Majestic Twelve - Games of 2014

Many argue 2014 was a bad year for games. And I suppose that really depends on who you ask. I found many worthwhile indie games from Hand of Fate to Shovel Knight were coming out and I couldn't even get to them all. I found the Xbone actually had games on it (though I still haven't bought the damn thing). It was a good year for Platinum as they had three different titles release this year (though one was just a PC port, still counts). Telltale had a good year with three games coming out this year as well (two having concluded and the third just starting). And this was an excellent year for Nintendo with many great games worth owning a WiiU for.

Yes, many games did get delayed into 2015, which sucks. But I actually liked that because it lessened the stress on my wallet during the holiday shopping season. And some of those titles are filling up the early spring games drought that we usually get nothing released in. It's a blessing in disguise that few are thinking ahead for (as usual). All that said, let's get to the best offerings of 2014 (As decided by me). And because I said so, these must be true and if you disagree, you're probably wrong and maybe even some kind of racist (though probably not). 

Majestic Twelve: Movies of 2014

2014 was a strange year for films. Most of them were adaptations of Young Adult Novels featuring dystopia-futures where the youngsters played by people who are likely my age or slightly older have to fight to the death of arbitrary reasons. And while I may not have said it often, I’m tired of seeing these kinds of adaptations everywhere because they all basically have the same ideology that the future will suck and these teenage gobshites are going to be the ones to somehow make it suck less with their angsty romance subplots.

But I say no to this foolishness. No such nonsense will make my list this year as we will focus on films that are fun, exciting, and adapted from more interesting things like comics, manga, or lucid fever dreams. Here we go with the best films of 2014 (as decided by me).

Reloading: Indie Game Double Feature

We’re getting righty down to the wire with getting the last of my reviews out before start hitting out “Best Of” lists for the year. So while I found some time, I want to squeak in two indie-game reviews for your pleasure. There’s more I wanted to do, but we’re cutting it close as it is. This week we’re hitting One Finger Death Punch and the Early Access game Hand of Fate. Both are shorter indie titles without too much meat to hold their own full review. So they get to share (still two scores to give though). 

Majestic Twelve: The Twelve Games of Xmas

Starting next week will be our end of the year “Top 12 Best/Worst of” for the year. There will likely be a Majestic 12 post up every day simply because I have to cover games, movies, and events of the year. So the schedule is a bit mixed up and I have one extra day (X-Mas) that didn’t have anything scheduled… yet. So here’s a last minute slapped together top twelve of my own twisted creation. The Twelve Games of Christmas… 

BulletPoints: PC Sanctuary - Exclusionary Gaming Continued

An interesting new debate has sparked that is similar to console wars and rather than wait a week to get a response up and be behind the times, I figured I’d strike now while the iron is hot and weigh in on the issue. Recently, Microsoft has come out and said they want to integrate Xbox (most likely Xbone features) into the PC for their upcoming Windows 10. No details beyond that have been explained, and we’re supposedly getting more details in January. 

Majestic Twelve - The Best of Miracle of Sound (as of 2014)

I’m not very musically inclined. Sure, I played music a while ago, but I’m not all that skilled at it and I certainly couldn’t make up my own serious song. At best, I could write a catchy jingle that people would hate me for because they couldn’t get it out of their heads and it would be a song that gets on everybody’s nerves. Everybody’s nerves. It would be a song that gets on everybody’s nerves… all day long. What was I talking about? 

Right! So I may not be talented with music to any notable degree, but I know what I like. And I absolutely LOVE the sounds of The Escapist Magazine’s indie musician, Gavin Dunne (aka, the Miracle of Sound). For those who aren’t familiar with him (you’re about to be) he’s an indie musician that writes songs based on games (sometimes film and TV too). But it isn’t just a remix of songs from the game. He takes the tone and feelings he felt during the game and translates it into an original piece. Some of the song might have melodies inspired heavily from the original work (such as his Breaking Bad homage, “Forever Blue”) but it’s all his original work and most of it is quite good. Before we kick off our “Best Of” lists for the end of the year, I thought I’d stop and just list my twelve favorite songs of this talented internet bard and maybe see if we can get him some new fans. If not, at least I’ll have fun re-listening to some of my favorites. 

Reloading: Painting the town red with Transistor

Time to review a game that’s been out for so long, you probably forgot about it. But with the holiday Steam Sale just around the corner… this seems like an appropriate time to get this out. Transistor… here we go! 

Reloading: Sonic (go) Boom Review

So… Sonic Boom. I know you guys saw this review coming… sooner or later. 

Majestic Twelve: WORST Comic Book Movies Ever

We did a “Best of” for our favorite comic book films recently. It’s only fair that if we bring up the best, we have to also dish-out the worst. Here are the comic book films we would like to forget, but unfortunately can’t. Please note, I have not seen every comic book movie ever made. If something like Howard The Duck deserves to be on this list and isn’t, it’s because I haven’t seen it. I know it’s probably bad. But since I can’t say that first-hand, that’s not fair the “film” in this case. Let’s get going.

BulletPoints: Why Get Hype For Suicide Squad?

Some of you might have been wondering with the last issue of BulletPoints why I seem more inclined to like Marvel films over DC films. Taking it farther, why I was surprised by my excitement for Suicide Squad over… anything Marvel or Marvel-related. But there are some good reasons which I guess I’ll explain here. 

Majestic Twelve: Best Comic Book Movies Ever

Comic-book and super hero movies are probably Hollywood’s biggest commodity at this point in time give the overwhelming success of the popular Avengers franchise. And while other studios (Sony, Fox, and Warner) are desperately trying to get their hands on that cashflow with their super hero franchises, Marvel is still dominating… for now. So here’s a valid question… what are the best comic-book-super-hero movies we’ve seen thus far? 

Reloading: Hyrule Warriors! Come out to play!

I think I’m in a very action-game mood currently. I raced through both Bayonetta games with full intent to go back to the second to unlock more goodies. I have a review here of Hyrule Warriors and I’ll have another for Sonic Boom here sometime soon as well. Maybe I’ll get the nerve to jump back into Metal Gear Rising here in the next week or so and see if I can beat that boss I was having trouble with. Oh, right, I was here to review that Hyrule Warriors.

Reloading: Bayonetta 2 - Messing WIth the Best

I said it was coming and I did not lie. Here is our review of Bayonetta 2. 

Majestic Twelve - PS4 Games... Possibly?

I recently did a top twelve game recommendation for the Wii U. And while I made the recommendations without getting paid by anyone and did so because I think it’s a fine console people should try, I’m fully expecting some kind of reflexive response from people sooner or later about how I didn’t do a list for the PS4 or the Xbone (I refuse to call it anything else). There’s a few problems with that… 

BulletPoints - Trailers and Casting Calls Part One

We’ve done a lot of talking about video games and while I could easily spend another BulletPoints throwing Ubisoft under the bus, I thought maybe this would be a week I could take a step away from that and talk about films. It was either this or the alternative of discussing Naruto some more, but I don’t want to waste anyone’s time with that if I don’t have to (but I totally will if pushed to it). 

While I haven’t seen a new film recently (lack of funds mostly), I have been keeping an ear to the ground on casting decisions for various super hero films and watching the trailers to the big movies of 2015 we’ve all been waiting to see SOMETHING of. This might get long, but this will be kind of a “grab bag” BulletPoints of film topics related to all of these. If anything in particular grabs your attention, please let me know in the comments and I’ll maybe try to expand upon that a bit more in a future discussion. That said… 

Majestic Twleve - Things of Interest on the XBone

I recently did a top twelve game recommendation for the Wii U. And while I made the recommendations without getting paid by anyone and did so because I think it’s a fine console people should try, I’m fully expecting some kind of reflexive response from people sooner or later about how I didn’t do a list for the PS4 or the Xbone (I refuse to call it anything else). There’s a few problems with that… 

Reloading - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, 1 Review

The Bayonetta 2 review is soon. I promise. But since I couldn’t be home all the time to play Bayonetta, I had to play on my handheld a bit too. And the one game I managed to play continuously, beat, and get done in time for another review is a very peculiar adventure game, 9 Hour 9 Persons 9 Doors, or as most people will call it, 999. 

Reloading: Naruto (The Manga Series) Review

It’s been a few weeks since the end of the long-running Manga series, Naruto and I just realized I haven’t done a single post about it at all. I feel like I’ve let myself down a bit as Naruto was, at one point, probably my favorite anime/manga because I enjoyed the world, characters, lore, and fighting styles they created. All that said… how was the ending? Now that the series is over, does it all feel like a complete and well-crafted story or does it all fall apart?

That’s right… it’s review time! 

Majestic Twelve: Twelve WiiU Game Recommendations

As you all know, my preferred platform for gaming is a PC. But of the actual "consoles" of the current generation, right now the only one that really seems worth owning is a WiiU. I can maybe think of two or three games on the competition that I might want. But on a WiiU? Here are twelve titles (plus more) that, if you owned a WiiU, you could play RIGHT NOW (mostly). Enjoy the top twelve games to give you a reason to own a WiiU. 

BulletPoints - The Problems with Early Access

This is a topic I’m sure many of you have seen elsewhere and discussed a great deal. But since I have yet to weigh in on the topic and I want to keep the blog-posts rolling, why not discuss my take on Early Access games? 

The Majestic Twelve - DLC Ideas for Smash Bros WiiU/3DS

Recent news came out in regards to Sakurai’s decision about DLC after Mewtwo. While fans don’t seem to agree 100% on what he means, the exact phrasing I’ve been told is that, “We have nothing planned as far as DLC.” This doesn’t mean there WON’T be DLC sometime down the road. Articles generally all seem to agree that Mewtwo is going to be Nintendo’s and Sakurai’s experiment with DLC in Smash to see how that goes first before committing to anything further. 

And while I commend them and their reasoning for doing so (not wanting to make people feel they cut content from the game to BE DLC), I can safely say that the game is chalk-full of content that such a worry comes off as nothing more than silly at this point. But still, I would like to know that while nothing is solidly PLANNED for DLC that Sakurai at least has SOME idea of what he might want to do for future content updates. Below are my top twelve ideas of what I’d like to see as far as content updates/DLC goes. Directly… to you. 

Reloading Reviews: Chrono Trigger DS

Here’s a review of Chrono Trigger for the DS. Yes, I know I talk about Chrono Trigger a lot and I know that I have already reviewed the original game. But the DS game bears some significant differences worth discussing. That said, I’ll try to keep this short and focus on those changes. Here we go!

Reloading: Super Smash Bros WiiU: The Definitive Edition

With Smash Bros WiiU now out and about, I’ve finally had my chance to play the darn thing. As you can expect, here’s my review. Yes, I know, pointless because you either already knew you wanted it and bought it (like I did) or you don’t own a WiiU and never wanted one to begin with so you don’t have it. There are some of you in the middle this review might be for… But I’m not expecting those people will go out seeking this blog to see a review by some random guy on this game they’re on the fence about.

E-Vac Station Handy Review Guide

As you may have seen in our recent, we’re implementing a new system with our reviews to add “scores” of sorts to them. I didn’t like the idea of traditional numbers and I felt like stars weren’t all that eye-catching. But I thought of a system that kind of takes elements of both and made something a little new.

I thought of the ranking system within various games like Sonic, Bayonetta, and several other (mostly Japanese) games as well as the PSN trophies and how they’re ranked. Below you’ll see our system with high ranks like Platinum, Gold, Silver, etc. I borrowed graphics from Minecraft due to a lack of my own artistic abilities and because I felt they were clean enough images where most would get the idea of what I’m talking about by simply looking at the image. You’ll see these images at the bottom of all our reviews for games, films, shows, etc from now on and each one represents a different level of quality.

So below I’ve included the rankings. Each one will have a brief description on what kind of aspects a title of that rank would have and (when I could think of one) I have also provided an example of sorts. Please enjoy and I hope you look forward to our review system in future posts.

Platinum is the highest rank available when ranking any experience one could enjoy. It is the highest ranking medal in various Platinum Studios games and is the equivalent to S-Rank in any games with such a grading scale. While perfection is impossible to truly achieve, anything ranked “Platinum” is an experience that could be deemed almost flawless. Anything here is exemplary of its genre or style and nothing else could possibly receive higher recommendation. Examples include games like Portal, Metroid Prime, or even Bayonetta. Examples of film include the likes of Toy Story 3, D’Jango Unchained, and Schindler’s List.

Gold is the next rank on our list. Most consider gold to be first place, and that really is unchanged here. Platinum represents titles that have a rare level of high quality you don’t see anywhere. But gold is a much more standard first-place title that, even if not perfect, still deserve praise and does quite a bit fight. Anything ranked “Gold” is a great experience that most audience will find enjoyment in regardless of the minor flaws that exist. Any blemishes in quality can be easily overlooked due to all the good parts working well. Examples include games like Sonic Generations, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and Bioshock Infinite. And film examples would include titles like Jurassic Park, Captain America Winter Soldier, or Wreck-It Ralph.

Silver takes our third highest spot on the list. Silver games are still very fine games, but here is where notable dips in quality can occur. These are games or films that have a few mistakes that, while not ruining your day, may not sit well with all audiences. Anything ranked “Silver” is a good experience that the right audience will be able to enjoy. It may be unpolished and/or not the most jawdropping title of its kind, but it has some interesting moments still worth a look. Examples of these games would be Custom Robo, Assassin’s Creed, or Sonic Lost World. And some films that fit the bill are Thor The Dark World, Big Hero 6, or Harry Potter (4, 5, 7, and 8).

Bronze titles our up next and, again, like “silver” are still alright. But these are titles that generally “middle of the road”. They don’t offend and are generally just “solid” works at best. That being said, they also don’t take any major risks or do anything too out there to make things all that interesting either. Some might enjoy these, but a fair number of us will be left wanting more from the experience. Games that get this mark would include Sonic Heroes (Sonic titles are easy to rank), Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, or Gears of War. Looking at films, we have Incredible Hulk, Avatar, or Harry Potter (1, 2, and 6).

Stone is next. This is taken from the idea that poor rankings in games like Bayonetta would leave you with a Stone-Statue (ranking). Likewise, games that use the A-E rankings have the lower rankings looking like they’re made from cheap materials. Thus, we have stone. These are titles that may have potential or a good moment worth a look, but there are a lot of problems that can’t be overlooked so easily and “Stone” ranked titles get a tentative recommendation from us at best. Such recommendations can be ignored by fans who are likely to enjoy it anyway. Games here include: Sonic Unleashed or Metroid Other M. Films here include: Harry Potter 3 or Hunger Games.

Dirt is next and was originally planned to be the lowest rank until a better idea came along. That being said, things ranted on the “dirt” level are not recommended by us. These are titles that have too many issues to ignore and make the experience just bad overall. There may have been potential at one point for these titles, but all of that is overshadowed by the problems left in the final product. Obvious examples to include would be titles like Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 or Resident Evil 6 for games while films would be Jurassic Park 3 or Amazing Spideman.

Bedrock became our final and lowest rank to enter the list. Since bedrock (in Minecraft) is the lowest point in the game world (highest if in the Nether), we figured the lowest rank in our system should be the lowest point in the entire world. So experienced ranked at “Bedrock” level aren’t just bad. These are OFFENSIVELY to a point where not only say we “don’t recommend” whatever it is we’re ranking… but we say to actively avoid it. There are no experience that I can recall that would earn a space on this rank YET aside from M. Night Shaymalan’s The Last Airbender, but I’m sure we’ll find something to fill this space sooner or later.

Those are the current rankings for reviews. These MAY be subject to change somewhere down the line, but don’t count on it anytime soon as I want to let this system get some mileage in it first before we do try any overhauls. As for WHY we're even instituting a ranking policy, it's fairly simple. Ranking helps sum up an article for those unwilling or unable to read the entire piece to determine if I think something is good or not. On top of that, companies looking for critics to provide review copies or showings of a game or film generally only seek the people giving our scores or rankings. If we want E-Vac Station to EVER be something that could make money and grow into something more, some compromises have to be made and this is one of them. 

If you have suggestions, questions, or comments concerning this system or reviews moving forward, please leave a comment below or email us at evacstation@gmail.com. 

Majestic Twelve: Best Dogs Ever

You know something I like? Dogs. So here are the best dogs in fiction. 

(Don't like random topics for a top 12? Too bad). 

BulletPoints - Exclusionary Gaming

Being a Nintendo fan, people are under the assumption that I think exclusive games are all good and that exclusiveness is something all games should aspire to. Then I get labeled hypocritical when something like D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die is an exclusive and that’s the reason it’ll sell like shit. But I suppose it’s time to surprise everyone, I don’t think games exclusive to certain devices or regions or anything is inherently good. I don’t think it’s completely bad either, but now we need to get into the discussion. 

Majestic Twelve - Arkham Games Easter Eggs

We love the Batman Arkham games (Origins notwithstanding), and it was recently revealed that there was, in fact, an Easter Egg within Arkham City (a three year old game now) that still hasn’t been found. This was recently “leaked” by the developers which then prompted players to find it on their own and now we all know what it actually is. There might be more but before we go off trekking for more Easter Eggs in the Batman Arkham games, here’s our top twelve favorite Easter Egg moments in the series thus far (and, no, we unfortunately couldn’t include all of them). 

Reloading: Bayonetta (WiiU)

Looking back on the old blog, I realized I never did a review of Bayonetta (the first one). Having just recently finished it on the WiiU platform, I suppose I’ll do a quick review here before jumping into Bayonetta 2. 

Reloading: Big Hero 6 Review

A little late to the party, but better late than never, it’s the review for Big Hero 6, Marvel’s first movie that is part of the Disney animated line of films following films like Frozen and Wreck it Ralph. Does it hold up or does it fall flat? 

Majestic Twelve: WORST Ideas of Sonic 2006

Last time I talked about the twelve best ideas in Sonic 2006. I never said they were well implemented… so today we’ll talk about the twelve WORST things about Sonic 2006… yes… expect some repeats.

BulletPoints - Assassin's Greed: An Ubisoft Story

Watch_Dogs is coming to the WiiU this week. Ubisoft also had some PR problems with Assassin’s Creed Unity earlier this week… Yeah, I think that warrants a post. Also, yes, I'm revising a few things. Reloading will be the title for my (AJ's) reviews and BulletPoints will by my commentary series to discuss things in more depth or to rail against certain publishers or developers... 

... Like Ubisoft

E-Vac Blog Update #1 - Plans Going into 2015

Alright. So it’s been a while since this has been discussed, but let’s get to the question I’ve actually been asked a few times. What’s going on with E-Vac Station (the channel, blog, site, etc)? 

Majestic Twelve: Best Ideas of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

Sonic the Hedgehog just released a new game this past week. And while I'd love to play and review that, the budget is a little tight at the moment between having just bought Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros 3DS with Smash Bros WiiU and possibly Pokemon later this month. So Sonic will have to wait unless the reviews are extremely good for either the 3DS or the WiiU Sonic Boom games (but I'm not entirely expecting that). 

So instead of talking about either Sonic Boom game, let's shit on Sonic 2006 instead. Because if we truly want better Sonic games (like Generations and Colors) we need to look back at the games that were truly terrible and learn the lessons from those as to WHY they were terrible. Enjoy!

Reloading: Women, Gaming, and the Future of Entertainment

(Planned on this releasing sooner. Got delayed because raisins. Enjoy!)

Majestic Twelve - Horror Films

Last time we did zombie-games. And since I haven’t seen enough zombie movies to make a top 12 for that… what if we just do horror in general since we’re almost to Halloween? What are the best horror movies? Also, Happy Halloween! 

Bulletpoints: The Legend of Korra The Game The Review

So faster than you probably expected, here’s a Legend of Korra The Game review. 

Majestic Twelve - Witches

So a game I’ve been excited for, for a long time (Bayonetta 2) is FINALLY out for the WiiU (the only console currently worth owning). To that fact, and because Halloween is still approaching, why not do a top 12 featuring the best witches in fiction? No, I have not played all the games or seen all the Japanimes to know all the witches, but here are twelve that I like. So shut up and enjoy. :D 

BulletPoints: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Review

BulletPoints Review of Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor.