Ah Battlefront II, the game that could've defined an entire year in gaming, potentially crushed by some of the most aggressive micropayment systems in a premium game ever seen.

I've written about my displeasure with Star Wars Battlefront II's egregious progression systems before, which incentivize and encourage spending on randomly-generated loot crates in order to progress, but since the game's beta, a couple of things have changed. First of all, regardless of how much cash you spend on loot crates in Battlefront II, you will be gated by a global level in order to level up your cards, and thus, your power, putting a limiting factor on the "pay to win" nature the game seemed to present in its previous beta. Read all about that over here. However, now that Battlefront II is in a trial period via EA Access, we've gotten a glimpse at the full breadth of its systems. Oh boy. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more

It turns out that you can circumvent the global ranking gates through sheer luck, getting higher-level cards out of packs you pay for, without earning them through play. Some of the higher-level abilities cut cool down speeds by half, grant extra defensive skills, and even provide faster access to more powerful hero classes in battle, granting non-trivial advantages. Essentially, you will always have an advantage in Battlefront II if you pony up extra cash. That's just one reason why people are currently angry, though. Eventually, people realized that to gain access to certain heroes, such as Darth Vader, you'd have to spend tens of thousands of in-game credits for the privilege. A loot crate for character progression generally costs up to 4000 credits, and in each multiplayer battle, you generally earn around 200-400 credits, boosted by the odd challenge completion. Generally speaking, though, the progression system essentially asks you to choose between advancing your base classes, or saving up to gain access to some of the franchise's most iconic heroes. Or well, you know, spending money on the game's loot crates for additional credits.

"Take your loot crate! Strike me down with all your pay to win abilities, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete."