Ello ello. Welcome back to BaicunnPress! Thank you for stopping by. It's a fantastically rainy day outside where I'm at. I hope you beautiful bastards are having a great day. It's Friday so let's get into The Breakdown. Good news everybody! What's better than sunshine unicorns and nyan cats?...Free games, of course. While they are working on StarCraft Remastered, Blizzard wants to keep the game brooding in our hearts and minds. To insure their psy-ops campaign is successful, Blizzard has released the original StarCraft with the Brood War expansion for free. They are calling it StarCraft Anthology. Based on the latest patch notes, they've ironed out some bugs that come with trying to play a nearly 20 year old game on a modern pc, along with some upgrades in matchmaking. Patch notes are here and download are available here. Also more StarCraft news should be unlocked on their official site on Thursday. The day after the new shit drops on the StarCraft site; new Titanfall 2 will have a new DLC drop. Starting on Tuesday; 4/25, Respawn is set to launch 2 new maps, bringing back the Marked for Death gamemode, and adding the M.R.V.N. faction. It's rumored that we may even see a new Titan released.
In an antithetical twist, Activision has announced that they a releasing a new COD (surprise!?). It appears that this time around Sledgehammer is going back to the glory days of World At War with COD: WWII. Activision has announced a live stream event to start here at 1PM EDT on Wednesday; 4/26. Since we're talking about publishers grasping at straws and DLC; EA released a full length trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront 2 at Star Wars Celebration. During the keynote talk EA/ Dice made comments inferring that there would be more options, a campaign, and no season pass DLC. Later further comments were made muddling facts by rephrasing to state, that there is not, not going to be pay for DLC. So who really fucking knows if consumers are going to get screwed again or not. I'm pessimistically optimistic, but I won't be pre-ordering this go round.
The world was given a Star Wars: The Last Jedi taser trailer. The trailer did present a bit of a kerfuffle with some fans, as Kylo Ren's mangled mug getting some cinematic cosmetic work. If you look closely you'll see that the gigantic Tyrion-esque scar has been downsized and migrated, becoming one of those badass brow to check eye scars. I guess the New Order has a pretty badass insurance plan.
While on the topic of the oddly grotesque, the English dub of Attack On Titan season 2 drops on Adult Swim tomorrow night.
In the same hyper japanese vein, Bandai Namco, has announced their newest game; Code Vein. It appears to be one part Dark Souls and two parts anime. The project is being directed by Hiroshi Yoshimura of God Eater's fame. Running on the Unreal 4 engine, this vampire based RPG is likely to attract a fan base quickly when it releases in 2018.
Vampires, aliens, and crazy shit oh my. Running on the heels of a successful 6 episode run in 2016, the X-Files is returning again for a 10 episode. Set to go to season in 2017-18. In other fanboy pleasing news, Steven Universe is returning May 5th. The news comes straight from Cartoon Network via their Twitter account. To help make the announcement, Cartoon Network released a teaser trailer.
And rounding out the break down, Nintendo has announced that they are discontinuing the NES Classic. If you're wanting to add this game to your collection, time is running out; as the current production cycle will be it's last. But have no fear, as it is widely rumored that like their very own savior of Hyrule, Nintendo will be releasing an SNES Classic soon. Thank you again for stopping by BaicunnPress. I hope you have a fucking awesome weekend. I'm headed out this evening for the MTG Prerelease. Crossed fingers for good pulls. Stop by next Friday for another Breakdown. I'm currently working on a few different projects and trying to tighten up my workflow so that I can get more content out to you guys faster. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello. Welcome back to BaicunnPress! Thank you for stopping by. Yesterday, The Last Jedi teaser trailer was released at Star Wars Celebration. As far as I can tell, it's the standard model Star Wars teaser trailer. You know the shtick; gentle mentory disembodied voice speaking. Flashes of lightsabers, force powers, and blaster fire. Stuff exploding, and ships crashing. Glimpses of heroes and villains... I think you have the mental picture. I'm excited about this release, but honestly, I'm mostly excited that JarJar Abrams is out of the picture... So I can safely say, that I'm optimistic about the future of the franchise. Don't get me wrong, I love the Force Awakens. However, I believe that Star Wars and I have an unhealthy relationship, and by extension; I guess this means I love it because it is Star Wars, and not because it's good. With that said, I felt like Rogue One did a great job of stepping up the bar from The Force Awakens. I do have a minor quibble with intergalactic space farers needing to connect communications cables and operate separate control panels to position an antenna and send data. I'd think that screen writers would have a better grasp on wireless communications in the 21st century, but eh... Below is what you likely came here for. Further down below is a video tribute to Carrie Fisher, that was shown at Star Wars Celebration 2017. Enjoy!
So what do you think of the trailer? Be sure to let me know what you think. Thanks again for stopping by. I really appreciate your all of your support. Please be sure to follow @BaicunnPress on Twitter or Google+ for new post releases. I hope you have a great weekend, and I will see you next time. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello, and good day to you. Welcome back to BaicunnPress. It's Friday and I haven't murdered a single person yet; so I'd argue it's shaping up to be an alright week so far. If you're new here, The Breakdown, is a quick recap of nerd news you need to know about. (Usually delivered with an er of cheesiness and sarcasm.) I'll stop wasting, and let's jump into The Breakdown.
In case you've been out on expedition in the wilderness with the Scouts; Attack On Titan has returned. Season 2 first aired on April 1st, and is currently streaming with subtitles on Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. If you hate reading subs and you've already Adult Swim will be airing the English dub starting on April 22. I'm a bit of purist on this front, but screw it; it's been 2.333333 years since the last english dub episode of season 1 aired for the first time. Crossed fingers that production isn't delayed for season 3, as season 2 will only contain 12 episodes.
While on the topic of possible disappointments, we have some more info regarding Microsoft's Project Scorpio. That may seem like a bit of cheap shot, but I'm skeptical that this mid generation upgrade is going to stop Microsoft from continuing to get its ass kicked by Sony. The specs of Scorpio are impressive for a console, as you can see in the infographic below. Impressive though they are, the projected cost is somewhere between $400 and $700, and this is likely to be an issue.
In other self-saving attempts; Microsoft with its sights on boosting user experience, has announced that they will soon be offering cross-platform gaming and Steam style refunds for pc and Xbox game purchases. Currently there's not a lot of details, but I believe these are positive changes. Moving in the opposite direction of Microsoft. Germany's Landesmedienanstalt (Germany's media regulatory body) shits on user experience. In a ruling announced recently, YouTube and Twitch streamers are now considered "broadcasters", and subject to government licensing for any stream with more than 500 viewers. This licensing can cost multiple thousands of euros. The current licensing ruling is being considered only temporary, as the German government admitted that the law is outdated. Originally created to target radio and TV broadcasters. It'd be interesting to know how this ruling could apply podcasts. In a whole 2 dicks one internet moment, Atlus also recently decided to go after Persona 5 streamers. Threatening bad things for any streamers that stream past the in game date of July 7. They go on and on about their Japanese Masters and what not to do, to avoid angering these faceless nameless overlords, in a post on their site. Down below is a screen cap (selecting the image will enlarge it. Also there's a joke in previous sentence, somewhere):
Since we're discussing out of touch developers; Earlier this month Gearbox announced that they'd be teaming up with the much despised key reseller, G2A. In the announcement it was revealed that G2A would have exclusive selling rights for the launch of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, and fans of franchise quickly lost their shit. Due to the backlash, Gearbox laid out changes in business practice that G2A would have to start putting in place within 24 hours. Well that shit went sideways, and Gearbox began pulling their support from G2A. After a bit more dick measuring the 2 parties have officially ended their relationship with Gearbox pulling out of their deal with G2A all together. Before this thread is brought to a close, I want to leave you with some important PSAs: As mentioned in a previous post, a BattleFront 2 ad trailer leaked below:
The Thor: Ragnarok teaser trailer dropped:
A reminder for you MTG players out there. The new Amonkhet set drops on 4/22. So now is the time to hit up your local card shops to check for pre- release events. Wizards of the Coast has a convenient tool HERE to help you find a pre-release event near you.
Last but not least, this week is Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, FL. If you're interested in checking out any of the panels, the official Star Wars YouTube channel has them running HERE
Thanks again for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the content. As always I appreciate your support and feedback. The Breakdown will be posted up every Friday. Monday's UAS education post will be repaired and returned back to the blog this weekend. That's all for now, and I will see you next time. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello, and welcome back to BaicunnPress. I hope you're getting through the week unscathed. If you've been here before, you're likely aware that I was highly critical of EA and their handling of Battlefront. If you're interested in checking out those posts, the links are below:
With the disclaimers out of the way, let's talk about what you came her for; there's been a disturbance in the Force. Today we get our first glance at Star Wars BattleFront 2, via an alleged 50 second leaked Sony ad. Stick around after the show for further discussion. Enjoy!
So what can we see. It appears that the trailer starts right after the Rebels' victory at the Battle of Endor. In the trailer we can see something else though... looks like this title may just span the Clone Wars up to were "Battlefront picks up?" and even some post Death Star play up to the Last Jedi. Looks and sound pretty amazing right? But let's not forget EA's backhandy bullshit, when it comes to ads. To be fair though, EA has made me feel a bit better about their brand. Battlefield 1 was a pretty solid title. I played the beta. Didn't buy the game out of principal,.... but I played it, and liked it. Then EA and Respawn dropped Titanfall 2 on us, and the game is stunning. Balanced gameplay, and free DLC... that's pretty hard to beat. And I know I've said I was done with EA/ DICE and their shenanigans in the past. But the Battlefront DLC that dropped toward the end of last year really did a good job at trying to salvage the disappointment we were given. So I'm skeptical, but if EA can keep it up... I may be interested.
