Julius

Man, I do love myself some Dunkey Side note: Labo arcade cabinet design coming when? Bundle it with Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. and I think you have a monster of a collector’s item.

Great result for us today, but there’s still a lot for us to do if we’re to secure Champions League football for next season; even if Tottenham draw mid-week and we win our next two games, we’ll more than likely still be at a disadvantage because of relatively inferior goal difference (-9 in comparison). So yeah, still a big uphill battle for us. Not quite sure why we decide to always do everything the hard way, but we took a mid-season siesta which has come back to bite us in the behind. It’s nice to see the lads have a bit of grit between their teeth now. @Hero-of-Time, I wouldn’t be too worried if I were you. I think it’s much more likely that Tottenham drop points in their remaining two games than you in your final one.

After seeing the trailer before Infinity War a few times now, I have to admit: I’m really starting to warm up to it. Pretty cool 360 video for the film:

In a stream yesterday, it was revealed that Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be making an appearance at this year’s E3. Some new gameplay was shown off during the stream, but the current focus of the development team is E3, and they supposedly have a lot of surprises in store for us. I thought they’d be going quiet for a few years, honestly I wonder if they’re further along with this game than we realise? The gameplay that they revealed yesterday looked like it was coming together well.

Staff combat and ship manoeuvres gameplay: Information revealed during the stream:

God of War reportedly sold 3.1 million in only its first 3 days, making it the fastest selling PS4 exclusive to date. For comparison, Uncharted 4 sold 2.7 million units in its first week, and Horizon Zero Dawn sold 2.6 million units in its first two weeks.

I’ve just had a quick look around, and it doesn’t look like they’ve announced if/how it’ll be available to those who aren’t BT Sport subscribers. Seems a bit odd, given that they’ve had it - and the UEL final - up on BT Showcase, their own website/app, and on their YouTube channel for free to watch/stream in recent years. Just have to wait and see what they say about it, I guess if they’re going to do anything like they have in recent years again, maybe they’ll announce it tonight, once the UEL finalists are confirmed?

In case you’re still a little lost after @londragon‘s hint: Hope that helps

According to this Australian classification, the game is being worked on by Grezzo (Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora’s Mask 3D, Ever Oasis, Tri Force Heroes). Makes one wonder what Next Level have been working on since Metroid Prime: Federation Force...

I do wonder if UEFA will revisit their stance on VAR after how the knockout stage has gone. We talked before about how it doesn’t work too well in its current format, even to the detriment of some games which it has been utilised in, but, for calls such as handballs and offside calls (which should, in my opinion, be objective calls to make, at least compared to the subjectivity of bookings), I really think more official bodies need to act. It’s a similar objectivity that the introduction of goal-line technology and shaving foam have achieved in the game, so I definitely think it’s worth taking another look at it not to take anything away from Liverpool, though. As much as it pains me to say it, they’ve played some brilliant attacking football this season, and I’ve enjoyed watching their highlights.

Yeah, it’s been atrocious. I expect to see some very heavy spending on defenders after the World Cup this summer from each of the five major leagues’ top teams. Barça in 12/13 has to be up there for worst/most underwhelming semi-finalist, I think. They lost to Bayern 7-0 over two legs in the semi-finals, being man-marked out of the game all over the pitch; went through on away goals against PSG in the quarter finals (3-3) and only won 4-2 on aggregate against a young and inexperienced Milan side, even losing 2-0 away at the San Siro.

UPDATE: And we have box art:

Oh, for sure, they’ve been riding their own luck for a while at this point (the second leg vs. Juve in particular comes to mind), and did so for large parts of the game last night. Their performances in Europe so far this season have reminded me of them in 2015/16; they’re just getting the job done. When I was talking about their winning mentality, I was talking more about their performances as a whole in Europe this season. They have a number of leaders on the pitch who are vastly more experienced than other players in the competition based purely on how far they’ve gone in recent seasons. With regards to last night, Bayern definitely should have been more clinical, but I think it’s worth mentioning that Navas pulled off a number of fine saves, so I’d say that Madrid were deserving of some of that luck. On the other hand, Bayern were lucky to get such a straightforward route to the semi-finals; their only loss prior to meeting Real was against PSG in the group stage, and if they had won that game, then they would have been the ones facing Real in the last 16, and Real were playing much better then than they are currently. So I think them being lucky is balanced out if you think about the luck that Bayern had in drawing favourable opposition en route to the semi-finals Bet you’re just nervous Ronaldo and their defence will actually turn up in the final

Eh, I think this is a team designed almost solely (and to their detriment) to get the job done in Europe, so I’m not surprised. They don’t have the squad depth to compete in La Liga right now, and, I’d imagine, don’t really care for the Copa del Rey, at least by comparison. Almost the entire squad has that winning mentality, probably as a result of having a coach with that same mentality (win above all else), and thus manage to win very tough games against the best of teams, even if they play as poorly as they did last night. I do worry somewhat for whichever team gets through tonight. Real Madrid have won every UCL final that they’ve been in since the competition was rebranded from the European Cup, and despite them playing poorly (by their own standards) for much of the tournament, you just know that they’re going to turn up for an occasion like this. I think (and hope) that it will be a much more interesting match than many think it will be

