Toomanywires

I've been on holiday. A trip back to the UK for two weeks. Sun? Yes, there was a bit. Pretty decent for an English summer. Sea? Only seen from the plane as we crossed over from mainland Europe. CEX? Yes, several times. It's lovely seeing family of course, but I also get excited about the little things when I go back to the UK. Popping in to Tesco, buying socks that fit properly, Marmite on toast for breakfast, takeout from the curry house, jogging an old route, and a trip or two to CEX to buy games. I'm not sure whether I ever stepped foot in a CEX, a leading retailer of second-hand media, when I lived in the UK. Maybe there were less of them? I certainly didn't buy many used games back then, and I'd save most of my retro purchases for trips to Japan. But now that I live outside the UK, I consider CEX a little treat and will visit a couple of times whenever I'm back. Inside CEX, the UK residents are looking for a few quid off PS5 games, and the collectors are co...

The icon for the SingStar launcher is still present on my PS3 dashboard. A reminder of a time past, a series long since discontinued, and a developer, PlayStation London Studio, that is now no more. That SingStar icon probably isn't going anywhere. Back in 2012, it was made a permanent feature of the PS3 XMB for all European users, when the base game went free-to-play. Try as they might, joyless PS3 owners could not delete it - SingStar and PlayStation, together forever. A series of competitive karaoke games, featuring real music videos, SingStar debuted on PS2 and would later come to PS3 and PS4. Released across dozens of instalments, covering a wide range of artists and genres, it was a huge part of Sony's success in PAL markets, while barely making a dent in other territories, most notably North America. For some, it was a core part of the PlayStation experience in the 2000s - early-2010s, and it appealed to a diverse group of gamers and non-gamers alike. I hadn't though...

Prince of Persia 2008 is a rare thing: an action-adventure game where the player's actions are largely consequence-free. For our titular prince and his companion Elika, the stakes couldn't be higher, as they strive to bring a halt to the darkness that is enveloping the realm. Yet even as they awaken different parts of the city, and fill them with colour, the kingdom remains devoid of life. It is a carcass. With the exception of a donkey and a few guards in the opening moments, we never meet another living soul. A splash of colour and some reinvigorated flora doesn't hide the fact that this world is dead.  What exactly are we saving and would it even matter if we failed? There are no game-over screens here. No resources to be lost following an ill-advised jump or a poorly-timed parry. No progress to be thrown away or limited continues to fret about. When you fail, Elika saves you. Prince of Persia is almost entirely without stakes, and some might say without challenge. Whate...

The PlayStation 3 is my favourite console. There, I said it.  It arrived at the perfect time, when my long-held interest in games was kicking up a gear. I had started writing about them, and hanging out with like-minded people. I had both the time and the disposable income to enjoy that moment to the fullest - I had every major console of that generation, and I made the most of them. But most importantly, there was a plentiful supply of games that I loved, games that I still return to now. Sure, the PS3 was flawed, and Sony spent the first half of that gen shooting itself in the foot over and over, but the body of work is undeniable. If you need a reminder, see my Best of the Seventh Gen series or my one sentence write-ups for 180 PS3 games . Nostalgia has already well and truly kicked in for the seventh generation, but the used-game market has yet to fully catch on. PS3 is junk-retro, not proper retro, and this is reflected in the basement prices you can pick up most games for to...