Ronnie

Fantastic, congrats! You should def be chuffed with that. As usual there are reports of people getting into 3 or 4 and even more getting into 0, so two out of five is a great return. Of the two you got, the Showcase is definitely the one you'll want to be in the Celebration stage for, and it's a great way of kicking off Celebration. I got into one panel, Bad Batch on the Celebration stage, for me and my nephew, the exact same one I got into (officially) in Anaheim . A little disappointed I didn't get a second as well (Showcase or Ahsoka) but never mind. I'm loving the series so much so it'll be great. Still holding out hope of blagging my way into another one, constantly checking Facebook/eBay. If god forbid you have any last minute cancellations in your group I would selflessly take a QR code off your hands for a decent fee btw tbh, I think I might just try queueing up in the standby line at 8. And yeah got a Store reservation easily enough (despite their terrible messaging in terms of number of people per order allowed). How about you? Just head straight there I'd suggest. Got an email today saying they'd been shipped, about time! You'll be alright. They sent international tickets first I believe. UK ones last. Ah that's annoying re: Lyte, you're right, very scalper like prices. And they aren't exactly cheap to begin with!

Any luck in the panel lottery @Julius? Be sure to check https://register.growtix.com/entry/event/hgjert5131_nn4_5g and register/sign in, very occasionally you get successful there but without an email.

10 minutes of gameplay is perfect. No need for a big 30+ min blowout of a game where they show everything it has to offer. Discovery and exploration is the main draw of BOTW and presumably TOTK.

I'd be really curious to hear their actual reasoning on the decision, but obviously that's unlikely to happen. Businesses just seem obsessed with controlling the messaging these days, so it's just an extension of that I guess. The funnyt hing is all the footage they showed last year of Mando and Ahsoka looked polished and ready for broadcast, it wasn't rough looking at all. (like that first footage of Mando they ever showed to the public apparently was) That'd be a great idea! Sign me up. Even if it's just the major panels, kind of like a pay-per-view type thing. Yeah giving most people a minimum of 1 and maybe a maximum of 2 to spread things around would be ideal, though I imagine the numbers would still come up short there, especially in London with much smaller rooms. All the Mandos in Mando are so stoic and stiff it'd be great to have Sabine have a bit more personality. Same with Ezra of course. I get that time would have passed obviously, but still. Fingers crossed.

Chapter 20 of Mando... have to say I wasn't a massive fan of this one. Carl Weathers directed my least favourite of S2 and I get the feeling it'll be the same in S3. It wasn't bad by any means and re-watches definitely helped a bit. Probably a 6.5/10 for me. It was enjoyable, but definitely my least favourite of the season so far. Seems to be getting good reviews online though, so what do I know. Chapter 2 is one of my favourites and I think that's the shortest episode of the whole series. But yeah fair enough, 40+ mins for most would be good.

Here's a tip, the posts that talk about Mando start with: on the previous page and this one.

Tbf, yes the Mando/Ahsoka footage leaked from last year but most of it seemed to be taken down pretty quick, a couple vids of half the screen were on reddit in terrible quality but otherwise it's actually quite hard to find a good copy nowadays. Playing devil's advocate if you show thousands of people on the whole convention floor there's a lot greater chance the footage will get spread around. But I totally get what you're saying, it's pretty bad. Now that I'm 100% on board with you. I don't think it's been 100% confirmed no panels at all will be streamed, so wait and see, but yeah. The panels that don't necessarily share any big news, just put them up ffs. Even if they wait until after the show or something. We'll see, but yeah. They might argue they want to reward convention goers but if you asked anyone there whether they minded the panels being streamed I think most would say they would love them to be. The lotto makes sense I think. Tbh I'd rather that than queue 4 or 5 hours beforehand. I actually think the panel stuff is organised well given the difficult situation of literally everyone wanting to get into the big ones, it's just Lucasfilm's handling of people outside the rooms (and at home) that stings. This was my favourite purchase from Anaheim, a massive print of this beauty, signed by the artist. It was like £100 but worth it. Even with Pearce Brosnan as Thrawn lol It's funny you say that because that's exactly what happened, this morning reports saying Lindelof and his co-writer have left the 2024 project back in mid Feb. Siiiiiiigh. Apparently the production timeline is set to be the same, and LF got someone else in already, but yeah. I thought his interview comments you mention sounded really strange. Now we know why. I still think we'll see some film news at Celebration but it's so frustrating to say the least. I reckon... Ahsoka trailer, Skeleton Crew trailer, maybe a new series announcement, film news and an Indy trailer. Yeah should be good. Seems to have been in production a while, might be another Andor on our hands. Also, apparently the directors behind Everything Everywhere All At Once are set to direct at least one ep of Skeleton Crew, so that's exciting. Edit: just been confirmed from the horse's mouth Be interesting if with two, presumably big, eps of Mando still to release, they'll want to pull focus away from that with a publicly released Ahsoka trailer. I could see them waiting until after the last ep of Mando before putting it online, but we'll see. Yeah exactly. Fingers crossed, but it seems like great casting. I just hope the on-screen portrayals of the characters are right. Both her and Ezra are big personalities, I hope they don't try and tone those down and make it stiff and stoic. Yeah they have, Ashley was invited on set for the Ahsoka show. S1 was very cameo/legacy character-heavy (Kanan, Cut Lawquane, Trace and Rafa, Rex, Fennic Shand, Cad Bane, Hera, Chopper, Bib Fortuna etc) and it kind of wound me up, S2 has much less of that and it's more focused on the Batch themselves. It hasn't branched out into the wider galaxy quite as much as you might like/be expecting, but I think that's to come in the future. I don't actually think this is the last season, but still hoping they confirm it soon. Resistance only lasted two years but they announced S2 would be its last before it aired, so hopefully that's a good sign here. Yes definitely catch up. It would have just finished by the time Celebration starts, so will be quite a talking point I imagine. Three of the opening four eps are a little meh, but it gets brilliant after that.

There should be a standby queue so worst case scenario you'll just have to get there super early and wait in line. Not expecting any of them to be live-streamed though, not even to convention-goers which is such a massive shame. They should probably be announcing the store products any day now. I'd suggest you'll definitely find better uses for your money on the show floor itself tbh, but the main store is still good for some SWC branded stuff and a few other bits. In terms of what we actually see, I'm getting hyped for that opening Showcase. I definitely think it's time for film news. Even if it's still 2+ years out, a teaser logo, a timeframe, a director and a lead would be great. Ahsoka panel, gotta imagine they'll bring out live action Ezra on stage. Sabine I get the impression they've nailed, but Ezra is such a big character I'm a little scared. Now I know what all the Ahsoka fans felt like before Rosario Dawson was announced ha. Last week's ep of Bad Batch centred on something that hinted at an endgame for the series/characters. It has me a little terrified S2 might be the last. Probably not, but still... I guess we'll find out soon.

Looks amazing, can't wait. Also, I'm started to feel bad for TIE fighters

The badge art is lovely this year. Last year was a bit meh, especially the 4 Day Adult one, I've no idea what they were thinking when they picked that design! Not got mine yet, not even shipped yet. I would go in with lower expectations with the lottery, I know a ton of people who had no success in Anaheim and the rooms had far more seats than the Excel, so we'll see. You're right though Kenobi should hopefully be a bit better odds since it was quietly added. The Celebration store was a funny one last year, everyone kept saying it was a nightmare to get into but they must have meant early in the day cause I just wandered in around 4 or 5pm a couple days in after about 2 minutes of queueing. Sure the daily pins I wanted were sold out by then but 95% of the store was still in stock. Portable power bank for your phone would be very useful if your phone battery is getting on. Some kind of poster tube/protectors too if they give any out at panels, though they sold those right next to where you pick them up. Comfortable shoes. If you want any autographs they have a bunch of prints and you pick which one you want signed, or bring your own. If they do the daily panel reservations, as many phones as you have like we talked about. Make sure to stop off at the droid room too. Snacks and drinks for the queuing. They revealed the Celebration live stage guest times, or at least a chunk of them, so have a look and maybe see who you'd like to listen to. They didn't do that last year and I randomly walked up to the stage seconds before Doug Chiang was brought out. Result!

Never change Japan.

Heads up @Julius I'm sure you've applied for the Celebration lottery for the four big panels by now, but it seems they've quietly added a fifth. The 'look back at Kenobi' one, just in case you want to apply for that. Might help with under the counter panel ticket trading if you get into Kenobi but would prefer another one? PS: Bad Batch 2x13, another quality (beautiful looking) ep I adore this show.

Good call, I'd forgotten that it moves around. And yeah it makes sense That Coruscant is important, I guess I just wanted a bit of sequel stuff that's all. I did like the little mention of the Alliance fleet being decommissioned. A Mon Monthma order I believe. The Last Jedi dabbled in the grey areas with the arms dealer supplying the First Order and the Resistance, but yeah, tv series will have a lot more time to get into that grey area. The scene at the end with the mind flayer was incredibly unsettling. Nice guy Mon Cala telling Pershing not to worry etc while cheery music plays . Really great stuff. Pershing did a brilliant job, for someone who could have just been a background extra in a couple of S1 scenes. Looking forward to seeing Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's character at some point too. That's very true actually, it seemed a very personal attack, in the same way that Elia going after Pershing felt personal too. Bit of Gideon payback from behind a jail cell? Only reason I thought of Thrawn was because there was a line about that many TIES seems a bigger deal than just some local warlord. Should know a lot more by Celebration, with a few more episodes and also an Ahsoka trailer. Be interesting to see if this crossover event thing that Kathleen Kennedy announced a few years ago is still happening. Gotta imagine it is with how inter-connected they're making the Mandoverse. Yeah that would be great, I think it'll happen and they'll redo that Luke scene at the end of S2 for instance. It didn't look bad, just not as good as the deep fake in Boba Fett. I watched yesterday's ep on my laptop and the CG looked much better. Streaming can definitely struggle at times when there's a lot of data to get across. And most importantly out of the whole episode... i've a serious craving for those yellow biscuits now.

Fair enough, I've not read books like Bloodlines that probably cover the timing, I was under the impression that no date had been set when they moved there, but could be wrong. I think it would help flesh out the destruction in The Force Awakens though, the same way all the stuff on Alderaan lately has fleshed out what happened in A New Hope. I know that was more of a personal loss to Leia, but still. Oh yeah for sure, I was probably being a bit unfair. It's amazing seeing it in its post-Empire days. It's quite bold of them to paint a less than ideal picture of the New Republic, but I suppose in the books and canon the new government was struggling around this point so maybe that's just showing that on screen. Very intrigued what his part in the story will be. I suspect that squadron of TIEs belongs to Thrawn and he might be the big reveal at the end of the season, but who knows. I watched that starfighter battle again on my laptop in better quality and it really is fantastic. That's a good point. I imagine they splashed a lot of the season's budget on this episode already so to have to build a new cityscape etc might not have been practical. Yeah it's basically a choice between: - Mandoverse: 1 ish year production but with lots of Volume use and a bit ropey CG at times - Andor: 2 year production but with more on location shooting I think Mando uses the Volume really well tbf (unlike say, Kenobi), and the episode looked amazing overall. Just some clunkiness with the direction and dialogue for me, but hey ho. Already dreading designing the infographic for this ep haha, but in a good way.

Wow, a ton to unpack with Chapter 19. Loads of fun and even for a relatively quieter episode, there was so much going on. Definitely an episode I'll need to re-watch a few times to really get to grips with, but for now I'd give it a 7/10. Hugely enjoyable though and really intriguing where they go from here.

Yes people bought Origins because of tourism reasons, rather than the fun gameplay. Got it. Have a good night.

I'm comparing the profitability of two games that sold the same amount of copies and using it against your over-simplistic statement. Saying 'MK Switch sold more than MK 64 therefore gaming = more profitzz' these days is meaningless, and that's being polite. If that argument had any merit whatsoever, why not compare Lylat Wars to Starfox Zero? You are, as usual, shifting the goal posts and hilariously missing the point. AAA gaming is (in general) far more expensive to produce these days than 20 or 30 years ago. That's my point. It's more nuanced than "more profit in gaming now".

Why is it a bad comparison, because it doesn't fit your bizarrely obtuse, unsubstantiated and hilariously generalised assertion that "games are much more profitable these days"? I don't think anyone is, judging by the responses your posts have had. It's hard to understand a poorly thought out argument. The discussion is about profitability. Two games sell the same number of copies. One with 1000 people working on it. One with 50. One that plummeted in price after release. One that kept its price. It's one comparison, but it's one that illustrates just how generalised and poorly thought out your "games are much more profitable these days" argument. It's more nuanced than that.

Origins also plummeted in price a few months in. Mario Kart 64 sold most of its 10 million at full (£60) price. I'll say it again, a dev team of 1000 vs a dev team of 50. It's one of many examples that could be used to disprove your specious argument that games are much more profitable these days. You often hear it because it's the truth. Not in all cases, but in the majority.

That's an incredibly vague assertion. Any sources to back this claim up? 1000 people worked on Assassin's Creed Origins. It sold 10 million. Around 50 people worked on Mario Kart 64. It also sold 10 million.

iLooks great

Return on six years of investment I guess? The game needs a higher capacity game card than every other first party Switch game, so there's a technical reason for it. I'm not fussed because it's the same price in the UK as BOTW was, but I do agree that gaming (outside of Nintendo) has never been cheaper than it is today, so

TOTK is a fair bit bigger in file-size than BOTW, so it needs to be manufactured on 32GB cards, as opposed to the 16GB ones of BOTW. More cost involved there. I suspect Bowser saying the game has 'a lot of content' is basically the above, but in corporate-speak.

I think TotK will be the same RRP as BOTW was in Europe. The $10 price increase is only in the US I believe. Wasn't Ocarina of Time $80 at release? That'd be about $140 these days with inflation .

Damn you @Julius you just made me to put on 'a quick scene' from Ep 6. Ended up re-watching the whole second half of it. It's an outstanding series. Worth all the great reviews it got and then some. Incredibly well written and directed, beautiful set locations with stellar performances. The pacing is great too, structured in three-episode arcs, where the first two do the heavy lifting and make you care for the pay off in the third. If anything it elevates Mando for me, when you sit through 12 episodes of Andor with it's bleaker, more down to earth tone, it's refreshing to have a tonal shift to the more fun, pulpy side of Star Wars that Mando provides. We're eating well atm! Tony Gilroy was right, he didn't fill the series with in your face fan service, but it was great work from his team and Lucasfilm in general putting in tons of subtle background stuff that doesn't necessarily impact the story but is the icing on the cake. And btw, this week's Bad Batch is similarly outstanding, one of the best of the whole series. Season 2 has been brilliant, let me know what you think when you get to it. The first couple of eps are strangely average, but there are some real gems after that.