Julius

I think they do? Going off the end of this ad anyways: Compare it with the same one uploaded to the PlayStation channel and it doesn't have the PS opening/closing or the additional "play it on" part, so yeah, have to imagine Xbox have the marketing rights to it. I think it might be the reason, but I'm not too sure. The fact that PlayStation discussed this with CDPR first at least makes it feel open. I mean, does it really run that much better on the original One than the base PS4? Surely not? I don't have an Xbox so can't comment, but for anyone that does: how is their refund policy compared with PlayStation's? I know PlayStation can be hit and miss when it comes to refunds at times (before the confirmation today of what would be done, I read some accounts where they were able to get the game refunded, and others where they were denied), so it might just be that they're overwhelmed with complaints and refund requests for the same game and decided they've had enough, especially considering the size of their install base.

Yep, have to agree with you here. It blows my mind that third parties (especially the massive ones) manage to get this so consistently wrong, and the times where they get it right, of course, it's brushed under the table - perhaps as it should be! Isn't the expectation that when you buy a game it works? I've said it before, but I played Ghost of Tsushima on a base PS4 in the summer, and though I feel it could've done with a little more polish (only issues really were general open world game launch issues), the loading times and the way that game looked on a base PS4 is astounding. Same goes for The Last of Us Part II, which I don't think I encountered any issues with at all? You can tell that game has been polished well beyond what they could have got away with. And look, I know Naughty Dog is a first party studio and so the expectation is that they'll optimise the game for the console (as they should), but looking back at the delays and talks of crunch, at least it was seemingly being spent mostly on crushing bugs and polishing the game further. I think back to Breath of the Wild and how we never heard about crunch (yeah it was in development for a while, but Cyberpunk was - well, they say - in development even longer!) and the only technical issues in that game of any real note were frame rate dips (in a certain forest especially). Not ideal, but for the sheer scale of that game it's astounding how polished it was, and ditto for most other Nintendo games. And PlayStation Studios games. As you mentioned, they just get it right. But even when it comes to third parties, again, there are some who get it right. I played Final Fantasy VII Remake at launch on a base PS4, and again, it ran great. I think there was one game-breaking bug you could trigger towards the end in the vents (which I'm not sure is fixed...but the game auto-saves just before, so as long as you have that turned on, not too big an issue), one or two frame rate dips, and one or two instances of poor texture pop-in (that door ), but again, nothing which is going to kill the experience dead in its tracks. I look at CDPR now and I'm concerned for their team: they've been crunching for nearly a year now, the game has launched a mess compared to where it objectively should be for a game to launch, and so now they have multiple, big patches in the works and the next gen upgrades being developed too. Assuming we still get the latter by the end of next year, that's still going to be nearly two years of crunch - so I hope some of their employees have the wisdom (and offers) to bounce. I imagine it's because on PS5 you're playing the PS4 version through backwards compatibility? So would still need to buy the PS4 version of the game, which would be weird I guess to not have on the PS4 Store and the PS App, but have it only exclusively on the PS5?

Well...holy smokes. It's the right move, though. Even forgetting how it runs on the base PS4 for a moment, and looking at the Pro and PS5, when your ability to play the game to a level where you can actually consistently enjoy it is based on the sheer luck of the draw that is the game's bugs and crashes, it's absolutely in a state where this is warranted. I can't speak to how it runs on Xbox, but I believe what I saw on the Series S and original One looked very poor too. I'm not sure if Xbox's refund policy is already in a place where they're confident to continue with the game on their store, though, but it'll be interesting to see if Xbox have anything to say. Also, for those playing on PlayStation: the updates will still be coming, per the latest statement from CDPR. This whole thing is absolutely nuts.

I love how he calls out Square Enix in a pretty roundabout way there, when it comes to trying to get other Final Fantasy tracks in the game Song List (9 tracks in total): Pretty solid all around, would have love another variation of JENOVA, and of course for Birth of a God and Those Chosen By The Planet to get some love, but...swept under the rug, once again! Also, that victory screen!

I noticed that too still trying to hold out hope that like One Winged Angel it might have the original and AC version, but I doubt it (and it makes me sound greedy )... And it does, it looks fantastic! I might not play Smash Ultimate as much as I played Brawl growing up, but it's hard not to appreciate just how much love and passion goes into these games when we end up with things like this. Sakurai is one of those rare developers I always get excited to listen to...even in cases when he's teaching us how to use our fingers to count with binary

We have JENOVA. We win. Please Birth of a God and maybe some cool take on Those Chosen By The Planet? Please..? And we've got the Main Theme! Ahhhhhhhh it's all happening!

This is sounding like an absolute win so far. We're getting Cosmo Canyon, so yeah Also, the electric guitar remix of Those Who Fight/Fighting sounded like it was trying to evoke The Black Mages? Which is to say it sounded awesome and I actually want to hear The Black Mages in Smash now I've had that thought kind of sounds like the Advent Children version though, so could be that?

Decided to tune in... ...and starting with a bang with Barret, Tifa, and Aerith Mii fighters, huh? ALSO THE MUSIC PLEEEEEASE LET THIS MEAN WE'RE GETTING MORE FINAL FANTASY MUSIC!

Just installing Warzone now to see if it's still working, thanks for the heads-up either way! Seems like the steps might be a bit longer for those of us in the UK (on PS5 at least): 1) Install Warzone 2) Open Warzone 3) In Warzone, access the Franchise Store and download the Black Ops Cold War MP Free Access (The promo they are running over christmas to try out MP) 4) This should in theory then trick the PS store in to giving you the cross gen bundle for £5 rather than £65 5) Enjoy Cod for £5 If you have a PS4, I think you can skip ahead to step 3 - I believe the MP Free Access should be under the Demos tab in the PS Store on PS4?

Empire

No surprises here. Disney Gallery for Season 2 of Mando coming on Christmas. Always love Star Wars behind-the-scenes stuff, so looking forward to this! One-off, hour long episode according to the official site.

Continued my journey on, down The Lord's Path aaaaaaaand...yep, been hit with that patent Souls difficulty slap. Or at least it feels that way. First time through, I made it to the end against the Tower Knight without much of an issue. Took it slowly, took my time, managed to avoid the flames of that red dragon on every bridge, scoured areas as much as I could, finding my buddy Ostravus again and giving him a hand. Side note: I really like how straying from the beaten path rewards you with character interactions - even if the shopkeeper does give me the creeps which makes me want to cut him down - and saving Ostravus then having him lead the way and take some people down is a great way to repay you in terms of gameplay, which I don't think I've experienced in other games this much before? Anyways, the guy kind of lost the plot and started waving his sword at nothing, nowhere near the guys he was trying to attack (...unless he was waving?), but I appreciate the effort. But yeah, that first run went really smoothly...until I got to Tower Knight. I know I need to slice his heels, gamer gut feeling thing, and so chopped down all of those archers around us and made my way back down, but I just couldn't get inside, and the angle never opened up. Is it because I'm locking on and strafing? Used up waaaaaaay too many health items, and just as I thought I was starting to make some progress, he took me out by hitting me with his spear to stun me, when I was backed up against one of the longer walls to the sides, and then shield slammed his flames at me. No big deal, I thought. If I could get that far the first time, this should be fine, I'll get him next time! So thinking back to it, I kind of rushed things, and instead of going under the second bridge I went over it, sprinting across, and didn't gauge my timing or the length of the bridge correctly (or both), and got killed by the flames of that damn red dragon. Souls were lost. The red dragon killed me a couple more times, I lost to the blue-eyed knights before the final fog door before Tower Knight a couple of times, and I got cornered by wolves in the underground area. The AI in this game seemed a bit more temperamental in this area than it was before (maybe because it's a pretty tight space the whole way?); I don't need encounters to play out the same every time, but every time I went to make my way across - even after coaxing out to burn the bridge and running behind it - the red dragon would take a different length of time to come back out, and the archers by the blue-eyed knights would be static one time - meaning they were easy to kill with a bit of patience - but other times they were running back to the blue-eyed knight, and I was taking on a tank while being shot with arrows again. It makes the game unpredictable, for better and worse; going to be more patient when I give it another try tomorrow. And there's definitely a bit of jank when it comes to the game's combat, because even though it nails the heft of the weapons and rolls, it just feels off at times, and not as reactive. And then there are the times where I'm still accidentally pressing square and either wasting grass or, in some cases, think I'm eating grass but instead I'm lighting my sword on fire and get killed when I should have healed myself. I'm definitely still on that learning curve! I did make it back to the Tower Knight in the end, but got cornered again; I didn't even get a hit in this time. Could sense I was getting frustrated, so even though I'd invested another two hours into the game this evening, I chose to put the game down. Get the feeling it's going to be one of those classic gaming things, where I can't do it no matter how many times I try, and a day later I'll do it with much more ease. We'll see I guess On the upside, I've ended up with a ton of Hardstone Shards, and thank goodness, because I accidentally spent some on the Bastard Sword for an upgrade...not knowing it was a two-handed weapon. Yeah, like I'm doing anything in this game without a shield; this is going to be like the shotgun and torch for me in The Last of Us, always equipped and drawn because I know there's going to be something out there and then I spent a load of Souls not knowing what to do with them but wanting to spend them before going back out to 1-2 (I went back to The Nexus when I started today), so stocked up on way too much grass (which, again, I completely wasted) before learning that the Maiden in Black would accept them to level up my stats. But speaking of The Maiden, she needs to learn to give better directions! I spent a good 10 minutes looking for The Monumental after her vague "go through those doors" direction, only to find a bunch of staircases and different floors Overall, a bit more of a frustrating session today when compared with yesterday's. I'm still learning and getting to grips with the game, so this was bound to happen. Feel like maybe I'm too invested in retrieving Souls that I lose? Anyways, it's going to take a lot more than my experience today to dissuade me from trudging on, because when this game clicks, it feels so good. It's just unfortunate that there's a bit of jank to hold it back elsewhere, but I've found it clicking much more than I've encountered jank (so far)

When I first saw it last night I was thinking the exact same thing, so you're not the only one! All Might with Hulk's face on closer inspection...

Gnosia? It's weird because I think it showed poorly, but swear I've heard of or seen it somewhere before. I feel like it was well received in Japan? Got to look it up. EDIT: yeah, thought I'd seen it before. It received some great reviews in Japan, got a 10/10 from IGN Japan. Huh. Still think it showed really poorly here, though.

Among Us on Switch. Of course! Shadow droooooop.

Montage time, the true staple of any Nintendo showing Hazel Sky and Trash Warriors looked quite interesting though!

Cyber-Shadow looks like way more Yacht Clubs awesomeness, loved the little I played of Shovel Knight a few years back. That pixel art looks so good! ...how many cat games are we getting? And someone please stop the puns! Alba: A Wildlife Adventure looks phenomenal though. Love that art style, seems super charming! Happy Game was like Inside meets a fever dream. Huh. Count me intrigued. When they started showing Super Meat Boy Forever, thought they were going to say "At last Team Meat finally has a release date for this" December 23rd though!

Yep, pretty my exact thoughts too Spelunky and Spelunky 2 on Switch? That's a win for everyone. Summer 2021? Why so long a wait..? Fisti-Fluffs looked like chaotic fun

Donkey Kong Country 3, The Ignition Factor, Super Valis IV and Tuff E Nuff all coming to Switch Online's SNES collection this Friday.

Well, with Cyberpunk not wanting to play nice leading me to shelving it for the time being, but me clearly in the mood for a long-ish RPG...I decided it was time to boot this up. I'm a bit over 2 hours into my first From Software game, and have just cleared 1-1. Taking it very slow trying to get a feel for the combat and to gauge which enemies I can and can't take on, which I'm still adjusting to (keep forgetting to lock on!), and died a few times already. Which has also been its own interesting experience once I figured out I could go and get the souls back so long as I didn't die. For anyone wondering, I went with being a Knight, and decided (after very little research) to grab a Providential Ring at the start. First death was to the Vanguard Demon, quite predictably, though I did much, much worse than I had expected to against the big guy: I kind of cornered myself immediately when trying to gauge his swing, and after five or six rolls weren't enough to get me out of an awkward position, got hit with the old one-two and was down for the count. The next time was a hole. After that it was a red-eyed demon. And then him again. And again. I learned a valuable lesson about being willing to just grab my souls and run away, that's for sure Game looks gorgeous, playing in Performance Mode so it feels super smooth, and I'm quite liking the feel of the haptic feedback so far (even if it's dialled way down compared to something like Astro's Playroom). I feel like I might need to turn the brightness up, because it's ridiculously hard to see in some of the darker areas, but I guess that's the point? Level design has been really solid so far, I love the shortcuts and just how natural the location's layout feels, because in some other games I know levels can feel a bit contrived at times. Really appreciate the incorporation of the bloodstains and messages too, adds a completely new dimension to the game. Been tricked once or twice, but also loved how simple the tutorials were, so can't complain! The number of deaths I witnessed with people throwing themselves from high points in The Nexus is admittedly a little concerning, though music has made my ears perk up a couple of times too already, I'm a big fan of the main theme of the game in particular; foreboding, menacing, and completely overpowering, I love it! Super early impressions, but yeah, I'm digging it so far. It's super tense and has me on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding like only The Last of Us games has before for me, hopefully I'll adapt a bit before the end of the game though because that can't be healthy for my back! only thing which has felt a bit off so far has been lining up heavy attacks, there are times I'm square on with enemies, launch a heavy attack at them, and completely miss. It's just weird is all, I'm sure I'll get used to it! Oh, and Phalanx is perhaps the weirdest boss I've ever come across, in appearance and the tactics required to beat it. I mean, I guess Firebombs aren't so weird a tactic...but yeah, I was long out of them, so spent probably 20 minutes cheesing it by locking on and strafing around the room, coming in to take out one of the little sludge shield dudes at a time, and then backing back off. Was not what I was expecting from my first Souls boss experience, that's for sure! Not super sure where I'm going next. I think 1-2 has opened up (The Lord's Path?) but I know I can return to The Nexus and start another world too. I think I'll stick with 1-2 for now, but does anyone have any tips on the order to take things on? Or just any general tips for the game?

Thursday's stream is already up? I mean, nice to see they're prepared I guess... Might check out the highlights, really interested to see what Sakurai has to say about Sephiroth

A...Star Wars Direct?! High Republic livestream event coming at 17:00 GMT on 4th January 2021! From the official site: Exciting stuff!

Think I'm going to have to shelve this for now, unfortunately. Two more crashes today (not a great way to wind down playing after work), lost quite a bit of progress, and had a couple of quests about to finish off before the police randomly turned up and killed me. I'm quite patient when it comes to these things normally, but a game like this is long enough as it is, and it just makes it so much more difficult to invest time into. It's hard to enjoy playing after a long day at work, when at the back of my mind I'm waiting for it to crash again Sucks, because I've been excited for this game for so long, but I'm finding it harder to like the game the more bugs I encounter, and it's made it difficult to gauge my own enjoyment of the game itself. It's definitely more Deus Ex from the little I've seen of those games, than it is GTA. It's an impressively constructed world which looks great, and the story was starting to get interesting, but it hasn't hooked me enough to the point that I'm willing to play the same missions over and over because of crashes (to be honest, very few games I'd put up with that for - I hate wasted time). Little aside totally separate to my experiences with crashes, but also found this game did a really poor job with its tutorials and menus, it feels like a lot of stuff is buried? Read that the guide is much more helpful in that regard, so might pick that up at some point. It sucks, but there are other things I have to play, so it's not that big a deal. I might just hold out until the next gen patch at this point, to be honest, whenever that ends up landing. Glad to see everything's generally been going smoothly for others playing though, and glad to see people enjoying it too

I really don't play enough indie games...but excited to watch nonetheless! Would be such a weird move to save Silksong for this and not have it at The Game Awards last week, but then again, considering Nintendo had a big Smash trailer to show off, I get it. The wait for a Direct proper...continues