Julius

Factions has seemingly been delayed internally, with Naughty Dog putting out a statement that the game needs more time in development. More on that below. They've also announced that they're working on a "brand-new single-player experience" (Naughty Dog? Never! But yeah, this was obviously expected, and Neil teased that something else was cooking over there a little while back). I would guess this isn't Part III but a new IP, purely based on the wording and that I feel the best way to shut down concerns for the franchise with this Factions news would have been to announce Part III in any capacity (if it was being worked on). Further to this news about Factions, though, Bloomberg and Schreier once again seem to have the scoop on what's been going on...and it doesn't sound good. Coming up on three years since the launch of The Last of Us Part II and in a few months that launch of the PS5, and we've yet to see the reveal of anything original from Naughty Dog for the console – particular wording used here because of course they put out Part I, the remake of the original game, last year, as well as the next-gen versions of Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy in the Legacy of Thieves Collection, but the former project didn't start at Naughty Dog, and it was widely believed that neither project was a studio-wide effort, what with Factions and their single-player project in development. It's crazy to think that we're coming up on three years of the PS5 and we still have no original announcement for the console from Naughty Dog, PlayStation's premier studio. I'm happy to wait and trust that whatever they turn out will be quality, but it's yet another feather in the cap of doubters about PlayStation's recently adopted GaaS-oriented strategy. Got to imagine there'll be something, even if just another piece of concept art, released for Factions or Part III - any TLOU news at all - for the game's 10th anniversary this year.

So, uh, yeah, I guess it's Dragon Quest Day, so for the 25th anniversary of the series this video was put out – ending with the reveal that a new entry in the series is in development for the Nintendo Switch! That music is charming as all heck, as is what I've seen and heard about the Monsters games. Definitely going to be keeping an ear to the ground on this one!

So this is releasing 28th September 2023! Seemed to drop pretty randomly, but I think the 35th anniversary was roughly this time last year, so I'm guessing this is an anniversary announcement? Still waiting on XII news but this visually looks fantastic

Might be more excited for Netflix's next quarterly report than Nintendo's at this rate, in sure their number of cancellations are about to skyrocket. Seen some suggest that if you are cancelling to just state you travel for work months at a time and so lose access to Netflix to mess with their figures a bit. But seriously, talk about shooting yourself in the foot, though, this is like watching a painfully slow train crash in realtime. I actually cancelled my Netflix subscription a couple of months ago because I realised I was using it more to re-watch things for the umpteenth time rather than watch new things, and to be honest, I then realised that there just wasn't enough new scheduled to keep me interested; and when I was occasionally interested in something, there's so much crap on there now that the quality stuff is easily buried also got to mention the silly amount of emails I've had from them since cancelling – Netflix are 100% the crazy ex-girlfriend! Wouldn't blame anyone for keeping it if they still use it a lot, though, there's so much on there that other than their dumb new policies it is still a decent enough deal, I just don't think it's programming is for me (and I'm getting to a point where I'm fine just picking up box sets of the few shows left on there I still want to check out). Can't help but wonder how far we put from cable-like deals which package a bunch of these streaming services together, I know Disney+ took a hit and so there's talk about them packaging ESPN and Disney+ together in more territories. I do find it funny that in a time when most industries are dominated by three, maybe four, big players, that there seems to be dozens of streaming services that all seem to think they can grab a decent enough mindshare and justify their existence. Certainly some that fill specific niches, like anime and classic movie services, but there's just way too much schlock out there on top of that. Kind of feels like we're on course for a content crash when some of these services realise that they can't afford to keep pumping millions in like Netflix did a few years ago, not to mention the writer's strike

This deal is getting better all the time! The game's page is now up on the PlayStation Store, and with it come some more details: including confirmation about the versions of the games included, as well as the news that Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are also packed in! An awesome update, and there we have it: the complete and definitive HD Collection versions of the games (so, Subsistence and Substance confirmed) I'm guessing since it's how it worked in MGS3 HD that Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 are going to be included from that menu and not separate installs? Think I'm going to need to get a shift on and play through Peace Walker, Ground Zeroes and V before this collection drops and then revisit it all from the beginning never did get around to Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2!

