Creative Assembly’s Total War team is now almost four times larger than it was when developing the original Rome: Total War. Player expectations have advanced in tandem with technology, and the bar keeps rising: from Shogun’s jagged sprites to Rome II’s grime-streaked, battle-hardened soldiers, there’s always more that can be done to render historical warfare with the depth of detail that has come to define the series.

I made a promise to myself when I was about to start this review: no battle reports. I wasn't going to write sexy, sensual descriptions of what PlanetSide 2's enormous, chaotic, 2,000-player sci-fi warfare is capable of. There was a very good reason for this, and it's probably not what you're thinking: I just wasn't sure I could do it justice. Over the past week I've been taken aback by the scale of this game. What it encourages players to enact, on the ground and in the skies, and how well it scales the battles is rather extraordinary. It's laying a late claim for my game of the year. 

In the escalating political climate of the near future—where strategies on the battlefield must be delicately balanced with maneuvers at the negotiating table—a new breed of soldier has arisen. Trained to be better than the best and outfitted with the most comprehensive array of high-tech gear ever assembled, the future soldier stands apart by his ability to remain undetected. He slips unseen behind enemy lines. He uses the perfect combination of diplomacy and force to achieve his objectives while remaining politically invisible. He is a Ghost.

Release name: Prototype_2-FLT
Size: 8.87 GB
Genre: Action
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Release Date: 07.2012
Language: ENG
NFO: Here
Release Description:

You are Sgt. James Heller, a soldier left to die, distraught husband to a deceased wife and father to a dead son. You are infected. There is one thing left to do — hunt down and kill Alex Mercer. Become the ultimate shape-shifting weapon in Prototype 2. Cut through the wastelands of post-viral New York Zero and build a genetic arsenal of all-new biological weapons and abilities on your quest to murder your maker and the devil himself, Alex Mercer. Witness building-size infected beasts ambush entire city streets. Glide and parkour across the cityscape. Take on swarms of highly trained Blackwatch soldiers.

Hitman: Absolution is two games in one -- a disappointing sequel to its predecessor, Blood Money, and a flawed but enjoyable murder simulator in its own right. Batman has his gadgets. Corvo has his magic. Agent 47 can kill you six different ways with nothing but his iconic red tie, and leave without anyone ever realizing. It's just a shame that the ultimate predator himself has to fall prey to his creators' thirst for mainstream appeal, in an overly cinematic adventure tied down by how much more it could have been.

Criterion Games' Need For Speed: Most Wanted made me forget the disappointment of Black Box's NFS The Run from my first virtual turn of the key. Although it misfires on occasion, this over-the-top arcade racer still plants a silly grin on my face, whether I'm racing AI Corvettes, breaching police roadblocks, or nitrous-boosting past desperate online opponents. It does a lot of things very right.

Medal of Honor Warfighter is an impressive multiplayer shooter with tight controls, an arsenal of weapons and modes, teamwork-promoting two-man fire teams, and an array of cool elite fighters from nations around the world. The problem is this stalwart Warfighter is also skilled in the art of shooting itself in the foot. Game-derailing bugs that should have been squashed long before launch make Warfighter's multiplayer more frustrating than fun.

They may look like unwieldy lumps of steel, but Hawken’s war machines are surprisingly agile. Meteor’s free-to-play shooter gives you control of a twenty-foot-tall mechanical warrior, but it’s not another MechWarrior: the maps here are small, and the combat snappy.

In the era of sequels and reboots, rare is something that feels new, and rarer still is something that feels new and fully realized. Dishonored then, is the golden tabby tiger of videogames. Drawing its strength from such greats as Thief, BioShock, Batman: Arkham City, and Portal, Arkane Studios' latest manages to deliver that magical formula of intimately familiar and refreshingly new. It doesn't shine as brightly as it should on PC, and it might not offer the challenge stealth-action fans are used to, but it's an impressive accomplishment that immediately stands out as one of the best things we've seen this year.

This isn't an official project. Let's get that out of the way first. That's still cooking. This is, believe it or not, a trailer for a fan-made short film, put together by a (relatively) small crew and making the most of some very talented actors, effects people and martial artists/stunt performers.