Julius

While I continue to procrastinate on updating the Gaming Diary thread for the first time this year, one of my aims for the year was to get through the God of War games I could before Ragnarök launches. For some odd reason they're not all available as part of the new PS Plus, and I just don't like being beholden to streaming, so now that we know Ragnarök coming in November, I decided to pull the trigger: (Not pictured: God of War III Remastered, because it's on PS4, and kind of not retro? Wait, is PS3 even considered retro? Well it is to me ) Looking forward to playing through these for the first time in the next few months before I replay God of War (2018) to get ready for Ragnarök

Played through Twilight of Edo Japan last night. Got The Near Future left, and then it's onto whatever is beyond that, I'll probably need to do some grinding I imagine if/when these characters all come together. I'm out tonight so probably won't get back to it until the weekend, but while I think the game is a bit of a mixed bag of efforts, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all concludes.

Yeah, it being the same solution as it is on Switch now is very underwhelming. It's something, but it's not exactly great, as while it achieves some level of (hidden) organisation, who exactly is this helping and what problem is this fixing? Digital games are still getting buried Like you say, it can't be that hard to implement having them appear on the main screen, and it's nuts that the PS5 is missing features which are still available on the PS4. The same can be said for themes; I think it's actually pretty embarrassing that they continue to award PS4 themes for things like the end of year recap without having them available on PS5.

Oh yeah, I totally agree. 1440p is going to be great for most gaming with a monitor these days, I'm honestly surprised it's taken nearly two years for it to even end up in beta! I've just been asking for folders for forever, so may have some deeply ingrained bias resulting in my previous statement

New beta out today for any beta testers: The important one: Gamelists (basically folders...kind of); Unfortunately, sounds similar to the current solution on Switch, which is to bury it inside your Library rather than throwing it up front and centre on the home screen Still, it's better than nothing – hopefully we don't need to wait too long for a wider release!

To add to what @drahkon said, it also seems like Yakuza 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2 were added back to the service earlier this month after leaving in December (per VGC)? Which is honestly even weirder. So, basically I'm just imagining a scenario where Phil Spencer and Hermen Hulst (let's be honest Jim Ryan ain't doing the dirty work) are waiting around in the SEGA lobby and then occasionally doing this to the guy in reception, with no words exchanged:

All of the mainline Yakuza titles are coming to PS Plus this year: Like A Dragon as part of the PS Plus free games in August (available at all tiers), which will also see 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2 arrive on the service (available at Extra and Premium tiers). The remainder of the Kiryu saga (Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life) will be on the service by the end of the year. The Remastered titles will be exclusive to Premium, whereas Yakuza 6 will be available at both Extra and Premium tiers.

Well, that was a fast turnaround:

Yeah, there's a Disney live-action remake coming in September and Del Toro's stop-motion film coming in December. There's also a Russian direct-to-DVD animated film called Pinocchio: A True Story which released back in February, which...looks like a mid-2000's DreamWorks film. For the darker live-action version are you maybe talking about The True Story of Pinocchio? It looks like it's won a slew of film festival awards over the last few years, but I can't seem to find a release date for it.

Hats off to Rockstar, as it sounds like they have really taken some great actions after the talks of crunch and frat-like behaviour leading up to and following the release of Red Dead Redemption II. Also: sounds like we're getting our first playable female character in modern Rockstar games. Good stuff. Obviously, we'll need to keep an eye out for updates and the proof will be in the pudding, but the fact that it sounds like the steps they've taken has slowed down production on GTA VI but they're sticking with it seems a good sign that they're committed to these changes. Hopefully we continue to see some other AAA studios start to wake up and make similar changes. UPDATE: some more details on the game, as well as some details about the changes made at Rockstar.

First full trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio:

So this is awesome: they built the flutes seen in the game for the game's music recordings!

Potential games for August have leaked: Damn, that's a stacked month if true. I own all of them already (boo), but it might be the kick up the behind I need to start Like A Dragon soon(ish)

Schreier/Bloomberg reporting that this has been indefinitely delayed.

Yeah, I played through and posted thoughts on Ancient China yesterday (got lost on the last page) in short: loved it, easily the best chapter I've played so far. It's funny with this game how much people playing in different orders has really highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the game in unique ways, and at different points for everyone, to the point that I do wonder if momentum going into the last part of the game will see a wide swathe of opinions on how it concludes. While I think there are some good ideas (I said it on the last page, but seriously, someone needs to mix the Present Day and Imperial China up into a cocktail of a JRPG and really zero in on it, that'd be right up my alley), I just think they lack depth resulting from little/no exploration and, frankly, not enough time. There are trace elements of a JRPG in there but going from chapter to chapter, it's not really clear why this is a JRPG. In hindsight, it was probably made one more because it was what they knew at the time, and was a relatively simple way of translating their thoughts into a game. I agree with you on it feeling like a 16-bit RPG tech demo, I said something along similar lines... *checks notes* That's what I posted after playing through four chapters, but honestly, it's how I felt after the first two (Prehistory and The Distant Future), which just made for a super weak start to the game. I think I enjoyed The Wild West and Present Day more because they were so lean compared to those chapters, again just goes to show how easy it is for the progression order to have an impact. Can't imagine how letdown I'd be if I'd played Imperial China and [insert another good chapter, by the sounds of it The Near Future?] first and then being left with the rest of the game to kick on with. Again: there are good ideas, but just some really muddled execution. Still got a fair bit to go though, so hopefully it improves a bit from this point!

The Hollywood Reporter are reporting that Destin Daniel Cretton (the director of Shang-Chi) will be directing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Hell of a jump if true, but if there's anyone that knows the people on these films and if they're up to the challenge of tackling an Avengers film, it's going to be Feige!

Some more details on PSVR2 (the PS Blog says they'll be sharing launch details soon): Key details:

Early review scores are looking really good!

It hasn't arrived yet and I don't play Fortnite, but it seems to run great on the Steak Deck from what I can see on YouTube (though it does require additional setup, as you need to use the Epic Games Store to download Fortnite on PC these days!):

Played through Imperial China, which was the fifth chapter I played through. That leaves me now with Twilight of Edo Japan and The Near Future left to do, think I'll likely do them in that order based on the mixed reception here that I've seen to the former and the much more positive reception seen for the latter, and then it'll be stepping into the unknown. Yeah, I agree. Megalomania is a really hectic and fun track but man...there's so much which could have been done here to keep it fresh! For example: a secondary melody or B-section based on the time period you're in, using the instruments used for the other themes in said time period? It would have got the point across still but just added a nice depth and some new flavour to it rather than forcing a great track down your throat until you relent

So, this is awesome: a new secret room has been found in NieR: Automata which no-one else has been able to access. That if it is a mod means whoever modded it is leaps and bounds beyond what the game's modding is currently capable of is also just something crazy to think about too. Love stuff like this

I've never had to deal with Steam Support before but from what I've read since it seems like they're top tier. I may have cheekily mentioned this would be my first real step into the Steam ecosystem too just to give them a little nudge Maybe it's just poor experiences with Nintendo's (my brother just spent two months going back and forth with them, and through multiple Switch units, to get his sorted through warranty) and PlayStation's supports, but I was expecting them to take much longer to respond, let alone actually giving me another chance to pick it up. Again: godlike. I like to think Gabe smiled down on me Friday morning Awesome, cheers for linking those! Will definitely take a look as playing the Deck on the TV is a huuuuuuuuuge part of me wanting to pick one up

I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately got that vibe Didn't get the chance to play yesterday thanks to adulting (woo... ) but from the sounds of it, Near Future or Ancient China might be the ones up next on my agenda. Bit of a shame the Twilight of Edo sounds like a little bit of a mixed bag going off this thread (at the very least in its layout), though, as I was looking forward to being a ninja! I say that like it's a rare occurrence: I'm always looking forward to being a ninja

Well, my Steam Deck reservation expired on Thursday. Checked the website last Monday at 14:00 with a nebulous 'Q3 - July to September' message still being in place. A few days went by, and I honestly forgot to check the site again due to being overwhelmed at work at the moment and some personal stuff going on, but no emails, no in-app notifications, and nothing - surely I've got nothing to worry about, right? Thursday evening rolls around, I finish eating dinner, check the site...and my pre-order reservation has expired. Absolutely gutted, I didn't even bother looking into it deeper - I decided I'd try to message Steam Support on Friday morning, but I wasn't sure if there was much they could do. Friday morning I dig deeper. Now, I use Outlook for my emails, and every single email I've ever received from Steam - purchases including my initial Steam Deck reservation - all landed in my 'Focused' inbox. The kicker here? The purchase email landed in my 'Other' inbox on Monday evening, after I had checked that day. I then proceed to check the Steam app, and only purchase notifications are working - the message I received from Steam which I could see on my desktop/in desktop mode wasn't available to view here. I check the time my purchase email expired, and it was at 19:03 on Thursday...and then I check my log-in history on Steam, and see that I checked the site at 19:14. 11 minutes later! I whip up a quick message to Steam Support explaining and with a bunch of screenshots, but don't expect much in the ways of a response, so I've probably missed out - I sent them this message at 09:30 on Friday. They responded to me by 10:00, giving me the chance to buy it again. Steam Support is godlike!! And now, here I am, waiting probably another week or so for my Steam Deck to show up, but I'm getting really excited to check out the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters and revisit the original Star Wars Battlefront II, as well as check out some PC classics I've never got around to playing before. I've poked my nose around at the emulation scene on Steam Deck at the moment and it looks great, I'm not one for emulation in most cases but might consider it at some point in the future for games impossible to find/buy at a reasonable price (ahem, GameCube games), games not released over here (like the Suikogaiden games), and games which would mean I need to dig out an old console and buy cables to play them because they weren't released over here for some silly reason like the rest of its series (ahem, Suikoden V, if I can get it working), but I likely won't crack on with that until I pick myself up an SD card (which I'll be in no real rush to do). @Dcubed would you recommend the dock you're using for your Deck? I'm trying to figure out which ones are worth looking into while we wait for the official one, but it sounds like you're getting on with it pretty well

I think the other thing that's important to note here is that the entire Multiverse Saga (Phase Four through to the end of Phase Six) is releasing within a five year frame, having started with WandaVision in January 2021 and ending with Secret Wars in November 2025, compared with the Infinity Saga taking eleven years. And then there's the fact that after Ms. Marvel we're already at a stage where Phase Four is longer than the entirety of the Infinity Saga, if you count only the films for that Saga (50 hours 21 minutes vs 49 hours 56 minutes) – which you probably should, considering how much of a mess Marvel Studios was then with its TV and movie departments being at loggerheads. So we're already further into this whole multiverse ordeal than we got with the entirety of the Infinity Saga. It's too much, too fast, and too little of consequence (so far) – I think that's the big issue, because nothing gets time to breathe, we don't really get time to absorb it, and shorter gaps between projects releasing means an objectively lower quality, too. There's not much of a conversation to have, I feel, on smaller projects after they're finished like there was before, instead it's all the big picture stuff because there's stuff constantly being released, and as a result I think that's why we notice the fact that we don't have a solid direction to head in yet: because the conversation isn't "wow, what do you think is going to happen in the next Cap after Bucky saved him at the end of Winter Soldier? And how could this impact Age of Ultron?" and more "we have no idea where we're going with the next Avengers films...and now where we're going is some 3½ years away." I think with how much we've got in so condensed a space of time that it's only natural some of us feel this way I think the Phases are still important in the sense that they're going to be markers of story progression in the way it was before: Phase One was the Avengers coming together, Phase Two was about the team living together, and Phase Three was the splintering of the team and eventually having to deal with the overarching Big Bad. All three of those were part of the Infinity Saga, so it was basically three acts. Phase Four has been a weird epilogue/prologue space so far, I've said this before but more of a "this is what everyone's up to now", really filling up the roster. It's pretty much been the post-Endgame breather, Feige has said as much. I think Phase Five will be much more like what we were used to before (at the moment we've got a cosmic Big Bad set up but nothing really on a local scale), and I have to imagine whatever is teased at the end of Wakanda Forever will likely spell it out for us. Phase Six is naturally going to be the third act of all of this, and there are eight projects to still announce for it, which I imagine will give us a much better idea of what the deal is. I think it could quite easily be the case that we see Doom at the end of Wakanda Forever, as I can't see them waiting until Fantastic Four to introduce him and then having him potentially be the main villain for Secret Wars within the space of a year, and I feel like he'd fit into a lot of these Phase Five projects (either as an actual presence or pulling the strings) too. There's also the likely fallout and explanation of Atlantis duking it out with Wakanda, that seems exactly like the type of thing Doom would be orchestrating. But, anyways: yeah, I agree with you. I think they're looking at the bigger picture too, and at the end of the day, while I imagine we'll be able to look back and split the Multiverse Saga into three acts similar to the Infinity Saga based on its Phases, I think this is more a term focused on clearly conveying a production conveyer belt to fans and stockholders alike. @Happenstance, I think the way you're doing things where you skip things if you're not feeling them and then just checking out highlights/getting the details is probably the best way to deal with it. I think where I come unstuck is that after watching the MCU for so long it's just hard for me to take that approach I guess, but given how much is releasing these days outside of the MCU too, I think picking and choosing those battles seems like a fine idea, and something I'll have to consider moving forwards for some of the Disney+ series