Julius

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

Digital Foundry's take on the newest update is up, for those curious:

Nice! Cleffa isn't too bad, you just need to go to... As for the starters... Out of those, Bonsly is probably the one that spawned the least for me, but I picked a few up while roaming around during the story. I think they're in the second area?

It's been so weird seeing how the launch edition has changed since the game resurfacing last summer at SGF. Regular boxes > what is now the launch edition + regular box > the current launch edition, which seemingly has no regular box but still shows the same slipcase. Super bizarre! What makes it even more confusing is this from the official Bandai Namco store, which still shows the current launch edition slipcase and steelbook + regular box? And in the description it's described as coming with an alternative steelbook. So goodness knows what actually is the case at this point, guess we'll see on Friday I do get it, though. Still irks me that Like a Dragon never got a standard PS4 box, and so I just picked up the steelbook in the end (I know PS5 had one, but meh, gets into a whole other weird thing I've got going on with some of my game collection). If this ever gets a standard release with a regular box I'll probably just pick it up on sale at some point anyways

Overview trailer is up, and it's beefy, and apparently shows a lot, so beware if you're avoiding stuff, as I imagine the launch trailer that will drop in the next week will be showing a lot too, and not to mention reviews (which I think are dropping on Wednesday?). I'm right there with you, I've rewatched a few of the trailers we've had for a while a lot over the last few days, and trying to pin it down to a game I can't quite remember one was the last which had me quite as excited. The PS5 launch was pretty hype-inducing, though I think that had a lot to do with the myriad of lockdowns just making it so much easier to pool all of my hype into one spot. I'm just going to be careful when I do get my hands on the game, as with Dark Souls the timing of me burning out on it (I think in part due to talking too much about it) lined up with Ornstein and Smough, and I don't want a repeat with Elden Ring. Also need to be careful I don't go too far the other way and actually get some sunlight well, heavily filtered sunlight, thanks English weather! What's everyone playing/doing to pass the time up until release? I think I'll try to finish off Ocarina of Time and maybe sneak in another shorter game, depending on when I do manage to finish OoT. Originally I was planning to go back to complete the Artorias of the Abyss DLC in Dark Souls, but trying to do whatever I can to avoid potential Souls burnout with Elden Ring less than a week away (!) I'll probably have to come back to it after.

I think it's a bit more complex than that. Beyond the bugs I remember seeing a whole range of opinions on how the game handled quite a bit, it never seemed like a game that was half great and half bugs from what I experienced, and from what I remember seeing and hearing from others at the time of release, the issues went deeper. That's not to say there's nothing to enjoy in it, I'm sure there is based on even just the opinions of people in this thread who either played on PC or were fortunate to not have too many issues on a next-gen console at launch, but if anything, I think it *might* be a case of eliminate the bugs = somewhere between good to great story/world, but not exactly a great *game*. I remember the world being very interesting, I enjoyed a quest or two and some of the characters, and the story was starting to pick up by the time I found myself putting it back on the shelf. I didn't get particularly far into it (well, I think I got to the second act, so maybe I was further along than I felt when I dropped it? Which I suppose might be more difficult to perceive when it's crashing pretty frequently), but to talk about it from a gameplay perspective, I remember driving around being pretty joyless, hand-to-hand combat had very little depth to it, and while the gunplay was a fine first attempt for CDPR, for what promises to be a first-person RPG and would naturally be 20+ hours of gunfighting at minimum in a single playthrough, it wasn't fun enough. I also remember it doing a terrible (read: sometimes non-existent and oftentimes very poor) job of explaining things at times, and some of it's menus were like diving into a hoarder's den. And this is just what I remember over a year out. As @martinist said, I don't think this game is out of the woods just yet, and for anyone like me who has been waiting to give the game it's second shot - while it seems to be running better and is a bit less buggy, I think it's definitely worth waiting for the Digital Foundry update on this if one is coming - I have a hunch that it might be worth waiting a little longer. The fact that this is a Version 1.5 rather than a 2.0; that it's getting these next-gen updates pushed out with very little fanfare behind it; and that it was so unceremoniously shadow-dropped the same week a game like Horizon Forbidden West released and just over a week from Elden Ring arriving makes me think that this isn't the update we've been waiting for to go back. If it was, I think it could have easily waited until April or May, when it could have got a lot more press and fanfare than it did, and I don't think anyone waiting would have been complaining. Personally, nothing I've seen or heard about this update so far has given me the confidence that I should be going back to Cyberpunk over playing something else right now. So I'll be waiting a bit longer, I think.

