Star Wars Video Game Reveals Squadrons, Sims, and Lego Porgs

It’s the two kids in a trenchcoat of Star Wars. And I love it.

During last night’s live stream to kick off the virtual version of Gamescom 2020, we got a trio of looks at some upcoming Star Wars video games that remind us that 1) this franchise is great, 2) it’s also incredibly dumb, and 3) that’s why we love it.

EA got things started with a look at the story mode of the recently revealed Star Wars Squadrons, a 4v4 multiplayer flight sim in the vein of legendary PC gaming classics such as X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

Set in the early years after Return of the Jedi as the fledgling New Republic hunts down the Imperial Remnant, Squadrons’ story mode will have us playing both Imperial and Republic pilots alike, going shoulder-to-shoulder with familiar faces like Rebels’ Hera Syndulla (voiced by none other than Vanessa Marshall herself!) and Rogue legend Wedge Antilles (who, aside from looking like Denis Lawson, sounds an awful lot like him too—but that’s not been officially confirmed yet). On the Imperial side of things, you’ll be taking orders from a character who’s already lived a long life in the comics and novels of the Star Wars canon: Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. It’s still on track for an October 2 release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

But EA also had a surprising curveball: the next “game pack” for The Sims 4 (downloadable content that’s not quite as fully featured as one of the game’s usual expansions, but still adds new mechanics and locals to the beloved life-sim) is not only Star Wars themed, it’s basically letting you go to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as if Batuu were a real place. Aside from clothes and decorations to decorate your usual Sims abodes, Journey to Batuu will also let you send Sims to Black Spire Outpost.

You can do all the things you’d do at the theme park version, like build your own droid and lightsaber, or fly the Millennium Falcon (and chat with Sim Hondo Ohnaka, who, incredibly, sounds just as charming in the gobbledegook Simlish language). But because The Sims is treating Galaxy’s Edge as if it were an actual location and not just a big ol’ theme park land, your characters can do things that the park version is still dreaming of—mainly build reputations with the Resistance and First Order (or play both sides as a sneaky smuggler) by going on missions and generally being a Star Wars star. It’s incredibly silly, and another great way to experience Galaxy’s Edge while it’s way too risky to actually go there in person.

Perhaps outshining them both, however, was our first proper look at Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. First revealed at E3 2019, the latest Lego video game is a completely new overhaul of every main movie in the Star Wars saga, letting players blast and/or lightsaber their way through the nine movies of the Skywalker family’s journey. Not only does it look gorgeous (seriously, Lego games have never looked so good!), it looks like a suitably silly send-up of the movies, blending the voice-acted goofballery of more recent games in the Lego series with the silent comedy humor that made the first few Lego Star Wars titles so beloved in the first place.

Also: You can play as Yaddle. STEP ASIDE, BABY YODA, IT’S LADY YODA’S TIME TO SHINE.

Sadly, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was meant to come out later this year, but has now been delayed to a spring 2021 window—but that means as well as releasing on PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch, it will now also release on the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 consoles too. Truly, Porgs in stolen robes have never looked so next generation.

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