Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds PC

I am seriously considering starting an organization protesting the month of February. I mean, as far as months go, it’s a fairly useless month: nothing of any great importance happens. There is Valentine ’s Day, I guess, but that’s just a commercialized hassle that I could quite easily do without. There are a couple of other minor holidays . . . President’s Day I think, maybe something else, but those could easily be moved elsewhere. There is also the matter of the number of days. Every month but February has 30 or 31 days except for it. I propose that January and March both be redefined to 30 days, and each shall give one day to February, making the first 4 months 30 day months. Then there is also the matter of spelling. I’ve always heard the month pronounced Febuary, just like January, but with an ‘Feb’ instead of ‘Jan.’ "February" has an obnoxious spelling, not to mention it gives hordes of second graders learning spelling a headache (It gave me one). Along with the redefinition of days, its spelling should be changed to "Febuary." If you are complaining that changing the calendar would be a big hassle, it really wouldn’t. The calendar was changed to our current system sometime in the 1300’s, and in my opinion, it’s due for another change. And what is the purpose of all of this you may ask? Well, if you really want to know, the reason, (aside from making the calendar more rational, raising the economy because everyone has to buy new digital watches and calendars, and raising the spelling grades of English speakers all over the world) it would have given me 2 whole more days to procrastinate before writing this article. Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is the second in LucasArt’s attempt at a Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS). A real-time strategy game is a game where you are the general and command forces in battle (kind of like chess) but in this case, all the pieces move and fight at the same time. While you may be directing one part of what goes on, at the same time, elsewhere on the board, other battle and actions are going on. Examples of RTS games include the WarCraft Series, StarCraft, Age of Empires, and Dune: Battle for Arrakis for Sega, which I believe, was the first such game. (Chess is an example of a turn based strategy game). The first Star Wars RTS ground combat game, Force Commander, while in some areas was quite creative, and the graphics were cool looking, was seriously lacking in its usability. The game was based on a floating camera that could move freely in 3 Dimensions. Unfortunately, the net effect was that it was impossible to find a good camera angle for overlooking the area. Anyway, in short, the game was a rather large flop. (Though like I said, some aspects were exceedingly cool). (Note that there is also a Star Wars RTS game like Civilization, where you settle the galaxy, and try to gain control. My friends and I like this game a lot, but I’ve heard that it didn’t do particularly great.) (I should just do an in general review of Star Wars games sometime, since I’ve played a vast majority of them)(Oh, I forgot to mention at the beginning, though you’ve probably figured it out by now, that this article probably isn’t anywhere near as "amusing" as last month's article. I suppose I could stick this message in at the front, since I write on a word processor, but what’s the fun in that?)(I wonder how many of these parenthesis thingie remarks I can put back to back?)(Ok, back to the review now)(By the way, Galactic Battlegrounds is based on the Age of Empires 2 engine) Ok. I have completely lost my train of thought now. Um . . . Galactic Battle grounds . . . RTS . . . ummm . . . umm . . . Gameplay. Ok, the game has 6 different playable races: the Trade Federation, Gungans, and Royal Naboo from Episode I, and the Empire, Rebellion, and Wookies from Episodes IV-VI. You can play multiplayer, a single skirmish, or the campaign game. A skirmish game typically has three different ways to win: kill everything that isn’t you, build a monument, which is an uber- spiffy building, that supposedly makes the bad guys surrender to your magnificentness. Lastly, you can collect all the Jedi holicron thing-a-ma-jigs and win. The campaign game has a campaign for all but the Naboo. Generally your goals involve a military victory, or accomplishing a set of given objectives. To accomplish whatever goals you have, you usually start off with a small force, and maybe some buildings (buildings produce units and technology) and you gather natural resources, and then use those resources to build up your forces. During all this time you are being attacked and competing with other groups for resources. Plot. Each campaign has its own plot/story line. As the Trade Federation, you are in charge of the invasion of Naboo, As the Gungans, it takes you back to their past before they were unified, and then on to retaking the planet from the Trade Federation. Similar stuff for the other races. There are also a handful of "historical" missions where you get to be in charge of a battle from the movies. For example, you can fight off the Empire during the battle of Hoth for the Rebellion, I believe, and as the Trade federation you can command the huge force seen in the last battle of Episode 1, only this time you get to fight to the end. Graphics. This game requires a video card. While the graphics aren’t uber 3-D, they are very detailed, and there are lots of them. I play this game in its highest resolution just so I can cram some modicum of the percentage (an odd phrase, I’ll admit, but I wanted to use "modicum"). There are hordes of units, and a graphic for each, and usually several upgrades, that modify each unit slightly . . . lots and lots of detail. Difficulty. I’ve been playing on medium, and it’s not too hard. I imagine multi player can get quite competitive. I’ve actually had to redo a fair number of missions at medium, difficult should be quite challenging. Replay Value. RTS games are always fun. You can shoot for more efficiency, etc. There is also a mission builder so you can make your own missions, and of course there is multiplayer. Sound. All missions have talking for the objectives, and units talk to you when you click on them. You here things in accents, like the Nemodians for the Trade Federation, and Boss Nass for the Gungans, Qui-gon Jinn, etc. Lots of cool sound effects too. Though personally, disen Gungan talk talk driven mee-sah bonkers. Neat-o Factor. Jedi! Jedi Rock. They are like mini supertanks. They even have lightsabers. But best of all, you have a once in a lifetime, desired by many, chance to kill Jar Jar Binks. Over, and over, and over and over . . . :D other bonuses include the vast variety of units, and other fun critters like gundarks and rancors. Overall. I’m a big fan of Star Wars games, but even so, this is a fairly good game. Although a bit overwhelming at first, the vast variety of units is kinda neat, and the missions are quite varied to give wide appeal. There is also multiplayer, which I haven’t tried yet, but it has many different variations on games (there’s that word again; I’m sure I sound redundant). The bottom line is: if you like Star Wars and/or like RTS games and/or liked Age of Empires 2 this game is a must have. Final Ratings: Plot: 8.0 Graphics: 8.5 Sound: 8.5 Gameplay: 8.5 Difficulty: 7.0 Replay: 8.0 Spiffiness: 8.0 Overall: 8.071 Note: Ok, this one was rushed, and kinda sucky as far as my reviews go (it’s a great game though.) Next month will probably be WarCraft 3. It's not out yet (teehee), but *I* have a copy :)

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