Julius

Well, yeah, I think that's exactly what's happening: they're taking hundreds of games, which will take time, and, like you said, we've seen them take a similar approach with how discussion of backwards compatibility was handled for the PS5 in the year leading up to its launch. I have to imagine that negotiations with third parties are probably ongoing too, and their games will need to then be tested to the same standard, and so on. However, if that's the case, what was the need to announce this PS+ overhaul and catalogue of retro games when they did, with nothing but rough numbers and a pricing structure to announce? It was almost purely an announcement for investors, not consumers, and while I know a lot of stuff like this does happen, I think it's such a poor way to handle it. You get one chance to announce a product (and the alternative for a second announcement is basically limited to add-ons or a relaunch), and I think they kind of botched it. Now, will it matter to the long-term success of this service? No, not at all - PS+ has plenty of users already, and at worst, if no-one uses the higher tiers, they get the same revenue as they currently do. The difference with this and how they talked about backwards compatibility on PS5 is that this is the product - these games are the differentiators between tiers! The unique selling point of one tier over another is that you get access to PS1/PS2/PSP games in one and basically just PS+ as it is otherwise in another, and you get PS3 games in the top tier. Knowing what those games are going to be is a huge - arguably the main and defining - factor in a consumer choosing the top tier over the middle tier, or the middle tier over the bottom tier. The thing for me is that there was nothing really gained by announcing it as early as they did when compared with its launch date when having very few details about the service to actually share. I look at this service and I know that it's not a true competitor to Xbox Game Pass - though it certainly could transform into that one day - but the lack of details invites those questions which a truly defined and calculated announcement would instantly squash, because comparisons to a service like that as things stand aren't going to be favourable. You compare it to how they talked about backwards compatibility on PS5, and I do think it's a good point of comparison - remember just how many people came away swearing up and down that PS5 would only have 100 games available through backwards compatibility for PS4 games? There are also questions around UI, how it functions (is PS3 on the service going to be like PS Now where you get a virtual PS3?), and also what it's running on, and if anything has been improved. We don't even know if we should expect this to be HD! I don't think they needed to announce every game for the service, but 5 - 20 titles being shown off from the get-go I feel would have answered a lot of questions, especially first party games, which really should be in the bag and should be the easiest ones for them to deal with getting over the line. See, while I agree, I think this is what any third party games coming to the service should have been saved for. I think if they came out guns blazing it would have been great, but it would leave them with little else to confirm, so I think they should have considered showing off the basics (UI, confirming spec details, etc.) and a handful of first party titles which were ready to go alongside the announcement. I think third party titles is likely what they're in the process of confirming right now, so I think those titles in particular should have been the final thing to go out with on a bang before the service launch: "oh, by the way, we've been talking to our friends at Capcom/Konami/Square Enix, and can confirm that Mega Man Legends/Metal Gear Solid/Xenogears are coming to the service, alongside these other titles from them." And thing is, the longer you leave it from announcement to concrete details, you do create space for doubt and features being undervalued. For example, going back to PS4 backwards compatibility on PS5 - I wasn't really excited by the prospect by the time we had concrete confirmation that we should expect most PS4 games to work perfectly fine on a PS5, and if anything I would describe myself as being relieved that was the case, especially in the face of Xbox having clear messaging from the start with Series X (they have other issues, but how they communicated backwards compatibility on the system was not one). And even after getting that confirmation, we still got reports which instilled some fear about certain PS4 games having an asterisk next to them when played on a PS5. My expectations right now for the service are low, sure, but when they announce things like God of War, Ratchet & Clank, etc. - first party titles I would expect to see on the service seeing as they're already on PS Now - it won't be excitement I'll be feeling, but relief. I'm now not letting myself get excited by the prospect of the potential of third party games coming to the service, but hesitant. While I get why they've done what they've done, I just don't think it was the best way it could have been handled, and considering how much potential revenue is at stake through upgraded subscriptions, I'm surprised this is how they've decided to communicate the service. At least it shouldn't be too long now before we get those details seeing as it's launching in Asia on 23rd May?

