Surprise! Despite announcing that no DLC was planned for Star Wars: Squadrons, EA Motiv announced today a brand new map, two new ships, and custom match settings are coming soon!
In a blog post on the official website, EA Motive revealed that two free content updates are scheduled to hit this year. Frazier explains that the free content is a “nice, final thank you gift.”
At the end of the blog post, Creative Director Ian Frazier writes:
“Ever since the launch of the game, it’s been an incredible joy to see players around the world climbing into the cockpits of their favorite starfighters, immersing themselves in fleet battles, building squadrons of their own throughout the community, and generally just sharing in the sheer love of Star Wars space combat that has fueled this project since its inception.
Your enthusiastic support for Squadrons has enabled us to expand upon it further in all the ways outlined above, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’m particularly excited about the Custom Matches feature because it will allow you, the community, to take more ownership of the game and create your own experiences for a long time to come.
Thank you for putting your faith in us, thank you for joining the Squadrons community, and thank you for helping us to make the game even better through all your feedback.”
Check out the blog post for the full update details and Frazier’s full letter. We’ve got the highlights down below!
Star Wars: Squadrons November Update
The first of the two updates releases next week on November 25th as Update 3.0. Additional fixes and balancing changes will happen, as usual, but the more exciting news is that it’s going to include a brand new map that will be added to both Fleet Battles and Dogfight modes, as well as brand new components for ship loadouts.
As pictured above, the new map is Fostar Haven. This is a popular location from the single-player campaign that was left out of the multiplayer rotation, so now it’s getting added in. It’s from the first prologue mission in which the player must scan various vessels in search for refugees at a trading station that’s known for harboring smugglers.
This update will also include four new components, including the Boost Extension Kit for Fighters and Bombers, Ion Rockets for Interceptors and Fighters, Prototype Piercing Torpedoes for Bombers and Fighters, and Anti-Material Rocket Turrets for Support ships.
Star Wars: Squadrons December Update
There is no date on the December update yet, but this will bring the game to 4.0 status. As great as a new map and new components are, the more exciting half of the DLC announcement is the reveal that they’ll be adding two new ships into the game: the B-Wing and the TIE Defender. The B-Wing is getting categorized as a Bomber and the TIE Defender will be categorized as a Fighter, which will be interesting because it slightly throws off the previous balance of 1 ship per class for both sides.
Apparently, these ships will also include “unique aspects in line with what you’d expect from them” beyond their class components. For example, the B-Wing has a gyro-cockpit and swiveling wings and the TIE Defender actually has shields.
“These functions and a couple unique components will help them differentiate themselves from the other starfighters in their classes and factions, but we’ve also made sure they aren’t outright better by default,” writes Frazier. “There’s still going to be good reasons to pick a Y-wing over a B-wing or a TIE fighter over a TIE defender and vice versa. It’ll depend on your playstyle and what the situation calls for.”
Finally, the December update will also introduce Custom Matches. This will allow 1-5 players per side to queue any of the maps in the game in either Dogfight or Fleet Battle mode. You’ll be able to modify settings for things like your ship’s hull, shield, and damage output, capital ship health, and more. You’ll also be able to browse for match types in a custom match server browser to find public or private games.
Given the previous announcement of there being no DLC planned, this is pretty huge news. Two new ships, a new map, new weapons, and custom matches is a lot for a game that’s only a little over a month old. Maybe this means more DLC plans in the future?
You can get all of this content for free starting next week and then next month for the second update. Star Wars: Squadrons is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One with optional VR support on both PSVR and PC VR. For HOTAS recommendations, we’ve got you covered.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Star Wars: Squadrons is finally here and it absolutely delivers. From the incredible set piece moments, excellent new characters, and fantastic VR space combat, this is an adrenaline-fueled blast in the galaxy far, far away that you won’t want to miss. Here’s our Star Wars: Squadrons VR review with all the details!
I don’t typically play space combat games, space sims, flight sims, or any of that sort of stuff. Furthermore, I’ve never played a game with a flight stick for more than just an hour or two to test things out. All of that changed with Star Wars: Squadrons.
From the very first moment I booted it up I played the entire game with a VR headset and flight stick, specifically the Thrustmaster T.16000M HOTAS, and it was so good — so authentic even — I don’t really want to play it any other way. I’ve tried keyboard and mouse and gamepad too, both get the job done and it really feels great with a gamepad for my tastes, but I surprisingly prefer the flight stick or full HOTAS instead. For a game that’s designed for VR and non-VR across PC and consoles with cross-play on everything, this is perhaps the best compliment I can give: it feels madefor VR. And from what we’ve heard, it basically was from the very start.
Star Wars: Squadrons Story Mode
In Star Wars: Squadrons the story shows both perspectives and bounces back and forth between the Galactic Empire and New Republic. The Prologue is split into two parts, introducing both sides, immediately after Alderaan is destroyed during the events of A New Hope. Then it fast-forwards a few years and the rest of the game takes place after Return of the Jedi in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor.
Right at the start of the game you get to customize each of your pilots down to their face, voice, and name. I wasn’t expecting this considering you don’t really see them much, but these are the same avatars you’ll use in multiplayer so getting ownership of your identity across the game for both the Republic and Empire is a great touch.
The entirety of Squadrons takes place from a first-person perspective whether you’re talking to crewmates in the hangar or flying your starfighter during a mission; it’s a big reason why the VR support feels so natural. The only times the camera is not inside of your face are during the cutscenes that take place before and after missions.
For these moments, when the camera is sweeping across your squadron or zooming in on characters while they fly, you see a rectangular letterbox floating in front of you, sort of like the Cinematic Mode on PSVR. It’s absolutely immersion breaking, no doubts about that, and a bit of a bummer, but cutscenes like this are expected in non-VR games so this is a price to pay in order to get VR support out of a AAA project like this. Sacrifices needed to be made and I’d rather have a VR hanger and briefing room than 30 second cutscenes in VR.
The other sticking point about Squadrons’ VR support is that there is zero motion controller functionality here. You have no hand presence in the cockpit at all — it’s just a head tracking only game. Some die hard VR purists will likely be upset about this, but honestly, give me a great flight stick over inaccurate motion controllers that lack realistic resistance and tension any day. You’re sitting still when you play a game like this so all you need is head tracking. It works great, looks great, and most importantly, feels great.
Even if Squadrons was just its Story Mode and practice/training map and that’s it, this would feel like a complete game. My playthrough came in around the 10 hour mark, but it could probably go higher if you played on a high difficulty setting or replayed missions to get more medals. There are four difficulty modes to pick from so there is some replayability, but I imagine most people will spend the majority of their time in multiplayer..
Surprisingly, the cast of new characters is memorable and full of personality for both the Republic and Empire. Between missions there are opportunities to chat with all of them to learn more about their backstories and motivations that helps add a lot of context to how they act. One of the Republic pilots used to race previously and your squad mates poke fun at her for being a show off. Eventually, she teaches you how to drift in an X-Wing and it’s an exhilarating moment reminiscent of scenes with Poe from the new trilogy.
Most of the missions can be boiled down to taking out squadrons of enemy fighters, defending larger ships, eliminating big ships, and escaping or escorting. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this gets repetitive, but the way EA Motive mixes things up, shuffles these pieces around, and introduces one-off set pieces here and there keeps you on your toes. By the time you reach this midpoint of the story in Mission 6 things get pretty interesting with bombing runs in a Y-Wing and a big, bombastic finale that rivals the spectacle of the films themselves. Chase sequences were also some of the best moments and it made me wish for more time trials or flight trials to put my pilot skills to the test.
Star Wars: Squadrons Gameplay And Ships
In a lot of ways this feels like a dream game for Star Wars fans. We’ve gotten dozens of games focused on the Jedi vs Sith with lightsabers and force powers and there have even been a heavy share of ground combat games that require you to know your way around a blaster. But not since the 90s and early 2000s have we gotten a game that was really focused on space combat in the Star Wars universe. Until now.
The industry has made huge strides with technology in recent years and visually it’s hard to find any faults at all with Star Wars: Squadrons. The overall presentation quality is on par with DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Each map has a similar layout — they’re all in space after all — but the planet backdrops are gorgeous to behold and various bits of debris add enough variety here and there.
In VR there have been some performance concerns. For me personally VR mode only worked if the game was windowed, but after a patch it works from Borderless mode as well. I notice some very occasional stuttering on Ultra with an RTX 2060 Super, i5-9600K, and 32GB RAM but it’s not enough to really impact the experience. I’ve heard of others having far more issues with crashes and freeze ups in VR but haven’t experienced that personally.
The hangar is the unexpected highlight of the package due to how immersive it is to chat with crew members and just watch people working in the background. You really get a sense for what the inside of a hangar might truly feel like, almost like waiting in line at a big Disneyland Star Wars ride. And Squadrons features an excellent score that swells in combat appropriately and punctuates every moment with just the right emphasis. And yes, it’s all functional in VR — including the hangar and briefing room, complete with NPC conversations.
Squadrons is a special kind of wish fulfillment in that regard. Every cockpit is painstakingly recreated here with insane attention to detail so that instruments and indicators are all in different places depending on which ship you’re flying. From the wide, open canopy of the X-Wing and A-Wing to the closed tunnel vision of the TIE Fighter, each ship feels and plays dramatically different.
As far as I can tell equipment loadout options are the same or on par across factions, for balance, but the choices you make will change based on the ship. Since the X-Wing has shields maybe you sacrifice a bit of its hull capacity for better acceleration or speed? Perhaps you want to beef up the TIE’s maneuverability even more to go all-in on a zippy ship that’s hard to hit? You can get really creative there.
Star Wars: Squadrons VR Review – Comfort
Since Star Wars: Squadrons is an always first-person VR space combat game, it’s impossible to eliminate all artificial motion. By nature you’re flying a ship in space, banking, turning, and rotating during combat. For some people it’s going to be uncomfortable no matter what, but some ships may be better than others. For example, the TIE Fighter has a very enclosed cockpit so the field of view outside of the cockpit is more limited than the more open X-Wing and A-Wing. Playing with a flight stick also helps to ground you and aid immersion which can combat sickness.
When you’re out of the cockpit you can turn on snap turning instead of smooth turning if you’d like for hangar exploration, or you can just turn your head around instead. Compared to other space combat games I’ve played, it seems quite smooth and comfortable but I don’t typically get sick so it’s hard to say. As long as performance is good, framerate is consistent, and you’re not seeing any major issues it should be okay for most people. No one on staff has been affected by playing. it.
The first three missions of the story after the prologue have you flying X-Wings and A-Wings, so switching back to a TIE Fighter in the next mission after that is a huge shock to the system. Not only do these fast and nimble fighters not have any shields, but they’re far more agile as well. Drifting in a TIE Fighter feels like you’re doing a donut in a street racer and watching the stars swim by as you flip around is extremely exciting.
Even though Squadrons isn’t a space combat simulator game, it’s more of an arcade-style experience, there is still a lot of depth here. For starters, you’ve got to manage your system’s power flow. For Republic, that means engine, lasers, and shields. By flicking the switch on the top of my joystick I can reroute power on the fly to whatever I’m doing at that moment. On top of that, you can designate shields for the front, back, or balanced during combat, boost, drift, and more.
At first it’s a lot to take in; there is a steep learning curve when using a stick essentially for the first time and being in VR, you can’t exactly see the buttons easily, but you eventually get the hang of things. I tried playing with a gamepad a little bit and the learning curve is far less steep. It feels really, really good with a controller in your hands and you don’t lose out on any functionality playing that way. I also tried out keyboard and mouse, but for me, that felt like a huge step backwards in terms of immersion.
After I got a feel for where each button was it all started to feel like second nature. Keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepad, have the same sort of muscle memory that kicks in after a while to a lesser extent, but after trying all three formats the HOTAS is absolutely my favorite way to play, followed by gamepad.
Star Wars: Squadrons Multiplayer
There are two main multiplayer modes: Dogfight and Fleet Battles. You can do a solo Fleet Battle with everyone else filled by AI allies and enemies, or invite friends in for a co-op affair against the AI as well. As far as I’ve seen there is no way to do a solo Dogfight match against AI or to have a co-op Practice flight, but you can spawn squadrons during Practice to sharpen your dogfighting skills.
You don’t even unlock Fleet Battles until your online rank is at least 5, so Dogfight is all you can do at first. There is a ton of map variety ranging from destroyed docking yards, massive relay stations with trenches and debris, or even huge asteroid fields that resemble obstacle courses. Not crashing becomes just as difficult as avoiding enemy fire. There’s even a giant, empty map that’s just a void of space. Keeping up with speedy TIE Fighters there is extremely difficult.
In Fleet Battles though, that’s where Squadrons really comes alive. In this game mode there are two armies with massive flagships anchoring their spot in space. First, the fighters battle it out in a game of tug of war to try and earn enough “morale” to wage an assault. From there, whoever wins the tug of war, takes the fight to the enemy’s two medium-sized capital ships. Once those are down you can attack the opponent’s massive flagship to win the match — but it’s not that simple.
At any time during a Fleet Battle the enemy can win back the morale tug of war and flip to the offensive, forcing you to go on the defensive. Once you’re attacking a flagship, like a Star Destroyer, you can take out its subsystems such as the shields, its power supplies, its turrets, and so on to slowly chip away until it’s destroyed in an epic ball of fire.
There is an in-game tutorial that takes you through all of this against AI, as well as the aforementioned AI enemies only mode you can play solo or with friends.
The biggest problem facing Star Wars: Squadrons though is a question of longevity. Once you finish the campaign all you can do is Dogfighting (Team Deathmatch) and Fleet Battle, that’s it. There are no plans for DLC, no plans for new maps, new ships, or anything like that. The developers have been very clear that Squadrons is sold as-is and will not be a live service game. It’s a great game already, but it could offer so much more had EA been willing to fund an ongoing support cycle. Instead, it’ll never grow beyond what it is right now. Hopefully there is enough interest to generate plans for a sequel that does get ongoing support.
Squadrons also contains a seasonal ranking structure, similar to most AAA online games, complete with ranks, rewards, daily missions, and so on. There are plenty of carrots to keep you moving along and coming back to earn juicy cosmetics since EA has stated there will be no microtransactions at all this time.
Star Wars: Squadrons Review Final Impressions
While I would say that Star Wars: Squadrons has exceeded my already lofty expectations overall, it’s not without its faults. It still manages to out-perform every other VR space combat game I’ve tried across the board for my tastes and offers a ton of nuance in its gameplay and immense entertainment with its full campaign. If you got a chance to try the brief, but magical, X-Wing VR Mission in the first DICE Battlefront game on PS4 with PSVR and wished it could have been made into a full game, then this is exactly that and so much more. Multiplayer is thrilling and extremely fun, but is lacking in options and variety a bit. There were some tiny performance issues and a lack of VR motion controller support, but all that is forgivable.
Minor gripes aside, for fans of Star Wars, fans of arcade-style space combat, and fans of just flat-out immersive VR, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than Star Wars: Squadrons.
For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines. This review was originally published on October 1st as a review-in-progress and has since been updated and finalized throughout.
Star Wars: Squadrons is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One for $39.99. VR support is included with PSVR on PS4 and any PC VR headset on PC through Origin, Steam, and the Epic Store. This review was conducted primarily via Link cable on PC with an Origin copy of the game using an Oculus Quest and Quest 2 via Link cable and Virtual Desktop. It was also tested on a Rift S.
Star Wars: Squadrons is an upcoming first-person space combat game that features a full single-player campaign, multiple gameplay modes, and crossplay support across PS4, PSVR, PC, PC VR, and Xbox One.
Excellent preview video from Star Wars HQ:
We haven’t gotten a chance to try the game for ourselves yet and no one has any impressions out for its VR support that we’ve found, but today a slew of hands-on previews dropped for the game’s non-VR format.
From what we can tell, only prominent non-VR gaming publications were included in the round of previews. After looking over the new impressions and watching several new gameplay videos, we’ve pulled together a list of a few takeaways worth noting.
There Are Lots Of Customization Options
We already knew there would be two types of customization in Star Wars: Squadrons in terms of cosmetic changes like paint jobs and the like, previewed above in the screenshot, as well as loadout customization. There are dozens of different components to pick from so not only will two two ships of the same class likely not look alike in a match, but they likely will not play alike either.
