Batman: Arkham Knight Box Art

Batman: Arkham Knight is an upcoming action-adventure title developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. This last installment in the main trilogy is set one year after the events of Arkham City. Scarecrow returns to Gotham, and unites the most powerful villains of the Rogues Gallery (including the new and mysterious enemy, Arkham Knight) to destroy Batman for good.

New to the franchise is a drivable Batmobile, which can be summoned to the player’s location at any time, and transforms into Battle Mode when more firepower is needed. As expected of a new-gen game, Arkham Knight also features significant graphical improvements; the developers claim that just one character can have the same polygon count as the entire Arkham Asylum environment.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Box Art

The third installment in the popular action RPG series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continues the story of Geralt of Rivia, and brings a number of improvements to the franchise. New mechanics like horseback combat, Witcher sense, and climbing add more depth to the game. Nonlinear gameplay is emphasized even more, with each quest having several different solutions, and the player’s choices affecting the world around them.

The game’s world is significantly larger than that of its predecessors, with the new REDengine 3 providing stunning graphics on current-gen consoles and PCs, and eliminating annoying loading screens. According to CD Projekt RED, TW3: Wild Hunt will have around 100 hours of gameplay.

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Bloodborne Box Art

Bloodborne is an upcoming action RPG developed by the famous Japanese studio From Software, the creators of Demon’s Souls and its successors. This Gothic-themed game begins in the sprawling city of Yharnam, and is set during the Victorian period. As a result, the medieval armor is gone, replaced by cloth, and various guns fitting the period are available for use.

Interestingly, the lack of heavy armor is also reflected in the protagonist’s mobility, which is increased significantly as compared to Dark Souls. Not only the players are more agile, they are also rewarded for playing aggressively with the new health regeneration mechanic, which grants a short period of time to regain lost health by counterattacking.

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Far Cry 4 Box Art

The fourth installment in the popular Far Cry series takes the players to Kyrat, a fictional Himalayan region ruled by the game’s antagonist Pagan Min. A power-hungry Hong Kong drug lord, Min used an ongoing civil war in the remote kingdom of Kyrat to claim the throne, and then proceeded to remake the country to his own liking. Yet not everyone in the land is willing to submit to his despotic rule. The parents of the game’s protagonist – Ajay Ghale – were the leaders of the resistance movement in Kyrat. That’s why, when Ajay returns to the country of his birth from America to scatter his mother’s ashes, he gets a warm welcome from the unpredictable Pagan Min.

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The Order: 1886 Box Art

The Order: 1886 is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Ready at Dawn and published by Sony exclusively for their PS4 platform. Set in an alternate version of the Victorian-era London, it follows the titular Order, whose job it is to hunt down dangerous Half-Breeds such as Lycans. Empowered by a mystical substance called Blackwater and equipped with deadly weapons made possible thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the long-lived warriors of the Order are the only ones who can protect humanity against the Half-Breed threat.

The Order: 1886 features a “filmic” look achieved by using subtle film grain, chromatic aberration, and other effects. According to the developers, the 1920×800 resolution and 30 frame rate were also chosen for aesthetic reasons, although one could speculate that the costly particle effects and the high visual fidelity of the game are to blame.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Box Art

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is an upcoming FPS game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. Set in year 2054, it features highly futuristic combat with exoskeletons that allow their users to perform enormous leaps, blazing-fast dodges, and supercharged melee attacks. The players can even become invisible for a brief period of time using the powersuits’ cloaking capabilities. The weapons arsenal is also getting a sci-fi upgrade in the form of directed-energy guns which fire laser-like beams.

Advanced Warfare also offers a more advanced “Pick 13” system which now includes customizable scorestreaks, new multiplayer modes, new vehicles and drones, and tools like the grappling hook or IR grenades that add interesting tactical possibilities.

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Sunset Overdrive Box Art

Sunset Overdrive is an open-world third-person shooter developed by Insomniac Games and published by Microsoft exclusively for Xbox One consoles. It takes place in year 2027, when a zombie apocalypse of sorts strikes the fictional Sunset City due to a new energy drink, OverCharge Delirium XT, turning its drinkers into crazed mutants. As the one tasked with cleaning up after the launch party, the protagonist is one of the few people left unaffected.

Sunset Overdrive features highly dynamic and fluid gameplay centered around speedy traversal. Players who keep moving while blowing up the plentiful enemies are rewarded with Style points. Destruction comes easy with the variety of wacky weapons available: Roman Candle launches multicolored fireworks, High Fidelity shoots vinyl records, and TnTeddy combines the cuteness of a teddy bear with the explosive power of dynamite – and that’s just the beginning. The game is bright, colorful, and, in the words of the developers, completely irreverent.

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