Category: XBox 360

Four More Portal 2 Gameplay Videos

Well, who knew that when we posted those Portal 2 gameplay videos the other day, that even more of the big E3 demo was going to be hitting the Web shortly? Parts 2 through 5 (of 7 total) are now online for Portal fans to gobble up, with the next 2 parts coming out tomorrow.

Honestly, the glimpses I’ve seen of the game so far are an absolute blast, and it really looks like they’re taking things to crazy heights in terms of the puzzling and platforming. I love the leap of faith mechanic, and they’ve got some cool new stuff to show off in these videos as well.

Parts 4 and 5 are after the jump! Continue reading Four More Portal 2 Gameplay Videos

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

transformers_optimusWelcome to our semi-monthly open-forum post where we pose to you the simple question of “What Are You Playing”? It’s summer now, but the games keep on coming, so much so that I can barely keep up with them. I’ve completely skipped Final Fantasy 13, missed half of God of War 3, only just caught up on Heavy Rain, and I still feel like I’m struggling to stay current. It may have something to do with sinking about two days worth of playtime into Red Dead Redemption, but that game is awesome, so I’ll assume that you forgive me.

Other than that, there’s been a couple of co-op DLC releases, a licensed game that’s actually pretty good, and Steam is having a ridiculous sale right now (you can find all of the delicious savings through this link if you don’t follow us on Twitter). I think I’m going to pick up Torchlight since it’s so cheap. I’ve heard good things about it, but has anyone played it?

Also, before we jump in to your posts, I should mention that next week will be bereft of the GamerSushi podcast since Nick and Eddy are “ascending the slopes of Mount Doom” with Web Zeroes, as they put it. We’ll pick up where we left off with our normal format in a couple of weeks though. Hopefully you can wait a while before our dulcet tones, and my nasally voice, caress your ear canals once again. OK, enough blabbing on my part, get cracking!

Thoughts on the New X-Box 360

xbox slimAgainst my better judgment I traded in my old, perfectly functional 360 and picked up the new hotness. I did this for a few reasons, mostly having to do with the new “S” model’s higher storage capacity and built in Wi-Fi. The prospect of having a game console that didn’t sound like a jet taking off also appealed to me. Using GameStop’s trade in deals, I only ended up paying about $100 for the whole thing, so all in all not a bad exchange.

Like we’ve seen in the various press shots of the new 360, the glossy black finish does look very nice and it bears more than a little resemblance to an Alienware computer with both its colors and its hard, angular lines. One thing I have against the new outer design is that the pressure sensitive buttons to turn on the system and open the disk tray are very, very touchy. I barely brushed the power button with my finger and the whole console turned off while it was loading a game, so that might be an issue playing Rock Band at rowdy parties. It’s also pretty astounding how much smaller the new console is compared to the old one. Without the massive hard drive jutting out the side, the new 360 takes up a very small space on my floor and looks positively puny next to my old PS3 “fat”. Microsoft’s new console features a lot more fans than the last one, the most noticeable being the giant port on top of the box, taking up almost half of the surface.
Continue reading Thoughts on the New X-Box 360

Portal 2 Gameplay Videos

As cool as the reveal of Portal 2 was at the Sony E3 press conference, I’ve been looking forward to seeing something more than the brief teaser trailer we got. From the sounds of things, the story is going to be a much bigger deal this time around, and there are going to be lots of new gameplay elements as well.

That’s why I’m excited that these two new Portal 2 gameplay videos have hit the Web, with Valve showcasing what the next game has to offer for all of the franchise’s many adoring fans. In the first video, we get to see a bit about the set up of the game, which apparently takes place many years after the first. The second video highlights some of the new gameplay additions we’ll be seeing. Personally, I think these awesome. I’m assuming you will agree.

Hit the jump to see the second video! Continue reading Portal 2 Gameplay Videos

Crackdown 2 and Demo Achievements

crackdown2This past Monday, the demo for Crackdown 2, the forthcoming open-world super-hero cop game, dropped on X-Box LIVE, and most of the GamerSushi crew have been getting skills for kills. One new thing that the trial introduced is the notion of “Demo Achievements”, a system where you can unlock specific goals before the full retail version comes out and they will be applied to your Gamerscore. While this is 360 centric, I do think it brings up a neat idea that Sony can probably start emulating in their demos.

While Achievements and Trophies are not popular amongst all gamers, accumulating points is something that most of us enjoy and the prospect of getting a bit more out of demos isn’t bad either. Of course, offering these Achievements may color the perception of the game, or produce a subconscious need to buy the game to get your points.

While I’m all for the prospect of unlocking Achievements in demos, I’d like to know how you guys feel. Is this a good idea, or will it hurt the nature of demos? Do you even care? Also, what are your Crackdown 2 impressions, if you’ve been playing it.

GamerSushi Asks: Favorite Co-Op Memories?

heavy rainEver since we’ve been able to use the internet to connect our consoles to each other, cooperative play is becoming more and more popular. I’m all for this, as I enjoy taking on waves of baddies with my friends just as much as I like shooting them in the face in a competitive match. There’s just something about co-op play that is altogether different and more satisfying than a straight-up Deathmatch game, but maybe that’s just because I’m a team player.

Both Red Dead Redemption and Battlefield Bad Company 2, two excellent games in their own rights, are getting co-op add-on packs today. Since both these games should be a blast to play with friends, I thought I would find out what your favorite co-op gameplay memories are. Do you have a specific recollection of you and a buddy (or several) holding out against AI antagonists, or maybe a particularly epic campaign playthrough to the wee hours of the morning? Let us know!

Dis-Kinect

Everyone is crapping all over Microsoft’s E3 press conference and though we mentioned some of this in our podcast, I thought it would help if we devoted a post to some of the concerns that gamers have about Microsoft’s foray into motion-controls.

Personally, I am amazed by the technology and the potential of Kinect. The voice recognition is very impressive and I think it can be utilized in better ways than simply telling your Xbox to pause a movie. Imagine navigation the Dashboard with it: “Xbox Marketplace” and bam! You’re browsing games or looking at your friends list. You can walk around the room and command your Xbox to start playing a disk without using a controller. I think that would be more useful than the admittedly cooler looking Minority Report-style interface. Sure that looks bad-ass, but using a controller is just faster and I am all about streamlining things. I’m not going to wave my arms around just because I want to look like something I saw in a movie. If I wanted to look like Tony Stark, I would shave my goatee like his and build and Iron Man Suit.
Continue reading Dis-Kinect

Kinect Doesn’t Like Couches?

KinectAs you’ll hear in our podcast that releases tonight/tomorrow, we have some pretty harsh words for the XBox Kinect. I was never too amped about the thing to begin with, but Monday’s press conference raised some concerns about the technology and the kinds of games that are going to be associated with it.

While I’ve been telling myself that I don’t want to judge it too harshly before it’s even available for regular mortals like you and I to try out for ourselves, it’s hard to watch things like Kinectimals and remain optimistic about the whole thing. People that have tried it out at E3 so far seem to be mostly positive, however, IGN posted a well thought article titled 5 Concerns about Kinect, which totally hit on some things that I had been thinking about since the press conference bomb.

As I said, they raise some good points, and the most disconcerting one is the assertion that some Kinect developers are saying that you can’t play Kinect while sitting on a couch. This has always been one of the big barriers for me and motion control. I’m not a lazy guy by any means, but when I sit down to play games, I like having a controller and hanging out on my couch. It seems that Kinect has problems recognizing a skeletal frame when it is sitting down. In fact, the IGN article actually said this earlier, but was later edited. According to VG247, a Microsoft rep says that this experience differs depending on the game. Once again, it’s far too early to tell this, but it’s definitely food for thought as the launch window rapidly approaches.

So what do you guys think? Fair or foul if you can only play Kinect while standing?

Update: IGN released a kind of retraction later, though the quote here is slightly different from the one given to VG247. Regardless, Kinect still didn’t work well with folks sitting down at E3, and signs point to this perhaps being a future issue with certain games, so this topic stands.

Source- IGN

XCOM Returns as a First Person Shooter

XCOM is one of the classics of the the PC gaming scene, an old-school strategy title where you waged war against alien invaders as the director of a Men In Black type organization. In the re-imagining of the series (done by Bioshock developers 2k Games), you still undertake the role of the leader, but instead of issuing orders from behind a desk, you step out into the field to meet the aliens mano a mano. A trailer dropped for the game during E3, and dang if it doesn’t look intense.

Set during the 1950s, this game bares more than a passing resemblance to another period-piece title from 2K that I mentioned above. While similarities aren’t exactly a bad thing, especially given the fact that this is probably the best team to turn XCOM into an FPS, it still remains to be seen whether this will help or hinder the game come release time. What do you guys think about XCOM? Eager to blast some symbiote-looking aliens, or upset about the change in genre?

Firefight Returns for Halo Reach

While last year’s Halo 3: ODST divided a lot of people with its price point and the short length of the campaign, I think that we can mostly agree that Firefight, the four-person co-op survival mode, was pretty freaking awesome. Players would band together against ever increasing waves of Covenant troops, competing for points but using teamwork to stay alive. Since Firefight was so well received, fans have been hoping and wondering if Firefight was going to make a reappearance in Halo: Reach, Bungie’s final (?) foray into the Halo-verse. Well, wonder no more, Spartans! Firefight is back and better than ever. Check out the trailer:

Just watching that trailer makes me salivate a little bit, because the thought of Firefight with Reach’s refined mechanics is a delicious one indeed. Better yet, the mode will feature matchmaking this time around, which was a point of contention when it was excluded from ODST. What do you guys think? Who here got even more excited for Reach, and who’s had their opinions changed?

Microsoft E3 2010 Press Conference Highlights

x360The Microsoft E3 2010 press extravaganza has come and gone. Naturally, we’ve got lots of great news, videos and demos to talk about.

Here are the highlights, after the jump!

Continue reading Microsoft E3 2010 Press Conference Highlights

Microsoft: XBox “Kinect”, Plus A New 360 Model

Microsoft KinectEver since last year’s Microsoft press conference at E3 2009, people around the gaming industry have been wondering about what their new motion control system, codenamed Natal, was eventually going to end up being named. We saw a similar thing several years ago, when the Nintendo “Revolution” wound up with the then-strange-but-now-household moniker: “Wii”. Well, news has finally dropped tonight. Natal’s final title will be the Xbox “Kinect”.

While the name certainly isn’t everything, and I see the idea they’re going for, I actually thought Natal was kind of catchy in the same sense that “Wii” was, because it represented something new that we hadn’t seen before. With no controllers, Kinect is certainly going to be an interesting evolution of the motion control platform. By all accounts, this makes Sony’s Move seem like a stroke of genius in comparison.

In addition to that piece of news, there are also reports of the long-rumored “slim” XBox 360 finally making its debut at E3 this week, along with pictures of the new model. Supposedly, the only difference between this new model and the old ones is that the HDD is 250 GB and it also has built-in Wi Fi. To me, this design seems like a step back, especially compared to the PS3 slim, which was such a well done re-design of a system. This rumored model is sharp and angular. If this ends up being real, they might as well call it the XBox 360 Orthanc, after Saruman’s tower in Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, there has also been a short list of Kinect’s launch games, which include a dance game as well as a Wii Sports ripoff. So what do you guys think of all of these developments? Do you like the name Kinect?

Source- Kotaku (Kinect) and Kotaku (New XBox 360 Model)

Review: Red Dead Redemption

red dead redemptionRockstar has a well-deserved legacy of making really engaging, if somewhat wacky and ultra-violent, sandbox titles, one where the player assumes the role of a mass-murderer of some note. Ever since the first Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar has been poking fun at various eras of history, but they’ve never strayed further back than the 80s. The most recent game from the studio, GTA IV, took a look at modern America through a very skewed lens, using the viewpoint of immigrant Niko Bellic to make a commentary on our post 9/11 society.

For their most recent title, Rockstar has decided to eschew the modern trappings of GTA IV and travel all the way back to the Old West; 1911 to be precise, an age where the cowboy still roamed the plains, but the government was slowly encroaching on the frontier. Players assume the role of John Marston, gravelly-voiced gun for hire, forced to hunt down his old gang members at the behest of the Bureau of Investigation. Does Rockstar’s traditional formula survive in the Old West, or does the corpse get picked apart by vultures when I’m done with it?
Continue reading Review: Red Dead Redemption

Fallout: New Vegas Trailer Hits the Strip

After Fallout 3 consumed my life with its cornucopia of post-apocalytpic goodness, I’ve had my eye peeled for anything pertaining to a follow up to that excellent title. As luck would have it, Bethesda contracted Obsidian studios to craft the spin-off, and for all intents and purposes, it looks like it’s shaping up to a worthy successor. A new trailer for the game hit the internet to lead into E3, so let’s have a watch, shall we?

One thing I really like is the juxtaposition of the cheerful swing tune with the bad-ass combat that’s happened on screen. Another thing I like? Slow motion walking in front of explosions. What about you guys? Are you going to go all in on this one, or will you fold?

Today’s WTF: Metal Gear Without David Hayter

snakeThis news could possibly be the death knell of Metal Gear Solid: Rising for me, even though I’ve seen nothing of the game since last E3. According to rumors, the game, subtitled “Tactical Lightning Action”, will be out sometime next year, and no one has phoned David Hayter yet! For those of you who don’t know who this man is, he’s the guy who’s been providing the gravelly-voiced delivery for Solid Snake for the last twelve years. He’s also a Hollywood screen writer with credits for X-Men and X-Men 2 in addition to the Watchmen draft that stodgy Alan Moore gave his approval to.

One might say that Hayter is the linchpin of Metal Gear Solid in North America, so what will a Metal Gear game without Solid Snake be like? Granted, the game is assumed to be about Raiden, but even Metal Gear Solid 2 (which had Raiden as the main protagonist), featured a lot of Snake. What do you guys think? Could Rising be completely Snake free? What are your thoughts on this game, now that a full year has gone by? Keep in mind that this is just a rumor, but it’s puzzling none the less.

