It’s been a long year and you haven’t had time to finish or even start the games you buy. Why not take the next week, where things slow down a little, to get in that “committment” required these days to finish a game?
Here are three that are worth catching up on.
Hawken
Ever since the Mechwarrior franchise went into limbo, fans of the giant mech simulator have had little to chew on, other than poor console-based titles. Lately, Mechwarrior Online has become a much-touted reboot, while a rival free-to-play title Hawken has also gained much interest.
The Hawken game is open for play now and generally feels like a cross between a very structured simulator and a free-to-roam first person shooter. Mechs here move faster than the lumbering giants of Mechwarrior lore. However, they are still pretty much grounded with realistic physics.
The multiplayer action here is akin to objective-based shooters, so it is not alien to folks who have played any first-person shooters online. You can customise your mech for maximum effect on the battlefield, but of course, you can just jump in with what’s on the screen too, if you feel like it.
The graphics produced by the Unreal engine are okay, if a little less impressive than what you might expect from a PC. But being a multiplayer game based on fast action, Hawken probably will attract a crowd less interested in eye candy than the thrill of the ride.
Far Cry 3
While Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Medal of Honor: Warfighter grabbed the headlines as top holiday shooters, the best game of the lot could instead be Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3. The wickedly-styled shooter just has all the elements that come with the last Far Cry 2, like a huge interactive world, interesting take-downs and more.
To get rid of the numerous enemies in the game, think of cutting loose a caged animal, which then proceeds to maul the unfortunate victim. Or, what about “death from above” attacks, where you jump down from above with a knife in hand.
The co-op option is great as well, giving you the chance to separately take objectives with up to three other friends, instead of going it alone all the time.
And all this is not forgetting the excellent setting. Think of an alluring island with a dark secret, with characters practising black magic and loads of bad guys all gunning for you. For a while, World War II games were the rage thanks to Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. Far Cry 3 looks like the best “spin-off” of Lost.
Borderlands 2
Yet another action game to catch up with is Borderlands 2. If you liked the first Borderlands and its unique art, you’d be impressed with the followup released earlier this year.
The co-op mode of up to four players makes this a different shooter from others, as you move through missions in the Pandora world almost like a party of raiders in a role-playing game (RPG). To add to that, you also get to customise your weapons and of course, pick the class of character and build it up like in an RPG.
For its sheer attitude and a different shooter experience, Borderlands 2 deserves catching up to before 2013 is here.
What games are you playing in the last week of 2012? Share with us in the comments!
