Ronnie

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.

Some interesting comments from Iger when asked about their theatrical release plans. I’m glad they’re taking their time with the next big film but at the same time I hope he realises it wasn’t just release timing that screwed Solo but the total lack of marketing till 3 months before. Obviously they go hand in hand but still. At least he admitted the blame. (And Marvel slowing down is long overdue imo too.)

The reveal trailer seemed to suggest terraforming was a big deal in this game, which I hope it isn't tbh. Just more Fantasy Life would be great.

Skipping this trailer but hope people enjoy it.

Kind of weird how the Nintendo Store don't have the Collector's Edition up yet but they do have those smaller bundles. Wonder if the Collector's Edition will end up cancelled over in Europe or something.

Thank you for the 2AM ramblings! Very useful and interesting. I thought I had it all worked out but then this latest episode just confused me a bit about the shared principles of the Children of the Watch and the rest of the Mandalorians. Like you say I think I was just surprised Bo said she took the Creed. The Children of the Watch being an extreme offshoot of an already extremist group make sense. And it's testament to how good that ending was that you're desperate to know what Bo thinks about the Mythosaur being real. You're probably right but I imagine it's a similar amount to most distributors, but just a lot more high profile because it's Star Wars and so a lot more in the news than most other companies. Star Trek 4 for instance has had about a dozen directors and writers over the last 5 or 6 years. The MCU wasn't all smooth sailing at the start, but I imagine Lucasfilm will be much better going forward for the experience. Especially as Top Gun Maverick doing so well proved a relatively niche sounding idea like a pilot film could have worked. Oh well, like you say maybe we'll get something like that eventually. It's just frustrating with Rangers of the New Republic also shelved. Can't catch a break! Tons of people mentioned they didn't get anything in the lottery last year so going in with reduced expectations is probably a good thing. I'm determined to get into that Ahsoka panel though one way or the other. Live action Ezra reveal?

Chapter 18. Wow, that was one hell of an episode! Another 8/10 for me. Loved it. What's really exciting is I've no clue where the rest of this season is going to go. The trailer showed a bit of a city planet (Hosnian Prime?) and we're back on Nevarro and Kalevala at some point but otherwise we've already seen most of what the trailers showed.

Couldn't find a thread for this. Coming later this year (yeah right), all platforms... Looks amazing.

Six years without a film I actually see as a good thing tbh. Gives time for anticipation to build again. Yes it's been a bit of a mess with projects announced/rumoured then shelved etc, but at least they're taking their time and trying to do it right. Rumours of the Damon Lindelof project potentially filming any day now would suggest we might get an announcement at Celebration. I am however gutted that Patty Jenkins' film didn't work out. That was my dream Star Wars film. It's been slim pickings for starfighter pilot stuff since TROS. The livestream is sponsored by Survivor, so if nothing else we should get plenty of clips of it! I'd be surprised if they add more panels, seeing as they called this the full line-up but you never know. I think the ILM one was added quite late in the day last year. With only 3 on Friday it definitely feels a bit light, but otherwise I'm happy. I want to go to nearly all of the Lucasfilm ones! Nice. I meant to put in my post above you should have started it now haha. Get your thoughts up on the rest of the eps if you've time, really curious. Yep bring lots of phones! I only had one in Anaheim and my random spot in the queue was terrible the first three days, took an hour or two to get in. On the last day I was into booking that day's panels in 3 or 4 mins. And like I mentioned last year I was only successful with the lottery at getting into the Bad Batch panel, missed out on the other 3, so I had a look in the various Facebook groups and eBay for people looking to get rid of their tickets. Picked up the LF Showcase and Mando+ there. A little surprised Villains of the Sequels seems to be the main panel for Sunday, not complaining, good to see sequel love, but I'd have thought the Kenobi panel would have fit in better there. First thing I noticed too. Gutted. She works so well with Anthony. Baver is pretty good at least.

Panel schedule looks great. A strangely short day on Friday, but otherwise lots to look forward to. I'd maybe say even better than the Anaheim line-up? For me, the Studio Showcase + the Ahsoka, 'Making of Andor' and the Doug Chiang panels are top of my list. My nephew will definitely want to the Clone Wars anniversary panel. And I'll try and sneak into the Bad Batch and Visual Effects of Andor ones too. And maybe Kenobi, and the ROTJ anniversary, and and... Shame no gaming or music panels, I'd have thought the latter would be a given. If it's anything like last year, they'll do a lottery for the first panel of each day well in advance and then on the day you use the app to book a spot in all the others. The more devices you have to hand the better for the latter btw, as your place in the queue is randomly assigned on each device you use.

Put in a good 8 or so hours into this and so far I'm really loving it. There seems to be a ton of things to do. Things are starting to click now, the story is interesting, the combat is fun and the world itself is amazingly realised. Only downside so far is having to CONSTANTLY get rid of gear to make room for new stuff you find. Frustrating how long you spend in the gear menu just to make room. But otherwise, great fun so far.