That's all for now guys. I'll be putting up The Breakdown later this week, but wanted to get this out ASAP. I've also started a Monday series titled Back To School, where I'll be putting up educational content meant to teach you some cool shit. Monday's post was about the laws and regulations in the US regarding Unmanned Ariel Systems (UAS). It's been taken down for the moment, as there are some busted links. As soon as they are fixed, it'll be back up. Thanks again for stopping by. I appreciate all of your support. If you like what you see, please share, and make sure to follow on Twitter at @BaicunnPress. -Chali Baicunn
Good morning you beautiful bastards! Thank you for stopping by the blog today. I hope that you've all gotten through the weekend's festivities with your limbs, property, and pride intact. I do apologize for the delay of this post. In Part 1 I asked current players what they thought about the game after the release of the Bespin DLC and the accompanying patch. This post will be my opinions and views about the game up this point. This will be the last post I make about Battlefront unless some very substantial changes are made. Where to start.. Where to start... Well I guess I'll talk about the good first. Lobby wait times seem to minimal. I'm playing on PS4, so it may be bad on another platform. Game mechanics seem more balanced, but honestly "balance" is completely subjective sans a weapon or ability that's completely OP. Bespin maps are fun, but I found that every match on Carbon Freezing Chamber seemed to devolve into a game of "which team has more dioxin grenades?" At first, it was fun, and then the shit just wore on, and on, and on. The addition of new weapons was nice... So to the not so good parts. Primarily, this game is more of a bitter disappointment than Jar Jar Binks. If that's not a scathing indictment of the shallow and hollow husk that this game is. Fucking seriously! This shit is the Kim Kardashian of video games. It starts of all pretty, then after spending some time with it, you're just like, "Why the fuck do people care that you exist? You provide nothing of any substance." I just don't get it. Hut Contracts... Meh... Good thought, but fucking terrible execution. Objectives don't always get counted. Then you have to enter playlists in order play DLC specific maps. I'm not sure if this is an attempt to obscure what would be entirely empty lobbies, or if some how DICE and EA have both forgotten that "game type" lobbies are a thing in other games. Ugh, and there's still no real/ terribly interesting solo play. By now, I was hoping that maybe.. just maybe, EA would have offered some kind of appeasement token. Throw us a fucking bone here. Something, anything.. Shit I'm not terribly picky. As long as the shit is entertaining and actually functional... I think I'd be okay with that. And who the fuck at Disney is signing off on these licenses? It just fucking now hit me. I don't know why I was blind to it before. This is kind of off topic, but it just may explain the flaccid performance of this game. The relationship between EA and Disney seems to have that oddly calm Steve Jobs and Bill Gates feel to it. In this story Disney is Steve Jobs and EA is Bill Gates. they're both basically fucking assholes pretending to be innovators, while creating derivative tripe because, well this is 'Merica and we seem to really love that shit 'round here. Disney more or less gave EA's R&D a literal dick load of money by licensing the use of the Star Wars franchise, much like Apple did with Microsoft and DOS. And when Disney isn't looking, EA is over in the corner finishing the development on the new game engine that was suppose to be powering Battlefront. They more or less rushed the product to market, and the title says Star Wars, so it was certainly going to sell. Now that EA has finally polished their dev work, and is about to launch a full title under Battlefield 1 which seems to show more promise (a pretty substantial amount more that Battlefront). In the end, Disney will probably become a bigger asshole, and will have a nervous break down, and then maybe get cancer after investing heavily in portable music device and 3D animation (I'm leaving out the death part because it seems a bit too insensitive?..). And fucking EA is just gonna keep on going, not giving fuck, and doing whatever they want. And people are still going to buy their shit because.. well, I don't know why. Maybe because of the hypetrain, engineered and driven by the zealous and militant marketing wing of EA. Maybe I'm wrong, but seriously, Disney, I'd dump EA if I were you. So, after my long winded, esoteric, and dare I say angst-y diatribe, here are my final thoughts on Battlefront This game was over-hyped. EA toyed with our emotions and our money (which Big Perm would argue that they're the same thing.) The community seems to be desperate for someone or something to save them, or just put them out of their misery. Seriously, if you put any kind of thought into buying this game... Don't! It's a hollow excuse for a game, and sucks the testicles of a medium sized equine usually used for the carrying of goods and people in dry harsh environments. So what do you think? Am I right? Am I wrong? Have I been unfair? Let me know. As always, thank you for stopping by the blog. Don't forget to follow on Twitter at @BaicunnPress. I'll have a post up in the very near future with a video interview I did with Rick, the US Community Leader for Warhorse Studios. I'll see you soon. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello poppets! Thanks for stopping by today. If you are a regular reader of the blog, then you'll know that I have been quite critical of Battlefront and EA. With the release of Bespin DLC and the significant patch that accompanied it, I wanted to get a feel of what other players are thinking and feeling at this point. I figure the game is about halfway through it's life cycle, and now is probably the best time to do this post. This will be a 2 part post. The first part will be feedback from players, and the second part will be opinion. I have intentionally avoided playing since Bespin and patch release, in order to do this post. I hope you enjoy, and as always your feedback is welcome. I put forth the following thread out on /r/battlefront & Star Wars Battlefront Community Forums: "Hello Everyone, and good day to you. My name is Chali and I run a blog at baicunnpress.com. I'm looking for player feedback regarding the state of the game after the release of Bespin and the patch that accompanied it for a blog post. I have been quite critical of EA and Battlefront in several posts, and I'd like to know what other players think. A few of the questions I have are: What were your initial thoughts/ feelings about the game, and have those changes? Has EA made any honest changes to get the game to where you believe it should be? What could EA do to address any of your concerns? Is the new patch working/ did it properly balance the game? Any other thoughts you have. Please only reply if you don't mind being attributed in my post. Thanks for any feedback."
I didn't let the threads run too long to avoid any trolls. Ironically, the cynical bastards over on the Battlefront Community Forum, mostly treated me as if I were squeaky troll or with the smugness that only comes with being dedicated wholly to a bad game that gets insulted a lot.
Luckily, I did get two legitimate replies though:
I also received the following replies on reddit:
It seems to me that those still playing and active in both the game and community seem to be dedicated, but are disappointed. Before closing up the thread I asked this final question: "If you are unhappy with the game, why keep playing, and/ or why continue to visit the community forums?" I received the following two replies:
That's the end of Part 1, I'll be playing Battlefront this weekend, and putting up Part 2 at the end of it. What are your thoughts? Be sure to let me know in the comments or on Twitter. Thanks again for stopping by. -Chali Baicunn
Hello and welcome back to BaicunnPress.com. I hope Tuesday is finding you well. I'm finishing up my Nintendo and Pokemon series posts and get them out today or tomorrow. While you wait for those, I wanted to share the following short film with you. I recently discovered this, and it's simple too good to not get it out to you ASAP.
