Julius

Jesse Harlin, composer for Republic Commando, has teased that Vode An is going to be used in an upcoming Star Wars project. Hell yeah. Question is, is it Mando S2, The Bad Batch, both (?), or something else? Do I dare to wish for a Republic Commando remake or an Imperial Commando game? Probably not, because watch it be for a Star Wars video game complication soundtrack Vode An, for those who have no idea what I'm talking about: Man, it's so good. That game has a really solid OST, probably some of the best non-JW stuff in the 2000's. Need to play that game again at some point!

My bad. Yeah, HDMI 2.1.

HDMI 2.1 confirmed. While I think there was nothing to be worried about personally, HDMI 2.1 has not been confirmed previously, and the lack of confirmation I feel is what caused some concern amongst some online. Nice to have the clarification at least!

Been a very hectic time at work these past few weeks in the build-up to payment holidays ending on the 31st...and now that's all up in the air while we wait for clarification on the FCA putting forward an extension of the deadline. Great times. Moved to a different team at the start of September with a few core members from my team. Same department, but it means doing a lot more manual work vs things coming in on the dialler, which is a huge win. Long-term, eventually, once this whole COVID thing is over, it should mean being assigned 'cases' and being in regular contact with the same customers, having time to look over their accounts before calling them, arranging call backs, etc. Seeing as I was already doing this before, it seems a natural fit for me! Only downside to the manual work is seeing just how incompetent a number of the other employees are at times (I work for a massive international bank), especially those who process actions taken on the account. The number of times I see notes saying that a plan has not been agreed and then them processing a plan and sending a letter to the customer for a plan is honestly quite frightening. It honestly takes a bit of a toll starting to think that, on average, people just aren't doing their job right (and I mean the basics, taught in day 1 of training - you know, the "you MUST do this" sort of stuff?). I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm getting paid and to slow down and take my time, but yeah. It is what it is. I was also ill a couple of weeks back (again, yay) and came back to a meeting with my manager where I was advised that my bonus should be quite decent come the end of our work year in March. Unfortunately, in a meeting my manager and another, we learned that we wouldn't be getting bonuses this year. Makes sense because of COVID, and I hadn't hung my hat on it, but considering the sheer workload my team in particular has had to work through since we started working from home in April (some of us, myself included, have been doing additional tasks too, such as helping in development for those new to the role, as well as taking on work from every corner of the company), it's still a bit of a bummer. Our 'ratings' will now only be used for potential transfers to other departments/roles, which is still something, but when the bonuses can typically be 10% - 25% of your annual salary, it's nothing to scoff at. And only stings much more because my manager wasn't aware of us not having them this year! Oh, and I also had to resolve something for a customer over the phone the other day for an account type which I have worked once, maybe twice, in the last 12 months, through a program which I did not have access to. It's great that my manager trusts me to do this, but honestly? It was not a fun experience, and was honestly a bit concerning. I want to do my job to the best of my ability, and while it went well in the end, I could tell I was much more anxious than I normally would be, not having the immediate security of up-to-date data to back me up. To end on a positive: still working towards a pay rise which would come into effect in April, and very grateful to still have a job. It's really funny every time I have a meeting with my manager, or speak to any manager really, though, because I've made it clear that I don't see this as a long-term job for myself. As a result of COVID I might have to change my plans and delay things here and there, I can only roll with those punches and the financial security is nice, but my goal is still to study again and go to university in a few years' time. Just a reminder to those who now find themselves working from home, it's worth checking if you're eligible for tax relief while working from home! It's not much, but over the course of the year it adds up - especially if you've been forced to work from home for a while now, it could average out as potentially covering one of your smaller fixed costs.

I did, though admittedly the main reason for me noticing was that I was in a dark room and the change made me a little bit nauseous when it happened

Some details on a chapter being cut from the game, where Tifa would have been front and centre: Okay Square Enix, now I want two things: a Final Fantasy I - VI Collection, and a Tifa Chapter in Remake Part II

Confirmation that it will be a PS5 exclusive from Insomniac: No surprises there!

Well, it's November! Not too long now...

Best of luck @drahkon, I'm sure you'll kill it!

@stuwii (and anyone else who order for in-store pickup from GAME)

Hell yeah, Hero is back!

Honestly, feel like it might be worth contacting the store for updates on what they'll do (either directly or through Twitter or something) if non-essential retail does close again. I would be really surprised if they didn't offer the option to either change it to be delivered to your home, or dropped off at a collection point which would be considered essential (i.e. a Sainsbury's or somewhere like that), because at the end of the day, they're going to be losing customers and trust if they can't offer a decent alternative. Good luck, hopefully they can sort something out for you!

Finally got the chance to dig into Chapter 9 of The Mandalorian earlier this evening. I was up and ready to watch it at 07:00, but knew it would just distract me when I started working First, the stuff that doesn't spoil anything. Soundtrack is still solid. Costumes look great. Sound design and effects look great. But boy oh boy did some of those wider tracking CG shots look rough, much more noticeable and much more frequent than it was even in Chapter 1. A case of budget and time going elsewhere, I'd imagine, but I was really surprised by it, considering just how much they nailed it by the end of Season 1. Solid way to open up the season, look forward to seeing where it goes next week!

Yeah, holy smokes. What's that, 7 seconds from a cold boot (that's the impression I get seeing as it goes into the menu, at least), and a 2 second load of the save, which wasn't even long enough to feel like a fade to black? If that was a cold boot like we seem to think, then yeah. Ho-ley smoked mackerel, that's very exciting!

Oh dang, that would be huge considering that they already own Funimation! Might lead to a better chance of certain shows getting a dub that hadn't already (or being dubbed earlier than they otherwise would have been) down the line. Very interesting.

It's always a weird day when anime/manga turns up on the front page of the BBC website, but hey, at least this time it's with good reason: Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train (that will never not be fun to type) has absolutely killed the Japanese box office. And all this with COVID (cases rising by about 200 per day at the moment in Tokyo). From Siliconera: Crazy! Good for them, I don't doubt in the slightest that it deserves it. Looking forward to the release over here next year!

A better look at the White Snow Edition:

I'm hoping to set it up on a lunch break and have everything downloaded so I can start playing once I finish work that day, though I imagine I'll still want to snoop around the settings because that's one of my favourite parts of getting new hardware to play with! Have been seriously considering playing Astro's Playroom first, seems like a game you could knock out and Platinum (if it has one?) in an afternoon, and I really want to get a good idea of what they've got going on with the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. At the same time: Spider-Man. So who knows? Yeah, as great as it is to hear all of these great impressions of Astro's, my biggest concern with this direction is if it does end up getting that support. SixAxis and the Touchpad went widely under utilised this gen, which is a shame, because I feel like there were good applications of both, but mainly in first party titles; namely, shaking the controller in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II when your flashlight starts flickering out, and the many awesome uses of the Touchpad in Ghost of Tsushima. But at the end of the day, I guess it's on third parties wanting to support it, and it's not an easy sell to them when these are going to be changes made exclusively with one console in mind. At the very least, we'll have first party titles. Cannot wait to call back the Leviathan Axe in God of War: Ragnarok, that's for sure! Genuinely think Xbox should have jumped on this bandwagon too, because considering how much work Cerny puts into communicating with third parties, I have to imagine this is a choice made with their desires in mind more so than PlayStation's.

PS3 vs PS5 comparison by ElAnalistaDeBits: Awesome. Though I like the cinematic look of the new camera, the option to play with the original camera angle is probably going to be the way I end up playing. Not that it doesn't look great with the cinematic camera, just feels a little too close to the action, and being slightly off-set too makes me think I might have a better time with the original one. Maybe

Well. Former CDPR employee: That's...disgusting. I'll be honest, excited as I am/was for this game, I'm starting to sour on it. It's hard not to: the crunch, the transphobia staring you in the face that makes you question if that's what you're actually looking at (it's worth looking up), and above all else, the treatment of the workers. It's just dire. And it's such a difficult position to be in as an audience of something, obviously not as difficult as that of the team working on it, but it is difficult. What are we, the audience, meant to do? Boycott the game and not support the people who have worked so hard on it? Buy the game but feel guilty that we're supporting CDPR in continuing with this? I don't know where, or how, we draw the line on things like this. I really hope things have improved since, but it's hard to not doubt it.

07:00 GMT confirmed for tomorrow's episode. Can't wait!

Well, it's not been a good week for Microsoft. First Halo Infinite losing its Lead Director, and now Everwild has lost its Creative Director.

Yeah, my PlayStation App updated this morning before I got up (UK, Google Play Store), it's really nice. It says the update was October 23rd, so it should be available for update now!

More footage from Famitsu: Some additional info from Polygon. Confirmed no 6th archstone:

New gameplay trailer: