Video-game roundup: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, and Xbox One exclusives

A number of games for older “kids” are about to hit the shelves. You might already be playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision; PS3, PS4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One; rated mature), which landed on November 3. Here’s the lowdown on some others you’ll want to consider spending time with.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (Electronic Arts; PS3, PS4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One; rated mature)
The third game in the fantasy role-playing series from Electronic Arts takes place in a massive, open-world space that’s far larger than those in the previous two games combined. Despite that size, though, there’s an intimacy to Dragon Age: Inquisition because players are so immersed in the role of inquisitor.

Cameron Lee, who produced the game, told the Georgia Straight that after completing a story mission, players can sometimes imprison their enemies. “Then you can have an opportunity to bring them in front of you and judge them,” he explained by phone from Edmonton, where BioWare Studios is based. “That’s a great way for the player to look back on the decisions and the actions that they’ve taken.”

The world of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which will be released on November 18, is in chaos. Demons are pouring out of the sky, civil war rages, and different factions in the game have become corrupted and are creating imbalance. “This is why the inquisition is formed,” Lee said. “Someone needs to do something about it. Someone needs to have the authority and the power to uncover the truth and then resolve it to bring stability back to the world.”

Lee said that the title, Inquisition, is also apt because it suggests the ambiguous morality that’s a foundation of the Dragon Age franchise. Players have many different choices to make in the game, and the judgment system, Lee noted, gives players a chance to consider the motivations of enemies—“which only enhances that sense of greyness in the world”.

Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft; PS3, PS4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One; rated mature)
Creative director Alex Hutchinson, on the line from the Ubisoft studio in Montreal, told the Straight that the next game in the Far Cry series lets players “solve problems in creative ways”. That includes, as was demonstrated at E3 in June, riding and guiding elephants to trample enemies.

It can also mean enlisting friends to help, as the open-world game introduces drop-in, drop-out cooperative play. But not during the story missions. “We wanted the core narrative to be immersive,” Hutchinson said, “and as soon as we put another player in the game everyone skips the cut scenes—they don’t pay attention to the story.”

Far Cry 4, which also arrives on November 18, takes place in Kyrat, a fictitious country in the Himalayas that’s being governed by a despot. In addition to getting caught up in a rebellion, players can explore the mythology that forms the back story for Kyrat in a set of side missions called Shangri-La. Hutchinson explained that the introduction comes as part of the main story, and after that the Shangri-La levels are a reward for exploration.

“The beauty of an open-world game is that you can have very diverse experiences,” he said. “You can have moments of outlandishness as well as grounded moments, as long as the player knows how to get in and out of them.”

Xbox One exclusives
Two games that are only for the Xbox One console should give Microsoft a solid bump in sales this month. Sunset Overdrive (rated mature) is available now, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection (rated mature) will be released on November 11. The former is a high-octane action adventure that mashes up Assassin’s Creed free-running and Tony Hawk skateboarding. Add some wacky weapons (a signature of developer Insomniac Games), the energy of blaring modern garage rock, and the rubble of broken fourth walls and you’ll have a sense of what Overdrive delivers. It’s hilarious, it’s raucous, and it’s one of the best of the year.

I’ve been wanting to replay Halo: Combat Evolved for years, and The Master Chief Collection has finally given me a good reason to do so. I’ve started at the beginning and will be playing straight through to the end of Halo 4. The gameplay of that first game, released in 2001, holds up very well. And the updated graphics in the Anniversary release included here are stunning. Halo 2 also gets remastered for its 10th anniversary. The collection includes every multiplayer map from all four games, and the unique multiplayer experiences of those games remain intact. It all happens on the Xbox One—the first time you’ll be able to be the Master Chief on that platform.