Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a historicalaction-adventure open world stealth video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 23, 2015, for the PlayStation 4 andXbox One, and on November 19, 2015, forMicrosoft Windows. It is the ninth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity. Set within Victorian era London, the game follows twin assassins as they navigate the corridors of organized crime, and take back the city from Templar control. The open world design lets players freely roam London.

The game is played from a third-person viewand its world is navigated on foot or bycarriage. The game introduces new traveling systems and refined combat and stealth mechanics. Players control the two lead protagonists—twins Jacob and Evie Frye—throughout the game's story, switching between them both during and outside of missions. Unlike its direct predecessors,Syndicate does not feature any multiplayergameplay.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate received generally positive reviews. Critics praised the visuals and the likability of the major characters, especially the Frye twins and the antagonist, while criticizing the lackluster ending as well as the aging and repetitive gameplay and mission mechanics, yet saying that it was an improvement over Unity

Dishonored

Dishonored is a 2012 stealth action-adventure video game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released worldwide in October 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, Dishonored follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. He is framed for her murder and forced to become an assassin, seeking revenge on those who conspired against him. Corvo is aided in his quest by the Loyalists—a resistance group fighting to reclaim Dunwall, and the Outsider—a powerful being who imbues Corvo with magical abilities. Several noted actors including Susan Sarandon, Brad Dourif, Carrie Fisher, Michael Madsen, Lena Headey, and Chloë Grace Moretz provided voice work for the game.
The game is played from a first-person perspective and allows the player to undertake a series of assassination missions in a variety of ways, with an emphasis on player choice. Missions can be completed through stealth, combat, or a combination of both. Exploring each level opens new paths and alternatives for accomplishing mission goals, and it is possible to complete all missions, eliminating all of Corvo's targets, in a non-lethal manner. The story and missions are changed in response to the player's violent actions or lack thereof. Magical abilities and equipment are designed to be combined to create new and varied effects.
During its three years in production, several versions of Dishonored were developed. Before the creation of Dunwall—inspired by late nineteenth-century London and Edinburgh—the game was set to take place in medieval Japan and seventeenth-century London. During development, test players discovered methods of exploiting the available powers and abilities to achieve unexpected outcomes; instead of restricting these techniques, the designers attempted to redesign levels to accommodate them. Dishonored‍ '​s music score was produced by composer Daniel Licht to represent London in the nineteenth century.
Dishonored received generally positive reviews, focusing on the missions' individual narratives and the freedom available in completing them. Criticism fell on the overarching narrative, which was considered predictable, and problems in controlling the player's character. Following its release, the game won several awards, including the 2012 Spike Video Game award for Best Action-Adventure Game and the 2013 BAFTA award for Best Game, and was repeatedly recognized as the best action-adventure game of 2012 and one of that year's best games. Following its release, Dishonored was supplemented with additional content focusing on the assassin Daud and his quest for redemption. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game are scheduled for release in August 2015. A sequel, Dishonored 2, was announced in June 2015.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is an upcoming first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision.^[1] The game is a sequel to the 2012 game Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and will be released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 6, 2015. A multiplayer beta was released on August 18, 2015 for the PlayStation 4^[2] and is scheduled to be released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on August 26, 2015 for five days.^[3][4

Plot

Single-player campaign

Call of Duty: Black Ops III takes place in a dystopian future set in 2065, 40 years after the events of Black Ops II. Air defense systems have advanced to a point where they cancel each other out. As such, most of the warfare between countries is done by covert operatives fighting behind enemy lines. Science and technology have radically changed both the landscape as well as the future of the human race, with society violently protesting and attempting to halt further advancements touted by scientists as "progress". Military technology has progressed to the point where robotics play a main role in combat, and supersoldiers have been developed to fight in the battlefield. Humans have reached the point where they are considered to be more machine than flesh and blood. As a result, there is speculation and fear about an eventual robotic takeover. The game will follow a team of black ops soldiers, like previous installments in the Black Ops series, with supersoldier capabilities.^[5]

Zombies

There are two confirmed Zombies storylines in Call of Duty: Black Ops III at the time of its reveal. One story (Shadows of Evil) focuses on a new group of characters: Nero (Jeff Goldblum), Jessica (Heather Graham), Jack Vincent (Neal McDonough) and Floyd Campbell (Ron Perlman), who reside in the fictional Morg City. Treyarch describes the new characters as "troubled individuals" with "a long and sordid history of past misdeeds". The four characters are thrown into a twisted version of the city, overrun by zombies, and are guided by a mysterious, unreliable figure called the Shadow Man (Robert Picardo).^[6] Treyarch says that their story will tie into the main Zombies storyline in the past games, particularly "Mob of the Dead" from Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
The second story (The Giant) focuses on the alternate versions of the original characters: Tank Dempsey (Steven Blum), Nikolai Belinski (Fred Tatasciore), Takeo Masaki (Tom Kane) and Edward Richtofen (Nolan North), who were introduced in the Black Ops II map "Origins". Their story continues from where "Origins" left off, as they attempt to rewrite the original timeline's history.^[7]

