DOTA 2

Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Valve Corporation for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. The game is the stand-alone sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), which was a community-created mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams that consist of five players, with both teams occupying their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently control a powerful character, known as a "hero", that all feature unique abilities and different styles of play. During a match, a player and their team collects experience points and items for their heroes in order to push through the opposing team's defenses. A team wins by being the first to destroy a large structure located in the opposing team's base, called the "Ancient".

Development of Dota 2 began in 2009 when IceFrog, lead designer of the original Defense of the Ancients mod, was hired by Valve for the same role. Dota 2 was officially released in July 2013 for Steam, following a Windows-only open beta phase that began two years prior. The game initially used the original Source game engine until it was ported over to Source 2 in 2015, making it the first game to use it. The game also allows for the community to create custom game modes, maps, and cosmetics for the heroes, which are then uploaded to the Steam Workshop. Dota 2 is one of the most actively played games on Steam, with peaks of over a million concurrent players, and was praised by critics for its gameplay, production quality, and faithfulness to its predecessor, despite being criticized for its steep learning curve. The popularity of Dota 2 has led to official merchandise being produced for it, including apparel, accessories, and toys, as well as promotional tie-ins to other games and media.

Dota 2 also has a widespread and active competitive scene, with teams from across the world playing professionally in various leagues and tournaments. Premium Dota 2 tournaments often have prize pools totaling millions of dollars, the highest of any eSport. The largest of them is known as The International, which is hosted by Valve and takes place annually at the KeyArena in Seattle. Valve also sponsors smaller, but more frequently held tournaments known as the Majors, which lead up to the International. Dedicated media coverage of professional tournaments are broadcast live on the internet, and sometimes simulcast on television networks, with peak viewership numbers in the millions.

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Subnautica

Subnautica is an open world survival game in development by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Subnautica allows the player to explore an aquatic alien planet by scuba diving and traveling in submersibles, while collecting resources and food to survive. It was released on Steam Early Access on December 16, 2014,and is currently in development for Xbox One.Full V1.0 release is planned for January 2017.

Gameplay:

The player controls in first-person view the lone survivor of a crashed ship on an aquatic planet. The main objective of the player is to explore the open world environment and survive the dangers of the planet. Subnautica allows the player to collect resources, construct tools, bases, and submersibles, and interact with the planet's wildlife.Players must keep themselves adequately hydrated and fed, and must also maintain their oxygen supply while traversing underwater (Survival Mode). The game includes a day and night cycle. The game also includes other three modes: the Freedom mode, in which only hunger and thirst are disabled, Hardcore mode, which is the same as Survival, except If the player dies, the player will no longer be able to respawn and Creative mode, in which the hunger, thirst, health, and oxygen features are disabled, all the crafting blueprints are acquired, items need resources to be crafted and the submersibles do need energy and can be damaged. The game is mainly set underwater, but there are two fully explorable islands.

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Overwatch

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Overwatch puts players into two teams of six, with each player selecting one of several pre-defined hero characters with unique movement, attributes, and abilities; these heroes are divided into four classes: Offense, Defense, Tank and Support. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map and/or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time. Players gain cosmetic rewards that do not affect gameplay, such as character skins and victory poses, as they continue to play in matches. The game was launched with casual play, while Blizzard added competitive ranked play about a month after launch. Blizzard states that all Overwatch updates will remain free, with the only additional cost to players being microtransactions to earn additional cosmetic rewards.

Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise, and came about following the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan. A portion of the Titan team came up with the concept of Overwatch, based on the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the growing popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas, creating a hero-based shooter that emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow assets and concepts from the canceled Titan project. After establishing the narrative of an optimistic near-future Earth setting after a global crisis, the developers aimed to create a diverse cast of heroes that spanned genders and ethnicities as part of this setting. Significant time was spent adjusting the balance of the characters, making sure that new players would still be able to have fun while skilled players would present each other with a challenge.

Overwatch was unveiled at BlizzCon 2014 in a fully playable state, and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta in May 2016 drew in more than 9.7 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the game's narrative and each of the characters. Upon official release, Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised its accessibility and enjoyable gameplay.

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Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play online collectible card video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, released worldwide on March 11, 2014. Hearthstone builds upon the lore of the Warcraft series, using characters, creatures, and relics from the series. It was first released for Microsoft Windows and OS X personal computers, and later supported iOS and Android devices; it features cross-platform play that allows players on any device to compete with each other, restricted only by geographical region account limits.

The game is a turn-based card game between two opponents, using constructed decks of thirty cards along with a selected hero with a unique power. Players use mana points to cast spells or summon minions to attack the opponent, with the goal to reduce the opponent's health to zero. Winning matches can earn in-game gold, rewards in the form of new cards, and other in-game prizes. Players can then buy new cards through gold or microtransactions and use these cards to customize and improve their decks. The game features several modes of play, including casual and ranked matches, as well as daily quests and weekly challenges to help earn more gold and cards. New content for the game involves the addition of new card sets and gameplay, taking the form of either expansion packs or single-player adventures that reward the player with collectible cards upon completion.

In contrast to other games developed at Blizzard, Hearthstone was an experimental game developed by a smaller team based on the appreciation of collectible card games at the company. The game was designed to avoid pitfalls of other digital collectible card games by eliminating any possible plays from an opponent during a player's turn and by replicating the feel of a physical card game within the game's user interface.

The game has been favorably reviewed by critics and proven successful for Blizzard. By April 2016, Blizzard has reported more than 50 million Hearthstone players. The game has become popular as an eSport, with cash-prize tournaments hosted by Blizzard and other organizers.

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Jupiter Ascending

Directors:

Lana Wachowski (as The Wachowskis), Lilly Wachowski (as The Wachowskis)

Writers:

Lilly Wachowski (as The Wachowskis), Lana Wachowski (as The Wachowskis)

Stars:

Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne
Plot:
At the beginning of the story, Earth's residents are unaware that the human species on Earth and countless other planets were established by families of transhuman and alien royalty for the purpose of later "harvesting" the resulting organisms to produce a type of youth serum for the elites on still other planets. After the death of the matriarch of the House of Abrasax, the most powerful of the alien dynasties,her children, Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton), and Titus (Douglas Booth), quarrel over the inheritance, with Balem inheriting an enormous refinery on Jupiter and Titus declaring his intention to dismantle the youth serum trade, of which Earth is the next intended source. Protagonist Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) narrates that her father, Maximilian Jones (James D'Arcy), met her mother, Aleksa (Maria Doyle Kennedy), in Saint Petersburg. After Maximilian is killed in a robbery, Aleksa names their daughter Jupiter, after his favorite planet, and they move to Chicago to live with Aleksa's family.
Many years later, Jupiter works with Aleksa and her Aunt Nino (Frog Stone) to clean the homes of wealthy neighbors. To buy a telescope, Jupiter agrees to sell her egg cells with the help of her cousin Vladie (Kick Gurry), under the name of her friend Katharine Dunlevy (Vanessa Kirby). At Katharine's house, Jupiter and Katharine are attacked by extraterrestrial 'Keepers'; and when Jupiter photographs these, they erase her memory of the incident. Jupiter stumbles upon the strange photograph on her phone while waiting at an egg donation clinic, but could not recall anything about it. During the procedure, the doctors and nurses are revealed to be Balem's agents, sent to kill her, and she is saved by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), a former soldier sent by Titus.
While Caine and Jupiter ascend to a ship, it is destroyed by a squad of Keepers who then attack them. Caine fends off the attack and manages to kill the Keepers and hijack one of their vehicles while protecting Jupiter. Having survived the attack, the duo visits the residence of Stinger Apini (Sean Bean), an old comrade of Caine. As Jupiter discovered that she can control the bees in Stinger's residence, she is revealed to be a galactic royalty. Stinger agrees to help Jupiter, but a group of hunters captures her and takes her to Kalique's palace on a distant planet, where Kalique explains that Jupiter is genetically identical to the dead matriarch, and therefore the Earth's rightful owner. Supported by Captain Diomika Tsing (Nikki Amuka-Bird) of the Aegis (an intergalactic police force), Caine retrieves her from Kalique, and brings her to the planet Ores (the intergalactic capital planet) to claim her inheritance.
Balem sends Greeghan (Ariyon Bakare) to kidnap Jupiter's family. On the way back to Earth, Titus detains Jupiter and Caine. Titus reveals to Caine his plan to marry and kill Jupiter and claim Earth. He then throws Caine into the void; but Caine survives and returns with Stinger to save Jupiter at the altar. Jupiter asks to return home, but learns that her family has been taken hostage by Balem. In his refinery in the Great Red Spot, Balem demands Earth in exchange for Jupiter's family. Realizing that Balem can "harvest" Earth only with her permission, Jupiter refuses. Caine infiltrates the refinery and damages its gravity hull, causing the refinery to begin collapsing. While the occupants evacuate the refinery, Tsing's ship moves in and rescues Jupiter's family.
Jupiter survives the collapsing structures, only to land at the feet of Balem who tries to kill her; but she fights him off, and is rescued by Caine while Balem falls to his death. As the refinery is in its final stages of collapse, Tsing opens a portal to Earth and prepares to evacuate, potentially leaving Caine and Jupiter behind. However, she is relieved to find that they have survived and crossed the portal along with Tsing's ship. Jupiter's family is returned home with no memory of their disappearance, but with a new appreciation for Jupiter, while Jupiter secretly retains ownership of the Earth. Caine's rank with the Aegis is restored, and he and Jupiter begin a relationship.
Trailer: 

 

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Before We Go

Director:

Chris Evans

Writers:

Ronald Bass (screenplay) (as Ron Bass), Jen Smolka (screenplay)

Stars:

Chris Evans, Alice Eve, Emma Fitzpatrick

Plot :
While busking in Grand Central Terminal, Nick Vaughan (Chris Evans) sees a woman running by to catch the 1:30 a.m. train to Boston dropping and breaking her phone. She misses the train and is forced to return. Nick returns the phone to the woman, Brooke (Alice Eve). When he finds her standing outside the terminal she confesses that she has just been robbed and is trapped in the city. He offers to pay for a cab to take her to Boston but his credit cards are declined. When he tries to call a friend to come loan him the money he finds his phone has died. Nick offers to try to pay for a room for Brooke to stay in overnight, but she insists that she needs to return home before the morning.
Nick decides to help Brooke find her missing purse. The two are able to track it down at a sweatshop that deals in stolen purses but for his efforts to retrieve the purse Nick is punched in the face. The two try and go to Nick's friend's wedding in order to find his friend to loan him money and instead end up at an event where they are mistaken for members of the band. Nick and Brooke perform My Funny Valentine before being forced to flee when the real band shows up. After their last ditch attempt to get a bus to Boston fails as they don't have enough money, Brooke borrows a man's phone and calls a friend whom she begs to go to her house and retrieve a letter she has left for her husband that she does not want him to read.
Elated that her problem is now solved Brooke offers to go to Nick's friend's wedding and pretend to be his girlfriend in front of his ex, Hannah. At the reception Nick sees Hannah but after being introduced to her new boyfriend he leaves abruptly. Outside Nick tells Brooke that he hadn't seen Hannah in six years since he went to propose to her and she broke up with him. At Brooke's insistence, Nick goes back to speak to Hannah to see if he still has a shot with her. Instead he discovers that she's pregnant and that he has no chance with her. Wandering around the city the two find a psychic who is still open. After he reads her future, he allows Brooke to use his phone and she learns her friend could not get into her home to retrieve the letter.
After they leave the psychic's place, Brooke reveals to Nick that she had discovered that her husband was cheating on her. Though he ended the relationship she discovered that he was going to see his mistress again. Devastated, she wrote him a letter ending the marriage and went to New York for work. However, during her trip she received a phone call from her husband saying he was coming home early and realized that he had ended the relationship for good.
At a restaurant Nick tells Brooke that her husband will most likely understand that what he did was wrong and that if he doesn't, that's that. They then go to Nick's friend's hotel that he's staying at. Together they write on the back of paintings in the room (a reference to an earlier encounter with a painting with erotic writing on the back of it). They then share a kiss and reflect on their night.
In the morning they return to the train station where they are about to part. Suddenly, Nick picks up a phone from a phone booth and, like an earlier joke, uses it as a "time machine" and pretends to call himself saying that he will meet a woman that he should stay with for the night. They share one last kiss and finally depart. On her way home, Brooke finds a guest service paper that she and Nick filled out at the hotel. On the bottom it says "turn over," and after doing so, she smiles at what she reads, though the message itself was left ambiguous at the end.

Trailer:

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Les Misérables

Director:

Tom Hooper

Writers:

William Nicholson (screenplay), Alain Boublil (screenplay) 

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway

Plot:
In 1815, French prisoner Jean Valjean is released on parole from Toulon prison after serving nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread and trying to escape multiple times. On the outside, Valjean’s paroled status prevents him from getting work. He is offered shelter by the kindly Bishop of Digne, but Valjean steals his silverware. Captured by police and taken to the Bishop, Valjean is shocked when the Bishop says he gave him the silver, telling him to use it to do something worthwhile with his life. Valjean breaks his parole to start a new life.
Eight years later, Valjean is factory owner and mayor of Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais. He is shocked when a Toulon prison guard Javert arrives as his new chief of police. Javert suspects Valjean’s identity when he rescues an injured worker trapped under a heavy cart. One of Valjean’s workers, Fantine, is dismissed by the factory foreman upon learning she is sending her earnings to her illegitimate daughter Cosette, who lives with the greedy innkeepers, the Thénardiers. To support her daughter, Fantine becomes a prostitute but is arrested by Javert when she attacks an abusive customer. Valjean, learning who she is, has her hospitalised.
Valjean learns a man has been wrongly identified as him, and reveals his true identity to a court before returning to the dying Fantine, promising to care for Cosette. Javert arrives but Valjean escapes, finding Cosette and pays Fantine’s debts to the Thénardiers. Valjean and Cosette flee Javert, hiding in a convent, aided by the worker Valjean rescued before. Nine years later, Valjean has become a philanthropist and helps the poor in Paris. General Lamarque, the only government official sympathetic to the poor, dies, and a group of revolutionists called the Friends of the ABC plot to rebel against the monarchy. Marius Pontmercy, a member of the Friends, encounters Cosette and they fall in love, asking Éponine, the Thénardiers’ daughter to help find her.
After Marius and Cosette meet and confess their love, Éponine prevents her father from robbing Valjean’s house. Valjean, believing Javert is near, makes plans to flee to England with Cosette. Cosette writes a letter for Marius, but Éponine hides it, intending on dying with Marius during the rebellion. During Lamarque’s funeral procession, the revolt begins and barricades are built across Paris. Javert pretends to be an ally to spy on the rebels but the street urchin Gavroche exposes him as a policeman. During the first skirmish against the soldiers, Éponine takes a bullet for Marius and dies in his arms, giving him Cosette’s letter and confesses to him beforehand. Gavroche takes Marius’ reply to Valjean, who joins the revolution to guard Marius.
Valjean offers to execute Javert but actually releases him, faking his death. By dawn, the soldiers are close to ending the revolution, storming the students’ barricade and killing everyone save Marius and Valjean, who escape into the sewers. Thénardier comes across Valjean and the unconscious Marius, stealing the latter’s ring, before pointing a way out. Valjean finds Javert waiting for him, ignoring his nemesis’ threats. Javert, morally confused by the mercy of Valjean, commits suicide by throwing himself in the Seine. Marius recovers but is traumatised by the death of his friends.
Marius and Cosette plan to marry but Valjean, concerned his presence would threaten their happiness, makes plans to leave and reveals his identity to Marius, who promises to remain silent. Cosette and Marius marry but the Thénardiers crash the wedding to try and blackmail Marius, Thénardier saying he witnessed Valjean carrying a murdered corpse and produces the stolen ring. Marius assaults Thénardier who reveals Valjean is at the convent. The dying Valjean reunites with Cosette and Marius, giving them letters of confession, before peacefully dying, guided away by Fantine and the Bishop’s spirits.

Trailer:

 

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10,000 BC

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers:

Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Stars:

Camilla Belle, Steven Strait, Marco Khan

Plot:

In about 10,000 BC, a tribe of hunter-gatherers called the Yagahl live in a remote mountain range in the Urals and survive by killing woolly mammoths. The camp is led by a hunter who has proven his bravery by killing a mammoth, and taking the White Spear. The people also strongly venerate an elderly woman, called Old Mother.
D'Leh, a young hunter, while hunting mammoths, manages to kill one and wins the White Spear. He also wins his companion Evolet in marriage. Horse-raiders attack the camp, enslaving Evolet and several others. D'Leh and three companions rescue Evolet, but she is recaptured with two of the companions. D'Leh and Tic'Tic, the remaining companion, continue on and learn of a prophecy from a tribe they meet: whoever talks to a Smilodon that they call the "Spear-Tooth" will help free their people. D'Leh realizes the prophecy was about him.
Several tribes agree to form a coalition to pursue the raiders. They find the ship holding Evolet. With no means to follow the ships, they journey through a vast desert, discovering an advanced civilization similar to ancient Egypt, ruled by an enigmatic figure known as "The Almighty". Tic'Tic dies from injuries sustained in a fight with the guards before they can raise the alarm. The Almighty's priests believe that Evolet is destined to kill The Almighty. D'Leh starts a rebellion among the slaves.
The Almighty offers Evolet and the other hunters to D'Leh in exchange for abandoning his rebellion. D'Leh feigns acceptance of the deal but throws a spear at The Almighty and kills him. During the ensuing battle, Evolet dies, but is restored by the Old Mother sacrificing her own life. They bid farewell to the other tribes and return home.

Trailer:

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John Wick Chapter 2

Director:

Chad Stahelski

Writer:

Derek Kolstad (screenplay)

Stars:

Keanu Reeves, Ruby Rose, Bridget Moynahan
Synopsis:
Legendary hitman John Wick is forced back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins' guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome, where he squares off against some of the world's deadliest killers.

Trailer :

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Starcraft II

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A sequel to the award-winning 1998 video game StarCraft and its expansion set Brood War, the game was released worldwide on July 27, 2010. It is split into three installments: the base game with the subtitle Wings of Liberty, an expansion pack Heart of the Swarm, and a stand-alone expansion pack Legacy of the Void.

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