New Star Wars Battlefront game by EA

Battlefront 2 has been announced, or rather, the trailer has been released. Basically it's everything the first one SHOULD have been, which is a SP campaign, better MP, and no stupid $50 season pass.

 
I had fun with the multiplayer in the first game but this looks much better. If they can make a good Star Wars campaign with those amazing graphics from the first game it will be something special.
 
The Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Beta has been extended to Wednesday.



I played a bit of it this weekend. Seemed okay. I'm definitely looking forward to the Single Player campaign but after playing the beta nothing compelled me to want to pre-order the game.

Unfortunately the beta has raised numerous eyebrows about the game's loot box system (Yes, BF2 has loot boxes because apparently unlocking through basic playing is SO yesterday.) Many feel the game has basically become Pay 2 Win, and that the fact that EVERYTHING is done via loot boxes (including upgrades) is not sitting well with many people.

Opinion: Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Beta Raises Pay-To-Win Fears - IGN

Star Wars Battlefront 2's Loot Boxes Seem Like They're Going To Be A Serious Problem



Hopefully EA has time to address these issues before the game's release. I think people still remember the bad taste of BF1 with its lacking of content. While BF2 looks to resolve that with more content and free updates, I don't think enforcing a P2W economy via loot boxes that include things that upgrade your character is the way to do it. I'm much more forgiving of loot boxes that only have cosmetics, but when upgrades are in those same boxes that can get very frustrating very quickly.
 
Slightly off topic, but recently EA shut down Visceral Studios and the single player Star Wars game they were working on, which, since it was being lead by Amy Hennig of the Uncharted Series, was expected to basically be Uncharted meets Star Wars. One of the most popular takeaways from the story was that EA was completely abandoning single player games and everything was going to be "Games as a Service" and this was the beginning of the end. However, from what Kotaku is reporting, it looks less like EA was killing Single Player and more that the project itself was given a mercy killing.

https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152
 
Even after the loot box feedback from the BF2 beta caused DICE to reorganize the system to be less "Pay 2 Win", it appears that DICE may not have done enough, and those who pay money will end up with an advantage.

 
BF 2 isn't even out yet but it's already set a new record. It is responsible for the most downvoted comment in Reddit history:

EA responded to Battlefront 2 unlock estimates, and players weren’t having it

EA basically confirmed that heroes like Vader and Luke will take approximately 40 hours of gameplay to unlock, each. Also, since its tied directly to credits, you would have to spend all that time not buying anything else to accumulate enough. There's also fears that upcoming DLC content will be locked behind similar walls of grind as well.
 
Does Battlefront have a campaign mode at all or is it just a multiplayer game?

Battlefront 2 has a campaign. The first game did not. It sounds like it's pretty short but that is standard in COD and Battlefield games. The focus is still multiplayer.
 
Battlefront 2 has a campaign. The first game did not. It sounds like it's pretty short but that is standard in COD and Battlefield games. The focus is still multiplayer.

Wouldn't mind a good Star Wars first player game. I remember playing the one on the N64 a lot and really enjoyed it. There was also one on the Playstation I like, I think it was based on Episode 1.
 
So, it's been an interesting 24 hours for EA...

After the backlash and EA being so embarrassed, they decided to cut the credits required for the biggest heroes by 75%. They also announced they're going to be doing a Reddit AMA with a bunch of the lead developers.

Change will be a Constant in Star Wars Battlefront II

While the hero price reduction sounds nice in theory, there's still issues with the game still being Pay2Win, where people willing to pay money will get more upgrades faster and thus be more dominant over other players. Also, people have been reporting that while the cost of heroes has been reduced, so has the rewards earned in game, meaning nothing really changed in terms of progress. Oh, and EA decided to change their refund system by removing the simple 3 step refund option and now requiring people to talk with a customer representative for a simple refund. Bear in mind, Origin implemented refunds before Steam did. Edit: Apparently this is a misunderstanding. Refunds have ALWAYS required talking to a support person.
No, EA Hasn't Suddenly Removed the Refund Button for Battlefront II




These changes have also caused problems with game reviewers. While the embargo apparently ended late yesterday, due to these changes, reviewers have had to re-evaluate now that the progression system has been changed. Overall the reviews that are out there are generally positive, but definitely not as glowing as EA wanted, with lots of complaints about progression and loot boxes.

 
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Gizmodo has an interesting article about how EA managed to garner upwards of 400,000 downvotes on Reddit for their points system; so many that some smart devices couldn't handle the number.
 
More great news about BF2: If you play arcade mode too much the game stops you from earning credits for a period of time, essentially making it play to wait..



In other news, there's a Reddit AMA at 12:30pm featuring a bunch of the lead developers of the game. That should be, interesting.

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Now people are trying to get Disney involved by pointing out that EA is promoting gambling tendencies to children with its loot boxes.

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It's definitely a gross progression system. I won't be buying the game anytime soon. This is partially because I don't want to support this type of progression system and partially because I mostly just wanted to play the campaign anyways. I'll probably get it when it's cheap and hope EA has completely changed things by then.

At the same time, I heard today that EA's stock price is at a record high. Apparently, even a record of 400,000 downvotes on Reddit doesn't mean much when it comes to the general audience they are trying to reach. The first game sold over 14 million copies and most of the people who bought it probably aren't even seeing the backlash because they don't pay attention to reddit or video game news sites.

I think this whole "Disney is promoting gambling to children" campaign is a bit much though. There are some pretty big differences between loot boxes and slot machines and children aren't going to be the ones spending real money on them unless their parents allow it/provide the money.
 

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