Julius

100%. You can really see how hungry Xbox are going into this next generation, and while I personally feel they've got a lot over PlayStation at the moment (off the top of my head: Game Pass; backwards compatibility - sure, we know we'll get PS4 BC, but will there be any more besides that; and their aggressively low pricing, as you mentioned), they're still missing the biggest part for me (and I assume most others here): games. And not just AAA games, AA games, and strongly supported indies, but a variety of games. It's all well and good bringing a host of Kingdom Hearts and Yakuza games across (well after they've launched, mind you), but knowing that games like Persona 6 and Dragon Quest XII are practically locked in as exclusives (if not being on everything but Xbox), as well as presumably all of the parts of Final Fantasy VII Remake likely staying timed exclusives? I'm planning to get a PS5 on day one, and I have very little reason not to. There just isn't enough to tempt me into buying an Xbox to sit next to it at the moment, and even if there were, would I even have time to play it with most of the year filled with generally critically acclaimed Switch and PlayStation exclusives anyways? not to mention that I haven't picked up a Pro yet, and have enough games I want to play on PS4 still to justify that purchase with backwards compatibility. Looking forward to seeing how this one plays out, but I think a sign of how things might go down will be on display at E3. Assuming PlayStation returns, they are known for presenting after their main competitor, and if things are scheduled in a similar fashion during E3 week this year, we better see some passion from Xbox having figured that out, and rescheduling to go after. But if what we've seen so far with Series X and PS5 continues (i.e. Xbox coming out first with a reveal of Series X for no real reason, guns blazing in press conferences and at TGAs), I'm hesitant to believe they'll change their ways. Definitely have Bosman on my mind while we wait for the PS5 reveal event. Should be a fun few months

Official PS5 logo from CES: And a pretty clean image detailing the little we know about the PS5's hardware so far:

Updated figures from CES:

Joined a gym back in August after a few years out, went three times a week consistently for nearly two months before I tore the ligaments in my right (and dominant) hand after a freak trip, which took two months to recover from. I'll be honest: since my hand has felt fully recovered, there's been a lot of weather-induced procrastination. I love going to the gym first thing, early in the morning - mainly due to the mental reward of knowing that I've already achieved something for the day which is challenging for most, as well as the lingering feeling of having worked hard; I find that it's a big confidence boost. Long story short, my gym is a 30 minute walk away, which is an intimidatingly dark and cold walk this time of year that early in the morning (I normally aim to be there for 06:00), and it's so early that my local buses aren't running. I don't yet have a car. Add onto that my shift pattern changing weekly, ranging from 08:00 - 15:30 to 10:30 to 18:00 to 13:30 - 21:00 and then back to the start again, a 90 minute public transport trip into Birmingham, and my sleeping and exercise consistency is consistently a mess at the moment. There are conversations starting at work about changes to how these shift patterns are handled - ranging from shift patterns changing fortnightly as opposed to weekly, to not looping back around to the start of the shift pattern but instead going backwards (i.e. early > mid > late > mid > early and back, as opposed to early > mid > late > early, etc.) - but it's taken them way too long. A sneak peek into my job role is that it is a mentally and emotionally draining one for one of the larger banks, and in the last year a lot of people in my role have been taking time off for mental health. Veered off course here a little, and some of this stuff probably belongs more in the Bad Stuff or Job threads, but yeah, I'm tired a lot of the time at the moment. On the upside, my distance from a gym could be set to decrease drastically in the coming months, so the travel time decreasing should make it much easier. Anyways, my aim for the year of 2020, starting this Monday, is to go to the gym a minimum of three times per week. As I've been out for a while, I'm going to ease myself back in with machines, but once I'm comfortable with where I'm at and feel myself regaining some of that strength (mentally perhaps moreso than physically?), I'm going to go back to free weights and change my diet up. I think I'm best described as being slender and toned at the moment (always have been, one of those people who constantly get the "you should go to the gym/eat more" comments) and I'd like to bulk up a bit - I was in the best shape of my life just using bodyweight exercises when I left high school nearly five years ago now, and while the occasional glances from girls were nice (if a little weird for someone like me, who's definitely leaning more towards being an introvert), what I miss most, by far, is the mental fortitude and confidence that working out brings. I'll be back Monday morning for an update

Thanks for the heads-up @Glen-i! I've watched a few videos about what people like about Animal Crossing, and what you mentioned seemed to crop up a few times. In some discussions I even read about people burning out on the game after playing it excessively, trading it in, and then picking it back up again, as they'd have a hankering for it. Haven't played a game where I've checked in daily before, and it sounds like a good time to look forward to each day to just let yourself slow down and relax, so I'm hoping to give this game thirty minutes to an hour of my time each day once it's out. Thanks again!

