Anthony has written a total of 170,227 words on this site.

Age: 34 PSN ID: Starkiller81. I've played games since before I can remember, starting with my dad's Atari and I haven't stopped yet. Keep them coming and I will keep playing them.

Poll: Most Anticipated October Release?

We’ve made it through September dear friends, but don’t get complacent: that was merely the first wave of the game industry’s onslaught this fall. Their effort to totally bankrupt us of time and money is just getting started as you will see below. The month of October brings a whole heap of gaming goodness, including some under-the-radar gems that I have my eye on.

Vote for which game you are most looking forward to and leave a comment as to why. If you chose Other, let us know what it is! For the record, Dark Souls and Arkham City are my must-haves of this month, with Aliens: Infestation right behind it. There are several that I want to play once they drop in price, though, so this month is actually kind of killer.

VOTE NOW:

Which October Release Are You Most Looking Forward To?

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Sony’s Mysterious Trailer Will Leave You Guessing

Kevin Butler, freshly crowned king of the Long Live Play marketing campaign tweeted a link to a video that could only be described as “mysterious”. Also, “puzzling, intriguing and WTF” spring to mind, but as Levar Burton on Reading Rainbow used to say, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”

Just in case you want to though, the trailer shows references to all sorts of Sony franchises, such as Sweet Tooth’s truck from Twisted Metal, the Metal Gear MK II and even Ratchet and Clank. Something is brewing and I wanna know what it is!

See for yourself:

[youtube width=”500″ height=”310″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBuK3EcY6vk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

What do you think this could be? I will have my eyes glued to the Internet on October 5th, that’s for certain, but if this is about Playstation Home, I’m going to be pissed. What say you?

Source: Twitter

Super Mario Remix Will Drop Your Jaw

In what is looking like hyperbole week here at GamerSushi (See Mitch’s post about the canceled Avengers game), I am taking a similar stance with this video of Mario tunes all mashed together with some of the most nostalgia inducing visuals you will ever see: this video is a work of pure genius and the creator should be carried on the shoulders of geeks for all time.

If you don’t believe me, just watch. And do me a favor: leave a note in the comments exactly how far into the video it took your jaw to drop or the goosebumps to form on your pale, nerdy flesh.

[youtube width=”500″ height=”310″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-DaJGGDoNI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Am I right? Doesn’t this just make you want to play all the Mario games back to back? Nintendo should hire this guy and find him a position just doing tributes for their various franchises.

What say you?

3DS Final Fantasy’s Rhythm Is Going To Get You

“Hey, Anthony, did you hear about the new Final Fantasy game for the 3DS?”

“No, why? If it’s another stupid Crystal Chronicles, don’t even tell me. I can’t live with the disappointment.”

“It’s not. It’s actually a rhythm game, sort of like Elite Beat Agents, but with Final Fantasy characters and music. It’s called Theatrhythm.”

(Stunned silence) “Is there a video?”

“Why, yes, right here…”

[youtube width=”500″ height=”310″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURvzvibLD8[/youtube]

“Oh…my…GOD! Did you see Ultros from Final Fantasy VI? And the awesome boss theme? And the dance scene from FF VIII? And that annoying song from FF XIII that somehow makes me still want to go back and play it? Why is this the first game for the 3DS I MUST HAVE???”

“Because you’re a sick and twisted FF fanboy who’s iPod is filled with this crap already.”

“Fair enough.” (Throws wallet at PC)

So…what do you guys think? Am I a moron for thinking this might actually be cool? Or is it just the nostalgia of that sweet FF music that is calling to me?

Poll: Most Anticipated September Release?

Finally, we’ve reached Fall. The season of where ALL THE GAMES are here. September brings about the first onslaught in what promises to be a long and tough campaign, but if we perservere and stay true to our goals, we will emerge victorious. You may think I am piling on the hyperbole, but you would be the most wrong person of all time. This is gonna get ugly. Vote below for your most anticipated game of September and may God have mercy on your souls.

What September Release Are You Most Looking Forward To?

