Toomanywires

With only one day left of 2012, I think it’s now safe to post my Best & Worst of the year. This is my third such entry here at Toomanywires ( 2010 – 2011 ). Though not without highlights, 2012 was far from a vintage year for video games. Major series faltered, hotly anticipated games were delayed and it felt like we couldn’t go a week without a major developer or publisher embarrassing themselves. E3 was a disaster and we finish the year with video games making headlines for all the wrong reasons. While 2012 may have been a down year, it was not a disaster. Wii U and Vita gave us two new ways to enjoy Call of Duty, PSN bounced back with a strong showing, a number of smaller, unheralded games became critical hits and it was a much improved showing for new properties. I played a wide range of games in 2012, mostly on my PS3. Portables made a comeback, as I completed more handheld titles this year than the previous two combined. PLAYED: 999: Nine Hours Nine Per

This time last year, I shared some Christmas, video game memories . This year I thought I’d illustrate my nostalgia with the most festive of pictures, featuring the consoles and games of Christmas past. My wife was a little confused when she saw me arranging the above collection under the tree, but she was happy to let me get on with it once I’d explained that the Saturn was not her surprise Christmas gift. The Master System 2 was my first console, pictured here with Sonic the Hedgehog and Alex Kidd in Miracle World built-in. It might have had the pause button on the power base, but it was still a wonderful little console and a great introduction to the world of video games. The Mega Drive followed a Christmas or two later, paired with Sonic 2 and Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition. Thus began my tortuous relationship with the beat-em-up genre. Due to SEGA’s inability to properly manage a home console, I was forced to sell my original Saturn less than two years after rec

Back in January, I shared some of my hopes and wishes for 2012 and looked at the potential highlights of the year ahead . I revisit these posts now to see which of my dreams were crushed in a year that featured E3 furniture braining, Bioware pandering to a vocal minority, Microsoft turning the 360 dashboard into one massive ad, Nintendo of Europe relegating guts and muff to the early hours, EA expanding into the arms trade, and Sony forgetting to push its new system. A pretty good year then. "Next Gen Desirables" My January self looked forward to the Wii U and hoped that Sony and Microsoft would talk next generation at E3, but hold their consoles until late 2013, early 2014. By all accounts, the Wii U is what we had expected and has enjoyed a relatively successful launch, though nothing compared to the Wii back in 2006. Sony and Microsoft have remained shtum about their next consoles, but rumours persist that we will have the next Xbox by the end of 2013. Sony

If you discount my spell of summertime apathy , my appetite for video games has never been greater. Unfortunately, despite my enthusiasm, I just don’t have the time available for gaming that I used to. I have taken to rushing through games in an effort to fit in as many as humanly possible, instead of savouring them and sizing up platinums as I once did.   My backlog has remained relatively manageable, however. I hope to finally play Dragon's Dogma in the New Year, but a packed first quarter means that it'll be a while before I get around to Kingdoms of Amalur, Witcher 2, Virtue's Last Reward and whatever is sat under the Christmas tree. For every game that I rushed or backlogged, there was another that didn’t make it that far. These are the games that I didn't have the time, motivation or coin for, titles that were left unclaimed in digital baskets. Under the right circumstances, some of the unloved may eventually make it past checkout, but the vast maj

The PlayStation Vita could do with more exposure (and a price cut, more original games, better third party support, more affordable memory cards etc.). With Christmas only two weeks away and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune now available to download, this is the ideal time to push hardware, software and the PlayStation brand. Taking inspiration from the outstanding Vita commercials that have been running on TV the last few weeks, this is my proposal for the next Vita ad. I'm sure I'll hear back from Sony very shortly. Action! Muisc: We should use something very "now", mainstream yet edgy. Like Skrillex, but on X Factor. Our opening shot is of a man sitting in a park wearing a colourful hoody. He is smiling like a mentalist and pointing at some other happy people. I suppose it wouldn't hurt if at least one of them were holding a Vita. On the other side of the park, a white man in a low cut V-neck high fives a black fella, who then smiles at an

1. Yakuza 5 The Yakuza 5 demo is now available on the Japanese PS store and, as expected, I loved it. The demo offers a teaser for one of the five cities available in the full game, providing a brief look at Kazuma Kiryu's story and allowing you to explore the many distractions that are bound to turn a fifteen hour adventure into a thirty hour investment. Kazuma has once again moved away from Tokyo in an attempt to turn his back on a life of crime and ugly suits. He must’ve lost interest in running his orphanage, as he is now moonlighting as a taxi driver, a driver who might just knock out your teeth with a toffee hammer if you don’t have the correct change. As is always the case, Kazuma has failed to move far enough away from his old life, having been tracked down by some respectful but violent gangsters, who get their heads kicked in. The combat is brutal, the dialogue over the top and brilliantly macho, and the city feels alive, but it was the optional activities, m

Although I do not own a Wii U, I am very familiar with its packaging. Since first going on sale in the US in November (it was released in the UK last weekend and is only days away in Japan) it has been rather difficult to avoid pictures of Wii U boxes and games posted online, as consumers proudly display their enthusiasm for Nintendo and/or cardboard. Although I am intrigued by the hardware, I had no intention of adopting at launch, but that didn’t prevent me from sharing in everyone’s excitement and reminiscing about the console it will replace. The Nintendo Wii was my introduction to the seventh generation of home consoles. Back in 2007, the PS3 was still an overly expensive luxury and another two years would pass before I'd drunkenly buy an Xbox 360. The vast majority of my gaming was spread between my PS2, PSP and DS, but that all changed when my wife surprised me with a birthday Wii. I was very happy that the weekly trips to Akihabara, one sided conversatio

I wish I were enjoying the killing more. I should be excited about following gruff men, macheteing necks and performing mass mutings, but after only a week I think I'm all but done with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. My annual Call of Duty binge always comes to an end before Christmas, but never quite this early. Even World at War kept me engaged for longer, with its spammy, racist grenades. I thought Black Ops 2 would provide ample entertainment until at least early December, by which time Need for Speed would be below £30 and I'd be ready for Far Cry 3, but it seems that I've been caught well short. I have been a fan of the most successful and vilified franchise of this generation since the first Modern Warfare, which I bought with my brand new PS3 back in the spring of 2008. A COD November release is an event worth noting in the calendar, one that heralds the beginning of the build up to Christmas. Desperate to get the festive season underway, BLOPS 2 is the f