NANO

By : Education IQ

Company of Heroes is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ for the Microsoft Windows and OS X operating systems. It was the first title to make use of the Games for Windows label. Company of Heroes is set during the Second World War and contains two playable factions. Players aim to capture strategic resource sectors located around the map, which they use to build base structures, produce new units, and defeat their enemies. In the single-player campaign the player commands two U.S. military units during the Battle of Normandy and the Allied liberation of France. Depending on the mission, the player controls either Able Company of the 29th Infantry Division 116th Infantry, or Fox Company of the 101st Airborne Division 506th PIR. Company of Heroes received widespread acclaim, winning multiple awards for the best strategy game of the year. Two expansions were released for the game, the first one named Opposing Fronts in 2007, and the second one titled Tales of Valor in 2009. A free-to-play massively multiplayer online version of the game, Company of Heroes Online, was briefly released as open beta in South Korea in April 2010, before being cancelled in March 2011. The success of the game led to a sequel, Company of Heroes 2, which was released in 2013. As of January 2013, the whole Company of Heroes series has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.There was also a film adaptation, starring Tom Sizemore. Players must take control of certain points on the map. The more of these points a player controls, the more resources they acquire. This concept demands constant expansion of a player's territory. These points are connected like supply lines, and so, during the course of a battle a player can capture one point in the supply line, isolating the rest which had been connected to the base through it, therefore reducing the enemy's resource intake. Players collect three resources: manpower, munitions, and fuel. Manpower is necessary to produce all units. Munitions allows players to upgrade individual squads or vehicles and use special abilities. Fuel allows players to purchase tanks and other vehicles, build base buildings and acquire global upgrades. The player can decide, at a manpower cost, to place observation posts on any captured resource points in order to increase the point's production by 40% and make them more durable against enemy takeovers; this means sacrificing resources in the short-term for a greater long-term intake. Resource points must also be connected as any unconnected captured points can not produce resources. Units can occupy a civilian building and convert it into a field barracks, allowing certain units or squads to be created by that building, thus allowing a forward unit production and reinforcement point. Medic stations can also be built on the field to house medics, who can recover fallen soldiers from the battlefield and return them to the medic station. When enough soldiers are recovered by medics, they are formed into a combat ready squad by the medic station at no expense of manpower; however, the player must have room for the returned soldiers. Infantry units can also occupy buildings and use them as cover or a garrison to protect against attack, but this limits their firing range because the infantry are a stationary, immobile target, rendering them vulnerable to sniper fire, grenade/satchel charge attacks as well as being easy to surround. Also, while garrisoned, infantry units can only shoot out of windows or holes blown into a building. Certain weapons are immensely effective against units holed up in a building; satchel charges or infantry-carried rocket launchers can demolish a building, tank fire can blast the building, and infantry or tanks armed with flamethrowers can set the building on fire and burn out the occupants, and finally artillery. However, there are advantages; infantry are well protected from small arms and most buildings are sturdy enough to stand up to limited tank fire before collapsing. Company of Heroes was one of the first World War II strategy games which introduced dynamic building destruction which took advantage of the physics engine used to make the game. For example, if a tank was concentrating its fire on one position of a building near the bottom, then the whole building would collapse in that specific area first and then the rest of the building would follow. Occupied buildings can be destroyed after taking fire from enemy units or any other attack, like artillery fire or demolition charges. Civilian buildings cannot be repaired or rebuilt. However, both the Allied and German forces can construct garrisonable buildings. The Americans can build a barracks and weapons support center to deploy infantry , a motor pool and tank depot for tanks, vehicles and anti-tank guns. The triage center can heal nearby units that have been wounded from enemy fire. A supply yard is also required to be built before building a motor pool or tank depot which enables upgrades to reduce costs of infantry and tanks. The Germans can build a variety of structures. The Wehrmacht quarters, Krieg barracks and Sturm armory lets players create infantry. The Wehrmacht Quarters and Krieg Barracks can build light vehicles and other infantry, while the Sturm Armory and the Panzer Command deploys German tanks at the player's disposal. The Germans can also build Kampfkraft Centre in order to increase veterancy levels. Combat includes controllable units that are recruited and ordered directly by the player , as well as activated support actions, such as artillery bombardment or aircover suppression. Every controllable unit type, whether infantry or vehicle, has an associated construction cost and recruitment time, as well as a range of fighting abilities. Vehicles and infantry can eventually be upgraded by researching specific capabilities. Upgrades generally improve the unit's effectiveness. Some upgrades are global, granting immediate benefits to all deployed units, while others must be purchased on a unit by unit basis. In addition to units which engage in direct combat, both powers can build mortar and artillery units, which engage enemies at standoff distance through indirect fire. Indirect fire is characterized by a long time of flight to target, and low accuracy, but possesses a wide area of effect. It is particularly effective against massed infantry and light vehicles, but less hazardous to armored vehicles. A perfectly coordinated artillery strike can turn the tide of a battle, while a poor one can inflict significant friendly-fire casualties. Most combat takes place through direct, line-of-sight engagements. For small arms fire from infantry units, weapon accuracy and range are factored into the damage calculation. Cover, which can be gained from map terrain, occupying a building, or an adjacent armored unit , factors heavily into the calculation. Cover does not provide any protection against most types of indirect attacks , or specialized anti-personnel weapons. Vehicles also receive cover, though through much more complicated mechanics, usually resulting in survivability bonuses - not unlike their infantry counterparts. In addition to range and accuracy, the direction of fire also has a major impact on the damage a vehicle takes, especially if weak spots are targeted, such as the rear armour of a tank. A head-on shot into the glacis of the tank will do much less damage than a shot to the side, or a direct shot into the rear of the hull. Although terrain cover does not offer the same protection for vehicles as it does for infantry, obscuring terrain increases the difficulty of scoring a target hit by reducing the target's exposed profile. Thus, combat outcome is as much a function of tactical deployment and battlefield terrain as it is of unit composition. Crew-served weapons can also be manned by friendly troops or captured by enemy troops once the weapon's crew is killed; this includes machine guns, mortars and anti-tank guns from both sides. It also applies to handheld weapons.

Shadowrun Returns is a science fantasy turn based tactical role-playing game developed and published by Harebrained Schemes. It takes place in the setting of the Shadowrun tabletop role-playing game. The game was successfully crowd funded through Kickstarter, and was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android in 2013. An expansion pack titled, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, was released in 2014. It was later converted to a standalone release and as Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director's Cut. In 2015, Harebrained Schemes launched another Kickstarter campaign to partially fund their next game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong Similar to the Dragonfall – Director's Cut edition, Hong Kong was released in 2015 as a standalone release built using an upgraded version of the Shadowrun Returns engine. The player is able to customize their character's gender and appearance. There are five races to choose from: humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls. The player can choose to play as one of six classes, Street Samurai, Mage, Decker, Shaman, Rigger, or Physical Adept, or the player can choose to play as no class at all. Street Samurai focus on combat and weapons, Mages use various spells including attack spells, healing spells and others, Deckers focus on hacking into computer systems, Shamans can summon spirits to aid in battle, Riggers control robotic drones that can specialize in combat or healing, while Physical Adepts use their magic spells to make themselves stronger in various ways. As the story progresses, the player is given Karma to spend on improving their characters. While classes control what skills and equipment the character starts with, the player can choose to gain any skills they wish (e.g., Deckers can spend Karma to gain a Shaman's summoning abilities). The main statistics are Body, Quickness, Strength, Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma. Besides the player-character, the player can hire up to three other runners to aid the player-character during missions. Some non-player-characters are required to follow the player-character during certain missions. While gameplay is mostly linear, some small amount of exploration is possible while completing objectives. The player can enter dialogue with various characters, with different statistics and skills giving new dialogue options. The player can also choose for their character to have various Etiquettes to add more dialogue options. The higher one's Charisma is, the more Etiquettes their character can have. The player can also interact with the environment in some ways. For instance, pushing aside objects or hacking terminals to find hidden rooms, gaining access to new routes to their main objective or finding items to use or sell. Mages are also able to see magical ley lines, which enhance their abilities while standing over them, while Shamans can see points that allow them to summon spirits. Finally, Deckers are able to "Jack In" to the Matrix at specific points. This results in them entering a different, virtual world while still controlling the characters in the real world. In the Matrix, their stats are determined by the cyberdeck they have equipped and their abilities by the programs they have installed. In the matrix, they can fight ICs and enemy deckers while trying to gather data and hack devices, such as elevators or auto turrets. Combat is turn based, with the player controlling the actions of their team followed by the enemies taking their actions. All characters can move based on their Action Points. Characters start with a base of 2 AP per turn but can gain or lose AP based on abilities, spells or items used on them. AP is used on such actions as moving, firing a weapon, reloading, or using a spell or item. Those with Shaman abilities can summon additional allied spirits to the field, either through items they carry with them or special points where spirits linger. Each turn, these spirits are given a certain number of AP chosen by the player. The longer the spirit has been summoned for and the more AP it is given, the greater chance it will escape the Shaman's control, at which point it will either begin attacking anyone at random or simply flee.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was developed and published by Nintendo. An entry in the long running The Legend of Zelda series, it was released for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U consoles on March 3, 2017. Breath of the Wild is set at the end of the series' timeline; the player controls Link, who awakens from a hundred-year slumber to defeat Calamity Ganon before it can destroy the kingdom of Hyrule. Similarly to the original Legend of Zelda , players are given little instruction and can explore the open world freely. Tasks include collecting multipurpose items to aid in objectives or solving puzzles and side quests for rewards. Breath of the Wild's world is unstructured and designed to reward experimentation, and the story can be completed in a nonlinear fashion. Development of Breath of the Wild lasted five years. Wanting to reinvent the series, Nintendo introduced elements such as a detailed physics engine, high-definition visuals, and voice acting. Monolith Soft assisted in designing landscapes. The game was planned for release in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive, but was delayed twice due to problems with the physics engine. Breath of the Wild was a launch game for the Switch and the final Nintendo game for the Wii U. Two downloadable content packs were released later in 2017. Breath of the Wild received acclaim for its open-ended gameplay and attention to detail, with many publications describing it as one of the greatest video games of all time. Critics called it a landmark in open-world design, despite minor criticism for its technical performance at launch. It won numerous awards, including several game of the year awards. By December 2018, Breath of the Wild had sold over 11.6 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Zelda game. Breath of the Wild is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment where players are tasked with exploring the kingdom of Hyrule while controlling Link. In terms of structure, Breath of the Wild encourages nonlinear gameplay, which is illustrated by the game's lack of defined entrances or exits to areas,scant instruction given to the player, and encouragement to explore freely. Breath of the Wild introduces a consistent physics engine to the Zelda series, letting players approach problems in different ways rather than trying to find a single solution.The game also integrates a "chemistry engine" that defines the physical properties of most objects and governs how they interact with the player and one another.For example, players may take advantage of the game's dynamic weather by throwing metal objects at enemies during thunderstorms to attract a lightning strike. However, the level of realism offered in the "chemistry engine" also means that players will equally attract an unavoidable fatal lightning strike if wearing any metal during thunderstorms.These design approaches result in a generally unstructured and interactive world that rewards experimentation and allows for nonlinear completion of the story. As Link, players can perform actions such as running, climbing, swimming, and gliding with a paraglider, although Link is limited by his stamina.Link can procure items from the environment, including weapons, food, and other resources. Unlike previous Zelda games, weapons and shields will degrade over time.Many items have multiple uses; for example, wooden weapons and armor can be set to light fires or collect incoming enemy arrows, and shields can be used as makeshift snowboards.Players can obtain food from hunting animals, gathering wild fruit, or collecting parts of deceased enemies.By cooking combinations of food or materials, the player can create meals and elixirs that can replenish Link's health and stamina, or provide temporary status bonuses such as increased strength or weather resistance.An important tool in Link's arsenal is the "Sheikah Slate", which can be used to mark waypoints on a map. Over the course of the game, Link can collect powers to add to the Slate, including remote bombs, the ability to mani[CENSORED]te metal objects, form ice blocks on watery surfaces, and temporarily stopping objects in time.In combat, players can lock onto targets for more precise attacks, while certain button combinations allow for advanced offensive and defensive moves.Players may also defeat enemies without weapons, such as rolling boulders off cliffs into enemy camps. Besides exploration, players can undergo quests or challenges to obtain certain benefits. Activating towers and shrines adds waypoints that the player may warp to at any time.Activating towers also adds territories to the map, although location names are not added until the player explores that area. Dotted throughout Hyrule are shrines that contain challenges ranging from puzzles to battles against robotic opponents. Clearing shrines earns Spirit Orbs, which can be traded for additional health or stamina points.Scattered across Hyrule are small puzzles that reveal Korok Seeds, which can be traded to expand inventory size for weapons, shields, and bows.Towns serve as hotspots for quests, sidequests and shops selling materials and clothing. Hikers and other travelers offer sidequests, hints, or conversation. Additionally, players can scan Amiibo figures against their console to summon items or call Link's horse Epona from previous Zelda games and Wolf Link from Twilight Princess.

Gone Home was published by The Fullbright Company. Gone Home was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers in August 2013, followed by console releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2016, the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, and iOS in December 2018. Set in the year 1995, Gone Home puts the player in the role of a young woman returning from overseas to her rural Oregon family home to find her family currently absent and the house empty, leaving her to piece together recent events. She comes to learn that her younger sister had recently come out as a lesbian to her family, creating strife with their parents that led to the current state of the house. Atypical of most video games, Gone Home does not feature much interactivity, but instead has the player explore the house at their own pace and determine what has transpired by examining items, journals, and other items left around the various rooms. The Fullbright team, having had previously worked on BioShock 2: Minerva's Den, took concepts and ideas from that game to craft an exploration game to engage the player into uncovering the narration by non-linear progression in their searching of the house, while keeping the project manageable for their small team. Gone Home was critically praised at release. Several outlets used the game as an example of video games as art, as its non-standard gameplay format demonstrates progression of the video game industry into more artistic forms. However, this also raised the question of whether Gone Home should be considered a game, and led to the derogatory term "walking simulators" to describe exploration games with little interactivity, though since then, the industry has come to embrace the term. Gone Home's characters story was praised for addressing LGBT issues with which some players could identify. The player takes the role of Katie in the first-person view, who can move around the house and view and interact with objects. There are no defined goals in the game; however, the game encourages and rewards the player when they explore new areas of the house and search for new messages. Much of the interactivity rests upon looking at objects and notes within the house. In order to progress in the game, the player must find certain objects that unlock access to other parts of the house. On 7 June 1995, 21-year-old Katie Greenbriar returns home from overseas to her family's new home in fictional Boon County, Oregon: her father, Terry, a failed writer who makes a living reviewing home electronics; her mother, Janice, a wildlife conservationist who recently got promoted to director; and her 17-year-old sister Samantha. Upon arriving, she finds the house deserted, much of their possessions still in moving boxes, and a note on the door from Sam imploring Katie not to investigate what happened. Searching the house, Katie begins to piece together what happened during her absence: After moving in, Samantha found it difficult to adjust to her new high school, but eventually made friends with another girl, Yolanda "Lonnie" DeSoto, a JROTC cadet. The two bonded over Street Fighter, punk rock, grunge and the burgeoning riot grrrl movement, and after sneaking off to a concert, the two became romantically involved. After various incidents at school, Sam's parents found out about her relationship, forbade Sam to close her bedroom door while Lonnie was over, and are in denial that their daughter is a lesbian. As Lonnie was set to eventually ship out to begin her service, Sam was left distraught. Two days after her farewell show, which coincides with the day of Kaitlin's homecoming, and the week when Sam's parents are going on vacation Lonnie departs to her station, but eventually calls Sam from a payphone to tell her that she got off the bus in Salem and she wants them to be together. Sam's final journal entry to Katie explains that she packed up her things and took her car to find Lonnie, hoping to start a new life with her outside of Oregon. Optionally, Katie can find various other clues that provide information on additional events that happened during the time: it is implied that Janice was beginning to have romantic feelings towards a subordinate, and that Terry was berated by his father via letter about his failed writing work, as well as Sam and Lonnie's suspicion that the house was haunted by the deceased Oscar Masan, Terry's uncle and former owner of the house.

Just Cause 2 is a 2010 open world action-adventure video game developed by Avalanche Studios, published by Eidos Interactive and distributed by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The sequel to 2006's Just Cause, it was powered by Avalanche Studios' Avalanche 2.0 Engine. It features Rico Rodriguez, a major operative of the fictional Agency who arrives at Panau to overthrow dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront former mentor Tom Sheldon. The gameplay involves Rico fighting hostile militants with guns and a grappling hook, enabling players to tether objects to each other and slingshot into the air with a parachute. Just Cause 2 introduces the Chaos System, in which players must complete missions and destroy government property on Panau for Chaos points. These points are essential for story progression. The game was developed as an improvement of Just Cause; its team saw missed opportunities in the first game, analyzing and refining it. As a result, mission design, artificial intelligence and most core gameplay mechanics were overhauled. Panau, inspired by Malaysia, was considered by the team a good location for an action game. Avalanche Studios worked with Square Enix London Studios while developing Just Cause 2. It was announced in 2007 with a demo attracting two million players. Just Cause 2 received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, open-ended nature, stunts, world design, and graphics while criticizing its story, gunplay, and mission design. Sales of six million copies worldwide exceeded original projections. The game was supported with downloadable content at release, and a multiplayer fan project was eventually approved as an add-on. A sequel, Just Cause 3, was released in late 2015. Just Cause 2 is a third-person action-adventure game in which players control Rico Rodriguez, a major operative of the Agency, in an effort to overthrow the island dictatorship of Panau: an open world for players to explore. The game has three types of missions. Agency missions advance the story and are the game's main campaign; faction missions task players to assist the game's three factions, and stronghold missions task players to infiltrate government bases and liberate them for the factions.To advance through the campaign missions a player must earn chaos points, a progression system introduced in the game. Players earn chaos points for completing missions and destroying designated government property.As the number of chaos points increases, the factions gain influence and the government begins to collapse. In addition to typical missions, Just Cause 2 has race challenges which give players cash. The game's open world is free for players to explore when they are not on missions. Panau is described as an area of about 1,000 square kilometres . There are a variety of landscapes, including deserts, mountains and jungles, and over three hundred settlements.The settlements contain government properties, which can be destroyed, and unlockables such as cash stashes and weapon, vehicle and armor parts.Finding all the collectibles and destroying all the government properties will help players liberate a settlement and receive chaos points.When players create chaos or enter restricted areas, they generate heat noticed by hostile government militants; the heat decreases when the player evades them.The map is Rico's PDA, with points of interest including mission locations, settlements, military outposts, race challenges and the player's progress. Waypoints may be set on the PDA. Players can use a variety of weapons to fight enemies. The game features a large arsenal of weapons, from two-handed pistols to rocket launchers,and a variety of sea, land and air vehicles. Players can drive them, jump on top of them or hide in front of them while they are moving and hijack enemy vehicles, triggering a series of quick-time events.Initially, the player must acquire weapons and vehicles in the field. Early in the game, they encounter a black market supplier from whom weapons and vehicles can be purchased. As more chaos points are gained, additional weapons, vehicles and an extraction option become available on the black market. All black-market weapons and vehicles can be upgraded in steps with weapon and vehicle components in the game world; over 2,000 parts may be acquired.Players use a beacon to access the market. Just Cause 2 includes a grappling hook enabling players to tether objects together. In a high-speed vehicle chase a player can use the grappling hook to attach the pursuit vehicle to the ground, forcing it to stop and often damaging it by flipping. Players can also tether two enemies together The grappling hook allows a player to pull himself, hold onto objects such as walls or helicopters and pull enemies towards Rico. The player has a parachute, which is always ready to be deployed even if it was already deployed moments earlier. This can be combined with the grappling hook as quick transport, with players "sling shooting" themselves into the air.

PlanetSide was a massively-multiplayer online first-person-shooter video game published by Sony Online Entertainment and released on May 20, 2003. PlanetSide chronicles the efforts of three factions as they fight for territorial control over ten different continents on the planet Auraxis. Players take on the role of individual soldiers fighting for one of the three factions within the game, and can specialize in various fields such as combat vehicle crewman, infantry, invisible infiltrator or a variety of combat support roles such as combat medic or combat engineer. The game is played primarily in a first person perspective, with the option of third-person. Unlike most shooting games, in which small-scale matches take place in essentially an instanced map, PlanetSide battles can involve hundreds of players in a single fight. PlanetSide battles concern control over territory and strategic points, and can cause repercussions to all three factions. To date, PlanetSide remains one of the few MMOFPS games ever created. A sequel, PlanetSide 2, was released in November, 2012. On January 24, 2014 Sony Online Entertainment announced that the game was going to be free-to-play in April 2014.The game was officially launched as free to play on April 29, 2014, after several delays.On July 1, 2016, at 4:00pm PT, Planetside servers went offline permanently. After exploring through a deep space wormhole, the Terran Republic, a highly centralized oligarchic galactic government which had unconditionally ruled humanity for the past thousand years, discovered a single habitable planet. Not only was this planet suitable for the sustenance of life, but it also already possessed many native, highly developed, and staggeringly familiar flora. The Science Institute named this planet Auraxis. Taking a keen interest in this aberration, the Republic quickly sent expeditions through the wormhole to explore and colonize the planet. Shortly after arriving, the colonists discovered the remains and technology of a lost and ancient alien species – the Vanu. This technology proved to be so complex and powerful as to barely be conceivable to human minds, involving levels of energy previously thought to be physically unquantifiable. This allowed for the quick colonization of the ten continents of Auraxis, the creation of power sources and vehicles for the use of the colonists and, most importantly, it facilitated the development of rebirthing technology. This nanotechnology allowed the Terrans to deconstruct and reconstruct their own bodies, allowing fast transportation across the world. Later on, it was discovered that dead workers could be brought back to life using the technology, revealing a startling new possibility: immortality. Needless to say, the incredible power of this technology was systemically acknowledged, and despite the scale of the advances made due to the study of the technology, it was also recognized that humanity had not yet even scratched the surface of any future possibilities. Later on, the discovery that the planet itself had been an artificial construction of the Ancients further served to solidify the realization that, if left unchecked, Vanu technology would forever and irrevocably change humanity and its future. Shortly after the rebirthing technology was discovered, the wormhole collapsed, cutting the colony off from the Mother Republic and preventing the return of Vanu technology for proper examination. The Republic authorities took measures to hide this fact, while desperately exhausting all theoretical options for re-establishing the traversability of the wormhole. Meanwhile, as widespread usage of the technology grew, the Republic began to fear the potential repercussions of allowing so much power to be shifted so quickly into the hands of so many people. Namely, it feared that the rebirthing technology and the potential impunity to death, disease, and pain it afforded would cause massive philosophical shifts amongst the isolated po[CENSORED]tion, thus pulling out one leg of the tripod that had sustained the Republic for a millennium: that of deterrence. More generally, the military feared that if use of the technology continued to spread, that the other two bases might come away as well: a po[CENSORED]ce armed with practically god-like power would have very little need of a strong authoritarian body to provide structure and purpose to their lives. Based on these trepidations, the Republic began to restrict usage of the new technologies, and halted all further research and development involving the Ancient Tech. It was too late, however, and their concerns began to materialize earlier than they had expected. As research diminished, so too did hopes of reopening the wormhole. As news of this began to escape the scientific community, general dissension set in. Amongst the po[CENSORED]ce, a great resultant of the loss of faith in the capability of the Republic was a split in their loyalties. Two distinct groups emerged: the loyalists and the separatists. The separatists argued that the recent behavior of the Republic was full of obvious knee-jerk moves and over-reactive mistakes. Claiming that the Republic knew its end was at hand, the separatists advocated breaking away and forming a new society, now that their would-be "oppressors" were isolated and without aid. The loyalists countered that the Republic had never been abusive and had always looked out for its own, and that the Terran people at least owed them continued loyalty on that point alone. Meanwhile, in the intellectual circles and among the scientific establishment, there had long been the feeling that the Republic was ill at-ease with the possibilities of the New Science, and a movement had begun to sequester and conceal as many of the Vanu artifacts as could be feasibly obtained without overt notice. As the Terran demographic continued to polarize, these movements finally came to fruition as the predecessors of the Vanu Sovereignty made their exodus and took with them the research and artifacts they had managed to stockpile over the Auraxian years. Encouraged by this, the separatists seceded, seizing a number of military stockpiles and procuring a small arsenal of military assets: they called themselves the New Conglomerate. In a backlash to this, the Republic declared these two factions outlawed, announcing their intentions to reunify with them at all costs. Shortly after this, war broke out between the Terran Republic and the New Conglomerate. Not long after, the Vanu Sovereignty was attacked by the New Conglomerate and dragged into the war. A conservative, authoritarian, collectivist nation who strive to regain contact with the homeworld and reunite the warring factions. Their leadership is a public oligarchy known as the Overwatch, composed of various representative officials and their associated Ministries, who regulate allotted portions of society in accordance with their own expertise and the collective will towards favourable outcomes. They believe that authority is the bastion that protects humanity and that in a truly free society, with no Big Brother to guide and watch over citizens, misery and suffering would quickly be visited to all. Furthermore, they regard the Vanu technology as dangerous and disruptive, a chaotic force threatening the stability of their righteous order, and only begrudgingly do they use it in warfare. Their vision of the future is one of peace restored through their benevolent rule, and humanity reunited by the reopening of the wormhole. They stand by the view that the Vanu became extinct by meddling with power on the orders of magnitude which was to be found in their artifacts and technologies, and they fear groups such as the Sovereignty will drive humanity to a similar fate, causing as much damage to reality as possible along the way. Their ordnance is characterised by its high rate of fire and correspondingly great ammunition consumption. A separatist faction determined to remain free of the controlling and domineering Republic, as well as to liberate the rest of humanity from the Republic, whether or not they share the Conglomerate's theories. Unlike the authoritarian and technocratic TR and VS governments, the NC are fighting for democracy, freedom, and human rights. As a rebel group, their leadership lies with the Revolutionary Command, a visible co-operative of military experts and leaders who direct the liberation efforts as a whole. They feel that any form of control is oppression and that a miserable free man is better off than a contented slave. Consequently, they view the Vanu technology as a potential tool of control, and the Vanu Sovereignty as technocratic tyrants, would-be dictators like the Republic, only under the banner of science and probably much worse. Their view of the future is one of freedom and self-government, where every man elects his own path and flourishes in what ways he sees fit. They rely on ponderous vehicles and slow-firing heavy weaponry, foregoing mobility and tactical flexibility for heavy armour and superior firepower. As their name suggests, the New Conglomerate is a diverse collection of forces that have banded-together : ordinary citizens drawn into the conflict, various rebel groups that were previously autonomous, expatriate Terran and Vanu soldiers, and the Expeditionary Force of the Royal House of Auraxis . The NC's democratic philosophy is often their Achilles' heel militarily, as they lack the iron-fisted leadership structure of the TR and VS. From the New Conglomerate's point of view, however, theirs is the only moral and just cause. A loose transhumanist group of academics, intellectuals, and common people who believe that human destiny lies in the further development and exploitation of the alien technology. Their leadership is the clandestine Sovereignty Council, the composition of which is unknown without itself and the existence of which is obscured to those outside the Sovereignty. They see the Republic as pedantic and outmoded; a used-up idea and restriction on the continuing ascendancy of the species through the synthesis of man and machine. They also see the New Conglomerate as a savage, ochlocratic band of thugs who have repackaged old mistakes in new dressings and are desperately afraid of new concepts which they cannot grasp, and the future these promise to the far-sighted. Their view of the future is one of scientific perfection and purity: they believe that the Vanu used the power of their advanced technologies to transcend their physical limitations and the mundane world, ascending to a superior state of being, and ultimately, a higher plane of existence. Scientists and intellectuals through-and-through, they see this path as an enlightened ascension and hold the Ancients up as a shining example for mankind to follow. Hopefully and eagerly they envision humanity imitating this metamorphosis, firstly through the enhancement of the human condition via "hypertech", and eventually, by the replacement of human beings altogether; from there, not even they can imagine yet. They are most reliant on alien science and technology, and often more than compensate for their shortcomings through the superiority of their engineering, using mind-bending physics, high-energy arrays, and other exotic weaponry to defend themselves. Gameplay took place on the ground and in the air, across desert, mountains, forests and swamps, with factions attempting to capture as many facilities as possible on the surface of the planet while denying them to their enemy. There are many strategies and opportunities that skilled players can use in order to direct combat operations. The player controls their chosen character from a first-person perspective. PlanetSide featured an experience/leveling system. Earned experience is divided into three categories: Battle Experience, Support Experience, and Command Experience. Battle Experience is gained from elimination of enemy soldiers, the capture of base facilities, and exploring and interacting with the game world. Support Experience is earned through "Assist" kills: after aiding another player, the first player gains a percentage of experience the other player gains through kills. Command Experience was gained from leading a squad or platoon in a successful base capture. Functionally, Battle Experience and Support Experience are identical, both contributing towards Battle Rank, which lead to benefits such as the ability to use different equipment, implants, or appearance upgrades. Accumulated Command Experience let the player use several team-oriented abilities. On July 1, 2016, at 4:00pm PT, Planetside servers went offline permanently. PlanetSide 2 was officially released on November 20, 2012.

The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a subcompact executive car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. The first generation was introduced in 1997, the second generation model appeared in late 2004 and the third generation model was launched in 2012. The fourth generation model which was launched in 2018 will mark the first time the A-Class is offered in the United States and Canada.This fourth generation A-Class will also be the first to be offered both as a hatchback .Originally produced only as a five-door hatchback in 1997, the second generation W169 introduced a three-door hatchback. In the markets where the A-Class is or has been sold, it has represented the entry level model for Mercedes-Benz. Having grown by 68 cm since the original model, the 2012 third generation A-class was longer than the first-generation B-class. And although sometimes referred to by fans as the 'Baby Benz', Mercedes themselves actually use that moniker for the 1982 Mercedes 190 , their first compact executive car model.In 1994, Mercedes-Benz confirmed that it would be launching a compact car - the A-Class - by early 1997, which would be the company's first venture in this sector of the market; it was hinted at this stage that the new car would be shorter than the average supermini but as spacious and practical inside as a large family car.The A-Class was first revealed to the motoring press late in 1996, and finally launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the autumn of 1997, the W168 A-Class was quite unusual for Mercedes-Benz featuring a front wheel drive layout and unusual tall but yet short body. One innovation of the W168 was a frontal-impact absorption system called the "Sandwich bar". In the event of a violent frontal impact, the engine and transmission would slide underneath the floor below the pedals rather than entering the passenger compartment. This was the first complete exterior designed by Coventry University trained Steve Mattin, for which he was named Autocar magazine 'Designer of the Year'. Earlier, Martin had mostly worked on design for the W210 E-Class in 1991. Concurrent to the W168, he designed the exterior of the W220 S-Class. The final design freeze occurred in January 1995, at 32 months before August 1997 start of production.The W168 became infamous in 1997 after flipping over during the traditional "elk test"performed by the Swedish automobile publication Teknikens Värld. According to the report, the W168 overturned when manoeuvring to avoid the "elk". Mercedes initially denied the problem, but then took the surprising step of recalling all units sold to date and suspending sales for three months until the problem was solved by adding electronic stability control and modifying the suspension.The company spent DM 2.5 billion in developing the car, with a further DM 300 million to fix it.Between 1997 and 2004, 1.1 million first generation A-Class models had been sold.The A-Class was facelifted in 2001, with minor alterations to the headlights, front and rear bumper design and the addition of a new 170 mm longer wheelbase version. It was launched at the Geneva Motor Show.All A-Class models are powered by four-cylinder engines, with 1.4 L and 1.6 L petrol models at launch , followed by two versions of a 1.7 L diesel engine. In 1999, a larger 1.9 L petrol model was added, with the 2.1 the last W168 version to be launched in 2002.

Zain Imam is an Indian television actor. He is known for his roles of Abhimanyu Thakkar in Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan, Yuvraj Luthra in Tashan-E-Ishq, Abeer Dharmadhikari in Yeh Vaada Raha and Neil Khanna in Naamkarann. Imam made his acting debut in 2014 with the role of Abhimanyu Thakkar in MTV India's Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan. In 2015, he joined Zee TV's Tashan-E-Ishq as Yuvraj Luthra. In 2016, he was seen as Abeer Dharmadhikari in Zee TV's Yeh Vaada Raha. In 2017, Imam was seen as Neil Khurana in Star Plus Naamkarann. In 2018, he joined Star Plus's Ishqbaaz as Mohit Malhotra. In 2019, he participated in Colors TV Khatron Ke Khiladi 9.He completed his graduation and is an MBA holder from Amity International Business School. After completing his graduation, he worked in the private sector but later he quit his job and tried his luck in the entertainment industry.Imam started his career as a fashion model, working for agencies such as the Aldo Group.He then did a few TV commercials before pursuing his career in acting.He started his television career in 2014 with MTV's Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan as Abhimanyu Thakkar.He was then cast as Yuvraj Luthra, in Zee TV's Tashan-E-Ishq.He was awarded with The Favourite Dushman at Zee Rishtey Awards 2015 and Best Actor in a Negative Role at Gold Awards 2016.The show ended in September 2016.In November 2016, he was cast as Abeer Dharmadhikari in Zee TV's Yeh Vaada Raha.In March 2017, he played the role of Neil Khanna in Star Plus Naamkarann. In June 2018, Imam played the role of Arjun in Laal Ishq on &TV.In September 2018, he joined Star Plus's Ishqbaaz as Mohit.Currently he is appearing as a contestant in Colors TV Khatron Ke Khiladi 9.Imam was ranked 26th in Eastern Eye's Sexiest Asian Men List 2018.

The visit is the couple's last before their baby is due to arrive in April or May and the duchess was inundated with good wishes at every turn. She was given a traditional henna tattoo - designed to bring her unborn child good luck - by a student at the Education For All centre in the Atlas mountains. The centre provides classes for girls from rural areas whose families cannot afford their education.The duke and duchess also watched mixed-sex teams at the education centre play five-a-side football - and Meghan chatted, in French, to one of the goalkeepers. She later told the students: "We are very proud of all of you. You are such good role models."There were lighter moments on the trip too. The couple sampled some Moroccan cuisine, cooked by Moha Fedal, who hosts the North African nation's version of MasterChef. He told them: "Come with your baby and I will cook for all three." At the same event, children made Moroccan pancakes using a recipe from a cookbook launched by Meghan to support families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.On their final day, the royal pair visited an equestrian centre to learn more about the country's efforts to use horses in therapy for children with special needs. There they met Ekram, aged 20, who has Down's Syndrome. She told them: "I love the connection with the horses, it already makes me feel relaxed and more confident." Meghan replied: "Wow, you're very impressive. What an accomplished lady."The visit ended with a tea ceremony hosted by King Mohammed VI at a royal palace in Sale, near Rabat. Prince Harry presented the Moroccan monarch with a letter from the Queen.

By : Gadgets and Gears

By : Technical Studio

By : HowTo Curt

Wargame: AirLand Battle is a real-time strategy video game developed by Eugen Systems and published by Focus Home Interactive, released on May 29, 2013. It is set in Europe during the Cold War, most specifically in the years 1975–85. It is the sequel to the 2012 Wargame: European Escalation. War Games playable factions are the Warsaw Pact, which is subdivided into the Soviet Union, Communist Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia; and NATO, which is subdivided into the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Canada, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Players can choose various units from the subfactions of the side they are playing on, unlocking new units or improved variants as they progress. Each country has its own arsenal of units, reflecting their military doctrine. It is possible to create a 'deck' or battlegroup focusing on various criteria, with the option to mix units from multiple nations' armories. Campaigns Wargame: Airland Battle includes four campaigns that can be played alone or cooperatively with another player. The turn-based portions of all four campaigns take place on the same map depicting Northern Europe. Multiplayer Wargame: AirLand Battle is a primarily multiplayer game. There are several game modes to play. The majority of multiplayer games are skirmish battles, where players fight against other players and/or AI generated opponents with custom built decks. These battles vary in size, location, and style, adding to generally unique experience for each game. Wargame: AirLand Battle has received generally positive reviews upon release, with a Metacritic score of 82%. During August 2013 a sequel, Wargame: Red Dragon was announced. It is set during the Cold War but after the original games, in East Asia. It introduces China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand) as new factions. The campaign focuses around a Korea conflict during the 1980s. It introduces naval warfare to the Wargame series. Wargame: Red Dragon was released in April 2014.

Plague Inc is a real-time strategy simulation video game, developed and published by UK-based independent games studio Ndemic Creations. The player creates and evolves a pathogen in an effort to destroy the world with a deadly plague. The game uses an epidemic model with a complex and realistic set of variables to simulate the spread and severity of the plague. The Steam and console version is entitled Plague Inc: Evolved, which includes adjustments and additions to the gameplay. It has been downloaded over 85 million times and was a runner up in the IGN Game of the Year 2012 awards for 'Overall Best Strategy Game'. Overall, it was the 15th most downloaded paid iPhone game of 2012 in the U.S.and the 5th most downloaded paid iPhone game of 2013 in the U.S.The game continues to have an active community and is regularly updated. In 2017, the developer released a physical board game based on Plague Inc. called Plague Inc: The Board Game.$355,000 was raised for the board game on Kickstarter. Plague Inc. is a strategy-simulation game in which the player indirectly controls a plague which has infected patient zero. The player can choose between various game-modes and pathogens and complete the objective set by the game-mode by evolving the plague and adapting to various environments. The objectives include, but are not limited to: Infecting and killing the world's po[CENSORED]tion with a pathogen, enslaving the world's po[CENSORED]tion with the "Neurax Worm" or converting the world's po[CENSORED]tion into zombies with the "Necroa Virus".However, there is a time pressure to complete the game before humans, the opponent, develop a cure for the plague. The developer has said it is "a bit like the film Contagion except you are on the other side".The developer has said the game was inspired by Pandemic 2, a browser-based Flash game released in 2008 by Dark Realm Studios. The player can play as many different types of pathogens, each with its own perks which influence evolution decisions. Initially, the player may only select bacteria. Subsequent pathogens are unlocked by winning the game with the previous one on Normal or Brutal Mode. These include virus, fungus, parasite, prion, nano-virus, and bio-weapon. There are also special plagues such as the mind-controlling Neurax Worm, the zombie plague Necroa Virus, the 'Simian Flu' from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the vampire themed Shadow Plague. In July 2014, Ndemic Creations partnered with 20th Century Fox on an update themed as a tie-in to the film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Players cultivate the film's "Simian Flu" virus, which kills humans while making apes more intelligent. Players spread the virus to eradicate humans while helping apes survive and advance. In March 2013, James Vaughan, the developer of Plague Inc., was invited to talk at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about Plague Inc.He spoke about how he had modeled the spread of infectious disease inside the game as well as how games like Plague Inc. can be used to inform and educate the public.

Crashlands is an action-adventure role-playing video game developed and published by Butterscotch Shenanigans. It was released onto the App Store, Google Play, and after being on Steam Greenlight for 42 hours, Steam in January 2016.Shortly after release, software pirates had uploaded the game to Amazon without permission.The game is described as being a "story-driven crafting game"and tasks players to collect items in order to craft items such as weapons and armour.Crashlands has been compared to Don't Starve. The mobile and PC versions of the game hold aggregated scores of 93 out of 100 and 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, respectively.PC Gamer awarded it 73%, saying "Fun combat, great writing, and a great look, but with pacing and progression tuned for a mobile experience, not the PC." "Watch some gameplay for crafting-and-combat adventure Crashlands". Polygon. January 13, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016. "Pirated version of Crashlands sold on Amazon". Gamereactor. January 27, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016. "Crashlands developers say pirates ripped off their game, sold it on Amazon". Polygon. January 26, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016. "Bizarre crafting-adventure Crashlands will come out next week". PC Gamer. Future plc. January 13, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016. "Crashlands for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 25, 2018. "Crashlands for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 25, 2018. Musgrave, Shaun (January 20, 2016). Play as Flux Dabes in Crashlands, a galactic delivery truck driver whose latest shipment gets interrupted by a megalomaniacal alien named "Hewgodooko" who tears her ship to pieces looking for useful tech. Crash Landed on Woanope, you must fight, tame, craft, quest, bossfight, and adventure your way to domination of all the things so that you and JuiceBox, your trusty sidekick cargo palette, can send a message to the Bureau of Shipping and get those damn packages delivered! Never again suffer from such existential crises as "Who am I?" or "What am I doing here?" Crashlands is an adventure-crafting RPG driven by an epic story arc. From the moment gameplay begins you'll be thrust PELVIS-FIRST into an insane tale complete with a cast of personality-bloated characters. And what good would those Characters be if they could do things for themselves? The Crashlands cast is totally helpless, thus providing you with endless questing opportunities!

Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It was released on 16 October 2009 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, on 8 September 2011 for iPad 2 on the App Store,on 21 November 2011 for BlackBerry PlayBook,on 10 May 2012 for Android, on 6 September 2012 on PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network in Europe,on 9 October 2012 in North America and on 18 October 2012 in Asia,and was also released for PlayStation Vita on 26 March 2013 in North America, on 1 May 2013 in Europe and on 7 May 2013 in Asia. Demos for Windows, Mac and Linux were made available on 30 September 2009. A future release for the Wii's WiiWare service was cancelled as of November 2011 due to WiiWare's 40MB limit. Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux and Android versions of this game were released along with Humble Indie Bundle for Android 4 on 8 November 2012, to customers who paid over the average price.The Windows Phone version was released on 22 March 2014. The goal of Machinarium is to solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are linked together by an overworld consisting of a traditional "point and click" adventure story. The overworld's most radical departure is that only objects within the player character's reach can be clicked on. Machinarium is notable in that it contains no dialogue, spoken or written, and apart from a few tutorial prompts on the first screen, is devoid of understandable language entirely. The game instead uses a system of animated thought bubbles. Easter egg back story scenes in the same format can only be revealed by idling in certain areas. The game employs a two-tier hint system. Once per level, the player can receive a hint, which becomes increasingly vague as the game progresses. Machinarium also comes with a walkthrough, that can be accessed at any time by playing a minigame. As with dialogue, the walkthrough is not in written or spoken form, but instead a series of sketches describing the puzzle at hand and its solution. However, the walkthrough only reveals what must be done in that area, and not how that puzzle relates to the game chronology. Machinarium opens with an overview of the eponymous city as a disposal flier launches from the pinnacle of its highest tower. The player character, a robot called Josef is dumped on a scrapheap, where he re-assembles himself and sets off for the city. Entering the city, he discovers a plot by the Black Cap Brotherhood, his three criminal antagonists, to blow up the city's tower. Unfortunately, he is himself discovered and locked up. After breaking out of prison, Josef aids the citizens of the city, as he discovers the mischief which the Brotherhood has been working. Shortly after flooding the Brotherhood's room, Josef locates his girlfriend Berta,who has been locked up and forced to cook. Unable to free her, he works his way to the top of the tower. After he foils the Black Cap Brotherhood's plot by disarming the bomb taped to the tower, Josef reaches the highest room, in which the story began. A huge-headed robot, the "head" of the city, sits in the middle of the room, incapacitated and gibbering. Josef recalls how the three of them lived happily until the Black Cap Brotherhood zapped this friend, leaving him disabled, and kidnapped Berta. When a garbage sucker arrived to dispose of the Black cap thug, it apprehended Josef instead. After this revelation, Josef restores his friend to sanity, dumps the Brotherhood down a drain, and frees Berta. The two of them climb back to the tower, wave goodbye to their friend, and fly off into the sunset. In the final closing scene, their vehicle suffers a collision and falls, and they are seen being carried away separately by two fliers.

Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in 2010, and for PlayStation 3 in 2011. Mass Effect 2 is the second installment of the Mass Effect series and a sequel to the original Mass Effect. The game takes place within the Milky Way galaxy during the 22nd century, where humanity is threatened by an insectoid species known as the Collectors. The player assumes the role of Commander Shepard, an elite human soldier who must construct and gain the loyalty of a diverse team and stop the enemy in a suicide mission. With the use of a completed saved game of its predecessor, the player can impact the story of the game in numerous ways. For the game, BioWare changed several gameplay elements and put further emphasis on third-person shooter aspects, including limited ammunition and regenerable health. In contrast to the exclusive focus on the main story of the original Mass Effect, the developers opted to create a plot where optional missions had as much intensity as the main mission. Mass Effect composer Jack Wall returned to compose Mass Effect 2's music, aiming for a darker and more mature sound to match the mood of the game. Mass Effect 2 also supports a variety of downloadable content packs, ranging from single in-game character outfits to entirely new plot-related missions. Notable packs include Kasumi – Stolen Memory, Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker, and Arrival. Mass Effect 2 was a commercial success and received critical acclaim from video game publications, with the Xbox 360 version holding a score of 96 out of 100 at the review aggregate website Metacritic. Critics praised multiple aspects of the game, including its interactive storytelling, characterization, and combat. In contrast, some reviewers expressed concerns about the game's simplified gameplay compared to the previous game in the series. The game received numerous year-end awards, including Game of the Year at the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and Best Game at the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. The game is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. A sequel, Mass Effect 3, was released in 2012. Mass Effect 2 is a single-player action role-playing game in which the player takes the role of Commander Shepard from a third-person perspective. Shepard's gender, appearance, military background, combat-training and first name are determined by the player before the game begins. The player may choose to import a character from a completed saved game of the original Mass Effect or start the game with a new character..Importing an old character allows several decisions the player made in the original game to impact the story of Mass Effect 2 and grants the player a set of starting bonuses.The game features six different character classes for the player to choose from.Each class is proficient in a different set of powers and weapon types.For example, the Vanguard class is specialized in close-range combat and shotguns, while the Infiltrator class relies on stealth combat and the use of sniper rifles. The game's overworld is a galaxy map that the player can explore to find and complete quests.Most quests consist of combat missions, but some involve the player interacting with non-player characters during visits to settlements.As the player progresses throughout the game, different locations and new squad members become available. Experience points are gained by completing quests.Each time a sufficient amount of experience is obtained, the player "levels up" and is awarded Squad Points that can be used to develop powers for both Shepard and the members of the squad.Powers provide enhanced combat capabilities, with each power having four ranks that can be unlocked.Each rank costs the same number of Squad Points as its rank. For example, unlocking the first rank of a power requires one point, but unlocking all four ranks of a single power requires a total of ten points. Upon raising a power to its fourth rank, the player must evolve the power into one of two given forms. The player's primary mode of transportation is a starship which serves as Shepard's base of operations. Aboard the ship, the player can interact with the squad members, customize the player's armor, travel to numerous planetary systems, and scan planets for mineral resources.These resources allow the player to research numerous in-game upgrades that are found in the missions, providing benefits such as increasing weapon damage, fortifying the player's health, or extending the ship's fuel capacity, among others.Scanning requires the player to move a reticle over a planet and launch a probe when an oscilloscope warns of near resources.Additional upgrades, equipment, and non-essential items such as magazines and decorations for the ship can be purchased from merchants in settlements. Combat Combat in Mass Effect 2 is squad-based and a maximum of two squad members may accompany the player on the battlefield. The player has direct control of Shepard while the squad members are controlled by the game's artificial intelligence.Battles take place in real-time, but the player can pause the action at any time to calmly target enemies and select different powers for the squad members to use.The game uses an over the shoulder perspective akin to a third-person shooter, and places a strong emphasis on using cover to avoid taking damage while fighting enemy forces.The player may also issue commands to the squad members, such as sending them to take cover behind a manually picked object or focus their fire on a designated target. Unlike the original Mass Effect, where weapons overheat if fired continuously for prolonged periods, the weapons of Mass Effect 2 have a finite magazine and must be reloaded after a certain number of shots.Shepard and the squad members are protected by a damage-absorbing shield. When the shield is fully depleted, further damage reduces the hit points of a secondary health meter. Both the shield bar and health meter automatically regenerate when not taking fire for a brief period.The player can revive fallen squad members with the use of the Unity power.However, if Shepard dies, the player must start the game again from the last saved point. All enemies are protected by health, shields, armor, barriers, or a combination thereof.Each type of protection has its own vulnerabilities. For example, armor is usually vulnerable to powers such as Incinerate, which burns enemies over time, and to weapons with a low rate of fire such as sniper rifles and heavy pistols. In contrast, shields are vulnerable to powers such as Overload and to rapid-firing weapons like submachine guns and assault rifles.Barriers are typically used by boss-type enemies and are vulnerable to certain weapons and powers.When the shields, armor, or barriers of an enemy have all been depleted, the player can use status-effect powers such as Pull, which temporarily levitates targets into the air, incapacitating them.Other powers may temporarily benefit the player; for instance, Adrenaline Rush puts the player in bullet time. Powers do not require any sort of expendable resource; they only have a global refresh time period. Dialogue and morality During conversations with characters, Mass Effect 2 employs a radial command menu, called Dialogue Wheel, where the player's dialogue options depend on wheel direction.The left side of the wheel is normally reserved for options that will continue the conversation in depth, while options on the right side tend to move the conversation towards completion. Responses at the top are generally more polite and selfless, while those at the bottom are more aggressive and hostile.The game also introduces a context-sensitive interrupt system, allowing players to interrupt the conversation with direct actions at certain times.Dialogue choices impact how others react to Shepard, the rewards for completing missions, possible discounts from merchants, romances and, most importantly, the Commander's morality Morality is measured by Paragon and Renegade points. These points affect the availability of new special Paragon and Renegade dialogue options with significant impact in the game.For example, the game features some missions to gain the loyalty of the squad. What the player does during one of these missions will determine whether they gain the loyalty of a squad member, which in turn will unlock a special power and also help in the final battle. Endings range from the entire team surviving to the entire team being killed, Shepard included, and everything in between.Upon completing the game, a New Game Plus option is unlocked, allowing players to replay the game using the same character with which they finished it.

Titanfall 2 is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. A sequel to 2014's Titanfall, the game was released worldwide on October 28, 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In Titanfall 2, players control Titans, mecha-style exoskeletons and their pilots, who are agile and equipped with a variety of skills ranging from wall-running to cloaking. Set in a science fiction universe, the single-player campaign follows the story of Jack Cooper, a rifleman from Frontier Militia, who bonds with his Titan BT-7274 after an accident. Together, they embark on a quest to stop the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation from launching a superweapon. The game's two-year development cycle began in mid-2014. The decision to add a single-player campaign to the game came about because the team wanted to expand the game's player base. They came up with different ideas and prototypes, and integrated them to form a single coherent campaign. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and buddy cop films, as well as the video game Half-Life inspired the game's campaign and narrative. The team also overhauled the progression system and made subtle changes to the multiplayer to make the game fairer to players. Valve Corporation's Source engine powers the game. Stephen Barton returned to compose the game's music. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim. The single-player campaign was praised for its design and execution, and the multiplayer modes for building on the foundation of the original game. Despite the positive reception, Titanfall 2 underperformed commercially, with most attributing its underwhelming performance to it going on sale in a crowded release window, being placed between the release of Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. It was nominated for multiple year-end accolades including Game of the Year and Best Shooter awards, by several gaming publications. Respawn continued to support the game after its release, providing several updates and free downloadable content. Similar to its predecessor, Titanfall 2 is a first-person shooter game where players can control both a pilot and their Titans—mecha-style exoskeletons. The pilot has a large variety of abilities that enhance their efficiency during combat. These include cloaking, grappling, and parkour—such as double-jumping and wall-running—with the aid of a jump kit.These movements can be chained together to travel between locations quickly.The game introduces several new gameplay mechanics. These include: a movement system that allows players to slide on the ground, the pulse blade, the holo-pilot, and a grappling hook, which can be used to slingshot players to a building or an enemy it attaches to. The pilots have a large arsenal of gadgets and weapons, such as shotguns, submachine guns, pistols and grenades to fight their enemies. At close range, players can execute their opponents from behind with a melee attack. Titans are significantly less mobile than the pilots, but they have stronger firearms and armor. Replacing the three classes featured in the first Titanfall, seven Titans are introduced—Ion, Scorch, Northstar, Ronin, Tone, Legion, and Monarch. Ion uses a directed-energy arsenal. Scorch engages in combat using area-denial incendiary weapons, Northstar excels in long-range precision attacks and setting traps, and is the only Titan with the ability to hover. Ronin specializes in close quarters combat, using a shotgun and a sword. Tone focuses on mid-range combat with its target locking weapons. Legion uses a minigun designed for defense and controlling combat zones.Finally, Monarch—added post-release via downloadable content—is a Vanguard-class chassis that can steal power from other Titans to power up its own defensive shield.The Titans have their own move sets which are different from those of the pilots—for instance, they can dodge quickly to evade attacks. Single-player Unlike its predecessor, Titanfall 2 has a single-player story campaign with gameplay split between commanding the Titan and controlling the pilot.It features a linear story, but levels offer players multiple paths to explore.For most parts of the game the Titan BT-7274 accompanies players. He can change his weapon loadouts under players' command to maximize his efficiency when combating different Titan variants. These loadouts are unlocked after players defeat an enemy boss.Players are allowed to use multiple ways to complete objectives and attack enemies, such as utilizing stealth, or using firearms provided in the game. Levels are large, and there are multiple paths for players to choose from to reach their destination.The game also features platform elements, which task players to make use of Cooper's parkour abilities to solve environmental puzzles, and travel to previously inaccessible areas. Some weapons are level-specific and can only be used in certain regions.There are also level-specific gameplay mechanics. For instance, in the "Effect and Cause" level, players are required to shift between modern times and the past with a temporal device.Players can also select dialogue options and talk to the Titan at certain points in the campaign.The single-player also features a training gauntlet, which acts as a tutorial for players. The faster they complete the gauntlet, the higher their position will be on a leaderboard. Multiplayer The multiplayer mode introduces a Titan meter, which fills slowly when the player is playing the game. It fills faster when the player kills an opponent, inflicts damage on enemies, or completes certain objectives.When a certain percentage of the meter is filled, the player can summon a Titan, which descends from the sky.A Titan can crush opponents if it lands on one when summoned.When the Titan meter is filled completely while in a Titan, the Titan can use their core ability, which inflicts a lot more damage than typical attacks.Pilot players can steal a Titan battery, causing damage to it. The battery can also be taken and implemented on a friendly Titan, recharging its shield and filling the Titan meter. Players can disembark from their Titan at any time. It will continue attacking nearby opponents under "follow mode", where the Titan follows the pilot as closely as it can. Players can also set it to "guard mode" and it will stay put. Players earn "merits" based on their performance in a multiplayer match whether their team wins or loses. Merits are experience points through participating in the match or getting access to unlocks. Players need to accumulate merits to level up, which unlocks additional weapons, abilities and more. There are also other ways to earn merits, like surviving the evacuation phase when the players' team loses a match. Players can also earn Credits, a form of currency used to buy weapons, boosts, Titans, or abilities before they are unlocked. These can be earned by gaining merits and completing challenges.The game's customization options have expanded significantly compared to Titanfall. Players' outfits and weapons, as well as Titans' appearances and combat efficiency, can be extensively customized.Boosts replace burn cards featured in the earlier game. They are tactical abilities that enhance the players' combat efficiency. Each boost has its own specific access requirement. Ticks, which are explosive mines that track enemies, for example, require 65% of the Titan meter filled. Amped Weapons, where players inflict more damage with their firearms, need 80%. Players must decide which boost they are going to use before a match begins; they cannot swap their boost during the game. Titanfall 2 features several of multiplayer modes at launch. These modes include: Amped Hardpoint: In this mode, teams receive points if they can hold control points for an extensive period. The team that accumulates more points wins. Bounty Hunt: Players are rewarded with money if they kill enemies, opponents or AI-controlled grunts. Players need to return to specific points to deposit the money. Players can also steal opponents' money by killing them. The team that has the highest score wins. Pilot vs. Pilot: A standard team deathmatch mode but players cannot summon any Titan. Capture the Flag: Players are tasked to capture the flag of an enemy and bring it to their team's base, while preventing opponents from stealing the player's flag. Attrition: A standard team deathmatch mode in which players can summon Titans. Points are awarded to a player's team when they kill a human-controlled enemy or an AI-controlled grunt. When a team earns enough points, the game transitions into another phase. The losing team needs to reach the evacuation zone and escape, while the winning team needs to eliminate all opponents. Skirmish: This mode is like Attrition, but there is no AI-controlled grunt and the score needed for phase transitioning is lower. Last Titan Standing: A standard team deathmatch mode, but players cannot eject from their titan. Free for All: Players are tasked to kill each other in this mode. All other players will be marked as their opponents. Coliseum: This is a one-versus-one multiplayer mode where the player is tasked to eliminate the other player. Players can gain access to this mode through Coliseum tickets. These are earned by playing other multiplayer modes, buying them with credits or receiving them in gifts granted when the player levels up a faction. Titan Brawl: A standard team deathmatch mode, but players spawn with their titans and cannot eject or disembark from their titans. Frontier Defense: A player versus environment multiplayer game mode where four players must face up to five waves of Enemies. Matchmaking is also enhanced, with the game automatically helping players to find a new match after the end of every match.The game also introduces a new feature called "Networks", which allows players to form a group, similar to a guild. The game automatically groups both the player and other members of the network together in a match. Players can join more than one network and can switch between joined networks in-game.Each network has its own "happy hour". If the player plays the game during this period, they gain extra merits.

The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy video game with a fantasy setting, designed by Australian developer David White and first released in June 2003. In Wesnoth, the player attempts to build a powerful army by controlling villages and defeating enemies for experience. The game is loosely based on the Sega Genesis games Master of Monsters and Warsong. The Battle for Wesnoth is free software, available under the GPLv2 license in source form and for a variety of computer operating systems. The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based wargame played on a hex map. The strategy of battle involves trying to fight on favorable terrain, at a favorable time of day, and, if possible, with units that are strong or well suited against the enemies. Other concerns are capturing villages that produce gold for unit recruitment, and positioning units to restrict enemy movement. Games of Wesnoth come both in the form of single-player campaigns and multiplayer matches. Each unit in Wesnoth has its own strengths and weaknesses. A unit's defense (which means in this case dodge chance) is based on the terrain it stands on. Elves, for example, are difficult to hit when fighting in a forest. Different types of attacks (melee and ranged), weapon types (pierce, blade, impact, arcane, cold, and fire), and a day-night cycle that alternately favors lawful and chaotic units, alter the amount of damage a unit deals. Throughout the campaigns, units can advance to higher level counterparts and become more powerful. A central design philosophy of the game is the KISS principle; for a new idea to be accepted, it should not complicate gameplay.Another important facet of the game is randomness and its mani[CENSORED]tion: it is never certain a unit's attack will fail or succeed, only likely or unlikely. Developers have stated that the potential for a skirmish to go better or worse than expected adds excitement, replayability and strategic depth to the game. The Battle for Wesnoth takes place in a world po[CENSORED]ted by Tolkienesque races such as humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls, as well as Wesnoth-specific races such as dragon-like Drakes, which are creatures distantly related to dragons, but are bipedal, have an organized, albeit warlike, culture, and are only about 10 feet tall. Campaign stories span the history and geography of the world, but most focus on the eponymous human kingdom of Wesnoth, which suffers frequent invasions of orcish raiders and the undead. The name Wesnoth was originally developed by the game's creator as a combination of syllables that he thought would sound good as a name for a fantasy land. When the project became larger and more elaborate, the developers created a fictional etymology for the name: the inhabitants of the land of Wesnoth came from the West and North, giving West North, which eventually evolved to Wesnoth. This etymology is explained in the campaign The Rise of Wesnoth. Factions The Battle for Wesnoth currently has six default factions to choose from: Rebels Consist mostly of elvish units, with ent-like woses, mermen, and mages. Most of their level 1 units are capable of both melee and ranged attacks, making the rebels very versatile. Elves ignore the time of day with their neutral alignment and have high defense in forests. They are generally faster, but slightly weaker than other units in most other terrain. Knalgan Alliance These consist of slow but sturdy dwarves with strong melee attacks, allied with human outlaws who fight better under the cover of darkness. Generally, dwarves gain a high defense when occupying mountains and hills. Dwarves are also more adept at traversing caves than any other faction and ignore the time of day. They are vulnerable to attack in open terrain, while their human outlaws fight better in this same terrain. Loyalists These are human cavalry, magesand infantry that ordinarily fight better in the daytime, with mermen allies. They are the most diverse faction, with more units than any other faction except the Knalgan Alliance. Northerners A faction of orcs and goblins, along with troll and naga allies.Their focus is on cheap recruiting, brute force, and close combat, fighting better at night with their chaotic alignment. Most units require little XP (fighting experience) to advance levels. Units often achieve higher mobility when crossing hills. Undead The undead are vulnerable to fire, impact, and arcane attacks, but have high resistance against blade, pierce and especially cold damage. The undead rely on easy access to magic and poison attacks. Some units are able to drain health from enemies in order to replenish their own, and most are immune to poisoning. Unlike other races, most undead units have no traits and no personal names. Drakes A dragon-like race that fights better by day. Most can fly and breathe fire. Their Saurian allies are faster and prefer fighting by night and in swamp areas, though they share the Drakes' vulnerability to cold. Drakes are the most maneuverable faction, though their size makes them prone to attack in most terrain.

Kerbal Space Program is a space flight simulation video game developed and published by Squad for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In the game, players direct a nascent space program, staffed and crewed by green humanoid aliens known as "Kerbals". The game features a realistic orbital physics engine, allowing for various real-life orbital maneuvers such as Hohmann transfer orbits and bi-elliptic transfer orbits. The first public version was released digitally on Squad's Kerbal Space Program storefront on 24 June 2011, and joined Steam's early access program on 20 March 2013.The game was released out of beta on 27 April 2015. Kerbal Space Program has support for user-created mods that add new features, and po[CENSORED]r ones, such as those for resource mining and context-based missions, have received support and inclusion in the game by Squad.Notable people and agencies in the space industry have taken an interest in the game, including NASA. In May 2017, Squad announced that the game was purchased by video game company Take-Two Interactive, who will help support Squad in keeping the console versions up-to-date alongside the personal computer versions. An Enhanced Edition was released on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in January 2018 by Private Division, a publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. A DLC pack called Making History was released on 8 March 2018.The expansion contains many parts inspired by those used in various rockets such as the Soyuz spacecraft and the Saturn V. The player administers a space program operated by Kerbals, a race of small green humanoids, who have constructed a fully furnished and functional spaceport called the Kerbal Space Center on their home planet, Kerbin. Despite being shown as cartoonish beings sometimes lacking common sense,Kerbals have shown themselves capable of constructing complex spacecraft parts and performing experiments to realize their scientific goals. Players can create rockets, aircraft, spaceplanes, rovers, and other craft from a provided set of components. Once built, the craft can be launched by players from the KSC launch pad or runway, or other launch pads and runways around Kerbin, in an attempt to complete player-set or game-directed missions while avoiding partial or catastrophic failure. Players control their spacecraft in three dimensions with little assistance other than a stability system called "SAS" to keep their rocket oriented.Provided it maintains sufficient thrust and fuel, a spacecraft can enter orbit or even travel to other celestial bodies. To visualize vehicle trajectory, the player must switch into map mode; this displays the orbit or trajectory of the player vehicle, as well as the position and trajectory of other spacecraft and planetary bodies.These planets and other vehicles can be targeted to view information needed for rendezvous and docking, such as ascending and descending nodes, target direction, and relative velocity to the target. While in map mode, players can also access maneuver nodes in order to plan out trajectory changes in advance. Missions involve goals such as reaching a certain altitude, escaping the atmosphere, reaching a stable orbit,landing on a certain planetary body, capturing asteroids, and creating space stations and surface bases.Players may also set challenges for each other on the game's forums, such as visiting all five moons of Jool, or use mods to test each other's spacecraft in air combat tournaments. Players are able to control in-game astronauts, known as Kerbals, who can perform extravehicular activities . While on EVA, Kerbals may use their EVA suit propellant system to maneuver in space and around craft and space stations, similar to the use of NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit. Actions that can be performed while on EVA include repairing landing legs, wheels, and parachutes. Kerbals can also collect material from science experiments, allowing them to store data inside the ship's capsule. During an EVA on any solid planet or moon, a Kerbal can place a flag or take a surface sample. Historical spacecraft can be recreated and their accomplishments mimicked, such as the Apollo program, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, or the International Space Station. Players may install mods which implement destinations, weapons, rocket parts, and goals, such as attempting challenges in a real-scale solar system. Mods can also add informational displays showing craft and orbital statistics such as delta-v and orbital inclination. Some mods have been added into the game officially, due to po[CENSORED]rity. For example, resource mining, in order to obtain Ore for refining into resources such as fuel, has been officially implemented from a po[CENSORED]r mod. As of version 1.6, the major celestial bodies in the game in order of their proximity to the parent star, often called Kerbol in the fandom, are Moho, Eve, Kerbin, Duna, Dres, Jool, and Eeloo. Community modifications are able to expand this planetary system to include analogs of the missing outer planets, as well as fictional bodies and faraway exoplanet systems.

Zenonia 4: Return of the Legend is an action role-playing game created, developed, and published by Gamevil for the Android and iOS. It is the sequel to Zenonia 3 and the fourth game in the Zenonia series. It was released on the App Store on December 22, 2011,on Google Play on February 13, 2012,and on the Amazon Appstore on May 4, 2012. Zenonia 4 follows the same general gameplay formula of its predecessors, including real-time combat and exploration. You control the protagonist, Regret, with the virtual d-pad. Along with main quests that advance the central story, the player is able to accept side-quests from non-player characters (NPCs) in towns and other locations. The game has four available classes to choose from: Slayer (a powerful melee-class fighter), Blader (a melee-class fighter with quick attacks), Ranger (a ranged-class with wide-area targeting), and Druid (a ranged-class specializing in projectile attacks). The game features Zen, an in-game currency that can be purchased using real-world currency to buy powerful and helpful in-game items. For example, Dragon's breath is in the shop, increasing the refinement level of an item by 3, and there is also 'Auto-Routing', making you automatically pick up almost (dropped) item on the screen. Gold is also featured, the main in-game currency. This is used to buy, combine, refine, and other things with. This is used to by level 5-20 items, to buy scrolls to combine for better items, and buy ingredients to make that. The player can compete in online 2-on-2 or 1-on-1 battles. There are also trials, where you can pay to play, and where you either play 1-player or 2-player co-op. You battle increasingly stronger monsters, gaining a large amount of experience, and also getting a prize if you beat all of the levels/monsters. The protagonist of the first Zenonia game, Regret, returns as the protagonist for Zenonia 4. Ten years after the events of Zenonia 3, Regret is trapped in a world called Land of the Fallen, a world that is between death and consciousness. Regret is approached by his future self to warn him of a dark lord that is rising and threatening the land of Zenonia. With the help of the fairy Anya, Regret seeks to stop the rise of the dark lord and save Zenonia.

Control - New update incoming? It looks like Remedy could be due to introducing some new information about Control soon. A tweet from yesterday seems to suggest that the studio will release some new information about the game at 5pm EDT today (that's about 10pm UK time). The content of what will be revealed remains to be seen, but we're expecting a new trailer, a new ad campaign or... something. We'll see what happens at 10pm tonight - in Remedy's own words, it's going to be 'massive'. About Game Control By far and away the most exciting game I encountered at this years Gamescom. Remedy are back with a jaw-dropping thriller that, whilst grounded in their typical third-person style, leans heavily into the surreal in a novel and boundary-breaking way. You play as Jesse Faden, the new director of the Federal Bureau of Control, a shadowy organization which has become overrun by some kind of supernatural threat. The plot is Remedy at their strongest, and it takes cues from some of the finest works of visual art known to man. Twin Peaks, True Detective… it’s influence can be found in visionary cinematic projects, and it looks to bring a whole new revolution to the video game medium. First, we must talk about the visuals. The game is outrageously beautiful. It contains all of the recurring motifs of Americana. Bureaucracy reigns in the Federal Bureau of Control, and old, middle-of-the-century technology litters the environment. The detail is astounding down to the knobs on television sets and the carefully designed desks. It really works to create this intense, photorealistic cinematic effect unseen beyond the realm of TV or Cinema. You feel like you’re exploring a world, yet you’re trapped inside of a location. It's a wonderful and inspiring feeling, and the world of Control is one that instantly put its hooks into me. The lighting effects in Control are beyond words, and will most definitely utilize Nvidia’s new ray-tracing technology to its full potential. Floating bodies are basked in warped shadows thanks to rays of sunlight shining through blinds. It is a jaw-dropping sight as they sway peculiarly above the player-character, making you ponder their origin and marvel at the surreal, curious environment. Trails are another environmental highlight, from dust in the air to bits of rock and gunpowder, parts of the environment simply explode and revert back to their natural elements. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the eerie, gasoline-esque rainbow trail left behind by the supernatural entities you face in Control. It's a very quiet game when it needs to be too, which helps to engage this overwhelming and oppressive bureaucratic tone. Footsteps on hard floors are heard as you approach a lone blue-collar worker strolling through the level. They act erratically and appear non-hostile before bursting into combat with the player. Control knows exactly when to engage its spellbinding sound design to make you feel trapped and full of fear within its encroaching and ever-changing walls. Levitating and using Telekinesis is another crucial part of gameplay and something that looks absolutely divine in motion. Instead of focusing on what would be the best or most explosive thing to mani[CENSORED]te, the game is grounded in that it lets you throw whatever surrounds you towards your enemy to fend them off. The levels aren't designed with red barrels in mind. You are locked in a carefully designed museum of bureaucracy, and the items left behind are your arsenal. In our session we stumbled across human experiments and countless vaults most likely containing entities that reside in the darkest parts of your imagination. It reminded me of the SCP foundation but Remedy’s own, and the prospect of exploring this beautifully realized place and walking further into the miasma of madness had my heart racing all the way throughout the demo. When it was over, all I wanted to do was continue and work my way deeper into this enrapturing, claustrophobic organization to figure out the mysteries hiding deep within it. This is a Remedy game through and through, and perhaps the most exciting one yet. By far and away my game of the show - yes, well above the hype machine of Cyberpunk 2077 - put simply, Control is the game you need on your radar if you’re a fan of boundary-pushing video games.