Now I will have to warn you that the game can be very boring at times. In order to make gold and hatch and grow dragons, you will have to do a whole lot of waiting. Of course you can speed up the game by simply using gems. Unfortunately the only way to get gems is buying them in game or by having someone gift them to you.

Warning: DragonVale is all about grinding. For gamers who prefer more action than grinding, this is not the game for you. Expect to wait hours, days even weeks to achieve in game goals.

I think DragonVale makes for a great iphone/ipod app, as you can manage and tend your dragons from anywhere. Sure it will seem weird that you are escaping away to collect your gold and grow dragon treats, but at least you wont have to buy any in-game content with real money.

Introduction

The goal of DragonVale is to hatch and breed your own dragons. As you acquire new dragons, you will be able to breed your dragons to create exotic combinations. Eventually you hope to attain the elusive Rainbow Dragon.

The fun happens on your very own magical floating island. You will start out with one floating island, but you can increase your islands as you level up.

As you can imagine the game is centered on breeding and raising dragons. You will want to develop your floating dragon park. In order to progress you will need two things gold and dragon treats.

Getting Started

You will start the game by purchasing your fist dragon egg. I recommend starting off with a tree dragon. Tree dragons are fast earners and  can help you gather gold quickly. You will also need a tree dragon habitat. As the name implies, Habitats are where your dragons will grow and live. There are a variety of habitats, as there are types of dragons. Some habitats will allow from more dragons than others. You will start out with just one habitat. I recommend having as many habitats as possible. Again, starting with lots of tree dragons will help you quickly earn gold.

In addition to habitats, you can purchase treat farms to grow dragon treats. Dragon treats are important for growing your dragons. As you feed your dragons treats they will grow in size. Larger dragons will require more treats to level up. I recommend evenly distributing your dragon treats, instead of giving them all to just one dragon.

As you progress you be able to purchase additional buildings like a breeding cave, colosseum and various boosters. Booster buildings will increase your dragons gold rate for the type of dragon you choose. They also can decrease the gold rate for other types of dragons.

Another cool feature of DragonVale is the ability to decorate your floating islands. For example by building stone path walkways, you can increase your visitors and provide them with a better way to travel around your dragon park.

Here is a link to a great spreadsheet that provides some great tips for the game:

dragonvale spreadsheet

Precious Gems

Gems can only be attained by gifting or in game purchases. If you would like to gift me some gems, my screen name is AMIRMAC.

Feel free to send me any questions or comments below.

Well I got my “Key to the City” from Real Time Worlds. I figured this was better than nothing. I had signed up for the beta tester a year ago. I was hoping to have some serious game time clocked by now. Unfortunately I got my Key last week.

Verdict?

In my previous blog post about APB, I mentioned the game was picked up by EA. This came as good news to me, because I was really looking forward to this title. After my experience with SA-MP , I was looking forward to the idea of APB becoming a updated version of the now classic GTA mod.

A little history of SA-MP

I first got into San Andreas after playing it on the xbox while on vacation in Dearborn, Michigan. I was visiting in-laws and it was a great way to connect with my unrelated family.

As soon as I got back home I started downloading the PC version of the game. After I made considerable progress in the game I discovered a thriving modding community. My attention immediately turned to SA-MP, or San Andreas multiplayer. SA-MP incorporated all the fun of SA into a huge MMO. The first experience was all about shooting up the other players. Add all the vehicles and absolutely huge virtual gaming environment, it was easy to get lost in SA-MP. I eventually moved into the RPG servers, after spending some good times flying around with jetpacks (or helicopters) blasting other gangs and basically raising hell.

My favorite RPG server was Italy Mafia. I know the name sounds cheesy, but it really was fun. The SA-MP RPG servers attempted to separate the hooligans, from the gamers. The RPG servers felt like free roam, but included missions like selling drugs, selling guns, driving cabs, or any other means to make money. In addition Italy Mafia included gangs, or families that had access to elite equipment and you could make serious warfare on other gangs or players. To balance gameplay there were police that could arrest offenders and place them in jail for a set time limit. There were no NPC (non-player characters).

Without good moderation these RPG servers would go wild, and a few times I saw this chaos occur.

So my hope for APB, was for basically an updated version of SA-MP.

Let me say APB is no SA-MP.

My first impressions of APB were not good. The graphics were unimpressive. The training missions were dull. And worst of all the gameplay was sub par. I was hoping for a full blown FPS. After experiences like Borderlands and Fallout 3, I was hoping that a true FPS/RPG MMO was possible.

Despite my initial feelings for APB, I pushed on. Once I passed the “Training district” I moved onto the actual districts. There are three to choose; Social, Financial, and Waterfront.

Players can choose from two sides, Enforcers or Criminals (or crims). I chose Enforcers.

The two actual gameplay districts have no significant features. They are basic urban environments that resemble San Andreas or other generic GTA cites.

You can either be assigned to a group or roll solo.

The basic concept is for contacts to assign missions, like investigating or raiding. As the missions are carried out you get increased rating points and money. There is also an opportunity to unlock all types of stuff, like weapons, equipment, vehicles, clothing, symbols, emoticons and upgrades.

I admit that initially your character really sucks, but there is great potential in molding your character into an individualistic ass kicking character. The social district lets players mold their characters into unique virtual avatars.

APB supports full VOIP, so gameplay can really be enhanced by the audio capabilities. In addition to talking to groups or other characters, within earshot. There is also an option to add your own music tracks to the game and listen to them in your vehicle or just walking down the street.

The character customizations add whole new layer of gameplay. In addition to dressing your character in all manner of garb, there are also tattoos and the ability to create custom symbols to be added to clothing, bodies and vehicles.

Players can also sell their gear in an ebay like setting with the opportunity to earn points or cash that can be applied to gameplay.

The payment model is a bit strange if you ask me. The Pre Order is $50 for 50 hours of gameplay. Then players will have to purchase additional hours or buy unlimited 30 day gameplay.

This was a big turn off for me, as I am accustomed to buying a game and having unlimited online gameplay.

As I mentioned the graphics were terrible. My machine is not top of the line, but it can handle most modern games. Unfortunately Real Time Worlds took it upon themselves to decide that 32bit Windows OS were too inferior, and they disabled the high quality textures. This was stupid on their part. Fortunately some gamers took it upon themselves to remove these phony constraints.

Although the beta game turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I still feel there is great potential in this game. Real Time Worlds has promised to continue to add “content” to APB over time. If this is true then they have an opportunity to right the wrongs and perhaps grow the game into a truly unique online experience. If  the developers do as they promise and don’t abandon the game, then APB could be a great success. If they don’t hold true to their promise then the game will go into the dustbin with other lame MMOs like Huxely.

So my verdict is give APB a chance, and perhaps the gaming community could show EA and RTW that it is worth investing in MMOs.

Well it seems that APB has come a little closer to being a real game. EA has signed on to produce the game and it wil hopefully be available to PC and Xbox gamers sometime in 2010. Cross your fingers.

APB is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game from the creators of Grand Theft Auto. Players take part in a turf war between two rivalries, the enforcers and the gangs. The gangs are trying to get by in any way they can, at any cost, and the enforcers are tasked with thwarting their criminal actions through justice, honor and teamwork. Best described as a classic “cops n’ robbers” game built for online play, the game features customizable characters, lots of fast-paced car chases and shootouts as the criminals and enforcers wage a never-ending turf war for control of the city. More turf means better weapons and equipment, ensuring that capture points are never unoccupied for long in this frenetic fast-paced action experience.

APB: All Points Bulletin

Most info regarding the game is coming form the Game Informer article recently released.

Game Informer describes the sequel, “continues the narrative begun in Modern Warfare, with the world facing dangerous political instability in Russia.” In the game, a terrorist group of Ultranationals plans to use political turmoil of Russia to their advantage in order to secure the troubled empire’s weapon stockpiles.

Another character, Makarov, who is the leader of the terrorist group, also happens to be an associate of Zakhaev, the man responsible for the first games’ nuclear attack.

President and CTO of Infinity Ward, Jason West, said earlier that the gameplay is wide open and has a lot of variety. He added more that any good story is on rails.West even estimates that MW2 campaign will be just as lengthy as its predecessor’s.

Some say it is all random.

Agility is the most beneficial as it affects how many times you’ll attack per “turn”.

Well, I guess you shouldn’t expect to find this game on the shelves in the US. Rapelay is a rape simulator, and has ignited an outrage in the United States.

Of course as any PC gamer knows, you can most definitely find this on some questionable torrent sites. A simple Google search turned up plenty of Rapelay torrents.

Although it is getting compared a lot to GTA, I think any gamer would recognize that it is nothing like GTA. The GTA series was never boring and had a variety of missions to choose from.

What I find most interesting, is that many games today portray horrific violence, but you don’t see these games getting pulled off the shelf.

Don’t get me wrong rape is way unacceptable for a video game concept, but why is simulating blowing some guys head off with a shotgun a little more permissable?

Graphics:

When Ubisoft created Farcry 2, they introduced a new game engine called Dunia. Like Crytek’s CryEngine 2, Dunia raised the bar for 3d gaming. The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry® 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montréal development team.

Dunia delivers realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, and non-scripted enemy A.I..

The best feature of the Dunia Engine is the fact that you don’t need a ultra expensive PC to enjoy stunning graphics. I found that a Q6600 with 3GB RAM and a Nvidia 8600 GT could run with everything on high and AA set to x2 (using Direct X 9). The same PC could only run Crysis on medium, with less than spectacular visual display.

The real-time night and day cycle was a cool effect and was reminiscent of GTA San Andreas. I think this feature would really work well in an online multiplayer environment.

The physics and fire propagation all made for a very realistic virtual world. I was especially impressed at how fire responded to different environments. For example the fire would spread quickly in tall grass and would fizzle out in lush tropical settings.

Overall the Dunia engine is very promising, and makes playing Crysis feel like a step backwards.

Farcry 2 takes place in some small  African country. Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out “The Jackal,” a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.

Gameplay:

The developers did a good job with simplifying the game interface that results in very immersive experience. The game has standerd first person shooter controls and driving vehicles was surprisingly easy.

The open gameplay style allows for the players to choose thier missions. Missions are broken down into main missions, gun shop missions, buddy missions and underground missions.

In the beginning you are hired to kill the Jackel, the basterard that is arming both sides of the conflict. Within a few minutes, you catch malaria, the jackel saves your life and the war turns into open conflict.

From there you are recurit by one of the factions fighting for control of the country. For a few blood diamonds you will conduct sabatoge and assassinations. The missions do get repeatitous but they offer just enough motivation to keep it interesting.

The rescue buddy concept is interesting and offers a great way of getting out of bad situations. The large map makes for a lot of traveling, but thankfully the bus stops offer a quick way to travel around withour running into too many hostiles.

I have heard some people complain about the bots respawning at checkpoints. I didnt find this too bothersome, and could imagine that any army would re-man their positions.

Final Thoughts:

Overall the Far Cry 2 is a great FPS, with realistic gameplay, stunning graphics, seamlessly rendered African landscape. The open gameplay keeps things interesting, even if the missions seem montenous. I must admit that the days of linear gameplay may be over. I can see for gamers opting for the free roam style gaming over linear gaming.

End.

Controlling your troops is also straightforward using the Xbox 360 controller, with face buttons used to select and issue commands, cancel orders, or deploy special attacks. Each unit has a more powerful secondary attack that can be used and reused after a recharge period. The warthog can ram enemy troops, UNSC soldiers can throw grenades, and scorpions can unleash some heavy cannon fire, which decimates structures, vehicles, or hunters within a small area.

Along the way, you’ll encounter yellow UNSC troops. Sometimes they’ll fall under your command, but on other occasions, they’ll be following other orders, such as guarding a particular strategic point or waiting to aid in your extraction. After each mission, you’ll be given a score and rank based on your performance, with gold, silver, or bronze awards up for grabs. You’ll also earn bonus points for doing the mission in a shorter time period or by completing secondary objectives, such as killing 20 jackals. However, if you want to do everything in each mission, you’ll need to do so before finishing the final main objective because doing so will trigger the end of the mission.

One of the biggest successes in F.E.A.R. was our AI, and that’s not something that’s going to be overlooked. In F.E.A.R. 2 we’ve enhanced what was created for the original game and built upon the strengths of that system. You’re going to see enemies that are far more aware of their environment and a lot more capable of adapting to the way you play. We’ve added awareness to environmental hazards such as fire and electrified areas. An AI that catches on fire doesn’t just continue fighting with complete disregard for being engulfed in flames. They will now drop their weapons, try to extinguish the flames by patting, the ever-popular stop, drop, and roll, or if there is water nearby, run to it. If they can douse the flames, they’ll switch to their secondary sidearm or find a weapon nearby, pick it up, and reengage in combat. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for the player to experiment with new and glorious ways to bring about the demise of their foes.

As for combat, you can think about it like sandbox combat. The environment you fight in doesn’t change, but the way enemies attack you and react to your behavior changes every time you play. The AI are now aware and will take advantage of combat opportunities within the environment. Just as you can target the gas tank of a car to take out the foes, they will be able to find the same types of advantages and leverage them against you. What affords us this emergent behavior is that our AI is not scripted, but educated, so as you enter combat volumes, enemies will adapt to your play style. If you are a run-and-gun kind of player, the enemies will see this and use opportunities to flank you and attack you from behind. Players that use cover more heavily will find enemies using various strategies, like throwing grenades to your location, to flush you out into the open so they can attack you. The goal is to make players not notice that the enemies are controlled by the computer.

A few new enemies in F.E.A.R. 2, as well as some that have carried over from the original F.E.A.R. with significant modification. Regular and heavy-weapon soldiers are back from the original F.E.A.R. with a few modifications. Some ATC soldiers now carry “cleaning” equipment to cover up Armacham’s tracks, but the tanks they carry are very vulnerable to gunfire. Also, some soldiers are packing flamethrowers now, which also require carrying a tank of fuel on their backs. The player will definitely want to aim for the tanks to quickly incapacitate the enemy. Assassins are also back, quick as ever, but now they have much improved mobility. Assassins can now climb and jump all over the environment, sneaking up on the player from where he or she least expects it. Slow-mo will definitely help the player out, but using the environment to his or her advantage is also key. Finally, soldiers equipped with powered armor are also back in F.E.A.R. 2, along with their technological successor elite powered armor. Both of these enemies pack tremendous firepower and require the player to be fully aware of available cover. Luckily for the player, though, both enemies are heavily susceptible to electromagnetic attacks, so a well-placed chaff grenade can render these deadly enemies immobile.

The new enemies in F.E.A.R. 2 are wholly different sorts of threats. The abomination enemy is the result of an Armacham experiment gone wholly wrong. Barbaric and quick, the abomination will appear where you least expect it and bound off the environment and right at the player. If given the chance, the abomination won’t hesitate to jump right on top of the player and won’t relent until the player is able to wrestle him off. The abominations also tends to show up in groups, so the player should also be sure to frequently look over his shoulder. The remnant enemy, though, is a wholly different ball of wax. After Alma’s taint overwhelmed the city, many civilians were devoured by her tremendous power. These lost souls are now neither alive nor dead, stuck forever repeating their final moments. These remnants seek their revenge on the living by reanimating soldiers to attack them, sort of a puppet master, if you will. Killing the remnant’s soldier puppets is an exercise in futility, though, as the remnant will quickly reanimate them once again. The trick is to run down and kill the remnant before his minions can kill the player.

Dawn of War 2 Cover

On top of that we’re adding some new innovations, like unique tech trees that are focused around a particular commander type, and a new co-op mode that lets players focus less on the pressure of winning and more on playing the role you want to play on the battlefield. We’re hoping that this new co-op mode will draw a lot of new players to play online.