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It’s definitely looking to be exactly what I’ve been waiting for.

Whilst I expect the single player to be short, and more educational than challenging, I’m defo going to play the heck out of this.

And here’s another video, but without voiceover. You’ll note there’s no music, but I’m not sure if that’s because the player toggled it off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8DqNiDmNXg

I for one am surprised EA didn't scum this one up....

I hope it sells better comparatively to FIFA which now has real TV adds in it....

I really like the look of this gameplay so far. I hope its as smooth to play as it looks with all the shield/engine/weapon management.

How good is this?

This is one of the few games i've pre ordered in recent memory. This game is shaping up to deliver on exactly what it's intended to be. Plus after seeing the customization of pilots I couldn't resist. My favorite part of the recent battlefront games was the starship battles as well.

The only complaint I have about this game is the graphics look a tad stylized/cartoonish. I kind of prefer the darkness of space or black backgrounds of the space battles in the movies. Whereas in this game it's all colorful and in nebulas and all this clutter going on. It would have been nice to see some maps that looked inspired by the movies.

This is one of the few times I wanted the VR version of a game.

So even though I’m still going to wait until after release to look to pick this up , I’m guessing in theory that you’ll be able to play this on the new Xbox series x using the backwards compatibility.
Wonder how much of a boost this will get in looks and performance.

Pre-order is now paid for, and will arrive tomorrow.

Dakkanauts, get to your ships, and may the force be with you!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ahtman wrote:
This is one of the few times I wanted the VR version of a game.

PS4 version shows as VR Compatible....

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
PS4 version shows as VR Compatible....

Indeed it is but I can't imagine buying the VR set for just one game, same as on PC. All the reviews I've seen of it have been very positive about the VR experience for the game even saying it is the best way to play. One also said it made them realize what a claustrophobic death box the Tie Fighter is.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
PS4 version shows as VR Compatible....

Indeed it is but I can't imagine buying the VR set for just one game, same as on PC. All the reviews I've seen of it have been very positive about the VR experience for the game even saying it is the best way to play. One also said it made them realize what a claustrophobic death box the Tie Fighter is.

You buy the VR set for Beat Saber and proceed to fail to use it for anything else because once its on your head you realize you could just play more Beat Saber.

Impressions after a few hours today: it's a good'un. Flight feels great even on controller, very responsive and the ships feel pretty unique. As a nice-to-have feature, there's tons of freedom to customise your controls to your preferred setup and every button can be remapped.


Combat is far more involved than BF2's space battles, both in terms of the complexity of the actual dogfighting and the mission structures. As a whole, it feels much bigger in scale and more varied in terms of the 'maps' than BF2, rather than just that game's space mode cut out and sold separately. That said, it's not so complicated as to be inaccessible, the tutorials are pretty well done and the story missions ease you in with flybys and picking off turrets before throwing you into a dogfight.

Speaking of. the story content is higher effort than expected, with a solid voice work and animations in the cutscenes. Already there are tons of Easter Eggs and references to SW content both new and old, and some familiar faces (some more expected than others) making a very welcome appearances Graphics are both varied and superb, and the sound design and score are full of the SW classics.

All in all. high'y recommended. So far, it's a great example of a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, promises that and then delivers on it with style and aplomb.

Had a decent fiddle with my copy, and I agree entirely.

So far, I’ve flown a TIE Fighter, an X-Wing and a TIE Interceptor (TIE Interceptor was just a pootle about in the practice arena). Each one definitely feels distinct so far. TIE Fighter is definitely nippier than an X-Wing, and there’s a definite speed difference in the Interceptor.

I’m interested to see how the skills curve and online matching works out. I don’t have the best reactions out there, so whilst I don’t mind a tough match, I don’t want to feel like I’m so outclassed there’s no point in playing.

But given how sparky the rest of the game is, I’m confident they won’t have fallen at that hurdle.

Get it, get it, get it.

I've got it installed. Just waiting to get home to play.

Being as my days of enduring PuGs and deathmatches are far behind me, do you reckon that it's worth it for the single player?

I absolutely loved all of the original X-Wing games and just want to zoom around, shooting fighters and the odd capital ship. Plus, digging out the old joystick would be fun.

I’m enjoying the single player thus far. The story structure is.... kind of awful but the gameplay is fun. It copies a lot from X-Wing and TIE Fighter with some minor simplifications for consoles. Even the story structure has a bit of the classic LucasArts “click on the character who talks at you” kind of thing. The gameplay is way closer to those games than the more 2d Rogue Squadrons. If you have fond memories of those, I think it’s worth checking out.

Been having a blast playing it so far, it can be pretty challenging at times. Hopefully they consider dlc for it (none has been planned). Just cause the B wing happens to be my favorite craft. I think a B wing would be more an assault fighter category, the imperial match for that could be the tie heavy/brute from the Solo movie.

I didn't realize it came out, half done downloading it now Glad it's only $40 but I bet there's gonna be lots of extra stuff they want you to buy over time

 Chillreaper wrote:
Being as my days of enduring PuGs and deathmatches are far behind me, do you reckon that it's worth it for the single player?

I absolutely loved all of the original X-Wing games and just want to zoom around, shooting fighters and the odd capital ship. Plus, digging out the old joystick would be fun.

So far, it's absolutely been worthwhile.

Also worth mentioning that Fleet Battles does have a 'vs AI' mode that you can play either solo or cooperatively with other players. Even on the easy setting, the AI does not screw around.

Necros wrote:Glad it's only $40 but I bet there's gonna be lots of extra stuff they want you to buy over time

You would be wrong, as of this moment. Every rank up(doable via PvP or Fleet Battles vs AI) you get 2 Requisition Points(used for unlocking upgrades for the ships. Some upgrades are universal for the faction, some are specific to that specific ship. Upgrades do not cross factions.) and 200 Glory(usable for purchasing Pilot or Fighter cosmetics).

The only cosmetics that you cannot purchase via Glory?
They're tied to a thing called "Operations", which are from you completing Daily Challenges, or from placing into specific brackets via the 'Ranked' Fleet Battles system.

The ranked cosmetics are very 'meh'. It's the usual silver+gold stuff from COD and Battlefield.

So I just found out today that I really suck at piloting starfighters.

Turn the sensitivity down on Pitch & Yaw. It's crazy with controller as default.

 LunarSol wrote:
You buy the VR set for Beat Saber and proceed to fail to use it for anything else because once its on your head you realize you could just play more Beat Saber.

Oh my god, yes, so much. Someone finally put it into words!
...admittedly I've played through Half Life: Alyx, but not spent more than a couple hours at most on anything else.

I'm really hoping that Squadrons will buck that trend - I'm only an hour in so far, but it's been a great hour! The sensation of being able to look out of the side windows over your own wing into empty space is amazing.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Chillreaper wrote:
Being as my days of enduring PuGs and deathmatches are far behind me, do you reckon that it's worth it for the single player?

I absolutely loved all of the original X-Wing games and just want to zoom around, shooting fighters and the odd capital ship. Plus, digging out the old joystick would be fun.

So far, it's absolutely been worthwhile.

Also worth mentioning that Fleet Battles does have a 'vs AI' mode that you can play either solo or cooperatively with other players. Even on the easy setting, the AI does not screw around.

Ooh. Sold!

I wonder if it would ever be possible to mod the game to recreate the old games, but I figure that there would be a few issues:

1) Might be totally impossible to mess with.
2) Would be an insane amount of work, but hey, there are some very talented and dedicated people out there.
3) Might be heavily overdrawn at the bank of nostalgia on this one. It's possible that replaying the originals would be sadly disappointing.

Dug the old joystick out of the loft. Not the smoothest action on it anymore - think that the shaft might need greasing.

The nostalgia doesn't need any more help, in my opinion. The old 'H' shaped bulk freighters are in as are the triple pad space stations.

I finished the story last night, on "story" difficulty. It definitely was a fun playthrough. The only downside, IMO, is that the endgame reward for "story" difficulty was one already obtained via playing the Fleet Battles Tutorial.

I don't know if there are more crossovers like that, but that felt slightly "womp womp womp" for me.

I'm about to give up, i just can't play this game :( can't get used to the controls at all

 Necros wrote:
I'm about to give up, i just can't play this game :( can't get used to the controls at all

I had to mess with the controls a lot before finding something useful. Have you tried changing buttons?
What are you using to play (joystick, gamepad, keyboard, otherwise) - and what kind of games do you normally play? If you're anything like me and you're more familiar with shooters, you're going to find yaw a LOT more useful than roll.