Once we know more about the customization options we look forward to digging in as much as possible. It’s also worth noting that you’ll be able to get little bobble heads as cockpit decoration items as well as holograms of characters and ships.
Additionally — there are zero microtransactions according to EA. Everything is earned in-game only.
There’s An Immersive Pre-Game Lobby And Hangar
When looking over all of the new footage and coverage for Star Wars: Squadrons today two things really stood out to me in the video preview from Star Wars HQ: there is a highly-detailed pre-game lobby and a hangar that lets you just sit in any of the cockpits outside of a match. Both of those things are going to tremendously help the game feel as immersive as possible in VR.
The pre-game lobby lets you look around the battle map at your teammates while aboard a capital ship. It looks like a really detailed and intricate environment. Then you can look over to the side at the Hangar door and go adjust your loadout, customize the ship, or just sit in the cockpit of any of your various Starfighters. I have a feeling this will be a great way to get used to the layout prior to diving in head first.
I cannot count the number of times an otherwise fun VR game has absolutely failed to maintain immersion due to flat, floating 2D menus. It’s reassuring to know that EA Motive seems to be approaching this game with immersion as a primary motivator.
Each Starfighter’s Cockpit Is Extremely Different
If you’re curious to see how each of the eight different Starfighters look from inside the cockpit, then look no further. This video from PCGamer breaks down each of the different in-game views to give you an idea of how not only your view of the battlefield will change depending on your ship, but also the placement and style of its instruments.
Picking a starfighter is just as much about leveraging its capabilities as it is adapting to its cockpit. Both VR and non-VR players will be allowed to look around freely, but VR users can (presumably) do so more easily without sacrificing ship control.
Gameplay Is Reminiscent Of Classic X-Wing And TIE Fighter Space Flight Sims
From what we’ve seen and read about Star Wars: Squadrons, gameplay is absolutely a crossover between a pure arcade-style shooter and a hardcore space flight simulation. It looks sort of like a halfway point between EVE Valkyrie’s relative simplicity and the sometimes overwhelming complexity of Elite Dangerous.
Managing ship power levels between engines, shields, and attack power will be a huge part of the meta-game skill cap and will likely factor heavily into your efficiency in combat. The moment-to-moment gameplay though, in terms of how it feels, sounds very reminiscent of the late-90s X-Wing and TIE Fighter PC space combat games.
Communication And Good Team Composition Is Crucial
While it may seem like only four different types of ships isn’t very many, it’s more than enough once you dig into the details. Team composition is key here. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of fighter-class ships like the X-Wing and TIE Fighter versus interceptor-class ships like the A-Wing and TIE Interceptor is crucial, plus the bombers and support class ships. Coordinating attacks and relaying crucial info during defense is ridiculously important.
More so than most any other competitive multiplayer game, I imagine voice communication over mic is going to be crucial here. Thankfully, every VR headset has a built-in mic so there isn’t much excuse.
Let us know what you think of the new details today down in the comments below! For more, check out what our friends thought from their hands-on demos over at Polygon, PC Gamer, and The Verge.
Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you think is the absolute very best Star Wars VR game or experience out there?
Today is May 4th, 2020, also known as May the Fourth, also known as Star Wars Day because Fourth sounds like Force. May the Fourth be with you, get it?
Chances are if you’re a VR fan then you’re a Star Wars fan and if you’re a Star Wars fan then you at least have a passing interest in VR. That’s just the law.
But the question is: what’s the best way to experience Star Wars in VR? Obviously there’s The Void, which has an amazing Star Wars location-based VR game that runs you and up to three others through a daring adventure across Mustafar as you narrowly escape Darth Vader’s base. But it’s a bit impossible to try that right now. Then there’s the excellent and totally underrated X-Wing VR Mission in the original Battlefront remake from DICE for PSVR. It still rocks. Plus, Vader Immortal is a wonderful episodic experience for Quest and Rift (coming to PSVR soon) that’s definitely worth experiencing. But maybe you prefer the fan-made variety instead? There’s one for flying an X-Wing, a series of Skyrim VR mods, a Robo Recall mod, and many others, to pick from too. We also rounded up a bunch of options a few years ago here.
Regardless of your choice, there are a lot of great options out there these days. What’s your pick for the very best Star Wars VR game or experience?
A new free update for Star Wars Battlefront II has added The Rise of Skywalker content to the game, including a new forest planet, new appearances for several heroes, and new playable characters.
Following a hearing and statement from Sen. Maggie Hassan, the FTC's commissioners said that they plan to investigate video game loot boxes in order to determine if they need more oversight.
On April 18, Star Wars: Battlefront II's latest update will introduce the new "Ewok Hunt" mode. Available for a limited time, the mode is inspired by the famous Endor battle in Return of the Jedi.
Electronic Arts announced that Star Wars Battlefront II has received a complete revamp to its progression system, and paid loot boxes are gone for good. Now, Star Cards will be earned only through gameplay.
Electronic Arts has revealed that controversial microtransactions will be returning to Star Wars Battlefront II in the next few months. It's not clear if they will take the same form as they did previously.
At this time of year, you’d be hard pressed to even remember what the original prices of some virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) product initially were. We’ve just come off the madcap adventure that is the annual sales week (and beyond) that incorporates both Black Friday and Cyber Monday and before we’ve all had the chance to get our bearing here comes the next waves of sale, cuts and discounts.
The latest announcement comes from Sony Interactive Entertainment America’s Vice President of PlayStation Marketing Mary Yee who has announced on the PlayStation Blog a raft of hardware sale prices for a number of days in the run up to Christmas Day. Both for the PlayStation VR bundles on sale and also for sales bundles featuring the PlayStation 4 console itself.
Three bundles featuring the company’s PlayStation VR head mounted display (HMD) are being discounted from this Sunday, December 10th 2017 for two weeks through to Christmas Eve, Sunday December 24th 2017. Details on the discounts are below:
$199.99 (MSRP) // Regular price: $299.99 (MSRP)
“This bundle includes a PS VR system, a PS Camera, a copy of GT Sport, and the new PS VR demo disc. The world’s first racing experience to be built from the ground up now heightens the experience further by transporting gamers straight into the driver’s seat in virtual reality. Experience thrilling one-on-one racing with select cars in the dedicated VR Drive mode in Arcade Mode.”
$299.99 (MSRP) // Regular Price: $399.99 (MSRP)
“This bundle includes a PS VR headset, a PlayStation Camera, a copy of DOOM VFR and the new PS VR demo disc. DOOM VFR brings the fast-paced gameplay fans of the series love to VR. Lay waste to an army of demons as you explore and interact with new areas of the UAC facility on Mars, and Hell itself, from an entirely new perspective.”
$349.99 (MSRP) // Regular Price: $449.99 (MSRP)
“This bundle includes a PS VR system, a PS Camera, two PlayStation Move controllers, a copy of Skyrim VR and the new PS VR demo disc. Skyrim VR is perfect for longtime fans of the game who want to check out Skyrim’s epic world in virtual reality, or for the curious gamer looking to virtually dip their toes in Tamriel for the very first time.”
For those still looking for an actual PlayStation 4 console as either a first time buyer or, looking to either replace or update their existing hardware the window is a lot smaller – less than a week in fact. Beginning again on December 10th 2017 the price will be cut on three bundles through to the following Saturday, December 16th. The systems are the PS4 Pro 1TB Jet Black Console, which is reduced $50 (USD) to $349.99 (MSRP), the Limited Edition Star Wars Battlefront ll PS4 Pro Bundle, also down $50 to $399.99 (MSRP) from $449.99 (MSRP). And lastly the Limited Edition Destiny 2 PS4 Pro Bundle, which will be $399.99 (MSRP) from its regular price of $449.99 (MSRP).
There will no doubt be more VR related hardware and software discounts in the run up to the end of the year. VRFocus will bring you news on these as we get them.
Three bundles featuring the company’s PlayStation VR head mounted display (HMD) are being discounted from this Sunday, December 10th 2017 for two weeks through to Christmas Eve, Sunday December 24th 2017. Details on the discounts are below:
