Star Wars: Battlefront Will Aim For Authentic Vwoms
Vwom, vwom
Developer diaries from big studios rarely contain any actual insight into the development process, but they do provide a first-rate glimpse into the marketing pitch. For example, Star Wars: Battlefront [official site] first developer diary is desperate to tell you how authentic its Star Wars experience will be.
"Authentic" is one of those words game marketing uses when they want to wink realism and reverence to a certain portion of their audience without alienating all the people who find it intimidating. Medal of Honor contains an authentic military experience, for example. Using it to describe a Star Wars game is interesting: it's a similar pledge towards reverence, I suppose an implicit promise not to be a movie-licence cash-in, and perhaps also a particular claim to which parts of Star Wars they're being reverential towards.
Heck, the video above even contains a clip from the original trilogy of films. Oh sure, Dice, you were let into the vault and your lightsabers and blasters have their grooves and screws in all the right places, but where's Naboo at? Can't I Battlefront with my Gungan chums? Boba Fett is all well and good but why can't I spawn as Jar Jar as a killstreak reward?
Of course, I can prick and poke at Star Wars all day, but it's all a mask of scorn to hide my genuine interest. It's a shame that all the footage of the game we have so far is "game engine footage" as distinct from, y'know, game footage, but I like when all the little spaceships whoosh out of the docking bay of the larger spaceship while John William's score peaks.