Julius

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

Pretty huge news but not the slightest big unexpected if you've heard about how terrible Hasbro were during BG3's development: Sven dropped the bombshell at GDC that Larian will not be releasing any DLC or expansions for Baldur's Gate 3, nor will they be releasing Baldur's Gate 4. Per IGN: I'm honestly more surprised that IGN's surprised by this. For those unfamiliar, WotC own the D&D IP which Baldur's Gate is based on, and are part of Habsro – so working with them is part and parcel to any type of new content. The problem is that, per Swen himself, barely anyone at WotC who supported Larian in getting to make BG3 the way they wanted in the first place as part of that initial meeting are even there anymore! This news came days after their GOTY win and just a month and a half after BG3 alone was responsible for a 40% spike in Hasbro's digital revenue. More power to Larian. I can't wait to see what they do next - probably return to Divinity if I had to guess? Though a new IP would really turn heads I feel - and look forward to going back and playing their earlier games, DOSII especially. Me and my friends are deep into Act III of BG3 and are still having a great time (even if it's much more of a technical mess than earlier parts of the game), definitely still got a solo playthrough or two on my mind

Tickets for Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 have been announced as going up at the start of May, and the key art is a thing of true beauty. This next month figuring out if I'm going to go or not is going to be very fun and not at all stressful

In the US ticket sales for the 25th anniversary re-release of The Phantom Menace go on sale tomorrow, and it will include an exclusive look at The Acolyte. Still no word on when and where in the UK these are going to be held, but I'll be shocked (and ready to riot) if the re-release doesn't make it over here

Yes it is a feel-good game, did you even read H-o-T's post?

Great to see this getting such great reviews! I checked out some of the previews yesterday and unfortunately I just don't think it's for me (at least right now), just based on the general lack of direction built into game for quests and things like that. That being said, I've got to applaud them for their character creator and for releasing it separately ahead of the game for people to dive right in at launch. This should be the standard with far more AAA RPGs that have deep character creator systems. One of the most relatable things ever written on N-E feels damn good to see Timmy is still kicking around too, even if it is as a zombie Hope everything's okay, and hope you enjoy the game!

We'll be getting an update on The Rising Tide DLC tomorrow at PAX East, which will also be streamed:

Midori, known for Persona leaks and clearly with an inside track of some sorts at SEGA, has said that this will be coming from Canadian developer Komi Games. Per their home page, they do a lot of porting and support work (work of recent note would be support on Psychonauts 2, netcode for KOFXV and support on Tales from Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition). Considering that they've only got one game under their belt as lead developer (Mighty Fight Federation), they seem a strange choice to head this up.

The release of Vengeance has been moved up one week from 21st June 2024 to 14th June 2024.

Announced back in 2022, we now have a trailer shown off the for the first time during the State of Unreal event at this year's GDC! And, according to Hennig, everything shown is running in realtime.

Yep, that's right. They've said before that it takes place towards the end of the era (100 BBY), too, so I imagine there's going to be some potential connective tissue in places to TPM (32 BBY), which I'm very excited about. Ahem, *Plagueis*

First trailer for The Acolyte, which gets a two-episode premiere when it starts June 4th! And apparently it's back to business as usual with tame and boring Disney+ posters already:

OST is dropping April 10th!

First look at the main menu from today's Production Hotline video: This game has been marketed so weirdly.

The 'Production Line' video below has apparently detailed some upcoming updates and plans for the Collection: Should've launched in a better state, of course, but kudos to them for plugging away at sorting the issues post-launch. From the summary I read (the video is in Japanese) it sounds like they teased an upcoming, larger scale event with a focus on new projects. Volume 2, perhaps?

Reminder that this launches on PS5 today! I'll probably wait for a sale, but I'm very much looking forward to whenever I get around to it

Demo dropped for this: Progress from the demo does not carry over to the full release, but you'll get some handy items instead.

We get the first publicly released trailer for The Acolyte tomorrow, and it's teaser poster goes hard. Up there with the teaser poster greats in the series for me of The Phantom Menace... ...Revenge of the Sith... ...and The Last Jedi... Can't wait to see what they've got in store for us with this trailer, the one they showed at Celebration last year was hype as hell it's time to set the tone, Headland!

Finished my animated TLA rewatch last week. Despite rating the season individually as a 10 for forever, I always manage to forget just how excellent Book Two is. Naturally, this has resulted in another LoK rewatch, perhaps forced a bit by wanting to cancel Netflix soon (nothing on the horizon but I have it for now). Finished Book One last night and even if I think it's a glaring step down from TLA, it's still such a solid and fun time. That being said, I'll go to bat for the soundtrack of LoK overall being stronger than TLA's the music in LoK is just so consistently rich and emotive. Onto Book Two today, aka maybe the weakest season of Avatar (and which is still fine, maybe saved a little by the Avatar Wan stuff).

Played a fair bit over the weekend, completing the Sovereignty of the Republic in Galactic Conquest, and then played through all the ground maps in Instant Action. While going through these I took note of the maps I performed best at for War Hero and then played through those a few times, and that's now the only medal left to get to Legendary for the Infantry Class; this normally takes getting to 36 points in one life, but as I'm up to Elite for it I now only need 27 points per life, and I'm averaging 28 points, so it shouldn't take too long! Also maxed out rank to General: After I get War Hero to Legendary it's then a case of moving onto the other classes, and I've already got a few maps in mind for certain medals. While going through what I have so far, though, and just considering the fact these are related to trophies, I'm a bit let down that medals weren't tweaked to be stackable, as I had a few 100+ point lives which only nabbed me one medal, so I would've been better off getting myself killed or respawning to speed it up? But that's not how I feel anyone should really be playing the game if they're genuinely enjoying it also a bit surprised at the lack of trophies relating to environmental hazards in II, like getting eaten by the Rancor at Jabba's Palace seemed like a natural trophy to have, but oh well. The maps brought over from the first game have been fun, as has playing as Kit Fisto and Asajj (previously Xbox exclusive). However, a lot has been made of this considering that a fan mod just got dropped in, flaws and all, to do so: Definitely calls into question Aspyr's originally planned source for the modded content being added to KOTOR II and if they had any plans to give credit to them, before it got cancelled. Considering how this has been handled I'd imagine not? Back to the game, though, Aayla Secura has probably been the highlight hero character for me this time around, and I said it last time, but playing as a hero or villain is just so gloriously broken if you're smart about it. I love grabbing all command posts but one on maps with tight corridors and then just hiding around a corner from the command posts to take out 5+ guys with a single lightsaber throw doing so with Vader on Hoth felt real good. Still having such a blast with this, kind of getting me in the Star Wars mood. I know, I don't really have those that often, do I?

Battlefront II campaign complete, always a great time. Naboo was the map with the most bugs from what I found, with the balastrades missing from a bunch of balconies meaning there were just floating flowers around there was also one occasion where I spawned in on a fenced off balcony above a commando post which I couldn't escape from. I played the original BFII a lot, and had NEVER had that happen before. The AI was fairly temperamental in the original game, but it seems ramped up here, with it feeling a bit more extreme and ranging from a bunch of guys gorming out and watching on as their friends die or 5+ guys executing you Order 66 style. I don't mind it at all, but yeah, just seemed even more aggressive and temperamental than the original game. Some movie cutscenes are missing sound, there's no time to read the text which pops up before a mission because of how fast load times are (seriously, what gives with collections doing this? If you have info on loading screens which go too fast now that it's on a modern console, just make it so I need to manually progress from that screen?), and the camera awkwardly swings in between the load screen and spawning in, as well as during some respawns. Also! The Duel of the Fates victory theme in this sounds SO flat compared to the original, which has irked me a little bit ever since my first victory in this Collection. The Collection aspect of this isn't great, that's for sure, but the game itself still holds up amazingly. I'm having a blast. Jedi and Sith feel as stupidly OP and fun as they should be, it's the right balance of arcadey and skill (and a bit of stupidity with how funny some showdowns become, your guys running in the way of your shots or getting surrounded and savagely ripped to shreds by half a dozen Wookiee Warriors), and vehicles feel so rewarding to play in and extremely punishing to facing off against. Not really sure where I'll go from here, think at least one go through in Galactic Conquest with every faction is a must, but getting all of the awards to legendary is looking like it's going to be a fairly serious grind, so I might get those GC campaigns out of way and play through every map at least once in Instant Action before seeing where I'm up to; if I'm not far off then I'll probably power through, but if there's still a bit to go after that, I might come to it as a relaxing game between other things or switch over to the first Battlefront for some variety.