Category: XBox 360

Alleged Console Port Causes Portal 2 Backlash

Portal 2 hug

File this under “This is why we can’t have nice things”. Apparently, the Alternate Reality Game that Eddy posted about earlier, along with DLC already available on the day of the game’s launch and rumors of the game being a console port has prompted some raging Metacritic users to emancipate Portal 2 from any true Metacritic User Rating by lowering it’s score. Currently, the game sits at a 6.9, which is far lower than expected from such a hotly anticipated game.

So what exactly is the cause? As 1UP is reporting, the disappointment that the aforementioned ARG was a ploy to get people to buy/play Steam games, along with the alleged short length of the game (I guess they aren’t counting the co-op in this) and the -WAIT FOR IT- “obvious console port clues” was just too much for these monsters to bear. A cursory scan of the comments reveals much hatred for Valve, the likes of which not seen since the days of Left 4 Dead 2.

Just for fun, here’s a quick sampling of some of the comments:
Continue reading Alleged Console Port Causes Portal 2 Backlash

How I Ruined RPGs with the Internet

Gamers come in all sorts of different flavors, and I’m not just talking about casual and hardcore. There are some who don’t play single player, some who only play single player, and then there are the kinds that give game designers of any type nightmares. I think I’m probably in the last category, specifically when it comes to Western RPGs. Given that games in those genres these days have branching stories, multiple conversation outcomes and more hidden bonuses than you can shake a stick it, it tends to drive OCD completionists with a lot of time on their hands (e.g. me) crazy.

That’s when I turn to the most forbidden of texts, the horrible tome know as the “FAQ”. Deep within the dark recesses of the Internet, I find my brethren, people who restart dungeons because they missed one chest after defeating whatever horrible creature inhabits that cave. These are the people who don’t play RPGs for the story or the characters or the experience, but rather to accrue every possible trinket and stat bonus the game has to offer. We can leave no stone unturned, no party companion un-romanced, and we do so by exploiting the game to its maximum. Not through exploration or discovery though, but by distilling it down to the most bare bones, no frills, maximum return type of experience. This is how I’ve come to destroy any Western RPG I’ve played.
Continue reading How I Ruined RPGs with the Internet

The Puzzling Anger of Online Gamers (And Gears of War 3 Beta Impressions, Too)

gears of war 3 beta impressions

Portal 2 is out today as we’re all very, very aware, but there was another release this week that’s been overshadowed a bit by Valve’s behemoth: the Gears of War 3 Beta. I know that we’ve been talking about it a lot here on the site, and thanks to my Epic Edition of Bulletstorm, I got to hop in and try out the multiplayer flavor of Gears of War 3.

So far, I’m really impressed with the Beta. There are, thankfully, few glitches and I can actually get into matches, which is a big improvement over Gears of War 2. The progression from cover based shooting to close in melee combat feels natural, and it’s a real thrill to run your chainsaw through someone’s back when they aren’t expecting it. I’m finding the sawed-off shotgun a little over-powered, but that’s probably because I keep running into it like a moron.

Even though I’m loving the Gears 3 Beta, I ran into the angriest gamer I’ve come across in a long time last night. As I’m usually in a party with whomever I’m playing online with, I don’t get to hear the braying of the masses, but last night I put on my headphones and listened to the fury this man had to offer.

He got mad at me for reviving him, got mad at people for not reviving him, was pissed off that he ran into places with no backup, and made one player quit when he wouldn’t stop telling him that he was worse than a bot. I get that it’s a little frustrating when you’re stuck on a team with a bunch of ineffective players, but I could never fathom getting that angry about a match that’s ten minutes at most.

I wish I had recorded this guy’s outbursts, because they were seriously hilarious. I think that abrasive gamers have passed beyond offensive and into hilarious because we’re so used to the weirdness of the Internet as a whole. Have you guys ever ran across a gamer so angry that it stuck with you? Is anyone playing the Gears of War 3 Beta, and what do you think of it?

GamerSushi Asks: Portal 2 Roll Call?

Portal 2

Gentlemen and gentleladies, the day is upon us. The day we’ve all been waiting for. The game that we’ve been thinking about for the last two years. SOCOM 4. Wait, nevermind. Mortal Kombat 9, maybe?

Oh. Right. Portal 2. That one. Yeah, I guess that’s on shelves now too, eh?

Kidding aside, I have just returned home with my copy of Portal 2 on the PS3, which, as we all know, comes with a handy dandy Steam key to unlock it on the PC as well. This coincides perfectly with the new PC I’m building this weekend. Right now, the plan is to play the Portal 2 singleplayer component on the PS3, and then switch over to co-op on my new PC once I’m done, since I prefer the headset to the PS3 headset by leaps and bounds. Also, it’s going to be very pretty, I’m sure.

So, I figure it was time for a roll call. Portal 2 is out now on multiple platforms. Do you have it? What platform did you purchase it for? Want to play some co-op? Let’s have some fun.

Gaming Press Gets Firsthand Look at Skyrim

Skyrim Dragon

Skyrim, oh Skyrim. Why you got to look so fantastic?

It seems that the gaming press got an awesome firsthand look at one of this year’s most anticipated releases, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, over the weekend. Multiple outlets are talking about how awesome the game looked in motion, how impressive the new engine was, and the overall improvement of the game’s interface and even NPC interactions. Let it be known that I hate these people for getting to see this game so early.

My favorite preview of the lot would have to be the write-up that Joystiq did. Inside, you’ll find information about how alive the towns looked with NPC activity and the way that combat works (each hand is mapped to a different trigger). However, I think the most curious part of the previews would have to be the description of the dragon attack, which Bethesda swears is completely unscripted.

From the VG247 preview:

Howard made a point by saying that the game’s dragon fights are real-time.

“The dragons, I promise you, are unscripted. I don’t know what he’s going to do, I don’t know where he’s going to go. They are our big boss fights,” he says.

OK, so imagine the cougar from Red Dead Redemption… except it’s a mother effing dragon. Yeah.

Anyway, these previews got me even more jazzed up to get a taste of Skyrim this fall. What are your thoughts?

Source – Joystiq and VG247

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 25: Inspiring Gaming

Here’s Episode 25 of the podcast. Sadly, it was recorded a week ago, which means it doesn’t have any of the juicy discussion about Nintendo’s rumored new console or Valve’s ARG. But do not fret! Those issues are in next week’s podcast.

However, we do cover a host of wonderful topics in this week’s edition of the GamerSushi Show, including our most inspirational games, Sony versus Anonymous and sex in video games. Steamy.

Also, we tried to get through this podcast without making a “nice” joke – so I hope that makes SOME OF YOU happy.

So yeah. Listen up. Rate it. Like it. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 25: Inspiring Gaming

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Battlefield 3 Full Length Fault Line Trailer is the Best B-Day Gift

How sweet of DICE and EA to drop the full length Battlefield 3 Fault Line trailer a few days early so it coincides with my Birthday. I know this is just a small coincidence, but let me have this, damn it. Following up on the previous three trailers I posted for BF3, this twelve minute numbers shows the action in its entirety with the cuts being reserved for getting you to the action quicker as opposed to just teasing the juicy bits. Enjoy.

Even though we’ve seen most of this before, it still looks amazing. Sure, the dialogue and voice acting are a little ho-hum and the AI of the enemies seems pretty basic, but for an Alpha build DICE really have the destruction mechanics and the graphics nailed down. Are you guys still pumped for BF3?

Today’s WTF: Army of Two, Third Time’s the Charm?

army of two 3

Some franchises are not long for this world and have the dignity to go quietly into that good night. Not so with Army of Two, though, as every couple of years it comes kicking and screaming back into the limelight, refusing to be relegated to the dust bin where it belongs. After two games which rest somewhere along the lines of “meh” according to critics, EA Games (more specifically Visceral Games Montreal) is bringing the co-op dude fest back for another go around.

Several job postings on EA’s website (as dug up by GameSpot) reveal that the Quebec, Canada, based studio is looking for a senior producer and an evironment artist (among other positions) to work on the Army of Two franchise, which is apparently a million seller. If you’re itching for more adventures from everybody’s favorite totally hetero dude-bros, then I guess you’re in luck. Given that these listing are on EA’s website, I’d expect to see something about Army of Two 3 very soon.
Continue reading Today’s WTF: Army of Two, Third Time’s the Charm?

Player Investment in Multiplayer: A Necessary Evil?

gears of war 3 beta unlocks

The Gears of War 3 beta is coming out next Tuesday, and I get to partake in it thanks to my holding onto the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm. As I was checking out the Gears of War 3 Beta Featurette that Eddy posted a few days ago, I noticed that Epic Games has taken a cue from their fellow developers and added a bit of player customization into the game, namely the ability to paint your weapons with a variety of colors (and a few other treats as well, I’m sure).

In an age where the game trade in business cleans up and publishers are trying to get people to hang onto their games, player investment in multiplayer has become a predictable addition to any big budget title. While Battlefield 2 was the first game I can think of that pioneered this (and I’m holding to that), Call of Duty 4 brought this out in a huge way. Even Halo has had a bit of that with the different armor pieces in Halo 3, and went whole hog with it in Reach.
Continue reading Player Investment in Multiplayer: A Necessary Evil?

GamerSushi Asks: Can You Attach a Number to Art?

Homefront

Ouch. Someone might be sore from a few reviews.

While this post is not going to be another in the inexorably long discussion of whether or not games are art, it does apply to the discussion about how we view art in general. You see, THQ EVP Danny Bilson recently shared some thoughts with IGN about Homefront’s review scores. When asked what he thought of them, Bilson had this to say:

If we were universally panned, I would say “Yeah I guess it didn’t work.” I think the idea of 50 reviews that are so radically spread says that we made a game that has a point of view and that you might even argue is controversial…

Do I prefer that it’s controversial? No, I’d prefer if everybody in the world loved it. But there are 20+ reviews that are over 80, there are some haters, and there are some mid-range ones. Do I read them all to see what we can do better next time and have every review be 100? Of course, our goal is always that. What I will say pretty clearly is the game is not a “71.” You can’t apply math to art.

I haven’t played Homefront, so I’m not going to comment on whether or not Homefront is in fact art, or not. However, this does bring an issue up about how video games are reviewed and scored. Do you guys think that in an artistic medium, it’s alright to attach hard numbers to these games? I mean, Shadow of the Colossus has a 91 attached to it on Metacritic, which to me just seems silly for something that I actually do consider art.

So what do you guys think? Go!

Source – IGN

Valve’s Impressive Portal 2 PotatoFools ARG

Portal 2 ARG

Wow. I’ve seen some impressive Alternative Reality Games before (namely, ILoveBees by Bungie leading up to Halo 2), but Valve’s new endeavor, PotatoFools, has certainly taken the cake… no pun intended.

If you’re unaware, Valve launched the Potato Sack pack of indie games on April 1st. It includes 13 games, features a few Portal 2 themed levels for those games and even some Portal 2 content for Team Fortress 2. However, a few users started noticing something weird about the updates for each of the indie games. A little bit of digging turned up a lofty and epic ARG straight from Valve.

I can’t even begin to describe how everything has gone down, so you should check out the PotatoFools ARG thread over on the Steam Forums for the full break down of all the events since April 1st. Needless to say, it’s absurdly impressive. We’re talking cross game clues, passwords, messages from Gabe Newell himself, anonymous e-mails from employees, a special clue hidden on the side of a building in the Netherlands, a surveillance camera watching the forum user that found the clue, secret frames referencing top ARG players in the newest Portal 2 trailers… and that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface.

The point of all of this? Nobody really knows, although speculation right now is that it’s pointing towards an early release of Portal 2 on Steam for this Friday. Who knows if that’s the case, though.

The funny thing is, I happen to be pals with Matt “LordNed” Hoffman, one of the main driving forces behind collecting information for the ARG (you’ll see him referenced in the thread quite a bit). I asked him what the current status is, and he had this to report:

Several ARG administrators are gone. A couple are acting strange, giving cryptic hints that translate about to “Please help she’s killing me”, a POTATO logo was updated to show a figure inside a portal. A whiteboard states that two people are dead, GLADOS took over the wiki and has control over it.

Yikes. So what do you guys think of all this craziness? Has anyone been following it?

Source – Portal 2 ARG thread on the Steam Forums

Gears of War 3 Beta Featurette

The Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta kicks off to full effect in just two weeks, so that means it’s time for Epic to start a bit of a pre-roll on the hype train.

That train kicks off with a new beta featurette titled Dedicated Execution. As much as I sometimes ignore these kinds of things, this one actually shows off lots of brand new multiplayer footage. Interestingly enough, there seems to be an emphasis on melee combat, which is a cool enhancement for the Gears series, especially given the penchant for curb-stomping that it’s known for.

While I’ve enjoyed Horde mode more than anything else about Gears of War’s multiplayer, this looks pretty fun. The game drops in September, which will probably be here before we know it.

Thoughts?

Why War Gaming Needs a Break

war gaming needs a breakAt this point in my gaming career, I think I’ve taken back the city of Stalingrad more times than I can count. I’ve fought bad guys in Europe, in space, and saved the world as we know it, all from the view of a lowly grunt in the military. Playing a video game from the perspective of the military is old hat, yet it’s a well that the industry keeps going back to. It’s easy to find an enemy and give your players a reason to go around the globe using all the latest weaponry (or period specific weaponry, depending on the setting), but the thrill is starting to wear out.

I’m ready for developers to move on from the fascination with the armed forces, but the gaming public needs to be on the same page. As long as Call of Duty is the top seller every year, we’re going to keep seeing the arms race between the big publishers as they try to put out their “CoD killer” by emulating it in every way possible. While I don’t think that Call of Duty is exactly killing the industry, it certainly isn’t helping it. Even Battlefield 3, a game that I’ve made my infatuation with clear several times, is hoping to outdo Call of Duty by making a game that’s scripted beyond belief. What can the games industry do to buck this trend?
Continue reading Why War Gaming Needs a Break

The Video Game Level Bucket List

Psychonauts

Is it just me, or do they just not make video game levels the way they used to? A big part of this comes from the fact that most modern video games work in very compact missions. While it makes for a mostly great experience, at times it’s hard to separate key levels that really stand out.

Everyone’s got their own list of favorite video game levels, and GamesRadar has pitched in with one of their old re-posts, 59 Levels to Play Before You Die. It represents a video game level bucket list, of sorts, and I have to say it’s a pretty good one. They cover everything from Assassin’s Creed’s Acre Cathedral to Chrono Cross, Symphony of the Night, Crackdown, Psychonauts and Twisted Metal 2. They’ve even got videos if you’re too lazy or unable to go play them.

We’ve talked before about some excellent video game levels on this site, but if you had a bucket list of levels to play before someone died, what would the top 5 or 10 be? Make your lists! Go!

Source – GamesRadar

Image Source – Ayem

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

GamerSushi Asks: Gaming Paraphernalia?

play arts kai halo reach

Recently, I’ve become a little obsessed with Play Arts Kai’s line of Halo: Reach action figures, having bought Emile and scouring the city for the past month for Jun and Noble 6, the other two available figures in the current series. While I haven’t really been that into gaming doodads, purchasing the Orange Knight from Castle Crashers during my trip to PAX Prime and picking up the Halo: Reach Legendary Edition has kind of kindled my interest in collecting various pieces of memorabilia.

My geography has once again put me at a disadvantage as Square Enix only accepts American credit cards, but I’ve tracked down a few distributors and I’m planning on getting the whole set. It’s interesting because before this I thought that buying statues related to gaming was taking my hobby a bit to far, but some of the things you can get are pretty freaking sweet.

Do any of you share my current fixation? Do you have any figures currently, or are you planning on getting some? What’s the farthest you’ve gone to acquire something like this?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 24: Vestchewbacca

Gamers! Listeners! Friends!

Hey.

We’re back this week with Episode 24 of the podcast, which takes place entirely in real time. Sort of. We actually had a lot of technical difficulties with this one, but I think Nick did a great job of lessening the horrors that we faced.

Technical gremlins aside, this week we participate in the same tomfoolery that you’ve experienced from us every week, only this time we talk about Quantic Dream versus Rockstar, Square Enix’s fall into irrelevance, the most annoying fanboys in the world and Mass Effect 2’s Arrival DLC. After that, Nick drops a new game of Either/Or on us, and we hit up the PS3’s sales, Nintendo versus Angry Birds and the new trailers we got last week.

So, there you have it. Check it out. Rate it. Enjoy. Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 24: Vestchewbacca

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Halo: Reach’s Defiant Map Pack: DLC Worth Paying For

halo reach defiant map pack review

One of the biggest criticisms leveraged against Halo: Reach was the astonishingly low quality of the multiplayer maps included in the retail version. The original offerings were either spaces taken from the campaign or Forge World creations and remakes of older maps. Even the Noble Map Pack, released by Bungie on November 30, didn’t measure up to the maps of the previous Halo games, though they were better than the base offerings.

Interestingly, Halo: Reach’s second map pack, the Defiant Map Pack, was crafted by Certain Affinity, who made the Blastacular Map Pack for Halo 2. The Defiant Map Pack includes two new multiplayer spaces and a Firefight arena, but what makes this particular DLC worth your hard earned space bucks?
Continue reading Halo: Reach’s Defiant Map Pack: DLC Worth Paying For

Top Six: Video Game Characters We Wish Would Talk

Since the advent of the full voiced protagonist, I’ve come to expect that my in-game avatar always has something witty to say in any given situation. Despite the fact that characters like Grayson Hunt and Duke Nukem want to make me tear my hair out, there are a few protagonists in gaming that have successfully made the transition to having a personality, like Dead Space’s Isaac Clarke.

This got me thinking about a few other notoriously silent gaming icons, and which ones could stand to have a voice. Read on to see which six characters deserve a line of dialog here and there. Continue reading Top Six: Video Game Characters We Wish Would Talk

Team Meat Bemoans Super Meat Boy’s Xbox LIVE Release

super meat boy

Another April Fool’s has come and gone, and it is now safe to use the Internet for “tru facts”, as it were. As such, I present to you the first official post-April Fool’s story, a little tale about two-man indie developer Team Meat and their battles with Microsoft in bringing Super Meat Boy to Xbox LIVE Arcade.

In a recent issue of Game Developer Magazine (transcribed by Kotaku), one half of Team Meat, Edmund McMillen, waxes about the trials and tribulations faced by himself and his partner Tommy Refenes.

Aside from a few complaints that have really nothing to do with Microsoft (such as financial hardship brought on by emergency surgery), the duo experienced some difficulties getting the game ready for the Game Feast promotion on XBLA. They describe being in a forced crunch necessitated by the short release window brought on by the promotion which was clashing with their desire to add more features to the game. Fixing bugs at the same time as adding new things to the game meant that hours of hard work were rendered invalid by having more errors crop up on top of the ones they already fixed.
Continue reading Team Meat Bemoans Super Meat Boy’s Xbox LIVE Release