Lists

Predicting Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ Year 2 DLC

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

September 25th marks the one-year anniversary of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and though I ranked it lower than Mario Kart World in my best games of 2025 list, I’ve honestly found myself playing it far more frequently thanks to its regular online events, numerous in-game challenges, and it just being a fun time. This is the game that made me a regular PlayStation Plus subscriber so you know it’s doing something right.

As such, I was pleasantly surprised to see Sega announce it would be supporting the game with a second year of DLC, especially since Sega had previously admitted CrossWorlds wasn’t meeting sales expectations and publishers are all too eager to kill post-launch support if video games don’t become overnight successes nowadays.

So, to celebrate the game’s anniversary and for my own amusement, I’m going to see if I can predict which characters will be added to CrossWorlds throughout its second year. To be clear, this isn’t a wishlist of characters I want to see. My aim is to try and get inside of Sega executives’ heads and figure out what sort of characters they’d pick as both free and paid DLC.

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2023 in Review: Every Video Game I Completed This Year

/ Michael Beckwith / 1 Comment

You know those Twitter threads where people list off every video game they’ve completed throughout the year? It’s something I’ve always been a bit keen on doing, but I figured summing up each game in a single Tweet wouldn’t do them justice. So, throughout 2023, I decided to keep a record of every game I completed, composing what are essentially mini reviews to try and cover every facet I liked or didn’t like about each one… and that was a mistake.

This wound up taking far more time and effort than I expected. And between a new job, other real world responsibilities, and me wanting to play more and more games, I failed to get this done before we rolled into 2024. Sunk cost fallacy meant I didn’t want to abandon all the work I already put in so, screw it, I’m putting this out even though we’re already a quarter of the way into 2024. Just know I will not be attempting something like this again, at least not to this degree.

For the record, this list isn’t exclusive to games that launched in 2023. No matter how old it was, if I beat it, I included it here. What counts as clearing a game is often up to interpretation but, for me, it’s at least hitting the end credits, though sometimes I made a point of clearing post-game content as well. Right, with the preamble out of the way, let’s run through every game I beat in 2023.

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My Top Five Video Games of 2022

/ Michael Beckwith / 2 Comments

Normally around this time of the year, I put together a list of the ten video games I’m most looking forward to in the following year. After some reflection, though, I’ve decided to stop doing that because, frankly, those lists aren’t exactly timeless. They get outdated so quickly, whether it’s because some of the games in question wound up not coming out or turned out to be bad. Plus, sometimes I struggle finding 10 whole games that I’m super excited for and we never know what the coming year’s full release schedule looks like.

I’d prefer to write something that holds up a lot better; something that can be read years down the line and not feel hilariously outdated. So, I’ve decided to follow the crowd and put together a top five list of my personal favourite games of 2022.

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My Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2022

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

I feel like it’d be an over exaggeration, if not outright inaccurate, to say 2021 was a bad year for video games. Quite frankly, there were plenty of awesome new games or updates to existing ones. On a personal level, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart properly demonstrated the potential of the PlayStation 5, both Great Ace Attorney games finally made it to the West, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate truly made the impossible possible by completing its roster with Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

But I will admit the industry itself has made it hard to be optimistic about 2022. Over the last twelve months, we’ve seen outright abysmal releases like the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy remasters, the likes of Ubisoft and Square Enix committing to incorporating NFTs (the newest environmentally damaging grift) into their games, and then there’s just everything about Activision, which has once again highlighted how horrible the industry can be behind closed doors.

While it is important to acknowledge all the bad parts of this industry, even if it’s painful to do so, that doesn’t mean there’ll be no joy to be found in it either. As always, there are already a number of select games I’m looking forward to this year and I’m sure there are a number of amazing titles that haven’t been announced yet. Plus, this is a yearly tradition at this point so let’s get on with things and get to my ten most anticipated games of 2022.

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My Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2021

/ Michael Beckwith / 1 Comment

2020 sucked. I know that’s not an original thought, but it still feels like it needs to be said. And video games, or rather the industry itself, didn’t always help alleviate how truly awful it was.

Ubisoft was hit with numerous allegations of sexual assault and abuse, Activision continues to make all the money in the world yet lays off its employees, and where do I even start with Cyberpunk 2077?

But, for as crappy as it all was, there were occasional bright spots. 2019’s Among Us found belated success thanks to livestreaming and put its studio, InnerSloth, on the map, Animal Crossing: New Horizons managed to unite the world and foster connections while everyone was trapped indoors, and the release of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition meant more people could play my favourite game of all time.

2021 isn’t going to automatically be better than last year but, as always with these lists, I’m going to focus on the potentially good things coming this year; specifically, the games I’m most excited for.

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Ten of My Favourite Games of the Decade

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

I know I’m late in saying this but, damn, this really is a new decade, huh? I never even considered it until it was pointed out to me. A lot has happened in the last ten years, and after looking at some good-looking games that are coming in the future, I’d like to reminisce about all the awesome games from the past. And, boy, there were a lot.

So, since everyone else has done it and I apparently have as much originality as a live-action Disney remake, here’s a list of some of my all-time favourite games to have been released throughout the 2010s – one from each year (I’m using the European release dates BTW). Continue reading →

My Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2020

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

2019 is officially behind us and it was certainly a strong year for videogames, with a number of critically acclaimed titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Disco Elysium, and the Resident Evil 2 remake being released.

However, it was another year of the industry showing how ugly it could be. Lootboxes and in-game gambling mechanics have become so much worse, crunch culture continued to be responsible for some big-budget titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, and let’s not forget the Activision Blizzard/Hong Kong debacle.

With any luck, 2020 will offer better things; it’s certainly got a strong line-up of games to look forward to. So, how about we just get right to it – here are the ten games I’m most excited to play in the coming year. Continue reading →

Ten Characters I Want in Super Smash Bros. – Part 2

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the following games:

Tekken 7
The Wonderful 101
Xenoblade Chronicles 2

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It’s been four years since my first “Ten Characters I Want in Super Smash Bros.” list and, boy, how things have changed since then. Back then, those choices were the whimsical wishes of a young dreamer, unlikely to ever come true. But now, thanks to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it seems anything is possible. Hell, two of my picks have since been included, which is very vindicating, though one part of that list has aged horribly.

“… [Yu Narukami] does stand a better chance than Ridley.”

Oh, 21 year-old me, you were such a fool. But yes, between the likes of Ridley, King K. Rool, and Joker, I’ve found myself coming to accept that characters I would’ve initially scoffed at the mere suggestion of including could actually happen. Super Smash Bros. is no longer just a celebration of all things Nintendo, but of videogames as a whole.

So, with the current run of DLC nearing its conclusion and still more to come throughout 2020, how about I list off another ten characters I’d personally love to see get to join the roster, whether it be in Ultimate or in a possible sequel. Continue reading →

Five Ideas for MCU Team-Ups

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

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One of the best things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is seeing all our favourite comic book heroes recreated on the big screen. But one thing that’s better than that is seeing them all interact with each other. After all, when you have a universe filled with such a colourful cast, not having them hang out is just a waste. Why have all these characters in a shared universe if they’re not gonna team up once in a while? And Disney and Marvel clearly know this. The Avengers movies were all huge successes primarily for this very reason. But while we’ve enjoyed these awesome cross-overs, we’ve never had any proper team-up movies.

Sure, Black Widow helped out Captain America in The Winter Soldier, but that was still Steve’s movie. And while Hulk showed up in Thor: Ragnarok, it wasn’t really a Thor/Hulk movie; just a Thor movie that the Hulk happened to be in. We’ve had “team-ups,” but no movies where two characters get to enjoy equal footing, and I feel this is something Marvel should do more of. The big crossovers are great but they run the risk of some characters having less to do than others. Focusing purely on two individuals can lead to stronger interactions and a tighter narrative. There was even a whole series of comics called Marvel Team-Up that explored this very concept. Imagine a series of movies like this.

So, purely for my own enjoyment, here are five ideas for team-up movies that I’d love to see be made for the MCU. Continue reading →

My Ten Favourite Steven Universe Songs

/ Michael Beckwith / 2 Comments

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Steven Universe

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Steven Universe is arguably one of the best cartoons ever made. Or, at the very least, one of the most popular modern ones. Whether it be because of its soft and cosy atmosphere, it’s large and lovable cast, or the stories and messages it presents, a lot of people love this show, myself included. Today, I want to highlight one of the show’s most notable aspects – its songs.

You can tell just by watching the show that the crew LOVE making music and song numbers. I can’t quite describe it but every song has the same level of heart and passion put into it, resulting in a unified yet varied soundtrack, with some of them sounding like they’d fit in a stage musical. So, with the Steven Universe movie almost upon us and it being a musical as well, I’m sharing my ten favourite songs from the show so far, in order of when they appeared in the show. And let me tell you, there were a lot to pick from. Continue reading →