Julius

Mino Raiola, agent to a huge list of talent (Ibra, Haaland, Pogba, Verratti, and de Ligt to name a few) and arguably the biggest agent currently working in football alongside Jorge Mendes, has passed away at 54: Been a rollercoaster of a story the last few days with some claiming he had passed before an outright denial, and then this. Say what you will about his agent fees/add-ons, he knew how he valued himself, and it's always a shock to lose anyone at just 54.

Let's go again (again): Licensing IP definitely makes sense, feels like they've slowed down massively over the last few years with all of this background noise going on around WB. I can definitely imagine WB higher-ups looking at how well Spider-Man has done as a licensed IP and wondering why they don't just do that with their plethora of IP, instead of taking the risk and financial responsibility of seeing projects through from start to finish.

I haven't! Always been very curious about it though as I've heard and read a lot of great things, and them using the base set art definitely helps with the nostalgia Yeah, think you're right. I might pick up Silver too, as before SoulSilver it was the Pokémon game I always tried my hardest to get but could never find after the Legend of Raikou special got me into Johto in a massive way. Heck, I even picked up a GBA cart in a market in the Philippines when I was much younger with a bunch of ROMs on (too young to know what was going on with it to be honest!) which was advertised as having Silver and, well, it didn't, it was a 120-in-1 cart though it did give me a pretty effective crash course in NES games...not that I could beat any of them, mind you! I also got a fake copy of LeafGreen from the same place. Fun to figure that out for the first time when attempting to transfer the Pokémon to Diamond through Pal Park and having it corrupt the ROM save... So yeah, probably get Crystal to play and Silver just to put my younger self at ease

Yeah, that pretty much how I came out of it the first time very powerful and unforgettable film, I'm honestly surprised that it and the story it's based on haven't inspired more outside of film. Wouldn't recommend The Conversation next because it hits a bit too close these days in the information age and just feels uncomfortable to watch at times, but if you haven't watched them before, The Godfather and Part II are two of my favourite films of all time and I can't recommend them enough. I dragged my friends out to see the first film in cinemas in February as part of the 50th anniversary celebration and they were surprised how much they ended up loving it (I wasn't, it's not a rare opinion that these films are fantastic ) Part III on the other hand... I mean it's fine. It's just not the other two

But the 3D makes it look so much prettier (and yes that is basically the only reason it's on there )

While I'm not in any real rush to pick everything up before the May deadline - my Wii U not letting me add my card means I'm fine using eShop cards and taking my time to get things by August - today I've started to have a look through the 3DS and Wii U digital libraries to start compiling my list, and hoo boy...my wallet hurts just thinking about it I started by looking through Virtual Console games, which I've finished looking through for the 3DS, and am currently sorting through the SNES library for on Wii U; I've been using the List of Virtual Console Games for 3DS (PAL) and List of Virtual Console Games for Wii U (PAL), for those curious, to spot overlaps and get a bigger picture of what I'm looking at here. The way I'm handling it for NES and SNES is that, because I know I'm more likely to want to play those on TV rather than in handheld, any games that overlap (and that I want) are getting added to my list of Wii U games, though there have been a few where I know they have 3D Classic versions (only looked at Nintendo ones so far, but I know there are some SEGA ones too)and so I'm not 100% sure on if I'll grab both or just get the 3D Classic version. A number of these are on the Nintendo Switch Online service...but I'd rather buy the game (knowing my habits it will also just make me infinitely more likely to check them out). In any case, I'm tracking all of this in an Excel file with game titles, eShop prices, sizes (including a conversion from blocks to Mb for 3DS titles), and I'm also prioritising the games between three tiers: 1 - Buy without hesitation, 2 - Buy with hesitation, and 3 - Sitting on the fence in hesitation (any games I have no interest in I'm just deleting from the list). Tiers 1 and 2 I'm pretty sure I'll pick up, but picking up tier 3 games largely depends on just how much my total outlay potentially comes to, which I'm sure will be fun to arrive at once I finish this exercise. I've found myself referring to Nintendo Life a whole lot as I think they've reviewed most (if not all?) of the Virtual Console releases across both platforms, which has made it very easy for me to get a quick idea on if a game would be for me or not just from brief gameplay, screenshots, their general score (most things below a 5/10 aren't getting a second glance ) and flicking through their review. So far then... Don't think I'll be picking up Pokémon Silver, Gold, and Crystal - but still trying to figure out what I want to do there. I'm also trying to keep an eye on the total number of games because I know the 3DS and Wii U both have a max. number of applications (which I'm not aiming to get anywhere near!), and I also need to keep in mind that I'll likely need to expand the storage of both (which is why I'm tracking game sizes). Add to all of this the fact that going through this is making me consider picking up a replacement New 3DS XL (my current one is a fingerprint magnet and a special design, so I'd like to retire it) and yeah, this is going to be an interesting next few months think I'll try to have a finalised list of games nailed within the next few weeks!

Bit of an update on the messy situation with PS+ stacking being blocked and the conversion rate to the new tiers:

Naoki Yoshida was featured in Uniqlo's magazine this month to coincide with the announcement of the 35th Anniversary t-shirts, and gave a small but important update on Final Fantasy XVI: it's in the final stage of development! 2022 may well be back on the menu

Looks like Worms World Party and Worms Armageddon have also been listed now. Don't worry guys, at 340 games to get through with 5 games a day we should have a full list around the start of July

No, it's not; and yes, you do! caps off what l think is arguably one of the strongest decades in an individual director's filmography (Coppola also directed The Godfather, The Godfather Part II and The Conversation in the 70's). If you do get around to watching it I'd also recommend checking out Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, as it does a great job of showing just how much of a challenge it was to film.

H-o-T, you've just helped me solve one of my longest standing gaming mysteries. I had to look up Silent Bomber as I swear I'd heard of it somewhere before, and well, I looked it up, and I've never seen that game before in my life. I then had to look up Heart of Darkness out of sheer curiosity about whether or not it connected to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (adapted in film into Apocalypse Now and also a clear inspiration in games for Spec Ops: The Line), because that would be a crazy thing to try to adapt to begin with, let alone on PS1. And well, it didn't according to its Wikipedia page. But then I saw its cover: When I was young, every weekend or two I'd go over to my cousins' while my parents got on with being adults, and we'd normally end up watching films or playing games. In the dead of summer one year, she let me borrow a game which definitely seemed a bit on the creepy side for my age, and I couldn't have been more than 5 years old looking back, as I didn't have my PS2 at the time. Now, the drive from my house to theirs was probably only 5 minutes at a real push on empty roads, but there must have been construction going on, because I was in the back of the car in a traffic jam after being given the game and waving goodbye for what felt like hours (so, in earnest, was probably no more than 20 minutes). The cars were barely rolling along, and so I did what every kid does with a new game and given the time: I looked at the back and front of this game's box over, and over, and over again. It might have been missing it's manual, as I don't seem to recall flicking through one. I don't know what it was - maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the slow roll, maybe it was me constantly reading the back and flipping the game to its front, or maybe even a combination of the three - but I felt absolutely awful after a short while: I'd somehow managed to get myself motion sick in a car which was barely moving, and it's my first memory of ever getting motion sickness. Heck, I feel nauseous just thinking about it Since I "more seriously" got into gaming, I kind of just assumed it was Abe's Oddysee for whatever reason, I think I might have just got the two mixed up in my head somehow, but I'd always sworn the game had a red background to its case, a dog, and some dumb kid on the front. The only real confirmation I needed though was looking up the rear cover: Yeah, there's no forgetting that I looked up the rest and the only one other one I seem to recall - I'm leaning towards having owned it? - was Devil Dice. Okay for this one I remember absolutely nothing about this game other than the weirdly covered die Man, talk about repressed memories, now I'm stuck trying to think of some more of the lesser known PS1 games I haven't thought about in a long time! That's actually why I mentioned Destruction Derby @Dcubed, had no idea it was already up anywhere - hopefully it comes to the service! - but I had a lot of dumb fun with friends sitting on the living room floor playing that game.

Damn you're right, I hadn't even thought about that. I think Forza typically has a 5 year deal (or something around that length) for licensing on cars before they're out, doubt it's much different for GT. Not to mention some of the music too Sooooooooo...Destruction Derby when?

Obligatory: Interesting that this time we're getting third party games popping up after the first party stuff the last time some games popped up, hopefully means we might not need to wait all the way until their official word for some of the potentially more exciting titles? Hopefully Ridge Racer turning up doesn't negate the possibility that we're going to see the old Gran Turismo games on here, as I'd definitely be in the mood for them - especially if there were trophies - after I finish with 7. We're three and a half weeks away or so from the service launching in Asia, so I'm curious to see when and how they show this off and open the floodgates. I think a 15 minute State of Play on the service, showing the UI, confirming the games for launch, showing some footage to help us confirm the quality of emulation/streaming, etc., would probably be the most you need to do. I'm just hoping it's not another PlayStation Blog update...maybe we see something the week after next?

