Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 mod Team Fortress for Quake and its 1999 remake. It was released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows and the Xbox 360.^[4] A PlayStation 3 version followed on December 11, 2007.^[2] On April 8, 2008, it was released as a standalone title for Windows for OS X, and for Linux on February 14, 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's download retailer Steam; retail distribution was handled by Electronic Arts.

In Team Fortress 2, players join one of two teams comprising nine character classes, battling in a variety of game modes includingcapture the flag and king of the hill. The development is led by John Cook and Robin Walker, creators of the original Team Fortress. Announced in 1998, the game once had more realistic, militaristic visuals and gameplay, but this changed over the protracted nine-year development. After Valve released no information for six years, Team Fortress 2 regularly featured in Wired News '​ annualvaporware list among other ignominies.^[5] The finished Team Fortress 2 has cartoon-like visuals influenced by the art of J. C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell^[6] and is powered by Valve's Source engine.

Team Fortress 2 received critical acclaim for its art direction, gameplay, humor, and use of character in a multiplayer-only game. Valve continues to release new content, including maps, items and game modes. On June 23, 2011, it became free to play, supported by microtransactions for unique in-game equipment.

South Park

South Park is an American adult animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that satirizesa wide range of topics. The ongoing narrative revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and their bizarre adventures in and around the titular Colorado town.

Parker and Stone developed the show from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series. South Park debuted in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is slated to air through at least 2016.^[3] The pilot episode was produced using cutout animation. All subsequent episodes are created with software that emulates the cutout technique. Parker and Stone perform most of the voice acting. Since 2000, each episode is typically written and produced during the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. There have been a total of 257 episodes over the course of the show's 18 seasons.

The series has received numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous inclusions in various publications' lists of greatest television shows. The show's popularity resulted in a feature-length theatrical film, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut which was released in June 1999, less than two years after the show's premiere, and became a commercial and critical success. In 2013, TV Guide ranked South Park the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.^[4] South Park is the third longest-running animated series in the U.S. behind The Simpsons and Arthur.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a 2012 first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision (Square Enix for Japan). It was released on November 13, 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 and on November 18, 2012 in North America, November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia for the Wii U.^[6][7][8] Square Enix released the game for the Japanese market on November 22, 2012 as a subbed version. A Japanese voice-dubbed version was released separately on December 20, 2012. The script for this version was translated by Zenigame Nakamoto. The translated version was criticized for its translation errors.^[10]

The Japanese release of the Wii U port is only the dubbed version since the console was not available in Japan in November.^[11]Black Ops II is the ninth game in the Call of Duty franchise of video games and a sequel to the 2010 game Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game was launched at 16,000 stores worldwide at midnight on November 13, 2012.^[12]

Black Ops II is the first game in the Call of Duty franchise to feature future warfare technology and the first to present branching storylines driven by player choice as well as selecting weapons before starting story mode missions. It also offers a 3D display option.^[13] A corresponding game, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, was released simultaneously on the PlayStation Vita. Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game grossed over $500 million.^[14] It had remained the largest entertainment launch of all time until September 2013, when Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto V had grossed $800 million in its first day of release.^[15] It went on to sell 7.5 million copies in the U.S. in November 2012, making it the highest grossing game of the month.^[16] As of November 5, 2013, the game has sold 24.2 million copies.^[17]

The game is the first in the series to feature significant elements of nonlinear gameplay, most notably multiple endings.^[18]

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as Dairantō Smash Brothers X (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズX^?, lit. "Great Melee Smash Brothers X"), is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hocdevelopment team consisting of Sora, Game Arts, and staff from other developers, and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. Brawl was announced at a pre-E3 2005 press conference by Nintendo president and Chief Executive Officer Satoru Iwata. Masahiro Sakurai, director of the previous two games in the series, assumed the role of director for the third installment at the request of Iwata. Game development began in October 2005^[5] with a creative team that included members from several Nintendo and third-party development teams. After delays due to development problems, the game was finally released on January 31, 2008, in Japan; March 9, 2008, in North America; June 26, 2008, in Australia; and June 27, 2008, in Europe. Twenty-seven months after its original Japanese release, the game was released in Korea, on April 29, 2010.

The number of playable characters in Brawl has grown from that in Super Smash Bros. Melee; Brawl is the first game in the series to expand past Nintendo characters by allowing players to control third-party characters. Like that of its predecessors, the object ofBrawl is to knock an opponent off the screen. It is a departure from traditional fighting games, notably in its simplified move commands and emphasis on ring outs over knockouts. It includes a more extensive single-player mode than its predecessors, known as the Subspace Emissary (SSE). This mode is a plot-driven, side-scrolling beat 'em up featuring computer-generated cut scenes and a selection of playable characters. Brawl also supports multiplayer battles with up to four combatants, and is the first game of its franchise to feature online battles via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game is unique, in that it may be played with four different controllers, including the Wii Remote, Wii Remote with Nunchuk, GameCube controller, and Classic Controller, simultaneously.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl received critically positive reviews,with praise for the game's entertainment value, despite issues relating to its loading times. The game's musical score, composed through a collaboration by 38 renowned video game composers, was lauded for its representation of different generations in gaming history. Brawl received an aggregate review score of 93% onMetacritic and 92.84% on Game Rankings, and was ranked "Fighting Game of the Year" for 2008 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. As of March 31, 2014, it is the ninth best-selling Wii game, with a total of 12.14 million copies sold worldwide.