Julius

Was just thinking the same, that looks like quite the substantial bit of weight loss! Think it's a real shame that they didn't go with a bit more of a redesign like they did when they went from the PS4 to the PS4 Slim, though, because it just looking like a smaller version of a regular PS5 - while an impressive technical feat - makes it look like a cheap knock-off or toy...only compounded by the keyring-looking stand, the deeper cave-in of the glossy central console, the plate slits, and man, the lack of a grill either side just looks off; like corners have been cut. I'm honestly also still shocked that it's not officially being referred to as the 'PlayStation 5 Slim'

I'm not sure exactly, but I think it's more a case of contextualising what they're even talking about to be honest, as opposed to anything contractual/legal – and I think everyone and their mother in the media has got onboard because it's one of the most baffling rebrands possibly ever? Had a quick look around and it doesn't seem to be the case that that's it's actual name (even if that would probably make more sense than whatever the current mess is). I wouldn't be shocked if it's changed back to Twitter if/when Elon ever steps down, but yeah...goodness knows when or how that'll come about. Shout-out to my physics teacher in college for questioning me for thinking the idea to terraform Mars with nukes was an obviously stupid and dangerous idea. He was a smart guy (my physics teacher, not Elon), but this was back before the edgelord Musk had revealed his true persona, and everyone was praising his every move. You know, writing this all out, I genuinely think Elon Musk is an IRL attempt at the world making a JRPG villain: he's obsessed with the letter 'X', his facial features are so extreme that he looks cartoonishly evil, and he says some of the weirdest things that no-one seems to bat an eye at and just accept (the idea of terraforming Mars with nukes has some real obvious Persona/FF main villain vibes)... Anyways, I'm really curious to see how gaming companies try to pivot out from under X, formerly known as Twitter (*sigh*), because even though I think it's a blight on humanity, it's undeniably the place for breaking news, and that includes gaming news and announcements. The way that Instagram, Facebook et al work simply doesn't cut it as an up-to-date news distributor. Or as a way to post Plats and screenshots

Been on a Nothing But Thieves kick as of late. Had a few songs buried in my Liked Songs on Spotify already, but finally took the time to get more intimate with some of their albums. Loved it all so far Shout-out to @drahkon for his great taste in music

The Pluto anime adaptation on Netflix was abso-freaking-lutely superb

White 'H' on a light blue background? Who the heck is this @Hero-of-Time fella? Never 'eard of him (welcome back!! ) Same, that and whenever I wanted to quickly post a screenshot I guess if you still want to use it the workaround now is going to be uploading the image to the PS App, downloading to your phone, then uploading via the app? Then again, can't imagine it'll be long before it's a subscription-based service from top to bottom It wasn't not already a blight on humanity in its Twitter form, but good lord, I audibly groan every time I read an article and it's all just referencing content from 'X, formerly known as Twitter'

No, it's more like 40 to 50 hours in a single playthrough. Just a bit of grinding in Clan Creator, which isn't particularly fun (so just stick on a podcast or something), besides that I think I got the rest of them pretty naturally in my playthrough just doing everything I'd normally do in a Yakuza game. Really makes you wonder what got into RGG when it comes to the trophy list on this one, seeing as Kiwami 2 and 3 - 5 Remastered all released after 6, and they all have trophy lists more in line with 0 and Kiwami (which is to say that they can get a little on the silly side, to put it lightly).

You're right – I think I just went with whatever the top option was by default and didn't even check the other option Yeah, I had the same thing happen! I tried one super early on with no upgraded suit tech/etc., went "yiiiiiiiiikes, that's a bit tight", and so just left the rest until I'd upgraded a bit more, and they were all a breeze and I had waaaaaaaay more time left! Yeah, I think I used it twice maybe in my playthrough? Which was when I first unlocked it for a district, just to see what it looked like, and then I wanted to test what it was like immediately after switching Spider-Men, to see if it played up at all Nice! Yeah I'd say go for it, it's a fun Plat, just really depends on what you've got left - if it's only combat trophies (which I'm guessing it is partially after getting 100%?) and potentially a location or two to visit, I guess it would just depend on if you feel like it becomes a grind. This was my 30th Plat, 5 of which are from Spidey games (Spider-Man PS4, Miles Morales PS5, Remastered PS5, and then Miles Morales PS4), so it's a bit funny to think ⅙ of my Plats are from these games but they're just exactly what I like in a Plat: story, some side exploration, and mastering the systems a bit for stuff like no-hit in a base or a 100x combo. With this game not having a no-hit or 100x combo trophy I think it's definitely the most doable/least grindy, and I'm really happy having played through these games to see Insomniac realise what might have been a bit silly/grindy (ahem, required completion of RNG crimes in the first game) and then refining the trophy criteria and resulting gameplay loop further as the games have gone on. It just feels really cohesive and like a natural evolution, whereas I look at a studio like Naughty Dog and watch how they've gone from some of the hardest trophy lists which are more than a bit of a challenge, to...whatever has been going on their last few games, where it seems a breeze and doesn't call for a challenge. Probably something to do with player retention, I imagine?

You know what we should tack onto a 60+ hour JRPG? Animal Crossing: Well there goes my 2024

New in-engine footage from today's Xbox Partner Preview: Yep, that's MGS3 in UE5 alright...

Correct - you do need to unlock it. @Happenstance has completed the game so I just assumed he'd got around to unlocking it. You don't need to equip suit mods in this game like in the first two, though. Suit tech stacks (other than for % modifiers and such, where the highest version you've unlocked and upgraded to is applied), so once you've upgraded to a certain point, everything you've unlocked will be applied from that point on.

Your playtime sounds about right - that pretty much leads into the end of the second act, so around ⅔ of the way through. In addition to this, collectibles not shown with a location on the map can be seen via the mini-map – so it's definitely worth keeping an eye on that bottom corner while you swing around. It also shows parts containers, including containers with rare parts.

Finished the game myself yesterday afternoon after 25 hours to get the Plat: Incredible technical accomplishment of a game wrapped up in an engaging story with super fun gameplay, and representing a big step up once again from Insomniac. The sky seems to be the limit on what they can do, and now I'm really curious to see how they choose to follow this game up - DLC? A sequel? Another half-sequel akin to Miles Morales? - but whatever they choose to do, I'll be onboard, and I also can't wait to see what route they go with Wolverine to help differentiate it. It hit every single one of those 90s animated series itches for me, especially with... There was less to say than I thought there would be about the ending other than to play the game and see it for yourself, because it's one hell of a finale, so I'll cap my thoughts off by saying that I found it really funny how... One of my favourite games of the year, for sure, and yet another dart in the board that is "2023 might be the greatest year for gaming of all-time." There's genuinely an argument to be made for 5-10 GOTYs this year and it's kind of silly. Anyways, the game sold over 2.5 million copies in 24 hours, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever! Well deserved Yeah, absolutely. I think the game really benefits from slowing down and showing other experiences in a way only games really can – it doesn't happen enough, but when it does, it definitely puts a smile on my face! To be fair, for as woke as Insomniac position themselves as being (which isn't at all a problem, despite the seemingly negative connotation that being "woke" seems to have over there in certain places), mixing up the Puerto Rican and Cuban flags in one of the year's biggest releases when one of your deuteragonists is a mixed race, half Puerto Rican character, and to have that mix up happen in and around his own home? It's a pretty huge gaffe. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt simply because I can't see the how or why of this being intentional, but as someone who clocked immediately that something was off, I'm absolutely shocked that none of their devs or testers picked up on it at all. They'll roll out a patch in the next day or two, if not somehow sooner, but yeah, it's a gaffe which, while surely an innocent mistake, has you doing one of these:

I'm at the tail end of the game now after sinking in 20+ hours over the weekend: maxed level, couple of suits left to get, all activities available completed, seen all but two side quest lines through to completion, completed all FNSM quests, and so on - point is I'm in a pretty good spot to talk about the game at length, but don't worry, no spoilers outside of tags to be found here (plus, I'll definitely some time to mull it all over when credits do roll). Got to imagine I'll wrap the story and Plat up in my next session unless something else comes up. It's rare that I sink 20+ hours into a game it's launch weekend - but not every game is the type of game you can sit down with for hours on end, constantly finding something new and fun to do or try out, but Spider-Man 2 certainly is. First things first: the technical aspect. The game's just so gosh darn purty. I ended up going with the Fidelity Mode, in the end because that's what I would have done with Spider-Man 2018 (if it were possible at launch) and did with Miles Morales; the smoothness of the gameplay can come in the eventual NG+ run, which just seems inevitable seeing as I've played the first game through to completion four times, and the same goes for Miles. It's also the first time I've actually chosen to leave motion blur on - the game's look and feel is perfect, and I know at a locked 30 fps that I'm not in for any surprise headaches, and heck, even chromatic aberration has stuck around for a change! Those are normally the first two things I turn off because any lag in frame rate with those on just makes me wanna hurl, but glad to report, felt nothing of the sort so far. Rays are traced and they're absolutely astonishing, and yes, plenty of screenshots have been taken. Some really nice lighting throughout, but again, nothing too surprising there: Insomniac has put out games at a decent enough clip this gen that it's not a shock that the game that looks as good as it does, even if it is a very noticeable step up from their recent games. The sound design is great. The use of haptics and adaptive triggers are a step up from their use in Miles and Remastered. I can go on and on about how great this game is technically, and the Fast Travel - once you unlock it, boo! - is a delight, as are plenty of transitions throughout the game very reminiscent of the portals we saw in Rift Apart, the most obvious example being the entrance to the Mysteriums (Mysterio's little fun mad house style things). Unfortunately, as ever with Insomniac on PS5, I haven't been without issue in this playthrough, so I'll mention it here purely so that it's been said and so that I don't need to talk about it again. I've had two crashes (only today, mind you), and I had crashes in Miles Morales at launch AND when I played through Remastered just a few weeks ago - what's funny is I can't remember 2018 crashing once on PS4, and having just finished replaying Miles for PS4, I didn't encounter anything there. Also had some funny animations, like pressing triangle at a desk to interact and my character deciding to walk in circles, enemies clipping into walls/floors (the funniest of which was one who got his head stuck in a wall and then his body ragdolled...okay it was funny but also kind of legitimately horrifying, and reminds me of some green jelly from Stein's;Gate - iykyk ). Most of this, though, I'd just file under typical open world jank - it's unfortunate, but it does just come with the territory for a game like this, as it hasn't really hindered my enjoyment, and besides, it's far from the worst offender I've played through this year (ahem, Jedi Survivor). With the technical stuff out of the way, let's talk about the gameplay! The Web Wings definitely took a minute to get used to, but I love them now as it just makes long distance travel across the map before Fast Travel is unlocked a bit more enjoyable and breezy. The open world itself I'm so glad threw out the Unisoft towers and instead decided to just have the player uncover the map more akin to old school JRPGs like Chrono Trigger - you know, by *actually* going somewhere on a map to fill it in? - and it just helps the pacing so much, and coupled with what I'd describe as a more natural (well, besides the blaring neon signs in some cases!) just makes exploring this New York actually FEEL LIKE EXPLORING. It freshens things up in such a nice way compared to the first two games, though I'm getting towards the end now and I still can't shake this feeling that this NY feels different and I find myself a little scrambled at times trying to get my bearings compared to the first two games - is it the new coat of paint? The faster traversal? The expanded map? It's probably a combination of all three, and it's by no means a bad thing, but it just feels...different. And it's not the super confusing decision to have the FRND drones at the start have standard flight controls when the glide controls of Peter and Miles are inverted by default - anyone else get a little annoyed at that? Something I think has been really hit and miss for me has been the inclusion of a Parry in this game, because honestly, it just seems superfluous to me in every case outside of a boss fight. The game seriously didn't need it, and while it can lead to some cool combat moments, this game simply doesn't have the combat mechanical depth of a God of War or a From Software for it to feel completely at home and worth investing time into to start getting it right, and it's not helped by it most commonly being appropriate in battles against brutes and a swarm of grunts who are going to overwhelm you while you wait around a bit to get that Parry off. Also not a fan of the AoE attacks that need you to jump; especially after so long with just dodging in the first two games, while I get that it's something new that allows for fresh ideas, I don't think either were absolutely necessary. As for the main story, I've seen things - plenty of things! - but think I'd rather wait until I've completed the game to talk about it, not least so I can hopefully talk to some of you about it. What I will say is that it took me back to the feeling of the Peter Parker I grew up on, and it got me misty-eyed just feeling thrown back through time at points, but this all brings me onto the side quests. The entire thing feels SUPER 90s Spider-Man TAS and Spider-Man for PS1, and I loooooooove it for it. This game has the best side quests of the year, and it's not close. No, I haven't played through BG3 all the way, but I've seen enough to know that none of them have anywhere near as immediate a narrative or emotional payoff as some of these do. I don't think any of them have ended without a smile on my face, and yes, two in particular got me to well up a bit, for personal reasons that I won't get into here. Also plenty of surprises for some quest lines, so let's jump into some spoiler tags to talk about these side quests! This all just adds to this feeling that, much more than the first two games, this world has Peter and Miles really involved in their communities and caring so much for them, it seriously has so much heart and wears it all on its sleeve - IGN might finally be justified in saying that this game really makes you feel like Spider-Man Well, more like preschooler Julius, because I was only 3 or 4 when I watched the 90s animated series (in the early 2000s, owning some of it on a VHS and all!) Which is clearly to say that my judgement was impeccable if that's anything to go by

Love a Digital Foundry tech review, so here's theirs for Wonder: Spoiler: it's glowing

Haven't watched too much anime this year, but last month I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time, as well as End of Evangelion. Thought the show was fantastic, it's really not hard to see why it caught on as much as it did, much less inspire as much as it has (it being so obvious an inspiration for Attack on Titan definitely makes me want to debate AoT being a mech anime with someone ). The last few episodes of the show and EoE...were, well, wild. Absolutely wild. Do I have a complete idea of what was going on? Nope. Did the creators? I genuinely also want to say no Also, it's so funny having heard bits and pieces over the last however many years it is now that I've got into anime about the show, and I feel like you can definitely age a person by who their favourite girl/s in Evangelion is/are. I'm not one for waifu/best girl culture, but it's so obviously Misato and Ritsuko that, yeah, it's clear a lot of people saying otherwise were kids/on the younger side when they first watched the show because, c'mon, GOOD LORD was Asuka annoying Anyways, this week I've re-watched Steins;Gate again, and I think that's the third time I've watched it. Yeah, it's still a 10/10, and it's still my favourite time travel story in any medium. I should really check out the game at some point, probably, huh? Now I'm just left debating whether or not I want to pick up another show between now and Pluto dropping next Friday.

Yeah, I'm also going to agree with @Happenstance and @drahkon that starting from the beginning with these games is what I'd recommend. None of these games are particularly long (you can 100% the first game in 30 hours at a pretty casual pace), and the story and character development, I find, were half the fun. But perhaps more importantly, because these games are AAA showpieces: I think it would be tough (not impossible, mind you) to start out with 2, a PS5 exclusive, and then go back to the older games, not because of how they look (because the PS5 versions of Spider-Man and Miles Morales both look fantastic), but because of the incremental improvements in design, gameplay, and tech from game to game. From what we know of 2 just from the marketing, things like faster traversal thanks to the newly introduced gliding mechanic, near-immediate fast travel to seemingly anywhere on the map, and the parry system are all very small but sizeable changes to the approach in design for the game. And, also, yeah - the price. I don't think I've paid a full £70 for any standard version of a AAA game at launch this gen (you'll struggle not to find them whittled down to £60 or a little over that, to be honest), and while the price doesn't bother me too much, I know it's enough of a reason to hold others back, whereas I imagine you could probably get Spider-Man (2018) and Miles Morales combined for less, especially if you dig around a little into the cheapest way to get to the PS5 versions of the games (through upgrades, Ultimate Editions, etc.). Would love to read your thoughts if and when you get to it

I was looking through this thread after recently playing through the PS4 version of the game and, nearly three years later, I have an answer because I heard it as well! And yes, this is totally a valid reason to revive a thread

