Julius

Man, this was so exciting. Can definitely see why they wanted people tuning in - imagine all of this news was delayed from SWC's cancellation, so nice to get it all at once, even if it does feel a little overwhelming! Ahsoka is exciting, though yeah, with it being set during The Mandalorian and considering what happened in Mando recently, this is absolutely setting up the Rebels animated sequel. I guess that might be a bit further off than I wished. My hope is this is where they're going to let Filoni spearhead and direct his own live-action project all the way through, because that's the next stepping stone in his development. I think that would be the most exciting part to me! Also, major World Between Worlds vibes from that logo... Andor - lovely sizzle reel, always great to see BTS stuff and hear how excited the cast and production staff are for the project, and that concept art looked great! 12 episodes, going to be so much fun, can't wait; crazy to think it's been 4 years next week since Rogue One released! Need to rewatch that film soon... Obi-Wan Kenobi - still a terrible misstep by Abrams to not have Hayden appear in Rise of Skywalker, but whatever, he's here now in a project I care much more about. With the casting of Hayden it makes me think we're getting flashbacks (could we see Hayden and Ewan in their armour from TCW?!) to The Clone Wars, which I think would be awesome, but also I think it gives me a bit more confidence that this is going to be an Obi-Wan introspective series. The idea of him leaving Tatooine was always my main potential gripe for how this might be handled, I wanted Kenobi staying on Tatooine to protect Luke and of course to learn from Qui-Gon (speaking of whom, got to imagine we might get some conversations with Liam Neeson at some point?). I think this could be Kenobi reflecting on his life and fighting his inner demons, a lot of events of The Clone Wars, what happened with Anakin, losing Qui-Gon, etc., and through deep meditation perhaps even stumbling across a mechanical and almost inhuman presence through the Force, leading to a confrontation - through the Force - with Anakin/Vader. It's what I've been hoping the series would be since before it was even announced, so all of my fingers are crossed for it. Also, maybe have him attacked by Tusken Raiders at some point and her goes all Avatar-state like, sandstorms whipping up around him, and either controls a Krayt Dragon through the Force or creates the illusion of one, leading to the Tuskens being terrified of him and his Krayt Dragon scream in ANH? One can dream hands down my most anticipated Star Wars project in the works. Fingers crossed for 2022? Rangers of the New Republic - another one set around the time of Mando, looks like we're finally going to get that era fleshed out much more (and thank goodness, there's some 30 years to fill between ROTJ and TFA!). There were rumours about a Cara Dune show previously, and while I don't want that (she's great as part of an ensemble in Mando, but don't think she has the acting chops to lead) the lack of a mention of Cara here seems to suggest she won't be in it? I really hope it's just the New Republic pilots from Mando in a space buddy cop show. The Bad Batch - looks absolutely stunning, getting that higher budget like The Clone Wars season 7 did, clearly! Really excited for this with so many key staff members from The Clone Wars returning, no doubt we saw this sizzle reel because it's not too far away (I'm guessing we'll get it in H1 2021? That's always been the vibe I got at least), going to be interesting to see the transition from the Republic to the Empire from the inside. Again, for me it's basically more Clone Wars, so...I can't wait! Oh, and, Kamino! Wonder if we'll see the unfinished Kashyyyk arc from TCW here too, and quite possibly the Boba arc, depending on when that was set? EDIT: upon rewatching, do I spy a Fennec Shand? And Bracca from the start of Fallen Order (is it maybe also in the concept art for Andor too with that scraped Venator)? Heck yeah! Visions - YES, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT YESTERDAY WHEN I MENTIONED TAKING RISKS BEFORE! I actually stopped myself from typing "maybe a Star Wars anime series? Would love to see ufotable's interpretation of a lightsaber duel", and while not ufotable, it's awesome to have some creatives from outside of Hollywood stepping in, cannot wait to hear what they've got cooking, and I'm super excited for the art style reveal! Lando - my favourite part of Solo and Donald Glover is the best so heck yeah I'm in. The Acolyte - yes, finally some news on a High Republic series! Thought it was odd there was no video game/series announcement tied to it, well, I guess here it is. It could be about the Jedi, but given how the word Acolyte is used in Star Wars - Acolytes of the Beyond from the Aftermath novels, Dark Acolytes from canon and the EU - I wonder if maybe they're hinting at something a bit darker here? A Droid Story - another no brainer. Lucasfilm Animation + ILM?! Hell yeah. Really curious to see where in the timeline this could drop, because it's super vague. I'd love to see a kid Ben Solo going on adventures with 3PO and R2, though I doubt that's it Taika's project - I mean, it's an update, and that's more than we can say we've got for Rian's trilogy or the Feige-produced project (unless it's one of the above?). But really weird to be honest. Still hope it's different to what we've had in Star Wars before; still holding out for a comedy club in the seedy underbelly of Coruscant! Rogue Squadron - heck yeah, this is going to be Starfighter Battle: The Movie and I'm all about it. A Patty Jenkins-helmed Star Wars film sounds super interesting, and really excited to see the potential for tie-ins (this is surely going to have a tie-in game, right?). Sucks we're going to be waiting until 2023 - so another 3 years! - for the next Star Wars film, but with the strength of the lineup they're assembling with their Disney+ shows, I don't blame them. That's a great way to get fans back on board (a year out and I still feel jaded about how TROS turned out). Overall, awesome set of announcements. Was not expecting this much at all, even with the hype they were building up for the event. Now hopefully everything goes smoothly with production and we don't get more projects getting canned... UPDATE: also, I missed it as it was announced at the start, but The Mandalorian season 3 is being billed for Christmas 2021. And some more details I missed/are mentioned in the press release: - Ahsoka is being completely written by Dave Filoni, and executive produced by Filoni and Favreau. - the synopsis for The Acolyte seems to all but confirm we're seeing the other side of things at the end of the High Republic era! "...a mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era." The High Republic era ends around 100 BBY, around 70 years before The Phantom Menace...could we potentially be about to see the story of the rise of Darth Plagueis?! - Kathleen Kennedy also stated that Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka will crossover with future seasons of The Mandalorian, culminating in a "climactic story event". So, I'm reading that as either...

It's happening! And it's not Star Wars, but, well, it's Lucasfilm! Then back to Star Wars. Rogue Squadron directed by Patty Jenkins is the next theatrical release, coming in 2023!

Yeah, her and Boba Fett getting their own shows have been heavily rumoured the last month or two, and even if not her own series, I have to imagine they at least plan to potentially slot Dawson in elsewhere. The only reason I hesitate on there being a standalone Ahsoka series starring Dawson is because it depends on where in the timeline it lands, and also because...

Thanks for the heads-up, I missed the start! They mentioned they have 10 Star Wars series planned to hit Disney+ in the next few years...so confirmed we already have Mando S3, Bad Batch, Kenobi, Cassian, and Headland's planned series, and after those a Rebels sequel show is probably the most likely by a long shot. Even treating that as all but confirmed, after that they're still expecting another 4? Exciting times! sounds like they have similar ambitions for Marvel and their animation arms too, really nice to start hearing more about Disney+ now we're a year in.

Disney are hyping up some major announcements here, which they haven't done before from what I can remember of previous Investor Days, so it just got much more difficult to maintain low expectations. And Matt Martin from the Lucasfilm Story Group is too, even saying to tune in. Starts at 21:30, so...I guess I might find myself paying some attention to this and leaving The Game Awards highlights for tomorrow still? They've never hyped these things up before... Fingers crossed the actual Star Wars part isn't too late, because that's the only part I'll be staying up for!

Oh dang, that's a meaty patch, best make sure I've got that downloading too enjoy! Also, got to say I appreciate there being a reversible cover with the female protagonist. EDIT: also just a heads-up to those playing/will be playing, I've been reading into the settings of the game a bit because I'm fully expecting this game to give me a bit of a headache, mostly down to the first person perspective and multiple settings (nothing serious but I just know what my head can be like at times!), and there are quite a few you might want to turn off if it either makes you nauseous or looks washed out. I read up on the PC settings but not sure if all are on the next gen backwards compatible versions, maybe someone could confirm? Namely, for nausea, Chromatic Aberration, Motion Blur, and Depth of Field (last one is probably going to have less of a noticeable impact than the others, depends on if it doesn't make you feel off I guess). For looking washed out, might be worth turning off the Film Grain option. Lens Flare is also an option to watch out for, another one where it depends on your tastes and how you find it I guess!

So...what you're saying is it's going to be Ryuji, and we still won't have Persona 5 on Switch? All jokes aside though, very excited to see who's next!

Yep, they're also not all that fun to listen to at all for non-shareholders (all the content stuff will likely be saved for them, as well as any footage), at least going off the public ones I've listened in to. Though it was really interesting to just listen to Bob Iger take questions! Star Wars will probably be 30 - 60 minutes of that with a whole lot of preamble and probably praise for TCW S7/Mando S2 and their streaming numbers on Disney+. Fully expecting them to skim over the performance of the parks considering the closures due to COVID, though

New fighter reveal tonight at TGA's!

Copy arrived while I was on lunch and do the install has started! Really appreciate the inclusion of a physical Night City world map, can definitely see myself using it! Don't know if I'll get to the game before Saturday as I want to finish Uncharted 4 first (I know what I'm like, I'll just shelve it otherwise) and really want to dig my teeth into this when I do get the chance to play it (lord knows I'm spending a good chunk of time creating my V!), but hope everyone else has a good time in Night City! Fingers crossed everything runs smoothly

Yeah, the apps are inconsistent too, though been having much more joy with the app on the PS5 with the newer version. That being said, it's still loading up episodes when they require further buffering. Seems like a very shortsighted move by AT&T Warner, though. Anime is only growing in popularity and content is king when it comes to streaming, so selling off the largest anime streaming service in the world seems stupid, to put it bluntly. I'd guess they want to focus on a rotating monthly lineup instead, but still...urgh. But didn't they also get the US rights to Ghibli films for HBO Max recently? Weird move all around, to fight for that but then sell off your titan anime service. Something positive which will hopefully come out of this - from a fan and business perspective - is more shows getting dubbed, and sooner. Wouldn't be surprised if Sony did a total overhaul, started from scratch with a new platform, and merged Crunchyroll and Funimation into one new brand (which, you know, actually has an app which works well - they own Wakanim and Animelab already, right? So why is it only Funimation that I see complained about and is somewhat broken?). Guess we'll see how this goes...

Realised there was one coming up a few weeks and read about this yesterday. Expectations are high, so, naturally, I'm expecting to be disappointed At a minimum though, I'm expecting: some news on Bad Batch, Mando S3 confirmed and production starting soon, and then maybe an update on Kenobi (starts shooting next month of I'm remembering right?) and Cassian. But there's so much more they could reveal. We're still waiting on the Rebels sequel show, with whatever form that will take (personally I'd want it animated, I think the ideas of what we'll get might translate better to animation and The Clone Wars S7 shows what that team can do with a solid budget; at the same time, though, would understand wanting to go live-action as it typically draws in larger crowds); there are rumours of Boba and Ahsoka live-action shows (eh...); we've got all of the current projects in the works which we could get updated on (those mentioned above and then the Feige film, Waititi film, Rian's trilogy, J.D. Dillard's rumoured to have a project, and the Leslye Headland Disney+ show); and then there's always the potential for curveballs (potential for a High Republic show perhaps?). Not expecting any game announcements here (I mean The Game Awards are tonight so that's also a possibility, but still, they don't like to talk about those things here generally), but man, I just want to see some more risks taken. Feels like we've been waiting for reveals of older announcements for such a long time now that it's difficult to expect news on new projects we haven't heard of yet, though.

And just like that...

Agreed, that would be ideal. Bounce back and forth between awards and trailers/reveals and you'd have a decent balance. That being said, this will still probably be 3 hours or something ridiculous. Now there's just more time for ads! I mean, I guess the entire thing is an ad... Is anyone watching this live tonight? I have in the past but I've got work tomorrow, and going off previous Game Awards reveals, I don't think it's worth staying up for. The decision to have part of it live from the UK but then have it run at such a stupidly awkwardly time for us is pretty mind boggling to me, I think it would have been much better to aim for a time where most can watch it, but...that's American awards shows for you. Weird though because Geoff clearly is well aware of this fact, considering the timing of many of his streams in the summer. Sucks considering how global the industry is (it's not like the Oscars where so much of it is so established and concentrated in one country) but oh well, guess I'll just catch the highlights tomorrow

It's funny, this arrives today and I still have no idea if I'm going to end up playing it yet or not based on the comparisons coming out for the console versions. I mean, it looks fine on the PS5 and Series X with backwards compatibility, but yikes at that PS4/One performance, especially on the One S going sub-20 fps. Might find myself saving it until Saturday to see what other comparisons show, because I'm especially interested in what Digital Foundry will have to say. Or I might just boot it up and cross my fingers it's all fine Either way, it's a massive shame, and if ShopTo hadn't started prepping this so early compared to news of the console versions and that shocking news about the potential for the game to cause seizures (?! seriously, the hell were they thinking?!) I would have cancelled my order. I know we expected it to not run as well on the PS4/One consoles, but there's not really an excuse for it running as poorly as it does. Also seen a lot of photos showing off bugs, such as billboards showing 'Debug' during gameplay but then the actual advertisment in Photo Mode. Really on the fence with this for now, but in good news for CDPR: That's pretty insane!

Insomniac you gods. Performance Mode + Fidelity Mode doing a little fusion dance. Probably some in-between with 1080p and some sort of upscaling, but seems a fair trade-off for your rays to be traced and your frames to be coming at you 60 at a time

The Demon Slayer dub is finally releasing on Funimation tonight at 21:00 GMT! It's about time! heartily recommend it for anyone who wants awesome animation, a great soundtrack and OP, and a really well done first season to draw you in. Oh, and a really amicable protagonist. My younger brother got into the show and loved it, so I've been buying him the manga since (which I'm refraining from checking out myself!) and he's loved everything about it so far, which definitely has me excited for Mugen Train and the inevitable second season. Definitely worth your time if you haven't seen it already!

Ghost of Tsushima is the Player's Voice Game of the Year: Very much deserved in my opinion, one of my favourite games of this year for sure, and probably my favourite, realistically styled open world. Sucker Punch smashed it

Yeah, having listened to Ben's thoughts in the Easy Allies Impressions, it's going to be a weird launch. I expected bugs, but some of the ones mentioned in the review...I mean, yikes, having characters T-pose part of the way through a mission and having the male voice applied to the female V sound like such bizarre, immersion shattering things; from the sounds of it, that most recent delay was almost certainly to clean up the Day 1 patch (also agreed with @Cube that the review situation is weird, wonder if this is part of the reason why?). All the reviews/impressions I've seen so far have been on PC, so it'll be interesting to see how much of this applies to the console versions. It's a real shame. I'm still super hyped, but guess I'll be going into this a bit more cautiously than I might have been planning on. I think I'll see how the first 5 hours or so shake out technically before committing to completing the game in its current state (it's not like there aren't other things I'd like to play!). We've waited this long that while I'm happy to give it a shot, I really don't mind waiting some more if it's as bad as it sounds in some of these videos.

Currently at a 90 on Metacritic after 32 reviews. Some reviews and impressions to dig into: Let the hype take over

Had been debating whether I was going to play Demon's Souls and then follow it up with this so close to each other, but not playing games the last two weeks has put Demon's Souls on the backburner for me I'll get to it (eventually), but for now, enjoying something a bit shorter until Thursday now. ShopTo have emailed to say it's already at the warehouse, so all being well, it'll arrive on Thursday and on time Can't wait. Agree with @Ronnie that my preference would be a third person perspective, but fingers crossed this is one of those games where first person is done in a way which doesn't spin my head around! Still kind of sucks from a gear perspective, though...

Chapter 13 and 14 thoughts! Music, sets, et al all up to par as usual, though again, a few instances where it looked a little rough from a CG perspective. Solid pair of episodes, though I'll admit, Favreau and Filoni seem unhinged when it comes to fan service and character returns this time around, and does at times feel like its own beast when compared with how insulated Season 1's plot and characters were. Either way, can't wait until Chapter 15!

Anyone else check out the Season 4 opener for Attack on Titan last night? Huge change of pace and style, but I really enjoyed it. Love the art style MAPPA went with, much closer to the couple of pages I've seen of the manga, and animation quality was generally great, though I'll be the first to admit I don't like the Titans now being fully 3D (much preferred them in 2D, but still, a big step up from the 3D animation we had before) - though, I only think I've had a handful of instances where I've actually appreciated 3D being well in a 2D space. OP kind of feels like a baby gender reveal with all that coloured smoke... but still like it. Not as hyped as the Linked Horizon openings, but given the change of pace, not too surprising that they chose to go with something else, and I dig it. Gave me the chills. Oh, and also loved that they kept the episode panel and a bunch of other smaller details consistent with the earlier seasons. Hadn't been too well last week, so found myself wanting to be away from screens in general, and caught up on the My Hero Academia manga instead; it's probably somewhere towards the end of what I imagine will be Season 6 now after Chapter 293 yesterday, and holy heck, some of the best arcs/moments are still to come to the anime! Got the Vigilantes volumes on the way too... Naturally, catching up with the manga got me watching Heroes Rising, and while I did enjoy it (the hype and soundtrack is like soup for the soul when you're feeling down) and though it was much better than Two Heroes, still think it was a general step down (also I'm not the biggest fan of semi-canon films, wish they'd follow Demon Slayer's example and just adapt the next arc into a film, or, tell a story which could be consistent with the manga/show) and not a great tradeoff for the animation quality in S4 dipping compared to previous seasons. Which leads me onto... Well, so much for Horikoshi not having anything left for films at least Bones have separate dedicated divisions for their series and films now they've restructured a bit, so fingers and toes crossed this won't have an impact on the latter half of Season 5 in particular. This has all resulted me in rewatching the show, about a third of the way through Season 4 again now. Season 1 was much better than I remembered it being, definitely think it only being one cour really helped its pacing; Season 2 is still probably my favourite overall, as the animation quality, plot, and characters all felt like they're the best we've got in the show so far; and Season 3 takes a bit of a dip in animation quality compared to Season 2, but it's still my second favourite by some margin, with probably my joint favourite fight sequence. It's funny not being that far into Season 4 and just how obvious the dip in animation quality is with the number of wider shots of the class they've used, I really do hope Season 5 doesn't get hit by the film's production. Either way, Shoto is still the best. Also, I only realised during my rewatch that Yuki Hayashi is the composer, funny how many tracks sound so similar to his awesome Haikyuu soundtracks!

PS4 Pro and PS5 gameplay (free next gen upgrade still coming next year).

So, I reinstalled the game. I've had speed running on my mind all day! So I'm not getting to Demon's Souls for a few more days Finally got a sub-40 second time on Mountain Run. Ending is still a bit iffy to be honest, and not my smoothest start, but broke the top 1000 at least!