If there’s one game coming out this holiday that has style leaking out of its cel-shaded ears, it’s Borderlands. In this new trailer for the upcoming FPS-RPG, we’re introduced to the various characters that we’ll be controlling as we explore the wasteland looking for sweet guns. There’s plenty of gory game-play (censored to tantalize you) and awesome music packed into this video, so check it out.

Gearbox’s CEO Randy Pitchford, notable for being slightly outspoken about his games, has said that he thinks Borderlands has the moxie to stand up to the big dogs this Christmas, and based on this trailer, he might be right. We’ve looked at this game before at GamerSushi, but I just couldn’t pass up sharing this trailer with you guys. I’m picking this up on PC for sure.

One of the best demos I’ve ever played for a game was the one for Just Cause. While the game itself ended up being a bit repetitive, the demo showcased just enough to really make you want more. To me, the free-falling/parachuting mechanic was some of the most fun “flying” gameplay I had experienced since the wing cap in Mario 64. An open world game that allowed you to leap from car to car, or even jump up into helicopters, Just Cause made you a ridiculous action star, and had some promise, which is why I’m excited about the sequel.

The new edition to the franchise drops in 2010, and so far, it’s shaping up to be a hell of a ride. This vertical gameplay trailer really showcases some of the things you can do, and the thought of hook-shotting my way up skyscrapers and then leaping off of them gets my do want meter going. What do you guys think? Who here played the first game?

With the glut of shooters, brawlers, and generally anything being associated with action set for release this holiday season, it’s sometimes easy to let a game that doesn’t focus primarily on racking up a huge body count escape your notice. However, amidst all the big tent-pole titles, there’s usually a few that deserve at least some of your time, if only to cleanse the pallet from all the shootery-goodness.

Enter Tropico 3. Developed by Haemimont Games for the PC and X-Box 360, Tropico 3 is a building and management simulation that puts you in the boots of “El Presidente”, iron-fisted dictator of a small banana republic in the Caribbean. The time period is the 1950s and onward, so you have to play the US and the USSR carefully against each other, managing all your resources wisely if you don’t want to be invaded by one of the super-powers.

In the demo, you’re given a tutorial and two separate campaigns to play around in: one focusing on building a successful banana-fuelled dictatorship, and the other features a scenario where you’re deposed by your twin brother, taking your former government’s treasury and a few loyal supports onto a new, less hospitable island to start anew.

So, how does the demo stack up? Does this tropical city management sim have what it takes to stand against the deluge of holiday titles, or is it a few bananas short of a republic? Read on.

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Man, this seems like it was the year to go to PAX in Seattle. If you didn’t know, the huge gaming convention happened last weekend. I went last year, but was unable to attend this year, and I had to avoid the news because it was just going to make me depressed, hungry and angry. Yes, all three of those.

One of the big games that I wish I could have seen in person was Mass Effect 2. Bioware was rocking a nice demo from the game, and you can watch it in all its glory. Who else is getting ridiculously anxious for this game, due early next year? Just me? Ok then.

Ah, the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott. One of the sillier boycotts around. Even though the footage from the new game is continuing to look better and better, and news of DLC for the first game is still pumping out, yes, the boycott for the sequel continues. While the official Steam group is content on making noise, Valve so far has done very little in terms of an official response, until now.

Apparently, the video game developer flew out the leaders of the boycott to get some hands-on time with Left 4 Dead 2, and even to see some of the behind-the-scenes info regarding the new DLC. I have to say, that’s about as good of a response as a boycotting group can hope to get, so major props to go those guys.

The funniest thing to me about the whole deal is the comments and accusations from fellow boycotters, accusing the leaders of selling out by going to Valve. Isn’t this the kind of thing you want to see from the developer? Anywho, I know we’ve talked about it before, but what do you guys think of Valve flying out these dudes to check out Left 4 Dead 2?

Source- L4D2 Boycott Steam Group

I’ve had one hell of a couple of weeks. I’ve been busy, tired, and working like crazy on a number of things. But in the middle of it all, I managed to get in a playthrough of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and boy was it worth it. As a few of you know, especially those that read Mitch’s review, the game is a blast, has an excellent story and some quality stealth gameplay. But something about it bothered me: its length.

While I think the game is maybe one of the best of this year, it is just simply too short for the money that people are expected to pay for it. To me, the game is totally worth $30-$40 simply because of its quality, but $60 is just asking too much for a game that only takes about 8 hours or so to beat. Sure, there is replay value in the challenges and Riddler puzzles, but does anyone else see this as an issue in terms of rising game costs?

To me, this is exactly why people tend to gravitate towards sequels and multiplayer games- the $60 price point is just too much for an impulse buy, or for a game that will only take one weekend to finish. So, what do you guys think about this issue? Go!

If there’s two things I love, it’s Star Wars and shooting people in the face. Thankfully, a nice group of modders calling themselves blackMonkeys shares my love of sci-fi warfare and are hard at work on a total conversion kit for Call of Duty 4 called “Galactic Warfare”, which takes the silky smooth game-play of CoD and fits it in with classic Star Wars imagery.

The trailer for the mod showcases Stormtroopers and Rebel fighters battling it out in Mos Eisely, and it looks like everything that I hoped Battlefront II would be. With the future of the Battlefront series in limbo, I’m looking forward to trying this out when the mod is complete. Check out the video:

Poor Valve, they just can’t seem to catch a break. Hot on the heels of the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott debacle and the newly brewing Team Fortress 2 item-deletion snafu comes the news that the new Left 4 Dead campaign, Crash Course, is going to be free for PC users, but will cost 560 Microsoft Banana Bucks for 360 users.

Is Valve heading for another ill-deserved boycott? Maybe not, says Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek. According to Chet, the decision to charge for the X-Box 360 mission lies solely with Microsoft. As Mr. Faliszek tells it, Steam is Valve’s distribution platform, so they can charge whatever they want, even give stuff away for free. Microsoft of course owns LIVE, so pricing for downloadable content there is a whole different ball game.

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Infinity Ward has released another Modern Warfare 2 multi-player footage video, and I can’t believe how amazing this game looks. The user interface has been completely changed, and the new blood splatter effect that replaces the traditional pulsing red screen when you’re wounded is pretty slick. The guns also look a lot more detailed, and the player models have gotten a complete over-haul. With a good engine in place from CoD 4, it looks like Infinity Ward went a little wild, and we all get to reap the benefits.

Just like the last multiplayer video IW released, this preview is chock-a-block full of little hidden clues as to what you can expect when the game launches November 10th. Keep your eyes peeled after the video “ends” for a nice little surprise.

Here’s something I’m wondering, though. With Modern Warfare being released on three platforms (360, PC and PS3), will it outperform Halo 3:ODST on sales, or will the power of Halo continue to shine through?

Why are super-hero games so hard to get right? You’ve got tailor made settings, abilities and bad guys that you can just lift straight off the funny pages. Seems like an easy sell, right? Well, if you’ve been paying attention to the number of below-average super-hero games this generation, this task seems like a trickier prospect to pull off than at first glance.

The problem with most super-heroes is that they’re just that: super. When you think about it, every comic book character is practically invincible. Superman only has kryptonite to fear, and Spider-Man has his astonishing reflexes to fall back on. Only one comic book crusader has the right amount of limitations to make a challenging video game: Batman.

He’s almost perfect for a developer to take a hold of. No super-strength, no bullet-proof skin. He’s only got his wits, his body, and a handy assortment of gadgets. Many studios have tried to make the lightning strike with Batman, and now it’s Rocksteady’s turn to put the Dark Knight through his paces.

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It’s time for our monthly “what are you playing” quiz, so you all know what that means.

Right now, I’ve been working my way through a couple of games: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Shadow Complex. The interesting thing about those is not only are they two of the better games I’ve played all year, they are actually very similar in style. I know there was a big discussion about the cliche term “Metroid-vania” (or Castleroid if you’re feeling saucy), and these two titles definitely fit the bill.

They both function in the same way, letting you explore a large complex, gaining access to it more over time as you learn new abilities or find new weaponry. It’s actually very interesting to see the juxtaposition between them, as one is 3D and one 2D, and both equally as enjoyable.

So, have either of you guys gotten try these out yet? And what are you playing as of this weekend?

Christmas has come early for you Modern Warfare fans, as some considerate soul has put up a minute and a half of juicy single-player footage. It’s off-screen, unfortunately, and the music is placeholder, (it’s actually the track Scorponok from the Transformers film), but it’s a good indication of the changes from Call of Duty 4. Take a look:

Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do. Looks like Blizzard’s plan to charge for custom maps is starting to make a bit more sense. This beast of a map editor was unveiled at BlizzCon, and is probably the most powerful editing tool ever released alongside a game.

Besides being able to make your vanilla strategy maps, the map editor demo given at the Starcraft 2 panel displayed its robust abilities by showing off an Action-RPG and a Galaga-type shooter. StarCraft: Ghost was even brought back to haunt the audience thanks to the fact that the main character’s model is included in the editor.

This is really exciting news in my opinion, but what do you guys think? Are you willing to pay money for some LittleBig StarCraft action, or do you think that maps made by the community should be doled out for free?

Source: Destructoid

One game that’s really slipped under my radar until the past few weeks is Borderlands. A post-apocalyptic title from Gearbox, Borderlands is a 4 player “role-playing shooter” that allows you and 3 other friends to explore dungeons and collect loot together. One of the sweet things about the game is that all of the loots are randomized, making for literally millions upon millions of possible gun combinations in the game. I must say that some of this footage and the prospect of 4 player dungeoneering is really calling to me. What about you guys?

I’m a big fan of MMOs. I played Star Wars Galaxies almost every day until Revenge of the Sith came out, and brought with it the Trials of Obi-Wan Expansion, which totally ruined the game with dumbed down controls and even more powerful bugs than before. After that, I started playing World of Warcraft, making first a Mage, then a Paladin, and finally a Death Knight. With Star Wars: The Old Republic and the newly announced World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, looming in the distance, I took it upon myself to try out one of the smaller MMOs on the market.

Cryptic Studio’s Champions Online, based on the pen-and-paper RPG, launched an open beta last week for those of us who had either pre-ordered the game or have a FilePlanet subscription. Not exactly “open” in every sense of the word, but at least it gives people an opportunity to try out the game before they lock into a monthly subscription. (And only for the low, low price of $49.95!)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cryptic Studios, these are the people behind City of Heroes/Villains and the forthcoming Star Trek Online. They have the pedigree of a successful MMO crafter behind them, but does Champions Online have the hooks necessary to combat Blizzard’s juggernaut?

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You’ve probably seen me commenting around the site, but here’s an intro anyways. I’m Mitch, Canadian blogger extraordinaire, and I’m going to be contributing posts to GamerSushi a few times a week. I hope you’ll like what I have to contribute, and I’m looking forward to bringing you guys my views on our crazy hobby.

If you’re like me, you’ve been playing Battlefield 1943 on either the PlayStation 3 or the X-Box 360 and enjoying the hell out of it. If you’re waiting for the PC version to drop in September, you might be out of luck. Gordon Van Dyke has let it be known that in order to make 1943 a true PC product, DICE is going to have to delay the release into 2010. To make up for the prolonged wait, though, DICE is adding all the neat features that PC gamers take for granted, such as higher player count in matches, Direct X 9 and 10, and joystick support.

I can’t really fault DICE for wanting to give due attention to the PC, but this puts the release dangerously close to Bad Company 2, which might over-shadow its little brother. What do you guys think? Is it worth the wait, or will 1943 get left behind in the early 2010 rush?

Source: Kotaku

If you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m a big fan of developer diaries. I’ve found the string of Ubisoft ones particularly interesting, especially in regards to titles such as Splinter Cell and more recently, Assassin’s Creed 2. In this video, the creators delve into a few of the new gameplay tweaks, including the new banking system as well as gaining notoriety within certain factions. Both of these are cool because of the way they frame it within the context of history. I really can’t wait to see more of this game. What about you guys?

The typical fall slew of games starts dropping in just a few weeks, with Batman: Arkham Asylum officially ushering in the new onslaught. As I’m sure many of you know, the game’s demo just hit the Web this weekend, allowing thousands (perhaps millions) to play as the Caped Crusader, Splinter Cell or MGS style.

While I’ve been cautiously optimistic about this game, I have to say that playing the demo totally pulled me into its web of immersion. I haven’t been that sucked into a video game in awhile, and I was literally on the edge of my seat as I played through what the demo had to offer of Arkham’s dark and brooding hallway interiors. The opening cutscenes for the game are fantastic, and hearing Mark Hamill reprise his role as the Joker was so much fun.

The game is gorgeous and moody, and really fits Batman’s world. I also have to say that the challenge room where you have to take down the guards was bloody fun, and I can’t wait to try more diverse ones. My only worry right now is that combat felt like it could grow old quick. Right now, it just seems like a mashing of the X button (or square for you PS3 friends).

So what about you guys? What were your thoughts on Arkham Asylum?

For whatever reason, I keep forgetting that Dragon Age: Origins exists and that it’s actually coming out in November. While the most impressive thing I’ve seen from the game was at PAX last year, I’m still convinced it’ll be a blast to play. I mean, heck, it’s Bioware, and they’ve yet to lead me wrong. Those dudes even just released a bit of the character customization, including some glimpses at the ability tree. Nothing super exciting, but it definitely whets my appetite for more of the game. Anyone else interested?

A couple of weeks ago, I asked about point-and-click adventure games. Well, if you’re into those, then Machinarium might be right up your alley. I have to admit, I’m completely fascinated by this trailer. It really has some cool visual elements, and the music sounds just as awesome as the game looks. The art is simply incredible. It’s supposed to drop in October 2009 for Mac and Windows systems. Who else thinks this looks awesome?