Aunt Wendy writes:
"Yes, your opponent AI are presumably out there trying to "capture the flag", but on the easiest easiest settings you're also given some pretty darn good AI on your team, and they will go out and do everything for you. He did run out of ammo, but not long before the friendly AI captured the necessary bases."
Friendly AI is not a game flaw. It's a game feature. If your nephew won the first level by turning in a circle and shooting he was just lucky in starting on a planet where the friendly AI have an advantage. This is not a game flaw, and in my opinion you pointing it out as such is a gross misrepresentation. In SWBF the player is tasked with defeating the AI opponent on a number of worlds as a member of the Imperials, the Rebel Alliance, the CIS and the Republic. As such you're going to have some missions that are easy and some that are hard because the game system doesn't cheat - if you're playing as a CIS on one planet you'll be faced with exactly the same advantage or disadvantage as the AI will face when you're playing as the Republic. This is a big positive feature of the game - i.e. it doesn't cheat by giving the AI any advantage.
I'm tired of games which place the player in a situation where the AI always has a huge advantage. Sometimes it's good to see a game where you occasionally get a break, and where you don't have to be a superhero in order to win the odd level. It makes the game seem more real when you can just do your part as a member of a squad without it seeming like you have to do all the work. In short, what you're complaining about in this case is a great aspect of this game. Added to this, what you're complaining about is not the case most of the time. In fact this game is balanced very well and in many cases if you do nothing the game really can go either way, so it's best to do your bit. In most cases you have to do certain things in order to win. This is why your article paints an unfair picture of this game - you take one instance in which your nephew just got a lucky break and you unfairly make it seem as if the game as a whole suffers from the same flaw - and it just does not. In my view that means you're not telling the truth about the game. You are overstating your case to the point that it becomes, for lack of a better word, a lie.
Similarly, when you claim that the game lacks variety, I simply don't see how you can claim that with a straight face when the game features combat on forest worlds, deserts, inside building complexes and on platforms miles high in a planet's atmosphere. I mean, seriously, fight a level on Bespin and then fight on Endor and then come back here and tell me it all looks the same; or fight on Tatooine and then on Kashyyyk and then tell me the game looks the same from one level to the next. If you do I say that's bullshit. I mean your criticisms when it comes to this game are just false.
