Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

9 Mar

From Fire: A 30th Anniversary Pokémon Replay

Posted by vagrantesque in Games. Tagged: , , , , , .

Pokémon stops for no man.

In a move that is still rather ambiguous in the extent of its planning, The Pokémon Company saw fit this Pokémon Day to re-release Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green in an official digital capacity on the Nintendo Switch. I don’t generally like to replay videogames, but the main series Pokémon titles are a pretty reliable exception given how different they can feel each time depending on the player’s team composition. I did, however, replay Leaf Green on cartridge barely 18 months ago in conjunction with my first Game Boy Micro experience, so I wondered just how much I’d really get out of doing it all again so soon.

For about ten seconds, of course.

Pokémon’s extensive 30th anniversary festivities, the excitement of a few nostalgic friends, a lack of specific experience with Fire Red Version, the promise of screenshots without janky camera glare, a deflating 2027 release window for the upcoming Gen 10 Pokémon games, and a dense approaching block of binge-worthy television content to play in the background all added up to a purchase and playthrough that, let’s be quite real, was always inevitable.

And so I give you Vagrant Rant’s historic fifth Pokémon replay post: a dive into Pokémon Fire Red Version on the Nintendo Switch, and quite possibly my most enjoyable Kanto region playthrough ever.

A Surprising Fit

The Nintendo Switch port of Fire Red divided opinion when it slipped onto the Nintendo eShop a week out from the 30th anniversary Pokemon Presents showcase: some amplified voices bemoaned the lack of the game’s inclusion in the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack service, which already includes plenty of classic Game Boy Advance Games; others celebrated in the opposite direction, welcoming a one-time purchase that requires no further commitment.

Fans have speculated for years as to how the retro Pokémon titles would eventually hit the Switch family, and there were always pros and cons to both approaches. An NSO inclusion would mean restore points that’d make shiny/nature/IV resets an absolute dream and guarantee forced online support; conversely, a standalone release would allow for potential Pokémon Home transfers and maybe even built-in mythical Pokémon events previously locked away on cartridge.

As it turns out, we got the latter, and both advantageous boxes on that side of the equation – which were by no means guaranteed – have thankfully been checked. There are also no ugly grey-gradient bars on either side of the screen, and Start/Select have been automatically re-mapped to both Plus/Minus and X/Y. But for me at least, a standalone port – especially one listed online without an explicit Switch 2 logo – raised further questions about image quality.

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28 Feb

The Unrivalled Joy of the “Capcom Streak”

Posted by vagrantesque in Games. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Does anyone remember how dull the Japanese videogame landscape was in the early-to-mid 2010s?

It’s probably a bit too far in the rear-view mirror to feel relevant now, but trust me, dear reader; it sucked. Defined by rapidly-expanding game budgets, western triple-A evolution, explosive online storefront growth, and smartphone panic heralding the apparent death of console gaming, the traditional powerhouses of Japanese development looked a tad stranded.

Square Enix struggled to revive their flagging former-flagship Final Fantasy franchise, started buying up western studios, then needed a Sony loan; Bandai Namco scrambled to release just one all-new entry in their lucrative “Tales of” and Tekken series, getting into bed with Nintendo to keep their teams working; Atlus imploded until the also-meandering Sega bought them out; Koei Tecmo was still fairly small-scale (and technically didn’t exist in its current form); and Konami finished off the rough patch by firing Hideo Kojima and then peaced out of console gaming altogether.

Of the traditional Japanese third-party powerhouses, only Capcom seemed capable of releasing new videogames in a halfway-timely fashion. But with some notable exceptions, uh, let’s just say their output during this period didn’t thrill many loyal fans.

But then, just as the 2010s were entering their latter stages, something changed.

At the very top of the legendary gaming year that was 2017, every single former Japanese heavy-hitter (save for the still-absent, pachinko-obsessed Konami) sat poised and ready to unleash its own critically-acclaimed title on the western world: Sega brought Yakuza 0, shortly followed by Persona 5; Koei Tecmo brought Nioh, Bandai Namco brought Tales of Berseria; and Square Enix brought Nier: Automata. That opening quarter was a phenomenon, a perfectly-timed salvo of meaningful quality, and it brought (metaphorical) tears to the eyes of every old-head with nostalgia for the good old days. Very suddenly, Japanese big-budget console gaming was back, but that message only hit so hard because on top of all that goodness, Capcom also brought Resident Evil VII: Biohazard.

Bolstered by a brand-new, insanely impressive in-house game engine, appropriately titled the RE Engine (which stands for “REach for the Moon” because of course it does), RE7 left behind as much bloated series baggage as it could, instead leveraging the immense popularity of first-person indie horror games (and contemporary short-lived VR optimism) to sneak in that time-honoured Capcom lock-and-key level design on its way to breaking sales records all over the world. Every step on the game’s journey, from that sucker-punch title reveal to the last of many well-received DLC adventures, was met with a warm glow from critics and the public alike. The instant survival-horror classic represented a stunningly smart turnaround for Capcom on paper, but the reality of the ensuing years would prove to be even more impressive.

In short, at the time of writing, Resident Evil VII is one of Capcom’s ten all-time top-selling game releases, and the other nine have all launched in the years since. That’s right; after more than forty trips around the sun in the videogame business, one of the industry’s most influential companies does not have a single title from before 2017 in its all-time top ten. That’s unheard of. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything else like it. Almost every development house under the Capcom umbrella is producing its own well-balanced concoction of resonant gameplay appeal, and the result is what I like to call “The Capcom Streak”. Your mileage may vary, but personally I don’t believe these people have put out a bad game for eight years, and at an average of two games per year in this modern era of crazy-long dev cycles, that’s an incredibly impressive feat. No other major publisher is hitting those numbers in both quantity and quality, and that’s worthy of a quick breakdown if you ask me.

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30 Dec

Best of 2025: Top 15 Games

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2025, Games, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

That one really snuck up on us, huh?

Before September, I was ready to sing the praises of 2025’s evenly-paced major videogame release schedule like it had finally cracked some previously unseen cadence code. Sure, I was 90% sure the convenient rhythm was an accidental side effect of increasingly longer development schedules just about everywhere, but there was pretty much always an interesting game release (or three) just around the corner, and a lot of them were really good. Of course, I enjoyed that immensely.

Then everything changed. While 2023 made headlines in all relevant places for its perceived overall quality as a videogame release year, that one was largely filled with known quantities we had time to anticipate; the final quarter of 2025 was all about heat from surprise sources and/or surprise release dates. By the time we reached an unusually barren November (probably GTA VI‘s fault), there were more 2025 games with 80+ Opencritic scores and passionate fan followings than any regular person could conceivably play. And they were all so varied! Co-op experiences returned in a big way, the needlessly controversial “interactive story” umbrella had a vintage year, and I don’t think there’s ever been a better time for roguelike reception. What a year to be into this hobby.

Add on a brand-new Nintendo console with something to prove, even more big moves into the handheld PC market, and comfortably the best year for Xbox Game Pass ever (for videogame releases, definitely not pricing or PR); now there’s a recipe for a good time.

My criteria for game eligibility is at least five hours of play time, unless time is an irrelevant factor to understanding the experience (i.e. multiplayer games, or really short ones). That disqualifies the following games I had at least some interest in: ARC Raiders, Fast Fusion, Kingdom Come Deliverance II, The Drifter, Urban Myth Dissolution Center, Consume Me, LEGO Party, The Alters, Fantasy Life i, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, Rift of the Necrodancer, Ninja Gaiden 4, No Sleep For Kaname Date, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Citizen Sleeper 2, and most unfortunately, Ghost of Yotei and Blue Prince.

If a game isn’t in the above paragraph or the list below, I either just didn’t like it enough, or you can find it my re-releases / expansions countdown. Even so, my draft Honourable Mentions roll is so large this year that I’ve decided to weave some of them into the main list wherever a nearly-there game seemed similar enough to one in the top 15 – anything to shorten the page even a little.

Parentheses indicate the version/versions of each game I played in 2025. Let’s go.

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VR BEST OF 2025 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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15. Rematch (XSX/PC/PS5)

It doesn’t matter if it’s relatively bare-bones, seems derivative, or has its fair share of jank; Rematch feels incredible to play. It’s also the only game this year I bought on a second platform (without the luxury of cross-progression) and started from scratch again just so I could play with friends, and that in itself says all I need to say about how much of a hold this 3-5-a-side cartoon football simulator had on my thoughts, feelings and desires in the middle of 2025.

It even cost the surprisingly whimsical, delightfully tactile and often satisfying Drag X Drive a shout-out position on this list – and I really wanted to give that game its flowers here – because the competitive essences of the two games are so similar at the end of the day. DxD feels better to play in a tactile sense, and encourages a surprisingly wholesome online community, but a win in Rematch after a perfectly-executed team move with mates after saving a certain goal is like digital crack. So Slocap’s admirable “Rocket League with people” gets to, um, kick off this year’s incredibly strong list.

14. Pokemon Legends: Z-A (NS/NS2)

Just the second game in the unstoppable Pokemon juggernaut’s relatively new “Legends” series, design-wise Z-A moves about as far away from the trendsetting Pokemon Legends: Arceus as possible: that game was all untamed open wilds, minimal human interaction, de-emphasised battling and hyper-tuned catching mechanics; this one is both a celebration and indictment of urban sprawl within a single city, with colourful verbose characters around every turn and an almost hilariously insatiable attitude to Pokemon duels that puts any game in the traditional main series to shame.

The game is evidently super-proud of its experimental real-time battle system, but that isn’t what lifts it onto my list; rather, it’s the fulfilment of a decade’s worth of unresolved Pokemon X/Y foreshadowing by way of a genuinely endearing main cast that succeeds at feeling like an RPG party where X/Y failed, as well as a frequently hilarious localisation that turns random NPCs into memetic heroes. Oh, and the game actually runs properly, so evidently that wasn’t too much to ask.

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29 Dec

Best of 2025: Top 10 K-Pop Albums

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2025, Console, Games, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Following a largely male-dominated 2024 double countdown, 2025 sees a return to our regularly scheduled programming: a predominantly female K-Pop mini-album top five, and a roughly even gender split on the full album side. The EPs are typically big on beats but otherwise nearly impossible to throw a thematic lasso around; as for the LPs, you could say this year’s commonality is successors: there are zero debuts involved, and I found at least something worth saying for each entry about how the artist’s previous work reflects on the newer effort.

Language restrictions are a bit looser for me when it comes to Korean albums than singles, but entire LPs with vanishingly small amount of Korean lyricism – or none at all – still introduce too many questions about western pop lines, so I don’t tend to include them. But I will shout out Kandis’ Playground and Yerin Baek’s Flash and Core, which are both great fun.

1-3 tracks = not eligible

4-7 tracks = mini album

8+ tracks = full album

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VR BEST OF 2025 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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– – – – – – – –
MINI-ALBUMS
– – – – – – – –

5. Rich Man – aespa

Another year of K-Pop, another SM Entertainment album way better than its missed-opportunity title track would seem to foreshadow. Like many of those examples, said title track is made a little better by its connection to the wide variety of B-sides that follow, although they are definitely still the real stars. In particular Count On Me, the song that kicks off the mini’s less spicy second half, is a smooth winner that’d fit into any vocals-forward playlist, and follow-up Angel #48 adds a garage beat to keep the silk moving. I am also a big fan of warbly first-change rap/chant vehicle Drift, however, because a whistle chorus is somehow still my biggest pop weakness after all these years. Makes that questionable treatment of the famous Cher quote go down just a tad easier.

4. Beat It Up – NCT Dream

Another busy year for the Dream lads saw multiple album releases hit the shelves and streamers, but while there’s nothing on Beat It Up that quite hits the skyward heights of the DREAM TEAM B-side from their Back To The Future album, I find the former to be a more consistent listen overall. The EP features a soft centre with crunchy bookends: the title up top and Tempo / Tricky at the end are all about brash beats, and Tempo in particular is a real rollicking head-bopper. Meanwhile Rush combines both sides of NCT Dream’s dual identity, sliding an airy dove-spawning title drop between bassy rap verses; Cold Coffee leans more on the euphoric production but gets there with an understated EDM buzz, and Butterflies serves up a reliable SM ballad – albeit in the middle of an EP rather than as a closer.

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28 Dec

Best of 2025: Top 10 Gaming Moments

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2025, Games, Lists.

Naturally some version of this warning happens every year, but in 2025 it’s more relevant than ever: an unusually high number of 2025’s very best games were defined by their ability to hide twists, cameos, stunning escalations of scale, and other important details from their players until just the right moment – usually deep into their respective stories. So I implore you to be very careful scrolling this list if you’re still waiting to play something released this year.

That said, time for another dose of highly-concentrated gaming goodness, as worthy of discussing as any other part of the interactive tapestry. The original plan for this year’s list was a bit different, but – agh, never mind, I’ll get to it.

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VR BEST OF 2025 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

SPOILERS FOLLOW; PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

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10. Le Super Tournoi de Jacinthe – Pokemon Legends Z-A

In 2025 I still don’t do a countdown list of the year’s best videogame characters, nor the best soundtracks or songs from a videogame. But if I did, this year’s editions would feature both Lady Jacinthe and the incredible electroswing battle track that accompanies her boss battle. The former is a delightfully vain thorn in the side of our hero from the moment she takes an interest in the time-honoured Pokemon protagonist power bump, and the lavish tournament she forces onto most of the story’s named cast is a blast – even when interrupted multiple times by more important story beats, to the great irritation of the ostentatious host. Eventually, the final match approaches – against Jacinthe, naturally – and then that tune hits. Suffice to say it’s worth sitting on that opening freeze frame for a good minute or two before you start launching your attacks.

9. Bar Fight – Dispatch

There are more pivotal and/or emotional moments throughout episodic pseudo-Telltale Games renaissance Dispatch, but catharsis and triumph simply do not hit harder than at the climax of Episode 5, when new studio AdHoc showcases just how impressively you can construct an action sequence when you don’t have to deal with that old abomination of a game engine. Time after time an apt directional button prompt will initiate a show-stopping match-cut linking a team-bonding taco session with a flashback to the brutal bar brawl hours earlier. But this satisfaction does not pay off just because of the stunning direction; it’s also a writing flex, giving the team of superpowered misfits at the heart of the game’s story a moment to get along – at long last – before the stakes really escalate in the final few episodes.

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26 Dec

Best of 2025: Top 5 Game Consoles

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2025, Console, Games, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

It hurts to admit, but it feels like this particular list’s days might be numbered.

It’s not that there isn’t plenty to discuss. There was always going to be a lot to say about the console market in 2025, as each of the three traditional big players threw its marketing focus behind at least one new piece of machinery. And yet it seems increasingly likely that one of those three will move out of the console market altogether before long, and with last-gen development support appearing more nebulous by the month, it’s perfectly possible that within two years I’ll only have two relevant console platforms to talk about.

Nonetheless, we’re still doing this, and any discussion about the videogame console market in 2025 simply has to address the gigantic elephant in the room: cost. Here in Australia, every major console you can buy is now more expensive than it was this time last year (except, if you want to be technical, for the PS5 Pro and all models of the original Switch). Two of the major brand subscriptions are also more expensive than this time last year, and while these costs are still dwarfed by the eye-watering sums in the PC market right now, the fact remains that current-gen console gaming costs more in real-money terms than it has in a long, long time. So these ecosystems need to make themselves worthwhile, and regardless of their popularity, the following is my take on which ones did that the best in 2025.

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VR BEST OF 2025 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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5. Xbox One

LAST YEAR: 5th

So last year I said I’d probably never put the Xbox One on the main list again, but that was based on the PS4 showing much more relevance to casual players. In 2025 the PS4 got almost nothing new, while at the very, very least the Xbox One picked up some of the sprinkles from Microsoft’s attempt to justify its big Xbox Game Pass price increase. So it just hangs on as a result of my desperate attempt to keep this countdown at full top five status.

4. Nintendo Switch

LAST YEAR: 2nd

The original Nintendo Switch falls to its lowest position ever as far as this tiny list is concerned. This is mostly because Nintendo had something a little more pressing to focus on through 2025, but the Switch did get some pretty fabulous exclusives* (read: not on Playstation or Xbox consoles) this year, so the relatively strong performance of the other two major console platforms also plays a role.

The excellent Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition led the way as the best Nintendo-exclusive game without a bespoke Switch 2 version, but it was followed mighty closely – in both quality and release timing – by never-ending tactics/visual novel fever dream The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. The earlier Donkey Kong Country Returns HD faced some critical heat for its nip-and-tuck choices, but the older brother Switch had its biggest moment in the final third of the year, when perfectly fine versions of Hades II, Pokemon Legends Z-A, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond graced the library of the elder statesman. A few notable indie productions picked the Switch as their sole console platform, too, such as the charming While Waiting and the excellent Simogo Legacy Collection, and that all added up to a pretty decent year – just not quite with the same standalone shine as in recent times.

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27 Nov

The Joy of Games You Can Play “Wrong”

Posted by vagrantesque in Games. Tagged: , , , , , .

Way back in early 2011, the last big hitter of the DS generation hit store shelves. Pokemon Black / White Version kicked off what I would later recognise as the peak of the series, Generation Five. With zero older Pokemon to find during the main story, 150+ brand-new ones in their place, and months of prior research under my belt scouring grainy message board screenshots for every scrap of news from the Japanese release, I thought I was more than ready to tackle the main story with a predominantly Grass and Bug-type team. I liked a lot of the new Pokemon designs within those types, and I’d been playing Pokemon for over a decade already; I was ready for the challenge. What could go wrong?

Well, some things, as it turns out. Though the first two elegantly tutorial-leaning gyms of Pokemon White were easy enough to overcome with my deliberately tiny party (I was holding space for additions I couldn’t catch yet), the Bug-type master of the third gym halted me dead in my tracks. The already offensively-weak Servine at the head of my team, the frail gift monkey Panpour in the back, and the deliberately buff Patrat I had over-levelled just to annoy my friends in early battles had their attacks laughed off by a Grass/Bug ace ‘mon with defenses higher than anything in the game up to that point. One Fire or Flying type would have made it a breeze, but I persisted with the team I had chosen despite multiple failures and the bubbling anxiety of falling behind my friends’ story progress.

Thanks to a strategy heavily reliant on stat drops and confusion gambles, I eventually made it through. I would go on to relent a bit in my team-building philosophy, balancing types out just a bit more than I had planned, but like any main-series Pokemon game, White didn’t stop me from making bad synergy decisions. And that’s probably why I was just as excited to play through the game as I was Diamond, or Leaf Green, or Ruby, or Silver before it. The main series Pokemon games, well, they let you play them wrong.

Now the title of this rather quickfire post is technically a little disingenuous, as I don’t personally believe it’s even possible to play a videogame “wrong”; speed-running and challenge runs exist after all (as do mods, of course, but that’s a completely different topic), and regardless I believe the vast majority of the time however you enjoy playing a game, that’s the way you should play it. What you definitely can do, however, is play a game inefficiently – and God knows I have spent plenty of time doing that over the years. Some games fight you when you try, but I prefer the ones that give you just enough room to be an idiot.

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29 Sep

The Switch 2 Launch Window is Over – Now What?

Posted by vagrantesque in Console, Games, Switch 2. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Or: Not Another Switch 2 Update Post! Yes, I’m Afraid So.

Indeed in this hardware-dominated gaming year January, April, and June each provided relevant, compelling reasons to talk about Nintendo’s newest headline magnet, and at the beginning of this month the Switch 2 officially passed its three-month anniversary on the market. Yes, we’ve already lived through an entire financial quarter with this thing, and more besides. All the games dated in the big April Nintendo Direct have been released, more have been announced and/or given dates, the calendar for the rest of the year is set, and we have a pretty good feel for the current strengths and weaknesses of the console.

I don’t really have much of a personal stake in extolling the pros or eviscerating the cons of the Switch 2 at the moment. As that mammoth June article covered, it’s a rather straightforward upgrade over the Switch 1, and almost all my friends who had the last console already own its successor. I am, however, morbidly curious about tracking the 2’s market presence against that famously back-against-the-wall version of Nintendo that pulled out all the stops way back in 2017, and maybe throwing in an update on some developments that weren’t exactly obvious on release weekend. Time to dive back in, then.

Who Wore It Better?
Switch Launch Year Face-Off

If there’s one thing the first Nintendo Switch was notorious for getting right, it was the pitch-perfect release schedule stretched across its now-legendary first year on the market. So naturally any close follower of the industry would be mighty excited to compare the first year of any would-be successor, as directly as possible. Naturally, he writes, as he squirms uncomfortably in his chair. So uh, yeah, let’s do that.

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31 Aug

The Best & Worst of Pokémon: Generation IX

Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, DS, Games, GB, GBA, Switch, Switch 2. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Games/Expansions
Pokémon Scarlet
Pokémon Violet
The Teal Mask
The Indigo Disk

Platform
Switch

Region
Paldea/Kitakami

New Pokemon
120

+7. The return of landmarks!

We kick off with a bit of a reactionary point as far as the chronology of the Pokemon series is concerned, but one I certainly keep close to my heart. When Pokemon Scarlet and Violet launched at the end of 2022, the series had gone almost a full decade without a game that seemed to care about populating its world with memorable cities and towns worth revisiting: Sun/Moon‘s commitment to a cohesive laid-back vibe significantly hobbled the “memorable” part; and Sword/Shield‘s fear of inconveniencing the player in any way ensured that “revisiting” wasn’t on any line of the game’s design document.

Happily, the ninth generation games ensure that the series’ second allegorical visit to mainland Europe is just as geographically fleshed-out as its first. Meaningfully different stock offerings in shops all across the map, important venues/NPCs with immovable homes, and town positioning along well-travelled paths ensure that despite the games’ fully open-ended structure, plenty of built-up map markers are worth a return or twenty. The distinct art design of each locale certainly helps; from the multi-levelled water features of Cascarrafa and kitsch futurism of Levincia to the bustling markets of Porto Marinada and Iberian tile art that lines Alfornada, the landmarks of the Paldea region tick all the boxes for me. But those are just the populated ones, which brings us to…

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12 Jun

Very Quickly Breaking Down an Almost-E3 to Remember

Posted by vagrantesque in Games. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Geoff Keighley, you son of a gun.

The actual 2025 Summer Game Fest show may not have been one for the history books, but something has clearly shifted around the event by now. Despite the largest console launch in gaming history just days earlier, and an ongoing reluctance from the big-boy publishers to allow their messaging to clash with that of their rivals, the light shining from Geoff’s would-be E3 replacement in 2025 was too irresistible to ignore for too many important names, and we ended up with an unusually dense June showcase season.

Because I only just put up a monster post for the Switch 2 launch, this annual show analysis will be much shorter, less formatted, and perhaps slightly more unhinged than usual, but I wasn’t going to miss doing one anyway.

Warm Nostalgia For Dishonest Trailers

The first of the big names to show themselves in that sweet early-June hype slot was – rather surprisingly – CD Projekt Red, who teamed up with Epic Games to release a mighty impressive State of Unreal demo for The Witcher 4 at this year’s Unreal Fest. The demo was so impressive, in fact, that the comparisons to that infamously overambitious E3 2012 Watch_Dogs trailer immediately came out in force among YouTube commenters. More like Un-Real, am I right?

All that said, despite the old-school E3 stage vibes of the presentation I am slightly more inclined to believe this crazy demo – which is purported to run at 60 frames per second on a base PS5 – is more likely to lead to something comparably playable than that fateful Ubisoft misdirect over a decade ago. Epic has already proven that Unreal Engine 5 can improve its capabilities and efficiency through the games releasing on it, and CD Projekt just proved with Cyberpunk 2077 on the Switch 2 what they are willing to do in the name of optimisation. Cautiously exciting stuff that started the season off with a bang.

Quirky Playstation Returns, Brings Fight Stick

“Live service games? What are those?” mused a pensive Playstation as they kicked off one of the best State of Play shows ever with the glorious return of Lumines. The company’s traditional tendency to ignore Summer Game Fest in nonchalant fashion and do their own thing now looks suspiciously like a multi-year plan to circle slowly around the June hype season until they can go before Xbox; I joke, of course, as not much about Playstation’s last five years screams “well-planned”, but if they bring the heat like this again we will be in for some good-old-days June appointment viewing.

The flavour of the 2025 State of Play could hardly be more different from that of last year, as even third-party online multiplayer game mentions were kept to a blatant minimum. The cheeky return of Pragmata set off my Capcom-streak alarm once again – the game is looking fabulously different from anything else in their current catalogue – and closing with an all-new Arc System Works Marvel fighter could not have shouted “hardcore traditional audience” any louder from the proverbial rooftops (announcing a new official Sony fight stick came close though). Elsewhere, the return of Suda51 via Romeo is a Deadman (a title that not-so-subtly pairs with the protagonist of Lollipop Chainsaw) will always be welcome in my house, it’s great to see the ongoing survival of the Bloodstained and Nioh series, support for Astro Bot remains stellar, and Final Fantasy Tactics LIVES! More of this please, Sony.

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