Julius

The Netflix Marvel series are coming to Disney+ on 16th March.

This is probably my twenty-somethingth "HOLY CRAP" moment of the game, but seriously, at this point - what the heck is this game?! Pretty far north of Limgrave to give a rough idea of where in the world the spoiler tag is for, trying to keep text in the tags brief/obscure enough to avoid spoiling for Tapatalk folks.

It's finally happening: all Funimation content is being moved over to Crunchyroll.

Well that's pretty neat, but... ...just give me some folders and themes please already, damn it Nintendo!

Oh yeah, that's totally fair! The game's huge...no doubt I'm loving it that much I could see myself playing a NG+, but if I were to do it after beating the game for the first time or in the next six months, I could see myself taking the crit path, depending on what carries over to NG+ and if there are multiple endings (which I imagine there probably are?). I'm mostly doing it for sanity ("wait, where was that thing I saw / wanted to buy?!") and to keep note if cool things, but nothing massively exhaustive. For me I guess it's just to keep track of things, and it's making it much easier to remember the quests, as just writing down what I need and where an NPC was makes me much more likely to remember it. It's already gone wrong once (unless that NPC was meant to die? I have no idea with these games) but with the game being so big it's definitely helping me keep my head straight. Especially helpful when I find a sorcery, armament, set of notes or Stonesword Key at a merchant too, just writing down all the interesting stuff they have that I want, how much they have of it, it's price, etc. It's also proving useful for some of the occasions where I do run ahead but done explore, say, some Catacombs that I open up and get the Site of Lost Grace for, just by keeping a list of the bosses I've beat, where they were, and keeping track of how many attempts it took to beat them has been funny to see too The first "HOLY CRAP!" moment I posted, it's around there three tiers of spoiler tags below: explicitly the general location (just clarifying the hint), how to unlock the fight, and the explicit location of the boss fight

I took on a boss yesterday that we saw in some of the trailers, but was completely overcome by chills and nearly teared up. Was not at all expecting to so viscerally react to a boss fight in this game, much less because of the beauty of the track backing the fight, or the actual moveset of the boss itself. The atmosphere, lighting, sound effects... seriously, though not a hard fight, that's immediately up there with some of my favourites. Moved on from Limgrave yesterday as I did what I had to in that area, think I explored most of it in the available directions but no doubt I've missed plenty. There was an Evergaol I want to return to but was getting sorely beat into submission by, so might need to go back to that at some point. In an odd spot with my build where so far most of my points have gone into VIG/END/STR - a standard build - but now I'm investing in INT to make use of a cool sorcery I picked up, which inevitably means a bit of invest in MIND, and I want to try out a different weapon too, so DEX as well. Aiming to get those to 18-20 for access to a greater variety of tools at my disposal before I go back to pumping everything into VIG/END/STR. I've started heading north, unlocked the map for those areas, but I just keep getting amazed by the scale and secrets of The Lands Between. I'm loving it, but at the same time, I think playing this I've just given myself an exponentially harder time when it comes to going back and some day experiencing the earlier Dark Souls games, III in particular. Again, I feel like I've just barely scratched the surface of this game, and I'm left awestruck time and time again by it, whether that be it's combat, what I can figure out if the story, it's characters, or secrets to uncover in the world. Keeping notes has been a big help, specifically with merchants (I'm taking note of their name, location, and any key items I figure would be helpful, which is essentially me buying every Stonesword Key in sight!). It's also helped me to actually progress some quests in a From game for a change...but that didn't save someone from dying It's been really interesting on my journey just seeing how differently I tackle each area. In central Limgrave during the CNT I explored most of it, so here it was mainly going through and completing things I'd come across before as I came across them, but sometimes I just find myself in the mood for wandering off ahead and seeing how far I can get, and what cool things I can see, setting up a bunch of Sites of Lost Grace along the way before coming back at some point and slowly going through the area, no doubt still missing plenty. But the thing with Elden Ring is it gets to 21:00, I've been on most of the day, so I start winding down...and then I think "eh, you know, I could just explore a little more, maybe 30 minutes and then I'll start to properly wind down for bed" or I get an idea of how to deal with some secret/cave/quest, and so I go back on for a bit. I do whatever I planned to do in that 30 minutes, and then I find another thing: "okay, let's quickly check this out, and then I'll go off to sleep." And then it's 01:00 the "oh, okay, just one more thing" nature of the game is making it incredibly tough to put down, which I'm very surprised by as my time with both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls gave me times at which I was more than happy to take a break, as the bleak and oppressive nature of the games could get a bit overwhelming at times. Here, I don't mind just trying something else, somewhere else, because I can and the game has no issue with me doing that. I only have Demon's Souls and Dark Souls as my points of comparison - the two mechanically oldest games in this style - but I can already comfortably say that this is my favourite From Software game. There's no doubt in my mind.

