Month: September 2010

GamerSushi Asks: Building Your Own Game?

EVE OnlineWith all the sharing we’ve done here over the years, I’m starting to feel like I understand a bit of everyone’s gaming preferences. Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind playing a game designed by a few of you guys. In a perfect world, all of us at GamerSushi, community included, would be CEOs of our very own gaming giants, with millions of dollars to throw at all kinds of awesome projects. Sadly, none of us have this option, but a boy can dream, yes?

What I wanted to ask is this: do you guys have a dream game that you would make if you could? What kinds of features would it have, and what other games would it emulate or build upon? For me, I’d want to make the kind of game I still feel like I haven’t played: a sandbox story. We’re getting used to incredible sandbox games in the last few years, but the closest thing I’ve seen to an organic sandbox story would have to be some of the craziness that goes on in EVE.

So, how about it? What kind of game would you make, if you had the chance?

El Shaddai’s Breathtaking Visuals Are Heavenly

El Shaddai, a 3rd person action game from the creator of Devil May Cry and Okami, was announced at this year’s E3, but it has been largely overlooked. That may not be the case after you see this trailer, which was shown at TGS last and showcases the game’s fluid combat and unique art style.

Personally, I’m a sucker for anything that looks like something I’ve never seen before and this fits that bill perfectly. The game’s story is based on The Book of Enoch and the game follows Enoch on a quest to find seven fallen angels in order to prevent a flood which will wipe out mankind. So I hope you dig that Hallelujah-choir because I get the feeling you will be hearing a lot of it. It’s being published and developed by Ignition, who most recently gave us the watercolor world of Muramasa for the Wii. No release date has been announced yet.

So what do you think? Is this something you would be interested in? We always complain about drab games showing brown in HD, but this game steers far clear of that. Would you be willing to give it a shot?

GamerSushi Asks: Bringing the Classics Online?

Mario Kart 64In our modern day of tubes, webs and whatever hamsters that ferret the packets of data across the Internet, online gaming has risen to a peak like never before. This is obvious to say in a sentence, but really, when you think about how different things were just 5 or 6 years ago, it’s actually staggering. For instance: Halo 2 was the first major online console FPS. That was released in 2004. YouTube was just a fledgling site then. You get the picture.

Anyway, in thinking about the way the gaming world has transformed as well as contemplating some old gaming favorites, I was struck by the notion of bringing the classics online. For me, it wasn’t until I started playing games online that I realized what a small fish I was in a huge pond in terms of skill. For every green shell I could connect at Mario Kart 64, there were probably millions that could run circles around me, and so forth. My skills in Goldeneye were only surpassed by my brother in our circle, but I wonder what kind of challenges he would have faced out there.

So, in continuing with that thought, what gaming classics and favorites would you choose to infuse with co-operative or competitive online play? Go!

Blockbuster Goes Bust, Files for Bankruptcy

blockbusterIn this increasingly digital age, the notion of actually getting up off the couch to go rent a movie is becoming an increasingly foreign concept. With Netflix, iTunes and all sorts of other modern conveniences, old brick and mortar dinosaurs, like former rental mogul Blockbuster, are slowly going extinct.

The franchise has been in trouble for a while, and signs of its impending bankruptcy has been looming for months. With Netflix set to expand its service North of the border to Canada, Blockbuster entered Chapter 11 in order to give itself a little more time to remodel in order to better meet the demands of the current market. It may be too little too late for Blockbuster, and with its potential demise passes one more sign of a bygone age.

Thinking about Blockbuster going bankrupt and the increasing frequency at which I download my games directly has me remembering the gaming days of my youth where a trip to the local Blockbuster occurred about once every week to see if there was a new game for rent. On my allowance, I couldn’t afford a new title constantly, so renting one for a short period of time seemed like a good trade off. So, I have a question for you guys: do you still rent video games from a store, or do you get your rentals via GameFly or a similar service? When was the last time you actually rented anything, be it a game or a movie, from a store?

Source – Bloomberg

The First 15 Minutes of Dead Rising 2

One of my favorite games this generation is Dead Rising, the zombie-outbreak in a mall title by Capcom. Dead Rising is famous amongst gamers for its obtuse gameplay style and outdated save system, but I loved the freedom of running around in a dress drinking milkshakes and dying my hair. Oh, and killing zombies too, I guess. Despite the fact that we’re reaching the saturation point with the walking dead, I’m still looking forward to Dead Rising 2, and to celebrate its upcoming release, some kind soul has decided to post the first fifteen minutes of the zombie-slaying sequel up on YouTube for all of us to enjoy. Kick back, relax, and enjoy the opening of Dead Rising 2:

It looks a lot like the original, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Dead Rising, for all its faults, has a lot of notions associated with it, and it looks like the new developers, Blue Castle Games, nailed the feeling of the first. One thing that might irk me is the amount of load screens, but what are you going to do? So, any thoughts on Dead Rising 2? Are you reserving your judgment, or is this fifteen minute glimpse enough for you to go off of? The game is out next Tuesday in North America and this Friday in Europe.

GamerSushi Asks: FPS Control Schemes

While I love playing shooters on both consoles and PC these days, one thing I miss from my more hardcore PC gaming days is the ability for full control customization via the keyboard. It was nice to map any feature to any button, and really helped you tailor your style of play in a unique way.

Tonight, while playing another bout of Halo: Reach, Nick randomly freaked out because his controller was set differently than he normally had it. So, as a result, he asked all of us whether we played shooters inverted or non-inverted. I thought I’d bring that question here.

For me, I used to always play inverted on controllers, non-inverted on a mouse. Eventually some weird switch flipped in my brain and now I play exclusively non-inverted. I’m not really sure how this happened, but it occurred during a playthrough of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I was forever changed, apparently.

What about you guys? How do you play? Go!

How do you play FPS games?

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Chrono Cross Game Blog Part VII: 20th Time Is The Charm

Chrono Cross Viper ManorHaving just obtained the key to Viper Manor from Dipshit, the Dragon Keeper and World’s Worst Rent-A-Cop, Serge, Kid and Nikki are ready to explore the grounds and maybe, just maybe advance the plot an iota or two. Now, an iota is a unit of measurement rarely used in reference to story advancement, but it’s late and I would rather be playing Halo: Reach, so things might get a little trippy in this post. Continue reading Chrono Cross Game Blog Part VII: 20th Time Is The Charm

The Grand Theft Auto 5 Wish List

Grand Theft Auto IV

Just a few months ago, if you had said the words “Grand Theft Auto” to me, I might have done a terrible Niko Bellic impersonation or laughed in your face, spouting all the predictable things I’ve come to repeat about GTA 4 and what a let down it was for me. Granted, that would have been before Red Dead Redemption, which has renewed my interest in Rockstar games, and given me hope for the inevitable Grand Theft Auto 5.

The lovable dudes over at GamesRadar have put together a bit of a wish list for Grand Theft Auto 5, plotting out all the things they’re dying to see. As is the case with their other wish lists, I really like some of the stuff they mentioned, particularly the bits about the driving, more wide open spaces and a new time period. I know I constantly get mocked for this, but I just want a GTA that takes place in the future. Call me crazy.

What do you guys think of this wish list, and what would you put on yours?

Source – GamesRadar

GamerSushi Asks: Tired of Zombies?

Dead Rising 2

Zombies. They’re everywhere. Swarming, gnawing, gnashing, brain chomping and being generally ugly while they do it. Not only do they ravage the earth like locusts in fiction, they are rending our gaming landscape littered with their undead bodies. Seriously. No matter where you look in video games these days, there will be a zombie horde doing something unseemly, constructed out of pixels and dismembering other pixelated bodies.

While I am generally eager to play Dead Rising 2, which releases next week, I kind of wonder if I’m zombied out on video games these days. If a game is not about zombies, it will inevitably have a mode that is about zombies of some kind. Sure, fighting the horde is fun, but when are we going to move past this? Next generation?

Anyway, I thought I’d throw the question to you guys: are you zombied out? Are you excited to play Dead Rising 2? What are your favorite zombies in video games? Go!

Microsoft to Increase Frequency of Halo Game Releases

master chiefNow that the release of Halo: Reach is behind us, did you think that we were at the end of the Halo related posts? We’re not out of the woods yet, kiddies, because Microsoft has a bit of news for us. Hot on the heels of Bungie’s super-awesome swan song, Microsoft and 343 Industries (the folks taking over the Halo franchise) have announced that they have a few plans for Master Chief and pals, and the first step is to ramp up the number of Halo releases we’re going to see. Typically, it’s a fairly long length of time between Halo games, about three years, but the success Activsion has had with yearly Call of Duty releases has been a source of inspiration for MS and 343.

Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer recently had a little talk with IGN about the future of Halo post-Bungie and what we can look forward to for the next few years. While Mr. Spencer did say that a yearly schedule wasn’t the rule, he did also state the the long delay between releases is detrimental for fans of the series. Out of sight, out of mind, that sort of thing (ignoring the fact that Halo 3 is still charting on the top ten played XBL games to this day, but anyways). Phil went on the explain exactly how their new business model got its roots from Activision and Call of Duty: Continue reading Microsoft to Increase Frequency of Halo Game Releases

BioShock Infinite Gameplay Video is on Cloud Nine

BioShock Infinite (or Skyoshock, if you’re feeling sassy) was announced in late July amid much fervor and rumors. Is this a sequel to BioShock? What’s going on in the airborne city of Columbia? While we did get a glimpse at some of the fantastic looking screens, we haven’t really seen anything concrete on the game up until now. This video, shown during the behind-closed-doors press release event, goes over the sort of shenanigans we can expect to see in Irrational Game’s next foray into the BioShock universe.

One thing that strikes me about the video is how great Irrational is at world building. Much like Rapture before it, Columbia is at the tail end of its life, and the entire city is in shambles. The video opens kind of slowly, but it ramps pretty quickly after that. The game is currently set for release in 2012, so we’ve got a while to go. What do you guys think of the gameplay? Excited for Infinite?

Little Big Planet 2 Beta Produces Vietnam FPS, Zone of the Enders and Street Fighter II

Wow. The more I see about Little Big Planet 2 and its incredible sandbox, the more I can’t wait to play it. The beta for the game is currently underway, which means that players are creating all kinds of madness that has been previously unknown to us. However, the NDA for the beta has finally lifted, which means that we are now getting to see just what people have been up to in secret. Some of the results include an FPS, Zone of the Enders and Street Fighter II. And frankly, the clips are incredible.

First, we have the Vietnam-themed first person shooter. While it’s fairly basic, I’m actually quite impressed with the graphics here, and the possibilities are enough to whet the creative appetite for more.

See the next two videos after the jump!
Continue reading Little Big Planet 2 Beta Produces Vietnam FPS, Zone of the Enders and Street Fighter II

Fable III Achievements Encourage Friend List Love

Fable 3Fable III, the next entry in Peter Molyneux’s epic Trilogy of Great Expectations, is due out on October 26th, but if you want to start planning your playthrough with regards to achievements, 1UP has the newly released list.

The most interesting are two that expect you to marry and have a child with someone on your friends list, which should either bring you and your pals closer or end the friendships all together. Lionhead is encouraging cooperative play of a type heretofore unseen and I am all for trying new things. That being said, I am not having Eddy’s baby. Mitch’s, maybe. Eddy, no.

Check out the full list here! Are there any appeal to you? Would you enter matrimonial bliss with an Xbox Live Friend?

Source – 1UP

Fanmade Minecraft Trailer Has Both Mining and Crafting

For the last few weeks, I’ve been hearing more and more about the game Minecraft, the sandbox game that allows players to shape the world as they choose, albeit in pixelated blocks of wood and stone. Full disclosure: I don’t know much about the game, so if you do, feel free to explain some more in the comments, but from what I can tell, it was developed by one person and is currently taking the indie gaming world by storm.

While the game is normally just 9 bucks, it’s actually free to play indefinitely while creator Markus Persson works on getting everything back up and running. To me, the most interesting aspects of the game, on top of building whatever you want, is the idea of community construction and fashioning the world together in a multiplayer setting.

Anyway, this Minecraft fanmade trailer really has perked my interest even more than it was originally, and I’m tempted to try this out. Have any of you guys played this current PC sensation (looking at you, karhax and Muaddib)? Please share your thoughts!

To check the game out, go check out the Minecraft website!

Today’s WTF: Bungie, The Last Great Indie Developer?

Bungie LogoOh man, Activision’s Bobby Kotick is going to earn himself some new fans after this one.

For what seems like the hundredth time in just a few months, Kotick’s got a new quote circulating on the Web tubes, this one just as absurd or more so than the last few. At the recent America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference, the corporate chief had this to say about the world of indie game development. Brace yourselves.

Bungie are a very unusual company… They’re probably the last remaining high quality independent developer. It’s very hard to [pauses]… that has sort of has institutional skills and capabilities. And they’re a real company.

There’s more to it than that, but it seems to me calling Bungie “the last remaining high quality developer” packs with it a slight to quite a large list of excellent indie devs out there. You know, guys like Sucker Punch, Valve, Level-5, Insomniac, etc. I mean, it’s one thing to express the opinion that Bungie is the greatest independent developer left. But to say that there are no other high quality developers seems like a bit of a stretch.

Obviously, this is more horn tooting on the part of Bungie and Activision’s new distribution deal, but still, this is a bit heavy. So go ahead and share your feelings about this new WTF from Kotick. Also, who do you think is the best indie developer out there? Go!

Source – CVG

Last Guardian TGS 2010 Trailer is Gorgeous, Again

We seem to be on a bit of a Team Ico kick lately, but it’s hard not to be excited about all the awesome news that’s coming out of the Japanese developer these days. It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything at all about their new project, The Last Guardian, and they finally delivered at TGS in Japan last week.

With such a long delay in news, I kind of wondered if there was some issue with development, but judging from the newest trailer, I’d say those fears have now been alleviated. I seriously can’t believe how gorgeous this game is, and I can’t wait to play it, whenever that release finally lands. What do you guys think of the trailer?

GamerSushi Asks: HD Remakes?

Metal Gear Solid 3

If there’s anything that the HD console generation has brought us, it’s the tantalizing promise of HD remakes of some of our old favorites. Inspired by this new (and hopefully spreading) trend, GamesRadar put together a wish list of 13 Playstation 2 HD remakes. I have to say, just thinking about that kind of thing gets my engines going. As one of the best consoles we’ve had, the idea of seeing Jak and Daxter, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid restored and remastered for HD would be more than a bit incredible.

Ideally, we could spread that around a little bit to older developers and consoles, but that’s a bit more of a stretch than upgrading things from the PS2, no doubt. I’d love an HD Super Mario 64 (if Nintendo could get in on the HD game), as well as Link to the Past and some of the older Final Fantasy games. What would be on your wishlist for an HD remake? Go!

Source – GamesRadar

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 8: Nostalgia and the S

Mass Effect 2 LiaraIt’s been some time, gentlemen and ladies, but we’re back with another episode of the GamerSushi show. Chalk the delay for this one up to a few things. Namely, the update to GamerSushi 2.0, which sidelined Jeff and Nick on the weekends. Also, Halo: Reach which totally ruined my week, and I’m the dude that edits it. So sue me.

In this episode, we talk about a number of things, including PAX 2010, where Mitch gives us a rundown of all the things he saw and experienced. We also chat about a number of issues including cut scenes in games, Mass Effect 2 and Lair of the Shadow Broker, writing in video games and Alan Wake, and how small games companies are killing it with downloads. At the end, we break into one of my favorite podcast discussions we’ve had, piggybacked off of the conversation about S games.

As always, we had one or two issues during the recording, and this issue resulted in Mitch being dropped from the discussion part of the way through. You’ll hear the glitch associated with that a handful of times. Just blame him for using a free headset he won at PAX.

As always, please go rate this cast on iTunes and subscribe with the handy links to the right. Enjoy!
Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 8: Nostalgia and the S

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Fallout: New Vegas Gets First Developer Diary

In just one month, folks will be clamoring to jump back into the world of the Fallout universe, this time taking on the wasted west and the deserts around Vegas. I know several people who are particularly looking forward to this game, eager to dip back into an enormous quest (or series of quests) yet again.

And for all of you wishing to see a little more to fuel your need for Fallout: New Vegas, you’re in luck. As is becoming custom for new video games these days, Obsidian just released its first Fallout: New Vegas developer diary, going over the setting and story of the game. I have to say, I’m intrigued by the nature of the story, complete with its own MacGuffin in the form of a mysterious package stolen from the player.

Anyway, give it a watch. Hard to believe it’s out October 19 here in the U.S. Who’s getting this game, and what do you think of the video?

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Reach Screenshot

Although I think I’m going to know the answer for the half of the comments on this one, I’m going to roll with it anyway. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve asked what you guys were up to, and now is as good of a time as any.

For me, I’ve been dealing with Mass Effect 2 DLC, which, seriously, Lair of the Shadow Broker is incredible. In addition to that I’ve also been doing a little bit of Lego Harry Potter (yes, really). And most importantly, the title that has sucked away my life for this entire last week: Halo: Reach. Hopefully a review will be coming soon, but I really love the game, and haven’t been this absorbed in one for as long as I can remember. It’s owning my sleep, my interactions with people, everything. Just the way a good gaming binge should.

So what about you guys? What are you playing? And on top of that, who has Reach and would be up for a community play date sometime soon? Go!