Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne

2012-07-17T15:55:00.001-07:00

Blizzard may be best known for World of Warcraft, but before WoW ever existed, there was the rich universe already alive and breathing in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne.

I still play this game because for about $40, you get a lot of different stuff. A robust user base, balanced gameplay, signature Blizzard artwork and movies, and unlimited hours of play.

You can play the Single Player campaign which I still haven't beaten or even played very far. It is a lot of fun and has a great story line. You can also play skirmish type games against the computer.

But the meat and potatoes of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne (Wc3:Tft) is the multiplayer. There are expensive tournaments in Korea and around the world where people can make tens of thousands of dollars.

There is 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, with Human, Elves, Orc, and Undead with 7 or 8 neutral heroes to choose from to balance your force.

The game is an real-time strategy game which means that you play in real time. In the old days all games were turn-based. I still like those types of games. The only types of games like that left are Magic the Gathering Card Game and Advanced Wars on Nintendo DS.

You build up your buildings and level up your hero. The hero being the element that seperates Wc3:Tft from Starcraft 1. The hero gains experience as you fight and when you become strong enough, the hero will control the flow of battle.

Some people don't like how competetive and complicated Multiplayer can be, but if you just want to play with heroes, you can go to the Custom Games and play all sorts of fan made games.

Defense of the Ancients is by far the most popular Custom Game on Battle.net (Blizzard's server) and it might be more popular than the regular game. The game involves choosing a hero and stacking items in an attempt to defend your base and the enemies base. Games can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour or even longer I imagine. Time really flies when you play because you're constantly attacking the computer controlled monsters that walk down paths.

It's a lot of fun and it's difficult to explain, but is what League of Legends evolved from.

I don't have time to put images and stuff in yet, I have some stuff to do.

"Where's My Water?" Game Review

2012-07-16T19:55:00.002-07:00

Created by Disney, "Where's My Water?" is a Mobile App Puzzle Action Game featuring Swampy the Alligator.

Swampy is no ordinary alligator and requires frequent showers to stay hydrated. But no matter what Swampy does, he can never have a shower without the help of a plumber.

"Where's my Water?" by Disney. Featuring Swampy the Alligator.

That is where you come in. Your job is to create a path for the water to reach Swampy's tub.

Level 3

One of the things that caught my eye was the beautiful, highly stylized, and colorful art. Most other games have beautiful art, but look very computerized and rely on a lot of geometric shapes.

Disney on the other hand makes it seem like you're playing one of their many classic movies. The art looks hand drawn, the way cartoons used to be made.

The visual art drew me in and the rest of the game delivered on every level.

An original and engaging sound track.

A very likable character in Swampy the Alligator.

A very well animated game with a lot of details. Swampy has many different animations and he reacts differently to different situations. Swampy is never just frozen in time. He is waiting to take a shower, and once he gets his water, you can see how much Swampy enjoys his shower.

The main element of gameplay is the water physics and how it interacts with the environment. The 10 levels I played were varied and offered fresh puzzles on every level. If they can keep this up for the whole game, I would be really impressed.

The game involves digging tunnels with your mouse pointer. You merely need to hold down the left mouse button and drag over a piece of dirt. The fun of the game comes from the level design and trying to guide the water by digging tunnels that lead to Swampy.

Water in the real world behaves similarly to how it acts within the game. The player can't touch it or feel it, but they can control it the same way you could in real life.

Players are introduced to the scientific properties of gravity and water with a high level physics simulation. This is the kind of stuff developed to predict floods or to test the design of a new dam.

"Where's My Water?" combines the magic of Disney with some great real world puzzle action. I searched a dozen games and this was the first one that drew me right in and I played it through to the end of the demo.

That's how I know this one is a keeper.

Swampy got his wa-wa!

There is a reason why Disney sets itself apart from the competition. The level of art and character design is unrivaled. This is what I like to see. A game with personality and a very likable character, one that would be proud to be in any Disney movie.

I had worked in over half a dozen different QA departments over a span of 8 years, so listen when I offer some advice. The graphic that is used for the Chrome App Menu reminded me of some real amateur like myself mght have done, except in reality, nobody in your entire company over all this time caught this one, the first thing you see when you open your Google Chrome page?

Am I the only one that sees this? Can you point out the one that doesn't belong with the others, boys and girls?

Maybe this will help to reinforce the concept.

It even looks like it got squeezed like a Kung Fu movie. It looks like you just used some picture tab from Facebook or Paint.

Seriously, look at the other App icons and they are dope. The worst three are the icons for Lord of Ultima, Pokemon, and "Where's My QA Department?"

Lord of Ultima at least has a picture that appears to fit inside the box and not just a closeup of a pixelated brickwall or having the edges of the castle touching the borders. I would guess that the Castle is probably the best unit in the game and has art assets that can easily plugged into this format. But the icon is at least clear, it has two borders on the top and bottom, which is better than none. It almost looks like they made it just for the Chrome Menu, but that is doubtful.

The Pokemon game is a fan made game, and yet it has the title of the game in the graphic (unintentionally).

The "Where's My Water?" game icon is blurry, and looks weird compared to the overall style of the page with the majority of the Icons look three dimensonal with shadows and crisp graphics. The other Apps also appear for the most part specifically created for this screen.

With all these factors figured in, the "Where's My Water?" icon looks like Disney pressed PrintScreen and then Ctrl+V'ed into Paint.

And what the heck is he doing with the brush. Is it in his mouth or is he holding it with his arm? It kind of looks like it is hanging off the side of his eyebrow.

CLICK HERE FOR DISNEY'S WEBSITE.

I downloaded a free 10 level demo.

And I have to give a special shout out to the inventive people below that created these two sites to suck some money off of Disney.

It's "wheremywatergame.com" and "wheresmywatergame.com". Isn't it funny how the one that is mispelled is above in ranking than the one with the correct spelling.

I could not tell if these were real sites so I clicked on it and scrolled to the very bottom...

You fooled me, douche.

The other site copyrighted their stuff, or just copied someone elses. You better have enough money to afford a good lawyer if you ever want to collect on it.

How about this dandy?

I'm not sure if it's actually available because I would assume if the other sites are not available, why would this one be?

Would Disney not actually buy the domain name for WheresMyWater.com ?

Ghetto Games for Poor People

Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne

"Where's My Water?" Game Review

You fooled me, douche.