A recent trailer released by Bethesda Studios, the makers of the Elder Scrolls Series, and Fallout, and Arkane Studios, creators of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, depicts a dystopic world ruled by an aristocratic elite set in a steam punk, neo-victorian age (I dont even know what that means), and quite frankly, based on reading a game informer article a few months back and watching this trailer, I have come to the conclusion that it is quite possibly a highlight in gaming for this year. Granted this is a preview based on limited sources, and information, information derived from the trailer, I do have to stress that I can be wrong. But out of excitement, considering this is the only game I’m looking forward to this year other than Bioshock Infinite, I write a compilation of all announced features, settings, and characters, along with gameplay.

As mention it is set in a steam-punkish world with a strong victorian feel to it. The town portrayed in the trailer and concept art is dystopic, and reminiscent of a slum, actually, it is a slum, backwater and full of rats and dirty, poor commoners. There is a police-like military patrolling the streets, killing protesters in brutal and gory ways. You see a rail carriage, with an aristocrat inside it, surrounding it you have these walker suit things, soldiers with bows that shoot explosives, electric fields, that fry people to ash. This game, so far, looks gruesome, and like damn hell exciting. Straight away, you see the cruelty of this world, and straight away, what comes to mind is how will the player interact with it, and how consequences and interaction will shape the player’s experience. Well, I hope its that way, the environment of a game has always been an important medium for how the player experiences the game world, and more importantly, the impression it leaves.

So this brings me to my next point, the characters, you play as Corvo, a bodyguard to the Empress of Dunwall (the city that is in the trailer [i think]), who has been framed as the murderer of this particular Empress. The trailer begins in a jail (or is it gaol) cell, with Corvo sitting there, when a strange mysterious man walks up to his cell from the shadows, says a few words about having your revenge, then appears in your cell, granting you ‘his mark.’ Corvo then gains the ability to do some pretty neat things. To compare with another game, Corvo becomes like Adam Jensen of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And just like DE:HR, you have a non-linear game experience.

In the game you have the choice to finish a mission however you want, your object (as far as i know) is to have your revenge on the Lord Regent and his cronies, who assassinated the Empress of Dunwall. As such, you can choose to play non-lethally, using your powers to subjugate them. You have a myriad amount of abilities, ones that I can remember, are slow time, or possession of another NPC, which is pretty cool, however the only drawback to the possession ability is that if your host dies, so do you. One of the features is how you use these powers, as you can use multiple powers at once, you have a ton of combinations to come up with an interesting way to take someone (or thing) out.

So as mentioned, this game has potential, and I am looking forward to it. If you haven't seen the trailer will include it in links below. Dishonored could be a mass success (not based on profits but rather, the actual game is good), or it could be a massive flop, not doing anything new and just rehashing on already established genre. Either way, I look forward to it, and Bioshock Infinite as well. All we can do is wait and see.

Here is the link to the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1HlYTukh9A

All statistic are derived from the initial month of release

Tribes: Ascend is an upcoming free-to-play multiplayer-only first-person shooter part of the Tribes franchise. It is currently being developed by Hi-Rez Studios and was announced on March 11, 2011 at PAX East with an expected release in early 2012. It will be available as a digital download for Microsoft Windows, though Hi-Rez Studios haven't ruled out the possibility of an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 release in the future. Iconic aspects from previous Tribes games such as jetpacks and skiing will be featured in the game. Currently, the game is in open beta and will release on April 12, 2012.

Mass Effect 3 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Officially announced on December 11, 2010, the game was released March 6, 2012 and marks the final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy of video games, completing the story of Commander Shepard.

Visit http://www.ctcomputing.com.au for the latest gaming systems.

The latest sequel and addition to the Assassin's Creed franchise is AC: Revelations. It still focus' on Ezio's tale, but with a twist. This time, Desmond is trapped within the Animus and only by reliving the memories of Ezio and Altair can he escape this cyber prison. That being said, Desmond and Altair are playable. Personally I had mixed reception of this game, I feel that this is simply prolonging the adventures of Ezio, and no longer bringing anything new to the table. There are obvious improvements to the game, but at the same time, there are unnecessary additions to this free-roam parkour assassin simulator. I am not saying this game is all bad, but rather, I enjoyed it a lot, I have more of a problem with the story, some odd content, and Desmond's bits.

So to begin, I'll list my most enjoyable part of the game. The obvious improvement to running/parkour. Movement is so much more fluid then in the previous titles. In almost every situation, you are on the move. From the very beginning till the very end. Climbing animations have also been improved, and with the addition of the hook, one can access zip lines and higher ledges. There is so much to explore in Constantinople and so much to see. We played it on the PC, so I wouldn't know about the performance of the console counterparts, but with everything on maximum, the game looked awesome. Highly detailed, objects near and far, silhouettes of towers, churches and mosques in the distance, the Hagia Sophia being the most prominent building on the horizon.

That being said, in some cases, movement wasn't that enjoyable, most particularily in Desmond's moments, where platforms moving around constantly. The only thing you are really doing here is moving from portal to portal which leads to the memories of Ezio or Altair, and hearing Desmond talk about himself. Those moments where one controlled Altair were linear, they are more focused on the story, of what happened at Masyaf and brings closure to the aftermath to the first AC game, but don't offer that much new content.

Just like in Brotherhood, Ezio recruits assassins which are sent out on contracts. This functions similarly to Brotherhood, in the sense that, instead of the Borgias, you take out the Templar's control over a city. Eventually, as an Assassin eventually gains enough experience and ranking, you can designate him the leader of a faction den and that opens up new missions. In some missions you can accompany newbie assassins as they try to get their target. I liked this feature because it showed Ezio actually taking more involvement with his Assassin brethren.

Now, the most poorly executed feature in Revelations is the attempt at tower defense. It is probably the most frustrating aspect of the game, camera angles arn’t that great and are in fact limiting, and there is this annoying zoom in on fallen enemies or allies. It isn’t complex, you simply place down barricades and assassins at the expense of morale, that being the currency.

Another new feature is bomb crafting, as simple as it sounds. You find various of bits and pieces and you put them together to make functioning explosives. But in all honesty, i never got around to using them, there is simply no incentives, or practical use to them in combat. Difficulty of combat has increased since the last game, but its still centered around sword play. Range enemies are a minor annoyance, and like to hide behind cover, being out of melee range. Getting shot hurts, and i recommend against it. Combat flow is enjoyable and there are all the more kill animations.

I feel that i’ve covered a fair amount of the game, if i am forgetting something, other then the multiplayer, feel free to comment. I havn’t tried out the multiplayer and I do not intend to, as its difficult to review properly. Regardless it was an enjoyable game, but the story was lacking. The free roam parkour and exploration is really the center point of this game, and it does excell in the deliverance of this fun and unique feature.

Modern Warfare 3 is finally running in CT! Everyone please come and bring your friend's and enjoy the best FPS of all time.

Every now and then I come across a breath of fresh air, and no I am not refering to the amount of time I spend indoors, but rather in regards to video games, Bastion to be exact, is this fresh air. Another Indie game which I have been meaning to play for a while now, but never could find the time, and now that I have lots of free time, i played it, and played it alot. Finished it once, then i finished it twice. I could not get enough of this game. I am beginning to find indie games are better quality then those behemoth gaming companies. Bastion is just plain amazing.

The story line is simple, and this narrative style is one of my favourite things about this game. You are The Kid, who has awaken to find that the world around has fallen apart as you slept. You are still around because you happened to have a strange object in your vicinity, a piece of the Bastion. The Bastion being a floating island of refuge, but it has also fell apart. And it is your goal to get back all the cores to slowly rebuild the Bastion. The feature is story telling in this game, its rarely where you get your own narrator, and its from this narrator where you learn more about The Kid, and the ruined world.

This ruined world is wonderfully coloured, the bits that remain of course, ruined bridges, houses, shops, and various scenery. It builds as you get closer to it, and a fair amount of the world is destructible. It is easy to fall off of the floating floor, but it only did a small amount of damage to your health. The game is somewhat difficult, you will die, or be taken down to near death requiring you to do something drastic. Combat needs more thought to it, you need to prioritise your targets, small enemies attack in swarms, where as big enemies have small enemies running around them. You also need to take into consideration of the space around you, as the game world is constantly changing, enemies blow holes in the floor, or your attacks destroy terrain.

You get a choice in what weapons you can use, the first few you encounter is a pistol, hammer, and sword, but you do unlock further weapons such as the bow. You can take upto two weapons, and one special move, which is an ability that gives you another ability that uses tonics to use. You can go on to upgrade said weapons to increase damage output, speed, or a special attack for that weapon. There are also minigames out there based on weapons which unlock further weapon upgrades or special items. There is also a leveling system where you unlock more slots for tonics, meaning you can use your special move more.

The world is expansive and it's beautiful appearance makes it worth exploring, levels do differ, posing new challenges. You are thrown into action straight away, and it doesn't get boring. The narrator keeps you company in your lonesome travels through the shattered world. I really enjoyed this game, and i recommend it to pretty much everyone, it can be found on steam. I've bought a large amount of indie games from steam, and as such will probably spend the next few weeks playing them. I wonder what the Baconing will be like.

It might look like the prodigy to modern gaming, but does it play the way a prodigy to gaming would? By all means, this is a fun game, i enjoyed my short 40 hours in the world of Skyrim, but many things began to irk me as I progressed further through the game. And I could not help feeling disappointment in having such a high expectation for this game. In fact, it was the only game i was looking forward to this season. So i write this review as a fan boy of Bethesda, I like the company, they have made quality games in the past, and i was expecting a certain level of quality in Skyrim. This review might contain spoilers, in which case i will leave those points till last, and will mention it as well. Regardless, Skyrim is a good game, it's visuals, appealing. This written review will be indepth critical analysis of the game, where as my video review will focus on what i loved about my Skyrim experience, so i do recommend watching that review for all the good things with the game.

My rating for the game is 8.9 out of 10. I understand other people would rate it differently, I'd love to rate it higher, but this game is simply, not perfect. It is awesome, just not perfect.

I'll start with introducing Skyrim. It is the next instalment to the Elder Scrolls Series which is set in the continent of Tamriel. The Empire was defeated some 30 in game years before the start of the events in Skyrim, by the Aldmeri Dominion, an Altmer faction which see themselves as the original rulers of this continent before Man came to it. The province of Skyrim has been plunged into civil war between the Imperial forces and the Stormcloak faction led by Ulfric Stormcloak. This civil was caused by the outlawing of the worship of Talos, a human God, and Patron of the Nords, also being the first Emperor, because it was on the condition in the peace treaty signed by the Imperials. You start the game as a prisoner just about to beheaded, when a dragon flies down from the mountain peaks above and disrupts the execution. From there the player goes through a tutorial where he emerges from the cave into skyrim as a free man, ready to pursue his ambitions.

Skyrim boasts, in my opinion, the best long distance rendering that i have ever seen. The horizon doesn't look like a flat painting, but it is an ingame location, and particularily a location you can step foot on. Playing on graphic card that should cover recommended specs, (i can only play on minimum without it causing overheat issues, crashing to desktop or the just plain annoying, black screen of death, for some odd reason), so i could not experience first hand the best graphics skyrim has to offer, luckily enough, I have friends who are also fans of Skyrim, and one thing i noticed when looking at a comparison between high and low settings is that there is little difference in textures, and shadows. Atleast the shadows were being generated properly, i said to myself, as i stared at my computer struggling to make proper shadows. Not to sound like I'm complaining, it did look great. Models were finely detailed, dragons looked bad ass, character models were high res. There was obviously more work put into models then terrain. Textures (atleast on my setting) of trees, water, rocks, buildings, didn't look that great up close, at a distance though, they faired better. I wasn’t impressed by these textures, it was like looking at a retextured Oblivion, New Vegas looked better.

To fit Skyrim on the 360 disc, it was heavily compressed, that being said, this compression of textures, meshes, and sound, does affect the quality. The game compensates for this by generating higher detailed textures as you approach them, and as you walk away the textures lose quality. Distance generation can be modified, something rare for a console port, in fact, having the ability to change visual settings already has made this one of the best console ports i've played. Which brings me to the next point, because it is a console port, this game has a fair amount of bugs and technical issues when dealing with the PC or ps3 copy. Just to launch the game, i had to change my default sound setting, and only then could i start the game. My first experience with Skyrim wasn't very enjoyable, as it remained unplayable for three days after release. I was plagued by constant crashes whenever I looked at the map, or it would hit me randomly within a few minutes to half an hour of playing the game, requiring me to hard reset my computer. I am unaware of what could be causing this, as it is only happening with Skyrim. Another issue in regards to visuals i was experiencing, was character models flashing, and flashing shadows. These graphic bugs did ruin immersion and the gameplay experience.

Another feature that Skyrim boasts is the huge broad range of things to do. I am a person who does enjoy doing things just as much as any other guy, but it got to a tedius point in Skyrim. Once you manage to become the head of almost every faction you come across, there is no real sense of accomplishment and this does not impact on the game. Even as Harbinger of the Companions, all i got was quests in regards to pest control, as Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, I got contracts which i guess... is alright, for Mage’s guild and Thieve’s guild, fetching quests. What surprised me was how short these major quest chains were, you rise from being the new guy to the highest position available in a few in game days, or a few quests. This is, what i believe, is the price to pay for having unlimited quests and a huge variety of things to do. There is no real choice in matters, and even then, your choices lack depth, despite being the last dragonborn, people arn’t aware of your presence, their dispositions don’t change when you become the leader of a faction, or even finish the main story line, not even a statue. Again, Oblivion and Fallout 3 delivered more in regards of quests and story then Skyrim did.

Skyrim is also the first Elder Scrolls game that uses the companion feature, taken from New Vegas, and in all honesty, it isn’t that great. Companions always get in the way, give your position away, and most of the time die at your hands. Pathfinding is mediocre, and the only real use i found for companions is as a mule to carry all my things. I stayed away from using companions, but in a short space of time, that being said, 5-6 hours, i did run around with Lydia as a companion, as well as Cicero. This brings me onto combat. Skyrim hasn’t improved much on the Oblivion combat system, the only major change to combat is the addition of death animations. Combat is better in Fallout 3 and in New Vegas, I was even expecting the damage allocation system to be introduced into the Elder Scrolls series, after all, shouldn’t an arrow to the head do more damage then an arrow to the shoulder? Combat is bland, there is no strategy, and enemy AI just runs at you and swing their weapons, if they have a bow or ranged magic, they do stand in the distance, but even then I have had occasions where these range enemies run at me head on.

The major difference between Skyrim and earlier Elder Scroll games is the removal of the stat system, and the introduction of the perk system. Each skill has a specific perk tree which improve upon that skill. This i found was an interesting addition, when the player leveled he/she gained a perk, and a choice to increase their health, mana, or stamina by 10 points. There is an addition of some skills, such as smithing, Speech accomodates both mercentile and speechcraft skill. As mentioned earlier, these trees build on the skill, for combat skills they add more kill animations, more damage, etc, same with shields, and armour. There are 251 perks in game, and 18 skills between them. There is a soft cap for the perks past 50, so you only get to allocate around that many perks. They have made it simpler then previous games, in the sense of skill allocation and leveling up. It means that the character starts as a blank state, and can be specialised in a specific direction.

The Ui in game resembles that of Apple products, it is tedious to work with on the pc versions of the game, as half the time the mouse was not being registered, and scrolling through the list does require some getting used to. It was a bid to make the ui simplified and efficient, and it is, i cannot argue with the result. It is aesthetically pleasing, it doesn’t suite the game though. For example, the journal has been simplified into a list of objectives, with no added information or fluff to it, this is a break from the Elder Scrolls tradition as the games were centered around fluff and lore.

This game had potential, but i cannot get past that feeling that Skyrim is a rushed console port. In which case, I would like to play it the way it was meant to be played, that is, on the Xbox, but after experiencing so much of the game, i cannot go back to it. In the minimal time i got a chance to play, i did experience the game with a mage, a rogueish character, and a warrior base character. Skyrim is one of those games where I recommend having multiple play throughs as a different type of character and not to do everything available on the first play through, the world is mean’t to be constantly thriving, things happen on the other side of the map from you, and you do experience events which, in all honesty, were awe inspiring. The game itself is a brilliant idea, but the execution could of been improved. I was hoping for a game that would create a new benchmarks for RPGs and open world games, sadly, it didn’t. This is one disappointed Elder Scrolls fan.

Welcome to Shooter Seasons '11, all the biggest games are, and have, come out during the Australian Spring or US Autumn. The two biggest titans, Call of Duty and Battlefield have gone on a head on clash with each other. Now I am not going to compare the games, i just want to say that first, secondly, i have not played Mw3, so i cannot comment extensively on what it can and will offer. And thirdly, I have not delved to much into Battlefield 3, the most i've done is the early campaign, but courtesy of Confuciustech, i finally have a rig to run the game. What i am going to focus on however, is what the Mw3 promises, what Battlefield has delivered (based on reviews, will write up a proper review sometime before Skyrim, well, hopefully), and at the end of it all, I'll give my expectations, or opinion on both games.

I'll start with the game that is already out, Battlefield 3. I really wish i could write more, I'll be getting my copy of it later today. Regardless, all of my information about the game comes from the interwebs, primarily gamespot, but i don't trust them too much, they tend to have a biased opinion on games. According to Gamespot, bf3 has a 'boring' campaign, and limited co-operative missions, I particularly don't agree with this, i had a lot of fun, but the story was pretty dull. The real focus of Bf3 is the multiplayer, which i am utterly eager to play. And i've heard a lot of positive news about it, 64 player maps, and 9 of them. Each is unique, and expansive, constantly changing. Loads of weapons to play around with, same with gadgets. They changed a few things since BF:BC2, like knifes, progressing in rush mode, and grenade launchers. A huge degree of work was put into the multiplayer of Bf3, and it is the one thing i havn't experienced yet.

I am still somewhat sceptical about Battlefield 3, in the past a lot of over marketed games have disappointed a fair bit of people, as well as the whole 'Origin' argument circulating the interwebs, that it has terrible service, and likes to scan your computer for goodies. I am unsure as to what to trust, as far as I know, Origin is just EA's attempt at their own 'Steam' client. Feel free to post up your opinion on the game, if you have played it in the comment section below, I'm curious as to hear what the community has to say about this game.

Now, to look at Activision's money titan, Modern Warfare 3, or Call of Duty 8, it seems like so long ago since I was excited for Call of Duty 2... ah nostalgia.. Like i mentioned its not out yet, so i can't comment extensively. It will be multiplayer oriented, new game modes and a revised perk system. One thing that I would like to first mention, is this new perk system, as you use a gun it ranks up, and as it ranks up it. Change of killstreak system into the point streak system, which works off scoring points rather then killing players. Infinity Ward has removed the nuclear bomb killstreak, along with the perks Commando and Last stand. Shotguns are no longer secondaries. There is a new game mode, Kill Confirmed, in which the player earns points for the team by collecting enemy dogtags, you can deny the enemy by picking up your team's dogtags. That is the extent to my knowledge, I am still rather curious as to how it plays out.

I am not a fan of the Call of Duty series, I have played them all though, and the last Call of Duty game i really enjoyed was Call of Duty 4, because it gave something new to the gaming world. Now it feels stale, i didn't get into Black Ops as much as I did Mw2, and then again, i really didn't get into MW2. Twitch based shooters are not really my thing, now, for those die hard fans of the COD series, I am not saying it is bad. I am saying that, I didn't enjoy the overall experience. The Call of Duty games are fun, I have enjoyed playing them with friends in LAN. It just isn't my kind of game. And as such, based on my experiences with the previous COD games, I am not excited about MW3, but i want to at least try it out.

The Battlefield 3 beta was by all means, a success. It managed to attract EA's target audience, and it drew a very large amount of attention towards Battlefield 3. We managed to get in on the last few days of the beta to experience it and check it out. We made a video which sums up our thoughts on it all. We hope you guys enjoy it. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRipPk1lL0

Limbo is a side-scrolling puzzle adventure game for the PC, PS3 and XBox 360. Created by a Danish independent game development company, Playdead, the game was recently released this month (August, 2011) after being confined on the XBox 360 platform exclusively for a year (July 2010).

Limbo's story revolves around a nameless boy is seeking for his sister. He awakes in a forest in the edge of hell (limbo meaning edge in Latin). You (the character) start in a world of black and white. The game pretty much resembles the classic side-scrolling adventure games of the past like Prince of Persia and Outer World.

Limbo is a mature game with some violence ranging from mild into really morbid at times. You can get your head ripped off, impaled or drown for example. If you happen to die in the game, you start off the nearest chapter that you completed. The game is saved by chapter, you can recall on specific scenarios that you've solved before and be able to play from that point again anytime you want.

Player Reviews :

“Limbo is as close to perfect at what it does as a game can get.” 10/10 - Destructoid

"The game is a masterpiece." 5/5 - GiantBomb

“Limbo is genius. Freaky, weird genius. Disturbing, uncomfortable genius.” 5/5 - The Escapist

“Dark, disturbing, yet eerily beautiful, Limbo is a world that deserves to be explored.” 5/5 - Joystiq

In the only remaining human city of Bezoar, Major Fletcher, an Army Combat Veteran and soldier of the CLN, is dragged into a conflict between two of mankind's greatest enemies. He is to discover that nothing is what it seems to be.

Hard Reset is an action-packed, single-player shooter for the PC. With over-the-top destruction, loads of enemies, great weapon variety and a beautifully realized cyberpunk setting, Hard Reset is sure to shake up the shooter scene.

What happens when former Bulletstorm and The Witcher 2 developers club together to make a first-person shooter about insane robots? Well, if Hard Reset is anything to go by, you get something very promising indeed.

Hard Reset has gained attention for its bold visual style and hardcore gameplay, but being a brand new IP in the PC indie market, it was always going to be a hit-or-miss risk. Fortunately, it's a risk that has most certainly paid off.

Hard Reset brings back the ideal of the "old school" shooter. Cover, regenerating health, and the fancy gimmicks of the modern shooter have been cast aside in favor of a game that focuses exclusively on the very fundamentals that made first-person-shooters what they are. It also resurrects the tough gameplay that such an era was known for. Hard Reset's robots are among the most vicious, aggressive enemies I've ever fought in a game, as they unrelentingly chase players through entire levels, swarm in droves, and deal plenty of damage to boot. Playing on Normal will offer some hefty resistance.

What if you had the powers of a god? The earth would shift at your whim and the seas would tremble at your touch. You could raise mountains, divert rivers, and transform dry deserts into lush forests. From Dust grants you these powers and more, and it's satisfying to wield them as you try to safely usher a small tribe of humans through a perilous world. Yet, for all your world-molding abilities, you are not omnipotent. Like the villagers you shelter, you must contend with the inexorable power of nature. From the subtle influence of gravity and erosion to the devastating forces of volcanoes and tsunamis, nature compels you to adapt to survive. This task can get difficult, especially when imperfect controls, finicky pathfinding, and unforeseeable disasters conspire against you. Joining these in-game problems are a number of PC-specific shortcomings, including limited visual options and an Internet connectivity requirement. Despite these unwelcome elements, the challenge of being a lesser god is an engaging one, and From Dust makes it even more enticing with appealing visuals and evocative music.

Watching your early attempts to manipulate the landscape get balanced out by natural order is not only instructive, but also visually pleasing. Water sluices down hillsides, resisting your control, and deposited soil spreads out, diminishing your earthen works. Lava is a particular highlight. It oozes and flows, changing density and temperature, and watching its mottled glow cool into shiny rock is a delight. These natural processes are accompanied by rich sound effects that punctuate your every action. Grinding and sucking noises give your substance-gathering efforts some weight, while an outburst of birds cawing and flapping signals that disaster is imminent. If you toggle your view in closer to the action, you can hear fire crackling, villagers singing, and the creaking, burbling flow of lava. The sights and sounds make the world of From Dust look lively, and the interplay between substances and natural laws make it feel alive.

You slither around the world of From Dust as a small wormlike cursor called the Breath. Your basic ability lets you gather substances into a hovering ball, move them wherever you please, and then release them. You begin with simple applications of your skill, like gathering soil and building a land bridge across shallow water or sucking up water and dousing a fire. The Breath acts as a holding tank, but once you release a substance, it conforms to the laws of nature. Water flows, soil settles, and lava hardens into implacable rock. In addition to exhibiting these natural tendencies, the three substances interact with each other in important ways. Flowing water can wash away soil, and lava evaporates water even as the water cools it more quickly. Understanding these elements and the underlying rules of the physical world is crucial to success in From Dust, and Story mode introduces them to you at a manageable pace.

In Story mode, you must guide them to all of the tall ivory totems in each level so they can build villages and then send them through a stone passageway to complete the level. Making the villages accessible and keeping them safe are your two primary endeavors. Sometimes this can be accomplished simply by manipulating substances, but more often than not, you need more than just your basic abilities to ensure safe passage. Many totems, once settled, grant you temporary powers that are crucial to success. Being able to evaporate water or put out fire can save your villages from annihilation, while jellifying water enables you to carve out a biblical seabed passage for your people. As it expands your abilities, From Dust also makes things more challenging, ensuring that you have to make good use of your full repertoire.

Challenge mode provides a great complement to Story mode, and together they make for a satisfying amount of content. From Dust doesn't offer the heady feeling of omnipotence, but it's a lot of fun to have to contend with the greater forces of nature as you try to exert your influence over this raw, lovely world. The churning sea, the flowing lava, and the burgeoning forests create a vivid sense of life that is amplified by the light percussion, ambient music, and lively animal vocalizations. Though this PC port suffered some bumps in the transition, and the gameplay can still be uneven and finicky at times, it's definitely worth taking up the manipulator's mantle in From Dust.

PB: All Points Bulletin is a multiplayer online video game for Microsoft Windows based in urban sprawls and featuring two sides, Enforcers and the Criminals. Players can join either the Enforcers or the Criminals, and form sub-groups in either faction. The game design was led by David Jones, who contributed to the original Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown, and was developed by Realtime Worlds. It was released on 6 June 2010 in North America, Europe, and in the United Kingdom.

This game screamed 'NEW' as soon as I started playing. It is a unique experience, something so refreshingly new that I cannot find another game to emulate it. This game provides a flexible experience, and delivers what so many other games in the past have attempted to do (as i wrote that statement i glared at a poster of Fable 3), and that is provide choices. I know, a shocker. So many games give that illusion that you are the master of your destiny, only to find invisible walls or people with large 'NO YOU CANNOT DO THAT' signs. I am digressing, but as i've said, choice. Deus Ex has choices, and lives up to to this feature, it is a definite buy in my books for those who are fans of sci-fi role-play.

First of all what is Deus Ex? Based on the title and my limited knowledge of Latin, I was expecting the protagonist to be some sort of Angel, or.. God thing... and i was right. Adam Jensen is the tragic hero of the story, having lost the woman he loves, and the body he was once the proud owner of, to a band of... I'd rather not say and ruin the story, but I am going to call the Mercenaries. Here is where your 'choice' comes in, and if you wish, role-play. You decide what Jenson's motives are, done through dialogue. The dialogue system is again, another refreshing feature, those familiar with Mass Effect, will undoubted recognise the system. There are three types of dialogues, you can be all emotional and vengeful, angry and regretful, or just plain apathetic, in your responses. The impact of this is for role-play value to keep up this promise of Choice that Deus Ex promised so long ago.

There are multiple ways to play around with Jensen's Bad Assery, and again this has to do with the whole Choice thing, there are two over arching methods you can complete missions, and both yield rewards for sticking to that method. Lethal and Non-lethal, as one could guess, the lethal method is the one involving plenty of fire power, spine cracking, and sword play, where as Non-lethal refers to stealth over firepower. Both are challenging, and both add new gameplay features which totally revolutionise your game experience on different play throughs. There is a choice in the different styles of combat one prefers, the major ones being, run and amok 1st person shooter, third person overhead cover fights, or the use of tactical combat, using the two methods above. Combat is a challenge, for despite being a half robot mechanical man, you are still prone to death and heights, but the use of Praxis points, the player can upgrade Jensen's bio-mechanical mess and combine it into a lethal and unstoppable being of mass destruction and retribution, where even the largest fall won't kill you.

Now we get to my favourite part, the world. The year is 2027, and you are in Detroit, but not the Detroit of today, but one from tomorrow, for you see, a lot has happened in the next 16 years to transform Detroit from a mess and embarrassment of American capitalism, to a bustling metropolis, with a sizable population, and a slight smaller embarrassment. And as such, one has to imagine a half utopic world, think Blade Runner, but not overly populated, and not so much of a slum. That being said, this is an environment that is packed, plenty of corridors, tall buildings which stretch into the sky covered in blinking lights and shiny glass (my PC has terrible render). The streets are dark, the only sources of light are the still remaining working street lights and the occasional dumpster fire. The people are depressed, angry and bitter, who hackle you, or ignore you. There are riots all over, people are unhappy with the whole concept of bio-mechanical humans or robotic augmentations, you being mostly composed of machine don't sit well with the people. The soundtrack is another awesome feature, not quite as good as the Bastion soundtrack, but it does deliver that punch of sci-fi dystopia which works ever so brilliantly with the environment.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution provides an innovative product, and a compelling experience. It combines action, with science fiction, with the detective style genre, and this synthesis works ever so brilliantly. If you loved the previous Deus Ex games, then get this one, if you havn't played the previous games, worry not, neither have I, AND you are into the sci-fi genre, then this game is definitely worth looking into, and or trying out.

