tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18249888933495057372024-02-27T02:15:05.090+05:30My Game Bloginterested in games? Take a break and read the latest games or reviews.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-90092462893188482882015-04-18T14:33:00.001+05:302015-04-18T14:36:06.790+05:30FIFA 15 Vs PES 15 - The Ultimate Next Gen Edition.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We are halfway into the release of Electronic Arts and Konami's Football Simulation titles FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer 2015.<br />
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We as usual thought that FIFA might destroy, run over, and tear PES to pieces, Especially seeing how games had made a giant leap in graphics to the "New Gen Consoles", The Reality did not suit our wild fantasies. PES came through, sticking to basics, improving graphics, focusing on player faces, and improving the Champions League Game Mode. FIFA on the other hand, introduced new stadiums, made digital signboards for advertisements on the sideline, made commentary a little intelligent by wishing you a "MEERRRYYY CHRRISTMAASS" On Christmas, improved player faces, and brought in the Barclays Premier League Game Day Interface. But, what happened to the game play part of it? Nothing much I'm sad to say.<br />
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So lets put the games to the test, lets see where they lack and where they succeed.<br />
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From The Basics:-<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PLAYER FACES </b></span><b>-</b></span><br />
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Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery, On FIFA 15, Looks like his face has been washed up pretty nicely, It really looks like In-Game, Ribery uses detergent to wash his face, And uses a scale to shave his beard to symmetrical perfection. On PES 15, You can actually see (Just For Expressing) the many imperfections that make Ribery's face look like Ribery, If you catch my drift. You can clearly see his scar on the left and the wrinkles and the brownish tan he has on his cheeks, the detailing on it is just perfect. Which actually makes you feel that you are playing with him.<br />
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But it's Bayern, you say. You say that since they are the poster team of PES 15, They will obviously get them perfect. OK. You Gotta Point, So lets check out the main man on FIFA 15, Lionel Messi.<br />
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Same here, Even with big Techy names such as Player Face Recognition System, EA Loses out on the detail.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict- PES WINS</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>SERVERS -</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Do i need to say anything here? Anyone who has played FIFA, Knows the server issues to death, Literally.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">PES does not disconnect in between matches, makes you lose out on online season points. PES does not even have so many maintenance shut downs to make the servers alright as FIFA does. PES LOLS at you FIFA.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict- PES WINS</b></span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Game Modes - </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">As much as PES has a MyTeam mode, and the FRICKIN' CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. The lack of English clubs, unfortunately makes it less authentic. Sometimes money wins. FIFA with their licenses unfotunately win out this one. FIFA has Ultimate Team, which I am addicted to. A cool manager manager mode. Online Seasons, My Pro, Pro Clubs. But,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Packs On Ultimate Team are close to worthless, getting 82 rated players or less is not that great. Luis Suarez 87 is the highest rated player i have packed on FIFA 14. On 15, I Have 85 Karim Benzema. (Untradeable) at that, (Nice Play FIFA). Adding to further complications, the Price Ranges have Enraged the FIFA community into quitting FIFA altogether. Packs or Balls on PES Are sick, they actually give out good players.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">But Still FIFA will Remain FIFA.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Manager Mode could be made more authentic:-</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Fifa 16, maybe they could add a pre match session where they talk about the match, instead of the usual training stuff, that would make for a nice tense build up to the match. Take a few tips off NBA2K15, EA.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> <span style="font-size: large;">Verdict- FIFA Wins.</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">These Are Just My Views. PES was the better game this time. What do you think?</span></span><b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-21834710429839438962012-07-28T17:35:00.000+05:302012-12-08T09:16:07.957+05:30E3 2012- The Goods And Bads<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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E3 Has Finally Ended With Lots Of Shocks And Excitement, As Game Publishers Like Sony And Ubisoft Have Now Come Out With Their Sequels To Their Previous Successful Previous Franchises. Publishers With Big Expectations Like EA Have Failed To Deliver SO Here Are The Games That Were The Biggest Successes And Failiures Of E3:
Sony:We Wanted God Of War, We Got God Of War Sony In Reply To Assassins Creed 3, Took Out God Of War:Ascension, Yes I Know What You Are Thinking,Its Not The God Of War 4 Its A Part Of The God Of War Series..Sad????Think Again....God Of War Has MULTIPLAYER!!!! Haha What More Could We Want!!!!!
PlayStation Battle Royale Is A Fighting Game That Contains Characters From Various Games Fighting On One Stage. Kratos, Big Daddy, Sly Cooper, Nathan Drake And Many More Characters..
Ubisoft: Assassins Creed. 1000 Words Expressed in Two, Being Set In Medieval England. You Have Again Got The Slash And Dash Adrenaline With Maybe Impressive Enemies To Face This Time Around.
Electronic Arts: One Word, Disappointment, Ea Continued Its Need For Speed Franchise With Taking Out A Sequel Of Most Wanted, We All Know That Most Wanted Was The Starting Success Of The Need For Speed Franchise, But This Time Criterion Games Has Put In Their Burnout Graphics Of Crashing Cars Which Actually Makes The Gameplay More Exciting But The Question Is, Is This Burnout Or Need For Speed.
