Julius

S-E continue to be weird, as they've put up a premiere for the launch rate trailer which will drop at 12:45 BST this Wednesday: Very surprised this didn't turn up at Xbox or sneak in elsewhere (like SGF). Huh. Trying not to extrapolate that that's a bad sign, but...

Gameplay trailer has been released: A demo is due to drop on Steam as part of Next Fest...today, at 18:00 BST, just over half an hour away! Game Informer have also released their New Gameplay Today impressions for the game:

Think I'm going to throw it on the background while I pack for my trip tomorrow First thing Geoff mentioned was the layoff situation. Shouldn't have taken this long, but hey, at least he's done it.

Thank Goodness You're Here finally has a release date of 1st August In for Matt Berry

Aww she moves to the countdown portal Seen some mention that it might be the case that each Bot is only made obtainable after we reach a certain number of days out from Astro Bot proper: 90 days (today), 60 days (7th July), 30 days (6th August), and launch day. Makes perfect sense when reading back the description for the trophy you get for getting them all. Is there a way to play this fresh without overwriting my save and without needing to use a different profile? Now that's the real riddle here

Did you find the... That they've gone full ARG with this is pretty funny to me love the new gatchas added, was 100 coins short of getting them all in one go because of that stupid can live that there's a countdown space to Astro Bot, and that you can see parts of the trailer on the Portal!

And here I was with nothing much to do this evening besides Elden Ring prep (super rusty btw, I think I might need to start a new file to prep for Shadow of the Erdtree...) Time to get this downloaded!

Before I went to sleep last night the physical edition of the game had turned up on a European store for ~€70, and while still not up on the PlayStation Store proper, it has now turned up as ~$100 in a number of Australian stores and for $60 at Walmart in the US. So, that very likely means an RRP of £60/US$60/€70, and I've got to imagine a number of physical edition retailers are going to push that down a bit closer to the £55 mark in an attempt to take your hard earned cash off your hands.

I...have genuinely no idea what to make of this, and it's been doing the rounds for a little while now. I just...I don't know, I found Zero Dawn to be a really pretty robot hunting game with pretty middling content around that, and I still haven't got around to Forbidden West (though, I don't play all that many open world games as is anyways). I just don't see the pull of this franchise personally (which is fine), but now it's getting a LEGO game, there was that cartoony Monster Hunter-looking game which leaked in development at one point a good while ago, that PS5 remaster of the first game... Yet, by all means, it sells gangbusters and from everything I've read the LEGO Tallneck was a huge success. So, I guess that means more LEGO and more Horizon spinning off? Think I'm getting old

According to Billbil-kun, this is dropping on October 25th: Also got a box art leak courtesy of @mysterylupin, so there's that: Guess it gets confirmed over the next few days, if not just at SGF tomorrow night?

Esquire (of all places) have an article on Summer Game Fest, titled Is Summer Game Fest the Best Thing to Happen to Gaming—or the Worst?, and it's pretty great. Definitely noticed more and more big publications getting into the gaming side of things of late. The whole thing is worth a read, but of particular note to me - especially in an which isn't big on sharing it's numbers - we've actually been given some numbers to work with here for the cost of Days of Play and TGA and SGF spots! Again, well worth a read when you've got the time – I think I'm going to be bookmarking this one and returning it for a while, it's so rare we get insights on anything like this, let alone ACTUAL NUMBERS!

Reminder that pre-orders for this game will start going up tomorrow, and while it seems like we'll be waiting until then for the prices to drop, we do have news on the different editions of the game courtesy of the PlayStation Blog. The Blog itself includes some nice short clips of Astro and buds goofing around in some of the pre-order items listed below, so well worth checking out All pre-orders, regardless of edition, will include: Anyways, onto the editions... Physical standard edition + pre-order items We also get a nice sneak peek of the included poster, and it's great: And if you take a closer look at the first one... Digital standard edition + pre-order items: Digital deluxe edition + pre-order items So yeah, just wanted to put that in bold: some of these are early unlocks and will still be attainable in the main game. I LOVE the Yharnam Tourist outfit (also, outfits and paint schemes confirmed I guess?)! And we'll be unlocking respective buildings on the crash site? Did someone say Comet Observatory from Galaxy with PlayStation buildings of interest which we'll build up?! Closer look at the avatars: Curious to see if a physical deluxe edition gets announced? Would seem strange to me to list it as the "physical standard edition" and not simply the "physical edition" if there weren't any plans for one. Would also suck if the Digital Deluxe Edition was the only way to get my hands on all those other avatars! Aloy, Nate, Traveller, generic GT driver and Lady Maria are A-tier; Selene is absolutely S-tier!!! The one red and one blue eye? Looks so cool! Anyways, looks great. Curious about price but, well, this is somehow just 3 months away and is going to be a great way to round off the summer!

Slabhead not being there due to injury is unfortunate, say what you will about his form for United, felt like he's always tried with the England shirt on. The rest all make sense to me. Grealish has never been fully utilised by Southgate (swear he's always saved to be a super sub in tournaments and then isn't picked even after putting a decent enough shift in?), and Palmer 100% deserves to be in this squad over Grealish after the season he's just had. Bet Jack's really questioning how the last year's gone at City. Feels good that Guéhi is likely to turn out at CB alongside Stones, shame he never really got much of a chance with us. Our back line is definitely our weakest part of the pitch, though. Not to overhype us - because I think England are missing that spark which makes a tourney-winning squad - but, on paper, we have the second best squad at this tournament behind France. I mean, if me and my mate can win the thing with this squad in the Euro 2024 mode on FIFA via Share Play, with all the latency that brings...

I watched the first two episodes of The Acolyte last night and yeah, I thought it was a really solid start to the show. Bit weird in terms of framing and pacing at times (see: the way the first episode decided to wrap itself up) but the narrative intrigue is definitely there. Thought the music was fairly serviceable too, definitely leaning more into the Williams influence, but there hasn't really been a moment for it to stand out and grab me just yet. Loved Sol, can already feel he's a bit of a Qui-Gon type and a bit tired of the obstacles in the way of getting the work of a Jedi done. Really leaning into the attachment stuff here, too, which is interesting. Yeah, I think I feel the same so far? I guess it makes sense, seeing as these are the waning days of the High Republic and the transition from the ornate and lavish to however we'd describe the prequels is well under way. For me I think the big sticking point so far is the lightsaber hilts look just kind of meh, at least we'll be getting a Lightwhip but the new outfits for Jedi are neat but it almost feels like formal wear vs informal wear? This has all made me want to pick up the Art of the High Republic just to have a flick through...

So this is getting premium DLC which launches on June 11th I guess? Got to imagine this is to help tide people over until the in-development sequel, right?

The crazy thing is I actually think it might've been Mina the Hollower which set me on that path if anything ah well, I'll leave it there, gave me a good chuckle. Aye, definitely too much going on around the Not-E3 period these days, at this point I'm surprised my neighbours haven't announced one. Nintendo Directs and PlayStation events (the latter definitely much more of a mixed bag than the former) I'll still tune in for, as well as the occasionally Keighley event and everything else is pretty much ad hoc; kind of glad I'm away this weekend and so I don't really have the choice but to play catch-up on the updates and announcements when I get back!

Another Yacht Club Games Presents has been announced for (next) Friday 14th June at 19:30 BST, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hollow Knight. Interesting...

I haven't yet, no. I'd definitely love to, but the pull of seeking out fresh and new experiences is often too strong, I find at the same time, though, when I do get around to it one day, I do think it would be interesting to compare as someone going from the remake to the original rather than the other way around, which is how I imagine a good number of fans went into this particular remake. When I get to the Resident Evil games I'm also planning to play the remakes first before one day going back to the originals – if nothing else, I find the idea of going into a remake fresh and blind without the original experience really intriguing! Plus, there's a long list of other Zelda games I should probably get around to checking out for the first time before doubling back to any

Shadow of the Erdtree previews be dropping: Some clarity on the separate levelling system: Just 2½ weeks to go, and I'm still totally undecided about how - and if - I want to go about playing this DLC at its launch. Do I hop back in a day or two before to get back into it and perhaps re-spec? Do I start a new save like a week out and just focus on taking out Mohg and Radahn? Or do I give it a pass for now – am I even in the mood for this? Guess we'll need to wait and see

Man, this sucks, but yeah, it definitely seems to be heading that way. If they can somehow ride it out to next year they'll probably be able to get by a little longer with the foot traffic a new console launch would bring with the Switch 2, as well as the potential release of GTA VI. Kind of crazy just how much of the industry is currently hinged on the Switch 2 and GTA VI releasing within the next 18 months.

It's finally official: Julian Mbappé is joining Real Madrid. Hilariously, this announcement was leaked earlier today, thanks to Mbappe's personal agent, Macron:

Reminder that The Acolyte drops tomorrow in the US and in the early hours (02:00 BST I think?) over here in the UK: Yeah, I'm going to be silly and probably stay up to watch it Anyways, wanted to highlight some of the meat stuff that's been going on with The Acolyte marketing ahead of its release. Mainly, this: So: Amandla Stenberg can play violin, loves John Williams enough to end up being given a music sheet made just for her by him, and she came out on stage at Celebration last year in London in Episode II Padmé cosplay? Always love when someone wears for their love for the franchise on their sleeve Leslye Headland also had a brief chat with Dave Filoni, which I'm sure will be expanded on with a Disney+ Gallery special for The Acolyte at some point: She's talked a lot about pulling from Legends (the old EU), her love for the prequels, Clone Wars, etc. Seems like we've very quickly moved onto prequel fans getting their shot at Star Wars and I'm super here for it. We also got a Lee Jung-Jae feature in his character, Sol: Yeah, it's pretty safe to say I'm hyped for this to drop. We are finally - FINALLY - going to be free of people working in and around the Skywalker Saga eras and be starting up with something new!

After a tumultous few months for my gaming habits, I think it's past time for a bit of a catch-up on my Gaming Diary entries. Going to try to keep this relatively brief as I've talked about a number of these games before or in their own dedicated threads. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | 2019 The 2019 remake of 1993's Link's Awakening was an absolute blast to play through. It's overflowing with an ensemble of charming and memorable characters, plenty of whimsy, and so much vibrancy and life, whether it comes from its bright colour palette to just how animated so many of its characters are. Being a fairly faithful remake of a Game Boy title, it dazzled me as part of the first 2D Zelda outing I've seen through to completion just how much content was packed into what is such a relatively short and small game, and just how much impactful it is at times, especially towards the end; what I really want to highlight here is that as someone whose proper entryway into the franchise was newer titles such as Breath of the Wild (after having admittedly dabbled some in older 2D and 3D entries in the past), just how easy it was after the original hump of going from 3D to 2D to transition into a game of those style because of how much is consistent across the titles. Its myriad of temples and secrets are a joy to explore and seek out, with every newly introduced item adding another layer to the exploration of its world, and this was helped out massively by some Quality of Life things included in this remake, such as getting to pin things on the map, which backtracking and figuring out how to get those pesky heart pieces so much more inviting a prospect than I feel it otherwise might have been. These QoL features paired with the game's condensed world just feels like you're - generally - being catapulted through the game at such a brisk yet inviting pace, and I think this game turned out to be the ideal length. Now, I don't want to overstate this, but this game is host to some technical jank and weirdness that feels more befitting of a game such as Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl rather than a gorgeous Zelda remake, and I think it would be poor form to not mention it. First and foremost, I knew that the game launched with the framerate being a bit all over the place, but that this is still the case today kind of boggles my mind. The depth of field also goes a bit too hard at times, and to not have an option to tone it down seems like poor form on Nintendo's part - in fact, this game has surprisingly few options to change in its settings, which I was a bit surprised to find. We discussed it at length in the game's own thread but not being able to tell whether things like BowWow snapping back to Link is as a result of poor thinking or just trying to keep things in line with the original to an absurd degree does raise questions about some of the ideas behind certain decisions in this game as a remake, but when coupled with some other things in the game (like hard-headed Bidoof creatures suddenly doing a 180 and protecting themselves despite appearing to look off in the opposite direction, or overworld music following me into a cave and having its audio overlap with the music in the cave) certainly makes me lean towards some of these being oversights or poor thinking rather than by genuine good design. And it's a bit of a shame if that is the case. To finish on a high note, though, this game's soundtrack is SUPERB. Whereas the music in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom leans hard into subtlety, and Ocarina of Time leans into classic heroic music tropes, the diversity ranging from whimsy and silliness to outright bombastic in Link's Awakening is a true highlight of the game for me. I think that this great variety and ability to successfully capture the ideas of the original and flesh them out this much is apparent in no track more than the Staff Credits: As the first 2D Zelda I've played to completion, Link's Awakening cerainly makes me hungry for more of the same, as well as some more of that Game Boy-era charm. A brilliant game. This is also the first game we can cross off from my list of 10 pledge games for the year! Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission | 2021 Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission is DLC which released for VII Remake way back in 2021, as a way of tiding us over until and teasing what was coming next in this year's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, while also introducing Yuffie and a bit of her backstory. Yeah, I don't have a great deal to say about this when compared with the base game - it's..fine? I didn't mind Yuffie all that much, though I know she tends to split opinion amongst fans, but not much of great interest happens story-wise until the DLC's latter half, which is incredibly short as it is, so while a fine intro to the character, it doesn't really do much to truly grab your attention in the same way that I feel Remake did. The highlights of the DLC for me were some more great tracks being added to the ridiculous catalog of tracks already in Remake, the boss battles, and also Fort Condor - a lovely little strategy game, though it probably verges on being a bit too easy and a bit too short to feel fully fleshed out. Star Wars Battlefront II | 2005 I have talked about this game several times before, but playing through Battlefront II as part of Aspyr's Classic Collection to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise was ultimately a bit of a mixed bag. Look, in terms of the actual gameplay? It's the same Battlefront II I've always known and loved: the campaign is still great, Galactic Conquest is still addictively fun and brilliant, and this is still probably my "stuck on an island with 1 game for the rest of my life" game. Getting new content added to this release of the game, such as new hero and villain characters, as well as maps being copied over from the original game, added more content to a game I already loved. The mixed bag aspect comes from Aspyr's release of the game. It was a mess at launch, many - myself incldued - lost progress at multiple points due to bugs, the added content seems to have been transplanted from an outdated fan mod, and this all ultimately boiled over with me losing enough progress to feel - for the first time ever - frustrated with the game. Which, for me, when re-releasing a game, simply isn't acceptable. Star Wars Battlefront | 2004 Going back to Battlefront after revisiting Battlefront II and actually having not touched the game for about a decade was an interesting experience. The game is so much more methodical, the camera so much closer to your character who can't sprint, you can't play as heroes or villains, the maps seem to be oriented more around elevation variety and strategy compared to the run-and-gun, condensed maps of Battlefront II...and yet, it's still brilliant. I will always hold Battlefront II in much higher regard than Battlefront, but it is the basis on which the second game was built, and it's crazy going from the first game to the second and seeing how much changed in just one year! Lost Judgment | 2021 Lost Judgment is a massive improvement on the first Judgment game. From a gameplay perspective, the overall number of tailing missions have been greatly reduced (and the ones which still feature are tweaked to be far less annoying and tedious, and long gone too is the alarm noise as soon as a character leaves your eyesight; instead, the music just picks up a bit), the new Snake style of combat is brilliant with its focus on fluid locking and countering (and, I'll be hones,t is what I used for 80%+ of my playthrough), and there's a skateboard to help you get around town much faster, which is definitely needed seeing as this game stretches across both Kamurocho and Ijincho (the latter first introduced in 2019's Like a Dragon). From a story and quest perspective, the title has moved on from its explorations of the various ailments of the mind to bullying, which is front and centre throughout the game. Yagami goes undercover at a school to investigate reports of serious bullying and typical RGG hijinks ensue which will ultimately leave your jaw agape and your heart crushed, before patting you on the back with some great levity to pick you back up. The content of Judgment felt generally much more serious than the Yakuza games released before it, and Lost Judgment feels it goes a step beyond that, focusing not only on the challenges of taking on bullying in high school (and, similar to Judgment, doing a great job of educating the player throughout) but also just how far bullying can push someone - it deals with suicide and suicide attempts, not in an overly explored way, but in a way which would make me suggest scrutinising if that's something you want to be handled in that setting in a video game; I think it's well handled, but depending on where you are in your life, this might not be a great game for some, and it's not exactly something they can throw on the box. The returning cast of characters were brilliant, as were plenty of the newly introduced ones, and some characters from the first game even return in the background as unvoiced cameos, which I actually quite liked. The story deals with other heavy subject matter, too, mainly taking aim at the concept of who has the right to judge others and what actions could be taken to bridge that gap when said judgement is unfair or unjust. With the story as captivating as ever and the gameplay pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an RGG brawler, the game dabbles heavily with side content; not only are there the usual Side Cases (this game's substories) making a return, but there are also School Stories; with Yagami accepting an undercover role at a school by joining as a counsellor for the investigative Mystery Research Club, he has the option to help out numerous clubs and students, and while this is generally handled well, these side activities boost certain personality stats, and certain stat requirements or story progression is required to unlock certain clubs, and beyond that some of their next story beats, which means there are some which you don't unlock until quite late on. This all means that, not for the first time, RGG has a game which I think has a bit of a side content-story balance issue: while both are great, the full effect of the story is dampened when its pace is dragged along by some great side content, and despite being a large part of the initial story, there is a bit of a disconnect at the end which might be a bit too wide for my own personal liking. What's more, the quality and quanity of these school clubs vary greatly: some might take the length of two or three substories to wrap up, whereas others, such as boxing - yes, there's a complete boxing mini-game in this - are much more involved and drag on much longer. There's then another which involves talking to some girls and drinking at a bar, but due to the drinking gauge in the game, there's a cut-off point you'll then be driving down for a while after unless, like me, you go off and drunkenly stumble over towards another activity. One of my favourite club activities was the motorcycle battles, which feel like a successor of sorts to the taxi races back in Yakuza 5, and it's definitely one of the wackier highlights of the game; also, tiny tidbit I really appreciated, was that I couldn't take part in the races when I was drunk! Lovely touch, a message comes up on screen if you try to do so. Anyways, on the flipside, one of the club activities involves robot battles and customisation, and up to a point this is fine - but there's a pretty stark spike in difficulty which is all but guaranteed to have you seeking out a guide (I strongly suggest this one) part of the way through, and it's such an unnecessary one when you think of the sheer volume of School Stories activities that are already available. The crazy thing about it is that School Stories - and the story proper - both have some EXCELLENT payoffs, so it's a bit of a shame to me that it feels like a bit of a pain at times to actually get through the stupid pile of content. Ultimately, this ended up being the first RGG game since 5 (where I think I only had one quest line left?) where I didn't 100% complete all of the substories/Side Cases (32/42) because I was simply done with them by the time School Stories wrapped up, and it added little to the game by comparison; I would absolutely recommend prioritising School Stories over Side Cases if you ever get around to playing this game, because it has the Avengers-esque cap-off Side Cases did in the first game with its final quest line! Say what you will about Yakuza 5 and its crazy amount of content spreading it thin, I think a similar approach should've been made here to side content. 5 is fairly linear and introduces you to a new type of side content, allowing you to go through as much of it as you want before moving on (unless you return to it later on), whereas Lost Judgment has you running all over the map like a headless chicken, waiting for certain stats to increase or other attributes to lower before carrying on, and at the cost of the Mystery Research Club and School Stories - which is great stuff - feeling so separate from the main story by the end. Really grated my gears, too, that the final part of the quest needed to be started at noon (the game also has afternoon and evening) when you don't have a way to change the time until after completing the game (which, if you've played enough of these games, you'll know is an option which normally becomes available ahead of the final gauntlet at the end of the game), and with the final stretch of the game only taking place in the afternoon and evening (and when it's not, areas are gated off), for the first time ever, I had to continue with a completed save to get back into the School Stories action! What was that about RGG?! Overall, this outing was a noticeable step up from Judgment, but in the wider spread of RGG titles? It's probably at the top end of the middle of the pack; both Judgment titles are well worth the time invested, but are by no means the best RGG has to offer, from where I'm sitting. And with that, I'm caught up once again on Gaming Diary entries. It's been a weird past few months for me in terms of gaming, starting some games off but not seeing them through to the end (so hopefully I'll get back to them over the summer) and even with Lost Judgment I'm gutted that I didn't get to try out the Kaito Files DLC...but I was ready to move on by the time credits rolled at the end of the game, so maybe I'll get back to that at some other time. Regardless, I'm finally starting to feel in the mood for gaming once again, and am looking forward to what I pick up next!

Ubisoft Toronto have now joined in the fun that is this game's development. See y'all in another 2 or 3 years I guess.

It lives? IT LIVES!! Coming this Fall!