Julius

Was just reading up on this, what a joke. I'm not even surprised at this point. Elsewhere and tangential to TGAs, I saw ND were getting harassment and had to turn off comments on YouTube for the Intergalactic trailer for unfortunately obvious reasons. The only thing that makes knowing climate collapse is upon us even remotely sweet is that all of these braindead hateful bastards are going down with the rest of us.

Trails has managed to sneak its way into my Spotify and YouTube recommendations. There's this more emotive piece: And this absolute banger: I'm taking this as a sign from the Gaming Gods that I should probably be making the time to play a Trails game some time next year.

First trailer for Karate Kid: Legends:

What's even crazier is that FIFA/EAFC still has gambling sponsors on shirts in-game (unless the player is under 18, as is the case IRL); I get that's what the sponsors are paying for, but gambling sponsors being allowed to advertise in a game with a 3 rating is madness. What's interesting @Jonnas is that Astro Bot actually had a casino level (there are slots machines, cards, you name it – it was my favourite level in the game which is why I remember it so clearly) and only released back in September, so obviously as Localthunk was getting at, it really depends on the size of the developer or publisher when it comes to how much leniency you'll see. Maybe it's the fact that you aren't playing the games yourself? Immediately what I thought of, and I will always have respect for Belgium being the only ones to actually take any action when it comes to FUT. Shame about the rest of the world having governments and organisations full of spineless cowards. Can you imagine if the EU had an iota of the balls it took to stand alongside them? Ultimate Team in its current state would be finished. Can't even begin to describe how much I would love for that to be the case.

Sorry, but I had to

Here's an overview trailer, presented by...Daisy Ridley? What? Who else would you have present a Monster Hunter video? This isn't strange at all! Yeah okay, so it's a bit strange. Kind of strange. Very strange.

@Cube I've slowly been chipping away at them myself and for the four that I've seen so far - those being the first four: D&D, Sifu, New World: Aeternum and Unreal Tournament - I totally agree. D&D absolutely seems like it's supposed to be setting something up. I can't help but wonder if it originally started out as a Baldur's Gate project or something and changed when Larian bailed, because otherwise it does just feel out of place and feels like a generic advert for absolutely anything D&D, and I think its story it blunted because of that. The weakest of the ones I've watched so far is probably Sifu, having no experience with the game it didn't really make me want to check the game out more than I already do? Even if it has some cool stuff going on visually. New World definitely had the more complex arc, hilarious for an MMO, because it just feels like such a throwback in the least epic way visually, but is actually more interesting to me than a good number of the MMO trailers doing the rounds over the last decade. Arnie voicing King Aelstrom was also just kind of hilarious, too my favourite episode of the four I've watched so far. And yeah, Unreal Tournament: Xan was similarly great, even if it was much more predictable. As someone who hasn't played an Unreal Tournament game it's by far the most anything has done to convince me that I should at some point. Going to get through a few more today I think, with the next batch dropping tomorrow it means I don't need to wait around so much, because my original plan was just to binge them all

Maybe my memory's a little hazy, but wouldn't this also mean that if Nintendo were to re-release some of the DS Mario games with the casino mini-games, they'd be slapped with an 18 rating if released today, too?

Trailer for Superman is dropping on Thursday: First look at the poster and a little bit of some of the film's music, too:

Thought this had already been addressed, but anyways, PEGI are trying to stick to their decision to rate the game as 18 due to "gambling". Localthunk responds in kind: I mean, he's right. Taking aim at the waste basket that is EA Sports' football game not called FIFA is hilarious, I'm all for punching down on their practices

Mainly it's that it's only three, but not being able to play at two as an alternative sucks too. My gaming group is four people including myself, and so this just means someone is going to be left out of we'll need to rotate. It's a real shame as I've been looking for any way to convince my friends to try a From Software game, and our collective thought has always been that if there's even a mainly co-op game by them, that'll be when they try one – feels a bit lower stakes than playing through one of these games solo, and they'll have someone who has some experience with these games to hand, too. Not being able to play as a duo sucks just in case enough people aren't available; while we're a group of four, sometimes it's just the three of us, or even just two of us, who are able to jump on, just because the others in the group are busy with other things. It's been a growing trend over the last few years in the industry where these co-op games are becoming based on groups of three rather than four, and while I get it purely from a debatable balance and design perspective for the people who worked on the game, co-op games - and specifically PvE, where it's your group vs a bunch of non-player enemies - I feel like shouldn't be about finding a perfect balance, but just having people engage with the game in whatever size of group they want. Alien: Fireteam and Warhammer 40k: Space Marine II are the main ones which come to mind where we've been interested and then been disappointed and needed to chalk it off purely because of the three-player angle. It is what it is I guess, but considering the size of groups you can play with in Elden Ring proper, I can't help but feel left frustrated that they've gone with a bit of an odd choice

Easy Allies landed a video with the game's director and producer after TGAs: I don't even think it was a brilliant trailer - though a huge reveal of course, I'm not even sure it was in Top 3 Trailers for the night - and yet it's got me wanting to revisit The Witcher III and give it another chance.

Network test in Feb, registration on 10th Jan: Obligatory Vaati vid: Think I'm in. It can be played solo or in a trio (apparently no duos, apparently the password method will be used for linking up with friends), and it seems like I've got two friends who might be onboard. Just sounds like an exciting new way to play more From goodness while we wait for whatever they've got next in the pipeline Can't help but wonder if this will be digital-only? But I love the art and so would love the chance to get a physical copy!

So, after what just happened on the balcony and in the garden (?) when trying to find some Green Herbs after being attacked on the balcony, my fear of big dogs as a small child has retroactively been fully justified and next time I will be bringing a shotgun to the dog fight. Interesting tone so far, not really sure what's going on quite yet, but I do now that burning this mansion down might be a better idea than sticking around for however long the game is going to make me there hasn't really been much tension yet outside of cutscenes, but I'm only a couple of hours in so far. I went with Jill, by the way, purely because I've heard so much more said about her over the years than I have Chris. The slight boob jiggle when you stop walking caught me off guard the first time and gave me a good chuckle – I'm sure this is the true reason Capcom decided to remake the first RE Definitely took some time to adapt to the tank controls (I went with the original control scheme), I was feeling somewhat competent up until the dogs came into the picture, and obviously the fixed cameras are pretty foreign to me too. Enjoying the light puzzle elements so far, like figuring out what and how to interact with things in a room, going back and forth to the chest to just test items out that I've picked out on certain things I can interact with, testing out things like the lighter and kerosene after reading up on how to dispose of the corpses in-game (love when games communicate things like this effectively but don't just throw a dozen tutorial screens at you in the first 5 minutes, I had to learn about it from someone else's writing in the universe) and then accidentally walking into it, mixing Herbs, and so on. I already feel like I've mentally mapped out what I've seen so far of the Mansion pretty well, which is impressive for the game to get across with just how little time I've spent with it so far. The key-related puzzles (that trap room where the game seems to hint that you need to die to progress? Yeah, I wasn't taking that bait!) have probably been my favourite puzzles so far. Obviously, I've got to shout out just how good this game looks. Sure, I'm playing the HD re-release on modern consoles, but it's not hard at all to imagine how the original release of Remake back in the day must have blown minds. Similarly, the lighting, the sound effects, the vibes are through the roof but they aren't suffocating in the way I, for whatever reason, thought they might be going in; music creeps in at times to lend a hand to the building tension, lightning flashes through the window to reveal a box under a chair which makes you move just left enough towards a fire place for the camera angle to change, which shows a map of the second floor – honestly, just this little nugget feels like it got me more excited for the game, knowing that someone clearly put that there knowing that players would see it when the flash of light burst into the room. It feels so well crafted. Special shout-out to whatever misery awaits me under the stairs, but also a bigger shout-out to the door animations, as they're absolutely hypnotising. Feels a little weird to be limited on inventory space just because I don't have much experience with games giving you limited inventory space. That's taking a bit of getting used to just in terms of a "hmm, what should I be taking with me?" sense, but I quite like that every time I've gone back to the Safe Room (only unlocked the one so far) I'm always trying to figure out what I need and then what I *might* need, there's a definite risk-reward to carry both the shotgun and handgun while dumping the knife, or carrying around an emblem I've had since the start of the game still because I just know it's going to be useful in some way. Combining stuff and examining them in the menus, too, just feels like it adds this other layer of "let's stop, think, and take a closer look at this" which I'm liking. This is my first time playing a Resident Evil game - not counting the 5 minutes I spent in the demo of RE2 Remake wandering around the starting room as Leon before deleting it because I wussed out - after meaning to for a good while, and I'm really excited to see how it goes, knowing both how revered the franchise and this particular game are, but also just on terms of how I'll handle my first real survival horror experience outside of The Last of Us. I'm not sure how much I'll be revisiting this thread during my playthrough but after a month or two of feeling fully burned out on games, I'm glad that after taking the last week off after playing something very short last week, I've even started one. I feel like I've been trying to deliberate over the last few days which games I want to get to between now and the end of the year, and above all else I felt like I needed something new and different; so far at least, the alien nature early on to me of the tank controls and my first RE seem to be doing the trick.

Bet you'll never guess what I'm playing... Totally just stood in that room for 5 minutes. What a vibe setter; Firelink Shrine vibes, or maybe I should say Firelink Shrine has Safe Room vibes?

Thanks for the heads-up H-o-T! Funnily enough, my brother asked for my birthday/Christmas list yesterday when Granblue had been languishing in my basket on TGC for a couple of days at £30 (been trying to figure out what I want to play over my Christmas leave), so I was pleasantly surprised to see it had dropped when just checking the links were working before sending the list over to him. Asked him to buy it ASAP when I saw that price, seems a steal

Seeing a weird number of people causing a stir about Jordan having a shaved head. Not that she would need this to justify the shaved head at all anyways, but I wonder if it's a gameplay mechanic of sorts? Naughty Dog's hair physics are insane so it'd be odd to me if they suddenly went with a protagonist who shaved theirs off...so considering we'll seemingly be trapped on Sempiria for potentially most of the game, if not all of it, I wonder if there's a passage of time (be it through "days" or just story chapters) which sees her hair grow back? It could totally just be her look, I mean it's a bit more grown out in the photo we see but still very short, but choosing to introduce the main character in this first trailer with a shot where she's in the process of shaving her head before she goes down to Sempiria is a pretty peculiar choice if it's not intentional (I guess maybe a form of otherwise "letting her hair down" or something, so to speak).

Statler and Waldorf were unironically hilarious at the TGAs last night, that Kojima killed I'm not completely convinced the TGAs know what a [healthy] "family" is with how often Mario Party ends up nominated for the category in all honesty

Neil Druckmann's entry on the PS Blog for the game: I'm feeling like this is a potential 2026 title? Started dev back in 2020 and so 6 years seems about right (Santa Monica and Sucker Punch both spent around that long on GoW 2018 and Ghost of Tsushima, respectively, if memory serves) and Neil and the team have spoken a few times (in the Grounded II doc and elsewhere) about how they absolutely don't want a repeat of TLOU Part II when it comes to having a massive gap between announcement and launch. Naughty Dog are too smart to commit to a date if they're more than 12 months out because, well, things can happen. Then, maybe, if we're very lucky and things go smoothly and Naughty Dog's studio growth earlier this gen pays off and they're left free from being distracted by the follies of GAAS, that you're looking at 2028 or 2029 in that potential cross-gen period between PS5 and PS6 as the possible window for The Last of Us Part III.

Was having problems finding it before (doesn't seem to be up on the TGAs channel?) but Swen Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian who famously got played off after winning GOTY with BG3 last year, had a chills-inducing speech on the matter too: The industry is seriously starting to speak up. I'm convinced this is why he was played off last year, he's too powerful otherwise.

The North Pole mantra You know Santa is instilling this code in his army of elves

Clearly I'm running on fumes – this has already aired. The above is now a VOD, here are the select clips SEGA put up on their own channel from the VF Direct, including a bunch of 30th anniversary messages:

Trying to grab everything I can about this game right now. Some more details courtesy of a New York Times interview with Neil Druckmann (source). Bebop vibes were the first vibes I got, and I'm sure the Akira vibes will be much more apparent if/when we get to a city. Them being the inspirations is a win for anime and, if done right, obviously, this game – both are masterpieces. Feel like it's also worth mentioning that early builds of TLOU Part II were described as being like an open world Bloodborne with a focus on melee combat, and well, that brief bit of combat teased at the end definitely looks like that (source for this is Grounded II, which I watched back in Jan). From Wikipedia, a synopsis: Apparently also from Wikipedia the game's name was trademarked back in February 2024 (source: Gematsu). Jordan will be portrayed by Tati Gabrielle. I also see Kumail Nunjiani when her target is shown and in the photo, and also in the photo appears to be Tony Dalton. The song featured in the trailer is It's a Sin by the Pet Shop Boys. I'm pretty sure that in-game anime in the background is original, which would be interesting considering how much seems to be grounded in the real world (like the brand deals), but perhaps shouldn't be a surprise with the minefield that is anime rights handling outside of Japan. I wonder if it'll be a Savage Starlight sort of deal? Maybe we collect VHS tapes to watch this 90s anime, there could be an anime miniseries released, and maybe it'll reflect the story somewhat similar to how Savage Starlight does TLOU's?

That was by far and away the best TGAs to date, and one of the best shows I've tuned in for in a long time – honestly, based on announcements alone, this is up there with some of the best pre-COVID E3s for me. I do agree that the pacing was still a bit rough at times - it's that late middle stretch of the show from like 60% to 90% where the big hitters just dried up in terms of announcements - but between Amir Satvat getting a moment to address the mass layoffs across the industry we've seen in the last few years and not a single soul being played off? The TGAs and Geoff really showed that they learned from last year's show, and even the shows before that. Some of those speeches tonight really strike true; Swen Vincke's speech on the treatment of devs in the buildup to handing over the GOTY Award was an especially powerful and eloquently delivered moment. Anyways, let's revisit my seven hopes for the show: By my count, that's 4 out of 7 of my hopes and dreams coming true. • substantial PS Studios announcement – the announcement and reveal of Naughty Dog's new IP and next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Those faces. That music. Cowboy Bebop vibes. Oh hell yeah. • an update on Fumito Ueda and genDESIGN's next game – I've been saying this one for like half a decade at this point it feels like, so to finally see it was awesome! An excellent tone piece. • the revival of SOMETHING – I'm going to say Capcom delivered this singlehandedly...twice. I mentioned Onimusha in my post earlier and that was massive, but an Okami sequel with Kamiya returning to direct is very easy to argue as being a much bigger deal. • the next From Software project – Elden Ring: Nightreign! Still need to watch the PC Gamer video they put out after some hands-on time with the game, 3-player co-op as opposed to 4-player gives me pause, as does apparent pre-made characters potentially hinting at a gacha system? I'm going to need to look into this one. But anyways, hype. Based on 4 of 7 dreams becoming reality alone, this was a bit of a dream show for me. Outside of those, the back-to-back RGG announcements of the new Virtua Fighter and Project Century really caught my attention, I'm not a big fighting game guy but it's RGG which is enough to pique my interest, and Project Century looks like something truly fresh from the studio. The Witcher IV was a cool look at what we can expect in the far future, Mafia: The Old Country I was already very much in for but that trailer was awesome, and from the pre-show, Rematch - the five-a-side football game a la Rocket League by the guys behind Sifu - looks like it could perhaps be a way for me to play something fresh and new in the football space. In terms of announcements, then, bar Nintendo turning up with a Direct in the middle of the show, for me, I'm struggling to see how you get a bigger and better lineup than this. If someone offered for all of these games were announced during an E3 weeks just 5 years ago we'd collectively be ready to break someone's hand off. In terms of pacing, like I said, it wasn't perfect, as the show was certainly a bit frontloaded, but with what was actually announced, if you gave me the option of having Ueda's next game announced just minutes after a From game - knowing full well just how inspired by Ueda that Miyazaki is - or having it placed some 2 hours letter merely for pacing, I'd scoff at you. It was also long, as it always is. The weird flow into the ads definitely continues to catch me a bit off-guard as it's not always apparent that the ads have started, but weirdly we got PC ports of FF VII Rebirth and The Last of Us Part II both announced during these ad breaks, or close enough that they seemed like they were announced during them, so...pick a lane, maybe? I want to touch on two things in particular before I probably pass out watching some more reactions and rewatching some trailers. Nicolas Doucet in his awards speech touched on something I think is constantly forgotten, and that isn't just the quality of Nintendo, but that all of these companies occupy a medium which so many people love. He was inspired by a little grey box and an Italian plumber back in 1989 the same way in some 30 years or so we'll likely be hearing about how a little white robot with blue eyes and a knack for punching VIPs to "collect" them – if he can give credit where credit is due and loudly and proudly recognise his inspirations, regardless of what company he's affiliated with, then maybe these stupid "console wars" can die a superheated death already. It's exhausting having this baseless "oh, Sony is doomed" and occasionally the opposite on here, but also just seeing it elsewhere. For the love of the gaming gods, these are games, they're there to be played and enjoyed, not warred over, and I think if you need to be reminded of that, then maybe you - and sometimes I - need to take a break from the keyboard for a little bit. The other thing I wanted to touch on was to return to what I said before about Geoff and the TGAs. The show has issues, no doubt, and has been much weaker and messier in previous years (same goes for SGF), but to have my Brandon Jones "I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO TELL ME LEAKS DON'T RUIN ANYTHING" moment: I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO TELL ME THAT THE GAME AWARDS DON'T MATTER. They capture an excitement and a joy and run the risk of something going wrong in a live show which no other company dares to do these days. It's the only show and collection of announcements where it feels like ANYTHING is on the table. People go off about it being about Geoff's ego or this and that and the other, and to them I say, again: who cares! The alternative is that we don't get what turned out to be one of the best series of announcements in a single show since COVID and millions of people aren't simultaneously hyped as hell for the future of gaming, important messages like Satvat's don't get heard, and that feeling of direct communication between the audience and the devs during speeches gets severed. Maybe it's ego-driven, but to me, it just looks like Geoff gets carried away with his own excitement; it seems obvious to me that if he wasn't in the position he was in, then he'd be racing to be first to post a game announcement on ResetEra or your forum of choice (mine is N-E). How many of you here would be able to keep your cool and not get a bit carried away put in his position? And lastly, Astro winning GOTY - much deserved - combined with the original coloured PlayStation logo capping off the Intergalactic trailer felt like a subtle message of intent. We'll see if anything comes of it, but I'm very curious to see how PlayStation react to how 2024 has turned out and if any changes are made to their plans moving forward outside of their shaky GAAS initiative. The ramifications of their 30th year might yet be one of their most deciding in recent memory.

The respect to other teams for lending their properties without asking for anything in return, and especially the Nintendo respect from Doucet He did a great job dodging bringing them up during pre-release stuff, but man. Big respect to him for that. That "grey box" and Mario. There aren't "sides" to this, just games. And that wraps up TGAs. Holy shit. Time to rewatch some trailers and reflect on the show!