*OT* Thoughts on the now-over Battlefront Beta (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Friday, October 16, 2015, 21:56 (3329 days ago) @ tadboz

Who among us played it? What did you think?

I went into it mildly jazzed for the prospect of a decent Star Wars game. I came out more excited for it than any other game this year, including both Destiny and Halo. Basically, as long as I get Battlefront, the Taken King and Halo 5 are icing on the cake. Am I alone? For full disclosure, SW was the all-consuming fandom of my childhood.

I'm not a big Star Wars fan, but the thought of a DICE-developed Battlefront was one of my biggest fantasies for years, so you can imagine my reaction when the first Teaser was released.

To be fair, I thought it would be re-skinned Battlefield 4. While my expectations on that front were betrayed, I actually found that I liked how it was slightly less complicated. The only Battlefield feature I missed was marking targets for others (especially on Hoth; goddamn winter camo bullshit). Also, DICE's attention to detail is superb. Those white turret things at Echo Base? In the movie, the beam effect when they fire is drawn whitish-green a split second before it changes to a normal red blaster bolt. In the beta, they preserved that. Mind. Blown.

I agree with all of this. I was pretty underwhelmed that it wasn't a re skinned Battlefield 4, but the more I played, the more I appreciated the different direction that DICE took. It's simpler, more welcoming, and has a bit more balance in terms of accommodating lower-skilled newcomers (sharing Hand loadouts with a partner was inspired!). The more I played it, the more I liked it. Also, flying the ships is great. You're extremely weak up in the air, but that just means that you have to get super aggressive, which is a blast.

Can't wait to enjoy the full game. I just hope they put Walker Assault on more planets! And on that note, I noticed a lot of people complaining about how that mode is really hard to win as the rebels. Well... duh. The Battle of Hoth as-presented in the game is already toned down. If we were being movie-accurate, the rebels would have the regular 20-player team, while the empire would have like 100. *Puts on Bane voice* THEN you have my permission to complain.

Had some great games as the Rebels. I have a clip that I need to upload where the Empire pushed us back all the way to the final area, but we drew a line in the sand, stacked eight or nine Bombers, and managed to drop both Walkers within seconds of each other moments before we ran out of time. It was great.

The following clips help summarize my experiences:

This short clip is essentially the Battlefront that I wanted. An epic clash among massive Vehicles that help you push into enemy territory. There are sadly a number of asterisks to that, but I think it may just be the limited Beta that keeps it from being this awesome all the time.

I love the sandbox. Hopefully we get more toys to play with, but the amount of goodies available already lead to great moments such as this one, where my grenade is stopped midair by an ally aircraft, and the enemy's Drop shield runs out at an inopportune moment...

And I was worried that Sammy wouldn't like the game, because of how simplified everything seems to be compared to Battlefield, but not only did she love it ("We're totally getting this game, right?"), she's become even better at it than I am...

And lastly, the bugs can be great: