Julius

Man, we're getting a lot of Star Wars ports, hard to complain! But idk maybe bring KOTOR over so it's not a Switch console exclusive and the original LEGO Star Wars games and I'll be an even happier bunny

Demo dropping on Friday, with progress carrying over to the full release: Can't help but feel this demo and this game are coming at a strange time, as it feels like we've finally hit our first quiet(er) period for releases for the year and everyone is either chipping away at Dragon's Dogma or Rise of Ronin, or going back to releases from a month or so ago during the super busy start to the year. It'll be really interesting to see how well it does.

Figured out the issue I was having, turns out the trophy progress relates directly to in-game stats and mine had bugged out so that I was reading as, for example, 32 Regulator medals vs the 46 Regulator medals I had showing on trophy progression; once I caught up in-game to the number showing at a system level, it was all good. Still loving my time with it, especially being forced to use other classes in chasing the Plat (99% of my time growing up playing the game was spent as Infantry units), hopefully I'll round it off this week so that I can dive into a fresh experience over the long weekend

It's definitely possible; weren't their rumours before the internal delay that it would be making it out sometime between March and May? It's Star Wars, so it will sell well whenever it's released, but with The Acolyte releasing from June into July, a mid-to-late summer release would dovetail off of that really nicely, I think. Have a big blowout on the game during Not-E3 time. I'm still unsure how I feel about this game, it's Star Wars so I'll play it and was impressed by what we saw but I feel like we just don't know enough. I'm also very curious about what our next look at the game looks like, and obviously when we get it. Could definitely see us getting something for it on or around May 4th to drag it back into the public consciousness, but I'm honestly expecting a bit of a dip in performance and appearance compared to when we last saw it. Because Ubisoft

100% agree. In a case where it's a game collection, it seems especially disrespectful to fans and the original developers too, and that's without even having the conversation about the price they landed on for the game Anecdotally, I've just decided to put a hold on my grind in Battlefront II for now, because I've been keeping an eye on the trophy tracking/progression and it's just not keeping pace with my in-game stats anymore, whereas it worked perfectly before. Not sure if it was the latest update or something else, but might just start cracking away at the first game's campaigns and couple of trophies. sigh

I've just checked that link and it's down to £29.99 now... Yeah, that's too good to not bite. Sorry, best laid plans of delaying game purchases, but I doubt we'll get a better deal than that for a while Thanks for the heads-up on the offer H-o-T!

Tickets for TPM's 25th anniversary screenings are now up most places got mine, looking forward to it!

That's insane. From my limited understanding of both (based on podcasts and from what I've read on here, I've dabbled in World but not to the extent I'd feel confident commenting on it's MTX catalogue), was Rise a move in a worse direction after World, even? I ask because I remember World advertising free updates for new monsters, weapons, armour, etc. at times, with some paid-for cosmetics perhaps and of course Iceborne being a paid-for expansion, whereas with Sunbreak I remember seeing some more complaints about it as an expansion compared to Iceborne, as well as some saying the "events" were more a case of recycling things. Again, can't comment on that stuff and happy to be corrected, but that seemed to be the sentiment I've seen floated around. If so, yeah I think you're right, it does sound like it's going in the wrong direction and has been for a minute. Ah, thanks for this. So it sounds more akin to what the modern Assassin's Creed games have been doing with their microtransactions, I remember a bit of an uproar following Odyssey's release (I think it was the first to latch onto it? If they were in Origins it might've been post-launch because I don't remember it coming up in conversation for that game) about similar things. Definitely not a Battlefront II launch situation where the game became pay-to-win. Yeah, I think I stand by what I said before: single player (I mean I guess it impacts sharing your pawn maybe? But again, it's not a competitive or shared multiplayer game, so ), play how you want to play, it seems like a total waste of money to me but if you're rich and for whatever reason it's up your alley, whatever. I think the issue here is the lack of communication over it ahead of launch, and the same went for AC Odyssey, GT7, and of course BFII (compounded by every other problem with how MTXs were integrated into that game). Saying nothing about microtransactions in your game and then having people learn about them for the first time at launch, following a great slate of reviews, is stupidly bad PR and marketing management; we all know how the internet loves to pick on whatever the new hotness is, so why give them that in and make it seem like you're even sleazier by not fessing up to these MTXs existing? Why leave that opening for others to attack? Get ahead of it, you fools! It's not really a great addition to the game from where I'm standing, but if we learned about it 3 months ago in a public way - you know, like during the myriad of trailers, preview events or gameplay reveals? - I doubt you'd see anywhere near as much blowback as we've seen here. Stuff like this seriously makes me question what these marketing teams at publisher's actually do, because it's clearly not keep a finger on the pulse of marketing in the gaming space, that's for sure.

The game was rated yesterday in South Korea, getting a 19+ (or Mature) rating. Interesting. September/October time I guess?

Man, this is such a weird one to watch play out. I think it really emphasises the pressure on early game reception and review scores for a lot of devs now, and how publishers are happy to pull things like this on the sly on launch day (WHAT?!) to manipulate these things. Would be curious to hear Itsuno's and the team's thoughts on this, I mean imagine working on a game for YEARS - for a sequel/reinvention to what was ultimately more akin to a cult classic with a rabid fan base, so a clear passion project - then seeing those reviews flood in, the overwhelming elation carrying you away...and then the conversation doing a 180° soon after because your bosses are greedy bottom feeders. It is a single player game, and I'll always go to bat for playing how you want to play, I need to have a bit of a nose around to see if it's as in your face as something like the GT7 MTXs, but I just don't get the target demo with a move like this – rich people who want to charge through a £70 game just to say they've beaten it/got a particular cool thing? seriously, how big can that market be? Is it worth sinking your game's great press for? I can't imagine it is. The math ain't mathing. It just seems so misguided, and unless they cave under the backlash, I really can't imagine that this bodes well for Monster Hunter Wilds at all. It feels like Capcom is pulling a bit of a PlayStation, where both came back stronger than ever last gen but now seem to be pushing at the boundaries to see what they can get away with. SEGA/Atlus have also been doing the same as of late. Very frustrating to read about, but again, more than anything, I really just hope it isn't getting in the faces of people who just want to get on with playing the game.

The Rising Tide DLC floods Valisthea on 18th April: Guess I know when I'm picking up the DLC then

Pretty huge news but not the slightest big unexpected if you've heard about how terrible Hasbro were during BG3's development: Sven dropped the bombshell at GDC that Larian will not be releasing any DLC or expansions for Baldur's Gate 3, nor will they be releasing Baldur's Gate 4. Per IGN: I'm honestly more surprised that IGN's surprised by this. For those unfamiliar, WotC own the D&D IP which Baldur's Gate is based on, and are part of Habsro – so working with them is part and parcel to any type of new content. The problem is that, per Swen himself, barely anyone at WotC who supported Larian in getting to make BG3 the way they wanted in the first place as part of that initial meeting are even there anymore! This news came days after their GOTY win and just a month and a half after BG3 alone was responsible for a 40% spike in Hasbro's digital revenue. More power to Larian. I can't wait to see what they do next - probably return to Divinity if I had to guess? Though a new IP would really turn heads I feel - and look forward to going back and playing their earlier games, DOSII especially. Me and my friends are deep into Act III of BG3 and are still having a great time (even if it's much more of a technical mess than earlier parts of the game), definitely still got a solo playthrough or two on my mind

Tickets for Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 have been announced as going up at the start of May, and the key art is a thing of true beauty. This next month figuring out if I'm going to go or not is going to be very fun and not at all stressful

In the US ticket sales for the 25th anniversary re-release of The Phantom Menace go on sale tomorrow, and it will include an exclusive look at The Acolyte. Still no word on when and where in the UK these are going to be held, but I'll be shocked (and ready to riot) if the re-release doesn't make it over here

Yes it is a feel-good game, did you even read H-o-T's post?

Great to see this getting such great reviews! I checked out some of the previews yesterday and unfortunately I just don't think it's for me (at least right now), just based on the general lack of direction built into game for quests and things like that. That being said, I've got to applaud them for their character creator and for releasing it separately ahead of the game for people to dive right in at launch. This should be the standard with far more AAA RPGs that have deep character creator systems. One of the most relatable things ever written on N-E feels damn good to see Timmy is still kicking around too, even if it is as a zombie Hope everything's okay, and hope you enjoy the game!

We'll be getting an update on The Rising Tide DLC tomorrow at PAX East, which will also be streamed:

Midori, known for Persona leaks and clearly with an inside track of some sorts at SEGA, has said that this will be coming from Canadian developer Komi Games. Per their home page, they do a lot of porting and support work (work of recent note would be support on Psychonauts 2, netcode for KOFXV and support on Tales from Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition). Considering that they've only got one game under their belt as lead developer (Mighty Fight Federation), they seem a strange choice to head this up.

The release of Vengeance has been moved up one week from 21st June 2024 to 14th June 2024.

Announced back in 2022, we now have a trailer shown off the for the first time during the State of Unreal event at this year's GDC! And, according to Hennig, everything shown is running in realtime.

Yep, that's right. They've said before that it takes place towards the end of the era (100 BBY), too, so I imagine there's going to be some potential connective tissue in places to TPM (32 BBY), which I'm very excited about. Ahem, *Plagueis*

First trailer for The Acolyte, which gets a two-episode premiere when it starts June 4th! And apparently it's back to business as usual with tame and boring Disney+ posters already:

OST is dropping April 10th!