Julius

PlayStation have acquired Firewall Studios - not to be confused with the previously acquired Firesprite! Taken from the PlayStation Blog.

Yeah, definitely a common misconception if I can Google it and get the wrong answer a bunch! – thanks for pointing that out. I remember early talk about it being on UE5 and kind of just went with it, seems like they've since come out and discussed the potential of the next installment being on UE5. Makes perfect sense as UE5 definitely wouldn't have been development-ready when this game started development in late 2019/early 2020 (I don't think it was even released). I'm also not massively fussed, I love deleting games after completing them for the extra post-credits monkey lizard brain dopamine hit (though might need to go through some captures to make enough space for Survivor!) It's more a case of me just questioning how the game has ended up that big when so many other substantially-sized games are substantially smaller in file size (again: RDR2 being 90-100 GB at launch and this being 150 GB is something I'm having a hard time reconciling in my head), but I'm sure playing the game itself might answer some of those questions...maybe? Just give me an hour-long post-credits scene of Chopper randomly turning up and committing war crimes in 4K, and it'll be more than justified Yeah, there's no way I won't be veering off the beaten path. Not that I was planning on spoiling the game anyways, but I'll take extra care to use spoiler tags for your sake and just give more general thoughts on the game outside of them do think it's smarter to wait than potentially find yourself rushing through! I do generally find myself planning what I play anyways, but it's funny when we come up to a window like this and suddenly my plans get thrown up in the air. I think I can get through and 100% Survivor before Tears of the Kingdom (or die trying haha), Tears of the Kingdom I have absolutely zero idea on how long it'll take me - and I don't want to rush - but I imagine I'll be done with it by the time Final Fantasy XVI comes out some six weeks or so later (right..?). But it's this week before Survivor where I find myself questioning what I want to play between now and then. A bunch of smaller games? Just one game, which could cut it close? We'll see I guess! That's not a bad idea! loads up the launch version of Cyberpunk 2077

Right?! I can't remember anything major that was pre-rendered in Fallen Order, so unless I'm missing something, this just seems like a terrible job at (or complete lack of) optimisation for a next-gen only title and their first UE5 game (right?). Does make me wonder what the delay was about if it wasn't tied to optimising their assets though, and it'd be concerning if this was the best they felt they could do with it, but it is what it is I'm in a weirdly similar spot to you, where on one hand I do think I could 100% it in that time...but I am also a bit worried about scope creep making this game substantially bigger than the first game just in terms of story length, not to mention all the side content. It's funny because I went back to Fallen Order last year to finally pop the Plat (had a couple of rooms on a few planets and one or two of the seeds to collect for the terrarium), then played the game on the lowest difficulty to breeze through the story and see how well it was paced without dealing with the side content, and in terms of enjoying the story, it was heaps and bounds better than my first playthrough. Makes sense, of course, because side content makes pacing a game's main story impossible (which is why games like BotW and Elden Ring rubbishing that, to an extent, in an open world feels so good), but I think that playthrough only took 6 or 7 hours? So I might find myself just breezing through the story and not focusing on side content the first time with Survivor, before really exploring every nook and cranny the second time around, which means I won't need to rush to do before TotK but can instead chip away at it? But still avoid having the story spoiled... ...nah, who am I kidding, I'm 100% just going to try to do everything the first time

A fan-made anime/GBC commercial for the game: Man, I love these things. Said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but Nintendo fans go to stupid lengths with showcasing their talents with things like these, and I love it! love their adapted take on the trailer theme too, gosh darn it's a beaut of a track 3 weeks and 1 day to go...

Not to concern anyone, but today is the fifth anniversary of the game's release... Where the heck does the time go?!

The game on PS5 and Series X looks set to be 147 GB. Good lord. Some are throwing out that maybe there's some crazy big video files in there, but for this game to seemingly come in nearly 60 GB larger than a game like Red Dead Redemption 2? Kind of blows my mind whatever the reason is.

Thoughts on the Mando S3 finale: A great two-part finale, but for me, just taking the final episode individually, I think it's the weakest final episode to a season of Mando so far - but I think that's more a product of it leaning so heavily on the preceding episode as a foundation, and the final episodes for S1 and S2 being so damn strong. Overall, I think Mando S3 has been the biggest mixed bag we've had in a season of Mando so far (look no further than Episode 6: Guns for Hire and how it contrasts so starkly with my favourites this season, Episode 3: The Convert and Episode 7: The Spies), and like I touch on in the spoiler tag but won't expand on too much here: I think it was clearly impacted by the plans for other Disney+ Star Wars offerings, and so was always going to be trying to deliver on the tough ask of rounding off this trilogy of seasons while also serving as a launchpad for other things to come. Joseph Shirley stepping up to bat and then some in Ludwig Gorannson's absence to compose this season's music is the biggest takeaway of the season for me, because I think he absolutely killed it. Adapted and evolved Ludwig's themes, and implemented plenty of his own, excited to hopefully hear more from him in Mando S4. Time to begin the countdown to Ahsoka I guess! Oh, man, it's going to be a loooooooong four months

Pyra and Mythra double pack drops 21st July 2023, with some Xenoblade Chronicles 3 perks:

Next batch of Mega Drive games are available now!

