The opening sequence, in particular, completely avoids mentioning the history of its starring characters: the Harlem Hellfighters, an American battalion who were forced to enlist with the French during WWI because they were black. Battlefield 1's stories avoid talking about either the full scale of the global conflict or about their own nations' involvement, meaning that the results feel surprisingly tone-deaf at certain moments. The soldier-death camera-pan moments include brief epitaphs (soldier name, birth year, death year), which touch on a surprisingly anti-war tone. How often does a video game remind you, as your hero dies, how old he lived to be? Do many similar titles stop and show you a character's real, full name while loading the next combat sequence?īut the intro's narrator never seems to say anything with the same emotional weight as those notices, nor do any other characters. The approach is interesting, but it also sets an inconsistent tone that perhaps focuses too much on the small scale, individual experiences of the war. (This last-stand battle doesn't end well.) In this intro sequence, instead of rewinding to a checkpoint after deaths, the camera pans out and a narrator describes the emotions of war as you take on a different soldier in that same battle. Battlefield 1 is by no means the end-all, be-all of military shooter single-player modes, but its "war stories" construct is a brilliant solution to the prior games' tendency to get stuck in the narrative weeds.īF1 tells its World War 1 story via five separate war plots starring five protagonists from around the world-all following a brief, introductory mission in which nearly every single character you control dies. “A no-good, lying son of a bitch”Īfter all, how can you tell a story of a massive, full-country squad when you're too busy setting up jokes and repartee between Guy McGrimaceface and his "clearly going to die by mission nine" buddies? (For the record, Battlefield's offshoot Bad Company 2 release was the rare exception with a high-quality story.) What a difference 100 years makes. It's also another feather in PC gaming's cap in 2016, as this game has been so nicely optimized that it offers a "next-gen" experience right now on even moderate PC hardware. This is a beautiful, polished, and oftentimes very fun experience for the masses. For the most part, Battlefield 1 gets away with normalcy by delivering exactly what we hope "triple-A" games can pull off with their giant budgets and enormous expectations. So this is business as usual, right? Not exactly. In practice, horses are just slightly slower motorcycles. Bi-planes work as you'd expect a plane to work. In fact, anybody charmed by an impressive advertising campaign, complete with horse-riding Ottoman warriors and era-appropriate bi-planes, should take a breath and plant their war-shredded boots back into the mud of a trench. Tanks, boats, airplanes, grenades, sniper rifles, shotguns, automatic pistols, mounted chain guns, and on and on and on-in many respects, you've played this Battlefield before. There are particular eras where'd it's be easy to envision DICE being forced to change the Battlefield formula drastically-maybe millennia into the past, where the only "vehicle" on offer is a giant Trojan horse, or so far into the future that the battles take place via telepathy (or something weird like that). But the latest rewind to World War 1 in the newest installment, Battlefield 1, isn't enough of a change, apparently. As such, the eras have ultimately been a backdrop for the same experience time and time again: big battles, big squads, and big machinery. Whether focused on wars of the past, present, or future, developer DICE has continually introduced different set pieces and weapons to the games. The Battlefield video game series has turned the clock backward and forward on its military-combat scenarios for nearly 15 years. Release Date: Octo(early enlister edition), Octo(regular edition) Platform: Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (reviewed on Windows, XB1)
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Not Ubisoft, but Nvidia just revealed the official PC requirements for the final version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands. Ghost Recon Wildlands - Official PC Requirement - 10:49 AM The trailer features the upcoming open beta, that will start on PS4, Xbox One. Ubisoft released a brand new trailer of its upcoming open world squad-based shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Wildlands Trailer - 09:21 AM Thrustmaster is thrilled to announce that it is launching a line of three Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands licenced gaming headsets – including a highly-anticipated worldwide e. Thrustmaster Ghost Recon Wildlands licenced gaming headsets - 10:35 AM We'll test the game on the PC platform relative towards graphics card performance with the latest AMD/NVIDIA graphi. In this benchmark review we take Ghost Recon: Wildlands for the PC for a test ride. Review: Ghost Recon: Wildlands PC graphics performance review - 03:45 PM And accompanying it is a day one patch that fixes many things. Ubisoft Paris' open-world tactical shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands released onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Ghost Recon Wildlands Day One Patch Detailed - 09:16 AM
Unity tells the story of Arno Dorian, a young aristocrat turned assassin seeking revenge on those who killed his adoptive father – and possibly his biological father too. The architecture is meticulously period-specific, the political climate crackles through the machinations of non-player characters arguing and fighting in the streets, and the lighting effects lend the environment a gloomy, yet intriguing atmosphere. From the pomp and grandeur of Versailles to the gothic majesty of Notre Dame, to the desperate slums of Paris, the game has the power to convince players that if pre-Revolutionary France didn’t look exactly like this, it came pretty damn close. Unlock every Eagle Point in the game and you’ll be encouraged to rinse the map of content just so you can see what the hell is going on.Īs with all the games in this series, Assassin’s Creed: Unity is achingly beautiful. An end-to-end journey across this environment is a pretty lengthy undertaking – and that’s before you factor in the myriad distractions in the form of story missions, quests and dynamic events. The action plays out on a massive 1:1 scale map of inner city Paris circa 1792. Unity is gargantuan in comparison to previous entries. That’s not to say this is a bad game – it’s very ambitious in terms of its size, if not depth, providing a clear indication that Assassin’s Creed may be one game away from a persistent world franchise. Parkour, collectibles, side-quests and a story with a cowled hero at its centre are still the order of the day – although Unity adds new features and content, they aren’t enough to convince the unconverted. Its controls are more fluid, its combat has more of a bite and players need absolutely no knowledge of the plot details in previous entries to enjoy its story.īut to be honest, if you weren’t on board by the time Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – still this franchise’s high-water mark – came out, you won’t be swayed here. So the question facing Ubisoft seems unfair: how do you avoid criticisms of stagnation when your audience largely wants more of the same? (And as Keith Stuart pointed out just last week, is more of the same necessarily such a bad thing? After all, if that’s what a fanbase wants, why antagonise it?)Īssassin’s Creed: Unity is the best entry point into the series thus far. An audience that numbers in the millions won’t respond favourably to developers tinkering too much with the established formula. Once the most progressive series on Ubisoft’s slate, the time-traveling adventure can no longer play fast and loose with either structure or mechanics. Into this constricting terrain strides Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Despite a new console generation, the biggest publishers in the industry are still banking their futures on familiar conventions. While there have been plenty of blockbuster releases – some new, some a continuation of high profile franchises – there has been little genuinely new or groundbreaking. This year has been something of a disappointment for triple-A gaming innovation (admittedly, never a sensible thing to expect). Ubisoft PC/PS4/Xbox One £50 Pegi rating: 18+
The events of the previous game are mentioned frequently, and Team Plasma returns for another shot at taking over the Unova region and liberating its Pokemon. Additionally, you’ll have a chance to capture the black or white version of legendary Pokemon Kyurem, depending on which version of the game you prefer. All of the trainer gyms have been redesigned, some with new leaders, and there are a handful of towns that didn’t appear in the previous game. The Unova region has changed in the two years since Black/White took place, though you’ll still see plenty of familiar faces and locations. No matter how varied your favorites are, you’ll still find yourself needing to grind from time to time, but this happened a lot less frequently in Black/White 2 than previous games. Because the turn-based skirmishes feature the series’ trademark rock-paper-scissors balance of elemental strengths and weaknesses, the Pokemon you choose can put you at a huge advantage or disadvantage. Having the same starter Pokemon as the previous game is a little disappointing, but since Black and White 2 have even more Pokemon than its predecessors, it won’t be long until you’ve got a diverse roster of six creatures ready to battle. Despite the similarities from game to game, Nintendo has never released a direct sequel until Black and White Version 2, which retain all of the improvements from their predecessors but don’t do nearly as much to push the series forward. As the protagonist, a novice trainer about to embark on his or her journey to catch ’em all, you choose one of three starters (fire, water, or grass types), travel from town to town earning eight gym badges, battle the Elite Four, and take out an evil organization along the way. Happy deal hunting and don't forget to treat yourself.Since the release of Pokemon Red and Blue for the Game Boy in 1998, the series hasn’t changed much in its basic formula. You can find links to some of the articles below. We have loads of other Cyber Monday coverage to point you toward the best deals on a vast array of product categories. Recent Ubisoft releases like Far Cry 6 and Riders Republic are on sale, as are loads of other games across all genres, from RPGs and racing games to sports games and action adventures. Many of the same third-party games that are on sale for Xbox are also on sale for PS4 and PS5.
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