1. Huge open world

The world of Dragon’s Dogma, while not as expansive as Skyrim, offers plenty to explore. The vast terrain and variety in locations available presents great sense of exploration and adventuring. The same drive that had you striving to reach every area in Skyrim is similarly available here, and will play a key factor in how attached you become to the game.

2. Day/Night Cycles

Dragon’s Dogma’s world operates on a full 24-hour Day/Night cycle. This means that the game has an internal clock that changes and affects the world. The Day/Night shift is not for mere aesthetic purposes but it rather plays a huge part in the game’s system. It’s always recommended for you to accomplish your quests while the Sun is still up whenever possible. This is because when night time arrives things get real nasty. Different much more powerful creatures appear at night, ones that you will often have a very hard time fighting against. This cycle system creates an interesting spin on how you would manage your in-game time to accomplish your quests as efficiently as possible while avoiding the night.

3. The Pawn system

The Pawn system is something that is quite unique to Dragon’s Dogma. Pawns are basically servants that can be hired by the main character of the game to aid you throughout your adventures. Your main Pawn is the one you create yourself at first, tailoring him/her to your own liking from appearance to personality. While this may sound at first like a regular companion found in other Western RPGs, Pawns actually have their own personalities and often speak or give advice to you on your journey. To top that off, your main Pawn can be shared with other players online so that he/she can explore different areas and come back with stories and information that can aid you in the game. While Dragon’s Dogma is solely a single player game, the Pawn mechanism offers the ability to connect with different people in a unique and fresh method.

4. Mix of Strategic and fast paced combat

The combat in the game offers the best of both worlds. In other words, while the combat feels fluid and it also offers enough depth making sure what you do actually matters rather than it being mindless hack and slash. The combat feels similar to the one found in the Souls series, but is less punishing and much faster in terms of speed. Dragon’s Dogma also introduces the ability to actually jump on creatures you fight and hang on to them. For example, while fighting a Griffin in the demo I was able jump on its back while it was ascending to the air. This made the combat experience very different than regular ground fights as you were struggling to keep hanging on while trying to bring down the creature at the same time. All of these different elements shape Dragon’s Dogma idea to demonstrate its own take on how combat is supposed to be done in Action-RPGs.

5. Tons of content available

In order to finish the main game it’s going to take you 40-50 hours of playtime. While if you want to complete more side quests and explore the whole world of the game then you are looking at 100+ hours of playtime. This means that the game has a ton of content to offer and will keep you engaged for a long period of time.

The demo of Dragon’s Dogma is currently out on both XBL and PSN, while the final game comes out on May 22nd in NA and May 25th in EU. Be sure to check it out and tell us what you think in the comment section!

The game will be developed by ZeniMax Online Studios, a new development team formed by Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax. The project will be helmed by Matt Firor, who is best known for his work on MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot.

“We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted,” director Matt Firor said in a press release.”It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”

The Elder Scrolls Online will be set a millennium before the events of Skyrim, taking place across all of Tamriel where a daedric prince Molag Bal is causing destruction and mayhem on the realm. Elsweyr, Skyrim and Cyrodill will be some of the areas available for players to explore. The game will have three factions and PvP combat.

More details about the MMO is set across for an exclusive preview with GameInformer. The US magazine’s June issue should be out soon, so stay tuned for a bout of new information. First trailer and gameplay footage could be expected during E3, too.

Well, screw that.

A few days back, Steam’s support Twitter page alerted fans to keep an eye out for all Valve feeds for an announcement. IGN themselves ran a teasing quote from G-Man’s famous Half Life 2 start-game speech on their Twitter account, mysteriously hinting at a possible colaboration with Valve to announce the next installment in the Half Life series. But alas, that doesn’t seem to be case.

So what can we expect from Valve at E3 then? Why, release dates for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DoTA 2 of course, both which are in active development and rumored to release this year.

At least give us this, Valve. You monster.

The standard edition will be sold at AED 249, while the special alabaster-white Collector’s Edition will be sold at AED 429. Preference will be given to those who pre-order; players are urged to bring exact change to speed up the process.

“We are very excited about Diablo III, the game is launching after 12 years and has huge fan following in the region. Geekay is giving gamers chance to play the game earlier then several other countries in world,” said Kishan Palija, Managing Director of Geekay Games.

Fans can win a Collector’s Edition by acting “diabolically crazy”. We are not sure what that means, but Geekay will select three of such fans, so make sure you practise your evilness before hand.

After a brief introduction from the lovely PR folks (i.e ‘film anything and you’re flying home’), Mark Lamia, Studio Head at Treyarch, strides into the room. “Welcome”, he begins “to the Internet’s worst-kept secret.”

Lamia is of course referring to the recent Internet leaks that have pointed to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and today we get to be the first ones in the world to officially see what the studio has been up to. Treyarch has enjoyed plenty of success with the Call of Duty franchise – the studio reception area holds a large screen that displays in real time the hundreds of thousands of gamers logging in to score some headshots. Lamia credits the studio with pushing the boundaries of the franchise, and promises that they will always deliver a ‘complete package’ to fans. Without getting into too much detail, he said that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will receive a massive technological push to take advantage of DirectX 11 and deliver a COD experience like never before. The original Call of Duty: Black Ops opened to phenomenal success, selling an estimated 4.2 million copies in the U.S alone within 24 hours of going on sale.

A COD story like never before
The story for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 initially sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but Lamia assures us that as with previous titles, the game is based on hard facts. While the present day sees the battle for oil being a key political driver, in a number of years attention will be shifted to something called “rare earth elements”- seventeen chemical elements that fuel most of today’s consumer devices. From screens to smartphones, every modern device has some degree of rare earth elements in it. And it turns out that China currently has the largest deposits of rare earth elements in the world, making it a hot topic of discussion.

Lamia’s short geography lesson is intertwined with press clippings and even a statement from President Obama in March 2012 stating that the United States is planning to look into China’s iron grasp on its export of rare earth elements. It’s also revealed that rare earth elements play a big factor in military technologies, especially heavy weapons and unmanned military drones. Which leads us to the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ moment about the storyline in Black Ops 2.

The game starts off in the ‘80s, where you play as David Mason, son of Alex Mason, the main protagonist in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. Rather than just introduce a roster of familiar characters in Black Ops 2, Lamia explained that the team had to sit down and think about ‘why does  so-and-so character need to come back to COD?’ I’m not saying that every single character you meet will be someone from the original game, but (HUGE SPOILER ALERT AHEAD) as a tip, fans will be happy to know that Woods does return to the franchise and that most of the game is told through him. Having said that, each and every character you meet will be vital to your character and story progression.

For the first time in the series’ history, Black Ops 2 will shift the time-frame halfway through the game, fast-forwarding the action to the year 2025. Now of course Treyarch could have gone all Terminator and flooded the world with killer robots and deadly lasers, but they’re far too sensible to do that. They instead employed the thinking of a man called Peter W Singer, author of the book “Wired For War”, which essentially details how warfare is going to completely change in coming years. Singer’s job is essentially to advise world leaders on any growing concerns in the coming decades. His first divination is what Lamia talked about at the start of the presentation – who is going to control the rare earth elements in the years to come? The second statement was more of a play on what is already happening on the battlefield today; the use of robotics in warfare. Drones, automated turrets, and bomb-diffusing robots are just some of the things that troops use every day in battle.

So naturally Treyarch thought they would play on this ‘automation invasion’ and see if they could work this into the game. And they did it beautifully – in 2025 huge waves of American drones and equipment have gone on the fritz and are now bombing and attacking various cities. It turns out the machines aren’t out of control at all, but are being manipulated by the game’s villain, who Lamia describes as “the most comprehensive three-dimensional character we’ve ever created”. That’s saying quite a lot, but the beauty of that statement is that you get to see for yourself if it’s true – when the game is set in the 80s you get to learn of this villain’s character, and you gradually see events unfold that created the monster you confront in 2025. To him everyone else are merely pawns in his twisted game; whether he wants to achieve world domination or unadulterated chaos is for you to discover. The story unfolds in spectacular fashion, thanks to the writing skills of David Goyer, who consulted on the storyline for the original Black Ops. Here’s a short video from Dave Anthony, Game Director, on how the story is setup in Black Ops 2:

The ‘Enhanced Edition’ of The Witcher 2 marks the debut of this franchise on home consoles; limited, of course, just to the Xbox 360 for now. For those of you who don’t know, the original Witcher was released in Fall 2007, becoming an instant classic thanks to engaging gameplay and deep plot choices.

Even back then The Witcher was released with an Enhanced Edition (known in the US as the Director’s Cut) that improved various gameplay elements as well as removing the censorship from the original US release. Today, we’ll be looking at The Witcher 2’s Enhanced Edition and what it brings to the table.

As I mentioned before, The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition marks the first time this franchise has been on consoles, and while the PC version is one of the most beautifully standout games on the platform, the Xbox 360 is no slouch either. The game runs, for the most part, fairly smooth, with some frame drops later on in the game as onscreen action increases significantly.

Background textures aren’t exactly highres, but like the Mass Effect games, the full force of the Xbox 360 is out into rendering the characters with extreme detail, especially during dialogue sequences. Other effects like Depth of Field are also predominant throughout the game; just don’t expect the high quality lighting and particle effects as on the PC. In fact, if there’s no point of reference to the PC, you’ll really be happy knowing that The Witcher 2 Enhanced Editions is one of the most beautiful games on the X360.

Now coming back to the changes made in the Enhanced Edition, it comes with pretty much all the patches that were released since the game’s release on the PC last year. So things like better balanced enemy AI, fixing various bugs ranging from broken quests to graphical glitches, as well as the addition of the Arena Mode (think Horde Mode), Dark difficulty level and tutorial system are all par for the course.

Let’s not forget that every retail copy of the Xbox 360 version also comes with a full blown map, as well as a guide book for all of the quests within the game. It’s not a visual walkthrough with screencaps, but mostly written directions on each quest and how to approach each decision (as well as the consequences these decisions may have). Oh, and there’s a soundtrack CD as well, in addition to the two discs the game comes on.

The Enhanced Edition also adds new gameplay to The Witcher 2, in the form of new characters and quest lines, 35 minutes of cinematics, including a brilliantly animated new opening sequence that shows the assassination of one of the kings.

Of course, what I have discussed here is the Enhanced Edition, with sees improvements on the original release of the The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. For a full review on the storyline and the basic gameplay mechanics, do check out our original review of the PC version from last year.

At the end of the day, if you’ve been wanting for an epic RPG and Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 are gathering dust, the The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition is an absolutely must buy. With the plethora of new content and special packaging that puts any Collector’s Edition to shame, there’s no reason not to buy this amazing RPG.

Resistance: Burning Skies is set between the events of Resistance 1 and 2 and it tells the story of a brand new protagonist named Tom Riley. Riley is a New York fireman that is thrown into the action both because of his duty and his need to protect his family. The game opens off with the Chimera starting their invasion into U.S. soil for the first time. You control Riley in New York City trying to secure the safety of civilians while searching for his family to make sure they are out of harm’s way. The preview build ran for the first three stages and it seems that the game overall retains the Resistance feel quite well. The visuals in Burning Skies are well done especially when it comes to the character models, the environments however lacked detailed textures and often felt inferior compared the characters. There were also a few notable frame drops whenever a lot of action is going on screen but both problems can’t be fully judged just yet as this was a mere preview build.

The controls are the obvious main change in Resistance: Burning Skies, and while at first they take a bit of getting used to they do end up working pretty well. The top triggers and face action buttons follow the standard setup from previous Resistance games, and the availability of the dual analog sticks on the system makes sure that Nihilistic is trying to deliver an FPS experience with no compromises. The two significant changes to the controls however are the sprinting and the use of secondary weapons. Sprinting is now done by either tapping twice on the back touch panel while holding forward at the same time or by holding down on the D-Pad. As for secondary weapons, they are activated through the use of different specified gestures on the touch screen. The control scheme does the job well and is definitely heads and shoulders above anything I have experienced from the genre on a handheld.

The Weapon wheel returns from Resistance 1 and 3 as well as the ability to upgrade weapons using a type of technology called Grey tech that you collect as you progress through the game. It’s also important to note that the upgrades in this game are limited and you need to choose which kind of enhancements you would want in each weapon. The fact that you can’t upgrade everything to max performance means that choice is an important factor in the game and it can dictate how you use each weapon available in your arsenal.

Nihilistic are looking to deliver a solid FPS experience on a handheld device for the first time with Resistance: Burning Skies and it seems that they have done a good job of reaching their goal. The PS Vita has plenty of input options and Nihilistic made sure that they choose things that work well to use system’s offerings effectively . Resistance: Burning Skies is looking to be a welcomed entry to the PS Vita’s library and one that would set a new standard for the FPS genre on handheld devices.

Anyway, one of the hot debate topics that always is: Which real life actor could convincingly portray this or this video game character. While there is always a huge (and kindly abusive) debate about our own personal selections, we all grudgingly agree to at least one: Jason Momoa, aka Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones, would make a fine Kratos from God of War.

But that’s our thinking. What does Momoa himself think about it? At the on-going Middle East Film & Comic-Con, where Momoa is one of the chief guest (and the one with the loudest cheers…mainly from females), we got to ask him just that. In his Q&A session with fans, our ME-Movies Editor Faisal Hashmi snuck the question in to find his response.

Momoa said he knows who Kratos is, “the guy with the white and red paint, yes”, and that he would consider portraying the character if Sony approached him for the project. So, there we have it, then, Sony. Can we make this happen now?

Here’s the bit of story from the official press release:
Set in 2047, Prophet is on a revenge mission after uncovering the truth behind Cell Corporation’s motives for building the quarantined Nanodomes. The citizens were told that the giant citywide structures were resurrected to protect the population and to cleanse these metropolises of the remnants of Ceph forces. In reality, the Nanodomes are CELL’s covert attempt at a land and technology grab in their quest for global domination. With Alien Ceph lurking around every corner and human enemies on the attack, nobody is safe in the path of vengeance. Everyone is a target in Prophet’s quest for retribution.

“Crysis 3 is a thrilling mix of sandbox gameplay, advanced combat and hi-tech human and alien weaponry that shooter fans will love,” said Cevat Yerli, Chief Executive Officer of Crytek. “Leveraging the latest CryENGINE technology, we’re able to deliver seven unique themes that offer stunning and visually loaded gameplay experiences. We cannot wait until people get their hands on the game.”

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