Batman Arkham Origins is the new Batman Arkham game from Warner Bros. Montreal. Yep, that's right, not Rocksteady. This is the first in the amazing Batman series not made by Rocksteady. This prequel is made from a less experienced team. Only question is, can they keep live up to this series's great reputation? The answer is yes. 

   The basics, plot wise, for the game is this: Black Mask has hired seven assassins to kill the Bat for 50 million bucks. Batman needs to stop this madness, all on Christmas and with the cops trying to stop him at every corner. The plot sounds simple, but it gets a tad bit more complex when the Joker comes along. While Batman is the lead, this game would've been fine with the name, Joker Origins. The only reason we have Arkham in the name is just so people know it's still the same series, so don't get mad when you see no asylum. 

   The characters in this game are interesting. Though I liked the Joker a little better in Arkham City, this one is still pretty interesting. He also gets a great backstory. Each character also has a kickass boss battle. Deathstroke's was a little dissappointing, but fun nonetheless. Bane was super challenging and he got the boss battle spotlight in this game. The Firefly missions were very exciting and his boss battle was great also. Every fight needs something different. New tactics are required each time. 

   When it comes down to innovations in the game, your not really going to see a whole lot new to the table. And that's good and bad in some ways. The awesome fighting mechanics are still at play, the stealth moments are still here, all without damage, and the puzzle solving parts to the game are just like before. Arkham fans will be pleased. But if your looking for something more, you may be little dissappointed. This prequel is just a prequel. New story, same game.

   Multiplayer. It's different. The formula is 3v3v2. This is the one thing in the game that really diverges from the pack. Batman and Robin are the two. Bane henchmen are the three. Joker henchmen are the three. Take over the control points. Simple. Playing as Batman and Robin is a blast. I loved using my gadgets and stealth skills to take down the henchmen. Playing as the henchmen: meh. I liked customizing my henchmen's looks and weapons. The only problem was the shooting mechanics. Don't expect Gears of War, because if you are, you're going to be really dissappointed. It's not that it's not fun. I like trying to take down Batman and Robin as a henchmen. I got to be in those bad guys from the campaign. It was cool. It just seemed a little boring trying to take down the other players. It seemed really slow. The henchmen did get their time to shine though when you got to the middle of the match. Someone from the Joker team could get to become the Joker and someone from the Bane team could become... Well, you know. This multiplayer was good, but most people can live without it. 

   On the technical side of the game, graphics are great. Everything is smooth and detailed. However, Alfred's lips move in the weirdest way. But that won't really be a game changer. I wish the city was a little more detailed though. White snow, grey buildings. There you have it. Even with half of the sandbox being the same as Arkham City, it was still hard navigating with everything looking so dull. The gameplay felt great though. Fighting is as good as usual and gliding is still a blast. The sounds are detailed and the new voice actors for Batman and Joker (who is played by the legendary video game actor, Troy Baker) are just fine. If I wasn't told Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill were replaced, I would've never known. I do need to inform players of the massive glitches though. They can be very annoying. I had to restart my game once. But I encountered nothing after that.

  If you're an Arkham fan, don't pass this game up. If you're someone looking for a good Batman game, don't pass this up. This is a fun game, and offers many hours of gameplay, and it proves that Warner Bros. Montreal is able to keep up with the other big developers in the industry.

Weep, for the summer doldrums are here. May your backlogs be robust and carry you through this barren landscape.

Ahem. Sorry. As you might have guessed, the summer slump is upon us. The release lists are thinning out, but if you’ve been storing away for this famine, you’ll be ok. If not, here’s what’s available this week at retail and via digital distribution:

• Divinity: Original Sin (PC) - June 30 
• ConstantC (PS3) - July 1
• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn (PS3) - July 1
• Child of Light (Vita) - July 1
• Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (Xbox One, PS4, Wii U) - July 1 (PS4), July 2 (Xbox One, Wii U)
• Puddle (PS4) - July 1
• Sniper Elite 3 (Xbox One, 360, PS4, PS3) - July 1

The good news is that Divinity: Original Sin is getting some great early reports. If you happened to miss Guacamelee! last year, now’s a perfect time to catch up with it (especially if you have an Xbox One, since it’s part of Games with Gold this month). 

Our review for Sniper Elite 3 is still in-progress. So you’ll have to hold on a bit longer to see how that pans out. 

For more, check out our full list of confirmed release dates for 2014. You can also check out platform-specific rundowns of everything we expect out this year on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U.

[photo by Brett Kramer, all rights reserved]

As owner of OpTic Gaming, Hector “OpticH3CZ” Rodriguez is an eSports jack-of-all-trades, guiding his team’s efforts both as game casters and high-stakes Call of Duty tournament players. We recently spoke with him about his work and overall vision for OpTic.

This article originally appeared in issue 254 of Game Informer.

Talk about your day-to-day duties as owner of OpTic Gaming.

I wear many hats here at OpTic Gaming, but my main one is to make sure that everything that needs to be done for the players is taken care of, making sure the team’s house bills are paid for, because these guys’ main focus is gaming. I’ve lived a life where I worked 40 hours a week at a corporate office in a cubicle. These guys, all they know is video games. Because I was older and had at least some experience in corporate America, I had a small business sense as to what would work. When I started managing the team and became owner of the team, I decided I was going to be the team manager, the salesperson, [and] the director of operations. I was going to do it all because I had this vision for what this thing was going to become.

The entire team lives in one house in the Chicago area?

In June of 2013, the team and I agreed that if I got them a team house to live in, it would benefit the overall business, from the competition side to the entertainment side of video games. With having somebody who is experienced like NaDeSHoT [in the house], I knew the other three guys were going to be able to learn from him – and at the same time attract some of the fans that have already been attached to NaDeSHoT and OpTic. We started out in a house that had almost no furniture – all it had was the desks the guys play on and the office chairs. They all have air mattresses. They haven’t even bothered to go buy regular beds, because all they do every day is work on their craft.

Are players under contract with you? Do they get a salary, or just endorsements?

Our organization was built on entertainment. By the time that I acquired the professional team I had already built a steady business where entertainment was going to pay the bills. It’s more lucrative for players to come play for us because we’ve been around for so long that we have a firm grasp on how players can grow themselves into a personal brand. So for me to pay somebody a salary doesn’t necessarily make sense. What I’m offering is a chance for them to gain popularity.... I [teach] them how to be their own personality on YouTube. Online media is a bigger payout because you’re not relying on a paycheck from an organization at that point. We help with [endorsement] deals, and they do get a [portion] of the partnerships that we have as an organization.

What about competition prize winnings?

Optic does not take any percentage of their winnings. We’re very lucky to be in a position to say, “We have our own business where we’re making our own money.” So there’s no need for us to take money from the players. They’re the ones competing. Not all organizations do that. It’s a model that is necessary in eSports because you need to be able to make money. If you’re dumping thousands of dollars to fly these guys across the country and overseas to compete and win, it makes sense for them to make a percentage of that. But we don’t take a percentage; all the winnings are split evenly between the players.

When you’re selecting people to be on the team how do you balance the need for guys that can win at a competitive level at tournaments with the need to have personalities that can connect with an audience?

I hit the lottery when I partnered up with my current teammates. I was lucky enough to partner with people who just happen to be really good at being funny and know how to be themselves on camera. My guys just happen to be really personable and really funny. 
It was a grand slam from the get-go.

You have a bunch of young guys who are playing an insane amount of Call of Duty living in one house. How do you manage the different personalities on the team or conflicts that might arise?

Part of the job is making sure that everybody in the house gets along. Competitive players are driven by competition and that has a lot to do with their personality and, at times, their ego. Everybody wants to be the best. That’s what makes a good competitive person. When you’re in a house with four competitive players everything is a competition. We just invited a former professional Halo player to move into the house because he’s really knowledgeable about fitness and nutrition. Everything to him is a competition – who drinks their nutrition shake or their food shakes quicker, etc. There’s always going to be a clash [about] who’s the best or who’s more popular or who does what the best. I’ve always been a very respectful person, so I’ve done a very good job at respecting the way people are. 

How do you value raw individual skill in each player versus the chemistry a team that can play together?

Anybody can have good chemistry when they’re winning. The chemistry that somebody needs to be to be successful is the chemistry that works when times are at their worst. If these guys get along outside the game, the in-game stuff is going to work itself out. [Maybe] it’s one player using one gun, and the team saying “Hey you need to use a different one.” Because they’re so close and friendship is there, it will be a lot easier for him to agree with his friends as opposed to just his teammates.

How important is placing and winning the big tournaments to OpTic?

Now that we’re in this position and now that we don’t really need to compete in order to make a living off of our passion and our love of video games, it has become something that we want more than anything. Winning is the only thing that is not going right for us now. Winning to us is much more than prize money – we can live with or without that – but it’s winning, it’s that championship, it’s that number one spot that really drives these guys.

You placed third in the recent Call of Duty championships. Were you pleased with that result?

We won first place on the first-ever Call of Duty championships. In 2013, we placed third, and this year again we placed third. It was the second time my team played together on LAN, and that always changes people. Playing online is one thing, but once you get to LAN it is a completely different game. There are no connectivity issues. You’re in a live setting with your opponent literally feet away from you. I have to be honest, I thought we were going to be top eight at best, so for them to run through teams that were constantly beating us in previous tournaments and online tournaments – it was a great accomplishment. I’m very proud of them.

Has the new popularity of MOBAs like League of Legends negatively affected the popularity of Call of Duty or other shooters?

I think eSports as a whole is growing. Obviously, the MOBAs and PC gaming as a whole is leading the charge on that, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Call of Duty or shooters as a whole are suffering. We’re still in our infancy stages. It’s big, but it not as big as it could be. If we focus on doing everything right, from the developer all the way down to the professional player, as long as everyone does their job the way that they should be doing their job, I think that it will continue to grow. As an example, NaDeSHoT, the most popular eSports player in the world in December of 2012, he had, I believe, 15,000 followers on twitter. He sits at 520,000 followers on Twitter today. In [two] years, he has grown tremendously.

What are your goals for OpTic in the next few years?

Expanding is always in front of us. I know, at one point or another, I’m going to have to grow with eSports and pick up a League of Legends team. As it stands, it’s something that is in the future. As big as we are right now, there is so much more room for improvement. We need to hire to help me with the things that I need help with. As a company we’ve reached a plateau where we need to hire a salesperson to represent the 48-52 million monthly impressions that we get across our network. We need to start getting other brands involved. We need to make them aware that this is a thing, this is happening and it’s growing.

Watch Dogs season pass holders have had this for a week, but everyone else can purchase some new content today. Three new missions, unlockable weapons, and some new skills can be yours for $6.99.

Two of the missions are infiltration type setups (similar to the gang hideouts). The last tasks Aiden with finding a number of scrambler vehicles, taking them out, and then eliminating all of the criminals at a meeting.

The biometric rifle and Auto-6 pistol are included in the pack. Players who purchase the pack (or have the season pass) will also get a battery boost, the new South Chicago outfit, a perk to speed reloads and reduce recoil, a driving upgrade that gives vehicles more endurance, and an ATM hack to boost money from hacked accounts.

The pack is available now. The Season Pass includes the Conspiracy digital trip that’s out now and an upcoming single-player adventure with a new character. For more, check out our review.

With the FIFA World Cup in full swing, there has been no shortage of soccer or soccer-based games in the market recently. In Hooligans “The Bravest”, soccer has been banned from the world and it’s up to you and your ragtag gang to save the world’s sport from certain demise.

The trailer below for the new iOS game shows off some of the beat-em-up gameplay and playable characters. You can choose to play as Tooth, Carlos, or Vito in your quest to legalize soccer. Each character has unique powers and abilities.

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Hooligans “The Bravest” is out today for iOS.

CD Projekt Red has announced another new project in The Witcher universe. With The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on track for new-gen consoles and PC in February, and an adventure game going into beta this year, a third project will be making an appearance on mobile devices.

Unlike the other, narrative-driven installments, CD Projekt Red is dabbling in one of the hottest genres in the industry. The new game in The Witcher Battle Arena is a MOBA that features many of the side characters in the series.

No, you won’t (yet) be taking to the field of battle as Geralt or Triss. The eight heroes that have been announced will be familiar to fans of the series, though. These include Iorvath, leader of the Scoia'tael rebels and Geralt's friend, the dwarf Zoltan Chivay.

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CD Projekt Red isn't breaking new ground. Zynga released a 3 vs. 3 MOBA on mobile devices in 2013 called Solstice Arena, which eschews minions for direct conflict across a condensed map.

The Witcher Battle Arena will be available soon for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. It’s free-to-play (as are most MOBAs), which means you can either unlock via playing or through in-app purchases.

Join Daniel Tack and Kyle Hilliard as they show off the first few encounters in Divinity: Original Sin.

Larian Studios merges the old with the new with a classic RPG style and a tantalizing turn-based combat system with a heavy emphasis on elemental combinations. Will you talk to rats to learn dungeon secrets? Sneak around massive ogres and dead gods? Argue with your friends about how to handle a town murder? Or just go crazy and try and take on every NPC you see, good or bad – the choices are yours!

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To see Dan playing the game live for the next few hours, head here.

For more episodes of Test Chamber, visit our hub.

Sooooo I wrote a long blog about 5 characters I wanted to see in Hyrule Warriors, and then when I submitted it didn't work, and then I lost everything I had written forever, losing over an hour's worth of time. So instead I'm writing this nice little blurb of text so people can know that I put effort in. Here are the five characters:

1. Groose

2. Darunia

3. Tingle

4. Nabooru

5. Ghirahim

Now excuse me while I cry to myself in a corner. 

(picture of Tobias from Arrested Development crying in the shower here, which I can't put in the blog because it won't post without it because GI is effed up right now)

Ubisoft has won a court victory over allegations of patent infringement. The suit, brought by Digital Reg, was focused on Ubisoft’s uPlay and content authentication and access.

The suit alleges that Ubisoft’s digital rights management and its uPlay service infringe upon a number of Digital Reg patents. Ubisoft was successful in its defense, and the court did not find an overlap in the existing patents and Ubisoft’s business operations.

The court cleared Ubisoft entirely, issuing summary judgment on a number of patents. Digital Reg also brought claims against Adobe and Symantec. Symantec was cleared via summary judgement. Adobe will have to go to trial provided there is no settlement.

Our Take
Ubisoft’s statement on the suit directly alleges that Digital Reg is a patent troll, seeking only to enforce unused patent holdings against successful companies. In this case, Digital Reg’s holdings have no bearing on the uPlay service or Ubisoft’s mechanism for enforcing DRM.

In this behind the scenes video, Sledgehammer shows off some of the new technology and animation improvements coming to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The 11th main iteration of the first-person-shooter franchise seeks to take things in a bold new direction in both the single-player and multiplayer space.

Sledgehammer promises that the new motion capture tech will create a more immersive and realistic experience compared to what we've so far seen from the series. The video below details some of the new technology that's being used as well as changes to art direction and more.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is slated to release on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 4. For much more information on on the series from the campaign to the multiplayer and beyond, check out our cover story hub by clicking the banner below.

Today Atari and restaurant chain Denny’s announced a partnership to bring back classic Atari arcade games, with new twists inspired by Denny’s “Greatest Hits Remixed” menu. This partnership is the latest step in a larger corporate comeback strategy for Atari, in which the iconic video game publishing company hopes to branch out into several branches of digital entertainment.

The Denny’s “Greatest Hits Remixed” menu features some of the diner’s all-time most popular dishes revamped with modern flavors. In keeping with this idea, Atari’s arcade games will also be remixed with new Denny’s-themed elements.  

Three Atari arcade titles are being remixed: Asteroids will now be called “Hashteroids”, and the asteroids and spaceship have been replaced by hash browns and a ketchup bottle, respectively.  Centipede, has been renamed “Centipup”, for Denny’s pancakes. Finally, Breakout will be called “Take Out.”

The updated classic games are being re-released as part of Denny’s “Build Your Own” customizable mobile app. The app is available for free now on iOS and Android.

Recently Atari announced its strategy to become more relevant in digital entertainment, both by re-launching nostalgic game titles like these and by capitalizing on other markets including digital gambling and video content on Youtube. This partnership with Denny’s is Atari’s latest attempt to make their beloved games more widely accessible on various platforms.   

While this marketing strategy may seem bizarre, it comes at a pretty good time for Atari, as the company recently re-entered public consciousness after a certain urban legend about a landfill turned out to be true. 

Our Take
While at first this seems like depressing information—a venerable, established game company like Atari turning its classic games into advertisements—there is a bright side. There’s a reason Asteroids, Centipede, and Breakout are considered classics: they’re all fun. Having the opportunity to play them (for free, no less) on mobile devices is by no means a bad thing. Atari and Denny’s deserve at least some credit for making it happen, even if shooting falling hash browns with a ketchup bottle sounds pretty silly.

Millions of gamers are eagerly anticipating the release of titles like Batman: Arkham Knight, Assassin's Creed Unity, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but those aren't the only gaming projects worth getting excited about. Every year, dozens of great titles slip under the radar. With that in mind, here are a few upcoming titles that you might not want to ignore.

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Abzû
During E3, Sony showed off this stunning underwater adventure from new indie developer Giant Squid. The game's visual style shouldn't be surprising since the game is being designed by Matt Nava, the art director for both Journey and Flower. The game draws inspiration from the universal origin myths and legends told by every society on Earth. Even the game’s name is a reference to ancient Mesopotamian mythology – the ancient word Ab means ocean, while Zû means to know. We’d definitely like to Zû more about this game before its release in 2016.

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Cuphead
Brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer formed the indie developer StudioMDHR (Studio Moldenhauer). The brothers' first project is this lively 2D run 'n' gun game, which is a throwback to classic cartoons. The visuals and audio are being painstakingly created using traditional hand-drawn and hand-inked cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and live jazz recordings. It helps add to the project's allure – all are techniques cartoonists used during the 1930s. Cuphead should be ready to pour itself out on Xbox One and PC in 2015.

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Darkest Dungeon
After raising over $300,000 on Kickstarter, Red Hook Studios set out to make an RPG that showcased the true cost of adventuring. Players will manage a team of flawed heroes as they dig through caverns 500 feet underground. Ghastly foes aren’t the only thing these heroes will contend with; famine, disease, and the encroaching darkness will all threaten their sanity and health in various ways. Darkest Dungeon should test every gamers' adventurous spirit when it releases sometime in 2015.

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Gods Will be Watching
Gazing up at the vast night can be intimidating; this is the exact feeling that Gods Will Be Watching instills in its players. This point-and-click thriller from Deconstructeam forces players to face tough moral dilemmas in order to survive the harsh environment of outer space. A series of puzzles and narrative dilemmas will affect both you and the team you’ve sworn to protect. Find out if you’re willing to eat your friends in order to live when Gods Will be Watching releases, possibly this year. (Read our extended preview.)

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Lumino City
We love the handcrafted look of games like LittleBigPlanet, but State of Play’s upcoming puzzle adventure Lumino City is actually made out of physical everyday objects. A sequel to Lume, State of Play is creating Lumino City's world by handcrafting miniature sets out of lasercut materials and then filming these objects and splicing them into an adventure where you’ll explore gardens in the sky, towers marooned high on an immense waterwheel, and houses dug precariously into cliffs.

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Night in the Woods
When indie developer Alec Holowka and animator Scott Benson had an idea for a game they took it to Kickstarter and raised their proposed goal in only 26 hours. The game is a cartoony platformer with a focus on storytelling. Players controller a cat named Mae who returns to her hometown of Possum Springs after dropping out of college. Get ready to play bass and smash a lot of things when the game releases on PS4.

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Paradise Lost: First Contact
Ever wonder how an alien would feel if it crash-landed on Earth and had to put up with scientific testing? Paradise Lost: First Contact gives players the chance to live out this fantasy. Another successful Kickstarter project, Paradise Lost will have players blending into the environment, controlling robotic drones, and evolving into stronger forms as they attempt to escape a secret research lab.

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Routine
Space exploration is suppose to be fun, but Routine looks to follow in Dead Space's shoes and turn the final frontier into a haunted house. This first-person horror exploration game set on an abandoned moon base will have players creeping through the station as they uncover the mystery behind the strange disappearance of everyone stationed there. The game doesn’t feature a HUD and players won’t have aiming reticules or health bars. Your wits and a good hiding spot will be the only tools that help you survive this thrilling adventure.

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Swords & Soldiers 2
The original Swords & Soldiers was a 2D side-scrolling strategy game that had players picking one of three factions (Aztecs, Vikings, and the Imperial Chinese) and then duking it out to gain the favors of the gods. Players would collect gold and mana which were used to purchase new units and spells. Developer Ronimo Games is expanding on this concept with brighter visual and new characters for Swords & Soldiers II, which should release on Wii U, hopefully later this year.

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White Night
White Night is a new third-person adventure game, but its inspirations run deep. Taking puzzle and survival-horror cues from the original survival horror game Alone in the Dark, and then mixing it with visuals from cinematographic masters such as Hitchcock, Polanski, and Lynch, OSome Studio has created a uniquely new experience. After seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion, players must confront their own fears and solve a mystery buried in the dark.

DK, a part of Penguin Random House, recently revealed that it will be publishing Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals, a novel following Lara Croft and continuing the storyline established in the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot game.

The story will pick up right where the 2013 Tomb Raider left off. Even before the traumatized Lara has a chance to put the horrific ordeals she endured on Yamatai behind her, her best friend Sam suffers a dangerous overdose. In order to save Sam, Lara goes on a quest to find an ancient artifact that may both heal her dying friend and shed light on the mysterious, supernatural happenings she encountered on the island.

It is unclear at this point how the events of this book will tie into Rise of the Tomb Raider, the sequel which was just announced at E3, but we do know that the events depicted in this story will occur after the first game and before the sequel. It seems possible that Ten Thousand Immortals could serve as not only an bridge between the first and second games, but as a prequel to Rise of the Tomb Raider which might set up the events to follow in that game. 

Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals is co-authored by New York Times best-seller Dan Abnett and Nik Vincent, and is scheduled for release in October 2014.

Our Take
While video game books have a somewhat spotty track record, there are also some really good books based on gaming franchises. It’s also a good sign that the two authors working on the novel are experienced. Tomb Raider fans should might have reason to check this one out.

Get all of your favorite Pokémon related digital content in one place. The Pokémon Company is launching an iTunes station that sounds like the perfect complement to every Pokefan’s Pokédex. Sounds Pokédoke to us.

Fans who visit iTunes.com/Pokemon will be able to download animated series episodes and specials, as well as official Pokémon applications such as the Pokémon TV app and Pokédex, and Pokémon soundtracks for all of their iOS devices. Along with the launch of the site, episodes from the latest season of Pokémon the Series: XY, and the four-part Pokémon Origins animated special are now available on iTunes, and The Pokémon Company will continue to update the site with new episodes of the show every week.

Our Take
This is handy, but not extremely exciting. We already had access to most of this content through other places, such as the official Pokémon site, but some Pokémon fans might find it handy to get their Pokémon fix through this dedicated iTunes site instead.

Shooting someone in the face with a sniper rifle is nasty business. The Sniper Elite series has made a name for itself by embracing these skull-busting kills in all their gory detail. Developer Rebellion has ratcheted up the brutality of these slow-motion X-ray sequences with detailed musculature on every skeleton. Unfortunately, boring campaign missions and frequent bugs hold back Sniper Elite III from its sharpshooting potential.

Rebellion swaps out the grim, bombed-out European cities of the previous entry with the bright, rugged terrain of Africa. The arid, sun-bleached environments look beautiful at first, but despite the exotic surroundings, the mountainous terrain and dirt roads all start to feel the same after a while. The illusion dissolves further thanks to the erratic, dim-witted Nazis mucking up the scenery. The German soldiers have stiff, robotic patrol routes and swivel in place unrealistically when they get a bead on you.

Sniper Elite III's linear campaign is all about sneaking through Nazi encampments among the baking sands (but they're never called Nazis and all the swastikas have inexplicably become palm trees on their banners). Sometimes missions call for you to place explosive charges, offer supporting fire, or assassinate top-ranking German officers. It's old hat for the military shooter genre, and I eventually began mindlessly chasing down objective markers without thinking much about it.

The campaign objectives all serve as a framework for the solid long-range gunplay and mediocre stealth elements. Lining up shots with your rifle adheres to the familiar routine of pressing a button to hold your breath and dial in a shot. As in Sniper Elite V2, lining up a good shot and pressing the trigger initiates a satisfying slow-motion kill sequence. The camera follows your bullet's dramatic path from the rifle barrel all the way to the doomed soldier. For headshots, the X-ray vision shows the projectile's grisly path through the skull, complete with bone-splintering entrance and exit wounds. Femurs split, eyeballs pop, and testicles explode in these gruesome finishers. These macabre, unflinching executions are satisfying at first, but the thrill wears off after seeing someone's teeth erupt from their mouths for the umpteenth time.

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For a game with the word "sniper" in the title, I used my silenced pistol an awful lot. You crumple quickly when facing off with too many enemies, so avoiding attention is important. This strategy is at odds with using a loud sniper rifle, however, so you mask your noise using thunder or backfiring generators. This mechanic is fun and novel, but I routinely avoided sniping when these obscuring noises weren't available. You can't fire off more than a couple shots without having to relocate so enemies don't find you. I understand the logic, but you can still run away from your sniping perch and then just head back when the enemies lose your trail. It comes off as an annoying, half-baked attempt to keep players circulating around the map.

Speaking of annoyances, Sniper Elite III is filled with considerably more bugs than its predecessor. The game has a weird habit of resetting objects in the world when loading a save. Sometimes vehicles that blew up 20 minutes ago explode again or corpses wiggle around sporadically. Other times the effects are more troublesome, like one instance when an enemy vehicle suddenly appeared near my location and gunned me down instantly with each load. While most of the hiccups are aesthetic, they disrupt the mood of the high stakes trek behind enemy lines.

Whether you beat or abandon single-player, competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes are available. I enjoyed the tense, long-distance free-for-all sniper battles that tested my patience and perception. Laying down traps and relocating after taking a shot is more gratifying when facing off against human players rather than the idiotic A.I. foes. The entire campaign is also playable cooperatively, which helps spice up the mundane missions. Synchronizing your shots and covering one another's back injects excitement into the ho-hum mission structure. However, Rebellion has ditched split-screen co-op and doesn't support matchmaking, so hopefully you know someone with a copy of the game if you want to try it out.

I openly admit that I love gory kills and living the hero sniper fantasy, but Sniper Elite III only partially delivers on the latter. If you can't get enough of dramatic, transparent shots of enemies getting shredded by sniper fire, Sniper Elite III has you covered in spades. If you're interested in more motivation beyond the glory of the kill, look elsewhere.

This review only pertains to the PlayStation 4 and PC versions of the game. Sniper Elite 3 is also available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

It's interesting how long Team Fortress has been around and yet how much it's still a part of the modern cultural landscape. Case in point is this Team Fortress short that mixes things up with a more modern title, Ubisoft recent open world title, Watch Dogs.

Find out what happens when the cast of Team Fortress 2 get a hold of the technology from Watch Dogs in this video from YouTuber STBlackST.

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I'll keep this short and sweet- If you haven't yet played the second game, buy that one for cheaper. It is essentially  the same as this one, except that you are fighting in Germany instead of Africa. Mechanics, controls, AI, bugs- it's all the exact same in V2. It is a relatively redundant game as well. Once you get past the first mission, the missions get mundane as hell. Bugs aside, it's a very solid stealth/shooter game, but it really brings nothing new to the table. If you're looking for a great "WW2" experience, I would have to recommend The New Order. 

Millions of video game characters around the globe got their start playing a portrayal of an Italian man as seen through the perspective of a Japanese toy maker. In this current climate of political sensitivity in gaming culture one has to wonder whether or not Super Mario Bros., were it released today for the first time, would inspire articles and editorials about the "over-exaggerated art style alienating and gross in its depiction of Italians." 

No doubt the plight of the common Goomba would be seen as commentary about how the proletariat has their desires constantly squashed by the elite, upwards economic mobility irreconcilable with the status quo of only moving along predetermined routes set out by either a callous god or an all-grasping businessman (Miyamoto and Yamuchi respectively): equality between the common Goomba and Marie Antoinette....Princess Peach a mere pipe dream.

Yet beyond all the click baiting about what gaming culture is, gaming culture is indisputably a global culture. Game Informer online itself is proof of this, as gamers from different countries come together to discuss their favorite games and discuss the culture and industry of gaming. A recent article on Gamasutra got me thinking about gaming culture as a global culture: while it is something I discuss in my forthcoming book, Dreams of A Distant Planet: Chrono Trigger and the World Revolution of Video Games, since gaming is a global culture there are so many elements to it that one could write an entire book on that subject alone. The article on Gamasutra was about the collaboration between developers from Africa and developers from China, how they were able to over come cultural and language barriers to create something.

I think that is both laudable and notable amongst all the stories found in gaming reporting and critiquing about what a horrible industry and culture it is: so often the focus appears to be on what is wrong with the industry that what is worthy of celebrating is forgotten.

As a global culture video games are able to bridge different peoples from different parts of the world, to bring them together to create or partake of cultural artifacts: and it is in the creating of these cultural artifacts, both in the act of playing or making them, that gaming speaks to the universal in humanity. It speaks to the desires to communicate with one another, to share and learn of new ideas; I don't want to turn this into some hippy-trippy blog, but suffice to say that there is something innately human that can be made out of all this pixels and plastic.

This desire is seen in how gamers across the globe are willing to defy even the most terrible totalitarian regimes to play video games.Another recent article on Gamasutra speaks to this. While most gamers as youngsters might have pouted if they couldn't play the latest Mario or Zelda, here are a people willing to risk imprisonment or fines to either play games or bring games to the people.

A slightly older article speaks of the unique culture of gaming in Brazil. What both these stories have in common is that gaming, so often derided for the influence of a particular culture in making games (as seen in the whining about the JRPG and "dudebro" games), is not what the critics believe it to be, that gaming is not alienating or incapable of speaking to peoples of different genders, ethnic backgrounds, colors or creeds.

Why don't we as gamers, as an industry and a culture celebrate that more? What is with these miserable myopic misanthropes who cannot look at gaming objectively? Is it that while gaming is truly a global culture, that many of those who report or critique cannot look beyond themselves?

Could it be, that with so many other issues in gaming, that it comes down to looking in the mirror of gaming and not seeing themselves which is the cause of their crusades? How do they reconcile this with their professed love of diversity? I look at a global culture which is proud of what people from backgrounds and cultures foreign to their own create; of game makers who are moved by the support they have from people continents away and whose language they do not even speak.

Gaming as a global culture is something greater than the individuals which play or report on the games: and when there is literally a world which refutes ones' beliefs, especially that one is what that world must revolve around, perhaps what is needed is a diversity in those who report on them.

Because all their hate just seems alien and foreign to me.

I have been a fan of the Sniper Elite series since the first game. The first game had cool level design where the levels were open and you decided how to complete the missions. The gameplay of the first felt a little clumsy at times though, which is what held it back from greatness. I still loved the game none the less. The sequel V2 was an improvement in some places and a let down in others. The gameplay was a big improvement on the sniping mechanic and the general control of the game. Where the sequel went wrong was in the level design. The game became a run  and gun affair in linear levels. Everything was so scripted. With the third game in the series how ever Rebellion improved on basically every thing. The feeling of how the character moves feel more fluid and the cover system is a huge improvement with you snapping to cover when near it.

The biggest thing that they fixed how ever is the stealth system.  On V2 the second you fired a shot everyone in the level basically knew where you  were at. On this game when firing a shot the enemies will become alerted that there is a shooter, but not where you are shooting from. If you manage another shot with out being instantly noticed they will get  a general idea of where the shots are coming from and try to go an search the area. Moving away in time and getting out of the area will make it so you can take another shot. The new system improves vastly on what the previous game did. The game encourages stealth and moving about.

Being able to move around is helped by the fact that the levels are wide open with many branching paths. The levels are your play ground, you decide how you want to complete the mission. There is many side objectives to do if you want to. There is hidden items and weapons scattered about these levels to help. You can now customize a loadout that is linked to both the single player and multiplayer. In the load out you can choose your weapons that you unlock and find. You decide the play style with your loadout, like going for the run and gun or the sneakiness with using silenced weapons, the choice is your.

From the looks of it Rebellion listened to the fans and improved everything that was wrong the the previous games. This is the best Sniper Elite of them all. This is not to say how ever that this game is flawless. There is the occasional  glitches like the cover system making you peak around things that you do not want it to. And the AI although improved still have there dumb moments. This game is fun though and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the series or wants to play a game where you decide the type of sniper you want to be. This is an addicting game which to me has a high replay value.