Julius

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

Splatoon 3 is the fastest-selling game on the Switch in Japan, not worldwide. That sold 3.45 million units in 3 days, this sold 2.24 million units in Japan in 3 days. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are the fastest-selling Nintendo games of all time...with 10 million sold worldwide in 3 days. And Tears of the Kingdom just did the same. Now, based on the phrasing, I would guess that means Tears of the Kingdom came up short on taking that title (or they're still confirming figures and so just went with "fastest-selling in the franchise" for now). But that would still mean TotK is the second fastest-selling Nintendo game of all time, and that it matched the launch of the best launch for a Pokémon game. And that's all kind of nuts too. ETA: Over 4 million copies in the Americas too, per Business Wire: Well I'll be.

LET'S. FREAKING. GOOOOOOOOOOOO. The first PlayStation Showcase since September 2021 has just been announced! Very excited for this, and it's been rumoured for a good few weeks now. The rumours also said that this had been planned for the backend of last year, but got bumped in favour of studios polishing everything they had for a bigger showing. And with the only SIE-developed games with trailers at the moment being Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine, I'd say all signs point to there being a lot cooking, and plenty for us to feast on. I think the biggest sign that this will be a big show is that PlayStation are going first this summer, because, when it comes to E3 season they pretty much never go first (in fact, they pretty much always go after their most direct competitor so they can one-up them). I think that speaks to the level of confidence they have. Oh, and also, I guess they need a Spidey 2 trailer to stick in front of the new SpiderVerse film which releases the following week

10 million copies sold worldwide in its first three days of release!! Holy. Hot. Damn.

XVI is the next cover story for Game Informer! In case that tweet plays up or says it showcases sensitive content: Ain't she a beaut? Just five and a half weeks to go!

We're looking at an unsurprisingly stacked list of devs and publishers for next month's Summer Game Fest: Can't wait to catch the highlights

Eurogamer changing to a 5-star review system the day before this releases and then giving it a 4/5 lmao Yep, still there at 97 with 67 reviews now. Really want to see that next cover of Edge Right then, now I've seen the review scores but not watched a single one, I guess it's time for me to go see what all the fuss is about ETA: the Digital Foundry tech review is up, will definitely be taking a look at this one later ~

Taking my lunch break (I guess I meant in terms of talking about my time with the game, I'll leave after reviews drop )

Final two chapters of the Ask the Developer interviews for TotK are up!

ShopTo, you brilliant bastards, it's turned up a day early! (and yes I did finally break the Skyward Sword Joy-Cons out of their box just for this game ) Looks like my amiibo isn't arriving until tomorrow, but other than that, think I'll take my leave from this thread until the end of the weekend (in terms of talking about my time with the game) so that I can share some more cohesive thoughts once a few more of us are playing, and not to fill the thread up with spoiler tags and me going "OHMUHGOSH DID THEY DO IT DID THEY OR DID THEY NOT GO ALL THE WAY AND FIX THE PRO HUD?!" (also don't want to hint at anything else I might find) Hope everyone has a great first experience with the game!

Got the dispatch email myself yesterday morning around 09:00 after the email on Tuesday to say they would dispatch Wednesday/yesterday, and just woke up to find myself staring at an email saying it'll be delivered today (along with the amiibo). It's been with my local depot (which is a five minute walk at most from my apartment) since 06:00... So, uh, I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like my copy might be arriving today?

Of course pleasepleasepleaseberealpleasepleaseplease

(okay but fr I saw the tweet and then took a nap, thinking about how long it's been since a proper PlayStation Showcase...SO SUE ME)

WARNING: once again, in this Chapter, the developers start to talk about aspects of the game NOT shown in its marketing up to this point; a truly bizarre decision, and given they've spoken about it, I imagine tomorrow's reviews likely have the go-ahead to talk about it too. You have been warned. ETA: It's official news but an interview, and this close to launch and not in marketing, figured I'd still throw it in a spoiler tag. The follow-up tweet quoting the interview confirms something we haven't seen in the game's marketing... Chapter 3 of the Ask the Developer interview for TotK is up. Final two chapters arrive tomorrow saving actually reading through these for when I'm done with the game, but hopefully make a good read!

Damn, given Private Division's publishing record (The Outer Worlds and Hades immediately spring to mind), I'm strangely intrigued by this. For me - now I didn't play Scarlet and Violet, mind you - Pokémon hasn't been about exploration and getting a bit lost since, what, Gen IV caused Game Freak and TPCi to completely overcorrect because some kids kept getting lost in caves? Seeing the concept art, my mind immediately went back to Sugimori's original works, which always to me inspired a true sense of adventure in a livelier world, and make me wonder about what Pokémon could have been had they followed the path they were trying to follow vs the corporate-ified generic schlock we so often seem to get. Pretty crazy lineup Private Division have got at the moment: Kerbal Space Program 2 (releasing this year), a new Middle-Earth game, a new Bloober Team game, a new Moon Studios game, and now a Game Freak game. By far the most interesting division of Take Two, hope this turns out interesting!

Thanks! But if they've actually fixed the tiniest thing I wanted from BotW, I'd love to laugh to myself at being shocked that they did so when I first switch over to the Pro HUD Then again, I guess all the reviews (coming tomorrow?!) will probably answer that question too if there is any change, so...mind grabbing a screenshot for me of whatever the Pro HUD looks like now please? You can also directly transfer them to your device of choice via QR code (instructions from NintendoLife here) it feels like a little bit more of a hassle than it should be, but eh, it's something I guess

Yeah, going to agree with @drahkon and recommend Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood too. It's my go-to series recommendation for anyone new to, or diving further into, anime, because it's a complete story with little filler (at 64 episodes long it's just one episode longer than Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the shows are very comparable), feels familiar enough to a Western audience to get comfortable with it but has hints of (and then fully dives into) glorious anime weirdness, feels like it hits on a glut of anime tropes you'll see crop up in most shows, an amazing cast of characters, great music, and is just an overall masterpiece. For something a bit on the shorter side (26 episodes), Cowboy Bebop is another shout I feel. The soundtrack is whacky and jazzy, the characters are fun, but it can get a bit heavy at times, so it's not recommended for a binge over a weekend if that's your sort of thing. And I mean the anime here (we're in the anime thread after all!), not the live-action remake Beyond that, as a film recommendation, my go-to is Your Name. It's another one that feels familiar enough in that it's basically Freaky Friday, but then that awesome anime weirdness turns up and well...just watch it. It's also jaw-droppingly beautiful, which doesn't hurt it as a viewing experience at all! If you enjoyed the first season, I would recommend picking it up again later this year, as the anime is finally due to end this September/October and has been a great ride. I'm of the opinion the second season is a little bit of a step down, but from the second half of the third season onwards, it's been nothing short of brilliant. Oof, I was actually listening to a podcast talk about horror anime the other day, and honestly? There aren't many - if any - traditional horror anime that I'd say are worth checking out. Which is okay, because I find that anime - thanks to its medium already having you suspend your disbelief - is perfect for psychological horror, which typically comes paired up with being a bit of a thriller, and for that I do have some recommendations. The first season of Psycho-Pass is 22 episodes long and is basically Criminal Minds meets 2001: A Space Odyssey, with futuristic guns that don't fire until they decide, through an algorithm, whether or not someone is likely to commit a crime based on how psychopathic they are. But what happens when someone learns how to play the system? Watch to find out As an anime film recommendation for psychological horror, Perfect Blue is the be-all and end-all of recommendations in this space imo. It's not just a great anime film, or a great film for its time, it is a perfect example of a creator having their finger on the pulse – it basically predicts modern idol culture, the effects of social media and the internet on celebrities, and the boom we've seen in parasocial relationships. Perfect Blue follows an idol as her career progresses, but when she starts to get stalked, the lines between her life as an idol/aspiring actress and her personal life begin to blur. It can be a little hard to follow the first time around, but trust me, it makes the second time around all the sweeter when you start to pick up on so much more of what's going on. Satoshi Kon, the director, in my opinion is one of the greatest modern directors when it comes to purposeful edits, the way scenes and shots flow into one another - or abruptly half, in other cases - is unmatched, for me. Of course they count! Out of curiosity, which have you watched? There might be one or two left for you to love (if you haven't watched all of them already, that is! Because if you have, fair play in advance, I still haven't! )

An Astro plush has been announced, and there's still no new game announcement, so I guess it's going on here Gah, please show up in the next Showcase!

Piggyback have announced that they will be working on the official guide for the game, which is due to ship 16th June:

Yeah, as has been mentioned, looks like they might have jumped the gun a bit. Chapters 1 and 2 are now up through the below Twitter link, with Chapter 3 arriving tomorrow: Sounds good to me

Great question to throw out there, thanks Ashley Given just how many different approaches I'm sure people will have to the game, and just how long it could potentially be in the first place, I'd probably agree with about a month – mainly because I can see people not getting to the final story beats for that long. HLTB lists BotW's average main story playthrough as being 50 hours long, to which I say...I have no idea what they count as the main story, probably just crit path objectives and grabbing the memories? That still seems crazy long if they're just beelining it, but anyways, that's not the point If we take that as roughly being what a main story playthrough for TotK is going to be (based on what we've seen it could easily be shorter, just as long, or waaaaaaaaaay longer, we really haven't seen enough in its marketing to know), across the space of a month, that would be roughly 1.5 to 2 hours of play per day (on average). I know everyone's situation is different with families, responsibilities, etc., but for spoiler tags in a dedicated game thread (which you could avoid), I'd say that sounds somewhat reasonable? And I say that as someone who is going to be taking their sweet time with the game and have no idea if they'll be done in a month and will likely continue to stick anything spoilery in tags anyways Yeah, I'm going to be honest, while I'm sure there are those here that care most about avoiding story spoilers, for me I care at least as much - if not more - about "exploration" spoilers. Discovering new things was at the core of BotW's experience, and given that they've shown decidedly little in TotK's marketing up to this point, I imagine there's plenty left for us to find for ourselves. Heck, we still have no official word on temples returning, let alone every other thing we've speculated about for the last 4 years! I mean, we also don't know if simple things like the Hero's Path from the DLC for BotW are returning, or if they've updated the Pro HUD to get rid of those pesky hearts outside of combat (here's hoping, eh? LET ME TAKE SOME GLORIOUS HEART-FREE SCREENSHOTS AND CLIPS MIYAMOTO I SWEAR TO BOWSER). I think it's a trickier one to track than narrative spoilers, and I do think it takes some self-policing. Essentially, I think, with a game like this that's about exploration and discovering new things, if you think something is incredibly cool when you discover it, just take a sec to think about whether or not openly sharing it would spoil finding the same thing and experiencing how cool it was for others (unrelated but how are we only three days wth)

It's my favourite time of the Financial Year once again, with Nintendo's earnings report for Q4 FY 2023 covering the period of 1st January 2023 - 31st March 2023 dropping today, meaning it's the end of the fiscal year and once again time for their annual report! The Big Takeaways In terms of hardware, the Nintendo Switch across its different SKUs sold 3.07 million units in Q4 (1st January 2023 - 31st March 2023), bringing annual sales up to 17.97 million units sold for the fiscal year (1st April 2022 - 31st March 2023), meaning it missed it's projection of 18 million units sold for the fiscal year (previously revised from 21 million units). This gives the Switch a lifetime haul of 125.62 million units; in case you missed it last quarter, this means that the Switch is the third best-selling console of all-time, behind only the Nintendo DS (154.9 million units sold) and PlayStation 2 (157.68 million uniys sold). For hardware, this marks the first fiscal year since FY20 (1st April 2019 - 31st March 2020) that the Switch has not surpassed the mark of 20 million units sold. Nintendo are projecting a continued drop-off in hardware sales, going into FY24 forecasting sales of 15 million hardware units for the Switch. This isn't surprising given how late we are now into the Switch's life cycle (somehow and some way, 2017 was 6 years ago!), but expect to see that number wind down over the next few years - especially with the Switch's successor likely to release within the next 18 to 24 months. In terms of software, the Nintendo Switch has now sold 1.036 billion units, with 213.82 million software units sold in the year (that's right - 20.6% of the Switch's lifetime software sales have taken place in the last 12 months!); this sees it extend its lead as the Nintendo platform with most software units sold to date (this was previously held by the Nintendo DS - 948.76 million software units sold). Per VGC, President Shuntaro Furukawa has confirmed that there will be NO new hardware releases from Nintendo within the next 12 months. Additionally, he seemed to hint that they aren't confident of hitting their FY24 projection of selling 15 million Switch units. Top 10 Best-selling Switch titles as of 31st March 2023 (new Top 10 entries in bold) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 53.79M Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 42.21M Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 31.09M Breath of the Wild - 29.81M Pokemon Sword/Shield - 25.82M Super Mario Odyssey - 25.76M Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - 22.10M Super Mario Party - 19.14M New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 15.41M Ring Fit Adventure - 15.38M Sales figures for other titles of note released this Financial Year (FY23) Pokémon Legends Arceus - 14.83M Splatoon 3 - 10.67M Nintendo Switch Sports - 9.60M Kirby & The Forgotten Land - 6.46M Mario Strikers: Battle League - 2.54M Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - 1.86M Fire Emblem Engage - 1.61M Metroid Prime Remastered - 1.09M Bayonetta 3 - 1.07M

Bit of a PSA I'll stick in here in case anyone runs into this issue with the game in the future, especially while trying to cleaning up trophies / achievements. Seems like such a haphazard bug that it seems like exactly the sort of thing that's going to get missed out in patches. The problem is that occasionally triggers (specifically R1 and R2?) seem to randomly stop functioning. First noticed it in combat when trying to use some of the new Force abilities, but it's become much more apparent trying to complete puzzles (using R1 and another button to interact with the environment, or using R2 to Force push an interactive puzzle element after Force pulling it and dragging it around a bit) where they simply don't work. I've tested multiple controllers and the triggers in the main PS menu and some other games, so I can safely say: it's Survivor, not the controllers (unfortunately). The workaround I've been using is to simply save at a Meditation Point, exit the game, fully close the app, and open it back up. It's happened a few times now and is a bit of a hassle, but yeah, seemed worth mentioning in case anyone here in the future encounters the issue and think it'll stop their progress