Posts

Showing posts from March, 2017

PlayStation 3 - Firsts & Farewells

Image
After more than a decade on the market, Sony is ending production of the PlayStation 3 in Japan. The last remaining SKU, the 500GB standard, will be phased out by the end of the month. It was a tumultuous eleven years for Sony. They started off full of confidence, expecting to retain first place in hearts, minds and on the high street. But the PS3 was prohibitively expensive and lacked a killer app; it quickly fell behind the Xbox 360 and Sony spent years playing catch up. The 360 was widely viewed as the home of AAA and online multiplayer, and the Wii was where we went for family gaming and motion controls. Sony’s competitors had claimed the major, defining features of the seventh generation. Sony suffered through a catastrophic hack, which they handled poorly, never fully tapped into the potential of Home and struggled with the widely held belief that games ran better on 360. Once celebrated for innovation, Sony became reactionary, aping the competition and doing a lacklustr

Pokemon Go Got Legs

Image
I'll do it anywhere. In bed or on the sofa. In the park, on the train or in a bar. In the office, when no one’s looking, and sometimes when people are. In public and in private. I have a dirty little secret: I’m still playing Pokemon GO. Seven months and counting. One hundred and sixty five in the Pokedex, three thousand PokeStops and a quarter of a million Pidgeys. Hundreds of hours of flicking, reshuffling, recycling and evolving. I still enjoy the inventory management and get a kick out of catching, hatching and breeding new Pokemon. I continue to go out of my way to walk through the city so that I can hatch eggs and hunt, whereas previously I would’ve hopped on the train like a lazy, poke-less bastard. However, I’ve yet to spend a penny on it, and there have been extended periods where my interest has waned, yet I always end up picking it up again. Convenience, instant gratification, the ease of hunting in Tokyo and the fact that family and friends are still playing a

If I Were Ethan…..

Image
WARNING: This post contains scenes of explicit violence and gore. And some Resident Evil 7, opening hour spoilers. I’ve spent most of the first hour of Resident Evil 7 wondering why the fuck Ethan is doing what he’s doing. Our protagonist is either spectacularly brave or spectacularly thick. Nothing seems to phase him. He shrugs off severed limbs, refuses to run at anything above a gentle jog despite being chased by an immortal mentalist, and fails to react to pretty much everything. Through the opening hour he is as cool as a cucumber and beyond unbelievable. If I were Ethan, I would’ve shat it. If I were Ethan…….I would have notified the police the instant my dead wife sent me an email requesting my presence. That’s not normal. If I were Ethan…..I wouldn’t go anywhere near rural Louisiana. I’ve seen the first series of True Detective. If I were Ethan….I wouldn’t walk into a poorly lit house of death, no matter how much I loved my (dead) wife. If I were Ethan….I’d hav