Square Enix Hearts Them Some XBox 360

Uh, get out your fanboy flame bats once again. We all know that the console wars get a little heated at times, and quotes like this just add fuel to the fire. Apparently, the director of Last Remnant had some pretty interesting things to say about Microsoft’s console:

In fact, as we’ve only just finished work on Last Remnant I don’t even know what my next project is going to be at Square Enix. However, I’m very much hoping it’ll be for Xbox 360 as it’s been a lot easier to work with than PlayStation 3.

O noz! This isn’t the first time a developer has talked about this. In fact, Valve’s Gabe Newell said something about it some years ago. However, one always has to take these things with a grain of salt, especially considering Last Remnant supposedly sucked donkey balls.

Flame on!

Source- CVG

Wired’s 10 Most Disappointing Games Are Befuddling

Confused, befuddled, curious… any of these would describe my feelings after reading through a recent top 10 list. And know, it’s not another one of those infuriating top 10 best games of the year lists. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Wired recently listed its 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2008 and I have to say, some of them are head scratchers. Take a look:

10. Age of Conan
9. Tom Clancy’s EndWar
8. Too Human
7. Stalker: Clear Sky
6. Mirror’s Edge
5. Dead Space
4. Prince of Persia
3. Mario Kart Wii
2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
1. Spore

While I agree with the top few, having numbers 4-6 on the list at all are kind of puzzling, to say the least. What do you guys think?

Source- Wired

Play WoW, Quit College

I do my best to stay away from MMO’s. From some of their earliest conceptions (including Everquest), I have seen friends, family and acquaintances taken down by these silent killers. The couple of times I attempted to play were akin to time travel, my weekend having suddenly flown by in a blur. They are truly evil machinations.

Well, according to the FCC Commissioner, it’s worse than we thought. Apparently, they have found that World of Warcraft is one of the leading causes of college drop-outs in this day and age. Not sex, drugs, alcohol or anything of that ilk- but an MMO.

While some might call foul, I don’t find this that hard to believe. Having nobody to dictate your schedule and becoming addicted to a video game in college is a terrible snare to be trapped in, and I remember Counter-Strike sucking away most of my freshman year. These things can happen.

So what do you guys think? Ever had a gaming addiction problem? And how shocking is it that WoW is a leading cause for dropping out of college?

Source- GamePolitics

Fanboy Battle: Most Overrated Games in 2008

Get the boxing gloves out, dudes. We’ve said time and time again that we love lists. We flock to them like they are the life-bread from heaven, glorious nectar from the gods. I’m not sure what invisible quality it is that makes them so addictive, but gamers love them and so does GamerSushi.

Anywho, Fidgit just posted its list of the 10 Most Overrated Games of 2008, and I bet there will be a few surprises on there (eliciting an “oh snap” or two) as well as a few that you would expect. Get ready to rant a little bit…

List after the jump!

Continue reading Fanboy Battle: Most Overrated Games in 2008

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.

Continue reading GameCop Vs LameCop #3

GTA IV PC Review, Minus the Hype

God bless us everyone, and especially 1UP, for what I consider to be a fantastic look at GTA IV several months later, in light of some of the other great games that have hit this year. I’ve been saying since about 5-10 hours into this title that it is one smoldering heap of an overrated game (though still incredibly well made). I can recognize the game’s quality, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still overrated.

What I find particularly interesting is the brief analysis of the characters and the story, but also how other games have given us virtual playgrounds such as Stillwater in Saint’s Row 2 and the Wasteland in Fallout 3 without short-changing us when it comes to our characters. It’s an interesting look at the game that everyone is saying “OMG BEST EVAR” about, and a sobering one at that.

What do you guys think? Is this reviewer and idiot, as some of the commenters have already suggested?

Source- 1UP

GamerSushi Asks: Best Gaming Moments, 2008

Over the next few weeks, we’re hoping to put together a couple of features regarding “best of” for 2008, but we still have a few other questions we’d like to hit you up with. This week’s question: what are your favorite gaming moments from this year? It can be something that happened in multiplayer, a moment in a story from a single player game, anything.

For me, I’d have to say that the opening of Fallout 3 really blew me away. I know a lot of people got bored with the childhood thing, but after Oblivion I honestly wasn’t expecting a story. To have the game open the way it did, bringing me into a world that I felt immersed in, and having the character born into it, was just a creative and cool concept. Also, I’d have to throw some Left 4 Dead moments in there, because those just rule.

What about you guys?

TIME’s Top 10 Games of 2008

We all know what the end of the year means… Sure, there’s that celebration where we get presents and eat lots of food and it gets colder (at least here in the States), but there’s also that other special factor: “best of (insert year here)” lists! It’s when everybody starts listing off what was cool about the year before, and it’s addicting as hell to read them.

Heck, even TIME has put together a best video games of 2008 list, and the results are about par for the course, I’d say.

Breakdown is after the jump:

Continue reading TIME’s Top 10 Games of 2008

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.

 

Continue reading Gaming’s Best Guns

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.

Continue reading Good And Evil In Games

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!

Continue reading Gaming’s Biggest Turkeys

Favorite Platformers?

The platformer is a dying breed in today’s game world that is filled with shooters, gore, exploding aliens and musical game clones. We don’t always get the same kind of games that we used to get, and sometimes I really miss this genre, because it’s so often overlooked by the big gaming studios. Because of that, it’s kind of interesting that we’re getting a few great platformers this holiday season.

As kind of the early staple of gaming, it shouldn’t be any surprise that these games are still fun. There’s something so delightfully simple about pushing one button and seeing a response on the screen. Where most games have gotten needlessly complicated, platformers are pure gaming enjoyment.

Games like LittleBigPlanet, Prince of Persia and even Mirrors Edge can hopefully shine the spotlight on the fun of platforming in video games. Who knows, maybe they can rekindle the fire. What do you guys think? What are some of your favorite platformers of all time?

Go, go, go!

Doom Creator Says PC Shooters Still Pwn

For as long as I can remember, there has always been a debate raging about PC versus console shooters, and which are better. I remember leaving the world of PC shooters for some time because of games like Goldeneye, etc, before being dragged back in by Counter-Strike and convinced that no other shooter on the console could come close. But then I go back and play a Halo and realize that sometimes simpler is better. Sometimes.

In a new interview, John Carmack of Id, creators of Doom, says that PC shooters are still the best in the business, as the PC is much more suited to the genre. He says that the mouse and keyboard set up is the “superior interface” for shooters, and that browser based gaming can be the future of the business, as Id is working on Quake Live to be played straight from your browser. He’s got some interesting things to say, so I’d recommend checking it out.

I know we’ve got a lot of PC gamers here, so I dare to ask: what about you guys? What are your favorite PC shooters, and why are they so much better than console shooters?

Source- GamesRadar

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.

Continue reading Valve: Gaming’s Best Storytellers?

Eidos Wants Negative Tomb Raider Reviews Delayed

In today’s gaming culture and in the age of Metacritic, this isn’t all that surprising, but it seems that Eidos is asking that anyone who gives the new Tomb Raider a score under an 8 has to delay their reviews. Basically, they’re trying to boost the game’s Metacritic score in order to persuade buyers.

While I understand it in the business sense, it’s kind of shady seeing as how Eidos was part of the whole Gerstmann-gate/Gamespot scandal all those many months ago. It’s not entirely too shocking that video game companies have this kind of hold over the reviewers that they advertise with, but it really is just another sign that gaming editorials these days are jacked.

It especially makes me miss Dan Hsu, former editor-in-chief at EGM, who always took the ballsiest stance possible against these kinds of shenanigans. What do you guys think of Eidos’ policy on game reviews- fair or foul?

Source- Shacknews

Life as a Solo Gamer

In this day and age, it’s hard to be a lone ranger in the gaming community. So many games support multiplayer because, in fact, they would be lambasted for not having it. Sometimes I miss the days of long ago where I could play a game with no outside disturbances, no invites, just me and the game for hours on end while I have my own unique experience with it.

Over at Destructoid, there’s a cool article exploring this very topic. For people out there that don’t always enjoy multiplayer, it gets harder and harder to be a gamer in this day and age. I think it’s a terribly interesting topic, because it seems like the single player experience is even looked upon negatively by reviewers. “No multiplayer? No buy.”

Just recently I saw that Mirror’s Edge had been given negative scores by several gaming outlets because it didn’t have multiplayer. I mean, really? What did they want, 8 person slayer across Mirror’s Edge rooftops? Give me a break.

Continue reading Life as a Solo Gamer

GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather?

Since we’ve had a chance to get our hands on some of these long anticipated titles, it seemed only fitting for another version of “Would You Rather?”. We’re a big fan of how much you guys get involved on these.

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 they suck. In that case, you will endure everlasting suffering at the hands of the video game ninjas. Trust me. They’re real.

Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather?

Fallout 3 Versus Oblivion

So we are several weeks into the holiday season of video game releases, and no doubt many of you are already piled too high with games to play. Myself, I just finished Saint’s Row 2 over the weekend and have just jumped into Fable II as of yesterday. One game that I’m putting on hold so I can savor it in its entirety is Fallout 3, which has been good to me when I’ve had a chance to play it.

I know a lot of people are curious about how it stacks up against say, Oblivion, so CVG has put together a little article that stacks the two against each other head to head in terms of eye candy, combat, questing and the worlds that the games take place in. Looks like Oblivion wins, in their eyes. Definitely worth a look if you’re into either game.

Personally, it seems that Oblivion had way more interesting quests (dark brotherhood, wow), but Fallout 3’s story is very immersive, as is the world of the wasteland. What about you guys, what do you think?

Source- CVG

Pitch Your Game: “For Real” Version

Last week, we ran the first edition of Pitch Your Game, our brand new GamerSushi feature where Anthony and I came up with the most absurd video game pitches we could think of, and pitted them against each other in mortal combat. It was Thunderdome meets a think tank.

This week, we go to the other side of the coin, where Anthony and I actually take serious pitches at game ideas that we think might need to be explored. At the end, you weigh in on which game you think you’d rather play.

Continue reading Pitch Your Game: “For Real” Version

Rumor: Subscription Based Gaming?

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time, but it looks like some developers are finally going after the bait that WoW has been dangling in front of them: subscription based gaming.

At a recent event, Take-Two (Bioshock, GTA IV) dude-in-chief Zelnick was heard to be talking up Blizzard’s business model, and how appealing it is for other developers. He even went as far as to talk about subscription based triple AAA titles with on-going transactions between the customer and the gaming studio. Basically, paying a monthly fee to play every game you own.

Well, that would just about ruin gaming. Ready to pay every month to play your copy of GTA IV or Bioshock? Because that’s probably where this discussion ends.

Continue reading Rumor: Subscription Based Gaming?