To EA’s credit, they have been quick to respond to such complaints, both reducing the amount of grinding necessary to get the best upgrades and removing the entire real world money side of the game, though they say (warn) that they will be bringing it back at some point in the unspecified future. There was also something about loot crates maybe (or maybe not) providing powerful upgrades, which (again due to the real world money thing) resulted in the Belgian (or maybe Brazilian, or perhaps Belarusian – one of those ‘B’ countries) government to declare it unregulated gambling. That last bit about the real world money naturally resulted in howls about players paying to win, providing a new layer of inequality to an existence that perhaps has enough income inequality built into it already. Battlefront 2 has further complicated my life by allowing players to purchase upgrades either through an apparently stupendous amount of grinding or with real world money.

In a related note, wow, my friends cannot spell. I also have a lot of friends who are gamers, who send me quick chat comments like “The nu Star Wars game sux donkey ballz!!!” even if I ask them not to. Game reviews are everywhere on even regular news sites, often with spoiler-y, unclever headlines like “New Star Wars game fails to use the force” (Thank you, CNN.com). Simply avoiding game review sites is no longer good enough. You had to actually go to the trouble of connecting to the interwebs with a dial up modem to actively seek out other gamer opinions. In the early days of gaming, this was pretty easy. I should probably begin by saying that, as a rule, I try and avoid reading any reviews or engaging with other gamers or looking at forums where I might come across game comments which could influence my review. The Ugly: Ridiculously imbalanced multiplayer games.

The Bad: Campaign is short and narratively awkward. The Good: Authentic Star War-zy graphics and sound.

Star wars battlefront 2 graphics