Julius

Another solid episode. A whole lot of fan service too, which I won't complain about A couple more to go, but it's been a fun watch so far. So long as they don't drop the ball now, I think it's safe to say it will have had the best opening season of any Lucasfilm Animation project to date across the board, and considering I don't think they really show off their great character writing and explorations until later seasons usually, we could be in for a real treat. Half expecting the final episode to have a post-credits 'Season 2 is coming in 2022' tease as we've seen in the final episodes of some other Disney+ shows so far.

Yeah, unfortunately I haven't caught as much as the Olympics as I would have like this year either. I've caught some of the highlights through BBC Sport's YouTube channel - the swimming, which we've been fantastic at; some of the football; and Tom Daley's gold in diving - but a combination of the time of the events and the fact that the BBC don't have full rights anymore in the UK (I think Discovery outbid them?) just makes it more hassle than it's worth for me to catch it live. Which is a shame, because I've loved the Olympics every time I've watched them growing up, and I think it's an excellent showcase not just of the amazing talent and commitment of people from all over the world, but also a great way to get people into more hobbies and trying new things out. For me when I was younger it was getting more into swimming and tennis, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear if others have had similar experiences. The Philippines landing a gold medal definitely gave me a sense of pride, though I wasn't surprised at all to hear about how Hidilyn had to put up with some idiotic politicians - as the country is unfortunately corrupt to its core right now and has been for a long while - but it's the determination of the human spirit on show which is what the Olympics is all about for me. I'm honestly gutted for the competitors, to be honest, because it feels like this only went ahead and wasn't delayed because of the IOC (I get FIFA vibes from them these days) - I seriously doubt that Japan wanted to go ahead with these games in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. We've seen with the Euro's just how much having crowds in attendance sends a lightning strike through the souls of competitive people and supercharges them after a year without crowds, and while I think the event highlights I've seen still shows them being professional and getting on with it at these Olympics - as you'd expect - it's just not quite the same.

shockedpikachu.jpg Think we all knew it was coming, but definitely makes the decision to show it off nearly two months ago a strange one. Yet another one though where I'd rather the company or studio involved (Sony/Guerrilla) share this with us than Schreier.

Honestly I feel like Q1 2022 becomes even more of a minefield if Elden Ring does get delayed, because it aiming for January gives it plenty of space to be delayed into the rest of the quarter if needs be (and I struggle to think of what could delay it out of the quarter, but this is game development we're talking about). At least it releasing one week ahead of Pokémon would keep the focus on those two games to only a handful of weeks. It might well get delayed, but then again, From Software kept quiet for so long for a reason, and I struggle to see why they of all studios would put a date out there if they didn't need to. They have nothing to prove critically or commercially with that game, and it's not an exclusive, so I don't think there's the same pressure on that game getting a release date as those who have deals with a big publisher (such as for this game). They could have easily played it safe and given the window of 'Early 2022' or gone the Breath of the Wild sequel route of just saying '2022', but either way, if it does get delayed, I don't think it's that big a deal. Guess we'll have to wait and see. I'm fully serious, the trailer at the top of the page is the same one from the PS5 reveal event last June, and that trailer was never updated. Linked the time from last June's event below: I've got a hunch that you might be referring to October because of the dates that were at the end of PlayStation's CES trailer in January, which were always either placeholder or internal target dates, but either way certainly weren't supposed to be shared with the public and were rightly taken down.

Funny thing is, as things are currently scheduled, Elden Ring probably isn't even going to be the biggest game of that quarter, as there's also Pokémon Legends: Arceus releasing just a week after that! It's a stacked start to 2022. For Stray, I think to be safe it just needs to either sneak in ahead of them before the middle of January, or wait until sometime after mid-February. I don't even think it's really in competition with either of those - especially depending on its price - but it'll definitely be borderline impossible to get eyes on your game if it's releasing in the same three week period as a From Software game and Game Freak's first real attempt at open world Pokémon. I'd want to say it's common sense to distance your games from bigger titles, but I mean, just look at how Square Enix sent Dragon Quest XI out to die in the West the same week that Spider-Man came out. As my grandmother always used to say, the funny thing about common sense is that it's not so common Game looks good though, I've got half an eye on it. Don't think I've played a game from Annapurna that I haven't enjoyed yet, so I have faith in them backing this one too. *watches trailer at top of page* Pretty sure it just said 2021 a delay either way though, which is never fun to see! Definitely got the sense it was coming though, just looking back at how quiet it's been since it was first announced.

