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Long-awaited Ubisoft 'Star Wars' Game Hits Shelves

"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File
"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File
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Long-awaited Ubisoft 'Star Wars' Game Hits Shelves

"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File
"Outlaws' is Ubisoft's first foray into the Star Wars universe. Ina FASSBENDER / AFP/File

After more than four years in the making, French video game designer Ubisoft on Friday released its much-anticipated "Star Wars Outlaws", an immersive spinoff from the famed saga.
The group's first foray into the universe created by George Lucas, "Outlaws" is an open-world adventure featuring Kay Vess, a young outlaw who travels the galaxy far away to pull off the heist of the century.
"This project is a childhood dream for many of us," the studio's creative director Julian Gerighty told AFP.
The game crafted by Sweden-based Massive Entertainment allows players to explore cities and space stations in a fictional planet truthful to the sci-fi epic.
While "Outlaws" is not the first Star Wars-themed game, Gerighty says his teams managed to design dense cities and ultra-realistic vessels thanks to the advent of state-of-the-art, powerful consoles.
"We created new planets, new moons, and characters that enter this universe," said Gerighty.
"Outlaws" is the product of a partnership struck with the company LucasFilms, the video game branch of the Disney-owned franchise.
Its creators were granted access to the entertainment giant's "exclusive library with all the details and design documents" of Star Wars -- the key to rendering an authentic atmosphere.
An odyssey without Jedis
Fans however should not expect Jedis -- members of the saga's mystical knightly order. Rather, "Outlaws" brings the galaxy's underworld into the spotlight.
The world features iconic characters and legendary locations, with planet Tatooine, where original hero Luke Skywalker was born, as its setting.
The "incredibly ambitious" project inserts itself between the events of the "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", said Gerighty.
Some of the adventure's protagonists could appear in other productions, he added, as Disney in recent years has scaled up spinoffs from the franchise.
"Outlaws" will be the first Star Wars game to be developed by a publisher other than Electronic Arts (EA), since an exclusivity contract between the brand and the US firm ended in 2021.
Some gamers who were granted early access reported a few bugs, which the creators have pledged to fix.
'A plethora of adaptations'
EA since 2013 has rolled out a number of titles, from shooting multiplayer "Star Wars Battlefront" to laser sabre combat "Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Jedi Survivor".
"These games have been key successes," said Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the industry-tracking firm Circana, who says Disney terminated its deal with EA to "maximize" revenue from the franchise.
The latest Star Wars video games have all ranked among the top 10 best-sellers in the US, according to Piscatella's figures -- the likely trajectory for "Outlaws".
"There has been a plethora of adaptations" since the late 1970s, said Thibaut Claudel, the author of "Star Wars - Disney and the legacy of George Lucas".
"As an entrepreneur and an artist, George Lucas has always been interested in gaming," which explains the "insane range" of games in the early 2000s, when the second trilogy came out, said Claudel.
"It's a lot of pressure on the creators," he added, pointing out that fans with high standards dissect every fresh release.
Once the "Outlaws" frenzy dies down, connoisseurs will shift their attention to "Star Wars Eclipse", a space epic by French studios Quantic Dream, who have yet to announce a release date.

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André 3000's Alt-Jazz, ‘No Bars’ Solo Album Stunned Fans. Now, It’s up for Grammys

André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
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André 3000's Alt-Jazz, ‘No Bars’ Solo Album Stunned Fans. Now, It’s up for Grammys

André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)

No one was expecting it. Late last year, André 3000 released his debut solo album, "New Blue Sun," 18 years after his legendary rap group Outkast's last studio album, "Idlewild."

But "New Blue Sun" has "no bars," he jokes. It's a divergence from rap because "there was nothing I was liking enough to rap about, or I didn't feel it sounded fresh. I'm not about to serve you un-fresh (expletive.)"

Instead, he offered up a six-track instrumental album of ambient alt-jazz — with special attention paid to the flute.

"The sound, that's how I got into it," he says of the instrument. "The portability, too. You can't tote around a piano and play in Starbucks."

He's also invested in the flute's history — like learning about Mayan flutes made from clay, a design he had re-created in cedarwood. "There’s all kinds of fables and, you know, indigenous stories that go along with playing the flute — playing like the birds or playing your heart like the wind — it kind of met (me) where I was in life," he says.

"Flutes — wind instruments in general — are the closest thing you get to actually hearing a human," he continues. "You're actually hearing the breath of a person."

"New Blue Sun" is a stunning collection, one that has earned André 3000 three new Grammy Award nominations: album of the year, alternative jazz, and instrumental composition. Those arrive exactly 25 years after the 1999 Grammys, where Outkast received their first nomination — for "Rosa Parks," from their third album, "Aquemini" — and 20 years after the group won album of the year for "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."

"It matters because we all want to be acknowledged or recognized," André 3000 says of his new Grammy nominations. "It's a type of proof of connection, in some type of way ... especially with the Grammys, because it's voted on by a committee of musicians and people in the industry."

He's a bit surprised by the attention, too, given the type of album he created. "We have no singles on the radio, not even singles that are hot in the street," he says. "When you're sitting next to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, these are highly, hugely popular music artists, I'm satisfied just because of that ... we won just to be a part of the whole conversation."

He theorizes that it may be because popular music listening habits are broadening. "A lot of artists are just trying different things. Even, you know, the album that Beyoncé is nominated for, it’s not her normal thing," he says of her country-and-then-some record, "Cowboy Carter.We’re in this place where things are kind of shifting and moving."

For André 3000, "New Blue Sun" has allowed him to "feel like a whole new artist," but it is also an extension of who he's always been. "Being on the road with Outkast and picking up a bass clarinet at a pawn shop in New York and just sitting on the back of the bus playing with it — these things have been around," he says.

He's also always embraced "newness," as he puts it, experimenting creatively "even if it sounds non-masterful."

"Even producing for Outkast, I was just learning these instruments. If I ... put my hands down and play ‘Ms. Jackson,’ I'm not knowing what I'm playing. But I like it," he says.

As for a new Outkast album, "I never say never," he says. "But I can say that the older I get, I feel like that time has happened."