Questions To Ask While Purchasing A Game

There are many games out there clamoring for your hard earned money. They all try to dazzle you with fancy artwork, big name stars, and amazing graphics; but, what makes a game fun and what makes a game look good are two separate things.

The majority of your purchases will be dictated by what type of game you prefer. While we prefer RPG and Adventure games, other people prefer sports and action games, and still others prefer puzzle and mystery games. While there are a vast number of game genres out there, there simple tips will help you get the most bang for your buck.

• Listen to reviewers, but don't depend on them. Reviewers are often pressed for time and while big name games (Final Fantasy, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, etc...) can garner a very in-depth review, most games are only played for one or two hours before a final verdict is made. What should you look for in a review?
  • Graphics
  • Gameplay
  • Controls
  • Bugs

  Each of these will manifest themselves throughout the game. If the game has any of these problems in the few hours the reviewer had with the game, then you can be certain that those problems will continue to manifest themselves in the rest of the game.

• Narrow your scope. When I go shopping for a video game I try to limit the genre of game I'm going to pick up. While I like to keep my options open, there are too many games in too many categories for me to make a decision on. The more I focus on one (or two) genres, the faster I can make my decision.
• How much value does this game offer for your dollar? This is the meat of your decision. To better answer this question, I break value up into several categories:
• How much time does it take to beat the game? This depends on what type of game you're looking for. If you want an expansive RPG you probably don't want to pick up Tetris (of course, if you're looking for a quick 'pick up and play' game, Oblivion isn't your cup of tea).
• Can the game be replayed? You can start every game over, but they often get repetitive; for example, playing Halo 2's single-player missions a second time around tend to get boring.
• Does the game offer multiplayer/online play? Supporting multiple players can help extend the life of the game ten-fold. With its online component, Halo 2 has managed to be a stable game that I go back to again and again.
• What content does the game offer? In other words: what reward system does the game use? Are you able to unlock features or components of the game, or is it a linear game? Generally speaking, games that offer "unlockables" also offer more content, thus more bang for your buck.

By asking yourself these simple questions you can separate yourself from the marketing hype and determine if you're going to have a fun time with the game you're going to purchase.

An Introduction To Free Online Games

The world of online games is vast world, with games to suit nearly every taste. Everyone from a scholar to a wannabe fighter pilot can find a game that suits their tastes. In this article, I'll give super short reviews of a few free online games.

Jezzball

Jezzball is available on several websites in Java. In Jezzball, you have a square box with balls bouncing around in it. You must corner the balls without them hitting and breaking your partially formed walls. It is a very simple game, but it can be addicting.

Bomber Bob

This is a very simple war game. You are a fighter aitplane, and you must shoot down scores of enemy planes before they sink your ship, and without being shot down yourself. This game is a flash game.

Literati

This is Yahoo's free version of Scrabble. It is scored slightly differently, but overall, it is nearly identical. Literati is Java based and requires a free Yahoo ID.

Diesel and Death

This is another flash game. This one is a dirt bike racing game. Very simple, but entertaining. You race against a computer controlled bike.

Helicopter Game

In this simple yet very challenging game, you must use one button on your mouse to navigate your helicopter through the cave without crashing it. The cave is complete with obstacles, drops and climbs. Wow. This game could be very addictive! Game is built with flash.

Curve Ball

This is an adapted ping pong ball game. You are in a square tunnel with a computer controlled opponent at the other end. The key is to get the ball to bounce or curve, and get past your opponent.

Overkill Apache

Similar to Bomber Bob, but this time you're flying an Apache helicopter over the desert. Your enemies come from all directions, too! Some good simple fun, though the game needs more controls.

Parappa the Rapper

This game has some unique graphics that no other game uses and that makes the game different from other games. All the characters are flat paper-like figures and you will notice this when someone turns to the side. This graphic style makes the game fun to watch and play, but learning the game play will take a little time.

When you start the game, you will easily figure out how to play and once you get the hang of it, you'll have a blast. On the screen in the first stage is the main character Parappa and a Karate instructor. When the song starts, the instructor will sing and tell you to kick or punch and you must press the correct button, either X, square, triangle, or circle when prompted to. The game rewards you for pressing the buttons correctly, but if you mess up, the music slows down and you start hearing quacking-like sounds. On the bottom left side of each level is a bar that shows if you're rapping bad, good and so on and if you miss too many notes, the game is over. Stage one is easy to complete and there are not many buttons on the screen that you need to press correctly. Songs get much more difficult after stage one, but with practice you will be able to complete them.

Speaking of the songs, there are quite of few of them and each one is great and fun to listen to over and over again. In stage 2, Parappa needs to get his driver's license, so you get to hear a song rapped while he's driving in the car with a mean instructor. She will rap about what you have to do during the test and you will have to repeat what she says. It's a very catchy song, but one of the most hilarious songs in the game is when you have to bake a cake. This time Parappa's instructor is a proper and elegant chicken that raps about which ingredients go into the recipe. What's unusual about this stage is what items the chicken puts into the cake. Also, the chicken is not a good rapper because of her properness, however she pulls the song off and it's another classic song that will have you singing along.

The best song in the game is quite possibly the music in the last stage. Once you play the whole game you will notice that there is an overall story being told and the final song features all of Parappa's previous teachers. In most of the songs, all Parappa does is repeat what his instructor says, but in the last song, he raps with his own ability. During this song, he is on a stage with a popular rapper, while his all his teachers are back up singers. The audience is also packed full of people shouting and screaming while Parappa raps. The best part happens when you play through this stage without mistakes; you get a chance to freestyle rap and earn extra points. When you finish playing the game, you can go back and play any of the stages if you have a memory card. If you don't have a memory card, you should get one if you don't want to have to play the entire game over just to listen to the best song, which is sung in the last stage.

If you want to play a unique game that has awesome music and game play, you should play this one.

Street Fighter 2

When Street Fighter 2 was in the arcades, people would put quarters or tokens in the machine to fight each other and show their skills. You had to be good to challenge someone in the arcade because if you were not, your opponent would win each round in a matter of minutes. To get better in the arcades, you had to use a lot of quarters or tokens to keep playing and learning your favorite characters' moves. There were also some strategy guides to teach you how to pull the moves off, but without actually trying it out in the arcades, it really didn't help much. The Street Fighter 2 game stayed packed with people playing it and everyone would stand around the machine watching the matches.

Once the Super Nintendo was released, a Street Fighter 2 game debuted and everyone enjoyed this arcade hit from their home. Now people can choose their favorite fighters and improve their skills, or just play for fun. This port is almost identical to the arcade game and all the characters have their same moves and levels. Street Fighter 2 for the Super Nintendo does have one minor difference, its controller. The home game's system controller is flat and the arcade machine has a stick. There is an optional controller that you can buy to play this game just like in the arcade. Everything else is awesome about this game and by playing at home you can finally test out all characters without having to spend lots of tokens.

Street fighter has some interesting characters and when you play this game you will probably find someone who suits your play style. The most popular and maybe the easiest characters to start out with is either Ken or Ryu. These two have identical move sets, so choosing who you want depends on if you like Ken's coolness, or Ryu for always being serious. Another popular character is Chun Li; she is fairly easy to control if you're new to the game. Chun Li also has a move that makes her leg kick at a high speed, just by pressing one button repeatedly. There is also an unusual character called Blanka; he is an animal-like creature with green skin and orange hair. His most popular move is an electric current that comes from his body also by pressing one button rapidly. For the sumo fans, there is a sumo wrestler in this game named E. Honda and he fights mainly using his hands. There are many more fighters, so picking the right one depends on your style of play and the character you like.

Each fighter has their own stage or home town in which they fight; stages range from a great variety of indoor and outdoor levels. Ken is from the USA and his stage is near a ship in the ocean, while Guile, also from the US, is an army man; his level is by a parked military jet. Chun Li is from china; her stage is in a town filled with people in the background watching the fight. Every stage is unique to each character and the music that plays suits the fighter. When you play through the story mode, your fighter visits each character in their own town or stage. Playing against a friend is a bit different; before the start of the match you get to choose whose level you want to fight in.

Street Fighter 2 is a classic game that is worth playing; the learning curve is not that tough and with some practice you can beat your friends every time.

PlayStation 3 Preview

In past one decade Sony has sold around 190 million PlayStation consoles across the world. The estimated units of software sold are around massive 2 billion. As the next generation avatar of its highly successful PlayStation series, Sony unveiled PlayStation 3 at technology fest E3 in Los Angeles. It is stated to release near christmas this year.

The initial specs of the system look impressive though the real difference will be discovered once the system is in market.

Sony touts it to be far more powerful than the recently launched Xbox 360.In a recent interview to Impress PC Watch, Kutaragi revealed that the PlayStation 3 will become an "entertainment supercomputer" for the home moving far beyond the traditional image of just a gaming console.

"We haven't been creating our PlayStations for the sake of games. Our belief, and the motivation behind running our company, has been to applying the power of computers to entertainment and enjoyment, he added.

How far Sony will deliver on its promises only time will tell but new PS3 has certainly upsurged a new found interest in gaming industry. Taking clue from Sony’s presentation in E3 we have analysed what will be in offer for you next summer.

Design

The new PS3 is an extension of its previous versions and designed in saloon shaped. Personally though it’s not as elegant as the PS2 or for that matter to Xbox 360 but it is good, my personal impression is that the design team is led by a Japanese as it is consistent with most of the futuristic designs coming out of Japan lately. Sony has revealed that it will be available in three colours – White, Silver and Black.

The biggest surprise comes in the design of the controller. The new wireless controller comes with long handles. Has Sony worked on ergonomics is not known but initial impression is that long handles will improve the handling aspect. Will it help in playing for long hours, is yet to be seen.

Under the Hood

This is what matters in technology, the real substance beneath the lid. Sony has really worked hard to maintain its advantage in this segment. The new system is powered by highly-vaunted Cell, a new generation chip developed by Sony in collaboration of IBM and Toshiba. The PS3's CELL consists of a 64-bit PowerPC core running at 3.2 GHz and enhanced by eight 32-bit "synergistic processing units," capable of performing 218 teraflops almost twice that of Xbox 360.

PlayStation 3 will be the first console to use a Blu-ray optical disc drive. This will replace the more traditional DVD drive found on the PS2.

Blu-ray technology uses a blue violet laser to read and write data. As this blue laser has a shorter wavelength than its red counterpart, it's possible to store much more data on Blu-ray discs, almost 6 times more than on today's DVD. Fortunately, the new Blu-ray drive will also be compatible with older technology. So PS3 owners will be able to watch their DVDs and play their older PS1 and PS2 games on their new console. So don’t just throw your old CD’s and DVD’s. The graphic will be created by nVidia graphics called the RSX (”Reality Synthesizer”), and will trump the Xbox 360 with 1080p graphics support. Just imagine most present day games use 400p, so the next generation graphics could be as close to what you guys saw in mega movies like Finding Nemo and the Incredibles.

Emphasizing on it Mr Kutaragi said that with PS3, our intentions have been to create a machine with supercomputer calculation capabilities for home entertainment. PS 3 also boost a 256MB system RAM 3.2GHz, and 256MB GDDR VRAM at 700MHz and a 2.5-inch hard drive (i.e. laptop hard drive) attachment—a first for a Sony launch.

Connectivity

We’ve long since known that two things result in the best performance: lots of bandwidth, and specialized hardware. Cell did its bit, the next challenge for Sony is to make PS3 supremely connective. If Xbox was better than PS2 even though marginally at something, it was in its online connectivity. The success of the PS3 hugely depends upon how compatible will it be to online environment. The future belongs to MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).

Final Take

The $500 price tag may be dearer compare to Xbox but given PlayStation base among the gamers I believe it will sail through.

Introduction to Online Backgammon

Online play is not much different from table play. Both sides have the same pieces, dice, and game board. To play online a game site must be located. However, that is easy to find. Most sites are free to play on but registration is required. Depending on the site, you can play against a computer or other opponents. To play online, there will be a place to click for the dice roll during your turn. Once the dice are rolled, you can move the pieces you would like, just as you would for a regular backgammon game. And the game is won the same way; get all your pieces off the board before your opponent.

The nice thing about playing online is you don’t have to play. You can just watch and learn if you want. This might be the best thing to do if you are just starting out. But when you do want to play you will be able to join in easily. And most sites have a tracking system so you know how well you are doing compared to other players.

Some sites are played for money. While it can be fun, it can also be dangerous if you are not careful. If you want to go this route, start out slow and only play for modest fees and winnings. Also remember that tournaments are played for money. These can be played against people across the country or globe depending on the hosting site. And with both money playing and tournaments the house takes a cut.

Most sites have you download part of the software before you can play. And many of the software programs only run on Windows based PCs. So unfortunately, MAC users are left out. However, other sites use a Java-script, which MAC users can use. This makes load times and lag lessen for players.

Many of the sites that offer online play are free but registration is required. Some are for members only, with a fee, but a guest can play for free with the member playing also. There are even sites to just play against a computer. This can be good to learn and get better before moving on to live people. And for those with time constraints, there are turn-based sites. Here you can play a few rounds at a time and then come back later to finish the game.

Online backgammon might have more options due to being able to play people everywhere. It is easy to learn and with many sites these days, easier to master. You don’t have to wait for someone to play with you. The Internet has made it easy to play a game that has been enjoyed for over 5000 years.

10 Tips to Protect Your Eyes While Gaming

Video and Computer games have taken the world by storm. Studies in 2006 reveal that kids and other gamers play for at least 5-10 hours a week and sometimes much longer. Sales of games indicate their popularity. Flash graphics, rapid-fire movements, and long hours at the console result in health problems like muscle and eye strain. Common ailments resulting from gaming are: lateral epicondylitis, tendonitis, bursitis, and carpel tunnel syndrome among others.

Health professionals recommend that gamers must take a break every 40 minutes to an hour. They must get up from the computer or gaming console and stretch their limbs, walk around a bit, and look at objects at a great distance.

Crucial to healthy gaming is posture while playing the chair must be comfortable, have back support, and the feet must rest on the floor. Gamers can prevent damage like eye irritation, headaches, dry eyes, pain, change in prescription numbers, squinting, difficulties in focusing, and frequent blinking by:

1. Sit facing the screen directly; ensure that the screen is not at an angle. This will stimulate both eyes equally.

2. Once every 15-30 minutes it is important that gamers look away from the screen and shift eye focus to objects at a distance. It could be trees or the sky or children playing. Change the eye focus to distant objects.

3. Sit at a reasonable distance from the screen. If the game is played on a television screen then sit at least 6 feet away. When playing on a computer the screen ideally should be 20-26 inches from your eyes.

4. Use the settings on the screen to reduce the glare to a comfortable level. Install an anti-glare filter.

5. Once in a while it is important to look away from the screen and blink your eyes to lubricate it.

6. Ask your eye doctor to prescribe artificial tears that will moisten your eyes.

7. At least 6-8 times a day, rub the palms of your hands together and press then on your eyes hold for a few minutes. The warmth of your palms will relax the eye muscles.

8. Greenery soothes eyes, so glance as often as you can at green trees, bushes, or plants.

9. Do simple eye strengthening exercises as taught by yoga and other systems of healing. The exercises are easy and can be done at anytime. Rolling your eyes, focusing on your nose and then the area between your eyebrows, shifting the eye ball from left to right are all easy exercises.

10. Get a qualified eye doctor to check your vision and find out whether you need “computer glasses.” If you use contact lenses it is best you take them off whilst gaming and use glasses instead.

Check out how a flat screen and anti-glare screens can prevent eye damage. Screens that offer sharper images and greater clarity are kind to your eyes and will help preserve your vision. Prevention of CVS, computer vision syndrome, is a hundred times better than any cure after a problem occurs.