So, after it somehow managed to sneak out on Monday completely under the radar for digital purchase over here in the UK, I can now finally say that I have watched Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train. Outside of spoilers, I just loved how you could see on the screen how much effort, money, and time had been poured into this. Something I thought the first season did well was manage its animation budget and smartly make use of 3D, but it was still very obvious when it was doing so. Here I can barely remember seeing it used outside of backgrounds, for the train, and certain fight animations / assets, and most if not all of the "normal" scenes where you might expect to see 3D animation step in to just help manage the budget was taken up by 2D work instead, and I loved it for it. After seeing this, I'm happy that I made the decision to go anime-only and just be patient. As much as I want to see the rest of it play out - and obviously the biggest concern I have is not having it spoiled choosing to wait on the anime - for me the fight animation quality from ufotable and the score from Go Shiina is so integral to my enjoyment of Demon Slayer that I am more than happy to wait, even at the risk of being spoiled before it all comes to an end. I think it was a big decision, and maybe an even bigger risk, for this movie to continue the story of the first season rather than do what every pretty much other giant franchise in the industry seems to do, which is make a hype-focused but totally inconsequential film in the context of the franchise that is either not canon at all or is in some weird pseudo-canon limbo. This film was rightly rewarded for taking this risk by becoming the highest-grossing anime movie to date worldwide and the biggest film in Japanese cinema too, and so long as the quality is sustained, I struggle to see why the next Demon Slayer movie couldn't outperform this one. I'm actually really curious now to see if the anime adaptation will end on a film. I'd have to imagine that's the plan, because unless there's a massive downturn in popularity before we reach that point, it would do bonkers numbers. Loved the film, it was well worth the wait! If for whatever reason you haven't checked out Demon Slayer, do yourself a favour and go watch Season 1 (it's available to stream as part of a subscription on Netflix, Funimation, and Crunchyroll) then check this film out. For me, I think it's head and shoulders above the other more typical modern shonen giant we have at the moment - sorry My Hero - and is well worth your time!

Free update dropping August 4th! New areas and more Pokémon, from the little I heard about the game following it's launch, I got the sense that's what people were looking for, so this could be cool! Haven't picked it up myself yet, but it does seem to have a summer game vibe to it...

The PS5 hit 10 million units sold on July 18th, per GamesIndustry.biz. It managed this feat a few weeks earlier than the PS4 did, which is pretty amazing considering the issues with supply at the moment. Their report also gives some sales figures for first-party titles, so well worth a read: Elsewhere, the M.2 SSD storage expansion update seems to be on the horizon now as it is coming as part of the next update for beta users. There's a full blog post on it here, but I'll throw the requirements in below: This news follows an article by Finder on Seagate confirming that the first SSD to be compatible with the PS5 from them will be the FireCuda 530, with prices and SSD sizes from NAS Compares being: • 500GB - US$140 • 1TB - US$240 • 2TB - US$490 • 4TB - US$950 Nice to finally see some news slipping out about this, hopefully it won't be too long before the update is rolled out for those waiting on it. For me, just considering there aren't many next-gen titles at the moment that I plan to keep on my PS5 long-term anyways and I'm fairly prudent with deleting games once I complete them, I think I'm happy just using my 2TB HDD for PS4 games for the foreseeable future.

