Category: Microsoft

Mark of the Ninja and How to Not Promote Games

mark of the ninja

Klei Studio’s (the folks behind Shank) new 2D stealth platformer Mark of the Ninja was released on September 7 and when I bought it yesterday it took me at least five minutes and six addition screens (I counted) to get from my ad-infested Xbox dashboard to a page where I could actually buy the dang game. Given that Mark of the Ninja is being lauded critically and is an Xbox LIVE exclusive for the time being, you’d think that Microsoft would be promoting that game on at least the front of the games tab.

But alas, there is not a single mention of Mark of the Ninja until you go to the game’s specific page and buy it. That’s a damn shame, considering that it’s pretty incredible. If you have no idea what this game is, here’s a quick gameplay video for Mark of the Ninja (we really need some more video content around here, don’t we?) which should give you the gist of what it’s all about.

I played it for a couple of hours last night and I’m already in love with it. The game’s visual style is really eye-catching while being informative at the same time: if your character is black, he’s hidden, and if he’s in color, he’s not. This also applies to the various guards you’ll be slicing, letting you know if the body of your latest victim is in plain sight or not. Stealth is also a lot of fun, this being the first game to really do it right for me since Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. You have so many options to be a badass ninja, from hanging from the ceiling to traveling through vents to pausing time in midair to throw your noise maker to distract a guard before you land behind him and shove your sword through his neck.

If you’re hesitant about the 15 dollar price tag, at least download the demo and try it out; chances are you’ll be hooked. Personally, I think everyone should buy this game, if only to shove Microsoft’s poor marketing back in their face. Has anyone played Mark of the Ninja? What do you think of it? Any thoughts on the hoops I had to jump through to find the game?

A Hero Awakens in Halo 4’s New Vidoc

Hey, it’s been a while guys, but I’ve been busy with…stuff. Let’s not look to closely at my flimsy excuse, and rather take a gander at the new Halo 4 ViDoc from 343 Industries, which is, in a word, hot. Halo 4 is looking pretty good, and this new trailer does an adequate job of building the hype.

After 343’s attempts at cracking Halo into other mediums, I was a little concerned that they would have the chops to pull off a sequel to Bungie’s blockbuster series, but my fears are being slowly put to rest. I’ll reserve my final judgement for when I actually play the damn thing, but for now consider me on board. What do you guys think of Halo 4? Is this a must have?

Polytron, Microsoft, and Why There Won’t be More FEZ Patches

The story behind FEZ’s patch is a strange one. First it gets put on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, then it gets taken down because it caused people to lose their save file. Can’t have that, so back the patch went to Polytron for more testing and re-working. Then, nothing. No word on the patch or whether it was even coming back out.

That changed today when Polytron did a post on their blog saying the the FEZ patch is back online, but it’s the same one that caused people to lose their save in the first place, no changes, no nothing. So if the patch deletes saves, what the heck happened?

Turns out that Microsoft was too big of a hurdle to get a new patch going, so the fellas at Polytron just decided to give up the ghost. Micrsoft wanted Polytron to pay upwards of ten thousand dollars to re-certify the patch, and for a small indie company that just wasn’t going to happen.

According to the blog post, Polytron’s relationship with Microsoft is a one-way street with the money traveling in the wrong direction. Polytron apparently had to pay Microsoft to get FEZ out on XBLA, so they’re dropping their support for the title. Had the game been released on Steam, they said, patches would flow like a mighty river, but no such luck there.

Polytron is confident that for 99% of the FEZ players out there, this will make their experience better. For the 1%, well, they’re truly sorry and they wish things were different. What do you guys think? Does Microsoft really have Polytron over a barrel? Is it ridiculous for Polytron to pay Microsoft for publishing and re-certification? Why don’t they just release FEZ on Steam already? Go!

Source – Polytron

Get a Peek at Halo 4’s Forge Mode

I was originally going to title this post “Halo Fourge Mode” but I realized that nobody would search for that term, ever. Bungie left some big shoes to fill, what with their Halo titles raising the bar for extra features in a console game. The Theater and Forge mode of Halo 3 and Reach spawned hours of awesome creations, so 343 and Certain Affinity (the developers of Halo 4’s take on Forge) have their work cut out for them.

Convention goers at RTX 2012 (which our very own Eddy Rivas attended and had a panel in) got to look at Forge mode and the new toys that are being packed in. There’s a 15-minute plus demo floating around, and while it is off-screen, it’s still a good look at what we’ll be getting our hands on come November.

