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Electronic Arts' continuing investment in its talented Frostbite team continues to pay dividends. We played a few rounds of Star Wars Battlefront 2 in the wake of the EA Play event, and initial impressions are very positive - this is an exceptionally beautiful game. At this point, there's a very strong argument that this might just be the most impressive-looking Frostbite title we've seen - no mean feat bearing in mind that developer DICE is once again targeting that crucial 60fps target frame-rate, while BioWare's Anthem gives us some impression of what this revised technology can do when targeting 30Hz. At the time of writing, we've not seen console code, but our hands-on session was hosted on a high-end PC running Nvidia's GTX 1080 (the non Ti version). Quality settings were locked at default to ultra, meaning that this is peak Battlefront 2, at this point in development at least.
The most striking aspect of the presentation is the lighting and materials, where we may well be looking at a revamp of DICE's superb physically-based rendering system - a key component in the Frostbite toolkit that first debuted in the first Battlefront. Our demo playthrough featured a new Naboo-themed map that showcases a rich selection of materials ranging from the stone work of the city streets to reflective marble of the interior. Metalwork on droids and vehicles also looked sensational, and regardless of how you may feel about Star Wars Episode 1, Naboo's architecture and style was a highpoint and DICE's representation is sensational.
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