Everything About Video Games

Classic Games: Moonstone

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:18:00 -0800

I know this name makes some of you excited. What a game it was! In 1993, a legend video game console, Amiga, was very popular. Everybody was buying Amiga instead of Commodore 64. One day, I bought a magazine about Commodore 64. While turning the pages rapidly, my eyes was caught by a game named "Moonstone". I started to read excitedly and thought it was an interesting game. Next day, I bought the game, fortunately. Why? Let's get back 13 years before and review the game.

Moonstone: A Hard Day's Knight starts with a great demo. After watching it, you see the main menu. It was designed very simple. You start the game by pushing play button, but I recommend you to play the Practice mode and get used to controls. By the way, I also recommend you not to disable the "Gore" option. After selecting your Knight, you will be ready to start the game.

Moonstone is a turn-based action game and map consists of 4 parts. Knights have a limited moving points per turn. After one's turn is over, you will control others and continue this way. There are caverns on the map and your purpose is to fight the creatures in those caverns and collect the loot. But your main duty is finding the keys to enter the Valley of the Gods. All Knights begin the game in different parts and every part has specific creatures. Let me introduce you to those creatures;

Ratmen : This is the creature which you will face most. There are three different kinds of those creatures. It's easy to kill Ratmen which use sledgehammer and axe, but spear men will cause some trouble. They don't let you get close. If you hit them from sides, they will be cut into two pieces. If you hit them directly on the stomach, they will be drilled.

Balok : It's a lion with a horn. They always run and try to hit you with their horns. Best way to take them down is standing steady and hitting them on the head with a good timing.

Hedgehogs : They attack with their claws. You can kill them easly by hitting downwards. Do not stay under the tree or they hang you with a rope.

Swamp Creatures : In my opinion, they are the most original creatures of the game. Fighting them is so much fun but a little risky. Because they are able to kill you with only a single hit. They jump on you and bury you to the bottom of the swamp. You should stay away when they raise their arms to attack. If they grab you, try to hit them downwards.

Giants : Try not to stay under them. Get close and hit them with your sword. But don't stay in front of them. If you do, they grab you and pull your head off.

Blue Giants : Those guys are tough. They try to smash you with their clubs. Don't froget, always move!

Dragon : You will face the Dragon in following levels. Killing a Dragon is very hard. If you stay in front of it, you will be a shish kebab. If you get too close, you will be eaten. But don't worry, I'll give you a tip. Stay between its feet and hit upwards, this is the best way to kill a Dragon. If you die, you will lose all your keys and some loots.

Let's see the places you will enter;

Cities : There are two cities in the game. One of them is in the swamp area and the other is in the jungle. You can do some different things in these cities.

Healer : You can get healed in exchange for an amount of gold.

Mytral the Mystic : You can upgrade your skills in exchange for an amount of gold. But it's not very useful for me. He is a fraud!!

Tavern : You can gamble in here with dice. Just select the amount of gold and roll the dice.

High Temple : It's the place where you can get magical items.

Merchant : You can buy weapon and armor here.

Tower : The Wizard lives in there. Go there sometimes because he may give you some things. But don't go often or you will turn into a frog and lose all your loot.

Stonehenge : You can have some magical items in this temple and use them to get some different skills. Let's see these skills;

Healing Potion : It increases your hit points.
Ring of Protection : Adds 20 hit points.
Scroll of Hawk : Allows you to fly to a point on the map.
Scroll of Protection : If another Knight attacks you, use this scroll and protect yourself.
Scroll of Wrym : Allows you to see what other Knights have in their loots.
Scroll of Haste : Allows you to move longer in your turn.

Sometimes two of your enemies will attack you at the same time in Moonstone. Actually it changes according to the moon. A darker moon means tougher enemies. I recommend you to deal with tough enemies at the beginning of the game. You should earn some money and buy the most powerful weapon and armor. If you are lucky, you can find Sword of Sharpness in a cavern or Merchant, it's the most powerful weapon of the game. You can take most of the creatures down with a single hit by using this sword.

Don't forget to use experience points on your skills. You can use them in character screen. You can play Moonstone up to four players and you should really do that, it's so much fun. If you clean all the caverns, you will get access to the Valley of the Gods. When you enter the Valley, Medusa will meet you. You can kill Medusa after a few tries. After killing Medusa, you will get Moonstone, take it to the Stonehenge and watch the ending video.

This game is great and believe me, finishing it for once won't be enough. I play it sometimes even today. I congratulate Rob Anderson, he created an amazing game with a great story. You should add this classic video game to your archives.

Note : Moonstone is maybe one of the 5 best video games ever.

MODERN COMBAT 4: Zero Hour Review

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:19:00 -0800

Genre : FPS

Developer : Gameloft

Platform : iPhone, iPad, Android

Web : www.modern-combat.net

As the processor capacities of mobile devices are improved, we are able to play FPS games on those devices. But because of some controlling issues, there is still not a quality FPS game. Modern Combat 4 is also not a high quality FPS... You are able to put the control buttons wherever you want on the screen but unfortunately, we have only two thumbs to push that buttons. Also we need to use our thumbs to hold the device, to walk and for the camera, so controlling the character is not easy. I spent my first hours to make the game's controls better. And I think I have found the best option: Use the motion sensor and play it standing up. It can make you feel like playing a "virtual reality" game.

Modern Combat is a sequel as you know and honestly, I haven't played previous games, just heard about them. I liked its graphics and effects, actually, they are great. If you have a friend who believes mobile devices are not good for gaming, show him/her Modern Combat 4. Particle effects, physics engine, audio, explosions and other many things look great. Of course old iOS devices have a limited processor capacity, so it's not as good as a new PC game, but I think in a near future, there will be some opponents of Call of Duty.

Let's talk about the story. Story continues from the end of the previous game. A psychopath named Page is a terrorist who is a threat for the world and Blake is a soldier who is chasing Page. You will control both of them. Page's purpose is to kidnap the US President, destroy the country and shout: "Blow the fascists' heads off!!". Actually it's very funny for a man who was tired of the hegemony of western world and became a terrorist. That shows us developers didn't work hard on the story. But graphics, audio and great multiplayer modes make you don't think about the 6 hours long story.

The story is very important for me but I played the multiplayer mode and saw that Modern Combat 4 is as successful as its opponents. 8 different game modes, multiplayer matches with up to 12 players, Kill-Streak attacks, lots of upgrades... You will enjoy the multiplayer, that's for sure. But if you are not used to playing FPS games on mobile devices, it's possible to be kicked in your ass by experienced players. Maybe there could be a league of beginners. But I can say that I became more successful after starting to play it standing up.

In conclusion, Modern Combat 4 Zero Hour is still not good enough about AI and story. But graphics, audio and multiplayer modes are its strongest features. There are some issues about controls but you can play better by using the technique I told you. Finally, Modern Combat 4 Zero Hour is the best FPS game that you can play on iPhone, iPad and Android.

Positive :

Great multiplayer modes
Graphics and audio are very successful for a game for mobile devices.

Negative :

Story is not very successful.
It may take hours to get used to controls.

SCORE : 8,8/10

Video Game Testing Site Review: Only 4 Gamers

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:53:00 -0800

Video gaming is an over 30 years industry. As the consoles become improved, video games get longer and deeper. In the first years of this market, only a few people were interested about video game designing. But now, a game company hires an "army" for this process. And sometimes this process lasts more than 2-3 years. You too have some possibilities about turning your passion into a paying job. The first step of that is game testing. But the main question is; "Are you really willing to work hard to live your dream?"

Would you like to have your passion as a job?

I told you about this in my article about video game testing, but I want to mention it again briefly. Most of the people have some wrong ideas about becoming a video game tester. I'm sure you have searched the web too about this and seen some titles like; "Play games and make up to 100$ an hour at your home!". YOU NEED TO FORGET THIS! It's not possible to stay at home, play the latest version of Call of Duty for hours and only to get up for paying the pizza. Nobody will pay you for such a job.

What about the salary as a video game tester?

I got these average salary numbers of 2011 from Game Developer Magazine;

Quality Assurance(Testers) : 47,910$
Programmers : 92,962$
Audio : 83,182$
Designers/Writers : 73,386$
Artists and Animators : 75,780$
Producers : 85,687$
Business/Legal : 102,160$

These are the salaries of full time employees. You will be hired as a game tester by most of the companies on a temporary basis. When a game is about to be finished, video game companies hire game testers for a 3-6 month period. So I think earning $40,000 in a year as a tester requires a lot of overtime.

Only 4 Gamers

Only 4 Gamers is one of those sites that claim to help you find a job as a video game tester. You probably saw these sites while doing your research about game testing. They are generally membership sites and they want you to pay a fee for once to join up. Finding tester jobs could be hard and takes a lot of time. So those sites are good for saving your time because what they actually do is posting video game testing jobs to you from all game companies. It's a database of available jobs in game industry. Also their listings are always up to date. There are a lot of that kind of sites you can find but I will only tell you about "Only 4 Gamers" to make it simple.

I can give you an honest opinion about this site because I tried it. I went to this site and paid for a membership to be sure about it. I should say that, I wasn't expecting such amount of information for a $38,97 price. Here are some sections you can find on home page of Only 4 Gamers;

Job Openings
Game Companies
Game Testing Courses
Video Game School

I recommend you to examine the game testing courses link which includes these eight courses;

Introduction to Game Testing
The Truth About Game Testing
Things to Know Before Getting Started
Building Your Skill Se
The Mechanics of Game Testing
Your Resume and Cover Letter
How to Interview
The Job Hunt

For more info and sneak peek video, check the link

Like I said in my other articles about gaming jobs, you can find job openings in the sites of game companies. But doing this could take a lot of time. So, if you decided to become a tester and started to search about it but don't have an idea where to find information about the process, then this site could be a good choice for you. Also there is a sneak peek video on the webpage but you have to submit your e-mail first. But no need to worry, they won't send you spam emails.

Also you can check the other pay for info site, gamingjobsonline. It's a database of job openings too. It's very similar to Only 4 Gamers. If you want to become a video game tester, you have to act, now.

TEMPLE RUN 2 Review

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:20:00 -0800

Genre : Arcade/Platform

Developer : Imangi Studios

Publisher : Imangi Studios

Platform : iPhone, iPad, Android

A friend of mine warned me about the first Temple Run game. I didn't care about his warning and started the game. After minutes, I was playing Temple Run on my iPhone and saying "Help me, I can't stop playing!". After days of playing, I unlocked everything but that was still not enough. I had played it until I ruined my phone.. And two days ago, some great news(also worrying) came out. Temple Run 2 is released unexpectedly. It's also great on iPad Mini. Developers put some new features to the second game but it still has the specific gameplay of the first game. Shortly, if you enjoyed playing the first Temple Run, even if you were addicted to the game like me, you will spend hours in the second game, you can be sure about that.

Temple Run 2 is not released for Android yet, but I had a chance to play it on iPad Mini, so it's visuals are looking great. Temple Run is an endless running game. The first game's animations were not very good. But second game has a good and smooth animations. Also characters' designs are looking better in this game. Of course environment designs have an effect on this, because this time they are less "sharp". Not all the paths are stright, most of them are inclined and that makes the characters' running dynamics look better.

Temple Run 2 has the same control system with the first game. But this time it takes you to the sky. You will run meters above the ground and if you fall down, you die. Don't worry, you can resurrect once you are dead. As you remember, there was a "angel wings" bonus to do this, but second game uses a different system; Green Gem. Green Gems are good for resurrection or activating other bonuses. You can get these Green Gems as you level up or you can buy them with real money. So, Temple Run 2 has a micro paying system but it's more refined now.

If we come back to the dynamics of the game, its gameplay and environment designs look very smooth. In this game, all you can do is not just running; you can swing with a rope from a cliff to another, enter a mine and ride a minecart like "Hugo" etc. Also there is a new enemy, a gorilla. This time we are not running away from three monkeys, we are dealing with a huge gorilla.

In conclusion, Temple Run 2 came out unexpectedly but it came with new good features. Of course there are a lot of things that could be added to the game but I'm expecting them in the third game. By the way, this time we play in daytime, some gamers may not like it. Have a good gaming...

Positive :

Smooth animations and gameplay
New running dynamics
Minimalism

Negative :

Polygon number is still low
VERY ADDICTIVE!!

SCORE : 8,8/10

INTO THE DEAD: An iPhone Game Review

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:48:00 -0800

Genre :Action/Horror

Developer : Prodigy Design

Publisher : Prodigy Design

Platform : iPhone, iPad

Web : www.intothedead.com

A helicopter accident... A dark and tense atmosphere... You are surrounded by zombies who want to hunt you down... And all you can do is running away, not matter where to... Into The Dead is an "endless-runner" zombie game in a first person view for iPhone and iPad. At the beginning of the game, you survive a helicopter crash and see that you are surrounded by zombies. After that, you will start to run to a way where zombies are lesser.

It's a world that is invaded by zombies and apparently, you are the only one who survived in this world. Your goal is to run away from zombies as long as you can in some places such as cornfield, jungle, etc. But of course it won't be easy to survive. At the beginning, there will be a small number of zombies around you. When you get too close, they have an itch to take a bite from you and you can see how the character breaks away from them, he shakes off. As you keep running, number of zombies increases. Some of them get up from where they lie down to catch you and some of them are hard to see in the cornfield. You should be careful, before you realize what is going on, they may take you down.

Don't worry, you are not completely defenseless against them. Before you start to run, you can use your points on some weapons and perks such as starting 1500m ahead, starting with a weapon etc. and they are very useful. After your first tries with pistol, you can complete the missions. This way you can earn points and unlock new weapons. Actually missions are easy but sometimes they might be a little tough. These missions are the most important feature that prevents the game from having a monotone gameplay.

It's very easy to control the main character. You can turn your device left and right or you can control the character by using "invisible" arrow keys on the screen. There is no music during the game. You will just hear your character's breath and the moans of zombies. Especially, if you use a headset, you will see the quality of the atmosphere. It's very scary.

You can download Into The Dead to your iOS or Android devices for free. But don't forget, "free" means that you will see some advertising that suddenly comes to screen after falling to pieces screaming. By the way, developer of this game is planning to add new modes and a dog to the game soon. That will extend the game time, that's for sure. What we have to do here is just to survive.

Positive :

Good for killing time
Excellent atmosphere
It's free

Negative :

Unexpected ads can be annoying

SCORE : 7,8/10

DEAD SPACE 3 Demo Review

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:51:00 -0800

Genre : Action/Horror
Developer : Visceral Games
Publisher : Electronic Arts
Platform : PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Web : www.deadspace.com
Release Date : February 5(USA),
February 8(Europe), 2013

It's obvious that most of the horror games of today's generation, which were developed by big game companies, couldn't manage to become popular. The best example for that is the sequels. The first games of Resident Evil series were amazing for most of the gamers with survival-horror elements. But today, developers release their last games of the series as an action game and that fact disappoints most of the gamers.

We should review Dead Space series in a different way. After the big success of the first game, EA put a little action into the second game, but still its atmosphere was great like the first game. After the continuous speculations, Dead Space 3 was announced and we saw a lot of videos about it. Fans of the series complained about the action elements in the game, because it looked like there would be more action elements than the previous games. After months, EA announced the demo and gave Xbox owners an opportunity to play it one week before release date who have registered it. So I took advantage of this opportunity and tried the demo. Let's see what is waiting for us in Dead Space 3.

When you enter the game you will see two selections in main menu. First, story mode that you can play by yourself. Second, Co-op story mode that you can play with your friends on Xbox LIVE. At the beginning, you can only play story mode in "normal" difficulty level. When you begin the game, you see Isaac hanging in a snowy place. He tries to save himself and the game begins. Let's talk about gameplay.

When you take the control, you will see that there is no HUD system on the screen like previous games. This is not a new thing to the series and I think it's better this way. But there are some changes about controls. Isaac is now able to dodge to left and right. Also he can crouch and take cover and you will really need these skills in some of the action points. As you know, we were able to upgrade our weapons and suits in previous games. In Dead Space 3, upgrading system is improved and there are more options now. For example, you can upgrade your machine gun and turn it into a lazer gun. But of course it's a demo and I wasn't able to see all options of upgrading system.

What about technical details? Dead Space 3's graphics are very good. Even I can say that I was very impressed in some parts. Especially lighting effects are great. Game's atmosphere is also very good. There are more open places in this new game of the series. When you walk alone in a cold, snowy weather and uninhabited places, you really feel the loneliness. So, this new game gets a high score from me for its atmosphere.

I also want to mention about creatures. There are more kinds of them in this game. If you hit and blow their arms or legs up, they continue coming and this can be very scary in narrow places. Like I said before, action level of the game was complained by most of the gamers. But when I played demo, I saw that game still makes you fear in some parts. So don't worry about the horror level and atmosphere. But yes, there are some action scenes in the game. In some parts of the demo, we are dealing with soldiers. And also in some parts, when I fought with soldiers, some creatures came and attacked soldiers. That was a good detail.

In conclusion, I will tell you my opinions about this new game. After the releasing of gameplay pictures and videos, I can't say I was very excited. But I really liked the demo of Dead Space 3. If you are a fan of this series, I suggest you to wait for the full version.
(By the way, I won't give a score because I'm keeping it for the full version)

NOTE : Demo will be released for all PSN and Xbox LIVE users in January 22.

Here is a Dead Space 3 gameplay trailer;

Best Free Downloadable Games: Part 5

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:28:00 -0800

Maldita Castilla

Download

Do you know Ghosts & Goblins? Because Maldita Castilla is like a fraternal twin of that retro game. It looks like an old school arcade game from 80's but it really manages to give you what other many indie games don't - variety. Every level brings you new things and gameplay. Like I said before, Maldita Castilla looks like an old game but when it comes to the controls and gameplay, it makes you feel like playing a modern game. You will run left and right, throw your knives to the enemies and dodge attacks in the most levels of the game. But this game is though and really challenges you sometimes. Believe me, you will die so many times and here is the worst thing; You are not able to save the game! So you have to finish the game for once and all. Also I really liked the details, environments look wonderful and that makes the game a pleasure to play. Controls are actually ok, but sometimes they are lacking.

Positive : Old style visuals look great. Also there are a lot of secrets to discover.
Negative : Controls are lacking in some areas and it may be difficult for some players.

Three Body Problem

Download

Three Body Problem is a very simple game. You will take control of a purple box and try to avoid the orange boxes that will be chasing you. Is that all? Yes, that's all but you can't believe how fun such a simple game can be. Game is simple but that orange boxes are not. I wasn't expecting such smart boxes before I started the game. It seems like they know your next move. I was outsmarted a lot of times and that really made me feel dumb. Actually they move in an arch that puts them into your trajectory. So the key point in here is that you should change your path erretically. Best option here is to make them crash into each other. That will change their trajectory and you will be able to move away. I was defeated so many times, so don't feel bad if the same thing happens to you. This free little game is simple but definitely fun.

Positive : Very simple game but also very addictive and fun. You can spend your hours without noticing.
Negative : Doing same thing for hours might be boring after a while.

Viriax

Download

This game has retro visuals and musics like Maldita Castilla. By the way, both of them were developed by the same developer. Game's controls and levels are very simple, but it's so much fun and addictive. Also it has a score system that makes you challenge yourself for the best score. So what will you do in this game? Your purpose is simple as a part of a Viriax infection; Show mankind who the boss is on Earth! You need to infect all organs and destroy the chip, Nanobot Assembly System, which is the hope of humanity and implemented near the brain. To infect an organ, you must reach the core of it. But that won't be easy. Because If an enemy cell hits you, you will lose energy. If you attack, you will lose energy. And if you move up, guess what? Yes smarty, you will lose energy. So you need to collect the red globules and replenish your energy bar. Also you should think when to move. Simple game but fun.

Positive : Very addictive and fun gameplay. Good choice if you like retro style games.
Negative : Gameplay is a little monotone and could be boring after couple of levels.

PRIMORDIA Review: The Return of Old SChool Spirit

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:50:00 -0800

Genre : Adventure

Developer : Wormwood Studios

Publisher : Wadjet Eye Games

Platform : PC

Web : www.primordiagame.com

Primordia... I did't have any expectations from it when I began the game. It was an old looking adventure game. Maybe I should't have expected much from a game which has 90's graphics and game mechanics. But Primordia got me back to old times with its characters and content. So, I didn't hesitate to spend my whole weekend for it.

I don't know if there is anyone who doesn't know Machinarium. It was a flash-based adventure game which takes place in a world without humans, only robots. It also had good humor elements. It managed to make gamers like it with its designs, musics and puzzles. You can assume Primordia as a sullen, depressive brother of Machinarium. There is no human, maybe they left the planet or they just killed each other. The main character, Horatio, accepts the mankind as "utimate creator" and assumes them as God. Even it has a book which tells that humans have left this universe and gone to a divine place. Primordia is a planet which is like a robot dump. The game begins after the crystals are stolen which are the power source of Horatio's ship. You find yourself in planet with %10 energy and try to find a power source. I really want to say that there is a huge planet to explore but I can't. You will just be able to explore a few parts of this planet.

Primordia looks like a very old game. But it doesn't try to be new anyway. Although its old looking and pixel based graphics, it really manages to show you the hopelessness in the game. But I'm warning you, if graphics are important for you, it could be a big disappointment. Also there is an old school problem in this old school graphics; "pixel hunting". Some adventure games show you the objects that you can interact if you look carefully, but Primordia doesn't. It just shows you the name of the objects when you move the mouse pointer on them. There will be a robot with you during the game and it will give you some hints about puzzles but sometimes it may not be enough and you don't know what to do. But it's a feature of old style adventure games, so I don't know if I should complain about it.

By the way, Horatio has an assistant robot named Crispin who help us to reach high places and activate the mechanisms that we can't reach. It's a real madcap who always wants you to make an arm for it and makes specific comments for every situation. It helps you for most of the puzzles. Even when you get stuck and don't know what to do, you can ask for its opinion. But if you ask him constantly, you can make it grumble. Shortly, you will really enjoy with Crispin. Especially in a part, it will want you to attach an arm of a warrior robot and... Ok, no more spoilers.

As you keep playing Primordia, you will see that every robot tries to hold on to life in that planet. Even there are some robots which sell some of their own body parts for a living. At this point, there is something I like which is a negative feature for most of the reviewers; Everything in the game is actually a robotic type of humanity. It makes you feel like playing in a miserable world of humans with robot masks. Robots' egoism, personalities, characters, 7 sins, greed and some other things which are specific to humans make you feel that you play in a humans' world, not robots'. Is this a bad thing? For me, it's definitely not. It's said that humans are a reflection of God. Humans created those robots, so of course they will be a reflection of humans. Ok, all these "humanism" thoughts and feelings are too much for a robot, but it's not a reason to not to put yourself in Horatio's place.

Primordia's puzzles don't have nonsensical combinations but sometimes you really don't know what to do. It's a common feature of adventure games to combine objects and create a new one but Primordia improves this feature. If you combine an object with another one before the right time, that will trigger a sequence of events which will affect the game ending. Also game has an achievement system and it's impossible to unlock all achievements by playing the game once. Because like I said, some objects, places or events don't appear until you find them. Also I want to mention that the game has six different beautiful endings.

It changes according to your puzzle solving speed but you can finish the game in the average number of 6 hours. Short, isn't it? Yes, it's very short and when it ends, you feel like a little kid whose chocolate bar was taken from his hand. Because the storyline is going deeper and getting better as you play. The last 10 minutes of the game is full of unexpected and surprising events. I wish it was a longer game with more things to explore.

In conclusion, if you like old school point and click adventure games like me and want to listen a pessimistic story in a dystopic world, it'll be a delicious snack for you. Short game time and a gameplay that wants you to discover everything by yourself are not inviting features but it's absolutely a quality adventure game. Also missing Primordia for 10$ is a shame for adventure gamers if you consider adventure games are dying out.

Positive:

Old school point and click adventure game style
Game atmosphere and storyline are going deeper as you play
Low price

Negative:

Game is very short
It's sometimes very hard to find what to do(pixel hunting)

SCORE : 8,5/10

Classic Games: Prince of Persia

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:26:00 -0800

It was a snowy day. I was at home and bored. Then I decided to go and buy a video game. I was unaware of what would happen in a minute. When I arrived there, everybody was astounded and watching a video game. Of course I got curious and walked a few steps forward to see what they were watching. Then I got shocked. What was that!? There was a man in the game and he was moving like a real person! I said to shop owner that I had wanted to buy this game immediately. He smiled and said that I had needed 1 mb RAM to play this game. At the same day, I persuaded my parents to buy a RAM, and then, I started to play one of the best games of my life.

Let me tell you about the development story of Prince of Persia first. It was 1990 and a programmer, Jordan Mechner, developed a game. Motion Capture was a new technology in that times and he used it in this game for the first time. Results were perfect. The game's character was moving like real man. By the way, Prince's moves are actually the real moves of Mechner's brother that were captured by motion capture technique.

After that, Mechner integrated his amazing game with a good story; Prince prepares to get married with Princess. But there is somebody else who wants Princess for himself, Jaffar the traitorous vizier. Jaffar kidnaps the Princess and puts the Prince in dungeon. Our duty is to escape from dungeon and save the Princess. Story is like "Tales of 1001 Nights".

Prince of Persia is a platform game which has a little action and much jumping. You try to find your way out of the dungeaon during the game. But of course this is not easy. Dungeons are full of traps such as spikes on the floor, collapsing floors or wall blades. Actually this traps won't be tough for you but timing is very important. Sometimes you need to reach a door before it closes. You need to be fast and careful. If there is a door that doesn't open, you have to touch a stone or something, you must to activate a mechanism.

There are also some troublemaker guards that you need to deal with during the game. It's easy to take them down in the first levels, but after a few levels, they will be able to guard themselves and fight back well. You need to be careful in close combat. Sometimes you might be near to the edge of traps or cliff in a fight and guards will try to push you there. You should get close after hitting them, and then guard yourself from their attacks and strike back. In the following levels, you will face with skeletons but you can't kill them because they are immortal. You have to push them and make them fall from a high place.

You will find some potions to heal yourself during the game. Sometimes you can find larger potion bottles, don't miss them. Because they are good for growing your health bar and you will need that in the following levels. But don't forget, do not drink the green potion because it's a poison. You should explore the environment to find a mechanism that opens a secret place with a health potion in it.

There are not variety of places in game. You will generally play in dungeons. But it's not a problem because this game is so much fun and you don't think of it while dealing with traps and guards. You will begin the game without any weapon. First, you have to find your sword. After you find it, real fun begins. But there are not so many moves that you can do with your sword, only attacking and guarding moves. But it makes you feel good to hear the clash of swords.

Maybe the hardest part about the game is that you have to finish the game in 60 minutes and that makes you play fast and without any mistake. You have to spend maximum 1 minutes in a place or you can't finish the game. I was able to finish the first level in 85-90 seconds(that was a record). But it's impossible to finish the following levels that quick. You should't waste your time for unnecessary potions or guards. Actually Prince of Persia is a game that you can become a expert of it as you play. But the final boss, Jaffar, will be a tough opponent for you, that's for sure.

Prince of Persia is an amazing game that was developed by only a single man. Mechner became rich through this game. Because it was sold more than 2 million copies. Today, it's impossible to reach that number for most of the games. Maybe they can reach, but you should consider this, how many people had a computer in 1990? After this success, it was ported to all consoles of that time. For this reason, that was a big success for Prince of Persia.
By the way, do you know which game's developers were inspired of this game? Tomb Raider!

I think there is nothing left to talk about the game. It was a perfect game with its graphics and audio. Every gamer must play this classic video game. Classics never die...

Expectations From DOOM 4

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:12:00 -0800

It has been years since Doom 4 was announced, but there is still no screenshot or an information about the scenario and also release date is uncertain. Of course id Software gave us some information but gamers have some expectations. So I made a list of these expectations for you. Here are what gamers expect from Doom 4;

A more detailed scenario

All games of the series have a standard scenario mode and the main point of gameplay was about "killing". John Carmack compared the scenarios of video games and porns once :) I think this must be changed. This time scenario will be written by a good writer, Graham Joyce. This means scenario mode could be more detailed. Also don't forget the Easter Eggs. Because finding secrets is fun.

Open world and Earth

In Doom 3, we played the game in small closed areas. Actually that was about graphic engine. Doom 3's engine was an advanced engine for computer systems of that times, so it was only able to work stable in closed areas. Even there was a limitation for the number of the enemies that seen at the same time on screen. For this reason, we couldn't play Doom 3 in open areas. Also another reason was to make gamers feel helpless and scared in closed and dark areas. After that, Carmack developed the Megatexture system and made it possible to develop huge maps, even without any performance issue. That means it's possible to see open areas in Doom 4. It could be a great experience to move in the surface of Mars, without gravity. Also we should be able to play some parts on Earth. For example, being teleported to a ruined city would be good. It's estimated to take place on Earth.

More light

Doom 3 had good graphics. Lighting and shadow effects were great, but sometimes it could leave gamers in a difficult situation. You had to holster your weapon to use flashlight. It was a factor that make you fear more but it was complained by some gamers. Therefore, id Software said that there will be more light in the new game. At least, we won't play a game as dark as Doom 3.

Co-Op option for story mode

The first Doom game has introduced us online gameplay and people liked it. But Doom 3 didn't has a detailed multiplayer mode because of some technical problems. Things can change in Doom 4. id Software said that Doom 4 will has a better multiplayer features, but this might not be enough. For example, in Xbox version of Doom 3, we were able to play the story mode Co-op. Maybe this mode could be developed for Doom 4 too.

More Metal-Rock music

id Software put some quality musics in the first Doom games. All of them were very good and suitable to the atmosphere and violence. But in Doom 3, we could't hear much music. Ok, the music played in the main menu was great, but we need that kind of musics during the game. It's an action/horror game and the musics should be suitable to the gameplay.

Multiplayer with creatures

We can be sure about that some good multiplayer modes are being prepared for Doom 4, but what kind of modes are they? For example, a Deathmatch mode that we can control the creatures could be great. When the first Doom game was released in 1993, it introduced us the Deathmatch mode and rocked the game world. Who knows, fourth game could start a new Deathmatch madness after years. For example, we can control an Imp or Cacodemon and control more powerful creatures as we level up.

Creatures, please don't hide in the cabinets anymore!

In the first games of Doom series, there wasn't any "surprise" enemies, but that was a little different in Doom 3. It could be scary when a creature jump out from a cabinet. But after a while, it could be monotone. Actually it's not a problem for me, but some players have complained about this. id said they would pay attention about it.

A Doom 4 game that is developed by original id team :)

After the first Doom game, some names such as Tom Hall, John Romero and American McGee left the id Software. They weren't in the Doom 3's developing team. Because in that time, all of them were working for new projects in different studios. Probably, Doom 4 will be a very good game. But if these names were in the id team, it would be a better game.

What about you? What do you expect from Doom 4?

THE LAST OF US Preview

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 9 Jan 2013 19:18:00 -0800

Genre : Action, Horror, Adventure

Developer : Naughty Dog

Publisher : SCEA

Release Date : 7th May 2013

Platform : PlayStation 3

Web : thelastofus.com

The first 20 minutes after I had finished "Heavy Rain", I stood still where I was. Heavy Rain was a terrific game for me, even more than a game. That's why I'm looking forward to play Beyond: Two Souls. I really respect David Cage, that's another reason for this. In my opinion, Beyond: Two Souls is a game that is impossible to be a disappointment. But I can't say the same things for The Last of Us. Most of the peope are suspicious about it. For this reason, I'll give you some information about it.

As you know, The Last of Us is the new game of Naughty Dog which is the developer of Uncharted series. Like Uncharted, game's main character is a mature-looking man, Joel. But this time there is a side character, Ellie, who will be with us during the entire game. But before talking about the relationship between these characters, you should know where the story takes place. The Last of Us takes place in United States, but this is not the United States that you know.

This is not the America that you know.

People are infected by Cordyceps fungi and become creatures. They are actually a kind of zombies. Government uses military forces and quarantine the cities to block the outbreak. Game begins 20 years after this outbreak and we witness the breathtaking story of Joel and Ellie. As you know, Heavy Rain was not an ordinary adventure game, and The Last of Us is also not an ordinary zombie game.

Ellie is just 14 years old, so she has no idea about the world before the outbreak, like the 14 years old kids today who have never seen the world without internet. Joel is a black marketer in one of the quarantine zones that were created after the outbreak. But after a sequence of events, Joel needs to keep his word to a friend; Saving Ellie from the quarantined zones. Game begins at this point and our characters try to survive in this post apocalyptic America.

First of all I should say that, this is not a zombie game, it's a survival game. Infected people are not our only enemies. I'm telling you this because most of the people think that it's a zombie game. Even we will fight against the survivors like us more than zombies. But the most important reason for why this is not an ordinary zombie game is the deep storyline.

"Father and daughter" relationship between Joel and Ellie will be the most important part of the story.

According to the Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog, storytelling will be the most important part of the game. If this is true, I think we'll play a high quality game. Because it's 2013 now and still storytellings of games are not as good as we expected. Gamers don't want to play games anymore that have good graphics but nothing else. Naughty Dog want to change this with "The Last of Us" and set a higher standard for game developers about storytelling.

The main point of the story is the "father and daughter" relationship between Joel and Ellie. They will need to hold themselves together to survive during the game. When we take the control of Joel, Ellie will be controlled by AI. Game's cinematics will like Uncharted's. They will be designed with inside-game engine. Also another important part of The Last of Us will be the dubbing.

Game's point of origin is BBC's amazing documentary, Planet Earth. Yes, Naughty Dog team had the first idea about the game while they were watching that documentary. In a part of this documentary, an ant is infected by a Cordyceps fungi and this fungi grows in this ant's brain. The Last of Us does the same thing to the people instead of ants. Actually enemies that I called "zombies" are people who are infected by Cordyceps. Game's world design is very similar to I Am Alive's. As the human population is getting low, nature comes back to the cities and everywhere looks green. Also there are some inspirations from the books such as City of Thieves, No Country For Old Men, The Road and movies like 28 Days Later, Children of Men.

The Last of Us is not aiming to be a horror game. Although it's a "horror/survival" game, I don't think that it will be an ordinary horror game. Like I said before, the game will show us the relationship between Joel and Ellie and their striving for survival. Of course the atmosphere will be suitable for this and musics will support that. Game's musics are being prepared by Gustavo Santaolalla, who has won the Oscar with the musics of Brokeback Mountain and Babel. That means musics are aiming to the emotions, not horror.

I'm seriously excited about The Last of Us. It has won a lot of awards in E3 2012. Characters, dubbing team, storytelling, game concept, musics... We have many reasons to get excited about it. But we have to wait a little more, because it'll be released in 7th May 2013. Probably, it will be the strongest opponent of Beyond: Two Souls for the "game of the year" title. When it'll be released, you may not hear anything from me for a couple of days.

Here is a The Last of Us gameplay trailer, enjoy;

Why Console Gaming Is Getting More Popular?

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 7 Jan 2013 18:34:00 -0800

Playing video games is an entertaining activity for most of the people. There are many hardcore gamers who use all gaming platforms. We know there are two opponents in gaming world; console players and PC players. Whether be a professional gamer or just play games in your free times for fun, everybody is good at a platform of gaming. PC gamers are confident at games such as World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, Counter Strike, etc. And console gamers feel more confident at games like God of War, Devil May Cry and Gran Turismo.

I'm not going to tell you my opinion about which platform is better. I told you about this in my article, PC vs Consoles before. But I think we should evaluate "the fun" according to the games, not platforms. Because every game has a better platform to be played. I'll try to give you some hints about why consoles are getting more popular for video game developers.

It's easier to develop a console game

If you develop a product, then more things you need to take into account mean a harder job. Form this perspective, developing a console game is much more easier than developing a PC game. For example, there are some different versions of Xbox 360, but only differences between them are disc capacities and outputs. It's also common for PlayStation 3. Except two or three different standard resolutions, some features are fixed like RAM, graphic card, processor.

Unlike consoles, PC is not a fixed hardware. There are dozens of variations only for a graphic card. Therefore, developers need to make their games work on most of the hardwares. In other words, they must develop graphics and graphical modelling for every value of resolution, anti aliasing, anisotropic filtering and the most importantly, DirectX. You can't imagine how hard it is to develop a video game both for DirectX 9 and DirectX 11.

What's the primary purpose of PCs?

When PlayStation 3 was released for the first time, Sony wanted to give users an alternative against PC and released the first PlayStations with an operating system (Linux). But PS3 owners didn't show interest in this feature and now there is no more Linux feature for PlayStation 3. Whatever "technology titans" do to present their product, there is a common belief of consumers; computers are for working, consoles are for playing. Actually there is a thought that lies beneath this belief; "spending money on console games is more reasonable than spending money on PC games". For this reason, most of the time console games are sold more than PC games. I'm not talking about exceptions like World of Warcraft. Especially, console developing studios are making good money with video games that are released for multiple platforms. Gamers just want to have fun, but sometimes developers spend millions of dollars for a game, so they have to act "$$ensitive" and that's why console gaming is getting more popular for them.

Because of all these reasons, console gaming will be more popular in the future, that's for sure. Soon, PC gamers may need to change their preferences of gaming.

Guide For Video Game Buyers

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 6 Jan 2013 18:29:00 -0800

You want an awesome new released video game, but you can't decide which game to buy? Buying a new video game is an easy job, but choosing the quality one may not be as easy as it looks. If you don't want to waste your money on a poor game, you should research it first. Yes, research. Even an easy looking job such as buying a video game may require a little research. Even though researching takes just a little time, most of the gamers don't spare time for it and spend their money on a poor video game.

So why do you need to research before buying a video game?
Because some games' appearance can be deceptive. Some games look like a cool game, although they are not that cool. But how come a poor game looks like a quality game? Because a well done marketing with some bad reviews could make the game attractive for gamers. But why does a professional reviewer give a false review? First of all, professional reviewers have more than one game to review each month. So maybe he can't spare enough time to test each game. Secondly, everybody has a personal taste, even a professional reviewer. Some people like FPS games, some don't and this may affect the review and the score of the game. In this way, reviewers may not write an objective review. Finally, if a game series' previous games are successful, that could make the reviewer believe that the next one will be good too.

That's why I made a list of things that you should do before buying a video game;

1. Reading reviews : Ok, some reviews may not be objective, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read reviews. Even you should read multiple reviews from different sources. Add +Game is my job to your list too :)
2. User reviews : You should also read user reviews. There are some websites about video games that give you user reviews and scores. Sometimes this scores could be more accurate than professional reviewers'. Because that scores are directly from the players like you.
3. Gameplay videos : I think this is the most important part because watching gameplay videos could give you a lot of ideas about the game. That's why I always give you a gameplay video at the end of the reviews. Actually that videos tell you the most of the things that review wants to tell you. But remember, you shouldn't rely on official trailers. You can find gameplay videos by searching YouTube.
4. Playing demo : If you have opportunity, you should absolutely play the demo. Most of the games, even all games have a demo to play. I can't see a better way to have an idea about the game before buying it.
5. Choosing the right publisher : You don't want to buy a game with full of bugs and a poor customer support, right? So you should buy video games from well known publishers. That doesn't mean it definitely won't be a buggy game. There are a lot of buggy games that were released by well known publishers. But still they are the best option for you.
6. Forums : If you still have doubts about a game that you are planning to buy, then the best thing to do is asking people about it. Forums are the best places for that. Join a forum and ask whatever you want to know.

I hope you find this article useful. I always try to share my opinions about the games I played in reviews. I try to be objective but I'm a human too and of course I have a personal taste about video games. So all you need to do is following the steps above if you don't want to waste your money on a poor game.

METRO: Last Light Preview

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 18:32:00 -0800

Genre : FPS

Developer : 4A Games

Publisher : THQ

Platform : PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U

Release Date : March 2013

Web : www.enterthemetro.com

Metro 2033 wasn't the end of the story, actually it was the beginning. This masterpeace, which was created by Dmitry Glukhovsky, tells us events that happened in a post-apocalyptic world. It's impossible to live on earth without a mask by the effect of deadly radiation. That's why survivors have left the earth behind and live underground in the metro stations. But underground is not as safe as they imagined. It's easy to hear the sound of terror in those tunnels. In Metro 2033, we experienced that terror of creatures. Next, we will witness the fight between humans. Creatures want to exterminate our species in Metro: Last Light. But mankind don't care about this and fight each other with greed and hatred.

Accordiing to the developers, Metro: Last Light is not going to be an ordinary FPS or survival game. There will be some psychologic elements, conflict between humans and other many things that we can't see in most of the games. Developers are very assertive about these facts. Last Light's developer is 4A Games and they use their own engine named "4A Engine" for this game. Although there is not any other game that is created with this engine, it looks very good in the pictures, videos and other media products about the game. But of course it not just about engine, it should be used well. And I think 4A Games is the best company for that, because it's their own engine.

Metro: Last Light will be as long as the first game and it will have some new creatures besides other creatures that were in the first game. You will be able to interact with environment while you fight them. For example, things that you hide behind to cover yourself will be breakable. Of course we will step outside in this game. We will put our oxygen masks on, complete the missions and try to stay alive. But don't forget, if your mask is broken, that will be your end.

4A Games claim that the equipments that we use in the game will be better. They say that second game will have a different gameplay. We can't know if it will be better or not, but I think it'll be much better. Last Light is claimed not to be just a FPS game, it will also be a survival game and show us the importance of air that we don't appreciate today.

Other than these features, stealth will be an important part of the game. Humans are going to be your enemies as well as creatures, so you will need to be quiet, even invisible. I'm not talking about a fantastic "invisibility" of course, but you will need to act wisely and eliminate light sources like bulbs without being seen. But you should be careful when you blow the bulbs, because your enemies can hear you when you do that. You will have to move in the darkness and reach your target.

Metro: Last Light is being developed by 4A Games and will be published by THQ. We will be able to play it in this year, 2013 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Also it's being developed for Nintendo's new console, Wii U. What do you think, will it be able to be as successful as the first game?

Here is a Metro: Last Light gameplay video;

PLANETSIDE 2 Review

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 4 Jan 2013 20:03:00 -0800

Genre : MMOFPS

Developer : Sony Online Entertainment

Publisher : Sony Online Entertainment

Platform : PC

Web : www.planetside2.com

2012 was an interesting year for multiplayer gaming. 5 years ago, it was said that 2012 would be a revolution. It wasn't a revolution for gaming actually, but it's not important. Gamers will just wait a little bit more for new generation. Because everything that happened in 2012 was a preparation for 2013, like Planetside 2.

To be honest, it's really hard to find a quality "Free to Play" game nowadays. You can find some good games, but generally MMO games that you pay to play are more quality and they provide you a better service. At this point, Planetside 2 quenches our thirst of quality Free2Play!

I warn you, visual features could make you cry of happiness.

So what's Planetside 2? We can call it the new version of Planetside that was released by Sony Online Entertainment in 2003. We were very excited when we heard the first news about it in 7th June 2011. But it promised us some great things. Today, we accept a game "successful" that manages to keep only half of its promises. That's why we can accept Planetside 2 a successful game, because it gives us most of the things that it promised.

Planetside 2 is a MMOFPS. There are not many MMOFPS games that manage to become popular. But Sony Online Entertainment did a good job. A MMOFPS with "big" maps and a big war that requires a hard work, planning and a big budget. Plus, a new generation graphics and a great physics engine, here it is, Planetside 2!

The first Planetside's story wasn't so detailed. I think Sony Online Entertainment was aware of that, because award winner writer Mark Wolfman has joined the team. They created a detailed chronology but I don't want to talk much about the story because I want you to enjoy the story with atmosphere. But I can say that you will fight for one of the three empires and all of them want to dominate the planet Auraxis that was found 175 years ago. Let's talk about Planetside 2's classes;

Terran Republic : It's one of the main fractions of Earth and they try to protect the laws with their military forces and authoritarian regime. They look like the good guys but don't forget, nothing is what it seems.
New Conglomerate : They are the freedom fighters who fight against Terran Republic. This class includes pirates, industry titans and outcast and they try to break Terran Republic's pressure on Auraxis.
Vanu Sovereignty : They claim that mankind will evolve by the power of ancient technology and that evolution is the only purpose for mankind. They use alien technology and in my opinion, it's the most entertaining class to play.

Actually you can call it as a MMORPG game because classes are designed great. All classes includes 6 categories; Light Assault, Heavy Assault, Medic, Engineer, Infiltrator and Mechanized Assault Exo-Suit(MAX). All these classes have good equipments to accomplish their duties. Especially choosing the Infiltrator class which can hide, taking the position 100 meter beyond enemy base and hunting all enemies one by one is a fantastic experience. Even if you take a base by yourself, it really makes you feel good.

You can choose different classes while you are in the game, you don't need to worry about that after you create your character. You can choose another one and enjoy. Except the classes and weapons, one of the best features of Planetside 2 is amazing vehicles and changing the course of war with them. There are 5 general vehicles for every empire and they are common for all of them. Also every empire has a special ship and tank. Vanu Sovereignty use a ship named The Scythe and Terrans has a model named Mosquito. At this point, game has a "rock paper scissors" system and I think that's the most important thing that makes the game balanced.

I decided to talk about graphics and musics at the end of the review because it's one of the best features of the game. Planetside 2 uses a new engine and it's the only game that uses this engine. Forelight Engine uses nVidia's PyysX API and opens the door for new generation. If you have a good system, I recommend you to play Planetside 2 on the highest settings. Because it's visual features are incredible. Also Forelight Engine will be used for the new generation version of the legend MMORGP, Everquest(Everquest Next). I can say that, Forelight Engine is one of the new generation graphic engines and I'm sure we will play many other games in the next years that are designed with it. That's why I talked about new generation at the beginning of the review, because I think Planetside 2 is a messenger for the next generation.

Planetside 2 is a Free to Play FPS game, but how come this quality game is a free game? Planetside 2 uses "Freemium" model like the most of the free to play games do. There are variety of equipments you can buy. Also you can purchase powerful weapons with your game money that you can earn by playing. That means, money doesn't win in this game.

Planetside 2 is a FREE game that could be liked by players who don't even like FPS games. I'm telling you, this game is awesome. What are you waiting for, get to the Steam now!

Positive :

Incredible graphics
Big maps with thousands of players
Vehicles, weapons, classes, everything!!

Negative :

There could be more vehicles
The social interaction is not enough

SCORE : 9,2/10

Goods And Bads About Video Game Testing

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 2 Jan 2013 17:54:00 -0800

We spend a big part of our lives on working. If you are lucky, you will work on an area of your interest. Actually it's all up to you. Act now and do what you want, what you like. If you are reading this, that means you like video games. If so, then video game testing could be your best opportunity to do what you like. But every job has some goods and bads. In this article, I'll try to tell you about what it's like to be a beta video game tester. If you decided to be a tester, you should know the good and the bad about testing jobs.

The Good

You can keep the games that you test
You will play video games and get paid
You will be able to work at home
You will get unreleased video games and play them before anyone do
You will be able to work as a tester part time or full time

The Bad

You might need to work very long hours sometimes.
Ok, you will play incomplete video games. But playing them may not be enjoyable everytime.
Repetitive gameplay could be boring(Dont forget, you will test and play every detail to find bugs, not for fun.)
It's possible to get tired of playing
Your starting pay won't be too much. It will be about 10$ an hour.

If you think that goods weigh the bads, then you can read the rest of the article to find out what beta game testers actually testing.

Guidelines For Beta Game Testers

You will focus on these areas as a beta tester;

1. Functionality: Gameplay is an important part for a game. So testers try to find out if it's complex or easy.
2. Compatibility: Beta testers should test the performance of the game with different sound cards, CPUs, video cards etc.
3. Stability: Testers should test the memory dumps and figure out if the game is stable in various modes. For example, does the game freeze when you leave the game's character swimming for long hours?
4. Storyline: It's not only about testing technical things, testers also need to focus on story and script.
5. Compliance: ESRP rating system is very important for developers. If a game is rated AO(Adults Only) by ESRP, it must be only for adults. So testers find out if the game comply with this rating.

But remember, your main duty will be finding bugs reporting them as a beta game tester. If you want to become a game tester just for fun and playing video games, it won't last long that's for sure. Before getting into field, remember your primary duty; find bugs, report them and get paid!

How To Find Beta Testing Jobs?

Finding video game testing jobs could be hard. You can visit game developers' websites regularly for a job opening. You need to find the person who is in charge of hiring and send your CV. You need to build a relationship with people in game industry. Also offering to work for free is another option to find a job. Ok, you won't get paid, but that will be your first step into the video game industry.

If you want a list of job openings for testing jobs in the game industry, you can check the link. I told you about this site before, it's a database of game jobs. Check it out now and get gaming!

Classic Games: Nocturne

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 18:25:00 -0800

After the disappointment of Clive Baker's Jericho, I searched my archives to find a scary video game and I saw Nocturne. It's a horror game which was released in 1999 and looks like Resident Evil(In my opinion, it's scarier than Resident Evil). In 1999, horror games were very popular by the effect of Resident Evil. Many of them looked same and we've already forgotten some of them. But Nocturne is not one of them. It's a high quality game that you can play even today with pleasure. Game atmosphere really takes you in. It makes you feel like something could happen anytime. Also there is a sign on the game's box that tells you not to play the game if you have a weak heart.

Game begins at the beginning of 20th century. The main character is a cool looking agent named "Stranger". He works for a secret organization named Spookhouse that investigate paranormal events and murders. Game has 4 parts and all that parts are very interesting and different from each other. You fight against many enemies such as werewolves, vampires, zombies and demons. All of them are designed very well.

Nocturne's graphics were the most liked feature about the game. You generally play in dark places. Lighting and shadow effects were amazing for that years. All characters have realictic shadow effects. Stranger's weapons have a laser pointer for a better aim and it looks very good when you walk in a foggy area. Of course all these graphical features required a good system in that years. That was another reason for its success. People who had a good system have enjoyed this classic game. There are some good details in the game. First of all, Stranger is designed very well. When he runs, his clothes waves very realistic. If he kills a creature and walk over its blood, every step leaves a bloody footprint. That details were very successful in that years. Ok, but isn't there anything bad about graphics? Of course there is. Dialogues are very important for the game and unfortunately, characters don't have face movements. They talk but their mouths don't move. Environment doesn't look very good as well. Also when you shoot a creature, you can't realize that if you shot it or not. Nocturne was a famous game with bugs and issues. Game crashes often but there were some patches to fix that bugs.

Audio is another good thing about the game. Strange noises that comes from environment and creatures really scare you. In a part of the game, I was in a jungle and walking. I heard wolf howls and it was getting louder. Suddenly, I was surrounded by werewolves and I was really scared. What happened next? Of course I died. Also musics suit the game very well.

Let's talk about the controls. Controlling Stranger is very hard and you control him with mouse and keyboard. But making him turn right and left is very hard. Plus, creatures are very fast. Shooting system was new for that years. You can take a creature down with just a single shot to the head. But doing this with that terrible controls is not easy. Also camera angles are not very good. They change depending on gameplay. But save system is the solution for all that problems. You can save the game whenever you want.

You should spend a serious time to get used to Nocturne. But then you will see that it worths it. I can't forget it's atmosphere. Also storyline makes you feel like you are in a horror movie. It's an action-horror game actually but there are some adventure features like puzzles you have to solve. Most importantly, it has everything that you expect from a horror game. If you like Resident Evil and Alone In The Dark series, Nocturne is the game you must play. It's still scarier than most of the horror games that are released today. 14 years have passed since it was released but it still deserves to be played. It's absolutely a classic video game.

BALDUR'S GATE Enhanced Edition Review: What's new?

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:25:00 -0800

Genre : RPG
Developer : Overhaul Games
Publisher : Beamdog
Platform : PC
Release Date : 28.11.2012
Web : www.baldursgate.com

There are some books that you read again and again. And everytime you read, you notice something different that you couldn't before. BioWare's RPG, a legend game, Baldur's Gate is that kind of a game. You can't actually finish it even though you play it many times. Finally, that classic modified role playing game is released. Intro movie is not changed but it's good to return that lands.

It's Enhanced Edition of a 14 years old game, of course gamers have some expectations. It makes you feel like you play a new version of the game with new graphics(I think it's normal to expect that after playing the Metal Gear Solid HD. But I was disappointed when I entered the graphic settings. Because there is no option but Full Screen. When you enter the game, you won't see any soft animation or different background. Only changes about graphics are higher definition textures, a better resolution that provides a wider field of view and better spell effects.

It's said that developers fixed more than 400 bugs and issues. Maybe it's true, but it seems that there are other new bugs in the game. Anyway, interface is cleaned and it looks better with new graphics. Maybe the most complained feature of Baldur's Gate was the inventory system and I can't say that there is much changes about this. But there are still some little changes with the advantage of high resolution. We have more slots and hints in inventory system. With the help of these hints and dice rolling system, it's easier to understand the effectiveness of weapons to enemies.

That was the technical part of the game but what about the content? First of all, there is a new game mod named Black Pits. In this mode, a maniac, Baeloth, puts you in a gladiator arena. It's a 15 rounds long survival battle and it gets harder after every round. It's so much fun. You can try to get high-end rigs in Black Pits shop after gaining enough experience and gold. The best thing about this mode is that it makes you get used to Baldur's Gate's complicated and hard fighting system. Especially gamers that are new to Baldur's Gate should practice in Black Pits. When an old game comes out with a new version, it generally become easier and less detailed. But there is no differences in Baldur's Gate's detailed game system. Good job Overhaul Games!

There are three new characters, Neera, Dorn II-Khan and Rasaad yn Bashir. Neera is a powerful mage and her spells really hurt. Dorn II-Khan is a half-orc blackguard who always complains. Rasaad yn Bashir is a a monk who likes tatoos. All these three characters have brand new missions for you. Actually Baldur's Gate is one of the longest games ever and it becomes longer with that extra missions.

Conclusion

OK, there are new characters, storyline and fixes for bugs. But is it worth to buy this Enhanced Edition for 20$, while the old version is in GOG.com for 10$? Actually people expect something different when they see Enhanced Edition title. Also beamdog.com is the only place you can buy the game. If it was sold in Steam, it would be better with unlockable achievements. But it's still better to play Baldur's Gate with wider screen, better graphics and without bugs.

If you call yourself a RPG gamer and haven't played Baldur's Gate yet, you... Wait a minute, are you serious? Do not think and play it! It's a good opportunity to play this "legend". But if you have already played it, there are not much differences to see.

Positive :

The Black Pits game mode
New characters
This game is a legend and it's always fun to play it

Negative :

Inventory system is still the same
No graphic options
There are not much changes actually

SCORE : 8/10

Product Review: Smart PC Fixer

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 11:53:00 -0800

Every year, we play games with better graphics by the effect of improving technology. So better graphics need a better system. But every game that you install and uninstall to your computer leaves some "waste" data into your hard disk drive. And because of that datas, your computer runs slower. At this point, Smart PC Fixer will be your best friend. You can make your PC run faster again and optimize it by using this product.

Smart PC Fixer is a very useful program that you can download and use to solve your PC problems. You can use it to clean the registry, defrag your harddisk, fix the system errors, make your PC faster on startup and optimize it. That issues are common for almost every computer user, so having a PC fixer like Smart PC Fixer is very important for a better PC performance. Of course your PC's game performance will improve as it gets healthy.

This product has some beneficial features and tools to turn your computer back to maximum efficiency. Let's review them.

1. Scan and Clean : When you run the program, it automatically finds the problems that slow down your computer and clean them. Also you can use it to clean cookies and browser history.

2. System Optimize : Smart Fixer is very useful to optimize your PC. Its system helps you to manage your internet, desktop, browsers, and startup datas. This feature helps your computer to return its optimal performance.

3. System Fix : It discovers invalid registry entries and fix them to avoid crashings and other issues. You can use this tool to fix broken files, shortcuts, ActiveX and winsock problems. The product helps you to fix your system by detecting the problems of your PC. You can use it to keep the optimal settings of your PC and repair some file extensions.

4. System Tools : This tools includes some useful features such as Windows Update, BHO Manager, File Splitter, ActiveX Blocker, Disk Defrag, Uninstall Manager, IE Management, IE Toolkit and IE Restore. You can increase the efficiency of your computer by using Smart PC Fixer's system tools.

5. Backup : Don't worry if you deleted an important file for your computer by accident. Backup tool helps you to back up the registry and makes your PC safe.

Also you can use this program to remove some plug-ins for Internet Explorer that lowers the performance of your browser.

Positive :

Easy to use : Using this product is not hard, very simple to use it.
Useful features : Fixing problems like winsock, broken files, ActiveX, broken shortcuts, etc. are very useful features.
Remove errors : It can scan and fix all errors in a very short time.
Customer support : 24/7 online support is a very important feature.

Conclusion

Smart PC Fixer is a beneficial product for your computer's health and to play games faster. It's not only a registry cleaner. It also has lots of tools to optimize your PC. The best thing about it is a 8 week refund guarantee. You can download Smart PC Fixer and use for free in a time limit. Just try the FREE version this registry cleaner and see it yourself!

What Is Beta and Alpha Game Testing?

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:12:00 -0800

I've told you about video game testing before. If you play your cards right, game testing could be a serious job. But of course you won't start your game testing job as a master. You will probably be a beta game tester if it's your first job in the game industry. Ok, but what are beta and alpha game testings? What's the difference between them?

As a beta game tester, you will get paid to test games that are near the completion. But if it's a public beta test for online games, you don't even get paid to test them. Also you might not even keep the game in some public tests. And of course as a beta tester, you will get paid maybe less than 10$ an hour. You should improve you reputation and experience to be able to get paid higher and to test video games for a living. But be willing to work for cheap in your first testing job. It will be your first step into the game industry.

So who is an "Alpha Tester"? Alpha gamers play and test the games that aren't fully developed. Developers hire alpha testers when they make the first playable version of their game. Alpha video game testers are more important people in video game testing industry than beta testers. They are more involved in the video game testing and of course they get paid much more.

Which games require alpha testers?

Of course high budget games need to be tested by alpha testers. Because high budget games can afford the alpha testers' payments that are much more than beta testers'. That ensures a high quality game because releasing a game with full of bugs would cost developers millions.

So which games require beta testers?

Actually beta video game testers are required for every game. Like I said before, beta game testers are hired by developers when a game is almost finished. Some developers outsource beta testing and it depends on game's budget again. But you can find developers with a high budget and make a good money. All you need to do is searching diligently.

What should I tell them in my application?

First of all you should know that; Developers won't pay you to make you play their game and have fun. Your purpose will be finding bugs. It's not about your expectations, it's about what developers expect from you. Get there and make them believe that you can do this!

How to find alpha and beta testing jobs?

Building a relationship in game industry is important. So find the person who is in charge of hiring and contact him for the job. Contact people in that positions and show them what you can do. Also making a list of game companies and checking their webpages regularly are what you should do.

If you have difficulties finding video game testing jobs, there is a site you can have a look. It's a database of available gaming jobs and very useful. You don't have to search for them because this site shows you all available jobs. Find your job in this site and start your game tester career!

Best Free Downloadable Games: Part 4

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 17:50:00 -0800

Jamie's Revenge 2

Download

Jamie is a dog and wants to take her revenge. And she runs, jumps, collects the steaks and kicks her enemies' asses to do that. It has everything that you expect from a 2D platform game. Jumping, running on the walls and reaching the finish point as soon as possible. Game has 7 different worlds and 23 levels. But actually they don't look much different because you usually do the same things(in some levels you use a skateboard and swing with a rope, nothing else). But in my opinion, it's still a successful game, considering it was created by a single developer. So it deserves some respect.

Positive : It's an ordinary 2D platform game but it's fun. Mario fans should try it.
Negative : Doing the same things could be boring.

Agent Trinity

Download

Do you want to be an agent who is made of a few pixels? Don't worry, it will be just for 6 minutes, maybe less. As Agent Trinity, your mission is to prevent a war and you have to do this in just 5 or 6 minutes. Let me tell you how; President of United States needs two hours and you have to get to the clock and set it back two hours. But that won't be easy. You must not be seen by enemies. And your only friends when you do that is the dark places which are look black like you. If you get there and wait, your enemies won't see you and go away. Sometimes you might be caught when you try to open a door but you can start again from the last checkpoint. It's a free little game that you need to think fast. It's free to try.

Positive : Don't you belive a game that was designed with a few pixels could be fun? It's the proof.
Negative : If graphics are the most important thing for you, stay away from this game.

Deep Sleep

Go to homepage

A horror game must be dark, realistic and must has scary sounds. But a developer named Scriptwelder proves that a game could be scary without being realistic. After falling asleep, you see your house changes and transforms to a scary place. You start to walk around in that ruinous house and try to wake up. Game has good surprises and atmosphere that could make you nervous. Deep Sleep is not a downloadable game, it's a browser-based game. But I wanted to share it with you because it's very successful for a browser game. Also it has a walkthrough in game's page. It's highly recommended for horror games fans.

Positive : Scary for a simple browser game. If you like horror games, you should play it.
Negative : It's not downloadable.

Any News From Half Life 3?

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 15:13:00 -0800

Who is G-Man? When will Gordon Freeman talk? Or Gordon doesn't need to talk as Gabe Newell said? What about Alyx? Will we be able to control her in the next game? What's the connection between Half Life and Portal? What's in the Borealis?

As you see, there are a lot of questions in our heads about Half Life series. But maybe the biggest question is when will we see Half Life 3? In spite of thousands of questions about the next Half Life game, Gabe Newell and Valve team don't give us any clue.

There are many possibilities and rumors. Maybe Valve canceled the Episode 3 and started to develop Half Life 3. Or maybe they decided to create Source 2 Engine before developing the next game. As you might remember, there were some rumors like that. Because Source Engine is an old one now. As you know, there was a graphical revolution between Half Life and Half Life 2. Maybe Valve want to that again for the third game. And there is another possibility here, new generation consoles! Also according to a rumor, it will be a "Open World" game.

I think we can say that PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles are at the end of their lives. A new graphic engine requires a new game console to show it's full performance. Ok, we can't say that for PCs. I told you about advantages and disadvantages of PCs and consoles before(PC vs Console). You can always have a chance to have a high performance for PCs, but console games are sold more than PC games and that's why we need a new console for Half Life 3.

I'm expecting for a surprise from Valve. I'm sure you remember the surprise presentation of Portal 2 in E3. Why not another one? Valve team don't say anything about a new game but most of the Half Life fans, including me, dream about Half Life 3.

What do you think about it?

FAR CRY 3 Review: Welcome To The Island

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:11:00 -0800

Genre : FPS
Developer : Ubisoft
Publisher : Ubisoft
Platform : PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Web : far-cry.ubi.com

Let's get back to 10 years from now. Most of the games, which are released now, were not even in development phase. A German game company named Crytek was new in game industry. When they had first announced their first game, Far Cry, they attracted a big attention. Everybody was waiting for this game. After Far Cry was released, it was sold 750.000 units within 4 months. They've created their own game engine and used this engine for other games too. Actually Far Cry series is not a success story for Crytek.

Crytek and Ubisoft developed the first Far Cry together but Ubisoft acquired all rights to the game. So Crytek focused on their new game, Crysis. In 2008, Ubisoft released Far Cry 2 but it wasn't liked much by gamers because of some bugs and glitches. Far Cry 2 came out with a new character, new gameplay dynamics, weapon system and other things but it couldn't satisfied some gamers. After 4 years, it looks like Ubisoft wants to bring the series back to life with Far Cry 3. But what is Far Cry 3 about? Let's see what they got.

Don't worry, they are actually morons.

Once upon a time, there was a Rambo

Ocean, sand, sun, alcohol, crazy parties... For some people, a holiday with these things is nothing but a dream. Or getting kidnapped by pirates while that holiday is just an imagine. But not for Jason Brody and his friend. While enjoying the holiday, they are kidnapped by pirates but they escape where they are kept. And we are taking control of Jason Brody who has never killed somebody in his life and starts to become a Rambo.

I know it's a little exaggerated but as Jason Brody, who has never handle a gun before, your first mission is to kill a man. Ubisoft tries to show us a man who slowly becomes a killer but everything happens very quick and that is not convincing. Jason takes his gun and gets to the road to find his friends.

Besides main missions, there are side missions in the game but that missions are like killing a guy, collecting an item and bringing it back, attacking a camp, activating a tower, etc. and after a while, they really get boring. I must admit that I got bored sometimes. It's obvious that the side missions are for extending the game time but in my opinion, games with that kind of side mission system get the players out of the main story. And when a player is out of the story, he/she begins to get bored. Maybe if side missions were a little more relevant to the main story, that would make players like the game more. But they are still good for getting awards after completing them.

Far Cry 3 has a very big map and I recommend you to explore it.

A long trip to the jungle

Having a skill system is a good thing for Far Cry 3 because you don't begin the game as a Rambo and missions get harder after a while. You can use your skill points on 3 different skill trees when you level up. Besides skill system, crafting system affects the game well. You can create all your requirements, from ammo pouches to the bag that you will put your RPG rockets in. That items save life. You can create them from skins of animals that you killed or collectable plants on the island. For example, you are only able to carry just one weapon in the beginning. If you want to upgrade the capacity, you must collect some items and create your bag. This way you can also carry more money and ammo. It's very important if you decide to attack a pirate camp. Because if you don't have enough ammo, you will be taken down that's for sure.

In Far Cry 2, weapons could break after a while, but this system is not the same for Far Cry 3. It's a good thing actually because it was very annoying sometimes. Activating radio towers is one of your side missions. By doing that, you can open new areas on the map and get new weapons. Recently, most of the FPS games have an upgrade system for weapons. Far Cry 3 has this system too. Not very detailed but you can your weapons a little.

You can craft all your requirements with crafting system. Use it to your advantage.

There are also some vehicles that you can use. It would be very hard to get a location without them anyway. Because the game map is very big. Not a big variety of vehicles but you can find a buggy, jet-ski, ATV and others. But I should warn you, keep your eyes on the road. If you lose control of the car, it's very hard to take the control back again. Also sometimes if you don't drive on the road and jump in the jungle, it's possible to fall down from a cliff. I fell 1-2 times and actually it's fun :)

Like I said before, the game map is very big and of course designing and filling it with objects is not an easy job. But Ubisoft did it successfully. There is a big open world with full of wild animals, sea animals, pirate camps, huts and other many things. If you explore the world, you can see some things like plane and ship wrecks.

What about graphics? Actually, there is not much to talk about. But I can say that environment and face designs are better than I expected. Especially character designs are very successful. Creating a map and filling it with things is hard, but doing that without a mistake is harder.

ATV is one of the vehicles you can use. Drive carefully.

Also I want to tell you about audio. Especially, I can say that voices are almost perfect. There are some synchron issues about them but not a big problem. I can't say the same things about musics. There are not good musics that you want to add to your archives. Maybe you can say "I don't need them anyway", but it would be better if there were some good musics in the game.

Conclusion

I played the game after installing the patch. So maybe the first version of the game has more bugs. But I'll talk about patched version. Doesn't Far Cry 3 have some problems that annoy you? Of course it does. I think the biggest problem about the game is AI. They are absolutely morons. Also vehicle controls and some graphical problems are another issues about the game. But in conclusion, game does a good job. Console and PC versions don't have big differences. But of course better graphics are an usual thing for PC games. Games that are released for PC recently look better. I think this situation will continue until new consoles are released.

Far Cry 3 is not a classic for me but highly recommended.

Positive :

Good storyline
A big open world
Characters
There are lots of things to do

Negative :

Moron AI
Multiplayer is not very successful
Some synchron issues about voices
Side missions get boring after a while

SCORE : 8,8/10

Here is a Far Cry 3 gameplay trailer;

5 Tips For Video Game Testers

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:14:00 -0800

I've told you about the basics of game testing before. Being a video game tester is a dream job for most gamers but it's not easy. You should take it seriously. There are some tips you should know to become a good video game tester and I'll tell you about them. If you learn everything well, you could write down quality reports, look more professional and get more job offers.

1. Developers will send you some data and information about the game. You should read them again and again to have an idea about what the game will be like. You are expected for a feedback about the game with a standard format for evaluation reports. You will be also given a deadline. So read everything and use every resource that was sent to you for your advantage.

2. You should always remember that you won't play the games for fun. You must do more than just playing a game. You need an extra attention on details and test every single part of the game. If there are more than one character in the game, you should play them all. Open your eyes widely and focus for anything abnormal or out of place. You are a video game tester, always remember that.

3. While testing a game, take notes for everything that doesn't seem normal or you think it doesn't work. But avoid of being vague, because these notes will be the basics of your report. One of the most important thing when writing down a report is being as concrete as you can. Describe bugs and glitches and try not to make too many mistakes. If you do, developers might start to look for a new tester and let you go. Remember, there are many people who want to be a game tester.

4. Finding bugs will be your main duty in game testing job and if you come across one, you should try recreating it. Because some bugs could be random and some of them could be triggered by a specific action. So all you need to do is finding out why it happens. Characters, equipments and items that you use, levels, locations, etc. every single information will be very important to help developers on fixing errors. That's why you shouldn't miss any detail. Also you must find other small errors such as audio errors, discoloration, misspelling, etc.

5. If you do your job well and have time before deadline, I suggest you to play the entire game again. Maybe you can't have enough time for long lasting games that takes more than 35 hours, but spend your any free time to play it again as long as you can. This way you can find a bug or something else that you missed before. When your deadline is close, don't forget anything and write down your final report. Every piece of information is important in your notes. Start writing from main errors and make your report look professional and well organized.

I hope you find these tips useful. I think you should know them to be a successful video game tester. Game testing could be a hard job sometimes but if you love video games, then that won't be a problem for you.

Best Free Downloadable Games: Part 3

erdem.guclu.kara@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:01:00 -0800

Generally

Download

Generally is one of the most successful free little game that I've ever played. It's a racing game and there are variety of maps and different cars such as Formula, Monster Truck, Go-kart, Rally car, Truck, McTurbo and more. Also game has a map editor to create your own maps. There are pit stops on the tracks and you can get your car repaired by entering that areas. But slow down when you do that, otherwise you could hit the pit crew. Generally lets you play with friends on the same keyboard. The most surprisingly, it's just 1,8 mb! Just give Generally a chance, you won't regret it.

Positive : Customizable maps and cars, very little size, fun, fun, fun.
Negative : I couldn't find anything bad about it :)

Slender

Download

Slender Man is like an indie version of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. He is an urban legend who wears a suit and has an empty face! He is believed to appear in pictures that show tragic accidents. According to the legend, he has an ability to sprout arms like tentacles from his back. He cause amnesia, insomnia, paranoia and cough up blood. Also he is believed to teleport himself. And now Hadley/Parsec Productions brings that legend to life! Game starts in a jungle and you have to collect eight notes about Slender Man without getting caught by him. But remember, never look directly at his eyes! It's very scary for an indie game. Don't miss that free game.

Positive : Scary atmosphere, very successful for an indie game.
Negative : Replayability is the most important problem but it still deserves to be played.

Insane Balancing On One Leg in Extremely High Places

Download

I think the name explains much about the game. All you need to do is to keep your character on the top of the building. Stay on the building as much as possible to earn more points. But it won't be that easy. Flying birds and other obstacles could make you fall down. You can avoid them by jumping. Story is... Uhmm there is not story and actually it doesn't need one. Graphics are not very good but i think it's not a problem because game is fun. It's a simple free little game and definitely worth a play.

Positive : Very simple and fun
Negative : Graphics are not very good