Julius

Well, holy smokes. Legends: Arceus has sold 6.5 million units within its first week week, giving it the strongest opening week of any Pokémon game to date (a record previously held by Sword/Shield and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, which both sold 6 million units in their first weeks). Very deserved in my eyes. Still got a fair way to go until the main story and then Dex are complete, but I'm having a blast!

Just caught up on the showcase, and in the nicest way possible...this game looks like it would be best experienced if it could be played in VR. It just has that look and feel to it, and some crazy good hand animations to boot, which probably helps. Kind of looks like a first-person Naruto. The showcase itself was okay, but it didn't really do a great job of selling me on a gameplay loop or hooking me -- as they said in the showcase, this was their first showing of extended gameplay footage, so I imagine that's probably part of why I feel that way, and it's a little crazy to me that they haven't announced a release date until some 6 or 7 weeks before launch with a not-so-great first look at extended gameplay. Also thought it was sequenced really weirdly, it felt like they were wrapping up after the extended gameplay footage and showing off the Deluxe Edition, but then went into a developer Q&A? Oh, and by the way, a Deluxe Edition which gives three days of early access for a game with a release date announced 6 or 7 weeks out from launch? Not exactly a great way to instill me with confidence, because it looks like a very obvious money grab. Enemy designs look like realistic incarnations of SMT/Persona monsters, which is cool as heck, and Tokyo looks cool, but it just doesn't blow me away after seeing very similar streets and locales in Ryu Ga Gotoku's games. A first-person game where cutscenes show your character in third-person always kind of bug me too, and even more so when they look as generic as this. Guy looks like he walked off the streets of The Division. Overall, I went in not thinking that I'd be buying this game if it came in March - have you seen the next eight weeks of releases? - and I came away thinking that even with attention-grabbing high review scores at launch, at best I'd probably still end up waiting for it to be on a steep sale around Black Friday, as it just doesn't scream out to me as something I need to play over any of the other games coming out right now. I could maybe even wait until whenever it eventually comes to Game Pass once I get a Series X. Shame. That cut into the ramen bowl in the first trailer and the tone that trailer set just put the bar far too high!

They got caught eighteen Team 19

Relaxing is definitely the way to put it. Sometimes I tune in for a State of Play and I feel like they have somewhere else they need to be. Here, they were clear and concise with everything they wanted to convey, but they took their time explaining all of it instead of rushing through, which this event definitely benefitted from. Yamauchi was even kind enough to lecture us on the weather. And GT3 is my favourite, totally no bias with that being the one to define my childhood on the PS2 or anything best case I'll love this game and can put off a Series X even longer (really been getting a Forza craving lately), worst case it'll tide me over for a bit. Definitely got an appetite for it now though!

I haven't played through the Sword/Shield Expansion Pass, so can't speak to any improvements they might have made there, but the difference between this and the base game Wild Areas for Sword/Shield is night and day. It's crystal clear in Legends: Arceus that a lot more thought was put into shortening the gaps between groups of Pokémon, the composition of those groups of Pokémon, the terrain and topology of these areas, and they feel much more vast. The addition of shaking trees and resources for you to throw your Pokémon at in order for them to interact with also goes some way to creating a finer and more consistent gameplay loop compared to what I remember of Sword/Shield's Wild Area. You can kind of tell Monolith Soft was consulted by how much of an improvement I feel this is (I also reckon they nabbed some ideas for the targeting/camera too, feels very Breath of the Wild with the way it pulls back at times). There are still some empty spaces, but in my opinion it's nowhere near as barren as it was in the base game of Sword/Shield. And completely unrelated, the ads for this game have been absolutely nutty. Here's another to follow on from the Munchlax one:

Interestingly enough, from earlier on in the earnings call, it seems like they might have been concerned about the game's performance due to it being one version rather than two: I don't know how many people Nintendo and TPCi thought were double dipping...

Yeah, I'd say probably 2024 or 2025, and I'm still half expecting some kind of beefed up model at some point (chip shortage permitting) if that is going to be the case. The Switch being halfway into its life can still be true without us waiting until 2027 for a Switch successor, they'll just continue to manufacture and sell it at a discount once the successor is released for a few years. I think they'd be shooting themselves in the foot a bit if we got one by the end of next year, seeing as they'll probably sell another 20 million Switch consoles in the next financial year. This from the earnings call unsurprisingly makes it sound like the next device will be backwards compatible and a continuation of what they've done with the Switch: Yeah, that's absolutely nuts. The numbers are insane as is, but stepping back and gaining some perspective on their software sales compared with the rest of the industry just shows how truly bonkers-good their games are selling. BotW making it past the 30 million mark would be insane too, but I agree with you that it's not impossible that it happens this year. I'd have to imagine once we start seeing more of BotW2 that we see a bump in sales for the first game. Ideally for it to pass 30 million in 2022 I guess you'd probably want BotW2 next March so that it doesn't end up getting kicked to the curb during the Christmas period, but it's still totally possible. And naturally I hope that doesn't happen, I want BotW2 yesterday It's funny you say that, because in a lot of other entertainment-focused industries, quality very rarely directly translates to great financial performance, such as in the film industry, where everything to break the $1 billion box office mark feeds heavily on CGI and action set-pieces. High quality output seems to be much more consistently recognised and, as such, rewarded in the gaming industry across all genres, I suppose in part down to the interactivity of the medium compared with the products from those other industries, but it's interesting to think about nonetheless!

The game has had the second best first week of a Switch game in Japan (behind only Animal Crossing). See you all in March where 4 of the 10 best-selling Switch games are Pokémon, then

Yeah, I definitely agree with you. At this stage I don't see the need for a true Switch successor just yet considering that the Switch is probably going to end this financial year with 23+ million units sold, and let's not forget that in part that's reduced in part due to the chip shortage. I don't think it's crazy to imagine it doing some 20+ million units in the next financial year, either, and until it truly starts that downwards curve towards bottoming out, I just don't see why they'd chop the legs off the Switch from a business perspective. From a consumer and development perspective I think there's still a growing need for a more able console, so I'd gladly take a Pro model this year or next year and see a Switch 2 in 2024 or 2025. Mainly because I don't want any issues in forests in BotW2 As well as the PS4 has done, the announcement of the PS5 completely killed it's momentum dead in its tracks. It wouldn't have been surprising if it slowed down, but it felt like it straight up stopped, to the point that it looks like it'll find it impossible to make it to 120 million units sold, despite it seeming like a lock-in just a couple of years ago. I like seeing big numbers (even if it's to the benefit of massive companies I have no vested interest in), so I hope Nintendo are a bit smarter about how they handle the Switch's successor. As for Mario Kart, I honestly don't know what to expect next. They've had so much time that it could be absolutely massive in scale at launch, or they could scale it back and have seasonal updates, or even go the route of microtransactions. I'd prefer the former, naturally, but they seriously could go wherever they want next. I still find it barmy that they didn't try to boost their books a bit by dropping an expansion to be honest. It's out there, somewhere, just in a slow cooker Yeah, PS4 will probably be surpassed by the end of 2022 I reckon, and I find it hard to disagree with you over it surpassing the PS2. Which would be bonkers. The launch aligned graph definitely shows that its on the right track: Sell some 5 million units by the end of March to round off this FY at 108 million units sold, another 20 million or so in FY23, probably somewhere between 15 - 20 million in both FY24 and FY25, and then the slowed but consistent trickle of sales after the Switch successor launches. The only thing which could stop it I think are Nintendo themselves. No they don't, just thought it was an interesting stat so thought I'd throw it in there

