Recent Star Wars Events
So, it has been an interesting couple of months for Star Wars. As far as the literary world is concerned, fans are covered with new comic book and novels. As far as movies are concerned, we still have the Force Awakens. As far as tv, still no word of when Rebels is coming back. Finally, for gaming, there is Battlefront, the Old Republic expansion, and a mobile game called Star Wars Uprising. I don't have too much to say about Uprising other than that the gameplay looks like a typical mobile-stategy game with an interesting premise taking place after Return of the Jedi. Now, for the rest of the recent news.
New Force Awakens Teaser
A thirty-second teaser was shown in South Korea this week and every Star Wars website was going nuts for the trailer. I mean, in all honesty, there is really nothing too it. Is this really the state the Force Awakens is going to be in now where we lose our minds after every little thing is revealed. I mean, the trailer only has one new shot, the rest is simply from the other two trailers spliced with the Duel of the Fates music from Revenge of the Sith. The one new shot is really cool looking as we see the Third Reich power of the First Order, the government that rises from the Empire's ashes. Look, I'm excited as everyone else for the movie, but don't lose your minds over every little thing.
New Info for Kylo Ren
That being said, the new information about one of the film's villians is very intriguing. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, J.J. Abrams gave new background on Kylo Ren. He's the one with the cross-saber. Apparently, he belongs to a group known as the Knights of Ren and that his name is a title that was given to him. It's like when the Sith give themselves the title Darth. Abrams also said that Ren is not a typical "mustache-twirling villain" and that he has a unique past of character to him.
This whole character is really fascinating to me and now that he is linked to a order of some kind, increases that. For one, could the Knights of Ren be dark side force users that worship the Sith teachings and want to bring down the New Jedi Order? Could he be the last of the Knights of Ren? Could he be a fallen Jedi going into the Knights of Ren which might not be a force driven group? Could he possibly be related to one of the former main characters of the original trilogy? We will have to wait and see to find out.
Knights of the Fallen Empire
I really don't have too much to say about this one. I honestly never played the Old Republic MMORPG and I probably won't since I'm not a fan of the genre. However, I saw the trailer for this expansion at E3 in June and it was entertaining. You play a member of an Empire who is fighting against both the Old Republic and the old Sith Empire. However, the trailer was really effective with its animation and attention to story. Seriously, this studio should make animated movies for Disney to be a part of the anthology series.
Battlefront Gameplay
When Battlefront was revealed this year at Celebration, I wasn't too kind about it because I was mad about they took out from previous games and there was no gameplay shown. Well, at E3, there was gameplay, and it was awesome. I admit, while I'm not happy about what they took out from the game, I am on the hype train now because I was really impressed with the gameplay. So far, there has been a few instances of gameplay. Yes, there were cherographed, but it was still cool. At E3 they showed what the walker assault mode will be like. Rebels have to capture and defend certain points in the map on Hoth to destory AT-ATs while the Empire has to defend the walkers and blow up the shield generator.
The gameplay looks fast and fluent. It is also chaotic as hell. There is stuff going on everywhere. There is fights on the ground, people flying with jetpacks, people in walkers, and oh yeah, people flying above in X-Wings and Tie Fighters. However, it is not overwhelming; the gameplay has the right sense of scale to where it feels massive but you still have a sense of purpose.
There are people that are going to say it's Battlefield with a Star Wars skin. I was worried about that too, however, I think that the game, at least from what I saw, looks and feels different from the former. We saw glimpses of what the playable heroes and villians will be like. They appear to be just as fun and broken as they were in Battlefront 2. Oh, and did I mention the game truly captures the sights and sounds of Star Wars? Well, it does, to a tee.
Also at E3 they showed off what some of the co-op will be like. They showed off two Rebel troops on Tatoonie fighting wave after wave of Imperials. If you every play any type of survival or horde mode in a game, then you will feel right at home. Although, I will suggest playing this with a friend though.
Finally, at Gamescom last week, EA revealed a new mode for Battlefront, fighter assault. It's a mode played on Sullust where Rebel ships have to destroy an Imperial transport and the Empire has to protect it. While it doesn't quite replace the space battles, this mode does look really fun. It's strictly ship to ship fighting and it appears to control well. I can imagine this mode being one of the most popular modes in the game. I mean, you are flying a X-Wing and a Tie Fighter in glorious 1080p high definition graphics. I also like how you can fly the Millenium Falcon and Slave 1 as well.
Overall, my opinion on this game has changed. While I am worried that EA will exploit DLC and make this a new milking franchise, I still think that this game has the potential to be great and a lot of fun.
