Tag: resident evil 5

The GamerSushi Top 20 Games of the Generation

Top20

Between gimmicky Wii shovelware, Red Rings of Death and large price points tainted by giant crab battles, this generation started with something akin to a whimper—and that’s being generous. But as the years went on, we were not only treated to one of the longest generations of console gaming, but also the most fruitful. We saw games take great strides in scope and imagination. With dozens of new IPs that hold great promise, some of the most fantastic sequels ever made and new approaches to storytelling, it’s safe to say that gamers are in a better situation now than they were back in 2005, when the Xbox 360 first debuted.

On the even of a new generation, we thought we’d take a look back at this last generation—and perhaps one of the greatest we’ve ever had. Over the course of several weeks, the GamerSushi staff voted on the best experiences of this generation, getting in heated debates, pitting games against each other in vicious battles and nearly ending several friendships. Below are the results.

Thees are our top 20 games of this generation. Enjoy, dudes. Continue reading The GamerSushi Top 20 Games of the Generation

Transferring Franchises from East to West

Legend of Zelda

Japanese game development has had some bumpy spots as of late. The old school game dudes can’t seem to catch much of a break, and some would argue (and by that I mean me) that they are losing touch with gamers outside of their own country. I wouldn’t say that they are getting worse at what they do by any means, but there seems to a part of the industry that’s moving past them. So what about all those classic Japanese franchises?

That’s why CVG has put together a list of 7 Games Japan Should Give to Western Developers. I’m not entirely in agreement with everything they’ve got down on here, especially with Final Fantasy, which is just one title removed from being a really excellent series again. Likewise, they list Resident Evil on here as well, but Resident Evil 5 was a huge hit, a critically acclaimed game and was designed with many Western sensibilities in mind. Also, many racers should be striving to achieve what Mario Kart has done even in recent years. It’s hardly stagnant. Those aside (plus the really ridiculous names they’ve given the titles), I agree with the rest of the list, particularly Legend of Zelda.

Interestingly enough, we did a feature very similar to this last summer. So what do you guys think of this? Would you take those Japanese franchises and give them to Western developers, or leave them where they are? Go!

Source – CVG

GamerSushi Asks: What Are Your “S” Games?

One of the things that the GamerSushi staff likes to debate in lengthy e-mail threads and occasionally on podcasts is the difference between an “A” rated game and an “S” rated game, based on the qualifications laid out in our grade chart. As some of you know, our review system underwent a major overhaul last year, where we tried to spread out our grades a little more. So often, review sites fail to distinguish between great games and classic games.

For me, an “S” game isn’t just a great “A” game that you love. It’s something a little more than that. One of my favorite games of this generation is Resident Evil 5, and I wouldn’t distinguish it with that remarkable rating because I feel like it lacks that intangible quality that stamps it as one of the greats.

Ideally, there are only a handful of games that reach that mark every generation. For this gen I would say Portal, Call of Duty 4 and Uncharted 2 easily fall into that category. I would also say Red Dead Redemption, but that’s another issue altogether. For last gen I would say Shadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear Solid 3 are the top two that come to mind, though there are definitely many others (side argument: did last gen have the most “S” games?).

Anyway, as we are taking another look at our review system as some new changes (hint: get excited) are in the works here at GamerSushi, I wanted to ask what you think gives a game that special something, that quality that makes it stand out from the pack. In addition, what games this generation would you give an “S” to, and can you remember any from last gen? Go!

Resident Evil 6 Coming ASAP, Says Capcom

Resident Evil 5

BOOM. That sound you just heard was the minds of your 5 favorite gaming nerds here at GamerSushi exploding. 1UP is reporting that Keiji Inafune, the head of global production at Capcom, has stated that they intend to get Resident Evil 6 released “as soon as possible”.

This is no surprise given the commercial and critical success of the previous entry, Resident Evil 5, AKA GamerSushi Game of the Century. The report also states that they will have some news regarding this soon…perhaps at Tokyo Game Show later this month?

Are you excited for a new Resident Evil? What direction do you think they should go? Keep the co-op? Add more players? Get rid of it altogether? Speak now!

Source: 1UP

Are Demos Evil?

Resident Evil 5 DemoI feel like we’ve got a pretty good thing going on here at GamerSushi. In many ways, I’d like to feel like the discussion that goes on here is perhaps ahead of the curve on some gaming issues in comparison to other sites. I think this is especially true when topics we’ve debated about here start to appear in more mainstream outlines.

Take the subject of demos, for instance. CVG has posted an opinion piece stating that demos are evil, and no good really comes of them. The writer raises some good points which we’ve covered here, but I thought it would be good to revisit them. I think the main problem with demos is that they don’t often showcase the things about a game you really need to get a grasp of it.

Most games operate on a curve that teaches you about the game the farther you get into it, so the first few minutes is most often ideal. However, the first 10-15 minutes aren’t always the sexiest parts of the game, so developers don’t often do that, giving you weird glimpses into what they’ve made (see Resident Evil 5’s demo). I’m curious to see how the new PSN features that allow you to experience the first hour of a game operate, and how they work against game demos.

What do you guys think about game demos? Are they evil?

Source- CVG

GamerSushi Grade Chart Part Deux

grade-sheet-smallA month back or so, we asked for your input on how our grading scale worked for the games we review here at GamerSushi. You all weighted in with you thoughts, and gave some really valuable input that helped us in our discussions about how we should address our grading system going forward. Seriously, it really pointed us in the right direction. So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce to you the brand new version of the grade chart.

We’ve created a new page that has a breakdown (written by Anthony) of how the updated grading scale works. We basically combined several ideas that people gave us.

Our problem before was that since we are a small site with limited resources beyond our own wits (and even that isn’t much), there’s no way we’re going to be reviewing games that are truly worthy of D’s or F’s. Even C’s for that matter. All of our scores ended up being in the same zone for this reason, because half of our scale was useless.

What we’ve done now is address that issue by re-scaling the chart so that it basically only takes into account the hyped or AAA titles. That means that even a D could still be a good game, just a blockbuster title we didn’t enjoy as much as others. On top of all that, we ditched the +/- system, and added a new grade of “S” for the truly special games. This took care of the issues we were having where a game like Resident Evil 5 deserved an A+, but on our old scale, that would mean it was one of the “greatest games of all time”, along with Uncharted 2. In our new scale, RE5 becomes an A and Uncharted 2 becomes an S.

Anywho, Anthony explains all of that much better on the new grade chart page. I’d suggest checking it out and leaving your thoughts here! We’ll be re-scoring all of our reviews over the next weekend, so tell us your thoughts on those, too.

EDIT: Nick made the sweet graphic of the grade chart. He yelled at me for not telling you guys that. Whoops. NICK MADE IT.

GamerSushi Asks: On Reviews?

grade-sheetOne of the things we strive for here at GamerSushi is to include you guys and keep this as democratic as possible (within reason of course) in order to make this an awesome community. As you all know, one of the things we do here is review games, most often the bigger titles that are hitting the market.

So, in regards to our reviews, I have a few questions. The first one: what do you guys think of our rubric? While it used to please us, lately we’ve been having some issues with it. For instance, a few months back, I gave Resident Evil 5 an A instead of an A+ simply because by our rubric, it wasn’t “one of the greatest games of all time”. However, looking back, I still desperately want to give it an A+, rubric be damned.

That’s just one small example out of the many, but I think something about our rubric is what’s making most of our game scores fall in the B+ to A range. I’d like to fix this however possible, and we’re open to suggestions from you guys. I’m convinced that letter grades are the best thing to do, but I’m ready to hear out other thoughts.

Second question: what do you guys think of us going back and permanently adjusting review scores? I know that in some communities, the site gets vilified for changing scores, but personally, I think that more sites ought to go back and re-evaluate games months after the fact. Off the top of my head, I think that I scored Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead and Metal Gear Solid 4 all far too high, and would like to change them.

So, tell us your thoughts on those. We’re gearing up for some changes around here (hence the less frequent posts over the last few weeks), so there will be more of these kinds of questions coming. Go!

Getting the Gaming Craving

firefightOh man, what a weekend and a week. You guys may have noticed a lack of posting on my part. That is because my life is just a poopstorm of activity these days, with a slight chance of things slowing down finally. We’ll see. My wife and I just bought a house a couple of weeks ago, and have finally moved in. In addition, I’ve been working on Web Zeroes and not to mention my full time job. Mitch, likewise has just started a new job as well, and Anthony’s PC broke. So, we’re doing our best, and I think things are finally about to return to normal.

Since I’ve been so busy, I’ve missed out on the chance to play some games over the last week. And the thing is, the longer it goes, the more I’m starting to crave it again. I find myself oddly dying to play games I haven’t touched in a while, like Resident Evil 5 or Fallout 3. Though another part of me just wants to kick back and do some Firefight in ODST.

So what about you guys? When’s the last time you’ve had to go awhile without playing any games? What games do you start to crave when you haven’t played in awhile?

GamerSushi Asks: Best So Far?

re5-1The future-sounding year of 2009 is rapidly drawing to a close. I mean, seriously, can anyone else believe that it’s almost September? While we haven’t gotten to the incredi-blast of games yet, there have been some titles for everyone to enjoy over the course of the year so far.

For me, if I were to have to pick a game of the year right now, before the holiday releases, I’d pick Resident Evil 5 hands down. There was simply so much game for the value there that it really took me by surprise, and the co-op action just adds to it all the more. On top of that, Capcom completely succeeded at giving the game tons of replayability. Besides that, I’d also have to say that Battlefield 1943 and Wolverine would be in the running.

What about you guys? What is the best game you’ve played this year? It doesn’t have to have come out this year, even. Go!

Analyzing Single Player Pricing with Dead Space

dead-spaceThough I didn’t get to play much of Dead Space when it released, I’ve been wanting to do so, even though I’m a big wuss when it comes to survival-horror games. Many people I know have played and loved the game, so it’s definitely on my list of titles I’d love to tackle eventually.

How did it do in sales, though? Well, according to the most recent EA podcast, it seems that twice as many people played Dead Space as bought it. Though there was some internal speculation about this, the discussion revolved around whether or not the game had enough content to justify its $60 price point. When you’re matched up against a game like Fallout 3, which is 40 hours easily without multiplayer, then that certainly makes sense.

So what do you guys look for when you buy a single player game? Would you rather it have more modes, or multiplayer added on? What kind of content do you need to spend $60? Personally, I feel like Resident Evil 5 is one of the most recent examples of a game that didn’t have traditional multiplayer giving you plenty of bang for the buck. What do you think?

Source- Kotaku

A Gamer Growing Older

g_simpsonAs I get older and grumpier (which some people did not think that was possible, but I got skills) I find myself changing in the way I play and look at games. I love them, but I don’t feel the need to rush out and get something on the first day or to play it over and over trying to get 100% completion. I just don’t have the time anymore or the energy.
Continue reading A Gamer Growing Older

GamerSushi Asks: Games You Thought Would Suck?

re5So this weekend, I played me a ton of Resident Evil 5. The co-op mode in particular is such a blast to play, especially the farther you progress. The game really does get more action-oriented the longer you play, which is wild considering that when it starts, you’re conserving your ammo like a mad man and trying to find loot under every rock and barrel you come across. It’s not long before you’re hording ridiculously power up-ed weapons and slaughtering the masses of infected zombie-people.

The thing that shocks me the most about this game is that I’m actually loving it. For a game that I wasn’t excited about in the slightest to just come along and grab me so really is a testament I think to just how fun it is to play. I know I made several posts about the game’s controls (which I still believe you should be able to run in the damn thing), but all in all, it really has surprised me with its awesomeness.

What was the last game that you thought that was going to be lame, but turned out to be totally awesome? Go!

GamerSushi Asks: Spring Releases?

sf4The prolific times of the year for video games show up around February/March, August, and October/November. As we come up to the first big season of the gaming year, there are quite a few notable titles looming on the horizon. Halo Wars, Killzone 2, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter IV seem to round out the list.

Right now, I’m actually really looking forward to both Halo Wars and Killzone 2, which couldn’t represent more of a polar opposite in terms of fanboy and genre appeal. While I’m not sold on Resident Evil 5, I’m still anxious to actually play the game proper, and Street Fighter IV is just nowhere on my radar, even though it looks fun. I guess I’m just not that into fighters anymore.

Which of these titles are you guys looking forward to? Which could you care less about? Go!

GamerSushi Asks: Potential Flops?

re5We’ve all been there. That game that you’ve been waiting for finally releases. You rush home with it, open it, put it in the disc tray, and start playing… only, it’s not what you thought it was going to be. You keep waiting for it to get better, but alas- it never does. This has happened far too many times in our pastime, and the sad news is that it won’t be going away any time soon.

So, out of the games that are coming out for 2009, which do you think are going to flop, or have the biggest potential to flop? Are there any particularly hyped games that you think/worry might be disappointing once you get your hands on it?

For me, I’m thinking that Resident Evil 5 might be one of those titles. After playing some great games so far this gen, not being able to run and shoot to me seems like a card poorly played. I’m also thinking that Prototype might not be all its cracked up to me, as well as Halo 3: ODST. Not getting to play as the Chief I think will really hurt this game.

What about you guys?