Julius

The MS-DOS Welltris is coming to the collection. And according to Chris Kohler, more could be on the way: Well, I guess it's time to start the wait for the definitive and complete collection in Tetris Forever And Ever, amirite?

Off the back of the brilliantly weird "This is an Xbox" campaign, Microsoft is apparently looking into the possibility of third parties building Xbox-branded devices, and potentially utilising the Xbox OS. Per Windows Central: He, she, we, they, I, you, it: Xbox.

@Hero-of-Time where are you at with this? I'm a bit curious just knowing your love of Naughty Dog but them also finally taking a bit of a break from TLOU as well?

Just in case there were any questions about it being the case, a physical release has been confirmed for North America and Europe! Only the Collector's Edition will be handled by LRG. Hell yeah

English dub trailer: Exploration and sailing gameplay:

Sounds like it's a great game for anyone not wearing goalie gloves

It's, uh...it's something, I'll tell ya Solid trailer, surprised by the decision to show off so many other characters and not just focus on Supes being back and potentially teasing Lex, they just put it all out there. Probably the right move seeing as this is the tentpole start to the new universe? But it felt a little incoherent and like there wasn't a clear throughline. Lacked any sort of climax for me as a trailer, also runs long for a "teaser trailer", but I am a good enough mix of curious and excited to see something new from DC. I'd score the trailer itself like a 7/7.5. Had to do the same. Interesting decision to go with such an accurate haircut for Guy and yet go blonde over red (which I imagine is how most people have seen Guy), it's not a big deal at all, but I'm curious what the idea behind that was.

My first reaction is that I hate his hair as Clark lol Why is Guy blonde Luthercorp over LexCorp, huh

Rumours have been gathering for a long time about Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion getting remakes, and another "insider" ex1stasis has thrown their hat in the ring to say that Oblivion's is coming next year; sounding like a reveal next month before a potential release in the summer. I think NateDrake was the first to mention this a while back, but who knows at this point? These "insiders" go by strange names and have even stranger ideas when it comes to morals, so eh It's long been rumoured that it would be on UE5 and handled by Virtuous, who are also doing the Snake Eater remake, and that's apparently still the case. I'm very curious about this. Firstly, because, well, Xbox don't really have their IPs remade or remastered all that often, but with all of their pick-ups over the years and the enormous popularity of Elder Scrolls, not to mention VI being at least another 5 years away, this seems a smart time to do it. All of these big IPs going to Virtuous to be remade makes me a bit more excited than they might actually be capable of remaking games well ahead of Snake Eater getting a release date, too. Having not played a Bethesda game before, and having thought about potentially tackling one next year, I think I'll wait to see how this turns out before taking the plunge. Biggest question for me is if this also comes to PlayStation on Day 1, or how they want to handle that. We know The Outer Worlds 2 is, Indy was only given a gap of a few months (which was likely only the case because of Xbox's potentially late call to bring it over to PS5), and there's still a bit of a confusing narrative to these Xbox Game Studios games if you strictly go by the words of Phil and other higher-ups.

Sony and Kadokawa have built a strategic capital and business alliance, with Sony buying further shares to take them up to 10% in total, which makes them Kadokawa's largest shareholders. From Sony themselves: Good stuff. I love From Software's games, but this was never just about that, and the fewer acquisitions the better. Still, though, I'm curious to see what this means for the pair in practice!

So, in loading up today, I had to figure out what I was going to do about the controls. As I mentioned last time and as @Hero-of-Time suggested, my plan was to change over to modern controls, but upon loading up my game I thought I'd try one more thing: using the D-pad instead of the analogue stick. And just like that, everything changed. Seriously, it's night and day between using the D-pad and analogue stick for tank controls, and the only reason I thought to do it was thinking about how I'd probably have such a rough time playing the older RE games on PS1, probably depending on the D-pad to some degree (not knowing how or if the analogue stick ended up utilised in a similar way as it is here), and so I figured I'd test it out. The right analogue stick is getting use for any quick 180° spins I need to do, but other than, it's been all D-pad. Despite only putting in another hour or two today, I feel like I've made fairly considerably progress, at least as far as my time with the game goes. I reflected a bit on my time with and approach to the game after my post last night, and with the combat not clicking in the slightest, I thought back to my time with TLOU, especially that first time: this is a zombie game too, maybe I just keep my shotgun out at all times and make sure I'm always aiming for the head. So, going back to the Crimson Head who killed me at the end of my last session, I waited for him to come up close, aimed, pointed up, and fired as he lunged...and there went his head, while mine was busy getting filled with a bit more confidence. I also flagged that aiming actually auto-aimed here, too, for some reason I hadn't spotted that before (probably too focused on the zombies coming at me), and so when turning corners or checking out a room, I just spam the aim button a few times to see if I'm locking onto anything, as well as of course listening for the audio cues. There was even one instance where I was checking out a zombie who was downed and looked like a Crimson Head that suddenly got up, and I reflexively yanked out my shotgun and blasted his head away, which felt so damn good. I've been working on dodging zombies where I can, too, which is going pretty well. Bit of a whirlwind from there. After playing a bit of Moonlight Sonata and going back to grab the emblem I picked up as my first item in the game in the first session to throw it in a new hole, and swapping it with the other, next up on the agenda was burning the zombies I remembered downing in relatively easy-to-access places. Following this I checked every single door I possibly could with they keys at my disposal, found a Grenade Launcher, used every item in my chest that I figured would do something (thank you Head of Tony the Tiger for the shotgun shells), and ended up with a shortcut via the garden via an awesome puzzle to entirely avoid the L-shaped hallway in the east wing where dogs and zombies had run rampant, but of course I couldn't access this until after I'd made a daring run through to check all the doors over there, too. After exhausting all my options, I faced off against a giant snake, who poisoned me, but not before I spotted what would be my fourth and final mask to collect for the coffin under the garden, so I grabbed that and accidentally ran away in a very happy accident where I just ended up rubbing up against walls trying to not end up in its coil and found myself at the door, so figured why not rest if I could leg it? And I could, and so I did. Taking care of the coffin (quick aside: the tilted "shot" as you walk down the stairs is by far my favourite of the game so far) after gently lowering it down and welcoming it's inhabitant back to the land of the living, I've since brutally murdered 3 dogs (maybe this game was an inspiration for The Last of Us Part II) in quick succession the area behind the mansion, and know exactly where I'm heading next: what looks like some woods further behind the house. I started to follow the path, noticed some sort of puzzle with the spinning cockerels in the wind and realised I hadn't saved in a good while, so not knowing when or where the next Safe Room would be turning up, decided to drag myself all the way back to my favourite one on the ground floor on the east wing (my own designated Firelink Shrine of sorts), stock up on supplies, and save up so that I can hit the ground running in my next session. Puzzles have continued to be excellent, the level design of the mansion itself is just kind of genius? It's like the intentional interconnectedness and mix of "huh, where do I want to go and what do I want to do next?" of Dark Souls in a single house, it's great. And, even though I'm sure I'll click much faster with later games in the series and the newer remakes given that they're not controlled and framed quite like this, there's an obvious appeal to the tension of not knowing what's around the corner while the camera stubbornly sticks in place, and I feel like I'm starting to finally get it. There's also some serious artistry to this fixed camera business which I haven't seen in the few other games I've played with fixed camera angles, probably because the most memorable were older JRPGs, but I mentioned before about the tilted angle going down to the coffin, or the time that a flash of lightning burst through the window to make me think something was under a chair to make me move to the left and reveal a new angle and some new objects to interact with, and I forgot to mention yesterday about the weird room with a bed and the camera at a certain angle in that room slowly rising up at floor level, as if to suggest that you aren't alone, only reinforced by some of the object descriptions in the room. Away from the impressiveness of the oppressive and claustrophobic camera angles, there's some serious character to them. Also, the music is just kind of excellent. It really seems to pick it's moments to turn up, but when it does, it just adds a great layer of tension or relief, in the case of the Safe Room, and I also really liked the theme which played after Barry carried me all the way back to the medical storage room – both have serious Firelink Shrine vibes. It's been a long time since I've done a 180° on a game like this, I don't think it's happened since my first few sessions with Demon's Souls at the backend of 2020 when playing through my first From Software game. Resident Evil was one of my pledge games for the year and while everything I've played from that list so far has been great, the feeling of this absolute 180° in a single gaming session being something I haven't felt in a game in around 4 years justifies having made the pledge: I wanted new, I wanted old, I wanted challenge, I wanted the expected, the unexpected, and to continue to expand my gaming tastes and experiences. This feels like the epitome of what I was looking for right now. Let's see if that feeling sticks around; I certainly hope it does. Can't wait to get back to this tomorrow after work!

Think this year made it very clear that the Switch is far from my main console: Oof...53 of my 57 hours played on Switch this year were split between my Top 3, with two of those being Pledge games, and the other being Tears of the Kingdom which I only played on the first 2 days of the year to help round off my 2023 games. All great games though, so, there's that. Been a weird stretch for me on Switch for a while now, I think there's just a lack of excitement this far into the console's life to drive me to play games on it; even though there are undoubtedly Switch games I still want to experience that I haven't yet, none really have that pulling power for me right now. Is it the potential idea of a Switch 2 performance bump I wonder? No clue very curious to see what this list will look like next year, assuming the Switch 2 has landed in time for next year's Year in Review.

It's up! Zelda if the above doesn't work for anyone. So, how'd your year on the Switch look?

New Cerny ASMR has dropped: Seems like the Pro version of what we got for the PS5 ahead of time -- look forward to checking it out later! There also an interview with Digital Foundry: Weird that these are coming out well after the Pro's launch.

Teaser for the teaser trailer for Superman: Needs more teasing Music starts off veeeeeery Man of Steel before going into them humming the tailend of Williams' Superman Theme after 'TOMORROW'

Okay, but why is the axe looking at the cactus that way? They're clearly very uncomfortable! Enjoy

I mean, I guess it could belong in here, seeing as it would be retro by now – a Wii build of Free Radical's Star Wars Battlefront III, recovered by the aptly named Free Radical Archive: This one never seeing the light of day is always going to hurt for me, had no idea that a Wii build was planned, and man, those surface-to-air (and beyond) shots always get me excited, as do the cutscenes for the campaign. After EA's Star Wars exclusivity deal dying and 2018's Battlefront II much improved since launch but no sequel in sight – will we ever see a Battlefront III?

This game has seen many, many trailers over the years, but finally, it has been given a release year: 2025. I can't believe I lived to see this thing get some sort of release window. Feels like we've been seeing this game for a decade (and we nearly have been!).

Konami have released the redone opening movies for Suikoden and Suikoden II: Got to say...I prefer the original openings there's a weird mix here of some of the art for the original games and the new art, not to mention the weird and empty, higher fidelity locales. The originals, for comparison: But hey, at least the music is still S-tier, and, don't let this dissuade you. These are two of my favourites in the genre, so you'll be damn sure I'll be picking up a copy to support this re-release, and I'm looking forward to seeing how others here get on with them. No idea if I'll actually play these versions anytime soon, though. 2025 is looking stacked as it is and I think I'm more ready to continue my Suikoden journey than I am revisit these two excellent games right now, but I guess I'll see how I feel closer to the time!

Bit of a frustrating second session, once again finishing on a death (this time, thankfully, I had saved in the room next to where I died). I died to a Crimson Head - or I'm guessing that's what it was. I came across a red-hued zombie who had decided he wanted to live again after dying a second time (poor guy) earlier on my session and killed him, I have trophies turned off again so just saw the trophy description after finishing up and the image more or less matches my description of the first guy I killed and the second guy who killed me. Zombies can get up again after being killed and they're faster and stronger, that's good to know. Wish I burned his corpse, which is what I'm guessing that file I read was talking about (how to avoid having these second generation creeps turn up). Had to start the session doing everything I did towards the end of my last session in order to go back, blow the dog whistle, and kill the dogs. I used a shotgun because screw those things. No, seriously, screw those things -- even with a shotgun I nearly ended up downed by the two geezers a second time. I've got a mask and put it in place (I don't know if I'm actually meant to do this because *something* is chained up there and I'm not 100% sure I want to find out what it is), I've done the key swap and so have the Armor Key, just collected the second part of Moonlight Sonata which is why I died heading over to the...bar, I guess it is? So, by far and away my favourite thing so far about the game is the puzzles. They feel so natural and relatively light as far as puzzles, but because you might not have an item to hand, figuring out what you need to get from the chest or how many slots you want to have open to move things around makes you feel like you have a level of ownership over the puzzle you're solving. Favourites are the knight and bee puzzles so far, though I've been waiting forever to do that clock puzzle (spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if I did something wrong the first time I walked into the dining room!). My second favourite thing is the atmosphere. Knowing that Crimson Heads are a thing now adds some more tension, the lightning, the dark hallways, now I'm scared of L-shaped hallways with windows because of dogs and zombies crashing through windows. But my main frustration is with the combat and the tank controls in combat specifically -- because they don't come naturally to me (as, well, this game first came out when I was just 3 years old some 20+ years ago and I can't remember if I've ever played a game with tank controls like this, but I don't think I have) when I'm getting attacked or chased I feel like I'm fumbling around the DualSense and hoping for the best at times, which means my stun gun has seen ample use, as have the daggers I had been collecting, but have run out of. This aspect of the game specifically I'm just not finding much, if any, enjoyment in. I also feel like there's supposed to be a way for me to dodge when they attack (my general tactic has been shoot a thing until dead or, after learning about Crimson Heads, shoot a thing, run around it, or try to draw it into a corner and then go around) but honestly I have no idea if that's just me not gelling with the combat is there and wishing for a way to dodge. I also just feel like I suck at the game because of this, even if I feel like it's going relatively okay some 3-4 hours in, I feel like I'm taking it slow (in part because Jill is slow, in part because of tank controls, in part because I'm looking around and searching everywhere for items) but I *think* this may have just got a friend who was warning me about a snake killed (whoops). I'm guessing there's a time limit or something? I was wondering why the game was so explicitly telling me where something was for a change! And I feel like I'm saving too much, and wasting ammo, and... You get the picture. Anyways...yeah, that's where I'm up to. Loving the vibe and the puzzles, wanting to tear my eyes out and give up when I'm in combat most of the time. I can't remember any game in recent where my enjoyment of it is constantly meandering depending on the type of gameplay, specifically, that the game is going for in a certain moment. I'm going to dig my heels in and push on for now, but if it continues to not click (I don't think I've come across anything like a boss yet), well, I'm not going to force it -- in hindsight, given my knowledge of the tank controls going in but wanting to give the game its best shot at impressing me, maybe I was wrong to go with the middle starting difficulty and should've gone with the lowest purely to account for my lack of experience with tank controls? I don't know, I guess I might need to consider giving modern controls a go to see if I gel with it any better, but if my main concern about starting to experience the earlier PS1 Resident Evil games was that they might not give the fairest first impression and left me not wanting to come back, after today's session with the game, it's hard to not feel like that I was justified, and perhaps should've even started with a more recent remake instead, like RE2, just to touch base with the series in a modern sense before figuring out how I wanted to tackle some of the games. Guess we'll just need to wait and see what happens next time on Julius Plays Resident Evil

Interesting, I take it this means that the episode being a backdoor pilot for that upcoming Pacvania game really boosted some pre-order numbers. Seriously, I'm wondering what they get for a S2? I feel something like Silksong could be a really cool get.

Maybe it's in part down to how I approached the game (crit path and the odd side thing here and there) but I absolutely loved Sabacc, and would love to see it expanded into its own game. Hell, it'd probably make a solid mobile game. A more than welcome distraction than the disasterclass that was the rest of the game, for me, so maybe that's why I latched onto it so much? It's always funny when games get one over on the player which is in no way by design but purely because it's communicated something poorly or ineffectively, and once you start using the thing you were supposed to be using all along? Piece of cake, of course

@Hero-of-Time so I CTRL+F'd 'Nix' and 'Sabacc' and you give me nothing?! Glad you got to it though, and fully agree with your thoughts, though I'd definitely go with the option of backing those words with near-murderous intent and venom

Opening movie has dropped: