Julius

It was announced pretty hush-hush yesterday that after this year's Celebration, there won't be another until 2025. Per the link in this tweet: Bit of a shame, I think Star Wars can easily get away with having an annual Celebration (especially if things are going to be kept exclusive moving forwards), but it isn't totally unexpected, seeing as Disney had been positioning D23 and SWC to take place in alternating years, but COVID happening meant both got delayed and then they returned together last year. Probably a return to Orlando next in 2025 at a guess? I'm kind of shocked they haven't had one in/around Paris, or anywhere else they have a theme park presence, just considering that's how they seem to plan their show locations in the States (Anaheim/Orlando).

I mean judging from the length of the SoP being 45 minutes, 15 minutes being dedicated to Suicide Squad (booooooooo), and only mentioning five new VR2 titles before going on to mention indie and third-party surprises, I'll be surprised if it gets more than 10 minutes to be honest. The headset releases...today? (I had to check that but yes it does ) so while I do think it'll get a bit of a spotlight, I think it'd be a confusing move to have it be the primary focus on its day of release rather than, say, a month or so ago to try to pump up pre-orders. I think I read something RE4 (Remake, I'd guess?) VR being in the works the other day, so maybe that'll be announced formally here? If it hasn't been already, we've had so much RE4 stuff it's hard to keep track! EDIT: never mind, just seen that it's been made official! ~~~ So that's got to be turning up, even just a quick "oh yeah, RE8 VR is on the way, but we also have RE4R in the works too!", right? It's crazy how all-in Capcom are with VR when it comes to one of their tentpole franchises, I respect the hell out of it. Street Fighter VR when? ~~~ Then again, sometimes all it takes is one game to change the tide, and there's only one truly third-party killer app that I think could help drive sales a bit more aggressively, and that's an announcement about Half-Life: Alyx coming to the platform by the end of the year. That would be an absolutely huge get to announce here and a solid promise to those with VR2s already on the way to their homes. Speaking of indies, I wonder if we'll get an update on The Little Devil Inside here, maybe even a shadow-drop if it's ready to go? I can't remember hearing anything about it last year, and I find it really bizarre that that game still isn't out yet considering it was announced way back in one of the pre-launch showings PlayStation had. Really hope it's just a case of the devs being anal about their project rather than a deeper cause for concern like scope creep/issues behind-the-scenes/etc.

The game has sailed by the figure of 20 million units sold: Per Gematsu: Crazy figures, and very much deserved ones. Still patiently waiting on that DLC...

Lies of P is coming to PlayStation in August 2023, available to wishlist now: I mean, it's always looked very Bloodborne, but it looks even more Bloodborne in this trailer. So...guess I'll wait to see how it reviews

Random Tuesday it is huh Here I am feeling like expectations are set going in, and then PlayStation JP's Blog drops this: 45 minutes is definitely on the longer end (maybe the longest?) of State of Plays from what I can remember, so maybe there will be a surprise or two in store? But 15 minutes on Suicide Squad...ouch...but also, talk about make-or-break for this game. Conversation around it is about as dead as it gets I feel.

I mean it wasn't a perfect analogy to begin with, but nothing ever is basically: great game, similar vibes (tonally, musically, thematically), completely disrespected by their publishers with no release on modern consoles Ah, so we should continue? Quick @Glen-i get in here for the ol' alley-oop

It's the most critically acclaimed game in the series. Despite being the most critically acclaimed game in the series, it's not available on modern platforms. In general I think they just call that "pulling a Square Enix". It has the best soundtrack in the series, and one that's honestly up there for me with some of the best. There are tracks in the game which straight up sound like they belong in Chrono Trigger. It has brilliantly realised characters, writing, and clear and distinct themes, which it tackles pretty much flawlessly against a very similar story backdrop. And when I compare it to Chrono Trigger, it's largely because of how close it comes to its vibe (and story) at times, whether it be the extremely animated sprites to, well, all the time travel stuff. It's not surprising at all when you consider the lineage of the Mystery Dungeon series tracing back to Koichi Nakamura working on and directing multiple projects spearheaded by Yuji Horii. But yeah, you got me, I've got absolutely zero idea what I'm talking about when it comes to not one but two of my favourite games

I get where you're coming from...but also Explorers is basically the Chrono Trigger of this spinoff series. It's pretty undeniably the best one, so it'd be a very Square Enix-esque move to remake a lesser received game in the series, skip remaking/re-releasing the best one, and then jump to making a new one. I mean I'll take a new one, but remaking the best one and having it be on modern platforms is the move I'm pulling for. And yes, I'm still salty we don't have Chrono Trigger on the Switch You'll get a Magikarp Jump port and nothing more But seriously, I think if we're actually going to see the legacy core series titles come to NSO, now really is the time to start making those announcements, what with GB/GBA being announced in the recent Direct and the 3DS and Wii U eShops going down at the end of next month. I'm still half of the mind that they won't end up on NSO if they do come, because again, there's just too much money being left on the table otherwise. And if they come in any form, NSO or piecemeal, I expect a trickle at best after potentially shadow-dropping the Gen I (and maybe Gen II?) titles which are VC on 3DS on Pokémon Day. I'll be shocked if we get them all at once, especially the GBA games. See the above GIF

Kazuya gameplay trailer: Love how flashy the particle effects are!

Here we go again! It's finally time for a Mystery Dungeon Explorers remake, right? Right?! And how can we forget a genuine GOTY contender in Pokémon Sleep?! More seriously though, probably Scarlet & Violet DLC getting announced, and maybe an update on the new Detective Pikachu game? Crazy that we're seemingly entering the final stretch of the Switch's life and it's still nowhere to be seen. (and idk maybe get some more old games on Switch while you're at it with the eShops closing next month please & thank you)

The Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Collection's Asian English language version is available via PlayAsia: I've stuck a pre-order in for a physical Switch copy for now on the off-chance Square Enix continue to be stupid and don't make more copies available through their store

Thanks for sharing this, it's definitely the best reaction I've watched for Prime Remastered "I wasn't wearing pants...the peculiarities of remote meetings..." killed me

Nintendo: let's not show them too much so that the crowd exclaiming that this is just BotW with DLC debate their beliefs ad nauseam, but actually the people they're debating this with are right – we have loads of stuff to hide so that they can experience it first when the game releases! Also Nintendo: let's release a 200+ page artbook featuring a bunch of things we haven't shown in our marketing yet at launch! Has no-one learned from the back of The Phantom Menace's OST and Qui-Gon's Noble End?! That was 20+ years ago!! If you have things you don't want to be spoiled in the marketing campaign, maybe hold back on your damn tie-in books and merch! We're 12 weeks from launch, damn it, but of course people lower down the chain are going to see your stupid 200+ page art book!

Sure, I'll put my name down for a TotK Link amiibo, it's probably the closest we'll ever get to Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke getting a little statue. Can always cancel I guess. But... Holy shirtballs Batman, £28.97?! Yeah, that doesn't look right at all. Could be a placeholder considering it's a pretty random price? I mean it's showing as £28.97 – isn't the typical amiibo RRP normally around £12.99 (I'm using a Sephiroth amiibo listing for reference) unless there's something extra to them, like the Detective Pikachu amiibo you mentioned, or even just the regular-sized amiibo with extra plastic (like the Zelda and Loftwing amiibo for Skyward Sword HD?). I could be wrong about that but it seems high to me at first glance?

Open beta incoming:

It's unclear if this will carry over to EU physical versions of the game, but in the US, the physical version includes a reversible cover inspired by the Japanese box art for the original game on GameCube: Think I lean towards preferring the new box art for Remastered, but this looks great! And more games need reversible covers

Patch 1.2.0 details: Seemingly no performance patches is a bit of a shocker to me, seeing as someone who hasn't played the game, all I've heard about it it's performance issues

A 3 hour game trial is being made available to Premium members of PlayStation Plus: Pretty much perfect length for a trial for this game. If you aren't in after the opening three hours, I don't think you'll be in at all.

First official clip from Mando S3: Not long to go now...

VGC are reporting that Saudia Arabia have upped their stake in Nintendo to 7%: sigh

Combat demo shadow drop on all launch platforms:

February update as we get closer and closer to the dreaded Wii U and 3DS eShop doomsday: Don't think I'll be getting an many games as I originally planned to (which, let's be honest, is probably good for my backlog!) but still fully intend to go through and pick up some more stuff, so I'll need to go through the stores one of these weekends and make some difficult choices about cutting games from my previous list/s. Think I'm going to miss the eShop music the most though

And it's official: Legend of Dragoon is also being added as a Premium Classic! How is that not in the image used?! And Wild Arms 2, too! Horizon Forbidden West and The Legend of Dragoon are the highlights for me, but damn, Capcom really making bank off RE7 with PlayStation huh? It's still included in the PlayStation Plus Collection until May and yet here they are re-upping it for PS4 owners to get access too! Oh, and S-E dropping all the Tokyo RPG Factory games is nice too! Solid month, maybe one of the strongest for the Catalog and Classics yet? Shame I'm busy being addicted to Bloodborne

State of Unreal is returning at this year's GDC on March 22nd for more of a look at what those wizards have been working on: