Phil Spencer Takes ‘Full Responsibility’ For Redfall’s Poor Release

Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has addressed the significant negative response to Redfall, the co-op vampire slaying FPS that recently launched to a large number of negative reviews and player disappointment.

Talking to the Kinda Funny Xcast, Spencer said that he is “upset with myself” and that he’s “gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great.” While he acknowledged the disappointment that comes from a $70 game arriving in the condition Redfall has, he also offered support for the game’s developers, Arkane Austin, noting that he will not “push against the creative aspirations of our teams.”

When asked for his initial response to the launch of Redfall, which dropped as an Xbox console exclusive this week, Spencer said “There’s nothing that’s more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community, and just kind of watch the community lose confidence [and] be disappointed.

“I’m disappointed, I’m upset with myself. I kind of revisit our process. I think back to the announcement of 60 frames-per-second, then we weren’t shipping 60 frames-per-second, that was our punch in the chin – rightfully – a couple of weeks ago.”

While Spencer admitted that “the critical response was not what we wanted”, he maintained a somewhat defensive attitude for his team at Xbox Game Studios. “One thing I’ll fight is [the idea of] what went wrong,” he said. “There’s clearly quality and execution things we can do, but one thing I won’t do is push against [the] creative aspirations of our teams.”

“I’m a huge supporter of Arkane Austin,” he said. “Their track record is awesome, I love a lot of the great games they’ve built […] This is one where the team didn’t hit their own internal goals when it launched. I think it’s maybe a little simplistic to just say ‘Hey if you would have just delayed it three months the core creative of the game would have delivered on something that was different to what it was.’”

As for Redfall’s future, Spencer said that Xbox, Bethesda, and Arkane Austin intend to continue working on improving the game, starting with the promised 60FPS patch. “The team at Arkane is taking the near-term feedback, we’re still working on the 60FPS, we have a good timeline for that, we’re committed to getting that done,” said Spencer. “And we’re gonna continue to work the game. We’ve shown a commitment to games like Sea of Thieves and Grounded to continue and go and build games.

“But I also know these games are $70, and I’m gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great,” he conceded.

Redfall launched earlier this week to a largely negative critical and player response, with the IGN review among the most critical with a score of 4/10. It’s a notable step down for the Austin-based studio, which co-developed the beloved Dishonored series and delivered the acclaimed Prey and Prey Mooncrash before starting work on Redfall. Arkane has notably been a single player-focused company, and Redfall marks not just the studio’s first step into co-op multiplayer, but also the first significant critical miss.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.

The Star Wars Canon: The Definitive Guide

Star Wars is a biggie. Not only is it really good, but there’s also tons of it. Like tons and tons. What starts as a neat little trilogy, eventually leaks into a trilogy of film trilogies, spin-off movies, TV shows, and books. And these spawn comics, audio-dramas, short stories, and even more.

IGN has put together a definitive list of every piece of canon Star Wars content to help you keep track of it all. Whether you’re brand new to Star Wars and can’t wait to explore every inch of the galaxy far, far away, or you’re a seasoned traveler looking to tick off the final few elusive stories, this is the page for you.

Let’s also make clear what we mean by canon. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, they essentially reset the Star Wars universe. They turned almost everything outside of the core six films into something called Legends, which takes place in a universe where the Sequel Trilogy never happened.

Everything published afterwards is categorised as canon, and (more or less) sticks to one cohesive universe. No new Legends content will be published, whereas the canon Star Wars content will likely continue to grow for years and decades to come.

Below is a list of every piece of canon Star Wars content. It can be quite overwhelming, but that’s why we’ve collected everything for you, broken it down into different categories with explainers, and provided recommendations on the best places to start. We’ve also included definite upcoming content like the Ahsoka Disney+ series (these will be listed in italics), but not untitled projects like the new Rey Skywalker film. May the Force be with you…

The Star Wars Canon: Index

Click through the index below to jump to any section of this page:

Every Canon Star Wars Film

Let’s start simple. The famous film series was the main Star Wars media format to not get wiped and turned into Legends when Disney took over the franchise. This means that every Star Wars film is canon, from A New Hope in 1977 to The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.

We’ve included this as an entry because there are a few sneaky films sprinkled in though, including those released as part of Disney’s now scrapped “one film every year” approach. Finally, the easy to forget film The Clone Wars which began the beloved TV series is also a canon entry. As for where to start watching, checking out the mainline Episodes in release order is probably your best bet, while a chronological run-through might be more enjoyable for a second watch.

Every Canon Star Wars Film

  • Episode IV: A New Hope — May 25, 1977
  • Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back — May 21, 1980
  • Episode VI: Return of the Jedi — May 25, 1983
  • Episode I: The Phantom Menace — May 19, 1999
  • Episode II: Attack of the Clones — May 16, 2002
  • Episode III: Revenge of the Sith — May 19, 2005
  • The Clone Wars — August 15, 2008
  • Episode VII: The Force Awakens — December 18, 2015
  • Rogue One — December 16, 2016
  • Episode VIII: The Last Jedi — December 15, 2017
  • Solo — May 25, 2018
  • Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker — December 20, 2019

Every Canon Star Wars TV Show

The first stop on any new Star Wars fan’s journey into the extended universe will likely be one of the several TV shows available on Disney+. Though there aren’t dozens of these to choose from yet, there is still plenty of content aimed at younger viewers, adults, those young at heart, and everywhere in between.

In fact, because even the shows aimed at younger viewers are packed full of important canon lore that feeds into other content, most of the offerings are enjoyable for all ages. The Clone Wars TV series introduces Ahsoka, for example, but she later appears in the Rebels show, in her own young adult novel, in The Mandalorian, and she’s even getting a Disney+ series all to herself.

As Ahsoka and The Clone Wars TV series were so beloved, they survived Disney’s Order 66 and made it into the canon universe despite being produced before the studio purchased Star Wars, but no other series released before 2014 is considered canon.

Every Live-Action Canon Star Wars TV Show

  • The Mandalorian — 3 Seasons — November 12, 2019
  • The Book of Boba Fett — 1 Season — October 30, 2020
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi — 1 Season — May 27, 2022
  • Andor — 1 Season and 1 Upcoming — September 21, 2022
  • Ahsoka — 1 Season — August, 2023
  • The Acolyte — 1 Season — 2024
  • Skeleton Crew — 1 Season — 2024

Every Animated Canon Star Wars TV Show

  • The Clone Wars — 7 Seasons — October 3, 2008
  • Rebels — 4 Seasons and Shorts — August 11, 2014
  • Resistance — 2 Seasons and Shorts — October 7, 2018
  • The Bad Batch — 2 Seasons and 1 Upcoming — May 4, 2021
  • Tales of the Jedi — 1 Season and 1 Upcoming — October 26, 2022
  • Young Jedi Adventures — 1 Season — May 4, 2023

Every Canon Star Wars Video Game

What better way to immerse yourself in Star Wars canon than by actually putting yourself into the galaxy far, far away by playing as one of its characters. Despite there being so many Star Wars games out there though, the canon list is surprisingly small.

Video games can take as long as films to make, if not longer, so the universe-resetting following the Disney takeover led to a slow restart for this side of things. Publisher EA also held an exclusive deal to make Star Wars games, and story-based, single player content seemingly wasn’t their priority.

The first canon game is therefore 2017’s Battlefront 2 (not to be confused with one from 2005 of the same name), because unlike its predecessor, it actually had a story campaign. There are also a couple of smaller virtual reality canon games, and space combat entry Squadrons, but it’s the Jedi series from Respawn Entertainment that provides the heftiest chunk of story content.

Every Canon Star Wars Video Game

  • Battlefront 2 — PS4, Xbox One, PC — November 17, 2017
  • Vader Immortal — PSVR, Meta Quest, Meta Quest 2 — May 21, 2019
  • Jedi: Fallen Order — PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC — November 15, 2019
  • Squadrons — PS4, Xbox One, PC — October 1, 2020
  • Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge — PSVR 2, Meta Quest, Meta Quest 2 — November 19, 2020
  • Jedi: Survivor — PS5, Xbox Series, PC — April 28, 2023

Every Canon Star Wars Novel

This is where Star Wars gets busy. Though the first canon novel was released less than 10 years ago, there are already dozens and dozens of books published, even ignoring the several adaptations and junior reader novels.

There are novels tied into the plots of films, deep backstories for characters only featured briefly in other content, and completely fresh ideas that have spawned their own multimedia sagas. If you really, really, want to get into the depths of Star Wars lore, the novels are for you.

These are published in several different categories. Adult novels are, well, novels aimed at adults, and are published with the most consistency. Then there are young adult novels, and while the writing here is slightly less complex, these are largely considered as interesting and enjoyable as the adult novels.

Finally, there are junior reader Star Wars novels. These are aimed at kids, though the ages can vary from book to book. Some are meant for middle school readers, meaning the stories can still be somewhat interesting to older readers, though adults will likely notice a significant difference between these and the adult and even young adult books.

They still contain canon lore, of course, so some readers may want to work through them to absorb every piece of Star Wars available. The reading level also allows them to be consumed in just a couple of hours, so it’s up to the individual whether they’re willing to spend the time and money.

Another brief explanation is needed for The High Republic, a novel-led saga of brand new Star Wars stories taking place around 200 years before The Phantom Menace. This is split into phases, and each phase is broken down into waves.

Each wave primarily contains one adult novel, one young adult novel, and one junior, with a few extras sprinkled in like comics, audio books, and more. The overall stories are contained within each format though, so the adult novels directly lead into each other and you don’t need to read the young adult novels to get the whole picture, for example.

Instead, the young adult novel stories just take place alongside the events of the adult novels, covering different characters in roughly the same time period. This means that if you only want to read the adult novels, that’s absolutely fine. And if this is all super confusing, just follow the publishing order of the High Republic saga.

Every Canon Star Wars Adult Novel

  • A New Dawn — September 2, 2014
  • Tarkin — November 4, 2014
  • Heir to the Jedi — February 26, 2015
  • Lords of the Sith — April 28, 2015
  • Dark Disciple — July 7, 2015
  • Aftermath — Aftermath 1/3 — September 4, 2015
  • Battlefront: Twilight Company — November 3, 2015
  • The Foce Awakens Novelisation — December 18, 2015
  • Bloodline — May 3, 2016
  • Life Debt — Aftermath 2/3 — July 12, 2016
  • Rogue One: Catalyst — November 15, 2016
  • Rogue One Novelisation — December 16, 2016
  • Empire’s End — Aftermath 3/3 — July 12, 2016
  • Thrawn — Thrawn 1/3 — April 11, 2017
  • Battlefront: Inferno Squad — July 25, 2017
  • Phasma — September 1, 2017
  • From a Certain Point of View — October 3, 2017
  • Canto Bight — December 5, 2017
  • The Last Jedi Novelisation — March 6, 2018
  • Last Shot — April 17, 2018
  • Alliances — Thrawn 2/3 — July 24, 2018
  • Solo Novelisation — September 4, 2018
  • Master and Apprentice — April 16, 2019
  • Alphabet Squadron — Alphabet Squadron 1/3 — June 11, 2019
  • Treason — Thrawn 3/3 — July 25, 2019
  • Myths and Fables — August 6, 2019
  • Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire — August 17, 2019
  • Resistance Reborn — November 5, 2019
  • The Rise of Skywalker Novelisation — March 17, 2020
  • Shadow Fall — Alphabet Squadron 2/3 — June 23, 2020
  • Dark Legends — July 28, 2020
  • Chaos Rising — Thrawn Ascendancy 1/3 — September 1, 2020
  • Certain Point of View: Empire Strikes Back — November 12, 2020
  • Light of the Jedi — The High Republic Phase 1 — January 5, 2021
  • Victory’s Price — Alphabet Squadron 3/3 — March 2, 2021
  • Greater Good — Thrawn Ascendancy 2/3 — April 27, 2021
  • The Rising Storm — The High Republic Phase 1 — July 6, 2021
  • Life Day Treasury — September 7, 2021
  • Lesser Evil — Thrawn Ascendancy 3/3 — November 16, 2021
  • The Fallen Star — The High Republic Phase 1 — January 4, 2022
  • Brotherhood — May 10, 2022
  • Shadow of the Sith — June 28, 2022
  • The Princess and the Scoundrel — August 16, 2022
  • Convergence — The High Republic Phase 2 — November 22, 2022
  • Jedi: Battle Scars — March 7, 2023
  • Cataclysm — The High Republic Phase 2 — April 4, 2023
  • Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade — July 18, 2023
  • From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi — September 5, 2023
  • Eye of Darkness — The High Republic Phase 2 — November 14, 2023
  • Temptation of the Force — The High Republic Phase 3 — Undated
  • Trials of the Jedi — The High Republic Phase 3 — Undated

Every Canon Star Wars Young Adult Novel

  • Lost Stars — September 4, 2015
  • Ahsoka — October 11, 2016
  • Rogue One: Rebel Rising — May 2, 2017
  • Leia: Princess of Alderaan — September 1, 2017
  • Most Wanted — May 25, 2018
  • Queen’s Shadow — Queen 1/3 — March 5, 2018
  • Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate — August 6, 2019
  • Force Collector — October 4, 2019
  • Queen’s Peril — Queen 2/3 — June 2, 2020
  • Poe Dameron: Free Fall — 4 August, 2020
  • The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark — August 25, 2020
  • Into the Dark — The High Republic Phase 1 — February 2, 2021
  • Out of the Shadows — The High Republic Phase 1 — July 27, 2021
  • Midnight Horizon — The High Republic Phase 1 — February 10, 2022
  • Queen’s Hope — Queen 3/3 — April 5, 2022
  • Padawan — July 28, 2022
  • Path of Deceit — The High Republic Phase 2 — November 3, 2022
  • The High Republic: Starlight Stories — December 6, 2022
  • Path of Vengeance — The High Republic Phase 2 — May 2, 2023
  • The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life — September 5, 2023
  • Crimson Climb — October 10, 2023
  • Defy the Storm — The High Republic Phase 3 — March 12, 2024
  • Tears of the Nameless — The High Republic Phase 3 — Undated
  • Into the Light — The High Republic Phase 3 — Undated

Every Canon Star Wars Junior Novel

  • Rebels: Ezra’s Gamble — August 5, 2014
  • Rise of the Rebels — August 5, 2014
  • Rebels: Servans of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy — October 21, 2014
  • Rebels: The Rebellion Begins — October 21, 2014
  • Rebels: Droids in Distress — November 18, 2014
  • Rebels: Servants of the Empire: Rebel in the Ranks — March 3, 2015
  • Rebels: Ezra’s Duel with Danger — March 17, 2015
  • Rebels: Battle to the End — June 4, 2015
  • Rebels: Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice — July 7, 2015
  • Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo and Chewbacca Adventure — September 4, 2015
  • The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure — September 4, 2015
  • Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure — September 4, 2015
  • Rebels: Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy — October 6, 2015
  • Before the Awakening — December 18, 2015
  • The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story — February 16, 2015
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Escape — February 25, 2016
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Snare — February 25, 2016
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Nest — February 25, 2016
  • Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens — April 5, 2016
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Steal — June 30, 2016
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Dark — June 30, 2016
  • The Force Awakens: Finn’s Story — September 13, 2016
  • Princess Leia: Royal Rebel — November 29, 2016
  • Darth Vader: Sith Lord — February 28, 2017
  • Join the Resistance — March 7, 2017
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Cold — March 9, 2017
  • Guardians of the Whills — May 2, 2017
  • Adventures in Wild Space: The Rescue — May 4, 2017
  • Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures 1 — August 1, 2017
  • Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures 2 — October 3, 2017
  • Join the Resistance: Escape from Vodran — October 3, 2017
  • The Legends of Luke Skywalker — October 5, 2017
  • The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron — December 15, 2017
  • Forces of Destiny: The Leia Chronicles — January 8, 2018
  • Forces of Destiny: The Rey Chronicles — March 6, 2018
  • The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear — May 25, 2018
  • Join the Resistance: Attack on Starkiller Base — July 31, 2018
  • Lando’s Luck — October 2, 2018
  • Rebels: Pirate’s Price — January 8, 2019
  • Spark of Resistance — October 4, 2019
  • A Test of Courage — The High Republic Phase 1 — January 5, 2021
  • Race to Crashpoint Tower — The High Republic Phase 1 — June 29, 2021
  • Mission to Disaster — The High Republic Phase 1 — March 1, 2022
  • Stories of Jedi and Sith — June 7, 2022
  • Quest for the Hidden City — The High Republic Phase 2 — November 1, 2022
  • Hunters: Battle for the Arena — March 7, 2023
  • Return of the Jedi: The Battle of Endor — March 7, 2023
  • Grogu’s Galaxy — March 14, 2023
  • Quest for Planet X — The High Republic Phase 2 — April 4, 2023
  • Young Jedi Adventures: Jedi Training — May 2, 2023
  • Young Jedi Adventures: Get Well Nubs — July 25, 2023
  • The High Republic: Jedi Brave in Every Way —October 10, 2023
  • Escape From Valo — The High Republic Phase 3 — January 30, 2024
  • BB-8 and the Snow Monster — February 6, 2024
  • Young Jedi Adventures: Lys and the Snowy Mountain Rescue — September 3, 2024
  • Beware the Nameless — The High Republic Phase 3 — Undated
  • A Valiant Vow — The High Republic Phase 3 — Undated

Every Canon Star Wars Junior Novel Adaptation

  • A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy — September 22, 2015
  • The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to Be a Jedi? — September 22, 20215
  • Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side — September 22, 2015
  • The Force Awakens — December 18, 2015
  • Rogue One — December 16, 2016
  • A New Hope — May 4, 2017
  • The Empire Stikes Back — May 4, 2017
  • Return of the Jedi — May 4, 2017
  • The Last Jedi — March 6, 2017
  • Solo — September 11, 2018
  • Rise of Skywalker — April 21, 2020
  • The Mandalorian — January 5, 2021
  • The Mandalorian Season 1 — May 12, 2021
  • The Mandalorian Season 2 — January 4, 2022
  • The Book of Boba Fett — January 3, 2023

Every Canon Star Wars Comic

Star Wars comics canon was easy to figure out when the universe was reset. Disney released a run simply titled Star Wars, and then blended it together with a Darth Vader run, and subsequently released smaller runs focused on single characters like Princess Leia, Lando, and so on.

Years on, however, and there are now dozens of different comic series and standalone graphic novels, featuring just about every established Star Wars character and a few new ones. Whether you want to read about the adventures of Han, Obi-Wan, Captain Phasma, Kylo Ren, Jabba, or any of your other favourite characters, there’s probably at least one comic run that allows that.

Our guide breaks all of these down, of course, but there are some useful things you should know to make the comic reading experience go a little bit smoother.

Some of the entries, such as the aforementioned Darth Vader run, will have years after them in brackets. This is because another Darth Vader run began after the first one wrapped, telling a new story separate from the original. We therefore say Darth Vader (2015) to indicate the run starting in 2015, and Darth Vader (2017) to indicate the run starting in 2017. You get it.

Annuals are also released for some of the longer series. These aren’t part of the regular, numbered issues but can still contribute to the run’s overall story. You can get away without reading these, but if you want to absorb absolutely every piece of the story, it’s worth checking when they fit into the main story.

Another thing non-comic readers might find confusing about delving into this side of Star Wars anon is crossover events. This is when readers are intended to read different comics from several runs to get the complete story. Don’t worry about missing out, however, as the comics tell you plainly when this is about to happen in the ‘next issue’ segment at the end of each chapter.

Finally, a single run from before the Disney reset is considered canon. A four-part comic called Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir was published by Dark Horse in 2014, but was based on content scrapped from The Clone Wars TV series and therefore fit with Star Wars canon. Disney made it official in 2017 when Marvel republished the book under its banner.

We’ve separated the below list to indicate comics aimed at younger readers (that would likely still be fun for adults), alongside smaller comic runs that appeared as part of other media, and another list exists for comic adpatations of the films and TV shows. What you’ll see first, however, is every mainline Star Wars comic that further expands the canon universe. The run name is followed by the number of issues (and number of annuals where applicable) followed by the date issue one was published.

Every Canon Mainline Star Wars Comic

  • Star Wars (2015) — 75/4 — January 14, 2015
  • Darth Vader (2015) — 25/1 — February 11, 2015
  • Princess Leia — 5 — 4 March, 2015
  • Kanan — 12 — April 1, 2015
  • Lando — 5 — 8 July, 2015
  • Shattered Empire — 4 — September 9, 2015
  • Chewbacca — 5 — October 14, 2015
  • Vader Down — 1 — November 18, 2015
  • Obi-Wan and Anakain — 5 — January 6, 2016
  • Poe Dameron — 31/2 — April 6, 2016
  • C-3PO Special — 1 — April 13, 2016
  • Han Solo — 5 — June 15, 2016
  • Doctor Aphra (2016) — 40/3 — December 7, 2016
  • Darth Maul (2017) — 5 — February 1, 2017
  • The Screaming Citadel — 1 — May 10, 2017
  • Darth Vader (2017) — 25/1 — June 7, 2017
  • Rogue One: Cassian and K-2SO — 1 — August 9, 2017
  • Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu — 5 — August 30, 2017
  • Captain Phasma — 4 — September 6, 2017
  • Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir — 4 — November 21, 2017
  • The Storms of Crait — 1 — December 27, 2017
  • DJ: Most Wanted —1 — January 31, 2018
  • Thrawn — 6 — February 14, 2018
  • Lando: Double or Nothing — 5 — May 30, 2018
  • Beckett — 1 — August 15, 2018
  • Han Solo: Imperial Credit — 5 — November 7, 2018
  • Age of Republic — 9 — December 5, 2018
  • Vader: Dark Visions — 5 — March 6, 2019
  • Age of Rebellion — 8 — April 10, 2019
  • TIE Fighter — 5 — April 17, 2019
  • Galaxy’s Edge — 5 — May 17, 2019
  • Target Vader — 6 — July 3, 2019
  • Age of Resistance — 9 — July 3, 2019
  • Jedi: Fallen Order: Dark Temple — September 4, 2019
  • Allegiance — 4 — October 9, 2019
  • Empire Ascendant — 1 — December 18, 2019
  • The Rise of Kylo Ren — 4 — December 18, 2019
  • Star Wars (2020) — Ongoing — January 1, 2020
  • Darth Vader (2020) — Ongoing — February 5, 2020
  • Bounty Hunters — Ongoing — March 11, 2020
  • Doctor Aphra (2020) — Ongoing — May 27, 2020
  • The High Republic (2021) — 15 — January 6, 2021
  • War of the Bountry Hunters Alpha — 1 — May 5, 2021
  • War of the Bounty Hunters — 5 — June 2, 2021
  • War of the Bounty Hunters: Jabba — 1 — July 21, 2021
  • War of the Bounty Hunters: 4-LOM and Zuckuss — 1 — August 4, 2021
  • The High Republic: The Edge of Balance — 3 — September 7, 2021
  • War of the Bounty Hunters: Boushh — 1 — September 15, 2021
  • The High Republic: Trail of Shadows — 5 — October 13, 2021
  • War of the Bounty Hunters: IG-88 — 1 — October 27, 2021
  • Life Day — 1 — November 24, 2021
  • The High Republic: Eye of the Storm — 2 — January 12, 2022
  • Halcyon Legacy — 5 — February 2, 2022
  • Han Solo and Chewbacca — 10 — March 9, 2022
  • Obi-Wan — 5 — May 4, 2022
  • Crimson Reign — 5 — June 22, 2022
  • The High Republic (2022) — Ongoing — October 12, 2022
  • Hidden Empire — Ongoing — November 16, 2022
  • Yoda — Ongoing — November 23, 2022
  • Revelations — 1 — November 23, 2022
  • Tales from the Rancor Pit — 1 — November 23, 2022
  • The High Republic: The Blade — 4 — December 28, 2022
  • Sana Starros — Ongoing — February 1, 2023
  • Return of the Jedi One-Shots — Ongoing — March 29, 2023
  • Darth Vader: Black, White, and Red — Ongoing — April 26, 2023
  • Dark Droids — 1 — August 2, 2023
  • Tales from the Death Star — 1 — September 5, 2023

Every Canon Junior Star Wars Comic

  • Forces of Destiny — 5 — July 10, 2017
  • Adventures (2017) —32/2 — 12 July, 2017
  • Adventures: Destroyer Down — 1 — December 20, 2017
  • Adventures Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2018 — May 5, 2018
  • Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle — 5 — October 3, 2018
  • Adventures FCBD 2019 — 1 — May 4, 2019
  • Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle — 5 — October 2, 2019
  • Adventures: The Clone Wars: Battle Tales — 5 — January 24, 2020
  • Adventures (2020) — 14/2 — October 7, 2020
  • Adventures: Shadow of Vader’s Castle — 1 — November 4, 2020
  • Adventures: Smuggler’s Run — 2 — December 23, 2020
  • The High Republic Adventures — 13/1 — February 3, 2021
  • Adventures: The Weapon of a Jedi — 2 — May 26, 2021
  • The High Republic Adventures: The Monster of Temple Peak — 4 — August 11, 2021
  • The High Republic Adventures FCBD 2021 — 1 — August 14, 2021
  • Aventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle —5 — September 22, 2021
  • The High Republic Adventures: Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular — 1 — January 19, 2022
  • Hyperspace Stories — Ongoing — August 24, 2022
  • The High Republic Adventures (2022) — Ongoing — November 30, 2022
  • The High Republic Adventures: The Nameless Terror — Ongoing — February 22, 2023
  • The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi — 1 — April 5, 2023
  • The High Republic Adventures FCBD 2023 — 1 — May 6, 2023

Every Canon Star Wars Comic Adaptation

  • The Original Trilogy — 1 — March 1, 2016
  • The Force Awakens — 6 — June 22, 2016
  • The Prequel Trilogy — 1 — April 4, 2017
  • Rogue One — 6 — April 5, 2017
  • The Force Awakens Graphic Novel — 1 — August 29, 2017
  • Rogue One Graphic Novel — December 12, 2017
  • A New Hope: 40th Anniversary — 1 — April 17, 2018
  • The Last Jedi — May 9, 2018
  • The Last Jedi Graphic Novel — 1 — September 25, 2018
  • Solo — 7 — October 10, 2018
  • Solo Graphic Novel —1 — March 26, 2019
  • Star Wars Saga 2015 — 1 — December 4, 2019
  • The Clone Wars: Season 7 — 1 — December 8, 2020
  • The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel — 1 — March 2, 2023
  • The Mandalorian — Ongoing — July 13, 2022
  • The Clone Wars: Ahsoka Vs Maul — 1 — September 5, 2023

Every Canon Star Wars Mini Comic

  • Rebels Magazine Shorts — 39 —January 28, 2015
  • Nestle Comics — 2 — September 1, 2015
  • Spark of Rebellion: A Rebels Cinestory — 1 — August 8, 2017
  • Path of the Jedi: A Rebels Cinestory — 1 — November 14, 2017
  • Maul: A Rebels Cinestory — 1 — February 6, 2018
  • Rebels: Animation Magazine Strips — 4 — February 14, 2018
  • Resistance: Animation Magazine Strips — 4 — May 15, 2019
  • Red Four (Marvel 1000) — 1 — August 28, 2019
  • Resistance: Fun and Action Strips — 1 — March 18, 2020
  • Rise of Skywalker Screen Comix — 1 — October 28, 2020
  • Empire Strikes Screen Comix — 1 — December 28, 2022

Every Canon Star Wars Audio Drama

Yes, Star Wars canon even includes audio dramas. There aren’t many though, as Disney only releases them every year or so. The scripts of these audio dramas can usually be purchased in a nicely packaged book too, and regular Star Wars novels can often be found in audio book format.

