Julius

My journey is finally over. It's late, so I'll be brief for now, but I'll be back with my thoughts on the latter stages of the game and some final thoughts. As someone who loves to dig deep into lore, and finally playing one of these games at launch, I finally found myself able to enjoy these games in the way many others do, reading item descriptions and trying to figure things out about the world and it's characters for myself before the collectively accepted lore is settled upon, as I found to be the case with Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, what with being so far removed from the release of those games when I first experienced them. I actually want to make some story DLC guesses, because I'm sure it's coming: I'm one of those who loved Breath of the Wild, and yeah, the comparisons between the open worlds of Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild is absolutely fair. The difference? The world of Elden Ring is much more tightly focused, abundant in and saturated with discoveries - whereas Breath of the Wild wants you to breathe and just soak everything in, Elden Ring is much more keen to nudge you along, but it's up to you whether you want to follow their guidance - and those discoveries feel much more rewarding in how they enrich your journey, whether that be through finding a new location and your jaw dropping to the floor at its environmental design, finding an awesome item in a chest, or even coming across NPCs, of which there are plenty in this game. For the first time in one of these games, I think the decision to make the game open world allows for some nice breathing room in how you approach things, as you aren't having to walk down the same corridor and die to the same boss over and over again, and this being coupled with more contextual NPC summons, Spirit Ashes, and a crazy variety of weapons, spells, and incantations means you're never truly taking this journey on alone (if you don't want to), which relieves a pressure that I've personally felt in both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls before. It's not flawless, but then, I don't think any game with any great complexity to it beyond its mechanics can be. I think there are a few weird boss fights, in terms of a lot of things: crazily overpowered combos, too many duos, and just a tad too much repetition for my liking with some of the minor and mid-level bosses. I think the decision to rebalance the single player experience of a game with a focus on the multiplayer experience made for a bit of a weird adjustment period for me when I sat down with the game after the update, and reading into it more now, I think they toned down a boss fight which should have been difficult a tad too much, whereas they kind of ignored another obvious candidate for tweaking. I also think by and large that the boss fight music was kind of forgettable; there's definitely a standout track or two, but I'm not going bonkers over 50%+ of the soundtrack like I might have done with the other games of From's I've played so far. I need to let my thoughts sweat it out some more, but honestly, I think this game is a masterpiece and will rightly be talked about in the same breath as Breath of the Wild in how it's revolutionising modern open world games. Now, open worlds - especially ones a bit more free of direction like these two - might not be for everyone, and that's perfectly okay, but I think the key difference above all else for me with Elden Ring is that it masters almost everything from a micro- to macroscale, and that legacy dungeons - while generally shorter than what I've experienced in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls - still have a level of intricate level design which shows From at a whole other level, so if that's what you're looking for and the open world isn't for you, you have the flexibility to beeline it to wherever the game is pointing you and enjoy the game how you want to, playing how you want to play. I've brought up Breath of the Wild a lot, and I typically hate comparing games so much, but that game had a lot of issues for me that I think Elden Ring very overtly addresses, so I hope they were paying attention to the criticisms before, because otherwise they're going to be unavoidable going into Breath of the Wild's sequel for now. I've said it before, but now having finished the game, I'll say it again: it's the end of March, and I genuinely struggle to imagine any game surpassing Elden Ring for my pick for GOTY 2022. The year is long, and we'll see what happens, but in terms of my own personal rankings, I think Elden Ring is firmly in the Top 5, and possibly in my Top 3, favourite games of all time. Hell of a game. Kudos, From!

Physical Switch version is coming to Asia with English support: Imagine it'll end up being a bit of a Dragon Quest trilogy situation where it isn't made available physically in other regions and is kept in Asia. Curious to see if it ends up with a physical release on any of the other platforms it's coming to.

Feel like this will be appreciated here

I 100% agree with this, and I still find it incredibly confusing that that's the case when this has been rumoured for so long - what, nearly 6 months now I think, with more and more details coming every time? - that comparisons are still being made to Game Pass. Then again, as always, it's a vocal minority of people who aren't PlayStation fans (not calling out anyone on here, but definitely seen it elsewhere) who seem keen to make the comparison. Maybe one day PlayStation does get to the point where they have to do that, but for now, they have enough consoles out in the wild and sell a crazy amount of copies with first party releases, something Xbox was frankly struggling with and resulted in their transition to Game Pass and xCloud. I'm really curious to see how the retro side of it is handled, because yeah, I think it's clear that - on here at least - that's what we're collectively most interested in. Do they have third parties onboard? If so, are we just expecting the usual suspects to support it and, for example for PS1, get a similar slate to the Classic? What's the rollout going to look like: is it going to be a drip feed, or a good chunk all at once? So many questions, hopefully we see some answers next week! Personally I'm just really hoping we see some Konami representation in MGS titles and Suikoden, specifically V as it never made it's way to PSN on PS3 like I to IV did. I don't think that would be too surprising, especially with what all of these reports have said. At best I think PS1 and PS2 could be made playable through native emulation (I mean, I think they all could be, I just see them wanting to take the cheapest and easiest route, whatever that is), but I don't see them going that far with PS3. From what I've heard PS Now is much better on PS5, and that service already has a modest slate of PS3 titles available to stream.

Looks like we're finding out what's up with Project Spartacus next week: I'm pessimistic about the whole thing based on what we've heard from reports so far, but at this point I'm honestly just really curious to see what it actually looks like. If there's trophy support for any classic games on the service then they'll have my attention (and I'm not even really a trophy hunter, I just think that'd be super cool), otherwise...eh. Also curious how many times we'll see this turn up in articles next week if it is revealed

£78. Honestly, I know it's a lot, but it's thankfully not as high as I think it could have potentially gone for (I watched eBay like a hawk for a few days and it was the only sealed copy I saw in that time). I don't have any games pre-ordered for the next month so didn't mind taking the hit

Target acquired, sealed and delivered! First time I've had to do any bidding on eBay, pretty exhilarating, it's a good thing I don't care about more serious collectible items (or have the disposable income to chase them) or I'd be hooked. I was going to get it for a bit under RRP, but set my max. bid to a good bit over to be safe, and then raised it by another £5 with 10 minutes to go. Good thing I did too, because two chaps came in to try and snipe it with 30 seconds to spare!

Pretty sizeable update set to go live early next month, which seems to be a half step in the right direction. I do wonder if it's already too little too late for the more casual GT players (including myself). I've not touched the game in over a week as I've been waiting to see how this all pans out, and I probably won't get back to it now until I've seen credits roll on Elden Ring (and not to mention it's going to be at least a week until the update is rolled out anyways), but it really took the wind out of the sails of the game for me. It's all been very reactionary so far, which is rarely a good thing for a game like this. The lack of DRM removal to allow for offline single player is still a huge concern given how long the game was down for during its most recent update. And, while it's pie in the sky here due to this being a first party title, even Battlefront II completely removed it's pay-to-win microtransaction system (indefinitely and then permanently) and had to fully rebalance the game, so what does it say that they clearly haven't reviewed that as an option?

Italy not qualifying for the World Cup this year after losing to North Macedonia tonight, after how thoroughly they proved themselves last year during the Euro's, is absolutely nuts. That means if they manage to qualify for the next World Cup in 2026, they'll have gone 12 years between World Cup appearances. It's kind of barmy that they don't automatically qualify as European champions to begin with, but I guess this exact scenario where they're getting knocked out in playoffs by North Macedonia is why.

THEY'VE FINALLY UPDATED THE APP TO ACCESS SCREENSHOTS AND CLIPS OVER HERE! Finally!

Square Enix have released a trailer for the game's new and arranged songs: From the comments and what I've seen elsewhere, the reaction to this seems to be somewhere between mixed and negative, which is a shame.

Hell yeah! Happy you watched and enjoyed it Spirited Away is amazing, and probably one of the best Ghibli films to start with, given its near universal praise. I think the simplest way to put it is that it just oozes heart and charm, but is so unique in its weird and wacky ways and characters, that I think it's hard to come away not endeared to some of its elements, especially given some of the sharp contrasts in warm and cosy visuals with the serenity of the train scene. And I still think having your work scored by Joe Hisaishi is tantamount to cheating, and Spirited Away's soundtrack is no exception -- it's beautiful. It's funny, because I remember I first watched the film on holiday at this old lady's place that my aunt cared for when I was much younger (probably 6 or so?), and I just didn't get on with it. Looking back I think it was a combination of Yubaba's creepy face and transformations, as well as the Kashira (rolling head dudes). It's just such a different vibe and energy to a lot of western animation, I think I was a bit taken aback by it in hindsight! So, @drahkon...which one you watching next?

