Julius

In addition, not only have Genki that they have a Switch 2 in their possession – they're saying that this thing is coming in April. This is absolutely mental. What makes this even crazier is the fact that they were very publicly advertising that they were bringing their Switch 2 accessories and were going to talk about what they knew at the show nearly a week ago. Looks exactly as expected (and purportedly leaked), but yeah. All kinds of mental. Ball's in your court Nintendo, as it has been for the last 12 months. No real rush, though, I'm loving the meltdowns.

Done and done, great idea H-o-T, happy to implement it Congrats on getting your first pledge game cleared for the year! If anyone else has suggestions like this for the pledge (or just the thread in general tbh) I'm all ears!

EVO announcement show takes place next Tuesday (14th) at 17:00 PT, which is 01:00 BST on Wednesday for us Brits:

Reading this under the recent posts without any context gave me a good giggle

I meant more in the sense that now we're back from Christmas/New Year's break, everyone and their mother is going to take turns returning in force with a "leak" to share – which will make this a long month and probably leave us all sick of the idea of Nintendo's next console soon enough Meanwhile, Nintendo - already sick of the idea of their next console - have turned their attention to the true Wii U successor: the Wii U Wii U (and yes, they'll be replacing the *click* with siren noises)

Love seeing the pledges from @Nicktendo @drahkon and @S.C.G! Good luck with them guys, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on them as the year goes on, as and when (and if) you get to them! (also...does anyone else get the feeling Sam might just be a Sonic fan? )

Huh, Steam OS being licensed for this thing is very interesting. Did Valve just beat Xbox to the punch with their recently reported plans to license out the Xbox brand/potentially the Xbox OS to third-parties?

The releases PlayStation are highlighting this month: Anyone planning to pick up any of these? The only one really on my radar is Citizen Sleeper 2 (but I'll make time for the first game, well, first ). Kind of curious about Synduality, but I feel like it falls into that mid-range category where quality can be really hit and miss, so will wait to see how it reviews. And yeah, Aspyr won't be getting anymore of my money at launch for Star Wars remasters with how they botched Battlefront's launch last year, hence no Power Battles for me anytime soon. Wonder how long that grudge will hold...

RGG Direct diving into the game hits the shoreline on Thursday 9th January at 15:00 GMT: YouTube stream:

We've somehow made it a whole week into 2025 without this thread turning up – but no more! With CES kicking things off with a lot of gaming-adjacent news, I figured it was about time to make the annual threads for any of the typical gaming events, streams, or whatever else might fall under the 'Events' umbrella which wouldn't necessarily otherwise get a dedicated thread or slot into an existing one (like a gaming deep dive), such as Summer Game Fest, The Game Awards, or any one of the crazy number of 'Directs' we get which doesn't follow 'Nintendo'. Wonder if Capcom will have another stream of hit-or-miss quality this year...

Feel like full context is needed regardless of whether it's fake or not. The image was shared by Laura Kate Dale (don't feel like we've heard her name attached to big purported Nintendo leaks for a loooooooooong time), who also said: This is going to be a long month, isn't it? Now, can someone hurry up and "leak" the Pro Controller or cartridge already please? I want to know if we're getting a legit D-pad and if the cartridges are going to taste weird again

Midnight Black collection versions of the DualSense Edge, Pulse Explore and Elite, and Portal will be available to pre-order from 16th January: Launching 20th February.

Pre-dev concept video from Nvidia's CES keynote earlier today:

Announced at CES, Columbia Pictures is developing a film adaptation of Horizon: Zero Dawn, meaning that Netflix show is finally dead... ...and a Helldivers film has also been announced (no further info yet on this one). Huh.

An anime based on Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is in the works with Sucker Punch partnering up with Aniplex to produce: releasing on Crunchyroll in 2027: Hell yeah, this is gonna be huge

Season 2 arrives in April: ...as expected given the PC port of Part II Remastered releases on April 3rd. Looking forward to it!

Limited Run will be handling the physical release...

I think this could be an interesting idea given how a lot of games moving from PC to console need to come up with unique controller layouts which never quite capture the same level of control the original PC release was going for. While there'd still be the power of the console itself to account for, I could see some games - more traditionally point-and-click style games, certain indie games, and things like CRPGs in particular - maybe having a better time transitioning from PC to Switch 2. It would definitely give developers more options. I wonder if there's also a way it could be used as a stylus/cursor akin to a touchscreen a la the DS/3DS. You'd still be without that second screen, mind you, so some reworking would still be needed for port efforts, but I feel like it might be a worthy alternative to people wanting those games adapted to have motion controls. I like it, but it does make me a little nervous that we're just going to get a grey/black console with the colour accents on the rails not being evident until the Joy-Cons are removed, as I think it's the only colour we've seen in these purported leaks. I feel like the colour of the console itself would be such an easy easy to differentiate from the original Switch model, but hey, hopefully there's another colour and these supposed leakers just haven't got to them yet (or...they're colour blind and didn't notice there was another colour?)

Episode 7 of Dan Da Dan. Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude

I mean, either there's a gimmick which is impossible to convey with just the hardware that they've managed to get away with not having leak, or it's just a more powerful and capable Switch like everyone was expecting anyway. If it's the latter, while I don't think they'll be happy, I think that unhappiness will be more directed at their manufacturing partners not being able to keep a lid on things rather than the fact that the more hardcore of the gaming community have started to see the hardware. It doesn't really tell us anything about their plans. Because if it is "just" more powerful hardware, their marketing plan was always going to need to be a case of them needing to communicate that it's a new console and not a Wii U sort of situation, and then having the software ready to go to back that up – the lineup of which hasn't leaked (at least not in any meaningful way that I can recall) and I'm sure would be much more interesting/potentially damning than what we've seen so far in terms of the supposed leaked hardware. Them not reacting to the leaks is either them saving face or not really caring about the hardware leaking, because it likely has zero impact on their plans. For instance, a leak of a 'Breath of the Wild DX' or 'Mario Kart 8 DX²' without the context that there's a digital upgrade programme to go along with them (something which might show up in a marketing campaign but not necessarily on the back of a box or a leak where someone's seen an Excel spreadsheet or seen a laptop on a train)? I feel like that would gain much more traction and result in much more potent reactions than these hardware leaks seem to be getting.

Played through two excellent short games Thursday night to kick-start my gaming in 2025. Sayonara Wild Hearts | 2019 First up on the docket for me in 2025 was Sayonara Wild Hearts, which has been waiting to be played on my HDD full of PS4 games for some time now. And holy hot damn, what a game to open up 2025 with. I adored my time with it. Stylish and flashy with its bold colours, incredible variety of gameplay genres it chooses to smartly put to work (first- and third-person on-rails shooter/dodger, bullet hell, drifting, and QTE battles ranging from dance-offs to sword fights), and impressive use of constant seamless transitions, there is much to praise here. The folks at Simogo describe it as being a "pop album video game", which it undoubtedly is, incorporating some great-sounding music which blends with the numerous landscapes you'll be racing, dodging and fighting through, and it is even incorporated into how the game is presented through its use of rhythm and levels being delineated as "tracks" on an album. Story is light - without looking into it all I really gathered was that you play as a girl who has experienced heartbreak and are quite literally tasked with picking up the pieces, which contribute to your score - but that doesn't matter here, because it means that the combination of high-octane gameplay and wonderful, and oftentimes emotive, music really get the chance to take centre stage. And speaking of the music, I've had the album on a loop all day today: it's genuinely great stuff, and can be enjoyed even without the context of the game. Some of my favourite tracks are Begin Again, Dead of Night, Wild Hearts Never Die, Fighting Hearts, Night Drift, and I feel like I need to specifically shoutout this game's rendition of Clair de lune, which is obviously a classic that virtually everyone will be familiar with...and it makes it feel entirely fresh once again just by experiencing it in a new medium and with a new sound. The only real downside to the game's soundtrack is that the game's titular and title screen track, Sayonara Wild Heart - my favourite in the album/game - does not get utilised in any of the levels - which hurt even more after I'd been anticipating it for the full length of the game! This is only an hour or two long, and while I know quite a few here have already played it, if you haven't, I have to scream at you that it's well worth the price of admission to experience. There's also a sense of a lot of replayability being available here, partially because of the game's short playtime, but also as levels are tiered into Gold/Silver/Bronze ranks depending on how many points you finish with, and so there's a sense that you could absolutely spend a good deal of time mastering the game. Additionally, there are some riddles which challenge you to solve them via gameplay, which I thought was such a fun and unique way to push this game's replayability. While I only solved the first riddle myself and replayed some of my favourite levels after credits rolled, I think I'll be more surprised if I don't end up loading this up again by the time 2025 ends, and I can't remember the last time I finished a game this short and instantly thought, while I'm putting it down for now, I don't think it'll be too long before I'm back. That was a feeling I'd quickly become a bit familiar with, mind you... So, for now, I suppose this is less "Sayonara" and more "See ya later", Wild Hearts Star Fox 64 | 1997 After a couple of levels spent adjusting to using the N64 controller for the first time, it is incredibly clear just how well Star Fox 64 holds up nearly 30 years after its initial release. I think this is the first dedicated on-rails shooter I've played through from start to credits (don't quote me on that), and there's definitely a charming and easy to pick-up nature to the game with the focus being on your positioning and, well, shooting. Learning to barrel roll, somersault, and make the most out of the munitions at your disposal (combined with your probably accidentally launching a Bomb by pressing B instead of Left on the C-Pad multiple times if you're anything like me...sorry to the rest of the team for that ) and the way the game's difficulty curve really nicely and naturally increased as I got deeper into the game was excellent the first go-around, where I found myself following the route to the right of the world map from start to finish. Corneria, the two times I took on Team Star Wolf (the first time losing but managing to survive, and the second time being more accustomed to the controls, prescribing some deadly doses of revenge in emphatic fashion) and the final level/confrontation with Andross were probably my favourite levels, but you can bet I was grinning any and every time there was an obvious nod to Star Wars, be it the ship designs, Andross himself, one of the levels being eerily similar to the Death Star II escape in Return of the Jedi... Anyways, speaking of the world map, the first time you see the line going from Corneria to another location, it becomes clear: there are secrets and hidden exits to a lot of these levels, and, naturally, I found myself playing through the game a second time. After a couple of attempts I remembered how to go through the waterfall on Corneria - you read that right, remembered! More on that in a bit - and so managed to start going down a different route, but inevitably ended up back on my initial route the second go-around, and not wanting to look things up or reset anything, just followed it through to the end a second time. Additional opportunities to spice things up like saving members of your team - the experienced Peppy, the sarcastic and cocky Falco, or the long-tongued Slippy with a hilarious axe to grind violently with just about anyone - which has consequences such as having them stick around or need to go in for repairs for the remainder of that mission and the next were excellent, and combined with the various routes you could take through the game as well as the leaderboard, it's abundantly clear just how much replayability this game offers. So, back to me "remembering" how to access the secret exit off of Corneria after a few bouts the second go-around, what's that about? Well, remember how I grew up on and adored Smash Bros. Brawl? Not only did the game have a ridiculous number of trophies to amass which did a great job of introducing me to so many of these characters and their wider franchises, but it also had a mode available called 'Masterpieces', which had short trials available for a number of titles (most of which were available on Wii Virtual Console, which is kind of a genius way to advertise it when you think about it!), some of which were available from the outset and others which could only be unlocked after meeting certain criteria. Me and my siblings unlocked all of these naturally - I mean, we spent hundreds of hours with the game, so that shouldn't be a surprise considering that, looking up a list of the unlock criteria for these, they all seem fairly simple - and would replay the longer trials a bunch, including the opening of Star Fox 64 with a 3-minute timer to boot, Corneria, and we must have figured out back then how to unlock the path through the waterfall given how it came back to me! Also, yes, this does mean I actually played Ocarina of Time as a kid in retrospect - the opening 5 minutes of the Adult and Young Link sections got played by me and my brother a good number of times. Me now having memories of a bunch of Nintendo's older offerings has finally clicked - not really sure how I forgot about it given how many times we played a number of those trials, but thank Star Fox 64 for reminding me of those times! Anyways, with that trip down memory lane behind us and credits rolled twice on Star Fox 64 after having a great time with it - and me not at all being against the idea of coming back throughout the year to try to figure out how to unlock other hidden exits, with its brevity certainly being part of the appeal to do so, similar to Wild Hearts! - the first game from my Pledge Games of 2025 has been completed. Games completed in 2025

The hilarious part is I can't tell if you meant to type '2049' or if you're watching the 5-minute prequel, 2048 (which I guess would be over by the time of my reply)

Hate to burst your bubble of optimism here Jonnas, I really do, and of course it might not come to pass (here's hoping), but the timing of these being taken down and SEGA recently saying they're considering a subscription service lines up too well to make me think that this isn't the route they're trying to take. Hell, their president discussed it with the BBC, so they seem pretty serious about it. Seems an unwise move to me. In this day and age, I feel like SEGA faces a weird relevancy problem when it comes to its older games reaching a newer audience - having that be locked behind yet another, separate subscription service when we're already swimming in them isn't exactly going to get new eyes on the games, is it?

Beastars: Final Season – Part 1 was excellent, very happy with how they're currently approaching a certain topic given how relatable it is for me. That was my last show I watched of 2024 and I'm happy I made the time for it. For my first show of 2025, I'm 4 episodes into Dan Da Dan and @Ike was right to recommend it. It's chaotic, stylish, and incredibly visceral. Plus, the OP and ED are bangers. Finally, started reading the first volume of 20th Century Boys at stupid o'clock last night after being gifted the first 4 volumes across my birthday and Christmas. Monster and Pluto are two of the best anime I've watched, so honestly I knew that I'd be up for any story penned by Naoki Urasawa at this point, and yet I went in thinking I'd just read a chapter or two to get the ball rolling – ended up blasting through the first half of the volume before my eyes and brain did the sensible thing and finally caught up

Connecting my NSO N64 Controller to my Switch for the first time and finding myself Googling "how to hold an N64 controller?" and feeling a thousand years old doing so... ...which is a bit ironic really because the reason is that this is the first time I'm holding one of these things, for reasons I probably don't need to remind you lot EDIT: wait, this looks and sounds different to when I was flicking through it last night. Does the NSO N64 controller being connected add in Mario 64 sound effects?