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STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT BETA: I'M NOT INTERESTED by Mr Biffo

12/10/2015

24 Comments

 
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I had a text from a mate last night, asking whether I'd played the new Star Wars: Battlefront beta.

​It has been all over the interweb - people posting about how good it looks, their excitement at "being" Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker. And so on.

​Yet I've not even wanted to give it a go. Which might seem a bit strange from someone who's as big a Star Wars fan as I am.

See, Star Wars is my thing. To say I'm a fan isn't really scratching the surface of it. I can remember my first time seeing all three films. I can remember my first action figure (Chewbacca if you're interested). I can remember the excitement of meeting Boba Fett in a toy shop in Poole. Christmas was always all about Star Wars, all about those toys, all about carving story out of those action figures, playsets and vehicles.


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Heck, on Force Friday last month I was at Toys R Us early to get the new The Force Awakens toys. Inevitably, I wasn't even the only middle-aged man there. I've owned Stormtrooper and Darth Vader costumes.

I went to my daughter's 18th birthday party dressed as Princess Leia, and completely went to town on my costume for the recent Secret Cinema screening of The Empire Strikes Back. What's more, I still get annoyed - more than 30 years on - about a woman who I once overheard referring to the films as "Star Wars Galactica".

But for me, I never played with my Star Wars toys as plastic soldiers. They were characters in an ongoing saga. My bedroom was a Galaxy Far Far Away. Often the stories I plotted out with those characters would span weeks. I'd set up the figures in the morning before school, and would spend the whole day thinking about the next chapter in their lives.
 

​And that might be why I've never loved the Battlefront games. And also why I did terribly at school.

A STAR WARS STORY

Battlefront has never really cared about delivering a single-player experience.

Yet for me, Star Wars is a story, not a series of battles. The storytelling in the prequels might be woefully imbalanced, but that original trilogy was an exercise in economic and iconic storytelling.

The moments in the original saga that burn brightest in my memory - in my soul - are Darth Vader's revelation about Luke's parentage, Luke staring out at the twin suns of Tatooine, Han kissing Leia on the Falcon, or Vader's redemption. Moments of character that mattered. It was a story that played out against a backdrop of a star war - it was never about the war itself. At least, not for me.

And so it's hard to care about Star Wars Battlefront. Don't get me wrong: I'll be there the day it comes out. I'll be bringing you a review. But as my friend said in our texts last night, the technology has finally reached a point where we can enter the Star Wars saga and feel fully immersed. Imagine a new version of Dark Forces or Jedi Knight with the visuals offered by Battlefront.

A game where we become the story - where we are invested - rather than a video game where we're mere cogs in some massive online battle. The lack of a single-player campaign in Battlefront is, for me, a massive oversight.

WHYYYYYY?
So why isn't it there? EA's Peter Moore told Gamespot earlier this year: "Very few people actually play the single-player on these kinds of games. That’s what the data points to."

Really? Because I always do. I barely played online with CoD: Advanced Warfare. The lack of a detailed story in Destiny is a huge part of why I never fell in love with that game, and can't quite bring myself to care about The Taken King.

​I want story in my games, I want to go on an adventure, and if ever a series is crying out for a story it's Star Wars: Battlefront. The lore, the history, the characters of Star Wars... there was opportunity here to add to that. To build on what has gone before.

Instead, what it seems that we're getting is just another online shooter, albeit one that's cosplaying as Star Wars.

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MINORITY REPORT
Maybe I'm in the minority. I get that playing online is a massive thing, but I've felt relieved in recent years that there has been more of a swing back around towards single player. I mean, I play online... but I'm not a good enough player to really enjoy it.

The constant, repetitive, staccato, progress - spawn, die, spawn, die, spawn, die, spawn - is not my idea of a good time. I'm sure it's brilliant if you're the one who's repeatedly killing me, but getting to that place where I'm any good seems like too slow a grind, too much like a chore. I don't want that. I want to be engaged, not frustrated.

Few of my mates play online these days, and they were the only people in the world who I stood a chance against. Once I'm out there battling the rest of the world I'm merely cannon fodder.


But that doesn't even matter in this instance. Because I don't care about flying snowspeeders into battle against strangers online. What I really want is to be engaged with a new Star Wars story. To become a part of it.

Here we are in 2015, with a new Star Wars movie on the horizon, new books and comics, that are broadening that universe like never before - filling in gaps between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Video games should've been a part of that, and Battlefront could've been a part of that.

But no. Apparently, people only want to play games online, according to EA's Peter Moore. Or would that have just added too much to the game's budget, Peter? And what's the point of that when data points towards idiots like me buying it regardless?

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24 Comments
Harry Steele
12/10/2015 11:49:24 am

I hear that! I think you've hit the nail on the head as to why I can't get enthused about this game, other than the fact that it just seems to be battles I've played dozens of times on the gamecube etc.

While I'm here, I might as well add that this also reminds me how ill served the James Bond franchise has been of late, with not even the mighty Goldeneye on the N64 captures what it's like to be 007.

Despite having a license to kill Bond uses it sparingly in the books and movies so it's odd that all his games in the last 20 years have been about a maniac on a murder spree, eschewing the gambling, the espionage and the detective work Bond utilises in the course of his mission.

The only one that bucks the trend was the one released recently with SPECTRE is around the corner: A mobile game loaded with in-app purchases. Sigh.

(The only other was James Bond 007 on the Game Boy which while being a basic top-down RPG at least put extra emphasis on dialogue and there was also a point where you could no proceed without winning a game of baccarat. A far cry from the Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace game where the poker sequences were all in cutscenes)

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Mr Darcy
12/10/2015 12:13:36 pm

What's that? We can play through the Battle of Hoth? AGAIN?

Star Wars was filled with imagination, but the games it inspired? We've been playing the same bloody levels for thirty years!

And when we're not doing that, we're stealing the Death Star plans. Although I heard they're now making an actual film about that. I can only assume said plans went "viral" on the Empirenet equivalent of 4chan.

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Jon Downes link
12/10/2015 12:50:02 pm

Kissing Leia on the Falcon? Is that a euphemism? Fyuck fyuck!

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Hadron Nook
12/10/2015 01:57:31 pm

I also have little interest, but that's because I find online shooters dull and that doesn't motivate me to get good at them. I downloaded the beta because it was free, did about ten spawns where I lasted an average of about twelve seconds before being insta-killed by a headshot from someone far enough away not to appear on my little radar. Then I deleted it.

If anything, though, I'm grateful to the beta for letting me work out that the game absolutely doesn't interest me, before the launch hype and flashy advertising got chance to do a number on my brain.

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Tinker's Cuss
12/10/2015 03:50:14 pm

Star Wars was the first ever film I saw at the cinema so it left a fair impression - the Stormtrooper was my first figure so I quickly got used to losing when playing with others. Fast-forward nearly 40 years and it was bloody flashback Friday, apparently.

Re-installed Jedi Outcast, plopped the Ultimate Weapons Mod on it and I've been having much more fun, doing it all First-Person this time. Take that, multiplayer internet future!

Still got my original R2D2 though he's all nekkid now, bereft of stickers and chrome, so with the money I'm not spending on Battlefront I think I'll have a few of the newish small figures (http://www.staractionfigures.co.uk/star-wars-black-series-375-inch-figures/page/1/) though they're only for bookends on a bedroom shelf, honest. No sneaky playing there, nope, if they change position then it's just to stop the joints seizing, right?

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Tinker's Cuss
12/10/2015 04:04:58 pm

"Nearly 40 years" in the sense of "about 38 years" obvs.

Can I amend it to "nearly 4 decades" please?

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Dude man
12/10/2015 04:27:25 pm

You know what I find fun and exciting? Dying and respawning over and over again.

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Captain Scarlet
12/10/2015 04:51:21 pm

Hmmm, want to know how I feel about it? 12 seconds into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPaaH5HCrkQ encapsulates it quite neatly.

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Adam
12/10/2015 04:41:55 pm

I remember meeting Darth Vader (almost certainly not David Prowse) in Kiddie City toy shop in Romford when I was about eight. I was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED.

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Superbeast 37
12/10/2015 06:06:42 pm

Yeah it is everything that is wrong with Titanfall but with the Star Wars licence propping it up.

I would only play the campaign so given that there isn't a campaign....well they don't have anything to sell me.

Titanfall would have been awesome with a campaign and I don't care if it is a COD/BF style 8 hour affair as they are usually action packed and full of cool stuff from start to finish. So I play it, finish it and sell it. I have no beef with dropping £45, having a great movie like campaign and then trading it for £25.

Never touch the multiplayer mode.

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Lewis link
14/10/2015 04:10:32 pm

What he said. Or she, if it's a lady superbeast.

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Obi Wank Enobi
12/10/2015 06:35:50 pm

I am firmly in your camp Captain Biffo, I just don't get the thinking behind this decision; the game looks incredible but I know I will never play it, I just don't have the skills, time or patience to play online games to any degree of satisfaction/enjoyment.

I do, however, have pals who dig online MP, and they have complained that it's 'dumbed down' in comparison to previous entries in the series...I can only imagine that this will put core gamers off.

Conversely, the game being inevitably tied to the imminent movie release (whether it likes it or not) suggests that the franchise has the opportunity to gain a whole new audience off the back of what will undoubtedly be an insane amount of vicarious marketing. Surely that audience, the happy-go-lucky, popcorn munching, day trippers want the focused, story/character driven, wish fulfilling adventure of which you speak?! Seems to me that the game neither satisfies the high maintenance demands of the core nor fulfils the fantasy of the franchise fan, so I'm sure it will totally bomb...sigh.