Gameplay

The campaign, multiplayer and the Zombies mode of Black Ops III have been overhauled. The campaign supports 4-player cooperative gameplay, a customizable soldier, whose gender can be selected by players, and more open arena gameplay that allows players to use multiple ways to complete levels.^[8] The Multiplayer introduces a new movement system, a new class system called "Specialists", where players can pick from 9 different soldiers with different abilities and a new "Gunsmith" feature that allows for weapon customization combinations and also a Camo Designer. Zombies mode also returns in Black Ops III.^[9] Zombies will contain story and multiplayer modes, both of which featuring a new XP progression system. Shadows of Evil was revealed as a new map for the Zombies mode on July 9, 2015 at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015.^[10] The map features four brand new characters: Nero the Magician, Jessica the Femme Fatale, Vincent the Cop and Campbell the Boxer as the main cast, and takes place in a new setting called Morg City.^[11]

Battlefield Hardline

 Battlefield Hardline is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games in collaboration with EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is due for release on March 17, 2015.

Game play

Battlefield Hardline features new variety of gameplay that breaks away from the traditional Battlefield game modes. The focus of the game has been shifted to police and the "war on crime", breaking away from the military setting that has hitherto characterized the series. As such, the main factions in Hardline are the police Special Response Units and criminals. Players will have access to various military-grade weapons and vehicles, such as the UH-60 Black Hawk as well as having police equipment such as tasers and handcuffs.^[3]
Hardline also uses the Levolution mechanic from Battlefield 4. For example, in the map "Downtown" players can send a construction crane crashing into the building, ripping down debris from the central buildings in downtown, which falls down on the streets of Los Angeles. But, this time, every map features multiple levolutionary events, both small and gigantic.^[3]
Many new game modes are featured in Hardline, for instance: Heist, Rescue, Hotwire Mode, Blood Money and Crosshair Mode.^[4]

• Heist: The criminals must break free packages of money from armored trucks by blowing the doors off, then moving the package to an extraction point; the police must stop them. If the Criminals manage to escape by bringing all the money to the extraction point they win.
• Blood Money: Both factions must retrieve money from an open crate in the center of the map, then move it back to their respective side's armored truck. Players can also steal money from the opposing team's truck. The team that first deposits $5 million worth of money into their truck or the team with the most money under a time limit wins.
• Hotwire Mode: Drivable cars take the role of traditional Conquest "flags." Like Conquest, capturing cars (done by driving above a certain "cruising" speed) will bleed the enemy team's reinforcement tickets. The team who reduces the other's to zero or who has the most tickets remaining after the time limit wins.
• Rescue: Police officers must try to save hostages from the criminals in the given amount of time.
• Crosshair: In a 5-versus-5, 3-minute competitive mode, the criminals must kill a VIP, a former criminal turning witness, while the police keeps him in safety. ^[5][6]

Visceral Games ratified that the single-player campaign will not be linear and promised to deliver a better one than the predecessors. The campaign will feature episodic crime dramas where choices will heavily change situational outcomes and gameplay experiences. As a cop, players can use multiple police gadgets and personal equipments. The police badge can be used to strike fear into criminals' hearts and order them to lay down their weapons, the scanner is used to stake out a situation, identify high value-targets, log evidences, tag alarms, and mark other threats. To slip past unnoticed, players can use bullet cases to distract enemies.^[7]

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Polish: Wiedźmin 3: Dziki Gon) is an upcoming action role-playing video game set in an open world environment, that is currently in development by Polish video game developer CD Projekt RED.^[6] It is scheduled to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 19, 2015.^[7] The game is still not officially confirmed for Linux or Mac OS, however it may be possible that the game will be released on these platforms at a later time.^[8] The game will be the third in the series, preceded by The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, which are based on the series of fantasy novels of the same title by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, b

Gameplay

CD Projekt RED has said that it is not necessary to have played the previous games to fully enjoy Wild Hunt.^[9] While similar to the previous Witcher games, Wild Hunt has improved on several aspects from past games. Combat revolves around an action role-playing game system combined with the use of magic. The fighting system has been completely revamped.^[9] Wild Hunt introduces some new mechanics, such as witcher-sense, combat on horseback, and at sea, swimming underwater, and using a crossbow. Additionally, Geralt can now jump, climb, and vault over smaller obstacles. The climbing mechanics have been described as "not exactly" like Assassin's Creed, but more "similar to what we have in Uncharted."^[10] Item creation and potion brewing still remains as in previous games, but has been modified from The Witcher 2. There are 10 witcher signs, 5 original ones, each having an alternative form along with the original ones. The setting is more than "30 times larger" than previous Witcher games,^[11][12] requiring players to use a sailboat to some locations and ride by horseback to others. However, fast travelling around the areas of known locations are also possible.^[13] The Witcher 3 has been described as "20% bigger than The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim".^[14]
Each action the player does will affect the world; every quest has a plethora of options on how to complete it, and every outcome is different each time. CD Projekt RED anticipates approximately 100 hours for the completion of the game,^[15] 50 of them belonging to side quests, and 50 belonging to the main story line.^[15]
The game features a dynamic day and night system, realistic AI, responsive and dynamic environments. The day and night cycle will influence some monsters and their powers, similar to how a werewolf would gain powers during the night of a full moon.
Ciri, an exceptional swordfighter with mythical powers, will be a playable character for part of the game.^[16]
ut take place after them.

Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Rockstar Studios^[a] and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 15 May 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; a Microsoft Windows port was released on 31 May 2012, followed by an OS X port on 20 June 2013. The game is the first entry in the Max Payne series since 2003's Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, developed by Remedy Entertainment.
The game is played from a third-person perspective. Throughout the single-player mode, players control Max Payne, a former detective who has become a vigilante after the murder of his wife and daughter. Nine years after the events of the second game, Max becomes employed as a private security contractor in Brazil, but quickly becomes entangled in a quest filled with death and betrayal. An online multiplayer mode is included with the game, allowing up to 16 players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in re-creations of multiple single-player settings.
As part of their research for the game's setting, the developers conducted field research around São Paulo throughout development and captured footage for the design team. Development duties were shared between many of Rockstar's studios worldwide. At release, it was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at the story and action. Max Payne 3 received high sales, shipping approximately three million units in the first week of release. It was nominated for multiple year-end accolades from several gaming publications, winning a variety of them.

Gameplay

Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. A new feature to the series, introduced in Max Payne 3, is the cover system, which allows players to gain a tactical advantage, and avoid taking damage from enemies.^[3] To progress through the linear story, players take on enemies throughout levels. The game features interactive cutscenes which transition seamlessly into continuing gameplay; there are no loading screens across gameplay and cutscenes.^[4]
In combat, auto-aim and a cover system can be used as assistance against enemies. Should players take damage, painkillers can be used to regenerate health. Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies. In action sequences, bullet time can be used; using this feature, it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail.^[5] The game also utilizes a "Last Stand" mechanic, granting players a grace period when health is fully depleted, allowing them to kill the enemy that last wounded them. After using the shoot-dodge mechanic, which enables players to dodge enemies by diving, players may shoot at any angle while remaining grounded.[3]

Dying Light

is a 2015 survival horror video game developed by Polish video game developer Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game revolves around an undercover operative sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a fictional city. It features a zombie-infested, open-world metropolis with a dynamic day and night cycle. It was originally planned to release in 2014, but was pushed back to 2015.

Gameplay

The free running mechanics in Dying Light allow players to jump from one roof to another.

Dying Light is a zombie apocalypse-themed game set in an open world. Players traverse an expansive urban environment overrun by a vicious pandemic, scavenging the world for supplies and crafting weapons to defend against the growing infected population with a heavy focus on freerunning mechanics.^[2]
The game is mostly melee-based with the majority of fighting using melee weapons. There are more than 100 weapons that can be used and more when players begin crafting new weapons.^[3]
Dying Light contains a dynamic day and night cycle. During the day, the player has to go out and scavenge for supplies to send back to the safe zones. They can set up traps, save random survivors, and make their way to airdrops. The infected are slow, apathetic, and easily visible, allowing the player to simply make their way past them, but their danger grows in numbers.^[4] The game features a dynamic weather system, which includes a variety of conditions such as fog, rain, and wind.^[5]
At night the infected transform to become much more dangerous. Without daylight, the senses of the infected become more acute and accurate. They gain the ability to sprint after the player and have increased damage, as well as the ability to jump and climb buildings like the player. In order for players to avoid contact, they need to use their 'Survivor Sense' to locate zombies in the dark to stay out of their way. If spotted and trying to escape their pursuers, players can use distractions and traps to lower their numbers. Players can use sound to lure the zombies. The player's main defense against the zombies is ultraviolet light, which slows down the infected.[6]