  • Dooku: Jedi Lost — April 30, 2019
  • Doctor Aphra — July 21, 2020
  • Tempest Runner —The High Republic Phase 1 — August 31, 2021
  • The Battle of Jedha — The High Republic Phase 2 — January 3, 2023

Every Canon Star Wars Short Story

Finally, there are Star Wars short stories sprinkled throughout various other media. These are most commonly featured in the Star Wars Insider magazine, though have also appeared on websites as part of promotional campaigns, packaged in special editions of some novels, and so on.

There are some books made up entirely of short stories too, but we’ve listed these in the novels section for simplicity, and any short story appearing in one of these dedicated collections won’t appear in the below list.

Every Canon Star Wars Short Story

  • Blade Squadron Part 1 — April 22, 2014
  • Blade Squadron Part 2 — June 10, 2014
  • One Thousand Levels Down — July 22, 2014
  • The End of History — December 9, 2014
  • Last Call at the Zero Angle — March 10, 2015
  • Orientation — April 21, 2015
  • Rebel Bluff — July 21, 2015
  • Kindred Spirits — July 21, 2015
  • Blade Squadron: Zero Hour — September 22, 2015
  • Mercy Mission — October 6, 2015
  • Bottleneck — October 6, 2015
  • The Levels of Power — October 6, 2015
  • Inbrief — November 10, 2015
  • Bait — December 22, 2015
  • The Perfect Weapon — January 5, 2016
  • Scorched — May 3, 2016
  • TK-146275 — June 14, 2016
  • Blade Squadron: Kuat — September 6, 2016
  • Turning Point — October 25, 2016
  • The Voice of the Empire — December 16, 2016
  • Blade Squadron: Jakku — April 11, 2017
  • The Sleeping Eye — August 6, 2019
  • The Leviathon — August 6, 2019
  • The Golden One — August 6, 2019
  • An Unwilling Apprentice — August 6, 2019
  • The Silent Circle — August 6, 2019
  • The Skiff and the Galleons — August 6, 2019
  • Black Spire: Return to a Shattered Planet — June 30, 2020
  • Sleep of Ages — July 28, 2020
  • Bakurat — July 28, 2020
  • A Bitter Harvest — July 28, 2020
  • The Light You Bring — October 8, 2020
  • Count to Three — October 13, 2020
  • Galactic Tales: The Wesell Run — March 15, 2022
  • Galactic Tales: Saber Trust — May 3, 2022
  • Galactic Tales: Inheritance — June 7, 2022
  • Galaxtic Tales: From the Shadows Come the Kran — August 2, 2022
  • Tales of Enlightenment: New Prospects 1 — September 13, 2022
  • Tales of Enlightenment: New Prospects 2 — October 25, 2022
  • Tales of Enlightenment: A Different Perspective — December 6, 2022
  • Tales of Enlightenment: The Unusual Suspect — February 7, 2023

And that’s it! As you can see there is a lot of Star Wars content to consume, and something for absolutely everyone whether you like TV, novels, comics, or whatever else. And within each section there’s probably a dozen choices of your favourite characters or storylines to get into.

Hopefully our guide will help you figure out where to start and act as a checklist for those looking to tick off every single canon release. It’s also just about 10 years into the canon universe, and we all know Star Wars is going nowhere, so you can imagine how much the galaxy will expand over the next few years and decades.

On that note, it’s also worth remembering that new content is released all the time, especially on the comics front. This list is therefore accurate as of May 4, 2023, and while we’ll continue to update it regularly, it will almost immediately be a tad out of date.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Reveals New Secrets of the High Republic

Warning: this article contains full story spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor!

Even though Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it also features an era from hundreds of years in the past known as the High Republic. The High Republic was first revealed in 2020 as a publishing-only initiative but is now slowly being incorporated into other media, with the Disney+ shows Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures and The Acolyte taking place during that era and now Survivor using flashbacks and such to offer a glimpse into the past. Throughout the course of the game, Survivor reveals numerous characters, locations, and concepts from the High Republic that have never been seen before on-screen, so here’s a primer on the High Republic and a rundown of all the new information we’ve learned about this bygone era.

What Is the High Republic?

The High Republic is an era of peace, prosperity, and expansion for the Galactic Republic. It spanned from 500 BBY to 100 BBY, well before the events of the Skywalker Saga. This was a golden age for the Jedi Order where their numbers and resources were plentiful, as evidenced by their opulent lightsaber designs with blade colors ranging from teal to orange, and fancy robes trimmed with gold.

There were no active major conflicts at this time, and so with no wars to fight, the Jedi and the Republic focused on exploring the galaxy. During this period, the most significant threat to the galaxy were the marauding space vikings known as the Nihil, but even with them causing trouble, the High Republic is known as a time of relative harmony.

Check out our full High Republic explainer for even more details.

How the High Republic Intersects With Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

When Jedi survivor Cal Kestis stumbles upon an old High Republic Jedi meditation chamber on the planet Koboh, he opens a window to the past. He meets an ancient droid named ZN-A4 aka Zee, who was trapped in the chamber for hundreds of years. It turns out that Zee belonged to the Jedi Order of the High Republic and was trapped while completing a mission.

Through talking to Zee and using his Sense Echo ability to watch a series of Force visions, Cal learns about High Republic Jedi Order members Santari Khri and Dagan Gera and their tragic quest to find the fabled planet Tanalorr hidden on the other side of the deadly Koboh Abyss nebula. Tanalorr is said to have great importance because it’s essentially a hidden utopia, and Dagan had grand ambitions for it.

Cal discovers a High Republic medical facility and finds Dagan is miraculously still alive inside a bacta tank. Unfortunately for Cal, Dagan awakes in a rage, bleeds his lightsaber’s Kyber crystal red and turns to the Dark Side, and tries to kill him, then he makes off with Rayvis, a survivor of the High Republic era and devoted follower of Dagan.

We go on to learn that Dagan had found a way through the Koboh Abyss and built a Republic settlement and Jedi Temple on Tanalorr with Santari. Tragedy struck when the Nihil attacked Tanalorr and the Republic made the decision to abandon the settlement. Dagan felt betrayed by the Republic and was enraged by their lack of commitment to what had become his life’s work. Santari tried to talk some sense into Dagan but he was too obsessed with Tanalorr to see reason and lashed out at her. In their ensuing clash Santari defeated Dagan by slicing off his arm with her lightsaber, then she put him in a bacta tank where he was forgotten about and remained in stasis for some 200 years.

Is Dagan Gera a Sith Lord?

Despite Dagan Gera wielding a red lightsaber and acting as the game’s premiere Force-wielding villain, he’s not a Sith Lord. The Sith were in hiding during the High Republic era, so making Dagan a fallen dark Jedi gone rogue helps maintain that continuity. He even converts his lightsaber crystal to red right in front of Cal, dramatizing a rarely-seen Dark Side ritual. It’s emphasized that Dagan is driven by his own maniacal desires rather than the philosophy of the Sith.

An Era of Opulence

As Cal journeys through the game world, relics of the High Republic are easy to spot because of their gold designs. There are gold emblems painted across the lands, gold machines that operate High Republic technology, and the collectible Santari Khri lightsaber has a gold hilt. The seven High Republic meditation chambers where Cal must solve complex puzzles to obtain upgrades are identified by their circular golden entrances.

Zee is an exception in that she’s silver, not gold, but her design is still very much of the High Republic because it’s far more eccentric and ornate than the more standard protocol droids of the Imperial era like C-3PO.

This lavish aesthetic helps set apart elements of the High Republic from the post-Empire ones, which are much more utilitarian. It showcases how different life was in the High Republic compared to the meager, worn-out trappings of the Star Wars universe seen in the Original Trilogy. There’s a sense of sadness as Cal explores these long-forgotten locations, like the High Republic research facility on the Shattered Moon that was abandoned after a meteorite struck the moon and half destroyed it. It’s a reminder of how mighty and untouchable the Republic and the Jedi Order once seemed, and how now they’re little more than ruins.

Enduring Characters of the High Republic

Dagan Gera and Zee survived long past the High Republic era, but they’re not the only ones. There are several Star Wars characters that lived during that time and were still around by the time of the Skywalker Saga. Yoda, for example, is hundreds of years old and was a Jedi Master during that period. Dagan and Santari mention Master Rancisis, who like Yoda enjoys great longevity and served on the Jedi Council during the High Republic and through the events of the Skywalker Saga; he’s one of few to survive the Jedi Purge and go into hiding, with his ultimate fate still unknown to this day.

Then there’s Rayvis, leader of the Bedlam Raiders. He’s part of an alien species known as the Gen’Dai, which Star Wars fans will know as the species of the notoriously hard-to-kill bounty hunter, Durge. The Gen’Dai have Wolverine-like healing capabilities, which allow them to survive most injuries and live for a long, long time. As we see during the second phase of the Rayvis boss battle, under all that armor their anatomy is actually a mass of writhing tentacles. Rayvis served Dagan with unyielding loyalty and used his army of Bedlam Raiders to search Koboh for his long lost master.

How the Story Wraps Up

After tracking down his enemies, Cal defeats Rayvis and then makes his way to Dagan, killing him in a lightsaber duel. It’s tragic for Dagan to perish because he could have been a valuable Jedi ally in the fight against the Empire, but it’s especially bitter because, as far as Cal knew, he was the last known living being from the High Republic era. There’s no doubt Dagan had a wealth of knowledge about the High Republic Jedi Order, from Force techniques to philosophical teachings, but it all died with him because he couldn’t see beyond his own ambition. (Later in the timeline, Luke Skywalker “meets” a High Republic Jedi, so not all ends up being lost in that regard.) In the end, Zee is the only High Republic character to survive the events of the Fallen Order sequel, and she seems to be content settling down on Koboh in Pyloon’s Saloon.

For more on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, check out why fans are loving Turgle, the game’s “aracnaphobia mode,” and our review of the game.

The Best Apple Watch Deals Today (May 2023)

If you use an Apple iPhone, then there’s no question: the Apple Watch is absolutely the only smartwatch you should consider. Apple watches come in a variety of price points, from the value-minded Apple Watch SE to the no holds barred Apple Watch Ultra. They combine smart iPhone integration with a dazzling array of fitness, and health-related tech that no other brand can match. They’ve always topped our list of best watches, including for 2023.

We’ve compiled a list of the best Apple Watch deals currently available.

The Best Apple Watch Deals

Apple Watch SE from $149

The fact that you can get a fully featured Apple Watch for only $149 is very impressive, especially coming from Apple. Although it was released back in 2020, the 1st gen Apple Watch SE is still a very relevant watch. The 2nd gen Apple Watch SE might have a newer S8 processor, but it’s technically only one generation newer than the S5 processor found in the original Watch SE (the S8, S7, and S6 have the same CPU). Aside from that and crash detection, it has pretty much every sensor and feature you’d find on the 2nd gen.

The Apple Watch SE sports a gorgeous Retina OLED display. It’s powered by the same S5 chipset that you’d find in the Apple Watch 5. Its sleek aluminum casing is water resistant up to 50 meters. It features an accelerometer, gyroscope, and altimeter, optical heart sensor for heart rate monitoring and irregular heart rhythm detection, GPS and motion sensors for tracking your pace and distance when exercising, sleep tracking, and more.

Apple Watch Series 8 From $329

The Apple Series 8 is the newest generation out right now. It is an incremental upgrade to the Series 7 and cosmetically they look pretty much identical. The Series 8 carries over the best features of the Series 7 like the Always-On Retina OLED display, the dual-core CPU (now called the “S8” processor, even though functionally it’s the same as the S7 processor on the Series 7), the rugged IP6X dust resistant and swimproof (to 50mm) casing, and the wealth of health features like ECG, blood oxygen, and heart rate meters. Two features new to the Series 8 are a built-in temperature sensor (primarily geared towards women’s health) as well as the ability to detect when you’ve been subjected to a serious car crash.

Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen) From 219.99

The Apple Watch SE 2 features an upgraded CPU over the original Apple Watch SE. The Apple Watch SE 2 has the same S8 processor found in the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra. The original Apple Watch SE uses an older S5 processor. Apple claims about a 30% performance improvement between the two. Outside of that, both SE watches are largely similar. The bright and sharp Retina OLED display is 30% larger that what you’d find on the Apple Watch Series 3. It also features crash detection (new to the 2nd gen Apple Watch SE), IPX7 water resistance, international roaming, heart rate notifications, fall detection, sleep tracking, sports monitoring and activity tracking, Apple Pay, and more.

Apple Watch Ultra for $779.99

Amazon is offering Apple’s highest end watch, the Apple Watch Ultra, for $779.99. That’s only a $20 price drop from MSRP so right now we’d recommend waiting around for a better deal. The extravangantly priced Ultra is designed to withstand more extreme outdoor activities than your typical Apple watch, including diving. It features both GPS and cellular connectivity, a 49mm corrosion-resistant rugged titanium case with an extra durable Sapphire crystal glass watch face, a handy physical “action” button on the side, the Oceanic+ app which functions like a mini dive computer, 100m of water resistance, a more accurate dual-frequency GPS, and a longer 36-hour battery life.

Can you use an Apple Watch with Android phone?

Although it’s technically possible to use an Apple Watch with an Android phone, we wouldn’t recommend it. Apple made it so that a lot of the functionality of the Apple Watch requires a smartphone with an iOS operating system. There are some workarounds to implement some of the features, but for the average person, the hassle isn’t worth it. If you’re absolutely intent on getting an Apple Watch, then getting an iPhone first would be the best option. For those of you quite happy with your Android smarpthone, there are plenty of Android smartwatches that would be a better fit than the Apple Watch.

More Apple Deals

For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.

Redfall’s Poor Launch Tests Xbox Fans’ Patience – Unlocked 593

Redfall is out, and unfortunately it’s basically a worst-case scenario. We talk through our personal impressions of the game so far, and then get into a larger discussion about what it means for Xbox customer confidence, the intense pressure that now falls on Starfield, and where Xbox can go from here.

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase:

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Former Dragon Age Narrative Lead Says Writers Became ‘Quietly Resented’ at BioWare

David Gaider, who was a narrative lead for Dragon Age before leaving BioWare in 2016, said in a recent Twitter thread that writers at the developer became “quietly resented” and were seen as an “albatross.”

Gaider posted the tweets just as film and television writers went on strike yesterday, demanding better pay structures and improved working conditions from Hollywood studios. Talking about writing broadly, Gaider said it’s a discipline that’s “constantly undervalued,” and it’s an attitude that’s seen among those trying to get into the video game industry as well.

“Even BioWare, which built its success on a reputation for good stories and characters, slowly turned from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we were… quietly resented, with a reliance on expensive narrative seen as the ‘albatross’ holding the company back,” he wrote.

“Maybe that sounds like a heavy charge, but it’s what I distinctly felt up until I left in 2016,” he went on. “Suddenly all anyone in charge was asking was ‘how do we have LESS writing?’ A good story would simply happen, via magic wand, rather than be something that needed support and priority.”

Gaider was with BioWare for 17 years before he left, and his narrative footprint on the company is an undeniably large one. He served as lead writer for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age: Inquisition, and is credited with the creation of the world in which the game series take place, Thedas.

The next Dragon Age game, Dread Wolf, is still awaiting a release date. Prior to Dragon Age, Gaider also worked on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn for BioWare. He’s currently working on a new narrative RPG for Summerfall Games, Stray Dogs.

Gaider’s comments come at a time when Hollywood’s writers are fighting for more stability in the industry, especially after streaming upended entertainment as we know it and as emerging AI technology is increasingly being eyed as a way to devalue writers even more (for more on how AI could impact the entertainment industry, check out IGN’s AI Week coverage).

“At the end of the day, you can say you like good writing – whether it’s in a game, a movie, an online article, or whatever – but if you don’t value it enough to prioritize it and support it… and, yes, pay writers what they’re due… that’s not what everyone else is hearing,” Gaider concluded.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Is Getting a Prequel Comic

Upcoming PS5 game Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is getting a prequel in the form of a comic, which will be available as part of Free Comic Book Day on May 6.

Insomniac Games announced the comic in a PlayStation Blog post today, with narrative director Jon Paquette sharing details of the story’s plot. The story is said to give fans an idea of what Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Mary Jane (MJ) have been doing since the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

“When we initially sat down with the team at Marvel, we explored a few different ideas about what kinds of stories we could tell in a prequel comic,” Paquette said. “But we kept coming back to the same core premise—What if Peter, Miles, and MJ had to team up against a new Super Villain whose powers they didn’t understand? Additionally, we wanted to make sure that we could get a peek into what this heroic trio has been doing since the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. What is Pete up to now that there are two Spider-Men in the city? How is Miles doing in school? And how is MJ’s journalism career going?”

The result is a story in which Peter, Miles, and MJ balance their responsibilities to New York City and each other while coming face to face with The Hood, a supervillain who possesses supernatural abilities that rival those of both Spider-Men. The comic is written by Christos Gage, who wrote the story for Marvel’s Spider-Man, and drawn by Ig Guara.

Starting on May 6, fans in the US can get the Spider-Man 2 prequel comic at any comic book store participating in Free Comic Book Day or download the comic digitally from the Marvel Unlimited App or Marvel.com. International fans will get the comic at a later date.

Insomniac also announced that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered will receive a standalone release on the PS5, which will become available on the PlayStation Store later this month. If you own a physical or digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4, you’ll be able to upgrade to the remastered version on PS5 for $10. Otherwise, you can get it for $50.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases on PS5 Fall 2023. Tony Todd, the voice actor for Venom in the game, has suggested it may drop in September.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.

Immortals of Aveum Is Out in July – Here Are the Preorder Bonuses

If you’re looking for a new first-person shooter to get your hands on this summer, Immortals of Aveum is here with a spin on the genre that replaces a trigger with magic at your fingertips. The new game from Ascendant Studios is out on July 20 of this year and is currently up for preorder. We’ve gathered all of the important details on it for you to know ahead of its release below – from where you can preorder the game to bonuses included with a preorder.

Preorder Immortals of Aveum

PS5

Xbox Series X|S

PC

Preordering the game comes with the game itself alongside a preorder bonus, which you can learn more about below.

Immortals of Aveum Preorder Bonus

When you preorder Immortals of Aveum, you’ll also receive the Purified Arclight Sigil. This is a weapon that boosts Shred on the main character, Jak’s, blue Strike spells along with increasing damage for his Shatter Fury spell. It’ll surely make for a fun addition to your combat arsenal when you dive into the game.

Immortals of Aveum Trailer

What is Immortals of Aveum?

Immortals of Aveum is a single-player first-person shooter that trades guns for magical spells to cast. You play as a character named Jak – a mage with the rare ability to control all three colors of magic, otherwise known as a Triarch – who joins up with an elite order of battlemages to stop the Everwar and save the realms.

Our preview of the game explains that the, “combat shares many ideas with the military shooters we know and love,” with the ability to “cast spells that act as long-range rifles, shotguns, grenades, and the like.” We came away with the impression that Immortals of Aveum “looks like a new FPS to keep an eye on.”

Other Preorder Guides

To see more preorder guides, from Armored Core VI to Final Fantasy XVI, click on one of the links below.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

New Xbox Games Showcase Announced for June With Dedicated Starfield Direct

Microsoft has announced that a new Xbox Games Showcase will be livestreamed this June, and will once again include reveals of upcoming Xbox games from both first and third-party studios. In addition there will also be a Starfield Direct; a whole show dedicated to a deep-dive on Bethesda’s upcoming space-faring RPG.

As detailed on the Xbox Wire blog, the Xbox Games Showcase will be livestreamed on Sunday, June 11 at 10am PT (6pm UK, 5am AEST). No specific developers or games have been teased, but naturally whatever is shown will be our first look at what’s coming to Xbox, PC, and Game Pass in the future.

Starfield Direct, which will be aired immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase, will feature “tons of new gameplay, developer interviews, and behind-the-scenes insider information.”

Just a couple of days later, on June 13 at 10am PT, Microsoft will also be live streaming Xbox Games Showcase Extended. Much like last year, this will be a follow-up show that provides more context and interviews based on the reveals dropped during the main Xbox Games Showcase.

This summer Xbox Games Showcase is part of the games industry’s tradition of making announcements in the month of June. Historically that was always done as part of or adjacent to E3, the mammoth games event taking place in Los Angeles. But with E3 2023 now canceled, it will be up to individual companies to make their own announcements either independently or via new events like Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest or IGN’s own Summer of Gaming.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.

The Last Case of Benedict Fox Review

2.5D Metroidvanias are hardly thin on the ground, but The Last Case of Benedict Fox has a striking sense of style and some truly stimulating puzzle solving to help it stand out from the side-scrolling platforming pack. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite have all the fundamentals covered, with sluggish controls that weigh heavily on combat and platforming, and a lack of story objective signposting that makes navigating its expanding rabbit warren of wonders far more mystifying than it should be. As a result, it’s a disappointingly uneven adventure that’s just as likely to engage as it is to enrage, and there were lengthy stretches in its back half where Benedict’s last case started to feel worryingly like a lost cause.

The case in question revolves around the recent death of Benedict’s father – so recent, in fact, that his fresh corpse is still warming the basement floor of the Fox family manor at the outset of the story. Since dusting for fingerprints and gathering witness testimonies wouldn’t make for the most compelling of platforming adventures, Benedict is partnered with a demonic companion – not unlike Mike Patton’s shotgun-riding presence in The Darkness – that can whisk him in and out of ‘limbo’. This is a representation of his father’s memories and inner demons, manifested into a physical realm to be scoured for clues that explain the senior Fox’s demise. The various different regions of this Lovecraftian realm parallel the different rooms of the family house, only the opulence of the real-world setting has been twisted and torn into wonderfully gnarly, nightmarish interpretations that reflect the inner torment the father felt during his final hours, and they’re genuinely captivating to behold.

Benedict is partnered with a demonic companion – not unlike Mike Patton’s shotgun-riding presence in The Darkness,

Certainly one of Benedict Fox’s biggest strengths is its consistently outstanding art direction, contrasting disgusting, tendril-filled swamps with shards of stunning stained glass, and the way its engrossing otherworld eventually spills over into the psyche of a second victim brings an interesting new perspective on the old Fox’s fate that maintained my interest in the unfolding mystery. However, there are unfortunate occasions where the form overwhelms the function, and I regularly found myself ambushed by enemy attacks that I couldn’t see coming since my view of them was blocked by some beautiful yet impractical piece of scenery obnoxiously jutting out in the foreground.

A Flare for the Dramatic

Even when you do have a clear view of the action, Benedict Fox’s combat is noticeably hit and miss. Faced with a modest variety of demonic enemies, the basic routine consists of unleashing three-hit combos and charged attacks with Benedict’s blade to fill up his flare gun meter, before dodging your way to a safe distance in order to blast a finishing round into their phantasmic faces. The problem is that the rhythm of combat is hard to maintain due to the stilted attack animations and annoyingly unresponsive inputs; although most enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed, my attempts to counter them frequently failed because the block button seemingly didn’t register (playing on PC), which often led to a swift death in the early hours when Benedict is blessed with a very limited amount of health.

Although ink collected from fallen foes over the course of the journey can be traded to a mysterious tattoo artist back in the manor for enhanced supernatural powers (in a neat flourish, each upgrade is tattooed directly onto Benedict’s arms to show the growing number of tricks up his sleeve), I never felt completely at ease. By the story’s end I was able to use demonic tentacles to drag enemies towards me, and bodyslam flying bad guys out of the air, but my lingering mistrust of the controls and the lack of settings to tweak them with meant that I usually found Benedict Fox’s combat something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

Almost like a tacit admission that its combat system isn’t really up to snuff, Benedict Fox features a surprisingly slight number of boss fights. I tackled a towering tentacle monster within the opening half hour, which set an expectation that I was in for regular showdowns with plus-sized demons throughout the course of the adventure. Yet I wasn’t actually forced to confront another big bad again until the multi-phased fight against the main antagonist at the story’s climax, some 13 hours later. Both battles weren’t without their issues: the first boss gives very little visual feedback that you’re actually damaging it which makes for a face off that feels somewhat feeble until it’s suddenly finished; while the final boss has the aggravating tendency to attack you during the transition between phases, which is the short time that you’re unable to dodge or counter. That’s just straight-up unfair.

Even when you do have a clear view of the action, Benedict Fox’s combat is noticeably hit and miss.

There are admittedly a handful of other major beasts to encounter along the way too, but instead of fighting them they must each be evaded in twitchy, trial-and-error-based platforming chases or irritating, sudden-death stealth sequences. Precisely none of them left me with any feelings of triumph upon completing them, which is in stark contrast to the kind of highs I’ve experienced overcoming oversized enemies in Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight; instead of punching the air I was left pulling my hair.

Brainiac Mansion

In contrast with its combat, Benedict Fox’s puzzles are generally of a very high standard. Oftentimes gaining access to locked areas in other Metroidvanias effectively amounts to working out which special ammunition type corresponds to which coloured door to blast open, but Benedict Fox’s brain teasers are closer to the kinds of riddles you typically find in point-and-click adventure games, making for a surprisingly cerebral challenge that’s refreshingly atypical for the genre.

There are chessboard puzzles, mathematical riddles, music and rhythm-based conundrums, and countless coded symbols to pore over and decipher using a combination of the notes in Benedict’s logbook and a mechanical decryption device. I particularly like how finding solutions to some of the puzzles in the real-world mansion requires exploration of the limbo realm; gaining access to the locked drawer in Benedict’s father’s study involves infiltrating and analyzing the old man’s memories, for example, as though you’re just a few Hans Zimmer braaams away from inhabiting a playable version of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

[It’s] as though you’re just a few Hans Zimmer braaams away from inhabiting a playable version of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.  

That said, there are some optional puzzles that I found too confounding to complete, such as the handful of doors that require specific placement of collectible tarot cards in order to unlock. There is an option in the menu to lower the difficulty of puzzles that can be toggled at any point during the adventure if you get completely stuck, but that just means that they’re auto-solved for you. I wish there had been a hint system included instead, like there was in Return to Monkey Island, to gently steer me towards the solution when I needed to ask for help, rather than just snatching my homework out of my hands and doing it for me like an impatient parent.

Navigation Aggravation

The puzzle system isn’t the only aspect of Benedict Fox that’s reluctant to give hints. Both the main story and side objectives are painfully obtuse, rarely making it even the slightest bit clear as to where you should head next or what you should be looking for. Admittedly, a healthy amount of mystery and backtracking is to be expected in any Metroidvania, but generally you’d hope for at least a gentle indication of the direction you need to follow in order to advance the story. Instead, you just get vague directives like ‘Find a way to finish the ritual’ or ‘Learn more about your father’s past,’ with no real way of finding the answers other than to stumble upon them by accident. For the most part, I spent so much time needlessly retreading ground and hoping for the best, that certain stretches of the terrain became familiar to the point that they may as well have been inked onto the inside of my eyelids by the in-game tattooist.

It doesn’t help that merely getting around is a bit of a chore in and of itself. There are fast-travel points to unlock along the way, but the complete absence of a mini-map means that navigating the lengthy spaces in between is a relentlessly stop-start affair, as you hop in and out of the pause menu to study the full map at each of the many branching paths in the terrain. I’d have appreciated the ability to at least pin a waypoint marker so that I didn’t have to constantly stop every few steps to ponder the map like some sort of tentacle-powered tourist (and worse still, you remain vulnerable to enemy attacks while you’re in this not-really-paused state).

Speaking of tentacle powers, the fact that Benedict is reliant on the reach of his inky appendages in order to perform a double jump means that otherwise-simple platforming sections often become an exercise in frustration. Having to time your second press of the jump button with the appearance of a purple reticle on the ceiling above you or on the edge of the platform you’re trying to reach feels clumsy at best, but at its worst the reticle either fails to show or your input doesn’t register, at which point Benedict trades his tentacles for a pair of clipped wings and drops like a stone. Double jumps have been a pretty reliable feature in the platforming genre since video game console power was still measured in bits, so it’s somewhat shocking to play a Metroidvania in 2023 that somehow makes a hash of such a stock-standard ability.