Julius

My retort in your own words:

Have fun

They had some unique sections just for speedrunning in Astro's Playroom, and it came with a timer and rankings and was so good I had to hard quit for my own sanity after spending an hour getting good at a particular speedrun this is the music they had for Playroom: Regardless of the slander that @drahkon is spreading the speedrun levels were a great time and I have absolutely no reason to protect my sanity this time around

Trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Junji Ito's Uzumaki, which releases 28th September: Looks gross, which is to say that it looks perfect. I'll take five more, please and thank you.

Per VGC and some content they had come out of a trip to Asobi's studio in Tokyo last month, a presentation shared with them during the trip seemed to suggest that 5 speedrun levels and 10 challenge levels are planned for the game's post-launch free DLC, though obviously it's not clear if plans have stayed the same. I'm praying that speedrun levels are coming to this thing. Spawning out of that same trip is the below excellent video from VGC in which Nicolas Doucet shares some of the philosophies, design and team strategies, and whimsy behind Astro Bot – having watched the video, fair warning, it spoils a couple of Bots we've yet to see and so might be one best saved until after you've played through the game. But again: I really implore that you watch this. We don't get enough of a look at how games are made these days, period, and for PlayStation it generally seems to be saved for massive AAA offerings with fully produced documentary-style videos, like the ones we've seen for The Last of Us and God of War before now. I mean they still go through the effort of drawing up ideas with pen and paper, and there are some great insights to glean from that! Yeah, I definitely think it's worthy of a discussion at least, even if I do feel like it also blends into a conversation a number of us have had on here before a number of times of there being a pretty skinny - but generally still very strong in terms of quality - list of first-party offerings on PS5 this gen, even just when compared to PS4. I think the problem came about with the myriad of studio closures and the focus then being pooled into GAAS, something I think everyone was against – sure, it makes business sense...but about as much business sense as using your quarterly earnings to buy lottery tickets. The success of Helldivers 2 has been enormous and yet is the only serious justification so far for PlayStation's GAAS initiative which has seemingly floundered if it hasn't altogether been quashed – again, just go buy lottery tickets before you sleep on the piles of cash made from being the gacha machine the PS5 is with games like Genshin, not to mention the upturn it's going to see next year when GTA VI releases and Shark Cards make their dreaded return. I don't know if Astro Bot puts any dent in their plans, but I guess with Nintendo, even when IP gets left behind, those teams go onto flourish in creating a number of other games, and it very rarely seems like Nintendo has much of a misstep in terms of project management. Naughty Dog comes up a lot here, and with good reason – this is PlayStation's premiere studio and they haven't announced anything new which has seen the light of day - i.e. not a remaster or a remake, and not the now-cancelled multiplayer Factions game - since PSX in December 2016, when Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was revealed to be a standalone title having evolved out of being mere DLC for Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us Part II was revealed for the first time. They literally haven't announced and released a new project since before the Switch launched, isn't that absolutely nuts? I said it when this game first got announced, but the layer of irony cannot be overstated of PlayStation salvaging Team Asobi from Japan Studio, and yet having their game be THE tentpole, stinger reveal for that State of Play we had earlier this year. But, yeah, I do think it's a worthy conversation...just maybe for another time, and I don't think that leaning on IP and "politics" (?) alone is a fair assessment of why this game has been recognised the way it has by reviewers around the world, as has been suggested earlier in the thread. For now though: the hype train is rolling and it is absolutely not allowed to stop I'd definitely be curious to hear/your thoughts if/when it comes to PC, which I agree with you really needs to be the case. Curious as well how they adjust their approach to some controls and the use of the controller considering just how heavily tied into the hardware of the PS5 the thing is – having not yet played this yet but having played Playroom with the DualSense, it pains me to think about experiencing the game without all of those features in tow.

Xbox have announced their presence at this year's TGS, with a showing set for 19:00 JST (that's 11:00 BST) on September 26th. Good lord is TGS stacked this year. Genuinely feels like it's shaping up to be the busiest week of gaming news in a good while – not that I'm complaining!

THE DAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED - HAPPY ASTRO BOT LAUNCH DAY EVERYBODY! I finally got around to tracking down the three Bots I hadn't yet sought out. I managed to find Lady Maria without a guide back when it dropped, but not the clock and obviously had no idea about the date, but the rest of them went above and beyond to stay hidden, huh? All wrapped up, just in the nick of time too! I also stuck around for the midnight launch celebrations in the PlayStation Labo area, and honestly? Super exciting and just plain old fun, kind of makes me wish there was a special hub for a bunch of people to gather in dressed as Bots for every PlayStation first-party launch in all honesty! For anyone that missed it or hasn't yet seen those last minute festivities: This came around so quickly – and I'm not complaining can't wait to get stuck in later today!

Over 4 million copies sold: Good stuff.

There's a new Snow Patrol album coming out and the few songs released so far have been great, think my favourite so far is All Love The Warning and loved this collab, need to check out some more stuff from Band-Maid. Can't help but feel sorry for Dany's vocal cords at the start though

A new sneak peek of the game released earlier today: Not sure it was really needed this late on, but yeah, surprise! It still looks great

We already knew Level-5 were turning up at TGS, but it also seems like they might be bringing a new title along with them...or two? Hoo boy, wonder what those could be (and why they feel the need to announce more)... Time for a port of Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn perhaps?

San Marino have registered their first ever competitive win, over Lichtenstein in the Nations League! The end of times are truly upon us

Sure, just close your eyes and use your...

Do you think if we squint hard enough we'll be able to see Naughty Dog's next game?

Just seen about this, love it. Actually insane. I'm surprised it took someone that long to spot it in hindsight The Astro Bots reviews were fabricated just to throw us off the scent!

idk seemed relevant

Seems to go well beyond the remit of simply being aligned with the PS5, so seemed appropriate to have a dedicated thread to keep a track of their 30th anniversary plans in the lead-up to December and beyond. This is just an early glimpse, and they've made it clear that more is on the way. So...retro DualSense/plate designs unveiled at TGS later this month?

Digital Foundry have dropped their tech review: Don't think it was ever going to be the most demanding game and so I'm not surprised that it would be "virtually flawless", but I'm curious to see if there are any hitches at all and hear what they might be down to.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi will be speaking at TGS on Thursday 26th September. Love it. TGS this year is stacked and is shaping up to be the best since COVID, easily, but also seems to have much more in store than anything we've seen from TGS a long while before that, too. Am I getting hyped for TGS?

Thanks – sounds like a perfect fit for work breaks, think I'll look to pick it up and chip away at it then Productivity be damned indeed

Balatro Mobile releases on 26th September, launching on the Google Play Store, the App store and Apple Arcade. Love that the tag on their Twitter account for this is "Productivity be damned" @drahkon say I don't do every single thing in this game but wanted to "complete" it and get a good grasp on what it has to offer, how long of a commitment do you think I'd be in for? Your love for the game has worn me down somewhat that I'm finally considering giving it a shot, just trying to figure out when I can fit it in before the end of the year

Per this interview from Bloomberg, the game has now sold 18 million copies and an expansion is in the works. Absolutely insane.

At this point I'm convinced that @Dcubed just doesn't like games that are doing and are being received well which is fine but...meh. It is very cynical and it's not the first time, I don't think even Nintendo makes him happy anymore PS5 sells great and is still aligned with PS4 but is slightly behind? Bomb. Switch 2? Double-barrelled bomb that's going to roll off a cliff at launch. Any game wins GOTY at TGAs? It was a lock and total GOTY bait. Because, ya know, Baldur's Gate III was such an obvious lock-in last year (was up against literal Game of the Decade from the 2010s contender's sequel in Tears of the Kingdom) and pandering to that GOTY crowd in the same way that it and Elden Ring and It Takes Two were all third-person over-the-shoulder linear story-heavy GOTY bait tripe we apparently see all the time winning these awards. Anyways, my hopes and expectations were aimed at 90+ ratings based purely on the quality of Playroom back at the launch of the PS5, and though I haven't played Rescue Mission myself, seeing @Hero-of-Time and others gushing about it absolutely gave me every bit of confidence that Asobi would deliver here. I just think it seems like it's a great game, which will come as a shock to literally no-one who has played an Asobi game, and I don't think any reviewer worth their salt is seriously seeing the lean into nostalgia as something heavily impacting their scores. Should it be considered? It's part of the game, so absolutely – but it's how it's handled, not the fact that it's there, which seems to be getting praise. That it is doing so at a time where PlayStation has maybe lost their way, and their most recent GAAS attempt in Concord has unfortunately gone the worst possible way it could have? Makes for a really interesting talking point. What was that article I was reading earlier...oh, here it is: Astro Bot Isn't A Celebration, It's A Graveyard. But it in no way damns the game, nor do I think it is fair to have it undermine the discussion of the game's quality. I agree with H-o-T that we should be happy and grateful that someone besides Nintendo has finally pulled the trigger in making a quality modern 3D platformer. As an aside, and to take it back to the topic at hand, my friend played Playroom for a little bit when the PS5 launched waiting for Miles Morales to install – enjoyed it but never went back. I've been turning on the heat with my excitement for Astro Bot the last few weeks and after seeing the scores he says he'll pick it up – this coming after I let him borrow my copy of Shadow of the Colossus (the remake) to play through it for the first time these last few weeks, which has spawned some great conversations (especially as he typically leans to the more Western, narrative-heavy games like those from Naughty Dog). Hell, I seem to have finally worn him down into considering playing through Bloodborne next year, too. Does this mean I win?

Reviews have dropped... Did someone say GOTY? Currently at a 94 on Metacritic and a 94 on OpenCritic – meaning it is currently ranking as the second highest rated gaming experience of the year, behind only Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and so it the best rated standalone title of 2024 as things stand . Oh boys we eating gooooooood this weekend

Sort your gun laws out already America, for crying out loud.