Today's Games

Agartha-Online

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:52:00 +0000

Neverwinter Nights 2 : Storm of Zehir

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:52:00 +0000

Storm of Zehir is the latest expansion for NWN 2 . The difference that this expansion will bring is that creatures react better and that it brings a lot of enhancements toward exploration .

Other details regarding the expansion are (and I quote ) :

Travel the Sword Coast and Samarach using the open ended exploration of the new Overland Map. Use skills like Spot and Survival while on the Overland Map to avoid ambushes and even find hidden locales and lost artifacts.

Create your own full party of adventurers. Devastate your foes with a squad of fireball-flinging Sorcerers, form a solid wall of steel with a party of Fighters, or strike the perfect balance in your party by spreading out the classes you choose for your characters.

Improved party gameplay including streamlined party conversations, a new Teamwork Benefit System, and powerful party feats.

The world's economy reacts to your adventures and choices. And, through trading and quests, you can expand your merchant company into a massive trading empire.

Some trailers to feast your eyes on :

Review : Universe at War

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:12:00 +0000

You can consider me a cynic, but I don't think I bend the truth too much when I say that the announcement of Starcraft 2 represented an extremely hard blow for real-time strategy developers. Titles which previously could be considered interesting (or even spiritual successors to Starcraft) suddenly became only appetizers until the release of one of the most expected follow-ups in history. So the only option for the competition was (and still is) to release their game as fast as they can before being “swept over” by the madness of the birthing of the new Blizzard Entertainment wonder kid.
After impressing us in 2006 with Star Wars: Empire at War and Forces of Corruption, probably the only quality real-time strategy games placed in the Star Wars universe, Petroglyph Studios focused on an internal IP, the main attraction point of this new title being the possibility to personalize the units “on-the-fly”, depending on the situation on the battlefield.
Although it takes place in the near future, the Universe at War story is a bit different than the usual standard fare. Yes, Earth is invaded yet again by a hostile alien race, called the Hierarchy - the galactic equivalent of a locust swarm - and of course humanity is almost obliterated, even though scientists warned the world's governments before the imminent disaster. But this time around we don't need to lead the human race to victory, because a short while after the Hierarchy's initial attack, the Novus forces appear, androids which have the sole purpose of fighting a guearilla war against the Hierarchy, to revenge the annihilation of their creators. As if this wasn't enough, the permanent battles on the Earth's surface alert the last survivors of an ancient and extremely powerful race, the Masari, which refugeed on Earth after they were defeated by the Hierarchy. And they realize that the only solution to end this conflict is to eradicate everyone.

Fortunately for Petroglyph, few real-time strategy games can boast completely different factions in terms of look and game-play, and Universe at War is one of them, because each belligerent force will need different tactics and strategies to win. Having the experience of thousands of conquered and devastated planets, the Hierarchy prefers frontal attacks, as the term subtlety isn’t featured in their vocabulary. The first interesting aspect regarding the Hierarchy is that besides the initial landing point, its bases are mobile, taking the form of colossal walkers, which will certainly remind you of Steven Spielber’s War of the Worlds. Barring the three main types of walkers (Assembly, Habitat and Science), the Hierarchy also uses flying saucers (a little tribute to Mars Attacks!) as well as very strong infantry units and tanks, and the ability to turn civilians into mutants.
The walkers are one of the most terrifying sights on the battlefield, each type having its own upgrades and weapons which can be used (only the Science mode can use one of the two Hierarchy's super-weapons for example). To knock down this kind of monster, the opponents will first have to destroy the armor which protects the upgrade slots (if it exists), the slots themselves and in the the end, the core reactor. And because of their size and number of upgrades which they can use, knocking down a walker is quite a challenge, especially if you play against an experienced opponent.
Another interesting aspect is that the drones which gather resources are mobile too - they don't need to return to a refinery. Because of this, economic strangulation is quite difficult to pull off against a Hierarchy player, because you’ll need to constantly look for his drones, as they won't be in the same area for too long.

On the other side of the barricade, Novus is the Hierarchy's opposite, with its units being more fragile, but extremely fast and easy to produce. The main advantage of these androids is their ability to disassemble into nanites and “flow” through a special transport network, making mobility and “hit and run” tactics essential in the long-term strategies for this faction. The fact that the units are very fragile means that a Novus player must have a very good micromanagement too, because during battles, if you don't use a unit or a special ability at the right moment, you may very well lose the fight.
To balance the unit's fragility, the Novus relays which make up the transport network mentioned above are permanently camouflaged, with special units being needed to detect them. The drones which gather resources can also use the relays as well, which means that a Novus player doesn't really need a secondary base built right next to an area rich in resources in order to exploit it. And although individually they are not very tough, in larger groups Novus units are extremely dangerous, and a decent number of Ohm robots can knock down even a Hierarchy's walker, using the Swarm ability.
Unlike the Hierarchy and the Masari, the Novus can also use temporary bonuses (patches). There are 12 bonuses, though you can use only two at the same time (you have to build a Science Center first). Another problem is that you can't use the same bonus forever, as you will need to activate them in rotation, which makes it necessary to carefully schedule them. Some of the patches are very powerful if they are used in tandem – Viral Cascade + Viral Reboot for example – while others can represent a short-notice solution to a particular problem – Coolant Boost, Overclocking or Emergency Flow.

And so we’ve reached the point where we can talk about the Masari, a race with a technology far superior to that of the Novus or the Hierarchy's. Gameplay wise, the Masari can be considered the standard faction for a real-time strategy game, with some players marking it as a “turtle” race, because its evolution is a bit slower than the other factions, and the starting units aren't that powerful.
But once they evolve, the Masari units and technologies are some of the most dangerous in the game. An interesting aspect is represented by the Light/Dark energy system, as only one of these two modes can be used at a given time. In Light mode, the Masari units have increased visibility and attack range, the attacks have “light” bonuses, but the movement speed is reduced. In Dark mode, the firing rate and the movement speed are increased, units and buildings get the equivalent of shields (Dark Matter Armor), the attacks have a “slow” effect, but the aerial units are grounded and the visibility is reduced. As a result, a Masari player will have to carefully consider at the advantages and disadvantages of each mode vs. the enemies on the battlefield, the available units and the researched technologies.
But as interesting as the three races are, the single-player campaigns leave a lot to be desired. It’s true that a single player campaign in a real-time strategy game has the role of a broader tutorial, as the cases in which you want to finish the story for the plot and characters are very rare, but in Universe at War, the single-player part will be disappointing. Besides the fact that the missions are heavily scripted, and the bugs can prevent the activation of some triggers, the technologies which you can research are limited, and you don't really have the ability to customize your armies like in the multiplayer mode.

This is one of the most dangerous downsides of the game, because a novice will always start with the single-player campaign, and once he encounters the above-mentioned problems, there is a big chance that he will abandon the game altogether without testing the skirmish or the multi-player mode, or without reaching the Masari campaign where the meta-game (like the one in Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Battle for Middle Earth series or Warhammer 40.000: Dark Crusade) is presented for the first time. The general impression that the campaigns give is that they were put together on the last stretch of development time, and although some events won't be surprising, players have a reduced time to know the characters, the races and their technologies, so particular actions may come across as forced.
Another problem – although this is about personal preference – is the camera. Or rather the limited zoom-out level available, with the perspective being very close to the battlefield. This shortcoming is somewhat balanced by the relatively low maximum unit limit (90), but there will be a lot of moments in which you will wish for a better perspective of the battlefield, mostly when one or two Hierarchy walkers will appear, which literally fill the whole screen.
Fortunately, the multiplayer mode is the place where Universe at War trully shines, but even here there are some problems, “thanks” to Microsoft and Games for Windows LIVE. To play online, you have to be registered on Windows Live. The game comes packed with a one month trial for the Gold subscription of LIVE, after which, if you don't want to spend €7 on a monthly basis, you will be downgraded to Silver level, which means that you can't access the Conquer The World mode, you won't participate in Ranked matches and you won't obtain medals, which offer you various bonuses in skirmish or multiplayer games (each race has its specific medals, alongside other five, which are common to all factions).
The only online options left will be Custom and Quick Match. Why do you have to pay for features which should be free? Call 0-800-WENEEDMONEY and a Microsoft representative will kindly answer all your questions.

The direct result of the online Conquer The World - LIVE Gold subscription link is that you hardly find players for this mode, regardless of when you will try to play. Things are somewhat better for the Quick and Custom Match modes (but not by much), but if you want Ranked matches you’ll need patience until you find an opponent. There is of course the option to play in the skirmish mode or a Conquer The World scenario against the AI, but despite its admirable efforts (it knows to fall back for example if it sees that it’s losing a battle), the AI can't be compared with human creativity.
But once you start a multiplayer match, you won't have enough time to think about these things, because you will have to find the most efficient way to defeat your enemies as fast as you can. Thanks to the research system's flexibility and other gameplay elements, it will be very difficult to always use the same build-order/strategy; as a Novus player for example, you can try to focus on the aerial units card to attack the Hierarchy's walkers, but you will have to move quickly, because the upgrade slots can be reconfigured on the spot if there are enough resources available, and you can have the unpleasant surprise to see how a Habitat Walker equipped only with plasma turrets suddenly transforms into a walking anti-aerial fortress.
If you play with the Hierarchy, you must know from the beginning what to do with the walkers, because you can only have maximum 3 at the same time. Will you use them as assault units, or will you armor them from head to toes and use the other slots for unit production? Even so, you must not ignore the Repair Pods when configuring a walker, because once destroyed, an upgrade slot can't be repaired and you can get into an unpleasant situation when you only have half of its attack or production capacity.

As a Masari player, besides the Light/Dark modes juggling you will have to take care of the Architects, as they are one of the most versatile units in the game. Their main role is to build and repair buildings, but they can also boost the unit production, the fire rate and the damage of the turrets or speed up resource gathering. Considering the maximum unit limit, you will have to find the optimum balance between the Architects' number and the military units themselves, but also a way to protect them, because the Architects will be the main targets in case of a surprise attack on your base.
Besides these considerations, you have to also be aware of the fact that although all the races have 3 research branches (Assault, Mutagen, Quantum – Hierarchy | Computing, Nanotech, Signal – Novus | Light Mode, Balanced Mode, Dark Mode – Masari), the total number of technologies (suites) that you can research in a single game is limited, so you can't use them all. This only happens if you play with the Defcon mode activated, in which case all the research branches are gradually and automatically unlocked for all the players after a certain period of time. So you will have to think very well what you research, because a wrong step will usually mean defeat. Yes, you can undo researched suites (but without recovering the resources spent) to pursue another one, but if you play against an experienced player, it's nearly impossible to have time for something like this, because the units' limit automatically brings a large tactical importance to any battle. If you lose a big part of your forces in a single confrontation, it will be very hard to come back and to win the match, especially if your opponent knows where your base is. It’s not impossible, but it's very hard.

To bring even more variety, every race has three heroes, which are the main characters in the single-player campaigns, and they can also be summoned on the battlefield in skirmish matches or multiplayer if you research the correct suites. Even though they have different strengths, abilities and weaknesses, the heroes can be placed in one of three categories: Assault, Support or Stealth, with Vertigo being very good for those who prefer speed, hit-and-run attacks and scouting, while Orlok The Eternal is a true war machine.
The special abilities are their most important weapons though, being able to change the tide of a match if they are used at the correct time. The Novus Founder, for example, can activate Flow Tap to create a temporary relay through which an entire army can pour through and attack the enemy base, while the teleport ability of Prince Zessus can be used in some very interesting ways.
Considering the number of available options, a clumsy interface would have buried the game 10 feet under, but in Universe at War it's a very ergonomic one, with the research menu, unit and hero abilities, production buildings, units groups, Novus temporary bonuses, Masari Light/Dark modes or the upgrade slots for the Hierarchy's walkers being only 2 or 3 mouse-clicks away. This accessibility is very useful for creating reinforcements without getting back to the base or using all the abilities of your army without remembering dozens of keyboard shortcuts. Also, the tool-tips are very generous, detailing buildings/units/technologies descriptions, strengths and weaknesses, the researching/building completion time, the available/needed resources and so on. And speaking of resources, in Universe at War there is only one general resource, the second element which confines the army creation being the maximum population number. So during battles, the accent will be put on tactical side of things rather than on juggling with x types of resources to build more advanced units.

This will be useful when you will play one of the Conquer the World single-player scenarios, because the “global” buildings require the same type of resource. Also, all the action takes place in real time, so you will always have to be on your toes at what happens with the other territories on the globe, so you won’t be taken by surprise by your enemies. Structures and improvements built on the global map (like defensive turrets) will also be present during skirmish matches, which decide who controls a certain territory. If you win, the created units will follow you through the next mission, with each hero having a maximum number of units which can make up his army. Also keep in mind the fact that heroes have different action range, fact which limits their movement ability, turning particular territories into disputed strategic choke-points.
Although during battles you don't really have time to admire the landscapes, the atmosphere of a world coming to an end is very well reproduced: civilians will start screaming and running when they will see your (or your enemies') units, the car alarms will automatically start if something explodes near them or if a walker will pass nearby, the helpless cows will start mooing when they are lifted by the Hierarchy's drones and so on. Also, the feeling that you are surrounded by bugs when you are directing a walker to the enemy base is surprisingly satisfying and mostly you will choose to smash some buildings or parking lots just for the fun of it. The music composed by Frank Klepacki (who also scored the soundtracks for the Westwood Studios titles and the Empire at War games) fits very well with the action on-screen, with its tempo is rising right in at the moment when you are attacked, but the tune being specific to each race. The voice acting is good... not bad, but it could have been better.

On the visual front, Universe at War looks good, although the limited zoom-out level won't allow you to really appreciate the clean, Apple-like, style of the Novus bases or the huge size of the Hierarchy's walkers. A little warning though: the frame-rate can vary during battles when there are a lot of units on screen if you play on high resolutions or maximum details. So, don't activate them if you don't have a really powerful system. Unfortunately, the game has some annoying bugs, which can make the difference between victory and defeat, especially during an edge-of-your-seat match-up. It happened to me on many occasions to try and group some units with the classical group combination CTRL + #, only to see that nothing happens. After several attempts I noticed that there is a certain lag between the command and its execution, being necessary to perform an... easier key pressing to recognize the command. This is also valid for the ulterior group selection performed with the numeric keypad. The units are also kind of stubborn, sometimes not following an order until they stand idle for a couple of seconds. The path-finding isn’t that brilliant, fact that can be very dangerous when you have to retreat.
Universe at War is a true diamond in the rough, a game with great potential, but sabotaged by the LIVE system and some elements which can be repaired by a future patch (the bugs, the limited zoom and the pathfinding). When it comes to the online multiplayer however things aren't really that simple, because forcing players to pay for features which could have (and should have) been free isn't the best way to build a strong community.
A ray of hope comes from the moders and their possibilities to modify the game. Some total conversions are already in development, but some time will pass until these will get to a playable stage. And until then, it’s highly possible that Jim Raynor & company will finally make their long-awaited on stage and strike down the competition, regardless of its potential.

Update: at the date of the review’s writing, the #2 patch wasn't available. As such, some shortcomings mentioned in the article are no longer valid, so the score for the #2 version of Earth Assault would be 88.

Legendary Game : Spore (part III)

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Part I or Part II

A few hiccups

Apart from what I think is a skewed game mechanic, the game falls short on a couple of other counts. What I'd have really liked to see is a simple feature called auto-save -- that is not too much to ask for in a game. Although 'death' in the game is of little consequence, an auto-save feature was sorely missed when the game crashed on more than a couple of occasions and I found restarting that stage of evolution all over again. Spore obviously has a save feature; however, the creation tools and the world can be so engaging that you miss to save your game. Some gameplay aspects feel too easy and simple, reaching Armageddon was never so easy, although it's addictive to expand; the civilization phase seems too short. In Space phase, you can't save a game if you are on a planet, one has to exit a solar system to save the game, and the game does not convey as much. Then there is the DRM issue -- you can read about that can of worms here. These are some of the flaws that I hope will be fixed through future patches.

The game is well designed with many amusing add-ons. Funny voice effects and amusing antics by the creatures are found throughout the game. The game looks good, for what it sets out to do, and the interface is smooth. Visually, the game looks perfect for its content.
A few nifty multiplayer features have also been built into the game, mainly encouraging sharing and flaunting of your creations. While in the creation mode, the game automatically captures frames at each stage and creates an animated forum avatar that'll let you show off how you went from that simple block to the uber-cool space ship. The 'My Collections' feature of the game is a repository of your creations and collection that you can share over the Internet. Additionally, you can create videos of your creature in action and upload it onto YouTube from within the game. I am guessing that there are more features that'll emerge after further exploration and hopefully through updates and patches.

As it stands right now, Spore offers a Petri dish, a sandbox, a snow globe -- you can pick your analogy. If you are looking for deep strategic options, you'll find this game wanting. For those who enjoy building things, the game will offer you endless hours of fun (unless the dreaded DRM decides otherwise) and take you back to the days of playing with Lego blocks and play-dough. If you are looking from more 'traditional' form of game play, skip directly to the space exploration stage where creation takes a back seat in the game. This game is a true masterpiece in my opinions and it is one of those masterpieces that brake the mold and fire fresh imagination .

Legendary Game : Spore (part II)

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:56:00 +0000

Part I

Civilization Phase can be quite challenging because you have to capture the entire planet. You start off by designing the city, the factories, the houses as well as the combat vehicles. I designed my very own Metal Gear Spore and a Spore 22 Raptor as well as my favorite -- the Sea Santa. These vehicles are necessary to acquire Spice, which is the main currency. Spice can be found gushing out of land and sea. You have to plan out your city, which includes creating a house and factory model in the editor.

Building a house increases the vehicle cap, while building factories increases the revenue. It's up to you to keep a balance of both and make a profitable empire. Once you have enough resources, you need to start capturing cities. Every new city you capture will unlock a new feature. You will eventually be able to create sea and air vehicles, which are absent at the start. Capturing new cities also unlocks various super weapons including one which nukes all the other cities. The city planning and resource management aspect of the civilization phase is quite addictive; you want to advance fast and nuke even faster.

At the end of the civilization stage and depending on your choices, your species will now have enough economic and/or muscle power to develop space technology and you set out to find other sentient beings in the vast universe of Spore. It's fairly easy to go from a single-celled organism to a dominant space-fairing species, in a matter of three to four hours.

The final frontier

The Space Phase starts off with you building a spaceship. You use the spaceship to scout your planet, learn about the various creatures, and do some simple tasks to get used to the controls and so on. One of the tasks includes tractor-beaming up a creature and bringing him to any of the cities: reminiscent of the time you were the creature. Your progress during the space stage is significantly slowed down; the ultimate goal is to travel to the center of the universe.

In Space stage you can explore other planets, some of which are created by other users, interact with their creatures and lean more about them. The space phase is vast and you can explore the 500000+ planets in the game's galaxy. A user-created planet and its AI borrows traits off its creator's style of play: if the creator is aggressive, the AI will be aggressive. You can make allies like in the tribal phase or launch an inter-galactic war. The Space Phase is never ending; you can keep exploring deeper and deeper, and keep interacting with the ever increasing world of Spore.

Up until this point, Spore is dominantly about playing an architect and you'll likely spend the bulk of your time within the cleverly crafted creation tools. Once you enter the space stage however, it begins to feel more like a game and also compels you to drastically rethink your strategy. This brings us to the difficulty balance of the game.

To test the game mechanics, I experimented with different levels of aggression. One of my creatures was an aggressive carnivore and I found the going got really tough at the civilization stage of the game. Alternatively, I created an herbivore creature that befriended, impressed and bought off others to breeze into the space stage of evolution. Maybe it's just me, but I found that my passive ways forced me to be submissive to the more aggressive species of the universe. With limited military might, our economic dominance at the home planet offered little help to counter the opposing forces of the universe. Running helter-skelter between fighting off raiding space pirates, retaliating against aggressive species, and preventing biological disasters -- my aspiring space marine found little time to do what I wanted -- peacefully explore, colonize and build inter- planetary trade routes. At this stage, you do have a choice to refit or upgrade your spacecraft with more destructive force, but I was disappointed to find myself in a situation where I was forced to take a certain path.

Part III

Legendary Game : Spore (part I)

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:46:00 +0000

After nearly eight years in the making, the world saw the release of Spore from Will 'Toy Maker' Wright's Maxis studio. Spore has been touted and speculated as a god game or a simulation of everything; however, in our humble opinion it's neither a game nor a complete simulation, at least not in the strictest sense of the words. What Spore offers is an opportunity for a controlled experiment in nature, or evolution if you will.

Speaking of evolution, the game tends to throw our traditional understanding of the Darwinian theory of 'survival of the fittest' out the window as you have fair amount of choices to ensure your species survival and dominance in the universe. Having said that, the game design doesn't stray too far from our understanding of evolution and offers the progression stages starting with a single-celled organism all the way to what we may consider peak of a civilization -- space exploration.

Starting your journey

Your creature's journey in Spore begins as a humble single-celled organism, whose sole purpose in life is to consume and multiply. Determining your creature's traits at this stage are two main factors -- your dietary preference (plant-eating, carnivore or omnivore) and your survival tactics (aggressive, passive or adaptable).

This Cell Phase is basically a top-down view of your creature eating and growing on a 2D surface. Since I was an herbivore, I was swimming around looking for plants to chew on. As you eat, a progress bar at the bottom of the screen will track your progress to the next phase. You will have to keep your distance from other carnivores -- since to them, you are on the menu. Occasionally you will discover useful body parts that can be used by you inside the game's editor: such as a spike on your back to hurt those pesky predators.

Irrespective of the means you choose, the end entails making your creature's DNA complex enough to grow 'legs' and move on to the land above. Before exiting to land and entering the Creature Stage you are given a special ability, to survive in the outside world. I was given the Siren Song, for example.

With similar choices offered at the Creature Stage, your main goal is to collect more complex body parts that you will use to enhance your creature through an incredible fun and simple to use tool kit. In this phase, the game will also generate species around you, to balance the ecosystem. The world around you is thus filled with many different creatures; you will also find many dead animals as well as skeletal remains. These skeletal remains can be scourged to discover new parts that can be later used in the editor.

Do the dance

The Creature stage of the game ends with the consequence that your creature will emerge as the dominants species in the world, right at the top of the food chain. Since you are the only sentient species on the current planet, the power struggle shifts to intra-species strife for domination or survival.
At the end of the tribal stage, the biological blue print of your creature will be set in stone and the way forward at this stage is through collection and implementation of various tools that'll lead you through to the civilization stage. The game introduces balance by spawning bigger and stronger creatures around you. I turned into a carnivore after a while by editing and adding a new carnivorous mouth piece. I realized that as an herbivore I was very passive and harmless, hence was hunted quite easily. A few modifications later -- I got me an offensive bite ability as well the ability to sprint -- attributes of my new-found body parts.

In the creature phase one can earn DNA points by either eradicating other species -- this is done by killing 5-7 members of the species, or by being friendly and impressing 3-5 members of that species. It's your decision, and as you complete the tasks your progress bar grows towards the next Phase.

An interesting anecdote: During one of my hunts, I saw a huge herd of creatures running away, after a while I heard a strange noise and before I could comprehend, I saw a giant spaceship looming overhead. I was quite shocked and not knowing the ship's intentions, I fled. The ship started abducting many creatures and after a while, it just flew away. I saw a couple of creatures waving at the ship with gloomy faces, as the ship had abducted one of their own.

Every time you are ready to evolve and add new parts to your creature, you have to mate. The creature phase can be quite action-packed if you are a carnivore. After earning a decent amount of DNA points your brain gets bigger and you can now add a member to take along on your adventures. In plain language, you start a pack. You can make allies by singing to others: a small mini-game starts and if you are able to impress, you win an ally. This socialization is not limited to singing and there are other abilities like charm and dance which are earned depending on the body parts you use in the editor. However, a tribe might demand you dance for them to become allies -- whenever one asked me to dance, I eliminated their entire species. I remember earning an achievement (yes the game has achievements) as I eliminated about 20 species to earn DNA points.

Once again, at these stages of the game -- starting from your arrival on land to the peak of your civilization, the course of the species is determined mainly by how you use your acquired technology and your social interaction with other species, tribes and civilizations.
In the tribal stage your goal is to grow as a tribe and dominate others. You start off by hunting and collecting food. Once you have enough food, you have to produce more babies and increase the size of your tribe. More food leads to more development, which can be used to create tools. These tools can be used for making allies or for eliminating rival tribes. I faced five tribes, I dominated and captured 4 of them and made the last remaining tribe my ally. Every time you eliminate or become allies with a neighboring tribe you receive their tribe Totem to indicate your victory. Once all the tribes have been defeated you get to advance to the Civilization Phase.

Part II

News : Spiderman Web of Shadows

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Activision should be proud of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows because from what I've seen until today it looks that it will pack a lot of action . Adventure ? That reamains to be seen , sometime in October , when it is dued for launch .Had you seen the new screen-shots with the black Kitty that looks de-le-cious , even better than Merry Jane. Spider-man it's a lucky guy ...

Learn Japanese very fast !

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:09:00 +0000

This is the craziest thing ever ! I don't know any Japanese , but I recently found on the net a book with pictures that teaches you Japanese really fast . Take for example this picture . It took me bout 3 seconds to understand what was written there !

Review: Viking - Battle for Asgard

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:16:00 +0000

For a game that doesn't do any one thing particularly well, why is Viking: Battle For Asgard so much fun?

Put simply, it's because the developers of this Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game understand what turns a player into an addict. Viking's medieval sword-and-axe combat is merely alright, the visuals won't wow you, and the story is barely there. But the game's gradually expanding world ramps up perfectly, constantly teasing you with one more goal just out of reach, then another, then another.

Next thing you know, it's three in the morning and you can't remember how many legions of monsters you've slaughtered.

Viking is the story of a lone warrior tasked by the Norse goddess Freya to beat back the horrific armies of the death-goddess Hel, who has taken over the land of Midgard. To do it, you've got to liberate your fellow warriors and take back key military locations like quarries and lumberyards, so you'll be ready for a series of full-scale, thousand-man assaults on enemy strongholds.

One reason why Viking is so compelling is that it realizes its core competency and sticks closely to it. Although the setup makes the game sound like some sort of military tactics sim, and the open world brings to mind role-playing games like Fable, it's really an unabashed action game. You're on your own mowing down the enemies with your trusty sword, and the only strategy you need to employ is where to slash next.

But it's not all mindless hack-and-slash. If you run smack into the middle of a Legion-occupied area, you'll quickly be overwhelmed and die. Stealth is key. Now, generally when the word "stealth" is brought up in the context of any videogame whose title does not contain the words Metal Gear, it's a bad thing. Not so for Viking. Yes, main character Skarin is basically a lumbering oaf without a sneaky bone in his body. But his enemies make up for this by having the approximate combined intelligence of half a potato chip.

This leads to several ridiculous but undeniably entertaining stealth situations in which you tramp conspicuously around the outskirts of an enemy base, picking off preposterously inattentive monsters one by one as you thin out their numbers and move inward towards the oblivious rest of them. If you get behind an enemy undetected you can one-hit kill him with a special move you earn later in the game; these are generally accompanied by a gruesome dismemberment and a feeling of delicious power.

Once you've accomplished all of the smaller goals, you and a thousand other dudes take on one of the enemy's massive strongholds. This is a sight to behold when you first see it -- insane numbers of soldiers from both sides flood onto the battlefield and start going at it. There's a tradeoff, though, because the action slows down noticeably as the console chugs to keep up with everything.

This is not to impugn Viking's tech, however. In fact, good technical tuning is a big part of the reason why the game is so addictive. When you first start the game, it loads everything it needs into memory, and from that moment on, you're never pulled from the experience. When you use the giant monuments that let you warp around the three large island maps, it happens instantly. When you die, you're immediately put back into action. Even when you clear out one of the giant enemy bases, it's seamlessly converted into a friendly one. The game never stops -- not for loading, not for lame cut scenes, not for grinding or pointless busy work.

At some point, you realize that looking back at each of Viking's qualities, it's hard to really put your finger on anything that's truly standout -- and yet it's compelling. In a way, it's very much like last year's Xbox 360 game Crackdown, which also nailed the carrot-and-stick approach to game design. Give Viking: Battle For Asgard an hour, then see if you can stop. I bet you can't.

Rating 8.6

Talk like a pirate day

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:22:00 +0000

Avast, me hearties!

19th of September is here ! Have a happy talk like a pirate day (week-end) .

Pirate National Song

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
And cookey's throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten;
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o'day in a boozing ken

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men of the whole ship's list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
And the scullion he was stabbed times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped down in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and foul sunrise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ten of the crew had the murder mark!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers' glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes
Looking up at paradise
All souls bound just contrawise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men of 'em good and true
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ev'ry man jack could ha' sailed with Old Pew,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
With a ton of plate in the middle hold
And the cabins riot of stuff untold,
And they lay there that took the plum
With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

More was seen through a sternlight screen...
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Chartings undoubt where a woman had been
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
'Twas a flimsy shift on a bunker cot
With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot
Oh was she wench or some shudderin' maid
That dared the knife and took the blade
By God! she had stuff for a plucky jade
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
We wrapped 'em all in a mains'l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight
And we heaved 'em over and out of sight,
With a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare-you-well
And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Review : Painkiller Overdose

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:02:00 +0000

Overdose of cliches

If you love real good action games than you must think at Painkiller. Only God knows how I destroyed and banished Diablo's minions for dozens of hours . Then the expansion pack , Battle Out of Hell , came and set the series as one of the best games in the genre , like Doom, Wolfenstein and Serious Sam: The First Encounter. Sadness and frustration are left away once you enter the grotesque and funny world of Painkiller – hell, as you never seen it before . Rarely you see a game where moments of terror are followed by funny moments , which determines you to go further , to approach step by step toward Satan's nest . I wont forget the orphan asylum , where little children on fire were following me , trying to set me ablaze and the little burned girls with their scream that would make you freeze . I can still see how they were running toward me , with their arms width open , thinking that in my arms they would find the salvation from Hell . After I escape the orphan asylum i meet new enemies , the clowns with grenades .

An expansion for Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell is still a distant possibility , while a handful of smart and crazy modders (I mean it in a good way) thought that it would be nice to give us a single-player conversion for Painkiller , to make waiting a bit easier . Slowly but surely , Painkiller: Overdose took shape and transformed itself in a game of it's own . They say that trying is without death .

Or is it ?

In Overdose you are Belial , a bastard born from the love between an angel and a demon . Belial is very pissed off because he is trapped in a cage for some thousands of years under the order of Lucifer . As soon as the hero from the previous game kills Lucifer , Belial is given the chance to escape , and he doesn't refuse it . On the way out of Hell he spills all the hate he accumulated over the years , over devils , skeletons , ninjas , mummies , demons and other hell spawns .

The locations as well as the enemies vary , but without a logic , and the weapons work the same like in the previous games , like if they changed only the skin . Even the saving system is the same : reaching a checkpoint and receiving the corresponding health boost while the hordes of evil continue their rampage Then , after you complete a task you are rewarded with a tarot card , one of the few reasons that make you replay the same level again . The whole game brings you over 40 new enemies which in fact are only four –head bashing monsters , hell spawns with bats , ranged demons that spit from afar and huge enemies that are easily killed . The enemies have almost no AI , because they don't hide , they don't use evasive maneuvers and they don't curse or swear . But still , I had the feeling as I played Overdose that this game is a version of Painkiller without stamina , without action , original weapons and without the smart punch-lines . After all , Overdose is nothing that a mindless FPS , with huge loading times . Loading times that are not excused by any high-end graphics or level design . The game is pretty hard to play , because you have the chance to die on any level on almost all the difficulties and very frustrating is the fact that you have to wait one minute each time you die . Don't ask me why ...

Read and burn !

For it wasn't for the huge loading time , Painkiller : Overdose would have been a tolerable game , but the rampage of mindless dead creatures without any personality is a grim site . Overdose is a game that is trying to beat the original Painkiller but it lack the action and the flavor that it's predecessor had . There are better ways to spend those 8 hours that this mod guarantees so how about some beer ?

Rating 6.3

Top 10 Sexy Moments in Games (5-1)

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Previous 5 places

#5 Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne - [ Xbox ]

While most sexy gaming moments are there to simply get a rise out of the player (pun most definitely intended), the sex scene between Max Payne and Mona Sax is actually one of the most fitting ever seen in a video game. Two troubled souls are inexplicably drawn together and despite the violence and carnage around them, manage to find some iota of love. It's just too bad that Max can't use Bullet Time in the bedroom, according to Mona.

#4 Dead Or Alive Ultimate - [ Xbox ]

She kicks high, indeed. While an incredibly competent fighting game, it's hard to deny the sheer sexiness factor of DOA's fighting ladies. In fact, everything they do ends up being sexy as a result--kicking you in the face (sexy), punching you in the gut ( super-sexy), and even pile driving your skull in to the ground (unbelievably sexy). Who says you can't get your ass kicked AND have a good time, too?

#3 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty - [ PS2 ]

Even Solid Snake needs to make time for the sweet, sweet females, and what better example is there than his "secret" locker rendezvous with a pinup girl in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty? Gamers who ducked into a particular locker in the Tanker mission were treated to a lovely Japanese cutie and those brave enough to call up Otocon on the CODEC were treated to a particularly hot and bothered Snake. Now we know where "stealth action" really came from.

#2 Golgo 13 - [ NES ]

Before there was fancy CG, there were pixels--and big ones, at that. But that didn't stop super assassin Golgo 13 from getting down with some digital love in his first NES action title. While crude by today's standards, the sex scene in Golgo 13 goes to show you that with a few crude pixels and appropriately primitive MIDI-based mood music, even the most hardened of killers can make some time for a little dose of the old in-and-out.

#1 Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix - [ Playstation ]

Hong Kong becomes the stage for action, espionage, and hot and sweaty lesbian love - and we thought it was just a great place to buy bootleg DVDs! While the first game in the series focused more on the "blow 'em up" brand of action, the sequel makes the bold move of jumping into gamers' pants and plays the Rain/Hanna lesbian angle for all it's worth...up to and including sensual massage sessions. Just don't expect a "happy ending" when you get to the end of the game, if you catch our drift.

Top 10 Sexy Moments in Games (10-6)

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:22:00 +0000

#10 BloodRayne 2 - [ PS2 ]

Being a semi-nude half-vampire, BloodRayne needs to feed to succeed. It's just a bit unfortunate that the feeding part tends to leave a veritable trail of bodies in her wake. But oh boy, those feedings aren't to be missed! With enough erotic groans and moans to make even a porno producer blush, BloodRayne makes our top list of sexy gaming moments. As for that neck wound, you'll probably want to see a doctor.

#9 Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude - [ PS2 ]

If only more games could remind us of our "first time," no matter how sick and abhorrent it was. First, there are a number of great things at work in the Twiggy sex scene: a sexually desperate college student, a hot-to-trot band girl, and one gigantic tree costume. What follows is perhaps one of the most memorable video game sex scenes, and one that has deep personal significance for us. Let's hear it for Larry for taking wood to a whole new level!

#8 Bubble Bath Babes - [ NES ]

Before there was Hot Coffee there was Bubble Bath Babes, a game that showed that even the most pixilated of naked ladies was a fair substitute for the real thing. While a pretty simplistic puzzle game at its core, the game rewarded skilled players with sexy images of women in progressive stages of undress as they progressed through the game. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife. Really.

#7 Britney's Dance Beat - [ PS2 ]

Oh Britney, we're all slaves 4 U! America's favorite wet dream finally comes in game form and wouldn't you know it, we all get to push her buttons. Amazingly enough, the virtual Britney looked pretty good, whether she was gyrating, dancing, thrusting, or twirling around like a freshman after two beers. And thanks to some real-life music video footage that played in the background, gamers got a double dose of the virtual vixen.

#6 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - [ PS2 ]

While the ESRB and politicians may be up in arms over a little spilt hot coffee in GTA San Andreas, we think they're overlooking the beautiful idea of one man in the ghetto finding true love...with multiple women...in multiple positions. It's really like a fairy tale when you think about it. The only thing that creeps us out is that CJ never seems to take his pants off during any of his amorous adventures.

Next 5 places

News : The Witcher Enhanced Edition

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:36:00 +0000

The guys from CD Projekt recently announced that they launched the enhanced version of The Witcher . Frankly I don't understand why they did this . Yeah , sure , the game was good and they did a good job so now they want to be known as a company that does everything right , but franly I doubt it that this will be an excuse for the money thrwon on development in this year after the games launch .

Anyway , this re-launch brings bug fixing and minor combat enhancements (nothing that a simple patch couldn't do ) , but the real changes are represented by the 2000 lines of dialogue that were remade , new animations and new textures for the vharacters in the world .

Good for them , but I sure won't play the game again just because they did this enhancement without bringing any changes or aditions to gameplay . Maybe they were smart if they did something like Piranha Bytes did with Gothic 2 ( I confess that I finished Gothic II and it's expansion about 6 times in total ) . The Witcher is huge and very well designed but I find to few reasons to replay this game just for these enhancements . Come on guys ! This is not a MMORPG .....

Any way . They seem to be filled with good news because they also stated that the people that already bought the game will have the option to dawnload all these changes .

Here are the related videos :

Games of Legend : Planescape Torment

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:15:00 +0000

When you've got a storeroom full of great RPGs behind you, you've got to imagine that it's pretty hard to keep convincing yourself that the next one is going to live up to the great expectations that have already been set. Fortunately, rather than resting on the laurels they received for Baldur's Gate and the Fallout series, Interplay has taken the winning qualities of those titles and mixed them with a universe that is far different from what most RPG fans are used to. The end result is a game that has the playability of Baldur's Gate (which is no surprise, it uses the BG engine after all), the story and character depth of Fallout and Fallout 2 and an adventure that doesn't fall prey to the predictability that plagues so many games of the traditional fantasy genre.

As I stated above, a lot of the game's originality comes straight out of the Planescape world itself. For those of you who aren't on TSR's mailing list, the Planescape universe was created to allow deeper exploration of the various planes of existence that showed up in the earlier AD&D rules. There are a whole lot of different planes, and in the interest of getting this piece done sometime in the next century, I'm just going to let the game introduce them to you. Let's just leave it at this ¿ there are a lot of different attitudes out there and most of them have a plane of existence associated with them. Within these planes are major powers (gods, devas, etc.) who help keep them running the way they should. The city of Sigil, where a good deal of Torment takes place, acts as a sort of intersection for all of these different worlds. What this means is that as you stroll down the city streets, you'll be just as likely to spot devils and demons (they actually have more specific racial names, but once again I think the game itself will do a better job of explaining this out than I will), walking suits of armor, creatures of pure order, or other magical constructs as you will to spot human beings. If you're familiar with the concept of planar travel already, you're probably salivating at the basic setup here. If you're not familiar with it, let me reassure by saying that the game spends a lot of time making sure you understand the concepts involved by immersing you in them. In other words, it's fun to figure this stuff out and I'm going to move on now...

Main Character - The Nameless One

As you can imagine, this kind of backdrop was a dream for the guys who were designing the game. I mean, how bad can a story be if it can involve literally anything you can dream up? Even so, the guys over at Black Isle went all out when writing Torment's tremendous storyline. As the game begins, your character wakes up on a marble slab in the basement of a huge mortuary. Shortly after you wake up, you discover your first travelling companion, a floating, disembodied skull named Morte. Once you team up (Morte acts as a sort of floating encyclopedia for you), you'll start to discover what really sets this game apart from other titles you've played before. First off, you can't remember who you are. While it becomes obvious to you fairly quickly that you've played an important role in a great number of lives (you keep running into people who are really pissed off at you), you have no memory at all of who you are, what you've done, and what you're supposed to do now. The next thing you'll realize is that you're immortal. Unlike most games that end when the main player dies, in Torment you simply find yourself waking up again and again on the same Mortuary slab. While this is certainly preferable to dying, it can be a real bummer when you've traveled pretty far afield. Your power over death seems to extend to others as well ¿ you have an innate ability to raise any of your companions from the dead. Finally, even in a world where the extraordinary is commonplace, everyone in the realm of Sigil keeps treating you like you're some sort of freak. The repeated verbal jabs you take from the citizens you run across make finding out who you are and how you got to be that way a very compelling goal indeed.

Fortunately, your brain blank doesn't seem to be complete. Every so often, you'll see a person, place or action that seems familiar to you and it will trigger a flashback that will restore some of your earlier abilities and skills. It turns out that over the years you've done just about every job under the sun, so taking up any profession (read: character class) is really just a matter of remembering what skills you can. In gameplay terms, this is particularly cool, because you never really have to nail down and choose a particular profession. You start the game as a low-level fighter, but within a couple of hours you be able to switch over to thief or mage. If you decide at some point that that's not the way you want to play the game, all you have to do is switch back and you'll pick up where you left off on the experience scale.

Obviously, if you ever want to be good at anything, you'll have to settle down and actually earn some big experience in one of the different professions. The really cool thing about this is, like Fallout and Fallout 2, the game is written so that any type of character will have their own specific way to get through each of the different situations presented. More intelligent characters will be able to talk or magic their way through a situation, charismatic characters will be able to charm their way through it, quick characters might be able to flee or steal their way around the problem and strong characters... well strong characters will just beat their way through it. This setup not only offers a more realistic gameplay experience, but also imparts a certain replay value to the game ¿ if you've played through as a thug, you can try again as a wise man and will have a very different play experience than you did the time before.

Even though your character will always be the big freak in the party, some of the other players you pick up during the course of the game are pretty hardcore as well. I really kind of ruined the game for myself by knowing a lot about these different beings before I started playing the game, so I'm going to leave out the heavy character descriptions here. Let's just leave it at a succubus who's given up sex, an animated suit of armor with a Batman-like obsession with Justice, a rat-tailed girl who can trade insults with the best of them (the best of them would be Morte) and a weird critter from the planes of order. This is just a sampling of the different types of characters you'll find yourself travelling with, but I'm going to stop there. It's almost impossible to even talk about some of the different characters in the game without giving away parts of the game, so I'm just going to leave it alone. All you really need to know from a review standpoint is that all of the characters in the game are extremely well designed and have loads of speech, history and personal flavor. Better still, they have their own agendas and will respond quickly to changes in your alignment or deviations from the path of action that they deem most important. I also liked the fact that certain player characters have powers that, like your raise dead ability, are a part of the character design itself and don't really fit within the rigid AD&D rule set. My favorite was Morte's insult ability that would make any enemy on the screen ignore anyone else in an effort to kick his cranium. Not only was this power useful (sometimes you need a little space to cast a spell), but it was also pretty funny as well. Even more amusing was the fact that every time an NPC said something nasty to me while Morte was around, he would cackle with glee and add the new taunt into his already awesome catalogue.

Succubus

Obviously the characters you travel with have the most conversational text, but Planescape's NPCs boast a good deal more than you see in the standard RPG. A great deal of your game will be spent interacting with people trying to gather as many facts about yourself and the world around you as possible and it's nice to have townpeople who can offer up more facts than the standard, "Things used to be better before the Demon King invaded our realm." While this depth is one of the things that kept me glued to my screen, hack and slash players may get bummed out at the fact that Planescape is a lot more about character interaction than it is killing bad guys. On the other hand, I did have some troubles with major characters who play a important role in the game having a really short fuse. If you screw up a conversation, you may find yourself having to kill someone who could make your journey a lot easier. Still, even this is fairly realistic within the confines of the game. Planescape is a tough universe and nosy people who go around asking too many questions are very likely to find themselves in a fight.

Baldur's Gate fans will find the Torment interface just as easy to use (if not easier) than the original engine that it was based on. The game uses the same point and click system that finally convinced me that an RPG could exist in real-time and still be fun. All of the rules you'd expect to see in the pen and paper game, from encumbrance to casting time are in there, but handled by the computer without bogging down the game's pace. Like Baldur's Gate, all of the characters and NPCs in the game are surrounded by glowing circles that help you sort out your enemies from neutrals and comrades. While combat is relatively hands-off (you just point and click), loads of nice features like special animations for critical hits hold your interest pretty well and keep battles from ever becoming a chore.

I'm really running long here, but I feel like I have to say something about Torment's incredible art before I finish things up. When I first heard (all those years ago) that Interplay was planning to try and recreate the Planescape universe in a PC game, I was pretty convinced that they were doomed to failure. I couldn't have been more wrong. Black Isle has taken the point of view used in Baldur's Gate, but zoomed in close so you can see the characters a little bit better. And there are a lot of characters. The real reason I thought that no one would ever be able to truly recreate the Planescape universe was the sheer number of different models that they would have to create to show off all the different types of beings you would be able to interact with. While Torment doesn't have them all, they do have more than enough to make you feel like you're at the crossroads of the universe. Better still, there are some truly amazing background and large scale animations in the game, like huge machines and a giant iron golem that takes up half of the screen. While it could be argued that these pieces of eye candy don't have all that much to do with the way the game actually plays, I think the sheer psychological impact of seeing something that huge really helps you get a feeling of scale that doesn't come across when you're watching the action from afar. Finally, the game's spell effects are something that I don't think will be matched for some time to come. High level spells like Meteor Shower become minor events in and of themselves and feature huge animations that show exactly what's going on when you cast the spell. Playing as a mage gets pretty dangerous sometimes as the incredible spell animations will have you looking for any opportunity whatsoever to unleash some of your more destructive magics.

I realize that there are a lot of things that I haven't covered here, but it's all really a moot point. If you're a roleplaying fan, you need to go buy this game for several different reasons. First, it's a great example of the genre. Second, it's got enough depth to keep you entertained for a very long time. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it's a hell of a lot different than anything else that's ever been released. People who have traditionally shied away from Tolkeinesque fantasy RPGs may find the Planescape world a little daunting at first, but may find that the game's incredible script and powerful characters will help them understand why the rest of us are so addicted to this type of game. A must have for every serious gamer.

Vision Over MMORPGs Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:54:00 +0000

In the first article of the series entitled Vision Over MMORPGs Part 2 we talked about what happens when you add tabletop games to the mix . This week is time too see what happens when companies try to please as many types of players as possible .

If we think about how did companies really succeeded in creating good MMORPG's and how others failed miserable , we could say that very often is all about luck , fortune or just Godly intervention . False ! There are people that say : " What is so cool about World Of Warcraft , what does it have and other games don't ? " . If you will ask those that play Wow , you will get many different answers for the same question . The truth is somewhere in the middle . World of Warcraft (WoW) brings nothing special technology wise or gameplay wise . So what is so special about it ? Well , it was designed and built following the basic foundations of Blizzard : bug free and flawless design . In my opinion this is what makes Blizzard the best game company in the world . They never got it wrong , this is the recipe for success .

Miniature Dwarf from World of Warcraft

Ok , so I just presented the motto that each game company in the world should have . Now what should every MMORPG in the world have as gameplay ?

- Persistent and seamless world . ( persistent is what makes the difference between online game and single player game . People hate loading screens , un-natural obstacles and panoramic drawings instead of a real horizon)
- Players love to See and use lots of different attributes , professions , skills , talents , ways to improve ones gear , in fact people love everything that makes them better and different from any other player . This is by far the hardest thing to accomplish in any MMORPG . A simple mistake here could result in a total failure . This part of the gameplay includes almost all the economy , ways to socialise and accomplishment in a game .
- Different opponents (NPC or players) each with their own set of rules , factions or location on the map .
-Guilds , factions and alliances . These are the core of the social life of a game avatar . A player that just received as drop a super-cool-godly item will feel only half of the excitement if he doesn't have other players that feel happy for him or admire him . Plus a well developed guild should be able to do many things in such a game like : pvp wars , sieges , different mini-games (a very important element . Mini-games could be : fishing contest , hunting contest , running , duels , card games , capturing artifacts or sites of great power , kicking chickens- for those that played Fable ) .
- And one of the most important aspects : story and lore . RPG games at their core are based on story so a MMORPG without a story can't exist . I think this is the most important plus that World of Warcraft had .Why did you think Blizzard named the game like this ? Why didn't they named it The World ? Or Alliance versus Horde ? Simple , because the name Warcraft made half of the box sales and a quarter of the monthly subscription base .

Hm ! Then what are the other game companies doing wrong ? There are two types of mistakes : either they launch a game with a real background story , unpolished , with many bugs , and with common gameplay elements or they launch a mediocre game with no consistent background story or lore , a few bugs , probably with good features but some of them are badly implemented and even a high subscription cost for such low expectations . Sure , there are companies that are doing well with the game they launched and all the credits (and money) are under their name .

Indie-developed game : Darkfall Online

Sadly , there is one thing where almost every game company (and here I include Blizzard-Vivendi as well ) does it wrong . They listen to much of what players complain about . Think about it that most players are normal people , without being professional game developers or mathematicians . Those that are , most likely won't complain about the game if it is well designed and most likely you won't find them on the forums . The rule is that every player has an egocentric view over the respective game . If he took a beat or two from another class in the game , he is sure that the game is unbalanced and he demands to nerf that class without trying to understand what impact will have that action on the entire game . The bad part is that most companies fail under the pressure and they take this actions without a careful planning .

As an argument, I present you some wise words taken from a blog held by Radu Privantu , owner of the MMORPG called Eternal Lands :

" Player Feedback
As soon as your game is online and people start playing it, they will start expressing their opinion, whether you ask them for it or not. Somewhat ironic is the fact that those who are smarter and stronger in the game will usually not post on the forums or send e-mails complaining about things or suggesting new features. There are, of course, exceptions from this rule, but if you watch any MMO forums you will notice that most of the suggestions are worthless.
The problem is, when someone complains about some aspect of the game, the complaint will be egocentric, focused on their particular problem, and not on the overall benefit of the game. For example, some players want certain items to be cheaper so that they can afford one, without thinking that making the item cheaper will cause in-game inflation.
My personal experience with asking for feedback from the entire community (such as an open forum post) is bitter. The majority of people will NOT even bother to read your post, they will just read the title then click on the "Reply" button. And even if they do read your post, they will still think about what benefits them, and not the game as a whole."

This concludes the second part of the Vision Over MMORPGs series . For the next part we will talk about how profitable are MMORPGs and will learn how to correctly predict a companies monthly profit .

Review : SimCity Societies

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:13:00 +0000

My social energy is better than yours .

From my experience with this game I can say that Simcity didn't evolved a lot as years went by , but in the end the producers got bored of the same game mechanics and here we are . Tilted Mill, the new team , came with some minor innovations that gave birth to a not so good clone of City Life . The reasons that determined them to destroy a perfect series can be found in games like – Caesar IV and Cities: Children of the Nile, both already destroyed . I believe that the guys from Tilted Mill are a kind of Uve Boll of sim games made by Electronic Arts.

What are the problems ? Beside a prison and a propaganda building I can't see what else they did right . I mean - I can't get past this problem – you have someone like Will Wright, who is smarter than you and he does a great job at creating games that work perfectly and 'catchy' . Of course they thought that they can do better so the result was a game that is more Caesar IV than a SimCity. My level of disappointment is huge . Now don't you think that my disappointment is created by some kind of conservatorism . It's because they made a game without flavour , without a 'soul' if I might say . I will prove you this remark with the following .

Some examples

So, SimCity Societies is organized around some energies not on the people that require those „resources”, as they call it . These resources are around seven and they are Spirituality, Production, Creativity etc. In the city you won't be able to determine economical , industrial , residential zones as you could previously do it. You will build building by building . Some of them will produce these energies other consume it . The big problem of the game is that it is very hard to balance the building that produce with the ones that consume . Like an example , you will have buildings that cumulate Productivity and some that consume this resource , without having a logic . Another example is that paint shops consume Creativity instead of producing it , as it would be normal . But Creativity is cumulated by a wall , yes that is correct , a simple wall . There are many examples like this one and the bad thing is that you will have to browse through almost 500 of these buildings . I'm very sure that the producers invested much more time in how the buildings look than how the buildings behave . That's why , if you want ,with 5 buildings you can construct your entire city . There is no need for 500 buildings doing the same thing. Let's continue . It doesn't matter where you construct the buildings . For example you can put the buildings that create electricity in a corner of the map as well in the middle of the city. The efect will be the same. There is no need to connect them because in the moment you construct them they will start producing electricity for the buildings near them. I did an experiment and built in the middle of the forest some of these building that produce Electricity and the result was that they were offering the required quantity of this resource without being visited by people . Thus we have a complete lack of interdependency in a city which is against the basic principles that should characterize a game like this . Regarding the people there are only three resources needed : electricity , jobs and entertainment . These needs can be fast covered and the strange thing is that jobs are never a problem because your citisens don't seem to care if they have jobs or not . Not even the houses aren't needed in large quantities because only a handfull of houses can acustom thousands of citisens .

The end .. of the series

There are hundreds of examples like this one and bugs , lots of them . Congratulations Tilted Mill for another franchise destroyed . Simcity Societies is a simple and screwed game .

Rating 6.3

Mind Game

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:12:00 +0000

This optical illusion is so cool and has been circulating since 2006! Carefully check the animated GIF below.

Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

Actually, this animated image can be interpreted in two different ways - clockwise and counter-clockwise! However, there is no trickery used - the fact remains that the image is a constant 34-frame loop representing a full revolution of a dancer, and the effect in which the viewer perceives the dancer to be revolving clockwise or counter-clock wise is entirely caused by the ambiguous frames where the spinning dancer’s legs and arms cross over each other, making them perceived as turning both clock and counter-clock wise! If you’re just seeing the dancer turning one side, just try to focus and change the direction.

It has been assumed, however, that if you see this animated image turn clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa, but though such conclusions seem flawed, it’s fun!

Play Flash Games

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:02:00 +0000

This is a pretty cool flash game . You can play with all the well known characters from beat-'em-up games which Newground offers .You can play the Story , something similar to a campaign , start a Challenge , multiplay in a Versus game or try your skill in a Survivor minigame (you first need to unlock this part ) .

The graphics are good and there is a lot of gore . The control is easy , with the arrow keys as direction and a,s,d keys for special combos .

Description : This game is going to be HUGE. Some of the best game designers from Newgrounds.com have been working on this game for 18 months straight. Choose your character and fight to the death in a 4 player Newgrounds Rumble.

Play Newgrounds Rumble

Play arcade games @ arcadevoid.com

News : Red Faction Guerrilla

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:47:00 +0000

The latest trailer Red Faction: Guerrilla surprises us with new gameplay scenes which bring a lot of destruction . In the game you will be able to use vehicles with which you can jump on buildings or crash onto them and surprise the opponents inside them , destroy bridges (in order to eliminate the enemy convoys regardless if they are on the bridge or under) or destroy buildings using weapons in your arsenal (regardless if you shoot in barrels or throw explosives). Regardless of the style you choose the game looks promising and guarantees a lot of fun .

The game will be released on January the 30 , 2009 on Xbox 360, PS 3 and PC.

Check this trailers to see what fun and effects the game packs .

Review : Shadowgrounds Survivor

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Ganymede. The largest satellite in our solar system, it's basically a big ball of ice and salt water. Why on earth (pun intended) would humanity want to inhabit the place, much less a warlike alien race? Why ask why? Colonize it we did, and invade it they did. This was the basic premise of Shadowgrounds, a fantastic budget shooter released in 2005. Rather than leap straight into a sequel (Shadowgrounds II: Pick up a mop!), the Finnish developers decided to “remix” this game and release a hybrid expansion/follow-up. The result is Shadowgrounds Survivor, and it's every bit as good as the first release.

Like its immediate predecessor, Survivor is a top-down shooter that hearkens back to the days of Smash TV and Total Carnage, except that there is a much more detailed plot and a heavy nod to role-playing games. As opposed to the blanket machine-part upgrade system of Shadowgrounds, Survivor has implemented a more refined approach, with unique class abilities, general class abilities and weapon abilities tailored to each of the three characters. While not as insanely detailed as say, The Witcher, the extra depth is a velvety smooth addition to this budding franchise.

In Shadowgrounds, you played a mechanic named Wesley Tyler, an unlikely hero thrust into an epic tale of survival against impossible odds. A long-standing colony on the Jupiter moon of Ganymede is overrun by unending hordes of infernally chitinous aliens, and Wesley fights them and saves the day. In Survivor, you play as three different, isolated survivors as they battle through the same invasion. It's the same events and the same basic story, just different peoples experiencing it.

This time through, you begin as Luke Giffords, one of the last remaining marines on Ganymede. Your weapon options are a pistol, an assault rifle and a rocket launcher — not all at once, mind you, but these are what you'll have to work with as you find them. After a few levels, you switch to a maintenance worker by the name of Bruno Lastmann. This grizzled old Russian has adopted an interesting way of staying awake — he drinks flamethrower fuel. This avatar employs a flamethrower (as you may have already guessed), a shotgun and a mini-gun cannon. Finally, you take control of Isabel Larosse, a special-ops sniper who remains dangerously close to a full psychotic break the entire time you're controlling her. Isabel uses a pistol, a rail-gun sniper rifle and a plasma cannon. All three of these unlikely heroes share the same goals: get to the New Atlantic Colony before the alien hordes do, get the city's defenses up, and pray that it's enough to keep the monstrous things at bay long enough for help to arrive.

Basic gameplay is still kill or be killed, run and gun, etc. Every kill nets you some experience, which is banked toward increased levels, and each level brings with it some upgrade points. Weapon upgrade parts are still found on the battlefield, dropped by enemies, but now you also get class-specific abilities and character tweaks. These are what increase with each level. Using the marine as an example, you'll be able to buy quick weapon reloads, tough skin and fragmentation grenades. This is in addition to the basic set of character improvements that all three avatars have: radar display, increased health, critical hits, and an "auto-doctor" that will dose you with a health kit (if you have one stockpiled) if you fall below 50% health at any time.

The weapon upgrades are, simply put, fantastic. I've never seen a game so eager to make the default sidearm so ruthlessly effective. Both the marine and the sniper get a pistol, but they have different properties when enhanced. Luke can upgrade the clip size, add on a Taser stun, and tag on a smartgun link that, once locked on, will kill in one shot whatever alien at which it's targeted. Contrariwise, Isabel gets to coat her pistol rounds in tranquilizers (slowing the movement of all opponents), further coat her rounds in fast-acting venom, and her trusty pea-shooter gives her a temporary energy shield. In both instances, these weapons become among the most powerful in the game. Most of the upgrades are similar to those that were featured in the original Shadowgrounds, but because they're split between the characters and often between the weapons, they carry the illusion of being totally different.

Each of the three different avatars also has a unique special attack. These are fairly expensive upgrades to purchase, but all are exceptionally potent. The marine gets a one-shot, one-kill attack against the massive walking flesh-hulks called Brutes. When used, Luke jumps on the back of one of the massive aliens and puts a single pistol shell through its brain. The fuel-guzzling maintenance worker gets to blast out a halo of napalm at will, which is particularly effective against massed groups of opponents. Finally, Isabel has a "bullet time" reflex tweak that slows down the world while she retains all of her speed and function. It's as if she got a tax refund and decided to spend it on a hundred cups of coffee!

Finally, I'm really quite happy with the collectible feature. Each level has a "secret" to it, a little medal that can be challenging to find. As you thoroughly explore each area and pick them up, new options open up that go into effect when you replay Survivor. So far, I've only opened up two of these: I can replay the game entirely in black and white (an interesting, if somewhat vestigial, feature), and I can play with a low-grade God mode. Each level gives me 100 weapon parts and 100 character upgrade points to spend as I wish. It also unlocks all weapons right off the bat. These 100 parts refresh with each level loaded, so it effectively means that I have access to all upgrades the moment they become available! This was the first "secrets" upgrade, so now I've been slowly replaying the game trying to find them all, to see what else I'll be able to do. In an age when replayability seems to be extremely low on the priority list, Frozenbyte has decided to defy trends and make Survivor one of the single most replayable games on the market.

Survivor really beefed up the graphics. Lighting, already a major element of the ambience of Shadowgrounds, has been used to even greater effect this time. I lost count of how many rounds I wasted shooting at flickering movement that I thought was an enemy but was really just shadows playing off of my flashlight beam. Shaders have also been given some love, textures and particle effects. The overall effect is beautiful, but you can expect a pretty heavy load on your system to run it all at maximum settings. You can also expect some instability as a result of this new visual acuity. I experienced several game freezes during the loads between levels, and this only went away when I stepped down the graphics settings one notch. I was somewhat let down by the lack of new enemies, however. It can be argued that, because this game is taking place at the same time as the original, it wouldn't be entirely logical to have new opponents that weren't in the original. However, I would like to have seen at least a little more variety in models.

Survivor uses Ageia PhysX software. I have decided, based entirely on this game, that Ageia is my favorite physics solution for gaming; unlike Havok, the subtle realism of Ageia just works. Sure, there are the ragdoll effects, and the giblets falling like rain, but what really grabs me about the physics in this game is the way it approximates weight! Objects on Ganymede actually seem like that have mass to them, and on a very intangible level it brings this world to life in a way Havok never could.

As you can see, Shadowgrounds Survivor is far more than a mere expansion, but it also doesn't quite fall under the auspices of a sequel, either. While almost everything has been revamped, tweaked and improved, there are still a few tiny flaws that must be illuminated. To begin with, it's still ultimately the same game, story and setting — just with new characters. This isn't all that bad really, but it can lead somewhat to a feeling of "been there, done that." Also, the ending is very anti-climactic. Shadowgrounds ends on an epic high note, while Survivor just sort of … ends. However, before I rain too much on this parade, I must reiterate that this is the most fun you're likely to have outside of an A-list, big-budget title. Like the scrappy movie crew that feels so much passion for a project that the team manages to create true art regardless of finances, FrozenByte similarly has risen up from near obscurity to release two of the most engaging action games I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Survivor, the extended remix of Shadowgrounds, is a must-have for any fans of action-horror.

Rating 8.4/10

Top 20 Chicks in Games part IV

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:14:00 +0000

You should check Top 20 Chicks in Games part III

Rank 5: Chun-Li (Street Fighter)

Chun-Li is one of the earliest female video game protagonists to achieve widespread popularity. Prior to Street Fighter II being released in 1991, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration; as such, there were very few heroines in action-based video games. After the success of Street Fighter II and Chun-Li's popularity, female protagonists became increasingly common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least one of them will almost always be female; and a number of games released since that have placed a female character in the lead role.

Rank 4: Princess Peach (Super Mario)

Princess Peach is the female character featured in Nintendo's Mario video games series, she is often depicted as the "damsel in distress", but in some of the Mario titles she is a playable character. Peach is the human princess of the fictitious Mushroom Kingdom, where many of the games are set. Outside Japan, she was known as Princess Toadstool until late 1996.
Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and has since appeared in most subsequent games, in which she is usually kidnapped by the villainous turtle-like creature, Bowser. She has also shown her fighting abilities in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario RPG, Super Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Peach's first game as the main character, Super Princess Peach, was released in North America on February 27th, 2006.

Rank 3: Princess Zelda (Legend of Zelda)

Princess Zelda features in The Legend of Zelda series of video games. She is a member of Hyrule's royal family and plays a pivotal role in the history of Hyrule. Although she is not the main character of the story, as the player takes control of the hero, Link. Usually, it is the fate of the Princess that drives the story. In some games she appears as one of the sages (wise men and women). In later games she has been shown to be a form of prophetess. In Ocarina of Time and The Minish Cap she displays other magical powers, such as powerful attacks and force fields. Creator Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that her name was inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Rank 2: Samus Aran (Metroid)

Samus Aran is the heroine of the Metroid video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid, Samus is a bounty hunter armed with a powerful robotic power armour with a number of advanced technologies built into it. She hunts the "Space Pirates" and energy-draining alien parasites called "Metroids", while attempting to complete missions given by the Galactic Federation. Her gender was unusual for a game protagonist of her time; Metroid led players to believe Samus was a male cyborg. Samus is considered one of the earliest and most significant female protagonists in the history of video games.

Rank 1: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)

Lara Croft is the star of Eidos' Tomb Raider series. The design of Croft is the brain child of Toby Gard. Such is Lara Crofts appeal she has not only been immortalised in a series of games but also feature length movies, comic books, novels, and a series of animated shorts. In both outings on the silver screen, Croft is brought to life by sultry actress, Angelina Jolie. In 2006, Lara was honoured with a star on the Walk of Game, and was awarded a Guinness World Record recognising her as the "most successful human video game heroine."

Top 20 Chicks in Games part III

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:52:00 +0000

You should first check Top 20 Chicks in Games part II

Rank 10: Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy 8)

Tifa Lockhart is a female protagonist from Square's critically acclaimed role-playing game, Final Fantasy VII. She was designed by Tetsuya Nomura. She is an expert in Zangan-Ryu martial arts and uses her fists and feet as her weapons. Tifa has long black hair with the ends parted like a dolphin's tail and brown eyes. She is voiced by Yuko Minaguchi in Ehrgeiz and by Ayumi Ito in the Japanese versions of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts II. She is voiced by Rachael Leigh Cook in the English versions.

Rank 9: Meryl Silverburgh (Metal Gear Solid 4)

Meryl Silverburgh is introduced as the niece of Solid Snake's commander, Roy Campbell, in Metal Gear Solid. She takes up the role of Snakes rookie sidekick. During the course of the game, she is assigned to Shadow Moses, but refuses to join the rebellion led by Liquid Snake, she is then imprisoned. Snake rescues her first from her cell and then from Psycho Mantis's mind control, but she is later shot and captured by Sniper Wolf. Her ultimate fate depends on the ending of the game. She later appears in both volumes of the Japan-only Metal Gear Solid Drama CD audio drama and in one of the "Snake Tales" short stories included with Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance in which she replaces Olga as boss of the Tanker Stage of Sons of Liberty. She also appears in one of the VR missions of Substance, in which the player must protect a wounded Meryl from incoming enemy soldiers.

Rank 8: Sophitia Alexandra (Soul Calibur IV)

Sophitia Alexandra is a fictional character designed for the Soul Series of fighting games. Sophitia made her first appearance in Soul Edge and has returned for Soulcalibur, console ports of Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III and Soulcalibur Legends. She will also return in Soulcalibur IV.

Rank 7: Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)

Jill Valentine is a video game character in the Resident Evil series. She is one of the main characters in the original Resident Evil, where she is introduced as a member of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), part of the unit's Alpha Team. She returned as the protagonist in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, where she was no longer a member of S.T.A.R.S., merely a citizen trying to survive the viral outbreak in Raccoon City. Valentine, portrayed by Sienna Guillory, also appeared in the second cinematic adaption of the series, entitled Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Rank 6: Alyx Vance (Half Life 2)

Alyx Vance is a fictional character in Valve's 2004 first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2, and its following episodes: Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Alyx is a young woman in her early or mid-twenties of Black/Asian decent, and is a major figure in the human resistance against the rule of the the Combine and their human representative, Dr. Breen. She is a close friend and ally of Gordon Freeman and is considered to be the primary heroine of the series.

Next Top 20 Chicks in Games part IV

Top 20 Chicks in Games part II

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:45:00 +0000

You should first check Top 20 Chicks in Games part I

Rank 15: Paine (Final Fantasy X-2)

Paine, who only appears in Final Fantasy X-2, is designed by Tetsuya Nomura. The character is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese language version and by Gwendoline Yeo in the English language localization. She is eighteen years old, and uses a sword for combat.
As part of one of Final Fantasy X-2's side-quests, the player can collect from around the world of Spira Key Items called "Crimson Spheres". These spheres document Paine's experiences as a warrior-fighter for the Crimson Squad, which was intended to be an elite unit to surpass the Crusaders; the best members were to be assigned to lead Crusader chapters across Spira. These spheres reveal that Paine had been the recorder for a group of candidates named Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal, the game's present day leaders of the Youth League, New Yevon, and the Machine Faction, respectively.

Rank 14: Eva (Metal Gear Solid)

During the events of Metal Gear Solid 3, EVA is a female spy in the service of the People's Republic of China (more specifically, the Chinese branch of The Philosophers) sent to retrieve the Philosophers' Legacy. EVA uses her charm and good looks to win over the trust of Snake and his enemies. A few hints of her true origins are made in the beginning of Operation Snake Eater when she meets Snake. When they meet she reveals that her pistol is a Chinese copy of a Mauser C96. She also uses a technique that uses the muzzle jump to create a horizontal sweep.
On 20th July 2007, during the 20th anniversary presentations for the Metal Gear series, it was revealed that EVA will be present in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Rank 13: Yuna (Final Fantasy)

Yuna is the female protagonist in both Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 of the Final Fantasy console role-playing game series from Square Enix. She has also made cameo appearances in Kingdom Hearts II.
Born in Bevelle and brought up on the island of Besaid, at the start of Final Fantasy X, Yuna is a reserved, intelligent and serious girl whose formal attire contrasts sharply with Tidus' more outgoing appearance. Yuna is a summoner of Yevon and has the ability to summon powerful creatures known as "aeons". She is mild in demeanor and soft-spoken, but harbors no doubt in herself or in her mission to destroy Sin, and usually manages to conceal any feelings of sadness from others. She is also half-Al Bhed on her mother's side, and consequently has heterochromatic irises: one blue and one green.

Rank 12: The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 4)

The Boss (aka The Joy) is a legendary American soldier, the founder and leader of the Cobra unit, and is known as the mother of the US special forces. According to her tombstone seen in the ending, she was born in the 1920s. She is known in Russia as Voyevoda, literally meaning The Warlord. In June of 1944, mostly during World War II, she led the Cobra unit to victory at the Battle of Normandy. She was pregnant at the time with a baby fathered by The Sorrow and gave birth to a baby boy on the battlefield via a messy caesarian section that left her with a long, snaking scar across her abdomen. The baby was taken by the Philosophers and would later grow up to be the man known as Revolver Ocelot.

Rank 11: Cortana (Halo)

Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent (AI) character in the Halo series of video games. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2 and Halo 3, as well the novels Halo: The Flood, Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. During gameplay, Cortana provides back story and tactical information to the player, who assumes the role of the Master Chief. In the story, she is instrumental in preventing the activation of the Halo installations, which would have destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.

Next Top 20 Chicks in Games part III

Top 20 Chicks in Games part I

noreply@blogger.com (RaduU) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:34:00 +0000

Main characters in computer games are so often male. However throughout gaming history, we have seen some seriously great female characters, either in supporting or main roles, and we present them to you in this all time top 20 gallery.

Rank 20: Julia (Tribes)

Julia is the illegitimate daughter of Imperial Queen Victoria and Phoenix sub-clan Leader Daniel. She originally had brown eyes, but has mechanical gold eyes surgically implanted in "The Present" to give her HUD information without the need for bulky head gear typical tribesman would wear. Her armor is also unique, having much less observable plating than typical light armor, in addition to her jets being mounted on her calves as opposed to her back. She is the one caught up in the hopes of her parents, the friction between the tribes, and a behind the scenes plan to destroy the Tribals once and for all.

Rank 19: Princess Daphne (Dragon's Lair)

Dragon's Lair was one of the first laserdisc video games, released in June 1983 by Cinematronics. It featured animation created by Don Bluth, a former Disney animator. Dragon's Lair overcame a host of limitations faced by other games of that era by tapping into the vast storage potential of laserdisc, but imposed other limitations on the actual gameplay. The game created a sensation when it appeared, and was played so heavily that many machines often broke due to the strain of overuse.

Rank 18: Victoria (Tribes)

Victoria is an Imperial Princess who was captured by the Phoenix Leader Daniel. The two fall in love and have a child together. She kills Daniel after he murders her father, and lives on to raise their daughter, Julia, to an age around 6 years old. She is then killed by Jericho.

Rank 17: Rikku (Final Fantasy X)

Rikku is a playable character in the PlayStation 2 games Final Fantasy X and most notably in Final Fantasy X-2. She is a lively, kind-hearted young Al Bhed girl with blonde hair and spiral-shaped pupils instead of the ordinary "dots" – features that all Al Bhed share – and is highly skilled in mechanics, alchemy and thievery. She is the daughter of Al Bhed leader Cid, the younger sister of Brother, and younger cousin of Yuna, whom she calls "Yunie." Cid was known for his lack of subtlety, and Rikku would urge him to learn some restraint. She speaks English as fluently as if it were her first language, often makes strange hand gestures, makes humor in anxious or dangerous situations, and makes liberal use of the term "big meanie" when she feels someone is being annoying or nasty.

Rank 16: Claire Redfield (Resident Evil)

Claire Redfield is a leading fictional video game character appearing in the Resident Evil series of survival horror games. A nineteen year old college student and motorcyclist, she is the younger sister of S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield, the hero of the first game. She is the female protagonist of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica, which follows her search for her missing brother. She was voiced by Canadian actress Alyson Court.

Next Top 20 Chicks in Games part II