Hitman: Absolution Box Art

Hitman: Absolution Pre-Order Bonuses

IO Interactive is currently working on the fifth installment of Hitman for Windows and consoles. Titled Hitman: Absolution, the game mixes familiar stealth mechanics with new gameplay features like improvised weapons and “Instinct Mode”. The latter allows the player to spot enemies through walls and see their patrol paths.

As for the story, it is supposed to be quite a bit more personal than that of the previous Hitman titles. Betrayed by people he trusted, Agent 47 is on the run and in search for answers. The game’s lead producer says this will let the players learn more about the protagonist’s character as he makes his own decisions.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops II Box Art

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Pre-Order Bonuses

Black Ops 2 is an upcoming FPS from the ever-popular Call of Duty series. It is a direct sequel to the original Black Ops. The single-player campaign features two different timelines: the late 1980’s with Alex Mason as the protagonist, and year 2025 where you play as his son, David Mason. Most of the story takes place during the latter timeline, where United States and China are locked in a conflict over rare earth elements.

BO2 introduces a number of features previously unseen in any Call of Duty game. Perhaps the biggest addition is the branching storyline: your choices and performance actually affect the ending of the game, and even the conclusion of the second Cold War. There’s also a new type of mission called Strike Force, where you have to achieve various objectives using a limited amount of units (that you can switch between at will). It goes without saying that the battlefield itself looks quite different in the future, with unmanned combat drones, airships, and even robots fighting alongside regular soldiers.

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Halo 4 Box Art

Halo 4 Pre-Order Bonuses

Halo 4 is the next installment in the massively popular Halo franchise, and the first game in the series to be developed by Microsoft’s 343 Industries. It is a direct sequel to Halo 3, and the beginning of the new Reclaimer Trilogy with Master Chief as the protagonist. The game features an engaging story which explores the legacy of the Forerunners, and improved visuals and sound for better immersion. Xbox Live Gold subscribers can also enjoy episodic Spartan Ops missions, playing cooperatively and competing for the highest score.

Besides the aforementioned Spartan Ops, Halo 4 adds lots of fresh multiplayer features, including new modes, weapons, vehicles, and a perk system. The levels are said to be larger than before, and designed from ground up with competitive gameplay in mind. It’s also possible to customize the armor of the new SPARTAN-IVs to a greater degree.

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Medal of Honor: Warfighter Box Art

Medal of Honor: Warfighter Pre-Order Bonuses

MoH: Warfighter is an upcoming sequel to the 2010 Medal of Honor game. It uses an improved Frostbite 2 graphics engine and features additions like Dynamic Door Breach and destructible environments. The game is developed with help from actual Tier 1 operators and includes real world locations, making it one of the most authentic first-person shooters. The multiplayer gives you a selection off 6 classes and twelve factions, plus several different game modes to choose from.

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Borderlands 2 Box Art

Borderlands 2 Pre-Order Bonuses

The unexpectedly successful and highly entertaining shooter Borderlands is getting a sequel this September. Borderlands 2 brings new characters and skills, improved vehicles, and a whole lot more weapons as well as other items. Plot-wise, the game picks up 5 years after the events in the original, and tasks the players with killing Handsome Jack, the dictator of Pandora.

Borderlands 2 retains the unique visual style of the first game, something that no doubt contributed to the title’s popularity. Just like the original, the sequel also offers a four-player co-op mode. Overall, the game should play similarly to Borderlands – except it is “bigger, better, and more badass”.

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Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Box Art

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Fall of Cybertron is an upcoming third-person shooter, and a direct sequel to the 2010 title War for Cybertron. Like its predecessor, the game is developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision. It runs on Unreal Engine 3 and features both single player and multiplayer modes. The former depicts the final battle between Autobots and Decepticons, and, like the title suggests, the destruction of their home planet – Cybertron. Each playable Transformer in the game has a unique ability or a weapon. Players can also buy and upgrade their gear.

The multiplayer of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron features the same classes (Scientist, Infiltrator, Destroyer and Titan) that determine what you transform into, but character creator is vastly improved. Players can create their own characters from scratch by combining body parts, choosing weapons, and picking a paint job.

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Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Box Art
  • Genre
  • Platform
  • Release date
    Consoles:
    May 22, 2012 (US)
    May 25, 2012 (UK)
    Windows:
    Jun 12, 2012 (US)
    Jun 15, 2012 (UK)

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Pre-Order Bonuses

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is an upcoming cover-based shooter game from Ubisoft. It is the fourth title in the series and takes place further in the future than the previous installments. Naturally, this means that more advanced military technologies are available, such as the new Optical Camo system which makes you harder to see when activated. The players also have customized weapons and controllable drones at their disposal.

The single-player campaign of GRFS will take you to Asia, Middle East, Africa, and other regions. As a leader of a Ghost squad, you will have to fight an ultranationalist Russian faction that has taken over the country and started invading nearby nations. Of course, the game has a multiplayer as well; several co-op and competitive modes are available, including the new Guerilla (survival) mode.

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Max Payne 3 Box Art

Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is the first game in the series to be developed by Rockstar. It takes place 8 years after the second one, with the titular protagonist working for a wealthy family in São Paulo, Brazil. According to game producer Sam Houser, Max is “more world-weary and cynical than ever”, and has apparently developed a drinking problem. It seems he has also lost his trademark black coat, and now sports a bald head and a rugged beard. (Scroll down to the trailer for Max’s new look).

Despite the new developer, Max Payne 3 retains some of the classic gameplay features seen in the previous installments, such as bullet time mode, shoot-dodging, and dual-wielding. The graphic novel storytelling sequences are changed, however, and now use in-game footage. Max Payne 3 also includes a multiplayer mode for the first time in the franchise.

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Starhawk Box Art

Starhawk Pre-Order Incentives

Starhawk is a PS3-exclusive third-person shooter, set to release in May 2012. Similarly to its predecessor, Warhawk, the game offers split-screen and online multiplayer. New additions include a single player story mode, and a Build n’ Battle system which allows the players to call down various structures from the orbiting ship, giving the game some RTS flavor.

Starhawk takes place in a sci-fi universe, where two factions – Rifters and Outcasts – clash over control of Rift Energy. Players can fight on foot or use various vehicles to do battle on the ground and in the air. Both competitive and co-op multiplayer modes are available.

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Sniper Elite V2 Box Art

Sniper Elite V2 Pre-Order Bonus Mission

Sniper Elite V2 is a remake of the 2005 game by the British Rebellion studio. It is a tactical shooter where the players assume the role of Karl Fairburne, an American sniper tasked with eliminating or capturing the German scientists working on the V-2 missile program during the World War II.

Like its predecessor, the game emphasizes stealth, tactical thinking, and planning. However, to make things more interesting, Sniper Elite V2 introduces a brutal kill cam that shows the bullet’s passage through the body in slow motion X-ray vision.

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Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Box Art
  • Genre
    Shooter
  • Platform
    PS3, X360, PC
  • Release date
    Consoles:
    Mar 20, 2012 (US)
    Mar 23, 2012 (EU)
    Windows:
    May 18, 2012

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is an upcoming squad-based shooter game developed by Capcom and Slant Six Games. It takes place in the same time period as Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis do, and, like the name suggests, is set in Raccoon City.

The player steps into the shoes of an Umbrella Security Service officer, tasked with destroying any evidence of Umbrella Corporation’s illegal research. The game is said to allow the player to diverge from Resident Evil canon, such as killing Leon or Clair.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City pits the player against survivors of the T-Virus outbreak, zombies and other mutated enemies, and the U.S. Special Ops who aim to expose Umbrella’s crimes. Besides the single-player campaign, the game also offers several competitive multiplayer modes.

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Mass Effect 3 Box Art

Mass Effect 3 Pre-order Bonuses

Mass Effect 3 is the final installment in Bioware’s critically acclaimed sci-fi saga. Having defeated the Collectors in the previous game, Commander Shepard now has to face the real enemy – the Reapers. The machine race invades the galaxy, and Earth is the first world to fall. Predictably, it’s up to Shepard to rally the galactic civilizations against the most powerful enemy they ever faced.

Since ME3 is the last part of the series, your choices have a much bigger impact on the story. You can import save data from the previous two games, so the fate of the galaxy depends on your actions throughout the entire trilogy. According to Bioware, one of the endings even has Shepard losing to Reapers, thus dooming all intelligent life to extinction.

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Syndicate Box Art
  • Genre
    Shooter
  • Platform
    PC, PS3, X360
  • Release date
    Feb 21, 2012 (US)
    Feb 24, 2012 (EU)

Syndicate Pre-order Bonus

Syndicate is a reimagining of the original tactical shooter series from the nineties. It is a cyberpunk-themed FPS game with some RPG elements, set in the near future where the world is ruled by all-powerful corporations. The upcoming title has a single-player and a 4-player co-op campaign; the latter actually offers nine missions adapted from the original ’93 game.

Business is war in the Syndicate universe, and the main weapon in it are agents: biologically-engineered and cybernetically-enhanced humans with powerful abilities like slowing down time or seeing through walls. The protagonist of the game, Miles Kilo, is one of them: a new prototype agent of Eurocorp who can not only wreak havoc using all sorts of high-tech weapons, but also utilize the military-grade chip implanted in his head to hack other people’s implants, forcing them to commit suicide or turn on their comrades.

The game might sound remarkably similar to Deus Ex: Human Revolution at first, but elements like megacorporations and cybernetic augmentation are found in most cyberpunk settings. Furthermore, GiantBomb writes that Syndicate seems to have a lot more guns-blazing action, so we expect it will play somewhat differently from DX: HR.

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The Darkness II Box Art
  • Genre
    Shooter
  • Platform
    PC, PS3, X360
  • Release date
    Feb 7, 2012 (US)
    Feb 10, 2012 (EU)

The Darkness II

Darkness II is an upcoming sequel to the gothic first-person shooter, based on a comic book series of the same name. The plot of the game picks up two years after the events in the original, with Jackie as the Don of the Franchetti family. After an attempt on his life, Jackie cannot contain the Darkness anymore and sets out on a merciless hunt for his attackers.

New in Darkness II is Quad-Wielding, which allows you to use your Demon Arms while firing two weapons at the same time (you know, because dual wielding just isn’t cool enough). More brutal executions are included, such as promisingly-named “Wishbone” and “Anaconda”. The visual style of the game has also changed, with cel-shaded textures resulting in a more comic-book-like look (scroll down to the trailer to see a preview).

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Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Box Art

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Pre-order Bonus

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is an upcoming remake of the original game that was released almost a decade ago. It features improved graphics (with an option to switch back to the classic mode), completely remastered sountrack, and support for stereoscopic 3D and Kinect.

The game includes 7 most popular multiplayer maps for use in Halo: Reach multiplayer, new achievements, and Halo 4 story teasers via the updated Terminals. It also offers both online and local (split-screen) co-op. Halo: Anniversary comes in a single disk with a modest price tag of $40.

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Saints Row: The Third Box Art

Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row: The Third is an open-world action game developed by Volition and scheduled for release on November 15th. Few years have passed after the events of Saints Row 2, and the Saints have moved to the city of Steelport where they will have to fight three rival gangs for control. You will get to meet both familiar and new characters in this game.

The last installment of the trilogy also seems to be the craziest. Saints Row 3 will offer an array of ridiculously awesome weapons like a giant dildo bat, a vehicle that shoots pedestrians, powerful airstrikes, and huge boxing gloves that make the people you punch explode. Not to mention the new VTOL (Vertical Take Off & Landing) jet which is armed with lasers, or a cannon that fires live octopuses. The latter is actually a preorder bonus, so let’s take a look at those incentives right now.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Box Art

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

CoD: MW3 is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward with assistance from two other Activision-owned game studios: Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. The game is set to release in November this year for all three major platforms.

Like its predecessor, Modern Warfare 3 will offer a single-player campaign and a multiplayer, which will have an improved ranking and unlocks system. The game will also feature a new Spec Ops co-op mode where two players will have to fight waves of increasingly stronger enemies. The single-player story will continue right after the events in Modern Warfare 2. MW3 is also going to use the same engine as the previous game.

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Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Box Art

Uncharted 3 Pre-Order Bonuses

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is a highly anticipated action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog for the PS3. The third installment in the series will follow the adventures of treasure hunter Nathan Drake and his partner Victor Sullivan as they search for the legendary city, the Iram of the Pillars. The game will take you to various locations around the world, including Europe and the Middle East.

Uncharted 3 will introduce a number of improvements and new gameplay elements. For example, the game will feature a melee combat system that allows you to fight multiple opponents at the same time and crush enemies located below you by jumping down on them. Drake’s Deception will also offer numerous online multiplayer and co-op improvements, as well as support for stereoscopic 3D.

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GoldenEye 007: Reloaded Box Art

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded Pre-order DLC

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is an upcoming remake of the 2010 Wii game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles. Besides the obvious improvements in graphics, the game features a new set of MI6 Ops missions which are unrelated to the main storyline.

Like its predecessor, the game stars Daniel Craig as the voice of James Bond, and features 4-player split-screen as well as 16-player online matches. There also are new multiplayer modes, weapons, maps, and other content. GoldenEye 007: Reloaded has an achievement system and is compatible with Playstation Move.

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Battlefield 3 Box Art
  • Genre
    Shooter
  • Platform
    PC, PS3, X360
  • Release date
    Oct 25, 2011 (US)
    Oct 28, 2011 (EU)

Battlefield 3

The ever-popular Battlefield series of first-person shooters will see a new addition this year. Titled Battlefield 3, the game will use a next-generation engine called Frostbite 2, which takes full advantage of DX11 and 64-bit CPUs. The new engine is said to deliver improved dynamic lighting, destructible environments and highly realistic character animations.

BF3 will re-introduce fighter jets and the prone position which was absent from Bad Company. The multiplayer mode is going to feature a kill cam similar to that in Call of Duty games. Battlefield 3 will support up to 64 players per server on the PC, but only 24 on consoles due to hardware limitations. Multiplayer is, of course, the main focus of Battlefield games, but BF3 will still have a single-player campaign, which is going to take place in year 2014.

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