Julius

Pre-orders for the game via the Pokémon Centre website will come with a plush of either of the starters: (note: you currently can't put a pre-order in with them at this time) Anyone else find it interesting that we still haven't seen this game's box art? I was kind of expecting it to come out following the Presents

Beautiful weather on a Sunday to kick off March? Love it. Thank God winter's nearly done. Felt like a much-needed shot in the arm

Think I may have successfully turned a few of my friends onto Bloodborne today (their first From Software experiences) – brought my copy to a mate's house for a gaming day, taught them the basics and took the pressure off a bit with some upgrades/unlocking level-ups after they'd got beat down a few times to get that classic first From experience in their systems. Coached a friend through Gascoigne and he beat him first time! He did watch me beat him the other night over Share Screen and I did put the Music Box in his Quick Items ahead of time, but still – was very proud of him I did spend the last few days chipping away at a NG just to refresh myself on the start (good lord do I love this game man) to make it easier, beat the bosses I took on first time in my solo refresh sessions and at my friend's house. Had Cleric Beast down to like ⅒ and had the nerve to ask my friends if they wanted to take him on or if they were cool with me beating him first time, which felt like a bit of a flex only downside is that I'm now getting the urge to continue the Hunt myself... Overall, a great use of a Sunday

Really digging the new take on the Lumiose theme, so mellowed out, jazzy, and French feeling: The original, for comparison: Watching the footage again, I have a theory we're going to see a Mega Garbodor in this game, based on perhaps some dumb trailer logic, but hey, why not? Basically when talking about Mega Evolutions they show a Mega Absol vs a standard Altaria (Altaria has a Mega Evolution), followed by Mega Charizard X vs a standard Pidgeot (which also has a Mega Evolution), and to round off that bit of footage we then see Mega Kangaskhan vs, you guessed it: a standard Garbodor, who does not at this point have a Mega Evolution. Could allow for an interesting take on the Paris bin strikes from a couple of years ago, that's for sure

Put 15 hours into this with a couple of friends over the last week, across three sessions (last Friday, Tuesday, and yesterday). Goes without saying from the fact we played this on a Tuesday: game is incredible. Super fun, easy to adjust the difficulty so we can weave in and out of casual talk on lower difficulties and zoning in on higher difficulties, really funny to just mess about and kill teammates "accidentally" with friendly fire, sentries, stratagems, etc. Needing to put in a Konami code styled input for stratagems is genius, just enough to take your focus away from what's going on around you but fast enough to be worth it. Couple of bugs here and there, including a game where me and my two friends disconnected in-game but could continue to the end, despite party chat and everything else still working? This was at the end of a mission when trying to extract, so on my side I had to keep at bay hordes of the alien zombie dudes, whereas my friends had no-one on their end to keep at bay. Absolute pandemonium and I pulled it off but we still have no idea what actually happened! Appreciate the Warbonds, so far I've stuck it out without shelling out more for the Premium stuff, and am on Page 6 of the free Warbond you start the game with. There's always cooler armour/weapons/whatever to aim for, which is really neat, and right now me and my friends are playing a game of "chicken" to see who caves first in picking up a Premium Warbond before the others follow suit Bugs are probably my least favourite enemy so far? Bit chaotic, them diving at you can be rough, but their missions have been easy so far (played up to Medium I think). In the middle are the Terminator dudes who are probably the easiest to take on, so we've taken on some bosses (through Challenging), but the sound design is so cool! My favourite enemy is honestly the alien zombies I mentioned before, the small city streets, the sheer number of them, etc., all calls for far more strategy than the other two enemies – even on Medium it's proved a sufficient challenge for us so far. There was one mission where we only had 10 minutes left on the clock and had a main objective left (escort civilians, which can be painful! And yes people got shot by our sentries, before you ask) but it really got us pumped up and focusing, and we managed to extract in overtime. Awesome stuff. Can't wait to get back to it oh, and I love how varied the locations our too, just visually, very Star Wars-esque! And the music is stunning also!

Oh, don't get me wrong, I totally agree. I just don't think Xbox -- or in this case, genuinely, I think more likely Microsoft -- care. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's an internal mandate for their games to be digital-only on other platforms, and I think any potential exceptions we see to that (such as Indy, potentially?) are being fought for by someone who wants the game preserved in that way. It really feels to me like Xbox are currently in the stage of being told to cash-in on anything and everything they can and maximise profits; hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they've been told they need to reach a certain revenue goal with the massive portfolio of developers that they now have for Phil and team to continue to prove their worth. As for Game Pass on PS5, it won't happen (anytime soon, at least) mainly because PlayStation have a competing subscription in the revamped PS+ as well as how it would potentially compete for sales – and Xbox are going to make much more money selling the games piecemeal than they are a subscription model. Would I like it? Hell yeah, but only purely because in this instance if it's digital-only, it would mean just paying for a few months of Game Pass vs buying the game outright (though, I suspect I'll play the game for long enough that buying it outright might actually work out cheaper for me?). I just struggle to see it happening. The gutting part for me is the lack of preservation this would obviously mean for the PS5 version, and the work done by the folks over at Panic Button in getting this port complete. For all their talk about game preservation and their great initiatives last gen around backwards compatibility, it's hard to not question their stance now with moves like this. Yeah, it's wild to see this for ports, and I totally agree – April 25th is Day 1, not the 29th. I guess the one thing I'll say is that it being a port of a 3½ year old game should mean it doesn't have the teething problems other "early access" types of deals do? I mean if people are willing to pay that price to play a game but earlier I don't think it means that they're necessarily dumb, it just shows how highly they value what's being sold, and that they agree with the valuation put on the premium you pay to play a bit earlier by the publisher obviously I'm saying that at the risk of sounding like I'm defending myself, which I'll admit I suppose I am In my instance, and I've said this plenty of times on here before: Forza Horizon 5 is the standout game I've been interested in from Xbox this gen, and I've been waiting for plenty more to come along which simply hasn't to convince me that a Series X is worth picking up. I have a PC but it's not powerful enough to run the game, and relegating a game of this scale to a Steam Deck just seems plain wrong to me. So, I can pay £55 to play a game I've been dying to for the last few years rather than dropping £500 on a whole other console and ecosystem? Awesome. An extra £30 for a few extra bits and bobs and to play the game for the first time on a Friday with my mates and make a day/weekend of it vs on a Tuesday? It's still costing me £400 less than buying an entire other console for this one game. Now, me buying the premium version of Star Wars Outlaws to get early access when I had little faith the game would be better than a 6/10 (& was way worse than that), would be in a functioning state, don't care for Ubisoft open worlds, and bought it purely because I'm a glutton for punishment at times as a Star Wars fan? That was dumb

Oh dear, @S.C.G, seems there's already an update on the plans for a physical release on PS5: there are none (currently), per the game's Twitter/X account. Can't say I'm surprised, but this still sucks. Then again, outside of the reasons I mentioned before, I kind of get it from a PR perspective – can you imagine how it would look and the headlines it would generate to have a physical copy of the next Halo game on PS5? It would be a total brand meltdown and physical embodiment of admitting defeat.

Yeah, I think that's fair enough. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see one. The reason I struggle to see it happening is simply because Hellblade II didn't when it launched on Series X|S last year, and none of the other games to come over from them so far have had a physical version release on PS5 either – I think Microsoft are pushing harder for digital than they are even Game Pass at this point, I can see them viewing it as unnecessary overhead whereas doing away with a physical release here means a potentially faster turnaround from announcement to launch. That being said, physical PS5 pre-orders are up in Spain for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, so perhaps it will get one? Wonder if it's going to be like Nintendo and their music – a studio needs to be pushing for it to get out there, like Monolith Soft does for Xenoblade, as an example? I think Xbox doing what they should have all along here - available on Game Pass and piecemeal on Xbox, full price on PlayStation and other storefronts - is the smart move, as it still leaves Game Pass as an enticing prospect and good value proposition, but if you want what should be an exclusive game on the other big box? Pay up! I think it'll do gangbusters on PS5, The Crew Motorfest is the closest thing we've got to a Horizon game on PlayStation at the moment and Forza is in a whole other league – it's an audience which isn't being served on the platform, what with GT7 being a more hardcore racing sim. Wasn't that crazy $1 per month or whatever it was deal for Game Pass Ultimate still running around then, too? Even if not, I think with a much larger install base just being later on in the gen (and obviously compared to Series X|S), I'm thinking this makes Xbox more cash in a week on PS5 than it managed to in the 3½ years it has been [console] exclusive to Xbox. Yeah, fair again I think! A game which is 3½ years old being sold at that sort of price is kind of nuts, but it seems of the quality, critical reception and appeal which warrants it. Xbox seem to at least know the value of the thing, I think £40 for Standard for example would be underselling the game, especially seeing as it's getting updates to this day. What maybe doesn't sit quite right with me is the Premium Edition in this case? The game already released 3½ years ago, I feel like early access is about getting it ahead of initial release, not so much a staggered one like we've seen here still, it'll make money, and because I've been a bit wiser with my spending on games so far this year, I'd be happy to drop another £30 to get the game a few days earlier, and on a Friday, no less! Might even book the day off for it, if not the Monday

Physical copies have gone up for pre-order in Spain for the PS5 release (standard, premium). No word yet, remember, on whether this is getting a physical PS5 release, either. Tom Warren is reiterating that this will also be launching in April on PS5 alongside Forza Horizon 5, though obviously we're still waiting for any confirmation of this – currently it's still listed as a "Spring 2025" release. Between those and DOOM: The Dark Ages in May...remember what I've always said about Xbox and curation? Need I say more?

