Category: GamerSushi News

A Look at the Players’ Bill of Rights

Phoenix Wright

For Did You See This Wednesday, we’re taking a look at a classic piece of writing on games.

Over at Gamasutra, writer Laralyn McWilliams resurrected an old essay by Graham Nelson, who, if you’re not aware (and I wasn’t), did a lot of legwork for the interactive fiction medium. These adventure games essentially formed the basis of video games as we know them.

Perhaps Nelson’s most famous essay about game design is known as the Craft of Adventure, in which he meticulously outlines what he titles the Players’ Bill of Rights. These rules are a set of standards that game creators must honor when dealing with players. And oddly enough, it’s still just as meaningful almost 3 decades later. Continue reading A Look at the Players’ Bill of Rights

Borderlands 2 and the Question of Duping

borderlands 2 loot

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve made what amounts to a Herculean effort in terms of my gaming backlog. That means that I’ve utilized the strength of ten mortal men to play lots and lots of video games, and the pile of judgmental game titles, physical and hypothetical, have lessened their gaze of fury, demanding to be played.

Basically, I’m having fun.

The most recent target of my gaming swathe has been Borderlands 2, the ludicrous FPS action RPG that can barely support any more capital letter descriptors. Nick and myself have been tearing through this game like nobody’s business, and just this past weekend managed to smite the Warrior, the game’s final fiery boss (with some help, of course). Naturally, one of the biggest draws of any dungeon crawler like Borderlands happens to be the massive amount of loot that you have access to, and according to legend, the Warrior drops some mighty fine bonuses. Continue reading Borderlands 2 and the Question of Duping

The Hits and Misses of the Crysis 3 Multiplayer Beta

crysis 3 multiplayer impressions

Crysis 3’s multiplayer beta opened up last week and I spent a little time leaping around as a nanosuited operative, trying out the two availible game modes: Hunter and Crash Site, the latter of which returns from Crysis 2.

In Hunter mode, a team of ever-dwindling CELL soldiers has to survive against invisible, bow-wielding predators, and every kill the Hunters get adds to their own ranks. While this may sound like it makes for a tense multiplayer mode, the rounds are fairly short and the Hunters seem a little too over-powered, considering they’re invisible and the new bow is a one-hit kill. At one point I went on a five-kill streak with the bow when I was standing about ten feet from a group of enemy players, so oblivious were they to my presence. While the CELL team gets motion trackers and EMP grenades, the abilities given to the Hunters more than outweighs this puny advantage.

Crash Site, for those of you who didn’t play Crysis 2, is a territory control game type, where alien pods will land somewhere on the map and one team has to hold down that location to gain points. While this mode is a lot more fun than Hunter, there are several balance issues that need to be worked out before release. Continue reading The Hits and Misses of the Crysis 3 Multiplayer Beta

GamerSushi Game Night: Counter-Strike GO

CS GO

If you’ve missed the good word, we’ve had ourselves quite a bit of fun on the GamerSushi Twitch TV channel in the last couple of weeks. Between Borderlands, Sleeping Dogs and Hotline Miami, we’ve been hanging out and enjoying some good times playing games.

Well, something that came out of those sessions was the idea for a GamerSushi Community Game Night. Site user KillKill was gracious enough to grab a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive server for us Sushians to partake in a night of competitive leet skills.

So, if you’re interested in joining us sometime this weekend, here’s how to participate: in the comments, leave 1) your Steam ID and 2) whether Saturday night or Sunday night (after the Super Bowl of course) would be better. We can’t guarantee that everyone will get a spot, or if we’ll have a ton of people on short notice, but we figured this was long overdue. Hit us up in the comments!

Update: We’ll be playing tonight, post Super Bowl, around 10pm CST, or shortly thereafter if the game’s not quite over. If you can’t make it, no worries — I’m sure we’ll be in and out of the server for quite a bit over the coming weeks. For now, join the GamerSushi Steam Group so you can keep apprised of when we’re all in game.

Update 2: We’re playing. Server is here: 173.62.11.99:27015

Gaming Pop Quiz: 2013 Edition

Pop Quiz

Sweet, merciful heavens. Has it really been almost a year since our last Pop Quiz? My, how time flies. In my defense, the last Pop Quiz arrived about a week before my daughter did, so it’s interesting to note how little humans tend to disrupt things like, you know, writing features for a gaming site.

So, since it’s been a year since our last getting-to-know-you game, we wanted to ask some questions about the upcoming year, last year, and where your head is at as a gamer for the time being. While 2012 was certainly an interesting and fun year for gamers, 2013 looks to be no slouch, either. Already we’ve had Ni No Kuni and Devil May Cry making waves, and Dead Space 3 is just around the corner next week. Seems like we have a good opportunity here for some questions.

If you haven’t joined us for a Pop Quiz before, it’s simple. Just answer with as much or as little of an explanation as you like, and nobody will judge you. Too much. OK, scratch that, I’m always judging.

Continue reading Gaming Pop Quiz: 2013 Edition

This Week’s Trailers: Bioshock Infinite and Elder Scrolls Online

For Stop the Presses Thursday, the biggest pieces of gaming news to drop this week happened to come in the form of two trailers.

Bioshock Infinite, coming in March, is a game that I can’t quite seem to peg. It’s well documented that the original Bioshock didn’t quite grab me the way it grabbed everyone else, even though I was appreciative of its dark atmosphere and its art design. Meanwhile, Infinite’s city in the sky, Columbia, is almost the opposite of Rapture in terms of its look and feel, even if its dark underbelly is similar in theme.

This newest Infinite trailer highlights the secrets of Columbia, and gives us a bit more info about the story. This game is tempting me something fierce, guys.

Continue reading This Week’s Trailers: Bioshock Infinite and Elder Scrolls Online

Crunching the RPG Numbers

Borderlands 2

In today’s edition of Did You See This Wednesday, we’re going to be talking about RPGs.

As goofy as it sounds, one of my favorite parts about any RPG is watching my damage number creep up as I progress through the game. Whether this number is ratcheting upward through new equipment or because I’ve hit a new level seems to matter little — what matters is that sweet, sweet damage total. I get kind of addicted to it. This is most evident in Borderlands 2 (which we’ll be streaming tonight), a game that bombards you with more numbers than a Mathletics competition, both in and out of combat. Continue reading Crunching the RPG Numbers

Review: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM

We don’t get many thinking man’s games these days. It’s usually shoot first, ask questions never, and maybe occasionally press X to interact while the really cool stuff happens in QTEs or cut scenes. But XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a different kind of animal for a different kind of gamer. Of all things, XCOM is the most taxing on your brain — and sometimes your heart. Continue reading Review: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Sim City and the Nature of Addiction

Sim City

To continue our theme of What We’re Playing Monday, I thought I’d take us on a dismal tour of my future, one in which I gain 100 pounds, lose my job and become a hermit that only plays Sim City.

OK, so maybe the future isn’t set in stone yet, but seeing as how much I enjoyed my time in the closed beta this weekend, there’s certainly some kind of dark timeline where all of this takes place. Although, considering how much fun the game is, maybe it’s not necessarily a dark time line after all? Continue reading Sim City and the Nature of Addiction

Bringing Back Space Combat with Strike Suit Zero

strike suit zero

Welcome back to “What We’re Playing” Monday here on GamerSushi!

I grew up playing the old X-Wing game for the PC and it’s been sad for me to see that genre fall out of favor with gamers at large. True, that game was perhaps a little too complicated, but even simple space combat games have been few and far between the last couple of years.

Born Ready Games, with a Kickstarter backing, has decided to reboot the space combat genre and bring us Strike Suit Zero, a game for the PC that has not only spaceship dog-fighting but also lets you pilot a kick-ass mecha. Yes, you read that right: about an hour and a bit into the game, you get access to a Strike Suit, a prototype fighter that has the secondary function of transforming into a giant robot.

The controls for the game a pretty straightforward: as a fighter you get plasma cannons, a machine gun and a variety of missiles. Using the machine gun to strip the shields of enemy fighters and finishing them off with your plasma cannons keeps your fingers busy and doesn’t make you reliant on one weapon as the plasma guns tend to drain fast, especially when they’re linked. Once you get the Strike Suit, a simple tap of a button (or key, but I really recommend playing with a controller) turns your snubfighter into a death-dealing, missile spewing machine. Continue reading Bringing Back Space Combat with Strike Suit Zero

Dead Space 3’s Workbench Will Have Microtransactions

dead space 3 microstransactions

Dead Space 3 will be hitting our screens very soon, but some news about the game dropped this week that may sour your anticipation. According to Eurogamer, Dead Space 3’s new workbench, where you can custom-make your weaponry, will include a microtransaction store for buying some additional resources.

While players will still be able to scavenge the materials for themselves or use scavenger bots to gather crafting resources in-game, real-world money can always be used to circumvent the collection process. This doesn’t mean that eager players can drop a ton of cash at the beginning of the game and get all the top-tier weaponry; they still have to wait for those guns to be unlocked as part of the narrative progression.

Even though this is the first instance of microtransactions in Dead Space, giving quick boosts for cash is nothing new in EA titles. Mass Effect 3 had this, as did Battlefield 3 and I wouldn’t be surprised if SimCity has something similar. What do you guys think about this? Is this a harmless addition for those of us flush with cash but strapped for time? Is it a foul on EA’s part to try and get their mitts into your wallet after you’ve already bought the game?

Source – Eurogamer

Nintendo Hits You in the Feels with Wind Waker HD

Wind Waker HD

Man, Nintendo sure does have a bullseye right on our nostalgia bone, doesn’t it? In a totally unsurprising move, Nintendo revealed this morning (via Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma) that an HD version of Wind Waker will be releasing this fall.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Reborn is meant to tide maniacal Zelda fans over while the real Wii U game is in development, but this doesn’t just look like a straight port. Based on some of the game’s gorgeous screenshots, I think it’s safe to say that Nintendo is updating this classic game in an even more beautiful way, in addition to all these new-fangled definitions.

While it’s easy to sour on HD remakes as nothing more than the often-brandished money grab, I still stand by the position that playing a timeless game in a more future proof fashion is a good thing for video games. It’s a way to preserve some of the medium’s history, and really, I can’t think of a more excellent game for Nintendo to have done it with. Wind Waker had such a lovely style to it, I can’t wait to see it on current hardware. Once I get a Wii U, that is.

So what do you guys think? Are you yay or nay on a Wind Waker HD? And seriously, check out the Wii U Facebook page for more awesome screenshots.

One Man Fools Games Journalists with Fake Xbox 720 Email

xbox 720 fake email

“Don’t believe everything you read” is the lesson being learned by a few gaming websites today as one man comes out as the instigator of a faked email “leaking” specifics behind the Xbox 360 successor and something called the “X-Surface”.

In the anonymous email, our trickster pretends to be a Microsoft employee on the Xbox team, when in reality he doesn’t work for the software giant. The email about the X-Surface contains just enough information about the Xbox 720 to appear legit, and several sites ran with it, including VG247, NowGamer and Venturebeat. While all the sites have updated their original posts acknowledging the hoax, it still points to the “post now fact check never” mentality that some sites have.

I understand that in an industry dominated by pageviews, being first with a hot piece of news, especially about the upcoming consoles, is a priority, but sometimes this can backfire. Gaming websites are so hungry for hits that they’ll gobble up fake news and spit it back out without a second thought. If you’re looking for a response from someone on the inside that isn’t all about shaming journalists, Ben Kuchera over at the Penny-Arcade Report has a thoughtful comment about this whole hubbub.

So what say you about this whole charade?

Source – X-Surface

The Wikipedia of Retro Games: Hardcore Gaming 101

Hardcore Gaming 101

Welcome to Did You See This Wednesday! As part of the GamerSushi Schedule, it is my duty to bring you cool stuff that you might have missed while you were looking at pictures of Grumpy Cat. And if you have any new ones, send them to me.

Today, we aren’t bringing you an article, we are showcasing an entire website, one that I have spent way too many hours on: Hardcore Gaming 101. HG101, as we like to call it, is a site devoted to educating people about retro games and also maybe getting them interested in something they might not even know about. The site is exhaustively well-researched, with tons of screenshots, artwork and information. I have described it as “The Wikipedia of Retro Games” and I think that is an accurate description. On top of that, it’s pretty hilarious to read as well. Just take a look at this description of why Edward from Final Fantasy IV would never work in a modern FF game: Continue reading The Wikipedia of Retro Games: Hardcore Gaming 101

FarCry3: Stealth with Style

FarCry 3 Stealth

I love stealth games, but they tend to stress me out. The idea of sneaking around without getting caught always tends to add a pile of burdens on top of me, like the game is judging me if I fail, and will punish me with extra waves of enemies should I find a way of royally fracking things up.

And while most stealth games do a poor job at making stealth just as fun as the shooting counterpart (or throw out a poor attempt at both), FarCry 3 makes sneaking around exciting, challenging and maybe even more fun than mowing down bands of pirates with an assault rifle or rocket launcher. This is mostly accomplished through an excellent skill system that rewards you for stealth kills and chaining takedowns together for some brutal, silent mayhem. It adds a dash of style to a mechanic that is normally slow and methodic, even in a (mostly traditional) first person shooter.

It’s always refreshing to play a new twist on a familiar game mechanic, and FarCry 3 does this in a number of ways. Because of this empowerment, FarCry 3 doesn’t make me nearly as nervous to play in a stealthy manner, and it’s making the game all the more fun for me. I’m not fretting about getting spotted, but rather, given just the right tools to adapt — and have a blast doing it.

How do you guys normally feel about stealthy gameplay mechanics? Do you tend to sneak around or come into a situation guns playing? What are some of your favorite stealth games? Go!

GamerSushi on Twitch.Tv!

Twitch_Logo_Black

Sushians! As part of our new content spree of 2013 (which we’ve honorably dubbed as “Year of the Sushi” around these parts), we’ve started up our very own GamerSushi Twitch TV channel.

Last night I streamed the second half of Hotline Miami as a bit of a test, and a few of you joined and hung out for a little bit. And right now, Nick and I are streaming some Borderlands 2. Obviously if you see this a bit later, you’ll have missed out on the fun, but we’re working on some kind of loose schedule when we’ll be streaming some different games.

So yeah, join in on the fun. Year of the Sushi!

Update: All done playing now, but you can find the play session after the jump! Continue reading GamerSushi on Twitch.Tv!

GamerSushi Asks: Pre-Game Rituals?

Far Cry 3

Welcome to “GamerSushi Asks” Friday!

This week, I finally jumped into Far Cry 3’s sprawling green and blue playground of predators and pirates, and like many other gamers, have found myself enthralled by not only the emergent gameplay, but the sidequests that know just how to entice me off the beaten path. But before I started off-roading, gaining experience through stealth kills and skinning komodo dragons, I did what I do for every game — I tweaked the settings.

Starting a new game is equal parts excitement and ritual for me. I’ve got a bit of a ceremony whenever I pop in a new title. First, I turn on subtitles, since I’m usually trying to keep volume low so as not to wake up a sleeping baby (or worse yet, a sleeping wife). Then, I lower the overall master volume of the game. Next, I check controller settings to make sure that the y-axis isn’t inverted, and after that I lower the sensitvity to the point where it feels like the gun is dragging through molasses. No matter how engaging the beginning of a game, if these things aren’t set, I don’t feel like I’m in control of the experience.

So what about you guys? What pre-game rituals do you have before you start a new game? Do you mess with the audio? Is there a particular set of headphones you prefer to use? A particular time of day or a specific position you need to be in on the couch? Show us your OCD side in the comments.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Confines Same-Sex Romance to One Planet

star-wars-the-old-republic-makeb

The hits just keep on coming for BioWare and EA’s ill-fated Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. After a less-than stellar launch and a much maligned move to free-to-play, the game is getting its first major expansion in the form of the Rise of the Hutt Cartel, which will feature, of all things, a planet where same-sex romances are permitted.

This might not seem too strange to people who haven’t played The Old Republic, but Makeb, as the planet is called, is the only place in the entire game where player characters can engage in same-sex romances with NPCs. This doesn’t turn previous companions into romance options, or even add new companions with this feature (because that would be “too difficult” according to the developers), but rather places new characters exclusively on Makeb.

As if that wasn’t strange enough, making this part of the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion means that same-sex romances are available only after paying for it. Putting SGR (same-gender romance as the TOR forums call it) on a single planet behind a paywall just smacks of not only laziness, but a lack of respect for customers looking for that kind of content. Continue reading Star Wars: The Old Republic Confines Same-Sex Romance to One Planet

The GamerSushi Top 10 Games of 2012

2012 was a surprisingly robust year for gaming. While we didn’t quite get the bombardment of sequels to huge franchises that we’ve come to expect, we got a year filled with unique titles. 2012 was filled with strategy games, stealth games, new IPs and a new bar for emotional engagement in our favorite medium. Even the sequels found a way to change the game.

Suddenly, the industry gave us something we’ve been clambering for what has felt like years — some variety. And what a nice change of pace it’s been. So, without further ado, here is our list of the top 10 games of 2012. Enjoy, dudes.

Continue reading The GamerSushi Top 10 Games of 2012

Polygon: “Video games don’t create violence in society, they reflect it”

nes_zapper

Polygon is a fairly recent addition to the world of gaming journalism, but they’re already doing an excellent job of posting thoughtful, well-written reporting. Since it’s “Did You See This” Wednesday, I thought I’d point you towards one of Brian Crecente’s recent posts on the subject of video game violence where he argues that video games reflect the violence in society and not the other way around.

Whenever another mass shooting happens in America, one of the first subjects brought up in the media is whether or not the shooter liked playing violent video games. Of course, studies have shown that “there is no good evidence that video games or other media contributes, even in a small way, to mass homicides or any other violence among youth“. So why, then, do we continue returning to the subject of video game violence as an explanation for real-world violence?

Continue reading Polygon: “Video games don’t create violence in society, they reflect it”