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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
