Category: GamerSushi News

Welcome to GamerSushi 2.0

Hello, you beautiful gamers. As you can see, GamerSushi is different. We were hoping to get this done for our 2nd birthday, but hey, we’re close enough, right? It’s kind of like that Monkey Ball game. The one that’s like ski ball, but with monkeys. The point is, we still get points.

For the most part, things are the same, but with a few notable differences: first and foremost, the sliding feature bar, which highlights the most recent features. I dig it. In addition, there’s the new “browse by system” bar, plus we’ve made the podcasts and older features more accessible in the top navigation. You’ll also notice the rotating podcast reviews banner in the top right hand corner, with user reviews on each one. So, review the podcast on iTunes, and you just might get your quote up there, too.

Anyway, I’ll let you see everything else for yourself. Be sure to give muchos props to Jeff and Nick for all the hard work they did over the last two weeks on this. Personally, I think they crushed it, in the best possible way. Feel free to leave your own feedback below!

Update: Apparently the site is having some issues in Internet Explorer 7, and it obscures the log-in box for users, so you haven’t been able to tell us if you’re on that version and having that problem. First of all, why are you using that browser, you crazy person? Second, we’re working on a fix for later tonight. The site seems fine in other browsers, including IE8. So if you are one of the random few affected, just fix your life and upgrade.

Update 2: This is now fixed. You should still upgrade, though.

PAX 2010 Photo Roll

PAX 2010So, if you’ve read my PAX 2010 round up, then you’d know that I visited a fair few booths over the past few days. Just like E3 before it, PAX was an opportunity for the developers of the various titles on display to overwhelm our senses with giant facades dedicated to the grandeur of the event. Since not everyone can go to PAX for various reasons, I thought I would bring my camera along and snap a few photos. Perhaps you might spot my photobomb. Hit the jump for shots of the exhibit! Click on the photos to enhugenate. Continue reading PAX 2010 Photo Roll

Duke Nukem Gameplay From PAX 2010

Duke Nukem Forever

Since everybody else and their mom is posting about the shocking news that Duke Nukem Forever lives, I suppose we were obliged to get a post up as well. So here it is: the obligatory Duke Nukem Forever post.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the skinny: the fabled and long ridiculed vaporware has been kept alive like some sort of Frankenstein’s monster by Gearbox, creators of Borderlands. Over the weekend at PAX Prime 2010 in Seattle, Washington, the greatest of all gaming conventions had the killer reveal on the show floor, and people actually got to play the game that time forgot and mocked.

And naturally, people took lots of video. It was like spotting a unicorn in the wild, with double rainbows blazing from its pure and silky mane. Personally, I liked Duke Nukem, but I don’t identify with all of the mania. I think more of the craze is about the fact that the game exists more than the franchise itself, but I could be wrong.

So, is anyone here excited about this news? Were any of you Duke Nukem fans? Crappy offscreen handheld videos after the jump! Continue reading Duke Nukem Gameplay From PAX 2010

PAX 2010 Round Up

pax2010 So, PAX 2010 has come and gone, and I’m glad that I finally took this year to go down and experience it. I saw a lot of games before their release and some cosplay that I could have gone without. Of course, such a big event deserves a bigger write up, so steel yourselves and jump into my PAX 2010 Round-Up Spectacular! In this post I’m going to be covering the games that I saw with the pictures going up in a separate post once I sort out and re-size the photos.
Continue reading PAX 2010 Round Up

GamerSushi Asks: What Are Your “S” Games?

One of the things that the GamerSushi staff likes to debate in lengthy e-mail threads and occasionally on podcasts is the difference between an “A” rated game and an “S” rated game, based on the qualifications laid out in our grade chart. As some of you know, our review system underwent a major overhaul last year, where we tried to spread out our grades a little more. So often, review sites fail to distinguish between great games and classic games.

For me, an “S” game isn’t just a great “A” game that you love. It’s something a little more than that. One of my favorite games of this generation is Resident Evil 5, and I wouldn’t distinguish it with that remarkable rating because I feel like it lacks that intangible quality that stamps it as one of the greats.

Ideally, there are only a handful of games that reach that mark every generation. For this gen I would say Portal, Call of Duty 4 and Uncharted 2 easily fall into that category. I would also say Red Dead Redemption, but that’s another issue altogether. For last gen I would say Shadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear Solid 3 are the top two that come to mind, though there are definitely many others (side argument: did last gen have the most “S” games?).

Anyway, as we are taking another look at our review system as some new changes (hint: get excited) are in the works here at GamerSushi, I wanted to ask what you think gives a game that special something, that quality that makes it stand out from the pack. In addition, what games this generation would you give an “S” to, and can you remember any from last gen? Go!

Kevin Butler’s Epic Move-Tage

I just love the Kevin Butler persona. Our favorite VP of anything and everything has shown up yet again, this time in what he has deemed an epic move-tage that has a lot of the Playstation Move games on display. So far, looking pretty good. Whatever that mech game is, I actually kind of want to play it.

Out of all the motion control pundits out there, Sony seems to understand that the hardcore gamer wants real games. While I’m still not sold on Move completely, it’s the most appealing to me in terms of software, even though the hardware of Microsoft’s Kinect is much more impressive from a technical standpoint. Awesome promos like this certainly help.

What do you guys think? Go!

Call of Duty: Black Ops Brings Wager Matches

After eating my words about Call of Duty: World at War — a game I doubted for months on end — I have had an up and down relationship with Call of Duty: Black Ops. You see, occasionally I find myself excited, really enjoying some of the glimpses I get to see. And other times, I wonder if the series is getting close to jumping the shark, so to speak.

However, I might be back on the optimistic side after the brand new footage Treyarch revealed this week, showing off the new wager multiplayer mode that they’ve included in Black Ops. Basically, it’s a game mode where you take the currency you’ve earned in multiplayer matches and gamble it against other players. There are a variety of ways to do this, including single shot rounds, knife gametypes and even one where each kill upgrades your weapon up to a new tier. Really, you need to see it yourself.

Did this excite anyone else? Or just me?

GameStop Offers Extra Trade-In Value Towards Halo: Reach and Metroid: Other M

Halo vs MetroidI don’t know how it happened, but the Fall is already here. Basically, all of us have entered a collective form of group time travel, and we’ve managed to skip the summer and get straight to September. Metroid: Other M released on Tuesday, and a whole other round of games is marching inexorably forward. Soon, they will pile atop us, a colossus of entertainment waiting to be felled by our magical swords of light. You know what I mean.

While I know there is a debate that goes around amongst us about trading in video games and buying used games, I do know there is a portion of us that maintain our gaming addiction through this very practice (I count myself as one of those junkies). I’m not a big fan of the practice, but with big titles like Halo: Reach looming around the bend, some of us are trying to scrap together money however we can. For other manic trade-in users like myself, I thought I would post a handy link to GameStop’s trade in offers for September 2010.

The used games retail giant actually has a few good trade-in deals going on at the moment, including offering $40 towards Metroid or Halo: Reach for bringing in any 2 games in a slew of titles. That offer lasts until Sunday, September 5th, so get a move on if you’re interested. On top of that GameStop is offering an additional 25% for all trade-ins that go towards Dead Rising 2, Metroid or Halo: Reach.

There are some other deals, too, but those are some of the highlights. Who plans on buying any of these games? Has anyone played Metroid yet? Report!

Source – GameStop Trade-Ins and image by Ripten

Resident Evil 6 Coming ASAP, Says Capcom

Resident Evil 5

BOOM. That sound you just heard was the minds of your 5 favorite gaming nerds here at GamerSushi exploding. 1UP is reporting that Keiji Inafune, the head of global production at Capcom, has stated that they intend to get Resident Evil 6 released “as soon as possible”.

This is no surprise given the commercial and critical success of the previous entry, Resident Evil 5, AKA GamerSushi Game of the Century. The report also states that they will have some news regarding this soon…perhaps at Tokyo Game Show later this month?

Are you excited for a new Resident Evil? What direction do you think they should go? Keep the co-op? Add more players? Get rid of it altogether? Speak now!

Source: 1UP

GamerSushi Asks: Finishing Games?

Game OverOver the last few weeks, we’ve gotten to do a lot of great getting-to-know-you type posts here at the Sushi. We’ve covered topics like FPS preferences, games that changed the way you thought about games and that’s just barely scratching the surface. One of the things that’s been on my mind lately as I’ve been clearing out the backlog is the idea of finishing video games.

This actually comes from a couple of places. The first would be my great addiction to achievements, which I’ve come clean about here on multiple occasions. It’s a healing process. Anyway, one of my favorite things about achievements (in addition to being a revival of the top scores of the 80s) is that you can see at a glance how far your friends are in games. For instance, I can check out Anthony or my buddy Miles’s profile to find out where they currently are in Mass Effect. It certainly makes for easier conversations about the game. However, one of the things I notice as I browse my friends’ achievements is how few of them actually finish games. And this isn’t unique to my friends, either. Apparently, there are a lot of people out there that don’t finish games. Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Finishing Games?

What Do You Do When You’re Not Gaming?

Reality - Video GamesGaming. It’s the bond that keeps our little community together. It’s the glue that holds us strong like… you know, glue, I guess. Anyway, we’ve been going strong for two years now, and we’ve talked about everything gaming related under the sun from a double takedown of Catwoman and Harley Quinn to arguments about which drug Hideo Kojima will use for his next inspiration.

And while I believe there are many more wells to tap, and deep ones at that, I thought I would venture a little bit outside the gaming sphere and find out more about you guys. I’ve said before that one of the things I love about this place is the way we all interact in the comments, so I’m counting on some pretty solid answers to this next question: what the heck do you guys do when you’re not gaming?

For me, as many of you know, I help run a goofy little outfit of guys making dumb Web videos. We’re currently on break right now, so in the meantime I’m doing a lot of personal writing. One of my dreams is to be a fantasy/sci-fi author. Barring that, I will just play video games the rest of my days until my thumbs fall off. And what about you guys? What kind of stuff are you into? Do you go to school? Work? Are you a superhero at night? Go!

Vanquish Features SDTV Mode To Enlarge Text

For once it appears that a Japanese developer is ahead of the curve with regards to visual options in a game. Platinum Games’ new release — Vanquish, the sci-fi shooter starring a guy in a killer battle suit — will feature an SDTV mode that makes the text slightly crisper and more readable on those ancient SDTVs. You know, the ones that about half of all people in the U.S. still have.

Personally, this issue is moot for me ever since I upgraded to an HDTV earlier this year, but I am glad to see a company go out of their way to think of the little guy who perhaps can’t afford one yet. Times are tough and whenever I hear about a game that is almost unplayable due to tiny text (Dead Rising, I’m looking at you), I get pretty irritated. But only in an abstract kind of way.

Do you think more games should do something like this or should everyone just upgrade to an HDTV and leave the past behind? How many of you have an HDTV versus an SDTV?

Source – 1UP

Christopher Lloyd Reprises Role As Doc Brown For Back to the Future Games

Back to the FutureOK, the Back to the Future fanboy just has to get this out of the way right off the bat. Ready for it? Great Scott!

Anyway, several months back, Telltale Games announced that they were going to be developing some Back to the Future and Jurassic Park adventure games. Well, today they let loose a little bit more information about the project, and the details are certainly enticing. For one, there are going to be a total of five episodes of gaming goodness. For dos (that’s Spanish for all of you keeping track at home), both Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd have released their likenesses for use in the game.

On top of all of that, Bob Gale, one of the key people behind the writing of the movie trilogy, will be contributing to these games to make sure they are in keeping with the series. And last but not least, Christopher Lloyd will be reprising his role as Doc Brown, lending his vocal talents to the project. Heavy. I can honestly say that these are some of my most anticipated games in development right now, and I’m going to jump on any news that comes out of these guys. I hear they’re going to have a DeLorean at PAX, so Mitch, that means you need to take pictures.

Anyway, who else is pumped about these games, and this news? What do you think of the new concept art? Go!

Source- Telltale Games

Batman: Arkham City has Beautiful Screen Shots

batman arkham city
Consider us blessed, fellow gamers, as some kind soul has posted screen shots for RockSteady Studio’s upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum follow-up Arkham City. I don’t know what they’ve done to the engine this time around, but the screens are looking really good. If I had to guess, I’d say this is a capture from the PC version of the game running on a super-beefy rig, but with still images this good, I’m not complaining. The new pictures also give us a look at the redesigned Harley Quinn, Two-Face and a, I’m almost ashamed to say it, very sexy Catwoman. More delicious Bat-Screens after the jump! Continue reading Batman: Arkham City has Beautiful Screen Shots

The Mass Effect 3 Wish List

Mass Effect 2

I’ve made no secret of my favorite titles of this great gaming year of 2010 so far. Red Dead Redemption, Limbo and Mass Effect 2 are all currently gunning for “game of the year” status in my eyes, with an especially close race between those first two. We’ve said it a million times around here – Mass Effect 2 is spectacular and simply must be experienced for its storytelling, choices and Bioware’s original universe.

Naturally, there are several gamers out there gunning hard for Mass Effect 3, and already giving thought to certain qualities the title should possess. In fact, GamesRadar has put together a list of what they want to see in Mass Effect 3. Without spoiling too much, I think it’s a really great list of things that would be awesome for the next edition, particularly the idea of the “Dark Shepard” clone, gunning around the galaxy and ruining your good (or bad) name. This could easily work, seeing as how we know that Cerberus has Shepard’s DNA. I also like the idea of making Shepard’s backstory a more central part of at least one major sidequest.

For me, I would love to see bigger parties but also a few momentous and game altering choices in more moments than just the big ending mission. Something that Dragon Age: Origins nailed was a few “holy crap” moments sprinkled throughout the game, rather than bunching them up at the end the way Mass Effect 2 did.

Anyway, what do you guys think? What are some things you’d really like to see in the next Mass Effect game?

Source – GamesRadar

Off to PAX Prime!

pax 2010
As we’re probably all aware, being fans of video game culture and what not, PAX Prime 2010 is set to kick off this Friday down in beautiful Seattle, Washington. Since I live about four hours and one country away from Seattle, I thought I would take this opportunity to finally go to the Penny Arcade Expo, something I’ve been dying to do for a few years now. It’s actually kind of funny that GamerSushi started off with Eddy and Smooth Few Film’s Daniel (who is not Anthony), going to PAX with Leet World DVDs in hand.

Since I’m going to be reporting diligently on all the news and cool stuff coming out of PAX, I thought I’d take this opportunity to ask you, the community, if there’s anything in particular you’d like me to keep an eye out for. Halo: Reach and The Old Republic are a given, but are there any other games you’d like me to try and get hands-on time with? I’m bringing down a camera as well, so I’ll try and upload pictures of the show floor and the various cosplayers. So, do you have any requests? Put them in the comment section below.

The Digital Future?

PSN LogoA new development over the last few years for the gaming industry has been the advent of digital distribution on a large scale basis, beyond just downloadable bonuses. Through platforms such as Steam, XBox Live and PSN, games are being delivered to us entirely differently than they were even just a short decade ago. So what is the next decade going to bring?

Back in 2006, former Sony exec Phil Harrison was quoted as saying that he would be surprised if the PS4, the next iteration of the Sony black box, would have a physical disc drive at all. That comment caused some interesting conversations in its wake, but current Sony exec Kaz Hirai has recently weighed in on the matter as well. In an interview with MCV, Hirai had this to say:

“We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn’t as robust as one would hope… There’s always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium. To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme.”

I know that there are differing opinions on this issue out there. On the one hand, the idea of an all digital future at some nebulous point down the technology timeline is an exciting prospect, with instant access to all forms of entertainment. On the other hand, there is a part of me that likes physical copies of everything I own. To prove that I, you know, do in fact own it. There’s also the risk of things like the recent debacle with the PSP Go, where adopters of hardware without physical disc drives run the possibility of getting screwed.

So what do you guys think? Are you looking forward to an all digital future? Or do you prefer to keep a physical copy of what you own? I think this question is already answered in many ways for PC users who download via Steam, but go ahead and jump in anyway. Would you do this for all of your entertainment, based on your experience with Steam? Go!

Source- MCV

Today’s WTF: Xbox LIVE Prices Going Up

Subscriptions are a tricky thing, especially in the video game industry. Thanks to World of Warcraft, $15 a month is now the standard fee for MMOs, but the console market is a different story. As of right now, only Microsoft has a mandatory subscription service (the PS3’s PlayStation Plus is optional), so they can pretty much price it however they want. Ever since the service launched back in 2002, the average price for a yearly rate was $49.99 for Americans, but as of November 1, 2010, this price is going up. The prices and the plans they affect vary across the board, but the US, UK, Canada and Mexico are seeing increases in all areas. The breakdowns are as after the jump: Continue reading Today’s WTF: Xbox LIVE Prices Going Up

Review: Limbo

Limbo Xbox Live ArcadeLimbo is an XBox Live arcade game, part of the Summer of Arcade that saw a slew of quality releases for the platform over the last couple of months. I remember leading up to the game’s release, I actually knew nothing about it, but kept hearing some buzz as people grew more and more excited. And even then, once I decided to look at a few screenshots, it was hard to get a sense of what people were so juiced up about. I remember people saying the same thing about Braid when it was released, and while I thought it was a good game, it seemed a bit overhyped and not as incredible as others made it out to be. In fact, I didn’t even finish that one.

However, after several of my friends raved about the short experience of Limbo, comparing it almost to Portal in its profundity and fun factor, I decided to give it a try. I downloaded the trial game, ready to play it and then toss it aside, never intending to click on that “purchase full game” option on the dashboard menu. But then I played the demo, and something happened. I was entranced by an atmosphere, thick and heavy and foreboding. I was lured by the puzzles and the platforming. And as soon as the trial ended, I didn’t hesitate to upgrade.

So what’s the big deal? Continue reading Review: Limbo

Game Music Face Off: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Vs. Donkey Kong Country

I don’t think I could have picked two more completely opposite games for this week’s music post, but hey, random can be good, right?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, hailed by many as the greatest Star Wars game of all time, had a rousing score that didn’t merely insert old John Williams tracks, but tried to re-create the feel of the original movies soundtracks. I think it succeeded admirably and I chose the main theme to demonstrate.

Donkey Kong Country was the revival of the original Nintendo platformer, but updated to reflect the (at the time) modern aesthetics of the 16-bit generation. It’s not as pretty to look at these days, but the music was always memorable and just hearing the theme song got my nostalgia working into overdrive.

Which theme song do you like better?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Main Theme

Donkey Kong Country – Theme Song

Which song do you prefer?

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