Last week, we ran the first edition of Pitch Your Game, our brand new GamerSushi feature where Anthony and I came up with the most absurd video game pitches we could think of, and pitted them against each other in mortal combat. It was Thunderdome meets a think tank.
This week, we go to the other side of the coin, where Anthony and I actually take serious pitches at game ideas that we think might need to be explored. At the end, you weigh in on which game you think you’d rather play.
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time, but it looks like some developers are finally going after the bait that WoW has been dangling in front of them: subscription based gaming.
At a recent event, Take-Two (Bioshock, GTA IV) dude-in-chief Zelnick was heard to be talking up Blizzard’s business model, and how appealing it is for other developers. He even went as far as to talk about subscription based triple AAA titles with on-going transactions between the customer and the gaming studio. Basically, paying a monthly fee to play every game you own.
Well, that would just about ruin gaming. Ready to pay every month to play your copy of GTA IV or Bioshock? Because that’s probably where this discussion ends.
Another trailer is out for Call of Duty: World at War, this one featuring sneaky foes hiding in secret jungles, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. This game released this week a little under the radar, considering how much hype was centered around it, but so far I’m only hearing great things. In particular, I hear the Pacific levels are wild and epic, with some huge clashes.
Has anyone played this? Tell us your thoughts!
If you’re a Halo fan and a subscriber to the popular magazine Game Informer, then you’re going to be a very happy person this weekend. In the newest issue, there is a 10 page feature over Halo 3: Recon, due out in late 2009. While the article doesn’t have anything new in terms of gameplay or screenshots, it features tons of concept art, plus a few interesting details…
For one, Recon armor will be unlockable with all of the vidmaster achievements in Halo 3, so if you do those, yes, you can has. Second, Bungie doesn’t see Halo 3: Recon as a $60 game, especially considering that it’s an expansion pack that is about 5-6 hours long in terms of its single player campaign. This is exciting news, and I really wish more developers would follow suit on this.
Hopefully I’ll get my GI in the mail today or tomorrow, so I can provide some new details. Anybody else think this is cool, or are you just not that jazzed about Halo 3: Recon?
Source- HBO
Ah, silly GMod dudes. Mingebags, roleplayers, and the like. You always come up with the most creative stuff. In fact, you were Forge and LittleBigPlanet before there was Forge and LittleBigPlanet. Why, here’s an example of someone re-creating some scenes from Fallout 3 in G-Mod, complete with Megaton and even a little dancing hula lady. Shame it’s not faceposed, and the camera work is pretty bad, but it’s still quirky enough to get on my good side.
As many of us know, the Left 4 Dead demo dropped on XBox Live as well as Steam yesterday, sending gamers into a frenzy much akin to the virtual undead hordes that awaited bullet-pummeling. After a bit of a download time, I managed to nab the demo myself over XBL for the 360, and I couldn’t wait to get into my first game.
The thing that was curious to me from the menus and even once the game started was how much it felt like a game that belonged on the PC rather than the 360. Something about the controls, the HUD, the interface, everything about it screamed PC at me. Even hooking up with a party didn’t feel completely intuitive, though after a bit the matter was settled. So how was the gameplay?
No, not the Tingle from the Zelda games. I mean tingle of the “my JRPG sense is tingling” sort. It’s been awhile since I’ve played a truly great JRPG, and White Knight Chronicles keeps tapping me lovingly in all the right places. The newest trailer is an epic montage of some of the story of the game, and while the graphics aren’t nearly as good as say, Last Remnant, I can’t help but watch and hope that this game is as awesome as it’s starting to look.
Anyone else wanting this game?
The New XBox Experience is going live to the masses, bringing with it a variety of cool features for the XBox 360, replacing the current dashboard with something new, shiny and more avatar-y. One of the more notable features (in addition to group chat, finally) will be the ability to install games directly from your 360 game disc to your HDD. The idea is that this will significantly cut down on load times.
But does it? BingeGamer has put together a nice little chart that details just how much time is saved on game loads. It’s actually interested to check out, especially if you own any of the games that they tested. Apparently, Halo 3 is actually SLOWER after the install, and Lost Odyssey seems to have the most improvement.
Overall, the seconds saved seems pretty miniscule (around 10 seconds on average) compared to the several gigabyte installs. I guess i won’t be using this feature too much, then. What do you guys think? Are load times unbearable for you? Are you excited about the NXE at all?
Source- BingeGamer
I’m not sure how many of you have ever read or attempted to read The Wheel of Time books by the late Robert Jordan. If you haven’t, you should know that they are a huge series of epic fantasy books, sometimes awesome, sometimes frustrating, but always long. They are now on book 11 out of 12, with the last being finished by a new author, since Jordan has passed on.
Well, in news that’s not so surprising, it looks like Red Eagle Entertainment has picked up the rights to do movies, TV shows, and even games based on the property. Quite frankly, I’m surprised this didn’t go down sooner, considering how many fans of the series there are out there.
After defeating the mighty Gears of War 2 this weekend, I was hit with a startling realization that I had heard repeated a few times before in its reviews- the ending boss was majorly lame. It was truly baffling. In this day and age, many of the blockbuster titles that we seem to play don’t have those uber boss battles that we used to know and love from when we were younger.
If you laugh at this, you are a perv. Go ahead, try not to laugh. This is a clip from a PS2 RPG called Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia that’s just begging for you to watch. Though be careful… there are some who might consider the material racy. But only if their mind is in a naughty place.
For the record, I lol’d. Muchly.
Lionhead Studios are a crafty bunch of dudes. Also, they’re European, so you know that makes them of an extra wily sort. Plots, schemes, tricks and even hijinx are a part of their repertoire. Well, it seems that those devils are up to no good again, as they are now teasing about a HUGE Fable II announcement coming next week.
I mean, I’m not trying to be a cynic… but how huge could it be? In all likelihood, it’s DLC, so why should I poop my pants about it? Unless they’re giving you a code that unlocks 20 more hours of gameplay, I can’t see what the big deal is.
So what do you guys think the announcement is? Horse armor? A new patch? More wives?!
Source- Eurogamer
We all want Left 4 Dead. Zombies and such. Well, part of the goodness that is L4D is the main campaign which can be played as 4 player co-op, or if you have no friends, by yourself. This campaign is split into 4 acts. So far, we only know that one is in the corn fields, one is in a hospital, and some new details have recently emerged about a third act, “Dead Air”, which takes place in an airport.
The dudes over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have meticulously constructed what they call a Photo Essay of this part of the campaign, spoiling everything and showing you all the details that you could possibly want to know about this great zombie shooter. Beware though, there are spoilers galore, especially considering that this is possibly the last act of the game.
The Left 4 Dead demo also drops on XBL today. Excited much?
Source- Rock, Paper, Shotgun
So in all the hoop-lah from Gears of War 2 over the weekend, I forgot that Mirror’s Edge was going to show up today. Today! I’m totally at a loss for how I’m going to manage to play this game with everything else, seeing as how I need to move on to other games, but keep playing Horde mode. Anywho, there are some new videos out on GameTrailers showing even more of this awesome gameplay, and reviews are starting to come out everywhere as well.
The question, as always- who’s actually picking this up today? Let us know!
While I’ve sometimes engaged in the discussion that this console generation just isn’t quite cutting the mustard in terms of offering a true next generation experience, I often find myself alone in that opinion. This becomes especially apparenty after browsing through other gaming blogs, where nobody seems to be raising or caring about this issue, or demanding more from the current generation.
That’s why it was really refreshing to read a new editorial over at ClickZ, where Kevin Carney wonders if consoles are becoming extinct because of “casual gaming” as well as the Internet. He argues that this generation lacks any true sense of innovation that others generations have had, and is retreading the same material.
A new video is out that showcases some of the finishing moves found in the soon-to-be-unleashed Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe game, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. While the middle schooler in me wishes that these were proper Mortal Kombat fatalities from the days of yore, it’s still incredible to see Superman whack-a-mole a dude down into the earth.
What were some of your favorite Mortal Kombat fatalities? I was a big fan of Liu Kang’s dragon bite in MK 2, personally.
Got LittleBigPlanet? Love lots of intellectual property? Love creating levels? Love mixing those two things together? Well, be careful, because it seems that Media Molecule is obliterating- excuse me, moderating- dozens of LBP user created levels without warning, They are now being absorbed into the wide maw of the Internet, never to be heard from again.
There have been many reports of players unable to access their maps any longer, with little to no messaging from the dudes behind Sackboy and his lovable little friends. Hopefully, this issue gets resolved, though I imagine it’s sticky ground for LBP and its creators to deal with violations of copyright, as it’s some of the trickiest stuff in law.
Do you think this ruins the fun of LBP in some small way? I’ve heard some of the best levels are Batman, Pacman and Sonic related.
Source- Little Big Workshop Forums
CVG has up some updated information regarding the working KOTOR MMO that everyone in the entire universe (and by that I mean myself) is itching to play. The main feature in this article is about the single player experience, or that the MMO is designed to feel more like Bioware’s single player games, rather than the typical MMO with endless grinding and no substance.
The cool bits of the article relate to character customization, which will apparently be fairly robust as well as the companion characters, which are NPC party members who interact with you just as they do in other Bioware games. It really sounds like they want to give players the KOTOR they’ve been waiting for, in addition to a great MMO.
We don’t like to post two videos in a row here, but this one is so cool I just had to make the exception. This is some kind hack/mod of Resident Evil 4, where a Link model was added. It is kind of awesome looking, and I kind of wish that the whole thing was in Hyrule, etc. Give it a watch.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXonIgnSWIo[/youtube]
Here at GamerSushi, we’re not only about talking about our favorite video games, we’re all about being creative and making them, too. Granted, none of us are developers, coders, artists, and any of that stuff. But we can play a mean lick on Guitar Hero or pull off a triple jump on Mario. That should be enough right?
Since we’re completely qualified to make up new games, we figured we’d start off with some of the most ludicrous, ridiculous, cheesy and stupid ideas for video games that we could think of, in a new feature called “Pitch Your Game!”
