Tuesday, October 10, 2017

battlefront beta

earnest greetings, dear reader


things all seem to be working differently with them computer games in this day and age. no, this is not some lament for the way things were, look you see, just an observation that they go in a different way. yes, this is all prompted by something called a Star Wars Battlefront II Beta.



apparently games are not simply released in any conventional way no more. no. in certain instances a demonstration version, or as in this case a "beta" version, is made available. this allows one to test the games out before purchasing, which is handy considering the cost of them these days. also, with particular emphasis on the "beta" element, it lets programmers test and maybe fix any glitches or errors prior to it coming out. 

my involvement, or if you like remit, with this was to ensure it got downloaded for James to play. he seems rather keen on the fully fledged version of this particular variation of Space Invaders and was so like totes down on playing this "beta" for the short time it was available.



i think that picture was off of James playing it, or it might be off of the promo video which accompanied the download of this "beta" version. no matter, it reflects what James tells me is important - that one can play as Boba Fett, Han Solo, Darth Maul and, if i have recalled her name right, Rey out of the new(ish) films.

actually let me google before i get any angry Trekkies telling me that i am disrespecting them by not using the proper names. yes it is Rey, parentage unknown but for some reason people seem to think she is off of the loins of virginal, celibate Obi-Wan Kenobi. maybe, like so many Catholic priests before him, he had a lapse in concentration.

of particular interest to James was that you could play as Rey as she will appear in the next Star Wars film, which is to say in some sort of "Jedi training" threads.



well, whilst we are all gathered here on the subject of Star Wars once more, it is time. time, dear reader, to have a gander at what joys my Star Wars "concept art" calendar has delivered for the month that is this month which is October.

as it turns out, it features the 2nd / sort of 3rd / "actually" 5th one, The Empire Strikes Back, for the final time of the year of the calendar.



i can remember these bits, this was all towards the end of the film. sadly they have concentrated on the whiny fake orphan and the government administrator who is just trying to maintain law and order instead of the boss bit where Lando flies the spaceship, but no matter.

many consider The Empire Strikes Back to be the greatest of all Star Wars films. as it is the only one (thus far) to feature Lobot i would like to agree but cannot. the law of cinema always says the first is the best. thus, for a long time A New Hope was the best, followed by the 2nd Star Wars venture, Christmas Special. making this one 3rd best.

now, of course, as any fan will tell you, with the proper order of films made the best is of course Episode I The Phantom Menace. with Empire Strikes Back being called "Episode V" i guess this is the 5th best, although actually only 6th if you count Christmas Special. which i do.



yeah, that's back to this Battlefront II Beta, with an image taken again with that "yaycam" thing i installed and seem to meaninglessly threaten to delete.

one of the selling points of this Battlefront II game is that it lets you play in stories set between Episode VI - City Under Siege and Episode VII - Mission To Moscow. that's some 30 years or so, which gives plenty of scope. the image above is from a video of a "cut scene" as they are called from such a level. at least i think it is, i don't remember.



James assures me that it is very good that you can play as Han Solo in this one. i shall take his word for it. to be honest i was sure you could play as him in one of the other games, but i do tend to forget stuff these days.

it would have been amazing to have all this in advance of release "beta" stuff and download content when i was of a game playing age. things like Impossible Mission, Stroker Ace, Pitstop II and Clumsy Colin Action Biker would have been fantastic to access early. on a similar note, Bruce Lee and loads of other Commodore 64 games would have been brilliant things to buy extra content and download for. only we didn't really have "downloads" then.



well yeah, so anyway, the short version of this would seem to be that James things Star Wars Battlefront II will be very good indeed, based on his experiences of playing (for many hours) this "Beta" version. crap name, though. they should have called it the "VHS" version and more people would have had an interest, probably.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




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