Julius

Launch trailer: Hype is really starting to kick in ahead of Friday, and I am very much in the mood for an open world game right now. Confident that they'll deliver, but it honestly feels like we've still seen so little at this point!

Absolutely loved DQXI, hope you enjoy it! Having played it on the PS4 not too long after its western launch, if I were ever to play through it again, I'd have to pick up the Switch version. It's still weird that PS4 players were basically penalised for supporting the game, I hope it's handled a bit better by Square Enix moving forwards with the series, but I'm not all that confident that they will.

Yeah, the price increase doesn't bother me personally too much, and seems long overdue. I could see it being a tough sell for some others, though - most will round the £64.99 up to £70, at which case to most of the population that might as well be £100. Of course, this largely depends on this being stuck to, but I'm expecting online retailers to continue undercutting RRP's by £5 - £10 as they have been, even if not necessarily at console launch. What I'm much more interested by is the greater range of pricing we could see in the space below AAA tentpole releases, be it AA, A, or indie games, of all shapes and sizes. I would love to see more AAA releases akin to Lost Legacy and Spider-Man: Miles Morales in scale, hopefully this gives publishers more of an excuse to push for that. Of course I agree with the talk about big players like 2K, EA, and Activision. I know I won't pick up another FIFA at £64.99, seeing as I already hate it enough picking it up at half price nowadays. Very concerned to see how they handle this. This question was posed on the Easy Allies Podcast the other day, and I think it's a great one so I'll ask it here: would you be happy if Nintendo games - whenever the Switch successor releases - were to see an increase to this price too? I think it's interesting because from my perspective I wouldn't at first, but then the main argument for the increase seems to relate to higher development costs as a result of games with higher fidelity models and resolutions, which I don't think would necessarily be something applicable to Nintendo, seeing as they push gameplay over graphics (something which I'm a fan of). Not trying to start heated debates about console wars, I'm just genuinely curious how people would feel about the potential for a price increase there.

The back side of the DualSense being white is a bit of a red flag to me (you can see it on the opposite side of the grips) that it might not be a PlayStation-original design, but honestly, I think they should go with a range of casings this time around. Everyone's going to want a black console - you sell it in two-tone which no-one seems fully on board with, and then sell black panels which can easily be attached! Would give them plenty of opportunities to cash in moving forwards, and it's a cheaper but perhaps more effective way of going about limited edition consoles too. Price matching reasonable online prices would be the big one I think. Even though the RRP is going up to £64.99, which I'm sure will be enforced at launch physically in most stores and on the PlayStation Store, I'm fully expecting online retailers to be undercutting this by selling at £49.99 to £59.99.

I left primary school a few days after the original thread was posted. That's probably going to keep me up at night My name is Julian As you might be able to tell by this point, usernames aren't my forte. Unless they involve puns. Then maybe. I'm 21 years old I am half English, half Filipino. It's very interesting having ginger hairs thrown in with the black and dark brown hair I have (like natural highlights), and then being confused with every other race under the sun (it ranges from me being 100% English, to Hispanic, to LITERALLY ANY TYPE OF ASIAN). I love it. My birthday is on Christmas Eve (cue all of the other kids telling me I get less for Christmas ) Like @will' (talk about a small world!) I'm from Stourbridge, and have lived here for 21 of my 21.5 years on this big hunk of rock. I think it'ss actually a really good place to live if you're starting to raise a young family, or are anywhere up to the age of 18, but I am neither of those...so I can't wait to get out of this town The six months that I didn't live in Stourbridge I spent living in Plumpton in Sydney, Australia, for the first half of 2007, as my mom had work lined up as a social worker over there (they had processed all of the paperwork and such beforehand, just needed her there to confirm the job), but that didn't work out (yeah, they refused to give her the role they lined up for her). Young me completely misunderstood at the time and had been telling people I would only be gone a year at most, but guess I got the last laugh there. Believe it or not our local ice cream vendor was from Brierley Hill! It was great, so many fond memories and so many friends made over there. We were enrolled for four months or so at a Christian school while there, which had the most diverse range of students I've ever seen; in my class in particular, we had one white Australian, whose best friend was an Aboriginal Australian, plenty of mixed Filipinos, and a number of other Asian races too. I encountered zero racism while there, it was so weird for once not being the odd one out, and everyone of all ages were so welcoming. Genuinely the happiest I think I was as a child, maybe ever. Also learned how to play handball - what I would describe as a weird street version of tennis which you play with your hands - and got really good at it. Great times. That was long-winded, whoops! I work as a Financial Advisor for those facing financial difficulty at one of the bigger banks, and have done since last year. It's tough, but can be very rewarding. It's just a way for me to make money at the moment and help people as... ...I haven't gone to university, but I fully intend to. Had a rough few years since leaving high school in every aspect of my life imaginable, but (very) slowly, I'm starting to get the feeling that things will be okay. Hardest challenge I'm facing right now is picking between two things I'm very passionate about to turn into a career path, and then working towards taking that up at university. Which means I have a lot of free time on my hands right now, even though I'm working. Like many here, I love travelling. Last trip was a solo trip to Edinburgh back in December for my 21st. I travelled over much of Europe with my family growing up because my mom pushed this hard, at least one new country a year, which I'm very grateful for, and has instilled me with a love for finding about other cultures and places. I feel like that bleeds through into me just liking to learn more about others in general. I've been quiet and shy much of my life, though after putting on a little muscle before leaving high school and dealing with quite a lot of drama and nonsense, I've become pretty indifferent to how people see me, for better or worse. Would definitely say I'm introverted though, considering one day in a social situation might leave me needing to recharge for a few days. After everything I've gone through and my academic woes compared with where I used to be, it's still odd that my friends from high school introduce me to strangers as "the smart one/genius/smartest guy I've met". Its nice that they still have that confidence and trust in me, but I wish they'd accept my shortcomings, and just introduce me as I am now. Or at least let people make up their own mind, because it puts a lot of pressure on me! Single since the day I was born, and thank goodness, because I used to be a hopeless romantic (thanks western TV!). Those potential relationships really would not have worked out well, and I recognise that I've still got plenty I want to learn and work on about myself before looking for a relationship. I'm buying more into the "there's someone best suited for where and when you are in life" than "The Mythical One" that I used to think of growing up, which I'm glad about, because I feel like it's going to help me get out of my own head and not put too much pressure on myself and others when I do get into a relationship one day. But I definitely want to get married one day, trusting that I meet the right girl, and have kids. If I don't meet the girl, if I'm in a stable position where I feel I have something to potentially offer as a father, I'm currently of the mindset that I'd still love to adopt. A rack of ribs with whatever it's being served with is my go-to meal, and a lemonade would be my drink of choice. I didn't drink alcohol at all until last year by choice, where I had a few whiskeys. I don't mind it, but I honestly just don't care for it - or more importantly the atmosphere which normally surrounds it - so I'm back to being a teetotaler. I'd love to say something profound, or that maybe it was for family reasons, but honestly it's just because I have little interest in it. I've had some great nights out not drinking, why would that night be any different? Also, I can confirm that there is little more annoying than people trying to force alcohol on you or asking your reason for not drinking for the fiftieth time. In terms of sports, football has been the big one that's followed me throughout most of my life. I'm a Chelsea supporter, honestly based on the fact that the first game I watched was the highlights of a Liverpool v. Chelsea match on Match of the Day on a Sunday morning, and I remember really enjoying watching them play. Favourite colour at the time was blue, so it only made sense. Think I was four or five at the time? Gone through periods where I've got interested in swimming, F1, tennis, and basketball too (played for my high school basketball team), and though I don't keep up to date with all of them, it's nice to have a good enough understanding of a number of sports to be able to talk about them at length. Didn't grow up with games as much as most others here, but it's been a great crutch over the last 5 years. Also love storytelling in any medium: film, TV, books, comics/manga, et al. A good story is a good story to me, that's all I care about, and storytelling fascinates me. Had a very deep love for Star Wars growing up (wrote a treatment for Episode VII back when I was in Year 4! Half tempted to write one for Episode IX in hindsight...) which has stuck with me to this day, and Pokémon of course has been a massive part of my life too. Toy Story was the film for me before I could speak, apparently I'd slot that VHS in time after time long after my parents would fall asleep. Anime has also been a growing interest of mine over the last few years too. Awesome thread Will, it's been really interesting learning more about everyone else on the forum, and sharing more about myself which I highly doubt would have been shared otherwise.

Yeah, our (Chelsea's) consistency, or rather inconsistency, has just been appalling this season. Love Lamps, and don't want to seem like I'm reading too much into this, but it's hard at this point to not be a little worried that there might be something about his coaching style which makes the team more focused in the bigger games, and much, much sloppier in the "smaller" ones. Glad that we've got some great names coming in next season, of course, and great to see the board finally backing us in a constructive way after years of making poor decision after poor decision, but the strides we seem to have taken this season - on and off the pitch - are going to fall a bit flat if we don't qualify for the Champions League next season, considering how we've been a shoe-in for it the whole season.

So I started Attack on Titan for the first time last Wednesday evening. I think I had held off on it for so long because of how much hype was surrounding it (not a fan of getting swept up in things, much prefer to take it as it is), but actually I had gone to watch it a few times in the last few years, going so far as lining it up on Netflix and downloading episodes on the app too, just to decide I wasn't in the mood (all I knew it was popular and somewhat brutal, and I knew what the Colossal Titan and Pure Titans looked like). To give you an idea of where I land on it, I finished Season 1 two days later, last Friday; started and finished Season 2 in one sitting last Saturday; and started and finished Season 3 (Part 1 and Part 2) last Sunday. Then I hunted down all of the OVA's on Monday and watched them in one sitting too. Yeah, I absolutely loved it it's a bit late here so apologies for any incoherent thoughts, but I don't mind, just in the mood to talk about it! I think S1 is my favourite season, it had me completely on the edge of my seat and does so much of the heavy lifting when it comes to setting up the world and its characters (and most importantly getting you invested in them), and does so with aplomb. The stakes are consistently high, it felt much more unpredictable at that point (even if I did catch onto some of the bigger twists revealed later down the line very early on), and is just way too intriguing to put down. But I loved it all, even if I think S2 and S3Pt1 had some pacing issues (though I've since read there were production issues too with those seasons, so honestly not too surprised if that's the case). Some spoiler thoughts relating to S1 in particular, but branching out a little to reveals in later seasons... So I think I'd probably say, for me, that it's S1 > S3Pt2 > S3Pt1 > S2. Also need to talk about OP's, because AoT has some of the best. I would say that OP2, Jiyuu No Tsubasa, is my favourite. Literally opens with a national anthem-like section, but for me the highlight is after Armin is covered in blood and we see Squad Levi flying through the forest (obligatory mention here that ODM gear is AWESOME). The animation in this show is also insanely good, especially the use of 3D, similar to how Demon Slayer used it to get some shots which would have been nearly impossible to draw by hand, though there were one or two times where it was noticeably poor (arm movements while running along the top of a wall comes to mind, looked more like they were speed walking in an exaggerated way). Think OP3, Shinzou wo Sasageyo, is my second favourite OP. in particular when it turns up a notch when we see them dodging boulders in the field and we got an awesome one-two-three punch of the brass. Loved it. So I think I would rank the OP's as: OP2 > OP3 > OP1 > OP5 >>> OP4 (I still actually really liked OP4, but didn't match the hype or tone of any of the other four openings, though I guess that makes since 1-3 and 5 were by Linked Horizon and 4 was by Yoshiki). Also big shout out to how awesome a job Linked Horizon did at expressing the story of AoT in their lyrics. Anyway, watched the trailer for S4 a bunch and I'm fully hyped, but I'm stuck on whether to wait or read the manga. I don't want to get caught up too much in speculation like I have done in the past, such as with Star Wars (speculating on and then being right about some of the much better moments in the ST and then obviously being off base with the rest when it goes downhill has left me in a position where i hate to do that). I think S3 ended at Chapter 90 of the manga, which is still going strong at Chapter 130, so with 40 chapters at least to cover, my guess would be that we have at least two cours to cover, potentially Part 1 in October 2020 and Part 2 October 2021? I've read a bit into the production and I'm sure Mappa will do fine with it compared to Wit's issues, but even if it were to be only two cours (honestly I think it could potentially be three, just based on the number of chapters and not much else), it could still very realistically get delayed by at least six months out of this year due to Covid-19. I'm genuinely on the fence, because like with Demon Slayer the music and animation is a massive sell for me, but at the same time, being much further along with AoT than with DS, I'm much more invested and so would want to avoid spoilers as best I can, and potentially would need to do so for years. @Kav I think I recall you mentioning before that you've been reading the manga, how have you been finding it? I read that S2 of the anime cut a lot of stuff out compared with the manga so if I did pick it up, I might start from the beginning.

Feel behind with this last weekend and ended up having a week of chaos at work, so haven't really had the chance to get caught up until now. But better late than never, right? to remain topical I'll cover my choice for Day 12, and then circle back around to cover the others (posting this on my phone so going to play it safe and post with Day 12, then update when I complete every other day, so bear with me!). Day 12: Favourite Awful Game So, reading through today's responses, it looks like this has generally been interpreted as something considered a "guilty pleasure", and initially I came in to offer just that. However, I gave it a little more thought, and there is one series in particular which I want to throw onto this list. FIFA. EA's cash cow. Ultimate Team rakes in almost $1 billion on an annual basis through absolutely unnecessary microtransactions which leeches off its players, no matter how vulnerable they might be (in high school I had several friends who would spend hundreds of £'s per year on Ultimate Team). Its a game which looks great in promotional stills, but boy is the Frostbite Engine not at all optimised for a game like this - it never looks anywhere near as good as it does above. To the most recent iteration, FIFA 20, there are still tens of glitches which show up to this day which were present over five years ago! Worse yet, EA Sports has a monopoly on most of the major football licenses and brands, meaning that PES (by all means last time I played it a far better game) offers it very little competition these days. FIFA has a firm grip on the scruff of football fans' wallets, and most of us buy it yearly. I almost exclusively play Career Mode, and have done for years. It's an offline mode where you manage a team, taking care of transfers, playing football matches, etc. There are extremely light RPG elements to it, from selecting a training program for 5 of the 30+ players you have at your disposal on a weekly basis, managing player-manager interactions, agreeing new player contracts, etc. The main reason I moved over from PES was because of the transfer market being much more functional in FIFA. But EA just doesn't care for this game mode, and seem to want to do anything but support it (something which I feel like can be said for a lot of their larger IP's), and it's gone without any major update since FIFA 14, where it got much, much worse. They don't want to support it that badly that they go out of their way to make up a football player called Alex Hunter who was the start of a Story Mode for three games, and this time around we got Volta (effectively, they just threw in a FIFA Street gloss of paint over the game and put even less into the game this time around). Heck, the year that Women's Football came onto the game, after years of them being called to do it, they treated it like it was some groundbreaking feature. I could go on for pages about how bad FIFA is, it's a truly awful game, and the way that EA handles it is atrocious. And yet I buy it every year (albeit on sale at half price), only because it's a mindless game which I can just pick up and play no matter my mood. I put tens if not hundreds of hours into it every year (though I'm glad to say this has been coming down in recent years). Because of that it can easily be there through the good and bad times in your life. It's my Favourite (Absolutely) Awful Game. It should have been made a live, subscription service-based game years ago, but there's just too much money in it for them to ever consider that. Now to catch up on the other days I've missed... Day 5: Favourite 3D Platformer Haven't completed a 3D Mario before, though I've played a few hours of both Sunshine and Odyssey, but nothing substantial enough to really warrant me calling them my favourite 3D platformer. Same for games like Spyro and Crash. Also never touched Banjo-Kazooie... ...that being said, I do think there's one game which fits the 3D platforming bill, even if that's not the main focus of the game. Even though I knew what the "twist" was going into Journey, I still had a great time with it, and it's still one of the more fascinating experiences I've had in a game. Being limited to jumping around to interact with others, without being able to speak with them, provided a great experience in and of itself, never mind the excellent art style and transcendent soundtrack. Like I said before, it's light on the platforming, but it makes up for that in spades in my books by being such a unique experience. Day 6: Most Relaxing Navigation It got mentioned a few times already, but I'd have to agree: for me, the most relaxing navigation found in a game that I've played so far is in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is the awkward part where I realise I've never really talked about my thoughts after nearly 80 hours with the game...I'm sure I'll talk about it one day This is the first Zelda game I played to completion, and I'm glad, considering just how different an experience it was when compared with my 10-15 hours with Ocarina of Time a few years ago, or something like Spirit Tracks which I've put a few hours into, or the original Zelda (probably similar investment to Spirit Tracks). It's just so...calm. I mean, when you're not fighting for your life, whether it be a Guardian chasing you through Hyrule Field, or a Hinox trying to crush you with its filthy feet. Or it's raining. Paths just naturally wind through the landscape, taking you to distant deserts, flowing waterfalls and volcanoes, towering mountains...you name a type of location, it's probably in this game. The crags and valleys, trees and boulders just naturally point you in a direction that's worth checking out. It holds itself back, faintly offering hints of music here and there depending on what's going on, but most of the time, just let's the sounds of the world around you completely wash you over. I must have spent hours just following paths on horseback, without very little concern for where I found myself stumbling upon next. And when certain secrets make themselves known, they're just slowly hinted at musically to begin with, before they're on top of you and leaving you in complete awe as the music swells. BotW's navigation is ultimately an excellent cocktail of natural and diverse sound design, subtle yet perfectly timed musical cues, and brilliant open world design. Day 7: Favourite Ranged Combat Going to keep this one short and sweet (for now), considering I've looked ahead at the categories and will most certainly be mentioning this game again before these 30 days are complete. Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005) is one of my favourite games of all time, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I've spent thousands of hours playing this. Heck, I was playing this on a regular basis up until I picked up a PS4 in 2015, and even played it as recently as last year. I picked it up recently on Steam too, so might have to play it again soon. It's ranged combat is not only mechanically sound, it holds up extremely well to this day, and it's still a pleasure to don the blue and white of the 501st and lay waste to some Clankers. It's challenging, but fair, and above all else, is fun and rewarding in its moment-to-moment gameplay, whether playing against a buddy in co-op, taking to the battlefront online, or playing against the AI in one of many of the modes the game has to offer. Day 8: Favourite Musical Moment Anyone who has read my posts over in the Gaming Diary thread knows just how much I love how music can be utilised in games, and especially how powerful it can be when tied to a specific moment, so it's probably not much of a surprise that this is by far the hardest pick I've had to make so far, but I'm happy with what I've landed on. I won't link the specific moment playing out in the game seeing as it's becoming increasingly likely to get a remake in the next year or two, or go into much detail, but I'm sure @Glen-i knows which moment I'm referring to: Sacrifice. I first played through Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time when I was still in primary school, and the same goes for playing Explorers of Sky also. Man, the specific moment that this particular theme plays in and is known for blew me away as a kid, and it still holds a spot very dear to me. For anyone curious, I had so many potential moments I wrote a list so just to breeze through those to give them a mention: the opera scene in Final Fantasy VI; Opening/Bombing Mission, Trail of Blood, and Shinra Mansion basement in Final Fantasy VII; that sequence in The Last of Us (if you've played the game you know when I'm talking about ), or the game's ending and The Path (A New Beginning) following through from then well into the credits; also, Don't Ever Forget and Dialga's Fight to the Finish from PMD: Explorers of Time/Space/Sky; a number of moments in Chrono Trigger (too many to mention, honestly!); The Opened Way and Revived Power in Shadow of the Colossus; or the awesome classical piano we get when entering the champion's chamber to face off against Cynthia in Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. Day 9: Scariest Moment Have only played a handful of horror games in my life so far, and only two of those to completion. But running into Stalkers and a Bloater in the hotel basement in The Last of Us is easily the most intense and scariest moment I've played through in a video game (the sequel might have moments which are just as intense/scary, but I feel like there are more of those moments in the sequel which helps build a resistance to them), so much so that I had to keep pausing and then take five minutes after playing through that section. I took out every last one of those Stalkers and luckily found the key card before trying to mess with the generator. Day 10: Credits Sequence Another hard one, but I'm going to go with Final Fantasy VI's. Gushed about it months ago after playing it through for the first time, and going to gush about it now. We get one of the longest compositions from Nobuo Uematsu, which is a medley of all of the musical themes throughout the game; a final moment with each of the playable characters; and a look at how the world is starting to bounce back. An amazing end credits sequence which left me with goosebumps all over and a huge smile on my face. Honourable mentions: Chrono Trigger, Shenmue II, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, The Last of Us, and Dragon Quest XI. Day 11: Favourite Town or Village Verdanturf Town from Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. This one was honestly a gut instinct response to the topic, and one I'll stick with. A small cosy town hidden off to the west of Mauville (and once you smash a rock out of the way a convenient tunnel if you ever need to visit Rustboro), with a great musical theme, and known for its clean air, this is honestly the town I'd most want to escape to in a video game. Such a peaceful place. Honourable mentions: Cobblestone Village from Dragon Quest XI, every starting town from Pokémon generations I - V, and Dobuita from Shenmue. Shout out to @RedShell's choice of Kamurocho (which is an awesome pick, love what I've experienced of it so far), I feel like it's in such a weird spot because it's both small enough where I agree it could be used in this category, but big enough to the point that it could almost be considered an open world city..?

Not yet! Have you played it before? Going to be totally honest, I hadn't picked up a game since The Last of Us Part II until I started up Arkham Asylum the other day, which I've been slowly chipping away at. A combination of that and my workload only getting heavier the last few weeks at work means I haven't been playing games as much lately, and have been quieter than usual on the forums. I still haven't caught up on my Gaming Diary... It's strange because I loved TLOU2, but it just took so much out of me that I've been left feeling burnt out on games since, so I've been diving into anime, books, and the occasional game of FIFA since. Hopefully I'll get through Arkham Asylum by Friday when Ghost of Tsushima releases, and I think depending on how I feel after that game, a trip back to Kamurocho might be just what I need. Yakuza is just the right mix of cosy, over-the-top, and intrigue for times like these.

Believe it or not, this launched today. Gamexplain seem to be the only big outlet to have reviewed it so far: CrossCode yesterday and this today, everyone's just swooping in under the radar now, huh? EDIT: Easy Allies review is up too...

Haha wow, that's one way to shoot that speculation out of the sky. Personally wasn't too invested in the idea of WayForward taking on a Nintendo IP seeing as I haven't played any of their games before anyway, but a third party IP (of course depending on the IP) is potentially even more interesting for them to work on. Whatever it is, hope it shows well during Treehouse

Looks worse to me from this angle: I just don't think the spine having different layout proportions works when it doesn't have a colour which matches the case (like we have with the PS4). Guess I'll see how it looks in my hands but...doesn't look too great to me here. Yeah, totally get the space aspect of it myself. I now have a pretty sizeable Blu-Ray collection, many of which aren't (legally) readily available through streaming, so I'd be more willing to stop buying physical games and go digital if it meant keeping my films around. On the other hand, then the whole "who really owns it?!" argument comes up; other than during sales the RRP at launch is always higher on digital (and more resistant to change, though it's great for sales a year after the fact); and, while you can pre-install to play at midnight, getting a game a day or two ahead of release never fails to put a smile on my face (or in the case of FFVII Remake after how COVID impacted it's launch - and which likely won't ever happen again - a full week ahead of time!).

Official cover art just revealed as part of the PS5 game case reveal: Cover art itself looks quite nice, very simple and clean, and of course just like what we got for Spider-Man (2018).

*glances over at my shelf filled to the brim with PS4 cases* Definitely going with the version of the PS5 with a disk drive just for the backwards compatibility for my physical PS4 games, but I'm honestly still on the fence when it comes to sticking with purchasing physical media for this thing moving forwards.

First official look at PS5 cases: Leaning really heavily into that white/black dual colour scheme (just noticed it quite nicely matches the PlayStation Studios logo too), and there's that hint of blue from the case itself and to draw the line between the banner and the cover art. Great that they're seemingly reusing PS4 cases from a waste perspective, but from a purely consumer-facing, aesthetic perspective? Kind of wish the case itself were black, but oh well. All I can see in the white banner is the old 'PC ROM' at the top of the spines, and honestly I feel like a lot of the mock-ups which were floating around were better. It just looks...off to me, like it's incomplete somehow.

Stream is already up: 18:00 BST tomorrow, E3 has finally arrived! Great chance for them to fill us in a bit more on The Origami King just ahead of release, and looking forward to seeing what WayForward might have in store. The wording reads like they might be taking on someone else's IP...one of Nintendo's, perhaps?

Oh for sure, that's definitely something I agree with. I wish there were tags or something, so that even it's being pushed as a Switch game, it also showed that it was available elsewhere. In the rare cases that I do post a new thread for a game over there I do try to do that, even if it's just at the end of the first post (just to save the title from being a mess )

Yeah, we'll have to see I guess. It's weird because you're absolutely right (not saying that you being right is weird drahkon just that it's weird that it does seem to be going unnoticed, this sort of game is usually picked up and covered by loads of outlets), I haven't seen any reviews for it go up today, and despite it being in a Direct before (can't remember if it was a Nindies Showcase actually) like you said, I think the most recent trailer was from a month ago? The video above and it's reception elsewhere previously on PC seem nothing but positive, but I do recall there being some concerns regarding the publisher, so maybe that's unfortunately factored in to it? Could be the case they didn't send out review copies, or did so quite late. Plus, a Thursday release is pretty strange. If I recall, Celeste had somewhat limited hype around it leading up to it I remember, then at launch and after some great reviews that day (IGN giving it a 10 probably did it some massive favours), blossomed into something huge. Hollow Knight of course had a lot of hype built around it from its PC release a year or so before release, I feel like the shadow drop during an E3 Nintendo Direct with a few months of exclusivity got it even more attention than it might have otherwise. I hope it picks up some steam, because by all means it seems to have garnered some great reception on PC, could just be a slow burn if it hasn't been backed as it perhaps should have been. Even IGN haven't reviewed it yet it seems, so I feel like something's up there. Oh, for sure people will pick this up elsewhere. Just feel like on here most will end up getting it on Switch, plus the Nintendo Gaming area normally has a lot more activity when it comes to discussing indie games I feel? But maybe that's just me

Feel like this would probably be better off in the Nintendo part of the forums just because I feel like that's where most here will be playing it, but I've been looking forward to this game for a good while now, so look forward to picking it up. Unfortunately, a little poorly timed for me seeing as Ghost of Tsushima releases next Friday. For anyone wondering why you should be interested, feel like this video is probably the best at covering all of those bases, it's what hooked me in: Feel like this is going to be the indie game closest to that Celeste/Hollow Knight level of reception and discussion when it comes to GOTY's later this year (of course assuming those menu issues drahkon mentioned are fixed).

Haven't been on here the last few days because I work at a bank and I have been put on a remediation team specialising in payment holiday applications, and it's turning into pure chaos. The procedures and what we're being told to do are changing almost daily, it's an absolute mess. I cannot wait (sarcasm, eye roll, et al) until the potential extensions come into play as was put forward a few weeks ago. Live footage of me from yesterday: Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful I'm still working, but my workload tripled when Covid reared its ugly head, tripled again when payment holidays were announced, tripled again when those didn't work, tripled again when I started working on this remediation team, and triple every single day that something changes. But I do kindly suggest that under no circumstances you should ever take out a loan and should keep all of your money under your bed where it is safest. Maybe invest in a sock collection or something instead.

Nice to know that I wasn't the only one who came in expecting a @Dcubed hot take on an atrocious attempt by SEGA to jump into the Mini crowd!

@bob, Awano is one of the most smug douchebags in all of video games and I absolutely loved wiping the floor with him. Great pick! Yakuza has a number of excellent antagonists and does a great job of writing them in a way which makes you want to throw punches their way. But going to have to second @Goafer's pick here. Day 4: Favourite Villain/Antagonist Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Not sure if I'm quite going to be going through this challenge in Hard Mode, but to specify, I'm talking about Sephiroth from the original 1997 game. Awesome character design, intriguing backstory, and some stellar boss battles. BELOW ARE POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL FINAL FANTASY VII (1997). I had debated putting this in a spoiler tag but I know most here have played it, so it's more a heads-up for those who haven't and are planning on doing so, and I would like to leave it this way for the sake of discussion instead. No spoilers relating to Remake to be concerned about. But what made Sephiroth stand out to me above all else is that he was a phantom that, throughout FFVII, we were always a few steps behind, and the opening of the game did an excellent job of turning what was just a name into a nightmarish super-being to be reckoned with: we didn't see him, but the blood trail he left in the Shinra Building after killing the President (perhaps my favourite scene in a video game), and the eerie music which accompanies it sets the scene perfectly. Then you've got how they expertly showed the difference in class between Sephiroth and Cloud in the flashback when you see Sephiroth's level, equipment, and spells. And then there's the murder of the Midgar Zolom. He was an unstoppable, untraceable force to be reckoned with, and that made him terrifying. The flashbacks to the Nibelheim Incident gave more context to this and was excellent because of the questions it raised, and the (not totally accurate) story it told. It was an excellent story point in itself, seeing Sephiroth's descent into madness and having Those Chosen By The Planet circle during his breakdown, coming into full force as he declares his true intentions and leaves the Nibelheim Mansion basement. Goafer mentioned One Winged Angel, and while I agree that it is an excellent musical culmination for the game in that final fight with Safer Sephiroth, I much prefer Those Chosen By The Planet as Sephiroth's theme (it is his leitmotif after all!), as it does so much of the heavy lifting in setting up the mystery and danger surrounding Sephiroth's character. You hear this intense percussion which corners you, mimicking the sound of a heart beating, accompanied by a foreboding bell ringing out, repetitively, symbolising impending death and despair. It's brilliant. Not only that, Sephiroth actually has a third theme, Birth of a God, for the Bizarro Sephiroth boss battle, which brings in Those Chosen By The Planet's leitmotif too. In short, Nobuo Uematsu's music almost singlehandley carried and breathed the menace and malevolence of Sephiroth into being. Without a doubt my first choice for this category, but shout-out to Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, a close second.

So many great mentions already, and so many games I would love to bring up here. There are the tens - if not hundreds - of hours I put into Star Wars: Battlefront II's local co-op alone on PS2 during primary school sleepovers, and generally just whenever friends were around. There were some great nights of Mario Kart DS with friends when I returned to the UK from Australia, being able to play that with friends without owning the cartridge myself was great. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, as I'm sure I've mentioned plenty of times before, on the school playground, at sleepovers, pretty much wherever - other than Pokémon Go, probably the peak of Pokémon popularity that myself and my generation have been been exposed to. There's New Super Mario Bros.' mini games which caused a whole lot of chaos. Super Smash Bros. Brawl which I've sunk hundreds of hours into with my younger brother over the years. And of course the already mentioned Wii Sports and (c'mon guys!) Wii Sports Resort. Day 3: Local Multiplayer And then there's Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. We didn't have Mario Kart Wii - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch is the first Mario Kart I've owned, even if it's maybe the fourth one I've played? - but I remember my little brother (we're probably talking three or four years old) being fully pumped for this game, the ads running on TV and also probably in large because when he got a DS Lite at the age of just two or three (he had extremely bad eczema back then, so it seemed like a good idea for a distraction) his first game was Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, so he had some level of attachment to some of those Sonic characters. I remember I came home from school one day and he was giddy with excitement, turned out he and my dad had picked up a copy with the branded wheel which came with the game, and a couple of Wii steering wheels for me and my younger sister to use. We played for hours. All told, I think I can safely say that this is the game my sister (not the most game-oriented person in the world) has put the most time into, and up until a few summers ago (probably 2017?) this was something we would break out on almost daily basis during the summer holiday, breaking out the fans to save being roasted in our conservatory. Racing tournaments where we awarded ourselves points on an Excel spreadsheet, battle rounds, great track diversity (the Jet Set Radio tracks, Shibuya Downtown in particular, were amongst our favourites, and I think they're genuinely well designed tracks), cool assortment of racers (some really whacky ones too, notably my first introduction to so many of Sega's cast), and just a whole lot of fun. While I love the time I've spent with Mario Kart over the years, the utter chaos which sometimes erupts definitely means it's a coin toss between skill and luck being the reason for winning, but Sega All-Stars I feel did a great job of putting the emphasis the player's skills. Competing and just having an absolute blast with my siblings in this game will always be a great set of memories for me to look back on

Ubisoft Forward teaser: Still think that Sunday is such a weird day to do it considering that they aren't constrained by a stacked E3 schedule, but hey, 20:00 BST still works for me.

To be honest...still not great. Last I checked a few months ago, the PS4 app is just straight up broken and doesn't load episodes. I'd say that's my internet connection, but my PS4 has an ethernet cable connected and my internet is fine without it most of the time, and the app works on both my smart TV and on my smartphone. And, when it does work on my smart TV (takes a few seconds to buffer and play), it's a complete pixelated mess which is still loading in. The fix I've found is letting it play for a second or two, and then rewinding it to the start again, worked every time for me so far. But it's far from ideal