My copy is arriving on Saturday - it seems that the days of ordering on Amazon and occasionally getting games a day early has passed.

I was a fan of the base game and I don't think the story was as bad as some people made it out to be. However I am excited for the new story that they are promising with the Vengeance route. Getting hyped up seeing the positive reviews coming through!

I have been replaying SMTIV:A this week in the run up to the release to keep me occupied. Had taken a detour into the Devil Survivor series most recently so it has been nice returning to the mainline gameplay.

What are you all thinking about the release this week? Any hopes for the new title? Fears?

Apologies for the slightly skewed picture. I actually own this artwork. A close family friend has been collecting 19th Century Japanese woodcuts his entire life, and he gifted this one of a wedding scene to my wife and I when we got married.

More details about the work. The artist Kunisada lived from 1786 to 1864 and he shared a studio / teacher with the (perhaps more famous) artist Kuniyoshi. This work was published by Hayashiya Shogoro in 1850.

The work depicts a Kabuki theatre scene; traditional Japanese theatre. Actors are playing the roles of Aburu-ya Oshin and Fukuoka Mitsugi in the play Ise Ondo. In this scene the couple are getting married.

Heard the editor being interviewed on Radio4 Today Programme this morning. This 90s throwback is bizarre. Do people really think there will be demand from this after the initial novelty?

I read a couple articles this morning and the "journalism" reads like a Sunday Sport article.

Interesting thought experiment - since the magazine is online only - are the nonces going to have to print out the magazine now to leave it in shubbery for kids to find? Those reddit threads where every man over the age of 40 seems to have a story about finding porn mags in bushes always had a creepy undertone. I'm not sure that the 'porn fairy' commenters sometimes refer to was a very savoury character.

Playing Hellblade 2 at the moment myself. Personally I'm fortunate not to need any of the accessibility features but I found this review to be a fascinating read.

The reviewer also compares the accessibility options to some other recent AAA releases in this reddit comment.

In terms of my opinion of the game: I've only got the Series S version so it's not the full fat graphics but even then they are stunning. I think some of the negative reviews were from people wanting it to be a different type of game, however, if you are aware it is basically a walking simulator with Punchout combat every so often then the story and world takes centre stage. The world is similar to God of War (2018) but grittier and focusing on other aspects of Scandi mythology. I think I like this world more.

Tohou Artificial Dream In Arcadia is hands down the best SMT-clone I've ever played. It's extremely cheap, got it for a fiver. Devs are regularly updating it. The gameplay is closer to SMT1/2 than anything else I've ever played. Clearly a labour of love from the devs.

Careful with this one, it's an antique

I've really enjoyed this radio4 series about internet culture and the impact that messaging apps have had on our lives/politics.

Each episode is a half hour with different themes: WhatsApp groups, Politicians using WhatsApp, Slack, Chatbots/AI, Discord leakers, Telegram in Russia.

Probably would say the first half is more UK-specific but the show does a good job of making the later episodes relevant, thought provoking.

Looks like something out of Robocop or Judge Dredd!