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You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here Metal Gear Solid . Like a Dragon . Monster Hunter .  Dragon Age . My choice of demos at Tokyo Game Show was very predictable. Very me. So I thought I'd mix things up towards the end of Day Two and try something a little different. And that's how I ended up playing Level 5's Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. To be fair, there were other motivating factors. For one, the demo booth was seated - a rarity for higher-profile games - and my legs were sore. More crucially, I wanted to have another go at Professor Layton and The New World of Steam, having failed miserably at solving the first demo puzzle the day before. Level 5 were smartly offering a priority system where, if you tried one of their demos, you could join significantly shorter priority lines the rest of the day. This was an excellent way to get punters to try multiple demos, which is exactly what I did. Inazuma Eleven had the shortest line, around a twenty-minute

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here Upon checking in for the Tokyo Game Show 2024 Monster Hunter Wilds demo, I was asked by the booth attendant whether I preferred to hunt alone or in multiplayer. Being that I hadn't played Monster Hunter since the initial release of Rise in 2021, I decided I'd be better off figuring things out on my own.  Given my clumsy performance in the first half of the 30-minute demo, I think I made the right decision. The demo opened with a limited version of the character creation tool, which I rushed through. Past experience has taught me that a show demo is not the place to spend time and effort trying to recreate Silvio off The Sopranos. I skipped through the intro movie, because it was a demo, and gained control of my hunter, who was loitering in camp. I instinctively headed to my tent and made sure I had a full selection of items. Going through my inventory, I was recognising familiar icons and starting to compile a list in my

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here I was chatting to a member of the dev team while waiting in line for the TGS Dragon Age: Veilguard demo. After a bit of small talk, we naturally got on to the topic of Dragon Age, and we shared our experiences with the series. He asked what I'd enjoyed about Origins, DA2 and Inquisition, and then shared some insight into the development of Veilguard. He spoke about the backlash to Mass Effect Andromeda, and a desire to go back to basics. He asked me what aspects of past BioWare titles I'd enjoyed most, and we spoke about the importance of memorable companions and how they resonate differently with different players. That was when he told me that he'd worked on Mass Effect 2 back in the day. "Mass Effect 2 is one of my all-time favourites" I excitedly blurted out. He gave a knowing smile and told me to enjoy the demo.  With renewed interest, I got stuck in. I wasn't entirely sold on what I'd seen of

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here We knew it was coming. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio had already confirmed that it would be announcing the next Like a Dragon in time for Tokyo Game Show, and the RGG Summit, streamed just a few days before TGS, seemed like the logical time to do it. It was reasonable to expect that this would be a Gaiden-like spin-off, as delivering a full Yakuza experience so soon after Infinite Wealth would surely be an impossible task, event for a studio as prolific as RGG. We knew it was coming, but we didn't know it would be this. In Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Goro Majima, the Mad Dog, has amnesia, and has decided to become a pirate captain. He's got a ship and everything - he brought his own eye patch. Having washed ashore in Hawaii, Majima makes friends with some kind souls who take him in, protects them from some ruffians, gets a boat and becomes a marine menace. Beyond that, the story is a mystery. We don't know when it

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here Konami was my first stop at TGS 2024. As soon as the doors opened for Day One, I headed straight for the Konami booth and the Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater demo. The free t-shirt and a Calorie Mate were nice extras, but I didn't need freebies to convince me to play the remake of my all-time favourite game. I arrived in good time and grabbed my Calorie Mate, before realising that I'd actually entered the booth at the wrong location! Flustered, I almost careened into a cardboard standee of The Boss, before a Konami employee took pity on me and guided me to the correct spot. My press credentials were checked and I was ushered into the very first demo of the day. I and twenty or so other attendees were led into a small room where we patiently sat and watched the Delta intro movie.  All fifteen minutes of it. I may be mistaken, but it appeared to be a shot-for-shot recreation of the original opening movie, and served as

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here Tokyo Game Show is over for another year and I have already returned to reality. Instead of playing Metal Gear Solid Delta or Monster Hunter Wilds, I spent yesterday catching up on two-days of chores and even visited a home improvement centre, to talk to a lady about a garden fence. She nodded politely when I told her about Sonic x Shadow Generations, but I don't think she really cared. The Show I may be exhausted, but I'm still buzzing from two days spent immersed in games. The show was as exciting as ever, with Capcom and Sega dominating as per usual, and Sony back in a supporting role, mostly highlighting titles from their partners. We were treated to a second year of the Konami resurgence-of-sorts, there was a lot of buzz around Level 5, and Bandai Namco and Koei Tecmo both had a significant presence. Your opinion on Square Enix's show will likely depend on how much you're into Dragon Quest. Based on how quic

Tokyo Game Show Day One is done, and it was pretty good. I played a handful of games, met some people, got a few t-shirts, and am feeling fairly confident about Konami's handling of my all-time favourite game. I played the Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater demo, of course, as well as Dragon Age Veilguard, Sonic Generations X Shadow, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection (already out, but the demo came with some lovely stickers). The Sega booth was a madhouse, so I played Yakuza and Sonic at the slightly more chill PlayStation demo stations. Monster Hunter Wilds was perhaps the most popular game today, with every demo slot at Capcom claimed within an hour. I'll make a beeline for Capcom tomorrow and catch it then. Also on the agenda for tomorrow: figure out whether the Yakuza demo at Sega is different to the one at Sony, and play it if it is, check out the SNK booth, play some indies, try

Tokyo Game Show 2024 has crept up on me. I mostly blame the weather. It has been unrelentingly hot and unpleasant for much of September. Almost every day pushing the mid-30s, with high humidity to boot. Summer was refusing to make way for autumn and all the good stuff that comes with it. Fortunately, that all changed over the weekend, and we're finally getting sensible temperatures. Autumn seems plausible. A cooler breeze, different colours, different smells - all of a sudden my subconscious was screaming at me to print business cards, prepare comfortable shoes and formulate opinions on Sonic the Hedgehog. At last, it feels like September, and that means it's time for TGS! Tokyo Game Show starts this Thursday (26th-29th) and I, and the weather, are finally ready for it. I've been attending TGS on and off since the mid-2000s, and on the business days since 2009, and I still get as excited about it now as I did back then. Yes, trade shows aren't as crucial as they used to

"Over here, Arisen, follow me!" she exclaims. I am Arisen, and she is one of the three companions, or Pawns as they are called in Dragon's Dogma 2, whose purpose is to serve and protect my aged but somewhat handsome protagonist, Gilgamesh. She excitedly waves at me. I, and the other two Pawns follow her, no questions asked. She says she knows the location of a hidden treasure chest, and I believe her. Pawns are created and rented out by other players and they accumulate knowledge across other worlds and play sessions, which they then share with their Arisen. Very cool and genuinely useful.  I watch as she sprints off and disappears over the edge of a cliff, tumbling to her death. Pawn no.2, an elven archer, dutifully takes a header from the exact same spot. Splat! And finally, my beloved Vivi, a mage Pawn made by mine own hands, takes the tumble. I gingerly approach the ledge to confirm that yes, all three of my loyal idiots are piled high at the bottom of the cliff, a ta

The mid-2000s was a great time to buy Saturn games. They were dirt-cheap and they were plentiful, or at least they were here in Japan. Every retro store had a junk bin heaving with 50-100 yen games, and even those titles deemed valuable enough to be displayed on-shelf rarely crept much above 1000 yen. I took advantage of this abundant supply, and a good chunk of my Saturn collection comes from this period. Including Manx TT Super Bike, which I wouldn't have paid more than a few hundred yen for, if that. Despite that low cost, I hadn't actually gotten my money's worth, as it had spent most of the last 15-20 years gathering dust on a shelf, untouched. However, that changed last week, and it was all down to a bit of competition. Over on BlueSky, and at the old place, Sasha's RetroBytes was kind enough to arrange a time attack challenge for Manx TT Super Bike, as well as Wipeout 3. As part of the semi-regular Splash Wave Racing series, social media users were encouraged to

My friend was adamant that Sensible Soccer was better than FIFA. One day after school, he invited me over to prove it. It would've been around 1995, and I think we played it on either his Mega Drive or Amiga. I grew up in England, so everything was played on a Sega or a personal computer. None of us were cool enough to have a PlayStation that early - they were for ravers and older boys - but we were all cool enough to not have a SNES.   To be honest, Sensible Soccer didn't make much of an impression. I can't even say for sure whether I'd tried a FIFA game up to that point, so I wouldn't have been able to make any meaningful comparisons between the two. Besides, I was 11 years old and did not yet have the tools to formulate nuanced, critical takes. I remember far more about my friend's enthusiasm for Sensible Soccer than I do the game itself. He'd committed to defending it and would not allow its good name to be besmirched by the FIFA crowd. We were of that a

Nothing makes less sense than the Call of Duty launcher I tried to navigate last night. I wanted to play the Modern Warfare 3 campaign, the latest Call of Duty that had been added to Game Pass that morning. Expecting a sizeable file, and being that I'm very smart, I got the download underway around dinner time, so that it'd be ready for an evening session. Or so I thought. Fast forward to 11 p.m., and I'm freshly showered and in my jimjams. I grabbed my Starfield Xbox controller - an 8/10 game but a 10/10 peripheral - turned on the Xbox and sunk into the sofa. The Call of Duty app was awaiting me on the dashboard but, surprise surprise, it was only partially downloaded. Fortunately, enough progress had been made to be able to launch the game. It's time for murder, I thought. But there would be no killing. The game loaded - so far so good. A mini-intro to Call of Duty played, providing brief glimpses of characters past and present. Some of them I recognised - Price, the

A friend told me to keep an eye out for beaver-like creatures that roam the banks of the Kamo River. I need little encouragement to seek out unfamiliar animals. I saw a large snake on one of my evening runs just last week, and was thoroughly delighted; my tanuki encounters earlier in the year will likely remain 2024 highlights. Anyway, as you might expect, I was well up for spotting this mystery river-dweller. It was on the second night of drinks on the banks of the Kamogawa, a river which runs through central Kyoto, that I spotted one darting through the grass. Unbothered by the hundreds of revellers, many of whom were in town to attend annual indie game show BitSummit, it came within a metre or two of our group. It must've been 2 a.m., and we were several drinks deep, so at first I wasn't sure whether I was seeing quite what I thought I was seeing. So I got closer and, sure enough, it was a big rat-looking, beaver-ish creature. I pointed it out to the group, but they weren