To me there’s something oddly exciting about Bungie’s achievements, in spite of Halo 3’s harsh multiplayer ones. In today’s Bungie Weekly Update, we get a peek at the shiny tokens we can earn in Destiny and boy do they look great.
Month: June 2014
I Don’t Understand No Man’s Sky, But I Am Hopeful for It
Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky was the surprise hit of Sony’s E3 2014 press conference with its dinosaurs and its X-Wings and its interplanetary travel. Despite its appealing aesthetics and the way it effortlessly taps into some section of my brain that has formulated the perfect game but could never define it before now, I can’t shake this feeling that I don’t really understand No Man’s Sky.
On a basic level, I get that you’re exploring the universe, charting the unknown and discovering new species and ships. Hello Games has been purposefully tight-lipped about their game, however, only dolling out small nuggets of information. Just enough to string you along, but not enough so that you know everything going in. Continue reading I Don’t Understand No Man’s Sky, But I Am Hopeful for It
Watch a Speedrunner Beat Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes in Less Than Four Minutes
Ever since I watched the 30 minute Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain E3 gameplay demo, I’ve been on kind of a Metal Gear Solid kick. I’m interested in Ground Zeroes, the prequel of sorts to TPP, and even though I understand the game has a lot more content than it appears to have at first glance, this speedrunner beating Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes in less than four minutes with an S rank kind of belies that.
He has an almost perfect run and relies pretty heavily on the Reflex mode, but it’s still damn entertaining to watch.
GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?
With the Steam Sale in full swing and the hot summer weather outside, there’s no better reason to stay inside and play some video games!
In this somewhat regular post series, we ask you guys a pretty simple question: what have you been playing?
Personally I’ve been moseying my way through Watch Dogs. Originally I started off doing all of the side quests but as the game has dragged on (I’m at the last mission of Act 3) I’ve kind of given up on that and am devoted to getting through the story as quickly as possible. Other than that I’ve been playing Pikmin 3, the free game I got from Mario Kart 8. It’s very fun with the gamepad, but also kind of hard, which I didn’t expect.
Other than that I hope to tackle Sniper Elite 3’s co-op, Company of Heroes 2’s Western Front Armies expansion and the Payday 2 Big Bank Heist. What’s on your plate?
Check Out 30 Minutes of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Gameplay
I know, we were all pretty down about Hideo Kojima’s latest foray into the ever-retconned mess of the Metal Gear Solid universe when we discussed the E3 2014 trailer in our most recent podcast, but this 30 minute gameplay demo of The Phantom Pain has me intrigued. There’s no uncomfortable sexual torture or ash-smearing, just Big Boss being a fricking bad-ass and infiltrating a Russian outpost to search for intel. As a bonus, we also get a glimpse of Mother Base, which, if memory serves, wasn’t an actual location in Peace Walker. The gameplay demo starts at around 41 minutes into the show, but I suppose you can watch the rest of it if you happen to understand Japanese. Don’t worry, the demo is narrated in English.
It looks like Kojima Productions have made a lot of really smart updates to the formula of Metal Gear Solid. While the “iDroid” is a little out of place for the mid-80s (which is when TPP takes place) it allows you to tackle the open world in a variety of ways thanks to waypoints and soldier-tagging. Also, Fulton-ing sheep looks hilarious. So, did this pique anyone’s interest?
A Whole New World: Destiny Alpha Impressions
I’ve had this weird sort of fascination with Destiny ever since Bungie first released news about it. There’s one part of me that feels a tinge of regret whenever I see it in motion, knowing that I could have been involved with it in some way (a job opportunity that ultimately didn’t pan out for me). Another part of me has moved on from multiplayer games almost entirely—other priorities have taken precedence in my life, including family, writing and friends. And even though videos of the game in motion never quite thrilled me, there was something about the game that I found intriguing.
And the Alpha won me over completely. Continue reading A Whole New World: Destiny Alpha Impressions
God Helped Me, I Played the Battlefield: Hardline Beta and (Mostly) Had Fun
Over the weekend I put a few hours into the Battlefield: Hardline beta on the PC and, despite all the misgivings I had going into it I actually had a good time. The game is still several months out from release (Battlefield: Hardline comes out October 21) so having a honest to goodness beta instead of marketing tool disguised as one scored EA/Visceral some points. The Battlefield: Hardline beta only features one map (High Tension) and two modes (Blood Money and Heist) and a small selection of guns and gadgets but the infantry-focused combat might have won me over. Continue reading God Helped Me, I Played the Battlefield: Hardline Beta and (Mostly) Had Fun
Modder Restores Watch Dogs to its E3 2012 Demo Glory
Between its debut at E3 2012 and its final release on May 27, Watch Dogs received a noticeable downgrade in the looks department. An intrepid modder over on Guru3D.com found some unused files in the games install folder that restores Watch Dogs to its former E3 2012 visual glory as well as fixing some of the console port-itis the PC version suffers from.
The GamerSushi Show, Ep 93: Not Afraid of Butt Stuff
Well here we are friends, at the end of our journey together for this season of the podcast. Over the last twenty episodes (and two Extra Bytes), we’ve laughed, we’ve cried and learned way too much about Eddy’s personal life.
In case you’ve missed out repeated warnings, this is the last episode of Season Three of the GamerSushi Show and we’ll be taking a break for the next few months to enjoy the summer and also not have to talk to each other on a weekly basis.
This is our E3 2014 wrap-up where we grade the conferences and talk about the third-party games, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole shebang so chime in below!
Listen, rate and we’ll see you in September for season 4!
0:00 – 6:00 Intro
6:01 – 37:07 Microsoft presser and third party games
37:07 – 58:59 Sony presser
59:00 – 1:10:45 Nintendo presser
1:10:46 – 1:13:07 Outro
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS
Bungie’s Jason Jones Explains Just What the Heck Destiny Is
Are you confused by the lack of information about what the available game modes of Destiny? So am I, which is why I’m grateful that Bungie put out a video where Jason Jones explains what you’ll be doing when the Destiny Beta drops on July 17, or when the full game hits on September 9. Check it out:
So it seems like we have the Tower (third-person social space), story-missions, a free-roam/do side-quests type of thing, Strikes, and a multiplayer arena. Destiny seems to have a lot of stuff to do but I still can’t shake the feeling that it might be kind of bland. That might just be me though. How is Destiny shaping up for you?
Watch the Nintendo E3 2014 Digital Event Right Here!
While Nintendo’s E3 2014 Digital Even might have been short on surprises, it was full of absolutely adorable games that I want to play. The entire event is available to watch on YouTube so if you missed it this morning, check it out below.
The peek a the new open-world Zelda game and Splatoon were the highlights of the show for me. I don’t think this presentation sold anyone on a Wii U, but it definitely makes current owners feel better. I’m not quite sure of the Amiibos, but they don’t seem to be completely necessary for gameplay, either. What did you guys think of Nintendo’s Digital Event?
Sony E3 Press Conference Round Up
It’s time for the Sony E3 2014 Press Briefing and I am here on the couch ready to have my mind blown. Sony set the bar last year at E3 and after a solid showing from Microsoft earlier today, not to mention all the big changes the Big M has made in recent weeks, the pressure is on Sony to prove last year is not a fluke.
I am going to run this as it goes, so bear with me here. Continue reading Sony E3 Press Conference Round Up
Microsoft E3 Press Conference Round Up
As Phil Spencer said today, the Microsoft press conference this morning was only about games, and holy heck was there a lot of them! Hit the jump to check out what went down in the conference and see some trailers where applicable. Continue reading Microsoft E3 Press Conference Round Up
The Dork Knight Rises in Watch Dogs
Aiden Pearce is a dork. He’s also “The Vigilante”, the hacker who takes matters into his own hands on the streets of Chicago in Watch Dogs, the new hit from Ubisoft. Watch Dogs is a fun, enjoyable take on the open-world genre, even if it lacks in genuine originality or innovation. But the more I’ve played, the more I’ve enjoyed my time in our newest digital sandbox.
Except where Aiden is concerned. The gameplay of Watch Dogs is pretty damn good, but the story and Aiden’s character are pretty horrendous. Slight spoilers for Watch Dogs ahead: Continue reading The Dork Knight Rises in Watch Dogs
Get Wild With This New Trailer For The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Just because nobody seems to even care about waiting for E3 anymore, CD Projekt RED drop a metric ton of info about the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt earlier today, including this awesome trailer. It’s actual in-game footage (albeit with fancy cuts) as opposed to the CG-only trailer from last year. It has everything you’d expect from a Witcher game and it also looks super rad. I know CD Projekt RED said they’re drawing some inspiration from Skyrim this time around and I can definitely see that. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will come out on February 25, 2015 and will be available on the PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One.
Dead Rising 3 Getting a Steam Version This Summer
Dead Rising 3 was apparently only a timed Xbox One exclusive as the third (ish) chapter in Capcom’s wonderfully silly zombie-slaying franchise is coming out to Steam in Summer 2014. Not only in it getting a PC version but it’s also coming with all the standard Steam bells and whistles. This also coincides nicely with the news that the Xbox One controller can now be used on the PC. I’m excited for some co-op action and a better framerate when I finally get my hands on this. Who’s with me?
Dark Souls 2 DLC Announced, Will Continue to Ruin Your Life
From Software announced a three-part DLC campaign for Dark Souls 2 today. This is the first time a Souls game has received any kind of significant DLC, so that’s kind of exciting news, even though DS2 is my least favorite of the three games so far. I’ll probably still pick up the season pass, though, because I’m an addict.
The first Dark Souls did actually have DLC – included free with the “prepare to die” edition – but it was designed so that the mission unlocked once you were pretty far into the game and only if you had a particular item. I missed it during my first play through and didn’t make it far enough into NG+ to take a crack at it.
Anybody else besides myself and Anthony playing the newest entry in the Souls series?
Battlefield 4 Getting “Netcode” Patch on All Platforms
After weeks of testing in the CTE (Community Test Environment) the Battlefield 4 “netcode” improvements are being rolled out to every version of the game today in a patch according to a new post on Battlelog. The “netcode” patch improves (among other things) the server tick-rate, or how often you computer receives new information from the server. Battlefield 4 previously had a tick-rate of 10hz, or ten updates a second (industry standard for FPS games is 30-60).
Batman: Arkham Knight Gets Delayed, Will Now Release in 2015
In what is sad news for our current gen consoles and PCs but good news for our time and wallets, Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady’s conclusion to their Arkham Trilogy, has slipped from a late 2014 release date into 2015.
The Sheer Joy of Mario Kart 8
Over the weekend I played a healthy amount of Mario Kart 8 and I can firmly say that this is the most fun I’ve had with the series in a long time. This game feels like a perfect evolution for the series with new features that make sense and a lot of returning mechanics from the previous games that are implemented in clever ways. The new hover segments, where the tires on your vehicle turn sideways and you float a foot or so off the ground, manages to feel like an integral part of how you play in Mario Kart 8 and not just a new gimmick to put on the back of the box. Hovering turns the gameplay on its head, sometimes literally, and forces you to think differently, like purposely bumping into other races to get a speed boost instead of avoiding them.
It helps that Mario Kart 8 is an amazing looking game and even in local two-player splitscreen it still delivers a 60 frame per second performance. Across the eight different cups are 32 tracks, 16 new and 16 returning and all have been tweaked to take full advantage of the different modes of transportation. In one race alone you might be underwater, gliding through the air and hovering upside down. Mario Kart 8 keeps you constantly engaged by changing up the progression of the race so you never feel like you’re just going through the motions. The soundtrack is nearly fully orchestrated this time and is a huge improvement over the music of Mario Kart Wii. Continue reading The Sheer Joy of Mario Kart 8