Not-E3 begins the usual week of E3: Xbox have confirmed their Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will take place on Sunday 12th June 2022 at 18:00 BST... Right then, time to see how Starfield is turning out and if it's on schedule for me to make the silly decision of picking up a Series X for that and the few legacy titles on Xbox I want to play. And Forza. Think they're the first to do confirm a date and time? So now we just wait to see who joins them

Avatar is such an interesting property to me because despite holding a stupid amount of box office records for so long and needing a franchise like the MCU to spend 10+ years building up to surpassing it, it really did never permeate pop culture. I've seen a smattering of pictures online of people who cosplayed as Na'vi in the years immediately following the film's release, but beyond that, I feel like it's referenced more when talking about James Cameron, qualifying which Avatar you're talking about ("Avatar – the kid with the blue arrow tattoos, not the blue people", or "Avatar – the great one"), and gets a few nods in "nerd culture" shows like The Big Bang Theory, but it never crossed that threshold really. I feel like there are a lot of reasons for this, mainly James Cameron being the creative and likely having so much power over the intricate details of the property. It's had minimal supplementary material at best, no presence on toy shelves, and he's been given over a decade to put out a sequel (and produce multiple films at once) because he wanted to put them out. Only other comparison I can really think of with a creative in film taking their time to going back around to something is George Lucas and the gap between the original trilogy and prequels. But I'm there with you. I think the film is fine, it's not great, and based on the first film alone I don't think it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as something like Star Wars, other than from the perspective of its visuals, sound design, and its impact on the industry and how higher-ups looked at 3D and the box office specifically (it singlehandedly revived 3D and it will do it again this December after it has waned in recent years). I just think it lacks any meaningful depth. Personally - and yes, I'm saying this as a huge Star Wars fan which throws together loads of things like Hidden Fortress, Dune, Flash Gordon, etc. - I also just think the film lacks any ambition in its storytelling and writing. I hate to say things have been "ripped off", or at least try not to say it so flippantly...but from a story perspective, Avatar is a weird concoction of many elements of much better films, like Princess Mononoke, Dances with Wolves, and Pocahontas. I think this film could have some interesting stuff going for it, though, first off being that it's got it's awkward first film out of the way which did a lot of heavy lifting in terms of world building, and I kind of think anything from now on should just be an improvement in quality. Long form storytelling and intricate world building has exploded in TV and film over the last 10 years, so if Jim put as much time into the next few films as he did the first, I think it's going to get a hell of a lot more appreciation. This. I'm in this for the IMAX. I actually didn't get to see the film in cinemas ( because that was a rare occurrence for me growing up anyways); fell asleep watching it on DVD as a kid (you know, for a blockbuster, looking back that really should have been a sign that it wasn't going to permeate the mainstream if it sent some of its target demographic to sleep, but the length of the film didn't help!); but I did get to watch it on blu-ray - and 3D blu-ray at that, the only one I've ever bought because I knew if anyone is putting the time into that crap it'll be James Cameron - and the film remains a spectacle to this day. The quality of the CGI in the first film is still of the absolute highest quality and it is consistent all of the way through the film, which I can't say is frequently the case for Star Wars or the MCU. You can really tell they let it cook in those servers I cheekily think it should get a nomination for Best Animated Picture rather than Best Picture if it ends up in the running, though

To not cause further confusion between Avatar and Avatar, the subtitle for the new Avatar was announced yesterday at Cinema Con as being 'The Way of Water', where some new footage was also shown off: The trailer for the film will be attached to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness exclusively for one week before it is released online.