And The Incredibles II. And Jurassic World: The Lost Kingdom. If that’s really the reason, then it’s such an odd one, because, while I’m sure that there’s some overlap between the World Cup and Hollywood blockbuster audiences, there are obviously going to be those (read: at best, a large minority) who don’t care for the World Cup whatsoever, so it seems an odd move for that reason. However, Ant-Man and The Wasp would have been due for release on June 28th for us (based on previous MCU release dates in the U.K.; we typically get them a week earlier on the Thursday), and the England vs. Belgium game on that evening is at 19:00. Not only is there the rest of the day before that, but it’s not expected to be doing Infinity War numbers anyway, so it would have the weekend to recover from a potential “low figure”. But yeah, I understand why they’re doing it (even though I think it’s odd). I personally don’t mind a delay for these films (though I’m sure many will) - if we were talking about Avengers 4, Toy Story 4 or Captain Marvel, it would be a different story altogether - but it will be difficult to avoid spoilers for those wanting to go into the film without knowing anything.

Also, poster:

An update on the weekend actuals and where that leaves Infinity War so far, from The Hollywood Reporter: It’s absolutely nuts how well it’s performed considering the time of year that it released, and also because virtually no-one was predicting it to break TFA’s record by what is now such a clear margin. As has been the norm since the dawn of the blockbuster, Lucasfilm has congratulated Marvel Studios on their record-breaking accomplishments. With Avengers 4 and Episode IX releasing next year, it’s being widely touted that this record won’t stand for long, but we’ll just have to wait and see. It would definitely be awkward for Marvel to congratulate themselves next year in the event that Avengers 4 breaks the new record, though

Just got back from seeing the film for a second time (in IMAX - if you haven’t seen it in IMAX already, I can’t recommend that you do so enough; you’re quite literally missing out on 26% of the film otherwise!), and I can’t say much else from what I said before. I might try to go again a third time this week, if I can make the time for it. I don’t know what else I’d honestly want to discuss, with or without spoiling the film, but I am curious about how you guys think Avengers 4 might go down next year? I think I’ve got a rough idea or two. I mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again: this film completely recaptured the sense of awe and majesty that I had when I first saw Star Wars; it’s so well paced and executed, and the score is marvellous (no pun intended). Somewhat tragically, Silvestri is getting next-to-no recognition for his score elsewhere, so I’ll continue to sing his praises here. Also, if anyone’s a box office trivia/follower like I am, weekend estimates (actuals expected tomorrow afternoon) are really worth taking a mental note of. Infinity War has already broken numerous records - and has yet to release in China: • ~ $250 million opening weekend domestically (i.e. in North America) is expected to just about beat the previous opening weekend record of $247 million, set by The Force Awakens in 2015. • ~ $630 million opening weekend worldwide blasts away the previous record of $541 million, set by The Fate of the Furious last year. • ~ $380 million opening weekend internationally is second only to The Fates of the Furious’ $443 million, but again, this was achieved without the film opening in China. Oh, yeah: and it made more at the box office in its opening weekend than Justice League did in its entire run last year domestically, and is only $30 million shy (probably less, considering that Disney always undercuts with their weekend estimates) of beating its entire worldwide run.

It’s going to be such an intense end to the season for us, seeing as we’re still mathematically capable of reaching the top four. To do so, we need to win our next three games - vs. Liverpool at home, vs. Huddersfield at home, and vs. Newcastle away - and hope that Spurs and/or Liverpool drop points in their remaining games. It seems unlikely that we’ll be able to beat Liverpool on goal difference, but we’re not too far off Tottenham’s.

My bad got disgruntled after hearing about what they did to Eidos, so I was wearing red tinted glasses And yeah, I absolutely agree. They always seem a bit too keen to make money/show off what they haven’t got as opposed to actually getting a game developed.

On the topic of Final Fantasy VII Remake being in a poor state, Dan Tsukasa, a game designer living and working in Japan, posted some not-so-cryptic details of the game on Reddit. Things seem slightly worse than many probably thought. From the relevant Power Up! article: Tsukasa’s Reddit, Twitter and ArtStation accounts have seemingly been deleted since these posts were made. Still related to S-E’s poor management skills - but not to FFVIIR - Super Bunnyhop has uploaded a video, based on the words of multiple sources, about Project W - Eidos Montreal’s Final Fantasy. I’d recommend giving it a watch; it’s quite interesting:

Yeah, but Drake & Josh.

I imagine that we should be hearing about Retro’s game too, so we could have what many would consider a tentpole title each month for the rest of the year post-E3, which I think is necessary given the somewhat slow start they’ve had in this regard so far in 2018. I agree with you that we’ll likely see more of Metroid Prime 4 this E3, and I think a well made CG trailer would be more than enough this time around. I think their plan is to release it shortly after next year’s E3 (which would be the right place for it to feature as their flagship title, and to show off gameplay/demo it, if it hasn’t been already), considering that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Metroid: Samus Returns all released in that August - October window. In the seemingly unlikely event that Pokémon doesn’t make it for a release this year, I wonder what they’d have up their sleeves to replace it. Animal Crossing, potentially? It will also be very interesting to see which third parties turn up during Nintendo presentation. Epic with Fortnite? Bethesda with a Fallout game? Or Activision with a Call of Duty title?

Always great to see that S-E haven’t learned a damned thing from their past mistakes. Again. I think there’s a time and a place for news on DLC/season passes, especially when it comes to games with a single-player narrative focus, and now is most certainly not that time. When will they ever learn?

A number of impressions videos are also up: