Today, indie developer Fatshark has announced that their upcoming title Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is now live via a Pre-Order Beta. Everyone who has bought Warhammer: Vermintide 2, the sequel to last years multi-million selling title Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, will be able to experience the games current state up until March 8, 2018, starting today.
Interested in some Tom Clancy’s The Division? Check out our video for some information!
The Division launches March 8th, 2016 on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is possibly one of the most anticipated games of 2016. This was easily demonstrated by how quickly beta codes ran out during the betas duration. For those that got to experience Tom Clancy’s The Division, we were given an opportunity to take a glimpse at a game that was rather interesting and well crafted. Tom Clancy’s The Division Beta takes place shortly after a weaponized version of smallpox has managed to go pandemic and wipe out a giant sum of New York’s residents, but it had also managed to go worldwide and do the same amount of damages in confirmed locations such as London where their recovery attempt is under way from what we are able to assume.
For us? Efforts to restore New York have gone underway. The JTF as well as The Division and local rescue teams have begun helping those that need it. Doing so included building quarantine zones, setting up checkpoints, and even going as far as locking down zones such as the “Dark Zone” where only the best of the best or the worst of the worst even go to look due to contamination. This is where players got to spend a lot of their time in game if they weren’t already out and about doing alerts.
What the Game Has Stayed True to Since 2013
The Division has been a game we’ve all watched with wonderment over what it would become. Some of us probably assumed the development teams at Ubisoft Massive, Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Annecy have been busy at work making. What we’ve seen of the game until now was a rather visceral future that could potentially happen if someone was crazy enough to weaponize a virus to this scale. The gameplay footages we’d seen were true tactical sessions where players would find themselves bouncing from cover to cover to find vantage points. With weapons being highly customizable we also knew this would be playing another large piece within the game’s world. What we didn’t know was just how in depth our character editing would go since the gameplay footage had never really shown this bit. In the sessions we’d seen from gaming events we also knew the game was going to be rather beautiful, something Ubisoft has become known for in the most recent future, and something they seem to be at peace doing. This is another portion of the game that has also managed to stay alive over the years as fans around the world sat on edge for the Beta itself.
So the question is what has changed if anything? To be honest? Nothing. Ubisoft’s teams have managed to keep exactly to what they said the game would be. A tactical game that would offer players a chance to team up to take on enemies on the streets and help the citizens of New York. Let alone would the game offer varying degrees of difficulty, it would also offer high amounts of customization so that players can utilize their characters to how they see fit. Something that was well done in the beta thanks to weapon tuning, weapon modifications, and even armor pieces. They also had mentioned that the games Dark Zone would be one of the most dangerous locations in the games as teams of four can work together to take over, or simply go rogue and take out other agents, and steal their loot. This also stayed rather true in the beta this weekend. They’ve carried through with their words quite closely, but the one thing that was a bit troublesome is that character customization (as seen in our video below with gameplay and commentary), is that it was limited to a randomizer not showing us the full depth of customization availability or even how it works. While this may be due to the game being in development at the moment, we know that crunch time is here, and the teams are hard at work giving the game a few finishing touches.
The Things We’ve Learned from the Beta – The Good
Like any beta, especially Destiny’s, we’ve been given a taste of what the game will be about. While the beta was a 24.8GB install, we know that much of that install was the release title, and much of that content was locked due to how the game was set up for this test. The good part of it was we got to finally see what Ubisoft has been showing off for the past several years, which was fine tuned to the extent of being immaculate. While a few flaws did stand in place, they were nothing that won’t be fixed within the final version, which is expected.
