Watch Dogs 2 ( November 2016 )

Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Watch Dogs 2 (stylized as WATCH_DOGS2) is an upcoming open world action-adventurevideo game developed by Ubisoft Montrealand published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The sequel to 2014's Watch Dogs, it releases worldwide on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 15 November 2016, and on Microsoft Windows on 29 November 2016.

Set within a fictionalized version of San Francisco, the game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Marcus Holloway, a hacker who works with the hacking group DedSec to take down the city's ctOS 2.0, an advanced surveillance system. There are multiple ways to complete missions, and each successful assignment increases the follower count of DedSec. Cooperative multiplayer allows for competitive one-on-one combat and connecting with other players in order to neutralize a player who is actively causing havoc.

Ubisoft Montreal, the game's developer, studied player feedback from the first game to assess what could be improved in Watch Dogs 2 and the setting was researched by making frequent trips to California. Actual hackers were consulted to validate scripts and game mechanics for authenticity and references to real life hacktivism were fictionalized, like the Project Chanologyprotest.

Doom (2016 video game)

Doom (stylized as DOOM) is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Softwareand published by Bethesda Softworks. A reboot of the Doom series, it is the fourth title in the main series and the first major installment therein since the release of Doom 3 in 2004. The game was released worldwide on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 13, 2016. The game is powered by id Tech 6.

The game is played entirely from a first-person perspective, with players taking the role of an unnamed marine, as he battles demonic forces from Hell that have been unleashed by the Union Aerospace Corporation on a future-set colonized planet Mars. The gameplay returns to a faster pace with more open-ended levels, closer to the first two games rather than the slower survival horror approach taken by Doom 3. It also features environment traversal, character upgrades, and the ability to perform executions on enemies known as "glory kills". The game also supports an online multiplayer component and a level editor known as "SnapMap", both co-developed with id Software by Certain Affinity and Escalation Studios respectively.

Originally announced as Doom 4 in 2008, the game underwent an extensive development cycle with different builds and designs before being restarted in 2011 and revealed as simply Doom in 2014. The old version of the game was described as "Call of Doom", while the new version was inspired by rock and roll. The game was tested both by people who pre-ordered another Bethesda game, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and the general public. Mick Gordon along with Richard Devine composed the music for the game.

Despite receiving negative criticism during the beta period, Doom was very well received by critics and players; the single-player campaign, graphics, and gameplay were praised, whereas the multiplayer mode drew the most criticism. The game was ranked as the second best-selling video game in the UK and the US on its first week and month respectively and sold 500,000 copies for PCs at the end of May 2016.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (officially abbreviated as PES 2017, also known in some Asian countries as Winning Eleven 2017) is a sports video game developed by PES Productions and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The game is the 16th installment in the Pro Evolution Soccerseries. It was released in September 2016 on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and will be compatible with PS4 Pro console.^[1]

Konami partnered with FC Barcelona, Liverpool F.C., Borussia Dortmund and Club Atlético River Plate which will include recreation of the official kits, player faces, club logos and stadia among other exclusive content.^[2][3][4] Features includes, among others, improved passing, Real Touch ball control, and improved goal tending technique. The recent demo confirms it will include fully licensed Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona teams.^[5][6]

The game was positively reviewed upon launch, with critics describing the game as one of the best Pro Evolution Soccer games to date, and a refinement of its predecessor, Pro Evolution Soccer 2016.

OverWatch (2016)

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Overwatch puts players into two teams of six, with each player selecting one of several pre-defined hero characters with unique movement, attributes, and abilities; these heroes are divided into four classes: Offense, Defense, Tank and Support. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map and/or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time. Players gain cosmetic rewards that do not affect gameplay, such as character skins and victory poses, as they continue to play in matches. The game was launched with casual play, while Blizzard added competitive ranked play about a month after launch. Blizzard states that all Overwatch updates will remain free, with the only additional cost to players being microtransactions to earn additional cosmetic rewards.

Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise, and came about following the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan. A portion of the Titan team came up with the concept of Overwatch, based on the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the growing popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas, creating a hero-based shooter that emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatchborrow assets and concepts from the canceled Titan project. After establishing the narrative of an optimistic near-future Earth setting after a global crisis, the developers aimed to create a diverse cast of heroes that spanned genders and ethnicities as part of this setting. Significant time was spent adjusting the balance of the characters, making sure that new players would still be able to have fun while skilled players would present each other with a challenge.

Overwatch was unveiled at BlizzCon 2014 in a fully playable state, and was in a closed betafrom late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta in May 2016 drew in more than 9.7 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the game's narrative and each of the characters. Upon official release, Overwatchreceived universal acclaim from critics, who praised its accessibility and enjoyable gameplay.

The best games 2015 ( 15 ) - END

Bloodborne (Japanese: ブラッドボーンHepburn: Buraddobōn^?) is an action role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Officially announced at Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014conference, the game was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 in March 2015.^[3][4]

Bloodborne follows the player character, the Hunter, through the fictional decrepit Gothic, Victorian era inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabitants have been afflicted with an abnormal blood-borne disease. Upon mysteriously awakening in Yharnam during the night of "The Hunt", the Hunter seeks out something known only as "Paleblood" for reasons unknown.^[5] The Hunter begins to unravel Yharnam's intriguing mysteries while hunting down its many terrifying beasts. Eventually, the Hunter's objective is to locate and terminate the source of the plague, and escape the nightmare.

The game is played from a third-personperspective, players control a customizable protagonist, and gameplay is focused on weapons-based combat and exploration. Players battle beastly and varied enemies, including bosses, using items such as swords and firearms, and journey through the story, exploring the game's different locations, interacting with non-player characters, collecting key items involved in the story, and discovering and unraveling the world's many mysteries. Another trait of the game is its difficulty, with some gaming publications calling it "brutal", while others said it was "difficult, but fair".

Bloodborne began development in 2012 under the working title of Project Beast. Bearing many similarities to the Souls series of games by the same director, Bloodborne was partially inspired by classic H.P. Lovecraft novels as well as Dracula, and the architectural design of certain real world locations in places such as Romania and the Czech Republic. The decision by game director Hidetaka Miyazakito create a new intellectual property (IP) and not another Souls game was made because Miyazaki wanted to create something "different"; at the same time, Sony wanted a new IP to be made exclusively for the PlayStation 4. An expansion for the game, titled The Old Hunters, was released in November 2015.

Having been highly anticipated before being released, Bloodborne was met with critical acclaim upon release. Many critics applauded the game's atmosphere, detailed environments, and overall visuals, the interconnected world design, the design of the characters, particularly that of the enemies, the fast-paced gameplay, the storyline and lore, and the soundtrack. Frame rate issues and long load times at launch did, however, cause the game to draw some criticism. By September 2015, the game had sold over two million copies.

The best games 2015 ( 14 )

Life Is Strange is an episodic graphic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It is available for Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360and Xbox One, and consists of five episodes released periodically throughout 2015.

The game's plot focuses on Maxine Caulfield, a photography student who discovers that she has the ability to rewind time at any moment, leading her every choice to enact the butterfly effect. After having foreseen an approaching storm, Max must take on the responsibility to prevent it from destroying her town. The player's actions will adjust the narrative as it unfolds, and reshape it once allowed to travel back in time. Fetch quests and making environmental changes represent the forms of puzzle solving in addition to using branching choices for conversation.

Development of Life Is Strange began in April 2013. It was formed with an episodic format in mind, for reasons both financial and creative. The developers conducted field research on the setting by travelling to the Pacific Northwest, and subverted known archetypes to make the characters. Player feedback influenced the adjustments made to the episodes. Story and character arc serve as the central point in the game rather than traditional graphic adventure tropes like point-and-click puzzles. The voice recording sessions took place in Los Angeles, California.

During its release, Life Is Strange received generally favourable reviews commending the character development, rewind game mechanic and tackling of taboo subjects. It won the BAFTA Games Award for Best Story, the Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award and The Game Awards’ Games for Impact Award. Common criticisms included the slang that was used, poor lip-syncing in earlier episodes, and tonal inconsistencies in the story. It had sold one million digital copies by the end of July 2015. A digital series based on the game is being developed by Legendary Digital Studios and Square Enix.

The best games 2015 ( 13 )

Splatoon is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U, which released worldwide in May 2015. The game centers around characters known as Inklings—beings that can transform between humanoid and squid forms, and hide or swim through colored ink sprayed on surfaces using gun or brush-based weaponry. Splatoon features several game modes, including 4-on-4 online multiplayer and a single player campaign.

Splatoon was developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Developmentdivision, and originated from the concept of having a competitive multiplayer ink-based territory control game. The idea was created by Shintaro Sato, a member of the Animal Crossing team. The idea was later expanded to include squid and the ability to swim through ink. The team was composed of much younger members compared to other teams that work on Nintendo franchises.

Splatoon received positive reviews upon its unveiling and release, with critics praising Nintendo's decision to enter the genre with a new franchise, the game's overall style and presentation, gameplay mechanics, and its soundtrack. Criticism was directed at the exclusion of voice chat and private lobbies—features that are commonplace in the genre of multiplayer shooters, the small number of multiplayer maps, and issues with online matchmaking. Nintendo provided extensive post-release support for the game by unlocking content locked at launch, and holding time-limited events called Splatfests. It was awarded and nominated for several year-end accolades, including best shooter, from several gaming publications.