Julius

Yep, same vibes except arguably much worse in my opinion because of the leaked cutscenes a few months back fuelling the fire well before the game had even released. Again, though, I think it's a very vocal minority, because simply put the majority won't have finished the game at this point. People have also had their minds made up for months about certain scenes as a result of the leaks, and context for certain scenes is extremely important when it comes to storytelling in any medium, so of course those scenes being viewed out of context doesn't help in the slightest. Also doesn't help that expectations were sky high based on the first game and Naughty Dog's history of critically acclaimed and successful games, people were expecting a 10/10 masterpiece, no questions asked, but that just was never going to happen. I read an interview with Druckmann the other day where I think he nailed it: the problem with something this big, in a setting like the one we see in TLOU2, just narrows it's storytelling options the more that the series goes on. There are absolutely some problems that I had with this game that I mentioned before, and I don't think it will be for everyone, let alone fans of the first game - like Square Enix with Final Fantasy VII Remake, I think Naughty Dog took a lot of risks here that they didn't necessarily need to, but it was warranted by the story they were telling. I think it's got some serious pacing issues, amongst other things, but this game has had an absolute grip on me since finishing it on Monday night. It's not flawless, but I'll be damned (and lying) if I said that it's not one of the most intense, brutal, and gripping experiences I've had with any form of entertainment. And again, that's not going to be for everyone. And that's absolutely fine. But I think that the majority of the backlash that I've seen from the vocal minority (you know, those review bombing, insulting others for liking the game, and so on) is excessive at best, and borderline disgusting at worst. Neil Druckmann and the folks over there at Naughty Dog are handling it incredibly well so far, all things considered.

@CrowingJoe79 again, spoiler tags? I've finished the game but still, try to spoiler tag posts which clearly contain spoilers, as not everyone's played the game.

@LazyBoy well, first and foremost, people are playing this game for the story, not the gameplay. The gameplay is the vessel for conveying their story. Compare it to a Nintendo product and it's a totally different beast, such as in Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey where the (somewhat limited amounts of) story is very much the vessel for the gameplay. Gameplay is dramatically improved from the first game, there's not a question in my mind about that. Areas are larger, there are some areas where wide linear exploration is possible for instance. As much as I loved the first game, it was very linear not just in its storytelling methods, but also in its moment-to-moment gameplay; The Last of Us Part II is much more dynamic when it comes to enemy AI and encounters than its predecessor, environments are much more varied both in style and scale, and there is a weight to your actions in combat which make you feel like you're scrambling for your life. The greater variety upgrades to skills and weapons compared with the last game too, being able to go prone, dodging, air takedowns that we saw in Uncharted 4, rope puzzles and physics, excellent animations again contributing to the weight of combat, notes giving a greater flavour to the world and being utilised more frequently in puzzles, and then of course tropes from other survival games such as material scarcity and so on that we saw in the first game too. Again, the gameplay is superb, I just feel the story is being talked about much more 1) due to the controversy surrounding it and 2) because at the end of the day the gameplay here is the vessel for the story.

Oh of course it's this, this is going to do absolutely crazy numbers. Was just listening to a podcast discussing the possibility of this the other day considering how well a knock-off Pokémon version of this was doing well. But I'm so hard out.

14:00 BST tomorrow! Nervous to see what this is, but not too long to go now.

Game's gone gold! Not long to go now!

Well, after around 30 hours put into the game, I've seen credits roll, tears in my eyes. Completely blown away, definitely going to need some time to think about it some more. But this is absolutely going to be a part of the GOTY discussion at the end of the year, and deservedly so, in my mind. With regards to the backlash, what I'll say is that there are in my opinion three BIG things which happen in the game, and if you're not on board with all three of them, I could see the experience crumbling apart very, very quickly. And besides that, it's definitely got some pacing issues, and a much larger ensemble here means we don't really see the tight narrative focus and character development seen in the first game. It definitely falters at times. I think we're about to see a modern example of reactions in line with that of a certain sequel which caused a lot of controversy at the time of its own release, nearly two decades ago, and which will be mentioned a whole lot I'm sure in the coming weeks and months during discussion of this game. Hope those still playing enjoy the experience, I can't wait to discuss this in a bit more detail (of course with spoiler tags!) once more have completed the game.

@CrowingJoe79 spoiler tags? I've seen most (but not all) of that already but I think it's best to respect others by putting basically anything that gets too specific (bosses, anything about new characters, even that nice story moment you mentioned at the start), at this point, in spoiler tags for the foreseeable future when discussing this game @S.C.G I imagine I'm around two thirds of the way through the game by now, around 20-something hours in (taking it slow, checking areas thoroughly picking up everything I can, straying from the beaten path to do so a lot of the time). It's not hard to see why this game has been met with backlash from a fan perspective, so maybe this is just as a result of me having only played the first game for the first time last month, but so far I've really enjoyed it and it's kept me on the edge of my seat. I didn't read the leaks, but I will say that - again, having not played the first game until last month - I probably had a fresher perspective on a lot of the trailers when they released than those already invested, so certain things I had started to assume way back then without the context of the first game, and I'll leave it at that. Also has a few times where I feel it could be argued that there are pacing issues, though from my perspective the story is told pretty naturally considering that I expected a lot of the cuts to happen exactly where they happen. On the technical side (again, base model PS4): a couple of frame rate hiccups here and there, the new dodge mechanic revealed way back when we first saw gameplay can be a bit janky (dodging off a rooftop to fall to your death...yikes, also feels a bit overpowered and like gaming the system when in smaller spaces), a few times with some pretty noticeable texture pop-in (mostly grass and leaves when in vehicles, one time after I rushed into a room and immediately picked up a note). Production qualities are unsurprisingly some of the best you'll experience on a console video game today: I'm playing on a base model PS4 and though there was one time early on where the fan got quite loud, it's otherwise blended into the background pretty well considering the level of animations (the ropes in this game, seriously!), sound design, model design, music, etc. This is the best looking (realistically art styled) game I've ever seen. As for the brutality, I'll be honest, there are times where it has disturbed me. I'm not squeamish when it comes to blood and brutality (having not played horror games before last month obviously that aspect is probably what's raising the tension the most) but this game is VIOLENT. We've seen it in gameplay and in some of the trailers, but hearing someone gurgle their own blood after a shot to the throat just isn't pleasant, and we are getting to that point where games look incredibly similar to real life, and I am a bit concerned about the audience when it comes to this. Now that I'm older I don't have a problem with younger (mature, teenage) audiences playing Call of Duty (despite the fact that my parents would keep me away from such games growing up, as it "glorified violence"), and I feel like the art style just about veers away from realism and the kills, despite being a FPS, just feel so... distant, at least in the campaigns. I killed an NPC, no big deal, there's a lot of us vs a lot of them, and people are going to die. Those games, from my limited experience with them, seem to be much more about collaboration and the bigger picture, and it's rare even in the campaign that they get brutal. As I touched on before, The Last of Us Part II has some of the most realistic murders you'll see in a video game up to this point, and they're so realistic at times that I could see a ratings board taking a hard stance against similar things moving forwards. To an impressionable young mind I feel like this game could genuinely do some harm, so I genuinely hope that there aren't any psychologically immature teens playing this more than I ever have before. I hope parents are being sensible, but judging from the number of kids that play GTA, I wouldn't keep my hopes up. Anyway, the reasoning for this brutality is something that Neil Druckmann revealed way back, one word which I feel contextualises it for the most part... It's the focus of the message that the game is trying to send, so the brutality I feel pairs up with that. Even if it is disturbing, it's part of the point, and I'm not sure if it would hit quite as hard if not for this. We'll see if my mind changes by the end. Also the vast ocean of accessibility options presented at the very start of this game are absolutely something to be recognised and commended. I spent five minutes at the start of the game just looking through them all and playing around with them, which put a huge smile on my face. I hope more developers (specifically AAA, who need to lead by example and set that standard) follow suit.

The trailer from the PS5 event is down because of a copyright claim by Gameloft S.E. on PlayStation YouTube channel. I think it's both hilarious and incredibly disheartening. Hilarious because a big company is making a copyright claim against a much bigger company when they own the rights to almost everything in that trailer, so I can't imagine PlayStation taking this particularly well. And Gameloft is parented by Vivendi who were pushing that hostile takeover of Ubisoft a few years ago (which thankfully fell through), so screw those guys. Incredibly disheartening because if it wasn't obvious before the copyright claim system on YouTube is just straight up broken, and you're guilty until proven innocent (which makes all of zero sense). PlayStation will be fine, but it makes you feel for those creatives who get copyright claims for no apparent reason and get their accounts shuttered (there was one a couple of months ago where a guy was copyright claimed for uploading his own original music, for instance).

It's here Two discs and needs 95 GB free to install and play, install is only 4-5 GB and takes 10 minutes or so, if anyone was wondering! Finally saw the dreaded "you don't have space screen" looking forward into diving in after lunch and hiding from the internet over the weekend

No idea where this belongs, but seeing as it's hopeful/speculative, figured this might be the right place. It's never going to look like this, and wouldn't work in a lot of ways, but that person who has been putting together images of Pokémon in Breath of the Wild is doing some amazing work. After playing Xenoblade I wish Monolith Soft would give Game Freak a hand, but of course they'd need to probably size up a little more with so much in the works at the moment. The game doesn't need to be anywhere near as massive as that game is, but it's that sense of awe and wonder (and the greater diversity of monsters' levels when compared with something like the Wild Area, and how they all interact) that a more-open-but-not-BotW-open, linear open world could bring to something like Pokémon which I think would be amazing. The battle mechanics of Pokémon give it a solid core, but that sense of discovery just isn't what it was in the early games anymore, the main game just isn't difficult enough even when compared with past games, and the lore these days is such a letdown (yes it's an RPG so I am interested in the story, and when I was younger I spent tens of hours scouring over the timeline and legends/myths pages on Bulbapedia). Anyway, hard to imagine whatever these games are, assuming that they're core series games and not a spin-off, being much different than Sword & Shield.

You planning on staying up for the EA event Ronnie? I have work tomorrow, but honestly even if I didn't, I don't know if I'd be ready to stay up so late considering how middle of the road I've felt their last few E3's were. Besides wanting to know more about this game and Hazelight's next project I don't think there's much else I'd be tuning in for, unfortunately. Hope there are some welcome surprises in store for you if you are staying up for it!

Ellie Nendoroid coming in November:

Technical breakdown and comparison from Digital Foundry:

The new release date of November 19th seems suspiciously close to when we'd expect next gen to launch, and this seems like too big a game to miss out on that. Hmm.

My bad, I'm on my phone so it cuts off at the start of "Announcement" the game has certainly piqued my interest though, if not for Death Stranding only releasing last year I would've guessed during the event that it was a Kojima game.

For anyone else confused by this, it's an extended cut of the trailer from last week

Geoff's teasing...something. Hmm. Can't help but feel like it's hinting at the Xbox event? Could be totally wrong in my recollection of this, but I think TGA's only do "World Premiere", and "Exclusive World Premiere" is one Xbox uses?

Next week's event is getting hyped up... Well, that doesn't read like Pokémon Sleep or a Let's Go Johto to me. Excited to see what it is.

Some more insight into the game with director Mathijs de Jonje: Very casually revealed that they're aiming to release the game next year in 2021. Also said that there are virtually no loading screens, even when fast travelling or restarting a checkpoint.

I pre-ordered with them too and just got an email saying mine was being processed in the warehouse a bit earlier today, but I read that Sony's been pushing online retailers hard to make sure that the game doesn't arrive any earlier than Friday. Of course, we'll have to wait and see if that actually happens Only got a half day at work on Friday, and booked Monday off, so while I don't want to rush through the game and will likely be just as thorough as I tried to be when playing the first game a few weeks ago, I will be preparing for some long and intense gaming sessions in the next few days

73 hours and 1 minute (darn that 1 minute for the sake of not keeping things clean!) after starting, I've seen credits on Xenoblade Chronicles. I could have finished about 10 hours earlier, but felt like grinding a bit to finish up all the higher level quests I possibly could (ended up completing 335 side quests, besides the mandatory 31 story quests). Overall, I really enjoyed it, but it's far from a flawless game, and that's okay. Definitely a couple of times where it dragged, the story loses its bearings a bit in some places, and boy does it go heavy on JRPG tropes. But hey, I'm not complaining. I do feel like the sense of awe and wonder at the size of the world does come to an end at a certain point though, which I feel is quite detrimental to the enjoyment of the game if that's you'd been enjoying, and for me it actually happened around the 40 hour mark, so roughly at the same time investment as where I think @drahkon dropped it. Weird that. And even though I enjoyed the game, I can totally empathise with why you dropped it, drahkon. Reading through your post on the last page I certainly feel like our opinions on where the game didn't quite match up to that early promise might overlap in a couple of places. Going to take my time and sit on my opinions on this one for a bit, considering just how long it is, but I can't not talk about the soundtrack. Holy smokes what a wonderful score they put together for this game! Will have to keep my eyes out for a potential release of the rearranged OST for this version of the game. Don't plan on jumping into Future Connected just yet, considering that a certain game comes out on Friday and I feel like I need a bit of a breather, but I think I'll get around to it a bit later on in the summer, if not then by the end of the year. I was happy with how and where this game ended. I might have to consider picking up Xenoblade Chronicles 2 at some point, probably next year realistically. But yeah, in short, add me to the list of people who had a great time with Xenoblade Chronicles!

Digital Foundry's ray tracing breakdown for last week's event:

Probably just an update on Pokémon Sleep All jokes aside, given how it was teased, I would be surprised if it's anything but news on the next pair of core series titles (for example, I don't think teasing news like this for an update on the Detective Pikachu game first announced last year would be well received). Things seem to be pointing towards Diamond & Pearl remakes. FireRed and LeafGreen were released originally released in 2004 (8 years after the original games in 1996), HeartGold and SoulSilver in 2009 (10 years after the originals in 1999), and Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire in 2014 (12 years after the originals in 2002). Seeing that its been nearly 6 years since the last pair of remakes (previously every 5 years) and this year will be marking the 14th anniversary of the original games, this is the longest in every sense that we've gone without the next "generation" of core series titles being remade since the first remakes. Whether a modern Game Freak can do those games justice is probably up for debate, though I'm sure it will sell well regardless. The only other real possibility in my mind is a pair of Let's Go games set in Johto, though that would mean returning to Johto sooner than our last visit to Sinnoh, and I'm not sure how well that would go over with fans, at least in terms of initial optics. I'm sure it would still sell amazingly well, though. This is all of course unless Game Freak are going to have the shortest "generation" of core series games to date and make another jump to a new region. While I think this is the most unlikely of the three options I've mentioned, given how Sword & Shield will have had a full year of support with two DLC expansions when all is said and done, I don't think this can be easily dismissed as it might have been previously. Even if it is, by far, the most unlikely option.