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Review: Assassin’s Creed II DLC Twofer Posted by Mitch on March 9th, 2010

Assassin’s Creed II has some new DLC, and Mitch got to review it! Does he heart it as much as the main game, or does it make him sad face? Find out inside!

Warren Spector Speaks Truth to Power About Motion ControlPosted by Mitch on March 11th, 2010

As we all know, the Game Developer Conference is happening this week down in San Francisco, and there’s a lot of news coming out about Sony’s Move motion controller. While it’s got a few developers excited about the possibilities, one industry veteran doesn’t think too highly about the rush to embrace gaming’s new zeitgeist.

Warren Spector has been in the video game industry for a long time, starting off with Wing Commander in the 1990s, but he’s perhaps most renown for his work on Thief, Deus Ex, and System Shock. With such a history behind him, surely he’s one to listen to when it comes to debating the merits of motion control. As Gamasutra’s new interview states, Mr. Spector isn’t so hot on the idea of motion control, mostly because it’s essentially “throwing away our entire history”. During the “Lunch with Luminaries” event at GDC, something I would give my left arm to attend, Warren had this to say about motion control:

“I think it’s kind of weird…that we’ve sort of said, ‘We’ve go 20, 30 years of people learning how to do this — sitting on their couch and having a good time, and knowing where the buttons are — and we’re saying ‘You’ve got to stand up and wave around and gesture,’”

He goes on to quantify his statement: More »

Splinter Cell: Conviction Co-Op InterviewPosted by Eddy on March 11th, 2010

Man, the more I see for Splinter Cell: Conviction, the more pumped I get about it. I’ve been trying to avoid getting media overload from the whole thing, but it’s hard to stay away from great new videos that tease me with what I’ve been wanting since the co-op mode of Chaos Theory.

Ubisoft isn’t letting up apparently, and have given us a brand new video featuring a co-op mode interview. It sheds some new light on the mode, and gives tons of glimpses into the gameplay and the strategy that’s going to have to go into it from two players. I seriously can’t wait to play this, and it’s hard to believe it comes out next month.

Anybody else pumped?

Introducing: PlayStation MovePosted by Eddy on March 11th, 2010

Ever since Nintendo dropped trou on the video game industry with its motion control system, and then consequently made a metric crapload of money, it was only a matter of time before the other boys followed suit. We all knew that Project Natal from Microsoft was worming its way into our homes sometime soon, but there had been little development from Sony’s side of the ring.

Well, the gloves are now off. It seems that Sony has officially announced PlayStation Move, its new motion control device that is totally not a Wii-mote, as indicated by that strange blue ball on the end. Anyway, VG247 has a list of all the PS Move news you could shake a stick at, so I’d recommend checking that out if you want in on all the dirty details. The more interesting pieces of information include the fact that 20 first party titles are going to support PS Move when it launches this holiday, and that the device will be bundled with the EyeToy for a measly $100 bones.

So, what do you guys think of the PS Move? Go!

Source- VG247

The Real Life Portal (Nerf) GunPosted by Eddy on March 11th, 2010

Some time ago, I believe we posted a video of the hilarious Freddie Wong playing Bike Hero, and there was much merriment along with the transpiring of lulz. Well, it seems that Wong is back with a new live action short, this one built around Portal, and purchasing a real life Portal gun from Aperture Science, which apparently looks like a Nerf gun.

I’m a big fan of this dude, so it’s great to see more video game related stuff out of his channel. Oh, and don’t bother with the subliminal message at the end. It pretty much just says “ha, I got you to decode this”, only much longer. Anyway, enjoy!

What is With All the Streamlining?Posted by Mitch on March 9th, 2010

While Bad Company 2 was released last week on March 2, another sequel that I was greatly anticipating came out that day as well: Supreme Commander 2, the follow up to 2007’s large-scale strategy title. I’d been hearing mumblings going into its release that it was going to eschew the heavy system requirements necessary to render the huge battlefields of the previous game, but I doubted that Gas Powered Games was going to stray too far from the formula of the original. After all, there’s something unique and cathartic about building up a huge base, stocking it with top tier defense guns and shields, then pummeling the enemy’s fortifications with a gigantic navy. The game had a charm that could only come from a prohibitive resource management system, but I loved it all the same.

