Ronnie

Very exciting news! Don't think they've said anything about it being a TNG sequel, so doesn't need to nail any kind of TNG vibe I don't think. As for what he's up to, I'm sure they'll come up with a suitable storyline. This could just be a one-season mini series or something, and from what they've said there's tons of new Trek on the way so I wouldn't worry about it clashing.

In these days of data miners and leaks it's nice to see secrets like that take this long to come out.

Just Iconoclasts, Picross, Overcooked, Flipping Death, Dead Cells, Okami for me in August then. Oh and Mario Rabbids DLC and Bomb Chicken. Nothing for me in September though so will probably spend it with the PS4 and Spiderman. Assuming Nintendo doesn't have anything up its sleeve for their online service.

Also, a word on the music. It really is fantastic, and I keep getting the battle and boss themes stuck in my head.

H'annit's chapter 2 boss gave me a ton of trouble the first time, especially when I ran out of SP granting items. Just beat it though after stocking up. I ended up using one of the high level beasts H'annit had captured in the run up to the fight, it did 3x slash attacks for something like 1600 each when fully boosted. After I spotted that I didn't bother using any other physical attacks from other characters, (unless they were needed to break) and instead just focused on giving H'annit extra BP points lol

I think if Kylo Ren is to be redeemed (big if) the film needs another big bad guy. Ideally would have been introduced in TLJ but that's what Lucasfilm gets when they have no overall storyline planned out and instead left it to three (now two) directors to mix and match stories. Please no. Ewan fine, but I personally don't want to see anymore of Hayden Christensen. I'm sure he's a nice guy and a good actor but he was absolutely terrible in the prequels, (admittedly, not helped by an awful script and having to play off an equally terrible Natalie Portman. The prequels absolutely sucked in the casting dept, Samuel L Jackson with his "cool" purple lightsaber ffs). Oh you said it first I don't really see this is as the final film of the saga, more the final film of the sequel trilogy. Revenge of the Sith (urgh) and Return of the Jedi acted as climactic storylines for their own trilogies and I think this will be similar, it'll tie up the Rey/Kylo Ren/Luke/First Order storyline but doesn't need to be anything OTT. And I think the year and a half wait between films will help IX big time. I'm almost certain it's the reason Solo wasn't delayed to December when there was so much production trouble: to give IX room to breathe.

You can also see why they don't often discount their games until years later, crazy software sales.

Some software figures from ResetEra: Odyssey 11.17m (+ 760k) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 10.35m (+ 1.13m) Zelda BOTW (Switch) 9.32m (+ 840k) Splatoon 2 6.76m (+740k) 1-2 Switch 2.45m (+ 160k) ARMS 2.01m (+ 160k) Kirby 1.89m (+630k) Xenoblade 2 1.42m (+110k) Labo 1.39m combined

They're certainly making really smart business decisions; and hell I'll be buying a One at the end of the year so they have at least one more hardware sale there!

I know Microsoft don't release figures too often but anyone know what Xbox One sales are? I could easily see Switch surpassing that which would be pretty crazy. I don't think they're purposefully releasing it late, I just assume it needs more time to make and won't be ready by September.

Even as a massive Star Wars nerd I somehow completely missed all this news until last night. D'oh. Anyway, could not be happier that Hamill and Billy Dee Williams are back, great news, ditto Carrie Fisher making an appearance. Be really interesting to see how they manage it. Plenty of rumours that Richard E Grant is playing Thrawn and Episode IX has a new bad guy, would make a lot of sense. I think you're right @Julius Caesar about how Abrams will likely make Luke a bit more recognisable than TLJ managed. Also were people really wanting to see Leia recast?? Must be the tiniest of minorities. I've personally stopped reading fan reactions, comments etc. (apart from on here obv) It's just way too toxic after TLJ, everything has a tinge of snark and sarcasm and I find it all pretty unpleseant.

And there's me chuffed when my Cyrus does 1000 of damage twice. I feel like I have a looooong way to go lol

I went anti clockwise from Cyrus and picked up my preferred party more or less straight away. Ophelia, H'annit (her multi arrow attacks and beast summons are very useful) and Therion. Not bothering with Alfyn, Primrose, Olberic or Tressa much. Though I'm sad that means I can't try for the XPx100 perk. That said I did use Tressa to buy a charm that gives the equipped character a HP boost after every move he/she makes. I stuck it on Cyrus and he's rarely ever in any danger. On another note, I was relieved after starting my first chapter 2 that character interactions were a thing, even if it was in a somewhat limited way. It felt so soulless not having them ever speak to each other before then.

They've released a fair few colours so far and it's only been a little over a year. At the moment new colours are a special occasion, helps keep them attractive to buyers. I also think they're cautious about confusing the market (not hardcore like us obv) with mutltiple types of joy con so early. Also it means in game icons wouldn't correlate with the new D pad, small things sure but I think it all contributes.

Am I going crazy or do some towns not have Taverns? Saintsbridge and the one where Therion starts Bolderfall or whatever it's called

Sad to hear you're losing interest. I doubt I'll be compelled to finish all 8 stories, but if I can manage four of them that'll do me. Just did my first chapter 2 (Cyrus), wow the difficulty certainly ramped up!

It's a fantastic game but 50+ hours of trying over and over the difficulty just got too annoying. Apparently the recent update is supposed to be make the game a tad less challenging though

New Labo!

Think I'll avoid reading that. I find it fun not knowing what or how likely something will happen. It's the only reason I'm keeping Primrose around for a bit. Next time I beat a Cait I might just make the battle last forever and keep spamming Bewildering Grace till something good pops up

"rumoured MK8 DLC" ... not sure if a few of us on here saying new MK8 tracks would be a good way to launch the online service counts as a rumour, but sure

Is there a Nindies Showcase today I missed or something?? Picross 2 revealed for next week https://twitter.com/PeerIGN/status/1022162268404871169

I think it's a way of 1) tiding fans over till the core game next year, which they've suggested is taking longer to develop than they thought and 2) capitalise on the success of Pokemon Go, which they probably couldn't do with next year's game.

Is there any point going into optional dungeons before you're given a side mission to do so? I've been in a couple and apart from some treasure chests, there hasn't been a boss in either of them. I take it there will be if I do side quests?

I can't figure the visuals out. On the one hand it looks really nice, lovely at times, but on the other hand it's quite limited looking. Not sure how to wrap my head around. Certainly a nice looking game but also quite basic? In other words an upscaled 3DS game I guess.

Wow, I'd picked up 6 of the 8 heroes, had just finished Primrose's chapter 1, breezing through pretty much every encounter and thought I'd try one of the optional dungeons in the dessert. Ouch. Made it three or four encounters in and ran out screaming like a little girl.