Unfinished: Star Wars Battlefront II 10/05/17

While I do think the prequels were hot trash, there's plenty of folks who have the income to buy games now that were once kids that loved those movies and the various animated series.

@spoonman671: Sullust was in the first game too.

Game looks slick. I'll have to give the beta a shot this weekend.

On the boxes:

I know they're currently free but once the inevitable paid boxes hit, the problem is for every one person saying "nah" to them there are 50+ people and a handful of "influencers" all gladly buying into them. As a result, simply resigning to a "vote with your wallet" stance is still allowing scummy DLC, purchasable currencies, and microtransactions to remain quite popular. It takes so little to implement that just about any return makes it a solid investment.

The one and only thing that will stop it is developers and publishers themselves putting their foot down against it. But good luck with that. Some devs may be keen on avoiding it but EA didn't get where they are by turning down easy money.

Oh, and Disney low-key loves the cheesy-ass prequels. Right up their kid-friendly, toy-pushing alley. The reason the new films stay away from all that is the writers, directors, and producers putting them together would rather bank on that sweet, sweet original trilogy nostalgia.

Indeed. That's a missed opportunity. You buy a loot krayt and it vomits your random prizes and doodads. A shame.

Also, if this is what enables the game to support a Titanfall 2 rollout of new content for everyone so that the player-base doesn't become divided over time... fine. THAT is a good reason to have loot crates, if ever there were. I can respect your course of action, EA. I just hope you have both enough people willing to gamble for cosmetics and enough awesome cosmetics to make gambling worthwhile. Be a shame if the plan turned out to be a net loss.

This looks pretty good! I'm glad they removed the absolutely awful powerup pickups system.

dude why did you skip John Star Wars' powerpoint presentation?? He spent months on that

@magusmaleficus: @magusmaleficus: Morrison voices Boba. Dee Bradley Baker is the clone voice from the cartoon Clone Wars (which is actually totally great btw).

This disappoints me more than it should.

@earlgreigh: Totally. People forget that for a certain demographic the prequels represent Star Wars to them. We had an intern in the office this summer and he legitimately said Phantom Menace is his favorite Star Wars because it was the first one he ever saw. He's wrong, but what can you do.

Guuuuuyyyys. Those were clone troopers, not storm troopers. So you were on the good guys side hence why you had good guy heros.

This is just the E3 demo, no?

EDIT: I got to the part that isn't the E3 demo. Space is cool. If @brad wants to divert energy and scan ships he should play Elite Dangerous.

Life is crates.....

Loot crates are fine, especially as an alternative to paid map DLC, ESPECIALLY for multiplayer focused games like this. I wanted to like Battlefront 1, but all the good stuff I heard about it post-launch was about the like 4 different map DLCs that were released for it. Very grateful EA is changing that up for this release.

Also pretty funny (and telling?) that both Jeff and Brad didn't know that the droids are the bad buys in the prequel maps.

MOTHA FUCKING LOOT BOXES YEAAAHHHHHHHH

F U VALVE

Pro-tip, if they don't have a blue name, they're a bad guy.

@jeff with the Kenner throwback.

Man that Falcon was cool.

(Too young, Brad? Man...I'm younger than you and I had those!)

Obligatory TIE fighter conversation between Brad and Jeff is getting quite predictable.

I respect Jeff but sometimes he sounds more of a Call of Duty guy than Shooter guy. "Doesnt feel good" (doesn't feel like call of duty) "Do not know exactly what is going on or where to go" (Not strait forward like Call of Duty) "A bit too serious" (not dumb as call of duty) "kinda far from action" (not fast like call of duty), "...yeah whatever that Battlefront beta I think I may got all what game has to offer in this beta" (do not have any interest whatsoever because its not like Call of duty)

It's for fooooor...... 'DID YOU KNOW?'!

[intro jingle]

Hey fans! Welcome to 'DID YOU KNOW?'!

DID YOU KNOW that if you take the 'St' from Star and the 'W' from Wars and swap them around, you get... that's right! WAR STARS!

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of 'DID YOU KNOW?'!

See you next time!

[outro jingle]

Yeah, now that I'm seeing it in action, I dunno about this. Seems okay, but not really what I'm looking for. Hopefully I'll be able to give the beta a shot and see how it feels.

Did he even mention Call of Duty once in this video?

Brad-"that's a very cool looking effect that's probably hard to play through"

It's almost like a grenade went off right next to Jeff...

Edit: Outright glowing reviews of an extensive singleplayer campaign is the only way I might be interested in getting this.

online multiplayer games and the giantbomb staff do not mix well they should make sure the next hire is good at online multiplayer so showing these games off.

Huh, I thought they had SSR throughout in the E3 demo, but I could be wrong. Looks like they only have it on in the inside, but not the out.

@frankiebeanz: Mmmmm, nah. I don't subscribe to GiantBomb to hear someone talk about how "l33t" their "skillz" are during Quick Looks.

I mean, I can understand the sentiment of 'not giving a shit' and just putting any old random heroes each map but I'd still rather be able to play as Qui-Gon or someone else era-appropriate in the prequel maps. That was really one of the more interesting things about BFII - the fact that you could play lesser known heroes appropriate to each map - e.g., Aayla Secura on Felucia or Ki-Adi-Mundi on Mygeeto.

At the end of the day, I can't see this game approaching the depth of other shooters on the market - including the Battlefield series. If they're going to try to make a game intended to appeal to Star Wars fanboyism, they may as well lean all the way into it. The half-measure stuff is just weird.

You monsters, XWA was a great game!

I'm pretty sure I spotted Rey fighting alongside stormtroopers and then you can unlock Han Solo and Chewie...so you can just mix up any of the characters regardless of whether they are Rebel or Empire storywise? Seems a bit odd..or maybe i missed something there. Half watching it so possibly Jeff explained it at one point

@hassun: You say TIE Fighter is the second best? Sir, I challenge you to a space battle. A-wings at dawn.

I love shooters but this game just looks like it has no legs like the first game.

Oh more microtransactions..............

didn't think i'd be yawning 15min in but i was. graphics & sound are great but the gameplay looked as dull as dishwater. = (

maybe they'll get it right with the 3rd one.

This is a dumb opinion, sorry. Nobody comes here to see skillful play. You want that shit, go to twitch.tv and watch some obnoxious 13 year old that can put 1,000 hours into CS:GO or whatever

Space New Zealand, please.

gamepad lol

You had me at "TIE Fighter".

@jeff@brad Out of all games, TIE Fighter is the one that makes me giddy as soon as you guys mention it. More TIE Fighter talk, please!

As a crazy person who really really liked BF2015 and is eagerly anticipating this game, trying to talk about this franchise with others is an exercise in frustration and futility.

I love John Star Wars. He was great in Pacific Rim 2.

I was very much in the age range for the OG Star Wars toys. The figures were, yeah, pretty terrible but I still had a ton of them.

My wife ended up throwing them in the trash one day when I was at work, claiming that she 'didn't know what they were', while my infant cousin broke my Millennium Falcon some time in the late 90s.

He was a kid. I eventually forgave him.

I am no longer married to that wife.

Loot crates winner of Most Likely to Win Giant Bombs's Game of the Year 2017 Please Stop Award?

So, space battles are just ship combat, no boarding ships like the original Battlefront 2?

Also man does all the loot box stuff just make my eyes glaze over. I just instantly get that worry of "Is this game actually fun or I'm I just playing it to unlock the next thing so I can get to unlocking the next thing to etc.", in addition to the normal just general negative feelings of loot boxes.

well, see, that map was in the prequels, and in the prequels the storm-troopers fight for the republic

@yerolo: They're clone troopers. Prequel-era clone troopers fought alongside the Jedi and the Republic.

I'm down with MTT.

Bummer that the insane default flying controls have returned. It took me way too long in the first game to figure out what I wanted them to be, and they still never felt "good". The perspective/camera sway is just off for me.

I played the beta, but that only made me want to go back to Titanfall 2. Which that's fine. More games should remind me that Titanfall 2 exists and is more fun to play.

@johnseminario: what are you talking about yes there are

Want to get this for local multiplayer shennanigans. Had a lot of fun with the original Battlefronts that way.

Crates that give you boosts in the multiplayer? Fuck this garbage.

I'm ok with questionable DLC in games like Crusader Kings 2 and Total Warhammer. But I am not ok with loot crates with timed or expendable boosts. Especially where you have a choice to purchase these crates with real life money.

Also, these are great looking games, but I am disappointed with what they have done with the series. And why are Han Solo and Rey in the prequel map?