A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Tag: Games
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Success! After the ups and downs of the past few days, I’ve finally managed to pre-order a Yarn Yoshi amiibo. I received a tip-off from this Reddit forum that GAME are taking in-store pre-orders for old yarn-face himself, even though you can’t currently pre-order through the website. So after confirming this was the case with…
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Regular readers will already be familiar with my current obsession of obtaining a Yarn Yoshi amiibo. Sadly, that dream seems further away than ever this afternoon – I just learned that preorders for Yoshi’s Woolly World – including a Yarn Yoshi amiibo – went up on Zavvi’s site on Saturday and sold out almost immediately.…
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OK, so I think I’m getting a bit obsessed with obtaining a Yarn Yoshi amiibo. Tantalisingly, GAME have uploaded pictures of said amiibo, and yet there’s no option to pre-order. Have they gone already? Am I too late? If not, when do the pre-orders start? Why am I so obsessed with a woolly plastic toy?…
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What-ho, chums! Since my last missive back in January, events have continued apace. The expected arrival of Merriweather Junior is now mere weeks away, after which I expect all gaming exploits will cease, at least for a time. So in the run up to the big day I’ve been luxuriating in my precious gaming time,…
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I’ve recently been playing through Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it (well, apart from a few minor niggles, but more on that in a later post). After spending so much time in the company of Shulk and his mates, I began thinking how great it would be to have…
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For some time now, the UK music chart has combined numbers for streaming with physical and digital sales. The UK game chart, on the other hand, only counts physical sales, and as a consequence it bears little resemblance to the reality of what games are actually the most popular. This week, trade publication MCV attempted…
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Little Inferno launched alongside the Wii U, but I only picked it up recently in a sale – and what a fantastic little game it is. It’s the sort of thing I imagine Tim Burton would make if he ever turned his attention from films to video games. Conceptually, it’s defiantly odd. You’re presented with…
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I just read on Eurogamer that Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is getting a 16 GB day one patch on Xbox One. 16 GB. That’s actually bigger than the hard drive on my Xbox 360 (that’s right, I never upgraded, and somehow I’ve managed to make it this far through judicious deleting and a reliance on…
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I picked up Weapon Shop de Omasse for a pittance in a Nintendo eShop sale a few months back, and I’ve dipped into it a few times over the past few months. It’s the perfect example of a game with a winning idea that’s let down by poor execution. The set up is that you’re…
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The big gaming news this week was that Nintendo are going to start making games for smartphones in coordination with the mobile games company DeNA. Speculation has been rife, and many have been pointing to DeNA’s reliance on free-to-play games as a worrying sign of things to come. Want to play as Super Mario? Pay…
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We’ve known for a long time that gaming is no longer the preserve of sweaty, bedroom-bound teenage males (if indeed it ever was). But I was intrigued to read this article on Kotaku UK about just how much the gaming demographic has changed over the years. This was probably the most interesting part for me:…
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My first impressions of Heavy Rain weren’t great. After a protracted installation session, I was wholly underwhelmed by the game’s glacier-slow and mind-numbingly tedious opening (see earlier post). However, Sir Gaulian assured me that the game picks up, and I’m glad I stuck with it. For a start, it’s a film noir thriller, and I’m…
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Nazis, robots, alternative timelines – on paper, Wolfenstein: The New Order (buy on Amazon) sounds like the sort of straight-to-video B-movie nonsense you’d bypass with a tired shake of the head were you to spot it in a video shop (if such places even exist any more). Yet it manages to be, as Sir Gaulian…
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What ho, chums! So no doubt you’ve already heard the news by now: Club Nintendo is to close later this year, which will be very sad news for fans of free tat. Perhaps ‘tat’ is being a bit harsh, but there’s no denying the fact that the stuff being hoiked through the UK site is…
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The next wave of amiibos is released today, and look what was waiting for me in the post box… Ike will now be joining Marth on the fireplace as my collection of Fire Emblem-related amiibos grows steadily larger. I’ve pre-ordered Lucina and Robin too (although they won’t be out until April), and I’m hoping that…
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I’ve just finished Alien: Isolation, and I’m almost glad. On the plus side, it hopefully means an end to the xenomorph-related nightmares and the dangerously high heart rates I’ve experienced while playing the game. On the other hand, it’s one of the best things I’ve played in years, and I’m very, very sad it’s over.…
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All this excitement over the launch of the new 3DS in the UK has put me in mind of those fantastic Japanese adverts that came out last October. For the launch of the new 3DS in Japan, Nintendo brought in Japanese pop singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and created the most colourful, upbeat advert I’ve ever…
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Sadly it seems I will have to jump through several hoops in order to enjoy my new 3DS XL (buy on Amazon) on the day of purchase. I’ll be trading in my old 3DS on the day, so I’ll need to transfer all my old games and saves to the new 3DS: unlike with Apple…
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What ho, chums! After struggling to enjoy Assassin’s Creed III, I finally decided to permanently shelve the game this week. It’s not often that I’ll leave a game unfinished – I hate abandoning things halfway through, and the same goes for TV series, books and pretty much anything really. So that gives you an indication…
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I’ve been intrigued by the reviews of Assassin’s Creed: Rogue. Although it was brought out in the shadow of its bigger, next-gen only brother – Assassin’s Creed: Unity – most reviewers agree it outshines its graphically superior sibling in terms of gameplay. And certainly, its bonkers mix of narwhal hunting and assassinating assassins looks like…
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I just finished playing Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition on the 3DS, which was a bargain in the Nintendo eShop at £3.49. I remember when the original game came out on the Amiga in 1991: the cinematic graphics were mind-blowing at the time. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to play it back in the…
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What ho, chums! As we hurtle down the final furlong of the year, I for one will be grateful for the powerful respite offered by the festive season. The past few months have seen unending turmoil, mostly thanks to my relocation from London to “The McManor” in beautiful Edinburgh. This tumult has been combined with…
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I got my first Amiibo this week, and just look how happy it made me. Gosh darn they’re charming little things, aren’t they? Like me, you may have been pondering whether to buy one of these little figurines. Like me, you may have been reasoning to yourself that they’re quite expensive for little lumps of…
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Blimey, is it that time of year already? 2014 has flown by for me, mostly thanks to lots of travelling and working in various places, culminating in a move from London to Edinburgh at the end of the year. All that to-ing and fro-ing left me with very little time to play this year’s video…
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What-ho, chums! A lot has happened since our last tete á tete back in October. I’m currently ‘on tour’, as it were, in deepest darkest Cornwall, so I’m bereft of some the creature comforts I’m so used to in The Manor. However, I did have the presence of mind to bring my PS3 with me.…
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I bought Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the Wii U when it was released back in March 2013, and a year and a half later I’m still playing it. In fact, I even bought the 3DS version as well, so I could play it on the move. And even after all this time, it’s still…
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At last, the first of my articles for Kotaku UK has gone live: http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/10/13/people-used-download-games-radio Quite a while ago, a Dutch work colleague of mine mentioned a radio show called Hobbyscoop that was broadcast in the Netherlands in the 1980s. The DJs would play the sound of data tapes (like simple games or programs), and people…
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There really is little point buying a game at launch when you think about it. For a start, you’ll be paying a premium for the privilege of owning a game on day one – up to £60 if you’re paying the RRP for a new Xbox One or PS4 game (although realistically it will probably…
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 