Julius

Just finished watching the credits on MGS3. Loved Way to Fall as the end credits song, what a great and fitting piece of music: Got so much to say, but I'm going to take a little time to digest it a bit more. If you want the short version, though, it's: Holy crap. I loved this game. But some quick, muddled thoughts while it's all fresh... Loved the ending. Loved the post-credits tease. Most of the boss fights were great. Favourite scene is undoubtedly when you hear the song climbing the ladder at the end of the Krasnogorje Tunnel, such a powerful way to let the player breathe after quite a condensed rush through some bosses, and I found it really cathartic - it felt like a great blend of good storytelling/cinema and gameplay, and you get that at several times throughout the game. Love the story, and I found that Eva and Ocelot were so damn likeable as characters throughout. One of my favourite chase sequences in a video game. The tracks on the soundtrack are superb, and not for the first time, I've got to praise the original music of this series: it's ridiculously powerful stuff. Gameplay mechanics like "camouflage" and "cure", with how they're utilised in this game, should be in so many more games today than they are. The camera is so much better than in the previous games, though it's not without its flaws; most noticeably, there were a couple of times where I clicked in R3 and (correct me if I'm wrong here) the game reverted back to the fixed camera pre-Subsistence and found that it should've been the default camera (such as during the chase sequence) for that scene, because it loses so much without it. Experienced a bit of a frame rate dip when I used certain weapons, like the M37, which was a bit of a shame, and definitely some other noticeable technical things I noticed, but in the whole I'd say Bluepoint knocked it out of the park with this remaster. So yeah, I love this game. Easily my favourite Metal Gear game so far, and a massive step up from Sons of Liberty - that's not me speaking ill of that game, but this game just felt like the last third of that game, the part that I enjoyed the most, the entire way through. Had a massive smile on my face throughout most of the game. I think this might be one of my favourite video games.

Phase One line-up: Goodness knows how many phases there will be, mind. In all likelihood, I'm guessing this will likely either be May or May/June. Interesting nonetheless. I was a bit concerned that everyone doing their own thing might mean some things that might otherwise blow up from the E3 spotlight might now end up flying under the radar, so this seems like a smart move to give everyone a chance of keeping caught up.

The plot thickens. Taken from this GamesIndustry.biz article.

Been getting through MGS3 at a steady pace, beat The End last night, guessing I'm around the halfway point? What a funny sentence Definitely still gathering my thoughts on a lot of things I want to discuss, but needed to comment on booting up my game today, loving the opening as always, and then immediately following that up with climbing up the ladder in the Krasnogorje Tunnel, with a vocal-only version of Snake Eater? Was nearly tearing up, what a powerful moment in so many ways

That's awesome news! Congrats on the new virus @bob!

I've seen Order 66 play out tens of not hundreds of times by this point, from many different perspectives. The perspective of it in Part III of this final arc of The Clone Wars is gripping, chilling, and perhaps one of my favourites. Kevin Kiner knocked it out of the park in this episode with his score, my goodness. Early on, once the dust settles and we see the aftermath of the ending events of Part II, this eerie and cold background music creeps in, and it just doesn't leave for a good ten minutes or so. It's so persistent. It's so tense. It seriously feels claustrophobic. And then how it swells into Anakin's Dark Deeds when the deed goes down...wow Adding to the claustrophobia is some incredible cinematography, and really subtle character interactions and decisions like having what would normally be a "Yes Sir" from a clone be this slow, telling nod. The way that this episode, like the others in the arc, blend so well and effectively with the events of Episode III is just awesome. Again, while Filoni has plenty to learn about directing live-action and is already well in his way in learning how to do so (being on set for the three sequel films, the spin-offs, being surrounded by a great cast of directors on The Mandalorian - I know he's going to be fine), he is easily the man that gets Star Wars the most still working at Lucasfilm. I don't want Monday to come around for this show to be over.

Some new screenshots from the game:

Update from Schreier: I'd want to suggest security concerns about working from home possible being the culprit...but wasn't there a leak a few months ago too, before the majority that could work from home started doing so? Really odd. None of this really takes away from the crunch situation over there, but you've got to wonder who it was, if potentially not an employee?

New Japanese promotional trailer: So excited

Game Informer have an interview up about Valhalla. In summary:

No Direct planned for June? Shame, because Nintendo has been really consistent in my opinion with their E3 Directs and presence since the Switch launch, but I totally get it. I don't see them just uploading a bunch of trailers to their YouTube channel either, so I wonder when we'll next see one? *cough* July 1st *cough*

Enjoy the CG trailer: Cross-gen unsurprisingly confirmed at the end there, along with Holiday 2020. Guess we'll see more in June or during the Series X reveal, whichever comes first?

Well, turns out Official PlayStation Magazine has been torn to shreds over this and that their cover likely means nothing for the PS5 reveal. My bad guys. That misunderstanding has now been replaced by GamesBeat editor Jeffrey Grubb commenting over on ResetEra that the PS5 event will be June 4th. The wait continues.

Yeah, I won't be either. Even if I were a diehard Halo fan (spoiler: have only briefly dabbled with previous games at friends' houses growing up, so that's not the case), knowing that this game would be available on PC and Xbox One anyways means that there's no reason for me to pick up a Series X yet. With Phil Spencer reiterating time and time again certain things that make it sound like there isn't going to be an experience which is Series X exclusive for the next few years anyways (and even, for PC gamers there's almost always your PC for this), a practise which is by all means great PR move for the community but a terrible business one, I just don't see why you'd want to pick one up on day one, unless you fall into a small number of players who are either a) head over heels for Xbox, or more likely in my opinion, b) only interested in one or two titles (Halo, Forza) running the best that they can on a console (so likely without a gaming PC) and have the disposable income to do so. And that group is only getting smaller and smaller every single day given the current economic climate, not to mention the concern for the RRP for this thing at launch. I think the PS5 is a much easier sell right now, assuming that they don't overprice this thing, and I expect it to hit the ground running when it comes to sales. As @Hero-of-Time mentioned, the support from a practically reborn and certainly revitalised Japanese gaming industry (I've read a bit about how difficult the transition was for them to PS3/Xbox 360, so I'm blown away by what we've had this gen) for the PS4 has been astounding, and knowing that games like Persona 6, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part II, Yakuza, whatever Konami might or might not have in the oven, etc., will very likely either be console - or at the very least timed - exclusives for PS5 means that I know for a fact I'll be picking up a PS5 at some point, and considering that I don't have a Pro and that there are already some PS4 games that I would like to revisit (next to the pile I've yet to play), backwards compatibility means that I'm happy to pick up a PS5 on day one. And this is all before we even begin to mention the abundance of Western developers, and the first party exclusive offerings they've got cooking too. And there's no way they're going to launch without a killer app...right??? But I digress. I think at least on day one - unless Sony completely implode during the reveal, don't have that killer app at launch, and manage to pull off Xbox One E3 2013 levels of stupidity - PS5 beats out the Series X pretty comfortably. I just can't see, after the PS4, how it couldn't. But I want the Series X to succeed. Xbox have so many great things going on (unfortunately from my perspective at the moment, this is outside of their software), and I would love to experience the Halo games at some point. Even though I have a gaming PC (mostly for some things outside of gaming) which could probably run those games pretty well, I want Xbox to convince me to play those games on Series X so I don't have to faff around with getting an adapter and Xbox controller (probably wouldn't feel right otherwise) just to play those games on PC. If they have the game's then I could get there, but between the Switch and PS4 catalogues, and potential PS5 catalogue, they've really got to turn this around within the first year or two from a software perspective. I think competition is always great, and PlayStation have been dragging their feet on many things that Xbox have been pushing recently (the adaptive controller, things like Game Pass...pretty much everything @Ronnie mentioned above), so at the very least I just want to see them competing to the point that we consumers win, and the industry and its future is pushed.

So it includes their promotions like the $1/£1 deal they ran a few months ago, but damn if this isn't great news for Xbox Game Pass heading into next gen. Definitely got a foot up on PlayStation in this space right now. It'll be interesting to see how Game Pass is pushed heading into next gen, and if (when?) PlayStation push Now forwards like this.

Damn, 15 studios worked together on this game. Apparently "only" 7 studios worked together on Odyssey.

After a stream today which depicted some of the design of the box art, we finally have confirmation that the premiere of the game we've heard rumours about for quite some time now is on its way tomorrow. Time for the next gen announcements to begin! Even if this will probably be cross-gen UPDATE - 30/04/20: Holiday 2020, cross-gen confirmed.

I'm not sure how far you got into the show, but I do think that it helps to view Lelouch not from the perspective of the actions he takes or the words that he says, but from the perspective of why he's doing those things. There were multiple times where I thought he was coming across unlikeable, but it's worth remembering that he's wearing a lot of masks, and his actions/words don't always make his intentions clear. I hear you on the school anime tropes, I'm not usually the biggest fan of them either, and there's way less of that in R2 in general. Again, it's kind of one of those masks that Lelouch wears. Some of the best character development and setup for plot points are related to his school life, though, so I think the show is better for it. And no, it didn't come across like that! Definitely a case of different strokes for different folks, I didn't have the best time with Death Note for example (but still saw it through to the end, and there's still leads to enjoy) and probably have a few opinions about the medium that some anime fans would think make me a heretic. I think if I thought about it enough I could probably poke a couple of holes into the plot, or suggest things that could be better, but I prefer to just experience anime rather than think of it too critically, like I might games or films. I'd recommend trying it again, for sure, because it'd be awesome if you enjoyed it, but I'm saying that from the perspective of someone that really liked the show. It's one of those rare cases where I think that if you're not in after the first episode, you might not have a good time with it, and I don't think there's anything I'd ever recommend forcing yourself to get through

Well I wasn't planning on getting onto this until next weekend...but I started Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 yesterday evening, and just finished it tonight. To keep it short, it does pretty much everything that I can think of better than the first season, as it feels like it's capitalising on everything that the first season sets up from practically the very beginning. It's funny, creative, intelligent in its storytelling style, the dub is great once again, as is the animation, has an excellent soundtrack, great characters and development, and excellently placed and executed foreshadowing. And I was very nearly crying at the end. Man, that ending The fan service unfortunately is still very much there (arguably worse than the first season at times?), but it doesn't at all get in the way of the show. It didn't in the first season either, but I considered it less of a nuisance this time around, perhaps unfortunately because I was used to it, but maybe also because there's very little downtime when things like that are going on this time around. Definitely one of my least favourite tropes in the medium, but hey, I'm sure someone enjoys that. 10/10. I'm sure someone's going to notice my scores are pretty high, and admittedly most of my scores are split between 8/10 and 9/10 scores, but this is only the fourth anime TV series I've scored a 10/10 on MAL (for those curious, the others are Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Steins;Gate, and Hunter x Hunter), and I've only given two films this score too (Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away). So make of that what you will And okay, so maybe the OP isn't as good as in the first season, but hey, I think World's End gives COLORS a good run for its money!

Looks like the reveal could take place in May?

Oh man, I needed that laugh after today

Man, they seem hellbent on getting TLOU2 and Ghost out this summer, before PS5, huh? I'm taking that as a sign that there's no way they don't have something special up their sleeve for the PS5 launch. EDIT: And there's no way that this wasn't changed by the leaks in the last 24 hours or so. Going from an indefinite delay to a delay of only three weeks? There's no way that the issue with disc printing has been resolved as quickly as that, or at least to the extent that they would like.

I knew that was coming as soon as I saw that @Map posted on the thread Thanks for the update, guess it's time to make sure I'm not working that Saturday...

Blood doing a Don't Skip and giving his thoughts on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini: Really great to see the Allies start to churn out more Don't Skip videos since the "rebrand" with a new logo and intro music back in August of last year. Them narrating their own scripts makes it all the sweeter, because as much as I love Jones's voice in the review videos, this makes it so much more personable. Would love if they could commit to perhaps one per month, and took it in turns. It never has to be anything big, just their thoughts on a game fresh to them as it has been up to this point.