Julius

Ben Hanson of MinnMax has come out of nowhere and said a little something about Naughty Dog's new IP: I've been listening to Ben for close to a decade now since the GI Show days, and let me tell you: he NEVER speaks out of turn like this. Very, very curious what this means. I feel like it's either an open world-ish "you can climb anything/go anywhere/find our lore!" game like Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring (I would assume not as large in scale or scope with more of a focus on story and interaction so it can still be of that high ND fidelity, but that's just me), or something very systems-driven like a Deus Ex. There have been rumours for a while that the new game would be sci-fi/space, but I feel like that's some Savage Starlight projection for the latter. Personally, I've wondered for a while if ND might do something in a medieval fantasy setting, just a linear game in a setting like that, but I actually wonder if what they're making might be something closer to my absolute dream game? I think Neil has mentioned being a Princess Mononoke fan before and I've always thought that film is an exact template of what a modern take on something like Ocarina of Time could be. A relatively small world - open because of today's technology allowing it to be that way - where maybe you have one or two or three smaller villages which are like factions you can interact and team up with against some larger threat that they're absolutely not equipped to deal with, and so the focus would be less on the exploration of the world and much more focused on your interactions with characters, with the decisions you make helping to form the narrative somewhat -- for instance, in Princess Mononoke, imagine if Ashitaka could choose between siding with Iron Town or the Imperial forces? Or if there were a small refugee camp which was against Iron Town's ideals you could side with? And then it all hurtles towards a final act where those characters from separate factions are constantly interacting due to the story forcing things to spiral towards the end, which is of course when your relationships that you've built up with them by this point comes into play. I think I remember some people pointing out the potential concept art tease for the new IP in Part I looked Mononoke-esque...man, I'd kill for a game like that. Sounds like there's a good chance that whatever this is, we'll be getting it before The Last of Us Part III. Find myself getting very excited about it all of a sudden

Developer message: Man, the premise for this one sounds cool, and the mechanic of passing on your powers and the challenge to the next generation of Emperors sounds really interesting. Again, another really great showcase for the game, really love how they've been communicating so much about the game in these short videos.

Arrives on PC 25th January 2025: Insomniac have also confirmed that no new story content is planned for the game (per PS Blog) – hardly a surprise at this point, but it does strengthen the case for us learning more about whatever they plan to release next soon.

Andrew Garfield talking with Elmo about loss was much more powerful than I was anticipating: Lost both my Grandad and my closest Aunt over the last 12 months or so, hard to not think about them watching that, but in a healthy - if a bit cathartic - sort of way Hope everyone and their loved ones are doing well as we head into the last few months of the year 2025 up next, wow. Crazy how time just flies sometimes.

Aye, a few people in the comments noticed the same – they also kinda look like the 'G' from the Team Galactic emblem Spinda slander incoming Glen-i witch hunt incoming

Super Nintendo World of Universal Epic Universe them park at Universal Orlando Resort is set to open on May 22nd 2025: "Universal" "Universe" "Universal" Such a stupid bunch of words to string together...

Surprised that one passed you by Glen, but like you say, it's definitely more directly relevant to the TCG and anime, so I guess it's easily done. I remember discussing this back in the day with friends on the playground back in primary school, I think I learned it from an edition of Pokémon World and found it pretty crazy (and funny) to think about at the time Anyways, in return for that very short trip down memory lane - and reminding me I wanted to share it with you in the first place because of bumping the TCG thread - thought you'd appreciate this animated Feraligatr card someone put together on Reddit:

Karate Kid: Legends, starring Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, and Ben Wang releases 30th May 2025. *waxing on and off intensifies* (or should I say jacket on and off? But that's a bit too close to something else, huh...)

Insomniac are allegedly gearing up to show this off sometime soon, grain of salt as always: TGAs would make sense, if I'm remembering right the Insomniac leaks had this down as a 2026 release, but of course plans change and all that. They also had that Venom spin-off (which I think everyone was expecting and hoping for after Spider-Man 2 anyways) down as a 2025 release and I doubt they'd both drop the same year, and I'd argue Venom doesn't need nearly as much marketing build-up. Guess we'll just need to wait and see!

Sounds like Denis Villeneuve will be getting back to Dune to do Dune: Messiah much earlier than anticipated: Hell yeah!

Tom Holland was on the latest episode of the Rich Roll podcast, which I haven't tuned into in a good while, but reading and hearing not all that long ago about his struggles with alcohol - and just for someone of his age and stature in the public eye to do so, in a country in which I think a lot of young men (and women) have a very unhealthy and questionable relationship with alcohol - really got my attention and increased my respect for him massively (not that it was ever really low to begin with), and so getting the chance to listen to him talk in a longer form setting felt like something worth checking out. Anyways, relating this back to Marvel and this thread, there's been a lot going around lately about this apparent power struggle between Marvel, Sony and Tom over which direction Spider-Man should be taking now that he's returning from his break from acting, with Sony seemingly wanting to throw the character back into the mix with a massive scale project, whereas No Way Home obviously teased Spider-Man getting back to the foundation and smaller scale feel, which we haven't really seen with this incarnation of Spidey in the MCU. Tom spoke a bit about this and the powers and responsibility he has to the character, the fans and himself, and it sounds like they've made a lot of headway in terms of what they want to do - some choice clips from the podcast where he discusses this: Tobey will probably forever and always be my Spider-Man, being the one I grew up on alongside the animated series, but it's definitely exciting to hear that Tom is putting up a fight to make sure that what they do next with the character is what he wants to do and what he feels is important, rather than making the film for the sake of it. I think especially when so many of these MCU entries have started to feel like little more than fodder thrown out to eventually get us to the next big team-up, it gives me a lot more confidence to just hear someone that cares deeply enough to put his foot down and want to talk and be part of the creative process, because Spider-Man is, I think, such a relatable and important character for young people. But yeah, well worth watching those clips, and this is the podcast episode that it's from:

Kind of assumed the release date update message was what they showed in the Xbox Partner Preview, but no! Turns out there was a new trailer: Ship combat and customisation? Hell yeah!

A LEGO X-Men Mansion set is releasing on November 1st in the US (4th over here in the UK according to the official site): Will be retailing for £289.99 in the UK.