A long time ago in a galaxy far away (well, in Florida last weekend, but it still is quite a journey) we attended the Star Wars Celebration where EA properly lifted the veil from., and is also rejigging multiplayer in line with many of the requests from players of the original.There's plenty more, and I sat down with Lucasfilm creative executive Steve Blank, single player game director Mark Thompson and Criterion's Matt Webster, who is helping overlook the multiplayer, to see what I could find out from them.How linear will the campaign be? Will it be something like Battlefield 1's War Stories or is it a full linear story with beginning middle and end?Mark Thompson: Without getting into too much detail that I will get in trouble for. We take all of our cues from how to tell a Star Wars story working with Lucasfilm story group, analysing the movies, breaking down the beats and flow of Star Wars storytelling.

• Battlefront Ii Galactic Conquest
• Star Wars Battlefront 2
• Star Wars Battlefront 2 Galactic Conquest Multiplayer

So yeah, it is a continuous story with a beginning, middle and end and you follow Iden's journey for 30 years from the end of Jedi up to the Force Awakens at Starkiller base. It isn't a discrete set of missions or separate War Stories like Battlefield 1, you do follow Iden through this journey whilst from time to time, switching sides and playing from the perspective of one of the iconic heroes because again that's just part of Battlefront's DNA. Sometimes you're a Trooper, sometimes you're a pilot and sometimes you're Luke Skywalker with a lightsaber.And the heroes you can be, it's not just the Rebellion, right?Mark Thompson: Well, we've confirmed Kylo Ren. I'll say no more than that!You've got a female protagonist. Unfortunately there's a subset of people on the internet who get a bit vocal about female protagonists and who might think you're catering towards a certain ideology. Do you think these people are going to be more receptive to Iden because they are used to Rey and Jyn from the films?

Mark Thompson: My personal belief is it's just about it making a good character, I don't care about anything else. If the character makes sense to the story, if the character belongs in that universe then everything else is unimportant. Does it feel right for this story? Does it feel right for Star Wars?

Is that character interesting and relatable, is it someone we can connect with? Those are the important things, everything else is unimportant.How hard was it to make a relatable character when they side with the Dark side of the Force?Mark Thompson: The movies focus on the Skywalker saga and they tell a very specific story from the rebel's perspective. If you look at other storytelling that has gone into what it's like to be an imperial, like Alexander Freed's Twilight Company novel that was part of the first Battlefront game - there was an incredible chapter in there about a Stormtrooper who was coming back from a fight and just getting into some of the details that you don't see in the movies, like where and when you can take off the helmet and what it means to be in and out of uniform and how she was a different soldier. It was just incredible to read that and it was quite inspiring.

That's a super interesting place for us to start exploring character and story.One thing I noticed about the trailer is that a version of the Emperor features in it, which is strange considering it's set after his death.Steve Blank: That's actually a direct lift and a direct reference from the comic book Shattered Empire which does take place after the destruction of the second Death Star. That character's called The Messenger and is actually a contingency of the Emperor's that he leaves in the wake of his death to still give orders to very upper echelon members that are left from the Empire.

So that's one of the great examples of how we're connecting this and threading it through to the existing storytelling that we've been doing to help lay the groundwork for what's happened between those two periods of time.I'd like to talk a little about the droid buddy that Iden has. How will it work in the moment-to-moment gameplay? You did mention the resource system would also allow you to turn into vehicles.

Battlefront Ii Galactic Conquest

Does that mean there will be no seamless ground to vehicle transitions in the game?Matt Webster: No, there will be. But that was referencing particular types of vehicles.OK so I'm presuming then you mean smaller things like rideable Tauntauns will have seamless transitions then, like the Speeder Bikes on Endor?Matt Webster: Yes, along those sorts of lines.But other vehicles will be?Matt Webster: Will be different laughs.Will you be having any of the original cast members in to provide voices for the Heroes? Some of them sounded a bit off last time.Mark Thompson: Time will tell! laughsOof, the media training is strong with you guys. The untold origins of Creative Assembly.Mark Thompson: Yeah, well it's the first beat, right? You know.Alright, that's fair enough. I noticed in the concept art that it showed Jango Fett chasing Obi Wan over Kamino.

Are those.Matt Webster: Yes, those are hero Starfighters. When it comes to space battles which are being made at Criterion along with all the vehicles, the reason space battles are so exciting is because you have these epic moments within Star Wars but it's not just space moments. We have some space moments and we have moments of low atmosphere combat, both featuring the hero ships.What are you bringing to the space battles to make it more than just flying around in circles above a Star Destroyer?Matt Webster: We'll go into that detail around EA Play, but it comes from taking care about and prioritising feel and that fantasy of space combat and how we set up the different classes. So the different Starfighters, there will be something analogous to classes within the Starfighters and also the situations by which we enable those battles will have much greater opportunity for those things not to happen.One of my stand out moments from EA's first Battlefront was the VR mission. Will be seeing any more VR missions in the future?Matt Webster: We are not talking about VR at the moment for Battlefront 2. That's a story for another day.

We sit down with a copy of Stars Wars: Battlefront II for the PSP to see how well this third-person shooter's single-player gameplay translates to the portable medium. The PSP version seems to have almost as much going for it as its console brethren, including a number of different modes, the option to play as either Rebel or Imperial troops, a ton of different vehicles, and both ground and space battles aplenty.

Though we were unable to check out the multiplayer portion of the game, we noticed you could set up four players in many of the same modes that you have in single-player, as well as customize the battles with varying artificial-intelligence competitors and time limits.There are a number of different vehicles you can jump in and out of at whim.Single-player is divided into three different subsections: instant action, challenges, and galactic conquest. Instant action is almost exactly what you would expect, as it lets you get in to gameplay after only a short sequence of option screens. You can create a playlist of any of the 13 available maps, including Yavin, Kashyyyk, the space surrounding those two planets, Endor, Hoth, and others. After map selection and ordering, you go on to choose the game type, which includes two versions of capture the flag, hunting indigenous species, assaulting enemy spacecrafts, and plain old deathmatch. Your final option is to select the era that you wish to play in, and you can choose between the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War.

The game then randomly generates the scenarios based on your selection, and you can go right in to gameplay, switching between maps without having to jump back out to the menu. At the beginning of each map, you can determine your allegiance and the type of soldier you want to commandeer, whether it's a marksman, a heavy weapons unit, or another differently outfitted troop. You'll also be able to both acquire points and unlock superior soldiers, which, on the Rebel side, for example, includes a wookie warrior and a bothan spy.Though the instant-action matches do contribute to your career statistics and point accumulation, the other two single-player modes allow for progression, as well as stat-building, which is a little more compelling than exclusively playing randomly generated instant-action games. Challenges put you in the shoes of an Imperial enforcer, a rogue assassin, or a Rebel raider. As an Imperial enforcer, you'll be restricted primarily to hunt mode, in which you must assassinate the indigenous people of whatever planet you're on, including jawas and ewoks. A rogue assassin's objective is to take out certain targets among a group of enemies.

You'll have to fight your way through the smaller troops and avoid their fire to ensure that you get to the required targets within the time limit. Finally, Rebel raider missions typically involve collecting an object from the enemy and returning it to a checkpoint in your territory.

Star Wars Battlefront 2

This capture-the-flag-style mode has missions on both the ground and in space. In one Rebel raider mission, you must hop on to one of four Rebel ships: an A-Wing, X-Wing, Y-Wing, or Alliance assault craft. Once in the air, you must land on an Imperial battle cruiser, collect a data chip, and then either take your ship or hijack one of the enemy TIE fighters to return to the Alliance cruiser.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Galactic Conquest Multiplayer

Do this four times within the time limit and you've successfully completed the challenge. As you successfully complete objectives within the challenges, you'll be able to upgrade to relevant named characters, such as Boba Fett or Han Solo. You'll also have free rein of any of the unoccupied vehicles around the environment, which are map-appropriate, so you'll find snowspeeders on Hoth-just as you would expect.All those hours as a puny stormtrooper finally pay off.Galactic conquest is the most diverse gameplay option of the three, and you'll be able to engage in both space and land battles frequently in it. The objective is to take over planets by conquering new ones, by protecting your current property, and by engaging in space battles with opposing fleets. You'll travel to a number of different Star Wars planets, and you'll make use of all different types of gameplay to outwit opposing forces. In space battles, your objective is to take down the enemy fleet by disabling various parts of the ship, such as the life-support module or the communication towers. As you successfully defeat fleets and conquer planets, you'll get significantly greater rewards.Though the PSP version doesn't boast the same level of graphics as the console versions, it's surprisingly similar in both look and feel.

The music and sound effects are coming along very nicely, and the Star Wars theme, in particular, is almost cinema-perfect. There are several different control schemes, but it takes a while playing with any given one before it feels normal. Also, it will take some practice to figure out how to get past the extreme difficulty of some levels. Usually this just requires respawning at a different command post, but often it requires tricky use of routes or switching the troop you control.

Some of the soldiers have the benefit of unlimited ammo-in addition to the pitfall of an overheating weapon-so each weapon (and each soldier) has both strengths and weaknesses. So far, Star Wars: Battlefront II for the PSP looks like it's shaping up to offer a suitable adaptation of the console games' mechanics in handheld form. We'll bring you more on the game as it nears release later this fall. Download delta force black hawk down full game.