Eidos Bringing Pacific War to Xbox, Windows

By Geoff Duncan February 28, 2008

Game developer Eidos has announced it will publish a sequel to its Battlestations: Midway World War II naval battle game. Dubbed Battlestations: Pacific, the game will feature both single and multi-player modes that blend action and strategy…and even let player explore what might have happened if the Japanese had gotten the upper hand on World War II’s Pacific front.

"Eidos is excited to bring an even bigger, more innovative and authentic experience with Battlestations: Pacific," said Eidos executive VP pof sales and marketing Robert A. Lindsey, in a statement. "With an all new Japanese faction to explore and fight with, newly expanded multiplayer content, and a slew of new air, sea, and land units, the game takes the Battlestations series to the next level."

The game will feature two distinct single-player campaigns—one from the American perspective, and another from the Japanese perspective. The American campaign picks up from the Battle of Midway and follows all the way to Okinawa; the Japanese campaign starts at Pearl Harbor, and lets players try to take control of the entire Pacific. The campaigns feature over over two dozen story missions and 21 new units, including kamikazes and the infamous Ohka rocket planes. The game also includes tactical troop landings, parachute squadrons, and landing craft. Multiplayer modes enable players to engage each other online via System Link.

Eidos has not announced a ship date, pricing information, or any anticipated rating details for the game, but says it plans to ship for Xbox 360 and Games for WIndows. Battlestations: Midway is rated T for "Teen" by the ESRB.

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Gaming

Bringing VR’s best Star Wars game to PlayStation VR2 was a no-brainer, devs say

star wars tales from the galaxys edge psvr2 interview ilmxlab starwarstalesee screenshot c 3po and r2 d2

When ILMxLAB learned about the PlayStation VR2, Director Jose Perez III thought it was a "no-brainer" for the studio to bring the Oculus Quest game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge to the new headset.
"We're always looking at how we can push the fidelity of the work that we're doing," Perez III tells Digital Trends in an interview. "PlayStation VR2 is ridiculously powerful; we got really excited about what we could bring to that. We started talking with our friends at Sony because we had a great relationship with them for Vader Immortal, and it was really a no-brainer. Then, you put the headset on, you start feeling the haptics, and you start seeing what you can do with the visual fidelity and lighting, and it's like, 'Oh, this is awesome!'"
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge - Enhanced Edition | Official Trailer | PS VR2
PlayStation VR2's launch and its first wave of games are nearly upon us, and Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition is one of those titles. This is a make-or-break time for VR, which is still struggling to move into the mainstream but could become more popular if Sony's headset can offer a compelling and accessible virtual reality experience. Ahead of its release, Digital Trends spoke to Director Jose Perez III and Producer Harvey Whitney from ILMxLAB to learn about the process of crafting one of these critical "no-brainer" launch games and PlayStation VR2 will ultimately stand when it comes to the future of VR gaming.
The power of PlayStation VR2
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge was originally released for Meta Quest VR headsets in November 2020. It's set on the planet of Batuu, which people also explore at Dinsey parks, and follows a Droid Technician who gets caught in the middle of a grander fight against the First Order after crash-landing on the planet. At the time, it was meant with decent reviews and only got better as its story was completed and expanded with the Last Call DLC.
After getting the "Enhanced Edition" of the game for PlayStation VR2 greenlit, ILMxLAB actually had to go and make it. As the team was dealing with new hardware for the first time, producer Harvey Whitney thought it was good that the team's first project on PlayStation VR2 was an enhanced version of an existing game.
"Early on, knowing that we already had the content that was created for the original, that changes things quite a bit," Whitney tells Digital Trends. "We're not redeveloping the story and coming up with all of that. We just had that opportunity to work as a team and ask, 'What do we really push here, and where are the changes that we want to make, and what we can do to really take advantage of this hardware?'"

The VR space is full of different headsets with unique specs, with the much higher specs of the PS VR2 standing out. The PlayStation VR2 sports some impressive specs compared to its VR peers, displaying content in a 4000x2030 HDR format at a 90Hz or 120Hz frame rate. Plus, games have the PS5's power, spatial, and brand new Sense controllers to take advantage of, rather than the 2013 console and 2010 motion controls that limited the original PlayStation VR.
PlayStation VR2 supports Roomscale, Sitting, and Standing play styles, which added more complexity as Tales from the Galaxy's Edge supports all three. Thankfully, Perez III that bringing Tales from the Galaxy's Edge to PlayStation VR2 was relatively manageable because of how impressive the system's specs were.
"A lot of the development processes are similar [to other VR platforms]," Perez III says. "We're still working inside of Unreal, and we're doing a lot of those same processes. But we don't have to look at performance quite as much as we do on some of the other devices, so we're able to open up a lot of things or not be as concerned about certain things. That comes with better hardware."
Better hardware, better games
Looking at the biggest games of the PlayStation VR2 launch window lineup, the visuals of titles like Horizon Call of the Mountain and the VR modes of Resident Evil Village and Gran Turismo 7 are impressive. In our discussion, Whitney also made it quite clear that one of the real advantages of working on this remaster was not having to worry about strict limitations on the visuals or even the audio. "We got lucky in the sense that there's a lot more to PlayStation VR2 that we hadn't had previously," Whitney says. "We could really push the graphics and make it shine. But then there were also some other things that came into play. We totally redid the audio, it sounds amazing."

Gaming

Xbox Game Pass adds Lego Star Wars and a former Switch console exclusive

Promotional art of Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga.

Xbox Game Pass is getting 11 new games in December, with some out on the platform starting today. The list includes The Game Awards nominated Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Eastward, which was previously a console exclusive on Nintendo Switch.

Microsoft's gaming service tends to add two batches of games every month, so this new batch makes up the first half of its December releases. Starting today, players can already download Eastward, The Walking Dead: The Final Season, and Totally Reliable Delivery Service.

Gaming

Xbox lost its digital-only battle, but still won the war

Xbox Series S

Over this past weekend, a lot of Xbox's online features went down, causing a bevy of system-wide problems on Xbox Series X and S consoles. Not only could players not buy and download games, but they couldn’t even access their digital libraries.
Considering that the Xbox Series S is a digital-only console and the importance of Xbox Game Pass on these platforms, not being able to play digital games was a major issue -- one that gamers feared a decade ago when Microsoft initially announced the Xbox One. The recent outage highlights how Microsoft was ultimately able to achieve the digital-focused gaming vision that it had with that console, even if the brand had to be raked through the coals for that to happen.
The Xbox One’s fall
Ahead of the launch of Xbox One, Microsoft had to deal with an intense amount of backlash because of how it framed its system as an always-online home entertainment system rather than a game console. The system was originally going to need to connect with Microsoft's servers at least once a day, making the system untenable for those who didn't have a stable online connection. Part of the reason for the tech was to prevent people from playing used games. Microsoft wanted an always-connected platform, but it appeared to come at the price of user access, privacy, and your internet bill.
On top of that, Xbox representatives would tell people to "#dealwithit" or buy an Xbox 360 if they disagreed with Microsoft's strategy for the Xbox One. Obviously, this confrontational approach did not go over well with hardcore gaming fans, especially in 2013 when casual online gaming wasn’t as ubiquitous, and we didn’t necessarily connect every device we owned to the internet. Vocal gamers on the internet just weren't interested in a platform that restricts what the player can do via an online connection, and any goodwill Microsoft gained during the Xbox 360 generation was ultimately tarnished.
Microsoft eventually released an all-digital version of the Xbox One, coming full circle and hinting at what was to come. Image used with permission by copyright holder
While Microsoft ultimately backtracked on these features, their announcement's damage to the system was irreversible. Microsoft had to spend almost the entirety of the Xbox One generation apologizing and showing that they cared about games by implementing backward compatibility, Play Anywhere, and Xbox Game Pass initiatives. That's why it's surprising when an event like this Xbox outage makes you step back and notice that Microsoft still did achieve its initial vision for the Xbox platform in many ways over the past nine years.
The rise of the Xbox Series consoles
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have both been received quite well. They’re powerful and easy-to-use pieces of gaming hardware and have some great features like smart delivery and quick resume. At the same time, they've embraced digital, online-focused gaming more than ever before. Look no further than the lack of a disc drive on the Xbox Series S, Microsoft's push into cloud gaming, and rumors of a puck-shaped Xbox streaming box to see that Microsoft never truly abandoned its plans for an intrinsically online gaming platform.
Microsoft's servers are so intrinsic to the Xbox Series systems that server issues can lock players out of single-player digital games they bought with their own money. That implies there is hidden DRM for any digital game purchased or redeemed through Game Pass on Xbox, even if the game itself is a single-player adventure. Access is one of the biggest red flags in the age of digital ownership, and the temporary Xbox outage highlights why many people see it as a problem.
Despite criticism in 2013, Microsoft still released a system with some of the Xbox One's most controversial features and is reportedly working on a streaming-only device that's not too far off from how the Xbox One was initially positioned, sans cloud gaming. While Microsoft hasn't done anything as egregious as disabling used physical games, it has slowly demonstrated that some of the Xbox One’s initial goals were just ahead of their time, not impossible to implement.
The medium is the message
At least part of the vision that Microsoft was derided for with the Xbox One has come to fruition with the Xbox Series X, showing that where Microsoft really messed up with the Xbox One was with timing and messaging. The Xbox team's messaging nowadays is very good about being a consumer-friendly company for gamers. With initiatives like Play Anywhere, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, it wants its fans to know that they can play various Xbox games anywhere and any way they like.

Because of that, it can get away with online features being tied to something as simple as accessing digital games until an event like an outrage exposes its shortcomings. We don't necessarily like the idea of an always-online, all-digital console much more than we did in 2013; Microsoft has just found acceptable ways to position and market systems that lean into those elements.
Still, that approach has all been built around Microsoft's online infrastructure. While it works a lot of the time, periods like this past weekend when it goes down highlight just how digitally reliant modern gamers are. And how one day, once the servers powering these initiatives go away, the experience of using a great system like the Xbox Series X will barely function.