Julius

What a freaking save from Trapp! (EDIT: twice, the potential tap-in and free kick!) Absolutely, I'm honestly getting a little tired watching them been a very stop-start final, a lot of it down to the physicality. I think the lack of energy as the game has gone on due to fatigue is one of very few downsides to having two sides who don't often go deep in Europe coming face-to-face, and neither side being all that fitter than the other.

So, a new prototype of Shenmue 2 has been shown off, and the best part? You can play as Yu Suzuki! Awesome stuff

Yeah, definitely. Even more egregious is not getting a card at all, I mean not even a yellow? He was stretching that much - and his leg was that high - you'd think he was in a Thursday morning yoga session rather than the Europa League final!

I feel like that should be a red. It won't be because it's a final and it's so early - probably down to nerves, definitely not malicious - but that was clearly very dangerous. Peter Walton chiming in to remind us that he's an idiot. Also, someone should've told the Frankfurt team doc to pull up his joggers...

It always confuses me when indie developers make moves like this, because I feel like they're risking long-term gain and success for a very short-term, flash-in-the-pan moment in the spotlight? Like awesome, your game looks almost exactly like the remake of a critically acclaimed game which is nearly 30 years old now -- by arguably the strongest first party developer in the history of the industry, and taking heavy "influence" from a series with one of their most dedicated and larger fanbases. Now you've shot yourself in the foot because when people play this they'll only be comparing your game to Link's Awakening? Looking at this I feel the same way I do when I look at pretty much every Soulslike I'm all for drawing influence and inspiration - it's standard for any creative medium - and to be fair to them, they have a few interesting ideas (I like the idea of the little ball puzzle they have, reminds me of Screwball Scramble), but making a 2D Zelda-like which looks exactly like a Zelda game? I feel like it's about as surefire a way you can get to come out with a bang and then quickly vanish off the face of the earth. People have been screaming out for Earthbound or Pokémon in this style, so how about a JRPG? Or a farming simulator, that'd look great in this style? Or, if you're hell-bent on going with making a Zelda-like which looks like an actual Zelda game, how about you set the entire thing in a Dark World-looking setting, or something cyberpunk, so that even if the geometry and general look is the same, it at least looks somewhat different? You know...to stand out and so that you give yourself the best chance at success, and don't so directly ape off a massive game like the Link's Awakening remake?

Always love a decent interview. What Moses Ingram said when describing her character has me a little concerned, though... Hayden describing Anakin as "Jedi Knight, never a Jedi Master" had me cracking up, though Elsewhere: somehow, Kelly Marie Tran returns! To give an interview for AANHPI Heritage Month: A lot of love for her in the comments, which is always great to see

Still weirded out by the decision to schedule the Europa League final ahead of the Europa Conference League final rather than it being the other way around, but hey, it's football, so I'll watch Rangers have done a great job of turning their ship well and truly around the last few years, whereas Frankfurt have a stellar fanbase and it was fun seeing them tear Barça apart in the semis, so I'll probably be rooting for Frankfurt seeing as I've watched them more either way, hopefully it should be an exciting match, neither side is really an underdog so hopefully that helps them let loose and really go for it!

So Nomura is teasing news next month for VII's 25th anniversary... I think we all know what this means: along with all of the additions from Intergrade and the base game, you also get a Sephiroth wig, as part of Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intermission, the first PS6 exclusive

Awesome, thanks @Ronnie, will do eyes immediately drift towards everything to do with sand

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund (aka the Public Investment Fund, or PIF) has claimed a $3 billion / 5% stake in Nintendo. Hoo boy. The tweet mentions Capcom, but they've also claimed a huge stake in SNK previously too. Some choice quotes to give greater insight from the Bloomberg article on the subject: Nowhere near as aggressive as they were when acquiring stakes in SNK (where they were majority owner before scooping up almost all of the other shares in the company), so I doubt a complete takeover is on the cards -- likely just diversifying in the face of a future without oil. It also doesn't necessarily mean Nintendo had any say in this transaction, what with them being publicly traded. But still, diversifying with the bloodstained hands of a murderous and backwards family (and state). It's not exactly a great look.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is dropping 17th August:

It's Breznican and Vanity Fair, so I'm sure that passage about the show taking place during the era of the New Republic is based on *something* very substantial and which they've been advised of directly by someone from LFL, but it's a shame they don't really go into who they were told that by. Just seems really weird to come out and share the codename of something currently in production too to me, at least in something as high profile as VF. Honestly, wouldn't surprise me if some wires got crossed or some assumptions were made to reach the conclusion that it takes place in the High Republic, especially with how many projects are in the works right now! Does make me wonder that if it does take place in the New Republic era, if there's anything from the High Republic era in the show? I'd happily take either, in any case, I just care that the story being told turns out good

More PS5 plates inbound -- Starlight Blue, Galactic Purple, and Nova Pink:

For sure! We got a similar thing at the end of Empire too with Han and Leia's love theme leading straight into the credits. Episode I mirrors VI in similar fashion (both end on a celebration track), and Episode IV's Throne Room, Leia's Theme, and an encore of the Main Title are included in the credits for Revenge of the Sith. It's like poetry, it rhymes Honestly can't blame you, it's one of the few shining spots in an otherwise really bad film (even by the standards of the prequels). Definitely felt very Star Wars-y

Vanity Fair's June cover story, written by Anthony Breznican, is a piece on Star Wars' move to television and their abundance of shows: There's also a mention of a new show, which is still without a name: Can't help but wonder if that's why John Watts stepped down from Fantastic Four? Either way, great way to ramp up towards Celebration at the end of next week

I don't think we have official confirmation through anything on the PlayStation site itself, but I see this floating around where someone emailed PlayStation support with a similar question a while back, and they provided this response: So pretty much the same solution Nintendo have in place when upgrading from standard NSO to the Expansion Pack, from what I gather

New Chainsaw Man trailer (still scheduled for later this year):

Blackpool's Jake Daniels today has become the first professional footballer to come out as openly gay in England since 1990: Fair freaking play. Oh, and he's only 17 too. I imagine he knows the heat and attention this might bring his way, but if courage is doing great things in the face of adversity, then this is the epitome of what it means to be courageous, and so I hope more people rise to support him than there inevitably will be trying to attack him. For that, he immediately has my respect

Man, I really loved playing this for a hot minute there in the middle of that 2020 COVID summer, but I can't help but wonder if they're just too late on striking the iron here? I hope it gets a second wind with this, but from what I've come across of it since I put it down, 90% of what I've personally seen of it has been tie-ins with other IP – I don't really have any idea what state the game is in now? That 2B skin still gives me nightmares...

Haha hey @drahkon It's unfortunately not complete yet, we're waiting on a third part for Season 4 which is scheduled for early next year It's fantastic. Like a lot of shows as long as AoT is (nearly 90 episodes now), it definitely has some dips at times, but overall I think it's great: awesome music, some really smart writing that I love that we've got much more of in Season 4, best in class animation (for a long time, in terms of action in anime, it was probably top dog), etc. YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD! Kind regards and au revoir

Attack of the Clones first released 20 years ago today! Probably my least favourite film in the saga overseen by George, it has its moments...but they are few and far between. Still, though, it gave us one of the best love themes in all of cinema, a proper throwback to the romantic scores of old Hollywood in Across the Stars... ...one of the best sound effects of all time... ...and the awesome planet of Kamino. And, I mean, this is probably owed to it mostly lacking dialogue, but I always thought the ending was probably the strongest part of the film: A lot of cool musical stuff going on there

Cinematic trailer: Okay, can't speak to the game itself, but that seems like a great and accurate depiction of their characters. It's not quite got that Sakurai charm to it the Smash trailers do, but clearly what they've gone for, and I think they did a half decent job! Especially that Iron Giant team-up with Superman, that was perfect

So for clarity, the way I'm interpreting the wording (which I've updated in the original post now) is that only titles added to the Classic Games Catalog will be ones you can "claim" if you've owned them digitally on a previous system: So, basically, I think that could count Konami out (for now), because otherwise I'd expect a game like Metal Gear Solid to be listed and it means my PS3 still retains some digital use for the time being (I wanted to see Suikoden on my PS5 damn it!). There seems to be additional confusion in a lot of places at the size of the catalogs listed, so to clarify, the lists are only some of the titles we'll be getting at launch - I've no idea why they haven't given us the full lists, but I guess it could have been pretty lengthy and some dealings may still be going on in some back alleys. Still, a lot of surprising and odd decisions in there for me in the games they chose to list. Demon's Souls Remake on PS5 and then offering the PS3 version via streaming too? Does that mean they'll be turning the servers back on? Otherwise, seems an odd choice (I think you can get the Plat without online at least). Everybody's Golf is being shut down later this year on PS4, but now PS3 titles from the series are coming to this service - similar question to with Demon's Souls, does that mean they'll be turning the servers back on (I'm assuming those games have an online mode)? ICO is listed by itself as a PS3 streamed title, but was released as part of the HD Collection on PS3 originally, meaning they've separated it? But then...where's the HD remaster of Shadow of the Colossus for PS3? I'm also really confused about what the deal is with listing PS4 Classics versions of PS2 titles, as I've only read and heard poor things about how they play on PS5 as things stand. Have they been updated? Just...yeah, odd list to me. Most striking thing to me though - and I imagine they'll get included in the full list - is that there isn't a mention of God of War in the PS3 streaming titles, despite being such a big pillar for today's PlayStation lineup and Ragnarök still slated for later this year. Also, selfishly: one of my gaming resolutions for the year was to play all of the God of War games as prep for Ragnarök, so this has me the tiniest bit nervous, but I'm sure it'll be there as it's on PS Now...ahem. I think it just wasn't part of their select titles that they announced today - goodness knows the criteria. But yeah, it's odd. I get not listing the total number of games for third parties - in fairness, that would be one hell of a long list - but for what is now first party? Weird I picked up two years of PS Now through the backdoor link after the conversion straight to Premium was announced (my logic was that it'd effectively be half price) so I'm in anyways at this point, but I am curious to see what else is coming. PlayStation normally love to partner with Square Enix, so I'm surprised none of their classic titles are listed (especially Final Fantasy), but I wonder if it's something that they could attach to whatever Square Enix does at Not-E3/the announcement of the Pixel Remasters coming to console/XVI re-emergence? I just want God of War confirmation at this point I'm also not sure where it leaves me personally in the long term when it comes to my collection of PS3 titles physically. I guess I can shelve it for a few months at least and prioritise the 3DS and Wii U eShops/Virtual Consoles, which is nice, but yeah, I'm just not sure. Things like the Ratchet & Clank HD collection are only getting more expensive, so having them here is nice, but I also like physical...I'll wait and see I guess.

Welcome to your one-stop shop for all things related to the May/June 2022 (and beyond) PlayStation Plus overhaul! I figured with a vast and updating catalog of games to track, multiple subscription tiers, and a glut of new info, a dedicated thread could be helpful. See the end of this post for a selection of games planned to be included in the launch catalogs for this overhauled PlayStation Plus. Regional rollout schedule: Asia (excluding Japan) - 24th May 2022 Japan - 2nd June 2022 Americas - 13th June Europe, Australia, New Zealand - 23rd June 2022 Subscription tiers and pricing structure: PlayStation Plus Essential will continue to provide the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members get today: two monthly downloadable games, exclusive discounts, cloud storage for saved games, and online multiplayer access. There will be no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members at this tier. The pricing structure for Essential is as follows: United States - $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly Europe - €8.99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly United Kingdom - £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly Japan - ¥850 monthly / ¥2,150 quarterly / ¥5,143 yearly PlayStation Plus Extra will provide all of the benefits from the Essential tier, as well as a catalog of 400+ PS4 and PS5 titles, including first-party titles from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners. Games in this tier will be downloadable to play. Also announced today by Ubisoft is that a new Ubisoft+ subscription service called Ubisoft+ Classics will launch with 27 titles as part of PlayStation Plus from its overhaul starting at this tier, expanding to 50 titles by the end of 2022. The pricing structure for Extra is as follows: United States - $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly Europe - €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly United Kingdom - £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly Japan - ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly PlayStation Plus Premium* will provide all of the benefits from the Essential and Extra tiers, as well as an additional 340+ games, split between PS3 titles available via cloud streaming and a catalog of classics - available to stream or to download - from the PS1, PS2 and PSP console libraries. It also includes time-limited game trials for select titles. The pricing structure for Premium is as follows: United States - $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly Europe - €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly United Kingdom - £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly Japan - ¥1,550 – monthly / ¥4,300 – quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly *PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be the highest tier available for markets without cloud streaming. It will be offered at a lower price compared to Premium (local pricing will vary by market), and is essentially Premium without the ability to stream PS3 titles: it will have all of the benefits of the Essential and Extra tiers, and include the catalog of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles, as well as time-limited game trials. Other important details: The games available in the PlayStation Plus games catalog will be refreshed on a regular basis: For those at the Essential tier (and at higher tiers), a monthly refresh will occur on the first Tuesday of the month, with new PS5 and PS5 games added to the service - the same as what PlayStation Plus members get today. For those at the Premium/Deluxe and Extra tiers, an additional monthly refresh will occur in the middle of each month. The number of games refreshed will vary per month. Players who have previously purchased digital versions of select games from the PS1 and PSP libraries (i.e. on PS3, PSP, or Vita) will not have to make a separate purchase or sign up to PlayStation Plus to play these titles on PS4 or PS5. When these titles are released for PS4 and PS5, players can head to the PlayStation Store and download a version for the consoles at no extra cost if they already own the digital version of the title. In addition, some of these titles will also be available for individual purchase. For select PS1 and PSP titles, a new user interface has been integrated, with menus which will allow you to save your game at any time, or even rewind the game if you want a do-over. For the time-limited game trials included in the Premium tier, you can play most of the included titles for two hours - the playtime counter will only count while you are in the game. Any trophies and game save date from the trial will carry forward if you choose to purchase the game. Game catalogs at launch: Included in the below spoiler tag are a selection of PS4 and PS5 titles which will be available at launch to players at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Note: titles with an asterisk * are to be included as part of Ubisoft+ Classics, another benefit announced today for players at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Included in the below spoiler tag are a selection of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles included in the catalog of classic games available at launch for those at the Premium/Deluxe tier, as well as the catalog of remasters which have been grouped with these titles. Included in the below spoiler tag is a catalog of some of the PS3 games available via streaming at launch to those at the Premium tier. Included in the below spoiler tag is the catalog of time-limited game trials available at launch to those at the Premium tier. Included in the below spoiler tag is the catalog of Ubisoft+ Classics which will be available at launch for those at the Extra and Premium/Deluxe tiers. Note: I've copied this list directly from Ubisoft's press release, so there will likely be some overlap with previous lists. Sources: UPDATE: All-new PlayStation Plus launches in June with 700+ games and more value than ever (PS Blog - 29th March 2022), All-new PlayStation Plus game lineup: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Demon’s Souls, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, NBA 2K22, and more join the service (PS Blog - 16th May 2022), Ubisoft+ Coming to PlayStation (Ubisoft News - 16th May 2022).

Ubisoft are also coming to PlayStation via Ubisoft+