Julius

sigh Obviously this sucks, and I'll wait to see what actions (if any) have been taken by the time the game launches - which is probably 2 or 3 years from now at best - but yes, obviously they should be condemned for it, and I think that goes without saying. This being one of the most hyped games to come from China (and telling a version of one of their three biggest traditional stories at that) means it'll be interesting to see how it is dealt with over there when compared with what we've seen in the West, and I would argue that it would have drawn the attention of some of the big wigs in the country just considering the source material it is dealing with. I don't think it's hard to imagine that the Chinese government could step in seeing as they may know the potential of gaming and it's reach (anything for that positive PR), and again, this is one of their biggest traditional stories. They could easily either forcefully replace the staff, close down the studio entirely...or do absolutely nothing. So we'll have to wait and see. But those misogynistic pigs - at least so far - have consistently shown a game (and more specifically, gameplay) in the early stages of development that I feel is much more intriguing and ambitious than the vast majority of games we see today, let alone from some of the bigger AAA studios. So kudos to them for that I guess.

Unreal Engine 5 gameplay test: Yeah, it still looks great

Might as well chime in. Yeah, it looks rough still. Not quite as rough as last time - should we count that as a win? - but still rough enough that I think it's embarrassing to think this is coming from the biggest franchise in the world. Textures and resolution aren't just atrocious, I think they straight up spit in the face of games being put out at the same price (and lower) for the lack of effort put in. You can literally count the pixels on clothing, and there's the application of textures to completely flat surfaces (such as the grass) which make PS2 games grin with pride. And then there's the reuse not just of the protagonist designs from Diamond and Pearl, but also other character designs (such as Cyllene being a dead ringer for Cyrus) and worse yet the fact that they reused Team Galactic's 'G' in the logo for Galaxy...Team. Well, it's nice to know that Game Freak isn't the only company lacking in originality these days. On the upside, apparently there's a Survey Corps, so hopefully we see some of them get torn apart by Titans... ...oh sorry, wrong franchise? Well that's a shame There could be something cool going on with Galaxy Team - Cyllene could be a time-travelled amnesiac Cyrus's daughter who starts the Galaxy Team, with Cyrus ending up in ancient Sinnoh somehow through the Distortion World or something - but this is Game Freak that we're talking about. There's probably nothing interesting enough worth speculating about here. Which is a shame, because I like some of the concepts, such as a more action-based capturing system is cool, which makes it a bit weird that you still end up with turn-based battles for me; should've taken a leaf out of Xenoblade's book for a nice balance of the two sides of action and JRPG, the idea of journeying through an ancient land with nods to later times while focusing on helping people out. What we saw doesn't do much to hint about what connection exactly Arceus will have to the main story, so my expectations for that have plummeted seeing as we didn't see it once here, but hey... ...at least one of the adventures in Sinnoh (well, Hisui) actually has new Pokémon forms, and I'm a big fan of all of them, though probably Basculegion and Growlithe, out here looking like a Chinese guardian lion, love it. Favourite part, like with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, is probably the map, which gives us much more to ponder. Love that the map is just a different perspective of Sinnoh that we haven't seen before, trying to keep it somewhat fresh but familiar. We can see two of three lakes from here, the smoking volcano off in the north east is probably Stark Mountain, we can see Snowpoint Temple, there's that guy on a boat going to the west (a hint of something to do with going to Iron Island and/or Newmoon/Fullmoon islands perhaps?), and I also love the inclusion of what seems to be marshland over by where Pastoria would be. Thought Canalave would've made more sense than Jubilife as the major settlement here just because of it being a port town of sorts, but oh well, still fits the billing I guess (or Canalave is just hidden behind those clouds). Pokédex looked like a massive letdown too - I wish they would've done it as I think I've seen them do it in Monster Hunter Rise (someone feel free to confirm!), which is have some specialised art for the monsters (like below) but then also an option to view them normally, would've added a more cohesive feel to the world I think. Anyways, that's all the effort I can muster up to talk about Legends, but long story short: feels like we're getting two halfhearted efforts in the next six months rather than a full fledged remake or first open world. We'll wait and see if I'm interested enough when they launch to pick one up!

Might as well throw the trailer from yesterday in here: I have a mixed bag of thoughts on this game. • I still hate the fact that these chibi models have distinct hands/fingers, and they will continue to fuel my nightmares. • it feels like they've bumped up the Depth of Field in what we saw compared with the last major look at we had at this game, and I kind of dig it. • on the whole I think the colour palette looks much nicer here than in previous looks, the buildings and overall look of the game is great and toy-like...but those characters models are seriously killing it for me. It's like they couldn't decide between going all-in on chibi or having something like Let's Go, so now we have these freaks to play as • I will never say no to Pokémon following you, that will always be a positive in my eyes! The fact that Piplup are almost the same size as your chibi character model as it follows you around definitely doesn't make me any happier about those models, though. • customisation is back = cool. Styles but not actual customisation = not so cool. • the rhythm mini-game and Poké Ball stickers returning are big draws for me, as is the returning Underground. I remember back in school when playing the originals, we had our own version of the "Mew hides under the truck" rumour, which was that you could find a Mew fossil in the Underground. The way you dig things up being practically the same just speaks volumes about this remake, though... • the bass drop in the trailer for Galactic had me laughing stupidly hard, hope they fit the trailer music somewhere in the actual game! • the murals and shrine in Celestic Town looking exactly the same made me roll my eyes. Hard. Outside of the trailer, the fact there's seemingly no return for Mega Evolutions/Z-Moves/regional forms/Dynamaxing just speaks volumes about how much of an afterthought this remake seems to be when compared to the treatment other remakes saw. Map artwork looks gorgeous as always, at least... ...but it seemingly confirms no Battle Frontier, as it instead has the Battle Tower and gate...so yay, maybe -- it's something? At least the Survival Area wasn't axed. Pal Park is back for some mysterious reason too. As for the soundtrack, the one thing I had high hopes for, we don't hear too much of it here: it's not in the trailer and is instead only heard in the background of the deeper dive portion of the Presents into the games. And I'm not too happy with it so far, it sounds a lot more contrived and almost like it's trying too hard with some of the flourishes you can hear, and it sounds way too soft - like there isn't much contrast like we heard in the Gen IV soundfont back in the DS - but I'll save my judgment on that for when we hear more. Still on the fence with this. It's wonderful seeing it all again, but it sucks that I feel it's been completely and utterly shafted compared to earlier remakes and in favour of focusing on Legends. EDIT: I nearly forgot to mention the Switch Lite for the game! Love it, I always wanted that design on the DS Lite but it never came out over here...but it's a Switch Lite, meaning I probably won't be trying to get one.

I've watched some great anime over the last couple of weeks. First, I finally watched Cowboy Bebop. I've tried to watch the series several times now (think this was my fourth attempt?) but for whatever reason, it just never clicked. I would really enjoy the first episode but then my enjoyment of it would just slowly peter out by the time I got to Episode 3 or 4, and while I did feel a little similar this time around, getting to Episode 5 (Ballad of Fallen Angels) and being introduced to Vicious was when I finally found myself hooked. Surprised by just how many standout individual episodes there are, by how much I loved the whole cast (I was worried Ed would be annoying, but she was anything but, and there were several times where I'd burst out laughing at something her or Ein did), and the way it managed to blend so many different genres - of music and storytelling - into its web of episodes. Mushroom Samba and Cowboy Funk were downright hilarious, but then on the flip side of that, the show deals with so many heavy topics - existentialism, loneliness, dealing with your past and what defines family - in such a unique and ultimately relatable way that it plays your emotions like a damn fiddle by the end. I was on the verge of tears at the end of Hard Luck Woman. Music is spot on, I knew that would be the case going in anyways as I love myself a jazzy soundtrack, but man the vocal tracks well and truly surprised me too - I've been listening to them a lot since finishing the show. Call Me Call Me is definitely my favourite, but shout out to tracks like Fantasie Sign, Rain, and Words That We Couldn't Say. And obviously goes without saying that Real Folk Blues is top tier too. Freaking loved it. Got to pick up the film so I can give that a watch! I also finished the first season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Incredibly endearing cast and just an overall fun time and take on high school romance, really looking forward to checking out the second season. There are naturally some heartfelt moments, but if anything it feels like a parody of just how stupid some romantic comedies can be, and it takes it all the way. Love Dramatic describes the show perfectly and is a great OP Lastly, I got around to watching Millennium Actress after it's sat on my shelf for around a year now (there was a new release early last year with a new dub, which was the first time it came to Blu-ray over here). My experience with Satoshi Kon is kind of limited - got about halfway through Paprika at one point before I ended up dropping off (which to be clear wasn't the film's fault, I started it stupidly late and like what I've experienced of his other works, it kind of needs your full attention to be completely enjoyed) and watched Perfect Blue for the first time a few months ago, which is probably one of the most intense animated anythings I've watched. I'd heard good things going into Millennium Actress...and boy did it live up to the billing, I think I even prefer it over Perfect Blue, which I thought was great. Without spoiling anything, Millennium Actress tells the story of a retired actress as she reflects on her life and years in the film industry, and it leans on a similar editing style to drive the story and film forwards as seen in Perfect Blue (if you've seen them both you'll probably know what I mean), which like with Perfect Blue takes a little while to adapt to I found, but what amazed me was the execution of the editing, especially in its transitions. I lost count of the number of shots where I was stunned, and two scenes in particular which blew me away were... Not for the first time watching a Satoshi Kon film, I found myself with my jaw agape in total awe of some of the things achieved in this film, not just on a storytelling level - which I think was great - but specifically on a technical level, too. I know I've got more films (and a show) from him to watch, but this is going to be a tough one to top. Highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't watched it yet!

Looks fantastic, very much looking forward to this. Fingers crossed for some interesting music too! Also, can't wait to see the Star Wars fanbase revive the subs vs dubs debate on a scale never seen before I think I'll have to go with the dub on first viewing just because I tried watching the sub trailer and found myself not wanting to look away from the eye candy on screen. But maybe the second or third viewing...

I probably would have if I didn't already own the PS4 version and wasn't three chapters in, but it definitely feels like it's struggling more than Kiwami 2 and 6 (which certainly struggled quite noticeably at times). The decision to have no upgrade option - even a paid one - is so silly to me, I'd probably pay up to £20 for an upgrade, but more just seems a bit much. It feels even worse and weirder considering that Like A Dragon did have a free next-gen upgrade.

Well I needed something to pick me up after putting Dark Souls on hold for a while (too bleak for the mood I've been in lately, and the stretches I went without playing the game just kept getting longer and longer), and I figured a visit to Kamurocho would be just the ticket, so I've been playing this the last few days. Only a few chapters in, but I'm enjoying it. The story has definitely slowed down since the initial half an hour, and the first chapter felt far longer than it did in the Yakuza games I've played so far, though I imagine some of that is down to the tutorials and actually needing to get to grips with some of the newer and updated mechanics...which I'm not a huge fan of so far, if I'm being honest. Sure, chase sequences were a bit janky before, but now it leans really heavily into QTE's, and makes some weird choices like using the left stick rather than the D-Pad for directional QTE inputs. However, it's far from the worst offenders so far, which is a judgment I'd square at two of the newer mechanics: tailing sections and investigative sections, both of which bring the game to a screeching halt. Tailing sections have you follow guys through Kamurocho at a distance, hide behind boards and in small groups whenever your target turns around, until you get to your destination without being spotted. Once you've got some of the skills for it, there's very little challenge there, and it's just a bit of a chore to get you from one place to the other. My biggest problem with it though is that almost immediately after you lose sight of your target, sirens start going off and a countdown begins while some dramatic music comes in, and my issue with this is that it doesn't really reward trying to do anything interesting. For example, I've tried to duck into open shops or pathways with clear line of sight for characters through windows, however the moment they walk by a pillar or a car and my vision of them is obstructed, the countdown begins. I guess a fix for this would just have been giving a few more seconds as a grace period before it starts, or depending on a radial distance from Yagami rather than direct line of vision. The investigative portions basically turn the game into a point and click as you zoom in and walk over to areas of crime scenes / scenes of interest to determine what was there. It's nothing new, and this is a complaint I'm sure I could aim at many other games with the mechanic, but it's simply just not fun. Final big complaint I have so far is the lack of a hunger gauge. One of my favourite parts of Kiwami 2 and 6 was that the hunger gauge rewarded your exploration and running around these fictional settlements, and so there was a constant need to try out new eatery combos for skill points to make progress. I guess part of it is that the "skill tree" isn't as fleshed out from what I've seen so far as in those games, but there are still skill points assigned for the completion of innocuous tasks, and I just wish it would have still been here as it was one of my favourite new mechanics after the move to the Dragon Engine. Going back to using it as a means to fill the health meter back up feels almost archaic, and while I got a skill through a friendship and 5000 skill points which allows me to eat as much as I want, this sends it so far the other way and just doesn't feel very rewarding. One other nitpick I have is that there are times where the game doesn't run all that great, as we've seen in the other games running on the Dragon Engine. I'm playing the PS4 version rather than the PS5 version, so it could be on me, but there have been a lot of times where in-engine cutscenes just don't seem to play out right, there was one time where the game freaked out at me walking up some stairs and into a short cutscene which resulted in a fight, and maybe I'm just misremembering my experiences with Kiwami 2 and 6, but I can't remember seeing nearly as many loading screens in those as I have here. It probably sound like I'm down on the game, but I can assure you that I'm enjoying it, especially after things opened up and more side content could be accessed what I've found with RGG's games is that, unless I have any story nitpicks, the bulk of my complaints are frontloaded, so unless there's some egregious new mechanic I've yet to encounter, *hopefully* that should be most of my negativity out of the way. I just hope some of these nitpicks are worked on in Lost Judgment! Game looks incredible and I've really enjoyed it since it opened up, especially the new way in which side content is handled in the friendships and side cases, the streets of Kamurocho feel filled with things to do! Though I've definitely ran around more only a few chapters in than I have in any other Yakuza game, which feeds into the whole hunger gauge thing, so... I'm only in the third chapter, so like I said before, haven't seen too much yet, but I'm surprised just how much Yakuza involvement there has been at this point, considering that making this game seemed like them wanting to move away from Yakuza. I'm hoping it's just the focus early on before it goes elsewhere, because I think that's why it doesn't feel quite as fresh as some of the story's early moments suggested it would be. Also, really wished that they'd kept the same font, sound, and black/white character cards for important Yakuza characters that they've introduced so far! I understand the decision not to, but it just feels plain wrong. Anyways, look forward to diving back in later. Can already feel the game cheering me up a bit But one final thing I want to mention: man, seeing some of the extra details they've added in here like coming across NPC's while walking around town and them bowing to you, I really wish Yu Suzuki would team up with RGG for a Shenmue game. I've felt this a lot going through the Yakuza games, but even more so here, their projects do feel like Shenmue's spiritual successors, and honestly I'd say that might be one of my dream games at the moment. Hunger gauge + skill tree + the combos from the original Shenmue games just makes too much sense to me!

Nice catch @Vileplume2000, that's super cool! I think it depends on the games on PlayStation, and whether or not the developer has included the feature? Lost count of the times I've seen friends playing FIFA Ultimate Team or losing a game in Career Mode! Think I've spotted it for some other games like Call of Duty as well? Can't speak to Xbox though!

Yep, pretty much exactly how I feel. I want it to be good, I think it could be good, but expectations are rightly going to be through the roof, and they need to show they can deliver a show worth of The Last Airbender title. As for the bending, that's definitely a good concern to have, and one I hadn't really thought of too much until now. They really need to just throw money and time at it, because it'll suck if the - ahem - first time we see bending in live-action was rubbish, to the point of being anticlimactic. Especially when it was an element of the show born through initial necessity and by design - a way to show fighting and violence without blood in 2D - rather than desire, I do question how it will show here. I think another concern I have is over the actual appearance of the settings. I think Avatar has some fantastic settings and architecture, and ATLA in Book One set the tone and expectations for the rest of the show in this regard, so I have very high expectations for how places like Omashu and the Air Temples are going to look here. Yep, same here! This could be fun, but thankfully if it's not, I don't think we're missing out on too much if it turns out to be a disappointment. Yeah, it'd suck, but we still have the original go back to. I actually wonder if it could be a weird step backwards - ATLA has awesomely been growing in popularity and exploded after coming to Netflix, and I think it's a great gateway into other forms of animation. It's western 2D animation heavily inspired by anime and a world heavily inspired by, well, Asian culture. If the live-action show is great, is there the potential that it is seem as the best way to experience the show, and then the original show isn't used as much as a potential gateway into enjoying other works of animation? Just a curious thought, I could be way off base, but Book One is probably the weakest of the original series (if I had to pick one), and I think is the only one with the genuine potential to be eclipsed. I seriously don't see how you could outdo Book Two and Three, though. But either way, like you, I'll take a new story over a retelling every day of the week, especially if it's a retelling of something more popular (like the original show) rather than something more niche (the graphic novels). A lot of pressure on them to deliver, but that's where almost all of my hopes and interests are pinned right now! Also, as an aside, was talking to some friends earlier and it turns out that not one, but two of them have also watched Korra - I had no idea! Naturally, this resulted in us convincing another friend to give The Last Airbender a chance

Welp, time to let my expectations go crazy so that I can come away from this disappointed Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - I won't lie to you, I'm already disappointed in this based on what we've seen so far. I'm really not liking the art style (colours aside it just looks...atrocious), from a content perspective - hey, I could be wrong here come Wednesday, and I want to be! - and it seems like it's probably going to the most phoned in Pokémon remake to date. I'm praying that I'm wrong and come away from this showing foaming at the mouth to play this, but I think it's more likely I'll come away not caring all that much and might find myself just playing Platinum instead, or going back and getting Let's Go. I think it's really telling that the biggest hope seems to be for new Mega Evolutions - which we haven't had for nearly seven years now? - and we don't even seem to have any serious hopes of regional forms either, as opposed to the potential for either Z-Moves or Dynamaxing turning up here. I say all this but if they knock the music out of the park my hand will be forced. The plight of being trapped by nostalgia. Legends: Arceus - I know it was a rough showing last time out: it was an old version of the game even then, it was a year or so out when announced, etc. But putting all of that aside, they need to just show that this game can run well enough. Not even well. Would like to hear some music, see a settlement or two, maybe even some unedited gameplay would be nice just so we can get a better idea of what we're in for here. It's definitely the one I'm more excited for here, so fingers crossed for a decent showing. I hope Game Freak can convince us that they know what they're doing.

Great timing as I finished it up just a little while ago A fantastic final episode to this first season, and yeah, I'm pretty bullish now about this having been the best opening season to an animated show we've had from them so far. I cannot wait to see where it all goes from here -- for now, the not-so-long wait for Visions next month begins! I know we've treated it like fact before anyways, but might as well pop the confirmation from last week of the second season coming next year in here too: And also the next set of major announcements - for Star Wars and other Disney-owned properties - are seemingly set to come on Disney+ Day, which will be Friday 12th November 2021. Exciting times!

Chapter 364 of Berserk is coming out next month on the 10th. Think there's a good chance this will have been Miura's final work. Think it's around the time that the Berserk fair is going on, so I hope we get a proper update on what the future plans are for the series. Doubt I'll have read all of the manga by then and be caught up, but still, it's nice to see

Well, we finally won the Super Cup at the fourth attempt in the last decade, and in our third penalty shootout of those. The Club World Cup is the only major trophy I've yet to see us pick up, so fingers crossed for December! Shame about Ziyech, he's been great in preseason, but man that decision to sub Kepa on for penalties really paid off. Honestly feel like more managers should follow the stats when it comes to penalties and be ready to throw their GK that's better at them on. Roll on Saturday

First episode of What If..? was decent. Poorly paced, but they basically had to fit a film into 22 minutes, so it is what it is. Surprised by how much I like the look of it considering it's CG animation, it did look rough once or twice, but they did a great job of marrying it with some 2D stuff to give that comic book look. Looks like a really high budget take on Tales from the Borderlands! Look forward to seeing where this goes, hopefully it only gets weirder from here.

Star Wars Tales from the Galaxy's Edge: Last Call is coming later this year, exclusively to Quest:

It's tough because I'm really not sure where else he was meant to go without taking a serious cut to his pay, and it's not like he wanted to leave in the first place. The only realistic alternative to PSG was always City (like that's any different in terms of corruption), with Pep, their playing style, and familiar names like Txiki at the club, but I think that was over before it started this time around just because of signing Grealish and giving him the number 10 just as this broke out, otherwise I think it would have been more of a competition. And taken in isolation, the move is an absolute steal, especially when the move last summer when Messi wanted to leave would have involved more competition and a package reportedly worth €500 million. It was said then that it would have been a smart thing for Barça to do given their financial shape at the time...but Barto was going to Barto. Still genuinely can't believe that guy's alive after how much he messed the club around. Juve are bust and have already shown what happens when you get a superstar but don't make a good team, Inter are broke and disbanding their title-winning squad, Bayern have zero interest in a big money move like this (I think if Ronaldo wants to win all the major European leagues he'll at some point take a big pay cut just to walk to a Bundesliga with them after potentially going to PSG next summer), a move to Real Madrid would have legitimately started a civil war (and apparently Atletico gave him a call?), and Spurs cheekily apparently trying to see if Messi was interested in winning the first Europa Conference League is downright hilarious. Like Levy would sanction anything of the sort. I do find it hilarious that the Qataris were apparently on edge at the prospect of Abramovich coming in and swooping Messi from right under them, though - always beware the Russians I guess? - but I think his adoration of that style of play, Guardiola, and Messi all died once and for all after he'd had Sarri at the club. I do think it's really telling that outside of Rummenigge at Bayern, everyone else has kept their lips tightly sealed on this transfer. Remember when Neymar was going to PSG (because Barça stupidly agreed to a release clause), when Tebas and Ceferin started kicking off? Where's that this time around? He's now the poster boy of a serious UCL contender - they were already serious contenders after this summer with the other moves they'd made - and the Qatar World Cup too. Let's not forget that it's their 10th anniversary of ownership this year too. There's just so much irony around the move too, didn't the Qataris originally state after taking over the club that they didn't need to buy a Messi, and would find the next Messi? Or something to that effect. So weird. Unfortunately you're right about football fans flocking to PSG. I had a friend who legitimately started supporting them in high school at the time of the buyout back in 2011, but their growth has been exponential, on and off the pitch, obviously because of the money being pumped in, and I'm sure he couldn't be happier about this move. I think every football fan looks at this and wish he was joining their club, but I'll never understand following just one player around. Then again, how many fans did Michael Jordan bring into the NBA? It's tough because while you do want to see academy prospects coming through - still think it was shortsighted for Lampard to be sacked considering how good a job he was doing at integrating younger players, but we've won a Champions League since, so it's hard to complain - at the end of the day it's a competitive sport and the expectation is for there to be competitive teams. I just think there has to be more done when these wealthy owners come in to stop them from either taking advantage of the club (how many owners in Milan over the last decade? Or Mike Ashley at Newcastle?) or tampering with the books to pull off absurd moves like this (City, PSG). Sure some people will see the irony of me saying this as a Chelsea fan, but we've been lucky I think in that Abramovich actually seems to love football, and in the last 5 years or so we've pivoted to being a legitimately sustainable club in terms of our player sales. Anyways, one last thing that needs to be highlighted from this move was Al-Khelaifi calling out Mbappé for his nonsense about wanting a stronger team. Now he has to come out and say he wants to be the main man and go to Madrid. That'll be fun to see

Yeah, you're right, Air Jordan have been doing stuff with PSG since 2018 I think for their Champions League kits as an extension of their Nike deal, and I think this is the first time Air Jordan have done the home kit too, so yeah, agree that's probably why! Got the same stuff going on with the cuffs and collar too...I still kind of hate it maybe even more so because it longer has the Hechter stripe going down the middle of their home kit for the first time in a while, at least that I can remember? It's been bizarre seeing Air Jordan turn up on PSG kits over the last few years to be honest, but they've made massive inroads I read as a fashion brand while the club has been expanding its US fanbase, so it seems to be working for them -- they've even started bringing in fourth kits mid-season just to flex their creativity a little more and sell more merch. Last season's bordeaux third kit is probably my favourite of theirs so far. I do wonder how long it's going to be before we see other luxury / sports brands come in to design kits for these clubs, potentially alongside a sportswear manufacturer; I know Air Jordan was only possible because it's a Nike offshoot, but you've got to imagine other clubs are looking at this and thinking about what they could do given that there's clearly an appetite for it! I believe Napoli have an Armani collaboration coming up in one of their kits this coming season, so it'll be interesting to see how that turns out.

Well, there it is: Feels very strange. But more importantly, those shorts are hideous, they look like they belong on a basketball court! There's also this going around... Basically, apparently Messi's contract stipulates that Argentina competitive and friendly matches will take precedence over PSG matches. The Argentina staff will also be allowed access to PSG's facilities (Neymar and Marquinhos better not drink their water ). Not too crazy considering Neymar was handed a private jet to fly back to Brazil whenever he wants, but think it just shows that Messi is prioritising the World Cup - surely his final one? - at the end of next year above all else. There are surely a bunch of reasons he chose PSG - the pay, rumoured to be €25 million net per season net before bonuses after a €25 million signing fee; playing with Neymar again; having a great shot at another Champions League win - but I wonder if playing in a "easier" league than, say, the Premier League to help steer clear of injuries before the World Cup was also on his mind. Let's just hope we don't see any stupid refereeing and tackling when it comes to him as we've seen with Neymar. Tempted to watch PSG's match this weekend, assuming he makes his debut, but I do imagine there's a bit of paperwork to get through, and I think he's been resting since winning the Copa América so won't be fully fit, so maybe we won't see much of him. Just begging Ronaldo to run down his Juve contract and join up with him next summer. It needs to happen, especially if Mbappé goes to Real next year! EDIT: And it's official. The music is hilariously dramatic

Free demo dropping next Tuesday on all platforms! The real question is: can I avoid starting a JRPG before the 9th?

Wonder if there will be an update on Eastward? Feels like it's been a while since we've seen that! You'd hope so, considering they put out a video half an hour ago saying that there's going to be a beta for PlayStation and PC from tomorrow until the 22nd! Will the Switch get the beta I wonder? Feel like it would be a bit odd to purposely leave them out of this announcement just to have it highlighted for the same thing in the Showcase, but then again, guess they can say "Try it today!" at that point?

Everyone and their mother has confirmed Messi's transfer to PSG today (Fabrizio Romano, then Balague, then Jorge Messi, then we saw him at the Barcelona airport and Neymar's Instagram update) but finally PSG have put something official out after he arrived in Paris. Medical scheduled for either later today or tomorrow. This is so bizarre. Wonder what number he'll get seeing as he wants to leave Neymar with the 10. His old number 19 is taken by Sarabia if I'm remembering right, so maybe his older number 30 (also, L30 for branding writes itself)? But then I can't remember if that's saved exclusively for goalkeepers in France. His shirt is between Neymar's 10 and Mbappé's 7 in the promo...so maybe 17 if he can't have 30?

Sony have today completed the acquisition of Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion. Full press release here. So the aim is creating a "unified anime subscription", which is good to have confirmed. I just hope this means there's a major rebrand with all shows available on one platform which works as well as the Crunchyroll app/subtitles/everything else, and not the mess that Funimation often is. Think this will prove to be an absolute steal for Sony over the next decade, and hopefully they'll see some more stability outside of gaming because of this. Just make sure it works well and they could close to monopolise the western anime streaming industry. Now if we can please finally see some strings being pulled to secure UK streaming rights for series which are way too big to not be on anything (such as all of the old Dragon Ball stuff) and tear down some of those 'Not available in your country' Funimation error messages, that'd be great!

Well, with the season curtain raiser in England being played yesterday ending in Leicester winning the Community Shield for the first time in 50 years over Manchester City, figured it was time to start the new season thread. In terms of the transfer market, we had the Premier League transfer record broken the other day by Grealish's £100 million move to Manchester City, and there are lots of reports going around that it will soon be broken again, with Chelsea in for Lukaku. And then there was the possibility of it being broken a third time by City going for Kane this window, but quite hilariously, that move seems to have collapsed in on itself. What moves does everyone want to see for their teams, and what are people's expectations for their teams going into this season? I think a Lukaku redemption arc with us would be great to see, especially after Werner's unfortunate showings over the last 12 months -- think he seriously lacks some confidence, but thanks to Tuchel's frequent rotation of the squad, hopefully he'll gain that back sooner rather than later. I'd like to see us challenge for the title for the first time in a good while, and it would be nice if we could start our season off right with a Super Cup win on Wednesday. Abroad, PSG have been busy building a monstrous side, getting Wijnaldum, Ramos, and Donnarumma all on free transfers, as well as bringing in Hakimi from Inter. But the only reason I really bring them up is because Messi's leaving Barcelona, and Paris seems like the only place he'll end up. And on a free. Crazy. For anyone who missed his tearful farewell to Barça: It's hard to not feel something see someone leave a club that they only wanted to stay at. Even if he signed on a €0 contract, Barça's finances are that poor that they'd still be unable to register him. I can't remember a time where I enjoyed football before Messi donned a Barcelona shirt, he's always been there number 10 for me. When I went to Camp Nou nearly a decade ago now, finding so much of the tour at that point - before, when plenty of records he has since broken were still standing - already dedicated to him, his boots, his shirts...it felt special. It's a travesty that he'll be leaving on anything but his own terms, heightened only by the fact that he hasn't had the chance to say a proper goodbye to fans. But life goes on. This next season is almost certainly going to be a strange one.