Julius

I mean, respectfully, by the same logic, I have to ask: should we never protest or boycott anything, because those being targeted - in power or of wealth - aren't going to be as impacted as others in their chain? This isn't me trying to corner you or anything, but I can imagine others having the same thought process spring to mind. And, at the same time, the developers will be getting paid for their work regardless. Now, how that work is viewed moving forwards by where they work next, and how it impacts their motivation to continue working on the project, in spite of the conversation surrounding this game - and more widely this IP and it's creator - remains to be seen, but at this point those developers will be fully aware of that. Yeah, that's totally fair, at the end of the day I think it is up to the individual as to where they draw the line. I hate what we hear and see of many of EA's and Ubisoft's practices, and now go out of my way where I can to avoid supporting them, but will I be buying their Star Wars games? On Day One. I love Star Wars too much already. Now, Star Wars Eclipse by Quantic Dream? That might be a step too far for me, and I think I know the reason why: what David Cage says and does just doesn't align with what I see as the purpose of Star Wars as a story. It's a story about equality, hope, feminism (what I call the good kind of feminism, and the only kind I give a damn about, which is presenting women as women, as individuals unto themselves, nothing more or less than that), dreams, standing up for what you believe in as you stare down the face of adversity, etc. I could go on for paragraphs, but point is, there's already some contradiction - for me - between the world of Star Wars, in terms of the stories it is trying to tell, and David Cage's previous words and actions that I don't think makes him an individual who should be telling a story in that universe. I also think - again, just for me - that there's a big difference between being into something and loving it already, then finding out that it's a creator is a tool, than finding out someone is a tool and then diving into their work. If the attachment is not already there your entire lens through which you view their work is going to be different (for me), and so while I can understand some Harry Potter fans being totally onboard for this game because it's everything they've wanted - and again, which they're totally entitled to do! - I can also appreciate @Glen-i's perspective as someone who clearly loved that work enough to such an extent that he's lining up at midnight for a book launch, but I imagine might struggle to reconcile the world of the creator with the creator itself, because - as someone not into Harry Potter - I have to imagine there is some misalignment there, and maybe to some extent even feels guilty about supporting someone like J.K. Rowling, with the thoughts and opinions that she has. Not trying to put words into his mouth or thoughts into his head, but I can definitely understand where he's coming from. @Ronnie out of curiosity, were you already a Harry Potter fan before this was announced? To be clear, again, not trying to call you out (I'm sure you already know that but tone and intention is virtually impossible to put across with typed words), I'm just curious. For me I think it's the context of knowing what J.K. Rowling has said in the past and not already being invested which means this doesn't do anything for me personally, so I'm wondering if you were already a fan but you're just excited by the possibilities (which is completely fine and understandable), or if like me you're coming from a background of no real interest in the franchise, but are generally intrigued just from what we've seen of the game (which is also completely fine and understandable). As an aside, I can already see why a place like ResetEra wouldn't want a discussion of this game, just due to the sheer volume of users and how deep the discussion can easily go with a game like this, outside of the game itself. I think there's few enough of us here that it can be kept civil, though.

Yeah, I've thought about starting a thread several times for this game since it was first announced, and then after the State of Play was announced too. It's just such a sticky wicket, and I'm one of those who personally finds it hard to care about the game - and, well, the franchise - because of it, as someone not already with some form of attachment to that universe (the extent of me caring goes so far as the music in the films, because John Williams). It's a shame because naturally it's going to affect the developers involved in making the game, either in terms of their job security or even just in their desire to work, and for that I do feel for them, because I'm sure they just wanted to make a game set in a cool universe which has kind of been sidetracked by a discussion which they have very little to do with. That totally sucks. At the same time, I'm not going to put down other people's hype, and for those interested in the game and wanting to check it out when it releases, I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say – I think that there should still be some healthy discussion about the game, as for all intentions it might be good. But as someone not already attached to the franchise and with J.K. Rowling just being a tool (to put it kindly), this isn't going to be the thing which pulls me in. Separating the art from the artist is one thing, but for me personally, it's a bit different when it's an expansion of that art into a medium it's barely touched in any serious capacity, and will likely be making more money for said artist. I did check out a bit of the footage, purely out of sheer curiosity, and for those willing to look past the conversations outside of the game's development, this looks like it could be a bit of a dream game. Kind of got a Persona vibe with going to classes (I wonder if there's any time management involved?), making friends and starting rivalries, as well as with some dungeons, so yeah, I'll be curious to read and hear thoughts from others as we get more information and when it's released, even if it's not something I'm personally going to be getting excited for.

