Engineering: Mystery of the Ancient Clock: Collect and repair parts of the Ancient Chronograph!

Engineering: Mystery of the Ancient Clock (15 MB download)
Travel to wondrous places as you help your professor search for the missing parts of the Ancient Chronograph by moving rows rather than pieces! Gather the clock parts you need to repair the Chronograph before time runs out. Beat mini-games designed to challenge your reaction times and earn awards for your brilliant play. Beautiful visuals and sounds, and a relaxing free play mode with no time limits, helps you unwind after you beat the game’s toughest challenges!

[Via http://newpuzzlegames.wordpress.com]

The Company of Myself

The Company of Myself

The Company of Myself is a “cooperate with yourself” platformer in the same vein as Use Boxmen.  Mission of  Company of Myself is to immerse yourself in your own unutterable loneliness to solve puzzles at the same time! The Company of Myself starts with a thought-provoking little monologue, fleshing out the protagonist and hismoody  mentality. Shortly afterwards, you’re dropped into the game itself, where the controls are familiar to the most other games of the platform genre.  Long story; short pier. The mission of the game is simple: Duplicate your body and try to reach the exit point!

The Company of Myself is one of the best games I have ever played. It’s a really addictive singleplayer game, but remember, you’re never truly alone if you’re by yourself!

[Via http://casualgameplay.wordpress.com]

The Martians Are Coming...

So I was flitting about on the web, for some reason trying to avoid finishing my 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month, when I came across War of the Worlds: Goliath. This is an animated film that is inspired by HG Well’s classic as well as other Late 19th and Early 20th Century fiction. It looks really cool. At the moment you can see a trailer and a “behind the scenes” film. It looks really cool.

I also think this would be an awesome subject for games. But until someone does a liscened product, we can feel happy that there are some excellent steampunk games currently available or soon to be released. The following list is by no-means extensive, but has some of the more popular or interesting Steampunk or Victorian Sci Fi games (I won’t get into the differences here).

Castle Falkenstein is a whimsical game of Victorian adventure from R. Talsorian Games. This is one of the “classics”.

Etherscope is an RPG from Goodman Games that presents a cyberpunk-style future built upon a Victorian era culture.

Full Light, Full Steam is an RPG of Victorian Space adventure from Kallisti Press. It has an interesting mechanic that encourages players to act in character before they can take advantage of character advantages.

Leviathans from Catalyst Game Labs is all about flying battleships waging war on each other.

Martian Empires is a set of miniature wargame rules from Black Hat Miniatures, designed for use with their 19mm range of figures.

Mission: Red Planet is a board game by Asmodee Editions where you compete Victorian era Nations and Powers explore and control Mars.

Space 1889 is the classic Victorian adventure RPG. Get the original from Heliograph Press or keep your eye out for the upcoming Savage World version. Also check out the wargame rules Sky Galleons of Mars.

The one game missing from this list of links is G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (Glorious Adventures in Science Loosely Involving Generally Historical Times). This is one of the most popular steampunk wargames, but I cannot find a link to the game that works. Here is a link to an interview with the creators.

Do you play steampunk games? What are your favourites?

[Via http://attackofthegame.com]

Become A Video Game Review Writer And Get Paid For Sharing Your Skills!

Ever played a Video Game and loved it so much that you needed to type a fantastic review for the web to view?

Maybe you played a Nintendo Wii game that was so stupid you dreamed to smash the case over the creators noggin and inform everyone to beware this game.

Or maybe you are a Champions Online player who holds tons of fantastic knowledge to find the best quests easily and want to make a little cash from your skills.

Happy Days! There is a way for you to make some cash to buy that just released God of War Video Game for the PlayStation 3, while shouting to the creators and the universe know what you thought of your previous game night adventures.

It is a stupendous opportunity for gamers to make money by writing high-quality guides,reviews,links,articles and more!

It’s all in your hands!

For those that are new – How to get started:

1. You create gaming news, guides, game reviews and articles related to the video game industry.

2. Your submissions will be farged(voted upon) by other users, and the more Fargs your items get, the further they ascend on the front page. (So make sure you create content you know gamers will enjoy)

3. Ad views will be shared and display as the top banner image of your content page linked to your Google Adsense ID. (The top image banner is the highest followed ad!) So you earn the clicks! The more positive Fargs you get, the more exposure you get. 50% of the page views from the beginning! And it’s quick and a blast!

The Top Points to Success:

1. Don’t spam content. There seems to be tons of browsers who log in to spam gold for games. These are crushed by the users and your articles will be forever eradicated and if you do it too often, banned forever.

2. Be descriptive. The best game reviews and guides use the name of the game and key characters and secrets repeatedly in the article. These items seem to be the ones that ascend to the front page quickly.

3. Ask other users in the forums. Experience can save hours and there are F.A.Q.’s to aid you to get the highest earnings from your items.

4. Tell your friends about your creations. Publish it to your Twitter account, Facebook it, MySpace, Make an email signature to your profile. All of these strategies work amazing for building more views on your creations. More viewers = more ad clicks.

5. Make your item funny. Humor really blasts your item up to the frontpage!

So next time you feel the urge to give your feelings about that good/bad game, fire up your net browser and mash out all your joy/frustrations and get a chance to profit from your work.

Try Being A Video Game Review Writer And Earn Cash For Sharing Your Skills!

[Via http://earncashgamereviews.wordpress.com]

The Importance of Playfish Cash in Country Story

The Importance of Playfish Cash in Country Story Playfish cash

For every Playfish game, there is a choice you can make to pay for Playfish Cash, an extra boost to your gameplay that allows you to pay for upgrade, shortcuts, and high level decorations for your account that you would otherwise not be able to acquire. But, for every game, players must decide if that Playfish cash upgrade is worth spending their hard earned cash on to get. There are times when it is and times when it is not and as a result, many players are forced to skip some of the wonders of the game outright.

So What Playfish Cash is Good For?

In Country Story, Playfish cash is good for a lot of things. Unlike other games where you need the cash to help upgrade the size and performance of your farm though, it is used almost entirely for things like larger and better looking items. Additionally, fertilizer is only available with cash, which allows you to grow your crops faster than without the stuff. But, generally speaking, you miss nothing of the game if you don’t have Playfish cash – you just play a little slower and with the same tools everyone else has.
How to Get Playfish Cash without Breaking the Bank

Playfish cash is available from a special menu in Country story that allows you to go in and buy things like the cash and your coins. All of the items you can buy with Playfish cash are separated onto different menus, allowing you to more easily find and sort through them without needing to dig through the coin items. The same works in reverse (which, if you don’t like playfish cash, is a big plus).

Unlike Zynga games which often reward at least small amounts of cash on occasion, Playfish is a cash only business – you either buy the stuff or you get nothing. That means you will need to spend some time deciding whether it is worth going out of your way to spend real world money on virtual goods.
Playfish cash is a luxury that not every Country Story player can afford. But, for those that can afford it, they will find a variety of interesting options opening up to them, allowing them to access parts of the game they may not have realized were there before. However you play Country Story, make sure to carefully balance your decision about Playfish Cash over what you expect to get out of the game and what your budget allows.

Country Story Secrets guide is the only legal guide for this game – it is full of tips for all the levels

One big bonus is that and comes with a free bonus ‘Cash Report’ that shows you how to get all the cash you need in the Country Story game.

Check out the review of Country Story Secrets Guide here – http://newgameguides.com/country-story-secrets-guide-review-for-country-story-facebook-game/

[Via http://newcheatguides.wordpress.com]

心上流年--致永远的《最终幻想Ⅷ》(备份用)

作者：王晓凌

第一次接触《最终幻想Ⅷ》(以下简称FFⅧ)的日子恍如隔世．那一抹带着浓郁芬芳的回忆．熟悉而遥远。悄悄翻开记忆中的画卷看到的，她灿烂的笑容依旧如天 使般绚丽夺目．她罕见的温柔就如她的偶一回目那样难能可贵。一切都没有改变，正和初次邂逅的昨天一样。闲时梳理旧思绪，那些为FFⅧ痴狂，为FFⅧ迷醉的 日子，像剪辑混乱的影画面，片刻都在眼前不断掠过。

[Via http://qiii2006.wordpress.com]

Shooting Game ေလးေရးရေအာင္

Shooting the best…. ( Exercise Two )

pic_1

ကြၽန္ေတာ္တို႔ ေလ့က်င့္ခန္းေလး ေနာက္တစ္ခု အေနနဲ႔ ေသနတ္ပစ္တဲ႔ ဂိမ္းေလး ေရးၾကရေအာင္။ ဒီဂိမ္းေလးမွာ Timer Control ကို အဓိကသံုးထားပါတယ္။ ေနာက္တစ္ခုက Form ေပၚမွာ key ႏွိပ္တဲ႔ event မွာ user ႏွိပ္တဲ႔ key ကို ျပန္စစ္တဲ႔ အလုပ္ေလးလည္း ပါတာေပါ့။ ဒီ ၂ ခ်က္ထဲပဲ ေသခ်ာသိဖို႔လိုပါတယ္။ အိုေက… အားလံုးပဲ စမ္းေရးၾကည့္ၾကပါဦး။ ထံုးစံ အတိုင္း ေနာက္တစ္ပါတ္မွာ source code ကိုတင္ေပးပါ့မယ္။ ေလာေလာဆယ္ေတာ့ exe file ေလးကို ေဒါင္းျပီး runၾကည့္ play ၾကည့္ၾကပါဦး။

 

exe file

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gnzww3iyjnc

[Via http://sevenlamp.wordpress.com]

Crunch to host AHL's first outdoor game

Crunch to host AHL’s first outdoor gameNovember 24, 2009

The Syracuse Crunch, along with Senator Charles E. Schumer and New York State, announced today that they will host the Mirabito Outdoor Classic, the American Hockey League’s first-ever outdoor game, on February 20, 2010, at the New York State Fairgrounds against the Binghamton Senators. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.

