We NEED More Darth Maul!

When you think of awesome Star Wars characters, Darth Maul is one of the first that comes to mind.

He is by far the most unique, animal-like beings throughout the entire saga.

Whether it’s his snarl that best resembles a predator ready to leap or his voracious heaves of his lightsaber, Darth Maul is a literal beast.

So if you’re reading this you’re probably saying “Of course he is, we all know that. What’s your point?”

Well my point is this: Why is a character that is so spectacularly awesome barely in Star Wars????

The man is a revenge seeking missile hellbent on vindicating his name and glory as he believes himself to be the chosen one.

He is a civilized entity that breathes fire and spits lightning.

Darth Maul, Lord of the Sith is about as terrifying and merciless as anyone in Star Wars history.

The following clip sums up the guy’s prowess perfectly. Check it out.

Now that’s some powerful stuff…

You have to be pretty cold-hearted to walk in Darth Maul’s shoes.

But you know all of this.

So where am I trying to go with this?

The point is, Darth Maul is returning.

The Dathomirian devil will return to Star Wars Rebels at some point in Season 2.

With another episode tomorrow night, the excitement of the possibility of seeing the legendary Sith/assassin back in action is at an all time high.

It will be fascinating to see what this prolific character’s role will be as there are a million ways to go.

Will he be a secret agent working directly under Darth Sidious with the sole intent of bringing Ezra Bridger to face the Emperor?

Will he be a lone wolf dedicated to the shadows as much as the Dark Side?

Or will he be a scarred and battered soul that is working against his former Master?

With so many possibilities it makes you wonder. What the heck took so long!?

Darth Maul is a character that has so much to offer everyone.

He provides a shiny new plot to any story, he excites Star Wars fans of any age with his unorthodox style and he is undeniably a force to be reckoned with.

I think it’s a darn shame that it took this long for Maul to be reintroduced to the mainstream audiences of Star Wars.

By mainstream I simply mean television or movies rather than books or comics.

Now, yes he was in The Clone Wars but only in a handful of episodes out of well over a hundred and you know what? That doesn’t do this great character justice.

I firmly believe that Darth Maul deserves his own independent film and hey, maybe that’s the direction Disney is going here.

If that is the case then well, Disney? THE WORLD THANKS YOU!

But in all seriousness, there should be about half a dozen video games dedicated to this guy, he should have his own show that mainly focuses on Maul’s acts of the Dark and like I said, even his own movie.

Just think about it…

There’s no one like him! Darth Maul is arguably the most physically gifted character, one of the most talented lightsaber wielders and his skills as an assassin just add to his legendary status of elite!

The man survived being cut in half and a never ending fall for goodness’ sake!

Not even the powerful Mace Windu was able to survive similar a defeat…or so we think…

Anyways, I just think Darth Maul deserves so much more credit than what he’s gotten in terms of recognition.

I think he needs to be in more of the spotlight and honestly, I expect that to be the case in the future.

-Sith Pacify out

 

 

Star Wars Battlefront Announces New Material

Today the folks at EA announced new content for Star Wars Battlefront.

Surprising? No.

About time? You got that right.

The new material will be released in different time increments with the earliest portion being dropped tomorrow.

A detailed list of what’s to come was posted on the game’s Facebook account.

Tomorrow

• The Tatooine Survival map will now support the Blast, Droid Run, Drop Zone, Hero Hunt, and Heroes vs Villains multiplayer modes, and is called Raider Camp.
• New Hoth-themed outfits for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, both of which will be available to all fans when they play as these two iconic characters on Hoth – these were unlocked by our players for completing our Heroes’ Holiday community mission last month.
• We are giving players the ability to create Private Matches, which makes playing with friends even easier.
• The introduction of Daily Challenges and Community Events. These are designed to rally the Community around certain goals and objectives, giving players the chance to earn credits and unlocks even faster. We’ll have more news regarding Community Events and Daily Challenges in the days ahead.
• And of course, we are also including some overall balancing tweaks to both weapons and multiplayer modes.

February 

• A new Survival mission on Hoth, and a brand-new Hoth multiplayer map that will support our larger game modes including Walker Assault, Supremacy, Fighter Squadron and Turning Point.
•  Turning Point will be available on all maps that currently support Walker Assault and Supremacy in the February update.

March

• A new multiplayer map on Endor that will support Walker Assault, Supremacy, and Turning Point, and an additional Tatooine Survival map.

 

Now that you’ve seen all of that, it’s time to talk about it.

For starters, all of this will be free.

That’s awesome and very cool of EA.

However, we gamers are not stupid and for those who payed for EA’s “epic” Season Pass, we should be quite disappointed.

Before today, no one had any clue what was going on with the Season Pass.

It was as if EA took everyone’s money and just said “Oh well, we’re just going to keep this and not give you anything extra because well, we think we deserve it…”

But alas, our disappointment has come to an end as a bit of clarity was finally introduced.

The Season Pass too was announced which gives us all quite a bit of excitement.

Here’s what we can expect.

 

• Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Outer Rim (March 2016) – Fight among the factories of Sullust and battle within Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine
• Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Bespin (Summer 2016) – It’s hunt or be hunted in this action-packed experience set in the Cloud City of Bespin
• Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Death Star (Fall 2016) – That’s no moon! One of the most iconic locations in the Star Wars universe makes its debut in Star Wars Battlefront.
• Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Expansion Pack 4 – Title TBA (Early 2017) – We will have more details to share about this exciting new expansion pack in the coming months.

 

All four of these maps seem like they’re going to be so much fun.

Although the game thus far has been mildly okay and predictably repetitive with only five maps, this is a direct injection of jubilation.

The guys over at EA are not stupid.

They’re very wise to release two maps rather than just one in the first expansion pack for the Season Pass in March.

Now besides the new maps, what I’m most looking forward to is the new costumes to Han and Luke.

As you can see in the cover photo, it looks pretty clean.

I think from an aesthetics standpoint, to see a blue lightsaber upon the crystal-white landscape on Hoth will look incredibly awesome.

For Han, his costume just looks like the same old Han. Badass.

Another important update that EA is adding (tomorrow) is the “overall balancing tweaks to both weapons and multiplayer modes.”

To put it lightly…this is very much needed.

Some weapons are just way too powerful and others are just extremely weak.

It’s a great piece of the game to improve on so, well done EA.

Just to put things in perspective, it was very important that we at long last recieved an update about the Season Pass and about the future of this game.

Believe me, it needed it in the most severest of ways.

As a Star Wars fan and a gamer, it’s very hard to play a game for hours upon hours when it only features five maps with very limited characters.

Basically, the game was getting ridiculously boring…

On top of that, so many people including myself purchased the Season Pass and since the game came out in November, no one had any idea what was the deal with it.

January is almost over and to STILL not have any idea what’s going on with that was a major problem so I’m glad EA fixed that.

All in all, EA seems to have done a nice job with these fixes and additions.

I’m really looking forward to playing them and seeing everything in action!

-Sith Pacify out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Take on Star Wars Battlefront

Exactly at midnight on Monday night or early Tuesday morning, (however you want to look at it) I finally had my copy of Star Wars Battlefront.

By the time I got into it, I had an early idea on how the experience playing this game was going to go…

Honestly, it was breathtaking.

For starters, I have never seen a game with better graphics and better sound effects.

When you’re staring behind the scope of your E-11, firing into the chest of a stormtrooper, you can feel the energy shooting out of your weapon.

The bright, quick-hitting colors throughout the entire game is what sets this one apart.

The gameplay is very user-friendly and it’s easy to get the hang of it.

It’s fun to play, very entertaining and engaging and best of all, extremely addicting.

The game’s “team deathmatch” mode which is called Blast, is a basic team against team, first to 100 kills.

But the difference between this game and say Battlefield, the game is timed for a simple and short 10 minutes.

After playing two or three games of “Blast” in a row, I had other engagements that needed tending to and thus was preparing to turn off my system.

To my surprise, I found myself continuously going back and playing another one while I said to myself, “Just one more…”.

That’s exactly what you want in a game.

An addicting game, is a great game.

As for the ship-to-ship combat, I have a couple points to make.

If you’ve ever played Battlefield 4, you’ll most likely agree that the air combat is slim and far in between.

Basically, it’s close to impossible to fight and dominate the skies with a helicopter.

Now, in Battlefront, I’m not going to say it’s easy but it’s a lot more straightforward to fight in the sky.

It’s a real breath of fresh air in the fact that dogfights are not as hard to control as past DICE games and are a whole lot of fun.

As for the heroes and lightsaber combat, well you’re going wish you could always use a blade of energy to clash with your enemies.

The first impression I had when I saw the Emperor striding along on the battle field was shock and excitement.

I was walking through a landing platform that had massive cargo boxes all over the place when a shrouded figure dressed in black and my character practically ran into each other…

It was a short rendezvous as I quickly succumbed to the debilitating lightning surging through Ol’ Palpy’s fingers.

Look, the heroes are awesome.

It is so much fun to go around the fighting as Vader and just completely dominate your Rebel enemies.

Another game mode that is very fun too is “Heroes vs Villains”.

You’re either the Rebels or the Imperials and depending on the side, you get Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia or the Emperor, Boba Fett and Darth Vader.

Three out of however many other players are on your side get to be the heroes and the rest are foot soldiers.

It’s just an awesome time as you cut down Rebel soldiers and engage Luke in a saber match.

All in all, Star Wars Battlefront is a must-buy for any Star Wars fan and for gamers who like shooters, you’re going to really enjoy it as well.

I hope this is one of many Star Wars games as we’ve had a major drought in the past 10 years besides a few.

If you’re on the fence on whether or not you should purchase this game, I say you go for it.

Well done DICE and EA, job well done.

-Sith Pacify out

 

 

 

 

Where we Stand in the Star Wars Timeline…Right Now

It is currently Friday morning, the 13th of November.

We are four days away from the international launch of Star Wars Battlefront which is incredibly exciting not only because it’s a new Star Wars game (duh) but it will feature a lot of material from The Force Awakens.

In addition to the release of Battlefront, we are exactly five weeks away from Episode VII!

Since my last post, the excitement has seemingly ratcheted up to levels even I was unaware they could reach.

I’ve heard multiple times this week various theories on the events in TFA and how they are to play out.

In addition to the dissecting of the film’s plot, Disney has been working around the clock.

There’s multiple marketing platforms that have been intensely advertising the film which now includes TV.

What’s more, Disney is adding to their flawless marketing campaign by utilizing all of their platforms which is now including TV shows.

It was announced earlier this week that during Friday night’s showing of Girl Meets World on the Disney Channel, there will be a sneak peek of The Force Awakens.

Interestingly enough, this seems to be another audience Disney is reaching out too.

Clearly, the same people watching ESPN’s Monday Night Football will not be watching the Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World.

With that being said, the game plan is obvious.

Disney is trying to reach as many different groups as they possibly can while they spare no resource.

Now, on to Battlefront.

For many Star Wars gamers, this has been such a long time coming.

I can recall Halloween of 2005, the same day Star Wars Battlefront II was released.

After picking up my copy and after trick-or-treating, I fell into a deep state of nirvana as I immersed myself within the game.

Little did I know, it would be 10 long years until the next Star Wars Battlefront game would hit the shelves.

This is much bigger than a highly anticipated game however.

This is a groundbreaking event within the Star Wars community.

I know so many others who were just like me. Who waited and waited, wondering where the next Battlefront game was with no answers.

But all that is in the past now.

As the Grand Moff Tarkin once said, “This will be a day long remembered.”

Come next Tuesday, we finally get to see the next chapter of Star Wars Battlefront which I am extraordinarily excited for.

What’s the most exciting about all of this Star Wars talk is the potential.

With Episode VII coming out and Battlefront being released, just think of what’s next!

A Galaxy of endless possibilities awaits us.

-Sith Pacify out

The Importance of Star Wars Battlefront

The Star Wars Battlefront franchise was introduced to the world in September of 2004. From that point on, Battlefront would continue to grow and become a dynamic force not only among Star Wars fans but within the video game universe as well.

The title brought with it unique opportunities for its users to duke it out on some of the famous maps that Star Wars fans have grown to love throughout the years.

It only took 405 days for Star Wars Battelfront II to be released.

The power that a Star Wars game generates is supreme and elite amongst video games. Battlefront II would go on to be a giant in the industry for years to come. Hell, I still play it from time to time and it’s almost been 10 years since its release!

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news when talking about Star Wars video games.

Major Star Wars titles began to disappear to the point of practical nonexistence after 2005.

As I have discussed in my other posts, between 2005 to about 2012, Star Wars as a whole experienced a period of stagnation.

I really believe that this is due in a large part to the strange absence of Star Wars Battlefront in the younger generations everyday lives.

The growth of Star Wars is contrived from different media enterprises. A large part of this was Battlefront.

Let’s be real, the driving force that follows Star Wars today is the younger generation. With the lack of a major uniting video game like Battlefront, Star Wars undoubtedly suffered.

Of course there were titles like Star Wars The Force Unleashed and Star Wars The Old Republic. But these titles had one thing in common: the premise was centered around lightsaber combat, not all-out war on a global scale.

This is what made Battlefront so incredible! Not to mention, the game also incorporated lightsaber combat as well.

Of course all Star Wars fans love lightsaber warfare but the key is “Star Wars fans”.

The beautiful element that Battlefront offered that separated it from any Star Wars video game is the fact that it encompassed all aspects of war that made the games appealing to gamers in general.

This central element of Star Wars games were missing.

Until, last year…

Finally, Star Wars fans and video gamers alike rejoiced everywhere as Star Wars Battlefront III was finally announced.

I’d compare the hype to the second release of Halo, the many releases of Grand Theft Auto as well as the highly anticipated Call of Duty games.

So I ask you (rhetorically speaking) why is Battlefront so important? Simple.

This game is the galvanizing force that assembles Star Wars fans energy and anticipation and constructs a beacon of immense excitement.

That right there is the power of video games.

The sheer build up of electric commotion, that stimulates fan bases from video games, is practically better than any other source of excitement out there.

With that being said, come November 17th, 2015, Star Wars fans (including me) will be celebrating with pure exuberance as their beloved game returns.

-Sith Pacify out