The aggressive microtransactions of Star Wars Battlefront II left a bad impression on some players, which may be why EA’s next foray into the Star Wars universe left them behind. However, that isn’t to say that Star Wars: Squadrons has stopped evolving since its launch; the team at Motive Studios has continued to update the game with new features and options – all available to players for free.
The latest content drop – first discussed last month – adds two classic starfighters to the game: one for the Rebel Alliance, and one for the Empire. The good guys get the B-Wing, which appeared in Return of the Jedi. The bad guys get the TIE Defender, a powerful Imperial ship that was introduced in the original TIE Fighter PC game. You can see these two new starfighters (alongside other features) in the video above.
The update is available now on all platforms: PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Of course, you can also play the game (via backward compatibility) on the new-gen consoles.
While the new ships are the main attraction, that isn’t where the tweaks stop with this update. You can read the full release notes for the complete account, but here is an excerpt from the “General” category of fixes:
- Added Custom Games and a server browser, available in the Multiplayer & Training menu
- Adjusted Skill Rating requirements for each tier via server-side change last week (see below for full details)
- Updated Skill Rating gain/loss ratios to better reflect each player’s performance in a match via server-side change last week
- Ongoing server-side matchmaking improvements
- Fixed an issue where the game could crash if the player didn’t skip through the outro screens of a match
- Fixed an issue where the game could crash when loading into Fostar Haven
- Fixed an issue where having Lighting quality set to Low could create intense flashes of light on Fostar Haven
- Fixed an issue where AI in multiplayer could on occasion deal no hull damage to players with their primary weapons
- Fixed or improved instances of poor collision detection on Fostar Haven, Galitan, Esseles, Nadiri Dockyards, Zavian Abyss, and Sissubo
- Fixed issue where the interior of the TIE interceptor could disappear after respawning
- Fixed issue where Star Destroyer engine VFX could flicker
- Fixed an issue where PlayStation 5 visuals appeared blurry.
Check out EA’s post for me, or even better – hop into Squadrons yourself and see how the game has changed. If you do, which new ship are you going to try out first?