Vector-

Game Informations : Developer: Insomniac Games Publishers: Oculus VR, Insomniac Games Platforms: Microsoft Windows Initial release date: June 6, 2016 What excites me most about virtual reality gaming are the opportunities that open up for new and innovative styles of gaming that were never before possible. But despite being an Oculus exclusive, VR-only game, Edge of Nowhere is not that kind of game. It’s a very conventional and unexciting blend of third-person platforming action, light survival-horror, and typical stealth that feels like it would’ve worked completely fine on a traditional gaming system. Blocking out the real world does add to the sense of isolation it’s going for in its bleak Arctic environments, at least, but it doesn’t change the way you play enough for Edge of Nowhere to stand out The only VR feature that’s made extensive use of is head tracking, which is used for camera control, directing your flashlight in dark areas, and aiming your shotgun and thrown rocks. Most of that works well – especially the aiming, which feels about as accurate as a mouse, and much better than the gamepad you’re forced to use. The camera, on the other hand, makes going back the way you came for any reason (such as to pick up ammo or health you might’ve passed momentarily) an ordeal. You have to physically turn around in your seat to see where you’re going, which isn’t very convenient for what is otherwise a comfortable seated VR experience. That said, Edge of Nowhere’s levels are so tightly linear that going backwards isn’t something you need to do very often. There are no secrets to find or alternate paths to seek out, which prevents any sense of exploration you might expect from an explorer-themed game and offers no reason to want to replay it. In a roughly six-hour story campaign that bears more than a few similarities to Dead Space 2, generic protagonist Victor Howard must battle his way through fleshy, bulbous monsters and grotesquely mutated humans as he searches for his missing fiancee (who is also an explorer). It’s given some extra depth by calling Victor’s sanity into question (also like Dead Space 2) by distorting the world around us in strange ways, to the point where it’s uncertain what’s real and what’s in his head. Those flashback hallucinations do a good job of temporarily transporting you to other locations, which is otherwise exclusively in creature-infested ice caverns and snow-covered Arctic tundra. If not for those, there’d be very little to establish that the story is set in 1932, as snow hasn’t changed much over the last 80 years. Those are the most visually impressive areas - especially the jungle scenes - but on the whole Edge isn’t a terrific-looking game. Some of the environments look extremely low-polygon and jagged, which doesn’t look all that convincing even for big chunks of ice. A couple of routine boss fights change things up a little every once in awhile, but never do much to stand out. There’s typical “wait for the monster to open up to attack” fight and the “avoid the giant monster’s searchlight” sequence. I appreciate them for adding to gameplay variety, but neither is memorable or original. Action scenes are competent but rarely surprising. There’s a lot of running forward as the floor collapses behind you and ice platforms breaking off or falling over as you jump on or off of them, lots of clambering over obstacles, and a whole lot of climbing ice walls with your ice axes. Those climbing sequences are the most overdone - or maybe they just feel that way because the movement speed is so slow and the hazards of the ice breaking out from under you are so often repeated. I soon adopted a quicker but unrealistic method of repeatedly leaping upward and digging in with my axes like some sort of weird superhero, just to speed things up. To its credit, there are a few sequences in the latter half of the campaign I enjoyed, when all of the different hazards are thrown at you at once and there’s a time pressure to keep moving. I fell to my death fairly frequently, but the save checkpoints are so close together and the loading times so quick that it didn’t matter much - in fact, I was far more reckless in my platforming than I normally would be because I didn’t fear death. Between platforming sequences and hallucinations are the stealth and combat against a small variety of enemy types, nearly all of which are literally blind and detect you based on sound or within a radius (which is visible thanks to Victor’s unexplained Detective Vision ability). If that reminds you of The Last of Us’ Clicker zombies, it should: these stealth sequences seem pulled directly out of Naughty Dog’s playbook. Most of them are navigated by tossing rocks to lure enemies away from your path, and optionally tossing another rock to activate a nearby spike trap to impale them like hors d'oeuvres on toothpicks. Alternatively, you can try to fight your way through with your ax and the satisfyingly powerful shotgun, but its one-shot-per-load and long reload times make that a method of last resort. Victor can only take a few hits even from the enemies that don’t instantly and graphically murder him when they catch you, so it’s best to keep your distance. These stealth sequences are at their best when ammo is scarce enough that you have to make use of the environment to deal with as many monsters as possible before going loud. If that’s your style, I encourage you to play on the highest difficulty level, which decreases the amount of supplies available. Verdict: Edge of Nowhere stands out in the current library of VR games only because it’s one of the longer and more polished games out there, but compared to the conventional third-person action-stealth games it closely emulates it’s competent but unremarkable. If you’ve played a game in this genre before, Victor’s platforming and sneaking will do very little to surprise you, other than the way the sense of isolation you get from putting on the Oculus Rift enhances the setting. ---------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: OS: Win 7 64 Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz / AMD FX-8350 Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 290 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB System Memory: 8 GB RAM Storage: 15 GB Hard drive space DirectX 11 Compatible Graphics Card Recommended: OS: Win 7 64 Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz / AMD FX-8350 Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 290 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB VRAM: 4GB System Memory: 8 GB RAM Storage: 15 GB Hard drive space

Game Informations : Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Ukraine Publishers: Ubisoft, Akella Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Ps4, Xbox One, Ps3, Xbox 360, Mac Initial release date: Nov 17, 2009 Assassin's Creed II is the follow-up to Ubisoft's 2007 hit that attracted a mass audience if not unanimous critical acclaim. The sequel is an expansive and bloody romp through Renaissance Italy that plays up every po[CENSORED]r aspect of the first installment while righting many of its flaws.The PC and Mac versions ere released months after the game came out on consoles, and much has already been said about the digital rights management issues that have affected the experience since its release. The DRM measures require users to maintain an internet connection while playing Assassin's Creed II in any mode. If you lack a constant, reliable connection, you might want to give this game a pass, even though it's a single player experience. Ubisoft's DRM servers also went down directly after launch, restricting access to new gamers. However our recent experience with the game remained uninterrupted. We did purposefully cut off our internet connection to confirm that the game will pause until a new connection could be established. It does. While disconnected, we were also unable to access the "bonus content" from the game's main menu due to an inability to reach Ubisoft's servers. Once you get past this strict and inconvenient method of piracy protection, Assassin's Creed II is the same great experience that console gamers enjoyed last year. The two "missing" memory sequences that were later made available through download on consoles are available right from the start. PC gamers who have yet to experience this sequel will notice right away that Assassin's Creed II has evolved from an ill-defined action game into a fully featured open world experience. Everything from the new monetary system to the ability to buy armor and weapons makes it a richer, and ultimately more satisfying game than its predecessor. The plot of Assassin's Creed pulls together a bit of The Matrix, a lot of historical fiction, and throws in elements of the madcap conspiracy theories found in a Dan Brown novel. The series also has the benefit of being crafted by some of the most talented hands in game development. With only a handful of exceptions, the environments, animations, and art are beautifully portrayed. In addition to its good looks, the sequel's gameplay builds so much upon the foundations of the first game, that in retrospect, the first Assassin's Creed looks like little more than a technical demonstration. Both fans and detractors of Assassin's Creed will be pleased to know that the sequel fully addresses and ties up many of the loose ends from the last game. It picks up exactly where we left off, with the kidnapped bartender Desmond locked in his cell at Abstergo. This corporation is the modern-day face of the Templars and they're after Desmond's valuable genetic memories. The magic of modern technology allows Desmond to relive the exploits of his Assassin ancestors. His genealogy puts him at the center of a war between the Templars and Assassins. The game starts off with a bang, springing Desmond from jail and introducing him to the Assassins at their secret hideout. Here they have access to the same technology that allows Desmond to relive the past. In the last game, his brain was forcibly used to reveal powerful artifacts hidden in 12th century Jerusalem. This time Desmond temporally relocates to 15th century Italy by choice to learn the ways of the Assassins through the life of Ezio Audituerre de Firenze. It's a convoluted setup, but it's also a great excuse to skip around in time, taking control of a character for only the most interesting moments of his life. Players are introduced to Ezio at the moment of his birth as part of a clever lesson on movement. It then jumps to his formative years as a womanizer, a street fighter, and the son of a wealthy banker. He isn't a wholly likable character, but the game steers us towards a revenge plot that provides the player plenty of motivation to stick with the story. The Renaissance setting also adds a much needed dose of color and humor to the series. In the early missions, we're introduced to the excellent free running system that allows players to climb over almost any surface. Movement speed in Assassin's Creed II has been significantly increased from the first game, enabling players to fluidly zip around the city. The animations are still excellent, and Ezio's body realistically adjusts to his environment as he climbs and vaults past obstacles. The only downside of free running is that there are moments when the camera doesn't present the best view of what's over the next rooftop. Overzealous free runners will take more damage from falling off buildings than they'll ever take from a sword. The controls on a PC are fully customizable, but there's no avoiding the fact that this game was developed specifically for a controller. I recommend using the supported Xbox 360 controller over a mouse and keyboard setup to avoid the awkward button combinations required for something as simple as running and climbing. For better or for worse "stealth" games are defined by the Metal Gear series. Hideo Kojima's vision of tactical espionage has extremely rigid rules about when a player is hidden and when they are plainly visible. Assassin's Creed II breaks this convention, adhering more to the rules of a Jason Bourne movie, where quick actions and a dense crowd are the tools of escape. I find this version of stealth refreshing, more realistic, and ultimately a success due to the numerous options players have when navigating the city streets. There are still hiding places like bales of hay and roof gardens in Assassin's Creed II. They act as sort of "safe zones" that break a pursuers line of site. Ezio can even dive underwater for a limited time to hide from his enemies. But a more satisfying approach to dealing with foes is to divert them with hired help. Thieves, mercenaries and whores can be hired for a fee and directed at targets as living tools of distraction. Players can also toss money into a crowd to cause a small riot amongst the peasantry. This sandbox approach to stealth requires a bit of practice and it won't always result in success, but when it does come together, it's very rewarding. If you choose to fight instead of hide, another plethora of options opens up. On the weapon selection wheel, there are swords, daggers, smoke bombs, throwing knives the dual assassin blades, and a surprise weapon I won't spoil. Each weapon has its benefits in terms of strength and speed along with its own slick set of animations. New weapons can be permanently purchased through shops, or temporarily stolen from an adversary in the heat of battle. Weapon variation has done a lot to improve the variety of combat; late in Assassin's Creed II you'll be looking for a fight instead of turning tail. Even without sword, the way you engage an enemy has depth. A notoriety meter and enemy awareness indicators being clearly marked on the screen give players fair warning over what sets off the guards. Once engaged, there are sidesteps, special combat moves (like throwing sand in someone's face), and grapples. Novice players will fall back on slamming a single attack button, which quickly becomes repetitive, but experts can turn combat into an art. The addition of a monetary system also drastically changes Assassin's Creed II. Ezio receives money as he completes quests, finds treasures, or pickpockets victims. Health will not regenerate completely over time, so medicine and upgradeable armor must be purchased to keep Ezio alive. Besides applying funds to armor, weaponry, and remedies, you also have the ability to upgrade your home base -- a Villa in the country-side. The Villa is something of a glorified display case for all of the collectibles and secret items, but players can also dedicate money to upgrading its appearance and facilities. Rebuild the church and find a treasure; rebuild the blacksmith and get a discount. It's an addictive and optional diversion that completionists will drool over. The Villa also gives the game a geographic center and a safe zone to tally your progress. Annoyingly, it's also the only place Ezio can swap weapons and armor, but the addition of travel kiosks mean that players can now be transported to surrounding cities instantly. Through the mission structure, Assassin's Creed II guides and nudges players towards the meat of the game. At the start of each mission the player must "accept" the task, or put it off until later. The missions that advance the story are always marked on the map with an exclamation point, meaning that a game with plenty of diversions also keeps the main goal visible at all times. It's a good design and a nod to critics of the last game who bemoaned side missions that stood in the way of the good stuff. It's difficult to nail down parts of Assassin's Creed II that aren't satisfying. Sections that border on frustrating are either fleeting or optional and some of this "extra" content is downright excellent. For example, Prince of Persia fans will revel in the hidden tombs that require dexterity, patience, and expert timing. Even if you ignore the extras in Assassin's Creed II, the game is still a lengthy experience. The story alone lasts upwards of 18 hours and includes enough variety to be interesting throughout. Not every mission is equally as exciting. The assassinations are far more exhilarating than tailing a target or following an ally through a city. However, there are some one-off missions that are both exciting and wildly different from the core gameplay. With more variety and a tighter focus, Assassin's Creed II gets the pacing just right. Of course some PC gamers enjoy the benefits of playing at a much higher resolution with crisp, clean textures. Our beefy AlienWare was able to run the game at full settings with only minor stuttering. But while the art direction and detailed recreation of Renaissance is still visually pleasing, it is slightly less impressive when compared to games that are currently pushing graphical boundaries on the PC. Verdict: Assassin's Creed II transforms a middling action game into an intriguing and consistently entertaining open-world adventure. Based on this game, Ubisoft Montreal should run a clinic on how to iterate a franchise and if the series continues in this vein, the next installment will take aim at Rockstar's best efforts. The experience is layered, unique, and shows an incredible attention to detail. This is one case where the sequel has triumphed over the original by catching the gameplay up to the already excellent visuals. No matter what your preconceptions are about Assassin's Creed II, the game is well worth your time and money. -------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: OS: Win Xp 32 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4550 or NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS VRAM: 256MB System Memory: 1.5 GB RAM Storage: 8 GB Hard drive space DirectX 9 Compatible Graphics Card Recommended: OS: Win Xp 32 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 3870 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT VRAM: 512MB System Memory: 3 GB RAM Storage: 8 GB Hard drive space

Game Informations : Developer: TMG Studios B.V. Publishers: TMG Studios B.V. Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Mac Initial release date: Oct 10, 2019 We Were Here Together soars far more often than it falls and delivers the best co-op puzzle experience you'll find anywhere. The We Were Here games are a series of co-op first-person puzzle games by Total Mayhem Games. Each entry has been brief, yet packed full of awesome two-player escape room-type puzzles to solve. The newest game in the series, We Were Here Together, is easily twice the size of the previous two games both in length and production value. While the added length does create more opportunity for duds, We Were Here Together soars far more often than it falls and delivers the best co-op puzzle experience you'll find anywhere. All three We Were Here games follow the same general blueprint: two characters stumble upon a castle and, upon entering it, are separated on two distinct paths. Armed with only a walkie-talkie with which to communicate, the players need to work together to escape by sharing information and solving a wide variety of puzzles. It's a communication exercise, and a bonding experience to be certain. We Were Here Together pushes the series forward a giant step by increasing the length of the game dramatically, adding separate narratives for each player, and creating the most visually impressive and elaborate environments the series has ever seen. We Were Here Together has A LOT of puzzles. Just by the number: We Were Here Too took my friend and I 77-minutes to complete (it's free-to-play and absolutely worth an hour of your time), We Were Here Too took two hours to complete (also totally worth it), and We Were Here Together took us six hours. There are fantastic, memorable puzzles in the third installment, but there are also the worst puzzles in the series, particularly as you get closer to the end. The game begins as no other game in the series has: both players start together and solve the first puzzle together. It's a brilliant starting point for players who aren't familiar with the series and haven't already established a shorthand with their partner because both players can see the same things. Yes, you'll need to separate in order to complete tasks simultaneously and share information, but it's a great first puzzle because if you get confused, you can go see what your partner is looking at and chip away at the breakdowns in your communication. From here on out though, you'll be separated on different tracks in traditional We Were Here style. This is the first game in the series that allows you to pick up multiple objects and place them in your inventory, leading to more elaborate puzzles. One of the best involves combining seeds and different colored nutrients together to alchemize different solutions where each player only has half of the items and recipes needed. You'll be sending ingredients back and forth to each, concocting each material without knowing what the other person is even working on, yet it all comes together perfectly. On the other end of the spectrum, there are some puzzles near the end that are either brain dead simple, obnoxiously complex, or somehow, both. There is a puzzle that involves relaying long, Latin-sounding words to each other that are almost all the same and all difficult to pronounce, so you'll spend most of the puzzle spelling words. It isn't difficult, but it is annoying. We also brute-forced a puzzle for the first time in We Were Here history. Towards the end of the game, a puzzle had no apparent solution, but wasn't too difficult to figure out through trial and error. For me, this is the biggest no-no of all-time in a puzzle game. The final puzzle is an incredibly small logic puzzle that you would have done in grade school. It's almost insulting how simple it is and, unfortunately, the steady decline of puzzles towards the end gives the game a bit of a "ran out of time" feel. The series has always had a strange way of handling the story. The games all begin essential in medias res with the unnamed characters entering the castle with no setup whatsoever. There is sometimes lore to find and read, and as the game progresses, a story about a mad king and a dark ritual start to work their way into the puzzles. It's always been particularly understated and left wide open to interpretation. In We Were Here Together, the story is pushed much further to the forefront by introducing other characters and cutscenes between each puzzle. It's particularly effective in the way that each character is presented half of the story, just as each player is presented half of the puzzle. When the characters finally come back together at the end, so does the story. And the final moments are made all the better if players chose to conceal certain information from each other (wink wink, nudge nudge). Unfortunately, I still really don't have any idea what the story is. I've played all three games and, without specifically digging around for lore bits, I'm left pretty baffled by the narrative events in We Were Here Together. There's a post-credit scene that definitely sets up a new game, which is great, but the content of the cutscenes didn't particularly impact me because I didn't have the context for what was happening. It starts as a rescue mission for some people stranded in a snowstorm, but quickly thereafter, you'll be forging soul stones and teaming up with a ghost to beat an evil clown, and I really just don't know what was going on. That said, the series has been nothing if not an evolution from one entry to the next, and I expect We Were Here 4ever to deliver on its story and finally make it all make sense. I really enjoy this series and I appreciate how far it has come in the last couple of years. I hope that as the games get longer and budget increases, that they can maintain the same focused quality of the first two entries. Personally, I'd rather have less puzzles than bad puzzles ------------------------------------------------------------ System Requirements Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 64 bit Processor: Intel Core i3 4000 series or equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 750 or equivalent, integrated graphics not supported DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 15 GB available space Additional Notes: A working PC-compatible microphone Recommended: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 64 bit Processor: Intel Core i5 4000 series or equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 or equivalent, integrated graphics not supported DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 15 GB available space Additional Notes: A working PC-compatible microphone

Game Informations : Developer: Ubisoft, ‎Ubisoft Quebec Publishers: Ubisoft Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Ps4, Xbox One Initial release date: Oct 23, 2015 Every year, the Assassin’s Creed series struggles with the idea of inheritance. Like its Templars and Assassins, who are locked in a never-ending struggle for relics, each game picks a side in the question of how strongly should it lean into its now-convoluted ancient lore and incorporate the still-underdeveloped present-day elements. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate chooses wisely, leaves out multiplayer entirely, and pushes a lot of that baggage into the background, largely freeing itself up to make the most of Victorian London and have fun with sneaking, climbing, and stabbing. Syndicate smartly negotiates this internal conflict by dramatising it in the form of its twin playable characters, Evie and Jacob Frye. The former is a devout Assassin, intent on stopping the Templars by tracking down the remaining pieces of Eden. Her brother Jacob, however, is a pragmatist – a social reformer who rails against the Assassin’s burdensome legacy and wishes to help his city in more immediate ways, seemingly embodying my desire to move on from the tangled mysticism. They’re both extremely likeable, well-drawn protagonists, and the interaction between the two is laced with a lively sibling rivalry that brings levity to otherwise-earnest cutscenes. But their contrasting worldviews have the greatest positive impact on Syndicate’s structure, which is both engaging and meaningful. You can freely switch between Jacob and Evie at most points, with side missions and open-world activities open equally to both. Campaign missions, however, are different, with Jacob taking the lead in the majority of the core assassinations. This is frustrating, especially since Evie is pitched as the more stealthy of the pair. But I soon realised that Syndicate is just not that interested in exploring forgotten tombs in search of dusty relics; it wants to liberate the great city of London from its terrible oppressors. And to be blunt, Syndicate’s a much better experience for identifying more closely with the goals of Jacob. Despite being sidelined so often, Evie comes across as the more nuanced character, struggling with her sense of duty, where Jacob is a more straightforward bloke with clear goals. By the end of the 20-hour campaign, I felt like I’d probably spent more time with Evie due to prefering her in side missions, and I certainly knew her better. She sees the bigger picture, with her missions tackling problems Jacob can’t even comprehend. Evie also stars in my favourite assassination mission – a nighttime infiltration of the Tower of London. Given their differences, I was disappointed with how similar Jacob and Evie are to play. They each possess three high-level abilities designed around their supposed strengths of stealth and combat, respectively – Evie can effectively become invisible when stationary, for example, while Jacob has more deadly combos. But the rest of the abilities are identical. At first, I exaggerated the differences by investing all of Evie’s points into the stealth skill tree and Jacob’s into combat, thinking I could switch between the two depending on the situation. But since you can’t switch between characters within campaign missions, that’s not a viable approach. In one mission, I was playing as Jacob and it would’ve been really useful to unlock a specific door to make a quick escape, but because I’d only unlocked advanced lockpicking for Evie – who was unavailable – I had to take a longer, more hazardous route out of the building. Ah, London… in 1868, it was a bustling, heavily industrialised city, the heart of an unprecedented Empire. It feels like a different type of place to those Assassin’s Creed has visited in the past. The churches of Rome and Paris give way to London’s glistening train stations and infernal factories, its cathedrals to industry and progress. It’s not an exact replica – the map is nipped and tucked, bringing some landmarks closer together – but on the whole it feels like London, especially key areas like Trafalgar Square and the Palace of Westminster. At first, I thought it was fairly ugly – a smear of brown and grey – but it slowly yields its charms. The slums are caked in mud and thousands of chimneys spew forth thick black smoke, but there’s a kind of beauty when you see it blot the sky at dusk. Similarly, walking around the foggy streets of central London by gaslight is wonderfully atmospheric. And after Unity's troubled release, it's worth stating I encountered no noteworthy bugs or performance issues. But London is also well-represented in a mechanical sense. Jacob’s effort to free the city from the Templars who control it is accomplished by slowly building up a gang, known as the Rooks, by deposing small-time Templars who control various districts within the seven boroughs. Most of the activities in the open-world, outside of side quests, contribute towards this goal, and as a consequence a lot of the optional activities feel more meaningful and less like filler. It feels like you’re chipping away at the enemy, clawing back parts of the city. Similarly, you can stifle the enemy in other ways, like bribing the police or controlling the docks. Admittedly, these gang upgrades are simply purchased through a sterile menu, but they convey the notion of the 19th-century city as a complex organism. The campaign missions achieve something similar, with each target occupying a slightly different sphere of influence, including the worlds of science, politics, and finance. Even though it positions the devious Crawford Starrick behind everything, it effectively conveys the idea of corruption and control being diffused across different systems. It all sounds rather serious, but Syndicate is also the silliest Assassin’s instalment in quite some time. It shows a real delight in ransacking its rich Victorian setting for fun stuff to do. There are so many amusing missions, from tracking down hallucinogenic orchids for Charles Darwin to retrieving the lapdog of Benjamin Disraeli’s wife in the Devil’s Acre, the most dangerous part of London. Early on, you can dress up Jacob as Sherlock Holmes, don Cthulhu-inspired tentacular brass knuckles, and hunt down occultists with Charles Dickens. What’s not to love about that sentence? The Charles Dickens side-missions are definitely my favourites. You accompany the great novelist to expose fraudsters, catch hypnotists, visit the most haunted house in London, and even have a supernatural encounter of your own. It’s Syndicate at its most consistently engaging, eccentric, and playful, which makes the terrible ending all the more baffling. What were they thinking? It’s entirely at odds with what the story has been about, mired in the dense, po-faced lore it spends the best part of 25 hours trying its best to forget about. Inside the mostly entertaining and lively packaging, however, what you’re being asked to do feels very familiar. Missions almost always involve the traditional Assassin’s Creed staples of following, escorting, or killing people and/or stealing items, but Syndicate’s characters and situations do more than enough to stave off boredom. The most prominent new mechanic is the grapple-gun, and on the whole, it’s well implemented and fun to use. Its ratcheting mechanism prevents you from turning into Batman; it’s not possible to zip around London at high speed or glide, but it allows you get negotiate wider roads without coming down to street level, and reach London’s higher rooftops with ease. When you’re on the ground, carriages can be stolen at any time, and provide a helpful way to cover more ground since London’s a big place, around a third bigger than Unity’s take on Paris. They don’t feel particularly fast or exciting to drive, but they handle much better than I was expecting. The latest iteration of Assassin’s Creed combat, on the other hand, looks fast-paced and attractive – the sword cane became a favourite, thanks to its delightfully brutal finishers – but got a touch repetitive by the time I was through. It would also be nice to have more non-lethal ways to subdue others, especially in a setting that introduces the police as a hostile but ultimately well-meaning obstacle that I didn’t feel good about having to kill. Technology dominates the era, but Alexander Graham-Bell – the era’s Da Vinci – doesn’t have much to offer your arsenal outside of an electrical grenade which is effective at incapacitating large groups of enemies but draws far too much attention. And if you’re wondering if this is the year when Assassin’s Creed finally fixes its long-standing problems with your character accidentally grabbing the wrong ledge or climbing the wrong wall, it sadly has not. But free-running as good here as it’s ever been. Verdict: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the most fun I’ve had with an Assassin’s game since Black Flag. In fact, I liked it more. Apart from its ill-fitting conclusion, it never takes itself too seriously and delights in the rich possibilities of its Victorian setting and great new grapple gun. As you explore its contrasting boroughs, you glean some sense of what powered this great city in the 19th century. The story missions capitalise on this by exploring different spheres of influence, which when combined with elements like mass transit, heavy industry, and law enforcement, make this feel like a different type of city than has been featured in the series to date. Best of all, Syndicate asks you to take London back in a way puts the last few games to shame. ----------------------------------------------------------------- System requirements Minimum: OS: Windows 7 64-bit CPU: Intel Core i5-2400s 2.5GHz or AMD FX 6350 3.9GHz RAM: 6 GB System Memory VRAM: 2GB Graphics Memory GPU: Nvidia GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 270 HD: 50 GB available space (7200rpm) DX: DirectX 11 Recommended: OS: Windows 10 64-bit CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.5GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz RAM: 8 GB System Memory VRAM: 3GB Graphics Memory GPU: Nvidia GTX 760 (4GB), GTX 970 or ATI Radeon R9 280X

Game Informations : Developer: Ubisoft, Ubisoft Sofia Publishers: Ubisoft Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Ps4, Ps3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 Initial release date: Nov 11, 2014 History has always played a pivotal role in the Assassin’s Creed series. It serves as both inspiration and backdrop – a resource for dramatic events, supporting characters, and villains. Rogue is slightly different, though; it’s more concerned with examining the history of the series itself than exploring real-life events. The result is one of the most striking and intriguing stories seen in an Assassin's Creed game, but forgettable missions, an empty world, and lack of effort to put a new spin on how this long-running series plays and controls continually undermine its dramatic intentions. Rogue’s greatest strength is its central character – Shay Patrick Cormac – and his journey from dutiful Assassin to vengeful Templar. Most of the trailers surrounding Rogue have portrayed Shay as a cold-blooded killer, but that’s in no way accurate; his story is nuanced, and the narrative is patiently unfolded. You play the first third or so of Rogue as an Assassin, which lets you forge relationships with those you will later hunt. There’s a good chunk of the 14-hour campaign where Shay doesn’t have any clear allegiances, and even then, he never really descends into brutal killer territory. There’s always a sympathetic motivation to be found; it’s all much more nuanced and ambiguous than I was expecting, and it makes for the most engaging story in an Assassin’s Creed game since the days of Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Rogue also attempts to transfer the crisis of faith Shay experiences to us, and for me it worked. Familiar faces and locations from each of the past Assassin's Creed games are thrown up and put in some sort of order, but the perspective of those events we know is either changed or challenged. Shay isn’t a villain; he’s an individual, who questions orders and suspects inherited truths, and for the first time in the series we are encouraged to do the same. Rogue is great because it does away with the idea of black-and-white villains at all. This adds a renewed level of intrigue to what is a very familiar Assassin’s Creed experience of running across rooftops, freeing hostages, sabotaging the enemy, and of course, killing important people. I was hoping some of this would feel different playing as Shay the Templar, but disappointingly there are no new abilities to distinguish. Since he was trained as an Assassin, it’s bloody business as usual. And when the time came to confront my former Assassin brothers and sisters, what should've been dramatic moments were revealed as forgettably staged and mechanically bland. In both good ways and bad, Rogue plays like a direct sequel to Black Flag, and carries on its strong emphasis on seafaring. The map sends us around Albany, New York, the frozen waters of the North Atlantic, as well as plenty of small towns and quaint settlements, like the pumpkin-strewn Sleepy Hollow, dotted around. Even though it can be on occasion a bit fuzzy around the edges with some dodgy shading, Rogue is a frequently pretty experience. Sailing through blizzards while your ship cuts through the ice looks great and is thrilling. But for all of its good looks and atmosphere, I can’t help but find Rogue’s world lacking. Yes, it looks big on a map, apparently crammed with things to do – forts to conquer, animals to hunt, territory to explore – but I can’t stress how extraneous all of these activities are. For example, I only lightly upgraded my ship, and managed to easily finish the campaign without ever tending to Shay’s equipment. Consequently, there's just no reason to spend time hunting; there's no benefit. And I feel the same about the icons and question marks dotted around its sprawling map: they're just not that interesting, and if you do explore, the pay-off rarely justifies the excursion. As a result, Rogue feels deceptive; it appears to be generous, but it's not. And because it's a world that doesn't reward curiosity, either with fun or material gain, I finished Shay's story without really getting to know the cities of Albany or New York, and used fast travel whenever possible. Over the years Assassin’s Creed has acquired so many systems – hunting, urban renewal, myriad collectibles – but unlike a savvy pirate, it’s reluctant to jettison them for the good of the mission. Sadly, for a game so focussed on reappraising the past, Rogue’s core combat and traversal mechanics remain unimproved, and as with every Assassin's Creed game before it, at times I found them painfully frustrating. There are several missions which involve you taking out a series of guards in wide-open environments, but rarely did I feel like a skilled assassin as I jumped into a campfire by accident or like a seasoned captain of a ship as I jumped into the bay of a harbour instead of its pier. This is all frustrating – or if you're in a good mood, a touch comical – but when it ruins key moments in the story, I found it unforgivable. Verdict: Rogue has the most interesting story of any recent Assassin’s Creed game. It’s fascinated by its own history, and introduces a level of ambiguity which changes how we look at the formerly simple conflict between Assassins and Templars. So it's all the more disappointing there's so little to do while the story is being told; the upgrade economy's pointless and most of the tasks are quite trivial. Story aside, so much of Rogue feels redundant, repetitive, and ultimately in need of reinvention. --------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: OS: Win 7 64 Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz / AMD Athlon II X4 620 Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5670 1024MB or NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 VRAM: 1GB System Memory: 2 GB RAM Storage: 11.6 GB Hard drive space DirectX 11 Compatible Graphics Card Recommeneded: OS: Win 8 64 Processor: Intel Core i5-2400S 2.5GHz / AMD FX-6100 Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti System Memory: 4 GB RAM Storage: 11.6 GB Hard drive space

Game Informations : Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Ukraine Publishers: Ubisoft Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Ps4, Ps3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, MAC Initial release date: Nov 16, 2010 The most important thing you need to know before starting Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is that, after the first hour, you're never forced to man any more asinine cannons. Don't be discouraged by the frustratingly pointless, cinematic-heavy introduction, because everything after that is compelling. I couldn't stay mad at the game for long—not after nimbly scaling Rome's famous Coliseum and flicking my blade into the necks of three hapless gunmen, all entirely undetected. Brotherhood's massive and complex open world is an engrossing, blood-soaked playground. Ubisoft Montreal has stressed that Brotherhood has a number of innovations and evolutions designed to keep the experience fresh, and we can certainly tell you that there's easily as much content here as in Assassin's Creed II, but will it be enough to really help this title distinguish itself from last year's stellar outing? Let's find out. After confronting Rodrigo Borgia and having his mind blown far beneath the Vatican at the end of Assassin's Creed II (and no, that's not a euphemism), the story picks up with Ezio ready for some well-earned R&R. It's not to be. Cesare Borgia – Rodrigo Borgia's son – is ticked off, and mounts a full scale attack on the assassins. The villa in Monteriggioni is destroyed and Ezio loses everything. Yes, after 20+ hours working towards all that bad-ass armour and weaponry, it's lost in a moment and players must begin again. Such is the fickle nature of videogames. In any case, Ezio travels to Rome determined to take his revenge against Cesare. The city is divided into 12 districts, each of which is overseen by a Borgia tower, representing the Borgia's control of the area. As long as the tower stands, soldiers are out in force, shops remain closed and the people oppressed. Assassinate the tower's Captain and burn it to the ground, however, and the area will open up for business. Ezio is then able to renovate blacksmiths, banks, stables and more, and these all add to his income, in much the same way renovating Monteriggioni did in the last game. The more shops that are open, the more items will be available and perks Ezio will get. For instance, the more tailors you have, the more pouches for carrying knives and other items will be available, whereas the more banks are open the more money Ezio can store before his account is full. Each defeated tower also opens up an assassin apprentice slot, but more on that later. It's important to note that while the Borgia towers are a key element of the game's structure, they're not actually central to taking down Cesare. You can actually finish Brotherhood without destroying all the towers. Instead, they're about earning income, unlocking items, gaining apprentice assassins and reducing the presence of Borgia guards across the city. By destroying a tower, players can make missions in that region easier for themselves by ensuring there'll be less guards around. How to get to each Captain? Well, that's up to you. Each tower is surrounded by a compound where the guards are on high alert, so it's up to players to work out the best path to the Captain. Easier compounds allow astute players to clinically execute the Captain with little-to-no danger, while more difficult ones will inevitably result in a huge confrontation, or have a more difficult path to the end goal. As fans of open-world games would expect, a lot of the player's time will be occupied with missions and activities that don't necessarily advance the plot. It's easy to get sidetracked for hours finding treasure chests, taking on assassination contracts, doing missions for the various guilds or trying to level up your relationship with them, exploring the world or climbing landmarks like the Coliseum. Subterranean environments return too, in the guise of Sons of Romulus missions. These make for a nice change of pace, as the focus is very much on movement puzzles over combat. Leonardo da Vinci is back as an ally too, and once again provides weapons for Ezio. Turns out he's also been pressured into creating war machines for Cesare, so it's up to Ezio to destroy the plans and prototypes. These see you wielding a chain gun mounted to a horse and cart, piloting a boat with a naval cannon, gliding about in Leo's paraglider – modified to fire bombs, and manning a renaissance-era tank. They're not actually that exciting, but at least inject a little variety into the gameplay. And honestly? That's something Brotherhood needs. The gameplay on offer here is solid, but by and large the bulk of the missions are pretty similar in nature to those we've already experienced in depth in Assassin's Creed II. It really feels like treading the same old ground, without great improvements. The missions where Ezio must tail a target are still frustrating, for instance, thanks to the small sweet spot at which the player must stay away in order to follow - but not alert – his target. There are three major changes that try to switch things up: the assassins' guild, the tweaks to combat and the ability to ride your horse anywhere. Recruiting assassins who can be called upon with the press of a button is obviously the big one, and it works very much as advertised. With each Borgia tower destroyed a new slot opens up, allowing Ezio to rescue and recruit an ordinary citizen of Rome. Calling on an assassin is as simple as targeting an enemy and hitting L1/Left trigger on PS3/360 respectively. Depending on the location and the level of your assassin, he or she might run or ride up to the target, or drop down from above. It's cool to watch, and once you have six assassins you have three groups that can be called, with a cool-down time of a few minutes for each. Assassins gain experience through combat, but they can also be sent off to complete contracts around Europe. The greater the difficulty of a mission, the higher the XP and cash reward, and players prepared to gamble can quickly level up their assassins by assigning them difficult contracts with a lower chance of success. These missions only take five to ten minutes each and the interface is easy to use. With each level gained, you can boost either armour or weaponry, and as assassins rise through the ranks, they'll also unlock more advanced options, such as the ability to use smoke bombs. As a side note, your assassin recruits can die, but you'll likely only lose a couple in the entirety of the game. The point of the assassin recruits is that Ezio is now a leader of men. The scale of the fight has changed – it's no longer just one man against his enemies; it's now one man trying to rally the support of a city against a tyrant. The assassins work in that sense, but when it comes to gameplay they actually just serve to make the game less challenging. Assassin's Creed II was far from hard, but at least in that game players had to work for their kills. Here it's a simple matter of directing the Death From Above. With a single button press you'll unleash a kill which, while cool, is also a little hollow. It's not like utilizing the assassins is a genuinely new mechanic either. Ezio can already hire thieves, mercenaries or courtesans to distract or kill targets, and this is just an evolution of that concept. Whereas players couldn't rely on the guilds in ACII, however, the assassins in this game can easily become a crutch – a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's not the only aspect that makes Brotherhood less challenging – and ultimately less enjoyable – than it should be. The inclusion of the crossbow, while fun, means that you no longer have to watch your step on rooftops. Once upon a time, the best tactic was to sneak up on guards for a blade kill or hang from the edge of the building and pull them off. No more. Just target them from the next rooftop over with the crossbow and they're dead. No fuss, and no real skill required. It's also worth mentioning that looting dead guards' bodies now yields far more valuable items than it did in ACII. You can top up on smoke bombs, crossbow bolts, poison, bullets and medicine with relative ease. Compare this to the significant financial investment and effort required to stay topped up in the first game, and the balance of gameplay shifts even further towards being too easy. Hand to hand combat is undeniably entertaining, however. In addition to dodging and countering, Ezio can now kick an enemy to open him up for a hit, while stringing together successive attacks allows him to dispatch enemies even more efficiently than before. The highlight, however, would have to be the sub-weapon system. Why just run a guy through with a sword when you can slash him then shoot him in the face? These new combo kills are brutal and satisfying, and you won't tire of seeing the many and varied animations on offer. Combat's not without its issues, however. I still found the lock-on finicky, while there are still glitches, such as Ezio's unfortunate habit of occasionally leaping from on high for a kill, only to bump a pole or something similar on the way down and land flat on his face in front of the guards he's meant to be skewering. Surely if there's an obstruction the player shouldn't be given the option to choose "assassinate"? Ezio's abilities on horseback have also been expanded for Brotherhood. Not only can he take a horse almost anywhere in the city (and summon one with a press of the Y/triangle button), but he can leap from one horse to another for a kill, and he can stand on horseback and use it as a jumping off point for free running. It's a neat inclusion but I didn't really find myself using the horses in that way much – it's a little fiddlier than simply attacking. In fact, I mostly used horses for getting around, so it's a shame that the gallop button has been lost to make room for the ability to stand on horseback. Trying to get from point A to point B now feels more like a leisurely Sunday afternoon trot than a mad dash. Rome is a dynamic and interesting world, with all sorts of systems that can impact upon Ezio and be used by players. Run around killing fools in public, for instance, and your notoriety goes up. Guards will instantly pay closer attention to you. Want to lower it? You can do that by ripping down wanted posters, bribing heralds or killing witnesses. Mind you, you could always avoid attention altogether by disappearing into crowds. While it's still a little less seamless than I'd like, Ezio can blend in with groups walking through Rome, plus he can hide in plain sight by sitting on a bench or standing with a group. These elements are an integral part of the game's rich playground, and will be a source of delight for new players, but anyone who played Assassin's Creed II will know all about them. One element that is new, however, is the fact that Ezio now has an additional objective or challenge in order to achieve full synchronisation in a mission. These range from time-based challenges: complete this mission in under 8 minutes, to combat-related challenges: don't take damage, only kill your target, and beyond. They're a good inclusion for the hardcore fans as they'll be the ones replaying missions in order to get 100% sync. For the more casual players, however, it's actually a little disheartening to beat a mission only to be told you only achieved 50% synchronisation. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Brotherhood package is the multiplayer, which is refreshing and inventive. In a neat twist, you're actually playing as the bad guys: as Abstergo agents – the modern day Templars. Turns out this is how they're training to hunt the assassins. The basic idea is that you're given a target to locate and kill, while also being hunted by another player. The radar helps you track your foe, but the games take place in bustling locations full of NPCs, so it's entirely possible for your target to blend in with the crowd. Literally so, in some cases. One of the special abilities transforms all the people around the player into your character model, while another lets you change character models altogether. Brotherhood has four multiplayer modes. Wanted and Advance Wanted are free-for-alls, with the latter being a more challenging version of Wanted with tweaked rules. By way of example, the radar is far less accurate in this mode. You'll only ever be able to narrow down your opponent's location to the general vicinity, leading to a tense game of observation – looking for the tell that reveals your target. Alliance, on the other hand, sees the players split into pairs, and as you'd imagine, coordinated hunting is key, while Manhunt divides players into two teams. One team hunts, while one team hides. The hiding team earns points for remaining undetected, and the closer they stay to one another, the more points. Overall, this is excellent stuff, and turns the usual adversarial frag-fest on its head. Forget being the guy who runs the fastest and racks up the most kills – Brotherhood rewards being a true assassin. Players are awarded points on a sliding scale, so an overt kill will net a whole lot less than a stealthy assassination while hidden. In this multiplayer contest it's the gamers who learn to be patient that will ultimately prevail. Plus, the ranking system means that the contests continue to evolve as you play, with tactical depth increasing the more abilities are unlocked. Verdict: Brotherhood is a great game, but it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend. This is really a title designed for fans of Assassin’s Creed II, as it’s a continuation of that story, but the reality is that people who finished that game want something new – or that at least represents a clear step forward. Brotherhood doesn’t deliver that. The game doesn’t advance the wider narrative very far, the new mechanics don’t really add a great deal and the mission designs rarely explore new gameplay possibilities. That said, Brotherhood really looks the part, with a step up in the graphics department – particularly on PS3, and a massive and varied city to explore. It also introduces an innovative multiplayer suite, for which the team(s) should be applauded. At the end of the day, it depends what you’re looking for. If you’re new to Assassin’s Creed, this is a solid entry, but picking up the threads of the convoluted story may be a challenge. If you’re an experienced assassin, on the other hand, expect to tread pretty similar ground to the last title. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: OS: Win Xp 32 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4550 or NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS System Memory: 1.5 GB RAM Storage: 8 GB Hard drive space DirectX 9 Compatible Graphics Card Recommended: OS: Win Xp 32 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 3870 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT System Memory: 3 GB RAM Storage: 8 GB Hard drive space

Game Informations : Developer: Hazelight Studios Publishers: Electronic Arts Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Ps4, Xbox One Initial release date: March 23, 2018 A Way Out’s revenge-fueled plot is structured around flashbacks to how Vincent and his next-cell-neighbor Leo ended up in this predicament, until the story catches up to them aboard a plane and carries on from there. It ebbs and flows like a movie, and it somewhat feels like one too, despite a runtime about three times longer than your average theater experience. You will spend a lot of its roughly six hours with your controller down, watching cutscenes. But you’re also often free to walk around in many of those moments, with the screen frequently split to accommodate both players’ freedom to move and explore. As my co-op partner and I approached the climax of A Way Out, the cinematic, 1970’s-set prison-break adventure from the studio headed by filmmaker-turned-game-developer Josef Fares, I thought it had run out of gas. I’d been hooked for the first five hours, which do a magnificent job of blending drama with action and emotion with lightheartedness. In that time we’d rarely done the same style of of gameplay twice, and I had gotten to know and understand Vincent, the more diplomatic and reserved of the two playable convicts in this mandatory two-player story. But here we were, knee-deep in a cliched sequence I’d seen a million times before in both games and movies. I thought A Way Out had run out of tricks. Leo and Vincent each have believable motivations that become clear as the story unfolds. So, too, do the actors’ performances improve as the plot progresses, with most of the notably wooden dialogue delivery contained in the early scenes. It’s as if they had to get to know each other, just as we needed to get to know them. It’s interesting to talk to the same NPC with Leo and Vincent separately, one right after the other, because while the conversation will usually turn out the same way, the path of those chats will be completely different. Leo is more violent and action-first, while Vincent prefers to talk his way out of sticky situations. So when you’re given the choice to handle a tense moment with a curious police officer Leo’s way or Vincent’s way, Leo wants to knock him out, while Vincent fakes a highly contagious illness. A Way Out is laced with small cooperative moments outside of just dialogue, too, like having to tap X simultaneously to bust through a door, or one person splashing around in a pond to chase the fish toward the other player holding a spear. But even though it’s focused on its story sequences, A Way Out is decidedly not a “walking simulator”-style adventure – in fact, it’s more like a collection of largely enjoyable minigames. Sometimes you’re sneaking around in tall grass like Sam Fisher, choking out bad guys. Sometimes you’re punching people from a 2.5D side-scrolling camera like it’s a Double Dragon remake. Sometimes you’re driving a car, or throwing darts, or playing a banjo, or shooting hoops, or arm wrestling, or fishing, or...you get the idea. All of that variety is a double-edged sword: though this swath of activities often left me smiling, the trade-off is that none of them control and feel as good as games dedicated to those ideas. The baseball segment won’t be unseating MLB The Show 18, is what I’m saying, but even so it put a smile on my face. “Clunky” is probably the best description of the worst A Way Out’s minigames ever get, with the gunplay feeling particularly subpar in this, the age of spectacularly polished shooters. None of those is A Way Out’s specialty, though. Instead, it focuses primarily on its story and the intertwining cooperative gameplay with the characters of Leo and Vincent themselves, and in those key areas it largely succeeds. Does the timing on certain moments seem implausibly convenient? Yes. Do the two men end up escaping unscathed from seemingly impossible scenarios? Uh-huh. (Side note: A Way Out’s police officers make Star Wars’ Stormtroopers look like expert marksmen.) The prison-breaking pair definitely don’t always get along, though, and sometimes they even compete, just like real frienemies would, which creates some fun player-versus-player moments. Neither my co-op partner nor I would give in during our button-mashing arm-wrestling match, even though it had no bearing on the game or the story, and I took a completely unnecessary glee in beating him in Connect Four (twice). At times it felt like we really were inhabiting these characters. A Way Out’s finest moments come when it’s at its most cinematic. The brilliantly choreographed hospital escape scene, for example, maintains one unbroken “camera shot” even as controls are cleverly trading back and forth between Leo and Vincent, while the aforementioned ending blends cinematography and gameplay in clever ways. And a Splinter Cell-esque back-to-back climb up a tall maintenance shaft requires the utmost cooperation and communication and had us laughing at every misstep. It was the peak of the mandatory cooperative gameplay that’s enforced here. And commendably, you get a free download token to give to a friend, so you only have to buy one copy to play online. Verdict: If you go into A Way Out thinking its mandatory two-player co-op is a gimmick, you’ll likely come out of it realizing that it couldn’t have been done any other way. Vincent and Leo’s journey will have you and a friend performing tasks together both mundane and dramatic, and the result is a memorable, variety-packed cinematic adventure that feels like what Telltale’s games might’ve evolved into if they’d leaned into game mechanics instead of phasing them out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: 720P 30 FPS AT LOW SETTINGS O/S: Windows 7 64-bit, 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit CPU: Intel core i3-2100T @ 2.5GHz/AMD FX 6100, or better RAM: 8GB GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti 2GB, AMD Radeon HD 7750 2GB DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent Hard Drive: 25GB Input: At least one Xbox-compatible/PlayStation-compatible controller Online connection requirements: 256KBPS or faster Internet connection Recommended: 1080P 60 FPS AT HIGH SETTINGS O/S: Windows 7 64-bit, 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit RAM: 16GB CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K; AMD Ryzen 3 1300x or equivalent GPU: Nvidia GT 960; AMD R9 290 or equivalent DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent Hard Drive: 25GB Input: At least one Xbox-compatible/PlayStation-compatible controller Online connection requirements: 256KBPS or faster Internet connection

Game Informations : Developer: YAGER Development GmbH, YAGER, Six Foot Publishers: Penguin Random House LLC Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Play Station 4 Initial release date: Oct 14, 2018 With Saturn looming above me and the labyrinth of a sprawling space station below me, I can't stop thinking about Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Dreadnought’s space combat is literally worlds away from the galleons and sabers of Ubisoft's pirate epic, but it delivers the same nautical warfare satisfaction when I pull up one of the hulking titular ships alongside another dreadnought and let the broadside cannons erupt in a blaze of glory. I miss swinging abroad and taking the vessel for myself, but Dreadnought makes up for that with some Trekkie tech like cloaking devices and warp jumps. That’s the kind of fun Dreadnought delivers in its finest moments. It’s a free-to-play, team-based PvP-focused area shooter in the style of World of Tanks, with its biggest and most distinctive difference being that it’s set in space. It thrives on the same type of slow, cooperative play that keeps Wargaming’s WW2 shooter appealing almost in spite of itself, while at the same time adding some depth in the form of vertical play allowed by the ships’ disregard for gravity. It’s fairly easy to get into thanks to three five-versus-five PvP modes that offer minor variations on Team Deathmatch, such Onslaught mode, which makes you protect your command ship while blasting away at everyone else. There's also a PvE-focused Havoc mode (or horde) where three players to fight successive waves of increasingly powerful enemies. The basic gameplay in Havoc doesn't feel much different from the main matches – after all, due to the low po[CENSORED]tion on PS4 as of this writing, you often end up playing against bots in PvP anyway – but surviving demands a degree of communication and trust you often don't get in the randomly matched PvP matches. In no case, though, should you ever expect twitchy speed. Dreadnought is a slow game at the fastest of times, but that doesn't mean it isn't satisfying, particularly when you swing your massive vessel around with all the speed of a glacier melting, line up a target in your sights, and unleash all guns and missiles at once. The slower speed, in fact, adds tension and encourages thoughtful play, at least when you can get the random players you’re grouped with when you’re not in a squad to cooperate. I keep bringing this up for a reason. Uncooperative team members are annoying in any multiplayer game, but they're especially bad in a class-based game where each person has a role to play. Each of Dreadnought’s five ship classes closely corresponds to those you’d find in a run-of-the-mill fantasy MMORPG. The dreadnought is the tank – a powerful, lumbering beast that turns like a glacier. At the other end of the spectrum are the corvettes: fast (relatively), vulnerable fighters that can literally fly circles around their larger adversaries. In between, there’s the artillery cruiser, which is basically a flying sniper rifle, the jack-of-all-trades destroyer class, and the support-role tactical cruiser that understandably often gets targeted first because of its powerful healing abilities. That kind of role-based design might be a big part of the reason why Dreadnought wisely doesn't force you to stick with one class for the duration of a match. If your team's having a hard time, switching out to another ship often makes the match go more smoothly. You can bring along a stable of five ships, switching out to one of the others after you die. Special abilities add further variety, such as the artillery cruiser’s stationary cloaking skill or the dreadnought's ability to quickly warp ahead a short distance to ambush or escape a bad situation. Each ship comes with at least a single level of individual weapon upgrades for the abilities maps the to action buttons, allowing you to boost the effectiveness of missiles or improve the tactical cruiser's healing beam. Yet the real advancement in Dreadnought centers on unlocking new and better versions of each class of ship in a five-tier tech tree. Climbing a rung in that ladder is definitely something to look forward to, and if the player po[CENSORED]tion ever grows to the point where you’re unlikely to find yourself in a Tier 2 ship and matched against a bunch of Tier 4s it might be a good system. Right now, though, it’s causing some balance issues. The ability to switch out ships makes this a bit more bearable, but it can still be a pain. Dreadnought may be a spaceship game, but it sidesteps the associated danger of empty maps by setting many of the battles close to the surface of moons like Callisto, and those that take place elsewhere unfold in dense asteroid fields and around space-bound mining operations. It arguably even has more depth than a terrestrial game, as the spaceships’ disregard for gravity allows a vertical element to tactics as well. In my case, I found I performed best in the ship's sniper class, raising my ship to peek over the nearest asteroid and then floating back down out of view after I'd killed my target. A tank isn't quite that versatile. The gameplay itself is largely intuitive, but one slightly awkward element is the controls, which map boosts for shields, guns, or thrusters to swipes on the DualShock 4’s touchpad. These are essential functions, and would probably be better tied to the D-pad. Even the menus can be annoying. They’re navigable enough, but their text is so tiny that trying to read them on a TV from even a few feet away becomes a chore. Unfortunately, progress quickly declines from a satisfying pace to a chore as the quantity of XP and research time needed to unlock more ships demands more and more grinding as you move up the tiers. It's a long process, particularly you can't move down to a ship in a higher tier unless you've bought all the weapons and ability upgrades for the ship in the tier below it, and the XP and credit costs grow ever larger once you start moving into the third tier. For that matter, upgrading isn't even all that interesting. Only in higher tiers can you choose which weapons you want to outfit your ships with, and even then these options are limited. For the most part, it's just buying all the upgrades to your existing weapons and then moving on to the next line. But if you want to progress quickly, Dreadnought nudges you to spend cash. The idea, then, is to buy XP boosts that last from a week to a year. Obviously, it makes some sense that the developers need to make some money off of this free-to-play game, but Dreadnought is slightly obnoxious in the way it shows you how much XP you could be making as a paid player when every victory or loss screen pops up. Alternatively, you could buy some premium ships that cost can around $40, which sounds bad but fortunately are only moderately more powerful than the free ships of their tiers. Honestly, if I’d paid for one I’d have been disappointed because you can't customize them in the same ways as some of their regular counterparts. If you want to upgrade the premium "Trident" dreadnought's weapons, for instance, you're stuck with the Tier IV repeater guns and nuclear missiles that come with it. Other the other hand, the decision likely keeps them from being wildly overpowered and again, the customization options aren't that robust anyway. But again, the grind itself wouldn't be quite as disagreeable if there were more people around. Dreadnought on PS4 is not a dead game, but the po[CENSORED]tion is certainly erratic. Sometimes I'd hop on and get into a match immediately, while at other times I'd find myself waiting more than 20 minutes for a match. Not surprisingly, it was especially difficult to get into a Havoc match without a pre-made squad owing to the coordination involved. It's a great testament to the appeal of Dreadnought that I never felt like giving up during these long waits. Between five widely different types of ships, the beautiful zones, and the sense that I was actually handling myself rather well against better-equipped players for most of my early playtime, I consistently found something to look forward to. Dread it, I did not. Verdict: Dreadnought in many ways successfully brings the World of Tanks formula to outer space with sci-fi flair, and the vertical movements of the ships add some depth. It’s often fun, but if you want to advance at a reasonable pace you’ll have to deal with an unreliably active PS4 player po[CENSORED]tion and an XP system that requires a lot of grinding to unlock new ships. ------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: CPU: Intel Core i5 4690T - 2.5GHz GPU: DirectX 11 compatible video card with 1GB memory HDD: 11GB space available OS: Windows 7 64bit RAM: 4GB Recommended: CPU: Intel Core i7 4770 - 3.4GHz GPU: DirectX 11 compatible video card with 2GB memory HDD: 11GB space available OS: Windows 7 64bit or higher RAM: 8GB

Game Informations : Developer: E-Line Media Publishers: E-Line Media Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Ps4, Xbox One, IOS Initial release date: April 17, 2020 When there's a squad of field experts on a game's development team, I always feel like I'm in safe hands. Beyond Blue's inclusive development process—involving scientists, marine biologists, and a close partnership with the BBC's Blue Planet II crew—made me excited to learn more about the mysteries and perils of our planet's oceans. Games that aspire to both entertain and educate need to have a balance of genuine learning and engaging storytelling, and although Beyond Blue sails with the former, it flounders with the later. Beyond Blue is a third-person diving simulator that plunges you into the calm blues of the Western Pacific ocean. You slip into the soggy flippers of Mirai, a marine biologist who is tracking a pod of whales whilst documenting various underwater creatures. Alongside a small team of scientists, Mirai studies the family of whales, recording their songs and watching their behaviour in hope of furthering her research into these giants of the sea. Beyond Blue is split into eight separate dives, acting as watery chapters for the overall story. Each dive begins with you swimming to an electronic buoy that pinpoints underwater creatures for you to find and scan. Futuristic technology allows Mirai to dive effortlessly through the water and, even with the clunkiest keyboard and mouse, gliding feels smooth and satisfying. Each dive is in a different atmospheric pocket of the ocean. There are waypoints that progress the story but you're free to explore the impressively realistic environments at your own leisure. When you find the pinpointed creature, you can use a small drone to have a close-up look to examine and record their markings. Although you'll come face-to-face with giant sperm whales, hammerhead sharks, and alienesque squids, there's no imminent danger—it's a relatively peaceful game. Mirai and her team livestream the dives online, so there's an ongoing conversation about what certain fish are, and why the team makes certain decisions. Although it felt a little performative for the sake of the livestream, I really liked the on-going explanation about what I was doing and why, making my documenting and scanning more than mindless busywork. When you're done with a dive you return to a small submarine that acts as a home base. Creatures you have scanned get entered into a database featuring some light information about each species. The sub is also an opportunity to chat with Mirai's colleagues and make phone calls back home to her family. The game follows the same cycle: return to the sub, talk about findings, go diving, return to the sub, talk about findings, go diving. It's pretty repetitive, but the scan information and mini-documentaries you find on the submarine's tablet help somewhat to break up the rhythm. The environments wildly vary in terms of successfully capturing the wonder of the sea. One level plunges you into an interconnected system of deep-sea trenches with no map, leaving you to explore its rocky corridors with exciting trepidation. But then, another level was just a blue haze of open ocean with nothing in sight. I understand that open water is an integral layer of the ocean, but dedicating a whole dive to essentially an empty space left me a little disappointed, especially as there's only a handful of chapters Unfortunately, many of Beyond Blue's dives feel a little uninspired. Although its ocean is more realistic than Abzu's magical dream-world and Subnautica's alien planet, even it's most active environments felt empty. It never felt like the ocean was teeming with life. There are some artful moments but both its environments and storytelling stay one-note throughout the three hour run time, with several plotlines gasping for space to breathe. It briefly touches upon the devastating effects of deep-sea mining and how certain pollutants are making the sea a toxic environment for wildlife, but then quickly moves on. There's even a storyline about Mirai's grandmother having Alzheimer's disease, but it never goes anywhere. You can feel the good intentions of the game through its dedication to realism and its creature database, but it's muddied by lacklustre storytelling. The beating heart of Beyond Blue lies within the game's mini-documentary videos. As you progress through Beyond Blue's chapters you begin to unlock videos that provide insightful information about the state of the Earth's oceans. These offer an eye-opening perspective on climate change and our attitude towards the planet, and give expert insight into the places and species seen in the game. The biologists and scientists who lend their voices these clips are passionate about studying and saving our vibrant oceans, and it's unfortunate that the sentiment of the videos doesn't translate into the game. E-line Media's previous adventure game, Never Alone, was brilliant in presenting the histories, stories and life lessons of Alaska Natives through both the same type of documentary videos coupled with a story that emotionally engages. Beyond Blue is the perfect game to tackle the important issues its videos present, but doesn't delve deep enough to drive those ideas home. Although some of the environmental messages are lost, the act scanning Beyond Blue's creatures and exploring its realistic environments makes for a brilliant educational tool. Its chapters feel like a collection of calm, interactive lectures rather than a passionate plea for action—and that's far from being a bad thing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 x64 or newer Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 / AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or AMD R9 270 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better) DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 40 GB available space