Q2/11: Portal 2 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Release Date: May 10, 2011 | Genre: Action RPG | Also on: PS3, Xbox 360
Hunted: The Demon's Forge, is an upcoming third-person action title developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in a dark fantasy world, the game will feature co-operative multiplayer without split screen, pitting you and your partner against waves of vicious enemies. Taking control of either the melee-focused Caddoc or the bow-wielding E'lara, you must use a variety of weapons, spells, and cover tactics to battle your way through menacing dungeons, overgrown ruins, and downtrodden towns while discovering answers to the game's dark mysteries.
Powered by the Unreal 3 engine, Hunted has seen some initial criticism and comparison to Gears of War due to a similar cover system and action-orientated gameplay. Developer inXile has acknowledged some of that saying they want you to get the controls and start playing right away, but they promise much more exploration, discovery and puzzles.
Release Date: April 18, 2011 | Genre: Puzzle, First-person shooter | Also on: PS3, Xbox 360, Mac
Portal was originally included as an experimental add-on to The Orange Box game bundle. But after receiving high praise and proving its worth, Valve determined that Portal 2 should be its own product, committing more resources than it did for the first game. In Portal 2 the player returns as Chell, the silent protagonist from the original title, having been in stasis for several hundred years while GLaDOS and the rest of the Aperture Science facility has fallen into disrepair.
The game will continue to challenge the player by solving puzzles in test chambers within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, using the portal gun to create portals and move unconventionally between rooms or fling objects through them. The functionality of the gun has not changed, but players can take advantage of new elements such as the aerial faith plate, the thermal discouragement beam, the repulsion gel, and several others. The game will include a two-player co-operative mode in addition to the single player mode, and we're counting on Valve to deliver the same level of gameplay, outstanding humor, a great soundtrack as in the original title, and cake.
Release Date: May 2011 | Genre: Action | Also on: PS3, Xbox 360
Red Faction Armageddon will take place half a century after the Martian revolution of Red Faction: Guerrilla putting players in the shoes of the grandson of Alec Mason and Samanya. The game will take place underground this time around, with players fighting to free colonists from alien cocoons, reclaim cultist fortifications on the surface of the planet and hunting for artifacts to create alien weapons such as the new Nano Forge, Tremblers and Rhino Charges.
Not many other gameplay details have been released so far but developer THQ says that the game will include a new extermination mode that has four players teaming up online to take on never ending tides of attackers. A downloadable multiplayer vehicular combat game, called Red Faction: Battlegrounds, will be released as the prequel to Armageddon on PSN and XBLA early this year in order to get you hyped for the big game.
Release Date: May 17, 2011 | Genre: RPG | Also on: PS3, Xbox 360
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is an upcoming sequel to The Witcher, developed by CD Projekt RED. The second installment in the role-playing saga is said to feature a thoroughly engrossing, mature storyline while building on the first game's choice/consequence backbone. Characters live and die by your decisions and entire missions become available or are never seen depending on the choices you make.
The world itself will be far less linear as every corner can be peered around. Based on a new game engine, The Witcher 2 features improved visuals and a revamped combat system that combines hand-to-hand, spellcraft and sword play - all while staying true to the things made the original Witcher something of a cult classic among RPG players.