Category: XBox 360

Warhammer 40K: Kill Team is an Ork-Slaying Good Time

warhammer 40k kill team impressions

I’m a big fan of Games Workshops’ sci-fi table top game Warhammer 40,000, and I think I’ve mention my affection for the Dawn of War series here on the site a few times. To get in a little extra revenue (and free advertisement) before the release of this Fall’s third-person action game Space Marine, Relic Entertainment has released Warhammer 40K: Kill Team, a twin stick shooter.

Out today for Xbox LIVE Arcade (and next week on the PSN), Kill Team takes the action to a series of levels stuffed with Orks (and maybe a guest appearance by another race) and has the players run through them, trying to get as many kills and points as possible. Being a twin stick shooter (think Guardian of Light but without the awesome puzzles) Kill Team is very basic, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your time. If you’ve got a co-op buddy, there’s a decent amount of entertainment here for ten dollars.

You can play through the game as one of four different types of Space Marines (each with their own unique skills and special moves) and you can gain boosts and new gear to max out your damage. Facing down hordes of Orks with a buddy and mowing them down with your rapid fire rocket launcher while he rips it up in melee is a sight to behold. When you’re done that, you can run through the levels again with a different Marine, or you can try out the ubiquitous survival mode.

Where the game does fall flat, though, is the fact that co-op is local only and only the lead player can get Achievements. If you can get around these two stumbling points, Kill Team is a blast and exponentially more so with a co-op partner.

I don’t know if any of you were even aware of this games existence, but if you’re hungry for a quick shot of downloadable co-op action without much brain strain, Kill Team should be on your radar. As a bonus, completing one mission in Kill Team gives you access to the Power Sword when Space Marine hits. Are any of you going to try this out, or will you pass on this year’s Warhammer 40K offerings?

Bungie’s Farewell to Halo

Master Chief

It had to happen at some point, folks. As somber as it is, Bungie is finally saying their official goodbye to the Halo series as of August 2nd, they’ll be handing control of Halo: Reach’s matchmaking, etc. over to 343 as they send their legendary franchise off to sea. Or the stars, as it were.

Here’s a bit from their farewell post:

Halo is yours now. In many ways, it always has been. Its new caretakers will strive, just as we did, to be worthy stewards but you have the package. Hold these characters and stories and worlds to the same unflinching standards you did while we were at the helm, but allow them all to blossom and change and grow in the ways that they must.

As such, Bungie says they’ll be running dark after August 2nd, as they continue work on their newest endeavor, a brand new universe that they’re building for publisher Activision. Their final words? “See you starside.”

So how do you guys feel about Halo passing hands? I know some of you don’t care very much about it, and I know we also have some fanboys, myself included. Love it or loathe it, it’s hard to deny such a monumental series and its power, and I’ll be curious to see what happens to it in the future. Thoughts, friends?

Source – Bungie

Twenty Minutes of BioShock Infinite Gameplay for Your Friday

Yes, you read that right, twenty minutes of BioShock Infinite gameplay have been gifted to us by the boss of all bosses, GTTV’s Geoff Keighley. In reality it’s a fifteen minute demo book-ended by Ken Levine of Irrational Games chatting about Infinite, but that’s nothing to scoff at either.

One of my big gaming resolutions for 2011 and beyond was to not get dragged into the hype train and consume every piece of media I can get my hands on, but given the quality of what I’ve seen, that pledge has been tough to hold up. Even though BioShock Infinite isn’t coming out until 2012, it’s got me salivating like a fat dude jogging past an ice cream store. What did you guys think of this demo, which was originally shown to journalists at E3? Looking good?

Twelve Minutes of Arkham City Gameplay Goodness

Since it’s Canada Day up here in the Great White North, I’ll make this short and sweet. Developers Rocksteady have dropped twelve minutes of Batman: Arkham City gameplay on us, and I’ve embedded it below for your viewing pleasure. You’ll see Batman beating fools up, jumping on fools and tracking fools from the shadows. There’s also a snippet of Catwoman gameplay, so enjoy that as well.

What did you guys think? Is this looking like a worthy follow up to Arkham Asylum? Hit me up with those comments!

GameCop Vs LameCop Vs PsychoCop: Summer Edition!

Gaming’s finest have returned, and they’ve got a slew of opinions and rants on several industry-related topics from the last few weeks: the Duke Nukem Forever PR debacle, the Lulzsec boat and the lone save file of Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D.

By this point, you should all get the shtick, but 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: Summer Edition!

Crysis 2, Transformers 3, and Why Movies Resemble Video Games

transformers 3

Today I went and saw the latest Michael Bay robot-fest, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, in theaters and something struck me on the way back home: this movie reminded me of Crysis 2 to a great degree. An ancient alien threat, hectic ground-level combat and amazing visual effects? Given that most of the final hour of Transformers 3 is seen from the perspective of Special Forces soldiers rather than Autobots, my brain couldn’t get away from Crysis 2 and the image of hopping around lower Manhattan killing vaguely robotic aliens in the ruins of a famous city (even though TF3 takes place in Chicago).

Like most Michael Bay films, Transformers 3 is too long, bloated and full of forced, painful humor, but the actions scenes are top notch. Still, I couldn’t get it out of my head that I was watching someone play a video game. Video games have been trying to be like movies for years, but it occurred to me today that they might already be there, or at least have attained the level of Summer popcorn-flick. People complain about the Hollywood-ising of the industry, but we’re too late: every big action game is essentially a Bay movie with threadbare plots and engaging action.

I know that video games are hoping to move past this phase, but in a medium where it’s easier to give the player a gun and turn them loose, are we ever going to get past this stage? Crysis 2 was a pretty fun game, but given that a mindless movie like Transformers 3 can evoke it so heavily, it kind casts a dark shadow over the aspirations of many a development studio. Even games that we decree to be better than movies, like Uncharted 2 or Mass Effect 2, would ultimately fall flat on their face if they ever transition to the silver screen.

Past all my rambling thoughts regarding Transformers 3 and Crysis 2 lays a question for you guys: are video games becoming like movies or is it the other way around? As computer generated effects become cheaper and more believable, will we see more big set-piece films that try to wow our eyes instead of appealing to our brain? Will these movies become the Call of Duty of the film world, or are they already there? Am I just crazy? Go!

Double Fine, Trenched, and Owning the Downloadable Market

Sometimes the big tent-pole, triple-A title model doesn’t work, and a studio folds in on itself. This is a very common occurrence, and it’s rare that any given developer in this situation will regain their footing and continue making games. Thankfully, Double Fine, creators of Psychonauts, managed to dig themselves out of the Brutal Legend hole and converted their business model to making smaller, less financially risky downloadable games. This meant they were free to experiment with different genres and flex their witty writing muscles without subjecting themselves to the sometimes cruel whims of the video game playing masses.

Starting off with Costume Quest and leading into Stacking and Trenched (which I’ll get to in a moment), Double Fine has proven that they know how to make great games, and they’ve finally found themselves an audience that is receptive to their hard work. I did miss out on Costume Quest and Stacking (though I have heard they’re excellent) but I decided to check out Trenched, a mech combat/tower defense game, because those two play-styles mashed together sounds like a hell of a good time and it has co-op, which is always a plus in my books.
Continue reading Double Fine, Trenched, and Owning the Downloadable Market

The Story of L.A. Noire and 7 Years of Development Hell

Team Bondi

We’ve written quite a few articles about L.A. Noire here in the last few months, but I thought there was still a bit more conversation to be had around this excellent game. While there are plenty of games that undergo long and complex development cycles, the crime-thriller mystery from Team Bondi had a slightly longer and more difficult path than most: 7 years, two different publishers and over one hundred employees that left.

Crazy, huh? The full story is presented in an excellent piece by IGN, where they interviewed both studio head Brendan McNamara as well as the “Bondi Eleven”, a group of former Team Bondi developers who came forward to tell the story of the company’s inception, its turbulent times on L.A. Noire and just why the process spun out of control for them. It’s a bit disconcerting to read things like this, because it seems to be the norm of the video game industry these days. Long hours, blatant disregard for employees’ welfare and generally terrible morale. Definitely a sobering piece for anybody considering jumping feet-first into the games industry.

