With the GDC conference in Leipzig being the focal point of gamers’ interest at the moment, Paradox Interactive decided that it was the moment to present its most recent project. With a host of very important franchises like Europa Universalis and Victoria under its belt, the developer took the decision to revive one of its oldest franchises, Heart of Iron, announcing that a third game was in development.Paradox Interactive had already announced that it was planning a new project, called Mayhem, and fans speculated which of the series was going to be involved. There were some rumors that Victoria was getting a sequel, but the popularity of the Hearts of Iron franchise eventually won the day.Hearts of Iron 2 is a very engrossing and detailed game. It has incredible depth, allowing the player to manage the politics, the economics and the military aspects of leading any country in the world through the huge conflict that was World War II. The game was finely balanced between being a full historical simulation, with the major events in the years of the war implemented in the game, and a sand box game, with the outcome of the war being entirely up to the decisions the player made.
The press release from Paradox says that "Hearts of Iron 3 will follow that tradition closely while focusing on satisfying veteran players through a multitude of brand new features and systems, including a huge map with more than 10,000 provinces".
Johan Andersson, who is the head of development at Paradox Interactive, said that "It's clear this is a game that fans of our titles have been eagerly anticipating. Before revealing the project, our upcoming announcement online forum received more than 14,000 page views in less than 24 hours with a third installment of Hearts of Iron seemingly being at the top of everyone's wish list".
Hearts of Iron 3 is just entering development and Paradox says that is plans to release the game in the third quarter of 2009.Sourece : Softpedia.com
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Gaming on mobile phones can be a lot of fun, but often, avid gamers feel the need to have a fuller game-controller for a better gaming experience on their mobile phones.As a solution to providing near-console gameplay on its mobile phones, Sony Ericsson, in collaboration with Zeemote, makers of intelligent wireless controllers for mobile devices, has announced to launch the "Zeemote's JS1 Controller" featuring Bluetooth technology to bring near-console game-play to the W760i, Sony Ericsson's first 3G-capable phone.With a thumbstick and 4 assignable trigger buttons, the JS1 offers real analogue control over Bluetooth, enabling users to enjoy mobile games. Weighing 47g/1.7oz, the ergonomically-designed JS1 easily fits in the hand, says the company.
The Zeemote JS1 Controller featuring Bluetooth technology will be offered free to purchasers of Sony Ericsson's new 3G mobile handset, the W760i Walkman, through a mail-in voucher promotion. The phone will come with 2 embedded Zeemote-ready games with a further 14 additional games available through the Fun & Downloads section on the Sony Ericsson's (NL) website.
Sadly, for mobile gaming fans across the globe, the Zeemote JS1 Controller featuring Bluetooth will be available only in the Netherlands from August 8th 2008 to October 31st 2008.
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At the QuakeCon 2008 keynote, John Carmack, game designer and co-founder of id software, shared information on their upcoming first person shooter titled Rage. Carmack commented on a storage problem related to Microsoft's XBOX 360 platform.Carmark believes that compressing Rage textures such that the game data fits on to two XBOX 360 DVDs would result in loss of visual quality. He added that including a third disc would shoot up the royalties that id would need to pay Microsoft. Carmack is therefore seeking a concession on the royalties from Microsoft, otherwise the Xbox 360 version of Rage could be a lesser port, he stated.One of the key features of the Tech 5 engine used to power Rage is the use of so-called "megatextures" -- huge textures that bring in detail while allowing the polygon count of a 3d-surface to be kept low. These large textures need greater space to store. It is due to this that Carmack is facing storage problems on the Xbox 360.
On the other hand Sony's PS3 might get an upper hand with its Blu-ray drive. The game Rage will also be available on multiple DVDs and Blu-ray discs for the PC and Mac platforms.
Now all eyes are on Microsoft to how this problem would be addressed. Despite of the fact that compression technologies over optical media have taken us far, DVD media seems to have hit a wall.
While you are here, check out Rage's extended trailer.
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In what's turning into a cat and mouse game of legalese and fine print -- the Calcutta bros. behind Scrabulous have just relaunched their Facebook game as Wordscraper. Changes made include using circle tiles, customizable boards, and different point values for letters.Our take on this mess is this: can't the two just get along? Surely Hasbro can license the Scrabble name to what is an able game engine? The why-not here could be that Hasbro had entered into a deal with Electronic Arts to produce a Scrabble online game; also available on Facebook. This was incidentally, just before Hasbro sued the boys behind Scrabulous.Meanwhile, Scrabulous can still be played on scrabulous.com.
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Razer has introduced its latest gaming keyboard exclusively for China market. It is known as the Razer Aurantia (China Pro-Gaming Edition).The Razer Aurantia is bundled with the Razer Salmosa mouse (China Pro-Gaming Edition). The gaming device has a dimensions of 446 x 205 x 29 mm (LxWxH), offering a wrist rest.The latest gaming keyboard carries few attributes such as 104 programmable keys with macro capabilities, three additional keys for ‘gaming mode,’ ‘profile switching,’ and ‘mute’ functions, 10 customizable software profiles with on-the-fly switching and a removable non-slip wrist rest .
Mid-July 2008 is the availability period of the Razer Aurantia gaming keyboard in the Chinese market. Razer Aurantia will be presented at the Razer booth at ChinaJoy 2008, which is happening in Shanghai. The Razer Aurantia keyboard and Salmosa mouse will retail for RMB 399 (approx. Rs. 2,526).
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More than a year has passed since I first tried OCZ's Neural Impulse Actuator, and I've had the finished product in my possession for a good three weeks now, yet I'm still not sure how to tackle this review. Writing about something as peculiar and downright unique as the NIA is no easy task. To set the stage, I should probably discuss control systems in general.For thousands of years now, man has used simple, relatively intuitive controls to make machines and animals do his bidding—be it squeezing his thighs to make a horse gallop faster, cranking a wheel and axle to draw water from a well, or flooring a car's gaspedal to run a red light. Applying mechanical force to get something done is second nature to most folks, and video games are no different. We use joysticks, gamepads, mice, keyboards, and other controllers to translate finger or limb movements into actions on the screen. Want to move your character left? Push the analog stick to the side. Want to fire? Squeeze the trigger. Easy.
What OCZ has done with the NIA is throw most of that out the window. By incorporating an electro-myogram, electro-encephalogram, and electro-oculogram into a small headband and a little black box with a USB connector, the company has developed a control system that can translate eye movements, facial muscle movements, and brain waves into game input. As a result, the NIA is a strange contraption that requires some very unusual participation from the user.
When was the last time you used your jaw to control a machine? Unless you're Stephen Hawking or extremely lazy, you probably can't remember. How about using your eyes or your alpha brain waves? Didn't think so.
The NIA makes those things possible thanks to a headband with three diamond-shaped sensors positioned at the front. According to OCZ Technology Development Director Michael Schuette's article on the subject, the sensors are made of a plastic injected with highly conductive nanofibers, which the NIA hardware uses to read electrical potentials from the user's forehead. OCZ built the remainder of the headband out of soft rubber, with a lanyard at the back to allow for adjustment. A cable runs down the left side of the headband and plugs into the black NIA box, which includes two completely separate circuits: one hooked up to the headband and the other hooked up to the host PC's USB port. The two circuits only talk to each other through an optical transceiver, ensuring that users won't get electrical shocks if things go awry.
On the user's PC, the NIA control software converts electrical potentials from the headband into usable input. Schuette explains that the software separates the different frequencies in these potentials using proprietary algorithms not unlike fast Fourier transforms. Running these algorithms on a continuously streaming flow of data can apparently hog some "serious CPU cycles," although we didn't see the control application eat up much more than 10-15% of our test rig's Core 2 Duo E6400.
At this point, you might be wondering just how the NIA actually interfaces with games. OCZ's solution to that problem is quite clever: when it enters the game mode, the NIA app simply translates inputs into keystrokes. You can hit CTRL-F12 to enable and disable the input system in order to avoid any accidental key presses in setup screens, but in theory, the NIA should work with almost any game. That's quite convenient for such a novel device, even if Schuette says it could be done better:
Even though this still works – with a certain amount of sluggishness, the concept is somewhat atrocious, since it takes an analog physical reaction that is then emulated into a manual keyboard input that is then translated into a command on the game level. A more elegant solution would encompass taking the biological response and streaming it directly into the game using the DirectX platform as vehicle.
The NIA software lists eight different inputs in total. The bulk of those inputs are made up by a "muscle" input that tracks facial muscle tension (largely from jaw and eyebrow muscles) and a "glance" control that tracks lateral eye movement. Six brain-wave inputs—three for alpha waves and three for beta waves—fill out the neural control aspect of the NIA. This post by Dr. Schuette suggests alpha waves correspond to aggression and that beta waves can correspond to pain management. For instance, one can trigger the Alpha 2 meter by thinking of an expletive. Schuette told us he successfully used this method to get his character to jump in a game, but I could never get this to work myself.
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Subscription-based PC gaming service GameTap announced today that Ion Storm's shooter-RPG hybrid Deus Ex (PC, PS2) will be available to play free of charge on the platform beginning next week.Often regarded as one of the most influential shooters ever developed, Deus Ex blended first-person shooter gameplay with a branching, complicated storyline, upgradable stats and skills and extensivecharacter interaction. A sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was released in late 2003.
The title will be playable via the service's free-to-download launcher program, which allows users to browse and download a variety of PC and emulated console games. Those players who don't shell out the $9.95 per month for the "Gold"-level subscription can expect a 15 second video advertisement to air before each play.
In addition to Deus Ex, GameTap also offers Ion Storm's Thief: Deadly Shadows and Doublefine's Psychonauts among some 120 other titles in its free game roster.
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With a development team that had nothing to do with the original Far Cry, and the only link between the two being Ubisoft's ownership of the trademark, Far Cry 2 may sound like a dull cash-in. But judging by Shacknews' preview, the game actually has much to offer.Shacknews' Nick Breckon got a chance to test Far Cry 2 first-hand, and he paints a tantalizing description of a huge, vivid game that lets players explore and mold the course of the story to their whims. Far Cry 2 features a 19-square-mile (50-km²) game world, a"branching mission-based plot," warring factions, wildlife, and a fancy graphics engine with real-time radiosity rendering and destructible vegetation. Ubisoft is developing the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions simultaneously, though, so it hasn't been quite as indulgent on the graphics front as Crytek was with Crysis.
Breckon sums up his impression of the Far Cry 2 experience in one word: variety. "It's a full menu of a game, a long list of cool features, interesting twists, and surprising detail," he says, comparing the title to a mix of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the Grand Theft Auto series, and the original Far Cry.
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Dell's XPS branded products have come a long way since they first appeared in 1993. Starting life as a performance trim for the Dimension product line, Dell has nurtured XPS into a well-known and respected premium performance brand. While not all XPS branded products are specifically targeted at gamers, gaming has always been at the core of the product line-up. The XPS brand's flagship desktop and notebook products have always been heavily gaming oriented, but it looks like that is set to change.The XPS 730 is Dell's latest XPS flagship desktop product, the fourth generation of the XPS 700 series, and it may be the last. Or at least the last XPS flagship product as we currently know them; large, aggressively styled behemoths sporting the latest hardware and adorned with colorful LED lighting. A week after the XPS 730 was launched, news regarding the demise of XPS as a gaming brand began to circulate. Since its acquisition of Alienware in the summer of 2006, Dell has effectively been operating two separate gaming brands with directly competing products. It was speculated that some changes, possibly in the form of consolidation of the two brands, would eventually be in order. It is now fairly clear that Dell is to focus on Alienware as its premier gaming brand in the future.
While Dell has only now acknowledged that the XPS brand will give way to Alienware as Dell's premier gaming brand, there have been numerous signs that such a move was in the works. Since Dell brought Alienware into the fold, they have been busy introducing new, non gaming oriented products to both the XPS desktop and notebook line-ups. Starting with the XPS M1330 notebook and its derivatives and then the XPS 420 desktop, Dell is busy converting XPS into a premium multimedia brand. While the XPS brand of the future may still include gaming systems, they will not be the high-end flagship systems of today.
So it is with a slight bit of regret that we begin our review of the XPS 730 H2C, possibly the most exciting and last generation of the flagship XPS 700 series.
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Gaming enthusiasts do not get bugged with the low graphic card-equipped PC. Acer understands the importance of high-end features that are required for gaming. Thus, the company has introduced its latest series of gaming desktops. Called Aspire Predator, the company is now in the mission to offer an aggressive chassis design bundling the latest generation technologies that goes beyond the limits of graphical performance.
Housed in a deep metallic copper colored finish, the desktop’s front body is slightly raised, giving it a perfect wild look for gaming. It boasts to be the world’s first device to have an optical bay mechanism that reveals a rewritable DVD and Blu-ray Disk reader. The other features of the computer are an included USB and audio ports with multi-card reader support and east Hard Drive operation with the help of a special door on the front. It is termed as Acer Easy-swap Hard Drive solution, which has the ability to make the 4 Serial ATA 3 Gb/s high capacity hard disks detachable even when the PC is turned on and is in use.RAID 0, 1, 5, 1+0 modes with NVIDIA MediaShield Storage technology guarantee the utmost data security in the event of disk failure. The optional high speed Raptor 10.000 rpm hard drives offer exceptional performance especially when configured in its RAID 0 striping configuration. The Predator also comes with Dual LAN technology allowing file transferring.
Moreover, it also sports Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor with 1333MHz FSB, superior RAM, the NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI MCP and 3-way SLI capable motherboard with an array of graphic cards. It also packs a multimedia gaming keyboard with illuminated keys, a gaming mouse, Dolby Home Theater audio enhancement and EAX 4.0 support.
Keeping the gamers’ choice in mind, Acer allows customization of even more sophisticated technologies and components to enjoy the best gaming audio experience. And if you are continuously on the desktop playing games, then you needn’t worry about the over heating issue. The cooling system eliminates all the worries.
The Acer Aspire Predator gaming desktop carries a starting price of 1699 euros (approx. Rs. 114,980)
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After unveiling its Business Class enterprise platform less than a month ago, AMD has pulled a certification for gaming PCs out of its sleeve. In a nutshell, machines that bear the new AMD GAME! badge couple AMD processors with Radeon HD 3000-series graphics cards, and AMD guarantees them to deliver "an enhanced and simplified mainstream PC gaming experience."To qualify for an AMD GAME! logo, a system must include at least an Athlon X2 5600+ processor, an AMD 770 or Nvidia nForce 500-series chipset, a Radeon HD 3650 graphics processor, and 2GB of RAM. AMD says such PCs should crank out 30 frames per second or more at 1280 x 1024 in current games like Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, World of Warcraft, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and Sims 2 Deluxe. There's also an AMD GAME! Ultra spec that mandates at least a Phenom X4 9650 CPU, AMD 770 chipset, and Radeon HD 3870 graphics. GAME! Ultra machines should manage a 30 FPS minimum at 1600 x 1200 with the same titles.
According to AMD, GAME!-certified systems are available right now from gaming PC vendors Alienware, Cyberpower PC, iBuypower, Maingear, and Velocity Micro. AMD also expects the GAME! badge to make its way onto retail PCs in the second half of this year.
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Following the price cuts of the Xbox 360 console in Europe, Microsoft decided it was time to reduce the prices in four Asian markets in order to help their console sell better and fend off market-share declines against Nintendo and Sony. Probably, their price cuts in Europe combined with the release of Grand Theft Auto have payed off, otherwise we're pretty sure the giants wouldn't have done something like that.According to bloomberg website, starting today, estimated retail prices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have been reduced. The interesting thing about the price drop of the Xbox 360 consoles is that each country got a different cut: the price of a basic version will drop by 17 percent to NT$10,360 ($340) in Taiwan, about 11 percent in Hong Kong, 5.1 percent to 369,000 won ($369) in Korea and by 20 percent to S$499 ($366) in Singapore, according to separate e-mailed statements received by the website.You probably already know that Microsoft never managed to establish itself on the Asian markets, recording extremely low sales, even though they have used all the possible tricks, including the Arcade version packed with games. Probably this price cut is their last option in order to turn things around. Still, we can't help but wonder how come Microsoft can cut the console prices. They are definitely not doing it just to offer people cheaper products while they record losses - which means that, until now, we've basically bought more expensive stuff just because? At least that's the feeling I have.
Anyway, following this price cut, analysts estimate that global Xbox 360 sales will drop 40 percent in the fiscal year 2008 (to 9.1 million), while Sony's PlayStations will jump 47 percent to 14 million units and Nintendo's Wii 26 percent to 24 million. Of course, these predictions might very well turn out to be wrong.
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Team Ninja announced that a free demo of their upcoming game "Ninja Gaiden 2" is coming onto Xbox Live in May. With 'Ninja Gaiden' easily a cult classic, and one of the best-known games on the original Xbox, this is what Team Ninja said about the sequel: "Built from the ground-up for Xbox 360, 'Ninja Gaiden 2' is the long-awaited sequel to the blockbuster hit, 'Ninja Gaiden'.
Get your hands on the free demo coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace in May, and guide 'Ryu' on his mission to avenge his clan!" The Web's reportedly already seen a couple of game videos of this much-awaited sever-head-torso-type organic game, and gamers look satisfied on the whole.The biggest splash of the week was the announcement of a new "GTA 4" trailer by Rockstar. Christened "Everyone's a Rat", the trailer features some hilarious footage from "GTA 4". And while it may be true that every GTA trailer generates more press than Paris Hilton and her sex romps (which is a good sign for humanity), "GTA 4" looks really good, going by sheer trailer. The game boasts some cool new features including the 'Social Hub'.Clearly, Rockstar's attempt at tapping into a very-wide social market created by the likes of Second Life, YouTube, and World of Warcraft (WoW), the 'Rockstar Club' though is as different from these as chalk from cheese. Each and every "GTA 4" gamer on the Xbox or the PS3 will be able to register with the 'Social Hub'. And here's sampling some of the highlights of this hub: 'LCPD Police Blotter', a virtual map and tracker of all single-player criminal activity logged within Liberty City and a reflection of the most dangerous spots, weapons, et al; 'Story Gang', a special single-player leader-board recognizing players who complete our hero -- Niko Bellic's main story arc of "GTA 4"; '100% Club', an area recognizing the first ten players who complete 100 percent of the game; 'Hall of Fame', an area recognizing all those singularly elite players who've reached top-of-the-heap status on various leader-boards; and 'Liberty City Marathon', a statistic ranking physical milestones achieved in the game that range from the number of miles walked or driven or swum - to the number of bullets fired or the number of stunt jumps performed.
Get your hands on the free demo coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace in May, and guide 'Ryu' on his mission to avenge his clan!" The Web's reportedly already seen a couple of game videos of this much-awaited sever-head-torso-type organic game, and gamers look satisfied on the whole.The biggest splash of the week was the announcement of a new "GTA 4" trailer by Rockstar. Christened "Everyone's a Rat", the trailer features some hilarious footage from "GTA 4". And while it may be true that every GTA trailer generates more press than Paris Hilton and her sex romps (which is a good sign for humanity), "GTA 4" looks really good, going by sheer trailer. The game boasts some cool new features including the 'Social Hub'.Clearly, Rockstar's attempt at tapping into a very-wide social market created by the likes of Second Life, YouTube, and World of Warcraft (WoW), the 'Rockstar Club' though is as different from these as chalk from cheese. Each and every "GTA 4" gamer on the Xbox or the PS3 will be able to register with the 'Social Hub'. And here's sampling some of the highlights of this hub: 'LCPD Police Blotter', a virtual map and tracker of all single-player criminal activity logged within Liberty City and a reflection of the most dangerous spots, weapons, et al; 'Story Gang', a special single-player leader-board recognizing players who complete our hero -- Niko Bellic's main story arc of "GTA 4"; '100% Club', an area recognizing the first ten players who complete 100 percent of the game; 'Hall of Fame', an area recognizing all those singularly elite players who've reached top-of-the-heap status on various leader-boards; and 'Liberty City Marathon', a statistic ranking physical milestones achieved in the game that range from the number of miles walked or driven or swum - to the number of bullets fired or the number of stunt jumps performed.Read d rest...
Revival for PDA and Smartphones is a new turn-based military strategy game in the vein of Civilization, the now legendary game for desktop PC. Developed by HeroCraft, Revival is set to offer gamers many hours (or days) of both adventure and fun.
Those familiar with strategy games probably won't find Revival too difficult to understand, but I'm not sure about those not accustomed to strategy scenarios.
Anyway, once you get used to Revival's interface, everything should go much easier. Which doesn’t mean you’ll easily win the battles with the enemy clans, but only that you will "move" inside the game more naturally. To help you do that, the game has a comprehensive tutorial that I advise you to check.
As any professionally-made game, Revival comes with support for several other
languages besides English, including Deutsch (German), Italian, Spanish and Russian.
Playing mode
Revival comes with three playing modes: "Easy", "Not that easy" and simply "Not easy" (which I obviously don’t recommend for those playing for the first time), and you can play in Single mode or start a Campaign.
In the Single player mode you can choose to fight against a variable number of enemy clans (from two to six), and you have no less than seven planets to play on: Rainbow, Hyperborea, Ocean, Death Zone, Godsend, Sunbay and Mountain. Well, they’re not as different from each other as I’ve expected, but still, they are not similar.
Theoretically, winning in the Single player mode is simple: gather resources, research new technologies, advance to new eras and make better units, then kill all your enemies; or, if you reach the ultimate era of technological progress, built a Teleport and the game will be won. Practically, the easiness in winning depends upon your skills – and apparently mine have proved to be quite shameful :)
The game's graphics are not among its highlights, but they're decent and do not affect negatively the playing process. Also, the music and sounds are pretty nice, and their settings can be changed according to your preferences.
If you play Revival from a Pocket PC (which I did while reviewing), any unit can be controlled either by the navigation keys or by stylus, depending on how you will find it easier.
The gold is mine in the mine
For the beginning, in both Single player mode and in the Campaign, you can get resources just by walking around with your most valuable but at the same time weaker unit: the Emissary of the Great Clans. You can even go in circles over a restrained full-of-resources area and your "stocks" will constantly grow. The Emissary won’t get dizzy even if you do this for an unlimited time. Scout’s honor.
Of course, for getting bigger amounts of gold and minerals, you will have to train workers. Workers who follow a simple but useful life philosophy based on their "The gold is mine in the mine" song (there’s actually no song with this title, not in Revival and nor in reality, but this is one of the many funny references found throughout the game). One thing to do before setting a mine: check the terrain info, to make sure there are actually resources to mine for over there.
After advancing with the game, you will get to train many new units, starting with immigrants (which are important because they help you build new cities), archers and knights, and finishing with tanks and robots.
Execute them
When reaching a high number of soldiers and workers, if you don’t want to control a unit anymore, you simply put it on "Defend" mode, and it will stay in the same place until you move it again (or until it’s discovered and killed by the enemies).
If you don’t want to own a building anymore, you can destroy it. Also, you can execute any of your units (except the Emissary). The main reason why one would want to take these radical actions is the fact that some resources will be given after the selected unit dies or the selected building collapses.
A good advice is to make sure you always keep some soldiers in all of your cities garrisons, to prevent foes from conquering them. Also, never ever go into the enemy territory with the Emissary of the Great Clans. He’s not at all prepared for any kind of combat engagement and he’ll quickly die if any of the enemy units attacks him. His death means the game is over, which you surely don't want to happen.
With the power of non-logics, you win
Revival also has some negative aspects. For example, sometimes the fights are illogically won, as weaker units can kill stronger ones. Moreover, you can’t build two buildings at the same time in the same town, which will only delay your plans to advance and get better units. Another thing I found to be not too nice is that the game doesn’t work in landscape mode, but this is actually not such a big deal.
Conclusion
Although it can be annoying at times, Revival is a pretty good game that can become addictive if you generally like turn-based military strategy adventures. Besides the game's resemblance with Civilization, I also found similarities with the Age of Empires series as well as with Heroes of Might and Magic. Therefore, those who enjoyed (or still enjoy) these titles will most probably enjoy Revival too. I know I did.
Price and demo version
Revival can be bought at prices between $9.99 and $24.99 (depending on the platform you get it for). Demo versions of the game can be downloaded from the following links:
* Pocket PC
* Smartphone
* Palm OS
* Symbian S60
* Symbian S60 3rd Edition
* Symbian UIQ
* Symbian UIQ3
Those familiar with strategy games probably won't find Revival too difficult to understand, but I'm not sure about those not accustomed to strategy scenarios.
Anyway, once you get used to Revival's interface, everything should go much easier. Which doesn’t mean you’ll easily win the battles with the enemy clans, but only that you will "move" inside the game more naturally. To help you do that, the game has a comprehensive tutorial that I advise you to check.As any professionally-made game, Revival comes with support for several other
languages besides English, including Deutsch (German), Italian, Spanish and Russian.
Playing mode
Revival comes with three playing modes: "Easy", "Not that easy" and simply "Not easy" (which I obviously don’t recommend for those playing for the first time), and you can play in Single mode or start a Campaign.
In the Single player mode you can choose to fight against a variable number of enemy clans (from two to six), and you have no less than seven planets to play on: Rainbow, Hyperborea, Ocean, Death Zone, Godsend, Sunbay and Mountain. Well, they’re not as different from each other as I’ve expected, but still, they are not similar.
Theoretically, winning in the Single player mode is simple: gather resources, research new technologies, advance to new eras and make better units, then kill all your enemies; or, if you reach the ultimate era of technological progress, built a Teleport and the game will be won. Practically, the easiness in winning depends upon your skills – and apparently mine have proved to be quite shameful :)
The game's graphics are not among its highlights, but they're decent and do not affect negatively the playing process. Also, the music and sounds are pretty nice, and their settings can be changed according to your preferences.
If you play Revival from a Pocket PC (which I did while reviewing), any unit can be controlled either by the navigation keys or by stylus, depending on how you will find it easier.
The gold is mine in the mine
For the beginning, in both Single player mode and in the Campaign, you can get resources just by walking around with your most valuable but at the same time weaker unit: the Emissary of the Great Clans. You can even go in circles over a restrained full-of-resources area and your "stocks" will constantly grow. The Emissary won’t get dizzy even if you do this for an unlimited time. Scout’s honor.
Of course, for getting bigger amounts of gold and minerals, you will have to train workers. Workers who follow a simple but useful life philosophy based on their "The gold is mine in the mine" song (there’s actually no song with this title, not in Revival and nor in reality, but this is one of the many funny references found throughout the game). One thing to do before setting a mine: check the terrain info, to make sure there are actually resources to mine for over there.
After advancing with the game, you will get to train many new units, starting with immigrants (which are important because they help you build new cities), archers and knights, and finishing with tanks and robots.
Execute them
When reaching a high number of soldiers and workers, if you don’t want to control a unit anymore, you simply put it on "Defend" mode, and it will stay in the same place until you move it again (or until it’s discovered and killed by the enemies).
If you don’t want to own a building anymore, you can destroy it. Also, you can execute any of your units (except the Emissary). The main reason why one would want to take these radical actions is the fact that some resources will be given after the selected unit dies or the selected building collapses.
A good advice is to make sure you always keep some soldiers in all of your cities garrisons, to prevent foes from conquering them. Also, never ever go into the enemy territory with the Emissary of the Great Clans. He’s not at all prepared for any kind of combat engagement and he’ll quickly die if any of the enemy units attacks him. His death means the game is over, which you surely don't want to happen.
With the power of non-logics, you win
Revival also has some negative aspects. For example, sometimes the fights are illogically won, as weaker units can kill stronger ones. Moreover, you can’t build two buildings at the same time in the same town, which will only delay your plans to advance and get better units. Another thing I found to be not too nice is that the game doesn’t work in landscape mode, but this is actually not such a big deal.
Conclusion
Although it can be annoying at times, Revival is a pretty good game that can become addictive if you generally like turn-based military strategy adventures. Besides the game's resemblance with Civilization, I also found similarities with the Age of Empires series as well as with Heroes of Might and Magic. Therefore, those who enjoyed (or still enjoy) these titles will most probably enjoy Revival too. I know I did.
Price and demo version
Revival can be bought at prices between $9.99 and $24.99 (depending on the platform you get it for). Demo versions of the game can be downloaded from the following links:
* Pocket PC
* Smartphone
* Palm OS
* Symbian S60
* Symbian S60 3rd Edition
* Symbian UIQ
* Symbian UIQ3
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Remember 50 Cent: Bulletproof? Remember how much that game sucked? Yeah well apparently it sold really well so Vivendi Universal are back with a sequel called 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.
By Blood on the Sand they don’t mean the sand of a beach resort cos that would be way too mellow for Fiddy and his band of badass thugs AKA Gggggg G unit. This time around these player haters actually find themselves stuck in a war torn unnamed Middle Eastern country after one of their concerts gets fudged. As expected tons of F Bombs, rapping, bling and terrorist killing ensue.The game is being developed by Swordfish Studios (Cold Winter) using the Unreal 3 engine and will include a bullet time mechanic called Gangster Fire that as the name suggests will allow Fiddy to blast fools in glorious slow motion. Also expect a cover system a la Gears of War and context sensitive games a la God of War. More details to be revealed soon.
By Blood on the Sand they don’t mean the sand of a beach resort cos that would be way too mellow for Fiddy and his band of badass thugs AKA Gggggg G unit. This time around these player haters actually find themselves stuck in a war torn unnamed Middle Eastern country after one of their concerts gets fudged. As expected tons of F Bombs, rapping, bling and terrorist killing ensue.The game is being developed by Swordfish Studios (Cold Winter) using the Unreal 3 engine and will include a bullet time mechanic called Gangster Fire that as the name suggests will allow Fiddy to blast fools in glorious slow motion. Also expect a cover system a la Gears of War and context sensitive games a la God of War. More details to be revealed soon.Read d rest...
Who would have ever thought that there would ever be a market for gaming mice? I guess no one ever thought World of Warcraft would ever take off the way it did.
I never did like the controls on those MMORPG games, and it’s only natural someone made them simpler.
For example, Belkin, a company famous for tech accessories, has created the n52te, a gaming mouse with tagline of “Built for speed. Built to Dominate. Built to Destroy”. Dang! It sounds like the n52te is designed for MMORPGs, but it is also created for FPS or RTS games.The n52te has 15 fully programmable keys that are completely customizable, so a gamer can do very quick things at the touch of a button. There is also a programmable 8-way thumb-pad with a removable joystick. The user can also easily toggle between 3 keymap states.
In short, this lets a gamer really get into the game. It appears that ergonomics were also in mind in this design. There is an adjustable soft-touch wrist pad for comfort, and nonslip rubber pads to grip in place.
All that, and it has that way cool cobalt blue backlighting, so you can play in the dark. Right now, I don’t have a release date for this product, but the price is about $69.99.
I never did like the controls on those MMORPG games, and it’s only natural someone made them simpler.For example, Belkin, a company famous for tech accessories, has created the n52te, a gaming mouse with tagline of “Built for speed. Built to Dominate. Built to Destroy”. Dang! It sounds like the n52te is designed for MMORPGs, but it is also created for FPS or RTS games.The n52te has 15 fully programmable keys that are completely customizable, so a gamer can do very quick things at the touch of a button. There is also a programmable 8-way thumb-pad with a removable joystick. The user can also easily toggle between 3 keymap states.
In short, this lets a gamer really get into the game. It appears that ergonomics were also in mind in this design. There is an adjustable soft-touch wrist pad for comfort, and nonslip rubber pads to grip in place.
All that, and it has that way cool cobalt blue backlighting, so you can play in the dark. Right now, I don’t have a release date for this product, but the price is about $69.99.
Read d rest...
When you think of movie-to-game conversions, bastardizations of Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Die Hard franchise come to mind. Although this TV series-to-game conversion does really well as far as presentation is concerned, under all the eye candy lies an extremely bland and boring experience.
Most of you who watched the television series are probably wondering where the story fits into the grand scheme of things. Well, quite simply, it doesn’t. The story of Via Domus is somewhat of an alternate storyline with a few of the same characters from the series – such as John, Charlie, Sawyer, Michael and everyone’s beloved Hurley. You play the role of a press photographer, who's (like in every other adventure game) lost his memory. You uncover things about your past as you move along, and in the process find out a few more things about the island.The game is divided into seven episodes which play out similar to the TV series – every episode ends with the Lost logo, followed by a painfully unnecessary recap of what you’ve done over the last few minutes, which marks the beginning of the next episode. I can understand that that they’ve tried to keep the game as true to the series as possible and make it feel like you’re playing a TV show; but this feature just comes in the way of the gameplay and slows the (already snail-like) pace of the game to a grinding halt.
As if that wasn’t painful enough, you encounter circuit puzzles throughout the game that require you to fit different ‘fuses’ into circuits to change the voltage of current flow to a specific number. It may sound a little daunting, but they’re simple as hell. The problem with them, however, is that they feel like they’re been shoved into the game just for the heck of adding a little flavor to the blandness. The result is that you’ll find yourself scouring the surroundings looking for fuses more often than you’d like to.
Most of you who watched the television series are probably wondering where the story fits into the grand scheme of things. Well, quite simply, it doesn’t. The story of Via Domus is somewhat of an alternate storyline with a few of the same characters from the series – such as John, Charlie, Sawyer, Michael and everyone’s beloved Hurley. You play the role of a press photographer, who's (like in every other adventure game) lost his memory. You uncover things about your past as you move along, and in the process find out a few more things about the island.The game is divided into seven episodes which play out similar to the TV series – every episode ends with the Lost logo, followed by a painfully unnecessary recap of what you’ve done over the last few minutes, which marks the beginning of the next episode. I can understand that that they’ve tried to keep the game as true to the series as possible and make it feel like you’re playing a TV show; but this feature just comes in the way of the gameplay and slows the (already snail-like) pace of the game to a grinding halt.
As if that wasn’t painful enough, you encounter circuit puzzles throughout the game that require you to fit different ‘fuses’ into circuits to change the voltage of current flow to a specific number. It may sound a little daunting, but they’re simple as hell. The problem with them, however, is that they feel like they’re been shoved into the game just for the heck of adding a little flavor to the blandness. The result is that you’ll find yourself scouring the surroundings looking for fuses more often than you’d like to.Read d rest...
If you were wondering about the Sins of a Solar Empire title that Stardock's CEO talked about in his rant about PC game piracy, now's your chance to sample it. Stardock has made a single-player demo of the game available, and you can grab it over at FileShack.
The demo weighs in at 536MB, and it contains 90 minutes of playing time spanning four tutorials, two smaller maps, and one larger randomly generated map from the real-time strategy space game.According to Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, Sins was developed on a small budget and comes with no copy protection, yet it sold 200,000 copies in its first month of release. Wardell names the game as an example of how titles developed with actual game buyers in mind can do better than those developed for hardcore gamers, a sizable portion of whom are also pirates.
The demo weighs in at 536MB, and it contains 90 minutes of playing time spanning four tutorials, two smaller maps, and one larger randomly generated map from the real-time strategy space game.According to Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, Sins was developed on a small budget and comes with no copy protection, yet it sold 200,000 copies in its first month of release. Wardell names the game as an example of how titles developed with actual game buyers in mind can do better than those developed for hardcore gamers, a sizable portion of whom are also pirates.Read d rest...
After the retro Magnum PI game that Ojom recently launched for the mobile their latest action packed adventure game was out of this world, in literal terms. Ojom GmbH, announced the launch of the mobile game adaptation of Men in Black – Alien Assault.
The game’s storyline features unidentified creatures who are causing havoc. The mission is to head up an investigation to find evidence of alien invaders causing it. The first lead brings you to New York city and so on. Equipped with lasers and other alien butt-kicking hardware and let’s not forget the ever-loving Neuralizer to wipe clean the minds of witnesses, the game, I’m sure would be quite a thrill for the franchise fans. Players can also uncover alien artifacts, secrets and new weapons as they progress through the game.Marc Busse, Sales Manager at Ojom GmbH, said, "With all the action of the hit movie on your mobile phone, you can hunt down aliens and solve crimes along the way. Men in Black – Alien Assault is an exhilarating game packed with power ups, secret levels, freaky weapons and a world threatening alien conspiracy. And this time it’s up to us to save the planet and kick some alien butt."
The game’s storyline features unidentified creatures who are causing havoc. The mission is to head up an investigation to find evidence of alien invaders causing it. The first lead brings you to New York city and so on. Equipped with lasers and other alien butt-kicking hardware and let’s not forget the ever-loving Neuralizer to wipe clean the minds of witnesses, the game, I’m sure would be quite a thrill for the franchise fans. Players can also uncover alien artifacts, secrets and new weapons as they progress through the game.Marc Busse, Sales Manager at Ojom GmbH, said, "With all the action of the hit movie on your mobile phone, you can hunt down aliens and solve crimes along the way. Men in Black – Alien Assault is an exhilarating game packed with power ups, secret levels, freaky weapons and a world threatening alien conspiracy. And this time it’s up to us to save the planet and kick some alien butt."Read d rest...
Doing things in high definition takes longer. We all know that. The average car in Gran Turismo 4 was made up of over 4,000 polygons. The figure for GT5 Prologue is meant to be higher than 200,000. Being pretty goes a long way, but with 71 cars and just six tracks (High Speed Ring, Daytona, Fuji Speedway, Eiger Nordwand from Gran Turismo HD Concept, Suzuka Circuit and a section of central London), it will have to go a very long way, right?
That's not a lot of content, even when you factor in a second variation of each track. GT4 had 721 cars. GT5 Prologue launches in Europe with 71. We may be 11 million polygons ahead, but we're 650 cars behind.
Fortunately, Prologue does a lot with the means at its disposal. 30 race events are split evenly across three classes. Initially you're hauling cheap Suzukis and Hondas to the front of 8 to 12-car packs for two or three laps, reinvesting the prize purse in faster cars. As the field thickens with Skylines, Imprezas, Mustangs and Ford GTs, you're asked to go further, the AI pushing you harder.Complete A-Class and you unlock a Quick Tune feature - new for the European Prologue - that lets you adjust weight ratios, aerodynamics, ride heights, camber angles, torque balance, gear ratios and other performance-related settings, with your work graded against a performance index. You can make real-time performance adjustments during races by assigning custom configurations to buttons on the Sixaxis or Driving Force GT wheel, and a further run of ten S-Class events specifically for tuned cars pushes you harder still, penalising you for ramming or taking shortcuts, in a field of 16 cars just as if not more tricked out than yours. Even if you coast through A-Class, S-Class will force you to regroup and work out what all the dials do.
'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' Screenshot 1
When you buy a car, it drives out of the dark toward you and brakes suddenly as threatening music plays. Nobody tell Audi's ads company.
To get that far takes over a dozen hours, and you probably have fewer cars than that in your garage when you do. You can also race in Manufacturer-specific races, hidden away in the Dealership screens, for extra credits. Then there's Arcade mode, where you can tackle any of the game's tracks in whichever configuration you like, with any vehicle, either as a one-off race, a Time Trial, or a Drift Trial. Drift Trial is what kept us picking away at Gran Turismo HD Concept for so long, throwing the back out around Eiger Nordwand and watching videos of scarily dedicated Japanese gamers doing the same thing more effectively on YouTube and trying to copy them. Now you can do it with far more cars, and a range of tuning options, on six tracks. Also new to the European Prologue is two-player, horizontal split-screen racing, which works without any obvious dip in performance.
On the track, those 200,000 polygons glide through turns at 60 frames-per-second, a few slight dips excepted, in the promised 1080p resolution. A lot of them must have gone into the car interior, from where you can now view the action if you prefer, watching your driver's gloved hands gently correcting slides and reaching for the gear-stick, and looking over your shoulder past stupidly accurate rear spoilers. The weather is consistently bright and cheery, limiting track conditions but allowing you to gawp at reflections crawling realistically over the bodywork of cars ahead of you and in your mirrors. As you steer and brake through the first corner at Suzuka, the shadows move across your dashboard and body, and as you exit the tunnel on High Speed Ring the sunshine blinds you until the detail emerges from the glare.
'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' Screenshot 2
Event mode consists of races as well as the odd time trial or overlap challenge.
GT's visuals are sometimes accused of lacking personality - a perception reinforced by its robotic artificial intelligence. On the latter point, rolling starts do away with your ability to bully opponents out of the way on the first corner, although the cars remain completely invincible, so it's still an annoyingly useful tactic unless the foul-play penalties are active to throttle you back for a few seconds when you misbehave. On the whole though opposition defends the racing line more aggressively, and the combination of high speeds and unforgiving physics mean it's impractical to block using your rear-view. As for personality, few mainstream racing games - Forza now excepted - demand as much braking skill and obedience to the racing line.
That's not a lot of content, even when you factor in a second variation of each track. GT4 had 721 cars. GT5 Prologue launches in Europe with 71. We may be 11 million polygons ahead, but we're 650 cars behind.Fortunately, Prologue does a lot with the means at its disposal. 30 race events are split evenly across three classes. Initially you're hauling cheap Suzukis and Hondas to the front of 8 to 12-car packs for two or three laps, reinvesting the prize purse in faster cars. As the field thickens with Skylines, Imprezas, Mustangs and Ford GTs, you're asked to go further, the AI pushing you harder.Complete A-Class and you unlock a Quick Tune feature - new for the European Prologue - that lets you adjust weight ratios, aerodynamics, ride heights, camber angles, torque balance, gear ratios and other performance-related settings, with your work graded against a performance index. You can make real-time performance adjustments during races by assigning custom configurations to buttons on the Sixaxis or Driving Force GT wheel, and a further run of ten S-Class events specifically for tuned cars pushes you harder still, penalising you for ramming or taking shortcuts, in a field of 16 cars just as if not more tricked out than yours. Even if you coast through A-Class, S-Class will force you to regroup and work out what all the dials do.
'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' Screenshot 1
When you buy a car, it drives out of the dark toward you and brakes suddenly as threatening music plays. Nobody tell Audi's ads company.
To get that far takes over a dozen hours, and you probably have fewer cars than that in your garage when you do. You can also race in Manufacturer-specific races, hidden away in the Dealership screens, for extra credits. Then there's Arcade mode, where you can tackle any of the game's tracks in whichever configuration you like, with any vehicle, either as a one-off race, a Time Trial, or a Drift Trial. Drift Trial is what kept us picking away at Gran Turismo HD Concept for so long, throwing the back out around Eiger Nordwand and watching videos of scarily dedicated Japanese gamers doing the same thing more effectively on YouTube and trying to copy them. Now you can do it with far more cars, and a range of tuning options, on six tracks. Also new to the European Prologue is two-player, horizontal split-screen racing, which works without any obvious dip in performance.
On the track, those 200,000 polygons glide through turns at 60 frames-per-second, a few slight dips excepted, in the promised 1080p resolution. A lot of them must have gone into the car interior, from where you can now view the action if you prefer, watching your driver's gloved hands gently correcting slides and reaching for the gear-stick, and looking over your shoulder past stupidly accurate rear spoilers. The weather is consistently bright and cheery, limiting track conditions but allowing you to gawp at reflections crawling realistically over the bodywork of cars ahead of you and in your mirrors. As you steer and brake through the first corner at Suzuka, the shadows move across your dashboard and body, and as you exit the tunnel on High Speed Ring the sunshine blinds you until the detail emerges from the glare.
'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' Screenshot 2
Event mode consists of races as well as the odd time trial or overlap challenge.
GT's visuals are sometimes accused of lacking personality - a perception reinforced by its robotic artificial intelligence. On the latter point, rolling starts do away with your ability to bully opponents out of the way on the first corner, although the cars remain completely invincible, so it's still an annoyingly useful tactic unless the foul-play penalties are active to throttle you back for a few seconds when you misbehave. On the whole though opposition defends the racing line more aggressively, and the combination of high speeds and unforgiving physics mean it's impractical to block using your rear-view. As for personality, few mainstream racing games - Forza now excepted - demand as much braking skill and obedience to the racing line.
Read d rest...
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