Toomanywires

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...

It's been nine years since I last wrote a straight-forward review. The subject of that last write-up was Persona 4 Golden, a game deserving of a thousand write-ups. Triangle Strategy isn't P4G, but it has inspired me to write a review. This is that review. Triangle Strategy is an SRPG cut from the same cloth as personal-favourites Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics. We follow Seranoa Wolffort, the son of a lord and the loyal vassal of the king of Glenbrook. Glenbrook is one of three domains that coexist in a state of hard-won but paper-thin peace. An opportunity to strengthen the bonds between their kingdom (muscle), Aesfrost (iron and industry), and Hyzante (salt and religion) goes awry and the land is soon consumed by war. Young Searanoa has to grow up fast, as difficult decisions must be made about where to go and who to ally with. The choices you make are interesting ones, and the outcomes are rarely obvious. Most interestingly, there are few clear distinctions between ...

Tokyo Game Show 2022 is now but a distant memory. I played games, I wrote words: Day One Round-up Day Two Round-up Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion Hands-on Resident Evil Village VR and PSVR 2 Hands-on Exoprimal Hands-on Street Fighter 6 Hands-on All things considered, it seems to have been a successful return for TGS. Of course attendance was down, but that's to be expected given that we're still mid-pandemic and the current gen continues to stall. Anyway, it's time to wrap up coverage with the last of my hands-on impressions, this time for Sonic Frontiers, Like a Dragon: Ishin, and Forspoken. Sonic Frontiers perhaps had the biggest presence of any game at TGS. Or at the very least, the most visible. Sega's was the first major booth we saw as we descended the stairs into the belly of the show, and smack bang in the middle of that booth was a fifteen-foot high inflatable Sonic. Is this 2022 or 1992, you might have asked. Sonic Frontiers received its fair share of fla...

You can find all my Tokyo Game Show coverage  here The latest build of Street Fighter 6 was available at TGS, and of course I partook.  I enjoyed it so much that I tried it twice. On day one, I fought against another TGS attendee, and we had our pick of Guile, Juri, Ryu, Chun-Li and Luke, as well as brand new brawlers Jamie and Kimberly.  On day two, when I played on my lonesome, I also had the option of selecting Ken, who may or may not be homeless, but is definitely getting divorced. Disclaimer: I don't really follow Street Fighter. I don't tune in to EVO or have any great interest in getting good. Regardless, I really enjoy the series, and have for years. I've been playing (badly) since SF2 Championship Edition on the Mega Drive, which I played with my 3-button controller. That should tell you a lot about my approach to the series! Some people play Street Fighter for the mechanics. They want to master them, to learn every nuance and intricacy. I'm not those people. W...

You can find all my Tokyo Game Show coverage  here Most show-floor demos last 15-30 minutes. Enough time to gather the important details and get a feel for what the game is or isn't. Enough to whet your appetite without eating up too much of your time.  With Exoprimal, Capcom were having none of that. I joined the line and the staff immediately came over to explain that the demo would be sixty minutes and that I would need to stay for the duration. I paused, as that's time I could spend trying other demos, before confirming that I would stick around. While an hour is a big ask at TGS, I'm glad I made the commitment. Exoprimal is a multiplayer, third-person shooter. Hordes of dinosaurs have been pouring through portals and causing mayhem all over the world. As an exofighter, you have been selected and trained by an AI named Leviathan to push back against the reptilian tide. Perfectly nonsensical. Our demo was on PC, and most of it pitted two teams of five against each other,...

You can find all my Tokyo Game Show coverage  here I don’t have my VR legs.  I've only experienced a few hours of PlayStation VR over the years. While I've certainly enjoyed what I have played, I've never been close to buying one. I can't accurately compare and contrast headsets, speak authoritatively on specs, or spend much more than fifteen minutes in VR before I need to take a break. However, I do have lots to say about my hands-on with Resident Evil Village VR and the recently-announced PlayStation VR 2! It was the hardest demo to gain access to on both TGS press days. Event staff were pleading with sprinting journalists to slow the fuck down, as they legged it to the Capcom booth as soon as the main doors opened. Those losers should've just woken up fifteen minutes earlier and gotten a spot near the front of the general-entry line, like I did. Doors opened, I walked briskly over to Capcom, got my ticket and was wearing a PSVR 2 an hour later. The PSVR 2 instant...

You can find all my Tokyo Game Show coverage here I'd pretty much given up on ever playing Crisis Core again. Originally released in 2007 as part of the Final Fantasy VII Compilation series, it never left the PSP. No ports, no remasters, not even a digital release. It seemed its destiny was to be forever tied to Sony's first handheld and the doomed UMD format. As batteries bulged and units failed, fewer and fewer of us would have access to it. And then something strange happened. Back in June, a multi-platform remaster was announced.  Welcome back, Zack. Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion was my first demo of TGS Day One. I have fond, but rapidly fading memories of playing the original on my trusty, white PSP back in the day, and of all the FFVII spin offs it was the one that I had enjoyed the most. So when the doors opened at 10am, Square Enix was where I headed first. The fifteen-minute demo was available on PS5 and also on Switch, in handheld mode. You weren't able to s...