History’s most famous leaders have assembled and the stage known as the world is set to be rewritten under your guidance. Redefine history through the ages as a warmongering
leader who conquers all that can be seen, or make peace with your neighbors and ascend into the pages of history by killing them with kindness. Be the first nation to explore what’s beyond the skies, or a nation whose people are the happiest and satisfied with a harmonic combination of culture and faith. Outshine everyone as they struggle with resources and lend them a hand, or watch them fall as you rise. Rewrite history as we know it in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI : Rise and Fall.
As disastrous as it may be in real life, one cannot disagree that in a virtual setting, it’s a rather empowering feeling to obliterate your enemies in a single strike with an atom bomb. This is generally the case in Civilization 6 where all of your accomplishments can be reduced to dust in a matter of seconds because they never liked you for not trading with them sometime during the Ancient Era. The game gives new meaning to the term ‘crushing defeat’ when you play one match for nearly 20 hours, slowly building relationships and keeping your civilization on par with your opponents who are miles ahead of you, only to have it all go sideways because of one small promise that you didn’t fulfill with a civilization who mind you, is on the other side of the map and allied with your neighbors who instantly turn against you.
The Civilization series has most recently released a DLC pack for its 6th installment known as the Rise and Fall Pack. It includes nine new leaders who are famous in world history, some of whom have been around since the first installment and some new ones which bring fresh competition to the table. Eight new civilizations are associated with 
these leaders, with the exception of Chandragupta who represents India along with Gandhi, a heavyweight in the Civilization universe. Like the leaders, these new civilizations provide a more creative approach to the game by mixing up the many traits that make up a Civ. Some of the ones that stand out are the Mongol Civilization led by the infamous Genghis Khan, who created the largest contiguous land empire in history, and the Zulu Empire lead by Shaka, one of the most fiercest and famous war tacticians in history. Some of the newer additions to the Civilization universe are the Cree who were one of the original inhabitants of modern-day Canada led by Poundmaker, a peacekeeper and guardian of the Cree against the British, and the Mapuche who were the residents of Chile led by Lautaro, who was a revolutionary that fought against the Spanish invaders after voluntarily giving himself up to them, only to learn their secrets. Chandragupta Maurya is another new leader that provides the player the option to play India in a more aggressive and tactical manner.
While the history of the real world has been set, Civilization 6: Rise and Fall offers you to recreate or write history of any of these civilizations in your own terms. In addition to the staple diplomacy and occasional trading between foreign cities, citizen loyalty is now a very strong factor that can affect your civilization immensely. Cities of your civ can influence neighboring enemy, ally or your own cities based on how strong your city and civilization is in terms of culture. If your cities have a culture flow, it will strengthen the loyalty of its citizens and weaken that of neighboring enemy cities. If however you can’t keep up with the cultural needs of a city, they will rebel and defect from your empire, thus turning into a free city. This means that the city will be up for grabs for any civ in the game you are playing. Such cities can be captured either by military strength, or by city influence from neighboring cities.
The loyalty factor has now also implemented a Governor system that allows you to place an elected Governor in a city. This allows you to not only immensely boost the city’s
loyalty, but it will also be provided benefits under their respective governance. Promotional boosts based on your governor can either turn your cities into a bastion of defense for your civilization, a place of booming culture and faith or a production powerhouse, giving you the player a whole list of options to play the game more creatively.
Civilization now has time based eras, which unlike the normal game, will occur on the same time for everyone in play. These eras will also usher in Ages that can affect your empire positively or negatively. Players gain Era Score based on how much they have done towards recording points in history. This score will decide whether you go into a Normal Age, a Golden Age or a Dark Age. If your points fall the required limit for a Normal Age, you fall into a Dark Age, where the loyalty of the citizens will reduce. If you surpass the needed points for a Normal Age, you can increase your score furthermore to get a Golden Age which will strengthen your citizens loyalty. However, if you gain many points further ahead of the Golden Age limit, you can enter a Heroic Age, which will not only cement the loyalty of your citizens, but will also provide you with three bonus benefits to choose from that will provide you Era Score for each completed action.
Alliances are now stronger than ever before. Ally with 5 other leaders using different terms of alliance and boost each others gain towards victory or use the combined power to take down another leader who is far more advanced than the rest. Call upon an Emergency which can allow you to band up with other allied leaders or leaders who are in agreement to take down a single target that is deemed a mutual problem to the growth of the respective civilizations. One can also hold their peace forever with allies and increase their alliance points with other leaders, therefore increasing their favor towards being allied in the future.
Civilization 6 now has over 30 leaders in its roster after the Rise and Fall addition, and who knows, maybe more will follow. Whatever maybe, nothing beats destroying enemies using a Mongolian Armada or defeating the world using Aztec cannon and gunpowder.
reaching out from the dark abyss tickling my foot with what I can only describe as my impending doom. Hell, I get terrified looking at dark objects submerged in shallow beach waters, so the ocean is a far stretch. But along with being scared to death like a wimping animal, came an experience that was rather magical. It was like cutting through hard rock to find a small diamond in the center, only that the hard rock was as large as a 5 km ocean and the diamond tried to kill you before you could scream in horror. Was the diamond ever worth the trouble? Yes.
out of development and has been released as a full game to the public. Experiencing the untamed abyss got a whole lot worse and scarier as it was situated on an alien planet, with creatures created by the developers of the game, Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Enter into a world filled with monstrosities after narrowly escaping a space vessel set for crashing into an unknown world mainly covered in vast stretches of water. Survive by scrounging up resources from the world around you and scavenging the metallic remains of the now wrecked space vessel, all whilst fighting off sea creatures of all sizes that will look at you like you are a bowl of sea ice-cream sent down by the heavens. Create a base fitting for a survivor and explore the lands submerged underwater with surprises and horrors in a planet known only as 4546B.
degree in underwater murder. Even as you enter the waters of this planet, you are greeted by a bizarre feeling. While the sunlight bounces off of corals and small fish giving a very chirpy welcome into alien water, its the feeling of knowing whether or not you are being stared at by a creature in the cave you just dove next to. Such is the case with many of these areas, and for that I have to give Unknown Worlds a hand. I did indulge in the beta a bit and it was pretty scary being my first experience under an ocean and all, but when I got to the new finished version, I felt chills go up my spine. They had done an excellent job on the sounds that surrounded you as waded on by acres of oceanbed, and it has cemented my fear of the ocean furthermore.
Genghis Khan whose return has had the fans extremely excited as he was a staple in the past games of Civilization. Like clockwork, the next leader has been revealed to the Civilization universe, and his name is Chandragupta Maurya who will also lead India.
expansion and warfare. He also shares the same special building and unit as Gandhi, however it is his special ability that makes him an army based powerhouse. Known as Arthashastra, in reference to the book written by his mentor and counsel Chanakya, Chandragupta has the ability to declare war based on ground of Territorial Expansion with a Light war penalty if used early on with extra movement and combat strength, provided he learns the Military Training civic that comes in the Classical Era. For those who don’t remember, the Classical Era comes right after the era in which the game begins, meaning that with a stable army of Varu elephants, Chandragupta can decimate and outright delete other leaders at a very early stage. This new side of India seems to be a very welcome change for many players, but then again, it’s a bit scary seeing another Indian leader that is more aggressive than Gandhi.
influence this year. Along with many winners came a wave of new games which will come out in the following year and games which will probably stay with us for the next few years. Year 2017 has been very promising with the resurgence of many old games which brings an air of nostalgia, and some really good new ones, some of which were unexpected to say the least. But for now, let’s see our winners of 2017’s Video Game Awards.
world of hurt with a new difficulty level for those out there who want a bigger challenge out of the game. In the December Update of Assassins Creed: Origins, a new ‘Nightmare’ mode will be added in which will make enemies in the game more resilient to Bayek’s attacks and scale them up as the player gains levels.
However, now Niantic has taken it a step further and added one of the most popular legendary Pokemon famous since the first season of the show, one which players and fans alike have yearned over since Legendary Pokemon were released in Pokemon Go. Ho-Oh has been released as what I believe would have been Niantic returning the favor to its player base.
the flashy features that companies today have generalized in their titles. After the past couple of years of multiplayer and DLC taking over the gaming industry, it seems that people still hold a small space in their hearts for well made single-player games that try not to make a big deal out of itself. And what better way to revisit one of the most classic formats of gaming than this. Cuphead is a 2D adventure combat game where you star as Cuphead, who along with his brother Mugman, played and lost a game of dice with the Devil, ultimately giving their souls as the price paid. Now they must venture through a land filled with hurdles, foes and a few friends which play an integral part in the adventure of Cuphead and Mugman.
objective and a ton of enemies where said objective entails you to destroy them all and pave your path to the Devil. No level is forgiving on the first try, which is why I really like the game. It makes you work and think before you make your next move when out of nowhere, your foes become ten times larger and renders your previous planning useless, which really is the source of all the rage inducement that you are sure to find.
Technecrafts 