Tangled Bugs is an incredibly fun game. The concept has previously been pursued in a number of flash games, but it never gets old.
The goal of the game is to make sure none of the threads cross each other. You achieve this by moving around the bugs and rearranging the pattern. Don’t be fooled at first, this game gets incredibly hard – the right screenshot above is merely the fourth level.
With your touchscreen, you both move the top- and tilt the lower bar. Although you have to catch the falling objects every time, you need to be very careful not to drop the lower ball. DoubleSkill is a fitting name, and high scores are a matter of long practice. http://jugar-online.blogspot.com/
How young is too young to play internet computer games? If they can move their limbs, they can play with Kneebouncers.
Kneebouncers is the brainchild of Jim Robinson, the father of three non-brain children who was frustrated that his slightly older children could play on the computer while his young daughter could not. His solution? Kneebouncers, a collection of web-based video game activities that only require that the baby or toddler playing be able to hit the keyboard.
Most of the activities are simple flash animations with colorful characters that animate when a button is pressed, almost like turning the page in a storybook. They are primitive, and barely even games as we define them, but it's less dangerous than crawling about on the floor eating plastic and licking electrical outlets, so I approve.
Bring your drooling offspring to http://www.kneebouncers.com to play. It's free, though a percentage of donations and proceeds from the sale of shirts and plushies goes to the Children's Aid Society.
Will video games as a medium be forever relegated to the pop cultural ghetto? Or will they establish themselves alongside such revered media as film, literature, and music? Designer Chris Hecker tackled this question in a keynote address covered by Chris Remo. As I reviewed his points, they strengthened my conviction that the game industry could learn a lot through a closer examination of
Will video games as a medium be forever relegated to the pop cultural ghetto? Or will they establish themselves alongside such revered media as film, literature, and music? Designer Chris Hecker tackled this question in a keynote address covered by Chris Remo. As I reviewed his points, they strengthened my conviction that the game industry could learn a lot through a closer examination of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series.
Chris Hecker’s Keynote
Works of film, literature, and music are often born out of events and experiences in the lives of their creators. According to Hecker, that sort of sentiment “doesn’t show up often in game development bios.” Game developers “rarely discuss what they were trying to convey or express with a particular game, outside the confines of the game’s own entertainment value” (Remo).
A game like Valve’s Left 4 Dead may have terrific entertainment value, “But it’s vacuous,” says Hecker. “It’s cool, but there’s not really any ‘there’ there.” Instead of offering insight into the human condition, video games typically offer linear “theme park rides.”
“Like literature, music, film, and other forms, games offer their own intrinsic element to add to culture. For games, it's interactivity. That uniqueness is necessary for a form to carve out its own cultural space, and it's what will allow games to occupy such a space if the gaming community doesn't wall it off” (Remo).
According to Hecker, game designers ought to ask themselves, “What are you trying to say, and why? And are you trying to say it with interactivity? If you can answer those, you’re on the right track.”
Interactive Life Experience
What do you take away from a Zelda game? Is your experience entertaining but vacuous – a mere “theme park ride?” Or do you find something more worthwhile and fulfilling in these games?
I believe that there is indeed something deeper at work in the Zelda games. These are games that reflect upon human experience and reveal the true beauty of life – and they do this in a way unique to their medium. They express ideas and teach lessons that have been addressed before in literature and film. But Zelda games find ways to communicate such meaning through interactivity – the element through which games will be able to grow and take their place alongside film, literature, and music in our culture.
When Shigeru Miyamoto was asked what influenced him and Takashi Tezuka in creating the original Zelda, he answered, “Books, movies and our own lives. Legend of Zelda was based on my childhood” (Superplay Magazine, April 2003).
Many gamers are familiar with stories of Miyamoto’s childhood, when he would explore the forests, lakes, and caves surrounding his hometown. If, as Zelda players, we pause and reflect for a moment, we can probably imagine much of what Miyamoto felt back in those days.
I remember playing Link’s Awakening, my first Zelda game. I remember leaving my peaceful hometown of Mabe Village to explore the Mysterious Woods, where I wound up utterly lost. I ventured further and eventually made it to the other side of the forest, where I discovered a maze-like swamp filled with monstrous vegetation.
Something about that experience was pure magic – I felt such a terrific sense of wonder and awe, mixed with a nagging bit of fear that came from being far away from my home area. I know deep down that magic I was sensing came directly from Miyamoto’s childhood. He had communicated that feeling in a way that could only be done through a video game.
That is a great strength of the video game medium – the ability to communicate real-life feelings by creating interactive experiences that allow players to share in them.
We’ve all sat on a couch or in a movie theater reading or watching as Frodo enters Mount Doom and holds the One Ring over the fiery abyss. And then, he fails to let go of it. Literature and film allow us to observe Frodo’s decision without actually facing his dilemma. We read about it and watch it, maybe we understand it, but we don’t feel that same sense of obsession ourselves.
But something is very different when we reach the final stage of Link’s Awakening. The game confronts us with the possibility that the beautiful paradise of Koholint Island is nothing but a dream. At its conclusion, the game asks us to awaken from that dream world knowing that Koholint Island and all its people will vanish if we do.
Different media delivering a similar message. How does each influence the audience?
And as we climb Mt. Tamaranch, the one place where the dream can be ended, we find ourselves walking in Frodo’s footsteps. We are torn by the same emotions that overwhelmed the hobbit. Do we have the strength to let go of Koholint Island? It is an experience that reflects the very essence of the human condition with a power that only a video game can achieve.
The Basis for an Adventure
While working on Majora’s Mask, game system director Eiji Aonuma and supervisor Takashi Tezuka incorporated situations from their everyday lives into the game. “Development began in August, 1999… and the team rarely got to go home,” writes Jason Leung, who worked on the game’s localization. “As a result, many of the characters—like the Deku Scrubs, who are involved in a cross-country trading sequence—talk about not being able to spend time with their wives” ("Behind the Mask," Nintendo Power Vol. 131, 60-63).
Separation from loved ones is one of the core themes of Majora’s Mask. This theme has a significant presence in the game’s script, beginning with the opening lines. But the game goes further, imbuing this theme in the interactive experience it offers. The friendly and supportive guardian fairy from Ocarina of Time is lost, replaced by a selfish and sarcastic companion who continuously derides the player. After Link’s cherished horse is stolen, the player is foiled by obstacles that would be easily overcome with the help of a steed.
This concept of separation is expressed in a particularly profound way as the player struggles to reunite the innkeeper Anju with her fiancé Kafei, who has gone missing as their wedding day approaches. Ultimately, players must wait with Anju in her lonely bedroom as the in-game clock counts down the final hours before the end of the world.
Though Kafei has promised to return, players are unable to determine his location at this time. They are only able to trust in his promise and wait as time passes by. As the end of the world approaches, players have the option of giving up and turning back time – and this alternative becomes increasingly tempting the longer it takes Kafei to arrive. It is a powerful, interactive experience that asks players to trust in a promise and believe in someone even when that person is not present.
A powerful gameplay sequence that asks the player to do nothing but wait.
Not long after the Japanese release of Majora’s Mask, script director Mitsuhiro Takano went on his honeymoon (Nintendo Power). In the months leading up to this, his job required him to be away from home for long amounts of time. Is the Anju and Kafei quest an expression of sympathy for his fiancée, perhaps?
“Day-to-day items and situations pop up in Majora’s Mask,” Leung writes. “Working with strangers and missing loved ones can be the basis for an adventure” (Nintendo Power).
A Series on the Right Track
The Legend of Zelda games are built from a powerful series of themes relating to the human condition. They are imbued with the day-to-day experiences of those who make the games. A soul is created and the wild theme-park ride of the game is constructed on top of this soul. Through the interactivity of the experience, players are able to glimpse the beauty of this underlying soul.
Video games as a medium have a wonderful capacity to create fantastic interactive worlds that reflect our own world in nuanced ways. Feelings, experience and insight may be passed from the creators of these worlds to the players who explore them. By cultivating this sort of communication through interactivity, video games will grow and find their true place in our culture. We have a long way to go before the medium reaches this point, but The Legend of Zelda series is here to guide it forward.
.
Chris Hecker’s Keynote
Works of film, literature, and music are often born out of events and experiences in the lives of their creators. According to Hecker, that sort of sentiment “doesn’t show up often in game development bios.” Game developers “rarely discuss what they were trying to convey or express with a particular game, outside the confines of the game’s own entertainment value” (Remo).
A game like Valve’s Left 4 Dead may have terrific entertainment value, “But it’s vacuous,” says Hecker. “It’s cool, but there’s not really any ‘there’ there.” Instead of offering insight into the human condition, video games typically offer linear “theme park rides.”
“Like literature, music, film, and other forms, games offer their own intrinsic element to add to culture. For games, it's interactivity. That uniqueness is necessary for a form to carve out its own cultural space, and it's what will allow games to occupy such a space if the gaming community doesn't wall it off” (Remo).
According to Hecker, game designers ought to ask themselves, “What are you trying to say, and why? And are you trying to say it with interactivity? If you can answer those, you’re on the right track.”
Interactive Life Experience
What do you take away from a Zelda game? Is your experience entertaining but vacuous – a mere “theme park ride?” Or do you find something more worthwhile and fulfilling in these games?
I believe that there is indeed something deeper at work in the Zelda games. These are games that reflect upon human experience and reveal the true beauty of life – and they do this in a way unique to their medium. They express ideas and teach lessons that have been addressed before in literature and film. But Zelda games find ways to communicate such meaning through interactivity – the element through which games will be able to grow and take their place alongside film, literature, and music in our culture.
When Shigeru Miyamoto was asked what influenced him and Takashi Tezuka in creating the original Zelda, he answered, “Books, movies and our own lives. Legend of Zelda was based on my childhood” (Superplay Magazine, April 2003).
Many gamers are familiar with stories of Miyamoto’s childhood, when he would explore the forests, lakes, and caves surrounding his hometown. If, as Zelda players, we pause and reflect for a moment, we can probably imagine much of what Miyamoto felt back in those days.
I remember playing Link’s Awakening, my first Zelda game. I remember leaving my peaceful hometown of Mabe Village to explore the Mysterious Woods, where I wound up utterly lost. I ventured further and eventually made it to the other side of the forest, where I discovered a maze-like swamp filled with monstrous vegetation.
Something about that experience was pure magic – I felt such a terrific sense of wonder and awe, mixed with a nagging bit of fear that came from being far away from my home area. I know deep down that magic I was sensing came directly from Miyamoto’s childhood. He had communicated that feeling in a way that could only be done through a video game.
That is a great strength of the video game medium – the ability to communicate real-life feelings by creating interactive experiences that allow players to share in them.
We’ve all sat on a couch or in a movie theater reading or watching as Frodo enters Mount Doom and holds the One Ring over the fiery abyss. And then, he fails to let go of it. Literature and film allow us to observe Frodo’s decision without actually facing his dilemma. We read about it and watch it, maybe we understand it, but we don’t feel that same sense of obsession ourselves.
But something is very different when we reach the final stage of Link’s Awakening. The game confronts us with the possibility that the beautiful paradise of Koholint Island is nothing but a dream. At its conclusion, the game asks us to awaken from that dream world knowing that Koholint Island and all its people will vanish if we do.
Different media delivering a similar message. How does each influence the audience?
And as we climb Mt. Tamaranch, the one place where the dream can be ended, we find ourselves walking in Frodo’s footsteps. We are torn by the same emotions that overwhelmed the hobbit. Do we have the strength to let go of Koholint Island? It is an experience that reflects the very essence of the human condition with a power that only a video game can achieve.
The Basis for an Adventure
While working on Majora’s Mask, game system director Eiji Aonuma and supervisor Takashi Tezuka incorporated situations from their everyday lives into the game. “Development began in August, 1999… and the team rarely got to go home,” writes Jason Leung, who worked on the game’s localization. “As a result, many of the characters—like the Deku Scrubs, who are involved in a cross-country trading sequence—talk about not being able to spend time with their wives” ("Behind the Mask," Nintendo Power Vol. 131, 60-63).
Separation from loved ones is one of the core themes of Majora’s Mask. This theme has a significant presence in the game’s script, beginning with the opening lines. But the game goes further, imbuing this theme in the interactive experience it offers. The friendly and supportive guardian fairy from Ocarina of Time is lost, replaced by a selfish and sarcastic companion who continuously derides the player. After Link’s cherished horse is stolen, the player is foiled by obstacles that would be easily overcome with the help of a steed.
This concept of separation is expressed in a particularly profound way as the player struggles to reunite the innkeeper Anju with her fiancé Kafei, who has gone missing as their wedding day approaches. Ultimately, players must wait with Anju in her lonely bedroom as the in-game clock counts down the final hours before the end of the world.
Though Kafei has promised to return, players are unable to determine his location at this time. They are only able to trust in his promise and wait as time passes by. As the end of the world approaches, players have the option of giving up and turning back time – and this alternative becomes increasingly tempting the longer it takes Kafei to arrive. It is a powerful, interactive experience that asks players to trust in a promise and believe in someone even when that person is not present.
A powerful gameplay sequence that asks the player to do nothing but wait.
Not long after the Japanese release of Majora’s Mask, script director Mitsuhiro Takano went on his honeymoon (Nintendo Power). In the months leading up to this, his job required him to be away from home for long amounts of time. Is the Anju and Kafei quest an expression of sympathy for his fiancée, perhaps?
“Day-to-day items and situations pop up in Majora’s Mask,” Leung writes. “Working with strangers and missing loved ones can be the basis for an adventure” (Nintendo Power).
A Series on the Right Track
The Legend of Zelda games are built from a powerful series of themes relating to the human condition. They are imbued with the day-to-day experiences of those who make the games. A soul is created and the wild theme-park ride of the game is constructed on top of this soul. Through the interactivity of the experience, players are able to glimpse the beauty of this underlying soul.
Video games as a medium have a wonderful capacity to create fantastic interactive worlds that reflect our own world in nuanced ways. Feelings, experience and insight may be passed from the creators of these worlds to the players who explore them. By cultivating this sort of communication through interactivity, video games will grow and find their true place in our culture. We have a long way to go before the medium reaches this point, but The Legend of Zelda series is here to guide it forward.
 | Colin McRae: DiRT 2 Demo
 |
(Credit: Ubisoft) 2009's big slate of holiday games got pared down when a lot of titles slipped to 2010, and those that remained have largely been released already. One of the last, Assassin's Creed II, is a sequel to one of 2007's most-hyped original IPs, a game that got good reviews and sold well but was still seen as a bit of a disappointment.
A mysterious story about near-future Templars and virtual-reality access to the memories of 12th-century assassins acted as backdrop to beautiful open-world parkour and stealth. Does the sequel surpass its predecessor? After a week of play, here's how we felt.
Scott:
Assassin's Creed II is a stealth game that's appropriately crept onto our radar after a lot of far-more hyped titles this year, and it merits some serious attention. The strange plotline of the original continues, but updates the focal setting to Renaissance Italy. Rendered in beautiful detail, Florence and other cities can be climbed around and navigated through--although in self-contained zones--and the characters this time around are a lot more lively and spicy. Famous historical figures, including a young version of Leonardo da Vinci, are great additions to the storyline, and also provide you with inventions to use in-game.
Unfortunately, it's hard to figure out the fragmented storyline, which sometimes feels about as clear as a chapter of Metal Gear Solid, but the game's missions and layout are a lot easier to dive into and play than in the original Assassin's Creed. A funky computer sim-type interface and lack of a true tutorial force players unfamiliar with Assassin's Creed to feel somewhat alienated, which is a shame considering the amount of research that's been poured into this universe.
Assassin's Creed II is, in the end, a sort of open-world game that at times feels like Grand Theft Auto set hundreds of years ago, especially in its mission-focused structure and its roster of quirky side characters. It's one of the most pleasant surprises of the year--a game that's better than its hype. However, its Dan Brown spirit and arcane framing might not be for everybody.
Jeff:
Unlike most of the gaming press, I found the original Assassin's Creed to be a trite and redundant open-world action game that had tons of potential. The cities were beautiful, the climbing mechanic was on point, but the repetition of mostly lame mission objectives almost prevented me from finishing the title.
Assassin's Creed II makes up for most of the shortcomings of its predecessor as the game improves on a lot that was criticized in the original. Beneath the updated interface and improved production value are a lot of the same game play mechanics (viewpoints and side missions), but it's refreshing to see a legitimate sequel in a medium where most just give you more of the same. The addition of weapons and healing doctors is a nice touch, plus a new currency system will have you searching your victim's pockets as well.
(Credit: Ubisoft) Assassin's Creed II takes itself much more seriously this time around, sucking you into a storyline that seems more interesting than ever. The structure here is much more logical than before, and while there are still optional side missions, there is enough diversity among them to warrant a few being played.
If you can get past the fact that everyone in late 15th-century Italy is inexplicably speaking English (yes, we know plenty of stories are guilty of this), Assassin's Creed II definitely delivers. We also noticed that Desmond Miles shares the same voice talent as Nathan Drake in Uncharted 2, which because of both titles' recent release is actually a bit strange. It's definitely the first time we instantly recognized the same voice talent in two games, so it's safe to say actor Nolan North is having a good holiday season.
Dan:
Ambition can be a dangerous thing. The original Assassin's Creed combined historical recreations with sci-fi, and stealth gaming with open-world questing. The end result was a melange of good ideas that felt underdeveloped and at times half-baked. It was fun for the first few hours, then devolved into tedium.
The sequel comes much closer to fulfilling those ambitions, but remains disappointingly off the mark. The 15th-century setting and historical cameos are impressive, as are the high-flying game mechanics, which take you free-running across the rooftops of the city.
But with great building blocks like this, we'd expect a less disjointed overall game experience. Ping-ponging between the past and present (most of the game is a virtual simulation of the past) can be jarring, and each in-game task is accompanied by an "accept this mission?" dialog box that unnecessarily pulls us out of the game experience. Great swaths of the landscape are mysteriously inaccessible at the start of the game, and any chances of freely exploring Florence are dashed by the overwhelming number of supercop-like guards roaming the streets, alleys, and even rooftops.
But despite these shortfalls, Assassin's Creed II was one of those rare games we found hard to put down. The most intriguing aspect is the story within the story uncovered during your explorations. Hidden symbols are decoded via puzzles, revealing a secret computer code that plays out as cryptic video clips of...something...that promises to turn the already complex game world upside down. These fascinating conspiracy theory touches show how much potential this series has.
We all know both that playing computer games is a largely male-dominated arena and that Nintendo has long had an eye on changing that, but we didn't know just how successful the company has already been.
According to a presentation given by Nintendo bigwig Reggie Fils-Aime, the number of female console gamers found in his US research currently stands at around 11.7 million.
Nintendo out in front
While that's still just under a third of the 33.3 million male players, it's a far more impressive stat than might have been expected just a few years ago.
Naturally – and this was Fils-Aime's point, of course – most of that cadre of female gamers are adherents to the Nintendo faith.
The Nintendo of America research showed that 80 per cent of them get their fix through the Wii, leaving just 11 per cent on the Xbox 360 and 9 per cent on the PS3.
Most of you puzzlers will recognize Pipes. The objective is to make sure that all tubes are connected in a close circuit, accessing all the little blue nodes. Make sure that water can flow through your structure unhindered, and you clear the level.
Simulation — the word many Europeans use to describe a player taking a dive on the field — has become the bane of the game (or at least it was until Thierry Henry’s Hand of Gaul last Wednesday).
But a computer simulation that purports to predict, even mimic reality? In a sport that seems to have adopted a Luddite approach to the uses of technology (as in an aversion to video replay), the notion that FIFA 10 bears the imprimatur of the game’s mandarins seems to fly in the face of reality — virtual or otherwise.
But here we are, one day before the Los Angeles Galaxy plays Real Salt Lake in MLS Cup ‘09 at Qwest Field in Seattle and the computer geeks are already telling us who wins the game.
“This is an opportunity to show what the game can do,” Sam Cooper, the product manager of FIFA 10, said Friday in a telephone interview from Vancouver, British Columbia. “The game’s backbone is authenticity.”
Little argument there.
Cooper, an Arsenal support from Watford, England, said that the simulation, played on an Xbox 360 system in two lightning quick 10-minute halves, saw the Galaxy win its third Major League Soccer title, by 2-1 over Real Salt Lake. The Galaxy grabbed a 2-0 lead on goals by Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan, and were forced to hang on after R.S.L.’s Javier Morales pulled one back 14 minutes from the end of the match.
Donovan, who was named the league’s most valuable player in the real world last week, was named the Man of the Match. In fact, Donovan (along with some guy named Beckham) was the highest-rated player (in computer terms) on either side, garnering 82 points out of 100. (According to Cooper, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, with a 92, is the top-rated player in the world; followed by Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo at 90 and his teammate Kaká with an 89.) No other player on either M.L.S. team had a rating above 70 (the highest-rated R.S.L. player is goalkeeper Nick Rimando, at 69, followed by Morales at 68).
FIFA 10 ($59.99 suggested retail), which was released in North America last month and is available for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Wii (with versions also released for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Nintendo DS, Nokia N-Gage, PlayStation Portable and other mobile phones), has sold 4.5 million units worldwide, with the United States emerging, perhaps surprisingly as the No. 2 market in the world. New features in this version are 360-degree dribbling and the additional of more physical play among the players.
The game covers 31 leagues (adding the Russian Premier League), more 500 teams (41 national teams) and provides views from 50 stadiums around the world. (The game’s package is customized for various countries and regions, with the box for the North American version featuring Frank Lampard, Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Sacha Kljestan … huh?
O.K. So how certain is Cooper that the MLS Cup simulation will actually play out on the field on Sunday?
“We think the outcome in the simulation is pretty accurate and pretty realistic,” he said. “Of course, in the real world you can’t tell who turns up on the day. Five or six years ago, sports games were spitting out ridiculous results. Now it’s just so authentic.
“In the beginning of the year we did a replication of the first and second rounds of the E.P.L. then looked at the results. We didn’t expect it to be that close, but we had something like 75 percent of the games within a goal. It was pretty impressive.” http://jugar-online.blogspot.com/
Activision was the first to sell a mahjong solitaire (for lack of a better term) game for IBM PCs and Apple Macs in 1986 under the name Shanghai. They even got the programmer of the original game -- which was created on University of Illinois mainframes -- to do the programming and create backgrounds. That release was a big enough hit that a sequel was pretty much guaranteed. The 16-bit consoles of the time were quite popular and apparently capable of handling the graphics, so Activision decided a console release was a good idea. They got Japanese developer Home Data to do the port and handle Japanese publication (under the name Dragon's Eye Plus: Shanghai III -- probably because Sunsoft had already released a game called Shanghai II for the Sega Game Gear) whilst Activision published in North America and PAL territories for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis.
The rules of the game are the same as any number of modern versions of the game: remove all tiles from the board in pairs, with tiles counting as free when there are no tiles on top of them and no tiles touching either their left or right side. With four of each tile arranged in patterns stacked several tiles deep there's a bit of strategy to the game and it's remained popular for many years. Activision's fledgling effort to bring the game as a straight port from PC/Mac fails by comparison to later Sunsoft games using the license, because it tries to be too faithful to the home computer version and hasn't stood the test of time.
There are actually two games included here: the aforementioned Shanghai and a variant called Dragon's Eye, in which two players (or one player and the CPU) are pitted against each other as "Dragon Slayer" and "Dragon Master." The Dragon Slayer is trying to "slay the dragon" by clearing a small board using tiles from a hand of 6 whilst the Dragon Master is trying to "awaken the dragon" by filling the board from a hand of three. The board starts out with 8 tiles arranged in the centre in a square. If the slayer cannot clear a pair he must add a tile to the board, whilst the master just adds a tile and then draws a new one. There's a "flip" button for use in two-player games so players can hide their hands before their human opponents look back at the screen (take note WiiWare card game developers) and then buttons for drawing tiles and ending your turn. Otherwise it plays much the same as the familiar solitaire game.
The visuals are pretty decent for a 16-bit game with colourful animated backgrounds and sufficiently detailed tiles to make out what the various figures are. There are multiple tile facings to choose from besides the default mahjong set (thereby demonstrating the clear disconnect between this game and actual mahjong) and the ability to turn off time-consuming animations that normally happen when you clear a matching pair as well as the backgrounds. There are a total of 13 different boards to choose from: the default shanghai layout (also known as "The Turtle") and then 12 others in the form of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
Whilst this was a pretty fun game on the PC/Mac, little was done to properly adapt the game for home console use and as a result the game is rather painful to play. Using a d-pad instead of a mouse is awkward to begin with, but even after setting your cursor speed to maximum it will feel like your cursor is moving through maple syrup. After turning off the animation for pair clearance, there's still some kind of delay in removing the tiles and the whole affair is just agonisingly slow compared to newer, Wii-specific versions. Rather than mapping hints or any other kind of controls to the other buttons available on a Mega Drive controller, Activision opted to retain the menu bar from the computer version which can be called up by pressing the start button and then navigating the drop-down menus using your d-pad as a mouse again. It's all quite tedious and feels like playing a mouse-driven game using a keyboard on an old DOS computer.
You can set a time limit for some added challenge, but there's nothing to unlock and little incentive to carry on. If you're a die-hard Shanghai fan you may get some enjoyment out of this title, but more likely you'll be frustrated by the sluggish controls and just go back to playing it on your PC.
Whilst Shanghai II was a great game on home computers when it appeared, attempting to shoehorn a mouse-driven computer game onto a gaming console wasn't really a great idea back in 1991 let alone today. If you don't have a Japanese Wii to take advantage of the excellent disc or WiiWare versions from Sunsoft, then you may want to exercise some patience and wait for a possible WiiWare release; you can always play it on the web while you wait!
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Played on: PS3
Rating: 9.5 (out of 10)
Rated: M (for Mature)
The Deal:
Forget every other game you’re playing, the most anticipated game this year is finally here, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward’s award-winning original transformed and redefined first-person shooters in 2007, with its high-end production values, intense combat and easy to pick up -- but hard to put down --online multiplayer component. So just how good is this game?
COD: MW2’s single-player campaign takes place five years after the original game, and Russia is in political turmoil. The antagonist, Vladimir Makarov, and his group of Russian ultra-nationalists begin committing terrorist acts across Europe, setting off a chain of events. America sets up a covert operation to infiltrate Makarov, but in doing so they make matters worse. Meanwhile, another team, Task Force 141 -- a group of British soldiers -- are fighting to contain the Makarov threat in other parts of the world.
The Good:
-The single-player mode delivers gun battles, snowmobile escapes, and boat chases that hit harder than a kick in the face.
-The game looks stunningly realistic. COD: MW2’s graphics have improved over the last edition with greater attention to detail in the environments. Textures look more crisp and refined making the game feel and look like a military simulator.
-The sound design is second-to-none. COD: MW2 effortlessly blends radio chatter, atmosphere and gunfire, making you feel like you’re in the middle of a battlefield. And film composer Hans Zimmer masterfully creates mood-setting music that goes from vibrant and thrilling to dark and brooding.
-Really, where fans will be spending most of their time is playing the kickass multiplayer mode that is even more expansive than ever. A lot of what you hated about the original (bad respawn points, grenade martyrdom, etc.) has been reworked. With 14 online modes and lots of new multiplayer maps, it’s pretty easy to spend hours racking up the frags.
-The multiplayer component has more depth and customization than ever. There’s plenty of variety thanks to all the new “perks” (add-on skills) that have been introduced. “Killstreak” lets you perform customizable rewards like launching and controlling a “Predator missile.” Or, better yet, if you can get 25 consecutive kills you can fire a nuke that instantly wins the match.
-The addition of a new “Spec Ops mode” adds another challenging and addictive layer to the game. Players can play solo or co-op in a series of scenarios and challenges that test your skill against computer-controlled enemies. These range from gunship missions to sniper challenges to bomb defusals.
The Bad:
-If there’s one blemish on this great game, it’s the short and confusing single-player story. It’s nowhere near terrible, but the narrative does get convoluted at times due to the wide assortment of characters involved, and disappointingly, the game clocks in at a mere six hours of gameplay.
The Ugly:
-Of note, the game will likely generate controversy due to a level that involves the massacre of innocent civilians. The level can be pretty disturbing and viewers may find it offensive. Although you are given the option to skip it outright, it shouldn’t have been included in the first place.
Final Word:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 lives up to its billing as the “biggest game of the year” delivering an intense single-player mode and a multiplayer component that improves upon what is already one of the best in the business. http://jugar-online.blogspot.com/
During the early years of the game industry, no rating system existed. As a result, most developers would censor and rate themselves, in the most simplistic way possible, simply stating the type of game they had created.
3.1 Self Censorship
Developers would often go all out with arcade games. Most of them would have plenty of blood, gore, and gratuitous violence—just look at Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. However, this was a problem when when compared to other Arcade games (that were often right next to these) such as Donkey Kong and Qbert.
3.1.1 Splatterhouse
Sometimes the developers of these mature games would voluntarily state on the cover that their game was intended for an older audience with a parental advisory sticker on the front, despite consoles and arcade machines being seen as a child's play thing in the early years.
An early example of this is from the game Splatterhouse, originally released in the arcades in 1988 before being ported to a number of systems, such as the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990.
With the porting of the game to a more family/child friendly system, the front cover hosted a warning stating that;
“The horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children… and cowards.”
However it wasn’t a straight port—much of the game’s gory content was cut back by the developers in self-censorship.
The developers even changed a later level in the game, known as the ‘Chapel’ in the Arcade version.
3.2 Rating Systems
There is a total of about ten computer game age rating systems throughout the world, but of these ten, only three been used within the UK. These three systems include the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the Pan European Game Information (PEGI), and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers association (ELSPA), but only the first two are currently in use.
3.2.1 ELSPA
According to wiki, "The ELSPA was founded in 1989 to establish a specific and collective identity for the British computer and video games industry. This identity was used to provide a basic age rating system for the games industry between 1994 and spring 2003. Their ratings system was voluntary and thus exempt from the legal classification by the BBFC.”
The current rating systems and supporting companies have changed over the years, but not in a dramatic way. The original system belonged to the ELSPA and was used until 2003—it eventually gained the support of over 60 companies after starting with only 12. However, ELSPA dropped its voluntary system in 2003, choosing to back PEGI and the BBFC as replacement systems.
Due to this change, when a game's content is rated it usually goes first to PEGI. However, if PEGI rates it as being 12+, the game is taken to the BBFC for further rating/review.
This has resulted in a far superior rating system to that of the original ELSPA system, giving parents better information about the content of games while purchasing for their children.
3.2.2 BBFC
The BBFC is the longest established rating association, and was founded in 1912 primarily to classify cinema films. However, due to advances in technology, computer games have developed more depth in terms of their realism and storytelling which allows them to deal with increasingly complex and mature themes, making them similar to films.
The BBFC uses the same two-tier rating system for games as it does for films. This involves placing a small colored icon on the front and side of the game containing the suitable age for players; these range from U – 18. The icon color is unique to this rating system as it also represents the age, ranging from green for U to red for 18. The second tier is a content description on the back of the game, much like PEGI, which also contains another age icon.
3.2.3 PEGI
Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is very similar to BBFC in that it tells you specifics about what the game contains, such as drugs, violence or abusive language.
PEGI is supported by the three console manufacturers (Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo), as well as many other different European game design companies. Some people think that this organization could be what binds the European gamers to a more unified rating system.
PEGI was established in spring 2003 with the purpose of aiding European parents in making informed decisions on purchasing computer games. PEGI replaced some national ratings systems with one system which is now used throughout most of Europe. PEGI uses a two-tier system similar to BBFC, providing a rating on the front of the game to highlight age suitability (3+, 12+ and 18+), and a content description on the back, highlighting the reasons for the age restriction(violence, fear, discrimination, language, etc.).
3.2.4 Other Rating Systems
There are two other European rating systems in addition to PEGI:
* Valtion elokuvatarkastamo (VET) - The Finnish Board of Film Classification, which rates games in Sweden.
* Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) - Germany's software rating organization.
However, both these boards work alongside PEGI as additional systems.
Other systems used throughout the rest of the world include:
Hitting the screen anywhere sets off an explosion. Reaching any of the white dots will set off consequent explosions. The goal is to ignite as many of the 50 balls as you can, with that one hit.
Each game consists of three rounds, with the points adding up. How to win? Try to reach 150!
These are just ten free Windows Mobile games. Visit XFlib Games for ten more! Do you know any other cool mobile games? Tell us in the comments section below.
The goal of blackflip is to coat the whole field in a single color – black or white.
Switch colors by tracking a path over the squares. You can track back or cross your path, but doing so will wipe out all progress in between.
Aquella ball is another very familiar free Windows Mobile game. The objective is to ‘clear’ more than 75% of the playing field.
When striking you stylus – horizontal or vertical – a barrier slowly grows until it touches two sides of the field. Have a ball touch your growing barrier is fatal, but a finished barrier is lasting.http://jugar-online.blogspot.com/
3210 is a very original game. Instructions were originally not included (the developer thought they’d confuse the user more than just ‘finding out’) but I’ll give it a shot.
The lower cannon shoots balls in the air. The balls bounce off the surface until they lose their momentum and stop mid-air. Hovering around, the ball will grow until it touches any other surface. By hitting them with other balls, you decrease their value. If you manage to hit them thrice, they disappear.
Score points by making as much balls disappear as possible. You die when a ball crosses, or grows back over your dotted line.
Not generally regarded as interesting for most people, Binary is a game designed for programmers. After all, you need to be able to compute binary (pun intended).
Click on the bricks to switch their value. You can make a line disappear when the Byte’s value is the same as the line number. http://jugar-online.blogspot.com/
I’m not sure if Pocket Gravity can be considered a game. It was actually more of an experiment. But it’s fun to play around with, and that’s what matters.
Pocket Gravity is a mobile physics simulator. Build free, anchored or pivotal shapes and let the laws of nature come into motion. Look at the screenshots above for some inspiration, but the real fun begins when you start making cars and muppets.
OK, perhaps WoW doesn’t precisely qualify as a recent game, but thanks to software updates and expansions this crackhouse of massively multiplayer role-playing goodness continues to devour hours from the lives of its millions of devotees. (And subscription fees from their wallets.)
In case you’ve somehow managed to remain innocent of this game’s dark influence, I’ll explain the concept: You build a character. You accept some quests from needy townsfolk. You kill some creatures. You get some nifty gear. This new gear lets you accept more challenging quests, to kill more powerful creatures, and get even niftier gear. Repeat for 80 levels and you’ve got the basic idea.
I’m obviously being flip here, but the truth is, WoW is a delightfully simple, devilishly addictive, and wonderfully social experience. There’s a reason millions of people happily drop a minimum of $13 a month for the pleasure of adventuring in Azeroth: It’s fun.
And it also happens to run just fine on a netbook with 1GB RAM. You’ll need to jump into the Effects tab of the settings page and turn everything all the way down, but thanks to the small screen of a netbook you’ll barely notice the difference.
You can sign up for a no-obligation, no-questions-asked, 10-day trial here. Best of luck getting away.
Got your own suggestions for diminutive gaming? Help out your fellow netbook users in the comments thread.
http://jugar-online.blogspot.com/
There is something about Trials 2 that I have a hard time putting my finger on. You start it up and it feels simple as hell: You’re just riding a dirtbike from point A to point B. You don’t even need to steer — just accelerate and brake, and lean forward and back to shift your weight.
But then the levels start getting more and more insane. And suddenly you’re hitting loops, bouncing off of exploding platforms, and planting your bike on ridiculously narrow ledges before revving off into space, landing with a bone-shattering crunch and somehow driving off.
It looks like a racing game, but what it really is is a platformer — one that, at its highest levels, requires an absurd amount of talent, skill, and/or luck. But that’s no reason not to recommend this slick, entertaining game. Blowing through the early levels isn’t much of a challenge, but that won’t stop you from heading back and trying to beat your best time. And then trying to beat that.
But don’t take my word for it. You can check out a demo yourself at the official site, and should you decide to purchase the full game, you can do so for ten U.S. dollars. Ten dollars!
Netbook owners have the benefit of a solid decade of great real-time strategy games to draw from. RTS games tend to brush off fancy graphics in favor of a clear interface and user-friendly controls, and that means we get our pick of some of the best in the genre. But few recent RTSes have been as netbook-friendly as last year’s Sins of a Solar Empire, a vast game of galactic strategy that was designed specifically with older machines in mind.
Starting out in control of a single planet, you gradually branch out into different star systems, colonizing far-flung planets and harvesting their resources. Your growing dominion takes place in a lovely representation of 3D space, and managing your ever-expanding empire is unexpectedly smooth thanks to a user-friendly interface and a reasonable pace.
But “user-friendly” doesn’t have to mean “simple,” and Sins of a Solar Empire proves it with a wonderfully deep and complex tech- and unit-management system. However, Sins is disappointingly simple in one respect: It features no single-player campaign; instead, the game is structured entirely around multiplayer, and though the game includes computer-controlled opponents to battle when an internet connection isn’t available, the real meat of the game is online. But there’s a lot of meat there: Any given match can take literally hours to complete.
If galactic conquest is your cup of tea, you can check out a demo here, and download the full version at the official site. One big caveat, though: Though the game runs fine on underpowered machines, many of the menus are cut off at the standard netbook resolution of 1024 x 600. Fortunately, a user has developed a simple mod to work around the problem; you can grab it here.
If you’re old enough to remember Diablo, the concept of Torchlight will be very familiar: Create a character, equip him or her with fantasy weapons, armor, and gear, and hit the dungeons to bash the crap out of waves of nasty creatures.
The hack-and-slash RPG is certainly nothing new, but Torchlight’s gorgeously cartoony art style and slick production values bring a breath of fresh air to the genre. And once you’ve spent some time digging into the game, you’ll discover that the character progression is astonishingly deep and varied, more so than what anyone has any right to expect from the simple, click-kill-loot-repeat gameplay.
You won’t find much to write home about in terms of the story, sure. But once you’ve gotten a taste of what the game offers in terms of character development, enemy evolution, and new areas to explore, it becomes astonishingly difficult to step away.
“But the game just came out last month!” you say. “Surely my lowly netbook can’t possibly handle it!” you say. Get this: Not only does the game run fine on most netbooks, it actually includes a special “Netbook Mode” toggle in the options screen that optimizes the game for underpowered machines. All that, and it’s only $20.
You can grab a demo from the official site, and unlock the full game via PayPal or Google Checkout. So on top of everything else, it’s convenient!
In researching this post I promised myself I wouldn’t cheat by loading up the list with puzzle games. You all know Bejeweled and Peggle will run on your machines; you don’t need me to tell you about them. So I decided I’d only allow one of these five slots to be filled by a puzzle game, which made things a little more interesting.
When it came right down to it, though, the choice was obvious: Puzzle Quest. At first glance, this fiendishly addictive game appears to be an awkward mix of genres, and it seems like a barely-disguised knockoff of Bejeweled. But neither of these things is true.
You may not be able to tell from screen shots, but Puzzle Quest is at its heart a role-playing game. It employs many of the standard RPG tropes like hit points, leveling characters, and a magic system. The story sends you gallivanting around a simple overworld map, battling fantasy creatures on your way to defeat the evil Lord Bane.
OK, so it’s not the most imaginative of RPGs. But then there’s the combat. Yes, the gem-swapping that serves as the central element of combat may look awfully familiar. But the idea here isn’t simply to clear out the board or reach a certain number of points, as in Bejeweled. Instead, you’re aiming to match specific combinations: Matching three or more skulls results in a direct attack on your opponent; colored gems charge up your magic reserves for special attacks; and other pieces offer gold (to purchase gear to buff up your character) or experience to raise your character’s level more quickly.
So yes, it may sound odd, but it’s entertaining as hell, and as fiendishly addictive as the puzzle games it draws its inspiration from. But don’t take my word for it: You can check out a demo yourself right here. If that tickles your fancy, you can buy it instantly over Steam.
player except to practice and get used to the game. Not to say that those games against the computer aren’t fun, because they are. They just missed the whole point of the NFL which is to win and go to the Super Bowl.