First of all weapon customization was a key factor within this beta. Being able to add scopes, grips, laser sights, larger magazines, all of it gave us the idea of what the final version would have in store. For my time in the beta? I spent a vast majority of it with an L86SW running around with a acog scope, a larger clip, and even a compensator to help my weapon stabilize a bit. This is much different from my choice of using a SCAR-L with a marksman scope, front grip, large magazine, and even a silencer to hide myself a bit better from enemy forces. Hell it even helped in the Dark Zone when going rogue with a group of friends. (The video below contains us going Rogue Agent as well as objective based gameplay where we decide to take out thugs around Manhattan)
Though weapon customization was a bit fascinating it was also interesting to see that Ubisoft paid a lot of attention to detail with the virus and contaminated zones. The game had zones that would warn players if their masks were not safe for that area by telling them if their contamination levels were safe or not. If not? It’s safe to assume that getting healed up at a decontamination zone or even using a anti-viral would be the safest bet. However we were unable to test this since there weren’t safety zones that the beta would require higher level breathing masks. We also got to take a glimpse at itemization, which includes gloves, knee pads, armoured vests, supplies such as water, food, snacks, grenades, and much more. Each of these all played their own pivotal role in how players would approach combat situations. If you had bottled water? Best time to drink it was before combat and using healing items as it made them much more effective. Want a tactical advantage against your enemies? Easy, throw out an incendiary grenade and force your enemies to abandon their cover and re-situate themselves.
While the beta offered plenty of NPC encounters, the beta had really given us a glimpse of what to expect from assisting the JTF, but an idea of what we can find in the Dark Zone whether it’s off NPCs or players or simply both. The approach to collecting Dark Zone items comes at a heavy cost for some players as rogue agents are always hiding in the shadows with a squad or simply with highly powerful weapons.
The Things We’ve Learned from the Beta – The Bad
Even though we knew the game was going to have a beta, the problem with the beta wasn’t that it wasn’t a solid tactical shooter or even squad shooter, it was the fact the beta came with a handful of weapons, a handful of JTF situational objectives, and even a small amount of story mission. This meant players got to do two missions. Report to their soon to be home base, save the doctor for the medical wing, and hunt down supplies in order to open up the recovery ward. Outside of that? The beta proved that the game has a lot that it can account for, but dared to show off more than just a sip of the kool aid.
But one thing did become apparent to this game. Anyone in the squad could mark map objectives, change mission objective locations they want to at anytime, and even run off and leave their friends behind in order to complete the missions. In the beta? This type deal actually caused me to have to redo the one side mission we got, which was to locate a missing woman, and bring her back alive if she is alive. I had to go back to part three out of four on this side mission and complete the last two steps in order to get the mission completion. Even then? It still felt odd that I was having to complete a portion of the mission we’d already completed even though I was two steps behind him.
The Things We’ve Learned from the Beta – The Ugly
One of the weakest points of the game was the fact it feels like a slight graphical downgrade from the versions we’d seen at E3, Paris Game Show, and even Gamescom. The gameplay was gorgeous, don’t take it the wrong way, but it wasn’t as cinematic as the trailers or gameplay we’d seen before, which makes us wonder if what we saw before was a devkit running the game at settings consoles can’t handle. Or if we’re going to get another Watch_Dogs situation where the game was gorgeous, still is, but just not cinematically gorgeous. Then again this can all come tumbling down to cost, performance, and limitations based on what can be delivered at launch. If I had anything to say about this? Someone needs to get Kojima Studios on the phone and see how they can go about an engine like his own, but for now? The graphics will do. We just hope to see a bit more polish on them when the game launches since we only saw the beta, not a finished product.
The truth is? If one were to go into the Dark Zone, we’d expect to find looters, enemy factions such as the Riker’s or even The Cleaners. Truth is? It was rather empty unless players wandered around for a good ten or fifteen minutes assuming another squad didn’t wipe out the enemies, take the loot, and wander off. If you were wanting equipment? Best chance players had was getting lucky with drops or simply having a strong enough squad to wipe out enemy forces. Half the time? It meant all out war near extraction zones for equipment. During those moments? Players who wanted to crouch while sneaking to cover? Good luck doing so, this wasn’t happening so far in The Division, which is a feature odd not to have in a title like this one since we were able to sneak in titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Watch_Dogs, and even Rainbow Six. Hopefully this can somehow be added in at a later date.
If anyone is one to open up the minimap and listen to comms chatter or even just basic comms chatter? Many will become accustomed to hearing “He killed Alex!”, which is quite troublesome as it is a name we hear quite frequently throughout the time spent on the beta if players end up walking around the streets. Biggest issue with that? We don’t have a clue who “Alex” is and why we should care about him. All we know? He was killed. Don’t be like Alex until we figure out who Alex is.
Post Release DLC Plans – These Actually are Interesting
We already know Tom Clancy’s The Division is supposed to be a single entry game. Something that we’ve seen The Crew do when it released last year and managed to stay on track by adding expansions to itself. We’ve also seen this happen with Rainbow Six Siege as it is getting DLC over time and will allow for players to enjoy a single title with a rather hefty amount of future content. For Tom Clancy’s The Division owners? It’s suggested to spend a bit extra and just get the season pass. So let’s take a look at the post-launch plans.
“The free updates to be released for all players will add new game modes such as challenging group-oriented operations to test players’ abilities in co-op mode and win unique rewards.
The 3 paid expansions are included in the Season Pass and will be released over the course of the year. Each expansion builds on The Division, continuing your agent’s journey and progress with new content, gear and gameplay as you fight to take back New York:
At launch, Season Pass owners will also unlock the exclusive Sawed-off Shotgun, a unique sidearm customized for short-range destruction. Season Pass owners also receive a set of exclusive outfits and weapon skins, as well as access to special monthly benefits including exclusive content drops and special events.”
While it seems that Ubisoft will support players who have the season pass and those that don’t rather fairly? It’ll be interesting to see just how many people pick up the season pass in order to get the unique items, unique events, and the bonuses as they are released throughout the games life-span.
Closing Thoughts
Even though I’ve found a few things to grunt about with Tom Clancy’s The Division, it’s hard to say that these things are something worth raising a racket over. I’m sure if Ubisoft was dealing with a roar of complaints? They would find themselves in a situation much like Destiny is in now where many players have already begun to abandon the game, much like I did back October. Let’s just hope that Ubisoft has taken notes on what to do and what not to do in the long run.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is set to release on March 8th, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One starting at 59.99 USD.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
Haven’t had a chance to play the Beta? We’ve got you covered with a gameplay video with commentary! A non-commentary video is coming soon.
For those of you playing the Beta. What’s your thoughts so far? Let us know in the comments here, our Facebook, Google+ or even our Twitter feed!
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
Update: It looks like as of earlier today the beta signup reservations went back to functioning properly. Whatever the cause for the outages had been looks to be resolved now. Stay tuned for our hands-on impressions coming soon.
Original:
If you are like many of us out there, The Division is a game you’ve been eyeballing like a piece of candy your parents told you that you can a have at a later date. This time around the parents would be Ubisoft and our “having at a later date” just became a reality as the Beta Sign-Ups have temporarily gone offline.
For those wondering what “offline” means, it means just that. According to the website as seen above, it looks like Ubisoft is doing something behind the scenes to ensure that the beta functions as intended when it launches. So for those of you and us who pre-ordered? It looks like our wait may just get a bit longer to get into the beta. The beta is set to launch on January 28th for Xbox One and January 29th for PlayStation 4 and PC.
We have reached out to Ubisoft to find out what the expected period is before players can once more submit their beta code spots. So if you’ve pre-ordered in the last few days and haven’t registered? Hang onto those codes while we wait to hear back from officials at Ubisoft.
The Division will release on March 8th, 2016 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
Editor’s Note: Due to the limited content available on the Beta, we’ve been unable to experience all of the operatives that will be available in the final version of the title. While we would also like to have more pictures, we still have to get them uploaded through both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Thanks for reading and enjoy the article.