Now that I’ve had a chance to play Supreme Commander 2 a bit, I can’t help but notice how severely pared down it is from its original inception. I wonder when I became vogue to start taking formerly complicated games and trimming all of the fat off of them. While this trend has been seeing movement for a while, there is another recent example of a game series that started off as bloated with genre tropes as you can possibly get then got whittled down to the bare essentials: Mass Effect. Like I mentioned in my recent post about the upcoming DLC, I’ve been playing the original and the differences in the inventory and level management system are staggering. The same thing is true with Supreme Commander in that there are no more tech trees and the unit upgrades are managed through a simple interface as opposed to a constant advancement of technology.
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Mass Effect 2 Says “Tanks” For the MemoriesPosted by Mitch on March 9th, 2010

I’ve been replaying Mass Effect one recently so I can import a character over to the sequel, something I wasn’t able to do on my three play-throughs (quiet, Eddy). For those of you who may not be familiar with the mechanics of importing versus not importing a legacy Shepard, the game assumes that you made certain decisions, all of which follow the Renegade path, something I don’t usually do in moral choice games.

While Mass Effect one still holds up, one thing that’s really getting to me are the Mako driving sections. That armored personnel carrier handles like a hyper-active child throwing his Hot Wheels around, and I’ve gotten stuck in narrow canyons more times than I care to mention. While I may hate the Mako with a passion, the good folks over at BioWare have decided to give the old wheeled vehicle a make-over and transform it into a hovering tank. Watch the tank in action in the following video:

Pretty slick, if you ask me. Looks like BioWare solved all the complaints with the Mako, which were mostly concerning handling and the occasional problem of not being able to aim properly due to wonky terrain. Most of us have probably finished our ME2 campaigns by now, but who’s going to jump back in and give the “Firewalker” DLC pack a try? It’s coming out late March free for Cerberus members, and those who didn’t buy the game new will have to pay $15USD to join the Network.

Modern Warfare 2 Machinima: No RussianPosted by Eddy on March 8th, 2010

I am a man who has an affinity for some mighty fine machinima from time to time. That’s why I’ve taken a liking to a cool new video by YouTube user Michael Barnes, who has produced a new Modern Warfare 2 machinima titled No Russian.

The video is basically a re-telling of Modern Warfare 2’s plot, with different camera angles and what looks to be some sick as hell settings on his video card. I honestly don’t remember Modern Warfare 2 looking this good, but I really like what he’s done and how he’s cut everything together. Impressive stuff, I must say. Anyway, give it a watch and revel. That’s an order.

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?Posted by Eddy on March 7th, 2010

We’ve repeated it so many times, but I think it can’t be overstated: the amount of great games we’re getting so far this early in 2010 (with more still to come) is simply staggering. Already we’ve played a game of the year candidate in Mass Effect 2, seen some stuff we’ve never seen before in Heavy Rain, and soon will be revisited by an old friend in Final Fantasy XIII. Oh, and that’s not to mention the Resident Evil 5 DLC (second pack released last week), Crackdown 2 (coming this summer), Splinter Cell: Conviction or the newly released Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Speaking of DICE’s new game, that’s what I’ve been playing a good bit of this week, in addition to Heavy Rain as well as Tropico 3. If you’re curious, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a fantastic multiplayer game, and even has a fairly decent single player game, from what I’ve experienced. I’ve been up late a few nights playing some epic multiplayer matches. Something that’s become obvious to me is that I simply love Battlefield’s multiplayer format. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or simple that its layout is just better than many other games, but whatever it is, it hits me in that special place.

So what about you guys? What are you playing lately? Go!

Review: Heavy RainPosted by Eddy on March 5th, 2010

In these parts and others, there is often the discussion of video games as a storytelling medium, and how it fares compared to its brethren such as films, books and the like. More often than not, gamers expect video game stories to be an afterthought, a means to an end, with the “end” being a fun game with engaging gameplay. The story simply serves as the vehicle by which you move from Level 1 to Level 2, the reason you are shooting/whipping/jumping to your next goal.

Quantic Dreams’ flagship title, Heavy Rain, promises something different. On the heels of the well received Indigo Prophecy from 2005, the studio set out to top their original interactive storytelling with a tale more realistic, lifelike and ultimately emotionally engrossing. So, how does the PS3 exclusive fare in this regard? Does it change the way we experience a story in this medium with all of the weight of a towering thunderhead? Or is it simply, and I can’t resist this awful pun, a light drizzle? Ahem. Let’s move on.
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