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STAR WARS: GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS
Posted by VE Reporter
Star Wars: Force Commander of last year was, let us be honest, a real mess. Though the idea - a 3D real-time strategy game based in the Star Wars universe - was a fantastic one, the design and execution left a lot to be desired. Bad graphics and a worse interface meant not many people had the patience to get involved in crushing the rebel scum, or fighting the great Imperial war machine, for that matter.
So let us hope LucasArts has learned some lessons from Force Commander, as it's just officially announced the sequel, entitled Star Wars: Galactic Battleground. It certainly looks like the entertainment giant has been doing some serious thinking - the 3D look has been dropped in favour of an old-school 2D approach, courtesy of Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires engine, though at first glance the bar across the bottom of the screen looks similar to the first game.
  
Concept art for Galactic Battleground's units
The game will let you take command of six Star Wars races - the Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, Wookiees, Gungans, Royal Naboo and Trade Federation, and cover the time periods of all four films. It boasts over 300 different units, including Jedi Knights, stormtroopers, X-Wings, AT-ATs, snowspeeders, Wookie Kas tanks and droids. Units can be upgraded, by using elements such as "Wookiee ingenuity, advanced Gungan biotechnology and Jedi stamina," though it is not completely clear how this will work in practice. Wookie ingenuity in the films only ever seemed to go as far as hitting things and throwing hydrospanners at Harrison Ford.
 
You will be able to conduct battles over terrains as diverse as interstellar asteroids, submerged cities and conventional ground battles. Aerial combat will also feature. There will be a scenario generator, to create custom battlefields for single or multiplayer encounters.
A release date for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds has yet to be announced, but our money would be on sometime before Christmas. We will give you more information as soon as we have it.
[the above article was written by Mike Smith and displayed on Games Domain]
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