Julius

Wasn't really sure where to put this, but there's been a bit of a shake-up at the top of Nintendo of Europe as President Stephan Bole has stepped down, with Luciano Pereña taking the reins. There have been some other leadership changes made, too. From Nintendo Life: So...does anyone actually remember ever seeing Bole turn up anywhere of note? I remember Shibata used to show his face from time to time such as at the Switch Presentation in January 2017, but can't remember seeing Bole's face anywhere before after looking him up

Feel like it's a tough one to get a read on considering the might of digital sales in the UK these days, not to mention Ubisoft+ Premium having Early Access bundled in, etc. That being said, I'm still a bit surprised. I know they said before that they were ramping up marketing and spending more than they ever have before, and I defended them when they announced it because I didn't think it would pick up until August, but anecdotally, I just haven't seen it. I don't even think it's down to the reviews, though perhaps the Early Access word of mouth has only strengthened the general "mixed bag" outlook on the game (even if I personally still think this game has got off very lightly, all things considered), what with the bugs and it just feeling very uninspired (or, perhaps, inspired by too many different places). I think it's simply a case, honestly, of this not being an Outlaws game which goes all the way (a la GTA), and so it perhaps lacks that appeal when compared to a generally linear game where you get to play as a Jedi with a lightsaber, and not being marketed well enough. Perhaps it's the pricing, too – it's a known quantity that Ubisoft games get steep discounts just a few months after release, and so asking for £70 for a game which has perfectly timed its release to be £30 or less during Black Friday sales was always asking a lot. I'm not sure I'd feel confident in basing this off of this info coming out, but I do also wonder if we've just hit another strange time for Star Wars where the general conversation just isn't there, perhaps with there being too much content all at once. This isn't the first time that Star Wars has released a game so close to a Disney+ show, what with Fallen Order coming out during the initial S1 run of The Mandalorian and Jedi Survivor coming off the back of The Mandalorian S3 last year, but this is the first time it's happened during the summer and it's off the back of a very middling show in The Acolyte. There were other reasons for Solo's unfortunate failure, but reactions to The Last Jedi being so contentious was certainly one of them. Guess we'll just need to wait and see what happens with upcoming Star Wars projects, though there aren't any ready to come out hot on the heels of this. Off the top of my head we have Respawn's strategy game which we know nothing about, Respawn's Jedi trilogy closer (which, let's be honest, will probably not hit until 2026/2027 towards the end of this gen), Eclipse which seems stuck in limbo because Quantic Dream, the KOTOR Remake which seems very unlikely to ever see the light of day, and Amy Hennig's second attempt at a Star Wars game with Skydance. Yeah, not exactly inspiring much confidence in me right now UPDATE:

Kojima has taken up comedy classes since leaving Konami or is this Liquid Kojima..?

Per the PS Blog, a special celebration will be held inside Astro's Playroom in the hours leading up to release: Absolutely love this!

Another one from Katamari Damacy That's the stuff

Watched those previews today and I've got to say, the game is kind of looking gorgeous (overwhelming UEness of some of it aside) and I'm actually pretty happy it's keeping the mechanics and controls very close to the original. Really dig the easy swapping through types of camo too. Especially after playing through certain stealth sections of Outlaws this past week I found myself craving this level of stealth work (and a remake of MGS, of course), I think it's the right route to take with a very faithful remake in this instance rather than taking the REmake route or, perhaps more extreme, the VII Remake project route. I think it if it conserves the strengths of the original game while being faithful to Kojima's original ideas - and I'm really quite pleased to hear about Kojima's name being plastered all over it as well as the team apparently having a lot of respect for Kojima's work - and is basically a pretty, modern take on the game, then I can convince my friends to pick it up – which I think is going to be much easier to do than convince them to pick up the Master Collection. There aren't that many people who play games my age and younger who are willing to go back to games which are two decades old, and I do think this is clearly targeted at them. I also think doing it this way, rather than diving into the REmake methodology, might help garner some trust in Virtuous, because the next game after this to remake is either going to be Metal Gear or Metal Gear Solid (doubt they'll touch Peace Walker because of how different its flow is and goals are, or Ground Zeroes/Phantom Pain stuff because, well, they don't need remakes) and so a solid but faithful Snake Eater remake which gives them the tools and foundation to start making remakes of those games could be a smart move for the franchise with where it's at and also not needing to make wholly original stories which depart from Kojima's works. In terms of keeping the franchise as a whole relevant in this day and age? I honestly think it's probably the most respectful way they can go about it – and worst case, the originals are still there, and are readily available at that. Not saying I'm all-in on it just yet, and I think we need to see more of the game with some raw gameplay footage to instill more confidence (even with these previews we're still seeing a lot of recycled footage from trailers and gameplay from the original to get certain points across) – and with Konami being set to turn up at Tokyo Game Show next month, as well as the PS Blog recently revealing that we'll learn the game's release date by the end of the year ("release date [is] to be revealed later this year."), hopefully we won't find ourselves waiting too long. Fingers crossed, eh?

You just had to drag this back up and hurt me today, huh?

Launch trailer: So close I can nearly taste it really hoping we get some cool team-ups here between the Bots to have some franchises cross streams. Just seen that Playroom has been updated too, guessing that's the final character?

New video on the Still World:

Almost forgot to share, but Maximilian Dood was over the moon about this getting announced: Man, ya never know just how much someone's into Tetris until a collection like this happens, ya know?

Codes are now out in the hands of reviewers, with the review embargo set to lift the day before release on September 5th at 13:00 BST: Bit odd to leave it that late, normally it'd be a cause for concern but PlayStation seem to do it a lot with their big releases so no concern at all here Just 7 days to go!!

Holy heck, this is an actual win for anime, this feels kind of huge and a ringing endorsement for the medium over here. That being said, obviously a calculated move on the BBC's part to try to keep relevant with a younger generation and have them stick by the TV licence. I know the answer would be complex, but I still can't figure out for the life of me why they haven't figured out a subscription for iPlayer Kind of glad to hear this in that it justifies me waiting on the remake, I'm in no real rush when it comes to getting around to One Piece, but at the same time...even if it were lean enough to shed 50%+ of that weight, it'd still take a few decades of entire 25 episode seasons releasing annually for the remake to catch up. Which is just gross to think about – I'm just texting a friend about this news and the state of One Piece came up, and he (rightly, but scarily) pointed out that the remake isn't really for us, but the next generation, if not our grandchildren. I'll easily be double the age that I am now when the remake is finished, assuming it's seen through to completion. Which just... *existential crises intensify* Anywho, it's kind of mental just how much One Piece has going on right now. The manga's still ongoing, the original anime is still ongoing, the Netflix live-action adaptation is ongoing AND the remake seems set to start up next year. As someone who hasn't even attempted to get into OP yet - purely because the commitment is outright intimidating - I'm looking forward to it!

Hot off the heels of Outlaws, I re-watched Solo: A Star Wars Story tonight for the very first time. I kind of loved it. Look, I've got problems with it. I don't need or want everything explained when it comes to Star Wars - the dice, The Falcon, the Kessel Run, Han meeting Chewie...good lord does the list build up quite quickly - and so could've done without those elements of the film; oh, the burning eye roll into the back of my skull I had in store for the film when I got to the "you're travelling alone? Then we'll anoint you Han...Solo". But? It's just good dumb fun which doesn't take itself too seriously, by the Force do we need some of that for the franchise right about now (and hopefully Skeleton Crew can deliver). Alden Ehrenreich honestly crushed it as Han, it's impossible to not see how much time and effort he put into picking up some of Harrison Ford's portrayal of Han. Emilia Clarke was excellent as Qi'ra. Donald Glover nailed Lando when introduced, lost it for a bit, then came back around to it at the end. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was freaking hilarious as L3. The film is just genuine fun, and at times, genuinely funny – it is BY FAR the most light-hearted live-action Star Wars film to date. It also just kind of looks visually spectacular and puts so many of Lucasfilm's recent Disney+ efforts to absolute shame, and I think it's such a waste that this film got sent out to die the way that it did. Musically, I'm a bit mixed on it? John Powell mostly did an excellent job, like it's not easy at all to come into Star Wars off the back of Williams and need to come in and write a love theme? And while I don't think it quite hits the heights of Han Solo and The Princess or Across the Stars, my goodness is the Han and Qi'ra love theme just absolutely brilliant, it's got that very early Hollywood feel to it down pat. But, it's just very confusing as a lover of the Star Wars themes to hear so many return here, and I need to listen through the OST and maybe watch the film a couple of times to tell if they recorded new versions of classic themes or if they're just lifted straight from older recordings, because they're used so weirdly – and so I imagine they're lifted from old recordings and edited in because of how messy this film's production turned out and how down to the wire it all was. Rebel Fanfare when Han sits in the Falcon hotseat for the first time? Perfect. Use of the Star Wars theme for him and The Falcon throughout? Not really it. Blaring Death Star part from A New Hope for when the Death Star turns up being used to represent a measly Star Destroyer? Not it at all. Hodge-podge of original trilogy dogfight themes (TIE Fighter Attack, The Asteroid Field, etc.) for a chase and dogfight sequence? I could've gone without it. Honestly, I think I need to go back through with a fine-tooth comb and pick some of it apart to really figure out how I feel about it. The algorithm was listening in either way, because after finishing the film I was recommended this wonderful effort on YouTube: Honestly, I'm now really gutted that we've not had a Han show and that the Lando show is seemingly on ice, especially after Outlaws and getting some more onscreen Crimson Dawn representation, it felt like they'd set up a really intriguing plot which at least deserved the cast returning for one season of a Disney+ show. Really solid 7/10 from me for Solo, it was such a blast, and I wouldn't be surprised if I re-watched it again soon having just now only watched it a second time. Now, do I keep this post-Outlaws train rolling with rewatches of Mando S1/S2, Book of Boba Fett, Andor and/or (heh) Rogue One...

Finished this yesterday afternoon with 29½ hours on the clock. I hate to say it, but I don't think it improved all that much towards the end, and so my verdict on the game by and large remains the same: even with low hopes and expectations going in, it's really hard to not come away disappointed. A lot of the positives that are there I've already gone over: the sights and the sounds and the music, the VIBE of this game is spot on (as has been the case for every AAA Star Wars game since the Disney buyout in fairness), the game is visually stunning at times and I took a lot of screenshots where I'm just in awe at some of the art direction, and I'm especially impressed when it comes to realising planets already presented in other media like Kijimi and Tatooine, not to mention just how freaking fantastic some of these space sections look. Nix is an absolute S-tier companion, I love the little guy, and ND-5 has come out of this as probably my favourite Separatist droid across Star Wars (even if only going by his former employer)? And is honestly in the running for one of my favourite droids in the franchise – who knew a commando droid in a trench coat which is and does everything you'd expect him to be and do would land so well? Sabacc was really fun and took me by surprise, I'm genuinely going to be looking into sets to ask for for my birthday from my brother and sister. I absolutely ADORED some of the Imperial Base sneaking around and MGS-knockoff feelings going on. I could go on and on, but honestly, there's not much new to say here: a lot of the good I've already spoken about. And I've talked a lot about the bad, too, and I don't really want to go the route of chewing everyone's ear off - much as I would like to go off about this game, it just doesn't feel very productive - but perhaps I can summarise similar to how I did a friend today how I feel about the open world in Outlaws. The best way I can describe this game's use of its open world is to imagine a very casual gamer who looks at mechanics at a surface level and enjoys modern open worlds, and has done for the last 10-15 years. Red Dead Redemption. GTA. Ghost of Tsushima. They enjoy the climbing and treasure hunting in games like Uncharted. They really liked the Nemesis System from the Middle-earth: Shadow of games. Heck, maybe even if only a little bit related, they've enjoyed raiding some military bases in Metal Gear Solid games in the past. Okay, well now imagine this person gets transported back to 2005 and describes the future of open world games to a game developer from memory, not realising the fundamentals and inner workings beyond the surface level of what made some of those open worlds and their mechanics and systems so great, or the more linear parts of, say, bases in Metal Gear Solid V and the treasure hunting and climbing around from Uncharted, or the Nemesis System from WB games. That developer they talked to? They go on to create a game like Star Wars Outlaws: kitted out in everything that's going to be big in open worlds, except? The tech isn't there, and neither is the forethought to match the ambition. That is how this game's open world feels: it feels regressive for open world styled games, like it came out 10 or 15 years ago and hasn't learned any of the lessons the rest of the industry has learned since. I know there are people here at N-E who see an open world game and their interest dips, well okay, this is basically the embodiment from my perspective of so much of what those people think is wrong with open world games. It goes beyond being a formula, it is totally unambitious and lazy in its use of its open world, falling back on tenets of yesteryear's open world game design and even then still falling short. To speak to the last few hours with the game, they were by far the buggiest for me during my playthrough, I probably had to reload a save every 25 minutes or so, whether it be for an audio glitch or being unable to interact with things in the world, or the game just getting stuck on a loading screen. So that sucked. The story ended up being...fine? Just fine. If entirely predictable, I saw almost every twist and turn coming from a mile away, and as a Star Wars fan...just, I was rolling my eyes at times when something would happen which reminded me of one other particular story we've had from the new Star Wars games because I'm just going "oh, this, again? Really?" and there were certainly one or two moments where I was half way to my jaw dropping before catching myself and going "you really just couldn't help yourselves, huh? You couldn't resist, could you?" There are one or two lines from the game I do like, such as thus one in particular which feels like a response to Jyn's "Rebellion's are built on hope" like from Rogue One, something to the effect of "Rebellion's can't just be built on hope" which felt like a really nice and welcome take, but so many of these characters are very one note and forgettable. And the ones who aren't, and are somewhat interesting? Outside of Nix and ND-5, they're all pre-existing characters, and so I feel like a lot of the interest in what's going on with them is built into their character. I did mention it before, but this game does pull off one cameo really well; honestly, it's more of an Easter Egg in the sense of being an ACTUAL, "hey, pay some attention or you'll miss this" Easter Egg, rather than the modern day "every nod and wink counts as one" Easter Egg - which I just adored. Reminded me of cameos in the older Star Wars game like Republic Commando, when you see a familiar face but don't really get the chance to interact, and it makes the galaxy feel oh so much bigger. Also, I haven't touched on it, and maybe it caught me off guard because I haven't seen this in a long time in such an obvious way as this: pre-rendered, game trailer level cutscenes? Really? In 2024? Maybe it's something they do with their other games, but it's bizarre for me to see, very jarring to experience even if it did look cool as hell. And I touched on them not using the Imperial March before, they also don't use Jabba's leitmotif from Return of the Jedi at all, which was just...bizarre? Anyways, to wrap it up, I said I'd score this game before and sticking to my word, I'd give it a 4/10. Its story is inoffensive if safe; its characters overwhelmingly one-note and forgettable; its open world is buggy, wasted, unambitious and ultimately a lazy hodge-podge of the open worlds and modern classics of yesteryear with no grasp on what made those games great - and I'm not being hyperbolic here, but I'm picky enough with the open world games I play, and have made sure I've played few enough of them, to definitively say that this is the worst one I've ever played through. I think the real killing blow for me is realising in retrospect that I wouldn't have played this game beyond the 5-hour mark if not for it being a Star Wars game, and that heavily tips the scales away from my glowing praise of this game's vibes and atmosphere, as well as the scattering of other positives I've mentioned in this thread, which is to say that my love of Nix and the game's vibes are what is bumping that score up to a 4. My advice for anyone who hasn't picked this up yet is to wait for a sale even if you really want to play this...or just don't, save your time and your money because you're not missing out on a great, good, or even an okay game in my eyes – just Nix and some solid Star Wars vibes.

Lonely Rolling Star is a freaking jam Caught me completely by surprise, what a wonderful track! (yes I'm playing Katamari Damacy)

Devolver have released a special video for the game revealing that it will be getting fully localised in 11 languages, including a dub in each of those languages for the game's narrator! This is so cool! They even listed the VAs and credited those who worked on the localisations in the video description In other news, the physical edition for the game had pre-orders go live yesterday, which are aiming for a 21st February 2025 release date:

Trophy list is now live: I've avoided taking a look at it myself for now, but from some of the reactions it seems like it might be a very doable and fun list. Looking forward to making this my first Plat of the year!

I prefer this artist's rendition of the Pro to the "Slim", at least. Gills are cool. The potential for a Pro to release without a disc drive is absolutely insane to me, I get it as a cost-cutting reason on both the side of the consumer and of the manufacturer, but when I hear about a "Pro" model I'm thinking about the best version of that thing – which, if this thing is only available as a digital console you can add a disc drive to, it would not be. Rest of the information seems in line with what we were all thinking, I think: basically just copy and paste the process of the PS4 Pro and slap 2024 on there instead of 2016 and you're good to go. I'm curious, based on what has been said I can guess, but is anyone here thinking about getting one of these around its potential launch? I'd assume that would be in November in time for the holidays. I'm kind of curious to see if the "Slim" gets an official price cut or not by then, seems very unlikely though with the price increases in Japan. We've said it before but not only can I not see myself buying a Pro anytime soon, presumably with only 3 years or so left of the gen, unless my PS5 kicks it, I doubt I'll be picking one up at all. That money can go to Nintendo for their next console but even without that at the back of my mind, it feels like this gen has only really started with the recent moves for some new releases to be current gen exclusive, and the PS5 has felt untapped for me in terms of realising its potential outside of Final Fantasy XVI for me, that's the only game where I've been concerned about whether my console would be able to handle it based on visuals and the crazy particle effects...and it did. Maybe my mind changes if/when we FINALLY see whatever the big-hitting likes of Naughty Dog, Bluepoint, Sucker Punch and Santa Monica Studio have next in store for us – with the Pro release coming up, obviously none of these will be ready for launch, but I really think more than ever that PlayStation need to be looking to make a promise in their next show of what is to come, and have a bunch of new and visually stunning games in the works which will "run best on PS5 Pro." I'm not just saying that because I selfishly want more games from their first parties, but unless they purposely throttle any of their upcoming titles on the base PS5 console, I fail to see what's pushing the hardware – certainly not the likes of Wolverine or Death Stranding 2, which have been in the oven for ages now anyways. Of much more concern to me is that there still hasn't been a peep from anyone about any 30th anniversary goodies being on the horizon WHAT ARE YOU DOING PLAYSTATION DO THE THING AND TAKE MY MONEY

A bit over 26 hours in now and according to the PS5 hub I am 85% of the way through the game's story. I'm one or two missions away from maxing out my reputation with the fourth and final syndicate, Crimson Dawn, and besides that I have just a handful of missions I want to see through to the end alongside the main story (namely, that Jabba quest everyone made a fuss about being a pre-order bonus pre-launch and the Sabacc line, I'm really having a blast playing Sabacc and I'll 100% be picking up a Sabacc play set in the future). Nix is still being his adorable self, and there have been a couple of cameos - some more involved than others, and one in particular I'm over the moon over (unless they turn up again later on?) as it's handled in the way that I personally love, which is more of a "blink and you'll miss it", "make sure to keep your eyes wide open" type of cameo. I can see this being completed before I reach the 30 hour mark, honestly. However, there has been a twist in the tale of the game's early access launch on PS5 specifically which seems like it risks putting my entire playthrough at jeopardy: Ubisoft are asking players to install a new update for the game, V1.000.002, due to potential game-breaking bugs – and this involves RESTARTING the game from scratch. My reaction upon seeing this knowing I'm in the endgame: Now, maybe it's a bit disingenuous to say that players paid the £90+ or whatever it was for the Gold or Ultimate Editions of the game, as their price is roughly equivalent to that of the base game + season pass, and there's no doubt that is what might legally cover Ubisoft's asses here. Goes without saying that this is kind of disgusting and absurd, and in my case I've taken time off work to play this during a well-timed Bank Holiday week. I remember seeing on the game's main menu around 15 hours in (reloading after a crash, of course!) something about "playing the newest version" but it wouldn't let me select it, I checked for an update but nothing, and so far seems to be chugging along I'll be avoiding the update if I can help it, during my playthrough my game has kept disconnecting from Ubisoft Connect during short breaks, so maybe that's helped me to get by too? Certainly didn't help when I had a crippling audio glitch where what can be best described as "droid background processing noise from Star Wars" was playing during cutscenes, fights, etc., and even loading up a save wouldn't do it, I had to hard quit. Anyways, there's definitely a conversation to have here I think about these early access types of deals which have been growing in popularity. Personally I knew it was a bit of a risk - same way I do when a game arrives early, heck oftentimes Day 1 patches aren't even enough! - but, well, a new Star Wars game releasing during a week I was planning to take off from work anyways never happens, and worst case I could've found something else to do or play. For now, honestly, my mind is kind of just stuck on the fact that I find myself almost needing to finish the game in my next sitting with how things stand – no, I absolutely won't be playing this game again if the save is lost, so it definitely feels like a bit of a race against the clock. Which is to say:

Reports for threatening behaviour (but seriously start running @drahkon)

Careful now @drahkon, H-o-T sounds like he's on the verge of an existential crisis here

Monthly games for September: Sure, I'll take Little Nightmares II and add it to my list of potentials for October

Per Gematsu, it is coming to "all the current consoles" as well as PC; I'll update the thread with tags once we get specifics, but I interpret that as it coming to the Switch as well.

Feels to me like the game has got even buggier since yesterday; in the last 24 hours, I've had three hard crashes and an endless loading screen. At least two of those, though, were down to trying up a menu just after a cutscene – maybe it's an issue with the load-in? Thoughts generally unchanged just finishing up on the third planet, on the verge of reaching max rank with the Hutt Cartel, so then it's the fourth and I imagine a finale not too long after considering we're assembling a team spread across these planets, as well as dragging up my rating with Crimson Dawn. According to the PS5 itself I'm 71% through the game, so I imagine I'll have it wrapped up by the end of tomorrow unless something comes up. Not quite sure if I'll be fully upgrading The Trailblazer after all, seems like I'll be running between spots to buy upgrades and I'm fine with how my ship has turned out anyways. Yellow exhausts, silver hull and all