Star Wars Battlefront 2 release date, trailers and news

Update: Star Wars Battlefront 2 will be released in a matter of days and we have our full review right here. Read exactly what we think of the new campaign, multiplayer modes and those controversial loot boxes. 

Original Story continues below...

November 17 is drawing ever closer and that means it's time to start ramping up the hype for Star Wars Battlefront 2. The latest details have come from an interesting 20 minute round table posted to the official PlayStation blog.

DICE Producer Craig McLeod, Criterion Executive Producer Matt Webster, and Motive Creative Director Mark Thompson are all involved in the discussion and they touch on everything from the game's conception to its post-release DLC.

Some of the more interesting points from the chat include the fact that this game was strongly influenced by fan feedback from the first Battlefront. Constructive criticism was, apparently, heard.

As a result, this time around players shouldn't face a shortage of long-term goals after only a few months thanks to increased depth and breadth. Now that there are more film eras, space combat, character progression and free multiplayer updates the hope is that there's now enough to allow players to feel invested for longer.  

These free multiplayer updates and all post-release DLC have been planned with the intention of keeping the Battlefront community together and invested according to McLeod: “We decided to embark down a model of seasons, themed around content drops. We’ll look to keep the community together, that’s really important to us.” 

You can watch the round table in its entirety below:

Things are pretty great for Star Wars fans at the moment: not only are new films coming on the regular, according to EA's Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen there are going to be a handful of games from various studios too.

The  next exciting title in the Star Wars franchise is, of course, EA Dice’s  Battlefront 2, the sequel to the franchise reboot first released in 2015.

When it was first released, Star Wars Battlefront  received a mixed reception with some praising how it captured the Star  Wars atmosphere perfectly with its excellent cinematic visuals while  others bemoaned its repetitive combat and limited depth and content.

In  spite of criticisms, the game still sold over 14 million copies and  counting. With a sequel on the way, though, EA has the chance to learn  from the first release and create something bigger and better. 

If these words  from EA CFO Blake Jorgensen are anything to go by, that’s exactly what  we’re going to get: “If there was criticism, they just wanted more. So  we're taking that criticism to heart as we build the next game and  trying to address any of the issues that they had.”

And address it they have. 

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The sequel to the multiplayer-focused shooter Star Wars Battlefront
• When can I play it? November 17 2017
• What can I play it on? PS4, Xbox One and PC

Trailers and screenshots

We have a new gameplay trailer from the E3 2017 press conference.

It's the multiplayer gameplay trailer, and the new Star Wars video shows that the new Star Wars story bridges the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, according to Electronic Arts.

It's much bigger than the original game, with three times the content, more space battles and content from all Star Wars eras.

In fact, EA claims that there's so much to Star Wars Battlefront 2 that it "will have us playing together for years to come." That's a pretty cold statement.

This is valid, because the game will bring out new content in the form of seasons, with the first first season of DLC starring Finn and Phasma.

It'll be free content this holiday season and if you buy the Star Wars Battlefront 2 on PS4 and Xbox One, you can enjoy split-screen co-op. 

It wasn't said at EA's press conference, but there's no split-screen co-op on the PC version. The same is true about the Star Wars BF2 Deluxe version of the game. It's so far console-only.

One of the biggest changes to Star Wars Battlefront 2 gameplay comes from what EA calls Battlepoints buy upgrades, vehicles and special characters.

The new game will also feature customizations, not just from weapons. It goes all the way down to the character's abilities.

The first trailer for the game gave fans a  glimpse of the its single-player campaign which it appears will revolve around an "untold soldier's story" in the Empire. As well as  this single-player campaign that appears to be set in the period  following the Empire's defeat at Endor, there'll also be a multiplayer  mode of the game which will span "across all eras."

This means  we'll see locations and characters from the series' original trilogy as  well as the prequels and new films. The trailer gives us a look at  characters like Rey, Kylo Ren, Yoda and Darth Maul across a variety of  locations. It also looks like there will indeed be exciting space  battles involved. 

A new two minute feature called The Story of an Imperial Soldier has  been released which gives more of an insight into the game's single  player campaign and its protagonist. 

In the video game director, Mark Thompson, and Lucasfilm creative  exec, Steve Blank, discuss Iden Versio and more about the game's  imperial-focused story.

The  game's creators say they really wanted to get into the head of an  imperial soldier through Iden Versio. As commander of the elite Inferno  Squad with an admiral father, Iden's belief in the good of the Empire  runs in her blood.

Apparently  the imperial army won't be a bunch of brainwashed soldiers and  conscripts; it'll be a complex look at how people may want to fight for  Palpatine. We imagine it'd be hard to angle something called the Death  Star positively, but we're more than willing to see an attempt to  humanise the Empire. 