While I never had the patience to mess around too much in Forge, some of the maps and gametypes that have come out of it are simply stunning. With all the new tools in the box, I can’t wait to see what people come up with. What do you guys think about Halo 4’s Forge Mode? Can 343 and Certain Affinity step up to the plate?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 51: The Hangover 2

the gamersushi show episode 51 e3 2012

The timing worked out pretty well this year with Episode 50 being both the Drunk Cast and our E3 predictions show and Episode 51 as the book-end for both of those events. Sadly, a lot of our guesses about E3 2012 were off the mark, but that’s all right, I’m sure our next-gen console predictions will come true some day.

We start this cast of with a nice game of Grades, bringing back Anthony’s famous “GAME TIME” clip for the first time in a few shows. We talk about the Big Three conferences and then dip into the various games that we saw and what intrigued us. We fit in a little industry news at the end too, just as a special treat.

I’m sure that you know the drill by now, but listen, rate and enjoy the podcast. Don’t be dicks to each other and we’ll see you soon.

0:00 – 3:10 Intro
3:11 GAME TIME (grades)
3:12 – 15:30 Microsoft
15: 31 – 26:11 Sony
26: 12 – 38:48 Nintendo
38:49 – 43:47 Watch Dogs
43:48 – 47: 22 Star Wars 1313
47:23 – 52:35 Tomb Raider
52:36 – 56:03 Dead Space 3
56:04 – 56:39 Assassin’s Creed 3
56:40 – 57:00 Gearbox Studios
57:01 – 57:20 Need for Speed
57:22 – 57:53 EA are jerks
57:54 – 58:25 New old-school Final Fantasy
58:26 – 1:00:42 Jason Rubin trash-talks Saint’s Row
1:00:43 – 1:02:36 Outo

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Gears of War: Judgement Will Change as You Play

gears of war judgement declassified system

If there’s any game that’s more unnecessary than a Gears of War prequel, I’d like to see it (already seen God of War: Ascension) but it sounds like Epic subsidiary studio People Can Fly are doing their best to make the next trip back to the Gears-verse worth your time.

As Gears of War: Judgement is being told from the perspective of Baird and Cole defending themselves at a treason hearing, certain elements of the game will change each time you play it because, like any memory, things are going to be forgotten, replaced, or just plain made up. For example, the first time you play through a level, you might have access to sniper rifles, but the next time you play, Baird might say something like “we didn’t have access to snipers rifles” and poof: where you were once popping fools with snipers, you now have to get down and dirty with them.

As you play the missions you’ll eventually get to go through “declassified” versions of the levels, which is the actual series of events. Gears of War: Judgement also comes with a smart-spawn system similar to Left 4 Dead’s director: if you’re doing well the game will throw more enemies in different locations and you, and if you’re struggling to progress, things will get a bit easier.

Mixing things up like is what helps make a prequel a bit more palatable. I’m interested to see how this system will preform when the game drops, but for now it sounds like an interesting concept. What do you guys think? Is Gears of War: Judgement sounding a bit better to you now? What do you think of the declassification system?

Source – Kotaku

Halo 4 War Games Trailer is Fast and Furious

After playing Bungie-crafted Halo games for over ten years, how will 343 Industries fare when they take a stab at the mode the revolutionized multiplayer on consoles? If the new War Games trailer out of E3 is any indication, Halo 4’s multiplayer will be fast, brutal and more than a little bit flashy. Bungie’s Halo was always a more considered shooter, the slower pace leading to careful skirmishes rather than balls-to-the-wall gunfights. It worked well with the old games, but can 343 kick Halo into overdrive?

Overall the multiplayer of Halo 4 seems very similar to Halo: Reach: there are assassinations and armor abilities, but the new Spartans IVs are moving a lot faster than their Spartan III counterparts. I’m liking the look of Halo 4 a lot, but the sound design needs a little tuning. The melee attacks sound to squishy for a bunch of dudes in one ton suits of armor. What do you guys think? Does this trailer carry on the Halo legacy, or is Halo 4 turning into its own game?

