Julius

Yeah, I'm not sure if I agree with @Dcubed that I expect 15 minutes dedicated to TOTK (hey, I'd love for you to be right, because that's what I want ), but if all we're going to get is a trailer for it, I really do think this needs to be a trailer coming in at a solid 3 minutes or so, something along the lines of the E3 2016 trailer for Breath of the Wild: Now, while I prefer the Switch Presentation 2017 trailer personally, I think this trailer in particular really highlights the importance of a 3 minute trailer compared to a 2 minute trailer (or less). I'm super interested in marketing campaigns when it comes to films and games, so I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent about why we need a 3 minute trailer like this and not something much shorter. What we've had so far with Tears of the Kingdom is a 1:27 first look trailer (at E3 2019), a 1:39 teaser trailer (at E3 2021), and a 1:37 title reveal trailer (which we got in the September 2022 Direct) – and honestly, partly down to their lengths but also Nintendo's own marketing plans, they all portray something closer to a teaser trailer: mostly quick cuts, dramatic and eye-catching frames (Ganondorf turning his head, Hyrule Castle rising up, Link leaping from a floating island, flashes of new mechanics, etc., etc.), but virtually nothing to really set either the tone or expectation for what moment-to-moment gameplay for Tears of the Kingdom is going to be like. At this point we're comfortable with the idea of there being an underground, ground level, and sky islands...but given that most of our time will surely be spent at ground level (I mean, it's going to be the largest physical plane by size, surely?) it kind of shocks me how little we've seen of what's at ground level. Again, I don't think we need to see everything this game has to offer ahead of release, but I really think the E3 2016 trailer for Breath of the Wild was fantastic because of what it achieves in its 3 minutes and 19 seconds: it sets the tone of an empty, post-apocalyptic world ripe for exploration; the music is allowed to sweep us away because it can be one functional piece which doesn't need to be edited down and can instead breathe; and it bounces you around between showing off new mechanics to the new systems at play. Hype aside - which is difficult at times, I'll be the first to admit! - I think it's one of the purest examples of what a trailer for a game should be. So I have my fingers tightly crossed for something around 3 minutes long - which, notably, would be nearly double the length of all of the TOTK trailers we've had so far - to really set the tone of the game and let some of those moment-to-moment gameplay tidbits breathe a little bit more, as well as sweep us away with some awesome music. There's a narrative throughline to a trailer which is attainable in 3 minutes with smart decisions and good editing, but nearly impossible to attempt in 1 minute 30 seconds as we've had up to this point. So, please and thanks Nintendo, that's all I'm looking for, even if the other 37 minutes of the Direct are just spent with Koizumi holding a staring contest with the cameraman

Yeah, I think you're right about that. Seen some people suggesting a shadow-drop...but who on earth shadow drops a game like that in February out of the blue? I still need to play Hollow Knight Oh yeah, I'll do the same if they go too far in I think. I could just go for 30 minutes uninterrupted gameplay honestly just to get an idea of the tone at ground level (and maybe just a very quick look at what's above and below), because the trailers have been a contrasting dichotomy of bright and soaring open blue skies and floating islands adorned with gold-leafed trees with the dark browns, purples and reds of everything surrounding and below Hyrule Castle, but we haven't really got too clear an idea as to what's up at ground level. Can I expect more towns? Please?! And also maybe just show off a blacksmith or something idk In which case..! Nah, I don't have much I feel like I'll get hyped for, other than obviously Tears of the Kingdom, I feel like I've not got much left to go crazy over. Maybe some Dragon Quest Remasters are my next agenda now that we're waiting on the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters to land...(see you all in 5+ years for that I guess?) Actually, it would be really neat if Suikoden I&II showed up here too with a release date, I think I saw rumours floating around a month or so back about it potentially coming by the end of Q1? Everyone who loves a lean but wonderful JRPG (and let's be honest, there aren't nearly enough of those!) needs to play these two games

I have no expectations for once, because I can't go asking for the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters as they're actually on their way. I mean, maybe if Square Enix would be so kind as to give us a physical stock update or something, idk... It's such a weird one I feel now with Tears of the Kingdom, I feel like we could just as easily get a meaty 4 minute trailer actually giving us a sense of understanding when it comes to changes at ground level (and quell those fears), outright confirming temples and giving us a look at one or two, seeing some enemy variety, etc. Or we could just get another sub-2 minute trailer and learn basically nothing. Would it be too cute if they held a Treehouse on/around 3rd March for BOTW's sixth anniversary? Probably. But I'd love it! Really do just want a deeper look at this game, even if not here, I hope that comes around sooner rather than later! I could be mistaken but my instinct is that 17:00 is their usual time for E3 Directs, but I can't recall many others (idk, maybe a Direct Mini/Partners Showcase?) that were also at that time. Early afternoon and late evening feels like it's been a thing for a while? Again, could be wrong on that, I should probably look it up...but feeling a bit too lazy to do so atm I imagine you probably saw this, but I think it was a week or so back when there was the initial stir over a February Direct incoming, one of the reasons pointing to it being legit (you know, besides the fact we've had a Feb Direct pretty consistently for a while now!) was that Advance Wars pre-orders started cropping back up again at major retailers. So fingers crossed your wish comes true!

Right on cue! Now, give me dungeons or give me death

Time for another quarterly report, this time for Q3 and the period ending 31st December 2022. The Big Takeaways • The Nintendo Switch across it's different SKUs sold 8.22 million units in Q3 (1st October 2022 - 31st December 2022), meaning it has now sold a grand total of 122.55 million units worldwide. This means it has now leapfrogged the total units sold figure of the PlayStation 4 (116.4 million units sold) and Game Boy (118.69 million units sold), making it the third best-selling console of all time, now behind only the Nintendo DS (154.9 million units sold) and PlayStation 2 (157.68 million units sold). • In terms of software, the Nintendo Switch has now sold 994.30 million units, making it the Nintendo platform with the most software units sold to date (this was previously held by the Nintendo DS at 948.76 million units sold). • Pokémon Scarlet/Violet came in with a bang and immediately soared to the sixth spot on the list of 10 best-selling Switch titles, meaning it becomes the fourth best-selling combination of Pokémon titles in just a month and a half, with 20.61 million units sold. Top 10 Best-selling Switch titles as of 31st December 2022 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 52.00M 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 41.59M 3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 30.44M 4. Breath of the Wild - 29.00M 5. Pokemon Sword/Shield - 25.68M 6. Super Mario Odyssey - 25.12M 7. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - 20.61M 8. Super Mario Party - 18.79M 9. Ring Fit Adventure - 15.22M 10. Pokemon Let's GO! - 15.07M Sales figures for other titles of note released this Financial Year (FY23) • Pokémon Legends Arceus - 14.63M • Splatoon 3 - 10.14M • Switch Sports - 8.61 M • Kirby & The Forgotten Land - 6.12M • Mario Strikers: Battle League - 2.47M • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - 1.82M • Bayonetta 3 - 1.04M

I'll probably skip it as none of my local cinemas are showing it unfortunately, would be a bit of a trip for me to get to the nearest cinema with showings, but boy did they get the timing of the release over here right otherwise!

Fast travel and rideable creatures are in! Rideable creatures are cool, but thank The Maker for fast travel. It's absence was one of the strangest things overlooked in the first game's design, especially on planets like Kashyyyk, where there's a good chance you missed something near the top of the tree and would need to slide around with the action music cue/angles from a chase *that had already happened* still being used on subsequent visits. Absolute bane of my existence in the first game. Getting more excited for this as the weeks pass

Just realised the Gamelists I spent an hour organising with the aid of HLTB - to FINALLY get my digital games in check - have completely vanished... Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you (so probably never), my smattering of digital offerings

To help fill the gaps Lee Isaac Chung – directed Minari, a wonderful slice-of-life piece on Koreans emigrating to America, which I adored. It got six Oscar noms, including for Best Picture and Best Director. Peter Ramsey – co-director of Into the Spider-Verse, which needs no introduction. I'm pretty sure he's also signed up for Ahsoka? Rachel Morrison – I knew she'd been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography (first woman to be nominated for the award makes it a memorable one!), but I didn't know until looking her up to see what else she had up her sleeves that she also worked on Fruitvale Station and Black Panther with Ryan Coogler!

Free Title Update 4 lands next Tuesday:

In addition, the PlayStation Plus Collection has been announced to be coming to an end on 9th May 2023 as part of the above PS Blog entry. For those that can't remember, this was the collection of 14 games which have been available since the launch of the PS5 in 2020 to PS+ members. Seems like a good idea to get them down as purchased on your account to make sure you've made the most out of the Collection, for me it just means getting some digital versions of games I already physically own!

Sold through 11 million units in three months! Absolutely insane numbers, and well deserved.

Essentials monthly games for February:

She's a beaut

EZA's 2022 Awards Deliberations are up, coming in at 5½ hours: And the edited awards showcase: Bit of a shame this awards season has been a pretty uncompetitive one compared to recent years (not that Elden Ring doesn't deserve to bring home GOTY, mind you), so I'm kind of glad it's at an end. At least the Allies do a good job with their discussions and adding in some sillier categories to keep things fresh

Well, that's one less thing to plough through in the month leading up to Celebration I guess, and one less thing to talk about in lines too! It's a weird one this delay for me, because I don't feel like we've actually seen that much of the game, which is fine - it's shaping up to be a very direct sequel from a story and gameplay perspective, so similar to perhaps Ragnarök, there just might not be that much they want to show ahead of release. At the same time, though, I think this has a marketing deal with PlayStation because they've been tweeting about it every few days, and so I'm honestly a bit surprised by the delay; maybe not seeing much by this point should've been taken as a sign, but I kind of assumed it was going smoothly. Just realised this delay also brings it up to within two weeks of Tears of the Kingdom (or at least it's current release date as things stand), so I'm kind of selfishly hoping it's comparable in length to the first game and has avoided bloat...which I feel like we've been seeing a lot more of as of late.

I was confident going in that it would be the first great video game adaptation, and I was expecting an 8/10. So even with my relatively high hopes compared to what's come for it, it's blown even my expectations away. I think, simply, it's a case of Sony actually understanding the value of their IP and giving it the resource it thoroughly deserves. Neil Druckmann is a great creative in his own right, but given this is his first crack at television, he was paired with the right man in Craig Mazin, who wrote and created Chernobyl, and it's not hard to see why that was a smart decision. Gustavo Santaolalla returned after his excellent work with the two Last of Us games to compose the show's main theme and worked alongside David Flemming in composing the rest of the show's music. The licensed music so far has evidently been carefully selected and they've nailed it every time so far, the CG so far has mostly been limited to wide background shots and there's been a bunch of practical effects throughout, and, three episodes deep, I don't think they've put a single foot wrong in terms of casting. It's not a 1:1 adaptation (even if the first episode definitely leaned into that and made it seem like it would be close to one), but it's also not doing the video game adaptation thing of using the same characters but just making something up. They're adapting a universally excellent story in a way which suits the medium they're adapting it to - the flashbacks so far have all been brilliant so far and it's a technique put to great effect in television, but one that simply wouldn't work nearly as well in a game - and that, to me, shows how much care has been poured into it. If it keeps going at this rate, I really think it stands a chance at opening the floodgates to storytelling in video games finally getting more the praise it deserves from a much wider audience. It's been brilliant, and with my favourite parts of the story still to come, I'm having a hard time imagining how they could be made better – but I'm confident they'll take a good crack at it.

Sony have outright denied the contents of Bloomberg's article: This is the second time now they've denied the contents of a Bloomberg article, and by the same author too – Mochizuki. Yikes Pessimistically, at a stretch, I guess a case could be made that they're trying to save face to stakeholders – but that seems incredibly unlikely.

I mean, a combination of an economic crisis in the wake of a global pandemic which saw components shortages impact virtually every hardware product under the sun was always going to mean this would be the case, right? A premium price product when people are bleeding cash was never going to break pre-order records, was always likely to struggle to meet projections (which, by the way, is for stakeholders to not go crazy, not really for us consumers to go crazy over), and much less one which requires a premium price console to even run the thing. All-in it's £1k at the moment to get a PSVR2, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I don't think this has nearly as much to do with first-party support as has been suggested, it's down to age-old supply and demand, and demand can't be there if there isn't enough disposable income for many to reasonably consider making a purchase. I'm skipping this and the Edge controller, despite having the disposable income, simply because I think it seems like a stupid way for me to invest money in the midst of a cost of living crisis. Let's also not forget that there's also a knock-on effect stemming from the components shortages which means that there are far fewer PS5s in people's homes now than would have been projected in 2018/2019 when PlayStation would have been planning their slates and hardware lineups for the first half of this gen. A slump to start isn't a bad thing, so long as the support is consistent moving forwards, and I don't think we have any reason to believe that the support won't be there. Hell, Jim Ryan has even been frank about where VR is at right now; this is from a Washington Post article released in October 2020, a few weeks before the launch of the PS5: I'm not expecting crazy sales numbers when all is said and done from the PSVR2, but I'll be surprised if it goes the way of the Vita, and even more surprised if it doesn't surpass the sales of its predecessor. I don't think it's fair to simultaneously be on Sony's back for blowing their metaphorical load too early with games like God of War, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, et al, but then also be on their back for not knowing what's in store. There's more than enough at launch for those looking to dive in to justify doing so from where I'm sitting.

Finished catching up on this week's episode, Episode 3: Long Long Time. We're three episodes in of nine now, and while the first two episodes certainly felt like a near 1:1 adaptation with some reshuffling (for pacing and to throw off players a little bit, and definitely more changes in Episode 2 than in Episode 1, which was virtually 1:1 with some stuff added in) and stuff thrown in to give context to new viewers, this is the first episode to feel like it was taking the source material of the game, fleshing it out, and taking it to greater heights. Again, still some weird stuff when it comes to reshuffling the deck on lines, like getting the final line from the Boston QZ at the end of this location instead, but it still kind of works, it's just a little distracting. To sum up my thoughts, this wasn't just a great episode of The Last of Us, this is a damn great episode of television, and a beautiful one at that. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best episode yet, and honestly, I think it's going to be a hard one to top. That I'm saying that about this part in the story, though, when my favourite parts are yet to come? This episode is a 10/10 for me, the first (and hopefully not last) episode I'm going to give that score to. Adapted excellently where necessary, built out the world naturally, and expertly handled fleshing out two characters we simply didn't get enough of in the game and were excavated wonderfully in a medium suited more to doing so than a game. BRA-f'ing-VO If you aren't watching this show already, I've got to ask – where the hell have you been, what on earth are you doing, and why are you still waiting for me to finish this sentence before bringing up Episode 1 on your TV?!

PlayStation are promising a steadier supply of PS5s in the wild this year, which they announced alongside the release of a new TV spot:

Reggie chiming in has definitely put a smile on my face

Already been renewed for a second season after just two episodes have aired: Find this super interesting, and I don't feel like it's a foregone conclusion that they jump straight to adapting Part II. For one, II takes place roughly five years after I, so they might want Bella Ramsey to age up a bit (was shocked to learn she's already 19!). I could see them maybe trying to do that through having her lose weight (I think her round face and cheeks are definitely what helps her portray an early teen), and considering where Part II takes Ellie it would make sense, but personally I'm never a fan of that being forced on someone for a role. On the other hand, though, I don't think you'd call an adaptation of Part II, well, The Last of Us Season 2? At least not with Druckmann around, considering how clear an homage it is to The Godfather and Part II, which he loves. A second season could absolutely get rebranded to Part II down the line and this could just be an early marketing thing, but I also feel like waiting a few years and then coming back to adapt Part II is the obvious way to secure platform growth (more people will watch the show in the years that pass once it's finished ending, streaming will become more widespread, etc.). Selfishly, I also do just think they could do a prequel series here with Tom and Joel earlier on in their adventures, which is a new and unique story they could tell designed from the ground-up for this medium. Druckmann seems like the type (kind of like Kojima) where he loves the idea of tackling actual film/TV just as much as he does games, so I feel like not needing to adapt an already beloved story could give him free reign again. I also just think it'd be smart to potentially tie into their new live service Factions game. And it bides them time to prep for adapting Part II, which will likely be at least twice as long as adapting Part I, and is much, much, much heavier. Anyways, as for why this is happening after only two episodes, well the numbers and growth they've seen week-on-week over at HBO are all kinds of nuts: Lastly, I didn't write up my thoughts on Episode 2, and I don't think I'll flesh it out as much as I did for Episode 1: it's still a great adaptation (still solid 9/10 for me), but much more than in Episode 1, there's a lot of creative liberty taken. Some additions, like the intro, I loved, whereas elsewhere they've grabbed distinct lines from later on in the game than when the show is currently up to and kind of forced it in earlier, which was...honestly, really disorienting. And the way the episode ends, well, that's a very interesting change (you'll know what I'm talking about if you've seen the episode). There's also a change to how the Infected work here compared to the games which makes me wonder if it's a hint at some mechanics for next-gen TLOU, such as Part III or Factions II? But yeah, still 9/10 for me. Can't wait for Monday!

GoldenEye arrives this Friday (27th January): (direct trailer embed for the lazy):