Julius

James Earl Jones has sadly passed away at 93. RIP to one of the greats

It's a very complex issue with many factors to consider, but first and foremost it's down to Sony/PlayStation needing to search for a way to make profits to please shareholders despite the incredibly weak yen, which has depreciated significantly and consistently since COVID hit back in 2020; in mid-March 2020 the JPY was valued at 0.0077 GBP, whereas today it is valued at 0.0053 GBP, and it seems that search has started to even extend to their accessories, which really sucks. I imagine it's also been factored into Nintendo's reasoning for not reducing the price of the Switch. It sucks but Japan has had it really rough the last few years, I remember hearing during the COVID recovery phase (2021/2022, can't remember exactly when because so much of the early 2020s are a blur) that at one point they were literally giving away vouchers worth hundreds of £s worth of ¥ in an attempt to boost their domestic tourism, seeing as they made the decision to keep their borders closed to tourism much longer than many other countries around the world and their typically strong domestic tourism was rocked by people being afraid to move around because, well, COVID. Rock and a hard place and all that

Accidental double post, but what can you do: name confirmed as PS5 Pro in an unlisted video on PlayStation's own YouTube channel. Shocking, I thought the PS5 AddPlusTripleDeluxe rolled right off the tongue!

Don't go giving Neil ideas H-o-T, delete this at once

Yeah, I think I agree with @Hero-of-Time in that it's going to be in that $599/£579 sort of region, not only is it premium but the fact that prices have only increased for the base model since launch means they're likely going to struggle to keep the price down. $549 or lower would be very competitive but also nuke the base PS5 sales, and I doubt they'd consider going that low. I think the absolute top end of this at retail has to be £600 over here, so that'd be like $629 or something like that? I'm still not quite sure there's a market for it, but I mean, the same was said for the PS4 Pro and it seemed to do fine, I think it was being sold at a 1:4 ratio compared to the base model PS4, which considering the Slim, the price drop, the many bundles the base PS4 had, wasn't too shabby. What I think is going to be perhaps more interesting than the price is how Cerny and PlayStation are going to try to sell this thing. With the Pro, it heavily featured Horizon Zero Dawn in its marketing despite releasing 3 or 4 months ahead of it, but that game was stunning and did a great job of singlehandedly showcasing why people should at least be considering a Pro model. Here? We have no idea what the next big game is from PlayStation which could sell this thing, and GTA VI - which I think is going to really be what drives this thing's sales - is 12+ months away, PLUS whatever delays Rockstar inevitably adds on. It's a really hard sell for now and I have to think that they want to get a launch out of the way here, however quite it might be, so that it and the base PS5 have a chance at a price cut 3-6 months ahead of whenever GTA VI launches.

PS5 Pro time is upon us, with Mark Cerny himself hosting the PlayStation 5 Technical Showcase tomorrow (10th September) at 16:00 BST. Given that it's just 9 minutes long, figured it didn't warrant its own thread but I'll be tuning in, love a Cerny breakdown!

An update on the Switch's successor:

A new Asobi Studio-centric entry on the PS Blog is up: Going to give this a look later! Yeah, I was genuinely caught off-guard by how hard the ending hit And love those credits. Definitely the best credits sequence in a game, since, uh, *checks release date of a certain game*, 2008?

Maths clearly isn't part of the game's strategy, I'm sure what they really meant to say was under(world)²

Imagine this might be of interest to some here: And some more info from IGN's description for their upload of the trailer, including the platforms it will be coming to (basically everything):

Footage taken moments after the end of the stage:

I thought the same as @drahkon at first, it is a very strange title for a stage given that it's not the case, and the way that it's positioned in that galaxy makes it look like it's of some importance. But nope, just another really fun stage! I actually went so far as leaving the galaxy before seeing my progress in the others and just thinking "there's no way, surely?"

Everyone besides Kiryu has this uncanny valley, photoshopped, AI vibe to them which is hilarious to see poor Ichiban, as if his hair wasn't crazy enough, he now looks like a bonafide drug lord who would turn up on Narcos... Also, are those hints of a dating mini-game I see? If so then obviously I'm in In all seriousness, I've said it before but I think some of the best Yakuza mini-games are basically just mobile games without the scummy microtransactions. A mobile version of Cabaret Club management, Ichiban Holdings, etc., would be a better (and I imagine cheaper to make?) bet in my eyes than a wholly original game.

Damn straight, and I won't hear otherwise. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Yeah, I'm a bit stumped on what I'm playing next too, especially after Astro Bot. I was planning to get around to another of my pledge games for the year but considering that it was featured in Astro Bot and also has a bit of a puzzle-solving aspect to it, as did the game I played before Astro Bot, I think I want to freshen things up a bit. I think it might be time to catch up on an earlier 2024 release, maybe go back to something I've already started? You could also do what I often do and revel in the dread of choice paralysis until The Plucky Squire drops

Hurts but, yeah, always seemed a possibility unfortunately with a title like that. Damn it, is this my fault? On the upside - because I need to scramble for one - at least we knew ahead of time to expect a new RGG game announcement at Tokyo Game Show, and it will be a surprise considering that it's not this? There's no way that they're hanging their hats on this to carry them at TGS...right? If it's Yakuza/LAD I could see it being Gaiden (Majima time?) or a remaster/remake (Yakuza Souls?), but I would also really like them to complete the Judgment trilogy, which I have to imagine could be on the cards with the image rights issues over the PC release seemingly being resolved considering those games, well, are now on PC? I mean, it's RGG, so better yet: I'll buy whatever they're selling at this point

Seems like he's reaffirming what he's said in other interviews which is great to hear, I hate when you occasionally get a director who seems to give parts of the picture out to different outlets, but Nicolas has been pretty upfront about speedrun and challenge levels in all of the interviews to drop since launch. Oh, and we're getting leaderboards for those speedruns too just like in Playroom, exactly what I've been asking for all along!

Trying to make the most of the anime mood I find myself in, I finally returned to Yu Yu Hakusho last night after taking a very long break from it (was only 7 or 8 episodes in when I started back in Feb), now 12 episodes in. I've got loads of thoughts, like how Kuwabara is already one of the greatest and most likeable characters of all-time, but what I really want to talk about is: What the hell did Togashi do in a past life to have not one, but two, of his adapted works get 10/10 OPs? Yes this is the second time I'm mentioning this, but Hunter x Hunter gets Departure and Yu Yu gets this wonderful OP. Smile Bomb is a certified banger The ED, Homework Never Ends, also SLAPS Did I use those terms right @Hero-of-Time? I'm sure @drahkon will back me up that no other words could convey the same feelings

A number of IP not included in the game have been spotted in the game's credits, and it has some people thinking that they're likely future inclusions for VIP Bots to be added via DLC. The Chosen Ones? Very curious to see the route they take with rolling these out if they really are on the way!

Finished S4 of Demon Slayer after starting it the other day. S2 is still the peak of it for me, but that entire 30+ minute finale and the penultimate episode's credits were just flexing so damn hard with the craziest anime eye candy I think I've seen in a show – it matched movie quality and then some. The entire finale is basically just the most glorified and stretched out post-credits scene and it freaking works. Which makes complete sense with the knowledge that we're getting a trilogy to finish it all off. It does seem a bit rushed, but hey, I'll take three gorgeous and fight-heavy anime films to round this all off before it would otherwise run itself into the ground

Talking of Platinum trophies: it is done. Lucky #33. This game is a freaking masterpiece. I hate to score things because I think it can be incredibly reductive, and I also feel that giving something a 10 does not necessarily mean it has be one of your favourites; but, in this case, for my tastes, this game is both a 10, and an instant favourite. As I don't do scores around here anymore I feel like just stating it is a 10 needs a bit more context, and you can have it, because I keep a list of games I consider to be 10/10; it's not a particularly long list. There are some games I'm considering playing through again to see if they make it onto the list, because I feel like there's a lot of value in revisiting things, but for now, this will become only the 11th entry on my list of 10s (in order of release). I feel like I got a lot out of my system when I posted my first impressions, so I'll let it sit a bit longer to flesh out my thoughts in a more meaningful way, but man, what a game! No idea if this will be GOTY for me (because it's September and I've got some serious catching up to do) but, damn, I don't think it could have made a better case for taking that slot than it did. Right now it definitely feels like it. @Hero-of-Time I need to talk to you about something, though, and will definitely be curious what others think about this topic once they finish the game. Combat Report Can't wait for the DLC they've got cooking for us, I got hooked on Playroom's speedrunning and I'm sure that'll happen again here

Definitely one of my favourites too There is awful lot of booty shaking going on in this game

Just finished watching this interview with Nicolas, one of the first I've seen which took place after the game's launch (embedded video below is linked to the interview section) Really fascinating stuff, remember watching his interview with NoClip a while back after Playroom released, dude's great at boiling down these more complex concepts and making them digestible and relatable. Some really great questions thrown his way too, I do wish someone asked him what his first amazing game was though, as you can definitely see him bending the conversation around saying Nintendo at times He does also confirm towards the end of the interview that the DLC is still on track for later this year and will be focused on the more difficult side of things though – challenges and speedrunning! Anyways, back to the game!

Bahahahahaha The Beyond of Us Man, that gave me a really good chuckle You monster! What were you doing with them before, building furniture?!