 version. Once these are replaced the devs promised it would look much better. We’re definitely in agreement here. They also mentioned that these PS2 textures would then be utilized for rendering textures in the distance at a lower resolution (this process, otherwise known as LoD rendering, saves on memory by drawing closer objects at high resolution and distant objects at much lower resolution, and in some cases, lowering the poly-count of geometry)

 

With a ship date set in stone for September 21st (same day as the DVD trilogy) the team still has some time to get the gameplay tightened up and textures integrated across the board. We are still hoping they up the play speed we saw in the multiplayer version or the title could fall flat. We’ll reiterate our thoughts to close this one: Up the player-movement speed in the multiplayer modes Lucas…and you’ve got a winner!

 

 

Muliplayer (7/1/2004)

Vehicles are just plain fun! Hopping on a speeder-bike and zipping across the forest floor on Endor is exciting, if not dangerous! Slamming into a tree, or parked speeder-bike for that matter, will definitely bring your cruising antics to a grinding halt.

 

 

It would seem Lucas Arts is determined to breath some new life into their sacred Star Wars franchise with a roster of titles that is taking gamers down some never-before trodden paths. This years E3 saw ‘Knights of the Old Republic II’ attempting to live up to it’s big brother KotoR’s success in Bioware’s hands; ‘Republic Commando’, a rather dark and scary feeling FPS experience somewhat akin to DOOM 3, and finally ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ which is throwing players into the classic battles of the original and prequel films in a fashion similar to DICE and EA’s Battlefield 1942.

 

Beyond the multiplayer modes contained in the ‘Jedi Knight’ series, and now ‘Jedi Academy’, the Star Wars franchise has yet to explore the battlefield recreations that popular titles such as Battlefield 1942 or Medal of Honor have brought to online gaming. The Jedi titles certainly offered a very Quake-like experience for death-match and team death-match variations; ‘Academy’ upped the ante a wee bit by offering a simple class-based variation on their multi-player; with the upcoming ‘Battlefront’ title, however, Lucas and Pandemic Studios are taking the franchise directly to the battlefield with an entire game based around recreating that frantic fast-paced simulation of war on the front lines.

 

We recently had a chance to get some hands-on with Battlefront and were definitely excited by what we saw. These games are currently in pre-alpha stage so there’s plenty of room for improvement before their release for PC, Xbox and PS2 in September of this year. With that in mind we set aside our reviewers caps to take a look at how the game is shaping up so far.

 

A Long Time Ago…

Star Wars Battlefront sets gamers right into the middle of many of the classic battles from Episodes I-VI including the battle for Hoth, Endor, Geonosis and a visit to the water planet of Kamino. Players choose one of several different classes (or soldier types) as they would in Battlefield 1942 and can interact with vehicles, turrets and the like in much the same way as its World War II counter-part. Each of the four factions are represented throughout the various battles including the Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Republic Clone Army and the Separatist Battle Droids. Multiplayer and Single-Player game-types are included with single-player modes including an “instant action” mode which sets you into a Bot filled version of the online maps. “Galactic Conquest” which has players working their way around the galaxy to control the various planets visited within the battles. And, finally, “Historical Campaigns” which lets gamers experience all of the epic battles from the perspective of each of the four factions

 

Battlefront visits more than 10 planets and offers 12 different environments in which to do battle. Vehicles include AT-STs, X-Wings and the popular speeder-bike which is actual a blast to pilot around the surface of Endor!

 

 

 

Man Your Battle Stations!

We imagine most people will gravitate to the multiplayer mode which is what we had a chance to tinker with the other evening. Multiplayer plays much like the previously mentioned BF1942 title with teams vying for control of key Control Points with some objectives thrown in for good measure. Console gamers can battle up to 16 players (or AI units) over the internet with up to 32 possible via LAN! This is amazing. It’s the first time we’re seeing consoles being treated as mini-PCs for a multiplayer title, truly taking advantage of the Ethernet port built into the Xbox or added into your PS2. We don’t know how many folks will want to tote around their TVs to get into the game but it’s nice to see the option. PC players will of course enjoy 32 player action (where servers and bandwidth allow) over the internet, or LAN, and headset communication is going to be supported across all platforms which should make for some much improved communication between teammates!

 

We had a chance to spend some time with all three versions of the game and came away feeling pretty good about them for the most part. Actually, I’d have to say I felt best about the PS2 version of the game, which came as a definite surprise considering multiplayer games typically don’t work well on consoles due to their limited graphics capabilities and interface. I’ll explain a bit more throughout this next segment.

 

You Don’t Look So Good Yourself Kid

Graphically Battlefront looks great across the board, and as I mentioned, the PS2 version feels the best of the three. The PC version is certainly sharper and cleaner and offered the best resolutions and detail; however when comparing maps such as Kamino we noticed a cleanliness to the PC and Xbox versions which felt a bit sterile. The PS2 seems to add a bit of a soft blur or warmer color tone, perhaps to avoid the “pixelly” looking graphics many publishers go for in order to increase frame-rate, and somehow this gives the game a bit more of a fantasy look. This left Kamino feeling dark and ominous. I felt as though I was truly fighting for my life above the rough seas with the never-ending rain frustrating our attempts to wrestle control of the Capture Points from the Separatist Droids. This same map on the PC didn’t deliver that level of visual immersion due to the sterility. The PC backgrounds felt very separate from the modeled assets and the rain effect which seemed more of a layer than part of the environment. To be fair this is an early build and graphical assets are certainly not all finalized – we hope the team will spend a bit more time on lighting and texturing the PC environments to capture the “magical” feeling the PS2 version seems to already possess.

 

The Xbox version certainly looks good but again doesn’t offer much in the immersion department. The PS2 still shows better and I think this is evident when looking at the screens from each side by side. Again, if the team can spend some time on lighting and texturing to match the PS2 version, this should lend a cohesive feel to all platforms. One last thing to mention in all fairness was the lag spikes felt on the PS2. While this platform felt better in appearance the current build suffered from some serious freeze-ups during intense combat. Certainly this issue will be resolved pre-release.

 

 

There’s one! Stop Him Before He Gets Away!

Gameplay was solid across the board with some minor-gripes about the Xbox controller. For one, pressing on the left thumb-stick should definitely offer you the ability to swap between crouch and prone modes but was surprisingly absent in this build. The PS2 controller did an excellent job of getting you at all the various controls needed in a complex multiplayer title and in some ways outshined even the PC. I never found myself sneaking a peek at the cheat sheet once I got moving. This can certainly be attributed to the fact that, in our book, Sony still holds the title for best controller design.

 

Play in Battlefront is, as mentioned above, much like Battlefield 1942. You can choose to be one of several soldier types for one of the two factions represented in the battlefield being represented. For example, on Kamino you can choose to play as part of the Clone Army or as the Separatist Battle Droids. The soldier types primarily represent different weapon load outs with the exception of the Pilot who often carries a fusion-torch which allows him to build turrets or defuse mines and the like (think engineer). Typically each team is offered a standard trooper with blaster pistol and grenades, some sort of heavy gunner class, a rocket-launcher equipped soldier (necessary for taking down AT-STs on Endor), a pilot class which carries the aforementioned torch and finally a special class such as the Rebel’s Wookie complete with bowcaster or the Imperials Dark Trooper with jet pack. The Clone Army offers a similarly equipped jetpack trooper but is much more fun to play as his jetpack allows for some hover-time letting you float down into a battlefield while the Dark Trooper’s pack offers more of a burst resulting in a long and high forward jumping motion as opposed to extended flight.

 

Control points are represented by towers of light which reflect ownership based on current color. If a point is clear it is there for the taking. Red means your opponent controls, and therefore can spawn from, the point while green represents your team’s control. Taking control of a point is simple. Get within range of the point and a small icon will appear on the right-hand side of the screen. It will slowly empty of your opponents color or fill with yours until you control the point or are caught in the act, which is often the case. The more teammates you have with you the faster the process, so working as a team will improve your chances of quickly sweeping the playing field.

 

Vehicles are just plain fun! Hopping on a speeder-bike and zipping across the forest floor on Endor is exciting, if not dangerous! Slamming into a tree, or parked speeder-bike for that matter, will definitely bring your cruising antics to a grinding halt. Some vehicles, such as the AT-STs, offer multiple positions allowing more than one teammate to ride along as gunner or pilot. But watch out! The Ewoks have a few tricks up their sleeves and prepared log traps can leave you a bit thinner in the middle!

 

Bantha Poodoo

My biggest gripe at this point in development is the overall speed of gameplay. I often felt as though I was running in place. The movement overall is just too slow. In order to recreate the frantic battlefield experience that other titles in this genre have done so well the player movement definitely will need to be picked up quite a bit. Weapons also had slow firing rates. Absent was any sort of automatic or ‘repeating’ blaster leaving you to “tap, tap, tap” away on the mouse for every single blast. The Wookie bowcaster and Dark troopers rifles also fired slowly with much delay between bursts. My suggestions here would be to look back at the Jedi Knight weapons. These were well-balanced and delivered an enjoyable multiplayer experience. Hopefully the devs will listen to the troops on this one – really guys, these two items are about the only things we could complain about that really hindered the game as a whole. Speed things up a bit, tweak the weapons and you’ve got a hit on your hands!

 

Audio wasn’t completed yet so we won’t go into much detail there. Jet pack audio queues were well off, often triggering moments beyond its use. And many ambient effects had not been placed yet. In all fairness these guys have time and Lucas is known for delivering in the audio department. We actually spoke with one of the audio programmers from Lucasarts recently and are awaiting an invite to learn a bit more about what goes into making this all come to life. We’ll report back on that later.

 

Alexis, Where Are the Smores?

We spent the evening hopping between platforms and warming ourselves by the fire as the event was held outdoors in the Presidio of San Francisco during one evening this last week. I would liken it to a LAN event on a camping trip –not a bad idea actually if you’ve got a generator to power things up and a few large tents on hand In conclusion we came away excited about the titles possibilities. We played up until the aforementioned generator was taken offline so we can definitely attest to the fact that the developers have begun to capture that addictive gameplay element that makes these games so fun in the first place. If the graphical feel can be improved on the PC and Xbox, weapons balanced and tweaked and overall player-movement speed can be cranked up a notch Lucasarts has yet another hit to add to its Star Wars franchise roster. With KotoR II, Republic Commando and Battlefront all on the horizon, it’s going to be a good year for Star Wars fans!

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Tyler_Durden Newbie

Tyler_Durden

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Thanks for the preview. How is it the most PS2 is actually better than the Xbox and PC? I'm sorry, the reviewers opinions are biased, that and the fact that a game such as this controls better than a mouse and keyboard? Well uh-uh. Vehicles i can understand but for aiming and sniping, nothing beats a keyboard and mouse.

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Alegis Newbie

Alegis

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They kinda subtly stated there would be no cross-consoles in MP (PS2 and PC etc, something i never thought would be in anyways)

 

they said it looked better cause of that artistic feeling. Dynamic lights etc, not someting i think will miss from the final product

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THE BADGER: Newbie

THE BADGER:

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Thanks for the preview. How is it the most PS2 is actually better than the Xbox and PC? I'm sorry, the reviewers opinions are biased, that and the fact that a game such as this controls better than a mouse and keyboard? Well uh-uh. Vehicles i can understand but for aiming and sniping, nothing beats a keyboard and mouse.

 

You guys keep defending the PC version. All he said is that the PS2 version is farther along than the PC and that he liked the way the game looked and felt on the PS2 than the PC. We all know that the graphics will be better on the PC, so stop defending it. I enjoy playing on my PS2 than PC. I like the feel of it better. And isn't everyones opinion biased? You can't say that the mouse is better than the PS2 controller if you have not played with it.

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