A Gaming Diary
Posts tagged star wars
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Oct 16th
I have to say that, despite its faults, this game is excellent fun in short bursts. I set up some Instant Action using Random settings and played a couple of quick rounds during Dragons’ Den last night and had a great time. I earned a couple of medals (Achievements in all but name), manned the gun of an AT-AT, rode a Kybuck and killed Admiral Ackbar. Excellent.
The clunkiness of the controls is an issue and always will be, but I think the solution they’ve come up with is the best possible on the PSP. It’s just a shame the PSP doesn’t have a couple of pop-out analogue sticks or something.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Oct 12th
I just tried this online. Oof.
The interface is easy enough to use, but finding anyone online in the EU is hard. (Plenty of US types playing, but the pings are bad.) I fought two matches against bots before finding a server with people playing. That was like playing against bots, except it was horribly laggy (teleporting stormtroopers, no thanks) and unfair. Unfair, because I got stuck on a team consisting of myself and seven bots against a team of four people and four bots. As the bots are utterly useless, that meant my opponents had a massive advantage.
Still, I played for over half an hour, so it can’t have been utterly awful, I suppose.
And then I went to the stats page… but I didn’t seem to have any. Maybe you need to play matches full of people and no bots, or something. That could prove tricky, unless things pick up a bit. I mean, maybe people are out on the town, as it’s Friday night, instead of staying home watching Emmylou Harris Night on BBC4.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Oct 12th
What are lunchtimes at work for, if not for playing a quick couple of levels of a video game?
In this respect, Renegade Squadron is a perfect handheld game. I started it up, choose “Single Player”, then “Instant Action”, chose Endor as the map and Conquest as the game type and off I went. (Conquest is the only game type without flags. The idea is to control spawn points on the map. If your team can keep all of them under control for a full minute, you win.)
It’s a fun way to rewrite history. I’m not sure what triggered it, but in the first round I suddenly got the option to play as Han Solo. I accepted. A few seconds after I’d taken control, Darth Vader appeared. Proving that hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster, I ran around and shot him to bits. Don’t know why Luke had such trouble with the guy, really.
In the next round I played as an Imperial and – again, seemingly at random – got the option to play as Darth Vader. In the language of the Internet, I pwned all. I was an unstoppable force and turned the tide of the battle single-handedly. (Or so I like to think.) Pity I only realised I had a Force Choke move after all the rebel scum were dead.
There’s no denying that it’s clunky, but it is fun. Whether it’ll still be fun when the novelty wears off, I don’t yet know. Oh, how I wish the PSP was equipped with two good-quality analogue conrollers. Then we’d really be talking.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Oct 12th
Seems to have divided opinion, this one. I can see why, based on an hour or so of play last night. It’s a bit clunky and easy until suddenly death comes out of nowhere. Not that death matters that much, you just respawn and get stuck back in again.
First up, I did the first couple of campaign missions. On the ground you lock on to people, run around them and hammer the fire button. In the air, you lock on to people, hit the autopilot button and hammer the fire button. That’s about it.
Then did a couple of skirmishes with brain-dead bots. Won the first one – a straight game of Capture The Flag with a single flag. The second game was something called Hero Capture The Flag, or something, which meant Kit Fisto and Jango Fett were carrying flags around. I didn’t quite work out quite what was going on and my side lost the match.
Really, it seems easy and fun to play without excelling at anything – other than being Star Wars, which it’s bloody good at. That’s probably the important bit. If you’re the type of person who, like me, gets a giddy thrill at going to the customisation menu for the first time and seeing you can play as a dreadlocked wookie then you’re going to be a lot more receptive than someone who would have trouble picking Admiral Ackbar out of an identity parade.
Sometime this weekend I hope to test the online play. I expect to die. A lot.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (360)
Oct 16th
Playing this on my 360. Enjoying it more than on the original Xbox because I can see what’s going on. It helps.
However, I died a million times in the skies over Kashyyyk at the weekend and once I got quite far into the mission and one of the mission events failed to trigger. I hope that was just a one-off and not a problem with playing the game on the 360.
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge Of The Sith (DS)
Oct 8th
A nice little licensed game. A scrolling beat-em-up of the old school, with 3D Starfox-style flying stages inserted every few stages.
The story is compressed so much that it’s completely nonsensical if you’ve not seen the movie, but who’s going to be playing who hasn’t?
Far better than the awful Lego Star Wars II DS game, at any rate.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (XBOX)
Oct 6th
Used this to test out Xbox on new TV. No improvement in visual quality – Xbox RGB output still seems to be horirbly dark and sludgy. This is an official cable and everything. I am perplexed.
Wish it looked better, as the game itself is perfectly enjoyable in short bursts.
Lego Star Wars 2 (DS)
Sep 18th
Oh dear.
This just doesn’t really work on the DS.
And I’m not sure if it isn’t the fault of the DS Lite’s d-pad.
Lego Star Wars 2 (360)
Sep 12th
Bloody great fun for my wife and I WHEN IT’S NOT GLITCHING OUT BY NOT OPENING A FORCE FIELD AND THEREFORE MEANING WE HAVE TO QUIT AND MISS OUT ON OUR FIRST TRUE JEDI STATUS SINCE THE FIRST LEVEL.
Bastard, bastard, bastard game.
Plus, I spent a good 45 minutes hunting around trying to see what I was missing until finally going online a finding deep in the Internet – the GameFAQs board for the PC version of the game – that it’s a glitch and I’m not the only one to find it.
Grrrrrr.
Lego Star Wars 2 (360)
Sep 11th
Brilliant.
Just spent an evening playing this with my wife. She doesn’t like the flying sections much, but loves the rest. Me, I like all of it.
We got through A New Hope and are now half-way through The Empire Strikes Back. We’re not doing too well at being True Jedi or finding secrets yet.
Anyway, it’s excellent.