Played it a few years ago on my PS3 and I think it was pause the game, press the PS button to bring up the XMB, then switching to the second controller? Unless that would be a shortcut to do that? Not sure, and I do think it falls short of the desired effect, but then again, my first time going through some classics on the PS3, nothing was smooth sailing. Like having to create a virtual memory card Honestly wouldn't surprise me if it was an in-game option through the pause menu seeing as, system-wide, I think getting a standalone Player 2 on modern consoles is a bit of a hassle (if you can do it at all, that is, because I have no idea when it comes to the PS5, and the idea in my head seems like it wouldn't work because of how other sign-in home menus work). I'm curious to see if they do have Mantis reading your "memory card" this time, too, considering that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and (hopefully) Suikoden will both be out on modern consoles by then, but given this is Konami, I could see them giving it a complete pass. I think I remember reading something about the PC version skipping that dialogue?

I mean, based on the wording on the official site, that's what I feel like they might be hinting at. Both MGS2 and MGS3 talk about Substance and Subsistence being later releases... Weird way to phrase things on a page about a collection of remasters that show no gameplay screenshots, that's for sure. MGS makes no mention of Integral or Twin Snakes, though I guess that's not too surprising, seeing as this isn't a Twin Snakes remaster and Integral is the version of the game synonymous with the name over here in the west (and I had no idea it existed before now) where I feel the series had a wider reaching impact. There's no way they're stupid enough to have these be the original unaltered versions...right? Then again, this is Konami... Yeah, considering that Bluepoint's HD Collection originally released on PS3/Xbox 360 brought things up to 720p/60fps, I'm going to be shocked and very disappointed if these aren't 1080p/60fps versions of the games. We definitely shouldn't be downgrading back to the original versions of the games over a decade from that collection's release, so there's no way they're stupid enough to have these be the original unaltered versions...right? Then again, this is Konami...

I didn't expect them to blow their complete proverbial load here, but I feel like I'm on the complete opposite end of this. To explain, the games we've got from PlayStation Studios since the launch of PS5, I think have been consistently high quality – but the quantity in terms of volume of first party releases has, for me, been a bit of a letdown. Part of that might be joining last gen two years in and using the five years that followed as a comparison point may not be entirely fair, especially with COVID as a factor, which I think is more than enough of a reason for major first party releases being quite sparse. So, if anything, I expected things to pick up here, not slow down - as I feel they should be nearly 3 years into the PS5's life, but maybe bolstered by projects that might be further along potentially being impacted by COVID (again, always willing to give benefit of the doubt when it comes to an unprecedented global pandemic). Again, I don't think my expectations were too wild going in - Spidey 2 was already slated for Fall 2023, we were told to expect Factions news sometime this year (so far we have, what, a piece or two of concept art? Hard to think anything but that the game's dev wasn't entirely rebooted following Part II's release at this point), Asobi and Bluepoint have been quiet since the launch of the PS5 so they seemed like fair game too. Maybe one additional surprise to really get us on top of that could've really brought this thing home. The thing is, we know those teams are working on things, as well as other studios under the PlayStation Studios roof, so at this point, the scary thing is that it seemed like a determined choice, not a lack of games being deep in dev, that meant more wasn't shown. I mean, they closed the show on a game we've known about for 1½ years already with no date (despite it being slated for release in the next 6 months...again), that's a huuuuuuuuuge letdown in terms of what these presentations aimed at fans are about (generating hype and grabbing mindshare). So getting a bunch of CGI trailers for GaaS games on top of that, besides Helldivers 2 (the only other first party game I think had a decent showing), for me it felt like a letdown. Obviously don't mean to take away from your enjoyment of it if you came away with plenty you're excited for, though, but I guess I'd agree with you saying it felt more like an Indie+ Showcase, which is fairly rough going after a year and a half without a Showcase! Yeah, it was...bizarre. Especially seeing that, in this take on Spider-Man, it's the first time we've seen a place in the world outside of NYC, I think? It feels less expansive and, to me at least, just made me imagine Kraven and his group being on a tropical island that's turned up off the coast of NY more than making the world feel bigger