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dan de la peche
12/10/2015 06:41:59 pm

I'm in the opposite camp! I haven't finished the single player on an FPS in years, and rarely play more than an hour or two of them. I just find the whole genre utterly tedious as a single-layer experience, I've been there and done that so many times now that the previous experiences I had can't be topped.

However, the multiplayer, I'll play for hours at a time, at least two or three nights a week, then more on the weekend. Even CoD (although I'm a bit fatigued with that too). Battlefield 4 multi? Hammered it. I need other humans to play against, it just makes the whole experience so much more fun when I know I've beaten someone who was trying to do the same to me. Maybe I'm chronically insecure, who knows :D

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Paul Morrison link
12/10/2015 08:01:20 pm

I don't play online multiplayer. At all. I have in the past... but only on racing games. I tried CoD online once, and that was enough to know that online shooting of any kind just isn't my thing. I feel exactly the same as you, except that I won't be buying it at all because circumstances don't really allow for online gaming at the moment even if I wanted to. If the game had a single-player component I'd be all over it, but I doubt that Peter Moore will miss my fifty quid.

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Dave Vaner
12/10/2015 08:37:23 pm

Never mind all this games carry on. Where's the pictures of this Leia costume then Biffo???

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Tinker's Cuss
12/10/2015 09:37:22 pm

Tantive IV Leia or Jabba's slave Leia? Hmmmmmmm...I'm sure Chart Cat could comment on whether the Senate would stand for it or if some bulbous slobbering slug-thing would get sufficiently choked etc etc

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Antman
12/10/2015 08:45:04 pm

A fine read. I'm am also in exactly the same camp as the majority of the comments here. Spawn die spawn die.

The part that really irks me is that Battlefront doesn't feel like a battle, just a group of individuals prattling around looking for cheap kills.

I want an epic battle, my comrades at my side as we advance toward the shield generator. Waiting for an AT-ST to clear out the heavy resistance of a rebel dug-out. We may not all make it, but the Emperor's will shall be done. We are legion.

Instead I spawn towards the rear of the field, tasked with activating a homing beacon. I must be the only one with this goal as it seems my teammates are stood 10m away ignoring it altogether. Oh well, here I go.
Except I don't, because I get shot in the back, at my own spawn point.

With no penalty for death and no encouragement to complete the tasks, these Lone Ranger shitheads are not only killing me, but being rewarded for doing so!

EA you done fucked up. By making the shooting experience just like CoD, you're encouraging that sort of behaviour.

I am out.

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Harry Steele
13/10/2015 01:19:32 pm

yeah I agree with this too - it's not really a battle in these games, it's every man (or woman) for themselves

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Stay
12/10/2015 09:06:23 pm

I think I have gotten to that age (41) where I just don't care about online multiplayer any more unless it is co-op. I just don't have the time to put into them to get good and now adays all the fun stuff is locked away behind hours of playtime. The last game I really enjoyed and got good at was BF4 and before that BF3. I tried COD last year but realised I am now to slow/it to fast and the PS4 pad is no match for a keyboard and mouse unless you have grown up playing FPS with pads. How I miss CS, BF1/2 and Battlefield with the Desert Combat mod. No unlocks just play.

I watched the beta quicklook on Giantbomb and while the game looks and sounds the part the gameplay just looked boring. What should be fun (stomping around in a AT-AT) was even worse. But you can pilot an AT-ST - my favourite of all future space vehicles.

I do like Star Wars but if I had to choose to watch Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark Indy would win each time.

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Super Bad Advice
13/10/2015 02:07:17 pm

I gave the beta a go, and while it looks nice it sure as hell wasn't fun. There's a ton of plodding about, the teams are hilariously mismatched both in number and skill level (as earned in the game, not just talented chaps vs imbeciles by chance), and you'd invariably spend about 5 minutes plodding about trying to find someone to shoot before turning a corner and being mown down almost instantly because the radar is so vague. And trying to hit anyone at a distance is a joke.

It might be fun if there's a LOT of work done post-beta.

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Timmypoos
13/10/2015 09:42:57 pm

Starwars is a film.

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gwen
13/10/2015 11:55:23 pm

Lost my interest in shooters years ago sadly used to love them back in the day and as for star wars has there ever been a really great game around the franchise?

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Albert Manflu
14/10/2015 01:52:43 am

I'm with you on this one. Single-player, story-driven games are for people who like to read a good book. Online multiplayer combat games are for deadbeats with no imagination. By ignoring the single-player, story-driven side, EA is basically making the world EVEN DUMBER by only catering for the deadbeats.

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CdrJameson
14/10/2015 02:05:22 pm

"100% of our data gathered online for an online shooty game shows that people just don't play the single player."

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