Julius

Yikes. According to Schreier, it's as good as dead. UPDATE: official communication.

Seems like Loki got delayed a little to June 11th.

Bad Batch is coming May 4th!

In the space of one week I've gone from my manager not signing me off in time for my grade increase and pay rise next month (next chance would be September) after completing hours of courses outside of work, to everyone in my department (hundreds of people) being given the same grade increase and pay rise starting from next month (nearly a 20% bump), regardless of whether you've been with the company for 6 months or 2 years, and regardless of whether or not you've completed the tens of hours of courses (this will now go towards putting 'Senior' in front of my job title in September and that's about it). And they managed to mess up the paperwork for all of this, so everyone has annual pay statements with the incorrect figure. I work for a bank, and the irony of this is not lost on me at all. To add some more drama to this all, I first learned about this on Monday from a colleague on another team (who hadn't completed those courses I had for the grade and pay increase) where they were all individually called by one of the department heads and sworn to secrecy. My manager wasn't in on Monday, so yesterday was pretty awkward until after work, when another member of my team started poking at her for answers, and we all got called into a meeting individually this morning to confirm this all. On the one hand, I'm grateful to have a job with plenty of security which I can do from home, and obviously for the bonus and salary bump. On the other hand, though, it's hard to not feel somewhat hard done by after completing tens of hours of courses (much of that outside of work) over the course of the last year to learn that my manager hadn't signed off on things in time for me to get a pay/grade increase next month, to learn that not only am I getting it, but everyone else is too, regardless of their experience, and that's the part which kind of stings for me – my particular team does objectively more complex work (we've spent most of the last 9 months on rectifying payment holiday issues caused by the system we have in place, and the frontline staff who processed them) and yet we've ended up with pay on par with the people causing the problems. And we're talking people who can't do something as simple as consistently leave their staff ID in their notes in case of future issues, which has meant more work for us. I probably sound ungrateful, but I'm just confused by it all more than anything, especially when three months ago we were told we wouldn't be getting a bonus and now the entire department is getting a substantial bump in salary. It's tough to know what to make of it, especially it being my first full-time job (2 years completed in 2 weeks' time), but it's further cemented for me that this is a means to a financial freedom I want to gain before I go to university, rather than a career path I want to see through to the end.

Patch 1.2 delayed. Seriously can't catch a break, kind of sucks to see.

This game sure gets a lot of trailers... ...but hey, I'm not complaining this is probably the best one yet! Think I'll save that second Automata playthrough for after this instead now, after reading some thoughts of those who played the original and Automata, it seems like I might end up appreciating Automata more that way. Excited either way, less than two months now!

That's a great shout. I've been putting it off picking it up on Switch just because I've got so much to play anyways, but the option to have it available elsewhere is always a welcome one! Oh man, I had just managed to forget just how poorly timed that trailer was too. I could totally see GTA V turning up here now that you mention it... And yeah, totally agree, for me it feels pretty low stakes because I have so much I'm already looking forward to, but I'd love to be surprised. Definitely doesn't have the pressure last week's Nintendo Direct had on it with such a long gap and not much known about the next few months. I know @Ronnie wants more of a reason to be excited for the next few months on his PS5, but personally, for me it's pretty stacked with just third party stuff (NieR Replicant, Mass Effect Legendary Edition) and me having a good list of games I want to play anyways (though I do hope there's something he comes away excited for from this SoP!). Add the fact that I have a Switch in there too and I'm up to my neck in stuff I'm looking forward to, it's hard to not feel spoilt sometimes.

New trailer:

£7.77 / $7.77 / €7.77 off You know Square Enix would totally do it

This would be the ultimate flipping off of Xbox imaginable to be honest, seeing as the exclusivity deal ends in April I'm just here for the chaos if it does happen.

IT'S HAPPENING I'll update it with the Nintendo announcement when we get it, which should be coming shortly, considering it leaked on the eShop a few weeks back. Unless PlayStation have just broken an embargo, which is totally possible, considering it's not up anywhere else yet... UPDATE: here it is, in the description on Aspyr's channel's trailer description... Heck yeah. The original Battlefront and Battlefront II next please!

Watch it be PS5 versions of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Death Stranding

The deepest dive next Thursday at 14:00 GMT.

According to the Japanese stream description, the State of Play will feature two new titles.

Yeah, I'd like to see some Horizon footage too, though if it's not until late autumn or something, I could just as well see them holding off until the summer. I don't expect to see God of War just because of the likely delay, though if it is being pushed to next year, I feel now would be as good a time as any to share that with us. Don't think we'd see something like Bloodborne II just because of Elden Ring, but in terms of other AAA stuff, it could be time for a Final Fantasy VII Remake PS5 upgrade/version to be revealed if that is on the way. IF - and that is a massive if, hence the caps - the aim is to release XVI this year, with them saying we'd be getting an update in 2021 before, I don't think it's impossible that they might reveal an event with a short teaser here where we'll be seeing that update (like how they reintroduced Final Fantasy VII Remake ahead of E3 2019 in a State of Play). If it's not coming this year but by the end of the next FY (March 2022), which I think would be more likely just because of when Moonwalker drops, it's still possible they might have something to show, just because it's a flagship title and they'll want to have as reasonably long a marketing campaign as they can have. And heck, speaking of S-E, we're still waiting on Babylon's Fall, though given how long it's been since we last heard something, I wouldn't be surprised if it's been canned. And I think Athia is still a ways off. In terms of first party studios, only other thing I can really think of is Factions, TLOU2's multiplayer mode which got made its own game to give them enough time to realise both sides of it. And maybe some news on a TLOU2 upgrade? But other than that, I'm really not expecting much first party stuff beyond what we already know about.

I mean, yeah, there's nothing to say it won't be in the same style as Let's Go with absolute certainty (I assume you mean visually, being top-down, rather than mechanically?), but as you say, what has happened historically is indicative and basically all we have to go on at this point, meaning the case for them getting fully fledged remakes in the most recent engine is stronger than them not. Like I said above, though, I wouldn't be totally against a top-down remake, mainly because I don't really trust Game Freak to do Sinnoh in 3D after Sword/Shield, even if I'd still want to see it. It would likely be a smoother development journey for them to have it be top-down, and if you couple it with the possibility of Let's Go games set in Johto, and the potential for an expansion pass for whatever these Diamond/Pearl remakes do end up being (Battle Frontier, build on the plots of the events in the original games), they can buy themselves time to hopefully make some real strides in how they incorporate 3D gameplay and exploration going into Gen IX. But that seems too logical a move for Game Freak to make

Pretty much what @Glen-i said, and also because all of the other remake attempts up to this point have been to the modern standard set by that generation, both graphically and mechanically. I genuinely think the backlash for the Sinnoh remakes being Let's Go games could be far greater than the backlash for Dexit: it's the longest we've waited between remakes (not counting Let's Go, which is basically it's own series), and the longest we've waited between the initial releases of a generation to their remake (and heck, even the end of a generation to the remake of the first games of that generation). As someone who had these games as the big Pokémon titles in my life when I was younger, the ones where everyone I knew played them, and who has a lot of love for those games to this day, I'd personally be pretty disappointed if we ended up with Let's Go games rather than fully realised remakes as we've seen be the standard before (well, except for ORAS, but that sucked too). I also don't think it makes much sense financially or in terms of marketability for the Let's Go series to jump from Gen I to Gen IV, but that's a whole other can of worms. This all being said, while I would be disappointed by them being Let's Go games with the capture mechanics from those games, I agree with you that that doesn't necessarily mean being in the Sword/Shield engine (though I do think simply saying Let's Go Sinnoh games goes a bit beyond that, with your clarification I get what you mean, but can see why @Glen-i would have taken it as I initially did) and would be open to them remaking Sinnoh top-down like those games, and without Wild Areas, rather than trying to bring it fully into 3D. Though it'd be the logical next step after Sword/Shield, I think those games showed (among many other things) that Game Freak are still learning how to create interesting 3D spaces to explore, and though from what I've read here and elsewhere this improved in the Expansion Pass, I think they'll have a tough time taking the 2D, top-down designs of some areas, and forcing them to be 3D and a Wild Area instead. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, because I think they could try to justify going either way with it, but having Sinnoh remakes be Let's Go games would be a huge slap in the face to anyone who has been waiting for this (you know, besides ORAS and it's lack of a Battle Frontier).

Well, that kind of blows. It's been a very long time since I've stuck with a Gran Turismo game, so I had been looking forward to this! That being said, these days, based on recent pedigree, playing Forza is a much more compelling sell to me, and is one of only three reasons I would currently buy an Xbox (the other two being for the backwards compatibility of older Star Wars titles, and to experience the Halo campaigns), so...they better not take too long! Not too surprising, ultimately, though. 2021 always seemed a bit of a stretch, and what they showed off last year was just straight up weird. Fingers crossed things go smoothly moving forwards and we can enjoy this next year!

Great to just even see it confirmed. I always thought it was a no-brainer, but given how I've seen a hypothetical PSVR2 spoken about elsewhere, a niggling doubt did start to eat away at me. Lesson learned: always be optimistic Yeah, the headset not being wireless is kind of a bummer, but it's not the end of the world, so long as the system sees support...which definitely has to be stronger than the support we've seen for the current headset. Hearing that they'll be taking some of what makes the DualSense so great over to their next VR controller is definitely a great sell. As someone who has been tempted by PSVR, but has put it off mainly thinking we weren't too far away from whatever was next, this is great news. I'll get to play you one day, Rescue Mission!

Don't...don't put this out there! No, you could totally be right though. Even if we're a little light on first party stuff, there's still plenty of third party stuff they could talk about in the coming months, at the very least NieR Replicant and Resident Evil Village. I'm not sure who has marketing deals for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (I seem to remember like the latter was first shown at an Xbox event? But that was a while ago, so who knows at this point!), but it's plausible they could turn up here too. And then yeah, honestly, you could just fill the rest out with Kena news and some indie stuff. I think some gameplay of Returnal might be a great idea as someone not totally sold on that, and hey, more Ratchet being shown can't be a bad thing! Especially considering we didn't get a new trailer with the announcement of the release date before. Could be a good time to reiterate the news on Ratchet & Clank being free for all for a limited time, too, to get everyone onboard! Yeah, you're probably right. Still, a great opportunity for them to double down and get the word out! Maybe even push Destruction All-Stars still being free through PS+ at the moment too?

The fact that this isn't the first time this line of questioning has crossed my mind tells you just how silly the Pokémon Company and all involved can be at times. It's pretty much one of the only things they could do to drive more controversy than we had with Sword/Shield's "Dexit". Which is to say, as someone who thinks those games need to be remade if only for QoL purposes, I would not be amused. ...but would still totally be down for that soundtrack

*Looks at the time of the posts* This is why I don't play Sonic games, because why would I want to go slower? But anyway, jokes aside, quite looking forward to this (and fingers crossed not the only presentation we get this week). I know this year is pretty sparse in terms of first party plans at the moment, hopefully we get something more concrete on a rough window for Horizon though! And going off Jim's interview, likely confirmation of Ragnarok being next year instead. Oh, and fingers crossed for Kena news and the rest of the indies we're waiting on at the moment - if a new title is going to be a PS+ game next month, maybe they'll announce that here too?

State of Play time!

Oh man, that sucks. Random Access Memories was my first real introduction to them (and electronic music) halfway through high school. Obviously Get Lucky was what all my friends played (and pretty much all you'd hear on the radio at the time), but personally, I think it's got some great tracks, and I've always been a massive fan of Giorgio by Moroder and Touch in particular, the jazzy section starting at 03:22 has never failed to raise my spirits. Looking back, that section has definitely got some major La La Land OST vibes. Might not be everyone's favourite, which is understandable, but it's the album of theirs which means the most to me, and helped get me through some pretty tough times in high school. I actually added it to my work playlist back a bit before Christmas, and so it's been back with me for some recent tough times, too. Strange timing considering how quiet they've been for the better part of a decade now, but it is what it is. Guess I'll be throwing all of their albums into my rotation tomorrow

I can't see them mentioned in either of the lists above, so I've got to scream from the rooftops that both LIMBO (£2.24, down from £8.99) and INSIDE (£4.49, down from £17.99) are also part of the sale. They've been on sale before, so I imagine there's a good chance you might've already picked them up, but if not? Don't skip those games. Both are wonderful and atmospheric; shorter games a bit on the bleeker side of things. I think INSIDE is probably one of my favourite indie games, and I don't know many people who would argue with that choice. And LIMBO is also great, unless you have a crippling fear of spiders