Today's system update: I've either completely missed it previously in an update or they've just failed to mention it, but didn't realise that there's now an option at the bottom when you tap 'Options' on a game on the PS5 home screen which keeps it on the home screen. Either way, that's really neat. Also like the clean-up of the UI, especially with trophies on trophy pages having a pattern and colour to denote a trophy grade. Now give us folders you monsters

Yeah, I'm right there with you, there's a timelessness to the silent skits and visual gags of the older LEGO games which I'll always be fond of, felt like a throwback to silent films. Granted, there is Mumble Mode in the cheat codes so that you don't have to play with voice acting if you don't want to, which is a fine addition, but it's pared back in the sense that it is essentially just the original scenes dubbed over with said mumbling, so it's still a step down in that regard. To compare the "No, I am your father" scene in this game to the original (first video is linked to the particular scene in the trailer): Yeah, I can totally empathise with this, I think it's a line getting harder and harder to walk with every passing week having new headlines of employees being treated like dirt. Almost the entire industry needs a shakeup, because it's had it's chance for wake-up calls and done nothing with them. Selfishly (and not?) I think it's something that shouldn't even need to be on the mind of the consumer when picking up a game, it shouldn't be a question of the wellbeing of the team behind these games because they shouldn't even be in these positions in the first place. It basically presents people searching purely for entertainment with a moral and ethical quandary, and to add some level of irony to it, it's only those who are quite into games in the first place and keep up with it who actually keep abreast of what's going on who might end up hindered by this; the average casual gamer - the ones who actually have buying power en masse - have zero idea what's going on 99 times out of 100. Personally, I avoid Ubisoft and Activision games right now, have done for a while now, but then I bought and adored Red Dead Redemption II last year, which makes me feel like a hypocrite. It's tough, but I guess similarly to my view on the whole controversy surrounding Hogwarts Legacy, there unfortunately isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, and it really just needs to come down to the choice of the individual. At the end of the day when it comes to things like this I tend to ask myself "would I feel like I'm robbing myself of a worthwhile experience which I might find joy in and/or learn more about myself from?", which I guess personally would outweigh whatever sense of guilt I'd have in the pit of my stomach. I love Star Wars, as I know many here do, but even if I take away the fact that this is a Star Wars game, the first LEGO Star Wars game was the game myself and all of my friends had growing up, and I still remember flicking through a game magazine on the floor of the tiny off-licence next to my primary school and learning about - and counting down to - the release of LEGO Star Wars II. So there's almost too much nostalgia for me not to? But then, I mean, that just brings up the poison chalice of corporations preying on the innate and uncontrollable feeling and desire for nostalgia in the first place, which is to say that we're all doomed

As previously reported by Schreier, the game has now officially been delayed to Spring 2023: To be honest, with Gotham Knights aiming to release in October I'm surprised that it took them this long to announce the delay.

More reviews going up now, looking goooooood:

That's awesome Ronnie -- have a great time, and make sure to take plenty of pics! Won't lie I'm a little (read: very!) jealous, and we all know where that leads I don't think the schedule has been announced yet (?), but are there any panels you're hoping for/plan to attend in particular at SWC? Any particular merch you're going to be trying to hunt down either at SWC or at Galaxy's Edge? Are you flying (Han) solo or going with anyone/meeting anyone there? And any other places you might try to check out while in LA? Sorry to bombard you with questions, but the last two years have me foaming at the mouth to do some travelling, so I'm just excited for you

