Final Fantasy XV

(Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーXV Hepburn: Fainaru Fantajī Fifutīn^?) is an upcoming action role-playing video game being developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and currently scheduled for a worldwide release on September 30, 2016. It is the fifteenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, and shares a thematic connection withFabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy, a subseries of games linked by a common mythos which includes Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-0. It is a major departure from previous games, providing a darker atmosphere that focuses on more realistic environments and human characters than previous entries.

XV takes place on Eos, a world similar to modern-day Earth. All the world's countries—bar the kingdom of Lucis—are under the dominion of the empire of Niflheim. Noctis Lucis Caelum, heir to the Lucian throne, goes on a quest to retake his homeland and its magical crystal after it is seized by Niflheim on the eve of peace negotiations between the two nations. The game features an open-world environment and action-based battle system similar to the Kingdom Hearts series and Type-0, incorporating the ability to switch weapons and other elements such as vehicle travel and camping.

The development period of Final Fantasy XV began in 2006, when it was a PlayStation 3-exclusive spin-off titled Final Fantasy Versus XIII,^[b] and lasted approximately ten years. Tetsuya Nomura served as the original director and designer, creating the characters and story concept. In 2012, it was internally rebranded as the next mainline title and shifted to eighth generation platforms. Nomura was eventually replaced as director by Hajime Tabata. To expand the story without developing additional video games, a multimedia project called the "Final Fantasy XV Universe" was created: its products included an online anime series and a feature film.

Watch Dogs 2

(stylized as WATCH_DOGS) is an open world action-adventure third-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on 27 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,Xbox 360 and Xbox One, while a Wii U version was released in November 2014. Set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, Illinois, the single-player story follows a hacker and his efforts to seek revenge after the killing of his niece. The open world design lets players freely roam Chicago, which includes the urban city, suburbs, open countryside, and the run-down neighborhoods that surround downtown.

The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Aiden Pearce, a highly skilled grey hat hacker who can hack into the "ctOS", a centralized operating system which manages the hyper-connected city of Chicago, and formed after the Northeast blackout of 2003 was caused by a hacker. An online multiplayer mode is also provided in the game, allowing up to eight players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting.

Development on the game began in 2009. As part of their research for the open world, the developers conducted field research around Chicago throughout development and captured footage for the design team. Development duties were shared between many of Ubisoft's studios worldwide.

Following its announcement in June 2012, Watch Dogs was widely anticipated. At release, it received a polarized reception; praise was particularly directed at the game's hacking elements and mission variety. The game received criticism concerning the overall gameplay, plot, and some technical issues. Watch Dogs was a commercial success, breaking the record for the biggest first day sales of a Ubisoft game, and becoming the biggest launch of a new IP ever in the United Kingdom at the time. As of 1 January 2015, the game has shipped over 10 million copies. It will be followed by a sequel, Watch Dogs 2, in November 2016.

Clash Royale

 is a freemium mobile strategy video game developed and published by Supercell.^[1] The game combines elements from collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena.^[2][3][4] The game was released globally for iOS andAndroid on March 2, 2016.^[5]

Clash Royale ranks players according to level and arena. The maximum level is thirteen, while there are ten arenas (including the Training Camp) in total in the game. A player wins by destroying more towers than the opponent, or by destroying the opponent's "King's Tower", which grants an automatic three "crown" victory. At the start of each game, each player is given a "hand" of four cards from a "deck" of eight cards selected by the player. Cards must be played in order to attack and defend. To play the cards, the player must have "elixir", which replenishes over time. Once a card is placed, a new card from the deck is added to the hand. Players unlock different arenas by acquiring a certain number of "trophies", trophies are acquired by winning battles. However, trophies can also be deducted by losing battles. Players may increase their "level" by "donating" or "upgrading" cards. A level increase also increases tower hit points and damage. The amount of experience points necessary to rank up increases with each level.^{[citation needed]}

As a freemium game, Clash Royale offers players the ability to purchase "gems" and "gold" in the play shop using real-world money. These items are used to purchase chests and cards. When a player wins a multiplayer battle, he or she may obtain a "chest", which takes a certain amount of time to open depending on the chest. Chests take a certain amount of time to unlock: Silver Chests take 3 hours to unlock, Gold Chests take 8 hours, Giant Chests take 12 hours, Magical Chests take 12 hours, and Super Magical Chests take 24 hours. Gems may be used to speed up unlocking. Chests contain cards, gold, and gems. Different levels of chest contain different numbers or types of cards. When the player has a certain number of a troop's cards, they can upgrade it to boost its "damage" and health points, among other statistics. A player can hold a maximum of 4 chests at one time; to open up chest slots a chest will need to be opened.^[6] Free chests are also given to the player once every 4 hours. Once every day, the player also has the chance to win 10 "crowns" from victories to earn the Crown Chest. Both the Free and Crown Chests unlock instantly.^{[citation needed]}

They battle through 9 arenas each requiring a certain amount of trophies. You start in training camp which teaches you how to play the game and progress through eight battles. Once victorious in all of those battles they advance to arena 1 "Goblin Stadium". At 400 trophies they progress to arena 2 "Bone Pit", 800 for arena three "Barbarian Bowl". Arena 4 "Pekka's Playhouse" takes 1100 trophies to get their while arena 5 "Spell Valley" needs 1400. The next arena, arena 6 "Builders workshop" takes 1700 trophies. Arena 7 "Royal Arena" requires 2000. Arena 8 "Frozen Peak" require 2300 and "Legendary arena" take 3000 trophies respectively.^{[citation needed]}

Players may also form clans. Clan members may engage in "friendly battles" with one another, the outcome of which does not affect trophies or chests. The "friendly battle" feature allows for live spectating from other clanmates, and is used for tournaments. Clan members may also donate or request cards from one another, which provides some experience and gold when done.^{[citation needed]}

In July 2016, Supercell introduced a new "Tournament" feature was introduced. The feature is unlocked at experience level 8. Tournaments can only be created by using gems, but anyone may join. Based on tournament performance, players are awarded Tournament chests.^[7]

Release

The game was soft-launched in Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and New Zealand for iOS platforms on January 4, 2016.^[8] The game was soft-launched on Android for those same countries on February 16, 2016 in the form of an Android application package.^[9] Both platforms received a global release on March 2, 2016.^[5]

Upon its release, Clash Royale became the most downloaded and top-grossing app on the U.S. iOS App Store.^[10] In fact, it was the fastest game to hit number one on both the App Store and the Google Play Store before it was surpassed by Pokémon Go.^[11]

Reception

Clash Royale received mainly a positive reaction, with TouchArcade's Eli Hodapp calling it "absolutely phenomenal" in his five star review.^[4] Pocket Gamer's Harry Slater gave the game a score of 9/10, summing up "It's an incredible amount of rewarding fun, it's nail-biting at times, and there's content here that will keep you busy for weeks if not months."^[12]Writing for Geek.com, James Plafke criticized "Clash Royale for being genuinely fun—more so than Clash of Clans—while the developer chronically interrupts the player from enjoying it.^[13] Clash Royale has received mixed reviews by the player base, averaging at about 4.5.

CLASH OF CLANS

is a freemium mobile MMO strategy video game developed and published by Supercell.^[3] The game was released for iOS platforms on 2 August, 2012,^[1] and on Google Play for Android on 7 October, 2013.^[2]

Gameplay

Clash of Clans is an online multiplayer game in which players build a community(in form of a clan), train troops, and attack other players to earn gold, elixir and Dark Elixir. Gold and elixir can be used to build defenses that protect the player from other players attacks. Elixir and dark elixir is also used to train and upgrade troops and spells. The game also features a pseudo-single player campaign in which the player can attack a series of fortified goblin villages and earn gold and elixir. The game has 2 'builders' by default but one can install more builders (maximum 5) using gems, builders are important for upgrading any building. If all builders are busy one has to either wait (if the player wants to upgrade a building) for them to be free or free them up using gems.^{[citation needed]}

Buildings

To earn and store gold and elixir, players must build gold mines and gold storages and elixir collectors and elixir storages, respectively. Elixir is used to train new troops, carry out research in the laboratory to upgrade troops, to re-load X-Bows (available from Town Hall 9) and to build and upgrade certain buildings, mostly pertaining to buildings used in attacking another player's base. Gold is used to build defensive buildings^[4] and to upgrade the town hall, which allows access to more buildings and higher levels for existing buildings. At higher levels, dark elixir becomes available; this type of elixir is used to train and upgrade dark elixir troops and heroes, create dark spells, and fuel the Inferno Tower, a defensive building that is available only at Town Hall 10. The Eagle Artillery which is a defensive building available at Town Hall 11 only is fueled by elixir. Town Hall 11 also provides access to a new hero - The Grand Warden. It is the only hero born out of elixir. To earn and store dark elixir, players must build dark elixir drills and dark elixir storages.^[5]

There are a number of buildings available to the player to defend their village, including cannons, mortars, bombs, teslas, traps, archer towers, and wizard towers. Players can also build walls, which can be upgraded as they increase in level.^[5][6]

Troops and spells

The game has two kinds of barracks (barracks and dark barracks) and two kinds of spell factories (spell factory and dark spell factory). The barracks create troops using elixir whereas dark barracks create troops using dark elixir. The spell factories follow the same pattern, normal spell factory creates spells using elixir and dark factory using dark elixir. All troops and spells have different properties.^{[citation needed]}

Gems

Aside from the game's resources (gold, elixir and dark elixir), the game also uses gems as a currency. Gems may be used primarily to finish the time that certain processes take, such us the remaining time of a building's or a troop's upgrade, or to instantly train an army. Additionally, they can be used to "boost" certain buildings, such as resource productions and barracks. Gems may be acquired through in-app purchases, they may be awarded for reaching certain milestones or completing achievements or they can be earned from clearing obstacles, such as trees, mushrooms or gem boxes, which spawn at random times and spots in a player's base.^{[citation needed]}

Clan wars

Clans are groups of players who join together to support each other, either materially (donating troops) or verbally (giving advice). Players can join clans once they rebuild the special Clan Castle building early on. A major component of the gameplay of Clash of Clans is clans facing off against one another. Clan leaders and co-leaders can begin wars against other clans. Each clan is then given one "preparation day" and one "war day." When a player attacks a member of the opposing clan, they receive stars based upon the amount of destruction they cause to the opponent's community. Each player is limited to two attacks per war, and the team with the most stars at the end of the war day is declared victorious. If the two clans' amount of stars are equal, then the victorious clan is the one that has a greater percent destruction. Players receive bonus war loot if he/she use their attacks in the war. This loot is different on different bases and is decided by Supercell, the top most base has the most war bonus loot and the last base has the least amount of bonus loot. If the clan wins the war, the bonus loot is fully deliverd to the player but during a loss one-third of the loot is delivered to the player. description.^[7] In the May 2016 update, Friendly Challenges were introduced to allow clanmates to compete amongst other clanmates, however this challenges don't provide loot or trophies and don't affect a player's army.^{[citation needed]}

Marketing

In February 2015, Supercell released their Clash of Clans Super Bowl XLIX commercial, featuring Liam Neeson parodying his character from Taken.^[8] On February 2, Business Insider reported the ad as the 5th most watched Super Bowl ad,^[9] though on February 6, VentureBeat reported the ad was the most viewed of those that appeared on the Super Bowl.^[10] YouTube users later voted the advertisement the second best Super Bowl ad, behind Nissan's "With Dad" ad.^[11]

On September 23, 2015, Taiwanese singers JJ Lin and Jimmy Lin released the game's theme song "全面开战" ("Start a war totally" in English) which was sung in Mandarin.^[12]

Critical reception

Clash of Clans has received generally positive reviews. The iOS version holds an aggregate score of 74 out of 100 on Metacritic,^[14]and 80% on GameRankings.^[13]

Gamezebo's Leif Johnson was impressed, scoring the game 4.5 out of 5. Although he felt the gameplay was heavily skewed to encourage the player to purchase gems, he praised the addition of a single-player campaign. He concluded that "Clash of Clans is a simple game, but that's more of a strength than a weakness. It's simple enough to provide quick, painless matches on an iPhone in an idle moment, and there are enough different units to choose from in the battle mode to make playing against other players endlessly rewarding. Best of all, the option to fight against NPC goblins gives Clash of Clans a small edge over similar strategy games that rely almost entirely on player-versus-player combat."^[15]

Pocket Gamer's Peter Willington was equally impressed, scoring the game 9 out of 10 and giving it a "Gold Award". Reviewing the game several months after it was released for iOS devices, Willington praised the game for requiring real strategy to play. He wrote that the gameplay was built on the progression of "requiring more and more sophisticated units, asking you to strategise and really think about which elements you should focus on building within your camp." He concluded that "Clash of Clans is a superb game, freemium or otherwise, with more nuance than most give it credit for. That's why it's passed the test of time since its launch and still has an active community devotedly constructing elaborate fortresses in the hope of becoming invincible."^[5]

148App's Rob Rich scored the game 3.5 out of 5, writing "It's great to play an online freemium game that doesn't shy away from the single-player experience but also offers up some honest-to-goodness direct interaction, which is a very rare combination these days. It probably won't warm the hearts of any haters out there, but it does give genre fans something with a bit more action and strategy than they might be used to."^[6]

Modojo's John Bedford was less impressed, scoring the game 3 out of 5. He was critical of freemium gaming in general, writing "The novelty hasn't just worn off this particular style of greedy gaming, it's shriveled up and condensed itself into an infinitely dense singularity of self-loathing." Of the game itself, he concluded "This is a game that follows in the footsteps of no small number of titles that have made feverish demands on our wallets in exchange for just a slightly thicker slice of the gameplay. It's possible you have an unending appetite for these micromanagement titles, in which case we recommend getting heartily stuck into Supercell's latest game. While Clash of Clans brings something new to accompany its competent but unexceptional empire gameplay, for most of us it'll be a case of too little, too late."^[16]

Commercial reception

Clash of Clans became an App Store top 5 download between December 2012 and May 2013,^[17] and this success has been described as helping to usher in a new era inconjoint gaming on mobile devices.^[18][19] In 2013, Clash of Clans was the third highest game in revenue generated on the App Store and no 1 on Google Play.^[20] In 2015, the game was the top grossing app on both the App Store and Google Play, with an estimated revenue of 1.5 million dollars per day.^[21][22]

References

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Clash of Clans". Slide to Play. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Koueider, Adam (October 8, 2013). "Clash of Clans finally hits the Google Play Store". Androidauthority. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
3. Jump up^ Grundberg, Sven; Rossi, Juhana (March 8, 2013). "Finland's Newest Hit Maker: Supercell". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
4. Jump up^ "Clash of Clans buildings". Clashofclanstuts.com. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Willington, Peter (December 18, 2012). "Clash of Clans Review". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Rich, Rob (August 3, 2012). "Clash of Clans Review". 148Apps. RetrievedJune 9, 2014.
7. Jump up^ "Clan Wars FAQ". Supercell. April 4, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
8. Jump up^ Chitwood, Adam (February 2, 2015). "Watch This Year's Best Super Bowl Commercials". Collider.com. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
9. Jump up^ D'Onfro, Jillian. "The 10 most-watched Super Bowl commercials on YouTube".BusinessInsider.com. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
10. Jump up^ Gruff, Jeff (February 6, 2015). "Liam Neeson's Clash of Clan's spot is the most viewed Super Bowl ad on YouTube". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
11. Jump up^ Grubb, Jeff (February 13, 2015). "YouTube viewers voted Liam Neeson's Clash of Clans spot the No. 2 Super Bowl ad". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
12. Jump up^ "林俊傑林志穎遊戲結緣 合唱《全面開戰》". Sina. September 23, 2015. RetrievedDecember 2, 2015.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Clash of Clans for iOS". GameRankings. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
14. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Clash of Clans (iOS)". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
15. ^ Jump up to:^a b Johnson, Leif (August 7, 2012). "Clash of Clans Review". Gamezebo. RetrievedJune 9, 2014.
16. ^ Jump up to:^a b Bedford, John. "Clash of Clans Review". Modojo. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
17. Jump up^ Warner, Bernhard (May 2, 2013). "Finland's Supercell mobile games with megaprofits".Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
18. Jump up^ Schade, Michael (September 20, 2013). "Commanding troops on touch devices - Why mobile is the perfect platform for strategy". Gamasutra. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
19. Jump up^ Dredge, Stuart (July 10, 2013). "Apple's App Store at 5: 10 key moments on the road to 50bn downloads". The Guardian. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
20. Jump up^ Mirani, Leo (January 30, 2014). "Why free games are increasingly the most profitable apps". qz.com. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
21. Jump up^ "The top-grossing iPhone app makes a whopping $1.5 million a day". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
22. Jump up^ "Clash of Clans - Revenue estimates, app rankings & installs". thinkgaming.com. Retrieved 2016-02-04.