Displaying articles written by

Brad Johnson

who has written 218 posts for Gamesugar.

I am Alive is Alive

I am Alive Trailer
When the cosmos were young and still unfurling unto the universe, Ubisoft’s I am Alive had already passed from myth into legend, back again, and then twice more over. Also, it was really old.

Thus, the internet was cracked in half today when Ubisoft revealed that the mythical game from the time before time does, in fact, exist, and that it will one day be played, not by our transhuman cyber-descendants, but by you and I. So says the trailer below, announcing loudly:

“COMING THIS WINTER.”

Ubisoft notes that I am Alive will feature combat based on intimidation, whereby lesser enemies may surrender to the sight of an empty gun, though the more bold will challenge such displays. Also of note is that the game has transitioned from full retail product to downloadable title; its winter release will be through PSN and XBLA.

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Posted: September 29, 2011 at 1:51 pm By | No comments

Syndicate – The Coolest Thing You’ll See This Week

Syndicate Trailer
After popping up in leaked screenshot form earlier this month, Syndicate has now been unleashed by EA as a coherent beam of Youtube audio-visual assault.

The revival of the Syndicate franchise is penciled for release on February 21 of next year, so we won’t have to wait long—and thank god, because this trailer has exposed a deep void in my being, a chasm that can only be filled by waging corporate warfare as an unstoppable company ninja who jumps through windows and hacks the brains of his enemies.

Also, it’s about damn time Starbreeze resurfaced.

You can incorporate this vital trailer into your person after the break.

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Posted: September 29, 2011 at 11:01 am By | 1 comment

Your Educational Pamphlet on The Darkness

The Darkness II
Fresh off my spiel about why the original Darkness was great, the Internets have been afforded a new trailer for The Darkness II—this time infusing a tale of woe into the montage of deadly mayhem, so that it may educate as well as horrify.

The new trailer discusses the matter of Jackie Estacado and the extremely unpleasant events that befell him in the original title, no doubt seeking to inflame the interest of those who weren’t on board for that first go ’round. Allow me to spoil it for you: shit didn’t go well.

Paul Jenkins, who scripted The Darkness, returns for The Darkness II, so one hopes for more of the same in that regard. If not, at least you’ll be able to twist off the heads of bad guys like bottle caps.

So there’s that.

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Posted: September 24, 2011 at 4:45 pm By | No comments

Review – Driver: San Francisco

Review Driver San Francisco
Before I begin discussing Driver: San Francisco, I feel it’s important to mention that I have an issue with driving games. There’s a conversation that happens between myself and any such game I sit down to play, and it goes like this:

“Use the handbrake for sharp turns, Brad!”

“Okay, driving game—oh, I made the widest possible turn, spun out and crashed into a wall. Thanks.”

As a result of my crippling deficiency, driving isn’t usually a lot of fun for me. The driving games I play are invariably the ones where I can mitigate my incompetence with offense. That is to say, there’s a gap between me and the amount of skill necessary to win a driving game, and I close it by shooting other drivers. Mario Kart, Extreme-G, Blur—these are the games I can contend in (just barely), because I can leverage missiles and mortars and heat-seeking koopa shells against my fellow racers.

Driver: San Francisco doesn’t have any of that—but it does have something even more unusual.

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Posted: September 21, 2011 at 8:42 am By | No comments

Review – Gears of War 3

Review Star Fox 64 3DS
So, here’s Gears of War 3 in a nutshell: somewhere on the battlefield, a Locust drone fell to his knees, and out I ran—because it wasn’t acceptable that he might just bleed out. I had to get to him, so that I might ram my flamethrower into his chest and burn him from the inside out.

Yeah, that’s a thing you can do.

I think what makes Gears of War special, as a franchise, is its unique aptitude for making me want to do things like that, and, more importantly, for making me need to shoot monsters.

That’s the impetus of any shooter, of course, but the focus here is notably more pure. Every asset is leveraged toward this end. Whether it’s brutish dialogue that can only rightly be answered with a shotgun, the satisfying kick of the rifle, the suffering atmosphere of the world, or a story that demands good old-fashioned revenge, everything in this game compels me to shoot monsters, and fashions that need into the most satisfying experience possible.

It’s the art of the shooter, and Gears of War 3 is a symphony on the subject.

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Posted: September 20, 2011 at 2:24 pm By | No comments

Anarchy Reigns, In Tokyo

Anarchy Reigns
Sega has arrived with yet another trailer for Anarchy Reigns—and if I’m honest with myself, I have to admit I really have no idea what this game is about, regardless of how many videos are sent my way.

I guess once all the cyber-enhanced bludgeoning begins, I can’t stay focused on things that are not cyber-enhanced bludgeoning. Also, I’m pretty sure one of the guys in this trailer is some kind of Super Pimp.

Anarchy Reigns, I think, is striving to acquire a doctorate in the ludicrous, an opinion you may share after observing the trailer following the break.

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Posted: September 16, 2011 at 5:42 pm By | No comments

Refresh Rate – The Darkness

Refresh Rate The Darkness
Next year, developer Digital Extremes will revisit The Darkness—after a significant four year gap since the original Starbreeze cult hit. The gap of time was long enough that it was fair to think the sequel might never materialize; after all, though The Darkness was well regarded critically, it did not seem to strike pay dirt with audiences—much like Mirror’s Edge, the future of the franchise seemed doubtful before it ever really got started.

With The Darkness II delayed into February (having been originally slated for an October release) after having mercilessly teased me with brutal gameplay footage, I had to satisfy my need for more Darkness by revisiting the Starbreeze original.

The Darkness was one of the first handful of games I played for this generation of consoles (I was something of a late adopter), and it seems like an obvious game for me to play: as a super-powered shooter based on a comic, it covers most of my bases. I picked the title up based on those very virtues, but truth be told, when the game began, I thought that maybe I had made a mistake.

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Posted: September 15, 2011 at 1:07 pm By | 2 comments
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