High Street 5 (credit: www.g4g.it)

One of the notable MMO dance creations would be the High Street 5. This dancing masterpiece has four different versions – the US, Singapore, Malaysia & the Philippines one. This game is widely known in the South East Asia.

You start off as a normal, unknown dancer and a stalker agent comes to you and persuades you that you have the potential of becoming a successful street dancer. That’s how it all begins.

After you create your character, and design how you want to look like, you’re ready. The town you are in, well, it’s packed with other gamers and social areas like homes, guild houses, and even wedding churches. All these areas can be accessed easily and there are numerous places for you to go customize the looks of your character.

As the game is a dancing game, you might want to dance, so naturally, you’ll go to the dance halls provided in the area. Each area contains different backgrounds and different sets of songs, and for those who have played enough and gained enough money, they can rent their own private dance halls.

High Street 5 (credit: www.highstreet5.com.sg)

There are a few dance modes, common ones would be: individual dance, team dance and couples dance. If you would want a challenging dancing adventure, you can set yourself to hard mode; if you’re a beginner, it’s advisable for you to start with easy mode.

The game controls are quite simple, like Audition and STEPS; you have to press all the keys and then space bar as it approaches a white lit area on a bar that moves across the screen. The closer you get to it, the more points you score. And if you manage to pull off 100% perfect scores or even perform special dance moves, you’ll gain extra marks. Every move you perform successfully, you gain more stamina, which is quite important if you want to show off your special moves.

Practice makes perfect; most of these dancing games require practice, and what really helps is the special playback feature. You get to watch yourself dance and spot your mistakes and hopefully don’t make them again. It’s a great learning tool, nothing more.

Ratings: 3.4 out of 5

It’s a beautiful world; High Street 5 provides great graphics and a colorful environment for all its dancers. The clothes you purchase are quite stylish and it definitely beats many other free dancing games. Besides that, the sound effects they have are incredibly satisfying and it provides up to date songs. All these song choices make the game all so wonderful for us to enjoy.

Unfortunately, there are bad points and complaints about the game. It’s patching takes ages and its server isn’t exactly user-friendly. Besides that, most of the things in this dancing world is temporary as your clothes and items have expiry dates. If you want permanent clothing, you’ll need to spend item mall money or win them from contests.

It’s overall a decent dance world to be in, but you’ll need to tolerate its awful patching server. If you love music and love dancing, this is a great chance for you to show off your awesome skills.

CREDIT: www.flickr.com

Second Life, name says it all, it’s practically a second world for you to live your second life in. Second Life is a popular online 3D virtual world, created and made possible by Linden Lab. It’s not your typical online game, instead, it’s a place for you to interact with others, or get together with your colleagues or friends to engage in a range of online activities. Activities can mean socializing, playing games, shopping, gaining education, investing in real estate or even attending meetings and presentations in the virtual world.

Residents of the Second Life are avatars; these avatars can be designed to the likes of their users. Users mainly use Second Life as a social networking tool, to connect better with old classmates or schoolmates, or even customers and colleagues. To make your second life even more interesting, you can even use animations or gestures to enhance your world. Second Life is a great way to boost your communication skills!

Second Life can be remarkably entertaining, and it is too quite beneficial to the business world. Companies like Sun, Dell, and even Intel, have gotten themselves involved in the reality world. By transferring themselves into the second world, they have the chance to boost their popularity and connect better with their customers. It really says something about how the videogame world has advanced!

In addition, this social networking virtual world brings users a chance to invest and to earn real money, because Second Life supports real in-world economy. Residents are able to create objects based on their own creativity, and sell them to others, earning themselves an income. Residents can convert Linden Dollars (Second Life currency) into US dollars and vice versa.

Besides that, Second Life has earned a whole great deal of publicity recently, thanks to a virtual property seller, who has earned a million dollars (US $) just by selling virtual properties, unreal properties. Like all other real estate investors, she buys properties, redevelops it, resells it and uses the profit to invest in more. By doing so, in the long term, she has proudly earned herself a million dollars.

Hundreds of educational organizations like colleges and universities have made their impact in Second Life. They believe that Second Life is going to be a part of their future plans to provide a platform for students to engage in rich, sensory experiences. Students can easily gain access to vital information and education, thanks to Second Life.

The NMC, New Media Consortium, is the largest educational organization in the game that supports not only classes but demonstrations and exhibitions as well. The campus has hosted a wide number of speakers, events and even online conferences.

If you’re an art or science lover, you should drop by the Exploratorium. It’s like a museum, just better. The Exploratorium provides users a space to explore art and science, through all its exhibits. This includes optical illusions, perception exhibits, 3D maps and much more.

Unfortunately, you’ll need a good graphic card if you were to enjoy all its beautiful designs and graphics this 3D world has to provide. Even so, everything else can no doubt prove to be a worthwhile experience for all of you.

Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 

To conclude, Second Life really is a second life – there’s just so many things for you to do here. Don’t expect this to be a run-of-the-mill shooter action packed game, as Second Life actually tries hard to recreate a normal life experience for the average person, which includes socializing, working, and having relationships. If those kind of things are your cup of tea, you’ll be sure to find a second life in Second Life.

The highs & the lows of one of the biggest Gams Show.

Tokyo has been famous and has been quite active in the gaming industry during these recent years, and one of their notable events would be the Tokyo Game Show 2009. Disappointment was the preceding mood hanging in the air, as fewer games were exhibited this time round – probably a tattling result of the global recession. A total of 758 games were exhibited this year, but that wasn’t good enough, as it didn’t beat last year’s 879.

Gamers were also looking forward to more breathtaking and astonishing games, but in the end, not many were announced this year compared to the last. Even so, the Tokyo Game Show was still packed with fans and people from all over the world.

Sadly, many have voiced that it’s such a pity that E3, GamesCom and TGS are so closely related, because now it seems that it would be a tougher job impressing gamers who crave for fresh new games. That’s probably the reason why the Tokyo Game Show wasn’t as flashy or overwhelming like last year’s.

To other people, however, the Tokyo Game show 2009 was interesting enough as some new titles were released, like Halo 3: ODST, Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer and the intense thriller Left 4 Dead 2.

Project Natal, Microsoft’s controller-free technology was also impressively demonstrated to the people at the Game Show. Kudo Tsunoda introduced the basics of the 360’s motion-sensing Natal technology, and some gamers were eager to play the games specifically created for the technology.

It seems like they have exhibited quite a few interesting, new RPG games, including the all-time favorite Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Other new RPGs like Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyou, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony and Ninokuni were equally as impressive.

Besides that, TGS is well known for its hot and snazzy game displays, but a few strange ones also took centre stage. Like last year, some titles had their own unique personalities. There was a PC game which required you to hold a broom handle with a boxing glove attached to one end; while onscreen you had to punch the air above to hit ninjas. It is believed that the event lacked exhibitors, which led to the release of weird and quirky titles.

Another high-profile game demo release was Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Many couldn’t wait to get their hands on the demo, and some messed around with it at game booths for a few hours.

In addition, there were quite a few interesting appearances at the game show; many were Japanese and Western game developers, such as Jun Takeuchi, producer for Lost Planet 2 and James Cope from Crackdown 2.

Lastly, Capcom’s much anticipated Dead Rising 2 didn’t make it onto the show floor this year, but the producers did take the chance to give gamers an alternatively positive experience. Gamers got a quick glance as to what the single-player game would look like, and how delightful slaughtering zombies can be.

]]> http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/main/tokyo-games-show-2009-review/feed/ 0 http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/main/burnout-paradise-review/ http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/main/burnout-paradise-review/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:31:00 +0000 k2 http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/?p=2004

Criterion’s smash hit – Burnout Paradise is back with its racing and wrecking. The game has been such a huge success because of one reason – The terror you can do just by crashing into others. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box is a re-release of the previous game, turning one hell of a good game, to an even better one. Last year, the game was release on the Xbox 360 and The PS3, now it’s being released on the PC. It brings out the true colours of the Burnout Series, making it another hit success.

You own a luxurious car, and you are able to explore Paradise City’s at leisure, in order to access the other 70 cars, you can unlock them through single player mode, or even join other players for races online. One of the pros in the game would be that Ultimate Box contains all of the downloadable content up to date. Online multiplayer will not be the same again with Codename: Cagney, which adds Stunt Run, Marked Man, and Road rage to it. An addition to all its goodies, the Bike packs enables day time and night time cycling to the series. Besides, what makes the game even more awesome would be the first paid-for content installed, Burnout Party. Burnout party is the type of offline party mode that enables at least two to eight players to play. Every player takes turns to use the controller, making it a fresh new way to experience Burnout.

As gameplay is pretty unchanged, experienced Burnout players do not really need a long time to adapt to this new part of the series. To newcomers, here’s a quick primer. In Stunt race, in order to achieve certain combos, you’re required to chain together some drifts, jumps and boosts. In Marked Man, your mission is to reach the finish line before your opponents can smash up your car. Road Rage would need you to eliminate your opponents by smashing and crashing them into objects.

One of the most noticeable and most long awaited new features would be the Burnout Paradise Party pack. As eight players race it out, you as one of them, would need to win with points obtained in every mini-game. It consists of three types of challenges: stunts, skill, and speed. The Stunt Challenge allows you to compete with your friend by performing insane tricks, the best one wins. Skill challenges you to drive against the traffic with boost on as long as possible. Speed basically means you see who reaches the finish line first. The new package makes you and your friend battles it out – to see who will be able to boost their way to victory.

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5

The online gameplay allows you to join your friends or play with random strangers online, and a plus factor is that online gameplay is easy to access and simple to set up races. Freeburn Challenge, will give you a variety of different challenges, depending on the number of Burnout Racers. If you do the math, there are about 140 new challenges added to the latest Burnout. With the new bike option, you’ll be passing your time with different events, let it be daytime or nighttime.

]]> http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/main/burnout-paradise-review/feed/ 0 http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/main/resident-evil-5-review/ http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/main/resident-evil-5-review/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:31:10 +0000 k2 http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/?p=1987

Resident Evil 5

When Shinji Mikami resurrected Capcom’s highly successful zombie infestation franchise in Resident Evil 4, he introduced a host of new improvements which set extremely high expectations for any sequel that was to follow. So when the release of a new sequel was announced, fans set outrageously high hopes that the new game would be able to appease their ravenous appetites for ripping flesh eating undeads into shreds once more. This has worked to Resident Evil 5’s misfortune, as the new game banked on new territory when players wanted more of what they were used to.

Where the past few games possessed a more survival-horror feel, Resident Evil 5 attempted to recreate the wheel by pursuing a survival action theme. While games like Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid have succeeded in this strategy, Resident Evil was meant to be a game where players were thrown into dark alleys with nobody to rely one, hence the fear factor. In this game, the introduction of a new character, Sheva – who follows you around everywhere you go, does little to help. It’s like playing the old games, but this time with the lights on.

Each chapter of the game plays out in one of two styles: taking out enemies in a free for all or solving complex intellectual puzzles to overcome the level. Checkpoints are scattered like marbles throughout the game, so even if you should die, you’ll be able to start somewhere relatively nearby from where you last stopped. The enemy AI, on the other hand, isn’t what it could have been, but at least they’re not so frustratingly dense as in some other games, so gamers should have an entertaining, if not wholly satisfying time.

On the bright side, thought, the game has managed to come out with revolutionary stunning graphics. Normally static objects like windows, computer monitors and fruit stalls shatter into oblivion when you knock into them or blow them apart, and the dynamics of the game is so convincing that you’d wonder who would take the time to code all this stuff. Also, the enemies are revealed in impressive detail, and in you don’t want to revel in the beauty of their rotting flesh while blowing them up, there’s a massive picture gallery where you can appreciate their structures from a safe spot.

However, critics have been quick to jump on the game’s lacklustre controls. While nobody expects the fluid physics simulation of Mirror’s Edge, the game doesn’t live up to expectations as the main character moves too slowly, he can’t strafe backwards, and there’s no peek-over-the-corner mechanics, all inexcusable burdens to a game where you are constantly swamped by unlimited waves of zombies.

Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Despite all the problems, RE 5 still remains a very fun game to play. It’s a little shorter, and the side character steals away some of the fear, but it’s a tremendously beautiful game, and should be viewed as an ambitious step in Capcom’s desire to satisfy us.

Playing Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots begs a question: are we playing a game, or watching a movie? Practically half the game is enriched with visually stunning cinematics. Yet, to say that the game is half as entertaining as a result would be a mistake, as the game and the story works hand in hand to produce an amazing result. Anyone who has played a game in the Metal Gear Solid series would chide you to not expect this.

The plot of the game is so rich that to speak even a little about it would risk giving away spoilers. Nevertheless, Snakes’s rapidly aging body is pulling him back from revealing his potential in his younger years, as he tries to stop Liquid Ocelot’s newest threats. Gamers will be pleased to see reunions of old faces, friends and enemies alike.

Gameplay will be familiar to old gamers, but it’s been given a nice spruce up and feels cleaner to use. Melee combat has been given a more streamlined touch, making grabbing an enemy from behind and finishing him with a blade much easier. Shooting has also been tuned up a notch, so that playing behind a gun will give you just as much of a kick as sneaking around your enemies. The game can be played in a third person or first person perspective. Snake has all the basic tools for espionage, like wall-hugging and floor-crawling, plus the nifty OctoCamo suit, which allows you to blend into the background just by pressing yourself against it. Your other helpful tool is the SolidEye, a device which gives you night-vision capabilities in first person perspective. You’ll also have portable hiding places like cardboard boxes and rusty barrels to hide in when the situation call for it. But if you’re stuck in a jam, you can always pull out yours trusty gun and fire in the hole. There’s also a psyche meter and stress meter in the game. Basically, if Snake gets too stressed he’s psyche level will fall, and if it gets too low he won’t be able to hold his gun up and his health refills slowly. In short, keep your psyche meter in sight, but don’t get too worried over it.

Enemies are relatively smart, and if you hide in barrels or boxes, they tend are know to kick it a bit to blow your cover. You’ll also come face to face with nasty bosses, so keep your health up before you engage them .The levels are beautiful works of art, and the sounds blend seamlessly to provide that good game experience. On top of that, MGS 4 offers multiplayer support of up to 16 players, so have fun taking your friends down in a Deathmatch.

Ratings: 4 out of 5

Overall, Metal Gear Solid 4 wins in storyline presenting and good gameplay. If you’re looking for a game that you won’t soon forget, don’t forget this one.

The successful Xbox game, Halo 2, now looks for success in the PC world. It’s finally out but unfortunately for XP users, it’s only available for Vista. Given its previous success, I wouldn’t exactly say this version would satisfy all.

Single Campaign would be an example, as it only would take roughly 10 hours for an average gamer to complete the campaign. In the first story, the Halo Ring is highly regarded as an object that will bring an epic journey to them. The military alliance, the Covenant now attempts to obtain another Halo Ring called Delta Halo to go on another journey.

Some gamers might feel that the whole game’s a drag, making the Single Player Campaign even less convincing. Though, if you look at the bright side, boss fights usually are challenging, but this doesn’t make up to the gamers who think there’s still more room for improvement.

Maybe Single Campaign might not satisfy, but inviting a few friends to join you can bring more fun to the game. Halo 2’s multiplayer mode can give you a more strategic feel. Every weapon has its pros and cons, so understanding them is vital to finishing the game. Any moment you might require a grenade in your hand, but some situations might need your quick instincts to perform a melee assault. Be caution wherever you go, as long as you’re exposed, you’ll become an easy target to enemy forces.

Team game modes will require teamwork in obtaining flags, or even successfully carrying out their responsibilities in team deathmatch (called team slayer). Aside from that, they’ve developed the game so that it’ll give a variety of fresh modes to players. One of the many examples would the the shottysniper mode. Given so many different and unusual varieties, gamers tend to get confused, but it may also offer a whole lot of excitement too.

Halo 2 has the full back up of the Xbox controller but it a mouse and keyboard feels fine too. But as you compare them, you find that you have more advantage with the Xbox controller. Gamers will find a more easier and accurate play with a controller. Xbox controller makes it sound so simple, causing unbalanced to the game.

Matchmaking is one of the recycled features brought to the PC version. It pairs you up with players your level, allowing you to challenge yourself with other skillful players like yourself. It’s improved in the PC version, by boosting up the speed for server choosing, and game loading.

Ratings: 3 out of 5

Visuals aren’t that fantastic, but comparison with the Xbox version says this isn’t bad at all. The game’s still as sharp, there’s not much to complain about the visual in battles, and the alien ships look pretty convincing. I’ve come to a conclusion that the game’s tried its best to maintain its fans from Xbox, making it a not a really bad buy. Fans might not like the fact that the game controller/keyboard is pretty imbalanced though.

Bioshock 2 opens with an explosive beginning; it’s 1960, and you are in a plane over the Atlantic Ocean. With no warning, your plane is suddenly in the waves, and being the lone survivor, you search desperately for a way out – and see a lighthouse. A lighthouse? In the middle of the sea? Despite your reasoning, you swim towards it, where you find a small submarine waiting for you. As you climb into it to seek shelter, it submerges, and you are exposed to the beautiful underwater city, Rapture.

In the story, Rapture is a “country” managed by egomaniac businessman Andrew Ryan, with the principle that a city run without the restraints of government or religion can pursue its own ambitions with unlimited prospects. However, when you reach the underwater paradise, you find that everything has gone horribly wrong. As you try to discover the truth, you are exposed to ADAM, a corrupt substance which gives you superpowers. Wow.

Character customization is the strength of this game. Having superpowers, you are able to shoot lightning from your fingertips, burn your enemies’ eyeballs at will, and fling people you don’t like at sharp objects using telekinesis. You can also lead an army of insects against your opponents, or if you prefer, set up traps for them to step on. Indeed, the amount of ways you can torture your enemies here is limited only by your imagination, and that makes for a cool game to play. The world of Rapture is huge, so you will have a lot to play with here.

Without giving too much away, you can basically gain these skills by harvesting the aforementioned ADAM, or using plasmid energies called EVE. But superpowers are not the only means to wreak havoc and destruction in Rapture. You are also given a whole arsenal of weapons to choose from, from the humble wrench to the noisy but awesomely powerful machine gun. Since the game is set in the 1960s, your superpowers will often be of much better use than your real-life weapons, but that isn’t to say that the guns aren’t pretty.

The enemies in the game are, however, a disappointment. Sure, there are a whole array of enemies to fight, each with their respective unique ways of trying to kill you, but after a while they all feel the same. The bosses aren’t much of an eye opener either, they’re just like the normal enemies with tons more health and kilograms more damage. And if you happen to die, don’t fret. Bioshock 2’s system of death is especially noteworthy, as you don’t just get a chance to try again without penalty; you even get to retain whatever items you were holding plus damage already dealt to the enemies. So if you’re facing a boss which you just can’t kill, don’t worry, because you can just get up over and over again until you show him that the good guys always win.

Ratings: 3.9 out of 5

I certainly had no regrets with the game, and while Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, it will definitely offer another round of highly addictive fun in this zombie apocalypse. The full game is out on the PC, so buckle up and get ready for more Resident Evil online style.

Image credit: http://games.ea.com/crysis

When the first release of images and videos from Crysis came out years ago, critics were sceptical as to whether Crytek, the firm behind the game, could deliver on its high expectations. And when Crysis was finally released, they were satisfied.

The game revolves around a group of US scientists who have been taken hostage by North Korean troops on a remote Pacific island while doing their research. As a member of the special forces team, you and your men are despatched to rescue the scientist, equipped with futuristic apparel called nanosuits. But when your team finally arrives to do some damage, you realize that something is already tearing up the North Korean soldiers to shreds.

Hence, begins your mission into the strange unknown away from your military experience…an alien invasion.

Like its predecessor Far Cry, Crysis plays on its strengths by putting players into a world full of options, much like the real world. Unlike most games, where gamers have to follow a strict storyline and are nary allowed to deviate, Crytek gives players a whole world to explore, where players are allowed to choose whatever way suits them best to reach their objective. Another interesting feature in the game is the Nanosuit. Your character comes with a sleek uniform, the Nanosuit, which allows you to decide how you want to use its energy output. If you focus on speed, you can run faster; If you focus on strength, you can jump higher and shoot more accurately; if you decide to turn on cloaking, then you become, well, invisible. This combination gives players a whole set of strategies from which to choose from.

The gameplay is also incredibly realistic. From the way the character moves to the recoil from the guns, players are given an immersive experience real enough to avoid any complaints. The North Korean soldiers where body armour, so it takes awhile to down them, and you can also drive jeeps, humvees, and even tanks across the battlefield to up the fun factor. You can also pick up weapons from fallen enemies, so you’ll never run out of ammo. The AI is also very smart, able to think on its feet and run for cover when it needs to, so you won’t face soldiers running into walls and such.

You’ll need a fairly powerful system to run this game though, as the visually appealing graphics do take a toll on your machines performance. A dual core system with a high end video card can play the game, but you’ll need to turn down the settings a bit. Also, the game sounds amazing; every bit of the game makes you feel like you’re in a Hollywood production.

Ratings: 4 out of 5
The only complaint is that the game is too short! With eight to ten hours of gameplay, most players just can’t get enough, although there’re plenty of opportunities for replay. In the end, Crysis is an endearing game, and represents the first person shooter in its highest form to date.