A Review of Just Dance for the Wii

So last night my husband and I played Just Dance for the first time. It was fairly late at night and I was very tired so for the first song I was on the sofa. My husband flicked through the songs until he got to Cotton-Eye Joe, I could see the gleam in his eye and knew that I was about to witness something truly great. I wish that I had been sitting nearer a camera, this was the funniest thing I had seen ever and I have no doubt that this video would have been able to stop wars.

Seeing how much fun it was I joined in for the second dance and used one of the features that this game has that Dance on Broadway doesn’t, a quick play option and we danced to “That’s the way I like it” by KC and the Sunshine band but it was over all too quickly. We played again and this time we went for the full version, I found it hard following the neon character and found them ever so slightly disturbing and I would have to say the backgrounds on Dance on Broadway are much Prettier than the plain backgrounds in Just Dance.

As soon as my husband had a score higher than mine he retired from competitive dancing, claiming himself to be Family Champion. Revenge will be mine.

I am not disappointed with my purchases, but would suggest if you were only buying one dancing game for the Wii out of Just Dance and Dance on Broadway to think about what sort of music you prefer. If you like Pop Music or want to buy a game for use at a party go for Just dance, if you like Musicals then go with Dance on Broadway. If you were forcing me to make a choice then it would be Dance on Broadway that wins because it looks prettier.

Overall I would say that Ubisoft made improvements on the original Just Dance when they released Dance on Broadway and I hope they are making more improvements when they release Just Dance 2 later this year.

The recommended retail price is

Get Red, Get Dead, Get Redemption

The plot of the game surrounds John Marston, a retired outlaw, is snatched from his wife and son by angry government agents who order him to kill former gang members he had previously worked with in his past. If he completes the task, he will be granted permission to return home. Thus, John goes forth and confronts Bill Williamson but is shot almost immediately. The head of MacFarlane Ranch, Bonnie, finds him wounded and gets him treatment.

Throughout the game, John must fulfill his promise by capturing various thugs and previous gang members, however, somewhere along the line, he is swayed and joins the side of a rebel group who are rivals against his previous gang. Much like the government, the head of this new group will not allow John to go home till he has killed the previous leader of his old gang, Dutch. Much of the game involves John hunting Dutch, who always manages to escape until finally Dutch kills himself by jumping off a cliff.

Finally, John is allowed to go home to his wife and son, but a vengeful attack causes devastation in their home and John is killed. The game ends years later with an angry, bitter, and vengeful Jack standing in front of his father’s grave.

Red Dead Redemption allows players to play in a large, open-world environment. You can walk, kill, shoot, run, and interact with the environment. Because of this environment players have the chance to really create their own adventure and choose how they want to play the game. The storyline will progress depending on what decision you make the time for tasks to be completed will also hinge on the places you go and the things you decide to take on. Aside from the main storyline of the game, you can also take part in different Western style events that will allow you to experience the wild wild West in a way never before done. You can attend public hangings, witness ambushes, and see or experience dangerous and life threatening animal attacks. You can also partake in gambling and hunting animals for meat and hide.

For points, Red Dead Redemption, uses a morality system where you can gain positive or negative honor points depending on what you decide to do. If you decide not to kill an outlaw, you will get positive honor. Contrastingly, if you kill someone that is innocent or perform various crimes, you will get negative honor. This system works in conjunction with the fame system, in which people will treat you differently in the game depending on your moral honor status.

If you have a thrill for weapons to use on non-real people, then this is the game for you. Gunfights are plentiful in the game, and allow you to take cover, target someone, blind fire, and then shoot with free aim. You can also shoot legs or arms to get people down but not dead. The main character, John, as a slew of weapons such as rifles, knives, lassos, gatling guns, cannons, and shotguns, as well as many revolvers.

The game allows for a Dead-Eye targeting system, in which the player can slow down and place a precise shot or multiple shots on an enemy. Everything goes in slow motion until he shoots and then the speed picks up again. This makes for your shooting experience to be more efficient.

Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for PoloMercantil

Youda Survivor Game Review

Fend for yourself and live off the land in Youda Survivor! After an accident at sea, you have been washed ashore on a tribal island and there’s no way off. Use your survival skills to keep yourself fed and hydrated, and well protected against the cruel elements. Befriend the natives and help them against pirates. Learn powerful rituals and potion recipes from them in order to safeguard the island and eventually find your way back home!

Youda Games, creators of hit time management games such as Youda Farmer and Youda Sushi Chef, is back with their latest offering. Youda Survivor has a Robinson Crusoe-esque story where a shipwrecked man has to do all he can in order to survive on an isolated tribal island. The characters, visuals and setting of the game are entertaining and reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series and the Madagascar cartoons.

The game begins with the island’s shaman predicting that a hero will arrive on their island and save the natives from the threat of the pirates. Unfortunately, the person who arrives is a shipwrecked scrawny guy (that’s you, by the way) who is barely alive. Undaunted, the natives start teaching you basic survival skills as well as the knowledge to mix potions and control the weather, hoping that you will one day be strong enough to drive the pirates off.

The gameplay in Youda Survivor is similar to farm management games such as the Farm Frenzy series. This time, instead of raising chickens and cows to sell their products at the market, you have to gather food and drink to keep yourself alive. You will have an energy bar and a hydration bar. Your energy will decrease as you complete tasks, and your hydration will deteriorate over time. Poor weather will cause both bars to decrease faster as well!

So how do you replenish your energy and hydration? That forms the main part of the game, where your time management skills will be crucial to beating each level. The native tribe is kind enough to lend you a cook, and she is able to turn almost any organic matter into potions that you can drink to increase your energy. Eggs from visiting birds, coconuts and meat are some of the ingredients that can be dumped into the pot to become energy potions. Similarly, the cook can use water obtained from the local watering holes to create potions that will keep you hydrated.

The efficiency of your potions will also increase as you progress through the game. Potions made from powdered eggs will give you more energy than those made from boiled eggs, which in turn give more energy than raw egg potions (eww!). However, these will require machines that you can buy and upgrade in between levels. The game isn’t all about keeping yourself well fed though. Each level will require you to achieve a set of objectives while making sure you don’t die of fatigue or thirst. These objectives usually involve accumulating a certain amount of resources or reaching a target energy level.

The local shaman will also teach you a few rituals to help you achieve your goals. You will be able to learn useful spells such as summoning a rain cloud to fill up your watering holes and create new fertile patches of earth. Similarly, there is a wind ritual that will blow coconuts off the trees for you (beats having to climb the trees to get them!). Unfortunately, these rituals require energy to cast, so you will need to properly manage your resources in order to keep your energy sufficiently high while still achieving each level’s objectives. And you have to do all this while racing against a time limit as well!

And then there’s the pirates that are threatening the natives. You will get random interruptions from an assortment of beach creatures as well as the dreaded pirates. These unwelcome visitors will interfere with your resource collecting if you do not deal with them. The creatures can be removed with a couple of clicks, but you will need to defeat the pirates by reducing their health. Be careful though: each swipe you take at them will use up some of your energy. You will have to decide whether you want to keep your energy efficiently lean, or leave in a bit of a buffer in case a pirate comes calling.

Youda Survivor is a really fun game, and it invigorates the farm management game genre with a whole new theme complete with new mechanics and concepts. It is also a cheerful and bright game, and is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Youda Survivor is definitely worth trying if you like any of the other Youda games, or farm management games such as Farm Frenzy 3.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

You can read more about Youda Survivor at http://www.game-tycoon.com/youda-survivor.html

Steven maintains the time management game review website at http://www.game-tycoon.com/ – a website devoted to strategy, simulation and time management games for the PC and Mac. You can read game reviews, download games and play them online.

Review – Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Oh Lara, you just aren’t the charmer you once were. Sure, it all began well with some innovative ps1-era puzzling and an impractical boob-job, but those times have passed, and now you are very much Nathan Drake’s female dog.

But every dog has her day, and leave it to a Diablo-styled, co-op arcade game to give Ms. Croft her strut back. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light hits all the right notes, and is far more enjoyable than any of her recent “triple A” retail outings.

As you can probably predict, an artifact of mystical nature has been misplaced and an evil demon-king has been summoned from the dead to deliver hell and high water upon the face of the Earth. Also summoned, is Lara’s new co-op partner, Totec, who wields a nifty puzzle-shattering shield and spear. The two set off chasing the demon, encountering deadly puzzles, precarious platforming, yada yada yada. You won’t really care about the story.

What you will care about, however, are the ingenious puzzles designed to stretch the abilities of both Lara and Totec. The pair will need to interact to complete many of the puzzles. Totec has a shield that lara can jump on to get a boost, totec can also throw spears into the wall and Lara can climb them. Meanwhile, Lara has a grappling hook that totec can use as a rope. The best of the puzzles force the utilization of all these abilities, in addition to stage props like switches, boulders, and lovely one-hit-kill flames.

What isn’t as ingenious is the combat. This over-the-head shooter plays just like other twin stick shooters like Assault Heroes, but without much flair. You’ll still get an acceptable variety of enemies, along with some stat-enhancing items, upgrades, and weapons, but battles quickly devolve into 1. create some distance 2. hold right stick in direction of enemies 3. maybe, maybe lay a bomb. Indeed, it is far more fun to be running away from some of these enemies than to actually be fighting them. Some of the chase set-pieces are truly spectacular, and its here where the game shines, whether running from a tuna-monster or booking it through a deadly hall of traps. Solving puzzles with a partner is infinitely more intense when you’ve got a strict, spike-induced deadline.

Graphically, Lara Croft has lost little in her transition from retail release to arcade game. In fact, there are far less glitches and oddities in her latest adventure than in 2008’s Underworld, perhaps making this title the most polished looking Lara Croft game yet. Like previously mentioned, the game is set in an isometric Diablo-style overhead view that makes stage navigation and puzzle surveillance a snap. Every stage has a different feel to it, whether it be the expected ruins, a decaying swamp, a spider-infested temple, or a lava choked wasteland, the environmental variety does a good job of keeping things fresh for the eight to ten-hour experience. Cutscenes are few and far between, but they all look great, despite dodgy writing. Similarly, the music is always fitting, and at times quite good, though you probably won’t care to remember any of it once your adventure is over.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will probably run you from eight to ten hours, depending on your ingenuity with some of the games trickier puzzles. To supplement this already lengthy campaign, there are devious bonus puzzle rooms hidden throughout every stage that award you with stat-enhancing artifacts and relics. Finding every secret and completing every secondary objective will take you completists a long time indeed. On top of that, the single player and co-op campaigns are different enough to warrant a second playthrough, with most of the puzzles being altered to be challenging for a different number of players. You’ll need to approach these puzzles differently than you did before, and this lends plenty of replayability to this fifteen-dollar gem.

Closing Comments

In 2006 Crystal Dynamics revived the Tomb Raider franchise with a polished, exciting sequel that took gameplay in several new directions. Now, four years later, they’ve done it again. Where Tomb Raider: Underworld felt a little stale and glitchy, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light feels like a revelation in simplicity, where the elements of gameplay are tuned down, but honed to a sheen, and complimented perfectly by presentation, graphics, and music that does its job just right. Throw in these changes, co-op, and some of the best level and puzzle design this side of Japan, and you have one heck of a great, long game for fifteen bucks. Oh Lara, I never doubted you.

Recommended: To everyone who likes fun, Diablo, genuinely good puzzles and co-op.

(9/10)

Austin Yarger
http://www.GamesOpinion.com

Austin is a Senior attending Clarkston High School located within Michigan’s Oakland county.
He currently focuses on Computer Sciences and the Literary Arts. He currently writes for, and runs, a media review website– GamesOpinion.com.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Preview

Hey, my name is Al, or Ace Woodard, but you really don’t care about that, I’m Advertising Kingdom Hearts birth by sleep for the PSP, and thats what you came to read. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is the next sequel to the Kingdom Hearts series, a mixture of Square Enix and Disney in one game. The whole experience of this game has pretty much spoken for itself over the years since both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II were added to the Greatest Hits list in the Ps2 franchise, and they are praised by fans over the world. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep will be a hit no doubt, and this time jumping on the band wagon to get it is expected for people who’ve never heard of Kingdom Hearts before in their entire lives.

