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One thing that BF misses is a feel that you're doing something vaguely meaningful. Would be far more fun IMHO if the battle came in phases.
I sort of agree but disagree at the same time. Having things happen in phases could feel quite forced. However, I understand your point. I always laugh at the voice over in Hoth going "We MUST destroy the shield generator." Perhaps they should rephrase it as "Hey guys, let's destroy the shield generator. I reckon it'd be a hoot."
Still though, the idea that you're wiping the floor with your opponents is meaningful enough for my purposes.
One thing that could improve matters is to allow you to keep fighting after you've captured all the command posts. Sometimes I feel denied when I don't get the option of chasing down the last of the enemies.
I had a thought about how command posts could be improved and came up with the idea of making them landing platforms. They could actually have ships coming and going and that if you control a landing platform, obviously it's more difficult for the enemy to get their troops to the battlefield. Maybe you could even have the option of blasting enemy landing ships with some of the turrets.*
*Oh, speaking of turrets, I discovered another example of the computer cheating recently. In the Bespin Platforms level, when I take the central rebel command post, there are always a couple of rebels in the turrets above it. I have to take them out before my command post is safe because they can turn them around and fire into the command post if I don't. Then one time, I had the idea of taking a turret before I took the command post. That way, I could just blast the crap out of the rebels as they spawned. However, I noticed an interesting thing. When I was in the turret, it couldn't be angled down far enough to fire into the command post. Rather interesting, I thought.
On a slightly separate note, I remembered another modification I would make. In the original Battlefront, there seems to be a complete disregard for the collateral damage that's inherent in bringing a vehicle down. Sometimes, I'll steal one of those awesome armoured speeders the rebels use and have my joy-ride ended by running over a rebel mine. Then there'll be this massive explosion... and as the dust clears, I'll often see the rebel vangard responsible for ruining my fun standing proudly over his handiwork. That always annoys me. I reckon if you bring a vehicle down on your head then you should have to wear it as a hat. It's a high price to pay but if soldiers use their brains in taking down enemy vehicles then it shouldn't be a problem. Also, I think if you're in a flying vehicle and you're going down, then you should be given the option of taking out some enemies with you.
Also, on vehicles. I just thought of another modification - make the AT-STs controllable by removing that little idiosyncracy of theirs where they always walk sideways into walls or trees no matter which way you're steering them.
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Pandemic (people who did BF) recently released "Lord of the Rings: Conquest." It looked awesome - uses the WETA digital models and sounded great - play the footsoldiers of those big battles in the movies. But the reviews have been extremely negative. What a shame.
It's hard to tell with reviewers though. A lot of reviewers said Battlefront II was excellent and it was because of those idiots that I tried it out. Also, I recall some (though not all) saying that Jedi Academy was a good game. I mean, have you ever played Jedi Academy? It's truly crap. Talk about meaningless. You're basically an apprentice getting sent on pointless mission after pointless mission, repeatedly doing menial tasks. It feels like you're just doing chores or worse, jumping through hoops for the twisted amusement of your jedi masters who treat you with about as much respect as one would for a guinea pig. **
**However, owning the game does allow you to run a very cool mod of the first six levels of the original Dark Forces game. This was the reason why I bought it in the first place so whether it was good or not in itself was kinda immaterial. I just thought it would have been nice if it
was good, that's all.
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But, guess it's not that kind of game. Just a FPS.
That's cool with me.
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Personally I don't care for multiplayer games. I prefer immersive games, and "Frag your ass LOL pwned!" tends to break that.
I couldn't agree more. There are a lot of gits on the world wide web and a lot of them like to play online games (a lot of them like to lurk about forums as well but thankfully I haven't seen any here recently). Actually, I think because I'm just a casual gamer, I'd get my ass kicked in online games anyway. For some people out there, it seems that gaming is more than just a hobby. And I don't know if anyone would believe me but in Asia, gamers compete internationally in things like Star Craft and can actually win serious, serious money (I'm talking about prizes like a million dollars here). I saw one such competition with my own eyes once. Scary. I had to beat a hasty retreat for the sake of my sanity.
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Most fun to play characters for me are dark trooper and regular stormtrooper. The others are so slow or their weapons so ineffective they're just not worth it, including Wookies. The AT-ATs are slow and boring.
Oh, I like those guys too. However, I'm also partial to the pilots (imperial pilots, that is. I never play on the rebel thugs' side) and the shock troopers. I like how I can repair vehicles as a pilot and their instant detonating grenade launcher is fantastic. Also, because you can carry additional health and ammo packs, it makes the pilot a good choice for taking out large groups of opponents or taking a command post. And when the frustration of screwey gameplay gets you down, there's nothing like unwinding with a shock trooper. They're also great for taking out turrets and it's such fun to blast rebel pilots with rockets. "This time
you're gonna come off second best, sucker!" (I don't actually say this out loud because then people would think I was crazy. I do however on occasions adopt Treebeard's voice and go "Rebel pilots! Ba-hruumph!")
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Yeah, they always wander off on me. I try and get a group together to hit something, and they disperse so in the end its me and one dude if that.
I did an experiment on this a while ago and I found that seven seconds is the time it takes before they forget what you just told them. So if I want one to follow me, I give him a reminder every seven seconds. Sometimes, it works but I can't move too fast or they fall behind (their range of hearing can't be that good either).
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"get to the library in 30 seconds!" That phrase should go into gamelore the same way "nuked the fridge" went into movie lore.
Love it. Maybe it could be used like "Yeah, I hate that. It's one of those damn 'get to the library in 30 second' games."
Although, I was really annoyed in the game when I (by I, I mean my brother with me watching) got past the prequel stuff, only to discover that our first mission in the post-Episode III half was "Go to Naboo and mop up some more prequel elements". I mean the game designers seem entirely disinterested in the Empire and the Rebellion. Then they have a level on the Death Star where you have to hunt down an escaped Jedi. By the time it looks like you're getting back into classic Star Wars fun, the game's over.
The other thing they stuffed up was the campaign. One of the things I love about Battlefront I is that you can conquer the galaxy in one sitting. Short and sweet. In Battlefront II, it's something that takes forever.
I'm all for long games if they are conventional level games, following a story (like Dark Forces for instance) but not if they're an arcade-like shooter. That's just silly.
Anyway...