Julius

It would be tempting fate; it is a cup competition after all, and just because Italy have been the best team in the tournament until now, it doesn't mean they're above bottling it. I agree with @Hero-of-Time that they have their own set of weaknesses. After the first match, because of how Spinazzola roams forwards and their RB tucks in to form a back three, I said that they'd be susceptible to some fast-paced wingers if they came across any later on in the tournament, and surely enough Doku pretty much was that last night. Unfortunately for Belgium they just couldn't make better use of him, but at least he managed to win them the penalty. I do think Spinazzola's injury - out for months with a broken Achilles - will have a big impact on how the rest of Italy's tournament plays out, though, because he's been one of their standout players. It's not just that he's looking to go forwards and overlap, it's the fact that he's also a right-footed left back, which makes him difficult to predict and defend against. Him being right-footed also plays a big part in why his linkup play with Insigne is so natural despite only playing together for the national team, as neither of them have to accommodate for the fact that the other player is left-footed. I think the game slowed down for a number of reasons after his injury when Emerson came on - defending the lead, the initial shock of a big injury, and Emerson sitting deeper and staying back - and while Emerson is adventurous moving forwards, he simply isn't Spinazzola, and Mancini might need to adapt. Speaking of fast wingers, though, there aren't many left in the tournament. Against Spain you've got fast players like Ferran Torres and Oyarzabal who could cause problems, but because of how Spain play - slowing the tempo and passing it around to spot a gap, which they do most of the time centrally - they won't get to make any long sprints against Italy unless they adapt. Sure, they could pass it around the middle before launching someone down the wings, but assuming Mancini adapts and keeps Emerson in position, while it's still their weak spot, I think they could handle it. They also have an advantage where Spain have faced two rounds of extra time in a row, being pegged back late on in normal time in one and facing a penalty shootout in the other, so that'll be another thing going their way. But football is football, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Belgium has been the #1 ranked team in the world for long stretches over the last 5-10 years, but it's a tournament, and I think it's as simple as that: winning the Euro's is making the best out of seven matches (once you've qualified). There's also the fact that Belgium haven't had many wingers or centre backs come through that Martinez has deemed worthy of a call up, so they've been getting by with an aging squad -- they're still using Chadli and Vermaelen for crying out loud. International football is so different to club football in that way, because these managers are basically left waiting for a new crop of promising players to come through, so it's making the most of what you have now. Anyone can be beat, even on a good day, and that's just football. The "Golden Generation" thing is something that needs to be dropped because I think it does more harm than good, there's already more than enough pressure on these players to perform, but to be fair, at least Belgium made more use of their modern Golden Generation than we did. They'll have one more chance at the World Cup next year to go all the way with this team, and the quality is undoubtedly there, but I think the issue now is more the mental side of things. Let's also not forget that Hazard is in the worse shape of his football career and couldn't even play last night after struggling to even make it to the tournament, so if this team is to go further I think he needs to find some drive and get in tip-top shape over the next year and a half.

Italy were imperious today, they've been the best team in the tournament from the first day until now -- if they carry on like this, I seriously doubt that anyone can get between them and the trophy. It's a rare thing to see an international team so energetic and forward-thinking, yet so disciplined in their defending. I said it during the group stage and I'll say it again, because I think it was made all the more clear after tonight's match: their game management has been superb so far. They're a resolute unit, they get behind the ball, the flow of their play is great through the middle, they're lethal on the wings with Chiesa and the overlapping Spinazzola (who they will sorely miss in the next game if that is his tournament over, he's been perhaps their standout player in the tournament so far), they have players like Insigne who can shine with a moment of pure magic (though hilariously he's tried that a few times every match he's played at this tournament so far!), players like Chiesa and Barella who are just as competent and adventurous going forwards as they are willing to defend...and they have insane depth all over the pitch just to top it all off. Donnarumma has been fantastic (he's my age for goodness' sake and he's playing like a prime Buffon), so it's a bit of a shame he and his Raiola have been a thorn in Milan's side and have been making outrageous demands, otherwise he could've become one of the best players in Italian football on both the domestic and international stages. Genuinely think if Mancini wins this he deserves to be awarded as Manager of the Year, he's done a phenomenal job so far. I think Italy are the only team where I've proactively chosen to watch all of their games (watching England is an obligation, and a dull one at that), they're genuinely that exciting to watch. Roll on tomorrow, then. I fully agree with @Fierce_LiNk -- I get wanting to support your home nation, but I find it almost disrespectful to Ukraine, Sweden and Denmark to just brush them off. Is it a favourable draw? Compared to being on the other side where we'd have been up against some of the best teams in the world right now, so sure. But we can't take it for granted, the teams on our side of the tournament tree right now wear their hearts on their sleeves and are courageous in their forward-minded play, two things this England team have been sorely lacking to this point.

Kroos is retiring from international football: I was initially surprised considering there's a World Cup next year, but he's been pretty vocal about his thoughts on Qatar holding the competition, so I guess it makes sense. Anyways, I know it's only a retirement from international football, but he's undoubtedly one of the best central midfielders of the last decade, and I've always admired how calm he remains in the most tense of situations. One of the few players I watched with the intent of basing my football on back when I was still playing, it's definitely going to be strange seeing so many of my football idols from back when I was still in high school retiring in the next few years!

Who said he was still a plumber?

100% this, I've been thinking the same, think it would've helped to keep things fresh too. I also found it weird that unlocking an item as Ratchet you'd automatically get the same weapon as Rivet, and vice versa. It's even weirder if you consider that you can only (re-)visit certain planets as each character, you'd think that would've been down to them having unique mechanics rather than "uh, I guess they won't go here?". Especially after things open up too! Rivet even has a bionic arm -- how do you not do something unique with that?!

Yeah, it's definitely one of those games where I feel like you have to be in the mood to play it, and for me personally I've found trying to sit through longer sessions with this and Demon's Souls pretty tough. I can plan to play it for most of a day but feel like I've got my fill after a few hours, because it takes much more out of me - focus and determination - than most other games. I love it, but once you've taken a couple of days off of it, I feel like it gets exponentially tougher to return, as there's almost an intimidation that can easily creep in. Thankfully for me it was more a case of stuff going on elsewhere rather than being tired of the game, and I'm hoping like with Demon's Souls, the closer I get to the end (a long way to go yet, I know) I'm able to spend more and more time with it. It's really weird to have to be in a certain mood or level of confidence to play a game, but I really love it for that reason. Even in my short time away from the game, I've been thinking about my build, attack strategies, figuring out what I'll try differently when I next visit The Depths, and so on. Oh thanks, good to know! I'm guessing that's Blighttown then -- yeah, let's be honest, it would be more surprising if I hadn't heard of that place! Thankfully, I have a heck of a lot of those from my time in Darkroot Garden, when I had to keep making my way back on over to the Moonlight Butterfly. I really hope I've got enough

Just to add to what @Glen-i mentioned about Bidoof (great read by the way), the reason that they're making such a big deal out of Bidoof this year seems to be for the same reason that they made a big deal out of Eevee a few years ago: the impending return to Sinnoh in the Diamond & Pearl remakes, as well as in Legends: Arceus. I genuinely think that if Let's Go games were made for Sinnoh, they would have gone with Bidoof as one of the starters/version mascots. Pokémon has been focusing more and more on having these almost secondary mascots to Pikachu, like Bidoof and Eevee, in recent years, and honestly, I think it's a brilliant idea from a business perspective. Everyone owns some Pikachu merch in some form or another, so if they let it share the spotlight with some other Pokémon during the marketing for remakes and the like, they'll inevitably see their merchandise sales rise to some (probably small, but noticeable) degree. What's interesting about picking Bidoof is that, while it's certainly not the least popular Pokémon by a long shot, I don't think it's the obvious choice for a secondary mascot from Sinnoh (at least not in the same way that Eevee perhaps is for Kanto). You've got Shinx, Riolu, heck I think some were under the impression that Piplup might step back into the spotlight, so while it's not totally out of left field, it's been nice to see it get some of the spotlight!

I'd love to say that I've made a load of progress since my last update...but I actually haven't played since then. I've had a busy week and a half which ended up being a bit stressful, and so when I have had time to return to the game, I've chosen not to, and have either watched the football or a film instead. But picking back up from the Undead Asylum, I read over my notes from last time and had a hunch I might be able to trade. I started to walk on over to the nest, through the room where I vanquished the Asylum Demon at the start of the game -- and the floor crumbled beneath me and I came up against a boss: the Stray Demon. Still cursed, I didn't even get close, and it killed me pretty quickly. This is about a minute after picking it back up, so...welcome back, I guess? So, edging my way around the room this time, I make my way back on over to the nest where I landed...and there's nothing other than the eggs and the option to curl myself up into a ball (I guess to go back to Firelink). I start heading back down, a bit disappointed, but as I do I see a little outcropping of the ruins and a strange shape -- another nest! I head on over and surely enough, just like in Demon's Souls (is the voice the same? It sounds really close to the voice in Demon's Souls) I'm being asked to leave items. I'm not proud to admit it, but I used a guide here just to check if I could trade for a Purging Stone, and surely enough I could, and I had the necessary item to trade - the Red Cracked Eye Orb - and so trade I did. Quit out and came back in like in Demon's Souls, and I got two Purging Stones for my troubles. I used one and BANG! The dirt is gone the curse was lifted. I wanted to explore the Asylum a bit more to see what had changed before trying to take on the boss down below, and so I made my way back to the courtyard with the bonfire and made my way up. I took on the guy from before (his Undead form I guess, like he was warning of before) and killed him without too much trouble - it was a nice crash course in parry and riposte - nabbing his Crest Shield after. Made my way back up the stairs and I completely forgot that there was a boulder trap, so that was a nice way to get the heart going took out the guys above, hooked around back to the skeleton knights I'd chosen not to fight the last time was here, and then unlocked the door ahead with the key I'd picked up for 2F West. Picked up the Rusted Iron Ring, which just says it helps with "uneven footing" -- I'm assuming there's a swamp somewhere in this game, and that this will be helpful there after my experiences with the swamp in Demon's Souls, so I equipped it. Couldn't see much else going on after nosing around, wasn't really in the mood for making my way back over to the cell where I started, so I dropped down to the Stray Demon after resting at the bonfire (I really didn't want to have to waste Humanity on kindling this bonfire, so gave myself the challenge of doing it with five Estus Flasks). I died multiple times without even getting a scratch on it, just trying to gauge it's moves and range. After a few attempts, I got the timing down for its sweeping attack and club smash to make use of some i-frames, but it's explosion attack (not the one where it charges up and stabs it's weapon into the ground for an AoE, but rather when it just decides it wants to make stuff explode without much of a build-up) got the better of me: I couldn't shield against the explosion effectively (though I could to some degree against its physical attacks), if I managed to avoid one in front of me and it dropped another it would somehow be behind me and so I'd take more damage, and so on. When I did finally manage to land a scratch, it barely did any damage, so I knew two-handing would be the way to go again. Died some more, but after a couple of attempts I made a dramatic leap in progress and got it down by about a third of its health -- yeah, the explosion got me. My strategy at this point was to get in close, aim some two-handed slashes at its belly, and back off before it could charge it's explosive AoE ground stab or fly above and drop on me. Died a few more times after that, one of the times accidentally downing way too many Estus at once. I didn't realise it didn't have to go through the whole animation again once you start chugging, which will be good to know moving forwards. My main issue at this point is reading it's explosion attack, as it's initial feint looks similar to its sweeping attack, and so I would roll towards it - expecting to make use of some i-frames - and instead get destroyed by the explosion. I died a few more times (yeah, that happened a lot!), but I knew I had the timing on its physical attacks more or less down, it was just trying to find a way to minimise the damage from that explosion attack. I figure I might as well test the Crest Shield I picked up before, and what do you know, it absorbs the explosion (so long as I'm facing it) pretty well! I died on that test run, but quickly made some more progress, getting it down to nearly half of its health on one of my attempts. After getting it down to nearly half one time, I then managed to get it down to less than a third before succumbing. Things got really rocky for a while after that: my dodge roll timing was all off, I was consistently facing the wrong way during its explosion attacks, and I was dying much earlier. Taking a short break to regroup my thoughts would have been the smart thing, but I decide to double down and focus intently instead. I wasn't a fun of how uneven the ground was as it meant having to try to keep it in one spot (the mound in the middle of the room) to up my chances of successfully landing attacks, but the camera could be really unhelpful at times (in classic boss fashion, which I'm starting to get used to, locking on is your enemy, and so is the size of the enemy!). I started picking up on certain things, specifically what range I have to be at for it to attack in certain ways. Close up meant it would try to fly above (and I quickly learned I could simply walk away from it instead of having to run) or attempt it's AoE stab; mid-range would be its explosion attack; and at a longer range it would be its overhead slam, sweep attack, or even longer range still it would jump across the room in an attempt to skewer me. There were definitely a few times here where I would burn through Estus really quickly and then just offer myself up to its attacks -- it was clear that particular run would fail to get very far. My next frustration was either getting to around halfway, or the one time where I got it even closer to being down than before, eventually just not managing to escape the clutches of its AoE ground stab. Continued some more, I felt that I was getting close, and got it down to halfway, before the magic run happened. I managed to get it down halfway without using an Estus since my initial use of one to heal up (after falling through the floor), but things very quickly went south as it caught me off-guard with its explosion attack, and moments later I had chugged all four of my remaining Estus Flasks. Something weirdly consistent about these runs is that if I make it past the initial hump (where I get it to destroy all the pillars, which I started doing after getting caught on one) I'm normally already down to two Estus Flasks due to likely triggering its explosion attack, so this was going really well up until that point, but something I noticed happened with earlier bosses consistently happened here -- once I've downed my last Estus, there's a weird sense of there being less pressure, and I hone in and get to work. And so get to work I did, keeping my distance and getting it to use it's physical attacks as I used i-frame after i-frame to close in, get some two-handed slashes away, and either sprint away if it charged up it's AoE ground stab, or walk away a few yards if it started flying up before doubling back once it crashed down to deliver a few more hits (and I'd always feel pretty lucky to coax it into doing that 2-3 times in a row). Once it got down to about a third, not for the first time, an Estus randomly flew in and so I had a spare, which felt like the game urging me to carry on, and so I did. It managed to knock me a bit with one of its attacks after I ended up with less stamina than expected (due to a similar thing I came across in Demon's Souls, where for some reason I start doing a mostly unhelpful lunge attack?), and so I chugged that final Estus Flask with just over a third of my health left, while it has two and a bit bars. I rolled, sprinted away, and just tried to keep myself calm, as I find when I get close I either get too confident or get consumed by the heat of the moment, that anticipation of victory. Got it into one final loop of flying up and crashing down, landing a few slashes on its belly, and... ...it was done! Picked everything up, made my way over to the ladder...but I saw something above moving around before (one of those Black Knights, maybe?) from the boss arena, and so chose to play it safe and use the Homeward Bone instead. Back at the bonfire I levelled up a bit before I made my way back over to the nest, curled up into a ball, and it was back to Firelink I went. Hilariously I immediately fell off the narrow path to my death next to the nest in Firelink, so after making my way back over and being even more careful than I was before, I finally made it back to the bonfire at Firelink. I think my plan for next time is to make my way over to Andre, as I have a few spare souls on me and I think it's time to level up my gear a bit more before I head back on over to The Depths. It's definitely good to be back with this - taking a bit of a break from a game can definitely get in the way of getting back to it - and I look forward to kicking on over the weekend, and hopefully finding that second bell!

Okay they probably took it too far: But on the other hand, I need this:

Yeah, I thought the same, but that was more based on when it seemed like it would be a spin-off in the guise of Miles Morales or Lost Legacy. I think that with it being an expansion of the base game vs its own thing, it's probably best to share that now rather than at the next State of Play. I think there has to be one by the end of August, even if it's just one focusing entirely on Kena, because that's something they definitely leaned into for early PS5 marketing (I know it was as E3 briefly, but it wasn't one of the major events, and no stage is going to be as big for that game as a State of Play). To be honest, I just want to see some more of XVI already, they've taken much longer than I had expected to show us more, at least considering that they told us right after the event in September last year that more news was coming in 2021. I know Endwalker is releasing for XIV in November, and once we learned that was the case I think it all but confirmed XVI wasn't coming out this year, but with that being an MMO I think it's hard to cross any wires when it comes to your potential audience (compared with something like VII Remake). I'm holding out hope for one this month, mainly based on Keighley saying during Summer Game Fest that more news would be on the way in the coming weeks for Death Stranding's Director's Cut. I rambled a bit there, so back to Ghost of Tsushima: is anyone else a bit concerned about the upgrade pricing structure? I think it's great that we've had a free next-gen upgrade before for GoT, but that next-gen upgrade price if you supported the game at launch seems pretty steep, and I think it feeds a wider concern of mine that next-gen upgrades have been a scattered mess across the AAA board, ranging from free (Final Fantasy VII Remake) to £25 - £30 (for this). It has me concerned for a potential upgrade to Horizon Zero Dawn, and maybe even more so for something like The Last of Us Part II - I don't even know what else you could do to add more to that game after the most recent update, but considering they've seemingly managed to squeeze more out of Ghost of Tsushima, it wouldn't surprise me; I could see it being bundled with whatever Factions has grown into. It was inevitable, obviously, it's just been bizarre. I don't think it's being handled as well - or consistently - as it could be.

Think I completely skipped over it looking through the next-gen and expansion details, but there is also an upcoming update for the game coming from Sucker Punch outside of this: new photo mode updates, new accessibility options for controller remapping, option to turn on lock-on during combat, option to hide quiver during gameplay. I loved Photo Mode so I'm all for more for that, accessibility options are always a good thing to have, the option of hiding the quiver is neat, but the biggest thing has to be being able to lock-on to enemies during combat. Looking back at my original thoughts on the game when I played it last year... .. it's safe to say that's an update I'll be happy with (but seriously, can't believe it's taken them a year to finally bring a lock-on)

Based on the upgrade path it doesn't seem like it will be? I'm imagining something like a fisherman NPC taking you out there from Tsushima. After the leaks a week ago I was fully expecting a Miles Morales sort of situation, but I guess not I loved this on PS4, I took thousands of photos, I still listen to the soundtrack in a pretty regular basis, so...yeah, I'm probably picking this up I don't know if I'll be doing so at launch, though -- considering how much other upgrades have cost (or haven't), £25 - £30 to upgrade from the base PS4 version to PS5 feels steep. I didn't play in Kurosawa Mode at all last year precisely because the Japanese lip sync was completely broken, but now that it's fixed (that being listed as a PS5 feature is definitely a bit weird) I'll definitely be using it whenever I get around to a New Game+. Which won't be anytime soon I guess because of the save transfer, so I'd probably upgrade, take some quick photos, and then beeline for wherever Iki Island is

Director's Cut is coming 20th August: Upgrade path: Some more details on the PlayStation blog. Highlights: - fixed Japanese lip sync (!!!) - DualSense support - 3D audio enhancements - load time improvements - 4K options - targeting 60 FPS - save transfer

Pack it up, the celebrations this year can't possibly get better than this

Based on the last few weeks I'm surprised it wasn't: "We've acquired Nixxes to support our friends at Bluepoint as they collaborate on Hideo Kojima's Silent Hills"

The best place I found to do this was in the first Bronze Battleplex Challenge, clear the first wave and then just keep your distance from the pirates, soak up their shots, and then fire them back (remember to keep them in the middle of your screen). Clear this stage a couple of times and you should have it in no time. Only difficulty you might have is if you've upgraded the Void Reactor, your shield blast radius will be increased, so you might need to absorb their projectiles and then make sure you're far enough away (such as standing in a corner with them at least halfway across the arena) and then firing their shots back.

Well there it is: I held off on A Plague Tale the last few months after word for around that it was coming. Other games I'll gladly pass on

Release date for the first wave of Pixel Remasters - I through III - is 28th July. I and II will be £8.99, whereas III will be £12.99, however there is a pre-order promotion on for 20% off. From the wording of the descriptions of the games themselves, these seem to be based on their original versions, so any GBA, PSP or other version bonuses aren't expected. Rearranged soundtrack could be nice, but that font they're using and the wasted space is pretty hard to look at.

Did the site ever do a retrospective on the Andean-Saharan Ice Age? Think it looked something like this:

Goes on Wikipedia and searches "N-Europe" (search results) A few more hits than I'd optimistically expect... ...oh hey, N-Europe is cited on Miyamoto's Wikipedia page! That's pretty cool!

Super Mario Bros. 4K Pixel Remaster incoming

VGC are reiterating that there are two separate Silent Hill games in the works: one being worked on by Bloober, and one by a prolific Japanese dev. So, maybe all isn't lost for SH fans. But still, this is Konami, so...

Konami are entering a "strategic partnership" with Bloober Team. Official press release: Pouring one out for all the Silent Hill fans, gone from hopes of a Kojima project revival with Abandoned to Bloober in the space of a week and a half or so. Konami you numpties.

Yeah, agreed that's a sending off. Obviously I don't think there was the intention there to potentially end Besedin's career from Danielson, but let's say the ref hypothetically gives a yellow instead -- the outcome would be that the players lose their heads and everyone starts shattering each other's knees. It's a red for the danger it causes, not for the intent. Which wouldn't feel much different from what we ended up seeing, as they all started going down like flies towards the end anyways

AND YET ANOTHER TWIST! Great stuff from Ukraine, it's been coming since they started exerting themselves after that sending off, but nearing the last kick of extra time is truly cruel.