Thanks, and ah, appreciate the heads-up! Will make sure to download the patch for sure Yeah, makes total sense to me - it's such a meaty game, and especially seeing as they like to dole out pretty nice updates on a regular basis, it doesn't seem like holding off does any particular harm! I'm in a funny spot with BG3 playing co-op exclusively right now I will say, and as much as I'm enjoying it, I have *thoughts* on the co-op mode and how it's played out so far, but I think I'll wait until my next session and Spidey 2 are both dusted off. I've really been enjoying it, as there's enough quality for it to shine through I think regardless of how you approach the game and which mode you play it in...but let's just say that I'm very deeply pondering the possibility of starting a solo playthrough sooner rather than later, and I'd love to do so before the year is up just so that I can fairly consider it for my own, personal GOTY deliberations. Like you, though, I think other games are probably going to take priority for me between now and December, as once Spidey 2 is out of the way I'd like to get back to Like A Dragon (which I started last year before Ragnarök cut off that playthrough) and Tears of the Kingdom (which I dropped off of for similar reasons to the first game - had a wonderful time but just found that I'd had my fill and then a shiny new toy in the form of FF XVI came along ), and hopefully round those off so that I don't find myself with two massive, half-completed games in my backlog when next year kicks off

Yeah, that's totally fair honestly, besides introducing a few threads that they'll pick up in 2 (and the obvious thread that they already picked up in Miles with Miles becoming Spider-Man), I don't think you missed out on anything that I'd say makes it absolutely essential to play through. There are some newly introduced enemy types which shake things up a bit, and one kind of cool boss fight, but otherwise...eh. I mean, besides the stuff with Black Cat. As someone who had a crush on the character as a kid thanks to the 90s cartoon... Hell yeah, love a good midnight gaming session – have a good time with it! Look forward to hearing your thoughts My copy has now shipped so it's either turning up later today or tomorrow, and I've got next week booked off, so I'm hoping to really dig my teeth into the game (and some others) during that time. The Friday launch and another of my friends playing the game does mean that it looks like my weekly BG3 co-op sesh is getting pushed to Saturday night, though

As someone who is a big proponent of this, and other tropes like carrying over save data, and fighting a final boss earlier in the game when you don't know they're the final boss...not too many come to mind? But I love this question. I'm going to take it that we're talking about fighting a previously playable protagonist from a previous game in a series (I can think of a few examples where it's true for newly introduced characters in the same game), and I'm also not going to count what goes down in cutscenes as fighting them, as, well, that'd probably be a super slippery slope. Yakuza does this a couple of times (I won't say who and in which games because those games are pretty story heavy), though I will say that it definitely helps that there are a couple of games where there are more than one playable protagonist. For the same series, to get really cute with it, though, and in one that I don't think is going to spoil the games (because he's on the cover of the game), you fight Majima in a couple of games when he technically first becomes playable in a main series Yakuza game in the prequel to the series Yakuza 0, after having shown up previously in every main series Yakuza game before this released (so, every main series entry up to and including 5), so that kind of retroactively fits the bill for those games? As well as if you started with 0, which most introduced to the games since the PS4 (including myself) started with. He's also playable in Dead Souls, which released before this, as well as a special, optional player chapter in Kiwami 2. One of my favourite (and currently active) PlayStation IPs does this too...and I'll say which, but in a spoiler tag, so click at your own risk, and it's really hard to say more than that without potentially giving it away. Seriously. This is your last warning. It's a game that's released since I joined the forums, if that narrows it down at all. I think that's all I've got in the tank for games I've played To add to this a sec, as I'm having a hard enough time wracking my brain for answers as it is – I think Red is already the absolutely quintessential answer to this question, but I have to imagine he's also the answer where it applies the most, too? What with him also being able to be challenged in Black 2/White 2 during the Pokémon World Tournament, as well as in Sun/Moon at the Battle Tree, and in the Let's Go games? I'll also admit that I'm actually really shocked that they didn't do this again in Black 2/White 2 with the protagonist of Black/White. I'm not someone who screams Gen I bias a lot when it comes to Pokémon games, but I genuinely can't think of any reason to not have the B/W protagonist not show up in B2/W2 other than it needing to be seen as Red's thing - and to further this, the bias seems to ring especially true here seeing as the PWT could have very easily served to also have other protagonists from the main series games turn up.

Reviews are in and they're looking pretty spectacular - currently sitting at a 93 on Metacritic and 92 on Opencritic. Don't know when I'll get around to playing this, but man, what a fantastic year it's been for new releases. We've been absolutely spoiled rotten in 2023

Per Empire, the UK release of The Boy and The Heron is set for Boxing Day of this year. Additionally, the English voice cast has been announced, and it is S T A C K E D, including Ghibli VA returns for Christian Bale (Howl, Howl's Moving Castle) and Mark Hamill (Colonel Muska, Castle in the Sky; he was also the Mayor of Pejite in Nausicäa, but, well, that's technically not Ghibli ). Can't wait

Oh, 60 fps for sure. My TV doesn't support VRR, but even if it did, I think I'd lean towards 60 fps anyways after experiencing both Spider-Man and Miles Morales at that frame rate, it's just too hard to go back plus, I use the Photo Mode a whole lot in these games (because they're so darn pretty!) so get to see what things look like in Fidelity Mode quite a bit anyways! Great to hear Yeah, the stealth sections in that game are funny, because it serves the purpose of slowing down the pace for a bit after/around major story beats and setpieces...which is completely null if the person playing is doing side content, which naturally slows things down anyways, and so getting to those sections just grind things to a halt. What's funny is, I've played through the game four times now in total, meaning I've approached it a few different ways at this point, and I'm still undecided about the game's approach to its pacing, because it's basically an either/or. If you play through the game doing everything, everywhere, all at once? I think the pacing tanks at those stealth sections and in the final act following the change in world state (which slows down/changes traversal approach and brings perhaps a bit too much new to the table in terms of open world side content right at the game's apex). If you play focusing purely on the story? The stealth sections are well placed to bring down the game's pace when the story calls for it, and the story's pacing doesn't falter nearly as much in the final act as it would otherwise. Also reminds me of Yakuza a little bit with how short (but epic) that final battle is, but giving the option to get sidetracked before the finale means that some people might go in with higher and lengthier expectations of a final confrontation than plays out. It's not an issue, of course, it really depends on how you want to approach the game, but it's something I've definitely noticed happening a lot more over the past few years. The Star Wars Jedi games are another prime example of games with so much side content that the story pacing suffers a bit for it, and so two different playthroughs focusing on either story or completion offers up two very different experiences. I've rambled on enough, but I think Miles went a long way to fixing some of those concerns, with a bit of a smarter balance when it comes to side content (the volume as well as being able to trigger certain crimes on a whim) and longer cutscenes making the game a bit leaner and ironing out that pacing. If Spider-Man 2 can get closer to that, retain the emotional resonance of the stories of the two games that came before, and offer some new things up mechanically - all of which it seems to do based on trailers and some of the scores floating around - then I really think we're in for a treat! Did you get around to playing the The City That Never Sleeps DLC by any chance? Curious on your thoughts on that if you did, as it's pretty different to the base game in some ways but a nice segue into Miles Morales

Yeah, honestly, think this could just be a blanket statement for Insomniac games at this point – they've absolutely got my full trust and I don't feel like I need to watch a second of reviews or commentary, because I'm onboard (especially after how good the first two Spidey games were!). There's a very easy argument to be made I think that they're the best in the biz and have been for a hot minute now alongside Nintendo EPD (because, I mean, well) and From Software (because, I mean, well) for their sheer output in both quality and quantity. Will admit that I read the highlights of the DF tech review, though, mainly to try to figure out what mode I'll play the game in! Which will probably be Performance Mode (shocker), because it's very hard to go back from 60 fps in a game like this...so thank JJJ for Photo Mode incorporating Fidelity Mode Nice! How did you find it? I replayed it for the first time since 2020 (prep for Miles) just a couple of weeks ago myself and got the Plat (again) in the Remastered version too. Some things just can't be helped

Launch trailer dropped yesterday, and reviews are abound today! Trailer: Reviews: Just 4 days to go!!