THE GAMES FOR THE FUTURE

The gaming industry is here to stay and this is one of the industries which could well find the sun on its horizon always rising. With the voluminous flow of cutting-edge technology there is this influx of games with high presision and more EQ. With the technology finding itself in fishy waters each day, a game that is cool today might suddenly look glum the next.

But, there are a few games which are here to stay and which have an indefinite tag to the EQ they present.

BioShock is a game developed by 2K developers which is a first-person shooter game designed by Kevin Levine. Its got great reviews for its dystopian settings and also for forcing players for taking a moral ground. Set in an alternative history 1960, the game places the player in the role of a plane crash survivor named Jack, who must explore the underwater objectivist-dystopian city of Rapture, and survive attacks by the mutated beings and mechanical drones that populate it. The game incorporates elements found in role-playing and survivla horror games, and is described by the developers and Levine as a “spiritual successor to their previous titles in the system shock series.

Brain Age 2 is a game for all those cyberchondriacs who want to assess their IQ levels. This is more fun with more puzzling games and something for the gray matter. The format of the game is identical to Brain Age. Using one of four profiles stored on the game, the player can choose one of several activities. “Brain Age Check” will run 3 random tests (although by holding the Select button while choosing Brain Age check, the player can choose the tests themselves) to estimate the player’s “brain age” and individual activities can be used for practice. The brain age will range from 20 to 80, depending on how well the person does in the test. Statistics are kept over the course of daily play to allow the player to track their progress. Any activity can also be used for Quick Play. Additionally, the player can solve 100 Sudoku puzzles, as well as play Virus Buster / Germ Buster, a simplified version of Dr. Mario modified for stylus play, between training sessions.

The next one on the list is the Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass which is again from the stable of Nintendo. It works on the Nintendo DS. It is one of the most successful game franchises ever for its perfect controlled actions. Phantom Hourglass is an action-adventure game, and its gameplay is structured similar to other games in the The Legend of Zelda series. The player controls the protagonist, named LINK, as he explores the world to find new items, information, and allies to free Tetra and defeat the evil of Bellum within the game.

The next game requires players to solve puzzles using a teleporting “portal gun” developed by Valve corp. It is released for MS Windows and XBox 360. The game consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and other simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (“Portal Gun” for short), a unit that can create an inter-spatial portal between flat planes. The player character is challenged by an android named “GLaDOS” to complete each puzzle in the “Aperture Science Enrichment Center” using the Portal Gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed.The highlight of this game are the unusual physics used by the portal gun which is quite a similar a concept used in Narbacular Drop.

This game combines the fantasy-role playing with puzzle and strategy games. In this game two opponents settle scores by challenging each other to a puzzle board. Thecliched thing with this game is it is platform independent. Players get to play roles based on various parameters such as magical affinity, combat ability and morale.

The Rock Band developed by Harmonix Music Systems allows players to perform in virtual “bands” by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music  by hitting scrolling notes on-screen.This might be partially be taken as an inspiration from the Guitar Hero series.

Everyone’s favorite Italian plumber is back in this 3D-platform game. In this adventure, Mario travels through space to rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser–a familiar plot, but one enlivened by fantastic environments and a wide variety of game mechanics. The protagonist travels from galaxy to galaxy to collect power stars which are earned by defeating enemies or by completing some task.

These though are just a few games that will be enticing gamers of all ages at least for few years from now there are few of my personal favourites from Take Two the GTA series which I for ever will enjoy playing and with the GTA IV soon to come I’ll try to get hold of one to get my summer action packed.