Julius

...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?!

Ah, that's unfortunate, but I totally get it – I mean, it has been nearly two years () since it launched, which feels like it is a crazy amount of time to wait for the first piece of paid-for DLC to land for a game (even if it does turn out to be rather substantial). For me? I want some Miquella answers, damn it! It's also really interesting how they do things like make us wait nearly two years to see some DLC, and yet I feel like the endgame content for AC VI easily could've been DLC too with how that game handles it's endings and new missions. Honestly, along sort of similar lines, while I'm really excited to see how it eventually shapes up (assuming it releases in our lifetime ), I very much doubt I'll be picking up Persona 6 whenever it arrives just looking back at what Royal did for 5 or what I hear Golden did for 4; as much as I enjoyed 5, it seems bizarre to me that I almost felt penalised for playing that version of the game (even more so because I played it a few years after launch and not wildly long before Royal got confirmed), maybe even more so in that case because Royal content was never made an add-on/DLC though. Makes me really glad that RGG just don't seem all that interested in substantial paid-for DLC. Sure, you get your outfits and your legendary paid-for characters and all the other SEGA nonsense you get with a lot of their games, but I look at Gaiden and compare it a bit to Kaito Files, Majima Saga and some other extra content released they've over the years and just think "well, they tried to go that route, those ideas kept getting bigger, and I'm guessing it didn't really work out or get the traction they've wanted, so they've just decided to make dedicated games instead." I mean they could go and prove me wrong quite easily with Infinite Wealth by releasing a piece of add-on DLC called Dirt Cheap set in South East Asia, but I really don't get the feeling that's the direction they're planning on going. Unless...

Yeah, I'm completely with you there. Ijincho is, I think, already at the absolute top end of how sprawling I'd want to see one of these maps get. Especially with how good the series has got with later games at curating the events meaning you'll be hitting up pretty much every corner of a map during the main story, which just makes substories, side content and the like so much easier to run into and get sidetracked by, you do end up exploring every inch of the map and feel like you know your way around. It makes sense for somewhere like Kamurocho or Sotenbori having played around in these areas so much across so many games at this point, but even with Ijincho in LAD, I played the first 60% of that game last year, took a huge break, and came back still knowing roughly where everything was that I'd already come across, and that speaks to a really good city layout and story curation (which I think might be one of the most overlooked aspects of these games, at least some of the more recent ones). This is definitely the first time where I've been watching the marketing for one of these games and found myself going "hmm, this seems like it could really, really easily be bloated", and to an extent that I genuinely think it would be a concern if it was any series but this one. Because it's not just the bigger map, it's then also the Animal Crossing-style stuff, the Sujimon stuff getting its own thing, we've got so many other new side content types and mini-games being added too. Every single time there's a new trailer for this game it seems to be introducing a piece of side content with the potential to be at least 10 hours long to see it through from beginning to end! I'm not going to let my anticipation of other titles around the release of this game get in the way of my hype for or enjoyment of it - because worst case, eh, it'd suck but the next game I play gets pushed back a little - but man, I really just hope that with everything seemingly ballooning in size, that it continues to feel meaningful. Yakuza/Like A Dragon is so good at building side content and substories which enhance your enjoyment of the main game, whether it be new upgrades or more money or rare items, and while I LOVED LAD, I'm gutted that they didn't come up with a better alternative to grinding in the sewers for a few hours to get to enjoy the challenging end-game content. And I'm someone who doesn't mind a grind! But especially with how two separate times it's handled pretty deftly during the main story in that game ("look, dude, we've opened a grinding spot for you!" – wink wink, nod nod, there's a spike coming up), my biggest hope for this game with it being so much larger in scale and supposedly story length is that it's more akin to Dragon Quest XI, where it's more of a case of there being a third act with engaging content which gets you through to the real ending of the game, beyond what's been advertised. A return to Ijincho, perhaps? Anyways, that got long, but good lord. At this point I've made peace with what I want to play from Jan to March (which is to say: this and Rebirth ), so I'm just on my hands and knees praying that Shadows of the Erdtree doesn't get announced to drop in Feb/March, because then I seriously don't know what I'd do

RGG have just announced that Honolulu, the main area in Infinite Wealth, will be 3x larger than Ijincho...which was already 3x larger than Kamurocho. Yeah, I can understand why the game is going be noticeably longer than LAD now just really hope this has a sizeable post-game (or third, post-game act, something like Dragon Quest XI?) which gets you to those higher levels, as I think that's the thing LAD was really lacking: you basically only had the choice of grinding out 30 to 40 levels (not to even mention Job Ranks!) to reach max level before taking on the toughest challenges in the game. In that way, LAD actually really reminds me of Pokémon Gold/Silver, it's poor lead-up to Red demanding a grind, and... This game is going to be dangerously long. Honestly, the more we hear about it, the more I question if I'll be able to get it out of the way before VII Rebirth arrives. That being said: I'm so ready

I personally really enjoyed it, but I also think it's probably the most fan service we've had in these live-action Disney+ shows to date, so, I mean, I can understand it. Outside of a few characters (returning and/or with an entire animated series to depend on for characterisation) I also think it has the general Mandoverse issue of some stilted acting and bland lines. Have you watched Andor yet H-o-T? I think it is by far and away the best written, acted, directed, and overall executed live-action Star Wars show so far, and I think probably my favourite (/the best) live-action Star Wars anything since Rogue One and parts of The Last Jedi. Oh yeah, absolutely. I still think it's crazy that they haven't been using opening crawls more to set up the time periods of these live-action shows by referring to the films, and I find it really funny that the one time they have used any sort of reference on-screen, it was in a show which is a prequel to a film that the protagonist dies in. For something as lore-heavy as Star Wars can be, I think they've really dropped the ball on this and, purposely or not, have gone the MCU direction of releasing a lot of content without having said content during their runtime make clear for newcomers/more casual fans when what they're watching is going on. And when you remember that George always used to say that franchise is for children...I don't know, I think it speaks to a bit of a wider issue with the franchise since Disney took over that when and where possible, why shouldn't these stories be made more easily accessible to children, newcomers, and more casual fans?

Been listening to this song a whole lot over the last month amongst all of the NBT listening (yes, it's another Nothing But Thieves post ), one line in particular: what a freaking line

Hey, going from memory and rounding a bit, I wasn't too far off I knew I'd seen a different number not too long ago for the Xbox One, though, so what's most interesting to me about that particular post is that, after looking around to see where I got that idea from, we actually got much a more solid number for the Xbox One that very same day (29th June 2023) courtesy of Microsoft themselves during the ID@Xbox presentation at BIG Festival in Brazil: The 79+ million combined Xbox One and Series X|S sales minus the 21+ million Series X|S sales leaves us with roughly 58 million Xbox One units sold in total (it's give or take, but somewhere within the range of between 57m to 59m, so I'm going to say 58m for simplicity's sake). So, that's: Regardless of where the actual numbers end up lying, my point was only ever to highlight that the numbers have either stabilised or ever so slightly increased between the PS3/360 and PS4/XBO gens, and take issue with the claim that the non-Nintendo console market has shown evidence of shrinking, and much less to a degree that it's (currently) worth worrying about. The continued advancement of cloud tech and the increased pivot by both companies towards subscription services is I think far, far more damning to the hardware future if this industry than any current signs of shifting unit sales of hardware between generations. Again, I think it's very difficult to say because the COVID situation adds so much nuance here compared to other generational launches. It's something I've talked about before, so I'm going to quote myself from over in the PS5 thread from a good while back now, talking about the initial projected sales of the PS5 vs the reality (due to COVID): I feel like the instinct here is to go "oh, well, PlayStation should have sold the difference in the time since then now that they have stock!", but I think that's an incredibly naïve takeaway and outlook on this; we all know that there is much more nuance to rebounding from a sales shortage than that. Back to your original point, though, either way, I think it's clearly then less a case of the market shrinking and simply a case of Xbox falling by the wayside after having not delivered consistent system-selling games in the way that both PlayStation and Nintendo have and continue to do. I'm damn sure that if Xbox delivered premiere content which was ambitious and ran best on Xbox consistently then I also think this idea of PlayStation "not picking up the slack" isn't the right way to look at this: they have no fiduciary duty towards either this industry or Microsoft/Xbox in keeping the line of sales sold between the two companies taut while Xbox sales continue to either decline or stabilise at okay-at-best generational sales figures. Their fiduciary duty is only unto themselves, and the way they'd be looking at the numbers going from PS3 to PS4? They're grinning evil and greed-filled smiles up in their boardrooms with their gold-lined desks. The question here for me, really, is whether the PS5 and Series consoles both manage to outsell their predecessor, and honestly I have no idea. I could see the PS5 doing 100m+ and the Xbox Series consoles coming in at around the same figure as the One consoles, but that's if they don't kill their chances off completely by coming to other platforms – which we both agree is clearly what they're trying to do! But can the PS5 outsell the PS4? Between the incredibly poor pace of first party releases - despite their continued quality - up to this point in the generation and the decision to not come out with a cheaper Slim model but instead increase/maintain the price of the original model with a more cost effective production approach makes me think not. I think the next two years in particular are going to be gigantic for not only deciding the sales of the PS5, but of PlayStation as a whole: will their GaaS plans payoff (I doubt it)? Who do they acquire? Who don't they acquire? How hard are they leaning into PS+ and subscription models? Is that number growing or not? And so on. Xbox is already in a transition period towards Game Pass as their primary product, and I'll be shocked if Nintendo change too much with their next console beyond it conceptually being similar to the Switch. But PlayStation? I think we get a PS6 - for the record, I also think we might get one final Xbox console next gen - but the direction they go with and beyond that I think is still very much up in the air. Reading this part of your post makes me think I might be misinterpreting some of your statements about the console market "shrinking" and more that it is contracting around a certain demographic - to which I'd probably agree. As someone who is still (currently) a part of that demographic, though, I think it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the long-term with this current demo of 10-25 year-olds, because, not to be all doom and gloom or pull out the masculinity machine gun (I do not subscribe to the ideas of Andrew Tate or any of those other, uh, shamans of idiocy, if you will): the future is looking real rough right now. Between ever-increasing stats worldwide on the number of people with mental health struggles; a new WW3-level chaos-fuelled threat every year that is beyond the reach of the layman; more and more young men worldwide struggling to get into (and then continue with) further education, and many, many other things; I think these young men - and then the men who slide into older demographics as the years go on - will look to either lose themselves to blame and toxic ideology (incel ideas and the like) or to escapism, of which I'd argue gaming is the ultimate form. The future is always uncertain, but to bring this back to the discussion of the industry, I think that's unfortunately how new demographics will be found and targeted: as a result of more people in a wider range of demographics. Honestly, I don't think that it's too dissimilar to how Japan is renowned for having an incredibly aged society, to the point that many politicians will chase their votes over younger adults (which is also because younger adults rarely seem to vote, but I think you catch my drift). Anyways, to bring it back to Xbox in particular, I agree with you: Xbox going all-in on Game Pass is the only logical choice they have at this point. Personally, I think it's a huge shame, because a lack of competition breeds a lack of ambition and complacency, for the industry and advancement of gaming as a whole, and I also already feel like PlayStation have made a few decisions this generation that they wouldn't have last generation when they felt they had a true fight on their hands. And then Nintendo are just...there, killing it this gen, and likely next, too. I'm much less worried about them than the other two simply because they always seem to have the ambition to squeeze the most out of whatever hardware they find themselves on and deliver great games around that.

Just want to say that was a great post to start a discussion @Hero-of-Time, it's something I've been mulling over the last couple of days since you posted Absolutely - in fact, I think they've already lost, acknowledged that they did so a long time ago, and have since pivoted. If you want the best experience of current generation first party PlayStation or Nintendo offerings at launch, you have to buy their consoles. There is no exception to this. Because Xbox - by design - has always been closer in hardware to PCs in architecture than the other consoles, which benefitted them quite a bit early on and then especially so with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3's Cell processor gaffe making Xbox 360 arguably the place to experience most third party games as (generally) performance was better on the console; nowadays, however, because the vast majority of their first party offerings have been landing on PC day and date since some point last gen, anyone who actually wants to have the best experience with Xbox games is better off investing in their PC than in a dedicated console. It's the mid-tier way to experience their games (which I would argue has created a lack of ambition when compared to PlayStation and Nintendo simply because the game needs to run on their Xbox consoles to a degree which is acceptable, but it means they can't squeeze everything out of the consoles that they can, because there's a need for scaling up and down on PC), whereas PlayStation and Nintendo still deliver the experiences to console as a premiere experience, and despite PlayStation taking steps over the last few years to move more games to PC, they take their sweet time with it and are very inconsistent when it comes to PC port quality; for now, it remains an afterthought for them. Honestly? No, I really don't think they do. As you say, I think they've buried so many of their first party offerings through depending so heavily on them that they became stale, and didn't really take a chance on true new AAA IPs/revivals last gen, which is really biting them in the ass now. Of their AAA pick-ups, Bethesda should be a crown jewel - but they've been on the slide since Skyrim, and I don't think are seen as the premiere developer they once were; likewise, Activision/Blizzard is also just sort of stagnating, and let's be honest, it's not like any of these companies would've been up for grabs had they not been in a messy state. I've said in the past that the only reason I'd personally take a chance on Xbox is to experience older games of theirs and to use Forza as an alternative to FIFA (i.e. a game I can just play pretty mindlessly), but otherwise, I don't really see the point. When was the last time that Xbox released a truly exceptional, can't-miss game, one worth buying a console for? And even more so, one that wasn't also on PC at launch or almost immediately after? Between PlayStation and Nintendo first party stuff, a handful of third parties, and then indie games, I think Xbox have been squeezed out pretty forcefully - the hangers-on at this point are, I think, mostly existing Xbox users already in the ecosystem or the more casual FIFA/CoD/etc. players. I would be very interested in seeing the split on Xbox Series for people new to the ecosystem vs existing users. Don't even get me started on their acquisitions strategy, (so far) evidently poor ROI on those acquisitions (talking output here), and the absolutely abysmal curation job they've done over there - because I feel like that's all I ever talk about with Xbox when they have these conversations, unfortunately, which I feel like we've had countless times over the last 5 years. I struggle to see them changing and thriving without even more of a shake-up and even more targeted purchases; I genuinely think they'd need to cripple Japan's gaming industry by at least acquiring Konami, SEGA, and Square Enix to really start competing with PlayStation this gen. Only then do you find an Xbox with a worldwide appeal in the same way Nintendo and PlayStation have, developers with a history of delivering phenomenal games consistently, and well, Konami is just there to revive dead franchises and win out with nostalgia. I agree with @Dcubed on this one - it's where Microsoft have been going with all of their other services, and is where their gaming services are inevitably going to end up, to. Considering there were whispers of Xbox coming out at GDC years ago now (2019 or 2020?) with Nintendo to unveil Game Pass coming to Switch, I'm surprised we've not yet seen that come to fruition, but I think the Switch's successor and the horsepower it could bring to the table will be vital in delivering on that potential. While Game Pass numbers are indeed climbing, the rate at which it is doing so has already been noted as slowing down. Coming to Switch or Switch 2 and potentially PlayStation at some point will definitely lead to a bump in numbers - but between the offerings already on those consoles, and seeing how an overabundance of programming has resulted in even Netflix needing to cut corners to try to show change and growth to shareholders, so long as Xbox is beholden to Microsoft and is beholden to shareholders? Inevitable price bumps in Game Pass as they inch closer to their saturation point are inevitable, and I think the indie scene and AA space is most likely to be impacted here: if a game isn't on NSO/PS+, but is on Game Pass, you download it through Game Pass but then the developer is missing out on a potential sale through the other platforms? These indie deals are either going to get a lot more lucrative or the space is going to experience its first real collapse once Game Pass arrives on other platforms. What I find funny about all of this is that Xbox's biggest misstep is not taking a page out of the Wii's book when it comes to their Game Pass approach: they 1000% need to adopt the blue ocean approach in order to even attempt to not reach saturation after arriving on other platforms. I mean, imagine if the Wii was a cloud gaming device and multimedia device, where all you needed was the Wiimote and the app downloaded to your TV in order to play Wii Sports and the other incredibly well-designed Wii games made to expand the market; I could really see something like that working, and working damn well. It was a device filled with casual and approachable games across the board, but compare this to Game Pass, which I think is a splendid deal for what it is, but relies so much on already having gaming knowledge with almost all of its games that I think a casual newcomer to the space would be completely overwhelmed by the amount of games on offer, input variety across games on Game Pass, etc., that they'd rather buy a dedicated gaming device if it's not done well. Basically: one day, Game Pass is going to need to be curated for and have games designed around the calibre and entry-level nature that Nintendo achieved with the Wii. That was lightning in a bottle built off the back of some of the greatest minds in the industry and with Iwata as a leader; I don't think Xbox has the minds at the top (no offence, Phil) to pull off that lightning in a bottle situation for themselves. Because, let's be honest: 20+ years in the industry, and they've never managed to do that, have they? They haven't had a Wii or a DS or a PS1 or PS2 or PS4, heck, their best-selling console sold a few million more than the PSP and still managed to get overtaken by the PS3 despite PlayStation shooting themselves in the foot with a shotgun. I genuinely think the Series consoles are, at this point, here to tide people over and buy Microsoft time until cloud gaming is where it needs to be for them to truly deliver on Game Pass in the way they want to; problem is, I think they're probably at least 5 years or so out from getting to this point, but they have to keep Xbox alive as a brand in the meantime while that tech isn't there in the same way that Google released the Stadia just to say they did it. While more successful than the Wii U with both the One and Series lines, Xbox, I feel, are in this weird middle ground similar to the last few years of the Wii U where they're just trying to get to the next thing. While technically true if we go purely by the numbers and without context, the fact that PS5 hit 40 million units sold this year and is tracking only slightly behind the PS4 (which took 2 months fewer to get to 40 million units) with the context of COVID and a mass components shortage leading up to launch makes this seem like a bit of a disingenuous take. Even more so when you consider that this is the first year we've really seen them shake off the cross-gen release rust, because before Spider-Man 2, while there were some quality AAA first party experiences to have on PS5, the big-hitter sequels like Ragnarok and Forbidden West have all found themselves being cross-gen, so the actual need to buy the console for consumers already with a PS4 has been minimal. (I also think that it was just a smart decision to do this, because why leave 120+ million or whatever PS4s behind? That would be pretty dumb, right? Right, Xbox, with your understandable but also kind of stupid exclusive Starfield release? ) This is a pretty specific statement, and I think I'm going to have to hit you with another one of these: Off the top of my head, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sold around 85 million units each, so that's 170 million units sold in the 360/PS3 gen for non-Nintendo consoles. Still off the top of my head, PS4 sold around 120 million units, and the Xbox One sold around (just a bit under, I think) 60 million units...so that's 180 million units sold during the One/PS4 gen for non-Nintendo consoles. So unless we're counting portables like the PSP and Vita and/or peripherals like Kinect and Move...huh? (and if we are including these - why? The motion control market died a quick death and smartphones have wiped out the dedicated portable market) For Microsoft, I'd say it's more a calculated (but still risky) case of moving their audience to Game Pass, but yes, also a case of people moving to PC or replacing their Xbox with a PlayStation as their primary console. For Sony? I'm a bit confused by this statement. Who's dying and dwindling? 100m PS1s to 155m PS2s to 85m PS3s to 120m PS4s, with the PS5 at 40m+ units and tracking only a few months behind the PS4 despite everything else I've mentioned, if anything to me it looks like they've grown (out of the PS3 shell of themselves) and stabilised. There's totally a conversation to be had about their output this gen, but I'm seriously confused about them "failing to bring in new audiences to replace dying and dwindling customers." Am I crazy here or is that not just a case of maximising profits on multi-hundred-million dollar investments, which is why - so far - it has been limited to their AAA offerings? The PC market is massive, PlayStation would be out on the streets if they didn't capitalise on opportunities like that. I've not really got much to add here beyond my blue ocean stuff from before where I think they need to chase non-gamers in a Wii-type way in the long-term after it does land on other platforms, but I do find it really interesting that Netflix and the like have started to have their own gaming sections on their platforms and are sometimes publishing indie games (for example, Storyteller which I mentioned the other day is available through Netflix and published by them on mobile!). I think it becomes an interesting race to value-add from this point, which I think Sony is starting to prep for between Crunchyroll and Funimation...but I'm curious what Xbox's planned value-add is here? A month of Game Pass with Office 365? They're not exactly a huge name in the entertainment industry outside of Xbox, so I see team-ups or more acquisitions (urgh) in their future. I think it is a bit of a poisoned chalice at this point, yes. Xbox have a huge branding problem, and have for while now because of how stupidly they've named consoles for the last 10 years: the One, because it's one place to do everything? One X/S? Series X|S? There's a reason so many journalists were referring to the X|S mistakenly as the Xbox One Series X|S early on, it's such a stupid name. However, it's also a bit of a double-edged sword: do you use a new name for the brand as a whole now, or stick to the name of the brand you've spent over two decades investing in?

Wasn't sure where else to put this, but RwanLink - who put the trailer for this together - has shown off more of what their Castle Town looks like...and gimmegimmegimme It looks beautiful

I find it funny that all three of us, who I reckon are all pretty good at starting a game and then sticking with it regardless of how we feel, ended up dropping this at one point or another – I feel a little justified in having done so when I first booted it up in 2021 now I think I got through the first three chapters, which were a whole lot of set-up, but then when it finally opened up more found myself inundated with so much side stuff that my attention just dropped through the floor. It also just feels a bit too similar to the preceding Yakuza games once you can roam around for what was supposed to be a bit of an injection of fresh ideas for the series. Also, yeah, the tailing missions suck. I don't think I'll ever make another post about this game without mentioning that fact, and it doesn't get better as the game goes on; I remember several points where I would use my knowledge of Kamurocho to follow someone by cutting through a building, etc., but the second they're out of sight sirens start blaring and you feel rushed to catch up, which is just so unnecessary! Would definitely recommend getting back to it at some point, as I think it's got some great substories, story moments, and one of the better substory culminations in the series. I also think they leaned way too heavily into marketing the idea that this was a detective game, which I think oversold just how much of a shake up this was to the RGG formula; I think it's more accurate to say that it's a crime/mystery in the style of a J-/K-drama, where putting together the clues isn't the focus at all, but the drama, relationships, and underlying mystery of it all is instead. Thankfully, I've heard Lost Judgment is better when it comes to shaking things up, and I can see the traversal on a skateboard, spending time in a school, and some other things they do shaking things up in the way I think the first game probably should have in the first place, so I'm looking forward to getting to that at some point

Played the first chapter of this earlier this evening. Man, as much as I loved LAD and enjoyed Judgment, it feels damn good to be back in the shoes of the Dragon of Dojima some 2½ years after I played 6. Feels like coming home

Hope lives in the galaxy? Maybe? According to Schreier, at least two people from Saber seem to still be on it: Can someone just come out and clearly communicate what the heck is going on at this point please?! I think it's dead but come on man, just have someone step out onto a podium and declare it to the world. Please?

In a move that seemingly came out of nowhere, but is fully deserved, Dave Filoni has been promoted to Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of Lucasfilm! Per Vanity Fair: That's one of the choice quotes of the article, and while I don't think it's an actual dig in any way at the sequels and I can enjoy certain aspects of those films for what they are, I think it highlights one of that trilogy's biggest weaknesses, which is that in its design ethos it does just look so visually similar to the original trilogy when compared to something like the prequels. Which is to all say: I guess this means TIE Defenders might be about to be back on the menu

Jet Force Gemini is being added to the service on 30th November; just the JP video to confirm for now (they still haven't had GoldenEye release over there): Well, that came out of the blue

As I mentioned it in my Gaming Diary update I feel like I should do the game a favour and mention it again here, as Storyteller is currently on sale on the eShop for £8.69 (down from £12.49).

First post here in a while and it's not quite the post that's going to bring me up-to-date on my Gaming Diary entries for the year, but with GOTY nominees recently released for TGAs and with me having played what I want to of most of this year's AAA offerings for now, I've gone ahead and am set to dive into indies between bigger games - some which were TGA nominees, but a good number of which I've gone out and researched to try and seek out any hidden gems that might have flown under the radar this year. I definitely think that the two I want to spend this post highlighting might grab the attention of some of the folks here, so let's dive in! Storyteller | 2023 Storyteller is an indie game developed by Daniel Benmergui and published by Annapurna Interactive in which players piece together characters, settings and panels to form a narrative laid out in the page title, and how these scenes are arranged and order impacts later scenes in the same scenario, which creates an easy to pick-up and charming little puzzle game. The game is highly stylised with the look of a simple storybook, and some pages come with sub-objectives, such as completing the puzzle without having any characters die, having a character perform a certain action, and so on, which adds welcome depth to the game, and while the game is mostly an easygoing time with its puzzles, some of which feel incredibly satisfying to complete, there were one or two where I certainly found myself a little bit stumped, and felt that page was a bit at odds with the simplicity and craftsmanship of other solutions in the game, but I think those instances were simply down to not having to try out those particular types of solutions up to that point. I did really appreciate that there were multiple ways in which to complete a fair few of the puzzles here - I'm not really a fan of when a puzzle only has one solution, as you can often find yourself banging your head against the wall, but for the most part I thought thse were pretty breezy, and again, very satisfying to solve on some of the more complex pages. I had good fun with Storyteller, its chilled out vibe and charming art style, and it definitely felt like the type of game you could just pick up for a page or two and come back to; what's more, it's a very tight experience, only taking me a couple of hours to complete every page and sub-objective. There are stamps made available to earn, too, which can be collected by going back through the game if you don't want to let the experience end, but I skipped out on this as I thought its length was just perfect for what it was. I also really enjoyed the occasional use of well-known classical music, too For those curious about where you can play it, right now Storyteller is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Android and iOS. SANABI | 2023 The first game developed by Korea-based studio Wonder Potion and published by Neowiz Games (who recently published Lies of P), SANABI is a story-driven action-platformer set in a dystopian future. Following the re-emergence of the titular terrorist SANABI the entire population of Mago City disappeared in the span of 30 minutes without leaving a trace, and so you fill the pixel-art shoes of a retired veteran soldier pulled back into the mix of things for one last job; with SANABI providing you with a clear motive for seeking vengeance, and your trusty grapple hook chain arm in tow, you'll find yourself blazing towards the centre of an industrial conspiracy. I thought this game had some great gameplay ideas, the grapple hook obviously has a long and storied history in gaming, but it being the centre of attention here in momentum-driven swings, zipping around from platform to ceiling to wall, and some short but snappy combat encounters felt awesome. What mixes this up as the game goes on is new platform types, new ways to interact with them, and unlocking new abilities, which leads to moments where you are just zipping through areas, and when this game is flying in these moments where everything is coming together, it feels absolutely incredible. Unfortunately, there are a few moments where I think the game spikes in difficulty which get in the way of this, and these are typically coupled with less generous checkpoints than the game has been leading you to expect by the time that you get to them - a few times this would be down to wall-/ceiling-zips just not working at the right time for me - and there were a few times where I found myself being buffered along inside of a deadly laser field' you know, the type where you're kind of just stuck bopping around as your health chips away because you're too deep into that terrain to escape. Some of the gameplay elements introduced later on I also feel could have been introduced quite a bit earlier, as you don't really get a good chance to make full use of them other than the final stretch of the game. One thing that I think this game absolutely nails, though, is its boss fights. There are one or two of these which I really just love, and though I don't want to get into them too much, I'm just so happy that they come with such a heavy emphasis on actual platforming during a boss fight in an action-platformer, rather than what I find some other games in the genre do, which is suddenly become an action-lite game. I mentioned before that this game was story-driven, and I want to emphasise this fact: this game has more story than any other 2D platformer that I've played. Period. It's not got stages to access from a world map, nor is it a Metroidvania with backtracking, meaning that it is a very linear experience; there are straight-up multiple cutscenes in the game, which are highly effective and very easy on the eye; and there is an overarching narrative and one or two subplots to pay attention to throughout. I think there are a few instances in the game where these cutscenes go on a beat too long, and coupled with a general heightening in difficulty, the middle 20% of this game and probably the penultimate 15% too are really poorly paced, meaning I was definitely ready tp see credits roll by the time they come around. It's a shame, too, because this game pulls no punches and I think has an extremely well-delivered story and some very interesting characters, it just needed some tightening up in spots for me which I feel would have really allowed the story to shine through even more effectively than it did. There are beats towards the end of this game that, for me, made the moments of struggle worth it, because it was so satisfying to see the attention the folks over at Wonder Potion were paying to so many of their lines of dialogue, and I think the story payoff alone is enough of a reason to pick this game up and see it through to the end. I was left with chills when I realised what a certain object truly represented. Would this be a diary entry from me if I didn't mention a game's music? Of course not! And SANABI has one hell of an OST, ranging from cuter and upbeat, innocent pieces to punchy electronic and punding drums which really rubber stamps the oftentimes frenetic nature of this game. Some of my favourite tracks that I could find are the title screen theme, the first boss fight (11/10 and probably my joint favourite - listen to this one!), one of the many Mago City themes, and one of the later boss fights (another 11/10 and my other joint favourite - please listen to this one too!). Wonderful OST that'll definitely have you bobbing your head along to most of its songs. The other thing to highlight - which hopefully I've been doing a decent job at in this post - is the game's atmosphere and style. Every pixel is perfectly placed when it comes to this game's look, and whether it be the bright neon lights of Mago City or the powdery orange hue of a single bulb, this game has some excellent framing and cinematography which really heightens its appeal for me. There are also several times throughout the game where the developer toys with colour-graded looks, and I found that they worked really effectively for the scenes that they were used for. The world feels surprisingly fleshed out, as do its characters, and so when you throw some really solid sound design into the mix, too, this game just finds itself dripping neon and grunge in all the best ways. Despite some worrying pacing for a few stretches of its story and a handful of frustrating gameplay moments littered throughout the game, SANABI lives up to its style and narrative with some excellent ideas shown off in its mechanics, fun level design, great bosses, interesting characters, and awesome music. There is room for improvement, though, and so I seriously hope that this game gets a sequel/successor, because its base mechanics, story, world and characters all more than deserve it. If you're wondering where you can play this, SANABI is currently available on Nintendo Switch and PC.

IGN have put out a great investigative piece on the sexism problems over at Game Science: How Black Myth: Wukong Developer’s History of Sexism Is Complicating its Journey to the West. Some choice quotes: Yikes. Just...yikes. Very much a recommended read, I'm not surprised to once again see Rebekah Valentine attached to this story, as she's been hard-carrying IGN's journalistic efforts ever since she returned.

It was supposed to arrive last Thursday after ordering it close to the end of my time with LAD, but got lost in the shuffle somewhere (thanks FedEx), so I'll also be joining you guys back in Kamurocho shortly Yeah, I was never going to go without a physical edition of this. Still think it was a super weird decision to not have a physical English version released, but whatever think physical is the one spot RGG have kind of started to drop the ball (what, between this and the PS4 version of LAD remaining steelbook-only). Got another game I'll be wrapping up today and some other things to get to in the meantime, but hoping to dive into this tonight

Yeah, Judgment is yet another one of the RGG games where they want you to do a second playthrough to get the Plat, and I'm pretty sure the same goes for Lost Judgment, too. I find it really funny how they seem to flip-flop on that from game to game: Yakuza 6 needed just one playthrough (well, +reload difficulty change antics), Judgment needed two (after they got rid of the reload antics), Like A Dragon needed one, Lost Judgment needed two, from what I gather from how quickly people have got the Plat in Gaiden I'd assume that's just one... ...they'd never do it (right?), but following the pattern, Infinite Wealth would need two. But it's a JRPG and probably going to be a 60+ hour investment, so surely not...right?! RIGHT?! Play how you want to play but also

Yeah, so far I think the lowest I've seen it at so far is £40 for the PS4 version, and that's how it was before the sales started to kick off fingers crossed it drops somewhere in the coming week for you! Would be super interested to hear your thoughts on it The Black Friday sales stretching out to more than a week before the actual day really makes it hard to get a read on the best deals this time of year, guess the corpos know what they're doing there though Man, the reviews and pre-launch impressions for Lies of P have me really curious, but I'm trying to resist by burying the thought of playing Lies of P behind wanting to play Bloodborne again and forcing myself to play anything else to get my mind off doing just that. That being said, I did re-install Bloodborne on Friday, so I'm not sure how well that's working out for me

Vaati has uploaded his first video on the lore of AC VI, and it's a doozy! Man, I love this game Must...resist...the urge...to play again...

Sucks, but the writing has been on the wall for a while, so not a total surprise. Can't blame PlayStation for wanting to bury the lead on this one, it looks like Embracer and everyone under them is in complete self-destruct mode after their hopes for a Saudi deal fell through, but with that in mind, it makes me even more surprised that PlayStation had a deal put in place for the game in the first place. I guess that's just how the business works, but it reminds me of the Like A Dragon business management mini-game, when you'd occasionally get an investment offer which sounds super sketchy – and, uh, I guess PlayStation decided they wanted in? I'd (naively) hoped that this would be the first time I experienced KOTOR for myself (I know the general beats from just growing up with it being a thing), so I guess I'll just need to get to work on the existing version of the game (which still hasn't been ported over to PlayStation, argh!). I'm really curious to see what the plan is now for KOTOR and just that era in general in the wider Star Wars scene, as nothing in the current slate has an Old Republic backdrop and so this was the only project being lined up in that timeframe. It's an ever bigger shame because when the Old Republic symbol turned up on the new timeline shown at Celebration this year, everyone rightly went wild – I can imagine a lot of those guys and girls are now pretty disappointed that we have no idea when we'll see another project related to the Old Republic again

Feels like a huge missed opportunity to me that they didn't at least make the Roguelike Survival Mode co-op/multiplayer; considering the mess Factions is (was? It seems all but dead), I think it would've been a nice hold over. Jordan Middler (VGC) has shared that he heard this was more a project for new hires and isn't the main focus over at ND: Makes sense to get them on something like this to bring them up to speed with the workflow/expectations/etc., but at the same time, can you imagine getting your dream job at a studio like Naughty Dog after catching wind of their next project...to find yourself working on an updated version of a game released just a couple of years ago, which has already had a little next-gen bump and didn't really need much else besides that? I mean, ain't that the question though they've sized up, at this rate it's looking like we're going to be lucky to get one game from them this gen, and after Part I, the HBO show, Part II Remastered...I'll be shocked if it's not Part III. There's been small murmurs in the background for years now of a new IP, but goodness knows what's going on there. Factions being a total non-starter combined with the constant remasters has just really taken the wind out of my sails when it comes to being excited about whatever comes next. I love Naughty Dog, and TLOU especially, but man, imagine how depressing it's potentially been to work over there since Lost Legacy released, besides the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves collection it's been nonstop TLOU. The other problem this causes is that it puts so much pressure on Druckmann to be the face of ND, deliver consistently, and doesn't really put anyone else in the limelight, which I can see potentially stunting their climb in the future. I would kill for ND to have messed around with some other genres (straight-up psychological horror? Mob? Detective? A fun and light-hearted platformer or puzzle game? A farming sim?! ) and just put out some shorter experiences (like 5 hours tops), but I know it just doesn't work that way in AAA anymore. It's such a massive shame that they aren't doing anything else, or even really collaborating with other studios under the PlayStation umbrella in any big and noticeable way (still of the firm belief that not making Days Gone a soft tie-in to TLOU is one of the biggest missed opportunities of last gen and would've put to bed the discourse around sales and critical reception it ended up with). TLOU has got to be such a heavy game series to work on considering it's graphic nature and story beats, and I genuinely think part of the problem with II came about because they've been living and breathing TLOU for so long at this point. Well, that and Straley not being involved. The crazy part to me is that this just seems to be touting native 4K, and there's not even a mention of ray-tracing or any other new next-gen buzzwords hidden in the small print. It's not a competition - so I say this in jest and maybe half-seriously - but Insomniac have walked circles around Naughty Dog this gen in terms of game output and their technical prowess being showcased. They've got to be one of the best acquisitions of this acquisition era we've found ourselves in over the last few years.