Monday, November 24, 2008

GAMERS NETWORK FOR CIVIL WAR

Players convene both at the UO and Oregon State University to do battle in an inaugural 24-hour tournament

It’s probably the quietest Civil War party in history.
Computer game enthusiasts of all types congregated Saturday at the
University of Oregon’s Erb Memorial Union ballroom for the inaugural Civil War LAN — a 24-hour Local Area Network gaming party in which players from the UO competed against rival gamers from Oregon State University. The event, staged a week before the annual UO-OSU Civil War football game, is believed to be the first intercollegiate LAN tournament connecting computer gamers from two schools through one network.
There was no yelling, no cheering … only the clicking sounds of fingers hitting computer keyboards and pressing mice. Players were required to wear headphones, which effectively muffled the action sounds of the games.
Players at each school were scheduled to compete in four tournaments, with the top two teams from each school playing each other today.
Seventy-five seats had been pre-registered at the UO, and by early afternoon organizers said they already had 15 walk-up gamers. A lot of the participants registered by nickname, volunteer coordinator Patrick Chinn said.
“It’s part of the geekery involved,” he added.
Throughout the dimly lit ballroom, glowing computer cases and mice could be seen. Some gamers had “dressed up” their computer cases by adding blue LED lights or a window to show off the internal hardware. Chinn compared it to teens and their cars in the 1950s. They buy them, fix them up and make them neat and cool, he said. Most people he knows, he said, create their computers part by part, focusing on buying a high-end video card. However, someone who buys an entire completed system could easily spend $2,000 to $3,000, he said.

Nineteen-year-old Steven Winkler drove from Hermiston to Eugene on Friday to meet up with friends who are UO students. He brought his computer, keyboard, mouse and headphones, which cost him close to $1,000, he estimated. His computer case was yellow, his favorite color. He painted the inside black to “dress it up” and calls it the bumblebee case, he said.
Winkler has been computer gaming for five years, he said, and gaming in general for eight years.
His current favorite game is “Call of Duty 4,” categorized as a first-person shooter game. Winkler said he’s more into the first-person shooter style games than other games but, he added, he’ll try anything.
“I’ve basically played it all, or tried it,” he said.
UO senior Elise Smilek, 22, was one of a few females at the tournament. She came with her fiance and his brother, and said she’s been gaming “forever,” playing different games on and off. She was playing “World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold )” on Saturday and said she likes it because you can earn better equipment as you move up in levels. The rewards are really nice items, she said, adding that she can make her character prettier.
Smilek plays first-person shooter style games, too, but doesn’t like them as much, she said.
Smilek was planning to stay up all night, reasoning that she’d paid to be a part of the tournament and would have today to recuperate.
“I might as well (stay up),” she said.
As the coordinator, Chinn figured he’d be getting about two hours of sleep at some point during the night.
Chinn spent 7½ hours setting up Friday and arrived at the ballroom at 9 a.m. Saturday for a noon start. Most of his time is spent trouble­shooting and keeping things running smoothly. If Chinn gets to play for more than 20 minutes throughout the entire 24 hours he’ll be lucky, he said.
“It’s fun and low-key in its own way,” Chinn said.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:31:08 | Permalink | No Comments »

Black Friday deals

Published: Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 4:
21 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 10:31 a.m.
Although I did stick my head into the Petaluma GameStop long enough to pick up “Rock Band” last year, I’ve never been much of a day-after-Thanksgiving shopper. But sometimes it’s hard to resist the draw of the deal. Judging from Black Friday retail flyers posted at blackfriday.info, there aren’t any slam-dunk gaming deals that’ll get you to wait in line before stores open, but if you’re already out shopping, there’s money to be saved.
On the software side of things, don’t expect to find many savings on big fall titles like “Gears of War II,” “Fallout 3,” “Resistance 2″ or “Animal Crossing: City Folk.” Sure, those games will be advertised in flyers, but they’ll just be selling at the usual $50-$60 price point. There are, however, some great deals to be had on older titles.
Both Circuit City and Sears are selling the “Guitar Hero III” bundle including the game and a guitar controller for $55. Circuit City has PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions on sale Friday and Saturday, while Sears has the 360, PS3 and Wii bundles as a doorbuster deal, meaning they could sell out quickly. Bear in mind that if you own either of the two “Rock Band” games on Xbox 360 or any version of “Guitar Hero: World Tour,” the controller from “Guitar Hero III” can be used in your other music titles. Another Sears doorbuster has the department store offering 20 percent off all value games, but given that it’ll save you, at most, $6 a title, it’s probably not worth a special trip unless you’re planning on buying a bunch. Ubisoft’s “Imagine: Master Chef” for the DS, normally $35, can be had for $10.

If you’re looking for newer games, Target will sell you the guitar bundle of “Guitar Hero: World Tour” for the Wii for $60, a savings of $40. You can pick up just a wireless guitar for the Wii for $40. They’ve also got this generation’s best-reviewed racing game, “Burnout Paradise” (Xbox 360 or PS3), for $20; “Dead Space” (Xbox 360 or PS3) for $30; Steven Spielberg-created puzzler “Boom Blox” (Wii) for $20; Xbox 360 exclusives “Halo 3″ and “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” for $30; and “Mercenaries 2″ (Xbox 360 or PS3) for $40.
Circuit City has some deep discounts on older, well-reviewed titles. You can nab “BioShock” or “The Orange Box” for Xbox 360 for $20, “Cooking Mama” for the DS for $10, “Resident Evil 4″ for PS2 for $10, “Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories” for the PlayStation Portable for $10 and “Dead Rising” for the Xbox 360 for $10, among others. On the PC, “World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold )” is going for $10, not including the subscription fee.
Kmart has a buy-one, get-one-free offer on various educational games for the LeapFrog and V.Smile systems.
Hardware
You’re not going to find many sales on game consoles or handhelds themselves, but Dell.com is tossing in a free copy of “Rock Band 2″ if you buy the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle at regular price ($200). Bear in mind, though, that the Arcade bundle comes with a low-capacity memory unit rather than the 60 gigabyte hard drive that comes with the Pro bundle. You’ll definitely be missing some functionality if you go that route, but it’s the only way you’ll get a current-generation game console for $200 this holiday season.
Target is giving away a $60 gift card if you buy the $300 Pro version of the Xbox 360. If you buy an Xbox 360 at Sears, they’ll throw in a free wireless controller, a $50 value.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:30:04 | Permalink | No Comments »

Atlantica Online Review November 23, 2008 by Joshua O’Neal

Atlantica Online is a new MMO from the Korean developer Ndoors who also have a North American studio called Ndoors Interactive. Atlantica Online unlike most, if not all, massively multi player online role playing games takes a different route by using the turn-based battle system much like the Final Fantasy series. A lot of Korean MMO’s have come over to the states, but none have really caught on as much as the developers would like. It’s possible that Atlantica Online could break this mold with its ability to offer something different than World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold )and its clones.
GamePlay
Once you’ve created your avatar in the game you start off in your dream where you find out you are a descendant of Atlantis and your blood has great power. In your dream you meet three sisters who represent logic, passion, and emotion. The dream world acts as a tutorial that teaches you how to move around the world, recruit mercenaries, and take part in battles. After the dream tutorial is over, you can then choose from four or five starter zones to begin your adventure.
The battle system, like I mentioned before, is turn based much like an old school Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest game. Each turn gives you a limited amount of time, which makes the battles go by quickly. The way you loot enemies in this game is a bit different from anything I have ever played. Instead of killing a mob and then looting his corpse after, the game gives you four turns to loot a dead body before it disappears. I also encountered some enemies that would revive the dead if you didn’t loot fast enough. If you die in Atlantica Online there aren’t any corpse runs, instead your resurrected where you died and penalized with the loss of gold and experience.
When questing out in the world you can use the mini-map to either run to find your next objective or press the auto-move button which will take control of your character and run them over to your next quest. This means if you’re having trouble finding a certain rat to kill eight times then hit the auto-move button and it the computer will take you to where you need to be. There is also a “help required” button on the mini-map that lets you ask a question to everyone in the game. For example, I had five health potions that I wanted to split between my party members but didn’t know how. I asked the question and a bit later got my answer via an instant message much like AIM or Yahoo Messenger. To give the player base an incentive to answer these questions you get a reward each time you answer a players question. Another way to get the word out about what you’re selling or that your guild is recruiting is to use the in-game forum that scrolls at the top of your screen. It cost 1000 gold to post on the in-game forum and it was mainly used to post the popular movie quote “Why so serious?”

Unlike WoW, in AO you can recruit mercenaries to fight alongside you in battles. Not only can you name your mercenaries, but they also gain experience and level up alongside you. When starting a new character you can choose from three different types of mercs like the Swordsman, the Spearman, and the Archer. These all have different roles such as the swordsman having more health and defense which is best suited on the front line. Just like in Final Fantasy, you can choose to have your party members in the front or back row.
AO takes the usual Korean MMO route by making the game free to play, but offers micro transactions for things such as potions, teleportation scrolls back to cities you’ve visited, or a license to increase the amount of mercenaries you can hire. You use Gcoins to buy items and $1=100Gcoins. Most if not all items cost range goes from $2 to $20 with various packages costing the most. These packages include things such as the teleportation license which you can also buy separately.
Graphics
This game has that Korean development style and I think it works well with the game. Colorful zones and intricate character detail makes up some of the best assets of this game visually. Honestly, I think this game looks better than some of the console role-playing games we have been seeing this generation. They aren’t many complaints I have about the graphics. The game could run on just about any machine and still pulls off the fantasy theme better than some top tier MMO games.
Sound
Ah, the familiar sound of a fantasy RPG. Don’t expect anything epic in music quality, but the good thing is that nothing is overly annoying or takes you out of the experience. The music in battles are a mixture between Blue Dragon and the N64 version of F-Zero. That’s right, expect more flailing guitar riffs and outlandish solos to infiltrate your turn-based battles.
Plasma Factor
There are two things I love about this game more than anything else. One is that real countries and cities are presented in the game. The starting zone I chose was in
Japan so one of the first things I did was run to Tokyo. Upon reaching the gates to the city I was greeted with a message that said “Kon-nichi wa! Welcome to Tokyo ~ Please feel free to rest like home =).” Other cities in the game include Baghdad, London, Rome, and Hong Kong. The only continent not represented in the game is North America which is disappointing for someone who lives in the states. I found out that guilds can run towns so just imagine a Korean player owning Los Angeles or Seattle.
Another thing that I adore about the game is that I kept receiving gifts from random players. This isn’t odd in these types of games but usually you have to be a half naked Night Elf or Twi’lek dancing on a mailbox to get this type of attention.
Conclusion
Atlantica Online is free so there is no reason you should not give it a chance. It’s a casual friendly game and even caters to the console crowd with its turn-based combat and Final Fantasy aesthetic. If you miss the days where all RPG games were turn-based and character design wasn’t about spiky hair and emo personalities then you should give AO a shot. Atlantica Online has its faults, but compared to other MMOs it far exceeds expectations.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:27:58 | Permalink | No Comments »

World of Warcraft Celebrates Four Years

It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since Blizzard first opened the gates of Azeroth and let players become a part of the World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) . And yet, here we are. It was November 23rd, 2004 when Blizzard’s immensely popular MMO first went live, and the company is honoring the occasion by giving out presents to everyone who logs into the game today to celebrate.
WoW players who log into the game today will be greeted with a new achievement, “WoW’s 4th Anniversary”, as well as a new letter waiting in their character’s mailbox, which reads:
“Did you know that World of Warcraft is now four years old?
We wanted to send you something to say thanks for sharing this game with us. Sure, the 4th Anniversary is traditionally “flowers” … but in WoW, it’s “bear”.
With that said, please accept this furry little friend! Just remember to hold his fish by the tail, not the body … that mouth is bigger than it looks.
The WoW Dev Team”
Attached to the letter is a brand new vanity pet, the “Baby Blizzard Bear”. This little guy is unique to the user’s account, so feel free to share the polar bear love with your other characters, but just remember to grab him today. After all, you only turn four once.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:26:41 | Permalink | No Comments »

World of Warcraft Quest Helper - Power Leveling in the Lich King

Using a good World Of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) Quest Helper program for solo leveling through quests is the fastest way to power level in WoW.A World Of Warcraft Quest Helper is an in game addon module that installs into the WoW gaming interface and provides step by step questing details and directions. Basically they are WoW leveling guides that are now in the game instead of the old World Of Warcraft leveling guides you had to read along with as you played the game.What are the best WoW Quest Helper Programs?There are many different versions of quest helper programs available today for WoW and many will tell you they are all basically the same. As a long time player and avid power leveler I can tell you this is far from the truth.Like many players I started off using the free WoW quest helper programs only to become frustrated that they did not provide the information I was hoping to get from them.These free programs do not answer the questions many players have such as where to quest for a certain level range and exactly what is the most efficient paths to complete multiple quests for large experience gains.I have been using premium World Of Warcraft quest helper programs for a little over a year now and the difference is amazing. Being able to level a toon to the max levels in a matter of just days played time makes the game more enjoyable in many different ways.
Like many people I have a limited amount of time to play WoW and using a World Of Warcraft quest helper has allowed me to make the most of what playing time I have available.This means I can use my WoW quest helper to knock out my quests much faster and gain levels while leaving plenty of time to work professions, participate in battlegrounds and join group raiding. Most players spend the majority of their time trying to figure out how to grind out quests just to keep up with the leveling of their guildmates.Premium WoW quest helper programs not only provide detailed in game questing information, they also provide on screen directional arrows as well as map waypoints to leave no doubt exactly what you need to do to finish a quest.As you can imagine having this power leveling information right inside the game allows players to rapid run through large blocks of quest thus dramatically reducing leveling time.The newest and best quest helper programs for World Of Warcraft have already included the Northrend region added in the WotLK expansion as well as the Death Knight starting areas so you can use the program to power level a WoW Death Knight as well.We all pay Blizzard a monthly fee for the privledge of playing WoW. The least we can do is invest a little to make sure we are able to make the most of our precious playing time and still be able to enjoy all aspects of the game.What fun is it to have to spend every minute of playing time trying to figure out where to quest, what quests to being doing and how to complete them? Considering a inexpensive in game mod addon for WoW can provide all that information right in the game for us it seems like it would be a o brainer to pick one up.Of course I have been using them for awhile now so it makes sense to me.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:24:14 | Permalink | No Comments »