Right then, to give my thoughts on this, as it definitely caught me by surprise as I'm sure it did everyone else: very surprised by them getting Gen IX out this year, even if we've been getting 3 year gens for a while now, substantial DLC for Legends: Arceus or rushing out another remake through ILCA could have easily given them another year to develop this pair of games. Not at all surprised but more relieved that we finally have a pair of games set on the Iberian peninsula, because this has been speculated about forever, since back when I was on the Serebii forums in high school. The thing that made it seem like only a matter of time and the reason it was at the centre of a lot of speculation at the time was a visit Masuda made to Spain back in 2014 or 2015 which got mentioned in the Game Freak blog, but wasn't exactly business-related - similar to previous mentions about visits he had made to New York (Unova) and France (Kalos) preceding the releases of the games those locations inspired. Really glad it opened up to be both Spain and Portugal, was a bit concerned when I spotted the map that they might make a Spanish region and just use the entire Iberian peninsula as the regional outline for it, so glad @Jonnas has pointed out a lot of the Portuguese influences here that quelled some of my reactionary fears there. They've nailed the visuals for me in terms of the vibrancy of a region based in Spain and Portugal, and the architecture especially. It's just a shame that the presentation of those inspirations are a pixelated mess of awkward textures and, once again, a choppy early look at the upcoming game. In terms of the game, I loved Legends: Arceus, as a lot of others did too, so I'm all for it. I've seen some mention that they hope it's more open rather than being zonal from a hub with a lot of loading screens, and while I think the trailer itself did an okay job at conveying this, the official site confirms it: Now, to what degree that is remains to be seen, because I suppose you could have several towns and open areas in a zone and the same phrasing would apply. Definitely a step up from Arceus in this regards though, from the sound of it. The starters: I love them. Now, Fuecoco was immediately the one for me - little guy just looks a loveable lug - but I like the contrast between Quaxly and the previous Water-type starter, Sobble, as Quaxly looks much more confident and prideful. Sprigatito is probably the most generic out of the bunch, but my mind went straight to an Iberian lynx as I think was the case for many others too, so I'm excited to see it's evolutions, and love its name. Finally: I hate the trainer faces as they appear in game, despite loving the trainer art itself. It's their stupid noses, looks like they're from DokeV. Interesting decision to have a slight tweak in uniform for each version, I'm sure it won't mean much, but version differences have been getting what feels more and more granular these days anyways. Violet definitely has the better uniform design in my opinion. And that's pretty much all I have to say for now, felt like we saw a lot less of the region than we did for Galar, though that might be down to having potentially fewer settlements and being more open. Really curious to see what the box art legendary Pokémon look like, as it seems like there's much less we can extrapolate from the logos this time around when compared with Gen VII and Gen VIII, and what, if anything, the gimmick for this generation might end up being.

No-one: We'll get the announcement of Gen IX today. Absolutely no-one: We'll see the starters and footage of Gen IX today. Game Freak: So anyways, here's Gen IX! Everyone: I just can't believe they faked us out with what I saw as a tease of Detective Pikachu news not once, but twice, and we ended up with Gen IX. It's insane. Overall the Presents was definitely one which showcases the two extremes of Pokémon, as we had updates on not one, not two, not three, but four games available on mobile (not necessarily exclusive, but you catch my gist), a lot of it stuff we'd already heard or guessed was coming over the last few days: Pokémon Go with it's super tame and phoned in Alola teaser, Masters Ex with its anniversary event, Café Remix with its updates and event, and Unite with its event and showing off the next support. It was...rocky. Though, there's always light in the darkness, and the light's name in this Presents was called Marshtomp Then it was onto the stuff I feel most were waiting for: updates on Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in the form of Oak's Letter being shadow dropped, which is a pretty fun event (Gen IV definitely had some of the stronger events with how they were handled in-game), as well as an update for Legends: Arceus, in this case update 1.1.0 - Daybreak. Smart move to keep it fresh in the mind with some tweaks and additional content, getting easier access to Hisuian-native Pokémon is a massive win in my eyes, though it's a bit of a shame they weren't as easy to get a hold of in the first place. The announcement of a short series set in Hisui sounds like good fun. And then the big surprise: Scarlet and Violet. Yeah, didn't see that coming at all, don't think anyone really did. Then again, I do remember the same guy who translated the Chinese leaker's tweets said Gen IX was coming sooner than we thought and would be announced by April, so looks a step up from Arceus already in terms of its reveal footage, definitely a bit rough around the edges but Arceus managed to turn itself around with the time it got between announcement and launch, so imagine it will be the same here. I'll save my thoughts on what we're actually getting for the game's thread, but for now, those character faces look...bleh. Overall, an event which had absolutely no pacing, but will be remembered favourably only because of a huge surprise announcement and the recently released games getting nice smaller updates. They need to curate these events better, because opening with the snore fest that is updates on four consecutive titles available on mobile could have had people checking out of the event. Just stick the Legends: Arceus update at the beginning, saying thanks to everyone for getting onboard with this new type of Pokémon adventure, and then say "speaking of gratitude..." to transition into the Oak's Letter event, then go to mobile. That way you've set the bar high enough for people to actually want to stick around. My verdict for Pokémon Presents: Pokémon Day 2022: 7.0/10 (too much mobile) It's been a fairly solid start to the year for events!

Doubled my time with the game today (well, yesterday now), I'm around 17 hours in, and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. This game is freaking huge! But despite that fact, I am still thoroughly enraptured by it. I cannot strongly echo enough @drahkon's sentiment: if this sense of joy in exploration, combat, characters and story continues to keep pace - heck, if it even drops off a bit and peters out towards the end - this is going to be a very tough year for GOTY's, and I absolutely think there is a distinct possibility that this could go down as one of my favourite games when all is said and done, too. Anyways, I feel like I simultaneously made both a lot and incredibly little progress today, a bit of that down to I feel exploring some of the areas outside of what we saw of Limgrave in the CNT previously and so it was more just going through, thoroughly completing the areas when it comes to dungeons and anything else I could find. Also started and finished a few quest lines, which feels good. The note-taking is definitely helping I did actually beat the boss that was giving me trouble before, beat him on my third attempt today, but naturally, my much stronger second attempt (based on how many Flasks of Crimson Tears I had left) came to a hilarious - if premature - end. I actually tried my hand at the legacy dungeon (i.e. the castle) and probably got around a third of the way through, at a guess based on the map. My aim was to just try things out and take it easy while setting up some Sites of Grace for a proper run through, but well...I spent a good hour or two just trying things out, looking around every corner, trying to get used to the terrain and enemy types, and yep, that classic Souls feeling of great interconnected level design is still absolutely there. But it's so damn big and labyrinthine! I did also manage to find a familiar General Grievous-lookalike along the way. Exacted my thirst for vengeance. South of Limgrave I came across the second Evergaol of my journey so far, and well... ...it happened again! I definitely got very greedy this time, and From definitely designed this enemy's attack pattern at close range to shutdown R1 spamming Besides those two I beat another field boss and six other smaller bosses in dungeons/caves/what have you, so definitely been productive! I have come across another one of these, atop a tower to the south, and you'll definitely know once you've come across it. Hope that's vague enough to not spoil but hopefully clue you in enough on if you can open the spoiler tag safely... (the thumbnail of the clip only shows the top of the tower but nothing else if that's a bit too vague, though!) I just can't even with this game at times, man, I've picked my jaw up off the floor so many times already, and again, I've barely scratched the surface. Goodness knows what Miyazaki was on saying the game could be beat in 30 hours - that even seems impossible to imagine for a non-NG+ (assuming there is a NG+, I have no clue) crit path, just given the scale of everything. And even if it is possible, unless you're speedrunning...I have no idea why you'd crit path this game. It's too damn good. Anyways, got a couple of dungeons and areas highlighted in my notes for exploration tomorrow, and then I might try my hand at the castle again. Maybe. If I don't get side tracked...which I'm sure I will Yeah, unless there's an item or something opens up later in the game, it seems like they're gone. Same goes for mini-bosses too. Also, haven't seen anyone mention it so I need to make sure to: your pouch is probably one of the most useful but barely mentioned tools at your disposal when it comes to getting quick access to non-combat items. You can access it from the top half on the right side of the menu, and assign items to different buttons on your D-pad, and then to use these items on the fly you only need to hold down Triangle / Y and then press the button on the D-pad with the assigned item you want to use. I've found it a godsend as opposed to having items take up valuable room on your person and cycling through with Down on the D-pad mid-battle through stuff that doesn't need to be there. I've got the Steed Whistle assigned to Up (the one which absolutely needs to be in the pouch, in my opinion, given how much you'll be using it), Telescope to Left, and Lantern to the Right (because there are loads of dark places in these games, and screw dark places in From Soft games). Hope that helps someone

I have now There's something similar in the open world that I mentioned before that involves the same smoke you see in that situation. Trust me, you'll know when it happens Yeah, I headed there yesterday after saying I'd stop exploring, and it's probably the best region that is directly adjacent to Limgrave which really puts into perspective how big the map is going to be. Hell yeah After playing a bit today I figured hey, why not give the same, story boss you first get pointed towards a go? I thought I might be a hit under-levelled / unprepared for it, but hey, what I love about Elden Ring so much is that if you hit a wall in one place, you can just go explore pretty much anywhere else and continue to grow before coming back. So I also gave it a couple of tries, and then I got close. I GOT SO CLOSE. How close, you ask? Only other boss I took on today (well, didn't run away from and stuck around to fight) was Agheel. It took a (good) while using my trusty, un-upgraded Halberd, but I beat it on my first attempt, just a whole lot of patience and persistence with my melee build, and a little bit of cunning too. So that's my first field boss beat I know of a few other small dungeons and caves in Limgrave I'll be checking out before going back to that boss who gave me some trouble, but I'm so excited to play more. Off to the cinemas for now though, so that might be all for today

Yep, that's the guy. I have not, but shall be keeping an eye out. Also, unrelated, but something I need to mention regarding a bit of a trap I came across in Limgrave, that left me super confused in the moment...

Heh, I've checked your spoiler and I pretty much had the same reaction. However... I'm absolutely loving it so far. I genuinely want to lend the game to my friends who don't play From Soft games once I'm done with it, not necessarily to take on the game's challenge (as that's not their cup of tea), but just to explore the world. So far it's been so meticulously and naturally designed. Utilising Jump Attacks and Shield Counters to break down an enemy is so much fun, as is the use of the Bell, and while I've yet to focus on the main path and have just been fighting smaller bosses, it came to a head yesterday against one of the guys in an Evergaol (the same one from the CNT). Having only played the mechanically oldest and likely slowest From Soft games in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls before this, the guy's speed, jumps, and spins took a couple of attempts to adjust to, but on my third attempt I had him nailed down when it came to his moveset (besides his attacks causing Bleed - need to find a better shield or upgrade mine when I get the chance!), and so for example he had a volley of attacks that came in a three, so once the second made contact, I would step closer for the third to get a Shield Counter and then Jump Attack. Gah, I loved it. So far I'm rocking a fairly standard melee build, which is going pretty well. I do want to eventually get to a point where I put some points into MIND and INT, as some of the new spells look super cool and I've never really made much use of magic in these games. I do want to mention in terms of performance that when exploring the open world, yeah, the framerate does drop a fair bit at times. Thankfully not to the point of causing any motion sickness, and I don't think it's happened when in combat yet, but I've also seen some fairly egregious examples of pop-in, so I hope further updates just keep rolling in. This game deserves far better. Anyways, breakfast and then back to it!

I'm a few hours in and I've barely lifted my sword so far – not for a lack of fighting opportunities, or because I want to avoid fights, but I think part of it is just wanting to see new stuff after the CNT. And man, this early on, I feel addicted to just looking around the area and picking up items, this early party of the world is so wonderfully designed for that natural exploration. Also helps that I didn't really click with mounted combat during the CNT, so that's been a fun thing to focus on. Anyways, while exploring, I just had my first "holy crap!" moment. Sorry, let me clarify that: it was a "HOLY CRAP!!!" moment. My jaw dropped...hard. I want to talk to someone about it so it's going in a spoiler tag, but if you're playing, you'll know what I mean when you come across it, and I think you'll know if you've come across it. It's a bit outside of the starting/CNT area, for context, so if you're still in the first part of the map, you won't have come across it yet. If you want to know the area to head to in order to check it out, it's in this spoiler tag: As for what it actually is... Okay, that's enough exploring beyond where I think I should be for now I think. I'm heading back from where I came and going to start hitting things with my sword now

I think it's really cool, as it's showcasing the game's elemental mechanics interacting in a way I personally haven't seen elsewhere, and definitely didn't use during my playthrough. The toolbox at your disposal rather than the single solution and all that. Considering that the visual appearance of the flames themselves don't change when the ice elemental power is introduced, it does make me wonder what it is about the nature of the flames in BotW that cause damage – is it the assigned temperature being so high rather than the "physical" shape of the flame itself dealing out the damage, as the ice element being introduced obviously negates the temperature but doesn't necessarily negate the fact that the flame is still there? It's just really interesting to think about, it basically grants the fire immunity that the fire resistant armour does when fully upgraded despite the flame still being there. I'm sure it's a combination of both, but yeah, I love seeing new stuff being found out about the game. New details being found years after release in any game is always cool, but the sheer variety and quantity of new things still being discovered in Breath of the Wild coming up on five years from its release continues to astound me

Of course today is the day I wake up with a migraine but it has arrived, installing as I type: Also @Hero-of-Time you might be interested in knowing that it came with a standard case, the blue thing with the Erdtree motif on is actually just a card envelope with some collectible images on, the messaging on what's included has been very messy, but thankfully, there's not a steelbook in sight: Also, looks like the standard edition is now available separately, without the slipcover and envelope of stuff (ShopTo link), imagine that's how it'll also be on store shelves? Anyways, now to get to work on this migraine while the game installs!

Man, I know it's been said before, but some of the moves Sony have made over the last few years have been increasingly concerning. If this is true and they're pricing it higher than Game Pass and it's seemingly going to be messy to communicate what is distinct about each tier, I think it could easily be dead on arrival. I want to say you'll see annual packages to bring the cost down, but honestly, I could see that being the case for only Premium - three tiers with a number of subscription lengths could be a nightmare. The idea of game trials is probably the neatest thing about the Premium tier, we'll finally be getting something comparable to demos again (though not quite the same, mind), but seriously: just make them available to all. I see what they're going for - the most hardcore gamers will buy into the highest tier, they'll be the most vocal online about these games through getting access to their trials, other people will want to join the conversation and so will buy into the higher tier, and so on - but it's just such a boardroom decision. See you again in 2027 for the third iteration of PS Now I guess? I just want easy access to older games on modern consoles, damn it! Yep, seriously. Game Pass, for example, is doing great, and on paper is a fantastic deal. But I think it's a lot of short-term gain coming at the cost of a lack of long-term insight: • potential changes in game design to churn them out at a steady pace, either by making games substantially shorter or by designing them to get their hooks into you for maximum engagement (Game Pass is the Netflix of gaming, after all). There's a reason we're seeing Xbox report engagement numbers, they're absolutely tracking these things and will be learning a lot to carry forwards into the designs of their future games. • we've still yet to see Xbox actually consistently churn out big first party titles in the first place, so the big question for me is if they can actually match their own model in production speed and quality. • questions over it pushing us deeper into a hole where a digital-only future is the only future. And that's just a handful of the big reasons, there are plenty more. I only bring up Game Pass as a point of comparison because, let's be honest, it's the only good point of comparison for something like this right now. And by that metric, this sounds like it falls far short, overcomplicating the current offerings for online subscriptions (which shouldn't even be a thing to begin with). I just don't know. I'm not asking them to reprint old games, but these companies are so tone deaf to what I think people interested in older games want. Let me purchase old games and play them on my current system, damn it, even if it's digital I would much rather have that than them being locked behind a subscription. They clearly think they have some value if they're being bundled into the highest tier of the subscription model. I'll hold final judgement until we get an official announcement, but so far? I'm not a fan of how this appears to be shaking out.

It is finally upon us! Good luck to those Tarnished diving in now at midnight, and enjoy! I'll be joining the fight later today It has been absurdly stacked, definitely a case of picking your battles right now and the ones you don't mind waiting to tackle later. Watch the summer be pretty quiet as it always is by contrast. I know it's a result of it being the final quarter of the financial year for most companies, so they want last bump to impress investors, but Q1 is now often as stacked as Q4! But hey, if anything, I guess the summer be a good time to catch up on stuff!

