Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

14 Apr

Why God of War: Ascension Sucks

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, PS3. Tagged: , , .

Our next guest piece is written by EraofShamus, an indie game lover who dabbles in game design himself. Suffice to say he’s not the biggest fan of formulaic game design in general.

—Written by EraofShamus—

—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—

God of War: Ascension (or GOWA for short), created by Santa Monica Studio, was the worst 3 hours I’ve spent playing any video game this year. I’m going out on a limb and saying it’ll probably be the worst game I will regret playing this year. Yeah I didn’t finish it. I didn’t have the stomach to sit through any more. Bite me.

Let me premise this by saying I have played other GOW games before, so I am somewhat familiar with the series. I didn’t play the previous title on PS3 because I had a go at the demo, and felt pretty underwhelmed by the nature of the gameplay. A demo really should demonstrate the best parts of a game, you know? I feel as though the God of War 3 demo brought me a craving for variety, and not a desire to see more. Nevertheless, I decided to give Ascension a chance, and hopefully it would turn me around. I was wrong.

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11 Apr

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Games, Wii U. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

We kick off the first Vagrant Rant guest writing week with a guide piece written by ZaonTheFirst, a JRPG afficianado with a taste for the grind. Having played over six hours of the new Monster Hunter myself, I can tell you that the game is hella confusing for newcomers and these tips have already helped me immensely.

—Written by ZaonTheFirst—

—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—

So, you’ve just picked up your copy of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on 3DS or Wii U. You’ve jumped into your first boss monster quest and immediately you think “HOW THE *^@!$ DO I PLAY THIS GAME?!”… If this is you, don’t worry. I used to be like that too… many years ago…

ANYWAY, you’re in luck because because this is a list of tips on “How newcomers can make the most of their Monster Hunter playthrough”.
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1. Have the correct mindset.

This is arguably the single most important tip. If you charge into even the lower rank boss monster quests with the God of War, Devil May Cry, generic-hack’n’slash-game mindset, I GUARANTEE you will have a bad time. Unlike the aforementioned games, you’ll be focusing on something a lot more than actually attacking. What is that, you may ask? See below.
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4 Apr

Infinite Musings

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , .

There you have it, a hat-trick of Bioshock Infinite posts!

So I just finished Bioshock Infinite last night. This is a game that people are likely to want to talk about for a long while yet, and for good reason. I’m no exception, so here I’m just going to post some of my freshly spun thoughts on the game. I see no point giving it a serious review, if for no other reason than to avoid confusion on the site later on. It’s wall o’ text time.

I’ve separated my helter-skelter thoughts into positive, neutral and negative categories for, well, just for the sake of categorising them really. I will keep all mentions of the game’s ending in their own section at the end for people who don’t want it spoiled.

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1 Apr

Game Review: Bioshock Infinite

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , .

I picked up this much-hyped game a few days ago amidst a flurry of other titles. Suffice to say the other games fared a little better.

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Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Irrational Games
Rating: MA15+
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At least the case looks good.

At least the case looks good.

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Well this sucks.

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I have waited for Bioshock Infinite to arrive on store shelves for a very long time. It was announced years ago and as the third in an incredibly revered series of games, I wasn’t alone in expecting big things. But now that I’ve played it, I barely think it’s worth wasting words on. In fact, you can skip the review if you want; just please don’t buy this game.
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25 Mar

Top 5 Tomb Raider Moments

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , .

Ooooh

I am quite fond of Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics’ latest effort, the rebooted Tomb Raider (You can read about just how fond of it I am in my review here). While playing through the game I came across quite a few memorable moments worth mentioning and thought they deserved their own post. If you haven’t played the game yet, I recommend that instead of reading this, you go and play it right now.

Spoilers

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21 Mar

Game Review: Tomb Raider

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

I actually finished this game around two weeks ago, but I’ve been so busy I couldn’t even capture screenshots, let alone write it up, until now. It released officially on March 5th.

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Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Rating: MA15+
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Inacave...

It’s a hard knock life.

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Brutalised.

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It’s barely fifteen seconds after you select “New Game” in the new Tomb Raider that our heroine Lara Croft receives her first injury. After fifteen minutes she’s been burned, impaled through the side and has had disagreements with countless hard, jagged surfaces. An hour in, it’s a wonder she’s still alive. But she is, and this is the important thing, because Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have re-imagined the decades-old gaming icon as a desperate survivalist in a much grittier setting than the old version ever had to contend with.

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19 Mar

Ahead: 2013

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , .

Here are two more lists for you to disagree with at your leisure.

So just over a year ago year I got all excited about the pile of new movies and games that were coming out in 2012 and posted a pair of top ten lists to order my anticipation. As it turned out, I didn’t even end up watching some of the movies on the list and an embarrassing amount of the games I wrote about didn’t even come out in 2012. Here’s hoping I’ll be a little more accurate with this year’s equivalent.

For the sake of neatness, I’ll only count movies/games that are coming out after the month of March has run its course.

MOVIES

10. jOBS (Teaser)
I’m curious, OK? I don’t actually think Ashton Kutcher is the worst guy in the world and, even if his turn as the late great Steve Jobs sucks, this movie is still going to be talked about quite a bit and I want in on that conversation.

9. World War Z (Trailer)
Zombie movies can be great, they can be decent, or they can be so bad they’re good. In my lifetime I have never come across one that is just bad, and so I will happily watch the eerie World War Z when it hits.

8. The Great Gatsby (Trailer)
Baz Luhramann’s latest pulls out so many Moulin Rouge stops in its trailers that it kinda demands to be watched on style factor alone. Which I suppose is Luhrmann’s deal in the first place. Leo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams sweeten the deal.

7. Pacific Rim (Trailer)
On face value I can’t really believe that this movie is actually happening. It looks like Battleship meets Real Steel, and while the latter movie was surprisingly decent, the former, well, it kinda sucked. Everything changes, of course, when you realise that Guillermo del Toro is directing. Colour me hyped.

6. Despicable Me 2 (Teaser)
If there was ever a non-Disney, non-Dreamworks animated feature that surprised me enough for me to rate it among my favourite animated movies of all time, it’s the hilarious and heartfelt Despicable Me from Illumination Entertainment. Now a sequel is well on the way and while it will struggle to top the first one, you can bet I’ll be at the cinemas in week one to make that call for myself.

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27 Feb

The Golden Difference(s)

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, PS Vita. Tagged: , , , , .

There is quite a lot that has changed in Persona 4 Golden since it was just Persona 4 on the Playstation 2. So much so, in fact, that I thought the changes deserved their own article. For those who have played some or all of the original game, this list may help you decide whether the revised game is worth getting at all. I’m going to try to be exhaustive here but may miss a few.

Indeed, kitten.

Indeed, kitten.

I’ve divided the list into three sections: the small changes, the medium-sized changes and the big changes.

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27 Feb

Game Review: Persona 4 Golden

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, PS Vita. Tagged: , , , , .

This Vita gem was scheduled to be released in Australia today, but it has already been in stores for a couple of days. The Americans got it last November and I imported it back then so I could finish it by our release date. Easier said than done, but here we are.

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Platform: PSV
Developer: Atlus
Rating: M
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IZANAGI!

From the unhinged people who brought you Catherine!

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It’s a hectic week.
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High school life never slows down. My teachers are irritating and they keep picking on me to answer questions I have no idea about. I have to attend drama and soccer practice as regularly as I can, because they improve my expression and diligence. I should try to help out my classmates who need to find all manner of trinkets, but exams are coming up so I really should study. I should also make time to hang out with friends, but things don’t pay for themselves, so I have to work hard at a part time job. Oh, and I need to fuse a decent Persona so I can beat a grotesque shadow monster when I next go inside a TV at the local department store.

Such is the bizarre equation of Persona 4 Golden, a truly fantastic entry in one of gaming’s most unique RPG series.

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23 Feb

The Playstation Vita: One Year On

Posted by vagrantesque in Console, PS Vita. Tagged: , , , , .

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.

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