Toomanywires

NBA Live 2020 just got deaded. It was unceremoniously un-lived yesterday, at the outset of a run-of-the-mill earnings call. It's off the table for this financial year, but EA are teasing a new direction come next spring. You'd be forgiven for thinking that EA's once-mighty basketball franchise expired many years ago. As dead as NBA basketball in Seattle, Markelle Fultz' jumper, or Delonte West's friendship with LeBron. It has been on and off again over the last decade more times than I care to remember, and I like remembering things. NBA Live relinquished pole position to the 2K series a generation ago. I'm assured the latest two installments were decent, but that wasn't enough to save Live '20. The series has suffered countless embarrassments, including failed soft-relaunches and a disastrous demo for what would have been Live 2011. Riddled with glitches, the trial sunk what was supposed to be a triumphant return. The cancellation was so last-m...

I haven't done one of these Musings posts for three years . In the last edition, I was opining the end of my Witcher 3 DLC journey, saying farewell to the Wii U and discussing the newly revealed Switch and the possibility of it running Skyrim. As we now know, Skyrim runs on everything. A future far greater than I could have ever imagined. Video games, then. 1. Sayonara Wild Hearts Yes it has a very silly name, but Sayonara Wild Hearts is a wonderful little game about pop music and moving very fast through purples and pinks. It's Rez-like in places, which I love, though the marriage between music and gameplay is not as tight. It's short, which I also love, stylish - love - and it always makes you feel like you are doing something awesome, even if you are essentially just guiding your character down a tube. The pop-electronica score is decadent and perfectly fits the visuals - or perhaps it's the other way round? My interest never wavered, in part thanks ...

I originally posted this at  Critical Gamer Project Resistance was a surprise. Announced just a few days in advance of Tokyo Game Show, it was a welcome addition to what was shaping up to be a very limited selection of demos at Capcom. The initial announcement offered only the basic details. I understood the premise, but everything else was a mystery to me. It made for a nice change, going into a demo unsure of what to expect. As we waited for our turn at the kiosk, we were given tablets that ran instructional videos. Only then did I start to understand what exactly Project Resistance is. Project Resistance is a 1 vs. 4 asymmetric online survival horror. The group of four are the survivors, trying desperately to escape a trap-laden and zombie infested series of rooms. The team consists of one each of the following: a healer, a hacker, a tank, and a guy who's tasty with his fists. His name is Samuel. At the start of each stage, players race to pick their favourite; durin...

I've already posted impressions from Day One and Day Two , as well as previews for Final Fantasy VII Remake , PC Engine Mini and Yakuza 7 , with Project Resistance to follow in the next day or two. I've used up nearly all my words, but there's still a handful of games left to discuss. Nioh 2 was the main draw at Koei Tecmo. I haven't played the first game, so I was at somewhat of a disadvantage here. However, by the end of the demo I had definitely gotten the hang of it. Death came early and often, but each failure revealed a little more about how to approach each enemy and progress further. Death is not overly punitive, thankfully, and the restarts are quick and painless. Our protagonist's repertoire of moves includes heavy and light sword attacks, which you can alter by switching stance, and a comparatively weak bow. You can also unleash the beast, transforming momentarily into a Yokai to deal heavy damage. This came in handy during the end of stage boss...

I originally posted this at Critical Gamer Yakuza 7 is a departure from what came before. Series lead Kazuma Kiryu is out, to be replaced by another hard-man with a big heart, Ichiban Kasuga, and the main location has switched from the familiar Tokyo setting to Yokohama. However, the biggest change is to be found in the combat. The series has long been known for it's free-wheeling action, but Yakuza 7 will feature turn-based encounters. While Yakuza has never hidden its RPG elements, it has been known first and foremost as an action series. However, that's about to change. The TGS demo focused on Kasuga and two of his associates, an ex-cop by the name of Adachi and a drifter called Nanba. Following some lively discussion the trio decide to head out for the day and make their way to Hello-Work, an employment agency. As you'd expect, their journey is quickly derailed and that's when the fun begins. They stumble upon a golden baseball bat half submerged in co...

"Push run button" Run button? Does it mean press forward? That must be what it means. Hang on, no there is a Run button - how weird. I'd best press that then. I had never played a PC Engine until three days ago, when I spent some time messing about with the Japanese Mini at Konami's booth at Tokyo Game Show. I am assured that the emulation is excellent, being that it comes from developer M2. I can confirm that the games run smoothly, but I have no frame of reference for comparing them to the originals. The system looks tidy, the controller is solid, and the audio, experienced through headphones, is crisp. Despite there being 57 games available, the interface is uncluttered and the option menus are easy to navigate. Now we've got all that out the way, let's get back to my never having played a PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16 or whatever you prefer to call it. The original console has long been a mystery to me. I have no history with it, and don't recall...

I went into the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo with a certain amount of apprehension. The original is one of my all-time favourite games, but I was quite content with it remaining in the past. I certainly wasn't clamouring for a remake. Re-imagining such an iconic game sounded like a thankless task. If you keep it faithful to the original, then what's the point of remaking it? However, if you make wholesale changes you risk infuriating the fan base. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Updates were scant following the initial announcement and we all assumed, perhaps correctly, that Square Enix were struggling with their golden goose. However, SE broke its silence earlier this year, and we've since been treated to new footage and demos which have, for the most part, been warmly received. Still, I was reserving judgement until I'd tried it for myself. So I headed straight for Square Enix at the start of TGS Day One, and I was very happy with what I found...