One thing that Gearbox Software admired greatly was Relics unique style of artwork, which was carefully incorporated into the final game. A rare procedure that today’s developers tend to ignore.

So what does this mean now? Well unlike THQ who left it on the shelf to collect dust, Gearbox is starting to ask the fans for ideas to reboot and extend the series further. Some ideas included making the game an MMO, making it more accessible on today’s leading digital platforms or just simply reboot the original games again.

Gearbox Software is known to be one of the most popular development companies, churning out memorable franchises such as Borderlands and Brothers in Arms as well as stand alone classics including James Bond: Nightfire and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 for the PC platform. Therefore many Homeworld fans are at peace knowing that the franchise is in good hands.

What’s more is, Brian Martel, Gearbox Software’s Chief Creative Officer has great respect for the series and intends as a first priority to direct the company’s interest to preserve and assemble the purest form of the games and make them accessible to today’s platforms.

So will we see the games on Steam or even Xbox Live or PSN? My guess is possibly, especially with Steam. However there is a spanner in the works. Homeworld:Cataclysm, the stand-alone extension to Homeworld wasn’t developed by Relic. In fact, Relic had no participation in that game whatsoever and decided to exclude it from their canon, but many fans still love it and included it anyways.

Homeworld 2 had enhanced graphics at the time, but its story lacked the punch its predecessor had.

Now questions are being asked about if Gearbox Software will redevelop it, but the truth is, because it wasn’t apart of Relic, it wasn’t apart of the contract and therefore it was most likely dissolved with the rest of Sierra and Barking Dog Studios when they became redundant. Nevertheless, new stories could be built around Cataclysm if the demand is great enough, and what’s more Gearbox could initially remake what Homeworld 2 was supposed to be, instead of it’s rushed, plot-hole ridden final form it is today.

However this still doesn’t mean that we will see an upcoming Homeworld game just yet, but on the other hand it’s still better than never seeing another game again. I have great promise that Gearbox will one day deliver, and hopefully deliver greatly.

It is also important to note that Nomura still referred to the game as Versus XIII so it may be possible that its kept its title in reference to the rumor of it being its own numbered title of Final Fantasy XV.

Some people may consider a time in which man came into contact with other species in the Mass Effect Universe as a great starting point for a prequel. I concur that this would be a great starting point to take the ideas from what happened before the First Contact War and make it lead straight into the First Contact War.  This way you can still play as different races, but the thing that is most important about this idea for the game is how it’s played.

Many people have heard of the legendary games called Homeworld and Star Wars Battlefront.  My idea for the Mass Effect prequel is to more or less combine the aspects of both of these games.  Since the First Contact War obviously had some space battles and that sort of thing, I think we could follow the idea of Homeworld which allowed you to create a fleet of different ships that could be used for space battles and eventually be used for landings on different planets where it brings into the idea of Star Wars Battlefront.

The idea is not the fact that you have points that you can hold and then your countdown timer runs out or vice versa with the enemy.  Rather, it focuses on these large battles where you are a single soldier for your different race and you attempt to secure the planet through a series of various missions relating to the planet’s terrain and occupants.

Could you imagine an intergalactic map where you have Turians, Humans, Salarians and Asari all fighting against each other, although it will have to be related to the Mass Effect lore.  It could give an awesome way of making the game changeable and able to have a greater affect on possible story lines that would lead to the current Mass Effect games.

The modes of play I would see as this: a story mode which would relate to the lore and create the realm that we know from the Mass Effect universe.  The second mode would be along the lines of a “Galactic Warfare” type of map where you would start out with a number of planets based on your race and then fight to rule the galaxy.  This way you can have some non-lore related gameplay that could show a “what if” scenario.

We know there was a great galactic conflict at one time, how awesome would it be to recreate it? Leave me some comments down below for some other ideas you guys would like to see in another Mass Effect game.

The team at Montreal have stated that the size of Gotham City will be roughly twice the size of Arkham City, adding to a more expansive world in the Arkham series. There will be side missions and crimes in progress to apprehend just like the previous games. Also access to the Batwing will be provided, though not controllable and as long as there is no tower blocking the radio signal, in order to fast travel around Gotham City. As stated before, this game is being developed by WB Montreal and not Rocksteady but seeing as how Montreal developed the Arkham City game on the Wii U (which boasted good reviews) this could very well be the next best Batman game. Batman Arkham Origins will release on October 25 this year on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and the Wii U.

Since we haven’t yet covered the Windows version of the X51 on Games-Tec, I will briefly cover the specs of the device: The X51 makes use of Intel’s latest processors with i3, i5 and i7 models all being an option, up to 8GB RAM and 1TB storage as well as a Nvidia GTX 6xx series GPU. All models come equipped with a slot load, dual layer DVD burner and b/g/n wireless LAN. Ubuntu comes pre-installed along with the Nvidia Linux drivers.

While the number of Steam for Linux compatible games is still low compared to the Windows version of the platform, Linux gamers are able to access a lot of the popular titles such as: Team Fortress 2, CounterSrike Source, and Amnesia (plus a lot more, full list here) As the list of games grows I’d hope to see more manufacturer’s taking this stance and making Ubuntu an option for gamers. For now though, Alienware’s news is very promising and just goes to show how far Steam for Linux and Linux gaming in general has come along.

For more information, visit: Alienware.com

Now if you do look closely at it, you would have noticed that it is just a rough animation of several pieces of concept art. Then again, it is in a similar style to the cutscenes found in the Homeworld series (as it’s made by the same people) but it does give an indication to what the game will be like, as well as giving a small hint that there may be a deeper plot to this than we first imagined.

This is what I’m on about!

The video shows a good range of vehicles ranging from buggies to aircraft, as well as potential wrecks that you can find. One wreck caught my eye in particular. The yellow derelict with the large number 15 on the side looks strikingly similar to either one of the resource collectors you can play in Homeworld 2. To further back this up, the number 15 was used in the early days of Homeworld 2′s development. (Plus the fact that again, the game is made by the same people.)

However on the downside, the video doesn’t show direct in-game footage. Therefore no-one still doesn’t know what it fully looks like. But other from that, it still looks very exciting.

An in-game screenshot of the colourful city of Columbia.

Well, when I say pick up a copy, I in fact pre-ordered the Premium Edition from GAME (a UK based video-games store) for £45. Was it worth it? Well in a way yes and in a way not quite. The Premium Edition gives you the game, several DLC item codes as well as a digital copy of the soundtrack, a small poster, a Murder of Crows keyring, an art book and a very small Handyman figurine. So what you’re getting with the game is quite a lot, although when it comes to the figurine especially, you may be let down when you see just how small it really is. However I do recommend that you go for the Premium Edition if you’re a collector or just want to make this game feel extra special as it costs just a little extra than the standard game as well as being far cheaper than the Songbird Edition, which is essentially exactly the same as the Premium Edition, except you’ll be paying an extra £50 on top just for a Songbird statue.

Another factor that you may want to consider is what platform you want to play the game on. Bioshock Infinite is available on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. However the PC copy is cheaper by a good £10. This is a huge advantage to PC gamers such as myself as I know that my PC can outperform both the 360 and PS3 on both graphics quality and frame rate, plus having the ability to use my 360 controller with the PC anyway. (But I decided to stick with using the keyboard and mouse.)

Anyway, to the game itself! Now I’m not going to spoil anything to you, I’m not going to explain the plot in detail or ruin anything for anyone who hasn’t got the game yet. Essentially you play as a man called Booker DeWitt, a detective who is in debt and needs to find a girl called Elizabeth who is trapped in a tower in the flying steampunk city of Columbia. It sounds pretty straightforward right? Well, you’d like to think it’ll be that way, but just like the other Bioshock games, they do like to throw in their fair share of twists and turns within the plot.

There are a good selection of weapons and vigors (Infinite’s equidistant to Adam) to use. If you’ve played the first two Bioshocks you’ll be familiar to the vigors, however there are one or two new power ups such as Murder of Crows and Bucking Bronco. The range of weapons are also similar to the first Bioshock game. You have a pistol, machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher, carbine, sniper rifle and so on. However unlike the first two games, you can only wield two weapons at one time. So you have to think twice before picking up a random weapon lying around.

On the plus side, your companion; Elizabeth is rather handy at giving you extra ammo and medical supplies during combat, whilst she also allows you to break open locked doors and safes. This is rather handy as it’s quick and simple, although I did enjoy the mini game in the first Bioshock you had to complete in order to unlock things, as well as it can be frustrating when you don’t have enough lockpicks.

Despite her innocent looks, Elizabeth is actually pretty handy.

Another bonus this game holds is the perks of different clothing. Each collectible item of clothing gives you new traits that help boost your offensive or defensive capabilities. Combine your clothing with a large shield and health bar and you should be fine facing against those pesky handymen!

Speaking of which, there are new enemies as well. Forget about the nuisance of splicers and Big Daddy’s, instead you’ll be facing off against creepy Handymen, mechanised patriots and many weird and odd looking enemies. The Songbird is the game’s successor to the Big Daddy, except it’s a lot bigger, badder and worst of all, it flies.

However there is one factor about this game that instantly caught my attention. It is extremely beautiful. There is no denying that Irrational Games took their time in making this game, and boy did it pay off. There is a perfect blend of lighting and use of colour in the surrounding environments, giving a realistic feel of being high up in the air on a warm sunny day. The game also features an impressive lack of ‘dedicated cutscenes.’ In other words, where in older games, the game would pause into a cutscene and disrupt your flow, Bioshock Infinite manages to keep things going like a movie. You make a decision, the effect or consequence happens all in the game, all in first person. For example, in the first Bioshock, you’ll see that you’ve arrived in Rapture, but suddenly a loading screen will appear before you can do anything. In Infinite however, you arrive in Columbia, but you keep on going. You walk around and interact with things and other people, instead of watching and waiting as the same screen for a good 20-30 seconds. Sure when you leave an area, and I’m talking a BIG area, a loading screen does appear, but for a very short time. (But then again, that may be just my PC, seeing as I have no idea how long it will take on a console.)

There are some drawbacks however, Unlike the previous games, you can’t hold multiple healthpacks or salts. (Yes, salt is the game’s equivalent to EVE. Somehow it hold’s magical properties instead of giving you heart attacks.) However the abundance of pick ups does rule out this problem. There is also the problem of extreme sensitivity. Again I’m unsure what it’s like on consoles, but with the PC, it is very hard to point and shoot in the right direction. Even with the sensitivity down to it’s lowest setting, it is still very high compared to other FPS’s such as Crysis or even the previous Bioshocks.

This odd couple just keep on reappearing throughout the game…whoever they are…

However other from that, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this game that I can see. It is well worth getting and I can guarantee that it’ll remain as one of the best made games of the decade. The concept and plot is excellent, the environmental appearance is outstanding, it holds it’s fair share of humour and horror and the fluidity of the game is spot on.

My overall rating is 9.5/10

(It just needs to turn down it’s sensitivity a bit!)

If you DO want to see the game in full, and you don’t care about the spoilers, check out my run-through playlist of the game!

Early access players will get to experience the game’s competitive multiplayer and skirmish game modes with access to a total of six maps (1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4). As well as the multiplayer, players will also be able to play against AI. These game modes also include a leveling system in which players can progress through a total of 40 levels with the option to customize loadouts to suit player style with the new “Army Customizer”.

As well as the initial closed beta, accessible by pre-order customers only, access for more players will be available in the coming weeks.

Company of Heroes 2 Beta Screenshot

To keep up-to-date with the latest Company of Heroes 2 news make sure you keep an eye on www.companyofheroes.com

Sources: GamesPress, CompanyofHeroes

The gameplay in some ways feels very remnant of the Uncharted series(though as we all know tomb raider came out before Uncharted). This game takes some similar steps and scenes but doesnt fail to put its own style to it. The game itself is very much more of a light survival game. The game itself never plays itself out to the point where you HAVE to shoot animals for food to survive, but instead you’ll be fighting and killing animals for EXP points. These points can then be used to gain new skills such as bow mastering, or by using them to upgrade your weapons so that theyre more responsive and generally give more damage.

In the game there are also optional tombs. These are very much what will be buying your time after the story’s main missions(Assuming you play straight through them). The tombs have a good amount of extra puzzle solving and prove themselves as a challenging, yet worthy excursion outside the main games story. The environment of these tombs often feel just as big as the story. Speaking of which, the game as a whole has a beautiful environment, while not as lush looking as Far Cry 3′s, the island very much feels real and without much human interaction. There are panoramic moments when you look out of all before you and can only marvel at how beautiful the setting really is. These settings change of course as you move on, but each place on the island looks just as good as the last.

The only thing about Tomb Raider that comes as somewhat of a loss is its characters. Besides Laura herself, the characters in the game are, well, kind of assholes. Most of the time you’ll be stranded from them and attempt to get back to them. When you do you’re usually the one being sent to do all the dangerous stuff on your own. I can see that maybe having to play as just Lara alone without any companions can give us more insight to her character but when you are the one being sent to go into uncharted territory by yourself while the rest of the group sits back and “keeps watch” is sort of a pain. We all know how awesome Lara Croft is, we’ve seen it before. But why do they rely on her so much? Why is it always her that has to do the dirty work? It may not sound like much but this was a general annoyance for me.

Tomb Raider however is a great game nonetheless. With its great pacing, action, and relatively solid story, this game has come to be one of my favorites of the year.

Final Score: 9.4/10