Julius

@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

Some excellent picks on here. @Goafer, The Last of Us immediately came to mind for me too when I saw that openings were today's focus, and I totally agree with you, the first 10 or 15 minutes of that game nail the tone and the world that you'll see for the remainder of the game: it is now harsh and brutal, and completely innocent people will surely be caught up in it. Loved it. I actually played through that opening three times prior to starting and completing the game in May for the first time - goosebumps every single time. @will', Shenmue was the second thing that came to mind for me. I only played it a couple of years ago with the remasters, but that opening scene set the stage for the first and second games perfectly, and had me blasting through both in 10 days. It's an opening which still serves as a great hook over 20 years later. The mystery and ruthlessness of Lan Di is awesome. @S.C.G as someone who cannot wait to play the Prime games when they eventually make it to Switch (c'mon Nintendo...) as it is, the long wait is certainly made more difficult from what you've said about its opening! Day 2: Opening Section of a Game It didn't immediately come to mind as I've played so many great games over the last few months, but after giving it a little bit of thought, Final Fantasy VII Remake is absolutely my pick for the best opening section. The world laid out in the opening movie is one that has clearly come a long way and hints at the world's history and the game's main themes, but the oppressive chants of One Winged Angel bring a mystique and underlying tension to the table not present at the start of the original game in my opinion, most notably in the alleyway. Then there's the camera's famous swing out to show Midgar, this electricity in the air, before the title is blared across the screen to much musical fanfare. And Cloud's hair rustling in the wind before flipping onto the platform with Bombing Mission in tow. It successes in adding nuance to and fleshing out the original opening in a number of ways, but the tweaks here made it clear that Square Enix were really going for it, and not afraid to change the tone of this long anticipated remake where necessary. I've watched it at least ten times now, and even months after having completed the game, I still get goosebumps every single time. This is then followed by the Bombing Mission itself, I would say one of the best paced and, even in the original, most action- and battle-heavy openings to a JRPG. By the end you know what you need to know for the first 10 hours of the original's - and the entirety of this remake's - story, the main figures on both sides have been set up, and the world has too. For a genre known for slow burns, it's little wonder that this game's opening served as such a great hook and is looked back on so fondly by so many.

Awesome thread idea @Cube, love it! Really nice reading about how everyone first touched base with gaming. Day 1: Earliest Video Game Memory For me, my first gaming memory would undoubtedly have to be tied to the PlayStation, which has been in my family's possession for as long as I can remember. It belonged to one of my dad's friends who kindly passed it on to us after upgrading to a PS2, and he gave us a load of games, two controllers, and a few memory cards. We've had it that long I can't even remember it being dropped off! I have a bunch of memories tied to that thing: being petrified by the first fifteen minutes of Dino Crisis over and over again; having an absolute blast playing through the Activision Spider-Man games with my dad before and after he went to work, which along with the animated series and turning cereal boxes into houses for me to use with my action figures, I had Spidey my childhood on all fronts; playing the PlayStation Yu-Gi-Oh game with a close friend; my dad thinking I was a chess genius playing a video game version on the PlayStation, then I showed him after a few hours that pressing triangle actually made the best move...good times! But I think the absolute earliest, at a guess, would have to be Tomb Raider III. I have absolutely no idea how far I got into that game. I remember sliding down slopes, jumping (and often failing) to avoid spikes, I remember a quad bike, and I have a clear memory of a swimming pool too. There's no way I finished that game. What I imagine is actually my earliest memory of playing it is actually pretty vivid: I must have been only 3 or 4 at the time, it's a Sunday evening, and I'm roaming around Croft Manor when my dad comes home from shopping with a multi-pack of McCoy's - I remember that because it was the first time I tried Thai Sweet Chilli, and I felt like I had been conned out of a decent packet of crisps, because I wasn't a fan

Interest piqued at least, hopefully more of a look at Scarlet Nexus and hopefully the reveal of one or two more titles. But that midnight start for us in the UK and a bit later in the morning across Europe is a death sentence, and considering how little EA seemed to care about their event at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a disappointment. But fingers crossed I'm totally off the mark.

So this is pretty cool: Nice to not have this stuff locked away behind pre-order or edition bonuses, even if it is all digital.

Started watching the first (and so far only) season of Demon Slayer quite late on Saturday night, and finished it today. Damn, what a show. The first thing I need to share to give a taste of the show is it's OP, because it showcases above all else exactly why you should watch this show: The animation. The animation in this show by ufotable is out of this world. It's not quite perfect, with some medium and wide shots looking a bit rough if focusing on character models, and a few times when in close-ups the use of 3D can distract from the scene, but their overall blend of 2D and 3D animation techniques is a site to behold. These thick black lines accentuating characters and weapons with a depth which nails the look of the manga allows for the anime to soar well beyond what the manga was capable of, because they utilise CG in a way which most times organically enhances a scene, whether it be the shots which would be near impossible to animate by hand with where and how the "camera" behaves, or the absolutely gorgeous fight sequences. It's not something conveyed accurately enough in that first episode but is in the OP shown for the first time at the end of the first episode. It starts off as a pretty typical shonen: inciting incident involving these evil demons (which leaves the main character's younger sister a demon), a lot of setting up the world and the rest of the season, and fleshing out the characters. Honestly, the first 10 episodes or so are pretty paint by numbers for a shonen in a lot of ways, with a training arc to quickly bring the main character, Tanjiro, up to pace so that he can become a demon slayer. Once qualified, the show transitions into a bit of a "monster of the week" vibe, with this talking crow turning up at the end of each arc to lead Tanjiro to the next lead. There are a couple of times too where the tone can be a bit hard to keep track of, with some deadly serious and perhaps unsightly moments (especially by what I would call "typical" shonen standards - probably closer to Hunter X Hunter in terms of how far it's willing to go than, say, My Hero) offset by some comedic bits which don't all land. It's not until the rest of the main crew is assembled that the show really picks up its pacing around halfway through the season, setting up this dramatic arc which punctuates the season with a massive exclamation mark at the end of Episode 19. Holy smokes, I cannot understate how good the end of Episode 19 is. Beautiful animation, a gorgeous song and such a vibrant use of colour just completely left my jaw dropped. Oh, and this show has some ridiculously good sound design too. The slicing sound of a sword matched with the crashing of water is just one example which lends a weight to the combat in this show. The animation, moments with Nezuko, soundtrack, and sound design are more than enough for me to hold off on reading the manga (which recently finished, tempting as that may be). The movie coming later this year will be covering the next arc before we hopefully get a second season next year, though I won't be surprised if that's been delayed to early 2022 at this point. Like I said before, it takes a while to assemble our main crew, and while that means the story takes a little while to pick up in terms of pacing, it allows us plenty of time to spend with Tanjiro and Nezuko. So Nezuko is one of the most adorable characters in anime, and that's just about all that needs to be said there. As for Tanjiro, he's akin to a lot of his shonen protagonist peers in a lot of ways, but in my almost objectively opinion sets a better example for his audience from the very start: where you might think his sister being turned into a demon would cause him to be blinded and seek revenge, his journey is instead aimed firmly at finding a cure for his sister and helping everyone that he can along the way. He is empathetic to other humans, yet despite having the role of a demon slayer, the sympathy he shows to demons in their final moments - and us being allowed to understand more about these demons' pasts, whether turned by their own overwhelming emotions or through being attacked themselves - is something I think everyone can take away from this: the importance of empathy, and showing sympathy to other humans where we reasonably can, regardless of their wrongdoing. Tanjiro respects and instills a humanity to the demons that he meets, something which never failed to put a smile on my face, and his willingness to help others is as always a great message to put across (and the show smartly conveys that putting others above yourself all the time isn't necessarily the best option, too - for instance, it's what results in Tanjiro running late and his sister becoming a demon in the first place). Demon Slayer ends up being a fantastic show despite some missteps early on, spearheaded by some of the best animation in the industry, a wonderful soundtrack, and a beautiful message.

The takeaways from last week's hands-on impressions (shamelessly stolen from Era). Only had a chance to breeze through, so potential light spoilers ahead (such a massive list and such light spoilers I don't feel like it's worth throwing in a spoiler tag from what I've read):

The usual PlayStation CG trailer looks brilliant as ever. Looking forward to this!

Man, I would absolutely want in on some of those Argos deals. Dragon Quest VII for £1.49, Fire Emblem Echoes and Fates Birthright both under £10, etc. Unfortunately the Argos stores by me never have any stock available for 3DS games

Yep, definitely. Though I'm sure the size of the game will be massive, the density and potential for that to extend vertically in some of these buildings is what's really exciting for me. Continuing from my above point, I feel like having the world be so dense and having something to look at in every direction is why they probably had to go with first-person. I feel like generally third-person is much more suited to larger areas, my main reason for this being situations where you end up in enclosed spaces and the camera perspective just isn't suited for it (walking up stairwells in a lot of third-person games always comes to mind). I get why they've gone with first-person here in order to help immerse players and to help with conveying this world's scale. But I think that's purely from a design perspective, which I can try to understand. From my own perspective, I'm in very much the same boat I think as you in that I just don't click as well with first-person games and sometimes it can make me feel a little off in games where they just don't nail first-person technically (loved Firewatch for example, but struggled with similar nausea). I haven't played similar first-person RPG's such as Fallout, Skyrim, etc., so while I'm definitely excited and more than happy to give Cyberpunk 2077 a go (positioning it for next-gen launch even if the upgrade won't be available yet is fine with me), it's the choice that gives me the biggest moment of pause. What makes it worse I think is the knowledge that we can have a typical third-person view when driving vehicles around. Customisation is also going to be a huge part of this game, and like with Star Wars: Squadrons, I can't help but question the decision to (potentially) be first-person only. I want to customise my character/ship for me, I don't care in the slightest what ToneDeafTony65 and JollyJohnson007 think. I just wish they would give us the option, because options are never a bad thing. I'm sure - from personal experience and speaking with friends who also don't get on well with first-person - that they're potentially standing to lose more from not offering the option to play in third-person than they stand to gain from strictly making it a first-person offering. It's a weird one, but I wouldn't be surprised if an update were to be released six months to a year after launch where it was made available... ...by which point most will have already played the game and moved onto other things.

Announced on Tuesday as part of the New Game Plus Expo: And when they said coming soon, they really meant it! Just been added to the US Nintendo site for release on 10th July, can't see it on our eShop yet but imagine it will be up in short time. Surprised it wasn't shared as part of that initial reveal. Also coming to PS4, XBO, and PC.

Well, yes. Big franchise and a lot of love for the characters and world means that it's a prime target for backlash if things don't go as expected. I think it was @Ronnie that mentioned The Last Jedi, but for other examples of this see the controversy and backlash surrounding the eighth season of Game of Thrones, Final Fantasy VII Remake, etc. You get backlash like this when there's any degree of differing opinions these days though, in any medium, which can result in a lot of toxicity seen surrounding massive franchises, and this is not as a result of the game itself having a focus on story, but a result of fans just not being able to discuss things in a reasonable way. Okay? Metal Gear Solid V is also a completely different type of AAA game to The Last of Us Part II: it's an open world sandbox where you're left to your own devices to do the best you can with the tools at your disposal. But let's say that it's a great from a gameplay perspective (I played for about 5-10 hours a few years ago, and had a lot of fun with it). Just because it's great from a gameplay perspective, given just how steeped the franchise is in storytelling and cinema - Kojima is pointed to as an auteur and has deep roots and respect for cinema and storytelling, clearly - we're really just going to say that fans can't care about not getting a story that they're happy with (especially considering how development on that game ended?) because the gameplay is great, or vice versa? I'm not really sure how that contributes to the argument that you're making about this likely being a GOTY contender and the gameplay not being discussed as much. It's a game which is telling a story in a massive franchise renowned for both excellent gameplay mechanics and storytelling. Why can't a game do both? Why does it just have to be one or the other? And why is it a problem when there's a focus on story? Surely that's just down to the discussions that you've seen, though? And again, in a narrative-oriented game packed with story beats, of course the story is being discussed as much as it is. But I've seen the gameplay being talked about too, and I spoke about it myself before. There are moments in this game where the game asks you to interact with it in a way which honestly asks a lot of the player, and is heavy and exhausting. The intensity of encounters and the survival aspect just wouldn't be nearly the same as in a book or film - as someone who shrugs at best at horror films, The Last of Us and Part II genuinely scares me at times. I love it because of the interactivity, that connection to the game world and that thing chasing you is much more visceral in the heat of the moment for me as opposed to in films, where my mind a lot of the time just wanders off to the production side of things. It's different strokes I guess. Again, I think it's just different strokes, which is fine! Honestly I think a terrific example to bring up here would be a bunch of JRPG's which both you and I love @Glen-i, such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. @LazyBoy, those are renowned as great video games, frequently featuring in many personal Top 10's that I've seen, and are mechanically sound in every way a JRPG should be. But asides from the production side of things which we're throwing away for Part II and other linear, narrative oriented games I suppose - what makes these games great? Memorable? It's the marriage of solid gameplay and a great story. Those games just aren't as memorable or beloved today if we strip aside so much of what they are - the stories - and boil it down to the core mechanics of a JRPG. Final Fantasy and many JRPG's, at least for me and many others, aren't great just because of potentially great mechanics unique to the genre in some of the games. I mean, isn't X-2 widely lauded as having one of the best turn-based combat systems in the entire franchise? Yet, while I'm sure it has its fans, it's the games which marry these two sides of a game most effectively - off the top of my head, often mentioned are IV, VI, VII, IX, and X - which are cherished the most. I'm sure those stories would make great books, but there's just something about interacting with these worlds through having them as games which make them mean that much more. For me, it depends on the game, and what exactly the game is aiming to achieve. Whether story or gameplay is more important varies from game to game, but I think great gameplay is of course important in how it immediately determines how well a game might age. I don't really want to comment on the actual spoiler in the spoiler tag, but just want to comment on what was mentioned after that in the tag (non-spoiler). This game is super intense, and you absolutely have to be in the mood to play it, to, well, experience it. It's grueling, unforgiving, harsh, intense, and at times honestly a bit much. In certain scenes I would wince at what was being shown, or look away from the screen, because it can honestly have that impact on you. @Goafer honestly given that you've seen/read (some of?) the spoilers, and how you feel like this game just wouldn't be for you, I'd be especially interested in your thoughts in the game if you ever did get around to playing it. It's absolutely not for everyone, but I'm surprised by just how many accounts I've seen of people saying similar things to you who came around on the game (likewise, there are those that just didn't enjoy it in the end, and that's fine too!). I think knowing what you can stomach and what your limits are when it comes to games and other forms of entertainment, and knowing what you like, is so important for enjoying any particular form of entertainment. Excellent post @dan-likes-trees. It's funny, because there's a lot of overlap there in the games you listed as having stuck with you and myself, Shadow of the Colossus and Inside being the two that come to mind most when talking about games with a clearly defined message with very little dialogue and conveyed mainly through gameplay. I can imagine Inside as an animated film, and would it be interesting? Sure. Nearly as powerful as having made my way through that unforgiving world myself? I don't think it would even be close. Absolutely agree with what you said about The Last of Us as well - I've mentioned this before, but horror films I shrug at but something about the interactivity of horror games just intimidates me at times - I do feel like it's a great example, like the games you mentioned and like some of the JRPG's I mentioned before, of where the gameplay and story meet at a good point and both build up the other. With your point in God of War, I feel similarly about that game and even more so the first Last of Us. I'm 21 years old, but there wasn't a question in my mind that if I were in the same world and situation that Joel, with all that had happened before that, that I would do exactly what he did. That's not the case for everyone, of course, but the point I'm trying to make is that I don't think the ability of a game to suspend your disbelief and make me, a 21 year old, feel as weathered by the world and like a guy in his late forties who has been to hell and back, can ever be fully appreciated. Games succeeding at putting you in other people's shoes and making you empathise in ways you might not have otherwise been able to is such an important thing, and even more so in a world like the one we live in right now. To be very clear, I don't think that @dan-likes-trees was simply suggesting that stories are great for supplementing gameplay. The examples he gave were of games which balance both gameplay and narrative in a way where neither is just supplementing the other, just adding some context or adding a bit more, but rather complementing it. As for the cutscene argument...have you played the game? Because I totally get what you mean and plenty of games are guilty of this - the early Uncharted games, heck as much as I love them the Yakuza games lean very heavily into telling the story through cutscenes - but I don't think The Last of Us Part II is one of them. I genuinely don't think I encountered a cutscene window which was longer than five minutes, and I think that came at a story climax, and was followed by contextualising where the story transitioned to next. In fact, cutscenes are dramatically shorter, and there were multiple times where a cutscenes was a minute or so in length and only there to really serve as a short transition into the next area. In fact, Part II does a great job with something which could have just been a cutscene but isn't, and those are little parts where you "play" the guitar, which transitions seamlessly into cutscenes. That would have been such an easy thing to leave out, and though I think it's a little clunky, again, it's the interactivity of it which just helps to connect you further to the game. Also, there's a wide linear section early on which I think I spent an hour exploring and playing through with no cutscenes. Huh? If you haven't played the game, are you really just going to run with the whole "well, I've seen a lot of articles focusing on the story more than the gameplay, so that must mean the gameplay is bad" argument? That seems kind of ignorant - especially if you haven't experienced the game yourself yet - are you really that trusting of games media? I honestly don't trust 95% of games media to write a good review, let alone effectively convey gameplay in their words which couldn't just be replaced with a video of gameplay or playing a game yourself. And if you don't like something, be reasonable and either decide to commit to seeing it through or put it down, it's that simple! I would do the same if I weren't enjoying this game, and the same would go for a book or show or a film. Time is short, why waste it? Heck, a game which won many awards and is seen as pushing the industry forwards is Breath of the Wild, and yet so many here and elsewhere loathe that game. One of the critiques despite its well received gameplay is the lack of narrative or world design focus! Good balance is subjective, but storytelling is at the heart of practically everything we do as a species and is a fundamental human instinct (recommend: The Storytelling Animal). I think the core of what you're saying just serves to highlight the ineffectiveness of the vast majority of journalists in the gaming industry. Story is easier to discuss and much easier to write about, and it's controversial. Why exactly wouldn't we be seeing a ton of these articles now for a narrative oriented game? Journalism relies so heavily on attention these days. I highly doubt that an amazing piece which accurately talks about the gameplay of this game at length would garner half of the interest potentially shown for a hot take on this game's story. And again, this closing statement you made: The parts I made bold make me think this whole argument - one I can honestly appreciate! - should in fact be directed at the media who are telling you what you've heard about this game. That you've not heard more about the gameplay in this video game is a failing on their part, not Naughty Dog's.

Official confirmation on the audacious sales figures, fastest-selling PS4 first party game: Insane numbers.

Started catching up on Season 4 of My Hero Academia on Tuesday now that the dub is finally complete, and just finished it tonight. Overall, ended up quite enjoying it, though I do feel it's probably the most inconsistent of the three longer seasons we've had since Season 1 in a number of ways. This was the first time I was watching a new season of an anime knowing full well what happened after reading the manga into what I assume would roughly be around halfway through Season 5 last year, and to be completely honest, that first cour I feel was kind of rough and poorly translated to the screen. The animation and art quality on the whole felt like a step down from Season 3, which itself felt like a step down from Season 2, but it certainly shows in some of the fight animations and choreography in the first half of the season, and there were a bunch of decisions made by the director which I think turned out very poorly. Medium shots and those positioned even further away just looked so poor in terms of quality, almost laughable at times to be honest considering this is one of the biggest anime at the moment, but that was always bound to happen considering that Toho has undeniably been stretching Bones on that front with having production on Heroes Rising running in parallel (thankfully there don't seem to be plans, at least for now, to continue churning out movies, so I have high hopes for a step up in quality in Season 5). As for the arcs themselves, as I alluded to before, I feel like the Shie Hassaikai arc just wasn't directed that well, especially when compared with the later episodes in the season. It was quite poorly paced until the last couple of episodes, and seemed to jump around with little rhyme or reason a lot of the time, and though one or two fights were handled quite well, I feel like a lot of key moments were handled as haphazardly as they could be. I'll dig into that a bit further and some of the other moments I want to talk about from this arc in the spoiler tag: The Remediation Course arc was a good laugh, but I was much more pleasantly surprised by just how well the U.A. Festival arc translated to the screen from what I thought was an interesting but weirdly paced arc in the manga. I loved it, from how Gentle Criminal and La Brava were handled to 1-A's concert and everything else. As @Jonnas mentioned previously, the animation, music, choreography, etc, were all excellent here. What an uplifting arc! Also, Eri is adorable and another character who I think translated really well to the anime and in the dub. Lastly, the Pro Hero arc. I knew from the manga that this would either end up capping off Season 4 or be our intro to Season 5, and I am so glad it was the former. Now to dive back into the spoiler tag. Lastly, the music. Not quite as varied as OST's from previous seasons, a lot of moments where they kind of cheaply go for the ethereal choir sound, but there was some good stuff in there. Namely, as mentioned previously, Might, as well as Eri, Kimi no Chikara, the jazzy stuff for the Shie Hassaikai, Overhaul's theme, and the remixes and rearrangements we heard throughout the season of All for One's theme. Overall, think my ranking of the seasons is now S2 > S3 > S4 >>> S1. Might pick up some copies of the manga and get caught up again Oh, and I also got caught up on the manga for Hunter x Hunter after picking up the volumes which follow the end of the anime and then finding the other chapters online. Loved it, honestly have a hankering to watch the show again soon. But anyways, now to start the long and painful wait for new chapters from Togashi...

Played by over 4.1 million players in the first three days, cruising past Spidey's 3.3 million and God of War's 3.1 million if I recall, as well as Final Fantasy VII Remake's 3.5 million. Absolutely nuts, but no surprise given the success of the first game. Loving this game more and more the more I allow myself to digest it and understand it, listening to and reading interviews, and so on. I don't think a game has ever required as much of me - mentally, physically, emotionally - as this game did.

New trailer, looking very Blade Runner in the thumbnail: Also an anime announced as coming to Netflix in 2022 from Studio Trigger: Getting excited for this game now... First impressions of hands-on gameplay are also starting to go up in places.

Delayed due to CV19. Official statement from Bandai Namco: Not too much of a surprise there.

Kinda Funny Spoilercast with Neil Druckmann, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson: Just started listening, Troy hasn't got to the very end yet should be a great listen, really interested in hearing a bit more about the ideas behind the game!

Story trailer: Co-op trailer: Gameplay video:

War Table begins at 18:00, anyone tuning in?

Looks fantastic. Feel like the combat shows much better in these videos than in the dedicated State of Play. Cannot wait!