Dufniall

First of all, shout-out to @Hero-of-Time. I was chatting on Discord during the Direct, and the first thing I shouted when the 18+ logo showed was Bayonetta confirmed, and the first thing I said when Dread was revealed was "it lives!". Exactly the same reactions you posted here haha. Anyway, a solid Direct all in all. The opening had me on the wrong foot for a short moment as it was Ganondorf being tossed so thought they might open with BOTW2, but the art style was off and it quickly dawned this was Smash. A good choice for a character, but I still haven't bought any of the passes and this is not convincing me to purchase one now. The highlight was of course Metroid Dread, can't wait for it to arrive as I had a blast playing Samus Returns last year. I have faith that it is in good hands of MercurySteam. Two other games that are high on my list but were already confirmed are Tony Hawk 1+2 Remastered and Mario + Rabbids 2. WarioWare is a good get for the system, and one that is also long overdue. The last one I played was one of the DS ones I think, may be up for this in time. Mario Party Superstars, great they are going back to the roots but I have Super Mario Party borrowed from a friend and it really doesn't feel like a €60 title. I wonder if the new one has a bit more content. Same goes for Advance Wars 1+2 Remastered, great to see the series return but I prefer the old pixel art style, and €60 feels steep for a remaster of two GBA games. Even WarioWare I'm not sure if I want to dish out €60 for it. Super Monkey Ball, loving the looks of it! Have great memories of the GameCube games so if the remaster is done well this will be a get, but probably a bit later down the line. Mario Golf keeps looking better and better, but after Aces and Mario Party I'm a bit wary about the Switch Mario spin-offs so far. The Breath of the Wild teaser was a good closer, it gives an ever-so-small insight in what the game is going to be and surprising how different the vibe was from the first teaser. I'm guessing it will be Holiday 2022 at best but we'll see.

Just do as all the cool kids do nowadays and blast it from your speakers. The world needs to know anyway!

I'm guessing it'll be a seizure-inducing trippy No More Heroes 3 trailer! But it's probably license related, Nintendo has been a bit notorious with content creation of their stuff. Or maybe there is an IP with a different license as well (Star Wars, Disney kind of stuff).

New set of figures announced: Scuttlebug Swoop Parachute Bob-omb Amp Torpedo Ted Crowber Galoomba Bony Beetle 1-Up Mushroom Boo I think these usually cost around €3.99 a piece?

The game looks absolutely amazing, can't wait for it to drop to half price! The only bit that worries me is that the setting is a lot more out of the Mushroom Kingdom. I hope they still keep in plenty of cross-over characters and don't go all-out on new characters only.

Microsoft taking cloud gaming and Game Pass up another step: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/06/10/whats-next-for-gaming-highlights/ The summary: Xbox is working with global TV manufacturers to embed the Xbox experience directly into internet-connected televisions with no extra hardware required except a controller. Xbox is building its own streaming devices for cloud gaming to reach gamers on any TV or monitor without the need for a console at all. In the next few weeks, cloud gaming on the browser will open to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. With Edge, Chrome, and Safari support, players will be a click away from gaming on almost any device. Later this year, we’ll add cloud gaming directly into the Xbox app on PC and integrate it into our console experience to light up scenarios like try before you download. With more than 23 studios worldwide creating games for Xbox, our goal is to release at least one new, first party game into Game Pass every quarter. Role playing games, shooters, strategy titles, adventure games, and more are all being built by our first party teams to ensure that there is a steady stream of compelling exclusive content to explore.

I don't remember when it finally clicked that E3 was the moment of the year for all the big releases. So my first memories are vague, but I do remember getting most of the coverage since 2002 from a Dutch TV show called Gamekings. They went to LA, and shot a lot of the footage on the floor itself. It wasn't even the game coverage that was the most interesting for me, but the silly stuff they did like finding the best food or who scored the best goodies. But I do remember the talk about Golden Sun and the procedurally generated bits (which in the end were very rare in the game, but the game itself was amazing). But that was before the TV show as Golden Sun launched in 2001, and I'm not even sure if it was revealed at E3 or were I got the info (probably internet). Although the Direct style works well, I also miss the over the top live shows with a crowd. Always watched the PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo show just for the flair. Yes, sometimes it is cringe as can be, but sometimes you just get blown away. That's the dynamic you miss now. But what I miss most is the reports from the show floor, people covering E3 and finding quirky titles in a dark corner of a hall, or randomly running into famous people. To me the game reveals are nice, but it is the vibe of a massive event that I'm missing most.

You even made it to the Nintendo Life home page! https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/06/random_animal_crossing_fan_recreates_all_24_euro_2020_team_kits

That was a good streak, about 3 home runs in a row or something? Knocking it out of the park! Haha yeah that was tense. And I know what you mean, didn't expect my win with Jigglypuff. Especially when he has the most useless Final Smash ever on big stages like that. This almost sounds as if you know what you're doing! I'm mostly just spamming special moves and hoping to survive long enough haha. Seriously though, with the expanded roster of Ultimate I really find myself at a loss sometimes about a characters moveset. I completely forgot what Mega Man's attacks were (like the different ones you get with the variations on the normal attack), and that Palutena had a mean Up Smash I only remembered at the end of the match. But that's what makes random picks fun. One thing I noted yesterday by the way is how bad I am in picking items up! Somehow I can't get the timing right when running into an item and pressing the button. Guess I should practice more than just the one hour a week.

Oh my, wrong smash ball!

A game I'm currently playing that could use a kick in the behind is Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Although it runs okay and it's impressive it runs on the Switch, it looks a bit muddy at times and could use better draw distances and more consistent frame rate. I'm guessing it goes for more graphics heavy third parties, like Doom, Wolfenstein and The Witcher.

40 Minutes seems like a proper length. The last one was 55 minutes and was pretty crammed full so if they keep that speed we should be getting some nice things. And the software phrasing, probably means we'll get the New Switch revealed tomorrow and they wouldn't have lied.

How do you know that if you've never tried? I'll give you a quid if you draw me Donkey Shlong.

The sad thing is there is definitely a market for this, as you see advertised on Deviantart a lot.

Well, at least you chose to keep his pants on, could have easily gone the other direction!

Cool to see that they're going to host a museum themselves. Especially if it goes back to the early Hanafuda days that would be really interesting! Just checked out the location on maps, it is in Kyoto, about half an hour from the central station so it's not on the most accessible spot. But there are stations nearby, so if you are visiting Japan chances are you will wind up in Kyoto, and then it should be possible to make a visit. Curious to see if it will be open to all public (or just for partners or guided tours), and if the info there will be in English as well or all Japanese.

Since we have the Nintendo Switch Lite this will be the Nintendo Switch Hevvy.

Yeah putting out exclusives for the newer system is tricky, as we also still have the Switch Lite in play. So then you will have games that can run on the old Switch but not the Lite (only with spare Joy-cons), and games that will only run on the newest system. Might be a bit too confusing. But a higher draw distance, frame rate boost and maybe some extra options in the menu (dare I say voice chat?) would be pretty easy to achieve the way games are built nowadays being more dynamic in scaling. For me the biggest plus would be the 7 inch OLED though as I play mostly handheld. Anyway, curious to see when we will get the info. Tuesday is usually a day Nintendo drops random announcements and trailers, and E3 starts June 12 so that would mean that today or next Tuesday would be my guess. Time to gear up the hype train?

Triple post! Finished two books in the last couple of weeks. First one was A Painted House by John Grisham. While he is famous for his books about the American court, A Painted House isn't that. Instead it is a coming of age story of a kid growing up on a cotton farm. I enjoyed it, and loved the historical setting. The second book I read was a Dutch book by Ton van Reen, a writer who grew up in the South of the Netherlands, just as I did. The book is called Vlucht voor het Vuur (Flight for the Fire), about a girl in the 16th century whose mother is being chased for witchcraft. While it's more of a young adult book, it does paint a good picture about how the faith and fear among people led to the witch-burning craze in those times. And now it's time for another Murakami, so I've started Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

I think Valstrax is the HR100 urgent? Should be popping up soon in that case. Finished the new story ending quest, also won't spoil it but it's great! Before taking it on I maxed out my Diablos S armour and my Rampage Spear also had a new level after the 3.0 update. Managed to finish the quest with randoms on first try, was not expecting that. Fighting giant ass monsters does make me wish stuff like Jhen Mohran would make a comeback. So now I'm thinking what I want to farm next. I have a Bishaten S set with a hunting horn that is great for supporting, and the Diablos S is a great lance build (if you're not mixing and matching armour which I haven't done yet). So I think I want to try a new weapon that I haven't used much before, either the bow or the insect glaive. Or that I want to go for a high damage output build as I'm not using stuff like high affinity or weakness exploits. Anyway, need money first so I'll start with finishing every quest that I haven't finished yet.

So 2 new monsters (one is an Apex), and a new story ending are coming tomorrow in the 3.0 update. From mid June there will be collaboration quests with the first being a Monster Hunter Stories crossover, and the way they announced it it looks like further collabs will also focus on Capcom IPs. No G-Rank so far, so I think I'm done quite fast if this is all the new content for the coming months...

Watched it as well last night as it was hosted by the Netherlands and there wasn't much else on. Liked the remix of Venus! And it's funny @bob mentioning nikkitutorials, she's becoming more of a TV personality here instead of just a YouTuber. And of course he/she is always good for the inclusivity. The song that stuck most with me was Mata Hari from Azerbeidzjan, quite catchy so it's a shame they ended so low. Nice to see a hard rock winner and the other metal act also scoring quite high. Seeing Lordi again in the voting break was enjoyable as well. Ukraine, don't know what to make of it. Hated it at first because of the vocals but it's a nice pumping track. Belgium was pretty okay. And I think @Fierce_LiNkhas a point in promoting the songs. In fact not having to take part in the semi finals may be a hindrance, as the songs get double the exposure so they stick better than just hearing them one time in the finals. Never saw or heard anything from the UK up until the finals while some other songs were already in my head.