Digital Foundry's video on the PS2 era of Gran Turismo games is up (aka the best Gran Turismo era, totally no bias here )

Yes, this! I was thinking the exact same thing when I was playing this afternoon: story segments are typically 30 - 60 minutes, and then the exploring/grinding between locations can take typically 30 - 60 minutes (I mean, a bit more if you decide to go nuts Metal Slime hunting – and why wouldn't you?), before you find yourself on the next story beat. Dragon Quest is definitely one of the best JRPG series I've played (I mean, XI is maybe my favourite game of all time, and I'm loving VIII, but I know there's still a lot of DQ I've got to experience!) when it comes to keeping the smaller story beats short and concise, but still meaningful on the grand scheme of things, as they normally drive some form of character development, be it a flashback, seeing how a character reacts to something which further implies something, etc. When you couple that with regular segments of travelling around which are roughly the same length, you get this stupidly well balanced pacing where a two hour session can make you feel like you've made huge progress in terms of levelling up and in terms of seeing story beats through from start to finish. In a lot of other long JRPGs, a session of a similar length might see you make progress in one of these areas, and I don't think it's surprising at all when you hear about people getting turned off by certain JRPGs and feeling burnt out, because I would be too if I was spending potentially that long on just one activity. What makes it even more special is obviously the charm of these games, which creates a huge contrast when it does decide to have a serious - or sometimes even surprisingly violent! - moment, which makes those moments even more powerful. Look, let's be honest, Dragon Quest's storytelling - at least my experience with it so far - is that it is simple, but it's smart decisions which make these simple stories so damn effective. It's funny, because now that I'm thinking about it, I seriously think the only series I can think to compare to Dragon Quest when it comes to how it balances charm and serious moments, and how they delicately ride that line where it's a push and pull between both sides which creates this heightened emotion for players, is Yakuza.

Honestly, I think it looks really nice, and it's on my radar, but it's one of those games where I don't think I'll be picking it up at launch. As you say, being right next to Live-A-Live and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on a calendar really doesn't help it's case much! I actually saw the teaser trailer when it came out last month, and what really hit me was the music. It feels *very* Ghibli-esque, but particularly towards the end. And then while I was watching time I quickly realised why that was: it does straight up use a theme from Princess Mononoke for a moment there, in a way which is super noticeable! Compare 01:40 of the trailer to this: Now, I'm not saying they stole it -but I do think the composer is probably just a fan of the film (at the very least they've listened to the OST a few times) and completely internalised that theme. Just now I can't unhear it So, honestly, I'm most curious to see how the soundtrack turns out. If they've nailed the melancholic side of feeling like a Ghibli OST in the full game like they did at times in the teaser trailer, it'll definitely get bumped up my list some

We're just over a month away from Obi-Wan Kenobi, and we finally - finally! - have a confirmed main composer: Natalie Holt, of Loki fame! Favourite part of the Q&A: Man, this puts my hype through the roof. Say what you will about the quality of some other parts of the shows at times, inarguably the most consistent part - from a certain point of view, and that point of view being my own! - is that the quality of the music has been phenomenal in every project since the Disney takeover. Cannot wait to hear what Natalie Holt injects into Star Wars. Kind of praying that she pays homage where it feels necessary and for a hype play on Battle of the Heroes and Duel of the Fates (yeah we had it in the trailer, but now I've got what I want once, why would I not want it again?!), but I'm also really interested to see what she might do in terms of original themes, or playing on lesser known themes you might still expect to turn up (such as Imperial Inquisition from Rebels, though that's already a track paying homage to a lot of things as it is!). For anyone who has no idea why this is an exciting announcement, as you haven't watched Loki, think she's probably put out the best theme for a Marvel show on Disney+ so far: So yeah, I'm excited. Just imagine the Inquisitors turning up to something like that

Thinks back to the last time I begged for a port Realises that what we got was the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters exclusively on PC and mobile Oh boy, I sure hope that Rogue Leader and the other Rogue Squadron games aren't remastered, and that if they are, then that it's only for PC and mobile Was that loud enough for your gaming gods to work their black magic, Keighley?! But yeah, I would love to see these games get a modern release, there are plenty of classic Star Wars games which need to be ported (to all platforms - ahem, KOTOR), they're simply just too fun to not be played today, but Battlefront II in particular hurts me a lot in its absence on modern consoles that I own in that it's not just one of my favourite Star Wars games, it's one of my favourite games of all time, and I was playing it on my PS2 a whole lot up until I got my PS4 with EA's Battlefront just before The Force Awakens dropped (and oh lord that was over 6 years ago already). Would also love to see the Revenge of the Sith game get ported, but that one feels like it could be a bit more complex to do, and for whatever reason it's already a digital game on PS3, so I guess that'll do for me Aspyr have done a surprisingly decent job the last few years of getting these out at a decent clip - at one point I feel like Disney wanted everything dead and buried, so I have a sneaking suspicion that Lucasfilm folk might have been pushing for that to not happen - so I hope the Force is with them in getting some of these other classics to us again. The fans have been really receptive to it from what I've seen, and rightly so!

Yeah, for me the weighting is mainly for story > stats, but like I said, if there's overlap and the party needs reworking to account for that, I'll absolutely do it. Suikoden and Suikoden II both have dozens of potential party characters and it can easily become unbalanced, but a lot of the time having a core three characters based on story (i.e. the main trio for Suikoden II) and then a character or two based on whatever story beats are going on, and then filling out the party with a character to balance things works well. And for the record, while I used Cyan through a good chunk of VI, he didn't make my final party (that was Terra/Celes/Locke - for story reasons - and Sabin - because I love Blitz and it's simply too fun inputting combos to not want to use). But yes, Cyan's story is awesome, as is his theme! Problem with a cast as big as VI's is simply that some characters inevitably fall by the wayside (if they were ever even a focus for a moment in the first place). If they ever made a spin-off for VI, I'd want it to centre around Cyan (well, that and I'd also want an entire game based on the opera). Dragon Quest VIII is very different though, at least for me, in that the game, as far as I'm aware, wasn't originally balanced around Morrie and Red, nor did the story centre around them in a way you'd consider them the main party going on this journey. So the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VIII, I'd argue, is more like making a character like Leo (yeah I remember what happens) or maybe the Esper Elder, or heck maybe even the guy playing Draco, a playable character in Final Fantasy VI -- at least more than it is simply using a character already playable and that you could keep around, like Cyan was. Again, nothing wrong with choosing those characters though: play how you want to play, regardless of if it makes the game easier or harder for yourself, as far as I'm concerned. But for me, just personally, knowing that the original story was centred on these four characters, and that the game was originally balanced around these four characters, makes me want to play it how it was originally designed. I'm also a weirdo who will want to play games with the original controller they were intended for, and play rereleases of games which were exclusive on the current platform that manufacturer has available now, but I think we've definitely all got our own quirks when it comes to approaching games. On a replay, though? Yeah, I could potentially see myself checking out Morrie and Red! Well, that is, unless I love the original four too much... But before that: I'll beat the game for a first time

Sony's expectations for reactions to a PlayStation Blog update like this: The reality: I totally agree, a couple of weeks of extra waiting kind of sucks, but they're missing the only part that really matters: just show us the damn games, Sony! We now already expect the games rated yesterday, and now we're just going to hear about more games being rated for the next 2-3 weeks before they reveal what we can actually expect? Seems like that could very easily backfire to me

Joke's on you, I did willingly use Cyan a lot in Final Fantasy VI. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS. (to be fair, I'm also the one who was under-levelled on Storm Dragon and rather than grinding levels spent a few hours trying with my party at their current levels) Given the opportunity I'll always prefer a fixed party to a varied one in a JRPG, and will almost always choose a character for their story relevance over their stats (unless there's a serious overlap in stats, then there's a tough decision involved). Definitely nothing wrong with going the other way, though - JRPG's can be long, and I can definitely respect what is probably a sensible decision to go with party members with better stats! But you'll never catch me doing that

Update on the new PS+ regional rollout plan (spoilers: Europe gets it last on June 22nd):

Yeah, I was the same way, struggled to look at a screen for too long and games in particular made me feel very motion sick. Doesn't help that the first game I chose to play was Captain Toad, that game's camera and isometric view will mess you up if you're not feeling great!

Man, that's a fun main theme, very evocative of the Wii Sports game themes (and some straight up leitmotif nods, which is always cool!) but with a nice twist which makes it sound fresh. Out of curiosity, what's everyone's favourite main theme from one of Nintendo's Sports games? Personally, I'm partial to Wii Sports Resort: Probably some bias there, as we didn't get a Wii until Christmas 2009, meaning we played more of Wii Sports Resort than we did Wii Sports. It's really funny because my strongest association with Wii Sports Resort is the Christmas we got it and played it for hours on end during the school holidays, but the music and vibes of the game instantly take me back to the summer. Man, I miss those times. The original Wii Sports does have a banger of a main theme though...

September 9th! Good to get this out there as quickly as they have after Xenoblade got bumped up to July last week. Does seem like they've just swapped places, seeing as this was originally due in the summer and Xenoblade in September. Octo Expansion DLC for Splatoon 2 is also now going to be included in the Expansion Pack: That's looking a better and better deal with each bit of DLC added, even if I am the type to just buy it separately outright

You hate that which you cannot possibly comprehend. And my name is Julian, so I guess we've also got the King part covered... yes I know the character's name is spelt Julien in the show don't @ me

Hope you feel better @Hero-of-Time, DQ sounds like a great and cosy antidote to COVID I've also actually recently gone back to Dragon Quest VIII too, seems like it's good timing - obligatory Cor blimey! After picking it up on 3DS once I finished XI a few years back I made it up until what I guessed was the climactic midway point (which I semi-confirmed as I checked which step I was up to in the IGN walkthrough before diving back in, and it was slap-bang in the middle), and I kind of just fizzled out on it - not because it was a poor game, but there were other things going on at the time I think and by the time I was ready to game again, I didn't know how I felt about picking the game back up. I do wonder if part of the reason I put down the game might have just been the game being a little too open at the point I had got to, it might have taken a bit of urgency away to "go to the village over yonder!" when that village is a slow and busy 5 minutes away, but I think I had some transport methods by then...so who knows? Anyways, that meant restarting the game this time around and deleting my old save, which is never a fun thing to do. I've slowly been chipping away at it over the last couple of weeks, as the game is fresh enough in my mind where I know what's going on and so longer playing sessions haven't been the way to go for me so far, but I want to finish this game, and so naturally work and life has started getting hectic again - swear my experience with this game is cursed. Wait, my journey with this game is cursed, hmmmm... So far I've been investing my skill points into Swords/Courage for Edward (my MC, figured I'd stick with the old English names of kings after Arthur was my MC in XI! Also A = 1, so Arthur for my first DQ, and E for Eight, so Edward for VIII...yeah I put too much thought into that), Axes/Humanity for Yangus, Whips/Sex Appeal for Jessica (I did also pick up the first few spells from Staves too, due to them having such a low cost and being so helpful), and Bows/Charisma for Angelo. The Boomerang like you say H-o-T is super helpful, but from what I remember I didn't get too much use out of it by the point I put the game down the first time I tried to play it (think it was just more effective to attack an individual enemy by that point), so I haven't invested any skill points in it so far, but it's still done a good job of flattening enemies. Also, sure you've figured this out by now but thought I'd mention it: when you come across an area with Metal Slimes, once you've taken one out, just start whipping that camera nub around until more turn up, it's a lot of fun to farm those things early on and taking advantage of the memory (or lack thereof) for enemies appearing in the overworld But yeah, not much to report on my end other than that I love the risk and reward of the tension system, the Dragon Quest vibes, the enemy designs, the NPCs and voice acting have been as charming and funny as I remember them being, the world is a pleasure to explore, alchemy and the way it works with the world's economy is brilliant, battles are nice and snappy - especially at 2x speed! - and the party is brilliant too. It's fascinating too that this was the first mainline Dragon Quest designed truly with 3D in mind, and Level 5 kind of just nailed it, from the way alleyways are tight to sweeping staircases curve around, to the design of dungeons and puzzles, to the way having 3D enemies has them doing fun stuff like an enemy which is a frog but when attacked flips around to the ugly face on its back, which does more damage, and reverts back to the frog side when attacked again, and there's also the mini-bosses if you're not careful enough with some enemy groups and don't manage to wipe them out fast enough. Okay, maybe I had more to say than I thought I did. Lastly, though, the music - yes, even limited by the tinny 3DS speakers and not having the full orchestra of the PS2 - has been brilliant, the overworld theme especially (and yes I'm linking the orchestral versions where possible even though I know it's not in the version I'm playing, I'm trying to do you guys a kindness ) And probably the silliest, which I think has been in some of the earlier games: the casino theme in this game sounds like there's a few drunk guys having too much fun on the brass, and it's perfect! Undeniably a very special game from where I'm up to so far, and from what I remember from the last time I tried to play through it. I probably won't give too many updates, but looking forward to reading your thoughts as you play through H-o-T!

Looks like the PlayStation Plus library of classics is beginning to take shape, with Syphon Filter 1 and 2, Dark Mirror, and Logan's Shadow being rated in Korea. Feel like these are going to be a long next few weeks until we get an official update on the line-up!

Man, that would be cool if true. I haven't played any of the Rogue Squadron games but have only heard great things! Meanwhile, there's me trying to convince Aspyr to remaster the original Battlefront II:

The actual second trailer for Lightyear (first was a teaser trailer I guess):

Casually - and unsurprisingly - done gangbusters. Look forward to seeing how future LEGO games learn from this, and of course looking forward to diving in myself next month

I'm not joining that party yet, because it's a sequel which is heavily dependent on story, and I think they'll be better off saying and showing as little as possible like they did with The Last of Us Part II (well, kind of). I also don't think we saw too much of GoW 2018 before it released, so I think this is keeping in line with that. That being said, if we get to the end of the summer without a release date and we haven't heard anything official, then I think it'll be time to start being concerned, because I see this eyeing a release from September to early November if it is coming this year (in prime time for GOTY discussions). God of War 2018 only has its release date announced three months prior to its April launch, which is why I think it makes sense to be quiet until we're three months or so out (I think all we had prior to the release date trailer for that game too was it's E3 2016 live demo and E3 2017 trailer?) and then ramp things up, maybe even more so with COVID delays and delaying production due to Christopher Judge's physical rehab taken into account. We'll have to wait and see I guess, but yeah, I don't think they can hold off until Gamescom in August or a potential PlayStation Showcase in September before giving us an update if they're still aiming for this year. If it does get delayed to 2023 - which would be totally fine, they should take the time they need - I just hope they'll let us know sooner rather than later, because it'd be a pretty big blow to learn of a delay after Not-E3 in June. EDIT: Bruno Velázquez, Santa Monica Studios animation director is bullish that the game is still releasing this year:

A whole lot of nothing, but today it's 4 years to the day (what the Hel?!) since the release of God of War (2018), so Cory has a message of thanks for the support from fans and has said that they are currently deep in the trenches but will show the game when they're ready: Don't bother looking at the comments, it's people complaining about not seeing more of the game yet

Collector's Edition confirmed for UK release via My Nintendo Store, you can register your interest now:

Hideo Kojima has entered the chat Haven't played all of his games yet, and no doubt I'll find countless examples of this in the ones I've yet to play, but there are just too many ideas in his games which are one-and-done things and surprisingly haven't been aped on by everyone else in the industry. In Metal Gear Solid there's the ketchup incident, everything about Psycho Mantis (memory cards, controller ports, have at it), and a bunch of others. Metal Gear Solid 2 in its structure and the reintroduction of mechanics from the first game is almost a jab at Hollywood sequels and expectations. Metal Gear Solid 3 has injuries to contend with and a bunch of camo options which should simply destroy the flow of the game, but don't. Metal Gear Solid 4 has blink-and-you'll-miss-it opportunities to see flashbacks to older games during cutscenes. And then there's P.T. and the entire way that the game's publicity through streaming and sharing of ideas and knowledge about the game was practically a mechanic unto itself, and absolutely necessary to see the end of the demo. Dude bleeds weird and originality when it comes to mechanics in games. ᵃ ʰᶦᵈᵉᵒ ᵏᵒʲᶦᵐᵃ ᵖʳᵒᵈᵘᶜᵗᶦᵒⁿ You know who else gets super weird with mechanics? Yoko Taro. NieR: Automata has a bunch of examples of this, but the one which is front and centre for me is the plug-in chips. For those that haven't played the game, you're an android and so can customise your character through finding and installing chips: robot companion, upgraded fire rate, more melee damage, etc. Excellent use of context for upgrades in a game. But what do you do when you need more space, in real life, such as on your phone or computer, beyond increasing memory capacity (which you can do in the game)? You start deleting things. And so, NieR: Automata gives you the option to straight up remove HUD elements to make space for other chips to be installed, and you can go so far as even removing the Operating System and dying as a result. Fascinating game! EDIT: also, every Yakuza mini-game, especially those with a story, and substories. Weirdest quests of any game series I've played (seriously, it's not even a question), but in line with the games themselves, they're often stupidly wacky and incredibly endearing by the time they're over. They're very difficult to forget as a result, despite some only being a few minutes long, and so I'd say that despite their weirdness, Yakuza might have the most memorable quests in a game series.

Like you I'm also not the type to go out seeking those things in films, but I think they're honestly laying it on a bit thick there: while romance is definitely a part of the film, it's handled differently than you'd expect based on those descriptors (it's no Notebook), and I think at its core it's more of a coming-of-age story. It's best to go in knowing as little as possible, and not overhyped on it, but I'd recommend checking it out - personally, I'm a big fan of it. Aside from it's story and characters, it's got what are probably some of the most gorgeous visuals I've seen in anime (alongside Violet Evergarden), and it has a stellar soundtrack, so I think it's worth checking out for those reasons alone - just look at it!

Makoto Shinkai's next film, Suzume no Tojimari, is scheduled to release 11th November 2022 in Japan (so probably early 2023 most other places? And probably a limited run in LA before the year is up to qualify for the Oscars next year), and has also had a new teaser trailer and teaser visual released: Not too crazy a theory about how this could tie into Your Name, but I'll stick it in a spoiler tag just in case: This wait should be fun