While the oversaturation of content on Disney+ is beginning to affect quality — Star Wars included — Andor is making an impressive effort to revitalize the IP. Its down to earth and gritty scope is a breath of fresh air, and it’s making familiar ground feel worth revisiting. As the show spurs renewed excitement over Star Wars, the video game medium offers some great experiences for fans looking to chase that Andor hype.
We’ve yet to get a similarly grounded, stealth third-person shooting game in this universe for the modern age. Perhaps the canceled Star Wars 1313 might have scratched that itch to some degree, but games like Fallen Order and Battlefront II can touch on related thematic points.
One of Andor‘s most impressive feats is how it delivers a genuinely compelling Rebellion-era Star Wars story without concerning itself with the Skywalkers, Jedi, Sith, or even the Force. That might make Respawn Entertainment’s Jedi: Fallen Order a jarring choice on the surface, but Cal Kestis and company’s post-Revenge of the Sith and pre-A New Hope journey is among the more welcome tales since Disney’s acquisition of the franchise.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sees Cal, a Jedi Padawan in hiding, get roped into a game of cat and mouse against the Empire and its Inquisitors — as well as taking the fight to them. This action-adventure game incorporates Metroidvania and Souls-like progression mechanics in terms of exploration and combat, making for an engaging gameplay experience and Rebellion story.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A sequel, Jedi: Survivor, is set for a 2023 release.
Star Wars Battlefront II is simultaneously known for one of gaming’s most disastrous launches and one of its biggest comeback stories. When EA and Dice initially launched the game, it was marred with controversies from bare-bones content to a mess of microtransactions, however, admirably dedicated post-launch support turned it into a genuinely solid game.
Battlefront II is now packed with substantive single-player and multiplayer content, as well as several character classes. While the flashy “hero” class characters like Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, and more certainly are highlights of the game, players can just as well take part in exciting boots-to-ground firefights with soldier classes — including Rebellion-themed maps and characters.
Star Wars Battlefront II is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Similar to how Dice’s Battlefront games were spiritual successors to the original games of the same names, Motive Studios’ Star Wars: Squadrons owed much to the beloved Rogue Squadron games that started on the Nintendo 64. The game managed to be another critical success for EA following Fallen Order and Battlefront II‘s second lease on life, this time focusing on space dogfights rather than lightsaber combat or third-person shooting.
Andor might revolve around a character whot’s more covert and grounded, but part of his skills lie in being a talented pilot when necessary, and Squadrons provides a nice focus on this side of the Star Wars universe with a story set during the age of the New Republic. The gameplay was well-received for its level of immersion, as well as the execution of multiplayer.
Star Wars: Squadrons is available now for PS4, Xbox, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
In terms of both Star Wars games and RPGs in general, BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic and Obsidian Entertainment’s Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords are landmark games in the industry. Both games were critically acclaimed for their deep role-playing mechanics that allowed players to shape their character, party, and the trajectory of the galaxy’s fate through customization and dialogue-driven gameplay.
Neither game has the same intimate, espionage-themed scope as Andor, but what they loosely have in common is how both Knights of the Old Republic games feature gripping narratives that tackle the darker, more thought-provoking themes of the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords are both available on modern systems through Xbox One and Series X|S backward compatibility, as well as Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile. A PS5 remake is currently in development.
Lucasfilm’s Andor season 1 is available to stream now on Disney+.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.