Julius

Oh lord we leaking! SGF Live seems all but confirmed...

Yeah, honestly while watching Kenobi I've quickly got to the point of questioning now - two episodes away from being three different live-action series in - if the quality of Mando is an exception, rather than a sign of what we should expect? Every show is going to have its flaws, and while Mando has some moments I could probably point to such as a few moments of being poorly paced, having some janky writing, or things I hate about Tatooine's sand, but honestly it's so few and far between with that show that I don't care to really bring it up when looking at the series from a broader perspective. I feel like Kenobi and Boba, personally, have kind of been the inverse of this: I'm nitpicking to find things I love about it more so than I am to find flaws. I think there are many reasons for it too, but I don't think it's at all a coincidence that the one Dave Filoni was most involved in is almost universally the one which has been the best received. If you look at Bad Batch and The Clone Wars S7 too, I'd say those also turned out just as consistent as Mando has. I guess as well there's the fact that Filoni was working on Mando stuff and Favreau was too, and they kind of came together, and so we now have two sides which exchange ideas and talk things out. It's not production by committee, its storytelling by, well, telling a story. I think both Kenobi and Boba could have been great, I just think they've been handled incredibly poorly. It's not even like the sequels where we can point at production issues and churning out a huge blockbuster in two years when they could have done with three (let alone everything else!), these have seemingly had the time put in, but who the hell is looking over and signing off on these scripts and how these episodes turn out? I'm all for bringing more faces in to tell new Star Wars stories, but I think there have definitely been some growing pains outside of Mando, and it feels like they need someone - not the Story Group like it was before, an actual bonafide storyteller - to look over these shows a bit more attentively. Ahsoka is going to be a huge test for Dave but, assuming all goes well - and I think it will, as while there'll be some Mando stuff to tie in I'm sure, I'm positive he's otherwise had Rebels sequel plans written out for a good while now - I really hope we see him take on more and more responsibility as time goes on. We've said it before, but he just gets it in a way I don't think any other individual storyteller currently working at Lucasfilm does. We'll see how Andor turns out, but I agree and think it'll be a surprise bit (and I only say surprise because I've seen some a bit on the fence about a Rogue One prequel), and being shot on location and having the right staff - oh what's this? Movie people working on TV to make it look and feel like a movie? Who would've thought that'd be a great idea? - I'm pretty confident that it'll at least nail the scale of everything. The Acolyte I'm a little nervous about just given the period it's in, it's very bold to have the first big High Republic project that's not a published product be set at the end of that era and potentially have some foreshadowing or ties into the Saga (going off the title and the little we know about the premise at least). I want new stuff too, for sure, especially long form stuff, and I think it's a shame Rian's trilogy keeps getting pushed back, even if it's because of him having great success elsewhere. I'd love to see him have a trilogy of films set far away from the Skywalker Saga where he can do his thing without as much limiting his creativity or resulting in backlash because of how he treats certain characters. TLJ for me is the Star Wars film for me which is the most up and down (because I think the prequels are pretty consistent in terms of quality in each film), but I loved some of his ideas and some of what he was going for.

Xbox are also stating that they're on track to launch 5+ games in their next fiscal year (1st July 2022 - 30th June 2023): I certainly hope so, as it's been a bit frustrating - even as someone who doesn't own an Xbox currently - to just watch their first party studios promise tens of new and wonderful things only to spin their wheels on getting games regularly out of the door. Fingers crossed these next 12 months go smoothly and are a sign of what's to come

I mean, the thing with any story is that people always come into it looking for different things, and that's only strengthened in a multigeneration story like Star Wars. I don't totally disagree with what they're saying and can absolutely see where they're coming from. There are two ways to take "I don't care about Reva" - it's either being flippant and reacting to not getting what they wanted (a show focused on Obi-Wan and Vader), or not actually caring about the character herself. Or both. And to be honest, while I'm happy to have newly introduced characters - which is absolutely necessary, as while I love Mando, a lot of its cameos make the galaxy feel that bit smaller - I don't think they've done a stellar job with Reva so far in the show, period, so I can empathise with someone who didn't care about the character. That's not a knock against Moses Ingram's performance, or saying the character is pointless, but she didn't really feel like a character to me at all until Part IV, simply because her purpose prior to that was almost solely to move the plot along. She didn't really get a chance to be fleshed out in earlier episodes I feel, so her finally getting an opportunity to bounce off another character for longer than 30 seconds and who challenged her finally started to feel like getting a character more than a plot carrier. Further yet... As for being "here to see Obi-Wan and Vader", I mean, that's on the marketing, not the viewer, as even if it doesn't make any sense to think that they'll be in every scene together, not everyone's as into Star Wars as we are or tries to think about structuring, writing, and developing a story. Conscious decisions were made to show certain pieces of concept art, set photos, and the first recognisable statement of music in the teaser trailer was Battle of the Heroes. To me, at least, how they presented and marketed the show felt like it was heavily leaning on this idea that it was pretty much a sequel series to Episode III more than anything else. They've also had Hayden feature just as heavily as Ewan in the show's press run, which as a fan is absolutely awesome and I love seeing him get the love he's been getting from fans, but hasn't exactly been representative of his presence in the show to this point. So yeah, I can see where they're coming from, even if I can agree with you that I'm all for new Star Wars characters, I imagine for many it probably comes more from a place of frustration of their expectations for the series (in fairness, based on its marketing) than any attempt at understanding why Reva is around, why we haven't had more of Obi-Wan and Vader, etc.

Game Pass is coming to Samsung's 2022 smart TVs at the end of this month and Project Moorcroft (aka the trials thing we heard about before) will be rolling out within the next year. Sounds more like an E3 demo styled thing coming into the home than simply being a game trial, which is how it seed to be phrased before. Feel like a lot of us have been saying bringing E3-styled demos to people's home would be the smart move for a while, so that's cool to see, especially providing financial incentives for independent devs to jump onboard. I remember wanting them to do it once xCloud became a thing to help stream next-gen demo experiences Also! Xbox Design Lab is getting more colours and coming to more countries:

Seems as appropriate a place as any to put this: James Turner, the first Westerner to officially design Pokémon, has left Game Freak to form a new game studio. Well worth the scroll through his Bulbapedia page to see which Pokémon he designed, it's such a solid list. Had no idea he was behind Shadow Lugia, but think Golett/Golurk and Phantump/Trevenant are probably my favourites of his designs!

Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from, and it's a sentiment I've seen going around a lot over the last few weeks. I think there have been some quality moments, but I don't think it's really come together as one cohesive and tightly packaged show so far, and while I'm holding out hope that things improve, with only two episodes left, even if it does I don't think I'll hold the show in the highest regard compared to other Star Wars shows and the films. Which is okay, it's just a bit disappointing. Of all of the Star Wars projects under Disney, this is by far the one we've had the most time to ponder over from initial rumblings to release, so I'm still a little stunned by some of the decisions made; for example, while I respect the hell out of Deborah Chow and think she's done some great work in Star Wars already, she was set up to do so and worked within someone else's structure. I feel like there are a few too many threads here to deliver on successfully for a six episode miniseries. I think this show needed either someone from a film background, or Dave Filoni needed to be more involved, my larger point being that it should have felt like a movie production which just so happened to be split into episodes rather than a TV production trying to feel like a movie; this should absolutely have been filmed on location (outside of California) rather than in The Volume. I feel like I say it about a lot of Star Wars projects, but Filoni wrote Obi-Wan for years across the animated shows, so of all of the people at Lucasfilm best positioned to have some input on this show - especially considering how he spoke to George at length about the prequels time and again! - it would be him. That he's only included in the end credits with a 'Special Thanks' boggles my mind a bit too, I know he's busy with lots of other things, but some of the stuff floating around from the writers of the show in interviews makes me wonder if they really were the best people for Star Wars; I mean, go look at Joby Harold's IMDb page, it's all over the place. As for your spoiler... But yeah, as usual for me with Star Wars, a long post to essentially just say: see where you're coming from, I agree, hopefully they manage to pull something special off with the last two episodes Funny you say that, because watching this episode I did start to think about how if you water it down to its essentials, it was very similar to the events on the Death Star in A New Hope. And this was Part IV of the show...

Beautiful track is beautiful:

Vinland Saga S2 lands January 2023! Ahhhhhhhhh!

Schreier posted this over on ResetEra in response to Game Reactor's findings: So...back to patiently waiting I guess? It's a weird one, as I was under the impression after it didn't turn up during the State of Play that Ragnarök be at Summer Game Fest, but then if TLOU Remake is coming in September, I don't know where they put an announcement for either game, as you'd think the one out first would be the one they next talk about and reveal the date before (whether that's at SGF or elsewhere). We've had mid-summer State of Plays before, so maybe one shows up there, but from memory I feel like they were mainly focused on third party titles they had to talk about, whereas the big stuff is typically saved for the September Showcase...which would seem to be too late for both?

Never realised you had this much faith in Bethesda!

Glances over at how they treated Horizon Zero Dawn Totally agree. If both games are landing in Q1, I think Ragnarök has to launch first; I could see BOTW2 launching in March and then Ragnarök being late January/February. If they don't, think they've got wait it out at least a month. Or at least, I think that would be the sensible thing to do...right? Glances over at how they treated Horizon Forbidden West

Grain of salt and all that, especially because I feel like European retailers and Spanish gaming news outlets have missed the mark a fair bit over the last few years (the Switch not launching with BOTW and some Pokémon magazine "scoops" come to mind)... ...but man, that'd suck if true. As things stand it's the only new SIE game officially slated for the latter half of the year (though I think we all are under the impression that the TLOU Remake is on its way), and it would look far, far worse than other delays just for the fact that it was originally (foolishly) slated for 2021 and because they've gone out of their way to reiterate that it's still coming in 2022. Also feels like it's been a good while since a game was rated and then delayed to be 6+ months away, can't remember off the top of my head when the last time was that it happened for a AAA title, but feels like it's been a while. Always other games to play, always other things to do, and for the health of the game and the team, if it's the right call, then it's the one that needs to be made. Do feel like it would be a terrible look for them if it happens, though; as if we needed more reasons for people piling on consoles they don't own (or do and don't have great interest in). Anyways, if it's true: congratulations to Elden Ring on winning GOTY had a much easier run at it than was originally supposed to be the case, but well deserved! Think we should probably start a betting pool on which of BOTW's sequel, Ragnarök, and Starfield launches last at this point @Dcubed the thread title would need updating with a date even if it released this year, but sure and yeah, does seem like they're lining up TLOU that way, even if it does come as early as September (as the recent leak seems to rather plainly suggest). I suppose they've got third party titles to lean on?

More RE4 Remake to be shown at Capcom's Showcase: Think that already means they've outdone their showing at last year's event

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Ragnarök has been moved seemingly from September to October or super early in November in light of this (which makes sense to me - I mean, when I think "Ragnarök" I think late autumn/winter, not late summer/early autumn!) -- just because if it is coming out this year, you know they want it to be a firm part of the GOTY discussion and get out prior to the TGA's deadline in mid-November, otherwise it'll get buried next year. I do also think there's a small possibility that they just moved it to December 31st so that it was clearly a placeholder date and coming by the end of the year, but not in a specific window, as before I think it was floating around that it was going to come in September based on the order of someone's registered interest on the PS Store? Which, if they're not ready to share a date yet, could be smart to just not put additional pressure on the team. September makes total sense for the TLOU Remake in my mind, though, because it's well placed for Factions to get strong attention in the multiplayer sphere (assuming they're launching alongside one another) as it's a decent distance (and different enough) to the big games we'd expect to see around it, it's a great game to play through in October, and also because, well, Last of Us Day is September 26th, and you know Naughty Dog would love to stick it as close to that date as possible I've actually been thinking a lot about The Last of Us remake since it first came up last year, and I've kind of held back on throwing my thoughts out there out of the blue, but I suppose this is as good a time as any to return to the topic. My view is still similar to before on the plan to remake the game: it's not really an asked for remake, there are other Naughty Dog games like the first Uncharted which I think could do with it more, but the leak was totally unwarranted and it could still turn out to be a spectacular showpiece and tighten the continuity between the original game and Part II mechanically. I actually think a remake just effectively with The Last of Us Part II tech would be a huge missed opportunity -- and it's a shame, because I feel it's a near certainty that this is the direction they've gone in. A direction I think they could have gone in to flesh out the world more and keep the original game intact would be to go back to one of the biggest criticisms of the original game: the lack of player ownership in the ending. Now, I love the ending of TLOU and think a first playthrough of the remake should be kept as is, but I think it would've been really cool if you saw an option to make a decision at the end of the game during a replay -- just how would that have played out? To extrapolate that further, I feel like you could then just continue to add more threads to the story like this to further drive a desire to replay the game multiple times, rewarding the biggest fans of TLOU - more decisions to make throughout the story could become available every time you replay the game, stretching further and further back into the story as you go having a greater impact on the story (multiple endings, different sets of characters the game could end with based on your decisions, etc.) and you could also get some alternative views of the story (for example, playing through a section as a different character or getting some more background on characters). Again, don't think this is the direction they're going in at all, but I think beyond remaking the game, this could have helped people come to terms with the idea of a remake (because of the additional content that makes this the definitive version, and because it's an affordable way in a relatively small scaled and tightly packed story to stretch it out further). Could totally see how a first trailer for this idea would go too... But yeah, anyways, that's my scattered pie-in-the-sky "man, I wish they would've done this rather than what we'll probably get as a close to 1:1 remake" that completely details the thread Back to TLOU Remake as we think we know it, I know it's a decision driven obviously by sales and wanting to tie into the HBO series coming next year, but something which really confuses me about this is that I feel like it does limit the scope of potential expansion for the audience -- let's be honest, because TLOU is on PS4, a TLOU Remake on PS5 is very likely to have a whole lot of players returning to the game, rather than getting new players into the IP. I feel like what they could have done - and hey, maybe will still do - is make a super simplified version of The Last of Us, like Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition or Telltale games, for mobile. Pop that onto app stores at £9.99 when the HBO series launches and just rake it all in. I love The Last of Us, but that game certainly feels like it could be scaled down in such a way, and it would be in line with PlayStation's recent moves in wanting to expand to other areas of the market. Especially in light of the continued limitation of component shortages on the sales of the PS5. Lastly, there is one thing in particular in the TLOU Remake that I'm really curious to see how they'll handle, assuming that they are making it in line with the mechanics of Part II: Anyways, that's all I've got to say about TLOU for now. That was unnecessarily long, but think I'm clearly in the mood to replay the game regardless before the Remake arrives

Watched through Part IV of Obi-Wan twice this morning. Why are these episodes getting shorter?! This episode is 38 minutes long with a 2 minute recap and 4 minutes of credits! Overall, quite liked this episode. Yeah, okay, it's annoying that it was a short one, and I do think there were a few weird shots throughout, but nothing too crazy that I'm desperate to highlight. Felt like the action flowed a lot better this week too, a lot less shaky cam I think? I also think the music was much better this week than it was last week, as while I'm still missing the classic themes and think there were spots to use or hint at them, this episode felt like it leaned so much more on the new theme Williams composed for Obi-Wan, which I'm a fan of and hadn't really been the case, I felt, in earlier episodes. I've been up and down on the show, but still, I love seeing Ewan and Hayden back in action. Gutting that we've only got two episodes left, but it's also one of those rare instances where I don't know if I'd even want a second season, weirdly, other than to see Ewan and Hayden again?

A sequel would serve the purpose of showing off and incorporating Joy-Con drift into gameplay

The new Bend logo continues the growing trend of generic studio/publisher logos and introduces more straight lines than bendy ones? Also further confirmation on and new details on the new IP they've got in the works:

Yeah, I don't know if that move would wreak more of desperation, impatience, or trying to keep Keighley in good stead? I guess they can reiterate it at their own show, but it's an odd move Also, the wording in the quote is driving me a little nuts: surely Game Pass is the service and the addition of time-limited game trials would be an additional feature to existing Game Pass users, rather than it being a service unto itself?

It's a weird one, and I think it could really go either way. Personally, I hope we get one, simply because I think Nintendo's June presentations have consistently been some of the better summer shows since 2016. I think I saw something floating around that Jeff Grubb had heard a few people talking about how Nintendo might have a few smaller things over the next month rather than one big grand event which tells all, and I think that would suit certain games on the horizon which would likely get a solid 5-10 minutes of extended gameplay shown off anyways, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or Splatoon 3. Thinking about it, I am kind of surprised that they haven't tried to push for more smaller presentations focused on certain games -- I feel like Treehouse is something which could easily be year-round rather than just in June for E3 (or Not-E3), and I feel like with the right people included, it could get us back to a feeling I know some people miss of getting to know Nintendo higher-ups more as characters and individuals. On the other hand, I feel like some smaller titles, like Live-A-Live, could get absolutely buried if not shown off during a big summer Nintendo presentation as one last reminder that that game actually exists. I can't imagine the sales expectations for that game being impossibly high, mind you, it would just be strange if it didn't get one last final push like that. I also can't help but wonder if Geoff might've stolen some potentially big titles from under Nintendo's nose. I'm not saying it will happen (as I think it'd be a bad idea with how quiet the game has been for...well, forever), but can you imagine if Silksong was going to get shadow-dropped within the next week, and Geoff secured that for Summer Game Fest rather than having it be part of a Nintendo presentation? Him having a show not entirely focused on one brand could certainly help get more and more developers to subscribe to showing their game at the event, especially with how it's quickly turned into the E3 equivalent of Gamescom's Opening Night Live. My final glimmer of hope that we do get something, really, comes from me speculating that, if when dealing with the ESA, Nintendo had to announce their event at least X days prior to the beginning of E3 or their event (i.e. legally obliged due to contracts). With E3 cancelled for the second time this year, I wonder if they can now just treat it like a typical Direct; so, if we're getting it next Tuesday, maybe it's not announced until this Thursday or Friday, as they're under no real obligation to do so any earlier? Let me just hold onto this hope so that I can be crushed by disappointment

Pre-orders for the Collector's Edition won't begin until late July (?!), you can now register your interest:

Berserk is going to be continuing in the hands of some of those Miura trusted most: Nervous after hearing how the accidental ending as a result of his untimely death was perfect in its own way, but we'll see what happens!