EA has blown people’s minds because they announced a lot of information about Star Wars Battlefront. A game that I have defended on the site due to it not having a campaign. [read that here] Today Ea announced that there will be a beta as well as gamemodes playable in the beta and a companion app.

The beta drops on Early October for Playstation 4, Xbox One and on Origin for PC. On starwars.ea.com they state that it is a technical test, something that EA need to do to death *cough* *cough *Battlefield 4*cough*. It will feature “ Walker Assault on Hoth “ which is a 40 player multiplayer battle. Rebels vs Empire. We also get the opportunity to pit father and son against each other because you can play as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Rebels have to hold back the Empire and destroy the AT-ATs. You have to deploy Y-wings, which are the only things that can damage them. Contrastingly, the Empire have to escort the AT-ATs across Hoth in hopes of destroying the Rebel base. If you earn enough points, you get to pilot one and destroy Rebels. I am very excited to play this because I am interested to see how it plays because I was never a fan of Battlefield and to me, it looks exactly like a reskinned version of that. Plus 20 vs 20 sounds like an awesome experience.

The beta will also feature “ Survival Mission on Tatooine” which is a 15 wave survival against the Empire. This can be played solo or in co-op – splitscreen  and/or online. Throughout the game, there are opportunities to get extra lives and power ups. This gamemode will be available for all the planets in the game on the games launch, and each map has been tailored for the gamemode, meaning you will not be playing on standard planet levels. I love it when developers make variations of maps because it means that each time you play, you will be reevaluating the environment which adds another layer of difficulty. Survival gamemodes are awesome. I haven’t played one for as long as I did since Uncharted 2, and it was great. Playing with friends is the best way to play these game types and I simply can’t wait for this beta.

In the coming up weeks, EA will be announcing a third gamemode for the beta. All we know at this point is that it is called “Drop Zone”. I think this may be some kind of domination gametype, or one where you have to traverse the map with data packs and deliver them to checkpoints. A bit like king of the hill.

The news isn’t over yet. During the beta, EA will be launching the Battlefront Companion experience. It features a strategic card game called ‘Base Command”. Playing this allows you to earn in game credits which can be spent on Star Cards and weaponry. Players can also check their stats, customize loadouts and connect with friends so you can see when they are online. This will be available on the web, the App Store and the Google Play Store.

The closest thing that this relates to, is the Call Of Duty Elite app. That allowed you to change loadouts wherever you were and check stats.

Hopefully this announcement helps to put those who are still sore about the lack of single player at ease. If the game is actually good and we don’t come across too many technical issues, then this should be an outrageous beta. Hopefully EA take whatever they learn about stress on the servers and can apply it to the full launch so it goes smoothly.

 

UPDATE

Battlefront Beta has a release date of October 8th

For PS4

Xbox One

PC