Nintendo's Q3 earnings report has dropped, covering the period of 1st October 2021 to 31st December 2021. The Big Takeaways - 10.67 million hardware units sold this quarter between the Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED, which brings the total number of Switch consoles sold up to 18.95 million units sold for the financial year. Of these, 3.99 million units sold were for the newly released OLED model. This brings the overall lifetime sales of the Switch past the 100 million units sold mark for the very first time, to 103.54 million units sold. - this makes it official: the Nintendo Switch has flown past the total lifetime sales of the Wii (101.63 million units sold), making it the best-selling Nintendo home console. This has also seen it overtake the sales of the original PlayStation (102.5 million units sold), putting it at fifth on the all-time best-selling list of consoles. Next on its hit list is the PlayStation 4 (116.4 million units sold) and the original Game Boy (118.69 million units sold), both of which it will likely overtake by the end of the next financial year (ending March 2023). After that, the Switch will find itself in no-man's land, chasing the sales number of the Nintendo DS (154.9 million units sold) and the PS2 (157.68 million units sold). - a reminder that the annual projection for console sales of the Switch were lowered last quarter from 25.5 million units to 24 million units, and then last month was revised down to 23 million. For reference, the Switch sold 4.73 million units in Q4 of its Nintendo's last financial year, so it's going to be a tight one. - Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield are now the second best-selling set of Pokémon games at 23.9 million units sold, having overtaken the combined sales of Gold & Silver (23.7 million units sold - had it down as 23.1 million before, but this report from 2010 is apparently more trustworthy than wherever the 23.1 million figure came from). For reference, the best-selling set of Pokémon games to date is Red/Green/Blue (31.38 million units sold), but it's highly unlikely that Sword/Shield will come close to surpassing those sales. - Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl debuted in November and have already sold 13.97 million units, just barely shy of the lifetime total for Let's Go Pikachu!/Eevee! at 14.33 million units sold. This means it debuts at #9 on the List of Top 10 best-selling first party Switch titles, and makes it the best launch for a Pokémon remake to date. For reference, on the Switch the Let's Go games sold 10 million units and Sword/Shield sold 16.06 million units in a similar timeframe, and back on the 3DS, Sun/Moon sold 14.61 million in its first quarter. - Metroid Dread, sold 2.74 million units from it's launch in October through to the end of December. It will very likely overtake Metroid Prime as the best-selling title in the series by the end of the next quarter (2.84 million units sold). The other big title to launch this quarter, Mario Party Superstars, sold 5.43 million units. Elsewhere, a smaller title to debut this quarter, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain sold 1.28 million units. - to update the sales numbers of the other titles released in 2022: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD has sold 3.85 million units, Super Mario World + Bowser's Fury has sold 8.85 million units, New Pokémon Snap has sold 2.36 million units, Mario Golf: Super Rush has sold 2.26 million units, Miitopia has sold 1.63 million units, WarioWare: Get it Together! has sold 1.24 million units, and Game Builder Garage sold 1.01 million units. - another strong quarter for Ring Fit Adventure (1.32 million units sold) has given it lifetime sales of 13.53 million units sold, seeing it edge out Splatoon 2 to the #10 spot. - the lifetime sales of Luigi's Mansion 3 have now reached a whopping 11.04 million units sold! That's Next Level Games' first title to pass the tally of 10 million units sold. - the lifetime sales of Mario Kart 8 (Wii U and Switch) have surpassed 50 million units sold (8.46 million on Wii U, 43.35 million on Switch). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 4.61 million units in this last quarter alone. Top 10 Best-selling Switch titles as of 31st December 2021 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 43.35 million 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 37.62 million 3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 27.40 million 4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 25.80 million 5. Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield - 23.90 million 6. Super Mario Odyssey - 23.02 million 7. Super Mario Party - 17.39 million 8. Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu!/Pokémon Let's Go Eevee! - 14.33 million 9. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Pokémon Shining Pearl - 13.97 million 10. Ring Fit Adventure - 13.53 million

Game Informer have shared their hands-on preview, for anyone who wants to see a bit more:

Well, inject GT7 into my veins. Damn. A lot of tracks shown (a lot of menus too!), a crazy array of cars, insanely snobby tech (best sky boxes confirmed?), some hilarious moments of commentary, and Moon Over The Castle is basically an anime outro, which I'm always all about. I'm so happy right now, it's been a loooooong time since I've played a Gran Turismo game, and I cannot wait to sink my teeth into this. I love just how much Polyphony are doing to share their love of cars in such a variety of ways (listening to designers at the café, the museum, Scapes, etc.). I used to obsess over car magazines growing up, and have fond memories of flicking through thick books packed to the brim with automobile history, so these additions look to be right up my alley, and will take me back to those rainy Sundays lying on the sofa, losing myself in the joy of cars. License tests are being back too, how haven't I mentioned that yet? Gah, haven't felt this excited about cars in a good while! Think I've just found my FIFA replacement. My verdict on the State of Play for GT7: 8/10. As great a showing as it needed to be. Roll on March 4th!

Not too soon after I first landed here I played a good 10+ hours of The Witcher 3, and for whatever reason, it just didn't click with me on any level at all. This was back in 2016 or maybe 2017, mind you, and my enjoyment of gaming as a medium was still in its infancy compared to where I think it is today, so maybe I'd get on with it better today. This is all to say that I played Red Dead Redemption II for the first time over Christmas and absolutely adored it. I binged it for a good 70+ hours over 10 days, and having played Red Dead Redemption for the first time last year really helped me to appreciate it that much more. At the very least, to keep it vague: as far as Westerns are concerned, I think it has an absolutely S tier soundtrack (seriously!), and as far as video game storytelling goes, it has excellent writing, a great cast of characters, and is insanely easy on the eye. Those damn sky boxes are purty. And that's my pitch for why you should play Red Dead II More seriously though, I think The Witcher 3 might be better suited for you completing your targets. Like you said, you own it already and it'll cross off being an RPG, but I think also for your last target of going for a Plat in every game you play is going to be less time consuming (albeit, still very time consuming - just comparatively less!) than going for the Plat in Red Dead II, which I think also includes a fair few trophies for Red Dead Online. But don't listen to the more serious and logical Julius, he's an idiot. Play Red Dead II EDIT: I also hope I'm not the only one who read 'Monster World IV' as 'Monster Hunter IV' and didn't question for a second that H-o-T could Platinum a (totally non-existent, Roman-numeralled) Monster Hunter game, along with all of the other games he played in January

Looks like a Showcase for this game might be announced at the end of today's Gran Turismo 7 State of Play for tomorrow, at the same time (22:00 GMT). The description for the video also seems to confirm the game's release date as 25th March, which was seen floating around in some screenshots of the PlayStation Store a few weeks ago. Premiere link: UPDATE: comunicado oficial

So...it didn't come December 7th Early reviews have dropped for the game ahead of its release date this Friday (4th February), and considering how many times this game has been delayed, they aren't great: Considering this graphic they were so proud of putting out there a couple of weeks ago... I'm going to hazard a guess that they got carried away and the game's focus shifted from polish to features that would end up making it bloated, because a consistent thing across the reviews seems to be concerns about bugs. "Thousands of tweaks" coming and knowing a fix is on the way, but yikes, this game is coming in HOT. For those curious, here's the quick and dirty Dying Light 2 timeline: • announced at E3 2018 (!) • delayed indefinitely in January 2020 from it's Early 2020 release window (not officially announced, this was internal and shared in their statement) • during their digital event in May 2021, the release date of 7th December 2021 was announced • delayed to 4th February 2022 via tweet

Damn, and I thought I was being thorough! I've just got to the third area just shy of Sixth Star myself. I'm having a blast, but struggling a bit to put in sessions longer than a few hours at a time (all that dopamine is frying my lizard brain). Yeah, that sounds about right

To add to what @Glen-i suggested with False Swipe, I know Sleep has changed a bit now that it's Drowsy so it won't be quite as effective, but I would have to imagine a Gallade with False Swipe and Hypnosis is probably still the way to go for a Pokémon best equipped to catch everything you want. You two are much further along than I am so maybe you already know if it's in the game, but at this point I have to imagine Mean Look hasn't made it, as I haven't seen it in all of my encounters with the Zubat and Gastly families so far if it is though and I just haven't come across it, I'd throw that move on a Gallade too. I made very liberal use of a Gallade for Pokémon hunting in Brilliant Diamond, it's always my go-to when available, so would definitely recommend

Well, this was the big takeaway from tonight's Yacht Club presentation, and it looks great (looks very Game Boy Colour and Link's Awakening meets Castlevania): Choosing to "go back to their routes" and get partial funding for this game through Kickstarter (link to the game's Kickstarter here), but they've stated that they will be investing in the game themselves also, so it seems like it's mainly for the purpose of stretch goals and so that they get some of that money trickling in now from higher tiers. Still, I think that's a really bizarre decision given just how well Shovel Knight and everything to do with it has done, and just how much they've grown in size and stature in the years since. Estimated delivery on their Kickstarter is currently December 2023, though I'm sure that is subject to change.

Yeah, gave me a good chuckle when it popped up on my YouTube feed on my lunch break Unrelated to Legends: Arceus but related to Sinnoh and along similar lines, and something I'm sure some here will get a good kick out of, is Bidoof's Big Stand, which they released a few weeks ago for Bidoof Day: Some of the animated stuff on their channel wipes the floor with a lot of the anime proper, you can tell they have so much fun putting these together

And then it comes to Switch in the summer with the rest of them, right?! ... right?

Yeah, glad to see I'm not the only one who thought the game did a pretty poor job of preparing the player from the start! You definitely learn a lot as you go on, but I think there were some things I could and probably should have been told much earlier on in the game than I figured it out. Earliest example of this for me was the Astronaut Figurine. Was super confused when I got a second chance for the first time. I just figured that it was a key story item and so didn't check it in my inventory, because it probably wouldn't have much use based on how little attention they bring to its actual functionality Yeah, the Carbine is honestly probably the best all-around gun in the game. I'd also suggest if you ever come up against a wall in the form of a boss or an enemy with a load of health that the Thermogenic Launcher could be the way to go. It's not great on normal enemy types, but has massive damage output and forces you to be a bit more deliberate and slow down because of how few rounds you can get off before needing to reload. I'd agree with @drahkon that Trackerswarm is probably the best alt-fire for its accuracy (homing) and damage output, probably followed for me by Vertical Barrage, then Voidbeam, then Horizontal Barrage (the thing putting it so low for me would be the arc it takes meaning you need to calculate where you aim a bit more precisely than with the others). Look forward to reading more of your thoughts! Yes! This + Boss Rush. Pleaseeeeeee Housemarque. Also I hope H-o-T notices your message because I agree. I really liked it in Returnal to be honest!

Congrats Cube! May I be the first to suggest the name of 'smallerCube'?

Man, that Midnight Theme is pure bliss. The opening of it is definitely inspired by Schala's Theme from Chrono Trigger, conscious decision or not, so of course it was going to be a great track for me Another track I'm loving is Crimson Mirelands Theme 2, a really fun way to bring a jazzy touch to what so far on my journey has been a heavily orchestral but largely subdued soundtrack (out in the field, at least). I think @Glen-i mentioned he wasn't a fan of not being able to listen to the tracks properly due to it being handled somewhat similarly to Breath of the Wild, and I agree to an extent...and that extent being that I think it's been handled even worse here. What I've heard of the soundtrack so far has been great when I've looked individual tracks up, but as Glen mentioned before, the only chance you really get to settle into the soundtrack is during battles, as well as in cutscenes/scripted sequences and back in Jubilife. In Breath of the Wild I feel the complaint was more about the soundtrack being much more subdued and ambient, fading in and out, but even if you weren't a fan of the game's soundtrack itself, I think it was programmed into the game really well: the right track played at the right time, and, in my time with BotW at least, it was never introduced or phased out poorly. Here? I came across Crimson Mirelands Theme 2, slowed way down after it triggered and the jazz really started kicking in, took another 5 steps, and the music had been phased out. What the hell Game Freak?! If you don't know what I mean, just climb up on Wyrdeer and sprint around any of the areas, and you'll see what I mean. It's like they've programmed the track based on location within an area, as you would probably expect, but the areas just aren't large enough when making use of Wyrdeer (and I would have to imagine it's the same for any of the other rideable Pokémon in the game) for the music to actually be listened to and enjoyed. I've found it really bizarre, which is a shame, because like I said, the individuals tracks I've looked up after hearing a snapshot of them in the game have been great. On a totally unrelated note, as I haven't seen anyone mention it yet (though I imagine some of you might have picked up on it by now): if you want a nice environmental shot which doesn't include your character, you don't need to remove the HUD, you can just hold down 'ZL' and it will basically swoop into what feels like a first-person perspective. As someone who loves to take a lot of screenshots it's been a godsend!

Just, guys, read the room already... I've got to admit I spat out my drink when I read this and started laughing my ass off. It feels like the pettiest imaginable way to get back at Microsoft for acquiring Activision Blizzard: by hooking up with their ex. Honestly, I have very little new at all to say about this, these acquisitions are getting so frequent that I honestly don't have the energy to type up that many original thoughts on the matter. I'm doubling down now that PlayStation are doing it too. It's wrong, and I hate to see it. Like with the Bethesda and Activision Blizzard acquisitions by Microsoft, it's inorganic growth, which just feels plain wrong. They're saying they'll remain independent and multi-platform for now, but I can all but guarantee we see that change a bit once Microsoft figure out how they're handling Call of Duty moving forwards, and if it's anything but things continuing exactly as they already are (which lets face it, isn't happening), that PlayStation will try to position Bungie to churn out an FPS for them that isn't Destiny, possibly alongside Guerrilla? It's anyone's guess, but that's where my mind goes. What's even stranger about this move for me is that I don't get who this move is supposed to be enticing to, from a customer perspective. Like I said, exclusivity may come down the road, but if it's not for now, then what's the point? And even if it does become exclusive down the road, I seriously fail to see how Destiny of all games is pulling players to PlayStation. As others have mentioned, a move for Square Enix makes much more sense (not that I want to see that come to pass, mind you), and they actually have a number of IP which I think can bring people into the ecosystem. I think it's because Bungie don't have much to offer right now when it comes to making one of their own IP exclusive, hence keeping them multi-platform. For now. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Bungie is one thing, but I struggle to see Sony making a move for anyone much bigger: EA and Ubisoft are certainly too big, Square Enix I think are too big in scale and considering that PlayStation has moved out of Japan I struggle to see them making that move, etc. I mean, God knows we all want to see Konami back in the game, but that is purely an IP acquisition, it would be generous to call their development team a shell of what they were a decade ago. The only thing I think they can do now, unless Sony are pushing unreasonably hard and risking everything when it comes to making more moves, is coming to some crazy arrangements with IP owners for exclusivity moving forwards, and actually announcing them. Things like "PlayStation enter decade-long arrangement with Konami for Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, and Silent Hill IP's" or "PlayStation have agreed an exclusivity arrangement for the Final Fantasy VII Remake Saga and Final Fantasy XIV for console", etc., and it kind of helps to put Xbox off making those big moves for those companies if there's a contract that's going to be kept for X amount of years for huge IP's that they can't then touch. Not exactly cheap, but I think obviously much cheaper than buying these companies outright. Now I'm going to go wash my hands, because I feel filthy just typing the suggestion that PlayStation should do that See you all in February for Microsoft's acquisition of Ubisoft!

Sees a white 'H' on a light blue background Great to see you again H-o-T, hope you've been keeping well!