Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

30 Aug

Larger Than Life – 3DS XL Review

Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Console, Games. Tagged: , , , , , .

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.

Continue reading →

16 Aug

Many Weeks of Wallet Erosion

Posted by vagrantesque in Games.

..And what an incredible Olympic Games London 2012 turned out to be. Bravo, Poms.

Barely time to take a breath and the big gaming release season has already kicked off!

Starting from today, which saw the launch of Sleeping Dogs and Darksiders II, you can count on at least one big game coming out every week until just before Christmas. It is once again a great time to be a gamer.

New Super Mario Bros 2 launches on 3DS this Saturday, then the 3DS XL console hits our shores next week alongside Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Guild Wars 2 and Madden 12 arrive the week after, which takes us into September and towards Tekken Tag Tournament 2, F1 2012, LittleBigPlanet Vita, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, FIFA 13 and most importantly Borderlands 2!

Then October rolls along, which means first Resident Evil 6, then Dishonored and Pokemon Black/White Version 2, followed by Forza Horizon and then the gigantic release of Assassin’s Creed 3 alongside Assassin’s Creed Liberation. November turns things up to eleven with two absolute monsters in Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, as well as Hitman Absolution, Paper Mario: Sticker Starand Farcry 3.

All of which fails to mention that we’ll be treated to a brand new console, in the form of Nintendo’s Wii U, sometime between late November and mid December.

Phew.

I need to go play some games.

10 Jul

Game Review: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

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

Taking on a 3DS review now. This charming musical title came out on July 2nd and I’ve been tapping along to it ever since.

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Platform: 3DS
Developer: Square Enix
Rating: G
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Chibi!

Complete with slick pre-order bonus stylus. Aww yeah.

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Twenty-five years.
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That’s how long it has been since the first Final Fantasy graced the Famicom System in Japan, launching a franchise that would become a beloved worldwide phenomenon. Developer Square Enix has decided to honour the quarter-century landmark by releasing a quirky rhythm game celebrating the series’ incredible musical pedigree. This is Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Continue reading →

4 Jul

Game Review: Pokemon Conquest

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

Here’s the other game I was talking about in that June article. I’ve been playing this since it launched down under on the 21st, alongside Gravity Rush.

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Platform: DS
Developer: Tecmo Koei
Rating: G
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Just… I mean, where did this come from?

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Uh, what?
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That just might be your response to seeing Pokemon Conquest on store shelves, just as it was mine to finding out that it was getting a western release. The portable curiosity combines the money-printing worldwide popularity of the Pokemon series with the previously Japan-exclusive turn-based strategy franchise Nobunaga’s Ambition. The result of this unlikely marriage isn’t for everyone, but it represents a pretty bright future for crossover games of this kind.

Continue reading →

28 Jun

Game Review: Gravity Rush

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

It has been a long time since I did a game review, mostly since the games I’ve been playing lately are on 3DS and grabbing screenshots of those games is a nightmare. I’ll still get to them in due time, but for now, here’s a review of the recently-released Playstation Vita game Gravity Rush. It came out on June 14th.

The PSN delay made this a long one.

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Platform: PSV
Developer: Sony Japan Studio
Rating: PG
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Is she sideways?

The case is a lot smaller in real life.

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Yes, it’s that game.
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The one I ranted about as the primary reason why I wanted a Playstation Vita. The one I complained about when it was absent from the system’s launch. The one I’ve been waiting for since, well, since I first heard about it almost a year ago. That game. I’ve almost set myself up to be disappointed by Gravity Rush just due to the sheer weight of expectation I’ve placed on it over the last few months alone. Well, now I’ve played it, and yes, now I’ve finished it (something I rarely do at all with games these days, let alone in under two weeks). Read on to find out how it fares. Continue reading →

25 Jun

Technical Difficulties

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, PS Vita.

So I was supposed to put up my Gravity Rush review today, but neither my PS Vita nor my PS3 want to connect to the Playstation Network at the moment. The Vita needs to be online to transfer screenshots to my PC, for whatever bizarre reason. In the meantime here is some fan art of Gravity Rush from deviantart that I am currently using as my iPod Touch wallpaper.

Credit to *Niking

20 Jun

The Other Ones

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

This is the second of my two E3 articles for the year. Then on to some more reviews!

The press conferences of the Electronic Entertainment Expo are usually the most hyped part of the show, and for good reason, but they’re only half the story. The show floor invariably reveals a few uncelebrated diamonds in the rough every year and E3 2012 was no different. A great many games that were absent from the five press conferences showed up on the floor and tried their best to impress.

Here are five of my favourite non-conference games from this year’s show, in no particular order:
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Project P-100
Completely absent from any of the Nintendo press conferences, this incredibly quirky trans-genre… thing looks surprisingly fun to play on the Wii U. Best described as a cross between Pikmin and a drawing-based superhero game, it came as no surprise to me that the sheer hectic pace of the cartoony action was engineered by none other than Platinum Games, developers of the excellent MadWorld, Bayonetta and Vanquish. Bring it. Continue reading →

18 Jun

Conference Call

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

My internet connection has been giving me real problems of late, which has made this piece a little later than I would have wanted. Alas.

That magic week in worldwide gaming news has already come and gone for another year. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 for the affectionate/professional/lazy, delivered less surprises than in past years, but there was still plenty to talk about. The aftermath has been dissected a million ways already. Chief among the topics of conversation, as always, were the five big press conferences. Here I throw in my 2c on them by ranking them in terms of how strong I thought they were, from least to most.

Continue reading →

17 May

Ten Cubed is…

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

In some ways it’s hard to believe this day has come. Today is May 17th and that means it is exactly ten years since the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube in Australia.

On May 17th, 2002, ten years ago to the day, my school had a Staff Development Day, so we didn’t have to go to class. It was clearly put on so the teachers could all go grab themselves a shiny new Nintendo Gamecube.

Featuring one of the most comfortable controllers ever designed.

That day represented the first time I had ever purchased a video game console with my own hard-saved pocket money. That little black box was also the first console I had ever taken home on launch day. Its graphical power, quite impressive at the time, blew me away after years playing Nintendo 64 games, but more importantly the Gamecube provided just as many wonderful gaming memories as its predecessor. Its handle and small size meant it never stayed in one place for too long, making temporary homes at friends’ places, where the good times rolled on.

What follows is a list of my top ten favourite Nintendo Gamecube games of all time. Continue reading →

11 May

Capture Testin’, Phase Three

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

Though it was a hassle to set up in standard definition (I had to have it on my normal HDMI connection and then set the AV settings and switch over), I was glad to discover that I was able to take some decent PS3 screenshots using the Kaiser Baas Series 8 Game Recorder. See my Xbox 360 test shots here.

PS3_1

The icons are so massive!

PS3_2

The PSN home screen

Continue reading →

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