Wednesday, January 30, 2013
New Devil may Cry video is UP!
Hi bros, here is our first part walktrought of New Devil may Cry video, please whatch it and subscribe it to help us. You can watch other videos on our channel.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 2007 for video game consoles and Microsoft Windows. It was released for the Mac in September 2008, then released for the Wii in November 2009, given the subtitle Reflex Edition. It is the fourth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding expansion packs, and is the first in the Modern Warfare line of the franchise, followed by a direct sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as the first game in the series to have a Mature rating. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern times. Call of Duty 4 was in development for two years. It uses a proprietary game engine. On September 10, 2009, it was re-released in Japan by Square Enix.
Gameplay:
As opposed to earlier games in the Call of Duty series, the game features modern equipment and new features, many exclusive to the multiplayer part of the game, such as "killstreaks"; killing a number of enemies without the player dying in between kills allows access to various assets including airstrikes and helicopter support. A character can be positioned in one of three stances: standing, crouching, or prone; each affecting the character's rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. Using cover helps the player avoid enemy fire or recover health after taking significant damage. As such, there are no armor or health power ups. When the character has taken damage, the edges of the screen glow red and the character's heartbeat increases. If the character stays out of fire, the character can recover. When the character is within the blast radius of a live grenade, a marker indicates the direction of the grenade, helping the player to either flee or toss it back to the enemy.
Campaign
The player takes on the role of various characters during a single-player campaign. The characters' involvement in the plot occurs simultaneously and overlaps the events in the game. As such, the player's perspective changes from one character to another between missions. Each mission features a series of objectives; the player is led to each objective with the heads up display, which marks its direction and distance. Some objectives require that the player arrives at a checkpoint, while other objectives require the player to eliminate enemies in a specified location, stand their ground to defend an objective, or plant explosive charges on an enemy installation. After the credits, a special epilogue mission is unlocked for play, featuring a four-man squad retrieving a VIP from terrorists who have hijacked an airliner. The SAS rescue the VIP and escape before the plane is destroyed.
Multiplayer:
Call of Duty 4 features team-based and deathmatch-based multiplayer modes on various maps. Each mode has an objective that requires unique strategies to complete. Players can call in UAV reconnaissance scans, air strikes, and attack helicopters, when they achieve three-, five-, and seven-enemy kill streaks respectively. A game ends when either a team or player has reached a predefined number of points, or the allotted time expires in which case the team or player with the most points wins. If the points are even when the time expires, Sudden Death mode is activated in which there is no re-spawning and the team who either has the last man standing, or achieves the objective first are the winners. If the player is in either of the two matches, then there is an Overtime match, in which the next team to win is rewarded the victory.
The player's performance in the multiplayer mode is tracked with experience points, which can be earned by killing opposing players, completing challenges, completing objectives, or by completing a round or match. As the player gains experience, they advance in level, unlocking new weapons, perks, challenges, and gameplay modes. The highest obtainable level is 55, but on the console versions of the game, the player has the option to enter "Prestige" mode, which returns their level to one and removes all accumulated unlockables. This process can be repeated up to 10 times with a different insignia being given each time.
Completing a challenge grants experience points and may unlock weapon attachments. As a player's level increases by gaining experience points within online games, it unlocks new weapons, perks, or challenges. As the player advances in levels, they earn the ability to customize their classes; this includes selecting their main weapon, side arm and special grenade type. Additionally, the player can select 3 perks, one from each of the three "Tiers", that can customize their character further. Perk effects include, but are not limited to, extra ammunition, increasing bullet damage by the player, or dropping a live grenade when the player is killed. The player is also given the choice to complete challenges in order to receive even more experience points; challenges include achieving a certain number of kills with a specific weapon, shooting down a helicopter or performing a number of head shots. Additionally, when the player attains a certain amount of headshots with a specific weapon, excluding sidearms, the player unlocks extra weapon "camos", or camouflage, to use for that specific weapon.
Story:
In 2011, a civil war has broken out in Russia between its government and ultranationalists who seek to restore Russia to its Soviet-era glamor. Meanwhile, a separatist group lead by Khaled Al-Asad seizes power in a "small but oil-rich" country in the Middle East through a coup d'état. Al-Asad is ruthless and has extreme anti-Western views. Afterwards, the United States invades the country. In the afternoon of the second day of invasion, a platoon of USMC 1st Force Recon is sent to capture Al-Asad. The platoon attacks a TV station in which Al-Asad was thought to be broadcasting live and then engages in urban combat in an unnamed city south of the capital. In the meantime, the British Special Air Service conducts two important operations, one on a ship in the Bering Strait and one in Russia. Intelligence gathered from the two missions indicates that Al-Asad may be in possession of a Russian nuclear device.
In evening of the third day, the U.S. launches a full-scale assault on Al-Asad's presidential palace in spite of the SAS warning about the nuclear device. As U.S. Navy SEALs invade the palace, the Marines engage Al-Asad's ground forces. The assault, however, ends in catastrophe when the nuclear device suddenly detonates, wiping out most of the city along with everyone in it.
Refusing to assume that Al-Asad fled his country, the SAS attacks a potential safe house in a village in Azerbaijan. SAS forces, led by Captain Price, clear the village of the occupying Russian forces with the help of loyalist Russian forces and capture Al-Asad. Shortly into the interrogation, Al-Asad's phone rings. After hearing the voice of the caller, Captain Price executes Al-Asad and reveals that the caller was the leader of the ultranationalists: Imran Zakhaev.
Captain Price tells the story of a mission in Pripyat, Ukraine fifteen years earlier. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zakhaev took advantage of the turmoil to profit from nuclear proliferation and used his new wealth to lure soldiers from the Soviet Army to form his ultranationalist party. In 1996, Price was sent on a black operation to assassinate Zakhaev. Price set up a vantage point on the top floor of an abandoned hotel and shot Zakhaev with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, but the shot only severed Zakhaev's arm. Price barely escaped the scene.
SAS, the Marines and loyalist Russians attempt to capture Zakhaev's son, Victor, to learn Zakhaev's whereabouts but as they corner him on the roof of an apartment building, Victor commits suicide. Enraged, Zakhaev plans to retaliate by launching nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which could kill 41 million people. A joint force of SAS and Marines are too late stop the launch of the missiles; however, they manage to seize the launch facility's command room and remotely defuse the missiles over the Atlantic Ocean. They escape the facility in military trucks with Zakhaev's forces in hot pursuit.
An ultranationalist Mi-24 Hind helicopter destroys a bridge while the joint force is about to cross it. The destruction of the bridge and the ensuing fight with ultranationalists leaves everyone in the joint force either dead or severely wounded. Zakhaev himself arrives and begins killing wounded soldiers when suddenly loyalists destroy his Mi-24 Hind and join the fray. Zakhaev is shot dead. When the dust settles, loyalist forces start tending to the wounded.
In the outro, the missiles incident and the ultranationalists' support of Al-Asad are hushed up, thus causing the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty 3 is a World War II first-person shooter and the third installment in the Call of Duty video game series first released on November 7, 2006. It has been released for all three seventh generation video game systems: the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. It has also been released on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.This game was a launch title for the PS3 and Wii in North America, Europe and Australia. It was also the only major Call of Duty installment not to be released for personal computer platforms and the only numerical sequel to date to have been a console-exclusive game alongside Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and Call of Duty: Finest Hour. It was also the second installment in the Call of Duty series to be developed by Treyarch after Big Red One.
