Category: Classics

Video Games In Planet Form Will Make You Wistful

We gamers are a nostalgic lot. We love to be reminded of games from the past, even if that past is from a few months ago. Something about seeing our favorite games in a new way just triggers an ache, one we long to ease by dipping back into a world from our past.

Such emotions were what I felt when watching this cleverly animated video that shows the games we love in a new form: that of an ever shifting planet. Every few seconds, the planet morphs into a new setting, some of which are immediately obvious and others not so obvious. I won’t spoil it as part of the fun is trying to guess yourselves. Check out the video below and see how many you can identify!

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

9 Year Old Makes Cardboard Arcade, Happiness Ensues

This is just one of those things that tugs on the heartstrings. Caine is a 9 year old boy who loves arcades so much that he decided to build one himself in his father’s used auto parts store – out of cardboard boxes. Not only does Caine maintain and operate the “machines” himself, he actually devised a series of passes, tickets, rewards/prizes and even a security system to confirm that customers are legit.

Caine’s problem? He can’t get any visitors. So a bunch of people decide to give him one of the greatest days of his life in the way of a flash mob. The results are pretty heartwarming.

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Needless to say, the whole thing is absurdly adorable and harkens back to those days when we were kids, and our imaginations ran wild. It’s also pretty cool that, in a world where the arcade is fading away, there are still kids that are as addicted to them as I used to be back in the day. I spent far too many (or not enough, depending on your point of view) summer days and dollars at the pizza buffet behind my house, slamming my palms on driving games, the Simpsons arcade game and whatever shooters I could find.

What did you guys think of this? Favorite arcade memories? Go!

The PC Gaming Time Machine

Back to the Future

Somehow, I feel like I’ve stepped into a time warp. I’m not really sure how or when it happened, but gaming has taken me back about 12 years or so. I look a little bit older, I know only a couple of more things, I’m about to be a father, but the mouse and the keyboard still feel the same: every satisfying click fires another round, sends another SCV, marks another target or claims another piece of loot.

And there’s something terribly right about the whole thing. Continue reading The PC Gaming Time Machine

Game Design Gets Taken to Court

game design lawsuits

In the wake of the recent Mass Effect controversy and all of the other game-design related outcries, I sometimes wonder if gamers would take games to court if they could. 1up recently put up a feature about six game design choices that should be punishable by law, and it’s a pretty good read.

Sure, it’s humorous in nature, but there’s no denying that I feel like I need compensation for the pain and suffering caused by some of their examples. The slow-moving text in Skyward Sword is a great one, and it’s something that a lot of Nintendo games, from Pokemon to Mario, are guilty of. Sure, you can hold down the A button or whatever to speed up the text, but it still crawls pretty slowly. Ninty seems set on doing this and a lawsuit just might be the only way to get them to change their ways.

Personally, I’d like to sue someone over the Journal design in Mass Effect 3. I can get around bad quest logs, but the one in ME3 is just plain unhelpful. Main quests, side-quests and fetch-quests are all lumped together and the damn thing doesn’t even update when you’ve gathered one of the items necessary for your eavesdropping side-business on the Citadel.

I could probably also make a case against some of the things in Battlefield 3, and maybe for the extreme time-loss caused by Skyrim, but I’m pretty sure I have Stockholm Syndrome where that game is concerned. What did you guys think about the article? Are these choices worth going to court over? What games would you get litigious against?

Source – 1up

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Metal Gear Solid HD

Been a while since we had one of these discussions, so I thought it was time for a good old-fashioned “What Are You Playing” from the folks at GamerSushi.

This time of year is always a strange one. It’s about the time that you start clearing out the backlog from the end of the previous year, and you’re moving on to a number of random games that you couldn’t quite find time for before. Sure, there might be the random release like Final Fantasy XIII-2 or Twisted Metal to keep you busy, but for the most part, you’re waiting for one of the big releases from March or perhaps even as far away as the summer.

At least, that’s my story right now. Having just come off of Final Fantasy XIII-2, I’ve been dabbling in a few games that I didn’t think I would enjoy as much as I do. For one, I’ve been totally up to my knees in the Mass Effect 3 demo. That one in particular was one that I had mostly written off, only expecting just a few evenings of fun – but it’s had the opposite effect on me. I’m totally suckered into it at this point, and I can’t get enough of the leveling system and the store purchases.

