Author: Chris Scullion

Chris Scullion is a Scottish video games journalist who's been covering video games professionally for 16 years. For the first six years of his career he worked at the Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK, then became the Games Editor of CVG before its untimely end. After setting up his own site, Tired Old Hack, Chris then joined Video Games Chronicle (VGC) where he is currently Features Editor. He has a passion for retro games and cataloguing their history, hence his ongoing series of console encyclopedia books (search his name on Amazon).

VHS Preservation Project #8: GameCube / GAME promo video

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The Video Game VHS Preservation Project is an attempt to digitise as many video game VHS tapes as possible for the purposes of preservation. Click here for more information.

The eighth tape in my VHS Preservation Project is the first in my collection that celebrates the Nintendo GameCube.

This is a video that was given away free to customers of GAME and Electronics Boutique in the UK, in order to promote upcoming GameCube games.

It’s a mixture of official trailers and gamepay footage captured by GAME themselves, and as such the video quality varies quite a bit throughout. There’s also a brilliantly poor quality section at the end in which they try to shill third-party controllers.

Continue reading “VHS Preservation Project #8: GameCube / GAME promo video” →

Video: Review Round-Up Unscripted #2

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Following some really positive feedback on the first of my more casual, unscripted review round-ups, it’s time for a second helping. Reviewed in this episode are:

• Tallowmere (Switch)
• Rock ‘N Racing Off Road DX (Switch)
• Aces Of The Luftwaffe: Squadron (Switch)
• Antiquia Lost (Switch)
• Ittle Dew 2+ (Switch)
• It’s Quiz Time (PS4)
• Star Wars: Battlefront II (Xbox One)
• WWE Mayhem (Android)
• Mom Hid My Game! (Switch)
• Arcade Archives: Vs Super Mario Bros (Switch) Continue reading “Video: Review Round-Up Unscripted #2” →

Video: Review Round-Up Unscripted #1

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Since I’m still working on a big Secret Project™ that’s been taking up the vast majority of my writing time, I’ve had to think of a better way to review games (which I still enjoy doing in my downtime).

Here, then, is the first in a regular series of review round-up videos, in which I’ll give you small reviews of a bunch of newly released games.

Most professional video reviews on YouTube are scripted, to ensure the reviewer gets across the points they want to make. Since I hate doing that fake radio-style YouTuber voice (trust me, I’ve tried it), these videos will be completely unscripted and I’ll be talking about them normally.

Think of them as a podcast that focuses on game reviews, complete with footage. Here’s episode 1: there’s more information underneath the video.

Continue reading “Video: Review Round-Up Unscripted #1” →

The Tired Old Hack Alternative Game Of The Year Awards 2017

Published on by Chris Scullion3 Comments

Well, 2017 is finally coming to an end, and you know what that means: it’s time for every video game site to give its end-of-year awards.

I mean, it would be if most of them hadn’t already posted their awards in early December so they could all enjoy well-deserved Christmas breaks.

Not yer man Scullion. I’ve waited until the very last minute to give you my picks for the year, because I’m fashionably late like that.

Let’s face it, by now you’ve probably seen a million articles with awards for ‘Best Racing Game’, ‘Best PlayStation Game’ and the like being given out. Me adding my own to the mix would be about as effective as flicking a box of matches into an active volcano.

So here, then, are the Tired Old Hack Alternative Game Of The Year Awards 2017, many of which are slightly less conventional than you may be used to. Enjoy. Continue reading “The Tired Old Hack Alternative Game Of The Year Awards 2017” →

Pinball FX 3 on Switch – all 30 launch tables in one video

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Pinball FX 3 launched on the Switch last week, giving pinball fans a whole wealth of flipper-based goodness on their grey / red-and-blue / yellow / pink and green baby (delete as applicable).

The base game is free to download, and comes with one free table, Sorcerer’s Lair.

However, there are also 29 other DLC tables that are available for purchase. While a couple of these – Portal and The Walking Dead – are standalone one-off tables, the others come in packs of two, three or four tables.

Because Pinball FX 3 tables feature things no real-life tables can (like CG characters walking around and hidden sections opening up to reveal mini-tables), each varies wildly in style and as such it’s unlikely that all 30 will appeal to you.

To make life easier, then, I’ve put together this enormous video showing around a minute of footage for every single table in the game, so you can see what’s on offer and better choose which tables take your fancy. Continue reading “Pinball FX 3 on Switch – all 30 launch tables in one video” →

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch) review

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Nintendo / Monolith Soft
Nintendo Switch

What a difference seven years makes.

Back in 2010, the first Xenoblade Chronicles launched in Japan. The UK got it a year later, but North American audiences were annoyed that they seemingly weren’t getting a sniff.

This resulted in Operation Rainfall, a protest campaign run by US gamers who wanted to see Xenoblade Chronicles (as well as The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower) released in their region.

Eventually, nearly two years after it launched in Japan, Xenoblade Chronicles was finally released in the US. Nowadays, though, it’s a different story.

A handheld port of the game hit the New 3DS in 2015, and this time the gap between eastern and western releases was a mere eight days.

The Wii U spiritual successor Xenoblade Chronicles X did take a while longer (seven months) to make it outside of Japan, but when it did it enjoyed full parity with Europe and the US getting it on the same day.

And so now here we are with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the first ‘proper’ sequel and the first to have a proper worldwide launch day. We’ve come a long way. Continue reading “Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch) review” →

Resident Evil Revelations 1 & 2 (Switch) review

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Capcom
Switch, Xbox One, PS4, Steam, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS, Vita (Switch version reviewed)

We aren’t even nine months into the Switch’s life yet and it’s already proving itself to be a fantastic device for ports.

That may not always seem like a good thing: after all, the Xbox One and PS4 were criticised in their early days for having their libraries artificially increased with enhanced ports of previous gen games.

It feels different on the Switch, though. Its handheld capability means fans of games like Doom, Skyrim and LA Noire are happy to re-buy their old games on Nintendo’s system, the addition of portability appealing more than better textures or frame rate.

The Resident Evil Revelations games don’t get to use this ‘novelty’ as a selling point. The first made its debut as a handheld game, enjoying 3DS exclusivity for a year and a half – while its sequel was released on the PlayStation Vita.

Both have already had the handheld treatment, then, but it’s fair to say the Switch version blows the 3DS’s low resolution and the Vita’s low-poly visuals and poor frame rate out of the water. Continue reading “Resident Evil Revelations 1 & 2 (Switch) review” →

Review round-up: Doom, Skyrim, LA Noire, Rime, Kirby Battle Royale

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It’s been longer than usual since my last review round-up so here’s a special bumper edition, packed to the chops with mini-reviews.

This week:

• Get your ass to Mars in Doom on Switch
• Take an arrow in the baws in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Switch
• Speakeasy or forever hold your peace in LA Noire on Switch
• Getting outfoxed in Rime
• Bowing to the altar of the eternal loading screen in Moon Hunters
• Kicking it old-school in Lumo
• Point-and-click quirkiness in Violett
• Getting cheap but surprisingly non-nasty in Knight Terrors
• Speeding away from mobile roots in Gear Club Unlimited
• Having a good feline about Cat Quest
• Talking fascism and abortion (seriously) in Wheels Of Aurelia
• Passing GO with reckless abandon in Monopoly on Switch
• Smacking the hell out of a bunch of fighting bollocks in Kirby Battle Royale Continue reading “Review round-up: Doom, Skyrim, LA Noire, Rime, Kirby Battle Royale” →

VHS Preservation Project #7: Mean Machines Sega Mega CD promo video

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The Video Game VHS Preservation Project is an attempt to digitise as many video game VHS tapes as possible for the purposes of preservation. Click here for more information.

Tape number seven in my VHS Preservation Project is one I actually uploaded to my YouTube channel a number of years ago, but the upload was much poorer quality.

This is a video that was given away free with issue 3 (December 1992) of Mean Machines Sega, a popular UK games magazine that was spawned when Mean Machines split into separate Sega and Nintendo publications.

This video contains Sega’s entire eight-minute promo video Sega Mega CD: Games Without Frontiers, followed by a strange football competition and then footage of a handful of PAL region games, including Streets Of Rage 2 and Ecco The Dolphin.

Continue reading “VHS Preservation Project #7: Mean Machines Sega Mega CD promo video” →