Julius

Still waiting on those damn themes, but for now I'm really digging the latest wave of Switch icons (the BOTW ones in particular): I haven't paid nearly enough attention to the icons available before this! All those Platinum points just sitting there... expiring...the horror! EDIT: suck it, tree huggers

Yeah, that's definitely where they could be going with it, and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case (as I've said before). I just think it fits that scene, considering its the first time in the show we see Obi-Wan using the Force again, it's the moment where we first really see him coming back into his own and not hesitating, but acting. Not saying they should have been belting it, mind. If it showed up later at the end of the show when he's more completely rediscovered himself and is stated much more clearly then, I think they really could have planted the seed in that moment by hinting at it, but it's the absence of it completely - hint or a full statement - which is my issue with it. Same with Vader and the Imperial March. Oh yeah, absolutely, I think it being a disappointment musically so far (in my eyes at least) doesn't preclude its potential to still have some standout musical moments, but it's tough to know what to expect now musically because of that lack of connection being set up in the first half of the series. I think they've put themselves into a bit of a corner though, as it's now going to be just as out of place if they're hypothetically belting the Imperial March every time Vader is on-screen as it would be the more generic stuff we've got so far; I always think it's important to take stories as a whole, especially when it comes to a TV series, but with the music of a series it's a bit different, as unless there's a drastic change (i.e. a shift in genre), you're setting yourself up for failure or success as the music later on more often than not will be built on what you hear earlier in a series. We'll have to wait and see, which is pretty much in line with my thoughts on the series in general at the moment. I'd generally agree, but do feel Rogue One is a bit of an exception - at least from my point of view - in that Giacchino had to basically set up one of the most strongest soundtracks in film, what with Rogue One leading directly into A New Hope as it does. I think it's clear from his choices in Rogue One's score that he wanted to set up many of the themes of A New Hope and the original trilogy but tried to pull back on outright stating them where he felt he could, and I guess it's this subversion that you either love or don't, but it worked for me for the most part. Sometimes, though, it's not necessarily subversion, but rather hinting at other characters or events without wanting to bring that character or event into the equation, such as how Obi-Wan's Theme gives nods to so much other Star Wars music without outright stating any of it. Giacchino also does some really cool stuff in the Rogue One to musically tie the Death Star as it is in A New Hope to Rogue One, and I think (at least off the top of my head?) that he's also the only Star Wars composer so far to reference original music from the animated series (The Clone Wars), which I really appreciated too. I think the thing for me is, I can understand where so many other Star Wars projects were coming from with their scores. For the original film, George requested a traditional symphonic score at a time when it was pretty much looked down upon; for Rogue One, whether you like it or not, I can understand the decisions behind Giacchino's score setting up - but trying to not be a collection of only - the music from A New Hope; for The Mandalorian, Favreau and Filoni wanted a cocktail of the legendary Morricone-Western scores of the 60's and Hayasaka-Samurai scores of the 50's. Where there has been new and original music, it's done a good job of either referencing Star Wars, or what inspired Star Wars. The Kenobi soundtrack so far, for me, hasn't done either of those, which is why @Ronnie I think it seems a pretty aimless so far -- because it doesn't sound like it's got strong foundations elsewhere. As such, it's pretty forgettable and is why I probably feel like it's screaming for something more familiar. Yeah, while I like his Rogue One score, Giacchino does have some weaker ones in his catalogue. I still really dislike the decision to have the MCU Spider-Man theme be a reworked version of the 60's cartoon song, because it's campy in the way that the 60's Batman song was campy. And now I can't stop trying to imagine that song used as a launchpad for a theme in a modern, dark and gritty Batman film

To clarify, I like Obi-Wan's Theme -- when I say it's "fine", I mean that more so as a piece of Star Wars and John Williams music, and how it's been used in the show so far (which, to be clear, isn't down to John, as he only worked on writing the composition), rather than it being a bad piece of music. It clearly has the musical identity of a piece of Star Wars music, hinting at almost every piece of music you'd tie to Obi-Wan from the Saga, but like we both seem to agree: it's not the greatest piece of Star Wars music. Nor was I expecting it to - or really want it to - be. I'd have no issue with it turning up in the future in other projects, though what I will say is that there is already so much content with Obi-Wan in now already that I think it would fit better as a one-off theme for this show, and his state at the time of this show, because otherwise it could feel a bit out of place. It hasn't really been stated that boldly yet in the show, in fairness. My issue isn't directed there, it's directed at the rest of the score, and that one example in Part II that I mentioned specifically where I struggle to understand the decision to not use the Force Theme. It could still be used later, of course, but for narrative reasons it would have made perfect sense to use it in that moment, and right now we're three episodes deep in a six episode miniseries with very little - besides the Obi-Wan Theme and very few weirdly put together and placed nods to the Imperial March - connective musical tissue to the rest of Star Wars. I think that's totally fine in something like The Mandalorian, because it's such a separate time and place from the rest of the wider Star Wars story, and when it's not and has those moments where it is more clearly connected to the Saga, it knows it needs to lean on those John Williams themes. The same goes for how Rogue One pretty elegantly traversed the minefield of being a prequel leading directly into A New Hope, which doesn't have the Imperial March, and had its own Vader/Imperial theme, as I mentioned before. This is a story which takes place as close to the midpoint between ROTS and ANH as you could get without being pedantic about it, pulling in characters we've know in pop culture for 45 years now and having them as the main characters of the show, and yet it doesn't seem to want or care to utilise their already established themes. I mean, one in particular which I guess I'll stick in a spoiler tag, but I feel everyone knows about... To put it this way: when I listen back to the scores of most Star Wars films, without visuals, I can get a clear idea of what's going on because of the themes utilised; it's easy to visualise the Binary Sunset while listening to Binary Sunset, or Vader walking down a hall while listening to the Imperial March, or Luke (or someone else) doing something heroic to the backing of the Main Title, or the tragic star-crossed fate of Anakin and Padmé listening to Across the Stars. So far in this show, if I listened back to the score without visuals, I might be able to guess at Obi-Wan's presence from his theme (as it so heavily ties to other characters and events he's closely linked to), and I'd probably be able to gather that the Empire is around in some form or another from the limited hints of the Imperial March, but I swear I wouldn't know that Vader or some of the other legacy characters were in this show based on its score. Likewise, I wouldn't know at all about the contents of the five minute recap just listening to its score, because it sounds so generic. Again, we're only three episodes in (though that is halfway) and we might still get to the point of having some of those major themes return, but so far, to be harsh and to be blunt: the show has been musically incongruous when placed in the larger picture of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. It doesn't even feel like it's subverting those other major themes either, and on the whole it just sounds a little lost to me. I think Natalie Holt did a good job with Loki, especially it's epic main theme (which is easily one of maybe five or six memorable MCU themes?), and I was excited to hear her score Star Wars and so I don't want it to sound like I'm railing on her, but unless someone tied her hands and said "no, don't lean on Williams", I do just struggle to understand some of the decisions made with the show's music so far. It's missing the entire point of a leitmotif/character theme to not think about how they can be used, not go in a different (and frankly, more generic) direction, and this is arguably the piece of content with the strongest ties to the Saga that Lucasfilm has put out under Disney outside of the sequels. I think Michael Giacchino said it best in his post-release interview for Rogue One with StarWars.com: It's interesting to note too that Giacchino only had four and a half weeks to score Rogue One, one of the tightest deadlines for a Star Wars score. I remember hearing after the release of the film that he was hesitant to take on the project, but his brother kind of willed him on and said that he'd had this scored in his head since he was a kid, and just had to dedicate it to paper. You can tell from the score to that film that he's a Star Wars fan and deeply understands Star Wars music. So yeah, I don't know. I don't want to sound like too much of a negative Nancy, it's just that I love the scores of Star Wars - and music as a storytelling device - so much, and kind of expected more. I think some of my opinions would have remained the same, but I imagine the trailers leaning so heavily on themes like Duel of the Fates and Battle of the Heroes didn't help.

Finally got around to seeing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness yesterday. Went in with low expectations, still came away disappointed. So yeah, in a word: disappointed. I go to watch MCU films for fun and not to poke holes in them, but lately it's felt like poking a hole in them just reveals so much more. I'm not expecting them to be as airtight as some of the greatest films ever made, but they don't even feel as tight as they were in Phase Three, or even in weaker parts of the Infinity Saga. I think there's an argument to be made for it being the worst "2" in the MCU. It unfortunately continues the trend of Phase Four feeling like an aimless prologue and not doing much of substance; I think so far in Phase Four, just in terms of the films, I enjoyed Shang-Chi and loved the second half of No Way Home...and that's it. I think they're missing more than they're hitting right now, and while I'm sure that won't have an impact on their box office success (it's simply too big to fail right now), I could see the MCU having a wider impact in the long run on comicbook adaptations and with them seeing the adverse impacts of the MCU fatigue that I think a fair few of us are feeling. Anyways, Thor: Love and Thunder is next up. Not sure how much I'm looking forward to the film, seeing Hench Padmé throughout an entire film is going to be weird (and yes this is how I'll lovingly refer to this Jane Foster look in the MCU -- huge respect for Natalie Portman getting into shape for the role, obviously! I just can't help but imagine her in this shape in the prequels, which is a funny thought ), but hopefully it'll be a better than what we've seen for much of Phase Four so far. Hopefully.

Perfection.

Some more details have been shared in the latest PlayStation Blog entry. Firstly: the world looks gorgeous. There were also some more lore details shared: And we also got a table with some of the key staff... Soken composing is perfect The more I watch this trailer, like with the first, the more I can definitely see some similarities to Attack on Titan, to which I say: hell yeah

Alright, while it's fresh and before I watch the XVI trailer over and over again until I fall asleep to it, I'll get some thoughts down. Won't lie, I thought we were opening with The Last of Us Remake, but obviously I should've been expecting Resident Evil 4! Yeah, I still want to play the original and other RE games, but March 24th sort of gives me a rough deadline to hopefully get through the first few games in that series. Can't particularly say this trailer did much for me as someone whose only experience with the game was watching a friend play it when I was younger, so I'm curious to see how RE fans react. Content being in the works for PSVR2 is good news...even if I'll never touch it. Speaking of PSVR2, though, there was a lot less here than I was expecting -- maybe a blowout later in the summer or during the potential Showcase in September? RE Village in VR -- cool, I know people enjoyed VII in VR, but I won't ever do that to myself. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapters 2: Retribution (oh my lord what a long title)...eh, couldn't really be less interested. No Man's Sky in VR makes total sense, but if I ever play that game, I'm probably just playing it on my TV. Horizon Call of the Mountain (are we really not sticking a colon in there? What do you mean Zero Dawn and Forbidden West didn't have colons, so this title needs to looks stupid too?) looks spectacular, but it kind of looks like a glorified tech demo and more like a ride than a game? Still, I'm curious, and hopefully it's a launch title for PSVR2 whenever it lands! Free update for Forbidden West is cool, I'm still waiting to be in the mood to go back to that world before picking up the game, but at least there'll be plenty for me to do when I get around to it. Spider-Man Remastered on PC is going to print money, I was really expecting it to be Returnal based on recent rumours but hey, I'm getting a Steam Deck at some point, this would be an awesome game to play on there (though I kind of also want to get it on PS5 for the trophies). Like @Ike mentioned, I'm really surprised that they still haven't separated Remastered as a standalone game from Miles Morales, though. Stray looks fun, it being included in PS+ Extra and above means I'm more likely to check it out, for sure! I'm waiting on Dead Space Remake so, sorry Callisto Protocol, but my space/horror survival energy is focused there. I thought Rollerdrome was Sable at first, based on its art style, and then when we saw rollerblades I was like "wait...didn't Ubisoft already release Roller Champions?", having not really kept up with that game after its initial announcement, so while there was no real interest from me to begin with, the lack of impact when breaking through the glass means I definitely won't be checking it out. Eternights, aka handholding simulator, looked incredibly generic...minus the handholding and the calendar. Seems such a weird game to announce so far out with it coming in 2023. Street Fighter 6 did nothing for me, the gameplay looked very laboured, and I think that art style suited one, maybe two of its characters? I'm not a big fighting game guy, so hopefully this is doing something for SF and FGC fans, but I don't see this pulling in more casual players (not that that was necessarily the aim). Wasn't expecting Tunic to turn up here, at all, much less get a release date in September, just some six months after its launch on Xbox after having been so heavily tied to the platform in its marketing for years! Which is to say, yeah, I'm very interested in checking it out. Season: A letter to the future. is absolutely up my alley, love it's vibe, colour palette, and what I can gather about the general flow of the game. And then we finish on Final Fantasy XVI. Summer 2023 is soul-crushing, but hey, at least now I've got a second trailer that I can watch a load of times! Overall, I thought it was a really good State of Play. Nothing exceptionally crazy beyond XVI (which was balanced out by being so far away), even if I expected to see more from PSVR2 after it got name-dropped, but I guess that's a tale for another time! My Verdict: 8.5/10 Curious now to see what, if anything, turns up at Summer Game Fest, as this State of Play didn't add a big hitter to the slate for the second half of this year, which was a bit odd; it felt like something like that was missing.

Likewise, definitely think this year for the anniversary was the aim, but it's weird because it's a bit out of line with what they've said recently (about a short lead time from their next showing to release). Then again, VII Remake was reintroduced around this time in 2019 and released within a year, so I guess there's some precedent for this sort of schedule, but outside of potential development delays due to COVID, I've got to imagine they've shuffled things around a bit with this being PS5 exclusive and there not being anywhere near as many PS5's out in the wild as there could be? And yeah, VII Remake Part II is probably like Spring 2024 now at the earliest I'd guess, maybe sneak in just before March 31st 2024 depending on the rest of their lineup for that fiscal year? It's a weird one too because there's stuff planned for FFVII's 25th anniversary (this month unless I'm mistaken?), so while I do want a trailer for Part II...if it's potentially that far out, I'd rather they wait. Do wonder at this stage which we'll get first: XVI or Pragmata (who am I kidding it's probably XVI)

Into my veins, please and thank you.

Noooooooo Summer 2023, Yoshi-P whyyyyyyyyy

I knew I was tempting fate by saying it wouldn't show here Square Enix!

YOSHI-P XVI LET'S GOOOOOOOO

Alright was not expecting Tunic to come over only 6 months after landing on Xbox Season looks great! Totally my vibe, love the idea of just cycling around and taking photos

Am I the only one who thought Street Fighter 6 looked...a bit slow and heavy?

R2 to hold hands Next-gen has truly arrived

Wow they really aren't fooling around on PC, huh? As if Spider-Man hadn't already sold enough copies!

Oh they've brought the big guns

Pffft, you don't watch cricket? You're missing out. I watch cricket all the time. I mean, just look at it! But yeah, my expectations aren't too high going into this. I don't think State of Plays have been super consistent (we've had everything from a VII Remake revival to one advertised as focusing on Little Devil Inside which didn't get a release date? That was super strange!), so if anything it's that inconsistency which I'd criticise, but at least we probably have a Showcase to look forward to in September to hit it out of the park in the worst case scenario. I'm excited to learn more about PSVR2 and the games they've got cooking for that, and while we're expecting Final Fantasy XVI news soonish, I'm not hanging my hat on it being here (even if they're promising exciting third party reveals, so I guess it's more likely than the next game I'll mention). Same goes for Ragnarök. It'll come when it comes, and I think we get news on both this summer, but Summer Game Fest is next week and well, I think they'd probably make a bigger splash there Imagine some of the patience I'm exercising this time around probably has a bit to do with just not playing too many games these past few months though (well, I've still been playing games, just a lot of long ones). Thanks for that, Elden Ring, for deciding my GOTY in Feb

Super Nintendo World is coming to Universal Studios Hollywood in early 2023!

The Steam Deck docking station has been delayed due to component shortages:

I mean, while not genetically engineered or synthesized in the way that Mewtwo, Genesect, etc., were, I guess it could be argued that they were man-made in the sense that the original dragon wouldn't have split into two in the absence of the two brothers and their conflicting ideologies. But that's just me pulling an Obi-Wan Hell yes to that

I'll admit ignorance here too with regards to the original definition of the word in Portuguese and Spanish, as I'm half Filipino and it's used pretty much exclusively in the Philippines as a term to refer to the dish rather than both the dish and the creature; over in the Philippines it's derived from the Spanish Léchon (we threw away the accent too because I guess we don't want to waste any time getting to the important part: the food ) but pig is baboy and a similar word to a piglet or suckling pig is biik. So my bad! I do however now consider us Léchon/Leitão/Lechon brothers in arms, and that's non-negotiable Also, thanks for the rundown, always fascinating to read about how other cultures tie in directly to the inspiration for Pokémon, especially from someone from the place rather than Wikipedia or what have you! This made me chuckle I fully expect Masuda and whoever else from Game Freak visited Spain and/or Portugal all those years ago (and hopefully more recently?) to admit that their main method of transport were hired motorcycles, and just ran with it. Or, should I say, rode with it?

The livestream to the IGN First is up and live: