Julius

Believe it or not, this launched today. Gamexplain seem to be the only big outlet to have reviewed it so far: CrossCode yesterday and this today, everyone's just swooping in under the radar now, huh? EDIT: Easy Allies review is up too...

Haha wow, that's one way to shoot that speculation out of the sky. Personally wasn't too invested in the idea of WayForward taking on a Nintendo IP seeing as I haven't played any of their games before anyway, but a third party IP (of course depending on the IP) is potentially even more interesting for them to work on. Whatever it is, hope it shows well during Treehouse

Looks worse to me from this angle: I just don't think the spine having different layout proportions works when it doesn't have a colour which matches the case (like we have with the PS4). Guess I'll see how it looks in my hands but...doesn't look too great to me here. Yeah, totally get the space aspect of it myself. I now have a pretty sizeable Blu-Ray collection, many of which aren't (legally) readily available through streaming, so I'd be more willing to stop buying physical games and go digital if it meant keeping my films around. On the other hand, then the whole "who really owns it?!" argument comes up; other than during sales the RRP at launch is always higher on digital (and more resistant to change, though it's great for sales a year after the fact); and, while you can pre-install to play at midnight, getting a game a day or two ahead of release never fails to put a smile on my face (or in the case of FFVII Remake after how COVID impacted it's launch - and which likely won't ever happen again - a full week ahead of time!).

Official cover art just revealed as part of the PS5 game case reveal: Cover art itself looks quite nice, very simple and clean, and of course just like what we got for Spider-Man (2018).

*glances over at my shelf filled to the brim with PS4 cases* Definitely going with the version of the PS5 with a disk drive just for the backwards compatibility for my physical PS4 games, but I'm honestly still on the fence when it comes to sticking with purchasing physical media for this thing moving forwards.

First official look at PS5 cases: Leaning really heavily into that white/black dual colour scheme (just noticed it quite nicely matches the PlayStation Studios logo too), and there's that hint of blue from the case itself and to draw the line between the banner and the cover art. Great that they're seemingly reusing PS4 cases from a waste perspective, but from a purely consumer-facing, aesthetic perspective? Kind of wish the case itself were black, but oh well. All I can see in the white banner is the old 'PC ROM' at the top of the spines, and honestly I feel like a lot of the mock-ups which were floating around were better. It just looks...off to me, like it's incomplete somehow.

Stream is already up: 18:00 BST tomorrow, E3 has finally arrived! Great chance for them to fill us in a bit more on The Origami King just ahead of release, and looking forward to seeing what WayForward might have in store. The wording reads like they might be taking on someone else's IP...one of Nintendo's, perhaps?

Oh for sure, that's definitely something I agree with. I wish there were tags or something, so that even it's being pushed as a Switch game, it also showed that it was available elsewhere. In the rare cases that I do post a new thread for a game over there I do try to do that, even if it's just at the end of the first post (just to save the title from being a mess )

Yeah, we'll have to see I guess. It's weird because you're absolutely right (not saying that you being right is weird drahkon just that it's weird that it does seem to be going unnoticed, this sort of game is usually picked up and covered by loads of outlets), I haven't seen any reviews for it go up today, and despite it being in a Direct before (can't remember if it was a Nindies Showcase actually) like you said, I think the most recent trailer was from a month ago? The video above and it's reception elsewhere previously on PC seem nothing but positive, but I do recall there being some concerns regarding the publisher, so maybe that's unfortunately factored in to it? Could be the case they didn't send out review copies, or did so quite late. Plus, a Thursday release is pretty strange. If I recall, Celeste had somewhat limited hype around it leading up to it I remember, then at launch and after some great reviews that day (IGN giving it a 10 probably did it some massive favours), blossomed into something huge. Hollow Knight of course had a lot of hype built around it from its PC release a year or so before release, I feel like the shadow drop during an E3 Nintendo Direct with a few months of exclusivity got it even more attention than it might have otherwise. I hope it picks up some steam, because by all means it seems to have garnered some great reception on PC, could just be a slow burn if it hasn't been backed as it perhaps should have been. Even IGN haven't reviewed it yet it seems, so I feel like something's up there. Oh, for sure people will pick this up elsewhere. Just feel like on here most will end up getting it on Switch, plus the Nintendo Gaming area normally has a lot more activity when it comes to discussing indie games I feel? But maybe that's just me

Feel like this would probably be better off in the Nintendo part of the forums just because I feel like that's where most here will be playing it, but I've been looking forward to this game for a good while now, so look forward to picking it up. Unfortunately, a little poorly timed for me seeing as Ghost of Tsushima releases next Friday. For anyone wondering why you should be interested, feel like this video is probably the best at covering all of those bases, it's what hooked me in: Feel like this is going to be the indie game closest to that Celeste/Hollow Knight level of reception and discussion when it comes to GOTY's later this year (of course assuming those menu issues drahkon mentioned are fixed).

Haven't been on here the last few days because I work at a bank and I have been put on a remediation team specialising in payment holiday applications, and it's turning into pure chaos. The procedures and what we're being told to do are changing almost daily, it's an absolute mess. I cannot wait (sarcasm, eye roll, et al) until the potential extensions come into play as was put forward a few weeks ago. Live footage of me from yesterday: Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful I'm still working, but my workload tripled when Covid reared its ugly head, tripled again when payment holidays were announced, tripled again when those didn't work, tripled again when I started working on this remediation team, and triple every single day that something changes. But I do kindly suggest that under no circumstances you should ever take out a loan and should keep all of your money under your bed where it is safest. Maybe invest in a sock collection or something instead.

Nice to know that I wasn't the only one who came in expecting a @Dcubed hot take on an atrocious attempt by SEGA to jump into the Mini crowd!

@bob, Awano is one of the most smug douchebags in all of video games and I absolutely loved wiping the floor with him. Great pick! Yakuza has a number of excellent antagonists and does a great job of writing them in a way which makes you want to throw punches their way. But going to have to second @Goafer's pick here. Day 4: Favourite Villain/Antagonist Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Not sure if I'm quite going to be going through this challenge in Hard Mode, but to specify, I'm talking about Sephiroth from the original 1997 game. Awesome character design, intriguing backstory, and some stellar boss battles. BELOW ARE POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL FINAL FANTASY VII (1997). I had debated putting this in a spoiler tag but I know most here have played it, so it's more a heads-up for those who haven't and are planning on doing so, and I would like to leave it this way for the sake of discussion instead. No spoilers relating to Remake to be concerned about. But what made Sephiroth stand out to me above all else is that he was a phantom that, throughout FFVII, we were always a few steps behind, and the opening of the game did an excellent job of turning what was just a name into a nightmarish super-being to be reckoned with: we didn't see him, but the blood trail he left in the Shinra Building after killing the President (perhaps my favourite scene in a video game), and the eerie music which accompanies it sets the scene perfectly. Then you've got how they expertly showed the difference in class between Sephiroth and Cloud in the flashback when you see Sephiroth's level, equipment, and spells. And then there's the murder of the Midgar Zolom. He was an unstoppable, untraceable force to be reckoned with, and that made him terrifying. The flashbacks to the Nibelheim Incident gave more context to this and was excellent because of the questions it raised, and the (not totally accurate) story it told. It was an excellent story point in itself, seeing Sephiroth's descent into madness and having Those Chosen By The Planet circle during his breakdown, coming into full force as he declares his true intentions and leaves the Nibelheim Mansion basement. Goafer mentioned One Winged Angel, and while I agree that it is an excellent musical culmination for the game in that final fight with Safer Sephiroth, I much prefer Those Chosen By The Planet as Sephiroth's theme (it is his leitmotif after all!), as it does so much of the heavy lifting in setting up the mystery and danger surrounding Sephiroth's character. You hear this intense percussion which corners you, mimicking the sound of a heart beating, accompanied by a foreboding bell ringing out, repetitively, symbolising impending death and despair. It's brilliant. Not only that, Sephiroth actually has a third theme, Birth of a God, for the Bizarro Sephiroth boss battle, which brings in Those Chosen By The Planet's leitmotif too. In short, Nobuo Uematsu's music almost singlehandley carried and breathed the menace and malevolence of Sephiroth into being. Without a doubt my first choice for this category, but shout-out to Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, a close second.

So many great mentions already, and so many games I would love to bring up here. There are the tens - if not hundreds - of hours I put into Star Wars: Battlefront II's local co-op alone on PS2 during primary school sleepovers, and generally just whenever friends were around. There were some great nights of Mario Kart DS with friends when I returned to the UK from Australia, being able to play that with friends without owning the cartridge myself was great. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, as I'm sure I've mentioned plenty of times before, on the school playground, at sleepovers, pretty much wherever - other than Pokémon Go, probably the peak of Pokémon popularity that myself and my generation have been been exposed to. There's New Super Mario Bros.' mini games which caused a whole lot of chaos. Super Smash Bros. Brawl which I've sunk hundreds of hours into with my younger brother over the years. And of course the already mentioned Wii Sports and (c'mon guys!) Wii Sports Resort. Day 3: Local Multiplayer And then there's Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. We didn't have Mario Kart Wii - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch is the first Mario Kart I've owned, even if it's maybe the fourth one I've played? - but I remember my little brother (we're probably talking three or four years old) being fully pumped for this game, the ads running on TV and also probably in large because when he got a DS Lite at the age of just two or three (he had extremely bad eczema back then, so it seemed like a good idea for a distraction) his first game was Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, so he had some level of attachment to some of those Sonic characters. I remember I came home from school one day and he was giddy with excitement, turned out he and my dad had picked up a copy with the branded wheel which came with the game, and a couple of Wii steering wheels for me and my younger sister to use. We played for hours. All told, I think I can safely say that this is the game my sister (not the most game-oriented person in the world) has put the most time into, and up until a few summers ago (probably 2017?) this was something we would break out on almost daily basis during the summer holiday, breaking out the fans to save being roasted in our conservatory. Racing tournaments where we awarded ourselves points on an Excel spreadsheet, battle rounds, great track diversity (the Jet Set Radio tracks, Shibuya Downtown in particular, were amongst our favourites, and I think they're genuinely well designed tracks), cool assortment of racers (some really whacky ones too, notably my first introduction to so many of Sega's cast), and just a whole lot of fun. While I love the time I've spent with Mario Kart over the years, the utter chaos which sometimes erupts definitely means it's a coin toss between skill and luck being the reason for winning, but Sega All-Stars I feel did a great job of putting the emphasis the player's skills. Competing and just having an absolute blast with my siblings in this game will always be a great set of memories for me to look back on

Ubisoft Forward teaser: Still think that Sunday is such a weird day to do it considering that they aren't constrained by a stacked E3 schedule, but hey, 20:00 BST still works for me.

To be honest...still not great. Last I checked a few months ago, the PS4 app is just straight up broken and doesn't load episodes. I'd say that's my internet connection, but my PS4 has an ethernet cable connected and my internet is fine without it most of the time, and the app works on both my smart TV and on my smartphone. And, when it does work on my smart TV (takes a few seconds to buffer and play), it's a complete pixelated mess which is still loading in. The fix I've found is letting it play for a second or two, and then rewinding it to the start again, worked every time for me so far. But it's far from ideal

Some excellent picks on here. @Goafer, The Last of Us immediately came to mind for me too when I saw that openings were today's focus, and I totally agree with you, the first 10 or 15 minutes of that game nail the tone and the world that you'll see for the remainder of the game: it is now harsh and brutal, and completely innocent people will surely be caught up in it. Loved it. I actually played through that opening three times prior to starting and completing the game in May for the first time - goosebumps every single time. @will', Shenmue was the second thing that came to mind for me. I only played it a couple of years ago with the remasters, but that opening scene set the stage for the first and second games perfectly, and had me blasting through both in 10 days. It's an opening which still serves as a great hook over 20 years later. The mystery and ruthlessness of Lan Di is awesome. @S.C.G as someone who cannot wait to play the Prime games when they eventually make it to Switch (c'mon Nintendo...) as it is, the long wait is certainly made more difficult from what you've said about its opening! Day 2: Opening Section of a Game It didn't immediately come to mind as I've played so many great games over the last few months, but after giving it a little bit of thought, Final Fantasy VII Remake is absolutely my pick for the best opening section. The world laid out in the opening movie is one that has clearly come a long way and hints at the world's history and the game's main themes, but the oppressive chants of One Winged Angel bring a mystique and underlying tension to the table not present at the start of the original game in my opinion, most notably in the alleyway. Then there's the camera's famous swing out to show Midgar, this electricity in the air, before the title is blared across the screen to much musical fanfare. And Cloud's hair rustling in the wind before flipping onto the platform with Bombing Mission in tow. It successes in adding nuance to and fleshing out the original opening in a number of ways, but the tweaks here made it clear that Square Enix were really going for it, and not afraid to change the tone of this long anticipated remake where necessary. I've watched it at least ten times now, and even months after having completed the game, I still get goosebumps every single time. This is then followed by the Bombing Mission itself, I would say one of the best paced and, even in the original, most action- and battle-heavy openings to a JRPG. By the end you know what you need to know for the first 10 hours of the original's - and the entirety of this remake's - story, the main figures on both sides have been set up, and the world has too. For a genre known for slow burns, it's little wonder that this game's opening served as such a great hook and is looked back on so fondly by so many.

Awesome thread idea @Cube, love it! Really nice reading about how everyone first touched base with gaming. Day 1: Earliest Video Game Memory For me, my first gaming memory would undoubtedly have to be tied to the PlayStation, which has been in my family's possession for as long as I can remember. It belonged to one of my dad's friends who kindly passed it on to us after upgrading to a PS2, and he gave us a load of games, two controllers, and a few memory cards. We've had it that long I can't even remember it being dropped off! I have a bunch of memories tied to that thing: being petrified by the first fifteen minutes of Dino Crisis over and over again; having an absolute blast playing through the Activision Spider-Man games with my dad before and after he went to work, which along with the animated series and turning cereal boxes into houses for me to use with my action figures, I had Spidey my childhood on all fronts; playing the PlayStation Yu-Gi-Oh game with a close friend; my dad thinking I was a chess genius playing a video game version on the PlayStation, then I showed him after a few hours that pressing triangle actually made the best move...good times! But I think the absolute earliest, at a guess, would have to be Tomb Raider III. I have absolutely no idea how far I got into that game. I remember sliding down slopes, jumping (and often failing) to avoid spikes, I remember a quad bike, and I have a clear memory of a swimming pool too. There's no way I finished that game. What I imagine is actually my earliest memory of playing it is actually pretty vivid: I must have been only 3 or 4 at the time, it's a Sunday evening, and I'm roaming around Croft Manor when my dad comes home from shopping with a multi-pack of McCoy's - I remember that because it was the first time I tried Thai Sweet Chilli, and I felt like I had been conned out of a decent packet of crisps, because I wasn't a fan

Interest piqued at least, hopefully more of a look at Scarlet Nexus and hopefully the reveal of one or two more titles. But that midnight start for us in the UK and a bit later in the morning across Europe is a death sentence, and considering how little EA seemed to care about their event at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a disappointment. But fingers crossed I'm totally off the mark.

So this is pretty cool: Nice to not have this stuff locked away behind pre-order or edition bonuses, even if it is all digital.

Started watching the first (and so far only) season of Demon Slayer quite late on Saturday night, and finished it today. Damn, what a show. The first thing I need to share to give a taste of the show is it's OP, because it showcases above all else exactly why you should watch this show: The animation. The animation in this show by ufotable is out of this world. It's not quite perfect, with some medium and wide shots looking a bit rough if focusing on character models, and a few times when in close-ups the use of 3D can distract from the scene, but their overall blend of 2D and 3D animation techniques is a site to behold. These thick black lines accentuating characters and weapons with a depth which nails the look of the manga allows for the anime to soar well beyond what the manga was capable of, because they utilise CG in a way which most times organically enhances a scene, whether it be the shots which would be near impossible to animate by hand with where and how the "camera" behaves, or the absolutely gorgeous fight sequences. It's not something conveyed accurately enough in that first episode but is in the OP shown for the first time at the end of the first episode. It starts off as a pretty typical shonen: inciting incident involving these evil demons (which leaves the main character's younger sister a demon), a lot of setting up the world and the rest of the season, and fleshing out the characters. Honestly, the first 10 episodes or so are pretty paint by numbers for a shonen in a lot of ways, with a training arc to quickly bring the main character, Tanjiro, up to pace so that he can become a demon slayer. Once qualified, the show transitions into a bit of a "monster of the week" vibe, with this talking crow turning up at the end of each arc to lead Tanjiro to the next lead. There are a couple of times too where the tone can be a bit hard to keep track of, with some deadly serious and perhaps unsightly moments (especially by what I would call "typical" shonen standards - probably closer to Hunter X Hunter in terms of how far it's willing to go than, say, My Hero) offset by some comedic bits which don't all land. It's not until the rest of the main crew is assembled that the show really picks up its pacing around halfway through the season, setting up this dramatic arc which punctuates the season with a massive exclamation mark at the end of Episode 19. Holy smokes, I cannot understate how good the end of Episode 19 is. Beautiful animation, a gorgeous song and such a vibrant use of colour just completely left my jaw dropped. Oh, and this show has some ridiculously good sound design too. The slicing sound of a sword matched with the crashing of water is just one example which lends a weight to the combat in this show. The animation, moments with Nezuko, soundtrack, and sound design are more than enough for me to hold off on reading the manga (which recently finished, tempting as that may be). The movie coming later this year will be covering the next arc before we hopefully get a second season next year, though I won't be surprised if that's been delayed to early 2022 at this point. Like I said before, it takes a while to assemble our main crew, and while that means the story takes a little while to pick up in terms of pacing, it allows us plenty of time to spend with Tanjiro and Nezuko. So Nezuko is one of the most adorable characters in anime, and that's just about all that needs to be said there. As for Tanjiro, he's akin to a lot of his shonen protagonist peers in a lot of ways, but in my almost objectively opinion sets a better example for his audience from the very start: where you might think his sister being turned into a demon would cause him to be blinded and seek revenge, his journey is instead aimed firmly at finding a cure for his sister and helping everyone that he can along the way. He is empathetic to other humans, yet despite having the role of a demon slayer, the sympathy he shows to demons in their final moments - and us being allowed to understand more about these demons' pasts, whether turned by their own overwhelming emotions or through being attacked themselves - is something I think everyone can take away from this: the importance of empathy, and showing sympathy to other humans where we reasonably can, regardless of their wrongdoing. Tanjiro respects and instills a humanity to the demons that he meets, something which never failed to put a smile on my face, and his willingness to help others is as always a great message to put across (and the show smartly conveys that putting others above yourself all the time isn't necessarily the best option, too - for instance, it's what results in Tanjiro running late and his sister becoming a demon in the first place). Demon Slayer ends up being a fantastic show despite some missteps early on, spearheaded by some of the best animation in the industry, a wonderful soundtrack, and a beautiful message.

The takeaways from last week's hands-on impressions (shamelessly stolen from Era). Only had a chance to breeze through, so potential light spoilers ahead (such a massive list and such light spoilers I don't feel like it's worth throwing in a spoiler tag from what I've read):

The usual PlayStation CG trailer looks brilliant as ever. Looking forward to this!

Man, I would absolutely want in on some of those Argos deals. Dragon Quest VII for £1.49, Fire Emblem Echoes and Fates Birthright both under £10, etc. Unfortunately the Argos stores by me never have any stock available for 3DS games

Yep, definitely. Though I'm sure the size of the game will be massive, the density and potential for that to extend vertically in some of these buildings is what's really exciting for me. Continuing from my above point, I feel like having the world be so dense and having something to look at in every direction is why they probably had to go with first-person. I feel like generally third-person is much more suited to larger areas, my main reason for this being situations where you end up in enclosed spaces and the camera perspective just isn't suited for it (walking up stairwells in a lot of third-person games always comes to mind). I get why they've gone with first-person here in order to help immerse players and to help with conveying this world's scale. But I think that's purely from a design perspective, which I can try to understand. From my own perspective, I'm in very much the same boat I think as you in that I just don't click as well with first-person games and sometimes it can make me feel a little off in games where they just don't nail first-person technically (loved Firewatch for example, but struggled with similar nausea). I haven't played similar first-person RPG's such as Fallout, Skyrim, etc., so while I'm definitely excited and more than happy to give Cyberpunk 2077 a go (positioning it for next-gen launch even if the upgrade won't be available yet is fine with me), it's the choice that gives me the biggest moment of pause. What makes it worse I think is the knowledge that we can have a typical third-person view when driving vehicles around. Customisation is also going to be a huge part of this game, and like with Star Wars: Squadrons, I can't help but question the decision to (potentially) be first-person only. I want to customise my character/ship for me, I don't care in the slightest what ToneDeafTony65 and JollyJohnson007 think. I just wish they would give us the option, because options are never a bad thing. I'm sure - from personal experience and speaking with friends who also don't get on well with first-person - that they're potentially standing to lose more from not offering the option to play in third-person than they stand to gain from strictly making it a first-person offering. It's a weird one, but I wouldn't be surprised if an update were to be released six months to a year after launch where it was made available... ...by which point most will have already played the game and moved onto other things.