Archive for the ‘Games’ Category
26
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2013, Console, Games, Lists. Tagged: 10, 2013, 5, Best, consoles, five, Gaming, top, Videogame, Year. Leave a comment
Merry Christmas everyone! Here’s a new kind of list that I can see myself coming back to next year. It’s a smaller list to counteract the length of the last one.
There were many videogame platforms vying for the attention of consumers in 2013, which was overall a pretty spectacular year for memorable gaming experiences. Some of these consoles struggled on the sales charts more than others, but most of them enjoyed at least a few worthwhile game releases. So what if someone were to rank them with sales factors out of the equation, based on user experience and, above all, the quality of their game releases throughout the year? An answer to that question, albeit a subjective one, is coming at you right now.
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VR BEST OF 2013 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. Respectful disagreement is welcome.
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5. Xbox One
Of the two exciting “next-gen” consoles released worldwide at the end of the year, the Xbox One probably had the slight edge in terms of early game library. The excellent visual showcase Ryse impressed many right from day one, despite its repetitive combat mechanics, while Dead Rising 3 by all accounts fixed many of the problems the series has suffered from since its inception and Forza 5 leveraged the power of the console to great effect with its hyper-realistic car models and innovative “Drivatar” AI augmenting system. Peggle 2 followed soon after launch and received great critical acclaim, with Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare and Titanfall to follow early next year. Its current position is remarkable given the hate thrown its way in the middle of the year, when it was looking like quite a different beast.
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23
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2013, Games, Lists. Tagged: 2013, Best, Box, Case, Cover, Game, ten, top, Videogame, Year. Leave a comment
That’s right, it’s time for another round of aesthetic appreciation of the plastic and cardboard kind. 2013 saw the release of plenty of great games and some stellar box art to boot. This list counts down my ten favourite physical game cases of the year, decided based on factors such as uniqueness, originality and, as always, colour! While there were certainly a whole heap of download-exclusive games to get excited about in 2013 and there will continue to be, the future of the physical game case appears perhaps a little more secure in the short term than some naysayers would have you believe, predominantly due to factors like the obscene sales success of GTA V and the ridiculous download sizes of PS4 and Xbox One games. This makes me rather happy, because I love the art of game case presentation perhaps a little too much.
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VR BEST OF 2013 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. Respectful disagreement is welcome.
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10. FIFA 14 (“next-gen”)
EA Sports has a reputation of iterating on its annual releases, like FIFA, year after year, changing only a little each time. Even though this is only true of the mega-hit football series if you don’t actually play it yourself, few could have expected that the general experience of playing (and watching) FIFA 14 would improve so much in the transition from PS3 and Xbox 360 to PS4 / Xbox One. To get the message across that the next-gen equivalent of the game might be worth playing even if you already bought the last-gen version, the company made the smart marketing decision to abandon the predominantly white and red design of the last half-dozen years in favour of a darker colour palette, a player close-up rather than an action shot and a new yellow logo. The Madden and NBA Live series followed suit to give the feel of a clean, fresh virtual sporting experience. I’m a big fan of the change.
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17
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Console, Games, Wii U. Tagged: christmas, Console, holiday, one, option, PlayStation, ps4, Wii U, xbox. 1 comment
Over the last week or so I have been working feverishly towards getting ten Best of 2013 countdowns up on the site, but before I start I just have to say something…
So the Xbox One and the PS4 are both on Australian shelves now (well, the Xbox One at least – God help you if you’re trying to find a PS4 that isn’t on preorder at the moment). That means they will be on Christmas wishlists and dare I say part of plans for the spending of excess Christmas casual earnings / Christmas gift money. They deserve to be there. They are both very impressive pieces of tech. I like both of them and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with them thus far. I eagerly await the exciting future ahead for both consoles. Games like Titanfall, Infamous: Second Son, Destiny, Watch_Dogs, The Order: 1886 and Final Fantasy XV make me feel lucky to be able to own a next-gen (now current-gen, technically) console right now, with an entertaining future secured. If you are genuinely excited for either console, all power to you – go ahead and jump in. I feel like, if I wanted to, I could leave it at that.
But I would be betraying who I was, where I’ve come from and, heck, where I am now as a gamer, if I neglected to give another mention to the Wii U, Nintendo’s now one-year-old home console. I have been playing just as much of my Wii U of late as I have my PS4/Xbox One, so I feel obliged to point out that yes, there is a third option for you this holiday season if you feel like it’s time for a new console. Here’s why you might find it a decent choice:
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7
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Console, Games, PS4, Xbox One. Tagged: aus, comparison, Gaming, gen, generation, impressions, Microsoft, next, one, PlayStation, ps4, xbox. Leave a comment
Yes, I’m that guy – I had to have both.
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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30
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Games. Tagged: 2ds, 3DS, nintendo, Pokemon, Review, version, x, xerneas, y, yveltal. Leave a comment
Over the last couple of weeks, every time I thought I was ready to write and complete this review someone online would discover some other new thing within Pokemon X. But now I can finally say I’m ready to post the review having experienced enough of the whole game to make a good fist of everything. This will be a long one. Enjoy.
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Platform: 3DS
Developer: Game Freak
Rating: PG
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Not “X Version”, for some reason. Just “X”.
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Simply X-cellent.
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Pokemon X and its near-identical counterpart Pokemon Y represent several ambitious steps forward for one of Nintendo’s flagship videogame series. The first three-dimensional Pokemon adventure is a stunning audio-visual achievement that makes the 3DS sing and draws smartly from the nostalgia wells of an entire generation. But perhaps most excitingly, the game is the first in the series to admit that Pokemon has transformed beyond its creators’ wildest dreams into an endlessly deep competitive juggernaut over the last decade. The game works very clearly with this in mind, resulting in a wonderful social experience that is also more balanced than the series ever has been. It’s a must-have for most any 3DS owner.
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10
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists. Tagged: diamond, Game, generation, moments, Pokemon, ruby, silver, white, yellow. Leave a comment
We are now mere hours away from the long-awaited (there’s an understatement) first ever 3D entries in the main Pokemon video game series, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. To celebrate and, quite honestly, to kill some time while enduring the wait, I decided to have a look back at some of my favourite memories the series has given me in-game. I use the term “in-game” to mean anything taking place during the game’s story (that is, anything before and possibly immediately after the Elite Four), as opposed to, say, any awesome competitive battles I have had the pleasure of participating in using EV trained, IV bred fighting machines.
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10. Patrat, the Purpose-Built Annoyer – Pokemon White
Nearly every Pokemon release has been an inherently multiplayer experience for me, because in my book that’s the way it was designed to be played. There is a tradition among my close friends and family who play Pokemon that whenever a new game comes out, we try to get together and play the first few hours alongside one another, battling after the first gym and sometimes after the second as well. As a result I try to catch and train Pokemon that my fellow players aren’t likely to pay attention to, just to make the battles more interesting. Never has this been more true than at the start of the fifth generation of Pokemon, when I caught a super-common Patrat and trained it to the mid-teens solely because its movepool seemed deliberately stacked with the most annoying moves possible. Detect, Sand-Attack, Bite, Hypnosis… I mean, really, how could I not? In our first battle Patrat was my highest-level Pokemon and I used its full irritating potential against my brother, only to dump it in a box forever afterwards. If not for that tradition, I wouldn’t have looked twice at the caffeinated chipmunk for my in-game team.
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9
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, MUBC. Tagged: 2ds, 7, affleck, bale, batman, ben, blast, cast, episode, mega, MUBC, podcast, seven, ultra. Leave a comment
Missed the chance to go to the EB Expo on the weekend? Maybe you did go but are keen to hear someone else’s impressions? Fear not – the Mega Ultra Blast Cast breaks down the whole show with opinions and arguments and such, just for your benefit. Shane is our sounding board as Delaney and I discuss our favourite games of the show, the things that surprised us, the best cosplays we saw and the most in-depth Titanfall demo breakdown you’ve ever heard. At 2:20 it’s the longest podcast we’ve done since our first one, but you can read the description on Soundcloud and click the timestamps to go to the section you are interested in. If you feel so inclined, go for a run, take a scenic drive or just curl up on the couch and listen to the opinions of two excited Sydneysiders and one jealous guy.
You can play the whole thing right off this page if you wish:
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Or you can go to the Soundcloud site/app and listen from there:
https://soundcloud.com/mega-ultra-blast-cast/mubc-10-eb-expo
(Follow the link and then click the download tab)
As always if you enjoy what you hear please share the cast with your friends and like our Facebook page. Cheers!
8
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, Movies, Music. Tagged: eb, expo, gravity, legends, MUBC, rayman, rush, seven, titanfall. Leave a comment
(that aren’t Zelda-related)
So it’s probably pretty safe to say that much of my recent life has been dominated by writing about the Legend of Zelda series. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything else going on worth blogging about during that hectic rush. Here’s a quick summary of the kind of things I might have written about during the last five weeks if I hadn’t wanted to keep Vagrant Rant dedicated to Zelda countdowns:
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Rayman Legends is my favourite 2D platformer of all time.
I reached the end credits of Rayman Legends with my brother a few weeks ago now (which by no means indicates that the game is actually finished) and while reflecting on my experience with the game I struggled to come up with a side-scrolling platformer I’ve enjoyed more. Ever. That includes the Mario games. There’s just so much charm and variety throughout the game, it looks and sounds amazing and its co-op, at least when played with the Wii U gamepad, is incredible. This will be up there in my personal game of the year calculations for sure, because it’s just on another level of amazing.
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5
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, Zelda Month. Tagged: 10, bosses, companions, dungeons, enemies, Games, items, locations, month, Music, ten, top, Zelda. Leave a comment
These last 30 days of list writing have been hard work, but I have enjoyed every moment. Hearing feedback from each individual list has been wonderful (as well as a tad overwhelming) and I’d like to thank everyone who took time out of their days to give each list a read. I can now cross off another writing project from my bucket list, but this may not be the last time I visit the Legend of Zelda series for some countdown goodness.
If you missed any one of the fifteen lists I have posted on Vagrant Rant in the last month or so, here are the links to each and every one!
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Top 5 Companions
Top 10 Consumable Items
Top 10 Non-Consumable Items
Top 5 Scenic Locations
Top 10 Enemies
Top 10 Minibosses
Top 10 Bosses
Top 10 Minigames
Top 10 Sidequests
Top 10 Pseudo-Dungeons
Top 15 Dungeons
Top 10 Dungeon Music
Top 15 Non-Dungeon Music
Top 10 Memorable Moments
Top 10 Zelda Games
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That lovely Zelda Month logo you see at the top of every list was designed by my very talented sister and one-time Four Swords Adventures ally Jenna. You can view her collection of artworks, photography and clothing designs on her blog jennamarieanne.com, if that tickles your fancy.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play some Wind Waker HD.
4
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, Zelda Month. Tagged: 10, list, stats, ten, top, Zelda. Leave a comment
To those curious as to how all the Legend of Zelda games stacked up against one another on this blog when it came to raw number of list mentions this last month or so, this is the post you have been looking for! How incredibly exciting!
This list does not include honorable mentions, just the main list material. A mention fully counts even if it shares an entry on a particular list with one or more other games. Entries that do not specifically refer to any particular game do not give a mention to any game for the purposes of this list. The last list, my top ten favourite Zelda games, didn’t count towards this tally.
It’s all there real quick-like after the jump.
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