Yeah, I think that's also something they do when you get a game early too (it happened with me when my copy of Brilliant Diamond turned up half a week early). I can kind of get it for a full game release in some instances where you don't want reviewers or people with early copies going rogue and spoiling things for others, but it seems a bit extreme for a play test of a game specifically like this? Though, I suppose they want to make it clear that this isn't the final product and is a stress test, and would be concerned about people sharing footage of the game which isn't representative of that Anyways, great reading yours and @BowserBasher's thoughts. I didn't sign up myself for the Play Test in the end because I knew I'd be busy around the times of the tests, but reading that you guys are getting some proper enjoyment out of it and that the online is smooth is pretty much all I needed to see coming out of this

Somehow it's already been three weeks since launch, so Pokémon are now showing off some of the Pokémon and characters not shown off in the build-up to the game's release. I'll throw the video in a spoiler tag for now as I know some are still playing:

In case you missed it: the game is getting three expansions, and they will only be available through the Season Pass.

That's some badminton with attitude right there

One. More. Week!

I actually really like Duel of the Fates being used in the first cinematic, but to each their own for me it's because the fate of the galaxy is very much being decided in that cinematic in the same way it was The Phantom Menace (Anakin loses his father figure and potential mentor, which has a huge bearing on his trajectory) and Revenge of the Sith (Sidious and Yoda throwing senate seats at each other). Being choral it also brings that touch of timelessness and legend. I would totally agree with you when it comes to some of the other cinematics, though. Losing a battle with guys in white armour does not mean that Anakin's Dark Deeds needs to start playing. This a big problem when you have an audience going in with preconceptions about a character based on what's been scrapped as having any form of relevancy when it comes to what is considered canon and thrown onto the pile labelled 'Legends', unfortunately. I mean, not that I can really blame them, as there were some 43/44 years between his first appearance and The Book of Boba Fett, which is a lot of expectation to live up to. And it's probably not helped by all the winking and nodding we got about Boba's fate before he even appeared in Mando. Personally I don't think how he's presented in the show lives up to the promise of how he was presented in Mando at times, but meh, it's not big deal I mean, Luke's is a very different situation, but that doesn't at all excuse some of the behaviour you see from Star Wars fans. It's for kids. Always has been. It can absolutely fail to deliver despite that, but yeah, the treatment of the Star Wars cast and reactions to how characters have been presented since moving on from the original trilogy has been straight up inexcusable at times. That was true for the prequels, the sequels, and now everything since. Like you said, it's a very vocal minority (it almost always is on the internet), but it's a huge thorn in the side of the community. One of those franchise communities which is so massive that you'll be lucky to get a consensus at the best of times, and is at civil war at the worst.

In an interview with NU.nl, Mathijs de Jonge (the game's director) has shared that the game's delays were necessary to avoid crunch -- otherwise it might have made it out before Christmas. You love to see it, and it's another one in very heavy contrast to the stories we've seen over the last few years from other studios. The interview is pretty short and touches on the variety of cultures represented at Guerrilla, as well as the choice to go with a female protagonist for Horizon after Killzone, so it's well worth a read. Just get Translate or DeepL to hand, as it is in Dutch.

Digital Foundry's PS5 vs PS4 vs PS4 Pro comparison might also be a help if you want to see how drastic some of the differences are: EDIT: Sheikah'd

Confirmed for Friday over here by the Nintendo UK Twitter: Seemed unlikely it'd drop on a Saturday but I know we've been left to wait a little longer (by date) than the US before, so wanted to be sure! At this point I think I'll try to make a concerted effort to get through what NES and SNES games I can before my subscription is up in September, then I might consider upgrading to the Expansion Pack tier.