In addition to that, I’ve jumped into the MGS HD Collection, and I can’t believe how much I’ve liked playing Metal Gear Solid 2 again. Sure, I’m still at the early stage of the game (the Tanker), but I had forgotten just how tightly designed that section of the game actually is. I never considered that I would enjoy playing MGS 2, but here I am. And the restoration is great. In addition to that, I’ve been hopping in and out of Battlefield 3 multiplayer sessions with Mitch, and I’m right on the verge of being completely addicted to that as well.

So yeah, that’s what I’m playing these days. What about you gents? What are you playing?

GamerSushi Asks: Jamming with Skyrim?

Apparently this is the week where all of our wildest gaming dreams come true. OK, that might be stretching it a bit, but at least a few of our gaming wishes seem to be coming to light. Between Battlefield 3 rumors, Double Fine’s Kickstarter Adventure and Notch talking Psychonauts 2, we’ve got kind of a lot of things worth salivating over. But that’s not all!

You see, DICE 2012 is underway right now, featuring a number of sessions from well known people in the field of interactive entertainment, including none other than Skyrim boss Todd Howard himself. Last night, Todd Howard gave Skyrim fans the world over a bit of a tease, something to get their heads spinning as we look forward to future DLC.

The Skyrim Game Jam is a week-long project where developers at Bethesda were challenged to come up with and implement one feature that they’d love to see in the enormous open-world RPG. While Howard cautioned that some of these things are just tests and might not ever see an actual release, the possibilities are enough to keep people excited about where the game could possibly go. Howard showed a reel which boasted all the things that the developers came up with in just one week’s time, ranging from mounted dragons (!) to seasonally changing foliage. Go ahead, see for yourself.

Although this power gets abused quite a bit, it’s still pretty cool that we live in a time where developers can retroactively incorporate fresh new additions to gameplay that might need some polishing. So my question to you guys is this: which of these features would you actually want to see in the final game? Also, if you could add a reel of features like this to any other game, what would you do? Go!

Double Fine Wants to Change the Game

I love when you see something so simple yet so brilliant that it kind of blows your mind. Tim Schafer has been in the spotlight quite a bit this week, what with his Psychonauts 2 shenanigans with Notch and all. But this actually goes a step further:

Tim Schafer is letting you (meaning us) finance Double Fine’s next game, a classic point-and-click adventure. Normally, a game like this would have little chance of being put into production by a publisher, so he’s taking the game straight to fans on Kickstarter. Rather than blather on about it, I’ll let Tim tell you about it himself.

And there you have it. For $400,000, Double Fine will make an old school adventure game, and the fans get to be a part of the process. Meanwhile, all of it will be documented by 2 Player Productions, the dudes behind the Minecraft/Mojang documentary.

It’s hard for me to express just how excited I am about this. While I don’t think it’ll necessarily change gaming as we know it, it certainly opens the door to start developers down that path. They would answer to fans and cut out the middle man completely. At the same time, what we’re seeing of the game isn’t being dictated by marketing, but rather an in-depth documentary crew. It’s just a little bit rad.

So what do you guys think of this? I’ve already donated some money. The numbers are already past 100k in the first day of the campaign, so I don’t think they’ll have any problems hitting it. Do any of you think you’ll join?

Edit: At the time I published this, the Kickstarter was at 122k, up from 90k when I started writing/donating.

Source – Kickstarter

Would You Rather: 2012 Edition

Man, even though we’re already over a full month into the year 2012, it still weirds me out to see the number written up there. Scandalous, almost. I don’t know if it’s because I’m old and full of rage when things change, or if that nerdy part of me feels like I should be in the future and my brain can’t reconcile the differences. Either way, 2012 is already shaping up to be a pretty fantastic year for games.

As such, we thought we would kick off the first Would You Rather for the year, one that will hopefully leave you all begging for mercy because of the difficult choices that await you. For the Would You Rather newbies out there, the game is easy: we ask and you dish out your response. Give as much or as little explanation as you want for your choices, but we all know that we like to see the reasoning behind the madness.

Don’t let your answers suck, though. I will personally come to your house and unleash a devastating Krav Maga attack on you. For real. OK go!

Continue reading Would You Rather: 2012 Edition

Notch, Psychonauts 2 and Dream Game Funding

notch psychonauts 2

Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus Persson (a.k.a. Notch) set the Twitterverse on fire this morning by suggesting to Tim Schafer that the former would foot the bill for the oft-wished for Psychonauts 2. This caused more than a few people to lose their minds and turned into Tim and Notch Tweeting back and forth, being very vague about their possible collaboration.

Not only did this exchange make me think about just how much money Notch has made from Minecraft, it also got me to pondering about which fantasy game series I would resurrect (or start) if I had the slush to do so. My mind first went to the Star Wars combat flight sims of yore like X-Wing or TIE Fighter. I don’t know exactly what studio I’d trust with this game, but I know that I’d try my hardest to make sure that the game would stay as close to the original as possible.

My other idea was also Star Wars related and it would be a sequel to Republic Commando. I’d bring on Karen Traviss to write the script and I’d possibly hand the gameplay off to Epic to make it into a third-person squad command game. If I was going to stick with a first-person shooter, I’d bring back the original team but team them up with the Bungie folk.

So what about you guys? What dream games would you fund if you had the money? A sequel, revival, or something new? What do you think about the possibility of Psychonauts 2?

Miyamoto: Searching for Nintendo’s Next Big Hit

Miyamoto

Nintendo has been in a bit of a bind lately, compared to the massive successes they’ve seen in the last few years. Wii sales are dropping off, the Wii U hasn’t generated the buzz that they wanted (they’re even considering a re-brand of the whole system), the 3DS was a certifiable flop in its early months and they are sustaining significant losses with each new quarter. There are a number of theories circulating about how Nintendo can right their massive misguided ship, but Nintendo has its own: Shigeru Miyamoto.

Several months back, there was a bit of miscommunication that made the Internet rounds about the famed developer retiring. However, it turned out that Miyamoto was actually going to be taking a step back from overseeing development teams to train younger staff. His other job? Idea-ating Nintendo’s next big hit. Here’s what he had to say on the matter in a recent Q and A session:

“I am acting with the understanding that one big hit title can change multiple phases of a situation in the entertainment business, and I feel that finding such one big hit is my basic job.”

It’s interesting to think that Nintendo is putting so much stock in finding that one big idea. It smacks of the way Hollywood thinks in a lot of ways, where studios will sink all their energy into finding that one box office smash year in and year out. The problem is, lightning doesn’t always strike like that, especially in a time where Nintendo might be finding themselves at a disadvantage when relating to core gamers.

We talked about this very topic for the upcoming podcast release, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on it, too. What do you think it means for Nintendo to use Miyamoto in such a way? Will it make a difference? Do you think the man that built Mario, Zelda, Nintendogs and Pikmin has one final swan song left within him? Go!

Source – SiliconEra

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 37: Don’t Call it a Come Back

After the long-awaited arrival of last week’s video podcast, many of you expressed your wishes that we not wait so long before the release of the next one. Well, for the first time in my life, I’m afraid I won’t be disappointing all of you – here’s a brand new podcast, fully of shiny gaming stories, GamerSushi memes and all kinds of other wonders.

This podcast brought us the monumental task of trying to recap an entire season’s worth of games, ranging from Bastion all the way to Skyrim. We used this as an excuse to try out a new game, Lightning Round, and I think all of you are going to be happy with the results. It was a nice way to run down a staggering list of games in a way that didn’t take 87 podcasts and two years of our blabbering to cover.

In addition, we played a game of Buy or Sell with a number of industry topics. Like we do. Listen up and enjoy, friends. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 37: Don’t Call it a Come Back

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The GamerSushi Show, Ep 36: PAX South

This post was actually written by Eddy, posted by Nick. Just to clear up any confusion.

Wow. Uh, hi dudes. I know it hasn’t been a long time since we’ve chatted, but it’s certainly been a long time since we’ve chatted in this format – you know, the format where I’m bringing you a brand new podcast. So that’s pretty cool, right? Especially considering the fact that this isn’t a normal podcast, but a special video podcast!

