Get ready to take to the skies, Star Wars fans, because it looks like EA and DICE have a brand new mode for Battlefront that will allow you to take part in fast-paced dogfights behind the controls of some of your favorite series crafts.
Over the weekend, the EA Star Wars: Battlefront Facebook page drew a lot of buzz courtesy of a teaser image touting a new game mode. The image, shown above, features an iconic X-Wing fighter and the simple message, “Prepare for Take Off.”
For folks who have been following Battlefront’s media and announcements up to this point, this caused a bit of confusion because the developers have been quite adamant about the fact that space battles were not going to be a part of Battlefront this time around, and the image seems to imply an X-Wing mode which, in previous games, took place in space.
This morning, however, the air was semi-cleared as a short clip was provided on the same Facebook page giving folks a brief glimpse at “Fighter Squadron” mode, which will receive a full reveal come Aug. 5 and was teased earlier this year.
Just because DICE has said time and time again that space battles would not be part of the equation did not mean that dogfights, in general, were getting the axe. In the clip, we get several quick looks at various crafts from the Star Wars universe zipping around familiar terrain and trying to blow one another out of the sky. We already knew that such crafts would be pilotable in standard competitive modes once certain conditions were met, but it looks like Fighter Squadron will be all about aerial combat and only aerial combat.
And now for the confusing part: Despite everything I said above, which is based solely on everything DICE has said up to this point (and continued to reiterate in the comments section for the original Fighter Squadron teaser image), there is an extremely quick shot at the end of this new video that shows off a group of X-Wings cruising into space.
And they aren’t just flying into a vast emptiness, either. There’s very clearly a war going on and these ships look like they’re about to join the fray. So, in short, could space battles still be in the cards for Battlefront? Was DICE just teasing us all this time or is this, perhaps, in response to negative backlash? Is it possible that I’m just reading too far into things and we should all just sit tight until Aug. 5, when the official details arrive?
Unfortunately, I only know the answer to that final question, and it’s “Yep.”
