August « 2011 « Gamesugar

August 31, 2011

Review – Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: 360, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Eidos Montreal, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Review, Square-Enix, XBOX — Brad Johnson @ 8:46 am

Deus Ex Human Revolution
I spend most of my days waiting for games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution to come along; games that do science fiction well, and authentically.

William Gibson has said that all great science fiction isn’t really about the future, it’s about the present—and that’s part of the strength of Deus Ex. At the heart of Human Revolution is the augmentation debate, and within it are shades of modern day quandaries, reflections of the everyday arguments of politics, science, and religion.

Care has been taken here to craft a genuine, believable world. This game doesn’t feel like a caricature; the ideas and conflicts feel true to life, and so does the argument the game hinges on. That fidelity informs Revolution down to its core, and makes it successful.

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August 27, 2011

Hands On with NeverDead

Filed under: Features — Tags: Event, Feature, Hands on, impressions, Konami, NeverDead, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Preview, Rebellion, Xbox 360 — Jamie Love @ 9:00 pm

NeverDead Hands On
Konami has no shortage of brands to call on when it comes to keeping the pixels moving and the store shelves stocked. The majority of their mainline brands read like the “who’s who” list from my childhood, and yet still find opportunities to remain relevant with new iterations in the here and now. With that in mind, NeverDead initially caught my attention as a curious ambition – a fresh IP digging for new tricks to create an original title that didn’t immediately leave me imagining an endless trail of sequels to follow.

The chance to step into Bryce’s immortal shoes recently lent a few more insights into how that ambition and collaboration with Rebellion is playing out, so let’s finally chew on matters of life, death, and Bryce’s unfortunate position between those two points.

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Hands On with Silent Hill Downpour

Filed under: Features — Tags: Feature, Hands on, Horror, impressions, Konami, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 8, Silent Hill Downpour, Vatra Games, Xbox 360 — Jamie Love @ 6:01 pm

Silent Hill Downpour Hands On
An over-turned prison bus gives Murphy Pendleton cause and opportunity to attempt a run through Silent Hill, and I was recently given some time with Konami to poke around the dilapidated buildings immediately awaiting him after the chance prison break.

Murphy’s arrival in the town where I’d like to build my dream house seems accidental, but then no one really ends up in Silent Hill by accident, do they?

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August 21, 2011

The Last Word on X’11

Filed under: Features — Tags: 000: Space marine, Bethesda, Bioware, Demo, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, EA, Eidos Montreal, Electronic Arts, id Software, mass effect 3, Media Event, Preview, Rage, Relic Entertainment, Square-Enix, THQ, Warhammer 40, X'11 — Brad Johnson @ 8:44 pm

X 11
As you may have noticed from the slew of hands-on posts, Sugar went to X’11 and played a bunch of delicious games—and we’re not done talking about them quite yet.

In addition to Binary Domain, Rise of Nightmares, and Dead Island, I had the opportunity to get my hands on a whole mess of other games—titles like Space Marine, and some other little indie games you might not have heard of, like Mass Effect 3 and Rage. If these are the sorts of things that interest you, you may click onward to unfurl my parchment of mighty gaming tales.

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August 19, 2011

X’11 – Hands On With Dead Island

Filed under: Features,News Feed — Tags: 360, Dead Island, Demo, Feature, Hands on, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Square-Enix, Techland, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 8:14 pm

In the latest installment of our 254-part series “Games Sugar Played at X’11” we have Dead Island, much-anticipated co-op zombie masher.

This particular demo was timed, so I quickly set about grabbing my weapon—a wooden paddle—and getting down to business. The business of zombie-murder, that is—and as several franchises can attest, business is good.

The beach I stepped out onto seemed safe enough, until a zombie came up at my flank and grabbed a hold of me. A prompt informed me that I should pull the left trigger, setting the zombie up for a pull of the right trigger that socked him directly in the face, staggering him away.

This was actually one of the more satisfying moments in the demo, so intuitive that I didn’t actually need to see the second prompt to know what the game wanted me to do.

Now the zombie was down, but he wasn’t out—he was climbing back to his feet. I swung the paddle and he crunched nicely, but to my surprise, he endured.

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X’11 – Hands On With Rise of Nightmares

Filed under: Features — Tags: 360, Kinect, Rise of Nightmares, Sega, Sega Am1, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 5:09 pm

Among the wares Sega was showing at X’11 yesterday was Rise of Nightmares, the Kinect exclusive survival horror title that’s due out in a couple of weeks. That demo happened to be my first opportunity to play a Kinect game, and while the title may not have been on my radar beforehand, that I walked away feeling good about the experience speaks volumes.

The demo began with a brief rundown of the basic control movements. I found myself in a rather unpleasant prison-like setting, where I was able to walk forward by placing one foot ahead of me and back by doing the reverse. Interestingly, the further forward my foot was placed, the faster my character would move, while turning my shoulders to either side would steer me through the world.

Placing an open hand in front of me brought up a cursor used to interact with and pick up nearby items, while pushing with that hand would open doors—a task that could also be accomplished, to my infinite amusement, by kicking wildly.

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The View From X’11

Filed under: Features — Tags: 2K Games, Batman: Arkham City, Darkness II, Media Event, Microsoft, Preview, Radiant Silvergun, Rayman Origins, Renegade Ops, Rise of Nightmares, Sega, Toronto, Treasure, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., X'11 — Jamie Love @ 2:23 pm

X11 Toronto
Microsoft’s annual Toronto holiday showcase of all things 360 took place yesterday, and I was fortunate enough to make the event with other members of Team Sugar to check in on upcoming releases for the system.

This year’s showing was undoubtedly the largest one in recent memory, with a slew of publishers showing so many titles that the mind boggled at how to break down and digest so much content. It’s not often companies like Square-Enix, Bethesda, 2K Games, and Sega come to town, and the result was a never-ending sea of screens that left me feeling a bit dizzy by the end of the day.

With that said, I’m going to stay true to form and simply tell you what caught my eye.

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