Julius

I mean Armored Core VI already has a pretty fun but challenging trophy list...

New Warbond announced, the Western-themed Borderline Justice drops this Thursday! Oh, we going all Red Dead and Star Wars western with this one the Hover Pack! As a bonafide Jump Pack enjoyer I might be in for that alone! Quick update on where I'm up to – Lv 27 now, still like Page 7 of the free Warbond and on the last page of Polar Patriots. Still having a great time

The PS1 Armored Core games are now available for download! I checked the usual sites to see if there were any details on trophies for these games, and it doesn't look like there are any. I just booted up the first game to see if that would trigger the trophies to pop up and, well: So, no trophies by the looks of things. Which is definitely a bit disappointing. Interestingly, on booting up, Agetec were listed as the game's publisher – so that seems to confirm that these will be the NA versions of the games, but much more interestingly, Agetec weren't the original publisher in NA of the first game, as Sony Computer Entertainment published the game outside of Japan (where it was published by FromSoftware); for reference, Armored Core released in the US on 22nd October 1997, whereas Agetec didn't even exist until 1998! I wonder if that's a mistake or the rights somehow reverted to them? They did publish a lot of the later games in the series, up until Last Raven (the final game on PS2), so maybe they were bundled in somehow. FromSoftware seem to be listed as the publisher of the PSP port so I don't think it's a case of this being based on the PSP version I just checked out the two other games and they both reflect the "correct" publisher, with ASCII Entertainment showing for Project Phantasma and Agetec showing for Master of Arena. The reason I highlight this is because it's a great sign. The rights for Armored Core are pretty messy in terms of the publishers of the games outside of Japan, but are much messier in Europe than they were in the US, and Agetec published every game from Master of Arena (the last of the three PS1 ACs) to Last Raven, so if I were a betting man, I think there's a great chance we at least see the PS2 games come to the service at some point in the future, too!

To be honest, I just assumed it'd be the Switch *click* sound. Hell, I'd be disappointed if it wasn't. I'd spam that thing until the button wears out Yeah I honestly can't even recall ever hearing that start-up music before, so you're 100% right about that

Today's addition to the service is...Tetris? Huh. Both the NES and Game Boy versions, too:

Keychains the size of maisonettes capable of playing console startup sounds are coming to the Museum's store: Sign me up for GBA, DS, Wii and Switch Put out some eShop music boxes already YOU COWARDS!!!

New trailer for Replaylee: No idea why both Xbox and PlayStation have the same video listed as the "Release Window Announcement Trailer" seeing as it's just "2025" but whatever

MinnMax's Ben Hanson shared back in October that he had heard Intergalactic - at the time the nameless and formless next Naughty Dog project - was being compared to a game with a lot of player freedom, and he has confirmed the game it was being compared to was Elden Ring. Source: Well, can't say I'm surprised, but I'm very curious to see how far the comparison goes!

Princess Mononoke is getting its brand new 4K restoration screened at IMAX screens across the US starting next week: [insert Julius rant about this being US-only and there not being enough *real* IMAX screens in the UK] Couple of posters to go along with the re-release, too: One step closer to 4K re-releases for Ghibli films. I've got them all on blu-ray already...but sure, I'll buy them all again

Uh, have there been some unintended casualties to the toolbar on mobile with the reset, or is it just me? Quote, font size, and I think font colour are the ones that have gone missing? I'd love to ask if text alignment could be added in if those could be added back (although I wouldn't mind if font colour stayed dead), would make it easier for me to update the main Gaming Diary thread post on mobile (needing to go to PC atm) pretty please?

Saber CEO Matthew Karch is once again stating that the game is still being worked on. He said the same thing last April, too. Per VGC: If - IF - this game still exists, I think they need to shut up and keep quiet until they can come out with a re-announcement trailer and some gameplay to boot. Could see Lucasfilm wanting to save such an announcement for 2027 to line up with the 50th anniversary of Star Wars...

Celebration panels for next month in Japan have been announced: Curious to see what gets livestreamed. The big blockbuster panels for me are: • Mando and Grogu – no clue how much they show here. Is there enough cobbled together for a trailer? I'd hope so. Probably going to be Celebration-exclusive, though. • Lucasfilm Animation's 20th anniversary – possibility of a new series announcement? • Andor S2 – imagine the first arc might get shown to attendees? • Ahsoka – S2 announcement...maybe? Feels like it could be a repeat of the Kenobi panel in 2023 where nothing new gets announced, but should still be a great time! • Bit Reactor/Respawn turn-based strategy game panel – FINALLY! • 50 Years of ILM • Closing Ceremony – where we going next? I think they might skip next year in favour of building anticipation for a 50th in 2027, probably in the US (Anaheim would be closest to *everything*). That being said, it's the 50th, and I could see them wanting to share the love in some way; it'd be really neat to have multiple venues around the world, I'm just not sure how that would work in terms of guests and reveals. Bunch besides this I'd be curious about too, like Doug Chiang's panel, an hour with Oscar Isaac, and screenings of the Clone Wars and Rebels finales (DUDE, THESE WITH A CROWD?!). I'm shocked that there isn't a 20th anniversary panel for Revenge of the Sith or a 10th anniversary panel for The Force Awakens, I have to imagine it's simply a case of it being staged in Japan this year which has made it a struggle to get as many guests. The lineup of panels, at a glance, I think looks light – or, at least, lighter – than in 2022, and obviously we had a bunch of bombshells in 2023 during the Lucasfilm Showcase. I think what this really highlights is how little progress it feels like there has been on the projects announced in 2023, and with the 50th just 2 years away, I imagine there's a sense of wanting to time things for announcement/release in 2027 in a way which would make it too early to announce/show some things off here. It is also only a 3-day Celebration vs the 4-day experiences of 2022 and 2023. That being said? People are going to be in Japan. I'm sure that'll more than make up for any perceived shortcomings of this year's Celebration, and I'm sure it'll be a wonderful time

Ugh, yeah, ones like these suck. For the longest time I remember the RGG games had chapter completion trophies just be a black screen too, seems like they've learned their lesson and changed it to be the final shot of each chapter, and each chapter naturally ending on a bit of a cliffhanger makes them so pleasant to look at now What I do for some particularly terrible ones is make sure I've got the clips set up for 30 seconds on Platinum pops only, which means I can scrub through and get a nice clean screenshot. Remember having to do this for Armored Core VI if I'm remembering right, the Platinum shot will just be the rating of your final mission (the Plat will almost certainly an S-rank replay of the final mission) but using the clip I grabbed a screenshot from the cutscene before and it looked much better! I love this one Ooo, let's share a nightmare I had with one of my Plats. Jedi: Survivor! Thought I only had one trophy left to obtain as it was quite late and I was admittedly pretty tired - the one for the bounty hunter quest line - and so, knowing how that ends and who turns up, you can imagine how excited I was to scrub through that last 30 seconds to get the right look for the Platinum screenshot I'd save elsewhere. Problem was, buried deep in the trophy list was another trophy I'd missed...and so it didn't pop. And not only did it not pop, the trophy which was left and for which my Plat popped for that game was simply get 10 perfectly timed precision releases – which I did at a meditation point because it was the most reliable way to do it. Painful. This actually made me go through some of my default Plat screenshots on the PS5, and man, there's just so many more bad than there are good! Figure I might as well share the high- and lowlights now that I've checked them out The Good The Bad & The Ugly Shame I don't have any of my PS4 Plat screenshots anymore, but I guess that gives me a good excuse to play newer versions of those games with their own trophy lists I don't think I've logged into PSNProfiles since...2021 maybe? I actually logged in the other day to see if there was anything on there, but apparently I haven't synced it to my PSN account for a minute Gaiden would be a very worth 850th! And that auto-pop just makes a brilliantly short game all the shorter

What better place than this to talk about the planned festivities for God of War's 20th anniversary? A new in-game DLC for Ragnarök titled "Dark Odyssey" is coming, as well as some neat merch and a 20th Anniversary Retrospective for the series. Finally, something insiders can eat some dirt over (the rumoured Greek Saga remasters). Feels good Also somewhat tempers expectations for Bloodborne's 10th anniversary in 2 weeks...

Just gave this a watch, and even as probably one of the softer Trophy Hunters around here...yeah, I can definitely relate on most of these My problem is I try to save the final boss/story beat/whatever as the final trophy if I'm going for a Plat, so, for example, in Infinite Wealth, this would mean doing eeeeeeeverything else before the final chapter (hence my current Dondoko predicament; the Dondoko Delusion, if you will). I mainly do this because if I roll credits I'm typically done with a game unless I know ahead of time there's something else in store for me. There are times where this backfires, too, though. Spider-Man 2, you stupidly fun but also stupidly trophy-designed game, WHY IS THE FINAL SUIT YOU COLLECT LOCKED BEHIND THE CREDITS AND PART OF SOME DUMB FINAL PUZZLE. Grinds my gears, I tell you! This ties into the Plat screenshot, actually, because Spidey 2's is guaranteed to be stupid because of this. On the flipside, games like The Last of Us Part I and Elden Ring? Designed to capture the logo at the start of credits – super clean, love it. The ones I can't relate to as much are the multiplayer ones - I don't think my friends would put up with me for very long if I asked them to grind a Plat out with me, much less for Helldivers 2, because I gave the trophy list a quick look and some of them are pretty bonkers! - and, of course, saving a special Plat for a certain milestone. I simply don't Plat enough games to do this - and if I did, let me tell you, some games wouldn't be getting played in this lifetime because I'd be holding out for some of my favourites - but, anecdotally, the occasional Plat has been a milestone and I'm like "oh, hey, that's neat that it was this game!" I think I like the idea of planning it - something like a Final Fantasy VII something being #7, #70, #77, #700, #707, #777, etc. - more than I do the idea of personally earning the Plat in that many games. ALSO! Feel like they missed out on a big one: save scumming! Are you a real trophy hunter if you haven't save scummed through the cloud for something like an alt ending in a From Software game? Thanks for sharing H-o-T, that gave me a good laugh very curious to find out which game is being saved/played for your next milestone...

Ah, I meant sunnier than here in the UK in October, rather than sunnier than Berlin. My bad I'm expecting nice weather in Berlin in June! Maybe some showers though? I mean, @drahkon please confirm for Germany, but I definitely found that to be the case for most shops across quite a few countries I visited that shared borders with Germany growing up (Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands) so wouldn't be too surprised! I've technically been in Germany before, for all of 30 minutes as we parked the car there and walked back over the bridge to visit a park in Luxembourg, but still Thanks for the heads-up – yeah, I'm planning on having this Berlin trip probably be the last one on my current passport and then send off for a new one before my travels (hopefully) in October/November, as I know some countries can get a bit weird about having 6 months or less on your passport!

PlayStation logo has been spotted in Starfield Creations... Reckon they're aiming for an April release too?

Hell yeah, have a great time @drahkon Speaking of holidays – I'm planning to be in Berlin in June and hopefully somewhere in Europe a good bit sunnier in October, as me and my docs are looking into me having pretty severe SAD, so this seems like a wonderful way to give myself the excuse to leave the UK behind for a week before it all goes to crap (well hopefully not this year but we'll see) Mine needs renewing in the next 12 months as it expires next spring, but I'm really not looking forward to joining the Ugly Passport Club

Awesome stuff, thanks Ashley Muhahahahahaha now I'm going to SPOIL EVERYTHING, I'LL SPOIL IT ALL

2 weeks and 5 days remain. (no I didn't miss the 3-week mark I don't know what you're talking about)

Collector's Edition trailer: Still wild to me that it comes with a code for the Digital Deluxe Edition for the price it is Not to even mention the early access weirdness

Are there any updates on a spoiler tag fix? Only asking because of the Switch 2 event/potential launch and some shows in the next few months on the horizon, imagine (well, I hope) there will be games at/around launch we might find ourselves wanting to use spoiler tags for. I know we can copy them from elsewhere but as a mobile-centric user, it can be a bit of a pain (have to go and edit an old post with a spoiler tag, highlight from the text before up to the text after the spoiler tag, copy, paste, delete all copied text...) (also asking because I accidentally initiated one just now )

I finally finished the 112-episode epic that is YuYu Hakusho last weekend. Still got to check out the 2018 OVAs, but man oh man, what a show. The characters were excellent, think this show does a much better job than HxH does of having a more well-rounded cast with the girls as part of team YYH. Favourites were probably Kuwabara, Kurama, Shiziru and Ogre/George. Music was awesome. The entire premise is great. Think my favourite arc was Chapter Black, it's probably the closest the show gets to HxH, felt like a prototype for the Yorknew City arc in HxH, which is my favourite arc in that story so yeah really enjoyed the Dark Tournament too, of course, but what really surprised me - knowing how abruptly YYH was wrapped up due to Togashi's health going in - was just how well things wrapped up. Yes, it's a bit rushed, and if you were to compare the Demon World Tournament in the final arc, Three Kings, to the Dark Tournament, then yeah, obviously Dark Tournament is a better tournament arc – but I don't think that's the point of the Three Kings arc or the Demon World Tournament at all; focusing on how characters are now choosing to act, how they act differently to the start of the show or the similar Dark Tournament, the terms by which Yusuke chooses to define the tournament...it's brilliant. That being said, it does still feel the hype of a typical tournament arc at times, as there was a moment towards the end where I was screaming "HOLY SMOKES IS THAT FREAKING {spoiler} ENERGY?!" and was clearly hyped as all hell watching the final show's matchup. What a fight! There is SO MUCH growth and character development squeezed out of the final arc, and while I would've loved to see the story continue, there's beauty in endings, and especially so in this one. There's a moment in the Demon World Tournament where Kurama senses a presence and everyone is cheering the same character on, and it just floored me. Just as much as Hunter x Hunter, YuYu Hakusho is about bonds: with others, with yourself, and the lasting impact you leave on those around you. I'm going to score it a 9.5/10 purely because I consider HxH a 10 and do think HxH is overall a stronger story (albeit ironically also unfinished), but man, what a ride. Those 90s anime vibes – does anything come close?

Oh yeah so anyways after my post I immediately continued and finished Andor just couldn't leave it where it was! 11/10, would - and will - Andor again. This show has so much to say, that last episode ...well, besides that post-credits, still not the biggest fan of that as it's just a little too on the nose for my liking 5 weeks or so now until S2 kicks off? Seriously cannot wait Right then, now that I'll be staying subscribed to Disney+ for a little while (at least until Andor S2 is done), might be time to catch up on some other shows...