Julius

Correction: standard edition includes the Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine expansions along with the additional DLC, but the new quests with new armour/weapons/horse armour and the digital artbook and OST are locked behind the Deluxe Edition.

There you have it: available today! Waiting to see that PS Store price...but yeah, I'm in for this

The stream has just barely started and the Steam page got the drop on them: releasing today, and £49.99! Deluxe Edition includes Shivering Isles, Knights of the Nine and additional DLC, as well as new quests for new armour, weapons and horse armour.

Starting very, very shortly... Excited for this

It's late into the game's life so I'm not complaining, but 130+ GB to install the base game (plus potential for DLC add-ons!) makes this one chunky boy! Pre-install for the Premium Edition starts tomorrow

The soundtrack for Fire Emblem Engage has been added to the service (seemingly to mark the franchise's 35th anniversary, which was a few days ago)

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has been added to the service! Given that it got a game on NSO and a soundtrack upload on the Nintendo Music app, I had to check – and the 20th, a few days ago, marked Fire Emblem's 35th anniversary, so that'll explain it!

Well, after months if not years of leaks - and whatever was going on last week - the game seems to be getting announced tomorrow at 11:00 EST (that's 16:00 BST for us Brits). Reminder that this has been heavily rumoured to be getting shadow-dropped. Excited for this, going to be my first Elder Scrolls/Bethesda game when I get to this! Had been thinking about it for my Pledge this year but it wasn't easily accessible – this will do the job just fine

Digital Foundry have released a special based on hands-on impressions from the Switch 2 Experience: Excited to dig into this later! Absolutely. I'm not much of a PC guy (closest I really get is the Steam Deck), so I use it much less than the PS Store and Nintendo eShop, but the Steam store runs circles around the current console storefronts, despite there not really being anything to it that couldn't be done on these storefronts. I much prefer gifting my younger brother a game on Steam for his birthday (if there's nothing else he wants) than giving a gift card/sending funds to do so on Switch. Just seems like they've all phoned it in with the bare minimum on that front for a while now – but with how they've talked about wanting to make changes to it, the Switch 2 eShop is easily one of my most anticipated features of the Switch 2.

Just picking up some indies in the current sale on the Switch and... GOOD LORD THE SWITCH 2 ESHOP BETTER HAVE A CART Always forget this is a thing, resorted to picking them up via the eShop site rather than on the Switch because it runs so much smoother. Really hope this is one of the [many] things they [should] have considered in updating the eShop for Switch 2.

Nearly 45 hours in, and Episode 31 complete, meaning that credits have finally rolled and– I've been Peace Walker'd Quite enjoyed the boss fight in Episode 31, though the cliffhanger from Episode 30 and the actual content of the boss fight itself in Chapter 31 felt overwhelmingly like Peace Walker. Had to get D-Dog out of there though, poor guy kept getting trampled on! Looks like a few missions have unlocked post-credits already to pick up from the Chapter 2 tease, very curious to see how they play out, and obviously hoping that this isn't a Peace Walker situation where I'm about to be forced down the most pointless rabbit hole to grind out platforms to keep putting a guy back in prison to unlock the true ending. Fingers crossed, anyways So, I think I mentioned before about not really clicking with how the Side-Ops are paced because of needing to call in the chopper after completing one, go to the ACC, sortie for the next Mission, etc., rather than chaining a bunch together in a single drop like the game seems to want you to do. While I still stand by the criticism that you should be able to fly directly from one Side-Op to another (like how you can fly from one platform to another at Mother Base), I actually ironed this issue out a while ago to some degree – but this is specifically in Angola-Zaire. You see, dropping into Angola-Zaire, the map is essentially a giant plain, and so you can reasonably drop in with your buddy of choice and a vehicle, and just beeline from one Side-Op to the next, ignoring roads and making use of some off-road treks instead. This means I can typically complete every single Side-Op available in a single drop, as even Side-Ops positioned some 2+km from my current position can generally be beelined to in vehicle (and worst case, you'll cover the last few hundred metres on foot if there's a canyon involved in your journey to the next Side-Op). Compare this to the first map in the game, Afghanistan, which I think excellently serves its purpose at the start of the game to narrow your focus on a single command post, for example, and its designated entrances/exits. It's very rare that there are more than two points of entry, by road, to a command post in Afghanistan (the ones which have more than one, or are more complex in their infrastructure, are typically tied first to a main mission), and so with most of these command posts and roads nestled amongst canyons, it feels like a great way to tutorialise the open world, because it is limited the factors at play and directions from which the enemy can arrive – combined with dumber enemy AI than in Angola-Zaire, I think it's a terrific way to onboard the player. However, what becomes apparent as the game goes on, and especially once you've experienced the wide open plains of Angola-Zaire and enjoyed the flow that brings to how you access Side-Ops, is just how claustrophobic and limiting these canyons become; while there is a desert part to the map and some settlements in larger "fields", the vast majority of the map itself is divided up by these tall canyons. Some of these can be climbed through at certain points along the canyon, but by and large, you can't beeline from one side of the map to the other in a vehicle like you can in Angola-Zaire due to the canyons along the way, and so you're forced to stick to the roads...which just sucks, and unnecessarily stretches out how long it takes to get from one Side-Op to the next in Afghanistan vs Angola-Zaire. This isn't anything game breaking or particularly annoying, I just think the fact that the game continues to throw Afghanistan-based Side-Ops at you at the same rate as Side-Ops in Angola-Zaire when one map is much better suited to chaining a few Side-Ops together in a single drop (note: new Side-Ops won't appear until you've returned to the ACC, so you're limited on how many you can clear in a single drop) is a bit puzzling. To speak to another criticism based on my recent sessions with the game, I need to speak about Episode 25... I'm very curious now to see how long I'll stick with the game, because there are still clearly some important story beats to hit and I'm sure I'll see those through (assuming no Peace Walker silliness), but I'm just not sure about going ham on those Afghanistan Side-Ops with the issue that I mentioned with the map design before. Still having a great time and that's the main thing Ah, I totally get you -- for me, I think I've just got used to Snake being silent most of this game, so having someone speak at me for a while with some great music thrown in for a very tense car ride felt wonderful. Snake occasionally looking at the camera with a the hell is this guy talking about? face cracked me up, though I'm not really sure it fit with the tone of the scene

Oblivion Remastered will purportedly be 120GB... At this point I'm starting to wonder if Xbox/Bethesda are pushing these leaks out themselves, just to build an undercurrent of hype ahead of the shadow drop (which kind of defeats the purpose of the shadow drop, but I can also see why they'd go that way). Genius if so, considering how bad they usually are at marketing their games.

Next Celebration in 2027 will be in Los Angeles... Surprised it's at the LACC rather than Anaheim, have only heard middling things about the former and great things about the latter. Pretty bummed I was right about it being back in California only for the 50th, would've liked them to share the love and potentially hold a few different events that year in different countries, but alas More a reflection on the state of the US at the moment than its people as a whole – but I have all of zero interest in going over there given everything that's going on right now.

Reviews for Andor S2 are in, and while I'm not going to read them, at a quick glance: the reviews are glowing. Just a few more days to go Also, Hayden Christensen is returning in Ahsoka S2... Interesting...Admiral Ackbar's return was also confirmed! We're getting little Loth cats ("to pay for the show" according to Filoni), and Chopper had a gun. They also showed a teaser for Ahsoka S2 in the style of the OG Empire trailer, using concept art in this instance, which was hilarious

2026 it is. No mention of Switch 2.

Still chipping away, and I have a lot of thoughts to share but little time to do today, so for now I'll just bring you up to speed on where I'm up to and get into all that next time: I just completed Episode 30. This game is phenomenal. The part where it finally starts to feel like MGS, at least in terms of the plot, is some 20+ episodes into Chapter 1...and it's exactly what you want out of a Metal Gear Solid plot, Kojima through and through, I was smiling from ear to ear when I clocked onto where it was trying to go. I'll continue to see how it plays out, of course, but if nothing else this is the best dynamic stealth gameplay I've experienced and that's got to count for something; even with this being a Peace Walker sequel rather than a true fifth MGS entry proper, I'm totally along for the ride

Details on pricing in the US have finally been released following the whole tariff ordeal, as well as the announcement that retail pre-orders are set to go up over there on 24th April. The long and short of it is that the price for consoles and games will remain the same as previously announced, however accessories will see a price increase. Per Nintendo: Pre-order links going up a few places now too:

20th anniversary of Lucasfilm Animation vid and a tease of the new show: Maul - Shadow Lord:

Dave Filoni has shared that filming for Ahsoka S2 starts when he gets back from Japan. Hell yeah

The UCS Jango's Starship got announced the other day, and while it looks great, well...

Switch 2 release date confirmed for September 4th per Star Wars Celebration. Story pack #2 - A Pirate's Fortune arrives May 15th: A Tatooine demo is releasing for the game (as Ubisoft continue to attempt to salvage this game's sales). "...and soon, you'll be able to freely shoot from your speeder" – big yikes this not being there at launch. Man...

Celebration Japan is under way. The highlights so far are confirmation of films in development, Ryan Gosling starring in a Shawn Levy's Starfighter which releases May 2027 (post-TROS; official press release), and Mando & Grogu - still on course for May 2026 (which got a trailer exclusive to the show): Good stuff, seems like everyone's having a great time so far!

glances over at Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Yeah...I'll be honest, modern Nintendo doesn't understand good menus

Reminder that this drops on PS5 today! Going to save it for a point in the summer where I can rewatch all the films and finally watch Dial of Destiny, very much excited to see what all the fuss is about