Tired Old Hack – The header collection

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

TiredOldHackIf you’re the sort who visits Tired Old Hack on a semi-regular basis, you may have noticed that the site had a wee bit of a sprucing up about a month ago.

As part of this, the header image featuring the Tired Old Hack logo has been changed.

You may also have noticed that, depending on your browser, refreshing the page or navigating to different articles changes the header to something different.

Just in case you’re curious as to how many headers here are in total but can’t be arsed battering ‘F5’ over and over again like a WWE scriptwriter planning a Brock Lesnar match, I thought I’d help with this article.

There are in fact a grand total of 20 different header images, each based on a classic (or not-so-classic) game that meant something to me back in the day.

Below you can see all 20 of them, so you can marvel at my sub-par Photoshop skills. Click on them to see them full size, if you must. Continue reading “Tired Old Hack – The header collection” →

Active Soccer 2 DX (Xbox One) review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
THE FOX SOFTWARE / SELF-PUBLISHED
XBOX ONE

Despite being the most popular sport in the world, there haven’t been many football games released on consoles for a while.

Active Soccer 2 DX pic 2Indeed, outside of the annual FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer instalments (and their tournament-based spin-offs), you’d be hard pushed to think of another football game released on an Xbox or PlayStation system in the last five years.

Active Soccer 2 DX, developed by Roman studio The Fox Software, changes this for Microsoft’s console at least, offering not just a new footy game but one that harks back to the simple days of Sensible Soccer, Kick Off, or…

Well, okay, just Sensible Soccer. Let’s not piss around and pretend this is trying to be any other arcade-style football game.

This one was clearly ‘inspired’ by Sensible Software’s 1992 gem, from obvious things like the menu interface (which is more or less lifted from Sensi) to more subtle things like the way yellow cards appear above players’ heads when they commit a foul. Continue reading “Active Soccer 2 DX (Xbox One) review” →

Lego Dimensions – Midway Arcade level pack review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

Lego Dimensions Midway Arcade level pack hero picLego Dimensions is a ridiculously ambitious crossover of all things pop culture, bringing together characters from popular movies, TV shows, comic books, toys and games in one massive mash-up.

However, until now the latter category there – video games – has been a bit under-represented, with only Portal 2 flying the interactive flag. That’s finally changed with the Midway Arcade level pack.

Having already treated us with individual level packs focusing on The Simpsons, Back To The Future, Portal 2, Doctor Who and Ghostbusters, this sixth and final (for now) level pack is aimed squarely at retro gamers, particularly those who had a soft spot for ‘80s arcade games.

What may surprise you, though, is that this isn’t really your conventional Lego game level. Instead, it’s more of a retro gaming compilation, a bit like the old Midway Arcade Treasures games back in the day. Continue reading “Lego Dimensions – Midway Arcade level pack review” →

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (PS4 review)

Published on by Chris Scullion5 Comments
Marvelous Entertainment / Tamsoft
PS4 / Vita (PS4 version reviewed)

Warning: Some of the content in this game could be considered adult in nature. If anime-style nudity isn’t the sort of thing you want saved in your internet history, don’t read on.

Senran Kagura Estival VersusRight. Here’s the deal.

There have been countless articles written about the Senran Kagura games for reasons that will become breast-wobblingly obvious very soon.

Most of these articles fit into two distinct categories: those who think Senran Kagura is all that is evil in the world and dragging civilisation back 70 years, and those who think it’s just a bit of a laugh and hey lighten up don’t censor me bro etc.

For this review, I’m going to attempt to play it right down the middle. If you absolutely must know, I’m not in favour of it and really don’t think it’s the healthiest thing young teenage boys should be playing.

That said, considering I also have a website dedicated to weird and wonderful horror movies, it would be massively hypocritical of me to declare: “My choice in questionable entertainment’s better than your choice in questionable entertainment.” Continue reading “Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (PS4 review)” →

Don’t Die, Mr Robot! (PS4, Vita) review

Published on by Chris Scullion3 Comments

Don't Die Mr Robot pic 3When the PlayStation Vita launched back in 2011 its big selling point was the fact that it was essentially a slightly underpowered PS3 in handheld form.

In the early days this resulted in a bunch of handheld versions of beloved console games, with the likes of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Resistance: Burning Skies and Killzone: Mercenary really driving home the ‘console in your pocket’ mantra.

While this sounded exciting in theory, for some – including me – the concept didn’t quite work in practice.

On public transport my journeys were never quite long enough to comfortably finish the often large stages in adventure games. Level exploration was ditched in favour of hurriedly yet grudgingly running to my next destination, like someone bursting for a shite trying to discreetly get to the nearest toilet without outright running to it.

At home, meanwhile, the novelty of playing a console game on a handheld isn’t quite as enticing when there’s the obvious alternative of playing a console game on an actual console and a dirty big telly.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that for me, the best Vita games weren’t the ones that embraced the feel of console gaming, but those that stuck to the tried and tested handheld formula of quick-burst experiences. Don’t Die, Mr Robot! undoubtedly falls into this latter category. Continue reading “Don’t Die, Mr Robot! (PS4, Vita) review” →

Tired Old Hack – Level 2

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments

MarioveggieBelieve it or not, Tired Old Hack is already over a year old.

Originally launched as a way for me to deal with the closure of CVG and the apparent end of my games journalism career, Tired Old Hack has developed into a wee site I’ve become proud of, a games publication I can truly call my own.

It isn’t just mine, though. Tired Old Hack belongs to you lovely readers as much as me: I write these articles for you and am more than willing to get feedback on what you think is and isn’t working.

I’ve always tried to be as transparent as possible when working on Tired Old Hack, which you’ll know if you follow my Twitter feed. So that’s why I want to share with you my plans for the next stage of the site. Continue reading “Tired Old Hack – Level 2” →

World exclusive – A look at all the Sonic characters in Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Published on by Chris Scullion4 Comments

Mario_Sonic_-_Rio2016Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the fifth game in the Mario & Sonic series, is released in Europe on 8 April, which coincidentally happens to be my birthday.

The last Mario & Sonic game featured 20 playable characters, ten each from both the Mario and Sonic universes.

Recently Sega dropped a bombshell by revealing that another TWENTY characters would be added to the Rio game, on top of the 20 already there.

Naturally, this has led to some wondering what Sonic characters are left, considering the previous game had fucking Vector the Crocodile in it.

Well, here at Tired Old Hack I can finally bring to you this world exclusive look at every character in Team Sonic, thanks to Sega who gave me unprecedented access because of the whole birthday thing or something.

Enjoy, and remember where you saw this first – for future news bombshells, keep it tired and keep it old. Continue reading “World exclusive – A look at all the Sonic characters in Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games” →

Cover Me Badd #2 – The 20 worst SNES game covers

Published on by Chris Scullion4 Comments
This isn't in the list. That should tell how you bad I'm talking here
This isn’t in the list. That should tell how you bad the ones that made it are

Cover Me Badd is my regular series looking at the worst video game covers in history. Each article will focus on a specific format. If you missed it, catch up on Part 1: NES games.

A couple of months back I looked at the 20 worst NES covers of all time, and promised I’d continue by moving on to SNES games at a later date.

That later date is now, and so without further ado I now present to you the 20 worst SNES covers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen them all. Continue reading “Cover Me Badd #2 – The 20 worst SNES game covers” →

The 30 best Wii games

Published on by Chris Scullion27 Comments

This is the fifth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time. In case you missed them, I’ve already covered the 30 best Amiga games, 30 best DS games, 30 best GameCube games and 30 best Dreamcast games.

As before, because this is my own personal list and not a collaborative effort for a magazine or website, there will be some glaring omissions of games I simply didn’t play or didn’t like. So don’t lose your shit if Trauma Center isn’t on here – it’s just not one of my personal favourites.

If one of your own recommendations isn’t on the list, feel free to give it a shoutout in the comments below (politely though, mind) and tell everyone what it meant to you.

wiiThere are a number of so-called ‘gamers’ who are keen on rewriting history and suggesting the Wii was the console that single-handedly ruined ‘gaming’ for everyone.

In reality, the Wii was the most important console since the original PlayStation, in that it opened up gaming to an entirely new audience. But of course, you don’t need me to tell you that: you’re a lovely smart person.

To some this expansion of the audience was a bad thing: there are those who will tell you the Wii introduced the concept of ‘casual’ gaming which started with party games and eventually led to mobile free-to-play mania.

These people suggest that, one or two games aside, the Wii was swimming in casual titles and was sorely lacking in ‘proper’ games. These people are idiots. Continue reading “The 30 best Wii games” →

ICYMI – Jet Car Stunts review

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments

ICYMI (or In Case You Missed It, if you’re an old fart like me) is my new video review series looking at games that for whatever reason weren’t fully covered in bigger sites. The video is after the jump, and if you’d prefer a written version you’ll find one there too. Continue reading “ICYMI – Jet Car Stunts review” →