Julius

Deep dive with the devs:

Launch trailer: Reviews are going to be dropping on Monday 26th at 13:00 BST. My expectations are low, but my body is ready

Because in the long-term, this is a game originally labelled as being exclusive to Xbox (on consoles) which is now coming to PlayStation, and so far, I'd argue, the biggest: this game isn't even released yet on Xbox, it's a big IP, and it's AAA. Yes, there's a gap between it releasing on Xbox and PlayStation, yes they still get the game, but announcing this move ahead of launch disincentivises anyone who might have been considering picking up an Xbox because of the exclusivity of the Indiana Jones game (I'm not sure how many people that would be of course, especially considering it's also coming to PC). This isn't the only game to move over to PS5, but I feel like it's a very significant one. Fewer incentives to buy a console generates less desire for people to buy the console. Less people then buy the Xbox. And it's very quickly apparent then where Xbox, at least on the hardware side, ends up in the long-term. That's why this news would matter to people who have an Xbox, and have invested in that ecosystem. Buying a console at launch or early on in the generation is pretty much a vote of confidence in the platform you're picking up - I'm not saying that's how it should be, but that is how it is; "I have confidence that this platform will have the games that I want", and a big part of that may be exclusive games which aren't available on the other platform. Changing strategy midway through the generation the way they have, a huge AAA game for a massive IP like Indiana Jones going from exclusive to releasing on anything - when it might have been a reason you picked up an Xbox in the first place this gen, seeing it was announced just a couple of months into it - and I wouldn't be surprised if Xbox fans might be scratching their heads: if this, and potentially everything else, is heading over to PlayStation, they might feel like they could have got a PlayStation instead. I agree. At the end of the day, though, it's not a two-way street: more and more Xbox published games are coming to PlayStation, and no PlayStation published games are coming to Xbox. I know some people will defend "their" console of choice - I don't really care to do that, and I feel like both have at least been pretty disappointing this gen in terms of first-party games published - but from my perspective I'm thinking more about the people who bought a console with the promise of exclusives which now, well, aren't going to be exclusive. Going into this gen, exclusives were absolutely still the name of the game, and it's why we saw PlayStation announce a new Spider-Man, a new Horizon, and a new God of War before the PS5 released, so for a company to switch up their MO in the middle of a gen I would also argue is anti-consumer (to the people who already own their console).

Say what you might about Xbox's software output, there's no denying that their accessibility hardware initiatives are excellent, and so here's one more: the Xbox Adaptive Joystick. Excellent stuff, really lovely to see Elsewhere for Xbox, the new Series X|S models are now available to pre-order:

New footage of the game out of Gamescom, where hands-on demos are available: Looks really nice still. Maybe a bit concerned the hits look a little...floaty? But we don't even have a release year for it yet, so let it cook I guess

Announced at Gamescom, and might be the highlight. This is being headed up by Tim Miller – who directed the first Deadpool film back in 2016, founded Blur Studio (an amazing VFX studio), and also headed up Love, Death & Robots on Netflix. It will be premiering on December 10th and there will be a total of 15 episodes. Here's the full list of games the series will be covering: A whole lot of big IP there, curious to see which PlayStation IPs get some love – got to imagine Astro is in there, right? Pick of the bunch for me though has to be Armored Core!

Third trailer from Gamescom: That's one creepy crawler

Early 2025 it is! Wild the difference two weeks can make to a release year/window, huh? Technical closed beta October 11th - 20th!

December 9th for Xbox and PC...and Spring 2025 on PS5!

WHAT?! Revealed as the stinger at Gamescom's ONL! Loved the first two, very interested in this

You guys are making me feel pretty good about giving this a pass

Still waiting on the PS5 breakdown it's nice though, with the next few weeks being a bit busy anyways I can wait and see how this has shaped up properly before making an informed purchasing decision. Yep, mental numbers. It's already 4th for all-time concurrent users (1.443m), behind only CS:GO (1.818m), Palworld (2.101m) and PUBG (3.257m), and it released on a Tuesday. Word of mouth and time, not to mention it being a three-day weekend some places this coming weekend...I think has a chance at surpassing Palworld. Third game from 2024 to break into the Top 10 all-time CCU, by the way (the one I've not mentioned is Banana, with 917k), so gaming is also just popping off in general anyways. Kind of shows the untapped potential of the Chinese market in the gaming space, once again, and makes things like the PlayStation China Hero Project make much more sense (even if it does take an age to see those games release). I'm hoping off the back of this that China find some ways to support their game developers, it's clear that there's a lot of talent over there but they seem to all be locked in rooms making gacha games. The reviews were solid enough (typically low-to-mid 80s on Metacritic and OpenCritic), though I'm still finding it hard to get a clear answer on how the game is between its boss fights, which was my big concern going into the game – some reviewers say it's more of a boss rush, others highlight that there are things to seek out between bosses like sub-bosses which those other reviewer's then clearly didn't seek out but instead rushed by, etc., so it seems like I'm not going to get a clear picture on what's going on until I get my hands on it myself.

This edit alone makes the whole thing a worthwhile endeavour:

I have a hunch he will probably have his story finished in novels/comics would love to be wrong though I just can't imagine greenlighting this show set in an entirely new era away from the Skywalker Saga and not having that buy-in and investment for at least two seasons before seeing where it's at, if not completing the entire story. They signed off on this knowing S1 sets up the rest of the show with some fascinating players and didn't back it enough to see that through?! Seems like such a waste

The Acolyte will not be getting a S2, per Deadline. Was it the best Star Wars show? Comfortably not. But by the end of the season, the pieces were in place to explore more interesting dynamics and characters we've been waiting to see come to the screen for a very long time. Some of these characters deserved to have their stories seen through to the end. So, it seems like the very vocal minority once again got exactly what they wanted, once again. I'm currently clinging on to how good a time I had at Celebration last year to remind me that it is simply a minority, because those parts of the fanbase can freaking do one. It's very difficult to get a read on Lucasfilm these days, feels like we're getting to a place with these shows very quickly like we did with the films where things are starting to get a bit on the messy side behind the scenes. For me I don't think this is even a quality thing, just agree to have the story seen through and get back to it in a timely manner – stop reacting to the backlash already. The Mandoverse has gone off the rails and we have no idea if/when it'll pick back up beyond Mando & Grogu (Skeleton Crew will be set in the same period but is clearly going for something a bit different), and everything is radio silent on the follow-up to Ahsoka, even if we know it's in the worls. They've taken a chance to throw us into the High Republic with The Acolyte but not backed it all the way – again, it's comfortably not the best Star Wars has to offer, but it's also not the worst and needed more time and budget than it was given to begin with. The only show which is in a good place right now is Andor, and that's because it was agreed for two seasons from the get-go with a veteran at the helm with a clear plan of what they wanted to do from beginning to end. Andor didn't do great numbers in terms of viewing for a Star Wars show, but it's also comfortably one of the best shows they've put out on Disney+ (and, for my money's worth, the best). Lucasfilm Animation is still the only studio I have faith in getting things out consistently of a decent quality where the story is going to be allowed to be seen through all of the way. We're half a decade into Disney+ era Star Wars now, what a joke this is.

Good. From the outside looking in, this game always seemed too interesting and far too big an IP to not come to PlayStation at some point, but at the same time...man it must suck to an Xbox right now, can't help but feel a bit bad for people who've invested in the ecosystem and their future plans for things to turn out the way that they have. It's to be really bizarre if this is the Xbox game people were talking about being revealed at Gamescom to be ported to PlayStation, mind you, considering that it's not even out yet.

Opening October 2nd! Link to the full Direct: Looks wonderful from what they've shown so far. Some of the highlights for me: • the progression walls of certain franchises/objects, like Mario Kart or the ? Block through the years • the amusingly placed rifle in one of the display cases • the card-playing screen floor you can interact with and play through your phone • the Ultra Machine batting cages with the living room backdrops are hilarious • Punished Miyamoto and the Wall of Death • the silence of the museum staff who are acting like they're being held at gunpoint all the way through the video • the custom play tickets where you can add your own Mii are going to make for really neat keepsakes • the giant controllers you can use to play some games lmao that is amazing

...at least they'll have the music and some stellar boss fights to fit between those windows of potential disappointment I am kind of looking forward to seeing *that* boss fight make some PCs chug, though

The PC version finally arrives...on September 17th! It will be a standard edition (£44.99) and a Complete Edition (£64.99, including the game's Expansion Pass), and the demo is available now! This game's score and boss fights

Delayed indefinitely:

Some for the game have gone up, and they seem surprisingly positive? Main takeaway seems to be that it captures the atmosphere of the original well, but retains some of its more archaic elements (even with the updated combat) and so is a fairly faithful remake? In addition to the new story trailer, Japan also got some new gameplay: Seems I might need to keep a bit of a closer eye on this one than I had been intending to...

Mega Game Trials for four games, which include the full game, have been announced as being available from now through Sunday 25th August for NSO members; the games are Tetris Effect: Connected, PowerWash Simulator, Enter The Gungeon and Cassette Beasts. Pretty neat!

Okay, so PlayStation just put up a video with all of the weapons and mechanics overview rolled into one: Why they couldn't just do that from the start, I don't know, a Gamescom countdown or something I guess

Watched the trailer, and... GOLD/ETHAN/JIMMY IS FINALLY GETTING A CARD?!?!?! That is way more important a Z-A update, now they better hope one of those is a Typhlosion and that full art N's Reshiram looks amazing

Not sure how big a deal spoilers would be for a game like this? Maybe for confirming some of the Bots/franchise reps I guess? But nonetheless: it appears that late-game footage of a dev build has leaked, so search for Astro Bot stuff at your own peril I guess – I'm assuming it's a dev build, anyways, as some people who have seen the footage have said it has an fps counter in the corner and the look of a dev build, so, probably..? But can't say as I haven't checked it out myself