Month: February 2013

The Hits and Misses of the Crysis 3 Multiplayer Beta

crysis 3 multiplayer impressions

Crysis 3’s multiplayer beta opened up last week and I spent a little time leaping around as a nanosuited operative, trying out the two availible game modes: Hunter and Crash Site, the latter of which returns from Crysis 2.

In Hunter mode, a team of ever-dwindling CELL soldiers has to survive against invisible, bow-wielding predators, and every kill the Hunters get adds to their own ranks. While this may sound like it makes for a tense multiplayer mode, the rounds are fairly short and the Hunters seem a little too over-powered, considering they’re invisible and the new bow is a one-hit kill. At one point I went on a five-kill streak with the bow when I was standing about ten feet from a group of enemy players, so oblivious were they to my presence. While the CELL team gets motion trackers and EMP grenades, the abilities given to the Hunters more than outweighs this puny advantage.

Crash Site, for those of you who didn’t play Crysis 2, is a territory control game type, where alien pods will land somewhere on the map and one team has to hold down that location to gain points. While this mode is a lot more fun than Hunter, there are several balance issues that need to be worked out before release. Continue reading The Hits and Misses of the Crysis 3 Multiplayer Beta

XCOM’s Peaks and Valleys

XCOM Difficulty Level

Welcome to What We’re Playing Monday!

XCOM is a roller coaster. It all starts out very fun, a little daunting, but once you get the hang of things, it seems like it will be a smooth ride. Then, things take a turn. The difficulty jumps up to a degree you didn’t anticipate and suddenly every alien turn is a stress-fest as you wipe your sweaty palms on your shirt while you pray to whatever deity you believe in for the aliens to miss their shot or FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LEAVE MY HIGH-RANKING SNIPER ALONE, YOU BIG BULLIES!

But then, with patience, careful movement of your soldiers and a hell of a lot of research and resources, things level off again. Suddenly, that sniper who struggled to finish off a Thin Man is double-tapping (attacking twice in a single turn) her way to victory, seemingly all by her lonesome. Your assault soldier’s useful shotgun is a now an Alloy Cannon of death and you almost feel bad for that Berserker that is about to get shot directly in his ugly face. Almost. This has been my XCOM experience.
Continue reading XCOM’s Peaks and Valleys

GamerSushi Game Night: Counter-Strike GO

CS GO

If you’ve missed the good word, we’ve had ourselves quite a bit of fun on the GamerSushi Twitch TV channel in the last couple of weeks. Between Borderlands, Sleeping Dogs and Hotline Miami, we’ve been hanging out and enjoying some good times playing games.

Well, something that came out of those sessions was the idea for a GamerSushi Community Game Night. Site user KillKill was gracious enough to grab a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive server for us Sushians to partake in a night of competitive leet skills.

So, if you’re interested in joining us sometime this weekend, here’s how to participate: in the comments, leave 1) your Steam ID and 2) whether Saturday night or Sunday night (after the Super Bowl of course) would be better. We can’t guarantee that everyone will get a spot, or if we’ll have a ton of people on short notice, but we figured this was long overdue. Hit us up in the comments!

Update: We’ll be playing tonight, post Super Bowl, around 10pm CST, or shortly thereafter if the game’s not quite over. If you can’t make it, no worries — I’m sure we’ll be in and out of the server for quite a bit over the coming weeks. For now, join the GamerSushi Steam Group so you can keep apprised of when we’re all in game.

Update 2: We’re playing. Server is here: 173.62.11.99:27015

GamerSushi Asks: Gaming Muscle Memory

water temple

Welcome to “GamerSushi Asks Friday”.

Like a lot of you guys, I’ve played many, many video games throughout my life, but no matter how many more I play or how much time has passed since playing certain games, there will always be aspects I can remember once I get my hands on a controller.

Recently I was watching my girlfriend play through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D when she got to Jabu Jabu’s Belly and got stumped at some point. Having played Ocarina of Time quite a bit I thought I could tell her how to get passed the puzzle, but unless I am holding the game in my hands, I can’t remember. If I’m playing the game, then I have no problem. The same thing happened recently when I was feeling a little nostalgic and put in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3: I could recall where every SKATE letter was and where all the secret tapes were, and I had no problem chaining together massive combos.

I guess it’s kind of like riding a bike in that you brain just never forgets when something is ingrained into your memory like that. Do you guys have any games where no matter how many years it’s been since you last played, you can pick up the controller and instantly be a pro at it?