Julius

Thanks for the heads-up, I missed the start! They mentioned they have 10 Star Wars series planned to hit Disney+ in the next few years...so confirmed we already have Mando S3, Bad Batch, Kenobi, Cassian, and Headland's planned series, and after those a Rebels sequel show is probably the most likely by a long shot. Even treating that as all but confirmed, after that they're still expecting another 4? Exciting times! sounds like they have similar ambitions for Marvel and their animation arms too, really nice to start hearing more about Disney+ now we're a year in.

Disney are hyping up some major announcements here, which they haven't done before from what I can remember of previous Investor Days, so it just got much more difficult to maintain low expectations. And Matt Martin from the Lucasfilm Story Group is too, even saying to tune in. Starts at 21:30, so...I guess I might find myself paying some attention to this and leaving The Game Awards highlights for tomorrow still? They've never hyped these things up before... Fingers crossed the actual Star Wars part isn't too late, because that's the only part I'll be staying up for!

Oh dang, that's a meaty patch, best make sure I've got that downloading too enjoy! Also, got to say I appreciate there being a reversible cover with the female protagonist. EDIT: also just a heads-up to those playing/will be playing, I've been reading into the settings of the game a bit because I'm fully expecting this game to give me a bit of a headache, mostly down to the first person perspective and multiple settings (nothing serious but I just know what my head can be like at times!), and there are quite a few you might want to turn off if it either makes you nauseous or looks washed out. I read up on the PC settings but not sure if all are on the next gen backwards compatible versions, maybe someone could confirm? Namely, for nausea, Chromatic Aberration, Motion Blur, and Depth of Field (last one is probably going to have less of a noticeable impact than the others, depends on if it doesn't make you feel off I guess). For looking washed out, might be worth turning off the Film Grain option. Lens Flare is also an option to watch out for, another one where it depends on your tastes and how you find it I guess!

So...what you're saying is it's going to be Ryuji, and we still won't have Persona 5 on Switch? All jokes aside though, very excited to see who's next!

Yep, they're also not all that fun to listen to at all for non-shareholders (all the content stuff will likely be saved for them, as well as any footage), at least going off the public ones I've listened in to. Though it was really interesting to just listen to Bob Iger take questions! Star Wars will probably be 30 - 60 minutes of that with a whole lot of preamble and probably praise for TCW S7/Mando S2 and their streaming numbers on Disney+. Fully expecting them to skim over the performance of the parks considering the closures due to COVID, though

New fighter reveal tonight at TGA's!

Copy arrived while I was on lunch and do the install has started! Really appreciate the inclusion of a physical Night City world map, can definitely see myself using it! Don't know if I'll get to the game before Saturday as I want to finish Uncharted 4 first (I know what I'm like, I'll just shelve it otherwise) and really want to dig my teeth into this when I do get the chance to play it (lord knows I'm spending a good chunk of time creating my V!), but hope everyone else has a good time in Night City! Fingers crossed everything runs smoothly

Yeah, the apps are inconsistent too, though been having much more joy with the app on the PS5 with the newer version. That being said, it's still loading up episodes when they require further buffering. Seems like a very shortsighted move by AT&T Warner, though. Anime is only growing in popularity and content is king when it comes to streaming, so selling off the largest anime streaming service in the world seems stupid, to put it bluntly. I'd guess they want to focus on a rotating monthly lineup instead, but still...urgh. But didn't they also get the US rights to Ghibli films for HBO Max recently? Weird move all around, to fight for that but then sell off your titan anime service. Something positive which will hopefully come out of this - from a fan and business perspective - is more shows getting dubbed, and sooner. Wouldn't be surprised if Sony did a total overhaul, started from scratch with a new platform, and merged Crunchyroll and Funimation into one new brand (which, you know, actually has an app which works well - they own Wakanim and Animelab already, right? So why is it only Funimation that I see complained about and is somewhat broken?). Guess we'll see how this goes...

Realised there was one coming up a few weeks and read about this yesterday. Expectations are high, so, naturally, I'm expecting to be disappointed At a minimum though, I'm expecting: some news on Bad Batch, Mando S3 confirmed and production starting soon, and then maybe an update on Kenobi (starts shooting next month of I'm remembering right?) and Cassian. But there's so much more they could reveal. We're still waiting on the Rebels sequel show, with whatever form that will take (personally I'd want it animated, I think the ideas of what we'll get might translate better to animation and The Clone Wars S7 shows what that team can do with a solid budget; at the same time, though, would understand wanting to go live-action as it typically draws in larger crowds); there are rumours of Boba and Ahsoka live-action shows (eh...); we've got all of the current projects in the works which we could get updated on (those mentioned above and then the Feige film, Waititi film, Rian's trilogy, J.D. Dillard's rumoured to have a project, and the Leslye Headland Disney+ show); and then there's always the potential for curveballs (potential for a High Republic show perhaps?). Not expecting any game announcements here (I mean The Game Awards are tonight so that's also a possibility, but still, they don't like to talk about those things here generally), but man, I just want to see some more risks taken. Feels like we've been waiting for reveals of older announcements for such a long time now that it's difficult to expect news on new projects we haven't heard of yet, though.

And just like that...

Agreed, that would be ideal. Bounce back and forth between awards and trailers/reveals and you'd have a decent balance. That being said, this will still probably be 3 hours or something ridiculous. Now there's just more time for ads! I mean, I guess the entire thing is an ad... Is anyone watching this live tonight? I have in the past but I've got work tomorrow, and going off previous Game Awards reveals, I don't think it's worth staying up for. The decision to have part of it live from the UK but then have it run at such a stupidly awkwardly time for us is pretty mind boggling to me, I think it would have been much better to aim for a time where most can watch it, but...that's American awards shows for you. Weird though because Geoff clearly is well aware of this fact, considering the timing of many of his streams in the summer. Sucks considering how global the industry is (it's not like the Oscars where so much of it is so established and concentrated in one country) but oh well, guess I'll just catch the highlights tomorrow

It's funny, this arrives today and I still have no idea if I'm going to end up playing it yet or not based on the comparisons coming out for the console versions. I mean, it looks fine on the PS5 and Series X with backwards compatibility, but yikes at that PS4/One performance, especially on the One S going sub-20 fps. Might find myself saving it until Saturday to see what other comparisons show, because I'm especially interested in what Digital Foundry will have to say. Or I might just boot it up and cross my fingers it's all fine Either way, it's a massive shame, and if ShopTo hadn't started prepping this so early compared to news of the console versions and that shocking news about the potential for the game to cause seizures (?! seriously, the hell were they thinking?!) I would have cancelled my order. I know we expected it to not run as well on the PS4/One consoles, but there's not really an excuse for it running as poorly as it does. Also seen a lot of photos showing off bugs, such as billboards showing 'Debug' during gameplay but then the actual advertisment in Photo Mode. Really on the fence with this for now, but in good news for CDPR: That's pretty insane!

Insomniac you gods. Performance Mode + Fidelity Mode doing a little fusion dance. Probably some in-between with 1080p and some sort of upscaling, but seems a fair trade-off for your rays to be traced and your frames to be coming at you 60 at a time

The Demon Slayer dub is finally releasing on Funimation tonight at 21:00 GMT! It's about time! heartily recommend it for anyone who wants awesome animation, a great soundtrack and OP, and a really well done first season to draw you in. Oh, and a really amicable protagonist. My younger brother got into the show and loved it, so I've been buying him the manga since (which I'm refraining from checking out myself!) and he's loved everything about it so far, which definitely has me excited for Mugen Train and the inevitable second season. Definitely worth your time if you haven't seen it already!

Ghost of Tsushima is the Player's Voice Game of the Year: Very much deserved in my opinion, one of my favourite games of this year for sure, and probably my favourite, realistically styled open world. Sucker Punch smashed it

Yeah, having listened to Ben's thoughts in the Easy Allies Impressions, it's going to be a weird launch. I expected bugs, but some of the ones mentioned in the review...I mean, yikes, having characters T-pose part of the way through a mission and having the male voice applied to the female V sound like such bizarre, immersion shattering things; from the sounds of it, that most recent delay was almost certainly to clean up the Day 1 patch (also agreed with @Cube that the review situation is weird, wonder if this is part of the reason why?). All the reviews/impressions I've seen so far have been on PC, so it'll be interesting to see how much of this applies to the console versions. It's a real shame. I'm still super hyped, but guess I'll be going into this a bit more cautiously than I might have been planning on. I think I'll see how the first 5 hours or so shake out technically before committing to completing the game in its current state (it's not like there aren't other things I'd like to play!). We've waited this long that while I'm happy to give it a shot, I really don't mind waiting some more if it's as bad as it sounds in some of these videos.

Currently at a 90 on Metacritic after 32 reviews. Some reviews and impressions to dig into: Let the hype take over

Had been debating whether I was going to play Demon's Souls and then follow it up with this so close to each other, but not playing games the last two weeks has put Demon's Souls on the backburner for me I'll get to it (eventually), but for now, enjoying something a bit shorter until Thursday now. ShopTo have emailed to say it's already at the warehouse, so all being well, it'll arrive on Thursday and on time Can't wait. Agree with @Ronnie that my preference would be a third person perspective, but fingers crossed this is one of those games where first person is done in a way which doesn't spin my head around! Still kind of sucks from a gear perspective, though...

Chapter 13 and 14 thoughts! Music, sets, et al all up to par as usual, though again, a few instances where it looked a little rough from a CG perspective. Solid pair of episodes, though I'll admit, Favreau and Filoni seem unhinged when it comes to fan service and character returns this time around, and does at times feel like its own beast when compared with how insulated Season 1's plot and characters were. Either way, can't wait until Chapter 15!

Anyone else check out the Season 4 opener for Attack on Titan last night? Huge change of pace and style, but I really enjoyed it. Love the art style MAPPA went with, much closer to the couple of pages I've seen of the manga, and animation quality was generally great, though I'll be the first to admit I don't like the Titans now being fully 3D (much preferred them in 2D, but still, a big step up from the 3D animation we had before) - though, I only think I've had a handful of instances where I've actually appreciated 3D being well in a 2D space. OP kind of feels like a baby gender reveal with all that coloured smoke... but still like it. Not as hyped as the Linked Horizon openings, but given the change of pace, not too surprising that they chose to go with something else, and I dig it. Gave me the chills. Oh, and also loved that they kept the episode panel and a bunch of other smaller details consistent with the earlier seasons. Hadn't been too well last week, so found myself wanting to be away from screens in general, and caught up on the My Hero Academia manga instead; it's probably somewhere towards the end of what I imagine will be Season 6 now after Chapter 293 yesterday, and holy heck, some of the best arcs/moments are still to come to the anime! Got the Vigilantes volumes on the way too... Naturally, catching up with the manga got me watching Heroes Rising, and while I did enjoy it (the hype and soundtrack is like soup for the soul when you're feeling down) and though it was much better than Two Heroes, still think it was a general step down (also I'm not the biggest fan of semi-canon films, wish they'd follow Demon Slayer's example and just adapt the next arc into a film, or, tell a story which could be consistent with the manga/show) and not a great tradeoff for the animation quality in S4 dipping compared to previous seasons. Which leads me onto... Well, so much for Horikoshi not having anything left for films at least Bones have separate dedicated divisions for their series and films now they've restructured a bit, so fingers and toes crossed this won't have an impact on the latter half of Season 5 in particular. This has all resulted me in rewatching the show, about a third of the way through Season 4 again now. Season 1 was much better than I remembered it being, definitely think it only being one cour really helped its pacing; Season 2 is still probably my favourite overall, as the animation quality, plot, and characters all felt like they're the best we've got in the show so far; and Season 3 takes a bit of a dip in animation quality compared to Season 2, but it's still my second favourite by some margin, with probably my joint favourite fight sequence. It's funny not being that far into Season 4 and just how obvious the dip in animation quality is with the number of wider shots of the class they've used, I really do hope Season 5 doesn't get hit by the film's production. Either way, Shoto is still the best. Also, I only realised during my rewatch that Yuki Hayashi is the composer, funny how many tracks sound so similar to his awesome Haikyuu soundtracks!

PS4 Pro and PS5 gameplay (free next gen upgrade still coming next year).

So, I reinstalled the game. I've had speed running on my mind all day! So I'm not getting to Demon's Souls for a few more days Finally got a sub-40 second time on Mountain Run. Ending is still a bit iffy to be honest, and not my smoothest start, but broke the top 1000 at least!

I think it's a weird one for them at the moment with how PlayStation's market in Japan has substantially declined over the last decade or so, and their efforts are definitely being focused overseas these days. I think it's part of their continued attempts to be a worldwide brand vs a Japan-centric one, having it be universal this way means you can buy a PS5 from anywhere and the button configuration will be the same from the start. On the other hand, I don't think it's too much to expect them to at least have the option available. But I don't see them changing it or adding the option either to be honest, as it's going to sell anyways

Honestly, after this launch, I would add Astro's Playroom to that list too. I know most consider it a demo for the DualSense, but so what? For a pack-in, like Wii Sports, it has me completely hooked and demonstrates the controller's capabilities very effectively, it handles great, and is such a blast from beginning to end with its charm and abundance of references. I'm doing speed runs in ways I never imagined I would - not that I ever imagined myself doing speed run attempts for hours on end before today. It has me so hooked that I've had to uninstall the game, because I know I'd play it for another week and let it get in the way of priorities and other hobbies otherwise. Then again, that doesn't sound too bad... As for Demon's Souls, haven't got around to playing it yet, hopefully will start it up in the next few days (I can see myself reinstalling Astro's tomorrow at the moment). Very curious to see how I'll get on with it having not played a From Software game before, but it's always nice to challenge myself and play new types of games, so I'm going to commit to it once I start.

Me playing Mountain Run: just one more turn, I'm so close to a sub-40 second run. Once I've done that, I'll call it a night. Game: *uninstalls*