Julius

I mean, just look at how stupid this Platinum trophy screenshot is! I didn't even get a chance to calibrate my display!

So, I typically jump on with my group of friends to play games once or twice a week, and recently I've been stumped on what to play. We're currently in a phase of not playing the same game together but just catching up, which I'm all for, but I've been drifting between games or even just watching other people share their screen or stare blankly at the PS5 hub while doing so. It just all felt like I should be playing something. The other day I realised owning the digital version of GT7 means that I have both the PS5 and the PS4 version of the game, and having Platinum'd the game's PS5 version a few months after launch back in 2022, with nothing else to play mindlessly when on with my friends for now, I figured I'd redownload the PS4 version of the game and Platinum that. Sorted, right? Everything taken away from me, starting from square one, bides me some time to wait just a bit longer on finally pulling the trigger on that SSD for my PS5 with it thrown onto the external HDD I've got connected for PS4 games. Going through and earning a second Platinum sounded like fun to me, it was something to chip away at and I've been really good about not going for Platinum trophies in single-player games this year, which has allowed me to play more this year already than I did in the entirety of last year. But the Plat was going to drag me along because, otherwise, well, I might as well play the PS5 version of the game where I've already invested hundreds of hours. So I load up the PS4 version of the game when jumping on with them yesterday, and then notifications start popping up in the top right corner. 'Bronze Trophy - Living Your Car Life' 'Bronze Trophy - Living With a Legend' 'Silver Trophy - Speed Archdemon' 'Gold Trophy - Finale' Oh no... 'Platinum Trophy - Gran Turismo Platinum Trophy' Yep, that's right, it auto-popped every damn trophy and gave me another Plat with 0 minutes put into this version of the game. While I knew about trophies auto-popping going from some PS4 games to their PS5 versions, I didn't know it worked the other way around, too. How could I? Who in their right mind is playing the PS5 version of a game, getting the Plat, and then going back to what is by all means an inferior version of the game on PS4? This guy, that's who. There was probably a way around it if I'd known ahead of time, maybe something to do with not carrying over my save, or having a physical PS4 version rather than using the digital PS4 & PS5 bundle, or something. I don't know what the point in this post was, I guess it was probably just to share my devastation. And yep, I still have no idea what I'm going to play when I'm on with my friends next.

Windows Central have started to share what they know about Xbox's next-gen hardware plans in their summary of an interview about the Xbox's 25th anniversary, which Xbox seem to be planning to coincide with the platform's 25th anniversary in 2026, and will seemingly be a fight on two fronts: a traditional style home console and a handheld. Shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone considering what has come out over the last few years anyways, but I think that Steam Deck-style handled + Game Pass combo could be very powerful and do some serious numbers.

One of my favourite things about YouTube is how I sometimes randomly get the most underrated songs imaginable pop up in my recommended. Thanks for listening, algorithm. S-tier album cover, S-tier song title ("Starship Syncopation", I mean come on!), holy damn is this an S-tier song. Been jamming out to it all morning. If you like Persona-type jazz music, I'll be shocked if you don't like this. There's also a noticeable hint of Daft Punk, there's straight up a part which wants to sound like it's ripped out of Donkey Kong Country, an underlying funk and groove to it all, and what should be a jumbled mess instead is this absolute treat. Sooooooooo good

Funnily enough, I've been going back and forth on diving back into the Pokémon TCG these last few months and just giving myself a general view of what sort of cards are around and figuring out if there are any particular cards I'd want to pick up, etc. – I think I mainly want to look for cards I just like the look of, or cards of certain Pokémon/trainers I feel attached to; some of the full-art Trainer cards they put out these days are beautiful. Which is all to say that this thread bump is absolutely perfectly timed @Hero-of-Time I used to be huuuuuuuuuge on the Pokémon TCG growing up, all of the cards I did manage to get art still at my parents' place, but had to stop collecting TCG of any kind for reasons I won't get into. It's been an interesting last few months figuring out what I want to do. I decided at the time to be sensible and save myself from buying any until I could buy some in-person, which has been scheduled in for a while now, as I'm off to Birmingham Toy Fair next Sunday with some mates. So, that could be a fun but potentially dangerous time (for my wallet) Lovely stuff H-o-T, that Typhlosion in particular is absolutely gorgeous, that's a really nice set. Thanks for sharing that story about your small local shop too, I really find with hobbies, finding someone who is just as enthusiastic about your enjoyment of the hobby as their own really elevates the experience (maybe that's why I've stuck around this place so long ) Actually, what got me back to thinking about Pokémon cards again a few months ago was coming across Coop's Collection on YouTube/Twitch and just seeing how incredibly generous and patient he is with kids who come to his stall, and it also just exposed me as to how lovely so much of the art on the cards is these days. The end of this clip really rounds off for me just how wholesome hobby communities and fandoms can be when they're at their best. I'm actually pretty excited now to see what I come across next Sunday, so hopefully there'll be some stuff there I want to pick up!

Speaking to Spanish site Vandal, director Katsura Hashino has shared that the game will be similar in length to Persona 5. I'm all for a 60+ hour JRPG, but for as much as I enjoyed Persona 5, I think it felt a bit long in the tooth by the end (the last 15-20 hours or so), so I hope that Metaphor is a bit better paced if it really is going to be as long as P5. Looking forward to it either way, mind you. Also, I assume he's talking about base P5? Royal by all accounts can be an even longer experience.

Was literally just thinking about this game and Geoff Keighley drops promo for Brian Shea's write-up on the game, aka the Game Informer cover story that never was: For sure going to be giving that a read later. Super torn right now on if I'm picking this up at launch or not, I'm sort of stuck on this or going back to a release from earlier this year and playing Persona 3 Reload because I've had that Persona vibe and music on my mind lately, hence why I was thinking about Atlus, and thus, Metaphor, when this story dropped. I feel in my bones that I'm going to be missing something awesome and potentially get something spoiled if I don't, so maybe I'll just see where I'm at when we're a little closer to that release date. There's something about drawing inspiration from Bosch paintings which is super unnerving but is also making me expect...*something*. Someone also pointed out that it's probably taking from a certain book, which has my head spinning with possibilities of what they're going for here. I feel like there'll be some really cool lore to dig into. Decisions, decisions...

I don't really have reason to doubt Colin - I'm not even really sure what his stance on PlayStation trying to lean on GAAS is having not watched that much of him, but I can imagine he's not a huge fan - but I'm struggling to see where that money went if it was indeed $400m which got blown on Concord. At the same time, there were reports a few months after it released I remember about Halo Infinite costing Xbox hundreds of millions of dollars AFTER Staten came in to fix it, so that comment about $200m at the time of a pre-alpha and then potentially spending just as much to fix it might track? An astronomical amount of money and, if there's any truth to it, and I didn't comment on it yesterday but meant to; this: Shouldn't really be where the buck stops. I actually think it's really unfair that Firewalk staff are the only ones seemingly on the chopping block here. If PlayStation truly spent $400m on a failure of that size then heads should be rolling all over the shop, and not only at Firewalk. Because I also don't think it's fair or accurate to just pin this all on Jim Ryan. It's really interesting that it points out that there were basically a bunch of "yes men", because one of the first reaction posts I saw to the news that Concord would be getting taken out of stores (digital and physical), I think it was by someone in IT or a similar industry, was that the only way that a project of this size could possibly flop to such an extent is if honest feedback isn't provided at multiple key points, almost to the point of insanity, which would only compound its issues to an insane degree. They mention "toxic positivity" and that lines up for me. Everything that post thought might be the case seems to match up and it makes complete sense to me. So much of it looked outdated at a glance, and I'm not commenting on the actual quality of the game because by all accounts it seemed like the people who played it had a great time, but come on – how has anyone looked at Concord and thought that a Guardians of the Galaxy meets Overwatch-looking game isn't nearly a decade late? It's not our decision to make as consumers outside of voting with our wallets after it is released, but if that's the vibe that we get from a game in its first showing or two - which is all you get outside of a major overhaul or a very slow, No Man's Sky type of turnaround - how are the developers, and much more importantly, the producers, not noticing that? And how and why is it being positioned to be the next big thing when it so obviously wasn't going to be? I've said it before but the lack of detail we have about the cost of making a video game blows my mind; sales figures (even if only units sold) and budgets should really be shared to whatever reasonable degree that they can be, I think not doing so creates this grey area of success and failure and everything in-between which makes it impossible for anyone not deeply entrenched in the industry's finances specifically to know what's actually going on. In turn, I think it creates a really unfair and toxic expectation that because no-one else puts out their figures, certain companies don't need to either. It makes sense, on paper, why some games are starting to cost so much, but that lack of openness around the conversation of making a game and what it entails is, ultimately, I think a contributor - albeit a very small one, but one nonetheless - to how toxic the consumer side of gaming has become. The few figures we do get? We latch onto so hard, and it drives petty things like console wars to this day. Lack of information can easily breed misinformation. I'm not really sure what else to say. I'm gutted for the Firewalk guys, I hope anyone who potentially gets let go or has already looked to find new can find some security in their next job. I'm pretty concerned for the game's director, Ryan Ellis, I do think stepping down was an inevitability even in a hypothetical scenario where he wanted to stick around, but it gives a name to aim the outcry and failure at in a way which seems so unfair – I hope that he'll be okay and can make peace with how this all played out, because I can only imagine something like this could lead to some very dark places. I hope PlayStation learn the lessons they need to from this – I don't think it's necessarily just "drop GAAS", but ultimately consumers only have the capacity for one or two "lifestyle", GAAS games at most, so if you're going to look to enter that race, you need something better than solid; you need something truly GREAT. And I hope the wider industry learns a lot from this too. Hundreds of people losing their jobs should not be the norm, and this is a very extreme case where it seems to be a lot more than just the studio at fault. Going to be a very interesting next few months to see if more details continue to spill out about how all of this went down.

North America and Europe will be getting a Collector's Edition, but it doesn't include the toy What did we do wrong to deserve an acrylic statue? Also... ...just realised one of the girls in this is a pretty big YouTuber/streamer in Japan (Kaho)! That's pretty neat to see, I know she's mentioned wanting to be in these games before, like K-son before her. Wonder who's next from that corner of the internet to show up in one of these games?

Ask and sometimes you'll receive: physical release for the West confirmed!

Tom Warren is saying it'll be worth dropping in to watch Xbox's TGS show next week (11:00 BST on 26th): Look, unless it's Persona 6 (not expecting it), a remaster of one of those rare few Xbox JRPGs, or a Forza port announcement (what? The Japanese car scene is huge!), bleh. Swear they've said to tune in for their past showings at TGS and they've consistently had pretty awful showings at them.

Nah, if it forces you to put them in some sort of story order I'm all for them dropping it Apparently this has been spotted as being a full price release on Steam (as opposed to The Man Who Erased His Name), and given that they've dropped the "Gaiden" from the title too, I'm hopeful that this gets a full physical release over here in the way that TMWEHN (what a horrible initialism that is) unfortunately didn't.

Turns out that it's a Gaiden title over in Japan still, so I'm guessing they just dropped it over in the West as it didn't add too much besides an extra word. Shame though, I kind of loved it

The live-action promo from today's RGG Summit:

Some gameplay and other trailers focused on specific features from the Summit: And the totally canon:

Oh that collector's edition is freaking genius Limited to Japan and Asia. I might need to consider importing this depending on how much it is...

Seriously! I need to go back and listen to it again to confirm - might also have been mistranslated, but the translator is killing it so I doubt it - but watching the livestream, Majima's VA Hidenari Ugaku said that he first heard about it at the Infinite Wealth after-party. This game will have been made in a year and change by the time it launches, which shouldn't be a surprise considering Gaiden only took 6 months or so, but it kind of is? Japanese devs just like to play it smart with assets, too, which I know has come up before, but it's just so smart. They invest a good amount of time in making a massive map they can mix up and evolve rather than starting from scratch, meaning that smaller games can be made in a super fast time. From and RGG both reuse a lot but they always work it in so naturally as well, and so such a good job of making a familiar location feels fresh and exciting to revisit, basically taking their learnings from Kamurocho and applying it to every map they make. Seriously, they're some of the best in the biz still got to Infinite Wealth before the end of the year but this has got me even more excited to explore Hawaii for the first time!

Turns out this is actually what Pyoro was teasing yesterday with their "pih" (Pirates in Hawaii) tweet. They posted to confirm this but have now privated their account again.

PIH was unrelated to Switch (it was Pirates in Hawaii), so I guess anymore of these I'll just stick in another thread. RAH was Rent-A-Hero: TGS is about to make this whole Switch 2 build-up so much busier on the leak-consuming side

Just announced during today's RGG Summit! There's that Majima game we've been waiting for making proper use of that eye patch at long last! "Madlantis" Mad Dog and Sea Dog fighting styles. Genius. Surprised to see them drop the "Gaiden" moniker, I guess it might have been a one-off because of how it stitched LAD and Infinite Wealth together? Or perhaps the sales figures made them drop it? Very curious.

sigh "Happy 30th celebrations, PlayStation Nation. To commemorate the occasion, here are all the games which convinced you to buy a PS4 and gave you confidence in graduating on to a PS5, or convinced you of our lineup's strength to begin with if you're new to the family – again! That's right, you can buy it all again! What greater celebration of PlayStation could there be than to give us all of your money? What do you mean the PS5 can play PS4 games through backwards compatibility? Don't be silly! We played Y O U" *ahem* This reeks the same way as Astro Bot closing off the May State of Play – awesome reveal, this game wasn't talked up to their own investors and Japan Studio was shuttered with Team Asobi surgically removed and made a full studio. They wouldn't greenlight a Days Gone sequel but are happy to cash in on a show/movie/whatever it is now and a remaster. I actually had plans with friends to play Days Gone next month – was going to order it tomorrow, in fact (it's pay day). We've been talking about it for months. Guess I'll wait and see what this remaster is all about and when it's dropping, but I imagine I just pick it up on PS4 and play it that way Again: I'm not really against remasters, if it gets them some easy money it makes sense, hopefully while they shore up first-party for the second half of this gen and deliver. It just kind of sucks.

Same I might grab at least two DualSense controllers so I have one to keep in the box and one to use. I was thinking for a moment I could trade my base PS5 in and upgrade but, eh, I'd feel like I'm betraying my launch experience a bit to do that the digital version does come with a disc drive cover, though, so if you had a disc drive you'd be able to make it match? Reading into it more: the Pro bundle is a £1k+ investment before we factor in the limited availability and mark-up it'll get from that. It has the Pro (£700), DualSense (£70), DualSense Edge (£210), vertical stand (£25), disc drive cover (no idea how much this would be), you'll want a disc drive to make use of the cover which is hilariously still being sold separately (£100), and there's the collectible stuff. Mental. @Ike those boxes you've posted are sexy as hell and me and my wallet hate you right now

Rightly in the main PS5 thread, but just going to pop the announcement of the anniversary collection in here too: Curious to see what else gets announced beyond this, seeing as this felt like the big one we were waiting for?