Ronnie

Films and tv series have seen this for years. People seem more intent on following a popular narrative (usually negative) than actually making their own mind up about something. Mostly thanks to social media but YouTube has played a big part in that too.

They could just remove the Springman assist trophy. I hope it's him too, way more iconic than any of the others. Watch ResetEra explode when they announce a character and it isn't the Twintelle, especially given recent events. I'll get the popcorn ready. These days, knowing the gaming community, managing expectations is pretty important. But yeah, very funny how matter of factly it was stated lol

FANTASTIC gameplay trailer, it's funny I wasn't expecting such a in-depth overview of the game, I figured they'd do what they did with Fallen Order and give us a 5 or 10 minute unbroken slice. Not complaining though, it's all looking really great!! I've made my peace with the whole first-person thing. They've obviously put a ton of work into the visuals and customisation and it'd probably be a bit easy if you could see the whole ship + surroundings. The character customisation thing really surprises me. It makes a lot of sense for the multiplayer but I figured Lucasfilm would want to keep a tight lid on the canon and use specific characters in the storyline. Maybe there is a distinction between the two modes but that's not what the trailer suggested I don't think. Great to hear Hera speak! And that must be Rae Sloane in there too. My only slight worry is from a visual pov, especially how noisy all the environments look. It's a really modern trend with scifi/fantasy to fill the screen with as much stuff as possible. The new Star Trek shows do this constantly. But it's a small gripe, I guess they have to distinguish each map somehow. The only other thing are the star trails when boosting are pretty garish but you need that kind of thing in flight games to show the direction of travel. There seem to be a TON of components available, which is great. There's an inherent issue with this game because Rebel ships are supposed to be far stronger than Imperials (no shields, but superior numbers), and it'll be interesting to see how they deal with that. You can clearly see TIE cockpits showing no shields. The fact that the whole game is in VR is amazing, and it's probably (finally) the killer app I've been waiting for to get a rig. I just wish Sony would hurry up and release a wireless PSVR2. I'm going to assume there's match-making for all multiplayer modes, there better be otherwise I'm pretty screwed. Overall though, it's all looking fantastic

It's a good idea but you probably should have thought of it 3 months ago

Yep, it was stated after the reveal trailer. Like Fallen Order, no micro-transactions.

I've been going back and forth, I actually have some work I need to finish tonight, so I think I'll avoid social media and spoilers, and watch the replay tomorrow morning. It'll be better quality than the steam too I assume so there's that. Really hoping EA FINALLY announce a Mass Effect trilogy remaster. Not sure they'd do it on a livestream but here's hoping... As for Squadrons, I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it's not easy. Hope it delivers. Catch you on here tomorrow for the debrief then I guess!

Gameplay reveal midnight UK time. Watching the reveal trailer again, it's seriously hype. That is all.

Fair enough. Good on them for delaying it.

Nice artwork. Be funny if it goes up against BOTW again cause I can see that releasing in 2021 as well.

It's not the same. "Smart Delivery" is a program instituted by Microsoft that gives publishers a framework to easily upgrade players that bought a XBO version to get the XSX counterpart of that same game. It's not "a fancy name". They're actively pushing this, yet another pro-consumer move from Xbox that I thought you would appreciate. I wish Playstation would occasionally get in on that sort of action.

No it's not the same thing, Microsoft are actively pushing it for other publishers (as well as obviously providing it for their first party line-up). Smart Delivery is a unified upgrade program. Sony leaving it up to the publishers is a free for all and, in line with all their other messaging, pretty hazy. Has Sony said anything about their first party cross-gen play? Can I put a Ghost of Tsushima disk on PS5 and have it looking and playing better at no extra charge? And even if it was the same (it isn't), Xbox will have come out on top from a mindshare pov, with the narrative being" "Oh, PS5 doesn't have smart delivery?"

Their silence towards it pretty much made sure that was the case. Big plus for Xbox.

Sorry missed this! re: Celeste, if it's anything like her last 5 hand-outs to me, I don't need another wand

Looks like they're sold out of the hanafuda playing cards but the postcard set should still be available https://my.nintendo.com/rewards/70604724dabc9845

They might be moving away from the whole "Direct" brand/way of getting information out if rumours a few months back are to be believed.

Nintendo store has slowed to a crawl, can't checkout Edit: got it finally!

Looks great!

Some extra details:

The asymmetrical design with the disk tray lump sticking out of one side is really bad, regardless of colour. The fact that you need the stand to lay it flat

They've obviously included the TIE Reaper to match up with the U-Wing.

The only shot in the trailer that suggested multiplayer was the 5 v 5 pilots walking towards the camera. But yeah, not very clear. If I hadn't read the rumours beforehand of what the game is going to be about, I'd have assumed this was single player focused. Maybe they lock it to first person for the multiplayer modes to keep things fair so that everyone's on the same view, and maybe you can switch to third for the solo campaign. That'd be an ok compromise. That's pretty awesome though, wasn't expecting VR support. Might have to finally get a rig. Lower price makes sense, hard to compare this kind of game with the usual AAA releases these days. If it's first person only there better be a way to walk around the hangar and view all your ships, otherwise what's the point of all the customisation!

Ooh and Hera too!! Awesome, wonder if they'll use the same voice actress.

Excellent trailer, gameplay will be on Thursday presumably. Geoff Keighley shared some more information about it, dunno if you've read the press release @Julius but yeah set after Return of the Jedi during the formation of the New Republic (hence the NR logos on the X-Wings), I wouldn't be surprised to see the final mission be the Battle of Jakku, that'd be pretty awesome. The single player campaign will be told from an alternating viewpoint between two characters, one Rebel one Empire. Sounds pretty cool. Focus is on 5 v 5 multiplayer gameplay though. The only worrying thing I heard from the press release that Geoff was reading was that it was first person. I hope I'm reading too much into that but I would hate to be confined to the cockpit. That's my only real worry atm. Edit: Also, did I spot Wedge at one point during the trailer?! The release said cameos from familiar characters so he would surely show up.

Thinking about the campaign some more, a length of say 4 hours would be pretty similar to the old Factor 5 games anyway. It's hard to make long single player content with arcadey shooters. Look at Starfox. Hopefully they'll give you reasons to run it multiple times maybe, slightly tweaked objectives, lots of customisation and cosmetic unlocks etc. That'd be cool. Let Sabine loose and give our ships paint jobs Of course it is! Scale threw me off as well. I should have known, must have watched Raddus' ship drop out of hyperspace two or three dozens times since Rogue One came out I agree the OT is getting serious representation, but I think they're just catering to what people love most and I'd say 4 out of 5 will say the OT. In Squadrons case, the trouble is I wouldn't say the prequels have a ton of iconic ship designs and the sequel starfighters are just upgraded OT ships. But yeah if it is OT only at release I'm sure there'll be PT and ST content updates down the line. Keeps people coming back etc More artwork

You can't do or say anything without someone getting outraged these days, a really sad time. A lot of people seem to thrive on kicking up a fuss, which is the saddest thing. In this case it's a shame because the character design is great. But I guess relatively speaking this probably steps over the line a tad more than most things.