Assassin’s Creed:
In the newest installment of the “Assassin’s Creed” series, the game’s setting is entirely different. Instead of being immersed in crowded, bustling medieval cities, the player travels overseas to pre-Revolution America. The player can ride horses in the country, explore nature, and sail the seas.
“Assassin’s Creed 3” incorporates strong ties to history, sometimes even letting the player witness significant historical events. Though there is a strict storyline, the game is fairly open for the player to do what he or she wants. Along with the usual parkour offered in the environment, the player can also hunt, fight redcoats, and pickpocket commoners.
The game follows the life of the vengeful main character Connor, a half-Native American, half-British man whose real name is Ratonhnhaké:ton, starting before he is born.
Overall, the gameplay is very similar to the previous installments: players must climb buildings and assassinate people, and each assassination is unique. The gameplay does have some slight differences such as the ability to dual wield weaponry, the changing seasons and the chance to hunt animals. An appealing twist Ubisoft added is that every character Connor kills is an actual historical person who died. The graphics are appealing but unfortunately the game has some minor glitches like non-moving mouths when characters are talking during cut scenes. “Assassin’s Creed 3” is an interesting game but is repetitive and feels like an appropriate place to end the series.
Call of Duty Black Ops II
Another November, another “Call of Duty”. “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” was released on Nov. 13 as the next installment of the franchise gaming series that has dominated this generation of console video games.
The Treyarch-developed, Activision-produced first-person shooter is the ninth game of the “Call of Duty” franchise that takes place in a world dominated by high technology and terrorism.
The campaign is now irrelevant due to its awful reputation. With the appeal of multiplayer and the return of Zombies (a survival mode in which the player fights off waves of relentless zombies), few “Call of Duty” players venture to explore the new direction that multiplayer takes. Instead of a linear fixed story line, the player’s success or failures in certain missions determine the output of the game. That may seem nice, but the dialogue remains dry and corny. It’s not worth it to explore this random attempt of reviving the atrocity that is the campaign.
The multiplayer, admittedly, is very solid. The weapons and maps are much more balanced, while League Play now allows players to be pitted against players of equal skill. Also, the killstreaks are fantastically fun to use, with all the futuristic comuper techonology the game has to offer.
Hitting the shelves a week after “Halo 4”, another mammoth first-person shooter, sales dropped by 2 million sold copies for Activision’s flagship franchise since last year.
Year after year, the same engine and the same concept is copied and pasted onto a new disk with a few edges polished off. There haven’t been any significant changes to keep the series relevant in a shrinking industry of console gaming, and the game makers will have to find away to keep the franchise alive if they want to continue their record-breaking sales.
Halo 4
It has been four years since the Halo Event and Master Chief has now awakened from his cryosleep, a process of preserving human bodies in freezing temperatures to prevent aging. He enters the world of “Halo 4”. Building off of Bungie’s trilogy, 343 Industries took over the game and decided to continue the storyline and game series.
As for the single player campaign, visually it is better all around. Also with new, re-textured weapons, vehicles and scenery, “Halo 4” looks great. In addition, “Halo 4” gives the storyline a whole differnt spin.
“Halo 4” gives the previous “Halo” storyline a whole different spin. Master Chief is still the walking tank that he has been for the past “Halo” games but now players are also in an emotional battle with themselves as the Master Chief is in love with a dying Artificial Intelligence (AI). Master Chief’s emotions are revealed he worries and feels concern for his beloved AI, Cortana.
Also, the “Halo 4” multiplayer takes a turn for the better. The armor abilities are more balanced than what they were when first introduced in “Halo: Reach”.
Furthermore, the fact that players can now respawn instantly after death is definitely a welcoming change. But one of the most radical changes made was the game mode “Infection,” which has been renamed “Flood.” The overall game concept is the same, but now the infected players do not get a simple armor color change, they get a whole different character model and a completely different weapon that has not been used in any other “Halo” game.
Overall, “Halo 4” is an improvement from previous versions. With a new campaign and a smoother, newly mastered multiplayer, “Halo 4” is definitely the best of the series so far.