The original "Star Wars: Battlefront" came out in 2004, many years ago in video game terms; like the 2015 reboot of "Star Wars Battlefront" (the lack of a colon makes the difference), it focused heavily on multiplayer combat It did require the use of the GameSpy service for online play, which became problematic when the service was shut down in 2014.

Online play was still possible, but it was more labor intensive after that; as this guide from Steam shows, you could use mods, edit hexes by hand, or bring a PC into someone's basement and build a LAN with as many people as you could cram in. None of these are ideal solutions for those who just want to enjoy an hour or two of classic online gaming, but now there's a better way: a sudden update has brought back multiplayer support directly from Steam.

The update also adds language support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish, additional audio support options, and addresses "numerous menu and gameplay issues at various screen sizes." Unfortunately, this part of the update does not appear to have been done perfectly. According to several comments, the frame rate can be unlocked manually, but the draw distance issue seems to be more baked in.

Multiplayer support works very well. Launch the game, select "Galaxy Multiplayer," then "Internet," and a browser pops up. Select the game you want and you can get started right away, just like in the old days. There are not many games or players online right now, but I was able to get into a few very quickly and without any problems. (For what it's worth, I only ran a few maps and didn't play with different video settings, but I didn't notice any drawing distance issues.)

It is unclear how many players this new mode will support; "Star Wars Battlefront" originally supported up to 64 players at a time, but the game currently running on Steam has 32 players at best; GOG will release "Star Wars: Battlefront 2" (still the original version) and revived multiplayer support, also on Steam for cross-play.

I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that this update came just in time for May the fourth be with you, also known as Star Wars Day.