Category: sony

Multiplayer Map Hall of Fame, Part Two

Last year, we did a feature highlighting some of our favorite multiplayer maps of all time, in which we singled out Halo’s Blood Gulch, Mario 64’s Block Fort and Left 4 Dead’s No Mercy, among others. All of you answered with some great suggestions, and I promised I would return with another edition (and beyond) honoring some of those mentioned.

So, here we are. Remember, these aren’t intended to be definitive lists, but rather, a way for us to reminisce on some great games and some great maps that we enjoyed in our time with them. If you have more suggestions for awesome maps that deserve to be in the Multiplayer Hall of Fame, by all means, post them in the comments and we can continue to induct new members. Continue reading Multiplayer Map Hall of Fame, Part Two

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta Charts Tomorrow

Uncharted 3

Now that the post E3 haze is finally starting to lift and the summer gaming season is in full swing, another distraction looms over us all: Uncharted 3’s multiplayer beta drops tomorrow for PSN Plus members, which should be everyone out there with a PS3, thanks to Sony’s Welcome Back program. So no excuses. I expect to see you all out there so I can shoot you in the face just like all my friends.

For those of you who didn’t bother trying Uncharted 2’s MP, take it from me, it’s pretty fun. A neat combination of Gears of War with the vertical element of Uncharted’s climbing mechanics thrown in for good measure, I always had a blast. Eddy joined me for some co-op and I believe he can attest to this as well.

The details of the beta are as follows:

  • Starts tomorrow, June 28th for PSN Plus subscribers, July 4th for the rest of PSN and runs until July 13th.
  • Co-op and competitive maps will be rotated throughout the beta, as detailed in the link below.
  • You will receive rewards for playing the beta that will carry over to the full game upon it’s release.

I have to say, I’m pretty excited. Now I have to rush and finish Half Life 2 ASAP, so I can start on this. Check out the link below for more details, including some information about the MP features, which is awesome because being clueless about what the hell is going on always annoys me about betas. So… who’s with me???

Source: Naughty Dog

What do You Want From Sony and Microsoft’s Next Gen Systems?

xbox 720 rumor

Hot on the heels of Nintendo’s Wii U announcement at E3 2011, Videogamer.com is reporting that a “high-ranking industry source” at Crytek has leaked the news that Microsoft will announce their Xbox 360 successor next year at E3.

Whether or not the source can be trusted (every rumor comes from a “high-ranking person” these days) we can’t deny that Sony and Microsoft are finally turning their eyes towards the future, perhaps even more so now that Nintendo beat them to the punch. Speculating on whether or not this is a real leak is probably a waste of time; it’s more likely than not that this is just an attempt to get some hits. What’s more fun and productive is guessing what Microsoft and Sony’s next gen consoles will be like.

The Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 (or whatever they end up calling them) will no doubt feature beefed up graphical capabilities, but how far will they go? The article sates that Microsoft will include DirectX 11 in the new system, which seems pretty reasonable to me, considering how far along technologically we’ve come since the Xbox 360’s launch. What about Sony, though? What problems from this generation do you want them to fix? Sound off!

Source – Videogamer.com

GamerSushi Asks: What Was Your Game of Show for E3 2011?

battlefield 3 e3 2011 game of show

This is kind of a tricky GamerSushi Asks, what with all the quality showings from many publishers and developers, but I feel that we can get an interesting discussion going around this one. Now that E3 2011 is behind us, we can gaze back fondly at the at the games and scoff at the terrible press conferences and Mr. Caffeine.

Since we’ve seen everything that the industry’s biggest trade show had to offer, we’re going to open this up and ask you guys what your Game of Show was for E3 2011. There’s so many strong contenders from the shooters to the RPGs and the sandbox/adventure games that it might be hard to choose just one.

So what are you leaning towards? Personally, I’m thinking Battlefield 3 with Skyrim, Saint’s Row: The Third and Gears of War 3 coming in close behind. It was really hard to choose, but the tank video impressed the hell out of me and the multiplayer sounds super tight with lots of new improvements. I also know that at least one of you lucky devils made the trek out to L.A., so maybe there’s something we all missed that we should pay more attention to going forward? Hit me up in the comments, son!

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 31: E3 2011 Edition

The most epic week of the gaming year has passed us by, and there’s certainly enough news to keep everyone buzzing for the rest of 2011. That’s why we fast tracked this week’s podcast, in order to get it out the day after E3 ended. The result is a super-sized podcast that’s fit for one of Skyrim’s mammoth-herding giants.

In it, you’ll hear our thoughts on everything from the ridiculously confusing Wii U announcements to fighting dragons, buildings forts and rips in space-time. After all of that, we embark on a hilarious rendition of Grades, where we evaluate each of the “Big 3” conferences in turn.

Alright, you know what comes next, fools. Listen + Rate + Enjoy. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 31: E3 2011 Edition

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The GamerSushi Show, Ep 29: Colluders

Here’s a new podcast that’s not exactly new, seeing as how we recorded it a couple of weeks ago. That being said, it’s still a hoot. Is that what the kids are saying these days?

We talk about a variety of topics once the cast kicks off, from PSN to Brink and even a bit of the Gears of War 3 Beta, and just how much I want to have its babies. True story. After that, we kick things up a non-Minecraft notch with a game of Either/Or. For real, it’s good times. I only wish you all could join us during these games, because Nick does a great job of picking topics.

Oh, that’s right. You can. In the comments. Join in, dudes.

Alright, time to listen up. And when you’re done, go rate. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 29: Colluders

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The Missing Games of E3s Past

Spec Ops: The Line

E3 2011 is fast approaching, and there are a lot of big name titles that we’re expecting more information on: Saint’s Row 3, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Skyrim, just to name a few. But for every giant game that steals the show, there’s a few titles that we haven’t seen hide nor hair of, games that were announced to much fan fare and have quietly faded into either obscurity or development hell.

Some of these games have a made a big splash in the past like XCOM or Metal Gear Solid: Rising, but there are a few ones that have flown under the radar that I’m keeping an eye out for this year like Max Payne 3 (which repeatedly reappears for a moment before disappearing again) or Spec Ops: The Line, a Nolan North vehicle adapted from the novella Heart of Darkness. Another Rockstar helmed production that’s also noticeably MIA is Agent, a Cold War themed game that was trumpeted as a Sony exclusive before vanishing.

E3 is a great time to announce new, exciting games and bang the drums about the popular upcoming ones, but which of these titles do you want to hear about? Granted, we’ve gotten a trailer for MGS: Rising but not much else, and Max Payne 3 is continually rumored to be making an appearance, but what about Spec Ops, or XCOM? Is there another game that you want to hear about? What games in the past have made a grand entrance at E3 but then vanished?

PSN Returning with Two Free Games

PSN LogoIn case you didn’t notice, Playstation Network has begun its return. It seems that the resurrection of the downed PSN kicks off with a Customer Appreciation program leading the way. Once the PSN Store is back up and running you can snag yourself two free games from a list of several titles (within the first 30 days) such as Little Big Planet, inFAMOUS and Super Stardust HD. I personally will pick up Little Big Planet and inFAMOUS. You can check out more Q&A about the PSN restoration here.

There are some other bonuses too, including some “on us” movie rentals, and some PSN Plus time as well. It’s all a fairly gracious package from Sony to try to smooth things over, but there are obviously going to be people that come down on both sides of this. Does two free games and a “we’re sorry” make up for the time lost and possible personal information damage? What are your thoughts on the whole issue? Still trust Sony?

Source – Playstation Blog

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Goes For The Gold

Uncharted 3

Uncharted 2 was widely considered one of the best single-player games of all time. But the multiplayer, while not quite reaching that level of greatness, was nothing to sneer at either. From the enjoyable standalone co-op levels to the cover/platform based versus modes, it was a surprise to many that Naughty Dog had done such a great job on their first time out.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that they aren’t content to simply throw in a few new skins and ship it out again, as is. Gamasutra conducted an interview with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells specifically to ask about the refinements being made and the ambitions of the developer.

One new feature is something called, “Power Plays” which allow a trailing team to get back into the game, if things aren’t going according to plan.

One of those power plays is called “marked man,” during which one or two members on the leading team get marked, and if the trailing team can kill them, they’ll get three points for that kill so it can help them catch up. It’s a very interesting dynamic because as soon as someone gets marked, the opposing team can all see exactly where he is and the leading team gets to defend him, so it changes the experience for this short little burst.

Personally, that sounds kind of awesome to me. I like that the dynamic of a game changes quickly, forcing you to react and adapt, instead of playing mindless deathmatch all day long. Wells goes on to say that they are working hard to ensure this feature doesn’t cause Mario Kart-esque “rubber banding” and irritate gamers.

So what do you think about a feature like this to liven things up a bit? Nathan Drake demands your answer!

Source – Gamasutra

Worst Gaming Marketing Moments

Moore

Yikes. PSN is still down, you say? Well it looks like Sony’s Kaz Hirai is apologizing for that as I write this post.

You’ll hear more on my thoughts about the whole PSN hack-n-crash on this week’s podcast, but for now, I will go as far as to say that this is a nightmare for Sony in terms of PR. The sad thing about it, from their point of view, is that this seems to come right on the heels of some recent efforts to get back in gamer’s good graces over the last year or so.

Anywho, with all of this bad PR and marketing business, I thought this list of the Top 10 Embarrassingly Bad Moments in Video Game Marketing was certainly relevant these days. It was posted about a month ago, but I think it’s found a bit of new life in wake of the PSN fiasco. It’s got some goodies on there, especially the time when Peter Moore tattooed release dates on his arm, as well as some of the old Atari Jaguar ads. Good memories, there.

So what do you guys think? What are some other terrible bits of video game marketing and PR? I’d say that “Riiiiidge Racer!” and the 360 RRoD probably round out the top of the list, but that’s just me. Go!

Source – Calm Down Tom

Gamestradamus Predicts: E3 2011

Every now and then, we like to pay a little visit to our good friend, Gamestradamus, the Gaming Fortune Teller. Last year, we asked him his predictions about the Nintendo 3DS, which turned out to be largely true, minus a few small quibbles. Gamestradamus is different than the rest of us lowly gamers in that he is gifted with the ability to see into the great beyond, the ever-future, the swirling blender of time – and he can tell us bits of what he knows.

As the E3 fervor is getting ready to build into complete mania over the next few weeks, we thought we’d pay Gamestradamus a visit to glean his secrets before the rumors broke. What we found was shocking, titillating (tee hee) and worth reporting about here at GamerSushi. Beware, gents. Spoilers. Continue reading Gamestradamus Predicts: E3 2011

What Can Sony Do to Regain Your Trust?

PSN

By now, we’ve all heard about the massive data breach of the Playstation Network by a hacker of unknown origin. If this is somehow breaking news to you, IGN has a nice summation of the entire saga here. As someone who has a credit card linked to my PSN account, not to mention my undying desire to play Portal 2 co-op, I am pretty steamed. (Get it?)

Sony and the hacker both share a lot of blame and I don’t think Sony kept it secret for a week that our information was stolen, but the fact remains: Sony has lost the trust of its consumer base. Granted, there will be fanboys who defend them to the last breath, but those people don’t count. Also, one benefit from this fiasco: it makes it real easy to spot the fanboys.

So what will it take for Sony to win back your trust? Free loot? Cross-game chat? Paying for credit protection for 2 years, as some have suggested? Personally, I want all of the above and maybe a little more. I am disgusted by this whole thing and I want more than a silly email and some vague mutterings about checking my statement.

What say you? Has Sony lost you forever? Speak now or forever hold your PSN anger!

Source: IGN

Handheld Gaming: Is It Just For Kids?

sony ds babysitting toolIt seems that when Sony gets a little boost in the console industry, they get a bit full of themselves as PlayStation CEO Jack Tretton demonstrated over the weekend. In an interview with Fortune, he went after Microsoft and Nintendo pretty hard, calling out the Xbox 360’s reliance on the DVD format as a weakness, and decrying Nintendo’s DS as a “babysitting tool”.

A little trash-talking in the industry is nothing new (and seems to be making up most of the news lately), but I think that Mr. Tretton is a little off on his comments on the Nintendo DS. He’s quoted as saying that “no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those” as they’re “too old for that”. Being a twenty-something that uses a DS frequently (especially on airplanes, and to play Pokemon, no less), I think he’s kind of misinformed on the DS’s demographic. If people are that self-conscious, they’re not going to be playing the PSP in public either, because the average consumer doesn’t really know the difference between the two.

While a lot of Nintendo’s sales definitely go to kids, I’ve seen just as many grown up people using the DS on planes, public transit, or in a movie theater. Jack Tretton is obviously trying to reinforce the notion that the Nintendo DS is just for kids, but like I said above, people don’t necessarily identify the PSP as an “adult gaming machine” either.

Being a person who uses his DS a lot, I think that Mr. Tretton’s being a little bit of a mudslinger, but I was wondering what you guys think. There’s definitely a social stigma that comes with using a handheld gaming device in public, but I think that as time has gone on a lot of that has gone away. It’s still there, though, so what say you? Do you use your DS in public? If you use a PSP, do you feel a bit more manly than those girly DS gamers? Go!

Source – Fortune

April Fools: Sony Drops Lawsuit, Hires Geohot

Geohot

In a stunning reversal, Sony Computer Entertainment of America has decided to drop their lawsuit against George “Geohot” Hotz and hire the hacker to head up a new division of cyber security focusing exclusively on the Playstation 3 and Sony’s upcoming handheld platform, codenamed NGP.

A Sony spokesman was quoted as saying:

He just had so many good ideas, we felt that he would be a better asset to us and the gaming community as an employee rather than a defendant.

Hotz, the infamous hacker who was the first to jailbreak the iPhone, expressed a desire to return the Linux operating system to the PS3 via firmware update by the end of April and upload a PS2 emulator before the end of the year. Sony also promised to compensate Hotz for his legal expenses, which seems decent of them.

Well, frankly, I am pretty shocked and more than a little upset. It seems that the online hacker community, which has been clamoring for Sony to just shut up and hire Hotz, has finally gotten their wish. I think this sets a dangerous precedent, where bad and perhaps illegal behavior is rewarded. Although PS2 emulation rocks my socks.

Am I being too harsh? Did Sony do the right thing here? GO!

Source: Wired

Poll: Most Annoying Fanboys

Here at GamerSushi, we try to stay above the fray and out of the trenches of the massive fanboy flame wars currently raging all across the vast plains of cyberspace. That’s not to say that we don’t have our own preferences about systems and games and such, but I think we all truly wish success for all of the platforms. Except for the Kinect. And no amount of fervor can help the PSP. But I digress…

Sadly, we are the vast minority, our cries for equality and fairness bludgeoned by the maces of Microsoft fanboys, severed by the Sony swordsmen and bullied by the noogies of Nintendo nuts. Oh, and punctured by the PC polearms. Whew. Had to stretch that one out a bit. Anyhoo, I know we all have that one segment of the gamer population that just grates our nerves, so I thought I would take a poll and find out who is the biggest offender.

Please elaborate in the comments, but try to be respectful. We’re all friends here and just because someone likes something more than you do doesn’t make them evil. Just misguided!

😉

Which fanboys annoy you the most?

View Results

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GameCop Vs LameCop Vs PsychoCop: Fanboy Edition!

Our favorite men in blue are back, eager to bring gaming justice to a spattering of industry-related topics from the last few weeks: Nintendo’s stance against indie developers, Sony’s subpoenas and Microsoft’s On Demand pricing.

I’m sure you know the rules by now, but just in case you don’t: GameCop is a sensible gamer, looking out for your best interests. LameCop is your average forum troll, causing havoc for the lulz, while PsychoCop should be locked up for everyone’s safety.

Keep reading to find out what they have to say on these issues:

Continue reading GameCop Vs LameCop Vs PsychoCop: Fanboy Edition!

User Created Missions Will Make You Infamous 2

infamous 2

As if the excitement for Infamous 2 isn’t palpable enough, Sucker Punch decided to…well…sucker punch us with the news that the sequel to the popular super hero/open world game will have user-made missions, as reported by 1UP. That’s right, you can devise all kinds of crazy ways to put Cole through his paces and piss your friends right off.

The missions can be uploaded online and will actually appear in the game world on the map, though user-created content will be marked by a different color and also display the creator’s username. The levels range from races to puzzles to regular missions where you kill lots and lots of enemies. There appears to be quite a bit of options, including action triggers and enemy placement.

I was already pretty pumped about this, but now I think Infamous 2 might be in my top 5 most anticipated games of 2011. Does something like this interest you? Do you think more open world games should incorporate features like this? Sound off!

Source: 1UP

Sony Committed to 10 Year Console Cycle

Playstation 4Something that we’ve discussed on GamerSushi quite a bit for the last year or so is the collective desire to keep the “next generation” talk as far away from this generation as possible. As much as I love the thought of upgraded games, I like the idea of enjoying the current generation even more, especially because I feel like this generation is only recently hitting its stride. Every year around E3, I dread that one of the big three is going to be the first to drop a new console on us, and I watch the press conferences with fear and trembling.

However, it seems that Sony won’t be doing that to us any time soon. In a recent interview, Sony Computer Entertainment big wig Kaz Hirai again stated Sony’s intentions to see that the PS3 has a long and healthy life. Here are some quotes for your enjoyment:

“As regards home consoles, the PS3 was put into business in 2006, and it has a 10 year life cycle… This means that we aren’t even at the halfway point. There are certainly many more desirable first and third party titles coming out. As we announce and implement new initiatives on an annual basis, I still believe in the importance of improving the software and feature set of the PS3. I think the value of the PS3 will continue to rise. Because of this, a near-future PS4 or next-generation home console is not something that we are even debating now. That is to say, we are still concentrating fully upon the PS3.”

Even though the dude could be lying through his Ridge-Racer-loving-teeth, this brings me some comfort. The idea of just enjoying our consoles until 2015 or so is a pleasant one, at least for me.

So what do you guys think? Are you happy that we’re far away from a PS4, XBox (Insert Number) and Nintendo (Virtual Reality Machine)?

Source – Eurogamer

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

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 17: “Sup, Bitches?”

It’s a new edition of the GamerSushi Show, ladies and gents. While 17 is not a very special number to celebrate (except for dog lovers in Canada, apparently), we’re still happy to be releasing these podcasts every week, despite our general apathy towards doing things. And really, that’s an achievement in and of itself.

In the not-so-remarkable-but-still-excellent 17th episode, we chat about a number of gaming topics, including: Sony’s NGP, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm, Crysis 2 and Game Dev Story. We also play a whopping two games this week instead of the usual one from our friendly beard. This week, Anthony drops in with a game where we guess about a classic review. Likewise, Nick gives us a game of Grades, where we rate industry happenings. We also talk about the Social Network at some point in there, I think, unless it got cut by Nick’s merciless editing.

Anyway, give it a listen and please rate the podcast on iTunes as well. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 17: “Sup, Bitches?”

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