Battlefield 3

• Developer: DICE
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Genre: Shooter

Online features

• Online multiplayer 2 - 24
• Online co-op 2
• Content downloads
• Leaderboards
• Voice chat

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of the competition with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next installment of DICE's cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering superior visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding single player missions and competitive multiplayer actions ranging across diverse locations from around the globe including Paris, Tehran and New York.

From:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Battlefield-3/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80245410950

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Is it possible to have your expectations raised too high? Uncharted 2: Among Thieves delivered a monumental leap over the first game in the series, and it might be easy to fall into the trap of assuming the same advancements would take place in every subsequent release. If that's your state of mind going into Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, you might walk away slightly disappointed. But that's not a fair response. Though the third entry in this treasure-hunting franchise offers a similar experience to its revered predecessor, it's no less magical. Just about every element showcases the care and craftsmanship you would expect from the series. Combat is even more versatile than in previous entries, combining incredible shooting encounters with advanced hand-to-hand takedowns set in lavishly designed areas. When you need a break from the taxing physical endeavors, thoughtful puzzles allow you to explore your more contemplative side. And these two elements are punctuated by exhilarating set-piece events that leave you gasping. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is another superb entry in Nathan Drake's ongoing quest to find the world's many lost treasures.
Once again, Nathan Drake is in search of lost treasure in a mysterious land. The story encompasses many of the same tropes from previous games--deception, twists, camaraderie--though the nuts and bolts of the plot have never been one of Uncharted's strong points. Rather, it's the realistic portrayal of characters--their lively back-and-forth discussions and snide jokes--that give you a reason to care about the tale. Drake, Sully, and the supporting cast sport detailed animation that makes them almost look real, and their playful dialogue further cements this image. Tempers flare, threats are made, and you can feel the tension during heated moments. But these lifelong friends always make up, and it's their believable relationships that make it so easy to become invested in their struggles.

When you picture Uncharted, you may think of plundering ancient tombs or throwing as many grenades as you can manage in bombastic sequences. But the opening of Drake's Deception eschews the larger-than-life action the series is known for in favor of an old-fashioned bar brawl. This is where the new animations that have been incorporated into fisticuffs are apparent as you wrestle with a platoon of aggressive men in a confined place. Shoving a burly dude into the bar while you pummel his face or grabbing a stray bottle to crash over someone's head conjures images of Patrick Swayze handling business in Road House, and the controls are precise enough to make it possible to manage an approaching group without getting your face beaten. Ultimately, these instances where you're forced to take matters into your own hands are the weakest aspect of the game because your freedom is so limited, but that's not to say they're boring. There's a satisfying rhythm to throwing fists while avoiding counters, and you have enough flexibility to move around that you don't feel like you're just performing mindless quick-time events.
As much fun as it may be to bash in a man's head with a wooden chair, it can't match the thrill of beating a man with your fists when he's sporting an assault rifle. There are segments where you have to fistfight in Drake's Deception, but there are other times when you're in a battle for your life and you can use any weapon you want to stay alive. Thanks to the incredibly impactful animations of a hand-to-hand assault, it's fun to put aside the bullets and explosives to focus on getting your hands dirty instead. Being sneaky certainly helps. Snapping a man's neck before he can turn around or just shoving someone clear off a building is immensely rewarding. But there are other times when stealth doesn't work, and you find yourself grappling, feinting, and punching below the belt, while bullets fly and enemies scream death threats at you. Particular animations make these encounters a special treat. You may grasp the barrel of your gun and swing at someone's head with a metal uppercut or elbow a foe in the neck like a wrestler suffering from roid rage, and it's hard to contain your joyous laugh. There are times when you run out of bullets and fighting with your fists is the only way to go. Once you finish off your foe, a slow motion moment in which Drake snatches your enemy's discarded gun in midair adds a fitting end to the fight.

Of course, you don't have to go toe-to-toe if you'd rather not. The beauty of Uncharted's combat is that you can dispatch foes in a variety of ways, and all of them feel incredibly empowering. The key is the expertly designed levels. Drake's Deception is a cover-based, third-person shooter; thus, chest-high walls populate many of your encounters. But those familiar structures aren't used as a crutch here. Verticality gives you the option to climb around like a gun-toting monkey if you prefer, getting the drop on lackadaisical foes. If a man with a rocket launcher is forcing you to hunker behind a piece of debris, fear not; you can smoothly leap from cover, shimmy up a nearby wall, and sprint pell-mell across a rooftop. Grab a sniper rifle on the way if you want to handle him from afar or a shotgun if you'd like to pop him right in the head. Toss grenades at the group of enemies hiding by that well, man the turret once you finish off its previous operator, or sprint past everyone until you make it to the door that marks your safety. Versatile level design lets you choose how to go about killing your pesky foes in Drake's Deception, and rock-solid controls ensure every action you want to perform can be pulled off without any hesitation.
If you're feeling sluggish and just want to use your gun for a while, doing so is a perfectly valid alternative to the high-flying adventuring. The mechanics in Drake's Deception have been refined even further from the previous game. No matter which gun you grab, you can target weak points with ease, and enemies recoil when you prick their flesh with searing-hot bullets. Drake's Deception offers so many different ways to take down foes that you might think it falls into the camp of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But that's not true at all. If you take things slowly--crouch behind cover only risking your neck when the opportunity presents itself--you have just as much of a chance to succeed as someone who makes use of Drake's agility. And you can have just as much fun, too. The weapons are a blast to use. Landing a headshot from across the map with a sniper rifle is eminently satisfying, as is taking out a gunner with a sure blast from a shotgun. You can easily keep an enemy off balance with a fast-shooting assault rifle or knock a grenade right out of someone's hand with a steady pistol. Ample ammunition lets you focus on the fun of firing rather than scrounging for extra bullets, so you can stick with your favorite weapon if you want or mix things up after every fight.

Read More:
http://asia.gamespot.com/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/reviews/uncharted-3-drakes-deception-review-6341906?tag=summary%3Bread-review&page=2

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

The Elder Scrolls. The series that let players get completely lost in a fantasy world of elves, magical spells, mythical creatures, swords and shields, epic storylines, and large masses of explorable land continues with Skyrim. Did the extreme amounts of hype and speculation live up to what the game offers?

Yes.

Taking place about 200 years after the events of Oblivion, players are now thrust into the lands of Skyrim. On the verge of meeting their doom, players soon find out that Dragons are no longer just beasts of myth, and the player isn't just another ordinary citizen of Skyrim. You play as the last of the Dragonborn, a chosen individual who understands and comprehends the language of Dragons and is able to adopt it as his own to use it against the onslaught of Dragons plaguing the lands of Skyrim.

If you've read any of our Previews, you already know of the vast improvements that Bethesda has made to ensure Skyrim is nothing short of a breathtaking experience. Everything from combat, leveling, and the graphics went through some drastic changes, and trust me when I say it's all for the better.
The classic races that Elder Scrolls fans are familiar with are back and looking even better than ever. Oblivion wowed us back in 2006 with some really impressive visuals. Seeing the forests come to life before our very eyes was truly a sight to behold. Even though the faces, by today's standards, are fairly horrendous looking, at the time we were all mesmerized that an open-world fantasy game could look that good! Bethesda really outdid themselves this time.

One glance from a high mountaintop overlooking Skyrim, and you'll be speechless at not only the vastness of the explorable land, but the beauty that it encapsulates. Skyrim isn't as lush and green as Oblivion was before it. It feels more dark and gritty, with snow covered mountaintops, deteriorating shanty towns, outposts built up from wood, and cities literally constructed out of stone bricks. Every location has its own distinct look, to the point that they become easily recognizable by looks alone.

Locations themselves are going to be every player's major time suck. Not because you'll necessarily be looking for these locations, (though chances are some definitely will) it's the fact that in between questing to a new area that you haven't yet discovered, various dungeons, caves, outposts, towers, statues, and villages will pop up on your compass HUD, and like a magnet, you'll feel drawn to discover them, if only to just unlock their location on your map to come back to later. It won't be long until you realize that you're not only way out a completely different direction that you're supposed to be, you've uncovered 20 different locations in the process, many that enticed you to explore even further. You then look at the time and notice that something that was supposed to take you only ten minutes in travel time, has now turned into four hours.
Skyrim is a living, breathing world with citizens who actually live out their lives on a day to day basis. This was already introduced in Oblivion, but looking at the system now, you can notice that it had its flaws. Though not perfect, every person's actions are far more believable in Skyrim. Workers attend their daily routines chopping wood, tending their shops, hunting wild animals, etc. People converse in the streets, react to your presence, and to what you're currently wearing, including your race. Just something as simple as playing through the game as an Argonian instead of a Nord, for example, will yield you varying results with citizen reaction, as there are some who are more prejudice to certain races. This alone encourages multiple playthroughs with various races just because of the different interactions.

The biggest change to character development might just be what makes Skyrim the most accessible in the Elder Scrolls series to date. Gone are the major and minor skills that produced character growth which relied on use of that particular skill. Now, everything is a major skill. From Heavy Armor, Two Handed Weapons, Destruction Magic, Sneaking, Speechcraft, and more, raising skills in any of these will now grant you a point towards leveling up. To those not familiar with the process, XP points are not part of the equation here. Instead, each skill can be leveled up to 100 points and each 1 point you gain in a skill, that one point goes toward your level. Getting ten points will net you a level that lets you upgrade either Health, Magicka (Mana) or Stamina, and then assign a perk point in one of the many branching skill trees.
The beauty of this free-form character development is that it truly lets you be whatever it is that you choose. You can be a warrior that concentrates on Heavy Armor and wielding a two handed sword, or you can go a more hybrid route and be a warrior/mage that holds a sword in one hand, and wields a destructive fireball spell in the other. The freedom is there, it's just up to you how you want to use it.

And then there are Dragons. These huge beasts of myth have been unleashed and it's up to you to ensure these overgrown, flying lizards become extinct. These unscripted beasts fly around Skyrim, or protect various locations, and each fight with one is a fight to the death, as they fly around you, swoop down hurl flames and try to eat you in one swift chomp. Each fight can be completely different from each other, and they all make your heart race, even as soon as you hear the loud Dragon shriek way before you even catch a glimpse of one. The best thing is, Dragons are friends to nobody. If you manage to draw them out to where other monsters reside, such as the uber powerful Giants, they'll gladly help out in taking them down (just don't stick around afterwards, since you'll be their next target).
As a Dragonborn, you not only understand the language that Dragons speak, you're also able to learn it and absorb a deceased Dragon's soul. Scattered across the lands of Skyrim are various Dragon Burial Sites, which not only are always guarded by one of these beasties, but they also contain a Dragon word that you're able to learn and wield. These shouts will either propel you a far distance, shoot a freeze breath, disarm opponents, highlight living creatures with an aura, and other useful abilities. To claim these words as your own, you must use a slain Dragon's soul to unlock and wield it. Shouts don't work off of Magicka however, they rely simply on cooldowns. Each shout can also be powered up multiple times once the corresponding Dragon words are found. This combination of weaponry, magic and shouts truly bring out a fun combat system.

Combat and questing aren't the only things that will consume your time in Skyrim. You're able to purchase property, court maidens or men, and eventually get married, take up a profession such as cooking, alchemy, or smithing, and brew up your own healing potions and construct protective pieces of armor and powerful weapons. Does this sound like too much work? Take up thievery and steal or pickpocket your way to wealth, assuming you don't get caught by the authorities. Join the Thieves guild and become a master thief, or perhaps the Dark Brotherhood's murderous intentions are far mor appealing to you--all of this is available to anyone. Skyrim's Radiant Story system will ensure that you constantly have something to do, way beyond finishing the main quest, and even beyond finishing side quests. Simply saying that there is so much to do cannot fully express just how massive this game is.
Though Skyrim is one fabulous package that by some crazy miracle fits on one single disc, it still retains some "open world bugs" that the Elder Scrolls games are known for. Pieces of the environment getting stuck or attached to passing-by NPC's, the occasional NPC getting stuck in a standing walking cycle, or even a dragon completely frozen in mid air. Sure they look odd and out of place, but they haven't once broken my game. Surprisingly enough, throughout my extremely long gameplay sessions, not once have I experienced the game freezing on me. For what the game offers, I was surprised that I only experienced the little amount of bugs that I did. It seems as though Bethesda is definitely learning to iron these things out.

The fact of the matter is, Skyrim is amazing. As an open world where you can truly live out your fantasy life and as a technological marvel, it impresses on almost every level. The few graphical bugs you might encounter shouldn't deter you from what is this years most anticipated game. Bottom line is...you need it. Period.

Read More:
http://www.gamezone.com/reviews/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-review

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword review

These days, it's generally inadvisable to purchase a game sight unseen without checking reviews first, but if there's any series that merits complete trust based on its track record, it's Zelda. So it's no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a must-play not only for all Zelda fans, but all Wii owners in general. In nearly every way, it upholds the high standard of the series and is a worthy entry to mark Zelda's 25th anniversary.

For many people, that's all that needs to be said – the rest is like a giant present that takes upwards of 50 hours to unwrap, and discussing what's under each new layer only spoils the fun. With that said, we'll keep this review spoiler-free and hit the main points of interest without ruining too much of the magic of discovery.
Shaking things up

Skyward Sword subverts the typical Zelda paradigm in ways that aren't immediately obvious just by looking at screens and gameplay snippets. The world itself is structured unlike any other Zelda world – it's definitely not Hyrule as usual. It's divided into two sections: Skyloft and the "surface" world below it. The bulk of the story takes place on the surface, and Skyloft acts more as a homebase where you go to recuperate and explore more leisurely.
The biggest departure from the typical Zelda formula is the lack of the usual separation between overworld and dungeons. Instead, the entire surface world is like a giant series of smaller outdoor dungeons. Navigating through each new area to find the temple takes just as long – if not longer – than completing the temple itself, and the road is paved with a similar type of exploration and puzzles you'd expect from a temple, if slightly more spread out.

On one hand, this means there's much more of the type of classic Zelda environmental puzzles that we love, which is obviously a good thing. The increase in quantity doesn't mean a decrease in quality either – there's never a lull or a dip in the meticulous environmental design throughout the entire game. Plus, it's always clear where you're supposed to go at any given point – we never found ourselves aimlessly wandering in search of what to do.
The tradeoff is that, while there's still plenty of exploration, there's no breathing room on the surface world like you'd find in an expansive area like Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess. The lack of space on the surface though is mitigated by the openness of the sky world, and flying around exploring its various floating islands feels reminiscent of the sailing in Wind Waker, albeit on a smaller scale.

Temples still follow the classic formula, where you explore around to find treasure chests with small keys to open locked doors, which lead to the map, the temple's item (the slingshot, the flying beetle, the whip and so on), and finally the big key that leads to the temple's boss battle. Each temple is smaller and more manageable compared to some of the gargantuan dungeons of Zeldas past, so the dreaded "temple fatigue" never has a chance to set in. Despite this, they still feel like full dungeons, and the bosses all live up to what we expect from proper Zelda bosses – each requires inventive use of your newfound items combined with expert swordsmanship.
In breaking the game up into smaller chunks, it feels more accessible (especially for newcomers to the series, which Nintendo undoubtedly had in mind), but at the same time still maintains everything about classic Zelda that fans are looking for. Adding to the accessibility, each save point (which are plentiful, by the way) also doubles as a teleport spot, and from Skyloft you can conveniently teleport to any point on the surface by choosing your desired destination on the world map.

Together, the structure of the world and the flow of the gameplay feel like a pretty big shake up for the series, but it's one that definitely works. And speaking of shaking things…
The pros and cons of Wii MotionPlus

True to the title, the star of the Wii MotionPlus controls in Skyward Sword is definitely the swordplay. Link's sword moves accurately based on how you move the Wii Remote – swing it diagonally up and to the right and Link swings along with you. We found that even when we used fairly limited movements, the sword always did exactly as we wanted. Using the sword, especially against enemies designed to block you at certain angles, is satisfying in a very tactile way.
Even the flight controls, which we were initially skeptical about, work well despite not being as literal as the sword controls. The beetle item in particular proved to be the most reached-for item in our adventure bag, and we used its behind-the-beetle aerial point of view to fly over inaccessible terrain and scope out the situation ahead many times, often using it even when it wasn't required to solve a puzzle.

Motion control still isn't without its setbacks though. Every time you obtain a new item that uses motion controls, your companion Fi pops up to remind you of how to recalibrate the controls should they slip out of alignment. Recalibrating only takes a second though – just pull up a menu, point the remote at the center of the screen and hit the down on the d-pad to re-center the cursor.
Not too big of a deal in and of itself, but it happens a lot. At times we found ourselves needing to re-align the cursor what felt like every few minutes. No matter how much some might poo-poo traditional controls in favor of motion controls, we never remember having to troubleshoot our GameCube controllers like that – just saying. Though we still prefer traditional button inputs, we have to admit that the Wii MotionPlus really does work well here overall, and while the detractions are there, they're relatively small.

from :

http://www.gamesradar.com/legend-zelda-skyward-sword-review/

Download of the Week: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on iOS

Game: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light | Platform: iOS | Publisher: Square-Enix | Developer: Crystal Dynamics | Price: £0.69

All our downloads are piped in with the lightning-quick Virgin Media 50Mb Broadband...

Lara Croft's 'twin-stick shooter' action adventure is an absolute blast on iOS however you look at it. But with an unbelieveable price of just £0.69p until Monday 14th November, it is frankly unmissable. Buy, buy, buy!

Premier Manager 2012 | PSN | Urbanscan | £9.99

This classic footie management series' latest game has got a special launch week price of £4 off, so grab it while it's hot. With RPG-style manager leveling and an enhanced matchday experience, it's well worth a look for your console-based management fix.

Codemasters Racing Bundle | Steam | Codemasters | £20.39

How about 66% off DiRT 3 and F1 2011 on PC? Justin gave both of these games 9/10 at review, so to get the pair of them for the cost of less than one is an amazing offer. It's the 'weekend deal' on Steam, so get 'em quick before they go back up.

from:

http://www.gamesradar.com/download-week-lara-croft-and-guardian-light-ios/

Battlefield 3 Screenshot Compares Xbox 360 HD and Non-HD Texture Packs Graphics to PC

Earlier this week DICE stated that Battlefield 3 played on Xbox 360 without the installed texture pack looks like "standard definition."


“The thing with the 360 is that you need to be able to give consumers a game where you don’t have to install it on a hard drive, because there are 360s without a hard drive,” said Battlefield series producer Patrick Bach

“So we need to give you the option of installing it, rather than just demanding it. You could call it a ‘standard-def’ version for the 360 if you don’t have a hard-drive.”

Today, thanks to reddit users "xxgrplayer", we have evidence of just how "standard" Battlefield 3 will look without the HD pack installed on the Xbox 360. Below we have three screenshots comparing the same scene taken with three different setups running Battlefield 3 -- the PC version, an Xbox 360 with the HD pack installed, and an Xbox 360 without the HD pack installed. Keep in mind, these are compressed as JPG and several factors weren't mentioned like frame rate and resolution. Still, I think these give a pretty decent depiction of how the game will look comparatively.
PC is obviously the winner in a graphics comparison, but we all knew that already. What we didn't know was just how well the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 with the HD texture pack installed looks in comparison. PC clearly has the lighting edge over the Xbox 360 (no matter the HD texture), but nonetheless, for a machine pushing five years old, DICE has optimized it quite well.

The face alone isn't the best place to look for differences, but when you look at the knuckles and the gun you can see the big differences. First off, the knuckles on the PC version are much smoother. The gun is more clearly defined on PC, though that could be due to lighting as well.

As for the Xbox 360 HD pack vs Xbox 360 non-HD pack, well, you can definitely see the differences. Look at the guys fingers and it's a dead giveaway. It's actually pretty bad looking at it with the HD pack not installed. Right away you can see the railing missing and the difference in the shirt the terrorist looking over his shoulder is wearing in the non-HD version. The gun and hands are so blocky and lacking texture that it draws comparisons to Half-Life 2. Aside from his face, everything else looks pretty bad.

Although several factors could be contributing to the poor quality of the non-HD textured version of Battlefield 3, I assume this is a pretty accurate depiction of what it will look like. Comparatively, the PC version is better than the Xbox 360 HD-pack version, but not enough to make the game un-enjoyable. Actually, with the HD texture pack installed, the Xbox 360 stands up quite well to the the PC version. The non-HD version on the other hand, well, let's just hope everyone can install it.

from :
http://www.gamezone.com/news/battlefield-3-screenshot-compares-xbox-360-hd-and-non-hd-texture-packs-graphics-to-pc

Beat Hazard Ultra – PS3 Review

Old school shooters are not being made as frequently as they used to be, so it’s refreshing to play one. In Beat Hazard Ultra, you’re a space ship in the centre of the screen and it’s your job to shoot down all the different enemies. The twist to this game is that the music is intense, hard-pounding techno, and the beats of the tunes can be seen in the beams of your lasers and the enemies. There is also a multiplayer option so you can play co-op with a friend next to you or online. BHU is a fast, action-packed, beautifully made game. Cold Beam Games have done a great job here.

The controls are pretty simple as the left analogue stick is for movement whilst the right stick moves the nose of the ship and is also the shooting control (just tilt the stick forward to shoot). Your arsenal of weapon have been mapped to the shoulder buttons, L2 enables your reflect shield, L1 fires the mini-missiles and R1 is for your devastating Ultra beam. There is also the addition of a super explosion (R2) that gradually radiates out from you in a 360o circle. The movements feel very smooth and the ship slides around in space with a good weight to it, you feel that its solid but at the same time one hit will lose a life. So be careful with your movements.

The gameplay in BHU is fantastic, there will be hundreds of enemies coming at you and the screen gets very busy, but it’s the pyrotechnics the game offers that are truly mind-blurring. BHUlooks like it’s on an acid trip, the colours are vivid and bright, and almost everything on screen pulsates to the intese beat of the music. Truly, this is a fun game, sometimes you lose sight of your ship as there is so much mayhem on screen, but it’s so god damn cool.

The game feature waves of enemies coming at you in patterns, with a boss fight at the end of each section. When you finish, you are awarded points which you can spend in the perks management section. The perks are pretty cool and include more weapons to pimp out your ship with. The game’s single player options offers the Standard mode (as explained above), Survival mode, Boss Rush and Chill Out Modes. The Survival mode is exactly what it says; survive wave after wave of attacks. Boss Rush allows you to fight against all the bosses and try to win, although you’ll struggle, as it’s very very hard. In contrast, Chill Out mode is when you have unlimited lives and can sample all the weapons and just shoot the crap out of everything, which is great fun and highly satisfying.

The graphics in BHU are truly amazing, the detail of the ships is good but the attack patterns they take are always varied and the boss battles are very hard to finish. The weapons look stunnig as they shoot forth from your ship and the dazzling light, stars and various other flashing effects are done with a lot of care. Its pretty clear that Cold Beam games went to a lot of trouble mapping these effects and getting the timing just right with the music.
While the set music is just amazing - all techno and very upbeat - one of the best things about BHU is that you can use your own tunes and the game work just as well with them. The various weapons sound right when fired and the alarms and hazard sounds are also done well. This game also offers a great online mode where you can challenge gamers and also take part in co-op play. There are leaderboards as well. The game also offers a rank-up system based on how many points you get, so you can work your way up from trainee recruit to Elite. Be warned, though, you need a crap load of points and time to get to Elite.

Overall, Beat Hazard Ultra is a fun, intense, fast and very beautiful game. It offers a lot in terms of entertaining old school arcade shooting, with amodern musical twist. There is no story but BHU will still hook you. Trust me, you will hurt your wrists, but it will be worth it as the thrill of beating the bosses is motivation enough to keep playing. Add to this the co-op and online modes and you have a game with a pretty decent life span and one that you will keep playing. Old school shooters are back, baby.

from :

http://www.brashgames.co.uk/2011/10/22/beat-hazard-ultra-ps3-review/

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland - PS3

by Vito Gesualdi, October 07, 2011

Growing up as a social outcast in the god-forsaken 90s, I found myself quickly drawn into the world of Japanese animation, helping to brand myself as a mega-nerd for the rest of time. And though I now believe that the art form I once championed has since devolved into the realm of stunningly offensive mediocrity, there's still something about those wide-eyed teenagers and their neon-colored hair that calls to me.
This is why I'm able to enjoy Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland un-ironically, even though I am a grown-ass man who should quite frankly be repulsed by the adventures of magical fourteen-year-old girls. It's not that I claim to be some paragon of manliness, but it's obvious this shiny coloring book of a game is not intended for the Call of Duty boys club of which I am a card-carrying member. The point is that though it's definitely not a top tier game, Atelier Totori is quite a bit of fun, and quite frankly, about as adorable as a kitten circus.

Atelier Totori follows the adventures of its titular protagonist Tortori, a 14-year-old girl studying the rare art of alchemy: combining various items into strange new magical creations. The story follows her attempt to prove herself as an adventurer, along the way making friends, overcoming her fears, and attempting to discover the truth behind the disappearance of her adventurer mother.
The game itself is really quite simple, with the only apparent goal being to raise your adventurer rank by performing various tasks, either hunting down dangerous monsters; collecting alchemy materials to transmute into various items; or searching out special landmarks. Each area is small, usually about two screens wide, making it about a five-minute ordeal to clear the area of monsters and hit up each marked gathering spot in search of materials. At first I was put-off by the lack of any large dungeon areas, but by paring the game down to these small hot-spots, Atelier's keeps its repetitive tasks from feeling like chores.

Given how simple it is to fulfill quests, the only real constraint is learning to budget your time. Each action, whether traveling around the map; gathering materials; or even fighting a battle, expends a certain amount of time. Many quests are time specific, and failing to complete them in time results in lower-ranked quests being offered. Not to mention that the adventurers guild requires a certain level of progress every few years; stripping the license from lazy adventurers; and gamers hoping to avoid a truly bad ending (the game offers fourteen or so endings total) will need to bust their butt becoming a master alchemist.
Obviously the most interesting aspect of the game is the alchemy system, and learning new recipes and seeking out high-powered materials is essential to making any progress. For starters, Totori is practically useless in combat (Try and find a video showing how she runs. It looks as if a stiff wind could snap her spine). So though it's fun to bop baddies on the head with her magic fairy wand, she's much more dangerous with an inventory full of powerful bomb concoctions, alongside healing potions and other useful tools. The item-crafting also offers some ridiculous levels of complexity, as each potential ingredient offers a stunning variety of rank-boosting traits. Use a certain type root and a usually-perishable item may gain a skill allowing it to last another month or so, use higher-ranked versions of common ingredients and your spiky bomb might gain something like the "cute" attribute, which improves how much it can be sold for.
Despite how well it's been put together, Atelier Totori's core gameplay isn't terribly complex, and though it can be addictive, if you stripped out the 3D graphics you could probably cram the whole thing into a pretty decent iPhone game. Thankfully, the game's polished storyline is what justifies the retail release. Atelier Totori is really just a visual novel tacked onto a competent item-collection simulator, with fun cutscenes and character skits triggering from such minor events as entering an area or returning to town.

Again, if you've no interest in watching a little girl make friends and comically blow up her workshop time and time again, then start running for the hills. But frankly I found the plot to be a lot of fun, the kind of lighthearted comedy I'd expect of a children's movie. The graphics are simple but polished, with most character interaction handled by beautifully drawn 2D portraits. Though the 3D exploration and town areas are often small and lacking in detail, they work just fine. More impressive are the wonderfully animated 3D character models, which all look as if they've jumped right off the page. But the feature that really sold me on the game was the fantastic voice cast, who really brought these fun characters to life, and I never even considered switching over to the included Japanese language track.
Again, Atelier Totori is definitely not a sprawling RPG adventure, but more an anime storybook with some simple and addictive gameplay to propel it along. My mind is not blown by any part of it, though there's few parts of the game lacking in polish, and the overall experience definitely appeals to myself and similar social rejects. In short, if you're a terrifying otaku with no sense of shame, definitely check Atelier Totori out! Or, you could consider the repulsive nature of your lolita fetish and strive to better yourself!

from :
http://www.gamezone.com/reviews/atelier-totori-the-adventurer-of-arland-review

Peggle HD (iPad) Review

After so many months playing through the iPhone edition of the game, iPad users FINALLY have their own version of Peggle, now in HD format. Yeah, yeah, it took damn long enough, right? Better that PopCap Games take their time on it and make it perfect, rather than rush it to the market in a lackluster format. After all, it’s PEGGLE. You don’t want to screw it up.

Rest assured, PopCap doesn’t. What we have here is one of the most addictive strategy games available on the App Store today, and for a budgetable price (at the moment) of $2.99.

You know the drill, right? Your job is to clear orange pegs away from a playfield by dropping a marble onto them. It bounces off of objects and other pegs, particularly blue ones. You’ll also need to try and build up a high score by hitting combos, performing long skill shots, hitting score multipliers (pink pegs), and using power-ups, each aligned with a specialty character, such as an animal or an alien. Each one is different, and you can select between them once you beat the game.

Peggle HD still plays as fantastic as ever. You can either aim on the playfield with touch screen controls, or use a scrolling wheel on the side for precision. Both work very well, and will keep you dropping marbles well into the night. You can also unlock Achievements in Game Center to show off to your friends, though there’s no direct online competition. Oh, well.

Now, being dubbed HD, you expect Peggle to look PHENOMENAL on the iPad, right? Well, good news – it does. The play fields are definitely up to par – in fact, past it – with great peg alignments, interesting object placements (damn fish!), and a cool zoom-in feature, if you want to see where a shot goes. Also, it’s still nice to have Extreme Fever kick in (with a little “Valkyries” in the background) kick in once you get that last peg. The music remains the same, but is pleasant background noise as you get through each stage.

No, nothing’s really changed, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it? PopCap Games has been making unbeatable social games for years, and Peggle maintains the status quo by being so simple, yet so delightful. The HD version is one of the best versions to date, and one that won’t set you that far back in your wallet. Drop some cash, then drop some balls.

From : 
http://iphone.gamezone.com/reviews/item/peggle_hd_ipad_review

Dark Souls Has Online Issues in Japan, Fix Coming Next Week - News

It seems the Japanese release of Dark Souls hasn’t gone very smoothly. There have reportedly been some issues with the game’s online functionality, and several gamers are experiencing freezes while connecting.
As you can probably guess, a lot of gamers are pretty annoyed by this. So what have they done to voice their anger? They’ve taken to the Japanese Amazon site and have been leaving negative ratings for Dark Souls.
Developer From Software has addressed the issue, stating that the source of the bug has been identified. The company will be working on a patch to alleviate these online issues. Japanese gamers can expect the patch to release sometime next week.
Here’s hoping Dark Souls has a smooth launch here in North America. We don’t need any pesky bugs giving us a hard time. No, we’d rather leave the source of our frustration and foul language up to the actual in-game content of Dark Souls.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/item/dark_souls_has_online_issues_in_japan_fix_coming_next_week

We get a closer look at the Child of Eden demo with which Tetsuya Mizuguchi revealed this Rez-like "synesthesia shooter."

First revealed at Ubisoft's E3 conference, Child of Eden is a "multisensory" shooter that combines showers of light and luminous sea creatures with pulsing electronic music that evolves or grows with the beats and samples generated in the explosive destruction of the obstacles in your path. Today, we took a closer look at the demo, again conducted by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the game's creative director and creator of the similarly musical shooter Rez and blocky puzzler Lumines.
With its flying, tunnel-vision on-rails shooting, the game closely resembles Rez, albeit from a first-person perspective and rendered in glorious high definition at a smooth 60 frames per second. Mizuguchi also doesn't call it a sequel or direct successor to that earlier title, emphasizing Child of Eden's entirely different inspiration: the life theme, as he calls it, which manifests itself in the organic designs of the creatures to be shot at, including neon sea anemones and caterpillar-like creatures built of glowing cubes.

In our demo, Mizuguchi used the Xbox 360 controller rather than the controller-free Kinect system for the Xbox, as seen at the Ubisoft presentation. The controls seem simple and streamlined, with the left thumbstick used to move the reticle and the A button for locking on to a target. Also, with a physical controller, the vibration feedback at the heart of Rez is restored as part of the multisensory experience. Though a Sony PS3 version of Child of Eden is on the cards, no one is yet talking about Sony's Move capability, if any.

The game's high-definition kaleidoscope of color and light is lovely to behold and mixes the regular, tunnel-like environments (sometimes circular, sometimes square) with large, one-off structures. In the short demo, this included a giant anemone, a great, screen-filling wall built of endless glowing cubes, and a globe surrounded by the huge curved sides of what Mizuguchi calls a sound box: a vast wall with certain panels that can be targeted and hit to trigger different sounds.
These were looped vocals samples, in our case. Generally, the game's interactive audio included Lumines-like beats; its quality much improved over the PSP version of Lumines. Later, the background of the game looked much like a crisp satellite image of Earth, in keeping with the life theme and more conventionally a music video-style dancer. These acted as the backdrop to the psychedelic confetti of Child of Eden's busy, heads-up-display-free foregrounds. Child of Eden appears to be an essential title for the (still some way off) Kinect but will be just as good with the standard controller when it arrives, or so says Mizuguchi. There's no confirmed release window as of yet, but we'll be sure to have more as it becomes available.

http://asia.gamespot.com/

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review - Xbox 360

As a game reviewer (who has been at this for more years than I would sometimes like to admit), I have to say that a score of 3 is usually equivalent to an uninterested Meh. A three is a game, nothing more, nothing less. This does not apply to El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. This three has passion on both sides. Some parts of this game deserve a five, while others deserve a two -- or dare I say it -- a one. So get ready for a passionate, heart wrenching, emotional, completely unsatisfying yet utterly deserving three.

A Tranquil Heart Is Life to the Body, But Passion Is Rottenness to the Bones.

Right off the bat, I want to talk about why El Shaddai is special. If you are interested in art direction, or are a person drawn to the visual nature of gaming, you should -- no you must -- check out this game. I loved the visuals. Maybe I need something stronger than loved. How about unequivocally adored? I unequivocally adored the visuals. Sometimes the screen is so bright it hurts your eyes.

Sometimes it's a 2D black and white pencil drawing. Sometimes it's a perfect cell shaded cartoon. Sometimes you are surrounded by abstract neon, sometimes it is drab industrial, sometimes you are in Tron. You really never know what look you are getting next, and you never see the same thing twice. It bravely challenges the notion that a game has to have a cohesive art style, and that feeling of never knowing what comes next, then being dazzled when you get there, is what makes El Shaddai a stand out game. The artists worked overtime, and they created beautiful, trippy, acid-coated magic.

The music however, is not so good. As a visual person, the quality of the music is usually lost on me. If I don't notice it, it's fine. I leave it to others to judge such things; however, if I notice how bad it is, and actually turn it off, that's not a good sign. You could make your own soundtrack. Pink Floyd should do you just fine.


I Pursued My Enemies and Overtook Them, and I Did Not Turn Back Until They Were Consumed.

El Shaddai is a 2D platformer, a 3D platformer, and a brawler all in one. The 2D platforming? Brilliant. Fantastic. Utterly under-represented. By the time you've made it through the first third of the game you will have enjoyed all the 2D platforming the game has to offer. There are some bonus (yet boring) Darkness 2D levels peppered throughout the rest of the game, but since failure at these levels means an agonizingly long and dramatic death scene followed by the game's credits, you quickly learn the unexplained advantages are not worth the potential downside, so you mainly avoid them.

Then, there are the 3D platforming levels. This is where I tried to find out if a 30-something video game host could actually rip an Xbox controller in half in utter, bitter, miserable %^&**R$^&^%'ing frustration (the answer is no, but my dog did leave the room for fear that things might soon get violent).

Now, before you get all your boy-panties in a bunch about how I couldn't actually be good at games because I'm a woman, I will say that 1. I have a mean headshot and 2. I can platform the &*%$ out of anything, being, as I am, of the Greatest Generation (the Nintendo Generation. What, you thought I was talking about war?). I love challenging platforming. No, I need something stronger than love - lets go with unequivocally adore. I unequivocally adore challenging platforming.


This platforming, however, has a fundamental flaw. The static camera is mostly positioned at an odd three-quarters angle. Combine this with the lack of camera control and the often abstract visuals, and you are basically platforming without depth perception. There are jumps you should be able to make without a second thought, but the controller-ripping problem is that they won't work except by chance. You can tell where the platform is on the x and y axis, you just can't tell where it is on the z-axis. You will fall again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and, not to put too fine a point on it, you will fall again. Then you will polish up your swear words, make sure your dog isn't in the room, and let a giant, jagged, pissed off f-bomb fly.

The brawler sections don't fare much better. The game would have been saved if they had just ripped off God of War like everyone else. Instead El Shaddai looked for inspiration somewhere in 2002. The simplistic, yet frustrating, combat is hindered by the lack of camera control but defined by the long animation and the cheap shot. An enemy finally gets close enough to get one shot in? That means he gets five brutal shots because you're down for the count.


The main problem stems from the fact that you are constantly locked into attack animations while your enemy is barreling down upon you. You spend most of your time hopping around like an idiot trying desperately to stay as far away from your foes as possible. There is a ranged weapon, but it spends most of its time shooting at the wall due to a tragic lack of target lock. You get your one shot in at the boss, and your stupid weapon not only shoots the wall, it locks you into shooting at the wall for several seconds while you can see your doom about to rain down upon you. Then you let another giant, jagged, pissed off f-bomb fly because you have already fought this boss three times.

And thus, we get to another odd part of the game: for some reason you fight the same bosses multiple times. In one case they are similar bosses (Foola & Woola are pretty much the same thing as Boola - they are all pigs with armor and you defeat them the same way), but in most cases you fight the exact same bosses you have already fought, with the same exact moves and the same cheap shots. It is just such an odd choice, and I can't figure out why they would do that. If you were happy that you accomplished a certain boss victory, and happy again you defeated him in his second monster form, you might find it frustrating to have to go through the whole process again a second, and even a third time throughout the game.


There Is No Speech, Nor Are There Words; Their Voice Is Not Heard.

You make this redundant journey mostly as the mute Enoch, sent by God to battle seven fallen angels and lock their souls away for eternity. They even have you go through the unnecessary motions of opening each of their prisons at the beginning, ready, no doubt, to receive the remains of your easily vanquished quarry. Right away, though you realize things are not going to follow this nice linear path, and, at the slight risk of spoiling too much, you're fairly far in the game before you actually manage to lock up anyone.

For our purposes, this is all you need to know about the plot, and while it's not earth shattering or transcendent, it is serviceable; however, you realize some plot points were cut. For example, in a cut scene at the end of a chapter, someone tells you your next task is to go see a Freeman named Sin and do whatever tasks he asks of you. Then in the loading screen it tells you that you did some tasks for the aforementioned Sin and now you are doing something else. Why bring it up at all if it wasn't originally intended to be included in the game?

I could nitpick for an hour, but let me just get to the meat of it. For any instant that the game is transcendent, the game has three moments of %^&**R$^&^%'ing frustration. The combat is so dated I sometimes felt like I was reviewing some low budget PS2 Samurai game from 2002. Having everything look different was a great conceit that I adored, and I also loved the idea that one game can have many different styles of gameplay. The problem comes from mixing a very modern game with some very outdated mechanics. I felt like this game was not the vision of one genius but the result of a number of strong wills each fighting for their own piece. It's too bad; El Shaddai could have been a classic.

I know there are a lot of people out there that will love this game, so if the visuals interest you, please check it out, I don't think you will be sorry. There were parts of this game I enjoyed a great deal, and I'm glad I played it, though the gameplay limitations will turn a number of people off so I can't unequivocally recommend this game. Maybe that is the true definition of a three -- perhaps it is not a Meh, but a game that walks a very fine line. Some people will love it, and some people will hate it. I hope that you choose to give it a shot.


Read more: http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/63954/el-shaddai-ascension-of-the-metatron/review/#ixzz1WiClUcMR

No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise Review - PS3

No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise is fraught with problems. Some of them are intentional, as fans of the Wii original know very well. Some, unfortunately, are not, and it's that fact, coupled with the relative dearth of added content beyond what came in the earlier release, that makes AQ Interactive's Move-powered PlayStation 3 port a difficult thing to recommend.


A Disappointing Beginning

I really wanted to love this game. It repeatedly threatens to be awesome, but then something happens that makes you want to hurl the controller against the wall in frustration. Maybe it's three successive motorcycle crashes. Or spending more than a minute staring at screens and Yes/No prompts as your try to save your game. Or that damnable, newly added "boat signaling" minigame.

It could be any number of things, but most anyone who plays Heroes Paradise will be sorely tempted to turn off the console walk away at least once. Probably more than once.

The core game is largely unchanged. Suda 51's tale of Travis Touchdown, the eleventh best assassin in the world who, over the course of the story, fights his way to the top, is exactly as fans of the Wii game remember it. Nothing's been cut, though a few things have been added in the move to a new console.
In terms of the visuals, you're obviously looking at a much more attractive game here. While large portions of the user interface in No More Heroes maintain the original's 8-bit-style design, the world and the characters within it look greatly improved. Heroes Paradise might not give Skyrim much of a challenge, but the newly HD graphics suit it.

I Like To Move It, Move It

The Move controls suit the game perfectly as well, for the most part. The control scheme is essentially the same as it was with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk; most of the combat involves simple button-mashing, with the occasional swipe in one direction or another to finish off your opponent with some sort of dismemberment or elaborate wrestling maneuver. DualShock controls are also an option -- actually, it's the default -- but the Move option is definitely the one to go with if you can.

A number of boss fights from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle are woven into the fabric of AQ's port as nightmare visions that pop up as the story unfolds, sort of like playable cutscenes. More boss fights is a good thing in a game like No More Heroes -- it's really what the game is best at -- but there's so little context offered for these additions that those who aren't familiar with NMH2 are going to have a hard time deciphering what's going on.

H.M.S. Frustration

Beyond the extra bosses, there are also some new secondary activities available. It's hard to screw up with assassin missions -- they're focused on combat, after all -- but some of the new side-jobs are controller-hurlingly awful. The Semaphore minigame springs to mind immediately.

On the surface, it's simple enough. You're signaling boats with two flags, which must be moved in different directions as a timer ticks down. The Move require waving the wand in one direction and pushing the analog stick on the Navigation Controller in the other, which is completely unintuitive. It also doesn't work roughly half the time, no matter how quickly you respond to the cues.

The best additions are the Score Attack mode -- which lets you fight all 15 bosses for points and leaderboard placement -- and the ability to replay the game's Ranking Fights (cutscenes too) from Travis' crummy motel apartment. You can also elect to warp to side-jobs and assassin missions once you've completed them once. Anything that keeps you off the back of the game's buggy, crash-prone motorcycle is welcome indeed.

Joey, Do You Like Menus And Loading Screens?

No More Heroes was a tough game to review for the Wii, and it continues to be difficult to gauge in its PS3 appearance. So much of the game's appeal is subjective and based on your nostalgic love for older, clunkier games. Personally, as close as classics like River City Ransom and Double Dragon are to my heart, I only view the onward march of technology as a good thing.

The older, clunkier games don't hold up well for me anymore, and NMH: HP is just as intentional a throwback to that sort of play as its Wii predecessor was. If you shudder at the thought of clicking through three menus to get to a slow-loading save screen and wrestling with the controls as much as you do with the Bad Guys, Heroes Paradise is most definitely not for you.

There are definitely things to love about Heroes Paradise for the right kind of gamer, but neither it nor the game it is ported from measures up against any modern-day release in terms of how it plays. Suda 51's original presentation is a brilliantly composed nod to video games and game culture, and it continues to be in Heroes Paradise, but that doesn't mean it's fun to play. Fans of the Wii game and fans of a more old school approach to game design will find a lot to love here; everyone else should stay away.

Read more: http://www.g4tv.com/games/ps3/64601/no-more-heroes-heroes-paradise/review/#ixzz1Wi9pr1FG

We Just Played League of Legends: Dominion

It's chaos right out of the gate as we go hands-on with the new Dominion game mode for League of Legends.

There's a new game mode on the way for League of Legends. It's called Dominion, and we got the chance to play it last week at a Riot Games press event here in San Francisco. The mode is a capture-and-hold game type, similar in concept to Relic's Dawn of War II multiplayer mode but with all the chaos of a League of Legends game. During the announcement, Travis Geroge, lead producer at Riot, explained how Dominion is much faster than the game's standard mode, with matches clocking in at about 20 minutes. "And there are no hopeless moments in Dominion," he added, "only heroic ones." 
When you start a game of Dominion, both five-player teams are given a set number of points. The goal is to decrease the other team's point total to zero by capturing and holding the control points. There are five control points total located along the outer rim of a large, circular map called The Crystal Scar. The control points are also towers, and they will fire on you if held by the enemy. An enemy turret will stop firing once you start capturing it; however, if you get hit by an enemy champion while doing so, you will be interrupted and won't be able to start capturing the point again for a few seconds.
At the center of The Crystal Scar lies a pair of powerful new buffs, one for your team and one for the enemy. Each buff is a storm shield, which can be picked up by one champion on either team, and which offers both defensive and offensive benefits. It will provide a boost to defensive stats for your champion, as well as periodically strike nearby enemies with a bolt of lighting. The storm shield will recharge if you're not being attacked, but once it inevitably wears out, the buff will reappear back at the center of the map. Unfortunately, you can't swipe the opposing team's buff. That means the only way you can keep it out of their hands is to kill off their champions before they can even get to it.
In between the outer rim and the center are health relics and speed shrines. Health relics are similar to health items in a first-person shooter and provide a small refill to your champion's health and mana/energy. Speed shrines are platforms your champion can walk across to receive a temporary boost in movement speed. While there are no neutral monster camps on The Crystal Scar, the minion waves have been improved. Now each minion wave includes one new minion that falls between the standard and super minion types. Minions can also help your team capture a tower, but they will kill themselves soon after successfully doing so.
When our turn finally came to try out Dominion, we snatched up Karthus--a spell-casting hero known for his debilitating magic-based powers--and hit the field. In our arsenal was the new garrison summoner spell, which replaces fortify, the spell that would shield turrets. When used on an ally turret, this spell would heal degradation it took from an enemy capture attempt and make it fire faster. When used on an enemy turret, it greatly reduced the amount of damage the turret dealt. We could have also taken the promote summoner spell. Making its return in Dominion, promote transforms one of the new minion types mentioned earlier into a much more powerful version of itself.
To help encourage quick conflict in Dominion, every champion starts at level three with 1,375 gold. Within the first five minutes of being let off the platform, both sides were already fighting over capture points and racking up kills. There was very little time to relax at any point during the match. As soon as we advanced on one turret, we'd have to turn around and recapture another. Even finding time to kill off the enemy's minion waves for gold and experience was though. Once we started getting a feel for the mode, we found it was often better to let a kill slip by to guard or recapture a control point. Too often we would see players chase an enemy across the map only to have that enemy's teammate roll up and snatch our point away.
Just as Riot said, it was a close game right up until the end. Once it was over, we felt a little drained but ready for more. The match itself was essentially 20 minutes of the most intense moments from Summoner's Rift--the location of the game's primary five-versus-five game mode. We can't wait to dive back into Dominion, but Riot wasn't ready to reveal a release date. Nonetheless, we'll keep you updated as we learn more about this new mode.

source:
http://asia.gamespot.com/news/6328101/we-just-played-league-of-legends-dominion?tag=updates%3Beditor%3Ball%3Btitle%3B7

Computer Games in the Child’s Life

Computer games are very popular among youngsters and even grown-ups. This article is about the influence of computer games on a person, both good and bad. The reality of the virtual world is revealed in this article.

Computer games have a large army of opponents who is never tired of blaming the gaming industry with all the mortal sins. I cannot say that I do support them and their accusations. Surely they are not groundless. But I want to find out: are games the only ones to blame? Do you remember the winter tragedy of 1997 in provincial American town of Paducah? On a bright winter morning of the first of December, a 14 –year-old Michael Carneal’s took six guns to school with him. After that he hid in the trees and waited till school prayer ended. When the pupils started going out from the chapel he fired rapidly and killed three schoolchildren and another five were seriously wounded. The journalists informed the whole world of the tragedy without any delay. I consider it to be the first mistake. Why? Some people may think: “Why can’t I try such a trick myself and become known all over the world?” Believe me, there are enough people who would think just like that. Media should not provoke their ill imagination with such scandals. It is my personal belief. But we are living in a free society, with a guarantee of freedom of speech and concealing this fact from public would prove quite the opposite.

Unfortunately, my misgivings came true. The tragedy echoed in Colorado in a small town of Littleton after a while. Two youngsters Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17) took into account their predecessor’s experience and brought to school about forty hands- made radio-controlled mines. Then they started to blow up the mines and in the panic they fired their hunting rifles at their school mates. Twenty innocent people were killed. When the police arrived these two “heroes” shot themselves in the school library. Like in the case with the first teenager the two guys were vehement fans of DOOM and Quake. The trio spent all their time in net battles, had their own web pages devoted to their favourite games and built the levels. Analysing the reasons of the outrageous conduct the specialists were stumped with the question who was at fault? The parents of the killed children knew exactly who was to blame. They sued the entertaining industry with $ 130 million dollars. They brought a charge against three owners of porno sites, a few companies developing the computer games and film company Warner Brothers for their film “Basketball Diaries”, where the main character kills his teacher and his school mates. However the main stress was on the cruel games. The prosecution insists that the games produced by these companies “present violence in especially attractive and pleasant manner”.

May I ask, why are games the first to blame? Thousands of new games come up every year and thousands of people play them. The contents of the games can not be compared with the abundance of informational dirt in the movies. My personal opinion is that films have no competitors in violence. Films demonstrate really scary things: how the crimes should be prepared and what fun it can be to kill people like you. In this aspect games are underachievers. Besides the movies we also have TV where every criminal report shows the different types of murders with anything available. Don’t you worry about it? The court unconditionally acknowledged the negative influence of games on Michael’s immature psyche. However, the examination proved him to be quite adequate! After this he was sentenced to a life imprisonment without being eligible for ticket of leave during the first 25 years of his term. Harris and Klebold will be judged by quite the other court.

E3 2011: Dragon's Dogma Updated Hands-on Preview

E3 2011: We lurk in caves and wrestle mythical creatures in our updated hands-on with Dragon's Dogma.

Last time we saw fantasy hack-and-slash title, Dragon's Dogma, we took on a mighty griffin, plucking it from the sky, setting it on fire, and turning it into a sword pincushion. Today during E3 we got our hands on another of the game's three classes: the fighter. Where previously our time was with the strider and saw us using a combination of short swords and arrows to jump in and out of the action and still stay at arm's length, the fighter class doesn't back out once involved in the skirmish. Instead he makes full use of his sword and board to keep the hate off the squishier members of the group.

Our quest began inside a cave. Initially flanked by just a single other team member, after we had come to grips with the controls, we located a stone that doubled as both a summoning portal and squad manager. Though pre-set for our demo purposes, the full version of the game will allow you to trade and equip any associate (Capcom calls them Pawns) you've met along your journey on the way to kill the namesake beast at the centre of Dragon's Dogma. A strider and a mage joined our merry team, the latter helping out by buffing the group with area-of-effect auras during combat, and helping to heal when things weren't going so well.

As we wandered deeper into the bowels of the mountain, we warmed up our steel inside the bodies of goblins and other mythical creatures dumb enough to cross our path. Jumping down a steep, rock embankment we picked on something a bit more our size: a Chimera; a monster with the head of a lion, half the body of a goat, and a tail made from one hissed off snake.

Our AI counterparts offered their advice on the best approach to take slaying the creature, and the enemy's health bar at the top of the screen indicated with two extra notches that the encounter would contain three phases. We began by attacking the tail, jumping onto the rear of our target and after several hacks, severed it to leave a bloody stump. Goat proved to be slightly more difficult as he was raised high on the midsection of the animal, and used his psychic goat powers to incapacitate members of the team-- rendering them unconscious temporarily. While we didn't appear to take any additional damage when downed, the spell did leave us us knocked out and pressing buttons wondering what was going on for an extended period of time.

As we slowly limped to our feet to rejoin the fight, we moved on to king of the fantasy jungle, the ferocious, bearded lion. Though the game practically begged us to climb aboard by choosing a foothold on its body by hitting the left trigger--and we were pleased to see you can do it anywhere on the thing you're trying to make dead--we struggled to climb as it moved around above, often getting caught underneath, brushing against the flooring of the arena and hugging its knees.

Low on health from the encounter we pulled up the menu mid-fight, pausing the action and allowing us to rummage through our knapsack. Herbs instantly heal you for a particular amount of life, and by selecting the item it was easy to see how much value its consumption provided before committing to its use.

Because his area of expertise was physical damage, and he seemed to have more than a passing interest in rush attacks, we were forced to use our shield a little more liberally with Mr. Lion. Once we cottoned on to its routines, we managed to successfully keep it at bay before returning fire with a bevy of light and heavy sword attacks. The game didn't appear to offer much by way of a combo system for alternating strike types, but we did find ourselves finding a rhythm to the fight, and after a protracted period of time, we slew the fiend.

In our two outings with the game, we've now had the chance to experience two different levels--today's cave adventure and one in the rolling green fields of the outdoors. Though you'd be mistaken for assuming this is an RPG, it's very much a hack-and-slash adventure title. Capcom staff did say that the finished game will include towns to trade in, and that the wider world will be open to explore. We enjoyed our fantasy outing, and while we would like to see climbing become simpler, our AI team did an admirable job holding its own and offering sagely advice in the throngs of battle. Dragon's Dogma is due out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 some time in 2012. Stay tuned for more details.

detaill:

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6318200/e3-2011-dragons-dogma-updated-hands-on-preview?tag=top_stories%3Btitle%3B3

A better understanding of the arcade and flash games

A short overview of the history of arcade games and flash games will show that there is a huge connection between these two types of games. Arcade games have a long history and, even though the arcade games were not in the past what we know them to be today, the same concept is the main ingredient for the new ones as well. The arcade games are usually simple, have iconic characters, a certain number of levels with increasing difficulty and they do not require high skills or much learning time. I


A short overview of the history of arcade games and flash games will show that there is a huge connection between these two types of games. Arcade games have a long history and, even though the arcade games were not in the past what we know them to be today, the same concept is the main ingredient for the new ones as well. The arcade games are usually simple, have iconic characters, a certain number of levels with increasing difficulty and they do not require high skills or much learning time. In addition, they do not have deep storylines as most console games have in our days. Today’s PC or console games with the same qualities can be considered arcade games.

Starting from the early 1920’s with the use of old ‘arcade games’ in the amusement parks (such as ball toss games, coin-operated machines or pinball) this whole ‘industry’ has evolved immensely. This passion for arcade games motivated their producers to always search for something better and more entertaining. They have outdone themselves every time something new appeared on the market. From wood made machines and mechanical or electronic scoring readouts to the playing of games online, all games have conquered the hearts of the ageless children. Because people enjoy these arcade games so much they want to play them all the time. This is why they have not even completely left aside the coin-operated arcade games. They resort to them in restaurants, shopping malls, bars or pubs. However, they are only a substitute to the computer versions because playing games online is much better.

When speaking of flash games, we must take into consideration the fact that they are a more complex, more modern, even if their ancestors are definitely arcade games. Flash games take their name from the platform used for their building - ‘Flash’, a program made by Macromedia. This modern interactive platform named ‘Flash’ has three major components: the player, the file format and the authoring tool. The main advantage of this program is that of being very easy to use. Because of this fact, the games built with the help of the platform have more options than others do. For example, a house the player destroys will burn down with different effects. In order to be more convinced of the high importance that this platform has for us when playing a flash game we should know that it is usually necessary to download a free version of Macromedia Flash Player each time one feels like playing free games online. Generally, you can download the latest version of ‘Flash’ from Macromedia. That is if your browser gets errors relating to Flash.

If you simply like to play good games online without knowing the whole technique that stands behind graphics, too many details about the designing of flash games are unnecessary. Flash games are all the games you play at home on your computer and have the ending ‘.exe’ (meaning ‘executable’). As long as they make you enjoy the spare time spent at home, the flash games will be your best friend. A favorite application can turn into a real sport because playing flash games stimulates competition and trains reflexes. Web sites that host these kinds of activities and offer you free games give you the opportunity of joining teams of players and of participating to mass championships online.

Today, flash games have come to incorporate the qualities of arcade games. Flash games have levels, characters and certain plots, just as the old games did, only they are more advanced. Built on the same basic concept that stands behind the old arcade games, flash games now present a bigger potential.  Therefore, a wider public uses them. At least one can be found in any home and on any computer. They are short, usually easy to play and they have evolved the same way as arcade games - from shorter to longer, from simple plots to more complex and contemporary ones. When playing flash games you will have to accomplish a certain task. For arcade games, the idea is pretty much the same, meaning that you will have to solve a certain problem.

Many of today’s Internet web sites offer a large amount of games, which are very popular thanks to their interesting and exciting plots, but also because of the fact that they are free games. Playing games online offers the player the chance to meet and confront new people or people they already know. Several surveys have shown that people enjoy sites that have a large offer of free games and that they would rather play flash games than do other things, considered more attractive in general. Another conclusion was that adults are more likely to play flash games than teenagers are. This goes to show that playing has no age and as long as the activity relaxes and makes people have fun it will always create an addiction. There is a child in everyone expecting to have his share of free games online.

10 reasons why online betting beats going down to the betting shop

Do you still head down the bookmaker everyday to place your bets? Read this guide and you might start betting online.

Most people assumed that the internet would revolutionise the way we bet, just like the way it has revolutionised many other things in life. However, recent prevalence studies have proved that the number of people betting online is still not as popular as other forms of betting such as phone betting, going down the bookmaker and being at the track. So for those who haven't quite worked out the benefits of wagering online instead of these alternatives, here 10 good reasons why you should be:

1) Free bets: Due to the amount of competition online, betting companies like to encourage you to join their service in the hope you form some sort of brand loyalty. To entice you they will regularly offer a free bet. This is normally in the form of a matched bet (You put in a certain amount and they will match that amount.) and will allow you to double your money, if not more. Around big betting events like the World Series and the Kentucky Derby these free bets usually quadruple, making them a very attractive incentive. When was the last time you walked into the betting shop and the lady behind the counter said; "Here, have $10 on us". Most likely never!

2) Compare odds: There are many websites  online that allow you compare odds on all sorts of bets from all manor of betting events. You will be amazed at how much odds can very from one bookmaker to another, and by using online odds comparison tools you can seek out the best odds. This kind of information is only available online, but is free to use. If you are sat in the bookmakers all day you will only get the odds available from that specific shop, which may be much shorter than they are elsewhere.

3) Special offers: Something that seems to becoming more and more popular online is special offers such as "money back specials". This is something an </a><href="http://www.betastic.co.uk">online betting</a> site will offer in advance of a sporting event to gain interest from bettors. This could be something like, if your horse falls or if your team loses on penalties you will get your stake back. This is something you will rarely see offered in a bookmaker on the high street or over a telephone bet.

4) Other betting options: If you know anything about betting then you will have heard of betting exchanges and spread betting companies. These new betting sectors have largely formed due to the popularity of the internet, allowing all sorts of betting variables, with the final result being just one of them. Although these fairly recent betting options have caused controversy in the industry and in certain sports, there is no denying that they are extremely popular and are here to stay.

5) Increased markets: Most bookies tend to offer the popular betting markets, such as horse racing, football, basketball, baseball. With online betting there are a huge selection of bets to choose from including foreign sports betting, political betting, novelty betting and much more. For example some betting websites will allow you to bet on something like the 2nd division of the German Handball league or Gaelic football matches in Ireland. To be able to bet on sports and events that don't even occur in this country was unheard of until the internet made it possible. This can be hugely beneficial to bettors who follow all sorts of obscure leagues, sports or events.

6) Access to information: It doesn't take a genius to work out that you can obtain all sorts of facts, figures, statistics, historical data from the internet. This can be accessed very quickly at little or no cost. It doesn't matter how good the form guide writer is in your favourite paper, its never going to compete with the amount of data that is available online. There are all manor of forums, blogs and reports that can be easily accessed to assist you with your betting options.

7) Comfort: Why would you drag yourself all the way down to the bookmakers(that might be miles away), when you can relax in the comfort of your own home and make your bets. Bookmakers tend to be dreary places with Formica chairs, lacklustre decor and normally a bunch of sorry faces all around. It makes much more sense to put the kettle on, open up your browser and check out the bets of the day.

8) Speed: Provided you have a reliable broadband connection, online betting is instant. No standing in line or possibly missing the start of the race or game. You merely need to locate your bet, select your options and place your stake. This can all be done in the time it takes your to write down your selection on your betting slip. Some may feel that phone betting is just as quick, but you normally have to wait 5 to 20 seconds to connect to a representative. Why wait, when you don't have to?

9) Access from anywhere: Provided it is legal to bet in the jurisdiction you are in, then there is no reason why you can't place a bet from anywhere in the world, provided you have a connection to the internet. You can transfer money, place bets, check your account wherever you are and whatever time, day or night. Most high street bookmakers close, early evening, with the odd few staying open late. The same goes for several telephone betting services, and just imagine the bill from your hotel when you have called in half a dozen bets.

10) In-race betting: there is new technology starting to become more and more available online that allows you to bet in running or throughout a game. This is highly sophisticated stuff that is changing the way we can bet quite dramatically. There is no way in the world that this could be made possible in betting shops or even on the telephone.

For some; going down the bookmakers is so habitual it is impossible to change, but for others it should now be clear that the advantages are clear. Increase your chances of winning more bets, play online!

10 Reasons To Buy An Xbox 360

Gamers and techies have waited with bated breath for advancements and innovations in gaming. To set the pulse racing and the mind thinking one needs to be challenged. This has become possible by computer technology and the wonderful world of gaming.

Gamers and techies have waited with bated breath for advancements and innovations in gaming. To set the pulse racing and the mind thinking one needs to be challenged. This has become possible by computer technology and the wonderful world of gaming. Just as adventures and wars would have done in yester years these days it is technology that offers to quench the thirst for adventure. Microsoft has created a challenge in the form of the Xbox 360-- a visionary, super powerful, multimedia console that brings to you the GenX gaming world. Of course, the markets being competitive present so many choices.

If you need to be convinced here are a few reasons why you must buy the Xbox360.

1.    There are games galore for the thirsty. Kameo elements of power, Project Gotam 3, Perfect dark Zero, and many more. All unique, with great effects and gaming wizardry.
 
2.    The Xbox360 has wireless controllers as well as internet connectivity. The premium pack presents great delights offering freedom of movement and a superb range of over 30 feet. Ergonomically designed the controller has skip wires, tangles and boomerangs.

3.    With an aim to please even the most discerning palate, the Xbox360 has an amazing variety of games. Some are exclusively designed for the box like Condemned, and Dead or Alive. Titles that have been widely acknowledge by expert gamers are: Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo, King Kong, and Condemned.

4.    Amazing and most welcome is the fact that over 200 Xbox games will be backwardly compatible with the Xbox360.

5.    Xbox 360 brings with it the arcade marketplace. Imagine free games, cheap games, and addictive non-stop games. The possibilities are endless and thrilling.

6.    The Graphics are stupendous and bring to life the games in virtual reality. Xbox360 has three 3.2 GH processors that run with a 500MhzATI graphics processor. Whew—let’s bow to power.

7.    Endless possibilities with the Xbox360. Games, CDs, movies and customized music. It even connects to the Microsoft media center for a complete media sensation. You can let your creativity and innovativeness take wing.

8.    The Xbox 360 is more than an everyday console. It is interactive and you can buy many things like bonus levels, episodic content, gamer specials, and gamer tag images.  You can download demos, and bonus packs from game developers. A live platform with no limits marketplace for developers and publishers.

9.    The Xbox360 is a keeper of records. It creates history. The gamer card becomes your identity with name, image, scores, games you like, and your aims and mottos. This takes online fraternities a step closer to one another.

10.    Fulfils many dreams and fantasies. The games are the best, interesting, mind stimulating, and exciting. The Xbox 360 takes the gaming world forwards and offers options like downloads, online plays, movies, as well as a touch button marketplace for games.  

The Xbox360 is a must for serious gamers. It indicates your dedication as a gamer and reflects your tastes and reputation in the cyber gaming universe. Opens up endless possibilities and takes you to the next generation gaming delights.

10 Basic WoW Gold Farming Tips

1. Its really easy and should be done right from the start of the game. Grab the 2 primary professions, mining and skinning. While you're out leveling yourself you can easily skin the animals. You're bound to eventually enter a mine which will have many minerals. Be sure to mine those ores. You can easily sell off the extra items to merchants or players.

2. Make sure you grab quests every chance you get. You can easily gain additional exp, gold, items and faction while you're leveling. You may even complete some of your quests with out even knowing because they normally require you to kill off mobs or require you to travel/speak to other NPCs. The quests of World of Warcraft are more player friendly than other MMORPGs.

3. Don't spend any money buying World of Warcraft items, equipments and other accessories early in the game. Low level characters from 1-40 are not gear dependent. Along with that fact, you'll get a nice load of items from just completing quests.

4. While you're out leveling, there are certain monsters that has better drops than others. An example would be humanoids. They tend to drop more gold and items than any other creatures in the World of Azeroth.

5. This is the advice I give to friends. When setting up your character, be sure first to read about the characters plus, and minuses; then set up for the strong and weak points. Take in consideration how the character supports himself and how the character can keep going and keep on track to level without losses.

6. Don't spend money on items at the auction during the first 10 levels of your character. Almost everything you will need will drop to you from the quests. Keep your activities balance in the amount time of questing and making products. Then, as you gain money from making and questing you will see your pocket grow.

7. The usual, your character does by the skills he has, whether it is mining, leather, or tailoring. You make and sell your products. This is how you gain, the more you practice your trade, the more gold you have in your pocket, when you sell the items. The higher the level your character is the higher the prices in the prices of your products.

8. Resale, this happened during the holidays. I know of a character that went out and bought snowballs and after collecting many, was selling them at a higher price to others. Later, bragging about the profit. Take advantage of this.

9. Once you level some you can charge others to guide them through lower quests that you can whiz threw. There are many ways to make money, for example you can protect and kill for lower characters.

10. In the group playing, be sure to express your wants and needs, to keep the character going. Drink and food on hand before; so your character can keep going till the quest is completed.

5 ways to ignite your PC's performance without spending a cent

Is your PC slowing down? Or maybe it crashing more and more, Well if that's the case it just might because your PC is suffering old age! Yes that's right just like people PCs suffer from the aging process too.

But there's good news

But unlike people you can actually turn back the aging process and bring your beloved PC back to life. All it takes is a couple of easy to follow tips to ignite your PC's performance to full speed again.

Just follow these easy to follow steps:

System configuration utility
Even when your computer's sat there doing nothing it could be running at least 50 programs! These are programs that a munching away at your poor old CPU and not to mention having a right good go at your memory as well. The reason for this is because over time the more stuff you install the more crap that builds up and even if you don't even use that program, there's a damn good chance that it's running in the background.

To see what I mean hit CTRL +ALT + DELETE then press the processes tab. It will show you how many processes that are running in the background.

1. To solve this little dilemma just go the Start or Run for XP owners, and type MSCONFIG.

2. The System configuration will appear and from in there go to the STARTUP tab.

3. Once you've selected the STARTUP tab you'll be presented all the programs that are running in the background of your PC. What I would recommend is turning everything off apart from your anti virus.

If you do see anything what you do want on for example MSN massager by all means keep it on but the more you have running in the background the more it'll sap your PC's performance and will also affect you're your Boot times as well.

System configuration utility part 2
Now still hanging around in the System Configuration Utility, go to the second tab called SERVICES and go to and untick the HIDE ALL MICROSOFT SERVICES. We've got to do this (unless you're a bit more experienced) because if you go and turn one of Microsoft's services you could just mess your entire PC up and we don't want that do we.

Once you've unticked the box you should be just left with all the non Microsoft services.

once again I would recommend to turn them all off but the anti viruses services. Once you've decided what and what not gets the chop click apply and you're done.

Performance Options
Depending on which OS (operating system) your using, this could make or brake it. If your using Windows Vista? I would recommend turning some the visual effects of especially on the lower end systems. However if your using XP, the performance will be less impressive but I believe every ounce of performance is crucial. Besides, you won't even notice half of these switched of anyway.

Now as much as I would love to tell you how to get to these options, the ways to get there are very different when compared to Vista and XP. So a way around this (and probably a cop out as well) I'll just tell the vista owners to type in PERFORMANCE into the search bar, select PERFORMANCE INFORMATION AND TOOLS and click ADJUST VISUAL EFFECTS and you'll find your way there.

For XP owners read on:

1. Go to Start, Control Panel and select PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCE.

2. Then ADJUST VISUAL EFFECTS you should find yourself there.

Now I would recommend turning them all off barring the last one. The last one keeps the modern Windows feel which I personally like but hay, everyone's different.

Uninstalling
A fast Hardrive is a empty hardrive. So if you've got an hardrive full to the brim, delete the programs and games you don't need to speed up your Hardrive and watch those boot times fly!

Tip: If you're a gamer (like me) What you can do is save the save game file and uninstall the full game. This way you can get the wanted gigs of space back but not lose your place on Crysis. Cool eh.

Defragging
Now there's hundreds of other tips I wanted to share with you but I wanted to keep this article as short as possible to prevent you been bord to death. but the ver last thing I would do to my PC once I finish optimizing it is to defrag it.

Now your probably thinking that yes I already know that James. But what I would recommend doing is using a different defragger especially if your using the dreaded Vista defragged.

Now as you've probably gathered, I can't stand Vista's defragger, I think it's actually a step backwards, not a step forward. But what really annoys me about it is that you have no idea how long it will takes and how defragmented your hardrive is.

But don't worry, because I'm going to show you to download a much better one that Vista's own shoddy attempt. Auslogics Disk defragger is its name and I think you'll find it quick and easy to use and it seems to do quite a good job as well.

And another thing.. It's completely free to download as well. Just Google "Auslogics Disk defragger" and you should find it in no time.

3D Jigsaw Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles have always been fascinating; the concept of putting small pieces together to make a beautiful picture provides a certain thrill. The more difficult the puzzle, the greater the sense of adventure and challenge. Jigsaw puzzles are still one of the most popular games even on the Internet. With colorful animations, varying difficulty levels in a single game and availability of hundreds of patterns, jigsaw puzzles are attracting a lot of new players as well. These puzzles come with different difficulty levels such as easy, average, and difficult.

Jigsaw puzzles have always been fascinating; the concept of putting small pieces together to make a beautiful picture provides a certain thrill. The more difficult the puzzle, the greater the sense of adventure and challenge. Jigsaw puzzles are still one of the most popular games even on the Internet. With colorful animations, varying difficulty levels in a single game and availability of hundreds of patterns, jigsaw puzzles are attracting a lot of new players as well. These puzzles come with different difficulty levels such as easy, average, and difficult.

The three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles are the most challenging as well as exciting. The designs are unique and include almost any theme under the sun like fairytale fantasies; natural beauty comprising of flowers, globes, maps, space, landscapes, ocean, beaches, plants; festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween; or everyday things like school, automobiles, sports, summer, traveling, weather; and movie-based themes like Lord of the Rings, Mickey Mouse, Finding Nemo and Winnie the Pooh; as well as enthralling castles, buildings, airplanes, ships, world-famous landmarks, and even huge forests, whole cities and even the Empire State building! Some even glow in the dark. The sizes also vary greatly ranging from 150 pieces to 3000 pieces or even more, with varying difficulty levels. Prices range from $8.00 to $45.00 or more. The smallest puzzle measures around 6”x7”x8” while the largest may be as large as 60”x50”x25”.

Another model is the wooden 3-D jigsaw puzzle. Wooden puzzles are made of high quality plywood and are suitable for people of all ages. They also make unique gifts. Some of the popular designs in this are whales, air crafts, carousels, roosters, crocodiles, elephants, dolphins, cars and buildings. Prices of these puzzles start from $5.00.

Most of these 3-D jigsaw puzzles can be bought from games stores. They can also be purchased online. There are several sites that are offering these puzzles for sale. These can be viewed, compared, and even ordered online.