Every once and awhile an animated short comes out that pushes the bounds of what you'd expect from YouTube channel. This fan made short did just that. This passion project approaches the Star Wars universe from the side of the Empire. Created by
Paul "OtaKing" Johnson over a 4 year period. Taking on the feel of classic 1980's anime. A stellar level of attention has been paid to detail. It's truly impressive; from TIE Fighter controls to battle formations. The soundtrack is on point, with an epic guitar rift that would make many a Gundam and Robotech fanboy blow their load.
Pretty amazing right? As of a week ago OtaKing posted the following comment on his YouTube channel in reference to TIE Fighter, and his future plans:
"Hello there! Here's an update, since a lot of people have shown interest: I haven't heard anything from the folks at Lucasfilm and I wouldn't want to do more without their blessing, so I can't really do any more TIE Fighter at the moment, sadly. Honestly, even if people were paying me just enough to eat and pay the rent whilst I animated episodes, it would still be pretty dodgy as I'd technically be making money from someone else's property. So that's totally understandable. I have a good 4-episode story arc in my head though if the situation changes (or if I get so rich from other projects that I can just take a year's holiday to do nothing but TIE stuff!). So here's my future plans...."
I don't know about you, but I feel that TIE fighter at the very least deserves it's own canonical history... WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE Disney and Lucas. But if they want greenlight an expantion, I'd support that too.
Never fear though my fine folks! OtaKing continued the above comment, with the following:
"...Right
now at this exact moment, I'm animating a 3-4 minute R-Type space
battle (remember R-Type? The 1987 arcade shooter?) for the Mashed
channel here on Youtube. That'll be up in March/April, so don't worry.
I'm not exactly starving to death or anything! Mashed are cool and are
paying me in ham sandwiches and vitamin tablets. I actually have one of those new-fangled Twitter things where I'm posting updates on that if you fancy a look: twitter.com/OtaKing77077 I
already have concepts and pre-production designs done on an original
animated film which is my own IP; basically a "realistic" mech film (so
no crazy special moves, anime tropes and whatnot). I guess you could
call it "space Vietnam" or Generation Kill with mechs. This thing would
be 45 mins to an hour and a half and kind of be my attempt at bringing
back those beautifully-animated anime OVAs that we used to get in the
80s and 90s (Cyber City, Gunbuster, BIRTH, etc). If anyone's interested,
I guess I could do a Patreon thing for that and stick it up on Youtube
for free when it's done? But I understand that it's just some random
thing by some random guy, and not Star Wars, so most people won't be
especially excited about it (plus there have been a lot of
Patreon/kickstarter scams so you have to be careful when people like
myself start promising stuff!). It's
pretty nice to be doing my own thing though... all the blood and
violence that I like with no censors to get past. And it's mechanised
jungle combat so you need a bit of violence where appropriate. And lots
and lots of cockpits, joysticks, HUD displays, actual tank-based
tactics etc etc. Anyway,
I'll show off some of that when I have more done and you can see if
you like the look of it. I'm currently trying to make the main cast as
memorable as Predator or Aliens (yeah, good luck with that). If your
characters are sitting in cockpits for most of the film, it needs a
really good script (luckily I have an excellent writer on board to make
my shitty lines actually decent) and top-tier voice acting (that'll
come way later though). But
really, thanks for all the support and kind words/critiques. I need to
improve so please do slag off anything that looks weird in any of my
future stuff and call me out if I start developing an ego. I would never
have guessed this thing would get over five million views and I'm glad
you enjoyed it!"
Be sure to check out OtaKing's YouTube channel here, and following him on Twitter here. And for the love of the force, tweetbomb Disney and Lucasfilm (be sure to use #TIEFighter ) into granting OtaKing the creative rights to continuing TIE Fighter as a series. Thanks again for stopping by. Be sure to share, and follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ at BaicunnPress. As always, I will see you later.
Hello and welcome back again! Thanks for stopping by. Brand new Star Wars Battlefront news just released, and oh boy is it good-ish news. I'm trying to be hopefully optimistic, but with the shit stain that EA keeps leaving in my life it's going to be hard to do. I have not hidden my feelings about this game. I have been more than disappointed. As an interesting side note, I did not lock down my PSN account, and over the weekend, myself and my 5 year old became the owners of the Season Pass. Although this was my fault and I do not expect any refunds, I am now $115 deep in this... So I'm going to keep posting on it, and calling out the bullshit when I see it, and give praise when it's deserved. With that said, this post and any future posts about Battlefront and it's Developer/ Publisher will be subjective, but I will present logical & possibly inflammatory arguments to support my opinion. You'll also see several times in my posts that I refer to EA and DICE interchangeably, and that's because EA owns DICE and so as a concept they are the same thing. So let's not delay any further and jump right into the post.
Battlefront is finally getting an update today, and EA is being a little more transparent. All of the details are outlined on in a post titled "The Road Forward" written by Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir;
Senior Producer for Star Wars Battlefront. And with this update comes a bit of renewed cynical optimism for me. I'm honestly not sure that EA/ DICE can save this title, as they are going to be restricted to what the engine can do. Also at this point, any of the changes asked for by the community are completely dependent on EA's ability to listen to it's audience.
First we'll start with the really bad. If you remember in last weeks Midweek Breakdown, I had mentioned that Battlefront Community Leader; Sledgehammer70, had congratulated the community in smashing the Christmas Holiday Community Challenge. He was so pleased to tease us with a special gift for the community, in the following post made on the Battlefront Community Page:
"Just before the holidays, we kicked off the first Star Wars Battlefront community event, where we asked you to play 500,000 hours as Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Today, we’re happy to let the community know that you smashed the 500,000 hours played mark, playing over a total of 1.2M hours as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo between START and FINISH. Most impressive.
This achievement is worth a special reward that directly ties to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. What could this reward be? In true Jedi fashion, it will be revealed in the coming update this month. You will want to look to Hoth to show the fruits of your labor once the January update has been released. Stay tuned to our official channels for more details."
This tease left many in the community to speculate that the gift would be playable tauntauns. Well the wait is over. The update is coming today, and do you know what these def bastards gave us? Mother fucking Luke and Han themed outfits when playing as either on Hoth! Fucking really?! You know and I both know that the tease was masterful execution of PR bullshit.
To be fair though, there are more updates being released today. (Link to the release notes at the bottom of this post.) Along with some pretty significant balancing tweaks, we're also getting some well needed spawn adjustments. We can also now play Blast, Droid Run, Drop Zone, Hero Hunt, and Heroes vs Villains multiplayer modes on Raider Camp. This is the same map used in Tatooine Survival. EA also made the following promises in their announcement:
"In February, we will continue to add more free content for all
players, including a new Survival mission on Hoth, and a brand-new Hoth
multiplayer map that will support our larger game modes including Walker
Assault, Supremacy, Fighter Squadron and Turning Point. Speaking of
Turning Point, we are also excited to make this popular mode available
on all maps that currently support Walker Assault and Supremacy in the
February update.
In March, we will be adding another exciting new multiplayer map on
Endor that will support Walker Assault, Supremacy, and Turning Point,
and an additional Tatooine Survival map."
So it looks like we'll be getting a bit more free content. I believe these kinds of changes are great steps in the right direction. And I will even thank EA and DICE for do these things. But wait there's still more...
The other major parts of today's update have to do with adding private match functionality, Community Events, and Daily Challenges. I currently do not know how well or even the mechanics of private match making. I have so far been unable to find information on the number of players allowed, or game mode restrictions. I know people have been asking for it, but it does little for me as most of my friends have abbandoned this sinking wreck due to hollowness of the game. It's probably safe to say they won't be coming back just for private matches, a few maps, and some added balance.
Community Events and Daily Challenges are a whole other beast. Honestly this announcement makes me think that DICE/ EA are not really in touch with the realities of gaming. Especially when we look at what the follow section of their public announcement says:
"The introduction of Daily Challenges and Community Events. These are
designed to rally the Community around certain goals and objectives,
giving players the chance to earn credits and unlocks even faster. We'll
have more news regarding Community Events and Daily Challenges in the
days ahead."
Just let that sink in for second... If you've played Battlefront for any extended periods of time, you should realize that at some point credits become useless and stop adding any depth to the game. After unlocking ever gun and ever Star Card, the only thing to spend credits on are skins. As I and many other reviewers have pointed out, the skins are lazy and add nothing to the game. Many people have even argue that they may even take away from the game, as most of the alternative skins simple remove the helmet from the stormtroopers, and this is not ok with many a Star Wars fan.
So we've established that more credits are kind of meaningless in the macro-scope of the game. Then if history repeats, and we assume that community rewards for completing challenges and events will be more character skins. So this equation would then apply:
More Credits + More Skins = 0 Net Gain
This is speculation at this point. But it feels par for course when it comes EA and its subsidiaries, and is absolutely the dumbest way to reward people play for playing the game. It adds no depth or substance to the core game, and only pisses of those of us who purchased a over hyped product with high expectations. This shallow attempt at appeasement, will only further decrease interest. Thus setting up a scenario where EA cuts its losses and stops truly supporting the title.
The final bit of news released with the update announcement was details about the Season Pass DLC. As expected the DLC will be
released quarterly, with expected releases in March, Summer, and Fall of
this year, and one more release sometime in early next year. The
following list and descriptions are taken directly from the update post:
"Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Outer Rim (March 2016) - Fight among the factories of Sullust and battle within Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Bespin (Summer 2016) - It's hunt or be hunted in this action-packed experience set in the Cloud City of Bespin Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Death Star (Fall 2016) – That’s no moon! One of the most iconic locations in the Star Wars universe makes its debut in Star Wars Battlefront. Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Expansion Pack 4 – Title TBA (Early 2017) – We will have more details to share about this exciting new expansion pack in the coming months."
Many of these changes seem to indicate that EA and DICE are listened; at least some what listening to the community. But they've had since November to address these issues and have not. So why now? Is it because the swell of Christmas noobs that have beaten down the forums with complaints? Is it because of the hordes or vocal and disappointed reviewers? IDK...
EA ends their announcement with the following:
"At DICE, we're passionate about what we've created with Star Wars
Battlefront, and are committed to supporting not only the game but all
of our fans over the months ahead. We can’t wait to keep traveling
through the galaxy far, far away, with all of you."
The above statement just really rubs me the wrong way. Yeah it's a great sentiment. It makes people feel warm and fuzzies. But, after personally witnessing at least a decade of EA's consumer abuse. In their slowly escalating extortion campaign of releasing what can only be described as underwhelming and incomplete
titles with pay for DLC. Each proceeding title worse than the last, in content and in sales. It really just seems like EA and it's subsidiaries are seeing just how far they can push the line before gamers revolt.
