Bioshock 2, Starring the Big Daddy

bioshock2Got my Game Informer in the mail yesterday, which featured not only awesome cover art of the new “Big Sister” from BioShock2, but also a story with some of the first details of the game.

From the article, it seems that this game takes place 10 years after the first game, and the “bad ending” as canon for moving forward. Rapture has fallen into chaos and disarray, and the Little Sisters, now grown up and sporting a mean Adam addiction (including a needle directly into their arms) have returned as Big Sisters, sporting Big Daddy-esque gear.

The big twist, though? You play as a Big Daddy. The first Big Daddy, to be exact- the prototype that is smaller, quicker and able to use plasmids. And while fighting Big Daddies is no longer as challenging as it once was, fighting Big Sisters sounds terrifying. They hunt you, can leap across a room in one bound, and hurl objects at you via telekinesis.

So, what do you guys think? I’m optimistic, but the prospect of playing as a Big Daddy could be hit or miss. Thoughts?

CoD: World at War Zombie DLC Gameplay

Well, if you’ve been wondering what the new DLC zombie stuff looks like for Call of Duty: World at War, Treyarch was kind enough to release a brand new gameplay video for all of us. It shows off the new map which definitely has a cool feel to it, and some great lighting to boot. Looks fun.

GamerSushi Asks: Public Humiliation?

frag-dollsIf you didn’t know, I’m at South By Southwest in Austin for the weekend. It’s a big media event with Music, Film and Internet stuff, and I’m currently at the Internet portion on business for my job. While I’ve been going to cool panels about new media and social networking, I also got to go to the “ScreenBurn Arcade”, which is devoted to video games.

Though ScreenBurn itself was kind of lame, I did get to play Halo 3 against one of the Frag Dolls, the professional girl gamers that play games and are also hot… and I got my ass kicked. I mean, it wasn’t too awful, she had 25 kills and I had 17 or so, but still, I was a little embarrassed. Luckily I didn’t talk trash beforehand.

It got me wondering about other public humiliations I’ve faced as a gamer. Probably the biggest one was playing DOA2 with my friends, talking trash like crazy… only to have my brother wander in, kick my ass and then walk away. All my friends gave me crap for weeks.

So, have you ever had a time where you got your tail whipped at a game in public? What was it? Go!

Call of Duty World at War DLC Details

cod-3I’m a big fan of what Treyarch did with Call of Duty: World at War. While many of us doubted that the game would be any good at all, they put out a respectable sequel to one of the greatest shooters of all time, which was no easy task.

Right now, the game’s online multiplayer is still crushing the competition, some would say, but it’s about time for some new stuff to freshen everything up. That’s why a new DLC pack is coming March 19th, complete with not only a few new multiplayer maps, but also a new map for the oh-so-loved Nazi Zombie Mode. Sounds awesome.

Details after the jump!
Continue reading Call of Duty World at War DLC Details

Bioshock 2 Reveal in Next PC Gamer

bioshock-1In a day where print is dying a sad, slow, miserable death, it’s a wonder that anybody else besides Game Informer gets any kind of exclusive first-looks anymore. Apparently, however, we must all watch on as gaming magazines continue to limp forward.

But like I said, sometimes these things happen, and it just so happens that the world’s first look at Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams is going to occur in the next PC Gamer magazine. If you weren’t aware, there’s already a Bioshock 2 viral site that has gone up in the last week or so, complete with a tease about little girls getting kidnapped by something mysterious in coastal towns.

So, who’s excited about Bioshock 2? Who played the first one?

Source- CVG

GamerSushi Asks: Rate Your Skill?

goldeneyeI remember back in the day, Goldeneye was the console multiplayer game of choice. Granted, that might have been because it was the only console multiplayer game, but even still… When it came to seeing who was the best at video games, Goldeneye was the game that we busted out.

And I owned at it. Seriously. Something about that game really stuck with me, and I just got it, really understood the way it worked. The funny thing is, I have still to this day never met a single person that could beat me at that game. Except for my brother.
Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Rate Your Skill?

Doom and Diablo, Together at Last

doomabloSometimes we get curious about video game mash-ups. Call it an adventure to blend things together that don’t normally seem to fit. While it may turn out to be crap, sometimes it’s total gaming gold.

Take Doom: Fall of Mars, for instance, which combines Diablo and Doom in a shockingly fun and really inspired way. How does this work, you ask? Well, imagine if you married the click and attack style view and mechanics from Diablo and the sprites and weapons of Doom, and then you’ll have a fairly accurate picture of the gameplay. And the most surprising thing of all is that I would actually pay money for this.

Luckily though, you can download the 3.3 MB demo for free, and enjoy the three levels. So what do you guys think? Face explodingly awesome or what?

Source- Rock Paper Shotgun and If Software

Chronicles of Riddick Demo Up on XBL

corYikes, that was fast. The Spring games are all getting ready to come out, and I’m not quite ready for them to! The release of Killzone 2 and Halo Wars has already flown by, and games like Resident Evil 5 and Chronicles of Riddick are creeping up around the corner, ready to do a judo move on us as time rushes onward.

Speaking of Riddick, there’s a demo for the new stealthy FPS up on XBox Live as of yesterday, ready for your downloading, sneakiness and enjoyment. I’m trying not to get my hopes up about this game, but we all know that I’m a sucker for sci fi and Vin Diesel’s ridiculously awesome voice, and this game’s got both of those.

So who plans on playing this? The demo will hit PSN next month.

Source- Shacknews

Halo 3 Joins the 1 Billion Club

halo3One billion is a big number. That’s a thousand million, if you weren’t aware. That’s a lot of millions, when you think about it. Anyway, we’re so focused on this big billion number, because as of yesterday, that’s how many Halo 3 matchmaking games have been played online. One billion games. That’s a poop ton of tea bagging, no?

To help put into perspective just how monumental this is, Halo 2 still has yet to reach one billion games in its huge, seemingly everlasting tenure. Right now it sits just under 800 million. Another cool fact? The matchmaking games played equal out to over 64,000 years of playing time. How wild is that?

So, who has contributed and is still contributing to these one billion games and then some? I’ve contributed quite a fair share, and most of those are of the slayer variety.

Source- Bungie

Whitest Kids You Know: Call of Duty

Ah, playing multiplayer games online. They all come with their own shares of both joy and sadness. The Whitest Kids You Know dudes have made a new skit portraying these struggles in Call of Duty. It’s definitely a funny although depressingly accurate portrayal of online gaming. Makes you wonder how long we’ll continue to put up with these grievances, no? Anywho, do give it a watch, and laugh heartily.

Dead Space Extraction Equals Rail Shooter

At least, if the new trailer can be believed, that’s how this game looks. I guess Nintendo Wii owners aren’t going to get a proper port of Dead Space after all. The new game is titled Dead Space Extraction, and while there is a mix of both cut scenes and what looks to be proper gameplay at the end, one thing seems to stand out- it looks more like House of the Dead in space rather than the game we all know and love.

Does anyone else find that disappointing?

GamerSushi Asks: Video Game Binges

civrevI know we’ve had a feature on this before, but yesterday I went on a wild video game binge. I pretty much spent the whole day playing either Call of Duty: World at War or Civilization Revolution. It’s been some time since I’ve done this, and man, is it ever relaxing.

Basically, I spent almost a total of 10 hours rotating between solo and multiplayer on CoD, and playing a single player game of Civilization Revolution. Like I said, I don’t get to do that kind of thing anymore, so it really brought back some awesome memories. Some people don’t get that playing video games is a way that I majorly unwind when stressed, so the occasional binge is really just like therapy.

So, what was your last video game binge and what did it consist of? Go!

Machinima: Mirror’s Edge

Our good bud Mystfit makes some pretty cool machinima, and this time he’s back with a new short in Mirror’s Edge. Loving some of the camera work here, it’s for the win. Spread this around to as many people as possible, because he’s doing this for a contest- most views wins. Good luck, dude!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66usjHqvw0[/youtube]

Today’s Foot-In-Mouth: Sorry, Treyarch

wawYes. I’m going on the record. I’m apologizing to Treyarch. You see for the last year or so I’ve been on the bandwagon that Call of Duty: World at War wasn’t going to be very good, because it was made by Treyarch, and it was going to be set in World War II. I loved Call of Duty 4, so any departure from that game seemed to me to be a bad idea.

Well, I was wrong. I just had two epic 3 hour gaming sessions last night and this morning, and beat World at War. I have to say, that I was thoroughly impressed, and agree with almost all of Sean’s review of the game. I’d easily give the game, based on the campaign, a B or B+, even. It was great, and in particular the Russian/German levels were a joy to play, if a tad difficult towards the end.

So, does anyone else want to join me in apologizing to Treyarch?

Today’s Holy Crap: Escape from City 17

Dang. It’s amazing what you can do with some nice equipment and only $500 dollars on the Internet these days. These guys have put together a live action Half-Life 2 short film, Escape from City 17, that could easily be on TV. Some really great work here, I’m impressed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo[/youtube]

The Great Edge Killzone 2 Review Caper

kz21Killzone 2 is coming out later this month, as many gamers are no doubt aware of. Reviews are already starting to pour in, most of them overwhelmingly positive, which is exciting for me, as I own a PS3. However, what is not as exciting to me is some of the rabid fanboyism that it is inspiring amongst the gaming populace, either for it or against it.

Case in point: recently, Edge magazine gave the game a 7/10, which is admittedly lower than it has been receiving so far. However, 7/10 is still above average for a game, but no, not many others saw it that way. In fact, Edge was blasted by PSX Extreme and numerous other publications (as well as Sony’s most devoted fanboys) for being elitists and just trying to grab attention by scoring the game lower. Um, maybe they just didn’t like it as much as you did?

To me, this really drives home the reason why a game like Grand Theft Auto IV will get almost all perfect scores with little to no dissension among the ranks. Hell, disagreeing with the norm gets you labeled as a pariah in the gaming journalism circles these days. It’s ridiculous. To me, it speaks of a greater issue with gaming publications and the way they buy into their own hype.

What do you guys think? Fair/foul by Edge magzine, or by the other sites that are giving them guff?

Source- CVG

The Halo RPG Video

Heck, they already made a Halo RTS. Why not a Halo RPG, Final Fantasy style?

While this video isn’t terribly original, it’s pretty well done and mildly entertaining. A bit too long though. The trick to a good short is knowing when to stop the joke, and these guys kind of went overboard. All in all, it’s worth a watch.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtNE0qjSDU[/youtube]

Left 4 Dead Survival Pack Is Yours for Zero Dollars

left4deadWow. I am continually impressed with Valve. They bitch slap the competition when it comes to releasing great content digitally, and releasing quality content in general. And now, they have bitch slapped Microsoft’s “paid DLC no matter what” stance as well.

That’s right, the recently announced Left 4 Dead Survival Pack DLC will be free for both PC and XBox 360 users! In addition, there are a few new details about the pack, as well.

The two new versus modes will be for the original two campaigns, Death Toll and Dead Air. Also, survival mode places humans against several waves of zombies on up to 12 different levels from the campaigns. I’m guessing these will be the crescendo moments scattered throughout each campaign.

This is pretty exciting, and re-enforces my love for Valve yet again.

Source- Kotaku

Even More Nazi Undead Coming to CoD: World at War

codzombieI hear that Call of Duty: World at War is a good time. I am anxiously awaiting its arrival via GameFly for me to sink my sharpened fangs into. In addition to having some great solo and co-op campaign action, it also sports a fairly wicked Nazi Zombie mode. I mean, I’ve said before that I can think of no better thing than zombies to add to any game to spice it up, and the idea of mowing down Nazi undead is terribly appealing.

I actually hear that Nazi Zombie Mode is one of the best parts of World at War, so it’s no surprise, then, that Treyarch’s first map pack for the game will have a new zombie mode map in it. Right now, the current map places you and other survivors in a house together, purchasing new rooms and boarding up windows. But apparently, a new map is coming soon that opens the gameplay up even more, and brings a “new wave of undead”, according to the developers.

Who else thinks that this rules?

Source- Call of Duty HQ

Riddick: Dark Athena Gameplay Trailer

Ah, more lovely gameplay footage from the new Riddick: Dark Athena game, which actually comes out next month, if you can believe it. The more I see of this game, the more interested I get. I love the idea of stealth and action gameplay, FPS style, that really seems to blend well together. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a good time. And supposedly, we’re getting a demo of it try for ourselves rather soon.