The game was held at many conventions and promotional gatherings over the world, and with just a few minutes of gameplay, people just didn’t want to put the game down and leave it at all. It was as addicting as chocolate and candy is to six year old kids, but this game isn’t bad for you in any way. The properties of a fine game are understandably gameplay, length, originality. substance, and re-playability. There’s many more, but it’s too long a list to really get into. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep overwhelms its competitor in gameplay, and easily compares to it’s predecessors. With D-Link, FPS mode, abilities, Style change, and the Active Command system, not to mention plenty more where that came from, this game won’t bore you for a millisecond.

With three playable characters in Birth by Sleep compared to only one in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, it has length to make this game last for a very long time. Understandably though, people often misconstrue that with three characters playing the same game, they think the creators only added more to forcibly and lazily lengthen the gameplay three times the original size. This is not true as the gameplay itself shifts to the tempo of who you’re playing with, for example, some characters can’t visit an area where one can easily access them, or how the whole story changes when each character visits the same place at a different time. The bottom line is that no one character will have the same experience as the other, so theres a ton of new stuff to learn, even when you beat one character’s story.

This game is often compared to many games in the Kingdom Hearts Series but only the main connections like the names, characters, worlds, and keyblades come to mind when playing this game since it’s a whole new experience from any of its predecessors. It has as much originality as a persons fingerprint since others only come as close as actual relation to the particular game, like Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, and Disney. With new attacks and new abilities to the fray, not to mention three new characters added to the mix, it won’t be old stuff regardless of the game being set years before Kingdom Hearts, the first game in the series. Even if you go into this game with all the knowledge from all of the later products ever made in this series, you’d still be in the dark about anything going on, it’s that new.

A game can’t be complete without anything drawing you in, and keeping you entertained, if you see a game with no story, no customizations and only one command like the jump button, it just has no substance in it at all. It’ll easily bore you to near death, and you won’t feel like playing it since you’ve already learned everything you need to learn about it. You won’t run into that problem here at all since it has a whole lot to customize, it’s story is out of this world great, and it has a whole lot more commands than jump; You can dodge, block, dash and many more with tons of abilities you can equip to each character. All of the actions are as smooth as any large platform games and you just can’t beat the new attack system included in it. With all of these new features, you wouldn’t even know what to do first.

Buying this game not only keeps you so dragged in it’s practically your second life, you can repeat the process over and over and never get tired of it. Not enough information is out to perceive that the type choice in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II will be passed on here, you know, the choice of the Sword (Attack), Wand (Magic), and Shield (Defense) to determine the order in which receive your abilities. Guard, MP Rage, and Combo Boost are some that come first corresponding to the one you picked, making it easily a different experience each time you play. However, how you choose to equip abilities, keyblades, and attacks will affect the game experience as a whole, making gameplay totally different from the first time if you did it differently the second time. It’s like Lego blocks, the fact that you built one thing with many pieces only means you can build something entirely new with the same items as well, making it highly customizable and fun to do again. The same thing applies here, with so many things to build your character up with, no doubt even with the maximum AP (Ability Points), you won’t be able to equip them all leaving most of them falling through the cracks. If you decide to play again, you can always equip different things to most suit how you want to play the game differently this time around, plus with three characters, it won’t be easy to try to repeat your last combo’s, all in all, even if you beat the game wholly, you’ll want to beat it again and again.

I’ll promise you that this game will have loads of things that will make you fall in love with Kingdom Hearts or rekindle that old flame that was lost years ago on the old Ps2. Taking this game out of the house and into the world on the new Psp with graphics that rival the Ps2, I’ll say that this combo is a ultra hot win-win situation when you need to take a trip in and out of the country, or bored to death waiting for anything, either way you won’t be bored anywhere you go with this game with you. Take my word for it and buy this game even if you don’t own a Psp or know nothing about Kingdom Hearts, guaranteed this will take gaming outside to a brand new level and beyond.

My name is Altora Woodard and I am 21 years old, and a little short to be this age, (Often mistaken for a fourteen year old, but everyone wants to be forever young) I have a degree in writing, literature and computer arts, and it’s made me successful in the computer business of course. I’m a major gamer and computer nerd with a lot of technology in my house, and I’m constantly buying more. Right now I am on a monthly goal before I go to my big goals and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is this months goal of course. If you want more on this game go to http://kingdomheartsbbsreview.blogspot.com/, my blog for it.

Review – Dead Rising 2 – Case 0

I consider myself an optimistic guy, but when i first glimpsed the ho-hum screens of Dead Rising two coming in, when i gazed over the oh too similar features list, and when I discovered that Frank West wasn’t coming home (he’s covered wars, you know) I was more than ready to dismiss Capcom’s zombie follow-up straight to the bargain bin. Hell, the first game was, in hindsight, more of a long, poorly paced frustration in phone calls than a dawn of the dead simulator.

Luckily, Vancouver-based Blue Castle Games has not only given me hope for The upcoming Dead Rising 2, I’m actually quite hyped for the forthcoming sequel now. How? Through a demo, of course! A demo that happens to cost five dollars, and happens to be subtitled, “Case 0.” Of course, that isn’t quite true either, because Case 0 isn’t actually a demo, it’s… ok, it’s a demo, but there are a few things that I really must explain.

Case 0 isn’t just a part of Dead Rising 2 extracted from the main game to serve as a demo. Case 0 is actually a fully-featured, competent prologue to Dead Rising 2 that not only shows off the sequel’s many improvements and attractions, but does so for a measly five dollars. Ka-Ching! You’ve convinced me Capcom– my five dollars, plus another sixty when the sequel finally launches.

You see, Dead Rising: Case 0 does everything that the original Dead Rising so utterly failed at. There is no lonely Janitor trying to sabotage your missions. There are no more awkward cutscenes. Your hero doesn’t sound like a twelve-year old anymore. Shooting is no longer a motionless disaster. Your escorts are no longer suicidal. Your hero also doesn’t run like a creeping drunkard anymore, and, oh yeah, save slots.

Besides that, everything you actually liked about the original Dead Rising is present and better than ever. The Psychopaths (or psychopath, as there’s only one in Case 0) are still interesting and, well, psychotic. The undead has never been more fun to kill, partially due to the ability to hit downed zombies. The biggest attraction by far though, is the intensity of Dead Rising’s ever-ticking clock. You see, your hero, motocross pro Chuck Greene, is stranded in town with his infected daughter, and you’ve got to find motorcycle parts in order to assemble your escape. Unfortunately, your daughter needs medication every twelve hours to remain in the realm of the living. And guess What? Some jerk just drove off with the meds and now your baby’s going zombie if you can’t find some pronto. To top it all off, the Military is on the way and they’re more likely to lend you a bullet than a gun. In Case 0, you’ve got some serious deadlines to contend with. Chances are, you’ll be dead in twelve hours.

But it doesn’t have to end that way! As my day of frantic searching dwindled down to mere hours, I actually began sweating in my attempt to find the last remaining parts. In fact, at one point Case 0’s time limit proved so intense that I actually resorted to murdering my final quest-giver in order to get the final part on time. I Just took my spiked-bat and beat his head in. I was desperate. And in these final few intense hours the game really shines. Graphically, the game is far better than its predecessor, despite being overall average looking. It’s the little touches though, like the setting sunset and growing zombie horde that lend to the game’s biggest strength– the ticking clock. As the sun dips down under the horizon, you’ll be both wide-eyed and horrified at the beautiful site, that also happens to denote your utter failure to survive against the clock.

Closing Comments

So there you have it folks. Dead Rising: Case 0 fixes nearly all the problems of the original, while remaining very familiar as well. I could tell you about the promising construction system, the improved escort missions and the rather wonky motorcycle section, but those little elements are better left for the upcoming Dead Rising 2 review. Bottom line? Dead Rising 2: Case 0 is one heck of a paid demo that not only satisfies its five-dollar price tag, but also radiates confidence in the upcoming full game. Zombicidal maniacs need apply.

Recommended: To the Dead Rising hopeful.

(8/10)

Austin Yarger
http://www.GamesOpinion.com

Austin is a Senior attending Clarkston High School located within Michigan’s Oakland county.
He currently focuses on Computer Sciences and the Literary Arts. He currently writes for, and runs, a media review website– GamesOpinion.com

iPod Touch Games – The New Era of Entertainment and Gaming in Your iPods

If you own one of the most popular entertainment gadgets nowadays such as these iPods, you would definitely want to know if there is a chance to be able to experience almost all forms of entertainment that you can get from a sophisticated gadget like for instance getting access to iPod Touch games. So aside from the usual innovative enhancements of the iPod Touch when it comes to playing music and videos, connecting wirelessly to the internet, you must deny the fact that it is also capable of entertaining iPod users with its gaming feature.

Usually, people search for powerful gadgets not only to satisfy their needs for its specific function but to entertain them as well. iPod Touch has shown to people that this type of gadget doesn’t only serve as music and video player to its users but it is also a device that can now allow its users to play games and entertain themselves. Now that you are aware of this, you might be wondering if it’s possible for you to get access to the game and how can you, right? The first thing you have to do is to go to a website online which allows you to get access to a free download of iPod Touch Games. To make sure that the download pushes through you will have to read the system requirements and make sure that you comply with what is needed to make a successful download. More often the requirements will include the type of computer system needed, the allotted space for the transfer, and the transfer medium between the computer and the iPod (which pertains to a compatible cable). If you comply with what is stated as the requirement, you can then assure yourself that your iPod games installation will be a success.

It pays to know what other features you can take advantage from when using this kind of phone. We are fortunate enough to be able to get access to technology that can make things easier for us to get access to and at the same time allow us to get that kind of entertainment that we are looking for. Thanks to these innovative ideas – we are now experiencing development for the better.

Free best iPod touch games that don’t require you to download anything. Just tap on a game and play – Simple as that. Check out the “Apps” link for games and tools in the “Forum” link or post ask questions and discuss the iPod Touch and games for iPod touch.

Drawn – Dark Flight Review

Drawn, the fantastical adventure game from Big Fish comes back with a sequel for The Painted Tower. Drawn: Dark Flight brings back the hero from the last game after being able to save the princess from the tower. But now, you have a new quest and an array of new puzzles to conquer that will again test your imagination and creativeness.

The story begins with you waking up remembering the adventure from The Painted Tower. You are underground, lying in rubble and reminiscing how you managed the princess Iris but still not yet done with completely saving her. With the trusty adviser and friend Franklin still at your side aiding you, you must now save Iris again, but this time, you’re off to make her queen of Stonebriar and overthrow the current evil king.

For first time players of the series, it’s good to note that even without playing the first game, you’ll still be able to function well and enjoy Drawn: Dark Flight through the help of the in-game tutorial system. However, I did note that players from The Painted Tower will enjoy the sequel better because of limited flashbacks and the game seems to reminisce too much on the first adventure during its early stages. In my case though, that did not keep me from enjoying myself as the storyline develops.

The game plays much like any adventure game wherein you need to collect items for your inventory that may be used to unlock puzzles in later parts. The twist in Drawn though is that sometimes, simple sketches of items materializes into actual tools for you to use. Not only that, you’ll also be tasked to enter paintings and help various kinds of creatures along the way, making this game clearly one of the most innovative fantasy games I played in a long time.

As for in-game help for most of your adventure in Drawn: Dark Flight, you have unlimited advise coming from Franklin located at the lower left hand side of the game screen. Other than that, you have a hint button lying on the lower right hand side showing you the supposedly final result of each level. Don’t worry though, because with all of the creative puzzles you’ll encounter, Franklin and the hint system is even not enough to keep you from scratching your head with mild frustration.

As always coming from Big Fish, the game is brilliantly designed with concept art and wallpapers as well as an incredible original soundtrack to boot. It is overall enjoying to play with its inventive game play and engaging original story. I bet it’s better you play first the first game though because of the story flow, but as I said earlier, it’s not a necessary thing as Dark Flight handles itself well to give the gamer what he expected and more.

Download this game and many other games on http://www.coolcasualcollections.com/ where we present you with a new cool casual game each and every day. We have Arcade and Action, Mahjong, Puzzle, Card and Board, and Word games designed for the whole family to enjoy. Check out our Top Games and subscribe to your choice of RSS Feeds to keep you informed once a new game is out.

Thank you very much if you enjoyed this review and please visit http://www.coolcasualcollections.com/ to get this game and many more cool games for you and your whole family.

Drawn – Dark Flight Game Review

The epic story of Iris and her attempt to escape from the evil king continues in Drawn: Dark Flight. Guided by a broken spirit, you have to escape the rubble of a destroyed tower and try to get to Iris before the evil king. You will also need to light the 3 beacons surrounding the kingdom of Stonebriar. Fail to do so, and the land will be forever shrouded in darkness and Iris will not be able to take her place as the prophesied queen of the kingdom!

This game continues directly from its hit predecessor Drawn: The Painted Tower, one of Big Fish Studios’ best adventure games. Drawn: Dark Flight features the same stunning artwork, intricate puzzles and strong story concept, and is a fitting sequel to a classic in the adventure and puzzle game genres. It also continues the story of the little girl Iris who has the ability to bring her art to life. She is destined to become the queen of the Kingdom of Stonebriar, and is being pursued by an evil king and his minions.

The story in Dark Flight picks up from where the last game left off, with the destruction of the fabled Painted Tower. Fortunately, Iris managed to escape and is holed up in a library in the nearby town. One of the casualties from the tower’s destruction is the faithful guide Franklin, but his spirit lives on and is able to guide you on your quest. He reveals that there are 3 beacons surrounding the kingdom, and they have to be lit in order to restore order to the kingdom and place Iris on the throne. Unfortunately, the evil king and his minions will be trying to foil that plan and keep the kingdom shrouded in darkness.

The game begins with you trapped under the rubble of the destroyed tower, and you have to escape and find Iris in order to protect her from the dark king. Thus your adventure begins in a stunning world where paintings come to life and every scene is a work of art. The art in this game is nothing short of gorgeous. The imagery is truly breathtaking as you travel through the kingdom of Stonebriar and enter Iris’ paintings. The artwork in each of these settings also draws from a variety of different artistic styles, from grand imagery as seen in roleplaying games like Dragon Age, through to bright and colorful depictions that would fit very well in a Disney movie, and even a funny cardboard-cutout style ala the South Park TV series.

The gameplay in Dark Flight is primarily a scene-by-scene adventure game format, with liberal doses of puzzles and interactive hidden object games thrown in. You will explore the Kingdom of Stonebriar and Iris’ magical paintings in an elegant interface that showcases their beauty and detail. Progress is made in the game by solving the many puzzles that inhabit this world. The game has also succeeded in ensuring that the transition between the adventure screen and the puzzles is seamless and doesn’t interrupt the story and adventure.

The main type of interaction in the game is to manipulate objects in order to obtain required items or to proceed to a new location. An example would be to manipulate a lever mechanism in order to free a scroll from a stone lion’s mouth, or to correctly insert 3 discs into an interactive pedestal in order to shatter a wall blocking your path. Most of the time, these will require you to find the required items (such as the handle for the lever mechanism, or the 3 discs) which will be hidden in various locations nearby.

What interested me the most was the ingenuity behind the puzzles in the game. These puzzles aren’t the typical jigsaws or cogs or memory games, but are really unique and intricate problems that will give your brain a workout. An example is a puzzle resembling a popup book, where you have to manipulate the objects to reenact the prophecized story of the phoenix and the 3 beacons. There is even a little bit of arcade action in some of the puzzles, such as the captain of a cardboard pirate ship asking you to aim and fire cannons at cardboard sharks! Needless to say, these puzzles aren’t just a mental challenge, but are also very entertaining.

Hidden object games usually fall into the trap of looking and feeling static, but Dark Flight manages to avoid that by adding lots of animated effects throughout the game. Almost every click will trigger an effect such as a torch bursting into flame or a dying cardboard shark making a cardboard splash in the cardboard ocean. Shattering a wall also triggers an impressive animation that is almost movie-like in quality. There are also plenty of ambient effects such as bats flying around and water dripping on cobblestone.

Drawn: Dark Flight is indeed a worthy successor to the amazing Drawn: The Painted Tower (which you should play if you haven’t already). Superb production quality, an engaging storyline and intricate puzzles all combine to make this one of the best adventure puzzle games of the year. The basic version of the game is not out yet, but you can get the Collector’s Edition of the PC game which includes extras such as bonus gameplay, unique achievements, and integrated guide and concept art.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

You can read more about Drawn: Dark Flight at http://www.hidden-puzzles.com/drawn-dark-flight.html.

Steven maintains the hidden object game review website at http://www.hidden-puzzles.com/ – a website devoted to the most popular hidden object and puzzle games. You can read game reviews, download and play them online.

World of Warcraft Violence and Action 101

Nowadays, more and more people are playing online games and the biggest change is that not only teenagers, but adults as well, are playing. The gaming industry is booming because gamers are willing to spend money to finance their gaming needs. There are several categories of online games and we’ll take a look into one game which is currently under Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game also known as MMORPG. One of the top rated MMORPG game is World Of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment; a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard.

World Of Warcraft is a pay-to-play game and you need to pay a monthly subscription fee to play it, aside from buying the game installer itself. Regional variations are handled by two main game servers, namely European and US servers which handle technical, billing, or other gaming concerns. This definitely is an action game and offers a lot of activities for players and the action begins with creating a character or avatar to represent the gamer in this violent virtual world. Players assume their roles, either with a first or third person viewpoint, and they then explore landscapes of different maps, fight various monsters, do quests with Non-Player Characters (NPC), interact with other World Of Warcraft players and pursue lots of other violent and dangerous activities.

Some of the features of the game are:

* 10 playable races

* 10 playable classes

* multiple professions, each with unique benefits

* thousands of quests to undertake and complete

* multiple modes of transportation

* extensive and elaborate storyline

* four realm types for differing styles of the play

The game also offers a strong visual appearance and responsive, smooth player controls which are of central importance to the World of Warcraft experience. Several expansion packs are released to add features that are not present in the base game. The two current expansion packs are “World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade” and “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King”. One of the features added in each new expansion pack is an increase in character level caps.

The ten current playable classes in-game are:

* druids (the shape shifters)

* hunters (beast tamers, ranged)

* mages (ranged magic damage dealers)

* paladins (holy warriors)

* priests (healers)

* rogues (casters, healers, melee DPS)

* warlocks (adept at the dark arts)

* warriors (melee fighters)

* death knights (martial prowess with dark, necromantic energies)

These different classes are made available because of the diverse play styles present among World of Warcraft game players. The choices for the class can also help determine the type of armor, weapons, as well as the skills and abilities which they player would like to master throughout the game to suit his play style and preferences.

The ten playable races on the other hand are divided into two factions: the Alliance and the Horde. On the Alliance side are humans, dwarves, night elves, gnomes, Draenei, and the Worgen. Opposing them on the Horde side are the orcs, the undead, the Taurens, trolls, blood elves, and the goblins. There is no pre-assigned class for each race, as one race can be played under several classes. However, there are still some classes which cannot be played using a certain race, like the taurens – they cannot be rogues, and they are the only ones among the Horde faction who can be druids. And yes, the rules are complicated in World of Warcraft!

Yes, this is a complex game, so check out our FREE WoW guide, “Looting Piles & Heaps of Gold In World of Warcraft”. Then move on to the experts, the real game stars and let them teach you everything they know. Why waste time and money going down dead end paths? http://DealAnt.com/articles/World_Of_Warcraft_Reviews/