Julius

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

Oh yeah, totally agree. I watched The Social Dilemma a couple of months ago, and while it raises some excellent points, I feel like it dramatising it's events depicting how social media impacts family and personal life was just as extreme. I get they're making a point, but yeah, totally a thing. Also, I know you were interested in checking out the Console Wars adaptation, have you been able to check it out yet? I couldn't find anything on a UK release back when it came out in the US, but on a whim looked it up last night, and turns out it was released on Sky Documentaries a little while back, so is also available on demand through the Now TV Entertainment Pass (which has a free 7 day trial available). Thought I'd mention it to you just in case you hadn't got a chance to see it yet!

Can someone help me cleanse my mind of this image? (although, a Muppets take on Star Wars would be awesome)

Well, I guess those potential leaks turned out to be true. Got to imagine we'll be seeing plenty more remasters from Blizzard moving forwards after what happened to Vicarious Visions, too.

It's been a while, but finally some more Diablo IV news.

Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story has its first episode (of five) coming to Crackle on 1st March. Looks fantastic! Hopefully we can get similar things for other companies in the industry, but this is obviously the natural place to start. And it's always great to see others in the industry cherishing Nintendo.

Not to get everyone excited, but in addition to the increasing number of reports about Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and Castlevania being trusted to other developers (the most recent and promising if which was from VGC yesterday), Konami have just opened an official online store to sell their merch. More surprised that this wasn't already a thing before, and even more surprising still is that there's now official Suikoden merch (hell yeah). There's even an awesome map poster no Silent Hill merch is a bit weird though, especially when they have Sunset Riders stuff, and their prices are kind of outrageous for some items. Just having a nose around now. Some select things I thought were worth sharing: This could be yours for the low and awkward price of £23.62. The perfect Valentine's Day gift... "What the hell were they thinking?" in wearable form. Probably the only thing I'd be interested in, the Suikoden II map poster. Look, it could be nothing, but, where there's smoke... (well, there could be Konami burning their studios to the ground)

Interesting stuff! Did Octopath also end up on PC or am I misremembering? Imagine that could also be a reason why. If this does end up being the case, I imagine we might end up with a year or two to transition from cross-gen development to seeing truly exclusive games for the next console, like we're seeing to an extent with some of PlayStation's bigger titles for the PS4 and PS5, and it will definitely make things easier for their third party relationships. In particular, I can't help but think of Dragon Quest XII and how the PS5 isn't doing so hot in Japan; for that game, I think targeting PS4 and Switch is a given, but this could make the process of releasing XII for a Switch Pro a much easier thing for them if it is at least on par with the PS4. Fingers crossed that could end up meaning it'll be landing day and date for both platforms when it does eventually arrive. Either way, it would definitely make the lines between console generations for Nintendo consoles murkier, if they weren't already before, but it makes the transition a much easier one for customers to make. Yeah, given how Aonuma said that they're aiming to share more about BotW2 later this year in Wednesday's Direct, I do think the Pro and BotW2 are pretty much going to be joined at the hip and have to launch together: I think they're still aiming for BotW2 to release this year, probably in November, but are likely in a position where it could slip into 2022 (COVID and any other potential development issues along the way), and the next few months will be crucial to figuring that out for them. If we get Zelda this year, then drop both in November and have it be their Christmas tentpole to promote the new system. I think the only reason to doubt that is the fact that Pokémon main series titles have all released in mid-November since the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014 (X and Y were in October when they released in 2013); that being said, it's tough to see them not being Diamond and Pearl remakes, and given that it's the original pair's 15th Anniversary this year in September for their Japanese release, maybe they'll make an exception and bump Pokémon up to the end of September (so you get Pokémon capping off one quarter and both it and Zelda headlining the next) to make room for the Pro and Zelda in November. I suppose they could swap that and have Zelda and the Pro in September to leave Pokémon for November, but I personally think they're ready to pivot both Zelda and a potential Pro to March 2022 if anything, and are probably picking between that and a November slot just because they aren't ready to share it with is just yet. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out for the launch of a potential Pro, but either way, you're right, everything seems very nicely lined up for them to take advantage of that system and push the "Play it best on the new Nintendo Switch Pro/2/Series Y with Knuckles and Dante" line with a strong lineup of first party games. Here's hoping, anyways!

Played through the demo this evening, and I thought it was fine, but nothing to really write home about. For some context, I've only played two SRPG's, and only one of them was a more traditional SRPG experience (that was Fire Emblem Awakening). I know it's a demo, and they kind of just drop you in the thick of it to test the gameplay, but they go out of their way at the start to have multiple cutscenes dump so many names, and so much history, on you before you get to take to the battlefield that it felt more like a "and this is why you should care about this character/place" rundown. Once a battle did start, you could tell they probably just grabbed the tutorial text from an earlier stage in the game and threw it in here, because it throws pages of stuff at you after each turn, but the battle was halfway done and I'd figured a lot of it out by myself at that point. So, just in terms of a demo experience, thought it was a bit weirdly constructed. It's an SRPG, and in terms of what happens in the battlefield, it played pretty much exactly how I expected it to. There are some cool animations (one in an optional cutscene where something happens with the weather was probably my favourite), visually it looks great, and once you get used to the button layout, it feels pretty snappy. The story definitely felt like I'd been there before at points, but I imagine this is placed between the middle and end of the first act, so that's probably not saying too much just yet. The thing is, the world and the politics seem interesting enough, but the characters just felt a bit generic, and the voice-acting wasn't super strong in my opinion, so I hope they can do a better job of making these characters expressive. I also feel like they chose a super weird point in the story to share with us, because it felt like some pretty major stuff went down, so I hope there's a lot more major stuff to come in the rest of the story. Also, there's an option to fast forward through cutscenes which just skips text with no option to rewind, why not have that option, or a transcription of the dialogue to the side to flick back through, or a skip button for the entire cutscene if you have one dedicated to rushing through the scene anyways? Found that a little weird to be honest! The highlight for me was the music, though, because some of it sounded super familiar to me with its heavy focus on using strings for tension, feeling melancholic, and the general melodies used, and I was delighted to find out my hunch was right when checking the credits: the music is by Akira Senju, the composer for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood! So, guess I'll be giving it another listen tomorrow obviously some more generic wartime RPG music thrown in on occasion, but there are definitely some tracks which sound similar to some of his great work on Fullmetal. I might be wrong in saying this, but I've tried looking it up - this might be the first video game he's composing for? And if so I find that really interesting too. The UI is admittedly a bit clunky, but I know this isn't planned to be out until next year, so I imagine they've still got some with they want to do on that. It hints at some cools ideas, like the Scales of Conviction which we saw in the trailer, which has you trying to persuade other members of your group to side with you in making an important decision which they're saying will have a huge impact on the direction your story goes (though I'm not holding my breath on there being any truth to that). From the example in the demo, it throws you out into a town to basically dig up points which could be used to persuade the other characters, but the downside to this is that in the list of options it will show an animation of a third choice being "unlocked", which is very obviously the "correct" choice to get them to side with you. Even for persuasion attempts where I didn't have that third option unlocked, it was so blatantly obvious which I needed to pick, that it wasn't really a strong addition, even if it's a neat concept. Feel like they perhaps should've looked at Persona 5's negotiations on how to do persuasion through options the player picks. Overall, yeah, a fine demo, but it hasn't really sold me on it any more than the trailer did. Worth mentioning that I did enjoy the second chapter's battle much more than the first, but I imagine that's probably going to be the exception in that it has some more unique mechanics to do with utilising the environment and objects around you. Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing how the game evolves after some more feedback, because I do think there's potential for something good here, it's just not clear in this demo how great that potential is. Yeah, you're totally right, looking back at the trailer and having played through the demo, not quite sure what I was getting at by saying the art evoked Fire Emblem. I think the thing that gave me a Fire Emblem vibe at the start, looking back at the trailer now, was just the look of the CG scales and walls (which is oddly specific, even for me). Do it Square, you cowards!

Those Silent Hill rumours are back. Again. Honestly, as someone who hasn't played any of the Silent Hill games, the big reason I want to see this come to fruition is just because it would mean Konami are willing to play ball with their IP's and let others have a go at it. EDIT: And an update on this already; as had been widely rumoured and speculated on for some time now, Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania are planned to be outsourced. Important to remember that VGC has had a pretty strong track record over the last year or so, so while as always I'd say take it with a grain of salt, their word is probably going to be as good as anyone else's on this; most prominently, they were the first ones to break actual news on Mario 3D All-Stars last year (that turned out to be accurate and wasn't just wishing of a collection), I'm pretty sure they were on the money with Warzone and its release date soon, and I feel like there was something else that's slipping my mind right now. All hypothetical, but what would people want out of Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania being outsourced, if they were? I don't have much of a connection to the latter having not played any of those games (though I imagine many would love a From Software Castlevania), but the obvious choice for Metal Gear Solid would be for it to get the Bluepoint treatment, though in this instance, I'm not exactly sure what that means? I can't see them giving it an awesome new coat of paint and then just leaving it essentially top-down like it originally was, because I don't think that would be marketable (as someone who would love to introduce MGS to my friends, I don't see them being the types of people to want to play a PS1 game), or even worth doing (as someone that played the game for the first time last year, it holds up surprisingly well apart from its camera). Heck, maybe toggle between third person and top-down. I think you could take everything from that game exactly how it was in terms of story, mechanics, etc., but I think you pivot to third person, maybe using the control scheme and feel from MGS V as a template for that? As far as third person games go, the series is really unique in how it feels (at least to me). Maybe that means recreating it using the Fox Engine (though that seems unlikely now it's seemingly being binned as PES is moving on to Unreal Engine for its next entry), but hopefully it wouldn't mean just making it a generic cover-based shooter. Because of the challenge involved in such an undertaking, I would think it's the logical next step for Bluepoint: recreate the atmosphere and look of the original game - and don't dare touch the story - while modernising it's controls for today's audience.

Mortal Kombat trailer: