Month: October 2010

Go Behind the Scenes of Halo: Reach’s Deliver Hope

The most recent of the Halo live action trailers, Deliver Hope for Halo:Reach was a pretty decent affair, featuring a lot of firsts for the commercials such as live action Spartans and Elites, among other things. Microsoft recently put up a behind the scenes video for Deliver Hope that delves into all the work that went into making this trailer a reality:

I always appreciate these kinds of sneak peeks, but seeing a man don Kat’s armor kind of ruined it for me. Also, note how they only show snippets of the Elite costume but never give us a look at the whole thing in motion. Overall, it’s still a pretty cool video showing the making of one of the most elaborate commercials of all time.

Microsoft Spending Half a Billion to Promote Kinect

kinect half a billionWe all knew that Microsoft had deep pockets, but I would have never pegged them as the kind to go hog wild with their limitless font of cash. Apparently I was wrong in that assumption, because the software giant has pledged half a billion dollars to promote Kinect, the controller-free peripheral launching November 4 for the Xbox 360.

According to the New York Post, Microsoft began planning the multifaceted launch of Kinect almost 18 months ago with the help of Stephen Spielberg. With such a large amount of money dedicated to getting Kinect on everyone’s minds, we can expect to see the little black sensor pop everywhere from soda cans and magazines to the TV shows Glee and Dancing with the Stars. All this is going towards getting Kinect in the minds of parents for the upcoming holiday season, where it will be squaring off against the Wii and Sony’s newly launched Move controller.

If you thought the ad campaigns for Halo 3 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 got annoying leading up to launch, just wait until you can’t round a corner without seeing Kinect. To be fair, we’re not really the target audience for the sensor, but I’m sure there will be some “core” gamers out there picking it up.

I think this makes it more than clear that Microsoft is in love with the technology behind Kinect, and they’re really throwing the whole Xbox division behind it. Now, I don’t consider technically consider myself a Microsoft fanboy, but I’m kind of worried what the possible failure of Kinect will do to the console. While I think that Microsoft can take the hit overall, we may see the end of the Xbox if this doesn’t work. Half a billion is a lot of money, even if it is just a drop in the bucket for Microsoft.

This kind of news is just begging for your comments, so let us know what you think! Can half a billion guarantee a good showing for Kinect this holiday? Will a possible failure spell doom for future versions of the Xbox?

Source: New York Post

Minecraft Combines With Portal for a Delicious Video

Crazy Minecraft videos are kind of becoming all the rage here at GamerSushi, and really, can you blame us? The game, which basically plonks you down on a random map and goes “have fun”, has inspiried more crazy creations than any other title I can remember. This may be Minecraft’s refusal to guide your hand and leave most players to their devices, but it could just be that inside all of us is some crazy megalomaniac builder waiting to be let free. Just take this most recent example where YouTuber kopierjunge made a Portal game inside Minecraft. Madness!

I also give props to this guy for not including any cake jokes. I hope none of you are getting sick of funny or wild Minecraft videos, becuase I’m certainly not. Just think, if someone can make Portal in Minecraft, how far away are we from other ports? Halo? Civilization? Just think of the possibilities. What game would you like to see emulated in Minecraft?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 10: Percentify

PercentWhat’s that? Two podcasts in one month? Welcome to generosity. Or just bored dudes with too much time on their hands. Either way, you get more podcast goodness. In this edition of the GamerSushi podcast, we chat about iPhone gaming, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Dead Rising 2, the 25th anniversary of the NES and play a hilarious game of percentages, hosted by the bearded one himself.

The exciting thing about this podcast and the last one for us is that we finally feel like we’re getting closer to figuring out the best format for what we do, and could maybe turn this into a weekly venture with some more practice and a few tweaks. I’m digging the “over/under” and “percentage” type games, and hope you find them just as enjoyable.

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 10: Percentify

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World of Warcarft: Cataclysm Cinematic Intro Brings the Wrath of Deathwing to Azeroth

I know that World of Warcraft ain’t too popular around these here parts, but there’s no denying that once your subscriber numbers and gross monthly income surpasses most small nations, you’re definitely on to something. Blizzard’s MMORPG juggernaut has been gaining steam since it launched in 2004, and now, six years later, it shows no signs of slowing down. Blizzard just put the cinematic intro to the newest expansion, Cataclysm, up on the YouTube account, and good lord is it both gorgeous and terrifying:

The most amazing thing is that all of Blizzard’s incredible cinematics are done in house, not sourced out to a third-party studio like Blur (best known for The Old Republic trailers). While Blizz’s movies have been incredible in the past, this one seems to take them to a new plateau. I’ve never been more impressed by their videos, so kudos to them for continuing to raise the bar. We must have a few WoW players on the site, so can anyone share their thoughts on Cataclysm? Looking forward to the end of the world as you know it? The game launches December 7, 2010.

GamerSushi Asks: Repetitive Gaming?

Uncharted 2

In talking to people about why they dislike games, there are any number of reasons that gamers use to discredit certain titles. Whether people don’t like an inventory system, a story, or long cut scenes, everybody has their own individual beef. However, it seems like one of the complaints I hear about games more often than not is that a game is perhaps “too repetitive”.

The interesting thing to me about this criticism is that when you break it down, all games are repetitive. In essence, that’s what a game is. It has to have an established set of rules, as well as a playing style that gets repeated constantly. Really, the often quoted Bungie mantra of designing a game that has “30 seconds of fun” over and over is what all games strive to do. The difference is that the best games just figure out a way to hide it. To me, Uncharted 2 is an excellent example of this, and probably one of the best I’ve seen at disguising repetition. Naughty Dog found a great balance of platforming, shooting and insane setpiece moments that really make you forget that you’re repeating yourself.

So what do you guys think about the issue of repetitive gaming? What games feel too repetitive to enjoy, and what games mask it? Go!

GamerSushi Asks: Insane Gaming Stories?

Minecraft

Epic multiplayer matches. Horrid save fails. Ridiculous things that you pulled off, wishing someone had been there to witness what could have been a storied feat. We all have those ridiculous gaming stories, things that defy explanation, logic or just happen to be worth their weight in lulz.

I find that these most often take the best shape in either sandbox games or in multiplayer. Exhibit A: my Halo: Reach Killtrocity from a few weeks ago is something I’m quite proud of, in the nerdiest way possible (you’ll notice several GamerSushi editors being dominated). In terms of other stories, I’m finding that Minecraft seems to produce them from everybody that I talk to. It’s just one of those games where the unthinkable happens. For instance, my friend was playing and mined underground so long that he got lost from his spawn point. When he dug his way back to the surface and found that the sun was setting, he hurriedly pulled his compass and accidentally threw it into the ocean. He never found his way back home, died, and lost all of his stuff. It happens.

Hearing all of these hilarious things lately made me wonder what the deal was with you guys. So, what are some of your favorite gaming stories? Feel free to share!

Image by Janitor.Master

Fable 2 is Free [Updated]

In what seems to be a glitch by Microsoft you can go right now to xbox.com, and download Fable 2 for free. I know we only gave it a C, but as Jeff said to me, “free is free.”

I would suggest grabbing it quick before Microsoft fixes the bug. (I’m currently downloading it)

UPDATE: Per @XboxSupport, this is a legit download, but is only Episode 1 of the game.

Update: Valve Not Considering Steam Trade-Ins

steam trade insWe generally like to avoid cluttering up the front page with multiple articles on the same story, but I think that this particular story deserves a follow up. A couple of days ago, I published an article in which I quoted Michael Pachter saying that Steam is “supposedly” looking into allowing trade-ins via their digital store. Now that the interview has had sometime to make it’s way to Valve, the quote is coming back to haunt Mr. Pachter.

Valve marketing head Doug Lombardi recently spoke to EuroGamer regarding the alleged trade-in plans, and said that Valve has never met with Michael Pachter, and they have no idea where he got the notion from. Pachter responded in turn, agreeing that he had never met Valve, and that the problematic quote came around because the game journalist posed the question to him awkwardly. This is his new stance on his line from a couple days ago after the jump: Continue reading Update: Valve Not Considering Steam Trade-Ins

Remember Reach: A Halo Fanboy Is Spawned

On the day the newest entry in the Halo series, Halo: Reach, was released, two sounds were heard: the sound of my mind being blown and the sound of oinking high above your heads, as pigs were surely flying. What caused the pork chops to take flight? I, Anthony, someone who was always “meh” towards the Halo franchise and quite frankly, bewildered by the insane amount of love and devotion gamers bestowed upon the series, had reached gaming nerdvana by way of Reach. Satan shivering in Hell? Check.

My experience with Halo began back in my college days at Florida State, where drunken Halo was a common pasttime at a friend of mine’s apartment. However, owning only a PS2 and a GameCube, I couldn’t play Halo worth a darn and no one was about to give me a second to do something as simple as figure out the reload button, so my early contact with Spartans and Master Chief was filled with cursing and frustration. When that happens, I usually just say, “Meh, that game sucks.”

But I kept hearing about it over and over and as Halo 2 was released, I felt like a lone wolf left behind by the pack as they all raced to stores at midnight to buy the sequel and play it all night. Then, when Halo 3 was released and Microsoft suddenly channeled the immortal merchandising and marketing soul of George Lucas, my feelings went from surprise to complete annoyance. How dare this franchise get so huge without my approval? And seriously, Gaming Fuel? Who authorized this? Clearly, some moron didn’t get the memo.

I was that moron. Continue reading Remember Reach: A Halo Fanboy Is Spawned

Vanquish Video Shows How War Has Been Accelerated

The more I see of Vanquish, the more interested I get. While it does partly look like a very white Gears of War, it also throws in a few things to mix it up, like a heightened sense of speed in close combat or a morphing gun arm. While none of those conventions are new per se, mixing them all together may make for one tasty gameplay gumbo…or a mangled casserole of failure. Vanquish has a new trailer highlighting the A.R.S. Battle Suit (because what else would you use it for?), the same one you’ll be manning when the game drops on October 19th.

So there you have it folks, possibly the last of the Vanquish trailers we’ll see before next Tuesday. Call me crazy, but I think I might be sold on this game. The one thing that concerns me is how busy the game looks when everything is going all at once, but I guess I’ll find out how it shakes down soon enough.

Dota 2 and Other PC Modder Victories

Defense of the Ancients 2

One of the advantages that PC gaming still maintains over consoles is its modding community. I’ve stated on numerous occasions that until 360 and PS3 games allow the same kind of tools and access as you’ll find in the PC world, the question of “have consoles surpassed PCs” is a discussion that can’t yet happen. If you’re not too keen on the exciting world of PC modding, you might have missed out on a few pieces of big news that happened this week.

  • Dota 2 (an adaptation of the name Defense of the Ancients 2, probably to avoid legal issues) was announced by Valve for PC and Mac in 2011. For the uninitiated in PC gaming lore, Defense of the Ancients was a Warcraft III mod that pitted teams of heroes against one another as they rushed enemy turrets, with AI controlled units battling it out between them. Valve hired project lead IceFrog to come aboard and develop a Source version.

  • A Duke Nukem 3D fan remake of the game in the Unreal engine titled Duke Nukem: Next-Gen received legal approval by Gearbox and Take Two to continue in production.

  • Derek “Krael” Paxton, creator of the Fall From Heaven Civilization IV mod, was hired by Stardock to fix their maligned and catastrophic release build of their new RTS Elemental.

What do you guys think of all of these pieces of news? Have you played either DotA or Fall from Heaven? What other PC mods would you like to see full releases for?

Source – GameInformer, Shacknews, and for the sake of repetition, Shacknews

Bungie Announces Noble Map Pack for November 30th

Halo_Reach_NobleDLC_Tempest_03
We’re exactly a month after Halo: Reach’s monumental release, and we keep finding things to post about it. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! For the small but vocal minority out there that have been lambasting Reach for its relatively slim selection of multiplayer maps, Bungie has heard your cries.

Coming at us next month for 800 Microsoft Points, or 10 real life dollars, the Noble Map Pack will deliver three new maps and 250 Achievement points. Considering that I still haven’t beaten the game on Legendary solo (it’s really hard!) I can only imagine what these new cheevos will bring. Halo 3 had some ridiculous Achievements added after the fact, so my inner Achievement whore shudders to think what I’ll be going through in a month and a half. Bungie has also released some screenshots of the battlefields contained within the Noble Map Pack, so hit the jump to see them in their glory!
Continue reading Bungie Announces Noble Map Pack for November 30th

Official Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare Trailer Rides Zombie Horses

A few weeks back, Rockstair unveiled the first glimpses of the Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare DLC, which puts John Marston in the precarious and frightening position of battling zombies in the old west. Well they’re back to the teasing again, this time with the official trailer, which also shows Marston riding an undead stallion. Sign me up.

I think the most interesting thing about all this is how much fun they’re having with it, story wise. When I first heard the news that we were going to see zombies in Red Dead Redemption, I just assumed it would be a thing where you were mindlessly fighting the mindless, but it seems like they’re going all out with it. The big question I have now, after seeing some of the major characters from the game: is this canon?

Still no official release date, but we can probably all take one wild guess. Who’s picking this up? Go!

Rumor: Bioware Blogger Reveals The Old Republic’s $300 Million Price Tag and Other EA Secrets

The Old Republic

The rumor mill churned out a doozy today, kids. A person claiming to work at Bioware Mythic started a blog, EA Louse, and has decided to air out some dirty laundry, the kind that I’m sure the masters at EA would rather the world not know. Granted, all of this is unconfirmed, but it’s too juicy to just ignore. Some of the tidbits include details about upcoming EA layoffs in November, keeping with the current trend in the industry of letting people go just before the holidays.

In addition, he or she claims that the budget for the upcoming Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic, is a whopping $300 million and that EA is panicking because they realize now that they have a failure on their hands. He goes on to claim that it will be the biggest MMO failure in EA’s history. There is plenty more on there, including some gossip about Warhammer, so head on over if you want to read more about that.

Assuming (dangerous, I know) that this is true, it would spell disaster for EA, as that is a lot of money to throw out the window. Do you see any truth to these claims? Do you think it’s ethical for an employee to reveal company dirt like this? Let’s hear it!

Source: EA Louse

Michael Pachter Believes Valve Will Offer Steam Trade-Ins Soon

Steam trade in service
Michael Pachter, an analyst that tries to gauge future trends in the video game industry, has basically built a career saying crazy things and hoping they come true (kind of like some games journalists, but I digress). While most of what he says can be brushed off as preposterous rumor, he sometimes produces a rare gem, like a diamond in a coal mine.

Take this recent interview he had with NowGamer where he postulated that Valve will begin offering a trade in service on Steam fairly soon. While we all love Steam, apparently there’s some demand to have Valve’s digital store offer the same sort of service provided by GameStop, i.e the ability to trade in titles for credit towards new ones. This is the explanation Pachter gave as to how he thinks it would go down:

“Steam is phenomenal, it’s a great service,” Pachter explained, “Steam gives gamers enough other stuff so that they don’t resent the fact they can’t trade in their games. And you know, name all the Steam games that you’ve purchased that you’ve traded back in to somebody else for credit. Steam’s about to let you do that supposedly, you know like trade and exchange, but they’re going to take a fee from it.”

While the “supposedly” does take this idea pretty firmly into guesswork territory, I think it’s a novel idea that Valve are possibly exploring, if only to further their dominance on PC gaming. What do you guys think? Any truth to Pachter’s statement? What kind of “fee” would Valve take, if any?

Source – NowGamer

What if Retro Games had Achievements?

While there are naysayers in the gaming world about the advent of achievements and trophies, I’ve fervently maintained that they send us back to a simpler and more community-oriented time in gaming. The era of high scores is something that was lost as games migrated from the coin-op to the couch or computer chair, left behind as some kind of relic in the arcade graveyards. What I’ve loved about achievements and trophies is that they feel like a return to that mindset of gaming gone by.

On top of that, I just like seeing where my friends are in the games they’re playing, and vice versa. It’s like displaying your marvelous feats of gaming for your friends to see – not so much for the e-peen factor (as many of its detractors claim), but for conversation and joining in on the shared experience and joy that only gaming can bring.

How awesome would it have been for your friends to see that you completed Super Mario Bros. 3 without the fabled whistle? Or that you located Cloud and Aeris in Final Fantasy Tactics? Or that you can beat Metal Gear Solid in under 2 and a half hours if you skip cut scenes (I swear, it can be done)? The idea that someone could look at one unified profile and see everything I’ve done in games would be incredible. This is sadly not possible, but it got us thinking: what if classic games had achievements?

It might look a bit like this: Continue reading What if Retro Games had Achievements?

Fable 3 Trailer is a Revolution

Ah Fable 3, the black sheep of the Microsoft exclusive lineup. Not as successful as Gears of War or Halo, you still manage to maintain a certain presence within the gaming community despite your continued over-promising. Broken dreams of a fully realized world aside, Fable still has enough clout to make a major debut this holiday season, and we’ve got a new trailer to celebrate the impending release. The launch video for Fable 3 chronicles the overthrow of the current, presumably evil, King by you, his brother. Worst family ever.

I kind of like the stylish presentation of the trailer, and I am anticipating being the King of Albion after busting my hump to save it in the past two games. Time for this faux-British fantasy world to start paying dividends (oh, and friends list baby making). Anyone here getting Fable 3, or is this one we’re passing on in this stuffed holiday season? Saving it for later? Anyone getting it on PC? The game hits the Xbox 360 on October 26.

Today’s WTF: Gran Turismo 5 Delayed Again to “Holiday Season”

Well, after all of the to-do about Gran Turismo 5’s supposedly final rigid launch date of November 2, 2010, it looks like that might not be the case. Yup, adding to a string of WTF-inducing delays, SCEA has announced that Polyphony Digital want to keep working on the game some more, thus pushing the new launch date back to some other time in the nebulous holiday season. Here’s the full word from Sony:

We can confirm that Gran Turismo 5 will not be available this November 2nd, but the game’s release will be coming this holiday season.

We sincerely apologize to GT fans for the delay, however, creator Kazunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital want to make certain they are creating the perfect racing experience, and we are confident that this ambitious game will exceed expectations when it launches.

Kind of crazy that this game was first unveiled all the way back in 2006, and it still has yet to see release. This begs the question if a change is needed in the games industry: should developers hold their tongues and stop showing these things off years before release?

And the follow-up question, you get to vote on.

What's more likely to happen first?

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Source – PlayStation Blog

Nathan Fillion Campaigns to be Nathan Drake in Uncharted Movie

Sometimes, the stars align in a perfect way and then all is right with the ‘Verse. We aren’t at that point yet, but we are on the right track because Nerd Hero and All-Around Awesome Guy Nathan Fillion tweeted a message linking to a story about David O. Russell being attached to direct the Uncharted movie and indirectly asking his followers to campaign for him to get the role.

Now, myself and countless others have been advocating for this ever since the original Uncharted was released. Drake’s sardonic, but heroic manner fits easily with Fillion’s smarmy charm and wit, as anyone who has seen Castle or Firefly would attest. It’s just nice to see Captain Reynolds himself get into the mix. I doubt anything will come out of this, as given the current trend in Hollywood, Ryan Reynolds will likely get the role, but a man can dream, can’t he?

Do you think Fillion would be good for the role of Drake? Barring that, who else would you like to see play the role? What about the rest of the cast, like Sully, Elena or Chloe? Speak now!

Source: @NathanFillion