The competition between games is heating up and now more and more launches are crowding the dais of modern gaming. Of course, Rockstar Games’ GTA franchise has been able to rule the roost owing to its unique content and ever growing fan base. Besides an exploratory script penned by Dan Houser, the game’s open world offers new avenues to explore shades of a character, who can execute a variety of actions in a fantastical world, which bears resemblance to the gamers’ neighborhood. Now the game’s unique USP is slowly turning into poison for itself. There have been a couple of games, which have been announced in recent times that take on this franchise in a big manner. The first to hit the deck is Sleeping Dogs, which releases on August 14, 2012. The game set in Hong Kong, has a storyline depicting the life of Wei Shen, who goes undercover to infiltrate the Triads. The game depicts the dilemma of the character that dwindles between shades of black and white while completing out missions one by one. Yes, the resemblance to GTA is apparent and easily the game could be labeled as a Hong Kong take but whether it can dent into the GTA 5 proceedings needs to be seen. The initial reviews of the game are very promising and comparisons are abound, marking that it may have topped off GTA 4 at least for now. Another promising venture which seems to take off from where GTA has found itself stagnant is the Ubisoft heralded Watch Dogs, which explores the facets brought forth by technology that we see around ourselves. Now, GTA 5 will not be that far away but it has failed to materialize on its strong script to add more innovative options for gamers to try on. Ubisoft, on the other hand, have been reinventing their games and the introduction of ‘Watch Dogs’ at E3 reflected a big challenge to the industry leaders. It features many devices, which are utilized by us on a daily basis and offers unparalleled control over the city in an indirect way making the game play more interesting with each mission. Additionally, the ingenuity of the concept is yet to be explored by the modern gamer, which would be a reason for its sudden popularity. Some of the facts which are not helping GTA is the lack of information regarding its actual product launch and whether it would deliver anything beyond the trailer, which was released in October 2011. Meanwhile, Sleeping Dogs is garnering positive responses from the gamers and Watch Dogs is expected to boost itself with more revelations in the coming times. But GTA 5 information is yet to be confirmed by any reliable sources with more and more speculations circling the air rather than actual facts. In times like these, disappointment is looming around the actual game, which may finally see the light of the day in 2013. Meanwhile, it is too early to write off the industry legend, which is aiming for sales of over 1.5 billion dollars. For now, it has two formidable opponents which are aiming at its share in the market. It is a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world and it waits to be seen whether GTA will retain its bite!