One. Last. Time! There were rumours going around that he was doing something for TV only a week or so ago, and here we are: John Williams is (for a second time) getting what will likely be his Star Wars bow out, this time in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Seems to be a similar deal to Solo, for which he also composed the main theme. Very intrigued to see where he goes with it: a play on the Force Theme (which, originally, was very much Obi-Wan's theme in the original film), maybe a twist on Battle of the Heroes and/or Duel of the Fates, or something new entirely? My hype is going through the roof for this now, and we've still got more than 3 months to go

Obligatory: The greatest measure of my evolution as someone who plays games in the years since I first played Ocarina of Time has to be coming back to this and finding all of the Cuccos in Kakariko and returning them to the pen, I can't remember but I think I might have just given up last time. Now, I have no idea if lining myself up to throw a Cucco into a fence, climbing up onto the fence, picking up the Cucco while on the fence and then gliding with it is the actual solution, but it was good fun. It's funny, it's been so long since I've played it - and, well, didn't complete it, though it turned out I was much further along than I gave myself credit for! - and I've played so much since then that the greatest testament to this game's legacy is realising it feels so familiar through what I've experienced in other games. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then what the heck is Ocarina of Time? There have been a lot of instances like that and I'm only a few hours in, but my absolute favourite has to be the use of a roll to negate fall damage from great heights. Sound familiar? I'm so early I don't even have Epona yet, but man, there's already something undeniably special about traversing Hyrule Field. I don't think I've run from one side to another without the onset of nightfall, but it just so smartly makes the space feel bigger than it is, despite it not at all needing to be any bigger than it is. Again: I've seen this part of the game before, and I've got a fair way to go to get back to where I was (and then go beyond that to finally say I've completed Ocarina of Time), so what I've seen so far is nothing new to me, but I had to get it out of my system. This game has an aura about it which is only magnified further by seeing how it's influences have taken root everywhere. I don't even know if I'll come back to this thread to talk about it again before I finish it, but yeah, just a little Ocarina of Time praise

Majora's Mask is getting added February 25th: Effective counter-programming if you ask me

So I'm not saying that this is a sign that we'll see the game this year... ...but I'm also not saying that it's not a sign that we'll see the game this year

Oh yeah 100%, I mean if it ain't broke, right? Just gave me a very heart chuckle the first time we saw his eyes -- "Victor! What the hell are you doing here?!" If there's one thing I definitely appreciate about manga and Japanese pop culture in general it's that their idea of attractive men can oftentimes be so far out of touch with the West, with very few beards or obscenely muscular characters as you might expect over here in the typical "shoujo-bait" role, with those characters instead possessing very smooth faces and feminine looks, almost bring androgynous at times (Griffith and Septhiroth come to mind). And I mean, obviously I've got to mention the white hair too. It's a shame dyed white hair and white hair wigs that I've seen in cosplays never looks that good without being edited, otherwise I'm sure we'd see much, much more of it. Overwriting and overexplaining, at least from my experience, normally stems from excitedness or nervousness on the part of the creator in wanting to impart their exact vision, or simply not trusting the audience enough to get there themselves. Not to call out the target demographic as stupid or anything like that, but Shonen Jump's main demographic being a range of pre-teen boys through to young men, I could easily understand it being a case of both. Considering that manga is such a static form of storytelling where you're effectively given snapshots and your mind fills in the blanks, I think it can be easy to misinterpret what they were going for or to rush through -- so an explanation of what's happening can force readers to slow down and understand very clearly what it is that's being conveyed in particular panels/moments, if that's the creator's intent. Not to say that subtlety can't be pulled off in manga, but given how difficult it can be to put that subtlety across without the need for too much more work and/or using more space (of what is going to be very limited space anyways in something like Shonen Jump), I can kind of get it. At the same time, credit where credit is absolutely due to the animators. "Show don't tell" is sage advice for any form of storytelling which goes beyond the printed word and has a visual component, much more so a medium where movement and key frames can add so much emphasis and nuance. Anyways, I've wrapped up the Mugen Train Arc. It's still great, I've listened to the OST a whole lot since watching the film last year but it still gave me chills despite knowing all the major tracks intimately. Rengoku is still an awesome character, his fight scenes are still something else, and the additional episode added a bit of nice context before diving into what I'd already seen. Unfortunately by its very nature of being a film adapted to TV, it can feel very stop-start when compared with the film when you have a short recap of the final events from the preceding episode followed by an OP, and then mid-episode bumpers, etc., which is a necessary evil for such an adaptation but stalls the pacing just that little bit in a way you don't get in the film. With that in mind, ideally I think you should just watch the additional content episode and then watch the film, but otherwise it's all there. I loved the film, so it's not difficult to say that I loved this too. Now onto the Entertainment District Arc

Game is going for Big Boi™ status

Yeah, absolutely! I'm trying to think of other examples of show's faking you out in such a way, but nothing really comes to mind. Other than openings which are a total mismatch with the show when it comes to time (cries in Your Lie in April and Assassination Classroom) or just straight up show stuff that doesn't happen (cries in the horse riding shot in Code Geass). And now I'm mad about the horse riding shot again (Also, agreed on Nanami, another great character, his past is certainly relatable and no-nonsense characters are always a plus. Also, I know Gojo is definitely fan bait, but is it me or is he very much the spitting image of Victor from Yuri on Ice? As soon as we saw his eyes I was like "Oh, so that's what's going on here") Yeah, for sure. I'd put it right alongside Demon Slayer's move to make a canon movie as seriously one of the smartest decisions in the industry of recent times. Maybe even nudge it above that because I genuinely don't think I've ever seen it discussed, so I guess it was so smart it went somewhat under the radar! Some other shows definitely have the reverse problem as being advertised as one thing and then you find yourself staring down the barrel at 100+ episodes on MAL and I just...nope. Nice! Yeah I seem to remember getting through the first season in a few days which is why I've been patiently waiting for the second season to finish before catching up, though that was definitely made more difficult by seeing a lot of praise for its animation and ending on a double-hitter. That's how you really know something great is going down! Imagine I'll be caught up shortly And yeah, like with Attack on Titan, maybe even more so, Demon Slayer is something that I'll be staying anime-only for too. The music (good lord that sweet Demon Slayer music!) and ufotable's animation is absolutely S-tier. After finishing the show I had been toying with the idea of reading the manga, but I gifted my younger brother it instead for his birthday (bought the copies already out and pre-ordered all the volumes for him so he got them as they released) and he told me he was surprised by how the manga handled the shifting panels in Tsuzumi Mansion, which immediately had me backing out of reading the manga. The anime has just set such a stupidly high bar for its fight scenes that I can't imagine going from the anime to just a couple of pages, it's weird but it'd feel like doing it a disservice, when in fact it just means the anime is doing an excellent job of adapting the manga. And long may it continue! Oh, and I mean no surprise that it's coming, but Season 3 confirmed with a teaser hype:

Finished watching Jujutsu Kaisen last night. Loved it. Stupidly good vast of characters all around (Todo, Miwa and Megumi probably take the prize for being my favourites so far). I'm praying the fakeout in what is shown during the first OP remains the case, because it shocked the heck out of me when that thing went down. Looking forward to 0 next month! Tonight, to get me in the mood for the Entertainment District Arc, I started watching Demon Slayer's Mugen Train Arc...the TV adaptation. That additional original episode at the opening felt like a great hook honestly, and I love how they've plastered Rengoku's theme aaaaaaaaall over. Having an OP but not an ED has been pretty weird, but yeah, good fun. The animation in the additional episode looked as bonkers as the film, which has me raising the bar a little for what I expect from the Entertainment District Arc (from what I've heard, it should deliver) Yeah, I'm there with you, it is an odd choice -- but I do think it was a conscious one. I guess it could be argued that the Part 2's are continuations (in Season 4 especially so), but at the same time, you could totally count that as ending a season on a cliffhanger. Other shows have definitely done it. Makes me think they've pulled a very smart move and used it to lower the number of seasons you'd see when looking the show up at a quick glance, which could make it much more appealing to a potential newcomer? Then again, it's one of only a few shows I've seen very openly advertise themselves in their marketing as being seasonal and going so far as including season numbers in their titles and branding.

That's okay, on here we're only our metaverse avatars