Julius

Here's an absolutely nothing teaser for the Netflix show, arriving 2024: And here's the main cast looking like the main cast... ...apart from maybe Sokka, who is kind of giving me the Ember Island player vibe, but hey it's still pretty close!

Yeah, I was thinking the same about X and XIII after I posted, so I agree. So either XIII (13 years ago) or IX (23 years ago)...yeah, either way I think it's safe to say it's been a minute since the last mainline FF which (at launch) was friendly to newcomers!

To clarify, my point was that they haven't played an FF before (so there was definite hesitation that they'd be into it) and came out loving the demo to the point that they're considering picking up the full game, so the demo pretty much singlehandedly won them over to the point that they're thinking about picking up their first FF nothing to do with the combat or anything like that carrying over and helping Anyways, that seems to be a sentiment I'm seeing a whole lot across the board from streams and reactions to the demo, it seems to be onboarding a whole lot of new people to the franchise and I don't even think it's just down to being more of an action game, but the story, characters, world and music (all the consistent bread and butter of FF imo) are doing a lot of heavy lifting for prospective newcomers too! It feels like the first mainline FF in a long time where you can just come in fresh and without the game having some sort of baggage. VII Remake, much as I love it, is a hard sell even though I loved it because newcomers are going to be lost with no VII experience to lean on. XV had it's multimedia mess which split it's story up. XIV, well, is an MMO and a daunting thing to get into now, but obviously was a mess with its original launch and took years for Yoshi-P and CBU III to fix. XIII was a trilogy. Which means XII...maybe was the last one you could come in fresh to? And even then: Ivalice. XI, is, well, another MMO. So, honestly, does that mean X was basically the last mainline FF serving as potential ideal entry for newcomers and a complete blank slate, that wasn't an MMO? I know there's X-2 and people love that game's combat, but I also don't see X-2 talked about as being essential to the X experience in the way the latter games in the XIII trilogy are often talked about as essential to enjoying XIII more Anyway, point is: wild that the game's winning so many new people over with its demo (can't remember the last time I saw a demo have this sort of impact), and kind of wild it's the first blank slate the series has had in a super long time. Hopefully it crushes and we get to see Yoshi-P and CBU III continue the good work

Good stuff. No real surprise I don't think, I know they've said before they want the game in a state printed on disc where a Day 1 Patch won't be required, but this is also Yoshi-P and CBU III we're talking about; I haven't played XIV, but from the Live Letters to the short delays to touch up cutscenes here and there, I get the feeling that they're kind of perfectionists, so even if not a Day 1 Patch, a Week 1 Patch seemed all but inevitable, because I'd bet a lot of Gil that they'd been working on an update anyways in the 2-3 months since the game went gold. Motion blur options is the main one for me, I said it in my thoughts on the demo but the frame rate and motion just felt a little disorienting at times (I never think the off-centred over-the-shoulder camera works great when those are lagging) as I'm super sensitive to those things when I first play most games before I adapt after a few hours/a second session. Cannot wait until Thursday, I convinced a friend to try the demo and he loved it (no previous FF experience). Trying to get two of my other friends to try it out too. I'm so ready for this game. The hype is palpable; the hype is real

Fire Emblem [The Blazing Blade] lands on NSO GBA next week!

So apparently SEGA Korea actually revealed that, unsurprisingly, this is also coming to PS4, PS5, and Steam...3 days ago! No surprises there, but still, no Switch again. Oh man they're 100% setting people up for the double dip a year after launch, huh? Or maybe they're waiting for the Switch successor to be announced to pop it on there exclusively... Honestly, when the trailer started I was like "uh, is this an SMT continuation?" because it looked way more SMT than it did Project Re:Fantasy or Persona for me Which, honestly, is a bit of a shame! I thought the concept art looked great from when Re:Fantasy was announced waaaaaaaaaay back when, would've loved a more pure medieval RPG rather than, well, the modern twist that we seem to get everything with Atlus these days, but

Here's the lineup for June's PS+ Extra and Premium additions, available from 20th June: As mentioned in the blog post, we also have the first details on PS5 game streaming. And lastly, this month's PS Classics were mentioned in the PlayStation All Access video covering this month's PS+ updates: There was also mention of Coded Soul in a tweet by PSUK, which has since been deleted.

Previews have shadow dropped following some demos behind closed doors at Summer Game Fest: Kind of crazy that this is out in two and a half months and we've seen virtually nothing, but the customisation looks great!

Thanks, I'll add those tags I wonder if they're going to artificially produce some double dipping here? Seeing as they got 5 Royal on Switch I can't imagine what would get in the way of 3 Reload making it over, but I could definitely see them delaying a Switch version for 6-12 months for business reasons. Atlus can be weird, but guess we'll have to wait and see

Finally got around to checking out the first half of the demo this evening, and yeah, as they stated it's about 2 - 2½ hours long. As we knew going in, this first half of the demo covered the Prologue, serving as a tutorial for many of the game's core mechanics. This does mean it seems very stop-start, with multiple instances where you take a few steps, transition into a cutscene, and back out to taking another few steps, etc., which means combat and the general flow of the game don't really come into full swing until the latter half of the demo. It's also not helped at all in my mind by the two modes (favouring either performance or quality) in the demo being poor at something or another, with the performance mode - aiming for 60 fps - having what I found to be noticeable frame rate drops (which I'm very sensitive to), and the quality mode - a more stable 30 fps - in turn making use of what I found to be a pretty dizzying degree of motion blur. There's also no option for turning off motion blur as things stand, so hopefully they change that for the full release (in just 8 days!!) or at least pay attention to the demo feedback and jump on it quickly, because it means both modes, while playable, just don't feel as refined as they should be. It might just be the length of the demo and not having time to adjust, or a combination of the aforementioned frame rate drops and motion blur, but I couldn't find a camera sensitivity that worked for me in the way that I wanted; '2', the default, was a bit too fast, but '1' felt like I was dragging a camera from one point on the screen to another. Now that my only gripes with my demo are out of the way...I'm here to tell you that the wait was worth it and that they've delivered. This demo abso-freakin'-lutely delivers and then some. The story is much darker - imagining Game of Thrones meets Attack on Titan is probably the best way to describe it - and the characters, while at times a little archetypal (albeit in the opening hours of a 40 hour RPG?), are very charming and expressive. The game looks absolutely wonderful. I thought the combat was pretty fun, once it finally got going I found it it really clicked, and I can't wait to see what tougher encounters deeper into the game look like. The only thing that has me a little nervous in combat is the QTE stuff for staggering and dodging, but we'll see how that turns out. Favourite fight was surely the Dragoon, and dang man, seeing him do the IV logo pose...iconic Oh, and that boss fight I know they've talked about how each Eikon conflict will be unique, but man, this sets a stupidly high bar, especially with the seamless transitions from cutscene to gameplay. I actually lost the first time around, which was a really fun moment where I thought they'd actually timed the battle for you to fully clear Ifrit's health bar before he turns the tide in a cutscene, but nope, which made me chuckle and just stunned me with how sold I was in the moment of what was going on in the battle and the story. The music - THE FREAKING MUSIC PEOPLE!! - is unsurprisingly just everything you want a Final Fantasy game's OST to be in 2023, which should come as no surprise given that, well, it's Soken, and he's freaking killed it. Because, I mean, was he ever not going to? It's epic, it's sombre, and it's altogether just a whirlwind of emotion that had me smiling during every single battle and cutscene...and it's the first time in a long time I feel like a game is being scored nonstop rather than just picking up the conductor's baton at interesting points in cutscenes or battles, it's really going on all the time. I can't wait to hear the rest of it! The Active Time Lore (ATL) you can access from holding down the touchpad during most cutscenes is brilliant and I genuinely expect it to become the norm in lore-heavy games moving forwards, I think anyone with a game coming out towards the latter half of next year onwards should be looking at this and taking notes; it's the first genuinely new concept I've seen introduced in a AAA RPG in years, and it just serves its function perfectly. I really loved just digging through at the start of every cutscene to learn more about locations, enemies, characters or concepts in the world of Valisthea which makes it feel extremely accessible, and I imagine that would extend even further to those new to the franchise. It's a stroke of pure genius. After playing the first half of the demo, I'm really not sure if I'm interested in checking out the second half as I'm fully sold. I mean, I was already, but now even more so it would just serve to potentially spoil some of the later stuff for me (plus I think we've already seen some of it in previous previews/demos from the press?), so yeah, I might genuinely give it a pass. I made sure to run through items and not be as exhaustive as I'm sure I will be talking to everyone I find during the demo because I want to start from scratch next week. This is all to say: if you're on the fence, check out the demo. If you're already in: check out the demo (you'll love it). If you have no stance at all on the game, but have a PS5: check out the demo. I had confidence going in that the game would be great, but now? It feels fully justified and validated. And knowing what little I do about CBU III market their games, I've no doubt the marketing - while a lot! - barely scratches the surface of where the game is going to be heading. I have zero problems with dropping Zelda for a little while to fully immerse myself in Valisthea and XVI next week after what I played today, and I genuinely think while it's on the opposite end of the spectrum to a game like Tears of the Kingdom, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is being talked about as a genuine GOTY contender come year's end. I don't say that lightly, but that's just how strong this demo was. Oh, and lastly: this is the horniest FF. Can't say I expected that going in

Yeah, definitely a really solid show, I'd say one of Xbox's best post-COVID without question, and probably even stronger than a good share of their shows from before then too. The Persona leaks were a shame, but like you say, things like ReFantazio (I still can't believe we finally got to see Re:Fantasy!) then came out of nowhere and took us all by surprise. Thought the first trailer for Star Wars Outlaws was a great way to set the tone for last night's gameplay showing at Ubi, and then other games like Jusant and 33 Immortals look fantastic too, but as ever I think the common theme here is, well, how many of these are exclusive? Not too many, but it does seem that they're FINALLY getting there, and some like South of Midnight look really intriguing to me. I've talked about Xbox's output potentially not becoming a concern but then their curation turning into one in the past, and it seems like with a goal of "4 big first-party games per year" (whatever the heck that means) they're finally starting to nail that stuff in and get a good production flow going, so let's just see 2024 be the year that they hit their stride in getting a steady stream of games out. More competition is for the better, and I swear it's half Xbox's fault with so dramatically underperforming last gen and early on in this gen that PlayStation have got comfortable making some very questionable decisions of late. I think the thing missing for me was just showing off more demos for these games, having trailers is great but for me a deep dive (or even a shallower paddle) just helps break up the litany of trailers and helps sell us on these titles so much more. I know Starfield had a Fallout 4 level of deep dive but that nothing really got that much attention outside of their trailers during the Xbox showing proper was weird, and I think even Ubi did a much better job than them in this regard last night, with shallower swims for games like Assassin's Creed, Outlaws, and Avatar, and despite not having nearly as many games to show off I think it was closely matched as a viewing prospect because of this. Also, lmao, Todd absolutely sent me howling when basically went "see that moon? You can go there!" during the Starfield Direct as soon as the moon came up I said it out loud and then he basically said the same thing! I died Oh, and Sarah Bond didn't go "we've got X amount of games to show you today" for maybe the first time ever?! Instead Phil reeled that off at the end during the recap (which, well, was odd), but I think they traded it in for their "you, the gamer!" speeches backed by generic epic music I've said it before, but while this still isn't enough to get me onboard for buying an Xbox just yet, I feel like we're slowly getting there. I give it another year and a half or two before I find myself finally willing to pick one up and check some of these games out... ...assuming they actually deliver on the promises made

The trailer from today's Capcom Showcase shows that the game is indeed alive and kicking, with some gameplay to boot! Well, kinda...the showing ended with this message: So, yeah, an indefinite delay with our first real look at gameplay. See y'all in 2025 when this thread is revived after 2024 is a virtually silent one for the game

Just announced during the Capcom Showcase, the trilogy includes Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice. The trilogy is coming to Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Arriving early 2024.

Demo is available now on Switch, PlayStation, and Steam (per tonight's Capcom Showcase)

Premiere trailer and gameplay overview trailer from today's Ubisoft Forward: I still don't know about the decision to go first-person, and sure it feels a bit like Far Cry, but dang, this game sure does look pretty and like it lives up to James Cameron's vision for Avatar!

Gameplay from today's Ubisoft Forward: Also, a chat with Kay Vess' actor, Humberly Gonzalez (what a cool and unique first name!): So, uh, is it bad if I feel I might be jaded by the last few years of releases? Because this looks incredible – too incredible – to the point that I'm honestly a little suspicious. Am I alone in this? It kind of looks like a dream Star Wars game. Everything from the UI (like the WANTED flashing in red on the screen) to gameplay/cutscene transitions (the planet's atmosphere one caught my eye) to the size and look and sound of every place, just...it's too good. I know it's just a demo and there's a year of polish surely to come with its 2024 release date, but dang, I need someone to rein me and my expectations in here. I mean it's Ubisoft. There's got to be something that's going to go wrong with it...right?

Trailer and Direct from yesterday: Thought this looked great, and it's still probably the only game I'm interested in enough to remotely consider picking up a Series X or S for; which is to say, it's still not enough to justify picking one up for me yet (unfortunately).

Wasn't planning to stay up for it, but I did, because of just how infectious the energy was emanating from the team. Some absolutely delightful and hilarious moments throughout. Honestly? That was the best showing of the last week for me. Bit of a lull in the middle with Alanah during the Narrative discussion (not her fault, just don't think there's that much they could really dive into, so the questions unfortunately ended up being very generic) but everything else was just a goldmine. Worth checking out the highlights or skimming through, for me the opening, combat talk, and music talk were the absolute highlights of the whole thing: we got to see Soken play with Alex Moukala, and we got to watch the combat director absolutely obliterate a hardcore boss. Here's the archive, for your perusal: To focus on one game for 5 hours (with some breaks) and keep a captive audience of some 10k+ on YouTube alone was insane but totally justified, and if I wasn't hyped before...well, I was, but I'm even more hyped now! We also got a surprisingly good live-action trailer for the game: Less than 4 hours until the demo drops. The XVI hype is very real right now

Demo announced – and dropping in just 8½ hours, 09:00 BST on June 12th! The demo will be 2+ hours long and includes the game's prologue – and yes, saved data can be carried over to the full game! Once the Prologue is complete, a special battle demo will become available from the title screen, allowing us to experience the new Eikon abilities! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EDIT: courtesy of the PS Blog, seems like the demo in its entirety will be 4-5 hours long! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Friendly reminder that the Pre-Launch Event, likely where a demo is going to be announced to drop some time this week, is set to start in the next 15 minutes! The event will be streaming on Twitch and YouTube and is set to be nearly 5 hours long, with focused discussions about the music, Eikons, and narrative. It's really turning out to be a XIV Live Letter, should be a good time! Still can't decide whether or not I'll want to check out the demo or experience it all for the first time when the game launches... EDIT: how did we end up with ANOTHER trailer?! So endearing hearing the new CEO of S-E try his best to speak English for this event, and Platinum AND the KH team helped with development! Game's a culmination as always, Koji Fox and Yoshi-P are killing it (joked about how the second part of the demo was set at night so to not worry – it's a test of how dark XVI can get ) as are the rest of the team

Okay, seems like it's been cleared up for the first time in the description for the trailer released on the SEGA channel: Infinite Wealth is 8.

More Xbox money, more Persona 5 spin-off announcements Unclear (as with 3 Reload or ReFantazio) whether it's coming to PlayStation or Switch, but given the art style...surely it is, right?

Okay so this one didn't leak: the long talked about Project Re:Fantasy from Studio Zero! Atlus loves Xbox now? Or their money, at least

Let's pretend this wasn't leaked to oblivion Looks like Xbox and Atlus are once again doing the weirdly ambiguous paid-for advertising where they pretend it's not on anything else. Got to imagine PlayStation is a lock too, but curious to see if this is coming to Switch? I haven't read much on whether or not the re-releases were successful on Switch (even if I'd bet they were), so Anyone want to shout up about money-hatting weirdness here? Please?

This now has a title (Outlaws), year of release (2024), and trailer (below)! Finally something set between Empire and Jedi that axolotl-looking thing looks cute as hell! And today I learned a commando droid in a coat looks cool as hell