So if it isn’t already apparent, I should probably take this opportunity to point out that this November has been a pretty barren month for Vagrant Rant. Aside from an all-out assault on my free time by a number of work commitments, there has been one primary reason for this: I have just returned from a 10-day trip to Japan with my Mega Ultra Blast Cast colleagues. And it was awesome.
Just about as soon as I touched down in Sydney once more, however, I had to hit the ground running with even more work commitments, even though there is a veritable feast of content to write about right now. This puts me in a bit of a pickle, as I highly doubt I will be able to cover everything I was planning to around this time of year. Here’s what I would love to do in the next couple of weeks, in a perfect world:
Write up my many, many thoughts on the excessive quirkiness, wonderful culture of respect and otherworldy efficiency of Japan, based on my brief experience there;
Write a handful of proper album reviews for the first time in a very long while, potentially focusing on the recently released Linkin Park remix album, two Capsule albums and perhaps more;
Post a terribly low quality episode of the Mega Ultra Blast Cast that we recorded in our hotel room late in our trip, while a little, erm, under the influence;
Write a proper review of the much-anticipated Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, which releases in Australia very soon and has big shoes to fill;
Do decent justice to the two next-generation gaming consoles, the Xbox One and the PS4, launching in a matter of days, with some first-up impressions and coverage.
There’s definitely a lot of exciting stuff and I am not terribly optimistic about getting it all done before my Best of 2013 series gets up and running. I will try my best and if even half of it happens | will be a happy man. In the meantime, here is roughly what the rest of my year looks like in terms of movies and games, more or less in order of release:
Need less to say, “I am keen” doesn’t quite cut it here.
Over the last couple of weeks, every time I thought I was ready to write and complete this review someone online would discover some other new thing within Pokemon X. But now I can finally say I’m ready to post the review having experienced enough of the whole game to make a good fist of everything. This will be a long one. Enjoy.
Pokemon X and its near-identical counterpart Pokemon Y represent several ambitious steps forward for one of Nintendo’s flagship videogame series. The first three-dimensional Pokemon adventure is a stunning audio-visual achievement that makes the 3DS sing and draws smartly from the nostalgia wells of an entire generation. But perhaps most excitingly, the game is the first in the series to admit that Pokemon has transformed beyond its creators’ wildest dreams into an endlessly deep competitive juggernaut over the last decade. The game works very clearly with this in mind, resulting in a wonderful social experience that is also more balanced than the series ever has been. It’s a must-have for most any 3DS owner.
As of today I’ve had this game for a month, so I think it’s about time I posted this review. To be honest, I wish I could spend some more time with it, but hey, there are actually more Wii U games to play now! I finished the story mode this morning.
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Platform:Wii U
Developer:Nintendo Rating:G -◊-◊-◊-◊-
What adorable little murderers.
. Finally! .
Here, dear readers, is the first brand new, single player Wii U game that might actually have a case to justify a purchase of Nintendo’s newest home console by itself. It’s taken almost nine months to appear, but Pikmin 3 is a reminder of why Nintendo fans love the quirky Japanese company so much. It’s beautiful, it’s charming, it’s an absolute blast to play and, over a decade after the first game in the series debuted on the GameCube, there is still nothing else quite like it.
Another year, another round-up, another desperate relationship with sleep.
What an exciting Electronic Entertainment Expo. If you ask me the 2013 major publishing conferences were the most interesting, surprising and, in at least one case, outright brutal I have seen for a long, long time. Wow.
Just as I did last year, I’ve broken down and ranked each conference from least to most impressive in my own opinion. Of course each company just showed so very many games that I cannot possibly hope to remember them all, so please keep that in mind. I will say that even though last year I placed Ubisoft on top of the list, this year’s EA conference (which is ranked lowest here) would have given that purple French showcase a real run for its money. 2013 was just that good for E3 conferences.
And that was Vagrant Rant‘s first-ever guest week! I’ve already received some great feedback about it, including a handful of ideas and writing requests, so that probably won’t be the last you see of the concept on this here blog.
I just wanted to mention a few things that happened while the seven guest posts were going up:
First of all, I definitely want to thank the talented, opinionated people behind each guest post, ZaonTheFirst, Dazidia, Foxtale, EraofShamus, Sean0graphy, deldog30 and DeathOnStilts.
Dazidia’s review of the Bop Alloy record was actually the 100th post on Vagrant Rant (no, he doesn’t win a prize), so I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who has ever taken the time to read something on the site, especially all of my lovely followers. To 100 more!
I’ve gone back and re-adjusted all of my album reviews on the site to match the new, slightly tweaked, video-inclusive format used for Dazidia’s and Sean0graphy’s reviews.
A pretty big deal for YouTube happened this last week as well, namely the release of PSY’s Gangnam Style follow-up, Gentleman. It has already claimed the record for most number of view in a single day and has 150 million views overall, but that was arguably a foregone conclusion. What wasn’t a foregone conclusion is that people actually seem to like it. Call it similar to Gangnam Style if you will, but it has a catchy rhythm, it’s actually funny and it has successfully thrust an older K-Pop dance move (and the group who first performed it) back into the spotlight on a much bigger scale than ever before. Credit where credit is due.
The latest in the line of quirky, short-notice Nintendo Direct online presentations happened two nights ago. I was tweeting along with countless other Nintendo fans as the stream was happening and I have to say I am quite excited about the ongoing offerings of the company’s 3DS console. I’ll be talking a lot more about it when that 3DS vs Playstation Vita comparison piece I’ve been talking about finally goes up.
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)?
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.
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.
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 →
Need less to say, “I am keen” doesn’t quite cut it here.
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