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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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…)

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.>

When people ask me about the first game I ever played, I tell them it was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. That’s not accurate, but it was the first one I played that made me realise the unique power games had to transport me to other worlds, and into the shoes of another person. (more…)

There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it’s important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we’re here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made. (more…)

I’ve recently started playing with a new Dungeons & Dragons group, drafted in after one of their numbers upped and left town. It’s my second time playing table-top D&D, after a splendid stint a couple of years back with Jim Rossignol (late of this parish) DMing, and it’s a properly good time. And what I’ve learned is that it becomes a much better time the more flaws you introduce to your character. Which got me thinking: wow, do PC RPGs not follow that rule at all.

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Kickstarter’s been pretty good for RPGs. We may not have seen the next big leap yet – Divinity: Original Sin 2 is looking pretty damn special, mind – but it’s certainly breathed new life into the classics. Wasteland and Pillars of Eternity are both returning. Numenera went down well, despite a little over-promising. Divinity was superb.

Have I left anyone out? (Oh yeah, don’t forget Taz.)

Oh. Yes. Tyranny. If you thought that game kinda landed and faded quickly, you’re not alone. Despite being a very solid half of a game, even Obsidian/Paradox have admitted that when it came to it, “everyone was hoping that it would do better.” I think it deserved to. The thing is, I’m not sure this should have been a huge surprise.

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Feels like it’s far too soon to be remaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic but a) they’ve rebooted the Spider-Man movies 48 times in 18 months and b) KOTOR is, in fact, 13 years old oh god I’m so ancient how did this happen help help. So maybe the time isn’t too un-wrong for someone to take a crack at making one of the most beloved 3D-accelerated Star Wars games look a whole lot more modern. Waitaminnit: isn’t this just like George Lucas and his bloody Special Editions? SHUT IT DOWN SHUT IT DOWN SHUT IT DOWN.

The fans making Apeiron carefully classify it as a mod rather than a standalone project, in the hope that Ian Disney won’t force-choke it to death. It’s a remake of KOTOR in the Unreal 4 engine, and while it’s a million parsecs away from completion, or even from showing how it will function as a game (including an apparent move from third- to first-person blasting), we do get a look at some extremely pretty and really quite Star Warsy environments.

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