Ronnie

Interesting that they recommend Resolution mode (30FPS) over Performance (60FPS), the latter seems to be a big drop in quality, the blurriness is pretty off-putting. 30fps it is I guess!

Yeah I'll be buying this at launch, probably platinum it, then selling it on eBay, I'll likely never go back to it so it's not great loss (well, apart from losing £15 or so quid after re-sale)

Gotta be honest, I was expecting slightly better reviews. Still, great scores! The openworld sounds like a bit of a step up from other Sony games, if not quite the revolution they badly need.

Yeah for sure. Unfortunately that's what happens when people are so passionate about something, they take things too far. It was nice seeing Ahmed Best get a warm reception at Celebration a few years back. As for the sequels, I'm not a fan of this revisionist history I've started seeing online about them. People adored The Force Awakens when it came out, yes it has issues but so does literally every SW film. The Last Jedi reviewed extremely well by critics (as most Rian Johnson films do), it's still at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, But fans didn't like how Luke wasn't a badass so they bitched and moaned and Lucasfilm made the mistake of listening to those complaints and ret-conned some of it in TROS. So yeah, fans absolutely brought it on themselves. Fans were demanding to know who Rey was, so they made her connected to someone famous. Fans demanded to know where Snoke came from, so they told us. I got that massive two volume art book for Christmas and it's AMAZING. I'm a big fan of Doug Chiang's work too, it's obviously an impossible job stepping into McQuarrie's shows but he's done some amazing work. This bit of concept art is still one of my favourites: I still can't figure out how Bryce Dallas Howard did that sequence of Mando walking along the street on that ring world, into the elevator, out into the club, into the meeting room, the camera circling around the table, then Din goes back into the lift to go down a level... all in one shot. I guess the outside corridor was CG, but still, awesome. Loved this shot too, I choose to believe she made Din hold her head very still for the gif potential I think May 4th is likely, exactly a year after S1, I think I read rumours that was the case. I can't see them wanting to shadow drop with no promotion at all (I can imagine viewership probably isn't massive for it) but at the same time would they want to get in the way of Obi Wan's marketing push? We'll see I guess. I definitely think they're saving the Old Republic for, like you say, a decade's worth of content down the line. Once all these currently slated shows and films are all done with they can start that era as a new phase as it were, not for a decade at least though mind. There's been rumours of another High Republic show in the works, with younger protagonists, described as 'Stranger Things in space', we'll see I guess. Yeah really weird. Have to say though the series made me like Fennec a fair bit more. The (admittedly rare) occasions when she wasn't just used for robotic dialogue and exposition dumps and instead actually emoted like a real person was nice. "Manners!? I like it." or her "You wanna share Santo?" with the melon at the end of the last episode. It's stuff like that I latch onto and make me connect with characters, not bad-assery. Though her shooting the door mechanism as the ramp of the Slave I was closing was pretty awesome tbf. Yes please... Same problem I have with a lot of the dialogue in recent shows, I found it stiff and exposition-heavy. I was relieved to see the more natural, prankster style Yoda back in TLJ. Oh and never show that image of TPM Yoda again please. Ok that's what I thought, I was just confused by Yoda's comments about training for Obi Wan on Tatooine. He said something about how he would teach him how to commune with Qui Gon. Nice. I'm torn really, on the one hand I think they should just throw away the line about training being needed to be a force ghost, and just have it as a Jedi thing, but at the same time the complexity about it needing a balance between the prequel Jedi and the Sith is good too. Either way works for me. I think Star Wars should always push things forward and not be too tied to the past and afraid of adding new lore. The Jedi voices speaking to Rey was one of my favourite parts of that film, that whole scene on Exegol was awesome, but I can understand how it might be considered a bit too silly and done for cheap 'hype'. There was a fan edit I saw on YouTube where they had all the former Jedi show us as Force ghosts, now THAT would have been silly haha.

That would have been cool. I imagine if he knew there'd be more Star Wars down the line he'd have given us a half step but as far as he was concerned that was it I think. What a bold move by Rebels to give us McQuarrie designs, especially as it was the first SW of the Disney era. Such a fun idea, even if those Star Destroyers looked stupid . I'm not going into Obi-Wan super hyped but I am looking forward to it. I get the impression they're pulling out all the stops for it. Hopefully the story is good. Exactly. And tbf, I did enjoy the season overall, I just think the execution could have been better. And I really didn't like Rodriguez's direction. Rumours of more animated shows on the way, but yeah I know what you mean. I enjoy the more laid back tone of the animated shows, the dialogue feels more real and down to earth, and there's lots of humour. Was wondering when you think Bad Batch S2 might land, apparently Andor is releasing in the Aug/Sep and that's 12 episodes long so should take us to the end of the year. I think they might have to have it and Obi-Wan on at the same time tbh. Maybe May 4th again for Bad Batch? Can't wait for it, the last two episodes were pretty outstanding I thought. Fallen Order 2 shouldn't be too far off either, maybe a year or so away? Glad to hear you'll get onto the High Republic train. The benefit of being set in a new era means they can tell bigger stories, rather than what a lot of recent books have done which has been a bit more subdued. Still gutted Rangers of the New Republic was shelved though, I'm definitely in the minority but that was my most hyped series haha. Maybe it's been re-imagined into animation. Yeah I can see that. I think Pedro Pascal does alright with his script, he makes it a bit more natural, but you have characters like Greef Carga or Ahsoka and it's really tough to connect with them I feel, just because of the dialogue. I don't think it helped that I went into these shows straight from Rebels, which had a very natural script, and where it feels like the cast kind of made the characters their own. As for Boba's 180, I think they thew a line in there about how 'cowardly' Bib Fortuna betrayed Boba or something like that, hence killing him. But yeah, kind of weird. Feels like they toned back his villainous streak a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if that is pretty much beat for beat EXACTLY what happens I can see some Rey-like pottering about in his home for sure, they'll throw in some of that growable bread stuff for him to eat too haha. Can see him getting off at the very end of the episode for sure, it'll be nice to stretch our legs after TBoBF. The ring world from Chapter 5 was such a breath of fresh air, so cool. Qui-Gon is pretty much a given at this point, be great to see him back. Hadn't considered Yoda might make an appearance, seems pretty likely too! I just hope he's more 'The Last Jedi' Yoda and not TCW Yoda, but that's just a personal taste thing. I try not to think too deeply on the whole force ghost thing. Like why could Luke see Obi Wan and Yoda given he wasn't trained. I'd be fine with a bit of ret-conning here to smooth things out. I think Yoda's line at the end of Ep 3 should have been left out. I could definitely see some Satine flashbacks, probably not super relevant to the storyline but just the occasional sequence to show his state of mind etc...

You know what could kickstart hardware sales in a situation like that? A brand new console. Anyway I think it'll be a transition, there'll be a little overlap between the two systems but more akin to the 3DS/Switch overlap.

Isn't it more a case of Odyssey borrowing from Kirby? Sucking up enemies and stealing their powers. By the time it comes out the previous game will have released over 5 years ago, that's plenty of time for a multiplayer shooter. Hard to judge how worth it this one will be without more info on what's included. I've not played any of them so can't speak to that but again it will have been 5 years since the previous new title. The trailer's also gotten a similar number of views on YouTube as Switch Sports and MK8 Deluxe DLC, so I think it's pretty popular.

That's what happens when you have multi-million selling iconic franchises that the world adores. Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Mario Kart, Splatoon, Kirby, Smash. In addition to all the new IP they release every year or so.

Vending Machine Kirby and the like say hi

It's a good compromise, adding new content to an already amazing game, and potentially being ready to go with a brand new MK on the next system in a few years.

They haven't really needed to release either in all this time. Games have been coming out and sales are astronomical. Now maybe after 5 years when hardware sold might start to slow down, this could kick start sales all over again?

I just think there wasn't much shown off yesterday to warrant much discussion. The new Salmon Run looks fun but I'm in this for the single player story mode really. I'm sure we'll get a Splatoon 3 Direct closer the time.

I love the release schedule, prolongs interest in the game, keeps the game in the conversation for the next two years. Obviously I'm stating the obvious here but the entertainment business is based around pacing stuff out these days, it's why Marvel or Star Wars don't release all their tv shows at the same time.

Crazy to get four big new reveals and have them all out in the next 7 months. Switch Sports: April Fire Emblem Warriors: June Mario Strikers: June Xenoblade: September

Yeah the show is going to be huge, I think it could easily have the highest viewership of any series on Disney+. I don't think you should be all that nervous though, I think they'll do the character justice. Like I said I didn't dislike yesterday's episode but it definitely made me look fondly at all the great SW content that I've loved over the last few years, Rebels, Bad Batch, the films. My problem with Favreau is I think his dialogue in the various scripts is utterly terrible. Like really really bad. In Boba Fett and Mando frankly. I'm sat there thinking "who the hell talks like that?". It's all so stiff and unnatural. It reminds me of Harrison's Ford to George Lucas about how "you can write this stuff but you can't say it". Chapter 6 was especially bad in that regard for me. So yeah, looking forward to a new creative vision to mix things up a bit. I just hope Obi-Wan gets off Tatooine pretty quick. Concept art seems to suggest that'll happen. Looks like we might see an Inquisitor or two, which would be cool.

I know it's a lot of content, I was saying I personally wish they'd have given us half the number of courses but touched them up a bit, so that they fit a bit better with the original courses.

I would very much appreciate never having to watch another Star Wars episode directed by Robert Rodriguez. The literal showrunner has the dubious honour of helming the three worst received episodes of the series, chapters 1, 3 and now 7. I thought Chapter 7 was a bit of a mess from that point of view to be honest, and really sloppily put together. The action sequences simply went on for far, far too long, and were Marvel-like in their style, ie. forgettable and OTT. Much like The Tragedy, Rodriguez just doesn't know when enough is enough. The Pyke on-screen death count reaching 60 was bad enough, let alone 80 or 90. A real mixed bag of a show for me. 2 and 5 were genuinely excellent, but 3 and 7... My order of preference: 5 > 2 > 4 > 1 > 6 > 7 > 3 Wow, they're wasting ZERO time having people focus on the next thing. Kind of lines up with reports I was reading that Lucasfilm are really excited about the show, and less so about Book of Boba Fett. Much as I love the Mando-verse, I'm looking forward to having a fresh series not written by Jon Favreau as a palette cleanser. This, Andor, Bad Batch S2 in the next 9 months? Yes please.

I haven't been keeping up with Tour. I had no idea it had that many courses from all the old games. Nothing stopping them from spending time polishing them up lol

You can tell they were struggling for power-ups when they had to resort to "The Apples That Yoshi Eats in SMW Cup" Must admit, I kind of wish they halved the number of courses and made those look a little better. Most of them from the trailer seemed strangely basic compared to the original MK8DX tracks.Still, hyped af.

Suddenly 150 million units sold doesn't seem that much of a stretch...

The Mii's definitely look like weird knock-offs, but the original Mii designs were getting really dated tbf. The environments look nice. Hopefully they'll keep the Wii Sports theme tune

If BOTW2 doesn't get delayed then 2022 could be Nintendo's best ever year tbh. Fantastic Direct, even if the three of the biggest reveals Fire Emblem, Mario Strikers and Xenoblade did nothing for me personally. Kirby looks amazing. I was laughing out loud at some of those transformations, the vending machine in particular. Splatoon 3 Salmon Run looks like a lot of fun. Switch Sports looks great too, relieved Golf is being added in the autumn, I'll pick it up then. I appreciated the awkward af live demonstration too The MK8 DLC is typical bonkers Nintendo. Great to see it added as another perk of the NSO Expansion pass. I'd love to be more hyped for it but the visuals look extremely basic, any idea what the reason for that is? MK8 is one of the prettiest games I've ever played so it's weird how barebones a lot of those courses look. Great idea to release lots of waves over the next couple of years.

Surely this is a bug? You uninstall a game and the game's thumbnail/title disappears with it from the Media Gallery??

Given that we know lots of big releases on the way already (Triangle Strategy, Kirby, Splatoon, Mario + Rabbids, Advance Wars, Bayonetta 3, BOTW2 etc), I'm not sure how many reveals this will have, but fingers crossed.

Dreams: - Silksong - EPD Tokyo 3D Mario game - Brand new 2D Zelda - Pilotwings Expectations: - Splatoon 3 - New Xenoblade reveal - Kirby NSO game - Wind Waker HD / Twilight Princess HD double pack, releasing this Summer