Prototype 2

 

Prototype 2
Developer(s)	Radical Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Activision
Designer(s)	Matt Armstrong
Series	Prototype
Engine	Titanium 2.0
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 April 24, 2012 Microsoft Windows NA July 24, 2012 EU July 27, 2012
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, Open world
Mode(s)	Single-player (Third-person view)
Rating(s)	ACB: MA 15+ BBFC: 18 ESRB: M PEGI: 18
Media/distribution	Optical disc, download

Prototype 2 is an action-adventure open world video game that was released for consoles on April 24, 2012. It was developed by Canadian studio Radical Entertainment and is the sequel to 2009's Prototype. The game was published by Radical Entertainment's owner, Activision. The game features a new protagonist, James Heller, as he goes on a quest to destroy the Blacklight virus. The story is also one of revenge, as Heller wants to kill Alex Mercer, protagonist of the original Prototype, after his family was killed in the outbreak of the Blacklight virus. The game was announced at the 2010 Spike VGA Awards with the tagline "Murder your Maker." While the game was a top seller for a period of time, its sales would eventually result in the demise of its developer.

Gameplay

 

 

James Heller can shapeshift and assume other people’s identities and memories by consuming them. Taking people's identities and shapeshifting into them has become more tactical. Due to Blackwatch's actions in the Yellow Zone, if the player assumes the role of a soldier, people will react to him in a way that they show they want nothing to do with him. To make sure that enemies do not overwhelm the player, Radical has created a dodging system and new, more realistic AI. Heller will be able to use weapons in the game, such as ripping the cannon off a tank and using it against enemies. Heller can also sneak up on unsuspecting human enemies, inject the Blacklight virus in them and create a "BioBomb" out of them to blow up objects, enemies and such. Heller also has improved strength, movement, invulnerability (self-healing and endurance), and has a sonar sense. The sonar includes a new pulse ability that highlights the key features of an environment to make it easier for the player to find someone, instead of looking in a large crowd for a person with an icon above their head. Radical has stated that the powers will be more meaningful, appearing as mutations and upgrades that let players decide how they want to play as Heller.

To give gamers more power in the game, the developers have added tendrils. Tendrils sprout from Heller's arm and can be used for a variety of purposes. Players can use tendrils to smash objects into other objects, such as a car into a tank, utilising the 'Black Hole' attack. Players will be able to dismember enemies, a force that will become more useful as the game progresses. There are many more ways to kill enemies, ranging from throwing a car at a group of Blackwatch soldiers, hacking off a mutant's head or using powers. Consuming has not changed since the original Prototype, with the exception of some enemies, which are consumed upon grabbing them (e.g. Supersoldiers, Brawlers). It has also been announced that Heller can now control a pack of Brawlers (similar to Prototype's Hunters) to attack anything he desires (note: this power is limited to main variant of Brawler). Heller will no longer find 'Events' throughout NYZ, instead starting side-missions by hacking into Blacknet. Hacking onto Blacknet, Blackwatch's system that details military operations and the three areas of NYZ, Heller chooses from a small list of missions at each terminal. Blacknet will allow Heller to find operations that he can disrupt or take control of for his own purposes and find important people that will allow him to learn more about what he has become because of the Blacklight virus. It will also help him find out more about Alex Mercer and what his connections are to his family's deaths. The missions that are selectable can be sidequests or extensions to the main quest that tell Heller more about the Blacklight virus.

Plot

Setting and characters

 

The main character of Prototype 2 is James Heller, a man who blames the deaths of his family on Alex Mercer. After surviving a suicide mission and being transformed by the virus released by Alex Mercer, Heller is looking to kill Mercer, who acts as the game's main antagonist. Mercer's motives are unclear, but unlike the first game he is not committed to stopping the virus, but seems to be spreading it.

After the events of the first game, Manhattan recovered from the initial outbreak and everyone thought that the "Mercer Virus" was eradicated. 14 months after Prototype, Manhattan has been quarantined again, due to a second outbreak, one far worse than the first one, and blocked off from the other boroughs of New York City, which has been renamed New York Zero (NYZ). The boroughs of New York have been divided into three zones, the Red, Yellow, and Green Zone. Each region stands for how affected New York City is by the Blacklight virus. Most boroughs of New York Zero have been infected. The Red Zone is Manhattan, home of Alex Mercer; in it the Blacklight virus grows unhindered. The Yellow Zone is a triage area full of shanty towns and the poor, it is very crowded and while the virus grows there, it is at a minimum and Blackwatch is using the Yellow Zone as a petri dish. The Green Zone is non-infected New York City, except there is a heavy Blackwatch presence. James Heller will have missions in each zone and each mission's difficulty will depend on which zone it takes place in. Blackwatch is credited as occupying and controlling NYZ, but they are said to know that New York actually belongs to Alex Mercer even though the latter is only seen rarely.

Blackwatch is the organization that is responsible for the creation of the virus and are in charge of eradicating it from New York City. Heller's main adversary in Blackwatch is Colonel Rooks. Rooks is more human than other Blackwatch members due to his family, though his commitment to the concept of family is his interpretation of Blackwatch's mission. Upon hearing the negative happenings in Blackwatch's missions, Rooks has a short temper, but can be thrilled if Blackwatch's missions are successful. Accompanying Rooks is Dr. Koenig, the main virologist at Gentek. Koenig oversees every major Gentek operation.

Story

 

Comic

It was announced by Radical Entertainment that like the original Prototype, Prototype 2 would have a comic counterpart. The three part series takes place before the second video game, acting as a bridge between the two games. To be published by Dark Horse Comics, the first comic was called the Anchor. After eradicating the virus in Africa, Mexico and Russia, Alex travels around the world, wondering about if the virus has made him a human, humanity's killer or its savior. Alex slowly begins to decide that he is the earth's savior and will usher it into a new age of prosperity after he wipes out humanity, however, this changes when he falls for a woman. When the woman betrays him, he decides that he will wipe out humanity and so he returns to New York City and makes it NYZ.

The second comic, dubbed the Survivors focused on a former police officer, Conrad who would join up with Ami Levin, a religiously tolerant person and Marcie, an art student. The three would run afoul of Lieutenant Riley, he would, however, agree to let Conrad see his wife, so long he agrees to work for Gentek. Unbeknownst to Riley, his wife was dead and that he ended up in a project called Orion. The third comic, entitled the Labyrinth introduced Heller and Mike Marcos.

Game

2 years after the events of the original game, sergeant James Heller, after returning from touring in Iraq, discovers his wife and daughter to be declared dead, causing him to rejoin the military in the fight for NYZ against the Mercer Virus. Heller is briefed on the previous outbreaks in Idaho in the 60's and in NYZ in the events of the first game.

Pursuing Mercer for vengeance, Heller is infected by Mercer with a strain that imbues him with similar superpowers. After blacking out, Heller awakens in a yellow zone lab where Gentek scientist Dr. Koenig and Blackwatch soldier Col. Rooks are experimenting on him. Heller escapes the Gentek base, when Mercer confronts him and claims Gentek and Blackwatch are responsible for recreating and cultivating the Mercer virus, making them responsible for the second infection and the deaths of Heller's family. Revealing his plans to take down Gentek and Blackwatch, Mercer offers a truce to Heller; Heller, unsure of Mercer's intentions, goes to his local parishioner, Father Guerra, for advice and help.

Using information supplied by Guerra, Heller hacks into Blacknet Terminals to find out about and sabotage a number of their operations. Gradually consuming his way through Blackwatch, Heller eventually finds and attacks Koening, only to find the doctor has superhuman powers similar to Heller, and is one of several "Evolved" agents planted in Gentek and Blackwatch by Mercer. After defeating and consuming the doctor, Heller finds Mercer intends to recruit him in an attempt to control NYZ. His doubts growing, Guerra then shows Heller a video tape of Mercer releasing the virus for the second time in Penn Station, the same place Mercer originally released and contracted the virus.

Enraged that Mercer lied to him, Heller sets off to the green zone to pursue and murder Mercer's accomplices, including an Evolved agent in Gentek named Sabrina Galloway; upon confronting Galloway, however, Heller reluctantly teams up with her when she reveals she can help him take down Mercer. With Galloway's help, Heller soon finds that Mercer plans to infect the entire world through "Whitelight", a contaminated vaccine released by Gentek that actually serves to accelerate infection and evolution rather than prevent it.

Frustrated with Heller sabotaging his plans, Mercer kills Father Guerra; upon finding his corpse, however, a grieving Heller uses Guerra's phone to reach Athena, Guerra's contact who is revealed to be Dana Mercer. Dana explains that Heller's daughter, Maya, is still alive, prompting Heller to head for the red zone to take down Mercer and to save Maya. After preventing Blackwatch's second attempt to level Manhattan Island, Col. Rooks helps Heller reach his daughter, only for Galloway to betray him and take Maya to Mercer. Upon confronting Mercer, Alex reveals he plans to solve international conflicts and world problems by infecting the entire human race, effectively creating a Superorganism with Maya at the center. After Mercer absorbs Galloway and several evolved, he attacks Heller, only for the latter to emerge victorious.

Taking Mercer's role as head infected, Heller wipes out the infected in NYZ along with most of the Blacklight Virus; then using Mercer's absorbed memories, Heller locates and frees Maya and Dana from a vault. The story then ends with the three overlooking New York before Dana questions what to do next.

 

Video

Prototype 2 | OFFICIAL trailer (2012)

 Prototype 2: E3 2011 - Action Trailer

 Prototype 2: Red Zone Trailer

 

Development

Development of the game started soon after the success of the first game and was in development for three years. The game was first shown at the Spike 2010 VGA Awards in December.The game was revealed to be the main focus of the April, 2011 EGM Issue. It was displayed in EGM and EGMI in 2011 revealing many new details about the game's plot, characters and gameplay. The game's graphics have been completely updated with buildings being much more detailed and deformation of vehicles, mutants and humans being much more visual. The game was also partially written by Dan Jolley.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

 

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Official cover of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier released in North America
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Paris Ubisoft Red Storm Ubisoft Romania Ubisoft Ukraine (PC version)
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Designer(s)	Jean-Marc Geffroy
Writer(s)	Richard Dansky
Composer(s)	Hybrid, Tom Salta
Series	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Engine	YETI
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 NA May 22, 2012 PAL May 24, 2012 UK May 25, 2012 JP July 5, 2012 Microsoft Windows NA June 26, 2012 PAL June 28, 2012 UK June 29, 2012
Genre(s)	Tactical shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, co-op, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ACB: MA 15+ BBFC: 15 CERO: C ESRB: M PEGI: 18 USK: 18
Media/distribution	Optical disc, download
System requirements Microsoft Windows[show]

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a third-person tactical shooter video game published by Ubisoft and was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles on May 22, 2012.The PC version was released on June 27. Excluding expansions, Future Soldier is the fifth installment in the Ghost Recon series, and was announced to be in development by Ubisoft on January 22, 2009. The game has a futuristic take on the Ghost Recon series.
The campaign has settings such as Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and Norway.
Future Soldier is the first game in the series since the original Ghost Recon to receive a Mature rating from the ESRB.

Plot

Future Soldier opens with a four-man Ghost Team call-signed "Predator", led by Joe Ramirez, deployed in Nicaragua to disrupt weapons trafficking in the region. Upon inspection of the convoy vehicles, a dirty bomb is remotely detonated, killing the team. Investigating the cause and tracking down the source of the bomb is tasked to another Ghost team call-signed "Hunter", consisting of Ghost Leader Captain Cedric Ferguson, Staff Sergeant John Kozak, Master Sergeant Robert "Pepper" Bonifacio, and Sergeant First Class Jimmy "30K" Ellison. The team ships out under the supervision of Major Scott Mitchell.
Mitchell informs the team of their new mission to rescue an arms dealer named Paez in Bolivia who has information about where the bomb came from. The team rescues Paez and then proceeds to follow the trail of guns from Zambia where they eliminate a local warlord, then to Nigeria, Pakistan, Norway, and finally into Russia, where the team destroys an arms shipment at an airport, causing an international incident.
Some time later, a nuclear missile fired from Russia impacts London, but the nuclear warhead is eliminated at the last minute by the US Missile Shield. The launch is traced to a rogue Russian Special Forces group known as Raven's Rock in Dagestan, whose primary goal is to destabilize the world with their weapons trafficking. The team is ordered into Dagestan to rescue a Georgian Special Forces unit who went to investigate the launch site. During the rescue operation, the team is ambushed by Russian Spetsnaz that have access to high-tech equipment on the same level as the Ghosts, and it is later revealed that these soldiers are part of Russia's elite "Bodark" unit, which have sided with Raven's Rock.
A coup has been staged and Raven's Rock is now in charge of the majority of Russia with a few loyalist Russian forces opposing the new government scattered around the country. The team then head to northern Russia to secure some drilling ships so that the loyalist Russian forces can have a steady flow of oil. After accomplishing this, the team is assigned to rescue a loyalist general who is seen as the leader of the resistance. After destroying the artillery that was attacking the General's forces, the team is pinned down by overwhelming Russian forces, until air support arrives and eliminate all opposition. Next, Kozak, one of the team members, is tasked with a solo operation to rescue the Russian President from a prison in Siberia. Kozak is successful, and then the team protects the President in his return to Moscow, and eliminates a Raven's Rock General. The Raven's Rock forces are overthrown and the crisis ends.
While everyone else is celebrating, the team receives intelligence on the location of the seven other leaders of Raven's Rock, which orchestrated the whole crisis. The team is sent in on a clandestine operation to eliminate the seven. After eliminating six of the seven, the team chases the last member, code-named "Ace", to a train station, where they wound him. The wounded Ace taunts the team that they will not kill him because the American government will stop them. Just before they are about to execute him, Major Mitchell calls them off, stating that Ace is to be kept alive and brought back to America, that the orders came "from the top", and that they are "not to touch" Ace. At that point a train comes, and Ace, who is wounded on the tracks, calls for the team to save him, reminding them that their orders were to keep him alive. Ferguson corrects him, saying that that their orders were not to touch him, as the team leaves Ace to be run over by the train.

Ghost Recon: Alpha

In the short movie Ghost Recon: Alpha, which is a prequel to the game, a Ghost team (consisting of Pepper, 30k, Chuck, and an unnamed Ghost Leader) was trying to secure a RSM-56 Bulava nuclear warhead. While trying to disarm the warhead, Chuck was shot in the head. Eventually the remaining Ghosts managed to fight off the attacking force, but the warhead was airlifted by a helicopter belonging to an unknown faction. The short movie ends with a view of London set in the time period of the videogame

Gameplay

Kozak uses a UAV to scout out enemies in the Pakistan streets. Here the screen is gray to show the perspective of the streets from the UAV's camera.

The game is a third-person cover-based shooter. When aiming using sights, the game switches to a first-person camera. Some cover can be partially destroyed, forcing players to seek other hiding spots. While taking cover, players can be suppressed by machine gun fire, which takes the effect of narrowing and shaking the player's field of vision, making it harder to return fire.
A new feature in the series is adaptive camouflage, a form of active camouflage which allows the Ghosts to become partially invisible.In the game, it is explained that the processing power doesn't exist yet for the camouflage to keep up with quick movements, so it is only active when the player moves slowly. It enables automatically when the player crouches, and disengages when running, firing, or taking damage.
During firefights, the player can prioritize up to four targets by marking them, on which squad members will focus fire. Outside of firefights, marking targets prepares for a synchronized takedown, so long as the enemy is still unaware of the team's presence. This mechanic is referred to by the game as "Sync Shot". The player is shown icons signifying when the squad mates have moved into position and taken aim on marked targets. If the player marks up to three targets, the player can either order them to fire, or take aim himself on one of the targets and fire, at which point the squad mates fire simultaneously. If the player marks four targets, the player must aim at one of the targets and fire in order to take down all four targets.
Gunsmith allows the player to customize their weapon extensively. After customizations are made, the player can test them on a firing range before entering a mission. Parts that can be customized include: optics, triggers, magazines, under-barrel attachments (eg. foregrip or bipod), side-rail attachments (eg. aiming laser), gas systems (standard, "over-gassed" for increased fire rate/lower accuracy, or "under-gassed" for decreased fire rate/higher accuracy), barrels, muzzles, stocks and paint (cosmetic only). In single-player, advanced parts are unlocked by completing missions and in-mission achievements (called "challenges"). In multiplayer, players unlock weapons and earn credits as they advance the level of their character. On the Xbox 360, players can use Kinect to customize their weapons through hand gestures and voice commands.
Players have use of drones, which are similar to UAVs. The drone can be launched covertly and controlled remotely, hovering or moving over the playing field for a limited distance. The player can leave the drone hovering in the air indefinitely, so long as it is not spotted by the enemy, and switch between normal view and the drone's camera view. The player can also order the drone to return. Drones can be spotted by enemies and shot, and if they take enough damage, they must be recalled for repair, which occurs automatically after a short period. The drone has a camera to provide an aerial view. Targets can be marked from the drone view. The drone can also be landed on the ground, at which point it maneuvers on wheels, has its own active camouflage, and a sonic blast that can be activated to disorient enemies.
Another automated element is the War Hound, used only in one single-player mission, which is a heavy walking robot, similar to BigDog, which can be controlled by the player and fires mortar rounds and TV-guided missiles. It can be used as portable cover.

Multiplayer

 

The game has various multiplayer modes, including cooperative and competitive game types. Future Soldier features a fully cooperative campaign, as well as a new wave-based mode called Guerilla, which is also playable as a single-player mode. Also featured is competitive multiplayer, with the game types Conflict, Decoy, Saboteur, and Siege. A code is used for full-access online play, and is a one-time use code. Used copies of the game will not have full access to online play.

 Video

Development

In December 2009, "Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" was trademarked by Ubisoft, raising speculation that this could be the name for the upcoming Ghost Recon 4. This was subsequently confirmed by an official announcement.
The release of Future Soldier was initially targeted for the 2009–2010 fiscal year; publication was delayed to the 2010–2011 fiscal year, and then to the "March quarter of 2011" in May 2010,and then to the April 2011 – March 2012 fiscal period.The PC version was officially declared as cancelled in December 2011 and replaced by Ghost Recon Online, citing piracy as the main reason.However, on January 10, 2012, the PC version was officially re-announced as being in development along with its console counterparts.