Category: Xbox One

The Eternal War: A Look at the Repeating Console Cycle

Sega Logo

I’ve been reading Console Wars, a new book by Blake J. Harris that chronicles the rise of Sega during the 90’s. It’s a delightful book, full of endlessly fascinating details, such as how Target’s lenient return policy allowed customers to return years-old NES’s in order to get credit towards a SNES. Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with Nintendo and it led to Target pulling Nintendo products from the stores for a time. I lived through this era and reading the behind the scenes drama that went on has been very enjoyable. My nostalgia bones are all tingling right now. Continue reading The Eternal War: A Look at the Repeating Console Cycle

Battlefield: Hardline Revealed in Battlelog Update

battlefield hardline

Update: Yep, Battlefield: Hardline is real.

Battlelog, DICE’s browser-based interface that they’ve been forcing on the gaming public since Battlefield 3, received an update this morning. Instead of the assignments for the upcoming expansion pack Dragon’s Teeth, an entierly different kind of surprised was included.

While digging through the source code of Battlelog, denizen of the Internet Koen Vlaswinkel found a whole bunch of information about Battlefield: Hardline, including weapons, vehicles, classes, gamemodes and who’s developing it. From the images Battlefield: Hardline looks like it will be SWAT vs Thieves on a variety of urban maps with gamemodes such as Heist and Blood Money, giving it a very Payday feel. Continue reading Battlefield: Hardline Revealed in Battlelog Update

Get Your Watch Dogs Review Score Round-Up

watch dogs review scores

Ubisoft’s long awaited open-world hackathon Watch Dogs is finally upon us. The embargo lifted late last night and a torrent of reviews flooded in from all over the Internet. It seems that Watch Dogs is getting fairly positive scores across the board, mostly being criticized for some funky driving mechanics and for not really being that unique of an open-world game outside of the hacking abilities.

Here are some review scores from some other websites you may have heard of:

I’ve got Watch Dogs sitting on my PC right now but InFamous: Second Son is currently taking up most of my gaming bandwidth (along with Battlefield 4 and some Company of Heroes 2) but I expect to get to it soon. I hear there’s an interesting glitch right now where taking to the river will cause you to lose your police pursuit as the Chicago PD of Watch Dogs doesn’t have a maritime presence.

Has anyone here played Watch Dogs? What are your initial impressions?

Even the Odds With a Batman: Arkham Knight Gameplay Trailer

We you perhaps hoping for a little gameplay footage from the upcoming current-gen only Batman: Arkham Knight today? Well, you’re in luck because we have exactly that for you. “Evening the Odds” shows off a bit of everything from Knight, including the Batmobile, gliding, and transitioning from the Batmobile to gliding. It all looks pretty great, too. Have a watch:

Batman: Arkham Knight is a very pretty looking game, no doubt helped along by the fact that it isn’t cross-gen. What did you guys think of this short glimpse of Arkham Knight gameplay?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 91: You Sunk My Battleship!

gamersushi show ep 91

Hey. We’re back.

It’s a regular-ass regular show with all of the GamerSushi dudes in attendance. This is the first time in a number of podcasts that Eddy has joined us, but he’s been a busy dude so we should all forgive him.

Anthony also regales us with tales of his honeymoon and then we discuss what happens to the hair on your head when you get older. It goes south. The hair, not the conversation.

For actual video game news, we talk about Microsoft dropping a $399 Kinect-less Xbox One on us, then we try to remember if you go to the Citadel in Mass Effect 2, and we wrap it all up with E3 predictions.

Listen, rate and hopefully we’ll be back next week. See ya!

0:00 – 8:49 Intro
8:50 – 29:59 Microsoft shipping a Kinect-less Xbox One
30:00 – 51:54 E3 Predictions
51:55 – 54:36 Outro

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Halo 5: Guardians Announced, Hitting Fall 2015

halo 5 reveal

In what is probably the least exciting Halo game announcement of all time, Bonnie Ross, General Manager of 343 Industries, took over the Xbox Wire to reveal Halo 5: Guardians which will be coming to the Xbox One in the Fall of 2015.

Continuing the story of Master Chief from where we left him in Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians is being built with a completely new engine and will deliver a 60 frame-per-second performance, a first for the series. A Halo TV series is also teased to be released in a similar time-frame to Halo 5: Guardians.

The Spartan on the top of the box art will apparently be a new character according to series Executive Producer Josh Holmes on Twitter.

Microsoft is certainly getting a lot out of the way for E3. Typically a Halo reveal is a big to-do and Bonnie Ross promises that more will be revealed at E3 this year, but I can’t help but feel a little deflated that a game series that once commanded attention is now relegated to blog post unveilings.

Source – Xbox Wire

Far Cry 4 Coming November 18 2014, Takes Place in the Himalayas

far cry 4 reveal

Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Not getting a sequel to 2012’s stellar hit Far Cry 3. In a surprise leak/announcement today, Ubisoft officially unveiled Far Cry 4 which will be coming to the (deep breath here) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on November 18, 2014.

Not much is currently known about Far Cry 4, other than that it takes place in a fictional region of the Himalayas called Kyrat and you’ll be fighting the reign of a self-appointed king. You can feast your peepers on the box art for Far Cry 4 by clicking the previous words. Looks more like a Pink King than a Yellow King to me, but maybe we’ll go to Carcosa in Far Cry 5.

Far Cry 3 was one of my favorite games of the last generation and if Ubisoft can turn around some of the less appealing aspects of that game (nonsensical “white savior” story and a rather bland second half) then we’ve got a huge hit on our hands. If the logical progression from flamethrower dubstep is elephant-riding RPG madness, then consider me sold.

Who’s on board for a little more Far Cry when it hits every consoles except the poor Wii U this November?

Source – UbiBlog

Microsoft Shipping a $399 Xbox One Without Kinect in June

Xbox One 399 no Kinect

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s new head of all things Xbox, posted an update on the Xbox Wire about changes coming to the Xbox One in June, including a new $399 price point without a Kinect in the box and access to popular video apps like Netflix without requiring an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

This is another case of Microsoft backtracking on the Xbox One, which started out with a mandatory Kinect, an always-online Internet connection and aggressive DRM. With this most recent update, just about a year after its announcement, the Xbox One no longer requires any of these things. It’s a win for consumers, certainly, but not for Microsoft’s previous vision for the console.

The most curious aspect of this for me is that this makes the Xbox One cheaper in Canada than the PlayStation 4, which saw a $50 price bump earlier this year. The $399 Xbox One without Kinect will be available on June 9.

What do you guys think about this news? Does this new $399 Xbox One without a Kinect make the console more appealing to you?

Source – Xbox Wire

Valiant Hearts Trailer Brings 2D Adventure to World War One

Built on the same UbiArt engine as the recently released Child of Light, Valiant Hearts is an upcoming 2D adventure game by Ubisoft Montpellier where you control four different characters and their faithful dog through several puzzles set during the first World War.

World War One is not a setting that gets explored a lot in video games, but Valiant Hearts looks like it will use that dark time in history to tell some pretty heart-breaking stories about love and sacrifice. Take a look at the trailer below:

How does this look to you guys? Are you on board? Did you try Child of Light? Valiant Heart releases on June 25 via the PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE and various PC digital distribution platforms.

Bungie’s Destiny Will Cost Activision $500 Million

bungie destiny

According to a story published by Reuters, Bungie’s upcoming sci-fi shooter RPG thing Destiny could wind up costing Activision Blizzard $500 million in development and promotional costs when all is said and done.

The next game out Bungie in their post-Halo days is no doubt a big deal, but I don’t think anyone’s leaning on its potential success quite as hard as Activision. With Call of Duty: Ghosts’ weak showing last year, Activision is no doubt hungry for their next hit shooter. $500 million could wind up making Destiny the most expensive video game in history, which is a significant gamble for a company that often seems like it likes to play it safe.

$500 million is quite an insane number to be spending on development and marketing, but a lot of that is going towards the development of Destiny’s next-gen engine (which is in-house, a tradition for Bungie) and a lot of back end infrastructure costs. I don’t know about you guys, but with $500 million behind it, Destiny’s servers better not crap out on launch day.

What do you guys think? Is Destiny worth this price tag? Are you going to pick up the game on September 9, and for what platform?

Source – Reuters

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Trailer Will Topple Your Expectations like a House of Cards

Originally the plan was for the newest Call of Duty game, made by Modern Warfare 3 collaborator Sledgehammer Games, to be revealed this coming Sunday, but you know how the Internet works. The official trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out now and it features Kevin Spacey (who is a Southern accent away from portraying Frank Underwood), drones, exoskeletons, hover bikes and much much more. If you thought Black Ops 2 was futuristic, wait until you get a load of this:

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare certainly looks nice, but there are also a lot of signs that point to it being on an upgraded version of the same old engine (I swear, I’ve watched the same running animation for the soldiers in slow-mo since 2007). What do you guys think of this reveal? Back on the Call of Duty hype-train? Can Advanced Warfare pick up after the post-Ghosts slump? According to the trailer, the release date for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is November 4, 2014. No consoles were specifically listed, except for the Xbox One version which provided the footage for the trailer.

Watch Dogs Walkthrough Video Shows off Competitive Multiplayer

Watch Dogs will be upon us very soon, and as such Ubisoft is rolling out walkthorugh videos detailing what you’ll be doing in the game come May 27. The most recent video showcases the multiplayer modes, which range from asymmetrical mobile app versus in-game combat (which I saw at last year’s PAX Prime) to a four-on-four objective-oriented mode. Check out the multiplayer offerings of Watch Dogs below:

Is it just me or does Competitive Decryption Combat look like a ton of fun? What do you guys think about this glimpse at Watch Dogs’ multiplayer modes?

Review: Titanfall

titanfall review

The tumultuous fracturing of Call of Duty creators Infinity Ward in 2010 represented a significant shift in the first person shooter landscape. Free from Activision, IW founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella and a team of former employees founded Respawn Entertainment and joined forces with EA to create a new franchise.

The result of that union is Titanfall, a multiplayer-only FPS where players can control either the agile Pilots or utilize one of three giant robot suits, called Titans, to duke it out. With a massive groundswell of anticipation surging it to the forefront of the collective gamer consciousness, is Titanfall the new king of first person shooters? Continue reading Review: Titanfall

Hotline Miami 2 Lays Down the Beating

Hotline Miami 2 now has a trailer, and my god, it’s beautiful. The first game was one of my favorites, and it looks like the sequel is upping the ante with some ridiculously cool additions.

Dat dual wielding in multi directions, tho.

Optimus Prime in Titanfall is the Greatest April Fools’ Joke Ever

April 1 is probably the worst day of the year for a frequent Internet browser. You can’t believe most of what you read and sometimes the hoaxes are actually kind of rad and make you wish they were real. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon started out as an April Fools’ joke, but somehow I don’t think this trailer for Titanfall DLC which brings in Optimus Prime will become a real thing, which is a shame. Take a look at what the greatest Autobot would look like in Titanfall below.

I’ll admit I thought this was real for a second before I watched it because it seems like such a natural fit. Would you guys want to transform and roll out in Titanfall?

President Obama Talks Smack in Titanfall

This video needs very little introduction, other than saying that someone who does a very good Obama impersonation plays a lot of Titanfall and pretends he’s the President of the United States. The results are pretty glorious, mostly because everyone else is playing along and enjoying the shtick.

Alien: Isolation Sounds Like a Great Game I Will Never Play

Polygon has a fantastic write-up about Alien: Isolation, a first person horror attempt at bringing the Alien franchise back to its roots. While most games try to emulate the space marines feel of James Cameron flick, Isolation plays with your expectations and pits you against one single-minded killing xenomorph.

I will never play this game because I am a wuss, but it sounds awesome.

Review: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

assassins creed 4 black flag review

After 2012’s less-than-stellar entry, the Assassin’s Creed series seemed poised to spend the last few years of its life cycle fighting irrelevancy. While Assassin’s Creed 3 might have sold well, it turned off a lot of people, myself (an admittedly hardcore fan of the franchise) included. Half-baked mechanics, buggy presentation and a bland protagonist were all parts of the gumbo of disappointment that was AC3.

Not long after that game released, Ubisoft announced a follow-up that would take place in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. The new protagonist would be Edward Kenway, father and grandfather to the Assassin’s Creed 3 playable characters Haytham and Connor, respectively. With a game poised to take advantage of the naval combat introduced in AC3, could Black Flag right the ship? Continue reading Review: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

GamerSushi Asks: Spring Releases?

InFamous: Second Son

Finally.

We’re used to slight slumps in gaming. This hobby is defined by periods of feast or famine, it seems, and it’s just one of those things our gaming tummies have grown accustomed to over the years.

But now spring has arrived, and we’ve got a slew of new titles to nom upon, across a variety of platforms. In particular, my Playstation 4 has been mostly unused for the past month, but now it prepares for a helping of InFamous: Second Son, set to arrive later this week. Titanfall likewise graces PC and Xbox One, and Dark Souls II comes out for whatever systems people who care about that game own (if you’re confused about my disdain, listen to the podcast). Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Spring Releases?

Prepare for Titanfall Roll Call

titanfall roll call

Last night at 9pm Pacific time, Respawn’s sci-fi shooter Titanfall finally dropped after what seems like the slowest couple of weeks in my recent memory. Despite a little technical hiccup (the server connection hung on the “initializing” screen for a while) I was able to play the game for a couple of rounds on launch night, so props to Respawn for that.

Overall I found my time with Titanfall to be fairly enjoyable, although in the early hours of the game’s lifespan a few things stuck out to me. While Attrition is fun, a score limit of 250 is quite small, especially if one team is running away with the match. Having such a low victory ceiling doesn’t allow room for a comeback, especially if the other team has four or so Titans on the field. Additionally, it seems like the Smart Pistol might be a bit more bothersome than I originally thought, although that could just be me not being used to countering it.

Since there’s such a groundswell of hype around this game, I thought it would be prudent to do a roll call for Titanfall. What platform (PC, Xbox One or 360) are you playing on? If you feel like it drop your tag into the comments!