Julius

Bear and Breakfast just got a Switch release date of 15th September:

The official Pokémon Twitter account had been teasing a new Pokémon and location yesterday, seemingly based on the Painted Forest of Oma, located in Basque Country in Northern Spain... Painted Forest of Oma ...and have just named the new Pokémon they were teasing as Grafaiai, I imagine derived from 'graffiti' and aye-aye? Well, either that or it's a funny Super Monkey Ball nod

According to The Snitch's Discord channel's upcoming events, a PlayStation Showcase will be aired at 21:00 BST on 8th September (so, next Thursday). This would be in line with the timing of last year's Showcase, which took place at the same time and which also took place on the second Thursday of September. If it's anything like last year's event (which took place on the 9th and was announced on the 2nd), I have to imagine we'll get an announcement this Thursday.

The game's shutdown date has been announced as 29th November 2022: Whilst I don't think it ever got as big as Nintendo and Cygames might have wanted, four years is still a very solid run.

Continues to look fantastic, just a few days to go! Just realised that due to the lack of difficulty related trophies, and assuming that Left Behind can't be played until after you complete Part I, the Platinum trophy picture is likely to be either the Left Behind credits or just a random trophy...

So, Kingdom Battle has now sold 10 million copies: Nuts that all those frowned upon leaked slides all those years ago turned out this way!

PlayStation has embraced acquired Savage Game Studios, a mobile game developer. The main bits from the blog:

Just a reminder @martinist (and anyone else!), but the 3DS and Wii U eShops aren't closing just yet (they won't until March 2023). While you won't be able to add funds via card (which happened back in May) or eShop voucher (which is what is happening now/in the next day or so) directly to your 3DS or Wii U, you will still be able to add funds via a Switch or the eShop website, so long as your consoles are linked to the same account

Yeah, I'll gladly take a 2-1 against Leicester with 10 men. I still don't know how I feel about the Sterling signing, and I'm still not sold on it working out in the long term, but he's been electric since signing, and has looked very professional so far. And that first goal of his was a beauty. The stupid part about this City side is that at 2-0 down I felt the exact same, I don't think anyone doubted the win. And against Palace, a side which every season seems to steal wins against the top sides. Respect what they've accomplished, but it's hard to not hate them This is more of a gut instinct thing - I don't follow the goings-on at Liverpool that closely - but from the outside looking in, the feeling I've always got from Liverpool since Salah's signing and his amazing debut season was that Mané never really got the attention he probably felt he deserved, I think he was probably talked about more as part of a front three than he was as an individual after Salah signed. Some players don't mind shying away from the spotlight and just doing what they can for the team if it means shared success - Benzema at Real while Ronaldo was still there comes to mind, and I'd say that was worse because Ronaldo's feats, if anything, stunted Benzema's growth and stats - but some just aren't comfortable with that. I think the proof is in the pudding, and this is probably subjective, but I feel like I heard a lot more about Salah potentially leaving and his contract situation than I ever did on Mané's move to Bayern. I think Liverpool had much less of a say in Mané leaving than they were probably comfortable with, to be honest

Yep, read about this earlier and it put a huge grin on my face. We need more of this. Way more of this. Naughty Dog were leading the way with Part II, and it's crazy that Part I is a leap beyond that still. If nothing else, I think the accessibility options added to Part I make the remake a worthwhile endeavour – the original game and Remastered had none of this, so players in need of accessibility options simply would not have been in a position to enjoy the first game before diving into the second, so I'm really hoping to see some reactions to the game from those the added accessibility options will benefit, like we did for Part II! One of the few memories of Part II I have which is of me with a smile on my face was loading the game up for the first time and just spending 15 minutes or so playing around with the accessibility stuff before diving in. Say what you will about Naughty Dog (and some other Sony first party studios), they're seriously putting in the work on the accessibility front, and have been for a while. It's tougher to make arguments for these additions when you get down to lower budget stuff, but I don't think there's any excuse for AAA games to not be doing their damn best to be as accessible as possible.

The plot thickens (and seemingly wraps up?):

So, yeah, according to USA Today's sources, Amazon are going to announce the purchase of Electronic Arts today: Am I jumping the gun by making a thread about this? Probably. But I think it'll be fun to watch and track the fallout either way more seriously, I just don't get why USA Today would stick their neck out like this if there wasn't some sort of smoke here. While I don't think more corporate consolidation is good for anyone...I think we've talked on here for a while now about how EA or Ubisoft are likely next, and while, again, screw corporate acquisitions, it's about time someone but Microsoft in the Western space actually made a move like this. It'd be a big move for Luna, Amazon have the infrastructure to expand their cloud gaming and this would obviously be a huge get. I've got to imagine this could be the move, if it's actually happening, which actually sees other big guns like Apple and Google start bidding on the remaining big publishers over here in the West, like Take Two or Ubisoft.

The Back to the Future films fall into a strange category of films for me where I genuinely can't remember if I've sat down and watched them all the way through: if I did, it was at a young enough age where I don't remember doing so, but I've seen enough bits and pieces of them growing up where I feel like they've been pieced together for me so I might need to see where they're streaming... Anyways, @drahkon I have some recommendations! You mentioned being open to eras outside of the 80s and 90s, so while I'll recommend a film or two for those, I'm going to be cheeky and throw some 70s films in. We could roll back to the 50s and 60s, but...there's just too much to recommend from those decades, and a lot of the time they aren't as easily available as films from later decades. My 70s recommendations: The Godfather and The Godfather Part II I think there's a genuine argument to be made that The Godfather and Part II are some of the earliest examples of timeless classics in cinema – plenty of excellent films came before this which I would consider classics, but many of them show their age in one way or another, whether it's the framing, occasional clunky cinematography, or just the general pacing. If you told me The Godfather was made in the 50s or the 80s before I saw it, I'd believe you. Just to give a general gist of things, these two films follow the Corleone family through a decade and a half of turmoil through their mafia family endeavours. Plenty of twists and turns along the way, but above all else the acting takes centre stage backed by a wonderful score. You know me, I don't like to say too much or hype up things I enjoy too much, but I think you'll enjoy these a lot (they're directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who also directed Apocalypse Now, which I know you enjoyed!). Now, whether or not you watch Part III after is a bridge to cross if and when you finish these two My 80s recommendations: The Karate Kid (alt: Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Stand By Me Okay, so until about a year ago I kind of just assumed that The Karate Kid was a film everyone watched growing up. And then I learned that one of my closest friends hadn't watched it (and he still hasn't). He's no longer my friend (I'm kidding, I'm kidding...or am I?), and now I'm on a life mission to ensure everyone I cross paths with watches it so that I can go back to my assumption that everyone has watched The Karate Kid. Don't be like my (potentially former) friend. Watch The Karate Kid if you haven't already (and no, the Jaden Smith remake - as much as I loved it growing up - is not a substitute). The Karate Kid is about as quintessentially 80s as Aliens, The Terminator, or Ferris Bueller's Day Off (my alternative recommendation if you've already seen The Karate Kid) – it's an excellent coming-of-age film mixed in with fun KA-RAH-TAY and innately 80s songs which just makes you want to learn a martial art from a complete stranger and start cleaning cars. And speaking of coming-of-age, my other 80s recommendation has to be Stand By Me. I think most people in this world are either Breakfast Club people or Stand By Me people, and well, me, I'm a Stand By Me person. It's a film which just hits all the right notes for early teens nostalgia mixed in with the sprinkling of reality that, well, you're growing up, and the world is a tougher place than you think it is. It's a film which always makes me think about not knowing that you're in the Good Old Days until you've left them. My 90s recommendations: Princess Mononoke (alt: Whisper of the Heart) and The Prince of Egypt There are a lot of films which can be argued to be Ghibli's best, or more specifically Hayao Miyazaki's best, but for me, my favourite Ghibli film is Princess Mononoke. I feel like I mention this film in every other post I make, so to keep it short, it's probably the most mature Ghibli film, it might have my favourite Ghibli score (I mean, the same can be said for almost all of Joe Hisaishi's Ghibli scores ), and it definitely has my favourite Ghibli story. It's a thorough exploration of mankind's relationship with outsiders and nature which I find always leaves me feeling empty but complete. Alternatively, if you've already seen Princess Mononoke (and if you have, I want to hear your thoughts!), I'd recommend Whisper of the Heart, which I think is probably one of Ghibli's most underrated works. It's directed by Yoshifumi Kondō, who worked as an animation director and on key animation for many other Ghibli projects, and it was sadly the only film he directed: he passed away a few years after Whisper of the Heart released at the age of 48, having been positioned as effectively Miyazaki's protégé and was seemingly destined to become Ghibli's next great director. So what's so magical about Whisper of the Heart? I think it's the balance it strikes: many of Hayao Miyazaki's films are fantastical and occasionally dip into a moment or two of slice-of-life, whereas Isao Takahata (the other great Ghibli director alongside Miyazaki) focused mainly on slice-of-life interactions, occasionally dipping into more fantastical or imaginative elements (not necessarily in terms of story, but how the film is presented); Whisper of the Heart feels as fantastical as it feels slice-of-life, it's just a joyous watch. My other 90s recommendation is The Prince of Egypt, for me hands down DreamWorks' best film. It covers the story of Moses from a very objective place - it doesn't try to sell you on Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, but simply focuses on telling you a damn powerful story - with an excellent voice cast, a stunning score by Hans Zimmer and is visually one of the more striking and relevant retellings of a religious story that I've ever experienced. Heartily recommend it, regardless of your religion (or lack of one). And that's me tapping out for now on the recommendations front

Every time I hear something new about Muse they always go up in my estimations will need to give it a listen! Yeah, you're probably right, I probably exaggerated a little there. So to rephrase it: With the old leadership I think I'd be confident in saying, 100%, they fought tooth and nail against such a decision but it was passed down to them and there wasn't much they could do. With Jim Ryan I think there is a chance - however small - that this was his idea. It's just the vibe he gives off With the £30 difference printed out at the local ATM and used as tinder, I like your thinking

Yeah, I've just seen that it's been confirmed that Xbox won't be bumping up their prices, and they seriously have no reason to. As has already been mentioned, they've got a subscription service that they're built around these days which is very different to the razor and blade strategy still at the forefront of PlayStation's (and Nintendo's) business plans, in particular with the Digital Edition PS5. There's also just the fact of the matter that PlayStation makes up much more of Sony's revenues than Xbox does Microsoft's for the time being. Personally I don't think it justifies the change from a consumer perspective, but in the boardroom, the loss being made on the Digital Edition and the profit being made on the Disc Edition would have been a calculated move; now they easily, I think, could justify not bumping up the prices considering the price bumps elsewhere in their own gaming ecosystem (the game price rise outside of the US, the increasing transition to digital sales, and so on), but if they take the stance that they need to make a profit on the Disc Edition PS5 (which they wouldn't, but well, got to impress those shareholders I guess for Jim Ryan to get that Golden Parachute when he eventually walks), then yeah, it makes sense, as a business. Again, it just shows where their priorities lie these days, because this is a move to stay onside with shareholders over customers at the end of the day. I don't think it'll hurt them in the long run, and maybe I'm being naïve here, but I seriously don't think this would have happened under their previous leadership. Yep, had a fun reality check earlier this month when re-upping my energy bill where fixing my bill put my monthly energy bill up by 5x. The only way is...down, I guess. Woo England. Woo. I will say though, even with that crazy shift (which is stupid), it was the bumping up the prices of the PS5 which made me finally concede: I totally agree though, I don't think it makes much of a difference outside of the gaming bubble where we're all going to point at this and go "well, damn, that is certainly a move to make", if anything depending on the coverage the price bump gets I could see some parents trying to pull the trigger now ahead of Christmas if they can just because it'll be a little cheaper to do so (not because it's a smart thing to do, but we just seem like the type of country with the kind of people who would do that). Got to imagine it's why they stayed quiet on the DualSense Edge and PSVR2 pricing for now though, which is probably the smart move.

Per Windows Central, there are no plans from Microsoft to increase the prices of the Xbox Series X | S: Not shocking in the slightest. This is an easy knock on the chin and an easy for win for Xbox to take considering that they make up such a small proportion of Microsoft's revenue - while the number is certainly growing, Xbox means much less to Microsoft than PlayStation does to Sony. They're also built around a subscription model these days, so, yeah, it's the smart move.

From what I've seen its been a lot better since the Horizon Forbidden West bundle launched earlier this year, I've rarely seen them available without it, though I've seen a lot more availability for the disc edition than I have the digital edition. A little search around shows that it's available at both Argos and ShopTo to buy now, so it's definitely better than it was!

Sorry not sorry, @drahkon It's a weird one. On the one hand, Sony's fiduciary duty is to it's shareholders above all else, and it needs to be seen reacting in some way to the rising material costs brought about by components shortages, the weakening of currencies worldwide amidst the current global economic turmoil, and so on. But on the other hand...first party games have been bumped up in RRP drastically already this gen to £70 / €80, much higher than it is already in the US comparatively at $70 (even today that's still, what, only £60?). I don't think I've seen a PS5 on sale outside of the Horizon bundle they came out with for months now, so what, is that bundle still going to be the only option but be sold at £530 or whatever now? It's a situation which sucks all around. Purely taken as a business decision, it makes sense, but you can't take these things in a vacuum: there's a gross level of greed to this move in offsetting things to the customer, especially two years into the gen. At the very least I think the smart and safest customer-facing approach would have been to at least bundle in 3 months of PS+ Premium (that way you get people subscribed to the service and kind of offset the price rise for them by giving them access to a bunch of games).

The price of the PS5 is going up in select markets, to reflect the current global economic turmoil:

Clip from Andor:

Launch trailer hype:

New trailer from Gamescom for Hundred Heroes, which is coming in 2023: Hell yeah, continues to look wonderful!

I wasn't around back then, so maybe I'm missing the mark here, but I think it has more of an impact now with fewer active members because it's incredibly disruptive to the flow of discussion. With more active members, people might be hurling insults at each other over different opinions, but I imagine it felt less like certain individuals or console owners were being called out. There's no back-and-forth really being had which warrants fanboyism here in a way it might have before. I'm all for people having their own opinions, but it's when it becomes a case of people jumping on a bandwagon of negativity that it just kills the mood for many to post, myself included. Let's be honest, it's normally a case of "You're wrong and I'm right" and just not budging, or a driveby post which doesn't really do much to further discussion but either halts it or completely redirects it towards negativity. It's not even passive aggression at this point, because it's plain for all to see which members in which threads behave this way. In this thread and other PlayStation threads, it happens time and time again where the conversation gets derailed. The DualSense Edge is announced seven years after the Xbox Elite line? Who gives a damn? We can all see that it's going for a similar premium controller market, but just because Xbox did it first we need to draw a comparison and say...what, exactly? That they're late? Again: who gives a damn? Some of us are excited that we're getting a premium controller line, that's where it starts and ends from our perspective, no comparison is really needed. I get that this is mainly a Nintendo forum, but seriously, you'd think it was an Xbox one. The irony there is that I don't think I've really seen many Xbox owners in the PlayStation threads disrupting things, and all I ever really see from PlayStation owners is what they'd like to see from Xbox and hoping that they can get to a point again where they want to invest (myself included). More perplexing is that Nintendo is in a great place now too - all three console manufacturers are, and all doing their own thing to boot! - so I don't get where the frustration comes from which is pushing some to be so negative and suck the life out of so many threads. I find it pretty exhausting, to be honest, and I'm not the only one; like @drahkon mentions, there's less activity from some members here (I'd include myself in that) as a result of what almost always happens in these threads. It's 2022, and we're all adults, so what happens when we get tired of posting somewhere to avoid the negativity? We post less and sometimes stop posting altogether. It's a real shame.

Genuinely think it's the first big livestreamed gaming event I've actively decided to not watch live in years. Summer Game Fest was a bust this year (it's only saving grace last year was the Elden Ring trailer), I feel like the TGAs have plateaued in this confusing spot where they're caught between potentially cool reveals and too many ads, and I don't think I've watched a good ONL. Happily logged into my gaming-news-only Twitter account and turned notifications on for a couple of hours, then turned them off after. Didn't miss a thing. Caught up on a few reactions but man...yeah, I think I'll be a bit more picky with the events I watch live after this. I think Gamescom's ONL is in such a weird spot where it's only a couple of months after Summer Game Fest, and so many of the trailers I've seen go up over the last 24 hours are pretty much add-ons for what we saw at SGF this year. I just don't think there's enough time between the two shows for more big reveals to come around, and like you say, it feels like we've gone backwards if anything now that we're back to getting CGI trailers again. Is that a result of COVID, too many teams seeing other studios start to take up arms and try to desperately onboard devs by releasing such trailers, or is it simply that "well, we've got to aim for SGF or ONL if we want to be noticed during the summer flurry of gaming news, we haven't got a game so here's a CGI trailer"? It's probably a combination of those and more, but I'm just not a fan. If there's a six month ago between TGAs and SGF, then ONL only two months after SGF needs to be something different. I don't think it should be about the hype cycle like the TGAs and SGF are, I think it should be focused on actually showing off the games more: demos, interviews, the side stuff we'd typically have seen at the E3s of yesteryear. Bonus points if you then have the connective tissue of announcing a game at SGF, and then showing off a gameplay demo and having developer interviews at ONL. All of this would also free up Keighley a bit because I'm sure while it would still take a lot of time to coordinate, it's going to be nothing compared to chasing developers and publishers for WORLD PREMIERE scoops. COVID pushed things back a bit in some cases but I think we need to get back to the point we were nearly at before where games are more commonly being announced six months before release, rather than going backwards to CGI trailers which end up being MMOs, and I think something we haven't seen enough is people using taking advantage of this clearly defined runway of SGF > ONL > TGAs and back again to announce, demo, and then release their game; I do think Callisto Protocol has been close to this in fairness, but otherwise it's a pretty random scattershot of things that we see. "Anyone here like PlayStation?" *crickets for a moment* "...oh did he say PlayStation? Uh yeah I guess" *clap clap clap* Killed me It's such a difficult one because I think he's trying to go the route of establishing these tentpole events for developers and publishers to turn up at, and the only way to get them to keep coming back, really, is to just keep running them, that's the only way they'll be able to make any marketing plans which target them. Problem is, SGF is still relatively new so developers and publishers will have followed along the last few years, but let's say you started developing a game in 2020 and always planned to show it off at SGF, you might not have something ready until 2023 (and, well, E3 is trying to make a comeback so that'll be fun to watch), in that hypothetical scenario Geoff is going to be clutching at straws. ONL is in this absolute no-man's-land of gaming news where nothing really happens in August, and now we're used to bigger events coming along in September (such as a Nintendo Direct or a PlayStation Showcase), so it's a total non-starter. Kudos to Keighley, I think he's trying, but as you say, there's just not enough meaningful content being announced or shown off here to really make it worthwhile as a viewer; and we actually care about this stuff. Imagine if you weren't as into gaming and this was the first event you watched live? I think Geoff needs to focus on quality, and if you can't get the big names to show up, screw 'em, just make the show shorter or do something different. Imagine if The Game Awards were actually about the awards? Cut back on the ads (you're literally there advertising games already out by having an awards show! Time it with sales everywhere and publishers are golden), focus on showing off the gameplay of GOTY contenders, maybe play the game alongside a director or actor or composer and dig into the game a bit, rather than this shallow touch-point of "so yeah Persona 5 wins Best OST, anywho moving along". ONL could be a time to expand on SGF reveals, look back on the summer of gaming news, have interviews to expand on the news (a Phil Spencer interview after the Bethesda acquisition would've been huge!), and just show off more games. It is impossible to make every show a banger when you don't have any control over the content, so adapt and do something else. Big developers and publishers are rightly saving things for their own events, and you end up with these events which sometimes start off with a bang or end with one, but are guaranteed to fizzle out somewhere in the middle thanks to the barrage of ads, terribly curated presentation order of trailers which kill the show's pacing (reminder: I FELL ASLEEP DURING SGF THIS YEAR), or a tired audience (two hours is a long time to keep a live audience satisfied, especially when you know there's going to be some dead air!). Rant over. They won't change it and I think it's a shame, the actual timing of these shows are perfect for a format different to what they've become.

Bonus points if it's titled "How To: Smash Bros"