Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox)

Of all of them, only Star Wars Battlefront makes you feel like you are really in the middle of a Star Wars battle. Every scenario seems chaotic with beings, droids, vehicles charging around with blaster fire all over the place.

The game has two modes, single player and multi-player.

Despite what you may have read, the single player game is fun. Yes your AI allies tend to run around like headless chickens - this is no Rainbow 6 - if you instruct them they will occasionally do something useful. Providing firing cover is not one of them though.

There's two reasonably long single player modes. One is a Conquest mode, the other is a Civil War mode, where in each scenario you are put on one side or the other. Sometimes it's Imperial, sometimes it's Rebel. Same goes for the Trade Federation period.

My only concern is that capturing command points/ nodes is not really a great single player experience. That sort of gameplay is really for multi-player games. The developers would have been better off creating a purpose designed single player adventure mode along the lines of Halo. Finally, start on normal or difficult. This isn't hardest of games and that's coming from a mediocre shooter gamer.

The game was primarily designed for multi-player and this is where the gameplay becomes more intelligent.

Unlike the single player game, you can't run through your enemies blasting them away with ease. There's always a real person close by, ready to take you down as soon as you are within firing range. The problem is spotting them amid all the bots running around. There's lots of maps and it is good fun.

The multi-player mode doesn't seem as well designed as say Unreal Tournament, where well organised clans can wipe the floor with inferior opposition, but in a way it's more fun because it's Star Wars with all the familiar trappings.

To sum up, if the single player mode had been stronger - remember most Xbox players are not online - and the multi-player perhaps more ordered then the game could have been a true classic. As it is, it is a good game and essential for Star Wars fans.

The basic premise (as stated by Amazon's preview) is that you get to play as a soldier in one of four armies (Rebel, Imperial, Seperatists and Republic).

The single player campaign is great. The object of the game is to capture command posts, while blasting the opposing soldiers to bits. Depending on how well your army is doing you'll have more or less re-inforcements and more respawn points (i.e. the command posts you've captured) and your own actions do affect the outcome of the battle e.g. if you keep ordering soldiers to follow you to a certain enemy command post they will keep attacking it and more AI soldiers will follow.

There are a few varieties on the basic game but the whole focus is get out there and kill stuff. Each time you get killed (and you will often) you get to choose which of five types of soldier you want to be next each comes with different weapons and abilities (basic trooper, heavy weapon, sniper, pilot or special - specials include wookies, troopers with jet packs and destroyer droids).

The real fun is in the feel of the game when you're playing - it's very fast, frantic with the sense of impending doom. Plus you get to fly/drive a number of familiar ships a la Halo if you want, and to blow them up! This is not Halo 2 and doesn't pretend to be - it's a different focus; crazy battles in Star Wars world.

Make no mistake this is a game designed for multiplayer battles, it supports up to 16 players!!. It's different to other shooters like Rainbow Six 3 as although you can issue commands to those around you there's less sneaking and more charging across no mans land (Hoth) or darting through bushes (Endor) and loads of other Star Wars planets eg Tatooine, Yavin, Kamino etc. I've had the game a week now and the replayability is good as no two battles are the same.

The beauty of the single player game is due to the fantastic AI it's probably the closest to being in a multiplayer online game you are likely to get without actually going online.

The beauty of the Xbox live game is that you get to blow people to bits in a genuine Star Wars style (not as artificial as Jedi Academy) in a game designed specifically for online play.

P.S. You have the option to turn 'Heroes' off or on. When on you get joined by Luke, Darth Vader, Count Dooku or Mace Windu depending on your team. They do kill enemies but they are also indestructible (well almost).

Overall it's a game that's great for a blast as long as you realise you're going to die often and horribly and this won't frustrate you. For the snipers out there, there are lots of places to camp too!

I'm back off to Hoth as that's my favourite, just love those snowspeeders.

Each type of soldier has different weapons and equipment used for different tasks and after selecting your force you will be able to pick a troop type from super battle droids to clone commanders.

You also have an array of vehicles at your disposal including the enormous At-At's and and star fighters like the famous
x-wing.

The campaign covers pretty much every part of all the major battles in star wars with enormous 500 troop battles on every match.You can also do galactic conquest in which you select planets to attack until (if your successful) you conquer the galaxy.

You can also do instant action in which you select a planet and play an instant game.

You can also do multiplayer but you can only have 2 people playing it. On multiplayer you can do everything that you can do on single player apart from you have 2 people playing rather than one.