Julius

Story trailer hype: (okay but why does the music keep wanting to break out into the main melody of the Game Awards theme ) Oh, and also obligatory High Republic hypeeeeeeeeeee (and even more Coruscant muhahahahaha)

Thanks for the heads-up! Spotted it the other day when trying to figure out if I'd applied for everything (I had, but the email confirmation for the lottery for some took a while to come through), got to imagine that's the lottery panel with best odds to get into because I think its addition will have flown under the radar for some. I'm surprised it wasn't put down as a lottery panel originally, to be honest, so I'm glad it has been – I'm kind of shocked Andor hasn't got the same treatment too, to be honest. Out of the lottery panels I think Kenobi is slap bang in the middle for me in terms of priority (behind Lucasfilm and Ashoka, ahead of Bad Batch and Sequel Villains), so I'm curious to see how it all plays out! Now just nervously waiting for the passes to arrive (any day now hopefully, I've seen others start to get theirs over the last week!), starting to plan what I need to take, and waiting for the Store/Funko Pop reservations drop and hopefully getting some luck with those (I'm not a Funko guy but my sister's boyfriend is, so hopefully I can nab him one of the exclusives?). Going to be a manic couple of weeks – excited but very nervous!

I think it must've been Bloodlines rather than the Aftermath Trilogy then, but the galactic capital actually rotates between member worlds (we don't know exactly how long for, but I feel like it's fair to assume that there have been a few rotations by the time TFA comes around). At this point I think Chandrila is the galactic capital (which I'm sure we'll see at some point?), but I feel Coruscant still holds a lot of weight just in terms of the number of politicians who would surely still there, things like the Tribunal, the number of Imperials and facilities located there, etc. But I do totally agree, and I'm sure we'll get more on Hosnian Prime at some point...I'm just not sure when that will be. Maybe when we start to hit post-sequels stuff we could see flashbacks/prologues taking place on Hosnian Prime? The whole Disarmament Act probably didn't help them in the slightest. Silly politicians But yeah, agree, though I think what the shows have more space to do than the films ever will is just show the grey areas, and that no one side is ever going to be right or perfect. Better than the Nazi-like Empire? Yeah, probably. But there are monsters and malicious motives on every side of a conflict, and it's always nice to see that explored more! The only reason I hesitate to think that it's Thrawn is that I feel they might have hinted a bit more definitively that it was him through the use of Defenders over Interceptors, so I'd probably lean towards it being another part of the Imperial Remnant...for now. Also just because Thrawn doesn't really have a reason to go after Bo in such a personal manner as destroying her home (also would seem a bit out of character for him), whereas I feel the Remnant kind of owe her some payback after everything that happened with Gideon. Do find it funny that it took them this long considering Mando found her so easily, so she's probably somewhere in the Galactic Pages Would love to be wrong and have it be Thrawn though, and even if this wasn't him, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him by the end of the season. More than any other show in recent memory Mando reeeeeeeeally stresses a plot point and then gets right to it within the space of an episode or two, leaving us twiddling our thumbs over what the rest of the season might be about, so I don't think it's a crazy idea to have things escalate to the point of his return by the end of this season at all! And also yeah the dogfight was spectacular, feel like they've kind of been killing is this season with the amount and quality of them we're getting. Keep it coming! Oh yeah, exactly. It's a trade-off that they think is worth it, and I think at least one of the shows has to carry the mantle as spearheading the tech, and I do think it has to be Mando, because they continue to want to push the tech into the mainstream. For me I think it's a trade-off that's fine because it keeps the shows coming at a steady clip, and I'll take that over perfection. Similar to what I'd like to see with Rogue One and Tarkin, though, I do kind of wish they'd be open to cleaning things up after the fact – I only learned recently that it's something that happens with some major anime Blu-ray releases where they clearly had to rush to meet a deadline, but it just helps the content hold up that much better. Especially seeing as Disney seem to have given up on physical releases for TV shows for some dastardly reason (still no complete box set for Rebels, really?) I'd love if they would just continue to brush things up. Talking about The Volume, what I do find a bit funny is that The Batman probably has the best use of the tech because I had absolutely no idea it was used until well after seeing that film! And yeah, I also think Mando uses it really well, a lot of the time by having smaller spaces but then just filling them to the brim with things to look around at that makes it feel like less of a set. Kenobi I think felt so empty by contrast because, well, the environments in The Volume often were so empty – be it a cave, a small forested area, or an Imperial office or ISD bridge. It made sense that these places were empty, but it also just allows your eye to drift too much from details to the vague edges of the screen because there's not all that much going on.

@Ronnie regarding that planet... Agree with a lot of what you say though – not a flawless episode in that it's a little clunky at times and the CGI isn't always there. Unfortunately I think that's just down to the tight schedules they work to these days normally meaning these projects have less time in post-, something I was starting to make peace with...until Andor showed that some projects do get the time and budget to go above and beyond the bar that Mando has set in that regard. A bit ironic I think that driving The Volume forwards has almost, at times, felt a bit limiting in achieving their creative vision.

Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Burger time Deluxe have been added to the Game Boy catalogue:

Side Pocket and Devious have been added to the Super SNES and NES catalogues, respectively!

Earlier this evening I watched Mando S3 E3... Fantastic episode, again. Really made the decision to premiere with only one episode a little confounding with how much stronger I feel the second and third episodes have been. And so the wait begins for next week's episode!

I'm 100% with @Josh64 on this one, I also find the box office fascinating and I think it's a huge shame that something similar isn't reported in large part for games (even Nintendo "only" provide units sold), as it completely skews the perspective of what's considered a success and what isn't for a game by the audience, which is naturally going to be different for each and every game. I mean, increased revenue streams don't necessarily mean more profit if the costs involved in producing (and these days also maintaining) the game have also increased alongside that. I'm sure many developers would just as well argue the opposite (that MTXs and DLC are a necessity in making their game a success), especially considering that a good chunk of the successful F2P games that live and die on the MTX hill are coming from huge publishers to begin with, and who have shareholders to report to. Right, but we've also seen many, many more games flop with a F2P model than we've seen succeed, and of the minority of F2P games that have seen success, there are very few that I would say are doing so without some sort of pre-existing built-in install base (most successful F2P games I feel have thrived off the back of the name of the AAA developer or franchise it is spun off from). Heck, even Fortnite needed a favour from PUBG in that it was paid-for early access when it launched with Save the World and, because of the type of game it was initially set up to be and because of who it was developed by, transitioned stupidly fast after seeing the success of PUBG into also having a Battle Royale mode which went F2P and came with a slew of MTXs. As for the topic at hand, yeah I think it's just Nintendo potentially getting ready to diversify their prices ahead of the launch of the Switch's successor. Now whether or not this means we see games come in at the other end, like shorter titles selling for $30, remains to be seen, but I think Tears of the Kingdom is the obvious game to start to set the bar with when it comes to a price hike up to $70, because I think that's unlikely to dissuade too many from picking it up based on the commercial and critical success of Breath of the Wild. Won't be shocked at all if Prime 4 ends up in a similar situation, or the next Mario, but I don't expect it to be the norm... ...yet.

Just finished Andor, and yep, it just got better and better. Also, I'm sure it's totally a coincidence - there are only so many musical notes and so many ways to rearrange and resolve them - but I knew the main melody of the Andor theme sounded familiar (to the point that I hummed along and knew where it was going after hearing it the first time): it's a dead ringer for the Final Fantasy IV Main Theme! (maybe not the best example, there's a moment on Aldhani with a tracking shot of a speeder bike where it sounds much closer but I haven't been able to pinpoint it in the OST just yet) Anyways, yeah, in case it wasn't obvious enough after salvaging what he could of Rogue One, Tony Gilroy and their team are absolutely the real deal when it comes to Star Wars. Damn near perfect first season of Andor as far as I'm concerned. Second season will have a lot to live up to, and I hope doesn't thread the needle through to the story of Rogue One too closely (to avoid the potential of cameos and Easter eggs galore). Right, what to watch next in preparation for Celebration...probably Visions and Tales of the Jedi?

Just finished Episode 6 of Andor, so here are some scattered thoughts from the first half of S1: Look, I love a lot of what we've got with Mando, but if Andor continues on this trajectory, it's hard to imagine it not being my favourite live-action Star Wars show to date. I have no idea where it's going to go, but I just binged five episodes back-to-back, which I sometimes struggle to do even with shows I love (perhaps especially so). It feels like it's deep diving in on certain aspects of Star Wars we simply haven't seen enough of so far, and pulling it off with aplomb. Can't wait to see how it all plays out!

I rewatched it last summer and flew through it in a week and a half – safe to say it's just as good the fourth time around as it is the first! One of only five complete shows (so not individual parts/seasons) I've scored a 10 according to my MAL account (for anyone curious, the other four are Steins;Gate, Hunter x Hunter, Cowboy Bebop and Monster), and yeah, even amongst those it stands out. It's one hell of a ride, enjoy it drah– Oh haha, yep you might be in trouble

Slew of updates for EZA's Patreon: Am I the only one who gets nervous every time we get an update from them these days?

Amiibo also available at GAME for £14.99, looks like it's out of stock elsewhere:

Friendly reminder that the Direct and final trailer are going live tonight: You know, in case you understandably completely forgot about it happening in the two weeks since it was initially announced

@Ronnie regarding your questions, based on my own knowledge and a bit of digging around... But yeah, those are my 2 AM ramblings, we'll see if they still make sense when I wake up and read it all back in the morning, but hopefully some of my points have come across and I've maybe taken a very roundabout way of trying to answer those questions