Month: December 2013

Going Back to the Well with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

warhammer 40,000 space marine

Sometimes after your interest in a game has waxed and waned and you think you’ve plumbed the depths of the value you can get out of it, occasionally it’s a good idea to reinstall or boot up old titles to see if there’s anything you missed out on the first time around.

This happened to me recently with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Relic Entertainment’s foray into third-person character action games. I liked the game quite a bit when it first came out (you can read my review here), but in the intervening time Relic added a co-op horde mode to the game called Exterminatus, which I missed out on the first time around. It follows the usual horde-mode set-up of allowing you and three friends to battle through 20 waves of enemies with occasional objectives, but what makes it shine is Space Marine’s solid gameplay.

I had forgotten how fun and satisfying Space Marine felt to play. Considering that your average Space Marine is built and looks like a walking tank, it might be easy to forget that the melee combat in the game is fast and fluid, and the shooting benefits from the combat-roll ability which is basically your “get out of jail free” card when you’re being mobbed by Orks and don’t have a chainsword handy. Add in two or three friends backing you up against insurmountable odds and throw in a bunch of frenzied yelling when you’re up against the wall and you barely manage to pull through and win a round and you’ve got yourself a really good time, especially out of a game that I had pretty much given up on a couple years ago.

Has anyone else experienced this? Have your friends ever dragged you back to an old game that got some post-launch content that you originally passed up on, only to find yourself having an awesome time?

GamerSushi Asks: Gaming Christmas?

Steam Holiday Sale 2013

Merry Christmas to all you fine GamerSushi folk. We’ve said it before, but we’re grateful and thankful to have an awesome community like this one. You guys are smart, funny and have some mighty fine taste (your gravitation toward our ramblings not withstanding).

Even though it’s just Christmas Eve and not Christmas, I’m sure many of you have already started the experience of unwrapping all of your gaming loot this year, including the illustrious and addictive Steam sale. I’ve already picked up Fire Emblem and Zero’s Escape for the 3DS, along with Stanley Parable, Arkham Origins, XCOM: Enemy Within and Papers, Please! from Steam. Still looking at Gone Home and State of Decay, along with The Testament of Sherlock Holmes. I’m unsure about those last few, so if anyone’s played them, let me know what you think.

What about you guys? What games or gaming items have you gotten so far this year? What do you think you’ll pick up? Go!

Pixel People Is a Scarily Addictive Mash of SimCity and Tiny Tower

pixel people

I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for the “hurry up and wait games” on iOS. Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes (both by NimbleBit) sucked me in for a couple dozen hours each time. I’m not so impatient that I feel the overwhelming need to buy premium currency in these types of games, and they usually have something to do while you wait (such as Tiny Tower’s elevator).

Just recently my girlfriend turned me on to Pixel People, a game released earlier this year by Lambda Mu and Chillingo, the latter of which you may recognize as the publisher of Angry Birds. Pixel People sees you as the mayor of a floating space city that expands by splicing clones of a different profession together to create a new one (for example the first splice you do is of the mayor and the mechanic clone, which gives you the engineer profession). Every time you splice together a new profession, you get the opportunity to make a new building. Different clones can be combined together, and overall there are about 306 jobs to discover. You assign the clones a job and sometimes the buildings will have a special effect for your city. Continue reading Pixel People Is a Scarily Addictive Mash of SimCity and Tiny Tower

GamerSushi Asks: How Did Gaming Treat You in 2013?

SimCity

I think 2013 was one of the more interesting years in gaming that I can remember. Mostly because it brought us the launch of the long-awaited next generation, but also because it was a big year for shakeups.

1up and LucasArts said goodbye to us this year, although they’ve been on the way out for a while (which is especially sad given how both of those companies had a huge influence on the way I absorb gaming media). 2013 saw John Riccitiello leaving EA and Don Mattrick and Steve Ballmer saying adios to Microsoft.

2013 also brought us the biggest amount of ups and downs in terms of games that I can remember. We had a game of the year contender, BioShock Infinite, come out a short while after the biggest flop in recent memory (at least for us here at GamerSushi), SimCity. It’s a year that saw the 3DS grow by leaps and bounds while the Wii U struggles on, even with a 3D Mario title.

But I’m more interested in you guys. How did 2013 treat you for gaming? What were your ups and downs? Anything you would have done differently if you could travel back to the past and tell your past self not to do something without creating a paradox?

Random Encounters IV

Beyond Jodie

1. The outrage over the VGX, while some understandable in parts, is also overblown in others. Look, it’s Spike TV; you really shouldn’t expect something elegant for video game awards. But that doesn’t mean you should sit there and be insulted or talked down to. My suggestion is let Geoff Keighly host by himself. He is capable and serious enough to do it. Also, three hours is way too long. Have the awards, have the world premieres and trim it to an hour and half, maybe two. Cut some of that crap. A new character for Donkey Kong? Cut it. Pewdiepie? Cut it. Be smart. Know your audience.

2. It’s a good thing that that the Xbox One and PS4 are selling like hotcakes. Despite what some articles would have you believe, there is no clear winner and there won’t be for several years and even then, who cares? Pick your console and enjoy it. Don’t let anyone ruin your fun and don’t ruin anyone else’s.

3. That said, I love my PS4 and I have zero interest in the Xbox One. It sounds like it is exactly what some people want and bless them all. But it doesn’t really speak to me and as I have less and less time to play games, I need to start being more rigid in what I can play. Money isn’t the issue, but time is and I need to prioritize the kinds of experiences I want.

4. I hate to be That Guy, but now that I have a next-gen console, I am really looking forward to seeing next-gen sequels to beloved franchises. Imagine what the next Fallout or Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect will look like. Imagine what they will be able to do with the new power at their disposal. Even God of War, a franchise I am tired of, could be given new life with the power of PS4. Same with Halo on the Xbox One. It’s all potential right now, but the mind reels at what we could have in our hands in the coming years.

5. I really enjoyed streaming Final Fantasy VII with Eddy back when that was happening, but I’ve never really streamed anything myself until getting a PS4. And wow. The ease of it and the experience of people watching along, commenting and cheering you on is pretty incredible. Make no mistake: streaming is the killer app for the PS4. I know the Xbox One will have it eventually sometime in 2014, but for those people who say it is not a big deal, you clearly have not tried it on the PS4.

6. Recently started Beyond: Two Souls and while I am only 2 hours into the game, I am really impressed. The story, told in a non-linear fashion, has kept me interested more than I expected and the jumping around the timeline is a smart way to keep the player doing different things, thus preventing the gameplay from becoming stale. The QTE’s have also been streamlined in a smart, elegant way. Look forward to playing more.

These are the things on my mind these days. What about you? Anything you want to get off your chests? The doctor is in.

Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Mod Launched, Gets a Trailer

Perhaps you’re unaware, but there’s a group of modders working on bringing out a multiplayer mode for Just Cause 2 (with the official blessing of Avalanche, no less). This mod takes the island nation of Panau, where the game is set, and opens it up for hundreds of player to wreck havoc. Just take a look at this launch trailer if you’re having trouble picturing this.

You can grab the Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod on Steam and, in recognition of the launch, Just Cause 2 itself is on sale for 80% off for the next day.

So, has anyone tried out the multiplayer? Are we thinking a GamerSushi Community Night for this?

Late to the Game: Final Fantasy XIII and the Siren Call of RPGs

lightning

I have an admission to make: I pre-ordered Final Fantasy XIII all the way back in 2010 (paid almost full price, too!), played it for about an hour and twenty minutes that March and then proceeded to leave the game untouched for more than three years. Even still, when Final Fantasy XIII-2 came out, I went ahead and bought a shared copy with my brother. He beat it immediately, and I let the game sit on my shelf unplayed until just recently. Why did I put off playing these games for so long? A combination of things, really: I tend to avoid long games until I’m in the right mood for them, and a lot of people were super-critical of FFXIII when it first came out. It sounded like a disappointment and a time-sink, and I wasn’t in the mood for either.

However, after I recently knocked out Demon’s Souls, I found myself craving more good RPG experiences. The FFXIII games were the most logical place to look, if only so that I might finally clear out my backlog of 360 and PS3 games in preparation for trading in one or both systems. I started out with XIII-2 because conventional wisdom is that it corrects all the missteps of XIII, but even though the game was a lot of fun, the story was convoluted and confusing. I felt like I was missing something, so I decided to give XIII a shot after all. Much to my surprise, I’m really enjoying it – the battles are a lot of fun once you can paradigm shift – and I’m already a good twenty hours in after just a few days.

So why was everyone so hard on the game? Was it just a case of preconceived notions, or is there something genuinely missing?

Continue reading Late to the Game: Final Fantasy XIII and the Siren Call of RPGs

The Grind of Progression in Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 multiplayer

As much as I loved this past generation, I think one of the worst things it’s left behind is the idea of progressive unlocks in multiplayer. I hate to lay the blame at just any one game’s feet, but let’s face it, everybody pretty much took this from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Now every franchise from Halo to Assassin’s Creed is borrowing the idea, and multiplayer suffers for it.

Last week and over the weekend, I ran into a lot of this with Battlefield 4. While I enjoyed what I played of the game, I couldn’t help but get frustrated that all of the things I really wanted to do were behind a wall of arbitrary XP unlocks. These requirements dictated that I get a certain amount of XP before getting better weapons—which is extremely difficult to do without better weapons. Continue reading The Grind of Progression in Battlefield 4

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 79: The Top 10 of 2013

the gamersushi show ep 79

We are back from a month long break to drop a cast on you before we talk another month long break. Hey, it’s the holidays, can you blame us?

In this three-man yuletide cast, Eddy, Anthony and Jeff talk about the PS4 and the Xbox One, the VGX and then do a live formulation of our top ten games of the year. Nick and I weren’t able to make it but I’d say that our views are fairly represented (except about The Last of Us, but that’s a battle I gave up on long ago).

We’ve never done a live top-10 discussion, but it worked out rather well, especially after our Top 20 Games of the Generation article kind of listed us out.

Hope you enjoy the last cast of 2013 and remember to rate and enjoy the Holidays! See you in early 2014, Sushians!

The GamerSushi Top Ten Games of 2013

1. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. Tomb Raider
4. The Last of Us
5. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
6. Resogun
7. Pokemon X/Y
8. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
9. The Wolf Among Us
10. Fire Emblem: Awakening

Honorable Mentions: Super Mario 3D Worlds, Saints Row IV

0:00 – 5:03 Intro
5:04 – 18:46 Next Gen Consoles
18:47 – 41:06 VGX
41:07 – 1:11:09 The Top Ten Games of 2013
1:11:10 – 1:12:59 Outro

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Rumor: Fallout 4 is in Development, Set in Boston

fallout 4 casting documents

While the article about this over on Kotaku reports this leak as legitimate, given what happened with Survivor 2299 and the fact that Bethesda has declined to comment, I’m going to firmly declare this as a rumor until we hear something official.

A series of casting documents obtained by Kotaku apparently confirm the existence of a game codenamed Institute (which if you remember from a Fallout 3 sidequest is the in-universe name for what was once MIT), which you might know better by its proper name, Fallout 4. The word Fallout doesn’t appear in any of the scripts, but it points to Fallout 4 being set in Boston, which makes sense given its codename. The casting script also details the opening monologue (in which the classic “war never changes” line is read by the player character instead of series regular Ron Pearlman) and a few side characters such as Sturges who is apparently a cross between Buddy Holly and Vin Diesel.

While I wish Fallout 4 is real as much as the next person, the rash of hoaxes surrounding the next game in the series over the past few months has made me very skeptical. Although I wouldn’t mind a Fallout game set in Boston and centered around the Institute, the information in this casting document, even if it is real, is subject to change so a lot of what is in there might not even be in the final game.

What do you guys think? Is this the real deal, or yet another hoax?

Source – Kotaku

Samurai Gunn Trailer Shows off Four-Player Bushido Action

If you’re familiar with the card game for horrible people, Cards Against Humanity, then you may be familiar with Max Tempkin. You may also be familiar with his tumblr, Maxistentialism. But, did you know that he also published a game recently? The four-player brawler Samurai Gunn by Teknopants, in which you have a slash attack and three bullets to outwit and dice your foes, came out recently and hot dang does it look like a good time. Check out the launch trailer below!

You can buy Samurai Gunn right now and Steam and it’s 20% off! What do you guys think of the trailer? Is this something you might pick up?

The Bold New Direction of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

a link between worlds

Listen, I like The Legend of Zelda as a series, I really do, but Skyward Sword was…well it wasn’t the worst thing ever, but let’s just say it was fairly average. If anything it really displayed that the Zelda franchise needed a bit of a shakeup.

For A Link Between Worlds, the newest entry in the series on the 3DS, Nintendo is changing things up a bit. For instance, the introduction for Between Worlds in incredibly short as opposed to the lengthy tutorial of Skyward Sword, and the game no longer relies on the typical Zelda progression of slowly unlocking a large number of items that are more or less exclusive to the dungeon they come from (something that was fairly rampant in Twilight Princess). You can now rent any item in the game at any point from the merchant who moves into your house, but you lose them if you die (you can also buy them permanently later on, although this is expensive). The dungeons can also be tackled in any order as well. Couple that with the fast travel and this is the Zelda game with the most sense of exploration and freedom since, well, A Link to the Past, which this game is a direct sequel to.

The isometric presentation works great too, and this game runs at a speedy 60 frames per second even in 3D so the action is nice and crisp. The music is also fantastic, and features an updated remix of the classic Dark World theme from A Link to the Past. While Zelda games on the Nintendo handhelds have by and large been pretty good, they usually haven’t matched the caliber of a full-fledged console Zelda. A Link Between Worlds blows this notion out of the water and gives us a pretty good look at how Nintendo is planning on making Zelda a different beast for future games.

Has anyone else played A Link Between Worlds? What do you think of it?

The VGX Round-Up

VGX

I have to admit, as much as I generally loathe the production of any gaming television that finds itself in the mainstream, it’s still hard not to get excited about them when you know you’ll be seeing all kinds of new reveals and information. This year, Spike’s Video Game Awards show saw a bit of rebranding as VGX, a streaming only, more quiet affair that ditched the dude bro appeal in favor of something resembling, you know, something gamers might actually care about.

Whether they succeeded or not is another question entirely. While I found the show to be passable, there was no doubt the usual Twitter snark directed at Joel McHale, who really looked like he would have rather been anywhere else as he delivered poorly written jokes. Personally, I tuned in for the video reveals and ignored everything else.

And trust me, there were plenty of those to be had. Continue reading The VGX Round-Up

GamerSushi Power Rankings: December 2013

Wolf Among Us

A new generation of challengers arrive!

It’s pretty weird to see PS4 box art in this update of the Power Rankings, but they’re here, plain as day and just as bright and shiny. This month, we’re diving into 3DS games, PlayStation 4 games, small PC titles and more. I think the number 1 spot will surprise you, considering how down we were on last year’s outing, but rest assured that this game deserves all the praise we’ll no doubt heap on it over the next few weeks. You’ve been warned. Continue reading GamerSushi Power Rankings: December 2013

GamerSushi Asks: Your Ideal Holiday Break Game

winter gaming

There are three things I really enjoy about the Holiday season: doing Christmas things with loved ones, the Granville Island Brewing Company’s Lions Winter Ale and the ability to have a few days off to just wrap myself up in a toasty blanket and play some video games.

While any type of video game is a good time, there are certain genres and titles that I feel are ideal for this sort of situation. Long, free-form open world games with a ton of collectibles tend to be my go-to; something that I can just wander around in doing what I please. Skyrim was the perfect game for this a couple of years ago, doubly so because it had the wintery atmosphere to go with it.

I also like a good first-person shooter multiplayer with a ton of unlocks and progression for when I need something a bit more action oriented. What about you guys? When the weather gets colder and you have a few days off, what are the types of games that you like to play? Go!

EA/DICE Stops Work on Future Projects to Solve Rampant Battlefield 4 Issues

battlefield 4 issues

While I’m enjoying Battlefield 4 a lot, I’ll be the first to admit that the game is broken. While DICE has brought out 13 server-side updates and two-client side patches (with more to come) since the October 29 release date, their next-gen shooter is in a sorry state of disrepair.

Even though China Rising just launched this past Tuesday, work on Battlefield 4’s remaining expansions (and other DICE projects, presumably the Mirror’s Edge prequel and Battlefront) have been halted until the majority of the issues with the game have been sorted out. While the previous client-side patch solved the Commander EMP blur effect and the sound bugs on maps like Golmud Railway, there continues to be a large array of problems on every system.

China Rising was apparently too far along to postpone (no word on Second Assault which is an Xbox One timed-exclusive) which is why it stuck to its original release date. DICE recently held a double-EXP event and gave players a 3.4x scope for the 1911 pistol which was formerly a developer-exclusive attachment as a way to make up for the issues that have been plaguing the game.

To editorialize a bit here, I’m a massive Battlefield fan, but the sorry state of Battlefield 4 (and the fact that EA put it on sale for $30 on Black Friday/Cyber Monday) has made me really wary of pre-ordering Battlefield games in the future. I have a huge amount of respect for DICE, but every Battlefield game has been messed up on launch to varying degrees. While DICE has demonstrated that they are working hard on these issues, and postponing work on future projects and DLC is a good move, the fact that we’re over a month after launch and the game is potentially just as, or more, messed up now as it was on day one is a pretty big black mark on their record.

Has anyone else been playing Battlefield 4? What do you think of this move by DICE/EA?

Source – Polygon

The Xbox One Community Gives Microsoft Some Feedback

xbox feedback

If there’s one way to mercilessly QA-test your new product, it’s by releasing it into the wild. Rest assured that, no matter how many man-hours your company put into testing a device, giving it to a million people will mean that any bugs, issues or glaring oversights will pop up in short order.

Since the Xbox One released on November 22, the gaming community has had plenty of time to fool around with it and figure out what it’s missing. A website called Xbox Feedback has sprung up where suggestions for future updates to Microsoft’s new console can be found.

Personally, I find the lack of some of what I would consider no-brainers (such as being able to check the battery charge on the home screen or the difficulties with party chat) pretty mind-boggling. Even though the Xbox 360 got bogged down with a UI that it was never really built to support, it still had a lot of user friendly tools and tricks. I personally appreciated the ability to set the controls to every game for inverted as a system-level option because I am a weirdo.

What do you guys think about Xbox Feedback? Any suggestions you would add to their current list? Do you think this website will actually gain any traction?

Source – Xbox Feedback

This is Not a Review of The Stanley Parable… or is it?

The Stanley Parable

To give you a peek into the inner workings here at GamerSushi, we recently discussed the fact that there are several prominent games out there that we haven’t actually reviewed yet. Like, for example, Grand Theft Auto V, which landed a solid #12 in our list of the top 20 games of the last generation. We are aware of the oversight, we are, and we hope to make amends soonish. Personally, I planned to start my attack on un-reviewed games by diving into one of my recent purchases, The Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe. I figured it’d be both quick to play and reasonably timely. It’s still a fairly new game, after all.

Accordingly, late one night I sat down with The Stanley Parable and played it for about an hour and a half. I think I beat it. In fact, I may have beaten it several dozen times. I’m honestly not entirely sure. I am sure, however, that I haven’t experienced everything the game has to offer. It’s hilarious, confusing, surreal and nearly impossible to summarize. Part of the reason summaries won’t do it justice is that the experience is built entirely around the fact that you are playing a game and bringing certain expectations to the table.

Continue reading This is Not a Review of The Stanley Parable… or is it?