Toomanywires

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