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
Hey folks! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a great last couple of days, and that Monday isn't sucking all the joy out of the awesomeness that was your weekend. So let's start the week off with something new. Hope you enjoy! -Chali
It's not everyday that we get a new kind of heroine. A heroine that is unique in both their origin and in their approach to dealing with their situations. Comic books have a long history of female characters that are fully developed, but unfortunately they sometimes feel forced.
Today we have that new heroine story with Paradox Girl (PG). Written by Cayti Bourquin, and illustrated by Yishan Li, with editorial provided by Peter Bensley. PG is not your typical heroine let alone your typical super hero. Although time travel is no mysterious mechanic to comics; PG deals with it in the most unique way I have seen. She's funny, quirky, and unique. PG doesn't have a typical origin, as she has slipped forward and backwards so many times, that this is hard for her to even pin down what that is. Spending a good portion of her time literally living with and interacting with her past and future selves. With a brilliant layout that easily illustrates both non-linear and multi-linear storytelling. The artwork just feels right for this series, and with the standout narrative; You're not going to want to miss out on this series.
I was lucky enough to get a full copy of issue one to review, and do an email interview with Cayti and Peter. Check that out below:
Chali: The first thing that struck me about the Paradox Girl issue I read
was the dialogue, art, and timeline. It felt kind of like a mix of
Quinton Tarantino story telling with Axe Cop flair. This may all be
in my head, so; What is the real inspiration for PG?
Cayti: That's an interesting if unconventional comparison. It's sort of great
how different people approach art and what they see in it. It's a
difficult question to answer I think. My writing style and creativity
is a cumulative mix of the stories and storytellers I've been exposed to
and the anxieties and issues of my personal life. I think that's
probably true for all writers. I didn't sit down and think 'gosh, I
want to make something like X with a bit of Y'. I know that the biggest
influence on me has always been the late Satoshi Kon.
Chali: The first issue does a great job of laying out the pretext, and
method for how a heroine with Paradox Girl's powers would use them.
As well as making it clear, that her origin is lost even to her. But
how did she get her powers, or is that just apart of the mystery?
Cayti: It's not really even a mystery to be explored. There's a hundred true stories, and at any given minute it could change. Paradox
Girl doesn't really have an origin point anymore, which is ridiculous
of course, but such is her nature. In pop culture time travel stories,
we see impossible situations (such as the birth of John Connor) arise
and wonder 'what happened the first time through?' PG is like that, but
in a constantly refreshing loop. She gave herself the powers for all I
know.
Chali: I noticed that she gets knocked around a bit throughout the story. Does PG have any other powers besides time travel?
Cayti: I think PG's power over time sort of creates a time immutable state
where, sure, she can be injured; but it's just another time jump away
to stop her from being hurt in the first place. Even in the first
issue we see her save herself from getting crushed, -which results in
her being able to save herself from being crushed. We never get to see
what happens if she hadn't done that. Seems silly typing it out, but in
the book it really works. I think cause and effect are sort of broken
when it comes to PG so expect lots of side effects from that in the
future.
I bet she wishes she could shoot laser beams or something though.
Peter: Regarding PG getting knocked around - I recall that Cayti and I
discussed that PG probably has some kind of danger sense arising from
not being anchored in time. She never jumps into the past or future and
finds herself inside solid rock. The same sense may tell her to jump
away when her present is about to become immediately fatal. So she can
be injured, but that instinctive awareness may protect her from anything
that would obliterate her outright.
Chali: I really appreciated the layout and art styling that was used to
communicate the non-linear and multi-linear timeline. In particular
the "purple time string" that would travel out of one frame and into
another with PG as she jumps through time. What is the real name for that?
Cayti: Thanks! One of the joys when writing the first script was being able to
play with the format. Some of this ties back to your question about
inspiration, and Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves is absolutely
where that idea came from. The pages of the book themselves are not
just the canvas, but part of the story itself. In the script it's just
referred to as 'teleport in' or 'teleport out', which is sort of a
boring name isn't it? Let's call them Paradox Skips.
Chali: A certain amount of attention has been placed on the sexualization
and subordination of female characters to male characters in pop
culture by some lately. PG obviously needs no man to save her, but
have you caught any flack about her fighting monsters and crime in a
short skirt and heels? And if so what do you have to say to haters?
Cayti: Not yet, but it's not unforeseeable. I guess my response is: she also
fights giant monsters with a whisk, so she's not the most practical or
sensible person anyway. Nor does she need to be. I certainly didn't
imagine her to be oversexualized, just a woman who's confident in her
appearance and likes business suits. If someone hates the fact that she
has legs or breasts or other anatomy or clothing that they object to, I
hope they can enjoy the comic anyway. It certainly wasn't my intent to
upset them.
I think there is progress to be made in racial and gender equality and
certainly to reduce as said, 'the subordination of female characters'.
I want to be part of that progress, but that doesn't mean we all agree
on how that should be done. I hope I'm making the right steps, but
unfortunately I'm not Paradox Girl and cant' remember the future.
Chali: As of right now, your Kickstarter campaign has 263 backers and
you've reached $8,571 of your $10,000 goal with 25 days to go. What
are your plans for PG when this campaign is over? Will you continue
to sell the issues outright from your site, selling them to the
wider market through distributors, or will you be introducing a
subscription style service?
Cayti: It's rather unbelievable to me that so many people would want to read
the things I've written. Yishan has done an absolutely amazing job in
breathing life into PG and getting her onto the page. I want to be able
to continue to share stories and bring laughter (and tears) to people.
I'm grateful to Hana Comics and to the Kickstarter community for giving
me the opportunity to do so.Thank you!
Peter: I can field the question about future plans. Assuming this campaign is
successful - and it's sure looking that way - we plan another campaign
for issues 3-4, and then issues 5-6. At that point we'll be able to look
at a TPB, which is much easier to get into stores than individual
issues. The point of these campaigns, as well as to raise funds for
production, is to connect PG with her potential fanbase. Depending on
what that fanbase looks like when this round of campaigns is over, we'll
make a decision about where to go from there - whether it's direct
sales, selling through comic shops, more Kickstarter, something more
web-based - we'll be looking at all the options to find what works best
for both our character and her readers. It's all on the table.
I recommend that you go check out Paradox Girl. Go here to get a preview. And if you like what you see, please head on over to the Kickstarter campaign here. The campaign backer packages are pretty sweet! You can also checkout the official Paradox Girl website here.
Thank you for stopping by! I cannot thank you guys enough for your support. I was really concerned that since migrating to a new host took so long, that the site traffic numbers would have fallen off completely, but you guys have been coming back and providing feedback on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Your feedback means the world to me, and I'm always surprised that you guys actually like reading what I write. I also want to give a shout out to Cayti and Peter, for giving me the opportunity to review and cover their work. Please follow @hanacomics to follow along for more updates! -Chali Baicunn
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.
