Category: GamerSushi News

GamerSushi Asks: Questing for Games?

9 hours 9 persons 9 doors

One of the quirkier things about me is that I occasionally become laser-focused and obsessed on things. Actually, this happens all the time. All of my attention will go to one thing, much like the eye of Sauron, and I will be transfixed upon it until there is some kind of resolution.

Yesterday, Anthony directed my attention to a Nintendo DS game I hadn’t heard of before, called 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (or 999 for short). The game is getting rave reviews, and if it can be likened to anything at all, it would be something akin to Heavy Rain. Basically, you wake up on a freighter, and you have 9 hours to solve a mystery. If you fail, you blow up. If you try to leave, you blow up. Your decisions will cause people to die (including you), and there are multiple endings and paths to figuring everything out.

As a result of reading about this game, I’ve become terribly fixated on it. I’ve basically looked at several Gamestops in my area and near work to try and find this thing used, with no luck. Only two of them even had a new copy near me, and when I went to one of them, they couldn’t actually find it. So I’m considering heading to the other store several miles away to grab it. Yes, I’m aware GameStop has a locator on their site, but so far that has lead me astray many times with other games.

I did this one other time when I searched all over Houston to buy a Dreamcast for $15 several years back, but maybe I’m crazy. My question is: have you guys ever gone on absurd quests like this for games? And have any of you heard of 999?

Gran Turismo 5 Video Proves Real Life has too Many Jaggies

Gran Turismo 5 is out, and from all reports it’s amazing. I am dying to get my hands on it once it comes down just a bit in price, but until then, I’m forced to read about people being addicted to it (like Anthony and Nick) or watch awesome videos about it.

Take this official Sony video, for instance, which compares a run of the Nurburgring track in Gran Turismo 5 versus a real life run of the same track. Conclusion: real life needs better anti-aliasing.

Has anyone else played this that wants to taunt me with how awesome it is and how miserable my life is for not doing so yet?

A Peek at 20 Exclusive PS3 Titles in 2011

last guardian

2011 is going to be an exciting year for gaming, no matter what console or platform you play on. Well, except maybe the Wii. Kidding, of course, Zelda will be a hot ticket come the Fall, I’m sure. But I think it’s safe to say that the PS3 has a large selection of announced exclusives that few other platforms can match.

The Playstation Blog was nice enough to give a little peek at 20 of these titles and as I scrolled down the last, my jaw dropped a little bit. It’s pretty staggering. From the blockbusters we know about, such as The Last Guardian, Infamous 2, Killzone 3, Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3 to the ones that flying under the radar, like Hyperdimension Neptunia, Journey and Yakuza 4, the sheer variety of games is enough to make my wallet cry.

Take a look at the list at the Playstation Blog and report back here for comments. Personally, Hyperdimension Neptunia sounds kind of interesting and you know I am down with Ratchet and Uncharted 3.

What games on the list are you most excited about? Is there anything that you can think of that was left out? Start your comments!

Source: Playstation Blog

GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather, 2011 Edition

It’s a brand new year, so it’s time for a brand new edition of Would You Rather, that game where you answer questions and give us awesome rants and diatribes about life, gaming and what you had for dinner.

It’s been some time since our last WYR (November), so I think everyone should be recharged and ready to give us some good responses. Since we’re in a bright shiny new year, I thought it would be pertinent to come at you, bros, with a salvo of 2011 gaming-related queries. I know, I know, the 2011 thing is already getting old, but you’ll probably stop being told that it’s a new year on every site in the world sometime within the next week. That’s just how bloggers roll, I guess.

For the Would You Rather virgins out there, the game is simple: I ask questions, and you follow up with your answers. Give as much or as little explanation as you want for your choices, but we all know that we like to see the reasoning behind the madness.

But don’t let your answers suck. In previous years, we’ve threatened violence and humiliation for having bad bouts of WYR responses. This year, we are going to be more civilized, and instead threaten verbal assaults on your immediate family. After all, you can’t come back to the site if we’ve broken your hands. Anyway, answer away, gents.

Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Would You Rather, 2011 Edition

Fighting Through Bad Game Design

Call of Duty Black Ops SOG

Yesterday, I got off the late bus and finally picked up Call of Duty: Black Ops, joining the masses currently playing through another one of Treyarch’s well-received stabs at the CoD franchise. So far, I’m a huge fan of the campaign, and it’s managed some intense and epic moments, and the pace never lets up on you from the moment it starts with its memorable opening missions.

However, during the first Vietnam level, S.O.G., I’ve run into a bit of a problem with some bad game design. It turns out I’m not the only one, either. If you haven’t played the game (and even if you have), there’s a point in the mission where your objective is to take a hill back from the NVA. They are storming across and hopping down in trenches, and your mission marker tells you to get to the bottom of the hill.

This proved almost impossible. Continue reading Fighting Through Bad Game Design

Dragon Age 2 Developer Diary Lays Out the Narrative

If there was ever a title out there scampering about with a question mark firmly planted above its head, it would definitely be Dragon Age 2. While the original game in the newly birthed fantasy franchise was a slightly revamped cross between the combat sensibilities of Bulder’s Gate and the dialog system of older BioWare games like Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age 2 is, to further use our phrase, “Mass Effecting” it a little. Gone is the very mutable player character: you now control a human named Hawke, who’s only variables are gender and class. How is this going to work in a world that was defined by your actions and not necessarily your character? BioWare has just dropped some relevant knowledge on us in the form of a developer diary which I’ve embedded below:

BioWare is playing Dragon Age 2 very close to the chest this time around, causing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins’ fans to raise a very justified eyebrow. While we’ll see for certain on March 2 whether Dragon Age 2 can live up to the original, at this point I’m certain that BioWare’s pedigree speaks for itself. Who’s got Dragon Age on their must buy list?

“Class-less” Skyrim Details Emerge

I know most of you are still busy trying to finish every last quest in Oblivion, but you might want to pause and take a look at some of the changes VG247 has revealed that will be featured in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, due to be released in November. Some of them will likely ignite a fire on the Internet not seen since…well, it happens all the time, so nevermind.

For starters, you don’t pick a class when the game starts. Also, now you get to pick Perks, just like in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, which should be a nice touch when applied to the fantasy setting. They are cutting the number of skills fro 21 to 18 and you can either specialize in certain skills or be a jack of all trades, which is always my choice.

Combat will be more tactical than “ATTACK, BLOCK, ATTACK” and you can dual-wield certain weapons, which sounds pretty bad-ass. The way NPC’s interact with you will change based on how your character is built, in addition to challenging NPC’s to duels, just like Red Dead Redemption, but without guns, I hope. It sounds like Bethesda is not content to rest on their laurels, nor turn Skyrim into a fantasy Fallout, which is a nice realization. For more details hit the link.

What do you think of the changes announced so far? What would you like to see done differently? Commence comments!

Source: VG247

Telltale’s Jurassic Park Will Draw Inspiration From Heavy Rain

telltale games jurassic park

When big companies go to translate their franchises to video games, there are usually two routes they typically take: make a first person shooter, or emulate God of War. When Universal Studios wanted to make a game based on Jurassic Park, they didn’t want another FPS associated with the JP name and a third-person brawler would have been a little far fetched. Knowing that the franchise needed a gentle hand, the movie company approached Telltale Games, the development house known these days for keeping the dying adventure game genre alive.

According to Telltale executive director Kevin Boyle, the nature of making a Jurassic Park game has forced the team to rethink how they typically go about making adventure games. While large parts of the game will no doubt resemble the classic point and click style of Back to the Future or Sam and Max, Mr. Boyle says that there where be frantic moments that require Heavy Rain level reactions and input from the player.

Kevin Boyle and his team think that the best way to combine the character-building moments of Jurassic Park with the thrills of dinosaurs leaping at you is to mash-up the precise pace of adventure games with the slam-bang action of Heavy Rain’s quicktime events. The series will be episodic and five episodes are currently planned for a PC/Mac release.

What do you guys think about this? Does this sound interesting enough to get you to look a bit more closely at Jurassic Park? I know it worked for me.

Source – The Escapist

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing, 2011 Edition

Back to the Future PSN

Time to check in, folks. We are officially done with our break.

January is already underway, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to slow down on playing games. In fact, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve been playing more games lately than I’ve played in awhile. It’s been a total blast getting to spend time on the games I got for Christmas, and I’m really excited about some things that are coming up.

For me, I’ve been playing Red Dead Undead Nightmare, and am about to finish that tonight, actually. I’ve also been playing some Halo: Reach mutliplayer, Lost Odyssey, and I finally jumped into “My Player” mode on NBA 2K11, which is some of the most addicting sports play I’ve ever experienced. Seriously, even if you don’t like sports games, you might want to check it out. In the immediate future, I have plans to knock out Final Fantasy VI on the GBA, and I’m probably going to grab Call of Duty: Black Ops this weekend as well as the Back to the Future PSN game.

