Julius

Won't get too into it, because no spoiler tags, but I came back to the game after taking a break for a few weeks with a monster session today (well, now yesterday). Kashyyyk? Done. Manaan? Done. The Leviathan and The Big "Oh"? Done. Game's definitely been chugging at points and has been a bit buggy (ah, the joys of walking into battle with lightsaber-wielding Sith only to realise the game has unequipped my party's weapons!), but I'm having a great time with it. The Big "Oh" moment, even though I knew it was coming, was really well executed, and I'm loving the variety of side quests – which again has just been the total surprise package of the game for me, besides some excellent character writing and dialogue. Just got to get the final Star Forge map from Korriban, and I have a feeling after that there might only be one or two stops left before credits roll. Looking to keep up the pace and finally scratch this one from the list in the next couple of days

There will be nothing on Silksong at Gamescom's Opening Night Live, per Keighley himself: Smart that he got out ahead of it, though I don't think anyone's too surprised – ONL hasn't exactly been a hotbed of megatons in the past. With it not turning up at any of the events over the summer period...I'm curious to see where it lands now – if we do see it even turn up in the remainder of 2024, that is. It won't be Tokyo Game Show next month; it's very unlikely (but not really impossible, consider it's turned up at both Nintendo and Xbox events before) that it'll turn up at a potential PlayStation Showcase next month; unless Xbox changes plans, they simply don't have another big show on the scale of Not-E3 that will pull in the numbers a game like Silksong is screaming out for. ...which leaves only two options for it to turn up for me, realistically, if we're going to see it this year at an event and not just have an update thrown out in a blog or Twitter post. And neither really leaves space in my mind for a 2024 release, sorry guys. Firstly, to cover the event we actually know is coming and already have a date and time for: The Game Awards in December. It's the only regular show in the gaming events calendar on par with the biggest shows like Nintendo Directs and PlayStation Showcases – and yes, it's way, way bigger than anything else out there these days, and as an individual event in terms of views it surpasses everything else in the regular events calendar. If it turned up at the TGAs I struggle to see a shadow-drop simply because this is a game which could be gunning for TGAs GOTY and other awards, or at least being in the mix, and I don't see why they'd scupper their chances at that – I can't remember the last time a game came out between mid-November (cut-off for nominees for the year at the TGAs) and the end of December which managed to then retain enough of the conversation to be nominated the following year. I could see maybe a demo shadow-drop and 2025 release date if it turns up here? That is, unless Team Cherry simply decide they don't give a damn about awards (which, I mean, I'd personally respect) and went against the grain to deliver a shadow-drop which would be truly unexpected. The other place is the Switch 2 reveal, assuming we get it before the end of the year. The first game shadow-dropped on the Switch during an E3 Direct (sure it was already on PC, but that's not the point), by all means it seems like they have a good relationship, and the Switch has really made good use of the indie scene and some smart deals to help fill out it's calendar – do we have any reason to believe the Switch 2 would be any different? It's also the only thing that isn't part of the typical gaming events calendar which would CRUSH the numbers of dedicated Directs, PlayStation Showcases, and as far as individual events, probably the only thing which challenges the TGAs in terms of viewer numbers (and obviously would probably surpass it, too). Again, though, I don't think this really feels like a place for a shadow-drop - "hey, we're coming to Switch 2, but buy it on Switch right now anyways!" - but again, a demo shadow-drop could work to whet appetites ahead of it coming to Switch 2. Would also be one heck of a launch game alongside whatever Nintendo has cooking. I mean, who knows, maybe it is a blog post...but this game's marketing and release trajectory is getting stranger all the time

A bunch of previews dropped about an hour ago, for anyone interested! Sounds like some really positive stuff

Deadpool & Wolverine is now officially the highest-grossing R-rated film of all-time.

Free demo dropping on 20th August (Tuesday) with the opening chapters of the game, and additional chapters being added on 23rd and 28th before the full release on 29th August – and yes, you can carry your progress from the demo over to the full game! Lovely stuff!

Planets trailer:

Yeah, I think a lot of us here have either used URLs from X/Twitter or dedicated image-hosting sites like Imgur – generally you're probably best off opening said images in another tab to ensure the quality is right (even if it has likely been compressed). The former was definitely the easiest and best way to get images on here back when a straight upload from console images galleries was possible, but that's no longer an option, so Personally (other than GIFs and news-related things) I tend to make sure I'm using images I'm hosting *somewhere*, such as for Gaming Diary write-ups, just because otherwise you risk the image just being lost to the bottomless pit of the internet at some point!

Confirmed by Nintendo themselves for the 17th too Same, very surprised it's come around so fast after not getting a meaningful update for a while – but probably means they were being smart and just letting it cook. From the outside looking in it seemed like it would be lucky to scrape into Nov/Dec, if not potentially getting delayed to next year. Glad it snuck up on us like this instead, always nice to have a game release a bit earlier than it was perhaps expected!

The game will also be included Day One in the PS+ Game Catalog. What a get! They've been knocking it out of the park with some of the indies they've got on there Day One this year!

So there's actually this trailer on the Devolver channel which went up on 25th July, which I'm guessing was kept private as it's only just become watchable and has a very low view count; description says it's coming to Switch on September 17th too! So there we have it

Some numbers on Embracer from the last 12 months: Over 4 in 10 employees carted off (41.7%). Over a quarter of their internal studios shuttered (25.8%). Over 4 in 10 projects shelved (40.9%). Brutal. Disgraceful. Definition of a massacre.

September 17th it is! Next month has filled out quite nicely by the looks of things: Astro Bot, this, Zelda, some other titles like Space Marine 2, UFO 50...okay it's filled out a good bit more than I thought it had when I started typing that list. Should be a good month!

Some pre-order bundles have been added to the Nintendo Store: The Nintendo Store always has some really nice pre-order bundles, shame I don't have the space

I feel like Halo's in a weird spot when coming over to PlayStation – I'm not sure how essential the story is to that world and those games, but I feel like before Infinite you'd at least want some footing on the PS5 already, potentially with the Master Chief Collection? There were those rumours too a couple of months ago about them wanting to remake/remaster Combat Evolved again and that would then be coming over to PS5. On the other hand, like you said, it could give the game a good bump in players. I wonder if they're going to be really weird about it and potentially have the multiplayer come over first without the campaign, similar to how Infinite had that weird staggered release on Xbox too? If not Halo related and it's not Forza Horizon 5 (yet), honestly I'm left scratching my head a little. I've seen Starfield thrown around as a potential one too, but I feel like that's a much easier sell with a complete edition sometimes next year than to just bundle in the game + it's first DLC when more DLC is on the cards (and coming next year). As far as I'm concerned, they can keep Gears Maybe a Flight Sim game? They've got that new one coming up so maybe they port over 2020?

There have been a lot of rumblings about Xbox bringing a first-party title to be ported over which will be announced next week (likely at Gamescom during ONL), and the initial teases seemed to imply Forza Horizon 5, but despite everyone agreeing it'll come at some point, apparently it won't be what's revealed next week. ...maybe it'll be Hellblade II? It could be a number of other things but the way I see it that game has no chance in hell of even being nominated for GOTY without getting in the hands of more players, and it feels like total GOTY bait (to completely oversimplify it in as few words as possible), so, maybe?

Yeah, it would be absolutely huge. PlayStation just doesn't have an open world racing game on the level of the Forza Horizon games, the closest thing I can think of to filling that gap (and is also available everywhere) currently would be The Crew Motorfest, which well... I'm glad GT and Polyphony have stuck to their routes, but I'm shocked PlayStation hasn't made a move to acquire someone capable of taking the assets built in the GT games and creating an open world spin-off series akin to Horizon. I think if FH5 does come over it'll comfortably be the bestselling of any of Xbox's first-party exclusives to come over – I genuinely think the only other released game from them this gen to maybe challenge that would probably be a Starfield port. I mean, Xbox have basically said everything in a very roundabout way about their games coming over anyways, but with how that escalated and how poorly they've communicated a lot of it...they probably are all coming I just think they've propped themselves up between a rock and a hard place and basically need to 127 Hours themselves out of there. Anyways, there was an update on this where apparently Forza Horizon 5 isn't going to be the game announced next week (presumably at Gamescom), but everyone and their mother is saying that it's coming at some point. Personally, I think it'd make a great TGAs shadowdrop. But there's still something being announced next week, apparently...so I'll move this part of the conversation over to the Series X|S thread

A physical release of the game has turned up on ShopTo (I think maybe the first time it's been confirmed to any extent to be getting one over here?), with an attached release date of 22nd November 2024 – which has since been removed. I feel like there's a small possibility here of an initial digital release (shadow drop during a Direct or something?) + delayed physical release, just because this seems like the type of game to do that, but either way, seems like 22nd November might be the latest we get our hands on this. Put my pre-order in

It is being teased that this is going to be getting ported to other platforms, with a potential announcement next week at Gamescom: Would absolutely love if it's the case – the Forza games are probably the biggest pull for me to buy an Xbox right now (and no, it's not enough, we've been over this ). This is the game I've been talking to my friends about wanting ported over from Xbox's catalog, over Gears and Halo and the like. Please, for the love of all that is good in gaming, be true!

Hey man, hate on the Star Wars re-releases and you bet you'll see the consequences @drahkon knew the risks It really is! Kind of insane to get three games from the same franchise all drop at once when we're still waiting on certain titles to turn up at all. But hey, I'll take it! Now Capcom, get in here with Dino Crisis and the PS1 Resident Evil games already! Though maybe the latter request might make more sense to save for October...

This month's line-up, with TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2 and Future Perfect all arriving August 20th! The splitscreen local co-op modes of the original games also make their way over.

I was just reading about this. It's genuinely insane and very unfortunate that she passed in the first place because, not for the first time, allergies aren't being given the proper attention they deserve. Disgusting negligence shown from any of the staff working that night. But to then try to cover it up in such a way? I think it's always worth remembering that Disney have had far more deaths in their parks than the public will ever be made privy to. Praying that they get their just desserts but the man is up against a monolithic entity.

Just announced for an October 4th release, just in time for spooky season. Comparison trailer:

Geoff sharing some details on the plans for next week's Gamescom ONL: 19:00 starts for us Brits isn't too bad, but think I'll see how I feel on the night. These shows become just about bearable with the right person or group streaming it