10. Satisfactory

You may not find the prospect of factory-building initially appealing, but Satisfactory makes the process addictive and wildly open-ended. Part of that open-endedness is the resource-rich open world you, as a settler, are tasked with exploring and mining for resources. Unlike a lot of management building games, everything in Satisfactory is accomplished from a first-person perspective, adding an extra ounce of immersion to your production chain empire. While the main route through the game starts off with limited technology tiers, progress grants you access to a vast toolbox to create anything imaginable.

Dr. Breen – Half Life 2

When the Combine came down to take earth, it was the diplomacy of Dr. Breen that ensured that the human race would survive, if as a slave race to the aliens. Or were his intentions so noble? The unsettling tone and persona of Dr. Breen and his convenient appointment to Earth’s Administrator by the Combine really lean into suggesting that the good doctor screwed you and all of humanity for his own, selfish ends of ruling earth, even if it is as a defacto leader.

Lawbreakers – Health Regeneration

Gears of War scion Cliff Blizenski had some good ideas with his gravity shooter, Lawbreakers but when it didn’t take off like he had hoped, major changes came to the game including introducing regenerating health to resolve the problems gamers were having with dying too often and too fast. But tossing game balance out the window to buff everybody’s health and make it regenerate while not under fire just made games draw out way too long.

Magical Scissors – Puppeteer

The charm of the PS3 platform game that time forgot, Puppeteer, is all in the presentation. Set up like an elaborate puppet show, the interaction with this charming setup comes from your magical scissors, the Calibrus, and how it can cut through the fabric scenery in delightful and charming ways to continue progression. It takes the craft aesthetic further than its closest competition in games like Tearaway or Yoshi’s Wooly World can hope to match.

Taurus Demon – Dark Souls

Dark Souls is the alpha and omega of hard bosses, and the Taurus Demon, one of the earliest bosses in the entire Dark Souls series to introduce you to just how honest it’s going to keep you and burn that “You Died” screen into your retinas, is no pushover. But there is one advantage players have against the Taurus Demon. He’s really, really dumb. An easy AI exploit involving the towers at either end of the arena will let you repeatedly plunging attack the beastie for an easy win.

Metal Gear on PC is not new. The original Metal Gear game, way back in the 1980s, was developed for the MSX PC standard in Japan, as was the sequel; Metal Gear Solid was eventually ported to PCs as well. So Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (and eventually, The Phantom Pain) being on PC isn’t the franchise charting new waters as much as it is sort of a homecoming.

That said, it’s been a long time since Metal Gear was on PC, so everyone has been curious to see how it would do in the transition. On the one hand, Kojima is a demanding perfectionist, and won’t take anything less than flawless; on the other hand so many other Japanese games suffer so terribly in the transition to PC, such as Dark Souls.

Well, wonder no more, as here, we have the game running on PC, livestreamed, as well as all the options that the PC version of the game will have.

With the launch of the PS4 release in November, the line for the PS3’s life has been drawn in the sand. While there are some really great games for it, developers have started to slowly transition over to the new platforms. The good news is that the PS3 isn’t dead yet, far from it in fact. While the new consoles are available now, you’d be hard pressed to find more than a handful of games that you’re interested in, or that aren’t on multiple platforms and generations of hardware.

2014 isn’t going to be too different either. The PS3 is getting some really great games in the coming year. Even if you have a PS4 or an Xbox One, you’d be crazy to unhook the PS3, or just leave it sitting on your shelf, gathering dust. While the hardware may be aged and developers might be looking to make the truly next generation experiences on the new hardware, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some great games coming out in the coming year for the old legend that is the PlayStation 3.

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2

Coming at the end of February is the next Castlevania game. This long running franchise has managed to maintain an ever growing fan base. Lord of Shadows 2 is the continuation of Gabriel Belmont’s story. He has been locked away for years, is in hiding and awakens to find that his arch enemies and even his own son seek his death. They’ve also moved in and taken over his castle, turning it against him. This game franchise has evolved from the classic 2D platformer, full of punishing enemies to a fully 3D environment, with enemies that are just as, if not more punishing than the classic games in the franchise.

Konami has a good thing going with this franchise and seems to have garnered even more followers in the last few years, and with good reason. With fast-paced combat, a massive amount of weapons, attacks and tactics there is some really nice looking gameplay coming. The game has the fast-paced energy and explosive attacks that you may expect to find in a game like Devil May Cry, however the monsters the player will come across seem to have more care taken with their designs and sometimes can be truly frightening.

“Unlike those old days where creators devote themselves creating game in the cell, today’s game development is more open to public. We try to create detailed directions by doing focus test repeatedly w[ith] users from the world.

“This is one of the intentions founding LA studio. Although, you can’t expect excitement by providing what all users wished. Betrayal in good way w/i acceptable limits is needed. Because game is entertainment. But as long as it is an interactive, we need to adjust controls & systems reflected to the time we live today.”

Do you agree, or has Metal Gear Solid been officially ruined for you? Let us know below.

Director Hideo Kojima also revealed some new details about the game, stating that it’s difficult to see in the night and gets so dark that at times you may not even be able to see enemies (and possibly run over wild animals while driving). However, enemies will have a tough time seeing you as well. Likewise, headlights while driving will attract attention. You’ll also be able to mark enemies using your binoculars, similar to Far Cry 3 or Splinter Cell: Blacklist that allows you to follow enemies.

You can also choose to act during the day time and see the enemies around you. But it will subsequently be easier for them to see you. Ground Zeroes will be an epilogue taking place 15 years prior, and will serve as a tutorial for the main quest. Thus far, missions objectives are straight-forward, allowing for multi-faceted approaches when killing or extracting targets. You’ll be able to decide your load-outs and take an open world approach to objectives.

It also seems that this is current-gen footage considering the lesser detail on the hair of Big Boss. Regardless, it still looks fairly good and will be arriving on Xbox 360 and PS3 in the near future.

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While she expressed confusion as to Quiet’s design, West was genuinely surprised when she found out that David Hayter would not be reprising his role as Solid Snake in the fifth game, eloquently asking, “What the f**k is going on?”

“I had no idea. I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t know if anyone knows this story but when we did the first Metal Gear, they were going to re-record it and David actually asked for some money because he deserved it. We all deserved it and they didn’t want to pay us any more than the regular voice over rate. He challenged them to match his voice and they couldn’t. And that’s the thing – he is that character. So I don’t understand…is Kiefer gonna try to sound like him…I mean, I get that their voices are in a very similar place…”

On asked whether that incident might have had an impact on Konami’s decision to drop Hayter, West responded, “I don’t know if it’s…I mean, he’s done how many games, four? It can’t be because this is from 14-15 years ago. I mean, I don’t know.”

So yes, be assured that the reasons for Hayter not playing Snake are still very much up in the air. Metal Gear Solid V will be heading to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with new gameplay footage to debut soon. So stay tuned.