 Kanluwen wrote:
The nostalgia doesn't need any more help, in my opinion. The old 'H' shaped bulk freighters are in as are the triple pad space stations.

I finished the story last night, on "story" difficulty. It definitely was a fun playthrough. The only downside, IMO, is that the endgame reward for "story" difficulty was one already obtained via playing the Fleet Battles Tutorial.

I don't know if there are more crossovers like that, but that felt slightly "womp womp womp" for me.

How many hours you reckon are in the story mode?

Tempted to grab this, but likely won't play much past the story mode, not much of a multiplayer gamer these days.

Also, for anyone playing in VR, is there a recommended entry level these days? The Quest 2 seems promising, but it's a bit weird how it connects via USB instead of directly to the GPU, I imagine that creates some lag or performance loss.

I think it depends on the difficulty you're playing it at? I basically played it as my only game over the course of all Friday and Saturday, so maybe 16 hours or so? Finished it around 1130 on Saturday so that sounds right.

I played it on "Story" difficulty(which is effectively "Easy"), mostly because I wanted to get a feeling for the controls first before diving in on anything heavier.

Again worth mentioning that "Fleet Battles" has a vs AI mode that can be played solo with AI teammates and enemies.

And said mode is nothing to be scoffed at, on Normal I still have yet to win a Fleet Battle either solo or in co-op, and that's having not had too much trouble with the campaign on Pilot difficulty or the dogfight mode. Which isn't to say I'm any good, I have yet to do better than break even on K/D in a Dogfight match, but compared to the ease of flying against the AI in Battlefront II Squadrons has really upped its game in terms of AI deadliness.

I've not finished the story yet, but it's 14 missions, I believe, and each is maybe 25-40 mins to complete, with an additional 5-10 mins of time for pre/post mission dialogue, customisation, loadouts ect. The value's definitely there and it's all very easily replayable (which should be a given, but I've been playing Avengers for the last month and thus the idea of campaign missions you can actually do more than once is weirdly novel... ), but if you're just in it for the story then I'd maybe wait and see if it comes to closer to £25 than £35 in a few months.

As for controls, I found that while putting pitch and roll on the same analogue stick and inverting pitch is more 'authentic' in terms of replicating an actual flight stick's motion, a non-inverted setup with pitch and yaw together has me flying and fighting much better, as it puts the lateral and vertical movement you're using for aiming on the same stick.. Have that on the right stick, and it's much closer to what you're used to from a shooter title. (I have a feeling the default scheme is close to this, I can't remember)

The main issue I'm having with difficulty is information overload. I can fly and I can shoot straight, but it's remembering to balance power, track targets, keep my loadout and ammo count in mind, angle shields and play the objective is just way more than I'm used to tracking in most games this fast-paced. Which isb't to knock it at all, but I do think the learning curve is as much learning to process all that as it is to master the controls themselves.

I'm on the default difficulty, on xbox. I lowered the sensitivity for my controller and it helped, but I just can't do the missions. I'm at the story mission where you have to defend an imperial star base that has these towers with munitions in them. There's just rebel scum everywhere blowing me away and I can't do anything. I got to this point mostly by targeting something and directing my squad to attack my target, and getting a few lucky/easy kills here and there. I'm in a tie interceptor and just getting torn apart, when i'm not crashing into things. If I want to hit any target I have to pretty much fly far away, turn around and then stop, if not everything just moves by way too fast. I guess you're supposed to do that turbo drift thing all the time to spin around? Maybe my old people reflexes just aren't good enough. When I think I might be getting the hang of it, I go into a multiplayer game just to remember what it's like to have someone I can't see fly in circles around me and blow me to bits.

VR on the PC is stuttery and unplayable. That was with the recommended spec and low settings.
But, that was before the day-2 patch, to fix the EA account errors for Steam users.

I tried using an XBox gamepad, which I usually do not like much. It needs the controlls messing with, as the sticks are the wrong way around for me. I'll dig out the HOTAS later and try that instead.

The game itself though, I do like it. It is a lot like the original 90's games, but with a bit of the recent Battlefront type gameplay for the AI missions.