“On behalf of our entire organization, we are excited about staging this tremendous event and are extremely appreciative to all those who have supported our efforts”, said Crunch President and CEO Howard Dolgon.

“This first ever outdoor AHL hockey game – which I hope will become an annual tradition – will bring the eyes of the sports world to Syracuse,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer. “It has the potential to bring in serious tourism revenue for Syracuse and be a financial shot in the arms in difficult times. I look forward to seeing the puck being dropped and watching the Crunch and the Senators battle it out on our fairgrounds. This will be a boon to hockey fans from Syracuse to Binghamton and beyond!”

Mirabito Energy Products, the title sponsor of the Mirabito Outdoor Classic, is a New York-based company that has been providing energy needs for families and businesses throughout upstate New York since 1927. Mirabito Energy Products offers a variety of products including heating oil, propane, natural gas, coal, gasoline, diesel fuels, kerosene, and lubricants.

“Our family organization, Mirabito Energy Products, is thrilled to be a part of this first-time AHL event,” said Joe Mirabito, CEO of Mirabito Energy Products, “We are even more thrilled that many of our friends and customers from Central New York will be able to enjoy the Mirabito Outdoor Classic here in Syracuse.”

The Mirabito Outdoor Classic is being presented by Time Warner Cable, which will broadcast the game live on Time Warner Cable Sports; Toyota; Dunkin’ Donuts; Labatt Blue; Renaissance Syracuse Hotel; Syracuse Convention and Visitor’s Bureau; Coca-Cola and Wynit.

The Mirabito Outdoor Classic will make history as the first minor-league outdoor hockey game ever played. Outdoor hockey games, which honor the heritage and roots of the sport being played by children on frozen lakes and ponds growing up, have been a proven success at the collegiate level as well as the National Hockey League level, with the NHL’s Winter Classic now becoming a yearly event every New Year’s Day.

The Mirabito Outdoor Classic will feature the hometown Syracuse Crunch (AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets), the AHL’s sixth-longest tenured franchise (16 years-tied) and longest-running independently owned team, against their Interstate-81 rivals, the Binghamton Senators (AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators).

In addition, the Mirabito Outdoor Classic will be a celebration of hockey in New York State and will recognize all levels of hockey from youth to recreation to professional players.

Notable NHL players from the Empire State include Dustin Brown (Ithaca), Ryan Callahan (Rochester), Eric Cole (Oswego), Tim Connolly (Syracuse), Craig Conroy (Potsdam), Brian Gionta (Rochester), Chris Higgins (Smithtown), Patrick Kane (Buffalo), Mike Komisarek (West Islip), Rob Schremp (Syracuse), Rob Scuderi (Syosset), Tom Sestito (Rome) and Lee Stempniak (West Seneca).

Notable Hall of Fame NHL players that have played for the three New York-based NHL teams include Mike Bossy (NY Islanders), Pat LaFontaine (Buffalo Sabres, NY Islanders and NY Rangers), Brian Leetch (NY Rangers), Mark Messier (NY Rangers), Gilbert Perreault (Buffalo Sabres) and Denis Potvin (NY Islanders).

Tickets for the Mirabito Outdoor Classic can be purchased starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, November 25 by calling the Crunch office at (315) 473- 4444, calling TicketMaster at 1-800-745-3000 or by stopping by the Oncenter Box Office, located on the State Street Side of the War Memorial.

[Via http://ahlnewss.wordpress.com]

DEMOLITION OF BABRI MASJID, 6-12-1992

BABRI MASJID

Babar was the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India. He built a mosque at Ayodhya, where Hindus claim, stood a temple of Ram.

In 1962, there was a movement, spearheaded by Hindu fanatics, to demolish the mosque and build the original temple there. On 6-12-1992, the structure, which was a historic monument, was destroyed, followed be terrorist attacks by Muslims in Bombay.

Now the enquiry commission has come to the conclusion that, it was a conspiracy by leaders of the Hindutwa movement, and not a spontaneous mass movement that resulted in the demolition of Babri Masjid.

Earlier, there used to be Hindu-Muslim riots, in parts of India, but terrorism was practically unknown. All this changed after 6-12-1992. Davood Ibrahim, living in Pakistan, conspired terror strikes against India. Hindu terrorists too became a reality. Black money and illegal arms trade played their own role in this game.

Now, things are out of control.

In today’s paper, details have come, of how the Government of Uttar Pradesh posted police officers, Magistrate etc. sympathetic to their cause, so that none tried to preserve the historic monument when some people climbed up on top of the roof and started pulling it down, in the presence of TV camera !

This is India, our precious democracy.

[Via http://waterfriend.wordpress.com]

Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal : From snoop to scoop!

Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal (81 MB download)
Murder, scandal and your first big break! You’re a young, aspiring reporter in the 1920’s looking for a scoop. When you stumble upon a scandalous celebrity murder and the framing of an innocent man, it is up to you to search for hidden clues, locate missing objects and uncover enough evidence to solve the murder. Can you crack the story and finally be recognized as a top investigative reporter?

[Via http://dashgames.wordpress.com]

Exciting men doubles final (China Super Series 2009)

Huh, today is the final of China Super Series 2009, of course, will have myself at home in the afternoon to watch it live. There is now only left Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong in the final of men doubles. They are world ranked no. 1, up against the world no.2, Lee Young Dae and Jung Jae Sung from South Korea.

Real nice, exciting and interesting match. Breathtaking! First game, I can see that Malaysian pair did quite poor, shuttercock not over net, out of court, or can’t handle some smashes. Finally, they losed out to Korea (13 – 21). Second game came. Results seems that winning is by Korean side, Malaysians did not improve much in the beginning. As the game came to the middle and almost end, Malaysian pair fight back eventhough left far behind in the results. Finally, Malaysian pair won second game by 21 – 19, a very exciting game. Everyone in the stadium is cheering and applauding the performance.

Time for the third and deciding game, Malaysian pair lack some strength this time, can’t give hard smash to opponents. I really want to praise Lee Young Dae for his strength. He had spend over 1 hour in the earlier match of mixed doubles which he won, and now another match of over 1 hour. Totally, he had spend over 2 hours 30 minutes on court, and still had the strength to smash hard. Incredible. Malaysian pair is far behind in results again, but the atmosphere was still very exciting. Malaysian pair did some actions that stunt and trigger the laughter of the audiences;

1. taking new racquet quickly and throwing off the damaged racquet for several times.

2. handling a simple attack by reflecting the shuttercock back by using unique styles, like from the back.

3. sitting on the court ( Koo Kien Keat) and saved 4 fast attacks from the opponents.

4. the shuttercock is out of court and still play it to continue the excitement.

5. flying the shuttercock at quite an acute angle to make it super difficult for opponent. (but sometimes failed, and out of court)

6. no feeling of giving up eventhough lost far behind, until the results are getting close.

7. and many more…

Eventhough Koo and Tan lost in third game to Korean (21 – 18), but they are able to make it close, at least, and making the match the most exciting ones. Everyone is cheering for Koo and Tan eventhough they lost. Great sporting spirit by the players and even by the audiences. The coaches seems so happy, either win or lose, is not a matter anymore on that moment, it is the moment of beating opponent in a memorable way that matters. Congratz to Korean pair for winning it, full of effort, they had good skills in smashing, attacking and even defencing.

Eventhough no Malaysians came back with title from this tournament, but they leaved with memorable and unforgettable moments to the audiences of China, to show that Malaysian players can lose with proud, strong spirit and dignity. I wonder how come Lee Chong Wei (world no. 1) lost to Jade O Jorgensen from Denmark in early round, if not, he can give a good fight with Lin Dan in men single final.

The next badminton tournament will be the Master Super Series Final held in Malaysia in the beginning of December 2009. China Super Series 2009 is the last tournament of 12 super series in the whole year of 2009. Hopes that Malaysia can do better on that tournament, battling on the homeground.

[Via http://vincentloy.wordpress.com]

Playing Ace King or Do not overrate Big Slick

Playing Ace King

Ace King, also called Big Slick or Anna Kournikova, is one of the most overrated hands in the history of no limit holdem. It’s exactly as the pityful sidename Anna Kournikova refers too: She looks good but doesn’t win alot. Playing Ace King is very hard. How in hells name do you play this hand? How in gods name can you make sure you always win Ace King?

AK ?! When you get it in a cash game or tournament of whatever it is you are playing, you get a little bit of goosebumps. Serious research has pointed out that most people go broke or die at a tournament because ofoverplaying Ace King, especially Ace King suited.

Before we go further with the analysis of AK, please hold in mind that not only with Ace King, but with all suited cards, against unsuited cards the increased winning percentage that comes with suited cards is only a percent!

Ok, so if most people loose more than they win with Ace King, and loose at especially crucial times, then what is it that they are doing wrong playing AK? First of all we are going to take a look at the potential of AK, after that we will follow up with how Ace King, in conclusion, actually should be played and how it should not be played.

AK is the best drawing hand. AK can beat EVERY HAND, it is only a big underdog against AA and KK.

The rest of the hands is either just as strong or slighty stronger or a lot worse than AK. Hence you would say, AK is one of the best hands. This is, mathmatically said, true. But it is one of the most complicated and tricky hands too. AK is no

favourite against 22. 33 is. But then again, it is not much more of an underdog against QQ, one of the strongest hand in NL Holdem.

Poker Rules …. Poker Position …. Poker Strategy …. Poker Bonuses

How should one play this complicated hand then?

Ok, so if most people loose more than they win with Ace King, and loose at especially crucial times, then what is it that they are doing wrong playing AK? First of all we are going to take a look at the potential of AK, after that we will follow up with how Ace King, in conclusion, actually should be played and how it should not be played. AK is the best drawing hand. AK can beat EVERY HAND, it is only a big underdog against AA and KK. The rest of the hands is either just as strong or slighty stronger or a lot worse than AK. Hence you would say, AK is one of the best hands

Ace King should be played with caution, but also with aggression. Being aggressive in poker is a good overall strategy anyhow, but especially when you hold AK. In tournaments you can be ultra aggressive with AK. But only as long as YOU push. NEVER call an all in with AK in tournaments as you are no favourite against all pairs and only a slightly favourite against other drawing hands like QJ and 10J. But if you are the one that is raising or … read the full article at PokerBG.Net

Check out also articles … How to play QQs and JJs and How to play pocket pairs

[Via http://bgpoker.wordpress.com]

Bluesteam 1 - 1 Marte

21-11-2009 12:55

Non si può chiedere di più al cielo che sovrasta Bluestadium, e infatti sono 14000 gli spettatori presenti. Le chiacchiere televisive hanno alimentato il prepartita in tutta la regione Lombardia così da catalizzare l’attenzione di entrambe le tifoserie. Bluesteam decide di scendere in campo schierando una formazione 3-5-2 molto interessante. Questi i giocatori in campo dal primo minuto: Mares – Paz, Paloschi, Rodrigues Rebelo – Vivona, Kapałka, Garrod, Freitag, Dessì – Hons, Mcdowell.

La tattica di Marte prevede un interessante 3-5-2. Fanno il loro ingresso sul terreno di gioco: Rosenberg – Häkli, Azevedo, Agostinho – Oriol López, Gire, Korsu, Vanhala, Petre – Malavasi, Cornil.

Bluesteam ha chiaramente deciso di puntare sul contropiede. Ottimo il fraseggio di Marte sulla fascia sinistra, Fabien Cornil viene servito in area in buona posizione ma spreca tutto calciando sull’esterno della rete. Sono ora 16 i minuti trascorsi dall’inizio dell’incontro, il punteggio resta fisso sul pari. Bluesteam deve privarsi di Idálio Rodrigues Rebelo per quello che, dopo una caduta scomposta, sembra un grave infortunio alla clavicola. Guilherme Senrada entra al suo posto. Marte sfiora il vantaggio al 28° minuto con una conclusione di Oddone Malavasi, che, trovatosi smarcato in posizione centrale, tenta una conclusione dal limite che fa la barba al palo. Oddone Malavasi è andato molto vicino a portare gli ospiti in vantaggio al 31°, in seguito ad una azione personale dal centro conclusa con un tiro angolato che però Victor Mares è riuscito a deviare in angolo. In molti hanno pensato al rigore quando Martin Hons, entrato in area dopo un’azione centrale, viene atterrato dal portiere Elran Rosenberg, ma l’arbitro non fischia ed indica di proseguire, era il minuto 34°. Si conclude così il primo tempo sul punteggio di 0 a 0, le due squadre vanno negli spogliatoi a prendere un thè caldo. Il centrocampo di Marte è stato superiore a quello avversario, 54% è il possesso palla che sono riusciti ad ottenere.

Al 57°, i padroni di casa falliscono una ghiotta occasione per passare; Andy Mcdowell colpisce al volo un pallone proveniente dalla destra ma il pallone sfiora il montante opposto. Al 67° Oddone Malavasi sfiora il vantaggio per gli ospiti con una spettacolare rovesciata che finisce di poco sopra la traversa. Per poco Bluesteam non passa in vantaggio al 68°, Benedetto Vivona riesce a superare la difesa da sinistra, ma la lunga fuga deve averlo stancato parecchio, visto che perde la lucidità necessaria per una conclusione precisa. 71° minuto. Il guardalinee sbandiera un fuorigioco a Aldo Maria Dessì che, stizzito, calcia via il pallone mandandolo lontano. L’arbitro richiama a sé il giocatore e lo ammonisce. Retropassaggio fuori misura dell’inesperto David Gire che permette a Jacek Kapałka di trovarsi a tu per tu con il portiere: tiro fiacco e centrale che l’estremo difensore blocca senza problemi. Bluesteam passa in vantaggio al 76° minuto di gioco. La rete del 1 a 0 è opera di Martin Hons che dopo aver controllato un passaggio filtrante ha concluso a rete con un potente tiro a mezz’altezza. Marte pareggia al 79° minuto portandosi 1 a 1, David Gire mette in rete dopo una bella triangolazione al centro dell’area di rigore. Fallaccio! Al minuto 80°, Marte ha un giocatore ammonito. È Antti Korsu a finire sul taccuino dell’arbitro. Nella zona nevralgica del campo Bluesteam ha avuto la meglio, controllando il gioco per un buon 51% della frazione.

Il sito internet dei fan di Bluesteam ha eletto Ronny Freitag come migliore in campo. Pessima gara per Guilherme Senrada. Fabien Cornil è stato autore di giocate memorabili, senza dubbio il migliore in campo nelle file di Marte. Mamede Agostinho non ha offerto una prestazione degna delle sue migliori giornate. La partita si è conclusa 1 – 1. Si svolge come di consueto il cerimoniale di fairplay, con i giocatori delle due squadre che si scambiano una stretta di mano a centrocampo.

[Via http://martefc.wordpress.com]

Hotel Dash - Suite Success: Flo's going into the hotel business!

Hotel Dash – Suite Success (35 MB download)
When Quinn’s new travel business hits a snag, she needs Flo’s patented elbow grease to help renovate and run hotels all over DinerTown! As Flo, you will deliver guest’s luggage, drop off room service and provide extra towels, blankets and anything else they may need to stay happy and leave big tips! Along the way you will use your tips to decorate and restore each hotel back to its original charm. Watch out for the mysterious mishaps and accidents that threaten your progress! Do you have what it takes to keep everyone happy, or will the mysterious shadow halt your success?

Toward better collections, part 1: Assassin's Creed

During my family leave, I’ve gotten some time during 2.0’s sporadic sleep schedule to play a ton of games. The majority of those games features a common, popular gameplay element – set collection.  You know what I’m talking about, right?  It’s that optional gameplay element in which you’re invited (usually unsuccessfully) to “collect them all” or “find them all”.  A few examples:  Okami’s stray beads, Gears of War’s COG tags, Fallout 3’s bobbleheads, Ratchet & Clank’s golden bolts, Super Smash Bros.’s trophies, Pokemon’s… pokemon.  There are also other, more subtle forms of set collection that you may not have thought about: multiplayer titles, skill sets, armor sets, crafting recipes, beastiaries, codexes (I’m looking at you, Bioware) – even Xbox/PS3 achievements/trophies can fall into this category.  Since I’m a bit OCD and somewhat of a collection nut, I spot these collection opportunities rather quickly.  I also tend to determine rather quickly that the vast majority of such opportunites are not worth my time investment.  And I’m sure many of you have done the same thing – shelved a game without even giving a second thought to those things you left uncollected in that bygone world.  There’s a reason for that – it’s because most games implement set collection badly.  In this series of articles, I’d like to use personal experience from playing various games to examine how other games could improve the quality of these collection mechanics and give players more incentive to participate in these peripheral activities.

First, let’s define what comprises a “set collection mechanic” to restrict the scope of this article:

• Players must be able to complete the set: this rules out procedurally generated things (eg. Diablo/Torchlight loot) or a continually growing set of user-generated content (eg. Spore creatures or Second Life sets).
• Completion of the set should be a peripheral activity and NOT be required to progress through the game: otherwise, our examination of the player’s motivation to complete a set overlaps with other motivating factors; so this restriction prevents applying our study to things like the various mandatory devices in Zelda games – technically, it’s a set of devices that can be collected in its entirety, but (excepting upgrades to bag sizes, etc.) it MUST be completed to progress through the game; heart pieces, however, qualify as a valid set.
• The set must have some easily accessible, manifested representation in the game: in other words, the set must be an intentional collection placed by the designer; this rules out user-defined meta-sets.  Such sets are contrived by individual players who have clearly already conjured up the necessary motivation to attempt collecting the set.  For instance, in Animal Crossing: Wild World, I attempted to find and purchase all of the instruments in the game to make a music room – nothing in the game actually lists the set of instruments; neither are they denoted by some special icon.  It’s an arbitrary set I made up for which I had already mustered the necessary motivation to collect.

Now that we’ve defined the bounding conditions, I’d like to start this series with an examination of a game I only recently had the opportunity to play: the original Assassin’s Creed (and just in time for part II!).  As much as I enjoyed playing the game, I ran into a rather irksome collection mechanic – the city flags.  Of all the collect-them-all mechanics I’ve experienced in games thus far, the city flags are probably the worst of the bunch (at least as far as I can remember).  It didn’t take long after leaving the confines of Masyaf for me to swear off the entire collection altogether.  Here’s why:

• There don’t appear to be any gameplay or narrative rewards for procuring flags except for meta-rewards (i.e. Achievements and 100% completion with the filled “Additional Memories” DNA bar).  Even if such a tangible reward existed at the end of the tunnel, it’s so elusive that it doesn’t really factor into the typical player’s drive to collect the flags.
• Aside from their location, flags are indistinguishable from one another, making the experience of finding one identical each time.  This was exacerbated by the fact that there are 420 of those indistinguishable things!  So finding one was an altogether insignificant and homogenous (read: boring) experience.
• Flags are not particularly challenging to acquire.  Reaching them is simply a matter of hidden knowledge rather than a test of skill or logic.

I’m going to take a look at each of these three points and examine how other games have remedied the problems with Assassin’s Creed’s flag-collection gameplay.

Collection Rewards

One could argue that completing an in-game collection is reward enough.  That may very well be true.  I think that such collections generally fall into the category in which each individual item in the set is distinct enough to provide sufficient player motivation (see the Collection Distinction section below).  But in any case, it doesn’t hurt to provide some extra incentive to the player to collect a set of things.  These extra incentives can typically be categorized as either a gameplay reward or a narrative reward.

Gameplay rewards consist of additional skills or abilities (or some currency toward the purchase of skills or abilities) that expand and augment the player’s gameplay experience.  The most recent example that comes to mind is Brutal Legend’s bound serpents, which, when found, each provide a small amount of fire tributes that can be used to purchase upgrades at the motor forge.  Furthermore, for every ten bound serpents that are freed, the player character Eddie Riggs gets an upgrade to some element of his stats.

Alternatively, collections can grant narrative rewards in several different forms. Again, Brutal Legend provides a convenient example of such a collection: the “legends” scattered across the landscape.  For each one the player finds, another cutscene detailing the Brutal Legend mythos is revealed.  Coincidentally, I also discovered that Halo 3: ODST contains an identical mechanic in the form of the audio logs that follow a story indirectly related to the main plotline.  Yet another example of a narrative collection reward is BioShock’s audio diaries, narrated by multiple characters related to the main story.  However, ODST and Brutal Legend’s narrative collections differ in that each piece of the collection is not associated with a specific piece of the narrative reward.  In other words, whether you find piece A before or after piece B, you’re always going to get story reward A before story reward B.  This is not true for BioShock’s narrative collection, in which specific audio logs are found in specific locations.  This is an important distinction that we’ll revisit in the next section.

There is, of course, no reason why a particular collection can’t give both narrative and gameplay rewards, as is evident in Brutal Legend’s “legend” collection (which I neglected to mention also gives fire tributes for each legend discovered).  Another game I’ve played recently (after putting it off long enough) is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, in which every five pieces of treasure nets the player medal points that are used to unlock various metagame rewards (tweakable game modifiers like infinite ammo, faster run, and weapon select) and bonus content such as concept art and development videos.  I’ve lumped extra-game content into the category of “narrative rewards” in that they don’t actually augment the game experience.  In all of these examples, I think it’s safe to say that these various rewards can often be an effective incentive to the player to collect the entire set.

Collection Distinction

There is an important element of set collection that seems to be a no-show in many of its incarnations: distinction.  Each element of a set should be easy distinguishable from each other, via its textual, iconic, or geometric representation and/or some titular or numeric label.  As I’ve already observed, all of the flags in a particular area in Assassin’s Creed are identical except for where they are located.  This makes collecting each and every one the exact same experience.  There’s no sense of novelty in finding another one.

As I mentioned earlier, collecting a set of objects can be reward in itself – but this is generally a strong enough motivation to the player only when a distinction is made between the elements of the set.  The word “collecting” carries the connotation of collecting distinct elements.  How often do stamp collectors attempt to find every copy of only one type of stamp?  Or how often do card collectors try to acquire every copy of one particularly rare card?  While these real-world examples present collection goals that are obviously marred by real-world obstacles and impossibilities that don’t exist in the virtual space, art reflects life.  And in life, the appeal of set collection is in the diversity of the set’s various elements and in how those elements complement each other.  The set is a puzzle whose pieces, as they come together, become a clearer and more magnificent picture (even if that picture’s got a few missing spots).

I’ve always liked Nintendo’s first-party approach to collections.  I’m specifically referring to the trophies of the Super Smash Bros. series.  Each trophy is fan-service at its best – each with a unique, nostalgic 3D model of some Nintendo character, object, or setting and a short description of the subject.  All of the player’s trophies are displayed together in one place, literally becoming that magnificent picture I described.  It’s like looking at that Edge Magazine cover with all of the video game shoutouts.  I also played The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker recently (picked it up on the cheap a long time ago and only got around to playing it a few weeks ago).  In that game is a similar collection that the player can complete by using a camera to take pictures of the game’s enemies and NPC’s and showing them to a particular sculptor, who crafts figurines of the photographs’ subjects that are put on display throughout various trophy rooms.  Each figurine can be viewed in three dimensions and contains a short description of the subject’s place in the game universe.

And then, of course, we come back to Pokemon.  While each captured Pokemon simultaneously serves as a gameplay reward (with the new pokemon’s abilities at the player’s disposal), I would argue that the vast majority of pokemon are caught for the sake of completing a player’s Pokedex.  After all, the catchphrase (at least in America… not sure if it’s translated from Japanese) is “Gotta catch ‘em all!”, right?  And since the distinction between each pokemon is both visual and interactive, the drive to collect each one is that much more powerful.

Which reminds me of Endless Ocean (which I’m not ashamed to admit is one of my favorite games on the Wii).  At some point in the game, the player is allowed to populate a personal aquarium with creatures that he or she had already discovered.  It’s yet another fantastic Nintendo example of an interactive collection.

In fact, it appears that the common factor between these Nintendo games’ collections is the extent to which the player is allowed to appreciate his or her collection.  3D models that can be viewed from all angles, textual info and categorization, and in some cases, interactivity all contribute to the player’s connection to the collection and his or her drive to complete it.  It sure beats a little check mark or a line in a book or even a little icon.  And that is why, when Sony announced Playstation Home, something inside me grew giddy at the thought of 3D trophy displays.  Too bad it didn’t turn out that way…

There’s also one oft overlooked property that distinction imparts to a collectible set – it allows each element in the set to be described individually.  The reason this is so important is this: FAQ’s – of the GameFAQs type.  Not everyone can be expected to find every single element of the set on their own.  For those collectors that don’t wish to invest the required time, they should at least be able to look up the locations of the missing pieces.  This is impossible to do when the individual pieces are indistinguishable from one another.  This is especially problematic in Assassin’s Creed because in order to use a guide, you must use it for every single flag.  Otherwise, unless you have picture-perfect memory or you’re using a video guide (which I imagine would be ridiculously lengthy), you cannot possibly know whether you’ve already found a particular flag or you’re just looking at a slightly incorrect location on a flag map because there’s no way of knowing whether you already found “flag 53″ on the map – you only know that you’ve found 178 total flags, one of which may be the anonymous “flag 53″ in question.  I know this isn’t a purely ludological reason for set element distinction, but it’s a valid one nonetheless.  I’m rather confident that all but the most hardcore purists fall back on external sources (strategy guides, FAQ’s) to complete a collection.  I do it all the time.  So even if the “distinction” in a collectible set is just a numeric label or a dull identifier (like Okami’s stray beads), it’s still an important thing to have for the sake of simplifying the collection process itself.

Collection Gameplay

It’s important to ensure that the gameplay surrounding the collecting of objects is as solid as the elements of the collection itself.  I can group collection gameplay into at least three broad categories: steady-stream, challenge, and exploratory.

• Steady-stream collection: these are the sets of the type where the player gets a relatively steady stream of random elements of the set, and completing the collection becomes all about either trading for the missing elements or just investing enough into the game.  Examples: Smash Bros. trophies, Culdcept Saga’s cards (or any CCG’s cards, for that matter), Treasure World’s treasures, Animal Crossing’s fossils, a good number of Free Realms’ collection components.
• Challenge collection: these are the sets whose elements take actual gameplay skill to acquire.  Examples: Street Fighter IV’s multiplayer titles, Modern Warfare 2’s Spec-Ops mode stars, Braid’s stars (yeah, you might not have known about them; I sure as heck didn’t), Xbox 360 achievements and PS3 trophies.
• Exploratory collection: these are the types of sets whose elements are found by exploring the game space.  Typically, you’ll find these kinds of collections in shooters and action games.  Examples (there are tons of them but I’ll just name a few): Gears of War’s COG tags, Modern Warfare’s intel, ODST and Bioshock’s audio logs/diaries, Fallout 3’s bobbleheads, just about everything in Brutal Legend.

Assassin’s Creed’s flag collection can basically be classified as an exploratory collection.  It is this class of collection that I believe is most often (and most disappointingly) implemented.  The big problem that I’ve experienced with these collections is this: they break immersion by forcing the player to think not as the protagonist or the player character but rather as a designer.

For most of these exploratory collections, the elements are often placed with little to no narrative sense.  They’re usually either strewn about randomly or hidden in obscure corners of the map that oftentimes don’t even seem accessible.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, completing such a collection is an excercise in hidden knowledge more than anything else.

When searching for elements of such collections, I almost always find myself thinking things like, This corridor doesn’t lead to anywhere meaningful – there must be something there, or, This ledge is out-of-the-way, but it’s accessible – there must be something there.  The only logic behind these thought processes comes from putting myself in the designers’ shoes rather than doing what makes sense in the context of the game and the narrative.  My wife can even attest to this fact as she watched me play Uncharted, exclaiming, “I smell treashuz!” whenever my designer sense started tingling.  And it netted me 50 out of 60 treasures on my first run-through.  I had similar moments in ODST.  When a path led indoors and to some seemingly irrelevant balcony, I could usually count on finding an audio log.  And there’s no reason to think this Sophie character was actually at any of those audio log locations.

Brutal Legend, however, contains a great example of an exploratory collection with at least some measure of contextual sense – the landmark viewers.  They’re around landmarks!  If I saw something in the world that looked like a landmark, I knew there was a landmark viewer nearby.  I didn’t have to go probing the mind of some sadistic designer.  Another simple way of limiting the breaking of immersion would be to give the player character some in-game way of “sensing” nearby elements of a collection – some blinking UI element or controller rumble feedback to indicate the proximity of the element.  I can’t immediately think of any games that have really done this, although I’m absolutely sure someone must have.  The closest example I can think of is Ocarina of Time’s use of the rumble pak to signal to the player that something was hidden nearby.

Application

So how could Assassin’s Creed have improved its flag collection gameplay?  Personally, I think the most unintrusive way would have been to tie flags to labeled chunks or chapters of historical info (fictional or otherwise) about the city.  Such a change wouldn’t involve adding abilities or tweaking/rebalancing character progression to accommodate gameplay rewards – and the change would fit well with the game’s prominent narrative delivery and historical setting.  Of course, this would probably involve cutting the number of flags down significantly – a most welcome change.  In fact, why not change the flags altogether and instead make them distinctly crafted relics in the vein of Uncharted’s treasures?  They would probably fit into the world a little better that way.   (Really – why are there random flags all over the place, anyway?)  Along those lines, the seeding of these “relics” could be in more logical locations: at the top of notable landmarks or inside obvious places of importance rather than in the shadows of some inconspicuous alley or atop a nondescript rooftop.  Furthermore, the designers can spread clues regarding the locations of those relics throughout lesser “eavesdropping” opportunities in the game.  I found the eavesdropping mechanic to be rather contrived, as the player can only eavesdrop for an investigative mission.  It would have been much more interesting if there were other groups of conversations on which the player could eavesdrop to get clues – much in the same way that pickpocketing is used for both investigations and for acquiring throwing knives.  And, being the valuable relics that they are, some of them can be guarded by hostile templars who must be circumvented or defeated, while others can be locked away in trap-laden rooms requiring a touch of finesse and dexterity to traverse.

And for the record, I have not yet touched the second title in the series.  So now someone who’s finished playing Assassin’s Creed II can tell me whether Ubisoft did, in fact, add a more compelling collection mechanic.

So that covers the shortfalls I noticed in Assassin’s Creed’s flag collection and how one might possibly improve that segment of gameplay. In my next post, I’ll be exploring the importance of community and recognition and how those things have strengthened the player’s drive to collect – especially with the most recent console generation’s emphasis on online play.

To Live and Die in Venice

It’s here! It has come. I must admit that I’ve been looking forward to Assassin’s Creed II. Despite all its flaws, I fell completely in love with the first one. From what’s I’ve heard, this sequal is supposed to address most of the stuff that Assassin’s Creed did poorly. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I have a few wishes:

• Less repetition. Oh my God Assassin’s Creed was repetitive. There were like five mission types, and they were repeated over and over again. I loved the game, but I hated the repetition. When I’m done with a mission, I want to experience somethin new!
• Lose the American accent. What is the deal with the main character being the only one around with a terrible American accent? I know the guy in the dream machine thing was American, but in medieval Jerusalem it just sounds weird.
• Actually be an assassin. What kind of assassin kills a guy openly in the middle of a crowd, kills off 15 guards, and then runs for his life with half the town on his tail? That’s just stupid! I want more stealth. Last I checked, assassins tend to attack from the shadows.
• Blue, glowing, transparent walls. Memory loss, I get the idea. It still looks unappealing.
• Could medieval man swim? Many probably didn’t know how to. But a badass assassin probably wouldn’t sink like a rock.

Although, I do like the idea of good ol’ Leonardo da Vinci as my personal Q.

From what I’ve seen in gameplay videos and screenshots, the game looks most delicate. I have no doubts getting my hands on it. And when I’ve actually played it, I’ll make very sure to let you all know what I think of it. Yes, I know; my opinion is your holy grail of digital entertainment.

My thoughts on Assassins Creed 2

Hey Geoff here, heres my thoughts on Assassins Creed 2. First up, MASSIVE improvement from the first one. So much more variety. The game is set a few hundred years later than AC1. You now play as an Italian whos name I won’t say becuase it so confusing and I can’t remeber it in the Italian Renaissance. With the new area, Ubisoft had so much more opportunities for scenery and they used that to their advantage to make the games scenery look absolutely stunning. To help this the graphics are also very well improved with alot more detail. The story is well thought out with a lot of action and side missions, leaving hours of fun. The gameplay is smooth with a good grame rate. The controls are just like the first AC and I have no problem with that, they managed to fit a heap of awesome assassins moves into not using more than 2 buttons at the same time. Another great thing is you don’t have to unlock weapons anymore, you can just go and buy some! Money ahs been brought into the game, you being able to get it buy looting dead bodies, finding treasure chests or stealing from ANYONE! And finally the weapons. They are just awesome, twin hidden blades, big ass axes and a hidden gun! How good can you get? There is a much bigger variety of weapons that you can aquire and steal off enemies in fights. The new weapons moves are really fun to watch as well. Basically this a great game and I would really recomment this to anyone, unless you hate single player and only like multiplayer (which the game doesn’t have).

My personal rating is 9.8/10 (bout’ as close as I am to ratin somethin 10/10 )

How To Program Games - Video Game Tester - Video Game Testing Programs Are Scams!

how to play burned xbox 360 games

If it’s not how to play burned xbox 360 games accessible to you already video bold testing programs are complete and absolute scams. Well at atomic best of the ones that are accepted on Google. Companies such as bold testing grounds bold tester guide alone gamers and bags more Shocking isn’t it But it’s absolutely true and I accept facts and analysis to aback it up.

Video bold testing programs are scams

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Ravensworld im AppStore erschienen

Ravensworld

Das erste ernstzunehmende Rollenspiel alla Oblivion or Morrowind ist im AppStore erschienen. Ravensworld überzeugt mit einer überwältigenden Grafik und den genretypischen Quests. Performancetechnisch brauchen sich iPod Touch User der 3. Generation sowie iPhone 3GS – Besitzer keine Sorgen machen. Bei den Vorgängermodellen kann durch heruntersetzten der Grafikqualität ein Performanceplus erzielt werden.  Anbei ein Video aus Ravensworld. [Link zum AppStore]

8 Feature Packed Flash Games

Find below a list of five feature packed games.

Play and enjoy. Let your friends know about these games.

• Squanda
• ClickPLAY 2
• Spectro Destroy…
• Bloons Tower De…
• CubiKill 2
• FrozenFun
• Classic Pacman
• Plastic Attack!

These and more games can be found at kachbo.com.

If you come across any game please let us know. We will be happy to review the game and post it on our site. Only conditions are they should be flash games. They should be free games. They should be playable online.

Remember we require only free flash games online.

Posted via email from Flash games

PS3: Call Of Duty Clan Members Needed

Hey… so here’s the deal

IF you’re a PS3-er … AND you’re just as obsessed with Call of Duty as I am.. then I want you to consider clanning-up.

PSN ID: WarKittenz

And before all my non-COD friends start bitching about how much time I actually spend playing this game, let me just say that it keeps me from going REAL LIFE postal!! LOL!!

Actually shooting virtual enemies is very calming.. much more so then those 19.00 “zen” candles I tried last year!

At any rate.. fellow COD-ers know what I’m saying.

Right?

RIGHT????

NOTE: If you have absolutely NO interest in what I’m about to say then you can stop reading right now. I promise I won’t be offended. I also promise that I won’t take is SO DAMN personally that I’ll show up on your doorstep with a virtual MP40 or AK47 or SCAR and pop your virtual melon. See what I mean about stress relieving?? LOL

Ok.. so back to the clan-thing.

Well.. technically.. it doesn’t even have to be a clan thing. People tend to get territorial over their clan tags and people NOT part of a clan tend to leave matches when a clan shows up on the opposing team.

I’m just looking for people to play with that actually KNOW how to play strategically.. without running around doing stupid things to get themselves killed and ME killed in the process.

For instance… HOLDING A FUCKING AREA!!

You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that if your team is holding an area, the opposing team is going to come to you giving YOU the advantage of killing them first. It may not always work out that way because one well place grenade will cause major cluster-fuckage but I think you kind of get the idea.

And SNIPERS!! My god there is a need for sniping .. but the whole point of sniping is to :: gasp! :: ADVANCE YOUR TEAM FOWARD! There is nothing more frustrating then to have a sniper in a map that actually doesn’t even NEED one and having to keep respawning all the way on the other side of where the fighting is because the sniper is just sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting………………….. and sitting and sitting and getting up to go to the bathroom and then sitting some more.

And while I’m on my little mini-rant .. the other thing that gets me goat all twisted up in knots is when you’re playing strategically .. you’re getting the enemy to come to you .. and then SOMEBODY ELSE comes into your space.. shoves in front of you because.. OMG! You’re getting kills and they aren’t so they want to be where you’re at so that they can get the kills but the only thing that happens is that YOU get killed because they’re blocking your view.

See.. THAT’S why I’m not hooked up to the microphone. Too many bad words said to too many people!!

Anyway.. so I’m putting the offer out there. Me and Chief are actually really, really good :: I’m better. I know it.. he knows it.. but I still let him believe that he kicks my ass because I don’t want to hurt his feelings :: and we’re just looking to play with other people who are really really good.

If your interested, just add me as a friend and just add a message that you’re from here so I’ll add you.

World of Zoo (PC)

World of Zoo (PC) | byteme

Το World of Zoo ανήκει στην κατηγορία των family games, παιχνιδιών σχεδιασμένα έτσι ώστε να ικανοποιούν όλη την οικογένεια παίζουν τα πιτσιρίκια και οι γονείς να τα παρακολουθούν. Αν και σύμφωνα με την THQ ο τίτλος της Blue Fang Games, δημιουργού της σειράς Zoo Tycoon ανήκει στο life simulation genre, προσωπικά θεωρώ πως ταιριάζει καλύτερα στην κατηγορία edutainment μιας και συνδυάζει την ψυχαγωγία με την εκπαίδευση αφού σε κάθε ευκαιρία προβάλλει στους παίκτες πληροφορίες σχετικά με τα είδη ζώων που περιλαμβάνει, κατ’ ευθείαν από τη database του National Geographic.[next]

 

game de basket: UQAM VS Mc Gill

Vendredi soir était le match d’entrée de la ligue de Basket de ma fac contre une autre université anglophone de Montréal: Mc Gill.L’équipe de l’UQAM: les citadins VS l’équipe de Mc Gill: les red men ! Une game de fille (UQAM gagnant) et une game de garçon (UQAM gagnant) des pompom girls, des hot-dog, de la bière, bref une bonne soirée, surtout avec 2 matchs gagné.

les pom-pom girl de l’UQAM.

GO UQAM GO !

les présentateurs au premier plan, Mc Gill au second

vidéo des cheers-leaders qui se sont un peu planté à certain moments ! ^^

Modern Warfare 2 Hits Insane Online Player Spike

Shout out to fellow Scottish games journalist Mike Slevin for this screen grab that shows over a million online players of Modern Warfare 2 online at the same time. Doctored or not we’ll never know, but taking into account that the game has raked in $400 million worldwide already, making it the biggest media launch in history (now ahead of previous record holder GTA IV) I can believe it.

While you guys are all playing Modern Warfare 2 today, I’ll be playing an exclusive multiplayer session of Crackdown 2 at NEoN Digital Arts Festival in Dundee. Follow me on Twitter (@davescook) for live coverage or check back tonight or tomorrow for blog coverage.

Oooorah!

GOF 3.5?

We must start planning GOF 3.5, the sequel to GOF 3, which ended in a three way tie for first. Mike Sassaman, Doug Fassman, and Jamie Paul finished equal in points. I slid in at fourth, as a possible spoiler !

The playoff game is in Settlers of Catan, using tournament rules (2nd building is a City, and you get a third road at start).

With the Superbowl on Feb 6th, I’m thinking late February (the 27th?) would be a good time. I know Todd’s free on that day, how about the rest of you?

ALSO: do we have votes on what games to play?

1912 Titanic Mystery: Help solve a 100 year-old Titanic mystery!

1912 Titanic Mystery (62 MB download)
A bomb is aboard the Titanic II on its maiden voyage, launched on the one-hundredth anniversary of the fatal Atlantic crossing. Find the bomb and save the ship and all aboard. Interact with different characters, discovering hidden diary entries and a century old mystery from the original Titanic. This multifaceted storyline offers a tale of lost love and reunion, challenging puzzles, and imagery lovingly recreated from original photographs!

Best of Twitter: Game lästert ab und anderer Gossip

Tweets of the week:
Game war für ein paar Minuten Alleinunterhalter in Twietnam und haute solche Sprüche raus…rofl
ihategame: #donttrytoholla at 50 this week. he be puttin growth hormones in his shakes & da side effects R screaming & throwin vitamin water @ fans LOL
ihategame: #donttrytoholla at Rihanna big head a$$ if ya wife is Beyonce ! nigga what’s wrong with you…..
ihategame: #donttrytoholla at nobody if yo toes got more corns on em then Christina Milian’s …. please no more sandals baby (Dream’s Voice) ha ha ha

ihategame: #donttrytoholla at 50 on the phone, cuz he tapes every conversation.

ihategame: #donttrytoholla cuz Ciara really don’t look like that when she not on TV ha ha ha ha……. damn I’m on a roll 2nite RT

Missinfo: TaylorSwift @ the CMAs 2nite: “I wanna thank every1 in this room 4 not runnin up here n snatching the mic frm me” (Tnx @EmXtra !)

JayZNation: #alltimelow Rushing onto the stage during a live performance of Empire State Of Mind (yeah, you know who you are)

Back to Gossip:

“Rebirth” gibts ab 15. Dezember

OMG! Seit Bilder von Beyonce und ihrem Bodyguard aufgetaucht sind, der (angeblich) IHREN Lippenstift auf dem Mund hat, cancelte Jay-Z einige Tourdaten und traf sich angeblich mit einer Frau zum Dinner. Komisch, bei den EMAs waren sie noch so in love…

Wozu TV Total doch noch gut ist, sogar auf meiner Lieblingsseite necolebitchie.com wird Raab verlinkt, aber nur weil RiRi eine Preview ihres neuen Videos “Russian Roulette” mitbrachte.

Yes,  in Deutschland wird Rihannas Album als erstes veröffentlicht hach!
Trotzdem hab ich das Gefühl, die haben in Berlin nicht nur das Albumcover gemacht, sondern auch alles andere…Videos, die Maxi Cover usw. Das sieht alles iwie so gleich aus.

Das Interview…wenn ihr es auch verpasst habt:

Klasse, Rihanna und Chris Brown veröffentlich beide ihre neuen Videos MORGEN! Dazu noch die neue Single von 50Cent mit Beanie Sigel, von wegen Unglückstag…

Agent Platformer Game

Agent Platformer Game
Agent Platformer Game
Agent Platformer Game
Agent Platformer Game Description : Rocket pack? YAY! There’s a catch, though. You have limited fuel. So use your flights wisely, collect coins for the more fuels, and fly to the victory!
How to Play Agent Platformer Game? Left and Right to move.
Space bar to jump.
Up to use your rocket pack!

Super Mario Bros no Wii

Quem adorava jogar o Super Mario Bros no Super Nintendo teve a oportunidade de experimentar o jogo no Nintendo DS e sabe como ficou bom. Agora a Nintendo vai lançar o jogo para o Wii, com a possibilidade de jogar em modo multiplayer cooperativo e com diversas novidades. Você não ta acreditando né? Então olha o vídeo abaixo e baba, agora é só esperar o jogo sair pra ir correndo comprar.

Unsere AppStore-Empfehlungen fürs Wochenende

Karnival

Wer schon immer eine Art RollerCoaster Tycoon auf dem iPhone/iPod Touch spielen will, wird mit diesem Spiel glücklich. Zwar geht es nicht um Freizeitparks, dafür warten die Volksfest/Kirmesplätze von Nordamerika auf Ihr kommen. Kaufen Sie neue Fahrattraktionen dazu, planen Sie die Preise, kümmern Sie sich um die Buden und bleiben Sie immer attraktiv für neue Kunden. Grafisch ansprechend umgesetzt kommt ein zum Thema passender Soundtrack hinzu. Unsere Empfehlung der Woche. [Link zum AppStore]

Die Siedler

Das Kultspiel  vom PC hat nun seinen Weg auf das iPhone gefunden. Grafisch orientiert sich das Spiel an den 3. Teil und bietet ein ansehliches Gesamtergebnis. Das Spielprinzip wurde entsprechend dem Original beibehalten und für die Touchbedienung optimiert. Fans der Siedlerserie werden sowieso zuschlagen. aber auch Siedlerneulingen kann ein Blick darauf lohnend sein. Ein Must-Have-App für Aufbauspielliebhaber [Link zum AppStore]

 

TowerMadness Zero: 3D Tower Defense

Die beliebten Tower Defense Spiele, bei denen es um die Verteidigung einer Burg durch Wehrtürme und Fallen geht wird in dieser kostenlosen 3D-Version ansprechend dargestellt und spielt sich gut. Ein Blick lohnt sich auf jeden Fall. [Link zum Appstore]

 

Speed Surfer

Wer viel mit dem iPhone im Internet unterwegs ist ärgert sich mit Sicherheit über die vielen Bilder, seis Werbung oder einfach nur grafische Elemente, die unnötig den Traffic belasten. Hier greift Speed Surfer. Werbung und Bilder werden ausgeblendet – übrig bleibt die eigentliche Website, bzw. deren Text. Dies führt auch zu einer deutlich gesteigerten Websiteladung. [Link zum AppStore]

Weekend Column – Games: Goed of Kwaad?

Ikzelf speel al een aantal jaren games, voornamelijk op ’t internet tegen anderen tegenstanders. Hierdoor zoek ik wel eens rond naar verhalen die het gamen motiveren of juist afkraken, waarbij ik de helft af en toe niet eens ’t nut van inzie.

Recente stuk wat ik gelezen heb gaat over dat gamers die agressieve  spellen spelen overeen komen als een soldaat (Echte soldaat) op een slagveld. Hierbij blijkt dus dat er meer testosteron geproduceerd word, maar alleen als je ’t weet te winnen van een vreemde. Wanneer je tegen iemand speelt die je wel kent, vage kennis of je buurjongen is die waarde een stuk lager. Sorry hoor, wanneer ik m’n maat afschiet (die overduidelijk beter is dan ik) dan hoort hij het wel, dan is mijn testosteron gehalte op top nivo en blijf ik die actie herhalen totdat die gehalte overstroomd.. wat een heerlijk emotie! Tevens is het geval van dit onderzoek maar onder 42 studentes verzorgt. Wie kan mij vertellen dat die 42 personen, gasten van 25-28 jaar die amper zelf kunnen pissen, hun kleren nog netjes word gewassen door mammie en gevouwen terug krijgen kunnen oordelen hoe de andere miljoenen gamers zich voelen tijdens een game!? Daarnaast werd het spel Unreal Tournament 2004 gebruikt voor dit onderzoek, naar mijn weten is er geen ander spel dat zo hectisch is in multiplayer. Dit kan natuurlijk ook mij liggen, misschien hebben ze wel gelijk. Dat 42 gasten kunnen bepalen hoe anderen voelen, misschien weten ze nu ook me nu voel en word dat morgen gepubliceerd op een grote forum waarbij in de details uitleggen wat ik dacht en emoties waren met het schrijven van dit column. Natuurlijk kan dit niet, onmogelijk om dit onderzoek zo te plaatsen met zo’n extreem laag aantal aan test personen. Ik zal ze een stukje helpen over mijn emotie momenteel. – Slappe lach door dit slappe gelul!

Het onderzoek dat een chirurg beter presteert in zijn werk wanneer hij minimaal 3 uur per week games speelt. Met dit onderzoek deden tevens weer een laag aantal personen mee, maar de percentages zijn wel verbluffend te noemen. Nadat ik dit onderzoek gelezen had ben ik nog meer gaan gamen, mijn reactie vermogen is over de top op m’n werk, ik zie alles en iedereen om me heen,  alle onverwachte bewegingen sta ik al klaar om te schieten en mocht ik iemand onderuit zien gaan schreeuw ik keihard “Noob!” Zo liep ik een keer in de stad, in een slappe bui met een beker koffie in de hand en een sigaret in de andere.  Gaat er voor mij een iets oudere vrouw onderuit over een stuk glad stoepwerk, ik zette een glimlach op en zei luid genoeg: LoL! – Toen had ik door dat te veel gamen niet gezond is en met die conclusie had ik dit onderzoek ook maar aan de kant geschoven. Want zeg nou zelf, het blijft maar een spelletje dames en heren.

’t Volgend onderzoek heeft mijn dag zeker goed gemaakt toen ik dat las op m’n mobiel tijdens m’n pauze. ’t Kop ging als volgt: Gamers rijden roekelozer.. right! Ik bezit een dikke Golf TDI met een opgefokte motor er in gebouwd, spoilers en de rest van de bodyart. Special painting van een blote vrouw op de motorkap en daar scheur ik heen over de A12 vanaf Oberhausen naar DenHaag  met m’n voet vlak op de vloer en probeer alles te ontwijken, maar natuurlijk gaat dat te hard. Ik raak hier en daar een auto maar wat maakt dat uit, m’n auto kan toch niet kapot. Stuk of 6 loeiende sirenes achter me aan en ik denk bij me zelf, die raak ik bij Utrecht wel kwijt. Volgens de onderzoekers die 2200 jongeren hebben ondervraagd die veel race spellen spelen zoals Need for Speed of Burnout. Blijken toch wel meer positief te staan over ’t sneller rijden dan personen die geen games spelen zoals de bovenstaande games. In gedachten draaide ik dit gelijk weer om, ik denk dat de roekeloze bestuurders juist die spellen spelen om daar ’t nog even dunnetjes over te doen wat ze daarvoor op de A2 hebben uitgevoerd. Tig auto’s afgesneden, rechts inhalen en dik over de maximum snelheid zitten. Gaat de persoon voor hem niet snel genoeg, dan maar op de bumper kleven en seinen met ’t grote licht… mocht dat nog niet werken, volle hand op claxon totdat hij of zij wel aan de kant gaat. Gamers die geregeld race games spelen kunnen hier en daar wat uitblinken tot een rij gedrag wat aan gewerkt kan worden, maar beoordeel niet in het algemeen met de kop: Gamers rijden roekelozer. Dit onderzoek werd uit gevoerd door het Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL). Voor mij betreft, dikke FlauweKUL!

Natuurlijk zeg ik niet dat games goed is voor de maatschappij, als je kijkt naar World of Warcraft wat duidelijk een serieuze verslaving kan zijn. Dat zeg ik als je kijkt dat er 11 miljoen mensen dat spel spelen. Naarmate de technologie niet stil staat en grafisch steeds meer mogelijk maakt zullen games er heftiger, realistische en agressiever zijn dat laat zeggen 15 jaar terug, waar wij MarioBros zaten te spelen en ook maar voor een uurtje want dan kwamen je vrienden je ophalen voor wat anders te doen. Deze tijden zitten kinderen gemiddeld meer achter de computer dan dat ze buiten zijn om te knikkeren om een voorbeeld te geven. Leeftijd gebonden aan games wilt niet zeggen dat ’t dan ook help, maar het is zeker een richtlijn voor de ouders om te bepalen wat ze wel en niet mogen spelen.

Het spelen van een game gaan op 2 manieren, op de gemoedelijke manier en op een verslavende manier. Speel een game, maar laat de game niet met jou spelen.

Band Hero @ Oprah's Karaoke Challenge - Round 1 - Live!

From/De: Band Hero @ Facebook

Band Hero Tune-in to see Band Hero featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show® TODAY as part of “Oprah’s Karaoke Challenge: ROUND 1 – LIVE!”. Check local listings for air times [message posted today at 1:55 PM EST].

Band Hero Sintonize para ver Band Hero presentado en The Oprah Winfrey Show® HOY como parte del “Desafio Karaoke de Oprah: Round 1 – En vivo! Revise horario local para  las horas de transmisión [mensaje publicado hoy a la 1:55 PM EST].

Games Album verschoben, neue Videos und Gossip

Die Veröffentlichung von Games “R.E.D.” Album wurde verschoben? Jedenfalls twitterte er vorgestern folgendes:

ihategame: Album is Officially pushed back. says Interscope, so that I can finish wit Dre without having to rush him, myself or the album. Think R.E.D.

Rihanna – Wait your Turn / The Wait is ova

Gewusst? Ja Rule meinte, dass er nur das Aushängeschild für Murder INC war, unter Vertrag war er aber nur bei Def Jam!

Ein Diss Track gegen T-Mobile, na war ja mal überfällig, wa? lol

Oh ok, es gab also nie einen Twitter Beef zwischen Keri Hilson und Mo’nique. Die gute Mo twittert nämlich gar nicht, was ich sowieso von 3/4 der “angemeldetet” Stars denke….

Photoshop lässt grüßen…

Beans’ nächstes Album wird noch bei Roc-A-Fella veröffentlicht werden und angeblich soll er dann zu G-Unit wechseln. Na mal gucken…ich denke 50 hängt mit Beanie nur rum, weil der grade in den Schlagzeilen ist bzw welche macht und 50 seinen neuen Film promotet und sein Album am 16.11. rausbringt.

Ein lautes “Hallejula”, unser Lieblingsrapper Kanye West arbeitet an seinem 5. Studioalbum und zwar mit Größen wie Mr. Hudson und Soulja Boy…./Ironie aus

Ameries 4. Studio Album “In Love & War” ist draussen, die Kritiken sind geteilt. Muss man sich wohl selbst ein Urteil bilden, aber ich persönlich mochte schon “1 Thing” nicht.

Angeblich wollen JJ und JD nun doch endlich heiraten!

Immer diese Zickenkriege:

In dem Song macht sich Foxy darüber lustig, dass Lil Kim bei “Dancing with Stars” mitgemacht hatte. Ich glaube mich zu erinnern, dass Kim ziemlich weit gekommen ist.
Spricht da der Neid?

“Catch me at Marcy at the mall/ But muthafuckas will never see me dancing with the stars/ Never, will I embarrass my borough/ I’m too thorough/ Dark skin bitches, we here now/
I swear now/ Ya’ll bitches wanna be me so bad/ Ya’ll studied my whole swag.”
Natürlich würde sich Foxy nicht bei so einer Show der Lächerlichkeit preis geben, DAS schafft sie nun wirklich auch so!

Eigentlich dachten wir ja alle, dass Jay-Z erwachsen genug ist, den Diss von Sigel einfach zu ignorieren, nun allerdings kursiert das Gerücht, dass er bereits einen Diss Song am Start hat. Haben SOLL, wir werden sehen….eigentlich ist er doch zu beschäftigt für sowas…Seine Antwort auf das Gerücht twittert er prompt: “JayZNation: Jay don’t get down like that anymore.  “

Gucci Mane feat. Usher “Spotlight“

Is ja wie bei GZSZ…Trey Songz macht jetzt mit der Ex von Joe Budden rum….wäääääääääääääääh! Hier sein neues Softpornofilmchen Video “I invented sex”

R. Kelly nahm zusammen mit Tyrese den Song “Pregnant” auf und dieser entählt wirklich, mit Abstand, absolut die bescheuertsten Zeilen dieses Monats:
“Girl you make me want to get you pregnant. Lay your body down and get you pregnant.”
Listen here

Echt blöd: Chris Brown hat auf seiner Minitour bisher kaum Ticket verkauft. Ist die Karriere jetzt schon vorbei?

Jamie Foxx Ft. Gucci Mane – Speak French

Tekken 6 Datang Terlamat

Meskipun raksasa Namco menghadirkan game Tekken nya diluar dari jadwal, padahal sudah bermunculan game-game yang update di serinya Namco sendiri benjanji akan menghadirkan Tekken 6 dengan fitur yang sangat berbeda di seri-seri sebelumnya.

Namco Bandai has promised that an update to Tekken 6 is en route, one designed to “improve the online game experience,” a common complaint among reviews of the new fighter.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 fighter was knocked for having unforgivable lag in our own Tekken 6 review. And we weren’t the only ones disappointed with Tekken 6’s net code. Hopefully, Namco Bandai’s downloadable update, planned to ship “as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures.”

Namco Bandai says it will offer more details and a release time frame shortly.

 

Sumber : http://kotaku.com/

 

A história da Pixar em livro

O livro traz a história da riqueza criativa, tecnológica e empresarial por trás do sucesso da Pixar, um dos estúdios cinematográfico mais inovadores.

A publicação apresenta uma análise da empresa que mudou o modo como conhecemos a animação e o cinema.

Com base em entrevistas realizadas com dezenas de especialistas, o autor examina os primeiros anos pioneiros, quando a animação feita em computadores era considerada a ‘alternativa lunática’ do meio.

A Pixar enfrentou diversas decepções e perdas financeiras até chegar ao sucesso de Toy Story.

Arcade Games showdown

Hello everyone,

Back to business. I found a huge collection of arcade games that you might wanna try out.

Some games are really good, others are not so. However, overall the experience is very good.

Some snapshots of the games are given below

Play them if they are to your liking. Please share with our fellow readers the games you like to play and also the ones that you did not like. I hope we can collectively share the information with fellow readers on the best free arcade games available.

If you have any other sites to mention and other arcade games that you play, please post in the comments section and I shall write about them.

Hurray. Happy Playing Arcade games.

Gamer Freak

Μπαν από την Microsoft σε «πειραγμένα» X360

Μπαν-άκι από την Microsoft σε «πειραγμένα» X360 | byteme

Μίνι εξόρμηση έκανε η Microsoft την εβδομάδα που μας πέρασε και έριξε μπόλικα ban σε Xbox Live λογαριασμούς παικτών που είχαν μοντάρει τα X360 τους προκειμένου να μπορούν να παίξουν αντιγραμμένα παιχνίδια (απαπά!). Φαίνεται ότι οι παθόντες δεν ήταν και λίγοι, αφού στα forums του Xbox Live εμφανίστηκαν πολλά μηνύματα ανθρώπων που έψαχναν να βρουν τι συμβαίνει με τον λογαριασμό τους.[next]

 

Unity Indie 2.6 free

Unity Indie (2.6) games development solution is now available for free. It was priced 199$ before. That is here for download. We can also access to some demos that run directly through the browser using the Unity Web plugin (works on PPC and is really fast… ways better than any Flash). The Tropical Paradise demo is really stunning.

The Indie version isn’t listed in the licenses page, and  the Pro version remains priced 1499$. The iPhone targeted version isn’t free, however a 30 days demo is provided).

A Message To Paid Developers From VodaTron

Right now I just got 2 reviews just pushed out and so now I just want to reach out to those charging for there apps on Android Market cause I’ve had 2 developers tell me they not updating there application or thinking of pulling it.

I hope readers will support me here but I am fully supporting developers who charge for there apps on the market and I’m aware of the fact that sometimes someone creates a free app that is like yours and it drives off the attention from yours but come on guys I support you.

DON’T GIVE UP instead push yourself a little harder and make your app the best it can be put the free one to shame don’t let the free one outshine yours.

Be friendly and try reply to all requests and emails that’s common sense but it makes users smile and when there happy they tell normally friends/co-workers about your app while mentioning how friendly you are.

Tell others what’s coming in the next version, build the hype it gets people talking

Just don’t give up on your app and don’t drop the charging if you thought it was worth charging and people downloaded before the free one was released then its worthy you just need to make it better than the free version now.

I’m reaching out to paid developers here I hope they pay attention and push on the market is harsh I know but just fight back don’t let a free version beat you that’s the worse bug a app death can have and I know many of apps that have been removed or dropped charging cause of free versions its time for paid apps to fight back.

There are examples of apps paid and free that are alike and the paid is beating the free all cause the developer made it look good and was friendly and at times added better features.

I will tell you a good tip…don’t look at the comments in your app instead look at the ones in the copy type free version you may find a suggestion for a feature that you can add before the free one does…all is fair in love and war right

Go For It Developers I respect you all for what you do.