May the 2nd be with us: GOG launch Star Wars sale

Update: Er, GOG say they got a bit mixed-up and over-generous with the sale. Some of the games are now more expensive. Details follow at the bottom of this post.

GOG have launched a big sale on their catalogue of DRM-free Star Wars games, with discounts of 77% on everything from X-Wing to Jedi Knight. Several of them are fantastic video games. Some are good. Others are, y'know, they're Star Wars, which is fine if you're into that I guess. Point your star-killing peepers this-a-way.

It is cruel of me to expect you to digest a list of nineteen items, so let's refer back to Alec's ruling on the ten best Star Wars games. Well, the ones that are in this sale, anyway. For the rest, follow that link or pretend they were out of continuity.

9. Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Jedi Academy - £1.89

Alec sez:

"As Being A Jedi action games go, this hits most nails square on the head despite a certain clunkiness of interface. In the cold light of 2015 it’s a more pleasant play than the traditionally more respected Jedi Knight II too, which despite having a stronger story suffers from some infuriating, pointlessly maze-like level design, as well as delayed gratification."

8. Star Wars Empire at War - £3.69

A blue ghost tells Alec:

"It's a better Star Wars game than it is an RTS, basically – I mean, you get to deploy AT-ATs. Can't argue with that. Some nice 'what if?' scenarios like the one pictured [below], too."

6. Star Wars Republic Commando - £1.89

A lewd ghost tells Alec:

"Realistically, Republic Commando is great in spite of being a Star Wars game rather than because of being one."

7. Star Wars: Battlefront II - £1.89

RFB2 beeps out the following to Alec:

"[2015]'s Battlefront is infinitely prettier than the now-decade-old original versions of Battlefield-does-Star-Wars, but it's rather a hollow experience, especially compared to the scale and seamlessness of this one."

5. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - £1.89 [wait, 9 8 6 7 5? this must be the Mandalorian tritfectorinary number system whose origin was told across an entire chuffing trilogy of novels -ed.]

This opinion has been retconned:

"As far as singleplayer Star Wars RPGs go, this is still the highlight, though you'll need to manually fix it up if you want to have a decent time with it."

4. Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - £3.29

A yoda growls to Alec:

"It's not the best in the Star Wars space sim series, but it's both the first fully-3D one and as such it’s the one which is holding up best, mostly thanks to the hard work of modders. Crucially, it's also got an ongoing multiplayer community, which is where to go if the new Battlefront's lightweight spaceship elements leave you unsatisfied."

2. Star Wars: Dark Forces - £1.19

Alec used the holy spirit to type this from across the room:

"Dark Forces lands the most effective nostalgia-punches of anything here, both in terms of FPS history and just how on-the-nose its recreation of blasting Stormtroopers in Imperial bases is. It’s even more of a big, warm hug from the past than The Force Awakens is, and in short bursts its action is as good as Star Wars evocation gets. Just avert your eyes when laughably none-more-90s protagonist Kyle Katarn appears in cutscenes."

1. Star Wars: TIE Fighter - £3.29

An uncanny digital ghost of Alec delivered this judgement:

"TIE Fighter is the first major Star Wars title to try and show the other side of the coin. For decades it was evil emperor this, heroic rebellion that, then TIE Fighter is all 'uh, the Empire are just trying to keep the galaxy safe but Mon Mothma's terrorist cell keeps attacking people.' That, coupled with its microscope focus on just one pilot, means TIE Fighter is also Imperial Career Simulator, showing more of how the Empire's military works beyond Big Scary Space Magic Guy."

Of course, Alec tried to show a spectrum of Star Wars games in that list rather than just cram it full of Jedi Knight, X-Wing, and TIE Fighter games. Just cos it's not on the list, doesn't mean it's not good. Except for Rebel Assault, which is indeed not good.

GOG's Star Wars sale will run until 11am on May the 12th.

And that mix-up I mentioned? Since writing this post, GOG have told us:

"We initially launched the Star Wars Sale with a 77% discount on all games. Unfortunately, it was done by mistake on our side and had to be changed. So the games are now up to 77% off (till May 4th, when they’ll get a -75%) and the highest discount includes: Battlefront II, Dark Forces, Empire at War Gold, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Knights of the Old Republic, Knights of the Old Republic II, Republic Commando and Starfighter. The 8 remaining titles had to go down to 60% off while Shadows of the Empire is 33% off."

The updated prices (reflected in this post) aren't bad but they are worse. Congrats to everyone who got X-Wing and TIE Fighter cheaper!