Julius

Overview trailer: Guess they had to keep the Direct VO guy in work somehow

I guess this belongs here more than the Series X thread? Over 150 games will be available through Cloud Gaming when Xbox Game Pass Ultimate beta launches on Android tomorrow. I'm just saying, with Yakuza now available on the go, there can be no more excuses

I'm curious to see if it's a 1:1 across the board, or if it's going to end up being say £449 in the UK as opposed to £499, just considering how Xbox has priced their next gen consoles in the UK. Not convinced they need to do that to be honest, but just interested to see how it plays out

Yeah, I installed that on my SNES Mini (as well as IV and V after picking them up on the PS Store, just so I felt like they'd got their fair share out of me), but figured first time through I'd rather stick to the original version. I read through the notes on that and the IV Namingway Edition though, and man do they have some good changes from a QoL perspective. Nice! I'm saving the Plat for closed to Part II, just as an excuse to make sure I go through Remake again always wanted to check out Crisis Core but haven't got a PSP, hope they port it one day!

Yeah that's fair enough, appreciate a good JRPG grind it's funny because the only other turn-based FF's I've played so far had speed up options (the PS4 releases of VII and IX) so VI felt strange to go back to in that regard, but grinding is like comfort food so I didn't mind at all. I've read mixed things about the PSP port, I think it's based on the PS1 version which was included in Final Fantasy Anthology, and if so is infamous for its poor load times. I played it on the SNES Mini (basically picked it up just for that - worth it), but honestly the only other modern alternative that comes to mind is mobile...and those sprites are disgusting. And this is exactly why we need a I - VI Collection for modern consoles. Especially now that VII - XV is on/coming to everything (minus XI as it's a shuttered MMO; XIII because of...issues with PC port hinting that there are going to be problems with porting it in general; and XIV because MMO) - it's time! I just hope they use the original sprites, or otherwise just polish them a bit, because man does Square Enix make some poor decisions on that front with the modern sprites (FF on mobile and the recent DQ I - III ports).

I thought about that too, so if that's the case, they should've just jumped ahead to Six or even Ten if they did want numbers (and if not, should've just started with Xbox X and S imo, still no need for the 'Series'). Or give it an actual name, because we're bound to end up with numbers again anyways (X2 and S2, etc.). Could've just stuck with Scarlet and Lockhart, or heck why not do the colours of the rainbow? Infinity? Zero to denote a restart? And thing is, they went back from 360 to One. There's very little rhyme or reason to their names (I mean I guess 360 might have been more an architecture thing? And One for the all-in-one entertainment system. But then why Series?). They shouldn't have done that or this, in my opinion We saw what happened with the Wii U, and so did they. Even with current gen off the shelves, the last thing you want is for customers to hesitate for a second and think that it's not the newer console. It's just poor branding/marketing otherwise.

VI is probably 30 - 40 hours long I'd say? I finished it with nearly 42 hours on the clock iirc, but that was also with a few hours of totally unnecessary grinding for an item (which was totally worth it) so can definitely shave a bit of time off if you know what you're doing!

Yeah, I think the name is terrible. It's a good job they're taking last gen off the shelves and stopped production, because it could've destroyed their plans. I mean, we saw it with the Wii U. I don't get why they're so adamant about not using numbers; in my opinion, should really have just continued down the path they were on and have the Xbox Two X and S. Down the line it might make a bit more sense of their plan is to have the Series X2 and S2 next, which I think could work a bit more as a differentiator, but...I just don't get the need for the 'Series'. Heck, I think 'Xbox X' and 'Xbox S' would have worked better. It's pretty much the worst differentiator imaginable in my opinion, I mean imagine if we had the first season of The Mandalorian followed by the second season called The Mandalorian Season One. Again, WHY EVEN RISK getting close to a Wii U situation when you're already playing catch-up in hardware sales? And even if you were leading? My favourite reaction from last year's Series X reveal was from Easy Allies. These are people in the industry who had been covering the Scarlet and Lockhart rumours on their podcasts for a year or so by this point, and still had no idea what was going on until the date dropped I think it's the biggest concern for me when it comes to Xbox's plans, besides the first party gap (which they're already hard at work on filling up). They have a great product at a great price with a great service in Game Pass, but the hardware side of things rides on the average consumer being fully aware that this is their next gen offering. I don't think we'll be able to tell for a while how well it's been communicated.

Continued the journey today...after a few hours spent grinding I remember there being difficulty spikes when the world opened up in VI and VII, and though IX had been very good up until then with no need for a grind, I figured why not? I'd probably end up grinding way more at the end of the game otherwise (literally spent 5-10 hours grinding in VI before the final dungeon), and with some characters in the high -teens and others in mid-to-late twenties, yeah, just seemed like the time. Spent a couple of hours grinding the core cast to around LV 40 (kind of last track when listening to the soundtrack and podcasts on the background!) before I caved and looked up the Grand Dragon grind to bring everyone else up to speed too. So suffice to say I shouldn't need to grind for a while Story is still awesome, characters are still great, and man I just love this world and this soundtrack so much. Have no idea how long is left, but still having a blast

Some new info on Legends from the recently released artbook: Key takeaways: - exaggerated landscapes and enemies - new enemy types and bosses - a tease of the multiplayer menus Going to be honest, so much going on in the world, I had pretty much forgot about this! Feels like the announcement was back in June looking forward to checking it out!

I'm pretty sure they have actually said that before though at other events (that there'll be no new PS5 news). Yeah they mentioned it last week as part of PSVR week, that's where it came from Am I the only one that finds it kind of funny they then dropped the PS5 Showcase date and time as early as they feasibly could on Saturday? Would've been been first thing at like 06:00 in LA think I even saw some journalists complaining about it, can't remember who though

Had a busy second half of the week so didn't get back to the game, and only put in a couple of hours in yesterday, but sunk a lot of time into it today to make amends. Love this game. Just got the Blue Narciss... I'm loving this game. Such great towns with awesome layout variety making them fun to explore, a killer soundtrack I'm sure I will continue to rave about long after I've finished the game, and a splendid cast. Everyone is getting their time in the limelight, and everyone has an interesting backstory and intriguing goals, with a lot of character development. Probably going to do a bit of grinding before I move ahead with the plot, just so everyone's on a level playing field after so long apart. Can't wait to spend some more time with it

A lot of people with (potentially) more knowledge about what's going on Wednesday coming out of the woodwork to tease things. I'll throw it in a spoiler tag just in case anyone wants to avoid it And then there are plenty of other rumours swirling around from months back about various other projects. Should be fun to see what comes to fruition and what these insiders will surely say has been held back for a later event if it doesn't turn up here Speaking of whom, I'm curious if anyone has a particular stance one way or the other on insiders? These days it seems like we get more and more legitimate leaks as time goes on!

Got the icon, just the cover art, but still looks quite nice: Also got our first look at the title screen and menu today during Nintendo Minute (~0:21 and ~0:57 respectively), looks really clean! Also apparently the menu music is from Galaxy 2, but I can't verify that as I've never played the game

What I'm guessing has happened is that the retailer had their first supply of 3D All-Stars completely bought out in pre-orders, and haven't heard from Nintendo UK about when the next supply will be due. Which is still a bit concerning. I have two copies pre-ordered from different retailers to get one for myself and another for my brother as a Christmas present (would have been the same place, but they sold out, and not expecting price to go down at all between now and then). We've seen how poorly Nintendo has handled supply and demand before (Mini consoles, for example), and while I'm sure there'll be more in stock soon, I'm still expecting the total number produced to be limited, just considering that we have an end date on when they're going to be selling copies. I think if you're interested in getting a copy, even at Christmas, you're probably going to be best off snagging a copy as soon as you can.

If I'm remembering right, it's very similar language to what we got with the PS5 Future of Gaming event back in June. Heavy focus on games in all their promotion, but we still ended up with a (very brief) look at the startup UI, the console itself, and accessories. With pre-orders going up live next Tuesday for Xbox's next gen consoles, I do genuinely think that anything but a price and release date announcement on Wednesday would be Sony shooting themselves in the foot. Selfishly I would want pre-orders to go live at the end of the event (mainly so scalpers aren't given a date and time), but I just don't see that happening unfortunately. Not saying you were suggesting other things weren't going to being there drahkon, just seemed like a natural segue Realistically, we've got Astro's Playroom and I would assume Spider-Man: Miles Morales at launch. They don't need anything else beyond that, but with everything going on with Demon's Souls lately, I think that's the only other potential AAA launch title from what we saw in June. We have the box art going up for pre-orders, but also ratings in both South Korea and Japan if I recall, as well as in-depth descriptions in its listings compared with other games which also received box arts on the same sites. Forget Xbox, I think them waiting this late to announce things has been heavily riding on potential delays . We've just seen Kena get delayed, and Deathloop was a few weeks ago (not launch titles as far as were aware, but worth mentioning I feel), so I think wanting to confidently come out and say "Yes, we have Astro's Playroom pre-installed, Spider-Man: Miles Morales at launch, and one more thing [Demon's Souls?]. Also, here's what to expect by next summer" had a big hand in this. I'm sure this news is ready to go and has been, so this is them getting in the race now, but I feel it justifies them holding out a bit more than Xbox did, as they have massive first party games to deliver at launch. But yeah, I'm super excited too! Hoping it's not just a rehash of what we saw in June with more gameplay (though I'm sure we'll see some for Spider-Man: Miles Morales and potentially Demon's Souls, amongst others). Not expecting an update on Horizon at this point, feel like they'd be best off waiting on that one. One or two surprises big third party surprises would be awesome - for me, this would namely be anything from over in Japan, like Final Fantasy XVI, a potential Konami team up, Dragon Quest XII, Persona 6, whatever Ueda is working on, etc. I'm already in and very excited, but news on one of those would send me over the moon!

PS5 Showcase at 21:00 BST this coming Wednesday!

The television adaptation of Console Wars is dropping on CBS All Access on 23rd September. Haven't yet found word on a UK/global release date, but looks good all the same!

Oh yeah, for sure. We've already seen developers a bit concerned by the limitations of the Series S. Was more talking about how the Xbox Six would be a better and funnier name for marketing purposes 'the Series X is more powerful, so yeah, bigger number than it our main competitor!'

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. The only games I personally want to play on an Xbox at the moment are their legacy titles, like Banjo-Kazooie and the Halo games, which isn't much of a reason to pick it up at launch. There also isn't anything they've announced yet going forward which has me saying "I have to play this game!", but hopefully that will change in a couple of years. Even the newer games they have like Ori and Cuphead that I do have a slight interest in checking out are on the Switch, so I'm happy with my Switch and PS4 for now, and still have plenty of games I want to check out (not to mention a few PS3 and DS/3DS games too), to the point I'm not even sure if I would have the time to fit a third ecosystem's catalogue in!

Oh wow, looks like Jeff Grubb was on the money with what he'd labelled 'Xboxing Week'. The following four-part Xbox News Briefing, which was scheduled for this coming week, has just leaked, giving us a look at how Xbox were likely planning on unveiling all of this week's Xbox news to partners, content creators, etc., before it hit Xbox Wire. I'm getting the feeling that whatever they had planned probably wasn't anywhere near as good as the info dump we ended up with. With no other news attached, I feel like the way it was handled is probably the best way to do it. Also @Cube regarding the thread title, I think I've seen it officially denoted as 'Xbox Series X | S' as the X is the primary console, but at the same time, I love that it reads as 'Xbox S I X' (Xbox 6) as it is, I mean I suppose it is a bit more powerful than the PS5

Been listening to a lot of gaming music at work (still doing a lot of manual work at the moment, a whole lot of spreadsheets, woo). Last few days has been listening to everything I can on lara6683's channel, she's insanely talented! Favourites were Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Compilations, but there's so much more which is well worth checking out! And in case you needed any more evidence of her talent, there's this insane offhand medley from a while back she did melding together game, TV, and film music - all suggested to her by her Twitch chat - which actually went on for a total of around 2 hours on Twitch from what I've read elsewhere! Insane always a big fan of people just showcasing their passion, hard work, and talent for others to enjoy!

Virtually impossible to tell, but we saw the Series S way back in July on Phil Spencer's shelf: Gave me a chuckle

Yeah, that totally sucks, but understandable. Sucks even more so perhaps because they were literally just Game Informer's cover story, and I'm sure that might have helped get more eyes on the game too with a prospective Holiday 2020 release. Fingers crossed they don't end up with a weird release date where they butt heads with a bigger game in Q1, but regardless, still can't wait to play the game when it does make its way out. Hopefully this is only a small bump in the road, and the rest of development is smooth from here on in

...and now box contents and model numbers have leaked from Hong Kong. Any month now...maybe...