Story:
American campaign
In the American story, the place sets a month after D-Day invasion, the player takes control of Private Nichols, recently arrived in France and eventually attached to the 29th Infantry Division. Nichols and his squad participate in the capture of Saint-Lô. After that, the squad is folded into the 90th Infantry Division and sent to secure the wooded area of Saint Germain-Sur-Seves, where intense hedgerow fighting took place. Soon after, the 90th assaults the town of Mayenne, where Private Leroy Huxley (voiced by Benjamin Diskin) is tasked with defusing bombs planted on a bridge to stop the American advance, which is heavily guarded by German infantry and tanks. Huxley is wounded before he can carry out the order and Sergeant Frank McCullin successfully defuses the bombs, but is killed in the process.
Corporal Mike Dixon then assumes command of the squad and is promoted to sergeant. The squad is later tasked with clearing out Forêt d'Ecouves so 2nd Battalion can move through. In the end, Nichols clears the last roadblock with a mortar. The squad then participates in clearing out a nearby suburbs with a vital crossroads. Towards the end of the assault Dixon is wounded but survives. After taking a shortcut through the sewers, they find the crossroads and take it successfully, with the help of the Sherman tank divisions. Dixon tells his squad about the Falaise Gap plan to trap the Germans between the Allies.
The unit is then sent to defend the town of Chambois from Axis forces trying to run through the Falaise Gap. With their position being overrun, the squad and the surviving soldiers falls back to a church where Guzzo calls in bombing strafing runs. Private First Class Salvatore Guzzo marks German positions with flares for air support. Earlier, the squad had supported Baker Company and held a heavy position while Huxley went to get a bazooka to hold off German tanks. The squad tried to hold position, but they were soon heavily out-gunned and fled to the rally point, and the Germans did not hesitate to chase them. The squad fell back to a heavy German emplacement. While laying smoke, Guzzo is wounded, and Dixon and Nichols come to his aid and extract him to relative safety. While treating Guzzo, Dixon is shot in the back, and dies a few moments later. Guzzo takes command of the squad. After fighting through the rest of the town, the squad makes their last stand to holds off the Germans. Nichols mans two Pak 43s, armed with a M1 Bazooka, and a M1903 Springfield as the Americans makes their last stand against the Germans until reinforcements arrived to sweep the last of the German resistances.
Three weeks later, Guzzo is promoted to Sergeant, Huxley and Nichols are promoted to Corporal, and the surviving German forces surrender to the Americans. With new men in their squad, they continue to march into France as the Allied forces have gained access to Europe, ending the Battle of Normandy.
[edit]British/French campaign
During the British and French campaign, the player controls Sergeant James Doyle, a returning character from Call of Duty: United Offensive and member of the British Special Air Service. Doyle parachutes into France with a squad led by Major Ingram, also of Call of Duty: United Offensive fame, and meets up with members of the Maquis Resistance. Due to fire from an 88 mm gun, their Handley Page Halifax is shot down. The plane drops the squad and the two jeeps. Soon after making contact with the French resistance, SAS and French Resistance fighters attack a German anti-aircraft position. The French Resistance and SAS then try to destroy a German-held fuel plant. While escaping, Ingram is captured and tensions rise as Corporal Keith accuses one of the Resistance members, Marcel, of collaborating with the Germans. Against the advice of the Resistance, Keith and Doyle attempt to locate Ingram. Soon after rescuing Ingram, French and British fighters attempt to stop the executions of captured Resistance fighters. They rush to save as many as they can, but in the process the Resistance loses one of their significant members, Isabelle DuFontaine, who is killed after planting an explosive charge on an armored car. The remaining French Resistance pockets and the British Commandos group up and move to gather with the Allies as they take the fight into the rest of Europe.
Canadian campaign
The Canadian aspect of the campaign involves members of the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division. It is centered on Private Cole, led by World War I veteran Lieutenant Jean-Guy Robichaud, who demonstrates a proud and often haphazard style of leadership, often making assaults and completing objectives beyond his assigned mission at the risk of his own men. Robichaud commands a platoon in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada. The platoon captures an industrial area and successfully defends it from a larger German force. While the Polish 1st Armored Division guards their western flank, the unit clears a forest near the Laison River, during which Robichaud berates a young radio operator, Pvt. Leslie Baron, over his lack of combat participation. Tension builds between the two, and Baron insists that he is not a coward. Robichaud dismisses him and assigns him to act as radio operator for a Polish unit where he is later killed in action. Robichaud proceeds to clear a town to rescue a captured Canadian tank crew, but rather than withdraw with the rescued servicemen he decides to assist in capturing the whole town. After a King Tiger tank appears, the men plant demolition charges in a German ammunition dump to destroy the tank. But one of the fuses is defective, and Sgt. Callard manually detonates it, sacrificing himself in the process. Robichaud and Cole are wounded, and Sergeant Callard is killed. A saddened Robichaud decides to nominate Callard for the Victoria Cross and promote Cole, and presumably Private Peterson, to corporal. They then start moving more Canadian reinforcements through the town to aid the Polish struggling to defend Hill 262.
Polish campaign
The Polish campaign revolves around Cpl. Wojciech Bohater, a tank driver in the Polish 1st Armored Division hunting more German tanks. Bohater participates in a sweep across the French countryside, engaging German armor. The Poles later move into defensive positions at the base of Hill 262, which is assaulted by the remnants of the German 7th army desperate to escape the Falaise Pocket. Bohater and his crew defend the hill against German tanks, but eventually their tank is damaged where many German infantry units overrun their position, forcing the crew to abandon it. They join in the battle alongside the Polish infantry units and other tank crews, holding off the German offensive. The Poles continue to take heavy casualties, including two of the main characters, Corporal Rudinski and Sergeant Kowalski, while waiting for Canadian reinforcements, and start to retreat up the Mace through pockets of German-infested trenches. The Canadian radio operator, Pte. Baron, arrives to call in artillery support. When a German advance forces the Polish troops to fall back in the Mace, Baron argues with them, refusing to retreat since he is tired of being called a coward. He is shot in the head and killed by the Germans, and Ulan scavenges his radio, which he uses to call for artillery strikes. In the final stand against the German counterattack, Major Jachowicz commands Bohater and the surviving soldiers to defend the hill against the advancing German troops. He defends the other side of the hill and finally, as green flares illuminate the skies, the Royal Canadian Air Force commence bombing runs on the German troops and armor. Reinforcements then arrive to aid the Poles on Hill 262. After the victory, Lieutenant Robichaud is seen talking with Major Jachowicz, saying that he and his men have done an excellent job at defending the hill, and also telling him that the Germans still have an escape route: Chambois. Presumably Bohater is promoted to Sergeant and Ulan is promoted to Corporal, and the soldiers move to prevent the Germans from escaping in Chambois.
revealed that Treyarch would be developing the title which was set to release later that year. The game would be running on Treyarch's own internal engine, NGL.
In an interview with Video Gamer, Call of Duty: World at War senior producer, Noah Heller, revealed the team only had eight months to develop Call of Duty 3.
Darksiders II
Darksiders II is an action-adventure/action role-playing video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ. It is the sequel to Darksiders and was released in August 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and was released for Wii U during launch day in all regions, except for Japan.Core gameplay is a third-person hack and slash action-adventure game with role-playing elements.
Gameplay:
Players take control of Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Core gameplay is a third-person hack and slash action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The game makes frequent use of interactive puzzle elements, requiring the player to think their way through a series of levers, doors, elevators, portals, etc. in order to traverse areas and reach objectives.
Maps are vast and each contain open world "overworld" regions that can be explored freely on foot or by horse, along with numerous dungeons where quest objectives are generally carried out. There are main and side quests, with main and side boss fights. Worlds can be traversed via "fast-travel", whereby the player can teleport to certain map points instantly. While inside a Dungeon, the player is also allowed to fast-travel back to the overworld while saving their dungeon location for continuation later without losing progress.
Death is aided by Despair, a horse that is available for use in open areas of the overworld for faster travel, and Dust, a raven that guides him to his objectives. Each is accessed with a key/button stroke. Death's primary weapons are two scythes, one wielded in each hand. Secondary weapons include typical melee weapons like hammers, axes, and maces as "slow" options; "fast" options are generally gauntlet-style weapons that provide the player with claws and other bladed arm extensions, at the expense of less range and power than the slow weapons.
There are several different movement mechanics, including swimming, running along walls, and several different climbing mechanisms that are utilized on specially placed wooden elements, such as wall pegs and beams (players learn to recognize wood as climbing elements, in contrast to the stone that dominates most of the world's structures). In the course of quests, Death also acquires "Death Grip", which operates as a grappling hook on certain objects; and "Voidwalker", which operates similarly to the Portal Gun from the Portal video game series, though it only works at certain designated locations. Other abilities like "Soul Splitter" and "Interdiction" are also acquired, which allow the player to control multiple characters to traverse puzzle areas.
Health, Wrath, and Reaper resource meters display on-screen whenever they change, along with an experience meter that shows how close the player is to the next character class level. Wrath is the game's mana-type system, being a resource used for special abilities. Reaper is a separate resource used only for the Reaper ability, and when full, Death can transform briefly into his grim reaper form, which is more resilient and deals more damage (graphically it is the more typical depiction of Death as a spectral figure, rather than the flesh form normally used in the game).
There are eight player statistics, including a character class level that increases at various experience levels. Each new level gives the player a skill point that can be used in a skill tree that contains new abilities. Other statistics can be increased by equipping items, with each item having various stat-altering characteristics. The player's inventory contains seven different pages of equipment classes (primary and secondary weapon, shoulder, armor, glove, boot, and talisman, with an additional page for quest items). New equipment can be acquired via enemy drops, looting chests, or purchasing from vendor characters. New combo moves can also be purchased from "Trainer" characters.
"Stonebites", which are blue stones hidden throughout the world, can be collected (after several quests have been completed) and traded to a character named Blackroot, in groups of three, in exchange for various permanent statistic upgrades. There are three Stonebite types, and the particular combination traded determines which upgrade is received.
Money is dropped by enemies and chests, and can also be acquired by selling items to vendors. Special "Possessed weapons" are rarely acquired, which provide another more unique mechanic for trading in unwanted items, whereby the possessed weapon can be upgraded by "sacrificing" other lesser items to it.
Darksiders II takes place parallel to the previous game. In the prologue, it is revealed that the Four Horsemen (War, Strife, Fury, and Death) are the last of the Nephilim, fusions of angels and demons who waged a bloody war on the rest of creation. In order to preserve the balance of the Universe, the Four, who had grown tired of the conquest, received incredible powers from the Charred Council in exchange for slaughtering the rest of the Nephilim. The Horseman Death trapped the souls of his fallen brethren in an amulet, earning the title of Kinslayer, among others (though he kept its preservation a secret, since the Council ordered the Nephilims' souls destroyed).
While War is charged with his crimes, the horseman Death, sure that his brother is innocent, sets out on a personal mission to erase his brother's 'crime' and resurrect humanity. He first travels to the Icy Veil—a dimension between the three kingdoms of Heaven, Hell, and Earth—to seek the Keeper of Secrets for proof of War's innocence and the way to restore Earth. The Keeper of Secrets, also known as the Crowfather, tells Death that he must go to the Tree of Life in order to restore humanity. The Crowfather, bitter about being given the Nephilim amulet (which torments him without end), refuses to let Death pass and attacks him in the shape of War. Death kills Crowfather, but the Amulet shatters and embeds itself in his chest, knocking him out and sending him into a portal created by the Crowfather's death.
Death wakes up in the Forge Lands, a world populated by the Makers—physically imposing beings who are the creators of all worlds. He learns that their world, and many others, has been overrun with Corruption, a dark force that has blocked off the Tree of Life and has taken over many of the Maker's constructs. The Makers had crafted a massive Guardian to combat the Corruption, but had to abandon it before finishing the task due to the surrounding threats. With the help of constructs and a Maker named Karn, Death eventually reaches the Guardian, but upon activation, the Guardian is tainted by Corruption and goes on a rampage. Death battles the Guardian and destroys it, allowing it to be reassembled without Corruption. The Guardian self-destructs in the grasp of the creature blocking the path to the Tree of Life, which allows Death to reach his goal. Upon reaching the entrance, however, Death is seized by Corruption and is dragged into the Tree. There, Death is accosted by the shadowy form of Absalom, the first Nephilim, whose hatred lasted beyond his slaying at Death's hands and caused the Corruption, enabling him to take his revenge on creation.
Death is transported to the Land of the Dead, where he encounters the merchant Ostegoth. From the Merchant, he learns that in order to resurrect humanity, Death must find the Well of Souls, and to that end, he must speak with the Bone King. After completing an array of trials to gain an audience with the Bone King, Death is transported to the City of the Dead to find a soul capable of telling Death what he needs to know about the Well. After facing off against a creature housing all of mankind's souls, Death meets the soul the Bone King alluded to: the Crowfather's. The Crowfather tells Death that while the souls of humanity are no longer bound in a host, they have merely been transported to the Well. Death learns that the Well of Souls has power over life and death, and that with it, the spirits of all things living are cleansed and renewed before they are sent out to be reborn. In order to access it, Death would need two keys: one kept by the angels and one kept by the demons. Death asks why he and the other riders never knew of such things, to which the Crowfather replies that power must be tempered with ignorance and that the Council feared what the Horsemen would do if they ever learned the truth about the Well's power, that they might try to resurrect their kin.
Death first seeks out the key held by the angels and is sent to an outpost of Heaven called Lostlight, which is being assaulted by Corruption. At the Ivory Tower, he meets the Archon, who tells Death that his answers are in the Ivory Citadel, which is shrouded in darkness and Corruption. The Archon sends Death to Earth to bring back the Rod of Arafel, a powerful holy weapon, so that the way to the Ivory Citadel could be cleared. On Earth, Death encounters remnants of the Hellguard being led by Uriel. With their help, Death reassembles the shattered rod. Upon returning to Lostlight, Death eventually realizes that the Archon has possessed the key the entire time and that the angel has fallen to Corruption himself. Death confronts the Archon, kills him, and acquires the first key. Death then proceeds to Shadow's Edge, described as a dark reflection of Lostlight. When Death arrives, he sees that the world itself is in the process of being devoured by Corruption. Intent on acquiring the second key, Death travels to the fortress home of the demon lord, Samael, but finds Lilith, a female demon-queen that created the Nephilim (she thus refers to herself as Death's mother, which he angrily denies). Death learns through Lilith that Samael is gone, that Death will be able to meet with the demon lord by utilizing a time portal. Before he leaves, Lilith urges Death to "follow [his] heart" and revive his brethren when he finds the Well of Souls. After testing Death in a fierce battle, Samael gives Death the demon key, saying that no matter what happens, it should prove to be an interesting show. With both keys in hand, Death returns to the Tree of Life and has his penultimate meeting with the Crowfather, who reminds him of what's at stake: the fate of two races, humanity and the Nephilim. He warns that Corruption has chosen a named champion to block Death's efforts.
Death enters using the keys and proceeds to the Tree's core where he is met by Absalom. The Nephilim taunts Death by saying that the reason he is not harmed by Corruption is that the horseman is already "blackened by the sin of betrayal." Absalom and Death battle, and Death defeats Absalom just as he did eons ago. It is then that the Crowfather appears one last time and explains that Death may tap the Well's power to restore one race, but a sacrifice is needed. Warned that choosing one race will forever doom the other, Death chooses to save his brother War and sacrifices the souls of the Nephilim, still trapped in the scar on his chest, for humanity by leaping into the Well. An epilogue retells the final moments from the first game, with Uriel questioning if War intends to wage his campaign against the Charred Council alone, to which War replies "No, not alone." The scene then shows the arrival of the other Horsemen. The narrator states "And the number of the Horsemen shall ever be four," and the Horsemen appear: War, Strife, Fury — and Death.
In a post-credit scene, Lilith is seen being berated by a being who is completely in shadow (refereed to by Lilith as 'my Prince'), angered that humanity has been restored and the Nephilim are lost forever. Lilith says she awaits punishment, but the entity states that "[she] will get no pleasure from it this time". The screen fades as Lilith screams in agony.
Max Payne 3
Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Rockstar Studios and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third title in the Max Payne franchise and was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May 2012 and for Microsoft Windows in June 2012. Development is led by Rockstar Vancouver in collaboration with the New England, London and Toronto studios.
This is the first game in the series that was not developed by Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment and not written by series creator Sam Lake. The lead writer of Max Payne 3 was Dan Houser, who was also the writer of Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV and Bully.
Gameplay:
Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable. In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail. New to the series is a "Last Stand" mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession.
Max Payne 3 retains the shoot-dodge mechanic from the previous games in the series. Players are able to stay grounded after a dive, which enables them to shoot 360 degrees around. Rockstar has blended physics and animation, so that when a player dives, they do so appropriately according to their surroundings. Through advanced use of the Euphoria dynamic animation engine, shooting and killing enemies in Max Payne 3 will look noticeably more realistic than in any preceding Rockstar game.
New to the series are cinematic action movements, interactive cutscenes which transition seamlessly into continuing gameplay. Moreover there are no loading screens across gameplay and cutscenes.
The game's online multiplayer features maps and modes that dynamically change within a match, as well as reward, ranking and clan systems. Max Payne 3 lets players form private crews with friends, or join public crews. Players can be a member of up to five at the same time, and completing tasks as a crew gain XP points for the player. Among the crew features promised are persistent Feuds, that see the player scrapping with opposing gangs who've killed someone on the team. Social Club integration connect play across multiple titles, starting with Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto V. By playing both games multiplayer "crews" that the player set up in one will be carried over to the other.
Story:
Fourteen years have passed since Max Payne (James McCaffrey) lost his family and nine years after the previous game, Max Payne has retired from the NYPD, now drowning his sorrows in alcohol and painkillers in his shady apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey. When Max gets into a confrontation at a bar with the son of a local mob boss, Anthony DeMarco, an old acquaintance from his police academy, Raul Passos, intervenes. Raul is seeking Max in order to recruit him as a private security contractor for a job in South America. Max initially refuses his offer, but when he becomes a target for mob hitmen after he kills Tony DeMarco in a bar fight, he agrees to accompany Passos.
Max and Passos arrive in São Paulo, Brazil, where they work for the wealthy and powerful Branco family, made up of three brothers: Rodrigo, a real-estate mogul, Victor, a local politician, and the hard-partying Marcelo. During a party at Rodrigo's penthouse, he and his young wife Fabiana are attacked by a street gang called the Comando Sombra, but Max saves them. Fabiana, her sister Giovanna, and Marcelo are later again targeted at a nightclub by the same gang, who successfully kidnap Fabiana. Max and Passos bring ransom money to the gang at a football stadium, but the deal is thwarted by an outlaw right-wing paramilitary group known as Crachá Preto, who steal the money. Max and Passos decide to raid a Sombra safehouse outside the city to save Fabiana, but the gang escapes with her. As Max and Passos discuss the situation with Rodrigo, Victor, and Armando Becker, the local battalion commander of the special police unit Unidade de Forças Especiais (UFE), the Crachá Preto raid the Branco offices.
Max suspects that somebody is trying to frame the Crachá Preto for the events taking place with the Brancos. Max fights off the Crachá Preto, but returns to Rodrigo's secured offices to find him assassinated. A bomb then explodes in the building, but Max escapes, learning from a dying Crachá Preto that Fabiana is in the Nova Esperança favela, and the raid was meant to kill Max and avenge the deaths of their operatives at the stadium. Realizing the implications, Max stops drinking and shaves his head to disguise himself for another rescue attempt. In the favela, Max runs into an officer named Wilson Da Silva. Da Silva informs him that the Crachá Preto had nefarious links with Rodrigo, who hired them to clear out villages on a piece of land he wished to turn into a retail development. Da Silva thinks UFE and Victor are all connected to Max's predicament.
Max finds Fabiana with Marcelo and Giovanna, who were also kidnapped while trying to pay Fabiana's ransom themselves. Max recklessly attempts to save the trio, but Comando Sombra's leader Serrano executes Fabiana, and escapes with Giovanna and Marcelo in the ensuing standoff. As Max gives chase, the UFE raids the favela; he witnesses the Crachá Preto and UFE exchanging money for those who were arrested in the raids. Max finds Marcelo and Giovanna in the hands of the Crachá Preto's second-in-command Milo Rego. Marcelo is killed by necklacing in front of Max, and Max kills Milo and saves Giovanna, who explains that this was done to give the UFE an excuse to raid the area. As Max and Giovanna are running, he learns that she is pregnant. Passos arrives in a helicopter, but flees with Giovanna and abandons Max, who is saved by Da Silva.
Da Silva tells Max that he did a background check on Passos and found that Passos was on Victor's payroll, until he hired Max. Da Silva asks Max what happened in Panama. A flashback shows Max and Passos watching Marcelo at a yacht party. Max is heavily intoxicated and passes out. He wakes up to find the boat in a lock in the Panama Canal and swarmed by Panamanian soldiers. He escapes the yacht and finds Marcelo and Passos trying to drive away with the unknown cargo. It hits Max that he was recruited by Passos to be the "fall guy" for whatever illicit activity the Brancos were involved in. Da Silva deduces that Passos and Victor set him up, so Victor would gain access to his brother's wealth and garner sympathy for elections. Da Silva informs Max about a rundown building, the Imperial Palace Hotel, where the Crachá Preto and UFE are seen entering with prisoners, yet none leave. Max discovers it is the base for a black market organ theft ring and corrupt UFE officers were being paid to deliver the detainees for organ harvesting.
Max finds a captive Serrano being prepared for harvesting and frees him, allowing him to take revenge on the surgeon performing the harvests. Max sets explosives to destroy the entire complex, and Passos kills Crachá Preto leader Álvaro Neves to save Max. Max discovers Passos had been told the plot was to get Rodrigo to share his wealth, and Marcelo and Victor pressured him into it. Passos apologizes and Max forgives him. Passos then leaves Brazil with Giovanna, asking Max to get over his past and move on. Da Silva now devises a plan for Max, since Da Silva himself cannot take any action. Max surrenders in the police station in order to find incriminating evidence linking the UFE, Crachá Preto and Victor. Max finds the surveillance CD stolen from Rodrigo's office and learns the identity of his assassin, a UFE operative. Max avenges Rodrigo's murder and confronts Becker. Victor holds him at gunpoint and explains to Max that he wanted more money from his brother for his political campaign: he told the Crachá Preto to ambush the money exchange at the stadium, which went toward funding the organ harvesting ring, the profits of which helped fund his campaign.
Victor and Becker escape to the airport with Max in pursuit. After an intense shootout, Max arrives at the hangar where Becker and Victor are preparing to board a jet. Becker tries to use a grenade launcher to kill Max, but ends up burning himself and losing his left arm when Max shoots one of the fired grenades. Max then grabs the grenade launcher and, with Da Silva's help, uses it to disable Victor's plane. Da Silva persuades Max to spare Victor so he will answer for the crimes he committed.
A week later, Max watches the news at a bar, on a beach in Bahia. Becker's UFE battalion has been disbanded indefinitely due to their ties to the organ harvesting ring, while Victor is found hanged in his cell, although the circumstances are unclear. Max leaves the bar and walks onto the beach into the sunset.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (abbreviated as CS:GO) is an online first-person shooter developed by Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment, who also maintained Counter-Strike: Source after its release. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike franchise, excluding Counter-Strike Neo and Online.Like the previous games in the series, Global Offensive is an objective-based multiplayer first-person shooter. Each player joins either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist team and attempts to complete objectives or eliminate the enemy team. The game operates in short rounds that end when all players on one side are dead or a team's objective is completed. For most game modes, once a player dies, they must wait until the round ends to respawn. Players purchase weapons and equipment at the beginning of every round with money awarded based on their performance. Completing objectives or killing enemies earns the player money while negative actions, like killing a teammate or hostage, takes money away from the player. In addition, when a round ends all players receive some amount of money, with players on the winning team receiving substantially more.
Global Offensive adds new weapons and equipment not seen in previous installments, most notably the firebomb for each side (Molotovs for Terrorists and incendiary grenades for Counter-Terrorists). These temporarily cover a small area in fire, making it impossible to pass through without slowing down and taking damage.
Game modes:
Global Offensive features five game modes for online play:
Classic Casual and Competitive: Counter-Strike's most well-known game mode, both involving Defuse and Hostage missions. At the start of each round, players can purchase weapons and gear with money earned from various actions, from assisting on kills to completing objectives. For both mission types, a round ends when either a team completes an objective, or eliminates the other team.
Defuse: the Terrorists must plant a C4 explosive at one of two designated bombsites; the Counter-Terrorists must prevent the bomb from exploding.
Hostage: the Counter-Terrorists must rescue hostages from the Terrorists, and bring them to an extraction point; the Terrorists must prevent the hostages from escaping. Killing a hostage will result in a heavy cash penalty.
Arms Race: a deathmatch-based mode where each player is rewarded for each kill with a new weapon, with the first player to get a kill with every weapon in a predetermined set winning the game.
Demolition: a round-based mode that removes weapon and equipment purchasing, instead rewarding players who manage at least one kill by giving the next weapon in a predetermined set of weapons.
Deathmatch: a mode consisting of 10-minute matches. Players must gain the highest possible score by earning kills with different weapons. The number of points from a kill depend on the weapon. Players may also take advantage of bonus timers for different weapons, using them to score extra points.
Global Offensive also offers two offline modes: Offline with Bots, which offers the same game modes with AI-controlled bots; and a Weapons Course for inexperienced and veteran players alike
Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers is a 2D beat 'em up video game independently developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It features music created by members of Newgrounds. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008 via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. The PlayStation 3 version was released in North America on August 31, 2010 and November 3, 2010 in Europe via the PlayStation Network. A Microsoft Windows version exclusive to Steam was announced on August 16, 2012. The game is set in a fictional medieval universe in which a dark wizard steals a mystical gem and captures several princesses. Four knights are charged by the king to rescue the princesses, recover the jewel, and bring the wizard to justice.
Gameplay:
Castle Crashers is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that incorporates a small number of role-playing video game elements. After selecting a character, the player then selects a starting stage through an overworld map. After completing a stage, the player has the choice to revisit it or to move to another stage. The map also displays shops where the player character can buy items and weaponry using coins gained from defeated foes. Arena stages can be unlocked where the player character can take on challenges to unlock additional characters.
Castle Crashers supports cooperative gameplay for up to four players, either locally or online. The game progression in terms of what stages are unlocked is defined by the hosting player; however, each player character will gain experience points and acquire wealth, weapons, and animal orbs independently as they progress with the rest of the party. In each stage, the player can use melee and combination attacks. Each character has a unique magical ability in order to defeat foes and a health meter that, if drained from enemy attacks, will cause the character to fall in battle. In single player mode, this ends the stage; however, in cooperative multiplayer other players may attempt to revive the downed character.
Characters gain experience points by defeating foes which allow the character to level up. Each level gained allows the player to allocate points towards the character's four basic combat attributes. Certain level advances also grant new combination attacks. Progress is tracked for each of the playable characters separately. The character's magic level is also tracked by a meter and regenerates over time. Numerous weapons can be found in the game, each that have various effects to the character's attributes when equipped. The player can find animal companions for their character that may assist in battle, improve the character's attributes, or provide another special ability such as increased treasure earned from defeated foes. Each version of the game features two minigames. In Arena, the first minigame, player characters attempt to survive through several waves of enemies. This minigame is available on both console versions. The Xbox 360 version features All You Can Quaff, a button-mashing contest between all characters to attempt to eat as much food as possible. The PlayStation 3 version features a Volleyball minigame for up to four players and four AI characters.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision (Square Enix for Japan).
Black Ops II is the first game in the Call of Duty franchise to feature future warfare technology and the first to present branching storylines driven by player choice. It also offers a 3D display option. A corresponding game, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, was released simultaneously on the PlayStation Vita. Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game grossed over $500 million, beating 2011's Modern Warfare 3 to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time. It went on to sell 7.5 million copies in November 2012, making it the highest grossing game of the month.
Gameplay:
1980s
In 1986 Alex Mason had effectively retired from active duty to pursue an obscure existence in Alaska with his son, the seven-year-old David. Their shaky relationship is strained further when Mason is solicited by Jason Hudson, seeking to recruit him for an assignment in Cuando Cubango during the height of the Angolan civil and South African Border Wars. Woods had disappeared with his men while aiding Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebels against Angola's Marxist government; their actions have already been disavowed by the CIA and Hudson hopes to rescue any survivors. With UNITA assistance, Mason and Hudson recover Woods from the Kavango River, subsequently locating Menendez among a contingent of Cuban military advisers. However, a firefight breaks out, and their quarry escapes as the Americans are rescued by Savimbi in a Hind D. It is revealed that Menendez is responsible for holding Woods captive after murdering his team.
In light of this information, Mason, Woods, and Hudson begin tracking Menendez, who has established himself as a primary arms dealer for bush conflicts in Southern Africa and Latin America. Later in the year, the CIA authorizes a strike against the unscrupulous Nicaraguan, now making a healthy profit running arms across Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Mason, Woods, and Hudson assist the Mujahideen in their battle against the Russians, along with Tian Zhao, commander of SDC. Woods and Mason find Lev Kravchenko, who turns out to have survive the grenade incident with Woods in Vietnam, causing Mason to see the numbers and hearing Reznov's voice again. Kravchenko is interrogated by the group and the player is given the option of executing Kravchenko by Reznov's orders inside Mason's head or resisting and finishing the interrogation, in which case, Woods then executes Kravchenko after admitting that he associated with Menendez and that he has men inside the CIA. Regardless of how Kravchenko is killed, the Mujahideen double-cross Mason, Woods, Hudson, and Zhao, who turned out to be with Menendez all along. The four are beaten, tied, and left for dead in the middle of the desert, unconscious, but Mason sees Reznov as he arrives and assists him, but Woods (in 2025) says that he wasn't there, otherwise he would have stayed around and explained his being there.
At this point, Menendez's motive for his seemingly senseless vendetta against the West become clear: his beloved sister was grievously injured in an act of arson committed by American businessmen for insurance money. The Menendez clan, which dominates a powerful drug cartel, was again rocked by loss when the CIA sanctions the assassination of Raul's father. An embittered Menendez now considers the conflict to be personal, but his one-man struggle against the West is interrupted when Woods, Hudson, and the Panama Defense Force raid his headquarters in Nicaragua; an enraged Woods inadvertently kills Raul's sister with a grenade.
Faking his demise with the assistance of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, Menendez lives to retaliate against those he holds personally responsible for his sister's death. During the 1989 invasion of Panama, he kidnaps Hudson and David, using them as bait for a trap. He then uses Hudson to mislead Woods, manipulating him into shooting Mason instead of himself. Depending if the player resisted the urge to kill Kravchenko or not in Afghanistan, it is implied that Menendez had used moles within the CIA. If the player disobeys Hudson's instructions to shoot Alex Mason in the head and instead shoots him anywhere else, he will survive and reappear in the game's ending. In the ensuing chaos, Menendez kills Hudson and cripples Woods. Unsatisfied with his revenge, Menendez allows Woods and David to live, promising to return to complete his revenge when the time is right.
2025
Three decades after the Invasion of Panama, Menendez re-emerges as the leader of Cordis Die, a massive populist movement with over a billion followers. He stages a cyberattack that cripples the Chinese Stock Exchange; in response, the Chinese ban the export of rare earth elements, fermenting the start of a new Cold War between the United States and NATO, against the Chinese-led SDC (Strategic Defense Coalation). Taking advantage of this stand-off, Menendez attempts to bring the two powers to a full-blown war by inciting conflicts between the two, secretly aiding SDC leader Chairman Tian Zhao, who worked with Mason and Woods during their operation in Afghanistan in 1986. Using the intelligence provided by Woods, David, now a Navy SEAL code-named Section, leads JSOC forces in the renewed search for Menendez.
Shortly after gathering intelligence from Woods, Section and JSOC infiltrates Myanmar investigating a spike in activity in the region. There, Section's team encounters a computer engineer under Menendez's employment, warning them of a cyberattack with a Celerium device, a quantum computer capable of hacking any computer system. Section's team is later deployed in Pakistan, attempting to gather intelligence on Menendez's plots. During the infiltration, Menendez discloses the name of a target, "Karma" in the Cayman Islands. Section and SEAL operatives Harper and Salazar later infiltrate the Cayman Islands, finding out that "Karma" is a woman named Chloe Lynch, a former employee of Menendez's shell corporation, Tacitus. Lynch was the main developer of the Celerium device, and as a means of wrapping up loose ends, Menendez had deployed mercenaries for her abduction.
JSOC later has a lead on Menendez in Yemen, where JSOC asset Farid infiltrates Menendez's cell to help Section facilitate the leader's capture. The player, as Farid has a choice during the mission. Menendez, suspecting Farid's disloyalty, orders him to shoot the captured Harper. If the player chooses not to shoot Harper, and instead attempts to shoot Menendez, he fails, but Harper survives and is rescued. If the player chooses to shoot Harper, Farid survives, and Harper is not present in any conversations or missions thereafter. Menendez is successfully captured, but this was a ruse for Menendez to hack into the U.S. military's computer infrastructure on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Obama, seizing control of the United States' entire drone fleet. Salazar is revealed to be Menendez's mole within JSOC, and facilitates Menendez's attack—Menendez escapes with Salazar's aid, and when Menendez breaks in to the bridge of the Obama, Salazar shoots the soldiers guarding Admiral Briggs, with Lynch's survival dependent on Farid's survival in the previous mission. The player, playing as Menendez, has the choice of either killing or wounding Admiral Briggs. If the player only wounds Briggs, and the player has completed all of the Strike Force missions, JSOC and SDC enter an alliance, then the player is later informed that the SDC sent hundreds of drones to defend the Obama, and consequently Briggs was able to save the ship and its crew. Menendez uses the drones to stage an attack on Los Angeles during a meeting of G20 leaders, hoping to kill them and cause catastrophic damage to the global economy. Mason escorts the President of the United States to safety amidst the drone attacks.
JSOC eventually finds the source of the transmissions responsible for the hacking to Haiti, where Section leads JSOC forces into recapturing the facility in the final mission, and apprehending or killing Menendez. There are different endings depending on the actions the player takes throughout the campaign, such as whether or not the United States and China are able to enter an alliance with each other, as well as determining the fates of certain individuals in the game.
During the main campaign, the player may choose to participate in optional Strike Missions. The Strike Missions involve JSOC attempting to curb the SDC's global influence by preventing them from forcing neighboring countries into the alliance. Section himself does not participate in these missions directly, though he can command the forces remotely from a command center. If the missions are completed successfully, the SDC is weakened enough to ally with JSOC, and assists the player later in the campaign, for example, in sending its own drones to rescue the U.S.S. Obama and sending its forces to assist JSOC in Haiti.
Ending:
The storyline of Call of Duty: Black Ops II has several endings, depending on which conditions the player fulfils over the course of the game.
If the player spares Menendez's life, completes all four Strike Force Missions, and both Chloe Lynch and Alex Mason survive the events of the game, the "best" ending will result. The player will have secured an alliance between China and the United States, ending the Second Cold War, Lynch's survival prevents Menendez's cyberattack from succeeding, and Mason's survival allows him to visit Frank Woods in retirement, reuniting with Section. The final scene shows Menendez in prison, watching a talk show with Jimmy Kimmel interviewing Lynch, getting enraged when Lynch insults him during the interview.
If Menendez is spared and Lynch survives, but Mason is killed in action, the Second Cold War will end and Menendez's cyberattack will fail, but Section will visit his father's grave with Woods and decides to retire from soldiering; Woods comments that his father would approve of the decision.
If Menendez is spared, and Lynch is killed, Section will apprehend Menendez and take him into custody. The cyberattack will succeed, allowing Menendez to escape. He kills Woods in the retirement home before visiting his sister's grave, dousing himself in gasoline, and readying a lit match.
If Menendez is killed regardless of Lynch and Mason's fate, a YouTube video that Menendez recorded earlier will air, citing the civilian population to riot.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Metro: Last Light
Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is an upcoming post-apocalyptic action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. Initially expected to be released in the summer of 2012, it was announced on February 2, 2012, that the game would be delayed until the first quarter of 2013.Previously announced as Metro 2034, the game is a sequel to Metro 2033, and although author Dmitry Glukhovsky has apparently been working with the developers, it bears no relation to the book Metro 2034.
The live action trailer for Metro: Last Light has attracted significant attention, with 4.5 million views in total.Since the release of the first live action film they have released 3 more following the lives of 3 characters inside the Metro. These live-action short films were released in late November/early December 2012.
Info:Due to THQ's bankruptcy and dissolution in January 2013, publishing rights to the Metro franchise (and Last Light) will be acquired by Koch Media.
Far Cry 3
Gameplay:
Far Cry 3 is a first-person shooter, which also features role-playing game elements including experience points, skill trees, and a crafting system. The player has the ability to take cover behind objects to break enemies' lines of sight and also to peek around and over cover and blindfire. The player also has the ability to perform silent "takedowns" by performing melee attacks from above, below, or close behind. The game's narrative director, Jason Vandenberghe, said that the story mode map is around ten times larger than in the game's previous installments, indicating that it is still an open world sandbox game. Players are given the ability to survey and plan out their attacks with stealth takedown combinations and also tag enemies with the camera in order to track their movement once they break the player's line of sight.
The game also includes a variety of side-quests. One such side-quest involves the player hunting the many different wildlife species on the island for upgrading purposes. There are even some rare hunts that the player must undertake to reach the highest level hunt upgrades. The rare hunts feature wildlife not typically found during normal play.
Story:
Jason Brody is on vacation with a group of friends in Bangkok when they decide to take a skydiving trip. They all land on a pirate-infested island, and are taken prisoner by a pirate lord named Vaas. Vaas plans to extort ransom money from their parents, then sell them into slavery. With the help of his older brother Grant, Jason breaks out of captivity, but Grant is killed in the escape. Jason is rescued by a man named Dennis, who is part of the Rakyat, the island natives who suffer under the boot of the pirates. The leader of the Rakyat, a priestess named Citra, initiates Jason into their tribe and he is given warrior tattoos. He runs a series of missions where he rescues his captive friends one by one (excluding only Grant's girlfriend Daisy, who is discovered to have also escaped) while simultaneously helping the Rakyat retake their island, helped at times by Dr. Earnhardt, a man who is an expert on fungi and various native remedies and drugs. Throughout the adventure, Jason matures into a fearsome warrior and is revered by the Rakyat, though his old friends are disturbed by his transformation into a killer, especially when he contemplates staying on the island permanently.
After tracking down and killing Vaas, Jason then moves on to the southern island, which is controlled by Hoyt Volker, a slave trader and Vaas' employer, swearing to Citra that he will kill Hoyt for what he did to both the islanders and his brother. After Jason kills Hoyt and rescues his younger brother Riley, he returns to find the house his friends were in is on fire. He looks for survivors and finds Dr. Earnhardt lying in a patio mortally wounded. He tells Jason before dying that he tried to save Jason's friends but they were taken by Citra and her warriors back to the temple. He returns to Citra to find that she has taken his friends captive. She has become absolutely enamored with him, seeing him as the reincarnation of the Rakyat's mythical warrior ancestor. After Jason walks through a hallucination, the player must then choose whether to execute his friends and remain with Citra or save them and leave the island.
If the player chooses to join Citra, Jason executes his friends and has sex with Citra. Just after it, Citra stabs him, saying that their child will lead the tribe, and that he dies as the warrior he has become. If the player chooses to save Jason's friends, Jason comes to his senses and saves his friends from execution. Citra attempts to convince Jason to stay by claiming his friends will move on, and that he should stay in the jungle and become king. Jason states that the violence is over and that there will be no more blood. Dennis arrives claiming that Citra saved him and the other followers. He attempts to kill Jason for betraying Citra, but Citra moves in front of Jason and is stabbed, mortally wounding her. Citra tells Jason she loves him and begs him to not leave before she dies, with Jason sadly apologizing to her. Dennis, shocked at what he has done, breaks down in tears over Citra's body. Soon, Jason and his friends leave the island by boat. Jason narrates that he can't come back from what he has done, as he believes he's a monster and feels the anger inside him, though he also believes that there is still somewhere inside him that's more and better than that.
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | (X360) 89.65% (PS3) 89.18% (PC) 88.12% |
| Metacritic | (X360) 90/100 (PS3) 90/100 (PC) 88/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B− |
| Computer and Video Games | 9.4/10 |
| Edge | 8/10 |
| Eurogamer | 10/10 |
| G4 |  |
| Game Informer | 9.0/10 |
| GamesRadar |  |
| GameTrailers | 8.6/10 |
| IGN | 9.0/10 |
| Official PlayStation Magazine(UK) | 9/10 |
| Official Xbox Magazine | 8.5/10 |
| Official Xbox Magazine (UK) | 9/10 |
| Giant Bomb | |
| PrideGamingNetwork | 9.0/10 |
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
After developing a weapon that allows the capture of live alien specimens and building a facility to house such captives, XCOM's head of research Dr. Vahlen requests that a live alien be captured for interrogation. Capturing one and conducting the interrogation reveals vague information about the Outsiders, crystalline beings encountered aboard UFOs that are shot down. Dr. Vahlen then requests that XCOM capture an Outsider for study. The Outsiders are discovered to be similar to antennas, receiving a signal broadcast from a location buried underground. XCOM dispatches a team to investigate the signal; it is found to be coming from an alien base where experiments are performed on abducted humans. During the mission, the base commander's psychic communication device is recovered and reverse engineered.
The device reveals a previously-hidden "Overseer" UFO, which when shot down is found to hold powerful psionic enemies, called Ethereals, and a strange psionic artifact. Once the Overseer is shot down, the massive enemy "Temple Ship" reveals itself and attacks the Earth, causing earthquakes even as far away as XCOM HQ. The reverse-engineering efforts enable XCOM to unlock the latent psionic powers of its own troops, and through them to attack and board the Temple Ship, using one "Volunteer" who taps into the alien hive mind. During the final battle aboard the ship, the Ethereals reveal that they have been testing and experimenting on other species, searching for a race that is perfect in mind and body, and that the various aliens the player has encountered have all been failures in the Ethereals' experiments. By feeding humans their technology a few steps at a time, the Ethereals allowed humans to evolve to a fuller potential, and believe that humanity may be the culmination of their search, to find the perfect army to fight a threat more dangerous than the Ethereals. Because of their own failure to evolve with the rest of their species, they intend to dominate the human race and use them to further their own evolution in the hopes of fighting the unnamed threat. After slaying the leader of the Ethereals, the Temple Ship begins to self-destruct, and the psionically-gifted volunteer takes control to fly it high above Earth, where it explodes while the rest of the boarding squad escapes.
God of War
God of War is an award-winning, critically acclaimed and bestselling action-adventure video game series loosely based on Greek mythology. Debuting in 2005, the series consisting of six games across multiple platforms with a seventh currently in development has become a flagship title for the PlayStation brand. The main trilogy – God of War I, II, and III – was developed by Sony's Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. Ready at Dawn developed the PlayStation Portable installments – Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta – which were also published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Capcom published both PS2 installments and Chains of Olympus in Japan. The mobile phone Java ME installment – Betrayal – was developed by Javaground and published by Sony Pictures Digital. As of 2012, Santa Monica is developing a new title – Ascension – for the PS3. The series has also expanded into a franchise to include other media, such as a comic book series – God of War (2010–11) – and two novels – God of War (2010) and God of War II (2013). A film has been in development since 2005.
In addition to the individual games, two collections featuring remastered versions of both PS2 installments – God of War Collection – and both PSP installments – God of War: Origins Collection – have been released on the PS3 by Bluepoint Games and Ready at Dawn, respectively. Another collection – God of War Saga – released on August 28, 2012 for the PS3 features God of War I, II, III, Chains of Olympus, and Ghost of Sparta. With the exception of the mobile phone game, God of War: Betrayal, every installment in the series has been released on the PlayStation 3 and each main installment was released in the month of March. Merchandise promoting the series has been produced, including artwork, clothing, and toys. As of June 2012, the series has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide.
The central character of the series is Kratos, a Spartan warrior tricked into killing his wife and child by his former master, the God of War Ares. Kratos eventually kills Ares at the behest of the goddess Athena and takes his place as the new God of War, but is still haunted by the nightmares of his past. Kratos is eventually betrayed by Zeus, the King of the Olympian Gods. Revealed to be a demigod and the son of Zeus, Kratos now seeks revenge against the gods for their machinations. A series of attempts to free himself from the influence of the gods and the Titans and to exact revenge follow. Each game chapter forms part of a saga with vengeance as a central theme, and each game in the series is darker than its predecessor.
Gameplay:
The series consists of six single-player games, which typically feature a third-person, fixed cinematic camera. The player controls the character Kratos in a combination of combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements to achieve goals and complete the story. A first-person camera is featured in God of War III during two boss battles, and God of War: Betrayal features a 2D side-scrolling view.
Kratos' main weapons throughout the series are a pair of double-chained blades; other weapons, such as the Blade of Artemis in God of War, are acquired during the games. Magic is also used, and four abilities, such as Poseidon's Rage, Medusa's Gaze, Zeus' Fury, and Army of Hades in God of War, are usually acquired. In God of War III, instead of separate abilities there are four primary weapons, each with its own magic offensive. It also featured "Items" – additional secondary weapons with limited usage, such as the Bow of Apollo. With each new game, most weapons and magic are lost via a plot device, and a new arsenal of weapons and abilities are acquired during gameplay.
Relics, which the player can use in successive games, such as Poseidon's Trident which is obtained in God of War and is kept throughout the series, are also acquired. Kratos often has a special ability, which provides temporary invulnerability and increased attack damage. This ability has become an ongoing feature of gameplay throughout the series – Rage of the Gods in God of War, Rage of the Titans in God of War II, Rage of Sparta in God of War III, and Thera's Bane in God of War: Ghost of Sparta. This ability can be recharged by building hits on foes in combat, and gaining game-specific orbs. Thera's Bane, however, is recharged automatically.
Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers increase the maximum amount of health and magic respectively and are found throughout the game in uncolored chests. Minotaur Horns, which increase the Items and Fire meter's maximum length, are available in God of War III and Ghost of Sparta, respectively. The Items meter allows the use of secondary weapons, called Items, and the Fire meter allows the use of Thera's Bane. The meters are increased in increments and reach their maximum once a certain number of Eyes, Feathers, and Horns are found. Other chests contain green, blue or red orbs. Green orbs replenish health, blue orbs replenish magic, and red orbs provide experience for upgrading weapons and magic for new and more powerful attacks, and replenish the Rage meter in God of War. Chests with changing colors, which allow players to choose which meter to replenish, have also been available. Red orbs can also be collected by killing foes and destroying certain inanimate objects. Bosses and more powerful opponents release a combination of colored orbs when killed via the quick-time feature.
The series offers combo-based combat, and includes a quick time event (QTE) feature, which is initiated when the player has weakened a foe stronger than himself. It allows limited control of Kratos during the QTE cinematic sequence; success ends the battle while failure usually results in damage. God of War: Ascension will change the quick time event feature, replacing some of the button prompts with a prompt-less free-form system. A grab maneuver can be used on minor foes.
Each installment offers a challenge mode, which yields extra red orbs, secret costumes, and behind-the-scenes videos. Bonus content can be unlocked by defeating the game's difficulty levels. Battle arenas, which allow players to set difficulty levels and choose their own opponents, are included in each installment except God of War and God of War: Chains of Olympus. A quick-time sex mini-game is also included in each installment except Betrayal.
God of War: Ascension will introduce online and offline multiplayer gaming to the series. Up to eight players will be able to to play in two teams of four and will battle for control of a map in order to earn rewards from the gods. Players must sell their champion's soul to either Zeus, Hades, Ares, or Poseidon, which will allow players to try different weapons, armor sets, and powers inspired by the god of their choice, and extras can be unlocked.
Games
God of War was first released in North America on March 22, 2005 for the PlayStation 2. After ten years in the service of the Olympian gods, Spartan soldier Kratos is tasked by Athena to find Pandora's Box; the key to defeating Ares, the God of War. A series of flashbacks reveals that Kratos was once the servant of Ares, who saved the Spartan and his army from annihilation in battle, tricked him into killing his family, and forced his metamorphosis into the "Ghost of Sparta". Kratos eventually finds Pandora's Box, and after finally killing Ares, ascends to Mount Olympus to become the new God of War.
God of War II was first released in North America on March 13, 2007 for the PlayStation 2. Betrayed by Zeus, Kratos is saved by the Titan Gaia, who tells him he must now find the Sisters of Fate, who can change his fate and prevent his death at the hands of Zeus. Kratos is ultimately successful, Athena sacrifices herself to save Zeus and preserve Olympus, and tells Kratos that he is the son of Zeus. Kratos then joins forces with Gaia and the Titans to attack Olympus.
God of War: Betrayal was released on June 20, 2007 for mobile phones. It is the only game in the series to be released as a 2D side-scroller and released on a non-Sony platform. The game's narrative takes place between the events of God of War: Ghost of Sparta and God of War II. Kratos is framed for murder, and rampages across Greece seeking the true assassin. Kratos succumbs to bloodlust and kills Ceryx, the son of the god Hermes – an act that alienates him from his fellow gods.
God of War: Chains of Olympus was first released in North America on March 4, 2008 for the PlayStation Portable, and a limited edition PSP bundle pack was released in June 2008. Its narrative takes place during Kratos' ten years of service to the gods. Kratos halts a Persian invasion of the Greek city of Attica, and learns that the world has been plunged into darkness by the god Morpheus. Kratos investigates the abduction of the sun god Helios, and prevents the Machiavellian plan of the goddess Persephone to use the Titan Atlas to destroy the world.
God of War III was first released in North America on March 16, 2010 for the PlayStation 3; an "Ultimate Edition" with exclusive content was available for pre-order. Reigniting the Great War, Kratos is soon abandoned by the Titans. Kratos, helped by the spirit of the revived Athena, seeks the Flame of Olympus. Kratos engages the gods and his former allies the Titans in an epic series of battles across the Underworld and Olympus. He discovers that Pandora herself is the key to pacifying the Flame and allowing him to open Pandora's Box. Kratos defeats the gods and opposing Titans. After killing Zeus, Kratos refuses to help Athena assume the role of new patron of mankind and disappears, his final fate unknown.
God of War: Ghost of Sparta was first released in North America on November 2, 2010 for the PlayStation Portable with a limited edition PSP bundle and an exclusive pre-order offer released simultaneously. Set between the events of God of War and God of War: Betrayal, Kratos, the God of War, is still haunted by visions of his mortal past and embarks on a quest to discover his origins by finding his mother, Callisto. He learns that his brother Deimos was taken by the gods and imprisoned by the God of Death, Thanatos, and decides to find and save his sibling. Although successful, Thanatos engages the brothers in combat, and kills Deimos. Kratos then kills Thanatos and returns to Olympus, now enraged at the gods.
God of War: Ascension is scheduled to be released in North America on March 12, 2013 for the PlayStation 3 with a "Collector's Edition" available for pre-order with exclusive content. The game will be a prequel to the entire God of War series. Set six months after Kratos killed his wife and child, he tries to defeat the three Furies in order to break his bonds to Ares. God of War: Ascension will be the first game in the series to feature multiplayer modes (four-vs-four) and the first installment developed with Stereoscopic 3D.
| Game | GameRankings | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|
| God of War | 93.62% | 94/100 |
| God of War II | 92.71% | 93/100 |
| God of War: Betrayal | 76.67% | N/A |
| God of War: Chains of Olympus | 91.06% | 91/100 |
| God of War Collection | 90.51% | 91/100 |
| God of War III | 92.54% | 92/100 |
| God of War: Ghost of Sparta | 87.21% | 86/100 |
| God of War: Origins Collection | 86.62% | 84/100 |
| God of War Saga | N/A | N/A |
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