Star Wars: Battlefront 3

[Falconeer]

Extensive preview.

[Nija]

That video makes it sound really bad.

[Merusk]

Only if you're big into shooters. I'm not and was worried it'd be like CoD/ Battlefield in which case I wasn't interested. I like not having to worry about 'leveling up' or bullet-fall or any of the other super-refined super-focused for-fans-only features of those games. The more arcadey flow and feel has me considering a purchase now where I wasn't before.

[Ruvaldt]

Yeah, this looks like my kind of shooter.  Which is to say that it doesn't look super serious.  Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was the last shooter I played for any substantial period of time and this looks like it could scratch that same itch.

[Sky]

Tritto.

[Cyrrex]

Um, quadritto.

[Falconeer]

Turns out you self-heal completely as long as you don't take damage for 7 seconds.

[Nija]

7 second self heal with a 9 second cooldown on grenades.

Horrible ideas everywhere.

[01101010]

7 second self heal with a 9 second cooldown on grenades.

Horrible ideas everywhere.

I would not be surprised if that heal gets adjusted down to 3-4 sec once this sneak peak beta thing is over.  Grenades should be fine given the fact no one likes grenade spam.

[Nija]

No one likes grenade spam? haha, I do!

What are you going to do about it? Go to a different server? Go to a private server?! Good luck with the match making bullshit!

[Hoax]

What I've seen on Twitch so far looks awful. Its incredibly repetitive and reeks of every design theme that makes console shooters so abhorrent (constant re-spawning, magical hp regen, pretty mediocre actual shooting, cooldowns on everything, feeling of endless pointless meatgrinder). Its early but it certainly made an awful first impression.

I'm sure it will sell well but I don't think this is a game that has any real staying power or future and it didn't look to have a goddamn thing that I would hope other games would steal going forward.

[HaemishM]

All I'm hoping for is it's better than Battlefield Hardline, which was fucking awful. In an arcade-y Star Wars shooter, the magical HP regen doesn't bother me. Cutting down on grenade spam REALLY doesn't bother me.

[Falconeer]

Preloadng is up on Origin. 10 GB.

[01101010]

What I've seen on Twitch so far looks awful. Its incredibly repetitive and reeks of every design theme that makes console shooters so abhorrent (constant re-spawning, magical hp regen, pretty mediocre actual shooting, cooldowns on everything, feeling of endless pointless meatgrinder). Its early but it certainly made an awful first impression.

I'm sure it will sell well but I don't think this is a game that has any real staying power or future and it didn't look to have a goddamn thing that I would hope other games would steal going forward.

Staying power? What is this combination of words mean? They sell boxes and reputation, buy favorable reviews, and use both of those things to promote the next iteration of shooter.

[01101010]

So beta is starting today but EA, in their infinite wisdom, decided against a day early predownload for the unwashed masses on the PS4 at least. So once the beta hits the PSN servers for download which it has not been offered in the PS Store yet (unless you pre-ordered and have a key - which means the downloader is there, just not available for the free beta download yet), I expect those servers to melt about 4 minutes later, and fully expect this is part of the stupid ass plan. 7g on slower connections and releasing the download on the start day of beta - good planning, unless it is to stress test the download servers. Almost guarantee some people don't get finished with the download until tomorrow night.

Watching a few streams, I am not too put off by this though. Looks cool, but as was said above... nothing spectacular other than the star wars skin.

[HaemishM]

EA's infinite wisdom allowed the PC users to pre-load the beta yesterday, but this morning you can't pre-load it. ... the fuck?

[Nija]

Traditionally you can't preload betas on any console.

However, it's the 8th, and you still can't even start downloading it yet on either console as of 9am PST. Stupid.

[Falconeer]

I am in. Lovely engine, scales very well and I have a steady 60fps on a two years old PC. The game seems very enjoyable, somewhat better than what I feared after the most recent videos. More Team Fortress than Counterstrike, but that's not a terrible thing.

[Sky]

I couldn't remember my Origin password so I didn't preload it.

[Nija]

Link because the UI was made by morons and youll never find it yourself:

https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/star-wars-battlefront-beta/cid=UP0006-CUSA02941_00-BATTLEFRONTBETA0

[01101010]

I grabbed it at work on my account and remotely made my PS4 download it. That type of tech I really appreciate when it works.

[Nebu]

I don't get the hype.  The game play I've watched looked pretty generic.

