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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13 Apr

Battleship: Another Perspective

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

Think of this next guest post as a companion piece to the Battleship movie review I posted last year. It’s written by the rather Canadian Foxtale.

—Written by Foxtale—

—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—

When I first heard that Battleship was going to be a movie, my first thought was “How?” That thought was pretty quickly answered when I jumped online and checked out the trailer. I assumed straight away, as most people must have, that someone had decided to get Giorgio A Tsoukalos to write an American patriotic piece and he somehow snuck in his favourite subject matter.

If he hasn’t already used this movie as evidence of Ancient Aliens, he’s losing his touch.

If he hasn’t already used this movie as evidence of Ancient Aliens, he’s losing his touch.

But then I went and saw the movie. And I’m not sure if it’s just my overimaginative use of deconstructive theory that led me to this Alternate Battleship Hypothesis, but I think this was one of the most subversive films of 2012. While on the surface, Battleship appears to be a cheesy showing of Americans shouting “MURICA” and winning the day through good old freedom and American ingenuity, I think underneath the script writer was brilliant.

I realise this film has been covered in a previous Vagrant Rant post, and so I’ll leave it to you to read that for the surface criticisms (for which there are many). I’ll deal with the underlying themes, for hidden in this movie is a brilliant commentary on American over-aggression against foreign foes, a realistic view of how first contact might play out, and some good old fashioned paranoia over China.

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12 Apr

Album Review: Substantial and Marcus D Are Bop Alloy – Bop Alloy

Posted by vagrantesque in Music. Tagged: , , , .

Vagrant Rant’s first album review in a long time comes courtesy of Dazidia, a Croatian music man and anime enthusiast who produces some smooth tunes of his own over on SoundCloud, which you can also take in via his YouTube Channel.

—Written by Dazidia—

—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—

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Released: September 2010
Label: Tamashie Creations Corp.
Genre: Jazz-Hop/Jazzy Hip-Hop
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That’s some awfully tiny text in the middle.

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TRACK LISTING

1. Jazzmatic (feat. Steph the Sapphic Songstress)
2. Another Day In The Life (feat Cise Star and Mr SOS)
3. Chillaxation
4. Cloud 9 (Interlude)
5. The Art Of Work (feat Steph the Sapphic Songtress)
6. Save The Day
7. Universe Works (feat Steph the Sapphic Songstress)
8. Star Child
9. Music (Interlude) (featuring Steph the Sapphic Songstress)
10. Lead The Followers (feat Edgar Allan Floe, Niles*, Steph, Tunji)
11. Still Think Different
12. Why The World Weeps (feat. Mello-D, Steph)
13. In Memoriam… (Interlude)
14. The Boy With No Name
15. Tokyo Twilight

When you want to build a bridge solid and impervious to rust, you use an alloy of iron and carbon for a durable structure. Likewise, when you want that firm balance between classy jazz melodies and smooth lyrical flow, your best bet is Bop Alloy. Featuring the likes of chilled wordsmith Substantial and producer Marcus D, Bop Alloy is off to a strong start with their first construction Substantial and Marcus D are Bop Alloy (2010), creating a perfect blend between the chillaxing smoothness of jazz and a lively urban beat, perfect for your local cafe rendezvous.

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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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11 Apr

Guest Week!

Posted by vagrantesque in Misc.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is it! Vagrant Rant’s first ever

GUEST

WRITER

WEEK!

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For the next seven days this site will be hosting some out-of-the-ordinary content covering some entertainment media I’m not exactly qualified to cover. And it’s all Aussie, all the time.

Enjoy!

Because sometimes, you just need a little help.

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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2 Apr

Don’t Panic

Posted by vagrantesque in Misc.

Yes, that was an April Fool’s post yesterday. I don’t really hate Bioshock Infinite. In fact I’m about eight hours into the game and it’s really, really good. Not 5/5 good, as it has some padding issues and I found a few bugs on the PS3 version, but it’s a fantastically well-made game that is a blast to play.

Especially when fighting these guys.

With the foolish stuff out of the way, I’m excited to announce that I”ll be featuring a handful of guest writers this month on Vagrant Rant for the first time ever, just to change things up a bit. A week of guest posts will start mid-month and range from instructive to critical to bitter and beyond! Aside from that April is traditionally a pretty quiet month when it comes to entertainment media, the highlight of which for me is the (way late) release of Fire Emblem: Awakening on 3DS. Speaking of 3DS, I’ll also be posting a 3DS vs PS Vita comparison piece this month as well. Keep it here.

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.

-◊-◊-◊-◊-
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Irrational Games
Rating: MA15+
-◊-◊-◊-◊-

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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27 Mar

Movie Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

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

Man, there is a lot to say about this one. I saw it two days ago, though it’s been in Aussie cinemas for a couple of weeks already.

-◊-◊-◊-◊-
Starring: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis
Director: Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man)
Rating: PG
-◊-◊-◊-◊-

Expectation is a funny and powerful thing when it comes to movies. When I first saw the trailer for Oz the Great and Powerful, I was quick to dismiss it as a stylistic rip-off of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Considering that film got precisely two things right (Johnny Depp‘s performance and Danny Elfman‘s score) I wasn’t optimistic and didn’t make any plans to see Oz at all. A couple of intriguing reviews later, though, and I was ready to give it a chance. What I got was something quite unexpected and something that arguably does Alice better than Alice.

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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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