Julius

He did one on Breath of the Wild, and now Beyond Ghibli is covering the Ghibli inspirations found in Tears of the Kingdom: Love to see it. I've yet to watch it, but yeah, I imagine there's even more Mononoke and Laputa to go around this time. Anyways, I still need to get back to this at some point. Got over 60 hours in, and then just prioritised Final Fantasy XVI (because it's linear and could drag me along to the ending) when it released, which I'm still in the process of going through my second playthrough for. By the time I put it down, though, I did find myself in roughly the same situation I found myself in with Breath of the Wild, some four years ago now, feeling a little fizzled out on the game (probably 50% - 60% of the total map uncovered, a load of things unlocked, etc.). It's funny, because I swear the reason I lasted 20 hours longer with TOTK before getting to this point is purely down to having some more direct main quests to follow along the way, yet while the exploration and adventure aspect of TOTK is what I love most, it also just takes a lot of energy to want to explore - it's definitely something that I find I need to be in the mood for, rather than chip away at casually. It's a shame though, because in pretty much every way (other than reusing the same base world map, but they've added so much it's hard to complain!), I think it's a step up from BOTW, so I do need to get back to it and complete it. Hopefully before the end of the year. Maybe. No promises.

19 minutes of gameplay:

Damn, sounds like you're making light work of it! If I'm remembering right you also made light work of Sekiro's bosses (though I think you were a bit more split on the overall experience, it sounds like you're enjoying AC quite a bit so far?), and this game is directed by the guy who was the lead designer on Sekiro (and considering their schedule, I imagine a lot of the team on AC overlaps with the team that was on Sekiro), so I wonder if it's something about their work/combat/approach to bosses in particular? Or you're just killing it, which is also possible I was just as surprised that I didn't really have a hard time with Bloodborne earlier this year outside of a certain boss or two, at least compared to my experience with other From games, and I really feel like that was down to the combat in that game being exactly what I wanted from the combat in all of the other games I've played of theirs. I'm still trying to not pick this game up, the last few days I've definitely been tempted, but I'm a session or two away from XVI's Plat, then I can return to Like a Dragon...just got to keep myself busy playing everything else!

I keep doing the exact same thing! I read a post elsewhere the other day about the remaining N64 NSO titles, so I remembered Mario Party 3 was amongst them when making my post, but decided to fact check through the wiki for N64 NSO releases just in case, and definitely had a moment of intense confusion seeing the positioning of the '3' in the Mario Party box art

The game is now set to come to Xbox Series X|S at some time later this year, with Series S not having split-screen co-op functionality: Considering split-screen struggling on Series S was reported to be the reason for it not launching on Xbox at the same time as PlayStation a few months ago, seems like a bit of a shame for Xbox players that they've only just bit the bullet in making it a Series X exclusive feature. Then again, they've got Starfield releasing within a week of NG3's PS5 release, so it's not like they're left wanting for an RPG to dig their teeth into if anything, it might space it out better for Xbox (not having their first-party centrepiece competing with the highest rated game of the year so far) and Larian (brings them a third separate platform release closer to GOTYs to revive hype) both, so that'd be good. Got to imagine this will be the first in a line of third-party titles to have some Series X exclusive functionality. While the Series S is a great way to target a lower end market, it does seem like it's been a limiting factor in a few cases already, so I'm curious to see what Xbox's plans are over the next couple of years to minimise that.

We've got a gameplay overview trailer, people: So we get to cosplay as the DQ III hero in this while we wait super, super, super patiently for just a single scrap of DQ III HD news

Excitebike 64 (finally!) arrives on the NSO N64 app on 30th August: It's been, what, nearly a year since this was announced? Still waiting on Mario Party 3 and 1080° Snowboarding...

Nice! Look forward to hearing your thoughts, especially on the customisation I cancelled my pre-order on Monday, just before it was set to ship out, trying to be a Sensible Adult™. Even though I think I'll probably just commit to BG3's co-op campaign with friends for now (until all the patches and stuff are out before a solo playthrough, so years from now), I've got plenty of other games to be getting on with (and games to return to!), and really don't think I'm quite in the mood for such a combat-heavy From game after XVI, so I think I'm okay to wait. But I'm sure I will be in the mood for it by the end of the year, especially when we all start talking about GOTYs 2023 has been stacked, and early 2024 doesn't look like it'll be letting up either! It's a great time to be gaming, whatever you choose to play

We got another trailer for this the other night during Gamescom ONL: And some even got to go hands-on with the game: And lastly, a look at a boss battle in 4K with RTX on: Game still looks great. Still a massive shame about its development background.

Yeah, the first two episodes of Ahsoka were great. Loved the opening, Baylon, Kiner's score (hearing Sabine's Theme backing live-action is goosebump-inducing!), and it sets the rest of the show up nicely. Crazy how much of the marketing footage we've got through already. Chopper absolutely stole the show. Thought the end credits were fantastic too. That font they used is 100% inspired by Princess Mononoke's alternate English title logo (I see you Dave Filoni), with a little Nordic and Star Wars inspiration thrown in for good measure too:

Seems like my employer and many others over the last few weeks/months have decided to pull the trigger on "hybrid contracts" having compulsory in-office attendance of 60% (so 3 days for FT workers). So far it's been a lot of deflection from higher-ups pointing at contracts and not really answering questions, I wouldn't be surprised if it's more a way to offload people without severance and the publicity of mass layoffs (we had thousands of firings once the impacts of COVID calmed down and swollen departments simmered back down to a more typical size) and also just to do with commercial real estate just...well, sitting there. The reason that they're giving for my workplace is that we're pretty low on customer service scores compared to our competitors (I need to check the numbers but I swear we weren't great at that pre-WFH/COVID anyways). I work in a team which is not customer-facing and works in the background, with people situated all over the country (some very far from offices), so I really don't see the value-add, and my manager prior to this call today had guaranteed - even in an email - that my team wouldn't need to go on, but the problem with this blanket approach is I have no idea what's going on. They're also saying that "we're all adults and trust you, we won't track you individually if you go in and there won't be consequences as such, but things might get more Draconian if the in-office anonymous aggregate isn't 60% or more though"...just, did anyone think this through? It kind of sounds like I can just ignore it until someone makes it explicitly mandatory, it's really strange. Idk. Someone even called out that a competitor who is one of the best at customer service in the country is still WFH and is committing to staying that way, to which they said we aren't trying to be them, and score better than them in other categories (no doubt categories that they aren't even part of lmao). So much deflection and so little clarity. The most annoying part for me is I was planning to upskill other areas over the next year or two in my own time, with the benefit of WFH meaning I don't have travel time to get cut away at my free time, to potentially move industry. Just, urghhhhhhhh

Ben Starr, the voice of Clive in Final Fantasy XVI, has put his name forward as the next voice of Mario... He's got my vote

Project Q is called Portal (£199.99), earbuds are called Pulse Explore (£199.99), and the new wireless headset is called the Pulse Elite (£129.99). More details on the PlayStation blog: And an ad for the headsets: First impressions of the Portal: No pre-order or release details for any of these right now, but they're promised to be coming soon. I'm in for the earbuds I think, because my Pulse headset gets way too hot during longer online gaming sessions, but for me I think the jury's out on the Portal: not sold on the screen, price, and I'm especially not sold the look of the bisected DualSense being strapped to either side. Love the name though, but apparently it can't stream games via PS+ Premium's cloud streaming? That's a pretty odd decision. Anyways, time to watch some impressions!

We have a new trailer and a release date: 2nd February 2024! ...meaning this drops one day after Granblue Fantasy Relink. Anyways, they also dropped the new battle theme: And the box art looks mighty fine:

...and Spider-Man 2, which is also releasing the same day as Wonder. I totally agree. Going up against the sequel to PlayStation's bestselling game on PS4 and, well, the behemoth that is a Mario game? Well, that's just... Yeah, I don't think Dcubed is wrong on this one. Though, I do think it sets itself up quite nicely as a little pick-up at a potentially solid discount going into the Black Friday/Christmas period! Well at least someone else on here isn't all doom and gloom over it's release date! still looks super charming, though. Hopefully it delivers, it does look promising! Now I'm going to quickly see myself out before anyone here realises I've never completed a Sonic platformer before...

Thanks for that, I stand corrected seems like I've got somethinh I can get to reading up on this weekend!

One of the highlights of Gamescom's ONL: Thank Goodness You're Here! What a delightful time this looks! Coming to Switch, PS5, and PC.

It's not quite making 2023, but at last, we have a date! Granblue Fantasy Relink arrives on 1st February 2024! Today's trailer from Gamescom: And some lovely art as well as the box art: So, let me get this straight: we have this in February, and then, as things stand, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Persona 3 Reloaded, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are all also scheduled for Early 2024. JRPGs are alive and well, and finally seem to be kicking into high gear this gen! @drahkon get @Hero-of-Time in here, because next year we feast

Yeah, I'm aware of what the strikes issue has to do with; and no, I think you're right, I don't believe SAG-AFTRA covers video game voice actors (though obviously many of them being voice actors in other mediums there are no doubt a good number of them impacted by the strikes). From what I can find after a quick search, current VA contracts in games (interactive media) seem to include a no-strike clause? Which, uh, okay I'm sure they'll circle back to that at some point, it's only the largest entertainment industry anyways, yeah, the Guilds are going after Hollywood, not games, 100%. I feel like it's being taken that I'm saying they shouldn't because it would fly directly in the face of something going on in the gaming space, which I'm not. I think if they were to do it then it's a way to keep Mario's voice as it has been for as long as I've been alive, and so long as Martinet is fairly compensated in such a hypothetical case as this one and gave his express permission to do so, then I say go for it. The alternative is they just try to replicate his voice anyways, and what, they get some VA to replicate his voice and he lives and works in Martinet's shadow any way? The Luigi to Martinet's Mario? The thought of that just kind of sucks. My point, and what I'm saying about doing that now, is that it's simply not great optics, from a business perspective - regardless of whether or not the Guilds are beefing with the games industry, which they aren't - when there are discussions going on in an industry very similar and adjacent to the gaming industry about the use of AI. While the focus in the strikes focus primarily on other areas of its use, AI has been a burning red hot topic for the last 12 months across almost every creative space. I'm not saying blowback in the case of Martinet being compensated fairly in such a hypothetical situation as the one we've outlined would actually be fair, but I'm saying it would almost certainly lead to blowback, because the internet swarm and the public at large tends to conflate everything, to the point that I genuinely think if an otter started flawlessly singing show tunes from the 60s wouldn't be seen as funny but offensive and outdated, and pitchforks would be raised.

Launch trailer: Previews have looked great, the game continues to look amazing...but I'm not sure I'm quite in the mood for a From game coming off the back of FF XVI. Need something a bit more mindless and then going to try diving into BG3, but I know I'll get to this before the end of the year

I mean, yeah, I'm with you. For me this is one of those rare instances where I might prefer it over a recast, especially if Martinet continues to get his due after the AI would hypothetically take over. They've done it for James Earl Jones with Vader's voice already, so why not cement Martinet's as Mario for all time? Totally with you I think for me it's more the way it would look in the current climate, and just the idea of the timing of it. Announcing a potential VA job - for maybe one of the most recognisable "voices" in gaming at that? - going to AI and retiring a veteran who has played him for decades at the same time, while strikes are going on around regulating AI's impact on and utilisation in creative media, would seem very tone deaf. Though honestly the extent of that hypothetical but totally plausible tone deafness is honestly a very compelling argument for Nintendo doing exactly that

Oh, and amidst all this talk about performance a PS4 version was announced to be in the works: And there will also be a disclaimer upon opening the game about potential outdated content: Hmm. Best to be on the safe side, but also curious what exactly it is that they consider outdated. Agreed, though considering that for a hot minute everyone was worried that we were getting 720p ports, I'm fine with it. Surely Konami aren't smart enough for a simply marketing stunt like that, lowballing performance of re-releases for a decade old collection, before giving us what it was before?

Here we go, some clarity on the game's performance on each platform, per VGC: So the Switch has been shafted seven ways to Sunday, as was expected after the previews. That's a massive shame.

Console Wraps™ are on their way to Series X, a snug solution for customising your console: Looks really neat!