The Ni No Kuni movie is being released on Netflix on January 16th. https://www.netflix.com/extras/81212693?s=a&trkid=253492423&t=cp

Sounds like a warm and cosy game. I'm going to give it a shot! Gone ahead and pre-ordered a copy thanks for sharing your thoughts guys

Kazushige Nojima has commented on the leaks. Fortunately some fans managed to cheer him up. What a mess. Going to be interesting to see what Nomura and Kitase have to say about this, and of course how S-E reacts.

English box art: Quick aside: I've never actually played an Animal Crossing game before, and have only briefly seen gameplay of the DS game when I was growing up. With not many confirmed big release dates this side of 2020 for any console, let alone the Switch, I have half an eye on this. For those who have enjoyed the series, what's the draw for you? Is there anything central to the series which might actually be off-putting for a newcomer?

* WARNING * So, apparently the demo has now been fully datamined, which apparently included a sizeable amount from the full game. Menu character art, key scenario rigs for models and apparently even screenshots of Part I's ending are starting to do the round. What's more, apparently there's even some potential Part II stuff in there. Look, it's one thing having bootlegged copies out there which have broken the street date release. It happened with Pokémon X & Y, and it happened with Kingdom Hearts III a month and a half or so prior to its release last January, if memory serves. It sucks when it happens, but it's bound to happen occasionally, given the size of the distribution chain for games guaranteed to sell as well as these. But it's another thing ENTIRELY to have a demo -which has yet to even be officially revealed, let alone released!- out there containing so much stuff, and to have it out there two whole months before release?! I doubt that it'll impact sales at all, but it's just such a weird move. It happened before with Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire's demo, and Sun & Moon's, and I remember there being complete versions of the game's text and models of yet-to-be-revealed characters and Pokémon models included. I know that they typically cut out a vertical slice for demos which has code intertwined with the rest of the game, but that's always been risky business. And, like with Pokémon, for a game that's guaranteed to sell well, I can't help but find it odd. Maybe it'll get more people onboard, but still, for something this big, it might be worth crafting a separate demo-styled short game, like Ground Zeroes, which serves as a prologue if you really do find it necessary and are trying to hook more people in. Of course, this is a remake, so we know what's going to happen, sure. Thing is, I know the core beats of what we're in for from my playthrough of the original game, but not knowing what certain characters look like yet, or how certain scenarios will look, and especially not knowing exactly when and where this game will end is intriguing to me. The structure of this Remake is going to be just as interesting as anything else that has been changed, as the pacing in the storytelling needs to be changed to account for it being released in parts. Hopefully none of the leaks find their way into my YouTube feed. Hopefully. more importantly, I feel bad for the developers. Working on a game for 5+ years only for someone to come along, supposedly decrypt the files of a yet-to-be-revealed demo from the PlayStation Store, and put your hard work out there, some of it potentially in a state which isn't meant to be seen. Question now is: do they even bother releasing the demo? I recall Nomura-san being pretty upset over KH3 leaking. The demo is comparatively such a small thing, relative to the game, in terms of drawing in an audience that it wouldn't surprise me if he had a say in whether or not that demo officially sees the light of day.

Uh, all aboard the January Direct hype train? Maybe..? Our last Direct proper was back in September, so I feel like we're definitely sure one, and, if I'm remembering right, GameStop updated their SKU listings in a similar fashion to this only a week or two before that Direct. So it could be pretty soon. What is everyone hoping for? I don't want to get too carried away, though that might just be because I've still got plenty to play at the moment honestly, and I think this is pretty realistic: I'll take a Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition update - think this would be a perfect game to release E3 week, if not in the summer? - and I don't think it would be too crazy to expect the fifth and final character for the Fighters Pass. A Shin Megami Tensei V update would be nice too. Pie in the sky? I'm not going to say it again, because I've said it a million times, and think I might be jinxing it at this point. You know what to do, Square Enix. Shadow drop it. You cowards.

My gaming resolution for this year is to be consistent in filling out my Gaming Diary on here. It's been a while since I've posted in any Gaming Diary on here - off the top of my head, must have been mid-2018? - and while I enjoy reading about others' adventures and discussing games both new and old, I also find writing out my thoughts to be a valuable asset in determining just where I land on my enjoyment of any given game. At a minimum, I will post at the end of each month about the game's I've played and/or completed that month. The reason that I ended up dropping off with my Diary last time is mostly because I was playing a lot, but kept waiting until the end of the month to write up my thoughts, and found myself overwhelmed a) trying to recall what exactly I thought of the game, and more importantly b) finding the time to write those thoughts out. This time around, I'm going to be writing out my thoughts on a given game in a Word doc within a few days of completion, and then editing it all at the end of each month to post here. Hopefully that'll make it more manageable In terms of commitments to particular games over the course of the next 12 months though: - Continue my Final Fantasy adventure - my first and only Final Fantasy adventure ended nearly two years ago in Final Fantasy VII, easily one of my favourite games to date. While my FF conquest has been on pause, I've since picked up both Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX on sale for PS4, but mostly I've been waiting for Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI to come to modern consoles. Ideally I would love to play Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX this year, however, given that the former is yet to come to modern consoles, I think it's more realistic that I will be playing Final Fantasy IX and then picking up Final Fantasy X and playing through both of them at some point this year. - Continue my Dragon Quest adventure - invested over 100 hours into Dragon Quest XI on PS4 over a year ago, and absolutely adored it. Going to continue my DQ adventure by picking up where I left off some 20 hours or so into Dragon Quest VIII on my 3DS, which I loved, but put on hold for my first Chrono Trigger playthrough – don't worry, even though it's been a while, I actually remember most of the story as I started my Metal Slime hunt very early into the game once I figured out what was going on with the overworld monster refreshing, so I hadn't actually made that much progress into the story. Alongside that, I would also like to pick up and play either Dragon Quest IV or Dragon Quest V on DS - I've heard great things about both, and they sound like wildly different adventures, so I'm curious to see which one I'll end up choosing! - Continue my Zelda adventure - following something I'll mention below, I want to continue my Zelda adventure. I have Ocarina of Time on 3DS, and have bought A Link to the Past on 3DS previously, but seeing as it's now available on Switch through the SNES app, I might just play it there instead. Dabbled with both previously, but didn't get very close to completing either of them. I want to try to get through both! - Continue my Yakuza adventure - after playing Yakuza 0 a few months ago for the first time, I picked up Kiwami and Kiwami 2. Whilst I'm aware that the Remastered Collection including 3, 4 and 5 releases next month, I want to take my time with these games and spread them out, so my aim is to at least get through those next two installments by year's end. - Play The Last of Us - picked this up a couple of months ago on eBay to avoid picking up the not-so-great looking PlayStation Hits case. Had it on my radar since forever ago, and with Part II coming out this year, and after having completed the Uncharted Collection back in 2018, I think I'm finally ready for my next dose of Naughty Dog in the coming months. - Play more indie games - I love indie games: they're often short, quirky escapes with interesting ideas to bring to the table. I really need to play some more of them this year. Final Fantasy VII Remake is a day one pre-order for me. There's a lot I found myself loving in the original when I played it for the first time a few years ago, from the charming characters to the diverse locations of the world, and most noticeable the soundtrack. Everything I've seen (and heard) so far has given me even more of a reason to be interested. Besides that, Ghost of Tsushima is probably my only other day one pre-order that I'd feel comfortable locking in at this moment. It looks gorgeous, and who doesn't love samurai? Got my eyes on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part II, but I have concerns about base PS4 performance for the former, and I haven't played the first game when it comes to the latter. So those are both things I'm going to wait on, at least for now LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will hopefully be a great time too (please follow through and go back to mumbles and grunts, though!), and also, even though I've never played a Tales of game before, Tales of Arise has really caught my eye too! Last but not least, CrossCode has been on my radar for a Switch port for the longest time, but seems to have hit a couple of speed bumps - assuming that it releases this year, I'll be on it like a car bonnet. I'd love for the sequel to Breath of the Wild to release this year. I finished the first game earlier this evening – I'm not going to count it in my Diary as a 2020 game as the bulk of my time dedicated to it was in 2019, but I'll be sure to share my thoughts elsewhere! Let's just say that I nearly 80 hours into the game, but have some things that I want to mull over first. Anyways, elsewhere, I've never played a From Software game, but Miyazaki's team-up with George R. R. Martin on Elden Ring has caught my attention, so that might change if that game finds its way onto store shelves this year. Mostly, though, I'm still praying for ports. Where are the N64 and GameCube era games at, Nintendo? Always wanted to play Wind Waker as a kid (the first Zelda I played was Spirit Tracks, and that's down to using the same cel-shaded character design), and I've had to stop myself from getting it for GC to play through backwards compatibility on my Wii. Oh, and please give us Metroid Prime: Trilogy. Continuing the ports prayers, PUT FINAL FANTASY I - VI ON MODERN CONSOLES ALREADY SQUARE ENIX, YOU COWARDS! The temptation to buy an SNES Classic almost solely for the purpose of playing Final Fantasy VI, and then coughing up some pennies on mobile before putting Final Fantasy IV on there too, has taken a heavy toll on my gaming wellbeing.

Hey all! Hope everyone here had a nice Christmas and are enjoying 2020 so far! With 2020 upon us, many things are changing around the world, but one thing remains constant and shared for the people of N-Europe: our passion for video games! Be it for the first time or the hundredth, whether you find yourself looting chests in some dark and damp dungeon, hunting monsters out in the wild, leaping to new heights or diving into the depths, please feel free to share your 2020 video game adventures here! With the new year now underway, I thought it would be great to start off by looking ahead: does anyone have any New Year's gaming resolutions? What are the games you're planning on getting, and which are you going to be keeping an eye on? What surprises do you hope await us in the coming 12 months?

I mean, I think that the controls for traversing through the pre-rendered backgrounds are pretty archaic at times, and the jagged character models haven't aged nearly as well as the FFVIII and FFIX models. That being said, the world, characters and battle mechanics still hold up really well, and the soundtrack is absolutely stunning. I imagine that going in without a frame of reference to the original could lend itself to a unique experience wherein the game's graphics, characters, and soundtrack can blow you away completely. However, I think that being connected to the charm of these characters and the world will make FFVIIR much more enjoyable, the reason for that being that it's clear that while the general storyline is going to stay the same, there are going to be some subtle and not-so-subtle differences which can be appreciated in a different way by having the knowledge of what happened previously. Plus, based on the trailers, and even that intro above, I think that they're planning on handling Sephiroth in a wildly different manner, and while I think that will be interesting to see, I can't help but be concerned that some of that lingering menace and the tension that the original game brought to the table with his character might not be present in Remake. Given that the original game is probably 40 hours long or so (without cheats included in the modern ports enabled), I think it'll be tough to get through the entire game prior to March 3rd if there are other games competing for your time. That being said, from what we've been told, Part I is going to take place in Midgar, which only takes up the first 10 hours or so in the original game. I would recommend checking out the original's opening 10 hours or so, up until you leave Midgar, and continuing with it if you like it and have the time to do so; if you don't enjoy it, or find that you simply don't have the time, then at least you'll have a frame of reference for the original, and I think that will make for a much more enjoyable experience.

Yeah, I think you're right. Might just listen to the soundtrack of the demo instead. Maybe. Thing is, even then, I feel like that might take some of the magic away, at least based on the new compositions we've heard for Remake so far And just for clarification before I attempt to answer your question: are you asking if it would make more sense for me to play the original before this, or for you too? Or are you asking just in a general sense?

Following on from yesterday's leaked intro, seems like quite an extensive playthrough of the demo has been put out there too; I won't link to that here, but it's simple enough to track down if you're interested in watching it. I remember Maximilian Dood and Brad Ellis mentioning that they saw a behind closed doors demo which was longer than the E3 floor demo, and from the sound of things, this demo seems to be the longer, behind closed doors version. I'm going to avoid the leaked playthrough, which kind of leads me to an important question I've been pondering: to those interested in the game, will you be checking out the demo if and when it releases? In my case, I know that this is going to be a day one purchase for me and I have it pre-ordered, so is it really going to be worth me checking out the demo? Originally I was really keen for its release so that I could check it out, but I fear that playing through the demo might ruin some of the excitement, and the consistency of that excitement, when the game launches. Food for thought

*New Year's bump* Next Direct, right? Riiight?

Demo intro has leaked! Got to be coming soon...right? Going to spoiler tag my thoughts for now because there are definitely some things included which are better left being experienced without their foreknowledge. Yeah, even watching the demo intro apparently Might sound like hyperbole, but I couldn't care less: Perfection. Safe to say I'm going to be watching that a few more times...

Hell yeah! Wish that Gamorrean would cover up a bit, though...

Just finished the eighth and final episode of season one of The Mandalorian. So, season two same time next year? now the wait for The Clone Wars season seven begins! Annoyingly starting in February, so guess I'll be hanging onto my American Disney+ account to watch that. I haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but if they have just a reminder: Disney+ is coming to the UK on Tuesday 31st March 2020. While I'm going to wait until Disney+'s official release over here and another viewing of the show before figuring out exactly where the show lands for me, I do think that it is quite easily some of the best Star Wars content that Disney has put to screen. Great job Filoni and Favreau!

Demo looks to be 10.2 GB in size: And you know what the means... Reportedly the full game weighs in at 73.7 GB, though I can't for the life of me find the source on that.

Ummmm...demo inbound?! Pretty sure it was a screenshot on gamstat which all but confirmed Resident Evil 3 Remake was on the way. In which case...

Super Eyepatch Wolf is always worth a watch

Liking the art style! This is the character included in Jump Force, right? Think I remember seeing a character trailer or something for him... Please don't be mobile and come to the West, please don't be mobile and come to the West...