Category: multiplayer

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta Charts Tomorrow

Uncharted 3

Now that the post E3 haze is finally starting to lift and the summer gaming season is in full swing, another distraction looms over us all: Uncharted 3’s multiplayer beta drops tomorrow for PSN Plus members, which should be everyone out there with a PS3, thanks to Sony’s Welcome Back program. So no excuses. I expect to see you all out there so I can shoot you in the face just like all my friends.

For those of you who didn’t bother trying Uncharted 2’s MP, take it from me, it’s pretty fun. A neat combination of Gears of War with the vertical element of Uncharted’s climbing mechanics thrown in for good measure, I always had a blast. Eddy joined me for some co-op and I believe he can attest to this as well.

The details of the beta are as follows:

  • Starts tomorrow, June 28th for PSN Plus subscribers, July 4th for the rest of PSN and runs until July 13th.
  • Co-op and competitive maps will be rotated throughout the beta, as detailed in the link below.
  • You will receive rewards for playing the beta that will carry over to the full game upon it’s release.

I have to say, I’m pretty excited. Now I have to rush and finish Half Life 2 ASAP, so I can start on this. Check out the link below for more details, including some information about the MP features, which is awesome because being clueless about what the hell is going on always annoys me about betas. So… who’s with me???

Source: Naughty Dog

StarCraft 2: Sometimes You Keep Losing

Starcraft 2

After avoiding the game for some time, I finally picked up StarCraft 2 last week. Part of the reason I did my best to thwart the temptation of this popular RTS is because I know what these kinds of games do to me. They take away my life and they make me an angry person.

You see, part of the problem is that whatever genes are required to be good at micro-managing units, I just don’t have them. This makes me generally terrible at any and all RTS games. On top of that, I do happen to have the genes that make one an obsessive compulsive stat monger. So, naturally, these two things are at odds with another, and I inevitably tumble down a voracious toilet bowl flush of addiction. I suck, I obsess about build orders, I still suck – and so on.

Anyway, I’ve spent most of last night playing (and losing) to pretty much the entirety of BattleNet. So here are my questions for you lovely people. For you StarCraft 2 players, do you have any advice for a guy trying to get his Terran on? And to everyone else, what do you do when you continually lose at a game you play competitively? How do you handle it? Go!

Valve Treats Us With Meet the Medic and Free Team Fortress 2

Valve certainly is doing everything they can to make up for a lack of Half-Life 3, now aren’t they? After dropping Portal 2 on us earlier this year, they’ve turned their attention towards their other critically-acclaimed darling: Team Fortress 2. With this week’s Uber Update promising tons of content and a new Meet the Team video to boot, Valve also announced today that Team Fortress 2 will be free forever. Now isn’t that quite the how-do-you-do? As you might except, Meet the Medic is filled with blood and guts, albeit in that Team Fortress style, so use discretion if necessary.

Not my favorite Meet the Team video so far, but the Sniper and Spy trailers would be hard to top. So there it is, more loving from Valve to all of us. Apparently there’s some discontent out there concerning Team Fortress 2’s new price tag, but this game has been around since 2007; chances are, you’ve gotten your money’s worth by now. What do you guys think of the new trailer and Team Fortress 2’s low, low price?

Gears of War 3 Horde 2.0 Walkthrough Drops the Facts

One of the great surprises of E3 2011 was the reveal of Horde 2.0 in Gears of War 3. With all the improvements made to the multiplayer, it shouldn’t have caught us off guard that Epic would be turning their loving eyes to Horde mode as well, but this really came out of left field. Taking away from player data from Gears of War 2, Horde 2.0 features a whole host of usability improvements seen in the multiplayer of Gears 3 (like enemy tagging and the tactical overlay) and adds the ability to use an area as a base and fortify it with static defenses, turrets and the fearsome Silverback mech suit. There’s a new Horde 2.0 walkthrough narrated by Nan McNamara, the voice actor for Anya Stroud, and I’ve embedded it below.

Much like Halo: Reach last year, Gears of War 3 might dominate our lives when it hits on September 20. I have my copy pre-ordered and paid for, and I can’t wait to tuck into this triple threat title. We may have to have a GamerSushi Game Night for this when it comes out (non-Xbox readers, don’t worry, we might have something in the works…). What do you guys think of the new improvements to Horde?

What Are You Playing: It’s Too Damn Hot Outside Edition

la-noire-nicholson-electroplating-screen

Salutations, faithful readers, it is I, your humble Canadian, back for another round of What Are You Playing. If you’re new to this recurring post, the basic set-up is pretty simple: I ask you what video games you’re playing, and you answer. It doesn’t have to exactly be video games per se; if you want to launch into a (spoiler-free as I haven’t seen the show yet, and people may not have read the books) discussion about the season finale of Game of Thrones, feel free to do so. It’s an open forum, but we’d love to get your thoughts on some current games, and maybe some oldies too.

For me, I spent the morning playing Nicholson Electroplating, the new Arson case for L.A. Noire. I bought the Rockstar Pass when it was on sale a while back, so I got all the DLC for the game for a reasonable price. Nicholson Electroplating is a very action-intensive case and the investigative aspects are relatively slim, but it’s a solid addition overall. It also got me that much closer to rounding out the achievements for L.A. Noire, so that’s always good. Besides that I’ve been finishing off my Evil karma run-through of inFAMOUS 2 and getting back into Halo: Reach in preparation for this year’s Bungie Day. A friend of mine also picked up The Witcher 2 on Steam, so I’m going to log into his account and play it when I have a moment. I’m also trying to desperately bring myself up to a respectable level on StarCraft 2 so I don’t embarrass myself. It’s hard though, but I’m working on my three barracks build.

That’s probably enough out of me, so what about you guys? Has anyone tried Nicholson Electroplating, and what did you think? Opinions of the L.A. Noire DLC overall would be good too. Anything else that you’re playing? Let us know!

The Curse of Annoying Online Teammates

Black Ops

We’ve posted a lot in the past about online multiplayer. Everything from awesome moments of pwnage to griefers to foul-mouth bigots and the racists who love them. But as I was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on Sunday with my brother, something new occurred to me to ask the wise veterans of the GamerSushi community (that’s you guys and gals).

Team Deathmatch can only take you so far. Sometimes, the urge to work together, to be a part of something greater than yourself rises from somewhere deep inside you and you find yourself playing objective games…with strangers…online. You can probably see where this is going already, but I saw some of the dumbest things of all time on Sunday.

During a game of Domination, people running past enemy flags, instead of stopping and capturing them. Not an enemy in sight and they can’t be bothered because apparently they still think they are playing team deathmatch. Then, during Search and Destroy, you get people who defuse or plant the bomb while standing up, in plain sight. No crouching or going prone, or hiding behind the box to maybe buy yourself a few more seconds of precious time. Just morons.

And the icing on the cake for me was when you die and you can watch your teammates play while you wait for the round to end. You get people camping and sitting still when time is running out, practically forfeiting the round. Also, I guess some people had ADHD, because if there is even one moment where they can’t shoot someone, they switch weapons, just to have something to do. Switch back and forth and back and forth and oh look, an enemy just shot you in the face while you were playing with yourself.

Whew. Sorry. I had to get all that out. So those are my complaints. What are some of your biggest annoyances from teammates while playing online? This is a safe zone: no one will hurt you here. GO!

Battlefield 3 and the DLC Backlash (Updated)

battlefield 3 physical warfare pack boycottAs I’m sure you’re well aware, given my constant posting of anything slightly related to this game over the past few months, Battlefield 3 is coming out later this year setting its sights on taking the FPS crown away from Call of Duty. As is the norm with games these days, a bit of pre-order DLC was offered in the form of the Back to Karkand expansion pack which gives early purchasers access to the map pack on day one, whereas late adopters will have to wait and buy it at a later date.

While this did cause some outcry, the Back to Karkand controversy pales in comparison to the furor that has cropped up around the Physical Warfare Pack. This add-on is only availble in the UK through GAME and Gamestation stores and features items that will not be obtainable in the retail game. Naturally, fans of the game are quite incensed and a boycott has already been arranged on Reddit, calling for EA and DICE to remove this pre-order incentive from the game.
Continue reading Battlefield 3 and the DLC Backlash (Updated)

Microsoft E3 2011 Press Conference Highlights

x360Microsoft’s big shindig just went down, and it was kind of crazy. Despite the early leaks, they still manage to pull off a few tricks and bring a lot of Kinect.

Hit the jump to see the round-up!
Continue reading Microsoft E3 2011 Press Conference Highlights

EA’s Pwned Takes a Look at Battlefield 3

Despite my earlier reservations with the overuse of the military theme in modern first person shooters, I just can’t deny that Battlefield 3 is looking pretty dang awesome, with the Back to Karkand expansion pack forming the icing on that cake. EA’s online series Pwned went out to DICE in Sweden to interview a few of the staff members about their work on the game and take a look back on the Battlefield games of the past. It’s crazy to compare Battlefield 2 to 3 and how much of a graphical difference there is.

Since this video comes from EA, it’s kind of a “how awesome is your game, so awesome” type of thing but it does give us a nice behind-the-scenes look at Battlefield 3. I thought I would share this with you guys because I know a few of you are looking forward to this game, though perhaps not as much as I am. How do you think Battlefield 3 is shaping up?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Reveal Trailer Drops the Bombs

We knew it was coming, guys, but here it is, the giant reveal trailer for the upcoming third installment of the Modern Warfare series. After the hullabaloo around the whole Kotaku debacle, something like this feels a bit neutered but I thought I’d throw it up here for you anyways to pick apart and give us your thoughts.

So there it is, the reveal trailer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. There’s definitely a more global feel to the game this time as opposed to the American-centric feel of the last one. Now that we’ve seen the game in motion, what do you think? Do want? Do not want?

GamerSushi Asks: LAN Gaming Favorites?

Fight Night Round 4

Hey readers, how’s your weekend going? Me, I’ve been doing a few things, including winning my first ever StarCraft 2 match! I know that’s not very impressive, but considering I haven’t finished placing yet, this is a pretty big deal for me. The guy I beat was probably even more Forever Bronze than I am, but still, I’ll take a victory when I can get one.

Besides that, I’ve been doing the Gears of War 3 beta with Eddy and having a LAN gaming marathon with my friends. I know that LAN parties typically refer to linking a bunch of PCs together, but I use it as a catch-all term for getting together with friends in the same room and playing a bunch of favorites. So far we’ve done Age of Empires 2, StarCraft 2, Halo 3 and right now we’re beating each other up in Fight Night Round 4. My poor boxer facsimile, he just can’t win a match. That may be my fault though.

Since I’m gaming with pals today, I was wondering what sort of games you play when you want to trash your friends. RTS games, FPS games, good old classic brawlers? Also, if any of you PC players want to rage on me for misusing “LAN party” by referring to consoles, go ahead. I can take it.

Modern Warfare 3 Massive Info Leak (Spoilers)

MW3 LogoBefore you click on the link I supply, there are spoilers. It ranges from basic information like map numbers, mission locations, to story plot details. That’s your spoiler warning.

It seems Kotaku got its hands on some juicy details of the upcoming third installment to the Modern Warfare series. Details about the game range from the number of multiplayer maps to spoiler details of the storyline itself. The article over at Kotaku’s website reveals a lot about the upcoming game. Some of the non-spoiler details include information such as the game having 20 multiplayer maps, though its unclear if this is before or after DLC map packs. Other information confirms the game will take place where Modern Warfare 2 left off and will consist of multiple locations across the world. The article also includes some early views of the game and a release date: November 8, 2011. A big question to be raised from this leak is whether a leak of this magnitude is acceptable.

This information could be potentially damaging to the game and to its players. For a game franchise that has been very hush hush about its upcoming heavyweight, this plethora of information could spell disaster for the title. With serious competitors like Battlefield 3 looking to take away Modern Warfares crown, this information could hold consequences. Check out the article and tell us what you think. Do you think this information should have been shared to this magnitude? Does this leak dull that excitement or build it up?

Source – Kotaku

Portal 2 is a Veritable Gold Mine of Crazy Easter Eggs

portal 2 easter eggs

I’m going to forgo my traditional jokes about Portal 2 and instead go right into the meat of this thing because it’s just too damn cool. We all know that Valve are a tricksy bunch, so the fact that Portal 2 has some crazy Easter Eggs shouldn’t surprise you; what should surprise you is how nuanced and intricate all of these are. Games Radar put together a list of 30 Portal 2 Easter Eggs that you may or may not have known about. It should be fairly obvious, but there are spoilers abound in this list.

Some of these secrets I already knew about thanks to the game’s achievements, but a few were new to me, and they’re really indicative of how much Valve wants to reward the diligent player. It’s true that you can play the game and enjoy it without searching for Rat Man’s dens or finding a secret berth, but all of these things really add a nice layer of complexity to what many people probably brushed off as a “puzzle game”.

While most of the fun with Easter Eggs is finding them yourself, sometimes it’s just as interesting to read the collected info all in one place. Have you guys found any of the Easter Eggs, and which ones were they? Are you going to go hunting for some more of them? What’s the craziest Easter Egg (Valve-related or not) that you’ve found in a game? Go! Feel free to get spoilery in the comments if you want to, but be warned if you have not beaten Portal 2.

Source – Games Radar

Wishing De_Dust a Happy 12th Birthday

De_Dust

Yup. You read that right. Legendary Counter-Strike map de_dust is now a healthy preteen. Dave Johnston, who created the iconic multiplayer map (plus its counterpart de_dust2) posted about the birthday yesterday on Twitter. He later went on to amend that first tweet (in which he claimed that it was 13 instead of 12) with this follow-up correction.

Johnston currently works as a Senior Level Designer for Splash Damage, creators of the newly released FPS Brink. Kind of crazy to consider the fact that he made such a hugely popular level (and really, one that stands among the greatest of any multiplayer mode) at such a young age. Makes me wonder what I was doing at 16. Oh yeah, playing video games.

So let me be the first here to say happy birthday to Dust. I’ll always remember de_dust as being one of the things I saw the most in college. For me, it’s practically synonymous with the time I spent at school, locked away in my room, trying to gain some epic headshots. It was actually my introduction to online gaming as a whole.

What about you guys? What memories do you have of de_dust? Go!

Do You Do Tabletop Gaming?

table top gaming

Just because I’m a huge nerd, I’ve been wanting to try Dungeons and Dragons for a while, especially after attending a demo during PAX Prime last year. I do tend to restrict my gaming to electronic devices, but I have dabbled with Warhammer 40,000 in the past and a few collectible card games here and there.

Even though I’ve given up getting together a group of friends locally to play D&D, I’ve joined a game with one of my friends and a few of his guild mates from World of Warcraft. Using a program called Vassal, we’re able to replicate the D&D experience to a tee and it’s been a lot of fun. We haven’t really gotten that far in our adventure (and I almost got killed by wererats) but I’m looking forward to making the game part of my weekly routine.

It’s nice to mix things up once and while and playing D&D is a far cry from my typical gaming sessions, even if I am using a program on the PC. As a nice side benefit, I’m finally getting to experience the game that influenced generations of game designers, so I feel like I’ll come to appreciate video gaming a little bit more because of that. What about you guys? Do any of you play table top games, and if you do, which ones do you play? Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, or something different?

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Goes For The Gold

Uncharted 3

Uncharted 2 was widely considered one of the best single-player games of all time. But the multiplayer, while not quite reaching that level of greatness, was nothing to sneer at either. From the enjoyable standalone co-op levels to the cover/platform based versus modes, it was a surprise to many that Naughty Dog had done such a great job on their first time out.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that they aren’t content to simply throw in a few new skins and ship it out again, as is. Gamasutra conducted an interview with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells specifically to ask about the refinements being made and the ambitions of the developer.

One new feature is something called, “Power Plays” which allow a trailing team to get back into the game, if things aren’t going according to plan.

One of those power plays is called “marked man,” during which one or two members on the leading team get marked, and if the trailing team can kill them, they’ll get three points for that kill so it can help them catch up. It’s a very interesting dynamic because as soon as someone gets marked, the opposing team can all see exactly where he is and the leading team gets to defend him, so it changes the experience for this short little burst.

Personally, that sounds kind of awesome to me. I like that the dynamic of a game changes quickly, forcing you to react and adapt, instead of playing mindless deathmatch all day long. Wells goes on to say that they are working hard to ensure this feature doesn’t cause Mario Kart-esque “rubber banding” and irritate gamers.

So what do you think about a feature like this to liven things up a bit? Nathan Drake demands your answer!

Source – Gamasutra

Bro Game Reviews

Alright nerds, it’s time to get real around here. When I’m not busy slamming beers and stealing your girlfriends, I sometimes play video games. As a guy who really knows his stuff, I thought I’d do all you dweebs a favor and tell you which of these upcoming games are worth your time and money. I’ve been convinced by the other dudes around here to use the grading scale to rate these games, so let’s pop those collars and get down to business. This is gonna be boss. Continue reading Bro Game Reviews

Team Fortress 2 Introduces the Director/Replays

Saxxy Awards

It looks like Valve has added replays to Team Fortress 2, along with a fancy new machinima contest of sorts. The Saxxy Awards are designed to let users explore all of their filmmaking abilities in a Thunderdome fashion, where awards will be handed out based on YouTube views and all manner of categories such as “Most Pwnage”, “Most Epic Fail” and “Best Team Costume”. Basically, you have until May 19th to submit your awesomely edited piece and receive your lootz. They’ve got a Saxxy trailer up (see what I did there) which will tell you all you need to know.

In addition to all this, Valve tucked a TF2 comic into the update called Meet the Director, and I have to say I’m intrigued. Perhaps I’m looking too deeply into this, but it seems to be pushing at the universe of TF2 and giving us a cool new story to go on. Not to mention the art, which is fantastic.

Anyway, this will probably make me jump back into TF2 a little. My last PC could only barely run it, and I imagine it will sing on the new one. Who knows, maybe I’ll dabble with some machinima. Old habits die hard, after all…

What about you guys? Is anybody excited about this? What do you think of the comic? Go!

Source –Team Fortress 2

When Co-Op Gaming Brings Out the Worst in You

magicka co-op gaming

Ever since Eddy built his new gaming PC, we’ve been planning to do a little Magicka and last Friday we had our chance. Eddy, Nick, Jeff and myself all hopped on Skype and booted up the co-op magic fest and a blast was had by all. Well, mostly by all; I discovered that day that I have a bit of a tendency to be a (huge) jerk when people don’t perform to my exact specifications.

I can’t quite remember the specifics of the incident now, but having completed Magicka before, and therefore being an expert at the game, I am sad to admit that I wasn’t exactly the best guide to be shepherding a group of noobies through this unforgiving game. Just because I know how to do most of the powerful spells off by heart, and I’m willing to sacrifice an ally for the sake of casting lighting, doesn’t mean I’m the nominal leader.

Even though cooperation is at the heart of the Magicka experience, I was letting my own hubris get in the way of teamwork and to my fellow wizards at arms, I apologize. Now that my sordid laundry has been hung out to dry, metaphorically speaking, I was wondering if any of you have a similar horror story. Were you playing a game with a friend and you tweaked out on them? Do you maybe just want to laugh at the fact that Magicka turned me into a huge douche? Cast some comments!

Is Valve Done with Single Player Games?

Half Life 2 Episode 2

Interesting. I’m not sure if you guys have heard about Geoff Keighley’s The Final Hours of Portal 2 app for the iPad, but it sounds like a fascinating look into the development of Portal 2, particularly the last few weeks before it was done. Keighley was given a staggering amount of access to Valve, much like when he covered the Final Hours of Half-Life 2, and I’ve heard the results are phenomenal.

On top of being a remarkable piece of journalism, it seems that Keighley reports on a few choice remarks from Gabe Newell himself, particularly about the future of Valve when it comes to single player gaming. Apparently, Here’s what Keighley had to say:

“Portal 2 will probably be Valve’s last game with an isolated single-player experience… What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out.”

Apparently, he heard this from Newell during his time at Valve. Considering Valve’s track record seems to be skewing towards more multiplayer and co-op focused games, it doesn’t surprise me that much. However, it does make me curious about what the future could hold for a title like Half-Life 2: Episode 3…

So what do you guys think about this quote and about its implications? Is it just the gaming press getting out of hand? Or could you see there being something to this idea? It should be noted that Valve allowed Keighley to publish whatever he wanted with no limitations as soon as Portal 2 was done, so it’s very likely that he did in fact hear this straight from Gabe’s mouth.

Thoughts?

Source – Kotaku