Our Sense of Discovery Is Disappearing

Dishonored Spoilers

A recent pattern has emerged over the years and it’s one that makes this crotchety gamer flabbergasted. Video game websites are on a desperate mission to spoil games in as many ways as possible. I’m not just talking about story spoilers, either. No, now we get gameplay videos of full missions of Dishonored, at least 3 of which have been released thus far. The game came out on Tuesday. And yet so far, just from one prominent website that I shall not name (but you can probably guess), we have had posts on: a possible sequel, Easter eggs, tips on how to play the game best, videos showing how many different ways there are to kill enemies, etc…

It’s mind blowing. The game came out this very week and if you had read all these articles, I would question why you even would play the game. Part of video games is about having a sense of discovery, of exploring the world, the environment and figuring out your own way to play it. These posts aren’t doing anyone a service. And other websites do these as well. The most famous game site on the Internet will regularly post videos of endings, while another well-read site will show you the location of every hidden collectible in a game on the day it comes out.

Seriously: Stop doing this. I know there is the argument that people can choose whether or not to read these posts, but can we agree that they shouldn’t be posting things like this on the week the game is released? It’s destroying half the fun of playing the damn thing. We’ve finally reached a point where most websites will not post spoilers about the story, or at least warn you if they are about to, but now we are have inverted the problem by spoiling gameplay.

Am I alone on this? Don’t you think it’s more fun to try things yourself first and not have your hand held through every nook and cranny? Tell us in the comments!

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a Surprisingly OK Live Action Adaption

Live action Halo adaptions have a lot to live up to, what with Landfall, We Are ODST and Deliver Hope setting the bar pretty high. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is set primarily during the United Nations Space Command’s war with the Insurection, years before the Covenant invasion. It follows the story of one Thomas Laskey, a new recruit at the Corbulo Academy of Military Science. Along the way, he ends up meeting the Master Chief, an event which changes his life and puts him on track to be a highly-placed office on the UNSC Infinity, the giant spaceship in Halo 4. You can check part one here, with part two after the jump.

Continue reading Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a Surprisingly OK Live Action Adaption

The Value in Playing Bad Games

EDGE OF TIME

While we’re being blessed with an amazing fall for gaming, sometimes we need to take a step back and reevaluate how we judge the games we play. Even though we avoid bad games, they do exist and sometimes there’s a benefit to playing them just to remind yourself that making a good game is actually pretty hard.

I don’t want to turn this into another “bash Resident Evil 6” fest, but I kind of want to play it just to adjust my views. Between X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Dishonored, Pokemon White Version 2 and Borderlands 2, we’re being kind of spoiled right now and this season is only going to get better. Playing a game like Resident Evil 6 might help me appreciate games more, because if you only sample the best of anything, your tastes get less eclectic and it becomes harder to enjoy the decent titles.

One game I played this year which I enjoyed for what it was was The Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox’s movie tie-in and follow up to the astoundingly bad Edge of Time. If I hadn’t played Edge of Time I might not have liked The Amazing Spider-Man as much as I did, but because I played a game that clearly did not get as much love in developement, Beenox’s next effort seemed better for it. Even though The Amazing Spider-Man is a pale Batman: Arkham City imitation, it has a lot to offer, something I might not have realized if Edge of Time hadn’t lowered my expectations.

So, what about you guys? Do you think there’s a value to playing bad games? Do you always avoid them or do you find they help you keep gaming in perspective?

The Retaliation Co-op Pack Breaths New Life Into Mass Effect 3

mass effect 3 retaliation

It’s been more than half a year and I’m still plugging away at the multiplayer mode for Mass Effect 3. While the mode was a little basic to start off with, the various classes and maps that have been added to the game since release has kept its longevity going, and the new pack for Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer, Retaliation, brings a whole new enemy faction into the mix.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the news on Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer mode, Retaliation reintroduces the Collector faction from Mass Effect 2, but this time around they pack an even bigger punch. Collector captains are the brand new foes and in addition to being tougher than the regular Collector trooper, they can also release Seeker Swarms which block your power usage, something that can be downright terrifying when you’re facing down a couple Scions or a Praetorian.

New player classes have also been bundled with Retaliation, including a turian Havoc (a jetpack-using close combat class) and a volus Adept and Engineer. Yes, those little balls of asthma are now playable, and they’re just as hialrious as you expect. Watching a volus roll around and blast Collectors is quite the sight, especially considering they can’t take cover and just sort of stand behind most obstacles (which works because of their short stature). Cerberus and geth also get new types added to their lineup in the form of the whip-using Dragoon and the grenade-launching Bomber, respectively.

BioWare could have let Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer languish, but they’ve shown a surprising amount of dedication to it. They even put up a whole new web portal for stat tracking, including the brand new N7 challenges. Even though this is the last pack for multiplayer, new classes will continue to be added. While there are still server problems and synchronized kills from the large enemies continue to be frustratingly random and Vanguard-inhibiting, this new feature for the Mass Effect series is still going strong, and is a large part of why it’s staying high in my personal top ten for this year.

Is anyone else still playing ME3 multiplayer? What do you think of Retaliation? Anyone going to hop back in now?

XCOM: Resisting the Temptation

XCOM

Do you ever have one of those games show up on your radar so suddenly that it just kind of takes you back? Like, you’ve got all your priorities lined up, you know where your time is going to go for the next few weeks, and then out of nowhere, you get Falcon Punched by some game you hadn’t even paid attention to?

That’s the case with me and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the new turn-based, tactical role-playing military game from Firaxis. For some reason, I had no interest whatsoever in XCOM for the last year that I’ve been hearing about it. I really can’t tell you why. But then, people started raving about it just a week or two ago. Then they raved more. And harder. We’re talking glowsticks in the air like you just don’t care kind of raving, from all corners of the gaming press.

You can’t help but take notice when that happens. Then I did that thing that we gamers do, when we get on the slippery slope and say that we’ll just read one review or watch just one video of something, just to get our feet a little wet. And then you discover that the game has all kinds of personalization, like naming your team and leveling them up. And you find out how fun the strategy combat looks. And about some of the cool abilities your team gets as the game rolls on. You know, the wonderful stuff games are made of.

And now, dammit, I want to buy XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

So now, a couple of questions: do you guys ever try to resist the temptation to learn about a new game that people are talking about? Who here is getting XCOM? And what is the deciding factor that gets you suddenly interested in a snap decision like this? Go!

Dishonored Review Round-Up

Dishonored Review

Dishonored reviews started skulking in last night at midnight, like a thief in the shadows, stalking his unaware prey. Sorry about that first sentence. Reading so many Dishonored reviews is clearly having an influence on me. Which isn’t exactly surprising given how glowing the reviews have been thus far. With the embargo lifted, we can finally find out what this exciting new IP has to offer.

The first one I read was IGN’s 9.2 review, which read:

Each mission is built as an elaborate network of choices for players to explore, and the same can be said for Corvo himself. Each player’s selection of powers, perks and other upgrades will inform how they see and interact with this world, and no two play-throughs will be exactly the same.

Receiving a score of 9 or higher at IGN isn’t exactly impossible to do these days, but from the text, the score sounds justified.

Patrick Klepek of Giant Bomb also enjoyed the game, likening it to Deus Ex, but with better combat and giving it 4 out of 5 stars. Regarding the skills you obtain in the game, he said:

Other powers allow you to take control of people and animals, another one stops time and can eventually be used to have someone kill themselves with their own bullet. How? Pause time when the shot is fired, possess them, and place them in front of where you just were. Combined with a proper combat system, Dishonored encourages rampant experimentation.

Ben Kuchera of Penny Arcade was taken with the game’s choices, stating:

It’s fun to share your solutions to the game’s puzzles with your friends and other players. “You can do that?” I found myself saying to people sharing their stories about a clever use of weapons or abilities, before scrambling back to the game to try it myself.

When we watched the Dishonored trailer, we made a point to joke about all the obvious influences the game clearly has. Mitch and I even Shunned the game in a recent feature. But it appears that Dishonored managed to live up to the high expectations set by both the developers and the marketing team. I was wary of the game for many reasons, but it seems my worries were unfounded. I know there has been some concern about game length, but I don’t think that is an issue as it sounds like someone did a speed-run. I plan on purchasing (Or receiving on Christmas) Dishonored in the future. Do the Dishonored reviews change your mind or confirm what you already suspected? Hit the comments!

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 54: We’re So, So Sorry

the gamersushi show ep 54 resident evil 6

It’s been a few weeks, faithful listeners, but we’re back. It’s kind of hard to get a balance going once we start the podcast again, but we’ll probably be back up to weekly casts right before we go on another break. C’est la vie, non?

In this episode we’ve got some apologizing to do around Resident Evil 6, which is apparently the worst game ever. Seriously, we’re really sorry about how much time we devoted to this game over the past year.

We also talk about Cliffy B and the BioWare Doctors leaving the industry which evolves into a talk of whether there are anymore big name people left beyond the standards (Newell, Miamoto and the like). It’s a really cool talk about the state of the industry and how faceless it’s become in some ways.

We also talk about Borderlands 2 (nee Bonerhands) for a while and then we chat about our most anticipated games for the rest of the year.

So! You know how it goes. Listen, rate, and please accept our apologies.

0:00 – 1:33 Intro
1:33 – 14:25 Resident Evil 6
14:26 – 17:17 Over/Under Checkup
17:18 – 31:10 Cliffy B and the BioWare Docs
31:11 – 40:42 Borderlands 2
40:43 – 53:00 Most anticipated game of the rest of 2012
53:00 – 54:45 Outro

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GamerSushi Asks: The Next Resident Evil 6?

Jake

Crow has been the on the menu at GamerSushi HQ this past week, as the demo and subsequent reviews of Resident Evil 6 shattered the hearts and broke the minds of your beloved GS staff. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, finger-pointing, accusations, allegations, recriminations and even a fight club. As the dust cleared and the fires finally faded, we were left with the acrid taste of disappointment that appears when an anticipated game turns out to be a letdown.

Which got me thinking about the future and the next time that this travesty will occur. So I ask you, dear readers, what Triple-A title will be the next to smash the hopes of millions of gamers? Generally, I am thinking of games from established franchises when I ask this, such as Assassin’s Creed 3? Doubtful. Ubisoft has shown a remarkable consistency, which is an achievement considering it has become an annual release. Bioshock Infinite? The delays may be disturbing, but it does point to a concerted effort to get things right. Personally, I don’t know. Some think it might be Halo 4. I certainly hope not, but there is a lot riding on that one, so it could be the one.

What say you? What future game from an existing franchise will be the next Resident Evil 6? GO!

Review: Borderlands 2

bordlerands 2 review

2009’s Borderlands was an interesting animal back when it released. A mishmash of RPG and FPS with a lot of loot thrown in, it stayed aloft mostly on a wing and a prayer. It was a little bland in its environmental design, the story lacked any real payoff, and it was too easy to break the various classes available to you. That said, it was fresh and unique and had an excellent crop of post-release DLC to keep it in people’s minds.

Three years later, Gearbox is taking another crack at it. With more polish, more PC options and even more guns, does Borderlands 2 hold even more for gamers or does it deserve to be sold as vendor trash? Continue reading Review: Borderlands 2

Take Up Ten Minutes of Your Day with SimCity Gameplay

One of the major reasons I upgraded my PC recently was to ensure that I would be able to enjoy the upcoming SimCity in all its simmy glory. It’s been far too long since we’ve had a proper entry in the series (the last being SimCity 4 in 2003) and this game looks like it will bring back all the fond memories I have of completely mismanaging my city because I’m really bad at financial planning.

There’s ten minutes of SimCity gameplay footage to watch, though, so go on. Take a look.

What do you guys think? Will you be getting the new SimCity?

Poll: Most Anticipated October Release?

Well, we are officially in the depths of fall 2012. September was just a taste, with Borderlands 2 clearly dominating everyone’s mind for the better part of the month. But the first challenger arrives tomorrow with the release of Resident Evil 6. Though the reviews are mixed so far, I’m sure it will still be a big seller for Capcom.

But the zombie game is only the first of what might be the best month of the year. Dishonored and AC III will battle it out for the assassin crown, while EA tries to take out Call of Duty once again with Medal of Honor. There were so many games coming out this month that I decided to list all the major ones here instead of limiting the choices to 5 or 6. Be sure to let us know in the comments where you hard-earned gaming dollars are going. For me, it’s all about Assassin’s Creed III. And I’m sure I am not the only one. GO!

Most Anticipated October Release?

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Today’s WTF: Mass Effect Trilogy Doesn’t Include Paid DLC

mass effect trilogy dlc

It’s almost like EA is goading us on purpose now. The recently announced Mass Effect Trilogy collection sounds pretty neat and looks even cooler (what with the unified designs on the disc labels) but it will only include the DLC that came free with the various Online Passes associated with the game, and you’ll have to pay for the other bits.

I’ve never heard of a collection of any work where parts of it were purposely left out and you had to buy them separately. Hell, George Lucas kept adding stuff when nobody wanted it. For those curious, here’s a breakdown of what you will get with the package in terms of DLC:

On PC, Mass Effect will include Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station on disk. For Mass Effect 2, Cerberus Network will be included which features Zaeed – The Price of Revenge, The Firewalker Pack, Cerberus Assault Gear, Arc Projector heavy weapon, and Normandy Crash site mission. For Mass Effect 3, Online Pass will be included granting players access to co-op multiplayer.

On Xbox 360, Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station are not included with Mass Effect, however they are available as stand-alone downloads through Xbox LIVE. For Mass Effect 2, Cerberus Network will be included and Online Pass will be included for Mass Effect 3.

Information on PlayStation 3 DLC will be available soon.

Not bundling Mass Effect 2 with Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker is baffling, because those two add-ons were fantastic, and in the case of Lair, essential to the series’ story. Arrival I can take or leave, but regardless, I think that all the DLC should be bundled in.

What do you guys think about this? Should EA throw in the DLC or am I just making too much of a fuss about this? I get that EA is a business, but this just seems like an unnecessary cash-grab.

Soruce – Mass Effect Trilogy

Dishonored: Fun or Shun?

dishonored fun or shun

Welcome back to Fun or Shun, the feature where two GamerSushi editors take a look at an upcoming game and give their thoughts on whether or not they want to buy it. We did this last year with the excellent Deus Ex: Human Revolution and now Anthony and I are putting Dishonored, the Bethesda-published steampunk game, under the microscope.

Will Dishonored stand up to the intense scrutiny? Will it triumph based on its pre-release material, or are we feeling a bit cold towards it? Onward, adventurer! Continue reading Dishonored: Fun or Shun?

GamerSushi Asks: The Perfect Console?

Wii U

With the Wii U getting a lot of buzz lately and all this talk of what Microsoft and Sony could have in store for us in the future, it occurred to me ask you, our beloved and wise readers: what would you want in a next-gen console? I don’t mean specs or anything like that, although do let me know if you want something slightly more powerful and less expensive or if you want a graphics powerhouse and have to pay more money.

I am more curious about what features you would be interested in, such as Nintendo TVii (UGH), multimedia applications, controller support, DRM for used games, online support and so forth. Consoles have come a long way since I was a kid. Now they are the (allegedly) the centerpiece of the living room and people expect more out of them than they used to. So hit the comments because this is your chance to let your voice be heard. Maybe the gods will hear our cries and actually deliver. GO!

Review: Mark of the Ninja

mark of the ninja review

Klei Entertainment is known for making 2D games with a really refined art style that are sadly a little lacking in the gameplay. While Shank and Shank 2 were by no means bad games, they were beset by a bit of monotony and a lack of polish in some of the fighting.

Mark of the Ninja is trying a completely different track, though, eschewing the over-the-top action of the Shank games and putting you in the tabi cloth of a ninja, one who has been gifted (cursed?) with an ever-growing collection of mystical tattoos which grant him great powers at the cost of his sanity. Can Klei make the transition from brutal violence to the beauty of a well-timed stealth kill? Continue reading Review: Mark of the Ninja

Black Ops 2 Zombie Mode Goes on a Road Trip

Somehow a throw-away game mode from Call of Duty: World at War has taken on a life of its own (with its own convoluted back-story), and with every new Treyarch-produced Call of Duty game I find myself anticipating what kind of new crazy twist they’ll throw at us. The new way to slay in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s zombie mode is apparently a roving murder-bus, where you and three friends will go on a road trip in an armored vehicle, stopping along the way to kill the undead. There’s a new trailer, which you can check out below.

Apparently this new game mode will be an expansive sandbox for players to explore, and the driving sections in between the hubs will not just be loading screens, but another arena to fend off the living dead. There will also be a CIA vs CDC mode where the two opposing teams can grief each other indirectly; they’re not able to harm each other one on one but will be able to find other ways to indirectly cause the death of their enemies. There’s not too much more info about that mode, but it looks like the old zombie formula is being expanded on yet again.

I’m not going to lie, Treyarch’s Call of Duty games have usually hooked me in with zombie mode and Black Ops 2 looks no different. What about you guys? Are you feeling the familiar tugging on your purse-strings, or is that just a horde of shambling grotesqueries reaching for you from beyond the grave?

Review: Max Payne 3

max payne 3 review

After Remedy moved on to Alan Wake, Rockstar was left holding the bag for the Max Payne franchise, having published the first two games in the series for consoles. Instead of bringing on a developer with experience in the third-person shooter genre, Rockstar decided to tackle Max Payne 3 themselves. If I’m being kind, the shooting in the Grand Theft Auto games and Red Dead Redemption were passable, mainly because there were so many other things to do in those games that you could kind of work around it. Max Payne, however, is all about the shooting. The normal shooting, the slow-motion shooting, and the slow-motion-diving-backwards-down-a-flight-of-stairs-it’s-so-bad-ass shooting.

Developed by Rockstar Vancouver and written by Dan Houser with a serious case of Man on Fire envy, does Max Payne 3 deliver the same pill-popping thrills the series is known for? Continue reading Review: Max Payne 3

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

ftl game

Games, guys. Games. Well, more accurately Borderlands 2 and some other stuff, but still. The big season is picking back up and there’s already too many damn things to play. I can’t keep track of it all, so I thought I would make a handy dandy post so you guys can write down the titles current spinning in your console or taking up your hard drive.

The top of the list for me is Borderlands 2, and I’m already in the new game + mode, or “True Vault Hunter”. Yes, Axton and I are going through that game again and the loot you get on the second run through is just insane. There’s an old World of Warcraft joke “green is the new purple” and that’s very apropos here. Just as an aside, the Commando is so much better than the Soldier from the first Borderlands. Having a turret that is able to rotate 360 degrees is a godsend.

Other than that I’ve been playing some FTL (including the ill-fated Flight of The Sushian), Black Mesa and Battlefield 3. I picked up Spec Ops: The Line for super cheap and I’m excited to start that. I also need to finish Mark of the Ninja and I have Sleeping Dogs waiting in the wings, so yeah. A lot of stuff.

What have you guys been playing? Any of the above games or something different?

Memorable Game Moments For Sale

MGS 3: The End

“Wow.”

That was my reaction immediately after defeating The End, the wizened sniper of legend in Metal Gear Solid 3. It took two hours to end The End. Two breathless hours, filled with tension, frustration and exhilaration. As I continued on Snake’s trek through the jungle, I kept thinking back to The End and how I would like to play that section of the game again. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep a save, so I would have to play about seven hours to get there again. And that is just not appealing to me.

But what if there were a service on PSN, XBLA and even Steam, that sold you snippets of game? What if you could buy the most memorable moments of classic games (classic being anything other than current gen) for a small price? Wouldn’t you pay $.99 or even $2.99 just to skip right to The End? Or perhaps play the entire level of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s infamous Ghillies in the Mist mission? What if Square Enix sold just the Midgar section of Final Fantasy VII? Or even the Gold Saucer section, if you have a hankering for mini-games? How has this idea not been exploited yet? If there are two things we know, it’s publishers enjoy our money and we enjoy giving it to them. This is a win-win and it might even spur sales of those classic games. Maybe someone enjoys The End battle so much that they run out and purchase the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection.

What say you? Would this be something you would like to see? What memorable moments would you be willing to pay for? GO!

Ten Years of Battlefield

battlefield 3 tenth anniversary

If there’s any franchise that I have an unrequited love for, it has to be Battlefield, DICE’s multi-arms warfare FPS. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s been ten years since 1942 introduced us to an almost new style of gameplay with wide-open playgrounds and a multitude of vehicles. When you look back at the release dates for the Battlefield games, they actually came out at a fairly fast clip (one every two years for the most part) but the wait between each game felt like a long time to my young mind.

My favorite game in the series is a tie between Battlefield 2 and 2142. It’s kind of funny to look at my stats for both 2 and 2142 because it felt like I played them for hours, when in reality I’ve spent more time in Battlefield 3. Battlefield 2, 2142 and Bad Company 2 were all played in groups with friends, with the numbers slowly dwindling over time. As people move on and computers get more expensive to upgrade (for some of us), my BF crew got whittled down to myself and my friend Chris, with occasional guest appearances by Eddy and his brother.

While Battlefield is best played with friends, the game still offers up plenty of sublime moments even if you’re playing solo. No Battlefield game is perfect (by any means, all of them have been heavily patched and still launch with some pretty glaring flaws) but DICE is up to the challenge of balancing and fixing their games, sometimes completely changing the way the game feels and plays.

Do you guys have as long and storied a history as I do with Battlefield? Anything to say on its tenth anniversary? What are you hoping for in the future of this franchise? Go!