Posts Tagged ‘Gaming’
29
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2014, Games, Lists. Tagged: 10, Best, friends, Gaming, moments, scenes, story, top, Videogame, Year. Leave a comment
Videogames are built on moments, whether those moments be built right into the fabric of the game or simply emerge from the experience of discovery and/or sharing gameplay with others. They are the difference between games you simply play and games you remember. 2014 was positively packed with instances that made gamers start conversations with “How good was it when…” These are the ten that stick out the most in my mind.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW for a number of story-focused games, so be warned.
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VR BEST OF 2014 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s spooky. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.
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10. Final World – Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Throughout the majority of my time with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the story set-up that gave DK and his friends the motivation to traverse the game’s gorgeous and tough levels – I was simply enjoying the challenging gameplay flow, the sweet level design and the satisfying boss fights. That was until the final world, when I realised I had been island hopping rather than just exploring different parts of the same island like in the first DK Country Returns on Wii. I realised this because, after spending most of the game waiting for the “Freeze” part of Tropical Freeze to show up, it suddenly appeared in the form of the entire original DK Island. Each of the 8 worlds from the Wii game appears as a single level in this world, complete with returning music and signature design elements mixed with ice level tropes. A really *cool* touch from Retro Studios.
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25
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2014, Console, Games, Lists. Tagged: 10, 2014, 5, Best, consoles, five, Gaming, top, Videogame, Year. Leave a comment
A very merry Christmas to all! I’m celebrating with the return of another list that debuted last year – my personal opinion on how the seven major videogame consoles stacked up against one another in 2014, with sales successes taken out of the equation. I like to think I played a decent amount of everything relevant to this list in 2014, so hopefully I’m qualified for a balanced opinion. It is still an opinion, though.
Once again, the two biggest factors that go into ordering this list are overall user experience and quality of 2014 games released on the console. Exclusive games are given priority over platform-agnostic ones unless there is a significant difference in functionality and playability between versions of a game. Also, because a PC doesn’t really count as a console, I may mention certain games as “exclusives” even if they also appear on Steam.
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VR BEST OF 2014 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s spooky. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.
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5. Playstation Vita
(LAST YEAR: 3rd)
The short-lived era of Western-developed “Triple A” games for the Playstation Vita appears to be over after just two years in the wild. However, it’s still my favourite console on which to play games. Portable, sleek, very pretty and supported by a near-constant stream of high quality smaller titles and big Japanese games, I spent an awful lot of time with my Vita in 2014. Sony actually released two new models of the Vita hardware this year – the even more convenient if slightly less visually capable PS Vita Slim in June, and then the rather odd but quite cool Playstation TV last month (which I reviewed on this site). It may have been completely missing a universally eye-catching new exclusive game, and its operating system may look near-identical to the 2012 launch version, but there were plenty of reasons to love the Playstation Vita in 2014 and it easily slides into my console Top 5 this time around.
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23
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2014, Games, Lists. Tagged: 10, 2014, aesthetic, Best, Box, Case, Cover, eye, Gaming, look, top, Videogame, Year. Leave a comment
Let’s kick the negativity and move on to explore the best of the best that 2014 could offer in the realm of entertainment media, at least in my opinion. We begin with that highly subjective topic – what looks good on a videogame box. Here I put forward my specific 2014 view on the simple joys of appreciating the aesthetics of packaging, whether it be with plastic, cardboard or something else. I spent a lot of time looking at videogame cases this year, and these are my top ten favourites. Front cover art is naturally the most crucial part of weighing these up against each other in my eyes, but the rest of the case is important as well. Happy viewing!
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VR BEST OF 2014 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s spooky. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.
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10. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham brings together a ridiculous amount of comic book characters from the DC Universe, sending them into space via the conceit of the various superpowered Lantern Corps. And what better way to showcase this fantastical set-up than with a suite of colour-soaked space action shots blending seamlessly with the titular hero’s billowing cape? I dig the hell out of this visual design choice, as it also affords the artists the ability to line up some of the more well-known DC characters in a more grounded fashion on the case’s lower half. Nice.
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11
Mar
Posted by vagrantesque in Console, Games, PS4, Xbox One. Tagged: aus, Gaming, gen, generation, impressions, next, PlayStation, ps4, trophies, updated. Leave a comment
Infamous is almost here!
Not pictured: Game that actually uses 4 controllers.
I’ve already had my PS4 for a tick over three months, which is a little difficult to believe, and have been spending a decent amount of time with it. The console has more games and features than it did when I first wrote about it on this blog and it’s about to get arguably its first bona fide “next-gen” exclusive title, Infamous: Second Son, so here’s how I feel about the console now. Just don’t ask me about the Xbox One, because I’ve barely touched mine since Christmas (outside of the excellent Titanfall beta of course).
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26
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2013, Console, Games, Lists. Tagged: 10, 2013, 5, Best, consoles, five, Gaming, top, Videogame, Year. Leave a comment
Merry Christmas everyone! Here’s a new kind of list that I can see myself coming back to next year. It’s a smaller list to counteract the length of the last one.
There were many videogame platforms vying for the attention of consumers in 2013, which was overall a pretty spectacular year for memorable gaming experiences. Some of these consoles struggled on the sales charts more than others, but most of them enjoyed at least a few worthwhile game releases. So what if someone were to rank them with sales factors out of the equation, based on user experience and, above all, the quality of their game releases throughout the year? An answer to that question, albeit a subjective one, is coming at you right now.
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VR BEST OF 2013 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. Respectful disagreement is welcome.
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5. Xbox One
Of the two exciting “next-gen” consoles released worldwide at the end of the year, the Xbox One probably had the slight edge in terms of early game library. The excellent visual showcase Ryse impressed many right from day one, despite its repetitive combat mechanics, while Dead Rising 3 by all accounts fixed many of the problems the series has suffered from since its inception and Forza 5 leveraged the power of the console to great effect with its hyper-realistic car models and innovative “Drivatar” AI augmenting system. Peggle 2 followed soon after launch and received great critical acclaim, with Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare and Titanfall to follow early next year. Its current position is remarkable given the hate thrown its way in the middle of the year, when it was looking like quite a different beast.
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7
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Console, Games, PS4, Xbox One. Tagged: aus, comparison, Gaming, gen, generation, impressions, Microsoft, next, one, PlayStation, ps4, xbox. Leave a comment
Yes, I’m that guy – I had to have both.
Awww, look at them just co-existing harmoniously…
The next generation of gaming is now well and truly here, with the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One joining the 3DS, PS Vita and Wii U in one big dysfunctional gaming family. At the time of writing I have had just over a week with the Playstation 4 and a fortnight with the Xbox One, meaning I am just about ready to talk about what has and hasn’t impressed me about the brand new consoles. I’ve divided things into sub-headings for easy reference. Note that most of these photos were taken very late at night with a combination of caffeine, minimal sleep and of course excitement, so they are a little on the awful side if you look at them too closely.
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30
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, K-Pop, Music. Tagged: Big 3, companies, Console, Gaming, kpop, trio, versus, vs. Leave a comment
I realise this kind of article probably has a pretty narrow audience, but on the plus side there probably aren’t too many like it on the interwebs.
Entertainment media is big business these days. Like, BIG business. Big business breeds big companies who survive because they happen to be the best at what they do. Each of these companies may emphasise its own supposed competitive advantages, but when push comes to shove the entertainment media juggernauts are still around because deep down they are really similar, whether they sell movies, TV shows, videogames or music. This hit home for me recently when I happened to notice that the apparently different worlds of console gaming and Korean pop music shared the phenomenon of a dominant “Big 3” who control market share. And public (read: internet) perception of these companies within their own contexts is kind of unnervingly similar.
So for the hell of it, I paired them up and tried to find as many similarities between the most obviously corresponding members of each trio as I could. Of course they tout many differences as well, but the amount of similarities I did end up finding is perhaps a little scary. For the sake of uniformity I’ve referred to videogame franchises and Korean idols/groups alike as “brands” here, cause that’s what they are, really.
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31
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists. Tagged: 2013, august, co-op, co-operative, coop, cooperative, couch, Games, Gaming, local. Leave a comment
Also known as Local Co-op Month, or The Best Acronym I Could Think Of For August.
The last month of our Australian winter, which starts tomorrow, is rarely the domain of many exciting videogame launches. It’s traditionally the last moment of quiet before the likes of FIFA begin to ring in the year’s most gigantic holiday releases. However, if you happen to be a fan of getting a bunch of mates round for some good old fashioned couch co-operative sessions on your favourite gaming system, you have plenty of reasons to be excited for this August. There are more local friendship-destroyers launching in 2013’s eighth month than you can shake a pair of controllers at, which comes as quite a lovely lump sum following the relative drought of such titles throughout the first half of the year. I’ve listed the promising eight I know of in this very article.
This probably isn’t even all of them; I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed a Steam game or two. Continue reading →
17
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Games. Tagged: Characters, Gaming, videogames. Leave a comment
The final post of Vagrant Rant’s guest week comes from a tall man who will play just about any game you put in front of him. As long as it fulfils this criteria…
—Written by DeathOnStilts—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
It’s no secret that the characters of a game either make or break it. Having lots of them makes a game better. Having LOADS of them makes a game glorious. The variety of personalities and play styles they bring enriches the life of the gamer and fills them with an incomprehensible joy. Well, that joy can be explained:
All gamers, in their heart of hearts, longs for games to have loads and loads of characters.
The discovery of a game that DOES have loads and loads of characters fills all gamers (without exception – don’t lie to yourself) with the happiness that comes from fulfilling the soul’s desire.
Jubilatory.
The characters pictured above are just 60 of 112 “champions” in the ever-growing, ever-popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena known as League of Legends. The game’s developers at Riot Games bring out a new character or “champion” every month (or so they say), each with vastly different play styles. Due to the glorious plethora of characters, no two matches are the same. In addition to this is the likelihood that you probably have a champion that not many people have. This obviously makes you “sah indie” and “alternative”. If you’re actually good with a champion nobody uses due to them “sucking”, then you get to rub that in their face and insult them by simply being a presence on the battlefield.
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