Video Games: Little Inferno; Hitman; Assassin’s Creed III; Persona 4 Golden; Angry Birds Star Wars; My Little Pony

Released on Nov. 18

Developed by Tomorrow Corporation

For PC, Mac, Linux and Wii U

Rated T for Teen (drug reference and crude humor)

Here’s an odd one. Little Inferno is an interactive fireplace. It’s an emotional, interactive fireplace with a story line and some notions about the dangers of amusing ourselves with distracting trifles.

At first this strange creation appears to be a simple puzzle game consisting of little more than a fireplace, a catalog of items to burn and 99 clues that challenge the player to burn these things in proper combinations. One clue is “Movie Night.” Burn the popcorn. Burn the TV. A weirder one is “Bike Pirate.” Burn the wooden bike. Burn the pirate.

As you play, an unseen character begins to send letters. They burn, too, but something seems off. The messages are alternately cheerful and sad, a wee bit wicked and increasingly desperate.

The purpose of the pyromaniac pastime becomes smoky with doubt. Why are we doing this? What are we missing? It’s odd enough to play a new video game that questions our decision to play video games. That it’s an interactive fireplace game that does this is all the stranger and more wonderful. It’s a yule log for our times.

HITMAN

Absolution

Released on Nov. 20

Developed by IO Interactive

Published by Square Enix

For PC, Xbox 360 and

PlayStation 3

Rated M for Mature (intense violence, partial nudity and strong language)

It’s a vile, dangerous world in Hitman: Absolution. Nearly everyone is in need of a good killing, and Agent 47, the depilated murder machine at the center of the long-running Hitman franchise, is just the man for the job.

Absolution is consistent with the setup of past Hitman games: At the start of a level, 47 is given an assassination target, and he must make his way through semi-open areas by any of a number of possible routes. The reactive artificial intelligence keeps things enjoyably unpredictable, and the best levels feel like a buffet of sadistic improvisation.

The story is pure B-movie hogwash. It’s mostly enjoyable in a certain exploitive way, but it often feels as if the writers were trying too hard.

When it gets cooking, Hitman: Absolution evokes the feeling of a deadly, measured dance. It’s a tango between you and the computer, with each party alternately taking the lead through arenas that shift and upset expectations.

ASSASSIN’S CREED III

Released on Oct. 30

Developed and published by Ubisoft

For PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC

Rated M for Mature (blood, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language)

Assassin’s Creed III is really the fifth major Assassin’s Creed game. The numbering signifies that this new historical epic is a shift, as this Ubisoft series about the ancestral lives of a man named Desmond Miles leaps to its third era. Finished with the 12th-century crusades and 15th-century Renaissance Italy, Assassin’s Creed now lets us do interactive historical tourism in Boston, New York and the nearby woods of Revolutionary America.

Assassin’s Creed games are lavish action-adventure blockbusters. In this new one, we primarily play as a young, bitter, half-British, half-Mohawk greenhorn assassin named Ratonhnhaké:ton, who finds himself crossing paths and sometimes doing the bidding of Sam Adams, Paul Revere, George Washington and other real figures. Most of the bad guys are red coats with slow-firing muskets. We’re best with a tomahawk and a bow and arrow.

The new game involves a lot of climbing and killing across a sprawling landscape of bustling cities and gorgeous frontier. Add in a mix of awkwardly instituted horseback riding, homestead building, trading, trapping, hunting and, at the wheel of your own tall-masted warship, epic naval combat. There is much to do and witness in a ripped-from-the-history-books adventure that is refreshingly unwilling to ignore the unsavory aspects of America’s birth. A lengthy production cycle didn’t spare the game from a wealth of bugs that are only now being patched out.

The series’s low-key multiplayer games of competitive assassination return, but the star of this epic is something that might seem almost quaint: Assassin’s Creed III is easily the best tree-climbing simulator in history.

PERSONA 4 GOLDEN

Released on Nov. 20

Developed and published by Atlus

For PlayStation Vita

Rated M for Mature (violence, alcohol reference and partial nudity)

Persona 4 Golden is part turn-based role-playing game, part high school simulator and a rerelease of a celebrated PlayStation 2 game on the portable Vita.

These edited and condensed reviews are from the writers and editors of the gaming Web site Kotaku.com. Full reviews are at kotaku.com/nytselects.

Diablo III Reducing Inferno Difficulty

Blizzard has released new details about Diablo III patch 1.0.5. According to a post from senior technical game designer Waytt Cheng on battle.net, Blizzard is taking a “close look” at defensive skills and incoming monster damage in the patch and will be changing defensive skills for each class. Skills including the wizard’s Energy Armor and the barbarian’s War Cry - Impunity will be scaled down, but incoming damage in Inferno will also be reduced, “so players will actually come out ahead.”

Blizzard’s plan is to reduce the effectiveness of some defensive skills but to reduce monster damage by more than the difference. “Putting both changes together, players actually take less damage than before,” Cheng wrote. “Why are we doing this? The reason is not complicated. High incoming monster damage combined with extremely powerful defensive skills make those skills and runes feel mandatory. Our goal is that by simultaneously nerfing defensive skills and reducing incoming damage, players who choose to continue using these defensive skills will take less damage overall, and players who choose to forego these ‘mandatory’ skills will find themselves more survivable than what you would currently experience on live. Overall, these changes result in a huge buff in the player’s favor.”

Cheng notes that many Diablo III players grab every defensive skill available to them, “which can take away from some flexibility in using different build options.” It also makes it difficult for Blizzard to balance other classes, as abilities can feel “modest” against a class with massive defensive buffs, but overpowered to classes without them. “We’re all in favor of people being able to build their character for survivability, but there needs to be a balance,” he added.

As an example, Cheng mentioned Energy Armor, which is used by 83% of level 60 wizards and is one of the skills that will be affected by the change. “The exact change is the base armor provided by Energy Armor is being reduced from 65% to 35%, and the resistance increase provided by Prismatic Armor is being reduced from 40% to 25%,” he wrote.

“Suppose a wizard has 6000 Armor and 800 Resist before Prismatic Armor. Assuming a level 63 enemy, in 1.0.4 this translates to 9900 Armor (75.86% mitigation) and 1120 Resist (78.05% mitigation) with Prismatic Armor, for a total mitigation of 94.70%. In 1.0.5 this will be 8100 Armor (72.00% mitigation) and 1000 Resist (76.05% mitigation) with Prismatic Armor, for a total mitigation of 93.29%. If a monster hits for 50,000 damage, then the damage taken by the wizard will go from 2650 damage to 3355 damage. This means incoming damage would have to be less than 79% of the current value (2650 /3355) in order for it to feel the same after 1.0.5. Based on this it’s clear that in order to ensure 1.0.5 is a net buff for all wizards we’d have to reduce incoming monster damage by at least 21%. Prismatic Armor still provides a significant boost to survivability, but it should no longer feel mandatory, opening up other options such as a more offensively minded Storm Armor (which is getting buffed in 1.0.5).”

Cheng added that in addition to Energy Armor, the barbarian’s War Cry - Impunity (which is used by 87.1% of level 60 barbarians) will also be affected, with bonus resistance reduced from 50% to 20%. The witch doctor’s Jungle Fortitude will be reduced from 20% to 15% damage reduction, and the demon hunter’s Shadow Power will change from 20% Life Steal for 3 seconds to 15% Life Steal for 5 seconds. Blood Moon will go from 30% Life Steal for 3 seconds to 25% Life Steal for 5 seconds, and runes, passives and companion pets will all be changed. The monk’s Resolve: Damage reduction will be reduced from 25% to 20%. Cheng notes that the monk’s One With Everything skill is something the team “would like to fix someday,” but that changes to the skill will greatly affect existing monk gear, so Blizzard will need to wait to address it in a future in a way that won’t invalidate gear.

Finally, Cheng addressed players who might be concerned to hear about another reduction in Inferno difficulty. For those people, Blizzard will introduce the “Monster Power” system, which Cheng says is a callback to Diablo II’s “Players X” option, which allows players to increase difficulty in order to earn increased rewards. “Our hope is that we can make Inferno easier while simultaneously providing new ways for top-end players to gauge their increasing power in tangible ways,” Cheng wrote.

More details about patch 1.0.5’s changes -- including a more detailed list of affected skills for each class -- are available in Cheng’s full post on battle.net. Keep checking back to IGN for more info about patch 1.0.5 as additional details are announced.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.