Julius

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:

Well, it's official.

Dual pack inbound: Yeah, I can definitely see that, seems very pared back. Hopefully it gets worked on a bit more before launch, if I ever expected to see more flair in Pokémon UI it'd be in a game set in a region based on Spain and Portugal!

We're going to be getting a better look at Horizon Call of the Mountain, which isn't too surprising: