Toomanywires

After more than a decade on the market, Sony is ending production of the PlayStation 3 in Japan. The last remaining SKU, the 500GB standard, will be phased out by the end of the month. It was a tumultuous eleven years for Sony. They started off full of confidence, expecting to retain first place in hearts, minds and on the high street. But the PS3 was prohibitively expensive and lacked a killer app; it quickly fell behind the Xbox 360 and Sony spent years playing catch up. The 360 was widely viewed as the home of AAA and online multiplayer, and the Wii was where we went for family gaming and motion controls. Sony’s competitors had claimed the major, defining features of the seventh generation. Sony suffered through a catastrophic hack, which they handled poorly, never fully tapped into the potential of Home and struggled with the widely held belief that games ran better on 360. Once celebrated for innovation, Sony became reactionary, aping the competition and doing a lacklustr...

I'll do it anywhere. In bed or on the sofa. In the park, on the train or in a bar. In the office, when no one’s looking, and sometimes when people are. In public and in private. I have a dirty little secret: I’m still playing Pokemon GO. Seven months and counting. One hundred and sixty five in the Pokedex, three thousand PokeStops and a quarter of a million Pidgeys. Hundreds of hours of flicking, reshuffling, recycling and evolving. I still enjoy the inventory management and get a kick out of catching, hatching and breeding new Pokemon. I continue to go out of my way to walk through the city so that I can hatch eggs and hunt, whereas previously I would’ve hopped on the train like a lazy, poke-less bastard. However, I’ve yet to spend a penny on it, and there have been extended periods where my interest has waned, yet I always end up picking it up again. Convenience, instant gratification, the ease of hunting in Tokyo and the fact that family and friends are still playing a...

WARNING: This post contains scenes of explicit violence and gore. And some Resident Evil 7, opening hour spoilers. I’ve spent most of the first hour of Resident Evil 7 wondering why the fuck Ethan is doing what he’s doing. Our protagonist is either spectacularly brave or spectacularly thick. Nothing seems to phase him. He shrugs off severed limbs, refuses to run at anything above a gentle jog despite being chased by an immortal mentalist, and fails to react to pretty much everything. Through the opening hour he is as cool as a cucumber and beyond unbelievable. If I were Ethan, I would’ve shat it. If I were Ethan…….I would have notified the police the instant my dead wife sent me an email requesting my presence. That’s not normal. If I were Ethan…..I wouldn’t go anywhere near rural Louisiana. I’ve seen the first series of True Detective. If I were Ethan….I wouldn’t walk into a poorly lit house of death, no matter how much I loved my (dead) wife. If I were Ethan….I’d hav...

We're back in Japan after ten days well spent in England. We dined, drank, shopped, spent time with family and attended my brother's wedding, where I got thoroughly smashed and only slightly embarrassed myself delivering a best man speech to a hundred wedding guests. It was a lovely trip and I'm physically & emotionally exhausted. The journey from Japan to England is a long one, around twenty hours door to door. The flight alone is eleven hours and is especially hard work with a two and a half year old who can't quite grasp why she can't step outside and go for a walk. She did take a nap, however, and allowed us a few hours peace, during which time I watched X-men Apocalypse, which was a perfectly acceptable in-flight film. My attention soon turned to the copy of Edge magazine that I'd picked up in the airport. Nintendo Switch graced the cover and the feature was fairly interesting, though I can’t remember the last time that I was this disinterest...

A text conversation between my wife and I: Me: “Is it ok if I quickly stop by Akiba on my way home? I won’t be late.” Wife: “OK.” Hmm, that’s a very short yet very loaded yes. Yes it’s ok, though I’d prefer it if you came straight home after work. Now I’m feeling guilty, but I really want to go to Akiba. Time for some reassurance. Me: “I won’t stay long. Be back by 7pm at the latest (kissing smiley face).” Now I’ve shot myself in the foot. There’s no way I can visit all the shops I’d like and be back home by 7pm. I’m still feeling guilty, though. Me: “Do you want me to pick up anything?” Wife: “No I’m ok.” Well that’s a fucking relief, as I’m already pushed for time. That gives me a little under an hour to do the main stops. Let’s do this. Me: “Love you xxx.” Wife: “Get donuts.” I visit Akihabara, Tokyo’s home of all things video games (and electronics and anime), once or twice a month. I don’t have the free time that I used to, so my visits involve rushing ar...

I’m rooting for Nintendo. They are putting most, if not all of their eggs into one basket with the Switch, attempting to unify home and portable on one system. I’m hoping that they succeed, as they make wonderful games and the industry would be far less interesting without a dedicated, Nintendo platform. I’m not feeling all that confident though. At this stage, I have no interest in buying a Switch. I watched the presentation last week and came away underwhelmed. I like the design and appreciate Nintendo’s boldness in trying to change the way we play, but I think they are in danger of falling short. The price is a little too steep – Switch will be the highest priced console on the market - the launch line-up too barren and early third party support is lacking. It's great that the Switch will be region free, but that’s not going to contribute to sales. Realistically, how many titty games will be on Switch? Not nearly enough to convince the import perverts to put down the...

I was spoilt for choice over the holidays. I had a pile of new games which I intended to plough through over Christmas and New Year. I thought I’d race through Titanfall 2 and play online with friends; I was sure I’d get a good way through Yakuza 6, put a dent in Dead Rising 4 and also try a couple of the PS+ games that were wasting away on my Vita. But did I? Did I fuck. With the exception of Titanfall 2, which I finished, I spurned them all in favour of a game from 2008. A nine year old, backward compatible racer running on my Xbox One. One of the finest games of the seventh generation, and still the best in its class. I played a lot of Burnout Paradise and I have no regrets. I originally played Paradise on the PS3, back in 2009. It was love at first sight, and I played it on and off for the best part of a year. It was one of the first games I played online, as I raced around Paradise city with friends and strangers alike, and it ended up as one of my favourite games of t...