Category: multiplayer

Halo Wars Says “GG”, Shuts Down Forum and Stat Tracking

Halo WarsHalo Wars, the Real Time Strategy spin-off of the popular shooter series, is getting a little downgrade to better integrate itself into Microsoft’s future plans for the franchise. In a recent post on the Halo Wars forum, moderator Cocopjojo announced that, after Title Update 5, the game will lose its forums and the online stat tracking on the dedicated site so it can be merged with the Halo Waypoint site.

While Halo Wars wasn’t exactly the most celebrated of the Halo games, it was still relatively well received and had a dedicated fan base to back it up. Most of the forum goers are naturally butt-hurt about the proceedings, and the very first comment after Cocopjojo pretty much sums up the sense of entitlement the Internet bestows upon people in one short snippet.

While this may not seem like a big deal since most of us probably don’t play Halo Wars anymore, online stats tracking has been a huge deal for Halo ever since Halo 2. For a series to get rid of one of the most successful community tools in the history of gaming, even if it’s a spin-off, is a pretty big blow. While Halo Wars will continue getting support for things like patches, it will be a bit more neutered going forward.

Any opinion on Microsoft dumping Halo Wars’ community on their collective butts? Even if Halo Wars gets rolled into Waypoint, it is a little bit of a slap in the face for the fans. Since Halo Wars lost its stat tracking, will future Halo games under the Microsoft umbrella even feature this?

Source – Halo Wars Forum

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 11: Reducto

Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsThe GamerSushi Show is back, and this time in a newer, more awesome format. You see, while we enjoyed all the podcasts of old, they were starting to become large and scary monsters. At 2 hours plus, it gets harder and harder to find the time to not only record, but also edit and get them ready for release. On top of that, we felt that every 2 weeks was not as fun for you guys. Ideally, weekly content is better.

So as a result, we decided to shorten the podcast down to 1 hour, and attempt to release it for you guys each and every week. This is much more manageable, and I think the product will be much better for it. It forces us to move from topic to topic, and doesn’t allow us to get too bogged down in one particular discussion.

In honor of this new format, and the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in theaters, I’ve titled this week’s edition “Reducto”. In it, you’ll find discussion about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Fable III, a new game from Nick where we grade industry events (such as Diablo III heading to consoles) and a bit more. What stinks is there won’t actually be a follow-up next week because of the holidays, but you can expect one the week after.

Since I always ask, please go rate this cast on iTunes and subscribe with the handy links to the right. Enjoy! Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 11: Reducto

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Poll: Which Type of Shooter Do You Prefer?

Last night, I fired up Halo: Reach for the first time in several weeks. I think it was something of a coping mechanism, since I know I’m going to be holding out on Call of Duty: Black Ops until around Christmas. It was pretty nuts to see everyone on my friends list in the new CoD, and meanwhile I was playing the classic space marine scenario.

The funny thing is, I had a lot more fun than I expected to, even though I’m itching for Black Ops more than I can say. One of the things I’ve always loved about Halo is the ability to have these isolated little firefights, epic stand-offs between you and one other player that feels separated from the rest of the match. The only reason this is possible is because of the way the game’s health system works. I remember Goldeneye playing much the same way back in the old days.

It seems that as time goes on, more shooters go in a different direction. Like Counter-Strike, the health in CoD pretty much works on the “one shot, one kill” method, which is a big part of what makes it so addictive I think. The ability to respawn and immediately jump back into the fray and rack up more kills has a lot of appeal to it, for a totally different reason than a shooter like Gears of War or Halo.

Thinking about these two styles of play, I thought I’d make a poll to see what you guys think. Got a preference?

Which type of multiplayer shooter do you prefer?

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ScrewAttack’s Top 10 Online Multiplayer Console Games

Alright fanboys, it’s time to polish off your sticks. I know that we all just love to argue until we’re blue in the face about the lists that other game sites come up with, so I thought I’d bring a new one to your screaming attention.

You see, ScrewAttack just recently released a video that goes through what it considers to be the top 10 online multiplayer console games. They cover everything from Call of Duty to Phantasy Star Online, and manage to have a few other surprises on there as well. One only imagines how much different this would have looked if they had included PC titles on here as well. In fact, I think only a couple of these titles would have made the cut if they opened up the criteria in such a fashion.

So what do you guys think of the list? What other games would you include on there if PC games were added? Go!

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

NBA 2K11

Video games, how I miss thee. Over the last several months, I’ve been swarmed by all kinds of things that have been taking away my gaming time. Some of these distractions fall into the realm of that general nagging living life thing (working, broken down vehicles, etc), and others are chosen (Krav Maga, personal writing).

Needless to say, I’ve been itching to play some games. When I’m not overwhelmed by these non-gaming nuisances, my time is being thrown into the following: Angry Birds and NBA 2K11. A basketball game may seem like an odd choice, but NBA 2K11 has already given me hours of sporty goodness. My brother and I have played countless games against one another, talking trash and throwing down sick jams all the meanwhile. If you’re into sports games at all, I’d suggest picking it up. On my radar are Fallout: New Vegas, Black Ops and Dead Rising 2 in the near future.

What about you guys? What are you playing this weekend and this week? Go!

Call of Duty: Black Ops Ad Proves There’s a Soldier in All of Us

Call of Duty: Black Ops is fast approaching (it comes out next Tuesday, November 9) and the marketing machine is ramping into over-drive. If you weren’t sick of being bombarded by Reach and Kinect ads, then you can certainly withstand this latest barrage. This new trailer/commercial is pretty clever, so you’re missing our a little if you don’t watch it. If you’ve ever wanted to see Kobe Bryant in a shoot-out with Jimmy Kimmel and a couple office workers, I’m about to make your day:

This was a really great commercial, I feel, but as Eddy pointed out to me in gmail chat there’s a distinct lack of 12 year olds running around shouting out racial epithets. I probably watched this a couple of times just to see all the little touches the film company added like the custom insignias on the guns and the writing on Jimmy Kimmel’s RPG. Since Black Ops comes out next week, we want to know: is there a soldier in you?

What We Learn From First Person Shooters

Counter-Strike

I have a love/hate relationship with first person shooters. As much as I complain about “shooter fatigue” and how I’m tired of playing the latest Halo: Code of Duty clone, it’s undeniable that the FPS genre accounts for some of my favorite games as well as my most adrenaline-packed and enjoyable gaming moments.

One of my favorite multiplayer experiences ever happens to be Counter-Strike (1.6 and Source both get lumped together in my brain, I played them both equally), so naturally, any article about it is going to grab my attention. It’s good, then, that the folks at Joystick Division came up with a funny collection of Five Things We Learned from Counter-Strike. I found that some of these were definitely true for me, such as discovering that there are hundreds and thousands of people out there that are infinitely more skilled than you are, and that people will blame the best person in the server of cheating as soon as it’s acceptable to do so. On more than one occasion, I saw my brother get banned from servers for being too good, as it were.

Anyway, I thought I’d post this and open up the discussion a bit. What other nutty things have we learned from FPS games, including Counter-Strike, that you think ought to be added to this kind of list? Go!

Source – Joystick Division

Noble Map Pack Trailer Shows the Stuff You Wish Would Happen in Halo: Reach

I don’t know about you guys, but every time I see a multiplayer trailer for any game I get a little sad, mostly because I know I can never do anything as awesome as what’s depicted. Hit a man-cannon and Spartan Laser a tank? It’s more likely that I’ll get assassinated. Armor lock an oncoming Banshee so it explodes? I’ll probably miss the button by one second and get splattered. All of these feats and more occur in the new trailer for the upcoming DLC for Halo: Reach, the Noble Map Pack.

Now that we’ve seen the maps in action, has anyone had their opinions revised? Apparently you can go outside the field on Anchor 9 and into space, so consider me sold. I’m desperately trying to get the last Achievement for Halo: Reach (Make it Rain) before the DLC comes out and ruins my 100% completion. Everyone here in the same boat, or am I alone in my shame? The Noble Map Pack hits November 30, 2010.

GamerSushi Asks: Insane Gaming Stories?

Minecraft

Epic multiplayer matches. Horrid save fails. Ridiculous things that you pulled off, wishing someone had been there to witness what could have been a storied feat. We all have those ridiculous gaming stories, things that defy explanation, logic or just happen to be worth their weight in lulz.

I find that these most often take the best shape in either sandbox games or in multiplayer. Exhibit A: my Halo: Reach Killtrocity from a few weeks ago is something I’m quite proud of, in the nerdiest way possible (you’ll notice several GamerSushi editors being dominated). In terms of other stories, I’m finding that Minecraft seems to produce them from everybody that I talk to. It’s just one of those games where the unthinkable happens. For instance, my friend was playing and mined underground so long that he got lost from his spawn point. When he dug his way back to the surface and found that the sun was setting, he hurriedly pulled his compass and accidentally threw it into the ocean. He never found his way back home, died, and lost all of his stuff. It happens.

Hearing all of these hilarious things lately made me wonder what the deal was with you guys. So, what are some of your favorite gaming stories? Feel free to share!

Image by Janitor.Master

Bungie Announces Noble Map Pack for November 30th

Halo_Reach_NobleDLC_Tempest_03
We’re exactly a month after Halo: Reach’s monumental release, and we keep finding things to post about it. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! For the small but vocal minority out there that have been lambasting Reach for its relatively slim selection of multiplayer maps, Bungie has heard your cries.

Coming at us next month for 800 Microsoft Points, or 10 real life dollars, the Noble Map Pack will deliver three new maps and 250 Achievement points. Considering that I still haven’t beaten the game on Legendary solo (it’s really hard!) I can only imagine what these new cheevos will bring. Halo 3 had some ridiculous Achievements added after the fact, so my inner Achievement whore shudders to think what I’ll be going through in a month and a half. Bungie has also released some screenshots of the battlefields contained within the Noble Map Pack, so hit the jump to see them in their glory!
Continue reading Bungie Announces Noble Map Pack for November 30th

X-Men Arcade Comes to Home Consoles, Makes Me Feel Old

Comic-Con NYC 2010 is going down right now and, true to form, there are plenty of video game related goodies for us to peruse. While I might be a bit biased here, I can say with the utmost certainty that this bit of news is the greatest to grace GamerSushi this week. Remember that old side-scrolling beat-em-up starring the X-Men? Well, Konami and Marvel are pleased to announce that this old favorite is coming to the PSN and the XBox LIVE Arcade at some point in the future. Although no date was given, the downloadable title looks to be a straight-up port, but garnished with a new feature, six player drop-in co-op! Consider me psyched! Take a look at the trailer (shot off-screen, unfortunately):

I didn’t realize that this game came out eighteen years ago, which is why I feel old. However, a brand new generation of gamers can now experience the Earth-rending difficulty that this game featured, so that’s good news. Anyone excited about this? What other old arcade classics would you like to see re-released?

Review: Dead Rising 2

dead rising 2 review

Very few “sandbox” games in this generation give you the option to wear dresses and dye your hair while mixing pie and whiskey into a drink. In fact, only one game in memory allows this, and that is Dead Rising. While Capcom’s zombie-slaughtering game’s claim to fame is both the number of walking dead on the screen and the impossible save system, I liked the game because of the freedom it afforded you. Sure, you could screw yourself pretty bad in the main campaign with the save system, but if you wanted to spend your time in the mall rescuing survivors or killing zombies or even just trying on clothes, then you could do that.

Dead Rising offered a lot of re-playability, but it was still fairly broken. Besides the save system, gamers also had to contend with the sluggish controls, terribly friendly AI and the damn guy from the safe room whose phone calls would somehow paralyze you on the spot in a mall full of zombies. As much as I loved the game, there were some problems with it. Now that we have a sequel, have these issues been addressed? With a new developer, Canada’s Blue Castle Games, jumping on board, is it even going to feel like a Dead Rising game?
Continue reading Review: Dead Rising 2

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Beta Available For PSN Plus

Assassins Creed Brotherhood

If you are one of the lucky chumps subscribers of PSN Plus, the content-based premium access plan for the Playstation Network, then it’s time to go back to Venice. The multiplayer beta for Assassin’s Creed: Brother is now open and ready for all your murdering pleasure.

The not-quite sequel to Assassin’s Creed 2 drops on November 16th, so that gives you more than a month to learn all the tricks of the trade so you can pwn the noobs once the game is officially out. If you do download the beta, try to remember that it is for testing purposes, so if you see something glitchy, be sure to let someone know. We wouldn’t want Mitch to buy it on Day 1 and then have the game crash on him, would we?

In case you have no idea what this is all about, check out this nifty guide of Seven Things To Know Before Playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood from the fine folks at 1UP. I plan on downloading this right now. Should I expect to see anyone else on there? Anyone a big enough fan that they plan on signing up to PSN Plus just to taste the beta?

Source: Playstation Blog

Source: 1UP

Gears of War 3 Gets Public Beta and Dedicated Servers

Somehow developers keep forgetting to invite us to their press conferences (our invite probably got lost in the mail), so we don’t get to see awesome things like Gears of War 3’s multiplayer hands on. Now that I have the self-deprecation out of the way, I can tell you that EPIC Games recently invited a bunch of journalist types to their offices in North Carolina to check out the latest offering in the chainsaw-and-cover franchise.

While we reported last week that Gears 3 was being delayed until the Fall of 2011 because of a marketing decision, it turns out this speculation was a little off the mark. In a total surprise move, EPIC Games will be hosting a public Beta for Gears 3 early in 2011. As we may remember from Gears of War 2, the multiplayer was a bit of a mess. It usually took about fifteen minutes on average to find a game, and then, if you didn’t get host, you might have well just quit. EPIC hopes to address this issue by having dedicated servers this time around to get rid of the hosting problem and a Beta to iron out the bugs. IGN has a video preview of all the changes coming at us in the Beta and Fall 2011, when the game finally hits:

Source – IGN

Ranking the Most Important Online Gaming Experiences of 2010

Valve Mac

The funny thing about online gaming is that it’s an experience that seems to get overhauled every few years. While still in its infancy compared to the longer history of gaming in general, online gaming is going to continue to change in marvelous and unexpected ways. I can actually still remember my first online game, which was in the older than old school Rainbow Six on the PC. After that, it was Quake 2.

As 2010 will soon be drawing to a close, Mashable is taking a look at the year in review for their upcoming popular Mashable Awards. One of their categories this year is “best online game”, so in preparation they’ve released this featured list of 5 Experiences that Redefined Online Gaming in 2010.

I have to say, it’s definitely an interesting read, and I can’t really argue with it. For one, they include Portal’s free release on Steam when it came to Mac systems (and let’s be honest, Valve finds a way to get Steam on a list like this every year). On top of that, they point towards both Minecraft and even Starcraft II’s removal of LAN play except over Battle.net as key moments in online gaming this year as well.

So what do you guys think of this list? What were some of this year’s biggest online developments? And on top of that, what were your favorite online experiences?

Source – Mashable

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Since I haven’t been playing very many games in the last few days, I thought I’d live vicariously through you guys. Caught up in the middle of a substantial amount of personal writing, I’ve set my gaming aside just a bit. It keeps nipping at my heels, too, but I try and resist as much as possible.

So, if I weren’t writing, here are the games I would be playing: Halo: Reach (Captain Grade 1, bitches), Lego Harry Potter (I refuse to return it until I get an achievement), Breath of Death VII, Dead Rising 2, and Minecraft, although I might cave and check that one out tonight. On my list for the next couple of weeks: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

What about you animals? What are you playing?

Welcome to Fall: The Upcoming Games of 2010

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! Continue reading Welcome to Fall: The Upcoming Games of 2010

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Experience the Wealth of Customization Options in Call of Duty: Black Ops

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?

Gears of War 3 Takes a Chainsaw to April, Eyes Fall Release

gears of war 3
Those of you who were looking to continue the adventures of Marcus Fenix and pals in April of 2011 are going to be a little disappointed this morning as Microsoft curbstomps our hope with this bit of news. Perhaps realizing that their exclusive fall lineup was a little slim, the software giant has chosen to move the “threequel” to an unspecified date closer to the holidays. Of course, there could be speculation that the game is just plain not ready, but the Microsoft statement pretty much says that this is a marketing decision:

Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011,” the Microsoft statement reads. “The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the Spring of 2011. However, we’ve elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season.

Just when we thought that Microsoft learned to spread its titles out, this notion gets dashed. While I can’t blame them for wanting a big game to shill around the holidays, this just means that we’ll be waiting even longer to cut up some aliens. Gears heads can get their fix with novel series if they are really parched, but for the rest of us, some patience is in order. So, any opinion on the news? Do you wish Microsoft would have just bit the bullet and stuck with April?

Source – Kotaku

Zombies Return for Call of Duty: Black Ops

nazi zombies black ops
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.

Source – CVG