I'm Back...

Hey, everyone. It's been a little while since I have made a post. I was in school and was really busy. Unfortunately I let the blogging get away from me but my quarter of schooling is over so I should be getting back to the blogging now. This is just gonna be a quick post but I will be getting back to the more detailed posts soon.

BlizzCon 2010 has come and passed. The new Demon Hunter class for Diablo 3 has been announced and looks very interesting. I personally talked to someone I know who went to BlizzCon this year and was able to play Diablo 3 there. He seemed to be pleased with the progress on the game so far.

Lots of new things have been announced for Star Wars: The Old Republic. New ships, new class details, new inhabitants, and more.

Goldeneye for the Wii has been released and is well worth the purchase. I did buy it and beat it. The single player campaign is fun but I would recommend it for the multiplayer. The online multiplayer is what keeps me playing it. The graphics are impressive for a Wii game. The controls take a little practice if you have never played a first-person shooter on the Wii, but the learning curve for the controls is only about 15 or 20 minutes, and there is a short tutorial to teach new players. The story is a bit different from the original but the changes do not hinder the game.

The multiplayer is what most people remember about the original so, naturally, the multiplayer is the remake is very well done. The split-screen multiplayer is fun with a few friends but the multiplayer that stops me from putting the game down is the online multiplayer. I'm not a fan of all the maps but the majority of them are fun and fairly easy to navigate. There are a number of modes to keep players entertained. My personal favorite is the Black Box mode in which two teams fight over a small box on the map. One team is trying to protect the box while the other team is trying to destroy it. The online multiplayer has an experience system similar to the Call of Duty franchise. You gain experience with eliminations, completing objectives, elimination streaks, and other similar things. With experience, weapons and game modes are unlocked which will keep people playing for a while.

There are plenty of people playing, too. Every multiplayer mode that I have played has always been maxed on people. This helps to speed up the already fast-paced multiplayer. I highly recommend everyone with a Wii to give Goldeneye a try. You will get many hours of gameplay out of this game even after the single player campaign is completed.

Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any suggestions, I'm always open to ways I can improve my blog. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to answer it. Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Alien Swarm

About a week ago, Valve released Alien Swarm for free through their Steam client for PC and I've been strangely addicted to it since I downloaded it. Alien Swarm is a tactical, co-op shooter with an overhead view.

Normally, I don't play too many tactical shooters, but this one is fast-paced so I don't fall asleep while team members are planning everything out. It is also easy to get into the action and plenty of variety becomes available early on. The missions are pretty short with each one lasting about 10 minutes on average. In fact, the whole game is pretty short and can be played through in an hour or so with a good group, but the game is free so there shouldn't be any complaining. Even though it is a short experience, there is a lot of replay value with 4 different difficulties, 4 different character classes, and a ton of weapons and items to unlock.

In the game, you will begin to see more items and weapons become available as you play. Your Steam account saves your progress in the game as you level up. When you level up, more stuff is unlocked and you can use it. This becomes useful because there are items that are improvements upon standard equipment (i.e. the medic can unlock an item that heals group members faster). The difficulties are similar to those of Left4Dead2 if you are familiar with another great game from Valve. Normal difficulty will provide a nice challenge for new players and the higher difficulties will do the same for more experienced players who have unlocked more equipment.

My favorite part of Alien Swarm is the co-op aspect. I love games that involve working with other players to accomplish an objective, and this game does it very well. The co-op aspect of this game also helps to shorten the learning curve because other experienced players can tell you what weapons to use and when to use them. I highly recommend trying this game. It is a great product from Valve. And why not try it? Since the game is completely free, you have absolutely nothing to lose.

Thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions, I'm always open to ways I can improve my blog. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to answer it.

Is EA Crazy?

In my last post, I talked about the free third-person shooter, Battlefield Heroes, released by EA. Is EA crazy?! Why would a huge company like EA release a game for free?

Well, EA is not crazy. The game is free but they are still making money from it. The money is being made through the ads and through micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are small purchases within a game using real money. For instance, you may pay $1.00 of real money for a better weapon or some unique armor. The game industry has seen a lot of micro-transaction activity lately and it will only get bigger.

Blizzard Entertainment is a large company we see beginning to use micro-transactions. They are allowing players to spend real money on unique mounts but they also have the subscription fee in place which might stop most players from using their micro-transaction system.

On the other hand, Dungeons & Dragons Online from Turbine was a subscription based MMO but they have stopped charging a subscription fee. Instead, they have switched to a completely free game with a store where you can buy things for your characters using real money aka micro-transactions. According to the MMO Report on G4TV.com, Turbine has found that they actually make more money now using the micro-transaction system than they did when it was a subscription based game.

Facebook is another large market for games with micro-transactions. Farmville, one of the most played games on Facebook, has a micro-transaction system and it actually makes a decent amount of money. There are many other Facebook games that use a similar system. In fact, most every game I have seen on Facebook uses a similar system.

I don't think that micro-transactions with be the only thing in the future of the game industry. I do, however, think that they will become a large part of the future of the industry, and we should get used to seeing them and maybe even using them because it looks like micro-transactions will be around for a long time.

Thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions, I'm always open to ways I can improve my blog. I am still working on the design of the blog so please just give me some time. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to answer it.

Battlefield Heroes

Hello, again. Recently, I've been playing Battlefield Heroes from EA. For those of you who have not heard of this game, I would recommend trying it if you enjoy the other games in the Battlefield series...especially since this game is FREE! What is Battlefield Heroes? That's a good question.

Battlefield Heroes is a free to play game for PC release by EA. It is part of the Battlefield franchise but its system requirements are much lower than others in the series. Since the system requirements are lower, the game is not limited to only people with gaming machines. There are always people playing and you can jump in and play regardless of the amount of time you have. Does this mean it is a casual game? No. It's not a true casual game, but a full sized game aimed at both hardcore gamers and casual gamers.

Unlike the other games in the franchise, Battlefield Heroes is a third-person shooter and has a light-hearted, cartoon feel to it. Some people might not enjoy this style but it's hard to complain because it's Battlefield action for free. The game controls well and truly does feel like a Battlefield game. It also has a lot of content for being a free game. I think my favorite part about the game are the vehicles. Players can take advantage of jeeps, tanks, and airplanes to achieve objectives. These objectives pretty straight forward game modes, including "capture the flag" and "king of the hill". My favorite vehicle is the airplane. The airplane is a bit difficult to fly but once you have the hang of it, it's be a lot of fun to fly around the maps and shoot at enemies. There is also an experience system and a mission system. The mission system allows you to choose which personal objectives you want to complete (i.e. 10 Kills in one round). Completing missions along with dealing damage to enemy players grants experience points that let you spend on different skills for you character class. Each character class has its own unique abilities that can help them in combat. This adds a bit of depth for those who are looking for something more.

Battlefield Heroes is being updated often with new content. For instance, they currently have special gear to use to customize your characters for the world cup. There are new weapons, items, and bonuses added regularly to keep the game fresh and exciting.

Enough talk, the only way to truly experience a game is to try it. If you are enjoy the Battlefield franchise or similar games, you might like this game...especially since it is free. Here is the link to the game. Battlefield Heroes

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always looking for advice to improve my blog. Thanks.