E3: Microsoft Press Conference Instant Reaction

Microsoft E3

It’s E3 time! Microsoft had the task of kicking things off for us this year so we start with the Big M. Below are my instant reactions as I watched the press conference unfold:

Halo 4

  • Halo 4 will kick off the show. After ending the show with it last year, MS obviously doesn’t want to make us wait any longer than necessary. But what will end the show? My money’s on a sequel to Blinx.
  • Live action trailer for Halo 4. Pretty bad-ass. Pretty cheesy. A ship designed to discover new worlds. Looks like something went wrong. Oh, they are crashing on the Chief’s planet. Interesting.
  • Gameplay! Looks like Halo. The planet is a vibrant green, lots of foliage. Looks cool. Grunts. Covenant. An Elite just disintergrated. Weird. New enemies are attacking. Some new robot thing that reminds me of General Grievous popped out. Cortana says it is Forerunner design.
  • Some cool ass new weapon is tearing these things up. Daddy like.
  • Infrared visor! Nice! Metroid Prime meets Halo.
  • Clips of lots of stuff, like Warthogs, Cortana going batshit and a tagline: An Ancient Evil Awakens.

Continue reading E3: Microsoft Press Conference Instant Reaction

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 50: Drunk Cast Redux

gamersushi show episode 50

We’ve been teasing it for weeks and now we’re finally here: the big Episode 50 celebration, the Drunk Cast! I’ll skip my usual jokes about the absence of friend of the show Nick Comardo and just let you enjoy the craziness.

This is also our E3 2012 predictions show, so we manage to squeeze in some forecasting about what the big three and the publishers will do next week. We also talk 38 Studios, Infinity Ward’s redonkulous salaries and Bungie’s contract with Activision. In addition to that we have a couple bro-downs and Eddy not so humble-brags about his accomplishments over the last year.

By this point you’ve probably stopped reading and are listening to the cast, but don’t forget to rate it on iTunes when you’re done. We’ll see you all post E3 for The Hangover Cast 2.

Podcast links:

Red versus Blue Season 10, Episode 1
Leap Motion demo

0:00 – 5:00 Intro
5:01 – 6:15 Last year’s pre-E3
6:16 – 11:55 Motion control/Drink topics
11:56 – 19:13 38 Studios Money Issues
19:14 – 25:30 Infinity Ward salaries and bonuses
25:31- 34:59 Bungie’s deal with Activision
35:00 – 37:50 E3 2012
37:51 – 45:39 Xbox vs PS home entertainment
45:40 – 46:56 2012 Exodus
46:58 – 53:03 Nintendo at E3
53:04 – 53:59 Anthony’s new pc
54:00 – 57:20 Sony at E3
57:21 – 1:01:36 Valve at E3 (?)
1:01:37 – 1:05:56 Publisher predictions
1:05:07 – 1:08:37 Outro

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Minecraft for Xbox LIVE Breaks All Sales Records

minecraft xbox 360 sales

Just a few weeks after Trials Evolution shattered the sales records on Xbox LIVE, the Arcade version of indie PC darling Minecraft came and dumped a bucket full of Creepers on RedLynx’s success.

Just under a day after its official release, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition became the highest selling title on Xbox LIVE, with the leaderboards tracking some 400,000 players according to Major Nelson’s blog. While there are no exact sales figures available, a tweet from Notch, the owner of the company behind Minecraft, revealed that this version of the game was profitable in an hour.

It’s not all sunshine and roses though, as the makers of FortressCraft are a little bitter about Minecraft’s success on the platform that their game previously dominated. The website for FortressCraft suffered a pretty serious DDoS (Dedicated Denial of Service) attack on the same day that Minecraft hit Xbox LIVE. The man behind FortressCraft, Adam Sawkins, then went on a Twitter rant, saying some disparaging things about Notch, the Minecraft community and the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Any thoughts on all this craziness? How many copies do you think they sold to be profitable in under an hour? What do you think of the FortressCraft backlash? Go!

Source – Major Nelson, Notch and Eurogamer

The GamerSushi Show, Episode 47: Getting the Band Back Together

Hello Sushians, it’s podcast time! Episode 47 is upon us as we inch ever closer to the big five-oh. It’s kind of crazy that we’ve managed to put out more than a few of these things, but such is our dedication. Who’s to say what exactly will happen in Episode 50, but drinks will be consumed.

Speaking of drinks being consumed, this episode is kind of an accidental drunk cast as Jeff and I imbibed a few beverages before and during the recording, as you will be able to tell. Nick also joined us for the first time in over a month and brought us a game of Buy or Sell! We also talk FEZ, Trials Evolution and get down and dirty with a few trailers. Listen. Rate. Live long and prosper.

Link dump:

Trials Evolution Limbo level.
Trials Evolution Inception level.
Trials Evolution intro music.
Video game rock medley.

0:00 – 2:43 intro
2:45 – 7:50 God of War trailer
7:51 – 13:04 Dishonored trailer
13:05- 24:15 FEZ and the Return of the Beard
24:16 -30:35 The Indie free pass
30:38- 42:40 Trials Evolution
42:43 – 48-28 Mass Effect 3 multiplayer
48:29 – 48:50 GAME TIME (Buy or Sell)
48:51 – 58:22 Will the Halo movie get made?
58:23 – 1:05:45 Do you want wearable computing?
1:06:11 – 1:13:15 Is Prey 2 delayed or canceled?
1:13:16 – 1:16:43 Outro

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Skyrim Dawnguard DLC and Black Ops 2 Revealed Updated

call of duty black ops 2 screenshot

These two bits of news are kind of small so I’m smushing them together to get a decent sized post out of them. Hope you don’t mind.

In news that will surprise no one, Activision has announced the existance of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which will finally make the long rumored jump TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. More like 10-15 years down the line, but still. Yes, this Call of Duty will take place in the future, as the second Cold War makes its way to Los Angeles. There’s a trailer tonight airing during an NBA game but the leaked screens show tiny quadrotor remote control helicopters and a trooper in a full-face helmet with a big old gun (looking very Battlefield 2142 to me). Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will apparently be out November 13. The trailer is out now:

Continue reading Skyrim Dawnguard DLC and Black Ops 2 Revealed Updated

Conan O’Brien Records Halo 4 Dialogue

Conan O’Brien is a pretty funny dude, if you like hilarious people. I suppose that’s why he gets to run his own late night show, and used to be a producer on The Simpsons. Being a famous comedian tends to land you big gigs like that. And apparently, a voice acting job on Halo 4.

I won’t waste too much time intro-ing this video, because Conan does that well enough himself. But let me just preface this clip with this: imagine Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter riffing in an audio booth as two grunts (don’t call them dockworkers) in the Halo 4 universe, and you’ll get a decent idea of the humor level here. I couldn’t help but laugh at Conan’s reception to his character, in particular.

So yeah, check it out.

In terms of new information about Halo 4, we did get the piece of news that Halo 4 releases on November 6, 2012, along with this spiffy Red Vs Blue announcement video. Care to discuss?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 46: H8 cast

What’s this? Two GamerSushi Shows in a row? We must be getting back on track or something. This podcast might mark Eddy’s last appearance on the show for a few weeks so I hope you enjoy basking in his video game knowledge and hatred of my silent treatment.

Yes, on this episode of the GamerSushi Show I was overcome with a fit of shyness and basically stopped talking and participating around the time when we start chatting about Max Payne on the iOS. When it came time to do the game Eddy was getting understandably frustrated with my lack of vocals and you can hear that creeping in at a few points, hence the title of this cast.

So yeah, listen, rate, be merry. Hopefully we can keep up this pace so you guys won’t have to wait too long for the next episode. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 46: H8 cast

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The Groovy Horror of Kinect Star Wars

star wars kinect galactic dance off

Even in a site where everyone can easily be considered a nerd, Anthony and I have another badge to pin on the sash of our geekiness: we are both huge Star Wars fans. We read the books, play the games and watched the Phantom Menace in 3D (or at least I did). Since neither of us have a Kinect, we won’t be playing the recently released Star Wars title, but the game’s Galactic Dance Off mode seemed like good fodder so we decided to watch a few videos and give you our thoughts on them. Be warned, the songs featured in the videos are terrible to the extreme.

See our breakdown after the jump! Continue reading The Groovy Horror of Kinect Star Wars

Spartan Ops Brings the Episodic Co-Op Flavor to Halo 4

Halo 4

With 343 having officially taken the reins of the Halo universe from the old masters at Bungie, it seems that we’re finally starting to get little trickles of information about the upcoming sequel, Halo 4. On top of the recent news that Massive Attack producer Neil Davidge will be scoring the game, 343 has also given some juicy ammunition to Game Informer over the last week.

While there are new screenshots and other bits to take away from the reports of the Game Informer story, the most curious bit is what lies in store for Halo 4’s co-op. Yes, the campaign will still have 4 player co-op. However, it seems that Firefight is getting the axe – or the gravity hammer, perhaps. That’s right, Firefight is history, but in its place, 343 is providing Spartan Ops, an episodic 4 player co-op campaign with its own story. The most interesting part of all of this, though, is that 343 plans on releasing regular free updates to Spartan Ops, allowing players to devour its content in a weekly format almost like that of a TV show, with new gameplay to experience with each one.

I have to say, this is some interesting news. While I think that booting a (now) series staple like Firefight is probably the wrong move, Spartan Ops will provide a welcome new flavor into the franchise. I love the idea of regular episodic content, as it’s something that nobody has done just yet. Which is odd, considering that this generation is finally ready for something like that.

What do you guys think of the idea of Spartan Ops for the Halo 4? Would you like to see more games experiment with regular episodic content like this? Go!

Source – CVG

2012 April Fools’ Roundup

april fools gaming 2012April Fools’ is an interesting time for any entertainment industry because you’re never quite sure if what you’re seeing is an obvious farce or something that could come true. Generally we’ve gotten pretty good at sussing these things out, but sometimes there’s a really good prank out there that trips us up.

This year saw some pretty good gags from Blizzard (like Blizzard Kidzz and Supply Depot 2, which takes a stab at Mass Effect 3’s ending) to Mojang and Notch’s very overt dig at Mass Effect, Mars Effect. The Old Republic team also had a pretty good one detailing the addition to play as your ship’s Protocol Droid. There were also a lot of great video April Fools’ gags, which I’ve put in after the jump. Continue reading 2012 April Fools’ Roundup

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 40: A Pile of Lies and Shadows

This podcast is just a tad late this week, but I figured we’re doing good if we managed to get it up early in the weekend. Hey, at least it’s better than leaving you guys podcast-less for almost half a year, right? That’s what I thought. Also, Mitch and Anthony start things off with an extra special intro they worked up for all of you. It’s fairly entertaining.

In this edition of the GamerSushi Show, we chat about the Mass Effect 3 Co-op trailer, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Saint’s Row 3. On top of that we play a game of Fill in the Blank, where we grade a variety of topics like Miyamoto taking a backseat at Nintendo, no next gen consoles in the near future and Zynga’s supposed shady dealings (on which this podcast derives its name). All in all, it’s a pretty decent show, and hey, we even fit in 6 more minutes of Resident Evil 6 talk – because why the heck not?

In next week’s podcast (which we recorded last night), I drink through most of a bottle of wine while we talk even more about Final Fantasy XIII-2, Double Fine and Kingdoms of Amalur. Stay tuned, gents and ladies.

Listen. Rate. Enjoy. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 40: A Pile of Lies and Shadows

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The GamerSushi Show, Ep 39: Ameri-Cast

Episode 39 of the GamerSushi Show happens to be Canadian-less, so I’m sure that’s going to make it a lot better for you guys to listen to. I kid, I kid. Mitch had a fancy radio show to take care of, so the rest of us tackled the week in gaming all by our lonesome selves. I will suggest that it’s merely coincidence that it’s one of the more fluid casts we’ve ever recorded.

As always, we cover a variety of topics. One of these happened accidentally and might become a regular feature that is sure to make you guys rage quit our site and go find your gaming entertainment elsewhere – Six Minutes with RE 6. It’s just what it sounds like. And it’s awesome by association with the greatest gaming franchise of all time.

Beyond that, we tackle Uncharted 3 and Arkham City. And then we play a game of Percentages, where we rank the chances of a number of pending news items and if they’re likely to go down. I’m pretty sure you all know the drill by this point: Eddy wins and makes some fantastic points while the others talk nonsense.

Listen up, rate the podcast and enjoy, everyone. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 39: Ameri-Cast

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Rumor: Anti-Used Game Component in Next XBox

Used GamesWell, this is quite a whale of a rumor. It seems that Kotaku recently heard some supposed details of the next generation XBox (we refuse to call it the 720) from an inside source. While these things tend to happen quite a bit and only have a small chance of actually being true, this rumor goes beyond traditional hardware specs.

On top of a rumored Blu-ray disc drive in the next XBox, DVR capabilities and the launch of Kinect 2, Microsoft is supposedly including some sort of anti-used game component into its next system. Yes, you read that correctly. According to this source, there will be some kind of system in place to keep the next XBox from playing used games.

If this is true, it would make a pretty big splash on nearly every side of the gaming industry. Continue reading Rumor: Anti-Used Game Component in Next XBox