Julius

So, I thought about making a dedicated thread for the Avatarverse (not my name of choice for it, but whatever, it's stuck with the press apparently!) last summer after rewatching The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, but I didn't think there was enough to drive an ongoing discussion in a dedicated thread, besides more people potentially getting into the show through Netflix, which it owes a lot of its resurgence to. However, after Bryan and Mike left the Netflix TLA project, I had a suspicion that it wouldn't end there. So, while Netflix is off reportedly casting a 12 year-old Aang and a 16 year-old Katara - who will be a big sister to Sokka, completely killing his character arc, and probably trying to force Zatara on us all - Nickelodeon has finally decided to acknowledge the golden egg they've been sitting on for years. From Deadline: And confirmation from Paramount what to expect: new series, short-term content, spin-offs, and theatrical films. Oh, and the Avatar Studios logo, which looks great! Well, I think it's safe to say that that might be able to drive and sustain some discussion beyond returning to The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and expanded lore. I genuinely never thought this would happen, just considering how they completely kicked Legend of Korra to the curb. You know, when they ordered one season, then ordered way more, then brushed it under the rug and moved brand new episodes over to the Nickelodeon website? And now they're back! What do you hope to see come of this? What's your experience with the series to this point? And do you think the cabbage merchant will make his return? Personally, I'd love to see adaptations of the graphic novels, as they seem like a natural and relatively straightforward place to start.

The GDC talk for the game, 2D and Tomorrow: How the Developers of 'Super Mario Bros. Wonder' Find New Joy in Creating Classic Side-Scrolling Adventures, is now available to watch via the GDC Vault

Goodbye generic art style of New Super Mario Bros., and hello Wonder! Looks gorgeous and like it has a fair few fresh ideas!

The GDC talk for the game, Tunes of the Kingdom: Evolving Physics and Sounds for 'The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom', is now available to watch from the GDC Vault

Wrecking Crew '98, Amazing Hebereke, and SUPER R-TYPE are landing on the service...today!

Headed over to the Birmingham Gaming Market last Saturday and had a pretty good time (albeit a bit of a sardine-like experience). Going in, I'd done my research on retro games I wanted to get around to picking up a while ago, but I had a few priority items on my mind for this event: Silent Hill 2 - one of the horror games I want to get around to this year, in its original form rather than the remake. Armored Core games - I adored VI, so I'll be picking up most if not all of these as time goes on, I'm sure! Suikoden V - the only mainline Suikoden I don't own in some form or another. I also said I wouldn't be picking up any JP copies of games. My main tactic with our early access tickets was to take a quick nose around at high list items on racks/shelves closer to the vendor the first go around and then I'd dig into things truly on subsequent loops. So first game picked up was Armored Core: Silent Line, which I picked up on my first go around the place and spotted out of the corner of my eyes from several stalls away chuffed to pick up an Armored Core game, and this one went for £40, which is roughly how much it goes for elsewhere, too. The same vendor also had a PAL copy of Nine Breaker, too, but I didn't pick this up for two reasons: firstly, from my research it seems pretty universally loathed and rated as the weakest entry in the series, and secondly - and perhaps most importantly - it was going for £140. I was tempted (mainly because I know it'll probably go up in price by the time I get to it in the future), but kept my wits about me; I thought it was gone by our third go around which would've made it easier on me, but it had just moved shelf, and I'm glad I didn't pick it up then either. On my second loop I picked up Spider-Man 3 (specifically on PS3) and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, two items high on my PS3 wishlist, from the same vendor. While I've seen them around, I was watching out for copies iin nicer condition - and these would do! They were £18 and £5, respectively. And then...there just weren't any of my other priority items around. I did spot copies of Armored Core V and Verdict Day from a mile off, too, but unfortunately these were JP copies and so I wouldn't be able to play them (they were also £55 and £65, respectively, so not cheap for shelf-fillers). Wanting to make more out of the day and use some more of my budget, I lifted my rule on not picking up any JP titles, and headed back to the same stall (Sore Thumb from up in York) I got Silent Line from with one particular game in mind that I'd spotted on my first pass through... Chrono Trigger. Yes, I own it on DS physically and on Steam digitally, but I'd spotted a Japanese SNES copy a while back in great condition which had been put aside for someone at my local retro games store, and well, a JP PS1 copy of the game would take up less space and still looks quite nice, so why not? That set me back £25. I then also picked up Hunter x Hunter: Ubawareta Aura Stone (The Stolen Aura Stone) for just £10, a game I'd heard a little about and picked up because, well, Hunter x Hunter Which brings me onto my favourite pick-ups of the day, two games I'd actually been thinking of importing before I treated myself to their English ROMs... Suikogaiden Volume 1: Swordsman of Harmonia AND Suikogaiden Volume 2: Duel at Crystal Valley. These are spin-off titles to the Suikoden series which are actually text and picture-based adventures more along the lines of a visual novel, the first being set during the events of Suikoden II and the second being set following the events of Suikoden II, incorporating save transfers for character cameos or your player character name from II, and the games also introduce you to Nash, who I know turns up in III; notably, these never made it out of Japan. These are part of the 'Konami: The Best' line (even came with the spine sleeves, which I've popped into their respective cases), and though I was thinking of importing standard copies, getting to pick these up at a gaming market when I recognised their font while flicking through boxes felt special, and so I was happy to make an exception here. Definitely my favourite pick-ups of the day, big fan of the box art. These were £15 each. Overall, I was a bit let down in terms of finding priority items from my retro games list here - I thought Suikoden V was a bit of a long shot, but I watched footage of last year's event and there were 5+ copies of Silent Hill 2 floating around back at that event, and a good few more Armored Core titles, too. I "only" ended up spending £128 of the £300 budget I'd set myself for the event in the end, and half of that was from JP copies of games I didn't go in expecting to buy, but picked up to salvage the day for me a bit in terms of pick-ups. Cool for a first gaming market experience, but I honestly thought my pick-ups at Comic Con a few months ago felt more special (maybe free of the pressure of not being a gaming market), and I do wish they'd have some sort of traffic system in place with arrows on the floor rather than having it be a bit of a free-for all. No doubt I'll be hunting down my priority items in the coming months online, and I'll be looking forward to whatever gaming market I end up at next!

