Gener: Action-adventure Mode: Single-player, Multiplayer Platform: PlayStation 3 Release date: NA March 12, 2013 EU March 13, 2013 AU March 14, 2013 UK March 15, 2013
Discover the origins of Kratos as he takes his first steps on a now legendary quest for freedom and vengeance, in God of War Ascension. Or, you can seek your own glory in multiplayer battles.
Assassin's Creed III is an upcoming game being developed by Ubisoft set for release on October 30–31, 2012. It will feature a new setting (Colonial United States of America), as well as a new protagonist: a half Native American, half British man named Connor (his Mohawk Indian Tribe name being Ratohnhaké:ton ) Kenway. The game will feature 30 years of Connor's life from 1753 to 1783 and feature the cities of Boston and New York, as well as a wilderness area known as the Frontier in which 1/3 of missions will take place. Ubisoft has stated that the game will be bigger than its previous installments; the Frontier alone will be 1.5 times bigger than Rome from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. As of 2012, Ubisoft had worked on the title for three years. It will also be 20% longer than Assassin's Creed II (A minimum playthrough time of 30 hours).
The game will feature some real historical figures (in much the same way Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci appear in the Ezio games). George Washington and Benjamin Franklin will be featured in the new Assassin's Creed III. There will also be new weapons, such as the tomahawk/axe, dual pistols, rope dart, musket, and the bow and arrow. The classic Assassin's Blade is also able to pivot as a dagger, though this is switchable.
Assassin's Creed III will feature new weather simulations such as snow, fog, and rain. Depending on the seasons, weather will determine how the Templars and soldiers will move around with heavy Winter snows making it more difficult to move swiftly.
Platform: PS3, XBOX 360, PC, PS Vita, WII, Andoroid, IOS 6, Kndle Fire
Developer: Criterion Games
Release Dates: 30-Oct-2012
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Need for Speed: Most Wanted takes on the game play style of its first installment, Most Wanted title in the Need for Speed franchise. Most Wanted allows players to select one car and compete against other racers to reach a destination. Cops are integrated into certain racing sessions, in which the police deploy vehicles and tactics to stop the player's car and arrest the player, like the original Most Wanted. The game will feature a Blacklist of 10 racers, similar to the single-player section of the original Most Wanted, which featured 15 Blacklist racers. In this reiteration the focus shifts from Rockport, the city in the original to a new city called Fairhaven.
The player is cast as James Heller, a soldier whose family was killed in the viral mayhem unleashed upon Manhattan by former protagonist Alex Mercer while Heller was serving overseas. He returns to New York 14 months after the original outbreak as part of a clean-up effort, intending to die fighting the viral outbreak and be with his family. Instead, their paths cross and Mercer personally infects Heller with the Blacklight Virus. Thereafter, Heller dedicates himself to hunting and killing Mercer, no matter the cost.
Since the Manhattan outbreak of the Blacklight virus, New York (NY Zero, as it is now referred to) has been split into 3 different sections based on that areas level of affliction. The corporation responsible for the virus’s creation, Blackwatch, has covered up it’s malicious acts by placing blame on Mercer. His actions from the first game, typically based on saving the lives of innocent, are twisted to look like sinister acts.
Available On: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone
In Assassin's Creed Revelations, you will control master assassin Ezio Auditore, who walks in the footsteps of the legendary mentor Altair, on a journey of discovery and revelation. It is a perilous path you will have to take controlling Ezio as he travels to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilize the region. In addition to the epic story, you will be able to enjoy a refined and expanded online multiplayer experience. The multiplayer in Assassin's Creed Revelations returns with more modes, more maps, and more characters, letting you test your assassin skills against others from around the world.
Genre: Adventure Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: SCE Studios Japan
The Last Guardian is the third game by the acclaimed development staff behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. In the game, a young boy and a bizarre, gigantic creature form a heartfelt bond as they attempt to maneuver their way through an unfriendly world.
Published by: Konami Developed by: Kojima Productions Genre: Action Compilation Available On: Xbox 360, PS3 Also known as: Metal Gear Solid Collection Release Date: US: November 8, 2011
Much like record companies in the late-’80s, game publishers have realized that they can mine their back catalogs by sprucing up a couple classics and putting them out in a single package. While some of these are obvious cash grabs, even those are often worth it for people who missed the included games the first time around. Such is the case with the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, which pairs 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and last year’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. For anyone who’s already played all three games repeatedly, HD Collection isn’t worth your hard-earned ducats. Sure, seeing these games in hi-def is cool – as with the God of War: Origins Collection, Bluepoint has done an impressive job upgrading these games’ visuals – but since they just have better looking versions of the original graphics, not new HD graphics, it’s hard to justify the double-dip.
However if you’ve missed any of these games, even just one, or you really want to play any of them again, this is totally worth it. All three hold up well, in large part because they were ahead of their time when they first came out. Of the three, the most dated is Liberty, because it employs an archaic fixed camera. Admittedly, anyone who hates these kinds of controls won’t be convinced otherwise by playing this game, in which Solid Snake’s routine recon mission goes awry, and his replacement, Raiden, has to clean up the resulting mess years later. Those who don’t mind or are willing to put in the time to get used to the controls will quickly understand why this is still one of the more inventive stealth action games ever made. Not only does it have a diverse cast of characters and scenarios, but it has an equally varied set of weapons, tools, and actions you can use to complete your mission.
Faring better, the prequel Snake Eater has Solid Snake’s poppa, Big Boss, on a mission to a Russian jungle during the Cold War. While this prequel wasn’t as gripping, either narratively or mechanically, as Liberty, it did add some interesting camouflage and eating mechanics to the already impressive sneaking action. What’s important about the version included here is that it’s the one from Subsistence, which added the far more intuitive player-controlled cameras (though masochists - we mean purists - can still opt for the fixed camera approach if they want).
The game that’s dated the least, naturally, Peace Walker once again casts you as Big Boss, who’s on a mission to lead a band of mercs into the Costa Rican jungles to take out another group of mercenaries. Which is easier to do here than it was on the PSP thanks to the PS3’s and 360’s dual thumbsticks. This game also boasts the most contemporary controls and camera set-ups, as well as such modern conveniences as optional auto-targeting and aim assistance. While this prequel is still a sneaky good time, it’s actually the least enjoyable of the three games. Not only does it have the least interesting story, but it’s also unnecessarily frustrating, since a lack of reasonable checkpoints requires you to completely restart a mission you’ve failed, while enemies are inconsistently resistant to bullets and tranquilizer darts.
Besides the three games, Konami has also included some of the extras from the special editions of Liberty and Eater. From the former’s Substance edition comes “Snake Tales,” a series of missions for Solid Snake, while the latter’s Subsistence version gives us the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2. That said, this is hardly complete, as some extras from those special editions are annoyingly MIA. Eater, for instance, is missing the competitive online modes included in the Subsistence edition, an omission aggravated by the fact that those same kinds of modes are also missing from Peace Walker. Most egregiously (unless you’re a member of PETVA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Virtual Animals), Eater doesn’t have the hilarious “Snake vs Monkey” minigame in which Snake uses stun grenades and a stun gun to rescue the monkeys from the Ape Escape games.
Even without these modes, and Liberty’s less-than-intuitive controls, the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is still a great value, even if you only plan to play one of the three games. That it has three you might want to play, plus a bunch of fun extras, just cements this as the best multi-game compilation since 2007’s Orange Box.
