Electronic Vanguard: 2013 Preview, Continued
Created | Updated Jan 27, 2013
With a delay of one week you can now read the second part of my preview to some of this year’s computer game releases. Have fun!
MMORPG
The Elder Scrolls Online
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios
Publisher: Bethesda
Platform: PC, Mac
Website: elderscrollsonline.com
Release: 2013
The Elder Scrolls is a very popular series of fantasy role-play computer games started in 1994. Every game tells a story set in one kingdom on the fictional continent Tamriel. All games have been created and published by Bethesda. Many different races inhabit these lands and the player is always completely free in his choice to be good or evil, the playstyle, weapons and it is even possible to never start the main story and yet enjoy many hours of playing. A large part of the gameplay leads the player through various dungeons. Especially the recent games feature breathtaking landscapes, realistic towns and villages and a wide range of inhabitants to talk to.
To be able to create an MMO from a massive background like The Elder Scrolls a new company was founded - ZeniMax. Just like the single-player games The Elder Scrolls Online will be set on Tamriel and a huge part of the continent will be accessible. The game is set a long time befor the other games as to not influence their future story and development. It is the time of the interregnum, when there was no emperor in Tamriel and chaos reigned. As usual the player can choose between all the available races but this time they belong to one of three different factions who fight for the power over all of Tamriel. The whole province of Cyrodiil will be a PvP area where the factions fight for the imperial city and for PvE content there will be a lot of dungeons again. Everything I have seen of the game so far looked very much like the old MMOs of the beginning of the Century and rather forged to the tastes of older players. My expectations are high. I hope this will finally be a playable MMO with decent difficulty and non-teenage graphic style again.
Strategy
Total War: Rome II
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Platform: PC
Website: totalwar.com
Release: autumn/winter 2013
Total War is a very popular series of strategy games, started in the year 2000. The player has the command over an army and tries to conquer a part of the real world. Every game is based on a specific historic epoch and features historic armour, weapons and scenery. Gameplay is a combination of real time and turn-based strategy. The player sets out somewhere on the map and then moves his army from one area to the other, having real time battles or in some cases just let the computer decide a winner.
Total War: Rome II is the 8th game of the Total War series. It shows battles in more detail than any other Total War game, even with facial animations of every single soldier. Naval and land combat are combined in the battles and whole cities can be conquered. The player can choose between several factions of which only Rome and Carthage are known at this time.
Warhammer 40.000: Space Hulk
Developer: Full Control
Publisher: Games Workshop
Platform:PC, Mac, iOS
Website: spacehulk-game.com
Release: 2013
Space Hulk is planned as a turn-based (as opposed to real time) sci-fi strategy game, which makes sense as ‘Space Hulk’ is originally a board game made by Games Workshop, first published in 1989. The player has the command over a unit of Space Marine Terminators who have to fight the most alien threat of the Warhammer 40k universe: Tyranids. These insect-like creatures have overrun an ancient spaceship and as Tyranids have no friends, the Space Marines try to find and eliminate all of them. There has already been an earlier video game adaptation of Space Hulk in 1993.
Space Hulk will offer a single player campaign, a multiplayer co-operation mode and a mode for two people playing against each other (like in the board game). Cross-platform playing is possible. I hope this game will be as good as the Dawn of War series or the Space Marine shooter and not make me ask ‘why did they ever get the license’ like other Warhammer games did.
Action-Adventure
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC, Play Station 3, XboX 360
Website: splintercell.ubi.com
Release: 20 August 2013
Splinter Cell is a game series (also novels and upcoming movie) about a fictional black-ops unit fighting against terrorists and is set in the near future. The player takes on the role of Sam Fisher who fulfills his tasks with stealth, his abilities in acrobatics and infiltration and lots of futuristic high tech equipment. The games focus on finding a way past enemies, sneaking and not running and shooting wildly at everything that moves.
In the new game Sam Fisher is the commander of a newly formed team. A group of terrorists create a ‘Blacklist’ of targets in the USA which will be attacked in a countdown. These terrorists have to be found and eliminated before the countdown reaches zero. To achieve this goal Sam Fisher and his unit have to travel the whole world in their stealth aircraft using even more high-tech equipment than before. During the game the player will be faced with difficult moral decisions, but sneaking seems to lose importance in favour of more action.
Grand Theft Auto V
Developer:Rockstar Games
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Platform: Play Station 3, XboX 360
Website: rockstargames.com
Release: spring 2013
The GTA games are set in fictional cities which are based on cities in the real world. The player takes on the role of a criminal who tries to raise in status in the underworld - which is of course done by committing various crimes. There are missions and the whole city is open for exploration. The player has as many freedoms as possible to do whatever they like and go wherever they want. While the missions follow a linear path and tell a story the player otherwise has no restrictions. The choices a player makes will for instance influence the reactions of NPCs to the player character.
GTA V is set in the fictional city Los Santos, which is based mainly on Los Angeles and San Francisco, and also suburbs and the surrounding area. The size of the in-game world will be bigger than in any other GTA game so far. The player can switch between three playable characters during missions and in the open world. When not player-controlled these characters will mind their own business and do whatever they like. There will also be the option to play the game with up to five friends at a time and go on missions together.
