Julius

Completed Chapters 1 and 2 as well as the α Analysis course to get NG+ off to a good start tonight. Decided to go with a red AC in the story for the first time across my various playthroughs of this game, with this AC: Thebes. The reason I needed to go with the ending I did in my last post was to unlock this head piece! Which I think is by far the coolest in the game – not surprising because the AC it's from is my favourite in the game, too! No deaths to any of the bosses so far, forgot just how early things start to feel fresh in NG+, with a couple of different missions and some different showdowns to figure your way out of. Through taking on a different route I've also unlocked what remains one of the biggest pains in the ass in the game - an escort mission - which was probably the second most brutal thing to learn and S-rank the first time I played through the game. I'm getting flashbacks just thinking of the most brutal one... To take it back to my favourite AC design that I mentioned before, though, I saw this got announced last week for release in August: Yeah...I'll be keeping an eye out to pre-order this I think

I hate that I've seen just enough of 2 to know that that's the cringe one you're referring to It's times like this where I kind of hate that I feel like I can't skip a sequel, and if I ever do it's almost always down to how separate it feels from a narrative POV or simply because it's not easily accessible. I've heard enough good things about 3 to know I want to play it at some point, but 2...not so much. Love what I've heard of the music and obviously the crazy scale these games go for too. I guess feeling the way I do about 2 just drastically lessens the odds of me playing both I actually do have Torna! I picked it up a few years ago when there was a bit of a scare over whether or not it was going to get more physical prints. Maybe that'll be what I play next (from the series, not the next game I play, to be clear ) It's a prequel to 2, right? Damn, yeah I'd heard and read different accounts of poor performance for 2, so I'll probably just wait until the Switch 2 and see if that takes things up a notch before I decide to dive in. Maybe a Pledge Game for next year? It's not like I was planning on getting to it anytime soon anyways! I have other super long JRPG commitments to get to before then Thanks both

Sorry for the delay in getting this added Dcubed - have added to the wall of pledges now Probably not... But I bet Furukawa is rubbing his hands together thinking about how much he could screw your pledge with a November launch right now

A Horizon MMO which was in the works at NCSoft - not to be confused with Guerrilla's cartoony in-house Monster Hunte-type GAAS - has reportedly been cancelled. Per South Korean news outlet MTN: These project names tie into previous job listings and employee histories which suggested a Horizon MMO was in the works. NCSoft are also reportedly not having the best of years, with one of their chairmen saying that it's basically do-or-die for them in 2025, which is likely the reason for the Horizon MMO project being brought to a halt and cancelled.

Oof, well that sucks. My interest in picking this up at launch or anytime soon just completely dissipated. Not that I'm in any particular rush to get back to the series, even if I had a great time with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - when it came out...checks notes...nearly 5 years ago?! Holy what?! - but I'm guessing you would recommend that I play 2 next rather than X? I mean, I should probably also go back in and check out Future Connected in XC:DE...

Just got the same as @Happenstance as well:

Super Mario Kart music has been added to the service.

How did people find the Skell and character customisation in the original Wii U version of the game? I'm not sure how much of this game is pulling me in from the trailers so far, but I feel like if I could make a cool ass mech and pilot, I'd be much more likely to see it through.

