Say what you like about EA’s handling of the Star Wars license (and believe me, I’ve said a lot), but I have to admit that the modeling and animation over at DICE for Star Wars Battlefront II is really top flight stuff.
Case in point: Today sees the release of the latest Battlefront II hero, Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku from Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. And as you can see in the gallery down below, they’ve done an uncannily good job of capturing the actor’s face and body language.
Count Dooku will join an increasingly comprehensive list of heroes and villains playable in the game. This season has so far focused on characters from the Prequel Trilogy and has seen the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous (with Darth Maul already in the base game). Coming down the line, meanwhile, is Anakin Skywalker, who should land sometime in February.
While I’m still not overly enamored with Battlefront II, I at least respect EA’s commitment to continually adding new characters to it, and putting some real effort into getting them just right for release. That they’re characters from the prequels is a nice bonus, too.
For some time after Disney’s acquisition of the license, many had come to believe that they were purposefully ignoring the Prequel Trilogy due to their, shall we say, questionable cinematic merits (there was even some talk that they’d rework them and make their own prequels). Fortunately, it now seems that the studio’s happy to reference the films, and there are persistent rumors that as the end of the Skywalker saga, Episode IX will feature some nice callbacks to them.
In the meantime, let’s party like it’s 2002 and enjoy the digital resurrection of Christopher Lee. I can’t believe it’s been nearly four years since he died, so seeing him honored in this way in Star Wars Battlefront II is oddly touching.