Life is good. Sipping Coors Banquet while bathed in an L..A sunset; Police helicopter searchlights turning the city into a GTA V paradise. It rarely gets better than this. The NXL boys and I just wrapped up a day full of E3 festivities and we’re hard pressed determining what our favorite part has been so far. Keanu Reeves standing within 20 feet, chatting about his character in Cyber Punk 2077 certainly comes to mind. The Xbox briefing was a truly magically place. However, during EA Play’s private event, found on sunset boulevard and framed by the famous Hollywood hills, we we’re privy to a small and intimate screening of Jedi: Fallen Order’s game play. And as a loyal subject, dedicated to the needs of our gaming fans, ill describe what I saw in as great detail as I can. The showcase starts on the world of Kashyyk, home of the Wookie’s. The scenery is beautiful, and the design of the level is inspired. It’s reminiscent of the Wookies battle scene in Revenge of the Sith . A surviving Jedi Padawan, whose named Cal Kestis, over powers the crew of an AT-AT while in battle and aims its heavy guns at enemy installments and fellow Imperial forces, quickly turning the tide of conflict. Controlling an AT-AT from the cockpit, is alone an amazing feat. Yet, watching enemy AT-AT laser blasts approach your cockpit at the speed of a bullet is a unique and awe-inspiring event. It’s obvious from the first minute that Respawn has put all of their love into this. As our hero continues, he runs into a familiar face. Forest Whitaker, a.k.a. Saw Gerrera from Rogue One. Leader of the resistance forces in this sector. After creating a plan to break out some Very Important Wookies, Cal splits off and tackles his share of the plan. For the next 15 minutes Cal runs into a plethora of enemy hostiles. Some are monstrous spiders that take a significant time to destroy. Most are storm troopers, who for a Jedi are no problem at all. Finally, there are a few advanced and black clad troopers who carry a special staff designed to combat light sabers (similar to ‘The Force Awakens’).   The game play reveal ends shortly after, with a robot similar to K2SO (the funny robot from Rogue One) obliterating Cal with a quick chop to the back of his head. The two developers present shared some of their thoughts on both level design and the audio with us, stating that they had pulled a lot of their inspirations from both the movies and the graphic novels, attempting to make something that felt classic while still new and refreshing. They certainly accomplished their goals. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks to be a stunning accomplishment, and I assume a run for the game of the year in 2019. My only complaints after watching first hand the 30 minute game play trailer, was that the game seemed overly linear and that the standard bullshit of all single player games, including unnecessary skill tree talents, extremely simple puzzle solutions (whose job is to primarily add “hours of game play” and nothing of real value) and overly obvious opportunities to use certain skills and talents (like using the force to pull down a rope to swing with found in literally every single player adventure game). Unfortunately this seems to be a consistent issue with all single player games, regardless of how highly rated they become, and so ill let most of it slide in the hopes of an excellent story, and beautiful game play. Let’s also hope that the graphics don’t overly change between now and November 15th. Otherwise my lovely NXL fans, this game seems to be everything we hoped it was and I for one am excited for it’s soon-to-be release!