Category: GamerSushi News

Diablo 3 Brings Demon Hunters and PvP Arenas to BlizzCon

In case you’re living under a rock or just don’t like awesome PC games, BlizzCon 2010 is happening right now in Anaheim, California, and there’s been a few new developments on the Diablo 3 front, which has been pretty silent since last BlizzCon. Today the fifth and final class, the Demon Hunter, was announced with the requisite kick-ass video. Looks like fans of the ranged DPS (damage per second) option will have their choice right here.

The other big announcement today was the introduction of dedicated Player versus Player Arenas for Diablo 3, which should help circumvent the “gank the new guy in town” stuff that keeps happening to me in Diablo 2. Despite these two devilish pieces of info, we still don’t have a release date for Diablo 3, but I’d say late 2011 is probably a safe bet. Anyone getting excited about Diablo 3? Who’s going to roll a Demon Hunter when the game drops?

Sonic Fan Remix is Just What the Fanboys Ordered

While I have not played the newly released Sonic the Hedgehog 4, I have heard that some sniping exists between two differing viewpoints on the game. Some complain that the game is too similar to the old school Sonic games from the Genesis days, while others complain that it doesn’t feel similar enough. In my mind, that probably means that Sega probably nailed it on the head, but that’s a topic for another time.

On the discussion board for today is an impressive demo of Sonic Fan Remix, a lovingly crafted HD remake of a few Sonic the Hedgehog levels. It might be hard to tell from the gameplay video, but this bad boy was conjured up by a development team of just two people. If you want, you can download that sweet thing and play it on your PC. Apparently it’s a bit CPU intensive, but you’ll have to judge that for yourselves. Or just watch.

Although some are a bit premature in claiming that it might be better than Sonic the Hedgehog 4, I’m going to say that it is certainly stunning for a fan made project, and begs the question, yet again – why didn’t these guys just make their own game? Have we not learned from Notch that there’s a killing to be made for small indie teams with great games?

So what do you guys think? How many of you have played Sonic the Hedgehog 4?

Source – Sonic Fan Remix

Valve Rewards Team Fortress 2 Community Contributors with Lots of Zeroes

Golden WrenchWow. This is one of those stories that just oozes awesome. It’s like our “Today’s WTF” topics, but in a totally different way.

If you are a lover of Team Fortress 2, then you’ll recall that Valve launched an in-game store for virtual items, Mann Co. Store. The coolest thing about this marketplace is that it allowed users to buy items for the game that they didn’t feel like earning over the course of time. So basically, the items could either be earned for free, or bought to skip all that grinding.

As part of the launch of this new business model, Valve participated in the Polycount item contest, where users competed to see whose items could make it into the game. Well, it turns out that the five winners not only got their items added to the game, but also to the Mann Co. Store, where other users could purchase them… and Valve gave the content creators a 25% revenue share.

It added up pretty quickly. Continue reading Valve Rewards Team Fortress 2 Community Contributors with Lots of Zeroes

Seven Minute Metal Gear Solid 3DS Demo is Still in a Dream

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is probably still one of my favorite video games ever, so the news that this classic will soon become portable on the Nintendo 3DS is enough to give me mind boners, to coin a term Eddy once used for the Dragon Age cinematic trailer. We’ve seen snippets of the Metal Gear Solid 3DS demo here and there since E3, but never in English, and certainly not for seven minutes. I’ve embedded the demo for Metal Gear Solid 3DS below for your viewing pleasure:

No word of a lie, that was incredible. I mean, it lacks the pop of the 3D, but you definitely get a sense that when we get this thing in our hands we’re going to be blown away. When the Snake Eater theme comes on at the end of the video, I kind of lost it. I mean, I am a huge fan of MGS3, so that’s my natural reaction, but how do you guys feel? Were you as riveted as I was? Are you waiting on a different 3DS title to grab you?

Today’s WTF: Angry Minecraft Fans Shut Down Minecraft Because They Want More Minecraft

minecraft ddos attack

Don’t worry, GamerSushi faithful, today’s Minecraft post isn’t about some crazy contraption or a replica of a Star Destroyer (although that would be cool), but instead about a group of pissed-off protesters who are attempting to force the developer to update the game with a hack attack.

According to the blog of the head developer of Minecraft and newly minted owner of Mojang Specifications, Notch, the Minecraft servers starting having trouble last night because of a DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, attack. For those unfamiliar with the term, this basically amounts to occupying a specific resource for a long time so no one else can utilize at. As Notch himself put it, it’s kind of like paying for your groceries with small coins, then finding out you don’t have enough after you’ve counted all of them up very slowly.

