Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Box Art

MGS V: The Phantom Pain is a direct sequel to Ground Zeroes developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami. It takes place in 1984 and follows the Big Boss as he investigates the destruction of MSF years prior. The game’s vast open-world environments are set in Africa and Afghanistan. The gameplay mechanics of the upcoming title remain similar to those of its predecessor, but there are several new elements such as real-time day and night cycle, dynamic weather, new stealth actions, and different methods of travel.

Mother Base is also making a return in The Phantom Pain, and this time it is both explorable and expandable. Players can choose which upgrades to construct, and customize the color to their liking.

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Project CARS Box Art

Project CARS (short for Community Assisted Racing Simulator, as the game was crowdfunded) is an upcoming motorsports sim from a British developer Slightly Mad Studios. It aims to provide a realistic driving experience for different types of cars and forms of racing. Players can experiment or practice in Solo mode, immerse themselves in their driver’s Career, compete against each other using the Online mode, and participate in various Community events. Project CARS supports a wide variety of steering wheel peripherals, 4K surround setups, and even Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus VR gaming headsets.

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Mortal Kombat X Box Art

The upcoming tenth installment in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series is developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. The new title runs on a modified version of the dated Unreal Engine 3, which allows it to achieve 60 FPS at 1080p resolution on current-gen consoles. Story-wise it picks up where MK9 left off, and continues 25 years into the future.

Mortal Kombat X features returning as well as brand new fighters, and some new game mechanics, the most notable of which is probably character variations. There are three different versions of every character, each adding some unique attacks, special moves, or weapons, and significantly altering the playstyle. Scorpion’s Ninjutsu variation, for example, wields dual swords, whereas Hellfire focuses on fireballs, and Inferno allows him to summon a demonic minion.

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Dragon Ball Xenoverse Box Art

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is an upcoming fighting game developed by Dimps and published by Bandai Namco Games. It features large, fully 3D levels, environmental destruction, and battles in the air, on the ground, and under water. In addition to the online multiplayer with up to 3v3 team matches, it will also be possible to play locally.

The game’s Story Mode follows an original player-created character (customization options include race, gender, clothing, voice, etc.) and is said to offer 10+ hours of gameplay. The plot revolves around a pair of villains who attempt to rewrite the history of the Dragon Ball universe, while the player attempts to restore it.

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Battlefield Hardline Box Art

Battlefield Hardline is a first-person shooter developed by Visceral Games in collaboration with DICE, and published by EA. Unlike the previous installments in the series, BFHL is police-themed and pits cops against robbers in a variety of game modes. Heist, for example, tasks the criminals with stealing money from a vault and escaping while law enforcement officers attempt to stop them. Blood Money has both teams competing to carry money from the main cache to their own vault. Then there’s the Rescue mode, which, like the name suggests, involves retrieving hostages being held by the criminals.

In addition to the ever-popular multiplayer, Battlefield Hardline also features a proper single-player campaign. Its story follows Nick Mendoza, a rookie detective who, alongside with his more experienced partner Khai Minh Dao, attempts to take down Miami’s drug lords.

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Saints Row IV: Re-Elected Box Art

A remastered version of Saints Row IV is scheduled to launch for the new-gen Sony and Microsoft consoles in January 2015. Titled Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, the game features enhanced graphics, includes all the current DLC, and can be purchased either separately via digital download, or in a boxed version together with the upcoming standalone expansion, Gat out of Hell. The latter is also sold separately, and includes approximately 6-8 hours of gameplay; the story follows Johnny Gat and Kinzie Kensington as they attempt to invade Hell and save Boss’s soul.

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Evolve Box Art

Evolve is a sci-fi themed asymmetric multiplayer FPS developed by Turtle Rock Studios (creators of Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead) and published by 2K Games. The game pits four Hunters against an alien Monster in various environments on Shear, a wild and dangerous planet that humanity is trying to colonize.

There are four Hunter classes in total (Assault, Support, Medic, and Trapper), with three different characters each. In addition to the class ability, every character possesses unique weapons and equipment of their own. Combining these and working as a team is crucial in order to achieve victory as a Hunter.

As for Monsters, there also are three, with more likely to come after launch. Each Monster has a unique play-style with different abilities which can be improved when the player consumes enough wildlife to evolve to the next Stage. Monsters can win the match by either killing all four Hunters, or evolving to Stage 3 and accomplishing a secondary objective (for example, destroying a power relay).

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