Julius

Deserved a bit more attention than it got in the Showcase, but alas, another MGS Collection is on its way, starting with Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as part of Volume 1, releasing in Autumn 2023. No word on Volume 2 or what will come with it, but it sounds like it's very much in the works to release during the series' 35th anniversary celebrations: Well, MGS lives and breathes, and OG Snake Eater isn't getting buried below the remake either. Wonder how Kojima is going to be treated in the credits for this collection? Switch video:

Makes complete sense to me, and I thought the TGAs trailer pretty heavily implied that would be the case, what between the title, showing one massive flat open area (a staple of all open worlds ), and especially with the different ways your mount would interact with the environment. It's the only way I really think you could go "bigger and better" than World from a more objective technical and marketing POV (but not necessarily from an actual quality POV, jury's out on that I guess), I don't think you could make those zones much bigger without it being a bit confused about what it wants to be. I do think it's the right move for Capcom after World purely because of how big that game got sales-wise, but if that wasn't the runaway surprise success that it was, then I would think this sort of move would be super risky. Still, though, sucks for those that aren't fans of open worlds in their games if it's not handled the right way (will always struggle to understand the "all open worlds are bad" tribe though). I do think that there's a way to do it right here in the same way that I think there is a way to make a great open world Pokémon game, but ultimately the quality level it reaches relies on Capcom, as there's some great potential hunts to evolve between biomes, new environmental hazards turning up and phases, like imagine chasing a critter into one biome vs another and them adapting to that biome in a way that is unique, would add tremendous replayability. I will say I think it's going to be easier for them to plug more MTXs and the like into an open world vs with zones, though. Curious about how an eventual DLC works if it's going to be open world, though, is it just going to be an alternative open world, a massive zone accessed through a menu, or haphazardly taped onto this one?

Well, the year of JRPGs just got more...JRPGier? Shown at the TGAs, this arrives in 2024: Surprised this isn't coming to Switch, but then, I guess it's a lock for a Switch 2 announcement.

Wild that this still only has 'Summer 2024' as a release window given that it's just a few months out, I wonder what's up with that? Per a Famitsu interview with Masaru Oyamada, this is being developed by NetEase's Sakurai Studio: So I guess S-E's plan to focus on more in-house development hasn't quite come into effect just yet

Let's freakin' mosey! This does look like the Promised Land Seems to be a similar deal to the first game in that it will be a PS5 exclusive at launch. No details beyond that, though I imagine it'll be a similar deal to what we've seen with Remake, coming to PC after some time has passed. We'll wait and see about elsewhere I guess? In addition, the Remake project has also now been confirmed by Kitase to be a trilogy.

It's official: Take-Two Interactive is set to acquire Gearbox Entertainment for $460 million (source). Embracer continues to embrace new levels of completely warranted comeuppance.

Won't be watching until I've come back to and completed the game, but Episode 1: Shaping the World of Inside Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has just been released on the PlayStation channel: Love stuff like this.

Well, it's about time! And a shadow-drop! Just announced in today's Direct, will update later with games and more details

Oh man that music exclusively available to NSO members

Well, out of the blue, but by no means unexpected, a first look at the game has come courtesy of fighter Mikuru Asakura. From Famitsu: The video from Mikuru Asakura touring the RGG offices:

In fairness though, like @Hero-of-Time said, there are so many other games that could come to the service instead or alongside these that I can't help but agree with you both. Makes me think that it's a case that Lucasfilm Games are pretty happy for all of these to make it over, and they offer up much less resistance/are more encouraging of having their classics thrown out there than a number of other companies. Ahem, Capcom.

Man, we're getting a lot of Star Wars ports, hard to complain! But idk maybe bring KOTOR over so it's not a Switch console exclusive and the original LEGO Star Wars games and I'll be an even happier bunny

Demo dropping on Friday, with progress carrying over to the full release: Can't help but feel this demo and this game are coming at a strange time, as it feels like we've finally hit our first quiet(er) period for releases for the year and everyone is either chipping away at Dragon's Dogma or Rise of Ronin, or going back to releases from a month or so ago during the super busy start to the year. It'll be really interesting to see how well it does.

Figured out the issue I was having, turns out the trophy progress relates directly to in-game stats and mine had bugged out so that I was reading as, for example, 32 Regulator medals vs the 46 Regulator medals I had showing on trophy progression; once I caught up in-game to the number showing at a system level, it was all good. Still loving my time with it, especially being forced to use other classes in chasing the Plat (99% of my time growing up playing the game was spent as Infantry units), hopefully I'll round it off this week so that I can dive into a fresh experience over the long weekend

It's definitely possible; weren't their rumours before the internal delay that it would be making it out sometime between March and May? It's Star Wars, so it will sell well whenever it's released, but with The Acolyte releasing from June into July, a mid-to-late summer release would dovetail off of that really nicely, I think. Have a big blowout on the game during Not-E3 time. I'm still unsure how I feel about this game, it's Star Wars so I'll play it and was impressed by what we saw but I feel like we just don't know enough. I'm also very curious about what our next look at the game looks like, and obviously when we get it. Could definitely see us getting something for it on or around May 4th to drag it back into the public consciousness, but I'm honestly expecting a bit of a dip in performance and appearance compared to when we last saw it. Because Ubisoft

100% agree. In a case where it's a game collection, it seems especially disrespectful to fans and the original developers too, and that's without even having the conversation about the price they landed on for the game Anecdotally, I've just decided to put a hold on my grind in Battlefront II for now, because I've been keeping an eye on the trophy tracking/progression and it's just not keeping pace with my in-game stats anymore, whereas it worked perfectly before. Not sure if it was the latest update or something else, but might just start cracking away at the first game's campaigns and couple of trophies. sigh

I've just checked that link and it's down to £29.99 now... Yeah, that's too good to not bite. Sorry, best laid plans of delaying game purchases, but I doubt we'll get a better deal than that for a while Thanks for the heads-up on the offer H-o-T!

Tickets for TPM's 25th anniversary screenings are now up most places got mine, looking forward to it!

There it is!

That's insane. From my limited understanding of both (based on podcasts and from what I've read on here, I've dabbled in World but not to the extent I'd feel confident commenting on it's MTX catalogue), was Rise a move in a worse direction after World, even? I ask because I remember World advertising free updates for new monsters, weapons, armour, etc. at times, with some paid-for cosmetics perhaps and of course Iceborne being a paid-for expansion, whereas with Sunbreak I remember seeing some more complaints about it as an expansion compared to Iceborne, as well as some saying the "events" were more a case of recycling things. Again, can't comment on that stuff and happy to be corrected, but that seemed to be the sentiment I've seen floated around. If so, yeah I think you're right, it does sound like it's going in the wrong direction and has been for a minute. Ah, thanks for this. So it sounds more akin to what the modern Assassin's Creed games have been doing with their microtransactions, I remember a bit of an uproar following Odyssey's release (I think it was the first to latch onto it? If they were in Origins it might've been post-launch because I don't remember it coming up in conversation for that game) about similar things. Definitely not a Battlefront II launch situation where the game became pay-to-win. Yeah, I think I stand by what I said before: single player (I mean I guess it impacts sharing your pawn maybe? But again, it's not a competitive or shared multiplayer game, so ), play how you want to play, it seems like a total waste of money to me but if you're rich and for whatever reason it's up your alley, whatever. I think the issue here is the lack of communication over it ahead of launch, and the same went for AC Odyssey, GT7, and of course BFII (compounded by every other problem with how MTXs were integrated into that game). Saying nothing about microtransactions in your game and then having people learn about them for the first time at launch, following a great slate of reviews, is stupidly bad PR and marketing management; we all know how the internet loves to pick on whatever the new hotness is, so why give them that in and make it seem like you're even sleazier by not fessing up to these MTXs existing? Why leave that opening for others to attack? Get ahead of it, you fools! It's not really a great addition to the game from where I'm standing, but if we learned about it 3 months ago in a public way - you know, like during the myriad of trailers, preview events or gameplay reveals? - I doubt you'd see anywhere near as much blowback as we've seen here. Stuff like this seriously makes me question what these marketing teams at publisher's actually do, because it's clearly not keep a finger on the pulse of marketing in the gaming space, that's for sure.

The game was rated yesterday in South Korea, getting a 19+ (or Mature) rating. Interesting. September/October time I guess?

Man, this is such a weird one to watch play out. I think it really emphasises the pressure on early game reception and review scores for a lot of devs now, and how publishers are happy to pull things like this on the sly on launch day (WHAT?!) to manipulate these things. Would be curious to hear Itsuno's and the team's thoughts on this, I mean imagine working on a game for YEARS - for a sequel/reinvention to what was ultimately more akin to a cult classic with a rabid fan base, so a clear passion project - then seeing those reviews flood in, the overwhelming elation carrying you away...and then the conversation doing a 180° soon after because your bosses are greedy bottom feeders. It is a single player game, and I'll always go to bat for playing how you want to play, I need to have a bit of a nose around to see if it's as in your face as something like the GT7 MTXs, but I just don't get the target demo with a move like this – rich people who want to charge through a £70 game just to say they've beaten it/got a particular cool thing? seriously, how big can that market be? Is it worth sinking your game's great press for? I can't imagine it is. The math ain't mathing. It just seems so misguided, and unless they cave under the backlash, I really can't imagine that this bodes well for Monster Hunter Wilds at all. It feels like Capcom is pulling a bit of a PlayStation, where both came back stronger than ever last gen but now seem to be pushing at the boundaries to see what they can get away with. SEGA/Atlus have also been doing the same as of late. Very frustrating to read about, but again, more than anything, I really just hope it isn't getting in the faces of people who just want to get on with playing the game.

The Rising Tide DLC floods Valisthea on 18th April: Guess I know when I'm picking up the DLC then

Here we go! Announced at the PS5 September Showcase, being developed by Creative Business Unit III!