Star Wars is, for me, first and foremost a video game franchise. I know there are films, I ve seen some of them (seven of the eleven by my count), but I m far more likely to tell you that A New Hope took place between the events of Jedi: Fallen Order and Dark Forces II than the other way around. When I see that title fade away, and the yellow letters begin to scroll, I have that warm glowy feeling of familiarity and happy memories, but they re of the nefarious deeds of Darth Malek or the ripping yarns of Kyle Katarn, rather than Luke and his naughty daddy. (Sorry, spoilers.)

It is a peculiar relationship I ll concede, where two of my all-time favourite games have Star Wars in their titles (Knights Of The Old Republic, Dark Forces), but the films wouldn t even be thought of when making my movie list.

When I boot up the backwardly named Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, there s immediately a hefty dose of nostalgia. Meanie old droid 8T88, mentions of Dark Jedi (as opposed to Sith?), Kyle Katarn s beard, it s all a warm bath of teenage years. But, I was wondering, is it actually as good as I remember?

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is out today, letting you follow in the roguish bootprints of young force punter Cal Kestis, played here by Archie of Archie comics. In celebration of his boyish padawan appearance, and the way he uses a deadly weapon like you d use a torch app with dodgy permissions to find your keys, let s make a list. A list of the least qualified Jedi (and Sith) in PC games.

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A new hope. After two boring-but-fine Star Wars: Battlefront games, we’re now on the verge of EA’s third swing of the lightsaber with the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. There are reasons to think it might be more interesting than early trailers suggested, after writers such as our own Matt came back from a recent preview event with his pockets filled with (qualified) comparisons to Sekiro.

What are the chances that it will live up to the very best Star Wars games to grace the PC, however? Here are our picks for the company Fallen Order should aspire to keep.

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Look! A ranking of the 50 best RPGs on PC. I know, you never asked for this, but here it is. It is 100 percent correct, we double-checked. The RPG is a broad and deep sea and fishing out the best games from its characterful waters is no easy task. But we are capable fishers on the good ship RPS, and know when to humanely throw back a tiddler or fight to heave up a monster. Enough of this salty metaphor. Here are the 50 best RPGs you can play on PC today.

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I bounced off Star Wars: Empire At War when it was new, but the siren call of modding beckoned me back. Playing a bit like a 4X strategy game in fast-forward, there’s no base building and little micromanagement to be done in Empire At War. Just assemble your fleets, kick open a hole in the enemy defences, and send down troops for a bit of terrestrial tactics. Petroglyph’s hybrid RTS is still being actively supported, and the Steam version revived online multiplayer in 2017. Here’s a few mods that are strong in the Force.

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It’s still early days yet, but there’s a Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic film in development. As reported by Buzzfeed last night, Laeta Kalogridis (Writer on Altered Carbon, Shutter Island, Alita: Battle Angel among others) is nearly done on a script for the first in a possible KOTOR film trilogy. I’m surprised that the whole Old Republic setting hadn’t been tapped for any film or animation projects previously, as it’s jam packed with fun worlds to explore, strange new aliens for the CGI crew to flex their artistic muscle on, and a straightforward story, if they’re following the game itself.

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It has happened. The day spoken of in legend. After two years, I am finally to be set free of the Curse Of Steam Charts. All its taken is entirely leaving my job in four days time to end this purgatory. The only decision left is to whom I shall pass this vexation. That, and how to avoid mentioning the actual games for one more week. And this time I’ve come up with a self-indulgent doozy.

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Someone has already bagged the original Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, but KOTOR 2 (as the kids call it, because putting the full name in the title of this post made me realise how absurdly long it is) is honestly pretty great. This is partly because, even though KOTOR 2 wasn’t made by BioWare, it has a very similar plot and structure to the first game.

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Lawyers from Lucasfilm have shut down Apeiron, a fan remake of BioWare’s 2003 RPG Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (one of the best PC games, according to us). It’s little surprise that The Suits have stamped this out, though of course it is a bummer – and doubly so because Poem Studios put three years of hope and work into Apeiron before it caught the The Suits’ cruel eye. The Suits even want them to destroy all their work. Our Alec seemed hopeful (well, by his standards) and called Apeiron “extremely pretty” back in 2016, but so it goes.

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This is one of the less celebrated of the classic Star Wars games (now decreed to be non-canonical by the House of Mouse). Don’t get me wrong; it’s no KotOR or Jedi Outcast, but there’s a lot to like under the hood of Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Or, possibly, inside the tauntaun. (more…)