Boasting to have 3 million preorders, this upcoming Star Wars game might be a record breaker in the MMO genre (I am not suggesting that it will 'dethrone' World of Warcraft, in all honesty, its a futile arguement to obsess over, WoW is here to stay and the only thing that can kill WoW is WoW itself, now that that is out of the way we shall continue.). That being said, Old Republic has a lot of expectations placed upon it by the Online gaming community, and Star Wars fans alike. The creators of this game are the usual Lucas Arts working in collaboration with Bioware. Both companies have released some great games, such as SW:Battlefront 1 and 2, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, they have experience in games, so they can be trusted to make this mammoth of an mmo.

Firstly, what is Old Republic? If you havn't by some chance, heard of it, you are probably asking this question. Old Republic is set some few thousand years before the Star Wars movies, and the events within the game are centered around the war between the Sith and Jedi (I am ashamed to say, that I am an unenlightened padawan in Star Wars Lore, and sadly, i cannot offer much in regards to the history of the Jedi and Sith, and why they are fighting.).

There are two factions, Sith and the Jedi, each faction has 4 classes to choose from. The Jedi classes are; Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, and Jedi Counsular. The Sith get; Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, The Imperial Agent and the Sith Inquistor. Each class has their own specializations, and play key roles. Also, each class happens to have their own style of Starship, that is to say, there is space combat in Old Republic. Character Creation has been expanded upon yet, but one can safely assume that there is a lot of choice considering that there are multiple alien races out there. A lot of detail regarding the game is still being kept quiet, and certainly will be released prior to its release date, which still hasn't been announced, but it is planned for late this year, probably around the summer holidays.

There are a 17 of planets, which have been announced, to explore, as well as space stations and battlecruisers. The game world will be big, one can safetly assume. These areas will include focus points in the expansive time line, such as Tython, Coruscant, Tatooine, and Hoth. Each with their own unique environments. The game does look good, planets have their unique feel and atmosphere, and hopefully. End game content has been announced, as well as pvp, but sadly, there isn't much detail.

The game has a lot of backstory to it, i recommend checking out their website, i shall provide a link to it at the end of this article. I honestly wish there was more information to expound upon, the game is planned to be released later this year. This game will definetly be available here at Confucius Tech upon release!

The link to the game is as follows: http://www.swtor.com/

For centuries legionnaires have protected the nation of Ehb until they were betrayed and all but driven to the brink of extinction. Now that evil has returned to Ehb the people turn to the few remaining Legionnaires for the protection of the past. As an heir to the legion will you accept this plea for help? How it will all be resolved is up to you!

Dungeon Siege III is an Action RPG that seamlessly blends intuitive fast-paced gameplay, a robust RPG system featuring a large selection of abilities, loot galore and the depth of story Square-Enix and Obsidian Entertainment are known for creating. Players will be able to adventure by themselves, on the couch with friends, or online in a fully multiplayer experience.

An aged old classic has made its way back to Confucius Tech. Diablo 2 is your classic over head dungeon crawler hack and slash, a brilliant one too might I add, this review cannot express this great game, it is one of those 'try it and you'll believe me' games. A quick history regarding the game, it took 3 years in production for the end result, and this three years reveal a change in the early game, for the first act looks older and feels older then the other 3 acts. That being said, you have to get past the 1st act to truly experience the awesomeness that is this game. It was designed for the new player and for old, to get used to the new levelling system for the heroes.

It boasts a co-op campaign feature, where you and three of your mates can take on the Diablo, as the game has become more linear then its predecessor, and this structure is greatly beneficial towards gameplay because the story makes more sense, you don't have to piece it together like in the first game, or you don't end up in a tangent and completely lost. You choose between 4 heroes, the barbarian, necromancer, sorceress and the paladin. Each class has a unique playstyle, and each excels in their fields, all are damage classes, but can be specced to have more health or greater tanking abilities, more damage, or specific types of magic, allowing the player to have a greater degree of versatility in playstyle and to make it obvious that each class is different.

We, at Confuciustech, recommend experiencing this artefact of gaming history with your friends in a 4 player lan, teamwork makes this game far more interesting, and definitely worth it.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge, is a third-person action video game set in a dark fantasy world. The game was developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks

Gameplay:

The game will feature co-operative multiplayer with splitscreen that has been confirmed. E'lara will be able to use a bow and small weapons, while Caddoc will wield larger melee weapons. The player will have the option to explore large areas. The player will be able to use spells to help in combat.

It has been confirmed that the game will support cross-regional co-operative play on all platforms, but that the random match-making feature will be regional on PC and Playstation 3, and cross-regional on Xbox 360.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a role-playing video game and a sequel to The Witcher, developed by Polish studio CD Projekt RED for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. While the game is being published by CD Projekt itself in Central Europe and Digital Distribution sites, distribution in North America will be handled by Atari. Publisher for Western Europe will be NAMCO BANDAI.

Plot: The Witcher 2 takes place a short time after the events of The Witcher. As in the first game the player controls Geralt of Rivia, one of the few remaining Witchers. Witchers are a group of people taken in an a very early age to be trained and enhanced with magic to fight monsters, giving them superhuman strength and agility as adults. During the prologue Geralt awakens in a Temerian prison and is interrogated by Roche, an officer of the Temerian Special Forces, about the assassination of King Foltest of Temeria. Geralt recounts the events leading up to Foltest's death, during which Geralt served as the king's bodyguard. During an uprising against Foltest by noble families of Temeria. Foltest personally leads the battle in order to recover his illegitimate children who are being held by the rebels. Once Foltest finds his children he is lulled into a false sense of security by his assassin, disguised as a blind monk, who kills him before Geralt can react. The assassin then escapes, leaving Geralt to be found alone with the body of Foltest by Temerian soldiers. When Geralt finishes the story Roche expresses that while he believes Geralt is innocent nobody else does and he will be put to death the next day for the assassination of Foltest. Roche facilitates Geralt's escape from prison since Geralt is the only one who can identify Foltest's true killer. Following a lead from one of Roche's informants they travel to a trading post named Flotsam.

Fable III is the third video game in the Fable series of action role-playing games (RPG) developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. It focuses on the player's struggle to overthrow the King of Albion by forming alliances and building support for a revolution. After a successful revolt, the player becomes the monarch and can then lead Albion in whichever direction they please.

Plot: Fable III is set 50 years after the events of Fable II on the continent of Albion where the Fable II series is set. The old monarch, the hero of Fable II, has died and left the Kingdom of Albion to Logan, the player's older brother. Some characters allude to how Logan has "changed" in the last four years, and is excessively tyrannical now. After a traumatic event that Logan forces upon the player, they escape Logan's castle along with their mentor, Sir Walter Beck and their servant, Jasper (voiced by John Cleese). The player then starts to gather allies to aid in a revolution against Logan. The allies they gain include the "Dwellers," a nomadic community that lives in the mountains; Major Swift and Ben Finn from the Royal Army in command of a remote fort; Page, the leader of the "Bowerstone Resistance"; and Kalin, the leader of Aurora, a desert land across the ocean. When attempting to gain the support of Kalin, the hero learns that a creature called the "Crawler, ruler of the Darkness," the forces of the Darkness which have already devastated Aurora, intends to exterminate all life in the Kingdom of Albion. It is revealed that Logan's reason for treating his people so harshly is to raise money for an army to defend against the Crawler.

Nothing says 'epic' like massive strategy games set in the time of the Roman Conquests! A classic and brilliant game, Rome: Total War has returned to Confuciustech!

As in any Total War games, there are essentially two distinctly different types of gameplay in Rome. There's the overarching turn-based campaign in which you conquer cities and provinces, make improvements, and move armies around the map as you expand your empire, and then there are the real-time battles in which you use tactics and maneuvers to crush your enemy in combat. After the helpful and informative tutorial campaign, you can tackle the main imperial campaign. You play as one of three powerful Roman families--the Julii, the Bruti, or the Scipii--attempting to increase the size and glory of Rome and shore up your faction's power and influence. As all three factions are Roman, there's literally no difference between them in terms of units and building types, though they do have different responsibilities. The Julii must deal with the Gauls and Germania to the north in a difficult, landlocked campaign. The Bruti are required to deal with the remnants of the Greek city-states and expand the empire to the southeast. And the Scipii are tasked with subduing Carthage, Rome's great nemesis to the southwest.

At least, that's the principle goal of each faction. But there's a fourth, unplayable Roman faction, one that can influence your course during the campaign: the Roman senate. The senate will order you on missions, from blockading a hostile port or conquering a city (and perhaps exterminating the populace, depending on the level of enmity between Rome and the faction in question) to forging a trade deal or an alliance with a foreign faction. It's up to you whether you actually obey the order, as sometimes the senate will try to stretch you thin on purpose. If you carry the orders out successfully, you stand to gain a monetary reward, a useful new military unit, or influence in the senate. Failing to carry out missions earns the displeasure of the senate and affects your standing with that body. By and large, though, the senate missions help to focus the otherwise huge scope of the campaign--instead of being faced with the monolithic task of trying to conquer Europe, you can instead look forward to accomplishing a long series of short-term goals.

f you're looking for a complex, addictive, conquer-the-world campaign, you can look forward to the imperial campaign, which is good for countless hours of gameplay all on its own. Meanwhile, if what you want are realistic, cinematic-style battles, you can dive into the historical battles or the skirmish or multiplayer modes, or have the computer manage all the details in the campaign and just join the battles. And if you're looking for both, then you'll probably find Rome: Total War to be perfectly sublime blend of the two.

Despite its release last year in march, this game is still highly recommended for any online first person shooter fans out there. This game is continuously updated, and with the coming release of Battlefield 3, these coming months promise to be booming with players who enjoy the battlefield franchise, so underpopulation is not going to be a problem. What makes this game unique is the ability to destroy terrain and cover. Players can rip down buildings with explosives, and crush enemies inside them. Regardless, there are many features which make this game terrific.

The single player campaign is done really well, that is to say, the story line is planned out really well. The story is focused on the squad level, and its about the war between the US and the Russians, as they fight on the multiple fronts, it is in all respect, a world war. The campaign is a focused, largely linear adventure that takes you to a variety of gorgeous locations. The aforementioned arctic and jungle landscapes are standouts, but other places live up to the high standard. Driving a tank through a countryside in the full bloom of autumn provides eye candy and cannon fodder aplenty, while speeding around a dry seabed in an ATV brings strange sights, not to mention a particularly fierce firefight in the courtyard of an old fortress. Humor is another way that Bad Company 2 distinguishes itself. Your squadmates each have great personalities, and their banter is witty and entertaining. You may have to wait for a quiet moment to hear some of their best conversations, but it is well worth it.

A nifty feature in this game is the ability to destroy terrain. Everything, from fences/trees, to buildings, are destructible. You can remove the hidey holes of your enemies with ease, exposing them, but the same can happen to you, lets say your using a wall as cover, when suddenly its destroyed and your in the open. Occasionally the rampant destructibility will get a bit too ambitious, leaving objects stuck in strange positions. Yet the scale of destruction you can wreak is impressive, and the best part about it is how your destructive power becomes a seamless part of your battlefield strategy. It makes you feel powerful in a logical, invigorating way and makes Bad Company 2 unique among its peers.

But the most exciting thing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has to offer is online multiplayer competition. Up to 32 players compete in squads in a few different match types. In Rush, the attacking team assaults an enemy position in an effort to destroy two targets of opportunity. If the attackers succeed, two more targets open up, as well as an entire new section of battlefield. These progressive contests are fierce and engaging, and each new area offers new challenges to which both teams must adapt. (There is also shorter, equally intense version of this mode called Squad Rush.) In Conquest, two teams strive to hold three control points while fending each other off. The natural ebb and flow of combat is unpredictable here, as points can be captured by a lone soldier or by a heavy armored assault. These battlefields are more fluid, and because the action doesn't move on like it does in Rush, they tend to be more thoroughly ravaged by destruction by the end of the match. The last mode, Squad Deathmatch, pits four squads of four against each other in a more traditional, yet still very fun competition. Jumping into a random game doesn't always work properly, and you won't always find a good match, or any match at all for that matter. Fortunately, you can easily call up a list of active servers and consistently hop into whatever game type you like. Each mode offers a different take on the core combat, providing a great variety of ways to do battle.

There are plenty of tactical decisions to be made beyond the loadout screen, including where you spawn, which buildings you destroy, and which vehicles you pilot. ATVs, gunboats, Humvees, tanks, and helicopters all spawn on the battlefield full of deadly potential. Exactly who dies depends on your driving skills and the enemy's demolition prowess, but there's no question that vehicles can change the flow of battle very quickly. These tools, coupled with the threat and promise of destructibility, make Bad Company 2's battlefields uniquely chaotic and electrifyingly fun. The action is top-notch in both campaign and multiplayer alike. Whether or not you're looking for a new shooter in your life, you owe it to yourself to play Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Company of Heroes is a visually stunning real-time strategy game that depicts all the violent chaos of World War II with uncommon intensity. Set during the invasion of Normandy toward the end of the war, Company of Heroes takes its cues from Saving Private Ryan, by portraying both the sheer brutality of the war as well as the humanity of its combatants. Many other recent WWII games have also drawn influence from Steven Spielberg's landmark film, but Company of Heroes is even more graphic. This and the game's highly authentic-looking presentation are its distinguishing features, and it boasts some frantic, well-designed strategic and tactical combat to match. Company of Heroes trades a wide breadth of content for an extremely detailed look at WWII-era ground combat, and its action is so fast paced that it's best suited for the reflexes of an experienced RTS player.

Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter from People Can Fly and Electronic Arts in which players assume the role of a space pirate who must escape a planet overrun with mutant cannibals.

Publisher: EA Games

Publisher: Epic Games

Developer: People Can Fly

Genre: Action, First-Person Shooter

About the Game

Portal 2 draws from the award-winning formula of innovative gameplay, story, and music that earned the original Portal over 70 industry accolades and created a cult following.

The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game.

The game’s two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.

Product Features

-Extensive single player: Featuring next generation gameplay and a wildly-engrossing story.

-Complete two-person co-op: Multiplayer game featuring its own dedicated story, characters, and gameplay.

-Advanced physics: Allows for the creation of a whole new range of interesting challenges, producing a much larger but not harder game.

-Original music.

-Massive sequel: The original Portal was named 2007's Game of the Year by over 30 publications worldwide.

-Editing Tools: Portal 2 editing tools will be included. Note: To be made available after launch.

The long awaited squeal to Crysis has finally been released, will it live upto the high standards created by its predecessor? To answer that question, its recommended that you play the first game, not because of the storyline, but rather, to compare the first with the second, but I'll save you (the reader) 10 or so hours with this.

Compared to other first person shooters released as of late, this game sets a new bar with the use of; environment, atmosphere, soundtrack and gameplay.

It runs smoothly, or rather, smoother then the first, as in this game the suit does most of the work for you compared to with the suit functions from the first game, its on auto-pilot basically, with mild player interference. There is an addition of suit upgrades as you collect the biomatter of dead aliens (as this is part of the plotline, I shall keep brief in which case !SPOILER ALERT!.) You buy upgrades for your suit as you progress and these upgrades include faster energy regen or stronger suit modes. Controls have been reworked, so shift activates fast mode, or holding jump will activate power mode. Suit functions can also be combined.

The environment is meticulously done, distant buildings are rendered so well that you can see every bit of detail (on a high powered machine) and this adds better immersion. Shadows of monstrosities or military forces flying over head keeps you on the edge of the seat as you wait to see aliens to come down at you. Maps are large, but not as a great as those in the first, whereas maps in the first Crysis game were wide and long, maps in Crysis 2 are 3 dimensional, the player uses height to their advantage. The player is continuously thrown into different combat situations, close up or at long range. Weapon customisation has greater significance in Crysis 2, as the attachments of your weapons can influence

Most people don’t give much thought to the older RTSs, and those who do will remember Command and Conquer fondly. Hours spent fighting each other for tiberium, hours fighting the Nod. It was one of the best RTS families out there, and it’s been since buried over by other crappy titles they call modern RTSs.

Not for much longer. Ever since we upgraded to the new DDS game server, the entire Command and Conquer series is now available for play immediately at ConfuciusTech today. Can’t find the games anywhere else? They’re not common. Drop in today and relive the memories!

Out since the 1st of March, Rift promises to be exponential. Since releasing its Beta it's player base has grown, Trion Worlds did not expect Rift to be so successful. Head start was announced, and that caused server overloads, queues 12 hours long. Despite having a smaller number of servers then required its launch was smoother then World of Warcraft's. Thus was the success of Rift.

Rift brings new features to the MMO table, first of all, its dynamic class system. There are 4 main archetypes; Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Mage, each archetype has 8 different classes, 8 different ways to play that archetype. The player designs his character by choosing 3 classes or 'souls' and combines aspects of each class to influence the play style of the player. There are countless of combinations the player can make. For example, the Warrior archetype, the eight classes are as follows; Champion, Reaver, Paladin, Warlord, Paragon, Riftblade, Void Knight and Beast master. The player chooses 3 of those 8 classes, so for this example, Reaver, Void Knight and Beast master. The Reaver class specialises in damage over time attacks, the Void Knight is the anti-magic class and the Beast master has the ability to call forth a pet which gives bonus to him in combat. Thus the dynamic of combat is overhauled and this combination makes character design such a meaningful experience, its no longer one specific and concrete playstyle, but its so open, and difficult to foresee what your enemy will be. Pvp has become revitalised in this game due to this dynamic class system. On to Factions and PVP.

There are two factions, Guardians and the Defiants. Non are particularily evil, nor good. Each has their own methods to coping with the end of their world. The Guardians, as the name suggests, is a faction created to protect the world of Telara from the undead and destructive forces of Regulos, a being utterly malevolent, and hell bent on enslaving Telara. The Guardians were chosen by the Gods of Telara to do this task, but the Defiants turned their back on the Gods and chose to put their faith into Machinery, they are considered heretics by the Guardians, and because of their betrayal they must be destroyed. Pvp is centered on this theme, as each faction struggles to survive, they attack eachother attempting to weaken the other. Pvp consists of battlegrounds, named Warfronts, which are scenarios which the players take part in. The first warfront players participate in, involves capturing a destructive relic and keeping it away from the other faction until they gain enough points to win, the drawback to holding this relic is that it slowely kills the player. Open world pvp adds a different twist, in zones, at certain hours, special events happen called Invasions inwhich evil forces try to take the zone from the players. Players are literally forced to stop questing in order to cope with this invasion force, because these forces capture towns or questing areas, and players are forced to take it back.

Rift took aspects from other MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and Everquest and combines them to make something unique in its own right. Public quests have returned, public quests are just that, a group of players working together to get at an objective, in this case, close rifts or fight off invading forces, upon completion players would receive rewards based on their involvement in the fights. Another feature is the ability to dye armour, adding more depth to uniqueness to characters. And there is so much more.

Rift is a next gen mmo, that promises to give the player a whole new experience with MMOs. It is difficult to describe it all in detail as there is so much to try. A game which I definitely recommend (and its cheaper then World of Warcraft!), bound to gain the players attention for hours and hours and hours (and hours) to come.

Dead Space 2 is the sequal to the first game and follows the protagnist Isaac Clarke and his desperate struggle to survive against the hordes of Necromorphs which have appeared on the Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

A horror shooter game, Dead Space 2 sticks to that genre and pulls it off quite well. Not much is changed compared to the first game, gameplay wise, but rather minor tweaks and fixes which make the game run smoother, and makes blasting limbs feel better. The game begins with Isaac in a mental ward as his psychological state is being examined by doctors, and from then on in, you are thrown right into the action as necromorphs attack the medical bay and Isaac has little choice but to escape.

Dead Space 2 offers new things and old. The weaponry has been expanded, however it is mostly compromised of weapons from the prequal. New enemies promise to change the feel of combat and ultimately survival, to be more challenging then in the first.

The environment is another new tool in your struggle, kenesis technology is a new feature allowing you to pick up objects at a distance, even to pick up the limbs of your enemies and use them to your advantage. There has been an overhaul in how zero-G environment works, you are able to hover in place and move freely in any direction, and you can land on most surfaces with the touch of a button. You are also able to break windows in certain rooms, doing so would cause everything that isn't bolted down (including you and other necromorphs) to begin moving in that general direction as all the air rushes out into space.

New features can be found everywhere, but sadly, the game can fall into rhythmic patterns towards the middle. Danger is always following you, every sound you make, would alert an necromorph of your general location. Sound becomes an important factor in this game, as you hear most of your enemies rather then see them. This adds to a new depth in horror to the game, making it so much more satisfying when you manage to survive.

Plot wise, the game is rather linear, one would think that without having a commanding officer telling you what to do would allow more freedom, but sadly, it doesn't. Isaac needs to recover, rebuild and repair machineries. The maps are a lot larger and allow greater range of movement, unlike the corridors of the Ishimaru. There is a great attention to detail in the maps, creating an atmosphere that before now, people lived normal lives in these areas. This haunting use of imagery adds greater depth to the game, improving its feel as being a horror survival game, you are alone.

A new addition to the game is a fully functioning multiplayer, you and 3 other players must work together to fight an endless horde and to survive the encounter. The game style is very reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, but offers a completely different and new experience unlike L4D. Co-ordination is key for whatever team you play on. The Necromorph team need to work together to bring down the human players, who are stronger then they are and would not last in a head 1 on 1. The 4 classes for the necromorph include; the pack; the lurker; the puker; and the spitter.

Dead Space 2 promises to be a great horror survival game, clad with moments which would send shivers down the players spines. We, at Confuciustech, recommend this game for all gamers who enjoy a good fright.

It's obvious that each iteration of the long-running Street Fighter series has been carefully tuned and tweaked to the finest degree, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Street Fighter IV. The lessons learned in the franchise's 20-plus years have been used to prune back the core fighting experience to create something truly special.Street Fighter IV is a resounding success not only because it's one of the most technically complex 2D fighters ever made, but also because it's also wrapped inside a layer of absolute accessibility. Never has the old "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master" adage been truer than it is here.

The Street Fighter fundamentals have remained consistent over the years; your job is to knock out the other guy or gal. All 12 of the classic world warriors--Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison--are back and playable from the outset, and they're joined by six brand-new and diverse characters. Abel, a mixed martial arts grapple-style character; Crimson Viper a female fighter with sweeping, airborne fire attacks; Rufus, a rotund fighter whose body makes him a bit of a sight gag despite his deceptive speed; and El Fuerte, a pro wrestler whose rushes and air throws make him a slippery foe. Ryu and Ken's sensei, Gouken, also makes his playable-character debut in Street Fighter IV. Naturally, he didn't teach the boys everything he knows, so when they meet again he has a few tricks up his sleeves, including a horizontal and vertical fireball EX move. The game's new end boss, Seth, fills the last spot and joins the list once you've unlocked everyone else. Character balance is spot-on across the roster, and as a result, you should never feel that you can't compete simply because you've chosen one character over another.

You'll need to finish the game multiple times and in special ways to unlock the complete character list. Doing so will make fan favourites Cammy, Sakura, Akuma, Fei Long, Rose, Gen, and Dan playable. Like previous games in the series, Street Fighter IV lets you perform powerful super combos, but it has removed air blocking and parrying completely. Developers Capcom and Dimps have added a completely new gameplay system: focus attacks, a new multipurpose offensive and defensive ability that can be charged to one of three levels by pressing and holding the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. There's no onscreen bar to show how charged your attack is, so you'll need to rely on the progressively darkening ink splashes surrounding your character model. Each character features a unique focus animation, so you shouldn't have any trouble working it out after a few rounds with each. Focus attacks make you vulnerable to damage because you need to be standing still to charge them (though you can dash forward or backward to cancel them), but the trade-off is that you'll absorb the first hit without the penalty of an animation reset, allowing for an instant counterattack if you land it. They can also act as armour-breaking moves, shutting down more-powerful attacks. Successfully landing a fully charged focus attack will deal damage and crumple your opponent to the ground, giving you the chance to follow up with an unblockable hit as he or she falls.

The new mechanic also lets you use part of your EX power-meter charge to exit animations early and chain bigger combos together. They take a little getting used to and some serious thumb dexterity, but once they're mastered, you can perform moves such as dragon-punch stalls directly into super moves or use them to juggle players in midair with multiple hits. Your revenge meter builds as you take damage, whereas the EX meter fills as you dish it out. EX power rolls over to the next round, but revenge must be built from scratch each time. This becomes a crucial risk-versus-reward mechanic. Do you take hits to build revenge and power up an ultra attack, or do you deal damage to burn your EX on improved moves, cancels, or save it for a super finisher? The flexibility of this system means that you're free to play according to your strengths and style. But just like reversals, EX power-ups, and ultra combo attacks, focus attacks serve to mix up the experience only for veteran players; such is the game's balance that they have never been required to win a match, and they act more as an additional weapon in the arsenal of a skilled player. They're waiting for you when you want to take a step up and learn how they work, but well-timed basic punches and kicks are just as effective.

The single-player mode is robust and has a lot to offer across several components. Arcade mode pits you against a set number of fighters from your unlocked-character roster and culminates in a showdown with Seth. Along the way to your goal, you'll always encounter a rival fight. These are regular fights accompanied by an in-engine exchange with your opponent. They're a welcome mix-up but often add nothing to the character's storyline because some fighters clearly don't even know why they hate one another. Each character's adventure is bookended by an anime-style cinematic movie that explains his or her motivations for attending the tournament. They're quite short and keep story to an absolute minimum, but they get the message across and do a reasonable-enough job of filling in the gaps. Given the amount of additional content shoehorned into this game, we were slightly disappointed to find that no bonus levels have been included, especially since we had high hopes of reliving our car and barrel smashing from Street Fighter II.

Regardless of whether you're down with busting out a tatsumaki senpukyaku at will or think it's some kind of egg-noodle dish, there's a difficulty mode here for you. Eight levels ranging from very easy to hardest are available, so you're sure to find one appropriate for your skill level. That said, even at the gentler difficulties, Street Fighter IV is no cakewalk because your opponents will occasionally mix things up with surprise super and ultra combos. First-timers will have no trouble picking up, playing, and learning as they go. Playing on the medium or above difficulty will also enable score tracking, letting you submit and compare to other players on the game's online leaderboards.

Street Fighter IV's training mode will challenge even experienced brawlers to improve. Given that SFIV straddles the line between classic SFII and SFIII gameplay, there's bound to be some confusion about which of your old mainstay combos work and the timing that you'll need to pull them off. The training mode is an excellent resource and is one of the biggest jewels in the SFIV crown. Once you've chosen your character and your sparring partner, you'll be able to pose them in various positions, toggle CPU control (and adjust its intensity), or give player two control of the action. There's even the ability to switch to your opponent's character, record up to 10 seconds of custom moves, and loop their replay. It's a great way to practice your evasion, attack timing, and counters without requiring another player or needing to search for online games. There are plenty of switches to fiddle with here, including changing your target's block mode, stun frequency, ultra and super power-bar start, and regeneration levels. Live attack data can be enabled to show how much damage your moves are dealing, whereas input display can show you which way you're pushing the sticks and mashing the buttons.

Training mode aside, one of the single best features of Street Fighter IV is the Challenge mode, which is made up of several sub-modes. Old faithfuls such as Time Attack and Survival mode make an appearance and see you completing fight after fight to best your rival before the timer runs out or you empty your vitality bar. The new addition to Challenge mode is Trial mode, a multitiered training tool that will teach you not only how to perform moves, but also how to string them together to best deal damage. Although the Training mode gives you the full arsenal and space to try it out, in Trial mode you'll need to perform a specific manoeuvre or combo to continue. The five normal difficulty levels cover basic character-specific moves such as dragon punches, charge moves, and throws, but they get significantly tougher as you progress to cover specials, cancelling attacks with focus, and stringing multipart combinations together. If you can get through these and feel up to the challenge, there are an extra five levels of bone-crushing general-purpose moves designed to help you improve your competitive play.

Street Fighter IV supports both online and offline multiplayer modes, though cross-platform play with consoles is not available. In offline play, you'll be able to go head-to-head with a second player using your unlocked characters. Online is handled through the Games For Windows LIVE service and registers and runs without a hitch. For matches you'll be given the choice between friendly player matches, ranked games, or Championship mode. Winning ranked matches awards you battle points, which are used to both show off your prowess and help with the matchmaking process. Patched in after the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Street Fighter IV shipped (and also available on those platforms), Championship mode adds online play with a tournament-style knockout system. The ranking system means you'll only fight against players of roughly the same skill level as you accrue points and progress through a mock round system on the way to a final showdown.

If you're after the true arcade experience, you can toggle online competitive challenge mode on and off to work with single-player. Just as you would expect in an arcade, if you're battling the CPU and someone issues a challenge, your game will pause and you'll automatically accept the invitation. Once the game has finished and you leave the multiplayer lobby, you'll restart your offline game where you were. You can set it to Player, Ranked or Championship matches as per your preference. We played online against opponents with both strong and weak connections, and even at slightly less than full connection strength, you'll receive an offline-like, seamless fighting experience. Poorer connections are more akin to a slide show, although we did manage to find games with supposedly poor connections that played quite well.

Street Fighter IV's visual presentation is outstanding. The art style appears a lot more adult this time around, swapping the bright Saturday-morning kids' cartoon looks of previous games for large, menacing characters with bulging muscles and environments with more muted colour palettes. The game's pseudo-cel-shaded character-art style uses thick black borders and splattered ink to great effect, while fast, fluid animation sees your favourite fighters dance across the screen with grace. Long hair flows and trails, facial expressions contort and grimace as you deal blows, and eyes bulge as opponents see an ultra attack successfully executed. We observed a few minor character-model clipping errors during play, such as legs passing through each other and the odd missed sweep when we were sure that we should have landed a hit, but these are small quibbles because they appeared few and far between. Battle environments are a mix of old and new, reinventing favourites such as Guile's airbase tarmac (complete with destructible plane wings), Blanka's jungle walkways, and Chun-Li's marketplace alleyway. New environments include a secret science laboratory, a highway underpass, a classic martial-arts dojo, and the rim of an active volcano.

The PC version of SFIV manages to ratchet up the already-gorgeous visuals a couple of notches over its console counterparts by offering resolutions up to 1920x1200, as well as selectable shader and antialiasing options to suit your PC's capabilities. Three new "extra touch" visuals--ink, watercolour, and posterization--add visual effects to your character and the environment. This includes the ability to add thicker borders, though it's purely cosmetic and doesn't alter gameplay. These settings aside, the visuals are almost indistinguishable from those on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and the frame rate is solid even during the most frenetic battles.

Audio is a particular high point in SFIV, and though the J-pop soundtrack and cheesy intro theme will be driven into your head within minutes, it's also worth mentioning the subtle environmental effects that go otherwise unheard in the heat of battle. The cheers of crowds, the rattle of old trains, and the barking of dogs in alleys all help create a genuine sense of immersion. Purists are even given the option to choose between Japanese and English voice-overs during cutscenes and as characters enter the ring.

Unsurprisingly, the PC game includes support for Microsoft's Xbox 360 controllers and handles identically to its console brethren. The analog sticks are easy to use for performing ultra moves, though the Microsoft controller's D pad leaves plenty to be desired. Keyboard play or a mixture of keyboard and pad are supported, and while serviceable in a pinch, it's certainly not our preference for serious play. Button layouts for pad and keyboard can both be mapped to your tastes. Your best bet, of course, is to invest in a good arcade stick or one of the controllers designed specifically for this game. While not available in all territories, bundles with gamepads and a copy of the game are available from many retailers.

Street Fighter IV will welcome you with open arms, whether you're a lapsed fan concerned that you've been out of the loop for too long or you're dipping your toes for the first time. Amazing presentation, intricate and enjoyable fighting gameplay, and long-term appeal with online play make this a must-have. Street Fighter IV is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of the fighting genre in this generation.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an isometric platform action video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix for the PC, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Tomb Raider series for digital download. Unlike previous games in the series, the game does not carry the Tomb Raider brand and has a heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay. Though local co-op was available at the initial release for all versions, online co-op was later added. The first DLC map pack was released for free for a limited time to thank gamers for their patience.

In the multiplayer, players take the role as either Lara Croft or a 2,000 year old Mayan warrior named Totec. They must work together in order to stop the evil spirit Xolotl and retrieve the Mirror of Smoke. A single-player campaign mode is available that does not include the non-playable character AI following or helping Lara. Guardian of Light uses the same game engine as Tomb Raider: Underworld, and includes modern visuals and physics. The video game was shown at E3 2010 on 14 June and was released for the Xbox Live Arcade on 18 August 2010.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was very well received by critics. The Xbox 360 version of the game holds an average score of 85/100 and 86.36% on the game aggregate sites Metacritic and GameRankings, respectively. In a September 2010 IGN listed Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light fourteenth in their top twenty-five Xbox Live Arcade titles of all time. Critics felt that the game was an excellent fit for Lara Croft. Initial sales of the game have done well, with Guardian of Light selling 98,000 copies on Xbox Live in its first six weeks.

Amnesia is an exploration-based adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The game retains the physical object interaction used in Penumbra, allowing for advanced physics based puzzles and interactions such as opening doors and fixing machinery.

Amnesia does not give the player access to weapons, giving them no defense against the gruesome creatures that wander Brennenburg Castle. As such, the player must use their wits to escape and hide from the monsters until they lose interest in finding them. Using the shadows to hide is recommended.

Separate from the player's health bar is an indication of the character's sanity. Being in darkness too long, witnessing unsettling events or staring at the monsters for too long will reduce the character's sanity. As the sanity level decreases, visual and auditory hallucinations start to occur and the player is noticed by monsters more easily. Using tinderboxes to light candles and other light sources, as well as a lantern found near the beginning of the game, the player can stop their sanity from draining. However, the number of tinderboxes is limited and the lantern uses up oil and cannot be used once it runs out. This forces the player to find a balance between the amount of time they spend in light and shadow. Sanity is restored to full once the player completes an objective or progresses the game's story.

27/11/ SC2 Tourney (Results)

The biggest action series of all time returns. Call of Duty: Black Ops is an entertainment experience that will take you to conflicts across the globe, as elite Black Ops forces fight in the deniable operations and secret wars that occurred under the veil of the Cold War.

AN EPIC SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN

The hallmark intensity of Call of Duty returns with an epic single-player campaign that takes players deep behind enemy lines as an elite Black Ops soldier engaging in covert warfare, classified operations, and explosive conflicts across the globe.

CO-OP GAMEPLAY

• ZOMBIES RETURN! The fan favorite co-op mode made famous in Call of Duty: World at War is back as you and up to 3 friends use a multitude weapons to fend off endless waves of blood-thirsty Zombies. Fight to survive in one of the most thrilling and critically-acclaimed co-op experiences in gaming. Stay tuned as the mystery behind Zombies unravels...
• Combat Training allows you to play against enemy controlled AI with your friends, online and split-screen.

AN INCREDIBLY DEEP MULTIPLAYER EXPERIENCE

Expanding on the series' ultimate multiplayer experience, Call of Duty: Black Ops takes competitive play to new heights. Expect the fast-paced, action-packed combat you love with more features than ever before:

• Earn in-game COD Points that work like currency to purchase equipment, attachments, perks, and new customization options. This gives you the freedom to purchase what you want, when you want.
• All new Killstreaks such as Napalm Strikes, the remote controlled explosive device (RC Car), and controllable helicopters.
• Put your COD Points on the line with all-new Wager Matches. Compete for one of the top three spots in four custom game modes that test your nerves and weapon skills.
• Customize the look of your soldiers with a variety of face paints, gun camos, and equipment options.
• Use the brand new Theater Mode to show off your most epic kills. Edit and upload gameplay videos for the world to see what you're made of.
• Jump into Combat Training and hone your tactics against A.I. bots in both Free-For-All and Team Deathmatch game modes.

Explore more of the hidden shadows of the Sith with this sequel to the hit game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Starkiller, Darth Vader's apprentice, returns with over-the-top Force powers and embarks on a journey to discover his own identity and to reunite with his one true love, Juno Eclipse. In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Starkiller is once again the pawn of Darth Vader -- but instead of training his protégée as a ruthless assassin, the dark lord is attempting to clone his former apprentice in an attempt to create the Ultimate Sith warrior. The chase is on -- Starkiller is in pursuit of Juno and Darth Vader is hunting for Starkiller.

With all-new devastating Force powers and the ability to dual-wield lightsabers, Starkiller cuts a swath through deadly new enemies across exciting worlds from the Star Wars films -- all in his desperate search for answers to his past.

Fallout: New Vegas takes place during the year 2281, three years after the estimated end of Fallout 3, and 204 years after the Great War of 2077, making this installment chronologically the latest in the series thus far. The game is set in post-apocalyptic Las Vegas, Nevada and the Mojave Desert known as the "Mojave Wasteland" which is roughly the same size as the "Capital Wasteland" in Fallout 3. Unlike other cities in the Fallout series, Las Vegas was not struck directly by a nuclear attack. Its buildings remain intact, and mutation of its inhabitants is minimal. The city is divided between various factions, most notably the New California Republic (NCR), the slave-driving Caesar's Legion, and the various factions of New Vegas itself. Landmarks featured in Fallout: New Vegas include the Hoover Dam that supplies power to the city and the Helios 1 solar energy plant.

Game Info

Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warriors are called on when the mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators.

Over 2 million Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines wear the uniform. Of those, approximately 50 thousand fall under the direct control of the Special Operations Command. The Tier 1 Operator functions on a plane of existence above and beyond even the most highly trained Special Operations Forces. Their exact numbers, while classified, hover in the low hundreds. They are living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence. The new Medal of Honor is inspired by and has been developed with Tier 1 Operators from this elite community. Players will step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan.

There is a new enemy. There is a new war. There is a new warrior. He is Tier 1.

The original beloved Survivors from Valve’s zombie-packed shooter, Left 4 Dead, return for another dramatic, bloody and brief adventure in “The Sacrifice,” the add-on that’s playable in both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

The expansion adds three new chapters, events set immediately before “The Passing,” to the original Left 4 Dead. It adds the same content to Left 4 Dead 2, but lets players enjoy the added features of the sequel, which include new guns and melee weapons, new Special Infected zombies and gameplay modes not available in the original. The add-on also brings the popular “No Mercy” episode to Left 4 Dead 2, making “The Sacrifice” a better deal for owners of the second Left 4 Dead game.

Ideal Player The Left 4 Dead fan who doesn’t really care for Ellis, despises Rochelle or ever grumbled that Francis, Louis, Zoey and Bill really should have been in the game’s sequel. Anyone with Steam installed on their computer.

Why You Should Care The four original Survivors of the zombie apocalypse are now playable in Left 4 Dead 2, more firmly bridging the stories of the original game and its sequel. The climactic “No Mercy” campaign is also now playable in Left 4 Dead 2, which feels drastically different when infested with the zombie mutants introduced in the sequel.

How are the new maps? They’re great, with some tight corridors for more claustrophobic moments, new scenery and wide-open spaces that the original Survivors didn’t see too often. They also get to see a little sunlight on their trip south, with The Sacrifice taking place during dusk. The new chapters are stuffed with uncommon common infected—mostly CEDA agents in rubbery biohazard suits—and feature a few new tricks.

New tricks? Like what? Nothing major, but at one point you’ll have to let a Tank out of his cage (a train car). The finale, which takes place on a modified version of the finale map from The Passing, introduces the Sacrificial event, in which one player is forced to die for the group. There’s nothing wildly different or game-changing about this expansion, unless you consider exploding barrels truly exciting.

How’s “No Mercy”? Just as great as it ever was. Valve has made a few tweaks to accommodate the new Special Infected, which make playing through No Mercy, well, a little nuts sometimes. It’s cool to see the “uncommon common” infected who wear ear protection in the construction zones in Mercy Hospital. It’s also great fun to use the Spitter against campers on this level. It really gives players a great sense of how radically Left 4 Dead 2′s new additions affect gameplay.

What’s the downside? There are no new weapons, one map is essentially recycled from The Passing and you can’t play as Zoey (or Bill or Francis or Louis) in any of Left 4 Dead 2′s campaigns. But you can play with Zoey while she wields a chainsaw.

Link: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/10/review-the-sacrifice-for-left-4-dead-left-4-dead-2/

The adventures of Sam Fisher continue in the fifth entry of the stealth-based series. In this game, all of the rules have changed, as the storyline takes a dramatic turn that will reinvent the Splinter Cell franchise forever. Fisher can no longer rely on his trusted bag of tools and iconic goggles.An investigation into his daughter's death unwittingly leads former agent Sam Fisher to discover he’s been betrayed by his prior agency, the Third Echelon. Now a renegade, Fisher finds himself in a race against time to thwart a deadly terrorist plot that threatens millions.

Loyalty carries a price and no one knows this more than agent Michael Thorton. A talented young agent cast out by his government, Thorton is the only one with the information needed to stop an impending international catastrophe. To do so means he must cut himself off from the very people he is sworn to protect. As players determine how to accomplish different objectives, the decisions made and actions taken in each mission will ultimately transform the type of secret agent Michael Thorton will become. Every choice the player makes as Michael Thorton will carry consequences for his future and the fate of the world.

Borderlands combines the best in first-person action with player customization and vehicular combat for incredible layers of gameplay depth. The game features a groundbreaking content generation system allowing for near-endless variety in missions, environments, enemies, weapons, item drops and character customization. Borderlands allows for multiple players to share the same game experience simultaneously online in co-op gameplay. Players can freely join or leave each other's games at anytime, or choose to play in the full single-player mode. The game also boasts lifelike character animations, impressive real-time physics, and customizable vehicles.

Available at Confucius now!

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been betrayed by their master, stripped of their powers and cast down to Earth. Players take on the role of WAR -- the first of the Four Horsemen -- as he embarks on a brutal quest of vengeance and revenge against the forces that betrayed him with the help of his phantom steed RUIN. Darksiders: Wrath of War features open-world exploration, a deep combat system and a huge arsenal of modern and mythical weapons.

Available at Confucius now!

Portal 2 is an upcoming first-person action/puzzle video game, developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2007 video game Portal and was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game. Portal 2 will continue to challenge the player by solving puzzles in test chambers within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center using the portal gun (the Aperture Science Hand-held Portal Device), a device that can create two portals connecting two surfaces across space. Players, as the silent protagonist Chell from Portal, solve puzzles by using these portals to move unconventionally between rooms or to use the ability to fling objects or themselves across a distance.

Counter-Strike: Source (officially abbreviated CS:S) is an FPS video game developed by the Valve Corporation. It is a complete remake of Counter-Strike using the Source game engine. As in the original, Counter-Strike: Source pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won either by completing an objective (such as detonating a bomb or rescuing hostages) or by eliminating all members of the opposing team.Counter-Strike: Source is a remake of Counter-Strike, and consequently retains its team-based objective-oriented first-person shooter style gameplay.

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to Valve's previous Team Fortress Classic, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows and the Xbox 360.Like its predecessors, Team Fortress 2 is focused around two opposing teams competing for an objective. These teams, Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU), are meant to represent two holding corporations that between them secretly control every government on the planet.[14] Players can choose to play as one of nine classes in these teams, each with his own unique strengths and weaknesses. Although the abilities of a number of classes have changed from earlier Team Fortress incarnations, the basic elements of each class have remained.

Defence of Ancients(DOTA) is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft. The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents' Ancients, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps". As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the mission. Defense of the Ancients pits two teams of players against each other: the Sentinel and the Scourge. Players on the Sentinel team are based at the southwest corner of the map, and those on the Scourge team are based at the northeast corner. Each base is defended by towers and waves of units which guard the main paths leading to their base. In the center of each base is the "Ancient", a building that must be destroyed to win the gamequal number of players on each side.

After an age of warfare, the superpowers of the land of Valoran have come together to form a governing body that will settle all disputes behind the closed doors of the Institute of War. Their task is a noble one — to lift the impossible weight of bloody war off the shoulders of the world and place it upon a select few — The League of Legends. On the Fields of Justice, legendary Champions forge alliances and resolve their differences in battle arenas. In the League there is one rule that reigns over all else: Winner rules all.

Several years have passed since the Wilamette incident, and Dead Rising 2 shifts the action from the everyday world of mid-West America to the glitz and glamour of Fortune City, America's latest and greatest entertainment playground. People flock to Fortune City from around the globe to escape from reality and the chance to win big and for some, this means competing in Terror is Reality. Like millions of Americans, former national motocross champion Chuck Greene is gripped by the TV sensation that is Terror is Reality. Hosted by the flamboyant Tyrone King, Terror is Reality pits ordinary members of the public against an arena full of zombies with a simple challenge – kill more zombies than your opponents and stay alive with the winner collecting big money and the chance to come back and secure even greater prizes. So, what is it that has forced Chuck to come to Fortune City and risk his life in the modern day gladiatorial contest, is he trying to recapture the fame of his motocross days, does he have a reason to hate zombies, or is it simply the lure of big money?

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky After a tremendous ecological disaster most of humanity is dead, but a few people have managed to survive in Moscow’s network of subways. The player takes on the role of one of the children, Artyom, who is born and raised underground and soon discovers that everything is not quite as it should be. And he must embark on a mission to warn the rest of humanity about a terrible threat.

Mount&Blade: Warband is the first sequel for the action role-playing video game Mount&Blade.The game now features multiplayer capabilities. It expands the single player of the first game, with a new map and a new faction called the Sarranid Sultanate, which represents the medieval Persian and North African Islamic Kingdoms such as the Moors and Egyptians. It also features the ability to become King, make Lords your vassals and even get married. Warband has received a major graphic enhancement over its predecessor and new animations have been added to the combat system.

Heroes of Newerth is an action real-time strategy video game published and developed by S2 Games based on the Warcraft III scenario Defense of the Ancients. HoN, like Defense of the Ancients, is widely recognized as a competitive game and tournaments with money prizes are regularly organized and held for it. Pre-game, players are divided into two teams of one to five people: the Legion and the Hellbourne. Players on each team choose one of 69 different heroes, each with various abilities and advantages to form their overall strategy. Both teams are based at the opposite sides of a map. Each base is defended by towers placed in the lanes belonging to the team. Every thirty seconds a wave of computer-controlled units(known as "creeps") is sent from the base to defend lanes and attempts to push into enemy territory. Victory is achieved when one of the teams manages to push into the base of the opposing team and destroy their "main" structure, the Sacrificial Shrine for Hellbourne or the Tree of Life for Legion.

Singularity takes place on a fictional island known as Katorga-12, where Russian experiments involving Element 99 took place during the height of the Cold War. In 1955, a catastrophe involving experiments attempting to form a "Singularity" occurred on the island,causing the island's very existence to be covered up by the Russian government.

In 2010, a sudden electromagnetic surge from Katorga-12 damages an American spy satellite. A military reconnaissance team is sent to investigate the uninhabited island, but a second surge causes their helicopter to crash. Captain Nathaniel Renko, a member of the reconnaissance team, enters the abandoned scientific complex on the island, where he..

Mafia II chronicles the rise of World War II veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will work with three different families; the Clemente, Falcone, and Vinci crime families and eventually rise to become a made man. There are 15 chapters in the game, integrated into one storyline.

The game contains two hours of cut scenes and the screenplay was 700 pages long. Daniel Vávra, the writer and director, discussed the new angle of the game stating: "The old game was a tribute to gangster films, a romantic vision. Mafia II is grittier, real, a darker world, and the effects are based in reality."

Sid Meier's Civilization V (also known as Civilization 5) is a turn-based strategy computer game developed by Firaxis and released on Microsoft Windows in September 2010[4]. It is the latest game in the Civilization series.

In Civilization V, the player leads a civilization from prehistoric times into the future on a randomly-generated map, achieving one of a number of different victory conditions through research, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest. The game is based on an entirely new game engine with hexagonal tiles instead of the square tiles of earlier games in the series.[5] Many elements from Civilization IV and its expansion packs have been removed or changed, such as religion and espionage. The combat system has been overhauled, removing stacking of military units and enabling cities to defend themselves by firing directly on nearby enemies.[6] In addition, the maps contain computer-controlled city-states as non-player characters that are available for trade, diplomacy and conquest. A civilization's borders also expand more realistically, favoring more productive terrain,[7] and the concept of roads has changed.[8]

Wikipedia. - http://www.civilization5.com/

The most-anticipated game of the year and the sequel to the best-selling first-person action game of all time, Modern Warfare 2 continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse.

Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead, the #1 co-op game of 2008. This co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.

Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes.

These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival.