Toomanywires

Tokyo Game Show is almost here. It'll be my tenth. My first was back in 2006, when I went on one of the abysmal public days. I did the same in 2007 and 2008 before deciding that I needed a press pass, as the public are unbearable. I made some arrangements, flogged some words, and got myself in on the industry days. I've retained my pass ever since, covering the show 2009-2011, and 2016~ present. You might say I'm somewhat of a big deal. In fact, I would encourage you to do this. I love Tokyo Game Show, even when it's bad. I also really like reminiscing. So this is me reminiscing about TGS. The show has changed a lot in thirteen years. It takes up more space than it used to, but the main floor is more sparsely populated. Microsoft abandoned TGS several years ago; Level-5 disappeared and reappeared, and Square Enix doesn't party like it used to. Capcom, Sega, Koei Tecmo, Namco Bandai and Konami have all hung around, to varying degrees, and Sony is still

Like everyone else not attending Gamescom, I had completely forgotten that Gamescom was on! I was reminded of it's existence yesterday morning, on the train to work. I was skimming through my Twitter feed and noticed an unusually high amount of Death Stranding mentions. Half of my timeline was praising Kojima, while the other half was lamenting the shit we let him get away with. Something must have happened, I thought to myself. What had happened was that the first day of Gamescom had happened. In Germany. I have a fairly long commute and therefore had plenty of time to catch up with all the news, reveals and piss antics. Some thoughts, then. 1. Death Stranding I am both thoroughly sick of and extremely excited for Death Stranding. That trailer was weird and I still have little to no idea what I'm actually going to be doing in-game. However, I 100% agree that the industry is a better place for Kojima's strangeness. In a world of sequels, ports, remasters an

I'm paralysed by a simple choice. An either or, one or the other; this or that. Casual or Classic. I'm sweating. I've been staring at this screen for what feels like an eternity. Fire Emblem Three Houses is already proving to be a very difficult video game, and I've barely even left the intro screen. Casual: Fallen units rise again after the battle ends. Classic: Fallen units are lost forever. Every decision counts! I know what these words mean. But what do they really mean? Why is there an exclamation mark at the end of the final sentence? Do the developers know something that I don't, something that I should be considering? Something that would require an exclamation mark? Casual and Classic are such loaded terms. I don't want to be casual. In our world, the world of the video game world, it is a vile word. Anyone who knows me would agree that I am classic through and through - I don't even know how to spell casaul. Fuck, I don't know

After an unusually long rainy season, summer has finally arrived. July was overcast, wet and relatively cool, but the last week has been roasting. Also, it is clothes-sticking-to-your body humid. Anyway, it's definitely summer now. This time of year makes me think of Battlefield 1943, because I played it non-stop one summer a decade ago. So here's a thing about that. ********* There's a cable running from our router to the back of my PS3. My SDTV is as deep as it is wide. I have heard of HDMI, but I think it might be the name of a band. It is 2009 and I am playing Battlefield 1943 "on-line". I and 23 strangers are about to wage war on a Pacific island. We will shoot each other on foot and in vehicles, while striving to capture flags and claim the island for the US Marines or Imperial Japanese Navy. With our allegiance already chosen for us, we have the opportunity to select our class: gunman, man with gun, or man with a slightly different