Julius

Trailer for the third and final season of The Bad Batch, streaming from 21st February, and opening the season with a three-episode premiere:

Well at least I can still tell the difference when it comes to AI (for now, at least) If nothing else I think this highlights the strength of the designs in Pokémon that it's so easy to pick up on them being an AI/blend of existing designs, but also it's popularity really highlights that while Game Freak get worked to the bone on the main series and don't really get to give those games as much time and polish as they might warrant, there's still a hunger for different takes on Pokémon. After seeing the trailer and footage for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle the other day, I can't help but think back to the research team finding that Mew fossil, and how great an actual adventure game where you're learning more about the history of that world would be. But alas, I'll just settle for watching it back I'm more surprised they haven't included a Mickey Mouse 'mon, seeing as the character copyright ended at the start of the year. Why not go all the way? Let me play this as dual-wielding Mickey! Speaking of, I hope we get an update on MOUSE soon...

Man, there were one or two I'd seen that I thought were stretches, but so many of these are pretty damning. I'm not normally a fan of how Nintendo and co. handle things like fan games, mods, etc., or how they used to be with their games/music being on YouTube (they're generally getting better)... ...but I am really interested in seeing how they choose to handle this particular situation. This is maybe the first time I've seen where it could easily call for Nintendo & co. throwing their full force behind doing something here – so many of the smaller situations are easy to foresee being taken down, there's been nothing close to this scale and it really brings into question even further the debates about art currently, almost parallel to the AI art discussions we've seen over the last few years. I haven't looked into it but I wouldn't be shocked at all if some of these designs utilised an AI in their construction, because they certainly have that look to them. Anyways, 5 million purchases now and currently the third highest game on Steam for concurrent players (behind only PUBG and CS2). Nuts.

Kamiya has chimed in on the situation: Found that funny as heck Anyways, agreed with everyone: this sucks. The NG+ stuff doesn't bother me too much, but of course things like the Sujimon and exclusive bonus dungeon really does, and I'm curious to see how that bonus dungeon is handled as it's not really detailed – is it additional story stuff or just a place to grind? While it sucks, considering that Like a Dragon has "only" sold 1.5 million units as of the end of month, I can see why, if this were a smaller studio, things like this end up being done - not that it's okay, but sometimes it's just how it goes. But a SEGA-published title, already starting to milk a franchise for all that it's worth off the back of "only" 1.5 million units sold of this upcoming game's predecessor? For all of the platforms that Yakuza is on now, while it's awesome that the franchise has blown up, I'd argue there's still a long way to go (and I think this series can get there) before you can start pulling things off like this in a similar way to what they've done with Persona 5. It still feels like it's on an upwards trajectory and I think they need to tread carefully, because these games rely SO heavily on word of mouth that pissing off your core audience could have ramifications if I continue this with future games and take the content divide between editions further (which, unfortunately, seems likely). Cosmetic stuff, fine. Optional cards/whatever in side content to speed things up/customise further, fine-ish (feels kind of like a mobile game at that point). But bonus content, which kind of feels like it's stuff being taken away from people buying the game at anything but those premium tiers, rather than additional stuff being added? It's disgusting.

Right?! I've tried to read up reasons for/against using certain controllers when playing Smash for a while now, but this is certainly the most succinct and persuasive reasoning I've seen for using a GameCube controller, so I'm convinced – thanks Glen! It's also one of those where I guess while things like feel and the specifics of frames and animations will be tweaked between games, being able to hop in with a GC controller anywhere from Melee onwards sounds super helpful, rather than needing to re-learn things on certain controllers, and saves needing to learn things on newly released controllers with their potential tweaks, even if only minor (like if the Switch 2 Pro Controller ends up with a proper D-pad). No worries! Well, this hurts to read I totally get it, though, and I imagine I'd probably not have been too keen on certain new mechanics had I played older Smash games prior to Brawl, which in hindsight gives me a good chuckle (like, tripping? Really? Was Sakurai entering his masochist arc or something?). Love Subspace Emissary (some strange decisions like number of players) and that Main Theme, though! I skipped Smash 4 not having a Wii U and not really getting much use out of my 3DS during its lifetime, but coming back to Smash with Ultimate missing trophies still hurts me deeply. I know the focus was elsewhere (what they did with the size of the roster, number of stages, and sheer absurdity of the soundtrack was insane), and that it would've taken a lot of time, but having anyone return and then add dream characters and awesome assist trophies who don't get a chance to have their own Smash trophies feels so strange. Even more so with how some of the game's trailers placed an emphasis on the roster being trophies! It's bad to say this, but I'd gladly pay full price for a Smash Ultimate DX on Switch 2 with trophies added and just a couple of new characters. I loved those things, and for an entire generation of kids with their respective first Smash game, it can be such a great introduction into the scope, variety and history of gaming, especially for someone young or new to the Nintendo ecosystem; so, so, so many of the games I want to play on older Nintendo systems are games Brawl put in my head, like with Ike and the Path of Radiance trophies, or the awesome Metroid trophies, and of course the Zelda ones (Wind Walker ones I was especially big on). I spent countless hours looking through and reading every description of those things

Oh yeah, that's how I typically get by in Ultimate, to clarify: my issue is that the stick feels waaaaaaaaaay worse (to me, just based on so much with the Wiimote) to jump with than the D-pad, as a little nudge in the wrong direction just messes up what I'm trying to do (diagonal jumps I find can be especially hit and miss). I guess it just feels like my odds of messing up are much greater with the stick flicks. It's got me thinking that maybe I should just future proof my Smash experience by committing to the GameCube controller, to be honest Oh yeah, I've soldered plenty before (thankfully, otherwise I'm not sure I would've been as keen) as I took Product Design as an option back in high school – but it was my first time in a while! I think I was more worried about my apartment not being quite as well set up to deal with a potential fire somehow breaking out as a dedicated crafting classroom I hated feeling the rush of soldering again, as it kind of makes me want to find more excuses to do it in a more regular basis and put this kit to task

Finally received my replacement KHS-400C laser on Friday, tried to see if I could get by removing the anti-static solder without a soldering iron as I had read that a heated up flathead would do the trick – last night I found out it did not, best I could do was flatten it a bit, but not get the solder to its melting point Ordered a cheaper soldering iron which arrived this morning, instantly got rid of the blob with little faff, put my PS2 back together after cleaning as much as I reasonably could of the inside and...it worked! I've just booted up Dino Crisis which was able to get past that screen it was getting stuck on before (win), and skipped some cutscenes to open up the menu which opens and closes pretty much instantaneously without any attempts by my TV to adjust the resolution – so @Hero-of-Time I can confirm it works well for those pesky changing menu resolutions on PS1 games the "dialogue box" text in the menu looked a little squashed to me, but the sub-menus looked fine, so I've checked and turns out that that's just the way the menu looked Also, man those tank controls are certainly going to take a minute to get used to when I get around to some of these PS1 games wouldn't be surprised if I find myself needing to lower the difficulty on some of those just to get by. Unrelated to my PS2, went back to Vintage Gamer yesterday, this time with some friends – easily the busiest I've seen it in the three times I've gone this month. My friends loved it and both picked up ~10 games (and were pleasantly surprised by the prices), and the manager even pulled out a box of some of the rarer items he had hidden away to see if we were interested – my friends hadn't heard of any of these, which was funny to see some great stuff in there like Legend of Dragoon, that DS game with Tingle, Suikoden IV (I'm holding out to pick up V physically myself, as I already have IV digitally on my PS3), Puppeteer, Ducktales Remastered...but the only game which tempted me a bit in any serious way was 3D Dot Game Heroes; it's one of those games I had on my long spreadsheet of games in the PS3 tab I made way back in 2017 when doing a full head-first dive into researching systems and games I'd one day be interested in checking out. I looked up how much it goes for on eBay (where I've found it shows up fairly infrequently, at least the PAL release) and it's ~£60 at the moment, but considering that I have enough games in my backlog, likely won't prioritise it any time soon and because it slipped my mind when starting to write a list recently of retro games I wanted to pick up in anticipation of the Birmingham Gaming Market in April, made the probably sensible decision to just let it lie. Maybe some other time! In fact, that's generally how the trip went for me: saw a couple of games which piqued my interest, but nothing really pulled me in. I'll probably give it a few months to let stock refresh, but I did pick up one game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I love Brawl, and it's easily one of my most-played games of all-time, getting a copy back when we got our family Wii back in 2010 for Christmas. Fun fact no-one asked for: we only had the Wiimotes and Nunchuks for our Wii, meaning I ended up playing Brawl exclusively with a horizontal Wiimote, and while I get by fine in Ultimate playing against my brother every now and then with the Pro Controller, my muscle memory for the horizontal Wiimote far exceeds that of the Pro Controller, and in fact has probably been my main obstacle in playing Ultimate more – I can't transition from using directional input to jump to using a dedicated button! Anyways, the family copy remains at my parents' house, so figured I'd pick this up for nostalgia's sake, and also because we're thinking of doing a day at some point of playing Wii games, so this just seems essential if I don't end up just bringing my Switch and Ultimate along, that is, but then we have a potential controller issue on our hands, and I'd feel bad playing with a Pro Controller while my friends had Joy-Cons...maybe

GI rapid-fire interview with director Naoki Hamaguchi:

Creepiest Tonberry tease for The Rising Tide: Hell yeah

It's definitely one of the dumbest game titles I've seen in a while, and that's saying something I will say, though, while I'm generally not the biggest fan of first-person games outside of shooter-based ones, the decision to go first-person with this game is incredibly clever because it immediately differentiates itself from those other franchises you listed. I am absolutely an advocate for third-person to at least be an option in games like this which heavily emphasise others aspects of gameplay, not least because I feel like you risk shrinking your potential audience without it, but I think it works solely for that reason. I'm not sure what it is about it, but it also gives me an old school licensed game vibes in a way the modern Star Wars games, for example, haven't. Tangential to your point about who ripped off who, I read something yesterday where it clicked for someone that Todd's involvement made a lot of sense for them when they considered the puzzles and cave/dungeon exploration in something like Skyrim. Also had no idea he was such a big Indy fan. I've got to say, is a bit weird to me that you go so far as to get Harrison Ford's likeness, though, then have the game be first-person (also: so much for the franchise living on after him, I guess?). It kind of reminds me of Cyberpunk – kind of crazy to me that in a game like that with so many things you can customise about your character and "Cool" being an attribute that you can't see your character in third-person outside of hopping on a bike. Just give us the options, darn it! It's kind of crazy just how much of Xbox's major first-party content is first-person, I genuinely wonder if that decision is hurting them, even if it's probably more to the tastes of traditional PC players. I'm actually pretty excited for this one. Come on Xbox, after Forza Horizon 5 you've just got another 3 games to start seriously tempting me they've got Blade too, I guess? Though I'd want to see gameplay for that first.

With Factions officially dead now, I'm praying that they do the wise thing and update No Return with an online co-op mode, similar to how Returnal got co-op post-launch. It seems perfect for it!

I'm pretty sure it's new news: these were developed by Arc System Works! Ya know, the predominantly 2D fighter guys behind Guilty Gear, Double Dragon and Dragon Ball FighterZ?! Didn't see that coming..like, at all! Always love those times I find myself surprised to learn the developers behind a game but seriously, what a get! It certainly seem like an inspired choice, at least when it comes to their approach to the art style; their games pretty much always look great!

Guess this didn't have its own thread yet? Can't find one, anyways. Today's trailer, Deep Dive, and Fall 2024 confirmation: Previous trailer:

Digital-only is very disappointing...and makes me think this is Xbox starting to completely cut corners (aka physical) in order to be on everything at any time. The leaked next Series X model being digital-only makes complete sense now, and I now fully expect them to be digital-only at a first-party level at a minimum by the time that releases. Insane. Glad this doesn't seem to have ballooned in scope and size (being shorter again? 8 hours?) as it fills a gap AAA doesn't seem interested in filling...but also, how and why has this then taken 4½ years? Very curious to see how this turns out, because it was never going to be a system seller but could be a great experience for selling the promise of Game Pass – but I don't know if it sells the idea of Xbox ownership all that well, either. Not being "full-priced" and being $50 seems a good way to balance that out, though...but again, no physical. I'm curious to see if this comes to other consoles too, guess we'll need to wait and see!

Summer 2024:

As leaked, May 21st: Digital-only.

Developer_Direct roundup (which everyone should be doing for their events imo) Solid showing.

Title is stupid as leaked (and the Great Circle), and first-person focus with third-person elements at times confirmed. Coming late this year. Looks fantastic, probably only the second Series X|S first-party game I've been interested in (after Forza Horizon 5). Gordy Haab composing too? Troy Baker confirmed to be voicing Indy (that seems like a statement)? Great stuff! Still got a long way to go, but maybe the Series X could be a solid system to pick up when on sale towards the end of the gen

Game has gone gold: Launch trailer dropped yesterday: The way things are going, I could easily see the review scores being posted bringing an end to this thread Absolutely. Especially when you consider it's also one of few first-party games with a date, you'd think it'd be getting pushed so much harder than it has been, for example previews and hands-on time with a game like this is the clear call to make...and yet we haven't had either? And no demo? I'd be lying if I said deep down I didn't hope that this was because of a pivot around GaaS now that Jim Ryan is leaving, because the double blow of sending this thing out to die and Naughty Dog not going ahead with Factions would then make so much more sense. It would be a shame though, a waste of talent to sink this much time into a project and not back it as much as you can. Time will tell, I guess feels like it's set up to be Destruction AllStars 2.0 – and didn't that also release in Feb? Weird.

I'm just patiently waiting, ya know, reeeeeeeeeally patiently... ...nah, who am I kidding, let's gooooooooo I will say, I do think the barrage of new releases we're about to walk into is keeping my hype somewhat in check, as I'm forcing myself to hold off on a lot of next month's releases besides Rebirth. I selfishly hope they aren't silly enough to drop it on the game's anniversary towards the end of next month, but I also hope that that's exactly what they do Really curious to see just how big this DLC has got as well as how it's priced, as releasing DLC after nearly two years of near radio silence and a year after it was announced is insane, to the point I'll be shocked if it's not at least some 20-30 hours? Especially for the type of game it is... But yeah, patiently waiting. I'll take whatever we get, even if it's only two hours of Ranni talking to us about the weather

Welp, just went to start this tonight seeing as I was going to go through the PS4 version, and my cloud save from completing the PS4 version of the game has failed me, with my most recent auto- and manual saves being 25 hours into my time with the game...6 hours behind where I finished, so a good Act and a fair chunk has gone missing. No NG+ options available because, well, apparently I never finished the game Oh well, bit of a shame but think I'll just wait until Friday to upgrade to Remastered, play through it for the first time again (maybe at a higher difficulty this time?), play No Return, and then see where I'm at and if I'm up for going for the Platinum and/or a Grounded playthrough after On the upside, it means I have some time to sort out my PS5's storage and to play a shorter game in the meantime

Not quite the AC7 I was hoping to hear about next, if I'm being honest still, a nice reminder that I need to get around to this at some point, as I've seen a lot of recommendations to jump into Ace Combat from fans of Armored Core VI! Interesting that there's no word on AC5's remaster/port/whatever it was being bundled in with this like it was with the early copies of AC7 and one of the deluxe edition variants, guess that ship has truly sailed, what an odd one

Wrapped up my first game of the year last night... Chrono Trigger | 1995 I talked about Chrono Trigger extensively the last time I played it back at the start of 2020, and long story short, well, reading it back I agree with everything I wrote back then, so I guess if you want a long, thought out write-up from me on the game, it's already out there Instead, I want to spend this time highlighting the little things I picked up on that I didn't really speak to last time. This time around I played the game on TV for the first time via my docked Steam Deck, which was a transformative experience for the most part. Hearing those themes blast out of my TV and not needing to look down at a small DS or 3DS screen felt much more appropriate for a game of this scale and grandeur. There were a few minor hiccups throughout, with things like audio issues and getting stuck on the geometry of the pixel art happening one too many times to go unspoken about, but it in no way became an obstacle to my enjoyment. There are small tweaks to minor issues like those, though, which I'd like to see for an eventual - I hope - release on current platforms...perhaps in time for the 30th anniversary of the game next year? To dive right in, one of the crowning achievements of Chrono Trigger is its brevity - playing through to the normal ending with all sidequests completed took me a bit shy of 19 hours - in a genre known for getting carried away and stacking hour after hour to your playtime, and what really struck me on this playthrough is just how brief every type of interaction in the game is. Combat is fast and reactive, even on this playthrough using Wait rather than Active (just to see if it changed how I got on with it) it was going along at a much faster clip than many of its modern contemporaries; dungeons and the like are incredibly short and easy to navigate, just a few screens save for some late game areas, and you're often in and out in the course of 15-20 minutes, with a major story beat has typically playing out in that time; and it's very rare that you spend longer than 30 seconds at a time on the World Map screen between locales, which has you consistently moving from one beat to the next. Conversations and quick talks with random NPCs aren't long and meaningless button-mashing sessions, with such interactions kept lean and often to limited to three or less text boxes, but they often add so much value to the game, whether it be something to ponder over, chuckle about, or pointing you in the right direction - which is exactly what I want to talk about next. A whole lot of this game's brilliance is down to how much faith and trust it places in the player, but also how it balances with not being afraid of telling you the fastest route from A to B. One of the best examples of this is that there are numerous times throughout the game where an NPC will clue you in on an enemy or boss weakness or nuance ahead of going into their respective dungeon, with one of the best examples of this being an NPC in the Middle Ages hinting that the wooden hammer-wielding Ogan in the Denadoro Mountains are cowards without their weapons, a very direct and obvious suggestion to use a Fire-based attack. Fights against the hammer-wielding variants of Ogan could take a while without this knowledge, as their hammer offers extra resistance to attacks, and this information is gained simply by following the typical general advice in a JRPG - especially of the time - to talk to anyone and everyone you come across, and an additional hint in case you come across these enemies without talking to that NPC is that there are also Ogan you'll encounter without the hammer, clearly nudging you in the direction of needing to wanting to do something about their big and brutish splintered mallets. This in turn reinforces the need to talk to anyone and everyone - similar to Dragon Quest's excellent job of getting you to ransack every place you come across in the search for items, because valuable ones are out there to be found - which in turns leads to interesting side tangents, humourous moments, little details about the world, and you're usual NPC-talking affair, but the key difference being the efficiency with which it is conveyed. This level of trust but also direct communication throughout the game about what and when you need to do something shaves valuable time off the game, I think, saving players from dragged out sessions; I genuinely think this game would be 5-10 hours longer if they took a similar approach to other games of that period, which either wanted you to rely on a guide or to simply try things out in an aimless manner. This also carries through to boss fights, where there can often be a lot of moving parts, but weaknesses and what the game wants you to do often feels very clear even against the tougher bosses - and if you do find yourself trying things out, the game very quickly corrects your course in a fast and heavy-handed way, such as by having that part of a boss immediately counter or by hinting at the order you should take parts of the boss out in by clearly telegraphing that this hand heals, or that leaving both hands of the boss around can result in disaster. The developers clearly and simply didn't care if you found the game easy, because you'd earned the knowledge required to push ahead, and its in this way that they respect your time and that, in turn, Chrono Trigger gains your respect. There is a sense of humility on show by some of Japan's best and brightest creators of the 20th century which I think few other games and creatives dare to even consider matching. The side quests - the main ones of which are left to the end of the game, with each party member getting a sizeable focus - are absolutely brilliant, too. Why should you deviate from the main path so close to the end of the game to complete these quests? Why, for important character moments and progression, and some of the best gear in the game, of course! It's yet another way in which your time is being respected, and its in all of these little ways that there are these constant value-adds throughout the game: you're rewarded, in some form or another, by doing as much as you can, without it ever becoming a slog. And then, well, there's just the usual stuff to praise which I talked about last time. Awesome ensemble of characters. Arguably the greatest soundtrack ever composed for a game (and if not, it is firmly in the conversation, and spawned the career of a legendary composer still active in the industry today, nearly 30 years later). A combat system with appropriate depth should you want to dive in, but it's totally optional, as no particular trio of characters or set of gear feels like it's ever going to hold you back. A tear-jerking, chills-inducing story with an amazing message just as important today as it was back when the game launched, and will be decades from now when I'm on my 20th playthrough, and beyond when I'm long gone. There is simply a peace and tranquility offered to the handling of heavier topics in this game, such as the idea of death and the passing of time, which this game bestows that no other game, or film, or book I've ever come across has been able to communicate, in the kindest but most honest, communicative and understanding matter-of-fact way; almost as if a parent speaking to a child. I'm so glad I revisited Chrono Trigger to remind myself that, yes, everything that I remembered about it and more holds true: this game is a timeless, and always timely-to-experience, masterpiece - far and long ahead of its time - in every sense of the word.

There's a Golden Saucer snow globe (or "glitter globe) exclusive to the S-E Store, to be purchased with points only: I've never wanted a snow globe before now, but this looks awesome