Releases on PS5 on April 29th, early access on the 25th for those getting the Premium Edition: Already up on the PS Store for pre-order: £54.99 for Standard, £69.99 for Deluxe, and £84.99 for Premium. The game will have trophy support: And finally, PS5 and PS5 Pro modes confirmed: No word yet on a physical release. Not expecting one, to be honest. Anyways, I can't wait! Struggling to not see myself picking up the Premium Edition Now give us an update on Indy, you fools!

A lot more images and details courtesy of the official site, including some some lovely art (very much in line with the art we got for X/Y!) with a birds-eye view of Lumiose: Looks like the colour of the roofs will be a clear way to tell which part of the city you're in, and the tile colours match up with the colours of the different "balls" in the old Lumiose map: I also spy some shops with clothes, time to get our customisation game back on Judging from the blue roof colour and enclosed courtyard, it seems like Hotel Z is located just NNE from Lumiose Tower, if you refer to the map above. Looks like there's also a metro system for getting around the city (well, assuming it's functional, which I imagine it would be), but maybe that's just where you arrive into the city from? Speaking of transport, looking at the map again, while there is some art of Skiddo - no Gogoats? Perhaps the Gogoat Shuttle went out of business? We got a shot or two of the taxis at least! And now for the character art...which as always looks much better than the in-game models I won't go into everything - they've got character bios, there's some stuff on catching Pokémon, Mega Evolution, etc. - but just wanted to highlight AZ's bio because it made me chuckle... Just the idea of a hotel owner being like "no, really! I'm 3000 years old!" got a laugh out of me Excited to see how this turns out, in any case!

Let's Mega Evolve like it's 2013

Battle system is genuinely pretty similar to what I thought an ideal top-down 2D game would have, so that's exciting

Late 2025, no date... (which means it's almost certainly November) Today's new trailers/footage: Kind of crazy that they went with two Gen II starters – and that we're seemingly going to get Mega Meganium?! Textures look rough but hey, at least it runs better in this first bit of gameplay than Legends: Arceus did. Rival being determined by MC gender kind of sucks

Guess I'll finally be starting with Totodile

Always a win when new languages are made available in Pokémon games Latin American Spanish coming to Champions, Z-A, and a number of future products. They've got a new Pokémon office in Mexico, too!

Just announced in today's Pokémon Presents! Overseen and planned for by Game Freak, developed by Pokémon Works. Connects with Pokémon Home, but also sounds like you will be able to get Pokémon in-game.

That terrifying opening with Darkrai in Pokémon Sleep was freaking hilarious

Well, today's the day folks! Happy Pokémon Day, and here's hoping for a nice surprise or two later! I might need to treat myself to a Pokémon pick-up or two to commemorate the occasion It's also floating around that the Presents might be 19 minutes long? Seems like a decent length to me. Last year's was super short from what I remember, so hey, if it's longer than that I'll take it! Next year's better be 30 minutes for the 30th, though, because otherwise -- what are we even doing?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection are the Essentials games for March. Wild to see Veilguard already hitting the service, end of October release to PS+ Essential in March...got to be one of the fastest turnarounds on a third-party AAA release getting onto the service, surely? Can't tell if that's because PS paid the big bucks or if it's a case of the sales numbers dropping and EA wanting to cash in, or maybe it's a weird counter to Avowed on Xbox?

Sure, but like you go on to say, I think the fact they've got any Mega Evos at all *should* hopefully rule them out as being the starter Pokémon. Fully expect them to turn up elsewhere in the game, mind you. Well, at least Charmander... But hell, Mega Evo Z would be dumb as all hell which makes it a very obvious thing for GF to do. I could actually see an alternative Mega Evo/whatever they're doing about regional forms be the way they justify Torchic being the Fire-type starter. So what you're saying is that Gen IV will continue to get shafted...what else is new? Hey, we've agreed on 2 of the 3 at least! I do like the InteLupin idea, the only thing that gives me pause is that I feel like the line is just too similar visually to the Froakie line, and at which point I would honestly just prefer they give us the Froakie line instead (I know I'm right don't @ me). I honestly have a feeling they're going to ignore our absolutely understandable justifications for our picks and throw Torchic in there. The French rooster is just way too iconic for them to ignore, I feel like. Anyways, I know you weren't the biggest fan of Legends: Arceus, Glen – is there anything in particular you'd like to see them do differently this time which could help win you over? I feel like the game is going to be starkly different in a number of ways given the urban setting vs open world terrain we had in Arceus, so it seems like there'd be a lot of opportunities to change things up and really differentiate the two.

