Julius

And BAM. Evert ten Napel, a Dutch soccer commentator who has lent his services to EA for FIFA games, has seemingly confirmed that the UEFA Champions League and Europe League licenses are coming to FIFA 19. I was planning on skipping the next game, because of how much I’m surprisingly enjoying FIFA 18’s gameplay when compared to FIFA 15 - 17, and I’m only a couple of seasons into a managerial career mode which is proving a lot of fun. But this sort of throws a wrench into that...I think I’ll be picking this up if it does turn out to be the case Now if they could just finally add the Club World Cup and actually flesh out the manager mode a bit more...

Whilst I'm sure that it's not coming out this year, I do think that it's come along much further than us onlookers think. Like I said above, Sony have commented that they've never seen a game as ambitious as Death Stranding developed so quickly (I feel like that might have been Layden?), and I believe both Cerny and Andrew House have stated that they've played the game to some extent, and were both very impressed by how it was going. Kojima Productions have also teased that the game could release before the fictional events depicted in Akira take place (2019), and Kojima-san has previously said that the game would release prior to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which seems to suggest to me that a PS5 launch release is by no means the goal. I don't think that would make much sense anyway, as I think there's a good chance that the PS5 will be backwards compatible (based purely on my own speculation that Sony have learned from the drought that a lack of backwards compatibility brought about at the launch of the PS4), and the PS4 will likely be nearing/around 100 million units sold by the time that this game would launch. Kojima Productions does seem to be small, by all means (I haven't seen a number thrown about greater than 100 when it comes to staff yet), but I think that there's a very good chance that Guerrilla are helping them with the game. To what extent this could be I'm not too sure, but their presence might explain why this game has seemingly come along so quickly (at least for what it's aiming to be), because I certainly can't see how a studio of less than 100 developers (presumably the majority of which are Japanese) could to grips so quickly with an engine they've never utilised before. I remain optimistic when it comes to Death Stranding, but I think that The Last of Us Part II is going to be the big swansong for the PS4, and that we probably won't see it released until 2020. Ghost of Tsushima early next year and Death Stranding late next year would probably be my guess for now

Here we go. PlayStation time: Kicking off at 02:00 in the morning on the Tuesday over here. Again. I’ll have to miss watching it live this year (I have an exam that morning ), but I can’t wait to watch the trailers and highlights. I have a really good feeling about PlayStation’s showing this year We now have a date and time for all of this E3’s press conferences, which can all be found in the first post in this thread!

I completely agree. At the very least, I think the option should be available for those who want to purchase the games as opposed to renting them. A renting service is excellent for dabbling with games that you might not have tried otherwise, but there are those who do like the security of knowing that they’ve purchased a game and will have access to it for years to come. Not only that, but Nintendo are leaving a lot of money on the table (and disgruntling a lot of fans) by making this the only available option to play legacy titles, at least for the foreseeable future. If they didn’t want such backlash, why begin closing the Wii Shopping Channel without actually revealing a replacement business model to take its place on their current system? If we’re going to be analogising this with a Netflix service: I don’t know many people subscribed to Netflix without some form of permanently owned film collection.

I think this could mean we’ll be seeing their deep dives spaced out quite evenly throughout the show, with any game announcements (first or third party) filling the gaps. It should certainly lend itself to a better pacing than the 100 mph start which we saw last year with the likes of Monster Hunter World and Shadow of the Colossus, which really slowed down after that, and the gameplay at the end just felt like it dragged the show out further. The focus on Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding is intriguing. We’re getting Spider-Man in September, and I think we’ll get one of the latter three at the start of next year. The phrasing is a bit strange to me: the implication, to me at least, could possibly be that these are the only first party games that we see from the this show — though with Dreams on the way, I doubt that. Then again, maybe that’s more suited for a Gamescom showing? Either way, I think it’s a step in the right direction, as they seem to be going away from blowing their metaphorical load too early. I think I’ve mentioned it elsewhere (probably in the dedicated thread), but Sony have said that Death Stranding is one of the fastest developments of a title they’ve ever seen, and Kojima Productions has teased that the game will be out before the fictional events depicted in Akira, which is set in 2019. It’s honestly probably the event - at least of the Big Three - that I’m most excited for. Now, if they’d just tell us what time the event was actually taking place so that I could update the original post...

