Star Wars Battlefront II (Nov 17)

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During the development of Star Wars: Battlefront II (read our review), developer DICE began work on a mode that played like Overwatch and featured a similar business model to Blizzard’s team-based hero shooter, according to sources familiar with the production (who asked that I not print their names or titles to protect their employment). The mode would have focused on teamwork and squad composition, and — more importantly — it would have favored cosmetic items like hero costumes in its loot boxes over perks and weapons. Most of these ideas were dropped from Battlefront II due, at least in part, to a request from Disney’s Star Wars division Lucasfilm.​

I don’t know why Lucasfilm would ask EA not to pursue a cosmetics-heavy Overwatch-like mode. Lucasfilm gaming boss Douglas Reilly told me during a conversation this week that canon isn’t a concern when it comes to what goes into a loot box. So that’s probably not the problem. And even if Disney did have good reasoning, EA should’ve known it wouldn’t get away with this. But whatever the origin for this decision, fans should look to see how Battlefront II’s business model changes moving forward.​

Star Wars: Battlefront II almost had way more Overwatch-style hero skins

 

[Sarcastic]

Don't know why they call it the Overwatch model, TF2 and Dota 2 have been doing it way before Overwatch came out and that's not excluding other multiplayer games.

That said, this pretty much feels like horse amour all over again. Don't understand why EA went for the entire pie instead of going slowly and building gamers up to accepting microtransactions of this level over a period of time.

 

[KingBran]

Great campaign! The voice actor and scriping for Luke was pretty lame though. Thought the story was pretty "meh" too. Played a bunch more online and with the campaign milestones and getting 200-300 credits per match in heros vs villains I have all hero's unlocked and a couple star cards for each.

I love my magical xbox!

 

[Leafs at Knight]

72 on metacritic; lower than the 1st game...rough.

For some reason my older brother bought it on PS4 after I and my younger brother told him all about the MT's and to just wait and see what happens.. So I'll be trying it out when/if they ever fix the MT's/Progression system.

 

[Commander Clueless]

72 on metacritic; lower than the 1st game...rough.

For some reason my older brother bought it on PS4 after I and my younger brother told him all about the MT's and to just wait and see what happens.. So I'll be trying it out when/if they ever fix the MT's/Progression system.

I doubt the progression system will be truly changed. The star cards are pretty ingrained.

 

[McDNicks17]

Their fix to microtransactions is removing them until everyone buys the game and then putting them back in.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Their fix to microtransactions is removing them until everyone buys the game and then putting them back in.

We have a Bingo!

Just trying to survive the Christmas rush. This is still play to win, gambling machine.

 

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I doubt the progression system will be truly changed. The star cards are pretty ingrained.

If you remove the ability to jump the line via real money, it becomes more like a natural progression system, just without any real player agency. They mainly need to change dupes to crafting parts and up their gain overall so that players have a way to control what they get. The way it is designed now will give you what feels like a good 'base' of cards but you'll quickly realize that, as your income slows down, tier 3 and 4 cards are painfully out of reach.

I can't think of a game more blatantly designed to sucker someone in to that first 20 hours, hype them up, then leave them for dead. Most F2P games are not even that disingenuous about their grind.

The MT fiasco has people overlooking things like terrible maps and terrible class balance, so DICE has some smoke cover to improve things. This game badly needs a "we dun f***ed up" battlefield 4 level CTE effort to fix everything.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I think the biggest problem ive personally seen is that the star cards should not be giving extra health or aim assist. Those seem like too much.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Don't know why they call it the Overwatch model, TF2 and Dota 2 have been doing it way before Overwatch came out and that's not excluding other multiplayer games.

That said, this pretty much feels like horse amour all over again. Don't understand why EA went for the entire pie instead of going slowly and building gamers up to accepting microtransactions of this level over a period of time.

DOTA 2 isn't a really a shooter, and Overwatch definitely popularized the model. TF2 has had it for a long time but it's also been a F2P game for a long time, with it's "heyday" being long over.

72 on metacritic; lower than the 1st game...rough.

Chalk that up to the negative attention. EA needs to be a lot more careful in the future. And specifically, they need to figure out how to handle Disney. Their first two AAA games have not been well received critically (though they seem to be selling well).

 

[Dolemite]

I think the biggest problem ive personally seen is that the star cards should not be giving extra health or aim assist. Those seem like too much.

They were in the first game.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

If you remove the ability to jump the line via real money, it becomes more like a natural progression system, just without any real player agency. They mainly need to change dupes to crafting parts and up their gain overall so that players have a way to control what they get. The way it is designed now will give you what feels like a good 'base' of cards but you'll quickly realize that, as your income slows down, tier 3 and 4 cards are painfully out of reach.

I can't think of a game more blatantly designed to sucker someone in to that first 20 hours, hype them up, then leave them for dead. Most F2P games are not even that disingenuous about their grind.

The MT fiasco has people overlooking things like terrible maps and terrible class balance, so DICE has some smoke cover to improve things. This game badly needs a "we dun ****ed up" battlefield 4 level CTE effort to fix everything.

They're going to need more than what happened to BF4, because at least that f***ing game wasn't this blatant the progression system was fine. While it took about 1.5 years for the game to become spectacular, it had a much better base to stand on than Battlefront 2 right now.

 

[Dolemite]

EA has turned off the pay to win feature in Battlefront.

Star Wars Battlefront II: Game maker apologizes after uproar from fans

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

It's temporary though.

 

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EA has turned off the pay to win feature in Battlefront.

Star Wars Battlefront II: Game maker apologizes after uproar from fans

zero new, just the PR release chopped up for a lazy CNN article.

 

[Dolemite]

It's temporary though.

As it should be. The uproar over pay to play is laughable.

 

[Dolemite]

zero new, just the PR release chopped up for a lazy CNN article.

But do you know why? It’s not because of the fan uproar.

The Disney brass called EA after concerns that the transactions are essentially gambling (they are) and Didn’t want gambling concerns and the uproar over it to coincide with the release of the new Star Wars movie. Not long after that it was disabled.

 

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But do you know why? It’s not because of the fan uproar.

The Disney brass called EA after concerns that the transactions are essentially gambling (they are) and Didn’t want gambling concerns and the uproar over it to coincide with the release of the new Star Wars movie. Not long after that it was disabled.

Already posted. Also:

It’s not because of the fan uproar.

Disney brass called EA after concerns that the transactions are essentially gambling (they are) and Didn’t want gambling concerns and the uproar over it to coincide with the release of the new Star Wars movie.

Pick one.

 

[Bjorn Le]

That’s a very Disney move...

 

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That’s a very Disney move...

Their protections in the licensing deal are likely ironclad. Disney isn't going to risk a hit to TLJ or Star Wars as a whole for whatever chump change EA was going to make off of lootboxes. The one upside to having a zealous corporation like Disney owning the Star Wars IP I suppose.

 

[GuitarGuy]

It looks cool but won't get it since it's not coming out for the Wii U.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

It looks cool but won't get it since it's not coming out for the Wii U.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Their protections in the licensing deal are likely ironclad. Disney isn't going to risk a hit to TLJ or Star Wars as a whole for whatever chump change EA was going to make off of lootboxes. The one upside to having a zealous corporation like Disney owning the Star Wars IP I suppose.

I meant that they're referring to it as a gambling issue instead of unfair/strange/bad business practices. Especially given the reports Disney had no problem with loot boxes they just had a problem with them containing only cosmetic items.

 

[AKL]

I have to say, the game itself is really fun. I haven't even touched the campaign yet, I'm gonna save that for a rainy day, but even playing multiplayer by myself is a blast.

 

[ColbyChaos]

The night map on Kashyyyk is almost unplayable as the republic. The droids are really hard to see when youre in a area with no lighting while you could spot the clones white armor from a mile away