Toomanywires

I'm in need of focus this week, as the work-from-home marathon enters its second month. So I'm going to use some of the time I'd usually spend commuting to write a short post every day, Monday-Friday. The last two Assassin's Creeds, Origins and Odyssey, were outstanding. Long since freed of the Desmond nonsense, and paying minimal attention to the always boring modern-day rubbish, the are hugely entertaining adventures set during fascinating periods in history. They also gave us interesting characters for the first time since Ezio departed in 2011. It's really nice to be excited for Assassin's Creed again. Following some time off, the series is set to return with Valhalla. It was announced yesterday via a weird drip-feed stream, and we're expecting more concrete details later today. Based on the reveal, it's safe to assume that this will be the long rumoured Viking AC. The prospect of marauding across Northern Europe is a tantalizing one, and I ...

I'm in need of focus this week, as the work-from-home marathon enters its second month. So I'm going to use some of the time I'd usually spend commuting to write a short post every day, Monday-Friday. My five-year old daughter can, on occasion, beat me at Street Fighter. In my defence, she's almost six. Street Fighter has become part of our work/play-from-home routine. A snifter of Ultra IV to finish up our lunch break before I get back to Zoom-life and excel nightmares, and she returns to colouring Disney princesses and making Lego towers. We usually go a few rounds. She likes Cammy, Chun-Li, Ryu and Zangief; I like to mix it up. From time to time, she beats me. Sometimes I let her win, but other times I'm desperately trying not to lose. I'm happy for her but I'm also despairing at the ongoing atrophy of my already lacklustre beat-em-up skills. I'm good at knowing about video games, but I am not good at being good at playing video games. I di...

I'm in need of focus this week, as the work-from-home marathon enters its second month. So I'm going to use some of the time I'd usually spend commuting to write a short post every day, Monday-Friday. During the 1994-1995 season, Sam Cassell appeared in all 82 regular season games for the NBA Champion Houston Rockets. A key role player, he came off the bench in all but one of them. He was good, and would later become very good, but he was never a star nor a household name. He was certainly not someone you would expect to find on the front cover of an NBA video game. Yet there he is, gracing the sleeve of the US and Japanese versions of Total NBA '96 (Japan and EU) / NBA ShootOut (America land). He is immortalized mid-layup, presumably about to notch up two more points. Exciting stuff for fans of layups and/or Sam Cassell. The Total NBA series was generally well received, before fizzling out in the early-mid 2000s. It was developed in-house by Sony as an alterna...

I'm in need of some extra focus this week, as the work-from-home marathon enters its second month. So I'm going to use some of the time I'd usually spend commuting to write a short post every day this week, Monday-Friday. A week ago, I turned on my Vita for the first time in two years. I was delighted to rediscover bubbles overflowing with games. Vita-exclusives, indies, retreads, PS1 and PSP standouts and a massive helping of PS+ offerings. For a console that had no games, the NGP was home to a shit tonne of worthwhile titles. Unfortunately, I couldn't play any of them. My 64 GB bastard memory card, filled to the brim with games, was corrupted. So I had to reformat it, losing all of my game saves in the process. I foolishly assumed they'd been uploaded to the magical cloud, but apparently that's an option you have to enable in the menu and is not an automatic function. Cloud saves continue to be a mystery, a decade-long crapshoot as to what will be prese...

It's been ten days since I last scoured a video game bargain section. Almost two weeks since I rummaged through a junk bin, visited a Book Off, shook my head disapprovingly at an over-priced Saturn game, or fingered an off-white Famicom. I've been working from home most of the last week and a half, and have kept myself stashed away at the weekend. Even if I were moving more freely, I'd think twice before visiting a used-game store. Nerds are filthy creatures. I miss the excitement of finding an unwanted game from generations past, for only a couple hundred Yen. A game that passed me by initially, now at a price that's perfect for a test drive, with limited expectations and no promises of lengthy time investments. A chance to add yet another game to my "tried that" list and cement my position as the unassailable gamer. A guilt-free taster for the cost of a convenience store coffee. Pre-working from home, I had bought a handful of very cheap PS3 games...

Seventeen polygonal criminals are squatting behind a counter at the back of a jewelry store. "There must be some kind of mistake". Gary, a career criminal, is very unhappy with his current predicament. "Steven. Steven, mate. There's no way seventeen of us are gonna find cover behind this counter. We're going to get shot to pieces. One of us should say something". "Fuck up, Gary. I ain't saying shit. Team Leader'll kick my arse. Just stay quiet, stay low and please stop elbowing me" "I can't stop elbowing you; there's no space here". Gary is right. There is no space, and he has particularly pointy elbows. "Oh god, don't look now. Gareth is coming over........ and he's seen us". "Hey guys, budge up". Gareth is here. "No, fuck off. This counter is full. There is no more room at the counter". Gary can not fathom having to make space for yet another gunman behind what i...

It's been a strange few weeks since my last post. Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid the germ chat. We've been dealing with Coronavirus here in Japan for around a month. Or not dealing with it, as the case may be. Measures have been put in place to limit the spread - voluntary self-isolation for returnees from abroad, nationwide school closures, encouraging people to work from home - but honestly, the vast majority of us are going about our daily routine as per usual. This is because we don't have a say in the matter. The commuter trains are still packed, just marginally less so, and there are slightly more people wearing masks. Entertainment venues are suffering terribly as our weekends become more isolated, because that's when we have the freedom to stay at home. But on weekdays it's business as usual, as we're in the office and out and about. A strange few weeks, indeed. Anyway, let's take our mind off that for a bit ...