The Battlefront that never was

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Chairman_Tiel
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The Battlefront that never was

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun May 31, 2015 12:07 am

Whelp, as you might or might not know, a Star Wars title was scheduled to release later this year. Battlefront's the name, but the game...? Well, evidently that got lost somewhere along the way. The poor project is being barraged on all sides for leaving out hulks of content present in its much, much older (2005) predecessors. In a nutshell it's gone from a nuanced Battlefield clone to a fairly basic Star Wars shooter. That's not to say people aren't going to buy it (despite their claims to the contrary), but I'm here to advise you what you should buy, either in addition or instead of EA's Battlefront.

Angels Fall First is hard to confine to one genre. It's an FPS, RTS, and flight sim in one package, built on Unreal Engine 3 over a 7 year dev cycle. And it shows - the game is a visible labor of love from those working on it



The scale is simply breathtaking. Players can thrust themselves from orbiting warship to engage starfighters and capital ships above a planet's atmosphere, inside their own ships, or on the contested soil below. Everything from the nimble tanks to lumbering battleships can be taken direct control of, opening up innumerable gameplay possibilities.

The best part is, it's almost done. This isn't Star Citizen; the developers have almost everything taped down and are only asking for funding for the last stretch. Closed alpha is and has been underway, and Steam Early Access is inbound within a matter of months. So if you were interested in a game that truly explored Battlefront's potential, or just looking for a tangible sci fi shooter fix, this might be the one.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Vinyl » Sun May 31, 2015 2:21 am

neato
cats wrote:I literally cannot be wrong about this fictional universe

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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Iv121 » Sun May 31, 2015 3:28 am

Well if we are talking bout Unreal Engine Mods/Total Conversions/Games I had a nice Star Wars TC mod for UT2004 (told ya already - give me ANY sort of shooter you've ever wanted and I can give you something similar in mah moded UT2K4). I took it and added it back into UT2004 and now I can kill Filthy rebels mah with DLT-19 (love dat rifle !) in the mid of ... Venetia ! Or hunt dragons on Hoth (though that is a little more problematic due to the nature of the maps). Modularity is key ! For those who want genuine SW you can still blow up the Death star with photons in exhaust pipes ...
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Error » Sun May 31, 2015 8:45 am

I'll take a poke at AFF. Sounds quite fun.

As for Star Wars, it's not a shooter, but Empire at War is still around, and is pretty ok. RTS, so no shooter action, but it's still pretty good; and IIRC there are still mods arund for it.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun May 31, 2015 8:59 am

The servers for it went offline a long time ago. It's decent for what it is (there literally is no other game with both tactical ground and orbital combat) but that's mostly because no other title has dared to touch the niche. That it's Star Wars doesn't hurt either ^^

I know the Thrawn's Revenge modding team often lament the limitations of the engine Petroglyph assembled for EAW. Truth be told I wouldn't mind a sequel with better gameplay and graphics, but I don't see that happening with Disney's focus on mobile/kid-friendly apps on this front. I've played around with the idea of a fanmade successor; actually started once a while back, though knowing me it probably won't ever come to fruition.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Prototype » Sun May 31, 2015 9:16 am

It's... beautiful.

Fuck Star Citizen, I want this. I'm throwing money at the screen but nothing is happening.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Error » Sun May 31, 2015 9:28 am

Aim your throws better.

Apparently AFF is indeed now on Greenlight, for those interested. I know I shall take a great interest in it. It's Star Citizen's combat-only more-functional less-pretty-but-still-pretty cousin.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Tell » Sun May 31, 2015 9:41 am

I like it, but two questions: Is it like planetside 2 where there is a strategic aspect to the game? and is it aiming to be massively multilayer or is there a player cap like 60 or something.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun May 31, 2015 9:44 am

60 player instanced matches.

No F2P or lag issues involved with running a persistent level.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Prototype » Sun May 31, 2015 9:53 am

Error wrote:Aim your throws better.

Apparently AFF is indeed now on Greenlight, for those interested. I know I shall take a great interest in it. It's Star Citizen's combat-only more-functional less-pretty-but-still-pretty cousin.
Not to mention reasonably priced.

I don't even know the pricing but I know I won't have to buy a new computer for it.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Tau » Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:04 am

I'm a flight sim/realistic FPS nut who's trying to get into RTS. Is this my chance?
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:45 pm

RTS hybrids are so hard to pull off right. No amount of game mechanics can compensate for the wildcard that is player initiative...and the people that make the system work as designed are also the ones that often might as well be AI.

AFF lets you command AI as part of a squad, or even the entire team. It can be singleplayer if you want it to be. I think that's a step in the right direction - a legion of mindless minions to do the grunt work while players do the heroing. Titanfall had the right idea but they made the mistake of making them autonomous - just scenery to be gored at one's discretion instead of reasonable playing pieces on the battlefield.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Error » Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:09 pm

I always thought even MOBA-style goons/creeps/whatevers should at least be marginally dangerous, instead of a walking point-farm. Seems to be a distinct lack of that in most games.

:/
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Iv121 » Mon Jun 01, 2015 11:16 pm

MOBAS are about PvP and as you stated they are walking farms.
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Re: The Battlefront that never was

Post by Vinyl » Tue Jun 02, 2015 8:12 am

Iv121 wrote:MOBAS are about PvP and as you stated they are walking farms.
Yes, those are exactly his issues with MOBAs.
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