EA announced a Star Wars game that has me excited! It is called Star Wars Squadrons and puts you back in the cockpit of famous Star Wars ships.
I remember the day when my brother brought home Star Wars X-wing. It was the game that started my love of computers. We had to get a sound card installed in our computer at home to get it to work correctly. My dad, brother, and I worked on that computer to get it to a working state where my brother could play the game and I could watch. When I say that I worked, I mean that I watched. I was only ten years old at the time.
When I was old enough to really get into the game, it provided many hours of fun. It also helped drive my love of Star Wars. So much so that I’ve attempted a few times to write a series based on the pilots of Star Wars. I followed the X-wing series through the end. While the Rogue Squadron games on the Nintendo System were fun, they weren’t the same. Check out this great retrospective of the Star Wars games that put you in the cockpit.
Star Wars Squadrons Mac Problems
This new game looks to bring you back into the cockpit, and that has me excited. The only issue for me right now is that I don’t have anything to play it on. It will be out for Playstation, X-box, and PC. Unless I track down a copy of Windows and install it via Bootcamp, I doubt I’ll get to play it. I also haven’t owned a joystick since my X-wing days.
Still, it might make me break down and get one of the systems when it comes out. Plus, it will work in VR, which could get me to dip my toe into that system as well. We’ll have to see when more get revealed about the game this week. I’m excited to see how Star Wars Squadrons comes out.
Updates
Update (6/16): added link to a great retrospective of the Star Wars flying games up by TechStomper
update (11/6/22): Glass half full/ half empty kind of thing. I did install Star Wars Squadrons Bootcamp on my iMac to play Star Wars Squadrons. The process felt pretty painless, even though it took a while to get everything together. Especially since the Windows driver for your Mac parts, don’t really work. But I followed this guide and got it all working.
I had to use my Nintendo Switch Pro Control to control it instead of a flight stick. I took me a little while to get used to the controls that way, but once I did it felt like playing the older games. The nostalgia was strong.
Then a few weeks later, my wife bought me an Oculus (now meta) Quest 2 headset. But trying to get it to work with the drivers that I installed earlier didn’t work. So I had to get more drivers.
Once I finally got everything working, it felt like flying an X-wing (using a Switch Controller) in space. Some of the turns made my stomach drop and more.
The whole thing is a lot of fun, and I’m glad I got to play Star Wars Squadrons on my Mac. It took some work, but it can work.
