Who's down for a trip down the Corridor of Death(TM) on release day people? Those who have played the original Battlefront will know what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5HMUAlxkws

At last we have some news on SW:BF DLC, there is a new update on the way that'll get us heroes in appropriate kits for the maps, it sounds pretty insignificant, but that is a big deal, for me seeing Luke in his Jedi outfit rather than the appropriate cold weather gear, and the correct lightsaber really ruined the immersion factor for me on the Hoth maps. Other pluses are private matches at last, which is a big thing, should make matchmaking with friends a lot easier.

But the big news is what we'll be getting with the future Season Pass expansion packs, pretty much what we all expected, but still good to see officially confirmed. Bespin and the Death Star will finally be making an appearance together with an old SW:BF fave Jabba's Palace. This is great news, but people could argue this should have been included with the original game release. Would be nice to see more built up city like locations on some of the currently appearing worlds, such as a map based on Mos Eisley for Tatooine for example. There is an expansion pack still without content revealed which we can guess will be based on sequel movies TFA and perhaps Rogue One locations, but the thing still conspicuous by its absence are true space maps. Not there because we're going to get a dedicated Star Wars space battle game like X-Wing? We can only hope.

Well, in any case, I REALLY wish we had a server browser and the ability to setup private matches.

IMHO, an Instant Action mode with full bot support is imperative. If DICE were to implement this, it would speak volumes of how seriously both they and EA are taking fan input, and the boost of faith fans would get would be invaluable to them.

Not to mention the longevity having this kind of mode would add to the game. It costs money to run servers, and the simple fact is one day they will be taken offline. That's just how it is. And considering how much of the game is focused on online multiplayer, it'll essentially kill it.

Just thinking about having an Instant Action mode gets me super excited. The ability to play every map in every mode alone or co-op with a few friends to practice using everything at our leisure, or just plain explore the maps and goof around would be so much fun. There's a big push for it on the official forums. I sure hope DICE will do it.

Considering the Battle of Jakku is a free DLC pack, and it's available to everyone now, I don't understand why DICE didn't merge it into the main playlist via a game update this week.

I was hoping to pick it up when it went super cheap but it looks like by that time the game will be dead.

I did see a report that there were lower than expected retail sales, but that is most likely because of the increase in online sales.   

I have also seen feedback that Walker Assault and Supremecy are the two major gamemodes.   

I also saw feedback that leveling up seems like a grind after you have played through all the maps.

I have found on playing further is that though I prefer 1st person for that more immediate and immersive gaming experience, that in vehicles the 3rd person view seems to make the controls respond a lot more intuitively. I know that in general your play will improve from having a better field of vision etc, but in starfighters in particular the controls seemed to respond and handle a lot more how you'd expect when viewed from the 3rd perspective. So if you're having trouble in them you should give that a try, it improved my game no end in the singleplayer/co-op training mode for starfighters, and in multiplayer too. Annoys me though that it doesn't work equally good in both perspectives, as I like the feel of being right there in cockpit. With the Speederbikes I still go 1st person as I don't really feel a control handling issue when using that vehicle.

Has anyone tried the Sullust Survival mode map? Now that was intense. Might be just that there were less waves in the Beta version on Tatooine or something (haven't played the full release Survival version of that map yet), but that felt seriously hardcore. One thing I had respect for was the way they had balanced the Turbolaser against starfighters in a surprisingly lore accurate way. In that they were not ideal, they have a relatively slow rate of fire which doesn't make them the best thing for taking down starfighters (they're meant to be designed to be anti-cap ship or heavier slower smaller ships such as transports, shuttles etc), so they made it really hard to hit a fighter with them, but it paid off in dividends if you did manage to land a shot, similar to the satisfaction of taking down a chopper or other aircraft with a MBT's main gun in a Battlefield game, only here it took I think two or three shots to take the fighter down. Nicely done.

My previous gripes with the game still hold true unfortunately, that being the lack of teamwork orientated gameplay (missing a trick by not having multi-manned vehicles if you ask me) and lore accuracy in certain sequences (TIEs and X-Wings over The Battle of Hoth are never going to sit well with me), and even after heavy tweaking of the controls for the starfighters they still don't feel right, haven't used them in multiplayer yet, but have been giving them a go on the singleplayer missions just to see if I can get better with them with practice, but there is just some odd stuff going on like the flight dynamics just feel too restrictive, you should be able to roll and execute stomach churning manoeuvres, but this doesn't seem possible unless you use the preset evasive manoeuvre keys. Damned dumbing down for console hamster furballs.

However the vast number of different game modes has kept things fresh, and the weapons and perks, cards etc do allow you quite a bit of customisation for your character once you rank up and get access to a few more toys, and cinematic jaw dropping moments occur every other second so it is definitely a cracking and essential SW gaming experience. They even have a Tatooine map called Jundland Wastes with a Sandcrawler as the centerpiece of the map, made me feel right at home.

And just try to come away from a round of Speederbike Chase without a huge grin on your face.

Right back to it, not at work today, but have marking to do, still time for a few cheeky rounds though. Be rude not to wouldn't it?

I'm still waiting to get in there, Origin timer has me down at 3 hours to go before it goes live in the UK, so that is 11pm my time. I have some marking to do for work, but can see myself perhaps taking a little break come 11.

Counting down the minutes, like Obi-Wan on Naboo chomping at the bitt to tear Maul a new one after he skewers Qui-Gon, but separated by that forcefield.

Let me at it already!