To clarify, they only said that they would be producing more multiplayer focused GAAS titles through saying that they would have 10+ live service games released by the end of 2026, and there hasn't been any signs or anything said that would make me think that we would see less traditional single player experiences at this current point in time. From the IGN piece covering their earnings call where that was stated: Now, whether they internally plan to transition towards that and whether we think that's where they might be going, considering how Japan Studio and the like were so unceremoniously shuttered, is another conversation entirely. But what we can try to infer from their actions and what has so far actually been stated are two separate things. But, personally, I do agree with you in that it's concerning. I feel like that's been the only rhetoric since Shawn Layden left, and it seems to be getting more and more concerning with each passing year. Yeah, agree with a lot of what you said here. There's a rock hard ceiling we've seen with even the best-selling first party PlayStation games - which do sell well, to be clear - when it comes to sales potential which are time and again naturally going to be beat away by third party games on multiple consoles and with a much wider reach (be it demographically or, as I suspect will be the case with Game Pass once Xbox finally gets thing going consistently, just in sheer size of the audience with immediate access to a game, which, as an aside, I think is going to be very alluring to creatives like Kojima). As we've seen with games like Days Gone too, it's clearly not about the creatives telling their stories any more, unless you are a brand name like Kojima, which is maybe the most concerning thing now, in how they gauge success: purely on sales and aggregate scoring. That's a very slippery slope. Personally, I think there's a lot of space for more variety in their approach to games – as much as I love storytelling in games and many PlayStation first party games, Astro's Playroom was an absolute breath of fresh air compared to the rest of Sony's slate from the last 5 years. The problem with that is that they just cut Japan off like it was a tumour, when that's where I believe the most creativity was being shown from them in the first place. It's funny that you mention Twitch and YouTube, because with Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll last year and ongoing consolidation of Crunchyroll and Funimation, I think they already have an answer to people watching things: they now, for all intents and purposes, practically own anime streaming in the west and have a pure monopoly. How exactly they leverage that moving forwards I'm not so sure (I know they've done offers previously with Funimation alongside PS Plus, but I think there has to be a more effective approach), but that's an industry which is booming right now and has been catching fire like a Charmander drowning in lighter fluid over the last 5 years in particular, so I'm really curious to see how that's handled. The hardware shortages is something that's tough to do but react to, and as I think I've mentioned before, I think it's why so many games initially announced in a way that would make you believe they were PS5 exclusive have ended up being cross-gen releases: they need those software sales to compensate for limited hardware sales which are, again, out of their control, otherwise I think we'd be looking at a console which would have crushed every early gen sales record for a new console. I still think there's a chance that Final Fantasy XVI ends up cross-gen and on PS4 for this reason, as otherwise if we say the game comes out March 2023, there'll be some 25 million PS5's out in the wild (or whatever number) compared to what could have easily been 50+ million without the shortages (I always come back to their earliest shared projections for the PS5 which were insane - and as always, would have been modest to be outdone in reality to impress shareholders). If that does happen, COVID impacts on development itself aside, I could see that being a key reason for what was likely an internal delay. It's sad, because their hand is being forced to some extent by the shortage, but at the same time, there are much easier and more cost effective ways to shore up your revenues than going all-in on what I can only view and describe as a disgusting revenue stream in microtransactions, at least in how they've utilised them so far in GT7. Agreed, and it sucks. PlayStation definitely aren't the only ones guilty of this, but it's the aggressive turn in which they've done this which I think has caught everyone a bit by surprise in the case of GT7. Them being quiet to a fault about their handling of microtransactions in that game also definitely makes it look much, much worse. As for subscriptions, I'm both excited and very, very concerned about the possibilities there. We've talked about Project Spartacus before but while I want to hold off and see the available games...man, just let me buy the games and get some real backwards compatibility beyond the PS4 in. I know it would take a while lot of work and wizardry, but it seems more a case of them deciding not to offer that, more than it being a case of it not being achievable. It's absolutely insane to me that the PS4 isn't going to pass the 120 million mark when it should have been a certainty that it did. I enjoy PS5 games when we get them, but man, the PS4 catalogue is just immense in terms of its sheer scale and diversity that 90% of the time, they're what I'm playing on my PS5. It's funny just how well the Series S has worked out for Xbox – while there will always be a market for a less powerful, but still able, console, I think it would have died a fairly swift death in more privileged markets (such as across Europe) had it not been for the chip shortages. Agree with you wholeheartedly when it comes to supporting PS4 releases with their exclusive software - first and third party - for the next few years, genuinely think it could be until 2024 at this rate with what little we know about their current slate outside of pure remasters (such as Demon's Souls and The Last of Us Remake, if and when that arrives, and even then I wouldn't be surprised to see either land on PS4 down the line) and titles which are smaller in scope or require the DualSense (ahem, that fully fledged Astro's Playroom sequel which is an absolute certainty). I also think that whatever Square Enix's plans were for the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake project will have been bent sideways too at this point, as I reckon they would have been hoping for a PS5 console exclusive release with a good number of them out in the wild, but now, say this is a trilogy, how do the next two games both not come to PS4? And then you've got Atlus playing coy with Persona 6 (can't think of any reason why that wouldn't also be on PS4), we haven't seen Dragon Quest XII in action yet (but I have to imagine that could be targeting PS4 too, what with it likely being a multiplatform release and hopefully getting its Switch version at launch), Granblue Fantasy Relink hopefully arriving this year, etc. Basically, if you're a JRPG not doing anything too wild, cross-gen confirmed Then you also just get the bizarre sense that PSVR2 is going to drop by the end of the year (if not the end of the next financial year) with how they're ramping things up in terms of press releases and updates, so what I can only describe still as the privileged few with PS5's (due to the console shortage), is now going to see an even more privileged group enjoying PSVR2, all the while PS5's are still a nightmare to get a hold of. Sigh

Microtransactions I can do my best to ignore – I've talked about it before, I can't say I disagree with any of the opinions here, and if this is how PlayStation is planning to manage their often mentioned slate of upcoming live service games, I think both players and PlayStation are going to be in for a very rude wake-up call. It's implementation in the game in that it's always in your face is disgusting and predatory, the absolute lack of detailing their plans for microtransactions prior to launch is probably one of the more stupid moves from PlayStation over the last 5 years (how the hell do you not learn from Battlefront II?), and it's the fact that it makes the game pay-to-win which makes it a massive struggle for me to defend the game, made even worse by the fact that it's the case for both single player and multiplayer performance. It's fine with cosmetic changeups from my perspective, whatever (your liveries, paints, and so on), but it just feels so gross. To somehow make matters even worse (?!), the game has been down for the last 24 hours due to the latest update being rolled out, meaning you can't even play the damn game you've dropped £70 on and potentially been foolish enough to invest in the microtransactions of, because it needs to always be online. You can't touch the campaign, the missions, the license tests, etc. - the only thing you can do is a few exhibition races with an extremely limited pool of cars. It's such a shame, because I've greatly enjoyed this game from a gameplay perspective for the most part, and I haven't felt about this way in a racing game for a long time. The DualSense is damn near transformative here in how the haptics make the car and every surface it comes into contact with feel, and the adaptive triggers offering resistance makes it so much easier to lock into a certain speed, or to feel how and when to brake and accelerate. And it looks freaking gorgeous. This was meant to be my FIFA replacement, but I'm already sick of the conversation around its microtransactions. Every time I buy a car or some parts, I feel like I need to take a shower, and I almost feel guilty for playing the game at times. I think I'm just going to have to say sod off to the grind for new cars and just focus on the Missions and License Tests I have left to Gold, and then the Platinum – the absolute bare minimum of what I actually wanted to do in the game, and I'll get my money's worth at least. I wanted to build a garage of some of my favourite cars, which I now won't be doing, yet this is the same game has finally been the push to get me back into a subject I loved so much growing up but fell away from! It's one huge step forwards as a simulation racing game, because it's fantastic in that regard, but it's ultimately been sullied by the two steps it's taken back through some heinous decision making – and while I know this was the case to some extent with GT Sport too, which also had microtransactions, I struggle to see the blame falling on Polyphony. This has to be a decision made by the big wigs at Sony, the guys who are doing fine in selling the console and games, but have also been making some very questionable decisions over the last few years. Gran Turismo was, for me, growing up always the premier racing game series. But then the games got delayed for longer and longer periods of time between every newly announced entry, and the consistent releases and quality of Forza took the crown. This was the return to form the game needed to be for the series – but it just wasn't meant to be. See you all late this year, or sometime next, to see how atrocious the microtransactions turn out in The Last of Us Factions

Moss: Book II is releasing in just two weeks, on March 31st. Pretty crazy that it wasn't mentioned during the State of Play! Some previews:

New update available, and at a glance, there are some pretty big changes, including NPC markers on the map, new quest phases (for what I swear were quests that people thought were bugged, so that's a weird one), and a new NPC. Number one priority next time I load up is finding Jar-Bairn

Light Crusader, Alien Soldier and Super Fantasy Zone are all being added today to the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis NSO library.

As someone who also loves getting games physically still, I think I'm probably only a step removed from wanting to get everything I can factory sealed myself still shudder when I think about the variety of conditions the PS3 games I got from CeX were in when I picked up my PS3 a couple of years back: PlayStation Hits, dented steelbooks, and a very concentrated scent of smoke My preference is definitely to buy new, and the only thing that gets in the way for me a lot of the time is when getting the factory sealed version seems like an obstacle in and of itself, which has been the case for a lot of the DS games I've hunted down in recent years: I either couldn't find the game sealed at all and so easy out of luck from the outset, or if I could, as you could probably imagine, those prices hurt my eyes to look at! Thankfully the games I picked up were basically in a pocket where you'd almost expect fans to keep them in good condition anyways, and I made some lucky bets with those considering their apparent value these days: Dragon Quest V for £70, Dragon Quest IV for £40, Pokémon White 2 for £35. For me, it's when it gets to the point that a sealed copy of a game is costing me an additional 25% or more than an opened copy in good condition is typically where I draw the line, because I just start to think of what other games I could pick up with that money instead. The only things I really hold out for with my collection is avoiding promotional packaging (PS Hits/Nintendo Selects), minimising steelbooks, and going for launch editions, because I'm never a fan of a GOTY banner or awards on a case. Which probably sounds a bit crazy too, but I'm also one of those who has a blu-ray collection of films, so that's probably par for the course with me. Goodness knows what I'll do if I ever need to cut down on clutter...but I'll cross that bridge and burn it down if that day ever comes

I don't disagree with you. It's smart as a business decision to maximise profits by going all-in on digital and quickly phasing out a physical print – but this is something that has only happened with Activision as From Software's publisher, which makes it feel like, yeah, it's a smart decision from the perspective of the business, but it's also a dirty one from the perspective of a prospective consumer. This isn't the norm, that's my point, and that's why I'm surprised and think it's crazy that a game as, again, commercially and critically successful as Sekiro can't be found on a shelf brand new just three years later. I'm confident that if I do a quick search I can probably find every other GOTY winner at The Game Awards since it's inception available brand new in some form physically, probably except for the ones published by Activision. Different publisher and different ethos, sure, but Bandai Namco still keep stock strong for Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, and the GOTY edition of Dark Souls III to this day. And this goes without saying when thinking from the perspective of a prospective consumer, but from what I can find online this is the case with Sekiro in a fair few places outside of Japan, in all of the territories where Activision has printed the game, and so by not having physical versions of the game available, there could easily be people in less positions where downloading the game simply isn't an option, and so they just won't have access to the game period. Again, I don't disagree with you: as a business decision it's smart, but it is almost aggressively so. I mean, that's probably as you'd expect from Activision, but I can already imagine the confusion and outcry if the same were to happen with other companies (especially first party companies, and Nintendo would probably be at the top of the list for mass hysteria there). I think even if we agree that the business logic checks out, it's hard to deny that it's strange and that this wouldn't have been the case under most other publishers. As an aside, I can't help but wonder where Xbox's ongoing acquisition of Activision might leave the game in terms of its publishing moving forwards. I imagine it's probably going to end up in a bit of a black hole outside of being available digitally.

To clarify, with the talk of a sealed copy, I was highlighting how crazy it is that a game as critically and commercially successful as Sekiro can't be picked up brand new physically just three years after release - not in its launch edition, and not in its GOTY edition either. Even on Amazon the only PS4 copies available are secondhand from the marketplace. My personal preference would be a brand new copy, but I wasn't saying I need it to be sealed to pick it up. But the weird issue brought about by not having the game in print longer than it was means it's surprisingly slim pickings to choose from even if you do pick it up secondhand, at least compared to most other games in the secondhand market.

Bumping this for a weird reason, but trying to track down a physical copy of the game has made it abundantly clear to me in retrospect as to why Activision decided to sign the deal and publish this game in the west. I can't find a sealed copy of it anywhere, even on eBay. That's the case for both the launch edition and the GOTY edition of the game, and heck, there are also very few people selling it on secondhand unsealed as it is. I wasn't surprised when I had a tough time tracking down a sealed copy of the original release of Bloodborne or Dark Souls III, considering they were released so long ago, but this game came about three years ago! It seems like Activision must have done a limited run (for a game of this size and success) for around a year for each release of the game and then packed it in to sit tight and rake in more through the digital version, which, from what I recall, is rarely included in sales. I'm not in any great rush for it, but loving Elden Ring as much as I am made me want to pick it up so that I had it on my shelf ready to go when I felt it's call. Damn you Activision

Well, Bandai Namco officially have a hot potato on their hands in Elden Ring: the game has surpassed 12 million units sold in just three weeks! Let's just hope some DLC is cooking An update on where I'm at with the game: Nice job on the Plat @drahkon, been fun talking about the game with you as we went through, especially early on! you saying that it's now your (joint) favourite game of all time really gets me pumped for what I've still got to experience of the game!

EA Play 2022 has been cancelled: If they haven't got much to show, it makes sense, so I'm kind of relieved they've decided to just cancel the show. Looking ahead at their upcoming slate, I don't think they'd have much to show off at an event this summer anyways. We know there's a Need for Speed coming this year, but those games never show off particularly well in trailers or gameplay showcases, and their catalogue of sports titles don't need to be shown off at such an event. Beyond that the only things I can think of as announced are the Dead Space Remake (which we got told the other day is coming Early 2023 and has a very transparent development update schedule on their YouTube channel), Dragon Age 4 (which last I think we heard has been having a lot of trouble), Skate 4 (feels years away with how it was so unceremoniously announced), the next Mass Effect (which also feels years away), and I think Motive were reportedly working on some project too. Beyond that well, yeah, there's Star Wars, but there's also Star Wars Celebration at the end of May, so Jedi Fallen Order II and any other Star Wars games from EA (and maybe announcements from others) I think we can expect to see there. So yeah, good on you EA, holding EA Play this summer wouldn't make much sense and this seems a sensible decision. Hopefully we see other companies do the same if they have so little to show (ahem, take note, Capcom and Gearbox).

Man that's nuts! I had it half spoiled for me that there would be something like that when I was doing my own rune farming seeing the spirits/whatever of other players: you'd have the people early on in NG just firing arrows off the cliff, and then you'd see the people clearly at the end of or later on in NG running towards the little cartwheeling freakos, doing that, and then sprinting back to the Site of Lost Grace. I'm actually on the fence about NG+ as of my session yesterday, mainly because I think this game has massive potential for DLC if what I've heard and read in the game about a certain NPC is right (waiting for it to be confirmed somewhere, I'm hoping with a boss fight or lack thereof with a bit of explanation) and I'd like to save my character in NG for that if it does come, and also because when I see credits roll - especially in open world games - I tend to be ready to put the game down. Now, Elden Ring so far is the exception to the rule. Even in my other favourite open world experiences, RDR2 and BOTW, I'd either started to feel a bit burnt out or taken a break by the time I was this far in, whereas that's just not happening with Elden Ring. I'll probably see where I'm at on Saturday before making a decision, but I might save scum for the Plat (assuming I haven't unknowingly messed it up by then! I'd just hate to burn out in a NG+ before seeing the other endings), see and do as much as I can, back my NG save up to a USB after I finish the game, and then dive into NG+ at the very least to wreck some bosses with OP weapons, gear, and magic, but with a lot less pressure on that playthrough. But yeah, I'll see what happens Oh man that's too funny

Ah, thanks for clarifying, that's awesome then! Now let's see some HeartGold & SoulSilver remakes to see the Sinjoh Ruins event play out

Odd that they didn't just include these details in the Pokémon Presents a couple of weeks ago, when way more eyes would have been on the game awaiting updates. The Darkrai event is good fun, but no proper Azure Flute event for Arceus is a shame. I mean, I guess we get a better version of it in Legends: Arceus, but still... Oh, and I've got to say, I really don't like the macrotransaction approach Pokémon has been applying since the games started coming to the Switch where you need to own the other games to get access to all of the events. Especially in the case of Arceus, it seems pretty pointless if you do need to catch Arceus first in Legends to then get another Arceus? Not as egregious as it was in Let's Go for Mew, by any means, but still. They should've made it crystal clear, because "complete all main missions" is almost purposefully vague: they should've just said "seen credits roll" or "caught Arceus". It doesn't say "main story missions", so from the wording and considering that catching Arceus is a Mission in Legends: Arceus and not a Quest, I would interpret that as meaning you need to catch Arceus in the game. It would be pretty odd if you only needed to see credits roll and not catch Arceus in that game, and then to just get handed one in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl.

This game has absolutely zero chill, yet another session where I come out of it going "well, that was awesome – what do I want to try tackling tomorrow?" And that's where I'm up to now Also noticed something today which had me going: Gave me a good laugh but also made me question Miyazaki's sanity

Turns out even From Software are human. I've come across a couple of bugs in my playthrough so far, but this one takes the cake, and relates to where I ended up last time I posted. No big deal, just thought it was worth sharing. I'm always intrigued when things like this slip through the cracks

Me yesterday: man, I can't wait to spend the entire day with Elden Ring! Also me yesterday, 5 minutes before disaster: I'll just do another Menu in GT7... And just like that, I spent yesterday completing the remaining 10 or so Menus I had left, and so I've seen credits roll I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love Elden Ring, but damn it is GT7 relentlessly difficult to put down once you pick it up. Every time I say "I'll just do one more race" or "just one more attempt at this License Test", hours zip by. Basically, my current outlook is this (except change "But I like this" to "I'm hopelessly addicted to this whenever I pick it up"): I've said a fair bit about the game by this point, so what I'll say this time is that the Menus you get from the Café can get painfully long towards the end. You end up with races that are frequently 5 - 7 laps long, and if not each race feels like 10+ minutes at a minimum and, unlike Forza, there's no rewind function of course, so if you mess up, that's that, it's time to restart. So it's one heck of a time sink! The final Menu, Menu 39, ends with a 5 race championship, all of which are roughly 10 minutes long, if not longer. I souped up my Audi R8 LMS I got from one of the License Tests, and for the first time added nitro -- this was a long list of races, and I didn't want it to come down to the wire only for me to come a moment short. And well, it did come down to the wire. I won the first four races handily, utilising nitro early on along straights to pull away from the pack overall, and made a nice chunk of change while doing so. But the last race? Well, it was a 2 lap epic around the Nürburgring starting in the pitch black of night (did I mention just how dark this game is at night? No? Well I have now ). However, this came with the added bonus of, I think for the first time in one of these Menus (?), getting to see the sunrise rather than sunset, and boy was it magical as I started to notice a soft amber glow creep across the hilltops... ...before taking a look back and watching as the sun rose from its slumber. Spellbindingly spectacular. But back to me talking about the race! As I slinked my way through the Ring from one corner to another, I decided to save just under a quarter of my nitro tank for the long straight on the second lap - which comes just before a final hurdle of a few corners and the finish line - to give me a final boost should I need it to get me over the line in 1st place. I had already won the championship by this point with my preceding four wins, but this was about pride. As the race came towards its end, things got tighter, and tighter, and tighter. 5 seconds behind the leader. The car started jerking around. 4 seconds behind the leader. The nerves started kicking in. 3 seconds behind the leader. I rolled off the track. My hands were getting shaky. 4 seconds behind the leader. I rushed back into my groove and curl around a corner, only to come off the track slightly collide with the wall at a generous angle. I needed to get onto the straight, and I needed more than anything to click R3 in to rapidly accelerate with my nitro. Come on, just one final push... You really can't write this stuff. What a climactic finish to a 15 minute epic of a race. Simply magical, heart-pounding and fist-pumping stuff! And so yeah, credits have rolled on GT7, but I am far from done with the game some 30 hours or so in. I have Gold on the License Tests only up until IA-8, but went ahead to finish both the International A and Super Licenses with Bronzes and Silvers (just tried them until I finished them all, not going for Gold), so I've got to go back and beat my head against a wall some more. Some of those Super License Tests feel very doable at a Gold standard, but some, and especially the Exam, well, they have me nervous. I then have all of the Missions to get Gold in. And to go back and get Gold in every race and championship available (I came 2nd in one championship/cup and 3rd in two others). And only then will I even think of turning my head to launching myself at the Platinum. But, for now, I can get by on just doing the daily 26.2 miles for my roulette ticket and chipping away at all of these tasks - I'm in no real rush, besides wanting to get the Plat by the end of the year. It's a long journey ahead (I've barely touched the online racing and I know you really need to rack the miles up there for the Plat), but I've said before that I'm in the long haul for this game, so I'm committed to it. For now, I can finally - hopefully - step back and pump more time into Elden Ring. Also, @drahkon, I'm late, but you asked for some pics and I'm here to deliver. Here's a wacky and wild mix of screenshots from gameplay, Scapes videos, Menu photos, and Scapes photos: Oh, and this one is pretty special to me, so belongs outside of the spoiler tag. When I was very little I had a remote controlled early 2000's Ford Focus rally car, which I think I still have to this day and played with a whole lot growing up. It looked a lot like this: And well, it's not perfect, but... There was a much closer livery someone designed even including the Martini and Valvoline logos, but the light blues were egregiously wrong and there was too much red, so I'll be keeping an eye out for an alternative, and the general colour scheme and look is similar enough for me (for now). I'm also praying that someone takes the aesthetic of a yakuza back tattoo design and applies it to a livery that they share in this game, something like this: So yeah, my eyes are peeled

Early reviews are popping up and the game is reviewing about as well as you'd expect, currently at a 76 on Metacritic: It's certifiably swimming in sevens Don't know when I'll be picking this up, got so much on my plate in terms of games at the moment as it is, so I think I might put it off until the summer, or after I get the chance to play the Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy (be it on the Switch or whenever my Steam Deck decides to turn up).

So while I can't comment on the series as a whole having only played one (very long) game, to this day there are still two scenes and the treatment of one particular character from Persona 5 which just don't sit well with me. This isn't an indictment of the game (there's a lot to love there), but these two scenes and the handling of one character in particular. So, first off is the animated cutscene of the Phantom Thieves heading towards a Palace through the desert, in which you get the male members of the gang staring down Ann's shirt as they all sweat it out: So, I have a few issues with this scene and Ann's depiction in the context of the entire game, besides, well, the male members of the Phantom Thieves being a bunch of horn dogs. Ann's entire arc - her Palace and her Confidant quests to romance her, I mean to be honest throughout the entirety of the game - depict her being objectified by the male gaze, and particularly in her Palace at the start of the game by an adult. The game outright condemns sexualising women, and in this case high school students, which is A-okay in my book, that's a fine message for the target audience of such a game. But then, with knowledge of these events, the guys in the Phantom Thieves and the player character stare down her shirt the first chance they get (and I'm pretty sure there's a similar scene where Ryuji and Morgana are trying to sneak a peek up her skirt?), which is just an example of both piss-poor and lazy writing. If any of my female friends were subject to constant sexual objectification, harassment, and attempted to be coerced into sexual acts by an adult in the way that Ann was in the game, I would want to do even better than my best to reassure them that I'm not doing the exact same thing by not trying to staring down their top, etc. And to make matters worse, at this point in the game the player character could be at any point in a romancing questline with Ann or other girls in the game, yet that has no bearing on - and we have no say - over how he acts here. And so, the thing is, the game shows a world where this character is oversexualised (and again: high school student), so while a couple of creepy comments might get the point across, the game is relentless in its thirst for Ann, and it's poor handling of her character. Trying to not spoil too much, the key takeaway from Ann's Palace is that she's just kind of going to own the situation she's in, because there's not much else she herself can do. Dealing with the situation gives her confidence moving forwards. But this is never shown to be the case: by the time the second palace rolls around, Ann has been forced into posing nude with none of the Phantom Thieves backing her up when she objects, and she is constantly subject to creepy comments throughout the game by NPC's, but doesn't shut any of them down, and the other members of the Phantom Thieves don't back her up there, either. There's also the fact that even after her Palace, the entire game is then spent with her still in a skimpy, skintight leather cat suit: Now, look, there's owning your looks, and then there's this -- I really think that in the context of the story of the game and Ann's Palace, her outfit should have changed after what transpires. To show that the Persona team aren't just a bunch of horn dogs themselves and can put together an outfit which both shows a character owning their look and actually showing some restraint, look no further than Makoto: The other scene which made me uncomfortable is when we first meet up with Ryuji in Shinjuku: He is subject to the unwanted advances of a couple of pretty stereotypically portrayed gay NPC's. At that time of night kids aren't supposed to be out on the streets, so you know what, I'll stretch my imagination a bit and give benefit of the doubt that they think he's an adult, and that they aren't harassing a kid, but I myself - the player and the player character - know that Ryuji is in high school, so it's undeniably a bit creepy. And then they straight up drag him away, to which Ryuji pleads for your help, which you just...ignore? You have no option to help your friend here, and your time in Shinjuku is cut short -- you are forced, by the game, to not do anything about this, and head back home to sleep. For a game about rebellion and for standing up for what is right, this is explicitly tone deaf, and to make matters even more egregious, if memory serves, this might be the only example of gay people even turning up in the game. I might be wrong there as it's admittedly been a few years since I played the game, but even if they aren't, there are so few gay characters in the game that these creeps immediately float to the top. I've heard Persona 4 might be distasteful in a similar way in its handling of gay characters, but again, I can't comment there as I haven't played the game.

Forgive me if there's already a thread for this game, but I've just gone back 15 pages in Other Consoles and can't seem to find it, so I guess not? Anyways, Dead Space's remake was first shown off during EA Live 2021, with this trailer: And, yesterday, it got a release window of Early 2023: To top it all off, the game has been shown off very openly by the developers in regular updates on the game's YouTube channel, where they really deep dive into showing the game off and talking about the process with the remake, which I find very refreshing for a AAA game – and a remake at that! Best example of this is yesterday's update, when they were joined by Jack Pattillo with a stream focused on the sound of the game: Never played Dead Space before, and horror isn't my forte, but it's definitely a genre I want to expose myself to more of, and so I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Yeah, that's it, I'm 65 hours in, and I'm 99% sure now that this is going to be my GOTY. Honestly, it's going to take a game like BOTW2 dropping - which, well, I reasonably doubt is going to happen - and then being a 12/10 for to even be in the conversation. Still going to play a bit more later, but taking a break to eat and watch a film, so wanted to share my progress today, as I feel like there's been a lot... I'm 65 hours in and I'm about as excited as I was at the 10 hour mark. I can't really give an open world much higher praise than stating that. Kudos, From.

VGC and Jeff Grubb are both saying to expect a regular big ol' Xbox event in June. Makes sense, they've got Starfield to show off! Probably the weaker of the three console manufacturers for me when it comes to the presentation style and content of their major events, but still, some level of normalcy this June and hopefully a look at some cool indie games at such an event would be nice.

Not strictly retro, but a fake retro made real, I guess? The ingenuity of some people never seizes to amaze.