Category: Did You See This

In The Know

Ahem! Is this thing on?

Don’t freak out or anything – GamerSushi is still stored in carbonite for the foreseeable future – but if you have a hankering for a little bit of that GS flavor, you might want to check out recent episodes of Rooster Teeth’s The Know.

Our own Eddy Rivas is using his wordsmithing skills to write two videos a day for their channel, which oftentimes requires spending way too much time on VGChartz.

Here are his first few videos:

(Eddy made a point of letting us know that his script did not call for Meg to do that with her tongue.)

Anyways, just wanted to share. How’s everybody doing? Still playing games? Good.

A Kotaku Reader Asks: Who is Samus Aran?

metroid samus aran

Of all of the characters in Nintendo’s stable of properties, there are none as intriguing as Samus Aran, the power-armor wearing space-faring bounty hunter from the Metroid series.

After 25 years it seems that not even the company that created her has a firm grasp on who they want Samus to be. She’s either a tough, no-nonsense ass-kicker or the person we saw in Other M. Kotaku reader InvadingDuck wrote up a decent sized essay on the history to the character and her portrayal from game to game and it’s definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of the series or the character of Samus.

Personally the Samus that always stuck with me was the one from Metroid Prime. As InvadingDuck mentions in his article, you can read Space Pirate data entries on Samus where she’s depicted as a nightmare-figure of sorts, a nearly mythological entity that can rip through their outposts almost unscathed. True, this version of Samus didn’t have much personality but it was certainly more palatable than the way Other M handled her.

So what do you guys think about InvadingDuck’s post? Who is Samus Aran to you?

Source – Kotaku

Little Known Nintendo 64 Facts

It’s so fascinating to hear bits of our gaming history these days, especially with systems that I was old enough to read about and care about in the days leading up to their release. Here’s a video about the development of the Nintendo 64, including a list of really cool tidbits such as why Nintendo claimed to stick to cartridges, the system’s original name, how Goldeneye was developed and more.

I’ve got some fond memories of this fine machine. Crazy to think that it came out almost 20 years ago. What are some of your favorite N64 memories?

Gods Will Be Watching This Summer

Gods Will Be Watching, a self-dubbed “point-and-click thriller”, puts you in a variety of harrowing moral dilemmas set against the backdrop of space. From the sound of it, there’s no walking around or gathering items, just tense, thrilling scenes that give you choices with big ramifications throughout the game. What’s really interesting is the game also provides you with no moral compass of sorts, it just lets your choices be your choices.

I know that pixel art is getting a bit cliche these days, but there’s something really timeless about the art style that hits me just right. And I’ll be damned if these short, story-based, tense kind of dilemma games don’t ring my bell just right.

Breaking Down the Perfect XCOM Run

Enemy Within

One of the things that I’ve loved about gaming in recent years is the explosion of Let’s Play videos and streaming. With the new opportunities gamers have to capture themselves playing more easily, it’s bringing us back to a day of speed runs, high scores and documenting really monumental achievements that players are accomplishing every day.

Take for instance the Impossible Ironman playthrough of XCOM: Enemy Within by Youtuber Antti Kokkonen, where he managed to beat the game’s new expansion pack on the hardest difficulty, with no saves—losing zero soldiers. It’s one of those things that’s almost impossible to imagine if you’ve played any XCOM, and experienced its startling brutality firsthand. This writeup by PCGamer is incredibly fascinating, breaking down the most nail-biting moments and critical saves that Kokkonen experienced over the course of his time playing the game.

This is one of those things I could totally see myself doing if I had the time. I remember spending hours in front of Mario 64 trying to perfect the timing of jumps and platforming, and running through Metal Gear Solid on total memory in just around 2 hours. What kind of madness have you pulled off in a game recently? Have you watched any of Kokkonen’s playthrough? Go!

Source – PC Gamer

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Trailer Showcases a Rad Game

Until yesterday I’d never heard of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monolith’s new game that shows you what happened inbetween The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In this game you’ll play as Talion, a ranger of Gondor who gets possessed by a wraith and then uses his new found powers to systematically assassinate a variety of orcs and Uruk-hai. This gameplay trailer for Shadow of Mordor shows off some cool abilities you can use and details the nemesis system which sounds too crazy to actually be true. Give it a watch!

For a game that I didn’t even know existed until recently, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor looks like a guaranteed fun time. What do you guys think about this trailer? Are you on-board for some orc killing?

In-Game Reporters Document GTA V’s Los Santos

GTA V Media

As much as it’s easy to loathe the Internet at times (take for instance this 500 page Mass Effect 3 fanfic), there are other times when I find it just brilliant and amazing. The things that people can cook up when they find like minded folks is just astounding.

Proof: this subreddit of people that roleplay in GTA online as reporters, documenting the gang violence of Los Santos like digital versions of Anderson Cooper. It’s just one of those things that surprises you but doesn’t shock you, because of course there’s a subculture of the game’s population that gets a kick out of that.

To me, one of the most interesting things about online communities for games is the way that they tend to break down into these really unique niches. Take the custom game community of Halo, the roleplaying community of old Star Wars Jedi Outcast games or the MLG community for any competitive multiplayer title. I love that games give these people a home, because where the heck else could they have done some of these things?

What are some of the most interesting developments you’ve seen in an online community? Go!

Source – GTA V Media
Image – Stustuca

Inside Look at Wii U Reveals Development Woes

Wii U

We’re sometimes hard on Nintendo around here, but it’s (for the most part) out of love for what Nintendo was and could be. The Wii U, Nintendo’s latest stab at relevance in the gaming world, has been met with a lack of enthusiasm embodied by abysmal sales.

So how does something like this happen? If you’ve ever wanted an inside look at the development process of an entire console, EuroGamer presented the latest in its series, The Secret Developers. The premise of this feature is that developers write candidly and anonymously about particular subjects. This edition of the Secret Developers just happens to focus on the genesis—and troubling development— of the Wii U by a major third party developer.

And it’s certainly…interesting, to say the least. Continue reading Inside Look at Wii U Reveals Development Woes

Evolve is the New Co-op Shooter from Left 4 Dead Creators Turtle Rock

evolve game

Not content to just be the creative force behind one of the most successful cooperative gaming series on the market, the makers of Left 4 Dead, Turtle Rock Studios, is at it again with Evolve, their next-gen only asymmetrical co-op shooter.

In Evolve, four human alien-hunter characters will battle against a single player-controlled creature. While that may sound hilariously lopsided at first, the hook of Evolve is that the monster grows larger and more powerful with each match that goes by. Judging by the short snippet from the Game Informer February cover reveal, each human will have their own bag of tricks, but they alien they’re hunting will be more than able to hold its own. It’s a pretty cool competitive twist on the co-op scene, and the fact that its next-gen/PC only means that Turtle Rock will be able to cram in plenty of bells and whistles.

February’s Game Informer will have a bunch more information about Evolve, but for now consider me intrigued. While I never exactly got into Left 4 Dead’s competitive side, Evolve sounds like enough of a different beast that I’d be willing to give it to go. Having an ever-expanding array of powers and abilities as the alien sounds like it might make for some hilarious screaming matches if you’re on the human side of things.

What do you guys think about Evolve? Is your interest piqued?

Source – Game Informer

Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Mod Launched, Gets a Trailer

Perhaps you’re unaware, but there’s a group of modders working on bringing out a multiplayer mode for Just Cause 2 (with the official blessing of Avalanche, no less). This mod takes the island nation of Panau, where the game is set, and opens it up for hundreds of player to wreck havoc. Just take a look at this launch trailer if you’re having trouble picturing this.

You can grab the Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod on Steam and, in recognition of the launch, Just Cause 2 itself is on sale for 80% off for the next day.

So, has anyone tried out the multiplayer? Are we thinking a GamerSushi Community Night for this?

Samurai Gunn Trailer Shows off Four-Player Bushido Action

If you’re familiar with the card game for horrible people, Cards Against Humanity, then you may be familiar with Max Tempkin. You may also be familiar with his tumblr, Maxistentialism. But, did you know that he also published a game recently? The four-player brawler Samurai Gunn by Teknopants, in which you have a slash attack and three bullets to outwit and dice your foes, came out recently and hot dang does it look like a good time. Check out the launch trailer below!

You can buy Samurai Gunn right now and Steam and it’s 20% off! What do you guys think of the trailer? Is this something you might pick up?

The Xbox One Community Gives Microsoft Some Feedback

xbox feedback

If there’s one way to mercilessly QA-test your new product, it’s by releasing it into the wild. Rest assured that, no matter how many man-hours your company put into testing a device, giving it to a million people will mean that any bugs, issues or glaring oversights will pop up in short order.

Since the Xbox One released on November 22, the gaming community has had plenty of time to fool around with it and figure out what it’s missing. A website called Xbox Feedback has sprung up where suggestions for future updates to Microsoft’s new console can be found.

Personally, I find the lack of some of what I would consider no-brainers (such as being able to check the battery charge on the home screen or the difficulties with party chat) pretty mind-boggling. Even though the Xbox 360 got bogged down with a UI that it was never really built to support, it still had a lot of user friendly tools and tricks. I personally appreciated the ability to set the controls to every game for inverted as a system-level option because I am a weirdo.

What do you guys think about Xbox Feedback? Any suggestions you would add to their current list? Do you think this website will actually gain any traction?

Source – Xbox Feedback

GamerSushi Asks: Gunning for Deals?

black-friday

One of the biggest shopping weeks of the year, the week of Thanksgiving isn’t just a good time for us Americans (sorry everyone else) to get some good game playing in—it’s also a great time to find some awesome deals on games. Whether you’re lining up for a Black Friday sale or staying at your computer to hunt for deals, it’s always nice to get a deal on a game you’ve been dying to play, but you didn’t want to spend full price on.

In case you guys weren’t aware, here are some of the Black Friday deals going on this week in various parts:

Amazon
Walmart
Target
GameStop
Best Buy

So with all of that information available to you, I thought I’d ask: what games are you hoping to catch on sale this week? Anything in particular that would be hard to pass up? Personally, I’ve got my eye out for PS Vita prices, since I’d love to have that for my PS4 for remote play. I’m also watching for certain 3DS games.

What about you guys? What are you looking for? Go!

Digital Foundry Tests Dead Rising 3, Finds it Lacking

dead rising 3 digital foundry

Launch titles for a new generation of consoles have a lot to live up to. They have to be discernibly different from the previous generation, look better, carry all sorts of bells and whistles and run smoothly.

Given that this is the first hardware refresh in eight long years, perhaps the expectations leading into this gen are too high. Some people might have been expecting 60 frames per second and 1080p on every game, but recently it came to light that the early games of this console cycle will rarely be hitting that mark.

In fact, Dead Rising 3 falls far below it, as Digital Foundry found out on behalf of Eurogamer. The Xbox One launch title runs at 720p and is supposed to be a consistent 30 fps, but sometimes it dips down to the lower twenties and high teens. The dip is especially noticeable in the large outdoor areas now that Dead Rising 3 is a contiguous open-world and boasts a larger variety of zombies than the previous titles.

Dead Rising 3 does have a crazy amount of effects like per-object motion blur (which the original game had as well, believe it or not) and seems to be a vast improvement over the performance the game displayed at E3, which was apparently choppy and tearing frames all over the place. It seems that Dead Rising 3 definitely puts the Xbox One through its paces.

What do you guys think? Did Dead Rising 3 promise what it can’t deliver? Did we expect too much going into this next generation of consoles? Is 1080p at 60 fps still another cycle off?

Source – Eurogamer

NeoGaf Thread Shows Halo 4’s One-Year Decline

halo 4 one year later

Halo 4 came out one year ago today, marking the first time in the series’ history than an FPS title was developed by a studio other than Bungie (who had, at that time, moved on to making Destiny).

343 Industries, the studio that Microsoft created to keep the Halo train rolling, brought forth an admirable effort (we liked the game a lot), but one year after launch, how is Halo 4’s multiplayer user base doing?

According to this NeoGaf thread by user FyreWulff, not very well. Halo 4 had a peak population of just over 400,000 gamers shortly after launch and that number has dropped down to about 50,000. In this thread he lists 343i and Mircosoft’s various missteps with Halo 4, including the early map pack debacle and the weapon tuning and balance changes that occurred six months after launch (Black Ops 2 also sucks up half of Halo 4’s players, but we won’t count that against 343i or Microsoft).

The number tell the tale of Halo 4, it seems. Despite the game impressing critics, it failed to retain the long legs that made Halo 3 and Reach such contenders throughout swaths of Call of Duty releases. What do you guys think of Halo 4’s one year decline? Does this mean bad news for the future of the series?

Source – NeoGaf

Sony Tugs the Nostalgia Strings with PS4 Ad

Since our hobby is something that we’ve grown up with, we gamers tend to be an over-nostalgic bunch. Sometimes all it takes to yank on our heart strings is a sound clip, a bar of music or a screenshot of an old game.

Sony taps into that nostalgia thread with their new PS4 ad, “For the Players Since 1995.” It’s about as close to pandering as you can get—but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it. They really capture that feel that no doubt many of us have had over the years of growing up with consoles in our rooms, and give lots of great shout outs, too.

The PS4 releases in just a few weeks. Count me excited.

Sad News: Watch Dogs Delayed Until 2014

Watch Dogs

Ugh. In what I’d call more of a gut punch than actual news, Ubisoft announced via its blog yesterday that Watch Dogs, slated for a release this fall, will be pushed back until Spring 2014.

The reason? They want to make the game better, and to deliver more of a truly next gen experience. From Gary Steinman, Ubisoft’s community manager:

Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”

So, yeah. This is pretty disappointing for me, as Watch Dogs was the one game I really wanted play on my PlayStation 4 this fall. Now, the thing may just be a paperweight until February, when InFamous comes out. Unless I *shudder* decide to play Assassin’s Creed 4 instead.

Who else is bummed by this? What games will you be playing this fall? Go!

Source – UbiBlog

Pokemon Trafficker Confesses to Charming Crimes

Pokemon Trading

Pokemon X/Y will be out worldwide in less than a week and I’ve been slowly immersing myself in all things Pokemon while trying to assess whether or not to bite the Bullet Seed and plunge into the legendary franchise. So rather than skip the countless Pokemon stories I am stumbling upon everyday, I am actually reading them. And this uplifting tale on USGamer.net caught my eye and I felt it was worthy of sharing.

Rich Stanton is a veteran Pokemon player, who came across an efficient way to breed Pokemon and then trade them to others. Not for money or for other Pokemon, but simply to help people, most likely kids, who wanted the original starters (Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle) in Pokemon Black/White. It’s the familiar tale of playing a game and then creating a new objective for yourself, which we all do at some point, but Stanton accomplished this on a much larger scale. Reading how his trade partners were overjoyed to get their desired Pokemon brought a smile to my face and I hope it does the same for you.

Have you ever done anything similar to this? Has anyone helped you in such a way? Are you going to get Pokemon X/Y? Hit the comments!

Source: US Gamer