Nearly 10 hours in, Star Wars: Zero Company has the strategy sauce

Hi there! I wasn't expecting to have a third piece for you this week, but I've been spending some time with Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Zero Company, and only a couple of hours in, I knew I had to share at least some impressions before too long had passed.

Now, with almost 10 hours under my belt, I'm already confident this will be one of my favorites of the year. Plus, a few thoughts on that gameplay presentation for Grand Theft Auto 6.

If you missed them earlier this week, be sure to check out my interview with Messhof on Blood Dungeon, as well as my preview of Gears of War: E-Day's campaign.

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Attention to detail, loving care, and overwhelming firepower

Star Wars: Zero Company is developed by Bit Reactor, studio founded by veterans of Firaxis that worked on the XCOM franchise. Fittingly, Zero Company takes many a page from that series, to the point it's affectionally being referred to as ZCOM by many players.

Set in the final stage of the Clone Wars, Zero Company has you command a former Republic officer named Hawks, handling mercenary work and building a team of operatives.

Playing with Permadeath enabled means the threat of losing someone you've grown attached to is a constant worry, and while I've been careful enough so far, it's always looming in my mind. I'm spending huge amounts of down time at the home base, paintstakingly customizing my team's weapons and even the paint schemes of their armor.

The gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect from the genre, and that's perfectly fine. My Hawks is a Sharpshooter that benefits from staying still and focusing, so I'm particularly enjoying taking vantage points, pairing them with heavy-hitters that can move fast and cover ground quickly for rescue operations.

There's a role-playing side to things as well, as I'm forced to make decisions that some members of the team will inevitably not be okay with. It's not possible to address every issue or opportunity that arises, and that's clearly by design. Relationships can improve combat coordination the more the team works together, but at the end of the day you can only be in one place at a time.

Figuring out how to set up overwatch traps and using a smaller squad to obliterate overwhelming opponents hasn't gotten old, especially with how much care and detail the developers have put into everything. The first time I missed a shot despite having a 90% chance to hit and an achievement popped, I just grinned ear-to-ear.

Bit Reactor partnered with Respawn Entertainment for Zero Company, a team that's already no stranger to the galaxy far, far away thanks to its work on the Star Wars Jedi games. That partnership has clearly borne wonderful fruit, as there's a delightful amount of work in every facet of the game thus far.

A war report periodically gives Republic propaganda-tinged updates on the progression of the Clone Wars, while characters mention places and events that don't feel hamfisted or jarring. Hearing someone mention Gizka caused me to smile, remembering the explosively-reproductive chicken-like animal first seen in the now-Legends Knights of the Old Republic.

Other references are far more cold and grim, even as everyone involved in the discussion treats it with the off-handed care of recalling what they had for lunch.

Star Wars, quite rightfully, is often accused of falling prey to the "Glup Shitto" problem, a joking reference to how fans lose their minds seeing a character from some minor piece of media make their way into larger stories. So far, that isn't a problem here.

Zero Company hasn't truly surprised me so far. Instead, it's proving that if there's enough attention to detail, sometimes an existing formula just works and is greater than the sum of its parts. I'm looking forward to spending even more time in this world over the weekend.

My only complaint that needs addressing: Vsync keeps turning off in-between sessions, and as someone quite sensitive to screen tearing, it's getting old fast. Hopefully that can be patched sooner rather than later.

Grand Theft Auto 6 sure looks like Grand Theft Auto

On Thursday, I watched the new footage for Grand Theft Auto 6, in a gameplay presentation that was initially exclusive to Netflix before being uploaded on YouTube.

Instead of having a hot take or some burning thought, I'm simply filled with overwhelming notion that it sure looks a lot like Grand Theft Auto. That's not a bad thing in the slightest, it's just what my mind's eye already expected. Rockstar has put painstaking work into every possible animation and bringing a fictionalized version of Miama to life.

What has me more interested than anything else, however, is simply the central premise. Instead of gangsters coming out of retirement or setting up a new crime organization, I like the idea of a budding romance between two protagonists, especially if it's clear things aren't always going to be so fun and glamorous.

The tone of the footage, while baudy and filled with excess, has a tinge of warning and regret. There's a hint of Red Dead Redemption 2's somber storytelling lurking, and I'll be quite interested to see if it rears its head in full.

More than that, I'm rooting for the developers who are tirelessly campaigning for a union, despite the alleged union-busting actions of the company they work for.