Star Wars Battlefront week: Jem's impressions

Filed under: Star Wars

All this week, the writers of PS Fanboy will share their impressions of Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. Make sure you come back every day, as we'll be giving away five limited edition Darth Vader PSP-2000 systems.

Having not played a Star Wars game since X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and Yoda Stories way back in the day, the Battlefront franchise has, until now, completely passed me by. As a result I had no idea what to expect when I loaded up the UMD. After beginning campaign mode I was pleasantly surprised and bltized through it almost in an entire sitting.

Which brings me to my first complaint: the game is hilariously easy. After I had worked out my personal favourite weapon set up (shotgun and grenade launcher) I never found myself changing it. Normal difficulty is ridiculously unbalanced in the player's favour.

After completing campaign mode and, sadly, lacking any form of internet access, I set my sights to the Galactic Conquest game mode. What followed was a love affair of astronomical proportions (get it? Astronomy? Stars? Star Wars? I'll get my coat ...). Galactic Conquest is a mixture between two of my favourite games - Master of Orion and the board game Risk.

While Nick has already explained how Galactic Conquest works and why it's great, I'm going to lay out the areas in which it disappoints. To begin with, however: some gushing. The premise works really well and, in terms of length, does not disappoint. I've sat down and played several games each coming to a close at between an hour and a half and two hours of game time. Galactic Conquest also breaks up the monotony of constant fighting with some tactical turn based strategy. In short, it's excellent. I just wish there was more of it.

The main problem is that the game mode feels tacked on to the bottom of the Single Player menu. The biggest tragedy being that there is no multiplayer version. Not even in Ad Hoc mode. Master of Orion 2's LAN multiplayer was excellent and that game came out in 1996. There's really no excuse.

This is just one facet of Galactic Conquest mode that feels incomplete. The map remains the same no matter how many games you play - the only thing that changes in this respect is ownership of the different planets. I would have liked to have seen several different maps rotated out, in order to keep the game fresh. Players have the option of choosing between the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire but, in practice, this makes little difference. The commanders that you can hire ultimately do the same things, regardless of which faction you choose. All that really changes is the Hero that you can play as during the game.

The game map is also unbalanced. Out of the 16 available planets, only a handful require you to take part in space combat, with the majority relying on ground combat. While not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your tastes, it can become a bit wearying playing ground combat after ground combat. Sometimes space battles are nice to break up the gameplay a bit.

As for the combat itself, I'll return to a previous point: the game is far too easy. Normal mode is, seemingly, impossible to lose at and while Elite difficulty increases the challenge slightly, it's still too easy to beat. I've played several games of Galactic Conquest and have yet to be beaten at a ground combat mission. This makes the game feel more like a time waster, than an actual game. But considering the "tacked on" feel of the entire game mode, this doesn't come as a huge surprise. This problem would likely be solved by the inclusion of a multiplayer mode. Playing against another human brain would drastically up the ante and make Galactic Conquest far more exciting.

Overall, the Galactic Conquest game mode is my favourite part of Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. Despite everything I've said so far, it is really excellent fun. It's just a shame more effort wasn't put into it. As a bonus feature accompanying the main game, it's fine. But if it were given the limelight and development time it deserves, it could be a successful full game in its own right.

S-video cables won't be coming to North America

Filed under: News, Peripherals

Unlike the rest of the modern world, gamers in North America won't be getting official S-video cables for their PSP 2000s as Sony decided to only support composite and component cables in our region, according to a story published by Game Informer.

A Sony spokesperson said the company wants to streamline its selection by offering the two most commonly used video standards. While some gamers might be a bit bummed by this announcement, we don't think it's that big a deal since getting the most out of the PSP 2000's video output will require component cables in the first place.

However, if you really want to stick it to the man, there's always the option of importing, right?

Star Wars Battlefront week: Nick's impressions

Filed under: Star Wars

All this week, the writers of PS Fanboy will share their impressions of Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. Make sure you come back every day, as we'll be giving away five limited edition Darth Vader PSP-2000 systems.

I'll be quite frank: this is the first time I've played a Star Wars game on my own time since Shadows of the Empire on the Nintendo 64. It was bitchin', sure, but I only played stuff like Knights of the Old Republic on a friend's system. Before Shadows, I think the only other Star Wars game I had was on the NES -- it was hard. Very hard. So, unlike Andrew and Colin, I have no prior experience with the Battlefront franchise, so its move on PSP is less of a surprise to me, more of ... an initiation into something fantastic.