Yes, this is the long-rumored video podcast from GamerSushi Weekend, AKA PAX South, where the GamerSushi dudes convened for a weekend of hanging out, video gaming, drinking and yes, podcasting. I know it’s pretty ridiculous that it’s just now coming out almost six months later, but sometimes life happens and bearded dudes have to go to California to work. And yeah, that gets in the way every now and then. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 36: PAX South

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The Art of Video Game Photography

Mario Galaxies

If you’re ever looking for some ammunition in the (admittedly tired) ongoing discussion about whether or not games can be counted as art, I’d suggest you load your gun with a number of bullets from Dead End Thrills. What is Dead End Thrills? Basically, it’s a site devoted almost completely to the idea of video game photography – applying real-world photography techniques to showcase the artistic nature of video games. It’s not just as simple as that, though.

Applying the principles of real world photography to the virtual worlds of games is just part of the solution. Hacking and tweaking games to remove player model, HUD and restrictions on the camera are others. The toughest, though, is rendering games from throughout the 3D era, from Deus Ex to Crysis 2, at truly uncompromising quality. There is a massive difference between running a game with top-of-the-line antialiasing and quality settings, and running it with those same settings at resolutions far in excess today’s norms, using offline resampling to achieve perfect results. Only recently, and after extensive research, have such methods become possible.

Technical stuff aside, the dude makes some pretty sweet pictures, including great desktops from Skyrim, Portal 2, Alice: The Madness Returns, Modern Warfare 2 and even an iPod/iPad collection. I highly recommend checking out his work and upgrading your desktop collection.

A little game for the comments: link your favorites. Go!

Dead End Thrills

Final Fantasy VI: The Glitch of All Glitches

I’m a huge fan of Final Fantasy VI, it being my favorite game of all time and everything, but apparently there is something I’ve never know about it: it can be broken in the most bizarre and fun ways possible. A user on the SomethingAwful forums (via 1UP) named Elephantgun posted the below video, which not only shows him having an airship in the opening minutes of the game, but also causing the game to go completely haywire when he uses Relm’s Sketch skill against an invisible enemy. See for yourself:

[youtube width=”500″ height=”310″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xocs6tHmOKM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Pretty crazy, right? Are there any games out there that have similar glitches that you like to use? Have you ever discovered any yourself? Hit me!

Source: 1UP

Watch a Man Dominate Metal Gear Solid 3’s AI

Seems that the GamerSushi staff is on something of a Metal Gear Solid kick lately, but what other video game series can inspire people to randomly bust into a musical number? (Inside joke, don’t worry.) While Anthony was adventuring through the depths of Shadow Moses, I found a video of a guy absolutely breaking Metal Gear Solid 3 and it’s pretty amusing (and maybe a little frightening).

That’s the end result of hours of hours of practice, ladies and gents. I’m impressed by this showing, and I’m always fascinated by the ways people can find to creatively bypass the “game” aspect of most titles and create something new. Do you guys have any examples of this?

What was Your Surprise Gaming Hit of 2011?

sonic generations

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, but 2011 was a monumental year for video games. The last four months alone have given us some of the finest gaming experiences of the last few years. Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City are still vying for my personal Game of the Year slot, but even with these two juggernauts on my mind it’s hard to forget the games that were smaller but still managed to pack a big punch.

My biggest surprise of 2011 was Sonic Generations, the return to form for the Blue Blur that we’ve been waiting for ever since Sonic Adventure 2. There are no Werehogs (which I love to point out smugly is a misnomer, as “were” means “male human”, so “Wolfhog” would have been more appropriate), no goofy side-kick levels and no swordplay. It’s just straight up speed in classic or modern flavors and I kind of love it for that. If you’ve been hesitant about Generations, it gets my personal seal of approval. It’s not Game of the Year contender material, but it’s a solid title that earns its praise.

Another game that caught me off guard this year was Magicka, the isometric magic-casting game that took the PC world by storm. This game took co-op and turned it on its head by making your friends not only your greatest allies but your biggest threat as well. Four out of the five GS crew members played a night of Magicka and it was a howling good time, even if it did turn me into a raging asshole.

Rayman Origins also gets a nod from me as a sleeper hit, but what about you guys? What were your big 2011 games that no one’s talking about?

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You After?

Calvin and HobbesOne of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comics has to do with the idea that every man has a price. Calvin says that his price is two bucks cold cash up front, to which Hobbes muses aloud that he’s not sure what’s worse: that everyone has his price, or that the price is sometimes so low. What’s funny is that the more I think about it, the more this is actually true in gaming, too. Everyone’s got a price in terms of what they want from a game. And while the Bill Watterson comic touched on this in a more sinister way with morality, I think it’s what actually helps us enjoy games overall.

These thoughts started brewing in my head after an excellent piece over on Unwinnable, titled, Bullshit Vs. The Thing You’re After. In it, the author touches on every gamer’s price and what it is that makes gamers tick. And I think I totally agree. Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: What Are You After?

Dropping the Difficulty

Halo

I’m hardcore. At least, I consider myself to be. As such, I usually play games the first time through on at least normal, never dropping to easy mode unless I am just interested in the story, which is a rare occasion at best. But with games that I’ve played before, such as the newly released Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition, I wanted to challenge myself and play it on Heroic. So that’s what Eddy and I did.

Until some technical SNAFUs got in the way. We were playing co-op, breezing through the game and right at the very end of the level “Assault on the Control Room” when we were suddenly disconnected from Xbox Live. Thanks to the games archaic checkpoint system, we lost our progress and would have been forced to replay the whole level again, if it wasn’t for the fact that we rage quit for a week.

Finally, this weekend, we got back on the Halo horse and started kicking ass again. Until it happened again…in The Library. Rather than race to trade the game in, which was my first instinct, Eddy suggested we drop it to normal and just beat it quickly. And so we did. And what an enjoyable experience that was. We were so tired of the game that we just wanted to race right through it and be done with it.

Has this happened to anyone else? You suddenly lose all concern for your hardcore cred and just want to BEAT THE FREAKING THING and move on with your life? Sound off!

GamerSushi Asks: Gaming Humble Pie?

Flawless VictoryI’ve got plenty of gaming-related secrets. A few of them I’ve shared before, but some are so embarrassing that I dare not ever let them see the light of day. These include times that I spent hours going about a task the wrong way in an RPG, re-rolling characters and bumping certain games down to easier difficulties because there were no achievements associated with finishing it on Normal. Yup.

And while I won’t speak directly about some of those things, the guys over at Wiki Game Guides have put together a rather humorous (and sadly familiar) collection of the 10 Most Humbling Experiences that a gamer can go through. This list might make you laugh and cry all at once, because it includes getting “perfected” in a fighting game, being asked to switch to Bass in Rock Band and running into the first Goomba in Mario 1-1. Each of those may have happened to me at some point. In a past life. I don’t like to talk about it.

So what about you guys? How many of these things have you experienced? What are some of your biggest gaming shames?

Source – Wiki Game Guides

Gameplay Mechanics That Time Forgot

demons souls

For every gameplay mechanic that sets a standard in the industry, there are always a few that manage to slip out of vogue no matter how interesting they are. Back in the days when gaming was just getting started, developers felt like they could take a few more risks with their designs and some really cool stuff came out of that era. There are some neat ideas being presented today, but the fresh stuff is few and far between.

IGN’s newest appendage 1up put out an article on four gameplay mechanics that should have caught on and it’s an interesting look at some big ideas that have faded away into obscurity. While Demon’s Souls (and Dark Souls) are new, things like Rainbow Six’s mission planner or Blade Runner’s randomized story elements are kind of relics now, lost to the ages.

I remember trying to figure out Rainbow Six’s planner back in the day and I recall it being beyond the scope of my young mind. My missions frequently boiled down to giving everyone a shotgun and hoping for the best, but I bet if I went back and tried that game today I would find a layer of strategy that is so painfully absent from modern shooters.

The social single-player elements of Demon’s Souls is one of the most intriguing aspects of that game to me and I would be really pleased if that caught on in other games, especially sandbox titles. How awesome would it be if you were playing Grand Theft Auto V and saw some graffiti on the ground left by another player, pointing you towards a secret area with a special vehicle? This is a masterful way of bringing players together inside their own separate worlds and I’d like other developers to take a stab at it.

Do you guys have any gameplay mechanics that you used to love that have fallen by the wayside? I seem to recall squad commands being quite the big ticket item last generation but I don’t see that too much these days. Personally, I’d love to be able to give my AI teammates commands because they can’t seem to think for themselves that well. Sound off!

Source – 1up