Julius

Urgh, same. This has sold me on wanting a Pro more than ever before, apparently only 12.3k units being produced for the Pro performance the PS Blog: No announced plans for the plates to be sold separately and so the consoles will seemingly be the only way to get them. Screw you Sony In for a DualSense, maybe in for a DualSense Edge too (been thinking about picking one up anyways with how the first two DualSenses I had, my original white ones, went and got stick drift before I sent them to a farm). Not in for an Edge because I have no interest in having one but MAN it looks so much better in this colourway! I can't be in for a Pro or Slim, I just can't. Which means as much as I want it... DAMN IT NINTENDO ANNOUNCE SWITCH 2 NOW SO I DON'T NEED TO KEEP LOOKING AT THIS THING

Chapter 8 got me, that was wonderfully done First time at Gold Saucer was great, looking forward to going back when some of the locked off stuff hopefully becomes playable. Not all of those mini-games were created equal (despite the lovely looking polygonal models from the original game, that "boxing" one was a bit of a miss for me), but I did have a great time! Cait Sith's theme is excellent: Though I do miss the organ from the original Really impressed by just how well animated Cait Sith is in this, he's incredibly expressive. Yeah, I'm honestly just ignoring the open world and a lot of the optional quests at this point and treating it like a much more linear game, partly because of what I mentioned before about not really feeling the benefits of exploring the open world, but also, the story is really just pulling me along and I'm having so much fun just spending time with the party and seeing how they interact. It's a shame, and I'd call myself something of an open world defender - of good open worlds, anyways, of which there are few - but there's just so little interactivity in the open world that it feels like little more than set dressing to me most of the time. Of the side content, beyond a planned return to Gold Saucer to make sure I play enough games to collect all the prizes, Queen's Blood is still getting played every chance I get, and the cards I picked up from Gold Saucer have seamlessly fitted into my existing deck –and I can't see that changing before credits roll. I'm not typically a huge "card game in a video game" guy but over the last few months I've really turned around on them, what between Pazaak in KOTOR and Sabacc in Outlaws. Now we're just trucking along, heading south...

Pyoro has just unprivated his Twitter account, after posting the below cryptic tweets earlier today. Either he's having a stroke, powering up, or...Soon™?

I thought it was clear what the play is? This all sounds like lawyer speak for

So, this is huge. For some examples of why this action is being taken: There was also a lot of discussion around the animations and designs in the game's own thread which might help anyone who has missed all of this news get caught up. News came out just last week that the game was expected to feature at next week's Tokyo Game Show ahead of a potential announcement of a PS5 version of the game, the existence of which had seemingly leaked. Curious to see if any of those plans change.

Sure, I guess I was just thinking of how companies sometimes just like to adopt new silhouettes. I feel like it's almost like self-advertising – like the early days of seeing someone with a Switch out in the wild and you'd see kids going "woah, what's that?" You kind of lose that mystique. Like @Hero-of-Time says, call this thing a 'Switch 2' or something similar and Bob's your uncle, job's a good'un, the same silhouette just a bit bigger is absolutely fine. Stick a big ol' 2 on the back of that thing like a tramp stamp – just needs to be big enough to be really clear and leave room for no question that, at a glance, it's a Switch 2, and not just a Switch *something*. Like @Dcubed says, I think the fact that phones are incremental, annual upgrades makes it a tough point of comparison, and fairly or not, people are used to spending less on consoles than they are phones. If they buy the new hotness? They want to feel it. I don't know how much you feel it if it's just a slightly large Switch which could be confused for a hypothetical Pro. I'm not concerned that consumers will get them confused, I guess the concern from a wider perspective would be that this thing won't have the impact of the Switch – which is a lot to ask for, of course, considering its success. Even if you go the safe route of calling it the Switch 2 and advertising it as such - I've been over this before, but you could animate the Joy-Cons from a Switch logo into a '2' and get cute with it, use two clicks in ads and trailers rather than just the one, etc. - there is an inherent lack of newness which suddenly makes this thing so much more heavily dependent on its software lineup. There were those rumours, of course, that Nintendo delayed the Switch successor to 2025 to make sure that its lineup was ready, and even as someone who has always been firmly in Camp "Just give it more juice and slap a '2' on there!", if that's the decision they made, it is making far, far more sense to me now. Which then brings up the whole cross-gen debate – there is going to be a window where both the Switch and Switch successor are on the market at the same time, do Nintendo continue to release games which are then available on both, like what we saw with the transition from last gen to the current one with Xbox and PlayStation? Because if the hardware is essentially going to look and feel the same, but be more powerful, then the software is going to suddenly be a huge differentiator, both to more casual consumers weighing up which to get, but also, again, in terms of that self-sustaining advertisement – "mom, dad, that guy's playing the new Zelda on his Switch 2! I can't get it on my Switch! Can I get one for Christmas?", etc. Do they just give it a final year then very firmly and without and question slam the door shut on the Switch? If the hardware volume is available for the Switch successor and it's selling, there's little reason they'll want to keep it around, unlike Xbox and PlayStation who both launched into COVID and had to contend with everyone experiencing delayed or stretched out development periods and so on. I'm really curious to see how they handle it, honestly I'm just as excited to see the marketing for it as I am the new games and console themselves purely because there's so much that can go right and wrong – Nintendo have been here before, so have they learned their lesson?

Rockstar are buying Bethesda from Xbox confirmed?

That other remastered game – there's got to be a pretty big chance that it's that Gravity Rush 2 remaster that was doing the rounds some while ago, right? I think the Gravity Rush film (don't get me started) got that teaser trailer at CES at the start of the year, I don't know why they'd remaster 2 instead of the first game (which, I mean, yes has already been remastered, but also, that was going from handheld to console?) but it sounds dumb enough that I believe it to be real. I struggle to see it being Days Gone just because of how Bend got shifted off the IP and onto something new, unless it's not them? But would seem a massive slap in the face either way. I'm praying it's not God of War, I know these projects can be solid for onboarding new hires but I don't want Sony Santa Monica wasting time the same way I feel Naughty Dog has been – and I'm saying this as someone who got all the ND remasters/remakes. If not Gravity Rush 2 I'm fully expecting something totally left field and equally/more stupid, like a remaster of Detroit: Become Human (seems like that could be a Pro showpiece). If it's a Shadow of the Colossus sort of facelift I'd argue that an ICO "remaster" in the same way would probably be considered less exciting, just because it's not that flashy. Okay I don't think it'll be this and I'm not expecting or even hoping for it, but I think it's the next remaster that I actually want, so I'm going to start manifesting. It won't be Bloodborne. That's either 2025 or PS6 launch. Bleh. I'm also curious if Horizon gets like a really solid block here then? There's the LEGO game, this Horizon Zero Dawn remaster, but the same leak way back when - and we've seen leaked footage of it if I'm remembering right - also mentioned that multiplayer Horizon game. It's a State of Play so I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, but if there's a first-party block, maybe it's those three games? Do it the same day just a few hours later, shadow-dropped out of the blue, and we have a deal If there's any truth to a Switch successor announcement next week and this State of Play dropping next week, next week is going to be STACKED in all the best ways. Those two events + TGS? It could be the best week of gaming news since pre-COVID E3s were a thing.

In Take-Two's annual report, they have reiterated the game's plans to release in Fall 2025. This is before the inevitable announcement of a delay in Spring 2025

Yeah, it does just look too familiar, and I don't think it's at all easily distinguishable from the Switch. I'm firmly in Camp "Nintendo just give us a more powerful Switch and more great games and I'll be happy", but that silhouette is basically just a Switch XL – if you told me this was the Switch Pro, or I saw it without the context of potential Switch 2 leaks and you told me it was the Switch OLED, I'd believe you. While I'm with @killthenet in that if it were just this I wouldn't be disappointed, it all just makes me wonder what they actually could do to make the silhouette of this thing easily distinguishable from that of the Switch if it is assuming the same form factor. If they did try to make it easier to identify, surely it would need to be something to do with the look of the Joy-Cons, right? The main unit itself doesn't leave much room for tweaking.

Thanks for sharing those @Hero-of-Time, they look great! Love that cover of Link chomping on some water melon slices love the little note too. What's that fabric-looking thing? I've heard a lot about this, and I think if I'm unable to locate a JP version of Suikoden II on PS1 at an event in the coming months, I'm really going to need to look into a Japanese seller on eBay – it's the only place I've been able to track the thing down! Meanwhile, back when I got my PS3 and bought all those secondhand games, I ended up with a steelbook instead of a standard case (bleh), all the clear PS3 cases looked like they could do with a clean (blech), and you're right, they absolutely reeked of smoke. Still have nightmares about cleaning that DualShock 3 EDIT: huh, just realised as I've been thinking about getting a backup DS3 anyways but the quality and price are all over the place here – why don't I just import one from Japan? *chin stroking intensifies*

Not that it adds any real credibility to it, but GVG think it's real. The original post has been taken down and the original posted has also apparently changed his name? This is going to be a long few days/weeks, I have no idea if this is real - like, it looks like a Switch? We expected it to look like a Switch, but I'm still surprised by just how much it looks like a Switch? - but

Nintendo giveth and Nintendo taketh. As the prophets of yore foretold. Is it really purported leak season if some smart ass doesn't just glue two Switch units together?

Somehow, the Switch without a D-pad on Joy-Cons has returned Had to break out my own Joy-Con to check on this, but I think where there's that slot which looks like it should fit something... ...is where the lights for player number goes? And the hole next to it is the sync button? (ft. my hand reveal) SL and SR buttons that purported leak are much larger than on the standard Switch Joy-Cons, which would be nice. Absolutely, that oval-shaped Switch screen/controller hybrid was one of the first things I remember seeing on this very site! Ah, the memories. It is just like Christmas, but Santa is some random South East Asian factory worker risking their livelihood versus some portly, elderly fellow committing a number of crimes to "deliver presents" to children

Was really curious about how this would turn out, so this is fantastic - if a bit perplexing - to read! Hope Digital Foundry give it a proper look so that it gets the recognition it seemingly deserves

Per the ESRB, the long-rumoured Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered (we first got word of this way back in October 2022) - native PS5, with all the bells and whistles that brings - has now been listed. Got to imagine there's a good chance that this might be ready for the launch of the Pro as a showcase? Game already looked great on PS4 Pro, apparently it's great on PS5 as it is, so I imagine the same game on PS5 Pro will be one of the stronger early showcases. Us: man, I'm really hoping PlayStation announce some big new first-party releases soon. Meanwhile, PlayStation:

After randomly having hundreds of videos of the game's soundtrack drop unceremoniously on the S-E Music channel yesterday, XVI's soundtrack - as well as its DLC's - aka the best gaming OST of 2023 is FINALLY being added to streaming services! Lovely, Dark, and Deep as my morning alarm, here we come

Battletoads Double Dragon, Big Run, Cosmo Gang The Puzzle and Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen'in Shūgō! land on the service...today! From what I can find this marks the first release of Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen'in Shūgō! outside of Japan, where it actually landed on NSO back in December 2020! Meanwhile, speaking of Japan, they're going to be getting Angelique, which was apparently the world's first "otome" (dating sim for women) game: (thanks Wikipedia for that little tidbit) It also has some pretty nice looking box art!

Chapter 7 rounded off, and the highlight of it all is this very unique reaction of Barret's to Yuffie's sass...

I'll take it that you aren't a big Fahrenheit 451 fan, then Why else would some of them be called "cookbooks"?

Launch for this has been confirmed as October 29th in America and Europe, a bit ahead of its previously revealed Japanese release date – which is sticking with that spooky October 31st launch!

Yikes. Really sounds like this needed some more time in the oven

HE/SHE/THEY IS/ARE A TOTAL SHILL IT'S SOMEONE FROM IGN, ISN'T IT?!

I'm a bit confused by this bit...because checking Steam, it is Steam Deck verified? And we've known for the better part of a week that it's going to be Steam Deck verified (source: Destructoid). My question is, were they playing it back when it was unverified? Or did they just somehow accidentally type that? Weird. [EDIT: there's also this page on Steam where they even explicitly highlight the fact that the game is indeed verified for Steam Deck] This seems like another perspective which is maybe a bit more balanced and fleshed out, they do call out several issues but a mostly consistent 30fps in a certain mode with some very noticeable frame rate drops at fixed points. It also just doesn't sound like the other person tweaked their settings when they hit these rough spots, which is a bit odd, considering, well, that's the benefit of a PC handheld? Sounds very disappointing either way, imagine it'll get patched but this does seem like it would have been the perfect type of game for the Steam Deck.