All the broken clocks are right today! Coming Summer 2023.

While I agree, I do think it was the right move for their first show, purely to get it stuck in your head. "Triple-i" as a corner of the industry isn't really discussed all that casually I find, and it's not being run by one of the big dogs or Geoff, so I think they were right to try to basically push awareness of the show on us for future reference. I know I certainly won't be like "what was that show earlier this year again, 'Quadruple-B Irrigation'?" later this year when we're waiting for shows to pop up, it'll be "'Triple-i' was super solid, really hope they turn up with another show!" Now, that being said, if they mention it more than an average of once every 15 minutes in their next show, then I'm going to change my tune, and they certainly can't return next time saying it nearly as many times as they did this time around. I do also wish they'd just take an extra beat for some of the release dates, some flashed up on-screen and we'd moved on a bit too fast for my liking.

@drahkon !!! I'm sure it'll come to the Switch successor eventually, but for now, it's over here

Guess Ubisoft really want Prince of Persia to stick around all of a sudden, huh?

Thought that was a really solid show with some great reveals, though the pacing was a bit too breakneck to endure the full 45 minutes. I think you can cap out at 25 minutes top going at that speed, but it's the first showcase I remember watching where the problem was it being too fast rather than far too slow. Some really fun transitions between games, though, like "only a few more rogue-lites (promise)" or my personal favourite: Also that time a game being introduced as "from the Never Alone community, a whole new story" turning out to just straight up be Never Alone 2 Highlights of the show for me were Shadows of Doubt finally coming to consoles and WHAT THE CAR? just looks like good, dumb fun (also loved how obviously it was from the developers of WHAT THE GOLF? ) Hopefully they turn back up later this year, would love to see them turn up again this summer!

As announced at Triple-i, Tchia finally lands on Switch on 27th June!

These quick cuts leaving zero time between games is making taking notes am absolute nightmare but otherwise THIS is how you come out swinging with your debut showcase. They aren't lingering on anything a second longer than is needed. PlayStation and Xbox (and most others), take notes from this when putting your shows together!

Games joining the catalog in April (and Animal Well in May): The original PS1 versions of Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, and MediEvil are the Classics for this month.

Thought I'd posted this, but the Triple-i Initiative (that's Triple-i as in "AAA, but indie" by the way) digital showcase is taking place at 18:00 BST later today, with 30+ announcements in a 45 minute show: I'm just glad to see someone's using "triple-i"

Announced during today's State of Play, coming to all major platforms:

First full trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux Half expected for the trailer to break out into Wonka's Pure Imagination based on those early piano keys that last shot with the glass is wonderful, reminded me a bit of the Joker teaser poster for The Dark Knight. Not really sure where I stand on the first film to be honest, so might need to give it a re-watch before this releases. Joaquin felt the right call for the Oscar (probably a bit overdue tbh) as he gave a great performance, but the film in general I wasn't a huge fan of, especially with how much it aped off Scorsese; lovingly or not, it just didn't sit right with me. Also felt like it leaned into and gave a few toxic corners of the internet a bit too much to fester on. Very curious to see which direction the musical aspect of this film takes, if it's just one song or a good few, because I mean, you don't hire Lady Gaga as Harley to not have her sing a couple of times, right?

It's trailer time: August 30th confirmed 3 days of early access via the premium editions is kind of gross, but I'm totally considering it Game Informer's next issue will also focus on the game:

Nice to know that water is still wet, because Ubisoft still leaks End of August just feels perfect for this, got a Star Wars-packed summer ahead! Might need to check myself but it feels like the most stuff we've had come out in a relatively tight window in a while. It's tough to imagine it getting delayed seeing as it already was internally, and because they've got an Assassin's Creed they won't want this thing too close to. That thumbnail has me hyped! Also seen that the rest of the translation mentions ship customisation (not expecting anything beyond colours like we got in Fallen Order, will happily be wrong though) and a season pass, curious to see what that's about. Between this and an Assassin's Creed set in Japan to tide me over until the Ghost of Tsushima sequel, it's looking to be the year I lift my self-imposed Ubisoft boycott

Ronaldo has seriously gone off the deep end over in Saudi, getting a red tonight: He's looking more and more like Daniel Plainview from the end of There Will Be Blood (if you've seen the film you'll know this isn't a compliment). Disgraceful. Dude refuses to go peacefully into the night and it feels like he's actively tarnishing his career these days.

Tetris Battle Royale?!

Yeah, that's normally what I do too, take a short break (couple of days, sometimes a week), swap up genres or game lengths and then I normally get back in the groove; been through that cycle a few times already the last few weeks. This particular rut has followed me since I shelved Rebirth, longest one I've had in a good while. I think getting through the Battlefront Collection last month was honestly purely down to muscle memory, I just don't seem to be clicking with a lot of new(-to-me) games at the moment. I know I'll get back to the ones I've shelved for now, and it's not like I was too far into any of them to the point I'd be against starting over, which I much prefer to jumping in mid-game months removed and completely at a loss Ah well, as far as problems go it's not a terrible to have, if I can even call it that in the meantime I've been in a film-watching mood so I've got through a chunk of new films over the last month. Not counting online sessions with friends, my session with BG3 last night was the longest I've had with a story-focused game since I replayed Part II, though, so that feels like a good omen Fingers crossed, eh?

