What’s On WiiWare

TurtleGirl — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:36:44 +0000

Command your military unit and hone your strategic skills in Military Madness Nectaris on WiiWare this week.

Available to download on DSiWare is the fabulously colourful Pop Island, where players will need to run, jump and spin their way around the island to collect the priceless flags, Simply Mahjong and Simply Sudoku, giving players hours of puzzling fun, and 4 travellers- Play Spanish, a nifty game to have players speaking Spanish in no time. This week’s quintuple of DSiWare is completed by the card based role-playing game Elemental Masters inviting you to a quest in the mystical lands of Elendior.

And that’s not all! Finally, it is Hanabi season again, with Virtual Console bringing you games released for the very first time in their original format in Europe. Play Ironclad, the classic NeoGeo side-scroller with a unique gameplay twist: You will not only take control of a mighty warship, but also command a tactical combat drone – the eponymous Iron Clad, allowing for strategies never seen before in a shoot ‘em up. Another Hanabi gem is the NES version of a classic series, Lode Runner. You will now be able to enjoy the first Lode Runner game to ever grace a Nintendo game system. Though originally released in 1984, this version offers an astonishingly easy-to-use level editor, and a two player mode to go hunt for gold nuggets with a friend in every puzzling stage.

WiiWare – MILITARY MADNESS NECTARIS

(HUDSON SOFT, 1000 Wii Points)

The Military is back for a new generation of recruits. The classic turn-based strategy series MILITARY MADNESS, a.k.a. NECTARIS, is exploding onto WiiWare with a platoon of new features. Coordinate strategies or taunt foes in team or multiplayer modes for up to 4 people, offline or online.

Customise the all-new commander unit by selecting from 20 unique abilities as it leads your forces in multiplayer. Command respect as you increase your rank and march up the leader boards on your mission to prove you’re the top general around. This is the maddest game yet in the series.

NINTENDO DSiWare – Pop Island

(odenis studio, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)

Discover a joyful universe where playing is always a pleasure. Colourful and fun, Pop Island is an all-action capture the flag game where you pick which team to compete on before running, jumping and spinning your way around the island in an attempt to collect the priceless flags hidden throughout it.

Become a surfing penguin, a flying fish or a waterskiing crocodile as you go all out for victory – unlocking 12 more joyful animals as you rack up points across eight different planets. You might even end up competing as a skateboarding mammoth.

Players can take up the challenge alone, but the madcap action reaches a new level when your friends get involved. By sharing the demo of the game via DS Download Play, up to seven more people can join you for some head-to-head or cooperative action. With plenty of power-ups, you’ll need to concentrate on capturing more than just the rival team’s flag to claim victory.

NINTENDO DSiWare – Simply Mahjong

(Engine Software, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)

Simply Mahjong gives you exactly what you want: pure Mahjong on your DSi. The simple game design and easy, intuitive controls make it a game that the whole family can enjoy. The game has 50 puzzles in each level guaranteeing hours of gameplay fun.

NINTENDO DSiWare – Simply Sudoku

(Engine Software, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)

Simply Sudoku gives you exactly what you want: pure Sudoku on your DSi. The simple game design and easy, intuitive controls make it a game that the whole family can enjoy. The game has 50 puzzles in each level to guarantee hours of gameplay fun.

NINTENDO DSiWare – 4 TRAVELLERS- Play Spanish

(AGENIUS Interactive, 800 Nintendo DSi Points)

4 TRAVELLERS can be played alone or together with friends, while at the same time teach you new words in Spanish. The game is suitable for both young and old, and no previous experience is necessary.

The more you play the more your Spanish vocabulary increases. You can also play and learn with the game’s unique learning mode.

Listen to pronunciations, collect medals or win achievements and monitor your language skills development with up to three other players. This game is also perfect to bring on your trip, as over 240 carefully selected words are included specifically for this occasion.

In-game languages: English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Nederlands, Norsk, Svenska, Dansk, Suomi

NINTENDO DSiWare – Elemental Masters

(lbxgames, 800 Nintendo DSi Points)

In this Fantasy Card Game, stand your ground in a quest full of magic and adventure, and experience a thrilling combination of strategy in this role-playing game.

Choose your character, build up your army in your card deck and fight the mystical creatures of Elendior. With thoughtful use of your cards, you can obtain the monsters of your enemy and support your attacks by using arcane spells and the rules of dark magic. Dive into this captivating story in the quest mode, or duel with your friends in multiplayer.

More than 100 creatures in over 15 maps are waiting for you.

VIRTUAL CONSOLE – IRONCLAD

(D4 Enterprise, NEOGEO, 1000 Wii Points)

Take control of a mighty warship alongside Iron Clad in this classic side-scrolling shoot ‘em up. Bring the fight to the Iron Mask Republic and save the Kingdom of Chop by using a huge array of weaponry.

Dish out a variety of melee attacks in close-range combat, nullify the enemy’s attacks using your bomber, or combine with Iron Clad to create even more damage. And when the dust has settled, go back and play through your favourite stages again, trying new weapon combinations and unlocking new endings.

In-game text will include some Japanese.

VIRTUAL CONSOLE – Lode Runner

(HUDSON SOFT, NES, 600 Wii Points)

This landmark action-puzzle game has been a worldwide fixture in video games from the moment of its inception through to the present day, producing many sequels and related products along the way.

The player controls the hero, or “Runner”, who collects gold nuggets located around every stage, all the while avoiding capture by relentless enemy robots. The action itself is simple, but the stages are designed as increasingly challenging puzzles and none of the 50 stages are as easy as they seem. The Runner avoids enemies by digging holes in the floor to the right and left of his position – by doing this, he can clear a path to places that, at first glance, seem unreachable. Players must use their brains to collect all the gold nuggets in every puzzling stage if they want to advance.

In addition to the regular play mode, this version of the game features an Edit Mode that allows players to design their own stages, adding a new level of enjoyment to the game.

As the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop are continually updated with exciting and refreshing games and applications, make sure you keep checking the Nintendo Channel, Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop for all the latest news and releases on already available and upcoming Virtual Console, WiiWare and Nintendo DSiWare titles.

Be sure to also check out Nintendo of Europe’s WiiWare portal, which functions as the main hub for the latest WiiWare news and game sites, while at the same time providing the perfect entry point for newcomers to the service. Weekly and all-time Top 10 lists show which WiiWare titles the UK Club Nintendo members are currently downloading most, and which are the most popular of all time.

The portal also provides step-by-step tutorials explaining how to connect the Wii console to the Internet and how to download WiiWare games, as well as a video showing how to use Nintendo Points. Visit www.wiiware.co.uk for all the details. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii’s internal memory or SD card and added to the console’s Wii Menu or SD Card Menu for anytime easy access.

GAME coming to PSN Home

GG Goblin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:17:04 +0000

UK video game retailer, GAME, appears to be making its way into the PS3 virtual world.

Sneaking onto their website is the announcement stating that GAME is coming to Home on 18th March 2010. Nothing else appears to be revealed at this time. Here is the link to their announcement – http://www.game.co.uk/lowdown.aspx?lid=13258&cm_sp=moonbase-_-topnav-_-game

Thanks to GeekMandem for the tip

CASUAL GAMER TO TROPHY COLLECTOR AND BACK AGAIN

Bazaboy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:37:21 +0000

A cautionary tale.

In this article I am going to discuss both my experience with gaming trophies, or achievements as Xbox owners know them, along with what I think the pro’s and con’s of these are in the gaming industry today. As I am a Playstation owner, I will be referring to them primarily throughout this piece as trophies. But in general I am talking about trophies and achievements in the world of gaming.

From the day I started gaming as a hobby, it has always been about having fun. Sure, there were times that I would get aggravated and angry at games, as any gamer out there knows, but to me this was and is part of the gaming experience. Despite this, gaming for myself and I am sure many others out there, has been about enjoying the games, having fun and relaxing. That is how it had been for many a year, even after I first became the owner of my Playstation 3.

Granted, at the time of purchasing the console, the trophy system had not yet been implemented on the machine and therefore it would be a few more months before my journey to trophy hell would begin. Up until that time, I spent many a relaxing evening marvelling at the stunning graphics of all the new games i was playing and enjoying. I had always wondered since purchasing the console why Sony had not included a similar system to the achievements on Microsoft’s console that I had read about. Surely with all multiplatform games having the goals for the achievements already set to unlock, a lot of the footwork was already done and it would just have been a case of Sony making the decision and implementing it. But nevertheless, we Playstation owners had to wait for a few more months before the trophy system arrived. When it eventually did, I initially looked on it as a novelty, something that might be cool to check out, earn a few trophies and add to the fun of the games by adding an extra challenge. In a way I was right but before long something horrible happened and I began my decent into the world of hardcore Playstation trophy collecting.

At first it was not a stipulation from Sony that games had to include trophies and was up to the developers themselves to decide as to whether they wished to include them with their games or not. This was, at a later date, to change and Sony would make it a requirement that all games must include trophies. One of the first games to be released which included the trophies was a PSN download game named Super Stardust HD. Although the game turned out to be a highly enjoyable game that I still play on occasion to this day, I will openly admit the initial reason I purchased and downloaded it was to check out the Playstation trophy system. It was not long before I heard that now familiar chime and saw that little box appear in the top right corner of the screen informing me for the first time that I had earned a trophy. This was the beginning of my downfall into the hunt for those virtual shiny things which had no intrinsic value whatsoever.

From that point on most titles released on the PSN store came with trophies included and, before long, whether a game in the store had trophies or not became the deciding factor as to whether or not I would buy the game. Sure I would still buy the games that I actually wanted to play but would always ask “does it have trophies?”, and from there on in it just got worse. Sony would soon make it compulsory that a games developer must include trophies in their work, both download and retail titles alike. Because of this, when it came to PSN downloads, I found myself buying games that I would not have even looked at beforehand, just so that I could earn the trophies. When it came to retail titles, I was still a bit more of a discerning customer and would still only pick up games I wanted to play. But once I had the game, be it a full title or a game downloaded, I would proceed to play it to death in order to earn all of the trophies in the game. This is where the problem arose.

I realized something was awry when two things occurred to me at around the same time. After building up quite a number of trophies and a double digit gamer level, I realized first of all that I was sitting playing a game that I didn’t really enjoy, solely to earn the trophies. That game was Noby Noby Boy. Yes, the game has a lot of fans, but I personally never understood the appeal and I was more or less bored with it before an hours worth of play. Secondly, I was beginning to look at playing games, even titles I had looked forward to playing for months, as a chore rather than a pleasure. I was playing them so much, just to get the trophies, that I started to realize I was sacrificing my enjoyment of the games. I was even, at times, teaming up with likeminded trophy collectors to boost in certain online games, in an attempt to make gaining certain trophies an easier task. With these two realizations, I came to the conclusion that this had to stop, or I would end up getting no joy whatsoever from the hobby that had kept me entertained for many a year.

Although I had built up quite a collection of trophies from various games, and I am proud of myself of earning a few of the tougher ones, I made my decision there and then that I would start playing games to enjoy them once more, instead of playing as a means to earning a trophy. From that point Noby Noby boy was deleted from my system, crazy game in my opinion. It had messed with my mind for the last time, with its crazy, stretchy body. Back to playing the games for the fun of it once more.

I know there are people out there who collect trophies more so than I did, as I have conversed with them in online communities set up solely for the purpose of chatting about in game trophies and achievements, and the best and easiest ways to earn them in the games. Some of the people in these communities would go so far as to play games which they themselves would agree were terrible, for the sole purpose of earning the trophies. Although I was never quite that bad, I did come close in a few cases, which I wont embarrass myself by mentioning here.

And so from that moment on I decided I would play the games I wanted to play, and I would play them for the enjoyment of it. I will not deny the fact that I still look at the trophy list when I get a new game and I still pause my game when I earn one to have a look and see what I did to earn it. I still get the same sense of achievement when I earn them and I do still set myself challenges to earn the trophies in a game. But it is no longer the be all and end all if I am unable to unlock each and every trophy in a game. A point in case being MAG, a game I have been playing and enjoying for the last month or so. I have checked out the list of trophies for the game, and what is required to earn them, and with some work I could earn each and every trophy. But the new me has chosen not to bother with them and spend the time I would have used working hard for the trophies actually playing and enjoying the game.

And this brings me to the question, do I think the trophies and achievements in these gaming machines actually add anything other than a shiny virtual trophy and bragging rights amongst your friends? The answer, in my opinion, is a definite yes. The inclusion of trophies adds a lot of replayability to games by adding further challenges and setting goals for players to achieve, extending the life of a game for a little longer. Of course the aforementioned bragging rights amongst your friends is always fun. So on the whole, the trophy and achievement systems on the consoles are a good thing. so long as you do not do as I did and become obsessed with earning them and losing sight of why you started playing video games, to have fun and be entertained. Use them to enhance your gameplay rather than rule your gameplay.

Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:07:22 +0000

Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

David Hollingsworth — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:56:00 +0000

The FPS. From Half–Life to Halo, we have killed waves of zombies and taken down an armies high ranks, who we thought were friends, but really were the enemy all along! Shocker.

So, its safe to say the FPS genre is both one of the best, and at the same time, one of the worst. But a name that is synonymous with this genre is the Battlefield series. From its early roots way back in 2002 with Battlefield 1942. However, Codename Eagle could be seen as the spiritual predecessor to the series. That was then, and we live in the now. Bad Company 2, sequel to 2008 console hit Bad Company, is a modern-day shooter from EA DICE. I went into this game expecting it to be good, DICE have yet to let me down, and after playing the Pc beta, I knew my faith would be rewarded come Friday March 5th.

Story

The Bad Company 2 story Follows four US army soldiers previously branded Bad Company, now known as Bravo 2. The player reprises their role as squad member Preston Marlow, as the squad battle through all types of terrain, so they can get their hands on a WMD before the Russians use it to disable the USA from within. I wont go into the story elements, but I will say that the game is a thrill ride. It takes inspiration from some of the best B rated action flicks. Over the top action, Unsurvivable odds, and in typical Bad Company fashion, some great squad humour(and a few MW 2 digs).

Bad Company 2 takes you all over the place. You will start in a time gone by. After that slight explanation of what is to come, you will fight in blistering cold, vast flat desserts, and lush jungles. The story in the game makes sense, it has some great set pieces. The story is told mainly through cinematics, as well as in-game scenes where you are able to move your characters head around. Some key dialog is also used in game, either during fights, or in the “dry” moments. It’s a solid story, but lets face it, you are playing this game for the set pieces and great gun play, not the BAFTA winning story.

Gameplay

The strongest aspect of Bad Company 2 is the most important, its gameplay. DICE clearly worked hard on the game. In essence, what you have is Bad Company but with a high level of polish. The shooting mechanics in the game are great, the guns have a very realistic feel. The recoil on the guns will force you to think about your shots and not just pray and spray. Not only that but all of the guns feel unique, in design and in the way they sound. The RPG packs a punch, from the noise it makes, to the kick back from the launcher. Sniper rifles also show their power, connecting with their target in break neck speed, and leaving a white trail from gun to the enemy. All of this realism is made better with gravity, something FPS games are finally starting to feature. Sniping, for example, takes a bit more skill in Bad Company, as you take into account distance and how much dip you need. This also yields rewards for mastering a certain gun.

Bad company’s Gameplay continues to impress when all of the features above transfer perfectly into the games stunning multiplayer. Be it the recon (sniper) calling in a mortar strike to rip apart any object, to the UAV, a small helicopter controlled from a desktop placed on the map. The UAV is a great tool for spotting enemy units and tanks and blowing their cover from under their feet. The game does a great job getting you into the thick of the action, allowing you to spawn on any squad member whom is alive, or at the designated spawn points. Spawning on a squad member would seem like a danger right? Well it can be when spawning on a sniper who has his back on the edge of a cliff (yes I did that to some one) but take a few seconds and the game will show you some in-game footage of the person you are looking to spawn onto, so you get an idea if the person is under fire, or in a safe spot.

Lets get down to the main feature of the Multiplayer, the maps and classes. Bad Company 2 features 4 classes. The standard assault who’s job is to not only be your teams main front line soldier, he also provides ammo for his team (and the enemy) with ammo boxes. The assault also features 3 gun attachments: the 40m Grenade, a long-range projected grenade launcher (or noobtube), the 40 m smoke grenade launcher, and a deadly close range shot gun attachment, along with an array of guns from the Burst to fully automatic assault rifles. Next up is the medic. A rather self explanatory role, the medic can both heal and revive his team. But don’t underestimate him in combat, as the medic packs a wide variety of light machine guns, making him a great mix and probably the best class for newcomers. The recon is the games sniper or “hacker”, as they get known quickly online. Hey, if I can’t see you, how can you see me, right? The recon comes with the standard fare of slow but deadly long-range rifles, and some fast but lower damage auto snipers. But its all the gadgets the recon gets that makes him deadly. Once unlocked you are given the choice of either the C4, ideal for blowing up tanks and objectives, or the deadly Mortar. The sniper is not all out for himself however, any good sniper will use his long-range to take advantage of the games “spot” feature where, by pressing a button, you are able to show your team mates where any enemy is on the map, who is in your sights. Last but not least is the engineer, who’s main role is to destroy enemy tanks and vehicles while also repairing his own. But with an array of sub machine guns at his disposal he is tough to beat in close range.

But this is BattleField, not Call of Duty, so there are vehicles, and a lot of them. Simply you have 3 types. Transport, Tanks and Helicopters. Transport features two-seater Jet skies and Quad Bikes, to 5 man armoured cars. All of these serve one purpose, to get you into combat and into the enemies lines fast. Next up are the tanks, from the M1A2 Battle Tank to the M3A3 light tank. They all serve a purpose, be it blowing holes in buildings, or tanking out multiple enemies with a machine gun like main gun. Then we come to the air vehicles. Sadly Bad Company 2 is without AirCraft, which is a notable omission from previous battlefield games. But we still have choppers right? Yes we do, and some fine ones at that. You have the standard personnel carrier helicopters, but the best of the bunch has to be the apache, with its deadly main gun it can take out any heavy vehicle on the ground, and with its second gunner having the equally deadly machine gun rounds, it can kill countless ground units.

Lastly we come to the maps. The game features 8 maps (10 if you’re a VIP) across 4 games modes. In Rush, akin to Counter Strike, your team races against diminishing reinforcements to destroy the two enemy positions, marked A and B. The objective is to reach the defending teams last site before you run out of reinforcements. The defending teams job is to hold you off until you run out. Conquest is the Battlefield staple game mode. Its been there since the first game and it’s a great inclusion on Bad Company 2. The idea is capture the flag. You must take the points marked A through D (depending on the map) reducing the enemy teams resource count to zero before they do the same to you. Then we have Squad Rush, it’s the same as standard Rush, but 4 v 4. Lastly is Squad Deathmatch, which pits 4 squads of 4 against each other until one teams hits the score limit. All teams spawn at random points and each map features a vehicle, giving teams a choice of either fighting to the vehicle and taking it, or sitting back and using it as bait. You will find yourself fighting on the same maps in the game modes, however the maps have been tweaked with each game mode in mind.

Graphics

Destruction 2.0 was one of the main features of Bad Company 2. In the first game we could destroy most parts of a building, but it would stay standing. In this game, most if not all buildings with multiple floors can be brought to the ground. This is both a major graphical improvement, and a huge gameplay innovation, as ruble can be great cover for a recon. It also plays a part in terrain, causing massive road bumps that make driving a tank or quad bike a living hell. Destruction 2.0 is also visable in more subtle ways, like how you can break someones cover, such as a fence or stone wall, but rather than just destroying it, you can chip away at it. You also notice if you hit a vehicle in certain spots, you can make bits fall off, be it a door, or the smoke launchers on a tank. All in all, its a great update to an awesome feature of the frostbite engine.

Destruction 2.0 is only one part of the beauty of this game. The visuals are stunning. Ok, it’s no Crysis. But this game features some of the best lighting during its Jungle areas I have seen in any game to date, allowing the lights to fall softly through the trees, and beam onto the ground with out blinding you with light. Sound plays a huge part in the over all presentation of this game, and DICE have nailed it. From the sound of bullets flying over your head, to the popping sound when a tank shell misses you by a matter of feet, the guys at the DICE sound department really do deserve a round of applause for this master piece of audio. I could talk about the visuals forever, but I have to end this review some time, it is simply one of the best looking games for a while, and it might end up being the best looking game of the year.

Bad Company 2 is easily my FPS of choice. That is not an easy feat when you take into account it took Left 4 Dead to pull me away from Counter Strike, and for Bad Company 2 to grab me in such as way, is a great achievement. I am glad it did so. I can see myself playing for months maybe years to come. With around 6 months of DLC in the form of maps and game modes planned, it will easily keep up with Call Of Duty. It proves, yet again, that the Battlefield series is here for the long run.

★★★★★★★★★★

This review was written by David Hollingsworth, editor of GeekMandem

Vote For Conan O’Brien Tee

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:59:37 +0000

You may or may not have heard of Conan O’Brien he’s a television presenter in the USA, and has been in the headlines a lot after he exited his show. He’s been having a little rough just lately, I feel sorry for the man as I’ve been an avid viewer for some time.

The old “Tonight Show” host, Jay Leno, may have taken back the show he bequeathed to Conan O’Brien after a miserably failed attempt at a prime-time show, but O’Brien will not let that stop him.

Barred from appearing on TV before September 1, 2010 as part of his $45 million exit package, O’Brien decided to take his act on the road on a 30-city theater tour in about 20 states in the U.S. and two Canadian provinces. If you’re a fan, how about one of these cool tees. They need to be voted on in order to go into production.

Colony Defence

CRayDancer — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:37:57 +0000

You either love tower defense games or you hate them. If you fall into the former category, you’ll enjoy placing your units; upgrading them with new powers and abilities; and constantly experimenting with the best placements to put a stop to the advancing hordes of zombies / soldiers / chickens / etc.

If you’re in the latter camp, you’ll likely tire of the repetitive gameplay of these kind of games, which – after your defenses have been placed – often boils down to you doing little more than watching attacks being repelled whilst tweaking things here and there in an effort to stay awake.

Mana Bomb Games recognise this and seeks to add a little more spice to this often bland path with Colony Defense. Here, the levels are set on three-dimensional, fully rotatable planets. These are criss-crossed with trenches and home to one or more bases you must defend. Alien forces land and march relentlessly along the paths, which you must line with cannons, guns and other weaponry in an attempt to stop them reaching their targets.

So far, so normal. However, the third dimension adds a considerable amount of challenge to this familiar scenario. Here, half the action is permanently obscured at any one time, meaning you must constantly spin the planet to find out what’s happening on its ‘dark side’. This can also see you fall into the trap of laying down impenetrable defenses on one part of the globe’s surface, only to leave the path wide open on another. Colony Defense keeps you on your toes throughout and this gameplay twist stops it from feeling stale.

Talking of which however, the game’s scenario is a little uninspiring, featuring cookie-cutter aliens & weapons, on planets that look a little too barren to be of much visual interest. Once the action starts however, you’ll have so much vying for your attention you’ll hardly notice.

As with most games of this genre, you earn credits for each enemy destroyed and can use these to upgrade your units: increasing their power, range of fire and overall effectiveness. In another interesting twist of convention, if you overuse one particular type of weapon, the invading forces will build up a resistance to it, meaning you often have to frantically switch tactics, sell units and make use of other tools in your arsenal in order to succeed.

As the levels progress, you gain access to a wider variety of stronger weapons, and in between levels you’ll have the ability to spend points to make all your units more powerful in some particular way. This adds to the lastability of the title, making you want to finish a level so you can increase your firepower and effectiveness against the next inevitable onslaught.

Colony Defense is a hard game, and you may find it frustratingly so at times. However, finally beating a tricky level after several failed attempts is very satisfying; and Mana Bomb Games are to be commended for taking the tired tower defense genre and literally putting a spin on it.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

This game was provided for review by GamersGate

Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor heart

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:32:52 +0000

With the new Iron Man 2 movie and video game just around the corner, a variety of bits and bobs with an Iron Man theme are appearing.

Take, for instance this full-sized replica of Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor heart. It’s a perfect recreation of the original design from Stan Winston Studios, and even lights up just like in the movie. The prop is made from aluminum and stainless steel.

Jump over to Think Geek for more details and where you can purchase the Tony Stark Heart reactor for $149.00. I’m looking forward to the movie and game, are you?!.

Greed Corp

GG Goblin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:23:18 +0000

Welcome to a turn-based strategy game with an ever diminishing battlefield.

Greed Corp, developed by W! Games and available on XBLA and PSN, is the first game in a series that are to be set in their very own MistBound Universe. There are four different armies available in this turn based strategy offering, each one offering a slightly different perspective on this game world. I am sure that these perspectives will be built upon in the future games, but for the purposes of this game there is really not that much between the four armies.

The game is played across a map consisting of hexagonal tiles, by up to four armies, with a decent campaign available in single player, alongside an interesting multiplayer mode. Players will first be offered a tutorial to work through, explaining the basics of the game. Whilst adequately showing the player how to play this game, the tutorial does nothing to explain the intricate tactics that will be needed to actually win. This will, as a result, leave players with a rather steep learning curve through the first few missions of the campaign. Players jumping straight into multiplayer should expect to have their backsides handed to them on a plate.

There is not much to learn so far as the basics are concerned. Players need resources to buy equipment. This is handled by Harvesters. They are cheap to buy and will provide the means to buy other necessities. Armouries can be built to create your troops, or walkers, as they are known. The player can have up to 16 walkers on any one hex. Cannons are the games only artillery, allowing players to attack hexagons from a distance. Shells for your cannons have to be bought individually, and are quite pricey. Carriers are used to simply transport your troops to other positions on the field.

Here is where the fun stuff starts. By placing a Harvester on a hex, the player starts gathering resources from that, and surrounding, tiles. However, each turn that your Harvester does its job, the tile it is on will be damaged and will eventually crumble and fall away. The six surrounding tiles will also be damaged. This opens up some very interesting tactical choices, which can be hard to grasp in the beginning. Harvest too quickly, in order to build a quick military supremacy, and the player will find themselves defending a single hex, cut off from the other armies. However, harvest too slowly and you risk being overrun.

In the early turns, which are limited to one minute each, the player can make great advances using Walkers to capture tiles and advance on the enemy. Combat is fairly simple and just involves moving more Walkers onto a tile than your enemy has on said tile. No complicated statistics needed, and no lucky dice rolls. This game is all down to skill.

However, as the tiles fall away and the battlefield diminishes, the Cannons and Carriers become far more important. In the first few games I found myself marooned on a single tile, with no way of reaching my enemy, whilst they slowly, with what I imagine to be a smug look on their faces, pounded my hex with cannon fire until the battle was lost.

I recommend that players work through a fair chunk of the single player campaign before tackling the multiplayer game. Up to four players can compete, either online or locally, with unmanned armies being controlled by the AI. Then the fun begins. Playing against other human players opens a whole new level of strategy and will lead to some seriously well fought battles.

W! Games have created an interesting twist on the turn-based strategy game. What starts out looking like a reasonably simple game, soon shows itself to be a deep, frustrating, yet incredibly fun title.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:13:41 +0000

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse [PC, Mac, PS3]

Fable III

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:07:59 +0000

Returning to Albion for the third time we show you the latest screenshots from the incredible Fable 3 game which were displayed at GDC this year.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:50:12 +0000

Freelance Police Sam & Max are coming for a new series of monthly episodic games. Telltale Games’ Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse premiere episode The Penal Zone will release April 15th. This series will be Telltale’s first for the PlayStation Network, exclusively for the PlayStation3 .

As Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse opens, Max has been bestowed with a set of powerful psychic abilities from an unusual ancient source that he’ll wield against the strongest and strangest foes the Freelance Police have ever faced. Join gaming’s greatest dog and rabbit sleuths as they investigate the source of these powers, with manic Max exercising new and amazing abilities with each episode.

Max’s shape shifting, teleportation, mind reading and future sight powers prove particularly useful as intergalactic simians, eldritch gods, under-dwellers and an arcane scholar ruthlessly hunt down these powers for their own evil ends. The games will also release on PC and Macintosh. Here’s some screenshots and concept art.

Here is a selection of concept art from the various characters in Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse.

Master Chief Ski Mask

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:00:20 +0000

Fancy wearing something a little bit different on your head?

Are you into robbing banks?. Here’s a really cool Master Chief Ski Mask. I think it’s really cool that an avid fan from deviant art made this. Although you may look pretty funny walking down the head in this.

Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker Gameplay Video

TurtleGirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:37:27 +0000

Metal Gear Solid have released the first video of the gameplay of the actual game in Japan on the PSP.

Unfortunately it’s all in Japanese so I’m unable to translate back for you, but you get the general idea.