Turok is the latest installment in the first-person shooter Turok video games series based on Acclaim Entertainment's comic series under the same name. The game was scheduled to be released in North America for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on February 5, 2008, however, it was instead released on January 31, 2008. It will be released on April 22, 2008 for the PC. It was developed by Propaganda Games and published and distributed by Disney Interactive Studios under the Touchstone banner in the US and UK and by Capcom in all other territories.

Plot

Despite being titled "Turok", the title is treated as a series reboot and bears no relation to the continuity of the previous games or to the comic books.

The player takes the role of Joseph Turok, descendant of the original Turok, Tal'set. Previously, Turok was a member of the Wolfpack, a specialized military detachment whose members were trained in black ops by General Roland Kane. After a falling out with the group, Turok was reassigned back to the military and was eventually made the newest member of Whiskey Company—a team that has been assembled to apprehend his former mentor and return him to Earth. Formerly 'General' Kane, he had supposedly disappeared two years earlier only to have surfaced once again on a world under the jurisdiction of the Mendel-Gruman (M-G) Corporation.

At first, the crew shuns him thinking that he is an inexperienced fighter, untrustworthy, and a liability. One particular member, Slade, has a grudge against Turok because his brother was killed in the same battle from which Turok had reputedly fled from, earning him his dubious reputation. Unbeknownst to the team, Roland Kane is in command of a secret paramilitary force working for Mendel-Gruman.

On approach to their target, the starship they are in is shot down from orbit and crash lands on the terraformed surface where Turok quickly learns that the dinosaurs inhabiting its jungles were created with accelerated evolution. Through several adventures, Turok and the surviving marines eventually discover that Kane has created a Soldier bug-based biotoxin with deadly and immediate effects that disperses harmlessly after use, making it an ideal first strike weapon. Whiskey Company comes up with a plan to stop Kane and escape the planet but in the ensuing battle, most of the crew are killed although the survivors manage to penetrate Kane's defenses and sabotage the base. Only Slade, Shepherd, and Turok manage to make it to the spaceship and make ready to leave, but Turok is left behind at his request to head back into the ruins and face Kane. After an ensuing battle, Kane is defeated by Turok in a knife duel.

Shortly after Kane's death, an attacking T-Rex charges into the scene which Turok is forced to fight with weapons scattered across the landing area where the battle had taken place. Defeating the T-Rex, Slade and Shepherd return to pick up Turok and leave the hostile world for Earth.

Gameplay mechanics and features

The gameplay is similar to that of most first-person shooters, with a strong focus on survival in dangerous natural environments. The human enemies, under the leadership of Kane, is the main threat to the player, although dinosaurs may often be found wandering throughout the game. The dinosaurs act as a neutral force and, if the player chooses, can be used as a tool to attack enemy soldiers. This may be done by attracting roaming dinosaurs to a firefight (via: flares, gunshots, etc.) to aid the player and help dispatch the enemy, with possible other ways depending on the situation. The dinosaur A.I is not limited in attacking specific enemies, so other dinosaurs and all humans, including the player's allies and enemies, may be attacked. The game does not utilize an aim-assist feature.

Propaganda Games has included an additional, stealth mechanic in the game. Because Turok takes place mostly in jungle environments with a focus on ambiance, the player may kill enemies with a bow or knife without being heard or use dinosaurs to attract the attention of other enemies and slip by unnoticed. These gameplay elements have been made optional, meaning the player is never forced to use stealth to their advantage if they wish not to. Well-known among Turok fans, the games generally feature a large, creative arsenal, with unconventional futuristic weaponry, much unlike that found in typical first-person shooters. Propaganda assures that they will stay true to the franchise's roots and create inventive and memorable weapons for the players' use. However, the cerebral bore didn't make its return in Turok. This Turok uses a heavily modified version of the Unreal 3 Engine, with modifications on realistic textures, A.I, and particle effects.

Gears of War


Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was initially released an as exclusive title for the Xbox 360 on November 12, 2006 in North America, and on November 17, 2006 in Europe outside of Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating.A Limited Collector's Edition was also released, which included a disc of bonus content and an art book titled Destroyed Beauty that detailed much of the game's back-story. A Microsoft Windows version of the game was created with additional content and released in North America on November 6, 2007, with a Mac OS X version also confirmed.

The game centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as the Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. The game is based on the use of cover and strategic fire for the player to advance through the scenarios; a second player can play co-operatively through the main campaign to assist. The game also features several online game modes for up to eight players.

Gears of War has been highly successful since its release; it sold over three million copies in just ten weeks and was the fastest-selling video game of 2006, and was the second-most played game over Xbox Live during 2007 A film adaptation is currently in the works, and the game is slated to be the first of a trilogy. The first sequel, Gears of War 2 is slated to be published in November, 2008.

Story

Setting

Gears of War takes place on Sera, a planet inhabited by humans, who have warred over a phosphorescent, low-viscosity fluid known as "Imulsion" highly valued as a source of energy. Over several decades, the Pendulum Wars took place between various human countries, and ended with the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) taking control of the planet. The war quickly came to an end on "Emergence Day", when a ravenous force known as the Locust Horde bursts from underneath major human cities using a network of underground tunnels.

The Coalition, unable to defend against the sudden attack, is routed, and the Locust Horde takes control of the majority of Sera's urban, military, and manufacturing centers within 24 hours. The COG orders any survivors to Jacinto Plateau, a safe haven from Locust underground attacks due to the composition of the rock it is made of, and then uses orbital laser weapons in a scorched earth strategy to deny the Locust Horde its gains. The human survivors that could not make it become known as the "Stranded" and have to survive on their own. In the 14 years since "Emergence Day", the Locust continue to attack the fortified Jacinto Plateau and force the COG to turn to the infirm, the young, and the condemned to replace their dwindling numbers.

Characters

Gears of War focuses primarily on Marcus Fenix, the main character, and Delta Squad's (consisting of Marcus, Dominic, Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, and Damon Baird) encounters with the Locust Horde. Players take control of Marcus Fenix, freshly rescued by Dominic Santiago from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary. When in co-op two player, the second player assumes control of Santiago. All four of the squad members are available for play during multiplayer games, along with Victor Hoffman.

Some of the characters received voice-overs from popular culture icons. Marcus Fenix is voiced by John DiMaggio, best known as the voice of Bender in Futurama, and Augustus "Cole Train" Cole is voiced by Lester "The Mighty Rasta" Speight, who plays "Terrible" Terry Tate, the "Pain Train", in the Office Linebacker commercials made for Reebok.

Plot

The game's actual plot begins fourteen years after Emergence Day. Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, is reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Dominic Santiago successfully extracts him from the prison, and takes him to meet Delta Squad. The group seeks to obtain the "resonator", a device that will map the Locust Tunnel, and later deploy the "Lightmass Bomb", which will destroy the heart of the Locust forces. Fenix and his allies recover the device, but suffer multiple casualties in the process. Amidst the chaos, Fenix leads the remaining soldiers through the ruins of Sera, to a mining facility, and finally into the planet's depths.

Delta Squad succeeds in detonating the resonator, but only to shortly discover that the device failed to map the entire tunnel network. Fortunately, they discover a near complete map of the network that originates from Fenix's old home, specifically his father's laboratory. The group ventures to the Fenix estate at East Barricade Academy, encountering heavy Locust resistance. The data is collected, and the group then boards a train carrying the Lightmass Bomb. Fenix and Santiago battle their way through the train, and defeat General RAAM, before finally uploading the data. Fenix activates the bomb while Santiago escapes onto a helicopter and then, with the help of Colonel Hoffman, pulls Fenix onboard after the Bomb is activated. Fully activated, the Lightmass Bomb launches into Sera's underground, and eradicates the Locust tunnel networks. In the game's final sequence, Hoffman delivers a victory speech as the tunnels collapse and explode, whereupon the voice of the Locust Queen promises that the Locust will keep on fighting.

Gameplay

Gears of War is a third person "over-the-shoulder" shooter. The game places emphasis on the importance of cover, and on the harder difficulty levels being exposed to enemy fire for only a few seconds can result in death, making cover essential. While behind cover, players can choose to aim carefully with their weapons or use blind-fire to avoid subsequent damage from showing their heads from behind cover. Players have a wide assortment of rolling and cover maneuvers at their disposal with the press of a single button. The player can perform a roadie run, or a sprint, where the camera will lower towards the ground and bob considerably, as if the camera were being held by another person running behind the player.

Gears of War features a relatively small variety of weapons compared to other shooters, following other third-person shooter weapons sets with assault rifles, shotguns, pistols and sniper rifles with additional melee capabilities. Notably, the "Lancer" assault rifle is equipped with a chainsaw bayonet that instantly kills a foe, while each of the other weapons can be used to bash an opponent at close range, with a heavier weapon doing more damage. There is also a more tactical, immensely powerful weapon named the Hammer of Dawn which targets areas for an orbital satellite-mounted laser to destroy. The weapon, while very powerful, can easily kill the player as well as the teammates and opponents if used carelessly and can only be used in large, open outside spaces. Both smoke and fragmentation grenades are available to be thrown or used in melee. Single-player missions usually carry over weapons from previous missions, while multiplayer matches provide players with a smoke grenade, Lancer assault rifle, Snub pistol, and Gnasher shotgun, with more powerful weapons being scattered at strategic locations on the map, though the host can select to randomize weapon locations (in unranked player matches). Discarded and dropped weapons and ammo can be collected by the player, but the player may only carry one type of grenade, one type of side arm, and two types of the remaining weapon ****s at any time.

A gameplay component unique to Gears of War, the Active Reload, entails hitting the right bumper at the correct time to speed up your reload. There are three possibilities for the result of the second tap of the reload button: perfect, good, and fail. If timed perfectly, the reload takes less than a second and any rounds refilled will momentarily have an 8% increase in damage. If timed well, the reload will simply take less time. If timed poorly, the gun will jam momentarily and the ammo screen turns red, and the reloading process will take longer than if an Active Reload was not attempted. When a gun jams, players cannot change weapons or melee, exposing themselves to several seconds of extreme vulnerability, especially when involved in close-range combat.

Instead of the health bar found in many third and first-person shooters, Gears of War uses the Crimson Omen, a cog shaped icon that grows brighter to indicate increased damage. If there is a faint appearance of the Omen on the screen, it indicates that the player has sustained minor wounds. When the Omen becomes more defined, it shows that the player has sustained severe wounds and should seek cover. When there is a skull inside of the symbol, the character is incapacitated; in the single-player mode, this represents player death and the player must restart from the last checkpoint, while in multiplayer (both co-op and competition modes), another team member may attempt to revive the player. A downed player in the competition mode Execution may also try to restore himself from incapacitation by rapidly pressing the (A) button for several seconds, though during this time the enemy can brutally end the player's life by using the chainsaw bayonet, smashing the player's head with the butt of a weapon, performing a "curb stomp", or taking a headshot. If the player has taken damage but is not incapacitated the damage can be healed by staying out of the line of fire for a short time, which causes the Omen to slowly fade away.

The game features three difficulty modes (Casual, Hardcore, and Insane) across the five-act single player maps. There are 49 Achievements that shipped with the game. These achievements may be unlocked through playing single player, two-player co-op as Dominic Santiago, and ranked match games in Warzone, Execution, Assassination, and Annex on Xbox Live. Eight new Achievements that can be earned in either Ranked or Player matches for Annex mode and the Hidden Front maps were introduced in the fourth update, bringing the total number of achievements to 57.

Megadeth is an American thrash metal band led by founder, frontman, and songwriter Dave Mustaine. Formed in 1983 following Mustaine's ejection from Metallica, the band has since released eleven studio albums, six live albums, two EPs, and two compilations.

As a pioneer of the American thrash metal movement, Megadeth rose to international fame in the mid 1980s, but were plagued by constant lineup changes, due partly to Mustaine's and fellow band members' notorious substance abuse problems. After finding sobriety and securing a stable lineup, Megadeth went on to release a string of platinum and gold albums from 1986-1997, including the Grammy nominated, double-platinum Countdown to Extinction in 1992. Megadeth disbanded in 2002 after Mustaine suffered a severe nerve injury to his left arm, but following extensive physical therapy, Mustaine reformed the band in 2004 and released The System Has Failed, which debuted at #18 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, followed by United Abominations in 2007, which debuted at #8 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

Megadeth are known for their distinctive guitar style, often involving complex, intricate musical passages, and trade off guitar solos. Mustaine is also known for his original "snarling" vocal style, as well as his recurring lyrical themes, often involving politics, war, addiction, and personal relationships.

As one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands of all time, Megadeth has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, including six consecutive platinum albums, with seven consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance. In their 22 active years, Megadeth has had 18 official members, with Dave Mustaine remaining as the driving force, main songwriter, and sole original member. Megadeth is often mentioned as one of the "Big Four of Thrash" bands, along with Anthrax, Metallica and Slayer.