The Friday before the big E3 reveal, we got  another teasing look at the game's Naboo planet, too, with a  blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse at the chatty-but-incompetent Battle  Droids, courtesy of an official tweet from the PlayStation account:

News and features

Thanks to the Star Wars Celebration panel, we now have expert insight  into what we can expect when the game comes out. There are two  important new additions here: a story mode and space battles. 

Single player campaign

Let's start first by looking at the game's new single-player mode. 

In  it, you'll play as Iden Versio, a member of the Imperial Forces elite  ops unit called Inferno Squad, a combination of expert Tie Pilots and  covert commandos. During the trailer for the game we watch Iden witness  the destruction of the second Death Star above the moon of Endor.  Without direct missions from the now-deceased Emperor, Iden leads her  squad on a mission of revenge to try and quell the Rebellion. 

To that end, Battlefront II will occupy the time between the sixth  film of the franchise, Return of the Jedi,  and the seventh film, The  Force Awakens.

After  the battle on Endor, players will travel to Iden's homeworld, a planet  that has been under Imperial control for the entirety of her life.  Instead of an martial law-loving Imperial city that we've seen in the  past, however, Ida's homeworld has come to embrace and love the Empire.  This love hits home the theme that the single-player campaign is going  for, which is that yes, the Rebellion had heroes, but so did the  Empire. 

In a recent interview with Eurogamer  single player game director Mark Thompson and Criterion's Matt Webster  revealed that the single player campaign will be “a continuous story  with a beginning a middle and an end” rather than separate missions and  war stories like Battlefield 1. 

Players  will follow Iden for 30 years, from the end of Jedi up to the Force  Awakens at Starkiller base, though there will be moments in the story  where the player will switch sides and play "from the perspective of one  of the iconic heroes because [...] that’s just part of Battlefront’s  DNA.” 

In  the trailer it was revealed that Iden will have a droid. According to  Thompson, this droid will offer players a way to customize their play  style while they're playing as Iden. For example, he says it will offer  them choice when it comes to how they engage in a combat scenario so we  imagine the droid will be able to be used as back up in combat, as a  scout or perhaps even as a tool for hacking. 

Considering the  Motive development team has been brought in to work on the single-player  specifically, there’s little chance of it feeling like a tacked on  afterthought and we're excited to see how this will play out.

It's been confirmed that Battlefront 2 will explore characters,  locations and events from the new films and prequel trilogy as well as  the original trilogy. 

That  means that in addition to characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader,  Han Solo and Boba Fett, players will get to take control of characters  such as Rey, Kylo Ren, Yoda and Darth Maul.

The  other interesting addition in this iteration will be space battles.  These will be developed by Criterion and will allow players to engage in  epic dogfights over some of the most iconic battlefields in the Star  Wars universe. 

Combat with depth

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Star Wars Battlefront 2's creative director Bern Diemer said that DICE wants to add depth the game's multiplayer modes.

This  time around Heroes will apparently not be all-powerful game changers as  they once were. As well as making Heroes more present and not  restricted to a "lucky few" players, DICE will add something called team  play to make sure that those playing as standard troopers are not at an  unfair advantage. 

Team  play is based on classes and leveling and encourages players to join up  with their friends in well-balanced squads in order to take down  heroes. 

Matt  Webster revealed that there will be 4 Trooper classes which are  differentiated by standard things like range and firepower. 

There  will, apparently be "customization and progression inside the Trooper  classes, inside Heroes and inside Starfighters. So whilst they have  clear lines of class types, there is customization within those." 

Webster  said they'll reveal exactly how that will work at a later date, but we  imagine gadgets will have something to do with it as Diemer told PC  Gamer that to improve personalization and depth, abilities and gadgets  will also be introduced. According to Diemer different classes in the  game will have access to different items.

For  example, Diemer said that troopers don't really "have a personality"  and to give them one "you need to be able to customize them in some way  so it feels right. I really like using grenades, so I might try to pull  my class a little bit towards my favorite toy or my favorite gadget.”  

It's also been confirmed that there will be no more blue pick ups to become a  Hero character, with Webster explaining that “it was becoming a brief  experience for the lucky few, or people were just hunting and hanging  around the spawn locations for tokens. So we wanted to expand the hero  play within a battle, we wanted to increase that scope but also have a  better system for players to be able to become a hero than just picking  up a token.”

This addition of classes and squads brings  Battlefront 2 more in line with DICE's other multiplayer shooter releases such as Battlefield.

Heroes from all eras of the Star Wars universe

A recent leak from Star Wars Battlefront 2's closed alpha has given what may be our first (though perhaps not complete) look at the game's hero roster. New and returning character details were found by Reddit user uninspired_zebra who then posted the information to the site which was picked up by Eurogamer. 