Celebration schedule is up: Looks like a fun line-up, but what a bizarre way to confirm the long rumoured Tales of the Jedi as being a thing. Curious to see exactly what sort of length we're expecting considering they're calling it a collection of "animated anthology shorts", though. Yeah, I get what you mean. For me a lot of them have been pretty great in mid- and wide shots, but it's the close-ups where things fall apart a bit, like with a certain gunslinger in BOBF. Not a huge deal, but yeah, character first and then costume after, but I think it definitely resonates more on the occasions where they manage to nail both. Poor Sung Kang... That's good, sounds like you're in for a great time! Thanks for the offer re: potentially sorting signed stuff, but I know how busy it'll be there and how hectic signings specifically can get, so wouldn't want you to take up any of your time there! Fingers crossed that you do come across some of the folk you hope to see though and can get signings from them, that would be really cool I might take you up on the offer for a little something of merch if possible? I don't know if they've shown any of that stuff off, but I know SWC always seems to nail it with exclusive items (I remember seeing their Loth-cat plushies and thinking they were awesome), so if I see anything once it's announced I might drop you a line if possible? But no big deal if not, I just want to hear about the crazy things you end up picking up during your trip Yeah, you're right, they've definitely left a little late before, and I mean we've got panels now at least. I guess I kind of felt that way because in 2019 I think we had a really clear picture of what to expect before the schedule was even announced (Rise of Skywalker, Mando, etc.) whereas, at least now, it's definitely more spread out, and there's so much in the works simultaneously that it almost feels like they'll have a smaller % of things to show in a way? Speaking of which, I don't seem to see a video games panel – wonder if that's something we'll get confirmed closer to the time, but it's pretty curious, as that's something I really expected to see? I guess there are other panels they could just drop a Jedi Fallen Order sequel trailer at, though I hear you on the busyness of some of those panels and the slim likelihood of getting in. It's a weird one and I think a great time can be had not going to every panel, but if/when I ever go to Celebration, I'd definitely want to make my way into some of the main ones...but the chance just seems so slim without a Jedi Master VIP pass, which it feels like you need to be seduced by the allure of the Dark Side for, otherwise I think waiting in line could simply take up too much time which could be spent elsewhere at Celebration? Which YouTubers/Podcasters are you referring to for the combined panel? That sounds like it could be very cool, and honestly maybe more than the hype for new stuff, the allure of Star Wars Celebration has to be just spending time surrounded by other huge Star Wars fans. I'm sure you'll have a great time!

Comunicado oficial: DAMN IT I WANTED TO GIVE FIFA UP THIS YEAR JIM RYAN YOU MONSTER

Early reviews: Online functionality hasn't been considered in these reviews, as it will be added on Friday through a patch.

Terrific match of football, and it's one of those matches of football that's an instant classic, but what a terrible advert for defending at the top level by both sides. Some astonishing moments of skill, though, such as Mahrez's dummy and slide to the line, I was screaming at my TV that he should have chipped it, should've been one for the highlight reel! And Valverde's reverse flick to nutmeg with his back to the play and at the edge of the pitch was a thing of beauty. City were impervious in the first 25 minutes and the opening 10 minutes of the second half, and across those 35 minutes of the match, they absolutely could have killed the tie - not the leg, but the tie - off. They had the chances to, and they'll be ruing not killing this game off when they had the chance, not to mention just how sloppy they were at the back at times, practically inviting Madrid into the game. Pep will rightly be fuming. But when Real arrives, they really arrive - all of their goals were instantly memorable classics. Benzema's wonderful instinctive volley, Vinicius's excellent dummy and embarrassment of the City defence with his pace to sneak one past Ederson (though it was very poorly defended), and obviously Benzema's Panenka was pure class. They did ride their luck at times, for sure, especially considering that you didn't really notice the absence of a player like Alaba at the back once he came off, when you feel City really should have taken advantage of that. And what a great range of emotions shown by Ancelotti throughout Quick shout out to the ref: that's one of the better refereeing performances I've seen in a while, and the commentators were saying he's inexperienced at this level of the competition, and well, I think he should be seriously considered to ref the final. Didn't let anything go, but played the advantage really well at times. Second leg next week should be a cracker. Liverpool vs Villarreal has a lot to live up to tomorrow night

It was clear when Real were struggling to get the ball out of their own defensive third of the pitch that they were in for some pain, but man, they could very easily find themselves on the end of a demolition job tonight. It's already 2-0. Carlo does not look amused

Wasn't sure where this belongs, but this year's BBC Proms will for the first time include a video game concert on 1st August 2022! From Eurogamer: Link to the official BBC page for the event and redirection to tickets (which aren't up yet) here.

Huh, never gave my final thoughts on Attack on Titan: Final Season - Part 2, but in short: first half of the season up until the end of Episode 6 was monstrously good, as in, in a vacuum I think that might be one of the most concentrated and consistent stretches of amazingly high quality writing in an anime series that I've watched. It really was just banger of an episode after banger of an episode. Music, OPs and EDs were awesome once again, and Wit picked up where they left with Part 1 in terms of animation, even pretty noticeably improving the CG quality of its titans. Unfortunately, I really think the second half of the season waned in comparison, and they really did just spend the latter 6 episodes setting up the next part of the story...which we then found out we wouldn't be getting for another year with the announcement of Part 3. It felt like a double blow because of this, and while I'm excited for it, I'm not excited by the prospect of having to hide from manga spoilers for yet another year. I also think the second half of Part 2 has pacing which will make sense in terms of the three Parts of the Final Season overall, but again, in a vacuum of where we finished, I think it's a weaker place to leave us than even where Part 1 left us last year. A practically flawless and almost peerless first half of the season simply let down by the pacing half of the second season and the fact we have to wait another year means this is a 9/10 for me. In the week before Part 2 finished, I went back and watched the second season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War after loving the first. It's genuinely one of the funniest anime I've watched that doesn't feel like it's trying too hard to be funny, the cast of characters are all completely relatable and loveable, and man, there are just a few too many times where I got thinking back to my high school experience and was facepalming realising how many times these sorts of things happened to me and my friends. Excellent and pretty short, can't recommend it enough, and it's nothing if not consistent in quality from start to finish. Yeah, another 9/10. As part of my Ghibli rewatch of all the films that I'm doing this year to get to some of the ones I haven't, I watched Grave of the Fireflies for only the second time; my first time was with my family, and this time I watched it alone. This film makes your soul bleed, and as an older brother...hoo boy. I used to never cry or get remotely emotional watching movies, but as I've got older and branched out, I've found myself finding more and more films which cut the onions for me, so to speak. Knowing that this is based on a book, and what's more an entire book which is a positive spin on the actual events, just really hurts. While the film does a great job of depicting the tragedy of war, more than I could the first time (again, watching it alone this time), I really picked up on how this is less a story about war, and more about Seita, the older brother and the one responsible for Setsuko, choosing pride over logic, and making poor decision after poor decision for the time he was in. Sure, some people around him were asshats, but a bunch of the kind people were screaming at him to let go of his pride and do the dutiful thing. As someone watching this for the first time on the other side of their teenage years, I think this film untangled a whole lot of pain for me when I reflect on those simpler but also really complicated times. Had this film down as an 8/10 before, but now it's a 9/10 for me, and some of Ghibli's more serious watches I feel need that second and maybe even third viewing to understand the film and what it's trying to say a bit better; I had a similar experience with The Wind Rises. I won't be watching this film again for a long while. Anyways, back to loving Wit. I watched Ranking of Kings in a couple of days after waiting what felt like a seriously long time from it's announcement to its final episode being aired, and I absolutely adored it. Some will say it's very Ghibli-esque, and while I don't disagree, I think the strength of this show in its simplicity: it feels like you're watching the stories your parents read to you as a kid. This is compounded by its exceptionally beautiful art style, Wit absolutely killed it with the animation (let's pretend to be shocked about this), the soundtrack is heartfelt with two amazing OPs (the first one captures the tone of the show perfectly, while the second is more a , and the story, while at times feeling like it's trying to overcomplicate things (and there are so many fakeout deaths it's kind of funny), is just pure joy from start to finish. Prince Bojji is looked down upon by his people, as a mute and powerless child, first son to the strongest king in the Ranking of Kings. While not physically strong, though, he is strong of heart and will, and once he finds someone who believes in him, past traumas and future hopes and dreams are brought to life as a sinister presence emerges from the shadows. This show is about bonds: it's about the people we love, the people we should hate, and the power of forgiveness and moving on. If you want to feel like a kid once again, I will scream from the rooftops for you to watch this show. Bojji is one of my favourite protagonists in recent times. 9/10 Finally, I'm watching Spy x Family. It's only three episodes deep so far but it's awesome, combining Wit's and Cloverworks' astounding animation work depicting a spy forming a family to complete a mission, with the hilariousness of something like Love is War, and this is down to having one of the cutest - and definitely most expressive - kids in an anime I've ever seen: Anya. I mean, what would you expect to happen when a spy meets a telepath who loves a show about spies and adorably manipulates situations with every chance she gets? Adorable And thus ends the post where I give everything a 9/10!

Rumoured games for PS+ in May: EA clearly desperate to get me back playing FIFA after I've taken a vow to not go back

Miyamoto hacked the NoA Twitter account just to confirm the delay of Illumination's Mario movie: As a wise Shigeru Miyamoto once said, and I quote: