Posted on Dec 05, 2008 under Games Review, PC Games |
The Mystery Case Files series is back yet again for another compelling hidden object game that sets another level for this genre. Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst lets you again play as the famous agent as you travel back into Ravenhearst Manor trying to unravel deeper secrets after freeing Emma Ravenhearst in the previous game. But this time around, it will be more dangerous, more mysterious and even creepier than ever before experienced by your agent alter-ego.
After freeing Emma’s soul from the manor and failing your last case in the circus, it seems that you have a lot of trouble in your hands since you had also freed Charles Dalimar’s killing soul. Charles killed Emma from the previous game, but after Emma’s death, you are never certain on whether more restless souls were trapped inside this haunted mansion. But worse than all of these is that you’re life is now in danger too, and that’s why you have to solve this case fast before Charles’ soul comes back to haunt you.
Just as expected, Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst is really full of surprises from what we were used to play on its previous installments. This time around, you are free to explore the whole of Ravenhearst Manor as you like while playing puzzles, making scene interactions and finding hidden objects as you go. And what’s more convenient is the absence of a time limit, enabling you to explore the whole game as much as you like and penalizing your click spam by just making you lose control of the cursor for a brief period of time.
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Posted on Nov 28, 2008 under Games Review, Wii |
There are a lot of top Wii games that kids will enjoy playing. To be honest, most of the games that come out for the Wii are great. However, there are some that have been rated the best. So, what I’m going to do is share with you a list of the top Wii games for kids.
That way, you can get your kids the best games for their game system.
The top Wii games for kids are:
1. Mario Kart Wii. This is a great game for kids. Actually, it’s a great game for anyone. It’s a lot of fun.
2. Wii Fit. This is another great game. The cool thing about Wii Fit is it allows you to have fun while working out at the same time.
3. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Your kids will love this game. It’s a fun game if played alone, however it’s so much more fun if played with other people. So, if you have more than one child, this game is ideal for them.
4. Super Mario Galaxy. This is another great game. It’s probably one of the best Mario games out right now.
5. Guitar Hero. This is a very popular game. If you want you kids to have a lot of fun with their Wii, you should get them this game. I highly recommend it.
6. Super Paper Mario. Super Mario is a classic game that’s very popular. This game is fun. Your kids will definitely have a great time playing this game. To be honest, you will have fun playing this game, too. It’s an awesome game that you should buy.
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Posted on Nov 13, 2008 under Games Review, Wii |
Having the best Wii games is a must for anyone looking to experience the most excitement from their Wii. These games I’m going to list for you are fun. And not to mention, they are rated highly by most Wii owners. So, what I’m going to do is share with you the best Wii games.
That way, you will be able to get the most out of your Wii and enjoy playing only the best games.
Best Wii Games
1. Super Mario Galaxy. This is probably the most anticipated game for the Wii. It exceeded almost every gamers expectation. If you love Mario Bros., you will love this game.
2. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Another one of the best wii games. If you’ve played a previous Smash Bros. game, you will love this one. It’s so much better.
3. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This game is awesome. I highly recommend this to anyone who has ever played the previous Metroid games before.
4. The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Zelda lovers got to love this one. Link isn’t as cartoonish in this game, which to many gamers who rate this high, is a plus.
5. Wii Fit. I recommend this to anyone. This game will get you active. You will definitely get a good exercise with this one.
6. Super Paper Mario. Great game. Another Mario game that exceeded everyone’s expectation. Again, if you like any of the previous Mario Bros. games, you should get this one.
7. Guitar Hero III. Another great edition to the Guitar Hero games. This is a must-have for anyone who owns the previous Guitar Hero games.
8. Mario Strikers Charged Football. This is a really fun game. You will definitely enjoy it.
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Posted on Nov 07, 2008 under Games Review |
Mahjong will always be same old mahjong they say, and nothing can change that, but in Safari Island Deluxe, we get to see a new face in the same addictive mahjong gameplay. And yes, based from the name itself, this game features tons of wild animals and other safari-based stuff. But there’s more to tackle in this game besides the theme, and that’s what I aim to show you in this review.
Like what I had said earlier, Safari Island Deluxe actually plays like mahjong, but there’s an outstanding twist to the gameplay. Instead of matching two tiles of the same design, you have to match tiles that combine to form a picture. For example, two tiles will separately illustrate the head and tail of a snake. You have to combine both tiles to eliminate them from the game. Eliminate all tiles and you get to move on to the next level.
Your aim is to reach the end of the island while unlocking animal clouds along the way. Each level you finish will be ranked according to how well you did on that particular game. Removing all tiles will only rank you a bronze check mark, removing all tiles within the time limit is worth a silver check mark, and beating the target score set in each level will earn a whopping gold check mark. Now, while all of that sounds good, one complaint I have on this ranking system is how impossible it is to earn a gold mark on many of the levels. The target score is just too big and you have to be god-like fast in order to attain it.
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Posted on Nov 01, 2008 under Games Review |
I always envisioned being an FBI agent, but realizing now that time wouldn’t permit me to be one in real life, a game making you play like one would be nice. Thankfully, Art of Murder: FBI Confidential lets you play as an FBI agent, putting you inside the shoes of a newbie named Nicole Bonnet. But how it fares as an adventure game is a whole new story, and that’s what we’re about to find out in this review.
Art of Murder: FBI Confidential is a third person police story about a fresh graduate of the FBI Academy named Nicole Bonnet. Just like any other cliché police story, Nicole was also given a partner named James, who was later killed in cold blood, leaving Nicole alone in investigating a weird series of murders. Of course, you would rather want learning about the assassination of your partner, but you’ll soon realize that the story’s string of events is tied in a tight knot as well.
Just like any other adventure game, your objective is to investigate the murders and find clues and solve puzzles until you find the perpetrator. With your trusty PDA, you gather evidences and take notes regarding all of your found clues and various interactions. And if you find yourself stuck on a certain point of the game, the handy magnifying glass is there to give you hints on what to do next. I know that it’s mostly there to ruin the whole challenge of the game, but if you find yourself getting impatient already, then I guess clicking it a few times during the whole course of the adventure can spark further interest for you to continue on your journey.
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Posted on Nov 01, 2008 under Games Review, PC Games |
Fallout 3 is an action game which is being developed by Bethesda Game studios. This game is due to release in North America October 28th, 2008 and Europe October 31st, 2008. Japan gets it December 4th, 2008. It is available for Xbox 360, PC, Playstation 3 versions also. The game has been under development since 2004, the developers are taking special care in designing all the new features and levels which is gonna make fallout 3 look more unique than its other two previous versions.
Game Play:
The set up for this game is in year 2277, 30 years ahead of its previous version fallout 2.
It is set up in Vault 101 a fallout shelter in Washington DC. The main character development starts when the mother of the character dies and the baby is being taken care of the father. In the vault the character is given a book which is used to set all the primary preferences to the character.
In the vault the character is given various kinds of machinery to train with, the outcome of the training decides the future attributions of the character. The relationship of the character with his/ her father is determined by various quests that are available for the character to complete in the vault.
The maximum level a person can reach is 20. The perks and bonuses are available in the same way as it was in its previous versions. They will be added after each level.
Along the game ammunition the character carries wares out, so in order to be ready for combat the character can combine various things at possession and use it to fire. The character also gets to choose various types of armor and hats. By choosing a particular armor the character attributes all the skills of the armor.
Inventory is another feature available for the player, but it comes with a weight limit. This weight limit is taken in a whole for ammunition, armor and other things the player wants to carry along. Player is assigned three things the character him/her self, dogmeat and an NPC. Dogmeat can be used to sniff out ammunition or armors or health hidden anywhere in the place. Usage of dogmeat is limited, it can’t be used in dangerous places and if the dogmeat dies it will not be replaced. Only one NPC is allowed to go along with the character, in order to use a different NPC the former has to be disposed.
Karma is the respect that the character gains in the game. Karma is awarded based on the combat choices and conversations. Better karma will allow the character to negotiate easily with NPCs, if the character has bad karma the opposite happens.
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Posted on Oct 26, 2008 under Online Games, Video Games |
In the world of video game, there are many different categories of games you can buy, and finding out which one is suitable for you is definitely keys to not waste money on games you don’t enjoy.
- Arcade- Arcade games are what most people think of when it comes to video game, the classic coin-operated system and with it comes many different types of games such as street fighter, mortal kombat, Pacman, frogger.
- Role playing- Role playing games are typically games that have element of fantasy, which means a lot of wizards, dragons, elfs, drawfs. These games usually have long play time because you’ll often have to find clues by talking to different characters in game. These games tends to be very addictive due to the fantasy themes. Games like Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Zelda all falls into this category.
-Strategy- These games usually involves tactical movement of troops and construction of buildings, they are sort of like chess except in a much faster pace and in real-time. A lot of them are difficult to play for beginners due to the fact that you have to mult-task a lot but it does allow you to use your brain for more strategic thinking. Some example of these games are Age of Empire, Heroes of Might and Magic, Sim City.
-Action- Action games, as its name have suggested, involves alot of fast movement actions. They usually involves obstacle or killing certain types of creatures. An example of these games are Halo, Gears of War, Grand thief Auto.
-Driving- Driving games mostly involves driving in a racecar, or some types of car. You earn faster and nicer cars as you progress through the stages. Sometimes in some driving games, your mission will be destroying cars, these games are often a major target for car-lovers. Example of this category- Mario Kart, GT.
- Puzzle- These games involves thinking and logic skills, they are usually very mild in general but sometimes incorporate role playing element into it as well. Tetris is certainly a great example of puzzle game as well as Puzzle bobble. An example of a puzzle game that incorporate role playing element is Puzzle quest-challenge of the warlord.
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Posted on Oct 23, 2008 under Game History, Video Games |
Mario is easily one of the most recognizable faces to come out of Nintendo, but did you know his original name was Jumpman? That’s right, in 1981 Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong, but then, he went by the name of Jumpman, but Mario was used as his name in some promotional material.
This game surprised Nintendo by its extreme success. To test the popularity of Mario, Nintendo released an arcade game called Marion Bros., which included Mario and his brother Luigi. This game was an immense success for Nintendo. Because of the success of both Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., in 1983, when Nintendo release the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), they also release Super Mario Bros.
References to his original name appear in a couple of Mario games, such as in Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door, when an audience member refers to Mario as Jumpman before a battle, and in Mario Hoops 3-on-3, where his nickname is “The Jumpman.”
Mario’s look, even to this current day, can be blamed on the limitations that were placed on the programmers and artists back in the early 80s by their current technology.
The programmers couldn’t animate Mario’s arms when he moved without making them disappear, so they gave him overalls and a solid shirt color.
They also didn’t have room for a face or ears, and couldn’t animate his hair, so they gave him his mustache, sideburns, and a baseball cap. Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s creator, has stated in interviews that Mario wears a baseball cap because he finds it difficult to draw hair.
Mario’s surname or last name is also Mario, which explains the use of Mario Bros. as game titles, because Luigi is Mario’s brother, so they have the same last name. was first used in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and then again in 1993 in a movie called Super Mario Bros.. Nintendo as a whole has never officially confirmed it, but it was put up on Nintendo of Europe’s official Mario Megasite.
Ever since Mario has been popular he has been the unofficial mascot of Nintendo. He has been extremely and possibly over-merchandised along with his one time rival Sonic the Hedgehog, who came to be Sega’s mascot in the early 1990s.
They competed fiercely until 2001, when Sonic Adventure 2: Battle came out for a Nintendo console due to Sega’s new third-party status. Even though Sonic and Mario were now on Nintendo consoles, they still competed with each other, though not as much as before.
It hasn’t been until recently, that they’ve been seen working together in the newly released Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii. They will also appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl together as well.
Mario is a 5 foot tall, portly plumber from Brooklyn, New York who lives in Mushroom Kingdom. He is considered to be the most famous video game character in history, and his series of games has sold over 193 million copies.
Mario has not only appeared in plat formers, but in other genres as well. The other genres include reaching, with Mario Kart, sports games such as Mario Tennis, and RPGs such as Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars.
Although Mario’s said occupation is being a plumber, he is almost never seen doing any actual plumbing. With the exceptions being in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and in the original Mario Bros.. Pipes have still remained a mode of transportation, however, although the reason as to why might not be clear. However, in the original Donkey Kong games, Mario, who was still called Jumpman, was actually a carpenter.
Mario has also appeared as a doctor in Dr. Mario. He has even been shown as an archaeologist in the Game Boy game, Mario’s Picross.
Mario’s favorite pastime seems to be saving Princess Peach, and Mushroom Kingdom. Other ways he spends his time is battling villains, namely Bowser. In the role-playing games, Mario is given a heroic status for saving the Mushroom Kingdom so many times. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, he and Luigi are called “superstars”, which basically means huge celebrities.
Ever since his first appearance in a video game, Mario has been given the role of the hero, destined to save the damsel in distress. In the original Donkey Kong, he had to rescue his girlfriend, Pauline from Donkey Kong. Pauline obviously didn’t stay in the series, as she was replaced by Princess Peach, who was originally referred to as “Princess Toadstool” or just “the Princess” in the English releases, in Super Mario Bros.
In 1993, with the release of Yoshi’s Safari, Princess Peach was finally used in an English release of a Mario game, but it still wasn’t used as widely until the release of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, three years later. Pauline has only been seen twice since the original Donkey Kong, once in the remake for the Game Boy, and once in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, in 2006.
She has since been described as Mario’s friend, not girlfriend, as that appears to be Peach’s position. Mario has received a kiss from her countless times, after each time he’s rescued her, but the true status of their relationship has never been officially revealed, most likely to avoid the problems experienced with Pauline, but there is obviously affection shared between Mario and Peach.
Most of Mario’s abilities come from the items that he collects and uses. In the platform games, there is the Super Mushroom, which makes Mario double in size. He is called “Super Mario”, when he is in this state, and he also gets an extra hit point.
Other examples of items include the Fire Flower, which turns Mario into Fiery Mario, or just Fire Mario. This allows him to throw fireballs at his enemies. Another item is the star, which makes Mario completely invincible, and allows him to defeat all enemies with a single touch.
In other versions of Mario plat formers, there are other unique items, such as the Raccoon Leaf, and the Cape Feather. The Raccoon Leaf turns Mario into Raccoon Mario, and allows him to fly short distances by whipping his tail around in the air, sort of like Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog games.
The Cape Feather obviously turns Mario into Cape Mario, which allows him to whip his cape at enemies to attack ,and also allows him to fly. In Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Mario can pick up the Power Carrot, which transforms Mario into Bunny Mario and makes his falling speed reduced.
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Posted on Oct 23, 2008 under Games Review, Xbox 360 |
Ready, set, play! Video games are more popular than ever right now and the consoles that you are playing them on are just getting better and better too. Take the xbox 360, you will not only be blown away by the games that have come out on 360 but the console itself is great. There are very few new games out there that will not blow you away with there story line, graphics and game play but here are some of the newer xbox 360 top games out there.
1. Grand Theft Auto IV
Well everyone knows that Grand Theft Auto is awesome for many reasons including a huge map that you have free reign on and awesome music selections to name a few. So it is no wonder that the new one is one of our top games. You will not only experience an awesome single player story but you can also play with up to 16 other people online.
2. Gears of War
There is no wonder why this game is on our xbox 360 top games list. You are in a sci-fi shooter game that puts you up against some pretty nasty creatures called the Locust Horde. Fighting your way through this army of creatures to victory is one awesome ride.
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
This game is on this list for a very good reason, the graphics. Oh my gosh the graphics in this game are unbelievable. It is like you are playing for real and you are actually in the game watching and listening to the trees swaying in the wind. It is a little bit harder than the last Elder Scrolls game and is actually hard to compare to it. So be prepared to be blown away when you play this game.
4. Braid
Are you ready to go save your princess? In this game you are Tim on a quest to find your princess and of course rescue her from certain doom. This is a puzzle game that you will have plenty of fun with as you progress through the many worlds and levels that there are.
5. Halo 3
If you are a fan of Halo than you will love Halo 3. Not only are you getting the same great game play you have always loved about past Halo games but you are getting a ton more. You can now choose to have two guns equipped for instance and are able to use more vehicles in new segments of the game. There is no wonder why this game is one of the xbox 360 top games.
There are all kinds of fun and challenging games out that are out there for both young and young at heart. These are some top games that are out there right now but there are a lot more and in many other categories. Not to mention the ones that are soon to be released in the near future. So have fun and get gaming.
Gary Pearson is an accomplished niche website developer and author.
To learn more about xbox 360 top games, please visit Xbox Game Sale for current articles and discussions.
Posted on Oct 20, 2008 under Games Review, Play Station |
Playstation 3 “Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution”
By Camilla Bertelsen
One of the finest game strategy games on PC s are produced by Sid Meier. They make one of the most engaging civilization simulation video games around. Popular titles like Railroad Tycoon and Civilization have always continue to deliver the most heralded game play. Thus it no surprise that the company move their popular titles from the PCs genre toward PlayStation 3 platform. And a good job they did, 2K and Firaxis together manage to translate that PC experience successfully towards the Playstation 3 Platform.
In Sid Meier Civilization revolution game play, the idea is to take a civilization in the stone ages and through strategic planning built it up to the Space Age. When you choose which civilization will be your base, the leader of that civilization also have added bonus for your game play. For example if you chose Cleopatra, you might get additional interest on gold reserves, at the medieval age, population growth is increased by two additional percentages. There five difficulties level in this game. Use the first level as a guide. As you get more proficient, try the more difficulty level.
To play this video game, you can choose multiplayer mode using LAN or Single player mode. For those who had played this game under PCs, you will know the game can take several weeks to complete. But under Playstation 3, it doesn’t last as long but not in the least as unsatisfying. In the Playstation 3 version. Micro managing of the game has also been removed. The graphics are good, bright, colorful and engaging with animation to the characters. The sound track are satisfying as well. Overall the transition form PCs based to the Next Gen game console like the Playstation 3 is well executed.
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