The end-of-the-year extravaganza has passed, and now you’ve come into 2013 with a clean slate and an empty backlog, right? (It’s okay, I know your pain).  As the industry readies itself for another console generation, we the consumers are left wondering: what’s next? What more could they possibly do to change how we perceive games? Technology will always improve, but it’s how we interact with the medium that leaves the lasting impression.

Over the last year we’ve seen a number of things that make for a promising future; many of those things are the games themselves, the entire reason we exist as contributors to this industry. Some hope to remove the boundary between gaming as an interactive versus a passive experience, while others aim to build upon a foundation in order to evolve with the standards.  The gaming industry is in dire need of a renaissance, and if we’re lucky, some of these games will be the start of it.

Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt RED is perhaps best known for bringing to life one of Poland’s most popular fantasy novels, The Witcher, but what many people don’t know is that they also run GOG.com, a digital catalogue of thousands of classic games no longer available in physical format. When word spread that RED was intent on turning the classic pen-and-paper RPG Cyberpunk into a video game, it just made sense. But not only did it seem right up their alley, it was something sorely lacking in the market. The cyberpunk setting is a road so rarely traveled in the gaming industry that often it feels watered down and underrepresented when we finally do see it on the screen. It’s most known for games like Deus Ex and System Shock, and of course popularized by movie classics such as Blade Runner and Brazil, but it’s about time we started to see the cyberpunk setting really make a name for itself in the gaming world and step out of the shadow of its younger, more popular, albeit less attractive brother, steampunk. And CD Project RED is the perfect studio to bring about that revolution.

Watch Dogs

When Ubisoft first unveiled their radical new IP at 2012’s E3, most people didn’t know what to expect. The vast majority was impressed, but left wanting more. Since then the Montreal-based team at Ubisoft working on the project has remained relatively tight-lipped about the project. The premise centers around the player’s ability to hack into any electronic device in the immediate area: street lights, cell phones, cameras – anything. Not only did the game look stunning, but it showed off tremendous animations and lighting that emasculates anything of recent years. This gadgets-and-gizmos open world game looks to shake the genre up and provide a sandbox experience like few others, and in our modern world consumed with the lust for technology, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Star Citizen

Star what? If you’re not familiar with this game, educate yourself quickly. Star Citizen is an upcoming space simulation game developed by Chris Roberts, the man behind the Wing Commander series. It is also, to date, the highest funded crowd-sourced project ever. As of November 17, 2012, it has earned over $4.2 million dollars from both Kickstarter and donations via the game’s main website, the latter of which is still ongoing. Star Citizen promises to bring immersion to the front of the table. Taking cues from Demon’s Souls and a little virtual sim known as real life, atmosphere will be Roberts’s top concern, wanting to make a game that not only looks and plays right, but feels right; one that isn’t bogged down by logistics and spreadsheets. If it goes off without a hitch, Star Citizen could quite possibly become one of the most important games ever made.

Dark Souls 2

I admit this is a bit of a personal admission on my part. I hold the Souls series to such high standards; it almost feels unfair of me to include it, near nepotistic. But one cannot deny the impact that this franchise has had on the industry. Demon’s Souls answered one of the most seminal questions that many had pondered over for decades: can a game with absolutely zero mass marketing, with an unquestionable sense of danger and urgency, be a commercial success? The answer was a resounding yes. Dark Souls took the series to another level by introducing a meticulously crafted, interconnected world full of shortcuts, pitfalls, and hidden rooms. Dark Souls 2, helmed by new directors Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, promises to retain the sense of accomplishment in a world fraught with peril that made the first two so genuinely satisfying, as well as the second game’s heightened exploration, all while refining and polishing up some of the admittedly rougher edges (like the game’s ingenious yet fickle multiplayer system, and the obtuse Covenants introduced in Dark Souls).

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

The Metal Gear Solid series has always been on the cutting edge of technological advancement. Ground Zeroes hopes to take that precedent even further. The first-unveiled trailer for the game, coming in at near 11-minutes long, boasted some of the most impressive visuals seen in a game to date. Not only that, but the game’s cutscene transitioned seamlessly into gameplay without a pixel of lost resolution or texture quality. This kind of precision engineering is courtesy of the Fox engine, built from the ground up specifically for this game. If Kojima and his team can perfect that marriage of visual spectacle and interactive entertainment, then the future of the industry has just had its bar set pretty high.

In the next article, I’ll examine five more games that have the potential to make a serious dent in the state of modern gaming, but have equal the chance of becoming outright failures.

The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG has just gotten it’s first set of screenshots.

Unfortunately, these screenshots don’t show very much. Take away the Nord helmets, the Dwarven Sphere and the Argonians and you’re left with some fairly generic fantasy-RPG screenshots.

Speaking of which, those Argonians are the most ugly lizard-folk since Morrowind. Perhaps it’s an early model or maybe they’re some other kind of Argonian, but they look like horrible, bug-eyed things with thin grey flesh stretched over vaguely humanoid skulls.

Aside from that, we can see that Dwenmer ruins are returning, although personally I’m hoping that since this game is set before the Elder Scrolls games, we might find that not all of them are ruins.

We’ve also got the return of the Ordinators, some fire atronachs, and some impressively designed new monsters to fight.

Also, some of the textures are pretty awful looking, with a lot of blurriness. I wasn’t expecting it to look as good as Skyrim, but I expected a touch better than this.

I’m still cautiously optimistic about the Elder Scrolls Online, but these screenshots don’t help to keep my spirits up.

You can find out more about the Elder Scrolls Online on the official website here.

Today, Trion Worlds unveils the final content update before the release of their first expansion to last year’s breakout MMO hit, RIFT. Patch 1.11, titled “Tempest Rising,” will feature a near-complete overhaul of the existing souls (the game’s version of class systems), and will set the stage for the rise of the greatest threat Telara has ever faced – the Storm Queen herself, Crucia. Tempest Rising looks to be the largest pure content update to the game yet, a testament in and of itself given Trion’s history of releasing expansion-sized patches over the last year.

Other features of 1.11 include a dramatic makeover to the crafting system, enhancements to the Planar Attunement system, a rebalance of all existing dungeons and raid content to match the changes to souls, and of course a brand new world event to herald the coming of Crucia. In a later phase of the event, the dungeon “Exodus of the Storm Queen” will be released, allowing pre-order players early access to witness Crucia’s dramatic prison break from her confinement beneath Iron Pine Peak.

Below are just a few of the highlights of Patch 1.11, “Tempest Rising.”

The patch notes for 1.11 are super incredibly long, so some sections have been linked to the appropriate forum thread rather than displayed in the patcher, particularly Calling and Crafting changes.
* World Event – Tempest Rising: For years the Icewatch, with the aid of the Ascended, have stood guard over Crucia’s icy prison in Iron Pine Peaks. New rumors rise from the east, claiming that the Dragon of Air is not captive at all, but is in fact biding her time while her schemes come to fruition. For the sake of Telara, Crucia’s rise must be stopped!
* The new dungeon, Exodus of the Storm Queen, will be unlocked in a later phase of the World Event!
* SOUL CHANGES: Major updates come to basically every soul in the game – you can find summaries below and specific Soul change details in the Calling patch note threads on the forums! Be sure to also check out the GENERAL COMBAT changes which apply to all Callings.
* PLANAR ATTUNEMENT is now shared among all characters, and has been converted to a simpler method of gaining levels – see details under PLANAR ATTUNEMENT, below.
* CRAFTING has also seen some significant tune-ups and has detailed notes linked from the forums.

See all of the details in full over at the RIFT forums.

I recently got the opportunity to enter into the PlanetSide 2 Beta and join the mayhem. Having never played the original, I was diving headfirst into an established name with little knowledge of the concepts or ideas behind the game’s large-scale conflicts.

PlanetSide 2 is a massively multiplayer first-person shooter set on the vast, ravaged planet of Auraxis. You play as one of three military factions: the New Conglomerate, the Vanu Sovereignty, or the Terran Republic. Unlike most traditional MMOs, there are no quest systems, no raids or dungeons, no crafting. The object of the game – the sole purpose – is conquest. Take control of tactical outposts, research labs, and other fortified structures and earn more resources. The resources gained are used for a variety of functions, including spawning vehicles, resupplying certain weaponry, and purchasing upgraded firearms. There is no ultimate end game in PlanetSide 2, no final boss or goal. The fighting never stops.

