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| By Brad Cook You know the theme music by heart. You know every twist and turn of the stories as well as you know the layout of your home. You can recite all the dialogue as the characters speak it. And now you can enter their galaxy. |
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 Now the entire Star Wars galaxy is at your disposal. |
And Galactic Battlegrounds was built to zoom at hyperspeed in Mac OS X, so you won’t have to worry about another application interfering with your plans for planet conquering.
“Mac OS X offers gamers more peace of mind,” says Aspyr PR & Media Director Amy Torres, “as things like manual memory allocation become a thing of the past.”
Battle it out in the snow — keep that lightsaber swinging!
Familiar Gameplay
Given the immense popularity of the Star Wars films, Aspyr expects that a lot of the franchise’s fans will want to try their hand at guiding the Galactic Empire, the Rebels, the Royal Naboo, the Gungans, the Wookiees, or the Trade Federation to victory. “The Star Wars characters are so well-known that it’s almost like you know the folks on the screen,” comments Torres.
Galactic Battlegrounds will also be familiar to fans of another RTS title, Age of Empires II: Gold Edition. The game uses the same engine that powers AOE II, and it also employs a similar gameplay model: you select a faction, build its population and technology, and vie for supremacy against other factions, with victory conditions that you can preset. For example, you might want to play until only one faction is left standing or until one faction reaches a certain score.
Each civilization has its own unique units and buildings.
Before you leave for that galaxy far, far away, you can also preset the number of opponents, the size of the game map, all groups’ beginning technology level, and more. The other players can be controlled by the computer (with five levels of difficulty to choose from) or by your friends, whom you can battle over the Internet with the Mac-only service GameRanger.
And if you would prefer to try your hand at building your own worlds and scenarios, you can do that too with the editor that’s included. Torres says that “it’s fun to get creative and build your own battleground, choosing your setting and units and making it as easy or as challenging as you want. And being able to share these unique battlegrounds with other players really makes the game your own.”
Straight From the Movies
If you’d prefer to play solo and would like a unique challenge, try one of the campaigns and test your RTS aptitude.
Each uses familiar characters from the movies and tells a tale that will hopefully have a happy ending, if you make the right decisions.
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Galactic Battlegrounds Patch Download the patch which fixes a variety of issues with the game. |
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Clone Campaigns Expansion Pack Read the feature for the exciting expansion pack for Galactic Battlegrounds. |
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For example, one campaign follows the struggles of Princess Leia as she tries to obtain information that’s vital to the rebellion (if you’re familiar with the first Star Wars movie, you know what that is). In another, Han Solo and Chewbacca try to restore freedom to Kashyyyk, Chewbacca’s homeworld, and it’s up to you to help them.
3D modeled structures fit perfectly in their surroundings.
“Hands down, the Wookiees are my favorite group,” says Torres, referring to Chewbacca’s species. “When I started playing, I thought these guys would be primitive but they actually have great engineers and are able to grasp technology pretty quickly. Plus, they look pretty cute onscreen.”
You’ll quickly discover that all the groups in the game draw their strengths and weaknesses from their celluloid counterparts. The Galactic Empire has vicious Sith Knights (Darth Vader was a member of their sinister order), but their spaceships aren’t as powerful as the Rebels’ ships since they have little in the way of shielding (a fact demonstrated vividly in the three films of the original Star Wars trilogy). The Royal Naboo have strong spaceships, like the Rebels, but their heavy weapons are weak.
Varied terrain types provide huge
backgrounds for your battles.
backgrounds for your battles.
Make Plans to See Old Friends
So which of the Star Wars characters is your favorite? Whether you prefer the insidious Galactic Empire or the underdog Rebel Alliance, you’re sure to have a lot of fun revisiting that far away galaxy which existed long, long ago. Luckily, you won’t have to leave your computer if you want a copy of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: simply click over to the online Apple Store and order a copy.
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Learn more about the factions that you can play as — what side will you be on?     
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