Julius

I've got a few goals for the year that I guess would come under being resolutions, buuuuuuuuuut I think I'll just share them one at a time as I get to confronting or completing each goal to save myself from feeling some sense of additional pressure First up, and one I'm happy to share because it's one I need to start getting the ball rolling on soon, is to get my full driver's license. I'm going to finally pulling the trigger on starting driving lessons – and along with that trying to get my practical test booked and passed by the end of the year; though, of course, scheduling, how the lessons themselves go, and all that means the latter may not be totally in my hands. But the aim is by all means to have my full licence and be driving my own car by the end of the year. I did my theory last year, which went great, and this is just one of those things I've kicked down the curb a few times - understandably I think at times, but I feel like I was clearly avoiding it at others - but to be honest, at this point, I'm just sick of being in Stourbridge all of the time. If figuring on it from that perspective is what it takes to finally get to doing this? Then so be it

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! Somehow the year is now 2025, and you all know what that means...a new Gaming Diary thread to go along with our new Switch Successors™ coming later this year, of course! No doubt it'll be another year of AAA games of high and questionable qualities, a year for new niche and indie titles to be propelled to new heights, and of course, yet another chance to talk about the games we love - and those we don't - with a good dose of respect! And maybe a little disrespect if you're on the level of Star Wars Outlaws, ahem... Once again I find myself asking: does anyone else have any New Year's Gaming Resolutions for the coming year? Perhaps a particular game, series, console catalogue, or developer you're planning to dig into? Or some new and unique approach to how you play? Are there maybe some lessons you'll be taking away from your time spent gaming in 2024 to inform how you spend your time gaming in 2025? As we started off last year, I would also love to make a call out for people to share their List of Pledge Games for the year, if they'd like. Myself, @Hero-of-Time and @Jonnas made pledges last year of different shapes and sizes, and with different approaches to how we selected our games, but I think it's a great way to take aim at a particular set of games and cross them off your pesky backlog. Maybe there's a particular series you've been planning to get into, a sequel you let pass you by for whatever reason, or some little indie darling which has managed to embed itself deep into your psyche which you now have the urge to play. Heck, maybe it's even just catching up on some recent releases from the last couple of years that managed to sail on by! We used Topsters last year to create our lists, and I will be once again this year; to give an example of what your pledge list might look like, here's mine from last year: Whatever the case may be, it would be great to get more people onboard and make this something of a Gaming Diary thread tradition! Your list doesn't necessarily need to be 10 games - 3 and 5 also seem like perfectly nice numbers to aim for too - even if I do think it's a nice round number to aim for, and I definitely found it helpful as a guide to finally get to some of the games I've been meaning to dig out for so long. That's not to say I got to all 10 last year, mind you...but more on that in the 2024 thread later. It's non-binding, of course, and there's no real pressure to it – it's just a good bit of fun to share some of the games you intend to get to from your backlog, and hopefully just gives you that last little push to do so and share your thoughts on them when you're done! I'll be sharing my list later, after I've made my final post in the 2024 thread, as I have one final game that I rolled credits on just minutes before the fireworks started to shoot up at midnight – the pledge list for 2025 itself is something I've spent a good while pondering over the last few weeks, and I think I've finally nailed down, so I'm looking forward to getting it off my chest! Anyways, here's to 2025 and another great year of gaming! N-E's Pledge Lists of 2025 As suggested by H-o-T on Page 3, here's a wall of initial pledges by the fine folk taking part this year, as well as the most recent pledge updates* I've come across for each pledge made**. These have been ordered from the earliest to latest pledges shared - but it's never too late to join! *like the pledge itself, my role in updating this is not legally binding, so maybe message me or tag me if you've noticed I haven't updated it in a whlie? I could also be MIA though so in which case...sorry **I'll use the date of the post of the pledge update rather than any other date noted, such as in a list of completion dates that I know others and myself like to use. Just makes it a bit easier for me!! Jonnas Pledged on 1st Jan 2025... Hero-of-Time Pledged on 2nd Jan 2025... Most recently updated his pledge progress on 18th Jan 2025: Julius Pledged on 2nd Jan 2025... Most recently updated my pledge progress on 4th Jan 2025: Nicktendo Pledged on 6th Jan 2025... drahkon Originally pledged on 6th Jan 2025, amended on 11th Jan 2025... Most recently updated his pledge on 9th April 2025: S.C.G Pledged on 7th Jan 2025... bob Pledged on 9th Jan 2025... Most recently updated his pledge progress on 14th Jan 2025... WackerJr Pledged on 11th Jan 2025... Cube Pledged on 11th Jan 2025... BowserBasher Pledged on 12th Jan 2025... Most recently updated his pledge progress on 9th April 2025... Dufniall Pledged on 13th Jan 2025... Most recently updated his pledge progress on 31st Jan 2025... Dcubed Pledged on 19th Jan 2025...

With the year rapidly coming to a close, this is planned to be my penultimate post in this year's Gaming Diary thread, and should more or less bring my diary up-to-date. Crazy how fast this year has gone by, but it's not quite time for reflection yet -- let's get to it! Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance | 2013 After a certain cameo in Astro Bot, I moved onto Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which is one of the most absurd games I've ever played. I'll be honest, its story makes very little sense. If you've played MGS4 - which this game takes place some year after - and feel like you adjusted to just how over-the-top that game got, Revengeance somehow manages to find a whole other level of crazy stupid anime-level shenanigans for you to see play out. As Raiden you'll be sneaking around (occasionally...kinda...) as you'd expect from a Metal Gear game, but with his cyborg abilties, you'll also be making healthy use of flicking around the right analogue stick to slash around your blade as you've likely done at some point as Raiden in earlier MGS titles. QTEs, cyborg soldiers, drones, unmanned Metal Gears...the game will heap on layer after layer of enemy and boss varieties on a world-spanning journey which occasionally touches on the serious topic of child soldiers, and then veers straight off a cliff into the serious deliveries of iconic lines such as "Memes. The DNA of the soul" all the way to the extremes of "NANOMACHINES, SON" and Rules of Nature... It has been several months now since I played Revengeance, and I'm still not quite sure exactly where I land on it. Combat can be electric but it can also be sloppy, as I've hinted at the story goes places (or tries) but does so in incredibly hilarious and cheesy ways which make the game unforgettable for better and worse, and it is interesting to see how and where Platinum decided to try to sneak in some Metal Gear, whether it be in the UI, the way equipment works, or the controls which take a moment or two to adjust to. Above all else, though, I remember the boss fights and the game's Zandatsu and Blade Mode mechanics. The boss fights are the most ridiculous things I've ever seen...and I LOVED THEM. Playing on Normal it becomes apparent that higher difficulties would offer more of a chance to experiment with the game's mechanics, and it seems like there's further depth there to be played around with, but man, I just loved how the game felt to play and how it felt to find a flow. Perhaps this is largely down to how I accidentally found myself approaching the game: while Normal isn't particularly hard, boss fights and some areas had a noticeable difficulty spike, made worse by me not realising I'd unequipped my healing method at the very start of the game and totally forgot it was a thing until I got stuck on a boss at the end of Act 2. Yeah, that's right -- I really got to grips with this game as a result of my own silly mistake, and so very much needed to depend on Blade Mode, which allows you to focus purely on unloading accurate and intricate cuts at great speed, which when coupled with fuel cells allows you to slow time via a mechanic called Zandatsu, where you use Blade Mode to target and attack a highlighted red square for a chance to replenish fuel cells and your health; this, as you might have figured out, was how I spent much of the game healing. Combined with parries and blocks, I went from sheepishly and awkwardly wandering through the first few levels to going through some levels in the mid-to-late game at a breakneck pace, freeing my enemies of their heads and appendages. Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot to mention - this game gets gory as heck because of the physics engine allowing you to very vividly see the results of your fine swordsmanship. Look, this is the weakest Metal Gear game I've played, there's no question in my mind about that...but it's still a dumb fun time. Probably not the greatest introduction to character-action games I could have had, but Platinum still found a way to keep it exhilirating with great-feeling combat and some super fun boss fights, amongst all the over-the-top silliness and corny lines. Totally mark the game down for not featuring my equipped sombrero and poncho in cutscenes, mind you. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | 2024 Back in 2020, I had a great time blasting through Final Fantasy VII Remake early on into the first COVID lockdown here in the UK, after its street date broke with many question marks in the air about how, what, and when packages and product launches would be handled. Up until the ending I was fully onboard, until it got into some Kingdom Hearts levels of craziness I wasn't expecting going in, and while I came around to the potential avenues the ending opened up going forwards for the VII Remake Project after a few months and viewing it as Square Enix taking some interesting risks - and the game ending up my personal GOTY for 2020, at the time - questions still lingered at the back of my mind about where this was all going. So, how did I get on with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth after the Unknown Journey finally continued this year? Back at launch I played the game's first couple of chapters, and was loving it, but dropped the game due to personal reasons at the time, and ended up not knowing if, or when, I would get back to the game in 2024. I had completed every side activity and quest that I could in the game's opening couple of chapters, challenging the vast majority of enemies I came across, spending over 10 hours with the game before putting it down. This is important to highlight, for me, as when I returned to the game in September, my approach to the game which stretched out the first couple of chapters to a 10+ hour excursion ultimately seemed fruitless, with equipment and character levels quickly falling to a point that they were at or behind the recommended level for main story missions. While this is an action RPG, not seeing the benefit of that early game grind so many other JRPGs utilise so well, I decided to focus instead on treating the game in a more linear fashion similar to what we experienced with Remake, mainly tackling the main story beats and only tackling side quests where they were absolutely necessary (which happened very rarely) as well as the mini-games, because they were a great source of fun to change up the game's pace. What struck me most about this was that I didn't once find myself drastically underlevelled focusing only on the main story missions, often being at or just below the recommend level for any particular main story mission, which meant I ended up with a little more challenge at times and one or two very slight but noticeable difficulty spikes, with combat encounters feeling really well-balanced around being at or just below the recommended level, as it put a greater emphasis on utilising attacks and dodges effectively. I have to imagine this is a result of some weird EXP balancing where it is lopsided more towards main story bosses and missions providing more EXP, with side activities potentially being more about equipment, materia, and item hoarding - perhaps useful for higher difficulties, but feeling totally redundant on a first playthrough, the highest difficulty available at the start being Normal and Hard only being unlocked once credits have rolled for the first time. As a result of many of the side activities feeling redundant or not worth the time investment, then, I came to an even stranger conclusion: this game's open world is perhaps one of the strangest, in that it feels almost entirely optional. I think that's a bit of a shame for someone like me who loves to appreciate a well crafted and integrated open world, and went into this game hoping to find an open world which would challenge some of the great ones we've seen over the last decade, yet I also find myself respecting the fact that it can just become optional, incredibly expensive set dressing if it's not tickling your fancy...and boy is it some of the best set dressing. Dropping the side activities and then just running through some of these enviroments without much of a care in the world felt absolutely freeing and incredible in equal measure, and the game's sense of scale is absolutely astonishing at times. Seeing Junon's cannon from so far away, for exmaple, and then walking around and seeing how it dwarfs Junon and the undercity instilled a sense of awe on the level of some of the greatest open worlds we've seen in recent years, such as in Elden Rings or Tears of the Kingdom. That feeling carries forward in the game, too, with such a great variety of places that you end up going to, and such a varied sense of scale and different balances of nature and manmade structures really hammering home some of the points from Remake and, of course, the original Final Fantasy VII. The earliest example of this comes in the game's opening stages, where you begin to ascend Mt. Nibel in a sequence many who have played the original VII will remember strongly (and, I imagine, fondly), and this adventurous tune kicks in, quickly gathers at speed, and bursts into VII's main theme, before reprising it again in truly epic fashion worthy of the journey you are about to embark upon with this game (Toward Mt. Nibel). It is a jubilant and epic moment I won't be forgetting anytime soon, and is easily one of my favourite moments in the VII Remake Project so far. This leads me to an important point about the utilisation of the VII's Main Theme (original Final Fantasy VII Main Theme, for reference), as while it was used throughout the original game and of course in Remake, it is just as much the overworld theme for that original game as it was anything else; with Rebirth having an open world but not quite an overworld, I was curious to see how the Main Theme would be weaved in, and apparently the answer to that was putting it everywhere and in so many different ways, such as in the Battle Theme, which adapts it into this high octane thrill of an accompaniment, or in more melancholic and softer reprisals, such as that found in With Heavy Heart - A Seabreeze Stroll. The game's score, just like Remake's, feels like such an excellent adaptation and evolution of Nobuo Uematsu's original work for VII, but above all else, it respectfully extracts every last bit of emotion from the original tracks and makes them relevant to whatever seen or sequence they accompany here in Rebirth; it is an obvious choice for the best soundtrack in video games this year -- and yes, it is by far and away my choice for the best video game soundtrack of 2024, once again, against all odds, seeing the team take a 10/10 soundtrack and make it an 11. This is a new game, though, and so what is new and unique about this soundtrack which wasn't around in 1997? Is there a particular song I can point you to? You're damn right there is. No Promises to Keep was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and finally, retroactively, Final Fantasy VII has been given a vocal song of its own that it can compare with its PS1 contemporaries, VIII and IX. Loren Allred lends her voice to the song, and it moved me just hearing a small snippet of it at last year's Game Awards. To perhaps make this a bit too personal for a moment, my aunt passed back in March, and her passing was the personal reason I had to put this game down - and I'm glad I did, as there are a few parts of this game which I think would've been too much to bear back in March. We'd always been very close, with her moving to England to work when I was very young in order to provide a better life for her family back home in the Philippines, and I spent many, many holidays becoming intimately familiar with Bournemouth and visiting my aunts. Ice creams on the beach. Watching X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent on Saturday nights with some Diet Coke in hand. Air Shows and the fireworks rounding out our Augusts for a number of years. She treated me as if I were her own son, and I was very blessed and fortunate to have her as my aunt. I bring this up because, listening back to this song, some lyrics now painfully stand out against the backdrop of the others. I got the chance to see my aunt one last time last summer, as she had returned to the Philippines around a decade ago to spend time with the family she had so greatly provided for. My aunt was a rock, more like the boss of the family as a whole a lot of the time, and she was fierce, but that last goodbye just felt like I knew it would be the last one; there was a heaviness to the air, and we saw her less and less as the trip went on, with this goodbye at her house needing to happen bedside. We'd later, much later, learn it was cancer. Even looking back at photos, the way some shots were framed and coloured, it's obvious that deep down I knew, and I'm very grateful I had that last chance to say goodbye to my aunt. Despite knowing, I think, deep down at the time what was to come, in a way not too dissimilar to what happens to the character who sings this song, my aunt proudly continued to march to the beat of her drum for another 6 months. I miss her. There's no easy way to transition away from this, but I feel like I wanted to share that to be honest about how much I connected to certain aspects of this game. In terms of things I could've been happier with, the game never quite went as wild as I feel the ending of Remake set up, and so while some crazy stuff goes on, there was never a "HOLY WHAT?!" moment that I was expecting the entire time...which made some of their crazier decisions to capitalise on Remake's ending in this game fall a little flat, especially with how they resolve in this partciular game. It produces some incredibly cool moments, but whereas I eventually walked away from Remake respecting Square Enix taking risks, while not particularly bad, I do think the big changes they've made here in line with Remake's ending are the weaker points of the game, whereas the parts more directly adapted and evolved from the original shine brightest; it makes me genuinely question whether the changes in Remake were an example of S-E wanting to take a risk to go somewhere new, bold, and exciting, or if they were fearful of simply remaking and updating the original game's story and systems for a modern audience. Some slightly altered scenes and sequences compared to the original feel like they end up watering down the impact of certain moments (you'll know them when you come to them), and while the heart and soul of VII is well and truly alive and can be found in both Remake and Rebirth, there is an obvious lack of depth in places because of the new story added or scenes altered/omitted; while I am enjoying the VII Remake Project for what it is still and had a great time with this game, I do think it was a glaring mistake by S-E to have this project serve as sequels to a game which is nearly 30 years old and which modern audiences are thus very unlikely to want to go near experiencing, especially because - again, to reiterate - the strongest parts of this game for me are the parts adapted from the original game, and the weaker parts are what has been tacked on and was not part of the original VII. Another nitpick - albeit a much smaller one - that I feel the need to mention because I'm shocked it's still a thing: ATB attacks, synergy attacks, items et al still being swallowed up by phase transitions in boss fights which you can't possibly know are coming up, and so end up wasted if accidentally used at the wrong moment. Sort it out S-E. To speak about more points of praise for the game, though, because there are plenty and they shouldn't be overshadowed by its few shortcomings: the party and its characters are absolutely excellent once again in Rebirth, every single one of them getting moments of levity to balance out their own personal tragedies, with some getting brilliant arcs in this game to really help flesh them out, again improving on the original arcs in the original game. Every character feels perfectly realised and in some cases even improved, with the incredibly annoying Cait Sith going from a D-tier character at best in the original game for me, to an A-tier character, absolutely no questions asked, he's just so damn expressive and at times hilarious in this game. Gold Saucer and its many mini-games were fantastic, and the same goes for Queen's Blood, this absolutely brilliant card game - between this, Pazaak in KOTOR and Sabaac in Outlaws, I think it's finally time to say that I'm warming up to the idea of in-game card games. The combat is absolutely excellent, as it was in Remake, with a much greater sense of balance and variety to boss fights (some of the absolutely best bosses I've faced this year are in this game, which is no small feat considering my love for From Software's bosses and Shadow of the Erdtree) and the newly implemented syngergy attacks for the wider party, a variety of smaller team-ups and then the big team-up attacks very reminiscent of Chrono Trigger's Techs. Seriously, this should be the path S-E take with Final Fantasy moving forwards: this modern take they have on ATB, Action ATB, deserves to be experimented and toyed with more like the original ATB system was across many games, because it's one of my favourite combat systems in an action JRPG, hands-down. While, like Remake, Rebirth is not a perfect outing, it is still one of the best games that I've played this year and absolutely deserves to be talked about as one of the best new releases this year. The music, the party of characters, the sprawling open world, the myriad of mini-games, the best-in-class boss fights, the way that this open world is all tied together with some smartly designed playable segments, the absolute abundance of people in the world and in cutscenes, the sheer scale of it all, the way that cutscenes are framed from a cinematography perspective... Rebirth made me feel more than any other game this year, whether that be in depth of emotion or the breadth of emotions I felt throughout the game, and so I cannot wait to see how the Unknown Journey ends in the trilogy's third and final game. Days Gone | 2019 Days Gone is the definition of swimming in 7s. While not quite as bad as Outlaws, I will once again be pointing you towards my posts in the game's own thread, because my frustrations with the game as I went through it were very much on show: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4. In short, the game does some things interestingly or in unique ways, such as with an excellent depiction of a couple which doesn't really border on cheesy but just seems more realistic in how the pair flirt and interact, and I think it's a genuine highlight of the game. Sam Witwer as Deacon was excellent (even if him yelling at the radio felt a bit much, really got to wonder what the direction was for those lines). Pretty cool main theme. The fuel system in the game is unique in that you need to keep a full tank to keep your bike going, but having run out of fuel just once - at the very end of the game - MAN is running out of fuel super annoying, as is the act of constantly needing to detour in order to top up. Hordes of zombies are cool but not really worth yelling about, although I think they'd be really interesting to implement in another zombie IP of PlayStation's - and perhaps this game would have been received more kindly in hindsight if it were somehow tied into their already existing, premier zombie post-apocalypse IP? Just a thought. On the flipside, man, the level of hubris apparent throughout melts the mind. The game constantly feels like Bend trying to prove a point, perhaps that they're better than Naughty Dog or other big open world games, but fails on the basics of what makes a modern game great. Countless and constant loading screens and transitions to black, even playing on a PS5, well removed from this game supposedly being "fixed" means the story shudders along at best, and feels like smashing your face off five walls in a row before you can control Deacon again at worst. Traversing this open world, at times, feels painful. Combat is unexpressive, zombie designs uninspired, hell, I didn't even realise there was a skill tree until 10 or so hours in because the game never pushed back hard enough for me to think I needed to be stronger in some capacity. While the game could have served as a great foundation for future sequels, and sets up a sequel with its ending very similar to The Order: 1886, again, there's even a level of hubris to this throughout which makes it especially hilarious that Bend didn't get to make a sequel (and also notably didn't want to, because of how much of a pain in the ass some of the creative leads on Days Gone were, who have since been let go) because it feels like it sets up more threads than it closes. Fun but forgettable open world junk food. Spider-Man | 2018 Another year, another Spider-Man playthrough (see: replays in 2020 and 2023), I think this is the 5th time I've played the game through to credits? I needed something light and fun when springing back into games earlier this month, and this was my elixir of choice. I returned to the 2020 PS5 remaster of the game to play through NG+ on Ultimate difficulty to get myself back up to 100% trophy completion on the game, and once again had an absolute blast. I blasted through the game just crit pathing it in 8 hours or so, but man, that final 20-30 minutes before credits roll remains brutal and some of the best acting we've had in a game yet, Yuri Lowenthal's Peter/Spidey just going for it and every part of his performance being absolutely nailed. One of my favourite games of last gen, for sure. There's no doubt there'll be more Spidey replays in store for me yet. Oh, and the above is a screenshot by the way - playing through in the Raimi suit feels incredible, and the game still just looks so damn good. Seriously, those guys and gals over at Insomniac are wizards! Resident Evil | 2002 To summarise my experience with Resident Evil, while it took a while to adjust to the game's tank controls after nearly giving up before changing from the analogue stick to the D-pad, and despite some pretty weak boss fights: once it clicked, this was an absolutely brilliant first foray into the Resident Evil franchise for me. The lines and their deliveries are a bit cheesy, and the story itself as presented in the "modern day" of the game is nothing to write home about, but the lore you uncover while exploring is incredible, and you constantly find yourself reading through new notes - left by scientists, or subjects, or manic puzzle designers - in order to piece together the game's systems and Spencer Mansion's history. The story of Lisa Trevor and her parents was particularly haunting. Spencer Mansion and its surrounding locales bleed atmosphere, be it down to subtle and understated pieces of music, the contrast of shadows and the lighting, the brilliant sound design making you wonder about the dull steps of someone - a zombie? a friend? - down the hallway, or the game's brilliant use of fixed camera angles to build tension with you not knowing what might be just around the corner. The Safe Rooms in particular highlight a certain melancholy of safety in a very unsafe place which I feel only Firelink Shrine has come close to for me from other games, and of course their theme only compounds this - in turn, a lack of it at some of the Safe Rooms only leads to further build the tension of the Mansion. Combat, in and of itself, is less about fighting but choosing when and how to fight - do you burn a zombie so that it doesn't come back as a Crimson Head, or save that bit of kerosene in your flask for later, just in case? Do I even shoot or do I just run away to conserve ammo? Where do I run to? With only 8 slots as Jill, what do I bring with me? More guns and ammo means a greater chance of fending off any zombies I come across, but also limits space for carrying around items which may help me solve puzzles to get further and potentially find the next Safe Room, and also increases the likelihood of me using said guns and ammo just by being on my person. There is a constant trade-off and need to evaluate what you're bringing with you, a puzzle unto itself, and even saves are tied to Ink Ribbons which are limited throughout the game - even playing on Easy (which I selected accidentally at the start as my difficulty because the difficulties aren't conveyed very well), there would be times where I found myself needing to push further with only an Ink Ribbon or two left on me, scrounging around and praying for more of them just so that I could save the game, or more shotgun ammo for how much of a safety blanket a fully loaded shotgun and box of ammo made me feel. The true highlights of the game, though, are the puzzles and design of the Mansion itself. The game's progression is generally gated off by needing a certain type of key, and so you can only ever get so far with a specific type of key, hopefully making some sort of progress but potentially needing to backtrack upon finding another key before you can progress further. "Backtracking sounds like it could be a pain" might be your first thought, but the beauty of it is that you are constantly learning the layout of the Mansion itself - and not just the layouts of rooms, but the positioning of enemies, the locations of locked doors, early doors in particular grabbing your attention early on and thus finding a certain type of key or object to unlock them providing their own eureka moment. Learning the layout of the mansion and unlocking and learning about shortcuts pays off dividends, too, as it means you can avoid some fights where you would otherwise be wasting ammo or healing items in order to recover after the fact. The puzzles have a great variety to them, but many are also fairly cryptic, and so there's a great sense of reward in having figured out the solution to a puzzle yourself, especially in those cases where you find yourself remembering something that you'll need to backtrack to. Even in just writing the last few paragraphs, it is abundantly clear how these systems bleed into each other and pile on top of one of another in order to provide a nuance and depth I can honestly say I wasn't expecting going into a Resident Evil game. This game felt so fresh and revelatory compared to so many other games I've played, as it's so far outside of my wheelhouse, making it exactly the type of game I wanted my list of pledge games to help me find and experience. It's not hard to see where the love for the series - and the praise for this game in particular - stems from, here on N-E and elsewhere. Sure, it's a bit aged, and I have to imagine Capcom are strongly considering a remake at some point, but for now? This game, a snapshot of the design philosophies of the earlier Resident Evil titles updated with graphics which still hold up to this day thanks to a smartly implemented combination of pre-rendered backgrounds and character models, is still worth playing today for the feelings of dread and discovery it instills, and for the challenge to continue on that is constantly proposes. It remains an excellent game to this day, and I cannot wait to see what my next experience with the franchise has in store. Games completed in 2024

The reporting coming out of Spain and higher tier Liverpool journalists that Trent is going to be signing his pre-contract to go to Madrid in the coming months and leave on a free has been heating up over the last few days. Crazy. But yeah, whether he goes or not, the fact that you lot haven't tied down van Dijk and Salah is absolutely mental. Feels like your board is playing chicken and they don't seem to realise how easily they could lose that game of chicken

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with Citizen Sleeper @drahkon, I've been meaning to check it out for a while and with the sequel coming up at the end of next month, I think it might soon finally be the time Meanwhile Marsupilami is giving me flashbacks to terrible 2000s CGI kid's shows and weird off-brand cereal mascots...

Can totally see why you're confused about it, and I agree with you, it has had a very strange release schedule – it seems to have worked for them in the grand scheme of things when it comes to making money, but yeah, not easy to follow at the best of times. Mugen Train was a prime example of this: film was huuuuuuuuuge, it's the best way to experience the story in my opinion for how it is better paced without the opening, closing, and recapping of anime episodes, but then the TV release splits it into a number of episodes with some additional content and it was awkwardly squeezed in as the start to the second season. Anyways, to answer your question, I've just checked on Netflix and it looks like they've done away with calling them "Seasons" (probably for the reason you're citing, I imagine) and instead have just split them into arcs – the latest arc, which is called the Hashira Training arc, is the fourth season I was referring to in my post; it's only 8 episodes long and the final episode is a bit longer than the others. The third season, Swordsmith Village arc, is the one it sounds like you watched most recently. The English dub for the Hashira Training arc/S4 is all out on Netflix too, as it has finished airing, so it's all ready for you to dive in!

Christopher Nolan's next film will be an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey. Read this after finishing high school as a bit of a lit geek and thought it was strange that there'd never been some attempt to adapt it to film in a massive way -- though personally I think it'd be best suited as a game or show, just for its colossal length. I always thought it'd be best adapted into a sci-fi, too, so it's pretty ironic that one of the best people to do that, Nolan, is seemingly just making a straight up adaptation could be a way to pay homage to 2001 a bit (even if in name only) if it were sci-fi, but I think the idea of it being set way back when is infinitely more interesting. The film will star Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway and Charlize Theron. So Matt Damon is just going to reprise his role from The Martian, assuming he's Odysseus which is a shame as I would've liked Oscar Isaac or Christian Bale. Tom Holland probably as Telemachus. Feel like Hathaway or Theron could be either Penelope (O's wife) or Calypso. Lupita I can't see being anyone but Circe. Pattinson as a cyclops is the dream for me

Forgot to bring it up, but Jones was back once again at Easy Allies for TGA reactions, and both Kyle and Jones were part of that week's main podcast: Wouldn't say they're quite as all-timer as last year's equivalents, but man, I just miss listening to these guys. I don't really listen to EZA as a podcast anymore - at least the current stuff. Feel like I just cycle back through older episodes of the main podcast and Frame Trap, and recently for around to listening back to the Frame Trap episodes released from lockdown onwards, something I'd dodged doing for a very long time purely because of, well, it being a reminder of such a strange time. I'm also currently watching through Hall of Greats (again), and man, I miss the glory days. The Trial of Kyle Bosman is also S-tier Which brings me to today, when I finally got around to watching most of their deliberations for 2023, what with the end of the year now upon us. I've still got the GOTY discussion to go, but man, I'm shocked that so many of the Allies just straight up skipped some of the strongest GOTY candidates last year, namely Baldur's Gate III. It wouldn't be my pick (based on having only played it in co-op, mind you), but to only have Gabby and Isla beat it and the others to just have thrown in a few hours, when it came out in August/September (depending on your platform), AND considering the fact that they still held their deliberations later than everyone else...I'm at a total loss. I get that they can't play everything, but I had the winner spoiler for me in the comments and am not surprised at all given who is left and who does and does not want to cause a stir during these things, and it's weird to think that a couple of years prior with Brad and Ben present, it's obvious they would've played BG3 and it probably would've won. Similar to how I think Endwalker would've won in 2021 if Ben had actually finished it. Oh well, guess I can only hope that things are handled differently this time next month, if they are planning on holding these deliberations once again it's tough for me because the people my taste most aligned with (Ben and Brad) have long since left, and they were kind of the counterbalances to a lot of the other Allies not getting through as many of the games they probably should've played. Very curious to see how it pans out, in any case. It also seems - from the comments, at least - that Don got shafted, which sucks.

This has pretty much become tradition on here at this point, and it's a great one at that, so thanks for sharing @drahkon, always love seeing your stats breakdown Real shame about Timmy, though... ...not that he didn't have it coming, mind you

And that is credits and a game clear on my first Resident Evil! Played through on Easy, as I mentioned before, because I didn't know the second option wasn't Normal...but in the end that turned out for the better with my time taken to adjust to the tank controls anyways Finally found a use for that MO Disk I'd been keeping at the bottom of the item chest forever, and yes, I did blow up (just the once) trying to carefully go from one room to another in the lab. Not surprised by how certain characters played out, because I mean, some names you just hear through the grapevine, but the game even felt like it managed to get ahead of that with how it's revealed in certain documents anyways. Just one final mention for the Mansion and everything it encompasses from a game design perspective, the sound design of the game, the incredible atmosphere, and those puzzles -- maaaaaaaan, those puzzles. I absolutely adored some of the puzzles in this game, as well as how rewarding some are as a player but also in terms of in-game rewards, such as more powerful weapons or super helpful items -- and (I might be wrong about this?) I think I potentially skipped a boss fight? There was a massive room where a cutscene played out which was clearly set up for one, but never came to pass, because of a puzzle I did earlier in the game and remembered to use after finding a certain annoying critter "protecting" itself as I'd read about in some notes. I lost count of the times I'd find a hint or be part way through a puzzle and rush to grab a pen and something to write on - a notepad, an awkwardly torn scrap of paper, or the back of a stained envelope - before hastily scribbling away. If I had to pick just one part of the game genuinely think this aspect was my favourite That this then is part of an excellent blend of systems, story and lore bleeding into each other, which is very hard to pull off in such a relatively linear and short(ish) game, really makes it clear why this remake was so well received. This was a real blast, and I'm seriously happy that I chose to stick it out despite early issues with the tank controls. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story and mechanics go from here, as well as seeing who turns up elsewhere, and I'm curious to see if the next game can sink its hooks into me in similar fashion. This is one of my favourite playthroughs of the year and I'm glad I squeezed it in -- in an another time where I'd grown up with a GameCube, on tank controls, and boss fights not coming as far as I know they have in the time since, I could easily see this being one I would throw around as being one of my favourites; it's not hard to see why others on N-E and elsewhere speak of it in such high regard and would include the game on their own personal list of favourites. Obviously, this next part probably goes without saying considering where I've ultimately landed on Resident Evil Remake, and that's that I will absolutely be checking out Resident Evil 2 Remake next year -- which I have just now ordered a copy of

First trailer for My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, which will be airing from April 2025. I actually read through the first few volumes of this way back when I started to get into MHA, and it was decent. It ran concurrent to the main series so I do think it's a little bit odd to start My Hero spin-offs with this; think I'd much rather skip to a prequel show about All-Might, if I'm being honest Which has got to be inevitable... right?

Immediately? No, I won't be At some point in the pretty near future, though? Absolutely. All in due time I think I'll be moving onto some jollier and more colourful games to see out the year I doubt I would've got to, or been done with, RE2 by the time it left PS+ next month anyways, but I appreciate the heads-up Very typical that it'd leave around the time I play my first RE, though

Good lord, this is one hell of a game. Finally had my first seriously long stretch of time with the game today (he says, only starting up at the start of the evening) after my previous shorter sessions with it, and have just made my way into what can only be described as a *very* secure location courtesy of a *very* hidden lift. I can't imagine there's particularly long left with how many people/things on my hit list are now crossed off, but given my experience with some other games (ahem...Yakuza) drawing out their finales to kingdom come and me feeling a bit shattered, I'm happy to come back and see the rest of this through tomorrow. And I can't wait. In case it had to be said again, puzzles: Spencer Mansion (the level design, environmental design, atmosphere, enemy compositions...the list doesn't end, seriously): Pretty much everything else I've mentioned before in a positive light: Seriously, if I were taking notes - which I guess I have been, mentally - my only real "negatives" up to this point are that I could take or leave quite a few of the boss fights, and that while an excellent stylistic choice and a way to carry the legacy of the original games on PS1 (and despite the fact that I've pretty much come to terms with them at this point), this game can be tricky to get to grips with purely because of its tank controls, and I think is probably a hard sell to a modern audience/anyone who doesn't have a history with tank controls with that in mind. I bring this up simply to say that sucks, because maaaaaaaan are those people missing out.

The MS-DOS Welltris is coming to the collection. And according to Chris Kohler, more could be on the way: Well, I guess it's time to start the wait for the definitive and complete collection in Tetris Forever And Ever, amirite?

Off the back of the brilliantly weird "This is an Xbox" campaign, Microsoft is apparently looking into the possibility of third parties building Xbox-branded devices, and potentially utilising the Xbox OS. Per Windows Central: He, she, we, they, I, you, it: Xbox.

@Hero-of-Time where are you at with this? I'm a bit curious just knowing your love of Naughty Dog but them also finally taking a bit of a break from TLOU as well?

Just in case there were any questions about it being the case, a physical release has been confirmed for North America and Europe! Only the Collector's Edition will be handled by LRG. Hell yeah

English dub trailer: Exploration and sailing gameplay:

Sounds like it's a great game for anyone not wearing goalie gloves

It's, uh...it's something, I'll tell ya Solid trailer, surprised by the decision to show off so many other characters and not just focus on Supes being back and potentially teasing Lex, they just put it all out there. Probably the right move seeing as this is the tentpole start to the new universe? But it felt a little incoherent and like there wasn't a clear throughline. Lacked any sort of climax for me as a trailer, also runs long for a "teaser trailer", but I am a good enough mix of curious and excited to see something new from DC. I'd score the trailer itself like a 7/7.5. Had to do the same. Interesting decision to go with such an accurate haircut for Guy and yet go blonde over red (which I imagine is how most people have seen Guy), it's not a big deal at all, but I'm curious what the idea behind that was.

My first reaction is that I hate his hair as Clark lol Why is Guy blonde Luthercorp over LexCorp, huh

Rumours have been gathering for a long time about Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion getting remakes, and another "insider" ex1stasis has thrown their hat in the ring to say that Oblivion's is coming next year; sounding like a reveal next month before a potential release in the summer. I think NateDrake was the first to mention this a while back, but who knows at this point? These "insiders" go by strange names and have even stranger ideas when it comes to morals, so eh It's long been rumoured that it would be on UE5 and handled by Virtuous, who are also doing the Snake Eater remake, and that's apparently still the case. I'm very curious about this. Firstly, because, well, Xbox don't really have their IPs remade or remastered all that often, but with all of their pick-ups over the years and the enormous popularity of Elder Scrolls, not to mention VI being at least another 5 years away, this seems a smart time to do it. All of these big IPs going to Virtuous to be remade makes me a bit more excited than they might actually be capable of remaking games well ahead of Snake Eater getting a release date, too. Having not played a Bethesda game before, and having thought about potentially tackling one next year, I think I'll wait to see how this turns out before taking the plunge. Biggest question for me is if this also comes to PlayStation on Day 1, or how they want to handle that. We know The Outer Worlds 2 is, Indy was only given a gap of a few months (which was likely only the case because of Xbox's potentially late call to bring it over to PS5), and there's still a bit of a confusing narrative to these Xbox Game Studios games if you strictly go by the words of Phil and other higher-ups.

Sony and Kadokawa have built a strategic capital and business alliance, with Sony buying further shares to take them up to 10% in total, which makes them Kadokawa's largest shareholders. From Sony themselves: Good stuff. I love From Software's games, but this was never just about that, and the fewer acquisitions the better. Still, though, I'm curious to see what this means for the pair in practice!