Gaming the future: the best of 2012

Jacob Aron, reporter

Assassin's Creed III (Image: Ubisoft)

Imagined worlds in novels and films often anticipate technological changes or explore the boundaries of possibility well before real-world science. The same is true of video games, which let us extrapolate to the futuristic and fantastical with their novel effects and immersion. New Scientist looks back at the best such games of 2012.

Mass Effect 3

BioWare, Electronic Arts (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii U)
The conclusion of the Star Wars-esque Mass Effect trilogy sees players hanging out with their alien chums while saving the galaxy from a race of menacing machines known as Reapers. If you missed the first two games, you can pick up Mass Effect Trilogy Edition to play the whole saga. The series is filled with difficult choices and rich characters, and while the imagined world certainly pushes the boundaries of plausibility, some aspects are inspired by elements of real research. (The titular ?mass effect? is created by manipulating a fictional ?element zero? that can increase or decrease an object?s mass. This is hugely speculative, of course, but if we could find a way to manipulate the Higgs boson, that might produce a similar effect!)

Binary Domain

Yakuza Studio, Sega (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
A cheesy but enjoyable romp set in a futuristic Japan threatened by human-like robots that don?t know they are machines, this part-Blade Runner, part-Terminator shooter is worth playing if only to wonder why anyone would program a droid to speak English with a French accent.

Quantum Conundrum

Airtight Games, Square Enix (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Solve puzzles by altering gravity and time as you switch between parallel universes in this cartoon-like exploration of the multiverse - read our full review from earlier this year.

FTL: Faster than light

Subset Games (PC)
Captain your own spaceship and manage onboard systems such as life support, weapons and engines to deal with a pursuing rebel fleet, ship-wrecking solar flares and teleporting boarding parties. If all else fails, open the airlock doors and suck ?em into space.

Call of Duty: Black ops 2

Treyarch, Activision (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii U)
Black ops 2 extrapolates from modern-day war to the year 2025, when drone warfare, cyberterrorism and US/Chinese conflicts over rare-earth minerals serve as the backdrop to this bombastic first-person shooter.

Assassin's Creed 3

Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii U)
A virtual reality machine capable of recreating your ancestor?s memories by scanning your DNA sounds a little more than far-fetched, but the fictional conceit allows players to explore a convincing recreation of revolutionary-era America in the shoes of a stealthy assassin.

XCOM: Enemy unknown

Firaxis Games, 2K Games (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
The only way to fight an alien invasion of Earth is to turn their weapons against them. Take command of the XCOM military force in this turn-based strategy game while researching new gadgets based on alien tech - some not as far-fetched as they might seem.

Halo 4

343 Industries, Microsoft Studies (Xbox 360)
Cybernetic supersoldier Master Chief, adrift in space, crash-lands on a mysterious planet and is forced to fight an unknown alien race, while struggling to cope with his artificially intelligent companion, Cortana, who has begun to go insane.

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