If you’re like me, you’re probably itching for the chance to get home so you can fire off your blasters once again. In that case, the Star Wars: Battlefront beta will be the perfect tonic.
But while you might be familiar with the Battlefield games, DICE’s re-entry into the world of Star Wars brings with it a few changes that mixes up the traditional formula.
Mark and I played through the single-player component of the beta on PS4 yesterday and earlier today I covered what settings you’ll be able to flick through on the PC. But if you’re interested in knowing what the game is actually like to play, then this should help you out.
I’ve gone over some of the quirks players will want to know when they’re just starting out, including the Gears of War-esque active reload system, the battle cards, how the servers have held up so far and more.
As a note, apologies for the croaky voice: I knocked up the voice-over early this morning and I didn’t have any lozenges or tea on hand.
And as I promised in the video, I’ll be playing more Battlefront over the next few days. If you’re doing the same, let me know and perhaps we can get a Battle-TAY-Front squad together and I can record some of the action for everyone to enjoy.
(Or maybe a BattlefronTAY group. I haven’t decided on the pun yet.)
Comments
40 responses to “Here’s What You Should Know About The Star Wars: Battlefront Beta”
I’d go with BaTAYlefront.
TAYttlefront?
call it whatever you want, as long as I can get in on the action.
I’ve got the beta on PC (username Steed1080) but i’ll be interested in PS4 or Xbone if that’s where the majority of people are
Hang on, so the beta is out? I thought not til tomorrow?
You can pre-load it at the moment but some YouTubers and streamers got it earlier.
where is the beta? i can’t find it on the ps4 store
Not everyone can see it at the moment. It goes live at 7pm EST.
thanks mate
No worries! Not long to go now.
Bullcrap I can’t find the beta and its past 7 pm and October the eighth
have you found it yet? Click on the starwars battle front preorder and scroll down to the addons it should be there
I’ll be getting all up in the PS4 Beta.
Add me: Milnye
Still, surely an Aussie article shouldn’t be saying: you’re probably itching for the chance to get home so you can fire off your blasters once again. When it’s not actually out yet?
It’s out later this evening, using the Origin counter, and EA’s PR has told me that XB1 and PS4 players will be able to start downloading in a few hours.
Can you find it on the PS store yet? I checked last night but couldn’t find anything.
Edit: BattlefronTAY.
It says 7pm on origin. Is that Aus time?
If you’re viewing it through the Origin client (and not the site), yes.
Good to see that the ‘storm trooper effect’ has been heavily applied…..
Can anyone join the beta or do you have to register online?
It’s an open beta.
You will need to update your Nvidia drivers aswell. Found that out the hard way.
Where can I find the beta on ps4? It’s still not there
Can anyone actually join a server for multiplay yet? I can’t seem to find one at all…
Came here to post the same thing.
Played a couple of survival games, but can’t seem to join the other modes.
BTW, anyone playing on PC, feel free to add me on origin, same username as here 😛
I’m on PC mate, I’ll be downloading it today and will be on later tonight. My username is also the same as on here.
hopefully I’ll see you online.
Hey,
Jeigh07 I added both of yall. I will be playing the game like crazy.
Hi @InquisitorFelix and @Jeigh07,
Sorry I missed you guys and ,most of the beta (I’m not a rude prick I promise), I only managed to download it and have one quick match on Friday. I was flat out the rest of the weekend (stupid real life getting in the way of video games) I saw you both added me when I loaded up my PC last night, Hopefully I can catch you on there at some stage. Cheers.
Keep trying, takes a bunch of tries before it finds a server. Good fun so far, sound and visual design are spot on, would like to spend more time flying though.
I just found it on the PS Store by searching for ‘beta’.
For the PS4 beta, do i actually need PS+ to play it? I plan on renewing my PS+ soon anyway, but I would like to confirm if anyone knows.
Doesn’t seem to be on xbone yet at 9pm
Hi, its 8:00 am here in Philadelphia and I cant find the beta
Those talking about not being able to get onto the beta: PC players have been playing for the last few hours, although it was difficult for a time to find a server (unless you had a friend already in, at which point you could queue). Resolved itself after about 30 minutes though.
This is strictly related to PC: if you’re not able to download it yet, you may have to wait until 4:00 AM (although that shouldn’t be the case — people on social media are posting pics of them downloading on console right now, and the information supplied by EA’s PR directly said those on console would be able to download by tonight).
Sadly, I cannot find any access too the beta in the psn store, and its 8 oclock in the morning
Downloading now. Would love to join in but by the time I get a chance to play, you’ll all be like ‘u’re such a n00b’ and I’ll all be like ‘stop shooting me’
Okay, so first impressions –
Played: 1 single player wave survival (6 waves) on Tatooine (Normal Difficulty), 4.5 multiplayer rounds of 20v20 Walker Assault on Hoth (2.5 as Imperial, 2 as Rebel).
Platform: PC.
Fired up a quick single player game to get a feel of the weapons and controls, I took the place of a rebel soldier on Tatooine slaughtering wave after wave of stormtroopers. On normal difficulty, they’re fairly inaccurate and anyone with experience with shooters shouldn’t have many problems dispatching all the waves (including a couple of AT-STs). There are collectables around the map for extra points, getting to each provides an additional challenge and adds some replayability. Realistically though, we knew this was going to be a heavily multiplayer focused game, so if you’re looking for a good single player shooter, this isn’t it; if, like me, you just use it as a launching pad to multiplayer, it’s functional.
I had a friend already playing the multiplayer, so I just jumped straight into the queue for that server, found myself 1/1 and twiddled my thumbs for a couple of minutes. Once in, I found the setup to be excellent, taking many of my favourite parts of previous multiplayer shooters – customisable loadouts rather than classes is a welcome change from previous iterations, and moving spawn points near the front, rather than at the back of a map has long been a winner in Battlefield games. Between having 20 players on each side, and having the spawns nice and close to the action, you’re never out of the game for long and provides for an almost constant stream of enemies and the feeling of an epic battle.
As for the Hoth map, whether from a lack of knowledge about the map, or how to best attack and defend the objectives, the Imperials won every round (teams are flipped after every round, so it’s not like there was a skill disparity). Toward the end of an Imperial victory while playing as a Rebel, I found myself spawning repeatedly in a trench, enfiladed by one of the AT-ATs and presented with two choices – run up or down the trench and get shot by the AT-AT, or jump over the top and get shot be the AT-AT in open ground. Deepening the trench where the spawn point is, or providing a piece of covering terrain to prevent this happening would be very welcome.
As for atmosphere, the Tatooine and Hoth maps both look just like they should and make the experience very Star Wars-y. As always, the score is excellent and as with many Star Wars games, the Thermal Detonator takes the place of a grenade and doesn’t obliterate everything within 5 meters of it, but I can live with that.
Recommendations: If, like me, you are not committed one way or the other to purchasing this game, get in on the beta. I’m not a huge fan of multiplayer games (or, really, people on the internet), so this is still a firm “maybe” for me. If I can snag a key for $50, I’ll probably pick it up.
What I find funny is the fact I spotted one of my steam friends in your video shooting you in the back 😀
Hey, gotta show it all right 🙂
Played a good chunk of Solust last night, at first I thought rebels had an advantage because stormtroopers stood out against the environment more, but you get used to spotting rebel scum so that worked itself out. Playing on xbone and it looks fantastic despite the (apparently) nerfed resolution.
Teamwork appears to be key – if you stick together for the objective based missions you can dominate.
All in all, pretty damn impressive on all fronts.