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Personally, it’s all about the Gears of War 3. I’m really excited to try the multiplayer that Eddy and Mitch keep raving about. So…who ya got??

Random Encounters

Dragon Age II

When playing video games, all manner of thoughts usually pop into my head. Some are far too graphic to share here and are off-topic besides, but I’ve decided to post my thoughts in a quick-thought format about a variety of topics. Sometimes things don’t warrant a full post by themselves, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still talk about them right? Continue reading Random Encounters

WWE ’12 Is Stone Cold Stunning

In my misspent youth, I was a huge wrestling fan. To this day, I can name who held the WWE title starting with Bob Backlund all the way up to when Stone Cold Steve Austin won it. After that, it changed hands every other week and I couldn’t keep up anymore. I stopped watching in 2000, but have recently started again. So naturally, like any nerd, I’ve been wanting to play a wrestling video game.

Thankfully, THQ has been working on a brand new revamp of their WWE franchise, now called WWE ’12. Judging from the video below, which showcases a full match with commentary from the developers, it looks like it’s going to be pretty special. Barring horrible reviews, I am almost guaranteed to pick this one. So hit the video below and take a look at CM Punk (yay!) vs. John Cena (boo!).

[youtube width=”500″ height=”310″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvbWn4_HFE[/youtube]

What do you think? Anyone play the Raw vs. Smackdown games? Does this look like an improvement to you? Do you smell what THQ is cookin? Can I be anymore of a dork? GO!

Your DS Has An Aliens: Infestation

If there’s one game that was heavily influenced by the Aliens franchise, it’s Halo. But if there are two games that were influenced, one of them would be Metroid. And somehow, we’ve come all this way in video game history without anyone trying to merge the two…until now.

Way Forward has been working on a Metroidvania-style Aliens game called Aliens: Infestation which will be released on October 11 and judging from the gameplay footage seen at Comic-Con, it looks pretty awesome. Take a look:

[youtube width=”500″ height=”331″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_GnVE10SYE&playnext=1&list=PL24D880CACFB6D62F[/youtube]

Pretty cool, eh? One of the neatest things I’ve read about this is that you have a squad of 19 different marines and if one dies, he’s gone forever. But if one is captured and you save them before they are infected with a chestburster, you get them back. A neat twist on 1-ups, I think.

Does this interest anyone at all? The DS is pretty barren these days, so I am glad to have anything at all coming out that looks this good. GO!

Final Fantasy Versus XIII Creator Skips Cut-Scenes

Final Fantasy Versus XIII

In news that could only be described as “shocking” or “total bullcrap”, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura, the acclaimed and maligned creator of Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII and a host of characters with too many zippers/buckles/amnesia has stunned the entire world with the following statement to Famitsu via 1UP:

I suppose it’s a matter of opinion, but I wind up skipping most cutscenes I run into because I want to get back into the game.

Frankly, I’m stunned. If you’ve ever played or indeed even heard of one of Nomura’s games, you would know why this news really should have shut down the Internet today. I’m kind of disappointed.

Oh, there was some other news too, namely that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is coming along nicely and will have a new type of story-telling element that Nomura says are “realtime event scenes that the player can control. These scenes are part of a new gameplay feature which, as far as I know, hasn’t been done anywhere else.”

To me, that’s a good sign. It shows that even one of Japan’s biggest developers can try new things and seek new ways to tell their stories. I have no idea what this new feature will be or if it will work at all, but I give him an “A” for effort.

What say you? How can games tell stories in new and exciting ways?

Source: 1UP

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta Charts Tomorrow

Uncharted 3

Now that the post E3 haze is finally starting to lift and the summer gaming season is in full swing, another distraction looms over us all: Uncharted 3’s multiplayer beta drops tomorrow for PSN Plus members, which should be everyone out there with a PS3, thanks to Sony’s Welcome Back program. So no excuses. I expect to see you all out there so I can shoot you in the face just like all my friends.

For those of you who didn’t bother trying Uncharted 2’s MP, take it from me, it’s pretty fun. A neat combination of Gears of War with the vertical element of Uncharted’s climbing mechanics thrown in for good measure, I always had a blast. Eddy joined me for some co-op and I believe he can attest to this as well.

The details of the beta are as follows:

  • Starts tomorrow, June 28th for PSN Plus subscribers, July 4th for the rest of PSN and runs until July 13th.
  • Co-op and competitive maps will be rotated throughout the beta, as detailed in the link below.
  • You will receive rewards for playing the beta that will carry over to the full game upon it’s release.

I have to say, I’m pretty excited. Now I have to rush and finish Half Life 2 ASAP, so I can start on this. Check out the link below for more details, including some information about the MP features, which is awesome because being clueless about what the hell is going on always annoys me about betas. So… who’s with me???

Source: Naughty Dog

My Idea for a Game of Thrones Video Game

Game of Thrones

HBO and George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, Game of Thrones, has just completed its first season. Have to say, I loved every moment of it and it left me wanting more, which is amazing since I knew every twist and turn that was coming, having read the books multiple times over the past 10 years, starting way back in college in 2001. Seeing the show has made me ache for a really high quality game set in that world.

And we’re getting one, but it’s an RTS. Now, nothing against those, I like them. But enviously reading the reviews for The Witcher 2, which is based on a Polish fantasy series, got me to thinking about what genre would be ideal for making a game set in the world of Westeros. And it came to me, the answer being right there in front of me: an open-world RPG like Oblivion or Fallout 3.

Just picture it: you get to roam the entire land of Westeros, visiting Winterfell, doing quests for Ned Stark, such as hunting down wildlings or delivering supplies to the Wall. There, you take quests from Lord Commander Mormont, maybe even go beyond the Wall or track deserters. You can travel to King’s Landing, participate in tournaments, including jousting, join the many different factions and undertake countless quests from all the characters you know, love and hate.

What’s more, the plot of the books could occur over time, so events will change circumstances, allowing you to fight in massive battles and maybe even change history if they wanted to pursue that avenue. Regardless, your character could have his or her own story while the story of the books takes place around you as time passes. The point is, this would be an awesome way to play in this world. In fact, I think this genre would be the best for many licensed games of this kind. Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings…this genre works best with sci-fi fantasy worlds that are already established. It wouldn’t be ideal with something like Batman.

What say you? Did I just design a game that sounds awesome or lame? Winter is coming and hopefully, so are the comments, so let me hear you roar!

The Curse of Annoying Online Teammates

Black Ops

We’ve posted a lot in the past about online multiplayer. Everything from awesome moments of pwnage to griefers to foul-mouth bigots and the racists who love them. But as I was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on Sunday with my brother, something new occurred to me to ask the wise veterans of the GamerSushi community (that’s you guys and gals).

Team Deathmatch can only take you so far. Sometimes, the urge to work together, to be a part of something greater than yourself rises from somewhere deep inside you and you find yourself playing objective games…with strangers…online. You can probably see where this is going already, but I saw some of the dumbest things of all time on Sunday.

During a game of Domination, people running past enemy flags, instead of stopping and capturing them. Not an enemy in sight and they can’t be bothered because apparently they still think they are playing team deathmatch. Then, during Search and Destroy, you get people who defuse or plant the bomb while standing up, in plain sight. No crouching or going prone, or hiding behind the box to maybe buy yourself a few more seconds of precious time. Just morons.

And the icing on the cake for me was when you die and you can watch your teammates play while you wait for the round to end. You get people camping and sitting still when time is running out, practically forfeiting the round. Also, I guess some people had ADHD, because if there is even one moment where they can’t shoot someone, they switch weapons, just to have something to do. Switch back and forth and back and forth and oh look, an enemy just shot you in the face while you were playing with yourself.

Whew. Sorry. I had to get all that out. So those are my complaints. What are some of your biggest annoyances from teammates while playing online? This is a safe zone: no one will hurt you here. GO!

Poll: Most Anticipated June Release

Apparently, I was so distraught over the PSN being down (PSN-sane…get it?) that I didn’t do one of these for May, so I apologize and am back to make amends for June. We are fully into the summer now and thankfully, it’s not the drought that it once was. In my day, summers were when you replayed the games you got for Christmas, not buy new blockbusters and play them.

So even though I am still swamping through my own backlog and thankfully making progress, I think Infamous 2 is the game I most have my canny eye on. I loved the first game and from everything I have read about the sequel, it’s shaping up to take the franchise to greater heights. Also, I hate Duke Nuke ‘Em. But there are way too many great games coming out this month! It’s kind of insane.

What say you? Vote below!

Most Anticipated June Release

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Activision Responds To Modern Warfare 3 Leak

Activision

Other than releasing several teaser trailers confirming what we already knew, Activision has been strangely silent, like a slumbering giant, regarding the leak of tons of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 info. But that giant is now awake and…is surprisingly docile about the whole thing.

In a candid and open interview with Joystiq, CEO Eric Hirshberg basically said that when life (or the Internet) hands you lemons, make lemonade:

“We woke up with a marketing crisis and wanted to go to bed with a marketing win. “So what we did was we kind of took that exact conversation we were having in our conference room outside and had it publicly in social media. Through our various channels, through Robert Bowling at IW, through Facebook and through our YouTube channel, we reached out to our fans and we said, ‘Look, we didn’t schedule this. This wasn’t something we had planned. But everyone seems excited, so we’re just going to roll with it. So here they are, a couple of assets that weren’t scheduled to be out for another couple of weeks, we’re going to release ’em to you today.'”

The interview goes on and he says obviously they aren’t happy with it and are investigating the leak, but until then, he doesn’t want to comment on it. He also didn’t mention Kotaku or any possible consequences the website may be facing from Activision for their role in the leak.

We all know what I think about this, but I am pleased to see that Activision didn’t let it bother them and decided to roll with the punches and make the most of a forced opportunity. What do you think? Are they being too soft or just right? GO!

Source: Joystiq

Why Kotaku Did A Bad Thing

Modern Warfare 3

Without a doubt, the biggest story of the past week has been the extensive leaking of highly spoiler-ish and relevant story and level details from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by the popular gaming site Kotaku. Modern Warfare 3 is easily the most anticipated game of the year, in terms of popularity and, of course, financially, so a story like this would naturally attract tons of attention. It’s easy to see why: Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest game of all time at its launch, now surpassed only by Call of Duty: Black Ops and likely to be surpassed again by Modern Warfare 3. It’s not exactly a mystery why this leak generated such a huge response.

But something bothers me a great deal about this. I think this is a huge story, but not for the reasons that most others do. I think Kotaku erred in leaking these details. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Kotaku commited a very great wrong, one that not only damages Activision and the Call of Duty brand, but also the entire video game industry and its myriad partners, including the world of video game journalism. And the fact that only a select few have even noticed this bothers me even more.

You see, maybe I’m old fashioned, but I truly believe that journalism, even video game and entertainment journalism, is a noble profession with a set of ethics that all who practice it should adhere to. Journalism is there to protect people by exposing lies and keeping the powers that be honest. Reporters take the time to check the facts because we the people don’t have the time and resources to do so ourselves. They are a vital part of this world and one that should be embraced instead of marginalized. Continue reading Why Kotaku Did A Bad Thing

GamerSushi Asks: Most Influential Games in History?

Space Invaders

Every hero has an origin story. Every journey has a first step. Every Bible has a Genesis. And every game made today was influenced by a game made yesterday. But which games are the ones that are truly influential? Sure, even the most average games can have some decent new concepts, but of all the games of yesteryears, which are the ones that today’s hits owe a genuine debt to?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to ponder this myself, (I probably would have said Final Fantasy and leave it at that), but 1Up compiled a list of the 60 Most Influential Games for me. Their criteria for the list is unique and pretty strict, which means they didn’t just pull games out of thin air and add it to the list. Personally, I think you might be surprised by some of the games in the upper echelons, such as Space Invaders coming in at #3.

Take a look and let us know: what games do you think influenced other games the most?

Source: 1UP

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Goes For The Gold

Uncharted 3

Uncharted 2 was widely considered one of the best single-player games of all time. But the multiplayer, while not quite reaching that level of greatness, was nothing to sneer at either. From the enjoyable standalone co-op levels to the cover/platform based versus modes, it was a surprise to many that Naughty Dog had done such a great job on their first time out.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that they aren’t content to simply throw in a few new skins and ship it out again, as is. Gamasutra conducted an interview with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells specifically to ask about the refinements being made and the ambitions of the developer.

One new feature is something called, “Power Plays” which allow a trailing team to get back into the game, if things aren’t going according to plan.

One of those power plays is called “marked man,” during which one or two members on the leading team get marked, and if the trailing team can kill them, they’ll get three points for that kill so it can help them catch up. It’s a very interesting dynamic because as soon as someone gets marked, the opposing team can all see exactly where he is and the leading team gets to defend him, so it changes the experience for this short little burst.

Personally, that sounds kind of awesome to me. I like that the dynamic of a game changes quickly, forcing you to react and adapt, instead of playing mindless deathmatch all day long. Wells goes on to say that they are working hard to ensure this feature doesn’t cause Mario Kart-esque “rubber banding” and irritate gamers.

So what do you think about a feature like this to liven things up a bit? Nathan Drake demands your answer!

Source – Gamasutra

Square Enix to Publish Dead Island

Dead Island

In honor of Zombie Awareness Month (Look it up, it’s a thing), we’ve been given some undead corpse-related news from our good friends over at Deep Silver, the developers of the highly anticipated FPS/co-op with a twist of melee zombie game known as Dead Island. They’ve found a publisher and it might raise your eyebrows and the dead from their graves. OK, I got carried away with that last one.

Square Enix, the publisher of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and other games where buckles, zippers and spiked hair reign supreme, will publish the game, due out something before the end of the year, as IGN is reporting. This is pretty smart because Square Enix still knows how to market a blockbuster game in a crowded field of contenders.

But it also gives us the chance to make jokes. So, other than an emo main character who can’t remember what’s going on, what JRPG stereotypes would you like to see in Dead Island? (I realize the real answer is “none”, but just play along, OK?) Do you think Square will try to change anything before release? GO!

Source – IGN

What Can Sony Do to Regain Your Trust?

PSN

By now, we’ve all heard about the massive data breach of the Playstation Network by a hacker of unknown origin. If this is somehow breaking news to you, IGN has a nice summation of the entire saga here. As someone who has a credit card linked to my PSN account, not to mention my undying desire to play Portal 2 co-op, I am pretty steamed. (Get it?)

Sony and the hacker both share a lot of blame and I don’t think Sony kept it secret for a week that our information was stolen, but the fact remains: Sony has lost the trust of its consumer base. Granted, there will be fanboys who defend them to the last breath, but those people don’t count. Also, one benefit from this fiasco: it makes it real easy to spot the fanboys.

So what will it take for Sony to win back your trust? Free loot? Cross-game chat? Paying for credit protection for 2 years, as some have suggested? Personally, I want all of the above and maybe a little more. I am disgusted by this whole thing and I want more than a silly email and some vague mutterings about checking my statement.

What say you? Has Sony lost you forever? Speak now or forever hold your PSN anger!

Source: IGN

The Great Funk of 2011

MorriganMeh.

The piercing sound of gunfire in Black Ops doesn’t move me. The clang of steel in Dragon Age: Origins can’t wake me. Even Glados and her homicidal puzzles fail to shake me from my electronic ennui.

I’m in a gaming funk.

It happens, from time to time, usually in the summer months, when the Florida sun shines down from what seems like an inch from my head, pelting me with a heat that is as oppressive as a batarian slaver. It happened a lot in college, when I didn’t always have the money to get the games I wanted, but the miasma sets in sometimes even now.

I know the cure. I just have to find it: the right game at the right time. That perfect synergy of carefully identifying my mood and calculating what the proper game is to propell me forward and upward, to eliminate the listless that has so gripped me. Continue reading The Great Funk of 2011