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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25 Feb

Oscars 2013 Reactions – Almost Live!

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

So I missed the live broadcast of the Oscars this morning on account of work, but I’ve been pretty successful in keeping a media blackout going, so I shall now watch the recorded version and write my thoughts on the big awards here as I see them, then post them tonight. How exciting!

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz

This one was arguably pretty open but I was still surprised that the favourite, Tommy Lee Jones, didn’t win. Very pleasantly surprised, that is, because Christoph Waltz was AWESOME in Diango Unchained and I had pretty much assumed that the Academy would ignore his turn because he had already won quite recently. Two wins from two nominations!

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23 Feb

K-Packaged

Posted by vagrantesque in K-Pop, Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Yes, looks like another K-Pop post. But this time I’m not writing about the music. I’m even not writing about the people who perform the music. Today I’m writing about just how damn shinily those Koreans wrap up their products. Because it is, quite frankly, on another level, and it is, quite honestly, ridiculous.

At the end of last year I touched on just how important presentation can be to me in my Top Ten Game Cases of 2012 list. I’m the kind of person who genuinely got goosebumps at Apple’s colour-soaked iPod Nano ads from the latter part of the last decade. Good presentation is like a drug to me; it’s a weakness, God knows it really is.

Anyway, yesterday, this happened:

Kpopsplurge1

No really, I can explain.

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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.

20 Feb

A Hole Filled

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: .

Credit to deviantart’s alicexz

A few days ago, after over a decade of sporadic chances to do so, I finally watched Disney’s “animated classic” Mulan for the first time. I watched it on the big screen no less, as part of Event Cinemas’ Disney Princess festival. It was all kinds of awesome, which wasn’t entirely unexpected, but watching it at my age, with my catalogue of film watching experience (*adjusts monacle*), made me notice some interesting stuff. Here I shall rant a little about them. There might be spoilers here, but come on, who in their right mind wouldn’t have seen this movie by now?

1. It looks amazing.

I did experience it in a cinematic atmosphere, so that is probably a factor here, but I flat out did not expect to be so floored by Mulan‘s visuals. I mean, this is a 14 year old movie we’re talking about. It reminded me of how good Disney’s hand-drawn craftsmanship can look and, perhaps more surprisingly, its liberal use of the kind of CGI seen in the famous Wildebeest scene in The Lion King didn’t actually look that dated (probably because it’s combined with said craftsmanship). The film’s city finale in particular really made an impression on me. Continue reading

19 Feb

The VR K-Pop Starter’s Guide

Posted by vagrantesque in K-Pop, Music. Tagged: , , , , , , .

So we are now a week and a half into the Year of the Snake (the year in which I was born, incidentally). To celebrate the Lunar New Year I thought I’d post something with an East Asian flavour and I had this in the pipeline for a while, so here goes. Took me way too long to compile, this one.

So you’re aware of this whole K-Pop thing. You’ve seen Gangnam Style a hundred times and maybe you think there’s something you might enjoy in the genre. Perhaps you have a friend who listens to the stuff and you’re interested in what the fuss is about. Or, perchance, you’ve read my own reasoning for being a fan (a guy can dream) and it has piqued your interest. Regardless, you might be wondering where to start. Well, look no further.
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THE ESSENTIALS

Before you read anything else, watch these clips.

Gee – Girls’ Generation

WHY IT’S A BIG DEAL: This 2009 mega-hit was the most viewed K-Pop video on Youtube before PSY decided to riff on the Korean elite. It was partially responsible for the whole phenomenon of easily accessible Youtube K-Pop, plus it was the first K-Pop song to make any significant impact on the Japanese charts (the second-biggest music market in the world, apparently). It established Girls’ Generation (also known as SNSD) as a group at the very forefront of Korean pop music. Suffice to say they haven’t looked back.
LIKE IT? Check out some of Girls’ Generation’s other hits, such as Genie, Run Devil Run and Hoot. If you like the cutesy style of the clip, well, welcome to like a third of all K-Pop. You’ll be right at home.

I am the Best – 2NE1

WHY IT’S A BIG DEAL: Just compare this to the previous video. 2NE1 are K-Pop’s most successful “attitude girls”, going for a look and style that inspired a shift in girl group presentation back when they debuted in 2009. This is their biggest hit thus far, released in 2011, and its meticulously crafted swagger is truly something to behold.
LIKE IT? For more 2NE1 ‘tude, have a look at Fire and Hate You. If you’re after more of this kind of devil-may-care style, head the way of Miss A and GLAM.

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7 Feb

Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook

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

Saw this two nights ago. The Oscars are closing in!

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Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro
Director: David O. Russell (Three Kings, The Fighter)
Rating: M
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Duality

I’ve gone into Oscar season a little darker than usual this year. Perhaps due to the Academy’s rather off-putting snub of Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises and even, where it matters, Django Unchained and Argo, I wasn’t in the mood to do the research. So I went into Silver Linings Playbook without the knowledge that it had a nominee in each of the major acting categories, with only half a trailer and the name of a rather skilled director to give me any idea what to expect. This happy combination set me up to be sucker punched by a film that may just have done to romantic comedy what the excellent The Cabin in the Woods did to horror: prove that daring to shake things up can really work as long as you have the talent to back up your bravado.

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30 Jan

When will it end?

Posted by vagrantesque in Games.

It’s a new year for games!

That’s definitely something to get excited about even at the worst of times, as there’s nothing like a new annum when it comes to entertaining speculative dreams of potential. However, this particular year will see things get interesting a lot more quickly than, well, arguably any year before it. Not even considering the fact that we will probably find out about Sony and Microsoft’s new home consoles this year, or that online services like Steam are odds-on to keep churning out fantastic indie titles, just take a look at this line-up of games set for the first quarter of 2013 alone:

How long can 24 hours be?

DMC, reboot of the beloved  Devil May Cry series, is already out, I’m playing it, and it’s awesome. Tomorrow sees the long-awaited release of Japanese developer Level 5’s collaboration with one of the most beloved anime studios ever, Studio Ghibli, in the form of Ni No Kuni. A week later, Dead Space 3 will chill millions of players to their core, and I won’t be one of them. No thank you. Slightly less scary but no less atmospheric is Aliens: Colonial Marines, an ultra-polished canon sequel to James Cameron’s famous Aliens movie, which hits less than a week later. The 21st of Feb then sees a blockbuster double release: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Crysis 3, both of which will stun with their visuals and intense commitment to action. The normally quiet month rounds out with the exceptional-looking platformer Rayman Legends.

For all February’s power, March positively dwarfs it. Its first week will no doubt be dominated by one of the most anticipated series reboots in recent memory: the new, grittier Tomb Raider. The same time period will also see the release of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, which fans of the anime will lap up, and the new Sim City, which will doubtless send millions of players into fits of obsessive micromanagement. Mid-month features a sequel to one of this generation’s real sleeper hits, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2, but it’s expected to be overshadowed by a gargantuan “exclusives battle” between Sony and Microsoft. In the red corner, God of War Ascension. In the green corner, Gears of War Judgment. Sporting similar-sounding names, both titles are prequels set before their respective trilogies and both are expected to make lots of money. For all the late-month intrigue of co-op fest Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel and the cloud save-enabled Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, The last week of March really belongs to only one game: Bioshock Infinite. Delay after delay has kept gamers from playing the viciously hyped juggernaut, but we will have it for real… very soon…

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a stacked non-holiday period. It seems my wallet is headed for some more discomfort.

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