Ronnie

Greg Miller seems to be doing amazing work with the Showcase, he keeps talking about how exhausted he is but I'm sure it'll come together as a really polished production (especially with Tim Gettys producing). I watch all their content (unless it has Jared on it, in which case I avoid like the plague) and I'm really pleased to see them get so much good will with this, fully deserved. As for the Game Awards, I'll be avoiding the news the following day and watching it that following evening from start to finish (fast forwarding through Josef Fares). I'd actually be surprised if God of War didn't win GOTY. I think there's been a decent amount of criticism against Red Dead, while GOW was pretty much universally loved. Red Dead's world is mind blowing for sure, likewise storyline, characters etc but I think GOW nails those aspects + has satisfying gameplay on top of it. I do think Spider Man will be the Horizon of this year though. Except that Horizon maybe deserved one or two awards last year and Spider Man definitely doesn't

Beyond is basically the next big content expansion after Horizons but I think it's free of charge if you own Horizons, could be wrong though. And Beyond itself has been divided into chapters, with the final one chapter 4 out next week. I'm planning on starting a new game on console. Put about 100 hours on PC but keen to start fresh. I'd love to play this on VR, maybe some day Xbox will announce support for it. I played a bit on my PC with a dev kit Oculus rift a few years ago, was amazing. Must be even better nowadays

Sorry for the twelve month bump. This game has been getting constant updates since it was released a few years ago and it just keeps getting better and better if you're into that sort of thing. The latest update, Beyond: Chapter 4 is out next week

GRIS, Monster Boy and of course Guacamelee 2 for me... in January... after I've gotten round to the Messenger... and Abzu, and Bomb Chicken, and Hyper Light Drifter, ... oh and Smash.

Funny how it's basically guaranteed to be Metroid, even with no hinting or suggestions from Nintendo themselves. Is anytone watching (or heard of) the Kinda Funny Showcase the following day? Greg Miller and Tim Gettys filling the void left by no PSX and doing their own digital event type thing. 60+ games scheduled to be shown off, and not all of them indies.

If you're buying games physically, don't forget you can hit the options button on it's icon and add the Gold points from the purchase to your account, which means savings on the eShop, Switch Online plan etc. If you're buying them digitally the gold points get added automatically. It's not a massive amount but hey it's free money in your account. My Online plan went down from £18 a year to something like £13 because of all the gold points.

Wait till you have Wartortle follow you...

Great timing with that article, the day those crazy sales numbers came out. But yeah, slash the Switch price by 30% just to make up the couple extra million it'll take to reach 20. Makes complete sense.

True, but I also think Aonuma was only joking around with his comment. I'm surprised people are taking it at face value.

A few tidbits from Sakurai... Kirby bias NOT the reason he was the sole survivor

Haha stupid me those are just US numbers I believe. The great thing is 2019 looks to be an amazing year to keep the train rolling: Animal Crossing Fire Emblem Yoshi Pokemon Gen 8 Luigi's Mansion NSMBUDX (...breathes...) Smash DLC... and then take your pick from any of these: Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3, Starfox GP, Zelda(?) Throw in a price cut/hardware revision... and yeah...

Great news overall. I don't understand these quotes though Is that 8.2 this fiscal year? The installbase of the 3DS is 80+ million? Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have surely sold more than 2 million! Anyway as for the Switch, maybe they do have a hope of hitting that 20 million target this FY. I was in Argos the other day and saw the Switch as one of maybe 5 or 6 products on the cover of their xmas catalogue!

Probably not I suspect. It'll sell on the name alone, and presumably that's what Sony are banking on.

Glad you're enjoying it. I got the lantern early as well, I'd say you made the right choice but early on maybe stick to the main path ? It doesn't open up till a bit later I believe anyway so I'm not sure how many options you have at this early point anyway.

50hz games confirmed, one blunder after another...

All the hard work the devs put in, spoiled by some brats who want their 5 minutes of fame. The gaming community seems to sink to new lows each year.

Not just the artwork but the presentation in general: on-screen prompts, menus, use of sound, musical flourishes etc. It’s all hugely polished

I wasn't really considering a game specific Direct because well, we've just had one for Smash and everything else is a while off, and they might as well keep that to their usual January Direct. Could be a Mario Kart Tour one I guess. Agreed, I don't see the business sense of doing one now before Smash launches and we'll get some stuff at the Game Awards anyway. But like you say, who knows what they're thinking.

There wasn't one last year, just game specific ones. Nor the year before when they had Miitopia and AC New Leaf focused ones. This year we've already had a Smash Direct. In Nov 2015 they had a general Direct though you're right. Basically, who knows.

Yeah I was going to say it sounded like you breezed through Dead Cells and this is a similar challenge, mostly. One thing though, a common complaint about this game is that it starts off annoying/slow but after a few hours once everything clicks it gets amazing, so don't let the first few hours put you off. Like @MindFreak I rolled credits after 50 hours.

It's one of the best games I've ever played. Easily the best Metroidvania. Atmosphere, visuals, sound, combat, movement, customisation, lore, all outstanding. It was a steal at full price, 9 euros is practically giving it away. It's challenging though, especially early on and some of the bosses (there's dozens of them) are extremely difficult, but don't let that stop you.

I'd be really surprised if it was happening at all tbh, regardless of rumours. Just doesn't fit in with the schedule/how they normally do things.

“Proper Zelda”? If anything Skyward Sword is the least “Zelda” game they’ve released. There’s no overworld. Which is a pretty big deal. You pick an area you want to fall into via a menu, and the entire thing is just one linear point A to point B. Fi tells you exactly what to do every seven seconds and the “flying” area is utterly pointless. Breath of the Wild may as well be a 3D modern day representation of the original game. Basically as close to “Zelda” as you can get.

Wow. Going from the go anywhere enormous openworld and least hand-holdy Zelda game to the (basically) level select screen and Fi of Skyward Sword. Impressive. Also, Japanese people can be a bit odd. I’m not sure he was hinting anything.

Really sad, and frankly a bit pathetic, all for five minute of fame. Out of curiosity...