Chapters 4 and 5 rounded off, meaning that credits have rolled after 11 hours and my NG run is complete. I chose to go with the The Fires of Raven ending, for reasons which will probably become apparent at a later point. For my own future reference and for others who might be going for the Plat/all endings in the future: there's a lot of conflicting info online about how to get one ending or another. Only the final branching mission you choose - in Chapter 5 - determines your ending on NG and NG+; it's NG++ where you'll need to do certain missions throughout the course of the run in order to see the third and final ending. Anyways, back to it – started off this session absolutely crushing the S-rank Arena fighters with some quick times: I obviously don't want to talk too much about the ending, but man, I love it so much. The penultimate mission on this route is probably my favourite - and by far the most hype! - in the entire game, just the premise of the mission and how empowered this mission in particular makes you feel by stripping away certain limits...it's just an absolutely joyous, toy-bashing, mech anime action hype fest. Interestingly, the boss I was a bit worried about going into this session - and a second boss I totally forgot I'd be brushing up against - I had no problems facing and beat first time. Think that really speaks again to how much I've downloaded some of these missions and boss fights, because muscle memory and automatic reactions were kicking in where my mind couldn't keep up and calculate my next moves – which felt anime as hell. The final boss though? Gave me a bit of a go-around, which I'll be honest surprised me, and was the most I died to any of the bosses on this particular playthrough. Funnily enough, it took the first death or two for me to remember what my original strat that I figured out back in 2023 was to take them down, and leaning back on that and just remembering the limits of my own weapons (ran out of ammo for my right-hand munitions deep into the second go which meant I had to rely on kicks and my heavy weapons, which was far from ideal!) I managed to readjust, even if it was still pretty tight when all was said and done. Terminal Armour came in super handy – I ALWAYS forgot to add a Core Expansion for use in my entire first playthrough of the game with almost all of my ACs, and it came in clutch a couple of times here and there. Anyways, back to this game just looking great, and being another great case for From having the best vistas in gaming: Elsewhere, no further tweaks were needed for Jericho and it performed admirably in his v6 form up to the end of the game. Besides perhaps changing its right-hand weapon out for a more effective gun? I'm pretty sure I could take on the entirety of NG+ and NG++ with this build. The S-ranks? I'm not 100%. And speaking of missions: man, just the mission variety in this is excellent. Some missions are a couple of minutes long, others probably veering close to 15-20, but it means the game can maintain a sense of momentum and pace that so many of other From's modern games aren't allowed to enforce simply because of the way they're presented (connected worlds). I think it genuinely furthers the case for From being one of the best out there simply because it gives a greater sense of variety to their catalogue. I haven't even talked about the AC fights this time around, which are basically like coming up against other Hunters in Bloodborne: by far my favourite fights in the game (including the AC boss fights of course), and yes, probably above the more typical bosses you get here. Something I've had fun doing with other From games is keeping track of my death count against bosses, and I think this is an interesting case where I'm replaying a From game for the first time. Some of these bosses (ahem, pre-patch) took me 20+ attempts, and even on NG+ and NG++ runs I found myself dying here and there to them. This time around? Probably the smoothest things have gone for me playing through ACVI, bar maybe the final fight. What constitutes a boss fight in this game is pretty hazy at the best of times, as you come up against ACs and even some bosses before a mission ends, so I focused mainly on counting deaths again bosses which rounded off chapters or important story beats; most of these I've gone with the boss names as they're presented in the game, but for any character names I've gone out of my way to identify them by their mech parts, so no actual story spoilers to be found here! I'm just tucking it away in a spoiler tag to keep it tidy Death Counter vs Bosses: NG On my next run, I'll probably focus on only counting new bosses for the death counter, unless there's a particular boss I want to set the record straight about. Wait, next run? I mean...I have to, right? Someone's got to liberate the place

Just seen a couple of GIFs from the inauguration, and...good lord. Musk very clearing doing a Nazi salute...twice. The title of a Guardian article I saw the other day pretty much nailed exactly how I felt about all this: I knew one day I'd have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn't expect them to be such losers Good luck to everyone over the pond.

I can think of 5-10 million units or so why they'd probably think about burying the hatchet if there is any ongoing beef, though I'll admit, this is the first I'm hearing about it. What's happening? Also, isn't Bandai Namco publicly traded? They'd have shareholders in revolt not selling one of the best-selling games of the generation on the newest and shiniest platform. Purposely sabotaged how, exactly? I know the Switch release got delayed, but that always seemed to me like it was due to low effort and poor management on their side; hardly a common occurrence in the industry. And let's not forget, the Switch was young when Dark Souls Remastered was announced and then released, so I can see why Bandai Namco might not have given it the attention it perhaps warranted in hindsight. What did EA pull with Mass Effect 3/Trilogy? Look man, I'm just trying to think ahead and plan a third Armored Core playthrough over here

Replaying Armored Core VI at the moment and at the end of a mission I found myself wondering: "huh, I wonder what this could be like on Switch 2?" I mean, it has a last gen Xbox One/PS4 version as it is, so technically it seems very feasible based on all the purported hardware leaks for the thing. And then I thought a bit more about it, and just how much of From Software's modern catalogue is very feasibly on the cards – and, more pertinent to a thread like this, I started thinking about how they'd get doled out, and their potential presence in April during the Switch 2 Direct. Demon's Souls and Bloodborne need to be taken out of the equation simply because they're PlayStation IP, and Dark Souls Remastered was the only modern From game to make its way into Switch with its Remastered version which was, uh, not the same as the Remastered releases of the game elsewhere; in fact, interestingly, some people think it might be the version which is best from a faithful remaster perspective, even with a lower frame rate than on other platforms: That leaves Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, Dark Souls III, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Elden Ring (and it's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC) and Armored Core VI as the currently released games which have yet to come to Switch and all of them could very feasibly come to the Switch 2 – From still hasn't made a next-gen (well, current now, I guess) exclusive title, meaning that all of these had PS4/Xbox One releases. My questions are, with there being a backlog of beloved and critically acclaimed modern From Software titles to get onto Switch 2: how do you think Bandai Namco should go about curating these games for a Switch 2 release? Which comes first? And do you think Activision take the step to release Sekiro on Switch 2, being the game's publisher in the west? For me, Elden Ring is the obvious centrepiece of this whole thing, and while I do think there would be merit and thought behind the idea of first releasing the other Dark Souls titles on Switch 2 first purely from the perspective that it is a successor series...the game is too big for Bandai Namco to be thinking that way, and I think Elden Ring arrives in the first 6 months of the Switch 2's life if it's not there at launch, and could really help set the bar in terms of what the system is capable of. I absolutely think this shows up at the Switch 2 Direct in April, regardless of when it releases, and I think I then think that the Dark Souls games get collected and released as a trilogy – similar collections are available on other platforms, and it nicely bundles Remastered with II and III in a way which means it wouldn't need its own separate Switch 2 re-release, but still adds value to a wider package. It's hard to commit to a timeframe considering that we don't know when the Switch 2 is set to launch, but I could see this trying to be squeezed in ahead of Christmas in, say, November, if not by the time of III's 10th anniversary next March. Depending on how far ahead the Switch 2 Direct dares to look - are they just focusing on launch and the following few months? Are they about to lay down a marker with every commitment being made by every party involved for the next few years? - I think there's a 50/50 chance that the Dark Souls Trilogy turns up at the Switch 2 Direct in April. The ones I can't figure out for the life of me are Sekiro: Shadows Twice and Armored Core VI. Perhaps if a new Armored Core released next year I could see them using an Armored Core VI release on Switch 2 as a way to start up its marketing cycle and build excitement, but Sekiro very much seems like a franchise which won't be getting a sequel. Similarly, I could see Armored Core VI and the Dark Souls Trilogy being thrown out by Bandai Namco as titles they're bringing to the Switch 2 without hard dates or windows at the Switch 2 Direct, but Sekiro is Activision's to publish over here in the west – and so they likely don't really care for whatever Bandai Namco has planned for their release curation with their games, and could very well like it up for a release at launch or in the first few months of the Switch 2's without giving much thought to the release of Elden Ring on the system. It's such an odd duck. Anyone have any thoughts on how they might go about handling this?

Boy oh boy am I having a blast revisiting this. Today I completed Chapters 2 and 3, and progressed into the Arena up to and including giving all of the A-ranks an ass-whooping. It's been really fun revisiting these levels and blasting my way through just to be like "oh wait, wasn't there a hidden combat log/dialogue or combat option/part/piece of lore over there?" and just beaming from how much this game clearly drilled itself into me the first time around just some 16 months ago. I'm now up to v6 of Jericho: Now, I love the more typical Souls games I've played: Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Elden Ring. Dark fantasy is cool as hell, but I think something I've touched on before is how I never felt I was playing those games how I felt I *wanted* to play those games. I always felt like I was playing the game on the game's terms, and it wasn't until much later in the game, once I'd fleshed out a particular build or play style through levelling and honing my skill, where I felt really comfortable going around and showing those worlds who was boss. Then I played Bloodborne, which felt *exactly* how I wanted to be playing the Souls games. The gothic horror ~and other weirdness~ vibe is unparalleled. There's a focus on speed, dodging, parrying with a gun, blood-spurting viscerals: while it still really feels like it takes a while to be showing that world who's boss in the story sense, it felt to me like that point came much earlier on in Bloodborne compared to the above games, and through some skill and confidence early on, it felt like you were exacting vengeance on the world. Be it skill or play style or the way you'd built your character, very early on I felt a sense of earned empowerment in Bloodborne. While Armored Core VI isn't as challenging as Bloodborne or Souls games, it still manages to find the balance of providing a feeling of earned empowerment rather than a true and proper power fantasy, which I love it for. It is much more forgiving in helping you find your builds than other From games, as you can sell parts back to the store at cost; the Training and Arena programs both do a great job of inspiring confidence from an early point in the game; and, what's more, despite an obvious narrative throughline of "what the hell is going on with this sci-fi story? Who are these people? What is this world? There's something that feels unmistakably...off", there's a sense of being a part of some greater story while also getting to regularly see the impact you have on it, whether it be through choosing one particular mission over another when branching paths arise, the way you interact with other characters (who are all brilliantly voiced, by the way) and make occasional dialogue choices, or, again, the simple freedom of building your AC how you see fit with little repercussions outside of the construction limits the game places on you. This is a game which feels customisable in so many different ways from the get-go, and is incredibly moreish to boot. Again, going back to that feeling earned empowerment: you earned this cash; you chose these parts; you made this mech; you chose this mission; this victory is *yours*. Simply brilliant. Oh, and I never really talked about it the first time through, but there are so many visuals in this game which will just leave you going "well, damn": This game just radiates cool; it's by far the coolest I've ever felt playing a game. It's a second playthrough, so I know what's coming, and yet I'm just as excited to dig back into it every session as I was the first time around. There's an awkward boss that I know is coming up that I'm mentally steeling myself for, but honestly, I can't wait. Bring it. This genuinely might be my favourite game of the gen so far.

Has anyone else been getting an occasional error message when trying to access the site? It's fairly sporadic and never lasts too long, but I've been getting it occasionally for a few days now, maybe a week? I've had it on both my phone and my PC. This next part could be just bad luck and checking it more frequently over the weekend, but it also seems to be increasing in frequency as I've seen it a couple of times today?

Agreed with pretty much all of the above, that's how I see it playing out too. I think evergreen titles - you mention BOTW and Odyssey and I think both would absolutely fall under that umbrella - will be the ones to get true and proper remasters, and others will probably be brute forced into better performance where possible on a per-game basis. The only evergreen titles I struggle to see getting remasters are games which have since had sequels and are likely candidates for further sequels (such as Splatoon 2 and 3), as well as the Pokémon games. I could see them offering an upgrade path if you already own the game, purely because PlayStation do the same with their PS5 remasters of PS4 titles, and I think there's potential for bad publicity if it's not offered and the only way to play a higher fps, higher fidelity version of, say, Breath of the Wild is by dropping £60 or £70. But then, it's Nintendo, so who knows While I generally agree, I think the release of the OLED means that they pretty much have to jump to 1080p if they're going to backpedal to an LCD screen. I'd argue a 720p screen should've got more blowback than it did back in 2017 with the initial Switch reveal and launch - purely because of where phones and tablets were at the time - and I think anything sub-1080p and which doesn't allow you to throw "HD" in there for marketing purposes is a terrible idea, even if it is a battery drain. It also leaves them room for a 1080p OLED model down the line, which, I'll be honest, sucks when it's more than feasible to have that from launch, but it is what it is. This is the most positive/optimistic I've ever seen you about either game since the launch of BOTW but yeah, I'll hop aboard this train. This is genuinely the first time I've heard about the OLED having such great battery life and now I'm even more gutted we're probably back down to the 4-5 hours range with an LCD for Switch 2 Nah, I'd vote Joi-Con instead, every day of the week