Star Wars Celebration - Back in canon

Among the Pokemon Go craze, new Sun and Moon reveals (Mimikkyu for president), and the english launch of Brave Exvius we mustn't forget that the Star Wars Celebration is currently underway. Why? Because ideally everything star wars related will be there with juicy announcements.

This year we got more details on the Ahsoka novel, the reveal of a Rogue One novel written by James Luceano who is notorious for his loregasm filled novels, a very convincing sizzle reel for Rogue One, our first look at Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso, a new Battlefront DLC focusing on Rogue One and discovered that the much hyped swtor reveal was an artwork and an expansion title: Knights of the Eternal Throne. Really Bioware?

But don't worry, I was saving the best for last. And that was the Rebels panel. You might be wondering how can a show with graffity artist kids moving down stormtroopers and beams of light used as helicopters can be the best of star wars. If not, you should. Or maybe shouldn't, cause the answer is pretty simple.

The Season 3 trailer showed us a character Dave Filoni wanted to include in Rebels since the show was created. This guy:

Grand Admiral Mith'raw'nuruodo AKA: Thrawn. Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and those in between. One of the first and most beloved Legends characters is officially as canon as Luke and Leia. And he is still the same blue skinned art fetishist we all know and love.

For those who were living under a rock since 1991, Thrawn is the Empire's greatest military commander who can figure out the exact military tactic to utterly decimate the enemy based on what art the enemy commander likes. Sort of like an evil Sherlock Holmes. Of course Timothy Zahn (the author who created him) is not a military genius so said tactic rarely ends up being more complex than zerg rush or flanking, but that's beside the point. He is a very cultured, pragmatic individual, who rose the top position in a xenophobic establishment, despite being clearly an alien.

How faithful will this new version be to the Zahn original? Well since Filoni consulted with Timothy Zahn himself (who will also release a new canon Thrawn novel in 2017) I'd say very. Add to that the voice of Lars Mikkelsen and we have instant success.

More importantly, this might very well be the beginning of a trend of bringing the best of the old EU into the new canon. With Rakata Prime, Moraband and Malachor already in, we can maybe hope that Revan will soon follow the iconic Chiss military genius.
But I am getting ahead of myself. We just got Thrawn. Let's celebrate that for now.

Welcome back Admiral.

Star Wars Battlefront - Do not waaaaaant

Good evening everyone.
The Battlefront Beta generated a lot of buzz since it began. It seems that is all everyone wants to talk about. So naturally I will join in and give you my two cents regarding the matter.
As an added bonus, I will be negative about it. Not many negative reviews at this point.
First, let us talk about what was good. It will be very brief unfortunately.
The game is beautiful. No denying that. The visuals are stunning and most of the lag is reserved for the game menu.
It also feals very star wars like. You have X-wing and TIE fighter wreckages on the ground, capital ships in the air and squads of rebels and imperials on the ground.
The first few hours are pure bliss. Problems begin when you get bored, and that comes pretty fast.
Out of the seven game modes we could try out two, both with one map each. All decent weapons are behind a rank lock and a money lock so new players will struggle for long before they can meraningfully contribute to the battles. And its not like there is a lot to unlock. You have maybe five different weapons. Also, alll forms of visual customization are absent from the beta.
Now for the really bad part: Hoth is very poorly balanced, if it can be called balance at all. The entire internet can only give one example of the rebels winning. Otherwise the empire wins all the time.
AT-AT walkers are, well walking, towards the shield generator. The objective is to kill them both before they reach the end of the invisible rail.
No problem. We just need a few snowspeeders and....hold on. Not yet. Okay, how about air support. Well about that. The Y-Wings can only lock onto two huge walkers if the rebels can keep two uplink stations under their control. Of course the snow troopers, the walkers and Darth Vader try to stop them. If the Y-Wings attack, all they do is make the walkers targetable with conventional weapons. You can only do the cable trick when this occurs.
So if you are playing as a rebel, you are pretty much dead. Well I guess it's authentic. After all the rebels lost the Battle of Hoth. Of course it was likely only fun for the Empire.