Julius

In an interview with Fanbyte, director Yasunori Ichinose and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto have confirmed that the game will be available on PC next year.

Reddit user PracticalBrush12 - who in hindsight accurately leaked last week's Nintendo Direct, and plenty of other Nintendo-related things, including Sword and Shield details (I had a look at their post history after last week's Direct) - has apparently leaked two games from today's Pokémon Presents. Like last time, throwing the link to the leaks in a spoiler tag to save people potentially opening it by mistake. Going to be a long five and a half hours steering my eyes away from that Also leaks totally suck, and while it's interesting to look back at after an event, leaking things hours before an event just rubs me the wrong way. Then again, the only leaks about announcements I don't mind are the silly ones, like when developers aren't careful with their laptops when in public, and more important things like how staff are treated internally. Stealing a developer's thunder is stupid, especially when it's one of the more widely known journalists in the industry breaking the news (like that guy whose name rhymes with Mason Schmeier). The only time in recent memory that it's worked in a reveal's favour was with Mario+Rabbids.

So, I thought about making a dedicated thread for the Avatarverse (not my name of choice for it, but whatever, it's stuck with the press apparently!) last summer after rewatching The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, but I didn't think there was enough to drive an ongoing discussion in a dedicated thread, besides more people potentially getting into the show through Netflix, which it owes a lot of its resurgence to. However, after Bryan and Mike left the Netflix TLA project, I had a suspicion that it wouldn't end there. So, while Netflix is off reportedly casting a 12 year-old Aang and a 16 year-old Katara - who will be a big sister to Sokka, completely killing his character arc, and probably trying to force Zatara on us all - Nickelodeon has finally decided to acknowledge the golden egg they've been sitting on for years. From Deadline: And confirmation from Paramount what to expect: new series, short-term content, spin-offs, and theatrical films. Oh, and the Avatar Studios logo, which looks great! Well, I think it's safe to say that that might be able to drive and sustain some discussion beyond returning to The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and expanded lore. I genuinely never thought this would happen, just considering how they completely kicked Legend of Korra to the curb. You know, when they ordered one season, then ordered way more, then brushed it under the rug and moved brand new episodes over to the Nickelodeon website? And now they're back! What do you hope to see come of this? What's your experience with the series to this point? And do you think the cabbage merchant will make his return? Personally, I'd love to see adaptations of the graphic novels, as they seem like a natural and relatively straightforward place to start.

Update on the Japan Studio restructure, from IGN. Pretty much just confirms the news VGC broke before, and in corporate speak, is putting Japan Studio to rest. EDD being integrated more into PlayStation Studios directly, with the right support, could be a great way for them to continue supporting third party relations, especially when it comes to projects such as those we've seen Bluepoint handle so far. Otherwise, yeah, this still sucks.

March is the third month of the year. Third. Three. It's been nearly three years since God of War released. Fimbulwinter lasts three long years before Ragnarök arrives.* We aren't getting a game in March for PS+. So, as you say, March is cancelled. And if March is cancelled then the year is only 11 months long. Making 2021 a short year. Meaning it won't have been three long years before Ragnarök arrives. Meaning Ragnarök isn't arriving in 2021. Ragnarök is delayed to 2022 confirmed. *(okay but seriously this is probably the only reason they announced it as coming in 2021)

Just checked the PS Store and prr-orders are up, which means we now know the cost of this thing! Standard Edition will be £32.99 / €39.99 / $39.99 USD and the Digital Deluxe Edition will be £39.99 / €49.99 / $49.99 USD. Pre-order bonus: Digital Deluxe Edition bonuses: The Golden Rot skin is adorable...until you start wondering if that's what Minions look like without the goggles and overalls.

Yeah, the combination of price and not knowing exactly how a decent stretch of moment-to-moment gameplay will pan out is giving me pause for now. It also doesn't help that it's releasing in a pretty busy 3 or 4 week period, I think it might end up a little bit buried unfortunately. Because of that, I really think it could benefit from a demo to make a bit of a statement, and let the audience get a feel for it before committing to dropping £70 on it. The games I'm looking forward to around that time - Mass Effect, NieR Replicant, New Pokémon Snap - are all known quantities in some way or another, and it makes it a lot easier to get behind them for me than it does this.

Agreed with all of those saying it was a bit of a meh showing. I went in with relatively low expectations and was prepared to come away pretty indifferent until we got the Episode Yuffie / Intergrade news for Final Fantasy VII Remake, and that was the only real saving grace of the presentation for me: free upgrade, it's out in June, additional content for a game I really enjoyed, etc. Is it enough to pull me back in June rather than wait until we're a bit closer to Part II, I'm not so sure, but I'm looking forward to it, whenever I do get around to it. A few of the updates we got felt kind of pointless. Crash 4 upgrade news, as far as I can remember, was stuff we had already learned just a couple of weeks ago. It was cool to see gameplay of Solar Ash and FNAF: Security Breach, but both of those having vague 2021 windows doesn't really tell us too much of consequence, and I feel like a smarter move would have been to save that news until later on down the line, when they were closer to release. The Deathloop trailer was cool, but even though we already have a date for that one, it didn't really feel like it got me more excited for the game? Oddworld Soulstorm wasn't really on my radar before, and again I felt like it was a showing for it which was just lacking in so many regards, but it being free in April for PS+ is pretty cool. Sifu's art style and hand-to-hand combat definitely caught my eye, and it's one I'll be keeping an eye on, but again, I really don't see the purpose of showing it here if it's nebulously set to arrive in 2021. I feel like taking a leaf out of Nintendo's book and having a short lead time from announcement to release, big titles aside (and this clearly isn't a big title, nor is it trying to be), would work in their favour here. COVID is still a factor in things, I don't see the point in February of saying a game will arrive at some nebulous point in the year, when we've already seen how quickly things can change. But maybe that's just me. Returnal still looks good, but like I said before, I really feel like it needs a longer showing to hook me in and better communicate the moment-to-moment gameplay. If this is what constitutes a deep dive, especially looking back at how they've previously defined a deep dive, well...it's a pretty shallow dive. Heck, game could probably benefit from a demo. And then there's Kena, which got delayed from being a Q1 title and got pushed all the way to August. It was great that we got to see it here, and see that it's clearly coming along, but showing a trailer here kind of suggested to me that it was much further along than an August release date. The delay doesn't bother me, it's understandable because of the times we're in, but this could have just as well been saved for, say, a potential State of Play in the summer and the delay could have been announced in the PS Blog, and I feel like it might've just come off a bit better. A little disappointed we didn't see any Ratchet & Clank here after we didn't really get much new footage with the release date a few weeks back, but there's still plenty of time to go until it releases in June, so there's no real rush. As soon as we saw Crash 4 open up the presentation my hope for seeing a bigger title releasing after June (such as footage for Horizon) kind of petered out. It's not a presentation I went into with high expectations, yet Yuffie and prettying up Final Fantasy VII Remake aside, I was still pretty disappointed, and on the whole, I do think it was a weak showing. I'd score it a 6/10.

Short gameplay walkthrough we got in today's State of Play: Still think it looks good, but I guess it might just be one of those games I need to get my hands on, because I really feel like it needed a bit of a deeper dive than this to get more of my attention.

Today's State of Play trailer: Delayed from Q1 2021 to 24th August 2021.

I don't believe it is, from the upgrade image in the trailer it seems like it's only available once you've got the upgraded version of the game on PS5 This isn't confirmed, but I would also imagine that Intergrade and the Yuffie Episode might be PS5 exclusive? The timing of its release and it not being on PS4 makes me think PlayStation have thrown more money Square Enix's way, and so - just my own speculation - only the exclusivity on last year's version of the game could be up this year, kind of killing an Xbox release on arrival. I could be off on that, but it's just a gut feeling I have with the Yuffie Episode not being on PS4. And I think that would be very shady.

Key art for Yuffie Episode looks phone wallpaper-worthy: And @drahkon, they made a "remake", then made a demake of the game they remade, and announced tonight that they are releasing an update with new chapters to the "remake", all while working on the second part of the "remake". Sounds about right But at least there's some good news other than the Yuffie Episode related to the game tonight! The soundtrack is finally coming to every music platform I don't use!

They made a "remake", then made a demake of the "remake", and announced tonight that they are releasing an update with new chapters to the "remake", all while working on the second part of the "remake". ...okay. But at least there's some good news other than the Yuffie Episode related to the game tonight! The soundtrack is finally coming to every music platform I don't use!

Oh no. Ever Crisis is a mobile game too! Urghhhhhh, alright, this is more like it neat enough idea though, the entire FFVII Compilation (and more?), and definitely more interesting to me than The First Soldier has turned out to be. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw this ported to consoles like XV Pocket Edition was, actually. Seems like it could be a decent way to get people caught up? I'd play it (somewhat begrudgingly) if it got ported, depending on how it covers the other Compilation stuff, because I haven't played through any of that myself before.

I get a feeling they won't, but hey, I mean, I wouldn't ever argue against it I really wanted to save my Platinum run of the game for a replay just before Part II as well! There goes that And yeah, makes me curious if we could see these DLC chapters - and maybe even some demo-esque thing - pretty much every year until Part II (which I'm guessing is probably 2023/2024 at the earliest?). Keeps it fresh and us involved I guess? Surprised it wasn't any of the other titles we heard of, but just spotted The First Soldier is a mobile game (trailer just went up on the FF channel): That one stings a little. That title is way too cool and evocative to just be for a battle royale mobile game! Please don't be story related...

Considering the upgrade is free and it's just DLC chapters we're paying for, I actually don't mind. It helps tide us over until the next game, and I think it gives the team a good chance to figure out the other characters mechanically too. Definitely prefer it over waiting in silence, anyways!

Get Intergraded. Free upgrade for PS4 players to PS5, Yuffie Episode available for purchase separately in that case. PS5 enhancements breakdown:

Free upgrade. And oh deary me, a photo mode?! Wow, this is so unlike Square Enix guess I'm going back for that Platinum this year instead of waiting around for Part II then!

YUFFIE! AHHHHHHHH They're making us buy this again, aren't they?

Kena being in August feels so right, definitely has that cosy, late summer game vibe. Selfishly kind of sucks it's so far away, but by all means, let it cook, there's plenty of other stuff to play, and it's important that Ember Lab get it right. Also, did we see that mask in the last trailer? Because you can definitely tell they were the ones to make that Majora's Mask fan film just based on that Also effectively nips the bud on the whole CES list of dates I guess? Unless we're going to argue it got delayed six months due to COVID, which is totally possible

Okay but seriously, how many times can you show Oddworld?

Yeah, though it looked good! I still really just want to see a solid 10 minutes of gameplay or so without interruption just to get a better idea of the moment-to-moment gameplay flow, though. Yeah, same boat here (and it's weird me not being hyped as heck for an event for a change). One meaningful update on a game beyond June, like footage for Horizon or something like that, would leave me satisfied. Feels weirdly low stakes, but it's nice for a change.

Anyone else tuning in? I almost fell asleep watching the return of the animations similar to what we saw at last year's PS5 events

Original game development at Japan Studio is winding down, reports VGC. Their original efforts include Gravity Rush, Knack, and Ape Escape, and in recent years they have been probably most noticed for their role in developing 2018's Shadow of the Colossus and last year's Demon's Souls alongside Bluepoint Games. This follows Project Siren/Team Gravity leader Keiichiro Toyama leaving with Sony Japan veterans Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura to form Bokeh Game Studio late last year. Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa also left earlier this week, amongst others. According to VGC's sources, this is happening because Japan Studio hasn't been profitable enough in recent years, but also because of the shift in power away from Japan to the US internally at PlayStation over the last half a decade or so. It is unclear at this time what will become of their External Development Department (the team which collaborated last year with Bluepoint on Demon's Souls), but one source suggested it would continue as is. ASOBI Team, the studio behind Astro Bot, appears unaffected, and will remain a standalone studio, with some remaining members of Japan Studio being moved over to ASOBI for their next endeavours. This sucks.

For a split second there... This countdown has been a serious rollercoaster of emotions