Latest Releases Video Game Edition he game is set in a world once filled with magic, which the ability to do so must first be researched. Tis used by its human inhabitants to build their civiliza- Factors affecting negotiation include race, tions. A race of immortal beings known as the Titans were relative military strength, current relations, attracted to the world by the creation of the reality-warp- trade routes, treaties, character, traits, and ing Forge of the Overlord, an artifact with the power to create family connections. magical items.[7] While engaged in civil war, the Titans im- In general, gameplay varies depending on prison the world›s magic in a number of elemental shards. At the chosen faction. Human kingdoms tend first, only the Titans can use the magic within the shards, but to focus on government and civilization, in time human channelers arise to challenge them. The result- while the empires of the Fallen are more ing battles lead to the destruction of the Forge, and ultimately about individual champions. the land itself. Each character in the game is individually century later, the player is a channeler Overlord. Pieces of the Forge may be found named and outfitted through a character Executive producer Scott Tykoski com- A leading a faction of humans or Fallen through quests, or created by researching editor with statistics that increase as they pared the game to Viva Piñata, but sub- (corrupted life-forms created by the and casting the Spell of Making, requiring gain experience. Characters may be com- stituting “shovels and creatures filled with Titans) in a still-devastated world, able to control of all elemental shards. bined into armies to fight more dangerous candy for swords and creatures filled with renew it with magic – or pervert it to their dark magic.” Players control a sovereign and belong to or numerous opponents. Combat takes will. The human kingdoms sometimes a faction, each with characteristics affect- place on a separate tactical map, although band together against the empires of the ing gameplay; they may pick from ten battles may normally be auto-resolved. Fallen, but each faction strives for ultimate pre-built sovereigns, or create their own. dominance. Players may negotiate with each other to They gain influence over land and resources exchange money, material goods, or diplo- Elemental has a single-player campaign, up by founding cities, opening up the abil- matic capital (but not technology]), and to to 16-way multiplayer and nonlin- ity to train characters and research spells enter into treaties and alliances, however, ear «sandbox» game play. In the latter two and technologies. Cities may be enhanced modes, players win the game by conquer- through improvements, providing addition- ing or allying with all other factions, or by al space, and generating money, resources reassembling or creating the Forge of the or prestige (one of the factors determining population growth). Quests and useful items are scat- tered randomly across the land, as are wandering monsters and neu- tral characters; the latter may be hired with gildar, the game’s cur- rency. Both may be fought for expe- rience and treasure, although attack- ing civilians decreases the sovereign›s reputation, the number of quests available increases over time as ad- venturing technologies are unlocked. game sequences) and shadows. Each mission features a series of objectives that are displayed on the head up display, which marks the direction and distance to- wards and from such objectives. The player is accompanied by friendly troops who can- not be issued orders. Although being primary a first-person shooter, there are some variety of game play such as piloting a Hind helicopter or tactically guiding friendly troops from an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance air- to either flee or toss it back to the enemy. craft. The player assumes the role of various Single-player campaigns of Call of characters during the single-player cam- Duty games are action-packed and paign, changing perspectives throughout very scripted with various cinematic mo- the progression of the story. Common ments. Call of Duty Black Ops is a first-person shooter war game series and Black Ops is soldiers on the battlefield among several not an exception. The player assumes the role of a foot soldier and thus has access to allies were often incarnated in Call of Duty. various firearms (though only two can be carried), explosives such as grenades and However in this installment, the playable other equipments to fight against enemies. A one hit killing melee attack with a knife is characters are special force operatives con- possible when players are close enough to their victim. ducting black operations (hence the sub- A character can be positioned in one of the three stances: standing, crouching, or prone; title) behind enemy lines, and thus have each affecting the character›s rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. Unlike previ- much more significant roles on the battle- ous installments, the player can field than their previous counterparts. In directly dive into prone from a this way, the player›s characters will have standing position. In order to their own traits such as voices (during in- move faster, the player can mo- mentary «sprint» (similarly to many other games). When the character has taken damage, the screen glows red. The player can recover by staying out of fire. When the character is within the blast radius of a live grenade, a marker indicates the direction of the grenade, helping the player I want to reiterate that. Your first tuto- sides at all times to stick with a faction. rial mission, which walks you through the same ground as the original tutorials, is the Fortunately, that turned out to be far from sort of thing that would be a multi-mission the truth. Almost as soon as you finish the chain in the classic game. You start off first mission string, you get the option of being told that you’re part of the Powers two different mission arcs -- one of which Division and working for Praetor White focuses on the more villainous side of your -- complete with dialogue trees to allow chosen faction; the other, on the heroic. you to get more backstory if you want it. You can do both arcs, or do only one -- They’re helpfully marked with a little tag whichever you want. The game cares inso- indicating that they’re optional, allowing far as different choices result in different players who want to skip straight to killing interactions, but there isn’t one path that’s the option of eschewing story. better or worse than another. Once you get into the meat of the mission, But it gets better. The big villains at the you’re sent into the Underground, where ends of arcs? They will chat with you. you immediately find a commandeered They›ll try to bribe you, try to reason Clockwork that you can either listen to or with you, or sometimes just trade insults send back to the PPD for dissection and with you briefly. Sometimes it›s a ruse, analysis. The choice doesn’t change the and sometimes you can actually negotiate central choice at the end -- to back up the something significant. As someone who has Resistance officer who helped against a long felt the game was lacking the option First Impressions: City of Heroes Going Rogue huge swarm of ghouls, or to do your job as to get a proper banter going with opposing by Eliot Lefebvre of Massively.com part of the Powers Division and take him leaders... well, this pushes all of the right out. The choice itself is presented through comic book-geek buttons. It›s a beautiful a cut scene, albeit one that almost makes thing. the Resistance leader a bit too sympathet- To hear the team talk about it, Going Rogue isn’t simply an expansion for City of He- ic. To be fair, the new tech included with the roes but a full-on reboot of the game in general. It’s hard to see how, on some level; expansion also includes open-zone glowies outside of the new powersets and a new starting area, not much is visibly being added The impressive part is that the game isn’t for the clicking. It›s a nice idea, but I can›t with the expansion. But sitting down and playing through the starting area and the starting high and then dropping you into say it›s breaching untold regions of design. game›s opening suddenly feels like an entirely different experience. It›s not a new game -- street-sweeping against random gangs. I mean, it does tie in nicely with optional but it feels like a leap forward from where the game had been just a few days before. Your second Loyalist mission (the first objectives and so forth, but... they›re glow- “real” mission) involves fighting through ies that you click. Same sandwich, different I didn›t get nearly as much time with the Going Rogue beta as I would have liked, and I’ll hordes of Resistance operatives in a climac- bun. be the first to admit that I’m biased when it comes to City of Heroes. But even with those tic rooftop fight over a slow-rotating fan. standards set, I was impressed right away with how the game has been revamped from The game just keeps going upward, and the the start -- and what these revamps mean for the game as a whole and moving forward. handful of missions that were at a lower Click on past the cut for the first impressions of the latest expansion, which launches key served as a nice trick to break up the today.