Julius

On the upside I've seen in some of the previews that we have some sort of way to track recipes this time Because I won't lie I just tossed random things in the pot to cook 99% of the time in BOTW, and well, I saw this a lot more than a Hero really should... ...

Sure, but like I said, purely from a storytelling POV: it's also incredibly limiting and boring as hell to know how everything ends. We can debate all day and night on whether or not the prequels should have been made from a storytelling POV, but The Clone Wars covers only 3 years in the timeline and yet does so much to flesh out the clones, the Republic of that era, Anakin's eventual fall from grace, and so on, that from a storytelling POV I think it was an absolute necessity to tell those stories. There are 30 years (10x the amount of time TCW takes place over!) between the end of the OT and the start of the ST for them to fill out, as things stand. While I think a nod here and there to what is to come is fine, to flesh out the different factions of the Imperial Remnants and inform us about the New Republic, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be disappointed if all they do for that 30 year window is just wink and nod at Snoke, Palpatine's return, etc. This isn't me at all saying I'm right about Tantiss and it potentially tying into Thrawn, or anything else for that matter, but PURELY from a storytelling POV, that would be a huge waste of some seriously massive real estate in the Star Wars timeline as things stand. There's practically no space built into the sequel trilogy to flesh things out there, so by all means, set up the building blocks elsewhere - it's not like what they've done so far in talking about the Imperial Remnants and hinting at the creation of the First Order is anything particularly new for the New Republic era, as some of the novels have done plenty in that regard. For me, it's one thing to know where everything is heading, and something else entirely to have everything be leading to that place, if that makes sense. Heck, The Bad Batch made it clear as day that there were other things the Emperor was intent on cloning - a certain kaiju-style critter comes to mind - so I really don't think it's that far a leap to think there are other pet projects he has lined up for his cloning facility (whether or not they come to pass, like we've said, is a whole other thing). For me, I think the difference between the current New Republic era works (Mando, Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka) is that while they do take place earlier in the timeline and hint at what's to come, they are not being sold as prequels to the sequels, and nor should they be; similarly, they're not being sold as sequels to the originals, either. This is very different to the prequels and The Clone Wars, which were both sold as being prequels to particular storylines. It's clear that they have their own function within this New Republic era, and to be honest, Ahsoka is turning out to look like it'll be the direct Rebels sequel series we've been waiting for (and is being sold as such), and heck at this point even Mando - especially in S3 - has felt like it's been doing it's fiduciary duty by rounding off threads lingering back to TCW and Rebels. Again, you can tell Dave has been involved in this because of how many threads he's getting to tie up that he couldn't before. I don't know, for me, there are very few stories which serve as prequels - as in, actually serving as backstory in setting up a particular thread or beat in the original work - and amongst them I'd count things like Red Dead Redemption 2, Andor, and a few others which are escaping me, but the point I want to make is: a good story aiming to be a prequel is rare; very, very rare. Having two shows separately set up cloning for the villain returning some nearly 50/25 years after the fact would make The Bad Batch and Mando pretty important prequels in the grand scheme of things to the sequels in a way I personally wouldn't be a huge fan of. For me, what distinguishes stories like RDR2 and Andor is that they are character driven first and foremost, whereas I look at everything in the New Republic era of Star Wars and, by contrast, it is decidedly driven by plot. I have no issue with that - I loooooooooove a good plot and tie-ins as much as the next Star Wars fan - but everything being driven by plot to inevitably lead up to one point in another plot is, for me, and from a storytelling POV, incredibly boring and unambitious. Again, purely from a storytelling POV - not suggesting I'm right at all, nor am I really arguing for that but more the philosophy behind the story of it all - would it not be more interesting if we've basically been sleepwalking into these shows thinking that all of the cloning nods and hints were relating to the Emperor's return in the opening crawl of IX/his Fortnite-exclusive return message, only to find out it was actually hunting at something else entirely? I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm a huge fan of the old EU Vong theory stuff, where the Emperor didn't just create the Death Stars to keep planets in line, but also in fear of forces from outside the known galaxy swooping in and wrecking shop. I love that stuff and would love if we've been all been misdirected just by assuming we know exactly where this is going, just because we know where it leads to. But like I said before: just as likely they're not doing that, and that would be okay. I just really don't want the largest gap between trilogies be wasted, you know? Yeah, I agree, that's definitely one way it could end (with the destruction of Tantiss) and it could certainly be functional again by the NR era, but the only issue really I'd have with it is that Sheev is one hell of a vindictive douchebag (ahem, as one of his appearances as Sidious in TCW clearly shows) and I can't see any way he'd let any clone who had a hand in destroying his facility live. And that would extend to anyone who survived to Rebels, for me. I'm not sure I totally agree about the far-reaching victory part. It could be where it ends up - honestly, if I were a betting man, I'd bet that they do end up destroying Tantiss or some of those facilities - but I don't think anything beyond saving Omega and/or Crosshair is needed to be a win to our protagonists in The Bad Batch. Now, the clones at large? Sure, maybe they need or want a bigger win, but even in the old EU with the Kamino Uprising, that's not something they got. Like I said, Rex ends up pretty lost and defeated by the time we find him in Rebels, and him leading all of his brothers in one final charge against the Empire and getting crushed - and him feeling responsible for that - seems like a very easy way to put him into position for Rebels. Then again, they could just as easily make it so that a bunch of them sacrifice themselves while the Batch and Rex get off-world, which gives them both a victory against the Empire (in an incredibly pyrrhic sense of the word) and still gets Rex into position for Rebels. Also, like I said before, which is important to remember if we're talking strictly about Palpy's return, is that unless they tweak things, the Imperial Remnants/First Order ultimately aren't responsible for his return or Snoke's creation: the Sith Eternal were (not something I'm a fan of, but it was what it was). Again, they could tweak it, or make it so that they got a leg up with their dark magic through what they learned from the cloning projects, but for now... Ultimately, I'm sure I'll find things to enjoy in whatever we end up with – my points are more about storytelling potential and what I feel they could do to make it a bit more interesting (let's call it the sleepwalking subversion cliff), but yeah, I'm just here to enjoy the ride at least it seems like this time they've been allowed time for it all to be talked out and have a vision for where this is going!

