Toomanywires

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

For Christmas 2000, I bought my brother a copy of Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. As far as I'm aware, it's still in the shrink wrap, probably boxed-up somewhere in the attic or at the back of a cupboard. An unwanted classic; an unloved vintage. Although my brother certainly played games back then, he had zero interest in MGS. Despite my continued attempts, I just couldn't get him to play it. I took that personally, as I thought MGS was an unmatched masterpiece. A wasted gift, and one that we still jest about to this day. A shorthand for misjudged and unwanted gifts. "You played Metal Gear Solid yet?" Christmas is for spending time with loved ones and indulging in excess. But it's also an opportunity to foist your interests on others, usually with deeply disappointing results. To be honest, I've always preferred to play on my lonesome. But Christmas day in my youth presented a unique opportunity to share my interests with a captive, if not captivated, audienc

I've got a pile of games sat in the corner of the spare room, which I've been adding to since the summer. All 7th Gen or older, so lets agree to call them retro. Nothing expensive - a mix of Mercari pick-ups, in-store bargains and even some CEX purchases from our trip to the UK in August. Their mere presence has been a source of great pleasure. I'll shoot the stack an occasional glance while I'm working at my computer and be happier for it, or pick out a game while I'm dusting, or doing some other chore, and flick through the manual. Next month, I'm hoping to get some pleasure from actually playing a few of these, as opposed to just looking at them. I'm told that's what we're supposed to do with games, play them, though I'm far from convinced.  Once 2023 is all wrapped up -  just the final third of Jusant and all of Alan Wake 2 to go - I'm planning to spend a month catching up with older games. Thirty days, give or take, before Like a Dragon

The doors are locked and they'll never open for me. On the street opposite the park, on the ground floor of a nondescript building in a covered shopping street, there's a clothes store where time stands still. One customer, an elderly gentleman, peruses sweaters. I stare through the shop window, but he's oblivious to my presence. In the other corner, a school boy waits patiently, perhaps for his mother to emerge from the changing rooms. He is static; bored rigid? And behind the counter there's a store clerk who will stand there all day and never interact with a paying customer. The easiest and loneliest job in the world. I can look but I'll never set foot inside. No matter how many hours I spend in this town, and no matter how hard Joryu (formerly Kazuma Kiryu) learns to punch, we will never gain access. Off limits forever. This is one of many forbidden spaces you'll come across when wandering the streets of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, or

I already wanted to play Jusant.  It looks pleasant and it's on Game Pass. Two desirable qualities, and almost enough to guarantee that I'd play it. But it wasn't until I learnt that it's only five hours long that it became an absolute must-play. Actually, I shouldn't say "only" five hours long. It gives the impression that it is somehow lacking, that it's limited in length and therefore, as some people would have you believe, value. And that would be very silly. There's only one thing that I love more than a five-hour game, and that's a four-hour game. I can clear a five-hourer in a week. A full and fulfilling experience, all wrapped up before I start fantasizing about the next game that I'm keen to get to. Perfect. Once I've finished Assassin's Creed Mirage - a fifteen-hour game, which is the same length as three five-hour games - I'll fit in Jusant. It'll be something short and sweet to squeeze in before Alan Wake 2, whic

I've played some excellent games this year. And from what I can gather, I've missed a bunch too. I'm making good progress right now on Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. I'm committed to playing Assassin's Creed Mirage next, as I've already bought it. Then, time dependent, I'll play Jusant and Alan Wake 2, just in time to write my Best & Worst of the year, an annual tradition here since 2010. Even with those accounted for, there's still an absolute shit-tonne of games that I had hoped to play in 2023 but have failed to do so, due to a lack of time. The highest profile of these would be The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Everyone was raving about it earlier this year, though I have noticed that several friends and online acquaintances cooled on it slightly as the months passed. I'm sure it's excellent, but as someone who appreciated but didn't love Breath of the Wild, I think I can afford to put it off. What I may y

I poured fifty hours into Starfield. Enough to reach an ending, or a new beginning, anyway. In those fifty hours, my feelings towards it shifted countless times. I was bored for stretches, and engrossed for others. At times I found myself adrift, blindly searching for the joy in exploration and rarely finding it. At others, my interest was renewed by gripping Faction Missions. For the first half, the main story missions were among the least interesting, but in the second, they became its finest feature.  In some ways, Starfield might be the most dated AAA blockbuster I've ever played. I was astonished by how little things have changed since Skyrim, yet I found comfort in familiar treats. The universe is a largely empty playground, one which is desperate for your attention yet never quite earns it. However, I came to appreciate its vacuous qualities, where planets are sparsely populated and first contact with intelligent life is still but a fantasy for our space-faring, future-selve

I have finally completed Sonic Advance 2! Took me long enough. I first got my copy back in late 2004. Maybe Christmas? I'd had a Game Boy Advance SP for a year, but I'd just used it for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which was the only reason why I'd bought it in the first place. When I moved to Japan in late-2005, those were the only video games I brought with me. It should've been an ideal opportunity to lavish some attention on my GBA, being that I had no other handhelds or consoles to distract me, but that didn't happen. I used my first pay cheque to buy a white PSP, as well as a Saturn for the house, and my SP was immediately shelved. I barely used my GBA again, and I certainly never finished Sonic. It was far too tough. And besides, I had a full season running on NBA Live 2006 on my PSP, which demanded my attention. Seven seconds or less to get my Suns a championship. Fast forward the best part of two decades, and I have finally triumphed over Sonic Advance 2.

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2023 coverage  here I'm pretty simple. I see bright colours, I get excited. And there was no shortage of colour in the Sonic section of SEGA's Tokyo Game Show booth. There were shiny dance numbers featuring Sonic and a team of cheerleaders, a huge and vibrant Sonic & friends inflatable hanging above the queuing punters, loud t-shirts with vivid Sonic prints plastered on them, and eye-catching plastic mask freebies for anyone who played the demo. Initially, I wasn't all that interested in Sonic Superstars. But I'm pretty simple, and there were bright colours, so I played the demo. And I'm pretty glad that I did. Sonic Superstars is a classic-style, 2D side-scrolling Sonic. Full of old school charm, but with a modern lick of paint. It boasts the involvement of original Sonic designer, Naoto Oshima, though the extent of his contribution is anyone's guess. It strikes me as the antithesis of 2022's Frontiers, which was t