Star Wars: Battlefront Classics (Xbox)

SWBF is a great game and one that boys of a certain age had wanted for many many years. Fight as a Stormtrooper! Assault Endor! Fry Jar Jar Binks! Its all there. Authentic sounds, visuals, maps, etc. Great blasting fun, runs smooth, looks great, a pleasure to play. With the option to play in either the classic or new films eras in several maps, plus at least five character classes in each of four selectable armies, you'll have a lot fun conquering the galaxy.

All thats lacking is gameplay options. There are a few modes to play with, but essentially they all boil down to assault the map, capture command point, move onto the next one. The closest you'll get to a real strategy decision is when you respawn and have to choose a charatcer class. With no DLC support on release, new gameplay modes were never going to happen. A downloaded patch did make new maps possible though - and one was duly released. No chance of seeing any more, I think.

Which brings me on to the only other drawback to this title - onliune play. Xbox Live is normally reliably great. But SWBF struggles. Forget what the box says about maximum players. The most you'll ever get going with acceptable ammounts of lag is 8.

So why does such a high profile title, full of so much promise and genuinely great material, have such severe faults? Could it be the game was rushed out to be on the shelves before the DVD? Were some features perhaps purposefully ommitted so they could be included in the forthcomning sequel? Surely not! Why, that would mean house of Lucas has some sort of money-grabbing ethic, more determined to squeeze as much cash from punters' pockets than to give them good products!

Who knows, who knows. Whatever the reasons, SWBF is a great game and probably does deserve to be called a classic. If you are a fan of Star Wars at all you'll love this game. Just be aware its not quite as smooth as it ought to be and the sequel is just aroud the corner.