Julius

Bet you'll never guess what I'm playing... Totally just stood in that room for 5 minutes. What a vibe setter; Firelink Shrine vibes, or maybe I should say Firelink Shrine has Safe Room vibes?

Thanks for the heads-up H-o-T! Funnily enough, my brother asked for my birthday/Christmas list yesterday when Granblue had been languishing in my basket on TGC for a couple of days at £30 (been trying to figure out what I want to play over my Christmas leave), so I was pleasantly surprised to see it had dropped when just checking the links were working before sending the list over to him. Asked him to buy it ASAP when I saw that price, seems a steal

Seeing a weird number of people causing a stir about Jordan having a shaved head. Not that she would need this to justify the shaved head at all anyways, but I wonder if it's a gameplay mechanic of sorts? Naughty Dog's hair physics are insane so it'd be odd to me if they suddenly went with a protagonist who shaved theirs off...so considering we'll seemingly be trapped on Sempiria for potentially most of the game, if not all of it, I wonder if there's a passage of time (be it through "days" or just story chapters) which sees her hair grow back? It could totally just be her look, I mean it's a bit more grown out in the photo we see but still very short, but choosing to introduce the main character in this first trailer with a shot where she's in the process of shaving her head before she goes down to Sempiria is a pretty peculiar choice if it's not intentional (I guess maybe a form of otherwise "letting her hair down" or something, so to speak).

Statler and Waldorf were unironically hilarious at the TGAs last night, that Kojima killed I'm not completely convinced the TGAs know what a [healthy] "family" is with how often Mario Party ends up nominated for the category in all honesty

Neil Druckmann's entry on the PS Blog for the game: I'm feeling like this is a potential 2026 title? Started dev back in 2020 and so 6 years seems about right (Santa Monica and Sucker Punch both spent around that long on GoW 2018 and Ghost of Tsushima, respectively, if memory serves) and Neil and the team have spoken a few times (in the Grounded II doc and elsewhere) about how they absolutely don't want a repeat of TLOU Part II when it comes to having a massive gap between announcement and launch. Naughty Dog are too smart to commit to a date if they're more than 12 months out because, well, things can happen. Then, maybe, if we're very lucky and things go smoothly and Naughty Dog's studio growth earlier this gen pays off and they're left free from being distracted by the follies of GAAS, that you're looking at 2028 or 2029 in that potential cross-gen period between PS5 and PS6 as the possible window for The Last of Us Part III.

Was having problems finding it before (doesn't seem to be up on the TGAs channel?) but Swen Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian who famously got played off after winning GOTY with BG3 last year, had a chills-inducing speech on the matter too: The industry is seriously starting to speak up. I'm convinced this is why he was played off last year, he's too powerful otherwise.

The North Pole mantra You know Santa is instilling this code in his army of elves

Clearly I'm running on fumes – this has already aired. The above is now a VOD, here are the select clips SEGA put up on their own channel from the VF Direct, including a bunch of 30th anniversary messages:

Trying to grab everything I can about this game right now. Some more details courtesy of a New York Times interview with Neil Druckmann (source). Bebop vibes were the first vibes I got, and I'm sure the Akira vibes will be much more apparent if/when we get to a city. Them being the inspirations is a win for anime and, if done right, obviously, this game – both are masterpieces. Feel like it's also worth mentioning that early builds of TLOU Part II were described as being like an open world Bloodborne with a focus on melee combat, and well, that brief bit of combat teased at the end definitely looks like that (source for this is Grounded II, which I watched back in Jan). From Wikipedia, a synopsis: Apparently also from Wikipedia the game's name was trademarked back in February 2024 (source: Gematsu). Jordan will be portrayed by Tati Gabrielle. I also see Kumail Nunjiani when her target is shown and in the photo, and also in the photo appears to be Tony Dalton. The song featured in the trailer is It's a Sin by the Pet Shop Boys. I'm pretty sure that in-game anime in the background is original, which would be interesting considering how much seems to be grounded in the real world (like the brand deals), but perhaps shouldn't be a surprise with the minefield that is anime rights handling outside of Japan. I wonder if it'll be a Savage Starlight sort of deal? Maybe we collect VHS tapes to watch this 90s anime, there could be an anime miniseries released, and maybe it'll reflect the story somewhat similar to how Savage Starlight does TLOU's?

That was by far and away the best TGAs to date, and one of the best shows I've tuned in for in a long time – honestly, based on announcements alone, this is up there with some of the best pre-COVID E3s for me. I do agree that the pacing was still a bit rough at times - it's that late middle stretch of the show from like 60% to 90% where the big hitters just dried up in terms of announcements - but between Amir Satvat getting a moment to address the mass layoffs across the industry we've seen in the last few years and not a single soul being played off? The TGAs and Geoff really showed that they learned from last year's show, and even the shows before that. Some of those speeches tonight really strike true; Swen Vincke's speech on the treatment of devs in the buildup to handing over the GOTY Award was an especially powerful and eloquently delivered moment. Anyways, let's revisit my seven hopes for the show: By my count, that's 4 out of 7 of my hopes and dreams coming true. • substantial PS Studios announcement – the announcement and reveal of Naughty Dog's new IP and next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Those faces. That music. Cowboy Bebop vibes. Oh hell yeah. • an update on Fumito Ueda and genDESIGN's next game – I've been saying this one for like half a decade at this point it feels like, so to finally see it was awesome! An excellent tone piece. • the revival of SOMETHING – I'm going to say Capcom delivered this singlehandedly...twice. I mentioned Onimusha in my post earlier and that was massive, but an Okami sequel with Kamiya returning to direct is very easy to argue as being a much bigger deal. • the next From Software project – Elden Ring: Nightreign! Still need to watch the PC Gamer video they put out after some hands-on time with the game, 3-player co-op as opposed to 4-player gives me pause, as does apparent pre-made characters potentially hinting at a gacha system? I'm going to need to look into this one. But anyways, hype. Based on 4 of 7 dreams becoming reality alone, this was a bit of a dream show for me. Outside of those, the back-to-back RGG announcements of the new Virtua Fighter and Project Century really caught my attention, I'm not a big fighting game guy but it's RGG which is enough to pique my interest, and Project Century looks like something truly fresh from the studio. The Witcher IV was a cool look at what we can expect in the far future, Mafia: The Old Country I was already very much in for but that trailer was awesome, and from the pre-show, Rematch - the five-a-side football game a la Rocket League by the guys behind Sifu - looks like it could perhaps be a way for me to play something fresh and new in the football space. In terms of announcements, then, bar Nintendo turning up with a Direct in the middle of the show, for me, I'm struggling to see how you get a bigger and better lineup than this. If someone offered for all of these games were announced during an E3 weeks just 5 years ago we'd collectively be ready to break someone's hand off. In terms of pacing, like I said, it wasn't perfect, as the show was certainly a bit frontloaded, but with what was actually announced, if you gave me the option of having Ueda's next game announced just minutes after a From game - knowing full well just how inspired by Ueda that Miyazaki is - or having it placed some 2 hours letter merely for pacing, I'd scoff at you. It was also long, as it always is. The weird flow into the ads definitely continues to catch me a bit off-guard as it's not always apparent that the ads have started, but weirdly we got PC ports of FF VII Rebirth and The Last of Us Part II both announced during these ad breaks, or close enough that they seemed like they were announced during them, so...pick a lane, maybe? I want to touch on two things in particular before I probably pass out watching some more reactions and rewatching some trailers. Nicolas Doucet in his awards speech touched on something I think is constantly forgotten, and that isn't just the quality of Nintendo, but that all of these companies occupy a medium which so many people love. He was inspired by a little grey box and an Italian plumber back in 1989 the same way in some 30 years or so we'll likely be hearing about how a little white robot with blue eyes and a knack for punching VIPs to "collect" them – if he can give credit where credit is due and loudly and proudly recognise his inspirations, regardless of what company he's affiliated with, then maybe these stupid "console wars" can die a superheated death already. It's exhausting having this baseless "oh, Sony is doomed" and occasionally the opposite on here, but also just seeing it elsewhere. For the love of the gaming gods, these are games, they're there to be played and enjoyed, not warred over, and I think if you need to be reminded of that, then maybe you - and sometimes I - need to take a break from the keyboard for a little bit. The other thing I wanted to touch on was to return to what I said before about Geoff and the TGAs. The show has issues, no doubt, and has been much weaker and messier in previous years (same goes for SGF), but to have my Brandon Jones "I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO TELL ME LEAKS DON'T RUIN ANYTHING" moment: I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO TELL ME THAT THE GAME AWARDS DON'T MATTER. They capture an excitement and a joy and run the risk of something going wrong in a live show which no other company dares to do these days. It's the only show and collection of announcements where it feels like ANYTHING is on the table. People go off about it being about Geoff's ego or this and that and the other, and to them I say, again: who cares! The alternative is that we don't get what turned out to be one of the best series of announcements in a single show since COVID and millions of people aren't simultaneously hyped as hell for the future of gaming, important messages like Satvat's don't get heard, and that feeling of direct communication between the audience and the devs during speeches gets severed. Maybe it's ego-driven, but to me, it just looks like Geoff gets carried away with his own excitement; it seems obvious to me that if he wasn't in the position he was in, then he'd be racing to be first to post a game announcement on ResetEra or your forum of choice (mine is N-E). How many of you here would be able to keep your cool and not get a bit carried away put in his position? And lastly, Astro winning GOTY - much deserved - combined with the original coloured PlayStation logo capping off the Intergalactic trailer felt like a subtle message of intent. We'll see if anything comes of it, but I'm very curious to see how PlayStation react to how 2024 has turned out and if any changes are made to their plans moving forward outside of their shaky GAAS initiative. The ramifications of their 30th year might yet be one of their most deciding in recent memory.

The respect to other teams for lending their properties without asking for anything in return, and especially the Nintendo respect from Doucet He did a great job dodging bringing them up during pre-release stuff, but man. Big respect to him for that. That "grey box" and Mario. There aren't "sides" to this, just games. And that wraps up TGAs. Holy shit. Time to rewatch some trailers and reflect on the show!

IT'S FREAKING ASTRO BOT FOR GOTY LET'S GOOOOOOOOO The volume of that applause was insane. Well done to Asobi and Doucet, phenomenal stuff in a phenomenal year for games!

I fucking knew it!

Holy. Shit. That classic PS logo. In dev since 2020. Trailer and the game to be scored by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. Holy. Shit.

What's throwing is me is Porsche and the anime Hmmmmm Definite Cowboy Bebop vibes...

From that face I'm saying this is Naughty Dog...

Sci-fi...Santa Monica? Mass Effect? Idek!

Geoff you bastard

One more thing! Naughty Dog time..?

Capcom bringing the goods this year! Just beginning development. Studio will be the aptly named 'Clovers". Platforms and release date TBC.

Okay, good Rebirth was excellent but its narrative was very messy. Glad to hear Metaphor seemed to stick the landing if this Best Narrative award was anything to go by! Warming up for a Persona 6 win in a few years I guess

Lmao that Sam Lake bit was great

Trailer from TGAs: So ready for this.

NO LAURA DON'T COME HERE FOR SOME WEIRD GAME AND NOT A NAUGHTY DOG THING NOOOOOOOOO

I respect your right to an opinion but also take that negativity and