Julius

Oh absolutely, I just think it needs to be there to bounce ideas off more than anything, I think that's so vital. It doesn't always mean a better project, mistakes can absolutely still be made, just makes sense to me for the guy who's written Kenobi since the mid-2000's to be there to bounce things off of (in fairness, I think Ewan's performance as Obi-Wan is that universal point of praise for the show, so it's probably not the best example of what I mean, but think you know what I'm saying!). Like you say, Favreau wrote Mando (I mean, before even being officially hired he was writing Mando, the guy wanted it bad!), but a huge part of that process - at least from the Gallery and other interviews they've had - really shines a light on the back and forth being vital for that show. And, while Jon did write Mando almost exclusively, from what I gather Filoni was working on his own separate Mando project to some degree (KK mentioned it in the Gallery I believe when talking about setting them up on their "play date") which I imagine was more focused on what we now see as backstory for Mando. Something huge with Dave as well I feel is beyond the back and forth, he's a storyboarder, which isn't something you frequently get from guys coming from a film or TV background as much as you do the animation side of things. That Yin and Yang I guess. And absolutely, there are other people from the animated series that I'd actually want to get involved (and I mean in terms of live-action, there have already been several people who have come onboard who I want to see get larger roles beyond directing a single episode, like BDH!), because they're also people who have been working on Star Wars for so long and are just incredibly experienced and well-versed in this now. I know Carrie basically works on everything Dave works on, but you mention Athena and I feel like her presence (and this is also the case for many of the writers and animators of the animated series) seems a bit underappreciated from the outside looking in, and you'd hope that they were getting shots to do what people new to Star Wars are also doing, you know? But yeah, this is a long way of saying I think we agree, but it's absolutely just finding that balance! It's so weird because I want Dave helming Ahsoka to do great so he can be trusted with bigger and bigger live-action projects (man, like I just feel you could place trust in the idea of a Filoni film once he's got to grips more with live-action and that's really exciting), but then I also want him around just to give general oversight/be there to bounce ideas off of. I think the simple solution is that we need to clone Dave Filoni Oh yeah, absolutely, I couldn't agree more; it's something I do a fair bit actually, but as you know I've taken a looooooong break from Star Wars so that's been the exception to that as of late, but I'm in a huuuuuuuuuge Star Wars kick now (yet to start on any of the new books I've got as my evenings have been a mess lately, but I'm returning to a lot of Star Wars games and shows ) which has been great, though Kenobi has put continuing with going through the films on a bit of a hold as I feel like I'm getting a good fill of live-action Star Wars from that. Great clip from SWE by the way, thanks for sharing that! He's right; the path of least resistance (on these days unfortunately throwing malicious or just generally negative thoughts into the cesspit that is the internet) is often the easy thing I'd probably say for me 8 times out of 10 returning to something doesn't really change my view massively (and honestly, when it does, its incredibly rare that I enjoy things more, but it does happen!), but that space from release can definitely relieve a rewatch of any added pressures, especially if there's just a lot going on (and I don't know about you, but I definitely feel like sometimes in the moment I might be distracted by other things going on in life but not really notice until much later on down the line; hindsight is 20-20 and all that jazz). I can't remember who it was but there was a film critic who would begin their reviews by describing their day up to watching the film (e.g. 'I woke up at 8, felt great, went and grabbed a coffee and bagel. This guy bumped into me and started swearing, I yelled back, it was a whole thing. But then on my walk over to the theatre I saw a lot more friendly faces and quickly forgot about that", etc.) just to give their reader that point of context for where they're coming from with the review. In fairness, Kenobi I do watch twice at the moment, and yeah, I do think it helps to enjoy the good moments more, but adversely, it can also just make me double down on "man, I really just don't gel with the decisions they've made on the music/yeah I was right, this CGI Tatooine sand sucks balls/etc.", but when I do that, it really does come from a place of 1) wanting to learn (I just love stories and absorbing them and the processes behind making them), and 2) love, for Star Wars. The sequels I watched an unseemly amount in cinemas, and I think it was on here where I straight up said coming out of TLJ "yeah, I have no idea what I think, this needs a second watch" and afterwards telling everyone "it absolutely needs a second watch." TROS had its moments, and I'm sure I'll enjoy those moments more with a rewatch now (I did watch it three times in theatres to be fair!), but I think you can watch the first act of that film and, even if you accept there are good moments, that it's going to be a bit of a mess. When I have issues with things in Star Wars - and I mean, any other story, or just anything else I talk about to be honest - I hope it comes across that even if I disagree or have a differing view that I by no means want to change someone else's view, or yell into the echo chamber with a drive-by thought. The only time I'll find myself doing that is when people are spewing dangerous thoughts that can harm people, and even then, you've got to be careful and respectful (for example: I think the Moses Ingram hate is disgusting. I think Reva hasn't been spectacular from what we've seen so far, but that in no way excuses the vitriol she's had to deal with); a position of confrontation loses out to a position of understanding every time, all of the time, without fail. I always want to try and have that back and forth when possible, in order to try to understand someone else's perspective; so, while I have issues with Boba and Kenobi, I think it's great that there are those on here who loved Boba, or are loving Kenobi, more than I did/have/am, as at the end of the day, I want to love these things just as much as everyone else! I've always been like that though, or at least I like to think so, but in fairness, it can be difficult to translate to places like this where your written word is both your opinion and the emotion behind your opinion. It's why sometimes some of my posts (like this one!) can get a little long, but I don't know, I think it's better to talk a little too much (online anyways) to try to make it as clear as I can to show that I'm open to that back and forth, and hopefully have that common ground for understanding

Sounds and looks like you had a great time @Ronnie, lovely pics! Oh haha, I deleted it. Reading it back through it just seemed very long and made it sound like what I was talking about was a much bigger deal than it was, didn't feel like it contributed anything meaningful or constructive to the conversation Essentially, all it said was I think Boba Fett and Obi-Wan have great parts, but I think they lack cohesion at times, as there are some decisions they've come to for both shows which I feel are at the very least divisive, and in some cases just outright not great choices. With that in mind, think they could have been made better than they are with a bit more oversight; not necessarily production through committee, but just having someone (not the Story Group, an actual storyteller, someone like Filoni) at the very least provide feedback. These things are probably already happening to some extent (I mean, I'd certainly hope they are!), but I think most of what Dave touches turns to gold, and don't think it's a coincidence that I thing the general consensus is that the two shows he contributed less to are seen as a noticeable step down from Mando and even Rebels, The Clone Wars, and The Bad Batch (note: I know he directed Episode 6, and yeah while not quite Episode 5, I thought it was great). Having someone like that - in that Feige-esque role, a role basically invented by George in all honesty - just makes sense to me, and for example with Obi-Wan in particular, this is a character he wrote for years alongside George, so I would have hoped he had more to do with the show than his only credits being under 'Special Thanks'. Grass is always greener, though, and I know how busy Filoni must be. He also just doesn't strike me as someone remotely interested in the politics of wider scale production, he's here for the story, but just feel his guiding hand could be really useful elsewhere. These shows are going to do crazy well on Disney+ regardless of their quality (it's sad, but true) and so I really feel like having someone with that eye for quality, who knows the franchise well, is well-respected, and so on and so forth, should be a bit more involved in the bigger picture. But yeah, we'll see what happens with Kenobi. I'm increasingly nervous about how the show ends, not necessarily at this point because of my expectations being in the wrong place, but I can see, understand, and agree with many of the criticisms levied at the show so far (even though I think it has great moments), and the direction it appears to be heading is what I'm nervous about. I think it's heading towards being a missed opportunity, which would be a shame.

Probably would've been the start of the World Cup this week too if it wasn't in Qatar this year I mean at least we can still hope and pray for a Direct this month I suppose, but man, the last week of Not-E3 didn't really have anything remotely close to a great showing this year in Nintendo's absence. I'm still catching up because there was just too much spread across shows which have been so inconsistent in quality (games and presentations)

The Digital Foundry comparison of the trailer has arrived (also comparing the game to Part II): Looks incredible. It's a tough one for me, as while I think I agree with the general sentiment that it's expensive at £70 for what it is as a consumer - compared to other similar remake projects, and with this being as close to 1:1 visually and in its story as you can imagine - it wasn't a project Naughty Dog have headed since the beginning, and so if "blame", I guess, is to be out anywhere for me with this project getting the focus it has when other studios have been abandoned (Japan Studio) or not given a second crack at something (Bend with Days Gone), it lies with the now closed Sony San Diego and Mumbaur and other leads on the project trying to get this going to begin with as a secret project. I've said this before, but I don't think my biggest problem with this is that they're remaking the game, it's that big names at Sony not in the boardrooms but on the studio floors are the ones seemingly proposing projects such as these. As an internal tech demo to get them up to speed on TLOU II's engine and expand Naughty Dog, or just as a showpiece, cool, but it knocks my confidence in the ambition of some of their creatives if anything. Anyways, this is a long way of me saying I'm in. Day 1. Yeah, it's pricey for what it is, and I won't argue with anyone about that, but it's basically doing *exactly* what I thought Star Wars should do with the prequels and go back and revitalise the animated/CGI aspects of those films, because hey, that's a huge bonus with tech being so heavily used in them. Same goes for the appearance of some characters in the films and shows, having the option to update them because of new tech and not needing to completely redo things (in the case of TLOU they're using the same performances and line reads) is just the smart thing to do. If The Godfather were a game you know they'd do it too, and heck, 4K restorations/releases of films these days aren't exactly cheap either. To me I'm okay with it because it's not like every game gets this treatment, so far, if we're talking 1:1 stuff like this, it's only really been Bluepoint pushing that with their remakes. The Last of Us isn't any old game, it's in my - and many other people's, including many here's - opinion one of the strongest narratives in video games and one of my favourites. Now if they do this with Knack, or Days Gone, or Ghost of Tsushima, then I think it becomes a problem because it cheapens such a treatment, and if any game from Naughty Dog needed this treatment, I still maintain that it should have been the first Uncharted. But it seems like they've got the right people onboard to get even closer to their original vision of a fantastic game, and I'm all for it. I can't wait to play this at the start of September and then roll straight back into Part II now it's going to look and feel so consistent. Again, I 100% agree it's expensive - then again, like 4 games locked in for GOTY discussions at the end of year are delayed to next year, so my own personal perspective is that I'll been spending less thanks to those delays and so don't mind dropping some money on this - and I absolutely worry that it's another sign of Sony going the way of tripping over their own pride, but the game itself, Part I, I'm totally here for. @killthenet interesting question about Left Behind, I've got to say, I don't know how well it would work weaved back into the story of the main game. I think it works really well as a standalone piece of content because of the period it's set in within the game and because it retrospectively adds more depth and nuance to Ellie and her struggle, feels like a great bookend to the TLOU experience (in how it gives us Ellie's beginning at the end to mirror Joel's beginning at the start), but if it's inserted into the main story itself, I feel like it makes the excellent pacing of Silver Lake and some of the later moments of the game a bit more shaky. Would love an option for it to be weaved in though, maybe as something which can be unlocked after a first playthrough? That'd be neat

So uh this is on the PlayStation Store out of the blue, Square Enix you fools what are you doing? Rhymes with Lactic's Odour.

So, that Capcom Showcase was much, much, much improved when compared to last year's...yet still left a lot to be desired. It was very different to last year in that we didn't get a "host" to return to, but a Direct/State of Play sort of thing where we cycled from one game's to another, and it really helped with the pacing. I thought Sunbreak had a really good, meaty 10 minute showing here. A lot of info doled out, but they did such a good job pacing this segment I feel, there was a lot to get through but I don't think it dragged at all and it reflected on the expansion really well I feel. Next were just some reminders of pieces of info about things we already knew about: Street Fighter 6, Capcom Fighting Collection, and the 2nd Arcade Stadium. I was really surprised that they didn't want or have anything to show off here for SF6, you'd think a character at least would be a certainty, but I suppose not afterwards Exoprimal had it's best showing I think so far, it just looks like dumb fun, but I think they tried a bit too hard to sell its depth and complexity before; seeing it with a bit of jank here and the screen filled with dinosaurs to the point you can barely see your character just looks fun! A Dragon's Dogma 10th Anniversary video was announced for Thursday...to go up at 23:00 BST, as in the same time the Final Fantasy VII Anniversary stream takes place. Oof. The video sounds like it will be more of a reflection on the franchise rather than a hint of a sequel being present, so make that a double oof. And they even rolled out Itsuno for this. Triple oof. Rough times for those fans. And then Resident Evil, unsurprisingly, brought it all home. The Winters' Expansion arriving on 28th October comes with Shadows of Rose, set 16 years after the events of Village; new Mercenaries missions; and, most exciting for me as someone who wants to dive into RE but isn't a huge fan of first-person to begin with - let alone horror! - is a Third Person Mode being added to Village. That's...honestly, that's pretty insane for DLC! Then they showed off Resident Evil 4 with the same trailer we saw during the State of Play at the start of the month, apart from a few different shots used at the end, and we got to see in-engine gameplay for about 10 seconds of Ethan walking through a forested area with no HUD. It was weird. And then it was all wrapped up with the next-gen patches for Resident Evil VII, 2, and 3 shadow-dropping. Overall: well-paced show with nothing to really shout about other than the Village DLC for RE fans and a demo dropping tomorrow for MH Rise: Sunbreak. I thought it was a vast improvement on last year's show in terms of both content and presentation, but it reminds me of some of Square Enix's past E3's where they didn't really get to shine the spotlight on their games like they should as they showed up elsewhere. Still got a lot of room to improve, Capcom! My Verdict: 6.0/10

Free demo dropping on Switch (and Steam) in the early hours of the 15th BST / square in the evening PDT for all you folks who like hunting monsters:

I totally get that, last year's presentation was one of the weakest shows in a very weak E3! I honestly don't really know what to expect going into this at this point, other than the remake of Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter 6 being shown off some more. Maybe Village DLC? Would have loved to see the RE classic games come out, but that felt like it should've come last year for the anniversary. The only thing I'm really personally hoping to see come out of this is Dragon's Dogma 2. Dragon's Dogma looks right up my alley, but I feel I completely missed the boat when it came out, and a decade on - even with Dark Arisen - I think it's a bit of a tough sell to my friends (especially with one of the biggest obstacles for them with Monster Hunter World being how it could take a while to just dive in), so I'm hoping if we see it, multiplayer has been streamlined to help me sell it to them

New PS Plus is going live in the US today, meaning we might see a few more games added. Here's one: Resident Evil Director's Cut.

Capcom tonight at 23:00, Xbox Games Showcase Extended tomorrow (more things they didn't get to show off last night from what I gather) at 18:00, and Final Fantasy VII's 25th Anniversary stream at 23:00 on Thursday (all times BST), so not much left to go!

But it's fine when Microsoft does it! Them also coming to Switch I imagine is still on the table, but it looks a bit shakier with an update from Atlus that it's coming to PS and Steam with no mention of the Switch: Honestly, my biggest issue with moneyhatting - as a consumer - is honestly just the confusion it tends to generate afterwards about what's releasing where, as we've seen here with these Persona games

I think you're right, imagine it's almost definitely that. So it's weird that we didn't see it. I think the size of it will definitely decided for me, but I just want to see how he can pull off some interesting things with that guaranteed audience size of Game Pass and buy-in, just given what P.T. was and how Death Stranding turned out. I'm imagining something like the dilemma of the bombs and two ships towards the end of The Dark Knight

Damn, we've got 15+ minutes left and we're about to dive into Starfield? I'm ready. Feed me Todd

Long rumoured and unfortunately leaked (surprised we didn't see more), but Kojima teaming up with Xbox might be the push I need if exclusive. Makes so much sense for him on Game Pass. Just think of what he could do with a guaranteed massive audience doing cool player interaction stuff like Death Stranding!

Atlus right now:

Yeah imma need to wait for gameplay on Wo Long but I'm very intrigued Xbox dipping their toes into the East is good. Dedicated segment now?

Jeppe Carlsen was the lead gameplay designer at Playdead, didn't realise he had his own studio now. So, that's uh, three Inside-likes spawned from the team spinning off now? Cocoon (this), Jump Ship's Somerville, and Playdead's actual next game. It's a good deal so long as they're all great

This Sea of Thieves QoL trailer feels like an insurance or price comparison ad

Man, that CGI Necromancer trailer was super generic (that could've been literally anything fantasy) and this is a long segment to focus on Diablo IV. Pacing of the show has been thrown out the window now

If I'm remembering right, I think it was at Xbox's bigger pre-Series launch event in the summer of 2020? It's been a hot minute for sure though. EDIT: found it, it was announced at their July event in 2020. Think the purchase of the studio might've also been then too? And yeah I thought so, something along the line of choices, but then it showed the branches and it seems to be about the impact of Two Rock on each individual...so maybe just the impact of the one event/idea, but without the choices? As a trailer I don't think it gave a great idea of what we should expect from gameplay

Lightyear Frontier looks comfy as all heck, that wasn't console exclusive right? Might need to keep an eye on that EDIT: console launch exclusive. I can be patient

Minecraft Builders? Looks pretty cosy! Not my thing but shocks me they haven't done more with the IP

Instantly

This is the most violent take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow I think I've lived to hear so far