Greatness Awaits

In 2013, Playstation began a new advertising campaign in anticipation for the release of the PS4 in the upcoming fall.  With the new slogan "Greatness Awaits," Sony ushered in the next generation of Playstation to rival Microsoft's Xbox One, using the slogan in the majority of all PS related ads since.  The campaign was initiated with this commercial, in which, according to IGN, Sony promises are references to 35 titles to be featured on the new console.       

Of course, the question that looms is, "What is the significance of this?  Why show this of all things?"  Well, to be clear, it is certainly not to in any way endorse one major brand over the other. As far as I'm concerned, choosing between the two is more of a question of preference than anything else.  Nonetheless, an excellent commercial is an excellent commercial regardless of who it is from, and in this case I believe the principle of it to be rather profound, even if it is just on a fundamental level.  The meticulous detail is obviously quite impressive, one could probably watch the same 90 second clip multiple times and continue to find things they previously overlooked.  Corporate advertisement aside, however, I find that the mentioned profundity comes in the form of a testament to the imagination.  The imagination is clearly not something to be underestimated, for the vision it inspires has allowed for the invention of this fantastical virtual universe in the hope that it will continuously entertain and even inspire those of particularly eager and ambitious minds time and again.  The greatness that awaits, therefore, is not necessarily found within gaming itself, but rather within ourselves.                        

The Power of Connection

   Ah, the internet, the last voluminous strand of authenticity left on the balding head of western civilization.  As bleak as this metaphor might appear, the internet truly is one of the few places of refuge that, for now, remains mostly free from government regulation and censorship.  In case you're curious, this is actually all thanks to a certain policy known as Net Neutrality, but that's another story.           

This story instead depicts a near future heavily influenced by technological advancement.  Watch Dogs, the original game, was released in May of 2014, and was set within postmodern Chicago.  This Chicago has pioneered the use of a corporate run, universal network to control most, if not all, technological functions of the city's infrastructure.  Everything from security cameras, to traffic lights, to bridges, are all regulated through a single network called ctOS.  What could possibly go wrong?         

 Watch Dogs 2 continues the technological revolution of the hacker group Dedsec, which has spread throughout other cities in the U.S.  These include a San Francisco that has been subjected to a revitalized version of the original program.  Given Dedsec's original campaign against the network in Chicago, they have no intention of condoning a ctOS 2.0.  The story follows Dedsec member Marcus Holloway on a mission to harness the software that is being used to regulate and monitor the populace and use it against its perpetrators.    

Knightfall

The final chapter to Warner Bros. and DC's Batman Arkham returns its story to the aftermath of Arkham City in the present.  The original now famed technical studio, Rocksteady, is back as well, after being replaced by Splash Damage for the development of Arkham Origins.  Over 4 years in the making with several delays in its release date, the companies have made quite the effort to ensure that the beloved franchise's finale is an explosive one.           

The lack of Scarecrow's appearance in Arkham City proves to be no accident.  After his disfigurement at the hands of Killer Croc in Arkham Asylum, he has been recovering and orchestrating his vengeance.  He seizes the mantle as the main antagonist now, alongside a mysterious private army commander known as the Arkham Knight.  Scarecrow's public demonstration of his lethal fear toxin and the threat to unleash it on the entire city incites a full evacuation of its people, leaving it vacant for occupation by the Arkham Knight's forces.      

With the city under occupation, the criminals that remained in Gotham now roam free.  The police attempt to maintain control, but prove ill-equipped to asses the overwhelming hostile takeover.  Fortunately, there is someone who is.  Between a variety of upgrades to the infrastructure of the Batsuit, and the presence of the especially redesigned Batmobile, Batman just might be able to even the odds and reclaim his city.       

https://www.batmanarkhamknight.com

Twas the Knight Before Christmas

DC and Warner Bros's revival of Batman's popularity in gaming continues with Batman: Arkham Origins.  Despite being the third installment it is set years before its predecessors, which are only a few months apart.  As the title suggests, it is an origins story of sorts.  It is set within the earlier years of Batman, on the night that his name first became known to the entire city.  

As before, the events are set over the course of a single night, Christmas Eve in this case.  Unfortunately, it will prove not be such a merry holiday this year, as a massive surge of criminal activity sends Gotham into a lockdown state.  Crime, however, isn't Batman's only concern tonight.  Black Mask, a notorious kingpin at the height of his power, has placed a $50 million bounty on his head, summoning eight of the world's most skilled assassins to Gotham to compete for it.     

What starts as a prison riot at Blackgate Prison escalades into a city wide calamity.  It appears that just about everyone is active tonight, and Black Mask in particular, is certainly utilizing far more aggressive tactics than usual.  In the midst of his encounters with each of the world class killers, Batman must attempt to uncover the true cause of this uprising, and everyone's role within it.  Who is really behind all of this, and what does intend to do next?   

 http://www.warnerbros.com/videogame/batman-arkham-origins

Savage at Heart

The Far Cry franchise has taken a more primitive turn.  This latest installment does away with the idea of settings within the present day.  Instead, Far Cry Primal aspires to deliver an accurate depiction of 10,000 BC, the aftermath of the Ice Age.       

 A journey through the distant past ensures greater potential for all new features and surroundings.  Weaponry will primarily focus on depth in customization of bows and arrows, clubs, and spears.    Forests and foliage will be more grand in size and wildlife will include some of the most popular of Earth's extinct species, such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats.      

 In such a wilderness dominated world, the human infrastructure will center around a network of villages comprising several factions of tribes.  The story follows the leader of one such tribe that is attacked and nearly decimated  by barbarian rivals.  This leader, named Takkar, is then involved in a journey across the prehistoric land to exact vengeance on his foes and ensure that his home is never threatened again.      

http://far-cry.ubisoft.com/primal/en-us/home/

Coming Home

The resounding success of Far Cry's third installment has inspired the rigorous development of a sequel, with enhancements in all of the features that earned it the title of the #1 Rated Shooter of 2012 with a rewritten setting and story.  To replace the tropics of the South Pacific is a fictional 3rd world country located in the Himalayan region of southern Asia.

Kyrat is a modest nation with the potentiality for peace, but unfortunately suffers from a decades long Civil War incited by a hostile takeover of the government and subsequent rule of a despotic king.  Ajay Ghale is a Kyrati born American who has returned to his late mother's homeland to fulfill her dying wish, to scatter her ashes in a place known only as Lakshmana.        

Just as before, the protagonist will become embedded within the conflict that is plaguing the region.  The open world adventure has a strongly progression based structure, with as much weapon and equipment customization as there are missions and other activities to undertake, all contributing towards further expansion into further reaches of Kyrat.  With all of the friends and allies to be found in such a culturally savvy atmosphere, exploring and conquering all of the visually stunning world will only be a matter of time.            

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/game/far-cry-4/

Welcome to the Jungle

Even the greatest of forms of beauty can conceal a beast.  Introducing 2012's Far Cry 3, the long awaited return of a first-person action/adventure shooter renowned for its impressive visuals and creative location choices, and it is certainly shaking things up.  With its setting in a fictional pair of tropical islands in the South Pacific, Ubisoft intends to expose a darker side to the concept of a tropical paradise.  Explicit material ahead.   

The islands together are known collectively as the Rook Islands, a remote tropical getaway hiding a dark secret.  The island, used by a group of young tourists as a vacation destination, is revealed to be home to a crime ring of pirates and privateers who are ruthlessly dominating the land and its indigenous people.

After being kidnapped and separated by said pirates, one of the tourists manages to escape.  Jason Brody, one of three brothers and six friends in total stranded on the island, must then decide whether or not to stand against the criminal regime in order to save them.  Doing so will embed him within the struggle for the islands' control between the regime and the mysterious resistance known as the Rakyat.  It will demand of him to acquire extreme skills that he had never imagined himself capable of before.        

http://far-cry.ubi.com/fc-portal/en-gb/home/

Outlaws Till The End

The "western" genre is one that rarely receives attention in the gaming industry.  In 2010, however, we had an exception.  Our good friends at Rockstar Games, known primarily for their satirical hilarity in Grand Theft Auto, revealed a grittier side to their developing range with Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar's own exploration into the past.  

It has been known to be very easy to consider Red Dead Redemption to simply be Grand Theft Auto in the old west.  For any who have followed the story in its entirety, however, this is very much not the case.  They are two different games with different development teams.  To put things in perspective, I like to think that if Hemingway was alive, he would more than likely appeal to a story such as this, whereas GTA would be more to the fancy of Mark Twain. 

Rather than being set within the height of western days, Red Dead offers a more original and gloomy western experience in the year 1911.  By this point the sign of the time is changing, and the great frontier diminishing.  Our protagonist is a former outlaw turned bounty hunter named John Marston.  As the title suggests, the story revolves around his own personal and legal redemption as he attempts to win the right to return to his family by catering to the demands of a pair of corrupt government agents.  These demands tend to vary upon the agents' discretion, but revolve around hunting down  John's partners in crime from his glory days.  This conflictingly grim adventure amidst the historic wrestle between progress and tradition ultimately poses the question of whether the ruthless conquest of civilization is a consistent improvement on the primitive and untamed frontier.     

http://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption/

Submergence Over Man's Armageddon

A favorite source of frights and thrill has made its triumphant return this past year.  Frictional Games, the company responsible for the Amnesia horror sensation, now has a new name to boast.  Soma was released September 22 on all major console and computer platforms, including Linux.  Similarly to its predecessor, it features a first person perspective of a story driven journey with the usual abundance of clues, puzzles, and of course, hostile creatures lurking within.  Frictional Games's signature use of psychological horror elements will ensure that the player is trembling with apprehension long before the first dangerous encounter.

Those who have played the original Amnesia will find that beyond these characteristics, Soma can be considered radically different.  Instead of a story set within the past, it begins in the present day before transitioning to the year 2104, shortly following an apocalyptic event involving a comet collision with the Earth's surface.  The player awakes within the remnants of what was once an underwater research facility, which might now serve as the final refuge of mankind.  Despite being completely unaware of how or why he was left here, protagonist Simon Jarrett must take whatever necessary measures to ensure that life, in some form, is able to continue beyond the now unsustainable world.  This in combination with advanced technology capable of virtually recreating reality in spite of the end of physical life, will leave the player ultimately questioning both the nature and existence of reality itself.  

http://somagame.com

Convoluted Controversy or (The Pursuit of Happiness)

One of the most groundbreaking games ever developed, the latest in a series that has pioneered the very concept of the sandbox open world and shattered sales records around the world, is Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto, unless you have no experience with the game itself whatsoever.  Then it is simply a headline that makes its way to Fox and CNN every few years or so, usually describing it as the bane of parental existence.  Originally a phrase describing a federal crime, it has now been instilled with a, if nothing else, much more popularized purpose.  Before helping yourself to the following trailers, you may wish to know that there may be EXPLICIT material that awaits you.  For the most part it is merely less than articulate language, but as this is not a product intended for small children, perhaps these trailers aren't either.        

If nothing else, let these videos, which are merely some of Rockstar's promotional advertisements between the game's original release in 2013 and next-gen release a year later, at least partially relieve you of a certain ignorance that has lead to such an extent of hysteria.  While GTA is certainly not alone in being the subject of scrutiny for controversially mature content, particularly in games, it has certainly become one of the public's prime candidates for generating negative publicity towards gaming itself.  Often, it serves as the subject of debate regarding a violent calamity within the United States, in particular.  When responsibility is demanded for these events, gaming is a seemingly irresistible scapegoat.  Believe what you will, but where is the logic within condemning something, anything, with little to no understanding of it?  Is it really as psychologically influential as names in journalism, mostly outside of the industry, have crudely dictated in the past?  This is merely one of many forms of entertainment, one that serves as a reflection of what already exists.  It is inspired by reality, and because of this can be a source of insight.  Grand Theft Auto particularly reveals some of the less desirable truths that would more favorably be ignored.  How this knowledge is used is for the user to decide.        

      Grand Theft Auto V is set within the ficional city of Los Santos and surrounding Blaine County, a more or less exaggerated social depiction of Los Angeles and Orange County.  In this place of debauchery, corruption, and occasionally outright chaos, three professional criminals will attempt to prosper, usually by less than honorable means.  Each character embodies a particular social demographic within their own storyline, and will encounter countless other stereotypes along their way.  This tale, more than most, explores the concept of the "American Dream," offering a more satirical perspective of a social principle typically known for its gilded reputation.      

http://www.rockstargames.com/V/

One Last Time

The beloved treasure hunter, Nathan Drake, will be embarking on his final adventure in the fourth and final installment of the Uncharted series.  The franchise has enjoyed critical acclaim and financial success since its inception in 2007, and Nathan Drake himself is widely regarded as being among the most iconic faces of the 7th generation of consoles.  Currently delayed from March 31st to April 26th, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End will be initially released as a Playstation exclusive, rivaling Square Enix's recent Xbox exclusive of the same genre, Rise of the Tomb Raider.

As one of the most popular names in action and adventure, Uncharted has never been in a short supply of vast landscapes and exotic settings.  Its parkour and freedom of mobility ensure that it is as much about exploration as it is the action and storyline.  In Uncharted 4, Nathan seeks to revive his retired lifestyle of traveling throughout the world in search of lost fortunes and relics after reuniting with his long lost brother.  Encountering many of his old friends and enemies as well as new ones, Drake may discover that the treasure he seeks and the loved ones he hopes to save are at odds with one another as he attempts to bring his career of theft to an end.               

http://www.unchartedthegame.com/en-us/

Sailors Wanted

After months of anticipation since the commencement of the beta phase, independent developer Game-Lab has finally unveiled their latest project, Naval Action, in early access on Steam this past Thursday.  The developer of war and battle strategy simulators is now pursuing a more traditional subject for exploration, the time in which sailing ships graced the waters of the world.                 

Many who possess a well-founded interest in sailing acknowledge a certain grace and majesty within its movements and tactics, coinciding with its nostalgic appeal.  While beta access to the game's earliest versions included only combatant options, the final product will feature an open-world atmosphere with level-based progression.  As self-proclaimed enthusiasts, the developers intend to deliver a product that succeeds in capturing the essence of this age in naval history in all of its newly digital glory.

The early access status means the game will continue to be under constant development, with player discussion and feedback strongly encouraged.  Progression will grant access to an increasing array of upgradable historical warships, such as the USS Constitution and HMS Victory, in order to roam the open seas in search of other players to attack and ports to buy provisions.  It is also possible to participate in large scale simulations of some of history's most pivotal naval conflicts such as the Battle of Trafalgar.  The online multiplayer template allows for battles consisting of entire fleets of players numbering in the dozens.  Naval Action offers a unique opportunity to experience this iconic period of our past in unprecedented detail.

http://www.navalaction.com/#ageofsail

In Small Packages

Similarly to most other forms of entertainment, a game does not have to be relatively grand in size, elaborate in its features, or manufactured by a major company in order to attain popularity.  Those that do fulfill such a criteria are often anticipated to receive widespread critical acclaim and financial success, given the amount of resources used in their production.  They are referred to as AAA (triple A) games.  The vast majority of all games, however, can now be found on other platforms, mobile devices, specifically.  Featuring perhaps humbling simplicity in comparison to their console counterparts, mobile software operating systems, such as Apple's iOS, have managed to develop a category of their own in recent years.  The convenience of their size and affordability has allowed them to grow exponentially more quickly than their predecessors, giving them more favorability with casual audiences, who have proved to be the most dominant.  Despite the diminished size of their productive scale, mobile games are no less capable of innovation or creativity.  The ones featured here are but a few examples of those games which serve as evidence that size does indeed not necessarily matter.  Their achievements have earned them a place among the App Store's "Editor's Choice" and "Essentials."

Leo's Fortune

http://www.leosfortune.com

Monument Valley

http://www.monumentvalleygame.com

Shadowmatic

http://www.shadowmatic.com