I don't know why Andrew and Colin are so dismissive of the controls -- maybe they're used to something completely different, but as a Battlefront virgin, I found my cherry popping experience delightfully intuitive. [Wow, strong imagery there! - Ed.] The basics are this: you don't move your cursor around -- you press and hold the R trigger to lock onto nearby enemies. The longer you lock, the stronger your shot. When you're locked, instead of running, you strafe. I think you can cycle through enemies with the D-pad during a lock-on, but I'd just tap the R trigger and move onto the next closest target. Actually, you know what, the controls are exactly like Mega Man Legends. Maybe that's why I love them.

I wasn't fond of the vehicles. No real reason, but the larger ones got stuck a lot and controlling your aim was more cumbersome than rewarding. Leave the vehicles for your AI peons to handle as you wreck an enemy stronghold all by your lonesome. This is especially true in the Galaxy Conquest mode, which I'll be chatting about for the remainder of this impression.

Galaxy Conquest is a turn-based strategy version of Star Wars Battlefront that is like a cross between awesome and stellar. GC takes place on a map with four planetary quadrants, each quadrant with a certain "Hero" to unlock. At the beginning, you're assigned a random grouping of planets and you start off in the first phase: Treasury. You accumulate purchasing credits through the number of planets under your control and if you have any quadrants under your belt. So this phase basically entails your allocation of purchasing credits for that round.

The second phase is Purchase. In this, you can purchase troops to assign to each of your planets, or buy upgrades. Upgrades come in three flavors: the amount of troops you can assign to each planet, your ground forces' strength, and the vehicles available in space battles. When you control an entire quadrant, you can purchase the services of that quadrant's Hero and subsequent abilities (Leia cuts the cost of things in half, for example). It's simple, it's intuitive, it's strategy.

The third phase is Movement -- the attacking phase! Well, you can occupy a neutral planet, too, but the bulk of the game will be attacking the enemy planets. When attacking, you can assign a certain number of troops to assault the planet (if you have 50 stationed on one planet, you can move up to 40 to another planet ... you need to leave some behind just in case!) and either let the conflict resolve itself, or take part in the battle personally. If you want to conserve troops and cash, going in yourself is the best option. Depending on the planet you attack, either a ground battle or space battle will ensue -- I prefer the ground battles. Even now, I'm the complete suck at space battles.

The final phase is Reinforce, which is exactly what it sounds like. You get to move troops from one planet to an adjacent one; choose wisely. Then the enemy does its rounds -- rinse and repeat.

I found this mode to be extremely fun, obviously. Since Andrew and Colin have talked in excess about the ground and space battles, you know how they go. The ground battles are basic "kill everyone" or "take over all strongholds" while the space battles require you to destroy everyone or take out the enemy starship's defenses. Nothing fancy, but it doesn't need to be. There's no story, either, which is very slightly disappointing. What's your motive for taking over a galaxy, you know? It's no big deal, the micromanagement options and strategy should easily win over people not necessarily fond of the main game. An issue is the lack of randomization of the galaxy itself -- it's always the same planets in the same place with the same quadrants. You're assigned different ones, yes, but it would be nice to make the galaxy larger or smaller to increase difficulty.

The graphics are nice, the controls are fine by me, and the gameplay, specifically Galaxy Conquest, is quite entertaining. I feel like I've been missing out on the Star Wars action since the N64, so I hope enough of you find our impressions worthwhile and pick up the game to play with us. This is definitely a game to keep your eyes on, as we all seem enamored with what Rebellion has put together.

Stay tuned for impressions of the game from the other PS Fanboy writers.

Infomercial: UMDs are 'built to self-destruct'

Filed under: Peripherals, Video

If you're like the folks at Multimedia Recovery, your UMD discs are exploding all the time. Seriously. As this seller admits, they're "built to self-destruct." Our experience with the discs have been far less volatile -- and trust us, we've played a lot of PSP games. What could be the reasoning behind making such a bold claim?

Well, it's obvious. He wants to sell you something: so-called "indestructible" UMD casings. Sure, they're cheap (only $4, shipped!). But, as bickle from CAG puts best, it "looks like a solution in search of a problem."

Win a copy of the God of War: Chains of Olympus demo

Filed under: God of War

Why pay $53 on eBay? If you missed your chance to get the free God of War: Chains of Olympus UMD demo, then get one from us. In fact, we're giving THREE copies away. It's easy.

To enter, simply leave a comment. The comment must be left before October 6th, 5PM EST. You may enter only once. Three (3) winners will be selected in a random drawing. Three (3) winners will receive a God of War: Chains of Olympus UMD demo disc, (no ARV). Click here for complete Official Rules. You must be a US resident, age 18 or older to enter.