About 10 minutes into the latest preview build of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft's forthcoming open-world adventure, lead character Kay Vess enters Mirogana: a densely populated, worn-down city on the desolate moon of Toshara. Around us is a mix of sandstone hovels and metallic sci-fi buildings, crammed with flickering computer panels, neon signs and holographic adverts. Exotic aliens lurk in quiet corners, R2 droids glide past twittering to themselves. Nearby is a cantina, its shady clientele visible through the smoky doorway, and just to the side is a dimly lit gambling parlour. As you explore, robotic voices read out imperial propaganda over public address systems and stormtroopers patrol the streets, checking IDs. At least as far as this lifelong Star Wars fan is concerned, these moments perfectly capture the aesthetics and atmosphere of the original trilogy.

In new video game'The Division 2,' players explore Washington, D.C., which has been decimated by a virus. Draining the swamp pales in comparison to the problems facing the nation's capital in new video game "Tom Clancy's The Division 2." The White House is under attack. An enemy force occupies the Lincoln Memorial and a wrecked Air Force One has crashed at the foot of the U.S. Capitol. Chaos reigns as the result of a pandemic, which has left Washington decimated. In the role of an agent for the Strategic Homeland Division, the player is tasked with protecting the division's makeshift headquarters at the White House and assisting survivors to improve their ragtag existence.

"Fallout 76" was a buggy, listless wasteland and became an industry laughingstock. "Anthem" barely got off the ground. Recent updates to "Red Dead Online" are causing players to lose faith as they're nickel-and-dimed for dirty clothes and dances. It's a dark coincidence that a video game about abandoned and lost communities could be host to millions of adrift gamers, outraged and disappointed by the recent dud parade of massive, open-world online shooters. In Washington, where the game is set, Ubisoft held a preview event for "The Division 2," the sequel to the company's most successfully launched game ever.