Justifying the Violence in The Last of Us

the last of us combat

One of the biggest problems that critics had with the Uncharted series is that wisecracking every-man protagonist, Nathan Drake, becomes a mass murderer on a war-crimes scale over the course of a game. Naturally, it’s a video game, so you can expect to be shooting dudes, but this aspect of the Uncharted games always rubbed people the wrong way.

For Naughty Dog’s next title, The Last of Us, they’re seeking to address this concern by making the combat tense and building up a good contextual reason for killing other people. In a post-apocalyptic world, the survivors you’ll run across aren’t afraid to use violence to achieve their goals, so you’ll well justified in defending yourself. Combat is also changed to be a grueling affair; instead of jumping from one firefight with dozens of guys to the next, The Last of Us aims to make encounters with just a few other survivors as tough an challenging as fighting through a whole level was in Uncharted.

Even Naughty Dog acknowledged the disconnect between the character-building cutscenes in Uncharted and the action sequences so it will be interesting to see if they can pull this off when The Last of Us finally hits. What do you guys think? Were you bothered by this particular problem in Uncharted? Do you think Naughty Dog will actually address it?

Source – The Penny-Arcade Report

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 49: The Illusive Beard

tgs episode 49

I forget when something qualifies as “over the hill”, but I think at this point the podcast is probably there. As benefits our advanced age, this week’s show is full of ramblings; without Nick on the cast to rein us in with a game we tend to go off on any tangent we feel like. Like episode 48, the result is a shorter podcast but I think that we have some pretty good discussions.

What do we discuss, you ask? We talk about a large variety of things all the way from EA removing official Battlefield 3 servers to Diablo III’s launch day woes and even how BioWare is floundering with the relationship they have with their fans. There’s also a couple of Day Z stories, some ranting about how we’re all too old to enjoy longer games, and whether or not games can (or should) qualify as art.

So! You know the drill, friends. Listen. Rate. Be fruitful and multiply. See you next time on our big five-oh shindig!

0:00 – 3:00 Intro
3:01 – 8:35 Diablo 3 launch day woes
8:36 – 10:30 EA removes official BF3 servers
10:31 – 13:44 The new new EA
13:45 – 18:13 Diablo 3
18:14 – 27:03 The future of Dragon Age
27:04 – 33:07 Padding games and getting old
33:08 – 36:51 Minecraft xbl
36:52 – 39:36 Walking Dead episode 1
39:37 – 49:29 Day Z stories
49:30 – 57:00 Should games be art?
57:01 – 59:04 Outro

Bungie’s Sci-Fantasy Game Destiny Revealed in Infinity Ward Suit

Bungie Destiny reveal

An unintended side-effect of the long-standing legal battle between former Infinity Ward head honchos Jason West and Vincent Zampella and Activision is the reveal of the specifics behind Bungie’s contract with the publisher. Brought to light as part of the court-case, the 27 page agreement between the Bellevue, Washington studio and Activision details the plans for the studios’ new shooter, code-named Destiny.

There’s plenty of legalese in the document but the basic gist of it is that Bungie has signed on for a four game deal, the first of which is set to drop in 2013 for the Xbox 360. Subsequent games will be released on the next generation systems (aggravatingly, the agreement calls the 360 successor the “Xbox 720”) including the PS3 follow up and PCs. The games will be spaced to come out every other year with additional content packs called “Comet” filling in the gaps. Destiny is not strictly a “sci-fi” game but rather a “sci-fantasy” shooter. What that means exactly isn’t clear, so we’ll have to wait for a more specific reveal on that. The contract also stipulates that Bungie is working to revive their classic Marathon franchise.

Bungie’s official response, entitled “Well, that just happened” all but confirms this as fact, promising that the official reveal is coming soon and we’ll be seeing them starside in 2013.

What do you guys think about this? Is it unfair to Bungie to have their secret work revealed without much fanfare? Is this a low blow by West and Zampella’s lawyers to expose another developer? What do you think of the working conditions Bungie is under in the contract? Thoughts on what “sci-fantasy” means?

Source – LA Times, Bungie.net

GamerSushi Presents: Trailer Trash

Trailer Trash

For awhile, we’ve been talking about ways to start getting more video content up here at GamerSushi. A lot of you have followed us over from SFF, so you know that video production is something that we really dig. So here’s a new thing we’ve been working on: Trailer Trash. Continue reading GamerSushi Presents: Trailer Trash

Review: Mass Effect 3

mass effect 3 review

Mass Effect is a series that took all of us by storm, drawing us in with its unique, deep sci-fi world and the hook of making your own Commander Shepard with your own story. The first game had a few issues but BioWare kicked Mass Effect 2 into overdrive, giving us a competent shooter/RPG hybrid that garnered numerous Game of the Year awards.

The third game in the series has raised the stakes, bringing the series big bad the Reapers into the galaxy, plunging every race into a war for survival. You’re tasked with bringing together all of the different races under one banner and taking the fight to Earth. Does Mass Effect 3 manage to tie everything together? Continue reading Review: Mass Effect 3

BioShock Infinite Delayed to 2013, Begin Your Weeping

bioshock infinite delay

As much as it pains me to post this, GamerSushi’s preemptive Game of the Year 2012 BioShock Infinite has been delayed in 2013, Take Two Interactive revealed today. The new release date is February 26.

In addition to this sobering news, the game will be skipping all the major events for the remainder of the year including E3 and Gamescom. There’s no official reason behind Infinite’s delay, but Ken Levine did give a statement regarding the move:

When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we’ve uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary,” said Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine. “Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need to deliver the best Infinite possible, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February. That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we’re going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February

Nothing too world-shaking there, but at least we know that Ken Levine is commited to giving us the best version of BioShock Infinite that he can, publisher pressure be damned.

What do you guys think of the delay? Has this changed your fall gaming plans?

Source – Joystiq

Emergent Gameplay and Persistent Worlds: The Day Z Interview

day-z-banner

In this day and age it only takes one good idea to get your indie title or mod noticed by the gaming community at large. It needs to be something that the big studios aren’t doing but everyone clamors for. The team behind the Arma 2 mod Day Z managed to find their zeitgeist by transforming Arma 2’s 225 km squared landscape into an open-world zombie survival sandbox. When the world is covered by zombies and you’re struggling to survive, the gloves come off and that’s exactly what this mod encapsulates.

Players live an average of four hours, just to give you an idea of how tough it is to survive out there. You start off with meager supplies and you need to keep yourself fed, watered and breathing all while contending not only with hordes of roaming undead but also other players. It’s safe to assume in Day Z that everyone is out for themselves and the game features a humanity meter to chart your interactions with other survivors. Malevolent players can earn a “Bandit” ranking that changes their outward appearance and makes them a target for frontier justice. There are a ton of player guides to help you out, but the true genius of Day Z is the moment to moment gameplay and what emerges out of that.

A video chronicling some of what happens in Day Z by YouTube user SideStrafe.

Day Z requires both Arma 2 and its expansion Operation Arrowhead, and the Combined Operations package has cracked the top five sales on Steam, surpassing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Here’s a handy installation guide for Day Z to get you started on your journey, including some tips for living longer than a few minutes.

Since Day Z has taken off in such a huge way, we decided to get in touch with the developers behind the mod and ask them a few questions. Dean “Rocket” Hall was kind enough to provide us with some answers about how the mod came about, what sort of reaction they’ve seen from Bohemia Interactive, and what’s next for Day Z. Continue reading Emergent Gameplay and Persistent Worlds: The Day Z Interview

How Mass Effect 3’s RPG Heritage Made Co-op Work

mass effect 3 multiplayer

Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer was a surprising success, something we’ve been going on about ever since the demo for the game dropped way back in the grey blanket of February. A horde mode experience at heart, Mass Effect 3’s co-op mode drew on the backstory set up by the single-player games and gave players the opportunity to take control of the various alien races we’ve been interacting with as Shepard ever since Mass Effect one.

It’s this sort of legacy that gives the co-op in Mass Effect 3 its longevity, at least according to Rowan Kaiser over at Joystiq. He says that, because we’ve spent so much time with Urdnot Wrex and his krogan brethren, seeing and using a krogan in multiplayer taps into the narrative investment we have in those characters.

The multiplayer mode is an extension of Commander Shepard’s mission in the main game: uniting the various alien species of the Galaxy to take the fight to the Reapers, Cerberus and the heretic geth, throwing it in together as one force. While the multiplayer mode itself is very light on story, there’s such a link between the visuals and everything that we’ve learned about the universe of the game that we create all these threads in our mind that gives the co-op such gravitas.

The article goes a bit more in depth about how the mechanics work into the equation but the part about the aesthetics creating a bigger impression of the mode is definitely true for me. Mass Effect is so well designed from a fictional standpoint that every little thing has meaning for me whether it’s a krogan Vanguard charging into a mess of Cannibals or doing a biotic combo in conjunction with another player. What do you guys think of the article? Are you hooked on ME3’s multi and is the universe a big part of that?

Source – Joystiq

Behind the Demise of Free Radical

free radical haze

One of the biggest stories in gaming over the last few years was the closing of Free Radical, the studio behind the TimeSplitter series, Second Sight, Haze and the oft-rumored Battlefront 3. The studio had a tumultuous time transitioning from the PS2 generation to this one, and their final game, Haze, received a pretty harsh critical reception.

Free Radical went silent after that, working away on Battlefront 3 for LucasArts. That game suffered through a turbulent development and was eventually canned by LucasArts. Screenshots and videos of Battlefront 3 keep coming out, and by all accounts it looked awesome. So what happened?

Eurogamer recently had an in-depth interview with Steve Ellis and David Doak, Free Radical’s two co-founders where they detail the journey of the studio all the way from splitting from Rare after GoldenEye to the problems with Haze’s development. It also explores the issues they had working with LucasArts on Battlefront 3. It’s only one side of the story, but given what the Free Radical guys say, they were hard pressed to find even a basic working relationship with the folks at LucasArts.

It’s a really good article, and I suggested you give it a read. It’s a bit lengthy but it gives a lot of background into the fall of one of the studios that gave us some of the best games of our youth. TimeSplitters is a franchise that I used to love back in the day and I remember being really disappointed by Haze when it came out. I didn’t play it, due to lack of funds at the time, but I wanted it to be a success. I just remember being really drawn in by the premise and the design of the main character.

What do you guys think of the article? Are you impressed that Free Radical lasted as long as they did? What do you think of their time with LucasArts? Go!

Source – Eurogamer

Skyrim Dawnguard DLC and Black Ops 2 Revealed Updated

call of duty black ops 2 screenshot

These two bits of news are kind of small so I’m smushing them together to get a decent sized post out of them. Hope you don’t mind.

In news that will surprise no one, Activision has announced the existance of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which will finally make the long rumored jump TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. More like 10-15 years down the line, but still. Yes, this Call of Duty will take place in the future, as the second Cold War makes its way to Los Angeles. There’s a trailer tonight airing during an NBA game but the leaked screens show tiny quadrotor remote control helicopters and a trooper in a full-face helmet with a big old gun (looking very Battlefield 2142 to me). Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will apparently be out November 13. The trailer is out now:

Continue reading Skyrim Dawnguard DLC and Black Ops 2 Revealed Updated

GamerSushi Asks: Do You Free to Play?

tribes ascend

Hope y’all are enjoying the new site, because it’s just the start of some cool changes around here. I know we say that a lot, but when we do deliver, it’s a pretty big deal. Huge props to Nick and Jeff for whipping up the new hotness.

Recently a huge number of Free-to-Play Shooters dropped on us: Tribes: Ascend, Blacklight: Retribution and Super Monday Night Combat all went live and they all host the Free-to-Play model. This has been a trend that has been increasing pretty quickly, and FTP games are on the rise. This year at PAX East saw even more Free-to-Play games being announced, so I have a question for you guys: do you try these games out?

I’m trying to get a sense of how popular these games are because, while I’ve tried them, they never seem to stick. The Battlefield games are moderately fun but DICE’s method of microstransactions really turned me off. I get that a lot of these games have a renting system where you can rent weapons or skins for the in-game currency you use, but the Battlefield games have one of the poorer implementations of it.

I also tried out the Free-to-Play MMO Firefall (thanks to a Beta invite from Drell Assassin), which I’m also enjoying, but it hasn’t really clicked with me yet. Once the game comes out of Beta and gets released I’m sure that the influx of new players and maybe some friends will convince me to stick with it.

So what about you guys? Have you tried any of these games? What do you recommend? What do you think of the current trend of the Free-to-Play game? Is this what PC gaming will look like in the future?

The Uncharted Series, Edited as Feature-Length Movies

So I’m posting this from the hospital, where my wife and I await the impending arrival of our daughter. Kind of crazy.

Fortunately, as this whole waiting process can stretch on for a day or so, I’ve had a bit of Uncharted to help pass the time tonight. And I don’t mean playing Uncharted in video game form — I mean watching it in movie form.