So here are some parting thoughts for EA/ DICE: How many people in the Battlefront community have to tell you that they want substance, not skins? How many people have to complain about your lack luster performance before you supply their needs? And honestly you wouldn't be so bad if your marketing hype machine wasn't so good, and your business model so opaque. Again, I'll admit that you took baby steps today, but is it that you cannot provide for the wants your fan base due your inability to deliver? Or does your failure come from some morally abstract authoritarian concept that you alone may be the gatekeeper of the needs and wants of your customers? I'm personally leaning towards the latter. Your names have become synonymous with a concept of everything that is wrong with the gaming industry. If I'm wrong prove it! Own your mistakes, make good on your hype, and earn back the respect of not just your customers but the greater gaming community.
At this point, I'm a bit more hopeful. However, I'm not holding my breath. EA has screwed the pooch so far, I can't expect much more for the fixes. And with that I'm done for now.
Thank you guys for stopping by. I really appreciate your suppose. So what do you think. Am I over reacting? Should I take it a bit easier? Let me know on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or in the comments sections below. Please share, and as always, I will see you later. And as I said earlier you can expect more Battlefront content in the future. I'm going to beat this dead horse until it becomes a horse zombie, and starts trying to change other horses into zombie too. (Well that an excessively convoluted metaphor, but I think it works.)
Hello out there in the wonderful world wide web! I hope you're not too terribly scarred from yesterday's philosophical post. It's Thursday, and you're probably questioning the reason you got out of bed. Work sucks, and you're now stuck in the weekly purgatory that is Friday-eve. Well fear not for today, I'll be introducing the first installment of a new weekly series; The Midweek Breakdown. Making sure that you're properly informed on all things nerdy going on in the world. This is going live today, but the series will be making a weekly appearance every Wednesday.
ESA officially announced that E3 2016 is scheduled for June 14th through the 16th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Coming in next, USA Today announced that Poe Dameron will be getting his own dedicated series. Marvel's Star Wars creators Charles Soto and Phil Noto will be taking up the reins. The Poe Dameron series will be written by Charles Soule of the "Lando" and "Obiwan & Anakin" series fame, with art supplied by Phil Noto. Noto had previously provided art for the "Chewbacca" series. The series is slated to release April of this year. ESPN recently added an eSports section on their Sports Portal. ESPN is promising to cover everything esports related. If you're interested cruise over to espn.com to check it out. In case you somehow missed it, we have the first Suicide Squad trailer released since Comi-Con:
Also just out, Disney has announced, that it ill be delaying the release of Episode 8. Originally scheduled to release in June 2017. Release has now been pushed out until December 2017. It should be noted that Avatar 2 is also scheduled to release at the same time. In other Star Wars news, a patch is coming to Battlefront sometime this month. Along with this announcement came another from Star Wars Battlefront Community Manager; Sledgehammer70. Sledgehammer put out the following statement on the Battlefront Community page: "Just before the holidays, we kicked off the first Star Wars Battlefront community event, where we asked you to play 500,000 hours as Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Today, we’re happy to let the community know that you smashed the 500,000 hours played mark, playing over a total of 1.2M hours as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo between START and FINISH. Most impressive.
This achievement is worth a special reward that directly ties to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. What could this reward be? In true Jedi fashion, it will be revealed in the coming update this month. You will want to look to Hoth to show the fruits of your labor once the January update has been released. Stay tuned to our official channels for more details." Some in the Battlefront community are speculating that this means we'll be seeing tauntauns in game soon. And finally, it's been announced that Darkwing Duck will be making a return to TV in 2018, on Disney XD. Disney has promised that the show will have a “gritty look that this generation of kids love.” but retain the “same energy and bumbling crime-fighting spirit”. Thanks for stopping by again guys! I really appreciate it. If you think we missed anything, let us now. Please share, and comment. I appreciate feedback. And always, I hope to see you in the future.
Hello out there. I hope you're all having a fan-fracking-tastic Friday!I wanted to bring you something amazing to waste your employer's clock time with today. So I'm pulling this one out of the vault. Originally discovering this indie-comic through an MC Chris Facebook post. I was unsure of what I'd find on the other side of that link, and so I was astonished find an evocative human story. (If this doesn't make you feel something then you're broken.)
In case you're unfamiliar with who Green Leader is; I recommend that you check out the following video before continuing on:
Please enjoy!
What happens next?...
You'll have to see for yourself. Go check the rest of Green Leader out on Daniel Johnson's website, and while you're there check out Space Mullet . It's a fantastic sci-fi webcomic that's updated twice a week. I promise you will not be disappointed, and you'll have no shortage of material to waste your bosses time with.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you enjoy Green Leader and Space Mullet. Let me know what you think, in the comment section below. Please like and share on social media. Be sure to follow and turn on tweet notifications for @BaicunnPress, to get alerts when new content gets posted. As always thank you very much for all of the support, and I hope to see you again in the future.
Hey guys! How's it going out there in the spaghetti western that is the Internet?
Well it's a new day.. and.. I have a confession to make that's been eating at me for a few weeks. I haven't really told anyone because I feel foolish, but I've just got to get it out there, and the haters can judge me... I let EA put it in my butt, metaphorically speaking that is... There I said it; I admitted it. You see what happened was that EA took me out a few months ago. They let me play with their blasters, and we hung out every night for almost a week. Then EA told me that they had to go away on business for a few weeks. And while EA was away, all I could think about was how much I really wanted to hang out with them and their Imperial armor. Weeks went by and we finally got to hangout, it was fun but the date cost me $60. Halfway through the date things got a little steamy until I realized that I was participating in our very own Tijuana donkey show; Like a drug fueled night in Bangkok, I was being bent over. Then when I thought it was all over, EA asked me for another $60 to finish up!...
Dramatics flare aside. I'm pretty pissed at EA and myself at this point. I bought into the hype, and got sold a Star Wars scented bottle of snake oil. And since EA was totally OK with pedaling this turd for $60, I'm totally OK with publicly reviewing their product for free. I'm really going to try to be fair with this, but it'll be hard at this point.
To fully understand my point of view, I need to take you back in time to June 2013.... It was a hundred and stupid outside on that fine day in Oklahoma, and it that seemed nothing would break the drought. I remember fondly the joy I felt when it was announced that Battlefront would making a return. At that point, it didn't matter that the sun had seemed to park itself on the surface of the Earth, because I had found a drop of water in the desert. I resolved to survive the droughtpocolypse at least long enough to play it.
After E3 2014, time seemed to fly by. The sun had returned to it's normal point in the sky, and it seemed that every couple of months, more of its secrets were revealed. And the videos. Oooooo!... Shiny! They glistened in highly polish polygons, like blood diamonds in southeast Asian black markets.
You see, I had been itching for a new shooter for a little while by that time. I had left the caustic communities of competitive FPS/shooter gaming, resigning myself to a quiet retirement of RTSs, survival, and fringe indie games. (A man can only listen to so many unfounded and baseless accusations directed at his mother's honor. All the while dodging the vollies of pejoratives spewed forth from the mouths of 12-year-olds.)
With The Force Awakens just around the corner, the release of the Battlefront beta made October of 2015 feel so hopeful. The week of the beta seemed so right at the time. Walker Assault on Hoth felt like Star Wars. Drop Zone less so, but I was optimistic. It was a time of bonding with my 5-year-old. You see the Battlefront beta was his first shooter. He quickly decided that Vader is by far the BAMF-Y-EST BAMF that ever did BAMF. This set a light in him, a truly deep interest in the Star Wars universe. As we played, I was able to regale him with the lore from long long ago in a galaxy far far away. (feels....)
I had resolved myself to getting Battlefront. Christmas was coming up. The kiddo was on board. I was on board, and the wife approved. (Oh snap!) Then it came, bundled up nicely in it's bland brown Amazon.com box. The wife immediately deemed it to be a Christmas present, and threatened the life of whatever hero should try to liberate the fair maiden from her tower keep; known only as top of the closet. I protested! (Fuck it! I'm a grown ass man, and if I want to play the game I will!)
So Christmas day came, and the boy and I cracked the cellophane on the case. (I know... I know... What happened to all of that I'm a man shit? Do you want to piss my wife off? I don't.) Disc goes in, queue epic Star Wars Theme Song, and draw the shades... It's time to kill me some Imperial scum! To my surprise there appeared to be content missing, and I was already being hit up to drop $60 more on Season Pass DLC, all before I had started a single match. And there are no details given about the Season Pass. I ignored the instant irritation surging through my body, because it's Christmas, and I simply verify that there is not a missing companion disc in the case. I get a prompt that there's an update. Download it, and restart... Nope no more content than before. (I should have prefaced this by saying that due to the aforementioned cockblocking by the misses, I had decided to not go digging for details about the game after release.)
Fast forward to today. I'm now several hours invested in the game, and I've built out the following list of my likes and hates:
What I like: 1) It looks like Star Wars. The terrain and models are beautifully presented and pretty well polished. 2) It does feel like you're in the Star Wars universe, especially when playing on Endor and Hoth in first person. 3) The sound engineering is pretty spot on, with one exception that I hate (keep reading for more on that)... And that's about it. 4) Kid friendly. 5) Fun for a few matches here and there. What I hate: 1) There is a complete lack ofinteresting or populated game types; even Walker Assault is really just a moving point domination game. The populated exceptions being Blast (classic deathmatch) and Fighter Squadron (deathmatch with spaceships). 2) There's no campaign.. Nothing! Nada! Not that I was expecting a whole lot but seriously, nothing? 3) The maps are pretty, but there's basically only four maps to play on for any one game type. 4) With no campaign, this game is really forced to stand on large scale objective based combat. However, I find the lack of team chat disturbing. It's like playing Battlefield 2 circa 2004 with people running everywhere trying to figure out what to shoot next. 5) Remember how I mentioned that there is an exception to the quality? Well that exception happens to be the voice acting for the Heroes. They do not sound in anyway close to their movie counterparts. They really couldn't have just used one liners from the original trilogy? Come on EA! Is it too much to ask that Vader sound like Vader, and Han to sound like Han?! 6) So "deathmatch with spaceships" or as EA calls it, Fighter Squadron. I'm willing to concede that it can be a fun mode to play for a short time, but for whatever reason the devs saw it fit just not set up decent controls. There's no real roll command except for an evasive maneuver that has a god damn cool down timer before it can be used again! Oh, and your spaceships never get the opportunity to, you know, fight in space! 7) The spawns are terrible, and I don't mean that in a dramatic way. I mean that they are genuinely awful. With issues ranging from spawning in the wide open, and spawning in on a gun fight. Or my all time favorite; spawning in basically where you died! You know, so you can immediately die again, and your respawning teammates can also die with you.
8) There's no accuracy penalty for not going ADS, and there's no accuracy buff for crouching. Because fuck game mechanics. So basically it's just running around and hip firing. 9) Vehicles feel like an after thought. No Snowspeeders flying out of hangers on Hoth or TIE fighters dropping from the belly of a Star Destroyers. Not even an AT-ST being unloaded from a dropship, Instead teammates are stuck racing each other around the map trying to pickup floating blue "coins" in order to use the vehicles. And even then the vehicles feel forced at times. 10) There's a dick load of unlocks in this game. Unfortunately, they're mostly character customizations and, well.. lazy! Here's a video post to illustrate my point:
11) Did I mention that when playing as Palpatine, you're squishier than the level 5 healer you took on your last dungeon raid? And as a plus your only real attack is force lightning, which conveniently has a cool down timer. 12) So there's a ranking system, but it really isn't anything more than a timer used for your unlocks. It means nothing in the grand scheme. It doesn't prevent a noobie from being fed to the wolves and their much more powerful loadouts, as all ranks are tossed in the same lobby. And not having a real ranking system pretty much destroys the possibility of the game being recognized as a competitive shooter.