[Nija]

Well, it's open beta for only a couple of days. No harm no foul.

[01101010]

For myself, this is the demo that will tell me whether to purchase or not. I am not throwing $60 at something I am on the fence about. Normally, on the fence is a no buy with me, but if I get to play a few games and see? yeah... why not? And given the utter looney tunes way they rolled out the downloads, I didn't want to spend the bulk of my demo time downloading at peak internet traffic time in my area and have to lose and evening.

Chances are very likely I pass on the game given it is very generic and repetitive, but there is a possibility I might not mind if the game holds my attention and keeps me coming back.

[Merusk]

I don't get the hype.  The game play I've watched looked pretty generic.

I'm interested because I suck at Shooters and I hate the SRSBZNS shooters that have popped-up to be the kings of the hill. Quirky, fun, fast and unoriginal is A-ok with me if I have fun. I never had fun in Battlefield or CoD. I did in Quake & Unreal.

[Nebu]

I'm interested because I suck at Shooters and I hate the SRSBZNS shooters that have popped-up to be the kings of the hill. Quirky, fun, fast and unoriginal is A-ok with me if I have fun. I never had fun in Battlefield or CoD. I did in Quake & Unreal.

I get it.  I loved BF1942 and have been waiting for a game to grab me like it did.  I'd be interested in hearing what you think of this title.

[Falconeer]

I don't get the hype.  The game play I've watched looked pretty generic.

The hype is STAR WARS ORIGINAL TRILOGY. Pardon me.

[Merusk]

Seems their servers are struggling. I can play the Single Player assault mode just fine but any time I try Multiplayer it just loads forever, never starting the game. Yay EA. 

The Single Player was fun and looks gorgeous. I want to see what it's like against people rather than bots, though.

[Megrim]

So I spent an hour watching some guy streaming this.


The good:

Clean graphics. After BF4's "visuals", the bright colours and easily identifiable enemies are a pleasure to look at.

Light vehicle pick-ups (ATST, the Tie Fighters, etc) aren't as bad as I thought. ATATs being a moving objective helps give focus for both teams.

Appears to have fast load times.

Primary weapon + three perks loadout system isn't terrible.

Good sound design.


The bad:

Superfast health regen.

Spammy weapons. Suits the SW mythos I suppose, but with almost no recoil on even the "LMG" types, its all spray and pray even at long range.

Player respawn system appears to be similar to BF4. Players pop in right on top of people who are getting shot.

Not a big range of weapons and gadgets, yet.


On the whole it doesn't look too bad, but it is also very barebones.

[Merusk]

 Got in on the ps4 and confirmed I must play on pc or nothing.  Two matches and I didn't hit anything. Died 47 times and 0 kills.  I literally can not aim.  I have no fucking clue how these assholes Are headshotting me on the move like they are. Jebus. I'm old.

[Hawkbit]

Got in on the ps4 and confirmed I must play on pc or nothing.  Two matches and I didn't hit anything. Died 47 times and 0 kills.  I literally can not aim.  I have no fucking clue how these assholes Are headshotting me on the move like they are. Jebus. I'm old.

My exact experience. I'm terrible at Destiny, too. Which is why I really didn't like that game. Console shooters just don't jive with me.

This game is pretty though.

[Nija]

Very floaty. Movement feels all wrong. Shooting feels like i'm moving around one of those jump ropes that has little plastic sections on it. Hard to describe.

Not a fan.

[rk47]

Tried it for an hour and can't recommend it. Cooldown for sniper, cooldown for grenade, power ups floating as holos on the floor (wtflol) this is really not good enough after the good stuff in BC

[Merusk]

See, I liked all of that in the single-player on the PC. The "Floaty" part felt like Dark Forces redux. No issue there for me as I hate ultra-precise because I'm not sitting down playing for 8-10 hours a day honing my reflexes.

I definitely like the Sniper and Grenade CD as it stops some obnoxious shit that FPS fans love to do to scrubs like me. Overall the game feels very arcadey rather than simulator which is fantastic. I love arcadey games. I just need to see it in MP action to really decide.

So far my verdict is "The FPS game for people who suck at FPS Games" If it keeps the "noscope 360 headshot" people (as my son says) out, that's fine by me. 

[Falconeer]

I like the cooldowns. I also don't mind the floating powerups, but utterly dislike the transformation into a vehicle. That part sucks and it's probably the only aspect I am disliking so far.