Julius

Decided to go with the strong start I see got to applaud it Feels like a statement of intent opening with that, also feels like a way for Nicolas and Asobi to get their much deserved flowers

That's pretty mental. It definitely sounds like it must be related to a delay, just from reading that headline – very curious to see what we hear in the next week or two, it would be very strange for a game to be ~7 weeks away, not turn up to an event, and then release smoothly. Makes me think this might be a reaction to the state Outlaws launched in. That or maybe they caught wind of the Tsushima sequel being announced tonight and have gone into hiding

Lovely little edit put together by Nintendo of Zelda throughout the years ahead of this game's launch: Looking forward to seeing how this has turned out, and would love to see a playable Zelda in the next 3D, uh, Zelda.

Hey, if they're going to be remastering anything, at least they'll be remastering one of PlayStation's best E3s Ooo they can call it REMASTE3ED This seems very realistic to me, I genuinely thought it already had one until you mentioned it, but apparently it's just "2024". It strikes me as launching between the end of October and mid-November...I don't know why but it feels to me like it could clash with DQ III HD-2D Remake (still a mouthful with just the one full word in there, dear lord!) on the 14th or thereabouts. For me, I'm just hoping for one of my usual suspects that I throw out there occasionally – seriously, I'll take just the one. And I'm ready to be disappointed and get none of these, or have the monkey's paw curl, but I have to put it out there because it eventually kind of work eventually for the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters and Battlefront II. 7 is a nice number. Let's go with 7. So, just please, gaming gods that be, just one of the following 7: Playdead's next game. Ueda and genDesign's next game. An ICO remaster/remake (yes, this is now on the wishlist). An announcement of just one brand new, current gen exclusive game from PlayStation Studios. If we did get this I think the Tsushima sequel would be the obvious choice. Final Fantasy - IX or Tactics Remake (very much in the mood to replay IX). Dragon Quest VIII Remastered (have a feeling this'll be eventual Switch 2 bait to tide us over until XII, so I'm really not expecting this one). Astro Bot DLC details. I feel like we could also be due a demo shadow-drop, maybe from Konami for Silent Hill 2 or Snake Eater? So much of those games look like they need to be given hands-on time to win people over.

Gave me a good chuckle.

The PlayStation Presents: Death Stranding 2 presentation on Sunday has now been expanded from 60 minutes to 90 minutes, running from 10:00 JST to 11:30 JST (02:00 BST to 03:30 BST): Alright, so it's good to know that Kojima has finally got his trailer submitted and they've adjusted accordingly

While I agree, I think the missteps they make generally seem to be on the bigger titles they remaster, so it doesn't shock me that they end up getting a lot of flak, because they're just higher profile games and thus higher profile missteps I know you didn't come across them, but some of the issues that the Battlefront Collection shipped with were objectively unacceptable (such as losing progress), even more so because they seemed to steal a community mod (and one which had been improved upon already by its originator, at that). After that, some poor communication and pretty slow updates, as well as the price they charged for the Collection in the first place, I'm not surprised that they're given as much flak as they are. On the flip side, I played another of their remasters last month and it was perfectly fine. Republic Commando was perfectly fine too. It really is on a case-by-case basis with them, and I think they're just that incredibly hit or miss in a way that, on paper, a studio almost entirely focused on remasters really shouldn't be. If it's a matter of time to clean things up? Then, as is the case with every other title that is released needing more polish, it probably should've been kept in the oven a while longer. Hopefully this turns out good, anyways. I've been very close to picking up the original versions of these games a few times now, so hopefully this is priced well and I don't need to do that.

Guess we'll wait until it's officially confirmed (watch it get announced tonight), but the recently rumoured/kinda leaked Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered has shown up on the PlayStation Store. Coming December 10th. There are a bunch of screenshots and even a trailer which have leaked, too. Apparently Aspyr are developing.

A new Distant Worlds concert has been announced to be taking place in London on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th March 2025, featuring music from XVI and XIV! Arnie Roth conducting, Amanda Achen on vocals and Soken in attendance. Sounds like it'll be one hell of a show! Tickets go up on the 27th.

Sorry H-o-T, that seems to have changed:

And tomorrow is now suddenly stacked in terms of events: Level 5, Sonic and PlayStation all taking centre stage, so to speak. Should be a great week for gaming news and announcements

Late one for us Brits, but FINALLY! 30+ minutes for 20+ games! I wonder how much of that time is going to be alloted to The Last of Us Part I Remastered? I jest, of course – can't wait to see what's in store, especially with certain big hitters turning up at TGS this week still waiting on a release date, like the Snake Eater remake. Square Enix also seem to have a muted presence lined up at TGS, so I also wonder if we might see something from them here, like the long-rumoured (and leaked) Final Fantasy IX Remake or Final Fantasy Tactics Remake?

I don't know how you managed to do it @Dcubed, but you skipped over the highlight of the interview for me which I imagine is going to be doing the rounds as a big headline over the next few days: Tomomi Sano (who directed on the Nintendo side) is the first female director in the Legend of Zelda series. That seems like a huge win! Not a bad roster of games she's worked on, either, I'd say

Sonic Central 2024 will premiere tomorrow at 09:00 PST tomorrow (that's 17:00 BST for any fellow Brits): Curious to see what they turn up with here.

Should've rolled the dice better

Chapters 1 and 2 of this game's Ask the Developer series are up: Chapter 3 tomorrow.

Trailer for what is still slated as the Phase 5 closer, Thunderbolts*:

Chapters 9 and 10 completed today. Chapter 9 was fantastic. By far the coolest Cloud has been in the remake project so far, and... Chapter 10 then came along and just doubled down on the hard-hitting story beats. The visuals in this game are stunning, especially so in the cutscenes. You can tell by just how many "edits" there are in these alone that there's so much care and effort put into the game, never mind the fact that it's probably got some of the best "cinematography" in AAA gaming right now outside of Sony's first-party offerings (y'know, your GoWs, your TLOUs). It's so refreshing after playing something like Outlaws last month where the "camera" just felt so...static, whereas in this, it almost feels like a character unto itself. I need to praise the combat once again, as being at or just under the recommended level with following the main story seems to be this sweet spot for emphasising just how tremendous these boss fights are. I love this game's combat, and as much as I enjoyed so much of Final Fantasy XVI, Square Enix need to stop being silly now: the Action ATB they introduced in VII Remake is BY FAR AND AWAY one of the best combat systems in a modern action RPG. This needs to be all over the near future of Final Fantasy for me, I don't think they can reasonably go back to pure turn-based for the mainline games, and while I think it will take more than this for the franchise to become a juggernaut again, they should really take this and tweak it across multiple games in the same way that ATB was introduced in IV and stuck around until IX. I realise I'm saying this with a few games to catch up on from this year, but having played Shadow of the Erdtree and having had a whale of a time with its bosses and knowing full well the strength of its roster of boss encounters, I feel qualified to say it: Rebirth has some of the best boss encounters in gaming this year, hands down. So far so many of them have been incredibly fun, they somehow always feel fresh and inject even more life and immediacy into the game, and they're guaranteed to be a spectacle. Look, I've got issues with the open world and side quests of Rebirth, which I'm still almost entirely ignoring to focus on the story, and I do think having an open world game like this and as much side content as this game does feel so separate should hurt the game – but it doesn't, and I'm kind of in awe of the fact that it doesn't; I don't honestly know how I'm supposed to weigh my perspective of the open world against the broader game given that it feels like almost entirely optional, incredibly expensive, beautiful-looking but not so interactive set dressing, and there's so far been no punishment whatsoever for avoiding it in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay or my enjoyment of the game. It kind of reminds me of Elden Ring and how some loved exploring the open world, and others didn't, but those that didn't could beeline to the next legacy dungeon or point of interest and they'd still be able to have a blast with the game. Which is all to say that, yep, I'm still having a blast with Rebirth – despite not finding enjoyment in its open world, it is still making me feel how I wanted to feel about this game watching its many trailers and anticipating its release. The music. The characters. The story beats. I've still got some ways to go - apparently I'm around ⅔ in, according to the progress tracker back on the PS5 main menu - but even if this game somehow falls on its face towards the end (which I'm half-expecting because as much as I enjoyed Remake and the risk it took, it did also kind of do the same with its story), it has really reinforced my love and appreciation of Final Fantasy VII, as in the original 1997 game. It's making me want to go back and revisit the original – it's been a while since I played through it, and I think it had its issues, but, what, some 7+ years removed from clearing that game for the first and only time, I'm playing through this and constantly going "so we've still got that to come up, I think...oh, and then there's that, too!", and remembering with surprising accuracy which beat is coming up next – I mean, how many modern releases do you think you'll be saying that about in 7 years' time? I seriously doubt there'll be too many. And so the final act of this middle chapter of The Unknown Journey begins...can't wait

Billbil-kun has US pricing for the 30th anniversary PS5 Slim (Digital) and DualSense, with estimates on pricing in Europe and the UK. Nothing yet on the 30th anniversary Pro bundle, DualSense Edge, or Portal.

This was that Jim Ryan again, wasn't it?!

I mean, just look at how stupid this Platinum trophy screenshot is! I didn't even get a chance to calibrate my display!

So, I typically jump on with my group of friends to play games once or twice a week, and recently I've been stumped on what to play. We're currently in a phase of not playing the same game together but just catching up, which I'm all for, but I've been drifting between games or even just watching other people share their screen or stare blankly at the PS5 hub while doing so. It just all felt like I should be playing something. The other day I realised owning the digital version of GT7 means that I have both the PS5 and the PS4 version of the game, and having Platinum'd the game's PS5 version a few months after launch back in 2022, with nothing else to play mindlessly when on with my friends for now, I figured I'd redownload the PS4 version of the game and Platinum that. Sorted, right? Everything taken away from me, starting from square one, bides me some time to wait just a bit longer on finally pulling the trigger on that SSD for my PS5 with it thrown onto the external HDD I've got connected for PS4 games. Going through and earning a second Platinum sounded like fun to me, it was something to chip away at and I've been really good about not going for Platinum trophies in single-player games this year, which has allowed me to play more this year already than I did in the entirety of last year. But the Plat was going to drag me along because, otherwise, well, I might as well play the PS5 version of the game where I've already invested hundreds of hours. So I load up the PS4 version of the game when jumping on with them yesterday, and then notifications start popping up in the top right corner. 'Bronze Trophy - Living Your Car Life' 'Bronze Trophy - Living With a Legend' 'Silver Trophy - Speed Archdemon' 'Gold Trophy - Finale' Oh no... 'Platinum Trophy - Gran Turismo Platinum Trophy' Yep, that's right, it auto-popped every damn trophy and gave me another Plat with 0 minutes put into this version of the game. While I knew about trophies auto-popping going from some PS4 games to their PS5 versions, I didn't know it worked the other way around, too. How could I? Who in their right mind is playing the PS5 version of a game, getting the Plat, and then going back to what is by all means an inferior version of the game on PS4? This guy, that's who. There was probably a way around it if I'd known ahead of time, maybe something to do with not carrying over my save, or having a physical PS4 version rather than using the digital PS4 & PS5 bundle, or something. I don't know what the point in this post was, I guess it was probably just to share my devastation. And yep, I still have no idea what I'm going to play when I'm on with my friends next.

Windows Central have started to share what they know about Xbox's next-gen hardware plans in their summary of an interview about the Xbox's 25th anniversary, which Xbox seem to be planning to coincide with the platform's 25th anniversary in 2026, and will seemingly be a fight on two fronts: a traditional style home console and a handheld. Shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone considering what has come out over the last few years anyways, but I think that Steam Deck-style handled + Game Pass combo could be very powerful and do some serious numbers.

One of my favourite things about YouTube is how I sometimes randomly get the most underrated songs imaginable pop up in my recommended. Thanks for listening, algorithm. S-tier album cover, S-tier song title ("Starship Syncopation", I mean come on!), holy damn is this an S-tier song. Been jamming out to it all morning. If you like Persona-type jazz music, I'll be shocked if you don't like this. There's also a noticeable hint of Daft Punk, there's straight up a part which wants to sound like it's ripped out of Donkey Kong Country, an underlying funk and groove to it all, and what should be a jumbled mess instead is this absolute treat. Sooooooooo good

Funnily enough, I've been going back and forth on diving back into the Pokémon TCG these last few months and just giving myself a general view of what sort of cards are around and figuring out if there are any particular cards I'd want to pick up, etc. – I think I mainly want to look for cards I just like the look of, or cards of certain Pokémon/trainers I feel attached to; some of the full-art Trainer cards they put out these days are beautiful. Which is all to say that this thread bump is absolutely perfectly timed @Hero-of-Time I used to be huuuuuuuuuge on the Pokémon TCG growing up, all of the cards I did manage to get art still at my parents' place, but had to stop collecting TCG of any kind for reasons I won't get into. It's been an interesting last few months figuring out what I want to do. I decided at the time to be sensible and save myself from buying any until I could buy some in-person, which has been scheduled in for a while now, as I'm off to Birmingham Toy Fair next Sunday with some mates. So, that could be a fun but potentially dangerous time (for my wallet) Lovely stuff H-o-T, that Typhlosion in particular is absolutely gorgeous, that's a really nice set. Thanks for sharing that story about your small local shop too, I really find with hobbies, finding someone who is just as enthusiastic about your enjoyment of the hobby as their own really elevates the experience (maybe that's why I've stuck around this place so long ) Actually, what got me back to thinking about Pokémon cards again a few months ago was coming across Coop's Collection on YouTube/Twitch and just seeing how incredibly generous and patient he is with kids who come to his stall, and it also just exposed me as to how lovely so much of the art on the cards is these days. The end of this clip really rounds off for me just how wholesome hobby communities and fandoms can be when they're at their best. I'm actually pretty excited now to see what I come across next Sunday, so hopefully there'll be some stuff there I want to pick up!