Julius

Sees Armored Core VI (also, great write-up on MK1 )

Went to Birmingham Comic Con with some mates yesterday; brought a bit of cash with me, but didn't really expect that I'd come across anything I'd be genuinely interested in (as I'm still living in an apartment and like not feeling overwhelmed by hoards of stuff ). Naturally, the very first stall we hit up ended up being a big retro games stall, with probably a few hundred retro games, and it was very busy (turned out to be the only big gaming stall there). It was set out with two rows consisting of big chunky boxes filled with games on tables, but because of the layout, you could barely make out/reach the back boxes, and with it being so busy too, shuffling around was a bit awkward. Working from the right of the store to the left (where the checkout was), I started scanning over the PS2 games, and nothing with an English title was really catching my eye; there were some okay games, but nothing that had me really getting excited. Then, I started to flick through the Japanese PS2 titles they had, which was probably ¾ of the size of their English PS2 offerings. Flicked through the first box of Japanese games, and well: I picked out Shadow of the Colossus, and well, even if I can't play it, it just seemed right to have it in Japanese and a great way to commemorate a game I love (also I've been thinking about buying the Japanese art book for the game, so this happening felt like fate ). The box looks awesome, it's one of my favourite games, it wasn't too pricey: absolutely getting that. And the game next to it in the box? Not one but two copies of ICO, in really nice condition! It was a bit pricier compared to some of the other games they were selling (which makes sense) but by no means an unfair amount to ask for, so I copped one of those, too don't have the same level of attachment to it as I do Shadow, but it's still a damn fine game. A quick flick through had me find Japanese copies of Dragon Quest VIII and the PS2 version of Dragon Quest V, so there were definitely some pretty nice Japanese copies here! Following this we flicked through and shuffled past the English PS1 titles, which weren't anything crazy or noteworthy, and then it was past the Xbox 360 titles and onto the PS3 ones, which were overwhelmingly Japanese copies. Started to flick through these but nothing was really catching my eye, and then one of my mates pointed out Dark Souls II – while it has really nice cover art, I've not played the game and the attachment isn't there to own a Japanese copy of it, so I'll pass. What came to mind instantly, though, was if they would have a Japanese version of Dark Souls, which I think has one of the finest examples of modern box art, and I've seen thrown around in favourite box art lists online for years. But how would I find it? All of these games were in boxes filled chock-a-block and with only their spines with Japanese text showing...so I grabbed the Dark Souls II and studied it's spine: black, what I imagine is 'Dark Souls' or something to that effect in Japanese, and then a '2'. Okay, well, I don't speak Japanese, but I can match two patterns well enough, so I just need to find this text on a spine, and I imagine there's a good chance the spine is black (which would help it stand out as so many of these other spines were white). I must've looked a bit off, like a video game collecting version of Indiana Jones, as I started holding up the copy of Dark Souls II at eye level and flashing glances at the games lined up. Nothing in this box, nothing in that box...how about that black spined game at the back, well out of reach? The text...it matches up! And sure enough, that was a Japanese copy of Dark Souls, and the only one they had after retrieving it some guy walking past over my shoulder went and commented on the Japanese copy of Dark Souls II, before I showed him what I'd just grabbed, and he smiled and laughed as if to say "you lucky SOB" After that pretty epic find, I continued to flick through the PS3 games, but I don't think anything was going to be more interesting to me than finding that copy of Dark Souls. While doing this, though - shoulder-to-shoulder with other game collectors - out of the corner of my eye to my left and in the boxes of Japanese PS1 games, a guy is flicking through when suddenly a very familiar cover - for the teeniest fraction of a second - flashes through my periphery. Out loud: wait...was that Suikoden? We slowly shuffle away over as more people leave the scene, and I'm trying to keep quiet about spotting Suikoden so no-one else picks it up, and sure enough, it was! Yeah, sure, I'd prefer an English copy, but they're stupidly expensive and I already own the game digitally, so this is a nice way to just appreciate the game and have it take up some space on my shelf, which is fully deserved. Suikoden got picked up. Continued to flick through their Japanese PS1 games, unfortunately they didn't have a copy of Suikoden II I could pair it with, but still, they had a really nice selection of Japanese PS1 games, which were overwhelmingly JRPGs! I got so close to picking up JP copies of Final Fantasy IX and Tactics, but talked myself down, but damn did they look so clean. These were all in thin plastic sleeves, so when I got back I started opening them up, and found that I absolutely adored the disc art for ICO and Shadow of the Colossus: While I had a great time at the Con in general, this being the first stall just meant everything else was a comedown from that point on. Outside of things like CeX, this is the first time I've flicked through retro games in this way, I think, ever? I've ordered all of my other purchases in this thread online. Everything was in decent condition, I forgot how much I missed the weightiness of these boxes being packed with manuals and the like, it was nice to just exchange small talk with other JRPG and/or PS1 fans (a guy came over and specifically was like "yo, where your PS1 JRPGs at?" ). The haul of Japanese copies of these awesome games came to the grand total of..! £60! The entire experience has got me considering picking up more retro games - it was really fun and exciting, I had an absolute blast just looking through - and if I do so, I think I'll be making a concerted effort to do so in-person when and where I can; as it turns out, a very highly rated retro games store is only around 20 minutes from where I live and it's one I actually passed hundreds of times on my way to college, so I think I'll need to make a point drop by in the next few weeks. I'm still going to figure out the intricacies of what I would and wouldn't want to pick up for the sake of my wallet, especially with so many games being remastered and on modern consoles these days, but yeah, I think it'll be time to pick up an HDMI adapter soon and break out the PS2, too, because the whole thing certainly put me in the mood

Booted this up again tonight as my friend has slowly been chipping away at it and unlocked Nest, the online PvP mode. Wiped the floor with him with my Tristan MK-I build for well over an hour, but eventually he figured out that a tanky build might work best (I'd mentioned before about the tanky builds being broke, the Songbirds and to fly up when using them, etc.), and yeah...it was no longer as intense or as fun for either of us the only way to combat it, really, was with a tanky build of my own, so we were just there like a bunch of little kids bashing these big ol' goofy mechs against each other the high HP, high defense stats and being able to fit the hardest hitting weapons to it really makes the game play so differently, in a way I personally didn't enjoy (not because I started losing, but more because there was very little skill involved when we both landed on the same tanky build). While I absolutely loved my time playing through Armored Core VI with a very speedy build, it simply doesn't translate to PvP well, where tanky builds - like in the main game, I guess, seeing some of the meta builds after I beat the game - reign supreme. By all means, the adage "play how you want to play" applies perfectly here, and I think it will help my friend to push through the game some more and hopefully face a bit more of a challenge with some of the bosses, which would be cool. I just think that with the next game they should really try to balance things a bit more. The trade-off feels like it should be that the faster build is equal in that though it has less health it can dodge the attacks easier and more consistently, but the area of effect of some of the shoulder weapons are insane and just make it a bit of a no-go, so it doesn't work out that way, and so you end up unable to keep up and have way less health while doing so. I beat him a couple of times in the end and had some close run-ins but it wasn't anywhere near as fun as the more skilful battles we had early on with both of using lighter mechs Anyways, our different approaches to the controller is also very funny, as I can his button-mashing while I'm calmly going through the motions on my end I think I'm going to give an anti-tank build some thought and testing, though, so if nothing else, this seems a brilliant excuse to return to the game here and there

Googles it Hope you've had/are having a great time in Italy, and glad to hear everything was good with your medical appointment!

Already anticipating waking up on Wednesday morning to "the most viewed trailer in 24 hours...ever" Yeah, I think the end of 2024 is the best bet, and with GTA V releasing in September and Red Dead Redemption II in October, I have to imagine it'll be September/October again. It's going to be really interesting to see games hold out for/move their release date when we learn the game's release date, that's for sure! The truth is though that the game could shadow drop tomorrow with no advertising and break records by Monday, so honestly, they really could drop it whenever. As a trailer and marketing lover, though: please don't do that, Rockstar

Just some trace hints at the planned DLC from Director Hiroshi Takai at the PlayStation Awards: More at the TGAs?

Concept art and a model for Wapeach from Mario Power Tennis has turned up, courtesy of Waluigi's creator: Is...is that an axe? Anyways, the degenerates are going to have a field day with this one

From an interview at the PlayStation Awards, Lead Producer Yasuhiro Kaito has said that the DLC is "still a little ways off, but progress is going well." So...that'll be any time between mid-to-end Q1 and the end of 2024, then Just please be at the TGAs...please. I need a trailer. Heck, maybe just another piece of concept art. I need something. (it is getting to that point where I'm considering replaying the game just to try out another build and refresh myself on everything before the DLC lands, though)

That's 14:00 GMT and a very accessible release time internationally, around the time in the day of a good few E3 conferences of old. Will be surprised if it's not shown at the TGAs Thursday night at some point. More than anything with VI, just not knowing much about what they're actually doing with it, I'm most curious to see how they market this. I think Red Dead II's first trailer was a little over a minute from what I remember, which would seem perfect for this, and looking it up GTA V's was just under a minute and a half – but I wonder if they'll give any thought to short-form video platforms like Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts and TikTok, and so squeeze this into 60 seconds or less? I guess they could always get special cuts but doing something like that would definitely be along the lines of PlayStation just dropping the PS5 logo on Instagram to make it as shareable as possible. But then it's also seemingly much further along and closer to release than either of those games were when first officially shown off (if those financial projections are anything to go by), so maybe they do shake things up a bit more with a longer trailer (I doubt it for the shareable reasons, but still, I think it's worth considering). Also curious to see if Online gets any attention in this trailer considering just how big it is now, but I think that might be best saved for a deep dive when first shown (and, please, an outrageously good character creator!). Roll on Tuesday

Earlier this week I saw the end of Chapter 4 play out, and then cleared out everything at The Castle, the rest of the Akame Requests, and of course Amon. The Castle was interesting, there's definitely a lot of busy work and running around which was definitely a bit of a pain up until the fast travel around the place unlocked. Generally had an okay time as I was going through, though one or two team events had me grinding things out for certain characters to be of a higher level/bond, and the weird lack of strategy beyond this with characters feels a bit odd – would love future Coliseums to build on this with team outfits or something just so that you can assign/have shared resistances in a very simple way to add a bit more depth, but also to help lessen the currently necessary need to grind. And I say this as someone who likes grinding, it just didn't feel fulfilling because there's little depth added by levelling up The Justice fight seemed pretty dumb up until I changed to Chicken Head and shot him and the others up, very weird that that's the only one I found myself needing to change characters for, but didn't take long once I found the right character to play as Loved the Four Kings stuff story-wise and some of their 1v1 fights, Ugajin was definitely the highlight. I find the fights in these games definitely feel best when it's not just a Square + Triangle mash-fest, but instead goes back to the feel of PS2 bosses, with basic patterns to learn and funny AI to take advantage of. For Ugajin I remember it was to sprint away from his drones until they fell away, mash X to escape his lasso, dodge once to the side while he charges up his attack, then wail on him until his drones have turned back up, and rinse and repeat. It's good stuff and is one of the few times I've found the combat in this game has been really rewarding. As for that final Coliseum fight... Eventually I ended up facing off against Amon, and that is by far the best Amon fight I've experienced in these games (other times I've faced off against an Amon have been in 6, Judgment, and LAD). Once you get what the deal is, again, it feels like an old PS2 boss, and that second phase turning out to be a war of attrition with his ability to gain health on successful hits is just Gave up on the rest of the Stroll 'n Patrol missions once I saw the stupid amount that unlocked later on, turns out I did enough in Chapter 2 to see me through the rest of the level gates the game had to throw my way anyways, thankfully I'll likely finish this up in my next session with the game, and I'm really excited to see how the rest plays out. I say this but knowing how 6 and LAD had me at times towards the end, I'm probably in for an emotional gut punch or two I'd imagine

December 7th! Yeah, I'll probably wait to see what they do about microtransactions and a potential future console release if I'm ever going to get this

First trailer for Furiosa: How was Fury Road already nearly a decade ago?!

Big ol' Patch 5 has been released after a few days of tidbits coming out. And it's a big one (both in number of updates and size)! Physical Xbox edition confirmed to include Patch 5, still TBC for PlayStation from what I can see.

Surprised this didn't already have a thread, but hey, it looks like we might be getting some news soon as it has now been rated by the Australian ratings board. Something big next week at the TGAs, perhaps? Previous trailers Announcement Trailer – The Game Awards 2019 Gameplay Reveal – The Game Awards 2021 Facial Animation Showcase – State of Unreal 2023 The Senua Trailer – Xbox Games Showcase 2023

Essentials for this month, available from 5th December to 1st January: Been curious about all of these at some point or another, so not a bad month

New trailer from today's Level 5 event, also with the news that this has been delayed to 2025:

Trailer from tonight's event (and yes, March 22nd it is!): VOD of the event: The physical edition looks mighty fine too! Hope there's a window at some point next year I can find to dig into this, but if the rest of the year is even only half as stacked as Q1, it'll be hard to see that happening

Oh man, I stumbled across his E3 2014 speech (I think it was..?) again the other day in my YouTube recommended (couldn't find a short enough clip so here's the tweet, think I posted it around the time of the TLOU Part I leaks actually) and he nearly got me to buy Vib-Ribbon nearly a decade removed I absolutely agree, though. The thing is, when PlayStation do put out first party, single player stuff still? Generally, when I get to it, I love it! But the volume of first party output just isn't there right now and their direction seems so misaligned from what made the PS4 a rousing success with both it's hardware and software. I was actually revisiting some notes I update occasionally with my list of favourite games, and try and I might through the years to get to 10, I've still only landed on a really solid 7 games I'd without hesitation call my favourite of all-time. 2 of those were co-developed by Japan Studio! It just hurts at this point where's that Astro game, damn it! So much of Sony just feels dishonest and such a mess right now now thanks to their lack of/poor communication – look no further than Naughty Dog, though, and I think the problems they've had with Factions could and should have been communicated so much better. Did XIV, or No Man's Sky, or any other game that's turned it around do a poor job of communicating what was going on? Maybe, up until the point they decided to fix the problems and engage with their community. Some might say it's not officially announced but I mean they were bringing concept art up on stage every few years and talking about it in interviews? I really think if that game's going to have any success it needs to be built with the community through early access and the like, yet they refuse to do that. But then Part II Remastered gets the Lost Levels treatment? The messaging is just so jarring! It's crazy to me that we're 3 years into this gen and I'm still playing PS4 games on my PS5 most of the time, even more so if we consider that the PS5 games I do buy often have PS4 versions (I just want the new cases if they released after the PS5 ). There's trying to avoid announcing things too early and then there's only having two upcoming first party games left to show off (Helldivers II and Wolverine). If SIE do continue to go this route, I sincerely hope that third party (as they have been) and the growing industries in China and South Korea pick up the the potential quality single-player slack

Assuming this is going to morph into a Witcher 4 thread, I guess this belongs here: nearly half of CDPR are now working on The Witcher 4, as confirmed in their earnings report released today; per IGN: I've got to imagine they're taking aim at the end of this gen for this, then, what with the UE5 transition they're making with the next game, too?

Sony Interactive Entertainment have today announced a strategic partnership with NCSOFT. If you're not sure who NCSOFT are, they're the South Korean developer and publisher behind games like Lineage and Guild Wars; yep, this is one of those South Korean MMORPG specialist companies. And yep, that's definitely why they've struck up a deal with Sony. If you'll remember, there were rumours around this time last year that NCSOFT were working on a Horizon MMO (original source is in Korean so have linked to IGN for ease), so I guess this is more or less a case of making that partnership and those plans official. I've got to imagine we'll hear something about this sooner rather than later (by the end of next summer, surely?), because this seems to be one of the rare instances where progress is being made on one of their GaaS titles, following the recent announcement during their most recent earnings report where they said that they have delayed half (6 of 12) of their GaaS titles that were in the works. What a weird time it is, I find, to be a PS5 owner waiting on first party projects. We did have the announcement the other day that Stellar Blade dev Shift Up has been made second party, but yeah, I really think PlayStation are being carried hard by third party at this particular moment. Hope that changes soon. And this totally isn't me goading them on to announce something awesome and first party and single player at an upcoming event I thought this was hilarious when I read it the other day like no-one: absolutely no-one: Bloober: DON'T WORRY GUYS IT'S STILL COOKING PLEASE DON'T LOOK IN THE KITCHEN noseriouslyplease

Ahead of tonight's showcase, March 22nd has been further cemented to all but officially be the game's release date, as it has now cropped up on the game's Steam page: Capcom have been typically pretty decent at containing leaks and dates over the last half a decade or so, so I choose to believe that it's Itsuno himself personally updating these pages as he can't contain his excitement

Keighley did a Q&A livestream a bit over a day ago on the TGAs, and confirmed that the "WORLD PREMIERE" voice over tag we've got so used to will be going away this year. Shame, but weirdly I always thought it felt like an Xbox thing (and in either case I'm not a fan), so...oh well? Curious to see if the minute or two saved from that being torn out shortens the show or– no, who am I kidding, it means time for a few more ads Security will also be tightened following the end to last year's event: And Geoff has a very weak defence for the controversial indie nomination of Dave the Diver, which is notably not indie (being developed and published by Korean company MintRocket, aka a smaller team from Nexon, famous for MapleStory and also a company with offices worldwide and revenue of nearly $2 billion reported in 2021): And lastly, the TGAs have considered new awards for Best Remake and Best Supporting Actor: The idea of Best Remake I'm not a fan of, the term "remake" is already such a murky term which means different things to different people, then there's the question of if they're eligible for GOTY like indies, and that whole mess. I agree with Geoff's point that it's also not a guarantee that we see consistently great remakes released as it is. The idea of Best Supporting Actor, though, I'm totally for. Was thinking about this just the other day and it makes perfect sense, I'm all for having more talent recognised in the industry, especially because there have been so many supporting roles in the last 5 years alone that I think would have warranted the award being a thing. Just a week and a half to go to the show, folks. Anyone planning on tuning in?

Glad to hear you're enjoying it No crouch unfortunately closest thing is perching on the edges of buildings/rails/etc. to perform stealth takedowns, so instead go out there, be the menace JJJ thinks you are, and kick some more people off of buildings

Soooooooo I'm 11 hours in and have only just wrapped up Chapter 2 I've completed Pocket Racer up to challenging Ran, completed all of the Stroll n' Patrol missions available up to this point (50+, so I doubt there's any more?) and all but 8 substories/Akame Requests (those remaining are locked behind story and Coliseum progress). Firstly: don't think I've ever done so poorly in karaoke before, I was laughing my ass off when I got to a ahem certain song Updated Kiryu's style when I got the chance; still wanted the black and white, but a bit more stylish and more suitable sunglasses for an agent, so: My head canon is that this is the first chance he's got to lean into the leather of the 90s he would've seen in magazines while in prison curious that you can't use Kiryu's traditional colours (white jacket, red shirt) but can use Ichiban's, so waiting to see if that unlocks or if it's just a case of "nope, don't do that, he's JORYU now" from the devs. Combat is still pretty meh, rapidly alternating between Square + Triangle in throughout my time with these games has been my go-to tactic, and along with my go-to being to dodge rather than to block (I don't have time for that!) and healing if I do get badly hit, I've been parrying left and right just playing these games the same way I always do. Which is kind of cool, because there's nothing new to learn? But also just means it doesn't add the level of depth for me that I think it might others, and it's a bit grating that every boss and mini-boss wants you to parry them in that way. The level of super armour/blocking in this game like I mentioned before definitely seems to want to be challenging 3, and I'm curious to look up after the game if there's a reason for this other than to stretch out encounters because of it being a shorter game by design. On the other hand though: Agent style is still cool as heck, as are the gadgets, now that I've got them all unlocked having a lot of fun playing around with them and seeing what combos well together. To talk about the substories/main story a bit... Overall, really enjoying the story so far and a lot of the substories/side quests, even if I did end up skipping Akame's preamble for every one of her requests as soon as I realised it kicked you out of the menu/conversation with her after agreeing to each and every one. Not too sure if I'd want to see substories handled in this way in future main games, but for a game of this length, I don't really mind it. Got to mention QoL because it's so rare that RGG do QoL things, but placing a pin down on your map and then having it also appear when choosing which taxi stop you want to go to is EXACTLY what I wanted in LAD with how big Ijincho is. So that's awesome, please don't take that away from me in Infinite Wealth! Hopefully they add that to dungeons in that game too if some are going to be bland and void of a sense of direction (LAD weirdly had the same map key in dungeons as in the main game, meaning it tells you that you can place a pin down in a dungeon...but you can't). Anyways, in Chapter 3 I'll likely head back to the Coliseum to see what I can wrap up there given the chance, seeing as a good few of the Rival Races in Pocket Racer and remaining Akame Requests are locked behind progress there. Still having a fantastic time

...what's a Dreamcast? I jest, of course, but no, unfortunately not being born when I was, my experience with SEGA growing up feels incredibly limited in retrospect to just seeing them transition their focus away from consoles: their console division was virtually dead and buried (everyone and their mother had a PS1 or PS2, a handful of people had a GameCube, and I had only one friend with a well off father with Apple stock - idk, seemed like the type - who had an Xbox), they were leaning on Sonic HARD throughout my childhood (I distinctly remember having fun with the anime; Heroes on PS2 and watching a friend play Shadow the Hedgehog; the McDonald's tie-in Game & Watch style devices for the Olympics; and so on), I think I have memories of having their logo light up my face through an arcade machine or two (which obviously veeeeeeeery quickly were introduced to me and went the way of the dodo from my POV), and maybe - maybe - a trace memory of Crazy Taxi from *somewhere*, but I couldn't tell you where for the life of me. Honestly, for people born around the time I was, I genuinely think the only way you end up with a SEGA console - any of them, never mind a Dreamcast! - in your house living in the UK growing up, or knowing someone who does, is from an older sibling or a parent having picked them up and it being passed on; and I only even say that after meeting someone like that back when I started my current job (his dad has always been big on games so they've got most of the SEGA consoles released over here in decent condition in their house). No shade to SEGA, but I genuinely think that for my generation when it comes to casual gamers/the general public and knowledge of their consoles, they'll think of those "72 games built-in!" types of off-brand mini consoles and playing Flash versions of their games in computer rooms at school But, uh, happy birthday to the Dreamcast I reckon you're right! Definitely looks my cup of tea, and I've heard so many great things over the years about it. So where's that damn remaster, huh, SEGA?!