Review: Gears of War 2

A few years ago, Epic introduced us to the wonderful world of Sera, and its monstrous inhabitants, both human and locust alike. Gears of War was a flagship title for the XBox 360, quickly becoming THE reason to own Microsoft’s next-gen system, and it made its mark in a rather commanding fashion.

For me, Gears of War was the first and biggest “next-gen” experience I’ve felt when playing a game, where I had a moment that made me say “Wow… this is the next gen”. The co-op play, the graphics, the score, everything about it came together to create an experience that was part Predator, part Aliens, part video game and all awesome.

So how does the sequel fare?

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Anthony Goes Home

Monday night was a weird night. After watching my beloved Tampa Bay Bucs get pounded by the Carolina Panthers, I noticed it was about midnight. I drove up the road to Blockbuster and purchased The Dark Knight and went home to watch it. I decided to check my email first, though, to see if there were any emails from Eddy telling me how great my posts are.

Alas, none from Eddy (probably busy playing Little Orphan Eddy by replaying Fallout 3’s opening tutorial) but I did receive an email from Sony, which brought a brief moment of panic. Had they finally noticed how awesome I am at all their games and sent me a Cease and Desist Pwning email? But no, wrongo. It was an invite to the Playstation Home Beta! I knew my awesomeness would be recognized eventually.

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GameCop Vs LameCop #3

GameCop vs. LameCop is a feature where Anthony and I argue about video game issues, playing the role of either the GameCop or the LameCop as we do so. We switch roles each time. The GameCop has your best interests as gamers at heart, while the LameCop is just what he sounds like: a total loser.

This week, we tackle several issues including Nintendo’s racial epithets in Animal Crossing, gaming companies’ decision to release all of the video games at the same time each year, and releasing buggy games.

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Review: Saint’s Row 2

This year, tons of buzz was made about a few open world games. With great games like Fallout 3, GTA IV, Fable II and the like, it was hard to ignore the pull that these titles had, sucking gamers in and sinking their teeth in for the kill. However, there was one title that got ignored amidst all of the to-do about these other good games: Saint’s Row 2.

The THQ sequel puts you back in the shoes of Stillwater’s most wanted, the leader of the Saints, the city’s most notorious criminals. As the curtain opens, you are in a coma, having survived a horrific explosion that changed your appearance and left you comatose. And then the fun starts.

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Gaming’s Best Guns

The time of the heavy hitters has come again. That’s right, the holiday season brings with it a tide of the blockbuster video games, and you know what that means? Shooters! Shooters out of and into every orifice that you can possibly imagine, waiting to unleash their tools of mass destruction upon your console or your PC.

Playing all of these recent titles really gets the noodle going, and it brought to mind visions of ordinance past, guns of yore, weapons that have entertained and slayed in the bygone days of gaming.

I wanted to take this opportunity to look at some of my favorite video game guns of all time. These range from the most fun to the most utilitarian to the most destructive that I can remember. They do have one thing in common, though. They all kick ass.

 

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Good And Evil In Games

 SPOILERS AHEAD

Choices involving good, evil and morality seem to be the latest trend in games. In the old days, the only choice you had was whether to use the boomerang or bomb as a secondary weapon in The Legend of Zelda. But times have changed.

At first, the choices were opaque: in Grand Theft Auto III, when not in a mission, you could run around and kill innocent bystanders for no reason. Or you could abide by the law (except traffic laws) and just stick to the straight and narrow. I wreaked as much havoc as possible because that world is a virtual playground and I wanna play! It wasn’t a choice in the way we usually think of them, but it was there for you to decide.

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Gaming’s Biggest Turkeys

Ah, Thanksgiving. When we eat and stuff our faces like we might never taste food again. It’s the time of year where we get to play extra video games, and where we long for Christmas to get the last few that we haven’t bought. In light of this holiday, I thought I’d leave you guys a short feature before departing on my great Turkey adventure tomorrow.

In honor of these great birds on which we feast upon, I wanted to discuss gaming’s biggest turkeys. What do I mean by turkeys? Basically, anything that flopped or completely fell under your expectations. Anything that you devoted your time to that turned out extremely disappointing. That game that broke your heart and that you wanted to be good, but sadly, it just sat there like a lame duck. Er, turkey.

Let’s begin!

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Video Game Characters Secret Confessions!

We all have secrets. There are whole websites devoted to people just telling their secrets and Conan O’Brien has a segment where celebrities can reveal their darkest truths. In this post, Anthony has uncovered some of the most iconic video game character confessions you have never heard!

 

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Valve: Gaming’s Best Storytellers?

One of the most important aspects of any visual medium, be it films, games, graphic novels, machinima, etc- is story. While many people put an emphasis on the kinds of images and effects they can put into their production, it’s ultimately story that leaves a resonating impact on the viewer/participant.

While gaming has come a long way in recent years, I still find this to be one of the more lacking areas in the industry. Game makers just don’t seem interested in telling great stories. Sure, they’re interested in gameplay, physics, art, mechanics, coding and so forth, and if they can slide a decent story into that framework, then great. But it always seems to be an afterthought.

After reading a great article from Gabe Newell about Left 4 Dead’s design and the idea of using “procedural narrative” that simulates a story that is unique to each player, rather than a traditional scripted narrative that unfolds before the player’s eyes, some of my suspicions were confirmed. Namely, that Valve might be the best storytellers in gaming today.

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GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather?

Since we’ve had a chance to get our hands on some of these long anticipated titles, it seemed only fitting for another version of “Would You Rather?”. We’re a big fan of how much you guys get involved on these.

In “Would You Rather’, I simply ask a series of questions, and you follow up with your responses. Give as much or as little explanation as you want with your answers.

Unless they suck. In that case, you will endure everlasting suffering at the hands of the video game ninjas. Trust me. They’re real.

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Bragging Rights: Pwning Call of Duty 4

Do you ever finish a game and don’t know what to play next? Man, I agonize over this sometimes. Should I go back and play some more Oblivion, but if I do will I not want to play Fallout 3 when I get it for Christmas? Do I want to finish Final Fantasy X-2 or find more prizes in Little Big Planet? When in doubt, I play Call of Duty 4.
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Pitch Your Game: “For Real” Version

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.

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What Ever Happened to Boss Battles?

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.

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Up On My Soapbox: Censoring Video Games

First things first: I am a flaming liberal who believes in a high amount of freedom. So I don’t believe in censorship of any kind. I do understand and support the need for a rating system, both in movies and in games. Nothing pisses me off more than when I go to see Zach and Miri Make A Porn and in the middle of a movie, a couple of 14 year olds stroll in. Hearing 12 years old talk about GTA and Gears of War irritates me as well because those games are for adults.

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Pitch Your Game: Ridiculous Version

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!”

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5 Features That More Shooters Need

Shooters, shooters, shooters. Gaming is full of them these days. I mean, one has to look no further than this year’s gaming line-up of heavy hitters and system sellers like Call of Duty: World at War, Resistance 2, FarCry 2, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Mirrors Edge, Quantum of Solace and the like to see that shooters have replaced the titles of old. 

With all of these titles coming out, it’s easy to start wanting a little more from the genre. At this point, we’ve slaughtered so many imps in Doom and Nazis in Wolfenstein 3-D that we kind of know what to expect.

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Next Gen Underachievers

Remember when your teacher would give you progress reports and it always said something like, “Not living up to potential”?
Yeah, me either. But I am sure it happens to people out there, just as we know that some games are not living up to their next-gen potential. This post will examine these chronic underachievers.

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The Gaming Fortune Teller

Welcome to a new GamerSushi feature wherein Anthony and I interview The Gaming Fortune Teller, the world’s most famous gaming prophet. He is blessed with the uncanny ability to predict gaming events before they happen. He even called the fall of the Virtual Boy, and we all know that came out of left field.

So without further ado, I present to you our recent sit-down with the Fortune Teller, who only appears once in a lunar cycle, coincidentally. Something about vaccinations. We asked him some of our more pressing questions concerning our favorite pasttime, video games.

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GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather?

Ah, since the new season of games is upon us, I thought it was time to bring back another “Would You Rather” feature for the GamerSushi audience. The last one had such solid feedback, it seemed that this would start some good conversation as well.

In “Would You Rather’, I simply ask a series of questions, and you follow up with your responses. Give as much or as little explanation as you want with your answers.

Unless they suck. In that case, a dog will come after you with mouth-bacteria.

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