Julius

Glen, I'm lighting the beacons. It's time. (also FireRed and LeafGreen because it's the 20th anniversary please&ty no seriously it's fine to skip the GB/GBC games just hurry up and re-release the GBA ones already)

Nintendo's earnings report dropped this morning for Q3, covering the period of 1st October 2023 - 31st December 2023. The Big Takeaways The Nintendo Switch across its different SKUs sold 7.14 million units this past quarter, bringing sales for the FY up to 13.98 million units, meaning that the total lifetime sales of the Nintendo Switch now stands at 139.6 million units. Total software sales for the platform now stand at 1.2 billion units following software sales of 163.95 million units year-to-date. The Switch is now the best-selling system ever in Japan; with 33.34 million units sold, it has surpassed both the DS (32.99M) and GB/GBC (32.47M). Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has again seemingly all but confirmed that news on the Switch's successor isn't far away; per Bloomberg, while the existing Nintendo Switch will be Nintendo's "main business" heading into 2024 (as should be expected if its successor launches in the latter part of the year), he shared that the company's plans for the next fiscal year will be shared at its next earnings briefing. I think that gives us a bit of a rough timeline for when to expect us news on the Switch's successor, with the financial year wrapping up on 31st March 2024 and the results to be shared soon after during the subsequent investor's meeting. In terms of software sales figures to highlight, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now sold 60 million units sold (!!!) with a total of 60.58 million units; Pokémon Scarlet & Violet have sold 24.36 million units, making them the 3rd best-selling Pokémon games ahead of Gold & Silver (23.7M), and behind only Sword & Shield (26.17M) and Red, Green & Blue (31.38M); Pikmin 4 has reached 3.33 million units sold; Super Mario Bros. Wonder sold 11.96 million units between its launch on 20th October 2023 and the end of last year, and Super Mario RPG sold 3.14 million units between its launch on 17th November 2023 and the end of last year. There have been a total of 24 million-seller titles on the Switch year-to-date (17 of which are Nintendo titles, and 7 published by third parties). Top 10 Best-selling Switch titles Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 60.58M Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 44.79M Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 33.67M Breath of the Wild - 31.61M Super Mario Odyssey - 27.65M Pokemon Sword/Shield - 26.17M Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - 24.36M Super Mario Party - 20.34M Tears of the Kingdom - 20.28M New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 17.20M

To no-one's surprise: the demo expected to drop following the game's dedicated trailer has been confirmed by the trailer showing up on the PS Store a day early. Man, PlayStation reeeeeeeeally need to get a handle on the PS Store before the next Showcase rolls around. Important question, then! Who here is going to play the demo, and who plans to wait for the full release?

Phil Spencer has commented, planning a business update event for next week: The only reason I can think to make us wait a full week is so that they can finalise some of the things they thought they wouldn't need to for another 2-3 months. It's the right call if they get the messaging right and everything is explained, but that's a long time to wait. But holy crap it's happening.

FINALLY!!! I've been on the fence about starting Dragon Ball for ages, and I'd honestly given up hope of it coming over here, and yet here we are tying into the Year of the Dragon is a sublime piece of marketing, too. I'll start with Dragon Ball, but what's the general vibe on watching Z vs watching Kai? I see a lot of discussion about it, so curious if anyone here has a strong preference they'd like to push wondering if I'd be missing out on much by cutting out the filler and going with Kai?

The idea of being able to Platinum games like Gears makes me shudder, it feels super strange. This timeline is getting weirder all the time. But also, how could I not buy some of these titles for the sheer weirdness of it all? Yeah, this is a great shout. I'd be curious to see if Rare releases specifically got physical releases (there's just that vibe to their back catalogue, just seems to slot in perfectly with that Nintendo vibe) if they were to come over, and also if they only came over to Nintendo consoles and not PlayStation. It just seems like the smart move for curation: Nintendo gets some Rare games, PlayStation gets the games like Starfield which are likely going to be too much of a hassle to get on Switch 2.

The list continues to grow: Gears of War is apparently being considered (reported by Jeff Grubb). So the list of games people are touting as being in the discussion to come to other platforms (with their original sources, or as close I could get to it) is currently standing at: Obviously, some, like Hi-Fi Rush, seem to be much further along than others, what with more hard evidence being found since that initial news drop by NateDrake. And some of these are going to be bogus or early on in discussion, but still, that seems to be the list for now. But obviously, people are saying there's more to come. Feels like I'm watching people dance on someone's grave, this all feels pretty surreal (and wrong). And Xbox currently seem to have no intention in butting in to take control of the narrative.

I've definitely seen bottlenecks on more than six screens and I'm less than halfway through the game, so that's definitely not true. So we agree. Don't recall saying it does, just saying that it doesn't leave a great first impression and that it's a shame that the performance problems persist to this day. Pretty objective performance issues, by the way. It's also, I think, the only slight negative in my very first post about the game, besides the depth of field perhaps being turned up a bit too high and being disappointed by the lack of options in the settings to tone this down? I've mentioned performance issues when they're noticeable in pretty much every other game I've posted about on here for years, typically in first impressions posts, so, sorry, this is a first for me. The rest of my post is filled with praise, and I'm having a great time with it. I definitely can't say that for every game I've made first impressions posts for. Goodness knows what the reaction is going to be if I talk about something more subjective, like not enjoying a dungeon, some boss fight, or some other aspect of the game maybe I'll just keep my thoughts to myself until I'm done with the game rather than leave impressions as I go through as I normally like to do.

I haven't, but yeah, as @Ike says, not first-party. As he also said: Sure, it's developed by Grezzo, I'm still playing the game and don't think I've seen their name mentioned yet Still, though, there's plenty more incentive for a Zelda game - and the first Zelda game released following Breath of the Wild - to run well than the is for a Pokémon game, though, not to mention that it's a remake of a Game Boy game. I'm just surprised that this release will turn 5 years old later this year and that it still has these performance issues

Oh, nah, busy weekend. By the time I started to see the news drop it had already ballooned, and when I checked back in a few hours later it had grown some legs and feet, too it's kind of crazy to see that there's constant news getting added to the story, though, and every single bit - true or not - seems more damaging than the last, and calls for clarification from Xbox even more. I'm also not a huge fan about this seemingly stemming from a disgruntled employee who isn't happy with these plans, it just leaves a bad taste. I totally get it, but this story is burying Xbox alive right now, despite not really being a move I'd question if I were on their side unless I cared about the whole "it's us vs them" of the console wars. Either way, if Xbox were smart, I think they'd address this by Wednesday at the latest. There's no way they can afford to wait as long as they had previously planned. Anyways, away from all this, Final Fantasy XIV Online is going to need both a Game Pass subscription and a XIV Online subscription to play the full release. Considering that PlayStation Plus isn't needed to play XIV Online on PlayStation and that this would benefit Square Enix in virtually no way, seems like Xbox would be the reason for this being the case. This is after people have waited YEARS for the game to come to the platform. Rough weekend for Xbox, huh?

I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who bought an Xbox this gen, I remember saying not too long back that the time to make a drastic move like this (be it shifting away from consoles or exclusives) should be at the start of the gen, not halfway through one. Not the loud ones who flame the console wars, mind. I was listening to some old gaming podcasts the other day and they were talking about how at the start of the generation there's excitement around the promise of the console and the games to come, sure, but picking one up early, it's also like proudly backing a horse and the rest of the generation is the console manufacturer trying to prove you were right in your decision. Hopefully this opens some eyes up to Microsoft and Xbox, though, because at the end of the day this is a multinational company that doesn't give a damn. Very curious to see how this is received if and when it becomes official public knowledge, because if this early uproar in response to the leak is anything to go by, man is this not going to be received well. Got to imagine they pull the trigger earlier on that update now the news is out there. They'd be fools to sit on this for a few more months as was planned. This bit to me screams that Starfield didn't move the needle for Game Pass and that they're happy to down tools in the console fight and just pick up the cheque. I, for one, am shocked, as I'm sure we all are, that a stagnating subscription service failed to get more people onboard with a game which wasn't received overwhelmingly well. I mean, as a business, it's hard to blame them. We've all said all along that taking guys like Bethesda and making them platform exclusive on the smallest platform was a stupid idea. Don't bother bringing Game Pass to PlayStation, just sell the games there at full price, then sell Game Pass off the back of the games being rolled in and maybe being "Xbox first" - make them exclusive for a few months, if Switch 2 has Game Pass then have them there too (via Game Pass of course), before releasing them on PlayStation. The biggest risk I think is to realise your responsibilities then pivot from that of a console manufacturer first and foremost to that of a publisher and subscription service provider: don't be stupid and bring games out in a timely manner with timed releases so that everything in a calendar year can be out by the time GOTY conversations start in November/December. For example, let's say Indiana Jones (I don't know if they make the pivot this year so this is hypothetical) does make it out this year and everything was out in the open and set up about Game Pass and multiplatform publishing, and that for the sake of discussion, Switch 2 is already out there. You bring the game to Game Pass in October - Xbox, PC and Switch 2 - and then, depending on the release calendar, assuming the game gets nominated for awards, either time the release on PlayStation with the TGA nominations dropping OR shadow drop the game the day of the TGAs (which you can do now you're dropping physical media) to reap that buzz after your nom/win. I also can't help but wonder if this has anything at all to do with why Blade and some other game announcements didn't have Xbox branding plastered all over them during recent events like the TGAs? The news that they're thinking about Indy being multi-plat makes me wonder. Yeah, agree with this. Unless they make a Steam Deck sort of transition they sound seriously done with this whole thing. Along similar lines, them giving up on physical games is going to make distribution a breeze, because I can see them going all-digital on everything but things like Call of Duty for now, but having that be all-digital too by the end of the gen. The honours...in terms of starting a topic or updating the console tags on certain topics about certain games? I'll wait. We were dead certain xCloud was coming to Switch half a decade ago and it seems like that's only just now about to come to fruition. I'm very curious to see what the timing is on this rollout if there's truth to it, and I'm also very curious to see what they want to bring over. Forza Motorsport, for instance, might clash too directly with Gran Turismo, but nothing comes close to Forza Horizon on PlayStation right now when it comes to that type of racing game. It's going to take some smart curation, that's for sure. I'm actually scared about what this means for PlayStation too, not because I'm worried about them making moves to make more acquisitions than they might have otherwise, or to take advantage of the market in some way, but simply because lack of competition is bad - very bad - in a space like this. We've already seen them take their foot off the throttle a bit this gen in a number of ways, but if they suddenly didn't have another box to compete with AND had some of Xbox's games coming to their platform? If nothing else, it begs for them to become complacent. I don't really want to see how that would play out. Also, as an aside: anyone else find it interesting that Jim Ryan is stepping down to retire around the same time all of this is going on? Yeah, yeah, it's a retirement and he's not getting Lucius Fox'd, but still...

The Last of Us Part II | 2020 I hadn't returned to The Last of Us Part II since I rolled credits on it back in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when I sprinted through the game in just a handful of days following its launch (it released on a Friday; it was complete the Monday night). The game, at that time, and at that pace, took a toll on me that I don't think any other story has; it was gruelling, exhausting, and so viscerally cruel. I struggled to sleep when I was playing it, I didn't play any game alone by myself for weeks following it, and when I think back to that time, while so much of the lockdown period was a blur, there is a bottomless pit of nothingness in my mind when it comes to the weeks that followed my time with the game. When the Remastered version of the game was announced towards the end of last year - the need for which I think can still be debated - I found myself in a different place with the series. I had replayed the first game countless times, even on some of the higher difficulties, and my time spent revisiting the game had solidified my thoughts and feelings that it was a masterpiece both as a game and as a story; there just aren't that many holes to poke in The Last of Us, when it comes to its writing, its gameplay, and it is still one of the best-paced stories in gaming over a decade since it first released. I loved the HBO adaptation (for the most part). I became as about intimately familiar with the first game as I feel I reasonably could. All of this meant that one overwhelming truth clarified for me over the last couple of years: for me, Part II never had a hope in hell of living up to its predecessor. No chance. Zero. The cards weren't just stacked against it, the entire casino was against it. And that's before we even begin to consider just how damaging the hack and subsequent leaks leading up to release were. As the release of Remastered approached, and with the game already on my shortlist of games to revisit for the year to revisit, parse through, and clarify my own feelings on the experience, it quickly became apparent that this was the time to do so. But, for the first time when revisiting a story, I knew I had to challenge myself by leaning on the game's structure to pace myself and not get dragged down by it again; thankfully, I can say I'm fine, with credits rolling on the game over half a week ago. Am I still reflecting on it and processing some of those heightened moments of emotion and tension? Sure. Is it still heavy as hell? Absolutely. Have I managed to clarify how I think and feel about it, my main aim going into the game this time around? Yep. I think that it's a masterpiece. Which makes revisiting my 2020 Gaming Diary entry on the game force a chuckle out of me, because my general attitude towards the game and so many of my points of praise remain the same. This game is still exhausting. Unrelenting. Draining. Its performances are second to none, with special mention reserved for Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Shannon Woodward and Ian Alexander; its writing by Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross incredibly ambitious (though perhaps overreaching and a bit on-the-nose and repetitive at times); its score masterfully composed by Santaolalla and Mac Quayle; its animation work, visual design, lighting, sound design, and so many other of its technical facets all still best-in-class (and, I think it's easy to argue, still the best in class, despite being halfway through a new generation of consoles and having seen a spate of wonderful AAA feasts in realistic settings release since); its endless list of accessibility features still undeniably best-in-class; the physics, those ropes; its cutscenes (framing, composition, timing) all spot on, and I have to highlight their utilisation in transitions allowing players to not see a loading screen outside of jumping to a particular point or reloading after a game over state, because it leans on the "crawl/squeeze through this space while we load up the next" only a handful of times in the entire game, despite it plaguing the industry in an overbearingly noticeable way in the vast majority of AAA games released before and since. The story also had much more levity than I remembered, though I can't really blame myself for forgetting that, with how heavy it can get. As much as I enjoyed it before, I have to mention that this time around the gameplay really gripped me - I'm not sure if it's a case of just getting better at games, wanting to test the game's limits, playing the first game on higher difficulties or a combination of all three - and, I've got to say, the moment-to-moment gameplay makes this probably, for me, the best third-person shooter...ever? At least that I've played; some of those combat encounters blow away any encounter in the first game (and still does, given how little they changed in the remake). It's also the best stealth-action game not directed by someone called Hideo Kojima. The funnier thing to me, though, is that all of my criticisms still read as being spot on, too; in fact, revisiting the game this time has me doubling down on pretty much all of them. This game is long, with its pacing is shaky at times, downright screeching to a halt at others, and it's the pacing, for me, which is probably the most noticeable and biggest step down from the first game to the second. Areas are too wide open at almost every point in the game which isn't a setpiece, and in a world as dangerous as the one found in these games, you can spend a whole lot of time - too much time - going from house to house scouring the place for supplies; this extends to and compounded by the crazy number of things to collect in the game. Starting a QTE to move something that's blocking a door or to yank on a chain points out to the player that the area can't be returned to once you go through, and so it takes you out of the game by reminding you that it is one, and I often found myself backing out to look around some more before carrying on. There's an open wide section early on in the game, the inclusion of which I don't mind because it's a great way to break the game's linearity up a bit and allow for some proper exploration, but there are one or two areas you frustratingly can't return to if you miss something while looking around (and the game's auto-save only takes up one slot, which sucks, so if you miss something you're just out of luck), which further compounds being meticuolous and very slowly scouring places for supplies. There are one or two times where I encountered a funny animation glitch, like Ellie just getting caught in a loop of restarting the same animation while climbing over something after clambering out of water, and while this is probably the best example of nitpicking I've got, when you're as ambitious and as realistic-looking as this game is, yes, it does take you out when things go a little bit wrong. I think what changed my experience this time around was the clear intent to lean on what I knew about the game's structure rather than to sprint through, which is arguably the best way to go through the first game, but in Part II it only serves to compound how noticeable some of the pacing issues are. I want to speak to some of the story beats and the pacing a bit more than I've allowed myself to on here before, so I'll do so in the below spoiler tag; obviously, avoid this if you haven't played through the game yourself yet and are planning to, but if you aren't planning to, I think this will probably give a much greater insight to what my biggest issues with the game are. I also want to talk a bit about what I think they could have done differently to address this, and while I could go on endlessly about this, I've tried (that being the key word here) to keep it short, but I want to address the relationship between the duties of a storyteller and the one experiencing the story, too. Also, if I'm going to highlight the game's visuals, I guess I ought to showcase them. In 2013, The Last of Us delivered on its promise to drive narratives in video games forward, with a game which transcended the boundaries between game and film - arguably, some might argue, for the first time in the history of the medium. In 2020, The Last of Us Part II delivered on the promise to drive narratives in video games forward once again, this time in a manner not nearly as universally beloved or as functionally flawless, but purely founded on its ambition. If nothing else, it's hard to not come away from Part II this second time around with a newfound respect for the risks Naughty Dog took with this game, but more than that, despite its flaws, I think Part II deserves the same respect as the first game, be it because of its superb gameplay, its ambitious story, or its timeless - and unfortunately also seemingly always timely - message around the importance of letting go, empathy, and the cyclical nature of violence begetting vengeance, and vengeance begetting further violence. I think Part II is a masterpiece, and I think with this replay, it might have just cemented itself as one of my favourite games and experiences with a story in any medium.

And there it is: the existence of The Answer has been datamined and seems to be part of an upcoming Persona 3 Reload Expansion Pass. Very curious on the release timing of this, if it's coming this year my instinct would be to say it's a summer announcement with a release in autumn...but Metaphor ReFantazio is scheduled for an autumn release, so maybe it's announced and dropped in the summer?

Trophy list has leaked: Nothing too major to glean from what I've seen someone else say, other than telling us what the max level is and how many chapters there are, but it might be time to get those spoiler filters ready if that's how you plan on rolling, especially with the game in the hands of reviewers.

Just finished watching Grounded II, which released on Friday: Think that's the first actual acknowledgement we've had of Part III being in the works, and this was shot almost a year ago. Anyways, man, some of that really hit hard. Especially after finishing Part II for the first time since launch the other night – but I'll speak to that more at another time. I do just want to briefly speak about No Return while I'm here, which I checked out during and briefly after my playthrough. It's awesome. I love the gameplay in Part II, and well, it's more opportunities to experience that awesome gameplay...but while I love it, it has to be one of the weirdest pack-in modes in a game like this. It highlights the need to play through the story first to avoid being spoiled by characters and enemies turning up in No Return...but I seriously struggle to see how anyone could play No Return after Part II. It's one of those games where credits roll and I'm done with it – I played No Return more while in a party with friends and on a bit of a lower difficulty than I did after actually having completed the game! A very strange experience. Anyways, yeah. No Return is 100% getting co-op by the end of the year, I'm betting on it. It is screaming out for it.

The game's review embargo is set to end on 22nd Feb at 09:00 ET (that's 14:00 GMT), a full week before the game's release. The game is also now in the hands of critics/journalists. Seems like they're pretty confident, huh? Which is good, because I can't wait

Not to get caught up on it too much, as I'm having a great time with the game, but I'd be surprised if their intention was for him to get caught on a tree off-screen and snap to you like this: I mean, I could be wrong having not played the original, but it certainly doesn't look good if that was their intention

Well, it's only been a year and a half...so I finally decided to boot it up for the first time this afternoon got up to and completed Key Cavern, not sure I'll sink more time into it today, but I wanted to offer up some quick thoughts: man, this game just oozes charm. I love the art style, the soundtrack so far has been A-tier (bordering on S-tier at times with certain tracks, and there's still plenty of time to hear a lot more!), the world's inhabitants are really funny, emotive, and just that little bit quirky but what's really getting me is the writing. It's just so darn funny. 'Its a bookshelf.' > [next text box] 'What? You could see that? OK.' there is some noticeable jank to this game at times – obviously the frame rate goes without saying (still not fixed, so guess at best we're holding out for a Switch 2 patch? Maybe?) but things like enemies clipping, BowWow's chain stretching off the screen and then him just teleporting right next to you, landing on the gaps between holes, etc., I'm weirdly getting Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl vibes from this at times purely from a remake quality perspective; what's underneath the hood is great, but there's a lot of weirdness going on for what - on the surface, at least - doesn't look like that demanding of a game. This is already pretty noticeably the jankiest Nintendo first-party game I've personally played. along similar lines: that depth of field at times is freaking insane. The general lack of options overall in the settings is actually really disappointing for a remake which, at least so far, seems keen to be very faithful (not a problem at all for me, but you couldn't put some of that modernisation budget into more options? Come on Nintendo, loosen the purse strings a little) the occasional light platforming sections caught me off guard at first, but weirdly, I don't mind them. I also love the occasional nod to other Nintendo franchises. Something is almost certainly afoot. Think I have an inkling but let's see how it plays out. the bosses have been simple but really effective so far – which makes perfect sense considering their origins on the Game Boy. the game's world being small - obviously with it being a faithful remake - is really appealing to me. I've tried a few other 2D Zelda games before (this could be the first I roll credits on, through no real fault of the others I've tried) but everything feels within arm's reach, and so exploring, backtracking, looking for certain people/objects has all been a pretty smooth experience so far, and it's felt pretty intuitive (up to this point): oh, this little guy's hungry – what can I feed him? > [backtrack a bit] > guy chowing down on bananas suggests I go get some because they're so damn tasty > go to the beach where I spotted them on the trees earlier. Oh wait, I can't reach them...is anyone else around who might have picked some up? > oh, sweet deal. Sure, I'll take that banana off your hands. So far this has felt like the perfect intro to 2D Zelda. I'm actually really happy I have a few Zelda games under my belt going into this, purely because there's so much of the design language which is consistent between all of the games. I've surprised myself a couple of times when I've figured a puzzle out, or spotted things like a wall being a bit cracked on one side but not the other...I just love when games give you those moments where you actually feel like you get it. It doesn't make things obvious, which makes it feel so much more rewarding. Like how I dealt with those Shy Guy lookalikes! Good stuff. as someone who loved pinning things on the map in BotW/TotK...thank goodness that that's here, too. Just marking a Heart Piece I can't reach and coming back to it when I unlock a new key item saves so much hassle. Also, it's me, so I've got to mention a track, and the obvious option from what I've heard so far is Tal Tal Heights: Overall? It's a bit of a mess from a technical POV but otherwise I'm really enjoying it so far!

A special animated trailer called Rain and Blood (surely a nod to the series' origins in Rainblood) released the other day, with a quick look at more gameplay at the end: And we'll also be getting demo soon! Really curious about this one

1 million units shipped in the first week: Dang. Remember that the latest update towards the end of last year was that LAD was at 1.8 million units in its lifetime. AND there's probably many (like me) who have skipped the launch for one reason or another, but will absolutely be picking it up at some point this year.

Demo has been spotted on the backend: And Rebirth is set to weigh in at a whopping 145 GB: Just 4 weeks to go folks

News on directors for S2 came out last week: Solid list of new directors. Really, really curious to see how they structure the second season vs the game. Ah yes, my favourite of the Naughty Dogs: Hideo Kojima

A free demo is available now on the eShop! And an overview trailer:

Doesn't seem worthy of a dedicated thread, but a reminder that a State of Play dedicated to the game is arriving next Tuesday: Probably going to give it a pass, because I'm in already and we're so close now, and it sounds like it'll cover the recent press event...but also, what's this about "exciting news you won't want to miss"?

Per the PS Blog, it's being remade in UE5: Imagine giving Until Dawn this treatment ahead of something like ICO or [insert long list of 20+ games probably more deserving of a remake than this PS4 game]