Category: Playstation 3

Twenty Minute Skyrim Walkthrough is All Kinds of Amazing

Where do these games companies get off, making awesome things and then teasing me for a year before I can actually get my hands on their games. If it wasn’t enough making Skyrim look like the RPG to end all RPGs, Bethesda just released a twenty-minute walkthrough of the game, narrated by Game Director Todd Howard. This was the behind closed doors demo shown to games press at E3 and fans at PAX, and now the general public finally gets a look at it. Part one is here, and parts two and three are after the jump.

Continue reading Twenty Minute Skyrim Walkthrough is All Kinds of Amazing

Review: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

If you’re unfamiliar with the Warhammer franchise (and given how many times in the last week I’ve had to explain the universe, I’m going to assume that most of you are), this is the granddaddy of fantasy and sci-fi tabletop games. While Warhammer is by no means the first in that field, its sci-fi offshoot, Warhammer 40,000 has inspired dozens of games from StarCraft to Gears of War. If anyone says to you that Space Marine is ripping off Gears, you can firmly say that there were Space Marines swinging chainswords long before Marcus Fenix was a twinkle in Cliffy B.’s eyes.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can get down into the nitty-gritty about Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, a third-person hack-and-slash/shooter hybrid developed by Relic Entertainment, perhaps best known for their Dawn of War (set in the same universe) and Company of Heroes RTS games. As Ultramarines Captain Titus, you’re tasked with securing a valuable strategic asset known as a Titan during an Ork invasion of the Forge World Graia. If you’re already raising a skeptical eyebrow, don’t worry; there are much more obtuse terms that will be in this review.

It’s taken this long to get a proper game from the perspective of an individual soldier, but how does it hold up against other similar titles? Does Relic’s skill with strategy games cross over into shooters? Continue reading Review: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Would You Rather: Fall 2011 Edition

Well, it’s not quite fall, but nobody’s told that to the video games industry yet. Already, we’ve seen Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Resistance 3, Dead Island, Space Marine and soon, Gears of War 3. And that’s just for the month of September. Yes, the Fall of 2011 has been documented far too many times on our site, but seriously, can you blame us?

As such, we thought it was time to drop in with a brand new edition of Would You Rather. This time, we wanted to give you some tough decisions regarding the fall, and all its video game goodness. For the Would You Rather newbies out there, the game is easy: we ask and you dish out your response. Give as much or as little explanation as you want for your choices, but we all know that we like to see the reasoning behind the madness.

Don’t let your answers suck, though. Jeff just got a new pair of glasses that can spy people that give sucky answers and then annihilate them with crazy lasers. Seriously. I’m totally not making that up. OK go!

Continue reading Would You Rather: Fall 2011 Edition

How Are You Liking Dead Island?

Dead Island

This post is more out of curiosity than anything, but it’s not like there’s been any noteworthy news this week. (Or maybe there has, I’ve been pretty busy with the first week of school.) Out of the seven million games that dropped on Tuesday, I only picked up Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, mostly because my money is very tight and I wanted to support a developer I respect (Relic Entertainment out of Vancouver). Other than Resistance 3, the other big ticket item from Tuesday’s buffet was Dead Island and I’ve been seeing all sorts of interesting tidbits regarding the game and its post-launch state.

You may have heard about the craziness with the PC version, which was released into the wild as the developer build instead of one suitable for public consumption and all the funny videos that went along with that. I’ve been watching some walkthroughs of the game and while it does look very rough in some parts, it appears to be a sort of Borderlands/Left 4 Dead crossover. The fact that this sort of game has co-op makes it a very appealing prospect, so I’m wondering if any of you guys picked it up.

So, if you’re playing Dead Island, I have a couple questions for you: is the game any fun? What system did you get it on? What are some things you love and some things you hate? Buy it, rent it, or wait for a Steam sale?

Deus Ex Made More Like Deus Ex: Human Revolution

We’ve been going a bit Deus Ex: Human Revolution crazy around these parts. Judging by your responses to Mitch’s review, I’m sure you all are doing the same. For my part, the game might be at my list for favorite game of the year at the moment, but that could easily change once I finish it and some other games start landing in my lap over the next few months.

While many people enjoy the game, there are a few having some fun at its expense in relation to the original Deus Ex. Take Deus Ex Unreal Revolution, for instance, where the original game is mashed up with cues from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s a little bit too on the nose with the whole “new games suck and old games are the best ever” train, but it still managed to have some pretty funny bits in it.

It’s interesting. As aware as I am of all of DXHR’s faults, I can totally get past them. As one review I read mentioned, that’s the difference in a game that’s well designed as opposed to well made. It’s also what happens when a developer takes risks and chances during development.

So what did you guys think about this? For the lulz?

GamerSushi Asks: Fall Plans?

Arkham City

When you’ve got a fall that’s going to be as epic as 2011, it becomes necessary to dig into the furthest reaches of your brain to properly forumlate the best approach. If you look at the Fall of games like a mine field, which steps can you take to avoid getting blown to smithereens? At least, that’s the way I look at it, but I’m kind of weird.

Hyperbole aside, I really do have a game plan of sorts when it comes to this Fall’s releases. It seems like you almost have to in order to avoid dropping $500 in just a few months. Off the top of my head, here are just a few of the games we’re going to see: Deus Ex, Gears of War 3, Batman: Arkham City, Shadow of the Colossus/Ico, MGS HD, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Torchlight 2, etc. And that’s not mentioning Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

As of now, I’ve got Gears of War 3 and Batman pre-ordered, with plans to use Batman’s credit to get closer to Skyrim. Beyond that, I have no idea what I’m going to do, but I know for sure that I’m going to buy Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3, even if I have to sell my body.

So what about you guys? What’s your game plan for the Fall? What games are you for sure buying? What have you already pre-ordered? What’s your strategy? Go!

Review: Deus Ex: Human Revoltuion

deus ex human revolution review

The original Deus Ex came out at a time when every PC game seemed destined to raise the bar, informing the design decisions for the decade of titles that would follow. Between that and Half-Life, you’d be hard pressed to say which game has the bigger legacy. Of course, if the question was “which game actually followed up on that legacy”, the answer would be Half-Life.

After the less-than-stellar reception of the sequel, Invisible War, in 2003, the Deus Ex series went into a prolonged hibernation and for a while the likelihood of a new title in the franchise seemed doubtful. In 2007, however, Eidos announced that their Montreal studio would be developing the third game and in 2009 Square Enix was brought on as the publisher. Would this mishmash of an unproven developer and a Japanese studio prove to be a fruitful endeavor? Continue reading Review: Deus Ex: Human Revoltuion

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 35: Buy, Sell!

A new podcast appears? Yup. It’s been a couple of weeks since we recorded this, but I thought you’d like to have it anyway. We’re talking about some old news at this point, but there’s some entertaining bits in there about Counter-Strike: GO, Bethesda Versus Notch and Diablo 3 on consoles.

The super exciting news is that next week’s podcast release will be extra awesome, as it was done over GamerSushi weekend last weekend. Yes, all of us in the same room, acting the fool. It’s entertaining stuff, and by no means should keep you from enjoying this episode as well.

Nick tried editing this one in a different format than normal. It should play mostly the same, but if you open it in Quicktime, you can advance through chapters with the arrows, which is kind of cool. Have fun, gents and ladies.

And don’t forget to rate! Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 35: Buy, Sell!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Trailer is all Slow-Mo

Infinity Ward’s Creative Strategist Robert Bowling just dropped the trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer mode to coincide with the Call of Duty Experience this weekend. While the trailer isn’t exactly revealing the changes to the UI that are coming with the three-quel, it does include a lot of shots of the weapons, perks and all the other little gadgets you’ll be using to kill people.

So did you get anything from the repeated slow-motion shots of people getting brassed up? Modern Warfare 3 is actually looking pretty cool, and I think we all have a good idea of what the multiplayer portion is going to be like anyways. What did you guys think of the trailer?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Gameplay

A few weeks ago, Valve made the official announcement for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a long-awaited follow-up to Counter-Strike. At PAX this past weekend, Valve followed that up with a trailer and some good old-fashioned gameplay. And I mean that in every sense of the word.

It’s nice to watch a whole round or so of this game in motion, and I have to say I like what I see so far. I’m not sure how I feel about a few things like the Molotov cocktails or the T skins, but as of now it seems like a great expansion to the game we all know and love. For some reason, it was the sounds that really made me want to play it, more than the updated visuals.

So what do you guys think of this gameplay for CS: GO? Still needs improvement? Not sold? Throwing your wallet at the screen? Go!

Did You Catch the Action at MLG Raleigh?

mlg raleighGamerSushi weekend may have come and gone (and with it the knowledge that Canada will never has as good a fare as the Tex-Mex I had in Houston), but in addition to this meeting of the minds, and PAX, MLG Raleigh was also going down, right in the middle of Hurricane Irene.

Despite Mother Nature’s wrath bearing down on the Eastern Seaboard, the good folks at MLG sacked up and brought three straight days of gaming goodness featuring Halo: Reach, League of Legends, Gears of War 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops and of course, the current GamerSushi game-crush StarCraft 2.

While I did miss most of the event, I did manage to catch some StarCraft 2 last night and today when I was waiting for my flight at the Seattle airport. The fact that I could watch a decent quality video on my phone was super cool to me, and it really speaks about the lengths that the folk at MLG are going to to get these games to the people. It was also kind of surprising to see Gears of War 3 at MLG, even though I know that Epic Games had been touting their product’s appearance at the show for a couple of weeks. Given how good the Beta was for Gears 3, the fact that it’s being used for competitive play makes me want the full version even more.

So what about you guys? Did you tune in to MLG Raleigh? Did you watch it on the streams or go to one of the BarCraft nights that happened this past weekend? Any thoughts on how big MLG is getting? If you don’t comment, you’re killing esports!

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing, GS Weekend Edition

Deus Ex Human Revolution

It’s GamerSushi weekend! For those of you that don’t know, the GamerSushi gang is getting together irl for the first time ever, here in hot and steamy Houston, Texas. For real. It’s hot here.

So far, we’ve watched some Aliens, played some Mortal Kombat, and have a barcade run to make later today. Also, all of us in the same place is going to make for a pretty entertaining podcast. As such, there won’t be much posting happening for the next couple of days, so I wanted to ask you guys what you’re playing.

Up until today, I’ve mostly been swamped in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is so far fantastic. It just feels like an old school PC game, and has a gorgeous atmosphere and great gameplay to boot. It’s got a lot of stuff I didn’t realize I was missing from games, and I love it for that.

So, what are you guys playing in honor of GamerSushi weekend? Go!

Aliens: Colonial Marines Trailer is in the Pipe, Five by Five

So last year’s Aliens vs. Predator wasn’t as great as people were hoping it would be, but behind the scenes Gearbox Software (the folks responsible for Borderlands) were working on a different game related to one of those franchises. This game is Aliens: Colonial Marines and its making a comeback after disappearing off the grid for a few years.

Gearbox just put out a trailer for this game and it’s full of enough iconic sounds and images to get any Aliens fans’ blood pumping.

The trailer basically makes this game look like the Aliens title that we’ve always wanted and hopefully it has the chops to back it up. Nothing against Gearbox, but the last game they brought out of development hell wasn’t exactly a critical darling. If you throw in campaign co-op though, I’m willing to give it a shot. Do we have any Aliens fans in the audience, and what do you guys think of the trailer?

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: When Reviews Change Your Mind

Deus Ex Human Revolution

Sometimes you think you’ve got your fall completely planned out, with money and pre-orders organized in neat little rows and squared away just so. You tell yourself you know the games that are worth skipping, the ones that you’ll get after a price drop, and the ones that you’re getting on day one.

But then reviews change everything.

As many of you know, I’ve had my qualms about Deus Ex: Human Revolution for quite some time. In fact, I labeled it as a “Shun” in a recent feature. But today, a pile of glowing reviews dropped for the game in advance of its release tomorrow.

Apparently, Deus Ex is a contender for Game of the Year. It’s being hailed as the best action/stealth game to come out since Metal Gear Solid. It’s also being called a cool blend of Metal Gear Solid and Mass Effect. People are raving about the world, the story and the phenomenal gameplay. As such, all of the GamerSushi staff decided to purchase it today, including myself. And I can’t wait to play it tomorrow. I’m happy to have been proved wrong, but we’ll see if I agree with all the reviews.

So – who else is pumped about these great reviews? When have reviews changed your mind about a purchase before? Go!

DICE Details Battlefield 3’s Co-Op Mode

battlefield 3 co op mode

Seeing as we’re not a professional gaming site (something I’m increasingly thankful for), we tend to over-indulge on posting about games that are of great interest to us collectively or individually. This was the case last year with Halo: Reach, so I thank you for your patience in that respect. That said, I’m going to be writing about Battlefield 3 constantly from now until release, and probably after, so you will learn to like it.

Following the excellent multiplayer trailer for Caspian Border earlier this week, DICE has detailed Battlefield’s co-op mode a bit more, shedding some light on their interpretation of a mode that the series has sorely lacked. Sure, Bad Company 2 had Onslaught mode, but that didn’t come out for PC.

Cross-platform feature griping aside, DICE has stated that Battlefield 3’s co-op mode will take place alongside the single-player campaign and will feature multiple branches of the military, allowing for lots of different types of gameplay. The mission that DICE showed at Gamescom, called Exfiltration, started with a stealthy segement where you and your partner are tasked with infiltration a building and nabbing an informant. The blog post teases a little surprise if you manage to pull this feat off without raising the alarm (this sort of brings Splinter-Cell’s co-op to mind, which is awesome).

Co-op in Battlefield 3 will also be quite the challenge according to the game’s producers, but those who persevere will be rewarded with guns and other items that they can take into multiplayer. These items are garnered through combined co-op scores with your partners, so hopefully we won’t see too many people crying about how imbalanced this is going to be for multiplayer.

Everything about Battlefield 3 just makes me more and more excited for the game. Outside of modding Battlefield 2 with an infinite horde mode, there hasn’t really been a way for PC players to do co-op gaming with this series, so I’m glad DICE is adding it in. Imagine if we get to do a co-op dogfight?

Source- Battlefield Blog

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 34: To Be Fair

A new challenger arrives: Episode 34 of the podcast, in which we repeat the phrase, “To Be Fair” quite a bit, even though we are usually anything but fair in these raucous casts which we pod. Also, sorry for Anthony’s robot voice. These things happen over the tubes.

As per usual, we bounce around along various topics, including but not quite limited to Team Bondi, Valve, GameFly’s PC rentals and a throwback to Metroid Prime. After that, we launch into a game of Fill in the Blank, where we vocabitate about next gen consoles, The Old Republic’s expected sales numbers and Bethesda claiming the word Scrolls.

We recorded this guy the day before Counter-Strike: GO was announced, so sadly there’s none of that on there. But next week! Oh, next week there will be counters struck, you guys.

So, listen to it. Give it mad ratings. <3. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 34: To Be Fair

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Notch Challenges Bethesda to a Quake-Off

Scrolls

Oh snap. Things are getting real over at Mojang.

A couple of weeks back, Bethesda hit Mojang up with a bit of a legal dispute, stating that their upcoming game Scrolls was going to confuse consumers about the much bigger Bethesda game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Sort of poor form on Bethesda’s part.

Anyway, to clear up this debacle, Notch has made a gentleman’s wager: if Bethesda can beat Mojang in a 3-v-3 Quake 3 match, then Notch will change the name of Scrolls to anything Bethesda wants. If Mojang wins, Bethesda drops the lawsuit.

Personally, I hope Bethesda jumps on this. It’s brilliant PR for them, whether or not they win or lose the match. On top of that, how entertaining would it be to see some sort of stream of this?

Source – The Word of Notch

GamerSushi Asks: Better Originals?

infamous

Seeing as we’re stuck in kind of a gaming drought and I don’t have regular access to my PC to play me some sweet, sweet StarCraft 2, I’ve been replaying the original inFamous after I got it for free during the PlayStation Network’s Welcome Back program. Coming fresh off of the sequel, it’s given me appreciation for just how different inFamous was when it came out and reminded me about some of the things that the first game did that were awesome that Sucker Punch removed for the second game.

While I am glad that Sucker Punch changed the horrible side-mission structure, some of the powers and the main quest designs in the first game were pretty awesome. The ability to absorb energy while grinding and using your basic lightning bolt to redirect your rockets akin to a laser-guided missile have me really enjoying the game, even on hard difficulty.

While I still maintain that inFamous 2 is truly deserving of the grade that I gave it, the original still holds up even two years later (at least in the sense of gameplay, the graphics are still pretty rough). This got me thinking about the original games in franchises that have a better reputation than their sequels. Games like Knights of the Old Republic and Deus Ex are obvious, but I’d count Halo (which is better than three of its four successors) and Dead Rising among those. Dead Rising 2 was good, but the original sucked me in in a way that the sequel never did.

What about you guys? Any games that you like more than their sequels? If your thoughts go against popular opinions, I definitely want to hear about it.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Spec Ops Survival Trailer is Full of BRAHHH

Man, I really liked Inception (and I enjoy the Mind Hest/everything mash-ups) but that loud, repeating BRAHHH noise is getting a little out of hand. Ranting aside, Infinity Ward just launched a trailer for the Spec Ops Survival mode for Modern Warfare 3, detailing the changes made to the gameplay and all the crazy perks you can purchase with your blood money.

It looks like it plays a little bit like Onslaught from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (surviving against waves on enemies while trying to complete and objective) and Horde 2.0 from Gears of War 3 (buying gadgets and upgrades) but the action is patently Call of Duty.

Is it just me or does this actually look kind of awesome? Spec Ops was my favorite way to play Modern Warfare 2 and this new title is slowly chipping away at my admittedly weak resolve. What say you about this trailer? Does it look good? Has this coerced you into picking up MW3?

BioWare Alienating Fans in Mass Effect 3? Your Thoughts, Please

bioware alienating fans mass effect 3

Forgive the sensationalist headlines folks, but this is something I’ve been seeing more and more of recently. After Mass Effect 2 toned down the series’ RPG mechanics and tuned up the shooting aspect, there’s been a small but vocal minority complaining that BioWare is abandoning its fans in favor of the dudebro Gears of War audience.

While Mass Effect 2 was way less RPG than its predecessor, it still retained the story and dialogue-focused elements that made the first one such a success. My least favorite parts of the original Mass Effect were the clunky hidden dice-roll combat and the obtuse stat and inventory systems. I loved the story and seeing the ways my Shepard could interact with everyone and I considered the RPG aspects to be a necessary concession to way that the game needed be built. I never considered those mechanics to be an integral part of the Mass Effect experience and I was perfectly fine with the changes they made to 2.

Apparently I am alone is this opinion because a recent article I read on FMV Magazine demonstrates how strongly people feel about this. The writer of the article makes the argument that Mass Effect’s gameplay shouldn’t be made to appeal to a wider player-base, that its inherent RPGness are what makes it a great game. If I’m reading the article correctly, the writer believes that Mass Effect can’t have a great story if its gameplay apes that of Gears of War or other third-person shooters.

Wait, what? I’m sure that I’m reading this wrong, because that makes no damn sense to me. Because the game is now a third-person shooter with RPG-lite elements, it will be all explosions and fist-bumping? Making the argument that story has to be sacrificed because the controls are being tuned to deliver a more shootery experience doesn’t click with me.

I could be wrong in my interpretation of the author’s statements, but that’s how it reads to me. What do you guys think? Will Mass Effect 3’s adherence to more twitch-based gameplay ruin the story (somehow)? Can you sacrifice RPG mechanics and still have a character-driven plot?

Source – FMV Magazine