Ganepark32

Its been confirmed to be a timed console exclusive for the PS5. So hyped. The rumours have dragged on for ages and though I'd have loved to actually see the game, just having it confirmed is enough for me. Its no longer a fantasy, its happening and I can't wait to see and play the game as the original KOTOR is one of my favourite games of all time. They better keep HK-47 just the way he was though those meatbags at Aspyr

The missus and I had a day away to Glasgow and treated ourselves to a few things. I picked up the following: Poster for The Umbrella Academy. A Super Mario Land cartridge notebook. Saw it and as it was the first game I played on the original Gameboy back in the early 90s I couldn't pass it up. And I picked up this for the missus as her first lego set:

The delay has been officially confirmed during Opening Night Live. Game will launch on both PS4 and PS5 on February 18th 2022. Pre-orders start next week, September 2nd.

Dishonored 2 is currently £2.39 on the PS Store in the current sale. If you've not played the game then I wholeheartedly recommend picking it up at that price as its a steal for such a fantastic game. There's plenty other games on sale, like Scarlet Nexus for £29.99 (40% off) but consider this a PSA for Dishonored 2. Buy it as its superb.

It was a great showcase. Loop Hero coming later this year, Eastward launching as a timed exclusive on September 16th and Axiom Verge 2 coming out later today (launching on PS4/PS5 and PC later this year as well). Far: Changing Tides looks fantastic as does Garden Story, which is also out today. Really solid showing.

Microsoft have announced an Xbox stream for Gamescom, taking place in two weeks time: Got to imagine this'll be where they finally put a date on Halo Infinite. Spencer has more or less said that they're holding on to dodge releasing at the same time as the new Call of Duty title (though that game's release does seem to be up in the air for this year at the moment as rumour is hinting it might slip to next year but again its Activision, they'll happily ship a broken game to market to deflect from whats happening there at the moment). Expecting a late November date for the game. Hopefully we'll get some glimpses of the likes of Hellblade: Senua's Saga and The Gunk. They must have some news to bring to the table for some of their bigger titles so hopefully we'll hear that. This is following on from a new ID@Xbox stream thats happening on Twitch tomorrow from 5pm focusing on updates and new announcements for indie games as well as new announcements for Gamepass. Won't be watching that stream live. The last one in March dragged on a bit and wasn't a fan of the hosts so will catch up later in the evening so I can skip to the trailers and dev interviews. Hoping for a release date for the new game from Drinkbox, Nobody Saves The World.

The Artful Escape, a game shown previous during a couple of Microsoft's E3 conferences, finally has a release date, with it coming September 9th to Xbox consoles and Gamepass. Theyve also announced some big names doing voice work for the game, namely Lena Headey and Carl Weathers so Annapurna once again helping their deves reach out and get big names to voice their titles.

We got a release date for Solar Ash during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, with the game coming October 26th: Also go the announcement of a new game from Cloisters Interactive during the showcase as well, with it coming soon.

Gameplay for this was shown during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase: Sadly the game won't be out until early 2022 but the game looks great. Really looking forward to it but hopefully it'll find its space in the early period of next year as with Elden Ring launching in January, they'll need to find their own space so as not to get cannibalised.

Expansion, called Echoes of the Eye, was shown off during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase. Its launching on September 28th on Xbox, PS4 and PC. Trailer below. So excited to go back to this game. Will be there on Day 1.

Annapurna Interactive Showcase was on earlier, stream is below and starts at 17:28: Really good showing, probably the best stream from any publisher this year. Plenty of games, dates and announcements of new partnerships with studios new and old and the presentation of everything was exactly as you'd want it to be. Let the games and the teams do their talking with no fluff. Well worth a watch. High points: The expansion for Outer Wilds, Echoes of the Eye, will release on September 28th on Xbox, PS4 and PC Solar Ash has a release date of October 26th. Stray gameplay shown and it look great. Sadly not coming until early 2022. Shame there was no Open Roads from Fullbright but when one of the announcements was a partnership with a new studio with one of the people who worked on The Stanley Parable and a former Fullbright dev I suppose that might have put Fullbright off. Sure we'll hear something soon but I do think it'll launch next year at this point.

Baldo: The Guardian Owls is releasing on August 27th for Switch (as well as PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles and Apple Arcade). Believe this turned up in an Indie World showing a while back now as I definitely remember the visual style of the game standing out. Very Ghibli/Level 5-esque. Curious how it'll play as it looks like take a lot of elements from the Zelda series.

Not playing the game myself but this is a fantastic collaboration and so makes me wish I could jump in and play:

So Annapurna Interactive have their Showcase this Thursday and I've been looking at their release slate for the rest of the year/what games they've got coming from the studios they're working with and its a hell of a list of titles: 12 Minutes (August 19th, Steam and Xbox) Neon White (2021, Steam and Switch) The Artful Escape (2021, Steam and Xbox) Hindsight (2021, Steam, Apple Arcade and Switch) Solar Ash (PS4, PS5 and Epic Games Store) Stray (PS5 and Steam) Open Roads (Steam, PS5, Xbox) Thats a hell of a publishing slate if that all hits this year, though as much as I want Open Roads I suspect that'll become a 2022 title as we've only had a short teaser at last year's The Game Awards. Still, Fullbright's games have been fantastic so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing more of it soon. I expect we'll get dates for pretty much everything else though and they've said they're be new game announcements and well as a few surprises, one of which is most certainly the heavily hinted at DLC/expansion for Outer Wilds (so excited for more of that game). Genuinely interested in pretty much all of their games that they're publishing though as they're one of my favourite publishers and have been very consistent at putting out solid titles from smaller indie teams (Wattam is probably the only dud recently). Curious is Giant Sparrow will be announcing a new title during the showcase as they worked with Annapurna to publish What Remains of Edith Finch so I could see them working together again as that partnership was a success. Anyway, looking forward to it.

Yves Tumor dropped an EP the other week and this has been a regular play for me from it: The video should probably come with a photosensitivity warning but I love the visuals of it and the song is fantastic. They continue to put out some great stuff coming off of the back of their last album. Similarly loving this track from Brothertiger: And finally, so happy that The War on Drugs have a new album coming out I October. Have been waiting for something new from them as I loved A Deeper Understanding (Pain and Nothing To Find are just incredible tracks). They've led off with a softer sound on the first track from the album but its still great: Also, Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice has been getting a lot of play from me. Lipstick On The Glass and How Can I Make It OK? as well as The Beach II are so good.

Add another game to the release slate for August as PQube have announced that The Plane Effect will release August 12th on Switch (as well as PC, PS5 and Xbox Series). Get the feeling that its going to be somewhat similar gameplay wise to something like Inside but looks interesting. The aesthetic is nice and these types of games are always interesting from a narrative perspective so perhaps one to watch out for.

So a week and a half before I was supposed to, I've managed to hit my main goal exercise wise. I've been working 45 to 60 minute intense workouts in recent weeks to finally get below 91kg and help flatten my stomach around my belly button and today I hit 90.4kg on the scales and I've pretty much flattened my stomach so yay. And I've managed to do it with a hamstring injury which I've been nursing with massages and stretching for the last couple of weeks (think the increase in intensity of cardio and static bike workouts and not adequately stretching so annoyed at myself for it but still its been awful just walking at times with it) so I'm chuffed that I've managed to get myself back to the weight I was when I was last weighed at my doctors in late 2018. Right now I'm just focusing on improving form for things like press ups and such to build more strength and build up my muscles. Hoping that my hamstring will settle in the coming weeks so I can start the next stage of my workouts which is to get back to running. Already been doing long walks at a brisk pace so hoping to graduate to at least jogging smaller distances and going from there soon, though that will not only depend on my hamstring healing but how my ankle joints are as they're giving me problems that I think I'm going to have to see my doctor about. But yeah, all these 7:30 am workouts have paid off massively and I'm feeling physically better for it, even with my aches and pains at the moment. Mental health side of things is slowly coming round too and my diet has been better in the last couple of months than its ever been. Having the small little goals I've got in my head will hopefully keep me on the straight and narrow going forward.

Release date for Road 96 was revealed the other day, certainly a game that caught some attention when it was shown at The Game Awards I believe it was. With it being a procedural narrative, curious how it'll hold up in multiple playthroughs as I imagine there are set scenarios that will crop up again and again so I'd love to know how finite it'll be. Still interested by the premise and the look of it.

Another game for August in Gamepass: I remember seeing Recompile ages ago, before it was announced for consoles and liking the look of it so was really happy to see it announced as coming and to now have a release date for it of August 19th. It'll also be out on PS4/PS5 and PC that day. Not sure if its hitting Switch that day as well. Still, interested to play it. And the remaining additions for Gamepass for the end of July are as follows: Atomicrops (July 22nd) Raji: An Ancient Evil (July 22nd) Last Stop (July 22nd) Blinx: The Time Keeper (July 26th) Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (July 26th) Microsoft Flight Simulator for Series S|X (July 27th) Omno (July 29th) Lethal League Blaze (July 29th) The Ascent (July 29th) Shame that the tweet with The Forgotten City being a Gamepass title turned out to be false. Still a solid line up with several day one releases. Very much looking forward to playing Last Stop. Loved Variable State's previous title, Virginia, so can't wait to play (its also out on PS4/PS5 that day too).

New trailer for the Director's Cut: Really interested to see where it goes, with it being a female Mongol leader this time by the looks of that. August is already packed but think I'll most likely grab the upgrade to the PS5 Director's Cut when it launches. The way I see it is that I'm paying more for the Iki Expansion than an upgrade and if it gives me another 10 hours in the game, I'd say that's worth it in my eyes.

Game and reviews are out now. Reviews have been great, currently sitting at an 89 on Opencritic (top of their Hall of Fame for new releases for 2021) and an 87 on Metacritic. Have played an hour and a bit so far and I have to agree with the review scores, its a lovely little game. Reminds me very much of Hyper Light Drifter, but crossed with the old school top down Zelda titles. Can't wait to dig more into it as there have ready been areas where I can see secrets or I've come across a puzzle but I'm not sure how to complete it so the 100% completionist in me is itching to go back but yeah, it looks great, the combat is simple but effective, easy to use and its just a genuinely charming Zelda-like that's well worth your time from what I've played so far.

Nice to see Valve announcing the Switch Pro for Nintendo It looks like a Game Gear, so ugly as sin) but with it supposedly having a chip that's modelled on the PS5 then at that price its an absolute bargain. Or at least I think so. Its essentially a portable PC that you can take your entire Steam library with you then plug in to a monitor and when you get home and continue playing there. Don't know how the track pads will work as they were supposedly awful on the Steam controller. Nice that they've thought about scalpers with the caveat that you need to have bought something prior to June 2021 on Steam to be in with a chance to reserve a unit. Should help a bit but this will still be another piece of hardware thats hard to get hold of. Very tempted to put in a reservation if I can as that entry price is too good not to miss out on. Don't have a gaming PC and this is a great way to do it and be able to play your PC games from the couch. Hmmm, doubt I'd be able to nab one anyway but something I'll keep me eye on. The savings on PC games would be a nice upside as I've not bought many PC games so plenty of discounts still to be had by me that most will have already taken advantage of.

New trailer just released: The music in that trailer is just beautiful. Really got me hyped up for playing the game. Supposedly the soundtrack has been inspired by games like Shadow of the Colossus and the game is somewhere in the 10 hour region, with the ability to play after the credits roll for unlocking secrets and such. Out next week and hands on previews that have come out have been very positive so far. Looks like its going to be a good one. Got it pre-ordered myself, had enough Microsoft Rewards points to get a £5 voucher so ended being £9.22. Just can't wait to get my hands on it.

Sequel announcement for Moss is a nice one. Waiting for PSVR 2 before I jump in on the original though as I don't see any point to picking up the original unit. That animation to announce the delay for Sifu to 2022 was unnecessary. Just show it as being 2022. There's a pandemic going on so we're all aware that things can get delayed. Making it the end point of your trailer during a State of Play is maybe not the best thing. Jett: The Far Shore looks fantastic and right up my street but not release date beyond a vague 2021 sucks. FIST looks great though. September 7th release. One to watch, hopefully it'll turn out well. Beyond those, its been a bit lacklustre and even with the games I've mentioned, its still below the lower expectations I already had.

So I was looking through upcoming release dates and the end of July is looking fantastic for Gamepass subscribers. Between the 20th and the 29th, there 5 games releasing and launch on Gamepass day one. These are the 6 that are confirmed so far, no doubt there'll be a few more when the lineup for the end of July is fully announced towards the end of next week: Cris Tales - July 20th Last Stop - July 22nd Microsoft Flight Simulator - July 27th The Ascent - July 29th The Forgotten City - July 29th Omno - July 29th The 5 new releases are all indie titles but they cover a wide range of genres and I'm looking forward to them all, especially Last Stop as its by the developers of Virginia which is a game I absolutely adored when I played it on release on the PS4. Crazy busy end to the month and then August thereafter is also looking stacked with Hades, 12 Minutes and Psychonauts 2. My Series S is going to be getting a lot of play time in the coming weeks, don't know how I'll keep up with all the games (here and on my PS5). The pandemic might have hit bigger AAA title development but as someone who loves indie games, its a great time to be a gamer.