Julius

Insomniac are allegedly gearing up to show this off sometime soon, grain of salt as always: TGAs would make sense, if I'm remembering right the Insomniac leaks had this down as a 2026 release, but of course plans change and all that. They also had that Venom spin-off (which I think everyone was expecting and hoping for after Spider-Man 2 anyways) down as a 2025 release and I doubt they'd both drop the same year, and I'd argue Venom doesn't need nearly as much marketing build-up. Guess we'll just need to wait and see!

Sounds like Denis Villeneuve will be getting back to Dune to do Dune: Messiah much earlier than anticipated: Hell yeah!

Tom Holland was on the latest episode of the Rich Roll podcast, which I haven't tuned into in a good while, but reading and hearing not all that long ago about his struggles with alcohol - and just for someone of his age and stature in the public eye to do so, in a country in which I think a lot of young men (and women) have a very unhealthy and questionable relationship with alcohol - really got my attention and increased my respect for him massively (not that it was ever really low to begin with), and so getting the chance to listen to him talk in a longer form setting felt like something worth checking out. Anyways, relating this back to Marvel and this thread, there's been a lot going around lately about this apparent power struggle between Marvel, Sony and Tom over which direction Spider-Man should be taking now that he's returning from his break from acting, with Sony seemingly wanting to throw the character back into the mix with a massive scale project, whereas No Way Home obviously teased Spider-Man getting back to the foundation and smaller scale feel, which we haven't really seen with this incarnation of Spidey in the MCU. Tom spoke a bit about this and the powers and responsibility he has to the character, the fans and himself, and it sounds like they've made a lot of headway in terms of what they want to do - some choice clips from the podcast where he discusses this: Tobey will probably forever and always be my Spider-Man, being the one I grew up on alongside the animated series, but it's definitely exciting to hear that Tom is putting up a fight to make sure that what they do next with the character is what he wants to do and what he feels is important, rather than making the film for the sake of it. I think especially when so many of these MCU entries have started to feel like little more than fodder thrown out to eventually get us to the next big team-up, it gives me a lot more confidence to just hear someone that cares deeply enough to put his foot down and want to talk and be part of the creative process, because Spider-Man is, I think, such a relatable and important character for young people. But yeah, well worth watching those clips, and this is the podcast episode that it's from:

Kind of assumed the release date update message was what they showed in the Xbox Partner Preview, but no! Turns out there was a new trailer: Ship combat and customisation? Hell yeah!

A LEGO X-Men Mansion set is releasing on November 1st in the US (4th over here in the UK according to the official site): Will be retailing for £289.99 in the UK.

Definitely the smart move. This has me chuckling to myself though:

Put probably 20 minutes or so into Building Speed, very fun. After the first run and seeing the times others had posted, my aim for today was just to see if I could get a sub-35s, which didn't take very long, but was very tight: Couple of attempts later got it down a bit more: And currently at...#1287. Not a terrible start, though I imagine I'll drop down the rankings a good bit by tomorrow once more people have jumped on. Think I'll just be chipping away at each of these when I feel like it for the week they're released before moving onto the next, and when I do jump on probably just try to set myself a goal time to beat, just to see how much I can push my own time down. This is also a great excuse for me to finally try out some of the costumes as I didn't touch them during my time completing the main game, so went with Wander today, and think I'll rotate a new look in every time a new challenge drops Think this is a great excuse to revisit the game, and if nothing else I think it's a really smart move to keep it in the conversation for TGAs (I mean, notice that the last one drops mid-November, around when TGA nominations drop?). Found myself just wandering around and checking in on all of the VIP Bots, which is always a pleasure – and speaking of, don't forget to pick up the capsules for the new VIP Bots! Hate that just adding a VIP Bot for the game kind of makes me want to pick up Rise of Ronin...but I must resist and save my samurai cravings for Ghost!

Josef Fares is out here teasing his and Hazelight's next game and its title, and it's in this thread because it's almost certainly turning up at the TGAs: Day 1, whatever it is. I wasn't the hottest on It Takes Two but A Way Out was absolutely brilliant (still need to play Brothers).

Ah, this one sucks. I feel like Don't Nod have been in such a strange place since moving on from Life is Strange, especially with 2 wrapping up a year before COVID. I've been meaning to get to Jusant for a while because it seems like my cup of tea but just haven't made time for it yet, but looking through what they've released since the end of Life is Strange 2, none of their games are striking me as being a hit of any sort or managing to permeate the zeitgeist. Banishers felt like it came and went completely at the start of the year to very little fanfare and looks much higher budget than previous projects they've worked on, so I wouldn't be shocked if that was the metaphorical straw breaking the camel's back here after a few years of not really having any obvious success. Hopefully Lost Records: Bloom & Rage next year can be a success and help them bounce back, it definitely looks like a game which is going back to the style of a Life is Strange sort of game, and they know that audience, so fingers crossed for them! And of course hopefully those who have lost jobs can find new work sooner rather than later

Damn, didn't realise this thread was hardly utilised – anyways, It Takes Two has sold over 20 million copies. Mental. Hopefully we get something on Hazelight's next game at the TGAs this year?

The Analogue 3D (Analogue's modern N64 solution) has pre-orders going up this Monday (October 21st) at 15:00 BST, and it will be retailing for $249.99. Way lower than I was expecting it to go for, that's the same price as the Pocket! It will be available in black and white variants. Info page. Store page.

Gross. Even more so when in the same day they report that Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO sold over 3 million copies within 24 hours of its launch:

Tickets got, can't wait crossing my fingers for some Shadow of the Colossus and Bloodborne in the unannounced games they pull music from!

Speedrun levels will be dropping weekly starting tomorrow!

Showcase next Wednesday at 15:00 BST:

Nah Krypto is going to be there to grab people by the paws and in the style of Christian Bale's Batman... ...rough them up. "I'M KRYPTO. SWEAR TO ME" Yeah, I agree. I think this shot and Krypto's involvement immediately conveys just how much lighter they want to go this time around, and I feel like it's been a long, long time since we've had something lighter and more hopeful in a big budget blockbuster superhero film. I know MCU stuff can be lighter, in a sense, but I also think their approach to that in particular since Endgame has been a bit stale, as they've started going a bit too far at times with how quickly they jump to undermine darker moments with quips, which should be used to contrast and strengthen those lighter moments

I'm loving it at the point where the party just returned to school following summer vacation, which wasn't nearly as much of a vacation as it was in 5, I swear I ended up busy more often than not Though, I've definitely got some issues with Persona 3 Reload, but the fastest way to sum a lot of them up is just to shrug my shoulders and say that playing Persona 5 first - which would have learned from P3 in its various forms as well as P4 - is why they're pretty front and centre. I mean, straight up, I think Tartarus just kind of sucks, I know P5 had Mementos which is similar, but having the main source of dungeon-crawling (up to this point at least) be this one location we keep returning to, which feels so disconnected from the main story for so long, and knowing P5 had Palaces which were themed and also tied into the story so strongly (relating to a party member or just some evil dude we wanted to take down), it just takes some of the sting and immediacy out of things, especially with how aimless and optional it seems until the countdown in the top right to the next Full Moon is added a few months in. It's September in-game and it's only really since the start of July I'd say that the story has picked up, so it takes a good while to get going, compared to Persona 5 just coming out of the gate with an excellent action sequence – again, lessons learned and all that. Oh, and S.E.E.S just isn't at the same level as the Phantom Thieves. I experienced something similar when I played Dragon Quest VIII for the first time a few years ago after playing XI first, where I loved my time with VIII, but I just think what XI learns and does differently to VIII makes it the clearly stronger game for me with only a few points I'd consider exceptions. Whereas I view XI as virtually perfect, though, as much as I love Persona 5, I think it overstays its welcome just a tad by the time credits roll, and I also think the story just kind of falls apart and goes off the rails too – it's a JRPG though, so obviously sticking the landing is oftentimes the exception more than it is the rule so being in the middle of P3R and not knowing where it's going to get to by the end or if it sticks the landing, and being ostensibly in the thick of it, I'm loving it and can't hold an ending against it that I haven't seen played out. Fingers crossed, eh? To praise some things though, the game is dripping in style from its music to its UI (I spent like 15 minutes at the start of the game just opening and closing menus haha), the turn-based combat is that typical snappy Persona/Atlus combat which is to say that solving the puzzle that is an encounter is one of the best in the biz for JRPGs, and when you're in the mood for a calendar-heavy, social-link-having JRPG like I am right now, there's simply nothing better. I could - and I'm sure will at some point - go off for a chunky paragraph about the absolute brilliance that is Shuffle Time, too, for all of my problems with Tartarus I think that's got to be one of my favourite reward loops in a JRPG. With no Platinum burden on me because of the rules I've placed on myself this year, I'm going with the flow of the calendar and social links as much as I can (P5's "Take Your Time" is constantly on my mind) and trying to avoid guides outside of times I feel like I messed up or misinterpreted a situation (sorry Yuko, I didn't know you wanted to go to the café so much more than you did a restaurant), and I'm also just avoiding the grind and rushing through Tartarus blocks in a day like I did with the Palaces in P5, which I probably average doing over 2 days up to this point (having learned from P5 the importance and rarity of SP-replenishing items). Bit annoying when I get the call from Elizabeth that some dumb local has wandered into Tartarus and needs saving, and even more so in August when I waited to visit Tartarus until someone wandered in to save them while doing going through a new clock for the first time and some even dumber local walked in after I'd saved the other guy, a cat, and had completed that month's block to feel like I was being a little more time-efficient. So yeah, that's my mini review after 35-ish hours of Persona 3 Reload in the completely wrong thread which you didn't ask for no idea where it's going to go (one particular shot in the OP has me guessing a certain thing but I'll just see how that plays out), and right now with where it's at I'd be lying if I said it's hitting the heights of what I've played of this year's GOTY contenders, but I'd also be lying if I didn't say it's not really that far off. I also kind of hate that it makes me want to wait for what feels like an inevitable Persona 4 remake (inevitable but also obviously probably not coming until after 6) despite already owning Golden on two different platforms, but you'll need to strong-arm me into playing with those chibi-esque models after experiencing the beauty of P3R and P5

Genuinely shocked that they've gone ahead and signed exactly who I was asking for, who was the actual obvious choice, but heck yeah, finally! Now let's just hope there aren't any skeletons in the closet please, that's how we lost the obvious best coach in the world in Allardyce

And it is confirmed: Imagine he'll be back for the main theme of the VII remake trilogy closer at least. Legend. EDIT: He's had to clarify because it seems everyone thought he was fully retiring As reported previously, he just won't be working on a soundtrack from beginning to end any more.

No trophies sucks, but to somehow make it even worse, I'm reading now (and just checked the PS Store myself to verify, and it appears to be true) – you can actually buy Dino Crisis, it can only be played with a PS+ Premium sub? Meaning there's also no cross-buy with the PS3 or Vita for those PS Classic releases. VS Shocking isn't it, really? For all the good stuff Capcom has done to turn their to around over the course of nearly a decade now, what a weird thing to falter on: no trophies, not actually being able to give them your money for some of their games, and doing a poor job of releasing certain classic games on modern platforms. This should be such an easy win for them

Favourite stuff by far from the leaks for me has been the concept art and high quality artwork, some really lovely stuff. I mean just look at these Raikou frames someone put together to show it in motion, it's really quite lovely! Some other really great bits of key art, promo art, concept art and drafts and character sheets for the anime, and things like high quality renders of the art used for the cards or CG renders of backgrounds for the cards (like Holon!). Also really love that we've got the box arts in all their glory, though I can imagine some resellers might try to take advantage of those floating around. One of my favourites has been the high quality version of the Pokéathlon promo art for HGSS. Going to have a proper flick through all of the art at some point and download what I can, probably post some of my favourites in here once I have done

Krypto is going to be in Superman, apparently, which has caught me a bit off-guard but I mean I'm here for it:

UK concert dates and locations – Birmingham is up first!