You see, Reddit user morphinapg did something that I’m surprised nobody has done up until now — he edited all three Uncharted games into feature-length films, with each one clocking in at about 2-3 hours. He did this by taking the games’ cut scenes and stringing them together with the minimal amount of gameplay necessary so as not to create plot holes. The result is a pretty entertaining trilogy.

More links after the jump. Continue reading The Uncharted Series, Edited as Feature-Length Movies

Prey 2 Delayed, Devs Slammed by Bethesda

prey 2 delayed

Prey 2, the “sequel” to the 2006 sci-fi FPS (has it really been that long?) has been in hiding for a while, having not come up for air ever since the Bounty trailer dropped almost a year ago at E3. There were rumors floating around a couple of weeks ago that the title went gently into that good night, but a statement from Bethesda confirmed that the game is alive and well, and will be released next year.

That’s not all though, as the remarks from Bethesda lean a little heavy on blaming the developers flat out for the delay. These types of PR statements are usually pretty flowery and try to make the problem seem like it’s not a big deal, but Bethesda gets a little brutal. I may be reading into it a little bit, but you can judge for yourselves:

“Development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled but the game will not be released in 2012 as planned. The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards. Prey 2 has shown great promise and we regret disappointing our fans. We have made a substantial investment in game development to deliver the experience fans want. We are determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect, and are unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule.”

The part about game development not progressing satisfactorily is what makes the message sound a little hostile to me. Again, I may be off in my assumption, but it sounds like Bethesda isn’t too happy with Human Head Studios. What do you guys think of Prey 2’s delay? Does this delayed release date bode ill for the game? What do you think of Bethesda’s comments? Pray tell, dear reader.

Source – RPS

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 46: H8 cast

What’s this? Two GamerSushi Shows in a row? We must be getting back on track or something. This podcast might mark Eddy’s last appearance on the show for a few weeks so I hope you enjoy basking in his video game knowledge and hatred of my silent treatment.

Yes, on this episode of the GamerSushi Show I was overcome with a fit of shyness and basically stopped talking and participating around the time when we start chatting about Max Payne on the iOS. When it came time to do the game Eddy was getting understandably frustrated with my lack of vocals and you can hear that creeping in at a few points, hence the title of this cast.

So yeah, listen, rate, be merry. Hopefully we can keep up this pace so you guys won’t have to wait too long for the next episode. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 46: H8 cast

Review: Saint’s Row: The Third

Saint's Row 3

When ranking the great surprises of this past generation, I would have to stick both Saint’s Row 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV somewhere near the top, for completely opposite reasons. GTA IV was heralded as the savior of all fun things ever, but turned out to be a game that I found soulless and dull. On the other hand, Saint’s Row 2 was dismissed as nothing more than a Grand Theft Auto clone — yet it found a way to make its sandbox a true chaotic playground in nearly every sense, offering up scores of hilarious rabbit holes, lots of customization and a decent story to boot.

Enter Saint’s Row: The Third, Volition’s follow-up to the mayhem manager and one of my most anticipated games for 2011. This entry into the bombastic franchise promised even larger scales of destruction, more violence, greater levels of absurdity (there’s a dildo bat, for goodness’ sake) and an all around hilarious time. But does it deliver the goods? One thing’s for certain, Steelport and the Saints will never be the same. Continue reading Review: Saint’s Row: The Third

BioWare Announces “Extended Cut” Mass Effect 3 DLC

mass effect 3 extended cut dlc

In a move to placate fans after the uproar about the ending, BioWare has announced that it will be releasing a free “Extended Cut” DLC for Mass Effect 3 this summer. No specific date beyond the season has been announced, but the DLC will offer additional scenes that the developer hopes will help clarify the end of Shepard’s journey.

The Extended Cut DLC will not change the ending to the game but rather will contain “additional cinematics and epilogue scenes” which will be tacked on to the existing ending, according to a post on the BioWare Blog. The author of this post for BioWare was very cut and dry about the motivations behind the Extended Cut DLC as well:

So there you have it. Are we proud of the game we made and the team that made it? Hell yes. Are we going to change the ending of the game? No. Do we appreciate the passion and listen to the feedback delivered to us by our fans? Very much so and we are responding.

This DLC has apparently been re-prioritized by the staff at BioWare to help address the problems people have with the ending of the game. Will this satisfy the “Retake Mass Effect” people? What do you guys think about the Extended Cut? Is BioWare making the right move?

Source – BioWare Blog

The Game That Won’t Die: Battlefront 3 Footage Surfaces

At this point, Star Wars: Battlefront 3 is the Highlander of video games. Or the Dracula, if you think the franchise is a soul-sucking waste of pixelated space. Rumored to have been canceled in 2008, the specter of Battlefront 3 continues to haunt the Internet, with concept art and dark tales springing up from the most random of places.

Personally, I was a rabid fan of Battlefront 2, so every time one of these stories surfaces, I feel a mix of both pain and excitement. Excitement at the idea that maybe the game isn’t dead, just in hiding like Yoda, waiting to be released by some secretive developer. I feel pain because I know the world isn’t always that perfect and likes to crush my dreams.

So, it’s with a mix of those feelings that I post some supposedly uncovered footage of Battlefront 3 alpha gameplay, shot off-screen from an early PC build in 2008. Man, this brings back memories of some epic space battles, and heroic moments that involved mowing opponents down with a lightsaber.

The coolest part of the footage was leaving a base on the surface of a planet and flying all the way to a spaceship in orbit. Seriously, if anyone out there is a part of making this game a reality I will kiss you on the mouth. Any other Sushi-ans as big of a fan of this franchise as I was?

The GamerSushi Show, Episode 44: Mass Cast

Hey dudes, we are back from outer space, here to bring you our thoughts on BioWare’s space opera trilogy ending Mass Effect 3. We’re unfortunately beardless this week, but Eddy, Anthony, Jeff and myself wax philosophic about everything from story beats to the multiplayer, the ending controversy and the ending itself.

There’s no Six Minutes with Resident Evil 6 or a game this week, so I hope that an hour and a half of straight up Mass Effect is good enough to tide you over. Eddy hadn’t finished the game when we recorded, so he dropped out for the ending talk. When you hear Harbinger for the second time, that’s when we launch into the discussion. There was also a technical issue with both Jeff and Eddy’s mics, and the way the cast is recorded means these sorts of problems are hard to rectify. Jeff fixed his junk for the ending talk, but for the first half of the show he is super quiet.

Technical problems aside, the cast is super sweet so I hope you enjoy. If you guys could also rate the cast that would be boss. Enjoy!

A Massive Outcry

I’m upset.

Not because of the ending of Mass Effect 3, which apparently is the worst atrocity to hit humankind since whatever that Kony dude (allegedly) did.

I’m upset because gaming sucks today.

Not actual gaming. When you put the game in the console (barring a RROD or a YLOD) and it’s just you, the controller (unless you are playing Kinect) and the game, it’s awesome. All is right with the world. Immersion into a foreign world, excitement, adventure…a gamer craves these things.

No, it’s not games that are the problem.

It’s the gamers. Continue reading A Massive Outcry

The Difference Between Hard and Annoying

gaming difficulty

Sorry about how slow it’s been around here lately guys, but other than Mass Effect 3 dominating our lives (and every news post on every other site), there’s hasn’t really been much else to report on. There’s a new Sim City, I suppose, but what do you need to know? You make buildings, lose them to tornadoes, c’est la vie.

Given the lack of news and new releases, I’ve been replaying Mass Effect 3 on Insanity, trying to make Mass Effect 3 the first game in the series that I get 100% of the achievements on. So far it’s been fine, but the thing about cover based shooters is that on the hardest difficulty, the game pulls some really cheap tricks to make things difficult for you.

Since being in cover essentially makes you invincible (as one would expect), stepping out in to the open means certain death via some BS means like stun locking. Getting caught out in the open in Mass Effect 3 is survivable on normal but on Insanity it’s an instant death sentence. This doesn’t make the combat encounters challenging, but more of a slog because it mainly comes down to finding the one corner where enemies can’t flank you and just wasting them with power and ammo until you win.

Games do a really poor job at being difficult (there are exceptions like Dark Souls and the like) and that’s what makes doing runs on Insanity or Legendary or whatever such a chore. Maybe it’s too hard to design higher difficulty levels because most people just play it on normal, but increasing the amount of damage done to you incrementally doesn’t actually count. Halo: Reach was one of the last games to make a fun, challenging experience on Legendary; there were actually more things done to change the way the enemies behaved, and the energy weapon projectiles were faster meaning that not getting out of the way of a plasma pistol volley could spell the death of your Noble Six.

What games have you guys played recently that have given you a run for your money? What games have really poor excuses for the highest difficulty level? Do game developers need to start making harder games overall? Go!