Author: Philip Thalberg

Star Wars: Battlefront’s Death Star DLC Nails it!

Star Wars: Battlefront’s latest DLC, called Death Star, was preceded by an insane amount of buzz, but when it landed, it actually fulfilled all expectations and more. In fact, its only shortcoming is that it’s way too short and that it brings less content than one would like. That is not to say there isn’t enough new content in the DLC. It’s all just so seamless and well-integrated into the movie-universe, that while playing, one actually feels like he/she is taking an active part in Star Wars canon. It makes people hungry for more, while indeed promising them a lot more in – as yet hypothetical – future expansions. There are so many great ideas, so many opportunities and potential offered by the Star Wars universe, it’s almost impossible for the devs to get things wrong from here on out. While everything is superbly rendered in the game, there are…

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Obsidian Create Stunning Star Wars Environments

Pillars of Eternity developer Obsidian have a soft spot for Star Wars, or at least some of their artists do, who – reportedly in their spare time – put their skills and the power of the Unreal 4 engine to use, creating some superb Star Wars environments, which aren’t matched details-wise by any of the movies or games of the Star Wars universe. Considering the level of detail and image quality achieved by some of Star Wars: Battlefront’s incarnations, that is quite a statement to make, but it holds true nonetheless. The said environments are rendered in real time and they can actually be downloaded and explored. Obviously though, one does need a powerful computer to do that. Also involved in the project – besides other members of the Obsidian development team – was senior environment artist Jason Lewis, who did not shy away from going into all sorts of…

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Battlefield 1 Beta Numbers Outshine Star Wars: Battlefront

If beta player numbers are anything to go by – and by all accounts, they probably are – DICE’s Battlefield 1, a title currently under public testing, is set to handily soar by both Battlefield Hardline and Star Wars: Battlefront in regards to eventual sales and player numbers. What exactly are we talking about though? Here’s the low-down: it is estimated that currently there are some 681k people from around the globe playing the beta version of Battlefield 1. 43% of these people are playing on PS4, 34% on Xbox One and 23% on PC. By comparison, the beta of Star Wars: Battlefront drew some 374k players at its peak. During its first 6 months, the game then proceeded to sell some 14 million copies, which means that for every beta player, 37 actual players picked up the game when its full version became available. By extrapolation, that means that…

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Star Wars: Battlefront Death Star to Launch “Very Soon”

While we still do not have an actual release date for Star Wars: Battlefront’s Death Star DLC, it’s safe to assume at this point that the add-on will be released very soon indeed. According to the latest reports, lighting artist Oscar Carlen is already working on the game. When asked when he would get around to working on the expansion, he tweeted out that he was already working overtime on it, to “make the Emperor happy”. Apparently, lighting work is among the last finishing touches, so if work has indeed progressed that far, it’s safe to assume that the release itself is close by. The speculation is based on what Battlefront lead designer Dennis Brannwall stated during his Outer Rim live stream way back in March. According to Brannwall, lighting artists are always the ones who come in latest to the level which has to be all finished by that…

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More Battlefront Death Star Details Revealed

As the release of Star Wars Battlefront’s Death Star expansion draws near, more and more exciting details surface about the coming content. While we have known about what Death Star will deliver by and large for about a month now, few specifics were available. For instance, we knew about the coming of Chewbacca and Bossk as the hero-villain pair of the expansion, but thus far we knew little about how they would be wreaking havoc on their opponents. Chewbacca will apparently carry a supercharged bowcaster, and he will also be able to just smash those unfortunate enough to get near him. He also has an additional ability: the wookie’s roar will disorient nearby enemies. Bossk on the other hand will be able to drop grenades close to himself without taking damage and his blaster is equipped with infrared sights. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will square off in the expansion…

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Star Wars Battlefront: New Death Star Details

As the release date of Star Wars: Battlefront’s new Death Star DLC approaches, more and more details are revealed about the new content we’ll be treated to this time around, and it does indeed look better and better the closer we get to the end of summer. Among the latest details, we have a new game-mode called Battle Station – a fitting addition indeed, considering that the Death Star is a planet-size weapon/battle station and that the add-on revolves around it. The new game-mode is structured into three-phase missions, each phase of which is focused on a different objective. The first phase is perhaps the most intriguing of them all, because it has players flying A-wings and X-wings against enemy TIE interceptors and TIE fighters, marking the first time ever that Battlefront has in essence ventured into space – a rather surprising fact in and of itself, considering the pedigree…

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Galaxy in Turmoil Terminated, No Battlefront 3 Successor for Now

If you haven’t yet heard about Galaxy in Turmoil: it used to be the shall we say proposed successor of Free Radical’s abandoned Star Wars: Battlefront 3, pampered and brought up by FPS Frontwire Studios. Indeed, for a short while there, it looked like the fan-made revival of the popular title was actually viable. Back in June, Frontwire announced that they had secured the green light from Valve to share the game for free through Steam. Things have taken a very sudden southward turn though a couple of days ago, when a blog-post surfaced from Frontwire, effectively announcing the termination of the project. LucasFilm had apparently issued a cease and desist order regarding Galaxy in Turmoil back in June. Having committed resources, time and dedication, Frontwire didn’t throw in the towel straight away though. They tried to set up a meeting with LucasFilm, which they surprisingly got. As it turned…

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Death Star DLC Content Detailed, Screenshots Made Available

Star Wars Battlefront’s Death Star DLC has been in the works for a while, churned through over and over by the rumor mills everywhere. We finally have some solid and reliable information concerning the content the new DLC is set to deliver, and there are a number of superb screenshots available as well, giving an actual visual glimpse into what DICE have up their sleeves this time. As scheduled, Death Star will launch next month, and above and beyond just delivering new content in the shape of new heroes, star cards, vehicles and locations, it will also deliver innovations like the multistage level design. Only recently announced, the feature is essentially about the automatic adjustment of mission parameters. Thus, players who progress through the game will actually amass experience, which will accompany them through the stages. At one point for instance, a player can find himself wreaking havoc on the…

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Next Star Wars: Battlefront DLC to Include Chewbacca

For a true Star Wars fan, the inclusion of heroes like Nien Nunb and Greedo before the iconic Chewbacca never made much sense, unless his delay was purposely meant to increase anticipation – which was probably the case indeed. With Battlefront’s upcoming DLC called Death Star, Chewie will finally take his rightful place as Han Solo’s trusted partner in the game. Exactly what sort of firepower the wookie will bring isn’t yet clear, as the only confirmation of his upcoming introduction is currently nothing but a flimsy screenshot posted by EA a few days ago. Currently, there isn’t an actual trailer out for Death Star, but it is indeed a bit early for that: the DLC is only due out in September, and until then we’re bound to see more of Chewbacca in action. The other hero delivered by the Death Star DLC will be Bossk, another bounty-hunter for the…

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Star Wars: Battlefront Offline Single Player Mode Due Out Sooner than Expected?

Fresh on the heels of the release of Star Wars: Battlefront’s Bespin DLC come even more exciting news, news regarding the imminent and apparently sooner than expected release of a single-player, offline game mode called “Instant Action”“. Indeed, Star Wars: Battlefront fans have been clamoring for such a feature to be added from the very beginning, its lack quite possibly one of the biggest problems that have beset the title thus far. The rumors come from Reddit, more precisely from a poster named “uninspired zebra” who has apparently done a bit of snooping around among the hidden files of the game and happened upon an Instant Action menu. The said menu belongs to the single-player mode, which is addressed to players who are lone-wolf types or who like to enjoy the content the game has to offer with a friend. By the looks of things, two game modes will be…

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Star Wars: Battfront Bespin Out for Season Pass Holders

The second one of the promised Star Wars: Battlefront DLCs has landed a few days ago for Season Pass holders (if you invested the $50 into a Season Pass, you can already play it), for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One, and indeed, some problems with the new content have already surfaced, to the frustration of those who have invested the most into the game. Taking players on a trip through Cloud City, another iconic location of the Star Wars Universe, Bespin delivers two new heroes, in the smuggler Lando Calrissian and the bounty hunter Dengar. It also tweaks some of the existing heroes in various ways, and it has also rolled out a server-side bug-fix already, to address the above mentioned issues. According to community banter on the official Batllefront forums, the bugs have indeed been quite numerous and annoying. They range from issues such as Tie-fighters crashing into…

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Battlefront and VR – a Match Made in Heaven?

According to DICE, Star Wars: Battlefront has been made with a keen eye for detail and authenticity. Indeed, the game is possibly the most good- and authentic-looking Star Wars game ever, from the complexity of the locations and various mechanical war-machines, right down to the way individual weapons look and behave when fired. Now, another layer of realism is in the works, or rather, another – thus far only dreamt-about – way of experiencing the game’s authenticity is in the works and set to come about later this year completely free for PS4 owners. What we’re talking about is the Star Wars: Battlefront X-Wing VR Mission, which Criterion Games and DICE are currently working on and which is set to come to PlayStation VR exclusively. Criterion have racked up quite a bit of experience in vehicle gaming, and this will be a sort of crowning piece for their work. Piloting…

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Some Points to Ponder About Bespin, Battlefront’s Upcoming DLC

In January, EA DICE have set up a roadmap for their Star Wars: Battlefront DLC strategy, a roadmap through which they aimed to deliver new and exciting content to the game oft-criticized for its shallowness, in a way that would keep existing players engaged while hopefully drawing in new crowds. The first DLC, Outer Rim, has already landed, and if the way it was delivered is any indication – and it most probably should be – the second DLC, Bespin, will see a two-stage release as well. Outer Rim landed for season pass holders on March 22, while everyone else could pick it up on April 5. Now then, with Bespin, we do not yet know of any specific release date(s), but there’s plenty of speculation out there, and the devs have dropped a number of clues in this respect too. Season pass holders will obviously get a fortnight of…

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How to Make Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Better?

Dice’s Star Wars: Battlefront was by no means a bust, despite all the criticism it received from the community on account of its shallowness, most of which could be attributed to its lack of a single-player campaign. In fact, the title was as far from a bust as possible, especially from a commercial perspective. Millions upon millions of fans picked it up and played it, and even its first DLC (Outer Rim) turned out to be quite successful, as for all its shortcomings, in regards to authenticity, the title delivered like no other ever. The graphics are superb and the developers efforts to stick to canon and to convey authenticity in every possible way, didn’t go unnoticed. While most wrote it down as style over substance, this complex authenticity was arguably the main selling point of the game. Now, with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 confirmed, EA have come out swinging,…

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EA Admits “Conscious” Omission of Battlefront Single-player Campaign, Promises One for Sequel

Long blasted for lack of depth and more specifically for the lack of a single-player campaign, Star Wars: Battlefront has done very well nonetheless. DICE, the creators of the game, have always maintained that they had aimed at making a multi-player game, one that would allow players to relive the iconic battles of the classic Star Wars movies. Still something was definitely amiss, and the other day, EA’s Patrick Soderlund has finally come forth and confessed. He admitted that the decision to release the game without a single-player campaign had been a conscious one, driven by marketing reasons. More specifically, the team wanted to have the game released early, to take advantage of the Star Wars buzz generated by the release of The Force Awakens. In that respect, they have indeed accomplished their mission, but this marketing success came at a steep cost. The Battlefront community is still deeply offended,…

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Star Wars Outer Rim Free to Play This Weekend

The first Star Wars: Battlefront DLC pack, Outer Rim, will be made available to players for free this weekend, more precisely from May 13 to May 15. This way, those who didn’t think the $15 DLC cost was worth it, will get a taste of what they’re missing, and maybe they will make up their minds to get Outer Rim, a potentially good move for those who want to play on for several more months, as apparently none of the DLC’s coming after Outer Rim will work without it. The promotional offer covers all four of the new maps, The Palace Garage, Jabba’s Palace, the Pipelines on Sullust and the Sorosuub Refinery as well as the new game mode (extraction) brought about by Outer Rim. Players will be able to give the two new heroes a go too. What they won’t be able to access though are the new Star…

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Star Wars: Battlefront – May 4 in the Books

May 4 is the official Star Wars Day and to celebrate, the creators of Battlefront have treated their Xbox, PC and PlayStation-based clients to a bunch of freebies which had indeed been promised some time ago. DICE have long promised a wealth of new content for the game which has often been called shallow and lacking on this front. After the first DLC (Outer Rim) met expectations, the next DLC (Bespin) is scheduled for release in June. This week though, the developer launched a May update, which has ironed out an impressive number of bugs and problems, while setting the stage for the May 4 goodies. What exactly are we talking about though? For starters, players were encouraged to just log in, and those who did certainly found it worth their while: they received 4,444 credits they could spend the way they saw it fit. This was obviously a massive…

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Battlefront May Update Lined Up – What to Expect?

To address the alleged shallowness of their much-hyped Star Wars: Battlefront, DICE have come up with an impressive solution: throw content at the player-base every now and then and make that content as easy on the eyes and as appealing gameplay-wise as possible. Their recently released Outer Rim expansion represented the first stage of this strategy and it looks like it hit the nail on the head, although it came packed with bugs, which have to be ironed out. While the next DLC is scheduled for June, the team will not rest on their laurels till then. In fact, there’s a major update scheduled for May and although its release date is not yet set, most believe that it will come in the early part of the month. Obviously, the first objective of the update will be to iron out the problems and bugs brought about by Outer Rim, of…

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Some Great Outer Rim Easter Eggs and Canon-tributes

The first expansion pack to DICE’s popular Star Wars: Battlefront, Outer Rim, was sure to be a major hit with players, some of whom had decried a certain lack of depth plaguing the original release. Meant to address just that issue, Outer Rim brought tons of new content, including new locations like Jabba the Hutt’s palace and the factories of Sullust. The game has always done a great job in the authenticity department, placing players smack in the middle of the Star Wars universe, and through Outer Rim, that has been taken to a new level. In addition to graphical perfection, the creators of the game have been extremely keen on details, strewing several canon-references over the new locations. Jabba the Hutt’s throne-room is rife with such artifacts. In fact, the room itself is a rather iconic presence in this respect. Jabba’s throne is the centerpiece, but the rancor pit…

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More New Content Coming For Star Wars: Battlefront

Emboldened by the success of their recently released Outer Rim Expansion, the creators of Star Wars: Battlefront have put out an announcement the other day, promising still more great content to come, some of which will apparently be free. While it’s been known for a while that Bespin is set to land in June, laden with new content, DICE have made public more details about it, as well as about the various events meant to drive player engagement scheduled for May. There will apparently be more community missions, double-score weekends, as well as special login events, all meant to hand players new opportunities to collect more XP, credits and items in ever more entertaining ways. In addition to all the above, there will be new Hutt Contracts as well, which will yield Star Card rewards, such as the Ion Neutralizer and the Bacta Bomb. On May 4, to celebrate Star…

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Star Wars: Battlefront – Unused Audio Files Discovered

Initially plagued by an oft-decried lack of depth, DICE‘s Star Wars: Battlefront has come a long way from its not-so-humble beginnings. Its recently released Outer Rim expansion injected a lot of badly needed content into the game universe, including new and exciting locations, new heroes and new Star Cards, pulling it all off within the confines of the Star Wars canon/universe. Season Pass holders could get their hands on the DLC in March, while on April 5 it became available for everyone else, across all platforms. What’s more, players who aren’t yet ready to purchase Outer Rim, can try out some of its features, like the new weapons, in single-player mode. The bottom line is though that picking up the DLC is recommended as all future content-updates will be based on it, and won’t work without it. It has been clear for a while now that there’s plenty of new…

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First Battlefront DLC Lands, Plenty More to Look Forward To

Star Wars: Battlefront’s eagerly awaited first DLC, Outer Rim, has landed earlier this month, for those who have Season Pass, and indeed, it hit the nail right on the head: it expanded a universe often derided for its shallowness, it added new game modes and overall, it addressed one of the most easily identifiable shortcomings of the original title. Obviously, there’s still plenty of room for improvement depth-wise in the game, but Outer Rim does represent a massive step in the right direction. How massive? The DLC is about 8 GB big, so for those on slower connections, it may cause a few headaches, but it is a must. It expands the game world and it brings so many new goodies, it completely revamps the title. Above and beyond all that though, you will need it because none of the future DLCs already in the works apparently, will work without…

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Star Wars: Battlefront VR Game a Launch Title for PS VR?

Sony made the announcement regarding the price of their PlayStation VR in early March, after their main competitors had made their moves in this respect. What has been clear from the get-go is the fact that Sony are looking to dominate the VR market from the beginning. The price of PlayStation VR is extremely competitive and there will apparently be plenty of content available for it right from its launch. One of the titles that will be made available to players is apparently the Star Wars: Battlefront VR experience, which will indeed be a playable game, and which fans will be able to play in October. According to Sony’s John Koller, the Battlefront VR experience will be very “special” as it will be looking to accomplish nothing less than to transport players right into the midst of the Star Wars universe. According to Koller, the game might just become a…

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Star Wars: Battlefront Outer Rim Expansion Arrives Today!

It is safe to say that after years of building up hype, Star Wars: Battlefront was something of a disappointment depth-wise when it was finally launched, even as it blew the expectations out of the water technically and visually. One of the strengths of the game was to depict actual movie locations in great detail, making one feel like he/she was actually involved in the Star Wars canon. That strength is apparently what the franchise is banking on going forth, as it seeks to address its oft-decried lack of depth. Outer Rim, the first expansion to the game, will look to attack the problem from several angles. It will introduce players to locations like the palace of Jabba the Hutt, and it will also introduce no fewer than five new weapons/cards as well as a new game-mode called Extraction, which will see one of the teams protect and escort cargo…

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