Christmas Loot!

treasureMerry Christmas to everyone, from GamerSushi. I hope you guys are all having a safe, fun holiday with lots of presents and time with family. Christmas is maybe my favorite holiday, there’s just a lot of nostalgia and awesome stuff wrapped up all in one day.

That being said, it’s also a time for sweet presents and cool gear. So, tell us about that loot. What did you get? It doesn’t have to be gaming related, just post what you got for Christmas!

So far, I’ve gotten some gift cards, Iron Man on Blu Ray ( I think) and Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling. I haven’t made all the rounds yet, but I’ll post more later.

Post your loot!

Shattered Save Slots: Final Fantasy VII

ff7-1We’ve all got those gaming memories that mean a lot to us. Things that, as a kid or heck, even as an adolescent or adult, have affected us deeply. It’s these moments that we look back upon with wonder, that make us into who we are as gamers, and captured our hearts forever for this “hobby”.

But what happens when someone comes along to shatter that pixel-perfect image you have in your head? In Shattered Save Slots, we take a look at some of gaming’s most memorable moments, and come at them with sarcasm, perspective and brutality.

This week, Eddy looks back at one of his favorite all-time games, Final Fantasy VII. And Anthony comes to… well, poop on it.
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GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather?

The holidays are approaching, which means that you guys will be playing games until your eyes bleed and your thumbs have blisters. It’s as good a time as any to have a brand new “Would You Rather?” feature at GamerSushi!

In “Would You Rather’, I simply ask a series of questions, and you follow up with your responses. Give as much or as little explanation as you want with your answers.

Unless your answers are lame. And if they are, be sure that your name will forever go down in the Lame Book of Laming Lameness. It is real, it is a best seller, and all of your friends read it.

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Anthony Goes Home

Monday night was a weird night. After watching my beloved Tampa Bay Bucs get pounded by the Carolina Panthers, I noticed it was about midnight. I drove up the road to Blockbuster and purchased The Dark Knight and went home to watch it. I decided to check my email first, though, to see if there were any emails from Eddy telling me how great my posts are.

Alas, none from Eddy (probably busy playing Little Orphan Eddy by replaying Fallout 3’s opening tutorial) but I did receive an email from Sony, which brought a brief moment of panic. Had they finally noticed how awesome I am at all their games and sent me a Cease and Desist Pwning email? But no, wrongo. It was an invite to the Playstation Home Beta! I knew my awesomeness would be recognized eventually.

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GameCop Vs LameCop #3

GameCop vs. LameCop is a feature where Anthony and I argue about video game issues, playing the role of either the GameCop or the LameCop as we do so. We switch roles each time. The GameCop has your best interests as gamers at heart, while the LameCop is just what he sounds like: a total loser.

This week, we tackle several issues including Nintendo’s racial epithets in Animal Crossing, gaming companies’ decision to release all of the video games at the same time each year, and releasing buggy games.

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Gaming’s Best Guns

The time of the heavy hitters has come again. That’s right, the holiday season brings with it a tide of the blockbuster video games, and you know what that means? Shooters! Shooters out of and into every orifice that you can possibly imagine, waiting to unleash their tools of mass destruction upon your console or your PC.

Playing all of these recent titles really gets the noodle going, and it brought to mind visions of ordinance past, guns of yore, weapons that have entertained and slayed in the bygone days of gaming.

I wanted to take this opportunity to look at some of my favorite video game guns of all time. These range from the most fun to the most utilitarian to the most destructive that I can remember. They do have one thing in common, though. They all kick ass.

 

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Good And Evil In Games

 SPOILERS AHEAD

Choices involving good, evil and morality seem to be the latest trend in games. In the old days, the only choice you had was whether to use the boomerang or bomb as a secondary weapon in The Legend of Zelda. But times have changed.

At first, the choices were opaque: in Grand Theft Auto III, when not in a mission, you could run around and kill innocent bystanders for no reason. Or you could abide by the law (except traffic laws) and just stick to the straight and narrow. I wreaked as much havoc as possible because that world is a virtual playground and I wanna play! It wasn’t a choice in the way we usually think of them, but it was there for you to decide.

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Gaming’s Biggest Turkeys

Ah, Thanksgiving. When we eat and stuff our faces like we might never taste food again. It’s the time of year where we get to play extra video games, and where we long for Christmas to get the last few that we haven’t bought. In light of this holiday, I thought I’d leave you guys a short feature before departing on my great Turkey adventure tomorrow.

In honor of these great birds on which we feast upon, I wanted to discuss gaming’s biggest turkeys. What do I mean by turkeys? Basically, anything that flopped or completely fell under your expectations. Anything that you devoted your time to that turned out extremely disappointing. That game that broke your heart and that you wanted to be good, but sadly, it just sat there like a lame duck. Er, turkey.

Let’s begin!

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Video Game Characters Secret Confessions!

We all have secrets. There are whole websites devoted to people just telling their secrets and Conan O’Brien has a segment where celebrities can reveal their darkest truths. In this post, Anthony has uncovered some of the most iconic video game character confessions you have never heard!

 

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Valve: Gaming’s Best Storytellers?

One of the most important aspects of any visual medium, be it films, games, graphic novels, machinima, etc- is story. While many people put an emphasis on the kinds of images and effects they can put into their production, it’s ultimately story that leaves a resonating impact on the viewer/participant.

While gaming has come a long way in recent years, I still find this to be one of the more lacking areas in the industry. Game makers just don’t seem interested in telling great stories. Sure, they’re interested in gameplay, physics, art, mechanics, coding and so forth, and if they can slide a decent story into that framework, then great. But it always seems to be an afterthought.

After reading a great article from Gabe Newell about Left 4 Dead’s design and the idea of using “procedural narrative” that simulates a story that is unique to each player, rather than a traditional scripted narrative that unfolds before the player’s eyes, some of my suspicions were confirmed. Namely, that Valve might be the best storytellers in gaming today.

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