So what do you guys think about this? I know a lot of you are aspiring game developers. Does this give you pause? Have any of you been in working conditions like this?

Source – IGN

Saint’s Row: The Third Trailer Shows You the Business

If you tuned into the awesome season-ender E3 2011 wrap up podcast, you heard us wax philosophic about Saint’s Row: The Third and the changes it’s making coming into its latest iteration. Besides the improved graphical look and the unique visual style, the craziness has been jacked up another notch, which might seem impossible to players of the second game. The team at Volition are giving it their all though. The walkthrough for Saint’s Row: The Third that I’ve embedded below shows the gameplay that was touted at E3.

We’re going to try not to go too crazy with the trailers in the post-E3 news slump, but it’s nice being able to watch these things without the background noise that a convention tends to bring. What’s your opinion on the gameplay of Saint’s Row: The Third? Does it look like it’s up your ally? Is this one of your must haves for this Fall? Go!

Gears of War 3 Horde 2.0 Walkthrough Drops the Facts

One of the great surprises of E3 2011 was the reveal of Horde 2.0 in Gears of War 3. With all the improvements made to the multiplayer, it shouldn’t have caught us off guard that Epic would be turning their loving eyes to Horde mode as well, but this really came out of left field. Taking away from player data from Gears of War 2, Horde 2.0 features a whole host of usability improvements seen in the multiplayer of Gears 3 (like enemy tagging and the tactical overlay) and adds the ability to use an area as a base and fortify it with static defenses, turrets and the fearsome Silverback mech suit. There’s a new Horde 2.0 walkthrough narrated by Nan McNamara, the voice actor for Anya Stroud, and I’ve embedded it below.

Much like Halo: Reach last year, Gears of War 3 might dominate our lives when it hits on September 20. I have my copy pre-ordered and paid for, and I can’t wait to tuck into this triple threat title. We may have to have a GamerSushi Game Night for this when it comes out (non-Xbox readers, don’t worry, we might have something in the works…). What do you guys think of the new improvements to Horde?

What Are You Playing: It’s Too Damn Hot Outside Edition

la-noire-nicholson-electroplating-screen

Salutations, faithful readers, it is I, your humble Canadian, back for another round of What Are You Playing. If you’re new to this recurring post, the basic set-up is pretty simple: I ask you what video games you’re playing, and you answer. It doesn’t have to exactly be video games per se; if you want to launch into a (spoiler-free as I haven’t seen the show yet, and people may not have read the books) discussion about the season finale of Game of Thrones, feel free to do so. It’s an open forum, but we’d love to get your thoughts on some current games, and maybe some oldies too.

For me, I spent the morning playing Nicholson Electroplating, the new Arson case for L.A. Noire. I bought the Rockstar Pass when it was on sale a while back, so I got all the DLC for the game for a reasonable price. Nicholson Electroplating is a very action-intensive case and the investigative aspects are relatively slim, but it’s a solid addition overall. It also got me that much closer to rounding out the achievements for L.A. Noire, so that’s always good. Besides that I’ve been finishing off my Evil karma run-through of inFAMOUS 2 and getting back into Halo: Reach in preparation for this year’s Bungie Day. A friend of mine also picked up The Witcher 2 on Steam, so I’m going to log into his account and play it when I have a moment. I’m also trying to desperately bring myself up to a respectable level on StarCraft 2 so I don’t embarrass myself. It’s hard though, but I’m working on my three barracks build.

That’s probably enough out of me, so what about you guys? Has anyone tried Nicholson Electroplating, and what did you think? Opinions of the L.A. Noire DLC overall would be good too. Anything else that you’re playing? Let us know!

The Half-Life 2 Files, Part 2: The Road to Ravenholm

HL2 DogNote: This series is a correspondence between fellow writer Anthony Taylor and myself about one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, Half-Life 2. In the first HL2 file, we talked about our history with Half-Life and the opening of Half-Life 2.

This week, we cover the levels Root Kanal through Ravenholm. Continue reading The Half-Life 2 Files, Part 2: The Road to Ravenholm

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

Prioritizing the Remaining Video Games of 2011

batman arkham city

I won’t lie to you, GamerSushians, I’m a little worried about the rest of the year. I’ve been managing to squeeze in every big title so far this year, but I think I’m going to lose track of everything come September. Gears of War 3 is already pre-ordered, as is Battlefield 3. Beyond that, though, things get a little out of control.

With three games that I want to get coming in one day, and a couple more must haves before that, I’m going to have to start making cuts. First on the chopping block is Batman: Arkham City. I really enjoyed the first game, but I don’t think that the second is going to draw me in; I’m just doubtful that Arkham City will give me a different experience than I had with Arkham Asylum. Don’t worry, I’m also passing on Modern Warfare 3 so you can’t give me flack for that.

What about you guys? Which titles are you passing up this year, if any? Why are you giving them up for different games?

Ezio Started the Fire in This Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Trailer

As GamerSushi’s one-man Assassin’s Creed Defense Force, it’s my job to pump up the jam about UbiSoft’s latest historical adventure game. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is the third game starring everyone’s favorite Florentian noble man Ezio Auditore and is set to conclude his story in a grand fashion. UbiSoft originally showed off this bit of gameplay during their E3 press conference, but they’ve just release it with developer commentary, albeit sadly lacking any Mr. Caffeine. So, without any further ado: doodly-doodly-doop!

This is Assassin’s Creed with executive producer Michael Bay, it would seem. It’s still looking great, though, and it’s nice to know that Ezio is still as spry as he ever was. What do you guys think about the new trailer? Will this finally put an end to Ezio’s story? Are you as excited as I am that we can finally assassinate people from Eagle Vision?

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

Battlefield 3 and the DLC Backlash (Updated)

battlefield 3 physical warfare pack boycottAs I’m sure you’re well aware, given my constant posting of anything slightly related to this game over the past few months, Battlefield 3 is coming out later this year setting its sights on taking the FPS crown away from Call of Duty. As is the norm with games these days, a bit of pre-order DLC was offered in the form of the Back to Karkand expansion pack which gives early purchasers access to the map pack on day one, whereas late adopters will have to wait and buy it at a later date.

While this did cause some outcry, the Back to Karkand controversy pales in comparison to the furor that has cropped up around the Physical Warfare Pack. This add-on is only availble in the UK through GAME and Gamestation stores and features items that will not be obtainable in the retail game. Naturally, fans of the game are quite incensed and a boycott has already been arranged on Reddit, calling for EA and DICE to remove this pre-order incentive from the game.
Continue reading Battlefield 3 and the DLC Backlash (Updated)

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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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim E3 Gameplay Demo

I’m not really going to preface this video with too many words, other than these: this Skyrim gameplay demonstration from GameTrailers TV sort of blew my mind when I watched it. You all know that we do our best to stay away from hyperbole on this site (although sometimes we fail at this), but there were pieces of this video that surpassed my imagination for what a video game could accomplish. While the visuals are nothing to scoff at and the combat looks like it’s seen a decent upgrade, it’s the unscripted dragon encounters that left me in awe.

Go ahead, drool over it, and check back in when you’re done.

Thoughts?

Battlefield 3 Campaign Gameplay Brings the Thunder

I’m of the opinion that EA really brought the heardcore games at their press conference today whether you’re a fan of sports, shooters or sci-fi RPGs. Sure, the foot-based gameplay in Need for Speed: The Run looked a little wonky, but Mass Effect 3 is shaping up nicely and Battlefield 3 is coming hard, aiming its sights square at Modern Warfare 3. After MW3’s showing at the Xbox briefing, DICE showed off a campaign demo called ‘Thunder Run’.

Those are some of the best looking explosions I’ve seen in a game. From top to bottom this game is looking really tight, and I can’t wait. What do you guys think of ‘Thunder Run’? Does this look like a serious Modern Warfare 3 competitor?