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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

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2023 coverage  here I played the TGS Dragon's Dogma 2 demo, but I don't think I did what I was supposed to. Having picked one of three scenarios - I selected a monster-hunting ramble, led by a lion-headed warrior - I set off in the direction I was facing, in search of adventure and things to stick my sword into. In my fifteen minutes, I never reached any of the icons on the map, nor stumbled upon any towns. As it turns out, all of those things were located behind me. Had I turned around at the start of the demo, I'd have hit a town and seen a more varied slice of the game, and I might've reached those mission icons. Though perhaps my fifteen minutes were fairly representative of an experience that is dictated by player choice and exploration? Embark upon the adventures that you want, within the limits of this world, even if that means walking in the wrong direction. By going for a wander and a bit of monster slaying, I learned a lo

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2023 coverage  here Like a Dragon (nee Yakuza), Tokyo Game Show and I have a long history.  I've been playing since Yakuza 3, and in the years I've been attending TGS, it has always been a highlight. Theatre presentations, playable demos, photo-ops, devs walking the show floor, marauding zombies bothering hostesses - Yakuza has been a part of TGS as long as I can remember. And this year's show was no different, with both Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth sharing top billing at SEGA's absolutely heaving booth. There was a shared queue for the demos, which maintained a considerable wait time on both industry days. Once you hit the halfway point, you peeled off to the left to play Gaiden. Fifteen minutes later, you rejoined the line and waited for your turn with Infinite Wealth on the right. A nice set-up, complete with near-constant entertainment provided by Sonic and Persona stage

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2023 coverage here Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was a late addition to the Square Enix Tokyo Game Show line-up. Late but expected. The pair of TGS demos were confirmed immediately after the new trailer dropped during last week's State of Play , and we all got very excited indeed. Fortunately, Square Enix came prepared, kitting out their booth with one hundred demo stations, thus ensuring that everyone could have a go. Konami, please take note: six demo units is not enough for a highly-anticipated release! The two demos were very different. The first was a flashback concerned with Cloud and Sephiroth's ascent of Mt. Nibel, accompanied by a young Tifa and an unnamed Shinra soldier in non-playable roles. The second demo took place on the outskirts of Junon, and gifted us a full party of Cloud, Aeris, Red XIII, Barret and Tifa. This was a far more open segment of Rebirth, which encouraged some exploration and culminated in a familiar boss battle.

I attended Tokyo Game Show on September 21st and 22nd, covering it here and on  Twitter My Tokyo Game Show 2023 is over, probably, and I had a great time. I wasn't there today (Saturday) and most likely won't pop back tomorrow. There's plenty going on during the public days, but the crowds will be immense, so I'll settle for a couple days rest, a chance to write, and an opportunity to look through the pile of freebies I amassed over the last 48 hours. Separate the recyclables and the non-recyclables. You know what, maybe I could go back tomorrow? 1. Games I didn't play a great deal on Friday, mostly because I spent the entire morning in a single queue (see below) and was pretty content just wandering around in the afternoon, enjoying being surrounded by games and taking the opportunity to meet a few people. What I did play was the Metal Gear Solid  Master Collection Vol. 1 again, Endless Dungeon at the Sega booth, and then back to Konami for a shmup called Cygni: A

I'm attending Tokyo Game Show on September 21st and 22nd, covering it here and on  Twitter Day One of Tokyo Game Show 2023 is over, and it was a good one. It's late, but let's bang out some words. 1. Games TGS was back to it's four-hall sprawl, following a smaller event last year. I queued, I sweated, I played games, and I barely even left the main area. Too many games, and nowhere near enough time to get to all of them. I got through both Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demos - a mixed bag, but a positive overall - and I also played Like a Dragon Gaiden and Infinite Wealth, both of which were delightful. I was surprised to learn that Gaiden will be a day-one Game Pass release, which was announced during the Xbox TGS stream. Congrats to Xbox, congrats to me, and commiserations to Amazon who'll be losing my PS5 pre-order. I also got to Sonic Superstars (good), Dragon's Dogma 2 (good) and The Metal Gear Solid Collection (great games, half-arsed update?). Speaking of Met

I'll be attending Tokyo Game Show on September 21st and 22nd, covering it here and on Twitter Good news everyone, it's time for Tokyo Game Show!  I think this'll be my twelfth TGS. 2006 was my first as a punter, and 2009 my first time with a press pass. I may be a veteran of lining up to play games, but I still get unreasonably excited about all things TGS. Plenty has changed since I first attended in '06. Motion controls came and went, as did 3D displays. Sony went from dominating the event to abandoning it almost entirely, and The Last Guardian finally came out following years of will-it-be-at-TGS rumours. Mobile games rose to dominance and then crashed, Yoshinori Ono stopped wandering the halls with his Blanka toy, and I'm no longer 23 years old. While some things may have changed, others have stayed the same. Microsoft continues to flirt with its commitment to Japan, keen one year and then off the idea the next (2023 is an ON year), Nintendo still can't be f

A Nintendo Direct and a PlayStation State of Play within a few hours of each other? Yes please and thank you very much. I watched them both, obviously. I'm going to avoid writing an exhaustive wrap-up, because you probably watched it yourself or have at least read a detailed round-up elsewhere. Also, if I'm being honest, there wasn't much there that excited me. Plenty of variety, and a handful of crowd-pleasers, but little that inspired me to write. There was one major exception of course, but we'll get to that later. Before we get into what was shown, let's take a moment to recognize yet another wasted opportunity to announce the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster that everyone, but particularly me, wants. I was convinced it was going to make an appearance in one of theses streams, but no. Disappointed, yet again. The Tactics remake is fast replacing new Timesplitters as my most sought after announcement that never happens. Poor form, Square Enix. Poor form. Anyway, th

There's something very satisfying about shooting blue medallions in Resident Evil 4 Remake. The simple pleasure of spotting one dangling from a shattered beam or peaking out of a window, the process of lining up a perfect shot, the chime as it shatters, and the encouragement from Ashley when I complete a set of five.   "Awesome!" Cheers Ashley. I appreciate you. Leon and I both have a keen eye for time-wasting activities. Whether it's shooting blue medallions or scouring every last inch of the village for jewels, we have no concept of key-task prioritization. Yes, the Plaga virus is pumping through Leon's veins and we're running out of time to extract it, but we're still going to traipse off to explore every dead end, just in case there's a clip of pistol ammo waiting to be discovered. Time spent medallion smashing might be better spent elsewhere, but it's not a complete waste of time. These mini-hunts are part of a recurring set of optional quests

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the Greatest of all Time (G.O.A.T). Final Fantasy VIII is the second best game ever. Final Fantasy VII is the third. Uncharted 2 is the fourth. I'm less certain about the fifth, but for now let's say it's Final Fantasy Tactics. Five spectacular games, and none of them less than fourteen years old. And certainly nothing from the last two generations of consoles. The closest a contemporary-ish game would come to making this list would be The Witcher 3 (2015), which might crack my top twenty. Rez Infinite (2016) would rank higher, as it is excellent, but c'mon, Rez was on Dreamcast. I haven't played anything on PS5, Xbox Series X, or Switch that would bother my Top Twenty.  So why aren't any modern games encroaching on my G.O.A.T list? Is it my fault, or is it theirs? Let's get this out of the way right now: I love modern gaming. This isn't a modern-games-are-wank post. I spend far more time playing new releases than I do

I finished Final Fantasy XVI last week.  Fifty hours spread over two months, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I mostly enjoyed my time with Clive and his mates, but I'm struggling to form a final, coherent opinion. Something I could confidently share with friends over dinner. Something that would make them say "Yes, that is a good opinion about Final Fantasy XVI. Matt's an OK guy and his game-thoughts are well-considered." "He is also handsome." In an effort to solidify my position on XVI, I'm going to work through my thoughts by comparing it directly to its predecessors. Hopefully this will provide me with some clarity. And if it doesn't, we still get to chat about Final Fantasy for a bit, which is always nice. Is XVI as good as golden-age Final Fantasy (VII-IX)? Fuck off, yeah? Can we eliminate FF I-III, as it's just too hard to make meaningful comparisons with the series pre-IV? Yes, let's do that. How does it stack up agai