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The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Lottery - Did You Get Zack?

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We needed a second Cait Sith. I'd already won one in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth lottery, a raffle-like event that kicked off last weekend in a limited number of participating stores. You pay ¥880, pick a sealed ticket from a box, open it up and see what prize you've won. It's a fairly common type of event here, usually scheduled to commemorate a new pop-culture release. Anyway, we needed a second Cait Sith. My daughter had taken a shine to the blocky, faux PS1-effect figure that I'd won on Saturday morning. Problem was, so had I. So we decided to try and win another, and put our minds to finding the best way of guaranteeing this outcome. We quickly ruled out robbery, as I only have one balaclava. Instead, we settled on a more scientific approach: we re-boxed the figures we'd already won, exactly as they'd come, and looked for ways to tell the different ones apart, so that we could make the right choice in-store. The figures come in blind boxes, so they all lo

SingStar: A Forgotten Icon

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The icon for the SingStar launcher is still present on my PS3 dashboard. A reminder of a time past, a series long since discontinued, and a developer, PlayStation London Studio, that is now no more. That SingStar icon probably isn't going anywhere. Back in 2012, it was made a permanent feature of the PS3 XMB for all European users, when the base game went free-to-play. Try as they might, joyless PS3 owners could not delete it - SingStar and PlayStation, together forever. A series of competitive karaoke games, featuring real music videos, SingStar debuted on PS2 and would later come to PS3 and PS4. Released across dozens of instalments, covering a wide range of artists and genres, it was a huge part of Sony's success in PAL markets, while barely making a dent in other territories, most notably North America. For some, it was a core part of the PlayStation experience in the 2000s - early-2010s, and it appealed to a diverse group of gamers and non-gamers alike. I hadn't though

It's 2024 and I'm Buying a Nintendo GameCube

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Buying a new-to-you retro console is a lovely thing. A complete and well-appraised library ready to be experienced, an array of affordable games, and a wealth of written features, histories and buyer's guides to delve into. You're getting a new piece of hardware to explore, an unfamiliar startup screen to gawk at, and controllers to get to grips with. A new medium via which you can experience, or relive, a time past. A new box to pour some of your passion into. While the Nintendo GameCube isn't quite brand new to me, I've never owned one myself. However, I'm planning on changing that very soon.  Aside from chasing the new-console high, the decision to buy a GameCube was partially inspired by talk of Eternal Darkness a few weeks ago on The Back Page pod. I'm a sucker for historical-timeline-switching, and being that it's only playable on GameCube, Eternal Darkness is the perfect excuse for a console purchase. I was semi-familiar with it beforehand, but not o

Xbox on Every Box

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We might be six months away from Forza on GameCube. In the last week, it has been widely reported that Microsoft is on the verge of bringing some of its highest profile Xbox exclusives to other platforms, including Starfield and this year's tentpole title, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Rumours persist that this isn't just a dipping of toes, but a wholesale shift in strategy for Microsoft and the Xbox brand.  MS hasn't denied the rumours, which should tell you plenty, and Xbox head Phil Spencer has said that they'll be addressing future strategies this week. He may or may not wear a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale t-shirt while doing so. As you would expect, the internet took this news in its stride. Very-online, console monogamists flipped their lid. The PlayStation cultists bragged about their imminent victory in the console war, and some of the Xbox hardcore were so disillusioned that they posted heartfelt messages online detailing their decision to withdraw

Prince of Persia: Playing Consequence-Free

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Prince of Persia 2008 is a rare thing: an action-adventure game where the player's actions are largely consequence-free. For our titular prince and his companion Elika, the stakes couldn't be higher, as they strive to bring a halt to the darkness that is enveloping the realm. Yet even as they awaken different parts of the city, and fill them with colour, the kingdom remains devoid of life. It is a carcass. With the exception of a donkey and a few guards in the opening moments, we never meet another living soul. A splash of colour and some reinvigorated flora doesn't hide the fact that this world is dead.  What exactly are we saving and would it even matter if we failed? There are no game-over screens here. No resources to be lost following an ill-advised jump or a poorly-timed parry. No progress to be thrown away or limited continues to fret about. When you fail, Elika saves you. Prince of Persia is almost entirely without stakes, and some might say without challenge. Whate

Auto Modellista: Surface Beauty

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"Why are you so bad?" Alright Auto Modellista, calm down. I'm not here to be insulted by your excitable in-race announcer. "Don't be silly!" Look, I didn't mean to smash into that wall, spin 180 degrees and then start driving in the wrong direction. I know that's not how you win races. Honestly though, this wouldn't be happening if the cars didn't handle so appallingly.  It's 2024 and I'm being slagged off by a PS2 game. Fucking state of this.  Auto Modellista is very pretty though, so I've been happy to put up with the abuse over the last week, as I played it for the first time. The distinctive cel-shaded graphics make it far more palatable than most other racing games of that era. More than twenty years removed from release, it looks beautiful, a feast for the eyes regardless of whether you're playing it through original RGB or scart, an HDMI solution, or running it through some expensive magic box. It is strikingly attracti

The Best & Worst Games of 2023

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The Best & Worst of   2022   /  2021  /  2020  /  2019  /   2018  /  2017  /  2016  /  2015  /  2014  /  2013  /  2012  /  2011  /  2010 2023 was a pretty good year for games. Well, perhaps I should rephrase that. 2023 was a pretty good year for playing games. We were spoilt rotten by big releases across varied genres, a plentiful supply of hardware, and even a pair of EDGE tens. Business was booming in 2023, yet commercial and critical triumphs didn't translate into success for the teams behind many of these games. 2023 saw record layoffs and studio closures, as the industry continued to fail miserably at providing security for the creatives who fuel it. A piss-poor state of things. It's important to celebrate the games that we enjoy, and that's what I'll be doing for the next six thousand words (!), but we should also recognise that this was a horrendous year for many of the people who make them. In time, the talent-churn will affect the quality of the games that