Mitch has written a total of 335,654 words on this site.

mitch@gamersushi.com Twitter: @mi7ch Gamertag: Lubeius PSN ID: Lubeius SteamID: Mister_L Origin/EA:Lube182 Currently Playing: PUBG, Rainbow 6: Siege, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Total War: Warhammer 2

Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

battlefield bad company 2 review

Swedish developer DICE has long been the master of online warfare, their lineage of creating excellent multiplayer experiences extending back to 2002’s Battlefield 1942. Even though DICE has a bunch of award winning frag-fests tucked under their caps, their games have always lacked a solo outing outside of throwing a bunch of computer-controlled grunts at someone and calling it “single-player”. DICE’s first foray into the setup of a solitary campaign came with 2007’s Bad Company, the second DICE game on current generation consoles and the first one with a single player portion.

The tone of the game was humorous, and it wedged the story into the huge open maps that the series is known for. The multiplayer was lauded, but then again, that’s a given with DICE. What Bad Company did prove is that they can make single players games, but it was in need of some refinement. Two years later, we’ve got a sequel and it aims to take back the crown of “First Person Shooter King”. What did DICE do differently this time around?
Continue reading Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

DICE Takes Another Shot at Infinity Ward

Do you guys remember back in November of last year when the hype for Modern Warfare 2 was really reaching a fever pitch? Well, during that time, Infinity Ward released a less than acceptable viral video promoting their game. The video was titled Fight Against Grenade Spam, or F.A.G.S. when shortened into an acronym. Obviously, this didn’t go over well with the majority of its viewers, and ended up causing IW a lot more grief than they needed right before MW2 launched. DICE, not one to let the comparisons between their game and Infinity Ward’s go unnoticed, has taken another pass at making fun of IW’s missteps, this time by spoofing F.A.G.S with a video of their own: F.R.A.G.S. Take a look.

So, what do you think? A little too overt of a jest by DICE? Do you think it’s justified?

Brink Trailer Wants to Catch You Rolling

Brink is a title I’ve had my eye on for quite a while, but there’s been surprisingly few trailers for the upcoming First Person Shooter/free-running game. It’s got all the things I love about current generation shooters: persistent stats, customizable characters, and co-op. The game features something called SMART, which stands for Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain. Check out an example of that in the trailer:

It looks like pre-rendered stuff, but it’s a good example of the game’s art direction. Does this pique your interest? If you do pick it up, which platform will it be for?

Chaos Rising Trailer is a Bloody Good Time

While I’ve been known to bemoan the stripping down of traditional Real Time Strategy mechanics, there’s one game that goes about it the right way: Dawn of War II by Relic. You may know Relic for their previous excellent strategy games like the original Dawn of War and Company of Heroes. While you needed a PC of the most beefy variety to play CoH, there’s no denying that it had some of the most dynamic game-play I’ve ever seen in a strategy title. Dawn of War took that and refined it a little more, focusing completely on unit manipulation in the field. A lot of upcoming RTSes purport that they want you to feel “attached” to your cannon fodder, but DoW2 comes the closest. A new expansion came out recently, and it’s been getting some rave reviews. Check out the trailer, heretics.

Has anyone else tried this game yet? If so, what did you think of the original, and do you miss the battlefields covered in carpets of slain Orks? Are you going to pick this expansion up? Just for extra nerd cred, who here paints Warhammer figurines? I have a few painted myself.

Warren Spector Speaks Truth to Power About Motion Control

epic mickey
As we all know, the Game Developer Conference is happening this week down in San Francisco, and there’s a lot of news coming out about Sony’s Move motion controller. While it’s got a few developers excited about the possibilities, one industry veteran doesn’t think too highly about the rush to embrace gaming’s new zeitgeist.

Warren Spector has been in the video game industry for a long time, starting off with Wing Commander in the 1990s, but he’s perhaps most renown for his work on Thief, Deus Ex, and System Shock. With such a history behind him, surely he’s one to listen to when it comes to debating the merits of motion control. As Gamasutra’s new interview states, Mr. Spector isn’t so hot on the idea of motion control, mostly because it’s essentially “throwing away our entire history”. During the “Lunch with Luminaries” event at GDC, something I would give my left arm to attend, Warren had this to say about motion control:

“I think it’s kind of weird…that we’ve sort of said, ‘We’ve go 20, 30 years of people learning how to do this — sitting on their couch and having a good time, and knowing where the buttons are — and we’re saying ‘You’ve got to stand up and wave around and gesture,'”

He goes on to quantify his statement: Continue reading Warren Spector Speaks Truth to Power About Motion Control

Review: Assassin’s Creed II DLC Twofer

AC2
Since my own personal game of the year 2009 has seen some extra content be released in this very packed first quarter, I felt it was my duty to plunge back into Assassin’s Creed II feet first and see if the DLC could stand up to my amazing reception of the original game. I’ve had an opportunity to finish it off, so let’s head right in.

If you’re unfamiliar with Assassin’s Creed II, I’ll do a quick recap of the premise to bring you up to speed. During the course of gameplay, your character is forced to skip replaying a few years of Ezio’s life due to error in the Animus, a machine used to relive memories of ancestors past. The downloadable content restores the damaged memories, and that’s where the expanded missions take place. Both content packs have been released already for fewer than five dollars and are included with the PC version, if you can actually get past Ubisoft’s DRM measures. Some people have complained about the fact that Ubisoft is charging for cut story content, but I feel that AC2 is complete enough as it is, and anything else they deign to add to it is fine with me. But how well do the two memories fit in with the overall experience?
Continue reading Review: Assassin’s Creed II DLC Twofer

What is With All the Streamlining?

supreme commander
While Bad Company 2 was released last week on March 2, another sequel that I was greatly anticipating came out that day as well: Supreme Commander 2, the follow up to 2007’s large-scale strategy title. I’d been hearing mumblings going into its release that it was going to eschew the heavy system requirements necessary to render the huge battlefields of the previous game, but I doubted that Gas Powered Games was going to stray too far from the formula of the original. After all, there’s something unique and cathartic about building up a huge base, stocking it with top tier defense guns and shields, then pummeling the enemy’s fortifications with a gigantic navy. The game had a charm that could only come from a prohibitive resource management system, but I loved it all the same.

Now that I’ve had a chance to play Supreme Commander 2 a bit, I can’t help but notice how severely pared down it is from its original inception. I wonder when I became vogue to start taking formerly complicated games and trimming all of the fat off of them. While this trend has been seeing movement for a while, there is another recent example of a game series that started off as bloated with genre tropes as you can possibly get then got whittled down to the bare essentials: Mass Effect. Like I mentioned in my recent post about the upcoming DLC, I’ve been playing the original and the differences in the inventory and level management system are staggering. The same thing is true with Supreme Commander in that there are no more tech trees and the unit upgrades are managed through a simple interface as opposed to a constant advancement of technology.
Continue reading What is With All the Streamlining?

Mass Effect 2 Says “Tanks” For the Memories

I’ve been replaying Mass Effect one recently so I can import a character over to the sequel, something I wasn’t able to do on my three play-throughs (quiet, Eddy). For those of you who may not be familiar with the mechanics of importing versus not importing a legacy Shepard, the game assumes that you made certain decisions, all of which follow the Renegade path, something I don’t usually do in moral choice games.

While Mass Effect one still holds up, one thing that’s really getting to me are the Mako driving sections. That armored personnel carrier handles like a hyper-active child throwing his Hot Wheels around, and I’ve gotten stuck in narrow canyons more times than I care to mention. While I may hate the Mako with a passion, the good folks over at BioWare have decided to give the old wheeled vehicle a make-over and transform it into a hovering tank. Watch the tank in action in the following video:

Pretty slick, if you ask me. Looks like BioWare solved all the complaints with the Mako, which were mostly concerning handling and the occasional problem of not being able to aim properly due to wonky terrain. Most of us have probably finished our ME2 campaigns by now, but who’s going to jump back in and give the “Firewalker” DLC pack a try? It’s coming out late March free for Cerberus members, and those who didn’t buy the game new will have to pay $15USD to join the Network.

Halo Multiplayer Trailer Reaches for the Sky With Jetpacks

It’s a real shame that May 3rd is so far away, because watching this multiplayer trailer for Halo: Reach makes me pine for some Halo-flavored action. Actually, that’s not the best way to phrase it because Reach takes what the previous Halos did then mashes it up with Red Faction: Guerrilla (jetpacks) and Call of Duty (loadouts). The prior Halos were good times in multiplayer, but this trailer makes it look like Bungie took their game, as one aging rockstar said, “to eleven.” Have a peek:

Is that some hot stuff or what? Anyone else starting to feel the return of the dreaded but oh-so-sweet Halo hype? This is almost enough for me to forgive the franchise for Legends. What do you guys think about the trailer?

Activision Goes All Order 66 on Infinity Ward

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Almost five months after releasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a smash hit with sales numbering in excess of a billion dollars, a wave of shady goings-on and innuendo has blanketed Infinity Ward, resulting in the layoffs of two senior members, namely Vince Zampella and Jason West. For those who are unfamiliar with the pair, these two are the head honchos at Infinity Ward, so these are some startling developments indeed.

It all started yesterday with IW’s bosses heading for a meeting with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Zampella and West went MIA after the meeting and a bunch of “bouncer”-types showed up outside the IW offices creating a “tense situation”. Although the security personnel would not disclose why they had rolled up on IW’s office building, this did not stop the internet’s unofficial band of sleuths from digging through Linked-In, a job-history database. Vince Zampella has changed his profile to reflect his new employment status with his tenure as Infinity Ward’s CEO clearly represented in the past tense.
Continue reading Activision Goes All Order 66 on Infinity Ward

GamerSushi Asks: Immediate Regrets?

stalkerIt’s happened to all of us at one point or another: we buy a game, tear off the shrink wrapping, pop the disc into our console or PC, boot it up and watch as our hopes are torn asunder. It doesn’t occur all that often, being the net-savvy video game fans we are, but there are some games that manage to defeat all of our ingrained warnings and end up absorbing our hard earned cash.

This circumstance befell me last week with STALKER: Call of Pripyat, an open-world FPS by GSC Game World, a Ukraine-based developer of some note. I’ve been interested in the Stalker series for a while, but I’ve never had a machine capable of running the titles until now. I figured that, after three iterations on the formula, it was probably a safe bet that Call of Pripyat would fix up the nagging problems I’ve heard about the first two games, namely the repeated crashes and lock-ups.

Well, you know what they say about assumptions, and it turns out that Call of Pripyat is just as unstable as the other two games. After raising all my graphic options to maximum, the game promptly crashed, forcing me to do it all over again. It also doesn’t help that, even on full graphics, the game looks and plays like a budget 2007 title. I understand that GSC is using the same engine, but they could have at least given it a bit of spit shine.

Needless to say, I promptly uninstalled the game and began pining after my forty misspent dollars. Has something like this happened to anyone else? I can think of two other instances of this phenomenon, but I’d like to hear your stories first. Have any of you been burned by hype? Sound off!

Sonic Fanboys Convene for Massive Fail

sonic 4
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is coming out this year and, for all intents and purposes, it looks pretty good; almost a return to form for a has-been mascot that’s tried everything from swordplay to lyncanthropy to win back his fan-base. Some people are just impossible to please, though, so even a side-scrolling HD throwback game isn’t going to win over some die-hards. Take this online petition for example. These stodgy supporters of Sonic circa 1992 aren’t just going to acquiesce and buy Sonic 4, oh no. They’re planning on buying Sonic 1 when the new game gets released. Wait, what?

Now, we all know that internet boycotts are destined to bomb, but this one strikes me as possibly the least effective form of consumer backlash I’ve ever seen. All well and good if you don’t like the new Sonic, fellas, but buying Sega’s products is hardly going to get them to change their minds. Check out my favorite part of the rant:

“Either way, We will decide to finally show sega what the fans truly want. A real sonic 4, as long as sonic 4 stays the way it is, we will not buy it, we will in fact buy sonic 1 on release in protest of sonic 4”

I know we’ve highlighted some silly boycotts in the past, but I’m sure this one takes the cake. What do you guys think about this? Is there any hope for these petitioners, or will they go down as the laughing stock of the internet? My guess is on the latter.

Source: Destructoid

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer is Out of This World

If there’s one thing that Nintendo knows how to do well, it’s stringing along the hardcore over and over again. Just when you feel like trading your Wii in, Nintey hits you with a one-two combination of their top tier franchises. This time it’s Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M which have release dates of May 23 and June 27, respectivley. Below is a trailer for Mario Galaxy 2, so check it out why don’t you.

I remember hearing that Galaxy 2 is going to be significantly harder than the original, and judging by this trailer I can definitely believe it. Is anyone else excited about this?

After Burner Climax Video Shoots a Lot of Missiles

I don’t know how I missed this trailer, but apparently Sega is bringing After Burner Climax to XBLA and the PSN later this year. The trailer for this game looks freaking sweet, and I can’t wait to play it then promptly give up in frustration.

Fix up the music and you’ve got yourself a sale, Sega. Between this and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 coming to consoles later this year, it looks like Sega is back on the path to winning gamer’s hearts once again. Who’s going to pick this up, and for what system? Do any of you remember playing the old version of this in that massive arcade cabinet?

Street Fighter IV Ruins Thumbs on the iPhone

Hey, did you know that Capcom put a version of Street Fighter IV on the iPhone? I didn’t, but it certainly is an interesting idea to say the least. Check out the video below:

The port looks like it captures the game unique art style, and it seems to run pretty well. The control style is mapped onto the surface of the phone via touch controls that emulate a classic controller set up. What do you guys think? Pretty sharp for an iPhone adaption, eh?

Review: Halo: Legends

halo legends
It’s actually kind of surprising that the Halo franchise has been bereft of a film adaptation at this point; considering the massive amount of acclaim the series has garnered, bringing it to the screen, big or small, has been a curious process. A few years back, it looked as if Halo was making definite strides towards a movie: Peter Jackson was tied to the project with promising newcomer Neill Blomkamp tapped to direct. A short film directed by Blomkamp surfaced around E3 2007 depicting a battle between human soldiers and Covenant troops and it was widely praised. After that, though, the Halo film got caught in development hell and it has since been canceled.

The next mention of a cinematic Halo came at ComicCon 2009 where Microsoft announced the creation of 343 Industries, an internal company focused solely on the management of the Halo IP. With former Bungie veteran Frank O’Conner leading the newly formed team, 343 showed off a trailer for Halo: Legends, a collaborative effort with several renowned Anime companies.

Comprised of seven short films, all about ten minutes in length, Legends promised to give an in-depth look at snippets of the Halo universe, including a peek at the oft-mention but curiously absent Forerunners, the race that built the titular ring-shaped space stations of the series. A couple of the shorts were released as a preview on the X-Box LIVE exclusive Halo Waypoint, with the full retail version hitting stores on February 16. Now that the whole product it out in the wild, how does it stand up?
Continue reading Review: Halo: Legends

New Splinter Cell: Conviction Story Trailer Channels Jack Bauer

Splinter Cell’s release date is finally set in stone, so we can all sit back and enjoy the upcoming barrage of videos to remind us that, yes, the game is coming out this year. Ubisoft just released a trailer to give us a quick refresher on what everyone’s favorite grizzled super spy, Sam Fisher, has been doing since Double Agent. Take a look:


Man, all he needs to do is headbutt a fashion designer and he’ll be Keifer Sutherland. All jokes aside, the game does look sharp, but I’ll still worried about the game’s controls, specifically the ability to queue actions and watch them go off. I’m sure that the game will pull it off just fine, but it does make me a bit nervous. I’m going to pick it up regardless, but what about you fellas? Is this one your purchase list, or will you still be playing one of the millions of games that comes out between now and April? Has the news about Assassin’s Creed II’s DRM done anything to dampen your enthusiasm for Ubisoft products?

Today’s WTF: Assassin’s Creed II PC Requires Uninterrupted Internet Connection

assassins-creed-iiNow, we here at GamerSushi don’t usually like using the WTF title for just any old occasion, but this new revelation regarding Assassin’s Creed II PC and its draconian DRM measures seems like the perfect fit. For those of us who are waiting until March to play Assassin’s Creed II (my personal favorite game of last year) on the PC, it looks like Ubisoft is trying to add insult to injury by requiring a constant internet connection to play the game.

This seems more like an effort to deter paying customers rather than pirates, but it gets better. Even if you’re lucky enough to have an unwavering 24/7 connection, you can still be booted out of the game if Ubisoft’s Master server goes down. Yes, you read that right: you’re totally helpless when you’re playing this game. When a disconnect happens, either on your end or theirs, you’re kicked out of your current game and back to the menu where your only option is to save your last checkpoint and wait until you’re connected again. Fortunately Assassin’s Creed II auto-saves frequently, so this shouldn’t be as big of a headache as it could have been, but it still seems like an unnecessarily harsh punishment to those who paid money for this game.

What do you guys think about this? Obviously it’s a very negative turn of events, so do you think this is going to affect the sales of this game, or perhaps all Ubisoft PC titles? Are you even going to buy this game anymore?

Source: PC Gamer Blog

What Do Bad Company 2 and Mass Effect 2 Have in Common?

bad company 2
If you first answer is “the number two”, then you’re only half correct. The other thing these two sequels have in common is that they’re both playing host to EA’s new online initiative which asserts that all major forthcoming releases will have heavy back-end support and a lot of additional content available post-launch. Just as purchasers of brand new copies of Mass Effect 2 obtained a Cerberus Network Card which gave them access to free day one DLC, customers who buy unused copies of Bad Company 2 will receive a VIP code that will offer up a couple exclusive multiplayer maps. If you buy a used copy then you can still gain access to these promotions, you just have to pay around $15 dollars first.

By 2011, EA expects that all of its games will have an online component and this is a major step in the company’s efforts to combat both piracy and the used game market. By making the bonus content available to paying consumers, it keeps those of us with weaker scruples out of PC matchmaking (at least for a little while), and it also provides additional incentive to drop $60 on a title, a little extra enticement which is beneficial in these trying time.

I for one applaud this movement, but how do you guys feel? Now that DLC and online support is becoming more and more popular, should companies attempt to assert their monopoly? While publishers have a right to protect their games, do you feel that shunning the used game market is the right way to go about it? Let us know how you feel!

Source: The Escapist

Assassin’s Creed II DLC Trailer Stabs Some Dudes

I bring good news for my fellow Assassin’s Creed II fans as it appears that the second bit of downloadable content is going to be dropping tomorrow. Sure, it is on short notice, but I can’t complain about the prospect of playing some more Assassin’s Creed. This is the last of the announced digital extras for AC2, and, while I haven’t tried out the first bit of DLC (Battle for Forli), I’m looking forward to picking both of them up tomorrow and giving them a go. Check out the trailer for the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC:

It’s available on both X-Box LIVE and the PlayStation Network and will be included in the PC release of Assassin’s Creed II in March. Who else is downloading this, and did you play the first DLC? If so, what did you think?