Category: Video Games

This story contains spoilers for The Bad Batch. If you’re not caught up yet, check out our spoiler-free The Bad Batch Season 2 review.

There’s a blast from the past in the latest episode of The Bad Batch Season 2. Diving into the history of the Jedi Order and those that came before, fans are rightly asking who the “Ancients” are and what they could mean for the wider mythos of the galaxy far, far away.

“Entombed” wasted no time making Wanda Sykes’ Phee Genoa the star of the show, with this treasure-hunting pirate filling that Doctor Aphra-shaped hole in our lives. Much like that morally ambiguous archaeologist, Phee gives us some insight into the state of the galaxy in years gone by. Alongside mentions of the Grand Pearl of Novak and Blade of Zakata Par, one of Phee’s stories stood out more than the others.

Are The Ancients Connected to the Jedi?

Under the guidance of Phee, the Bad Batch journeys to the uncharted Kaldar Trinary and searches for the mythical Heart of the Mountain in Skara Nal. Skara Nal is eventually revealed as a walker-esque weapon of mass destruction, and although nothing about its creators is confirmed, Phee says the “Ancients” predate the Jedi Order itself.

It’s possible the Ancients are the Je’daii Order, who hailed from the planet Tython and eventually evolved into the modern Jedi Order. Remembering that Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) took Grogu to Tython in The Mandalorian Season 2, there’s already a foundation to build on in mainline Star Wars canon. However, this seems unlikely when comparing The Bad Batch’s glimpse of Skara Nal and the dark side creatures of the Kaldar Trinary to the Je’daii’s motives of bringing balance to the Force.

Instead, the Ancients could be tied to Tony Gilroy’s Andor and a throwaway reference to the Rakata species. Here, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) gave Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) a downpayment of a Kuati signet embedded with a blue and white sky kyber crystal. As well as saying it comes from an “ancient world,” he confirms it “celebrated the uprising against the Rakatan invaders.”

Rakata? Like, Knights of the Old Republic Rakata?

Introduced in BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic video game back in 2003, the Rakata are a fish-like species that first mastered hyperspace travel. More than this, the Rakata were a sometimes villainous race that used the dark side to mix their technological prowess with spiritual evil.

As Knights of the Old Republic is set some 4,000 years before Lucas’ movies — and the Rakata existed 30,000 years before that — the timelines marry up with them being the Ancients that Phee refers to. For those who still aren’t convinced, a portion of the 2003 game takes place in a location called the Temple of the Ancients on the planet Lehon.

Notably, the Rakata developed a devastating weapon known as the Star Forge. The Rakata enslaved Force-sensitive creatures and used the dark side emotions of their victims to power machines. Others were used to help build the Star Forge as an automated shipyard that constantly churned out vehicles and soldiers to man the Rakata’s “Infinite Empire.” Knights of the Old Republic ended as players picked between destroying the Star Forge to embrace the light side or taking control of it for themselves on the dark side.

As for the Rakata, the Star Forge corrupted the species and led to a brutal civil war which, alongside a deadly plague that shattered their connection to the Force, brought the empire crumbling down. The Bad Batch shows something has decimated the Kaldar Trinary, and with the Rakata known for stripping planets for their resources, it adds credibility to the theory that they are, in fact, the Ancients.

What the Ancients Mean for the Future of Star Wars

The Jedi Order we know was founded by the shadowy Prime Jedi in the year 25,000 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), so we know The Bad Batch isn’t setting up the much-hyped The Acolyte that’s set around 100 years before The Phantom Menace. Still, that doesn’t mean the Ancients can’t lead to more live-action or animated projects.

It’s speculatory, but because The Bad Batch is set around 19 BBY and coincides with the start of construction on the Death Star, the destructive power of Skara Nal and the Ancients could have a much bigger part than we know. Even though Skara Nal is all but destroyed by the time the credits roll, Phee’s tease of the Ancients is a neat segue into these relics of the Expanded Universe.

Star Wars Rebels Season 2’s “Twilight of the Apprentice” previously teased the Star Forge with an Easter egg inside the Sith temple that looked a lot like the Rakatan’s space factory. There’s been a lot of talk about a live-action Knights of the Old Republic adaptation, and with two potential nods to the Rakata in Andor and now The Bad Batch, it’s a little coincidental.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi might’ve skimmed over Luke Skywalker inhabiting the first Jedi Temple on Ahch-To, but way back when, Lucas gave author Terry Brooks an extensive history of the Sith and Jedi for his novelization of The Phantom Menace. Much like the sometimes fanciful stories of Phee, there tends to be a little truth in these forgotten fables. We’ll just have to wait and see whether The Bad Batch’s tease of the Ancients pays off further down the line.

Today’s daily deals include the Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield Charizard Collection, a magnificent Apple Studio Display, the gargantuan 85″ Sony X85K TV bundled with an Atmos ready soundbar, a powerful Dell G15 laptop with an RTX 3070 TI GPU, and more below.

Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield Ultra-Premium Collection Charizard for $99.99

The set includes three etched foil promo cards: Charizard V, Charizard VMAX, and Charizard VSTAR, sixteen Pokemon TCG booster packs from the Sword & Shield series, a playmat, 65 card sleeves, metal coin, six metal damage-counter dice, 2 metal condition markers, an acrylic VSTAR marker, a player’s guide to the entire Sword & Shield series, and a code card for Pokemon TCG Live.

Dell G15 15″ QHD Intel Core i9 RTX 3070 Ti Gaming Laptop for Only $1367.09

Dell has been going all out with their gaming deals lately. Right now you can get a Dell G15 gaming laptop equipped with a 15″ QHD (2560×1440) display, 12th gen Intel Core i9-12900H 14-core Alder Lake CPU, and a powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU for a mere $1367.09 after $300 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. Pair that with 16GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM and a 1TB SSD and you have yourself a lean, mean gaming machine out of the box at a really good price.

85″ Sony X85K 4K TV with Sony HT-A7000 Soundbar Bundle for $1698

Normally the TV itself costs $1698 (check it out for yourself), but Amazon is essentially throwing in the soundbar for free. The HT-A7000 is actually a really nice soundbar; it actually retails for $1400. The X85X is a great gaming TV. It has a 120Hz native refresh rate, which means it supports 4K @ 120Hz over HDMI 2.1 when connected to the PS5 or Xbox Series X consoles. The HT-A7000 soundbar features a near 7.1.2 channel setup for Dolby Atmos support.

27″ Apple Studio Display with Higher-Than-4K Resolution for $1299

When it comes to color fidelity, Apple Studio monitors are the cream of the crop. Unfortunately, they’re also very expensive. Today, you can get the 27″ variant for $1299.99 thanks to a rare $300 price drop from its original $1600 MSRP. The Apple display features a higher-than-4K resolution of 5120×2880, 600 nits of brightness, support for one billion colors, and P3 wide color. It also has a built-in webcam and mic as well as a Thunderbolt 3 port with up to 96W of Power Delivery. If you connect a MacBook to this monitor, it can be used as an external display AND charge your laptop at the same time.

Dell G15 15″ Core i7 RTX 3060 Gaming Laptop for $1058

Dell is also offering this Dell G15 gaming laptop equipped with a 12th gen Intel Core i7-12700H 14-core Alder Lake CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU for only $1058.39 after $150 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. The RTX 3060 is more powerful than the previous generation’s RTX 2070 and will be able to power through any game on the laptop’s 1080p display.

75″ Hisense U7H 4K QLED ULED Google TV for $948

The U7H is Hisense’s lowest priced TV model with a native 120Hz refresh rate. That’s right, this TV supports 4K @ 120Hz for PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. That, along with VRR and ALLM makes this an excellent gaming TV. The U7H boasts a quantum dot panel with full-array LED backlighting (120 local dimming zones) and wide color gamut. It also pumps out an impressive 1000nits of peak brightness so you can easily use this TV in rooms where light control might normally be an issue.

Alienware m17 17″ 4K AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX Radeon RX 6850M XT Gaming Laptop for Only $1675.79

Equivalent to Intel Core i9-12900H with RTX 3080

Expiring today, Dell is offering its Alienware m17 17″ gaming laptop equipped with AMD’s most powerful CPU and GPU for $1675.79 after $700 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. That’s a phenomenal price for one of the most powerful gaming laptops available at the moment. Please note that dual stacking coupon codes are extremely rare at Dell.

This Alienware m17 config spares absolutely no expense to make the perfect gaming laptop. The newest 6000-series CPU is designed to compete with Intel’s latest Alder Lake CPUs. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX is the most powerful CPU in the 6000-series lineup, and it performs almost as well as Intel’s own Core i9-12900H. That is to say, it’s a monster of a processor in terms of both workstation and gaming performance.

Likewise, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT is currently AMD’s most powerful mobile GPU and its performance is comparable to NVIDIA’s mobile RTX 3080/Ti. It will hold its own in any game you throw at it, and you’ll certainly need the power in order to run games smoothly on the laptop’s native 4K display.

Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 RTX 3080 Ti Gaming PC for Only $1587.59

Dell is offering the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 gaming PC equipped with a powerful GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU for under $1600. That’s right, you can get it for $1587.59 after $580 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes “AWSMITE09” and “ARMMPPS“. There are newer (and far pricier) 4000 series of GeForce cards out, nevertheless this is still a very powerful and very relevant gaming rig.

This Alienware gaming PC is equipped with a liquid cooled AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core CPU, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU, 8GB of DDR4-3200MHz RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The RTX 3080 Ti is one of the most powerful cards in the RTX 30 series linup, features DLSS and ray tracing, and is an excellent GPU for 4K gaming. It’s about 10% more powerful than the RTX 3080 at 4K. It’s on par with the RTX 3090 in gaming prowess (the RTX 3090 has more VRAM which is better for graphics workstation builds but not for gaming). This PC will be able to push just about any game at 60fps+ speeds, even at 4K resolution. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU is an excellent all-around processor and won’t bottleneck your gaming.

48″ LG 48GP900-B 4K OLED Gaming Monitor

The 48GP900-B is the first Ultragear gaming monitor that uses an OLED panel. This is a simliar WOLED panel to the one that you find in the 48″ LG C1 OLED TV but there are a few key differences. Instead of the semi glossy coating found on the OLED TV, the 48GP900 features an anti-glare low reflective coating that is undoubtedly a better fit for close up monitor usage. It also has DisplayPort connectivity and lacks the built-in Smart TV interface. It does carry over the HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K @ 120Hz compatiblity for PS5 and Xbox Series X owners, as well as VRR and G-SYNC support. Additionally, the 120Hz refresh rate can be overclocked to 138Hz when used as a PC monitor. Lastly, if aesthetics matter for you, there is subtle RGB backlighting on the rear of the monitor that isn’t present on the OLED TVs.

The Best Deals of the Week

These deals are definitely worth your attention.

The Day Before developer Fntastic has said it was planning a delay even before a trademark dispute pushed the game back eight months.

Speaking to IGN, Fntastic co-founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev decried any allegations of scamming after several The Day Before community members grew concerned that the game was delayed for so long just a few weeks ahead of its planned launch date on March 1.

Fntastic released a statement on January 25 (below) claiming that a trademark dispute had forced the delay of both the game and its first major gameplay trailer in over a year.

“We planned to move the game’s release before and plan to announce it with [publisher] Mytona in a 10-minute gameplay video,” Fntastic told IGN. “And then you all know what happened. So to be on the safe side, to ensure there are no more transfers, we, along with the publisher, chose November 10. That is a safe date, given the trademark dispute.”

Despite having now been delayed twice (with the first caused by a switch to Unreal Engine 5), Fntastic is still confident it will have its trademark dispute solved by the new release date, and plans to use the extra time for improving the game in the meantime.

“We’re very confident that this issue will be resolved since we have strong legal partners,” it said. “The extra time will allow us to better prepare for the release and make the overall improvements for the game. It will become even more polished, optimized, and content-filled.”

pic.twitter.com/tlvk0ryNKo

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) January 25, 2023

As for complaints and allegations that The Day Before isn’t actually in development – which have been erupting on its Reddit page and Discord sever – Fntastic maintained that its game will definitely be released despite the chaotic conversation at the moment.

“The storm will calm down eventually, and time will put everything in its place. When the game comes out, people will finally see the truth,” it said. “But while we’re here, we’re grateful for such a fantastic journey and for you being with us.”

Fntastic also provided the following statement regarding current conversations and the state of the game: “For us and millions of people, The Day Before is a childhood dream come true. It’s a game with zombies and other people in a huge postapocalyptic skyscraper city.

“We understand that some players, not seeing the whole picture, might have doubts about the game. Our whole focus has always been on the product itself. We’ve been creating the game for four years. All these years have been full of sweat and blood to make this game, and for many members of our team, it is unpleasant to hear such accusations.

“We didn’t take a penny from people: no crowdfunding, no pre-orders, no donations. The game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who checked the game’s build at every milestone per our contract.

“We made a real inner breakthrough when we decided to go for big challenges from the bottom—so big that some people would consider them impossible.

“Making a fantastic journey from the very ends of the earth, we feel like that simple guy from 90s action movies. You probably remember him as the hero who breaks through the veil of disbelief when no one believes in him, but he finds the inner strength to win and prove to everyone what he is worth in the end.

“We only believe in the final product. No matter what anyone says, you’ll see for yourself on November 10 this year. We hope that after the game’s success, we’ll give people faith that in this life, if you persevere toward a dream, it will come true, despite all the obstacles and doubts.”

The Day Before is an open world zombie MMO that was first announced in January 2021. This isn’t the first time the game has faced controversy in the past three years, however, as Fntastic was also forced to defend its use of unpaid workers in June last year.

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