As someone who wasn’t born until a few years after the release of the PS1, I only ever grew up with friends who talked about the likes of Spyro and Crash I get the appeal for Spyro, but never quite understood it so much for Crash, to be honest. It’s crazy to think that the majority of the people that I’ve grown up with only think of Nintendo as a handheld/gimmicky home console manufacturer, based purely on what was popular at the time of our upbringing looking back at console/controller designs of old systems probably doesn’t help; whereas PlayStation has been consistent with the DualShock, the majority of Nintendo’s controllers look rather gimmicky in retrospect

One hour of gameplay with dev commentary is up on Game Informer: but it’s not on their YouTube channel yet. Here’s the link to it; I’ll update my post when the YouTube version becomes available. We’ll see another 45 minutes of gameplay with dev commentary today. If I had to guess, they probably want to ensure people that it’s not the train wreck that it could have been. I’ll be sure to update this post with it when it’s released. Again: Game Informer are absolutely killing it at the moment! In the meantime, here’s a Q&A:

Now that’s a good-looking icon!

15 new SKUs have shown up on GameStop’s website ahead of E3 next month under Switch software. The last time this happened, the slots were filled out shortly thereafter by a Direct only a few days later. So, either E3 listings are up earlier than usual (which wouldn’t be too surprising; we saw Wal-Mart do the same yesterday), or there’s a (very) slim chance we get a Direct soon. Elsewhere, Bandai Namco’s latest financial results have teased that multiple original titles are in development for release from this summer onwards. Ridge Racer 8? A new Tales game? A Dragon Ball FighterZ port? The smell of E3 is definitely in the air

Bumped up to June 29th, for those interested

Man, Bethesda really do love a good tease. I’m really starting to feel the E3 hype! I think that Bethesda Game Studios’ next game (Starfield?) is virtually a lock-in at this point. Doom 2 too. Some moon DLC for Prey. Maybe Rage 2? Admittedly, it wasn’t really on my scope until today (I should do some research). Probably some Quake Champions news too, maybe a mobile game will turn up, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we learn about a Fallout game coming to Switch at this point. A month to go!

I actually wasn’t referring to you when I said it might ruffle some feathers, but, in retrospect, maybe I should have been... I think I agree with you on Kanto (for the most part). I’m certainly not against a return to the region (post-game, set like 20 years after the originals with a lot having changed? That I’m up for!), but I’m confused as to why people seem to think that we’re more likely to have a game set in Kanto before getting a true start to Gen VIII. I know that Gamefreak love to play on nostalgia (Gen VI and Gen VII, I think, have shown that they love it a bit too much), but I don’t think that they’re going to throw their potential creativity out of the window for the sake of a cash-in alone. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they practiced with a new/updated engine by recreating some parts of Kanto, but I just can’t see them making it the focus of a game again (disclaimer: yet). I’m glad that you brought up Gen V, because I think that region nailed so much that Gen VI and Gen VII have sorely lacked. It’s a well-paced, linear (but not to the point that it’s detriment) experience with easily the greatest storytelling of the core series, with 156 (come on!) new Pokémon to encounter. Kalosian and Alolan Pokémon were pretty rare in their own games, so I do hope that they focus on having the new Pokémon front and centre throughout the main story. My other big problem with Kalos and Alola in particular is that they’re literally just video game versions of France and Hawaii, as opposed to being inspired by them like previous regions; for example: I think you nailed it: “fresh” is exactly what I’m looking for most with Pokémon Switch. I’m not looking for anything on the scale of BOTW, but I am looking for some new takes on the formula to help streamline the experience, whether it be Pokémon being visible in the overworld or something else entirely. And they also need to stop with these gimmicks. Mega Evolution introduced a power creep which won’t go away now, and while I like the idea of regional variants as a concept, having them all be exclusive to Kanto Pokémon in Gen VII isn’t at all exciting. Z-moves also do nothing for me (and both that and Mega Evolution give me way too much of a Digimon vibe). Even if they do continue with regional variants, why not go back and give us some new evolutions to older Pokémon, something I don’t think we’ve seen since Gen IV with the likes of Probopass, Magnezone, Gallade, et al? Like regional variants, it’s something which could contextually make sense (the introduction of Mega Evolutions/Z-moves has aided in the evolution of other Pokémon, or some nonsense along those lines), and it’s something which I think would be received comparatively well. What brought that to my mind was the recent reveal that Raichu was originally going to have a devil-horned, farmer orange evolution called Gorochu. Even if it doesn’t come out this year, I do hope that we learn some things about it this year. At the very least, I just want some of these silly rumours to be proven wrong

USGamer seem to be riling up a lot of people with their latest opinion piece: Their main points for this potential disappointment are: I’m really unsure about all this. I definitely think we’ll get it by the end of FY19 (which ends 31st March 2019), because I think “2018 or later” seems to point to that being the case; I can’t see them intentionally misleading shareholders with the goal of 2018 for it to be out later than the end of this fiscal year. In the event that Smash doesn’t come out until October/November this year, I can see Pokémon being pushed into Q1 2019 (heck, maybe that’s why we don’t have a release date for either of them yet). I’m also seeing a lot of debate about this game being Generation VIII, with some pointing to the fact that the anime still has a seemingly long way to go in Alola. I mean, what defines a new generation? Is it just the large amount of new Pokémon, new starters, and a new region? My own opinion is that a change in game engine/art style plays into this; every initial pair of mainline Pokémon games on a new platform have started a new generation up to this point, and each has an art style/engine change which makes it distinct from the generation precedent them. A lot of people seem to be on the boat of “we’re returning to Kanto” (whether it be remakes or sequels), so would a new pair of games set in Kanto on Switch be a continuation of Gen VII, or would they begin Gen VIII, despite supposedly not having a new trio of starter Pokémon, etc.? Going in line with my previously voiced opinion, I do think that a return to Kanto on the Switch could still be the beginning of Generation VIII, as I assume that the engine will have been modified somewhat from Gen VII’s (even if only to fully cater to models and backgrounds which are presented in full HD). I’m interested to hear what you guys/gals think of this. It’ll probably ruffle up some feathers, but oh well

GIF version (the video is only 15 seconds long anyway) for those who want it: This game really does look gorgeous. Those particle effects on the snow look great, and I really love the way that the water reflects. I was really hoping to play games like Final Fantasy VI for the first time on Switch (guess I’m going to have to go hunt for an SNES Classic or a Wii with a complete VC catalogue...), but in lieu of that coming over to the platform, I think this is one of the games which is attracting me most to the platform. It seems that the names of the final two party members are Cyrus and Ophelia, so, going clockwise from their starting locations on the map: Ophelia Cyrus Tressa Olberic Primrose Alfyn Therion H’aanit

Man, the gameplay of PES 2019 looks gooooood... Also, Konami have had their most profitable year since FY12. Getting Kojima and co. off their books, moving to mobile, pachinko/gambling, etc., seems to have really worked for their bottom line. I can’t think of any reason that they’d want to return to creating AAA games outside of the annual PES cash-in. A Metal Gear Solid FOX Engine collection also seems like a great shout for a potentially massive cash-in. But, good lord, I wish they’d, at the very least, let other developers do something with their engine and licenses. Having something like the FOX Engine gathering dust over in the corner besides occasionally using it for PES seems a waste, and having IPs such as Silent Hill, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Suikoden, etc., gathering dust is also a massive waste. I was reading something quite interesting the other week about how other companies seem to be picking up from where Konami left things, though, such as Capcom with Resident Evil VII (Silent Hills) and potentially Ubisoft with Splinter Cell (Metal Gear?). So, at least in spirit, I guess some of their IPs are getting to live on.

Do we think this is them getting out ahead of E3 so that they can gloss over it during their actual presentation, as opposed to having it be such a large focus like it was in the most recent Direct?

Finnish PR company 3H Distribution Oyhas has sent an email to press giving the release dates for many games coming this year. The list includes Code Vein, which is listed as releasing July 2018 for the PS4 and XBO. The game will have a PEGI 16 rating. If this is true, that’s pretty soon (and pretty awesome). It’s about time we begin to see some more major releases in the summer, given that Q1/Q2 is now mostly filled with massive, console-exclusive single player games with a narrative focus, and Q4 is mostly filled with third-party juggernauts.

Widely loved and praised EA CFO Blake Jorgensen has revealed that the game will be released March 2019: EA’s CEO, the also widely loved and praised Andrew Wilson, earlier this year hinted that the game would have some form of early access release: Thank the gods of gaming that Electronic Arts is the one putting out this game. They’d never take advantage of consumers, and would never be willing to rob us in broad daylight.

So, yeah. Zombies confirmed.

Potential leaks via Wal Mart’s pre-order page. There seem to be a few mistakes in there if there’s any truth to them. I’ll spoiler tag them I guess? Not sure how everyone feels about leaks...

Welp. No prizes for guessing who Nintendo’s ninjas just assassinated. Coupled with how Sakurai’s been hinting at this game being a new one, I guess this more or less confirms that (YES! ) this is a new game? Very excited for Nintendo’s E3 showing now (like I wasn’t before)

Oh dear. If there’s any accuracy/current truth in those numbers, which I assume there has to be considering who’s supplying them, I don’t think it matters how well Xbox do at E3 next month. PlayStation nearly caught up last generation thanks to some excellent games, huge price cuts/smart console redesigns, and some great PR moves (such as keeping online multiplayer a free service). I just don’t see where Xbox can pull that from, unless they’ve been sitting on a treasure trove of must-have AAA games that have been in development since 2014/2015. And, if they do have such games, what’s their play? Do they stick them out towards the end of this generation in a hope of a last stand? Or do they recoup and save them to strengthen the initial lineup for their next console?

I just finished reading an interesting article by Kotaku AU, and I think I agree with their stance on Virtual Console/their new service: they should not limit the ways in which people can access these games. If they want to buy it, then they should be able to; and, likewise, if they want to access it through Ninty’s new service, then they should be able to. My biggest problem with it is that they’re so vague about their plans; it would have been simple enough to explain that other legacy platforms were coming to the service at some point, or that they had plans to bring games to the eShop (which they did, but not in the initial release of information on the site, but rather in an interview later on), etc. Leaving us in the dark gives us a perfectly valid reason to madly scramble around, worried that we’ll never get to see [insert critically acclaimed legacy title here] on the Switch. I think my problem with this particular ‘discussion’, though, is that it seems to based on a lot of misunderstandings between people over the Internet (which is to be expected, surely, in a more casual and laid back forum such as this) more so than any ill-intentioned misdirection. Heck, I even misunderstood the numbers you were putting out, but I didn’t mean to misdirect anyone. As far as I can tell, the £18 figure wasn’t featured in this thread until yesterday. If you saw it elsewhere before, that’s fine, but @Ronnie probably didn’t, which is why I’d imagine he was still using converted prices. Like I said before, I myself was still using the US$ price points yesterday morning, so it seems that the price of £18/year wasn’t officially out yet. Again, scrolling back through your exchange, it does seem that there have been a number of misunderstandings, but I think this is the one where the most confusion took place: Ronnie originally quoted £1.20/month based purely on exchange rates. You then asked where he got the figure of £14.40/year came from, and he said that he’d just seen that it was £18/year, which is £1.50/month, as he went on to say. I think it’s likely that he simply misread/misinterpreted your £14.40/year figure as £1.40/month, because that’s the only place that £1.40/month is found in the entire exchange (which was alluded to by Ronnie saying that the £1.50/month is only 10p more). I really do think that it’s down to a few misunderstandings, misinterpretations and a fair share of miscommunication. Either way, I still don’t think @Ronnie was intentionally trying to mislead anyone. I genuinely don’t think that £3.60/year is going to be the difference between anyone here picking up a subscription or not, so I struggle to see why this has become a do-or-die situation.