Julius

Totally agree. Feels like they're playing four centre backs at times too, it's like they've given up on defending the flanks. Feels like they're playing in the middle 75% of the pitch until they get into the opposing final third, at which point they're totally isolated and have no choice but to try and lump it in. Seems like they've got off lightly with this penalty call being changed to a free kick, good call from VAR though.

Yep. I feel like a tough opener for Germany might've set the tone because of how young this squad is, but it seems like they're jumping on the chance to make a statements. Men vs boys out there the last 15 minutes. This could get pretty ugly.

Well, that was fast. Good start for Germany, seemed like both sides were interested in attacking - which is always nice - but I'm curious to see how Scotland react now. They'll be questioning whether they sit deeper or push up and try to grab an equaliser, surely?

Looking at this German squad is making me think about if and when skin fades are going to go out of style. Feels like it's been in for a good minute Anyways, here we go!

That shot of 'Euro' reflected in a curve on the cup during this Beckenbauer applause is a beaut. Just 5 minutes to go. A night to remember for Scotland or back to business for Germany?

German? No no no, I'm not sure quite where you got that idea from, but @drahkon is a little robot with a tiny blue cape, have you not seen his profile pic? No wonder you didn't spot him! (hope you had a nice time in Milan )

Cracks me up every single time Big Boss uses the Fulton on someone with little to no warning in cutscenes Got the Sneaking Suit, put it to good use already (obviously pairs well with my preferred non-lethal style of play outside of boss battles), love that loadouts seem to save to the different outfits. Finished Chapter 2 and beat Chrysalis last night, took a little while when trying to figure out when I could and couldn't attack, where I could hide, trying to balance all of that with firing off RPG shells to test this and then needing to call in for supplies...it took a while, but we got there on the first attempt! Also: unexpected Carpenters. Really unexpected Carpenters. As someone whose dad grew up on them and used to play them a lot in the car growing up -- safe to say I appreciated the very much unexpected Carpenters I'm focusing on the main missions for now, I think the story is a bit too interesting for me to willingly meander in and out of the Extra Ops, so I'll do those when I see fit or if it's called for I think. We've started work on ZEKE, recruited a bunch more guys (some on the beach in the shortest test of skill maybe ever?), working on the homing missile launcher in R&D...it's going pretty great!

In fairness, I feel like a lot of my excitement comes from the 2020/21 Euros and 2022 WC being absolutely top tier as far as international football tournaments go. I fully expect the hype to die down by the end of Matchday 2 if we're getting a lot more goalless draws and narrow margins of victory this time around

Today is the day! Can't wait for kick-off tonight between Germany and Scotland If for whatever reason, you aren't quite feeling the hype yet, fear not! The BBC have released videos on the goals that defined the last five editions of the tournament, from 2004 to 2020/2021 to get your hype levels up. So, who's everyone backing to take the trophy home? For me it's really hard to look beyond the French, which has been the case for a while now. Meanwhile, defending champions Italy seem to be taking a bit of a younger squad this time around with the view that this is a bit of a warm-up and staging ground for 2026's World Cup -- if they can qualify, that is!

Edin Terzic has been let go by Dortmund: There was all that Hummels drama before the UCL final, so it seems like they've rolled over a bit. Shame. Would love to see him in England, he seems to be destined for silverware.

Some more great news, per IGN: free DLC for the game is on the way. ...did somebody say speedrunning levels making a triumphant return? Eh? Ehhhhh? Also, love this, from the same IGN article: If that ain't hype and also doesn't just scream out that so many of the PlayStation studios want to be part of other things which celebrate the brand then I don't know what does

Previews from last week's press events have started to drop: ...and apparently they all decided that they needed to use the image of Astro with a dog on his back in their thumbnails

More games being added to the catalog this month: And, more interestingly, more classics are on the way -- LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PSP), Ghosthunter (PS2), and Daxter (PSP).

Hands-off previews have dropped: Easy Allies also got an interview: Interestingly, as pointed out in the written IGN preview and these previews -- the game's zones are 2 to 3 times larger than those found in World, but this is seemingly not a truly open world game.

The "recapitulative" (From's words on Twitter, not mine!) story video for a bit of a refresher on how things were last time out in the wild of The Lands Between: Also, the game has sold a couple million copies more since our last figure update back in Feb, now standing tall at 25 million copies sold: Still unsure about committing to diving into Shadows of the Erdtree next Friday or holding off a bit -- I'd love to, but after playing around with it last week I feel lost, and definitely feel like I need to replay the game again to get back up to snuff. Hmm.

Funnily enough I was going to say this earlier about an hour after H-o-T and Dcubed posted above...but then I went back to the main forum page just to be sure and it took a good 20+ seconds to load anything Best it's been for a good while now, though, so let's see how it goes for the rest of the day. Fingers crossed!

So, Future Press have announced a limited 25th anniversary reprint of their Bloodborne Complete Edition Guide...which I might need to look into picking up. Unrelated, but I never did finish putting my death counter together in here, did I? Well, I've still got the notes -- so I guess it's better later than never! All bosses in bold, like before, are bosses I hadn't previously listed. Kind of finding myself wanting to return to Yharnam for another round just seeing all those boss names again

I might try to take it for a spin but when I looked it up yesterday after unlocking it, some posts from last year seemed to suggest that it wasn't particularly active at that time, and I can't imagine that it's got any better now. Kind of giving me Factions vibes from what I've read, a lot of the same names popping up around the same time of day...but obviously on steroids, because this is on PS3 and the franchise had been left to rot for a minute there

Well the above trailer is now live -- and August 29th it is! So, that's only the day before Star Wars Outlaws, and a week out from Astro Bot and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It's not quite a Dragon Quest XI with Spider-Man in 2018 situation...but it certainly does seem to be up against it.

It's been over four years since my last post in this thread, and over two years since my last MGS experience...meaning it's time to round off this HD Collection with Peace Walker. Think Konami have finally got to me with the Snake Eater remake trailers. I started it today by pumping in a few hours (I've just finished off Chapter 1, for anyone curious, as well as all of the Extra Ops available up to this point) and am having a freaking blast with this game. Firstly -- holy hot damn does this game be stylin' with its cutscenes! I love this graphic novel take on the cutscenes and just how dynamic they feel - and surprisingly just how involved when they started to introduce QTEs and light gameplay! - it felt genuinely fresh compared to previous entries I've played. Makes complete sense given the game originally released on PSP, but damn, a few distorted and pixelated moments in some cutscenes aside? I think the cutscenes look great. And, speaking of cutscenes -- I'm really feeling the story for now, too. The "call to action" being a potential cropping up of The Boss (which I doubt is actually the case, but still!) makes perfect sense as something of a sequel to Snake Eater to pull Big Boss in, and I'm really intrigued by Huey turning up, and of course about the true nature of the involvement of Paz and The Professor. It's just ticking all the right boxes for me here so far. That opening tutorial on the beach had me laughing to myself a whole lot, too. Gameplay-wise, it feels like a very stripped back half step away from Snake Eater - a side step more than a step up or down - and obviously a lot of that is down to it originally releasing on PSP. Because it's so stripped back it's reminding me more of some of the emptiness you'd get in the first MGS and, with that in mind, other than when mechs/tanks/etc. show up (at which point the game further reminds me of that final Metal Gear fight in the first MGS which was chaotic and perhaps a bit archaic as a result, by modern standards), my general style of play has been defined by going non-lethal and rushing through missions while being sure to explore as much as I reasonably can. I've really been enjoying playing through the game this way, and considering that I've actually played Ground Zeroes (adding to my curiosity around Paz and Chico, no doubt) before and had more than just a couple of hours sunk into MGS V waaaaaaaaay back before I started over with this series with the first MGS, it also feels like a stripped down version of those games at the same time, too -- which has been nice, because I remember being completely overwhelmed when I played those games and now I know what I'm doing and have some experience with the franchise, I'm really enjoying mission prep. What I'm enjoying but finding a bit more mixed is all the Mother Base stuff. Love the Fulton, love the idea of recruitment (stumbled upon Kojima after completely forgetting a registration number, which gave me a good chuckle), love the idea of building out Mother Base...just not such a huge fan of the execution, I guess? Not that it's bad, but for example, mech/tank/whatever fights aside where I've needed to call on heavier artillery, I've been getting by just fine with my tranquilliser pistol and starting assault rifle, meaning a lot of the weapon development so far is pretty lost on me. I'm early on, so of course this next thought might even out as I get deeper into the game, but for a good while there it felt like we were opening up a new department at Mother Base every 5-10 minutes and I wasn't a huge fan of needing to reshuffle that frequently to try to make sure recruits were placed where they were best suited and going to be most beneficial. The Fulton is excellent - I LOVE just kidnapping enemies and saving POWs - and probably the main thing tying all of this Mother Base stuff together for me which makes me okay with it all. We'll see how it develops (heh), I guess. Appreciate the heads-up from @Hero-of-Time on the last page about this game being more Monster Hunter-esque, definitely see it in the boss fights - especially when there's a timer running down while you try to grab internal parts of the mech, like when you're slicing up your hunt in MH? - and it's given me realistic expectations going in of what to expect, which so far has been pretty manageable. I think my biggest problem actually was having no idea that the Supplies Marker was a thing (to call in extra ammo and rations) because despite being all the way at the end of Chapter 1 when I finally realised I needed it after Huey mentioned it (in fairness, Kaz did during an earlier fight too, but I was too busy flexing on the enemy with my eye patch to notice), the game hadn't really pointed out to me the how and when and why of using it? So it was an interesting challenge, to put it lightly, to run around like a headless chicken in this arena during this first major boss fight while this gargantuan speedy mech was racing around and shooting up the place with bullets and electricity to put a bunch of them down and then read the menu description for how to trigger them. Yes, I finally went down in this game because I had no idea how the Supplies Marker worked Also, even with the MH awareness going in, I was still shocked and surprised to see Monster Hunter straight up called out by name in the controller layout section of the settings! Anyways, to bring it back around: again, I'm just having a grand old time back with an MGS game. Couldn't quite tell you why I put Peace Walker off for so long, but right now I find that I'm starving for a game like it, and it's filling me up with that MGS goodness real good

According to game director Julian Gerighty (great first name, no bias) the game's golden path will be 25-30 hours, and for completionists the adventure will likely run them 50-60 hours. Music to my ears.

Totally forgot to comment on this, but I freaking LOVED this trailer. Thought it was the best one we've had for the game so far. Finding it really hard to commit to this on Day 1, though, just because of Atlus's recent history of DLC/enhanced editions. Heck, I'm still waiting for that Episode Aigis stuff to drop for Persona 3 Reload so I can pick that up!! What are you doing Atlus?!

It could do, but it's a bit hard to predict at the moment based on how things have been since 2020 onwards, I think. We haven't had a Nintendo Direct arrive in the first half of June since E3 2021 (15th, time and date announced close to a full 2 weeks ahead of time for the last time), and since dropping the "E3" mention in the title of their June Directs, 2022's June Directs for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (22nd) and their Direct Mini (28th) and last year's June Direct proper (21st) all took place in the latter half of the month, a full week and a half after the Not-E3 festivities had kicked in. Obviously, granted, one of those is a game-focused Direct paired with a Direct Mini a week later, but based on the small sample size of the last two Not-E3s, this week isn't the one where I'd put money on a Direct being announced and aired, as they've kicked their Not-E3 off in the third full week of June the last two years running. Not that it can't happen this week - I'd love it to, the sooner we get a Direct the better in my eyes - but I don't see any real reason Nintendo might have to be seen mixing in the week of Not-E3 vs last year or 2022 -- especially with wanting to perhaps lower expectations going into the last June Direct for the Switch, what with the Switch 2 all but expected to be announced and released by this time next year. Xbox, Ubisoft, et al all stand to benefit from the hype trickling off other events and Summer Game Fest - a rising tide lifts all ships and all that jazz - but Nintendo I think benefit most from the distance they put between themselves and this initial wave of Not-E3, where expectations drop back down, we're all somewhat disappointed and missing the hype of E3s of old, a bit of the recency bias shown for some of these shows wears off and Nintendo could pummel the rest of the industry events with just one or two A-tier announcements held up with a few B-tier first party titles and some indie hits. If I had to bet money, it'd be on it turning up next week during the third full week of June like it has done the last two years. But I WANT - no, CRAVE - it to be this week. ...can we get this even if it doesn't air? An alt reality take on the final June Direct solely for the Switch I love that they did this. Feels like everyone's on their toes already, and have been for months -- sweating, anticipating. Xbox and co. were all probably praying that the Nintendo Direct would be announced a good bit ahead of time so they'd get some trickle off hype. They could drop this thing two hours from now and I genuinely wouldn't bat an eye. Their June Directs proper always hit and they've almost let the title of Kings of Left Field go to their heads at times this gen it feels like with random news drops and Direct announcements, and I LOVE the chaos and hype that their approach perpetuates. Them bowing out of live E3 shows as early as they did has only benefitted them in that these recorded Directs just feel E3 through and through, and I'd argue are the last bastion of that level of hype and anticipation in June; not to say there haven't been other good presentations in June since E3 closed, but Nintendo are always closing, and it feels like they do everything in their power and development schedule that they reasonably can to earn that right and responsibility. I fully expect this June Direct to be relatively refrained and I still think it's going to comfortably crush all the other showings we've seen over the last few days. That's the hype and power that Nintendo has bought with their consistency and chaotic approach this gen, and I hope it only continues on with the Switch 2

M...Mil...Milwaukee was it?

Trailer from the weekend: Hayter also turned up in Part 2 of the MGS Legacy Series... ...which also includes the first look at the Deluxe and Collector's Editions of the game: Anyways, still not really sure how I feel about this. I think that this is the best that this remake of Snake Eater has looked - bit of a facelift from it's last showing - but a lot of the animation work definitely still looks like it's following the original just a bit too closely. Also, as someone who played Snake Eater for the first time just a few years ago - he says, refusing to acknowledge that it's already been 4 years since 2020 and that miserable lockdown - I just struggle to see what the pull is of this remake. Is this new coat of paint really going to be enough to get new fans onboard? I have my doubts.