Feel like I need to chime in...because that was a rough showing, and maybe one of the weakest PlayStation Showcases on the first party side of things. I tuned in with some friends in a party to share the hype and there was so little to get hyped about that one of my friends was saying he'll probably just pass on streaming the next Showcase after this and the last one were pretty poor (but at least the last one had more pertinent first party releases). Cool to start seeing stuff from PlayStation's acquired studios, but man, they weren't fantastic showings. I'm sorry Haven, but Fairgame$ (terrible name) looks destined to be dead within a year of its launch based on the CG trailer – it just looks so bland. Helldivers 2 looks like it could be dumb fun, nice to see some actual gameplay here, and fighting big Monster Hunter-style aliens with guns seems inherently like a good time, but that also just doesn't seem destined for long-term success. I'm already down and out on PlayStation's new objective of focusing on GaaS - as if I was ever onboard to begin with - but man, this is too much talent to waste on games seemingly destined to be buried in 12-18 months. To jump ahead, Concord, Firewalk's game, got a 45 second CG teaser which showed nothing but sci-fi and maybe inferred a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe...but is slated to be releasing next year? Seriously? Urgh. Immortals of Aveum was already announced, still looks pretty stupid. Ghostrunner II...eh. Phantom Blade Zero probably stole the show for me, I'm a bit nervous about having never heard of the devs before and the scale isn't so clear, but the combat looks fun as heck, as does the samurai steampunk vibe. Very, very into that. Sword of the Sea straight up stole the archway bridge from Shadow of the Colossus and one of the colossi designs and merged it with Abzu and Journey (same artist). Neat enough, piqued my interest. The Talos Principle II got a decent trailer, but honestly, I'm hard out on most first-person games unless they're shooters, because they seem to want to give me headaches, so...yeah, probably pass on this also first-person laser puzzles, nah I'm good Neva, by the creators of Gris, looks lovely...if a little on the depressing side, if this trailer is anything to go by. Also the wolf hilariously just takes all it can from Princess Mononoke, it's basically the designs of Moro and the Forest Spirit fused Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean piqued my interest as someone who knows of but hasn't played the earlier Cat Quest games, might need to look into doing so as I didn't realise they were so charming! Foamstars - Splatoon by Square Enix with the traditionally generic F2P character designs - looks like it'll be another GaaS dead within a year. Alright, The Plucky Squire still looks delightful. Teardown on PS5? Cool. Seen plenty of talk about it back when it release on PC. Not really for me. MGS Delta: Snake Eater was probably the most hyped I got the entire show, I joked that it was a first-person ant game but as soon as the bird picked up that dead frog and flew away, then landed on that mangrove-looking plant, I was going to my friends "oh there about to be a snake up in here and it's going to eat that bird, this is 1000% Snake Eater!", and surely enough, it was the much leaked and talked about Snake Eater remake. What a damn flat as hell trailer that was, especially for a remake of a game of this calibre, and made even worse by the fact that we all knew it was coming! Nice to hear the song again but I genuinely think a remake of the Snake Eater intro would have been better than this, it just didn't do anything to convince those of us who already love the original by now showing anything, and did absolutely nothing to sell new players on the game either...so who the heck was that for? I now face an uphill battle in convincing my friends to be excited for a game I genuinely think they'd enjoy, but how can I say that with confidence when I know nothing about the remake? The MGS: Master Collection Vol. 1 with MGS, MGS2 and MGS3 is awesome, coming in Autumn and I'll pick that up like the Suikoden collection to show my support. Should've shown some footage imo, but I felt that way about most of the games in the Showcase. Towers of Aghasba...eh. Final launch trailer for Final Fantasy XVI was cool. Super unnecessary because I feel like we've still somehow seen too much and too little of that game, but less than a month to go, so that was hype, and one of my friends told me he's downloaded Final Fantasy VII Remake after I recommended it for the insane anime BS and music while watching this and half-convinced my other friend to check it out, so that was cool. Alan Wake II getting Keanu Reeves was pretty funny, especially with how much they seemingly wanted to throw him into cyberpunk-looking shots. Assassin's Creed Mirage looks more like old AC than it does new AC, so that's good I guess. Revenant Hill looks charming, still need to check out Night in the Woods but this might be a prequel or something I'm guessing? Granblue Fantasy Relink finally got a release window (Winter) for this year! Been waiting a loooooooong time for this, so I'm excited, but also half expecting a delay to early 2024! Street Fighter 6 I checked out on a bit, always super curious about fighting games but they just never seem to keep me as interested as the first trailer manages to. Ultros has a neat art style, not really interested. Tower of Fantasy is clearly an answer to Genshin that I'm sure will be hot for a minute, find it's gacha crowd, and then go dead quiet. We finally got to see Dragon's Dogma II in action, which was pretty cool! I am actually half interested in this, so let's see how it turns out. Fully checked out for VR2 stuff, nothing super interesting there, but just want to acknowledge how cool RE4 looks in VR. Marathon looks like a GaaS that isn't destined to flop immediately but does have an absolutely atrocious name. Project Q could be cool if you could download games to it and transfer saves between console and handheld, but with it being streaming-only, eh, I can do that on my Steam Deck, so unless we hear that it's somehow flawless, I'll probably pass. Think this will be a flop if it comes in at any more than £200 with how the Switch and Series S are priced. The earbuds though? I'm fully in for those, the Pulse headset gets way too warm after a couple of hours and I love my XM4 earbuds, so give me that level of comfort in the foam tips, decent enough battery life for a long gaming session, and a half decent mic, and I'll be over the moon that my ears aren't burning - hoping this isn't crazy expensive and comes in at no more than £150, hopefully closer to £100 tbh. Lastly, Spider-Man 2 started off by trying to look like Wolverine (bad move imo) before having us worry that we were only getting a Kraven intro (another bad move imo) before then finally getting to some gameplay which, well...looked like more Spider-Man, but somehow a bit worse? Idk if it was the UI but it just didn't feel like a great showing, obviously there's a lot of compression with the stream but the symbiote suit didn't look great, and unlike the gameplay reveal we got for Miles which gave us a whole new vibe and showed us awesome new abilities...this just felt like more Spider-Man, and did a bad job for me of trying to justify being PS5 exclusive? I'm not quite seeing it. Do hope the symbiote suit adds extra attacks to your chain that you don't input as Peter loses sense of things, though, that'd be neat. Still expect to love the game, but yeah, just didn't feel like it sold me on anything new, and I was already in anyways. No release date though? That hurt. I know they've done it before where they've given a window and then just put out a date in the PS Blog, but not giving a date - not even a month? - when it's coming out sometime between the start of September and end of November this year is really odd, especially with it surely being attached to the SpiderVerse ads next week. So let's count this out. I'm in Day 1 for Snake Eater, MGS Collection, Final Fantasy XVI, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Spider-Man 2, and the earbuds. All of which I knew about to some extent - 3 of these were already announced and the other 3 were heavily rumoured in the last few months - going into this, so, I mean, no surprises there. I'm super interested in Phantom Blade Zero and it would be Day 1, but I just don't know enough a about the studio to have that level of confidence that it'll turn out great – but if it's even a 7/10, I'm there, because it's my vibe. I'm half interested in Helldivers 2 - that depends almost entirely on its model, is it F2P, premium, mid-priced? No idea - because it looks like it could be some fun with friends, but I otherwise have ZERO interest in PlayStation's games from their other acquired studios making their own big announcements. Also half interested in Neva, The Plucky Squire, Sword of the Sea, Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean and Dragon's Dogma II, but that just really depends on how busy I am with other games when they release, the state of their release, and how well they show off in future showings prior to release. Again: big letdown for me this showing, and I'm already seeing people talking about a Showcase in September. Yes, there are games I'm interested in, but I knew about most of them going in already, so Phantom Blade Zero was the big surprise for me here. Look, I'm seeing people disappointed by a lack of GTA VI and Bloodborne anything - to which I say, well, you did that to yourself - but I'm really disappointed by the first party showing here. I don't even think I was expecting anything too crazy. We got told to expect TLOU Factions news this year, so why not here, one last chance at striking while the metaphorical TLOU is dead hot? We haven't seen anything from Asobi or Bluepoint since the PS5 launched, and we're now over 2½ years removed from that and have no idea what they're up to. There are plenty of other studios with other things in the works, sure, but that first party was limited to Spider-Man 2, THREE GaaS announcements by acquired studios, and, I'm going to be honest, a complete waste of time 45 second CGI announcement trailer for Firewalk's new game? I'm interested in 1½ of the 5 games the showed (I'm going to do them a kindness and not quite count Destiny in this, otherwise it'd be 6). Urgh, I haven't even mentioned that they brought a trailer for the Gran Turismo trailer to this thing... I wasn't going to score this, because I'm watching fewer game events these days (there are too many and, outside of Nintendo, too varied in quality) so it feels a bit redundant, but I feel it needs to be done for how poor a showing it was: 3.5/10. PlayStation have clearly forgotten how to put on a show. Yeah, said it when it was announced, said it in this post already, but I'll say it again: hoo boy is PlayStation's GaaS-focused approach already looking to hurt so much of the goodwill built with the PS4's single player catalog. We're coming up on 3 years of the PS5 and it doesn't seem like anyone has really got going over there outside of what was originally announced with the console back in 2020, and I'm not saying that's the case, but that's what they make it seem like. They could come back in September or some other time and blow it out of the water - we already know that there's a bunch being worked on, so it's not crazy to think that there's stuff to show, even if it's a while out - but, for now, I'm scratching my head and asking myself why on earth they chose to go first? With no Nintendo Direct seemingly planned for this Not-E3 season, in terms of the big events (so not a smaller Square Enix thing like we had last year), it's looking like a battle of mediocrity between Xbox and Summer Game Fest for who "wins" (spoiler: with a bad PlayStation showing and seemingly no Nintendo showing coming up, we've already lost) this summer, and Xbox surely wins by default anyways purely because they aren't going to be filling their show with a stupid number of ads like SGF will. I guess the trade-off is that at least SGF has the potential to end on a banger of a reveal, whereas Xbox is pretty backed up in terms of announcements, so... Like I said: we've already lost, and the worst part is, I think we all know it. Now to start counting down to next year, I guess, because at least Nintendo might have a new console and a slew of new games to throw our way, and maybe PlayStation can do us all a favour and sack Jim Ryan? Please? I miss Shawn and the boys

Deserved a bit more attention than it got in the Showcase, but alas, another MGS Collection is on its way, starting with Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as part of Volume 1, releasing in Autumn 2023. No word on Volume 2 or what will come with it, but it sounds like it's very much in the works to release during the series' 35th anniversary celebrations: Well, MGS lives and breathes, and OG Snake Eater isn't getting buried below the remake either. Wonder how Kojima is going to be treated in the credits for this collection? Switch video:

Eh, I'm not, at all Been following news on this game for a good while now, and while it's kept getting pushed further and further back, I never got the sense that it would be outright cancelled after it was left in active development following Platinum's departure. I think if there was ever a time to shut up shop it would have been then, but instead, they doubled down and put the graft in. I'm curious where Cygames stands on AAA Granblue after this, got to imagine the sales will be a big tell. Do they want to make a sequel, or was this always planned to just be a standalone? It definitely felt at one point like they wanted to push this to be up there alongside Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest as one of the bigger console JRPGs in Japan, but since Platinum left, I definitely feel like they aren't quite as committed to that coming to fruition as they might have been for. Yeah, I'm curious to see how much of that Platinum flavour remains too, because while it's been said that the bulk of what Platinum made remains, it's definitely and looked less and less like a Platinum game - at least, most noticeably, in its combat - so I've got to imagine that might have been said mainly in reference to models and other assets?

Generic release window of Fall 2023 it is, then Before we had reason to believe it was coming in September with the VA leak, and now we have reason to believe it is coming between September and November. Woo. (looks like more Spidey so I'm in at least)

One of the surprises of today's Showcase for me, nervous about not being familiar with the developer, but felt this has the best showing of anything in the Showcase: I am so in

Launch trailer hype Less than a month to go!

Winter 2023 per today's Showcase: FINALLY shown as part of a big show, which gives me some confidence that it's actually going to make it out this year! Some

New accessories from today's Showcase, Project Q streaming portable and wireless earbuds: In for the earbuds, because my overears get waaaaaaaaaay too warm, but not that interested in Project Q.

Finally officially official: Sorely needed gameplay imho. Would love to hear H-o-T's thoughts on this, because that trailer - especially after all the leaks! - just felt super flat.

The Backbone One - PlayStation Edition for Android finally releases today:

Been watching some HBO shows I got in box sets for my birthday/Christmas last year. Band of Brothers – abso-freakin'-lutely brilliant and harrowing watch, it's been a while since I've watched something about WWII and just been left floored (the last to do it was probably when I first watched Schindler's List?). I think we're in such a weird moment in time where everyone is so focused on defining masculinity as being this or that, soft or hard, emotionless or emotional, and shows like this are a stark reminder, to me, of what I think masculinity is about...and it has naught all to do with masculinity in the first place, it comes down to your humanity, to defining what you think is right and then taking action. The men in this show paint a picture of what that means for and to them, individually, throughout, and that's what helps to make the show truly great. Episode 10 and the final words we hear from Winters crushed me. 10/10. Chernobyl – horrible tragedy, great show. It's a tricky one for me to gauge with how certain characters are painted, particular Dyatlov, because I came away with a lot of questions about his depiction, so I won't talk about how accurate a depiction it is or isn't, but instead just praise how effective the show was in taking coming up against a force of nature and more or less turning it into a horrifying monster. The way the Geiger counter is mixed into the sound design and music ratchets the tension up more than it has any right to, and I don't think a single foot was put wrong in the show's performances. I've seen Stellan Skarsgård in a few things before, but between his performance in this, Baron Harkonnen in Dune, and as Luthen in Andor, he's quickly become one of my favourite actors for the performances he's given in recent years. Was a bit funny seeing Jared Harris in this after being most exposed to him in Mad Men, and well, there are similarities. No surprise that Craig Mazin went on to work on TLOU after this, makes complete sense, as do some of the additions made to that show's story when looking at how he handled Chernobyl. My biggest gripe with the show is probably that we have a bunch of Russians and Ukrainians portrayed mostly by Brits, which at times I found a bit distracting with their accents (I loved Jared Harris's performance but I think you'd be hard-pressed to get a more British-sounding actor of his calibre of acting), especially when you get "comrade" thrown in throughout; I'm not one to normally get hung up on details like this, but considering just how serious and localised a tragedy it was, I do think it was a huge missed opportunity. No idea if it's something they looked at, so I can only speak to how the show turned out, but those are my two cents. 9/10. The Wire – S1 I finished last week, bit of a slow burn (not at all unexpected given, I mean, it's called The Wire) but when it going, man, it reeeeeeeeally got going. I knew one or two of the actors in the show going into it, but had no idea that certain other faces (such as Lance Reddick) would be turning up. Lester and, weirdly enough, Prez, were probably my favourite of the team, and I obviously loved everything they did/are doing with Omar too. As far as first seasons go? 9/10. S2 I finished today, and well, it was somehow an even slower burn than the first season was for me, and didn't quite hit the same heights by the time it wrapped up. No idea what this show's production was like, but I'm guessing with how neatly S1 wrapped up and how S2 takes a good while to unwrap some of that to get the ball rolling again, that the show was likely renewed for S2 (and probably S3) after S1 was well under way. S2 feels like a whole lot of foundation for what's to come, even if it is still brilliantly acted, and while the main story thread at the docks was intriguing, for me I was surprised by just how much the show continued some of the first season's lingering threads, and especially to the extent that it did. 8/10. Hoping S3 isn't as slow a burn, then. Here's hoping

Ray Stevenson, the voice of Gar Saxon and set to portray Baylan in Ahsoka, has passed away at the age of 58. He is also well known for his role as Voltsagg in the Thor trilogy. May he rest in peace. Baylan was definitely one of the characters we've seen in the marketing for Ahsoka that intrigued me the most. Ray was beaming every time he took to the stage in London at Celebration last month, and he seemed really excited for the role, so I'm hoping that the character gives him the send-off he deserves with one last character he helps to make beloved.

One month out, meaning it's time for previews, apparently! Feel like I simultaneously know way too much and yet far too little about this game being a month out, but I'm excited nonetheless

Eiji Aonuma has a great interview with The Washington Post that just went up today, and it comes with the claim that the game was pretty much complete last March, but held for polish. The interview is well worth a read, but good lord, that's one hell of a choice to make! Kudos to them though, seems to have paid off and then some

Let's pretend we had no idea that this was happening because NetherRealm seem to want to challenge Ubisoft for the title of Leakiest (totally a word) Ship™ Turning into a great year for the big-hitting fighting games, between this, Street Fighter 6, and Tekken 8 being scheduled for later this year/early next!

Some more details on PlayStation's accessibility controller - which they've now seemingly given an official title of 'Access controller' after previously referring to it as Project Leonardo? - have been shared for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Good stuff

Yeah, it's definitely dropping somewhere in that autumn window. The Venom VA who broke his NDA a little while back seemed to think it was coming out in September with marketing going nuts in August, which is the same month as when the first game released in 2018, so maybe then? But we did get Miles in November (albeit tied to the PS5 launch), so anywhere in that window I guess. Love swinging around in those games Yeah, I feel like this needs to release within the next 12 months to strike while the iron is still relatively hot on the HBO series. With PlayStation's previously announced focus on delivering multiple live service games, which Factions is surely one of, and I'd say for love service games there's virtually no point in launching physical copies, or if they do, it could be an incredibly limited run. I'd say there's no chance this would happen, but I still want to throw it out there: can you imagine if the Factions trailer ended with 'T O M O R R O W'? I mean, let's face it, when it comes to live service games especially, there's increasingly little reason to market it as much as single player games, as word of mouth and social media buzz are the main force pulling players in. We don't need impressions, we don't need reviews, live service games - for me, at least - are maybe some of the best games to shadow drop, because you immediately gauge demand and interest following a showing at an event like this. So long as you have a runway to launch from and a map of where you're heading with your live service game (and there's also the benefit of not needing *everything* completed and ready to go at launch), I really think it's the way to go, and it would be especially potent with a series like TLOU, which would exponentially multiply the sort of hype a shadow drop can bring because of its existing fanbase. Again: don't think for a moment that it's happening. But I think it would be pretty stupid if one of the big players launch a live service game don't do it at some point. Yeah, Team Asobi could definitely have something to show. Astro's Playroom remains, for me, the most next-gen experience delivered, in terms of showcasing so much of what the PS5 and DualSense are capable of. I also got a little addicted to the speedrunning aspect, so that was fun I think a fully fledged game like that would be fantastic, I'm not sure if it would necessarily be selling at the upper mark on their RRPs of £70, but then again, I'd assume that their next game will have some optional/additional VR2 levels and integration thrown in too. I struggle to see their next title being VR2 exclusive, though, because that would have been a weird bet to make over the last few years with all of the things that slowed down PS5 sales for a while like the components shortage, not to mention that VR2 hasn't exactly come swinging out of the gates. Very excited for whatever they have planned next, especially if it's something including Astro. I don't know why, but typing this, I just realised I'd love for them to make a kart racer at some point in the future! Astro Kart has a lovely ring to it or Astro's Karting Adventure! I just checked something I posted in Jan and, yeah, I'd be shocked if Bluepoint aren't here in some way or another, because they've never gone more than 3 years between releases and we'll be at that 3 year mark sooner rather than later in November (to mark the 3 year anniversary of the Demon's Souls remake). I'm not sure if it will be Bloodborne, though I'd absolutely love for it to be having just played it for the first time earlier this year and I adored it (my new favourite From Soft game and in my opinion their best but some stretch of the ones I've played), but the biggest issue with that game is it's framerate, and while it could have higher fidelity assets, I don't think it would stand to gain quite as much as Demon's Souls did when it was remade. Not saying it's not happening, I'd be excited to go through it again already with a new set of polish (well, maybe not the Chalice Dungeons so much), I just feel like a remake almost comes with the expectation of a sequel at this point. It's also difficult to tell with Bluepoint because I believe they sized up and wanted to work on an original game. They could be working on a remake and an original game at the same time, but if the team were to be split like any of the other Sony teams do to manage multiple projects, that would probably mean not all being in on one project together but generally being split across two, and I do think a Bloodborne remake or something like a Metal Gear Solid remake would require a more focused approach. I think if they do have two separate projects being worked on at the same time it might be a case of it being a smaller remake (let's be honest, if they do Bloodborne or Metal Gear Solid next, where the heck do you even go from there if we're talking about taking things up a notch like they have been?) and their original game, and if that's the case, I could see the smaller game being an ICO remake. That game is rough around the edges, sure, but given the impact that game had on the industry - it always blows me away when I read developer interviews and how many times ICO crops up as a huge inspiration for devs - making it accessible and shiny for a new audience would be an interesting prospect, especially with news on Ueda's and GenDesign's game surely ~ SURELY ~ being on the horizon (by the end of the year?) at this point. Again, it's a really tricky one to gauge, because PlayStation have got a bit aggressive with upsizing the last few years, we just don't see much news on it because, well, they don't talk about it. But, for instance, Cory Barlog has been working on something new for Santa Monica Studio for a good while now, and there's a lot of reason to believe it's a new IP (and furthermore, I would guess a potential revival of the scrapped sci-fi project which was being thrown around in the early days of God of War 2018's development?). His involvement, as far as I'm aware, on Ragnarök - and from the interviews I've listened to with the game's director, Eric Williams - was kept to a minimum (he's listed as creative director and producer in the game's credits); he basically gave Eric beats to hit storywise which they would have discussed at length and was available for further discussion, but otherwise seemed to be hard at work on his own project. We also know that SMS sized up and I would guess that they have the potential to take on two projects at once after that. Personally I think it's too early for a Last of Us Part III announcement, but similar to Factions, I don't see any reason to not strike while the iron's hot, so if they have a trailer like the one for Part II to throw out there, now could be the time for it. If their next project even is Part III, I think I'd wait until after Factions and Part II's adaptation has been completed before going for Part III, and instead take a bit of a breather with a new IP or something, because they've been doing The Last of Us over there nonstop since, what, Lost Legacy in 2017? And that was small and initially DLC for Uncharted 4 which sized up to be its own game. Insomniac have already announced Wolverine, I don't think you show that here so we can focus on Spidey 2, but they showed the trailers together at the last Showcase, so they could do here, especially if the gameplay is going to be pretty different (which I imagine it will be). And then, yeah, bunch of other potential stuff on the down low, again it's hard to tell with how many studios they have now and the constant upsizing and closures (yes, Japan Studio still hurts). This is being talked about as being something of a Phase 2 unveiling for PS5, so I'd guess that there's going to be a couple of new first party studio announcements we've not got on our radars - if I'd have to guess: Asobi, Bluepoint, and maybe SMS's new IP - and obviously they've set a high bar for how many live service games they want out there, so maybe we see more of those, even beyond Factions. Yeah, I'm sure a slew of third party exclusive stuff is probably on the way too, I mean we could see Rise of Ronin again, maybe something for Death Stranding 2 with how much Kojima loves his trailers. I could see KH4 cropping up again here - we only saw that at the KH anniversary event last year if I'm remembering right? - but Rebirth I'm not too sure, what with us being just over a month out from XVI and S-E seemingly making the (wise) choice to be mum about Rebirth until XVI is out there before winding that up. Maybe we get another trailer..? But I'd be shocked if we didn't get a final trailer for XVI here, too (we've had a lot of that game the last few months and I still don't feel like I have a full grasp on it, which is nice). I think you can do both but up to this point S-E haven't seemed too interested in marketing both side by side, and we've seen it a fair bit as of late that people seem to finally understand that (direct) sequels don't need nearly as much marketing, in games especially it's nice to keep some things under wraps, so could just be a case of them keeping things quiet there too. Personally, I have full confidence in Rebirth and don't feel like I need to see much more, I'm already in, so would take a final trailer for XVI and would take a trailer for whatever Yoko Taro has in store for NieR over Rebirth right now. Don't know where Dragon Quest XII would land, but unless S-E have their own event planned, Nintendo don't seem to be lining anything up for this summer in terms of a Direct as the Switch seems to be winding down, so I'd love to see DQXII here. Otherwise, maybe something from Atlus or RGG from SEGA? Feels like we're long overdue news about something from Persona which isn't a remaster, be it a remake or 6, and Yakuza loves to turn up to these things. Oh, and Capcom. Something Street Fighter 6, for sure. Something RE, for sure (ports of the PS1 classics, please, for crying out loud?! I want to play the OGs and remakes all on the same console). Maybe something Mega Man. And lastly, Konami news. I have no idea. Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania...could be any of them, could be all of them, could be none of them. What I do know is that it's May and we still have no idea when Suikoden I&II are landing, so just give me an update on those, I don't know if that's here or elsewhere but just get it done ya pachinko-pushing pariahs