Toomanywires

The Best & Worst of 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 2015 was a year of three games. That is of course if you don't count the other twenty eight games I played over the last twelve months, or the hundreds of other home console releases I chose to ignore. So yeah, three games. There were three new games that made a lasting impression, but that isn't to say that I didn't have lots of fun playing other things in 2015. This year I enjoyed series debuts and finales, cars playing football and squids fragging squids. I played games on the big TV and others in the palm of my hand, and for the first time I didn’t play anything new on 7th Generation hardware. I stayed up well past my bedtime for E3 bombshells, accidently-on-purpose bought another 3DS and was treated to improved versions of two of my all-time favourite games. In 2015 I played games, thought about games and occasionally wrote about games. Games are good and these are the games that I played in 2015. PLA...

Between work, studying for next month's JLPT N3 exam, for which I'm hopelessly underprepared, and chasing after an increasingly mobile toddler, I just haven't been able to find the time to blog. However, that hasn't stopped me from coming up with topics for posts that I'll never have the time to write. My email drafts are full of working titles and 100-word synopsises, most of which will never see the light of day. Instead of letting all these topics go to waste, I thought I'd take advantage of a rare, quiet evening and cram a handful of them into a solitary post. These are some of the things that I wanted to blog about this autumn, pared down to just a hundred or so words a piece. This is a glimpse of what could've been. This is a list with some pictures. 1. Catching Up You can't go wrong with a "Games that I have been playing" post, assuming that you have been playing games and have opinions about those games. I have been...

Even for a series veteran like myself, it can be hard to keep track of what's going on in the world of Metal Gear Solid. I struggle to recall who's dead, what the Patriots are up to, who Ocelot's working for and whose arm has been grafted onto whom. Also, which button is grab? One way of simplifying MGS, thus making it easier to follow, is to ignore certain games in the series. The timeline at the top of this post, courtesy of PlayStation Japan, is an example of this selective approach. It strikes the once-considered-canon Portable Ops from the record, just like the MGSV The Phantom Pain launch trailer did earlier this week. Released in 2006 for the PSP, Portable Ops follows Big Boss to South America, where he must bring his former FOX unit to heel, because they've gone a bit wrong. It was a precursor to Peace Walker in theme and gameplay, establishing many features that would carry through to its PSP successor and beyond: short burst missions, soldier recr...

Alien Isolation's Amanda Ripley doesn’t know what's hunting her, but I do. That's why I've been taking things slowly, sticking to the shadows and avoiding open ventilation shafts. If I see goo dripping from the ceiling, then I run a mile, and I've already spent more time hiding in lockers than walking the halls. Having discovered that most of the survivors of Sevastopol Space Station are hostile and trigger happy, I have taken to avoiding everyone. Where that isn't possible, I bash them about the noggin with a particularly hefty wrench - one blow as a warning, the second to say good night. I was forced to crack a few skulls early on, in a level that was teeming with armed humans. After numerous failed attempts to slip by unnoticed, I settled on a more video-gamey approach to clearing out the troublesome locals: I set off an alarm a couple of rooms down and waited for each crew member to come check it out, one at a time. I'd emerge from the shadows ...

Also: Microsoft / Sony / Nintendo This year, it felt like everyone and their mother had an E3 press conference. EA and Ubisoft had their usual spots, and Bethesda, Square Enix and even PC Gamer, who held a PC-focussed event, had their time in the spotlight. Bethesda kicked things off on Sunday evening with a well-received look at some of their biggest forthcoming titles, most notably Doom, Dishonored 2 and Fallout 4. I'd elaborate on their presser, but I haven't watched it yet - you can't beat my E3 coverage! I did however see the Doom trailer, and I thought it looked really unappealing. Perhaps I’ve gone soft, but exploding demons and severed arms don't really do it for me anymore. The E3 conference, aka An Evening with Pele, opened with a trailer for Mass Effect Andromeda. The teaser revealed little about the next chapter in the Mass Effect saga, though it did confirm the return of the Mako buggy (fuck sake) and a “holiday 2016” release date. Need...

Also: Microsoft   / Sony I can't say that I enjoyed sitting through Nintendo’s Digital Event. Their presentation was charming and well put together, just like their games, but it was in desperate need of a Splatoon-like shot in the arm. The show kicked off in style with Iwata, Reggie and Miyamoto appearing as muppets. They gradually transformed into the main characters from Star Fox, an inventive way of announcing the latest entry in the well-loved series. Star Fox Zero appeared to make convincing use of the Gamepad and has since been confirmed as being developed by Platinum Games, who have had a very busy E3. I thought it looked dated, sparse and visually unappealing, especially having just watched space combat in No Man's Sky. Still, it never hurts to start things off with a big name. Real Reggie was up next, talking about new Amiibos and a partnership with Activision via a new Skylanders game. I couldn't care less about Amiibos, but Nintendo are onto a...

Also: Microsoft in 500 Words It was 2am and I was fading fast. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it past the opening montage, let alone stay awake long enough to see Shawn Layden’s strange beard. However, by 3.30am I was wide awake, unable to stop thinking about impossible games come true. Sony owes me a good night’s sleep. The Last Guardian, straight out the gate. It’s not vapourware, it’s a game and it looks magnificent. I was mesmerised by the way the creature moved and I cannot wait to learn more about how it interacts with the boy. 2016 is a very vague release date, and I do worry about further delays, but TLG is alive and well and Sony has turned a potential disaster, and a long running source of embarrassment, into the toast of E3. Guerrilla’s new IP, Horizon Zero Dawn, looks great and is a huge departure from their previous work. We can all now stop making jokes about Killzone RPG and look forward to hunting robot dinosaurs in 2016. New Hitman fell flat an...