Just realised that I never said anything about S3 E6 of The Mandalorian – Chapter 22: Guns for Hire. So here I am, just a guy, standing in front what's probably the worst episode of the entire series so far for me; I'm not going to crazy with it, but yeah, I'll pop what little I remember in a spoiler tag: Such a strange episode. But anyways, time to move on from that and talk about last week's episode (which was AMAZING to see with a 4000-strong crowd at Celebration!)... Which leaves the wait for tomorrow's (well, today's now!) finale. Got one thing I want to see and one tiny bit of speculation... Not been the best season of Mando for me, a bit of a mixed bag, but fingers crossed it ends on a high with its finale. Definitely a lot of layers to why it ended up going live-action rather than animated: Disney+'s and Mando's success, the live-action audience generally being much larger than animation audience problem (at least here in the west), gearing Dave up to transition - as was always the plan - from animation to live-action (and this is a huuuuuuuuuge test for him and much-needed prep for his film), and so on. There's zero doubt in my mind though that Dave has had plans for this series in some form or another for some time now, since before Rebels ended and I'm fairly confident in saying that they almost certainly started some concept work for a Rebels sequel series before they formally knew what they were doing, just because of the timelines when it comes to these animated projects. Heck, if I'm remembering right, one or two members of the voice cast teased they were going to be involved in something big, but ultimately never panned out – which was almost certainly a Rebels sequel series being animated. I don't so much buy the "they believed they could tell it better in live-action than animation", because while that's Jon's medium, it's not so much Dave's - yet - and if he wanted it to be animated, he could have played it safe and gone with trying to drive it down that route. Dave is better positioned than just about anyone to observe the limitations of live-action, and the timelessness of animation, if nothing else, makes it an interesting proposition which could have gone either way...before the success of Mando and Disney+. Again, think there's multiple factors at play here – if Ahsoka is tying into Mando and leading up to the culmination event film? Well we now know it is - but was that always the plan, I wonder? I'd guess not with the directions Mando has taken since its first season, and S3 E7 felt like a hard left turn into making aggressive ties to the sequels and setting up their future plans - which to be clear, I loved, but it's just interesting. With Dave's background in mind but also him wanting to transition into a central live-action role at Lucasfilm so he can put his fingers in even more pies - so to speak - I think ultimately it's a balance between him wanting to make the jump to live-action, being the only one positioned well enough to tell this story, but also for all the corporate bigwig reasoning you can think of, like how their live-action shows are bigger than their animated ones and so there is a need for this to be told in live-action rather than in animation, and so on. I wouldn't think words were exchanged too much about the medium it would end up in AFTER the success of Mando and Disney+, but were almost inevitable just Look, honestly, I'll take the story however it comes and have been onboard with Filoni since hearing him back in 2008 or 2009 for the first time when I watched The Clone Wars movie on DVD with the audio commentary, but I will say, if Ahsoka, for whatever reason, falls flat, I think it does place question marks over a lot of their current plans, because there's a LOT riding on Dave right now given how integral he is alongside Jon in setting up this post-ROTJ GFFA, especially with Dave set to direct the film that this is all going to be leading up to. And, excited as I am for Ahsoka, I do think there's a solid argument to be made for choosing live-action over animation to be a questionable decision for a series which is a sequel - in its plot - to an animated series which is criminally underrated and never had the viewership it deserved, which in turn is a sequel series to an animated series which was George's last solid and direct contribution to the franchise in everything that was TCW. There's then the voice cast not getting to continue what they started (or continued) in Rebels, and so on, and so while I'm here for whatever they decide to do, if not with Dave's progression in mind, I do think it would be a super weird decision to make in isolation. I'm also very, very, very curious to see how they handle filling people in on a titular character where, if you've only seen her in live-action through the Disney+ shows, you don't really have a great idea about who she is besides some winks and nods (for example: "I'm an old friend of the family") to her past. It's much easier said than done convincing people that animated series are worth checking out in the first place, at least in the west (and I'm speaking from a place of a whole lot of experience there!), but considering how someone as integral to individual backstories as Satine wasn't name-dropped in Kenobi or Mando (to this point), I really do wonder how that stuff gets treated. As for how the show itself turns out, and balancing Ahsoka's storyline and the search for Ezra and Thrawn, I'm honestly not too sure. Given we've seen marketing material (both footage and on t-shirts) that shows Sabine with long hair and shorter hair, got to imagine there's a time skip in there somewhere (before and to/after the end of Rebels), so perhaps the first half will be focused more on Ahsoka and the latter half more on finding Ezra and Thrawn? It's an interesting one with Ahsoka, because I don't know about you, but for me - and I say this as someone who has always liked the character, before people needed to be convinced about her with her growth in TCW - in the timeline it doesn't really feel like she's had much growth since The Clone Wars. Maybe that's more to do with the extent of her role being somewhat limited in Rebels and the Disney+ live-action shows, but it makes naming the show after her an even more interesting decision for me (then again, I generally hate the fact that we're just naming shows after characters, so ), so maybe some flashbacks or conversations with certain blue wispy folk could be a good opportunity for that. Dialogue I agree being a bit of a concern based on what we've had in the live-action shows so far, but with Dave being the showrunner, writer, creator, and having all the other important titles too, I do genuinely think it'll be a step up from what we've seen in Mando and Book of Boba Fett, simply because we're returning to characters he's either written for years or that he's had a hand in creating for the show. While Jon is no doubt going to be involved with Ahsoka - I mean, he's an EP, and he's a very atypically hands-on one if Mando and Boba are anything to go by! - I think it's clear that this is mostly going to be Dave's baby, and rightly so. I'm excited for Ahsoka, just generally cautious, because while I trust Dave and what he does, they do seem to be steering incredibly close to setting up their own take on Heir to the Empire (so much so that I'd be kind of shocked if Dave's film isn't called that) with everything they're setting up in the shows. That comes with its own load of baggage that I'm sure we'll get into some other time, though!

With or without E3, we've definitely hit the summer game news season!

We did, we made it into Galaxy Stage! But that's a whole other story haha, that'll be fun to get into, or to say it with a GIF... (& yes that action shot was beautiful!) I guess it didn't really hit me until Celebration, that even though it was clear the sort of direction it was heading (Rebels sequel/Thrawn stuff), just how much it was heading in that direction. Maybe it's because it's not animated and we've only seen Ahsoka sporadically since Rebels ended, but it hit me hard in the Lucasfilm (and then the Ahsoka) panel that, yeah, I've been waiting 5+ years for this since Rebels ended. It doesn't feel that long, but I remember when and where I was in my life when I watched that final episode, and I refuse to believe it's been 5+ years already. It's scary. Genuinely, think is the most hyped I've been for a Disney+ Star Wars project besides Kenobi If not the Darksaber itself, I wonder if we get to see some of Obi-Wan and Satine pre-TPM get animated? Something tying into Mandalore just feels like the smart move, but who knows I'll gladly just take ten episodes just following Gunji around! Do wish we'd see some Galactic Civil War era stuff, the Rebels look getting the boosted budget and animation bump that Bad Batch and TCW S7 had over TCW would be lovely!

I can't see them either, I'm in Chrome on my phone and tried both in Mobile and Desktop mode but nothing there either. Opening the images individually in a new tab seemed to be a workaround though – nice pics @Sméagol!

Yep, can't be down for too long! Plus I'm way more hyped for Ahsoka than I thought I would be, so that countdown has already started, and we're going to see ROTJ in cinemas next Saturday for the 40th too, so plenty to be excited about!! Yeah, for sure I want to see them jump around. I totally get why they started with prequels era stuff first (using very similar assets to Bad Batch, which is a facelifted TCW, and loads of reused models and planets as a result just made shinier), so I'm curious to see how they would handle jumping around: would everything be in the lens of TCW/Bad Batch, or would they go with different art styles for different periods? Funnily enough my mind went straight to Luke too, and I always thought a post-ROTJ Luke-centric show would be animated and have a different art style, but at this point, who knows? Hadn't thought about seeing Tarre in these but would love that. Honestly, given that The Bad Batch, TCW S7, and Tales of the Jedi have all shown different perspectives of incidents we've seen before (either from the films or animated series), I'd love three episodes dedicated to fleshing out the backstory of the Darksaber a little more, and essentially trimming the fat and summarising pretty neatly it's lineage and wielders (including throughout TCW and Rebels), just so people watching Mando that haven't watched the other shows have that little bit more context behind it in a more digestible way than the Disney XD YouTube compilations. It's funny, now that I think about it, that the Darksaber has essentially taken on the role the Skywalker legacy lightsaber was originally planned to in TFA! You bringing up Tarre reminds me, for my own sanity I'm going to need to rewatch Mando S3 E7 and post thoughts just so I've got them all in one place

Baby Terapagos confirmed to be a new Pokémon and not a form:

Celebration write-up will probably happen first, might start on that today! Post-con depression hit hard but I'm finally starting to get over it (is what I'll keep telling myself, honestly it started hitting me on the Saturday of Celebration ) Bad Batch S2 I'll refer back to my notes later this week and probably talk about that separately, because there's a lot to say! For now though, I watched Tales of the Jedi in one sitting on Wednesday last week, trying to keep my Star Wars hype alive. Loved it for what it was, which is basically Clone Wars shorts with the appearance of Bad Batch, really enjoyed getting to see younger Dooku and Qui-Gon, as well as seeing more of Ahsoka (and that tie-in to the final ep of Clone Wars!!!). Really excited to see what they plan on tackling in S2, would love for them to jump around the timeline some more!

Just finished Season 6 of My Hero Academia after starting it last night. Yes, I do need to go outside, get some fresh air, and touch grass. Honestly? Best the show has been since the end of the first cour of Season 3, and the best overall season in my opinion since Season 2 (which remains my favourite). I knew pretty much everything that happened in the first half of the season as I read the manga up until that point a few years ago, and while some frames still leave much to be desired, I think it's the most action-packed and driven the show has been in a very long time. There's half an episode of recap at the start of the second of the second cour (which, honestly, for a change, was very welcome, considering just how much happens in the first half of the season), but other than that, the story just marches on, and as always, the fights are typically high octane, Huyashi's OST is on point, and there are those classic MHA moments trying to get you to well up. And yeah, they got me once or twice. My Hero overall has some serious issues as a story, such as almost all of this taking place so far in the span of one year (and I definitely get the sense that Horikoshi set that pace early on and may have underestimated the workload that would mean), or some really weird pacing where we go from slow crawls to insane sprints, but Season 6 feels like a marathon in the best way possible. So much would happen in some episodes that entire episodes flew by in what felt like 10 minutes at most, but was actually 24, and so for all of My Hero's flaws over the years - both in source material and it's anime adaptation - I've got to say, they knocked it out of the park for me with Season 6. If memory serves, they also went the entire season without Mineta saying anything incredibly inappropriate, and that, I think, is a win for anime. Gets a 9/10 rating for me, matching the rating I gave Season 2, and a huge leap up from the lowest score I've given a season of My Hero with Season 5 last time out (which I gave a 7/10). Now the long wait begins for Season 7!

Not sure what you have or haven't watched (or what you're looking for – so a bit of a shot in the dark!), but a quick flick through Funimation's catalogue makes me want to recommend one of Ranking of Kings or Kaguya-sama: Love is War, both of which are brilliant shows in their own right

All eight episodes listed in S6 are OVAs, maybe worth checking out if you just want more AoT and to see some of the extra stuff animated, but it won't be where you're picking up. Part I of S4 is everything from E60 - The Other Side of the Sea to E75 - Above and Below (16 episodes total), which finished airing in May 2021, so I think it's a safe bet to say you're past that point based on you saying you brought yourself up-to-date last year. Part II of S4 is everything from E76 - Judgment to E87 - The Dawn of Humanity (12 episodes total). This part finished airing in May 2022, so if you did watch everything that was available last year (depending on when last year you brought yourself up-to-date, and if you watch subbed or dubbed), then it seems likely that you finished Part II also, or at the very least a good chunk of it? Which leaves Part III/The Final Chapters, which is listed at the bottom of S4 as E-SP1 - THE FINAL CHAPTERS. This is just under an hour long and is basically two episodes in one, and the first half of AoT's finale. This released at the start of last month, so you definitely won't have watched this. Hope that helps Not yet. The first half of the series finale was released at the start of last month as an hour-long special, and the second half is set to release this "Fall" (so, September at the earliest).

$500+ million at the box office in its first week and a bit makes the film the biggest video game adaptation at the box office to date. Not surprising at all: arguably the biggest video game IP of all time, voice cast stacked with celebs, and made by the studio behind the juggernaut that is the Despicable Me-verse. Really curious to see where this ends up alongside Illumination's other films at the box office!

Last week's gameplay trailer, totally forgot to post it as I watched it in the queue for the Obi-Wan panel Hype. Two weeks to go!

Rated in Korea: Not surprising considering that it was slated for release this year, but hopefully this gives us a bit more of a solid reason to think it'll actually make it out this year and not slip into 2024

That's...but that's not even what I'm saying? I'm saying they showed a lot, which I would not equate to being "spoilery", which is the general consensus in here – that they didn't really spoil anything (which I agree with, without context a lot of these cutscenes and lines really don't amount to much besides more speculation about their place in the game). And I almost certainly wouldn't equate me saying that they showed "a lot" to them showing "too much". I just think it's clear that they dialled up to eleven how much they were prepared to show in this trailer compared to previous trailers for TotK, and while that makes sense for one final blowout trailer, if we were to compare it to BotW's final trailer, I would say that the amount of new stuff they showed in their final trailer compared to the previous trailer is exponentially more than what we saw before for TotK, whereas BotW's final trailer felt like a natural step up in marketing from its previous trailers. I mean, Nintendo themselves said to get hyped for a three minute trailer and we basically ended up with four, so even by that metric they did show a whole lot more than we thought we were going to see. One last time: I don't have a problem with them showing as much as they did at all - I wanted that for goodness' sake, and have been asking for as much for months now! - and I've been waiting for this game to get a great trailer, which it finally has. I just thought it was worth warning that it shows a whole lot more than previous trailers did, which it does. I'm not saying that it's spoilery. I'm not saying that it shows too much. Just that it shows a lot, and if you're sensitive to that, then it might be worth skipping.

Just stumbled across The Explorator which was shown off last week, and it looks like a very unique and fun time! The scream caught me off guard