Julius

I think it's really cool, as it's showcasing the game's elemental mechanics interacting in a way I personally haven't seen elsewhere, and definitely didn't use during my playthrough. The toolbox at your disposal rather than the single solution and all that. Considering that the visual appearance of the flames themselves don't change when the ice elemental power is introduced, it does make me wonder what it is about the nature of the flames in BotW that cause damage – is it the assigned temperature being so high rather than the "physical" shape of the flame itself dealing out the damage, as the ice element being introduced obviously negates the temperature but doesn't necessarily negate the fact that the flame is still there? It's just really interesting to think about, it basically grants the fire immunity that the fire resistant armour does when fully upgraded despite the flame still being there. I'm sure it's a combination of both, but yeah, I love seeing new stuff being found out about the game. New details being found years after release in any game is always cool, but the sheer variety and quantity of new things still being discovered in Breath of the Wild coming up on five years from its release continues to astound me

Of course today is the day I wake up with a migraine but it has arrived, installing as I type: Also @Hero-of-Time you might be interested in knowing that it came with a standard case, the blue thing with the Erdtree motif on is actually just a card envelope with some collectible images on, the messaging on what's included has been very messy, but thankfully, there's not a steelbook in sight: Also, looks like the standard edition is now available separately, without the slipcover and envelope of stuff (ShopTo link), imagine that's how it'll also be on store shelves? Anyways, now to get to work on this migraine while the game installs!

Man, I know it's been said before, but some of the moves Sony have made over the last few years have been increasingly concerning. If this is true and they're pricing it higher than Game Pass and it's seemingly going to be messy to communicate what is distinct about each tier, I think it could easily be dead on arrival. I want to say you'll see annual packages to bring the cost down, but honestly, I could see that being the case for only Premium - three tiers with a number of subscription lengths could be a nightmare. The idea of game trials is probably the neatest thing about the Premium tier, we'll finally be getting something comparable to demos again (though not quite the same, mind), but seriously: just make them available to all. I see what they're going for - the most hardcore gamers will buy into the highest tier, they'll be the most vocal online about these games through getting access to their trials, other people will want to join the conversation and so will buy into the higher tier, and so on - but it's just such a boardroom decision. See you again in 2027 for the third iteration of PS Now I guess? I just want easy access to older games on modern consoles, damn it! Yep, seriously. Game Pass, for example, is doing great, and on paper is a fantastic deal. But I think it's a lot of short-term gain coming at the cost of a lack of long-term insight: • potential changes in game design to churn them out at a steady pace, either by making games substantially shorter or by designing them to get their hooks into you for maximum engagement (Game Pass is the Netflix of gaming, after all). There's a reason we're seeing Xbox report engagement numbers, they're absolutely tracking these things and will be learning a lot to carry forwards into the designs of their future games. • we've still yet to see Xbox actually consistently churn out big first party titles in the first place, so the big question for me is if they can actually match their own model in production speed and quality. • questions over it pushing us deeper into a hole where a digital-only future is the only future. And that's just a handful of the big reasons, there are plenty more. I only bring up Game Pass as a point of comparison because, let's be honest, it's the only good point of comparison for something like this right now. And by that metric, this sounds like it falls far short, overcomplicating the current offerings for online subscriptions (which shouldn't even be a thing to begin with). I just don't know. I'm not asking them to reprint old games, but these companies are so tone deaf to what I think people interested in older games want. Let me purchase old games and play them on my current system, damn it, even if it's digital I would much rather have that than them being locked behind a subscription. They clearly think they have some value if they're being bundled into the highest tier of the subscription model. I'll hold final judgement until we get an official announcement, but so far? I'm not a fan of how this appears to be shaking out.

It is finally upon us! Good luck to those Tarnished diving in now at midnight, and enjoy! I'll be joining the fight later today It has been absurdly stacked, definitely a case of picking your battles right now and the ones you don't mind waiting to tackle later. Watch the summer be pretty quiet as it always is by contrast. I know it's a result of it being the final quarter of the financial year for most companies, so they want last bump to impress investors, but Q1 is now often as stacked as Q4! But hey, if anything, I guess the summer be a good time to catch up on stuff!

I've been following the developments over the last few weeks, as I imagine you guys have, and to say it breaks my heart is an understatement. But I've been complacent, undeniably so. We all knew this was coming. I still remember a friend freaking out over the annexation of Crimea back when we were in our second to last year of high school, some 8 years ago now, overwhelmed at the possibility of us being on the precipice of a third World War, and as things quickly came to a head, countless lives being lost, the situation a powder keg awaiting only the slightest spark, and... ...nothing. It's been what feels like radio silent, despite that very much not being the case in practicality. But the world quickly moved on. Now here we are again. There's a reason why sci-fi so often depicts humanity having run itself into the ground, and it stems from the maligned greed and selfishness of a privileged few being so undesirably lacking in humanity - in empathy - to be opportunistic at the cost of human life. Now, I'm hopeful - glaringly and obviously naively hopeful - that this situation is going to fizzle out before it comes to a head (to be clear I mean more than it already has done). Russia's economy was in the hot seat before - it has for as long as I can remember - with the rouble dropping in value to a stupidly absurd degree, and the sanctions that they're looking at it going to surely see a lot of oligarchs turn on the man of the hour; it's clear from the protests today in places like St. Petersburg (if it wasn't already clear before) that Russian citizens do not want war; and I even read that a bunch of higher-ups in the Russian government have signed an open letter denouncing these actions and urging their citizens to not take part, and that there would surely be ramifications. The main thing that gave me a glimmer of hope when I woke up this morning was the ballsy metaphorical mic drop from Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.N., because he's a certifiable badass. A reminder I guess to try to keep an eye on your own mental health the next few days in particular. I've had increasingly painful headaches the last few days and was absolutely exhausted by the time I finished work this afternoon, to the point I needed to close my eyes, and after waking up I realised I've probably been pushing down and not dealing with a lot of my thoughts on what's going on in Ukraine at the moment. As humans I think there are two things we can starve for: food and knowledge. This is going to sound incredibly privileged given what is going on, but if what's going on becomes overwhelming, it's okay to disconnect and distance yourself from it if, like me, the only thing really tying you to this news is the news itself – I think I'm saying that for myself just as much as I am wanting to remind everyone else of that. That feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness is practically impossible to face in situations like this, where the scale and undeniably aggressive and violent stupidity is impossible to comprehend, and where we are a lot of us so physically removed from the situation. @drahkon I don't even know what to say, I can't begin to imagine a friend going through something like this. I pray that your friend and others in that group will be okay, and that they'll be writing those happy messages soon.

Going to be 14 minutes long.

Digital Foundry are still working on their video for the 1.2 patch that's been rolled out (they were waiting for this Day 1 update as agreed with Bandai Namco), but have some early impressions to share. Console PC In short: • The PS4 version through PS5 backwards compatibility is currently the best version of the game for performance, at a smooth 60 fps, but at a reconstructed 1800p and lesser fidelity features when compared with next-gen offerings. • The dedicated next-gen versions of the game offer a highly variable frame rate, ranging from 45 - 60 fps in the mode favouring frame rate, and anywhere from 30 - 60 fps in the mode favouring visuals. There is no capped 30 fps option currently available. • Series X and Series S versions both benefit noticeably from VRR when used with compatible screens. • Wait for more updates if you're playing on PC, where the game's performance is at its worst. Man, that's rough, and it's very surprising that the situation hasn't really improved since the CNT, where the PS4 version through backwards compatibility was also best for frame rate. I played both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls at 60 fps, so that could be a bit rough, and I currently have the PS5 physical version on the way, which has been shipped this morning (woo!) and should be arriving tomorrow. But honestly, I'm kind of half (read: REALLY) tempted to pick up the PS4 version digitally after reading this and let the PS5 version just sit on my shelf (for now), a higher frame rate almost seems essential for these games. I'm off work tomorrow too, so maybe that would make more sense...

The mobile game, Champions of the Continent, is coming to the western Apple App Store and Google Play Store this summer: Neat if mobile gaming is your thing!

Game has gone gold: All the yes, can't wait

Yeah, totally get that, I think I'm one of those in the middle with you where I enjoy the games (I've played Demon's Souls and Dark Souls so far), but they do still stress me out a bit. I think it's just kind of part of the package with this game. They're incredibly intense at times, but that's matched by how rewarding I find them, which is compounded by the fact that I love the challenge of their boss fights, great level design, and S-tier soundtracks. Thankfully, I'm in the mood for another From Software game right about now. So I can't wait to dig in, just need to remember to get up and stretch my legs a bit It's really interesting that you mention RDR2 and BOTW in particular, as yeah, those two games and this all seem to have done something with open worlds that other games have fallen short of with theirs, which is reflected in their respective scores (going off how high they all are on aggregate score sites like Metacritic, anyways). I think the difference is that there's a conversation to be had about these games which transcend the typical open world structure. The problem with creating an open world which is so heavily structured - arguably mollycoddling at times, and perhaps even overdesigned to some extent? - is that every player will be having the same experience when it comes to the general progression of the story and their traversal of the world, etc., which in any non-open world, and more linear game, would be the major beats of the game. The same design ethos - a focus on experiencing the same beats in virtually identical ways - being applied to open world games just doesn't work that well, at least in my opinion, unless I'm looking for such an experience. BOTW, RDR2, and seemingly now Elden Ring, are all games where you are creating stories to discuss with your friends through what you experience and decide to do in the game - where do you go? Who do you talk to? How do you act? - which creates a sense of community and immersive relevance unique to you, because the sense of discovery and awe is amplified by the sense of adventure, which other open world experiences are often lacking. That's not to say that other open worlds are lesser - when I'm in the mood, I love the checklists of open worlds, but I only engage with them when I am in the mood - but I think it's one of the things which elevates these open world experiences and differentiates them from the rest. I know you said they're not your type of game - which is fair enough, play what you want to play! - but have you tried one before? Is there a particular thing which puts you off about them from what you've seen or heard, and is there something you would want to see from them moving forwards that might bring you into the fold? Genuinely curious, hope this doesn't come across as trying to call you out, I always just like getting other perspectives on things, as you know! I feel like you can say that about anything that reviews well in hindsight, but that easily falls apart when you figure that just one of these aspects could have gone disastrously wrong and made the game an incohesive mess. Souls - I haven't played Nioh, so can't comment there, but being Souls-like is an overutilised oversimplification of a game that's considered more difficult than others and tells its story indirectly. But it's been applied to so, so many games at this point that the myriad of review scores out there show that being a Souls-like probably doesn't mean much unless it's executed well. From Software - quality developer develops a quality game and it's reflected in its reviews, that's not too surprising. They could have easily made a bad one and it would have been called out as such by most reviewers. Same goes for other stellar companies in the industry, like Nintendo. None of these guys are infallible. Yes, we're all staring across the room at Naughty Dog right now (and this is as someone who actually enjoyed parts of Part II). Open world - so this is totally subjective, but from my perspective (and I'm basing this only off the reviews, as I haven't played the game yet), this is only going to be the third open world game to knock it out of the park in the last 5 years, the other two being Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption II. No, I don't consider God of War or Dragon Quest XI to be open world, well at least not in the same sense that the other games I mentioned are. And again, this isn't me saying that the other open world games are lesser by any means (even if at times they can be a bit formulaic), but I think these two (and possibly three, now, with Elden Ring) will be standing above the rest when all is said and done. Game of Thrones - assuming this is a reference to GRRM's involvement...it doesn't seem to have done much, if anything, from the perspective of someone reading and watching a few of these reviews. I think his entire involvement fell flat after Schreier leaked it ahead of E3 2019, and I've barely seen it mentioned outside of Bandai Namco's marketing of the fact. The final season of GoT falling flat on its face months before the announcement of his involvement (regardless of GRRM's involvement in the series or lack thereof by that point) certainly didn't help. Early-generation next-gen experience - I genuinely don't think Bandai Namco have had the nerve to market this as being a next-gen experience, and rightly so, because it was designed with last gen in mind. It's a noticeable visual improvement from what From Software has released before, but it doesn't exactly scream next-gen. I also don't think reviewers are viewing it this way either, and I genuinely think it would have reviewed just as well if it hypothetically were in this state and launched before the PS5 and Series X | S. So yeah, I think it's clear it could have failed, quite easily actually. I could end up hating the game, I try to be honest even just on a forum about my opinions on things, but for the reviewers at least, it seems like they've got a whole lot of praise for this game. We rarely see games hyped to all hell reviewing this highly on aggregate score sites like Metacritic, so let us be excited it genuinely reminds me of the reception Breath of the Wild got back in 2017, and I can't wait!

Okay, now it's finally being rolled out Finally! The end of my time spent recording my TV on Friday nights to send funny GTA clips on a group chat is nigh

Well, only one of my three friends that I play with weekly doesn't have Ghost of Tsushima yet, so I guess this should be a good way to convince them to dive into Legends with me after Gran Turismo 7 Otherwise, bit of a meh month to be honest

Reviews are dropping and so far they're a doozy to look at. We'll see where it lands over the next few days, I'd expect it to drop a few points, but it's looking like it's going to be From Software's best reviewing game based on the early aggregate scores (for reference, Bloodborne currently sits at the top of their pile with 92 on Metacritic), and potentially one of the highest reviewing of the generation. RISE...YE TARNISHED!

The game's soundtrack is being released in three waves on all streaming platforms, starting with Volume 1 on Friday:

Anime inbound:

Launch trailer (which is immediately going in a spoiler tag to save anyone accidentally opening it up, I'm not watching it either as launch trailers tend to show far too much): Reviews are dropping tomorrow. I think I'll probably only check out one or two from outlets I trust to not show too much, see the hype-inducing scores, and then I'll be going dark on it before the conversation of difficulty rears its ugly head. Less than three days to go! I'm not going to make the mistake I did with Dark Souls last year, I'm going in and will probably be relatively quiet until it's done. But I'm very excited

First look at the PSVR2 headset:

But actually, think it was this: and/or this:

The logo legitimately looks like a free-to-play mobile game letting you know you've got 6 notifications to bug you into buying some microtransactions. But even more damning: I do wonder if they'll change the logo, it really is abysmal. Also, am I the only who hates the fact that they went with the cardinal '6' over the Roman numeral 'VI' this time? Roman numerals are far cooler in practically every case. The earlier Street Fighter titles show that they're aware of that. Capcom, sort your stuff out. I'd be pretty surprised if this were PS5 exclusive to be honest, firstly considering that if that were the case, why not share that here or save it for a State of Play? And secondly because it feels like the FGC has grown quite substantially since V, with many multi-platform successes. EVO is probably the biggest thing going for exclusivity in my mind, but I think Capcom would be silly to limit their install base, especially if it's not a feature complete game at launch in the way that V wasn't. I wasn't even massively into games at that point and I still heard a lot about the blowback there. Also... It'll be interesting to see how this one shakes out. Curious: when does everyone imagine this will release? Capcom has had a pretty tight ship over the last few years, and while I know we've heard a lot about trouble behind the scenes on this one, this is surely arriving before the end of 2022, assuming smooth sailing, right?

More of a look at the facelift the opera scene has got in VI's Pixel Remaster, courtesy of Famitsu: Just...just go all the way with it already!

All but confirmed for Western release seeing as a stream is dropping in a bit with the same title as the Japanese stream, imagine we'll get confirmation on a Western release date: I don't even know where you'd place that bet and while the platform choice is suicide in Japan, it's not exactly the centre of the universe for the sales of niche Japanese games anymore. The West has become much more receptive to such games in the last 5 years or so. At the end of the day, say that there is moneyhatting going on as we had evidence for with MH, then these Japanese devs are getting their cake, and eating it too, and then some. Using Capcom and MH as an example, because that's the one where it's undeniable: they got a PlayStation marketing deal alongside probably some extra to keep it off Switch (where, let's be honest, it wouldn't have run great or would have been drastically pared down), then got crazy PC sales some 6+ months after launch, then got a console exclusivity deal with Nintendo for Rise, and then got crazy PC sales for that game again. Oh, and both games will have huge paid expansions when all is said and done, too. I doubt Capcom is complaining in that case, and in ATLUS's case, I don't doubt that we'll see it come to Switch in the future. They've done similar with 13 Sentinels: came out on PlayStation and Steam, great critical reception, now a year and a half or so after its release it's coming to Switch for what are probably going to be even stronger sales on a comparatively larger install base compared to where the Switch was in September 2020. It's up to these companies at the end of the day whether they want to take that money if that is part of the equation (so it's hard to blame a company for doing it if they're going to be receptive to deals like that), but with a game like this I think it makes sense to hold fire on a Switch release anyways to get double-dipping and new portable customers down the line. Now, I'm not saying this is a good thing if it is being moneyhatted. But I think it's a wise move on ATLUS's part with or without that being the case.

I mean, at this point, it's just an ATLUS thing. I'm sure it'll come, but considering it's on everything, there are some mental gymnastics to it being missing from Switch at launch coming down to PlayStation. Will be surprised if it's not on Switch within two years of launch. I don't think it's down to moneyhatting, I think they just want that sweet cash from people double-dipping to get a portable version down the road on Switch. That's what I'd do. And if, hypothetically, there is moneyhatting going on, I mean you're getting paid to make the smart move anyways. No confirmation for the West yet, but it's got to be coming if it's going to be on Xbox and Steam day and date, and ATLUS West retweeted the announcement. So it's just a matter of time...right?

Yeah, absolutely agree. If it were going to be an announcement like that, I think it'd be saved for the 27th -- so it'll probably just be an event of some sort. What, if anything, do we think we'll see on the anniversary proper on the 27th? Sword & Shield had their DLC revealed a month and a half or so after release (albeit as concept art), so I do wonder if Legends: Arceus DLC is on the cards. That and/or maybe the announcements of mythical events for BD & SP is about as far as my hopes go for the 27th.

That's a pretty boring logo, and I'm sure the RE Engine look will be divisive. Considering there was a week-long countdown to this, that's very little to decide to show. More news to come in the summer. Platforms still TBC.

Developer diary from IGN Game Fest: Pew pew pew pew This is going to be so much fun!