Julius

Funny, because I mentioned the exact same thing after my playthrough. I thought I was going a little nuts - I don’t know, it’s a cave, so we get extraordinarily high encounter rates, I guess? - so I’m glad that you mentioned that. Honestly, I think it’s my biggest gripe with the game (and, admittedly, it’s not that big of a gripe): for all of the game’s excellent pacing, the last place that you want to encounter a Pokémon every two steps is in a cave with an important Team Plasma encounter, multiple dead ends, and a lot of items to find off the main route. And all of this happening just after the midpoint of the game really does bring the game churning to a halt, and, from what I remember, it takes a little while after successfully traversing the cave to get back up to its previous momentum. And yeah, the music in this game is ace

I’ve tried twice already to return to XY with Pokémon Y, both to experience the journey again and to catch a lot more Pokémon for my Dex, but it is just so bland and by the numbers that I get bored after the first few hours. It’s already aged quite poorly in terms of overworld graphics, almost like an early PS1 game, considering the jump from Gen VI to Gen VII. That being said, I’ll probably try to give it another go this summer. As for SM, I really enjoyed my first playthrough with Sun and had one of my best experiences with Pokémon with it. That, coupled with opinions I’ve heard about a second playthrough souring the experience, has stopped me returning to Alola with Moon, which has been sitting on my shelf for a year and a half since Christmas 2016. Not too sure I want to trade it in for Ultra Sun/Moon either, considering how I’ve heard similar things about that game as I did with second playthroughs of SM. I’ve yet to play through White 2, so that’s one of the games that I definitely want to play this summer.

That’s awesome! I played through White for only the second time a few months ago, and I really do think that they’re some of the most underrated games in the franchise. The game is extremely well paced for the most part, with something moving the story along in virtually every location that you come across, and your rivals actually develop as characters throughout the course of the game. I’ve seen some people complain about how linear it is, but there’s enough in each location to deviate a bit from the critical path to explore areas before moving on, and I’d much rather have a linear, well paced, narrative driven Pokémon game than a potentially open, disjointed, exploration driven one (I’d also have to imagine that it’s cheaper to pursue the former than the latter from GF’s point of view). I also noted the same thing about the battles feeling much faster during my playthrough, so I think that there must be a difference there. Levelling up is also much faster because of how it depends on the difference in level between your Pokémon and the opposing Pokémon; if your Pokémon is a higher level than the opposing Pokémon, it will earn less EXP, and vice versa. It just feels like Game Freak really went out of their way to streamline the narrative and gameplay with these games, and it shows in just how well the game has aged. And yeah, that sprite work is top notch!

Great result for us today to end a tumultuous season on something of a high. I hope we don’t take too long deciding Conte’s future, both for us as a club and for him as an individual. If he’s going to stay, though, he needs the backing to take us back to where we belong in the Champions League; our squad size wasn’t the only issue this season, but it sure was a big one. As for talk about what’s different about José at United when compared with his most successful stints - which I’d argue were his stints at Porto, Chelsea, and Inter - is that he’s not an underdog. Nobody expected Porto to win the Champions League; he helped us to our first league title in 50 years in his first season at Chelsea; and that Inter side, though extremely talented, hadn’t been anywhere near the top of Europe in the years prior, and yet he helped them to the treble. These teams were also filled with leaders, and I don’t think that United really has any leaders in their team sheet, let alone in their starting XI. His time at United is reminding me a lot of his time with Madrid: it’s about taking an obscenely wealthy club - who are by no definition underdogs - back to the top of Europe after a long spell of inconsistency and complacency at the highest level.

Goal is reporting that Arteta has agreed to become Arsenal’s next manager in principle, with the announcement expected to be made in the next few days. Personally, I think it’s a bit too early for him to be given such a role. Though, a trial by fire at the beginning of his managerial career could be a great way to kickstart it, and I do think that he has the potential to be a great manager, based purely on working with Guardiola and the way that he himself played during his career. I don’t think that it would be an appointment like Simeone or Allegri which could send shivers down other teams’ spines, but I do think that his appointment could make Arsenal something of a dark horse (not necessarily winning the league, but perhaps returning to their favourite position in the table) going into next season.

Did someone say “friendly neighbourhood”?

This is golden.

I think that if this game sells over 10 million copies, as Call of Duty games regularly do, I do think that there is the potential for a substantial overlap between Blackout and Fortnite, which I think could take some players away from Fortnite come later this year. It could literally just last a weekend and be a glorious fad, but, on the other hand, Call of Duty is strongly positioned to contend with Fortnite in a way that PUBG can’t. That being said, I do think that there are a few potential problems which could lead to that not being the case. For instance, why is Blackout being tied to Black Ops 4 and not being positioned as an ongoing service which will transcend the typical annual refresh of the Call of Duty franchise? Sure, Activision wants to make money - and I assume that this game will still have an RRP of £60 - but getting players to buy into a refresh of a GAAS (game as a service) model like this annually would seem silly, especially seeing as they’ll probably end up copying Fortnite’s business model by having an in-game currency and season passes. If this was a GAAS product being worked on continuously by an entire studio, which was positioned separately from the annual titles (which could then retain both typical first-person shooter multiplayer modes and a campaign), and which had a base cost tied to a season pass of £10/pc for those who don’t own the most recent annual CoD, and free for those that do, then I think they could get away with copying Fortnite’s business model and make a ton of cash as a result. The way that they seem to be doing things could still make them a lot of money, but I agree: a free game with a massive community and is completely supported by a developer is going to probably beat out a AAA game with a £60 RRP which only wants to take more of your money every day of the week, at least in the PR side of things.

Pep has signed a two-year contract extension to remain with City until 2021. So, uh, see you all in May 2022, when the Premier League is next won by a team that isn’t City

I don’t think PES would necessarily be what Xbox went after if they chased Konami, as I don’t think that that really boosts their appeal in markets such as Japan when there’s a rival game such as FIFA available on every major console (and especially now that it’s on Switch). I think the biggest problem is that PES lost its foothold a long time ago when it became apparent that, despite being the more mechanically sound game, deals weren’t going to be made for all league and club rights. I agree with everything @Hero-of-Time mentioned too, but I do think that - had this been a few generations ago - a license acquisition/exclusivity such as PES could have been huge. Honestly, though, I can’t think of many other major developers that are sitting quietly on a stash of world renowned, AAA games like Konami are. I think Xbox would have to be incredibly aggressive to force a deal through just to use their licenses exclusively, but I think it would be worth them pursuing, especially seeing as they do have the backing to make it possible. Something like fronting up the costs for a Metal Gear Solid 4K Remake Collection and giving Konami 10% if profits sounds ridiculous at face value, but I imagine having games such as these exclusive to Xbox - with a built-in fan base - could have been the only thing that could have flipped the narrative of this generation on its head. I just don’t think tackling a new AAA IP will work for them, especially considering how few exclusive/first party AAA IPs they have on Xbox as it is right now anyway. Do you think that a game such as Star Citizen launching as an Xbox console exclusive could be a way that they could turn the tide? Because, as grand and as advanced as that game appears to be, I don’t think it has the history and fan base of IPs like Metal Gear to make a massive difference.

Yeah, I was surprised at just how hyped everyone in the audience got given that no BR gameplay was shown. I’m going to hazard a guess that the first gameplay of their BR - Blackout, was it? - turns up in Sony’s showing at E3 next month, which will be huge. I honestly don’t care much for CoD, but I am intrigued by the direction that they’re taking things in. It’ll be interesting to see how this effects the numbers of Fortnite over the Christmas period.

Haven’t played since the after the first few days of release, but I’ve been looking into it a bit more, what with the Let’s Go! “leaks” and supposed GO integration, and I stumbled upon this gem of a documentary-type video about the world’s number one Pokémon GO player: Brandon Tan. I found it to be an incredibly fascinating watch, and it’s great to see how the game still maintains small communities of players.

Reveal in 10 minutes.

Although it won’t be exclusive, everything seems to be pointing to Cyberpunk 2077 being on Xbox’s stage next month, which I think could be pretty big for them. I just don’t know what they do right now. Do they go all-in this year, despite being some thirty million units or so behind the PS4, to go out on a final hurrah? Or do they save their big reveals for their next console? Bigger question yet: will there be a next console? They aren’t ever going to find their way into the Japanese market in a noticeable way, despite a number of attempts, so should they instead focus on serving only a Western audience? Or is that what they’ve been trying to do anyway? Personally, I’d like to pick an XBO up at some point, just because of the BC, but I don’t feel like I’m in any rush to do so because there aren’t any major releases coming from/exclusive to them which would make me purchase one before the end of this generation. Maybe they should throw a lot of money to use some currently dormant licenses? Throwing money at Konami in particular comes to mind, as that’s all they seem to care about now these days anyway. Would a Metal Gear Solid 4K Remake Collection, a new Silent Hills game and Suikoden VI do much for them? I think it could, and I feel like the concept of the latter in particular (picking up some dormant JRPG franchise licenses) could help them make some sort of significant movement over in the East.

If only the guys who helped to market this film helped with marketing on the other FOX superhero films...

Nintendo’s E3 site has their video presentation named as the ‘Nintendo Direct: E3 2018’, so I guess I’ll update the original post. Aptly named, but I preferred ‘Nintendo Spotlight: E3 [insert year here]’, if I’m honest Oh well, less than a month to go now!

Man, that blows. On the upside, it will hopefully give people (myself included) enough time to become well acquainted with the first two and enjoy the third game as much as longtime fans surely will

It’s also been 10 years since we’ve seen Sinnoh, so... though, based on past precedent, I wouldn’t have expected that game this year anyway: we’ve been having remakes every other generation for a while now, so I’m surprised to see so many fans up in arms about Sinnoh being “skipped”. @Glen-i I think @Vileplume2000 is on the money; if Pikachu and Eevee are the starters, we probably won’t be able to evolve them. If we can, I’d imagine it would be fairly late into the game. @Hero-of-Time @Ronnie I agree that leaks are really damaging, and aren’t good for either the potential audience of the game or it’s developers. It surprises me a little bit just how much more under wraps the reveals saved for The Game Awards seem to be than for something like E3, as both of them are massive showcases/conferences. I’m still excited for this year’s E3, but when I hear a tease that Capcom are bringing two games to it, I have a very good idea of what it is that they’re going to show. It really does kind of suck. With regards to Pokémon in particular, substantial leaks have been much more common over the last 2 years, at least as far as I can remember, which seems to be a result than of the games now being localised in China (the SM and USUM leaks were China-based, if I recall correctly).

This was posted on 4Chan around the same time as the supposedly leaked image: I don’t think GO’s mechanics coming to the game will be too prevalent, apart from what I assume would be an optional Joy-Con shaking/touch screen flicking to attempt to capture a Pokémon. I agree with @Glen-i that a Pokewalker feature being added to GO would make a lot of sense, and is a great idea. I don’t know how I feel about the idea that these are Yellow remakes with Red and Blue having a role in the story but not being the catalysts for it, unless it is, in fact, a sequel, though. I’m sort of on the fence right now about this, because we simply don’t know enough from the allegedly leaked information, so I can’t wait until we (supposedly) find out more about the games later this month. If this is all true, potentially catchable Pokémon being visible in the overworld (seen in the “leaked” image) is something I’m excited for. Just holding out for Johto to play into this somehow too

A supposed 4Chan leak from a few months ago put this image out into the wild, with the game supposedly in a relatively early state: In it, you can see the tail of a Gyarados, and a trainer riding a Lapras with an Eevee on their head. It was noted that the tiles looked flat, and it was deemed to be fake. However, 4Chan has just put this logo out into the wild: In it is depicted the title Pokémon Let’s GO! Pikachu, and, supposedly, the title of the other version is Pokémon Let’s GO! Eevee. It could easily turn out to be nothing and be a fake, but I feel like it’s worth posting. With the Eevee atop the trainer’s head in the above image, I’m reminded somewhat of Pokémon Yellow; perhaps these titles will be the modern Pokémon Yellow (and Pokémon Brown)? There are also other hints towards this besides the supposed logo for the game, such as in Emily Rogers’ piece, but it’s a bit deep of a rabbit hole for me to jump into right now. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see

Yeah, I think that an introduction of a Pokéwalker system in GO is a great idea. Very nervous but excited that the reveal is supposedly later this month. Nervous, because, well, it could - and probably will - be divisive, and people will inevitably complain that they haven’t seen enough before remembering that E3 is just around the bend. I’m also nervous because the fan base was always going rabbid for news, and every single day that goes by without the reveal will only make them even crazier. And if it’s not revealed by the end of the month? Emily Rogers is probably going to be in a lot of trouble... Waiting for this should be a great way to pass the time in the build-up to E3 EDIT: Emily has said that there will be no reveal this week.