Julius

Watched the Digital Foundry video last night, and I am completely torn about whether I'll be playing in Fidelity or Performance Mode. The ray tracing and effects look superb, and I'm a sucker for taking screenshots of a good-looking game, but at the same time, those 60 fps look so damn smooth. Anyone else having the same conflict, or come to a conclusion on which they'll end up playing the game in? Totally agree. Finished a replay of the original last week and it's DLC, and the old Peter model looked like a bit of a mashup of Maguire and Garfield, which I really liked, because it felt like it matched Yuri's voice (I played in the Raimi suit and he feels like a dead ringer for Maguire's Spidey when he's pulling out quips). Having played that quite recently, and planning to dive straight into Miles Morales at launch, got to admit I'm a little bit concerned that the new Peter model isn't going to be in this game enough for me to actually get used to it. And yeah, he really does look around the same age as Miles now. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, but the little snippets we've seen so far just haven't been enough for me to adjust!

Digital Foundry have just put up their UI tour: And GameXplain has put up a Q&A: Reading around, it seems the most disappointing thing could potentially be the DualSense's battery life, but mainly because it is going to wildly fluctuate depending on your use of its unique new features and the game which you are playing. I've read that settings such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are automatically configured at max settings from the start, and so something like Astro's Playroom (filled to the brim with uses for these new features) will likely be the fastest way to drain the battery, as it doesn't seem like it would last much longer than the length of that game on a full charge (reportedly 5 - 6 hours of playtime from the controller in this particular game). But then, something like Miles Morales, which will have fewer uses throughout of the DualSense's main features when compared with Astro's, apparently can last anywhere from 8 - 13 hours, a slight improvement on the DualShock 4's, but still, I had personally hoped for a bit more. I can only imagine it being a similar case for Demon's Souls, and of course while you can turn these settings down, when they're the main selling points of the controller, it does seem like a little bit of a letdown that the controller doesn't last much longer than the DualShock 4 would. Not the biggest deal in the world, and by no means a deal breaker, but it's the only thing that I've seen brought up which has given me pause. Just means I need to cross my fingers harder that PlayStation bring out their own higher end controller down the line!

State of Play shadow drop:

Seems like some good news for those going digital. Worth noting that it was tested while connected with an ethernet cable, so the new WiFi chip wouldn't come into play in this scenario. Of course varies depending on your internet download speed, but some five to eight times faster is still a remarkable improvement over the download speeds of the PS4.

Just finished Chapter 10. I really liked this episode a whole lot, the incorporation of CGI was much better all around in this episode than the last one I feel, pretty much everything was just right to me. It's funny, because watching the recap of Chapter 9 before this, with my major concerns over that episode being the poor appearance of some of the CGI, I was a little worried that we'd see some more of the same, but glad to be wrong about that. Costumes and sets looked terrific as they almost always are in Star Wars, soundtrack was a step up from last week's (two new variations on the Mando theme from what I could tell, both of which I was a big fan of! Now if only they'd be kind enough to release the albums each chapter like they did with Season 1 ), sound design was extremely good I felt in this episode too. Overall, awesome episode, and I honestly think it's one of the tighter paced and better directed self-contained episodes that we've had. Had an awesome time with it, looking forward to next week's episode! (But seriously please the release the albums for the first two Chapters of S2 already thanks)

Got the notifications from my bank a few minutes ago that GAME has started charging my account doesn't look like there'll be any issues there as I was concerned about! Thank goodness... Watched a few videos, but didn't want to dive too deep. So far it's been the Easy Allies impressions video, their review of Miles Morales, Digital Foundry's backwards compatibility video, and Greg Miller's UI walkthrough for Kinda Funny, all of which I really enjoyed. Don't think I'll be checking out too much more before release, probably just the Digital Foundry stuff on Miles Morales and Demon's Souls, and the EZA review for Demon's Souls probably, too; judging from us not getting Demon's Souls reviews today, I guess that's what they'll be saving until next Tuesday to get in on the next-gen hype with the launch of the Series X | S, which would be a smart move. Source Yeah 3D audio, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback are all interesting, but this is actually the thing which put a massive grin on my face when I see your post earlier. I'm stupidly excited for this, and I know I shouldn't be. They're just numbers! But then, I do love numbers... Doesn't seem to be there for all games just yet (in the Greg Miller UI walkthrough he has a friend at 58% of trophies on Overwatch and it says they've only played for 2 hours...I mean, that would be very efficient, but I doubt it ) but it's my favourite feature of the 3DS and the somewhat limited capacity it was in place for looking back at hours spent on the Wii in the calendar (I always loved getting the Wii out every summer and reminiscing about the Christmas I opened it, looking at the ridiculous number of hours spent on Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Sports Resort). Would love if they added a calendar at some point to this for that reason too! Playing on a base PS4 is honestly the main reason I've been hellbent on an upgrade, because boy have some games chugged on it over the last two years or so. Swear I've been in airports quieter than my room the first time I booted up VII Remake and The Last of Us Part II I would want to say I would've done the sensible thing like you H-o-T, and waited if I had a Pro or wasn't super interested in the exclusives (having not played a Souls game and loving to start from the beginning when I dive into a new series or genre though, Demon's Souls was definitely a massive draw for me too), but at the same time, knowing myself...I don't think I would have waited particularly long and would have just jumped on the second wave of pre-orders anyway! Hope Ratchet doesn't take too long to drop so that you can join us on the dark side sooner rather than later!

Early review scores look solid:

Reviews are up: DF: Round up of early scores:

Review time! And DF's backwards compatibility video: Pretty glowing!

Over on Marvel's channel tomorrow looks like we're getting what might be considered a State of Play equivalent? Yeah while I'm sure it'll be a great watch, we're only two weeks away, so I don't need to see anymore

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coming to Game Pass Ultimate on 10th November to coincide with the Series X | S launch. Solid addition!

Some PlayStation 5 support videos have just gone up: I won't lie, this got me hyped game presets in particular are probably the highlight:

First look at game modes:

New CGI ad for the game, always love these: Hoping they'll give us a longer version like they did with Spider-Man!

Series X (and S) final hardware impressions/reviews are up. General consensus I've seen seems to be pretty much in line with what we've all been saying leading up to launch: great piece of hardware which is the best way to revisit a lot of current/past gen games, but not much to offer in terms of exclusive games which showcase this at its full potential...yet.

Confirmation that the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special will be made available on Disney+ on Life Day (November 17th), as well as a new trailer. Should be a lot of fun!

Just received the notification emails from GAME that they'll be taking payment for the console and accessories in the next few days. Going to go over my order details one more time to make sure everything matches up, and already got the funds in my account ready to go. My main concern going into the next two weeks had been that there might be some sort of unforeseen issue with my card leading them to cancelling my order, even if it did have sufficient funds; SimplyGames cancelled my Final Fantasy VII Remake pre-order earlier in the year for that vague reason, and it's left me on edge since, despite being the only time I've ever had a supposed "issue" with the card. For that reason, I'm glad that the email from GAME confirms that if there is an issue they'll get in touch to give me the chance to fix things, got a lot more peace of mind going into the next few days now. Hoping everything goes smoothly! EDIT: also, PlayStation announcing that all units made available on launch day will be available online-only. Bound to happen, but still, glad they're setting that expectation ahead of time.

First look at the Character Creator and Photo Mode has been shared in the PlayStation Blog. Goodness knows how long I'm about to spend on that Character Creator, and while I quite enjoyed playing around with the Photo Mode in Shadow of the Colossus, the Photo Mode in Ghost of Tsushima recently is what really brought me around to them. Really looking forward to checking that out!

Famitsu reached out to SEGA for comment on this, and have clarified some details. Not all doom and gloom!

TWO. WEEKS. REMAIN.* *in Europe to be fair to those over the pond though, I imagine the election has accelerated their aging by at least a week, so I'll give it 'em Yeah, exciting times! Doubt I'll check out much more of the hardware stuff now as we're so close and will want to experience it myself (read: I'm lying through my teeth and will absolutely be watching further impressions, and I will justify this by saying it will help me set my own up as fast as humanly possible). Also, being only a week out from launch in the US and some other countries (note: must be nice), I don't think it's that far of a stretch that we might start to see game review embargoes come to an end tomorrow either. About a week out for major titles - launch titles especially - would seem about right to me, though I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to break this up somewhat, with one of the reviews for Miles Morales or Demon's Souls coming tomorrow, and saving the other until next Tuesday (for the Xbox launch to try and grab some of that next gen buzz, though I don't think it's necessary).

Nintendo's FY3/Q2 2021 report is out, covering the period of 1st July 2020 - 30th September 2020. The big takeaways - 6.85 million units sold this quarter between the Switch and Switch Lite. Lifetime sales for the console now stand at 68.5 million units sold. This means sales for the Switch halfway through the Financial Year stand at 12.53 million units sold - with the busiest quarter still to come! Year-to-date sales stand at 15.82 million units sold (3.29 million units were sold in Q4 2020). - On the back of this, hardware forecast sales for the year have been increased to 24 million units sold. This is in line with previous reports from the time of their last financials, which outlines Nintendo would be increasing production to 25 million units for the Financial Year. - In terms of new games this quarter, Paper Mario: The Origami King has sold 2.82 million units since launch, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars has sold 5.21 million units since launch (yeah, for the latter it's worth noting that's only in the space of two weeks). - Other games of note: Ring Fit Adventure at 5.84 million units sold, Xenoblade Chronicles now at 1.40 million units sold, and Clubhouse Games is at 1.81 million units sold. - Pokémon Sword & Shield have passed 19 million units sold, making them the first games in the series to do so since Gold & Silver. - Mario Kart 8 (including both sales of Deluxe and the original Wii U version of the game) is now the best-selling game in the series, with lifetime sales of 37.44 million units sold compared with Mario Kart Wii's 37.38 million units sold. It's possible that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe could surpass this mark individually down the road. Top 10 best-selling Switch games as of 30th September 2020 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 28.99M 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 26.04M 3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 21.10M 4. Breath of the Wild - 19.74M 5. Pokemon Sword/Shield - 19.02M 6. Super Mario Odyssey - 18.99M 7. Pokemon Let’s GO - 12.49M 8. Super Mario Party - 12.10M 9. Splatoon 2 - 11.27M 10. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe - 8.32M Personal Note: Animal Crossing: New Horizons could potentially surpass Mario Kart 8 Deluxe over the next quarter and become the Switch's best-selling game. Based on it's current pacing, New Horizons should surpass the 30 million mark in 2020 sales alone. Based on their current growth rates, New Horizons would be projected to come in next time around at just passing that 30 million mark, whilst Mario Kart would be in the 31 - 32 million mark, though this is only based on quarter-to-quarter growth comparisons, and it would be expected for both games to perform even stronger next time around due to it being the busiest quarter of the year.

Yeah, both accessories and games are releasing on the 12th, even the PS5 exclusive games. I think it got bumped up a few weeks back? It looks like ShopTo are getting all of their accessories and games ready to start processing on the 10th, so wouldn't be surprised if some turn up on the 11th. Not that it matters until the console arrives it's going to be a very long week of holding the DualSense and watching that UI video over and over I've seen some hoping elsewhere that due to lockdown there might an earlier launch, but everyone seems much more prepared now than they were back then, so unfortunately I'm not expecting it to hapoen. A repeat of the FFVII Remake situation we got earlier in the year due to lockdown would be nice, but like with that game, feel it would only make for a bit of a weird launch!

Someone from Portugal already has their Series X, 6 days early! And someone over in Canada has just received their Series S, and have confirmed that there will be 364 GB of available storage. Not long until next gen now folks!

I meant it as more of a tongue in cheek rhetorical, but yeah, you're absolutely right. And it's disgusting. I guarantee if Jesus were to come back today, they'd denounce him and treat him in just as toxic a manner - perhaps even more so - as they do minorities and anyone considered their "opposition" today. It really drives me up the wall, especially as someone brought up with Christian values (as I imagine would be the case for most here at some point or another). How they aren't viewed the same way as extremist groups of other religions (especially with what happened over the summer) is beyond me. Meanwhile, they're over there marginalising people of colour/different religions/genders/sexuality. It's infuriating too, because even though I'm not American, and I know most of us are based in or originally from the UK, social media makes the struggle over there more accessible. I've lost count of the times I've been fuming at videos showing some of the things that go on over there, and I guess that our empathy (and their apparent lack thereof) makes the gap all the wider. They seriously need a wake-up call. Even if Biden wins, I don't think that's going to be it.

Yeah, this. It's a bit closer I think even without the mail-in votes, though, which is why I think there's a bit more concern right now. Plus, it's always scary to see it looking this close, even if it won't be in the end (though it does look like it's going to be stupidly close). It was said before that Biden should pull ahead as more votes are counted and the actual numbers start coming in, as it's exactly why Trump wants them to stop counting in every state other than Arizona (which had a ridiculous mail-in turnout, and is dependable because counting started in advance of last night/today - you know, how it should have been done!). I mean, you can look at their supporters and handily guess who is a democrat and who is a republican based on whether they're wearing a mask or not. Like you said, it's why Trump has been trying to cast doubt over a mail-in ballot these last few weeks due to the potential for voted fraud (despite the fact that it is estimated to only impacted some 0.009% - or something like that - of mail-in votes?). A lot of Biden supporters voted a while ago, and were careful about it. You know, the expected response during a pandemic which the US has dealt with much worse than less able countries. America is such a strange place sometimes. But still, I do think it's incredibly disheartening that some 65+ million Americans have still voted for Trump. I mean, he didn't even deliver on The Wall™, and he doesn't have any other bright ideas he's been touting, so I don't even know what it is that they're supporting? Do they just like his haircut? The guy just tried to tear apart democracy on live television, for goodness sake! It just shows how divided America is, and I think even if Biden wins, the last 4 years has set up a lot of toxicity and hatred in the coming months and years. Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if this turns out much worse on the streets than the BLM protests earlier in the summer, which is a frightening thought. Urgh. Plus, you know, it'd be nice to have a President over there who wasn't denying climate change when we're at the tipping point.