Archive for the ‘Console’ Category

Xbox One vs PS4 Impressions

Yes, I’m that guy – I had to have both.

Awww, look at them just co-existing harmoniously...

Awww, look at them just co-existing harmoniously…

The next generation of gaming is now well and truly here, with the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One joining the 3DS, PS Vita and Wii U in one big dysfunctional gaming family. At the time of writing I have had just over a week with the Playstation 4 and a fortnight with the Xbox One, meaning I am just about ready to talk about what has and hasn’t impressed me about the brand new consoles. I’ve divided things into sub-headings for easy reference. Note that most of these photos were taken very late at night with a combination of caffeine, minimal sleep and of course excitement, so they are a little on the awful side if you look at them too closely.

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Xbox Won?

Yes, the pun is too obvious. No, I don’t believe it is true at this point.

So something pretty big happened this morning. Three months after Sony lifted the curtain on the Playstation 4, Microsoft finally unveiled its next generation gaming console, henceforth known as the Xbox One.

The whole thing was done in under an hour and had a bit of an unfinished air to it. E3 is less than three weeks away, after all, and Microsoft probably felt like they needed to leave some content for their major LA keynote.

If you missed the presentation, this amazing minute-and-a-half video sums it up pretty well:

As expected, the internet is abuzz with fanboy wars right now. Generalisations and melodrama are sweeping forums the world over. Most of them are declaring the PS4 the early winnner of the latest console ‘war’. Personally, I think that’s ridiculous. We just don’t know enough about the X1’s games yet -I shall be waiting until E3 before deciding which of the two consoles to pick up first.

In the meantime, I have thrown together a short list of three things I like and three things I dislike about the Xbox One so far, based on what we do know:

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Vita or 3DS?

Because I play far too many portable games not to write this.
3DS_Vita_Textile

As far as portable gaming in today’s society is concerned, the naysayers and doomsday prophets haven’t quite been proved right yet. Apple’s portable devices, while demanding a huge market share thanks to their usefulness in other areas of life, have not stamped out the need for dedicated portable gaming devices. Sales figures show as much. Call it the need for physical buttons, call it the type of development costs that go into creating dedicated experiences, call it what you may; at least for the time being, you can still get some fantastic, fleshed out experiences on dedicated handhelds.

The question is, which of the two most prominent platforms is most worth your cash? The Nintendo 3DS, or the Playstation Vita? Each has been out for at least a year by now, after all. Well, as an owner of both, I hope I can help you decide today.

I’ve broken the comparison down into five segments:

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The Playstation Vita: One Year On

Two posts today, methinks.

It’s hard to believe that it has already been one full year since the launch of Sony’s latest and greatest dedicated gaming handheld, the Playstation Vita. 366 days ago I was quivering with excitement at the thought of a shiny new piece of tech and, aside from hours worth of initial setup, I was not disappointed. You can read my day one impressions of the system here and my first month impressions here.

Now wouldn’t it be nice if I could write a lovely piece about all the ways the system has moved ahead in leaps and bounds since launch, building on its rather strong start to etch out an authoritative corner of the gaming space, in doing so announcing itself as a must-have piece of hardware?

Yes, yes it would. However, this simply isn’t the case.

Apt.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore my Playstation Vita and in the last two months, I haven’t played any other console nearly as much. This is mostly due to the excellent Persona 4 Golden, which I am very nearly finished and very nearly ready to review, but I digress. Aside from that Atlus gem, there has been precious little gaming content to write home about. To put things into perspective, though the Vita did have a very compelling launch lineup, in the space of a year the amount of Vita-specific games you can buy for your handheld has barely doubled. There are some worthwhile titles there, such as Gravity Rush, Assassin’s Creed Liberation and LittleBigPlanet, but outside of games you can also buy on your PS3 the list doesn’t go on much farther than that.

This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me about the Vita for the conceivable future, as I’m thinking of doing a comparison article with the 3DS for the benefit of people trying to toss up which system to get. But as for a standalone anniversary article, there just isn’t enough content to fill one out, sadly. Happy first birthday Vita. I hope by the time we get to your second there will be a lot more to celebrate.

U Ready? – Wii U Review

I think it’s clear that desperation is now the main driving force behind my choices of post titles.

The Wii U, Nintendo’s new home console, launched in Australia and Europe about a week ago, and after spending as much time with it as my current lifestyle would allow, I present this, here, now.

Icy blue

Day One haul, clockwise from bottom left: Screen Protector Kit, Facepad & Stylus Pack, Wii U Premium Pack, Pro Controller, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Assassin’s Creed 3 Join or Die Edition, New Super Mario Bros U.

Yeah, if you haven’t already guessed, I enjoy throwing money at console launches.

I’ll be structuring this piece much like my Playstation Vita review from earlier this year. Here goes.

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Greetings From Wii U

Where things are looking pretty awesome.

I am writing this post from the native internet browser of Nintendo’s new home console, the Wii U, while running the third sequence of Assassin’s Creed III in the background. My TV isn’t even on; it’s just me, the console’s Game Pad controller and a Tritton headset, alone in a dark living room at midnight on the first night of what looks like a sweltering Australian summer. Suffice to say it’s a pretty fresh gaming experience.

The console came out on Friday and I spent most of launch day trying out as many aspects of it as I could, writing notes and downloading updates. So many updates.

Anyway my thoughts will all be coming in one hit, as soon as I find a window of spare time big enough to post them. Stay tuned to Vagrant Rant.

Expo-nentially More Excited

*cringe*

Earlier this month I attended the EB Games Expo in Sydney, having attended last year’s event on the Gold Coast as well. I got the chance to play and view a handful of interesting games and such and this was what I thought of them.

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What I Think of the Wii U

I’ve been asked this question too many times to count in recent months, but since there just wasn’t enough information on the console before today, I could never consider any answer truly reasonable. Well, Nintendo’s simultaneous American/European broadcast has just wrapped up and now most of that information gap has been filled, so I thought I’d commit my knee-jerk reaction here.
I’m not going to cover all of the freshly announced news because that isn’t what Vagrant Rant is about, but I will lay down my opinions as always. It’s just past 1am in the morning and I can’t promise this will be terribly coherent. It’ll probably be my “rantiest” post yet.

This colour is apparently now considered “premium”.

Well here we are, closer than we’ve ever been to the latest Nintendo home console, knowing more information than we ever have. As a gamer who once devoted a sizeable chunk of his childhood to the revered Japanese corporation, I have always expected big things from Nintendo, and I certainly am not alone. Of course, recent years have not provided the greatest signs that Nintendo is looking out for fans such as myself. Though I have some amazing memories of playing the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, the Wii just didn’t provide quite as many great gaming moments. They were there, for sure, but they were so spaced out due to the company’s newfound focus on the casual market that the console left a bit of a sour taste in many a fan’s mouth. 2008 and 2009 were so infamously dry of Nintendo quality that I barely played any games in the former and branched out to Xbox 360 and PS3 in the latter.

I may be an all-console owner and lover of shiny new things now, but part of me still wants to return to the days where all I needed was one console to provide for my gaming needs. Now, that just flat-out isn’t going to happen, because I doubt the Xbox 360 is going to suddenly stop its stranglehold on a superior online experience, as much as I doubt that the PS3 will stop coming out with brilliant exclusive titles. But it sure would be nice to have a reason to think about which console to turn on during my free time and have a Nintendo product as a legitimate option. That’s all I ask for.

So, is what I’ve seen enough to convince me to buy a Wii U on launch day (November 30th in Aus)?

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Larger Than Life – 3DS XL Review

New console number two out of three for the year!

After a relatively short build-up, Nintendo’s new 3DS XL was released in Australia last Thursday. It retails for $250, which is technically the same RRP as the regular 3DS (although many retailers sell the original model for less). That was the first pleasant surprise it provided me with. The second was how good it felt to hold and play. The third was how good its stereoscopic 3D looked. The fourth was how easily I could recommend it, to anyone, as a system superior to its smaller cousin in almost every way.

Yes, that's a Pokemon sticker.

It’s just a nice-looking piece of tech, really.

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Updated Vita Impressions

To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to test the Vita’s in-built screenshot features. Many pictures coming up…

It has been just over a month since the worldwide launch of the Playstation Vita (You can see my first impressions of it here) and now that I’ve had some more time with the console, I can add a thing or two to my earlier article about it.

*Sigh* So green...

My main home screen, bubbles and all.

One of the things that has most impressed me in the last month about the Vita is its battery life. It’s a little refreshing to know that I have between four and a half to five hours to play around with on every charge (that’s while playing a Vita game with brightness and sound a decent way up) rather than the barely three hours the Nintendo 3DS yields at full stretch. Continue reading