Star Wars Battlefront – the quest to capture fan nostalgia

Electronic Arts has promised gaming's most authentic Star Wars experience, but can its new shooter compete with the vastness of the movie universe?

We're in a tiny closed-off area at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California. It is, of course, decked out like a Rebel Alliance briefing room. Journalists from around the world are waiting to see a video of the new Star Wars shooter, Battlefront.

Publisher Electronic Arts is not letting anyone play the game, we're just here to gaze at footage of someone else playing. We watch a short skirmish on the familiar planet of Endor, complete with AT-ST walker, Stormtroopers, trees splintered in half by blaster fire, and speeder bike chases. A platoon of rebel soldiers encounters an AT-AT, stomping through the lushly detailed forest; they call in a Y-Wing airstrike which incinerates the giant transporter. Then in strolls Darth Vader, force gripping throats and fending off laser blasts with his lightsaber. Above all, the stentorian John Williams score booms around us in Dolby 3D. It is intoxicating.