Julius

Right, might as well chime in and give my thoughts... ...it started weirdly with their advertisement to be honest. IRL chess is such a weird advertising strategy, but I guess that PlayStation doesn't really need to run ads at this point anyway, so yeah. Then we got Jim Ryan's spiel about showing new content and having significant updates...and what do you know, he was telling the truth! Show started strong with the announcement of the KOTOR Remake. It being a timed exclusive for PlayStation probably gives us some insight into what the deal is going to be for MachineGames' Indiana Jones game, which is to say that I imagine that'll be timed exclusive to Xbox, but we'll have to wait and see. I've got question marks over Aspyr being the team behind it seeing as everything we've heard beforehand overshadows their usual budgets to an insane degree, but will hold out until they have something to show. Which, as they said in the post-show, will be a while; we probably won't see anything more until whenever EA's deal is up in 2023, unless it covers the entire year, in which case it'll probably be 2024. Think it's fantastic that we have confidence of multiple projects confirmed as in the works now for post-EA, and I doubt we'll be waiting around too long once that deal expires. KOTOR is an odd game for me, I've talked before on here about how I haven't played the game (too young when it released; didn't own an Xbox for the longest time; didn't have a PC that could feasibly run it growing up; and it wasn't exactly something that was on my radar anyways with limited internet access). What really put KOTOR on my radar were the awesome CG trailer for The Old Republic, and I ended up wading through page after page on Wookieepedia learning all I could about that era, Revan, and beyond. The Galactic Timeline Records for TOR were also a massive help and beautifully done, so it's one of those games where I haven't played it...but I know exactly how it plays out, I've listened to the soundtrack umpteenth times, and Revan is one of my favourite Star Wars characters, so we'll see how it pans out, but it's safe to say I'm soundly hyped. Think we've heard in the rumours/leaks that it won't be 1:1, which probably means it'll be more action-based than the original and I imagine potentially have things slightly tweaked to bring it into the Disney canon. Bit of a shame (as always) that it was ruined by leaks, because otherwise I think it was a solid teaser trailer. That shot of Revan is gorgeous and screaming to be a wallpaper. Anyways, next up was Project Eve, which looks like a Square Enix game but apparently isn't. Seriously, was waiting for some NieR reveal the whole time, because it looks like NieR but somehow...weirder, like NieR X Devil May Cry (with the monster designs and such). Looks fun, from a Korean studio, seems like there's slowly a lot more coming from Korea to the West which is always great to see. It was followed by Tiny Tina's Wonderland...and I think that's the least I've cringed at one of the trailers for this game, so kudos to Gearbox for that; it definitely told me a lot more about it than the trailers we saw previously. It's not a game I was interested in before, and I'm still not, but it's the best showing I think it's had. But what the heck was up with that song that sounded like it belonged in an anime opening? Forspoken followed this, and I've got to say, the more I see of this game...the less interested I am. I don't feel like we've seen anything truly new or exciting about this from a gameplay perspective since it's first trailer, where I think we actually saw more meaningful gameplay aspects than we did here (combat, unique and varied enemy designs, etc.); when I think of this game at the moment, all that comes to mind is Frey jumping across rocks or leaping from building to building with an admittedly cool dash in a virtually empty space. It looks like a tech demo. And no I'm not just salty that we saw this and got a release date for it before XVI, I swear. Rainbow Six Extraction was a snore fest for me. I'm sure it'll find its audience, but I won't be one of them, I think a really poor E3 gameplay demo has given me more than I needed to see of this game as it is. Alan Wake Remastered looks cool, feel like it would have been a more exciting announcement if it hadn't already been officially announced, but I feel like Remedy's hands got forced after it leaked, because I otherwise struggle to understand why you wouldn't save it for a show like this. Also when it opened and we saw that it was a game that Epic was publishing my mind immediately went to Fumito Ueda's and genDESIGN's game...but no dice. Maybe at TGA's? Next-gen GTA V looks solid, one of those games I play with my friends every week as it's an easy game to just mess around in and have stupid fun. Surprised that it's not coming until March 2022, and I really am not looking forward to finding out that this will be a full priced game. Just kind of hoping it can be played with others playing the PS4 version as some in my group don't plan to pick up a PS5 for a while. Lightning round. Ghostwire: Tokyo still looks good, nice to have a release window at long last. Not a great trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy. Struggle to care about Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodhunt when their other game in the works seems to be tripping over itself and into development trouble constantly to the point of being delayed indefinitely, and a vague "2021" window here for this doesn't exactly invoke confidence we'll see it this year as it's already September -- the developers know that, right? They say pictures are worth a thousand words, meaning a GIF is probably worth a million...so here's my life's work epic saga of novels on how I felt seeing Deathloop again: Kid A Mnesia Exhibition: no idea what it's going to turn out like, but it's something to do with Radiohead and their anniversary reissue album, so I'm listening. Heh. Then we saw Tchia, which I thought looked cosy as all heck, kind of reminded me of Wild and the guitar plucking a bit of TLOU2...but I just can't find it in me to appreciate the art style. Those noses in that art style have me not wanting to check this game out. Seriously. Also probably the weirdest edits around this in the entire thing? Bizarrely had a transition animation following Kid A Mnesia and then had one ending it and going into the PlayStation Studios stuff. Weird. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection looks good, wish we would have had more details on what exactly it entails and whether or not it's worth checking out if you already own the games (I have Lost Legacy sitting on my shelf). Thought it was really odd this wasn't in the PlayStation Studios section? And while A Thief's End and Lost Legacy are good to see coming to PC...what about the rest of the Uncharted games? Anyways, then it was onto Hermen Hulst sharing that we were about to dive into the PlayStation Studios stuff...and just as well, because I think this was around the time everyone was scrambling to see how much time was left. Honestly, I liked the format of doing it this way and saving PlayStation Studios titles until the end, and hope it's something they consider continuing in the future in instances where there isn't a true third party bombshell to show off (not that KOTOR Remake isn't massive, it's just been a known quantity for a while. Thanks Schreier). In cases where there is (for example, a Persona 6 or a Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2) then it might be worth shuffling stuff around to potentially end the show on those titles. Only thing I wish they did differently here is if Jim Ryan told us the plan at the start, so rather than a vague "we have updates and we have new stuff" it probably should have been "and stick around until the end, where we'll be giving you a look at what is on the way from PlayStation Studios". Just nitpicking here, but that's what you need to do to get people to stick around until the end, because although I thought the rest of the show was pretty well paced and had some good reveals or updates, I don't think that would have been the case for everyone. With that out of the way though, onto the (other) PlayStation Studios games. Insomniac's Wolverine is a thing. Holy cow, I don't think anyone saw that coming; how many of us were there and saw Insomniac followed by the Marvel logo, and assumed it was Spider-Man 2, before you see this completely wrecked bar and start thinking it looks like something a little too violent went down in here for it to have been Spidey? Great way to play on expectations, and not the only time Insomniac managed that in this show, which is incredible. But let's not put the cart before the horse, because next up they showed off Gran Turismo 7...and I thought it was a really good showing! The throwbacks to the older games, the church organs (guuuuuuuys the organs!), crazy levels of customisation, a better look at a more traditional campaign screen, and a really good looking photo mode. Seriously hope this gets a demo before it releases, because the only thing in the way of me not wanting this game so badly right now is not knowing how the game feels, especially with the DualSense. Got to say though, another stupidly weird cut at the end where it kind of just...stops the music. Then it was over to...Insomniac again?! And this is where I think the importance of how you present a game at one of these showcases comes in: showmanship and knowing your audience. Okay, they've already duped us on Wolverine not being Spider-Man 2, which they had us thinking it was for a moment thanks to the Marvel logo immediately following the Insomniac logo...but there's no logo at all here. Okay, so this is probably something completely new. We see some electricity buzzing around a traffic lights pole, we hear a gravelly voice...and even I, someone who hasn't played any of those games, is questioning if this is inFAMOUS. And then...*chest logos are revealed*...wait, it is Spider-Man 2?! Insomniac are out here working for a living, good lord. I was just saying to a friend yesterday how at best Spider-Man 2 is probably a tease and is years off (to be fair that's what happened) as Insomniac have only just come off Rift Apart, but here we get this tease and they have a WHOLE OTHER GAME in the works too with Wolverine. Crazy bunch. It's genius how they managed their audience's expectations throughout this trailer, and it's stuff like that - a clear willingness to misdirect - which makes PlayStation showcases so worth watching. You might think I'm a little nuts saying all this, or going a bit far with it, but if you want evidence of this being a conscious choice: go and watch the trailer uploaded individually to their channel, and note how the Marvel logo is there right after the Insomniac one. They also did a great job of keeping you guessing when it came to the villain with how they handled his voice (maybe the first voice was Kraven?). Shame it's not coming until 2023, but you can be sure that'll be next-gen exclusive and worth the wait. And then, finally, it was onto God of War: Ragnarök...which is actually keeping that as a title, which is nice to finally know, as they've been so coy about it until now. Seeing (and hearing) an older Atreus was cool, game looks great, that town looks cosy as all heck, but I guess the cat is out of the bag on some of the cooler reveals in the first game (Atreus' identity and Thor turning up). And finally seeing Tyr in the flesh after the first game did so much to hype him up was great! There's not much else for me to add - it does look like God of War, but that's very hard to complain about - other than some stuff we see here which will tie in with Norse mythology in a way that is probably worth sticking in a spoiler tag... Anyways, no release date, but the girl at the end gave a wink and a nod, so I doubt it'll be too long before we find out. If I remember correctly we didn't get a release date for God of War until late January 2018, and it released in April 2018, so @Ronnie that's probably why they're keeping it close to their chest for now, to give us a short lead time from when find out the actual release date to the release (and to be fair, it's always a good idea in these tumultuous times to announce that stuff as late as you can anyways). The window for it's release before the delay was only ever "2021", and seeing as we've now got the whole of 2022 to work with, especially with a pretty busy first half of the year now, this could be a September/October 2022 title to take firm aim at GOTY season. That's pretty much if for my thoughts...other than the super weird 10 second countdown we got with the promise of "more updates" following the countdown, only to then be shown a montage before getting to the Q&A stuff at the end. Again, a few really bizarre decisions like that dotted around the show. But that being said...this show delivered and then some. Yes it had some pacing issues and poor editing/creative decisions, and yes some will probably see everything from the KOTOR Remake reveal up until Hermen Hulst showing off more PlayStation Studios games for the last 10 minutes as being pretty moot...but let's not let that take away from the fact that those were 10 minutes of awesome reveals and updates. The fact that I can tell you now that I am, for a fact, going to be buying Wolverine, Spider-Man 2, and God of War: Ragnarök on their day of release - three of the four games - AT A MINIMUM speaks volumes to the strength of Sony's current slate of IP's and the quality of their studios. It was missing a crazy announcement to be up there with the best game showcases of all time, and yes it hurts that XVI wasn't there (again) and as @Cookyman pointed out The Last of Us Factions is still MIA, but for me those last 10 minutes are going to be 10 minutes I watch over and over again. Would watch again despite some of my issues with it. My Totally Unofficial Score: 9.0/10 EDIT: also I completely forgot to mention, where the heck was Kena? Isn't that out in a week and a half? Now that being a no-show is a tad bit concerning.

Well you're missing out

I feel like it's one of those unconfirmed truths we've known for a while, I think it was around the start of the year when there was that bit of news floating around that McCreary was following the Forspoken account, and if I'm remembering right Ella Balinska (Frey) also let it slip in a tweet at one point. Still, awesome to have that confirmation, he's a great composer and he'll be working alongside Garry Schyman (Bioshock) on the soundtrack, so that's exciting. Amy Henning here writing this too and getting Janina Gavankar in for Tanta Sila means it's got a pretty stacked staff at this point, Square Enix clearly really didn't want to cut their losses on Luminous. How the hell we got a release year - let alone a window - for this before Final Fantasy XVI is beyond me. (I blame XIV )

Ragnarök title confirmed. Cory Barlog stepping back, teasing he's working on something else, and Eric Williams stepping into the director's chair. Ryan Hurst voicing Thor.

So...this was unexpected

There it is!

Pretty big update from Jim Ryan on this game's PS4 to PS5 upgrade and the future of upgrades on the system: Forbidden West will be getting a free upgrade, and new cross-gen first-party exclusives will offer an upgrade from PS4 to PS5 at $10 USD. Pretty big news that, nice to hear something after the uproar we've rightly seen the last couple of weeks. Wouldn't be such a bad idea for them to reiterate this during Thursday's Showcase.

Some minor but noteworthy updates today. First up, Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Nickelodeon and chief content officer of kids and family for Paramount+, gave a bit of an update on how Avatar Studios is doing. Not sure if he's talking out of turn, but given his position it seems unlikely so...new series confirmed I guess? That's not too much of a surprise, but I think that's the first time anyone's mentioned CG in relation to Avatar Studios, and specifically the films (also the wording about the films...does he mean a number of films, or a series, as in, an ongoing story in the films?). Makes me a little nervous considering how rarely CG animation is done well in the style you'd expect to see from Avatar, I'd have to imagine they'd be going for that 2D-looking cel-shaded look (a good example would be Beastars). I'm hoping that it's not an entirely CG series or perhaps that he was speaking out of turn about their production process, as I think CG is best used sparingly in most cases in animation where you aren't going for a fully 3D look or for action-heavy sequences (it's limited use in Ghibli movies, Attack on Titan, and the big battles in the Berserk movies come to mind). Anyways, Joan Hilty has also today been announced as Executive Editor for Avatar Studios. She's been serving as an editor at Nickelodeon recently and before that at DC, first working as an editor in 1995, so it sounds like we're in capable hands. Honestly, feels like we've had more frequent news updates on Avatar Studios so far this year than I was anticipating. Fingers crossed that we see something - even if it's just concept or a title card - by the turn of the year.

Yeah, pretty much this. It's one thing to be enticed by the prospect of a Switch Pro and be drawn into the hype when everyone in the industry and their mother is saying it's on the way, but when Eurogamer are using their own sources, it's hard to not be doubtful. Still waiting on those GameCube games to come to Switch! Yeah, agree with this too it's just far too valuable an IP to be sold as part of a service, like with the 3D Mario and Zelda games. We saw it with the legacy Pokémon titles being released on the 3DS and how they spread them out, felt like it got much more of a push than the usual Virtual Console releases too. Which makes sense, as they must have sold a few million copies with those releases. (plus it needs to be FireRed and LeafGreen if we're seeing any of them come to Switch first, damn it!) Needs that power bump to run those N64 titles I think the main thing which makes me doubt it (other than Eurogamer) is that the slate for Online has been a mess. NES titles, a year later SNES titles, they drop randomly, and we haven't had a new console added to the service for nearly three years now, right? If there were ever a time to add more consoles to the service you feel it would have been last year when everyone was stuck at home, craving nostalgia, and money was tight. That we didn't see that speaks volumes to me, the service probably isn't seeing the use they had hoped, and I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted an overhaul of the entire service (maybe even a bit of a rebrand after seeing the success of Game Pass?) before the Switch 2 comes. Or at least, that's what you'd hope. What will really happen is GB and GBC games are added in 2027 to the original Switch halfway through the life of the Switch 2

The new limited series, Pokémon Evolutions, will be airing from September 9th in celebration of the franchise's 25th anniversary, and can be watched either in the Pokémon TV app or on the official YouTube channel. Looks visually fantastic, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering just how great their other limited series up to this point (Origins, Generations, Twilight Wings, and PokéToon ) have all looked, but this might be the best animated, judging from this trailer at least! Going backwards through the regions should be a nice change of pace, look forward to seeing how it pans out, and fingers crossed for some good music! And in case you missed it, as I feel like it's the one that's gone the most under the radar, PokéToon is well worth tracking down. It's currently at five episodes, with another three on the way, which can be found on their kids YouTube channel. The first episode, Scraggy and Mimikyu, is basically just Pokémon in a Looney Tunes style...and it works so well. Whoever decided to have Scraggy in this old Looney Tunes style is a genius, it's like it was secretly designed just for this purpose, it works that well.

Expectations for this are probably through the roof, as it's been a while since we've had something...but my expectations are pretty low. For third parties, wouldn't be surprised if we saw Call of Duty here, or more on the next-gen version of GTA V...dare I suggest we even see FIFA thrown here? (audibly groans) Based on the last time we heard about FFXVI, it seemed unlikely it would have something ready to show by TGS at the end of the month, so that showing up seems doubtful, even if we were told an update was coming in 2021. They have Endwalker on the way in November, wouldn't surprise me at all if they wait until something like The Game Awards at this point. Maybe we'll see something from Forspoken instead. In terms of first party stuff, feels like a ton of updates on already announced games is on the way. I wouldn't be surprised by a bit more of a tease for Ragnarök. Would love to see what Asobi is working on, but it may be too soon. We've been waiting what feels like forever for an update on the standalone The Last of Us: Factions, another look at Horizon wouldn't be much of a surprise (as good as it looked last time, following scripted scenarios in a small area of an open world game didn't really give a great feel for what the moment-to-moment gameplay will be like), and they'll probably want to show Kena off here as it releases later this month (and probably some of the other indies we saw last time, though I know they aren't strictly speaking PlayStation Studios titles). Maybe a Gran Turismo update? I also think we'll get a final trailer for the Director's Cut of Death Stranding, that seems a safe bet. Oh, and maybe or a tease for Sony Bend's next project? And maybe an update for quick saving/auto-saving for Returnal? As for the "one more thing", feel like that could be either Ragnarök, Factions, or - if it's going to be something we haven't had announced previously - either a quick tease of Spider-Man 2 or Bluepoint's next project, maybe even have it tied to an acquisition announcement seeing as that seemed to slip out a few months ago during the Housemarque acquisition if it is something from them. So yeah, my expectations are pretty grounded. How's everyone else feeling about this showcase? Funny how something as simple as dropping the State of Play name seems to make this feel much more important, like how other companies treat their E3 showcases.

I think Cavani will have offered it to him to be honest. He knows the significance of United to Ronaldo and vice versa.

Not sure how closely people have been following the transfer news today...but it's been nuts. Mbappé has been on the brink of an audacious move to Real for a few days, PSG are probably going to accept somewhere between €180m and €200m for him, but seem to be lining up a move for his replacement or a striker before they'll let him go. Reminder: he could go on a free at the end of this season, and he's going to potentially be the second (and the third) most expensive signing in history should the move go through. Ronaldo has seemingly been City bound for a few days as he craves another UCL, things heated up this afternoon as he boarded his private jet in Turin after Allegri confirmed he wanted to leave...but the move has seemingly all but collapsed, and now he's all but confirmed to be returning to the other, red side of Manchester. Didn't seem like City's transfer board were all-in on the move - didn't fit their age profile or playing style. And you can almost guarantee that a call from Sir Alex was involved. Crazy that City may have missed out on both Messi and Ronaldo in the same window, AND didn't get Kane or any other of their striker choices, with just a few days to go. Reports are all over the place, some saying it's a €25m to €30m move, others saying it'll be something like €15m + €8m in add-ons. Seems like he might be taking a noticeable pay cut to come back to England too (still potentially on something like £270k a week, mind you). This is easily the craziest transfer window ever. Maradona is up there flying high as a kite and playing Twister with this summer's transfer window. EDIT: aaaaaaand it's official

The second part of the final season of Attack on Titan will begin airing in January 2022. These are going to be a loooooooong five months of avoiding spoilers many are speculating that this will be 12-13 episodes, which seems like a whole lot to cover the remaining 23 chapters, especially when it seemed to be heading in a pretty action-heavy direction with Episode 75. All I've heard about the rest of AoT is that the ending was a bit divisive (what ending isn't these days, seriously?) and that Isayama himself felt like he might have rushed the final chapter a bit, but given just how much leeway there might be here, I have to wonder if that could be fixed somewhat in the anime. I was actually wondering recently if having something adapted while it's ongoing could end up with the creator pacing things with an adaptation in mind, especially when drawing things to a close, so can't say I'm envious of him in that regard. Either way... I'm hyped

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.