Julius

Seemed to sneak under the radar a bit with the Indiana Jones news today, but the next-gen update for the game is up. Also, went back and read some of the thoughts I and others left when this first released, and having played Demon's Souls recently, I find it hilarious just how many of my issues with this game were clearly influenced by From's games. I hadn't played any at the time, but seriously: the lack of fast travel points to try to teach you the level layout? Falls flat because the levels are super bland by comparison (and lacks the awesome shortcuts). The enemies with their backs to you like @Hero-of-Time mentioned in one of his posts way back? Means absolutely nothing and comes across as buggy because of how harmless these enemy types are. Sounds like I'm ragging on the game (still love those last few hours where it gets more linear and focused, best part for me by far), but yeah, now I've played a Souls game this is absolutely a Souls-lite like so many more familiar with those games were saying at launch, and it just falls flat looking back trying too hard to be like those games rather than being its own thing. No-one is playing a Respawn-developed Star Wars game for anything but a good time, so the lack of fast travel just hurts the game because that's not what anyone was hoping for. Really hope they can get that right next time around!

GameXplain Good Vibes Gaming trailer analysis: Also, the fact that Mega Fury Bowser is called God Slayer Bowser in Japan is hilarious to me

Going to third that Dragon Quest XI recommendation by @Hero-of-Time and @drahkon, that game is nothing but an absolute delight

Sound designer Beau Anthony Jimenez has joined the PlayStation Sound team, and this will be his next game he sound designs for. Definitely worth checking out his thread on Twitter detailing his work on TLOU2's breathing system, it's great stuff. Say what you might about the story, Naughty Dog is so ridiculously far ahead of everyone else in the technical department these days, it's crazy! I mean, don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but sound design normally comes in pretty late on in development, so this makes me the tiniest bit more optimistic that a 2021 release is still possible. Now, if we see some announcement regarding the soundtrack being recorded in the next few months, that's a whole other story. No rush, but my fingers are crossed all the same

It's funny reading through everyone's reactions, because as someone who hasn't played 3D World, I was also questioning why it looked so much like Odyssey Looks really good. Don't know if I'm in a rush to get it (still got to play Sunshine and Galaxy from 3D All-Stars), but I look forward to getting around to it...one day

Well here we go, looks like that Lucasfilm Games moniker is already coming into play! To address the elephant in the room: don't see Disney letting this be Xbox exclusive (unless they've given PlayStation something exclusive too), it just wouldn't make much sense financially. Pure speculation, but maybe the licensing agreement and Bethesda developing will mean that while it's on both platforms, but it will be available Day 1 on Game Pass? Then again, the deal doesn't finalise until June 2021, so who knows Also, MachineGames definitely the logical choice for shooting Nazis, though I do hope it's third person rather than first. Because a whip in first person seems like it would be difficult to get right?

Yeah, like @bob mentioned they used real-time CGI screens powered by Unreal Engine 4 a lot of the time for those backgrounds, officially dubbed 'Stagecraft' and unofficially dubbed 'The Volume' during production. It's definitely worth watching the BTS stuff on it, it's really interesting stuff. Though I still agree with you @Ganepark32, it looks really rough at times, especially in sandy environments I found, as well as with some of the droids and movement (start of the first episode felt a bit like Star Tours at times). Never mind how deep into the uncanny valley they go with some of the faces at times! Either way, glad you seemed to enjoy it for the most part

New Switch variant for Mario's 35th Anniversary:

Yeah, I hope so! Been a long while since I've played a Gran Turismo game, not since 3 A-Spec way back when I picked up my PS2 the year before the PS3 launched think this was only detailing the games included in the CES presentation. Which is why we're still waiting on that and Final Fantasy XVI I'll be surprised if Gran Turismo doesn't make it this year, to be honest. XVI is probably Q4 2021 if we're lucky, and Q1/Q2 2022 if we're not (I think the only reason we wouldn't see it release this year is because of COVID delays, because that aside, Unit III have been stupidly consistent with what they've churned out).

New trailer dropping tomorrow at 14:00 GMT: Pretty crazy that this game went quiet for so long. I know it's a port + additional content kind of deal, but still! Got to imagine that's part of the reason they announced the time that the trailer drops this time around, as opposed to just dropping it out of the blue.

The first time I actually noticed online everyone making a real fuss before the show about there being absolutely no PlayStation news at a CES, that you'd only be setting yourself up for disappointment, and we get this It's not a lot, but I'll take it! Out of the ones with specified release months, it's surprisingly the indie games which have my attention the most. Kena looks cosy as hell, Little Devil Inside looked really interesting to me when it was first revealed, and in Stray you get to be a cat surrounded by robots. What's not to like? Solar Ash is probably the one of the indie games that in least interested in, though it might be unfair of me to say that without having tried out Hyper Light Drifter. Hitman III is a pass from me for now, simply because I'd like to try the earlier games first. Destruction AllStars I might give a go, but with only myself and a friend in my online multiplayer group having PS5's at the moment, doubt it'll be something we put any real time into. Returnal I'm really intrigued by, and while I hope it does well, that price tag has me holding off until we know and see a bit more (and potentially until we get reviews). Deathloop's intriguing too, but we all know how busy spring can get, and with how little we currently know about this year's releases, I'm going to hold off to see if there's anything else around that time I might be more interested in. Ghostwire Tokyo had me as being in a few years back when it was first revealed at E3, but learning it was first-person put a bit of a damper on things for me. Ratchet & Clank and Horizon I'm definitely going to be in for (and God of War too, if it does make this year, but I don't think there's much rush). It looks a promising year with that lineup having something pretty much every month, that's for sure, should be another great year for gaming Oh, and wait, Pragmata got delayed to 2023 from 2022? I mean it's not unexpected, but still, weird they'd add that here. Got to imagine January 2022 is a placeholder for Athia because that thing seemed a ways off based on the trailer, surprised they'd add a specified year here, let alone a month, because again, that seems a super weird way in which to give this game a date. Then again, that thing has probably been in development 3-4 years at this point, so it's not totally crazy I guess. Imagine: XVI in 2021, Athia in 2022, VII Remake sequel in 2023? That'd be kind of nuts for Square

A second VII Compilation? Or the title for the Remake sequel? Or a new Super Noodle flavor? Interesting stuff.

juliusshotfirst.gif Yep, for sure. Not counting mobile and expansions to The Old Republic, what we got with Battlefront, Battlefront II, Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons is a very poor turnaround, and with only 2 years left on their deal, I kind of doubt EA are working on much besides sequels to all three of their current Star Wars output: Battlefront III, Jedi: Fallen Order II, Squadrons II. And I'll be honest with you: what we've ended up with in Battlefront has been nothing but disappointing - yes, even with the progress made with Battlefront II after launch - when compared with the ambition of Free Radical's cancelled Battlefront III game from the late 2000's. For me, the games have ended up all style, and very little substance, though looking back at EA's last few years, that seems bang on. I know we've talked about the possibility of Lucasfilm having their own licensing arm for games before Ronnie, do you think they might be preparing for that? And just to indulge in some speculation of my own here: while EA maintain exclusive rights to publish Star Wars games until 2023, there's little else that we know about the agreement, which makes me wonder if we might end up with games being developed elsewhere in preparation of the floodgates crashing open come 2023 or thereabouts. I think that's the most interesting possibility out of all of this, because when you think about it, why else would you announce this now? Because you've already started talking to folks elsewhere - and perhaps even development has broken ground to some extent - about what you want after the EA deal is over. Otherwise, the EA deal is basically going to end up running until 2025/2026 on a normal AAA development schedule if development can't start elsewhere until then. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Time for me to start dreaming about post-EA Star Wars games, which feels really good.

Totally out of the blue: Lucasfilm Games. So it's not quite LucasArts, but still, with only a couple of years left on the EA deal, I'll be very surprised if this isn't fleshed out to be something more than just a logo in a few years' time. Possible even a licensing arm for their games, maybe?

Yeah, it looks very bad. For those who haven't seen Derrick's statement yet: It seems like communication wasn't as transparent as it perhaps could have been, but at the same time, a non-compete clause in games media? That'd basically have been a death sentence for Derrick's career in the industry. Yikes. Yeah, that's my biggest issue with a number of gaming podcasts having such a strong focus on news above all else. It's why I don't really listen to too much outside of Easy Allies these days, because the main podcast covers the news pretty well (though I think it doesn't flow as well without Kyle at the helm, and I think that bleeds over to their streams quite a bit too) and Frame Trap is absolutely top tier for deeper game impressions and discussions about the industry as a whole. Well, all that and because I'm trying to make a conscious effort to either listen less to podcasts where I can, or be more selective in those I do listen to, so I can spend more time gaming myself or with my other interests EDIT: forgot to mention, I think this whole thing is going to be a big lesson for those growing YouTube channels. Being a fan and pumping out videos to cover a certain brand does not make you manager material, and I think in retrospect Andre will be kicking himself for being naive enough to think that. I mean, chasing your boss to get paid is perhaps the biggest red flag out there. A one-off might happen, people make mistakes, but if it continues, it screams out how little they respect you and value your work.

Was just reading about this, and boy does this suck. I normally dip in and out of watching GX content (their analysis videos are definitely the highlight of their channel for me), so was super confused when I went in to watch their 2020 in review and 2021 predictions videos, just to find that everyone I liked had upped and left. Andre always fell a bit flat for me with his lack of personal opinions, always seeming to land somewhere in the middle at his most critical, and generally with how he carried conversations with the others. It definitely gave me the increasing vibe over the last year or two that he was the boss, and they were his workers. Like you mention, there has been a ridiculously increase in their content output when it comes to getting the smallest of tidbits out quickly, and it always kind of irked me. Their analysis videos are quality content, and it felt like they were struggling in a weird way to make ends meet simply looking at their high volume of output, and I think this is no better illustrated than with their non-Nintendo coverage. I'm not saying that they can't cover non-Nintendo things, but their coverage of games which aren't related to Nintendo has only increased, despite (from what I've seen) them generally getting much lower viewer numbers on such videos. They clearly carved a good space out for themselves putting out quality content around Nintendo, and yet here they are slaving away over the smallest morsels of info on things not even related to them. It struck me as odd, and now I guess it's more apparent why that was. I remember Ash moved apartment I think a little while ago, and I remember being surprised at how many hints he dropped about struggling to pay some of his bills in a discussion video (can't remember if it was an Easy Allies guest appearance or just a normal GX discussion video). I thought that maybe he just had more expenses elsewhere which we weren't clued in on, so it sucks to learn how he and the others were apparently treated by Andre. They seemed like genuine friends, and yet Andre seemingly betrayed their trust and ran them into the ground. Case in point: their Good Vibes Gaming 2020 breakdown video. April was a busy month for games, and they dig into it at 50:49, and it really doesn't take long for them to shine a light on things. So, getting Final Fantasy VII Remake only a few days before release is on Square Enix to an extent, but being a content driven channel on YouTube means of course they had to have a review out for the game at launch. To hear someone just ran themselves into the ground to cover it over two days is insane. I don't know, the whole thing just sucks. I unsubscribed when I found out the others had left and couldn't find a good reason for them to leave in a similar time frame together, because it seemed off. They were quickly replaced with younger content creators, and I think Andre is rightly going to get a lot of heat for all of this. Even if they aren't being paid peanuts (reading that some of the guys were getting only $1 or $2 AN HOUR, but of course not sure how much truth there is to that yet), the absolute best case situation is that Andre worked some of his own friends into the ground for his own personal gain. The channel's transition to faster uploads, reactions, shorter videos, and covering things outside of their Nintendo remit all seem to point, to me, that this is going to turn out accurate in some way. I mean, it was inhuman just how quickly they would turn around some of those analysis videos. Good Vibes Gaming is definitely worth checking out if you liked the GX crew, and though it kind of blows Jon isn't there with the guys (then again, his work at Nintendo Life now is still great as always), they do a great job of regularly getting guests in for discussion. I still think they're finding their feet, but if they were to basically become a more focused GameXplain - a regular podcast style show like they have now with the news, maybe an analysis video here and there (but only for things they actually care about), and reactions to events - I think they should be able to grow a healthy audience while making good use of their GameXplain toolset, while not having to kill themselves for it. I know a few of them hinted at certain things they wanted to do at GX which would always peter out, so hopefully they can do some experimenting here too. It's awesome to see them on Twitter saying they're in better places mentally, spending more time with family, and just enjoying things a bit more now. Best of luck to them. I imagine it's only a matter of time before we see what might happen with GameXplain, but I hope it doesn't cause too much stress for those who have already left (and for those who recently joined).

Yeah, for sure. I definitely feel a pang to return to BotW sometimes, just being away from that level of freedom (especially being cooped up due to lockdown) really makes me want more. Even with me having some issues with the game, I think it's a really strong foundation. I know we've discussed this elsewhere in other threads before, and I don't want to derail this one too much, but I've been thinking about this a whole lot lately, pretty much exclusively because of my experience with Demon's Souls. I think my perspective on this has shifted slightly because of that game alone, and I feel I have a much more refined idea of what I do and don't like about cinematic storytelling in video games. I do think storytelling is important in games, and I still think it's the best medium by far and away to convey the very thing many in the world seem to lack today: empathy. It's also, at it's best, the very best way to immerse yourself in a world, explore, and learn about it, simply because it has a level of interactivity which film and books do not. Don't get me wrong: a game does not have to have a good story to be a good game, but I do think good stories have and will continue to be told in games. But to highlight your "movie maker plot lines" comment, I think that this is the issue with some video game stories. I think back to playing Mafia: Definitive Edition and Mafia II last year, and I can tell you for a fact that those games would be better served as a TV series or a couple of films. It's a movie script made a video game. There is a clear A to B in terms of narrative which is heavily dependent on telling you a story rather than you experiencing it (case in point: a time skip scene where it is explained to you that an entire mob war goes down, the part where there should logically be the most gameplay, and the entire thing takes up a footnote in a cutscene), the entire world feels like set dressing, and it being a game does not serve the narrative, it's characters, or the purpose of being a game rather than a film. I compare this to the final scene from The Last of Us, or the moments in Final Fantasy games where it manages to make a game out of the most mundane things to allow you to experience it (the opera scene in VI comes to mind), or any of the amazing moments in the first three MGS games, and it is crystal clear that even though these are narrative driven games with cinematic storytelling, at their best moments, they are a video game. You do not watch the ending of The Last of Us, you play it, and I feel like the entire game could have fallen flat had the decision been made to make that play out as a cutscene. You do not watch the blunders of the Final Fantasy VI cast as they're dragged into an opera, but you take part in it! It's such a small yet enormous difference. And then, you know, those attempts at cinematic storytelling aside, you'll have games like Shadow of the Colossus, Inside, and Demon's Souls, where the entire game is you experiencing and learning about a world, its history and it's present, conveying so much through your interactions with and exploration of it. I think these examples manage to ride that fine line between empowering the player and achieving a high quality of video game storytelling. It's fundamentally why, while I enjoy the Uncharted games for what they are, for me they fall short of that greatness of the first Last of Us. And of course, this is all subjective, but I think it's a really interesting topic. I think Breath of the Wild definitely falls into the latter category with your Shadow of the Colossus and Soulsborne games where the world you're experiencing is doing so much if the heavy lifting, but the way in which I think it can improve on its actual storytelling would be to give more of a sense of direction at times. I think about Wander raising his sword up to seek the next Colossi, or how Demon's Souls is weirdly like a Mario game in its level structure, and it's that sort of thing I'd like to see in the Breath of the Wild sequel I guess. It's difficult, but I do think there's a fine line it could straddle between having a great sense of adventure and exploration, and having a greater sense of direction in its narrative and character interactions.

So hadn't played this since again until today(/yesterday - Friday ), waiting for the guys to play through the tutorial and giving me the chance to look up some beginner's tips, how online works, etc. Okay, elephant in the room: how online multiplayer works for quests kind of sucks. It really does. It's obtuse, it's way messier than it needs to be with locking people out because not everyone has watched the cutscenes, etc. It's seriously archaic for a game designed with multiplayer in mind. The tutorials are also quite long and wordy, and there are a lot of them; really reminds me of Xenoblade at times in this regard, and glad I had looked up some guides, etc., and played a little behind the tutorial quest so I could give direction on how the basics of the game work (and I'm sure there's still loads I missed, but oh well). Anyways, now that the only negatives I have about this are out of the way...this game absolutely rules! My playtime before today(/yesterday)? Just over 3 hours. Now? 10 hours the guys really liked it. I really liked it! It's a lot to take in, like I said the tutorials are a bit frantic and the online took a while to get our heads around, but once we were actually hunting some monsters, it was nothing but a good time. I played the quests for the Kukei Kukei and Barroth by myself in-between quests and issues with getting the online working, and both went alright. It wasn't exactly fun, kind of a long, drawn out grind by myself, even if the world and the interactions between the monsters had so much to offer. Barroth took particularly long, it was a very bad time to find out about stamina being reduced that's for sure! First time it got slammed through the ground by what I later learned to be the Diabolos, I followed it down into the cavern below, and got hit by its tail animation as it fought the Diabolos (not an actual attack) which one-shot me. Second time things went much more smoothly, but again, it was quite long, and this was when I figured out how to cook, the important of steak in replenishing stamina, and beat the Barroth on my lonesome with what I imagine was only a minute or two to spare! But enough about my solo session, because the time I spent with the guys playing was infinitely more enjoyable, on a number of fronts. The quests weren't too bad, it was a great way to share with them some of the basics I feel (I missed out on a second Kukei Kukei looting because I was busy teaching a friend how to cook steak and replenish stamina!), but they're so awkward in terms of cutscenes. If the ability to play quests together needs to be locked behind a cutscene, then I feel this should have happened across all of them at the end of a quest (or, you know, it could get with the times and just have us watch it together, but I'll put down that pitchfork). It's what eventually deterred us from continuing with them, as we got to grips with the basics, and, for now, just wanted to hunt some monsters together. We beat the Barroth together (I didn't get a Tail drop so my wait for the awesome looking Barroth Helm continued) and then I suggested trying an expedition instead. And making a squad did help some, though, that's for sure. I feel like this is how the game is really meant to be played, the assigned quests and story are almost certainly just a tutorial in my eyes (I mean, I imagine this to be the case up until some more difficult enemies, anyways). We went into the Wildspire Waste and hunted Barroth until those of us who wanted a Barroth Helm had the Tail (took a good number of attempts!), and we also took down the Rathian too. Got absolutely demolished by the Diabolos, mind, but I imagine we're just underlevelled. Then we went back to the Ancient Forest, took out the Anjenath (which was a LONG fight), and even tracked down the Rathalos (took forever with it flying all over the place!) who eventually flew off. The freedom of exploration in the expeditions and allowing us to naturally run into Rathalos was awesome, and obviously I don't know if/when it turns up in the assigned quests, but it felt so much more powerful running into it this way Seeing the Anjenath just pick up a Great Jagras by the neck with its teeth and throwing it around in the air is one heck of a sight, I was kind of taken aback by some of the unique monster fight animations, I thought it was awesome. But, yeah, I love it. GTA V offers stupid but aimless fun, and there's certainly a time and a place where I need that, because it's also a great game for venting and moaning about work. But Monster Hunter felt like such a good time, to put it in a way it felt constructive where GTA might feel destructive (not that that's a bad thing). Cooking steak and the little tune that plays, setting your sights on a set of armour and remembering what you need to hunt and what you need to drop from them once slain, chilling out in the Gathering Hub arm wrestling or drinking and falling around the place, it was so much fun. It was a learning experience, and not only do I feel we got way better at the game, but it was refreshing to feel like we weren't talking exclusively about work (actually, for the first time in forever, I don't think it came up once as the focal point of conversation), but other stupid things people our age do too: girls, games, films, just having a fun time enjoying each other's company and slaying monsters. It's weird how few times it genuinely feels like we've opened up like that during COVID and just spoke about the most stupid and random things, it really felt like a normal Friday night again for a change. And while I know that's possible in GTA and other games, of course, the constructive nature of Monster Hunter I feel really had an impact on how the conversations carried, and I'm really grateful for that. Does it become our primary multiplayer game now? Is it in rotation with GTA? Are we going to end up dropping it? I have absolutely no idea. But I loved my time with it in this session, and really hope we make our way back to Astera soon.

Yeah, they've got the systems down for sure (kind of reminds me of MGS V in that way - even though from what I hear the narrative is a mess, those missions I found fun when I spent a few hours with it years ago before playing the earlier games). It's easily my favourite game when it comes to exploration, I can't really think of any game that comes close in that regard. I imagine some might argue the first Zelda? I've mentioned before that I think it has some issues, but I will be very surprised if the sequel doesn't go some way to mending some of those. I'm fine with weapon durability, but the rate at which weapons degrade felt much faster than what I came across in Demon's Souls (of all games, right?), and not having a way to repair weapons (let alone regularly) was an odd choice. Yes, it pushes you to use a wider range of weapons, but it means you can come away not really feeling like a master of any of them. Upgrading weapons would also be interesting in this world I think. I think my biggest issue is probably the lack of narrative direction. I love getting lost and going exploring, and the world itself actually does a great job in how it's designed in putting you on the path towards finding something interesting time and time again, but I came away from Breath of the Wild thinking it's probably as minimalistic a plot as you could get, which felt like such a waste given how many hints there were of this world having a great history - it felt like everything had happened before you woke up. Granted, yeah, it's basically a post-apocalyptic Zelda, and not every open world game nails quest lines and recurring characters particularly well (I liked Horizon, but I can't tell you the names of many characters outside of the ones you'd find in a story synopsis), but now that Hyrule is supposedly being/has been rebuilt, I think it's a good chance to fill the world up with more meaningful characters and quests. I mean, imagine coming across a village under attack, and having a short quest line where you go full on Seven Samurai, train the villagers, and go to battle with them at your side (heck, you could make that a longer quest line and a mini game with the Blood Moons). There's a solid foundation that I really hope they flesh out. @Goron_3, definitely agree with you when it comes to Hyrule Castle, one of my favourite locations in BotW for sure. The music, the scale, it's one of the few locations in the game which sets the tone and let's it sit (not saying that's a bad thing, but it's definitely a thing which makes it more memorable). Hopefully dungeons make a return in a more traditional manner in the sequel to help have more places like this. Actually, speaking of dungeons, I know a lot of people have spoken about having a playable Zelda and having Link tackle the underground and dungeons. I really like this idea, I mean, you did basically master Link in the first game - I feel like some areas could become a bit repetitive if you come across them with him again, at least at the start. Have Link stuck underground for a fair chunk, clearing a dungeon perhaps to change something happening in the world to make it safer for Zelda to travel to whatever is above ground, or to learn something, and then have Zelda above ground (for a fair bit) actually travelling across Hyrule for the first time, visiting towns and villages which are being rebuilt, and heck, let us gain some mastery of her magic, too. She could still use light weapons, but having her use magic would give her a different moveset to tackle enemies which might return from the first game, and I think that would be a really interesting way to have her progress throughout the game. I mean, further than that - LET US TRANSFER OUR SAVE OVER (one of my favourite things which took few games actually do)! Get our hearts and stamina carried over, have Link be a beast from the start (have a healthy amount to start with for those who don't have a save to carry over), because he should be - this is a sequel, and he's already grown in this world. I really think that seeing Zelda grow, and learn about her kingdom, would be the ideal way - narratively and in terms of exploration too - to revisit the locales from the first game, because it keeps it fresh. Oh, and if it wasn't for Hyrule Castle seemingly doing it's best impression of a space shuttle in the trailer, I'd be saying that and/or Castle Town could be this game's Tarrey Town. The Breath of the Wild sequel is easily my most anticipated Nintendo game right now, and it's probably on par with Final Fantasy XVI (in terms of actually announced titles, anyways) for my most anticipated games on any console. Do you guys expect it to release this year? I feel like that would have been the aim before COVID, but we should at least see it if it didn't release this year (what with it being the 35th anniversary and all), right?

Wait, that's what everyone's been talking about?

Worth mentioning for those who were put off by the game's price, it's gone down pretty quickly and is currently at £54.99 in the UK at Amazon and Curry's PC World. Seen it elsewhere at places like Smyth's and The Game Collection where it's still around the £59.99 mark, but imagine those will be adjusting sooner rather than later

Determining whether Breath of the Wild is a Wii U or Switch title is certainly interesting, because I guess it really just depends on your own opinion. I mean, it released on both on the same day Seriously though, it is a weird one. Clearly designed initially for the Wii U, shown off first at The Game Awards running on the Wii U, heck, it was basically Nintendo's entire E3 2016, and all shown off on the Wii U because we still hadn't had the Switch officially announced, but we did know it was going to be destined to release on the NX/Switch I guess at that stage. And then it was the centrepiece of the Switch marketing (that reveal trailer, the Tonight Show appearance, the January 2017 Presentation), there day and date with the launch of the Switch (and also on Wii U), and Nintendo have been pretty forward I feel in presenting it as a Switch title (though, of course, that makes sense for marketing purposes). @Ronnie brings up Miles Morales and Sackboy on PS5, and I guess the only difference I would say there is the success of the PS4, making the argument more that it's a title for both from my perspective, purely in a marketing sense. PlayStation are pushing the PS5 first and foremost, but they have to push those games as PS4 titles; they'd be silly not to with the size of their install base on that console, especially with the limited PS5 stock in circulation at the moment. The closest example I can think of is probably Twilight Princess, but even then, didn't that have a delay between Wii and GameCube releases? And, I have to imagine, more noticeable differences between the two versions in that instance too. I guess all I can say is, makes sense for Nintendo from a marketing and financial perspective to release on both, and from a fan perspective to not force people's hands into buying a Switch or Wii just for the newest Zelda I think is pretty good. As for the Switch depending on the Wii U, I've said it before: as someone who didn't have a Wii U, it's great to get the chance to play some of these games. On the other hand, can totally understand why some might be frustrated with them leaning on Wii U ports (and remasters in general) in such a substantial way with the Switch. Much as I enjoy the Switch when I do play it, I don't think that the merging of their handheld and console divisions has quite had the impact fans were hoping for, which is a real shame. But...back to the topic at hand, I've kind of been feeling the pull to return to Breath of the Wild lately, to try out more of the DLC and complete more of the shrines. I really do miss just exploring that world, even if I do feel it slipped up a bit in other areas. On the other hand, I've got other Zelda games to get to, so, we'll see

Yeah, I totally get it. Being at parity with the others would be ideal, for sure, though the charging stand and having a second controller had taken that away for me this time around. I've said it before, but it really does feel weird going back to the PS3 and getting longer lasting battery life there than on the DualShock 4 or DualSense (and we're talking some DualShock 3 from CeX in my case). I think that's why it's so noticeable, but it is what it is. How does everyone feel about the colour now by the way? I won't lie, the white and black has really grown on me this last month and a half or so!

I think it's a case-by-case more than with the DualShock 4, it really depends what you're playing and how much they're using the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Demon's Souls, for example, I could play for probably 6-8 hours and still have a bar of battery life left. Astro's Playroom on the other hand? Found myself having to swap over to my other controller after 5-6 hours spent on the main story so I could continue with my speedrunning attempts. For the most part, I think it's been a decent enough trade-off. Astro's in particular was worth it for me, just the right length compared with the battery life, and the tension in the adaptive triggers in parts of Demon's Souls and Miles Morales was fun too. Though, I am kind of curious to see how a potentially longer Astro's game would hold up by comparison. On the other hand, I played a bit of FIFA over Christmas, and that game's battery life consumption is all over the place. The adaptive triggers are extremely random when it comes to what triggers them; sometimes I've held R2 to sprint and had no feedback from them, but then other times it'll just randomly start. I know that it's supposed to come into play when players are tiring, but it rarely works that way, so it also makes the choice to include adaptive trigger functionality completely at odds with some of the game. It could be better, and I kind of wish we'd get a PlayStation take on Xbox's Elite line. But it's definitely not as bad as the DualShock V2 I finished my time off with the PS4 on!

I'd actually been planning on getting to What Remains of Edith Finch this month anyways, as it's been sitting in my library for a while now, so that gets my vote