Heroes returning from the first game include Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Vader, Boba Fett, Lando, the Emperor and Bossk. Characters from the first game not included here include Nien Nunb, Greedo, Dengar, Jyn Erso and Orson Krennic.

New Heroes for Battlefront 2 are Yoda, Darth Maul, General Grievous, Rey, Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma and the single-player mode's protagonist, Iden Versio. 

EA has confirmed a few of these characters before now but a character not in the list that EA has already confirmed is Finn, who it was revealed would arrive as a free DLC character alongside Phasma later this year. 

Whether this means the Alpha files are simply incomplete or something else has happened is unclear. We'll update with more news as it becomes available.

Hands-on impressions

At Gamescom 2017, EA hinged a large amount of its stage show around the space battles that are going to be included in Battlefront 2. With fan favorite ships like Poe’s black X-wing, Boba Fett’s Slave I, and the Millennium Falcon, the fights are good to look at, but we wanted to know if they were fun to play.

Long story short, yes. Very fun. The demo that we played allowed you to choose from a few different standard ships (so an X-wing, an A-Wing and a Y-Wing if you’re a rebellion fighter) and a couple of the special ‘hero’ ships. 

These ships require you to earn a certain number of ‘battle points’ before they are unlockable, meaning you have to kick some ass, then when you re-spawn (because you will die) you get the option of jumping into the Millennium Falcon.

It seemed like there could only be one of each ‘hero’ ship in the game at any one time, which means you don’t end up in a battle full of Darth Mauls. As much as that would make for an interesting experience, this limitation helps to create some balance and make it feel like a genuine Star Wars battle.

And boy did it. The gameplay is a mix of cutting-edge graphics and nostalgia-drenched sound design. We felt genuinely giddy when a tie-fighter screamed past us, only to be shot out of the sky by one of our teammates. 

The mission was structured enough to allow for a real sense of achievement, but chaotic enough that it felt like a sprawling battle that you were only a small part of.

Space battles are only going to be part of Star Wars Battlefront 2’s gameplay but this attention to detail says promising things about what the rest of the game might offer and how all of the parts will come together. 

Is there a Beta?

We now have an official date for the Star Wars Battlefront II beta – October 4, 2017. That date is when players who pre-order the game will be able to jump in for the first time on PS4, Xbox One and PC. 

So what will the beta have in store? From the sounds of it, players can look forward to the 20 v 20 Galactic Assault mode on Theed City that we saw during EA's 2017 EA Play keynote at E3. You can also expect to see a Starfighter Assault battle match where you'll be allowed to fight in ship-to-ship combat.

Players who don't pre-order game will have to wait until the beta opens to the public two days later on October 6. Considering that the beta is only slated to go on until October 9, it might make sense for the most fervent of players to reserve a copy ahead of time.

Pre-orders

As seems to be the trend with franchise titles, there's more than one version of Battlefront 2 available to pre-order. Fortunately, where many franchises have 3 or 4 to choose from, Battlefront 2 has decided to stick to a much more easy to handle 2.

Standard Edition

The Standard Edition of the game is just that – the base game with no digital or physical extras. That said, if you pre-order it you will get access to a series of pre-order bonuses which include 6 ability modifiers for ships and characters and The Last Jedi-inspired looks for Rey and Kylo Ren. 

It's also worth noting that pre-ordering will give you access to the game's Beta in October. 

At the moment the cheapest UK retailer for pre-order is Amazon which is offering the standard version of the game for £49.99 on Xbox One and PS4 while CDKeys has it on PC for £31.99.

In the US, the game is currently unavailable to pre-order at Amazon and the price seems to be fairly standard at $60 across retailers from Walmart to GameStop.

Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition 

If you're not content with the Standard Edition and pre-order bonuses, you might want to take a look at the Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition. It's slightly more expensive but it also comes with 3 days early access to the game so that you can start playing on November 14. 

There's also upgraded versions of all 4 troopers classes, 4 ability upgrades for each of these trooper classes, instant access to Yoda's Lightsaber Mastery and all of the pre-order bonuses. 

This version of the game will set you back £69.99 on console at Amazon UK and $80 at several US retailers including Walmart and Gamestop.

Will there be VR?

It’s been revealed that Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission developer Criterion is involved in the development of Battlefront 2  which points to the idea that there will perhaps be some VR content  involved with the game, or at least the addition of some epic space  battle missions. 

In a recent interview,  it was revealed that as  far as the team is concerned “We are not talking about VR at the moment  for Battlefront 2. That's a story for another day…” That's not a direct  no, but it does confirm that Criterion's main involvement is with  regards to improving space battles and making them more dynamic and  open. 

Contributer : Techradar - All the latest technology news http://ift.tt/2rdczhN