I feel like spin-offs area very slippery slope of semantics which differs from one series to another, and how each individual interprets a spin-off (which could easily be it's own discussion), but I personally wouldn't consider Mario Kart Tour to be a mainline entry in the Mario Kart series either. I also don't think it matters in the slightest, but I'm struggling to figure out how I could view it as a mainline entry, so figured I'd voice my take. For me I think the deciding factor would be that, even if there is overlap with the core Mario Kart audience, Mario Kart Tour is squarely not aiming for that audience, they're aiming at a mobile audience with a simplification of core mechanics and, as far as I am aware (happy to be corrected here as I've honestly not seen too much of the game), doesn't add much in terms of new mechanics either. It's not aiming to be the best-selling Mario Kart game on the market right now, and there's no cannibalisation of sales going on as, generally, I don't think their audience views it as the next mainline Mario Kart game. I wouldn't consider Nintendo's other mobile games based on already existing IP so far to be mainline entries either, or any of the other Mario Kart games for that matter (such as the arcade games). Glances over at Yakuza, Final Fantasy, and I'm sure plenty of other series which have gone through fundamental gameplay overhauls during their existence I wouldn't say so? Maybe it's just how I view the term originally through the lens of TV and film growing up, but I always consider a spin-off to be anything which is an expansion on a series, whether that be into a new medium, a new story which is distinct and separate to the "main story", etc. In the case of gaming, I think how a game is marketed speaks volumes, because I think the intent of the creator makes it crystal clear whether we should view a game as being a spin-off or not. And in this case, maybe I'm missing something, but, outside of Directs, I've seen zero marketing for Mario Kart Tour -- as I said before, it's just not the main sales focus of the Mario Kart series right now, even if it is still bringing in a fair bit of money. I mean, to be fair, that's only not considered a spin-off because TPCi said so when marketing the game, otherwise I do think it would be. That game is so different mechanically and in terms of its design when compared with other core series Pokémon games, not to mention the fact that it's the first and only original core series entry (as in, not a third version) to not have at least one other version release alongside it. Game Freak basically just experimented similar to how they did with Town before Sword & Shield, but this time used the IP and it gave us an idea of what they wanted to test for the series moving forwards. At this point, being a core series Pokémon game just means it was developed by Game Freak, there's not much rhyme or reason to it, and there's been some level of unpredictability to how they handle the core series ever since Black 2 & White 2 were announced. Let's also not forget that this is the same company for which fans labelled these games as "main series" titles before they eventually came out in Gen VI/VII (can't remember which) as calling them "core series" in the first place.

These have to be some of the most awful controllers I've ever laid my eyes upon. Is this the price Phil agreed to pay for the success of Game Pass? At what cost?! EDIT: sweet mother of Master Chief there's a console too. The gold ring is passable? But the promo images from the film look really tacky, they should've used the old Sonic & Knuckles logo if they wanted a console that actually looked good (which I guess they didn't). And just to be unpleasant here's a photo of people holding the controller's: Man I don't like to be hyperbolic but I've never imagined holding a controller in my hands before and feeling physically sick. Simultaneously slipping in your hands, sweat and dirt getting caught up in it...

Yep, totally agree. While it's not the sole reason for him leaving and it seems like it's been on his mind for a while, spending more time with his son in light of the chaos that's been going on the last few weeks (he mentioned in Cup of Jones this week that beyond his son's health scare that he's also lost a few close friends) is an outcome I couldn't be happier about. It took a while for me to warm up to him as host of the main podcast (I still think he was better as a co-moderator to Kyle, but to be fair, that chemistry purely from a podcast host/co-moderator perspective goes back to GT Time) but he definitely grew into it, which is hard to do considering how vastly different the roles are. Looking back, him banging on about wanting to go to The Game Awards last year in-person makes so much sense if he always had an eye on retiring on the 20th anniversary of the start of GT, and with an in-person E3 nowhere in sight: it was one last goodbye to the industry as someone working in it. Yep, they've been on the rocks for a while, and to be honest, I think the next 12 months of Easy Allies is going to decide whether this company stands a chance in the long run, and that's pretty crazy to say 6 years into a company's life. I think they've been facing a bit of an identity crisis ever since Kyle left, and with Jones now leaving, I think you've lost two of the three faces of Easy Allies which would have been the biggest draw coming from GT: Kyle was host of GT Time and Final Bosman, Brandon obviously offered his distinct voice to most of their edited content at GT, and the only one left is Huber, the poster child of reactions for E3 2015, which I think massively set the tone for and helped bring Easy Allies into being. That's not to discredit the others at all, but at the time, I'd say that these three were probably the most recognisable, through their content or appearances, at GT, as everyone else was typically in a more behind-the-scenes role. I can see them hitting $40k and staying there for a while on Patreon...but I'm not sure how long that will last. We'll have to wait and see how these changes pan out, but short of Kyle returning, I think they've got an uphill battle ahead of them. Like you, there wasn't much to get me truly excited about the changes in the EZX announcements only video -- the only thing which really made my ears perk up was Ben being made an editor alongside Blood, which is long overdue considering the quality of his writing in reviews, and just how much all of the other writers on the team respect the quality of his output. But even then, and even with them saying that they'll trial providing their own VO for reviews, I think it's clear that they're still stuck between the old and new ways of doing things. I genuinely think they put out the best traditional game reviews at the moment, but at the same time, that's a whole lot of time and effort for a 5-10 minute video in which they aren't really selling themselves and their interactions, which I think is the most appealing thing about the Allies. It might be a struggle considering how I'd say they're a bit more hardcore than Kinda Funny when it comes to gaming (in tastes and in the sheer volume and variety of what they all play), but I genuinely think a review podcast similar to what Kinda Funny has now would be a great middle ground, and while it'd be a shame to lose out on their written reviews, it would also free them up from the shackles of writing, editing, and cutting reviews, which in turn would mean more time and availability for more edited content. Not to undermine their streaming, but they don't pull in massive numbers, and so I think their focus on wanting to stream more has always been a bit at odds with their other roles. We'll see what happens. I want to be cautiously optimistic, but part of me worries that this is too little and far too late, and I'm also not a fan of the new logo (especially on a black background - if you check out their YouTube channel the profile picture looks like it's missing the 'Z'!). Fingers crossed it works out

...aaaaaaand it's being put down. Don't think it ever took off in the way Nintendo and Cygames had hoped, so not very surprising.

The only real issue I have with how they're handling things this time around is that you can't get the Groups on the home screen, so hopefully the option to do that and/or pin them to the home screen comes down the road. But still, progress is progress! See you all in 2024 for themes?

They finally did it Seems to be folders in all but name and location, which is close enough for me!

End of an era: Brandon Jones of Easy Allies is retiring from games journalism at the start of May. Says it in the clip but he's actually been thinking about retiring since last July, so this isn't a sudden reaction to his son's recent health scare which has seen him away from the Allies in recent weeks. This was announced at the start of Easy Allies' sixth anniversary stream. I've mentioned before elsewhere that I didn't really get massively into games until I left high school and got my first job, due to the lack of disposable income in my house growing up, and so I didn't get into Easy Allies until a year or so in. But the crazy part is, before that, when I would watch videos on YouTube about games, and for reviews of games that I couldn't get my own hands on, I know for a fact that I came across Brandon's voice a few times. Kind of crazy how things work out. Love or hate the direction of Easy Allies as of late, the guy has firmly put his stamp on the face of gaming journalism at Easy Allies, and before that at GameTrailers. He's probably up there as one of the best and most recognisable voices in gaming journalism, right? Sounds like he'll be reading reviews when asked to by the Allies for now too. Been a hell of a ride. Kudos, Jones! EDIT: well okay then, a whole host of changes and a new logo: Addresses a fair bit of the growing criticism I've spotted since COVID kicked off, well worth a watch.

Huh. I'm really curious to see how this turns out, it's one thing working together and then acquiring a studio as has been the case for a fair few of PlayStation's big acquisitions over recent years (Insomniac, Bluepoint, Housemarque), but acquiring a studio before it's even got a game out is massively risky. So, it's probably for one of, or a combination of, these reasons: • the team's vision is something PlayStation thinks is genuinely great and they may have just clicked and work really well with PlayStation Studios as is. I'm imagining a Rian Johnson with Lucasfilm situation where they announced his trilogy before TLJ came out (hopefully this pans out a bit better). • they saw $$$$$ signs in their eyes and were foaming at the mouth of the microtransaction possibilities of whatever game they're working on. • someone else was sniffing around and PlayStation felt pressured to buy them up. I'd love to say it was for a combination of the first and third reason, but what we've seen with GT7's microtransactions has tainted my perspective on the direction is going in, so while I think it could be a combination of all three...I'm leaning to the second reason probably being a big factor in this. Just a hunch, and probably not what I would have said a few weeks ago before GT7, but they want 10+ live service games out by 2025, and buying a studio in the process of making one outright just means they see more of the money. I'm also really curious to see if Jade Raymond sticks around. She's been a great studio builder over the last however many years with Ubisoft Montreal, EA Motive, and, well, for better or worse, the disillusioned Google's Stadia Games & Entertainment corner of Google Studios, but, probably through no fault of her own, has constantly been moving on. Looking into her past more, it's interesting to note that she's pretty much come full circle, as she programmed at Sony and then helped create Sony Online Entertainment (now Daybreak, who are independent), who were in charge of R&D and maintaining, creating, and adding to online games like EverQuest back in the day.