Some of the BOTW custom icons are making a welcome return ahead of TOTK's release!

This has absolutely no bearing on what I'm about to say, but gosh darn do I hope we get the Hero's Path available from the get-go (and same for teleporting horse armour while we're at it) It's kind of crazy to me just how much stuff released in the DLC for BOTW feels like it should've been in the game from launch! Anyways, I'm grateful but also really curious about what Nintendo seem to have purposely veered away from with these previews. No underground, which is funny to me because they've shown shots of what we assume is the underground on one or two occasions already - heck the first trailer for the game starts off underground! There's no real caves in the previews at all to be honest, funny considering it was a big part of how they sold Ascend in Aonuma's demo. No word on temples. No word on the green swirly wisps which most reckon are shrines, etc. It's got to the point that I've seen one or two people asking those who got preview the game whether or not there's still going to be a minimalistic Pro HUD available! I know it's a sequel, but I genuinely can't remember the last time I was going into a game having such little idea about what I'm in for – there were one or two big surprises in Elden Ring, sure, but I also feel like the trailers hinted *a lot* at some of those surprises. And, honestly, I really appreciate it. It's always perplexed me why so many films, games, shows, etc., with huge existing fanbases like Zelda feel the need to blow their proverbial load in trailers and their extensive marketing campaigns which oftentimes seem hell bent on spoiling the fun. Showing restraint in marketing an obvious shoe-in for what will (at least) be a GOTY nominee by the year's end on a system which has broken absurd sales records since the game it is a sequel to launched is seriously commendable, because the argument could just as easily be made that they should throw the kitchen sink at us as much as they shouldn't. They've shown more or less the perfect amount – enough that the doubters about new content seem to have shut up shop (for now...let's see what happens around launch), and little enough that everyone else's eyes are on their calendars just counting down the days until launch. Of which there are now just 15 and a smidge!

Me working my way through that quote: huh, Jedi turns 40 this year so they aren't referring to the OT, and I doubt anyone is referring to the prequels that way, plus it's not 30 yet so it's too recent for that anyways... OH MY GOSH THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT ZAHN'S THRAWN TRILOGY AHHHHHHHHHHH (finished in 1993 for those curious ) Now that is a choice quote and reference which was a rollercoaster to work my way through if I've ever seen one Yeah, almost certainly a case of that and poor optimisation. Makes me wonder how many more open spaces there are vs more linear ones, hope it's fairly balanced to help with the game's pacing. I reckon I could Plat it before Tears of the Kingdom drops That combined with dropping reviews on the same day as previews for Tears of the Kingdom has to be one of the biggest accidental self-inflicted burns we've seen in...around a year, now that I think about it Because Sony were so hell bent on pitting Forbidden West against Elden Ring, after putting Zero Dawn against Breath of the Wild worked out *so* well for them

Time for a review round-up! Seems to mostly be 8's and 9's out of 10, so that's a good sign! Also just got a notification to say my copy has been shipped too! Just two more days to go

Preview time LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO Going to make the next 2 weeks and 2 days an easier wait until I'm done watching them, and then after ... yeah that's going to be a long wait still

I don't know nearly enough to contribute to this overall discussion, but it's given me a good chuckle to see the move getting blocked (for now - don't really doubt it'll go through at some point) on what I would say is comparatively one of the smaller sticking points (cloud gaming vs, uh, pretty much every other reason to block a huge deal like this) and the randomly dropped-in hashtags in that tweet lmao Have been keeping up with the posts in this thread though, got to say I appreciate your breakdowns @Choze, great to have some fair and level-headed insight into what a lot of this stuff actually means

Per billbil-kun, these are the Essentials games for May: (not used their own Twitter post as they've started to keep the games hidden to get clicks, whereas I just want the image of everything )

As someone else who hasn't watched the trailer yet, I thought the exact same thing about some Doctor Who-style regeneration hijinks being afoot

Someone has managed to get their hands on the game early, so the story has started to leak, because of course it has. Only thing I've seen is the apparent time it takes to crit path the game, which is apparently... Very excited to see what they've got in store for us, but also a little nervous seeing as I wasn't completely head over heels for Fallen Order on my first playthrough (my second playthrough was much smoother in terms of pacing, and shorter thanks to not wanting to do everything again). The story in particular, for me, didn't really take off until the final third or so of the game (Dathomir and a certain sequence onwards until the end of the game), so I'm hoping for a bit more of a consistent approach, hopefully a greater variety of puzzles, and a more lived-in world (which from all the early looks we do seem to be in for). Ooo, and while I'm hoping for things, give me some cool boss fights too Less than three days to go!

Loved yesterday's ad for the game, You Can Do What?! "Master your imagination" is also one hell of a line, even if it sounds like it should be one owned by LEGO Two weeks and three days to go!

Some great artwork for the last two episodes of Mando S3:

THQ Nordic announced their Digital Showcase yesterday, which will be taking place on 11th August: Alone in the Dark, the recently announced Trine 5, and Outcast 2 have all been confirmed to be showing up. Oh, and also, The Game Awards are hosting a concert to commemorate their 10th anniversary at the Hollywood Bowl on 25th June: Only two Japanese games listed in the rundown smh

Demo available now on PS4 and PS5, coming to other consoles next Wednesday (26th April): There was also last night's showcase:

What's funny about that is that the fourth dot was there in the draft the entire time up until just before I submitted my reply, and then I removed it purely because it just didn't look right in the font on here also probably because I just couldn't be bothered to centre the title, maybe that made it look a bit off too To be clear I don't think it needs to tie in the exact same way, but bringing it back and not having it tie in in any way would be the stranger move. The research living on into that era is more than enough of a tie-in if the facility itself isn't still around. Again, I'm all for whatever they decide to do, but I don't think that Tantiss and the cloning in Mando S3 need to necessarily lead up to being sequel tie-ins, because like I said above, it's a bit of a nothingburger in terms of a potential reveal. I mean, just thinking back to Mando S3 E7... The Batch can still have their victory while the research lives on, whether that be on Tantiss or elsewhere. Considering what/who the Batch are going after and the battle they'd be tied up in (for their brothers in a potential uprising), victory isn't contingent - yet - on the destruction of Tantiss, and they can still achieve some sort of victory without needing a Rebels-like victory. Because... Oh, and to be clear, this is obviously all just me spitballing and speculating, not so much predicting what's going to happen if you ever see a late night post written by me know that the point is there but the wording - and how absolute it is - might be a little off thanks to tiredness creeping in (but I've got to get to sleep somehow and aimless spitballing about stories is basically my daydreaming) I just think narratively that there are a few too many threads seemingly directly linking to certain things that, purely from the perspective of telling a story, aren't all that interesting to find out. I think things going the more predictable route would still be interesting simply to see the reaction of a certain Senate. For me, it's almost like having a post-credits scene at the end of a Marvel film having already seen the following films: it can be exciting for a fleeting moment, but for the most part, those post-credits scenes and how they link in are vapid. Oh yeah, agreed, I think we see him again, like I said I think it's just clear that, however they play this, he's not going to be one of the main characters in the same way that he was in the original Heir to the Empire. As for a Mara Jade type character being introduced, I'm not too sure, it almost adds too many questions around where Luke is at the time of the New Republic and where he is when we find him in the sequels. I also don't really see them giving him a romantic interest in live-action because of the time constraints already in place around Luke basically being limited in his appearances by the tech (cost and time), I just don't think there would be time to flesh that idea out fully with a deepfaked face, because he's just turning up randomly in other people's shows so far than a show of his own, which would be the more natural place to introduce such a character and begin to flesh out such a relationship. I don't think that there needs to be romance in every story, but, I will say that, if there is one, there is a bit of a natural route to follow it through with the Ezra and Sabine, and a history there that means it wouldn't need to be entirely introduced and then fleshed out in live-action – Rebels and how it ended, and the Ahsoka trailers, are set up in a way so that it could just as easily end up romantic as much as it could stay platonic. It's not necessarily something that I'm hoping for or predicting, but from a storytelling perspective, if there is to be a romance in this entire thing, I do think that would be the easiest place to write it in

Vol. 2 of Mando S3's score, covering Chapters 21 - 24, is going to be made available within the next 24 hours...but is already up on Spotify so maybe go listen to it there? Quick scan through and I haven't come across the epic theme from Chapter 23 that I'm looking for, but surely it's in there...right? In other news the Adelphi Jukebox music from Episode 5/Chapter 21 made it in Bad Batch is in a very interesting position considering its place in the timeline, all things considered, but if we're talking cloning, well... We'll just have to wait and see I guess! Could be a good while yet before we get a clear picture on how this is all going to pay off though! I'm getting chills just thinking about the film starting, the opening crawl kicking in and HEIR TO THE EMPIRE It has been over five years since the REBELLION destroyed the second DEATH STAR. In the wake of its destruction and the death of the Emperor, the fledgling guerrilla group laid down their arms and founded the NEW REPUBLIC. Despite the death of their Emperor, Warlords of IMPERIAL REMNANTS have amassed riches and fleets which continue to challenge the NEW REPUBLIC's grip on the fringes of the known galaxy. However, far beyond the reach of both the NEW REPUBLIC and the IMPERIALS REMNANTS, deep in the dark corners of [Wild Space/the Unknown Regions/idk maybe they call it something new], GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN has been preparing for his return to the known galaxy as HEIR TO THE EMPIRE... Yeah okay so it'd be three paragraphs, too many things in all caps, and whatever, but I'm just excited Totally agree it wouldn't be a direct adaptation, like I said, I think it'll be their take on the story (within the confines of canon, new characters, and everything else). The thing that concerns me about that a little is that, from a storytelling and production perspective, I wouldn't be surprised if certain roles are adapted to new characters from wider canon (for example, if Ahsoka took the role of Luke, or maybe more likely, a returning Ezra and the potential to do a Luke/Mara-styled romance adapted to Ezra/Sabine), which I could see getting a lot of backlash, especially seeing as it's very likely that Dave's original characters from his animated series are likely to be at the centre of this story rather than Luke – because I struggle to see them wanting to have him be a main character when, so long as it's a live-action project, there are so many obstacles in the way of him being a main character because of the prohibitive cost and time it would take to deepfake him into a key role, much less to actually have him grow into a central role again, seeing as he's very much on the fringes (at best) so far. Then again, imagine they did put the legwork in and once the dust settles, the film ends with him, Leia and Han meeting with Snoke...hmm, just so many possibilities! I've read the Thrawn trilogy a handful of times growing up, but it has admittedly been a good while now since I last visited them - don't think I've read them since before Rogue One came out in 2016, so might need to revisit them (and dive into the Outbound Flight novels again, before returning to the current canon Zahn-written Thrawn stuff!), but yeah, things like Luuke I wouldn't worry about them carrying over. We all know they're just going to rename Luke's clone to be Lukealike instead

PlayStation have acquired Firewall Studios - not to be confused with the previously acquired Firesprite! Taken from the PlayStation Blog.

Yeah, definitely a common misconception if I can Google it and get the wrong answer a bunch! – thanks for pointing that out. I remember early talk about it being on UE5 and kind of just went with it, seems like they've since come out and discussed the potential of the next installment being on UE5. Makes perfect sense as UE5 definitely wouldn't have been development-ready when this game started development in late 2019/early 2020 (I don't think it was even released). I'm also not massively fussed, I love deleting games after completing them for the extra post-credits monkey lizard brain dopamine hit (though might need to go through some captures to make enough space for Survivor!) It's more a case of me just questioning how the game has ended up that big when so many other substantially-sized games are substantially smaller in file size (again: RDR2 being 90-100 GB at launch and this being 150 GB is something I'm having a hard time reconciling in my head), but I'm sure playing the game itself might answer some of those questions...maybe? Just give me an hour-long post-credits scene of Chopper randomly turning up and committing war crimes in 4K, and it'll be more than justified Yeah, there's no way I won't be veering off the beaten path. Not that I was planning on spoiling the game anyways, but I'll take extra care to use spoiler tags for your sake and just give more general thoughts on the game outside of them do think it's smarter to wait than potentially find yourself rushing through! I do generally find myself planning what I play anyways, but it's funny when we come up to a window like this and suddenly my plans get thrown up in the air. I think I can get through and 100% Survivor before Tears of the Kingdom (or die trying haha), Tears of the Kingdom I have absolutely zero idea on how long it'll take me - and I don't want to rush - but I imagine I'll be done with it by the time Final Fantasy XVI comes out some six weeks or so later (right..?). But it's this week before Survivor where I find myself questioning what I want to play between now and then. A bunch of smaller games? Just one game, which could cut it close? We'll see I guess! That's not a bad idea! loads up the launch version of Cyberpunk 2077

Right?! I can't remember anything major that was pre-rendered in Fallen Order, so unless I'm missing something, this just seems like a terrible job at (or complete lack of) optimisation for a next-gen only title and their first UE5 game (right?). Does make me wonder what the delay was about if it wasn't tied to optimising their assets though, and it'd be concerning if this was the best they felt they could do with it, but it is what it is I'm in a weirdly similar spot to you, where on one hand I do think I could 100% it in that time...but I am also a bit worried about scope creep making this game substantially bigger than the first game just in terms of story length, not to mention all the side content. It's funny because I went back to Fallen Order last year to finally pop the Plat (had a couple of rooms on a few planets and one or two of the seeds to collect for the terrarium), then played the game on the lowest difficulty to breeze through the story and see how well it was paced without dealing with the side content, and in terms of enjoying the story, it was heaps and bounds better than my first playthrough. Makes sense, of course, because side content makes pacing a game's main story impossible (which is why games like BotW and Elden Ring rubbishing that, to an extent, in an open world feels so good), but I think that playthrough only took 6 or 7 hours? So I might find myself just breezing through the story and not focusing on side content the first time with Survivor, before really exploring every nook and cranny the second time around, which means I won't need to rush to do before TotK but can instead chip away at it? But still avoid having the story spoiled... ...nah, who am I kidding, I'm 100% just going to try to do everything the first time

A fan-made anime/GBC commercial for the game: Man, I love these things. Said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but Nintendo fans go to stupid lengths with showcasing their talents with things like these, and I love it! love their adapted take on the trailer theme too, gosh darn it's a beaut of a track 3 weeks and 1 day to go...

Not to concern anyone, but today is the fifth anniversary of the game's release... Where the heck does the time go?!

The game on PS5 and Series X looks set to be 147 GB. Good lord. Some are throwing out that maybe there's some crazy big video files in there, but for this game to seemingly come in nearly 60 GB larger than a game like Red Dead Redemption 2? Kind of blows my mind whatever the reason is.

Thoughts on the Mando S3 finale: A great two-part finale, but for me, just taking the final episode individually, I think it's the weakest final episode to a season of Mando so far - but I think that's more a product of it leaning so heavily on the preceding episode as a foundation, and the final episodes for S1 and S2 being so damn strong. Overall, I think Mando S3 has been the biggest mixed bag we've had in a season of Mando so far (look no further than Episode 6: Guns for Hire and how it contrasts so starkly with my favourites this season, Episode 3: The Convert and Episode 7: The Spies), and like I touch on in the spoiler tag but won't expand on too much here: I think it was clearly impacted by the plans for other Disney+ Star Wars offerings, and so was always going to be trying to deliver on the tough ask of rounding off this trilogy of seasons while also serving as a launchpad for other things to come. Joseph Shirley stepping up to bat and then some in Ludwig Gorannson's absence to compose this season's music is the biggest takeaway of the season for me, because I think he absolutely killed it. Adapted and evolved Ludwig's themes, and implemented plenty of his own, excited to hopefully hear more from him in Mando S4. Time to begin the countdown to Ahsoka I guess! Oh, man, it's going to be a loooooooong four months

Pyra and Mythra double pack drops 21st July 2023, with some Xenoblade Chronicles 3 perks: