Julius

Well, that's another fine choice! Now we've heard his name thrown around, though, I could definitely see Mahershala as Henry. Makes me wonder if someone got their wires crossed before (or if there was just nothing to it to begin with).

Seems like one of my favourite Star Wars game, Star Wars: Republic Commando, might be getting ported to Switch soon (and potentially other consoles too?). Been meaning to replay Republic Commando for a while now, so a port to modern consoles would be a great excuse to go back Aspyr, too, who did the KOTOR mobile ports (and the recent Jedi Knight and Episode I: Racer ports). Wonder if we could get those and maybe the original Battlefront games at some point too...I know they're available on Xbox through backwards compatibility, but still, think a bunch of ports would be great. Let a guy dream. Wonder if this means a Partner Showcase is coming up? I have doubts over a general Nintendo Direct, just given how long it's at this point, but with us likely getting a Pokémon Direct at the end of the month for the 25th anniversary, and potentially something for Zelda's 35th, seems like this month could be about to get a bit busier. (which means I've got my hopes up too high and we'll end up with nothing )

Yeah, totally agree. Many of my favourite moments in games I've played, and my memories of them, are so heavily tied to the soundtrack. Honestly, the more games I play and video game soundtracks I experience, the more I get the impression that video game composers are at the forefront of modern music composition, and have been for some time. The quality, variety, and theory behind it all is just phenomenal, and that's no truer for a series than Final Fantasy (heck, I even listen to the XIV OST sometimes because I know I'll probably never get around to playing that game, and I still get chills). I'm really looking forward to seeing what they bring us in XVI and VII Remake Part II! And yeah, I think it's a shame. For me personally, I know that unless I'm playing something where I can zone out for a bit (playing FIFA, driving around an open world, or grinding) and stick a podcast or some music on, I really need to be in the mood to play some games, because there's just so much to engage with: the controller feedback, what's happening on screen, the music, the sound design, etc., and it's all part of the experience. It's part of the reason why I'm trying to get in the habit of playing some shorter games from time to time actually, because I've noticed that I tend to lean towards games heavier on plot (which normally means a longer game), which requires more of my attention than I might be able to fairly give it at any given time. Plus, it's not like there are a lack of shorter games for me to play Personally, I'm still waiting to be disappointed by the Final Fantasy I - VI Collection to turn out to just straight up be ports of the mobile versions. Maybe next year for the 35th anniversary if we're lucky I'd love for them to port Crisis Core over though, I definitely want to check it out, just can't justify picking up a PSP for it, and don't want to go through the hassle of getting it on my Vita.

Rumours going around that Mahershala Ali could play Joel in HBO's The Last of Us series... Can't wait to see that fanbase implode further if there's any truth to this, I didn't think it could get worse after the TLOU2 backlash, but this could be one way to do so Great actor, so I'd be up to see it, but it's one of those weird cases where I feel if the reverse was true - a white actor portraying an originally black skinned character - then how the backlash opposing that casting just wouldn't be perceived in the same way. Personally, I don't really care so long as the creatives think they're the right person for the job (which is pretty much how I view all of these situations). I guess it's also one of those cases where Joel already has a face attached, and if you can't get a white actor to look exactly like him, you could just as easily justify moulding him into having a different background, though if there's any truth to this, it does raise interesting questions about if the story will be in the same continuity, and also what the casting might be like for the rest of the characters. Guess we'll just have to wait and see, but hopefully some other big names get attached!

A couple of tidbits on the game from the Ubisoft Conference Call: the game will be developed in the Snowdrop Engine (which Ubisoft Massive has used previously for the Division games) and that it is not going to release prior to the Avatar game announced in 2017 (which is apparently still in the works). That one got delayed back in November to 2022, so that lines up with this not coming out until after the EA publishing deal is up. It's going to be a long couple of years waiting for this, but hopefully it'll be worth it! Curious to see if the basis of the publishing deal extends to marketing too (such as revealing the game), but I doubt it, seeing as it's already been announced (albeit just as being in the works).

Obligatory Digital Foundry tech review: Those reviews look great! Think I'll be saving picking this one up until I can get the chance to play through it with my brother, but I'm looking forward to it. As for IGN...yeah, their history speaks for itself. I'm all up for different reviewers with different opinions and different review scores, but they lost any credibility for me as reviewers when one of their points for scoring Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire down as a 7.8/10 for "too much water". There are many, many genuine reasons to mark that game down, but they're Hoenn remakes, what did they actually expect? Why not complain about the trumpets too while you're at it? I just don't think they're writing is generally that good either, to be honest, but obviously that varies from reviewer to reviewer. You only need to look at Dunkey's Spider-Man video for evidence of that (and their reactions to it which, again, speaks for itself). The most I pay attention to them these days is when they get some exclusive scoop, or get their score plastered on a magazine/game cover. It's unfortunate, but just comes with being a massive company with people moving on a lot of the time to bigger and better things I guess.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 announced: Recent rumours suggest Jason Momoa will be playing Knuckles. Which is... something.

Ever Crisis now trademarked in the US... Don't know if we'll necessary hear anything this weekend, but it's looking increasingly likely that we'll hear something soon. Maybe some (Zack?) DLC/spin-off which they sell separately and bundled with a PS5 remaster/the PC version?

So, a return to their previous form, more or less Meanwhile, in Japan, they're getting Shin Megami Tensei II...

Over the last week or two some streamers have been sharing more gameplay from Lance McDonald's homebrew 60fps patch, and it has just been released. Digital Foundry put out a great video on it last year:

Back in August, Black Myth: Wukong was revealed with a 13-minute pre-alpha gameplay video, garnering a lot of attention and acclaim for it's ambition. Developed by Chinese indie studio Game Science, a team comprised mostly of former Tencent employees, the game is a gritty take on the classical 16th-century Chinese novel A Journey to the West, and you will play as Sun Wukong, otherwise known as the Monkey King. It is currently planned for release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Microsoft Windows. Digital Foundry provided a breakdown of the tech behind the gameplay video: IGN China got the exclusive scoop just a few weeks after the gameplay video was dropped, sharing that this is the first of three Black Myth games planned by the team; considering this is one of the Four Classic Novels, it's possible the two other games might end up being based on either Water Margin (which Suikoden is loosely based on), Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or Dream of the Red Chamber, though given the length of A Journey to the West, it could just as well continue this game's story. They are aiming for at least 15 hours of gameplay, and that they don't plan on sharing any new footage until they feel like they can outshine that gameplay video. Well, it seems like they feel like they are already at that stage, as they have just released a new gameplay video today to celebrate the Year of the Ox. I think it looks fantastic, and though of course it remains to be seen how well this game will eventually perform on consoles, I'm optimistic, and would love for this to be a kickstart to AAA Chinese game development, because off the top of my head, no-one else really comes to mind as fitting that bill. I think it's also a great way of sharing landmark classical stories from different cultures, and would love to see others do similar for their own country's stories.

Seems like the destiny of Anthem should be decided shortly.

Seems like there might be some news related to FFVIIR at Saturday's Orchestra World Tour... ... it's going to be a PC port or PS5 upgrade, isn't it?

Yeah, I think HAL is a great shout. I'm all for companies locking down and acquiring studios they already have strong partnerships with. I think it makes much more sense that way, seeing as they will have the benefit of knowing the value and expectations of their relationship beforehand. That's the underlying reason that I'm still a little hesitant when it comes to some of Xbox's acquisitions. What have we seen from how their first parties are handled to suggest that these other studios will actually run well under them? Whereas obviously here and with many of Nintendo's other acquisitions, they have that working relationship already, and it just provides them both with a bit more security.

Spent some time with my Vita for the first time probably since it arrived nearly 2 years ago (!) and I set it up and dabbled in some things. Finally completed some games on it! I ended up playing through some shorter games this weekend (though the second one I moved over to my PS5 for in the end, because I realised there was a PS4 version, and I'll always prefer a bigger screen to a smaller one), and it's quickly grown on me. I really like that D-pad, the crispness of the touch screen, and just how tactile the buttons are. Also picked up a few more shorter games after doing a little more research on the games on there. A question about some of the titles though, namely Gravity Rush and Tearaway: for anyone who has played them on both the Vita and their PS4 counterparts, which do you think was the better experience? I'm thinking of picking them up at some point (not in any real rush, but maybe the sooner better, seeing how high the physical version of Gravity Rush Remastered has climbed), so I'm curious more than anything. Gravity Rush Remastered I've heard is really enjoyable and that Bluepoint did a great job of translating that to a home console experience, and like I said I'll generally lean towards a big screen experience over a small one, so I'm leaning towards Remastered over picking up the game on Vita. I've read pretty muddled things about Tearaway and Unfolded, though, so I'm wondering if anyone could give me some guidance there? From what I've read, it seems like it makes great use of the Vita's capabilities, and I've seen some say that the Unfolded version of the game drags on a bit by comparison, so I'm not really leaning in either direction too strongly at the moment.

That looks like the opening battle between Gengar and Nidorino, though here it's some unholy sight that's like a Charizard crossed with a Dunsparce. I thought this was Sugimori's concept art for Rhydon? Man, I really love looking back at Sugimori's older stuff. I don't know what it is about it, but there's just this unbridled sense of both simplicity and exploration that I really hope the core series games can one day achieve. Anyways, to the question at hand: it's a tricky one, and I've always found the question of what the first Pokémon was to be a little too open-ended. Being a fictional world, the question of what the first Pokémon is just isn't that simple, because we see different answers for very different lines of thinking. I've always viewed the question as being specific to the first to exist in the Pokémon world, but, again, it's just too vague a question for my liking. Rhydon might be the first Pokémon designed, so perhaps in our world it can be considered the first, but in the fictional world of Pokémon, it's just not, given the existence of the other answers to the question. As for Bulbasaur, I don't think it is either. First classified in the Pokédex by scientists in the world of Pokémon, sure, but that could just as well be any other Pokémon. As we see from other regions starting their respective Dex (what's the plural here, probably Dexes right? But I guess the plural of Pokédex would be Pokédices? Whatever, that's not important ) with the Grass-type starters, that just seems to be the order of things. It probably doesn't mean that Bulbasaur was the first discovered, or anything like that. It just means Kanto were the first to get out there with the Pokédex and classified their own Pokémon first. Mew I've always viewed as being more of an Adam and Eve situation from a religious perspective, and from a scientific one (especially given how heavily Gen I in particular leans into the themes of genetics, what with evolution, artificially created life, and cloning), I've always viewed it as the missing link which ties all Pokémon together. Despite being the creator of the Pokémon universe, and basically the closest thing to they have a capital 'G' god, I do consider Arceus to be the first Pokémon, in the context of the Pokémon world (when it comes to fictional worlds that's how I interpret the question, otherwise there's a whole Star Wars argument we could have over who the first Jedi is, which doesn't sound fun at all). Unlike our own world's creators in religious history with the pantheon of gods and God, the Pokémon universe's has a verifiable, physical form, which is officially classified in and recognised by the Pokédex. Given the creation myth of Sinnoh, it's pretty clear that, at least based on what's written in the Pokémon world, Arceus existed before anything like a Big Bang (again, closer to "God" than a "god"; "The Original One breathed alone before the universe came.") So yeah, I think what's more important here is the vagueness of the question and how it could lead to multiple interpretations of the question being asked (not saying this is on @Glen-i, obviously, because like he says, it's a discussion which stretches back a while, but this is the issue I've always had with this argument and similar ones concerning other topics). You could just as well throw Mewtwo, Portion, Baltoy, Claydol et al into that list too, and starting have a discussion about the first man-made Pokémon inside of this one, because they could be argued to be the first Pokémon in another sense.

Nice to see the anime is still putting out some quality content @Ashley I have to imagine Gold/Silver remakes will be coming in the form of Let's Go Pichu! and Let's Go [less popular Johto Pokémon], or worse try Let's Go Again Pikachu! and Let's Go Again Eevee!, eventually. I don't see it being this year, and I'd be pretty disappointed if it was, if I'm being honest, because I want us to finally get the Diamond and Pearl remakes It is crazy though how Game Freak have managed to get away with having effectively three different concurrent subseries of the core series games: the new main titles with new Pokémon/region/etc., the remakes, and now with Let's Go (they'd be crazy to drop it, surely?) they are remaking games which have already been remade. I'm really curious to see how potential Diamond and Pearl remakes would perform today, because up until the end of Gen VI, they were the only pair of generation-opening core series games to buck the trend of declining sales, though only by a few million copies, which is insane given they were on the best-selling handheld console. Now that I think about it, those games probably have the lowest attachment rate of any generation-opening pair of Pokémon games too. But anyways, yeah, with Gen IV in many ways being the childhood-defining Pokémon titles of people my age, should be interesting to see how that pans out. Does anyone have any plans for the 25th anniversary, either the date specifically or throughout the year? And can you remember what you did for the 20th anniversary, if anything? I'm planning to wait until the hopefully inevitable Anniversary Direct, which should be just under three weeks away, before I really set my plans in stone, just in case there are any surprise announcements. Regardless of whether or not this year's game is the year we get Diamond and Pearl remakes (I say through gritted teeth), I'll be picking whatever the new games are anyways, just because that's how far gone I am with this franchise. I'm really looking forward to New Pokémon Snap, and obviously I'm hoping for some ports to be announced (please give us the GBA Kanto remakes!). I've had White 2 sitting on my shelf for nearly the last year now, so I plan to get back to that, because the Unova sequels are still the only original entries I haven't experienced all the way through in any way (yeah, I worded it that way; suck it, USUM). I played the first 2 hours to find I just wasn't in a Pokémon mood at the time, so it got shelved, because I didn't see the point in forcing it, but I love White, so I'm definitely looking forward to getting back around to it. I think it's finally time for another Explorers of Sky playthrough this year, it's been a good few years now since I played it through for the fourth time (I think? It might've been the fifth, but I've clearly lost count) and I'm definitely starting to feel the urge to go back to it. Say what you might about the moment-to-moment dungeon gameplay of those games, I will gladly write off every issue I have with this game simply because it's the best Pokémon story and it has some seriously great music. Other than that, I might play Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs again? I played Ranger and Shadows of Almia again most recently back in 2018 if I'm remembering right, so it's been a little while, but I have a soft spot for the series, and they're pretty short and fun games. Now that I think about it, Guardian Signs might be the only one that I haven't returned to since release. So yeah, guess I might've just talked myself into that. Other than those, I'm not too sure? That might be enough as it is, but returning to Blue Rescue Team or playing Rescue Team DX, or even Gates to Infinity or Super Mystery Dungeon, sounds compelling too. Pokémon Conquest is starting to rise in price so I might finally pick that up (I remember wanting it when I was younger, no idea how that one passed me by!), and I haven't played Detective Pikachu either, so might have to look into that too. As for on the day? I might watch Detective Pikachu (yeah, I've managed to not see it somehow!), or maybe even watch some of the anime (series or films? Not sure, but I think Origins might be a worthy shout), but I imagine anything else is contingent on potential announcements in a potential Direct. Potentially. Back on the 20th Anniversary, I was working in Birmingham on the day and popped by GAME on my lunch break, when I picked up my Virtual Console codes for Red, Blue, and Yellow, got the Mewtwo and Pikachu amiibo (which I've since passed on to my younger brother), the code for Mew, and just had a nice chat with the guy at the counter - while it was waaaaaaaaay too busy for him to be talking to me, if I'm being honest - about the announcements of Sun and Moon the day before. Good times

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is premiering on March 19th. New trailer: Great to see the Disney+ content train finally start to roll a bit now; that's certainly one hell of a way to follow up on the success WandaVision is having, and if I'm not wrong, this will be coming just 2 weeks after that show airs it's finale. I watched the first two episodes of WandaVision back when they were released but haven't had much of a chance to get back to it since, meaning I'm a bit behind, so I'm stuck deciding between catching up now, or just watching it all in one go the weekend after it finishes. We'll see I really liked what they were going for anyways, so I look forward to getting back to it. With a lot of content starting to come out a bit more consistently now, I don't think I'll be cancelling my Disney+ subscription for a good while yet.

Yeah, I definitely think so! I think I might tackle the ones I have (I picked up both of the Legacy and X Legacy Collections) in a general order of release, though I won't stick to a hard and fast rule on that, and will probably jump ahead a bit if I see one that really takes my fancy. Definitely going to be Mega Man 3 next, though, if only because I've heard the title screen music for that game before, and I'm convinced that the soundtrack will be magical there too.

Yep! Posted that on a short break I gave myself after Stage 4 because my hands hurt a little bit, and then went on to finish the rest of the game last night too The boss rush in Stage 5 was a lot of fun, lost a few lives to it but handily got through without seeing a Game Over screen (thankfully), think having some level ground definitely made the difference. The first stage of the boss fight against Wily was easy once I figured out I could just cling to the left, time my jumps well (and make sure to jump high enough), and shoot the window on his ship. The second stage was a tad trickier and had me on two lines of health left once it was over. That final boss fight was a bit weird. I changed direction whenever it shot at me, had to really nail the height of the jumps, and switched weapons constantly to figure out what it's weakness was, and of course Bubble Lead being my least favourite weapon, that was the weakness here once I figured that out it was then a case of getting a shot in at close range without getting hit, which was way tougher than it looked! But yeah, overall had a absolute blast with it I haven't even mentioned some of the boss sprites in this game! They look pretty astounding for an NES title!

Yep! I did the same for Super Mario Bros. when I played that through NES Online, and it's probably something I'll stick with where I can, just because it adds an interesting dimension to the experience. Saying all that, it's certainly not the most comfortable way to play for long stretches, but fortunately the NES games I've played through so far have been kind in their length, and the longer games I want to play from that system thankfully are going to rely less on reactions (like the early FF games). It's something I'm weirdly picky about, playing with the original controller where I can (it was an absolute treat getting to spend a long time with the SNES controller for long stints playing through Final Fantasy VI last year!), and even if it's not on the original hardware, I strangely still gravitate towards picking them up on their modern console counterparts (a big part of why I got the Mega Man and Castlevania collections on Switch). Yeah, I genuinely ended up walking around that first part of the stage trying everything except for scrolling over and trying the Transport Items out. Because of that I ended up killing a lot of those birds with Leaf Man's weapon, which was great to replenish my weapons! Yeah, it was a genuine nightmare, especially once I realised that I wasted most of them bombs on breaking down those walls at the start! one of those bosses where it feels less like a challenge and felt genuinely unfair. Locked-on shots with absolutely zero heads-up coming from every direction? Crazy! To push that point even further, after my first few deaths I managed to get to the last few of those domes, and I was really curious and wanted to test if the Rewind function included in the collection might trivialise the fight, so I tested it for five minutes and genuinely felt like I was going insane, so the short answer is that it really doesn't make a difference there, which just speaks to how poorly done it is. Easily the boss I spent the most time on, I really enjoyed the game, but it doesn't inspire me to return to it because of the stress of that one section if I'm being honest. Yeah, took up a decent chunk of my evening! I'll admit there were one or two instances when I used the Rewind function early on getting used to the game on one or two daft mistakes. It took a while to get used to controlling the height of the jump, so I mainly used it on practicing that and testing things like weapon direction - figuring out diagonal attacks and things like that - and shooting on/jumping from ladders. Yeah, Heat Man's stage with the Item-2 would have been so much less stressful than what I ended up doing. Jumping from one vanishing block to another was pretty intense, especially the deeper into the stage I got! Especially that one room where you jump onto a vanishing block, and have to jump up and around onto another vanishing block, then jump to the left, and then onto that ladder, it was a nightmare! Those lasers on Quick Man's stage are almost comically deadly, those and the spikes I think on Wily's Castle Stage 3 - I think? - where the walls are lined with them and you're just dropping from one screen to another with the drop twisting all over the place, it's moments like that where the game shows it's age a bit I feel, because the difficulty is a bit more artificial than it is skill-based. That being said, obviously I had a huge grin on my face every time I got by one of those challenging parts, so it was totally worth it in the end Yeah, the Metal Blade I didn't really get used to late on, it took me a while to get it going diagonally with any real consistency. Wasn't the biggest fan of the Bubble Lead if I'm being honest (apart from using it on Heat Man), which was probably my second least utilised weapon, miles ahead of the Time Stopper (which I tested at different points and just really didn't get to grips with). I'd probably say that the Quick Boomerang was my favourite weapon by some margin, just throwing that over and over at a boss and taking them out so quickly made me feel very overpowered, which was a great feeling in a game I found to be really challenging!

Played through Mega Man 2 for the first time tonight as my first Mega Man game after @Jonnas recommended that's where I start when I was asking about platformers back in the summer (thanks!), and really enjoyed it. Especially playing it with the NES Online Controller (though I'll admit my hands are a little cramped now!). Took a bit of getting used to, and I didn't really understand the Transport Items until Wily's Castle, when scaling that first grey wall (the first time in the game you're forced to use one?). Took a good 5 minutes for me to realise the controller wasn't set up right (B was set to jump and A wasn't doing anything), which meant I was just trying to get by on jumping alone, thinking the weapons - even the starting weapon - came along later . Anyways, that soundtrack is absolutely God tier ...but what the hell is up with that boss on Stage 4 of Wily's Castle?

I haven't had the chance yet, but yeah, that's certainly the impression I get.Going from a £70 game at launch to getting delayed to be a PS+ tie-in just a few months later really drained the little interest I had in it. Really doesn't instill you with much confidence. Still, it's free (well, you get what I mean), so I might hop on for a couple hours just to see for myself. Have you had the chance to give it a spin yet?

Delayed from March 18th to an unspecified date. Which was originally delayed from January 21st.

Finished this Tuesday night and think I've finally digested it enough to share some deeper thoughts here.