While I always think it's best to let a game cook as long as necessary and not rush it out - and in Kena's case it is Ember Labs' first game, so I'd probably be a bit more understanding in this instance than if it were another more experienced team - I think any delay just some four weeks out is good reason for a bit of justified concern, especially considering it was supposed to come out earlier this year initially, so this is the second time we've seen such a letter from them. Obviously it's been impacted by COVID, as countless other games have, but even at the time the game was first announced we were in the thick of it, so it was always going to be the case that it would be a factor. Again, it's their first game so I think it's a bit easier to understand them not quite getting things right in terms of their development timeline, especially with everything going on, but I can't help but wonder why a game like this has been delayed twice publicly now, when other indie games shown for the first time at the same event don't even have a release window yet. Maybe they were just riding the high of the reactions and wanted to capitalise on that, but for me, I always think it's best to be vague until you're more than confident of hitting a date. Guess we'll have to wait and see, but I think it'll be a bit of a red flag for nothing more than their management if we see it delayed again. Horizon is such a weird one, because considering the size of the team and the project, it's funny that we've never had anything more than a vague "we're aiming for Holiday 2021" from them, and heck, we first heard about them aiming for this year in a post-State of Play interview with the director. As far as I can recall, they've never put that release window as a screen in their trailers or State of Play either, so that potential delay letter is going to be a bit weird for some who haven't been following the game - "wait, this was supposed to be coming out this year?!" Honestly, I respect them for being open like that since the start and making the conscious decision to not stick a release window in when first announcing the game, especially given the size of the event (ahem, God of War). Everyone knows what's going on in the world, not to mention that game development already has more than enough hurdles to overcome before you account for COVID. And let's be honest, there's potentially some goodwill from the higher-ups, because having a success under your belt is always huge, and to be frank, it probably doesn't hurt that their former managing director is now the head of Worldwide Studios either. Not a delay I want to see but I do agree that a delay for Forbidden West does seem inevitable, so I'm curious to see what, if anything, they'd have up their sleeves to replace it in their slate, though it's probably just leaning on third parties in the holiday season. I think that's where the big difference for me is between PlayStation and Nintendo for example, I can always expect Nintendo to make good if a game gets delayed as something else might be announced as a surprise and take up its place or something could get bumped up, whereas PlayStation - especially since the launch of the PS5 and probably due to COVID - seem to have played most of their cards already. Either way, not like I still haven't got plenty of other games to play, so it's always hard to complain!

Delayed until September 21st. Makes sense that we didn't see anything from it during the most recent State of Play with that in mind, as I thought it was a lock for that presentation considering it was due for release at the end of next month before. Still looking forward to it, but I do hope this is the last delay we see for it, otherwise I think we'll have a good reason to start sweating. Fingers crossed!

A nearly half hour interview from IGN with Gabe Newell on the Steam Deck, well worth a watch:

Started watching the first one and thought it looked really nice - the music does sound lovely - and then that font came in. Really hope they change it for if/when this comes to consoles, because like with the Dragon Quest I - III versions on Switch, I just find it really distracting how the font isn't suitable for these games and takes up such little screen space.

I don't think I'll ever bring myself to play it, but Alex Moukala's coverage of Genshin Impact has put it's OST firmly back on my radar. Azhdaha's Battle Theme, which he covers in the first video, is S-tier. The entire introduction in first phase is this menacing build-up and the second phase - that freaking erhu followed by the electric guitar! - is absolutely awesome. Time to give down the rabbit hole and see what the rest of Yu-Peng Chen's work on the game is like!

I was talking about the release specifically but you're right that there's going to be stuff beyond that like signing-on fees, add-ons, agent fees, and his weekly salary to add on top of that. Raiola's a twit but he's great at his job and getting his players what they want. Still, compared to some of the other fees we've seen, unless Haaland gets seriously injured or ends up massively underperforming this season, he'd be worth every penny. Still think it'd be in Madrid's best interest to make sure they've got the rest of the team up to par for that too, though. Honestly, it's probably in Mbappé's best interests to hold out until he can leave on a free and potentially become the highest paid footballer in the world if/when he goes to Madrid next summer, thanks to the amount they'd be saving on his transfer fee (probably some €150 million right now with a year left on his contract). It's funny because until the last five years or so, outside of outliers like Lewandowski's move to Bayern, I didn't feel like you really saw many players, agents, or teams planning around and winding down contracts to get the best deals for all involved and making full use of the Bosman rule. Now it seems like it's being considered for a lot of moves and as a result you get players on contracts that they were never going to be worthy of (such as Aaron Ramsey at Juve).

It's been kicking around the last few weeks (and let's be honest, it's been a rumoured transfer since before he even went to Madrid), but Varane is finally going to United for the massive sum of...£34 million (rising to £42 million with add-ons). They've just got one of the best defenders of the last decade on the cheap, and he's only 28. I know there was word about him pushing for a move and wanting to experience the Premier League, especially after Zidane and then Ramos left, but that's an insanely good piece of business. Finally a United signing I'm genuinely envious and frightened of. Florentino Perez is an idiot (is this any surprise?). Letting Ramos go on a free and disrespecting him as he has other Real legends in the past (Casillas, Navas, et al), clearly not putting up any real fight to keep Varane (who, fair play to him, wanted as clean a break as possible), replacing Ramos with Alaba who isn't the same defender he once was, not really supporting Zidane who somehow got the performances out of a second string team to take them to competing for La Liga until the last day of the season and the semi-finals of the Champions League. This isn't even mentioning the mess of the last 5 years, such as keeping Bale and letting Ronaldo go. I'm getting serious 2007/08 vibes from Madrid now. Perez is hell-bent on getting Mbappé on a free next year (if not this year, though I don't see PSG allowing that) - and potentially Haaland too, who will then be available at €75 million if I'm remembering right thanks to his release clause - and seems happy to effectively nuke the squad for this coming season to free up the money to do so. Expect Madrid to go on a spending spree that'll make your nose bleed next summer in yet another Galacticos overhaul a la 2009, because the defence will need strengthening, their attack needs quality bench options, and their midfield, while still in control and very experienced, needs to slowly see some more new faces introduced beyond Valverde and a potential Odegaard return.

So I finished Great Pretender the other day, and I've kind of been sitting on my thoughts with it. I think the first two thirds of this show, the first three cases, are pretty electric. It's high energy, doesn't take itself too seriously, has excellent animation (it's Wit with Netflix's backing, so no surprise there), an awesome jazzy musical backdrop to the heist hijinks, and a ridiculously colourful artstyle, which it balances with some fun and interesting - if archetypal - characters. Also does one of my favourite things in globetrotting adventures WHERE PEOPLE ACTUALLY SPEAK THEIR NATIVE TONGUE IN THEIR COUNTRY and subtitles are thrown in, even for the English dub (which was actually really good). Imagine Lupin III meets Baccano, that's probably the most relatable way to convey its energy and vibe. Unfortunately, the final case - the final third of the show - just kind of threw it all out of the window. It was over-the-top in the worst ways, character development kind of got kicked to the curb, and it just felt like it spent too long hanging up on some moments and going out of its way to explain things. The last episode was genuinely infuriating in very predictable ways. It was almost as if they realised at the start of the last case that maybe there could be a second season, and so all consequence they'd been building up to with the final case just didn't come to pass. Such a shame. It started off for a large part being nearly flawless, but as the last case dragged on there was a chink in that armour, and then all of a sudden in the final episode it slipped further yet. On the whole I think it's a great show, but that speaks to the strength of the first three cases and not the poor pacing and annoyingly predictable final case. They just didn't stick the landing, which sucks, because this really could have been something special. One of only a few ED's I would consider unskippable, though. Seriously, who the heck is going to skip Freddie Mercury's voice covering a Platters song used for an anime ED? It's almost cheating!