Time for the meaty overview trailer:

New update! The Unimog is a funny addition to me

Can't believe this is tomorrow! Very excited for what we'll see from Legends Z-A Anyone got any hopes/thoughts/expectations for what they'll show from the game? Any thoughts on starters? For me, I'm really curious to see how the game holds up technically. Both Legends: Arceus and Scarlet & Violet were technically atrocious when they were first shown – surely with seemingly more time in the oven, this will have a stronger initial showing, technically? As for starters, I imagine Kalos starters are either going to be native to the area and just running around or handed to us at some point in the game. I can already imagine Froakie swimming through streams just outside the city with Frogadier jumping around the trees, while Fennekin and Chespin run around on ground level. But, like Legends: Arceus, I think our initial starters are going to be a good excuse to revisit previous starters and give them either final evolutions which are regional forms or, obviously much more likely here, Mega Evolutions (doing both would also be beat but very confusing, too, given this'll seemingly be modern day Kalos just like X & Y were). With that in mind, for me? • Gen I starters are off the table as they already have Mega Evos. • Gen II, Cyndaquil is off the table given we've got Hisuian Typhlosion from Legends: Arceus. • Gen III starters are off the table as they already have Mega Evos. • Gen IV is very firmly on the table as they didn't get anything across the remakes and Legends: Arceus – for shame! • Gen V, Oshawott is off the table because of Hisuian Samurott. • Gen VI starters have nothing (but I think they'll get Mega Evos and be captured elsewhere in the game/given as a gift, not a starter). • Gen VII, Rowlet is off the table because of Hisuian Decidueye. • Gen VIII are on the table because they don't have Mega Evos, BUT they did get Gigantamax forms in Sword & Shield's DLC, so I don't think we get them here. • Gen IX are a possibility but I can't quite see it happening myself – having a Pokémon turn up as a starter Pokémon two games in a row (outside of third/enhanced versions and sequels) would be a bit strange to me. It's weird though because Gen VIII and IX probably make the most sense geographically to make it into a game set in Pokémon Paris with what their regions are based on...but whatever, I'm taking them off the table! So that leaves me with what I think is a realistically narrowed down shortlist of Chikorita, Totodile, Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup, Snivy, Tepig, Litten and Popplio. So, for the Grass-type, I'm thinking it's Snivy. That design just looks like it's based on royalty and kind of snooty. In my mind? That makes it super French. For the Water-type, I think it's the toughest one to decide of the options left from my shortlist. I'm going with Piplup purely because you have a Pokémon whose final evolution (Empoleon) has a name which draws from Napoleon, so, uh, yeah. At the same time, Mega Feraligatr would be cool as all heck and fits best in my mind with what I think Mega Evolution is about (Pokémon going berserk with newfound power), but Primarina (the Popplio line) would also make sense to me for how big ballet is in France. Lastly, the Fire-type...I really think it should be Torchic to be honest (just with how the rooster symbolically ties into France), but it's not on my shortlist, so I won't consider it! Incineroar is in Smash and a very popular final starter evo and so I'm thinking they go with that, not really sure what the connection would be...Aristocats? With starter speculation out of the way, not sure how many new Mega Evos we'd see here (if any), but I feel like Mega Sylveon is a nail-on, and Mega Dragonite and Mega Flygon better be on the table, too! Oh, also, I just hope we're having straight-up battles on the streets, kind of Yakuza style, in this

Happy birthday @Dcubed! That OLED screen is lovely, great gift from your sister! Yes! I've been wanting to see something like this too recently, actually. I've still got my childhood DSi which is basically retired for nostalgia purposes, and my New 3DS XL is the glossy black Solgaleo & Lunala limited edition one they put out for Sun & Moon – don't get me wrong, it's lovely, but it being glossy and black (aka: THE fingerprint magnet) *and* a LE makes me want to retire it. Those are my current options for playing DS games, and while I think I'll probably be getting a different New 3DS XL at some point (probably Metallic Blue like my DSi ) for my 3DS gaming needs, I'd really love to see some better screens to enjoy and revisit a number of DS games. Some of the pixel art on DS games are absolutely gorgeous and deserve to be admired in the most absurdly overtuned way possible