Julius

Unsurprisingly, Japan gets the better trailer: Love how the title is kind of clickbait for the trailer this time around. Such a strange marketing cycle! But anyways...the 360° video showing off Hisui is pretty cool!

Throwing this in a spoiler tag because I know some might want to avoid it, but it's been shared by official channels - some new Pokémon have been revealed: Strange decision to share them with us just three days from release in the way that they have, though could be because of the leaks, and I suppose they'll want to show it off in marketing and it might have been tough to keep a lid on with reviews going up (I believe the embargo is lifted tomorrow?).

EA have announced three upcoming titles from Respawn (well, two? We already knew about The Sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ). From their press release: We know so little about them that I didn't know if it was worth making dedicated threads for the games, so here we are I've got to imagine they're getting this out of the way in anticipation of their exclusivity deal ending next year, so hopefully this opens up the floor to even more projects being announced. Would love for that FPS to be a Republic Commando reboot/sequel/-like game, and interesting that Hirschmann is leasing development on it - he has ties to producing Star Wars video games dating back to the original Battlefront, as well as a bunch of LEGO games. Worth noting that Bit Reactor are a newly formed studio (I mean, they were revealed last week) comprised of XCOM and Civilization veterans from Firaxis, so very much looking forward to seeing what they turn out too.

Even the key art is pretty nutty

Two months out, but here's the final trailer? The music choice in the second half of the trailer has me bawling one of the messiest trailers I've seen in a long time. Weirdly edited, feels like it shows way too much, the music choice is hilarious...I refuse to believe Team Ninja and S-E are playing this straight (if they ever were up to this point). Feels quirky and campy as hell, I dig it.

Looks like they've finally got around to releasing the Japanese overview trailer from two and a half weeks in English (some of it covers stuff from the overview trailer, but there are one or two new tidbits and some more music to listen to): I'm definitely starting to get excited for Friday now. The game still looks rough visually a lot of the time, and naturally I wish Game Freak had years more for a project like this but that was never to be, but I'm very much looking forward to something fresh. I don't know if a goal of catching all of the Pokémon in a region is going to suit the flow of a game like this, I really dislike what they've got going on with throwing balms and the most basic of dodge mechanics, but I'm more than willing to give it a go with the hope that I'll at least feel a bit refreshed. I think the best sign they've pulled that off is if I don't find myself coming away due to burn out, seeing as we go remakes just two months ago. What I'm also not looking forward to is that this is all but guaranteed to bring up similar debates to those we saw with Breath of the Wild, where longtime fans go in with preconceptions based on prior games (for BotW it was: where are the temples? Where's the music? Where's the story?) and with their mind already more than half made up. I get if a game isn't for people, and for example I have my own issues with Breath of the Wild despite really enjoying the experience (I do wonder if not having too much of a connection to the franchise and not completing a game before shaped that a bit for me), but acting like there's nothing good just because it's a different take or just because it's an open world/more open is a real tired take. That's not really aimed at anyone here re: Arceus (though the Breath of the Wild part might apply to some based on opinions I've seen around here! ), I just struggle to see how the wider discussion around the game doesn't head that way, which will be a shame because, hey, at least they're trying something pretty brave and new (I know, I know, biggest IP ever and that shouldn't be an excuse for them not giving things more time/effort/money/manpower/etc.), and I want to see those new things discussed more than the fact that people go in expecting Breath of the Wild and end up with Monster Hunter. I hope that I'm wrong - weirdly I think Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl rubbed people the wrong way to the point that this might be received even better than it would have otherwise, and I don't think the Pokémon community prior to this game was as narrow as I think the Zelda community was prior to Breath of the Wild - but we'll see. Just for the love of Arceus give us something representing a post-game and continue down the path of trimming some of the fat on some systems and I'll be pretty chuffed.

As revealed today during the Taipei Game Show 2022 stream: the game has gone gold! Just 32 days to go...

An update on this: alongside 8 other former members of SEGA/Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and under the banner of NetEase, Toshihiro Nagoshi will lead the aptly named Nagoshi Studio. Really curious to see how this plays out. RGG is a big team but that's a lot of big and longtime players to lose with the franchise at a crossroads, and I'm of course intrigued by the possibilities of what we might see from Nagoshi Studio. I'd bite off Nagoshi's hand and give him a hook for a hand to make him a pirate if we basically got Yakuza set in Hong Kong. On the one hand I love the absurdity Yakuza is known to bring to the mundane day-to-day, so would honestly just love a game centred around an office job, what with its politics and intricacies of getting to learn about something you might not otherwise, but at the same time, I'd love something more akin to Shenmue, with a bit more of a journey and destination to it. Let's travel around Hong Kong and then get to see other parts of Asia explored, damn it!

Started Monster on Tuesday...and I've just finished it. I had a strong feeling it'd be up my alley going in, and yet it still blew me away. Bit of a joke that this isn't available on any streaming platform in the UK or (from what I could tell) even the US right now, but luckily found a playlist on YouTube like I did with Berserk last year. If you're into mystery thrillers, especially one which drags up the great age-old question of what is good and what is bad, I couldn't recommend it enough. It's an absolute masterpiece, I'll definitely be picking up the manga to put it on my shelves at some point down the road, and I look forward to checking out more of Urasawa's works. Next is probably his other most well-known work in 20th Century Boys. Before getting to Monster, last weekend I finally finished watching My Hero Academia Season 5, taking me a bit over a month to do so because it's just such a weak season without any real hook in its opening half a season I had read past the point I imagined that this season would end on in the manga, so wasn't too surprised by the first arc of the season, but I can't believe that they decided to pad it out even more and have that one arc essentially take up the entire first half of the season. Only one thing of real note happens which will have serious implications down the road in that arc, so it was a real head in hands moment. And it's a shame, because as almost happened with me (knowing full well what was coming in the second half of the season), and as I know happened with some of my friends, the temptation to leave this by the wayside was very real, despite the second half of the season ending up being superb. This is where almost all of the meaningful character development in the season happens, and they absolutely nailed their adaptation of one of my favourite parts of the manga. Music was great as always, no real surprise there as Yuki Hayashi rarely misses. Massive missed opportunity by the producers to not at least change the animated sequences for the OP for the final arc of the season in my opinion. A season of two very different halves for me. Also, not sure if anyone saw this, but I think it's worth sharing: Horikoshi shared last month that, should things go smoothly, My Hero Academia's manga will likely finish by the end of 2022. ...which, naturally, is to say it will finish in 2023. Still I can imagine room for another spin-off (maybe a Vigilantes anime adaptation?) or sequel series down the road, but it's pretty crazy and a huge missed opportunity for me that so much of the story has taken place in the students' first year at U.A.. From what I've seen elsewhere some aren't happy with how the manga has seemingly gone since I stopped reading it last year towards the end of the next arc in the anime, so not sure how keen I am to catch up, but the fact that it might be finished being adapted by 2024 is insane to me. They did also confirm that Season 6 is coming (in other news, water is wet), that it's coming in Fall 2022, and we also have the first PV. Re-Destro's theme is fantastic. Lastly, I've been keeping up-to-date with Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2. We're only three episodes in, but so far, so great! Nervous about where the show will end up finishing given the general atmosphere around how the manga ended (I've avoided spoilers, but definitely heard a few impressions sharing the general sentiment of disappointment), but the music is great, animation is brilliant, and it's still gripping. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here! Now to figure out what to watch next...

No worries, happy to help and thanks to you again for all your help with my Sinnoh Dex!

@Glen-i I've grabbed a Union Room, Link Code is 11235813 Shall we trade all four across first and then trade them back? So the trio first and then end on Ho-Oh / Lugia before going back around?

Cool, I've got a haircut at 11:00 tomorrow so will probably be back around 12:30 at the latest, that sound alright with you?

@Glen-i I'm available today from now until 15:30 or during most of this weekend (apart from a few hours around midday tomorrow and Sunday) if you still need Ho-Oh and the Legendary Beasts for your National Dex sorry for the delay, been having a tough time with some screens and games making me feel really nauseous lately, but it's getting there!

New plates have arrived! Appropriate music. First time using PlayStation Direct, very impressed by the quick turnaround. Only real downside is that now some of my accessories don't match the console. I'm still not fully sold on all black, even seeing it in person, as the matte black plates do look a little on the cheap side, but it does match the rest of my set-up a bit more than the white. I'll give it a couple of weeks to see if it grows on me!

I knew PlayStation had marketing deals in place for Call of Duty, but reading around, seems like they were re-upped just before the start of this new generation back in 2020, so I guess this is what Phil is referring to. Which makes sense, but I guess that means at the very least Call of Duty should be on PlayStation until mid-gen, so until 2024 or so. I do wonder what PlayStation's internal thinking is going to be, because Call of Duty is going to leave an enormous multiplayer shooter gap -- is this a gap they are going to try to look to fill themselves, either by reviving an old IP of theirs like SOCOM or Killzone, or perhaps by moving their marketing deal over to Battlefield and hunkering down with EA? Then again, that isn't exactly a franchise in good graces right now (and hasn't been for a while), so maybe they'd want to acquire a particular third party IP which is being swept under the rug but is already something of a name; not a household name to the same extent as Call of Duty, of course, but maybe something like Medal of Honour?

You can now find your PlayStation playing stats from last year in the 2021 PlayStation Wrap-Up report here. Do find it very funny that Death Stranding is front and centre, considering all I've done with it so far is upgrade to the Director's Cut Compared to 2020's stats from last February, some interesting takeaways are: Total playtime in 2021 (895 hours) was only 7 hours less than in 2020 (902 hours), and all this despite the fact that I took a break from gaming which lasted a few months. FIFA more than made up for it I guess, as did my weekly play sessions with some friends on GTA! I played 20 fewer games on modern PlayStation hardware in 2021 when compared with 2020 (16 vs 36). Hours played online increased substantially from 125 hours (14% of total 2020 playtime) to 219 hours (24% of total 2021 playtime), though I suppose I didn't start playing with my friends on a weekly basis until a few months into 2020, so that increase isn't too surprising. I said in last year's post after playing across 156 days in 2020 that I would aim to surpass 200 days played in 2021...and apparently I did. Not sure how that happened. Despite playing substantially fewer games, I got 499 trophies in 2021 compared with 542 in 2020. This is down to going for a few more Platinums (4 in 2021 vs 1 in 2020), but a lot of these and a Platinum popped from the Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut upgrade before I played the Iki Island DLC. Haven't started a game in 2022 yet...and seeing these numbers might be the push I needed.

I mean, there's definitely enough material out there to get some lewd fan fiction going... I think that's enough internet for today.

Finally, a release date (and gameplay overview) appears: 5th April 2022! Starting with whichever trilogy you want is such a smart and inclusive move. Looks stupidly fantastic, though I'm not super keen on the tight over-the-shoulder perspective. That Galaxy Map is huge! Love how it clearly builds on some of the ideas from The Force Awakens and The Clone Wars game, just dialling it all to eleven. This looks well worth the wait! AND OH MY GOD THERE'S A MUMBLE MODE!!!

I mean, I'd guess it's getting a Hisuian form (I think it's why they've not shown off anything about the starter evolutions so far), so maybe it won't be part Ghost-type? I'm pretty nervous about some of the Hisuian forms they might be hiding from us actually. The last few generations have been some of the most contrasting for me when it comes to the quality of some of the designs, some are top tier and others have a Pokémon knock-off vibe to be.

No worries Yep, Typhlosion is my favourite of the bunch too. Thanks Legend of Thunder! For me I think it's just wanting to keep things fresh, I've been using Fire-type starters a lot more over the last few years. But we'll see, with all of the Sinnoh starters being available in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl and there being no version split, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some way to get the other two starters at some point in the game anyways, seeing as you'll have to potentially catch everything anyways. ...so I guess I just convinced myself that I might be getting Cyndaquil

Yeah, I know they do. I meant more in the sense that, for example, GAME and other big retailers are likely going to have more accurate stock tracking systems, etc., which are going to make it much harder for them to break release date and get away with it than a much smaller store without such systems in place. A lot of the stores that have broken street release date in the past have been smaller, independent stores or chains, oftentimes in more remote locations (be it on a map or technologically, such as in a developing country). Like I mentioned, they also won't be putting anywhere near as much at risk if they break street release date than if a massive retailer like GAME consistently did so. Anyways, seems like the leaks have grown into full on file dumps now, meaning that new Pokémon and new forms are out in the wild that we haven't seen yet, so I'll be trying my best to steer clear. Has everyone decided on which Pokémon they want to start with? I think I'm stuck choosing between Cyndaquil and Oshawott...

Also, to add to what @Glen-i has said, I think big retail chains like GAME are going to be under much more scrutiny when it comes to tracking stock and the like than stores which don't specialise in video game retail or much smaller stores. There's a lot more at stake for GAME if, for example, Nintendo decides to penalise them/cut them off for breaking street date than if a smaller chain/store does it (and that's if they even pick up on the smaller chain doing it in the first place). I think this is (rightly) discussed every time a new Pokémon game comes out, but because it was so recent and I'm too lazy to type it all out, I'll just link to what I said about this when the same thing happened with Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl back in November. Maybe I'm wildly misremembering things, but I can't remember this happening to this extent with some of the Switch's other massive titles (Animal Crossing, Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey; but then, I honestly don't think Nintendo cares nearly as much about Pokémon leaking compared to those games), but I think that just speaks to the logistical nightmare that is dealing with a typically annual, guaranteed 10+ million units seller, being released simultaneously worldwide that is localised in multiple languages. And typically around the end of year holiday season, no less.

Well, I can't not talk about this. For some perspective, this is a move nearly six times as big as Take-Two's recent acquisition of Zynga (which as of this moment, until the Activision Blizzard deal is finalised, is the largest video game industry acquisition) and nearly nine times larger than the Bethesda acquisition in 2020. It comes in just below Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 for $71.3 billion. Some things that go without saying are that, firstly, and maybe most importantly but is sure to be lost in the long run to the pettiness of console warring: this is awesome for those Activision Blizzard employees. It's yet to be finalised, but I can feel the relief from here, and fair play to Microsoft because I can't remember the last time we heard a whiff of discontent or controversy from their teams (*touch wood*), so hopefully they'll be in much safer hands as and when this deal gets across the line. Secondly: I'd much rather it be Microsoft than a Chinese company like Tencent or ByteDance, or heck even Embracer. Honestly, it's hard to feel any different to how I felt back in 2020 when they acquired Bethesda. The smaller acquisitions that they spent a few years making have quickly fallen by the wayside (I still think they did Obsidian dirty by having them announce their fantasy game only to acquire Bethesda), and this is yet another case where - while there is a working relationship between the two companies - it's not as closely knit as, say, Bluepoint and PlayStation were, or Next Level and Nintendo, where they've already got a relationship founded on already working together to produce a game. The term I used back when the Bethesda acquisition was announced was that this was an example of inorganic growth, and I'd more than stand by that with the Activision Blizzard acquisition. We all know big money acquisitions have been on the table the last few years with some of the deals we've seen in the gaming space, but like with Bethesda, this acquisition is almost aggressive. You aren't nurturing smaller teams and helping them realise their dreams with greater financial security as seemed to be the case a few years ago, you're buying a developer with an IP - Call of Duty - where the threat of pure console exclusivity could legitimately bring PlayStation to its knees so that Microsoft can have their way with them in the boardroom. Others have said it, but much more than was the case with Bethesda, there is too much money to be left on the table by having their games be exclusive, so which permutation of events do we see? Pure exclusivity and a massive middle finger to those who have already purchased a PS5, as well as the rest of the industry? Bending PlayStation over backwards to push Game Pass onto their platforms, with Call of Duty not being available anywhere but on Game Pass for PlayStation owners? Continuing to release Call of Duty on PlayStation until the end of the generation to make a hell of a lot of money before winning the next generation before it begins by then making it exclusive? None of these outcomes are positive for the industry. There is no-one to compete with Microsoft right now as a platform holder when it comes to these acquisitions. Sony straight up do not have the money lying around to make an acquisition of a company like Square Enix, let alone a company big enough to rival the purchase of Activision Blizzard, like EA. Nintendo meanwhile are twiddling their thumbs in the corner and, as always, have zero interest in what's going on with these acquisitions. It certainly raises other interesting questions: do we finally see PC games like World of Warcraft come to console and smartphones, because I mean imagine a game as popular as that running on xCloud on your phone? What does it mean for Overwatch 2? Will Toys for Bob be revived get a second chance now, meaning more Spyro, Crash, and Tony Hawk entries? If COD becomes exclusive and Xbox sales rocket, will they finally start reporting their sales again? Where the heck does that leave games they only published, like Sekiro? On an individual basis, I have been avoiding Activision Blizzard games like I have Ubisoft games, just with everything going on within their companies, and their games aren't going to move the needle for me. I'm genuinely happy that those working at Activision Blizzard might finally get a chance at some semblance of normalcy, security, and stability in their workplace. From a business perspective, this is a move that makes sense. I question just how much of the industry has to be bought up before we actually see the powers that be question if the industry is being monopolised, and this is an insanely aggressive move, but this was a one in a million chance to acquire one of the biggest publishers after a year of nothing but negative press. I'm more surprised that it was Activision Blizzard first rather than Ubisoft, or even EA. As I mentioned last time with the Bethesda deal, if not for monopolisation laws Microsoft would have aggressively acquired Sony ten times over without even flinching, and slipped Nintendo into their back pocket. I've said it before, and I'll double down and say it again, because I would say the same if this were PlayStation or if this were Nintendo: In the long term, this can only be a bad thing. I don't care if you're silly enough to align yourself with one platform holder over another, these billion dollar companies are destroying the ceiling for growth and creativity in a medium I can safely say that we all care deeply about. They are commodifying the few big companies that remain for the price of the many, in that this will be a price that the rest of the industry - in the long term - could pay for dearly. And that continues to be a worrying thought.

That's true, think I just got very unlucky. It was first thing in the morning when I went to get my booster and I liberally applied hand sanitizer before entering and just after exiting. Is what it is

Seems like I've had a similar experience to @Emerald Emblem I've been off work the last two weeks for Christmas, and I knew I had my booster booked for the Tuesday just gone (the 4th), so was careful to not go out to supermarkets, etc., from last weekend to reduce the risk of me passing it onto someone else. Tuesday rolls around, get the taxi to the vaccination centre, and the place has less than 10 people on the premises. Awesome. I was in and out with my booster jab within 5 minutes of arriving. Wait around 15 minutes to get a taxi back to my apartment, order some McDonald's breakfast -- same result as the last time I had McDonald's breakfast with a jab, which I did with my first: a tad feverish, so lie down for a few hours after a bit of paracetamol and chugging some water. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was hellish because my sister didn't get home from work at the usual time (she's normally back at midnight on a Tuesday shift, if not earlier) and I was up a bit later than usual because of the nap I'd taken before. Long story short she stayed around a friend's house but texted my old (cancelled) number, and then immediately went to sleep with her phone on Do Not Disturb, so me and my parents were up until 06:00 before we finally get a response. So Tuesday's night of sleep was borderline nonexistent. Felt fine on Wednesday, even if I didn't get up until noon, but by the evening I was a bit downtrodden and getting major feverish chills, to the point my teeth were chattering. Wake up yesterday morning to coughing up some nasty looking and slightly bloodied stuff (I tend to get dry air in my room this time of year which can unfortunately have the same effect when combined with a cold), which is concerning, but it was mightily outweighed by the fever, so I went with the NHS guidance of it potentially just being a booster side effect after 2 days. Well, today's the third day, but I got up late after yet another rough night of sleep. For whatever reason blood circulation to my nose gets real bad when I have flu-like symptoms, to the point that it can cold, which makes for terrible nights of sleep unless you half risk suffocating yourself with your duvet. So I knew that realistically I either had COVID or the flu. Just taken a rapid lateral flow test and it's showing as positive. Ordering a PCR now, but considering that realistically my three potential vectors (based on the timing of my symptoms) were two taxi drivers and someone working at a vaccination centre, it's an understatement to say that I'm miffed. I mean, what are the odds that I likely get it from someone who needs to be taking regular tests on the day that I go and get my booster?