Archive for the ‘360’ Category


Bioware Working on Better ME3 Closure

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Bioware, announced today that they’ve been listening to all of the critics of Mass Effect 3’s approach to ending Commander Shepard’s saga and are at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You?ll hear more on this in April.  We?re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we?ve received.  This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue.

You can see the rest of the letter from Dr. Muzyka to the gaming public on the Bioware Blog here.

I haven’t finished the game 100% myself (I’m currently at about the 96% mark), so I cannot comment on the validity of the enormous backlash that Bioware has experienced thus far, but I can say that I’m leaning more toward the legion of angry gamers considering some of the other shortcomings of Mass Effect 3 including the neglect of the Elcor, Hanar, and Vorcha and the laziness inherent in Tali’s “unveiling.”

Hopefully Bioware will come up with a good-will gesture of sorts to all of their fans that have remained so loyal throughout the series to alleviate the LOST-style grab-the-money-and-run feeling that is generally being conveyed by the gaming public.  Of course they’re the ones making the game and they can end it however they want, but since they want the continued support of their fan and income base I think it’s a good move for them to do a little damage control. 

Game Usagi will keep you posted on whether or not Bioware can successfully balance their “artistic integrity” with the integrity of the epic sci-fi tale they were trying to weave.

Bastion (PC, 360)

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

bastion

Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment (WBIE)
Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1
Console: PC (Steam/Chrome), Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
Hours Played: ~10-12 hours
Progress: Completed game with a good ending, completed all weapon challenge levels and fully upgraded most weapons

With the fairly easy availability of development tools for current generation of systems (particularly the PC), indie games are both figuratively and sometimes literally a dime a dozen.  On occasion particularly exceptional indie games are picked out by publishing firms and given releases that rival that of AAA games in both scope and presentation.  After being shown at the PAX Expo in 2010, Bastion became one of the lucky few as Supergiant Games struck a deal with WBIE that saw Bastion released on Xbox 360 as a headlining title for their “Summer of Games” promotion and on the PC soon after through both the Steam distribution platform and just recently as a browser game for Google Chrome.  Does the final version of Bastion deserve the laud that provided it with a wide distribution and the full support of a large game publisher?  Read on to find out.

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The Most Expensive GIF(s) Ever [UPDATE]

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

 

[UPDATE 2: Things are generally working alright now on COD Elite, but everyone should take a lesson from this and remember that however many servers you have, you’ll always need more than twice as many. ^_^]

[UPDATE: Call of Duty Elite is still mostly down, but an update was posted that says that paying members will get an extra month of the service for free and the timeframe to register as a “founder” has been extended to the end of the month.  Also, now they’ve implemented a waiting system that makes you wait in line to access the website’s error page.  With this comes another GIF (!) so now users are getting twice the value for their money, huzzah!]

Behold the most expensive GIF available to gamers today.  Normally to see this you have to pay for a $50 membership or buy a $99 game bundle, but Game Usagi has managed to get a hold of it for you for free!

For those of us who have yet to get Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (MW3), the prognosis for Beachhead’s premium stat-tracking and content delivery system Call of Duty Elite is rather bleak.  The website that costs essentially as much as a game for premium access has basically been entirely down since the game’s launch at 12:01 AM this morning.  When trying to access the site you just spent upwards of $50 for, all you currently see is a message saying that the site is down temporarily and the GIF that encompasses the whole of the website’s current features as shown above.

From my playing around in the game thus far, it’s been pretty good.  I’m still getting my mind around the several extra layers of complexity and leveling that they’ve added, but overall I think this will be a worthy game once people who fork over extra money get more than a 2-frame animated web image to look at.

The official word right now is that they’ve been receiving more registration requests than they could have imagined in their wildest dreams and that has apparently completely shut them down.  As we’re waiting with baited breath we have to wonder just how much money they were trying to save by skimping on the servers and hope that we get some kind of token apology for all of this when it’s over.

You can check the site’s status here or on their Twitter feed.

 

WR: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Monday, September 19th, 2011



Developer: Eidos Studios – Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: First-Person RPG
Players: 1
Console: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 20
Progress: Completed game and all side quests

The holiday parade of high profile video game titles starts this year with Deus Ex: Human Revolution by the talented people at Eidos – Montreal. This famed, futuristic role playing franchise sprang into being over 10 years ago on PCs and has become one of the most innovative RPGs in recent memory with a first-person perspective, futuristic setting and abundant freedom of choice. Now on “next-gen” consoles, is the latest iteration of the Deus Ex franchise worth your attention? Read on to find out…

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WR: Brink (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Developer: Splash Damage
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: First-Person Shooter 
Players: 1, 2-16 (online)
Console: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Hours Played: 20
Progress: Completed the Resistance campaign

It was almost two years ago at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) that Splash Damage, the developer behind Quake Wars and Return to Castle Wolfenstein gave us a glimpse at an innovative new, multiplayer-focused FPS, named Brink. With a greater emphasis on story and innovative, parkour-style gameplay, not to mention a great looking art style, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this title. Out for almost four months now, this review takes the recent price drop, current community status and new DLC into consideration in its final opinion.

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WR: L.A. Noire (PS3, Xbox 360)

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

Developer: Team Bondi
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Console: PS3, Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 22
Progress: Completed the main story

When it was rumored that Rockstar games was working on a new open world game people naturally took notice. Even though the concept was a bit unclear, the prospect of being immersed in another detailed open world period piece was enough to get mouths salivating. Enter L.A. Noire, a story-driven, investigative, adventure game set in 1940’s Los Angeles. Developed by Team Bondi, a new studio helmed by Brian McNamera, former Director of Development at SCE’s Team Soho Studio, London, it tells the tale of detective Cole Phelps, who is to be the poster boy of the LAPD and restore confidence in the city’s law enforcement amidst times of corruption and apathy.  So a combination of Grand Theft Auto 4 and Heavy Rain sounds pretty good right? Read on to find out if it actually is…

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Microsoft E3 2011 Conference Review

Monday, June 6th, 2011

I looked into the past of Game Usagi and it turns out that we apparently haven’t done press conference reviews since 2008.  This year’s conference reviews will take this form:  a list of highlights of the conference, a list of “lowlights” of the conference, a list of neutral information and then a summary and an overall conference score.  Check out after the jump for the 2011 review of Microsoft’s E3 Press conference:

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