Julius

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.

Red Dead Redemption seems to FINALLY be coming to PC! This has been spotted on the backend by the same guy who flagged the new platform icons for it last year ahead of its PS4 and Switch remastered releases.

Me, audibly: oh, this slaps

I'm sure this probably got announced at some point previously but I must have completely missed it if so – a Casual Mode for the game launches today! Might make me a bit more willing to get around to it if I do ever pick it up, as I am a filthy casual

They're getting rid of Dragon Quest XI because they know we're getting news on XII soon which is going to bring more attention to XI and they want those sweet, sweet sales, right? Right?!

Digital Foundry's deep dive on the PS5 Pro footage is up and ready for our consumption: Looking forward to seeing what their thoughts are, but it's a long one!

Trophies are confirmed and already up for this month's new wave of Classics of Mister Mosquito, Secret Agent Clank, and SkyGunner: Quite looking forward to giving Mister Mosquito and SkyGunner a spin It is downloaded along with the other two!

Well I guess you could say your Time wasn't, uh, Split

Love when a great song sneaks its way onto my Spotify recommendations Absolute banger

Malaysia? Thailand? Dual screens? Electromagnets?

Do...do they duke it out? How does this work? Do we start a March Madness-esque tournament tree for all purported leaks and rumours? Oh hold up @Dcubed, are they saying it's all market speculation with that first line? COME ON NINTENDO PUT US OUT OF OUR MISERY ALREADY AND TAKE MY GOSH DARN MONEY

While I agree that it does sound very un-Nintendo-like, and this isn't me saying that I believe it's true, I do think it's the safest home run in the world to call this thing the Switch 2, and if it were to be called that, it would be a purely business driven decision more than it would be in line with their own past naming conventions. I sometimes feel like it's harder than ever to nail down which side Nintendo wants to project as a business and console manufacturer, outside of being a software publisher and developer, but then we see the giant Wiimote at the Nintendo Museum and, well, everything seems exactly as it was before! Personally, I still want it to be called the Super Nintendo Switch just so we can have the NS followed by the SNS but even a Super Nintendo Switch I think could risk confusion in a world full of mid-gen refreshes. Hell, I could see them calling it the Switch Too to be both very Nintendo but also still incorporate a '2' in there. I just hope they resist the urge to call it the Swiitch, because if they called it that, they can keep it

Grains of salt and all that, but a purported leak has started doing the rounds. This comes from Famiboards: Okay, so now that we've poured enough grains of salt on this to the point that it's saltier than the Dead Sea, IF there's any semblance of truth to this – we have to be hearing about this ASAP, right? Random Chinese employee vs Nintendo for the biggest gaming reveal of 2024 – IF it's true, there's no way Nintendo don't try to get out ahead of this thing, right? Would be weird to me that word on production got around, well, ahead of Nintendo doing or saying anything themselves. Small aside: dig the idea of a black and a white Joy-Con from launch, definitely separates itself from the more colourful neon blue and red combo they put at the forefront of Switch marketing, and we never did get that black Switch (which I believe devs got?), but it does make me wonder what colour the base unit would need to be for that combo to not look absolutely atrocious.

Trophies for TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect just went up on PSNProfiles:

Dived back into this on Saturday after a 6+ month break. It definitely took that first session to get myself back into the swing of things (and I feel like there are still things I'm figuring out again), picking up towards the end of a cave in Chapter 3, and speeding along so that I'm now some 3½ chapters along at the start of Chapter 7 and about to start heading towards Mt. Corel. What I was surprised by returning to this game, or at least across the two sessions I've had since returning to it, is that it feels like the open world is so detached from the linear story being told. After making it out of that cave and heading over to Junon at the end of Chapter 3, I haven't naturally ended up encountering the open world again until the start of Chapter 7, which, uh, is genuinely mind-boggling for a game sold as being open world? When I first played the game back at launch I was doing absolutely everything, and when I left the game around the 10 hour mark, I had essentially spent it exploring every nook and cranny, completing every quest and the like, to 100% completion across just Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. What does it say, then, that returning to the game, I was only 1 level ahead of the expected level curve (going off the recommended level for the main story chapter), despite doing so much beforehand? I suppose there's plenty of gear and gil that it can net you, but man, it really took the wind out of my sails booting this up again and basically realising that the amount of time I'd put in beforehand hadn't really had all that much of an impact on improving things for the party, and before someone says "well maybe you just weren't battling that many things", the side quests themselves have plenty of battles, but I also remember going out of my way to seek them out skimming back through the thread and dodging spoiler tags where I see them, @Hero-of-Time mentioned levelling up quite easy and ending up at Lv 50 by the end of the game despite going through the game in a much more focused and linear fashion, and I have to imagine that backs up what I'm saying a bit in that so much of that EXP must almost certainly be coming from main story beats and bosses. I can't think of many other JRPGs which have as much side content available as this and yet they seem so separated from the core RPGness of it all. I've rattled off a few weird things which have been grinding my gears, then, but mentioning side content and shifting gears, I've got to say, I absolutely freaking adore every mini-game I've come across in this. I enjoyed Queen's Blood back in my first 10 hours with the game and despite such a long break, it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things, and I'm having a blast with it again here. It's SO damn simple but also clearly has a decently high skill cap, and I've been going out of my way to seek challengers, which of course meant I loved a certain tournament. The mini-games in Costa del Sol were good fun, and then the ways in which they choose to gamify events such as an awesome series of events back in Junon similar to how they handled them at the Honey Bee Inn back in Remake was spectacular – I've mentioned it here before, but this to me is such an essential part of what it means to be a Final Fantasy game, making something which could be a cutscene this interactive experience which elevates the scene through your inclusion – I can't help but think back to the opera scene in VI every time I bring this up, but it has been true of every FF I've played so far. I've also tickled some ivories a couple of times with certain characters, and was surprised first and foremost by how intuitive the mini-game of it becomes, before I got the chance to play Tifa's Theme. Tifa's Theme isn't just one of my favourite pieces from VII, or even just Final Fantasy, it's one of my favourite character themes in gaming, period, and I'm not ashamed to say that as the first keys were stroked and I realised what was being played, it had me choking up. I'm really glad that I dropped the game back when I did because of what was going on, as I would've been a mess. Speaking of Junon, the sense of freaking scale at times in this game is INSANE. Just seeing that big ol' gun from so many different perspectives, but then walking through the streets and seeing so, so many people, and at times having so, so many people follow you...the production values aren't just off the chart, but I feel that they went to the right places when I'm left awestruck like I have been several times since returning to the game. I'm also just loving the characters I come across, whether it be a generic NPC in the background screaming about how they don't know what they're doing on a Segway, some Shinra middle manager who must be an undercover Sephiroth Shadow because COME ON HOW IS HE ALWAYS IN THE SAME PLACE AS US, one of the big bad villains, lower league Shinra members, but especially the party itself. Everyone is just so wonderfully realised and voiced to perfection. There's just a charm and silliness here that wasn't really that present in XVI, I know they wanted to go for something else in that game, but I keep finding myself grinning from just how silly this game consistently gets at times. Music, it goes without saying, has been phenomenal since returning to Rebirth, not just in the typical "this is Final Fantasy and it is meeting my insane expectations for Final Fantasy" way, but in the "oh, this is going to be the best music in gaming this year, sorry to everyone else I guess but thanks for showing up and taking part?" way that we've been spoiled with on the FF front for a good while now, what with Remake, XVI and now Rebirth all having spectacular OSTs. I'm doing my best to avoid looking up track names because I've managed to avoid spoilers for 6+ months and don't want to increase my odds of coming across them now, but there's just so much great stuff, and it's so varied but also nuanced in how it can escalate or de-escalate depending on a widening or narrowing of scope, such as how the very suave, California highway in the 60s, bossa nova-ish Costa del Sol track just morphs into so many different forms while you explore that locale. The battle music and boss tracks in particular continue to be on a whole other level of epic, and looking back at what I said last time, mentioning bosses, I just want to highlight that the most fun with this game I'm having in combat encounters is with bosses. They're soooooooo good! So, while returning to it I'm still not fully sold on the open world (I may just look into if there's a point in the story where everything opens up at once before I imagine it narrows its focus for the finale) or the idea of the side quests, I'm having a blast. Like with Remake, I think the more focused and linear parts of this game where it seems at its closest to adapting the original VII are where it is at its strongest, with some of the content filling the gaps between those points, for me, feeling a little weaker, but totally understandable to include given the scope of the game and needing to bridge gaps between those original events and locations. I'm not sure when and where this game ends exactly (from the trailers I remember it at least goes as far as Temple of the Ancients), but I could see the final entry in the trilogy narrowing things back down in scale a bit purely because I think that would best serve the story, whereas having the middle chapter have these optional sprawling areas makes complete sense to me, because it will literally end up being left open-ended, so why wouldn't the world also be? This all being said, with how Remake ended - which was a bit too much for my tastes, story-wise, just with how off-the-wall it went - and how much this game hasn't really done that yet outside of what I remember of its opening...it's hard to not be a little nervous about where this is all heading. I'm all for them going off the rails to an extent, but I hope it makes some level of sense. And by that, I mean actual sense, not the typical Square Enix kind Anyways, super happy to be back playing this, and looking forward to popping here from time to time to comment on particular aspects as The Unknown Journey continues

Hadn't really thought about it until you brought that rumour back up – but it's a bit funny to me that Nintendo don't strike me as explicitly chasing down that PS2 sales record with the Switch, yet ensuring there is plenty of stock for the launch period of the Switch 2 pretty much guarantees that it will have the biggest launch of any console ever, right? I mean, the Switch itself at launch was limited only by its limited production (it sold out) and sold a bit under 3 million (2.74 million now that I look it up) that first month if I'm remembering right, and the PS5 sold 4.5 million in its first quarter, limited to matching the PS4 launch or thereabouts purely because of COVID and the parts shortage at the time meaning they were really limited on what they could get ready for launch. Meanwhile, assuming that Nintendo doesn't do something really stupid with the Switch successor (and, I mean, taking steps to ensure there's more in circulation at launch to me sounds like they're both confident and sticking to the script with a Switch follow-up), it's coming hot off the heels of the first Switch and its 143+ million units sold, Nintendo franchises doing better than other, and so on and so forth. It shouldn't be all that shocking considering I remember at the time thinking that the PS5 shortages around its launch guaranteed that the PS6 would break records at launch, yet, well, I really guess it is nailed on that this thing is just going to crush at launch. Considering what I've seen of @nekunando's tastes on here over the years, that would be very on-brand I think the Star Wars Jedi games are probably the biggest ones missing, as well as the Legendary Editions of the Mass Effect games. Both, I'm sure, would do crazy well on a Switch successor. I'm curious where things like Squadrons would land as they're in such a weirdly niche spot for AAA both in price and scope, and then there's what you do or don't do with Battlefront II 2017. Besides those, did any of the Need for Speed games make it over? Jedi Survivor gets its last gen (PS4/XBO) release this coming week, and its release date feels like it was almost timed in line with previous expectations of the Switch 2 launching this Fall, so you'd think it would certainly leave them with less work to do - at least, you'd hope! - in bringing it over. Anyways, the real game missing from EA as a publisher on Switch is I'm going to say the best original game that they've published in the last 7 years in A Way Out. I think Hazelight gave some reason for it not coming to Switch at launch, but with the success of the Switch and the upcoming Switch successor on the cards, I have to imagine they're thinking about it. I'd love to see a Hazelight Collection release which bundles up Brothers, A Way Out, and It Takes Two leading up to the release of their next game.

I'll admit that I'm not really sure what Microsoft's contributions are to the conversation around accessibility in gaming today vs a few years ago, not owning an Xbox, but is that really still the case that don't are playing catch-up? I know Microsoft are very consistently looking into these things, and while they were definitely there first with things like the adaptive controller, Sony now have one of their own (which took far too long to come around considering how long ago Xbox brought their own out, mind you), and The Last of Us Part II was at the forefront of and changed the conversation around what accessibility options can look like on the software front back in 2020; most of the big first-party PlayStation offerings since have been best-in-class and leading the charge on accessibility, and I'd argue that it's a case of many third parties in the AAA space following suit from that when it comes to physical accessibility. Maybe there's something big Xbox has brought to the table that I'm overlooking here but nothing I can think of springs to mind as coming remotely close to what the likes of Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica and Insomniac are bringing to the table; and that's not just an Xbox vs PlayStation comparison, I genuinely don't think anyone else in the industry is doing as much as what those developers have done over the last 5 years in the accessibility space. Sure, I see that. I'm definitely in the mindset sometimes of "well, my motor skills and reaction speeds are only going to lessen in the long-term, so anything which depends on reaction times I should look to get to now" – I wonder if on a game level (but also potentially a system level in the future?) they could look to introduce something capable of gauging reaction times and adjusting the game accordingly? I mean, why shouldn't I be able to play Bloodborne in a retirement home a few decades from now? Yeah, those last two sentences are both sides of the coin here I think, and I think a lot of the time when we see these options right now it is definitely a case of both going hand in hand. The Plucky Squire, like a lot of the individual games I've mentioned, is looking for mass appeal. Heck, beyond some of the other games I've mentioned which are more aimed at teens and adults, this is actually clearly aimed at kids with its look and vibe, and I could see this being something a parent picks up their kid as one of their first games, so having options where a small child can comfortably play and enjoy the game as one of their first is great. On the flip side of that, obviously that means a wider net set for a potentially much bigger audience, and in the long-term of course publishers want more people buying the game, they want repeat customers, they want to widen the industry's audience because it also benefits them. Which is to say, while I think we see a lot of these options in these AAA+ games like The Last of Us, Spider-Man, God of War, Star Wars games, etc., while it is FANTASTIC, those games also have the budget for these options to be incorporated. It makes the fact that a much smaller scale and budget game like The Plucky Squire is trying to push for more options in its own market that much more commendable, because in many other cases, I could see that time and money going towards more marketing, bigger scale, offsetting future free DLC, etc., and it's clear here to me that they understood the scope of their game, seem to have matched that, and then pumped everything else they could get into finding the game's audience (with their great and numerous trailers) and meeting them halfway where possible (the accessibility options that they're including).

Yeah, that's fair, I think when I typed it up I was thinking more about the traditional Easy/Normal/Hard difficulty split than I was that level of customisability and tweaking the more intricate aspects, mainly because I've had that Easy difficulty discussion with friends and I've posed to them that I don't really get how it would work in a game like that. Is it a flat decreasing of enemy health bars? Slowing down enemy attack animations? Is it potentially adding a "Sun's Out Mode" so that you can actually see where you're going more of the time? I don't think that a flat Easy difficulty would work in any of those games without somehow weakening the quality of the work put into it. Weirdly, if it ever did happen, I'd almost expect it to be a separate SKU, like a Prepare Not To Die Edition, if nothing else to not draw the ire from the diehards. It's interesting to me though that, generally speaking (not a blanket statement), Japan seems to be seriously lagging behind when it comes to accessibility options, which is really funny to consider for a company like Nintendo who I feel tries to position themselves as being inclusive of all. I remember going into the settings when I played the remake of Link's Awakening earlier this year wanting to lower the depth of field effect because it was a bit too strong and at times just a bit off-putting, and there was...nothing. Not just that you couldn't adjust the strength of the depth of field effect, there was nothing at all which I would consider to be an accessibility option. I know on the system level there's being able to customise your controller layout, but besides that, it's not great, is it? Which, to bring it back around to the topic at hand, makes it incredibly funny to me that a game like The Plucky Squire, which is clearly drawing on so many Nintendo games as inspiration, goes well above and beyond Nintendo's own offerings on the accessibility front

Hmm, that's a great question – I'm honestly not sure where I would draw the line and say "no" to picking up the Switch's successor, I guess it would be if it ended up needing a comparable overall launch budget for me compared to my PS5 I would be seriously questioning it. The overall launch day expense is I think what I'll be looking at more so than just the price of the console. I started saving up for my PS5 around 12 months from launch and got my budget for that pretty much spot on – it was £850: prepped for a £599 console at the top end, 3x full £60 releases, a spare £70 DualSense; in the end I ended up with extra funds to use for more accessories and to cover the increase from £60 to £70 next-gen titles. So I think a console that is over £599 is where I would probably cut myself off from buying it on Day 1, as I'd probably be looking at an £800+ outlay, though I don't think for a second that will happen, and it's not the top end that I'm budgeting for. It's a weird one for me because I have a Switch which I feel like I could use way more, but if the Switch successor ends up being able to boost performance on some games, there's probably some more wiggle room on how much I'd pay. My actual Switch 2 budget which I'm working towards at the moment overall is £750: £500 console at the top end, 2x £60 launch games, £70 Pro-ish controller, then ~£60 or so for small accessories like a screen protector, case, and so on. Plus, after the price of the Pro dropped, though I don't think Nintendo will be silly enough to put out a £500 console (agree with both @Nicktendo and @Glen-i that £400-£450 is probably what we're looking at), I am absolutely mentally preparing myself for the possibility of it being a £500 Switch successor. Isn't it crazy that even though I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that Nintendo would do it, PlayStation pushing that upper limit of a console's launch price just niggles away at the back of my mind to the point I'm preparing myself for it? Unless the OLED drops below the £300 line officially I think the Switch successor needs to be at least £400 things as stand (just with the OLED being £309) just to really place an emphasis price-wise on the contrast between the OLED and Switch successor. I feel like there's got to be a big enough gap in price between the top end Switch model and the Switch successor that makes people go "oh, well now, THAT'S next-gen" to almost make the asking price feel more justified – I think people will rightly start to be a bit wary if the gap between the OLED and Switch successor isn't wide enough, because then it becomes a question of, well, is the Switch successor only, say, £50 more valuable and worthwhile than the OLED? Really curious to see how Nintendo prices this thing, and also just how they market it. Hopefully not too long to go now!

Yep, it's always great to see when a game provides this many options. Definitely need to see more of this at the top of the AAA space, feels like massive strides have been made in the last 5 years or so. The fact that this game has so many options shows that someone over there has their priorities straight, I was actually just thinking the other day that this game has had A LOT of trailers for such a relatively small game in the space, and they've all been handled excellently. Who could've known that prioritising good communication with trailers which consistently deliver new information was so important? Feels like they've shown up games with budgets several times bigger on that front. Eh, personally, I think I'd rather it be taken on a game-by-game basis. To me, it's much more important that games are made in a way that they are physically accessible to more people, or in a way which is more physically comfortable to be experienced (motion blur, depth of field, controller feedback, repetitive puzzle skipping, all that), rather than necessarily facilitating that every game can be tweaked endlessly. I think it's really suitable for a game like this, for instance, or some games which try to cast much, much wider nets when it comes to their audience (for all of my problems with the game itself, Star Wars Outlaws had tons of accessibility options, whereas the Star Wars Jedi games allow you to tweak the difficulty of certain grouped aspects of the games).

Another Dring update on sales in the UK, and this time Astro is the fastest-selling original platformer besides Mario games in the last decade. I'm sorry but the turnaround on this from his reporting has been pretty hilarious to follow

I'm not even sure that the Switch 2 will be powerful enough to process all the memes in Revengeance

Just another day where I feel robbed for having played Persona 5 and not Royal purely because of the new music added in Royal. Woke up trying to recall Take Over after humming it ad nauseam. I finished Persona 5 on 10th March 2019; Royal was teased on 25th March 2019 before being officially unveiled on 24th April 2019. Robbed. Robbed I tell you!