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Nintendo Released A New Gamepad But The Games For The Gamepad Have Not been Decided Already Having The Hype Of Pokemon Black 2 And White 2 Nintendo Might Have Let Us Down</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-20981216688952225032011-05-23T23:42:00.004+05:302011-05-31T09:51:48.031+05:30PlayStation Network going to get fully restored soon?OK, So its the D-day for Sony because today is the 31st of may. So in literally maybe 6 or 7 hours we maybe getting the PlayStation Network back fully restored,PS Store included....(HOPES!). There's also going to be a "Welcome Back" program in compensation for the 4 week down service, so you ask, Will Call Of Duty gamers or any other network using gamers like Little Big Planet 2, BE HAPPY of the complementary services, well its entirely for you to decide. The Welcome Back program will give 5 games in the PS3 and 4 games in the PSP from which we get to keep 2 games 'FOREVER' so the rumor says.(I am lucky because i have both the devices). There is a free rental program on movies which may come on the weekends, 30 days free PlayStation Plus Subscription and 60 days for existing accounts. More in that, over 100 virtual items will be given away for free. All right, so here are the lucky games that got the free spot...-<br /><br />PS3-<br />1. LittleBigPlanet<br />2. InFamous<br />3. Wipeout + Fury expansion<br />4. Dead Nation<br />5. Ratchet and Clank Quest for Booty<br /><br />and PSP-<br />1. LittleBigPlanet PSP<br />2. ModNation Racers PSP<br />3. Pursuit Force<br />4. Killzone Liberation<br /><br />This was the total free services you'll get for the next 30 days and make the most of it. write comments on how you feelUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-31159528628962211442009-08-01T08:37:00.004+05:302009-08-01T08:56:07.529+05:30Review- Burnout Paradise PC<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvD5_iXGSAd0lkibUFhilR7FfjH36vkNQouI_k-0YEdxrwf7W_AIAfUt2JcKcQAevAG2QVUvGD-HvQBkBGN4va6VMMkVo9girHjnR77bwKvmNaHCaYsEDytk2yz1gn4afC-04Kahd_cgtY/s1600-h/burnout-paradise-2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvD5_iXGSAd0lkibUFhilR7FfjH36vkNQouI_k-0YEdxrwf7W_AIAfUt2JcKcQAevAG2QVUvGD-HvQBkBGN4va6VMMkVo9girHjnR77bwKvmNaHCaYsEDytk2yz1gn4afC-04Kahd_cgtY/s320/burnout-paradise-2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364828667526349650" /></a><br /><br />Burnout Paradise reinvigorated Criterion's ultra-successful smash-up racing series when it launched this time last year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box brings the series' trademark racing action to the PC for the first time. With solid online and offline play, an almost staggering number of events, and more than 70 vehicles, Ultimate Box is at the front of the PC racer pack.<br /><br />The amount of variety in the game is huge, and how you approach it is up to you; explore Paradise City's open world at leisure, unlock the 70-plus vehicles one at a time through single-player events, or join other players for races and challenges online. Couple this deep variety with the fact that it's hugely fun, and Burnout Paradise is easy to recommend. In addition to all of the content from the original console game, Ultimate Box also includes all of Burnout Paradise's downloadable content released to date. First up, there's Codename: Cagney, which adds the Stunt Run, Marked Man, and Road Rage modes to online multiplayer. The Bikes pack adds two-wheeled racing and a day/night cycle to the series for the first time. And last, there's Burnout Party, the first paid-for content to hit the game. Burnout Party is a pass-the-controller-style offline party mode for two to eight players and is a fun new way to experience Burnout. <br /><br />Gameplay options are largely unchanged from the console version and include normal race, Stunt Run, Marked Man, Road Rage, and Burning Route. For those new to the Burnout series, in Stunt Run you chain together drifts, jumps, and boosts to achieve combos; in Road Rage events you need to eliminate opponents by smashing them into traffic or objects; and in Marked Man you have to reach the finish line before your opponents can destroy your car. Burning Route consists of time trials from point to point, and by completing them you'll unlock an upgraded model of your current ride. Unlike in Burnout 3, The crash mode and aftertouch takedowns from Burnout 3 are missing from Paradise, but it does have the Showtime mode, which lets you take control of a wreck through the streets of Paradise City and rack up a damage bill in the process. Showtime mode isn't as strategically crafted as the challenges in Crash mode, but you'll still get to dish out plenty of carnage on unsuspecting traffic.<br /><br />The biggest new feature this time around is the Burnout Paradise Party Pack, which adds an offline pass-the-controller multiplayer challenge mode for up to eight friends. Once you've set up the number of players and game types, you'll compete in a series of minigames where you earn points for successfully passing a challenge or beating your opponents' scores. The Party Pack offers instant gameplay for when you and your friends don't want to compete in longer, more demanding events, and it consists of three challenge types: stunts, skill, and speed. Stunts are a collection of insane tricks, such as successfully landing a cliff-top jump. Skill challenges include driving into oncoming traffic with boost on for as long as possible. Speed challenges might have you smashing a few billboards and then racing back to the start within a designated time limit. The Party Pack is a great addition that finally brings offline multiplayer to Burnout Paradise.<br /><br />Some challenges involve nothing more than reaching seemingly inaccessible areas.<br /><br />Getting online is as simple as hitting a button during gameplay, at which point you'll join your friends or enter a random lobby. The online mode is seamless, and there are no loading times; you can drop in and out of online games at will. You can set up simple point-to-point races all over the city when hosting a multiplayer session, or tackle a Freeburn Challenge set by the developers, with different challenges depending on the number of players. Burnout Paradise included 350 challenges, and there are now an additional 140 challenges with the new packs. The challenge types are varied and include straight races, beat-the-clock events, jumping over other players' rides, and other more-complex multipart challenges, such as meeting at a designated place and racing a route to an end point while hitting specific jumps along the way. Challenges are a lot of fun, especially when you have a large group of friends to play with, and they give the online play a lot of longevity.<br /><br />You'll spend the majority of your time in Paradise City on four wheels, but there's an option to use just two. Bikes are a great addition to the game; and while you can only compete in time trial events, there are different events for daytime and nighttime. Bikes come without boost since they're already blisteringly fast, and they won't take damage either. All of the bikes are extremely light and nimble and are so fast that they almost make the cars feel a tad sluggish by comparison. While it would have been great to see damage modelling on the bikes, and more bikes included, you're guaranteed to have a blast with the two bikes at the start and the two upgraded models you can unlock after completing all of the time trials.<br /><br />Visually, the PC version is even more of a sumptuous feast than its console brethren. Running at its highest resolution, Paradise City has never looked crisper or more vibrant. Cars smash, pop, scrape, and deform just as you'd expect, and the particle effects make the wanton destruction seem real. The weather effects brought in with the Bikes pack look great, with fog, glowing nighttime neon, and the half-light of dusk all rendered with style.<br /><br />It wouldn't be Burnout if the wrecks weren't superbly detailed and satisfying.<br /><br />The audio is also top-notch, with traffic and ambient noises providing a backdrop for the high-pitched whines and throaty growls of the game's cars and bikes. Unfortunately, DJ Atomica is back again from Burnout 3 and is still an irritation for the most part. With its bland and generic rock soundtrack, the audio certainly doesn't live up to the high standards set by the visuals. While there are a few notable artists, including Guns N' Roses (providing the game's title track), Jane's Addiction, LCD Soundsystem, and Faith No More, these are outnumbered by the generic guitar rock and electronic tracks from past Burnout games and tracks from a number of less-illustrious artists.<br /><br />Emerging a year after the original console release, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box doesn't just manage to keep up with the pace of the competition; it's at the front of the pack. If you own one of the console versions and already have the DLC packs, there's no major benefit to upgrading, but if you're new to Burnout Paradise, The Ultimate Box is the best Burnout experience to date. With a mass of online and offline events and modes, dozens of cars, the addition of bike and night races, and an all-new party mode for up to eight friends, The Ultimate Box is instantly gratifying and long-lasting high-octane entertainment.<br /><br />source- www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/burnout5/index.htmlUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-12020144771567660702009-05-05T12:54:00.003+05:302009-05-05T13:09:40.184+05:30Review : Need for Speed ProStreet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77hnpgb3SS2HkRijRS9-8WF6lwXag-i1Mx4m1GdzC47JIUwBe-WZDdAskBZgpM9ueKu6_jWU_tz_bpGVmscugFLjoqdT3kzgL65QZuh_YZB4QLRQ7NWeLEDSBqUUz-dV_G5eoI3wj-pEY/s1600-h/Need-For-Speed-Pro-Street-System-Req.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77hnpgb3SS2HkRijRS9-8WF6lwXag-i1Mx4m1GdzC47JIUwBe-WZDdAskBZgpM9ueKu6_jWU_tz_bpGVmscugFLjoqdT3kzgL65QZuh_YZB4QLRQ7NWeLEDSBqUUz-dV_G5eoI3wj-pEY/s320/Need-For-Speed-Pro-Street-System-Req.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332240488641738466" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />EA's Need for Speed series has long been an ever-evolving franchise, one that changes up its focus, mechanics and style every couple of years. Though the game sells incredibly well, the developer/publisher doesn't like to sit still. This obviously means that the series has had its ups and downs, and unfortunately Need for Speed ProStreet isn't one of the ups.<br /><br />ProStreet is a game that doesn't really seem to know what it's trying to be. It's been years since we've seen a Need for Speed title that focused solely on track racing, with the franchise branching out into open world settings with a story, cop chases and all sorts of other things to make it stand out. ProStreet, however, goes back to the track-based racing, putting the player into race after race on closed circuits, and then sending them back to a menu after each race is over.<br /><br />This setup is perfectly fine and, in this case, does work well to some extent, but there's not really a whole lot of extra "stuff" outside of the races that makes it seem like Black Box had a good idea of exactly what it was trying to accomplish. Yes, the fundamentals are there and the setup does work well, but the bulk of the presentation doesn't feel all that robust, especially when compared to what we've seen in recent years.<br /><br />As well, the control scheme and arcade vs. sim aspects feel a bit confused. ProStreet adds a ton of great customization options to the franchise, which we'll get to in a bit, but the driving physics are anything but realistic. They're an odd in-between of the two and wind up in some place that really just does not work very well at all. The series has generally had strong racing controls, but those were somehow lost in the latest game.<br /><br />Most of the cars in the game feel like caricatures of their real-life counterparts, but not in a good way. Most every vehicle drives like a boat and feels very reluctant to want to turn at all. Even vehicles in hardcore driving sims like Gran Turismo turn with much greater ease than most any of the vehicles found here, and yet the game isn't even trying to be ultra-realistic.<br /><br />A few of us around the office drive some of the cars that you'll find in the game, like a 2007 Civic Si (which is identical to the '06 in the game) and a 2006 Pontiac GTO, and none of them handle anything like the real deal. ProStreet's version of the GTO barely turns at anything above 30mph, and doesn't really instill any sense of its 400hp engine. The real Civic Si is a nimble little car, but ProStreet's Si feels very top-heavy and slides around corners like they're covered with ice.<br /><br /><br /><br />And though we don't drive every car in the game, it's clear that most of them, if not all, do not drive like what we would expect from the real thing. It's sad, too, because this one, huge fault brings down a game that would otherwise be fairly solid.<br /><br />Though there's not a lot of pizzazz and whatnot to it as we mentioned before, the Race Day progression does offer up a nice assortment of race events for you to partake in. Each Race Day features a handful of events -- be they grip races, drag races, sector challenges or what have you -- and pretty much all of them are good fun.<br /><br />Drag races start out with a mini-game where you heat up your tires before heading to the line, and then it's all about timing your shifts, using your nitrous at the right time and keeping your car in a straight line, which can be tricky when you get to the really fast cars. The tire heating mini-game can get a little old, especially since each drag race event has three runs, so you'll play the game three times in the span of a couple minutes, but it's fun to try and shave a couple hundredths of a second off your time by getting a perfect start.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-75626426272551557052009-02-07T21:03:00.002+05:302009-02-07T21:11:09.897+05:30Review, Counterstrike Half-life 2<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsIy6w124G0Pczz6S02GLaoI7Cz_DWQjdEHwHr4Z9AacYRAarKOob4spxBBL7gCkWj4Lza_TA-JiF7j9dfpij2X3pHCnJbtHjFAz8A4gmulHuwK30Hs0WYfULEPlNpL3XkmsYWV1SwRwi5/s1600-h/images.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 92px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsIy6w124G0Pczz6S02GLaoI7Cz_DWQjdEHwHr4Z9AacYRAarKOob4spxBBL7gCkWj4Lza_TA-JiF7j9dfpij2X3pHCnJbtHjFAz8A4gmulHuwK30Hs0WYfULEPlNpL3XkmsYWV1SwRwi5/s320/images.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300080941563932194" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />It's hard to believe that, prior to Half-Life 2, Valve had really made only one game. Of course, it was a masterpiece. Half-Life single-handedly reinvented the first-person shooter, putting the emphasis on cinematic pacing and complete immersion in the experience. As a result, it paved the way for many of the outstanding first-person shooters that have followed. And while there was little question that there would eventually be a sequel, no one could have imagined the long and torturous development process that led to Half-Life 2. Well, it's time to forget about that, because Half-Life 2 has arrived. And, in many ways, this big-budget sequel does what it sets out to do: Half-Life 2 is a technically amazing, sharply honed first-person shooter that pulls all the tricks that made Half-Life such a beloved experience. With that said, many of those tricks feel more than a bit familiar now, and the game itself is saddled with a disappointing story. Still, that doesn't stop Half-Life 2 from being a very impressive and engaging shooter, and a faithful follow-up to one of the greatest PC games of all time.<br /><br />It's time for you to once again take up your submachine gun and take out all the foes threatening humanity.<br /><br />In Half-Life 2, you once again assume the role of Gordon Freeman, the theoretical physicist and dimension-hopping commando who saved the world from an alien invasion at the end of Half-Life. Or did he? Half-Life 2 starts you off facing the infamous G-Man, the mysterious blue-suited character from the first game. At the end of Half-Life, the G-Man offered you a choice: work for him or die. Since there would be no sequel if you chose the latter, Half-Life 2 assumes you chose the former, and you start the game in a train entering City 17 for your introduction into this new world.<br /><br />City 17 is a run-down urban center that's the equivalent of the Warsaw ghettos during World War II, but instead of Jews being rounded up to live in City 17, it's all the remnants of a defeated humanity. Half-Life 2 takes place an untold number of years after the Black Mesa incident, but it's clear that much has changed. A mysterious enemy known as the Combine has conquered the planet and installed a human puppet government to carry out its rule. Black-clad security forces patrol the streets, while propaganda blares endlessly from omnipresent video screens. If there's one thing that Valve does extremely well, it's capture a sense of atmosphere--this vision of a dystopian police state is chillingly effective. But you won't spend a lot of time soaking in the scene before you're thrust into the struggle to defeat the Combine and free humanity.<br /><br />As soon as the shooting begins you'll join an essentially nonstop battle that will last the remainder of the game. Like the original Half-Life, Half-Life 2 is presented as a nearly seamless experience--you play entirely from Gordon Freeman's perspective, there are no cutscenes or perspective changes to take you out of the moment, and are there no narrative jumps that skip ahead in time. (At least, there are none from your perspective.) There also aren't very many long loading times to interrupt the flow of the game, as all the levels are discreetly broken into sections, and when you transition from one section to another, there's only a slight pause for the new section to load (at least, on a high-end PC). Put it all together and the game's single-player campaign, which will probably take you between 15 and 20 hours to complete, comes off as a very long day in the extraordinary life of Gordon Freeman.<br /><br />In case of alien invasion, find Gordon Freeman and break glass.<br /><br />The original Half-Life was highly cinematic in nature, the virtual equivalent of starring in your own blockbuster sci-fi action movie. Who could ever forget the first time a headcrab leapt out at you from a dark corner? Or the moment when the commando tossed a satchel charge into the sewer pipe you were hiding in? The movie analogy is apt, not only because Half-Life 2 packs a few cinematic moments of its own, but also because, like most movie sequels, it plays it safe and doesn't deviate much from its storied predecessor. Half-Life 2 doesn't revolutionize the genre, instead sticking with the familiar formula of run-and-gun action, occasional puzzle-solving, and scripted sequences established by Half-Life. And it's an effective formula, for the most part. The game gets off to a rousing start, as the opening levels combine these three ingredients masterfully. You start off on the lam from the Combine, armed with only a pistol and your wits, and embark on a chase through a train yard and tunnel system that's filled with all sorts of hairbreadth escapes. The sense of pursuit hurtles you forward so quickly that you don't have much time to admire the cutting-edge graphical prowess on display.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-32635541256562483952008-12-27T08:55:00.006+05:302008-12-27T09:42:35.695+05:30Dragon Ball Z burst limit review<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitobgPz2KvcLKVtaiHCr0sJ0G0yl3aw0CjeN290pFNY3wv577yewMd0zPdYy-zd_KqQTOe-bQzKnDWpEFcllWs8FjBYfiBrd14FEisf-KFC32n6MjorP-IlfoLE-oZcYz5dUcVSM00_aRV/s1600-h/dragon-ball-z-burst-limit-20080609040339469-000.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitobgPz2KvcLKVtaiHCr0sJ0G0yl3aw0CjeN290pFNY3wv577yewMd0zPdYy-zd_KqQTOe-bQzKnDWpEFcllWs8FjBYfiBrd14FEisf-KFC32n6MjorP-IlfoLE-oZcYz5dUcVSM00_aRV/s320/dragon-ball-z-burst-limit-20080609040339469-000.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284316427248463042" /></a><br /><br />DBZ is back again, this time making its debut on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. With fighting mechanics that are both accessible and deep, a good assortment of characters to choose from, famed battles from the Z Chronicles to fight and even online play, there's a lot here that fans of the franchise will find to devour.<br /><br />Burst Limit is a fan's game, at least as far as the story presentation goes. By this I mean that there's virtually no exposition of any sort to set up the events of what's happening, and unless you know what the bigger story in any of the covered sagas happens to be, then the "story" that you're presented with looks to be little more than a series of fights strung back-to-back.<br /><br />It's rather disappointing in this respect in that a game like this could do well to draw new fans to the franchise, even outside of gaming, but what's happening is too confusing to non-DBZ fans that you can't actually get attached to any of the characters, or even know who they are or what they're about. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXY11it9Fhms9pqkezSeMAFp_jDOtQgHJU0Vg85FI-VOpeoku6i_R4R6CQ1VVozh2gENqwxccH7aVvWD_aK1f2JXyBFrS-JpGkVnDhmeMCoWiO59irfowT4hgJHuKwwhjsZBDmEUvac5uM/s1600-h/dragon-ball-z-burst-limit.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 278px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXY11it9Fhms9pqkezSeMAFp_jDOtQgHJU0Vg85FI-VOpeoku6i_R4R6CQ1VVozh2gENqwxccH7aVvWD_aK1f2JXyBFrS-JpGkVnDhmeMCoWiO59irfowT4hgJHuKwwhjsZBDmEUvac5uM/s320/dragon-ball-z-burst-limit.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284316225220509634" /></a><br /><br />Still, the storyline isn't the game's focus, and fortunately the combat can be quite rewarding. As mentioned, the control scheme is set up simply enough that you can jump in and be successful early on by using only the face buttons to perform fast or strong attacks, block and use Ki powers. Most all of your moves are quick and simple in nature, which means that you won't have to master the timing or subtleties of pulling off complex attacks.<br /><br />However, while your basic attacks are simple, there are a number of advanced moves that allow you to dig in and master the game's mechanics. For instance, if you time a block/dodge against a ranged attack correctly, you can teleport behind your opponent and hit them from behind. Likewise, after knocking someone into the air and timing a button press very well, you can follow them up and unleash some additional damage.<br /><br />Properly managing your Ki Guage also offers a good deal of complexity and strategy. While you can use whatever Ki you've saved up for an ultimate attack or various super attacks, like a Kamehameha for instance, you can also use Ki to perform a special block that'll protect you from most any attack, or, when fully charged, enter the Aura Spark mode or transform into another form.<br /><br />The Aura Spark mode, which gives you increased attacks for a short period of time, then lets you teleport once and lets you perform a Blow-Away attack, which is similar to following someone after knocking them into the air, but does a great deal more damage. All of these moves, though similar to some of the more basic moves, require the use of unique buttons, which means that you'll have to practice not only their timing, but which button to use when and in which scenario. <br /><br />Beyond this, the game has an interesting counter-attack system in that the person who attacks second with a matching attack with get their hit in, which caters towards strategic and timed play rather than button mashing. The end result is that the game is easy to pick up and play, but you'll need a great deal of practice in order to take down an experienced fighter. If you step into the ring with a veteran and mash on buttons to try and put together a string of moves, you'll likely get dominated.<br /><br />Another theoretically interesting bit is that your character can become fatigued while in battle. Tapping the block button will cause your character to dodge attacks instead of absorb them, though it adds fatigue. You'll also get fatigued from blocking or just taking damage, though dodging will eat it up more quickly than anything else. When your meter fills up, you'll be stunned for a short while and unable to even move.<br /><br />While this seems cool in concept, I rarely ever became fatigued on accident. It takes a while for the gauge to fill up, especially if you aren't using a dodge move (and are instead dodging things "manually"), so this isn't really something that you need to worry about too much. It might have been cooler to have this as a side effect of trying to use too many special attacks or something along those lines, but that isn't the case. <br /><br />While your efforts will obviously decide the outcome of your battles, the Drama Pieces system does have an effect on what happens. If you're playing a Versus battle, you can choose up to three Drama Pieces before a fight, though they'll be automatically assigned in the Z Chronicles depending on who's in the battle. When certain events happen, a Drama Piece will be triggered and change some element of the battle. These vary in effect - you could gain a little boost of health when almost defeated, a character could jump in to absorb an attack, you could get a Ki and/or attack boost, or anything else of this sort. <br /><br />Drama Pieces wind up being a decent idea in that they help give each character a little more personality, while also supplying fights with comeback moments or tide-turning interference maneuvers by other characters. While purists may opt to turn them off in a Versus game (including online matches), you'll have to use them in the Z Chronicles. Fortunately though, while they do make a difference, none of them feel cheap in a way that would prevent you from winning were they not there. They do make a difference, but not a massive one, which is good. <br /><br />While all of this is nice, there are a couple issues in terms of the variety that you'll find in Burst Limit. There are only a handful of stages, and they do little more than act as backdrops in the far off distance. Given that you don't interact with them all that much, it would have been nice to see more variety here since they can't have taken all that long to create. Some of the spots look pretty cool, like a fire-filled area that appears at the end of the Frieza Saga, but more choices overall would have been great.<br /><br />As well, while there's a decent list of characters to choose from, many of them don't feel too different from one another. The ultimate and super attacks at their disposal have a bit of variety, but many of the basic attacks are pretty much the same. There are speed differences here and there, but overall, it's simple to switch between characters because of how similar they are. This may be a good thing if you want to keep things simple and be able to switch between characters all the time, but I wish there were more variety between all of the combatants to help mix things up a good bit more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-10427797170661020552008-07-20T12:52:00.003+05:302008-12-12T09:10:55.769+05:30Pokemon Emerald<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjH5ibKDs9IrowyE0by34LIxoYUZlfbZmOze_PP7XsdKJNSmByldVcUk-YlmAxn-1GM3FD9Kdrw05emnvPeJSh1_KoHADE54nBNGcppmUX8fddKhvq7F93S_n8A6CmkzFe1fYV6w-IXq9/s1600-h/pokemon-emerald-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjH5ibKDs9IrowyE0by34LIxoYUZlfbZmOze_PP7XsdKJNSmByldVcUk-YlmAxn-1GM3FD9Kdrw05emnvPeJSh1_KoHADE54nBNGcppmUX8fddKhvq7F93S_n8A6CmkzFe1fYV6w-IXq9/s320/pokemon-emerald-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224995690980735554" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Through the 10 or so proper Pokémon games that Nintendo has released for the Game Boy, then the Game Boy Color, and now the Game Boy Advance, the crux of the series has remained unshakable. A preteen hero goes out into the world, complete with parental blessings, to become the world's number one trainer of a bizarre, varied, and mysterious race of creatures called Pokémon. Along the way, our hero has some funky adventures. Essentially a singular director's cut version of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald will feel especially familiar, and as such, it will likely hold greater appeal to the uninitiated or those who have been on Pokémon hiatus.<br /><br /><br />Collecting and fighting: These are the things a Pokémon game is made of.<br /><br />After starting off as either a young girl or boy recently transplanted to a new town, you quickly ditch your homemaker mother to follow in the footsteps of your dad, who is already a celebrated Pokémon master. After being gifted your first Pokémon by local man-of-science Professor Birch, you'll head into the world to fight and capture wild Pokémon, as well as test your might against other up-and-coming trainers. Furthermore, you'll rank up your own standing as a trainer by traveling to different towns and besting the head trainer at the local Pokémon gym. You'll eventually get mixed up in some unsavory business with Team Aqua and Team Magma, two nefarious groups of Pokémon trainers, in addition to going on various adventures and side quests that you'll have to take on as you train and collect your Pokémon. The writing isn't quite as clever as Nintendo's own Advance Wars series, but it still pops and generally avoids the kind of condescending tone that makes most kids games unplayable by people outside the designated age bracket.<br /><br />Pokémon are a pretty weird, inexplicable bunch of creatures. Their origins, even within the game's reality, are purposefully vague, and despite their wildly varied appearances and abilities, all Pokémon have a few basic characteristics in common. Most importantly, all Pokémon love to fight other Pokémon, whether it's in a head-to-head spar or a two-on-two match. As they fight, they gain experience and learn new moves. And occasionally, a Pokémon will evolve into a sleeker, more aggressive version of itself, taking on a new name in the process. The Pokémon series has always been expertly keyed in to the obsessive-compulsive traits of gamers, so most of the game revolves around fighting with and capturing different Pokémon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTQrE3xJyUf8pk7Ey1CYxMj2oEo4vjXi0IeQG_yGABiCzfPM7klpBP7p0I7qIM_6n-qnSu_KT6M7MZXBA6tHnkgJF4FlnftTyuzNjxw3EDxQN_W1UavrEzd3L7acf7GlwzseW6t5rsnVBZ/s1600-h/box_110141.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTQrE3xJyUf8pk7Ey1CYxMj2oEo4vjXi0IeQG_yGABiCzfPM7klpBP7p0I7qIM_6n-qnSu_KT6M7MZXBA6tHnkgJF4FlnftTyuzNjxw3EDxQN_W1UavrEzd3L7acf7GlwzseW6t5rsnVBZ/s320/box_110141.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224995693164137186" /></a><br /><br />To be clear, your character never actually fights; instead, you'll send out your own Pokémon to broker victory for you. You can carry up to six different Pokémon with you, and each can have up to four different moves, which can be offensive or defensive and can range from straightforward melee attacks to projectile attacks to even crazy psychic blasts. Despite the limited number of moves, the different alignment of each Pokémon helps inject some extra strategy into the combat. Every Pokémon is categorized by type, such as fire, electric, poison, psychic, and so on. For every type of Pokémon, there's another type whose attack is extremely effective against it, creating a nice rock-paper-scissors dynamic. This is a good reason to "catch 'em all."<br /><br />Though you'll end up spending most of your time either fighting or looking for a fight, there are plenty of other activities. You can breed your Pokémon, enter them into what amount to Pokémon beauty pageants, pick and plant berries that can be turned into candies (and fed to your Pokémon for little stat bumps), and gamble in casinos, just for a few examples. There's a ton of optional stuff like this that helps flesh out the whole world.<br /><br />Pokémon Emerald's biggest strength is its accessibility. The role-playing-game structure has been streamlined to make it easier to pick up and play for casual players, but without losing the depth that will keep the more committed playing for days on end. Unfortunately, Emerald's biggest weakness is that most hardcore Pokémon players already played through this adventure when it was released as Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. However, it does add some new areas, and it tweaks a lot of minor stuff, like Pokémon abilities and certain character appearances. You can also now use the wireless GBA adapter to link up with other players to trade and battle Pokémon, and using a GameCube link cable, you can put your Pokémon into play in Pokémon Colosseum.<br /><br /><br />The déjà vu may be too much to bear for those who have already mastered Ruby or Sapphire.<br /><br />Ruby and Sapphire were great-looking GBA games when they first came out, though Emerald puts in little effort to improve the quality of the graphics, giving the game a slightly aged look. It's still very bright and colorful, recalling some of the better SNES RPGs, and the world feels appropriately large. However, the combat sequences can't help but feel a bit too staticky. The music has weathered the passing of time much more capably, and the various town themes and fight music are still incredibly catchy and upbeat.<br /><br />Players who have already soaked up everything Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire have to offer will probably appreciate the largely subtle changes Emerald makes, thanks to the "gotta catch 'em all" mentality bred by the series, though it's unlikely to do a satisfactory job of scratching the itch for an all-new Pokémon adventure. Still, despite being made mostly of recycled parts, Emerald proves that the Pokémon formula still works. As a result, it remains an enjoyably light RPG experienceUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-22963850589128075542007-10-17T09:31:00.000+05:302007-10-17T09:40:56.647+05:30US crestfallen, mystified by N-deal developmentA day after India formally conveyed to the US ‘difficulties’ in continuing with the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, a disappointed US was left hoping that India would continue efforts to push through the deal.<br /><br />The US was clearly taken aback by the government’s sudden turnaround on the deal with US ambassador to India Davic C Mulford frantically making rounds to South Block to understand how things went so wrong for the nuclear deal. The ambassador met with joint secretary (Americas) Gayatri I Kumar and in the last couple of days has met with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.<br /><a href="http://news.google.co.in/news/url?sa=t&ct=in/0-0&fp=4715a47d7bac49c7&ei=P4sVR9rlBIz2qgOH-90D&url=http%3A//economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/US_crestfallen_mystified_by_N-deal_development/articleshow/2465311.cms&cid=1122201549&sig2=9tNYM2iIVECpBDPq1hLswA">read more...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-20484390484596449572007-10-07T00:21:00.000+05:302007-10-07T00:24:07.052+05:30Play Escape The Phone Booth Online FreePlay Escape The Phone Booth Online Free<br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.addictinggames.com/escapethephonebooth.html?r=user_posted_link" style="color:#2e4b82;"><img src="http://farm.addictinggames.com/fimages/4305.jpg" width="50" height="50" align="left" style="float:left; border:2px solid #006; margin-right:5px;" /><b style="display:block; padding-top:18px;">Escape the Phone Booth</b></a><br clear="all"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-35625651258424817362007-08-18T22:11:00.000+05:302008-12-12T09:10:55.939+05:30Test Drive Unlimited Review<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirlSYOxWae3xqoreI2r45R5iZf3IyWTrFd1BiWHPh_jcus74jsQEJ62DCmWDZMrf9QZvRjPZpld0nk-2lRTnQ8jLNn-GBE4056AWTR-CJJpwCztaMgVQjLAwds9CWX90Qa6Tbpo7KCBOy8/s1600-h/cover.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirlSYOxWae3xqoreI2r45R5iZf3IyWTrFd1BiWHPh_jcus74jsQEJ62DCmWDZMrf9QZvRjPZpld0nk-2lRTnQ8jLNn-GBE4056AWTR-CJJpwCztaMgVQjLAwds9CWX90Qa6Tbpo7KCBOy8/s320/cover.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100083066313891106" /></a><br /><br />Late last year, Atari and developer Eden Studios released Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360. Purportedly the first "massively open online racing" game, Unlimited provided you with a wide-open setting (the Hawaiian island of Oahu), a myriad of slick rides, tons of different races to take part in, and an online mode that actually let you occupy the same basic driving space as other online players and challenge them in competition. Not everything the game did on the 360 worked brilliantly, but it was an inventive and unique piece of technology that was impressive in its own right. Now the game has come to the PC, and for all intents and purposes, this version is nearly identical to the 360 game. It's a little rougher around the edges than its 360 counterpart, but if you never played the 360 version and think the idea of racing around Hawaii while bumping up against other online players sounds like fun, this version's worth a look.<br /><br />You start by picking a basic character model to represent yourself, and you're whisked away to fabulous Hawaii to buy a car and a house, do a lot of random racing, and drive hitchhikers and models around the island for some reason. That's about all there is to the premise. While it's not shocking that a racing game wouldn't have a major, in-depth storyline, the way the game introduces itself and the open-ended nature of the game world give you the impression that there might be some kind of plot to tie everything you do together. There isn't. The lack of a cohesive thread to the missions and races does make Test Drive seem a bit pointless, but after a while, you cease to care and find yourself oddly engaged by this scattershot series of objectives. It helps that there is quite a lot to do on the island. The objectives themselves don't extend beyond races, time trials, speed challenges, and some basic delivery missions, but there are enough of them to keep you going as you explore the massive island of Oahu.<br /><br />The way the game forces you to explore is clever. You start out with only a few available mission icons on the huge world map, but as time goes on, you'll see more and more begin to pop up across the entire stretch of the island. If you happen to have driven through a road where an objective resides, you can simply click on that icon on the map and be instantly transported there. But if an icon appears on a road you've never driven on before, you have to drive there to access it. What this does is force you to cruise through just about every nook and cranny of Oahu without being overly pushy about it. There's often more than enough races and missions available at any given time, so if you don't feel like driving halfway across the island to see something new, you won't necessarily be hurting for things to do right where you already are.<br /><br />It's just too bad there's not more variety to what you end up doing. Races are fairly typical street races, with up to seven opponent drivers and a number of checkpoints scattered throughout a course. There's a huge roster of them to take part in on various roads that range from hairpin-filled hill climbs to straight-and-narrow city races. There's also the time trials, as well as the speed challenges, which task you either with driving a set speed past a number of speed traps laid about a course, or simply reaching a designated speed within a set amount of time. The missions are more repetitive, which come in only a few set categories. You'll either find yourself delivering illicit packages for seedy individuals, delivering some of the game's more expensive rides to dealerships and mechanics, delivering hitchhikers to their desired destinations, or delivering high-strung models to their homes after a long day of shopping. Basically, you're a delivery service no matter how you look at it, and the only variances are in what you're delivering, and occasionally what kind of car you're driving. Fortunately, the various races and challenges are quite a bit more compelling than these missions. However, you don't earn nearly as much cash just sticking to the races, so you'll likely be inspired to put up with the monotony of the missions.<br /><br />Why? Because without cash, you can't buy any of the game's numerous cars, houses, clothes, or upgrades. Obviously, the big draw is the cars, and there are over 90 licensed cars and motorcycles available in the game. From basic rides like Volkswagens, Chryslers, and Chevys to more exotic models of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Aston Martins, there are plenty of available cars, and you can likely expect even more to be made available via the Xbox Live Marketplace at some point. Paying more for new cars isn't the most ideal scenario, but at a less-than-full-retail-price $40 price tag for the game, it's a little bit easier to swallow.<br /><br />Building up a car collection is key, as you'll need at least one car from each of the available A-through-G car classes, since at one point or another, you'll encounter races that require cars from these specific classes. Some races also require very specific cars, but if you don't want to buy them, there are rental agencies that will give you access to those cars for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. To house all your rides, you'll find yourself buying real estate throughout the island. Each house has its own look, but more importantly includes at least a four-car garage, if not higher. The houses don't have a ton of purpose beyond acting as basic hub levels and as a storage area for cars, but they're a nice touch all the same. You can also spend credits you earn from the hitchhiker and model missions on clothes for your character. Though it's not as if you stare at your character much while you're driving, there are enough cutscenes in the game to where it sort of makes sense to be able to dress up your driver in some new threads.<br /><br />Other ways to earn money involve the online component of the game. You can tap into the online audience by creating your own custom race challenges for them to take part in, or by selling your cars via the online trading market. Buying and selling cars is exceptionally simple; all you have to do is jump into the trade menu when you're in one of your houses, and buy and sell accordingly. You can set prices however you like, though you'll likely want to judge the market for your particular brand of car before trying to price gouge people with that Volkswagen Golf you have no use for. Creating challenges is a bit more involved a process. With this feature, you can map out a course of just about any length using all the available roads on the island. You can set all sorts of arbitrary rules, like time limits, whether or not the driver is relegated to the cockpit camera view, and whatnot, and you can also set entry fees and awards. Of course, the trick is that the awards are taken from your bank account, so you'll want to be careful with how much cash you're dishing out. Fortunately, there's also a time limit for how long a custom challenge can sit on the servers, so you're not destined to get gouged by people forever. You will, however, be able to access your custom challenges within your own game for however long you like.<br /><br />The online driving audience is obviously a big draw of Test Drive Unlimited, since so much of the multiplayer functionality has just been built into the basic gameworld. There is no quick-and-dirty multiplayer menu to jump into to find a match. Every designated multiplayer race appears as an icon on the map just like the offline races, and at each race you'll find the option to jump into a player match or a ranked match with any other players hanging out at that race. It's a little bit more convoluted than a standard menu system, since you might have to scan the various online race icons on the map, trying to find a race to get into, but in our testing, we found a decent number of competitors at just about every race hub, though mostly for player matches. Ranked matches have been decidedly fewer in quantity. It's probably also worth mentioning that Test Drive Unlimited doesn't offer any kind of single-system multiplayer, so if you want to play against friends, it'll have to be online.<br /><br />If you prefer simply driving the open roads to sticking to predetermined courses, you also have the option of tracking down other players free riding around the city. This is where the whole MMOG comparison comes in (or as the game refers to it, MOOR, or massively open online racing), as players driving around the city are very visible to you while you're not engaged in a race or mission, and if you happen upon any rival online drivers, you can challenge them to a quick race for cash and ranking points. All you have to do is flash your headlights at them, and they can choose to accept or decline the challenge; if they accept, you just pick a finish line somewhere away from where you're currently situated, and race to the end.<br /><br />The whole system of being able to find other, random players while simply driving around the island sounds brilliant on paper, but it doesn't offer quite as much freedom as you might hope for. For one thing, you can't just run into every single driver that happens to be in your vicinity. Though you'll certainly find plenty of other players driving around, there seems to be a limit on exactly how many can appear to you while you're in a specific zone of the island, and getting specific players into your zone can be kind of a pain if they aren't already on your friends list. It's not a bad system in theory, since it does prevent the streets from getting overcrowded with rival racers, and to its credit, the switches between instances as you drive around are completely seamless, but if you want to find someone specific that isn't automatically appearing on your list, it's a rather clunky process.<br /><br />Still, caveats aside, the multiplayer is where it's at, both because of the variety of ways to compete and because the online competition is just better than the offline. When you're racing offline, the opponent artificial intelligence is, in a word, limited. Opponents wreck and end up in the dirt more than you will, and the only advantage they'll ever have is if they have a markedly faster ride than you do. You'll also notice that if you end up having to redo races a few times, the opponents will follow the exact same AI routines every time, braking at the same points, veering around other drivers at the same times, and things like that. The only thing that can seem to throw them off this is you wrecking into them, but after a while, the routine resumes.<br /><br />That's about the worst thing you can say for the in-car action, however; the core driving mechanics are quite solid. The handling of the various cars can take some getting used to, as almost every car is a bit squirrelly and prone to random spinouts. But once you get a handle on things, you can pretty easily master the controls and take to the roads with minimal issue. Of course, you'll still have to navigate around AI-controlled traffic and, occasionally, cops. But it's more the random traffic that poses an issue than the cops. Whereas AI cars will sometimes veer into you at random or bunch up at intersections, cops rarely seem to care terribly much what you do. Scraping or crashing into other cars alerts them, but you have to do it a bunch of times in a short period before they'll really start coming after you. Typically, all you have to do is avoid wrecking for around 10 seconds after alerting them, and your alert level will just drop right back to nothing.<br /><br />Obviously, the lack of cop interaction prevents them from getting in the way of your enjoyment of driving around the island. In fact, with the exception of the AI traffic and largely immovable scenery, everything about Test Drive's design seems built with the expressed purpose of making Oahu as leisurely a place to drive around as humanly possible. Sure, the racing can get intense at times, and there are few things more frustrating than taking on a timed car-delivery mission and inadvertently wrecking into another car while trying to take a blind corner as quickly as possible, but for the most part, driving around Oahu is a relaxing experience. The game's mileage counts for each point-to-point drive are completely accurate, and unlike most games that tell you that you'll be going 15 miles to your destination, you feel like you're driving a realistic 15 miles. For some, the pacing of the island's travels might feel kind of sluggish, but for those who just like the idea of driving a hot car against a striking backdrop, Test Drive provides precisely that.<br /><br />And it is quite a striking backdrop. Oahu is rendered with a high level of detail, and it looks extremely pretty as you're driving from place to place. Of course, most of the island's highways stick to the shorelines and heavily populated areas, but there's plenty of windy mountain roads and backcountry areas to explore, too. If you've got a high-end PC, you're going to see crisper in-game visuals, especially if you run it in HD mode. It doesn't look perfect, mind you. When you aren't speeding along, some of the more obvious texture seams and lower-resolution set pieces tend to stick out, and the fact that there's absolutely no people at all wandering around a bustling beach community is altogether weird; but at high speeds, the environments look great, especially with the attractive motion-blur effect the game uses. Unfortunately, high speeds also sometimes cause some problems for the game. Specifically, texture pop-in and frame rate hiccups tend to occur at frequent rates. The actual frame rate never seems to drop below 30, but you'll see these quick hitches from time to time that can be a little off-putting. The environmental streaming also tends to chug a bit no matter how powerful your system is, and we did run into some occasional graphical glitches specific to the PC version, like extreme amounts of flickering from the textures and lighting.<br /><br />The cars in the game are modeled beautifully, looking like pristine, out-of-the-factory renditions of their real-life counterparts. There's no damage modeling to any of the licensed vehicles, though you can damage the generic AI traffic. Collisions look strange, though, as the physics of you smashing into another car at a 150 miles per hour just don't look right. It's also bizarre when you go head-on into a lamppost or fence or something equally unassuming, and get stopped on a dime by it. There's also no car-customization element to speak of. There are some basic performance upgrades you can buy that sometimes do involve some visual upgrades, but there's no way to trick out your ride to make it look like your ride beyond basic paint jobs and some rim upgrades you can grab at the time you purchase a car. It's just strange that a racing game involving such a community-driven design would go to the trouble of letting you play dress-up with your character that is barely visible outside of cutscenes (and also doesn't look particularly good, dressed-up or not), but wouldn't let you give your various cars more unique identities. Each car also has its own unique cockpit view that's accurate to the real car; a feature sure to please the kinds of car fanatics that love this level of detail. It's especially cool if you've got a driving wheel hooked up.<br /><br />The in-game audio is reasonably enjoyable though not nearly as in-depth as many of the other racers on the 360. The game has good car sound effects but a fairly forgettable soundtrack consisting largely of songs from relatively unkown bands. There are a few notable tracks by artists like Queens of the Stone Age, Metric, and the James Gang, but you're more likely to want to get your custom soundtrack on while playing this one. There's not a hefty amount of voice acting in the game, save for a few awkward (and abysmally lip-synced) lines during mission set-ups, but what's there is serviceable.<br /><br />While Test Drive Unlimited blurs the line between single-player and multiplayer racing better than anything that's ever tried it before, it's not quite a slam dunk. The game's open-ended mission design belies its purposeless nature, and the whole massively open online racing thing isn't quite as massive as one might be led to believe. But even with its limitations, Test Drive Unlimited's concept is executed well enough to make it an addictive and interesting racing experience. Of course, if you already played this game on the Xbox 360, the PC version isn't different enough to make it worth looking at. But for PC players who didn't try this on the 360 and are interested in something new and unique in the driving-game genre, there's nothing quite like Test Drive Unlimited on the market right now. Though you're undoubtedly going to take issue with a few of the game's peculiarities, there's enough here to make it a racer worth checking out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-80463007337980093942007-08-18T22:03:00.000+05:302007-08-18T22:07:31.195+05:30Halo 3 European PremierCalling Halo 3 the most anticipated videogame of the year is far from hyperbole. It’s one of Microsoft’s most important weapons in the company’s war against PS3. <br /><br />Halo sold Xbox to both an unsuspecting and suspicious audience. Its first sequel, again on original Xbox, became the highest-grossing videogame of all time. And this despite criticisms after the hype settled accusing the single player game of falling short of its predecessor. Make no mistake: Halo 3 Microsoft’s most important videogames yet. But while players were treated to a Beta text of Halo 3’s multiplayer over Xbox LIVE at the start of the summer, Bungie Studios has kept characteristically quiet about the core campaign.<br /><br />This week Yahoo! UK Games was invited to Amsterdam for the European Premier of Halo 3. The general idea was to spend some time with single-player quest, during which we discovered that fans can rest assured that Halo’s campaign mode is shaping up to be one of videogaming’s most electric experiences.<br /><br />Only one level was available to play: Tsavo Highway. It begins inside a dark and dimly lit grimy underground hangar. There’s clearly been some kind of explosion as the walls flicker with reds and oranges from occasional fires. Master Chief is here with a group of marines, all disorientated and in need of leadership. <br /><br />You flick on the lights to reveal a large Warthog people carrier with room for you and four marines to use as transport out of this darkened hole. You can choose to take the steering wheel or, if you prefer, let one of the marines drive while you line up your weapon sights in the passenger seat. Through the door and you’re blinded with sunlight as the tight confines of the hangar give way to an oceanic desert. <br /><br />In Halo 3 your marines are a lot chattier; quipping and moaning a colourful commentary to your driving. The sprawling environments look good – certainly more next-gen, polished and solid than the multiplayer Beta promised but this is certainly evolution and not revolution for the Halo universe. While the draw distance is huge and the colours, shapes and sheen confidently modern, there are some jagged surfaces and the occasional bland texture. That said battles are huge and, crucially to those who felt disorientated by the second game’s over-reliance on set-pieces, they develop with a pleasing on-the-fly feel reminiscent of the first game. It was difficult to get a feel of how the narrative arc of the game falls from this short snapshot of the game (played out of context and chronology) but Bungie is promising that this, the final game in the trilogy, will leave no threads untied by the end.<br /><br />With this week’s announcement of up to four-player co-operative play over Xbox LIVE for the whole campaign (a sure case of one-upmanship over upstart Gears of War) it’s difficult not to feel excited. One thing’s for certain, there will be millions of eyes watching the game’s every move and trick – and at least some of them will belong to the opposition.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-33392412722814993272007-08-10T18:04:00.000+05:302007-08-10T18:06:08.789+05:30Play the top 10 LATEST games in miniclipPlay the top 10 LATEST games in miniclip<br />Club PenguinOverkill ApacheUp BeatBattle WheelsTable TennisBaseballSquare MealBank RobberEvan AlmightyPuzzle Pirates<br />for more latest games visit at <a href="http://www.miniclip.com/">www.miniclip.com</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824988893349505737.post-16086476770071185432007-08-10T17:58:00.000+05:302007-08-10T18:03:23.771+05:30Play the game Evan almighty's Zoo rescue onlinePlay the game Evan almighty's Zoo rescue online<br />Evan almighty has come to rescue, the floods have come and the animals are trapped there is only one thing to do get them to the boat safely.play it at miniclip.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1