A Wretched Blog of Scum and Villainy

It's the 48th anniversary of the premier of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. So what better way to celebrate than
by giving a brief rundown of my relationship with the fandom over the years.

Let me set the table for you. I grew up in the 90s. Endlessly watching the Original Trilogy on VHS. Return of the Jedi is my favourite of the franchise, fuelled mostly by being the first one I saw on the big screen during the Special Edition release. I saw Phantom Menace opening night and loved it. I played the tie in PlayStation game religiously. Attack of the Clones was just as thrilling. I was excited to see so many lightsabres in one setting and Yoda being an absolute badass. When Revenge of the Sith came out I thought it was one of the greatest send offs to a film franchise we would ever get.

Fast forward some 20 years and now there are numerous tv shows, spinoff movies, books, comics, video games and also, sadly, a great deal of "fans" that will tell you everything they make now is trash.

I liked the sequels. I didn't exactly love them and have my own issues with the narrative structure of those films but I won't get into that here. That's a whole different discussion.

I would probably say that my overall enjoyment for Star Wars in recent years has been steady, but if it was a line graph,you would see the occasional dip downwards after a a new tv release that didn't live up to the standard that I personally expect from the franchise. (These slight dips predominantly came from Book of Bobba Fett, season 3 of The Mandalorian and The Acolyte. For balance, I loved Skeleton Crew and hope we get more.)

It's been over a week since season 2 of Andor concluded and that line shot straight back into the upward direction. Now all I want to do is spend more time in that Galaxy far far away.

Part of that has involved re-watching Rogue One and reading the novel "Catalyst" that takes place before the film. I have found myself diving into the recent Marvel comics. Playing some of the older games. Just yesterday, I spent a couple of hours setting up my flight stick. Trying to get the old X-Wing games on my computer to run. I dabbled with X-Wing Alliance a couple of years ago but never played the X-Wing or Tie Fighter games that came before. (I'm optimistic this will result in a live stream of me doing the Death Star trench run. Stay tuned.)

The one key avenue I looked to for my Star Wars fix recently was the recent Ubisoft game Outlaws. I remember being hyped when the announcement trailer released. This was going to be an open world game that let me live out the fantasy of being Han Solo.

Then it released and the overall noise I heard from gaming news sites and forums was that it was simply fine and had a few issues that needed to be worked out. There was also a very loud minority that appeared overly critical based on the main character's appearance or something. I'm not exactly sure. I try to avoid opinions that appear to have a hidden political agenda behind them. I consider them tacky.

I had bought the game on sale a few months prior and put it on the pile of games I'd get around to playing. 'It can wait.' I told myself. 'First I need to get through Indiana Jones. Maybe I'll start it after th- Wait what?! The Oblivion remaster just dropped?! Well that just jumped ahead of the queue.' Too many games to play and not enough hours in the day. First world problems.

Well after Andor I decided to check it out. I'm a little disappointed that I hadn't sooner because Outlaws has been perfectly scratching the itch. Scratching it, punching it, beating it into submission and making it come back asking for more. I've been predominantly playing on my PlayStation Portal. The only issue with the game I've had is the occasional dip in graphics when things get blurry. (Author's note: that could be a result of the internet streaming to the Portal device) I've only really noticed the effect when on the speeder in large, grassy areas. Otherwise the gameplay has been great.

Sneaking my way through an Imperial base

Playing as Kay Vess as I navigate my way through the galaxy's underworld has been a blast. From sneaking through Imperial bases and stealing information to casually playing a game of sabaac in a cantina. This game has encompassed all the different aspects of the films and shows aside from the lightsaber stuff. But we've got Cal Kestis and the Jedi Fallen Order games for that.

I played one mission where a shady character in a cantina asked me to infiltrate a local crime syndicate's base for an artefact. I had to stealthily make my way into the base. Avoiding gang members at every corner. Climbing though vents and avoiding security cameras. Hacking computer terminals to open doors. The works.

I had reached the main objective and grabbed what I needed. Then like Han Solo stepping on a twig on Endor, alerting a Storm Trooper; I casually went to open a door that I had walked through before and walked right into a Pyke syndicate member on patrol. His blaster fired instantly at me and I had to run and hide. The base instantly alerted to my presence. The mission had gone 'tit's up' and I had to blast my way out of there.

After picking them off and making a narrow escape on my speeder, I returned to the cantina to make the drop. My contact was conversing with an Imperial officer. When my contact dropped my payment on the table the officer suddenly asked for their cut. The game gave me a choice. Either submit and give a share of my reward to the officer, or tell them to kick rocks. I told them to GFY since I felt I had worked hard for those credits then walked out.

Seconds after walking out of the cantina, credits in hand, the screen flashed red with the word 'WANTED' all over it. That officer had immediately called for me to get arrested and sent every Imperial in the town after me. My ship was running distance from the cantina. So I naturally sprinted like my life depended on it. I made it to the ship, powered it up and raced out to the planet's orbit. I should be able to catch my breath up here.

But no. The officer had dispatched a squadron of Tie Fighters that was now headed to my position. Raining laser bolts down on my poor stolen ship. I had to negotiate the dogfight, clear the fighters, and quickly plot a destination (anywhere other than here would do.) Once I checked those boxes I had to push my analogue sticks forward to engage the hyperdrive and make the jump to lightspeed. I felt like Han Solo when I was realistically more Dexter Jettster. This entire encounter sums up my experience with Outlaws and when it was over, I couldn't help but smile and feel like a 10 year old watching those old VHS tapes again.

Needless to say, next time I'm on that planet, I'll have to keep a low profile until I can bribe the Imperials to clear my permanent record. In the meantime, it's off to some other backwater planet. Walking into another wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Follow @DrkNiteWhoSaysNi on Twitch and YouTube