Month: January 2016

Testing the Division Beta on PC

This past weekend the Division beta finally gave us a glimpse into the long-gestating title that Massive has been working on. The hype train for The Division has been a long and strange one and it felt good to finally get my hands on the game.

While the beta was fairly limited to one mission and the Dark Zone, I had an awesome time taking on the gangs throughout New York and going rogue against others agents to steal their loot. I played on PC and the game was fairly well optimized for a Ubisoft-published title. While there was some concerns about the “bullet-sponge” nature of the enemies from pre-beta impressions, I didn’t really notice it too much at the time. Continue reading Testing the Division Beta on PC

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is a Great Return to Form

Assassin’s Creed is the gaming world’s whipping boy for the case against annualized releases. While Call of Duty pulls this trick as well, the sheer scale of an Assassin’s Creed game means that the stress fractures brought on by a quick turn-around are more readily apparent.

Last year’s Unity could be seen as the tipping point in the series. With a buggy launch and a poor reception, despite its decent co-op mode, Unity left the series balancing more closely to irrelevance than ever. Ubisoft needed to right the ship with the follow-up title, and thankfully Syndicate was the shot in the arm Assassin’s Creed needed. Continue reading Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is a Great Return to Form

Star Wars Battlefront is Gorgeous Fan Service, But Not Much Else

Ever since EA and Disney announced their partnership to bring more Star Wars games to the market a Battlefront reboot helmed by DICE, the developers of the Battlefield series, was inevitable. The pre-release material showed us all the right stuff: gorgeously rendered Stormtroopers and Rebels mixing it up in iconic locations with tantalizing glimpses at the famous heroes, villains and starships thrown in for good measure. Now that Battlefront has been out for a while, how has this seemingly killer formula measured up?

There’s no getting around it: Star Wars Battlefront is quite possibly the best looking and sounding game I’ve ever played. With no last-gen version to hold it back, DICE went all out on recreating assets from the original trilogy down to the smallest scratch of paint on the X-Wings. DICE leaned heavily into their location research and promotional shots of the material they got from LucasArts as part of their marketing and their dedication to capturing the look and feel of the first three movies paid dividends. Continue reading Star Wars Battlefront is Gorgeous Fan Service, But Not Much Else

GamerSushi Asks: Why Do You Like The Witcher 3?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is not a good game.

I know many people loved it. I know many publications honored it. I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

I know the story and writing is allegedly superb. But when the actual gameplay, the act of moving and fighting with Geralt, is a joyless slog (some would say “digital gulag”), that content feels like a tantalizing treasure surrounded by a moat of shit with nary a boat or bridge in sight.

Now, my language is harsh, but that’s for two reasons; the first, is that I am being purposefully hyperbolic for the sake of comedy. I want you to read this and laugh, enjoying the act of my taking a popular darling out back and giving it the Old Yeller treatment. The second reason is that The Witcher 3 really, really, really, really, really, really sucks. Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Why Do You Like The Witcher 3?

Watch 50 Minutes of The Division Gameplay Because You Know You Want To

Youtuber JackFrags (along with a bunch of other YouTube channels and outlets except for us and Kotaku) visited Ubisoft recently to get a peek at the long-in-development Tom Clancy third-person shooter RPG hybrid The Division. A lot of the videos that made their way to the Internet last week were short and had voice-overs, but JackFrags put up 50 minutes of commentary-free footage featuring some co-op mission action and Dark Zone shenanigans. The footage was recorded on Xbox One, for reference. Watch the embedded video below if you want to know more:

My hype level for the Division has been steadily climbing since the previews started hitting. I’ve seen some complaints about the “bullet sponge” nature of the enemies, but it makes sense if you think about it as an RPG first rather than a twitch-based shooter. I’m in the beta that will be hitting the PC at the end of January so I’ll most likely be streaming the game for anyone interested.

Who else is riding that Division hype train? Anyone on the fence?

Source – JackFrags’ YouTube channel

Destiny: The Taken King Took Us By Surprise

The Darkness was winning.

Mitch, weary of the grind, traded in his copy of Destiny. After the lackluster experience of The Dark Below, Eddy traded his in, as well. It was a fun experiment that gripped us tighter than any game in recent memory, but it seemed like its time had passed.

I alone persisted, putting it aside for a time, but waiting for The House of Wolves expansion. It was good, much better than The Dark Below, but without my Fireteam, it was harder and harder to get a group to experience any worthwhile content, the eternal cross that Destiny bears to this day. I had a bit of luck with r/Fireteams on Reddit, but too many bad experiences with trolls and jerks soured me on the whole thing. I put Destiny aside again, not trading it in, but with the intent to do so if The Taken King didn’t blow me away. Continue reading Destiny: The Taken King Took Us By Surprise

Heading Back Into The Wasteland in Fallout 4

To use an analogy that is perhaps a bit staid by this point, playing Fallout 4 is like eating your favorite dish for the hundredth time. It’s still filling and satisfying in its own way, but has lost some of the magic it once had.

Don’t get me wrong, Fallout 4 is not a bad game; I’ve put around 40 hours into my adventures in the Commonwealth and I’ll more than likely be close to double that by the time I’m done. Even though Fallout 4 hews closely to the established Bethesda formula, there’s a reason it works so damn well. Continue reading Heading Back Into The Wasteland in Fallout 4

The Amazing Open World and Lackluster Narrative of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is the greatest action-stealth game I’ve ever played. Every aspect of the gameplay in Hideo Kojima’s farewell to the series he’s been heading up for over 25 years is tight, responsive and open to wild degrees of experimentation. So often in Metal Gear Solid 5 you’ll think up some crazy way to test the game’s systems and more often than not it will work. Extract yourself out of a hot zone by holding on to a fulton balloon on top of a shipping container? Want to use the tape of someone pooping to stop soldiers from investigating the outhouse you’re hiding in? Go for it.

The beauty of Metal Gear Solid 5’s gameplay is that nearly everyone will have a different story to tell about how they engaged with a certain mission or took down a base. This is the best feeling Metal Gear game to play by a large margin. Gone are the archaic controls and the contorted claw shapes you would have to twist your hand into to do something simple like aiming down a weapon’s sights. When you are in the open world of Afghanistan or central Africa, you really feel like you can make the legend of Big Boss come to life. Continue reading The Amazing Open World and Lackluster Narrative of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

The First Ever Star Wars Awards

There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?

Much like GamerSushi, but with a tad more fanfare, Star Wars is back! We’ve all seen The Force Awakens (some of us multiple times) and I thought it would be fun to look back at the previous 6 movies and give out some awards. So…here they are. Be sure to tell us your picks in the comments! Continue reading The First Ever Star Wars Awards

Reply All Talks to the Creators of That Dragon, Cancer

For the uninitiated, That Dragon, Cancer is a small game developed by Ryan and Amy Green (with the help of numerous other developers and artists) about their experience with raising their son who was diagnosed with cancer when he was one year old.

With That Dragon, Cancer coming out today, January 12, the podcast covering all things Internet, Reply All, talked to Ryan and Amy about the development of the game. I haven’t listened to it personally because I don’t think I have the emotional fortitude but I have been told by a fellow GamerSushi editor that this interview moved him to tears several times.

If you’re interested in learning more about That Dragon, Cancer, you can click the underlined words to be taken to their website. For more Reply All, click here.

What Games Are You Looking Forward to in 2016?

All things considered, 2015 was a banner year for games. Granted I say this because last year let me play not one but two new Assassin’s Creed games (Rogue was released on the PC in March) so I consider that a mark of success by any metric.

Now that we’re speeding into 2016, I was wondering what is on your radar for the coming months. I’m also looking at producing some video content, so I’d be interested to know what games you’d like to see more of in that regard.

January already offers some tasty morsels with Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam for the 3DS and the PC release of Tomb Raider coming in pretty quick succession on January 22 and 29, respectively. Things don’t slow down after that as XCOM 2 comes out on February 5 and The Division (maybe) hitting in March.

Those are just the big titles on the horizon though and I’m sure there are dozens of smaller games that I’ve neglected to mention. What are you folks looking out for? Any games you’d like to recommend to your fellow Sushians to put on their wishlists?

I Bought An Xbox One And I Like It

That’s right, an Xbox One! I’m as surprised as you are. At the end of the last console generation, I was pretty sure I’d be a PC-only gamer for a good long while. I definitely have enough games in my Steam library to keep me busy until the heat death of the universe.

When I sold it for about $50, I hadn’t powered on my Xbox 360 for at least a year. My PS3 had transitioned to being a box for Netflix and blu-rays. I’d resolved to hold out for as long as possible before maybe picking up a PS4. After all, I’m obsessed with the Souls games and I knew Bloodborne would be irresistible. Sure enough, when Anthony had an extra PS4 thanks to a prize giveaway, I decided to buy it, thinking that would be it for me and the current generation.

So, what changed? What made me decide to drop several hundred dollars on an Xbox One less than a year later? The short answer is that I’m a sucker for a deal and I’m ready to cut the cable cord (again).

Continue reading I Bought An Xbox One And I Like It

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

It’s a question as old as time: what have you been playing recently?

As it has been quite a while since we’ve asked you this question, I imagine most of you have quite the backlog, but for the sake of our fingers I’m going to just stick to the last few months.

The number one game taking up my time is Destiny: The Taken King. On a weekly basis you can find me looking for pick-up-groups to do the King’s Fall raid on Hard Mode with the associated challenges. Bungie massively improved Destiny with their large year two expansion and it got the entire GS crew (sans Jeff) back into the game hard for a few months.

Bungie sadly hasn’t followed up the momentum Taken King gave them and the messaging is that Destiny is in a bit of a holding pattern with maybe one or two interesting content additions coming in 2016 (scuttlebutt says Destiny 2 is a Fall title). Even though Destiny is spinning its wheels a bit, it’s still got its hooks in me.

Other than that I picked up a large number of games over the Steam Winter Sale with Total War: Rome 2 proving to be very engaging. I’ve also been playing a few rounds of Battlefield 4 here and there, but I bet you guessed that already.

So what have you been playing recently? Any under-the-radar games you want to recommend or big AAA titles you want to leave your thoughts on? Sound off below!

GamerSushi Returns

Hey.

GamerSushi has sputtered back to life this week after over a year’s absence. I’m not entirely sure exactly what spurred us back into action, but the crew has been talking in Slack for quite some time about getting this whole thing going again and earlier this week we just decided to go for it.

We’re not 100% on what GamerSushi will consist of going forward. Because we’re all in such different places now, GamerSushi won’t have a set schedule like the past and we may throw in a post or two about topics other than video games. A podcast has been talked about but we don’t have an ETA on that either, although it’s looking fairly certain at this point. Continue reading GamerSushi Returns

Oculus Rift Pre-Orders Are Now Open, Units Cost $599 USD

oculus rift

If you’ve been waiting to jump on what is sure to be 2016’s most cutting-edge trend, then I have good news for you. The Oculus Rift is now avaialble for pre-order with a shipping date of March 28 and an entry price of $599 USD.

For your money, you will receive the Rift headset, the sensor, an Xbox One controller and the Oculus Remote which can be used to navigate the Oculus Store. If you pre-order you will also get access to the Founder’s Pack in EVE Valkyrie, which includes some special content to be revealed later. According to the announcement, over 100 AAA titles will be avaialble for the Rift by the end of 2016, among which is everybody’s favorite game to buy on every platform they own, Minecraft. Continue reading Oculus Rift Pre-Orders Are Now Open, Units Cost $599 USD

Rise of the Tomb Raider Coming to PC on January 28

Rejoice, PC owners waiting to undertake Lara Croft’s new Crystal Dynamics developed adventure! According to a press release, Rise of the Tomb Raider will release for PC on Steam and Windows 10 (don’t worry it will still work on Windows 7) on January 28.

The Witcher 3 and Other Games That Didn’t Grab You

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is, by many people’s reckoning, the greatest game that was put out in 2015. It has won hundreds of Game of the Year awards and is hailed as a technical achievement and the exemplary model of how to handle post-release content and patching. But even with all of its clout it just couldn’t grab me.

This is the first Witcher game I’ve played in earnest, having not played the original game and putting just a token effort into two. I’d clock my Witcher 3 playtime at around 15 hours but that’s just an estimate.

I hunted monsters, flirted with Geralt’s past lovers and met the Bloody Baron and the Crones, both of whom were engrossing for different reasons. I love the world that CD Projekt Redhas realized with the Witcher but I could tell even early on that the story was going to do some major wheel spinning and the combat wasn’t varied enough to grab me. Continue reading The Witcher 3 and Other Games That Didn’t Grab You