There's more, but I'm honestly just tired at this point. My son is still into it (It's just a shame his "first love" is so basic), and I guess I'm just playing the game out of spite at this point. If you have young kids they'll probably like it. Or if you're just looking to play a new Star Wars game, you'll probably like it. However, a franchise title from this publisher, with this title, and with the budget this one had, has absolutely no reason to be this lacking in substance.
I once had high hopes for Battlefront. In hindsight, I'm not real sure why. @PonStory had warned me to not get too excited. I'm also keenly aware that in recent years EA has become more and more hostile to their customer base. Hammering out title after title, with very little change or innovation, and then flooding the market with paid DLC. It seems that EA's marketing strategy is a pump and dump scheme; they push the hype, sell you half a game, and then extort you for the other half, year after year in a seemingly endless cycle of communal profiteering.
I guess what I got is what should have been expecting. To be honest, I would have been satisfied with re-skinned and updated Battlefront 2. Instead, EA's Battlefront appears to be a clear downgrade from a game made a decade ago. I think that a picture of EA's executives flipping you off--instead of the content on the disc--would have been more intellectually honest and less lazy then what they gave us.
I don't know who made this, but it paints a telling picture. It's a little old and is missing the game modes that are available
Thanks again for stopping by. Let me know what you think of my review. Was it fair? Was it not? I think it is fair to say that I fell prey to nostalgia and pageantry.
We have a fantastic archive post for you today from our previous site. It's by a contributor Luke Putnam AKA @PonStory . Luke and I had opposing views on Battlefront 3 on the announcement of its release. Suffice it to say, I think he may have been correct in his assessment. Read on and let him know what you think.
-Chali Baicunn
The internet is abuzz; not just with the recent reveal of the newest trailer for Star Wars Episode 7, but also for the first official Battlefront 3 reveal trailer. Gamers have reason to be excited, for sure. The only problem is that the reason stinks. Check out the trailer below to catch a glimpse of why that is.
My first criticism involves the fact that no gameplay was shown (after all, we are talking about a video game, not a movie), but that's an easy shot at EA. I'd rather point out the lesser-known facts regarding Battlefront 3, which design director Niklas Fegraeus came out and proudly admitted today.
First, let's hear the good news. Thankfully, Battlefront 3 will feature a leveling system, plenty of customization, new gadgets (like Halo 3's bubble shield), it runs at 60 frames per second, and even retains its split-screen functionality, with a maximum of 40 players online. But come on... we were kind of expecting all of that anyway. What we weren't expecting was for Dice to limit all battles to the original trilogy, throwing out the clone wars entirely. That means we won't be playing as any droids, either. Just stormtroopers and rebels. Yeah. I was hoping to actually get, I don't know, like... maybe something MORE than Battlefront 2? I honeslty wouldn't even settle for the same content being published again without anything new. I'm buying Battlefront 3 because I see where Battlefront can be improved and added upon! If I wanted to go back and play Battlefront 2, I would. I wanted to play as all manner of aliens, modified droid units, republic commandos, and jedi during the purge of Order 66!
But that's not even the bad news. If you're a Star Wars fan, you probably already scoured the internet a long time ago for any and all Battlefront 3 news, back when Free Radical (the creators of Timesplitters) were developing it. Even though their version of the game was cancelled, we were still treated with - and tantilized by - alpha footage depicting seamless transitions between ground and space combat. In addition, the developers even said that actual star destroyers and separatist flagships were piloted by actual players! Now THAT would have been awesome, especially if it were improved upon.
So naturally, I was very much looking forward to seeing whether Dice implemented what was possible on the PS3 almost a decade ago (and also on the PSP, if you count Star Wars: Renegade Squadron). But guess what? Dice has officially informed us that there will be no seamless transitions between land and space. Okay, I'm disappointed. But at least I'll get an updated version of Battlefront 2, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case either. Niklas Fegraeus officially announced that there will be no space battles whatsoever.
All right, things are getting crazy now! What other essential components of Battlefront have you gotten rid of, Dice? Well, players will no longer be able to grab vehicles like AT-ST walkers from the start of the match and go to war against others. Instead, Dice is implementing a scorestreak system where players must first get a number of kills in order to earn powerful vehicles... which I'm sure will lead to even more points, leading to more vehicles, leading to even more unbalanced circumstances where one team has an abundance of vehicles while the other... doesn't.
Why is Dice doing this? Don't they know that this is both unbalanced and contrary to Battlefront's tried-and-true design? Some of my greatest memories from the original Battlefront games come from me joining up with my buddies (in four-player split-screen) and forming a barrage of vehicles to attack an objective - ranging from walkers, to speeders, to flying ships, to tanks, to you name it. Limiting vehicles to scorestreaks will completely ruin the core idea of a battlefront at the start of the match, where the main action is taking place between two sides!
But I fear that these are the first of more saddening revelations to come. It seems that developers are more concerned with aesthetic nuances like high framerate and flashy graphics than they are with creating the game we'd all like to play. I'm sure I'll buy Battlefront eventually, but I have no reason to be excited for it. Not anymore.
