Top Upcoming Games of 2005

Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood - October 2005

With the gaming console sequel hype this year released this holiday season and next year leaves the PC gaming market not too exciting. Wrong! Top games such as F.E.A.R. and Quake 4 are going to be released for this holiday season giving a nice selection of games for the end of the year.

Age Of Empires III

It’s the dawn of a new age in real-time strategy (RTS) games. A brave New World is rising – a hostile yet beautiful world, filled with innovative gameplay, new strategic scenarios, eye-searing graphics and much more.

Players have access to their own European Home City for economic, technological and military support. Your Home City’s success depends on you, with your city’s improvements retained between games. This revolutionary new feature to the RTS landscape is incorporated into all aspects of Age of Empires III — from Campaign to Multiplayer — and is unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

Much like the persistent character from a role-playing game that encourages you to keep playing, your Home City is an important support system to your efforts in the New World. During a game, your Home City can regularly send you supplies or military reinforcements.

The creators at Ensemble Studios wanted to create the best-looking game ever. From the stunning water effects to the hundreds of units battling on-screen, you’ll feel like you’re a part of the action in the New World.

Black and White 2

That’s the choice you must make upon returning to a warring land in Black & White 2. Like its wildly successful predecessor, Black & White, the sequel is all about moral choices.

The land, however, has transformed itself. The inhabitants of this breathtaking 3D world have lost their innocence and developed new weapons and technology. As you enter this warring world, will you make tribes coexist peacefully; encouraging villages and towns to grow into sprawling metropolises, or prompt them to inflict their will upon others by, creating and commanding large armies that seek to dominate and conquer?

Creatures in the game have grown too. They can learn strategies, master new abilities and skills, lead armies into battle and be your ultimate unit. Black & White 2 includes other new elements, such as improved graphics and miracle effects such as rivers of fire and earthquakes that yield massive destruction.

Every choice you make will have an impact. Each action and inactions prompts obvious changes to buildings, flora and fauna, all morphing to reflect your personality.

Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood

Brothers In Arms Road to Hill 30™ introduced you to the men of the 101st Airborne and established the franchise as the most authentic WWII shooter ever made. Brothers In Arms Earned In Blood™ delivers even more of the authenticity, squad combat, and compelling story the franchise is famous for and includes many exciting new missions and features designed to make the game even more intense.

Brothers In Arms Earned In Blood is the next chapter of the true story of the 101st Airborne. As Sgt. Joe “Red” Hartsock, you must travel beyond Hill 30 and lead your squad of paratroopers through some of the most intense missions of WWII as you fight for the liberation of all of Normandy.

Call Of Duty 2

Call of Duty 2 lets players experience four individual soldier stories as they overcome insurmountable odds in multiple campaigns. Players have the freedom to follow each of the four storylines through for the ultimate character-driven experience, or they can engage in the historic battles chronologically for quick hitting action.

Along with the new missions, the game features an enhanced engine, advanced AI, and even more authenticity than before.

F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. is the new shooter from Monolith, also known as the ‘Guys Who Made No One Lives Forever.’ Their new title puts you in the role of a member of F.E.A.R., an elite military unit. In case you’re wondering, F.E.A.R. stands for First Encounter Assault and Recon, so hence the title. Anyway, it seems that a paramilitary force has infiltrated the multi-billion dollar aerospace compound and taken some hostages, so it’s easy to guess what follows next - you are assigned the task of going to the ’scene of the crime’, locating and eliminating the threat.

Those who have answered ‘no’ will be tortured to death, while those who have answered ‘yes’ have probably read other F.E.A.R. previews or simply display a certain hint of intelligence. Well, here’s the first rule of the Mission Went Wrong: mutilated human bodies lying in puddles of their own blood always signify the presence of an alien or paranormal entity.

F.E.A.R. runs on a completely new engine that should provide a truly spectacular look to this title. This means we’ll be able to observe all the gory and creepy scenes from this shooter/horror mix in hi-res, with incredible realism and authenticity. Just what I needed for my summer vacation! Apart from being dark and scary, F.E.A.R. will utilize all the modern tech features such as normal mapping and per-pixel shading, and it will also incorporate the famed Havok 2 physics engine that will provide - what else - a realistic physics model that should make the experience much more enjoyable.

Quake 4

The next-gen chapter of id’s infamous shooter series (built on the DOOM 3 engine) for consoles and PC systems. In the game, you are Matthew Kane, an elite member of Rhino Squad and Earth’s valiant invasion force. Fight alone, with your squad, and in hover tanks and mechanized walkers as you engage in a heroic mission into the heart of the Strogg war machine.

In this epic war between worlds, the only way to defeat the Strogg is to become one of them. Battle through early missions as a deadly marine, then after your capture as a marine-turned-Strogg with enhanced abilities and the power to turn the tide of the war.

As you can see, Quake 4 stays true to a well-worn first-person shooter trope: no matter where you go, your expendable fellow Marines will litter the ground and silently warn that you’re about to be ambushed by plasma-wielding aliens.

Die Dulci Fruere