Julius

The PS VR2 PC adapter is launching 7th August for £49.99/€59.99/$59.99. The ability to expand this thing with a bunch of SteamVR titles including Alyx is massive, but I can't help but wonder what it means for the state of VR2. It feels to me like it's flopped and this move is the only smart way to appease people from feeling like they've invested poorly.

Oh yeah, totally - to be clear, I will very happily pay £70 for this game if that's how much it ends up being I guess my question is coming less from a consumer "want" in terms of people potentially wanting it to come in at a lower price (I mean, that would just be nice for everything, and I doubt anyone would disagree ), and more so trying to understand what PlayStation might want to do, considering they've been keen to position games at so many different (and sometimes confusing?) prices throughout this gen. So me saying "£50 will be an easier sell" isn't saying that that's the case for me, but more trying to think that I could see PlayStation seeing it that way if the aim is to get a wide range of people picking up this game at full price. Do we think that PlayStation themselves hold Team Asobi and Astro Bot to the same potential pricing as a new God of War, Last of Us, or even Ratchet & Clank? I think it's also worth asking because Astro has never been in a full price game before, and I think that also gives PlayStation a bit more to think about when pricing this game. The Playroom was a free download for PS4 owners if I'm remembering right, the same was true with Astro's Playroom for PS5, and Astro Bot Rescue Mission comes in at £35, which is below a lot of big name offerings like Iron Man VR and Skyrim VR, despite being viewed as one of the best games released for the PS VR platform. I think that PlayStation will have the numbers from Astro's Playroom to support whatever they decide to do in terms of pricing - I feel like just going off the number of Platinums and completions, and even downloads will be more than enough data to get a fair idea of what they should be expecting in terms of interest - and while maybe not the most fairly representative way, on the PlayStation YouTube channel it is currently the third most-watched of the new trailers from the State of Play (behind Monster Hunter Wilds and...Infinity Nikki? Holy heck that game currently has nearly as many views as the State of Play itself!) so I don't doubt that there are eyes on it, I do just wonder what their sales expectations are for a game like this. I mean, especially for launch, where the price is going to be a big sticking point for a number of people before it inevitably drops, as pretty much every non-Nintendo game is known to do. Where Astro has been included in games or experiences before which were unique pack-ins or smaller scale in the case of Rescue Mission, added to being on a platform with a relatively small install base, how do you scale up sales projections based on those previous outings? I don't know, I hope this game crushes and then some. But we all know just how fickle PlayStation has been these last few years, moving on from an amazing selling game like Days Gone because it wasn't up to snuff on Metacritic, and where I don't doubt for a moment how much quality will be packed into this game, I can't help but wonder about its sales potential and their expectations for it, and what might happen if it doesn't perform

Been watching the trailer some more and man, that electric guitar riff towards the end just gets wild. Anyways, I've also been thinking about the game some more – just realised that there's no word on the speed run mode from Playroom returning. Maybe it's still to be announced or it'll be patched in (or even unlocked as a type of post-game?) but I had a blast with it in Playroom and would love for it to make a return here. Very curious about how this game will be priced, too. Part of me expects Sony will want this at their premium £70 tier, but another part of me says that it's a much easier sell at £50. Anyone got thoughts on pricing for this? I was catching up on Kyle Bosman's reaction stream and he asked his chat if it made sense that Astro has this affinity towards hardware in a standalone title like this compared to Playroom (a fair question, I think, due to it being packed in purely to sell some of the new PS5 features), to which someone in his chat responded "Astro's learning about his heritage" Gave me a good chuckle

Trailer for Friday's Summer Game Fest: Didn't cotton on at all to the fact that this was on Friday (and at 22:00, no less!), so not sure that I'll be tuning in live as I've got to be up and out bright and early on Saturday

Been rumblings of this the last few days, and now it's official: Jose Mourinho will be taking the reins at Fenerbahçe next season. So, I guess it's probably not a good idea to visit Istanbul any time over the next few years...

With the curtain all but closed on the European club football season following last night's Champions League final - well, all but Atalanta and Fiorentina playing Matchday 29 today due to their involvements up to and including the Europa League and Europa Conference League finals, respectively - I figured it was time to whip out a new thread ahead of this year's Euro's. This year, the UEFA European Championships return to Germany for just the third time, following West Germany hosting the tournament in 1988 and Germany being one of the locations used last time out for the multinational Euro 2020/2021. Interesting tidbit: this will be the first time that the Euro's make its way to what was formerly East Germany, with Leipzig set to host a number of games, and it's also the first time that reunified a Germany will host the tournament as a solo nation. Anyways, onto the tournament itself, which will see 24 national teams compete across 10 German host cities over a 31 day stretch from 14th June to 14th July for the chance of being crowned the Kings of Europe at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. And talking of the teams, here are the groups: And talking of the groups, here's the tournament tree: Not sure about everyone else, but I've been foaming at the mouth in anticipation of this competition over the last few months. The 2020/2021 edition of the competition was one of the most electric international football tournaments I can remember watching, and the 2022 World Cup only seemed to up the ante from there. So, will we get a third consecutive international tournament involving European teams as explosive as the last? Or are we doomed to slouch into the couch as we're privy to a bunch of goalless draws? Either way, the tournament kick-off is just 12 days away on Friday 14th June at 20:00 BST, when tournament hosts Germany will be facing off against Scotland in the Allianz. Will be looking forward to talking about and following this tournament in the coming weeks with you all!

Inevitable.

Again Dortmund had their heads down and turned off. Completely lost concentration, and the pressure has been mounting from Madrid. Smart and obvious pass from Bellingham, textbook for what you should do, another goal for Vini in a CL final even if he held it a moment longer than everyone probably wanted him to. Going to be surprised if Real don't score a third at this point.

As soon as Dortmund lazily gave that corner away with the deflection it took as they slowly wandered away from their goal you just knew that something was coming. Turn off for a second in a final and you're screwed. Even more so against Madrid. Really poor from them.

Hummels and Schlotterbeck were immense that half, with Madrid not really getting much of a look in, but it's hard to not come away from it feeling like Dortmund will be regretting not putting the ball in the back of the net at least once. Second half Real Madrid in Champions League finals are often a different beast. Seriously! Always shocks me when the good performances from refs in the semis rarely seem to be rewarded with a chance to ref the final, not the first time it's happened at a UEFA tournament mind you.

Embarrassing from Kobel to go down like that after the challenge from Vini (which he had EVERY right to go for), the replays aren't particularly kind to him either

One-way traffic from Dortmund, Real's defence looks like it's being pulled every which way, and leaving it too late to make a challenge. Very unlike them.

Very embarrassing from a security perspective Anyways, excited for this! Would love to see a Dortmund win but Real just seem inevitable

Watched the trailer a couple more times, and yeah, it's hype as all hell. Crazy that they went that hard with the first trailer, though I guess we are just over 3 months away! Only just realising they pulled a bit of a PIXAR with the PlayStation Studios logo in the standalone trailer, neat touch Anyways, this shot in the shuffle of all the action towards the end has cracked me every. single. viewing. It's not even Wander and Agro, it's the fact that there's another bot who has been roped into playing Mono and just lying down for eternity

Totally forgot to mention before that PlayStation committed the cardinal sin of these types of events by telling us how many games they were showing off going in. Way to pull an Xbox, guys. Anyways, this made me chuckle re: Concord I mean, he's not wrong, and we were all thinking it! Boo, how dare you be interested in any of these games! But seriously, tell us about it. This thread could use a bit of positivity after all my nagging

Great write-ups as always @Glen-i, especially appreciate the write-up for Eiyuden had to put it down myself for a bit but I'm sure I'll get back to over the summer. Now we just need to wait for that Suikoden collection to hit so we can get you hooked on those first two games from Murayama

Gladion's theme from Pokémon Sun and Moon is such a banger: Been having a lot of Pokémon videos start to turn up in my YouTube feed, and yeah, I'm watching most of them. This also means I've stumbled across the gym leader theme for Scarlet and Violet, which also goes hard: As someone who loves Pokémon in their jazz (you're damn sure you read that right!) it's hard not to love that intro that clap transition is INSANE! This all means I'm definitely starting to get in the mood for a Pokémon game. Now, just to decide whether I finally get around to the DLC for Sword, finally boot up Let's Go, Pikachu! or pick up Scarlet...

First gameplay trailer (because apparently our look at the game at the TGAs doesn't count) from last night's State of Play: Still listed as coming in 2025. Some additional details courtesy of the official site: Still looking good, though I don't think this was a great showcase of the game in a weird way? Felt like it barely expanded on the footage we saw at the TGAs. Anyways, I'm going to make a point to be there Day 1 for this (assuming it doesn't pop up at the same time as some other big game). Still have regrets over not going back to World but having started the game with friends and them not being willing to get back into it (despite loving it themselves!), as well as with everything else there is to play, I don't see myself returning to it before Wilds drops.

Trailer from last night's State of Play, which announced the game's release date of 8th October 2024: Happy Halloween and Spooky Season!

Gameplay trailer from last night's State of Play: Still just listed as Fall 2024.

More details from the PS Blog post: And we also have the game's official box art from the same blog post: 80+ new levels, 15 new abilities and 70+ new enemies?! Good lord think this is pretty safely my most anticipated game of the rest of the year, can't wait!

Alright, so for some more fleshed out thoughts... I don't understand the marketing for Concord at all. We had a CGI teaser of the inside of a ship before, they start things off here with an interesting enough CGI vignette focused on exhibiting these characters...and then it's a first-person hero shooter, with the occasional look at third-person? As if this wasn't weak enough, later on in the show, there's another hero shooter which to the average person is going to be infinitely more interesting than this simply because of the characters involved, and that's Marvel Rivals. 2 hero shooters in 14 games is two too many as it is, but to position yourself against an already successful IP sounds downright stupid. Crazy that of all the games shown, Concord is the first one making it out of the gate for its full launch. Ragnarök on PC is neat. 1 game of 14 in a State of Play level neat, though, considering how we know PlayStation first-party offerings aren't having sales completely correlate on PC? Very bizarre, could've been a blog post and a tweet. Dynasty Warriors Origins was far too vague to warrant 'Origins' being in the title, and didn't show anything at all to make it stand out from previous DW titles. Pass. Infinity Nikki (with very Mario Odyssey-like music) and Ballad of Antara are both Infold titles, a recently announced brand from PlayStation focused on publishing international titles. They look like they take themselves a little too seriously at points for my liking, though Infinity Nikki probably gets the edge for me because it's a magical girl platformer with a cat and you can take photos, vs...well, here's yet another take on Anime Souls™! Onto VR2 titles, then, of which there were as many here as we had hero shooters: 2. Skydance's Behemoth actually looks neat and I'd check it out if I had VR2, that Alien: Rogue Incursion tease did absolutely nothing for it. What a waste of time in this show. Where Winds Meet was a game we first - and last? - saw at the TGAs back in 2022 if I'm remembering right, and, bleh, very Soulsy anime game which admittedly looks better than Ballad of Antara, but AGAIN – out of 14 games, 2 of very similar look and feel? Shocking. Until Dawn feels like a waste of a remaster/remake effort still; Path of Exile 2 actually looks great but was already announced for PS5 before, with the only new news here being about the Early Access window if I'm remembering right; Silent Hill 2 Remake actually got its best trailer to date! But I don't feel that's saying much at all, and I think the previous trailers have already inflicted enough damage there, nice for it to get a release date though, happy Halloween I guess! Monster Hunter Wilds got its first gameplay trailer which had a bunch of strange cuts and still gives us the massive window of being nebulously placed somewhere in '2025' where it's hard to care too much – remember when World had about 6 months between announcement and launch? Some neat moments in this trailer but I can't see it having moved the needle for anyone who wasn't already in. Astro Bot is the obvious headliner here, and the first time in a minute where I'm pumped for a brand new offering from PlayStation. Thank goodness we won't be waiting too long for it! To go back to the show quality for a sec, I think it's simply the case of really poor curation, with several overlaps in genre/look/feel in far too small a show to allow for it, and of these 14 games, only 4 got release dates: Concord (23rd Aug), Astro Bot (6th Sept), Ragnarök on PC (19th Sept), and Silent Hill 2 (8th Oct). 3 of these games are listed for 2025, and everything else has a vague window or is some form of beta test or early access. It's a really poor showing and again places emphasis on how weak the first-party offering from PlayStation has become as this gen has gone on. For the first time in my memory, this is the first time PlayStation have had a true swing and a miss in this May/June period we would have referred to as the E3 window of all. They've now set up a fumbling and bumbling Xbox to outdo them without too much trouble, and I find it hard to imagine that Nintendo do anything but annihilate any memory of what was shown tonight besides Astro. I said it before, but I really do feel like there's now too much pressure on the next PlayStation Showcase, assuming that we get one in the next 12 months, probably September? It's getting to the point where it feels like we need a Venom spin-off announcement for next year coupled with one of the Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Santa Monica Studio's new IP or Naughty Dog's new IP to tide us over up to the end of the gen when they'll shuffle out the last few games – but seriously, what a disappointment it is to even just find myself typing that. The PS5 might be doing well in terms of console sales, but even taking COVID having an impact into consideration at this point, compare the first 3½ years - the first half of a typical 7-year gen! - to that of any other PlayStation home console, and it's hard to not be disappointed. The change in direction to lean into MTX-focused multiplayer offerings seems to have disrupted so much over at PlayStation, like with a studio as talented as Naughty Dog spending years on end on a Last of Us online game for it to just go...nowhere. I imagine they'd have at least one game out this gen otherwise; instead, they've become immortalised at the TLOU studio between the show and two pretty unnecessary remasters/remakes of the earlier games. Anyways, I'm giving this showing a 3.5/10. 1 whole point of that is down to my buddy Astro, but from memory, I think that's the lowest score I've ever given PlayStation. Let's hope for their sake that I don't find myself saying that again

I'll flesh out my thoughts a bit later but for now, first impressions... Y I K E S I hate to say it, but PlayStation have put themselves in a bit of a corner here I think. It's starting to feel like there is an unfair and unbelievable amount riding on the next Showcase, whenever it is (September maybe?). Astro aside, this turned out to be a total nothingburger of a show

Here we go! Looks freaking fantastic, that trailer gave me Mario Odyssey at E3 2017 vibes with how bonkers it got towards the end

There he is