With Tom Clancy having passed away what seems just like yesterday, his legacy has continued to live on without him and the legacy seems to be going into the right direction. With his passing we’ve seen one of the most anticipated titles of 2015 coming soon and with it coming as soon as it is, I’ve spent plenty of time playing a game that carries on a franchise I’ve come to love over the last seventeen years. Originally released in August of 1998, Rainbow Six set up one of the most tactical games we’d ever get to play next to franchises such as Delta Force and SWAT. The difference between all these? Rainbow Six has come to be one of the most renowned and long lived franchises in the tactical FPS genre. However, many of you may know that Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege has seem some major changes over the last few years since it was originally announced as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Patriots, which would feature an ever changing campaign based upon player decisions as well as occurrences that would remain outside of player control or rather as The Doctor would say “fixed points in time”.
So what has remained since the conception of Rainbow Six Patriots to Siege? The multiplayer content, which will feature an always online portion of the game for competitive play. Much like the rather successful Ghost Recon Phantoms, Siege takes on a note that the online modes are where players will be constantly turning to. Unlike Phantoms, Rainbow Six Siege does not feature highly customizable characters, instead players will find themselves decking out operatives who have a special set of skills, specialized weapons and even specialized stats for each of them. Such as Mute who is an important operative to have on TDM – Bomb where players will eliminate each other while trying to seize an objective. This includes Mutes (defender only operative) ability to place jamming devices that disable enemy drones as well as technology so that they can’t use it against the defending team in the manner they choose. On the flipside we have Ash who is a force to be reckoned with thanks to her over-penetrating explosive round that goes through breachable walls only to detonate on the other side and causing havoc around any corner that enemies may be attempting to use to their advantage.
Thanks to these minor changes there are a few things that players will find new compared to past titles, which some of it’s good and some the bad, so let’s take a look at “The Good”, “The Bad”, and “The Ugly” to see what direction this game has taken as well as what could be changed back into it at a later date.
/-/ The Good /-/
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six has seen some major changes compared to its rather successful previous entries known as Rainbow Six Vegas and Rainbow Six Vegas 2. In the past titles we saw heavy amounts of customization as well as unlocks thanks to the ACE system we’d grown to love on those games. This included the ability to unlock varied types of protection via armor, various attachments to each gun. While this has returned in many forms, there is something quite enjoyable and fulfilling about this new system they’ve used in regards to upgrading operatives the way they have. With these unlocks players will be able to unlock operatives starting at 500 renown each per faction (so this seems to be based on each faction, but I have seen this reset from 1,000-1,500 back to 500 after a set time) only to go up to 1,000 renown after having unlocked a second character, which went from Ash to Thatcher. When going to the “Operatives” menu, players can click on their unlocked operatives in order to unlock attachments for their specified weapons, setting them up with unlocks that range between 150-600 renown only to adapt their guns to better stats based upon their play style. This includes reducing recoil, sound, hiding muzzle flash even to grips in order to help stability while firing or scopes to allow for more range as well as accuracy for players who prefer not to use iron sights.
These benefits don’t just work when standing still on a flat platform such as a floor, a ceiling or aiming down from destroyed layers to other players. With Rainbow Six titles we’ve seen subtle changes to reality such as bullet penetration, velocity and range, but now we get to see one of the changes we’d never seen before; locales that can be almost fully besieged. This big change is what has truly fulfilled the games name “Siege”. As players approach through the only competitive mode in the open-beta referred to as TDM – Bomb, teams select a starting locale for both Offense and Defense, this can range from places such as offices, basements or even base-level locations. So lets use the most commonly rotated map called “House”. In this map players can choose a Children’s Bedroom, Master Bedroom or the Garage where players will attempt to lock down these areas as “Defenders”. As “Defenders” there are several things that will play a very integral role into winning or losing such as setting up proper defenses I.E. barricading walls, windows, doorways and setting up improvised traps like C4, electrified walls (Requires Castle) and communication as the biggest part of defense. While players can hide against walls and fixtures that can’t be penetrated by breach charges or bullets, there are other things such as flash bangs, grenades and even C4 sticks that can bring havoc upon defenders that are ill prepared. Thanks to those pesky little drones this can be worse as they can find enemy defense locations if they spot it or even players if they are detected. Luckily these can be jammed by Mute, slowed by barbed wire floor traps or shot.
On the offensive side there are a few things to take note of that can disrupt your luck of winning. Enemy teams, as stated, can prevent your breaching via electrified walls, reinforced walls, windows, traps and even the unmentioned security cameras. All of these play a key role in both attacking and defending since both teams are after the same objective, taking the defense point and eliminating the enemy team at whatever cost possible. The difference here is that offensive players can actually leave the building that they are attempting to invade in order to complete their mission goal of breaching it via any means necessary, finding the enemy objective and stopping it however possible. Many of these points of insertion to the locale to be breached can be rapelled while players can detonate charges on Windows, Walls, and floors depending on the level they are on whether it’s an upstairs room, floor level room or basement entry point. The most important thing to take away from these insertion points if they are reinforced is that characters on the offensive such as Thermite can break through these walls in order to detonate the flooring for players to breach through reinforced walls if they are not electrified.
This biggest change is a huge game changer for those who are veterans of the series.
/-/ The Bad /-/
There’s always things that help improve a game and degrade a series from further progression. As many fans of Rainbow Six are familiar with Rainbow Six Vegas and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 brought in a mechanic that would soon become a phenomenon that many games would begin to adopt later in. One that we’ve become familiar with thanks to games such as Gears of War, Binary Domain and even future entries to games that have yet to release. While this system was not initially created by the minds at Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft, many can attribute it to tactical games such as Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell and even games such as Syphon Filter or even later titles such as Killswitch among many others that would heavily rely on stealth features. However, with this latest entry we see a removal of this system in exchange for things such as shield placements and tactical kits that would make up for the removal of this system. While this system could seem troublesome with the newer mechanics it is a system that would help during breach situations so that players don’t find themselves so heavily exposed against besieged rooms.
Another ugly part of this game is the removal of character customizations as well as custom kits to fit a player’s setup in the way they prefer such as appearance, gear, primary and even secondary weapons. While it would be hard to implement this feature it is one that is yearned for among the in-game chats that seems to echo out among die-hard fans of the franchise. While it’s one that has been seemingly pushed to the side and forgotten while many players have discussed the idea within game chats that this would be a subtle yet very welcomed implementation through later updates. What makes this even worse through earlier titles? While it is fun to earn renowned and have a lack of a campaign there seems to be no sign of future uses of a Titanfall-esque campaign narrative between matches to give players an idea of what, why, where, when and how they are being deployed on their current tasking at hand. While many of these things are miniscule to most players, it’s something that the game does direly need with talents such as Angela Bassett taking a role as the leader of Rainbow Six. Another issue is how easy renown is to unlock for players who spend a few hour with boosters on the game. While this is nice it will quickly cause the game to run its course and eventually become another game on the shelf in the very near future. While this seems plausible it may not be possible if the game hosts as tactical and enticing gameplay as it does now through the various other modes that will hit when it launches.
/-/ The Ugly /-/
When it comes to ugly there’s always some things that absolutely should not be included within the game and the lack of several features makes this truly problematic. If you play games such as Battlefield or other tactical games, you are used to being able to lean around corner in order to acquire a target. While one would assume this is easy to do in Rainbow Six Siege, it’s quite opposite and seems almost absent from the game that makes it seem almost like a distant cousin to the Rainbow Six series. While this may seem miniscule to problems such as the login delays, party disconnections and even server time-outs, the game presents itself as a troubled title to its initial launch. With having already experienced several server time-outs and even random app-locks, the game finds itself needing a few hotfixes before its launch. Most of these bugs? Seem only present within the Xbox One version in comparison to the PlayStation 4 version of the game. Does this mean that the PlayStation 4 version is flaw free? No, it doesn’t, quite the opposite really. While graphics between the two versions are one-in-the-same the game does see some minor graphical slow downs in regards to FPS during moments of explosions and high particle effects the PS4 version seems to hold steady during these occasions and not degrading any form of performance in that regard.
While I would like to say everything is perfect on the PlayStation 4 I would be lying to you in truth. The PlayStation 4 does carry its own flaws in regards to certain parts of performance with matchmaking. The biggest issue comes down to matchmaking in the networking area. This has to do with the servers being incapable of finding matches when in parties of 3-4. While this would seem to be a minor problem to most this problem does exist and can lead to matchmaking taking upwards to 10-20 minutes before finding a lobby or a partner to fill those open spots. If this problem exists during the game’s initial launch, fans will find themselves a bit disgruntled when it comes out next Tuesday.
/-/ Final Thoughts /-/
While it may be hard to dissect every possibly good, bad and even horrible situation with this beta, the current state of the title, it seems that Ubisoft has been hard at work trying to kink out every single little bug possible before the game’s launch. With many of the subtle changes that could be made to the game post-launch let’s just hope that the Xbox One’s performance issues seem resolved with a Day One Patch or a post-launch patch within the following days.
With the game launching on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on December 1st, 2015, stay tuned for our upcoming review on both the PS4 and Xbox One in the upcoming days.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
If you’re wanting in on the closed beta for the upcoming Gearbox title Battleborn’s closed technical tests, pay some attention. As we know, the first test will take place on the 29th of October. Those that participate in the closed beta will be under an NDA, which means no floods of streams, no chatter, or even very little about what the game itself featured.
Sign-ups are still open on Gearbox’s website. Those that participate will be under NDA, so there won’t be a flood of streams or chatter about what’s on display.
You’re fine with that? Cool! Then here’s what you need to do. Head over to the Gearbox Website and sign up for the beta if you already have an account. If you do not have a Shift Account? You will need to head over onto the Shift Account page to setup and get ready for the Beta. This beta includes tests for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One; this also includes what you’ll need if you plan on testing this rather colorful first-person multiplayer title that is set to play much like a rather colorful MOBA. So what exactly is this test for? To test the 25 playable characters for balancing, the servers, as well as to help polish the game before its launch on February 9th, 2016. So lets get down to what you’ll need to have in order to get rolling.
For PC Players:
For consoles? The email that we received stated that the game will require between 4 to 8 GBs free of Hard Disk Space. This doesn’t surprise us since the console game will probably be lacking in a PhysX like engine, which we assume Battleborn will use.
So will we be writing at all about our experience with the Battleborn beta? The answer is quite frankly no. Due to the way the NDA’s work we won’t be able to discuss it, take pictures or even show you anything in regards to it outside of what we get or do not get in press kits. If you would like to get in on the beta? We highly suggest it and if you are in the test and will be frequenting the closed beta forums for feedback.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
It’s no surprise that EA had a lot to worry about when it comes to their developer DICE’s upcoming title Star Wars Battlefront. With the title being well received by critics from all sides of the game, it’s no surprise that it was enjoyed by quite a few people, like 9 million users as that quite a few.
“‘Impressive. Most Impressive.’ Yesterday, the Star Wars™ Battlefront™ beta surpassed a major milestone: more than nine million players logged in and played. That makes this the single largest beta in the history of EA. We could not be happier that so many of you wanted to come in to get a small taste of what our passionate team has been working on,” stated Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, Senior Producer of Star Wars Battlefront.
Recently the Star Wars Battlefront team over at EA announced the games Ultimate Edition priced at $119.99 USD as well as the games Season Pass for $49.99 USD. Information regarding the season pass can be found here. The game is set to launch on November 17, 2015 in North America, and November 19, 2015 in Europe.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
In a galaxy, not so very far away, we’ve been sitting down on PC’s, PlayStation 4s, and Xbox Ones holding our controllers in our hands, and blasting each other across the battlefields of Hoth and Tatooine. On these planets we’ve discovered just how close to real that D.I.C.E. and EA have made this game. With sound effects blasting from T.V.s, headphones, and even surround sound systems in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 7.1, Star Wars Battlefront has finally landed a beta on all the mentioned platforms. We’ve taken to flying Tie Fighters, Tie/IN Interceptors, X-Wings, A-Wings, AT-ST’s, and even manning the guns to the gorgeously as well as terrifyingly large AT-AT. But much has and has not changed since the days of Battlefront 2 where fans were fighting of both droids, clone troopers, and even Jedi heroes.
What’s most iconic about this game isn’t the fact it’s a minor departure from a series we grew up to love, but rather the fact EA has decided to take what them and DICE have perfected with Battlefield and mold it into the Star Wars universe in order to give us one of the most graphically astounding games to date. I don’t say that with a grin on my face to upset the fanboys or to bring myself to the culling due to my stance on the game, but even with games such as Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes/TPP, and even Killing Floor 2 sitting around; I have to state openly that Battlefront is one of the best looking games I’ve honestly played to date even in its Beta test, which seems to be a stress test for the servers. In doing so they invited us to try out three modes such as Drop Zone where you will capture escape pods for your team by holding them for a set amount of time, Walker Assault, which many will feel is a perfect representation of Battlefield’s Rush mode, and last, but not least the games weakest mode (at least to me) Survival, which can be played with a group of friends or solo in order to hone in your skills.
Star Wars Battlefront – PlayStation 4 (Version Tested), Xbox One, and PC
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC
Publisher: EA
Developer: DICE
Release Date: November 17th, 2015
But why did we find Survival so weak when that is supposed to be one of the strong suits of the game? Well the truth is that it felt underwhelming and poorly executed. When being shot at by Storm Troopers who felt like they were straight out of the movies you’ll find yourself cringing just a bit. When playing with the enemy shooting blasters at your team that should be hitting and not? It was almost as if the game was purposely programmed to give that movie authenticity, which lead us to quickly departing from this horde-like mode, which is all about surviving for an allotted amount of waves until an AT-ST pops up and decides to blast away at everyone.
This lead us to switching over to the multiplayer where we were introduced to the game mode Drop Zone, which places us in an undisclosed location on Tatooine. While this mode may seem familiar to others the mode is very much an attack and defend mode where players will be fighting over Escape Pods and even power-ups that will allow them to make it a bit harder for the opposing team to slow them down. While this mode did prove a bit more challenging than I had hoped for it was equally enjoyable when played with friends.
When grouped with friends any of the modes tend to be fun, but as we all know, there are challenges that came come up at any time. Where the game seems to shine the brightest in both graphical prowess and even player stability is the games largest mode called Walker Assault. This mode can easily be referred to as Battlefronts version of “Rush” from DICE’s other franchise known as Battlefield. In the Walker Assault mode we were pitted in the battle for Hoth where the Rebel Alliance is attempting to fight back the Imperial march on their home base for hoth. Here we see the Rebel’s taking action against the might of the Imperial forces on both ground and even air assault. In much of my time with this mode I spent a fair amount of time testing out the games aerial combat, vehicular combat on ground, and as a foot soldier utilizing my blasters, grenades, jetpack, my personal shield perk, and even the turrets that were pre-placed on the map. The goal as a Rebel? Fight back Imperial soldiers while trying to capture two Communication Relays in order for your team to call in Y-Wings to bring down the shields protecting the AT-AT’s. While doing so the game mode isn’t just chaotic, it’s a warzone – quite literally a Star Wars battlefield where implosion grenades, ion grenades, turret fire, rockets, cannon fire, and the likes are always going off.
During my time it wasn’t uncommon to be blasted by squads of Stormtroopers that were spawning on one another in order to keep their partner system available (this is very reminiscent to Battlefields spawning system with the Uplink devices that soldiers would place). After having spent my fair share of time being blown up, respawned, shot by snipers, and even doing my fair share of the same, it was time to take to vehicular combat. First up was my run with the X-Wing. Much like in the movies the Tie Fighter is an excellent airship at maneuverability, firepower, and even aerial support. Unlike past Battlefront titles I didn’t get to just run up to an available vehicle and grab it – I had to hunt it down. After spending a matter of seconds jet packing around the map I was able to find my power up lying beside a blown up X-Wing that was all, but destroyed. Hitting my L1+R1 together my character knelt down, called for X-Wing support, and I was on my way into the battlefield as a member of the Rebel Alliances “Crimson Squad”. As I adjusted to the controls they came rather easy to learn having spent a lot of time piloting planes in Battlefield 4. Much like any title I found my left thumbstick for rotation to rotate side to side, front and back for speeding up and speeding down, and the right thumbstick for pitch and yaw. My D-Pad buttons offered evasive maneuvers for when under enemy fire, which most of the time was used to break missile lock. L1 was to activate shields while R1 was to launch a torpedo. In the game I commonly found myself holding onto L2 in order to lock onto enemy aggressors in the air only to start shooting at them while pursuing them. Much like ground weapons, vehicle weapons of all sorts overheat and must cool down if they are constantly fired.
On both ends of the stick each vehicle felt unique from the evasive TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor clear down to the Rebels A-Wing and the T-47 Snowspeeder/Airspeeder. The most interesting part of vehicles was not piloting them, but even combating against them as they proved both lethal and at times quite clumsy when taking fire from the ground. Though the primary thing to take away from the battlefield of Hoth? The graphical prowess as well as scope of audio is immersive. Thanks to the use of sound effects straight from the movies such as the mechanical clumsiness of the AT-ST’s, the breach alarms of the AT-AT, the whine of the TIE Fighters flying sounds to the sound of their cannons, the game is overall very unique to how true it has stayed to the Star Wars franchise. To be quite honest? It feels as if DICE has spent hours on end sitting at the Lucas Studios in order to make the game true to the franchise. The musical score itself is quite impressive as it quietly plays behind the scenes during combat scenarios while more prominent songs strike a chord when something large scale occurs. While this is something that will strike a bit of nostalgia for some, the game stays true to what Star Wars is known for such as design, realism, graphical prowess, and its story telling elements. Thanks to DICE this has been fully possible within Star Wars Battlefront with a Beta test that could quite easily be called a success after downloading an 8GB file (rounded up from 7.8GB or so). The truth? If this game follows through like the beta did? Star Wars Battlefront could easily set itself up for a game of the year.
Though as much as I would love to continue with the stroking of egos there were some underlying issues that would make developers cringe. One of these is trouble with partying up with friends. While the use of what felt like an Origin launcher within the menu’s, I found it almost troublesome to group up with friends as the game constantly reported that I had no friends online on Saturday and Sunday night for PlayStation 4. To ensure it wasn’t just me? We took our PS4 to multiple locales (friends who allowed us to invade their internet) in order to test this. To be honest? It was the servers quite possibly, but regardless it had been admitted by EA and DICE that they were stress testing the servers, which quite easily could have cause this issue. Another is minor audio cut-in and outs when navigating menus between matches. This having occurred on both of the B.A.T.G.R. PS4’s using our 100+ MBPS downstream internet with a 15.8 MBPS upstream. Another underlying issue isn’t just these small flaws, but instead there were a few that had been noted on the P.C. side by B.A.T.G.R. writer Ms. Helseth who noted that people had already been cheating to the point that one player in a lobby she had attended sat at 256 kills with 8 Deaths. Something that pales my 78 kills and 32 deaths in comparison. While this is an issue it only brings the question to whether or not Battlefront on P.C. will have an anti-cheat system in place to keep such things from happening.
We can only wait and see when Battlefront launches on November 17th, 2015 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for $59.99 USD. Recently new modes and a season pass have been announced.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.