Notch himself isn’t too sure why Minecraft is being targeted, but Kotaku dug up an apparent manifesto on 4chan, which is the Internet equivalent of Mos Eisley from Star Wars. According to the rant, a group of hackers banded together to force Notch to update Minecraft which, for a half-price Alpha, isn’t being improved upon fast enough in their eyes. Here’s the group’s alleged ransom letter: Continue reading Today’s WTF: Angry Minecraft Fans Shut Down Minecraft Because They Want More Minecraft

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam Trailer Loves the Smell of Napalm in The Morning

Out of all the multiplayer-centric franchises out there, I’ve got to say that the Battlefield games are still my favorite so anything new on this series is bound to get me “stimulated”, if you’ll pardon the inside joke. Bad Company 2 is still hands-down the best multiplayer experience I’ve had this year (Reach is a close second), so needless to say that the upcoming Vietnam expansion is right up my rubble-strewn alley. Check out the new trailer, which gives us the price and a vague release date:

Four multiplayer maps for fifteen dollars? I’ve payed more for less, so I’m happy as a clam. What about you guys? Anyone going to be picking this up? I know that Bad Company 2 isn’t super popular on the Xbox anymore, but it’s still kicking on PC, which is where I’ll be hanging my hat. Let us know!

Apparently 80% of Gamers Don’t Mind 3D Glasses

3D glasses

To me, one of the most exciting prospects of the Nintendo 3DS is that it can provide the promised benefits of 3D gaming without having to sport some new 3D glasses while enjoying its retro titled goodness. I have never been one to criticize the idea of 3D gaming simply for what it is, but rather because the glasses are just something that I’m not interested in wearing every time I fire up a disc. But maybe I’m alone in that.

It seems that a new study from the U-Decide Initiative has found that as much as 80% of gamers don’t view 3D glasses as a barrier to enter into the next dimension of gaming, and wouldn’t mind donning 3D glasses in order to do so. The study also found that interest in 3D was indeed greater when glasses weren’t part of the equation, but even still, the numbers are different than what I would have suspected. Granted, all studies like this need to be handled with a grain of salt, but I still found the idea to be interesting, nonetheless.

So what do you guys think of this? Are 3D glasses a breaking point for you when it comes to 3D gaming? Or is it more about the price involved in purchasing a TV that can support it? Challenge my assumptions! Do it!

Source – Industry Gamers

Rovio Announces Angry Birds Halloween

As we mentioned on our last podcast, Angry Birds is selling like hotcakes for the iPhone and now Android. I guess that wasn’t enough for Rovio Mobile though, because on their blog today they announced a special Halloween edition of Angry Birds. It will be a standalone game with 45 spooky new levels. Unfortunately for Android users it will only be available on the iTunes App Store. Rovio says it should show up at midnight on October 21st, and will run you $0.99 for the standard version and $1.99 for the HD iPad version.

Trailer below:

[youtube width=”500″ height=”331″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWTgarcCWZc[/youtube]

Link

THQ’s Danny Bilson to Publishers: Make New IPs

THQ New IP
It’s always refreshing to see someone high up in the games industry look at things the way we do. While there are going to be some people who won’t feel the same, we bemoaned the lack of original games in a recent podcast (and many times before) because we’re getting a little tired of spending our money on the same thing every year.

At the recent opening of their Montreal studio, THQ’s Executive VP of Core Games Danny Bilson talked with IndustryGamers about a variety of things, one of them being the importance of new intellectual properties, or IPs. While most publishers seem to be content to push out a new title in a franchise every year with little experimentation because it’s safer, Bilson argues that this could be more harmful in the long run. See his reasoning after the jump: Continue reading THQ’s Danny Bilson to Publishers: Make New IPs

GamerSushi Asks: Launch Day Frustrations

fallout-new-vegas bugs

It’s happened to all of us. We get home from work or school, tear the shrink wrapping off the box or boot up Steam, only to discover that the video game gods have different plans for us. Whether it’s a RAIDed video card melting inside of an improperly ventilated Alienware PC or Games for Windows Live just decided to take a day off (or even the dreaded Red Ring of Death), there are many malignant forces at work attempting to prevent you from playing your game.

The last sort of launch day shenanigans I can remember happened with Fallout 3, which needed to go through Games for Windows Live and just didn’t like the fact that I kept trying to sign into my Gamer Profile. I eventually got it to work, but at the cost of a day’s worth of Fallout. Recently, I’ve heard that New Vegas is pretty unstable, and has been giving users some grief when they try to load it through Steam.

I didn’t have any problems with New Vegas personally (except for my weapon clipping through my body in third-person view), but I was wondering if you guys had any launch-day horror stories to tell. Did your computer blue screen, or were you just unable to play your game? Any Xbox owners experience the RRoD, which always seems to come out of the woodwork on the launch of big games. I’ve never heard of a PlayStation crapping out on a new game, but I’d love to hear about it. Tell us your harrowing tale in the comments!

Today’s WTF: Gran Turismo 5 Honcho Asks Players for Frame Rate Forgiveness

Gran Turismo 5

Oh, Kaz Yamauchi. I know it seems tough for you right now, with Polyphony Digital under the gun for the many Gran Turismo 5 delays. But soon, soon the game will be out (holiday season 2010, maybe?), it will be incredible as always, and all of this silliness will be behind you. Right? Maybe not.

Apparently, Gran Turismo 5 is having some frame rate issues these days. While the team at Polyphony Digital worked hard to ensure that the powerhouse racing simulator ran at a smooth 60 fps at 1080p, it doesn’t seem that this is always the case. And because of that, Yamauchi wants your forgiveness.

Check out the quote from Yamauchi himself, after the jump. Continue reading Today’s WTF: Gran Turismo 5 Honcho Asks Players for Frame Rate Forgiveness

Spooky Games To Play In The Dark

Resident Evil 4

The witching hour is almost upon us, ghouls. Halloween is just around the corner and I have to say, it’s one of my favorite days of the year. All the girls dress up in their most revealing outfits and all the people like me try to think of the costume that will involve the least amount of money/work. But not everyone is into dressing up and I can respect that. Some nights are best spent indoors.

So if you are planning on hiding from the inevitable Lady Gaga barrage that we are likely in for on the 31st, there is hope for you. GamePro concocted The Gamer’s Horror Game Guide, a list which gives you plenty of spooky games to play, no matter what platform you have. Personally, Fear 2 and Bioshock are my creepiest games, although Resident Evil 4 did have some moments that left me pale. I’ve never played Silent Hill, but I’ve heard of it freaking people out.

What games do you play when you want to send chills up your spine? Has any game so unnerved you that you had to stop playing for a while? Are you going to play anything scary on Halloween? Boo!

Source: GamePro

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Fallout New Vegas

It’s that time again, folks. The time where all of us check in and talk about the games we are playing. Or in my case, the games we wish we were playing. At the moment, I happen to be in the middle of a self-imposed ban of all things gaming until I finish a certain stupid novel I’m writing. But believe me, there are games I wish I could get my hands on.

For one, Fallout: New Vegas unfurls its Sin City makeover this week, and I’m kind of itching to see if Obsidian picks up the mantle from Bethesda in a meaningful way. While at first I was skeptical of the game, all of the material I’ve seen from it lately give me hope, so I’m anxious to get some playing time with it. In addition to that, I would like to play Dead Rising 2 and of course, Halo: Reach. Surprisingly, though, the game I’ve been dying to play most of all over the last few days? Final Fantasy VII. The music has been stuck in my head, and now I just want to relive the magic for some reason. Soon.

Anyway, go ahead and tease me with all of the great games you guys are playing that I’m not. Rub it in my face. Tell me how much fun it is. I won’t cry… much. What are you guys playing? Go!

GamerSushi Asks: Favorite NES Game?

Nintendo Entertainment SystemAs we talked about in our awesome new podcast, this is the 25th Anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly referred to these days as the NES. This blocky console revived the video game industry, launched dozens of franchises that we still play today and generated enough gaming memories to last a lifetime.

Which is why this list of the Top 25 NES Games from 1up got me thinking. In the podcast, we talk about some of the more obscure games, but we shouldn’t ignore the popular ones either. After all, they are popular for a damn good reason: they’re awesome. Personally, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros 3, Dragon Warrior and The Legend of Zelda and Contra were my favorite NES games. Metroid was a bit much for me at that age, so it just misses the list.

What about you? What NES games were your favorites? Did the 1UP list put anything too high or too low? Hit me!

Source – 1UP

Go Behind the Scenes of Halo: Reach’s Deliver Hope

The most recent of the Halo live action trailers, Deliver Hope for Halo:Reach was a pretty decent affair, featuring a lot of firsts for the commercials such as live action Spartans and Elites, among other things. Microsoft recently put up a behind the scenes video for Deliver Hope that delves into all the work that went into making this trailer a reality:

I always appreciate these kinds of sneak peeks, but seeing a man don Kat’s armor kind of ruined it for me. Also, note how they only show snippets of the Elite costume but never give us a look at the whole thing in motion. Overall, it’s still a pretty cool video showing the making of one of the most elaborate commercials of all time.

Microsoft Spending Half a Billion to Promote Kinect

kinect half a billionWe all knew that Microsoft had deep pockets, but I would have never pegged them as the kind to go hog wild with their limitless font of cash. Apparently I was wrong in that assumption, because the software giant has pledged half a billion dollars to promote Kinect, the controller-free peripheral launching November 4 for the Xbox 360.

According to the New York Post, Microsoft began planning the multifaceted launch of Kinect almost 18 months ago with the help of Stephen Spielberg. With such a large amount of money dedicated to getting Kinect on everyone’s minds, we can expect to see the little black sensor pop everywhere from soda cans and magazines to the TV shows Glee and Dancing with the Stars. All this is going towards getting Kinect in the minds of parents for the upcoming holiday season, where it will be squaring off against the Wii and Sony’s newly launched Move controller.

If you thought the ad campaigns for Halo 3 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 got annoying leading up to launch, just wait until you can’t round a corner without seeing Kinect. To be fair, we’re not really the target audience for the sensor, but I’m sure there will be some “core” gamers out there picking it up.

I think this makes it more than clear that Microsoft is in love with the technology behind Kinect, and they’re really throwing the whole Xbox division behind it. Now, I don’t consider technically consider myself a Microsoft fanboy, but I’m kind of worried what the possible failure of Kinect will do to the console. While I think that Microsoft can take the hit overall, we may see the end of the Xbox if this doesn’t work. Half a billion is a lot of money, even if it is just a drop in the bucket for Microsoft.

This kind of news is just begging for your comments, so let us know what you think! Can half a billion guarantee a good showing for Kinect this holiday? Will a possible failure spell doom for future versions of the Xbox?

Source: New York Post

Minecraft Combines With Portal for a Delicious Video

Crazy Minecraft videos are kind of becoming all the rage here at GamerSushi, and really, can you blame us? The game, which basically plonks you down on a random map and goes “have fun”, has inspiried more crazy creations than any other title I can remember. This may be Minecraft’s refusal to guide your hand and leave most players to their devices, but it could just be that inside all of us is some crazy megalomaniac builder waiting to be let free. Just take this most recent example where YouTuber kopierjunge made a Portal game inside Minecraft. Madness!

I also give props to this guy for not including any cake jokes. I hope none of you are getting sick of funny or wild Minecraft videos, becuase I’m certainly not. Just think, if someone can make Portal in Minecraft, how far away are we from other ports? Halo? Civilization? Just think of the possibilities. What game would you like to see emulated in Minecraft?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 10: Percentify

PercentWhat’s that? Two podcasts in one month? Welcome to generosity. Or just bored dudes with too much time on their hands. Either way, you get more podcast goodness. In this edition of the GamerSushi podcast, we chat about iPhone gaming, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Dead Rising 2, the 25th anniversary of the NES and play a hilarious game of percentages, hosted by the bearded one himself.

The exciting thing about this podcast and the last one for us is that we finally feel like we’re getting closer to figuring out the best format for what we do, and could maybe turn this into a weekly venture with some more practice and a few tweaks. I’m digging the “over/under” and “percentage” type games, and hope you find them just as enjoyable.

As always, please go rate this cast on iTunes and subscribe with the handy links to the right. Enjoy!

Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 10: Percentify

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World of Warcarft: Cataclysm Cinematic Intro Brings the Wrath of Deathwing to Azeroth

I know that World of Warcraft ain’t too popular around these here parts, but there’s no denying that once your subscriber numbers and gross monthly income surpasses most small nations, you’re definitely on to something. Blizzard’s MMORPG juggernaut has been gaining steam since it launched in 2004, and now, six years later, it shows no signs of slowing down. Blizzard just put the cinematic intro to the newest expansion, Cataclysm, up on the YouTube account, and good lord is it both gorgeous and terrifying:

The most amazing thing is that all of Blizzard’s incredible cinematics are done in house, not sourced out to a third-party studio like Blur (best known for The Old Republic trailers). While Blizz’s movies have been incredible in the past, this one seems to take them to a new plateau. I’ve never been more impressed by their videos, so kudos to them for continuing to raise the bar. We must have a few WoW players on the site, so can anyone share their thoughts on Cataclysm? Looking forward to the end of the world as you know it? The game launches December 7, 2010.

GamerSushi Asks: Repetitive Gaming?

Uncharted 2

In talking to people about why they dislike games, there are any number of reasons that gamers use to discredit certain titles. Whether people don’t like an inventory system, a story, or long cut scenes, everybody has their own individual beef. However, it seems like one of the complaints I hear about games more often than not is that a game is perhaps “too repetitive”.

The interesting thing to me about this criticism is that when you break it down, all games are repetitive. In essence, that’s what a game is. It has to have an established set of rules, as well as a playing style that gets repeated constantly. Really, the often quoted Bungie mantra of designing a game that has “30 seconds of fun” over and over is what all games strive to do. The difference is that the best games just figure out a way to hide it. To me, Uncharted 2 is an excellent example of this, and probably one of the best I’ve seen at disguising repetition. Naughty Dog found a great balance of platforming, shooting and insane setpiece moments that really make you forget that you’re repeating yourself.

So what do you guys think about the issue of repetitive gaming? What games feel too repetitive to enjoy, and what games mask it? Go!