Source: VG247

The Dreamcast is Back as Downloadable Content!

dreamcastThis will surely be good news for those of us who fondly remember SEGA’s last foray into the console business as it has just been announced that the Dreamcast’s library of titles is being made available on the PlayStation Network and the X-Box LIVE Arcade. The Dreamcast garnered over 650 titles during its lifespan, which started on September 9, 1999 with Sonic Adventure.

While some Dreamcast games have seen re-releases on previous generation consoles (the Sonic Adventure series being the most notable) this is the first time they’re being set loose on the current generation featuring all the fancy bells and whistles that we’ve come to expect like updated graphics, sound, and online integration.

SEGA’s VP of Digital Business, Haruki Satomi, had this to say about the Dreamcast’s resurgence:

“The Dreamcast is fondly remembered by a large community of dedicated fans as a console that was ahead of its time in terms of graphics, quality and online gaming. There are few things that are more requested from us than making Dreamcast classics available for download in today’s digital market place. We’re very excited to begin offering gamers our beloved Dreamcast titles again on the current console systems.”

The first games to be out in the fall will be Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi, and I can tell you that those are on my list. What about you guys? Excited about the Dreamcast coming back? What games would you like to see?

Source: Kotaku

GameCop Vs LameCop Vs PsychoCop: E3 Edition!

It’s been a couple of months, and many of you left feedback that you love the GameCop vs LameCop vs PsychoCop feature, so we thought we’d do an honorary E3 rumor edition!

If you’re unfamiliar with this feature, we discuss gaming issues and we switch roles each time. The GameCop is looking out for you, the gamer, while the LameCop is just what he sounds like: kind of a lamewad. Meanwhile, PsychoCop is a troll in every sense of the word, and completely bat poop insane.

In honor of next week’s E3, we have a completely intellectual debate regarding the status of several E3 rumors, including Hulu coming to the XBox 360, Rockstar pulling out of E3, and Valve’s special showing.

Enjoy!
Continue reading GameCop Vs LameCop Vs PsychoCop: E3 Edition!

Today’s WTF: Dragon Age Anime Incoming?

DA animeAdmittedly, I’m probably not the best person to debate the merits of transferring video game franchises into an animated format, but I guess that Halo: Legends sold well enough to encourage other publishers to take a crack at it.

EA and BioWare recently announced that they’re teaming up with FUNimation to bring Dragon Age to home video with a feature length film. You may know FUNimation from their long career of importing Japanese cartoons to North America, most notably the Dragon Ball series. Of course, any video gamer worth their salt knows of Dragon Age, the epic medieval fantasy RPG that was lauded by critics and players alike as the premier RPG of 2009. The game has already seen a novel tie-in and a comic book deal, so an animation project really isn’t that far fetched.

While Halo: Legends may have soured me on this kind of endeavor, the fact that this is a full length film instead of several shorts may address some of the things I found lacking about Legends. What do you guys think? Anyone on board for a Dragon Age anime?

Source: EA

Who’s Playing Red Dead Redemption?

Red Dead RedemptionNormally, I would just ask this as a straight up “What Are You Playing” question, but I decided to do things a little differently this time. You see, lately, nearly 80 percent of my friends list on XBox Live is playing through the newest Rockstar outing, Red Dead Redemption.

If you listened to our awesome podcast, then you would know that a handful of us here at GamerSushi are deeply enthralled in this game’s clutches. I know that for me, personally, the game is head-and-shoulders above its spiritual brethren, the GTA series. It plays more like an Oblivion or Assassin’s Creed 2 in terms of its structure, and allows you to explore a rich open world with gorgeous western vistas and plenty of fun distractions. I’ve written additional thoughts over on my blog, but I wanted to raise this question here as well.

Who’s playing Red Dead Redemption, and what are your thoughts on the game? It’s looking like it could be a front runner for game of the year, and I’m nowhere near being finished. Where do you rank it? Go!

Deus Ex Human Revolution Trailer Might Blow Your Mind

I know that we have quite a few Deus Ex fans on this site, so this post is especially you for you. If you were unaware, a trailer for the newest entry into the franchise (and prequel to the series), Deus Ex Human Revolution, just hit the good ol’ webz today, and holy cow if it isn’t pretty awesome.

I don’t mean to hype this trailer up too much, but I’m seriously damn impressed by it. I don’t know a thing about Deus Ex, its world, the main character, or how any of the game plays, but I immediately want to go find out everything I can about it right now.

On the real. You need to watch it.

Does anyone else wish this was a movie after watching it? Because I certainly did.