Julius

Unsurprisingly, the trailer for the game has reached 60 million views in just 12 hours on YouTube, already breaking the 24 hour record for a non-music video (previously held by Mr Beast, which was 46 million views for a video in August of this year), and is currently tracking to break the 24 hour record for any video (the record is 108 million for Dynamite by BTS). Not surprising, but crazy stuff. Also, side note, I knew South Korea had been flexing it's soft power of late (Blackpink got MBEs the other week?), but I didn't realise that 9 (!!!) of the current top 10 most viewed videos in 24 hours are by K-Pop groups (BTS and Blackpink; the odd one out is Taylor Swift at #9). That's wild. Anyways, watched the trailer a few more times, and it's grown on me. It might be an 8. Still nothing absolutely mind-blowing after Red Dead Redemption II, I don't think, but it just raises so many questions. Like, are pets a thing? It looks like pets are a thing? If so – is that our pet 'gator busting into that convenience store?! In all seriousness, though, and there only being one PS5 out there aside: the Pro is rumoured for and expected by the end of next year, so...probably get 30+ fps on that thing? I'd be shocked if this game ran at 60 fps on that thing, but then again, Cerny pulled off some pretty crazy things with the PS4 Pro, so maybe he'll sauce this one up real nice too.

A couple more details about the game courtesy of Take Two's press release, including that the games are first coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S: Not really a surprise that it's dodging PC at launch considering Rockstar's launch history. Back at the end of October an 11-page patents file was discovered relating to the game's development from earlier in the year (Kotaku), and someone on Reddit put it into layman's terms: I hate that this helps us to age the guy who uploaded it more than anything It's definitely crazy to see them so casually being all "uh, guys, over here please?" and have it be a guaranteed top Twitter post in terms of interaction

Trailer for No Return: Looks like great fun! You know what would make it better? CO-OP! (seriously though ND if you aren't on this already get on it pleaseeeeeeee)

Death, taxes, and leaks. After all the nonsense over the weekend with Rob Garbut's son('s friend? alleged friend?) and the leaks way back of alpha footage, seems like this game just can't catch a break. 2025 is definitely further out than I think we all expected, especially off the back of the Take Two shareholder stuff earlier this year, but, well, can't exactly say I'm short of games to play, so I'm happy to wait as long as needed, especially seeing as the culture at Rockstar has reportedly been shaken up quite a bit since Red Dead Redemption II's launch and crunch in the build-up to said launch. I'm hoping that this is just a case of them doing right by their people if it's not just simply a case of wanting to make sure the game releases in the best state possible. Definitely a shame it leaked, but absolutely the right move to just drop the trailer: once it was out there, in any form, it was out there for good, and they might as well own it and immediately take the power away from the leaker/s. These two minutes will always be the perfect characterisation of leakers to me, in no way do leakers like these ever deserve the two seconds of highs they're looking for. Neither, though I personally don't know what they could've shown me to bowl me over with GTA VI. It's not like I have any attachment to Vice City or any real attachment to the other GTA games either, so you'd need to wow me with gameplay, which like you said, they just didn't want to show off here which is probably the right call. They've at least got the Miami vibe down and parodied as much as it needs to be in this day and age, and I'm very curious about the decision of having a female protagonist who is a person of colour while then also having a kinda generic looking white guy as the other protag. I do kind of adore the cut at 60s with the drum beat and the guy going through the table, though and I do like their music choice here, as I always seem to with their games and trailers, even if I will 100% be blasting The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again the entire time I play this game (thanks, CSI: Miami)! I will commend them for at least using in-engine footage, though (even if it was most likely captured on PC). CGI trailers can be great for setting the tone in very rare instances for insanely hyped games, but otherwise, I find it laughable just how many publishers try to get away with them in the AAA space. I think it's sad that they've had a mini resurgence of sorts since COVID, it feels like we're sliding back to 2016 in one too many ways for my liking. Red Dead Redemption II's first trailer blows this one out of the water, for me For those who have watched it, what would you rate it /10? I think it's a solid 7 – gets the job done, hints at some gameplay elements and raises some questions (dual protags? potential further interaction with vehicles besides just standing on top of them or sitting in them? potential further ways to interact with NPCs suggested by the stick-up?), solid track choice, but doesn't really do anything to blow me away. It sets the tone for me that this game and it's marketing isn't going to look to overcomplicate and over promise – and that's exactly where we should be with the game over a year out and promising to break records anyways. It's hard to say without having a HUD up (or at least a playable camera angle?) and almost certainly running on PC, but I actually think this not feeling mind-melting in any way is a good sign that it's going to be not too far off from what we end up with. Some aesthetic choices aside and it being set in the modern day, it doesn't look like a huge leap from Red Dead Redemption II – maybe just a single step up the ladder, mainly from increased onscreen population (seeing way more people in one place than I remember ever really seeing in the whole of RDR2) and other things like vehicle speed vs horses calling for faster load-in of assets and textures, etc. This seems to me that it's more like a sidestep to focus on what's under the hood of this engine in terms of interactivity with NPCs and so on. The amount of crocodiles turning up also just had me going "well, now that I think about it, Miami makes PERFECT sense if you're building off the fauna in Red Dead II!" Personally, I'll be shocked if this isn't locked 30 fps (or thereabouts) on current consoles, simply because Rockstar seems like it's the kind of studio full of perfectionists. Anything more than that is going to be saved for the next-gen and next-next-gen remasters, of course

Thanks @Hero-of-Time @Ike @Dcubed I think what I'll do for now is pick up Kaico's PS2 to HDMI, as it's already in stock, and sign up for the newsletter to see when the Rad2x ends up back on stock, then see if it's something I feel the need for when it gets back in stock Any thoughts on playing PS1 games on PS2 over PS3, or vice versa?

Got a couple of questions now that I'm thinking of breaking out the PS2 and picking up some PS1 games; aware that I could Google some of this stuff, but so many threads end up devolving into pumping out lists of technical terms and acronyms, so figured I'd ask here to hopefully cut through some of that stuff: • for a PS2 to HDMI adapter, is something like Kaico's PS2 to HDMI best? Or is there another adapter that would be recommended over that one? • for playing PS1 games, I imagine the general consensus is going to be that it plays best on the original hardware – but, while I do still have my old PS1 kicking around at my parents' house, I'd like to keep the number of consoles in my TV console (heh) down. So, would it be recommended that I play PS1 games on PS2 or on PS3? I have one of those old fat PS2s, for reference, and I can't remember having any issues playing any of my PS1 games on it back in the day. Appreciate any thoughts and direction with this! really looking forward to seeing my PS2 again, it's been a while

Finished this off earlier tonight. Alright, firstly, seems like now Nagoshi's left it's clear that someone else at RGG is responsible for the craziness that is the hostess clubs, because it was seriously dialled up to eleven here with some of those dates definitely felt a bit more awkward having IRL footage with ring lights reflecting on the hostesses eyes, especially the glances at the really awkwardly placed script (the bottom centre of the screen...really?!) and them all seemingly wanting to rest their hand in the same spot (just out of frame, again at the bottom centre of the screen...really?!?!). It's been an interesting year for horny AAA games (Zelda fan art, XVI, Armored Core VI fan art, Baldur's Gate III) , and this might just be the horniest and most depraved of the bunch very cultured lot over there at RGG, that's for sure Anyways, as for the actual story events of the final chapter... Spent a good chunk of my final session at the arcade, by the way, and damn - as ever in these virtual arcades - was that some good fun loved Virtua Fighter (again, as I always do), using Charlie and kick juggling in Viper Fighters 2 kicking people through the side of the arena was coooooooool, Sonic the Fighters was neat and so was SEGA RACING CLASSIC 2, but Motor Raid might be the highlight for me this time around! An entire racing game which basically has the motorcycle FF VII chase mechanics is perfect Something I noticed throughout the game but thought I'd wait to comment on until I'd finished up is the narrative QTEs in this game: there are surprisingly few, it feels like, compared to other games in the series...but it also seems like there were a whole bunch of them cut? Throughout the game there are certainly moments of slowdown, for example someone jumping you from behind a door, which in other games is 100% a QTE, but wasn't here. I know this was developed in six months, so maybe they had some outlined and just forgot to cut the slowdown when they got to it? Seemed very strange, whatever the reason For those who have finished the game, let's get to speculating about something... Overall, while a bit rough around the edges at times, Gaiden is yet another fantastic entry into the Yakuza/Like A Dragon tapestry. It's shorter, much shorter (I think it's the first time I've spent less than 40 hours with an RGG game since...4?), and so much of the content here is propped up in side content, but it maintained all the same stupid, fun, hilarious and tearjerking melodrama that this series has come to be known and loved for. It's amazing what they achieved in such a short period with this game, and they've added a great roster of new characters we could potentially see return in the future. I would love to see more Gaiden games if it props the series up between entries at a time when game dev seems to be getting longer and more taxing across the board, but the question is, who do we get a side story of next? Majima? Saejima? Akiyama? Heck, do we fill out the stories of some major players from earlier games, like Dojima, Ryuji Goda...or heck, throw it way back and experience a completely different era of Kamurocho through the lens of a rising Kazama? That would be really interesting! Last but not least, I have to get this off my chest: I think it's a shame that this game released when it did in the year, and in a series as long as this one where so many people won't get to Gaiden while they procrastinate on playing the rest of the games, because I feel Takaya Kurada should have been recognised here for his work as Kiryu's VA. He knocks it out of the park in every game - has done for a long time - but he crushed this opportunity to show off greater range and subtle differences here, which really meant no punches were pulled when it came to some of the heavier moments in the game. Kudos to him and to RGG, and roll on Infinite Wealth!

The fact that even Anthony freaking Taylor of all people was on the sidelines with a face screaming "oh Simon, you utter twonk!" says all that needs to be said about that decision. I don't understand how these refs just keep getting worse. There was definitely a point not too long ago where you could look at refs and their decisions and think there's some level of corruption or club allegiance or insider betting, but maybe Occam's Razor really is always what we need all along, because these guys seriously seem way too inept to consciously mess up a football match. Anyways, some cracking goals in that Liverpool game today, and nice to see us pick up some points in the consistently inconsistent way we have done for a while now, bringing us to a grand total of...19 points in 14 games. Fantastic stuff lads.

Hype trailer for the TGAs: Roll on stupid o'clock on Friday morning

Sees Armored Core VI (also, great write-up on MK1 )

Went to Birmingham Comic Con with some mates yesterday; brought a bit of cash with me, but didn't really expect that I'd come across anything I'd be genuinely interested in (as I'm still living in an apartment and like not feeling overwhelmed by hoards of stuff ). Naturally, the very first stall we hit up ended up being a big retro games stall, with probably a few hundred retro games, and it was very busy (turned out to be the only big gaming stall there). It was set out with two rows consisting of big chunky boxes filled with games on tables, but because of the layout, you could barely make out/reach the back boxes, and with it being so busy too, shuffling around was a bit awkward. Working from the right of the store to the left (where the checkout was), I started scanning over the PS2 games, and nothing with an English title was really catching my eye; there were some okay games, but nothing that had me really getting excited. Then, I started to flick through the Japanese PS2 titles they had, which was probably ¾ of the size of their English PS2 offerings. Flicked through the first box of Japanese games, and well: I picked out Shadow of the Colossus, and well, even if I can't play it, it just seemed right to have it in Japanese and a great way to commemorate a game I love (also I've been thinking about buying the Japanese art book for the game, so this happening felt like fate ). The box looks awesome, it's one of my favourite games, it wasn't too pricey: absolutely getting that. And the game next to it in the box? Not one but two copies of ICO, in really nice condition! It was a bit pricier compared to some of the other games they were selling (which makes sense) but by no means an unfair amount to ask for, so I copped one of those, too don't have the same level of attachment to it as I do Shadow, but it's still a damn fine game. A quick flick through had me find Japanese copies of Dragon Quest VIII and the PS2 version of Dragon Quest V, so there were definitely some pretty nice Japanese copies here! Following this we flicked through and shuffled past the English PS1 titles, which weren't anything crazy or noteworthy, and then it was past the Xbox 360 titles and onto the PS3 ones, which were overwhelmingly Japanese copies. Started to flick through these but nothing was really catching my eye, and then one of my mates pointed out Dark Souls II – while it has really nice cover art, I've not played the game and the attachment isn't there to own a Japanese copy of it, so I'll pass. What came to mind instantly, though, was if they would have a Japanese version of Dark Souls, which I think has one of the finest examples of modern box art, and I've seen thrown around in favourite box art lists online for years. But how would I find it? All of these games were in boxes filled chock-a-block and with only their spines with Japanese text showing...so I grabbed the Dark Souls II and studied it's spine: black, what I imagine is 'Dark Souls' or something to that effect in Japanese, and then a '2'. Okay, well, I don't speak Japanese, but I can match two patterns well enough, so I just need to find this text on a spine, and I imagine there's a good chance the spine is black (which would help it stand out as so many of these other spines were white). I must've looked a bit off, like a video game collecting version of Indiana Jones, as I started holding up the copy of Dark Souls II at eye level and flashing glances at the games lined up. Nothing in this box, nothing in that box...how about that black spined game at the back, well out of reach? The text...it matches up! And sure enough, that was a Japanese copy of Dark Souls, and the only one they had after retrieving it some guy walking past over my shoulder went and commented on the Japanese copy of Dark Souls II, before I showed him what I'd just grabbed, and he smiled and laughed as if to say "you lucky SOB" After that pretty epic find, I continued to flick through the PS3 games, but I don't think anything was going to be more interesting to me than finding that copy of Dark Souls. While doing this, though - shoulder-to-shoulder with other game collectors - out of the corner of my eye to my left and in the boxes of Japanese PS1 games, a guy is flicking through when suddenly a very familiar cover - for the teeniest fraction of a second - flashes through my periphery. Out loud: wait...was that Suikoden? We slowly shuffle away over as more people leave the scene, and I'm trying to keep quiet about spotting Suikoden so no-one else picks it up, and sure enough, it was! Yeah, sure, I'd prefer an English copy, but they're stupidly expensive and I already own the game digitally, so this is a nice way to just appreciate the game and have it take up some space on my shelf, which is fully deserved. Suikoden got picked up. Continued to flick through their Japanese PS1 games, unfortunately they didn't have a copy of Suikoden II I could pair it with, but still, they had a really nice selection of Japanese PS1 games, which were overwhelmingly JRPGs! I got so close to picking up JP copies of Final Fantasy IX and Tactics, but talked myself down, but damn did they look so clean. These were all in thin plastic sleeves, so when I got back I started opening them up, and found that I absolutely adored the disc art for ICO and Shadow of the Colossus: While I had a great time at the Con in general, this being the first stall just meant everything else was a comedown from that point on. Outside of things like CeX, this is the first time I've flicked through retro games in this way, I think, ever? I've ordered all of my other purchases in this thread online. Everything was in decent condition, I forgot how much I missed the weightiness of these boxes being packed with manuals and the like, it was nice to just exchange small talk with other JRPG and/or PS1 fans (a guy came over and specifically was like "yo, where your PS1 JRPGs at?" ). The haul of Japanese copies of these awesome games came to the grand total of..! £60! The entire experience has got me considering picking up more retro games - it was really fun and exciting, I had an absolute blast just looking through - and if I do so, I think I'll be making a concerted effort to do so in-person when and where I can; as it turns out, a very highly rated retro games store is only around 20 minutes from where I live and it's one I actually passed hundreds of times on my way to college, so I think I'll need to make a point drop by in the next few weeks. I'm still going to figure out the intricacies of what I would and wouldn't want to pick up for the sake of my wallet, especially with so many games being remastered and on modern consoles these days, but yeah, I think it'll be time to pick up an HDMI adapter soon and break out the PS2, too, because the whole thing certainly put me in the mood

Booted this up again tonight as my friend has slowly been chipping away at it and unlocked Nest, the online PvP mode. Wiped the floor with him with my Tristan MK-I build for well over an hour, but eventually he figured out that a tanky build might work best (I'd mentioned before about the tanky builds being broke, the Songbirds and to fly up when using them, etc.), and yeah...it was no longer as intense or as fun for either of us the only way to combat it, really, was with a tanky build of my own, so we were just there like a bunch of little kids bashing these big ol' goofy mechs against each other the high HP, high defense stats and being able to fit the hardest hitting weapons to it really makes the game play so differently, in a way I personally didn't enjoy (not because I started losing, but more because there was very little skill involved when we both landed on the same tanky build). While I absolutely loved my time playing through Armored Core VI with a very speedy build, it simply doesn't translate to PvP well, where tanky builds - like in the main game, I guess, seeing some of the meta builds after I beat the game - reign supreme. By all means, the adage "play how you want to play" applies perfectly here, and I think it will help my friend to push through the game some more and hopefully face a bit more of a challenge with some of the bosses, which would be cool. I just think that with the next game they should really try to balance things a bit more. The trade-off feels like it should be that the faster build is equal in that though it has less health it can dodge the attacks easier and more consistently, but the area of effect of some of the shoulder weapons are insane and just make it a bit of a no-go, so it doesn't work out that way, and so you end up unable to keep up and have way less health while doing so. I beat him a couple of times in the end and had some close run-ins but it wasn't anywhere near as fun as the more skilful battles we had early on with both of using lighter mechs Anyways, our different approaches to the controller is also very funny, as I can his button-mashing while I'm calmly going through the motions on my end I think I'm going to give an anti-tank build some thought and testing, though, so if nothing else, this seems a brilliant excuse to return to the game here and there

Googles it Hope you've had/are having a great time in Italy, and glad to hear everything was good with your medical appointment!

Already anticipating waking up on Wednesday morning to "the most viewed trailer in 24 hours...ever" Yeah, I think the end of 2024 is the best bet, and with GTA V releasing in September and Red Dead Redemption II in October, I have to imagine it'll be September/October again. It's going to be really interesting to see games hold out for/move their release date when we learn the game's release date, that's for sure! The truth is though that the game could shadow drop tomorrow with no advertising and break records by Monday, so honestly, they really could drop it whenever. As a trailer and marketing lover, though: please don't do that, Rockstar

Just some trace hints at the planned DLC from Director Hiroshi Takai at the PlayStation Awards: More at the TGAs?

Concept art and a model for Wapeach from Mario Power Tennis has turned up, courtesy of Waluigi's creator: Is...is that an axe? Anyways, the degenerates are going to have a field day with this one

From an interview at the PlayStation Awards, Lead Producer Yasuhiro Kaito has said that the DLC is "still a little ways off, but progress is going well." So...that'll be any time between mid-to-end Q1 and the end of 2024, then Just please be at the TGAs...please. I need a trailer. Heck, maybe just another piece of concept art. I need something. (it is getting to that point where I'm considering replaying the game just to try out another build and refresh myself on everything before the DLC lands, though)

That's 14:00 GMT and a very accessible release time internationally, around the time in the day of a good few E3 conferences of old. Will be surprised if it's not shown at the TGAs Thursday night at some point. More than anything with VI, just not knowing much about what they're actually doing with it, I'm most curious to see how they market this. I think Red Dead II's first trailer was a little over a minute from what I remember, which would seem perfect for this, and looking it up GTA V's was just under a minute and a half – but I wonder if they'll give any thought to short-form video platforms like Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts and TikTok, and so squeeze this into 60 seconds or less? I guess they could always get special cuts but doing something like that would definitely be along the lines of PlayStation just dropping the PS5 logo on Instagram to make it as shareable as possible. But then it's also seemingly much further along and closer to release than either of those games were when first officially shown off (if those financial projections are anything to go by), so maybe they do shake things up a bit more with a longer trailer (I doubt it for the shareable reasons, but still, I think it's worth considering). Also curious to see if Online gets any attention in this trailer considering just how big it is now, but I think that might be best saved for a deep dive when first shown (and, please, an outrageously good character creator!). Roll on Tuesday

Earlier this week I saw the end of Chapter 4 play out, and then cleared out everything at The Castle, the rest of the Akame Requests, and of course Amon. The Castle was interesting, there's definitely a lot of busy work and running around which was definitely a bit of a pain up until the fast travel around the place unlocked. Generally had an okay time as I was going through, though one or two team events had me grinding things out for certain characters to be of a higher level/bond, and the weird lack of strategy beyond this with characters feels a bit odd – would love future Coliseums to build on this with team outfits or something just so that you can assign/have shared resistances in a very simple way to add a bit more depth, but also to help lessen the currently necessary need to grind. And I say this as someone who likes grinding, it just didn't feel fulfilling because there's little depth added by levelling up The Justice fight seemed pretty dumb up until I changed to Chicken Head and shot him and the others up, very weird that that's the only one I found myself needing to change characters for, but didn't take long once I found the right character to play as Loved the Four Kings stuff story-wise and some of their 1v1 fights, Ugajin was definitely the highlight. I find the fights in these games definitely feel best when it's not just a Square + Triangle mash-fest, but instead goes back to the feel of PS2 bosses, with basic patterns to learn and funny AI to take advantage of. For Ugajin I remember it was to sprint away from his drones until they fell away, mash X to escape his lasso, dodge once to the side while he charges up his attack, then wail on him until his drones have turned back up, and rinse and repeat. It's good stuff and is one of the few times I've found the combat in this game has been really rewarding. As for that final Coliseum fight... Eventually I ended up facing off against Amon, and that is by far the best Amon fight I've experienced in these games (other times I've faced off against an Amon have been in 6, Judgment, and LAD). Once you get what the deal is, again, it feels like an old PS2 boss, and that second phase turning out to be a war of attrition with his ability to gain health on successful hits is just Gave up on the rest of the Stroll 'n Patrol missions once I saw the stupid amount that unlocked later on, turns out I did enough in Chapter 2 to see me through the rest of the level gates the game had to throw my way anyways, thankfully I'll likely finish this up in my next session with the game, and I'm really excited to see how the rest plays out. I say this but knowing how 6 and LAD had me at times towards the end, I'm probably in for an emotional gut punch or two I'd imagine

December 7th! Yeah, I'll probably wait to see what they do about microtransactions and a potential future console release if I'm ever going to get this

First trailer for Furiosa: How was Fury Road already nearly a decade ago?!

Big ol' Patch 5 has been released after a few days of tidbits coming out. And it's a big one (both in number of updates and size)! Physical Xbox edition confirmed to include Patch 5, still TBC for PlayStation from what I can see.

Surprised this didn't already have a thread, but hey, it looks like we might be getting some news soon as it has now been rated by the Australian ratings board. Something big next week at the TGAs, perhaps? Previous trailers Announcement Trailer – The Game Awards 2019 Gameplay Reveal – The Game Awards 2021 Facial Animation Showcase – State of Unreal 2023 The Senua Trailer – Xbox Games Showcase 2023

Essentials for this month, available from 5th December to 1st January: Been curious about all of these at some point or another, so not a bad month

New trailer from today's Level 5 event, also with the news that this has been delayed to 2025: