They must be incredibly stoked about The Last Jedi. The hype is building!!

So I played the campaign of Battlefront II in the pre-release
Thing EA was doing. It takes place after Return of the Jedi as you all know but the game does follow-up with canon. Sloane is mentioned for those who don’t know her and at the end we have a very nice prelude to Force Awakens!!

Thanks for the update DE! I am glad to hear they have not forgotten about Sloane. She was very prominent in the early new canon books, but after the Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy it felt like they had forgotten about her. I am still really curious to learn what happened to her between then and The Force Awakens.

That was really surprising about Iden and Del. I did not see that coming. It seems an odd choice simply from a design perspective. We have had other games like Tie Fighter where we played from the Imp side, without ever doing something like that. It does not really seem like a good move to me. One reason people are going to buy this game is because it allows you to play Impie. But this sort of flies in the face of that.

In other news I finished reading Inferno Squad and Thrawn. Neither one really did a lot for me. The writing in each was top notch. They are written by Christie Golden and Tim Zahn after all, two writers who really know their craft.

But the problem for me is that both are written from the Imperial side, making their protagonists anti-heroes. Now I like a good anti-hero. I have always been a fan of the Punisher, Michael Moorcock's Elric, Karl Edward Wagner's Kane, etc... My favorite gaming character Persephone is an anti-hero herself.

Yet to make an anti-hero work, you have to make sure whomever they are pitted against is even worse than than the anti-hero is. The Punisher is taking on the mafia, Kingpin, and so on. Elric fought the gods of Chaos, Kane was pitted against a whole slew of chilling elder races, monsters, and bloodthristy zealots.

At first I thought Inferno Squad would work fine, because they were taking on the remnants of Saw Gerrera's partisans. While the partisans fought the Empire, they were definitely not good guys. Rebel Rising (the story of Jyn Erso pre-Rogue One), showed that very clearly.

But even being terrorists, the partisans still have the moral high ground over the Empire. This was made very clear by Iden after the destruction of Alderaan. She had a little regret, but remembered the words of her father - "The child of a rebel may be a child yet, but we must look to the future. It will grow up to be an enemy. And our enemies must be destroyed." Iden believed that, and ultimately had no moral issues with the murder of the millions of children on Alderaan.

This comes into sharp focus when later the partisans plan to bomb a factory opening celebration that included hundreds of Imperial children. The leader of the partisans justified it with the same words of Iden's father. Something she noted at the time. Ultimately one of her team members went sort of rogue and subverted the bombing of the children (I am trying to avoid too many spoilers with details). But in the end it came down to the numbers game of who was the killer of more children, and the winner is the Empire hands down (even not counting Alderaan).

The other scene that really jumped out at me was when the partisans were dancing and celebrating. Iden was amazed that people who could be such cold-blooded killers one day, could feel such joy in life. She thinks: "And it’s hard for me to know that these hearts that are so full this moment can turn so cruel."

Yet Iden's heart is empty. She has no friends. She does not love life. She does not feel joy or happiness. She hates her father. She serves an Empire that destroys entire worlds, and never truly stops to think why she serves it. She is one more cog in the lethal Imperial machine. By the end she has some character development, and I think she stands as a fully realized person, rather than just a black hat drone. But it is a long time getting there. Too long IMHO, because in the end the anti-heroes are the partisans, not Iden and her crew. They are the villains, and it is disappointing seeing the villains succeed.

Thrawn was much the same, except there is an almost complete lack of moral questions at all. The books starts with Thrawn's first meeting with the Empire, and his climb up the ladder to become Grand Admiral. His main antagonist is the bigotry of the Imperial machine. He triumphs because of his brilliance. But in the process he destroys the careers of many other Imperials who support him. Something which he does not seem to really care about. He is painted as being a military genius, but rather a babe in the woods when it comes to politics. Which I think is good, because otherwise he would be too perfect a character. He is already a Marty Stu. Seriously, his near-total perfection does get annoying at times. I think a picture of Thrawn is at the top of Zahn's spank-bank.

The book also follows the career of Arhinda Pryce (the governor of Lothal in Rebels season 3 & 4). In her we see the dark side of the Empire's politics. She gains her position by betraying her friends and stabbing her allies in the back. This makes Thrawn stand out as a the noble warrior in comparison, which I think was the point. But Zahn never truly has Thrawn face the ugly reality that all of Thrawn's victories come at the expense of the people his actions are helping murder and enslave.

It is not a bad read. Neither of them are. But I could not truly care for any of the protagonists. If they died, then the galaxy would be a better place. For me that keeps the books from being great.

A leaked scene from the new J.J.Abrams Special Special Edition of Star Wars Episode 6 .

Needs more lens flare.

Thinking about starting a KotOR game. Any recommended mods for this game?

Ask and ye shale receive .

There are a bunch linked to in the Kotor topic.

Awesome, found it. Thanks for the heads up!

Anyone following the EA/Battlefront II debacle? Truly spectacular how crappy of a company EA is.

No, what have they done this time, or is it just more of the same from them?

New levels of hell have sprung forth from them.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/can-...nt-iis-economy/


They also are now the proud owners of the most downvoted comment in Reddit history by a huge margin.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefron...locked/dppum98/

Khajiit has but one word to say about that: wow.

I was guessing they released it from an unusually sudden spike of EA hatred I have been seeing in the last few days. I already read about most of it in a review a few months ago, the lootboxes, and so forth. This is one reason I only play games I can mod. This BS just does not fly in them (no matter how much Bethesda might try).

Khajiit is not convinced that this Creation Club is not a direct effort to force people to start paying for mods. We’ll have to wait and see what they do with their next game, but Khajiit has a great sense of foreboding regarding the future of modding in BGS games.

On topic, Khajiit does not usually enjoy games like Battlefront, but he was thinking about giving this one a try. With this news, however, he definitely will not.

When you start paying for MODS doesn't that turn it into DLC?

It is an attempt by Bethesda to make us pay $80 for Darth Vader. But a failed one. Since I can still download a ton of Star Wars mods for free. When and if they finally clamp down on free modding, I won't buy their games. Unlike all these people who complain about EA but still keep buying their games.

This is the key part. Nothing will change, unless people don't buy the game.

Unlocking everything in Battlefront II requires 4528 hours or $2100.

Yup. 4528 hours is also g-damn insane. Who is going to put that many hours into a shallow FPS game? It took me 5 years to put that amount of time into Skyrim.

If these people don't like the company and how they do their business then don't buy the game.

Apparently throwing a fit like a five year old gets you what you want I guess.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive...campaign=buffer

Yep.

EA?

Heh.

Yep.

Off topic stuff but, SubRosa now has minque’s position? Saw the Sage’s new rank here LOL. Congrats

I love the new X-Wing!!!

This is probably a Billion times more better then the Force Awakens one, Hasbro learned their lessons and properly stored the blaster canons and now they're straight and not bended in all four carnal directions.

Better keep those Jawas away from it though!

The real thing of note is that Radagast the Brown is hanging from your wall, disguised as the Doctor Who!

Just a few more days till Episode VIII, I think I'll rewatch episode 7 as a refresher.

Watched the Last Jedi.

8.5 at the most

That bad, hunh?

I just got back from Last Jedi as well. Like Uleni, I would give it an 8 or so. It was good, but not great.

This week I read the first 3 Wraith Squadron books, - Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, and Solo Command. I liked them quite a bit. The characters are interesting, being misfits who are brilliant when they are not screwing up because of their psychological baggage or other self-defeating behaviors. Part of it really felt like Black Sheep Squadron in space. And who better to fill in the shoes of Pappy Boyington than Wedge Antilles? Yes, I am one of those fangirls who loved him since the first time I saw A New Hope back in '77.

I really liked how much the books draw from the X-Wing and Tie Fighter computer games. It is subtle, but the dogfights are written the way those games played. Effective laser range being just under 2 kilometers, transferring power from lasers to shields, angling shields forward and aft, etc... If you have played the games, you will see what I mean when you read the books. The only real change is that proton torpedoes are a lot faster and more accurate in the books than in the game, where they almost never can hit starfighters.

I also loved Zsinj. He is so very different from the 'standard' Star Wars villain. Physically he is practically a caricature - an overweight, balding man with a ridiculously Prussian handlebar mustache. But he is pure brilliance in strategy and tactics. He is always thinking of not just Plan A and Plan B, but Plans C, D, E, and F if those fail. He knows to fight on a battlefield of his own choosing, and not to fight the battles the Republic wants him to. He literally retreats and takes his fleet out intact when things don't look right to him. Leading to a long, Byzantine game of cat and mouse between him and Wedge/Han. He also has a sense of humor. He's loyal to his subordinates, at least until it is time to send them to their deaths for the greater good. He is a very cool character in a sea of one-dimensional evil.

For example, after losing a Dreadnaught to a well-laid trap of Han and Wedge, we see this:



Of all the Imperial commanders I have seen in the films or read about in books, only Thrawn had the discipline to override his own ego and bug out when it was clear a battle was lost. All the others throw good money after the bad.

I still have one more book to go in the Zinsj saga - The Courtship of Princess Leia. I read that back when it was new, but do not remember much anymore, except that it was on Dathomir (Yay Witches!). Back then I had not read any of the Wraith books, so I went in not knowing anything about Zinsj. I am looking forward to it this time, to see how it all plays out.

Yeah, those old X-Wing books were great, though I always preferred Rogue Squadron to Wraith Squadron. And it really was great the way they kept as close as they could to the games when writing the dogfights. It was the games that got me into the books, so seeing that just drew me into them even more.

And I agree with you about Zsinj, though what I liked about him most was that his brilliance wasn't restricted to the battlefield, making him a far deeper and more interesting villain. And the way he and some of the Wraiths were entangled to a degree really made things more interesting.

I wasn't so much a fan of The Courtship of Princess Leia, personally, from what I recall. Then again, it's been a long time since I read it. *Shrugs*

I'm going to see Star Wars this afternoon. I'll give my two cents after I see it.

Coruscant's Got Talent

Just finished watching the last jedi and I loved it. There's some areas that need polishing but overall a good Star Wars movie.

Look at’em go! Lol

—————————————————————
Just got back from Last Jedi. Honestly not sure what to think. It was long, probably too long. Khajiit must’ve been entertained though, because he was able to sit through the whole thing sipping a medium sized Coca Cola (which is bigger than most fast food restaurants large size) without thinking about having to go to the bathroom. There were many things that annoyed this one and if you care to know what exactly, PM us and we’ll discuss it. So in conclusion, as others have said, Khajiit agrees that it wasn’t great. The action sequences were entertaining, for the most part, but Khajiit is left a little bewildered by some of the decisions made storywise.

I think we could all discuss in depth here, so long as we keep in all in

Khajiit really wants to discuss, so, we can try it.


That isn’t to say that Khajiit didn’t like anything about the movie. It was entertaining for the most part.

Wow, looking through that spoilered list, that film sounds pretty bad, not that that surprises me

Its not that bad, it could use some polish in some scenes but overall it was worth seeing. Even the Nostalgia Critic liked it.

I get what you are saying Khajiit. I felt some of that myself when I first saw the film. But in retrospect, I had some other thoughts. So to play Sith's Advocate:

(If anyone is having trouble with spoilers displaying, don't use any emoticons in your text. I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out they were what was preventing mine from working.)



So in the end I felt the same way about many things. But some are not as bad as my first gut reaction made me feel. I would say it is a good movie, just not a great one. I really did like that Kylo becomes a better villain by the end. For the first time he felt menacing.

I think Rei's parents was introduced in battlefront 2, a character mentioned having a daughter and knows Jakku so it possible it could be them.

Iden and Del’s daughter is named Zay. It’s a different character.

Khajiit may have been a little hard on it.

Well...

IRL, tyrants do not like having people in their own military who are too good at what they do. People like that earn respect, a reputation, and the next thing you know they are trying to overthrow you. So dictators tend to murder their best men, and keep around the plodding yes men instead. After the Parthians defeated the Romans at Carrhae, the Parthian king had his victorious general murdered for that reason. Saddam Hussien did the same with his best after the Iran-Iraq war.

That is why Tie Fighters have no shields. If a pilot were to survive for too long he or she would learn and become good at it. Then they would become a hero, and the next thing you know they decide they want a bigger seat at the table and try to overthrow you. Likewise Ties do not have hyperspace engines. Otherwise any Imperial pilot could desert or defect with just the push of a button. So I do not mind the Empire and First Order not being the quality of IRL Navy Seals, or even necessarily armed with the best ships or weapons. They are meant to be mediocre, because otherwise they would be too dangerous to the Emperor or Leader.






I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head Uleni. Though Grandmaster Rey might be a bit of a stretch!

Actually Ties have a hyperdrive though its mostly short ranged. Remember a Tie jumped out of lightspeed when the falcon entered the Aldaraan system in a New Hope.

No, remember Han said it couldn’t have gotten out there all by itself, that there must’ve been a base some where nearby. That’s when they noticed that it was “headed for that small moon”. Then Obi said the famous line, “That’s no moon. It’s a space station.”.

Played the X-Wing VR game in the first Battlefront game on the PS4. They need to make more of that.