Julius

Disney+ Day news for Star Wars has started dropping... ...and then they switched over to Pixar, which will be going on for the next little while, followed Marvel. I hope that's not all there is for Star Wars, was really hoping for a Kenobi trailer, especially as this leaked yesterday.

Today turned out to be a really quiet day for me at work, I'm ahead of schedule on projects and all of my meetings got cancelled, so I very much regret not jumping in on today's session and just keeping my laptop to hand which class did you try out? Excited to hear (well, read) some first impressions But yeah, definitely excited. I'm also really curious to see how I get on, with my "newest" From game technically being the first Dark Souls (huh, I've only played remasters so far!), as I know they update their engine with each game but there was definitely a leap when they moved into last gen and Bloodborne from what I've seen of that game. This is a very long-winded way of saying I expect to get thrown around even more than I normally do in these games Can see myself coming out of this weekend and in the mood to go back and play through the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. Really excited to hopefully get in on Day 1 with this, I've definitely enjoyed a lot of what I've experienced in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, but there's definitely a temptation with those games to look things up and feeling like I'm missing things just being so far removed from their initial releases, which I hopefully won't have to go through with Elden Ring. Shame I'm going to probably kick Horizon Forbidden West to the curb at launch as there's no chance I'll be able to finish and enjoy that in a week before going straight into this, but that's PlayStation's fault for being stupid enough to release their open world game one week before From Software's

Sony has reduced PS5 production for the fiscal year from 16 million to 15 million units. The chip shortage claims another victim.

I agree with @Glen-i that in all likelihood Game Freak unfortunately would have very little say over who the game would be outsourced to, and that TPCi likely made the call for ILCA to get involved. This is total speculation on my part, building on my earlier thought that ILCA likely got called in too late / with little wiggle room after COVID, but I think what happened is: • Game Freak went to TPCi with the ambition to create an open world Pokémon game. Whether this was a response to the very noticeable feedback we've seen in the last few years I don't think really matters, but I think Game Freak may have overestimated their own staff's suitability, in size and experience, for work on an open world Pokémon game, and potentially even underestimated how long they would need to work on such a game. I think there was probably a level of compromise here as TPCi likely figured the next set of remakes (Diamond & Pearl) would need to be outsourced if they wanted them out by the end of 2021 for the 25th anniversary of the series, and at the same time would trust Game Freak to create an open world Pokémon game. It wouldn't surprise me if something more like Breath of the Wild was their original ambition, but the release of Monster Hunter World in 2018 - and it's crazy level of success - makes me think that they likely pivoted to what we've seen over the last few months: a game much more like Monster Hunter World, and much less like Pokémon x Breath of the Wild (main base, more open zones, methods of traversing the world, etc.). The other compromise would likely be that the open world project would take place in an already designed region to help them get to full production sooner, and to have it be part of a spin-off series to mitigate any damage to the reputation of the main series should it bomb. They can insist that "Legends" is core series all they want, if it bombs you know they'll rewrite the history books. • after the launch of Sword & Shield, and with plans for DLC, I think the trigger was pulled on the Diamond & Pearl remakes at the end of 2019 to head into full production. Game Freak's structure has constantly been changing, and I think there were likely only a few of them who would have helped advise ILCA during the development of the remakes, but let's not forget that there was only one year between the releases of X & Y and Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, likely being worked on for the most part by half of Game Freak's staff before scaling up towards release (back when they seemed to have the A-team and B-team structure to churn out projects, not too dissimilar to how Call of Duty cycles between three development studios to churn out annual entries). Two years for top-down remakes of Pokémon games and potentially with a limited scope, maybe some plans for Platinum content to be included? I'm not too familiar with ILCA's work, but I think something like that was the original plan: two years to develop Diamond & Pearl remakes. And, if anything, as a bit of a trial run. • the one thing no-one could account for: COVID. Again, I'm not too familiar with ILCA's work (and there honestly seems to be very little out there about them), but we all heard plenty last year about just how much game studios in Japan struggled to transition to working from home. This easily could have impacted 6 - 9 months of development on the game for ILCA, and if they were only given around two years, that's a massive amount. I reckon if there were any plans to incorporate Platinum content (let's not forget just how loud the community's outcry was in retaliation to how Emerald content was handled in ORAS), they were quickly scrapped or scaled way down in scope. Honestly, if they had any plans to incorporate more realised trainer models in the overworld they would have had to be scrapped too (something more akin to Let's Go, for example), and so I don't think it's a surprise at all how these games turned out looking visually divisive. I mean, look at just how much has had to be put into a pre-release patch, including very major aspects of the post-game content and the game's music! Why did they have to make 2021? Well, it's the year of the 25th anniversary, there will have been no new core series titles for two years at this point, and because of the all-out multimedia barrage that is Pokémon merchandising, anime, etc., it's just too big a wheel to stop turning. I'm not at all excusing how it's been handled, because I've found it a bit of a rollercoaster myself the last week or so, but I don't think the blame can be put on ILCA, or potentially even Game Freak. I think the very fact that ILCA managed to turn around these games in what could easily have been the originally planned release window agreed upon prior to COVID is a feat that I'm sure will see them getting more opportunities to work with Pokémon in the future. Just, hopefully, with more time for development and a greater scope and budget for what they want to do with the games they work on. Back to your original point though @Ronnie, I totally agree that remakes in the style of the Link's Awakening remake would have been great -- I know I would have liked it. To some extent, I think that sort of toy-like look might have even been what ILCA would have been looking at originally, but it might have been reduced due to the apparent time constraints. As others have mentioned before, I would absolutely love to see other games in Nintendo's library (ahem, the Mother series) get that treatment too!

We got a 10 minute suite for this game performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices, introduced by Inon Zur during Skyrim's 10th anniversary concert. Sounds incredible. This or some other games might get delayed, but for now, 2022 is looking freaking stacked. The other day, Todd Howard also confirmed that you can pick your pronoun in the game, and that the voice-acting in the game will support this. You love to see it! Todd Howard confirmed last year to The Telegraph that both Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI will be running on an overhauled Creation Engine dubbed - wait for it, you'll be surprised by the totally original name! - the Creation Engine 2. (Source: VGC, because the original interview with The Telegraph is unfortunately locked behind a paywall)

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's been delayed to Early 2022: A lot of delays this week!

Yeah, it seems to be in very rough shape at the moment. Even on the PS5 in Performance Mode and with the Day 1 patch it seems to be a far cry from running at a stable 60 fps, though it does seem to get better as you get to the later games in the collection, where explosions and massive gunfights seem to be the reason for the drops in framerate. And I found this hilarious: None that I've seen going around. If I'm not mistaken, today is actually the first time we've seen gameplay of the Switch version after we had the first screenshots the other day, which speaks volumes. I might be mistaken but I think I saw somewhere claiming that the Switch version only ran at 720p (I don't remember anything on framerate), but as I imagine Rockstar would have wanted, I'm having trouble verifying this because trying to find Switch details and comparisons on this is impossible; they've been buried in the talk of the other versions. Really hoping Digital Foundry jump on this sooner rather than later for comparisons, it seems a botched job at best right now though in terms of performance.

I don't expect it to be there, but it's one of those cases where I'll more than happily be wrong if it does turn up. I know Nintendo did things with TGA's in promoting BotW years before when we were getting early looks, BotW won GOTY from them, and they revealed and shadow dropped the Champion's Ballad DLC along with the show that year too, so it's not like Breath of the Wild isn't at home at The Game Awards. I think trying to apply to logic to Nintendo's ways is like trying to wash up with a bar of soap, but I think there are some fairly logical reasons for why it might not be there. For one: early 2022 is absolutely stacked with open world games which on paper could easily be GOTY contenders in Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West, both pencilled in for February releases. Admittedly we do know very little about the second half of next year at this stage, where if BotW2 makes 2022 it'll likely release, so maybe the second half of the year could be just as stacked. And then there's the fact that there's the first "true" open world Pokémon game in Legends: Arceus coming out at the end of January. Even though the more we learn about this game, the more limited it seems to be in structure and design (more comparable to Monster Hunter World), I think we've already seen and will continue to see the dreadful and kind of lazy "this is Pokémon's Breath of the Wild" headlines. I'm not sure Nintendo will want either game to eat into the other's time in the limelight, especially because Legends: Arceus is going to get a short continuous campaign as far as Pokémon games go, as the Diamond & Pearl remakes launch next week. And then there's the fact that other than showing new gameplay, I don't feel like they'd have an update on something like the date here, just given the prospective timeline for the game? So the idea of having an awesome trailer and then it still saying "2022" at the end as opposed to a particular month or quarter would just ring kind of flat, like Little Devil Inside not having a release date update in the most recent State of Play. I think the wiser thing for them to do would be to wait until E3 2022 and then crush everything around it with an update on the release date (which could easily be "Sorry, we meant 2023!"), a great meaty trailer to sink your teeth into, and plenty of Treehouse footage. While it could go either way and I'd love to see it there, I feel like something totally unexpected could be just as fitting here, like a Mario Odyssey sequel or that heavily rumoured DK game. Personally, I just want an update on two games and will be happy with either of them. Firstly, Final Fantasy XVI, seeing as we've got naught all year and were told last year to expect some kind of update in 2021. We'll be a few weeks removed from Endwalker at that point too, so fingers crossed! And of course, for the other one like I mentioned before, I just really want that update on Fumito Ueda's next game. It's been radio silent other than an image or two of concept art on their website ever since Epic Games got involved to publish, and I feel Epic would want to throw it in here to showboat a bit to other publishers.

We're in the cursed timeline. Can't believe they got Naruto before Dragon Ball.

The soundtrack has been updated as part of the pre-release patch. Thank Arceus for that. So here's an example of one of the MIDI tracks before this patch got released, the Trainer Theme: And here is what it sounds like now: Not to speak to the quality of the arrangement just yet, but that at least sounds a whole lot better in terms of fidelity. You know, not like someone has shoved a sock down the trumpets We're just over a week from release, and I've got to admit, I'm still very torn on picking the game up as a result of how clearly rushed this game's release has been. I do want to return to Sinnoh, I do want to listen to the soundtrack, and I do want to see the post-game in action, but I feel like the pre-release leaks have cast a pretty permanent cloud over any enjoyment I might have of the game. And I seriously hope reviewers drag this game - and TPC - over the coals and make it clear that a Pokémon game, of all games, has been shipped in a completely unacceptable form. I honestly think that's a factor in me still wanting to pick it up too, as once it's released it would be unfair for me to critique a game I haven't played. Has anyone else's purchase of this game been cancelled because of the news over the last few days, or at the very least called into question?

Another update on The Game Awards, courtesy of Geoff Keighley, courtesy of...Epic Games? Please, please, please let Ueda's next game be here

Steam Deck launch delayed by two months to February 2022. Mine wasn't due for me to confirm my order until Q2 anyways, and I'm in no real rush for it either, so...oh well, these things happen!

Oh, I get you now, didn't know you were on about that promotion. Honestly, that's a fair point in those cases, though I doubt most outside of the gaming industry's web of news made use of it? But that could just be a totally misplaced hunch of mine. I know I'd totally be on it too if I had an Xbox right now, though I'd probably also be one of those ponying up for the Premium Bundle too. I honestly don't think I want to try to get my head around how much Xbox have had to haemorrhage to offer promotions like that. I think it will be really interesting to see when the price goes up (I'd assume when Starfield releases next year), and how they're going to keep the model sustainable. But I've probably derailed the thread enough, so to get back on topic: to those of you playing, which car/s are you mainly driving around? Is there a particular car that you're really looking forward to taking for a spin?

Embargo is up, and so previews / impressions are coming in hot ahead of this weekend's Network Test. The hype is tangible

Okay, so something not totally apparent in today's update from the video, but is on the official site...the Genome Slates are based on the cartridge design of the game that the Legendary Pokémon it is designed for is originally from. GB cartridge for Mewtwo. GB cartridge for the legendary birds. GBA cartridge for Rayquaza. I kind of love it. Honestly, maybe it's just me and because it seemed so rare to see someone with certain event Pokémon back in the day, but legendary Pokémon just don't really seem that...well...legendary anymore? They give away almost as many legendary Pokémon as Oprah does cars, it's a bit perplexing. I remember the excitement for the 20th anniversary, seeing all of the event Pokémon be released over the course of 2016, and now they're in each game like sardines in a can.

Full details of tomorrow's patch that @Ike mentioned: Yeah, it's way more than just the music and bug fixes expected from the leaks...and it doesn't even mention the music here, hopefully it feels under "Other adjustments and corrections were made to improve the gameplay experience." And all official tweets following this latest update have a follow-up set of tweets in an attempt to keep things transparent I guess? I wonder if they've had time to update the box with these details -- that online is needed to update the game to actually have full access to a lot of the post-game content? Either way...what a mess. I'd like to say detailing Ramanas Park (at least we know what Pal Park is in this game now!) this late would have to do with the leaks, but I seem to remember the Delta Episode being detailed very late into the marketing for ORAS too. Which honestly just makes them seem more lost. Not super keen on Mew and Jirachi requiring save data from previous games (it's like the Poké Ball Plus all over again), much less being available as seemingly early as Floaroma Town. Kind of wish they'd nip remakes in the bud now rather than try to remake Black & White at this rate.

Haha oh wow, it's been a long week! I wouldn't say it's what I want the most, but the fact that the only good dogfights we've really had in a film since Disney took the reins were way back in Rogue One, I'm definitely hungry for it. On the second point, I guess there's a first time for everything Iger wanting to go out on the obscene high of Endgame, Toy Story 4 and Episode IX in the same year really clouded his judgment I feel, and obviously The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Solo all had plenty of reason to be delayed. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that is the case, but if anything I feel like the only reason Disney would give into Lucasfilm on something like this is how poorly Episode IX turned out, critically and financially (when compared to other Star Wars films and even the other films in its trilogy). Yeah, I read that and I think I maybe just jumped the gun and assumed it was Feige's film, because I feel that's been in the works a bit longer than has been let on in the past, and also because if there's someone out there who can run a ship so tightly that their film can take the place of Rogue Squadron in 2023, it's absolutely going to be Feige. Honestly I feel like they risk confusing more casual fans with The Old Republic and High Republic split. The former is getting a game probably releasing by the middle of the decade, and potentially some films in the works, but the latter so far is largely published works. If they want to make The High Republic their connected universe thing, which I feel is the plan, then yeah, they really need to get to work on it I feel: animated series, live-action film, the works.

PlayStation Direct has gone live in the UK!

I know what you mean, but that mindset is exactly why subscription services like Game Pass do so well I think it's a great amount of players, but I think the really interesting thing will be seeing what that figure is a few months from now, especially compared (probably internally, since Xbox aren't one to share numbers) to earlier games. Does players giving the game a go on Game Pass mean a crazy peak at launch offset by players being more open to dropping the game seeing as it was include in Game Pass? If anything, as it's not a number of copies sold, I think this number really highlights the growth of Game Pass over the last few years. It is worth noting, though, that there were more than 1 million players who got access to the game a few days early (some in this thread), either through paying for the Premium Edition of the game (RRP £84.99) or the Premium Add-ons Bundle if you had Game Pass (RRP £39.99). Which I'd say is probably even more nuts than the figures Phil Spencer gave, because I could easily see the earlier access model being utilised more for Xbox Game Studios games moving forwards given its success here.

It's been a fairly quiet year for news by Star Wars standards, but the last week or so has seen a flurry of activity. Firstly, as originally reported by THR, Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron has been delayed out of 2023 due to scheduling conflicts. However, some on the leaks side of things have actually stated that production isn't going well behind the scenes. Which, with Lucasfilm's track record since the move to Disney, has happened so frequently that maybe we should have been expecting it to happen again? Elsewhere, One Take News got the scoop on Chloé Zhao being the director for Kevin Feige's Star Wars film. According to some, the film will be set before any other film in the Star Wars universe - and with KOTOR Remake on the horizon, I don't think it's too crazy that we start to see other Old Republic era media on the way. Something I've been fawning over the last few days is the re-release of the cinematic trailers for The Old Republic in 4K, coinciding with the game's 10 year anniversary. So far, only Deceived and Return have been re-release, but rest assured the others are on the way. Can't believe it's been over a decade -- I remember going crazy over Deceived back towards the end of primary school! Which makes me feel a little nauseous...still think these are the gold standard for cinematic trailers. I'd love to see these on the big screen, or better yet one day have a full film like this. It would cost a fortune and take a lot of time to render, but just look how good they still look! To round it out, Andor is apparently going to last for three seasons; LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga might be releasing on 5th April 2022 (and weirdly no, apparently they didn't mean 4th May?) according to the GeForce leaks; and Matt Smith has finally talked loosely about his cut role from The Rise of Skywalker. With Disney+ Day tomorrow on Friday, there's a special going up on the service relating to Boba Fett, and I would expect some more official news and potentially a teaser / trailer or two. Been a pretty crazy news week, hope we get a first look at Kenobi tomorrow on Friday!

Those are some pretty insane numbers, but from the reviews and what people have said here, it seems deserved! This game (and, well, franchise) is by far the biggest reason I'll be picking up a Series X at some point...I'm just not sure when.

Meanwhile, TPC:

So, apparently the (estimated) release date for the game has been showing as 8th April 2022 for a week or so now on the eShop? Thought I'd double check this against the Nintendo Store, and sure enough... There's no way a date like that is a placeholder, right? But then there's the small print captioning the fuzzy promo art saying it's planned for release in Spring 2022, so who knows Pretty bizarre that this slip-up hasn't been picked up and corrected by anyone over at Nintendo yet, regardless of its accuracy. And if it is accurate, I've got to admit, that's a bit later than I was expecting (I thought maybe late Feb / March).

I remember last time this came up thinking that I remembered something coming out earlier about them being at the halfway point, but I thought maybe my perception was way off as a result of 2020 being what it was. David Gibson, who sits in on the Investors Q&A, actually shared that Nintendo's perspective was that the Switch was "barely in the middle of the Switch life cycle" way back in May 2020 after releasing their end-of-year report. So if we were to take that literally, then the Switch being 3 years old at that point would mean a 6 year life cycle ending in 2023. Now, obviously this was before the true extent of COVID was known, and plans are always changing. The middle of a 30cm ruler is 15cm, but the middle of a sandwich is anything between the two slices of bread, so to apply that here, the Switch could have been 50% way through its life in May 2020 or it could have been starting what Nintendo considers the middle of its life, the middle 33% - 50% I do hear you on them saying it'll have a longer life than most, but would a Pro extend that? I'd argue yes. But what about a Switch 2, or something so clearly a Switch successor that still carried the Switch name? I don't know, but if Nintendo considers it part of the Switch family, and there is no real difference in the "gimmick"/USP unlike the stereoscopic 3D from DS to 3DS, with the only bump being in processing capabilities, but the core concept of a hybrid console is clear front and centre, I guess that could still be argued to be extending the life of the Switch too. Nintendo has always been a fickle pickle as it is, as they are by far the most unpredictable company in the video game industry, and honestly probably only second off the top of my head next to Tesla, who have a nutjob like Musk playing yo-yo with his company's valuation and paying his taxes. Which is my very kind way of admitting that I think trying to predict what Nintendo does next requires an almost complete absence of logic, and yet a hell of a lot of it at the same time. The Switch Pro for example, I still think transitioned into what we got with the OLED. Pretty much everything lined up with the rumours we got before this year except the boost in performance capabilities, and the change was most likely brought about by the ongoing chip shortage. So what would Nintendo do with a potential Pro model now? I think it really depends on how the chip shortage situation develops, and their confidence in being first in line once it starts to subside. On the one hand, they could just leave the Pro in the dust, as the OLED has practically served the purpose of getting a "better" console out there in terms of screen size and clarity, and instead pool resources into getting a Switch successor ready to go. If that happens, maybe 2023 isn't too crazy a time for the Switch successor - the new console would sell out regardless, so it's not like the chip shortage will put a massive dent in their projections with the chip shortage potentially to subside in the following 12-18 months from launch (this is based on current reports on a changing situation, so could easily be different by the time we get there). I also think marketing a Pro and OLED model at the same time is something if a catastrophe waiting to happen, and I can already imagine the confusion from the average consumer. A 2023 launch alongside a potentially delayed-again Breath of the Wild sequel would be pretty great. On the other hand, Nintendo could just as well go the other way: if the Switch successor isn't going to be able to sell like crazy when compared to the Switch from the off (which you know they will want to be the case for their investors), then maybe a Pro model extending the life of the Switch wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. It would buy them time to make it past the chip shortage, buy them R&D time for the Switch's successor, and probably help cement the Switch's sales history as one of the greatest seen since the jump to HD development in the home console market. So I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Seems like invites to the Network Test this weekend have started to be sent out, just got mine and very excited to be giving it a go! This info has been going around before, but might as well throw it in here: Times Session 1 - November 12: 11:00 to 14:00 GMT Session 2 - November 13: 03:00 to 06:00 GMT Session 3 - November 13: 19:00 to 22:00 GMT Session 4 - November 14: 11:00 to 14:00 GMT Session 5 - November 15: 03:00 to 06:00 GMT I'm working on Friday, so will probably only be trying to check out sessions 3 and 4 I guess! Character Presets The five available character presets were revealed a few days ago. Think I'll be going with Bloody Wolf first, as someone who has sword-and-boarded their way through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls so far I was thinking about going for a Greatsword in whichever medieval fantasy From game I played next, so it seems a good fit! If I get a chance to try another it'll probably be the Enchanted Knight, it's really clear from the gameplay preview last week just how much they've put into making the spells really pop on screen.