What are you playing these days? Have you finished those Christmas games? Are you trying to clear out the backlog to get ready for 2011’s steady stream of great releases? Go!

GamerSushi Top 10 Games of 2010

Another year of gaming has gone by, which means it’s time for us to reflect on the games that really made 2010 stand out all its own as one to be remembered. This trip around the sun has produced some clunkers, disappointments, triumphs, wins, fails, works of art and everything in between. We saw quality releases from January through December, and a few surprises that threw us for a major loop in the best way possible.

To create this list, the GamerSushi staff (myself, Nick, Anthony, Mitch and Jeff) all made our own individual top 10 lists. From there, Nick used the powerful science of magicmatics to conjure up a final list, based on some mumbo jumbo he did with a point system. What you see is something like an average of all of our lists together, and one that we’re all happy with, minus a few honorable mentions of course.

So, without further ramblings from myself, I present the Top 10 games of 2010!

Best of 2010

Continue reading GamerSushi Top 10 Games of 2010

Hottest January Releases

Well, 2011 is just getting started and I’m sure many of you are still playing the games you got for Christmas. Sorry to say, there is no rest for the weary, because big blockbuster games are about to drop already. I have barely dipped my toes into Fallout: New Vegas and Black Ops has replaced Gran Turismo 5 as my constant obsession, but I have barely made any headway into any of these massive games. And with new games coming out, I’m pretty stressed.

The following is a list of some of the more notable releases this month. Are there any on there that you plan on getting right away? Or are there some that you are going to wait for a price reduction? Let us know what you think!

Hit the jump for the list:

Continue reading Hottest January Releases

Finding the Sweet Spot in Demos

Enslaved Demo

With the break we took on GamerSushi over the last couple of weeks, I suddenly played more video games than I’ve played in a long while. Correlation? Probably.

One of the games I sampled in my several week long buffet was Enslaved. The game was good, but not great, although I would still recommend it for anybody looking for an Uncharted fix with not-quite-as-good gameplay. Sadly, the game underperformed like crazy, and is reportedly one of the bigger busts of the year in terms of sales.

Part of me wonders how much of this has to do with the game’s demo. Like many games, Enslaved’s trial covers the first level of the game, which provides a basic introduction to the world and the main character, Monkey. And when I say basic, I really mean it. It’s meant as the set up for the story rather than the gameplay, with incredibly linear platforming sections and only the slightest of combat. Much of the game revolves around the co-op aspect with the AI partners you encounter, and the platforming and combat grow from there. The first level is in no way representative of the game as a whole, so it’s baffling to me that Namco Bandai and Ninja Theory would choose that as the sample that they wanted people to play. Continue reading Finding the Sweet Spot in Demos

Angry Birds to be Released on PSN Tomorrow

angry birds

Stuck with a dumb phone instead of a smart phone? I’m in the same boat and frankly, I am tired of hearing about Angry Birds, as I am sure the rest of you are. It’s probably just one of those stupid games that tweens like and…wazzat? It’s coming out on the PSN tomorrow as a Playstation Mini, which means you can play it on your PS3 or PSP? I’ve suddenly had a change of heart!

All kidding aside, I’ve heard so much about this game that I am quite excited to finally get a taste of what iPhone games are like, albeit translated through a console. I’ve played several other Playstation Minis and they are very enjoyable, good for small doses of gaming. I’m sure Angry Birds will fit right into that niche. Now I can go back and watch that skit from the VGA’s and understand it!

Is anyone else excited to get a chance to play this phenomenon? Any Angry Birds fans have tips for us newly angry birds?

Source: Playstation Blog

GamerSushi Asks: What Are Your Gaming Resolutions?

RDR Undead Nightmare

Happy new year, folks. Yesterday marked the first day of the brand new year. Surprisingly, this blue and green ball keeps spinning along through space, un-attacked by alien oppressors. One day, though, this will happen. I have foreseen it in the moving cinema pictures.

Anyway, now that the holiday season is largely over, how did your gaming go? What games have you been playing? For me, I’ve been knocking out quite a few games. I started with Forgotten Sands, then moved onto Enslaved, and now I’m playing Undead Nightmare and lots of NBA 2K11. One of my resolutions this year is to just enjoy more books and games, getting a healthy dose of each one of those every week. Something called Web Zeroes and writing a couple of books got in the way last year, but I won’t let that happen this year.

So what about you guys? Do you have any resolutions or gaming related goals you’ve set for this year? Any non-gaming ones? Go!

The 2010 Sushis: A Year Honored and Belittled

If everyone else gets to make “Best of the Year” lists, then by golly, so do we. Only, instead of the trite awards that every other site dishes out, we try to be a bit more creative with our end of year awards, bestowing unique honors that bring both shame and glory. That’s right: it’s time again for the annual Sushi Awards.

For those with a keen memory (or that know how to use our search bar), you’ll recall that we did this for 2009 and 2008 as well, so feel free to go over those to remember how awesome those years were, prior to this one.

As with those previous entries, keep in mind that the Sushi awards represent our goofy and snarky take on the year in gaming, for better or worse, chosen by the GS dudes. A proper “best of” top 10 list is coming next week. But for now, enjoy these custom awards and tell us what you think!

Enjoy!

Continue reading The 2010 Sushis: A Year Honored and Belittled

CNN Ranks Their Top Games of 2010

cnn top games of 2010

Like everyone and their dog, “Best of” lists are coming fast and furious as publications set about to rank and rate the various entertainment properties that 2010 has bestowed upon us. While we’re certainly no exception (keep your peepers peeled folks), we’re a little below the notoriety level of say, CNN. Like Time Magazine, they’ve put out a list of their favorite games of 2010, headed off by Heavy Rain.

Unlike Time Magazine, however, Alan Wake is nowhere to be found and Mass Effect 2 ranks sufficiently higher. This list makes a bit more sense to my ingrained gamer traditionalism, but I’m just one man with an opinion. Take a look at the list after the jump: Continue reading CNN Ranks Their Top Games of 2010

One Man Versus the Super Mario Galaxy Soundtrack

I have made plenty of snarky remarks in the past about the nature of the Internet and how it gravitates towards certain viral videos. One of the trends that I dislike is the way everyone clamors over every single cover of the original Super Mario Bros. theme. It’s completely lost any magic it once had for me.

However, this is something different. This is one dude (Diwa de Leon) covering a medley of Super Mario Galaxy’s excellent original score. Yes, he voices/plays all the instruments himself. And yes, I’m impressed. You should be, too.

Merry Christmas, Fools!

Christmas

Or whatever other thing you celebrate. But today’s Christmas. So as such, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, you animals. I hope this post finds all of you doing some gaming, enjoying families, being Christmas-y in general.

I’ve had family in town for the last week, but was finally able to get back to the gaming yesterday, when I beat Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I also ran over to Gamestop and picked up Lost Odyssey and Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, both of which were only around $20 bucks apiece. Apparently they started a deal the day after, where if you buy two used games, you get one free – so make good on that and get yourself some extra Christmas bonuses.

Anyway, how have your holidays been? What are you playing? What was your loot? Post it!

LittleBigPlanet 2 Beta Beats Capcom to the Punch

It’s kind of hard not to be amazed by what people are capable of. LittleBigPlanet 2 is still only in beta and yet more and more amazing videos keep coming out. Take this newest video for instance, which recreates Marvel vs. Capcom 3, managing to edge Capcom’s release date by a few months.

The dynamic camera movements are a nice new feature, as is the obviously over-dramatic voice recorded to announce the fight’s beginning. What really impressed me were the special moves that were on display, such as a missile and bomb projectiles. Also, a demo for LBP 2 will hit the PSN Store tomorrow and while it likely will just be a Story mode-based demo without any of the building tools, I am still anxious to get my grubby hands on it.

[youtube width=”500″ height=”310″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-AdUZeuxYc&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]

What do you think? What games are you looking to make using this handy new dev kit? I would love to see some RPGs, myself. Is anyone going to download the demo tomorrow? Speak!

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 14: The 2010 Recap

Mass Effect 3As promised, here’s yet another edition of the GamerSushi Show, 3 weeks in a row! Seriously, you should be impressed with us, because I am. And I am not easily impressed.

Anyway, I actually didn’t make it to this podcast as I had family in town, but the other dudes are more than capable and ended up having a great discussion on the year 2010 in review. There’s a big discussion about the VGAs, the biggest disappointments of 2010, as well as its biggest surprises. Naturally, since I’m not there, it probably means it was maybe the greatest podcast ever of all time, so please listen to it and tell everyone how much better it is without me.

There probably won’t be a podcast next week because of Christmas, so don’t hold your breath. We’ll let you guys know if it’s coming or not, it just depends. In the mean time, check out this podcast and enjoy its gaming goodness.

And, as always, please go rate this cast on iTunes and subscribe with the handy links to the right. Enjoy! Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 14: The 2010 Recap

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