Category: GamerSushi News

Sega Announces Sonic Colors

So, full disclosure here: I originally had a very snarky post written out, lambasting SEGA for their strange choices regarding Sonic. Honestly, for every step forward they take, it seems that they are determined to take two steps back. For example, take a gander at the trailer for Sonic Colors, the newly announced Wii and DS title. It’s bright, it’s colorful, and it’s definitely targeted towards casual gamers. On the other hand, it does look like everything we want from a Sonic game: daytime levels and blistering speed. Apparently, Sonic can use the help of his alien buddies from the trailer to take new paths through the levels, like using the yellow guy to drill through the ground, and darn if that doesn’t sound cool.

Sounds neat, but I might pass depending on how Sonic 4 turns out. What do you guys think? Good or bad on SEGA’s part? Is this of any interest to you?

Halo: Reach – The Good, The Badass, The Ugly

Much to my chagrin, the Halo: Reach beta officially terminated as of last week, taking with it something that I found to be a great joy and a huge tease for the full release of the game, which is now confirmed to be September 14. As a bit of a Halo fanboy, I simply can not wait for this game, and I found the multiplayer to be everything I’ve loved about previous Halo games and then more when it came to gameplay.

Well, lucky for those of us feeling nostalgic about something that is just a week past, Bungie put together a little video tribute of Halo: Reach moments: The Good, The Badass, The Ugly. I should go ahead and spoil some of it for you and say that the elite bailing from the banshee and then using the jetpack to fly to safety is one of the coolest clips I’ve seen.

What are you waiting for? See for yourselves. Also, who participated in the beta, and who’s for sure getting the game when it drops this September?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdGl4KaoBm4[/youtube]

Insomniac Games Joins the EA Partners Program

insomniacAnother crazy partnership has just been announced, this time with EA Games snagging a new studio. While the last deal of this kind saw Bungie (an X-Box centric developer) joining Activison, this event sees a PS3 exclusive studio hooking up with EA, which gives the whole thing a nice symmetry.

Insomniac games, well known for their PlayStation titles Ratchet and Clank and Resistance, announced today that their upcoming game will be a multiplatform title that will have the benefit of a longer development cycle (Insomniac is known to produce games on a yearly schedule).

The partnership doesn’t preclude exclusive games for the PS3, as Insomniac president Ted Price confirmed that there are future projects solely focused on the PS3. While this infers that Resistance 3 will be a PlayStation exclusive, I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point.

So, what do you guys think of these turn of events? 360 guys, are you excited to start playing some Insomniac games?

Source: Joystiq

The Life and Times of Yoshi

This past Sunday brought us a fairly major landmark for the year in gaming in a brand new iteration of the Super Mario series. Super Mario Galaxy 2 hit store shelves, and from several accounts, it is pretty stinking good.

In honor of the game’s release, which now includes Yoshi, it seems that Nintendo has put together a little bit of nostalgia mining in the form of this Yoshi tribute video. It recounts his appearance in every game he’s been in, from Super Mario World through the Sonic Olympics. If you are into these games, it is certainly worth the watch.

So, who’s getting or has already played Super Mario Galaxy 2?

GamerSushi Asks: What Developer Should Make A Lost Game?

Well, this is it, people. The final episode of Lost is airing as I type this. Having only seen the first episode, I am kind of regretting now watching the damn thing, but I’m sure someone will be kind enough to let me borrow the DVDs one day.

With that said, I know there has already been one crappy Lost game, which should have stayed lost from what I hear (nyuck, nyuck), but I wanted to know what developer out there that you guys think would make a good game that would stay true to the series and still be fun?

Bethesda? Imagine an Oblivion-style game, wandering the island, talking to people and doing quests, learning about the mysteries of the errant hunk of land in the middle of the ocean.

What about Bioware? They are great at writing dialogue and might be able to salvage something worthwhile from the wreckage of that doomed flight.

Or what about Remedy, which just released Alan Wake? They do atmosphere up like few others and might have an interesting take on things.

So…you get to pick: who makes a new Lost game? GO!

Great Moments in Video Game Music: Mass Effect 2 – Suicide Mission

Mitch recommended this one to me and with a careful listen, it only took about halfway through before I decided I loved it. I’m going to go ahead and assume that this song plays during some sort of mission that might be a tad bit dangerous. The quiet opening leads to a bombastic theme that kind of reminds me of the Saw theme, but in a good, sci-fi sort of way. Thanks for the advice, Mitch and enjoy this one, everybody.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r2txD68qnw&feature=related[/youtube]

Bioware vs. Square Enix: An Unbiased Analysis

JRPGs vs. WRPGs seems to be a hot topic as of late, thanks to comments from a Bioware employee that Final Fantasy XIII is not an RPG. This is the stuff fanboys crave, which, in political terms, is called “red meat”. It stirs up a nice frenzy and everyone pontificates on what an RPG is exactly, but nothing ever gets accomplished. Just like Congress.

Well, I’m here to take a small look at the differences between the way Bioware and Square Enix approach their respective video game franchises. These two, I think it is safe to say, are the biggest RPG powerhouses on either side of the Pacific, so it turns out the little controversial comments mentioned above were a perfect jumping off point for me.
Continue reading Bioware vs. Square Enix: An Unbiased Analysis

The Empire Strikes Back is 30 Years Old, and That Means a Lot of Hoth Levels

If you ask anyone with a brain cell what their favorite Star Wars movie is, chances are it will be The Empire Strikes Back. This movie has all the right ingredients to make a great film, and it’s surprisingly dark to boot. This is the first Star Wars film to show us just what the series is capable of out of the grubby hands of George Lucas, and I’m forever thankful to director Irvin Kershner for giving us this cinematic masterpiece.

My personal fawning aside, The Empire Strikes Back is also known for it’s cinematic Battle of Hoth which pits the Rebels against the titular Empire on the snowy wasteland planet. Naturally, such a big exciting fight is perfect fodder for video game recreations, and since 1982, we’ve had almost a dozen interpretations of the Battle of Hoth. Kotaku put up a nice post collecting all of them, but I’m going to share my favorites after the jump.
Continue reading The Empire Strikes Back is 30 Years Old, and That Means a Lot of Hoth Levels

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 2: 99 Problems and a Mitch Ain’t One

99 problemsAnd… we’re back! It’s episode 2 of The GamerSushi Show, our still new podcast that we are extremely excited about. From the response you guys gave, and seems like you were too, so we did another one. We cover a pretty wide range of topics here, making for a whopping hour and twenty minutes, a fair bit longer than the original, but I think we’re less nervous so the discussion is even better.

The title of this week’s episode will become apparent pretty obvious, as we did this recording without the aid of our good Canadian friend Mitch, who went out on a date to see Iron Man 2 instead of doing a podcast with us. Lame, right? Anyway, we fixed a couple of our sound hiccups this time around, but added a new one in that my voice is way louder than everyone else’s. So I just apologize for that up front. That’ll be fixed in the next one. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 2: 99 Problems and a Mitch Ain’t One

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer Dishes Gameplay

Well, that was fast. Only a few weeks after the teaser trailer, Activision and Treyarch have dropped another video for Black Ops on us, bestowing us with visions of the upcoming Vietnam-era (and beyond?) shooter. While the trailer is pretty light on story, it does show stoic men with firearms and plenty of explosions, and isn’t that what we want from Call of Duty? Take a look and tell us what you think:

Epic Games Moved to Consoles Because of PC Piracy

pc gamingMany of us know Epic Games for their successful stop-and-pop 360-exclusive shooter Gears of War, but before they made it big on Microsoft’s home console Epic was widely known as a PC-centric developer. Unreal Tournament has been a staple of arena-style multiplayer games on the PC, but Epic’s heyday as a big time PC developer is long gone.

While many of the company’s fans bemoan the studio’s shift in focus, Epic president Mike Capps says that the move from PC to console was one of necessity, citing PC piracy as the major reason for the change. Speaking recently to Edge (via 1up), Mr. Capps said that the studio still loves the PC, but they saw how piracy killed a bunch of great independent developers and lead to a conversion of business models.

Mike Capps isn’t all down on PC gaming, though, and he feels that the platform might eventually see a comeback, possibly through Facebook. While that isn’t the resurgence many of us were hoping for, we have to remember that the often looked-down upon casual games (like Ubisoft’s Petz series) subsidizes the production of larger, more “hardcore” games.

I know that we have a fair few PC gamers on this site, myself included, and I spent a lot of time in my youth playing Unreal Tournament against the AI because I wasn’t allowed on the internet. Although Epic’s console offerings have been mostly decent, one has to wonder how different the market would be today if Gears had launched as a PC title first. What do you guys think? Is piracy actually to blame, and will PC gaming make a Facebook comeback?

Source: 1up

Red Dead Redemption Launch Trailer

I don’t know a whole lot about Red Dead Redemption, but every passing trailer I see for it looks more and more awesome. I never played the first game in the series, and I continue to hear good things from people that were fortunate enough to do so. The newest entry from Rockstar releases tomorrow, and so far it has gotten some rave reviews.

However, Grand Theft Auto 4 received the same kind of lavish praise, and we all know how I feel about that game. Still though, Red Dead Redemption holds a lot of promise, especially judging from this brand new kickass launch trailer. So who’s going to play this, and who’s played the first? Tell us what made the first game so good!

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Starcraft 2 betaSummer. In the great state of Texas, Summer is more than just a season. It is a way of life. It’s more than just hot, it is like living in a dog’s mouth. Yes, in our neck of the woods we will soon start dealing with temperatures that are greater than 95 to 100 degrees constantly, with 1000 percent humidity to boot. Texas climate is a great and harsh mistress, and we will weep.

But that doesn’t mean we stop playing games. In fact, we play games more than ever, as we seek shelter from the sun’s plague-ish rays that beat our brows, and try to find solace in moving pixels and multiplayer matches. For many of you guys, you’ll soon be off of school and ready to tackle a whole new slew of games. For working folk like myself, I will soon be free of a humongous burden known only as the second season of Web Zeroes. That means lots of gaming goodness will be had by all. Lo!

So, I guess that’s my way of asking what you guys are playing? Me: Starcraft 2 Beta and Reach Beta. You guys? Go!

Great Moments in Video Game Music: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Casino Nights

Nick reminded me of this little swinging ditty during our podcast and after listening to it for about 3 seconds, it all came flooding back to me, much like Celine Dion once sang. The Genesis was not known for its sound chip, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to this. The song holds up well even after all these years and I love the little breaks before the music picks back up again. Enjoy this trip down memory lane.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl6kjAkVw_s[/youtube]

A Gameblog Draws Near! Command?

Bonus points to whoever knows what the title of this post refers to.

We had a lot of fun last year with the Phantasy Star Gameblog and I thought it was almost time to do another one.  I am still a month or two away from getting started, but I thought we could at least get which game I will be blogging about out of the way.

I had originally written a nice long post, with detailed descriptions about each game, but that was lost due to the server timing out when I tried to save. So forgive me for the  lack of details, as I have entered a new dimension of pissed off. Continue reading A Gameblog Draws Near! Command?

Call of Duty: Black Ops Brings Back Dedicated Servers

black opsLike many of the PC gaming faithful on this very website, I was a bit dissapointed in Infinity Ward’s decision to use a peer-to-peer matchmaking service for their multiplayer. While it was fun for a bit, the amount of glitchers and hackers I would run into during every single match became a bit much. I quit playing that game in January, and I haven’t looked back (mostly because of how awesome Bad Company 2 is).

With a new Call of Duty on the horizon, you would expect developer Treyarch to continue on with IW’s plan of no dedicated servers, right? Fortunetly, Treyarch is thinking for themselves this time around, and studio head Mark Lamia recently went on record with PC Zone (via CVG) saying that he thinks, quote:

…dedicated servers are excellent. I don’t see any reason not to see them unless… well, I just don’t see any reason not to.”

Honestly, I think this is good news for the Call of Duty franchise. When you take out dedicated servers, and with it the ability of admins to moderate the player base, what you get is an unholy mess, where only those with the latest aimbot hack comes out on top. I’m still not digging this new Call of Duty that much, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. What do you guys think? Good news? Enough to get you to purchase yet another CoD?

Source – CVG

Bulletstorm Trailer Kicks it Old School

If you miss the days of yore for First Person Shooters, where it was you, a gun, millions of hostile aliens and no plot to get in the way, then you might enjoy the following trailer for Bulletstorm, the up-coming FPS collaboration from Epic Games and People Can Fly. If you played Painkiller, PCF’s previous shooter-oriented effort, then you know that they have a healthy thirst for crazy on-screen action. Bulletstorm looks to be a great spiritual successor to Painkiller’s legacy, allowing the player to use their massive boots to kick guys into cacti and laser whip them around. The video looks like it enables players to combo their attacks together for points, a “chain of pain” if you will.

What do you guys think? Is this on your radar now?

What Defines an RPG?

RPGTime for some fighting words, methinks.

For many years past, Square Enix has been the reigning king of RPG titles. From Final Fantasy to Kingdom Hearts, these guys have enjoyed many eons atop the RPG heap, reveling in their great successes and enjoying all of the accolades (and bling) that goes along with such a thing. However, in recent years, you could say there has been a bit of a changing of the guard in some ways. Not because Square Enix has gotten bad or anything, but simply because their releases are less frequent, and this period of time has come with the rise of many Western RPG developers: namely, Bioware.

So, how does the Bioware Writing Director feel about Final Fantasy XIII? He explains in a recent interview with Strategy Informer.

Well, before I address the main point I just want to take a slightly more controversial route: You can put a ‘J’ in front of it, but it’s not an RPG. You don’t make any choices, you don’t create a character, you don’t live your character… I don’t know what those are – adventure games maybe? But they’re not RPG’s.

I’m not entirely sure I agree with him, though he has a point about a role-playing game in the literal sense of the term. What do you guys think about what he said? To you, what constitutes an RPG experience? Go!

Source- Strategy Informer

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to Add Co-Op

So far, Bad Company 2 is one of my favorite games of the year, and one of my favorite multiplayer experiences in this generation. I haven’t had much of a chance to play the regular campaign all the way through, but one thing is clear: the game needs co-op. I’ve never really understood why it was left out of the game, when it is clearly set up as a squad of four badasses. It seemed to be totally begging for it.

Well, it looks like DICE is going to deliver that wish for myself and many others. At a time specified only as “soon”, they’re going to be adding a new co-operative mode for four players in Bad Company 2. It basically looks like Firefight or horde mode, but with objectives. I’m pumped about this. Who else is?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA8vuVwm-k4[/youtube]

GamerSushi Asks: Collector’s Editions?

halo 3It seems almost inevitable that all major releases will have a special edition these days. Gone are the simpler times when you could just walk into your local retailer and pick up a plain old box with a manual and the game; these days, you can choose from up to three flavors of your game, ranging from the basic package to some $200 monstrosity that might contain night-vision goggles, a ten-pound statue, or anything in-between.

Besides being home to extravagant pieces of memorabilia, special editions of games often include codes that allows the purchaser to access additional in-game content, things that may not even be available to other consumers some months down the line. That’s all right for those of us who want to feel that they are buying something that they can hold on to, something that is not just another toy, but what of those of us who don’t want, or can’t afford, the upgraded versions?

So, I submit this question to you guys: how often do you purchase limited or collectors editions? What kind of extra goodies are needed to guarantee that you will drop your hard earned money on it? Let us know!