Duke Nukem Forever, shown in its resurgent form at PAX 2010 thanks to Gearbox Software, is finally gaining some momentum and is actually coming to home systems next year. The game has only been shown behind closed doors so far, but plenty of off-screen footage has been taken. This most recent video, taken at the Firstlook gaming convention in Amsterdam, shows that the humor that was prevalent in the series back in the day is still permeating the title. Whether or not people still find this stuff funny is up for debate, but I thought I’d post the video anyways since I know a bunch of you are jonesing hard for this one. The game actually starts going at two minutes in if you want to skip Randy Pitchford’s pontificating.
I’ll admit that the game itself actually looks pretty good, and the fight against the giant alien is pretty intense (who doesn’t use God Mode at demos?), but the attempts at toilet humor just didn’t do it for me. Also, when someone is urinating, can’t you typically see their equipment? Methinks Duke might be compensating. As always, we’d love to know what you guys think about this new video. Do you bet on Duke, or was this video not doing it for you? Are you maybe dreading the inevitable destruction of the world that will prevent this game from ever coming out? Go!
The GamerSushi podcast is back with your regularly scheduled programming, and this time the main portion is a helping of Halo: Reach with a side of fall gaming. In this episode, we take a look at the big Bungie title and then do a rundown of all of the other titles we’re anxious to play in the coming months, plus we predict scores for some of the bigger names in a new, awesome segment. Throw in some community topics and the Nintendo 3DS, and you’ve got yourself a mighty podcast.
If I’m being honest, I think this is probably our best episode yet. We didn’t run into any technical difficulties, and I think we’ve finally nailed down a format for discussion that keeps things moving from topic to topic easily. But then again, I should just let you be the judge, since I’m biased.
As always, please go rate this cast on iTunes and subscribe with the handy links to the right. Enjoy!
Well, today is just the Saturday of deals, isn’t it? In addition to the XBox Live thank you gift Anthony posted about earlier, here’s another one for all of you dudes wondering how many couch cushions you’re going to have to turn over to get the rest of the games on your Fall list: GameStop’s trade in values for October 2010.
The house-that-used-game-sales-built is currently offering an extra 25% trade-in value towards the purchase of Fallout: New Vegas, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dead Rising 2 and Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I know those are at the top of several people’s “do want” sheets, so you might want to act on the special before October 17th, when it expires. In addition, GameStop is giving an extra 20% for every 3 games handed in. And to top it all of, they’re also rewarding an extra 25% trade-in value for the pre-order of Microsoft’s new motion gaming hardware, XBox Kinect.
So, with all of that potential trade-in credit abounding, do any of you think you’ll be taking advantage of this? Go!
Bowing to pressure from those wary of disrespecting U.S. soldiers killed by the Taliban, EA has announced that they are removing references to that group from the multiplayer portion of Medal of Honor, due to be released in November. The Taliban will now be referred to as “Opposing Forces”, which is just generic enough to not offend anyone opposed to the change.
Executive Producer Greg Goodrich made no mention of any changes in behavior or gameplay, so it sounds as if it just a cosmetic change and no mention was made of removing references to the Taliban in the campaign, which would likely be a significant undertaking. Still, I can’t help but be disappointed that EA has caved. If video games are going to move forward as a significant art form and a medium, publishers shouldn’t back down if they truly believe in their artistic decision.
One thing I must mention is that it is just a name change. At the end of the day, people are still going to be able to kill U.S. troops in the game, so I am curious to see what the reaction from the “opposing forces” of Medal of Honor will have to say about this.
What do you think about the change? Is EA doing the right thing or should they have stood their ground? Do you think playing as the Taliban in a multiplayer game is disrespectful to fallen soldiers?
Ladies and dudes, the time is here: the fall season of gaming is officially upon us, and all we can do now is paddle as hard we can to keep up with the avalanche of titles falling to our TVs and monitors. Sure, I’m mixing metaphors here a little bit, but the point here is the same: lots of games are coming out, and you no doubt want to play a large share of them. Yes, even though Little Big Planet 2 has been delayed.
Since we’re so nice, we’ve put together an epic list of our 30 most anticipated upcoming games of 2010. You’ll be surprised at just how much is waiting for you. We’ve got everything from RPGs to zombies, DS exclusives and sprawling PC MMOs. Check it out!
If you’re into online First Person Shooters, you’ve probably come to accept that all of them incorporate some sort of XP progression/unlock system at this point. This fad started gaining steam with Call of Duty 4, and it has been carried over to almost every other shooter since then. Fittingly, Black Ops takes this into the ridiculous territory with the customizations that will be allowed in game. Call of Duty usually avoided having the player customize their in-game avatar, but Black Ops will allow you to give your persona everything from face paint to armor and customized sights for your guns. Seriously, this video borders on ludicrous once the developers start detailing the different kinds of emblems you can emblazon your firearm with. Take a look:
While this is really cool, I think they lost me around the custom red-dot sight part. At some point you’re just adding too much to the investment system, and constantly dangling carrots in front of people gets annoying more often than not. As much as I love Halo: Reach, the poor design of the rank/armor system has really been rankling me (it takes forever to make it past Warrant Officer). Hopefully Black Ops will not suffer the same fate by making more options available faster. So, see anything that catches your fancy? Are you getting sick of shooter with a huge focus on ranks and unlocks?
One of the surprise features in Treyarch’s 2008 Call of Duty entry World at War was the inclusion of the four-player co-op mode Nazi Zombies. Fans of CoD were originally dismissive of this offering, but those of us who played it quickly fell in love with the shambling hordes of Third Reich undead. Nazi Zombies featured a scaling difficulty that meant later rounds necessitated a good team working together, otherwise your soft flesh would quickly provide sustenance for the ravening swarm.
Nazi Zombies quickly gained in popularity throughout World at War’s life-span, with Treyarch adding new maps and even a mythology behind the game. Now that the Call of Duty off-team is up to bat again, they’re putting Nazi Zombies into Black Ops, but tuning it up for the upcoming release. Studio head Mark Lamia gave this little snippet in regards to the return of the walking dead:
“Zombies have been such a hit with our community that we were committed to bringing brand new zombie experiences to Call of Duty: Black Ops. We’ve taken extra special care to retain the essential ingredients of our Zombie game, and have also crafted a nice surprise for the fans.”
There’s nothing else beyond that, but one can only imagine what Nazi Zombies (or Communist Zombies?) is going to look like after two years in development. There have been a lot of changes to Call of Duty since then, so one can only suppose that the mode will change to compensate. I know that my purchase of Black Ops hinged on a Zombie mode, but what about you guys? Ready to kill some whiskey deltas? When more details unfold, we will be sure to include them. If you’re the kind of person who likes a good teasing, Call of Duty: Black Ops site GKNOVA6 has what you’re looking for.
This is sort of a week for excellent dance-themed machinima, it seems. First we get the sublime krogan dance off in the form of Mass Effect 2′s Dance Dance Redemption, and now we have Dance Fortress 2. This little beauty of a video was made by a talented man who goes by the name of James Benson. This project started two months ago, and the culmination of his efforts can be seen below. This was apparently made as a resume to Valve, so best of luck to you, Mr. Benson.
Whether we like it or not, Halo is a game that changed the FPS landscape forever. It can be argued that this is for both good and ill, but the fact remains that the epic FPS sci-fi series from Bungie typically constitutes a natural disaster in whatever year it arrives. Halo: Reach has made landfall, gentlemen, and it’s time to sort out the damage.
After a couple weeks of reading other Halo: Reach reviews, there seems to be a general consensus. One, that writers like to use the phrase “swan song”. Two, that Bungie’s final installment into the Halo series culminates in what might be its greatest and most critically acclaimed title yet. Reviewing a Halo game carries with it a tricky balance of managing hype, expectations and fanboy glee, but in Reach, it’s hard to ignore all of the wonderful things that Bungie accomplished, and how they’ve changed the game yet again moving forward.
So, just how good is the game? Read on to find out.
In our modern day of tubes, webs and whatever hamsters that ferret the packets of data across the Internet, online gaming has risen to a peak like never before. This is obvious to say in a sentence, but really, when you think about how different things were just 5 or 6 years ago, it’s actually staggering. For instance: Halo 2 was the first major online console FPS. That was released in 2004. YouTube was just a fledgling site then. You get the picture.
Anyway, in thinking about the way the gaming world has transformed as well as contemplating some old gaming favorites, I was struck by the notion of bringing the classics online. For me, it wasn’t until I started playing games online that I realized what a small fish I was in a huge pond in terms of skill. For every green shell I could connect at Mario Kart 64, there were probably millions that could run circles around me, and so forth. My skills in Goldeneye were only surpassed by my brother in our circle, but I wonder what kind of challenges he would have faced out there.
So, in continuing with that thought, what gaming classics and favorites would you choose to infuse with co-operative or competitive online play? Go!
While I love playing shooters on both consoles and PC these days, one thing I miss from my more hardcore PC gaming days is the ability for full control customization via the keyboard. It was nice to map any feature to any button, and really helped you tailor your style of play in a unique way.
Tonight, while playing another bout of Halo: Reach, Nick randomly freaked out because his controller was set differently than he normally had it. So, as a result, he asked all of us whether we played shooters inverted or non-inverted. I thought I’d bring that question here.
For me, I used to always play inverted on controllers, non-inverted on a mouse. Eventually some weird switch flipped in my brain and now I play exclusively non-inverted. I’m not really sure how this happened, but it occurred during a playthrough of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I was forever changed, apparently.
Now that the release of Halo: Reach is behind us, did you think that we were at the end of the Halo related posts? We’re not out of the woods yet, kiddies, because Microsoft has a bit of news for us. Hot on the heels of Bungie’s super-awesome swan song, Microsoft and 343 Industries (the folks taking over the Halo franchise) have announced that they have a few plans for Master Chief and pals, and the first step is to ramp up the number of Halo releases we’re going to see. Typically, it’s a fairly long length of time between Halo games, about three years, but the success Activsion has had with yearly Call of Duty releases has been a source of inspiration for MS and 343.
Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer recently had a little talk with IGN about the future of Halo post-Bungie and what we can look forward to for the next few years. While Mr. Spencer did say that a yearly schedule wasn’t the rule, he did also state the the long delay between releases is detrimental for fans of the series. Out of sight, out of mind, that sort of thing (ignoring the fact that Halo 3 is still charting on the top ten played XBL games to this day, but anyways). Phil went on the explain exactly how their new business model got its roots from Activision and Call of Duty:
BioShock Infinite (or Skyoshock, if you’re feeling sassy) was announced in late July amid much fervor and rumors. Is this a sequel to BioShock? What’s going on in the airborne city of Columbia? While we did get a glimpse at some of the fantastic looking screens, we haven’t really seen anything concrete on the game up until now. This video, shown during the behind-closed-doors press release event, goes over the sort of shenanigans we can expect to see in Irrational Game’s next foray into the BioShock universe.
One thing that strikes me about the video is how great Irrational is at world building. Much like Rapture before it, Columbia is at the tail end of its life, and the entire city is in shambles. The video opens kind of slowly, but it ramps pretty quickly after that. The game is currently set for release in 2012, so we’ve got a while to go. What do you guys think of the gameplay? Excited for Infinite?
In just one month, folks will be clamoring to jump back into the world of the Fallout universe, this time taking on the wasted west and the deserts around Vegas. I know several people who are particularly looking forward to this game, eager to dip back into an enormous quest (or series of quests) yet again.
And for all of you wishing to see a little more to fuel your need for Fallout: New Vegas, you’re in luck. As is becoming custom for new video games these days, Obsidian just released its first Fallout: New Vegas developer diary, going over the setting and story of the game. I have to say, I’m intrigued by the nature of the story, complete with its own MacGuffin in the form of a mysterious package stolen from the player.
Anyway, give it a watch. Hard to believe it’s out October 19 here in the U.S. Who’s getting this game, and what do you think of the video?
Although I think I’m going to know the answer for the half of the comments on this one, I’m going to roll with it anyway. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve asked what you guys were up to, and now is as good of a time as any.
For me, I’ve been dealing with Mass Effect 2 DLC, which, seriously, Lair of the Shadow Broker is incredible. In addition to that I’ve also been doing a little bit of Lego Harry Potter (yes, really). And most importantly, the title that has sucked away my life for this entire last week: Halo: Reach. Hopefully a review will be coming soon, but I really love the game, and haven’t been this absorbed in one for as long as I can remember. It’s owning my sleep, my interactions with people, everything. Just the way a good gaming binge should.
So what about you guys? What are you playing? And on top of that, who has Reach and would be up for a community play date sometime soon? Go!
The apocalyptic Wasteland can be a lonely and bizarre place, especially for gunmen hopping around on RPG-like quests and equipped to their teeth in dangerous weaponry. Naturally, slaughtering ghouls and all kinds of other baddies in the Mojave is a grim task to face alone. So that’s why Fallout: New Vegas, like Fallout 3, allows you some tag-alongs in the form of one humanoid and one non-humanoid buddy with which to explore the expansive desert.
In a recent update on the Playstation blog, Bethesda Senior Community Manager Matt Grandstaff outlined the possible Fallout: New Vegas companions that we can look forward to meeting in the sequel to the hit Fallout 3. The list actually gives quite a bit of detail on the various friends you can partner up with, and they come in all shapes and sizes. There are dudes, dames, dogs and even a mutant named Lily who looks like Beast straight out of the X-Men.
Anyway, totally worth checking it out, especially for the non-humanoid companions. With this game only about a month away from release, who’s getting more anxious for it to finally be here? What do you think of the companions?
The other night, I gathered in a line of the nerdiest of nerds, standing in mostly single file all with the same goal: Halo: Reach. I know, we’re trying to cut back on Reach posts, and you’ll see some more impressions/reviews in the coming week (I’ve already beat Campaign), but the line got me thinking about something else entirely.
As all of the nerds (I say this with mostly affection) began clamoring for whatever merchandise was being thrown out as prizes, I wondered how they all came to arrive there, and how the hype is different for a release in this digital download age. After all, you won’t see quite as many people lining up to play an exclusively PC game, since they can just order it with the click of a mouse. In the future, when Call of Duty 11X is being released for download on consoles, the hype machine will take a different appearance than we know it right now. Even talking to all of my friends, there are a variety of different methods that people used to obtain Halo: Reach. Online, pre-order, walk-in, etc.
So, I thought I’d ask: how would you say you purchase the majority of your games, and through what service? Go!
It’s about time, gents. For those of you who have been waiting patiently and impatiently for Halo: Reach, the week is finally upon us, rolling like a tidal way to sweep us up in its inexorable and powerful wake. For those that are sick of any and all Reach-around news, you are equally as joyous as the pain will soon be at its end, the hype pushed behind.
Regardless of your stance towards the huge franchise that Bungie fashioned with its own hands, Halo: Reach will be a hard game to ignore, and stands as Bungie’s swan song to Halo when it drops this Tuesday. If you’re unaware, the reviews are already pouring in, and apparently the game is turningafewheads. Many are calling it the greatest Halo game created.
So, with all of this nonsense in mind, I figured it was about time to do a roll call in these parts. I’m picking the game up tomorrow night at midnight, and I’m more than likely going to play it with my brother co-op through the night and the next day until we beat it, before jumping into other modes and replaying it again on legendary with multiple combatants. That’s the plan, anyway. I’m flexible, though.
What about you guys? Who out there is going to be getting Halo: Reach? When will you have it in your grimy and gamepad calloused hands? Roll call, boys. Go!
Every generation of gaming seems defined by either new pieces of technology or something else that broadens our definition of what a game entails. One of the new advents that’s become more widespread in the last few years would be what is now known as DLC, a bit of an adaptation of the expansion pack from PC’s gaming glory days. It’s yet another example of the transition of gaming as it has moved from the desk to the couch, and it’s taken up its own shape as a result, both on the console and on PC.
Only in the last few years have developers started to show exceptional treatment in the handling of DLC, finding ways to extend the life of the games we love in a variety of ways. In no particular order, here are our top six games with great DLC:
EA recently launched a new initiative a while back in which a unique code (such as Bad Company 2′s VIP or Mass Effect 2′s Cerberus Network) would incentivize purchasers not to trade their games back in by offering exclusive access to downloadable content (used game buyers would have to pay a fifteen dollar fee to access such a service). EA Sports also branched out with their own version of this program with the Online Pass, a one-time use token that would allow gamers to play the online portions of upcoming sports titles like Tiger Woods and Madden. Naturally, there was a bit of a backlash, but EA is just trying to protect itself from the ravenous jaws of the used game industry. So far, this is the only solution put forward by a publisher to actively combat trade ins, but is it the best one?
Enter Mark Lamia of Treyarch Studios, currently the developer of the upcoming Black Ops and potential savior of the Call of Duty series’ image amongst gamers. He maintains that a strong multiplayer segment and good post-launch support is the key to keep people playing your game long past the point of considering a trade-in. Teryarch still has a section of their studio working on keeping World at War fun, and they expect to dish out a lot of content for Black Ops. Instead of moving on immediately to the next project, they will be focusing on keeping fans engaged in the hopes that they’ll continue playing without gimmicks like VIP passes and online access codes, even if you bought the game used. With the new additions to multiplayer features like Wager Matches, replays and bringing back dedicated servers on the PC, Black Ops looks like it’s shaping up to be a proper title.
What do you guys think about his statement? What incentives would keep you from trading a game in? Online codes for first time purchasers, or a lot of DLC regardless of how you came by the title?
Anthony “I am okay with QTE, but this is just the worst. That game looked like it was designed in a boardroom already and now...” on Ryse: When Games Play Themselves 10 hours 23 minutes
Kyle “I’d hope that’s something exclusive to Easy mode, since I honestly tend to be slightly overwhelmed by a lot...” on Ryse: When Games Play Themselves 15 hours 19 minutes
Mitch “Ugh, this just seems gross. I mean, I’m fairly apathetic towards QTEs (when they’re done right,...” on Ryse: When Games Play Themselves 15 hours 39 minutes
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