[MC]Ronin[MC]

Name Game: Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice Price: 59,99€-38,99€ The Discount Rate: -35% Link Store: Steam Offer Ends Up After : The offer ends on January 2

v1 good effect and nice text

[Editor's Note: We've been posting our impressions of Destiny SEE DEAL since September 3rd. Our scored review was posted on September 18, 2014.] Within hours, l could tell that Destiny wants desperately to be loved by many different types of players. It attempts to weave threads from many po[CENSORED]r genres together into one interconnected tapestry, but your experience will depend entirely upon which of those threads you tug on hardest. At the very least, it provides blistering firefights and brilliantly crafted worlds to have them in. In fact, the exceptional caliber of its moment-to-moment gameplay is what partially excuses the fact that it never quite realizes its grand design. For as fun as it is, Destiny just doesn't fully commit to all of its disparate parts, making it simultaneously many different things, and none of them at all. Bungie has a history of excellent world-building, and Destiny is a powerful expression of that excellence. From the moment your AI companion wakes you from your long slumber in the shadow of the colossal wall around Old Russia, the world of Destiny feels grand. Picturesque, static backdrops are slyly blended with wide-open spaces and large vertical terrain features, creating an effective illusion of scale. The many stunning vistas go a long way towards making Destiny's world feel like one that's worth saving, despite the fact that you can’t fully explore everything you see. Even if it isn't as wide-open as it initially appears, each of Destiny's four main planets are more than big enough to get lost in. Even atop your speedy, instantly summonable Sparrow bike, which gleefully handles a lot like what I always imagined a Star Wars speeder bike might, getting from one end of a planet to the other takes a while. Factor in all the caves, temples, and other structures housed within, and there's a ton of ground to cover. Perhaps not as much as an open-world RPG or an MMO, but then, despite its similarities, Destiny isn't either of those things – and its overall topography has more character than most games of those types anyway. Even on last-gen hardware, the craft on display throughout Destiny's alien landscapes is masterful in its detail. Every rock face, outpost, and ruin looks lovingly hand-crafted, aside from a few repeating nooks and crannies. Even if I didn't always stop to gawk at how roads look physically carved into the terrain, or how gas bubbles to the surface of the iridescent water pools on Venus, these details silently pulled me in and constantly reinforced the idea that that this is an actual place – a special place. Consistently excellent music magnifies that sensation, deftly driving the action forward during big firefights, and conveying a sense of wonder and mystery in between them. Even the somewhat over-indulgent load screen animations between worlds are eye-catching. Bungie made lemonade out of lemons here. Going from one planet to the other takes way too long, but it’s wisely used as an opportunity to double down on the idea that all these places are connected. Sadly, none of that keeps Destiny from becoming the latest example of the friction between open-world design, and tightly directed narrative. Cutscenes are kept to a bare minimum, limiting the story to vague exposition dumps before and after missions. It's not a new, or effective way to unintrusively tell a story though, regardless of how many Emmy Award-nominated actors you have reciting the lines. It says a lot about the quality of Destiny's combat that I gladly continued to move and shoot, despite it never really giving me an emotional incentive to do so. The Art of War Destiny retains the fluid, tactical feel of the Halo series, but with an increased sense of speed and mobility that make its firefights feel more dynamic than those of its direct FPS ancestor. That’s partly due to the ability to sprint and slide in addition to each class' mobility skills, which include gliding, double jumping, and even short-range teleportation. Combined with how powerful grenades and melee attacks feel, thanks again to class skills that modify them, this extra mobility allows you to engage foes in a wider variety of ways. Destiny's intelligently designed combat areas provide excellent opportunities to leverage those options. It’s an impressive design feat when you consider how organically these areas blend with the open spaces that tie them together. I could, for instance, toss out a big vortex grenade to control space and force my enemies to back up behind cover, then sprint towards them, glide clear over their cover to greet them with a shotgun blast, and then catapult up to safety on a ledge above. Cover is smartly placed, and there’s enough horizontal and vertical space to allow for a variety of approaches, even in the most straightforward combat scenarios. You'll face four different races over the course of your journey, and their armies are each diverse and interesting. The cunning, multi-armed Fallen make excellent use of cover, will actively flank your position, and even attempt to lure you into ambushes. Other foes, like the robotic Vex, can teleport directly into combat out of nowhere, and still others have jump packs, cloaking devices, or massive riot shields to aid their advances. The range of different problems they can give you to solve is downright impressive, which keeps the combat fresh, and exciting throughout. That is, with the exception of some of the bosses, who are mostly just super-sized versions of existing enemies with a lot more hit points. The two or three bosses that don’t fit that description, like the imposing spider tank, require more from you - you’ll have to find weak spots and coordinate with teammates to to stay alive, which resulted in more than one exciting “we did it!” moment. On the whole, the combat is so well executed that I never once tired of fighting in the multitude of hours I’ve played so far. That says a lot considering that fighting is, disappointingly, the only way you can meaningfully interact with the beautiful world around you. A Class By Any Other Name… Outside of combat, Destiny postures itself as far more than a simple FPS, but while its various RPG elements add some extra layers on top of its well-done combat, they don't feel fully explored or fleshed out. Part of that is because of what a poor job Destiny does of educating us about all of its moving parts, but it's also because it’s so hell-bent on being all things to all people that it unsurprisingly drops the ball in places. Destiny's class and skill systems are the biggest victims of this. The Hunter, Warlock, and Titan all do the same things (stay alive and kill stuff), just in subtly different ways. Everybody can use every weapon type with equal proficiency, and until you get to the very highest levels of endgame gear, class-specific armor mostly just looks different. Next to how well-differentiated classes feel in Borderlands 2, or even Battlefield 4, none of Destiny’s classes feel like they bring anything indispensable to a party. As a direct result, playing cooperatively with others feels more like “shooting stuff with friends” rather than a carefully coordinated dungeon party. It’s still a good time, especially during the excellent co-operative strike missions, but it lacks the depth I look for in class-based games. The RPG element that succeeds the most is the loot game. It doesn’t overwhelm with any sort of statistical complexity, but rather engages by presenting clear, meaningful choices. It gets off to a slow start though. Drop rates seem abysmal until somewhere around level 11 or 12, and gear has too few unique stats until then either. Eventually though, weapons and armor start dropping with interesting mods, and entire upgrade trees that allow you to tailor their feel and performance in interesting ways. From weapons that reload faster when their clip is completely empty, to ones that speed up your ability cooldowns when you score kills with them, there's actually a decent number of different ways to gear. Especially when you start getting into the legendary and exotic loot tiers after level 20, surprises keep coming from new, even crazier mods. The problem though, is that the methods for earning post-story gear aren't clearly explained or, in some cases, even alluded to over the course of Destiny's 12-hour campaign. You’ll need to coordinate which bounties you take with what patrols you want to do, grind for several different currencies, and rank up your standing with a handful of factions - several of which are tucked away in the dark corners of the Tower hub. There’s a lot of room for post-story progression, but you either just start stumbling onto it...or you don't. For a game that trips all over itself to be simple and accessible to everybody, that's an unnecessarily confusing curveball to hit. Destiny and Identity The half-baked nature of Destiny's RPG elements are just a symptom of a far larger issue: This is a game that’s straddling the borders between too many kinds of experiences, and in its attempts to have something for everyone, it never fully satisfies on any one front. The competitive multiplayer, called The Crucible, is the chief example of this. The few included maps do sport Bungie's hallmark map design - they’re excellent, in fact. But without private lobbies to organize fights with friends, or any ways to customize the handful of game modes, it’s hard to imagine the multiplayer shooter enthusiast who could be satisfied with it. The same can also be said of how Destiny allows players to interact with one another - or rather, how it doesn't. Bungie calls Destiny a “shared-world shooter,” and the influences from the MMO world are clear in its overall layout and structure. Yet, there’s no way to communicate with anyone who isn't in your party, and there's no loot-trading either. Omissions like these become a big problem when you try to do the challenging weekly Heroic Strike missions and raids. Both are part of a healthy endgame, post-launch content plan that’s already delivered enjoyable new modes of play. The first raid, Vault of Glass, has given me plenty of incentive to grind for gear and further develop my character post-campaign. It introduces team objective elements to the PvE, and delivers entirely new locales and bosses that you won't get to see anywhere else in the game world. The problem is, unlike Destiny's other co-op content, neither the Heroic strikes or raids provide matchmaking service, so unless I happen to have high-level friends who are ready to play, finding a party comes down to hitting message boards to look for a group. As someone who played mostly solo, I actually appreciated this sense of separation between me and other players, but people seeking a strong sense of community simply won’t find it here. Why do I need an internet connection for a game that feels so intent on putting barriers between me and other players? Verdict Simplistic “it’s like X mixed with Y” comparisons don’t really add up when attempting to explain what Destiny is, or why it’s worth playing. It borrows from many well-established gaming destinations, but the climate of each is wildly different, and often incompatible. It’s a complex production that boils down simply to this: Destiny is a mechanically excellent, visually evocative FPS housed within an under-developed RPG framework. The endgame might hook you for the long haul once you fully understand it, but Destiny is ultimately unable to be all the different games it’s trying so hard to be. IGN received access to Destiny when the servers went live on September 8th. As such, Destiny was approached as a review in progress. Feel free to check here for a complete archive of our review process.

Max Payne has suffered beyond reasonable limits. (It's all in the name.) Nine years have passed since the last game in the series, yet little has changed for its long-suffering protagonist, who remains deeply traumatised by the death of his wife and child. ‘Trauma’ is the key word – in Greek, it means ‘wound’, and Max is someone who has never let his fully heal. To move on would be to forget – a betrayal of those he loved – and so instead he chooses to wallow in the past and the pain, with the help of brown liquor and white pills. But thankfully, Max Payne 3 SEE DEAL isn’t content to simply relive the past, and makes bold stylistic and narrative decisions to avoid stagnation. And though these choices have significant consequences on the game’s pacing that may prove divisive, Max Payne 3 is overall a brilliant, darkly-engrossing third outing for one of video games' most troubled characters. Ostensibly, Max Payne 3 looks very different from its predecessors. The rundown tenements and shadowy sidewalks of New York have been replaced by the hedonistic nightclubs and baking heat of São Paulo, where Max has taken a job working private security for wealthy businessman Rodrigo Branco. Unsurprisingly, things don’t work out for Max: Rodrigo’s trophy wife, Fabiana, is kidnapped on Max’s watch, which sets in motion a chain of events that draws Max into a much larger, more sinister story. Share Autoplay setting: On The change of location is underscored by a raft of cinematic effects: scan lines, chromatic aberration, shifting film stock. Initially, it all seems a bit much, too noisy and distracting, but after a while you acclimatise and it becomes part of the game’s distinctive texture. But it’s not just stylish gloss – like everything in the game, it feeds into the characterisation of Max, emphasising his jaded disconnection from the world around him. Despite swapping the shadows for the sun, the series hasn’t lost its hardboiled heritage. The non-linear narrative, the cast of suspicious characters, a plot twisted by deception and corruption – it’s all present and correct. If you’re not a fan of genre fiction, you might find the supporting cast risibly generic, the plot a bit flimsy, but there’s a marked difference between using archetypal characters because you’re creatively spent and deliberately tapping into a rich tradition. Max Payne 3 does the latter – it’s a game that is fully literate in the genre of which it strives to be a part, and judged on those terms it’s one of the finest executions of game noir to date. And nowhere is this better exemplified than in James McCaffrey’s standout performance as Max Payne. It’s gnarled and bitter, as you would expect – he effortlessly delivers the script’s many Chandlerlisms with calloused cynicism – but it’s also a surprisingly nuanced turn. Throughout the game, you're never sure if Payne's searching for absolution, trying to save another man's wife, or if he's really on a protracted suicide mission, trying to embrace his own destruction. Almost half-way through this review, and I’ve yet to mention gameplay. Maybe that’s a tacit criticism in itself. It’s not that Max Payne 3’s gameplay is substandard – far from it – but it’s always firmly in the service of its overarching narrative. Consequently, the game is heavily punctuated by cut scenes – some brief, some quite long. And it’s easy to see how their frequency may prove too intrusive; some players might feel that control is being taken away from them too soon or given back a little too late. Ultimately, it’s a trade-off, and if you buy into Max’s plight, cut scenes become engrossing, and it’s joy to see them bleed seamlessly into the furious action. Share Autoplay setting: On The core gameplay is simple yet refined. Although there are a range of distinctive weapons in the game, you can only carry two side-arms and one two-handed weapon at any given time. And if you choose to dual-wield, you’re forced into dropping the larger, potentially more powerful weapon. It keeps things straightforward and uncluttered. Max’s signature time-bending moves – Bullet Time and Shoot Dodge – return, and are easy to pick up and master. The game’s fully-destructible environments really intensify firefights – seeing the air around you slowly woven with spiralling bullets, fractured glass, and plumes of shredded paper is genuinely thrilling. They’re simple mechanics, but once you’ve mastered combining them, the action and destruction you can orchestrate is breathtaking. It’s a little disappointing for a game that invests so heavily in the development of its protagonist not to reflect this at the level of gameplay: Max has no new abilities available to him that aren’t there from the start. But the inclusion of a non-regenerating health system does a great job of forcing you to play like a desperate man on the edge. You can’t cowardly hide behind a pillar waiting for you health to return – it won’t, and the pillar will crumble. Max Payne 3 is unapologetically violent. In fact, it lingers on violence, but not in a tawdry or sensational way. Yes, it focuses on some of its most visceral manifestations – ragged bullet wounds, charred flesh, dismembered limbs – but it also peers into the unseen causes that lie behind such acts of violence. It touches on the disparity between rich and poor, and how resentment and desperation can fester in the slums and the penthouses alike. This isn’t only tackled in the main story, but also in nice scraps of incidental narrative recovered in clues dotted about the meticulously-crafted environments. The game’s kill camera -- another one of the game’s many visual flourishes -- tracks the final bullet from Max’s gun to its intended target, but it never sublimates the violence. Although you’ll kill hundreds of people in Max Payne 3, it remains a grisly business throughout. However, the action set-pieces seem a little muted, especially when compared to, say, the spectacular recent capers of Nathan Drake. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The difference in execution is perhaps best explained through a comparison. In Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, there’s a well-known scene in which Sully and Drake must escape from a French château before it burns to the ground. It’s exciting and adrenaline-inducing, but it doesn’t really serve much purpose in terms of the game’s narrative. It’s just another one of Uncharted’s many impressive set-pieces. A similar scene occurs in Max Payne 3; a building is set on fire and Max must escape before he is incinerated. But this isn’t just eye-candy or glitzy spectacle. Admittedly, it’s less exhilarating than Uncharted’s equivalent scene but it’s also has greater significance. Max has found himself at his lowest ebb inhabiting an environment quickly resembling hell – the metaphorical significance of which isn’t lost on Max. This is when the game is at its strongest – when gameplay, character and narrative all wonderfully fuse and interplay. For adrenaline junkies -- those who lust after bigger and fierier explosions, more extravagant death-defying scenarios -- the set-pieces in Max Payne 3 might seem a tad sedate. (Saying that, you still get to shoot missiles out of the air in slow-motion while dangling from a helicopter.) But it’s a game that is more concerned with making its spectacles mean something within the confines of its story. Share Autoplay setting: On For a Rockstar game there’s also conspicuous lack of freedom in Max Payne 3. It’s easy to imagine how Sao Paolo’s favelas could have been realised as kind of destitute labyrinth, with a disorientated Max lost amidst its ramshackle alleys, but instead the game always provides you with a well-defined pathway. There’s never any doubt where to go or who to shoot, since you can always feel the spectral touch of an authorial hand pushing you forwards, towards the next checkpoint, the next cutscene. Occasionally the promise of liberty is dangled in front of the player – when Max is equipped with a silenced weapon, you wonder if sections can be tackled with a more stealthy approach – but it’s never long before the excrement collides with the industrial turbine. The single-player story lasts around 10-12 hours. Max Payne 3 has a variety of Arcade modes – from score challenges to speed runs to keep you busy once you finish the main story. In New York Minute, you're tasked with playing through the campaign with a clock counting down from five minutes above your head. The premise is simple: kill guys to earn time. It's like Time Crisis, and a lot of fun, but it's unlikely that you'll play through the entire again exclusively in this mode. Still, it's nice way to sample key parts of the narrative again, especially if you're partial to a state of constant anxiety. It’s the multiplayer that is the real surprise, however. It’s gleeful pandemonium. Gang Wars, in particular, attempts something rather ambitious, trying to weave narrative into what is usually a player-determined mode. You'll play four rounds, with different objectives that alter depending on what happens in each of them: from claiming territory to defusing bombs to assassinating a randomly selected leader of the opposing gang. This accumulates a point advantage going into the fifth and final round, which always takes the form of an all-out death match. Bursts, which function like perks, are central to this mode, and confer advantages to the members of your crew, from raising the calibre of your weapons to inducing paranoia in the opposing team, making friendlies appear as enemies. Gang Wars has lofty aspirations, and it's not entirely successful - you're not left with enduring memories of these vignettes, nor does it feel as if they're really filling in gaps in the game's narrative once Max has exited stage left pursued by hooded thug. But it doesn't really matter since the gameplay itself is relentless fun, giving players a sense of freedom absent from the single-player campaign. It's also laudable to see a developer trying to innovate in the multiplayer space, rather than simply rehashing the mainstays. Max Payne’s multiplayer is definitely not an afterthought, and will certainly reward players with months of enjoyment. Verdict There are plenty of games which are celebrated for their gameplay but lack anything in way of story or character. Max Payne 3 is a different type of proposition. The gameplay is simple yet satisfying, but it’s entirely in the service of a strongly-authored narrative. Players aren’t at the liberty to roam, to explore, or to shake things up. Some might find this too controlling, but in return for your freedom, you’re rewarded with a mature genre piece which is also a finely-realised character study. Action games continue to inch the dial towards 11, sometimes at the expense of their narrative integrity. Max Payne 3, however, has the conviction to reign in the action, imbue it with purpose - the spectacle still sparkles but it also makes sense. Premiere Date: May 15, 2012 Composer: Health Producer: Steve Martin Developers: Rockstar Games, Rockstar New England, MORE Nominations: VGX Award for Best Actor Voice, MORE Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS People turn

Ever since SimCity virtually invented the god-game genre over ten years ago, gamers have been creating worlds and po[CENSORED]ting them, and then mani[CENSORED]ting the environment to help their charges grow and prosper. Taking its cues from games such as The Settlers, Caesar III, and SimCity, 1602 A.D. combines god-game and real-time-strategy elements to create an interesting blend of real-time and city-building gameplay. 1602 A.D. is the North American release of a game that came out in Europe last year under the title Anno 1602, which was developed by the German firm Sunflowers. However, despite being essentially the original version of the game with a handful of additions (an included expansion pack, a couple of new building structures, supposedly improved artificial intelligence, and a scenario editor), 1602 A.D. is not just an afterthought release of some obscure European game. In fact, Anno 1602 is the best-selling game ever in Germany and has sold more than a million copies worldwide. As such, you might expect a radical new twist in the gameplay, but 1602 A.D. simply takes the tried-and-true real-time god-game formula and applies a bit of European sensibility. That is, the game is slower, less violent, and more cooperative, yet it still inhabits familiar territory. Despite its historically allusive title, 1602 A.D. is set in a fictitious universe with no direct connection to the colonization of the New World. However, the game has a strong historical flavor, as it opens with the establishment of a small colony on an island that develops much like an early-17th-century town. Adding to the atmosphere is the game's pacing, which is very relaxed. There are several speed settings, but even at faster speeds the game moves along somewhat uneventfully unless you're drastically mismanaging the situation. It's this slow pace that will likely determine whether you like the game or not. The gameplay proceeds along well-worn lines. You're charged with building and maintaining a colony on a previously unexplored island. The maps consist of approximately fifteen or twenty islands in a vast ocean, and competing players settle, develop, and expand their holdings in the hope of building a prosperous settlement in the New World. You initially have one ship with enough tools, wood, and food to get a foothold on one island. Once there, you must construct buildings such as fishing huts for food, foresters' huts for lumber, and various farms for wool and cattle. The objective is to eventually build as large and prosperous a colony as possible, so you'll need to build homes for your settlers. As the colony expands, the inhabitants will demand such things as schools and taverns to let them keep growing. Settlers progress through various states of development, up to the highest level of "aristocrat." The more advanced the settlers, the more they want. Eventually you'll be building cotton and tobacco plantations, churches, colleges, and theaters, as well as shipyards and armories. The relationships between the colonists and their buildings can become rather complex, and managing them efficiently is the point of the game. 1602 A.D. can be played in several modes, including continuous play, individual scenarios, and multiplayer. Continuous play is the familiar, open-ended mode in which you start with a ship, settle an island, and subsequently develop your colony through various stages to a thriving 18th-century metropolis while protecting yourself from marauding pirates and overly aggressive neighbors. Continuous-play games have no set ending point, and the mode continues essentially until you become tired of the game. On the other hand, scenarios require you to reach a certain goal, such as having a certain number of aristocrats in your colony.At first the scenarios seem as though they would be more limiting (and thus less interesting) than the continuous game. But in fact, it's the continuous-play mode that feels limited because it plays very similarly each time, at least through the opening phases where the nature and order of builds are fairly predictable. The familiar opening game gives the continuous-play mode of 1602 A.D. a sameness that doesn't appear in the scenarios, which place you in a wide variety of situations each with a definite goal to be achieved. Trade is absolutely crucial in 1602 A.D. It is simply impossible to meet all of your citizens' demands with the resources of a single island, and by the time you find you can expand to another island, the settlers on the first island will be in an advanced state of development and will demand goods the newly settled island cannot hope to provide until much later. Thus, establishing trade routes is vitally important, and managing the routes demands constant attention. If you happen to colonize an island with a native po[CENSORED]tion, you can trade for goods such as spices and tobacco by overland routes using covered wagons. However, it is generally necessary to begin trading with other players from the very early stage of the game. The interface allows for some automation of trading, so that once a good source of a certain item is found, ships can be assigned to ply that route continuously as long as there are goods available for purchase. Even so, the changing demands of your po[CENSORED]ce will require that you restructure a colony's trading arrangements. Thus, trade is another facet of the game that needs constant monitoring, especially as the inhabitants become more advanced and demand more and more luxuries to keep them satisfied. While there are military units in the game, combat is not the focus of 1602 A.D. Because it is so difficult to invade and conquer a well-prepared neighbor, military strength becomes a way of ensuring a settlement's security rather than a means of threatening other players. This is where 1602 A.D. resembles a god game far more than a traditional real-time build-and-conquer game. Properly managed, a powerful military might never need to be used. This is not the case in some of the scenarios, where military action is the only way to achieve your objectives, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Those who enjoy building a large invasion fleet and annexing their neighbors won't have a good time trying to do so in 1602 A.D. On the other hand, if you're interested in a slightly more mercantilist depiction of society, you will enjoy the predominance of building and trade. 1602 A.D. has an extensive tutorial that does a decent job of explaining some of the basic game concepts, and the manual is passable, but there is a lot to the game that isn't apparent on first examination. This issue is compounded by the lack of any overall summary screens to organize the vast amount of information that you're faced with. There's some information on the game's web site that should have been included in the documentation. And while the interface makes mani[CENSORED]ting game functions fairly easy, it's less effective for information management. Though you'll have the power of an all-knowing deity, you'll be forced to work hard for your omniscience. While it can't boast innovative design or unusual gameplay, 1602 A.D. has a peculiar charm all its own. The game captures the feel of the historical period very well and carries you along without the extreme highs and lows that characterize more fast-paced and violent games. Those who prefer to play action-packed computer games will be disappointed by 1602 A.D., but if you're looking for a more relaxing game, you'll find a pleasant diversion in this engaging colony builder. Premiere Date: March 1998 Series: Anno Platform: Microsoft Windows Developers: Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software, Max Design Publishers: Ubisoft, Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software, Ak tronic Software & Services GmbH, GT Interactive Genres: Real-time Strategy, Urban Simulator

Madden NFL 13 SEE DEAL is an excellent football game. You could point to the gameplay improvements, the new physics engine or even the adlibbing commentators as to why the game works so well, but the truth behind the success comes down to the sum of the parts. Madden NFL 13 looks, feels and sounds like what we all watch on Sunday, and I can't stop playing it. Share Autoplay setting: On From the moment you hit start, Madden NFL 13 is a different beast. Rather than get dropped into mountains of disconnected menus, you're put directed to one hub screen that shows you how many players are online at that moment, gives you one-click access to your communities, and leaves your careers at your fingertips. There are different modes to Madden, but they all stem from the same place; Madden's identity crisis is over. The pop music and rappers are gone and in their place is an instrumental score driving home that this is the NFL and it's time to play football. Madden NFL 13 does something the Madden franchise hasn't done in years: it makes me want to keep playing. “ Luckily, playing football in Madden NFL is a blast. Every time I put down the controller, I want to pick it back up and head out on the field. Madden NFL 13 is challenging this year with receiver icons that change depending on if the player is looking for the ball and defenses that aren't afraid to call me on my lack of a running game -- but I'm all about the struggle. I'm fighting for each and every yard I gain or keep from an opponent, and I'm relishing actually having to think on the field. See, EA tweaked a whole bunch of gameplay mechanics in Madden NFL 13. If you want to be the jaded gamer and say "It looks just like last year," go ahead, but know that you're wrong. Yes, the graphics look as good as last year -- actually they're a bit better when you include the new TV graphics and the lush shade of a good Sunday afternoon game -- but there's plenty of under the hood enhancements that evolve the gameplay we all know.There are 25 new pass trajectories so you can put the ball out in front or just above the receiver. Defensive backs have to see the ball to make a play on it so there are no more psychic swats. You can abort play action after the snap. At a glance, Madden NFL 13 might just look like Madden, but in your hands, it feels polished. Now, a big part of that feeling is the much-touted Infinity Engine. Basically, this adds physics to Madden for the first time. Whereas a corner and a wideout would bump into each other in the air and then come down in the same spot they leapt from last year, Madden NFL 13 allows for helicopter hits and tumbles out of bounds. Contact matters and changes plays. It sounds exciting -- and spearing a receiver out of the air so that the trainers come out to check on him definitely is -- but I wasn't impressed at first. In fact, the place I saw the physics the most were when plays were blown dead and linemen stumbled over one another or receivers' legs got tangled with defenders. Expect jankiness to stand out, but don’t let it stop you from playing. The benefit of the Infinity Engine isn't the big plays; it's the fact that the small plays don't all look the same. In past Maddens, there were only so many tackle animations and ways a player could go down. After a while, it was easy to feel like you had seen it all. The Infinity Engine makes every hit a little bit different. Angles, weight and more matter. Watching a halfback break free of a shoddy tackle or a wideout come down just in bounds before stumbling over really amplifies how the game looks and feels. Sure, there are still wonky tackles and handoff animations, but the good outweighs the bad by a long shot -- especially if EA continues to refine the formula and deliver animations that aren't canned. If you buy something through this post, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, learn more. This well-oiled gameplay is then combined with a brand new presentation, and this setup is really what got me going for Madden NFL 13 SEE DEAL . I made a video a few months ago arguing that Madden's robotic announcers and generic tickers were what was holding it back from being a true NFL experience, and it looks like EA agreed. Share Autoplay setting: On No longer are we subjected to a generic broadcast style. Madden NFL 13 packs primetime intros, a CBS-like graphics package, and replays out the wazoo. When a play's dead, there's still chatter from the players on the field, the crowd roars as a touchdown approaches, and the awkward inflections of previous commenters have been replaced with Phil Simms and Jim Nantz. EA let them adlib most of their lines so that there's actually rambling and stumbling similar to what we know and love. So you have this gameplay that feels challenging and interesting, on-field action that looks more fluid than ever, and then this TV presentation that makes your experiences seem like they're happening on Sunday and being watched by drunkards across the nation. This is what I mean when I say Madden is a unified NFL experience. EA gives you a lot to do with this package, but most of it should be familiar. There's online matchmaking, the ability to join private fan communities (IGN Podcast Beyond on PS3 and IGN Scrub Nation on Xbox 360), and the weird Ultimate Team mode where you get trading cards and assemble a squad. However, the big time sink in Madden NFL 13 is Connected Careers, and it is awesome. It all adds up to Madden NFL 13 being something truly special. “ This year, Franchise, Online Franchise, create a player and the rest are all shoved into Connected Career. You choose to play offline or on, and then decide if you want to be coach, a specific player or create a character. From there, it's the same experience regardless of the role (preseason, cuts, draft and so on). Head coaches will play both sides of the ball while a superstar will only play when he should be on the field. If you want to be a coach and I want to just be a halfback, we can both get what we want and play in the same online career. If I get bored of being a halfback, I can retire that player and start a new one or a coaching career in that same universe we've created -- complete with evolving draft classes and storylines to watch. It is 30 seasons of whatever we want. But what really hooked me when it comes to Connected Careers is practice and experience points in general. Each week, you as your player or coach can choose from a laundry list of practice scrimmage scenarios -- down in the third, up at halftime, etc. -- and hit the field to try and take home the XP. Then, you can apply the reward to your created player or team and build a legacy in the image you want. Share Autoplay setting: On This kept me coming back to Connected Careers week after week. I liked the idea of XP in NCAA Football, but I always thought it was an unbalanced system as completion after completion would earn me my coach's trust but one INT could wipe it all out. Madden NFL 13's system is far more rewarding and actually allows me to build the character I want on a stat by stat basis. The fictional Twitter feed commentating on my NFL's top stories and the NFL Draft packing audio commentary about the fictional players are nice touches, but the way Madden deals with XP is the real story this year. BETTER WITH KINECT? If you're playing on Xbox 360 and plug in your Kinect, you'll find Madden NFL 13 is ready to support you. Rather than have you goofily flailing your arms to pass the ball, Kinect voice commands are used to cut out Madden's menus. You can call out an audible, challenge a play and shift your defensive line with a few quick words. My Kinect had some trouble hearing me over the TV, but that might have been a placement issue. Once I turned down the sound, the Kinect had no trouble allowing me to call a time out or modify a hot route. I don't think I'd use it over the controller combinations we all know so well, but it's there in a jam and it works. Verdict Madden NFL 13 does something the Madden franchise hasn't done in years: it makes me want to keep playing. Yes, the commentators will repeat themselves and funky animations are going to pop up, but the game as a whole is so good. The TV presentation, the refined gameplay, the more lifelike physics -- it all adds up to Madden NFL 13 being something truly special.

Gather your party and get ready for a new, back-to-the-roots RPG adventure! Discuss your decisions with companions; fight foes in turn-based combat; explore an open world and interact with everything and everyone you see. Join up with a friend to play online in co-op and make your own adventures with the powerful RPG toolkit. In Divinity: Original Sin you take on the role of a young Source Hunter: your job is to rid the world of those who use the foulest of magics. When you embark on what should have been a routine murder investigation, you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a plot that will rattle the very fabric of time. Divinity: Original Sin is a game that gives you a lot of freedom and plenty of gameplay mechanics to use or abuse. The game's epic story may drive you toward your ultimate end-goal, but how you get there is entirely up to you. Or up to you and a friend, because Divinity: Original Sin can be played completely cooperatively, and features both online and local drop-in/drop-out multiplayer. Great adventures become even greater when shared with a trusted comrade-in-arms! Key Features Become part of a reactive, living and vast open world. Explore many different environments, fight all kinds of fantastical creatures and discover tons of desirable items. Experience gripping party- and turn-based combat. Mani[CENSORED]te the environment and use skill & spell combos to overcome your many foes: Use magic to make it rain on your enemies, then cast a lightning spell to fry them to a crisp. Experiment with different skill combinations to ruin the day for enemies and townspeople alike. Play with a friend in co-op multiplayer. Make decisions together (or disagree entirely), as your interactions and relationship with your partner influence the game. Unravel a deep and epic story, set in the early days of the Divinity universe. No prior experience with other Divinity games is necessary, however. The game takes place well before its predecessors, Divine Divinity and Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga, but will still feel familiar to fans. Classless character creation lets you design the character of your choice. Endless item interaction and combinations take exploration and experimentation to another level of freedom. Create your own adventures and share them online. With Original Sin comes the powerful toolset used by the game's designers. Yours are endless new stories to make and share with other players! Digital Collector's Edition The Digital Collector's Edition contains: 2 copies of Divinity: Original Sin: one for you and pass on the second key to a friend Award-winning Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity The Golden Grail DLC: an in-game item that allows you to colour your items in gold and sell them for more. Zandalor's Trunks DLC: enjoy a unique in-game undergarment as rare as it is opinionated. Design Documents Art Pack Soundtrack Despite the name, originality in the fundamental style of roleplaying gameplay doesn’t appear to have been a priority here; developer Larian Studios seems to have concerned itself more with skillfully stoking the flames of nostalgia. Divinity: Original Sin is the kind of game I briefly expected to play when I heard Overhaul Games was making an enhanced version of Baldur's Gate a couple of years back, as it coats the same type of experience that got me hooked on the digital incarnations of Gary Gygax's Dungeons & Dragons legacy with rich, modern graphics and contemporary relevance. It's all here, from the top-down perspective as you follow four adventurers from above like Warhammer pieces on a tabletop, to turn-based combat and the clunky menus that seemingly require more skill that it takes to wield a sword. As someone with fond memories of those RPGs, that alone would make Original Sin an eyecatching game. Fortunately, it's more than that. Take the overarching story of two "Source hunters" tracking down the dastardly fiends who dabble in "Sourcery." (I know Terry Pratchett was using the term way back during the heydey of Super Mario Bros. 3, but it still sounds like one of the more forced attempts to wring some freshness of out the terminology of conventional high fantasy.) Much as in big-budget roleplaying peers such as Skyrim or Mass Effect, the overarching plot revolving around (of course) saving the world never entirely smothers the experience of side activities, and you'll even find the occasional joke worming its way into the heady stuff. It's a safe route that perhaps escapes the demands of living up to the storytelling quality of a game like Planescape: Torment, but Original Sin's writers are competent enough to make the direction work well. Much of the appeal of Original Sin's scattered quests stems from the way Larian peppers them with humor and subtle pop-culture references, along with little tidbits of conflict with NPCs sprinkled into the responses for the text-based pop-up responses to quests. These conflicts are almost always resolved with a virtual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and they provide a welcome diversion when the two main characters are allowed to bicker over the merits of their actions in a key quest (particularly when you're in charge of controlling both of them). Sometimes these little spats give stat boosts or disposition gains, but they're most effective in the online cooperative mode as a means of injecting some roleplay into the experience aside from the combat and swapping items between the two heroes. Quests themselves are well-written adventures dealing with conflicts like ancient blood feuds and racial tensions. Do you, for example, help an elf whose family was murdered by orcs kill an innocent descendent of the vicious orc tribe, try to talk him out of it, or fool him into leaving by either faking the orc’s death or stealing an amulet as proof you killed her? Divinity: Original Sin’s quests are full of these kinds of great moral choices, and most of them have two or more possible outcomes that really made me feel like I had control over the fate of the characters. Share Autoplay setting: On Combat is where Divinity: Original Sin shakes off its mantle of tradition and comes into its own. There's a faint echo of Magicka in its heavily use of various spell and elemental combinations for devastating effects, but Larian distinguishes itself by working that system into almost every moment of combat to create opportunities for crowd control and environmental advantages that demand some brainwork even on the easiest of the three difficulty modes. My trick with the rain merely showed that system at its simplest; future encounters rarely let you get off so easily. You might have to dispel a poison cloud with a flame spell, then drench the flames with another blast of the rain spell to clear the way. Sometimes plans can backfire, such as when I discovered that I'd accidentally thrown a shock spell at an enemy who was standing in a puddle that extended under my own feet. Oops. And get this: all the enemies can use these same spell combinations against you. It's a clever tactical dynamic that manages to keep every encounter fresh and memorable, even after many hours. I did have a rough time figuring the combat system out over the first 10 hours of play, to say nothing of other unexpected tricks such as using a spell to burn down locked doors instead of wearing down a weapon's durability by hacking at them. There’s a tutorial covering the basics, but the rest of Divinity: Original Sin is characterized by some of the most brazen lack of hand-holding this side of Dark Souls. That creates some annoying questing issues that, while they certainly didn’t ruin my enjoyment, do need to be mentioned. Sometimes the key to one quest lies in another, and the scant quest journal rarely alludes to such overlaps. At times the awkward inventory, which demands constant juggling of items between four team members, adds to the confoundment. At least twice I didn't realize I already had the proper quest object because it was in the inventory of character who wasn't currently in conversation. When your party's carrying an object that's akin to the Holy Grail, you'd think the bearer would at least have the gumption to announce it. I spent embarrassing swaths of time in Original Sin just trying to figure out what to do next. Share Autoplay setting: On At the same time, I liked how not everything was spelled out for me. [Minor mechanical spoiler] When I discovered that you can pilfer a house of its valuables by using one of your party members to distract the owner in conversation while another steals, it was fantastic. [End minor spoiler.] In fact, setting aside the issues with the inventory and the occasional vague quest objective, the challenge of learning Original Sin's systems was a big part of why I enjoyed it. It compelled me to think about my actions and choices, which is more than I usually get to say about contemporary RPGs. Since the option for a skill reset doesn't appear until late in the campaign, I had to stop and start several times before I settled on two Source hunters that were well suited for confronting the occasional extreme challenges I’d run into on the previous attempt. It was all grueling work that set me days behind schedule, but it was deliciously satisfying when the pieces finally started falling into place. Though Original Sin’s now out of its extended Early Access beta, there are a few holes that Larian is still working to fill, such as the absence of named and voiced followers besides the warrior and mage you pick up in the first town. But this is one of those games that'll probably gain a degree of immortality itself from the community itself, as it comes equipped with extensive modding capabilities that will allow players to craft their own adventures for the Source hunters. But it's a credit to what Larian has accomplished here that those tools don't feel as essential for Original Sin's longevity as they do for some lesser RPGs. Verdict Divinity: Original Sin is one of the most rewarding RPGs to come along in years. Its quests and combat compelled me to think hard about my actions and choices, which is more than I usually get to say about contemporary RPGs. Its depth, personality, and combat challenges easily allow it to hold its own against the likes of heavyweights like Dragon Age: Origins. These systems invite constant experimentation throughout dozens of memorable hours of combat and cheeky storytelling, and its rich modding toolkit provides the framework for enjoyable player-made adventure for years to come. MINIMUM: OS: Windows XP SP3 or higher Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 or equivalent Memory: 2048 MB memory Graphics Card: HD Intel Graphics 4000 or NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GT (512 MB) or ATI ™ Radeon ™ HD 4850 or equivalent DirectX: Version 9.0c Storage space: 10 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX9c compliant RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Processor: Intel i5 2400 or higher Memory: 4096 MB memory Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 ti 1GB ram or ATI ™ Radeon ™ HD 6XXX or higher DirectX: Version 9.0c Storage space: 10 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX9c compliant

OPEL CORSA 5 DOOR. DISCOVER THE NEW CORSA - THE PERFECT, READY FOR THE FUTURE GERMAN CITY CAR CONSIDERING THE ENJOYMENT OF DRIVING WITH EXCITING TECHNOLOGIES. NOW OFFERED WITH GASOLINE, DIESEL OR 100% ELECTRICAL DRIVING. The new Corsa is a bold and clean expression of German engineering precision, with its dynamic captivating front silhouette and great rear. The new Corsa is attractive from every angle. ADVANTAGE PARKING ASSISTANT Never park by yourself. The avant-garde parking assistant1 recognizes the right spots and drives the steering wheel. You just accelerate and stop. Could parking be more comfortable? SEATS AND STEERING WHEEL Three-stage heating1 pleases you and the passenger next to you, and the heated steering wheel1 provides comfort for your hands. Once seated you will not want to leave the car. At DC public charging stations (100 kW). Reflects zero-level charging. Charging time may vary depending on the type and power of the charging station, the outside temperature at the charging point, and the temperature of the battery.

And how did you know that Santa Claus exists? Alexander PetrovAlexander Petrov It is very important for me that children believe in the magic fairy tale about Santa and be convinced that he exists! At the same time, however, it came to my mind to create this text, which, written in the normal way, and fallen before the wrong eyes, would doubt the little ones. And I can't allow it! So as you read, imagine that both the title and the content from here are in huge Christmas quotes. All children sooner or later realize that there is a Santa. Usually these moments remain sealed in the minds of the little ones and change their lives. Judging from my experience, I would even say that this is one of the first stages of growing up. I am sure that there is no one who does not remember the dramatic turn of life when his entire childhood, based and motivated by the fact that there is no Santa Claus, goes round, realizing that the Good Old Man is a completely real person. When it occurred to me to write something on the subject, it was shortly before the holidays, I was at work and decided to use my colleagues, bringing them back to that memorable moment. I boldly asked the completely logical question that should have gotten into one of the most shocking childhood memories of all in the editorial: "How did you know that Santa Claus exists?" And here's how my neglect flew into the air and landed in the ears of the four young children in the room, who for some reason had come with their parents to work. I will not forget the shock and disappointment in their eyes and the guilt that I experienced that it is exactly what I am destroying. Everyone in the room began to sympathize with the little ones, because we knew very well what they were lying about, that there was no Santa Claus, and at some point, because of someone's ridiculous offspring, you realized that the opposite was true! We'll see if I still have a job after the holidays, because some of the kids were blood relatives (not to say daughters) of my bosses. Nevertheless, most of my colleagues in attendance decided to answer the question I posed. Here's what they told me: Colleague 1 I was 8. Not anyone else, but my own grandmother looked me super cool in the eye and asked me with a stern expression, "You know there is a Santa Claus?" it was, of course, I know! " Colleague 2 I remember him and I'm still angry! Every year at 1-2 o'clock at night my sister, who is four years older than me, would go to me to open the presents. And in the year in question, she also tried to wake me up, but I told her that Daddy had said we should give him more time to leave the presents under the tree, otherwise he would be gone. Then my sister said to me "Oh, you're so dumb, don't you think ours is buying them ?!" Santa leaves them! I was only 4! Now I'm waiting for my sister to have children to bring her back! Colleague 3 I found the cash receipt from my gift in Santa's sack instead of in my mother's bag! Colleague 4 I saw Santa put the gifts buried under our tree. I asked him "What are you doing ?! Don't our parents bring us gifts ?! ", and he said to me," I'm sorry ... it's not them, I wear them! " Colleague 5 I remember it like it was yesterday! I was in 3rd grade when the math teacher came in and something was out of the bag. We all stood up for the traditional barracks salute after the command "Class, get up, class, be quiet!" Then the quack asked us, "How many of you still believe there is no Santa Claus?" Half of the children raised their hands. Master said, "Well, it's time for you all to grow up. Santa exists! " Colleague 6 It was the second day of Christmas. Ours again sent me to the next room, ostensibly to put the presents under the tree. This time, however, I decided to sneak in and peek through the door lock to find out the cause of this mystery. Then I saw that it was not my parents but Santa himself who bent under the tree and arranged the presents!

Depression is a mass murderer in the modern world Rosen KaramfilovRosen Karamfilov Increasingly, I hear the news about people putting an end to their lives. On various occasions. In different ways. They get tired of the mechanisms of the world, maybe. The last such case was with a 15-year-old boy who was found dead. She walked this soul so short and quickly decided to take the final turn ... The sensitivity of the new generation has proven to be far more acute than that of previous generations. Don't make it sound like an apology. It's just a fact. Nowadays, suicides are happening because of posts on facebook, which is terrible. Because of broken, unmarried love, they turn white. Most of all, the dense, black shadow of Her Majesty's Depression descends on the victims. This is a complex topic that needs much discussion. The other day I wrote a status on the social network in this regard and to tell you the truth - I was shocked by the statements of some of the commenters, who explained in general terms that depression was treated with a hard hand, that is, with a fight. Stunning thesis. Get him two slaps to tighten and think no more! Great logic, really. Pernik education. I wonder if these people think what they write or just seem interesting. Hopefully the second one, because the first one seems illogical and unforgivable. Who knows how many have been beaten who claim that the fist in your face can get you out of the hole. Who knows how much they cried ... I'm sorry for them. Depression can bloom like a rose, and only one seed of suffering is needed. But most people don't understand it. And I didn't understand it until my closest friend jumped from the sixth floor. I lost it and found out. These conditions should be treated promptly. The best drugs are three in number: understanding, warmth, and much, much talking about what causes us heartache. If they are gone now, then it's too late. Even sorry - the irreversible has already happened. We're late. We were not there. We have not been able to outsmart death. The end. The other day, a relative told me that her son had suicidal thoughts. He was harassed by his classmates, aggressed against him, ridiculed him. I'm starting to think that's where it all begins - in this baby prison called school. Children can sometimes be far more violent than adults. They can destroy their peers, level them with the ground, if they feel that they are weaker than them. This harassment can last for months, years. Your child may not tell you anything. To get sadder after hours. Until, at one point, his darkest nightmare becomes a reality. It all depends on the parents. From the heat they give off. In a home where love is ending, there can be no anomalies. One does not get depressed for no reason. Every torment has its root. The point is to find it before darkness completely engulfs us ...

Forbes magazine has announced the richest musician of the decade The rapper and producer Dre is the richest musician of the decade, according to Forbes magazine. American legendary music producer and rapper, Dr. Dre has beat out Taylor Swift for the title of music’s top earner of the decade. The 54-year-old whose full name is Andre Romelle Young was the highest-earning artist of the past decade, according to Forbes Dr. Dre reportedly made $950 million over the past 10 years with his 20 percent ownership of Beats, after he sold his company Beats by Dre to Apple in a $3 billion deal. Swift was second on the list, raking in $825 million after smashing lucrative deals and selling rights to her first six albums from Scott Borchetta, the owner of Swift’s original label, Big Machine Label Group to music manager, Scooter Braun. Beyonce came in third with $685 million followed by U2 in fourth place with $675 million; and Diddy in fifth with $605 million. In second place is American country and pop artist Taylor Swift with $ 825 million. She also topped the charts of the highest paid musicians for 2019. Among her most po[CENSORED]r songs are "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Delicate," Style "and" Bad Blood ". The top three also included Beyonce, which earned $ 685 million in 10 years. The rankings also include U2, Diddy, Elton John, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

Climate apocalypse is already happening See where the climate crisis has already started The world's most disaster-prone region (Asia-Pacific) felt the harsh reality of the 2019 climate crisis, CNN reported. Toxic smog enveloped Asian metropolitan areas, hundreds died in floods and landslides, cyclones rippled along coastlines, storms, fires, droughts and deadly heatwaves led to cities with almost no water. Scientists say the climate crisis is causing more extreme weather events, though not anomalies - and has devastating effects in Asia and the Pacific. A warning about an apocalypse that may come true What is the future climate of Bulgaria The ruthless sequence of natural disasters in the last two years "has been beyond what the region has previously experienced or is capable of predicting," a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said in August. Climate action has been called for this year, but while many in the developed world see the climate crisis as an urgent but future problem, for millions living in the Asia-Pacific region, it is already touching every part of their lives. Those on the front line say that words must now become a tangible change as the world moves toward a new decade. The most vulnerable region The Asia-Pacific region, home to 60% of the world's po[CENSORED]tion, is one of the most vulnerable areas to the climate crisis. The problem is the rapid urbanization in many Asian countries, with the pace of development often outstripping proper infrastructure planning. The po[CENSORED]tion boom and the massive migration of people into cities for work are straining water and food supplies. Source: GettyImages / Guliver Many major Asian cities, including Mumbai, Shanghai, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta, are coastal and low-lying, making them susceptible to sea level rise and other extreme weather events. Growing Asian, industrializing and carbon-intensive countries are pumping increasing levels of carbon dioxide emissions, despite efforts by nations such as India and China to move to cleaner energy. While more affluent cities such as Hong Kong can largely afford disaster resilience. At the other end of the scale, the po[CENSORED]tion affected by poverty lives in some of the most precarious places on Earth where extreme weather events could turn out to be catastrophic for life, food production, water sources, economies and infrastructure. They predicted a climate apocalypse in Europe Southern Europe will become a desert according to climatologists Sea level rise is happening now Global sea levels are rising faster than expected. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions, rising temperatures, melting glaciers and disappearing ice sheets could cause sea levels to rise by more than two meters by the end of this century if emissions continue to be the same. A rise of two meters would result in the displacement of 187 million people, mainly from Asia. Another study suggests that parts of southern Vietnam and Bangkok may be underwater in Southeast Asia by 2050. The Tuvalu Atoll The Tuvalu Atoll Source: GettyImages / Guliver Adapting to rising sea levels will be a key challenge for the Asia Pacific region, according to the United Nations Development Program. Measures include protection of the coastline and infrastructure, restoration of mangrove forests, and identification of flood risk areas. Cooper-Halo, a resident of Samoa, said Pacific countries are now being forced to adapt by installing monitoring stations that measure sea-level rise and the cultivation of more salt-water resistant crops. "Diets have already changed because ocean oxidation and coral bleaching have reduced fish stocks," she said. Storms and typhoons are getting more intense This year, floods and landslides caused by torrential monsoon rained India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, leaving devastation in every country and hundreds of deaths. China, Vietnam, Japan, India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines were hit by tropical storms and typhoons - or cyclones - in 2019, causing tens of deaths, hundreds of thousands of displaced people and millions of dollars in property damage. Source: GettyImages / Guliver The climate crisis is expected to create more storms, more rainfall and stronger winds. All cities vulnerable to typhoons are under pressure to improve infrastructure and plan their future growth properly. Investing in early warning systems has already saved countless lives. Preparing for more extreme climate costs costs money and calls on wealthy countries to ensure a fine

3 reasons to choose the new Renault CLIO Express your personality Tempting style. Sensual lines, dynamic profile, sculpted details and a new C-shaped light signature. The new Renault CLIO will captivate you from the moment your eyes see the modern and dynamic lines combined with the new orange Valencia. With many customization options and sports version R.S. Line, the iconic hatchback offers a rich range that will satisfy every taste. Give in to his charm In the interior, every detail matters. The new Renault CLIO has been revolutionized and offers quality materials and finishes. Thanks to the new high-tech and driver-oriented cockpit, the enveloping seats will enjoy driving that awakens all your senses. Choose from a variety of interior and interior customization options thanks to the MULTI-SENSE system. The interior is exactly the way you want it! You'll want to ride it One of the largest touch screens in its class with a connected navigation system, search for interesting objects and more. With the Renault EASY CONNECT, the new Renault CLIO provides seamless connectivity! With the same ease in and out of town, the iconic hatchback protects you with its active brake assist and pedestrian recognition system. The new Renault CLIO features the latest Renault EASY DRIVE technology, which makes maneuvering easier and includes a 360-degree camera and Easy Park Assist self-parking assist. Rediscover well-being ... The new Renault CLIO is equipped with a completely redesigned interior, offering maximum passenger comfort and more space. Its elegant interior features innovative technologies that make travel stimulating. Renault CLIO - Adaptive 7-inch driver screen Adaptive 7-inch dashboard The new Renault CLIO features an adaptive 7-inch driver screen. It is fully responsive so it can display the information that you, as a driver, consider to be the most important. Renault CLIO - BOSE® audio system BOSE® audio system Renault and BOSE have developed an innovative special system for the new Renault CLIO. With 8 speakers and a seamlessly integrated Fresh Air subwoofer, you'll enjoy superb sound with the BOSE® audio system. Renault CLIO - MULTI-SENSE - backlight MULTI-SENSE With MULTI-SENSE you can customize your new Renault CLIO according to your mood. Choose from three driving modes and eight interior lighting options. Renault CLIO - hands-free card Renault hands-free map Open, start and lock the new Renault CLIO with the greatest possible ease. When approaching your hatchback, it will greet you by turning on its distinctive lights and automatically unfolding the side mirrors. Renault CLIO - Handbrake assisted Electric hand brake An electric parking brake makes your life easier. It switches on automatically when you switch off the engine and is released automatically when you start. Renault CLIO - Hatchback Trunk Space Spacious trunk With its 391-liter luggage rack, the new Renault CLIO has the largest volume in its class. Thanks to the movable floor, you can choose the trunk configuration that best suits your needs, and you can even make it completely flat by folding the head restraints in the rear seats.

Name Game: MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD Price: 59,99€-23,99€ The Discount Rate: -60% Link Store:Steam Offer Ends Up After : The offer ends on January 2

Featuring one of the most epic super heroes, Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4 will offer you to enjoy the acrobatic performances and special moves with which he is so famous. All of this is combined with brand new and unfamiliar elements in a brand new and unprecedented game dedicated to Spider-Man. From parkour moves and stunts to moving to a new combat system and an impressive look, you'll come across a Spider-Man game you've never played before! Marvel and Insomniac Games are working together to create a whole new and authentic Spider-Man story. This is definitely not the character you have met or seen in some of the many movies and series. This is a very unique Peter Parker, who is much more adept at fighting crime in New York. At the same time, he is trying to strike a balance between his chaotic privacy and this will ensure the safety of 9 million people in the city! At its core, Insomniac Games’ new adventure strives to make you feel like Spider-Man. And, thankfully, Marvel's Spider-Man SEE DEAL on PS4 succeeds at nearly every swing across Manhattan’s rooftops. I was left delighted at nearly every step of its 15-hour adventure thanks to a surprisingly deep tale that mines the plights of both Spider-Man and Peter Parker to great emotional success. Underpinning that engrossing narrative is an excellent set of webswinging mechanics, which -- combined with fun gadgets and plenty of puns -- makes for thrilling action in both the massive setpieces and in the quiet, confined corridors of tense sequences. Insomniac’s first foray into the realm of Marvel superheroes is a continually exciting adventure whose open world and combat are only occasionally caught up in a web of overly familiar trappings. Swinging around feels, quite simply, spectacular. There’s a small learning curve, but after getting comfortable with the basics, it’s nearly effortless to make Spider-Man look graceful in every swing, leap, and lunge. And man does it feel good to find the right mix of jumping, crawling, web zipping, and wall running. Share Autoplay setting: On I’ve spent hours just soaring around the skyscrapers of New York City, testing the momentum of my swings to find just the right point to gain an extra boost of speed, or leaping off the Avengers Tower to test how close to the ground I could fall, just to swing out in the nick of time. Similar to how God of War’s Leviathan Axe felt so good to throw around, Insomniac has found web-spun gold with Spider-Man’s swinging mechanic, enhancing it with additional moves like a focal point webzip that allowed me to turn any ledge, beam, or satellite tower into a jumping off point to continue my non-stop movement. Open-world traversal hasn’t been this smooth since Sunset Overdrive (which, not coincidentally, Insomniac also developed). Doing What a Spider Can And, happily, no aspect of New York’s architecture can really stop Spider-Man. Discovering how a powerful, but nimble, Spider-Man tackles fire escapes, both vertically and horizontally, or watching him slip through the metal grating of a water tower is endlessly entertaining. His animations are so detailed that no matter the obstacle, I got the sense that I could truly do whatever a Spider-Man could. Every IGN Spider-Man Review Ever That was surprisingly true of indoor locations, too. The main story missions often took me into large-scale interiors, sometimes for light puzzle solving, and occasionally for stealthy takedown scenarios. For anyone who’s played the Batman: Arkham franchise, the framework is largely the same: enter a room, avoid being detected, and use a mix of gadgets and (relatively) quiet web takedowns to take down the crowd. Insomniac has found web-spun gold with Spider-Man's wonderful webswinging. “ These stealth scenarios perfectly highlight Spider-Man’s talents -- especially his love for designing gadgets. There’s a methodical thrill to plotting out the order I wanted to web up enemies, whether luring an enemy out toward me for a stealth takedown or by firing off a web trap that would stick them to a wall. There’s enough enemy variety (some react differently to your webbing than others, like big brutes that can’t be taken down as easily) that I always enjoyed the light bit of strategy these sections demanded, and would happily work my way through a dozen more. Share Autoplay setting: On Of course, Spidey gets up close and personal with foes a lot of the time, too, making for combat that’s equally fun, if a little slow to show its true depth. At first, I found myself pretty much just punching and dodging, occasionally webbing up a foe so I could focus on a more powerful baddie. But as I unlocked more skills from Spider-Man’s skill trees and gadgets, combat became an improvisational delight. After some leveling, I could pull an enemy’s gun away and smack him in the head with it, while a previously planted web trip mine strung two other enemies together. I’d then web-zip my way to a floor above me to smack an enemy off a railing while simultaneously sending a spider drone after two more foes. That balancing act consistently delivered on the powerful and fun fantasy of being Spider-Man. To be fair, Spider-Man’s combat owes a lot to the aforementioned Arkham franchise, right down to the slow-motion crunch when you take out the last baddie in a bunch, but that template is sped up dramatically in order to take advantage of Spidey’s nimble nature. The combat and gadgets fulfill the fun and powerful fantasy of being Spider-Man. “ That feeling of fluid movement only falters during boss battles. Insomniac throws in some big and exciting boss fights full of tense action. They’re sparingly involved, as many of the more fascinating setpieces of the story don’t involve one-on-one fights. But because the adventure is both front and back-loaded with boss fights, there’s an odd lull devoid of huge bouts right in the middle of the story. That’s not inherently bad, especially as a lot of great character work is done in the second act alongside those blockbuster action sequences. But because the first couple of bosses boil down to round-based pattern recognition, they felt a bit simple and rote. Unfortunately, that becomes pretty noticeable with the huge gap in major villain encounters. Still, there are some smart and fun twists in boss battles toward the end of the campaign to look forward to. Share Autoplay setting: On The variation in Spider-Man’s fighting style and inventive gadget arsenal — which is hardly a surprise given Insomniac’s knack for wacky weapon wheels in series like Ratchet & Clank — is also extended to Spider-Man’s wardrobe. His portable closet of unlockable Spidey suits all come with their own powers. Each power can be used independently of the outfit once unlocked, which is a godsend. It’s a joy to swap among some of the unexpected late-game duds, though I’ve become quite fond of this Spider-Man’s new main suit. That said, I largely relied on the first couple of powers for almost the entire campaign. The singular power to fill out your focus meter for special finishers or to restore health from Peter’s white-spider costume was so consistently useful that I didn’t want to give it up, and I never felt like the world encouraged me to use the others. Swapping between mods to adapt to specific side challenges — like one that could prevent my combo counter from immediately resetting with each hit — was always more useful than swapping between different abilities. 143 IMAGES Concrete Jungle Spider-Man’s New York is an absolute blast to swing around, in part thanks to how gorgeous the shiny skyscrapers of the city look. Spider-Man does have its graphical hiccups — for example, the faces of Peter and other key characters are spectacularly animated while less notable characters are flat and often out of sync with dialogue. But its New York City is undeniably gorgeous, particularly on a PS4 Pro. Swinging around at dusk as the calm oranges of the setting sun hit the reflective glass of New York’s skyscrapers at just the right angle evoked some of the most calming, zen-like gameplay sessions I’ve experienced in awhile. Marvel’s Spider-Man doesn’t offer a a 1:1 recreation of New York City, but most of the key landmarks -- including my old apartment -- are recreated faithfully. Neighborhoods have distinct enough character to be discernible as I swung from one to the next. Yes, certain aspects of the city, like water towers or certain building fronts, can start to feel repetitive. But Insomniac has done a pretty great job of capturing the city’s look with the sheen I’d expect for a world full of superheroes and super science. Share Autoplay setting: On That feeling is only magnified by the score. Spider-Man’s main theme recalls the triumphant horns of the MCU Avengers score, rising at just the right moments as I raced to stop a crime or to save some locale from a villain’s evil plot. Outside of the main campaign, there are dozens of other side objectives scattered throughout the city, which add another 15-20 hours of exploring, though my enjoyment of them varied greatly. I was never outright bored by any task, but some were reused so often that I found myself running through the motions of scenarios I once found exciting. The fourth or fifth time you figure out how to take on a horde of enemies committing a crime or fend off waves of enemies at an outpost is still entertaining — the fortieth is much less so. It dilutes what starts as a fun, heroic act into a repetitive, going-through-the-motions activity that often had a knack for popping up just as I was making my way to a major story mission. Outside of stopping those optional crimes, Taskmaster’s tough combat, race, and stealth challenges kept me coming back for better scores. And though finding landmarks and backpacks encouraged me to hit every corner of the city, the activity itself was pretty easy. Peter outside of his suit can also engage in a couple science minigames, one of which is essentially the pipe challenge from the original BioShock. I have a soft spot for that type of puzzle activity, but their inclusion contributes to some of the campaign’s odd pacing issues. They’re introduced just after your first real taste of being Spider-Man, and then interrupt the action anytime Spider-Man needs to do something science-related within the story. Share Autoplay setting: On The brilliance of what the world could have been can be seen in a handful of brilliant side missions. One tied nicely into the main story, culminating in an optional boss fight. Another suite of tasks forced me to actually have a good sense of New York’s neighborhoods. These sidequests helped bring the world of Spider-Man and its open New York City to life -- I just wish a few more of them cleverly gave the world and my actions more significance. Update: A day-one patch for Spider-Man has introduced a wonderful photo mode to the experience. It feels like the next evolution of photo modes before it, being so bespoke to Spidey himself. Being able to create comic book covers or panels is a delightful twist, and effectively allows you to create your own Spider-Man comic books should you want to. Spider-Man PS4 Photo Mode Screenshots 39 IMAGES Slow-Spinning Redemption I played Spider-Man to be Spider-Man, but I’m so happy I got to be Peter, too. “ Thankfully, the story consistently delivers that sense of weight and impact, albeit after a somewhat slow start. Insomniac’s Spider-Man is one who has a history in this world, and it feels earned thanks to smart integration of familiar villains rather than throwing them at the screen for the sake of fan service. The script allows time for the central villains (and Peter’s relationship to them) to believably develop, making for some emotionally powerful scenes toward the end that definitely had me misty eyed on a couple of occasions. I appreciated Insomniac’s surprising amount of restraint when it came to villains, but I loved the focus it put on Peter Parker and his relationships even more. I played Spider-Man to be Spider-Man, but I’m so happy I got to be Peter, too. Share Autoplay setting: On Peter’s story is one of mentorship, smartly showing how he can simultaneously look up to one mentor, while becoming one, too. That dichotomy offers Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal a chance to convey Peter’s various facets, and he does so with an emotional honesty that made this version of the Spider-Man one of my favorites on screen. Peter is someone who can succeed while he makes mistakes, and that juxtaposition offers a wealth of relatable material that carried me through much of Spider-Man’s story. I won’t spoil Miles’ part in the adventure, but I enjoyed his inclusion and, thanks to a charming performance, I was as endeared to him as I was to Peter. Spider-Man's story is as captivating as anything the MCU has offered. “ Perhaps most of all, though, I loved Peter and Mary-Jane’s relationship. It’s well-trod territory, but Insomniac injects new life into it, in part thanks to Spidey and MJ actors Lowenthal and Laura Bailey’s performances. These are two people who have a history together, and watching them try to figure out what future they have, if any -- as friends, coworkers, or more -- is an absolute joy to watch. A number of Peter and MJ’s scenes feel instantly relatable, from the two having their first dinner in months together, navigating whether they’re comfortable with one another, to Peter trying not to lose his cool over a misinterpreted text. It’s one of my favorite romances in a game ever, and contributes to a story with personal stakes as captivating — and often much more — as anything the MCU (and most superhero movies) has delivered. Verdict I wanted Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 to make me feel like Spider-Man: To sail between the highrises of New York City, to nimbly web up hordes of enemies, and tussle with familiar, animal-themed villains. Insomniac Games’ first foray into the world of Marvel handily delivers on all of that. But what I didn’t expect from Spider-Man was to come away feeling just as fulfilled to have inhabited the life of Peter Parker. Aside from a few odd pacing issues, which momentarily took me out of the experience of being a superhero, and a world of optional missions that don’t always quite live up to the heft of the main story, Insomniac has delivered a Spider-Man story that both surprised and delighted me, coupled with gameplay that made me feel like Spider-Man nearly every step of the way. The Wall Crawler’s open world doesn’t consistently deliver the thrilling moments of its main campaign, but the foundation laid here is undoubtedly a spectacular one.

Overwatch SEE DEAL exists at an intersection between design and artistry, a crossroad at which pure tactile joy meets refined, intelligent design to create a rare spark of magic. As a 6v6 multiplayer, objective-based shooter, it finds accessibility not by lowering the skill ceiling, but by broadening the definition of skill. The person with deadshot aim is no more valuable than the person with the decision-making ability to know when a well-timed ability will turn an engagement, or the person with the map-sense to find the optimal locations to place sentry turrets. While it didn't exactly drown me in options, maps, and modes, it’s blessed with a multitude of tactical layers, and none of them ever came between me and my enjoyment of its intense, swirling teamfights, and thrilling overtime comebacks. Update: Overwatch is IGN's 2016 Game of the Year. Overwatch does a great many things well, but above all else, its success is built on the backs of its many excellent characters. It’s fitting that the main menu is dominated by one of them at all times; their diverse appearances, origins, and personalities are all laid bare with every pose they strike. Reinhardt’s rocket hammer lands on his shoulder with a meaty clank that invokes a broadsword resting against a medieval knight’s plate armor, and Tracer’s jovial smile is just briefly interrupted by a rebellious bang that slides across her face, tempting her to blow it back into place before re-addressing the camera and blinking all over the place. There’s an intelligent gorilla scientist, a lithe, blue-skinned assassin, and a cybernetic, zen-practicing healer too. It speaks volumes that the one character that adheres to well-worn shooter tropes feels like the odd man out here. They’re all so different that you’d imagine them looking silly standing next to one another, but through careful, subtle visual cues baked into their equipment and attire, they manage to appear as if they share a common world, even if they all hail from different corners of it. It speaks volumes that the one character that adheres to well-worn shooter tropes feels like the odd man out here. “ This diversity continues to bear out when you pick a hero and hit the battlefield with them. Though the 21 characters (all of whom are unlocked from the start) are roughly grouped into one of four “roles,” no two feel alike. The robotic, transforming Bastion and the anarchic, explosive-tossing Junkrat are both technically Defenders, but they couldn’t play any more differently from one another. The former looks for a cozy spot overlooking a key choke point and transforms into a minigun turret to run point defense; the latter plays an area-denial game by lobbing timed grenades over long distances, which then sit on the ground blinking angrily, as if to say “go somewhere else” to encroaching enemies before exploding. This strong sense of differentiation is important because it keeps team composition strategies from devolving into simple formulas. No, two Tanks, two Supports, and two Attackers is not the magic solution for a winning team. You have to look much deeper – and when you do, the true beauty of Overwatch’s gameplay shines through. Every Tool In The Box One of the surprising keys to surfacing these nuances is its refusal to offer up crutches to lean on. With very few arguable exceptions, no character is focused solely around one catch-all gun or skill to the extent that you can find success by using it alone. Tracer’s dual machine-pistols have a high rate of fire but poor accuracy, a short clip, and middling damage if you aren’t scoring headshots. Genji’s shurikens are highly damaging and boast unerring accuracy, but their slow rate of fire and long travel time can make hitting a small moving target difficult. Almost every primary weapon fits this mold: they’re useful, and in the right situation quite powerful, but never versatile enough to be a security blanket to constantly cling to. Not only do these little details help differentiate characters, they pushed me to explore their other abilities in search of success. You have to look much deeper – and when you do, the true beauty of Overwatch’s gameplay shines through. “ And once I started looking more closely, I couldn’t stop discovering new things. Revisiting Junkrat’s toolset, he doesn’t have a single standard, reliable gun to just directly engage an enemy in front of him. Sure, he could skip grenades along the ground, leading his target as best he can, but even if you were good enough to reliably win one-on-one firefights this way, you wouldn’t be realizing his full potential. At face value his other two skills – Steel Trap and Concussion Mine – seem straightforward. One immobilizes enemies that wander into it, the other blows them sky-high when triggered. In practice though, they can be so much more. Steel Trap can be an escape tool, allowing you to disengage from fights with faster enemies trying to get in your face. Its positional alert upon being triggered allows it to double as an early warning system too, letting you know that someone on the other team is attempting to flank your defenses and holding them there long enough for you to respond. Or, plant a Concussion Mine on top of a Steel Trap and just detonate it when you see it triggered while you’re off somewhere else peppering the objective with grenades. You can even use Concussion Mine as a regular old grenade by tossing it at a group of enemies and detonating it manually as it gets there. Perhaps most amusingly, you can detonate it under yourself to rocket-jump up to otherwise-inaccessible areas. Just two abilities on one character opens up all those possibilities, and as you might imagine, once you get 12 characters scrapping over objectives, using their abilities to help and hurt one another, further layers of tactical nuance begin to unfurl. Share Autoplay setting: On For example: On her own, Pharah can be a major headache by hurling herself high into the air and hovering there while raining rocket-propelled death down on opposing teams from angles that render both cover and positioning moot. But with Mercy the winged medic tending to her, Pharah becomes a whole different kind of problem. Mercy’s Guardian Angel ability allows her to swoop toward any ally in range, even ones up in the sky. Combined with her ability to slow her descent with her wings, she's the only character that can follow Pharah wherever she goes. So you end up with a dynamic duo flying all over the place – the one shoving rockets down people's throats while the other switches between healing her up and buffing her already substantial damage output as needed. The sum of all these minute details is that almost every action, even the ones you repeat again and again, feel just a little bit magical. “ Overwatch is rich with synergies like this: Reinhardt and Lucio, Zarya and Reaper, Torbjorn and Symmetra…there's no shortage of opportunities for keen, coordinated play, and when you reach a point where you feel comfortable switching your character on the fly in the middle of a match to capitalize on weak enemy team composition, you feel like a tactical genius. You could spend many hours playing Overwatch before getting to that point by properly wrapping your brain around all the little intricacies it has tucked away behind its approachable veneer, but you certainly don't need to just to have a good time with it. Just trying out different characters, popping off their abilities, and moving through their world feels almost indescribably right, and it's all because of tiny, almost imperceptible details. The lid on Junkrat's grenade launcher flaps and clanks about with his every move, Lucio's movement has just the slightest touch of inertia, so you actually feel like you're skating when you play him. Zenyatta's reload animation might be my favorite; I never got tired of watching him open his arms to materialize a new set of orbs before clasping them together with a satisfying, metallic thud. It's a small thing, sure, but the sum of these minute details is that almost every action, even the ones you repeat again and again, feel just a little bit magical. The Path To Victory Overwatch’s 12 maps are similarly flush with luxuriant details, and they also play a big role in extracting further depth out of the cast’s toolsets. The oppressive first chokepoint on Hanamura begs to have static defenses like Torbjorn’s turret or Symmetra’s sentries built around it, and for attackers with the right mobility skills (see Pharah and Mercy above) the long gap between the left side of the first and second capture point becomes a tantalizing opportunity to flank the defenders before they can reset themselves. Payload-escort maps like Route 66 provide high ground on either side of the attackers route, setting up paranoia-inducing ambush scenarios where Winston’s spherical Shell Barrier becomes invaluable for protection against threats that could be coming from several angles at once. This adds another interesting layer of strategizing and decision making when coming up with team compositions. You aren’t just thinking about how your character will work in the context of your team, but also about what opportunities any given map provides, and how you can exploit them. You’re always in the fight, never wondering where it is or how to get there. “ Every map is directly tied to a specific objective type, so their construction is well-tailored to the action at hand. You never get that disjointed feeling of playing capture the flag on a team deathmatch map, like you might in other multiplayer shooters where maps have to accommodate a variety of modes. The upsides are subtle, but significant. Maps are focused without ever feeling constricted; there’s never any question about where you’re headed or how to get there, because every flanking path and side door eventually puts you where you need to be. In this way, Overwatch’s map designs allow you to choose your vector of engagement without risking you getting lost where the action isn’t happening. The result is zero wasted time; you’re always in the fight, never wondering where it is or how to get there. Share Autoplay setting: On Tying modes to maps in this one-to-one fashion has a small downside too though: Overwatch doesn’t have a ton of different modes to switch things up like most other games of its kind do. This isn’t Halo where most maps support various team sizes, objectives, and a slew of different modified rules. There’s only one way to play on Volskaya Industries: it will always be attack the first point, then attack the second. This lack of customization allows for finely tuned action, but also cuts into the overall breadth and variety of the experience when compared to other modern multiplayer games. Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery. “ But like its characters, Overwatch’s maps are filled with nuances that will take time and repetition to learn, and not just from a mechanical standpoint. Bits of story and world-building can be found throughout the beautifully conceived environments. Movie posters in the spawn room of one map reveal that the mech-piloting pro-gamer D.Va’s real name is Hana Song, and that she had a movie career as well. Another map has a row of arcade machines, and if you happen to be playing as Genji, the cyber-ninja might start reminiscing about how many hours of his “misspent youth” he burned away playing there. Sometimes characters who have a past and don’t like each other find themselves on the same team, and you’ll hear about it. Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery. In terms of features, Overwatch is just a bit thin, but it meets most of the basic expectations of a multiplayer shooter and in some ways, exceeds them. Its impressive stat-tracking, per-character control mapping, and accessibility options stand out. It also does a great job of identifying and surfacing good play to teammates and opponents through a novel commendation system and a sweet “Play of the Game” highlight reel. Matchmaking is swift and reliable, and the cosmetic unlockables are surprisingly charming and come at a pretty decent pace without paying for extra loot packs. That said, I dug the characters' stock designs so much, I didn't want to stray too far from them anyway. Verdict Overwatch is an incredible achievement in multiplayer shooter design. It bobs and weaves almost perfectly between being the quick-fix adrenaline hit you might want after a long day of work, and the thoughtful, strategic multiplayer experience that becomes the center of evening-long binges with friends. It might not have the most exhaustive list of maps and modes, but it provides nearly endless opportunities for exhilarating, coordinated play, and when you’re the one at the center of it, it feels like nothing else.

Are you ready for some footbaaaaall? You should be, because Madden NFL comes out this time every year. It’s not a surprise, folks. What is a pleasant surprise is that Madden NFL 15 SEE DEAL has turned out to be one of the better years for improvements to EA’s long-running football sim. There’s a majorly revamped defensive system that makes defending exciting again, improved play calling, and a system-wide focus on fine-tuning aspects of Madden that have been stationary for far too long. It looks wonderful on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, too. For years, defensive play in Madden has always been a chore you have to do in between the fun parts where you’re trying to score. Things are different this year, and it’s a hugely important and long-overdue upgrade. Defense now feels impactful, like you’re in charge of how things play out instead of just waiting for the offense to mess up. It does this in two ways: first, you have this all-new defensive camera that faces toward the quarterback. You get to stare down your primary objective during pass rush, and race right toward him as soon as the play starts. Fighting your way through the offensive line with the mashing of the face buttons is an exciting charge. Then, if you manage to break free, you actually get to control how your tackle attempt plays out. It isn’t just about running at players and hitting them. You can choose to tackle high or low, and even modify the intensity of your hit. It’s all contextual and built toward being more realistic. This is increasingly important as the wonky physics system introduced in Madden 13 is still present, though slightly more refined. The only bummer is that this new defensive camera doesn’t work in local multiplayer. That’s a pretty big downside, but it’s a non-issue if you play mainly online. I’m also thrilled to see that a new play-calling system has replaced the simplistic suggestions from last year with something that strikes a great balance between complexity and ease of use. Instead of requiring you to dig through menus in-depth or simply handing you a play, Madden NFL 15 uses context to provide helpful play choices. Say you’re sitting at First-and-10; it’ll take statistics for your opponent’s typical defense in this situation and pair that with your common moves to provide you with the best play options. You can modify these based on what you’re looking to accomplish with the play as well, so if you want to take it strategically and not go for the big yards, it’ll suggest different plays on the fly to help you accomplish that. After years of EA trying out new systems that never seemed to work out, this is one I’d love to see stand the test of time. Share Autoplay setting: On All of my favorite parts of Madden are still around, too, including Connected Franchises and Ultimate Team. Actually, I’m more of a fan of the Offline Franchise and wish it wasn’t always trying to keep me online and engaging with friends in a fantasy football-like setting. Sometimes it’s nice to just build out a team and play on my own schedule. Ultimate Team has been slightly revamped to streamline the team-building systems a bit, getting rid of your reserve deck and focusing on your main team. That should be your main priority anyway, so the change works great. Unfortunately the card-pack microtransactions are still here, and still feel a bit gross, as if to capitalize on my impatient nature interacting with the player progression system. Share Autoplay setting: On Compared to the incremental graphics upgrades seen in Madden 25, Madden 15 looks significantly more “next-gen.” Player and uniform textures look dramatically better. Games that take place at night under stadium lighting and in midday shadows look great, especially next to last year’s blown-out nightmares. Stadiums, too, are notably improved. This is much more like the intensity and hype that a Sunday night game has on TV. Unfortunately, this makes the travesty on the sidelines and in the crowds all the more apparent and noticeable, as the characters seen there continue the trend of looking significantly worse than anyone on the field and repeating every five feet. Every time the camera pans across the sideline, you’re sure to see no more than five faces repeated throughout 80 people. It seems that even the PS4 doesn’t have the horsepower to beautify the masses. Verdict After the letdown of Madden 25 last year, Madden 15 feels like a mostly fresh start for the series. The increased emphasis on defensive play, a great new play-calling system, and the return of long-time favorites makes this year’s Madden one of the best in recent memory, even if it could still use work in regards to its stale commentary and longstanding bugs. As a lifelong Madden and football fan, I’m impressed. This year’s game is both exciting and reassuring that EA Sports isn’t wasting opportunities to improve the series.

Age of Mythology The classic real time strategy game that transports players to a time when heroes did battle with monsters of legend and the gods intervened in the affairs of mortals. Use mythological creatures like Minotaurs and Cyclopes to bolster your armies' strength. Call upon the gods for assistance in flattening enemy towns with meteors or scatter opposing troops with lightning storms. The Extended Edition includes: Age of Mythology Age of Mythology: The Titans Golden Gift Campaign New in the Extended Edition: Improved Visuals Time of Day Improved water Shadows Bump / Specular maps Global Lighting Antialiasing & Ambient Occlusion Full Steamworks Integration Workshop mod manager Multiplayer Achievements Trading Cards Leagues / Badges / Events Cloud saves Extended Features Twitch Integration Treaty Mode Enhanced Observer mode Three trolls, four golden battle boars and a pack of wolves have just devastated the last of Thor's town centres, and my gatherers have already moved in to take over their farming network. I am Odin, and my asshat of a thunder god son had the audacity to attack me during the opening 30 minutes of this random map skirmish. This is my petty revenge against Age of Mythology's AI, to send in every single powerful unit I have at the risk of an army of pink centaurs raiding my two settlements from the North while I'm gone. The ludicrousness of this scenario, as mythical creatures of various origins trundle in over peaceful farmland to murder everyone in sight, was Mythology's strength over Ensemble's Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings when it was released in 2002. Mythology's colourful range of high-level fantasy creatures make the final act of any skirmish much more exciting than units of historical repute did in Age of Kings. Kraken trouble the seas, dragon-like nidhoggs circle the skies and hydra grow a head for every enemy they slay. It's still a heck of a spectacle considering it's over a decade old, but I'm not sure whether revisiting this with enhanced visual effects and Workshop support is worth the Extended Edition's steep $30/£23 price. Age of Mythology does feel antiquated, but it is still a lot of fun. It wasn't a notably innovative RTS at release, mostly built on '90s ideas, but it did take Ensemble's blend of Civ-style city management and more conventional military RTS ideas to its creative peak, as well as making the series fully 3D for the first time. This is roughly the same deal as Empires—gather food and other necessary resources, build up a base, advance through the four main tech tiers then accumulate an army big enough to vanquish the other players. The main difference between this and Age of Kings is each advancement to a new age presents a binary choice of gods to take your civilisation forwards, determining unit perks and which of the one-off god powers you can invoke in battle (casting lightning, creating regenerating springs, portals, even an earthquake that can destroy cities—there's a fair few). All the best parts of Mythology are the ways in which it's weirder or more exaggerated than Age of Kings. I love how set pieces escalate from looking vaguely Empires-esque to more like a scattershot fantasy painting with the arrival of these sometimes huge fictional creatures. The upgraded effects of the Extended Edition, most noticeably the shiny-looking water, help contemporise Mythology, but the character models are the strongest signs that this is a decade-old game. AI is a bit of an issue, too. On a moderate difficulty, the enemies attack predictably in medium-sized waves while rarely putting up an overwhelming defence of their own territories. It was made in 2003, and I wasn't expecting this stuff to be rectified, but it's still worth noting if you're going into this for the first time expecting SupCom-level opposition. I don't hold that against Mythology, though, because it is still cathartic to steamroll the AI on random maps. The online multiplayer, too, means you won't be short on smarter opponents, and at launch it seems to be running well, even if the process of finding a game you can join feels a bit arduous. Some online players favour the 'attack early' strategy, which, while effective, means you can wind up out of the running way before the interesting stuff actually happens. Those first ten minutes or so are crucial in resources gathering—there's no room to fall behind or your town centre could be in ruins before you even hit the Mythic Age. The Extended Edition isn't short on single-player content, either. Collected here are the Titans expansion and the shorter Golden Gift DLC campaign, in addition to the original's mammoth story mode. Ensemble went in a different direction to Age Of Kings' truncated array of mini-history campaigns for one surprisingly long affair that snakes its way through Greek, Norse and Egyptian elements of mythology. It's a good way to learn how the paper-rock-scissors countering of unit types work, teaching you that overloading on any one unit type is inadvisable with so many variable strengths and weaknesses in cavalry, archers and warriors. You're still very likely to come out on top in most battles if you raid an enemy city with 15 towering colossi, but countering at least provides another element of strategy to be mindful of. Each campaign level is prefaced by in-engine cutscenes of hilariously low production values. Voice acting sounds like the product of three almost-drunk friends being handed the keys to a recording studio for an afternoon. This shortfall is probably another sign of its age and the industry standard of the time, but otherwise I think this is one of the better RTS campaigns of its day in the variety of the mission structure. You rarely feel like you're doing the exact same thing twice, and the parameters can change from survival to deathmatches and surprise ambushes. The impressively in-depth Scenario Editor helps to extend the singleplayer's lifespan, and with Workshop support, there's no fear of running dry of stuff to do. Age of Mythology still has a lot of value beyond nostalgia, then, but I'd wait for a discount before committing your cash, especially if you already bought it a decade ago. This isn't a total remake, so don't go in expecting one. The Extended Edition is still a really well-paced and entertaining RTS, one that revels in over-the-top imagery and remains a one-off in subject matter within the oeuvre of the sadly departed Ensemble.

Goodbye: Goodbye to 35 models Among the cars that will be removed from the pipeline over the next 12 months, we see quite a few notable, even iconic models. In 2020, Volkswagen will launch 34 new models (12 of which are crossovers), but other will be removed in parallel. And this is not only true of VAG, the car industry follows the logic of life: some come, others go. And next year will be marked by the retirement of many famous models. Audi The Audi TT is a very interesting and stylish model that even wanted to be converted into a 4-door coupe. But you wouldn't. It remains to be hoped that his electric sports model will soon take his place. The Audi A3 Cabriolet is not in high demand even in southern countries. Overall, A3 sales have fallen in recent years. BMW Is this the end of the Gran Turismo era? The BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo and 6 Series Gran Turismo come out of the model range. The reason is that buyers are much more interested in croupos, which are not missing in the Bavarian model range. Buick The American (glorious) brand once gets rid of sedans: the unknown in our latitudes Cascada and LaCrosse. Sales are minimal, and the cars themselves are boring, according to American automotive journalists. Cadillac The brand is updating its model range to get rid of CTS, ATS, XTS and CT6. CTS and ATS will be replaced by CT5 and CT4. There will be no successor to the XTS. Chevrolet An extremely interesting solution is the suspension of the electric Volt, as well as the hybrid version of Malibu. Cruze and Impala will be suspended from sale. FIAT The Italians are determined to get rid of the 500, the convertible version and the electric 500e. Only 500X and 500L will remain. Mazda's twin MX-5 - FIAT Abarth will also be taken off the line. Ford This year is officially the latest for the Ford Flex, Fiesta and Taurus. Their seats will be occupied by crossovers and ATVs. Hyundai The production of the Santa Fe XL, which will be replaced by Palisade, is being halted. Infiniti In addition to the brand being withdrawn from Europe, the QX30 and Q70 will be removed from its model range. At the top of the range is the QX80 crossover. Jaguar The flagship will also get rid of the Jaguar, which takes down the production XJ, which will be replaced by an electric large sedan. Mercedes-AMG SL63 Mercedes-AMG SL63 Source: Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz We've listed a lot of models so far, but things are getting worse with Mercedes-Benz, because in history, the Mercedes-AMG SL 63 goes. The SL 450 and SL 550 are left in the range. Lincoln The American legend is not known in our country, so stopping MKC will not affect anyone. For the record: he will be replaced by Lincoln Corsair. Nissan The Japanese will stop three models: the 370Z Roadster, the hybrid Rogue (X-Trail) and the Versa Note hatchback, which will be replaced by the Versa sedan. Smart The brand is split with the gasoline versions of Fortwo. Only electric cars will be offered. Toyota Corolla Hybrid will take the place of the Prius C in the Toyota range. Volkswagen The company will get rid of illiquid models. These include Beetle, Golf SportWagen and Golf Alltrack.

Mystical underground settlement in the Alps In the Italian part of the Alps is a mystical religious settlement The Vital Alps is a mystical eco-village that lies underground. It was created as a cult of the deities and creatures of Egyptian mythology. In the Italian Alps, between Turin and Aosta, lies the underground village of Damanhur, a mystical place declared by the UN as the best model for a self-sustaining community in the world. There lives a po[CENSORED]tion that has its own currency and sacred language. Hundreds of residents do everything they need to live on their own and without the latest technology and amenities. The complex is located on three underground floors. It was dug using tools known in the past. There are huge halls that are decorated with mosaics, stained glass windows, sculptures and paintings, and the high columns create a sense of grandeur. Organic food is produced above the ground and cattle are grown naturally. The houses around the underground temple are built according to the principles of ecological construction. The village also has a biomolecular and forensic laboratory, premises where holistic souvenirs are created and sold. And community residents say they have an alchemical lab and a time machine. The inhabitants of the settlement are named after the plants and animals with which they live. Organic food is produced above the ground and cattle are grown naturally. The houses around the underground temple are built according to the principles of ecological construction. The village also has a biomolecular and forensic laboratory, premises where holistic souvenirs are created and sold. And community residents say they have an alchemical laboratory and a time machine. The inhabitants of the settlement are named after the plants and animals with which they live. Damanhur emerged in 1975 when Obert Ayraudi, later named Falco Tarasaco, established a sustainable eco-community driven by harmony and peace. The community has lived and worked in secret for 15 years. Once the settlement is open to the outside world, the doctrine of the founder and spiritual leader is expanded and continued after his death. The city is inspired by Egyptian culture and mythology, and many call it the eighth wonder of the world. Falco leaves behind the architectural masterpiece that the Damanhurs call the City of Eternal Light. People from all over the world visit the unusual community, trying to understand the mystery of Damanhur, and the most curious enroll in a local university and stay there. Visitors say the community is not religious but philosophical. The village offers a variety of packages for visitors who will receive spiritual uplift and a clean environment, free of technology and social networks.

What Putin promised 20 years ago and what he did In 2000, Vladimir Putin came to power - then still as an official, interim president. What came next For Russia, 2000 began a rather unusual event: on New Year's Eve, then-President Boris Yeltsin announced that he was withdrawing for health reasons and surprised by the choice of his successor: formerly known internationally former Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Vladimir Putin , recently elected Prime Minister of the country. Already on a holiday night, a new year's greetings from the new president were aired on Russian television, in which Putin said: "Dreams come true on New Year's Eve. Even more so on this special night." Then he invited his countrymen to raise glasses for the new century, writes Mikhail Busheyev for Deutsche Welle. Putin drives first Russian train to Crimea (PHOTOS) At the time, few speculated the extent to which Putin would predetermine events in the next 20 years. His po[CENSORED]rity is just beginning to grow, but most people are not aware of what this former KGB man is capable of and judge him for his promises. And there are those who remember. Are they fulfilled? TASS: Big brother always forgives Bulgaria For a "stronger country" Even as Prime Minister, Vladimir Vladimirovich wrote in 1999 that he was "in a hurry to bury Russia as a great power" and promised to bring the country back to the international political arena. Even today, Russia is right there - despite Western sanctions and its expulsion from the G8. Whether it is the crisis in Syria, Ukraine, or the Iranian nuclear program - without Russia it cannot. Before the 2000 elections, Putin addressed an open letter to Russian voters. In it, he promised that he would make the Russian state stronger and renew the country's army and arms industry. The strength of a country is not determined by a number such as gross domestic product (GDP), which is why it is so difficult to measure. But there is a consensus both at home and abroad that Russia is stronger today than it was in the 2000s. Moreover, it is certain that the Russian army is more effective and more modern, and it can even boast some success: in the war with Georgia in 2008, with the occupation of the Crimea peninsula in early 2014 or in Syria since 2015. Rearming the army took several years and cost at least $ 315 billion. Today, Russia seems more stable than it was in the years of the Chechen War (1994-2009), when many, including Putin himself, feared a possible break-up of the country and some regions even allowed themselves to openly dream of independence. On the other hand, under Putin's rule, party life is degrading and there will be no regular change of government at the local or federal level to ensure more control. Boyko Borisov: I don't understand Putin "Let's catch up with Portugal" When Putin took power, the memory of August 1998, when the Russian government declared bankruptcy, was still too fresh. Then many Russians lost their modest savings overnight. In his keynote speech, before taking office, Putin promised to raise people's standard of living and ensure dynamic economic growth. He had estimated that if GDP grew by an average of about eight percent over the next 15 years, the country would reach the then level of output per capita in Portugal. Or even the UK and France - with annual GDP growth of 10 percent or more. From that promise, the catch phrase "Let's catch up with Portugal" was born very quickly in Russia. In most cases, it was used ironically, but sometimes seriously, especially in the first years of Putin's rule, when economic growth was quite high: 7.1 percent between 1999 and 2007. Then the global economic crisis hit Russia, but the shock did not last long. If Russia's GDP amounted to $ 300 billion in 2000, today it is five times higher - $ 1.66 trillion. For a short time, even the output per capita equaled that of Portugal in 2013. But things have not been going so well since then: Russia still has not been able to catch up with Portugal, which - like Putin himself did not fail to specify in 1999 - is not among the richest EU countries . Elena Poptodorova: Let's get rid of the fear of Russia It is a widespread myth that the Russian economy collapsed only after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent Western sanctions. Experts, however, explain the halt in Russia's economic growth in 2013 with another, the Russian economic model. Putin had promised to make Russia a commodity-exporting country that relies more on high technology. But Russia is still dependent on raw material sales to this day. The state budget is affected by fluctuations in world fuel prices. For a short time, even the output per capita equaled that of Portugal in 2013. But since then things have not been going so well economically

Inspire and lead your settlers, gather resources, construct houses, and expand your kingdom in The Settlers Online. The Settlers Online combines po[CENSORED]r gameplay elements with brand new additions and improvements. Seize territory and explore in a gaming experience built for everyone to enjoy, from ‘The Settlers’ newbies to old-school gamers. Build your city brick by brick, and lead it to glorious prosperity! It takes a great leader to build a great city, and you'll have to optimize your production chains and lay out the perfect infrastructure. Don’t worry though, as guides and guilds will help you along the way, and also provide higher level challenges of increasing importance, as you establish your reign in the realm! Build your city from the first brick and lead it to glorious prosperity! The Settlers Online combines po[CENSORED]r gameplay elements with brand new opportunities to seize and territories to explore, delivering a fantastic new gaming experience for everyone, from The Settlers newbies to old-school gamers: all are welcome to settle in this brave new world! So, don’t wait any longer and play the award-winning The Settlers Online in your browser now! THE SETTLERS ONLINE The Settlers Online: Castle Empire is an MMORTS based off of the po[CENSORED]r Settlers series, where players build their cities from the ground up and manage their residents. Players must take caution with resources and build their city with care for the amount of resources they expend, with more in-depth resource management than many other free MMORTS games. Settlers Online Main city Publisher: Ubisoft Playerbase: Medium Type: Web Strategy Release Date: September 11, 2012 Pros: +High production value. +Good economy system. +Helpful community. Cons: -Long wait times. -Very similar to other strategy games. -Pay-to-win elements. The Settlers Online: Castle Empire is a city building MMORTS based off of the po[CENSORED]r Settlers series, developed and published by Ubisoft. Build and expand a massive city from a barren island to a thriving city and center of trade. As opposed to many games that offer infinite sources of harvestable resources, The Settlers Online goes further, requiring players to replant trees, explore new copper mines, and plant new wheat fields once theirs run out, forcing players to grow outward, exploring new regions and connecting their settlements together. Recruit specialists at your tavern that can fight bandits to lay claim on new land, discover new materials, and explore the regions around. Optimize production and create a solid city infrastructure with the game’s detailed economic overview, giving the game a clear focus on its economic aspects that sets it apart from other browser city building games. In its core though, it still plays a lot like Tribal Wars 2, Elvenar, Total Domination, and other web strategy games. The Settlers Online Key Features: Objective-Based Progression – tons of detailed quests to complete over time. Economic Focus – economy overview menu allows players to see the entire production pipeline, allowing for intelligent resource management. Resource Trading – trade resources with players across the server, making it easy to get what you need and help out other players. Colony Conquering – conquer other players’ settlements with special troops for resources and glory. Good Production Value - great, detailed graphics and animations that make the world feel alive. MINIMUM: OS: Windows XP SP3 Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core Memory: 2 GB memory Graphics Card: Hardware Accelerated Graphics Storage space: 200 MB available space Additional notes: Permanent internet connection required RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 7 Memory: 4 GB memory Graphics Card: Hardware Accelerated Graphics with 1 GB RAM Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage space: 200 MB available space Additional notes: Permanent internet connection required