Gameloft...names

Some minor news:
Well, there's this flash flood that ended my gaming for the week since my PC died. I did manage to do a bit more Braid and finish world number 3 completely. I also got in some Devil Survivor again and (spoiler...) realized that if you tried to escape before the day 7 reaches, it's a mission fail. Damn.

For the real juice:
OK, since I've been out of power and my only way to connect is through the phone. I've browsed this Gameloft site for games for the mobile phone and it gave me a laugh. Just look at all these titles with ripoff names they have. First off, we got something tame - Real Football Manager 2010. So Football Manager 2010 wasn't real? LOL. Next, we have Miami Nights 2: the city is yours! That title sounds so familiar. I can't remember what racing game had the subtitle, the city is ours though. Third, we have Chessmater. I almost thought it was Chessmaster. Such a great difference one letter makes. Finally, we have the ever popular, Guitar Rock Tour 2. That sounds awesome if you could stick Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2 together on your mobile phone.

I actually got Chessmater since it's the type of game to play on your non-iphone mobile. It's either pretty brutal or I'm just bad at chess. I can win against a beginner (probably around 30% difficulty from the highest level) opponent from time to time but I feel it's just dumb luck.

FEAR Sale

The weekly sale for today is FEAR 2 Project Origin and it's DLC over at Steam. Nothing much to say but it's supposed to be a horror FPS, never got to try this game though. I should probably try the first FEAR before looking into this.

Impulse has it's regular sale, nothing notable for me. Maybe Capitalism 2 but that sort of an old game. There's also Project Aftermath but I don't really know much about that one.

Finally, over at Gamersgate, there's the Unreal sale where you get all the Unreal games for $ 17 or get discounts for each single game you buy. Aztaka, a indie RPG (is it indie, well it's a small compnay) is also on sale. Driving tanks (tank racing game...what an idea, but no this is no tank racing game) in Panzer Elite is also on sale.

I won't go into Direct2Drive as only Elven Legacy - a turn based strategy game is the only one available in the Philippines. BOO... Hopefully, the indie games next week will be available worldwide.

College of Gaming: Entrepreneur (part 3)

The Fantasy Business Sim.

Welcome to the third part of this College of Gaming series. If you haven't yet read the first and second parts, I recommend you go and check those out first.

Contribution Margin

In business, there are certain products or certain market segments that give you a better profit than others. This can be done by computing the contribution margin of each product. Contribution margin is calculated by the revenues of a product (or market segment) less the variable costs of that product (like the cost of manufacturing & marketing for that product). To further illustrate, lets hop back in to Majesty.

Certain buildings will give off more gold than others. The level 1 market place provides 250 gold per day. Couple that with a trading post then you get roughly 750 per day (depending on the distance of the trading post). That sheer amount of gold should roughly be 70% of your revenues for the day. So what does that mean? It means that the marketplace is your most important building so you have to protect it at all costs. In business, certain customers or a certain product will be more profitable than others. These products should be the ones you focus on as they will provide the greatest benefit.

Lets get into deeper cost analysis. Certain enemies in Majesty are far deadlier than most. Facing a lone bear man or vampires is certainly more scary than a few rats attacking your base. These should be your priority enemy targets as they have the largest potential to cause problems. However, a horde of zombies are more threatening than a single vampire however, one must realize the number of enemies in Majesty increase if they aren't dealt with immediately. Again, this is merely prioritizing key threats and maximizing profits. In other games, picking the most threatening enemy is an important skill. Knowing when to fight or flight can result in victory. The same goes with business. A small to medium enterprise can't please everybody. Sometimes it's better to drop a customer who isn't profitable so that you can focus more on your more profitable segments.

Inflation

Inflation - in life, is when prices increase progressively. The result is then is that money becomes less valuable. When you build more of the same buildings in Majesty, the prices increase a certain amount. You can't go around the map placing guard towers as each successive tower costs more than the last. Monsters in the game increase as the game progresses since the lairs spawn more monsters and if the current ones aren't dealt with, there will come a time when the sheer number of enemies overwhelms the kingdom.

In business, prices generally will increase over time. The costs of your own products will increase thus decrease your own profits. Businesses should target to grow above inflation. This is where we go back to the concept of time value of money. Things now are worth more since inflation will make spending power decrease. In Majesty, wizard towers are very powerful defensive structures. Proper placement of these structures are key as the cost of these things increase. Heroes are another example. Your heroes must gain levels as in the later game, the enemies get stronger. If a vampire attacks and only low level (1- 6) heroes try and take it on, it will result only to death. Thus, it is key to have a core set of heroes reach a decent level 10 and up before building a similar guild. Certainly, a large group of low level heroes will be able to defeat a vampire over time however the cost efficiency of having one strong hero to take on the vampire is key.

In the final part of this series, I will go into the strategy concepts and walkthrough of the survival mission in the demo.

Gamersgate Twitter Sale

Gamersgate did a twitter sale today - well this 19 hours ago where they had 20% if you could use those promo codes. That was cool. If more companies did that sort of thing, I'd probably get sucked in getting those games. I wonder if they'll do it in other days...

Also, Gamersgate grants blue coins(their sort of microsoft points, space money which is equal to 100 blue coins = US$1)to existing members for recruiting new members. So if anyone is interested in their service - somewhat like a D2Drive service worldwide, feel free to click my profile (over to the left side) and make a gamergate account. It would certainly help fund my game ranting ^___^.

College of Gaming: Entrepreneur (part 2)

The Fantasy Business Sim.

This is a continuation from Part 1 of the Fantasy Business Sim.

Cash and Gold

The lifeblood of your kingdom or business is money. Whether it's real world bank notes or in game gold, this is what keeps everything running. Without gold you won't be able to build anything or hire new heroes. Without cash, you will be in big trouble with your debtors and your daily business will grind to a halt.

Where do you gain gold in Majesty? Well, each house, marketplace and your palace generates money over time. Destroying monster and their lairs will allow heroes to gain gold which they can then spend on items. A tax collector needs to go over these buildings to actually allow you access to the gold.

Cash Flow

The most important thing in any business is cash flow. Majesty does a good way of showing that. You can see as you click the houses and marketplaces the amount of gold that gets generated. So basically, if you add all that +XXX, that is the amount of income you receive in a day. So let's do a simple example, you have 2 houses which provide +10 gold, a market place that gives +250 gold and your palace which gives +100 gold. So if you add all those up you get an income of 370 gold a day. However, like in real business, this is merely an accounts receivable. This is not real cash on hand. Your market place may have a thousand gold in it's coffers but that's all just accounts receivable unless a tax collector goes up there and takes the gold back to your treasure room.

In business, receivables collection is a very important concept. One wants the fastest receivable turnaround as possible. You'd rather have real cash rather than a number that says you made a profit. It's like in stock investing where they say there's a paper gain or loss. Your stock value may have increased or decreased but if you haven't cashed it out, there is no real gain or loss yet. However, one must note that when the value of something is going towards zero, it is important you cash out as soon as possible.

Let me give an example in Majesty, where the value of something goes toward zero. Your marketplace with 1000 gold in it's storage is besieged by a horde of rat men and zombies. The life of your marketplace rapidly decreases and you have no heroes or guards to defend it. So do you waste your potential 1000 gold? Well, if you have a thieves guild and can use their ability to instantly collect taxes, then good for you.

Time Value of Money

The thieves guild ability provides a quick cash flow at the cost of collecting less gold. This guild shows the time value of money. Money you receive now is worth more than what you get later. When you get gold, you can immediately upgrade you marketplace or train more heroes to aid in the defense of your kingdom. Certainly having more money later at the cost of time is fine at the start but when the kingdom enters crisis mode, you better have a lot of cash ready to spend.

More business ideas and Majesty strategy to come in part 3 of this College of Gaming series

El Presidente hates his advisor

Got to try the demo for Tropico 3 on the weekend. I wrote a while back about my experiences with the old Tropico. Now that Tropico 3 is about to be released (Sept 24 over in Germany and October for the rest of the world), the biggest difference between these 2 games is basically the graphics. No more simulated 3D but a real 3D environment is presented here. The premise is pretty much the same with the first Tropico, you now the leader of a small Caribbean country. There are several missions which you can undertake or just play in a sandbox mode and set goals for yourself.

Well, there's one thing I hate about this game is the voice of my advisor. I remember the old advisor voice in Tropico was much better now he sounds like a used car salesman trying to fake an accent. When doing the tutorial mission (cool foot shaped island by the way), every time my advisor delivered his lines, it was annoying. What was his name again? Primitivo? Good thing I only heard him over at the tutorial.

The cool new feature that this game adds is that you have an avatar in the game. Your avatar can walk around the streets and even give speeches on your balcony. Though now I wonder if there's a revolt and you need to escape, do you have to rush towards the docks for your boat?

Again like my first take on Majesty 2, I feel that it's pretty much the same game as Tropico 1. Yet if you like the series, there's nothing wrong in getting this game as with Majesty 2. It's got better graphics and little new features.

College of Gaming: Entrepreneur (part 1)

The Fantasy Business Sim.

I was wondering if there is a good modern game to talk about business and entrepreneurship. I realized that Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim works pretty well. So go grab the game or play the demo (Majesty 2 has a really good survival mission in the demo).

In any business, there are employees. In Majesty, you get your heroes. Consider each guild represents a different part of business like your warrior guild is your security or your wizard guild is your R&D. Each of your employees are your heroes. All you can do in the game is hire fresh recruits so all your heroes start at level 1. As your heroes perform their daily activities, they gain experience.

The enemy monsters are the other corporations or threats to your business. You got bloodsucking vampire lawyers, brutish ogre suppliers, sneaky rats and more. The monster lairs you can consider them to be the root of the problem. So the basic thing for a business to succeed is to get rid of these problems. So go now and play the survival mission over the Majesty 2 demo before continuing.

How long do businesses last?

Now that you've played the survival mission, I'm 80% sure that you failed. You might have lasted around the 60th day but got overwhelmed by hordes of bear men or some other nasty critter. If you didn't fail, good for you. Most businesses (90%) in real life don't make it to 10 years, and 50 percent die by the 2nd year. However by failing, you now understand some concepts of the game better.

Employee Management

Let's relate more concepts in the game before we continue. Your heroes (employees) get better at their job over time. However, they might be doing something that you don't want them to do or they aren't focused on the greater plan. So, you have to assign rewards effectively. In businesses, proper team management and resource allocation are keys to success. A thing you might notice is that the more heroes you have, the slower they gain gold and experience. In real life, more employees help but there is diminishing returns. You can only have so many janitors to keep the place clean. Yet, not having enough employees during a crisis will severely cripple you. One needs to start with a core group of people. Train them up. Eventually, you'll have new hires but those new hires will merely be assistants to your core group. So in Majesty, have 1 of each guild would be a nice start but building extra warrior guilds here and there to help in defense would certainly be a great idea.

You allot reward flags all over the map to motivate your heroes to go towards your goal. In life, you might motivate your sales force the same way by giving bonuses to those who push the product the best. However, you should be careful in regards to these rewards. Sometimes, your employees will push the product as hard as possible making this year good but next year unsellable as your retailers still have inventory of a bad product. In Majesty, placing a high defend flag for instance will make a certain type of hero - the clerics flock to that point. These heroes will stay there even though they'd be a better help defending and healing other heroes. High attack flags make dwarves, rogues and warriors just rush over there without caring that your castle is under seige. So take care that you use your heroes / employees effectively. Don't be afraid to remove that reward if it has served it's purpose.

To be continued on the following College of Gaming blog - part 2.

PopCap: Bookworm Adventures 2

Had fun trying out this game: Bookworm Adventures 2 from PopCap. I remember playing the old bookworm over the web so long ago. They added an addictive RPG element to the classic word game to make people want to play it over and over again.

I won't go deep into story. It's about a worm going into the fairy tale lands to conquer all the fairy tale characters who go against him. With deadly alliances of the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf there's going to be trouble in fairy land and that worm is going to stop them. Okay, seriously, that isn't the story but you shouldn't really bother with story in casual games.

The game is like a turn based fight in an RPG. To attack, you have to form words with the letters you are given. Longer letters will deal more damage and generate special letter tiles. These special letter tiles do a special effect like poison or healing if they are used in a word. To win, you have to keep making words until your enemy runs out of hearts (life) or you run out of them.

The game's dictionary is a teeny bit funky though. I've made words that I didn't even think is in a dictionary. There are also some words that don't work like profane words (well it has to be family friendly after all).

Anyway, go try the web demo or download a 1 hour trial on the link above if you want to get a feel for the game.

Casual Games: PopCap

PopCap games have constantly been releasing casual games for the masses. Considering the growing netbook market where you won't be playing any Call of Duty 4 or Crysis, casual games are probably the core games that one can probably play one these machines. Of course one can go to the back catalog of older games like Starcraft and Half Life but sometimes the graphics of those games don't hold up or you want to play something casual.

PopCap has released some of the most addictive casual games yet. A couple of years ago, Peggle - the zen peg popping game, was a really big hit. This year, one of their biggest hits is Plants vs Zombies which is a tower defense game. They also have Bookworm Adventures 2 - an RPG wordgame and Zuma's Revenge which is like a sequeal to Zuma.

The amazing thing about PopCap for me is that they have international pricing. I have no idea when they implemented this but it's an amazing idea. For people in the Philippines, it's Php 199.00 for all their games. That's a huge difference from the $19.99 regular price and the $9.99 price of Plants vs Zombies in Steam. So for a great price, why not purchase the game.

Majesty 2

Video Games | Majesty 2 | GC 09: Overview Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I've played the demo (pretty good demo) of Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. Russia's 1C:Ino-Co has taken this unique sim game and improved on a few core concepts. This game is pretty much the same as the first one. The game features upgraded graphics from 2d to 3d. Considering the game is almost 10 years old, this is a definitely good upgrade. The buildings and units have been tweaked.

Well about the game, it's more of Sim City meets Warcraft. You get to build guilds which is where you train your units. You build marketplaces for money (80% of your income comes from this building) and guard towers for defense. You don't control your heroes but you can put up reward flags to influence them. Putting an attack flag over a monster with a 5,000 gold bounty will make a lot of heroes rush out and try to slay the beast. You can also cast spells such as lightning bolts and healing spells at the cost of gold. As your city grows, peasants will put up houses on their own which allows you to have more workers and more income (as they can be taxed).

Your heroes get to level up which is good since monsters get progressively stronger during the game. There are large ogres who can send your heroes flying with a swing of the club. Vampires that suck the life of your heroes. Missions usually require you to survive a specific amount of days in the game or destroy all monster lairs.

I have one gripe with Majesty 2. There isn't anything too different from the first game. There are new flags - defend and fear which add more control but besides that, there isn't anything big. Also, there are some things like being able to cancel building or research / upgrades isn't in the game. The unit voices are pretty much the same. You have the tax collector go 'tax collector' when visiting the houses with the same voice.

What I wanted for Majesty 2 are more races. Maybe you could be the elven king who builds elven houses, elven archers and mages but don't have say tough warriors. You could probably be the evil Orc warboss who in addition to reward flags, have punishment flags for failing to follow orders. I don't know, much of the gameplay in Majesty 2 has already been done by Majesty gold.

Majesty 2 is a great game for those who are new to the series. Though I wouldn't recommend paying the full retail price as you can play the Majesty gold (if you're fine with the 2d graphics) for $10 over at Steam or at GamersGate. Try out the demo over at gamershell if you want to get a feel of what I've been writting here.

Survived Devil Survivor

I finally finished the Devil Survivor game over in the DS. I mentioned last time that I was grinding my characters up. Well after boosting my characters up 10 levels, I finally plowed through the last day with not much problems.

Turns out that this game have multiple endings. I read a guide after finishing the game that one of the harder routes to finish on the first run is the route I took. My route had me facing off the top demon bosses which really made finishing the game without power leveling your characters tough.

After you beat the game, you can use the old save which carries your old demons and levels over which makes the first 6 days of the game a breeze, well I think. Though I'm thinking of power leveling that Jack Frost cause he looks so damn cool.

Direct2Drive Sale

I thought that Direct2Drive didn't serve US / EU countries but it appears they allow me, someone from the Philippines to register. I don't see anything in their Terms of Service (TOS) about any country restrictions...

Anyway, I missed there super 1st week sale but the sale continues. It's their 5 Year Anniversary sale. Currently, they have several action games and shooters for just $5. Next week, they'll be doing RPGs as the genre sale.

But wait there's more! No actually there's less. If I clicked on some of the games, it says that this product is only available to US, Canada, UK and Mexico yadadada. My country is ip-blocked (I can get around that but it's such a hassle) so I won't be able to download it even if I did purchase it. So, D2D..fail...

Secret of Monkey Island is on sale over at Steam. Other gaming sites have their regular weekend sales but this is the only one I found interesting.

Quest for the Cheapo Laptapo

I live in a land where technology is priced at a premium. Considering that a lot of the parts get manufactured in nearby countries like Taiwan, China and Malaysia, it's strange that the prices of laptops and gadgets are much higher here in the Philippines. Several factories manufacture microchips here in the country so why is the final product so expensive here? Consider the MSI GX series laptops that are being sold in some shops in the Philippines. The prices are outrageous. Fifty one thousand pesos (or roughly US $1,050) for a gimped version of the GX620 when the US version can be bought at a far cheaper price ($ 900) even when you include the shipping.

So it's now my quest to find the best valued gaming laptop here in the country. I've already mention the first option, the GX 620 which they market here as the X-edition. They probably used X cause they crossed out a lot of features. The next laptop that is better than the gimped GX620 is the NEO Elan 3105. The specs of this laptop is that of the un-gimped GX620 at a price of 55,000 pesos. That's reasonable considering you get 400 hz more for your dual core processor, 2 gigs more ram and 340 GB more hard disk space. NEO is a local laptop assembler and I know they are generally cheaper. I'm wondering now if the price I have at hand is the latest price.

The third interesting option is the Lenovo Y450. I hate these laptop names as you can't decipher the power of the laptop through the name. There are several different configurations for this laptop. Here, we get a Nvidia G130M and a 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor for the price of 58,000. This laptop has the best value among the three I've mentioned despite it having a 1 inch smaller screen. The problem with this model is that it's the rarest among the three. I think this has also sold well because of it's value.

I've decided to take a laptop instead of the desktop for the sole reason that I'll be leaving home probably soon. I can't go around lugging a desktop around so I have to settle with these value gaming laptops (despite them not being the best choice for gaming). There are slightly more expensive laptops that have similar 9600GT and G130M video cards but those things are way out of my budget.

Airborne Rescue!

The 5th Infantry Division was pinned down in their base in Sturzdorf. The red and black flags of the Axis infantry was atop every critical choke point and resource sector. They were facing against the 6th Sturm Truppen Division.

Several riflemen tried to do an early attack. Marching off in haste to take fuel depots off in the north. Some engineers tried to secure the munitions and fuel depots to the south east yet a group of Axis infantry showered them with bullets.

An motor bike rushed to take out the engineers yet they managed to escape successfully. An Axis MG squad positioned themselves across the open road. Two squads of riflemen die to their suppressive fire with a bike chasing after them.

Axis infantry now also carried small grenades that would stun thus making them easier to kill. It looked bleak for the 5th infantry division.

2 squads of ace drivers and gunners took the challenge. Using their skill, they maneuver their M8 Greyhound to fend off the impending defeat. HQ has already requested for support yet due to the weather, it appears that help might not come in time. Yet, the M8 crew manage to kill of several infantry and even several Puma Armored Recons. The first German assault tank to come out was the Stug. The M8 crew feared for their lives yet they said they would do all they can to defend against it.

The roar of an engine overhead signaled help has arrived. An AT gun drops from the skies and an engineer crew quickly mans it. With the AT's help, the 2 M8s manage to crush the Stugs and push the Axis back. Squads of paratroopers begin their descent over Sturzdorf. Reclaiming the fuel and munitions depots from the enemy.

The Axis commander, in a rage for losing his vehicles, sends out his main volksgrenadier division with pioneer and AT gun support. A lone group of riflemen stood in horror as the bullets whizzed the battlefield. They almost get pinned down when a strike plane swooped low. Firing at the bulk of the Axis infantry and taking a whole group of them.

The Airborne company has arrived and the counter attack begins...


Watch this Company of Heroes replay over at Gamereplays.org ^o^

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Video Games | Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 | Launch Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I remember playing the first Ultimate Alliance before my 360 red ringed. It's basically a super hero hack and slash ala Diablo. You'd run in a room filled with notorious henchmen, beat them up using your super powers and continue on. Eventually you'll hit a boss character and then you proceed to beat him up. The game keeps you engaged by letting your heroes level up thus unlocking new powers. Random item drops keep the game interesting and enhances your character if you're lucky to get a rare item for your hero.

The Ultimate Alliance 2 has just come out: September 15, 2009. Which has the same gameplay with some new fusion powers. It follows the Civil War story (if you don't follow the comics it's about good super heroes beating the hell out of each other).

Since my 360 is dead and buried I wonder if the PS2 (yes they do have a PS2 version) is the same game? Considering that's my only console that still works (Sony's PS2 are pretty reliable) I wonder if I should get it? It's amazing how they still make games for this console considering it's age. I would rather play on the PC though with all the spiffy effects that a power PC can produce but I doubt it will ever come out on PC.

Flash Based and Social Networking Games

With the rise of the successful Facebook, games over at social networking sites have been all the rage. Many casual gamers and even non-gamers flock to this site for the sheer purpose of playing a game. Certainly there are people who use the site to post pictures and comments on their friend's pages but a large number use it only to game. These people would go play Restaurant City or maybe Pet Society. There's also Mafia Wars. I've got friends who even make fake accounts just to enhance their main account's game as they need more people in their friend list.

All these games are flash based. Flash based games has risen since the early days of flash. It's amazing to see the growth and the complexities of flash based games now. With the integration of social networking - there's a large chance of multiplayer flash based games. I recalled a web-based game - Archmage (wonder if that is still alive can't find it anymore). It's a game where you're a wizard and you train armies to become the number 1 wizard in the land. You're given a turns per ten minutes to a maximum of 200 turns per day. Each action performed like building an army eats up your turn.

If they modernized the concept of that by adding flash graphics and networking everyone in a social network, I think it has a good possibility of making it big. There's another web based game: Urban Dead - a zombie survival game (which is still alive today) that has a similar concept to Archmage. Instead of turns, your stamina is based on time. The actions you perform - attacking zombies, searching for items and moving, all cost stamina. Should you get killed, you get turned into a zombie. A modern version of that with some mini games like shooting would really enhance and probably bring people to play that sort of game.

How about a web based rock band? People could play simulated instruments by clicking buttons on the screen while your friends and strangers can watch you perform. Approval of the crowd will bring up your score in the game but there is no real way to lose the game. Though, it's more of a competition of the best score. Wonder what the future of flash games hold?

College of Gaming: September 12

Please go try this game first - SEPTEMBER 12 before reading anything below. Write down your first impressions on the game and what you feel after 10 minutes of playing.


---- ----- ---- -----


I aimed the reticule towards a group of terrorists. Thinking I was holding a sniper rifle, I fire. Instead of firing an accurate shot, a large missile streaks towards the people there. The blast takes a building down taking out the terrorist and ignoring the deaths of several women. Several civilians crowd the blast area. They mourn for the loss of life and several turn into terrorists. I fire several more times to realize that more as more people die...more terrorists arise. As in real life, violence begets only violence.

How did you play the game? Did you blast the area all around until only death and destruction remains? Did you stop after the first volley?

I guess this game is a great example of how moral choices can be placed in the game. The game doesn't berate you for killing more people nor does it reward you for each terrorist you kill. There is nothing really right or wrong - it decision falls upon the player.

In real life, every action does have a consequence. There the saying "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". In life, relate what this game has taught you. Think before you act not everything "good" is the right thing to do.

Braid 66% off this week

Braid is now just around $5 over in Steam which is awesome if you haven't got it yet. It's basically a puzzle platformer where you manipulate time to get through the level and collect the puzzle pieces.

There are several titles on sale over at Impulse. Nothing that interests me however. They do have a new front page layout and they now offer EA games. So check Impulse out.

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is on sale over at GamersGate which is kinda weird since a sale of the gold edition would be better. But hey, $5 for CoH is awesome so if you haven't tried it then this would be a great opportunity to do so. Also SEGA games are at 50% off so check it out if you're interested in titles such as Medieval 2, Universe at War or those Football Managers.

Tropico 3

Video Games | Tropico 3 | GC 09: Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Tropico 3 is almost out now (it says Sep 2009 on Steam) and I recalled playing the first game of this series. Tropico is a sim city game with a hint of settlers. You get to place buildings like farms, mines and factories to develop your economy. The people is actually a limited resource since if you have too few of them, your country will be severely be understaffed. You create an in game persona with specific traits and certain weaknesses. There isn't really a goal in the game though you could try and stay in power as long as possible or try and suck as much funds to your Swiss bank account.

I remember trying to be a generalissimo who ruled by sheer force. I'd give so much money to the military and so little to the rest of the people to maintain control. Through the passing of the years, my grip on the country grew harder and harder as more political rivals emerged. In a last ditch effort, I declared martial law to make my citizens bow before me. Martial law gave me more time however I knew my time was almost up. I had to use the remaining years to slush as much fund to my bank account. I built a bank and started training bankers. The adverse effect of that is that banks need a university. University makes people think thus creating my deadliest political rival - a university professor.

My greed blinded me. I didn't notice that my own military men, though paid at the maximum amount, started to have doubts on my rule. After a failed attempt to take out my political rival, a bunch of my own soldiers deserted and joined the rebels. A bomb blew up in my palace and there I laid dead, one day before I decided to hop on a plane and head to the Swiss alps for my money.

I never played Tropico 2 though I head that it was worse. It forgoes the Banana Republic theme for a pirate theme. Tropico 3 looks like it is going back to it's roots. Check the video trailer (from gametrailers.com) above for an idea on the game.

Move over DotA, here come MOBA

Video Games | League of Legends: Clash of Fates | Preview

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

League of Legends: Clash of Fates which is a game based on Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is probably close to coming out. The game calls itself a MOBA or Mulitplayer Online Battle Arena. Similar to DotA, you control a champion (hero) unit and use it to take down your opponent's base. Since it isn't a mod, the graphics and interface have been reworked but the general layout and gameplay appears to be the same.

An interesting fact is that the game is free to play. You can pay money in the form of micro transactions to buy certain help items like a lot of MMOs do. Your player character - the summoner system levels up while you play. The levels would then decide what runes you have and which heroes you are able to choose. Higher level players should have all 40 characters. I wonder if the game will come out over here at the Philippines considering that sort of payment structure works the best in this country. It has a great potential to become greater than DotA here since the graphics are updated and the gameplay remains true to the fast paced action.

The game consists of 40 characters which I think is better than DotA's 60+ as nobody will play every character. If they can make each character unique from each other, then 40 characters is certainly more than enough. There are other similar DotA games coming out like Heroes of Newearth however that game doesn't really change anything besides the engine. I think game balance would be far easier with less characters. However, the game does include a rune system which allows customization of your heroes so I don't know how that would affect balance but it will create differences between different player levels.

The biggest problem with multiplayer games is the community. Usually, the elite players will kill new players as they'd probably rant in chat how bad their teammates are and all. The irony of that is that the game developers want new players as it gives them a higher chance of players paying for something in game yet since the elite stop the newbs from getting in, the game developers can't support their game anymore. Soon, the game will end and the elite will now rant about the game ending which is their fault in the first place for creating a harsh newbie environment.

Check out the preview above from Gametrailers.com and check out the League of Legends official site.

Evil Genius

I'm disappointed in becoming an Evil Genius. Reading all the acts of infamy my minions have been doing for me doesn't make me feel evil or a genius. Certainly being one of the causes for the Cuban missile crisis appears evil though I feel like I wasn't involved in the actual act. These grand schemes throughout of the world feels stupid. I send a group of my henchmen to perform a certain act and several of them die in the process to complete my objective. My "evil" ranking increases and the security agencies of the world send more agents to stop me. I don't get any real rewards like boat loads of cash or a throng of slaves to do my bidding. Letting my own people die doesn't make me look like a genius at all.

I've lined my base up with several gas traps though it does more harm to my own minions than my enemies. My minions would march up to a trap, trigger it and die. That's certainly an evil deed though it's not being targeted at the right people. Being a criminal mastermind doesn't even rake in much cash. I have to send my minions to outside countries to steal funds but that leaves my base understaffed and unguarded.

Well that's about all you can expect for a 5 year old game. I think Dungeon Keeper is somewhat better. Dungeon Keeper focuses on the base while Evil Genius is trying to branch out but failing in it's attempt. The devious acts your minions perform to torture enemy agents amuses me though that's about it. Unlike Dungeon Keeper where each mission resets your base, you stick to one base the whole game in Evil Genius. That's nice if you were more experienced in the game but as a first time player, you won't have a chance to redo the layout of your base.

I wished that those acts of infamy in the world screen showed the act in progress. There was a crime game - Gangsters that I played several years back. You planned what to do in the week like arson, assassinations, or patrolling and then execute the action. During the action, you could decide whether to abort or even control your gangsters to target certain people on the fly. I wish Evil Genius did that on the acts of infamy and gave some reward for each act (besides leveling up your "evil" rank).

Surviving the Devil Grind

I went to China a week back and my only form of gaming was to play Shin Megami Devil Survivor on the DS. I made my way through days 3 to the last day during my trip however I have yet to finish it. On the last chapter - the last day of the game, I can barely beat the enemies in the levels. In this game like in some other Shin Megami games, you can fuse the monsters you get. Fusing these monsters generates monsters of a higher level - though not necessarily higher power. Fusing creates a stat advantage as some stat bonuses are carried over from the previous 2 creatures. Also, trying to level up low level monsters to a high level requires godly amounts of experience points. Yuzu, one of the characters in the game, had a King Tyrant (the king of all snowmen) all the way to the last day. Sadly, the large snow man could not stand up to the horrors of the last day even though the monster was already to level 40. I had to mash the snow from his body to create a new creature to keep up with the sheer difficulty of the last day.

On the last day of my trip to China, I spent most of the day in the airport waiting for the flight back to the Philippines. Well that was around 1:00 in the afternoon and the flight was 9:00 in the evening. All I did during that time was slave drive my monsters to reach high levels but in the they weren't really good enough. I had to rely on some strategy if I wanted to progress like using Chaos and Evil wave skills (skills that give a huge range advantage against the enemy). Yet my enemies had the same tricks up their sleeves, they had skills that could target the whole map making my own extra range useless. My super physical character (a mistake which I regret now) can do no damage against physical reflect and immune monsters.

Why are JRPGs such a grind always on the last boss? I recall the same thing in the old Final Fantasy games but then I had more time to grind considering I'm not working. I used to have months of time during the summer to play these 100 hour RPGs (ahh Disgaea... 200 hours of fun grinding). Why can't they create RPGs which constantly gives you a challenge and not making the first 70% a breeze and when the story gets interesting up the difficulty to impossible.

I actually like the old school western RPGs where the start was actually the most difficult since you were just a weak party. You'd get killed pretty quickly so you had to grind a bit to gain levels. Eventually once your party got stronger and had the right skills, you would then easily crush your enemies.

So back to Devil Survivor, it appears that I need to level up my main character so that I have the level to fuse higher level monsters. I'm stuck at the probably the last boss who can target anywhere in the map (and kill off your 4 characters really quick). I can't think of any real way to beat the guy besides getting a higher level and tailoring one character to be the guy that kills him. Considering I have an hour's commute home, looks like I have an hour of grinding everyday...wonder when will I finish? Will I survive the grind or will I give up on these super long games?

Ping is so high!

I wonder if the rain affects the ping?  It's been raining pretty hard and my ping to Zurich, Germany, Los Angeles, USA and Seoul, Korea is reaching close to 600 ms.  A couple of weeks ago, it used to be around 200 to 250 and I'm not downloading anything or surfing the net.

Looks like I won't be able to go and play CoH with these kinds of ping....awww man.

Rose & Camellia

Rose and Camellia

The slap happy game of being a true noblewoman. This used to be a Japanese game but it has been translated to English now. I've tried this game for a few minutes for a good laugh though I haven't gotten past the maid as it is kinda difficult even on the easiest difficulty. Maybe I'm not fit to be a widow aristocrat...

Civilization 4 60% off! Sale!

But not in the Philippines :(

It's a super sale weekend as the US has it's Labor day weekend.

I think 2k Games also did a super sale over at Steam which was for North American customers (or maybe just the US) only. Trine is also at 25% of and some other Victoria complete at 50% ( I don't know what that game is).

Gamers Gate
Civilization 4
Trine

Impulse has an awesome super sale with 3 awesome games at $20:
Sins of a Solar Empire
Demigod
Sacred 2

and other games at discounts check [THIS] news out.

Steam has a 50% off on Street Fighter 4, Hadoken!
In addition, Strategy First games are 50% off over there.

Starcraft 2 impressions

I've watched a lot of Starcraft 2 battle reports showing off the alpha (?) version of the game. It appears to be similar to the old Starcraft, harvest resources, build an army then attack yet there are subtle changes to the game. The three races seem to have slightly changed as I feel the Zerg doesn't seem to be the king of aggression now. Terrans and even the Protoss can launch early attacks that could be very damaging with the right micromanagement.

Last year's videos showed some off some units which made me favor the Zerg now instead of the Protoss. I changed my mind after seeing David Kim's handling of the Protoss in one of the battle reports. I watched the awesome micro of the players which makes me feel like a loser should I ever play Starcraft competitively. The Zerg is no longer as fast though they still rely on sheer number to overwhelm their enemies.

The banelings look like a very interesting unit. It's like a zergling turning into a infested Terran to blow up armies. With burrow, it would look like a surprise bomb against the enemy. The zealot charge also seems to enhance the power of the primary Protoss infantry. I want to watch a game using high tier units or maybe a nuke.

Check out the following Battle Report:

Left 4 Dead enhancements

or how would I design a survival horror zombie game...

I was wondering if there would be say a zombie game where there would be several human players like Left 4 Dead against the zombie hordes. However in this game, when one takes a certain amount of damage, the human player will get infected and turn into a zombie. The other human players remaining would then have to decide to kill their comrade, leave that person behind or try and find a rare cure in the level- usually guarded by a boss zombie.

The infected human as long as he isn't a zombie yet, can still act and work with the remaining human players. However, if the infection timer runs out, the infected human now must turn against his still human friends or else the game will kick him out or at least the AI will take control and force him to attack. Should the zombie be killed, he respawns as another regular zombie that is forced to mindlessly charge at his former comrades.

For more of the survival horror experience, resources are very limited. The human players need food for their stamina – the ability to run and their aim accuracy. Without food, the player cannot run nor shoot very accurately at long range. The humans also need medical kits should they be damaged and to prevent getting into the health where they can be infected. They also carry limited ammo for their heavy rifles, shotguns and machine guns. They also carry a limited amount of clips for their pistols however all ammo can be shared by all members of the team.

The game also includes NPCs where they are infected or hurt. Choosing to help these individuals will reward them with an extra AI driven character that aids them at the risk of that extra character using their own food and ammo stores. Helping these individuals won't also be easy as they usually trigger a zombie swarm to attack. Killing these individuals would yield a small amount of food, medical kits and ammo at the expense of other NPC humans being wary and firing upon the human players. I believe that this sort of experience would yield to a far more realistic (or at least movielike) experience to zombie survival games unlike the more shoot em up Left 4 Dead.

Beyond Good and Evil in Games

Several games now incorporate "ethics and morals" in their gameplay. Games like Knights of the Old Republic (KotoR), Fable and more recently - inFamous all have a good and evil side. In these games, the player through gameplay and in game choices get to become "evil" or "good". Yet these games don't really present real ethical choices, Think about the choice of harvesting the Little Sisters in Bioshock. There is no real difference between these two choices besides the ending. You will still get Adam and nothing in the game world changes. In the game inFamous as in KotoR, the choice of good or evil only leads to different weapon choices and abilities. There is no gray area in these games.

In Baldur's Gate and Fallout (the first two games), there usually was a "good" and "evil" choice. The usual evil route would be to just kill or use an aggressive action while the good route would usually be trying to help an individual. As players, do we really get affected by these choices or does it just end up being some statistic which we try to push one way to get the maximum advantage in the game? Fallout and Baldur's Gate "morality" system consists of your reputation in the world. Good characters tend to get better prices in merchants and don't get attacked by guards. Evil characters had things more difficult except for certain moments. However these games were far better to KotoR in their decision making as you had more freedom in your choice. However, it boils down to just statistics in the game world unless the player tries to think over the choice. For instance, when Yoshimo - a thief in Baldur's Gate 2 betrays your party sometime in the game, if you were playing a lawful good character, did one stick to being all good? What is the reason for sticking to being good when you probably felt betrayed and want revenge against your former comrade? If these thoughts passed your mind, then probably the game had a real moral choice to be made otherwise it's just another statistic in the game.

Cheating in Games

Sweat slowly dripped from my brow. My sweaty hands gripped my MP5 submachine gun as I wait for my target. I took cover behind a large wooden box as I heard some footsteps coming from the right. I ready myself for the confrontation. Yet in a flash, several shots was fired at me and I lay dead on the ground. A floating AK-47 rifle passed my dead body.

This is one of my few experiences with cheating in multiplayer games. During the height of the Counter Strike years, cheating became rampant. There would be aimbots and invisible skinned avatars running around. Now, I've got people drophacking in Company of Heroes which affect your rank. A few of my friends who play Cabal (an MMO) would pay to use a bot to level up their characters.

Cheating has always been present in all forms of competition and games. I certainly don't mind single player cheats for games that are extremely difficult. Take the old NES Contra where the whole Konami code started. All you had to do to gain 30 lives was press the magical up,up, down, down, left, right, left, right. This significant boost in lives would usually get you through most of the game. Yet in your heart, you know you are not hardcore. You're a mere wimp compared to your one friend who beat down the game without losing a single life.

I believe cheats should be used for fun but never for serious competitive play. Having infinite money over in the Sims or Simcity would allow you to create the city of your dreams without effort. I think the Civilization's cheat system works well where they won't add to your score should you activate cheats. Playing with invisible skins in a shooter certainly adds challenge and variety to the regular experience. I think the Shadowrun shooter (rest in peace) showed how to create "cheats" within the game. The powers in that game was the cheats in Counter Strike. MMOs could now actually profit from this by letting bots be allowed but have them be a paid service (like those x2,x3 experience bonus things they sell).

Video games can be considered as a sport. In any sport, cheating is frowned upon. The great players and sportsmen do not need cheats to succeed. Good players might even consider a handicap against less experienced ones.

How about bugs and exploits? Some people would consider exploits as part of the game thus they will freely use them. For instance, before the 2.6 patch in Company of Heroes, the Wehrmacht Pak 38 could “charge up” while in cloaked mode to be able to destroy even Pershings if they had enough time to cloak. Good players know this exploit and use them to gain an advantage which I believe is fine. However, great players can live without this advantage or can be able to work around this.

Does cheating in a video game constitute that a person cheats in real life as well? Will someone who drophacks or uses an aimbot try and do some tax evasion or cheat in an exam? What do you think?

Sept 1 back in the burn

I've been away from gaming for a week as I traveled across 3 regions in China. I'm raring to go back to the war torn landscapes of Company of Heroes yet I feel that I've lost my touch. It's like in real war, when you've felt peace all you wish for is peace. I feel like when I jump back in over Relic online, I'll be demolished by someone because I haven't been playing for a week.

I decided to just jump on over Operation 7 since I don't seem to lose any skill in shooters after I go away for a while. Actually, I tend to retain my gaming skills longer than most of my friends so that when we played Starcraft a year after not playing, I beat all of them easily. I certainly forgot hotkeys but the sheer aggression of my strategies would overwhelm them.