Category: Playstation 3

Orient Yourself With the New L.A. Noire Gameplay Trailer

L.A. Noire, the upcoming 1947 crime thriller, certainty looks nice, but people are naturally concerned about the lack of gameplay seen so far. Since the game is coming out on May 17 (May 20 in the EU), publishers Rockstar Games and developers Team Bondi decided to release a series of trailers depicting the gameplay of L.A. Noire. The brand-spanking new trailer, called ‘Orientation’, details the detective work, interrogations and shoot-outs you’ll be undertaking.

While the gameplay does bare some resemblance to GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption, the detective work and interrogations do look really, really fun, and are things we rarely do in gaming. While it’s the natural inclination of games to shoot for the starts but fall a bit short, watching faces for cues may not work as well as the trailer shows. I’ve been wrong before, though. Overall, I think L.A. Noire looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to try it out. What do you guys think? Are you excited now that you’ve seen some gameplay?

Getting Over the Level Hump

Gran Turismo 5

Trial Mountain. 52,000 credits. 4300 experience. Repeat.

That combination marked my last couple of days with Gran Turismo 5, as I tried desperately to get up to level 20 in order to open up the final batch of races, the Extreme Series. After toiling for quite some time to get to the desired level, the new set of races became available and I happily jumped in. Only to find that the race I really wanted to get to (which unlocks the Minolta Toyota Race Car, which would in turn allow me to complete several additional races) required me to climb yet another level. Needless to say, a great big “FFFFUUUU” was let out at this realization.

Situations like this are nothing new to me as a gamer. We’ve all spent time trying to get over the level hump. Or perhaps we’ve invested hours to get that one skill/perk we’ve had our eyes on since the beginning of the game. Regardless of the situation, it’s certainly familiar, and one that has inspired me to do bizarre things in the quest to level/skill up. This mostly happens on RPG’s, but I’ve done it on a few shooters as well, through the use of quirks or glitches (Halo: Reach’s target glitch, anyone?).

So what about you guys? What recent games have caused you to grind for that next level or skill? Do you have any strategies or tendencies that help you achieve your goals?

Review: LittleBigPlanet 2

In retrospect, it seems kind of strange to admit that I didn’t quite understand the attraction of LittleBigPlanet at first. I remember playing the demo shortly after I bought my PS3 Slim and coming away a bit underwhelmed. LBP definitely had a unique, quirky style, but at the time I think I just wrote it off as nothing more than Sony’s attempt at staking their own system-exclusive claim on the platformer landscape.

However, I am always on the lookout for a good deal, and a few months ago I was able to get my hands on a copy of the LittleBigPlanet Game of The Year edition for a whopping $2.50 thanks to a handy promo credit. With the full game in my hands, I was finally able to overcome my initial skepticism and give it a fair shake.

The story levels were certainly entertaining enough, but I was most impressed by the robust, sophisticated community levels on offer. Fully experiencing the community aspect of the game is what really made it click for me, and my anticipation for the sequel began growing exponentially soon thereafter. In a very short amount of time, LittleBigPlanet 2 turned into a day one purchase for me. I’ve played it almost non-stop since getting my hands on it, and I feel I can safely say that LittleBigPlanet 2 has secured its position in my mind as one of the best games of 2011.

Continue reading Review: LittleBigPlanet 2

Killzone 3 Developers Think Motion Controls Are The Future

killzone 3 move controls

Killzone 3, hitting the PlayStation 3 on February 22, is the first big triple-A title to feature motion controls utilizing Sony’s Move gadget. While Nintendo has tried in the past to put first person shooters on the Wii, the efforts (i.e The Conduit) have fallen kind of short in bringing about a sea change in the way we play our games. The developers of Killzone 3, Guerrilla Games, believes that analog sticks are the way of the past, and that their title marks the beginning of a new era in FPS games. Speaking with CVG regarding the Move controls for Killzone 3, principal programmer Tommy de Roos had this to say about the future of FPS games and what the enthusiast gamers think:

“I think they’re opening up to it,” he said. “At the beginning there was a lot of reluctance but I know that a few of them picked it up, they tried it and they were actually quite surprised at how well it worked and the extra dimension it gives you.”

While he did admit that turning around and aiming was kind of difficult, the precise aiming was winning more people over than turning them away.

The interview concludes with Mr. de Roos saying that motion controls, and not just the Move specifically, will be the tools of the future for FPS games. It seems that Guerrilla Games is of the opinion that we’ll all be waggling at ambiguously foreign adversaries in the future. People may say that the dual analog controller is here to stay, but if motion controls can give us mouse-like precision, could it be adopted wholesale? What do you guys think?

Source – CVG

Gaming: No Country for Funny Men

Portal 2

On top of being innovative and addictive from start to finish, one of the things that I loved about Portal was that it was devilishly clever to boot. This didn’t just stop at its gameplay, but carried over to its script, which was genuinely funny. As much as I can’t wait to see more of Aperture and its insane puzzles, one of the things that I’m dying for in Portal 2 is the sidesplitting humor that came from the writers at Valve.

Oddly enough, it’s not that often that we get to play funny games these days. That might sound strange, but it becomes more noticeable when you play games that actually make you laugh. Games like RDR: Undead Nightmare or Secret of Monkey Island. So why aren’t more games funny? One of the great legends of game comedy himself, Tim Schafer, has an idea.
Continue reading Gaming: No Country for Funny Men

2010’s Top Selling Games By Platform

Just Dance 2

The NPD’s new stance on not releasing sales data has caused all manner of consternation across the world, especially in message board threads where fanboys endlessly snipe at each other. But, even non-partisan minds have a curiosity about such things and thankfully, Gamasutra has managed to obtain some of the juicy details.

Breaking down the top ten games across each non-PC platform, we see that Just Dance 2 was the best-selling Wii game of the year and despite lukewarm reviews and a late entry, Epic Mickey managed to nab the 4th spot. Not as many Nintendo games as usual and some of the titles in the top 10 are likely unknown to most of us.

Hit the jump for the full lists!
Continue reading 2010’s Top Selling Games By Platform

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Magicka

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, so naturally that means it’s practically a holiday weekend here in the You Ess of Ay. Everyone gathers around the pigskin shrine to worship the gods of beer, brutality and testosterone. These gods require ritual sacrifices of meat and snack foods, apparently.

Regardless of your religious affiliation this weekend (go Steelers), one thing I’m sure we can all agree on is that many video games have been played. As for me, I’ve been tearing through Gran Turismo 5 like a mad man in the past week, with some 999 on the side as well as Game Dev Story. Up next after I’m done with these games are Little Big Planet 2 and another game I’ve had my eye on: Magicka. If you’re unaware, Magicka is a Diablo style adventure game that you can purchase on Steam, where several players battle together to link magic spells and decimate droves of enemies. It sounds like a blast, and is getting a lot of praise.

So, what are you guys playing this weekend? Who do you have in the Super Bowl? And have you heard of Magicka? Go, go, go (Packers)!

Handing out the 2011 Game Awards Early

Batman Arkham City

If there is such a thing as gaming nirvana, then I think 2011 is approaching that status. Basically, 2011 is the nexus around which all other years revolve and aspire to. That’s putting it in dramatic terms to be sure, but more games keeping getting added to the list of greats that we’ll be playing by year’s end. Now we’ve got the NGP to look forward to, and even a few surprises like Saint’s Row 3. As we’ve said before, it’s exciting to watch it all unfold.

However, some people don’t want to wait, and have already started crowning their champions. GamesRadar recently released a Preemptive 2011 Game Awards list, and while I think it’s kind of ridiculous, it’s still fun to speculate. They’ve pegged Guild Wars 2 as the most addictive game of 2011, Skyrim as the best RPG, and Batman: Arkham City as game of the year. The possibility of Arkham City actually being better than Portal 2 seems like a long shot to me, but one that I’ll be happy about if it ends up being true.

So what do you guys think of their preemptive game awards? What do you think the winners are going to be in all of these categories by the time 2012 hits? Go!

Source – GamesRadar

Top Six: Things Gamers Said They Wanted But Didn’t

Gamers are a greedy, fickle bunch, and we love nothing more than having our cake and eating it too. For every developer or publisher that tries to please us by making a fan-service game or getting sequels out faster, there’s thousands of gamers who will flock to the forums decrying the release dates and the addition of rainbows.

While gamer hypocrisy has been on the rise for a long time, it’s reached a critical mass within the last few years. Come inside and take a journey as we discover the top six things gamers said they really wanted, but actually didn’t.
Continue reading Top Six: Things Gamers Said They Wanted But Didn’t

What it Takes to Make a PSN Port

PS1

If you read anything that I say at all, you’ll know that I’m one of the constant voices clamoring for digital releases of old games. While I prefer these to be restored in pristine HD, I don’t even care if that’s the case, as I would love the chance to play them at any resolution at all. You can count me as one of the people that is obnoxious about this, as I never have understood what the hold up is on these old school classics. In my head, just take the code and slap it online, yes?

Actually, that’s ridiculously wrong. Fortunately for the ignorant masses, Sony has come along with a great piece of transparency and released some thoughts about the process of converting PS1 classics to the PSN store. I found it a really cool article, and it shed some light on a few issues that I didn’t know existed. For instance, what happens when a particular product is featured in a game, but the license on its use has run out? What happens when the developer that made the game no longer exists, or if the game is bugged when they convert it, and nobody is left that can drop what they’re doing to fix it?

Anyway, I thought I’d share the article because of how informative it was. I honestly had no idea that the process had so many tricks to it, so it’s nice to know they are actively working on it. What do you guys think? Any other classic games you’d love to have in digital formats?

Source – Playstation Blog

Bulletstorm Does Another Spoof With Duty Calls

bulletstorm duty calls spoof

Bulletstorm, the demo of which we talked about on our latest episode of The GamerSushi Show, has been taking the piss out of the most popular first person shooters of our day. While the PR team at EA previously took a swipe at Halo 3’s excellent Diorama commercial, this time Call of Duty is on the chopping block with Duty Calls, a cutting look at the tropes Call of Duty employs on a regular basis. What sort of tropes you ask? Let the following list tell you, then check out a video after the jump:

Duty Vision slows down the action so you can unload a storm of bullets
Immersive dialogue from the front lines
Cold, calculated realism
Killing animations motion captured from real actors
True-life reloading system allows for mistakes in putting the cartridge in the gun
Iconic sound effects
Thwart an enemy threat that could topple the country and possibly the world
Significant and historically accurate props Continue reading Bulletstorm Does Another Spoof With Duty Calls

Today’s WTF: Treyarch to Gamers: Stop Being so Angry, Yo

treyarch angry gamers

While Call of Duty: Black Ops may be Treyarch’s best contribution to the series to date, there are some out there who think that the game isn’t all that great. They’ll say that the story is confusing and poorly written and the multiplayer is full of broken spawns, latency, and on the PS3, dirty hackers. They might also say that the game is basically the same it’s been for the last eight years.

As the underdog studio just released the First Strike Map Pack (available exclusively on Xbox LIVE, kids), Treyarch community manager Josh Olin gave a little interview with NowGamer about how patches are important to the online experience and what Treyarch are doing to keep Blops going strong. At the end of the interview, however, the writer asks Mr. Olin what he thinks the biggest problem with the game industry is: Continue reading Today’s WTF: Treyarch to Gamers: Stop Being so Angry, Yo

GamerSushi Asks: Can a Game Have Too Much Hype?

homefront hype

It’s only natural that, with a market so inundated with products, video games publishers are going to crank up the advertising for their game if only to push it into greater awareness with the consumers. Sometimes, though, there’s a game that takes it too far.

While most games can get on our nerves if we see them too many times of news sites or watch their commercials on TV, there’s the rare time that too much exposure can be a bad thing. For me, this phenomenon is happening with Homefront, THQ’s Korea invades America shooter. It seems that every time I go to check one of the blogs I frequent there’s something on how the game’s narrative will really get to you, or the multiplayer will revolutionize the industry, or how the game is being written by the guy who wrote Red Dawn. At first I was kind of interested in the premise, but now every time I see something about this game, it just draws out a sigh of apathy.
Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Can a Game Have Too Much Hype?

Review: Dead Space 2

dead space 2 review

A couple of years back, EA started making a big push to get more original IPs out on the market instead of relying on pumping out sequels to successful franchises every year. Leading the charge on this initiative was DICE with Mirror’s Edge and EA Redwood Shores with Dead Space. Of the two, Dead Space did better critically and commercially so Redwood Shores was formed into Visceral Games and a green light was given on the sequel.

Set three years after the events of the first game, Dead Space 2 brings Isaac Clarke, the hapless engineer/universal savior, to The Sprawl, a giant space station in orbit around Saturn. Isaac can’t remember what’s been happening in the intervening time period, and the small glimpses given during the opening cut-scene look like he’s stuck in a psyche ward. After everything goes to hell (with one of the best cold opens in any medium ever), Mr. Clarke is on a fast-paced bloody thrill ride to discover what’s been happening while he’s been comatose.
Continue reading Review: Dead Space 2

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 16: Sweet 16

For some reason, all of you crazies keep coming back to listen to our podcasts. And for some reason, we keep getting together on Skype to record them without killing one another. Basically, everybody wins.

We celebrate the sixteenth edition of the GamerSushi Show by waxing not-so-philosophically about a variety of topics. These include our manly Valve love, the Nintendo 3DS, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and then some. Nick also drops in with another one of his games, Percentages, and I think there are some hilarious results that come out of that conversation. I may have broken the podcast a couple of more times in this episode, for which you’ll have to forgive me. Lord knows I’m having a hard enough time forgiving myself (not really).

Anyway, check it out, and be sure to rate the podcast on iTunes. Many thanks to those of you who already have done so. You’re our favorites. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 16: Sweet 16

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LA Noire Gets a Gritty Trailer and an Equally Gritty Release Date

For a game that was stuck in development hell for years, Team Bondi’s upcoming 1940’s crime thriller LA Noire has certainly shot out of the gate in the past few months, stunning us with its detailed character animation and the technology that powers it. Despite the fact that it’s been flitting on and off the radar screen for a while, we now have a hard target set for the release date: May 17 (May 20 in Europe), to be exact. To celebrate, LA Noire publisher Rockstar has posted an all-new in-engine trailer for us to drool over:

Like Red Dead Redemption, I’m kind of going into this game blind, but that payed off for RDR as it was my favorite game of last year. I have no idea what the gameplay is like, who the characters are or what the plot is besides the fact that you’re tracking a serial killer, but since I’m an information sponge I might end up enjoying it more not knowing ever facet of the game. Anyone else got this on their must-buy list?

Little Big Planet 2 Meets Real Life

If the gameplay of LittleBigPlanet 2 does not put an immediate smile on your face, you might have no soul. OK, that’s a bit harsh, but still, the game is great and I love the creativity that both Media Molecule and the community at large have poured into it. I spent much of Friday night playing through the game co-op with Jeff, and then we spent an hour or so just sampling multiplayer levels that others had created.

But what does LBP2 in real life look like? The guys over at the Show About Games Show at the Escapist have taken their stab at it, and the results are just as charming (a word I will overuse when discussing this game) as the title itself.

Rumor: Metal Gear Solid Trilogy Gets the HD Treatment

Metal Gear Solid 2

Following a recent (and awesome) trend of re-working classic games to be displayed in high-definition — the purest and most joy-bringing of all definitions — it seems that Solid Snake could soon grace our HDTV’s. That’s right, Kojima-ites: rumors have surfaced from the UK’s Official PlayStation Magazine that an HD version of the Metal Gear Solid series is on its way to the PS3.

As this post is so tagged, this is most certainly a rumor in the truest sense. I am busy trying to contain my joy at the thought of playing MGS 1 and MGS 3 in full HD splendor, particularly the latter of the two, as it’s been years since I’ve experienced it. There’s no release window or price attached to these whispers, but hopefully this turns out to be true, and we’ll start seeing some more information shortly. And more importantly: will it have crab battles?

I feel I am owed a congratulations for getting through this entire post without a proper “squee” of delight. Who else is hoping this news is true?

Source – CVG

Should Games Have More Irreversible Consequences?

Half Life 2

I am a notorious reset-er when it comes to facing the repercussions of my actions in games. This is most prevalent in sports titles, where I reload a save if I think I’m going to lose an important game in my season. This trait of mine also rears its nasty head in RPGs that require big, game-altering choices. While I don’t always reset the game, I’m prone to create several save files, all of which happen at big points in the story, so I can revisit them if I don’t like the outcome. I think I reloaded the Landsmeet in Dragon Age 3 or 4 times, just to choose the one I liked best.

One game where I tried to avoid this sickly habit was Heavy Rain. As the story featured several main characters, you could actually die right in the middle of the game and have the narrative continue, just from someone else’s eyes. Knowing that you could lose somebody you cared about at any moment made some of the mind-bending quick time events that much more intense. As a result, the experience of Heavy Rain was a long-lasting and fondly remembered one for me.

A recent article over at PopMatters about Irreversible Consequences in gaming really got me wondering if this is something that developers should try to achieve more often. Continue reading Should Games Have More Irreversible Consequences?

GamerSushi Asks: When Are You Finished with a Game?

Little Big Planet

December and January have been spectacular for me in terms of clearing out my gaming backlog. I’ve commented on it in posts before, but there’s something really satisfying about playing games and knocking more of them off the list, finally getting to experience games I’ve been dying to play.

Whenever I tackle gaming backlogs, I tend to shoot for low-hanging fruit first, unless there is some stellar title that I am just dying to play. This means I normally go for games that I hear are shorter (or easier) and won’t delay me as I try to move through the rest of the list. Playing through these is rather simple, since there’s a clear beginning and end to the experience. I tend to run into problems, though, when I get to games like the three I’m dealing with right now: NBA 2K11, Gran Turismo 5 and Little Big Planet 2.

As two of them are expanding sports titles with deep pools of gameplay and one is a charming (and really awesome) sandbox extravaganza, it’s going to be hard to determine when I’ve hit the “end” of those titles for me. I’m fairly certain I’ve had my fill of NBA 2K11, even though there are plenty of things in the game I’ve yet to sample, but I’m not sure.

So what do you guys think? How do you normally tackle these large games that never end? When do you finally set them aside for another game? Do you do it when you’ve sampled everything? When you’re tired of the game? Go!