I've been following the developments over the last few weeks, as I imagine you guys have, and to say it breaks my heart is an understatement. But I've been complacent, undeniably so. We all knew this was coming. I still remember a friend freaking out over the annexation of Crimea back when we were in our second to last year of high school, some 8 years ago now, overwhelmed at the possibility of us being on the precipice of a third World War, and as things quickly came to a head, countless lives being lost, the situation a powder keg awaiting only the slightest spark, and... ...nothing. It's been what feels like radio silent, despite that very much not being the case in practicality. But the world quickly moved on. Now here we are again. There's a reason why sci-fi so often depicts humanity having run itself into the ground, and it stems from the maligned greed and selfishness of a privileged few being so undesirably lacking in humanity - in empathy - to be opportunistic at the cost of human life. Now, I'm hopeful - glaringly and obviously naively hopeful - that this situation is going to fizzle out before it comes to a head (to be clear I mean more than it already has done). Russia's economy was in the hot seat before - it has for as long as I can remember - with the rouble dropping in value to a stupidly absurd degree, and the sanctions that they're looking at it going to surely see a lot of oligarchs turn on the man of the hour; it's clear from the protests today in places like St. Petersburg (if it wasn't already clear before) that Russian citizens do not want war; and I even read that a bunch of higher-ups in the Russian government have signed an open letter denouncing these actions and urging their citizens to not take part, and that there would surely be ramifications. The main thing that gave me a glimmer of hope when I woke up this morning was the ballsy metaphorical mic drop from Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.N., because he's a certifiable badass. A reminder I guess to try to keep an eye on your own mental health the next few days in particular. I've had increasingly painful headaches the last few days and was absolutely exhausted by the time I finished work this afternoon, to the point I needed to close my eyes, and after waking up I realised I've probably been pushing down and not dealing with a lot of my thoughts on what's going on in Ukraine at the moment. As humans I think there are two things we can starve for: food and knowledge. This is going to sound incredibly privileged given what is going on, but if what's going on becomes overwhelming, it's okay to disconnect and distance yourself from it if, like me, the only thing really tying you to this news is the news itself – I think I'm saying that for myself just as much as I am wanting to remind everyone else of that. That feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness is practically impossible to face in situations like this, where the scale and undeniably aggressive and violent stupidity is impossible to comprehend, and where we are a lot of us so physically removed from the situation. @drahkon I don't even know what to say, I can't begin to imagine a friend going through something like this. I pray that your friend and others in that group will be okay, and that they'll be writing those happy messages soon.

Going to be 14 minutes long.

Digital Foundry are still working on their video for the 1.2 patch that's been rolled out (they were waiting for this Day 1 update as agreed with Bandai Namco), but have some early impressions to share. Console PC In short: • The PS4 version through PS5 backwards compatibility is currently the best version of the game for performance, at a smooth 60 fps, but at a reconstructed 1800p and lesser fidelity features when compared with next-gen offerings. • The dedicated next-gen versions of the game offer a highly variable frame rate, ranging from 45 - 60 fps in the mode favouring frame rate, and anywhere from 30 - 60 fps in the mode favouring visuals. There is no capped 30 fps option currently available. • Series X and Series S versions both benefit noticeably from VRR when used with compatible screens. • Wait for more updates if you're playing on PC, where the game's performance is at its worst. Man, that's rough, and it's very surprising that the situation hasn't really improved since the CNT, where the PS4 version through backwards compatibility was also best for frame rate. I played both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls at 60 fps, so that could be a bit rough, and I currently have the PS5 physical version on the way, which has been shipped this morning (woo!) and should be arriving tomorrow. But honestly, I'm kind of half (read: REALLY) tempted to pick up the PS4 version digitally after reading this and let the PS5 version just sit on my shelf (for now), a higher frame rate almost seems essential for these games. I'm off work tomorrow too, so maybe that would make more sense...

The mobile game, Champions of the Continent, is coming to the western Apple App Store and Google Play Store this summer: Neat if mobile gaming is your thing!

Game has gone gold: All the yes, can't wait

Yeah, totally get that, I think I'm one of those in the middle with you where I enjoy the games (I've played Demon's Souls and Dark Souls so far), but they do still stress me out a bit. I think it's just kind of part of the package with this game. They're incredibly intense at times, but that's matched by how rewarding I find them, which is compounded by the fact that I love the challenge of their boss fights, great level design, and S-tier soundtracks. Thankfully, I'm in the mood for another From Software game right about now. So I can't wait to dig in, just need to remember to get up and stretch my legs a bit It's really interesting that you mention RDR2 and BOTW in particular, as yeah, those two games and this all seem to have done something with open worlds that other games have fallen short of with theirs, which is reflected in their respective scores (going off how high they all are on aggregate score sites like Metacritic, anyways). I think the difference is that there's a conversation to be had about these games which transcend the typical open world structure. The problem with creating an open world which is so heavily structured - arguably mollycoddling at times, and perhaps even overdesigned to some extent? - is that every player will be having the same experience when it comes to the general progression of the story and their traversal of the world, etc., which in any non-open world, and more linear game, would be the major beats of the game. The same design ethos - a focus on experiencing the same beats in virtually identical ways - being applied to open world games just doesn't work that well, at least in my opinion, unless I'm looking for such an experience. BOTW, RDR2, and seemingly now Elden Ring, are all games where you are creating stories to discuss with your friends through what you experience and decide to do in the game - where do you go? Who do you talk to? How do you act? - which creates a sense of community and immersive relevance unique to you, because the sense of discovery and awe is amplified by the sense of adventure, which other open world experiences are often lacking. That's not to say that other open worlds are lesser - when I'm in the mood, I love the checklists of open worlds, but I only engage with them when I am in the mood - but I think it's one of the things which elevates these open world experiences and differentiates them from the rest. I know you said they're not your type of game - which is fair enough, play what you want to play! - but have you tried one before? Is there a particular thing which puts you off about them from what you've seen or heard, and is there something you would want to see from them moving forwards that might bring you into the fold? Genuinely curious, hope this doesn't come across as trying to call you out, I always just like getting other perspectives on things, as you know! I feel like you can say that about anything that reviews well in hindsight, but that easily falls apart when you figure that just one of these aspects could have gone disastrously wrong and made the game an incohesive mess. Souls - I haven't played Nioh, so can't comment there, but being Souls-like is an overutilised oversimplification of a game that's considered more difficult than others and tells its story indirectly. But it's been applied to so, so many games at this point that the myriad of review scores out there show that being a Souls-like probably doesn't mean much unless it's executed well. From Software - quality developer develops a quality game and it's reflected in its reviews, that's not too surprising. They could have easily made a bad one and it would have been called out as such by most reviewers. Same goes for other stellar companies in the industry, like Nintendo. None of these guys are infallible. Yes, we're all staring across the room at Naughty Dog right now (and this is as someone who actually enjoyed parts of Part II). Open world - so this is totally subjective, but from my perspective (and I'm basing this only off the reviews, as I haven't played the game yet), this is only going to be the third open world game to knock it out of the park in the last 5 years, the other two being Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption II. No, I don't consider God of War or Dragon Quest XI to be open world, well at least not in the same sense that the other games I mentioned are. And again, this isn't me saying that the other open world games are lesser by any means (even if at times they can be a bit formulaic), but I think these two (and possibly three, now, with Elden Ring) will be standing above the rest when all is said and done. Game of Thrones - assuming this is a reference to GRRM's involvement...it doesn't seem to have done much, if anything, from the perspective of someone reading and watching a few of these reviews. I think his entire involvement fell flat after Schreier leaked it ahead of E3 2019, and I've barely seen it mentioned outside of Bandai Namco's marketing of the fact. The final season of GoT falling flat on its face months before the announcement of his involvement (regardless of GRRM's involvement in the series or lack thereof by that point) certainly didn't help. Early-generation next-gen experience - I genuinely don't think Bandai Namco have had the nerve to market this as being a next-gen experience, and rightly so, because it was designed with last gen in mind. It's a noticeable visual improvement from what From Software has released before, but it doesn't exactly scream next-gen. I also don't think reviewers are viewing it this way either, and I genuinely think it would have reviewed just as well if it hypothetically were in this state and launched before the PS5 and Series X | S. So yeah, I think it's clear it could have failed, quite easily actually. I could end up hating the game, I try to be honest even just on a forum about my opinions on things, but for the reviewers at least, it seems like they've got a whole lot of praise for this game. We rarely see games hyped to all hell reviewing this highly on aggregate score sites like Metacritic, so let us be excited it genuinely reminds me of the reception Breath of the Wild got back in 2017, and I can't wait!

Okay, now it's finally being rolled out Finally! The end of my time spent recording my TV on Friday nights to send funny GTA clips on a group chat is nigh

Well, only one of my three friends that I play with weekly doesn't have Ghost of Tsushima yet, so I guess this should be a good way to convince them to dive into Legends with me after Gran Turismo 7 Otherwise, bit of a meh month to be honest