Raj Agrawal

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The Hottest Game Announcements Of 2012. It Only Gets Better.

April 25, 2012 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

The year 2012 is gearing up to best 2011, as one of the best years for gaming ever. 2011 served up some great feasts for gamers with games such as Portal 2, Uncharted 3, Skyrim, all taking the gaming world by storm. Now we have an even better line up this year, and the announcements just keep on coming. So, lets talk about some of the hottest announcements of this year.

Crysis 3

Crysis 3
Expected release date : 2013

Crysis 2 was a good game. But still the fans weren’t convinced of its greatness, especially given how much of a hit the first game was. The diversion of focus to consoles, loss of the open ended environment, and the loss of emphasis on game-play didn’t bode too well with the fans. And the sales testified to this. And now Crytek seems to have learnt a lesson, and are trying to woo fans again by promising a PC focused game which will take more from the original game than its successor. And if it’s even as good as the first game, if not better, then we will gladly put our social lives on halt to play it. Color us excited!

God of War : Ascension

Expected release date – 2013

Well well well! We did not see this one coming. Actually we did, but not the direction it would be taking. Instead of continuing from the mess that was God of War 3’s ending, we’re now being taken through an entirely new chapter in the life of the almighty Kratos, the most bad-ass God of War out there. I’m a hopeless God of War fan-boy, so i’ll accept it in whatever shape or form it arrives, so long as it arrives.

Medal of Honor : Warfighter

Expected release date – October 23, 2012

EA’s reboot of the Medal of Honor series last year was a love or hate affair for many. It had an excellent and compelling multiplayer component, but the single player lacked the quality of previous Medal of Honor titles. Now EA is having another go at its beloved franchise, and this time around, they seem to be focused on doing it right. Rather than describing a single conflict, Warfighter will be based on a multitude of issues spanning the entire globe. It’s a formula the Call of duty series has used since the beginning, and if done right, it cannot go terribly wrong.

Halo 4

Halo 4
Expected release date – November 6, 2012

Halo 3 was considered by many to be the end of Master Chief’s journey. But how could Microsoft ever sell even more copies of their beloved console without of constant barrage of the big sellers. And so we have Halo 4. The obvious difference between this Halo title and all the previous games in the series is the change of development studios. While Bungie developed the first three games, it is 343 industries who will carry the torch from here. And if they don’t deliver, a one Mr. Gordon Freeman will be waiting to strike the definite blow on the whole HL vs Halo debate. And while that may sound enticing from a sadist’s perspective, I just don’t want to play a Halo game and feel bad about it. So here’s hoping it will be another classic I will be talking for years about.

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6
Expected release date – October 2, 2012

This for me is the hottest game announcement of the year. And it topples Halo 4 mainly for one reason: I loved RE4, but I also loved the action oriented approach of RE5. So, to have a game which switches between survival horror and action definitely sounds like a good prospect. As long as they can maintain the balance, and still keep the game horror friendly, i’ll be happy. And you cannot possibly match a zombified president scaring the hell out of Leon Kennedy. Bring it on Capcom. I’m ready!


That’s it folks. These are my picks for the hottest game announcements for the year. This is not a most anticipated 2012 list, or the list would have been drastically different. The city of Columbia intrigues me more than anything else, and it’s number one on my wishlist. So lets see how that goes. So what are your most exciting announcements of the year? They may take time to be actually playable, but the hype meter does not need to be alien to their existence.

Filed Under: Gameology Tagged With: Crysis, god of war, halo, portal, resident evil, skyrim, uncharted

What Is The Best FPS Of All Time?

January 10, 2012 by Raj Agrawal 3 Comments

The first person shooter genre is probably the most popular in gaming. Even after almost 10 years after its release, people still play Counter Strike. Call of Duty and Battlefield series of games are breaking sales records year after year. There have been enough FPS games in the past ten years to eclipse all the other genres in gaming. So the obvious difficulty i’m having in choosing the best FPS game ever made shouldn’t come as a surprise to many.


call of duty 4
Call of Duty 4

The FPS genre has undergone a severe transition over the years from being single player focused to multiplayer focused. Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 both have single player campaigns, but they’re an afterthought when compared to the excellent multiplayer offerings. This makes the decision to find the best game even more difficult. One side you have games which rely heavily on single player such as Half life 2. On the other side you have multiplayer games like Modern Warfare which have changed the scope of multiplayer games.

Off the top of my head I can list the following games that thoroughly deserve the crown:-

  • Half Life
  • Half Life 2
  • Bioshock
  • Halo
  • Halo 2
  • Unreal Tournament 2004
  • Doom
  • Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare
  • Battlefield 2
  • Call of Duty

All of the above are shining examples of what a good FPS must be. Games like Unreal Tournament and Modern Warfare have changed the multiplayer landscape, whereas Bioshock and Halo have redefined single player gameplay. To choose one best game out of these would be to seriously insult the others since the competition is so close. But, to not chose even one would completely betray the purpose of writing this article. Hence I shall pick two best games which i think have defined FPS gaming. And when I say defined FPS gaming, I do not imply popularity, in which case Modern Warfare and Halo would be runaway winners; it’s how much they have affected FPS game development on an evolutionary scale, and how they have changed the way players look at first person shooters.

Half Life 2

half life 2
Half Life 2

The original half life was sort of an evolution in the FPS landscape. It did nothing special, but whatever it did, it did perfectly. Well almost perfectly, otherwise I wouldn’t pick the sequel above it. Half Life 2 was something completely different. It’s an unrelenting campaign from start to finish. It pauses without stopping and rushes without hurrying. Couple this perfect pacing with a good story and some new fantastic gimmicks such as the gravity gun and physics puzzles, and you have a winner. But HL2 was much more than that; one which relies more on versatility than anything else. What i most remember the game for is its variety in levels. You won’t play the same time of environment in this game for more than 3-4 hours. And it’s a long game which will last you almost 20-25 hours. How can a game have all of these features and not be one of the best games of all time. I thought the same, and frankly I couldn’t come up with one reason about why it deserves anything less.

Bioshock

Bioshock

I was torn between Bioshock and Modern Warfare for this spot, but in the end Bioshock just about managed to nudge ahead. Storytelling in videogames have never been good enough to compete with movies, but this game come scarily close. And the story has a very deep impact on the game world and the characters. There’s much to talk about this game, but most of it will serve as a spoiler. This is one game which will constantly surprise and awe you, and I intend to keep it that way. And as far as twists go, this one is right up there with the best.


Well thats my two cents. What do you people think about these choices? Whats your favorite FPS of all time?

Filed Under: Gameology Tagged With: Call of duty, half life, halo

Products I’ve ideated, designed and engineered

• Le Face Keyboard
• Dark Souls SoundBoard (NPC)

Open-source projects I maintain

• Material Design in Practice

Core engineering contributions in the past

• theAsianParent
• Collabb
• Inorbit
• Pretr Shop (Myntra)

Articles written on Medium

• Automatically-read-OTP from SMSes — Android 4.3 to 8.x