Julius

Finished Season 7 of My Hero Academia a little earlier this evening. It's been a while since I've watched and completed any anime. It was phenomenal, and I completed it in just a few days (I mean, I tried to pace myself). If I thought S6 was taking the show back to the heights of the first cour of S3, then S7 may genuinely be challenging S2 as my favourite season of the show. The music is hype as hell (and there's so much that's new!), the fights feel a level above with how they're broken down (not quite at the level of something like HxH, but it's so much better than MHA has offered for a while now), the twists and turns are exhilarating, and it just peels back layer after layer on some characters while still retaining a great fog of mystery around others. More than a few moments got me choked up, and it feels like virtually EVERYONE got their moment to shine – momentS, in a couple of cases. The only bummer was that after the 4 recap episodes ('Memories'), which I skipped, this was only a 21 episode season, and it also leaves things mid-fight by the time credits roll around and we're left waiting for the show's eighth and final season, which as far as I'm concerned should be outlawed. It feels like absolutely no-one is talking about it, and I get it, I think S4 and S5 were messy and/or weak adaptations of the manga which saw many people cool off on My Hero, but damn it if the show hasn't seriously returned to form between S6 and S7. I'm left chomping at the bit for S8. This season felt like the first to be all killer, no filler, and it was so much better for it. One particular character/group arc, my favourites in MHA, had their arc come to a head – and it was damn near perfect. If you've been keeping up with My Hero, or you're a bit behind, or hell you haven't even started it yet, there's an earned intensity after six seasons leading up to this one which I think makes it more than worth checking out.

Hahahaha Been a splendid few weeks for everyone but City fans, hard not to love it

It's been a day Pep saying he won't manage another club side after City this morning: Saudi Arabia "winning" the 2034 World Cup this afternoon:

Per Aardman's official site: For those who aren't aware or forgot or are perhaps too busy being hunted by a Were-Rabbit, the fine folks at Aardman are behind the stop-motion and claymation household names Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep, as well as Flushed Away, their first foray into computer animation. Cracking stuff

Love this. Wonder who the new Bots will be? Goes live during the TGAs, too, or just a bit before – got to imagine it's included in the pre-show or something as an 'Available Now' sort of thing. Got to get to the other speedrun levels at some point now that I'm a bit better, so might chill out after the TGAs with those and Winter Wonder

"It's got...a jungle!" That gave me a chuckle

Yeah, that's totally fair. I'm undecided at the moment. I had too many days off not booked in a few months ago so booked off this Friday in case I wanted to tune in live – it doesn't come close to matching E3s of yore, but outside of Nintendo Directs, it's the only show which consistently gets me excited (States of Play vary way too much) at the possible new game announcements. That and From Software's next announcement being pretty likely here makes it a hard one to turn away from. So I guess we'll see. It is late, but I guess I could take a nap beforehand...

Monolith Soft are now 100% owned by Nintendo. From VGC: Not hard to imagine that the founders got a pretty penny for selling their shares at this point – Monolith Soft have become nothing less than essential to Nintendo on the Switch. Looking forward to seeing what they can cook up on its successor!

I've been left waiting for the PS5 release early next year Not that I mind the wait, but it does drastically reduce the opportunities to discuss the game! Another day, another AAA game launching in bad shape – that sucks, hope they sort it so that you can get back to it soon!

So this is where the Wrap-Up is up to currently... Tomorrow™, I guess?

Just watched the actual clip and it's two games, specifically, scheduled to release 2026 or later. Alright, we'll scratch GTA VI and Switch 2 and just start hoping for specifically two of your dreams to come true, I guess

Just seen that Schreier has been on Kinda Funny and is also piling on the coal for the TGAs hype train, saying: Okay, with Jason onboard – now I'm going to start to let the possibilities grow a bit wild. I think the most extreme balance of realistic and wild would be GTA VI and the Switch 2. Rockstar are known to steer well clear of turning up to events and generally do things on their own terms, but with TGAs having over 118m viewers last year and continuously showing year-on-year viewer growth, a GTA VI trailer dropping here makes sense to me purely from the perspective of marketing – "the most viewed video in 24 hours" (as they could just fold it being streamed to 120m+ people into whatever figures they get on their official channel and elsewhere). I could even see them sharing a release date (even if it's the first of, like, three, considering we all think it'll inevitably get delayed once or twice) – I was just reading earlier today that, unsurprisingly, a good number of publishers with games planned for the end of next year are reportedly waiting on GTA VI to drop a release date before they figure out where they're putting their own games. As for Switch 2, this was something I guessed earlier in the year and still don't think is impossible, and I think it's because just 2 weeks away from Christmas, a little video either teasing or showing the console likely wouldn't have a major impact on their quarterly sales. At this point, it would also get ahead of the growing number of purported leaks, and in this financial climate, give more people a chance to have it on their radar and start saving. Again, the TGAs are the biggest annual gaming showcase, and I think you'd be silly not to take advantage of that stage. In terms of what else I would consider to be along the lines of what Jason is describing, but not at that GTA VI or Switch 2 level, would be things like Silksong, The Last of Us Part III or Naughty Dog's new IP, Persona 6, something related to Bloodborne (a sequel or remaster -- personally, I don't think a From Software announcement makes it onto this list I'm making otherwise, because I expect them to be there anyways), Final Fantasy IX Remake or Tactics Remake, I'm sure some people will be saying Half-Life 3 or Mother 3... But GTA VI and Switch 2 are the two which would blow me away the most and yet still make perfect sense. So those will be my guesses, very curious what they turn out to be! Anywho, elsewhere, Josef Fares has teased that Hazelight's next game will be getting an announcement and gameplay reveal at the TGAs: Exciting stuff. So, anyone planning on staying up for the TGAs this year?

While we wait for the Wrap-Up to come good, I've just spotted that PlayStation's 'Upcoming Games in 2025' trailer/ad went up earlier today: If you'll remember back to the start of the year, there was a bit of a stir when 2024's version released and the Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2 remakes both featured, as we hadn't heard anything about a release date for either game at that point. Silent Hill 2 has since released to plenty of praise, while funnily enough, not only is Snake Eater's remake MIA – it's not featured in the 'Upcoming Games in 2025' video at all Anyways: if you could pick only three games shown off in the video, what are you picking? Essentially: which games of those shown are you most excited for? For me it's (from most anticipated to slightly-less-than-most-but-still-very-much anticipated): 1. Ghost of Yōtei 2. Mafia: The Old Country 3. The Midnight Walk

So, uh, Jeremy Allen White (best known for his portrayal of Carmy in The Bear) is reportedly going to be voicing Rotta the Hutt in The Mandalorian & Grogu, per THR. Funny how things come full circle – I still remember watching the very first episode of The Mandalorian back in 2019, some...five years ago now (gross) and the entire time thinking that the target was Rotta the Hutt, simply for his potential importance as a figurehead in the criminal underworld. Was not expecting Grogu at all and all that followed. I'm onboard for Rotta's return for that reason, but Jeremy Allen White? Seems a bit of a waste of his talents in all honesty, especially given that Rotta would still be pretty young by Hutt standards

The latest episode of DF Retro sounds like a banger from the title alone... Definitely going to need to make some time for this I think!

West Ham have confirmed he's stable: Be careful out there folks.

Nah my point was made about it being made easier, I refuse to be drawn into this But that being said...

@drahkon ...

Andy Robinson of VGC and Tom Warren of The Verge are both hyping up next week's TGAs... Tom Warren (Bluesky posts don't embed I guess?): https://bsky.app/profile/tomwarren.co.uk/post/3lcmxtvtois23 same Let the Armored Core VII hype commence

More than 2 million copies have been sold worldwide since the game launched a few weeks ago. Per Square Enix: Sounds very much deserved based on its reception, really hope between this and I & II HD that S-E do the right thing and HD-2Dify some other games in their back catalogue (ahem, Chrono Trigger). I'm sure I'll be adding another to that figure myself at some point, too

Completely missed that the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted is on tonight. Looks like they're on Citizen Sleeper 2: Jump Over The Edge (release date: 31st January 2025) now, some other big hitters so far are the announcement of a TMNT SRPG called TMNT: Tactical Takedown (release date: TBA), and Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault (release date: 2025). Oh, and a new trailer for Henry Halfhead (release date: 2025), too! I imagine these are coming to other platforms but I can't see any details on that yet, so just going to leave them here

OP for Beastars Final Season is a banger and continues the trend of these being some of the most creative OPs in anime: Love it

Perfectly reasonable to bump a thread for this idk what you're talking about