Review - Overlord 2 For PC

Have you ever played the game Pikmin? You know, that silly little game for the GameCube where you use little yellow, blue, and red blobs with leaves and flowers on their heads to gather parts for your destroyed ship. Now take the basis of that game, add swords, armor, burning buildings, and a hint of evil, and you get Overlord 2. Released on June 23, 2009, Overlord 2 is the sequel to the 2007 video game Overlord. Produced by Codemaster and Triumph Studios, the player becomes an evil ruler of all that is dark and evil, using minions to do his or her bidding.


Background/Overview


In Overlord 2 you take control of the son of the evil overlord, both named, you guessed it, The Overlord. In the beginning you are a young boy who has been banished to Nordberg (a small, mountain town) due to your magical powers. You begin by chasing other children around with your club and scaring them into a house outside of town. Ultimately stealing their clothing to trick the drunken gate watcher that you're not the "Demon Child." Along the way you meet and control your much needed minions. Your minions are the Pikmin of your evil army. There are four different types, ranging from the Browns, which are strong and able to pick up any enemy weapon and use it, to the Greens, who are quiet assassins, doing excellent damage from behind and becoming invisible when told to guard. Every type of minion has their ups and downs, and it is best to learn to mix and match your types. During the course of your game play, you will attempt to rule the entire world or destroy it, making your classic good and evil decisions. You will kill, steal, and pillage to collect parts for your towers. Along the way you will meet several women, who you will take back to your lair (known as the Netherworld), and they will become your mistresses. Your mistresses will complain, nag, and give you minor pointers along your way. You can buy them things to keep them happy, and if you buy everything for one mistress you'll get a cute little cut-scene where you and your mistress "Have some one-on-one time." (don't worry, the action is 100% censored). Without spoiling too much, you'll soon realize that your goal is to destroy the evil empire (a copy of ancient Rome) as well as the small yet numerous Gnomes and the environmental activist Elves, who love "The Fluffy Ones."


Controls/AI


The Controls are the downfall of Overlord II. Although you will get a hang of them within a short amount of time, it doesn't mean they're good. Left click sends your minions, right click calls them back, holding left click sends multiple minions, holding right click calls them back, alt to fire you spells, the one key controls just browns, two keys for reds, yada, yada, etc. etc.. The game has so many controls and they are so far spread out on the keyboard it feel like you can lose track of where everything is in the heat of battle. At several points I found myself going and checking the manual to see how to do something. Along with that, they will teach you how to do something once, and will never go over it again, making memory of how to do certain spells nearly impossible.

The AI isn't much help either. Your minions are not the smartest bunch of slaves. Let's use an example. Say you see a sword lying right in front of you, you want Minion1 (let's call him Fred) to go get it. Fred runs in to go grab the sword; he avoids the sword and runs straight into a wall. You call Fred back, and you tell him to run back at it, you will have to do this about four more times, or send six other minions and hope one of them picks it up. This comes into play when attacking as well. Most times the minions will circle the enemy, which is good, however each type has a side in which they attack best from (Browns = front, Greens = back, Reds = Ranged, Blues = side/back). However, they will end up being all out of order, causing your entire green army to get wiped out in a single swipe. This causes deep frustration and annoyance.


What Did Overlord 2 Add?


Although it did add a fresh new storyline, Overlord 2 did not add very much. The basic game play, controls, minions, layout, and enemies are pretty much the same, slightly rehashed to attempt to give a new spark to the game. Some of the new features include a new crafting system, which has pre-made weapons. A new minion resurrection system was added, which allows you to revive old minions and all their equipment at the cost of unarmed minions. Also a new feature was added in which you will take the body of a minion, and lead your army using that minion. This allows you to go down small paths not reachable by your large and lanky Overlord. Lastly a new city-controlling feature was tacked onto the game, which allows you to buy a city using Brown minions, and choose to control or kill the entire city. Controlling the city will allow you to walk in and be praised and the citizens will also give you items and energy to creature more minions. Although killing the entire city is much more enjoyable and the few citizens who are left will fear and obey your every command. If you played the original Overlord, most of the features excluding these will be almost unnoticeable, and nothing more then "cool" new features, which are easily overlooked. For those who have not played an Overlord game, these new features will seem essential as if they should have been in the first Overlord, and you won't think of them as "New."


Is it worth it?


Overlord 2 is a game that may be overlooked by many people, but is definitely worth a try. If you are going to be playing it for PS3 or 360, I would recommend renting it, if you are going to be playing it for PC, it is worth borrowing from a friend or buying when it goes down in price.

Pros
• Interesting and new style of play, unlike any other game (excluding Pikmin)
• Good play time, will take 30-40 hours to beat
• Storyline is good and attempts to keep the mood light with comic relief
• Overall the game is fun and easy to pick up and play, although hard to master

Cons
• Multiplayer is a joke. Has a split screen option, but no co-op or major online play
• Bad controls and stupid AI cause much frustration
• No major new features added from Overlord to Overlord 2
• Very repetitive enemies and play style (Charge, attack, gather loot, rinse, lather, repeat)


Overall I would give this game a 3/5
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Kii Kasten is a Freshman at Ripon College studying Political Science. When he is not studying he enjoys Video Games on all platforms, and has begun a freelance writing focusing on video game reviews. If you have any questions or comments about the review or the author, please email him at nameless6001@gmail.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kii_Kasten

World of Warcraft Leveling Tips to Help You Hit Level 80 Fast

The game of World of Warcraft is ever expanding with the release of patches, and content for the game. The latest expansion the Wrath of the Lich King allows players to level from 70 to 80 now which for many players has added some needed freshness to the game. Though there are a number of guides out there to help you level up to 80 faster, However I feel that leveling can also be done without a guide so I wanted to focus on a few World of Warcraft leveling tips that can help you do just that.

1. Get a bigger bag. Nothing is more frustrating then when you are about to leave for a quest or when you find yourself far away from town discovering that your bag is full. So as soon as you get a chance make sure you get a bigger bag this really helps cut down on the amount of trips back to town just to empty out your bags.

2. Consider add-ons that will save you time. Some of the best add-ons available include the carbonite quest, auctioneer and my favorite auto profit. Auto profit is very useful as it sells the items which you would have classified as gray junk to the vendor and it does all this in just one click. This is extremely useful, as it saves a ton of time, which can then be spent leveling. The carbonite quest works more or less like a quest helper with better mini maps and a really good quest tracker.

3. Get your mount as fast as you can. It is important to remember that travelling on a mount increases your travel speed thus cutting down on wasted travel time. So even for those players in the higher level zones', upgrading your mount is just as effective for over over level 60 players as getting your first mount was at level 40

Of course there is a lot more World of Warcraft leveling tips but there just isn't the time and space to cover all those in just one article. I suggest to learn more visit our site we cover a lot more WoW leveling tips as well review many of the leveling aids out there, so that you can reach level 80 faster then all your friends.

Draenei Leveling Guide - Fastest Way to Level 80 For Draenei

Talents

Draeneis are relatively new race in World of Warcraft, they first appeared in the first expansion of the WoW. Back then, for new players playing with a draenei character it took months to get level 70. The same is true for the Wrath of the Lich King, for new players it is difficult to get level 80. Most of them don't know the game mechanics, the quests & so on. But with a draenei leveling guide these new players can easily get level 80 in no time. Read on to find out the basics of draenei speed leveling.

The right talent build plays a crucial role in the routine of speed leveling. A lot of new player underestimate the value of an appropriate talent build. You can learn how to use your character properly but without a good talent build, you will struggle to get level 80. As a general idea, I recommend to choose those talents, that improve your damaging abilities or giving new damage dealing abilities. But remember, a quality draenei leveling guide will tell you exactly how to spend your talent points.

Add-Ons

The best & most experienced players always use the best & mot advanced add-ons, that is why they can achieve so many things in the game. Unfortunately, most new players don't recognize the importance of the add-ons so they don't use them. The best add-ons will help give a huge boost to your leveling speed. Recently,the best leveling add-on is the Cartographer, which unveils the map & gives you coordinates, so you can easily determine the location of your next objective.

The Ultimate Draenei Leveling Guide

If you require to get level 80 as soon as possible I recommend you to get a World Of Warcraft leveling guide. With the help of an elite guide you will be able to get level 80 in 6 days! Check out this page to unveil the secrets of the most effective leveling guide! Click here!

Choosing the best draenei leveling guide can be difficult sometimes, so read on to find out more about the best guides. In my opinion, the best guide is an universal guide & not an only draenei guide, because an universal guide can be helpful later, if you decide to start a new character. The most advanced guides are built-in automated guides, so they automatically do everything, all you require to do is to follow the simple instructions. The best guides also contain an in-game GPS process, which always shows you the right route to your current objective: it places an arrow in the middle of your screen pointing in the right direction.

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WoW - Skinning Leveling Guide 1-450

WoW Skinning
So you want to learn skinning? Sure the sound of it is kewl, and you will be racing around cleaning up after your own mess. So why not! And I totally agree.

But before you get started, racing around skinning any little furry mob you see in sight, have a read of this 1st, to give you an idea of how to level skinning even quicker! Because the only thing better than leveling up your skinning, is leveling skinning faster.

Where to Start
The main things to know here is, Trainers, Items(bags) & Leather types. Lets cover the basics.

Trainers:
They are everywhere, and for both Alliance and Horde. So where do you find them? Here is a list of the starting locations for both Alliance and Horde and their respective skinning trainers.

Ranks you can learn from these trainers:

(Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan)

NB: These are all the skinners you should find around the original World of Warcraft game.

Alliance Skinning Trainers

• NightElf (m), Radnaal Maneweaver - Northwest of Ban'ethil Hollow - Teldrassil

• NightElf (f), Eladriel - Craftsmen's Terrace - Darnassus

• Human (f), Helene Peltskinner - Goldshire - Elwynn Forest

• Human (f), Maris Granger - Old Town - Stormwind

• Dwarf (m), Balthus Stoneflayer - The Great Forge - Ironforge

• Human (f), Wilma Ranthal - Stonewatch Falls - Redridge Mountains

• NightElf (f), Jayla - Silverwind Refuge - Ashenvale
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (only)

• Furblog, Gurf - Stillpine Hold - Azuremyst Isle

• Draenei (f), Remere - Traders' Tier - The Exodar

Horde Skinning Trainers

• Undead (m), Rand Rhobart - Southeast of Brill - Tirisfal Glades

• Undead (m), Killian Hagey - The Rogues' Quarter - Undercity

• Tauren (m), Yonn Deepcut - Bloodhoof Village - Mulgore

• Tauren (f), Mooranta - Middle Rise - Thunder Bluff

• Orc (m), Thuwd - The Drag - Orgrimmar

• Tauren (m), Dranh - Camp Taurajo - the Barrens

• Troll (m), Malux - Shadowprey Village - Desolace

• Tauren (m), Kulleg Stonehorn - Camp Mojache - Feralas
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (only)

• BloodElf (m), Mathreyn (upto journeyman only) - West of Silvermoon entrance - Eversong Woods

• BloodElf (f), Tyn - alk of Elders - Silvermoon

Tools (Items):
OK, so now you have learnt your skill for Skinning, and are ready to go skin some mobs. Wait wait, hang on a second. You need some tools. or in the games terms, items.

• (Required) Skinning Knife

• (Suggested, but optional) Leather working bag like the 'Bag of Many Hides'
You can get away without a skinning knife, if you attack with an axe, knife or sword. But only until a certain level, and this only frees up 1 bag slot. And YES, your MUST carry the skinning knife with you.
Which is why the 'Bag of Many Hides' is so great, it can be used to store all your leather and skinning knife in, and its BIG. Another great advantage. Definatly worth the gold.

Leather Types:
I saw this somewhere, and thought it was quite interesting. A list of all the leather types available in the Original World of Warcraft and what level mobs you can expect to see them on. In the expansions, there are only 1 type of skinnable leather from mobs.

• Ruined Leather Scraps - expected mob level: 1-16

• Light Leather - expected mob level: 1-27

• Light Hide - expected mob level: 10-27

• Medium Leather - expected mob level: 15-36

• Medium Hide - expected mob level: 15-36

• Heavy Leather - expected mob level: 25-46

• Heavy Hide - expected mob level: 25-46

• Thick Leather - expected mob level: 35-63

• Thick Hide - expected mob level: 40-59

• Rugged Leather - expected mob level: 43-63

• Rugged Hide - expected mob level: 47-63

NB: You can upgrade your leather with Leather Working. Sometimes, I would just get a guildie or friend to do this for me in exchange for some leather goods.

Lets Get Skinning!
OK, so we have got the skill, got the tools, learnt a little about the skinning leathery stuff. So now we need to know where to start. Well if you are doing this with a new toon, then pretty much the 1st place you can kill a mob, you can skin a mob. But here is a list of suggested areas which can really help you speed this process up.

Level your Skinning from 1-25
Horde

• Undead - Hounds around Brill

• Orcs and Trolls - Mottled Boars and Scorpids around Sen'Jin Village

• Tauren - Prowlers and Plainstriders around Bloodhoof Village
Alliance

• Humans - Boars around Goldshire

• Gnomes and Dwarfves - Crag Boars and Wendigo's South of Kharanos

• Night Elves - Nightsabers and critters around Dolanaar

Level your Skinning from 25-50
Horde

• Undead - Worgs and Moonrage Gluttons around Silverpine

• Orcs and Trolls - Boars, Scorpids, Crocolisks and Raptors around Orgrimmar

• Tauren - Prowlers and Praire Wolves around Thunderbluff
Alliance

• Human - Prowlers and Bears around Eastvale Logging Camp

• Gnomes and Dwarfves - Wolves around Brenwall Village

• Night Elves - Moonstalkers and Bears around Auberdine

Level your Skinning from 50-100
Horde

• Most Horde races - Plainstriders, Raptors and Prowlers around Crossroads
Alliance

• Humans - Goretusks all around Sentinel Hill

• Gnomes and Dwarfves - Bears and Crocolisks around Thelsamar

• Night Elves - Moonstalkers and Bears North of Auberdine

Level your Skinning from 100-130
Horde

• Most Horde races - Stormsnouts and Thunderhawks around Camp Taurajo
Alliance

• Most Alliance races - Crocolisks and Raptors around Bluegill Marsh and Whelgar's Excavation Site

• Alternative - Whelps and boars around Lakeshire

Level your Skinning from 130-150
Alliance and Horde have 3 areas to level now

• Bears and Mountain Lions around Hillsbrad Foothills

• Ravagers and Wolves in Duskwood

• Bears, Stags and Ghostpaws in Ashenvale

Level your Skinning from 150-170
Alliance and Horde

• Yeti Cave in Hillsbrad Fields

• Mountain Lions on the "Daggers"
NB: these are the bits of land between Hillsbrad and Alterac Mountains, one is called Corrans Dagger, so hence the nickname

• Hyenas, Lions, Wyvern and Thunderhawks in Thousand Needles

• Bears, Stags and Ghostpaws in Ashenvale

Level your Skinning from 170-180
Alliance and Horde

• Raptors in Arathi Highlands

• Turtles and Basilisks in The Shimmering Flats

Level your Skinning from 180-220
Alliance and Horde

• Raptors, Panthers and Tigers around Nessingwarys Camp in Stranglethorn Vale
NB: you could actually get your skinning level all the way to 300 in and around STV as the mobs range from level 34 to level 50

• Raptors and Crocs in Dustwallow Marsh

• Thunder Lizards, Kodos, Basilisks, Scorpids and Hyenas in Desolace

• Whelps in Swamp of Sorrows

Level your Skinning from 220-250
Alliance and Horde

• Raptors and Gorillas around the Gurabashi Arena

• Panthers, Jaguars and Crocs in Swamp of Sorrows

• Dragonkin, Coyotes and Ridge Stalkers/Huntresses in Badlands

• Wolves around Feathermoon Stronghold in Feralas

Level your Skinning from 250-275
Alliance and Horde

• Snickerfangs and Boars in North Blasted Lands

• Silvermanes and Gryphons in The Hinterlands

• Stags and Hippogryphs in Azshara

• Hippogryphs, Apes, Bears, Wolves, Screechers and Yetis in Feralas

Level your Skinning from 275-300
Alliance and Horde, lots of choice here, try out your skills around:

• Jagueros and Gorillas on Jaguero Island
NB: Large Island to the East of Booty Bay where Princess Poobah is being held

• Yetis, Chimeras and Bears in Winterspring

• Bears in Western Plaguelands

• Plaguehounds and Plaguebats in Eastern Plaguelands

• Turtles by Raventusk Village in The Hinterlands

• Turtles and Chimeras in Azshara

• Dragonkin, Worgs and Scorpids in Burning Steppes

OK, I did say I would take you all the way to 450 didn't I. Well here is the Burning Crusade Skinning Guide. From here on out, its the same for both factions.

Level your Skinning from 300-330

• Hellboars & Ravagers around Hellfire Peninsula

Level your Skinning from 330-350

• Talbuk's and Clefthoofs all over Nagrand
NB: it's possible to keep going all the way to skinning 375 here unless you want a change of scenery

Level your Skinning from 350-375

• Netherdrakes around Stormspire in Netherstorm

• Netherdrakes around Netherwing Fields in Shadowmoon Valley

• Raptors and Wind Serpents around Blades Edge Mountains

And here is my World of Warcraft Skinning guide for Wrath of the Lich King.

Level your Skinning from 375-405

• Shoveltusks around Howling Fjord

Level your Skinning from 375-405

• Mammoths around Borean Tundra
NB: There are usually heaps of dead ones just lieing around here as well

Level your Skinning from 405-430

• Deer, Infected Grizzly Bears, Wolves and everything else on the Grizzly Hills

Level your Skinning from 430-450

• Giraffes, Mangal Crocolisks, Gorillas and pretty much anything in Sholazar Basin

OK, and thats some of the best places to level skinning profession from 1 - 450 fairly quickly. I think the quickest I have seen someone do this is in about 9 hours. Feel free to tell me your score! And if you can prove it, I will make a special write up about your techniques!

Master of Anatomy
I remembered I was going to mention this, and since WotLK, there is no skill level vs character level restrictions anymore. So if you want to make a twink @ 19, you can still craftily level you skinning all the way upto 450!

• (75-149) Master of Anatomy Rank 1 - increases Critical Strike by 3

• (150-224) Master of Anatomy Rank 2 - increases Critical Strike by 6

• (225-229) Master of Anatomy Rank 3 - increases Critical Strike by 9

• (300-374) Master of Anatomy Rank 4 - increases Critical Strike by 12

• (375-449) Master of Anatomy Rank 5 - increases Critical Strike by 20

• (450+) Master of Anatomy Rank 6 - increases Critical Strike by 32

OK, that's it for now, I hope this guide has been helpful to you and your skinning efforts in the World of Warcraft.

Johnny @ WorldWarcraftGuide
FREE Guides and Product Reviews
Helping you get ahead of your game, and everyone elses

Check out the complete guide Here. http://www.WorldWarcraftGuide.com Skinning 1-450

Review - Demon's Souls - PLAYSTATION 3

Let me begin by saying this; Demon's Souls is not a game for everyone. It might not even be a game for you. However, if you can look past the game's punishing difficulty and sprawling scale, you'll find one of the best RPGs of this generation.

Demon's Souls is an action RPG born of an unholy union between Armored Core developers From Software and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. Best known for their Armored Core mecha action franchise, From Software was also responsible for the King's Field games, a series of first person action RPGs on the Playstation, Playstation 2 and PSP. The King's Field series is notable for several things; its complex, sprawling dungeons, creepy monster designs, wide variety of NPCs and pieces of equipment, and its dark, dreary atmosphere. It's also quite well-known for its difficulty. Demon's Souls, planned by Sony and From as a modern re-invention of the King's Field franchise, shares many of these features, as well as several new innovations of its own.

This is the End of the World

Demon's Souls is not a happy game. The story opens with a narrator bitterly telling a tale of a power-hungry king taking control of the flow of souls, using them for his own personal gain; by slaughtering humans and monsters alike, King Allant was able to build up vast reserves of power for his kingdom of Boletari. However, as Boletaria grew more powerful, a thick fog spread across the prosperous country, covering the city in an impenetrable wall of darkness. By taking control of the power of souls, Allant awakened an Old God, and with it came an unstoppable horde of demons. From that point forward, adventurers, mercenaries, and psychopaths alike ventured into the fog surrounding Boletaria. Some went in search of lost loved ones, some in attempts to free the city from whatever evil controlled it; and others still sought to plumb the cursed city's vast reserves of Demon Souls to increase their strength...or worse. This is where your hero comes in.

In a lot of ways, the story of Demon's Souls is anti-typical of other Japanese RPGs; the game is clearly set in an European-influenced setting, from the environments to the accents of the characters, Demon's Souls reeks of Western influence. Meanwhile, the story itself seems influenced heavily by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, dark and gothic with nary a doe-eyed little girl spewing "power of friendship" speeches in sight. That being said, the story in Demon's Souls isn't exactly the deepest or most in-your-face narrative you're going to find in an RPG; it serves mainly as a means of setting the mood and explaining the setting. However, for fans of lore and subtlety, there is depth to be found here; item descriptions, NPC dialogue, and the bosses and level designs themselves reek of atmosphere, and the story explains itself well enough provided you're willing to pay attention and forgive a few translation issues. The atmosphere in the game is absolutely breathtaking; the silent emptiness of Boletaria Castle is enhanced by the lack of dungeon music, while the inherent creepiness of the abandoned prison Tower of Latria is altered into abject horror by the muffled screams of its lost prisoners, and the ominous bells being rung by its otherworldly guards as they stalk you through its darkened halls.

East Meets West: Boletaria Style

In Demon's Souls, much like a Western RPG, you play a created character; you choose a gender and a name, edit yourself a face, and then choose a character class. These classes range from fantasy staples like the Knight and Wizard, to more unusual classes like the Royal or the Wanderer. Your character class is absolutely important, as it influences your character's starting stats, default character level, and what equipment you begin with. On one hand, you could choose a Soldier and you might be gifted with heavy plate armor and a large broadsword, but your character will be unable to use magic for a considerable amount of time. On the other hand, you could pick a Thief and be able to sprint and dodge considerably more effectively than another class, but if you take more than a few hits, you're a goner. There are also several more "hybridized" classes like the Royal and the Wanderer that allow for more neutral stat builds, but they are generally not recommended for a first playthrough.

As I mentioned in my first impressions article, you begin Demon's Souls by dying. After creating your character, you're put through a simple tutorial dungeon to familiarize you with the game's mechanics and controls, then thrust into a boss fight with the creature pictured above. This monster, referred to as Vanguard, destroyed me in a single hit. After you die, your character will awaken as a spirit in the Nexus, the game's hub world. The Nexus is a constantly evolving tower full of NPCs to interact with; some appear when you level up, others can be found in the dungeons, and some are there from the start. In the Nexus, you can perform all necessary pre-adventure actions like shopping, item storage, repairing/upgrading weapons and learning new spells. Much like a Western RPG, Demon's Souls is an extremely non-linear game. After you've cleared the game's first "real" dungeon, the game officially lets go of any semblance of distinct structure; your only objective is to rid the world of the Old One, and however you get there is entirely up to you.

A Field of Corpses

The combat in Demon's Souls is generally pretty standard dungeon crawler fare; you have two hands, and you can equip two items to each hand, one main weapon and one backup weapon, easily swapped between by a tap of the D-Pad. My usual setup was to equip my main melee weapon and my bow in my character's right hand, and a shield and a spell catalyst in his left; allowing close-range and long-range combat, as well as defense and spellcasting. Other players may choose other ways of handling things, though; there's really no wrong way to do it...that is, unless you decide to try and run through a dungeon dual-wielding shields. Each weapon class has its own unique combos and animations, with rare weapons receiving their own specials. You can also opt to wield any weapon with two hands, leading to more powerful, wider-ranged attacks at the expense of being able to defend as effectively. Equipping a light shield also allows you to parry incoming enemy attacks, if timed right, allowing you to unleash a devastating riposte, while careful blocking or stealthy maneuvers can allow you to perform a powerful backstab. Easy to learn, hard to master is the name of the game when it comes to combat in Demon's Souls.

Now, there's no point in mentioning the combat in Demon's Souls if I don't at least talk a bit about the bosses; it was the design for the boss pictured above that initially sold me on the game, and thankfully, the boss fights do not disappoint. With weaker fare like Phalanx the Shield Slime out of the way early on, Demon's Souls evolves quickly into conflicts with truly breathtaking creatures like the Storm King, as well as head to head challenges with brutal humanoid opponents. Demon's Souls also introduces what I believe might be a first in the RPG community; a PvP boss fight against another player summoned from across the Playstation Network. Truly, the wide variety of boss battles is one of the greatest strengths of Demon's Souls, capping off each dungeon crawl with a satisfying, pulse-pounding conclusion. What's also impressive is the variety of ways a player can tackle each boss; while certain strategies certainly work better than others, almost any way you want to take a boss down, you probably can if you're skilled enough. Well, provided you're not trying to fistfight the Old God, that is.

Wait...I'm Dead AGAIN!?

Now, reading as far as you have, you're probably thinking "well, that doesn't sound so bad," right? Wrong. Like King's Field before it, Demon's Souls is a difficult game; punishingly so, even. This is a game that, without question, wants you dead and makes no attempts to hide its murderous nature. From hazards ranging from a fire-breathing dragon strafing across your intended path to a massive, pitch-black lake of poison, Demon's Souls will kill you more times than you can count. And frustratingly enough, there is a penalty for dying! As you kill monsters, you are awarded Souls. These Souls act both as currency and experience points; you can "spend" them in the Nexus, as well as at vendors throughout the game's five sprawling worlds, to purchase new items and equipment, repair and upgrade your weapons, and also to level yourself up and gain new spells. This is all well and good until you realize that whenever you die, you lose all unspent Souls in your inventory. Like in Diablo, you can re-enter the dungeon and find your corpse, recovering any lost Souls from your last death, but also like Diablo, if you die again on the way back to your corpse, you lose what you lost, forever. As such, the game encourages very defensive, structured play during the early stages, until you learn the Evacuate spell. There is truly nothing more frustrating, after all, than amassing 50,000 Souls during a dungeon run, only to accidentally dodge off a cliff and lose them all.

As Dave mentioned in his challenge article some time back, Demon's Souls is not a game you "get" instantly. Its sprawling dungeons are a throwback to the Roguelikes and dungeon crawlers of old, with numerous branches, ruthless deathtraps, and dangerous enemy ambushes around every corner. The enemies are, to put it simplest, bloodthirsty; there's no particularly complicated AI at work here, these enemies want you dead, and if they get hit in the process of hurting you, they just don't care. In fact, in the case of some of the bigger monsters, like the dragon pictured above, they will gladly roast other enemies alive if it means killing you. The level design, especially in some of the later stages, is also expertly engineered to lull you into a false sense of security, then drop a barely-visible cliff or deathtrap in your way at the exact second you're too relaxed to react in time. The game's numerous bosses also range in difficulty from pathetically easy to "HOLYCRAPIMPOSSIBLE", and it seems that From Software doesn't mind mixing things up a bit, as long as it leads to the player dying. In the first dungeon alone, I likely died a good three or four times before reaching the boss; you don't want to know how many times I died during my first run-through of the third dungeon.

However, the difficulty of Demon's Souls is a blessing in disguise. Interestingly, the more you play and the more you die, the more you learn; enemy attack patterns become more obvious, allowing you to dodge or parry more easily, while the map design grows more familiar, and several of the "surprise" elements designed to kill an unwary newbie are no longer a threat. You'll learn which weapon types are most effective against certain enemies...and as your knowledge grows, the game will eventually click. No longer will you fear that skeleton wielding a massive zweihander; you've got a mace that shatters bone in two hits. That giant slime? He hates fire. Get a fire spell or enchantment for your sword and watch him die in under a minute. As you learn the game's subtle nuances, and find ways to exploit them, the true depth of Demon's Souls reveals itself to you. This is not a game designed to be blazed through in a weekend. In fact, a player's ability to endure repeated deaths and learn from their own mistakes is perhaps the simplest way to gauge their potential enjoyment of the game; patient players with a drive to conquer any obstacle in front of them will be rewarded with an intensely enjoyable experience, while gamers more grounded in the "instant gratification" school of thought may not find what they're looking for in Demon's Souls.

It's Fun To Slay Together

It's no big secret that Japanese developers haven't really jumped onto the whole "online" bandwagon this generation; hell, it's been three years now and we still don't have an online co-op Dynasty Warriors game. Despite this, From Software did at least try to bring something new to the table in Demon's Souls; the Phantom system. As I previously explained in my impressions post, the game mixes single player, co-op, and MMO elements to allow a cohesive game world without any pesky online lobbies. Demon's Souls supports online co-op play for up to three players over the Playstation Network, allowing three friends (or strangers) of similar levels to join together and take down bosses. The downside to this is that to join another player's game, the host has to be alive (easier said than done most of the time), and the people joining his game have to be within ten levels of him; there's no asking your level 255 buddy to come in and oneshot a boss for you in this game. The game expects you to work together to take down bosses, and they grow considerably more aggressive to reflect this.

demonssoulscoop

As mentioned before, interaction between players is handled almost entirely through glowing runes inscribed on the floor of the dungeons, allowing players to warn each other of upcoming traps, or let other players know they're looking for a co-op partner. This is definitely not the simplest online integration in the world; there's no question of that. It's very silly to have a co-op mode that boots everyone out of the party if the leader dies, for example. The PvP, on the other hand, is handled quite well. All in all, From Software should at least be commended for trying to innovate in terms of online/offline play for the RPG genre, as well as trying to make it fit the game's story and universe. It's definitely fun to take on a boss with friends, though, provided the game decides it wants to let you play together at all.

Game Over +

As I said before, Demon's Souls is not a game for everybody. First of all, it's not even available on US store shelves, only currently found on import gaming websites like Play-Asia and NCSX despite being completely in English. Completing the game requires copious amounts of time, patience, and ambition; you have to want to win in order to finish the game, From and Sony aren't holding your hand along the way. While the brutal difficulty and lack of direction might put off some fans of more traditional JRPGs, patient gamers who're willing to try something new (and get eaten by a few dragons along the way) will find plenty of things to love about the game; the brutal boss fights, the sprawling selection of weapons and armor, using the souls of previously-defeated bosses to forge new, more powerful weapons and armor; the list goes on and on. The story may not be the deepest or most elegantly told out there, but compared to the seemingly endless onslaught of asinine anime cliches being spewed out of games like Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Eternal Sonata, and Blue Dragon, the minimalist approach in Demon's Souls is a welcome change of pace. And believe it or not, there are gameplay elements I haven't even touched on in this review; it's just that deep! My first playthrough of the game clocked in at roughly 58 hours; the only single-player games this generation that even approach the amount of time I've put into Demon's Souls are the XBOX 360's Lost Odyssey and the PSP's Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

In the end, while it might not have the production values or graphical "WOW" factor of a mainline Final Fantasy title, Demon's Souls has easily usurped the PS3's "best RPG" throne...but with FFXIII slowly approaching, we'll see how long it holds onto the crown. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a New Game + to finish.

Pluses
+ Dark, gothic atmosphere with solid graphics and excellent level design
+ Surprisingly competent localization, with few glaring translation errors
+ Breathtaking, challenging boss battles
+ Numerous online options for multiplayer fans
+ Vast array of items and equipment pieces to find, mix and match
+ New Game + feature allows for infinite replayability with increasing challenges

Minuses
- Punishing difficulty may take players by surprise
- Online functions are not particularly well-explained
- Frame rate can chug in certain isolated areas
- Not officially released in US/Europe

Available now on Playstation 3 in Japan;

Asian version features full English translation

CERO Rating: D (17+)

Players: 1 (offline) 3 (online co-op)

Completed game as a Thief; began New Game + and defeated several bosses, experimented with online modes and PvP

Final Verdict: For players who love a good challenge, Demon's Souls is an absolute must-buy, and one of the best RPGs of this generation.

Credit:ezinearticles

Dota Allstars Strategy

It's hard for beginner to become a pro if you only play Dota for short of time. Now, i will try to give you some tips about one of a important strategy in Dota, it's called Lane Control.

Lane control means you're staying in your lane, getting maximum experience and gold and denying your opponents the same experience and gold. There are several techniques to this. Here I provide basic explanations and guidelines to Lane Control in basic overview.

Tip #1 Harassing

Harassing is a tactic to attack and try damaging your opponent hero to force him to stay away and play safely is the simplest way of controlling the lane. But there are many advanced points to it because you cannot attack your opponent hero direct to him in certain range. DotA is programmed so that every time you attack an enemy hero every enemy creep within about 400-500 range will attack you, so you might end up receiving more damage that you dealt.

It's is some advantage if you are raged heroes versus melee, you can attack the enemy if you are far enough from the creeps. But with melee heroes it is much harder to harass ranged heroes. One way to do this is to wait until the creeps almost all died and go ahead, taking advantage of having superior damage (usually). One of much simpler and more effective way to harass is to use spells. The creeps will not attack you if you use spells, so it is pretty much safe. But this takes up mana and often cannot be used too much. Also the creeps will not target you if you use arrow-enhancing abilities like searing arrows/frost arrows/etc. So it gives the corresponding heroes a much easier way to harass.

Tip #2 Last Hitting and Denying

To last hit means to try to deal the finishing blow to the enemy creep and gain gold for the kill, it gives you around 40-50 gold. But it is pretty hard to do with all your creeps pounding on them as well.

Denying means killing your creeps to deny the enemy experience and gold. You can attack allied creeps if they are below half health. A normal creep kill gives around 60 experience, while a denied creep gives them only 24 exp to ranged heroes and 48 to melee (but I'm not sure about the numbers). This also requires good timing.

Tip #3 Creep Blocking

To pull the creep's meeting point to your side or behind your tower, you can consider creep blocking, that is, impeding the creep's movement by means of walking in front of them and stopping from time to time, sometimes walking from side to side, so that the creeps huddle behind you and are slowed down. You can practice this in single-player mode with decreased speed, gradually increasing it back to normal.

Tip #4 Creep Pulling

This is a really advanced technique, it allows you to delay your creeps significantly, but it is useless in solo lanes as it takes a lot of time during which your opponents have free farming. To perform creep pulling you need to find a neutral creep camp near the lane and at a certain time attack them and retreat into the lane. The neutrals will follow you, and if you timed it correctly your creeps will engage the neutrals and be pulled into the forest, getting significantly delayed and maybe killed. It also allows you to destroy a creep camp which is usually a decent bonus. Also while your creeps are fighting the neutrals you can drag another neutral camp into the fight. But doing this requires perfect timing.

Credit:ezinearticles

Ranking the Planeswalkers in MTG Shards of Alara For Standard Play

When the Shards of Alara planeswalkers were released, they got the MTG community talking. They were the first planeswalkers to be in the mythic rare slot, so they were harder to collect than your average planeswalker.

Now that a couple months has passed, we can look back and see which planeswalkers are actually doing well in the Standard tournament scene.

Here are my current rankings for the four planeswalkers from Shards of Alara.

1. Ajani Vengeant

This guy was initially dismissed as not being powerful enough. First, he can only use his second ability once before he has to recharge with his first ability. Second, his ultimate ability takes awhile to charge.

But what many players didn't realize is that Ajani's first ability is very powerful. Also, Ajani is in the color of the best one drop creature in Standard, Figure of Destiny.

These two things have made Ajani a tournament staple in red/white decks like Kithkin and Boat Brew.

2. Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Like Ajani, Elspeth was thought of as not being powerful enough for serious tournament play. However, savvy players realized that her abilities were actually very synergistic with the existing Standard cards.

For example, there are many white decks that play Windbrisk Heights. I already talked about the red/white decks but mono white aggro Kithkin decks and black/white token decks also play the Lorwyn land. This land works very well as long as you have a lot of creatures. Elspeth fits well in this strategy since she is a creature generator like Bitterblossom.

3. Tezzeret the Seeker

I thought this blue planeswalker would be strictly a Vintage card. However, Conflux brings new cards that could make Tezzeret a good Standard card. Conflux brings artifacts like Cumberstone and Scepter of Dominance.

Some rogue deck builders have reported success with playing these artifacts with Tezzeret.

4. Sarkhan Vol

Sarkhan Vol was the most hyped planeswalker in the set. It started out as a $20-$25 card but now it's in the $15-$20 range.

Why hasn't this red/green planeswalker made a dent in the tournament scene? The reason is pretty simple. There are no good red/green decks in the format. The closest thing we have is the red/green/black Jund mana ramp deck. However, that deck is not very good because green lost Harmonize.

So, while Sarkhan Vol's abilities are very powerful, he just hasn't found a deck that fits him well.

Credit:ezinearticles

Bloons Tower Defense 3 Game Review - A Game by Ninjakiwi

At last Ninjakiwi produces a tower defense game worth its category classification...Bloons Tower Defense 3 is what the first in the series should have been like!

Having been disappointed with the first game and impartial towards the second, the third deserves a lot of credit for coming out of the blocks with improved graphics, a great weapon variety and a solid choice of levels. Not to mention there has been a lot more effort put into each level's detail and design.

There are 8 levels to choose them, 4 of which are exclusive to Ninjakiwi. They are:

• Grass and sand track,
• Chocolaty brown track
• Plumbing and cog track
• Bright snowy track
• Party track shaped like the bloons monkey (This point down - Exclusive to Ninjakiwi)
• Volcanic lava track
• Circuit bored track
• Finally a track that I couldn't quite decipher what it was meant to be.

The same difficulty options are kept, with hard difficulty involving balloons that move in two directions.

The defense tower collection not only sees some great new additions to its ranks but also every tower now has a second upgrade level. The new towers are:

Spike-o-pult - A large catapult that tosses spiked boulders across the screen bursting multiple balloons.

Monkey Beacon - A tower that increases the attack speed and range of any monkey towers in it's proximity and also offers even greater power on its second level upgrades.

Pineapple - An explosive pineapple bomb that blows up shortly after placement, a neat addition to the tracks spikes and monkey glue.

Top Secret Weapon - I won't spoil what this weapon is.

As you can see, Ninjakiwi has given the fans what they originally expected in the second tower defense game.

As previously mentioned each tower now has 2 upgrade options, so for example the boomerang monkey can now be upgraded into a ninja star throwing monkey that pops even more bloons and can even take out those annoying lead balloons. This is just one example of the cool 2nd level upgrades that await you in the game.

As for balloon variety, well this time around there's a sense that Ninjakiwi has put more effort into providing challenging bosses and powerful balloons. In the later levels be prepared to pop balloons 10 times over to break them down into their original form (red balloons). This can lead to the screen being overloaded with over 100 balloons at a time!

Also be prepared to pack the screen with as many powerful weapons as possible in order to survive the later level on rushes. You will find somewhere in Bloons Tower Defense 3 that you will have to go many levels without additional tower deployments to make the large leap in cash, in order to afford a super monkey or 2. This was the same as in the first and second game but this time round it's actually worth the wait...

Not only do you get the super monkey, but he can also be upgraded twice over giving him huge powers including shooting lasers from his eyes and a huge increase in attack radius. This gives the gamer much greater satisfaction when enduring many levels of make doing with what you already have and desperately deploying countless spikes across the roads to make up for your buckling tower defenses.

Number 3 gives you the sense of urgency needed in a tower defense game, where you feel the pressure of defending a track bursting at it seems. In the first and second game popping the balloons was just plain boring and left you deflated, but the third will make you work for your success and actually enjoy it.

Game Verdict

To sum Bloons Tower Defense 3 up, it is the ultimate free flash tower defense game and completely outshines the first and second game. If you haven't got much time to waste then skip the first 2 sorry excuses and move straight onto this cracker!

  • Playability: 10/10
  • Graphics: 7/10
  • Originality: 8/10
  • Game Detail: 7/10
  • Addictiveness: 8/10
  • Final Score: 80%

Bloons Tower Defense 3 can be played as part of a collection of Bloons Games at Games Lunatic. Games Lunatic offer an extensive range of free quality flash games to play online



Credit:ezinearticles

Paladin PvP Guide - How to Be Effective in PvP

The paladin is maybe the most powerful class in World of Warcraft. Many players re-rolled paladins since WotLK was released because it's a class easy to play and no matter what spec you take, enemies fall like flies. But no matter how your paladin can be, to achieve the top of PvP and arena you need skills. I'm writing this paladin PvP guide to help all the players understand better the role and importance of paladins in battlegrounds and arena.

The basics of playing a paladin

As a first step of this paladin PvP guide I will focus on the features of the general PvP gameplay that a paladin must learn and apply to combine the toughness and strength with the teamwork. Of course, if you have a paladin you know it's piece of cake to "cold" most of the other World of Warcraft classes on your own, but a battleground or an arena match is not about your power as a single player, it's about teamwork. The two specs used for PvP are holy or retribution. As a retri-paladin you are the one that rushes in the battle first to actually test the strength of the enemy. Also, on retribution spec you are in the posture of a heavy damage dealer. If you're taking too much damage and your healers can't support, of course, you have the luxury of the "bubble" immunity which, used wisely, can turn the fight to your team's advantage. As a holy paladin, you THE support class that keeps the team alive. You need to know how to keep out of the enemies' spell range. No matter what spec you have, the AoEs, the "bubbles" and the Hammer of Justice must be used and managed properly to get the maximum efficiency in a battle, for yourself and for your team. These are about the basics that a paladin must know for PvP. My paladin PvP guide continues with explaining the role of paladins in battlegrounds.

The role of the paladin in PvP battlegrounds

No matter what spec, retribution or holy, a paladin has the features of a defender. Just by being present in the defense of a battleground objective, a paladin makes that certain point of interest discouraging to take on. On holy spec, a paladin makes an attack very hard to reject and, grouped with another heavy armored DPS, in defense of a base, they can hold a base against multiple attackers for several minutes. I've seen a holy paladin and a warrior defending a base in Arathi Basin against seven attackers for more than minutes, without dying and without any help. In the battlegrounds based on capturing flags, paladins make excellent flag carriers because they are tough and resistant and also using their Hand of Freedom they can become immune to movement impairing effects, being able to take the flag away from the enemy base easily. My paladin PvP guide will continue revealing the role of the paladin in arena.

The role of the paladin in PvP arena

As a holy spec paladin, for arena you must first choose equipment with a lot of resilience. Being a healer, you must stay alive as long as possible to be able to keep your team mates alive as well. Usually, the attackers will try to force you use the Divine Shield quickly and you will be the main target after the effect fades. Therefore, you must keep out the enemy range, also being able to heal your party members. The minimum of crowd control that the paladin has, the Hammer of Justice stun, must be used everytime it's up.

On retri-spec, you can choose between resilience gear or DPS PvE gear. I usually go for the PvE equipment to deal as much damage as possible in the shortest time. On this spec, you are the "tough guy" that attacks first, testing the enemy's strength. Even if you have your "bubble" on it is best to concentrate on damage, as a DPSer, instead of healing. Retribution paladins are very effective against rogues, healers and even bear-shaped druids. These are the targets I usually attack and go for the kill, in arena.

I hope my paladin PvP guide has helped you understand the importance of this class in PvP a little better and it improved your gameplay.

You can learn more about playing a paladin versus any class, to dominate and win in any arena bracket or any battleground fight, by using a powerful Paladin PvP Guide.

In order to help you choose wisely, I have analyzed quite a few guides and I put the top quality ones in this WoW PvP Guide Review.

Credit:ezinearticles

How to Download Quest Helper WoW

I know when I was first getting an add on it was confusing or I just did not know how to. So I decided to put an article up there for people who are having problems with this, this is gonna be very easy to follow steps on downloading and installing an add on for World of Warcraft.

The first thing you want to do is find a site that has them to download for free. I like to use curse.com There are other sites you can find but this one I found to be the best site to use. Next after that you will see a search bar up in the top right hand corner. What you have to do is search for the add on you would like to download for quest helper type in these exact words Quest Helper and click enter.

Then after this you will see a bunch of different quest helper links just click the first link. Then there will be a button that says download click on that and it will bring you to a different page. Make sure you click on manual install that way to can extract the files properly. Hit save files and then it will download, after this double click on the quest helper downloaded file to open it.

Then if you look to the right there will be a Folder Tasks menu, in there should be option to Extract all files, do this and extract the files to My computer/c:/Program Files/World of Warcraft/interface/addons. If you have to go through a extraction wizard, just click next, browse then go to that spot I told you before and hit next. Now it is extracted there and when you load onto World of Warcraft there will be a add on option in the bottom left there you can turn any add on off or on by checking the box off.

Ian Enns is an online gamer that loves to play world of warcraft and he recommends this alliance levelling guide

Credit:ezinearticles

Best PC Racing Game

When talking about best PC racing game, there's always a war of words. You don't even need two people to have a fight, because it's very hard for one to decide what's the best PC racing game yet. For example, Burnout Paradise PC is the best one I can think of now, but when looking back, things may change a bit... so let's take a look at the history of PC gaming for a while, shall we?

Contrary to the popular belief, you don't need real locations and vehicles to get a good racing game going. In fact, we can see anything from completely Sci-Fi settings to real world places and vehicles, and that includes land, air, and sea vehicles(there are only a few boats racing games I've played, but they were awesome!).

One of the big problems nowadays is that arcade-style games are becoming more and more popular, leaving the hardcore racing sims to a few fans. This could be easily explained by the early age most game consumers get a PC, when compared to what happened 15 or 20 years ago.

The history of computer racing starts in 1982, with Namco's game Pole Position, followed by a bunch of others, but probably the best racing games I've played for a while were these: Formula One Grand Prix, Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge, and the first NASCAR Racing game, developed back in 1994. Jumping from hardcore driving sims to full arcade games, best PC racing game crown jumped from a title to another, and there are dozens of games worth being mentioned here.

In the beginning, I named Burnout Paradise PC as an example, but who can forget the first Need for Speed games, the Colin McRae Rally series, the two Official WTCC games, RACE and RACE 07, or those good old Screamer racing games?

Considering that great racing games like Gran Turismo are staying away from the PC world, some may claim that PC racing games are going down, and some titles released lately may confirm this idea. The good part is that, as far as Microsoft Windows keeps going on, we'll have a lot of PC racing games around, and some of them show that the way of the future is a realistic handling and damage model with arcade elements and fictional cars(licensing fees, you know...) that don't fly or float, in most cases.

On the other hand, we could also have a best PC racing game popping out of nowhere that allows you to race around the moon in jumping rovers, who can tell? The possibilities are endless, and the good part of the crisis we're in is that more people are willing to do anything but think about it, and what's better than gaming around? After all, gaming has no age, you only need to be young at heart!

http://www.playerzblog.com

Credit:ezinearticles

WoW Hunter Talents - What is the Best WOTLK Hunter Talent Build?

The Hunter is one of the classes in the World of Warcraft whose role depends on their WOW Hunter Talents. Aside from being an efficient DPS provider, a Hunter can take on other roles such as pulling, crowd control and some situations, as a tank. It is one of the fastest leveling classes in the game and the most profitable farmers as well. You might be wondering what the best WOTLK Hunter talent build is.

So let me share with you what I think is the best WOTLK Hunter talent build for me. There are various WOW Hunter talent builds that players can choose from. It would depend on the role and the primary use for your toon. If you still haven't reached the maximum level then place the majority of your WOW Hunter talent points in Beast Mastery. One of the most basic leveling hunter talent builds is 57/14/0. It could also be used for farming and instances. This build is made with your survivability in mind. WOW Hunter Talents that would be used are Catlike Reflexes, Endurance Training, and Thick Hide. It also maximizes your pet's DPS output and you could train exotic pets as well. The pet can hold aggro without the use of Growl.

For raids, you can go with the Marksman Hunter 3.08 talent tree, which is 11/60/0. In the Beast Mastery hunter talent tree gets the Improved Aspect of the Hawk, Focused Fire, Improved Revive Pet, and Aspect Mastery. Then in the Marksman talent tree pick the talents that increase your attack power and lets you use your mana efficiently.

For PVP, the best WOW Hunter talents are found in the Beast Mastery hunter talent tree. The best build is 50/21/0 where the 50 points in the BM tree are allocated in skills you need. Forget about exotic pets this time. The 21 points in the Marksman tree gives the Hunter Aim Shot and Readiness.

Is there really a best Hunter talent build? Well the answer is that, the best Hunter talent build for me might not be the best Hunter talent build for you and vice versa. With the correct WOW Hunter talents you'll be able to out-DPS everyone in your party. Depending on what your goal is for your class character, you'll need to put your talent points where they need to be to get the best out of your class character whether its for raiding, pvp, or solo DPS with the help of a WoW talent add on your talent points won't go to waste because you'll know exactly where to put your talent points to get the best out of your class.

Credit:ezinearticles

Guide on Leveling Hunter - Fastest Route to Level 80 For Hunters

Guide on leveling hunter

Nowadays, hunter is one of the most popular class in World of Warcraft, due to its high damage and survivability. These two are the most important factors in speed leveling so we can say, the hunter is the perfect speed leveling class. But, if you want to exploit this fact to its full potential, read on and discover the best talent build and gear for a leveling hunter.

Talents

Without doubt, the most effective leveling talent tree for a hunter is the Beast Mastery. The Beast Mastery will turn your pet into an ultimate killing machine, plus it gives you important survival abilities: your pet will tank all the monsters, so all you need to do is to output as much damage as you can. Unfortunately, the first few talents in Beast Mastery are a bit useless so spend some points on them to be able to buy the better talents. The first very important talent is the Ferocity, which will give your pet a 10% increase to its critical strike chance. Combined with Frenzy, these two talent will make your pet unstoppable. One of the best talents are the Intimidation, which will allow your pet to stun the mobs, so you can do whatever you want while the mob is stunned. Extremely valuable talent: you will be able to solo even large groups of higher level mobs!

Gear

Leveling hunter can be really easy, if your hunter has the appropriate items for leveling. That is why, I feel important to deal with the problem of leveling gear. In the leveling process the uttermost important thing is to deal the maximum damage. Thus, your first priority should be to get items with agility on them. Agility will increase both your attack power and critical strike rating. Besides, there are other items, which provide attack power and critical strike rating. To sum up, your most important statistics is the agility and after it, the attack power and critical strike rating. You don't need stamina due to your numerous survival abilities.

Conclusion

Hunter is the ideal class for speed leveling, but if you want to get level 80 as quickly as possible, you must get a quality leveling guide. These guides tell you exactly what to do, so leveling hunter will become one of the most easiest thing in the world! You will get level 80 under 6 days!

Credit:ezinearticles

Is Blizzard Creating an Already Outdated Game in an Evolving Genre?

The real time strategy (RTS) genre is on somewhat of a decline. It doesn't get the same level of media and consumer interest that it got a decade ago. In the past few years, the only series that has held the RTS torch high is the Command and Conquer series.

Sure, there have been a couple of Supreme Commander games, but they appeal to a niche audience and the average gamer is overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of unit combination's. The Command and Conquer games still follow the exact same formula set by Dune 2 that was released 17 years ago.

Supreme Commander, for all its complexity, is simply an expanded and upgraded Total Annihilation, a game that was released 15 years ago. The fundamental problem with the RTS genre is that it's horribly stagnant. It has the same rock-paper-scissors units, base building and resource management that it had in the early nineties.

However, Relic Entertainment swooped in to save the day with the Dawn of War (DoW) series in late 2004. DoW was almost a complete rethink of how an RTS should be played. It focused on the physical battles more than base-building for example.

Resource collection was made simpler, and the emphasis was put on the fun part of an RTS: killing the other guy in the most vicious manner possible. Relic expanded this concept into World War II games with Company of Heroes, which managed to mix the fun of DoW with the tactics of a WW2 game.

Usually, WW2 games are complex and you need the patience of a Zen master to understand the games intricacies, which put the average gamer off completely. Company of Heroes managed to dodge the bullet with its simple cover system and the general application of logical solutions to complex problems. It was a phenomenal game and you should feel ashamed of yourself for not playing it.

Five years on, Dawn of War 2 came out and managed to redefine the RTS genre again by changing the nature of the single player campaign, and focusing on single groups of units and their abilities. You can upgrade individual squads, and take them through the story instead of producing a mass of nameless soldiers like you do in every other RTS. Relic is the new genre-leader, and DoW2 is breaking new ground in the pursuit of a new gaming experience. It has been a commercial and critical success and I, as an avid RTS fan, am very grateful for Relic's continued innovation.

This brings me neatly back to Blizzard. Their contribution to the RTS genre has been rock-solid engines, excellent narratives and balanced gameplay. StarCraft was their masterpiece that appealed to competitive gamers and people like me who think gaming should always be fun. It was, in all honesty, a fluke that the South Korean market latched onto it as much as it did. Eleven years on, it is still being competitively played.

WarCraft 3 is arguably a better game, yet that has fallen by the wayside. DotA, a custom map for WarCraft 3, is the only thing that is keeping it relevant. If the South Koreans didn't fall over themselves to play and watch StarCraft, would it have been as successful and significant in gaming culture that it is today? I'm willing to say no, especially in light of WarCraft 3's failure on the competitive gaming circuit.

Now we are on the cusp of their masterpiece's sequel, and the hype could not be any greater. People are buying the beta invites handed out at BlizzCon 2008 from eBay for about $200 a piece. Yet, I think StarCraft 2, in the state that we have seen it, does little to take StarCraft to the next level. Yes, it is gorgeous and there are a few new units and abilities and whatnot, but where is the true evolution? If anything, StarCraft 2 is shaping up to be StarCraft 1.5. If it was an expansion pack of sorts, I would be very pleased with it.

Wrath of the Lich King was a stellar expansion pack for World of WarCraft (WoW) and it did for WoW what StarCraft 2 is doing for StarCraft 1 - Better graphics, bits and pieces of cool new stuff, and a general evolution that keeps the game fresh and interesting. StarCraft is 11 years old; its sequel needs more than bits and pieces of new stuff to reaffirm its position as possibly the greatest RTS of all time. Dawn of War 2 has set the bar very high and I don't think StarCraft 2 will reach it. The single player campaign has yet to be unveiled, so perhaps that could be the real evolution that I am looking for. The narrative could be mind-blowing and the campaign structure could be innovative and fresh. However Blizzard refuses to tell us anything about it. Until they do, I have my doubts.

To give you an indication of Relics rise as the market leader, The Escapist magazine had a poll where readers were asked to vote between Relic and Blizzard in an epic showdown. After accusations of cheating (it's a forum poll, why would people cheat?), and a draw, the poll went into overtime. Relic won it by 0.1 of a percent. The victory could not have been any narrower, but they toppled a giant.

Credit:ezinearticles

Travian - How to Shake Off Someone Who is Farming You - Part III

So far they have looked at the way a farmer thinks and how you can use defensive strategies to stand up to him/her. Another way you can defend yourself is by becoming a protege or vassal to another player.

What you wanna do is send a message to a much larger player asking them if they would be willing to help you out. Again, let's take a look at how larger and bigger players think on Travian servers.

Be prepared to offer something in return for help. If you both have a common enemy you could suggest that she reinforce your village in order to lay a trap for your enemy. This is exceptionally amusing for powerful defensive players who spend 90% of a game simming 10 hours away from everyone else.

After building your first 10 villages, the game gets a little repetitive. A want emerges to try new strategies. This want can be fulfilled by any number of ways. One of those ways is by protecting smaller players or alliances. Don't make the mistake of thinking that a bigger player will welcome you with open arms.

Regardless of the strategy you use for approaching bigger players, remember that they are probably a master of time management and would like to help others without spending all day doing it. Make things as easy for them as you can.

You can also capture a bigger players attention by offering them 1 hour's worth of resources per day or sending them a lump sum of crop to feed their troops. Getting help from a defensive player is your best bet since they can help you out while your attacker has no idea who they are. Bigger players also want homes for their troops to be fed. You can always offer to host a large battalion of defensive troops.

Travian - How to Shake Off Someone Who is Farming You - Part II

Some players will advise you against having crannies since they take up valuable space. Later in the game when your main building is at level 10 you can take them down. It takes time to demolish a cranny, but better be able to demolish it than not be playing at all, right?

The obvious way to shake off a farmer is to build defense. If you haven't built a few crannies you should do so. If you're a Gaul you know that a level 10 cranny holds 2000 resources than 1000. Take advantage of this bonus. Romans and Teutons do not have this advantage-however as a Teuton you should be doing the raiding, not be raided.

You can store your troops either in another village or in an oasis. Most farmers forget to raid the oases owned by the players they raid. I've been surprised some of times by players who kept storing praetorians in an oasis until they had about 1000 and then stood up to me.

Crannies can only get you so far and at some point you will require to stand up and fight. when is not as important as how. If you're constantly being raided then you require to have a safe place to store your troops. This is where being polite to your neighbors and mature pays off. While some players enjoy driving other players crazy (myself included), others are very happy to hold on to your troops and protect them for you whether you pay them crop to support them or not.

When you decide to stand up to your enemy depends on what they is raiding you with. You require to think of the biggest army you have 'seen' him attack with. A farmer will only send as plenty of troops to raid you with as they feels they needs to, that way they can send the rest to other players s/he is farming.

Travian - How to Shake Off somebody who's Farming You - Part I



I am going to deal with a different strategy in each part of this news story. If you have tried one, move on to the next. Any persistent player who does not need to be farmed can come up with a strategy to fix the problem. Unfortunately most players are not aware of what those strategies are.

If you have been investing a lot of time in building up your villages in Travian, having someone repeatedly attack you can be annoying. Even on speed servers where everything happens so much faster, a pesky Teuton can drive any player to deleting their account.

what is a farmer? A farmer is a player to raids your villages with their troops to steal your resources. Some raids can bring in as much as 80,000 of each resource a player will have in their warehouse.

To become a farm (farmer's target) your attacker will ask three questions when considering your village. First, does this village have extra resources I can steal that are not protected by crannies? If the answer is yes, s/he will scout and raid your village.

The third query a farmer will ask is: "If I can't farm this person, and there's no hero points, can I chief his village?" If the village in query is not your capital then expect it to get chiefed...especially if it is a 15 crop village.

Secondly, "Does this village have troops I can kill with my hero to get hero points?" A hero can be leveled up and gain points that are put toward an offensive/defensive bonus. A level 30 hero for example can have a 20% offensive bonus when attacking with other troops. To level him up he must kill troops. This is what makes an attack that loses 50% of its offensive units worthwhile. If there was a hero in the attacking force it was not 'all for nothing.'

So how do you protect yourself from a farmer? We'll look at a few strategies in the next few parts to this news story.

Top Strategies to Master DOTA

Defence of the Ancients is a very popular map in Warcraft III; almost an obsession with some players, probably due to the constant changes; each new version gains fame & followers. it is not surprising therefore, that DOTA tactics & strategy tips are populating the Web these days. Hero building is the prime focus; heroes acquire abilities & strength through purchases with gold, so acquiring gold becomes the prime aim. DOTA Heroes gain gold by killing or destroying enemy assets or personnel, in particular by killing creeps. Experience is relatively easy to acquire but gaining gold is more complex. Waiting for the health of an enemy to decrease or cast a spell will help. The last hit gains the gold so timing is crucial! Spells that deal multiple damage can gain several creep kills at one time.

Start by finding what type of hero you have: Strength, Intelligence, or Agility. Buy items that will boost these skills. A useful first item is Boots of Speed, which will give increased speed to attack or withdraw. Rings of regeneration, sapphire waters, ironwood branches & circlets of nobility are also useful. Some items combine to form recipes, & may not cost gold to obtain.

Getting the best from your hero means understanding their attributes & limitations. As you progress, you will require to increase your knowledge of the characters & their attributes to maintain your mastery of the game. aim to maximize damage, employ optimum survival tactics, seek to avoid unnecessary deaths & limit damage as much as possible. All these small incidents add up, & reduce your health & gold little by little.

Buy health potions to save returns to base. Make enemy heroes return to base to heal, it wastes time. Various sites & forums will show you ways to increase gold & acquire abilities; do not overlook damage limitation!

At first you will be killed in relatively few hits, so will require the aid of your creeps. As you improve, you will create your abilities & be able to destroy a tower alone without much harm to yourself. finally you will find yourself destroying towers with ease.


World of Warcraft Trading Card Game - Heroes of Azeroth

Warcraft on cardboard
In World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game (the WoW: TCG), you assume the role of three of the heroes of Azeroth, where the bellicose horde fierce fighting against the alliance armies. It does not mean that the game requires that players are on their own side in the conflict, it is possible to play against each other, even on one's heroes in principle allies. The heroes are represented by cards in the game, & the goal is not surprising to eliminate your opponent entirely.

two must have slept the last four years if they haven't heard of Blizzards "one billion dollar success" World of Warcraft. Another concept that has earned an exorbitant milliardsum history is based on pool deck cards (CCGs) such as. Magic: the Gathering. what is more natural than to combine two successes? This might be the idea behind World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game, which brings the world of Azeroth offline & in to the rooms daily.

WoW: TCG takes advantage of lots of of the same conventions as comparable games. Each player must build a deck of 60 cards, which through the game maps drawn up by hand, which then can be brought in to play to influence the outcome. On ordinary players take turns to take a trip until a winner is found, either by the three player determine the deceased or a player is unable to draw a card from his pile when it is required.

The game presents a variety of card types, which together constitute the arsenal player has obtainable & which vary in gaming mode. Perhaps the main card is your brand whose characteristics provides guidance on what options you have in the game. Although much of the maps in game theory can be used in every deck, there's cards that require your brand possesses specific characteristics.

The Allies (helpers) a person can play depends on whether your hero is from the alliance or horde, also will reduce your class, what skill (ability) cards you can include in the deck, so to use the Warlock-related skills, you have to be Warlock. there's a number of other limitations, including related to your professions, but generally you have a nice chance to customize your deck so that it both plays on your distinctive strengths, but is flexible for example. Thursday Paladin deck far from having to be similar.

Your whole game starts on the table, but otherwise must be cards played from the hand before they affect the game. Besides heroes are four types of cards, the already mentioned allies & skills & quests (missions) & equipment (equipment). To play a card that requires it to pay a price in resources. Each round must submit a maximum of three card in front of them as a resource face down. It can be any map, but you pick a quest, you have the following opportunity to gain a bonus by doing this quest - usually by using a number of resources.

The most common bonus gives you permission to draw three or more cards from the deck, but there's also more exotic bonuses as it may be worthwhile to build a strategy around. Equipment is weapons, armor, rings, etc., placed next to your brand, & can only be used by this - either to attack or defend themselves against incoming damage. While the heroes can only use three or two weapons, depending on their class, they can ingress lots of different pieces of armor that make them able to more effectively guard against more attacks in the same game round.

Skills are the class specific abilities, which usually entails a one-off effect, but sometimes has a continuous effect until cancelled in different ways. An example of the former could be a card that gives 5 damage to three or more allies, while a card which gives 1 life to all allies would be an example of the second type. & now they're moving to where it really becomes interesting, as allies.

Allies are characters that help your brand during the game, & it is largely those who've to distribute the injury to win the game for you. Allies have two primary stats, attacks & life which the first is crucial to how much damage they share, while the other determines how much damage they can withstand before they die & end up in the pile of used cards. Unlike other similar games, the damage an ally in whole or permanently affixed. This means that damage accumulates until the card is removed from the game because the total damage on a par with - or exceed - A short life.

Apart from these basic state, the allies also varying abilities, such as. that they can not be attacked by the enemy or can act stand-in for a full or ally that has been attacked. Generally speaking, the allies are the main tactical element of the game, complemented by mild skills cards, & the interaction between the allies you pick to include in your deck, the alpha & omega for Deckers strength.

Combat system is also a few words to you. In the attack phase of your trip, select which of the allies you have in play to be attacking, & what ally (or wholly) being the attack on the target. Have your been equipped with three or more weapons, you can also send this in the field. The attacks will be announced & implemented three by three & killed the card is removed from the game. Have an ally or been damaged, but survived, the damage recorded by markers that are not included in the game, but you can use anything from dice to match the coins.

The cards you use in your assault phase will be reversed on the page indicating that they're spent, & since the vast majority of special abilities allies hold requires that the ally will be reversed in order to use these skills not be obtainable to defense Having your opponent's next attack phase. This applies to the whole time to weigh the need for defense against the desire to hand out as much damage as possible in three trip.

Combat system means that every round should carefully consider the allies to attack, & not least what to attack. it is tempting to go directly in to bacon on the opponent's full, but often this leads to that in the long runway is far behind in the number of allies on the board, which never leads something nice with it. The game does not exist in English, & although most maps are not rich, it is reasonable English skills a prerequisite.

For people with knowledge of other CCG's will WoW: TCG be easy to go to. Rule book seems at first glance comprehensive, but the rules are explained in short & concise with lots of illustrations & examples, which makes you quickly get started. WoW: TCG is not for everyone. While the game is solid & works perfectly, it adds virtually nothing to the genre. Although the rules are simple, it does not mean that the game lags at the strategic & maybe , the tactical front.

plenty of of the more sejlivede CCG's is thematically based in a popular culture, for example. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings & Yu-Gi-Oh, & a large part of the game are the fans who are already interested in the subject area. WoW: TCG is definitely targeting those who've played World of Warcraft on the computer, but others may take pleasure in the game.

Credit:ezinearticles

Maplestory Warrior Guide - 2nd Job Advancement Training to Level Up

After you reach level 30 and you pick your 2nd job, you probably require to find a place to train. However, that seems to be a little harder than you thought it would be. there's many places to actually train, but this is where you'll learn the right places to train for the best levels, as well as which monsters to fight.

* Levels 30-34: Ideally, you should find Trixters and fight them. They're speedy experience and easy to fight. The only move up and down, so it's easy to avoid them. we can be found in the Eos Tower.
* Levels 35-39: Jr. Kitties in Orbis are the ideal target for these levels. Alternatively, you can also fight in the Evil Eye Cave, which earns faster experience but costs a lot of money. Teddies are also a lovely source of experience.
* Levels 40-44: Jr. Boogies at the Evil Eye Cave are the best for these levels. Also, if you can, do the Ludibrium party quest, it's also a great way to train, but it can be slow since it takes time to find others to party up with.
* Levels 45-49: Train in Floor 8 or Hidden Tower and fight Block Golems for the best experience. Alternatively, you can fight Fire Boars and Copper Drakes at Dangerous Valley, but it's slower. A better way would be to fight the Lanterns in Mushroom Shrine, but be prepared to buy a lot of potions.
* Levels 50-54: You can continue fighting Lanterns and Block Golems, but if you require some new scenery, go to Cloud Park IV or fight Jr. Yetis. You can save mesos by going to Pig Park and fighting Iron Hogs, which deal low damage and are best if you can kill them in five hits. The best area, however, is at Mu Lung. There, you can fight Straw Target Dummies, as they're easy.
* Levels 55-59: At this point, you can continue fighting Straw Target Dummies, Jr. Yetis, and Luster Pixies. Drake's Meal Table is also considered a nice places to train.
* Levels 60-69: If you have Power Guard, stay at Drake's Meal Table. There, you can earn tons of mesos and items with decent experience. You can also go for Hectors, Zombies, Forest Golems, and Gryphons.
* Levels 70-80: In between these levels, fight Forest Golems. we provide the best experience for a while.

Credit:ezinearticles

Sims 3 Demo


After the release of The Sims 2, EA decided instead of upgrading the method of the game, to release extension packs. These packs contained lots of new things for the Sims to do, and for the player to generate while playing.

The Sims has been a massive hit for Electronic Arts over the last few years. With the ability for players to control a life of a simulated person, and watch them grow elderly, get a job, have a relatives and much more.

In the Sims 3 you're now able to control your Sims much more. you're now able to generate a Sim that is unique, EA say that you're able to generate millions of unique Sims, using their most powerful generate a Sim ever. Are you tired of having 100s of Sims that look the same in the face? Now you will be able to 'fine-tune' all of your Sims facial features, customize their hair colour, eye colour, skin tone and more.

Now Sims 3 is on the horizon and there's millions of eager fans to get hold of the latest edition of The Sims. The release date for Sims 3 is 5th June 2009, with a demo expected to be released within the next few weeks.

Your Sims and their lives that you control. As before they have long and short term goals that they can complete based on there personality traits, skills and career choices. Your Sims careers are based around their traits, however it's always up to you to pick what your Sim becomes.

The Sims 3 boasts a new personality traits technique, enabling your Sim to be more interesting, with such traits as: Evil, artistic, kleptomaniac, clumsy, insane, romantic, and more.

The Sims 3 demo, the important part! The Sims 3 Demo is set to be release with in the next few weeks, if you're a lover of The Sims then you will want this as soon as it comes out, and be sure you will. Be sure to sign up at Sims 3 Demo and get your demo as soon as you can.

New locations! The ever changing neighborhoods permit you to meet new Sims, visit the gym, beach, bars and much more. You can make your neighborhood how you like it, have who you want living where you want and meet and great them anywhere.