Feel obligated to respond to some of these posts, as I feel a bit responsible for sparking the debate. I think my reactions to some posts and not to others probably makes it pretty clear what my thoughts on this are, but it beats posting this gif for the umpteenth time: ...who am I kidding? It's a classic. And we were probably all thinking of posting it I think the problem is that people don't need to be within your personal space (let's use the 2 metres of social distancing here for reference) when in an enclosed space for you to come into contact with the virus...or any other kind of germs. Strictly talking just about the air in an enclosed space, you've got things to account for like molecular diffusion, Brownian motion, and beyond that a whole host of other systems at play which means, without much effort, the air inside of a train carriage could easily circulate germs from one end of the carriage to the other. I do agree with you that you should keep your wits about you, try to keep to yourself, watch your own hygiene, maybe even try to find another spot if you feel it's getting a little too crowded, etc., which I try to adhere to as well, rubbing my hands down with hand sanitiser getting on the train, before I get off, when I next arrive at a location where I'll be spending some time, before and after eating, sitting down in the cinema, and so on. I just think it's a bit concerning that a very, very noticeable number of people on the train didn't even have a mask on them as far as I could tell, and they certainly weren't wearing them. I mean, just going back to the incident I described about the COVID passport protest that I witnessed: the irony was that they were showing EXACTLY that they couldn't be trusted and why we even need to consider putting such things in place. There were a few hundred people I saw protesting, taking up one of the larger pavements I've come across in Birmingham and spilling over into the streets, with barely any of them wearing masks, and huddled so tightly together that they'd make a sardine blush. As for the COVID passports themselves, I think it's fine conceptually, and a completely understandable thing to put in place. I think you're viewing it from the "glass half empty" lens if you're seeing it purely as a push for people who aren't vaccinated to go get the vaccine, because, from my perspective, it's more about keeping those who have been vaccinated safe in an environment (such as a nightclub or a football stadium) where just one person potentially spreading the virus in such a densely populated discs could have a wide-reaching impact on a great number of lives around them, as well as the other way around being true also, that it's protecting those that aren't vaccinated from larger crowds by trying to keep them away from them. You need to have a driving license to drive a car just as, for the time being, you'll need to be vaccinated (and potentially have had a recent negative test?) to enter events where the virus could cause some serious trouble: highly and densely populated, enclosed, pretty warm spaces, the perfect breeding ground out in the wild for something like this to spread like wildfire. However, the problem with the COVID passports, as @Will alluded to, is that the UK government don't have the systems in place to support such a scheme, and it'll be as half-arsed as much of their other work during this pandemic has been. And, as you rightly mention Beast, what does happen to those who can't get the vaccine due to genuine medical/religious reasons? I have no clue, and I doubt the government do too. Again, I think it comes back to it being a good idea in concept, but with our government? I don't see it being handled well at all. Yeah I fully get this, when I tried to explain to a waitress yesterday that I'd booked a table at a medium volume it was clear she had no idea what I said, so I lifted my mask away from my face to repeat what I'd said, and if she couldn't hear me then I would have asked if she was okay with me removing my mask so that she could hear me (we were a metre or two apart anyways). It's one where I feel like you have to play it by ear and just be mindful of how many people are around you and their distance from you. I mean the fact that they aren't the same is a huge part of it, though. For the COVID vaccines they used the main strand which kicked this all off as the reference, and while we've seen variants since, it's a process which can be repeated with the new variants, and heck I think some of the vaccines used elsewhere already prove somewhat effective against the new variants. That's entirely different to the flu vaccine, where the entire basis of the vaccine is an educated hunch at what will be the most popular mutation that year, and in recent years they've been pretty far off the mark. It's like trying to put a brand new bike together with the same model already put together next to you and a set of instructions to go with it vs closing your eyes and building a bike based on what you imagine a bike will look like this year based on your memories of last year's model. It's a very, very rough way to do things, which again has missed the mark as of late. I mean at this point why not just bring the electric chair back, or hand these people a noose and a chair to jump down from as they walk out of prison? If it would make it that much safer and the possibility of rehabilitation isn't an option - thankfully it is - then what purpose is there to let them walk out? Like I mentioned before, I think it's the lens you're viewing it from, and by all means you have a right to your own opinion on this, but there's an insanely massive difference for me between being ostracised due to raping someone and being left out by omission through your (not your as in you, Beast, but a general your) own actions based on your own choices. Again as I mentioned before, think it gets murky when it comes to people who due to medical reasons in particular can't get vaccinated, but other than religious beliefs and some other fringe cases -- I'm talking about healthy people who don't fall in these categories -- it's simply called consequence. You (again, a general you, I'm not singling you out) can't have your cake and eat it too. As someone who tries their best to help people when I can see that they might need it, I think this is a dangerous mindset to walk around with, just for the mental toll it would take, because you're only a hop and a jump away from being at fault for everything wrong with society. When it comes to helping others that you are in no way responsible for, I think only you can hold yourself accountable for your decisions, but I think for the average person - like myself - we'll find ourselves limited in what we can do by our time, finances, or something else. I was in a rush to get to work and so didn't get the chance to help that homeless guy? Welp, I've caused him harm. I don't know, to me, that seems like a spiral I'd rather not go down. For me, it always comes back to being the change you want to see happen. I want more people to help the homeless, and so when I get the chance to, I'll do what I can to help them. It's a cold day -- do they want a hot chocolate or a coffee? They're hungry -- do they want to come with me to get some food? But as a 22 year old in his first full-time job, there's a limit on what I can reasonably offer to help with, and so long as I try to help them, I think that's okay. I'll shorten my life, and end up getting the chance to help less people in the process, if I carry the world's problems on my shoulders. I mean, even if I did selfishly want to protect myself, my friends, and my family...I think that's a completely fair line of reasoning, and that would only be the start. It would take an ounce of empathy and awareness for those around you to then start thinking about how others might be impacted if you didn't get the vaccine. Why exactly can't it be both me wanting to take care of myself, those I know, and those I don't? Why is it a black or white "it's us or them"? Memento mori. Fear has driven men and women to some of humanity's greatest discoveries, and unfortunately others to committing some of its most heinous acts, but fear - and fear of death in particular - is one of the great equalisers. I think it's perfectly normal to feel and be motivated by fear. So long as you don't let it consume your thinking, being motivated by fear can be a great asset. I don't think there's anything remotely wrong with getting vaccinated against a deadly virus out of fear, so long as you still took the choice to be vaccinated. The risk of contracting COVID, the long-term impacts of which we probably won't fully understand for years to come? Just because immunisation puts the odds further in your favour for survival, the risk of contracting COVID is still very real. Plus, I'm still waiting on my second vaccination. Why exactly wouldn't I be worried about other people dying, especially after myself and others have lost loved ones to COVID? Like I mentioned above, it takes an ounce of empathy and awareness for others -- let's be honest, I could just say respect -- to appreciate the impact something like this could have on the lives of other people. And you know that's not how vaccines work so that third one is a bit of a silly rhetorical. I mean, forget dying, immunisation lowers the odds of you contracting an illness too, so that's a pretty big plus, surely? See, there are two different things here. Firstly: I fully respect your decision to not take the vaccine until you know more about the potential side effects, and given what you mentioned about you having side effects to similar things before, I think you're justified in being wary and waiting for more information, however long it might take. From the rest of your posts I think it's clear that even without taking the vaccine, you're aware of the situation, do your utmost to be hygienic, and are trying your damnedest without the vaccine. Unfortunately, we can't say that's been the case for everyone who hasn't had the vaccine (and to be clear this isn't me targeting anyone else in the thread, it's the impression that I get from when you look around and on social media). The other part is that someone having an abortion doesn't have a direct physical impact on the physical well-being of those around you. Someone choosing to go the abortion route, which I agree is wholeheartedly that person's decision because even if it is a bit of an ethical conundrum - at what point are you considered alive? - if they can't give that child the life that every child deserves - one with stability and something beyond simply existing, being there to offer direction as a parent should - is an entirely different premise, at least from my perspective. It's a totally different scenario if you having an abortion because there's something up with the tap water helps keep other pregnant women and their children safe. Just because there's a choice involved I don't think the two issues are remotely equatable beyond there being a personal choice for you to make, which I will respect. It's simply not my choice to make. Ask me my opinion on abortions and vaccines and I'll offer it in as well meaning a way as I can, even if our opinions differ, but otherwise it's really none of my business what you do with your body. I agree with that: it is your decision at the end of the day. That being said, choices come with consequences. I had to get some vaccines before going to the Philippines a few years ago, because of some of the bugs over there that my Western body just wouldn't be built for dealing with could have caused some serious harm, and doing so gave me peace of mind on my trip. The potential consequence of me getting ill from the vaccine while still over here far outweighed the perceived consequences of getting seriously ill while stuck in a struggling country with poor access to quality medical care. In the case of the COVID vaccine and the passports, one consequence of not getting vaccinated is not being allowed to mingle with people who have in certain scenarios. That will be there to protect both sides. Again, I'm not saying it's going to be pulled off well, but in concept I think it's the best thing to do. Given the scale and severity of the pandemic, I just think it's unrealistic to not have any pressure around an issue like this. The same goes for voluntary consent for any number of things: real life just isn't simple enough to take things as they are in a closed bubble, there are almost always other factors at play. Honestly, if I didn't take the vaccine, I wouldn't feel comfortable going out to any of these events (nightclubs, football matches, concerts) anyways, so I wouldn't feel the pressure of everything going on regarding the COVID passport. Heck, even now that I've had my first vaccine, I'm not in a rush to put myself at risk like that.

I've only caught snippets of the opening ceremony and some of the swimming highlights so far. Normally I'm pretty big on watching the Olympics, especially the swimming, but watching how the IOC have handled things and seemingly not giving Japan the chance they wanted to delay things further, coupled with the lack of crowds and just the overall lack of energy coming from it was a result, I just find myself left a bit unenthused. There's also that some of the events are at pretty awkward times for us in the UK, which is always a real shame. Will definitely try to catch the swimming highlights, though!

They also digitally removed Jeans Guy from Chapter 12 of Mando

Yeah, as much as I enjoyed the Ryloth arc, I do agree that it definitely felt like we'd seen something similar before. For me personally it depends on what the series is, but when it comes to Star Wars animated shows and I know there are going to be X number of episodes in the season, I really just want them to put their foot down and go for it. I find that I prefer arcs because we see more development for a story, character, or location in those episodes than we do in ones like these. It felt like this episode could've been in the middle of the season, and now that I think about it, it has so little connective tissue to the other episodes that it feels like it really could have slotted in anywhere else. I really just hope things pick up now, because I'm starting get the feeling that the stuff I want to see is being saved for a likely second season. Yes, I've been hoping for the exact same thing! Personally I don't mind the CG in the prequels for example, but I know many do and so I think it could also be thrown into the mix, and I think if you give the CG stuff just tweaks to bump their quality as time goes on and like you said the tech improves, almost Special Edition-style, I think it could look way better in the future. It's a tough one, because in Luke's case I genuinely think you could throw some makeup on Sebastian Stan and you'd already be pretty close, and if they do ever do a show about post-ROTJ Luke then that might be the more cost effective solution, but I guess in any cameos this route would probably be better.

I haven't been keeping up with the Olympics due to the awkward as hell times that the events are often at for us, but this gave me a good chuckle Give me more of this!

Another good episode this week, but the writing and depth of the writing has definitely started getting a bit shaky as we head towards the final few episodes, as there are definitely some episodes, like this one, where there isn't a "moral" or something to take away that we haven't already seen up to this point, it doesn't exactly drive the story forwards, and for me if you miss those, it's about getting among the weeds and focusing in on a particular character/way of life, but that doesn't exactly happen in this episode either. So it was a bit of a letdown for me, though at least we're starting to get hints at what we might see in a hypothetical season 2. See, based on what I think this episode doesn't do that I mentioned above, I do think that it could be considered "filler", but I think the problem is that there's a negative connotation around calling something "filler" that seems a little too harsh. It's not a bad episode, just nothing beyond a hint of a certain group turning up next season really happens here. I think of The Passenger from Mando and I think people are missing the point of the episode when they call that "filler", truth is that they were annoyed it didn't carry on the story as directly as the first episode of the season, which makes sense anyways because it was about setting up the conflict. It still managed to do one of the three things I think you would need to do to not be filler: it was a character-centric episode which focused on growth and interaction. But I just didn't see that in this episode of The Bad Batch, and I think for me it's a bit different at this point in the season too just because I've been expecting things to start ramping up for weeks now towards a final arc, especially with how great the preceding two episodes were. In the pacing of the overall season I think it just gets in the way and slows things down, again when we really should be starting to pick things back up, and it's not like we haven't had pretty similar episodes in structure/events/morals already this season. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it if I didn't know that the team behind this show is capable of infinitely more, and I'm personally just a bit disappointed as it feels like we've already had episodes like this where there's nothing really gained from the episode other than it raising the episode count. On the whole I've been pleasantly surprised by The Bad Batch so far, I'm holding off on further judgment until this season is over as I'm waiting to see how/if they stick the landing here. While I have enjoyed it, thinking back to the first arc of the season, I think what I really want to see from this team is not necessarily the number of shows that they're working on piling up, but short yet meaningful arcs (almost movies) put out by them instead, like the Siege of Mandalore in TCW and the opening arc to The Bad Batch, and maybe adapting some of the stuff we didn't see in The Clone Wars to animation from its written form -- such as the Son of Dathomir stuff. I think their strength is in telling concise and focused stories, I think once they have to start thinking of potential future seasons and stretching out this one to meet an episode count to get their budget, things can get shaky. It could just be first season jitters as they get used to things, though, like we saw with The Clone Wars and Rebels. Cue the Luke's academy series articles by "insiders" in 3, 2, 1... But yeah, that's awesome! While I was really glad about that scene in Mando, as soon as I saw his face I wanted to peel my eyes out, and knew someone could do better -- this guy is one of them. You know, other than maybe getting Sebastian Stan in for his face. I think deepfaking is definitely the future of this process for CG animators, rather than having to work things from scratch like we saw with Tarkin in Rogue One, which for me gave mixed results (looked fantastic in certain lighting and when static, but as soon as he started walking the uncanny valley erupted), and so I'm happy to see him onboard, crazy to think of how far this could be pushed with more people working on the process and with the right backing.

Went into Birmingham to meet up with some friends today for the first time in over a year, and while we on the whole had a great time...man were there waaaaaaaaay fewer people wearing masks that I saw than I expected. I kept mine on as much as I could apart from quieter areas where there was virtually no-one else around, when we went to eat, and in the cinema, also trying my best to keep my distance apart from my friends (who I all trust to be sensible and who I all know have had their first vaccine). While walking through the Bull Ring for a brief shortcut, on the train in and out, on the train platforms, and in some more congested corners though, I'd say there's a ballpark figure of more than 40% of people not wearing their masks where you think they should. For example, the massive pedestrian junction by the bull just outside the Bull Ring, where easily hundreds of people pass through every minute or two when it's busy, there were virtually no masks being worn or distancing actively happening. I know there's definitely some bias to what I saw today - it was my first time actually going out to meet up like this since the first lockdown started last year, and I'm sure most sensible people are still continuing to stay away from busy places like the middle of Birmingham - but this was an absolute embarrassment. If there were more people dying (not that I would want that, obviously) it would almost feel like a controlled culling of the population. The stupidity of those running our government knows no bounds. There was also a vaccine passport protest going on which we kept our distance from, walking in front of busy lanes and traffic and taking up entire pavements (even some of the wider ones, such as those between New Street and the Chinese Quarter), with almost all involved not wearing their masks, some even dragging their little kids around or hoisting them up on their shoulders. Some people seriously just aren't fit to be parents. It's disgusting. It's exhausting to even type this out to be honest. It's excruciatingly frustrating.

I've just realised that the walking human garbage that is Sugiyama would've had the say in the Dragon Quest Main Theme being used here, as if I'm remembering right he owns the rights. It's a big part of why some Dragon Quest XI reviews were so weird. So on the one hand Nintendo isn't showing up for some nebulous reason, and then on the other we've got the Main Theme composed by a history revisionist and anti-LBTQ+ supporter belting out to start and end this thing. It's funny because even though Dragon Quest has some good music and some individually very memorable tracks, I wouldn't say it's a strength of the games like it is Final Fantasy. And I think the only thing that's got it through the doors here in the first place is just how big the series and Sugiyama are in Japan, because it's not exactly a very good public-facing image otherwise having his music here.

Yeah my bad, I didn't hear the start (I've gone back to it now) and since I got into those games I've only seen it referred to as the Main Theme and never Erdrick's Theme, hence my confusion which is good because obviously it needed to be here! Agree with @Dcubed that it's a bit bizarre that there's no Nintendo music though. I can't remember, when Abe came out as Mario, was there any Mario music playing? I wonder if it's some super weird music agreement, or maybe a concern of their music getting flagged or something? And we absolutely need the squatting music from VII Remake during some powerlifting!