Toomanywires

The Best & Worst of 2021 /  2020  /  2019  /   2018  /  2017  /  2016  /  2015  /  2014  /  2013  /  2012  /  2011  /  2010 I've been struggling to come up with the defining feature of my relationship with games in 2022. Something succinct and consistent that runs through my recent gaming habits, one that I can reference in this introduction. A reflection of another twelve months in video games. After significant pondering, I landed on continuation. For the most part, things have stayed the same from 2021 to 2022, for better and for worse. Yes, that's it. Continuation. Many of the trends from recent years continued in 2022, including my gradual and unplanned drifting away from the PlayStation brand, and a near-total preference for digital over physical, both of which would've been unthinkable just a few years ago. The "next-gen", a misnomer that I still favour for an era that is now over two years old, continues to lag, though I must say that 2023 is looking v

I was going to ask for a Sega Mega CD for Christmas 1996. A terrible idea given that it was a failed add-on to a last-gen machine, but I'd become accustomed to being a generation behind. I'd received a Master System II for Christmas in the early 90s, at a time when the Mega Drive was readily available and some of my cooler friends already had one. Didn't matter, as I loved my Master System and didn't pay much attention to the cutting-edge. On December 25th 1994, I got a Mega Drive II. I was finally joining the 16-bit era, just as the 32-bit gen was getting started. Again, didn't care; loved it. It made sense that I'd remain behind in my console ownership. I'd seen the Mega CD talked up in my Sega magazines, and although I don't recall being greatly fussed about any one game, I do remember being impressed by the mature artwork for Snatcher that I'd seen plastered on a full-page ad in one of my well-read mags. Ultimately, I was talked out of it by frie

Sara, I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I had committed to a strategy that would bring my enemy, Xaebos, to his knees, one that left Sara, my lone ninja, exposed on the right wing, dealing with rogue mages and healers. That would be her unraveling. She fell on the battlefield, out of reach of my healers and out of luck. Usually I wouldn't accept the loss of a main unit, and would restart to avoid that outcome. However, she was lost at the very end of a battle that I had already restarted several times, one that was driving me mad, and therefore I couldn't stomach a do-over. The skirmish had progressed too far to rewind and undo her fate. When a non-core character falls in Tactics Ogre: Reborn, a remaster of the SRPG classic, you have three rounds in which to revive them. There are a couple of items that'll do the trick, which can only be used by a friendly unit stood right next to their downed ally, or by a costly spell wielded by a healer. Once those three rounds have

When I close my eyes I see gems. Blue, green and red, burnt into my retinas like a Pac-Man maze on an old CRT. I played far too much Vampire Survivors over the last few weeks. As have you, most likely. From my very first session, underpowered and overwhelmed, I understood the concept of Vampire Survivors. I immediately got how it would develop; what would be expected of me was made abundantly clear from how that first run unfolded, without the need for tutorials. It teased the potential of boosts and bonuses, and threw waves of enemies at me that I couldn't yet endure. Over time, and dozens of runs, the struggle for pure survival would be replaced by more nuanced concerns like builds, and how quickly I can stack bibles, garlic, and wonderfully destructive doves. It transforms from a desperate, often doomed attempt to last the full thirty minutes, to an exercise in how you choose to outlast it. Struggle gives way to style, and VS evolves into a different type of game. I never tired