E-Mail This Article to a Friend Lock S-foils in attack position Star Wars Battlefront is a dream come true for fans BY JIM MURRAY
	Star Wars Battlefront Published and developed by LucasArts. For PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. Rated T for Teen.

For nerds like myself, Tuesday, September 21st might as well have been a national holiday. If you have to ask why, then you obviously aren’t a Star Wars fan. Yes, geeks around the country rejoiced this week as George Lucas finally released the Star Wars trilogy on DVD, and also released Star Wars Battlefront, available for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.

Now, while I’d like to use this opportunity to review the DVDs (and rant about why the original movies weren’t released, instead of the 1997-Greedo shoots first/Special-Edition atrocities), I’ll instead focus on Battlefront, a rare, great-playing Star Wars videogame.

Star Wars Battlefront can best be described as "Socom Navy Seals with Star Wars characters." Battlefront gives Star Wars fans and gamers the opportunity to re-live most, if not all of the classic Star Wars battles. Would you like to tie up AT-ATs and knock ’em down while on Hoth? Perhaps you’d like to pick off those annoying little fuckers, the Ewoks, with a sniper rifle on Endor? Or, better yet, maybe you’d like to wipe out dozens of Gungans (think Jar-Jar Binks) with a Thermal Detonator while traversing Naboo? Well, I’m happy to tell you that all of this is possible in Star Wars Battlefront.

Whether you choose to play the multiplayer on-line mode of Battlefront, where you can battle with up to 16 people (which, by the way, is the reason to get this game), or choose the single-player modes that include "Galactic Conquest" and the story-based "Historical Campaigns," you cannot go wrong with picking up this title.

Playing on- or offline, you can select whether you want to fight alongside the Rebels or if you’d rather have more fun and "join the Dark Side" by fighting on behalf of the Evil Empire. Once you choose your side, the game basically plays like Capture the Flag. You’ll have a certain amount of time (or until your or your opponent's army is wiped out) to capture all of the "battle stations" on the map, thus declaring a winner. It sounds simple; however, Battlefront does require some strategy. Your opponent will be protecting his "flags" like they are gold nuggets, and they’ll be using anything and everything from X-Wings to Tie Fighters to those cool-ass speeder bikes to do so.

Yes, just about everything is at your disposal in Battlefront. Turrets, Tauntauns, AT-STs (the two legged AT-ATs) – they're all there. Basically, all of the action figures and Star Wars toys you had as a kid are available for use in this game. To me, that’s what makes it so damn fun and addictive. I mean, I used to "act out" all of these battles on my parents' living-room floor with all of the toys; now I get to do it all over again with Star Wars Battlefront, and I don’t have to worry about my drunken sister coming home late at night and crushing all my beloved Star Wars toys because I left them all over the place! It’s a Star Wars dork’s dream come true!

Does Star Wars Battlefront have problems? Sure, what game doesn’t? I can tell you that the single-player modes get pretty dull after a while. As I said before, multiplayer is where it’s at for this title. Speaking of multiplayer, that’s not without problems, either. I played both the Xbox and PS2 versions of Battlefront on-line; if you happen to have both systems, go with the Xbox version. It’s easier to jump into battles than on the PS2, and as of now, there are serious server problems with the PS2 version. There’s just way, way too much lag to even have an enjoyable experience. Don’t fret, though, you PS2 owners: the game was just released, and the server problems will be up to speed – probably by the time you read this.

Lastly, the control of some of the vehicles is downright horrendous. Good luck trying to take down an AT-AT on Hoth with a Land Speeder. Or getting into a dogfight with a Tie Fighter or an X-Wing. The controls just are too frustrating.

In closing, don’t let those things deter you from buying this piece of software. The problems that this game has (such as the somewhat boring one-player missions) are the same problems that other great team-based shooters like Socom suffer from. And like Socom and the Rainbow Six series, Battlefront is all about the on-line play. It’s incredibly addictive, and you’ll enjoy it whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not. Hell, even if Battlefront didn’t let you control "Star Wars guys," it’s still a helluva shooter, and worth picking up.

Score: 8.5 (out of 10)