It’s a game where hours of struggle could persist into the long hours of night. Because it’s an MMO, it’s a persistent world, meaning that you could stop playing while your faction is making a push on a certain base, come back later, and see that they’re still making their assault. The scale of combat in a game like this is simply unprecedented. Up to 2000 players across three factions locked in an eternal struggle for control. PlanetSide 2 will also feature a Day/Night cycle, which will give combat an even greater strategic element. Do you wait until nightfall to assault a base, under the cover of dark, or do you attack in broad daylight? This is the definitive PVP experience anyone could ask for.

The game feels familiar for any fan of shooters, but it’s not the simple run-and-gun kind of gameplay found in a Call of Duty. Combat is more tactical, more strategic. The aid of vehicles – from large assault tanks and transport vehicles to a number of different fighter jets – makes battles on land and in the air equally important. The first night I played, I witnessed a truly awe-inspiring scene. I was playing with a friend, who was experienced with the game and was showing me the ropes. And as we were driving around, an entire convoy of tanks rolled up alongside us and made their way toward the nearest point of interest: nearly forty tanks on screen moving as one cohesive unit to attack the enemy base. You just don’t see that kind of thing in any other game.

Upon creating your character (which is a simple matter of picking a face type, skin color, and faction), you’ll drop right into the game starting as the Light Assault class. There are half a dozen classes in total to choose from, each with a unique special ability: Light Assault has a jetpack that allows them to maneuver vertical terrain more easily, and gives them access to many vantage points; Heavy Assault can engage a protective shield that enhances their existing outer layer of armor for a set duration; Infiltrator can gain temporary stealth as they sneak into bases or find prime sniping positions; Medic can revive fallen teammates, and both heal themselves and others; Engineers can repair damaged vehicles and drop ammo resupply boxes in the field; and the Max is a special class that costs a certain resource to turn into, but they are a powerful unit wielding two automatic rifles and operate inside of gargantuan bipedal mech.

Throughout your time in the game you’ll earn the various resources that I mentioned, each with a specific purpose. But perhaps the most important one of all is Auraxium, gained specifically from defending or capturing bases. Auraxium is used to purchase superior firearms through the in-game store. Because of its difficulty to gain, and because most of the items you can buy with it are fairly expensive, they are usually well worth the trouble when you do acquire them. Players will also gain Certs, or Certifications, while playing, and these are used for character upgrades. You’ll be able to earn weapon attachments, enhanced skills, improved vehicle performance, and more.

There’s certainly a lot to be said about a game like this, which as it stands now is still a ways off from release. PlanetSide 2 has no release date in mind, but is set to launch with the freemium business model akin to League of Legends: the game will be entirely free to play and will feature an in-game cash shop, but the items sold are mostly cosmetic, with nothing there that will give paying players a distinct advantage over others. Further, these same items can also be earned through normal gameplay progression if you do not wish to pay for them.

Although I’m still fairly early in my experience of PlanetSide 2, there’s enough there for me to say that I am incredibly excited about the full product. There’s a particular moment during one of my sessions that I’ll always remember. We, the New Conglomerate, were attacking a Terran Republic base. We’d been at it for a good hour or two. It was the definition of a battle of attrition. Neither side would concede. But slowly we chipped away at their defenses, and before much longer, we’d destroyed the generators powering the shields that protected the innermost sanctum of the base. And inward we went: our tanks rolled up, our infantry charged through. The Terrans were outnumbered, and soon the base was ours. We had reaped the rewards of a long, hard-fought struggle.

And then I opened the map. And on the map, there are exclamation marks used to designate points of conflict. Upon zooming out for a full view, I saw roughly five exclamation marks across the entire zone, five other bases under siege. And then I realized that our little skirmish that we’d just fought so hard to conquer, and push the opposing faction out, was only one of many. That battles just like this, some smaller, some larger, but all with the exact same amount of attrition, were being waged across the entire world. All at the same time.

And that is awesome.

In a move that may surprise many, at Nintendo’s press event today – during which they revealed the official launch date and price of their upcoming console – the House of Mario also made a shocking announcement: Bayonetta 2, the sequel to Platinum Games’ 2010 hyper action beat-em-up, will be exclusive to the Wii U. The original starred the game’s titular hero, the long-legged femme fatale, and featured a blend of highly stylized combat and aggressive enemy AI.

While this play by Nintendo may seem quite startling at first, it makes a lot of sense. Firstly, Nintendo needs to capitalize on the hardcore market, a network of gamers they’ve tended to neglect for the last few generations. Secondly, Nintendo and Platinum have a bit of history together: the Japanese developer created MadWorld for the Wii, one of the console’s first truly “mature” games. They also co-developed the strategy RPG Infinite Space for the Nintendo DS and are the sole developers of the now officially titled The Wonderful 101 (formerly Project P-100) for the Wii U. The move may upset fans of the original who had no intent on purchasing the Wii U, but if Nintendo wants to starts distinguishing themselves from the competition and pose a real threat to Microsoft and Sony, this is exactly the kind of stuff they need to focus on.

Also announced at today’s event is Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Edition for the Wii U and 3DS. As stated in the press release:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate utilizes the functionalities of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS to provide players with a truly intuitive hunting experience. The touch screen feature of both platforms allows players to quickly access in-game books, weapons, field maps and mini games while the high quality graphics of the Wii U and 3D visuals of the Nintendo 3DS powered by the latest iteration of Capcom’s MT Framework delivers a unique and stunning world for players to explore.

In a move that may surprise many, at Nintendo’s press event today – during which they revealed the official launch date and price of their upcoming console – the House of Mario also made a shocking announcement: Bayonetta 2, the sequel to Platinum Games’ 2010 hyper action beat-em-up, will be exclusive to the Wii U. The original starred the game’s titular hero, the long-legged femme fatale, and featured a blend of highly stylized combat and aggressive enemy AI.

While this play by Nintendo may seem quite startling at first, it makes a lot of sense. Firstly, Nintendo needs to capitalize on the hardcore market, a network of gamers they’ve tended to neglect for the last few generations. Secondly, Nintendo and Platinum have a bit of history together: the Japanese developer created MadWorld for the Wii, one of the console’s first truly “mature” games. They also co-developed the strategy RPG Infinite Space for the Nintendo DS and are the sole developers of the now officially titled The Wonderful 101 (formerly Project P-100) for the Wii U. The move may upset fans of the original who had no intent on purchasing the Wii U, but if Nintendo wants to starts distinguishing themselves from the competition and pose a real threat to Microsoft and Sony, this is exactly the kind of stuff they need to focus on.

Also announced at today’s event is Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Edition for the Wii U and 3DS. As stated in the press release:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate utilizes the functionalities of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS to provide players with a truly intuitive hunting experience. The touch screen feature of both platforms allows players to quickly access in-game books, weapons, field maps and mini games while the high quality graphics of the Wii U and 3D visuals of the Nintendo 3DS powered by the latest iteration of Capcom’s MT Framework delivers a unique and stunning world for players to explore.

Trion World’s Massively-Multiplayer Online game RIFT sees its first expansion launching in early November, bringing with it an abundance of new content. RIFT: Storm Legion will be available via retail and digital download on November 13 in North American and European territories. The expansion includes two new zones that triple the size of the existing world, player-housing known as dimensions, a 10-level increase and one additional soul for each of the current classes. The first soul – Harbinger – was announced for Mages last month during a live stream.

Announcement of the release date was made via a new pre-order trailer and the official Storm Legion website. Details on the various versions of the expansion were also announced:

The standard version of the game will cost existing players $39.99 and new players $49.99. Pre-orders of either version will receive an exclusive cape, one of a few new cosmetic items available in the expansion, and early access to the brand new 20 man raid dungeon – Exodus of the Storm Queen – via a special World Event in mid-October.

The Infinity Edition will cost $59.99 and $69.99 for respective current and new players and will include the same pre-order incentives as the standard, plus an exclusive new mount, a mini Regulos pet and a personal porticulum transporter. Both versions will be available for either digital or retail purchase on November 13.

RIFT launched in early 2011 and was well-received by critics, currently holding an 85.07% rating on Gamerankings based on 40 reviews. Trion made a name for itself by offering competitive and frequent content patches, updating and evolving the world of Telara by improving on the game’s biggest feature – its namesake. The rifts serve as random public quests that if left unattended can spawn hundreds of invasions throughout the world. Storm Legion seeks to expand on the lore of Crucia, the dragon from the Plane of Air, and the Infinity Gate, an ancient ruin capable of opening portals into other dimensions.

Not only is the Age of Conan MMORPG still running, but it’s getting a massive content boost.
Now, I’ve never played Age of Conan: Unchained, because when it came out I was still worshipping at the World of Warcraft alter, and I never kept track of it. I assumed that it had gone the same way as Tabula Rasa, i.e overshadowed by WoW and quickly bankrupted.

Now, Funcom has announced a series of updates called Secrets of Dragon’s Spine. These updates will be realeased over time, with the first one coming in just a few months, and will introduce a desert region called the Dragon’s Spine which will be filled full of dungeons, quests and challenges for players.

“Our version of Hyboria has grown into a vast online world since we launched back in 2008,” says Craig Morrison, Creative Director at Funcom. “With the Secrets of Dragon’s Spine update we are moving into an incredibly exciting part of Robert E. Howard’s work, and I think both Age of Conan players and fans of Howard’s work alike will find a lot to enjoy once they get to explore this new content.”

The aforementioned new content is aimed at level eighty players and seems to be a massive injection of end-game content. Included in this content is several new dungeons, a new raid area, a large outdoor area similar in size as the Coast of Ardashir and a new PVP area. On top of that players can earn and find new rewards, armour sets, weapons and other such goodies.

The new dungeons are called The Coils of Ubah Kan, The Sepulchral of the Wyrm and The Slithering Chaos and will be similar to the previous The Savage Coast of Turan update.

Also for anyone as in love with mounts as I was in WoW, there will be a new mount type released along with these updates. No clues as to what form it will take.

Official Website: http://www.ageofconan.com/playfree/

In the first of what will amount to four videos showing us behind the scenes of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 3, we get an idea as to exactly how much work and dedication goes into making an installment of one of the best game franchises this-gen.

Apparently we can expect thirty hours of gameplay, along with two and a half hours of cinematics which will all be made by the staggering seven hundred people currently working on the game.

Our newest Assassin is a half British, half Mohawk called Connor. Rather than the revenge that motivated our previous protagonist, Connor will be focused on bringing people to justice. In the game he attempts to assassinate important historical figures at key points in order to influence direction of the raging Civil War.

It looks like Ubisoft is again going for historical accuracy. In the video we’re introduced to, or at least given glances of, weapon experts, war historians, soldiers, and experts on Native Americans and their language. It’s easy to see that Ubisoft are going even further than in previous games, dedicated to accuracy as well as amazing gameplay. In designing the two main cities in the game, Boston and New York, the team actually found maps of the cities from that time and re-created every street digitally.

A good chunk of the game almost looks like a Real Time Strategy game, the time setting makes it look much like Empire: Total War. It makes me wonder how much control you’ll have over some of the armies, or if we’re just getting shown the lovely new engine. AnvilNext comes with one of the most impressive weather systems ever seen outside Skyrim  mods.

We again see that, rather than the city settings of previous instalments, a lot of platforming will take place in the forest, with our protagonist leaping from branch to branch before going for the kill. Although cities will still be present, with Boston and New York being the largest ones.

Assassin’s Creed 3 looks like it’s turning out to be one of the biggest and best games of the year. My expectations just shot way up and hopefully, come October, AS3 will deliver.

At E3 this year fans got a treat from Ubisoft as they revealed the first gameplay footage of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. However, the original seven-minutes have been surpassed by a new release of 11 minutes of stunning stealth gameplay, from the series that redefined the genre.

The video begins the same way as the E3 video: Sam, carrying a dead body infiltrates a terrorist camp before quickly moving at breakneck speed, gunning down and snapping necks and arms like it was going out of style before we witness a brutal interrogation scene early in the demo (being a badass never felt so well). Still, one of the more interesting sequences showcases Sam tagging abilities as he locks onto numerous targets before performing a series of super-fast stealth kills, all set against a stunning game engine, gorgeous lighting and wonderful character and environmental models that bring the series out of the shadows and into the light.

The sneak-peek ends with another grueling interrogation sequence that has a surprise twist, all done using in-game graphics.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is scheduled for a spring 2013 release for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows PC.