Star Wars Games

Top 5 Star Wars Games

Posted on by Joe.Jurado

Hey ya’ll! Star Wars month wraps this week so I’m going to be looking back at my top five favorite Star Wars games of all time.

 

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5. Republic Commando

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a first person tactical shooter that places you in control of a squadron of elite Clone Troopers as they embark on more and more dangerous missions. It’s, in my opinion, one of the coolest games set in the Star Wars universe. The game holds up like nobodies business and is still a blast to play this day. It’s a shame this game never got a sequel as it one of the most fascinating experiments in the Star Wars gaming cannon.

 

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4. Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight

Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight will forever hold a soft spot in my heart as it was one of my first Star Wars games I had ever played and it introduced me to Kyle Katarn and the expanded universe. Until this game I had no idea there were a series of stories set after Return of the Jedi. The shooting was a blast and it was a genuine thrill getting a hold of your lightsaber for the first time. The game may not have aged well but it, along with it’s sequels Jedi Knight II and Jedi Knight Academy will always hold a place in my heart as the games that put me on to the E.U and one of my favorite Star Wars characters.

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3. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Lego Star Wars is just a pure joy. I remember it fondly because it was a game me and my little brothers bonded over. The gameplay was easy enough for them to get through it and the Star Wars setting was enough to keep me interesting. Not to mention I’m a sucker for a good sight gag and this game was chock full of them. It’s the originator of the long running and now successful Lego formula but in 2005, I remember how fresh and how surprising this game felt.

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2. Knight of the Old Republic

Now, I know for many, Kotor would be their number one Star Wars game, if not out right their number one game of all time.  I do concede that this game is a masterpiece. It manages to be an fun, satisfying RPG in addition to being a thoughtful addition to the Star Wars universe. It explores a complete uncharted period of time in the Star Wars universe yet it still manages to feel unabashedly Star Wars. Filled with a memorable cast of characters and a genuinely engrossing plot and you have yourself without a doubt the best single player Star Wars game to ever do the damn thing.

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1. Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)

Star Wars: Battlefront II is without a doubt the Star Wars game I spent the most time playing. It was the first shooter I ever played obsessively. I would spend hours, whole Saturday’s, playing this game.  There was something so satisfying about being able to participate in the epic battles that were often at the opening and closing of a Star Wars film. Most Star Wars game up to this point were about becoming a jedi, being a jedi, going on very linear quests. Which I loved, obviously by my number 2 pick, but something about being able to wage large scale war, on ground and in space in the Star Wars universe just held my fascination like nothing else. The satisfaction I would get from engaging in a dog fight with a tie-fighter was unexplained. Battlefront II gave me what I never knew wanted, to be a foot soldier in a galaxy far, far away.

So there you have it folks, those are my five favorite Star Wars games. Agree? Disagree? Something you can’t believe I missed? Let me know in the comments!

Why Play EA’s Battlefront II When You Can Play Battlefront II?

Posted on by Joe.Jurado

News broke this weekend that players would have to play Battlefront II for close to 40 hours in order to unlock Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the multiplayer mode. Sigh. E fucking A. They were doing so good. There’s technically more content in Battlefront II but the shit you really want is gated behind a pay wall. See you could play 40 hours to earn enough credits to unlock the characters you want or you can just drop real world cash to unlock them. EA’s defense of this on Reddit became the most downvoted post in the site’s history. What EA has done is essentially go full mobile. They’ve fully embedded mobile, free to play tactics within a $60 retail game. It’s skeevy, predatory and has basically killed any desire I’ve had to play the game. I don’t get review codes as this is still a young site so I have to pay out of pocket for all my reviews. I refuse to support the shady business practices of Battlefront II and as such I will not be reviewing Battlefront II on this site. Instead, I’ll sell you on why you shouldn’t play EA’s Battlefront II and instead play Battlefront II.

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Join me…for 60,000 credits.

As a consumer, you shouldn’t support EA’s Battlefront II. If Battlefront II does well and it’s micro-transactions and loot crates generate significant revenue it basically gives the industry free range to explore these shadier, intrusive means of generating revenue. I understand that games are getting more expensive to make while prices remain the same. I understand the need to monetize games, I’m not naive to the fact that people gotta eat. Yet there’s a got to be a way that increases a games revenue without gating features, features that have been heavily focused on in the marketing and were free in the predecessor, behind a paywall. $60 is a decent chunk of change for the average consumer. When you pay for a game you expect to get the core features and access to everything that the game was being sold on. Locking the hero characters behind paywalls is basically like if you had to pay to use titans in Titanfall. The way EA’s Battlefront II player progression is tied into loot crates and micro-transactions essentially turns the game into a pay to win scenario.

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It’s for that reason that I suggest you instead play 2005’s Battlefront II. A) It’s cheaper. B) It’s more fun. Seriously, I was amazed at how well Battlefront II holds up and how much more fun I had with that than the Battlefront II open beta. The game is a standard first person shooter built around conquest, capture the flag, hunt, hero assault as well as space assault and space CTF. The game’s single player suite is fairly substantial. There’s the standard campaign mode which has you playing as a member of the 501st, there’s instant action which allows you to compile a playlist of all the maps and modes and play whatever you want, however you want and lastly galactic conquest, a board game-esque mode where you conquer planets and engage in combat whenever you encounter a rival fleet.

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There is plenty to play and plenty of ways to play in Battlefront II. Additionally, the multiplayer suite, when it works, is super fun. The games mechanics and controls hold up and graphically, while it can’t compete with the beauty of the frostbite engine, it does enough with it’s art design to make you feel like you’re in the Star Wars universe. Best of all, for only $10 on Steam you get all the content from the jump. All the maps, all the modes, all the heroes for a fraction of what you’d wind up paying for the latest installment. It’s a great game that genuinely holds up to modern standards and is a far more rewarding experience than the grindy, paywall laden experience EA is set to drop this Friday.

I’m sure the devs of EA’s Battlefront II worked very hard to make a product they could be proud of. It’s unfortunate that, two times now, the team at DICE is being forced to answer for EA’s dubious business practices. It’s shame that EA is taking Star Wars, a series with a rich history in gaming and using it as a vessel to push forward consumer unfriendly practices. The Battlefront series was one of my favorites growing up and I was excited for the reboot. It shows how far down the rabbit hole EA has gone that all that excitement has been replaced with disappointment and a complete lack of interest.