*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.
Archive for the ‘Games’ Category
19 Sep
Game Review: Sleeping Dogs
Well we are now mere hours away from the Australian launch of Borderlands 2, which I can reasonably expect to try to take up as much of my free time as it can. So I rushed to finish this surprising gem to get it out of the way. I finished it yesterday, about a month after its August 16 release.
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Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: United Front
Rating: MA15+
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Just let them lie.
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Been to Hong Kong?
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The last time I was there I was seven years old. Just about the only memories I have of it are a lot of glaring lights and a bout of food poisoning, but now, after playing Sleeping Dogs, I can say that my feelings towards it are a bit more favourable. I’ll be honest; I only picked the game up out of sheer curiosity, but it ended up keeping me away from my beloved portable consoles for the better part of a month, and that says something.
13 Sep
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)?
30 Aug
Game Review: New Super Mario Bros 2
The latest adventure of everyone’s favourite plumber has arrived just in time for the 3DS XL’s launch. It unleashed its gold-fever madness on Australia on the 18th of August.
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Platform: 3DS
Developer: Nintendo
Rating: G
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My favourite video game cover of the year so far.
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So. Many. Coins.
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So very, very many coins. Just, coins, everywhere.
30 Aug
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.
It’s just a nice-looking piece of tech, really.
16 Aug
Many Weeks of Wallet Erosion
..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
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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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.
4 Jul
Game Review: Pokemon Conquest
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.
28 Jun
Game Review: Gravity Rush
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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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
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
