With all of the big presentations over, the time has come for us gamers to sort through the R&B performances, the awkward jokes and the motion controls and get to what really matters to us: the games.
Now that we’ve had a chance to watch the trailers and read the stories coming out of E3 2012, it’s time to ask: what was you game of show?
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While I like to think that I am a savvy consumer, the truth is that I don’t always make the best purchases when it comes to games. Sometimes there’s that one franchise that, even when I know the game will most likely be a steaming pile of crap, I still need to pick it up just in case.
Time and time again that franchise has been Spider-Man, which hasn’t had a really good game since Spider-Man 2 (Shattered Dimensions was pretty decent, but nowhere near that level). I’ve tried them all, from Spider-Man 3 to Web of Shadows, to the aforementioned Shattered Dimensions and the horrible Edge of Time. With the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man movie tie-in game, I might just get fooled again. The new Web Rush mechanic sounds really cool, and the Batman: Arkham City inspired fighting might just spruce up the sections of Spider-Man games that have traditionally been the weakest link.
Before you get to judging me, think back and see if there are any gaming series that draw you in every time, even if history says you should save your money. What are they, and why do you keep going back?
If there’s any game that’s more unnecessary than a Gears of War prequel, I’d like to see it (already seen God of War: Ascension) but it sounds like Epic subsidiary studio People Can Fly are doing their best to make the next trip back to the Gears-verse worth your time.
As Gears of War: Judgement is being told from the perspective of Baird and Cole defending themselves at a treason hearing, certain elements of the game will change each time you play it because, like any memory, things are going to be forgotten, replaced, or just plain made up. For example, the first time you play through a level, you might have access to sniper rifles, but the next time you play, Baird might say something like “we didn’t have access to snipers rifles” and poof: where you were once popping fools with snipers, you now have to get down and dirty with them.
As you play the missions you’ll eventually get to go through “declassified” versions of the levels, which is the actual series of events. Gears of War: Judgement also comes with a smart-spawn system similar to Left 4 Dead’s director: if you’re doing well the game will throw more enemies in different locations and you, and if you’re struggling to progress, things will get a bit easier.
Mixing things up like is what helps make a prequel a bit more palatable. I’m interested to see how this system will preform when the game drops, but for now it sounds like an interesting concept. What do you guys think? Is Gears of War: Judgement sounding a bit better to you now? What do you think of the declassification system?
Source – Kotaku
After playing Bungie-crafted Halo games for over ten years, how will 343 Industries fare when they take a stab at the mode the revolutionized multiplayer on consoles? If the new War Games trailer out of E3 is any indication, Halo 4’s multiplayer will be fast, brutal and more than a little bit flashy. Bungie’s Halo was always a more considered shooter, the slower pace leading to careful skirmishes rather than balls-to-the-wall gunfights. It worked well with the old games, but can 343 kick Halo into overdrive?
Overall the multiplayer of Halo 4 seems very similar to Halo: Reach: there are assassinations and armor abilities, but the new Spartans IVs are moving a lot faster than their Spartan III counterparts. I’m liking the look of Halo 4 a lot, but the sound design needs a little tuning. The melee attacks sound to squishy for a bunch of dudes in one ton suits of armor. What do you guys think? Does this trailer carry on the Halo legacy, or is Halo 4 turning into its own game?
There are no secrets in the video game industry, which is why we knew about Dead Space 3’s co-op mode almost a week before its official debut at the E3 press conference. Even though we knew it was coming, we didn’t know what it would look like, so the six-minute on stage demo was enough to get a good idea. Here’s that demo so you can watch for yourself:
So what do you guys think? Is it a little too action packed for your taste? How will Visceral Games maintain the horror with two people running and gunning? How does new character John Carver compare to Isaac Clarke? Speak up!
We’ve been teasing it for weeks and now we’re finally here: the big Episode 50 celebration, the Drunk Cast! I’ll skip my usual jokes about the absence of friend of the show Nick Comardo and just let you enjoy the craziness.
This is also our E3 2012 predictions show, so we manage to squeeze in some forecasting about what the big three and the publishers will do next week. We also talk 38 Studios, Infinity Ward’s redonkulous salaries and Bungie’s contract with Activision. In addition to that we have a couple bro-downs and Eddy not so humble-brags about his accomplishments over the last year.
By this point you’ve probably stopped reading and are listening to the cast, but don’t forget to rate it on iTunes when you’re done. We’ll see you all post E3 for The Hangover Cast 2.
Podcast links:
Red versus Blue Season 10, Episode 1
Leap Motion demo
0:00 – 5:00 Intro
5:01 – 6:15 Last year’s pre-E3
6:16 – 11:55 Motion control/Drink topics
11:56 – 19:13 38 Studios Money Issues
19:14 – 25:30 Infinity Ward salaries and bonuses
25:31- 34:59 Bungie’s deal with Activision
35:00 – 37:50 E3 2012
37:51 – 45:39 Xbox vs PS home entertainment
45:40 – 46:56 2012 Exodus
46:58 – 53:03 Nintendo at E3
53:04 – 53:59 Anthony’s new pc
54:00 – 57:20 Sony at E3
57:21 – 1:01:36 Valve at E3 (?)
1:01:37 – 1:05:56 Publisher predictions
1:05:07 – 1:08:37 Outro
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Poor, poor EA. You know, I do kind of feel bad for them at this point. Between all the stuff with Mass Effect, trying to launch an much-maligned digital store and Battlefield 3, they really have been getting the short end of the stick recently. Not that they don’t deserve it, but still, it must suck to be the new punching bag.
As another addition to EA’s recent list of slip-ups, a rumored fact sheet for Battlefield 3 Premium has appeared, listing everything that should be coming with the service. As I speculated on The GamerSushi Show, it is a “season pass” of sorts, getting you access to all the DLC and a few goodies for a flat $50 fee. Here’s a quick and dirty read-out of what you get:
In addition to all that you also get some new platoon decal options and the ability to save Battle Reports. Battlefield 3 Premium is shaping up to be pretty decent, considering that all told you get a $10 discount on the DLC. What do you guys think? Are EA and DICE going back on their Call of Duty ELITE trash-talk by offering up a similar service? Will you be picking this up?
This unusual first-person horror game has been making waves recently, so it kind of behooves me to post it here for all of you to see. The game is called Among the Sleep by an indie studio that goes by the name Krillbite and in it you play a two-year old child who encounters monsters after everyone else has gone to sleep. Krillbite recently put up a short gameplay video, so check it out!
I’m not a big fan of horror games per se, but the concept might be enough for me to check it out when it releases. What do you guys think of Among the Sleep? Is it on your radar now?
Source – KrillBite Studios
One of the biggest problems that critics had with the Uncharted series is that wisecracking every-man protagonist, Nathan Drake, becomes a mass murderer on a war-crimes scale over the course of a game. Naturally, it’s a video game, so you can expect to be shooting dudes, but this aspect of the Uncharted games always rubbed people the wrong way.
For Naughty Dog’s next title, The Last of Us, they’re seeking to address this concern by making the combat tense and building up a good contextual reason for killing other people. In a post-apocalyptic world, the survivors you’ll run across aren’t afraid to use violence to achieve their goals, so you’ll well justified in defending yourself. Combat is also changed to be a grueling affair; instead of jumping from one firefight with dozens of guys to the next, The Last of Us aims to make encounters with just a few other survivors as tough an challenging as fighting through a whole level was in Uncharted.
Even Naughty Dog acknowledged the disconnect between the character-building cutscenes in Uncharted and the action sequences so it will be interesting to see if they can pull this off when The Last of Us finally hits. What do you guys think? Were you bothered by this particular problem in Uncharted? Do you think Naughty Dog will actually address it?
Source – The Penny-Arcade Report
I forget when something qualifies as “over the hill”, but I think at this point the podcast is probably there. As benefits our advanced age, this week’s show is full of ramblings; without Nick on the cast to rein us in with a game we tend to go off on any tangent we feel like. Like episode 48, the result is a shorter podcast but I think that we have some pretty good discussions.
What do we discuss, you ask? We talk about a large variety of things all the way from EA removing official Battlefield 3 servers to Diablo III’s launch day woes and even how BioWare is floundering with the relationship they have with their fans. There’s also a couple of Day Z stories, some ranting about how we’re all too old to enjoy longer games, and whether or not games can (or should) qualify as art.
So! You know the drill, friends. Listen. Rate. Be fruitful and multiply. See you next time on our big five-oh shindig!
0:00 – 3:00 Intro
3:01 – 8:35 Diablo 3 launch day woes
8:36 – 10:30 EA removes official BF3 servers
10:31 – 13:44 The new new EA
13:45 – 18:13 Diablo 3
18:14 – 27:03 The future of Dragon Age
27:04 – 33:07 Padding games and getting old
33:08 – 36:51 Minecraft xbl
36:52 – 39:36 Walking Dead episode 1
39:37 – 49:29 Day Z stories
49:30 – 57:00 Should games be art?
57:01 – 59:04 Outro
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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It was only a matter of times once things started going south at 38 Studios earlier this month, but it appears that the employees at both that studio and Big Huge Games have been laid off.
Ever since 38 Studios bailed on paying employee salaries to pay back their debt to the state of Rhode Island, the company had been looking for outside funding but apparently they failed to find it in time. Without another loan from the state, 38 Studios shut its doors today with this unceremonious email:
The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.
These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.
This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012
The trouble apparently stemmed from the fact that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the studio’s first published game, did not sell nearly as many copies as hoped. Reckoning sold 1.2 million copies but needed to move 3 million to be considered a success. That’s a rather high target, especially for an unproven IP with very little marketing from EA’s part.
What do you guys think of 38’s mass layoff? What’s you opinion on the situation in general?
Source – Giant Bomb
An unintended side-effect of the long-standing legal battle between former Infinity Ward head honchos Jason West and Vincent Zampella and Activision is the reveal of the specifics behind Bungie’s contract with the publisher. Brought to light as part of the court-case, the 27 page agreement between the Bellevue, Washington studio and Activision details the plans for the studios’ new shooter, code-named Destiny.
There’s plenty of legalese in the document but the basic gist of it is that Bungie has signed on for a four game deal, the first of which is set to drop in 2013 for the Xbox 360. Subsequent games will be released on the next generation systems (aggravatingly, the agreement calls the 360 successor the “Xbox 720”) including the PS3 follow up and PCs. The games will be spaced to come out every other year with additional content packs called “Comet” filling in the gaps. Destiny is not strictly a “sci-fi” game but rather a “sci-fantasy” shooter. What that means exactly isn’t clear, so we’ll have to wait for a more specific reveal on that. The contract also stipulates that Bungie is working to revive their classic Marathon franchise.
Bungie’s official response, entitled “Well, that just happened” all but confirms this as fact, promising that the official reveal is coming soon and we’ll be seeing them starside in 2013.
What do you guys think about this? Is it unfair to Bungie to have their secret work revealed without much fanfare? Is this a low blow by West and Zampella’s lawyers to expose another developer? What do you think of the working conditions Bungie is under in the contract? Thoughts on what “sci-fantasy” means?
Source – LA Times, Bungie.net
Diablo III will probably go down as having one of the most successful launches of the year sales wise. Even if Blizzard’s server farm probably melted during the initial 24-hour rush, there’s no denying that a lot of people wanted to play the new hack-and-slash RPG. What’s curious about this is that Diablo III hit the streets with no launch day reviews.
While it can be argued that Blizzard, along with Valve, could get away with not needing day-one reviews, the case can still be made that the rush to review is damaging to both the industry and the consumer. It’s something we’ve talked about before here on GamerSushi, but VG247’s Patrick Garrat takes another look at this concept from the perspective of Diablo’s launch.
As games are becoming increasingly reliant on an Internet connection, pre-release review events are done in a controlled environment so things like latency, server issues and all sorts of errors don’t crop up. Games like this are reviewed in a vacuum and that harms the consumer’s impression. Launch-day reviews can be damaging in this case. Remember Gears of War 2, and all of its great scores, none of which mentioned the horrible net-code that plagued users for weeks? Remember any of the Battlefield games that launched with no connectivity, effectively killing the only reason people bought the game? This is stuff that doesn’t get addressed in a pre-release review session.
The big presence behind all of this is Metacritic, where a studio’s future is made or broken. There’s been a couple cases for breaking away from using Metacritic as a measure of success, but Diablo III is the first step towards actual change. If Blizzard was willing to distance themselves from this model, maybe other publishers will follow suit.
So what do you guys think? Does Diablo III’s successful launch mean that we can eventually move away from Metacritic or is this a case of Blizzard being Blizzard? Do you think that day-one reviews are a detriment to a game’s success? What do you think about the article in general? Go!
Source – VG247
It’s Episode 48 of the GamerSushi show! Despite the fact that there’s no game this week will still find a way to fill up almost an hour with our ramblings. Nick is busy with “jobs” so the Beard is not present; I guess you’ll have to make do with us moderately hairy folk.
We talked about a large variety of topics this week and just let the conversation take us where ever it wanted to go. It’s a bit less structured than a normal episode, but I think it still works pretty well.
That’s up for you guys to decide though. Listen to it, rate it, love it. Just one more episode until the big drunkcast! Maybe I’ll live tweet that one too. What do you say?
0:00 – 1:57 Intro
1:58 – 4:55 BioShock Infinite delay
4:56 – 10:15 Assassin’s Creed 3 trailer
10:17 – 11:49 Beyond Good & Evil 2
11:50 – 17:29 What Are You Playing catch-up
17:30 – 30:53 The Two Hour Game is the Future
30:55 -39:55 Day Z Interview
39:56 – 42:23 EVE Online “Burn Jita”
42:24 – 44:38 MOAR Day-Z
44:47 – 48:57 Wii U Will Win Back the Hardcore
48:58 – 50:40 Outro
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In a situation where many publishers would have left their customers twisting in the wind, Blizzard has once again proven why they’re one of the most respected studios in the business.
Bad news struck potential Australian Diablo III players yesterday when GAME announced that they were going into administration and wouldn’t be handling any copies of the long awaited hack-and-slash RPG because of payment issues with their shipping companies. This left a lot of angry people with pre-orders than were good for nothing.
For a while it seemed that nothing would be done about the pre-orders that were now lost, but Blizzard stepped in and announced that they would be honoring all Diablo III pre-orders from GAME dated before May 15. Yes, eager to help their fans stare at a menu screen along with everyone else, Blizzard posted on their forums that if people affected by GAME’s closure bought Diablo III off Battle.Net before May 21 and sent Blizzard their pre-order receipt before June 20 they will be refunded the whole amount for the game.
Pretty decent of Blizzard to step up and offer a solution instead of just letting all those unsold copies of Diablo III sit around. At the end of the day they’ve got their money and people have their Diablo, so it’s a fair trade, I have to say.
What do you guys think about this turn of events? Pretty impressed with Blizzard? Anyone on here affected by the GAME situation? Go!
Source – Battle.Net
Naughty Dog’s first post-Uncharted game, The Last of Us, is still on approach for the end of this year, promising to bring Naughty Dog’s signature cinematic style to a post-apocalyptic father/daughter tale. Even though the Earth is supposedly covered with whatever sort of zombie has been cooked up for this game, the real danger in these situations is other people, as is aptly demonstrated by the Truck Ambush trailer which shows the hard choices a man has to make after the world has gone to hell.
Admittedly I wasn’t a huge fan of Uncharted 3, but The Last of Us is still on my radar because I know Naughty Dog has it in them to deliver a really tight story-driven experience. It will be interesting to play a family man as opposed to the wise-cracking Nathan Drake and I’m sure there will be a lot of tense moments to go with it. What are you thoughts on the trailer? Do you want more?
Mass Effect is a series that took all of us by storm, drawing us in with its unique, deep sci-fi world and the hook of making your own Commander Shepard with your own story. The first game had a few issues but BioWare kicked Mass Effect 2 into overdrive, giving us a competent shooter/RPG hybrid that garnered numerous Game of the Year awards.
The third game in the series has raised the stakes, bringing the series big bad the Reapers into the galaxy, plunging every race into a war for survival. You’re tasked with bringing together all of the different races under one banner and taking the fight to Earth. Does Mass Effect 3 manage to tie everything together? Continue reading Review: Mass Effect 3
Just a few weeks after Trials Evolution shattered the sales records on Xbox LIVE, the Arcade version of indie PC darling Minecraft came and dumped a bucket full of Creepers on RedLynx’s success.
Just under a day after its official release, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition became the highest selling title on Xbox LIVE, with the leaderboards tracking some 400,000 players according to Major Nelson’s blog. While there are no exact sales figures available, a tweet from Notch, the owner of the company behind Minecraft, revealed that this version of the game was profitable in an hour.
It’s not all sunshine and roses though, as the makers of FortressCraft are a little bitter about Minecraft’s success on the platform that their game previously dominated. The website for FortressCraft suffered a pretty serious DDoS (Dedicated Denial of Service) attack on the same day that Minecraft hit Xbox LIVE. The man behind FortressCraft, Adam Sawkins, then went on a Twitter rant, saying some disparaging things about Notch, the Minecraft community and the Xbox 360 version of the game.
Any thoughts on all this craziness? How many copies do you think they sold to be profitable in under an hour? What do you think of the FortressCraft backlash? Go!
Source – Major Nelson, Notch and Eurogamer
As much as it pains me to post this, GamerSushi’s preemptive Game of the Year 2012 BioShock Infinite has been delayed in 2013, Take Two Interactive revealed today. The new release date is February 26.
In addition to this sobering news, the game will be skipping all the major events for the remainder of the year including E3 and Gamescom. There’s no official reason behind Infinite’s delay, but Ken Levine did give a statement regarding the move:
When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we’ve uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary,” said Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine. “Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need to deliver the best Infinite possible, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February. That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we’re going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February
Nothing too world-shaking there, but at least we know that Ken Levine is commited to giving us the best version of BioShock Infinite that he can, publisher pressure be damned.
What do you guys think of the delay? Has this changed your fall gaming plans?
Source – Joystiq
In this day and age it only takes one good idea to get your indie title or mod noticed by the gaming community at large. It needs to be something that the big studios aren’t doing but everyone clamors for. The team behind the Arma 2 mod Day Z managed to find their zeitgeist by transforming Arma 2’s 225 km squared landscape into an open-world zombie survival sandbox. When the world is covered by zombies and you’re struggling to survive, the gloves come off and that’s exactly what this mod encapsulates.
Players live an average of four hours, just to give you an idea of how tough it is to survive out there. You start off with meager supplies and you need to keep yourself fed, watered and breathing all while contending not only with hordes of roaming undead but also other players. It’s safe to assume in Day Z that everyone is out for themselves and the game features a humanity meter to chart your interactions with other survivors. Malevolent players can earn a “Bandit” ranking that changes their outward appearance and makes them a target for frontier justice. There are a ton of player guides to help you out, but the true genius of Day Z is the moment to moment gameplay and what emerges out of that.
A video chronicling some of what happens in Day Z by YouTube user SideStrafe.
Day Z requires both Arma 2 and its expansion Operation Arrowhead, and the Combined Operations package has cracked the top five sales on Steam, surpassing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Here’s a handy installation guide for Day Z to get you started on your journey, including some tips for living longer than a few minutes.
Since Day Z has taken off in such a huge way, we decided to get in touch with the developers behind the mod and ask them a few questions. Dean “Rocket” Hall was kind enough to provide us with some answers about how the mod came about, what sort of reaction they’ve seen from Bohemia Interactive, and what’s next for Day Z. Continue reading Emergent Gameplay and Persistent Worlds: The Day Z Interview
