Julius

It's Breznican and Vanity Fair, so I'm sure that passage about the show taking place during the era of the New Republic is based on *something* very substantial and which they've been advised of directly by someone from LFL, but it's a shame they don't really go into who they were told that by. Just seems really weird to come out and share the codename of something currently in production too to me, at least in something as high profile as VF. Honestly, wouldn't surprise me if some wires got crossed or some assumptions were made to reach the conclusion that it takes place in the High Republic, especially with how many projects are in the works right now! Does make me wonder that if it does take place in the New Republic era, if there's anything from the High Republic era in the show? I'd happily take either, in any case, I just care that the story being told turns out good

More PS5 plates inbound -- Starlight Blue, Galactic Purple, and Nova Pink:

For sure! We got a similar thing at the end of Empire too with Han and Leia's love theme leading straight into the credits. Episode I mirrors VI in similar fashion (both end on a celebration track), and Episode IV's Throne Room, Leia's Theme, and an encore of the Main Title are included in the credits for Revenge of the Sith. It's like poetry, it rhymes Honestly can't blame you, it's one of the few shining spots in an otherwise really bad film (even by the standards of the prequels). Definitely felt very Star Wars-y

Vanity Fair's June cover story, written by Anthony Breznican, is a piece on Star Wars' move to television and their abundance of shows: There's also a mention of a new show, which is still without a name: Can't help but wonder if that's why John Watts stepped down from Fantastic Four? Either way, great way to ramp up towards Celebration at the end of next week

I don't think we have official confirmation through anything on the PlayStation site itself, but I see this floating around where someone emailed PlayStation support with a similar question a while back, and they provided this response: So pretty much the same solution Nintendo have in place when upgrading from standard NSO to the Expansion Pack, from what I gather

New Chainsaw Man trailer (still scheduled for later this year):

Blackpool's Jake Daniels today has become the first professional footballer to come out as openly gay in England since 1990: Fair freaking play. Oh, and he's only 17 too. I imagine he knows the heat and attention this might bring his way, but if courage is doing great things in the face of adversity, then this is the epitome of what it means to be courageous, and so I hope more people rise to support him than there inevitably will be trying to attack him. For that, he immediately has my respect

Man, I really loved playing this for a hot minute there in the middle of that 2020 COVID summer, but I can't help but wonder if they're just too late on striking the iron here? I hope it gets a second wind with this, but from what I've come across of it since I put it down, 90% of what I've personally seen of it has been tie-ins with other IP – I don't really have any idea what state the game is in now? That 2B skin still gives me nightmares...

Haha hey @drahkon It's unfortunately not complete yet, we're waiting on a third part for Season 4 which is scheduled for early next year It's fantastic. Like a lot of shows as long as AoT is (nearly 90 episodes now), it definitely has some dips at times, but overall I think it's great: awesome music, some really smart writing that I love that we've got much more of in Season 4, best in class animation (for a long time, in terms of action in anime, it was probably top dog), etc. YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD! Kind regards and au revoir

Attack of the Clones first released 20 years ago today! Probably my least favourite film in the saga overseen by George, it has its moments...but they are few and far between. Still, though, it gave us one of the best love themes in all of cinema, a proper throwback to the romantic scores of old Hollywood in Across the Stars... ...one of the best sound effects of all time... ...and the awesome planet of Kamino. And, I mean, this is probably owed to it mostly lacking dialogue, but I always thought the ending was probably the strongest part of the film: A lot of cool musical stuff going on there

Cinematic trailer: Okay, can't speak to the game itself, but that seems like a great and accurate depiction of their characters. It's not quite got that Sakurai charm to it the Smash trailers do, but clearly what they've gone for, and I think they did a half decent job! Especially that Iron Giant team-up with Superman, that was perfect

So for clarity, the way I'm interpreting the wording (which I've updated in the original post now) is that only titles added to the Classic Games Catalog will be ones you can "claim" if you've owned them digitally on a previous system: So, basically, I think that could count Konami out (for now), because otherwise I'd expect a game like Metal Gear Solid to be listed and it means my PS3 still retains some digital use for the time being (I wanted to see Suikoden on my PS5 damn it!). There seems to be additional confusion in a lot of places at the size of the catalogs listed, so to clarify, the lists are only some of the titles we'll be getting at launch - I've no idea why they haven't given us the full lists, but I guess it could have been pretty lengthy and some dealings may still be going on in some back alleys. Still, a lot of surprising and odd decisions in there for me in the games they chose to list. Demon's Souls Remake on PS5 and then offering the PS3 version via streaming too? Does that mean they'll be turning the servers back on? Otherwise, seems an odd choice (I think you can get the Plat without online at least). Everybody's Golf is being shut down later this year on PS4, but now PS3 titles from the series are coming to this service - similar question to with Demon's Souls, does that mean they'll be turning the servers back on (I'm assuming those games have an online mode)? ICO is listed by itself as a PS3 streamed title, but was released as part of the HD Collection on PS3 originally, meaning they've separated it? But then...where's the HD remaster of Shadow of the Colossus for PS3? I'm also really confused about what the deal is with listing PS4 Classics versions of PS2 titles, as I've only read and heard poor things about how they play on PS5 as things stand. Have they been updated? Just...yeah, odd list to me. Most striking thing to me though - and I imagine they'll get included in the full list - is that there isn't a mention of God of War in the PS3 streaming titles, despite being such a big pillar for today's PlayStation lineup and Ragnarök still slated for later this year. Also, selfishly: one of my gaming resolutions for the year was to play all of the God of War games as prep for Ragnarök, so this has me the tiniest bit nervous, but I'm sure it'll be there as it's on PS Now...ahem. I think it just wasn't part of their select titles that they announced today - goodness knows the criteria. But yeah, it's odd. I get not listing the total number of games for third parties - in fairness, that would be one hell of a long list - but for what is now first party? Weird I picked up two years of PS Now through the backdoor link after the conversion straight to Premium was announced (my logic was that it'd effectively be half price) so I'm in anyways at this point, but I am curious to see what else is coming. PlayStation normally love to partner with Square Enix, so I'm surprised none of their classic titles are listed (especially Final Fantasy), but I wonder if it's something that they could attach to whatever Square Enix does at Not-E3/the announcement of the Pixel Remasters coming to console/XVI re-emergence? I just want God of War confirmation at this point I'm also not sure where it leaves me personally in the long term when it comes to my collection of PS3 titles physically. I guess I can shelve it for a few months at least and prioritise the 3DS and Wii U eShops/Virtual Consoles, which is nice, but yeah, I'm just not sure. Things like the Ratchet & Clank HD collection are only getting more expensive, so having them here is nice, but I also like physical...I'll wait and see I guess.

Welcome to your one-stop shop for all things related to the May/June 2022 (and beyond) PlayStation Plus overhaul! I figured with a vast and updating catalog of games to track, multiple subscription tiers, and a glut of new info, a dedicated thread could be helpful. See the end of this post for a selection of games planned to be included in the launch catalogs for this overhauled PlayStation Plus. Regional rollout schedule: Asia (excluding Japan) - 24th May 2022 Japan - 2nd June 2022 Americas - 13th June Europe, Australia, New Zealand - 23rd June 2022 Subscription tiers and pricing structure: PlayStation Plus Essential will continue to provide the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members get today: two monthly downloadable games, exclusive discounts, cloud storage for saved games, and online multiplayer access. There will be no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members at this tier. The pricing structure for Essential is as follows: United States - $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly Europe - €8.99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly United Kingdom - £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly Japan - ¥850 monthly / ¥2,150 quarterly / ¥5,143 yearly PlayStation Plus Extra will provide all of the benefits from the Essential tier, as well as a catalog of 400+ PS4 and PS5 titles, including first-party titles from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners. Games in this tier will be downloadable to play. Also announced today by Ubisoft is that a new Ubisoft+ subscription service called Ubisoft+ Classics will launch with 27 titles as part of PlayStation Plus from its overhaul starting at this tier, expanding to 50 titles by the end of 2022. The pricing structure for Extra is as follows: United States - $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly Europe - €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly United Kingdom - £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly Japan - ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly PlayStation Plus Premium* will provide all of the benefits from the Essential and Extra tiers, as well as an additional 340+ games, split between PS3 titles available via cloud streaming and a catalog of classics - available to stream or to download - from the PS1, PS2 and PSP console libraries. It also includes time-limited game trials for select titles. The pricing structure for Premium is as follows: United States - $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly Europe - €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly United Kingdom - £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly Japan - ¥1,550 – monthly / ¥4,300 – quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly *PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be the highest tier available for markets without cloud streaming. It will be offered at a lower price compared to Premium (local pricing will vary by market), and is essentially Premium without the ability to stream PS3 titles: it will have all of the benefits of the Essential and Extra tiers, and include the catalog of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles, as well as time-limited game trials. Other important details: The games available in the PlayStation Plus games catalog will be refreshed on a regular basis: For those at the Essential tier (and at higher tiers), a monthly refresh will occur on the first Tuesday of the month, with new PS5 and PS5 games added to the service - the same as what PlayStation Plus members get today. For those at the Premium/Deluxe and Extra tiers, an additional monthly refresh will occur in the middle of each month. The number of games refreshed will vary per month. Players who have previously purchased digital versions of select games from the PS1 and PSP libraries (i.e. on PS3, PSP, or Vita) will not have to make a separate purchase or sign up to PlayStation Plus to play these titles on PS4 or PS5. When these titles are released for PS4 and PS5, players can head to the PlayStation Store and download a version for the consoles at no extra cost if they already own the digital version of the title. In addition, some of these titles will also be available for individual purchase. For select PS1 and PSP titles, a new user interface has been integrated, with menus which will allow you to save your game at any time, or even rewind the game if you want a do-over. For the time-limited game trials included in the Premium tier, you can play most of the included titles for two hours - the playtime counter will only count while you are in the game. Any trophies and game save date from the trial will carry forward if you choose to purchase the game. Game catalogs at launch: Included in the below spoiler tag are a selection of PS4 and PS5 titles which will be available at launch to players at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Note: titles with an asterisk * are to be included as part of Ubisoft+ Classics, another benefit announced today for players at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Included in the below spoiler tag are a selection of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles included in the catalog of classic games available at launch for those at the Premium/Deluxe tier, as well as the catalog of remasters which have been grouped with these titles. Included in the below spoiler tag is a catalog of some of the PS3 games available via streaming at launch to those at the Premium tier. Included in the below spoiler tag is the catalog of time-limited game trials available at launch to those at the Premium tier. Included in the below spoiler tag is the catalog of Ubisoft+ Classics which will be available at launch for those at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Note: I've copied this list directly from Ubisoft's press release, so there will likely be some overlap with previous lists. Sources: UPDATE: All-new PlayStation Plus launches in June with 700+ games and more value than ever (PS Blog - 29th March 2022), All-new PlayStation Plus game lineup: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Demon’s Souls, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, NBA 2K22, and more join the service (PS Blog - 16th May 2022), Ubisoft+ Coming to PlayStation (Ubisoft News - 16th May 2022).

Ubisoft are also coming to PlayStation via Ubisoft+

PS+ catalogue details are starting to drop: Brb I'll make a thread

Yeah, they mentioned it in the commentary, I don't know who rubbed Guy Mowbray the wrong way today but he chose violence against us Championship playoff final with Derby, FA Cup final in 2020, FA Cup final last year, Euro's final last summer, League Cup final this year, and today's FA Cup final. Third loss for us in the FA Cup final on the bounce too

Yeah, the psychology of going up against international teammates I guess! Mendy looked absolutely shellshocked following the first three, he went the right way for all of them, touched two and the other from Thiago needed the post. Glad he stepped up for that 5th, but yeah, not meant to be. Mount's Wembley curse continues. Six finals lost there on the bounce is rough for anyone, let alone someone my age.

Knew as soon as Mason stepped up it was going to get saved, he's just one of those players who you'll see included in that initial five penalty takers or he shouldn't be taking one at all. Fair play to Mendy for saving that 5th though, what a lad, gave me some hope there! Great FA Cup final, man, what a great season -- and it's not over yet. Congrats to Liverpool, just wasn't meant to be for us today!

Oh gee, I wonder where this is going? To be honest, I'd rather watch the stress of penalties, even if it means losing. The game has been neck-a-neck and I think it being decided in the second half of ET would be fairly cruel. Best FA Cup final in a while I think, even with the lack of goals!

Normally I have nothing against Guy Mowbray as a commentator, but you really can't say something like "Alonso has never really convinced Chelsea fans" and try to back it up by saying "that's what it says right here" (what, on your facts sheet?), especially in what is all but guaranteed to be his last final appearance for us. He's never convinced me completely defensively, but that's not really been his role since he came to us, he's very attacking focused until we're completely under fire. Under Conte, he and Moses basically defined being a modern wingback in the Prem in a system we didn't really see up until that point with five at the back. I'm glad Jenas said he disagreed and pointed out it was a bit of a weird statement, and then explained why, because he's been very successful with and a big player for us

Fine first half, very back and forth but no-one taking their chances, weirdly lacking composure in front of goal. We definitely took a bit of time to settle but after a few chains of passes we got our heads in the game. Lukaku, dude, I get you've had a rough first season - didn't exactly cover yourself in glory so you haven't helped yourself - but you need to at least hit the target with that chance you had late in the half.

Ah, I see you're also going the tempting of faith route, because I think that you're going to do us over today But either way, hopefully we're in store for a good game, good luck to you guys too

Yeah, I always had a gut feeling it'd be a four or five season affair tops, but with him cropping up elsewhere I could definitely see it only being three seasons. Hadn't even thought about a Mando film, but makes a lot of sense, especially if it's the finale or if the crossover event is a film to give it the budget it would.probably deserve. Surprisingly there haven't been too many TV series transitioning to or making use of films to cash in, but I'm sure Disney will be tangentially aware of the precedent being set in Japan at the moment, where box office records are being crushed by continuations of anime making their way to the silver screen. Yeah, it's a weird one. Normally I feel Lucasfilm were very predictable in how they handle these things, but post-COVID and without an SWC in 3 years, there's just so much news they have that they could potentially drop here that it's pretty insane -- and that's the case even if we only consider the shows already announced, no doubt there's so much else in the works. I definitely think whatever comes next in live-action after Kenobi - it's got to be Andor, surely? - will get a trailer here, like you say they can strike while the iron is running white hot with Kenobi debuting within 24 hours of the event and all eyes in fandom turning to Star Wars news for a weekend. Yeah, I guess EA could drop a teaser and announce it through Twitter the same weekend like you mention - it'd still get a lot of buzz - I just think it'd be weird, as that's one of those things where if it does get a trailer, it makes sense to me that it'd be shown off somewhere at SWC, because no doubt that would be one of those trailers they'd be showing off on one of the big screens while you're walking around on the floor? I'm not sure. The lack of a dedicated panel to me just suggests they likely weren't ready or are busy having to rearrange things (for whatever the reason for the supposed internal delay was), but a trailer is one of those that could sneak into another panel in lieu of it not having a dedicated panel to the game itself or to games in general (as you mentioned, such as at the Closing Ceremony). I'm not expecting it, but I mean, the first game was announced with Zampella sitting in a crowd, just saying the name and describing it briefly, so wherever we see it - Celebration, a Tweet, or carrier pigeon - I just hope it's given a bit more pomp and circumstance for its announcement than that Yeah, exactly! I won't lie, it was cool having him come out of nowhere during 2020 - the weirdest year for a lot of reasons, and where traditional gaming marketing was thrown out of the window, leading to a lot of dry spells and unnecessarily spread out announcements - but these days it's grating more than anything. Definitely an annoying one Oh man, those look really neat!

Honestly, I completely missed that Mando was mentioned in the description for the Showcase, I kind of just assumed it was all being saved for Mando+! Will be very interesting to see how they handle it then, I'd hazard a guess that Mando+ would be more likely to have the trailer so that it doesn't overshadow anything that has a trailer in the Showcase that isn't going to turn up anywhere else (for example, Andor), but on the other hand, they could totally have the trailer at the Showcase so that they can just dive right into discussing S3 (and maybe show the trailer again) in Mando+...who knows? Yeah, I'm very interested to see how S3 goes -- at the very least, after it got a mention, I'm sure we'll see the mines and the mythosaur at some point, though maybe not necessarily in S3? But then again, they've been very quick to hop to teased plot points when I thought they were teasing things a few seasons out! The way they handled it previously for Rebels was that the panel itself (i.e. talking about the season, the trailer, concept art, Q&A type stuff) was scheduled for the hour, and then the episodes they premiered were shown as an add-on to the panel but were unscheduled, so it wouldn't actually be shown during the panel times itself, so the panel is 11:00 to 12:00 and then the episodes, if shown, would be shown from 12:00 to 12:45? If that makes sense. Did a bit of nosing around to see if anything else is scheduled that might conflict, and the Siege of Mandalore screening is at 13:00 the same day, which would definitely have an overlap in audience...but then, it's a bit suspect that it's on the same stage and would start not too long after a potential Bad Batch S2 premiere? It at least saves Filoni a walk But yeah, not to get your hopes up, that's just how they've handled it before. It's been a while since we've had a SWC, they could be doing things differently -- I don't expect it to happen, but I do also wonder if they'll do anything with Disney+ for some of the things held back for attendees a few weeks later? Again, just one of those things where they didn't have a service like that to funnel this stuff through before. Maybe? Though I'm personally not getting my hopes up for anything new at the closing ceremony, as I can't remember the last time they saved something big for the closing ceremony. I thought it was 2015 with the Rogue One teaser for attendees, but that was actually shown at a Rogue One panel -- I think they planned to have that show end more as a future look at Lucasfilm, but that was the year Josh Trank was "sick" and things got moved around pretty late; the future look at stuff, at least for the films and shows, seems to be concentrated in the Showcase...but again, it's one of those where, like Mando, it would be weird (just from a marketing POV) to potentially have multiple first trailers drop within the same hour and a half? So maybe saving it for the Closing Ceremony would be the right call. I do think it should show up, even with the potential delay to 2023 (which is what it is). I'm normally not a fan of showing things too far out, but I think there are some exceptions to the rule, and I think showing the Fallen Order sequel off in some form at SWC would just be right; if there are plans for a Celebration next year it likely won't be early enough for the game to get it's dues, and let's be honest, the first game was announced unceremoniously with a title and brief synopsis from Zampella sitting an EA conference, whereas I think it shouldn't have been announced there and should have been saved for SWC when they had that entire panel for the game. Especially with no EA conference this Not-E3, the only real alternative in the next few months would be Summer Game Fest...which, I mean I like Keighley but the events are very inconsistent and poorly paced, so I'd rather it and the team see some love from Star Wars fans at Celebration! Yeah, I saw what Grubb said about it being next-gen only (wasn't a huge fan of the supposed title he shared), and for a split second I wondered what they were doing and then remembered the state of the first game at launch, and...yeah, that's definitely something they need to do. Maybe I'm just growing more intolerant of leakers but it seems like the most pointless leak of them all (this is happening more and more frequently) so that rubbed me the wrong way a bit -- who wasn't expecting the sequel to drop late this year/early next? Feel like he should've just kept quiet so fans could enjoy it when it is shown off, as it's a very different beast to some other leaks we get where it's an update on something we hadn't heard from in a while. Quick aside, but I really, really hope that things like your outfit and lightsaber(s) carry over from the first game, that'd be neat!

I remember a time in my life - about five minutes ago - where I was living blissfully in ignorance of this existing. And now I want it that's easily one of the nicest looking LEGO sets I've seen in a while! It's times like this when I'm glad I don't have anywhere near enough space in my apartment to display LEGO sets