Julius

Some previews have gone up today: What is up with Chimchar's neck?!

Cowboy Bebop is coming back to Netflix next week to get everyone ready for the live-action adaptation: I just finished watching it back in August on YouTube in a playlist with an episode missing, go figure! Something similar happened with Hunter x Hunter finally landing on our shores after I watched it too... ...maybe this is how I get Dragon Ball to come to UK streaming services?

A rising tide raises all ships: Metroid is crushing it on the Wii U Virtual Console!

To each their own I guess, but for me it's just about having the option to play the way you want to play. Some might breeze through a biome, others might want to hop in and out, and others might want to stick around and smell the roses; maybe I'm wrong, but from what I remember from reading a review or two at launch is that if you really want to take your time in a biome, you could be there a while. I'm not saying to change the game's structure or add multiple saves, but something like the option to quick-save mid-run which deletes when you load back in or die can only be a net positive in my eyes. I know people got around this with suspending the game or rest mode to an extent, but if your console updates/crashes/there's anything that might turn your console off during that time, you've lost progress on that run for no real good reason. Some might say "it's just a game" or "well I did it without", but not everyone has the opportunity to just sit down and play a game without being interrupted for hours at a time. I can see that being an issue for others, especially those not familiar with the genre or more challenging games in general (both of which I'd say are more applicable to me). I'm not saying it's something they have to do for me to pick the game up - because I still plan to - but I'd like to see it. At the very least, it would inspire confidence that they've listened to community feedback, which in cases like this is always a cool thing to see a studio act on.

An update on this from VGC: Some odd choices going on with remakes these days, first Aspyr getting the KOTOR Remake and now Virtuos reportedly getting Snake Eater. Then there was also CyberConnect getting Final Fantasy VII Remake, obviously before S-E brought it under their own roof. I wonder if we'll see a minor rebranding if they are going with a Snake Eater remake to kick things off? Wouldn't make sense calling it "MGS3 Remake" in my mind if most haven't actually played MGS3 and don't have easy access to the original or earlier games, as is the case on the current platforms besides Xbox through backwards compatibility. While I know Metal Gear is obviously Kojima's child, I think Metal Gear Solid in particular is what comes to mind as really being his own thing, so I could see Konami calling this game "Metal Gear: Operation Snake Eater" or something along those lines. Could be a smart move starting with this game anyways, as it is as the start of the timeline. I can't see them remaking or wanting to adapt Peace Walker, there's no way they're going to touch MGS V, so after a Snake Eater remake, maybe we'd then be moving onto adapting Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2? I haven't played either, but I don't think they're particularly long, so depending on how they're adapted I could see them being treated as one game, if it makes sense to do so in terms of the story? Assuming those sell well, it could all build massive hype to the main event: a remake of Metal Gear Solid (assuming these are all multi-platform I would hope it wouldn't be an exclusive, even on PlayStation, and not being remade by Bluepoint...which would be unfortunate!). Tweak some things to make it a new Metal Gear universe and keep it a bit fresh, and you could have a great trilogy on your hands there (I mean, conceptually at least) which kind of comes full circle. I do really like 4 as a great way to bring it all together, but I feel like that game would be better off with a remaster (plus the Apple licensing makes it a weird one), and 2 is very much a Kojima thing, and probably being considered the black sheep in the series by most, I don't know if they'd want to remake it. Especially if they have the opportunity to end on Metal Gear Solid Remake. Or this could just be Konami being Konami and they start by remaking 3 before making 6 or expanding on Peace Walker to focus on Big Boss and give him his own saga instead, or or or, they just want to lead into Survive more smoothly

Cross-save and cross-play aren't happening, sorry guys

Once it became clear last year that my work situation would most likely become the option of permanently working from home, I ordered the Herman Miller Aeron. It can go for £1k - sometimes more depending on the colour - but a little looking around showed me you could get a refurbished one for around £500 at the time, and looking around now, it seems you still can. Also lucky that even though I'm on a relatively low position in Big Bank™, they had to cough up some change for the transition to working from home once it was apparent it would be the long-term situation. There was a bit of slight wear on the wheels and the frame needed a bit of cleaning up, but nothing too crazy. We had similar chairs in the office which I was a fan of, and I'm incredibly anal about posture, have been since sitting on a stool in a science classroom for the first time. I'm also pretty sure my dad has a chronic back issue, which I want to do everything in my means to avoid, and at the time I ordered it I'd been working from a dining chair for a couple of weeks, which just isn't right for any workstation (too low, I could feel it causing circulation issues, so I needed to get up and walk about every 15 minutes). I'm also one of those people that goes big when they buy something so that it will last a while (either in terms of future-proofing or just paying for quality to avoid losing out to general wear and tear earlier than necessary). Zero complaints about it to be honest, which I think is the ideal scenario when it comes to chairs!

Current subscription prices: 1 month - £3.49 3 months - £6.99 12 months - £17.99 Family plan - £31.49 My guesses for the Expansion Pack tier: 1 month - £4.99 (+43%) 3 months - £9.99 (+43%) 12 months - £24.99 (+39%) Family plan - £39.99 (+27%) The only real rhyme or reason to my thinking is that it takes them to nice round numbers which give the illusion of not being too much of a bump, when they're actually fairly substantial. There's a chance it could be more, but then I do think you get into the territory of people comparing Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus to this more closely, which is why I think it'd be a bit risky to charge over £40 for any of their subscriptions at any tier, even if the family plan is (on paper) a terrific deal. I also have a sneaking suspicion - which could be waaaaaaay off - that the family plan is their most popular plan, but also isn't fully utilised (how many people are actually using the maximum 8 accounts?), which is another reason I could see them wanting to keep it from getting too high. Plus, if they plan on keeping this service around for the long haul and a potential Switch successor, along with adding more legacy platform titles at a later date, I think it'd be smart for them to keep the ceiling low so that they still have some wiggle room to pump it up some more in the future. I can see an annual family plan going for £49.99 when they add a Handheld Expansion with Game Boy titles followed later by Game Boy Advance titles, and then £59.99 when they add GameCube titles (...and maybe Dreamcast? Though this year it might be down to it being SEGA's anniversary I guess). It could get a bit complex to follow at that point for an impulse buy, but then again, that kind of is what the subscription model is all about: getting you locked into a subscription and maybe hoping you forget it's set to auto-renew. Depending on how many more consoles are added by the time we get to the Switch successor, I could see them streamlining things and removing the lowest tier. From the Direct: I'd hope it's as simply as a flat upgrade fee, depending on how many months you have left of your current subscription. My family plan subscription only renewed last month, so fingers crossed! But, this is Nintendo. What we're more realistically looking at for those with existing memberships to change over to the new membership is something like this:

Well, we've got threads for the NES and SNES Online apps, so here's one for the upcoming Expansion Pack, which will include N64 and SEGA Mega Drive games, as announced in the September 2021 Nintendo Direct. The Expansion Pack will be launching in late October 2021. Software Nintendo 64 Launch line-up: Select titles, such as Mario Kart 64, will also include support for local and online multiplayer for up to four players. Future titles: SEGA Mega Drive Launch line-up: Hardware Wireless N64 and SEGA Mega Drive controllers will be made available to Nintendo Switch Online members. These will each be priced at £39.99 / €49.99. Other details We have also had confirmation that all N64 games included in the service can be played in their 60Hz versions in Europe too. The original European PAL versions will be available on select titles too, but this seemed to be one of the concerns I'd seen floated around about the service, so it's nice to get an update!

PSA: Rockstar are today removing the ability to purchase the ports of the PS2 games previously available on the PlayStation Store and the original versions of the game available on digital storefronts today, as outlined here. Considering that we haven't even seen these Definitive Editions in action - heck, not even in still screenshots! - before the ports of the originals are removed is quite frankly disgusting. It's terrible for video game preservation, and it's a gross business practice, considering these ports are available on, for example, the PlayStation Store for £28.99 in a bundle currently, and these so-called Definitive Editions which we haven't seen anything of could well be released at a hefty and modern price of around £60. And the fact that they refuse to show anything of the Definitive Editions before pulling this means it's probably just an updated control scheme and updated - but not truly modern - textures and assets. Rockstar, Now to figure out if I'm going to pick up the ports...

Imagine we'll get more concrete figures in the coming days, but it seems to be performing very well based on the data available so far.

Hope you're all doing well @LazyBoy! I feel bad suggesting tracks from games I haven't played...but I have way too much time on my hands at work that video game music compilations help me keep my sanity. Which means a whole lot of Nintendo games I have yet to play, and the game I haven't played but instantly came to mind for this has to be Mario Galaxy. There's a calmness to the music that is pretty much perfect for this I think! (to be honest, any of the Comet Observatory variations will probably be suitable, but it's hard to not love 3) And you kind of need Aquatic Ambience I think... Then for some games I have played... Will definitely add some more as I think of them, but hopefully that'll be a good start! EDIT:

The dream for some sort of quick save or auto save feature lives on! Really do hope it comes, especially as we're quickly heading into GOTY season, and catching up on some the contenders is something I want to get around to. Fingers crossed!

So, Kotaku have an update to offer on the open world not being open world, but actually Monster Hunter-esque... ...and yeah, considering what we've learned about the game since August, I'll be honest, I'm surprised I didn't pick up on it sooner. The rolling and capture mechanics, etc., it makes a whole lot more sense now I feel. It sounds like it's going the Monster Hunter route of having zonal open areas you go to for a mission and return to base from before heading out on another mission, rather than being open world in the same vein as Breath of the Wild (everyone's go to, I was still just hoping for a Xenoblade situation to be honest). In which case, boy oh boy have Nintendo and TPCi kind of bottled the messaging on this. While the mechanics and gameplay loop were clearly Monster Hunter styled, if it is a case of zones to complete rather than an open world, then I really think they've misrepresented the open world nature of the game to this point. I mean, look at the box art for crying out loud! The entire thing does start making a while lot more sense with this context, though. I mean, golly, what game came out three to four years ago that might have inspired this move? Monster Hunter World released in January 2018, and if I'm remembering right, is Capcom's best-selling game. Consider too how well the MH games tend to do in Japan, and I think it makes even more sense. Don't get me wrong, the mechanics were clearly there to suggest this, but that it sounds like you go to zones to complete missions rather than traverse through a "real" open world suddenly makes it all click. Hey, maybe I'm reading too far into it and you do need to travel to these zones first - which actually suddenly makes the inclusion of mounts make way more sense, it's essentially a fast(er) travel system to get out there, rather than to just explore - and it is open world in that sense, but positioning it as a MH Pokémon game rather than a true and proper open world Pokémon game really made it click in my head for some reason. No doubt everyone else already figured this out, but man, I wish they marketed it in a way that this was absolutely crystal clear, because it seems like they were banking on people thinking this was something it clearly isn't. The lack of multiplayer is a bit odd for such a game if that is the case, but I think it makes way more sense to me now. Now, if it does have zones rather than an open world and looks this rough, though, there's a much more compelling argument regarding the game's appearance, though maybe less so if it is open world and you travel through it to get to whichever zone your mission is in.

Got mine too. Pretty trash, though, as it didn't turn up in my 'Focused' Outlook inbox, so I only caught it by chance. I think I might have even missed out last time they did this. 100% agree with @Glen-i, Mystery Gift was always the right way to do events like this (and especially during COVID times). It's just an altogether frustrating experience; just make it a timed WiFi event for a month/limited window and let that be that! PlayStation apparently runs a similar thing for some regions for some first party games, where if you get a Platinum trophy, you'll get a code through email to get a cool set of avatars, and back on PS4, a wallpaper. But I say apparently because I've never got one of these emails, and neither has anyone else that I've ever come across

End of an era. Guess the recent rumours about Nagoshi leaving SEGA for NetEase were true I wonder if this means Daisuke Sato is heading there with him? And a very Yakuza-looking photo of the new Ryu Ga Gotoku family captains: Masayoshi Yokoyama (who has been working on the games since Yakuza 2, and directed and wrote the script for Yakuza 5) will be stepping up to the position of Studio Lead. More details on the restructure on RGG's site here. For anyone interested, this Archipel video is an excellent look at Nagoshi's time at RGG:

Shenmue anime trailer: Left hanging waiting for that main theme to kick in Looks really good though, hope it's solid and we see it continued. I still haven't played III, but after what I've heard and read about it, it's definitely on the back burner, and I'm finding it hard to imagine IV is released as a game at this point. In which case, would love to see it continued as an anime. Again, so long as the music comes back. Obviously the true dream would be the Yakuza folk over at RGG bring allowed to remake the originals or make IV with Suzuki's oversight, but you know...

Don't get me started, it's not out in the US yet either. For something they want to push as the next Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, seeing the staggered release has been really bizarre; I know it's getting a HBO Max release in the US simultaneously, but I really think there's something to be said for the zeitgeist at a film's release which opens up this black hole that many people can get sucked into, but yeah, COVID and all that. I believe the staggered international release was talked about near the start of the year, so I imagine it was in large part going off the restrictions in place and the plans each territory had moving forwards at the time It's funny though, I thought it was bad for us, but I even read that Australia don't get it until December? It's been a few years since I read the book, so I'm thinking of blasting through it again next week, but yeah, this was my main concern going into the film (that it would feel like a part one and not necessarily have a natural stopping point? Because I can't remember one from the book), and I've seen it reflected elsewhere in what I've glanced over of the reviews. Does really make me wish that they'd given it the full backing and the Infinity War-Endgame/Avatar sequels/LOTR treatment of shooting the parts back-to-back, because now there's a hunger for the sequel and...it's at least two years away under the most ideal of conditions, but with COVID being what it is I think there are a lot of question marks over when it'll come. It's nice to know that it's since seen success and has a more noticeable backing now, though. Think that was the other concern I had too, what you mention about the politics, as the book does a lot of heavy lifting in the worldbuilding and exposition that I think would be hard to squeeze into a film. You've made me more excited to see it at least! out of curiosity, what did you think of the soundtrack? I love my film scores, and I think everyone loves some Hans Zimmer, so when it came out that he wasn't doing Tenet due to his commitments to Dune, my expectations for the soundtrack skyrocketed!

Final trailer for Dune: These next two weeks are going to be long!

Damn you Noctis! Trust me to choose what feels like the only major anime JRPG swordsman seen from Square Enix in the last 5 years to not be a character in this game But in all seriousness, thanks a lot for doing this @Glen-i, it's been a lot of fun! And yes, I'll play Banjo when it comes to NSO, you have my word I need to justify getting that N64 controller somehow! And to @Fused King... ...congrats, we are not worthy!

Official Steam Deck teardown:

20th Anniversary controller incoming... Personally not a fan, the green seems a bit too bright, and wish the ABXY buttons were coloured like their older controllers. The Switch Pro controller wasn't too far off Xbox's controllers to begin with, so going with a translucent black as opposed to a solid black also just gives me those vibes. Still, kudos to Xbox, seems like they've done a lot for the anniversary year! Will always be jealous of their stupidly high output of controller variants and customisation options

Yep, definite mixed feelings, which does make it difficult to feel too sad about it (not to mention he made it to 90!). I'm really not a fan of what I've seen elsewhere about people celebrating his death, though, think that's pretty heinous. Honestly, I could see S-E pushing hard to move forwards -- not out of lack of respect, but because even if we take his many disturbing opinions out of the picture, he must have been an absolute pain to work around. Remember when for the DQ XI reviews in the West, reviewers weren't allowed to play music without showing the associated gameplay? And so S-E themselves had to suggest the solution of picture-in-picture? I'm not saying that this alone is the reason XI didn't set the West alight (the small matter of S-E launching it the same week as Spider-Man still comes to mind), but the last thing they need are unnecessary obstacles like this. Can you imagine if John Williams did this for Star Wars, if Uematsu did this for Final Fantasy, or Hisaishi did this for Ghibli? We've seen franchises that I'd say are much more niche than Dragon Quest blow up in the West last generation, such as NieR and Persona, but I think this is a good opportunity for this series to take to modernise like every a lot of other Japanese games. Personally I'd love to see Dragon Quest not hit roadblocks on getting it's music out there, and if that means another composer with new ideas, I say so be it. Interesting point on III, I'd be surprised if it didn't receive an orchestrated soundtrack, as I'm pretty sure Team Asano have had orchestrated soundtracks for their other games? I imagine the DQ team is involved to some extent, but that would be my expectation for it. Also wouldn't be surprised if we heard some of the 8-bit music represented somehow, that'd be pretty neat!

Yep, archaic views on music licensing in the modern age and a whoooooooole lot more very distasteful stuff on top of that, but there's no doubting that he was a very talented composer. The Dragon Quest Overture is absolutely iconic and there's a whimsical melancholy to a lot of those DQ tracks which is hard to find elsewhere. I'm curious to see who they bring in to do XII (I'd imagine someone who has composed for a spin-off seems the most likely), and if they'll be riffing off of Sugiyama's foundation, or looking to inject something new into the soundscape for the series.

In final stages of development: You'd kind of hope so with the January launch and all Pretty crazy that the only thing of note since E3 is that some press got to see the game in action at the end of August: Next trailer probably at The Game Awards and then a marketing blast once January hits?