My gaming rut knows no bounds because not that deep into Chapter 2 of Lost Judgment, it's been shelved (for now). Always a bit frustrating when I find myself scrambling around to try to find a game I'll gel with like this, just bouncing off every game I start up at the moment. So I'm starting a solo playthrough of BG3 from scratch this is my Lolth-Sworn (typically red-eyed, underground elf folk) Paladin of Vengeance (think Batman and the sense of fairly absolute definitions of judgement and justice) Drow: Tafr'aq. His name is based on the Arabic term tafrakh, or 'spawn', which relates to me choosing to do a Dark Urge origin playthrough this time around...and that's all I'll say about that. And here's his Guardian: Already knowing a fair chunk of the story from my time with it in the co-op campaign, I decided to go with DU this time to mix things up a bit and see what violent tendencies are thrown into the mix (for those unaware this run basically has an evil in your head which bypasses some rolls and decisions, and so you can either fight against or go along with the urges you get). I also know it's the run with the most tie-ins to the older BG entries (which I watched a summary on before diving into BG3 last year), and there was something really appealing to me about the idea of doling out this sense of justice as a Vengeance Paladin and smiting down evil, when that same evil I'm seeking out is also stuck up in my own head and making me commit atrocities out of my own control. I have a general idea of where I want to take this playthrough, fully expect my Oath to be broken, and have some aesthetic tweaks planned as the story goes on relating to Tafr'aq's eyes and hair; I'm basically viewing this run as an Anakin Skywalker-style fallen (or falling) hero, which suits the three act structure of the game perfectly. I think the main reason I want to get through this solo playthrough is to get a better idea of where I land on the game; as I said before, much as I enjoyed it with friends, the story itself didn't get a chance to shine and neither did the NPCs or our relationships with them, and that's why the ending ultimately felt a bit flat in that run. One of my friends has only played it through from start to end in our co-op playthrough and has declared it his favourite game of all-time, and while I respect his decision to come to that opinion, I'm a bit shocked he would say that based purely on our co-op sessions and not after completing a solo run, given that so many of our issues with it seem like they could be ironed out on a solo playthrough. And others which will shockingly stick around. I guess that's where our opinions split on the matter, but it's rare that I complete a game without seeing everything it has to offer or in perhaps the best way before declaring it one of my favourite, let alone of all-time! I probably won't go too in-depth on my playthrough here (maybe updates on an act-by-act basis and any interesting or funny business I came across), but it's already feeling very different controlling four characters as opposed to just the one, and it's interesting that I can break my Oath by, for example, freeing a prisoner, yet let someone else in my party do the same and my Oath sticks won't be going out of my way to save scum but will definitely be keeping a number of quick save files to hand in case my Oath breaks before I want it to. As a last aside, talking about save files: the saves in this game are fairly big, which makes the options of 'Delete Campaign' to save going through all of your auto- and quick saves very welcome, and 'Delete all but last save' (or something to that effect) being great for a quick clean-up job! With or without Larian, I will be shocked if BG3 doesn't end up on the Switch's successor. It's simply too much money to leave on the table for both Hasbro and Larian. On the side of Larian sticking around for a port, there being no DLC(s), expansion(s), or BG4 in the works means that they could just be working on a straight up port already (as opposed to waiting to release a definitive edition in 4 or 5 years if they were working on DLCs/expansions). If the game does come to the Switch's successor I also think Larian would want to support it because they know that it's their name on the game, and their support on PC and consoles - despite some hiccups - has been spot on, with hotfixes constantly in the works, major updates post-launch such as the epilogue being added, etc. On the other hand, it's Hasbro. I wouldn't be shocked if they lacked the foresight to tie Larian down to a Switch 2 port once the Stadia release plans got thrown out the window, and if Larian are planning to move on, given how they've treated staff that have worked on the game at WotC and in other areas of their licensing, they have very little to bargain with here I feel. The cheaper option will seem like the smarter option to them and so I think you'd still get a BG3 port, it'll just be a third-party, and more prone to bugs as a result. It really could go either way -- I think what we'll ultimately see is a middle ground where some third-party teams up with Larian for the main port effort and then they're overseen by Larian post-launch when implementing fixes, but seeing as there'll be nothing major being added, I think the overwhelming majority of the footwork should be put in before a potential launch so the game can flourish without the need to be patched, like how the physical PS5 and Xbox Series release includes waves of updates already on-disc. We'll of course need to wait and see, but I think BG3 on a Switch successor does 5+ million in unit sales easy, probably 10+ if the thing can get close to Switch console sales numbers.

At it again

Let's pretend this wasn't leaked to oblivion Looks like Xbox and Atlus are once again doing the weirdly ambiguous paid-for advertising where they pretend it's not on anything else. Got to imagine PlayStation is a lock too, but curious to see if this is coming to Switch? I haven't read much on whether or not the re-releases were successful on Switch (even if I'd bet they were), so Anyone want to shout up about money-hatting weirdness here? Please?