Trine is a downloadable game on PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows. Trine will help Sony Computer Entertainment to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. It was developed by Finnish company Froznebyte. The PC version of Trine was released on July 3, 2009. The PSN version for PlayStation 3 will be launched a month later. The game is published by two different publishers in two different zones of the world. Nobilis will publish the game worldwide except American mainland which will be covered by SouthPeak Interactive. Ari Pulkkinen the famous game composer who did it for games like StarFight VI and Shadowgrounds has composed for the game. Trine will be a Puzzle and Platform game with single and multiplayer modes. Rumors about a XBLA version of the game being developed by Atlus are hitting the market. If anything like this happen, it will be a big setback for Sony Entertainment.

Trine is an action platform and puzzle game. Players will control different characters and they will try to complete various levels. To make the game more interactive levels and characters will have full physical interaction. Three main characters of the game are a thief (a ranged fighter), a wizard (a non-combat character who conjures different objects) and a knight (melee fighter). A unique co-op features will be included in the game it will enable new players to join in at any time. In order to conquer bigger obstacles in easy ways players can combine their abilities. With combining powers players can achieve feats more easily and comfortably. For the Microsoft Windows users Trine asks for the following system requirements:

2.0 GHz processor

512 MB system RAM (1 GB Vista)

Radeon X800 / GeForce 6800 or better

DirectX® 9.0c

600MB HDD space

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Raskulls is a console video game developed by Halfbrick. It will be a platform game with an action blend. The game will be launched for Xbox 360 but only for the Xbox Live Arcade service. Raskulls is published by Microsoft and is expected to release in the fall of 2009. Once released you can download Raskulls from Xbox Live. There will be two playing modes in the game single and multiplayer. The game is designed by famous Australian football player Matthew Knights. Along with two promo images, Raskulls was announced on March 27 2009. The two images were featured two main characters of the game King and Dragon. After revealing the character profiles, they were spread among the gaming media to display game’s art and style. Very soon after a trailer was released for the game, without any gameplay footage. Raskulls trailer shows an sudden change in the voice of King as he is shown flexing his muscles in front of a mirror with elevator music being played in the background. First official trailer for the game was released on June 12, 2009, with some gameplay footage. Various characters, levels and gameplay modes were shown. The snippets of the multiplayer mode were also shown in the trailer. Many experts are claiming that Raskulls will be a dangerous fun combination.

Many game experts are describing Raskulls as a fusion of “Mario Kart + Castle Crashers + Bomberman. The game is compared with Dr. Miller. Primarily Raskulls is a racing game, players have to race through levels that are platform based and filled with blocks of various shapes and sizes. To face these blocks Raskulls posses block breaking wands. Block breaking wand is the most useful equipment as breaking the blocks is the easiest and most efficient way path through. Single player story consist pf three worlds and each of the three posses a variety of gameplay. Two of the announced gameplay types are Ammo Scrooge and Bomb Diffusion. Multiplayer is either played by Xbox 360 or local and will support maximum four players. Many features of gameplay will be similar to Mario kart like Flame Charger and Thunder Staff. To fill a Frenzy bar you have to collect “Boosties”. When you will use Frenzy Raskull will be powered with super speed and the frenzy will deplete. With the combination of such great games and their unique gameplay, Raskulls is seen like the hottest XBLA title of the year.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Crackdown is the one of the most successful game of the sandbox-style genre. It is one of the game under Microsoft’s strategy to promote Xbox 360 as it can be played only on the platform of Xbox 360. It was created by David Jones, the man behind Grand Theft Auto. It sold more then 1.5 million copies in first six moths of its release. A sequel for the game is under development, it will be named Crackdown 2. Just like the predecessor genre for the game will be sandbox-style third person shooter video game. Crackdown is under the development of Ruffian Games and will be published by Microsoft Game Studios. It will be released for Xbox 360. No release dates are announced by the developers. Designers for the game are Billy Thomson and Steve Iannetta. Crackdown 2 is modeled like the previous game of the series. It will be a third person shooter in open world gameplay. The player will be a super human simply known as “Agent”, working for city-funded Agency. Just like the predecessor Crackdown 2 will support a seamless so-operative play in the main game. Only difference will be the number of players is now increased to four from two in the previous. A new mode will feature in the game, known as competitive mode will support up to sixteen players. Overall gameplay of the game will be mostly similar to the predecessor.

Plot of the game was reveled at E3 2009. Agent will be the playable character of the game. He will roam in a fictional Pacific City, which is infected with urban gang War. He assists Agency in the battle against numerous crime kings who controls the city. There are some strange looking creatures shown in the trailer. This indicates that Agent will have to deal with more powerful enemies that the previous street gangs. The game will be set many years after Crackdown. This was reported by Billy Thomson who is creative director of Ruffian Games. Previously he along with Phil Wilson confirmed that game was designed from the beginning of the series. They stated that there will be sequels for the game. later it was commented that Realtime Worlds was not working on a sequel to the game. However, Microsoft stated that they still got the holds the intellectual property rights to Crackdown and there will be a sequel very soon. The game was confirmed in the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo Conference. This time however it was an official announcement and the game was finally off to a start.

It was noted by Ruffian that half of the team that formerly worked on Crackdown in all the areas of the game development, and felt that their studio will be a perfect place to develop games sequel. This decision was later confirmed by the publishers. Development team decided to keep the sequel to be located in Pacific City. Settings for the previous game got the character of its own in the first game and the development team want to conserve these settings so that player will feel similar to the previous game. The City however got a bit more larger then the previous time. Developers avoided any possible similarity in the dialog driven cutscenes. Gameplay parts that were criticized previous time were also improved. Mechanical part of the game was kept similar, only change to the game engine is that now it will allow the display of the large view for the City. Every other thing will be unique about the game, like music of the game. Everything for the game was kept confidential with Microsoft. This will help to attach all the sensory experience of the game.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Ninja Blade is continuously featured in various lists of most awaited games for the year 2009. It is developed by Adventure Core games famed From Software for Xbox 360. Ninja Blade has been classified as a “Cinematic action games.” Gameplay of Ninja Blade cane be considered as a combination of hack and slash elements with context sensitive commands. Characters of Ninja Blade are designed by Capcom’s Keiji Nakaoka and a track by Norhiko Hibino’s GEM Impact Studio. Storyboards and animation are from Production I.G. Ninja Blade is published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released in North America on April 7, 2009. A demo was released for the game was released in Japan and North America on December 29 and March 10, 2008 respectively. Engine for the game is Havok.

Ninja Blade is a story of a small village, attacked by unknown creatures. Survivors are forced to move to facility where they undergo various examinations. After the incident the village is marked as “Alpha-Site.” In the research facility survivors starts showing symptoms flesh eating disease. Survivors are found to carrying a type of Hook worm, classified as “Alpha-worm.” Their bodies’ stops showing response to traditional medicine and it cause them genetic failures. Researchers try to stop the genetic failures but they are unable to because due to the infection there bodies are grown strength and resilience.

As the infected are growing stronger they are also growing violent and insane. The infected broke free one day and attack the researchers. Only few of the researches survive and later find themselves infected. To control the situation military is send to sterilize the site. Military raids the facility and destroys all traces of the infected and Alpha-worms. All the events of Alpha-worm are kept secret by the government to prevent panic. Over the years there have been many outbreaks but all of them are eliminated by the G.U.I.D.E. squad. Government was confident that they have could control the spread of Alpha-worm until now.

Initial idea for Ninja Blade came when From Software were looking for a game to the gamer to be enjoyed in the same manner as from a Hollywood action flick. Protagonist of the game is developed by From Software working closely with Microsoft. Protagonist is named as Ken Ogawa. The character of the Ken Ogawa is developed by Keiji Nakaoka, who works for Capcom 2nd Character Development Studio as a designer. Before being announced Ninja Blade was coined as Otogi 3 by many sources. Planner for Ninja Blade Kazuhiro Hamatani cleared that the game is not a direct sequel to the Otogi series. But Ninja Blade will contain action-adventure elements of which the Otogi fans would like.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

The Forza Motors are back to thrill you with Forza Motors 3. After the success of Forza Motorsport and Forza Motorsport 2, Microsoft Game Studios are back with a thriller. It will be a sequel to the previous two titles. It only be released exclusively for Xbox 360 gaming system. According to a leaked survey “Forza 3” will offer the premier racing experience only to be available for Xbox 360 exclusively. There will be around 400-450 cars in Forza Motorsport 3, nearly 100 more than Forza Motorsport 2. New downloaded packs are included. Due to the number of packages and cars the game will be sold as a 2-disc set.

Forza will be much better then the previous titles as it will have several never seen before features. Like highly detailed real-car and track models, never ending near limitless options for car customizations like car tuning and custom artwork. Many kind of online community features. Racing simulation will be more real and accurate; the damage would be more realistic. Racing modes are increased and it will feature drift, drag, oval, point to point and many other racing modes. For the new players a powerful assist system is also included in the game. Aspect ratio for Forza Motorsport is 720p, 1080p.

There are news about an exclusive Forza 3 Limited Collector’s Edition. In this edition a full version of the game plus membership in a special VIP program that would entitle the buyer to all future Forza downloadable content. It will also give access to exclusively online race events and prizes. The owner will also get VIP status on Forza Auction House and Community boards, extra server space for photos and videos and a free month of LIVE. Some unique content is also included in the game. These contents are not found anywhere. This could be anything from authentic racing gear (gloves, helmets, e.t.c.) to specially created automobile manufacture gear (branded jackets, e.t.c.) to VIP motorsport event tickets.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Halo Wars is an upcoming game for Xbox 360. It will be a real time strategy game only to be released on Xbox 360. Don’t get confused by the name, as it will not be a first person shooter like the other games of the Halo franchise. However, it is similar to Halo as it is also set in the fictional Halo universe, 20 years before the start of first game of the Halo series Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo Wars is to be released in the PAL territories on February 27 and in North America on March 3, 2009. It is developed by the famous Ensemble Studios. Ensemble studios first hinted the release of the game in mid 2006. The game was officially announced on September 27 at Microsoft’s X06 Xbox show. The game was an attempt to bring together the Halo shooter fans to play a real time strategy title and experienced strategy players to play Halo game.

Halo Wars is a real time strategy game specifically designed for Xbox 360 console. Players have to manage resources and create and maintain buildings and armies to complete objectives. Two playable factions in the game are humans UNSC and alien covenant. Both of them have their own units, strengths, and special abilities. The armies of the players are established by building and expanding bases. The units are trained and upgrades are resourced. Base locations are rare in the game making them defense key priority. After the destruction of the last base, if a new base is not created it may result in defeat of the player. Buildings upgraded, Units are trained, and all the special abilities are utilized by using resources known as supplies. Supplies may be found on the battlefields and claimed, but the bulk of supplies are generated by building special structures at bases.

Halo: Combat Evolved was supposed to be a real time strategy game. However, the developers of the game Bungie Studios were bought by Microsoft and the game changed to first person shooter for Xbox console. After the huge success of Halo, Bungie produced two of the most hit sequels of all time. The sequels Halo 2 and Halo 3 are two of the most selling first person shooter. After producing however, these legendary games Bungie Studios separated themselves from Microsoft and became an independent once again. A small demonstration of the game was shown at E3 2007. A few months later, a video narrated by the Lead Designer was released on Xbox live marketplace. Before the presenting the game to Microsoft they developed the controls for six months, because the real time strategy games were criticized for their controls.

Official Xbox Magazine in their October 2007 issue stated that there a playable demo for Halo Wars will be available before release of the game. Playable demo for the game was released on February 5. Redemption codes were released even before the release of the demo on 29 January. In a press conference, Microsoft stated that Halo Wars set a one-day record for most download. In the last five days, it was downloaded by 5 million users.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Don’t go with the name, the food service industry can do something to people. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai allows you to face an adventure and action combo in a 2D side scroll view. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is more about being a Samurai and less about being a Dishwasher. It is developed by an independent software company by James Silva and will be for Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade service. Most probably it will be released at the end of year.

According to James Silva, the developer of the game has announced that other than story mode there will be two other game modes. The two other modes are Dish Challenge and Arcade respectively. If you are willing to score combos in a Dish challenge, you have to face continuous waves from enemies. The second mode is a combination of various one room levels, of different types and themes. You are locked in a room with three weapon-ns and a magic ability, and must kill all the enemies. Up to three players can play in a Co-op mode.

The Dishwasher is a 2d side scrolling game, with lots of beat ‘em up action. Story of the game revolves around an unnamed protagonist of the game. He works as a dishwasher and fights wave of the enemies throughout a level and then ends the level with a boss fight. Weapons range is wide, with starting from basic weapons meat cleavers to extreme weapons Samurai sword. You can earn weapons from enemies as well as bonus on advancement of the game. Weapons listed in the game are cleavers, a samurai sword, chainsaw, shotgun, and machine gun. Fight skills involve basic attack, a strong attack, or many combination attacks. In the later levels there is also a Dish Magic.

Inspiration for the games raised in James Silva’s mind when he himself was working as a dishwasher and felt that this work earns very less respect. After telling many people that initially Bruce lee was also a dishwasher. He started thinking about the game from there; his idea was of a dishwasher who without any mercy kills a number of enemies. After many attempts of launching the game, first as a third person shooter then as 3D side scrolling. However, James Silva settled for 2D side scrolled. After working 4 months the games was eventually submitted to Dream–Build-Play, with numerous levels and bosses. Many weapons and thousand of frames of animation were also included. It received Xbox Live Arcade contest in Dream-Build-Play contest in 2007.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Just as some one tries to outrun Microsoft, they return to the field with most innovative ideas. After the enormous success of their gaming console PlayStation Sony Corporation was promising to that, they will remove the Windows from the market. This evoked Microsoft to land in the console market, they came up with Xbox and it shook the world market of gaming. Xbox soon ate large part of PlayStation’s market. To lead the market of seventh generation of gaming consoles they are back with an astonishing idea. Basic of their idea is cross platform, they are planning to connect Xbox 360 with many operating systems. This is termed, as XBMC (media centre) Originally only Microsoft Windows was considered compatible as there will not be any problems relating licensing. However, considering the popularity of Xbox 360 many other operating systems also joined the race. Other leading operating systems working with XBMC are Linux and Mac OS X.

Other than allowing, you to play video games shared on operating systems, it also supports many other media options like video, audio, image formats, audio visualization, weather reporting, slideshows and third party plugins. To make it more convenient to use, network capability is used with internet and LAN shares. XBMC is expandable through ads-ons through its plugin system, which is based on Python. You can include many features like YouTube, online movie trailer support, and television program guide. Podcast/SHOUTcast is also available through streaming.

The latest stable version of XBMC available for Xbox 360 is 8.10-point release version. It was codenamed as Atlantis and was released on November 13, 2008. XBMC for Xbox is an open Source software program that is why is stored in publicly accessed Subversion server. The code is constantly updated by developers, so sometimes the subversion server contains more features than the most recent recent stable release. XBMC with Xbox can be run as an application. It can also be run as a dashboard that appears directly when the Xbox is turned on. XBMC runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is a 32-bit application but runs well on 64-bit windows and hardware as well.

In the cross platform version of XBMC, it got few limitations. XBMC can only read first session of a multisession burnt CD or DVD media disc. It is because XBNC does not support multisession authored CD/DVD media. Second most important limitation of XBMC is that video/audio files, which are protected with DRM, can not be accessed. Any music purchased from MSN Music, iTunes Music Store, or Audible.com cannot be accessed from XMBC. XBMC proved that it is trustworthy and received two SourceForge awards for Best Multimedia Project and Best Game Project. So do not get upset if you do not have Xbox 360 to play with your friends, just get in touch with XMBC and rock the world.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

Master Chief this is not just a name it is a legend in the gaming world, saving our dear earth from some freaking aliens. This character is role player round the globe for gamers, not just for teenagers but also for children to mature. Its weapons to talking style everything set a trend. You can simply say that it is the most known and one of the most famous character of the gaming world. Anyone from the gaming world still not got his hands on Halo is missing a whole era of games.

Halo is a science fiction game franchise. It was created by Bungie and owned and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The main trilogy of the games centers Master Chief and his experiences. Master Chief is a cybernetically enhanced human super-soldier, and his artificial intelligence (AI) companion, Cortana. Master Chief helps future humanity in battling a theocratic force of aliens known as Covenant. In this science fiction saga, the term “Halo” refers to Halo megastructures: large, habitable ringed structures, similar to Larry Niven ringworlds.

The Halo trilogy has been praised as best first person shooters on a video game console, and are considered as Microsoft Xbox’s “killer application”. Sale of the games of the franchise confirms this statement. This led to the use of term “Halo killer” for a game, which is considered better than Halo. Supported by the success of Halo: combat evolved and by immense marketing from publisher Microsoft, both the sequels went on to create history as both the games broke various sales records. Halo 3 sold copies worth US $170 Million  in the first 24 hours of release, breaking the record set by Halo 2 three years ago. The whole trilogy has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Strong sales have led to the franchise’s expansion to other items including novels, sound tracks. Bungie’s own musician Martin O’Donnell gave series award winning music. Cultural effect of Halo is sometime compared to that of star wars. Collective group of the fans refers it to it as “Halo nation?”

The Halo trilogy is set in several centuries in the. There are around 800 planets colonized in 200 years, and categorized as “Inner colonies” and “Outer colonies.” Inner circle are the one closer to earth and outer being away. The Inner colonies are more developed and politically stable. Outer colonies provide, tensions and outright civil war foments between the colonies. Until July 2008 the Halo series includes three main games, the games were released in chronological order, with each new game continues following the events of the previous game. Halo series features science fiction and action game elements. The games of main Trilogy are first-person shooters, with players experiencing most action from the protagonist’s view.

The Halo franchise has been highly successful critically, commercially and with its audience. After just two months of releasing Halo: combat evolved was their on the fifty percent of Xbox, it sold a million units. Halo 2’s first day sales were US $125 million, which was twice compare to the most grossing movie of that year- Spider-man which earned US $ 58 million on its first day of release. Conclusion was drawn that Halo 2’ record will remain intact for a very long time and is very difficult to break. 8 million copies of Halo 2 have been sold since its release. Then September 2007 saw the release of the epic game Halo 3, within its first day of release it was making US $170 million. Halo 3 broke the previous record for the highest grossing opening day in entertainment history, making US $170 million in its first twenty- four hours. World-wide sales of Halo 3 for the first week was US $ 300 million helping to more than double the sales of the Xbox 360 when compared with the weekly average before the Halo 3 launch. All the three games of the franchise already had sold 20 million units.

Just like sales critics also breaking the records for the greatest trilogy of gaming world ever. Halo: combat evolved had received Game of the year as well as it was named best game on Xbox ever released. Like that, Halo 2 was ranked as best game on Xbox 360. Halo 3 won game of the year, best online game, and innovative design of the year. Over all this game was the main reason for the sales of Microsoft’s gaming consoles Xbox and Xbox 360.

Game Server Social Bookmarking

VC or better call as virtual console is a special section of the Wii shop channel. It’s an online service that allows players to purchase and download games and other software for Nintendo’s Wii gaming console. The virtual console lineup consists of titles originally released on past consoles. These titles are run in their original forms with the use of software emulation, and can be purchased for between 500 and 1200 Wii points. It depends on system and rarity and/or demand. The library of Virtual Console consists of titles originating from Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Nintendo 64. Other then Nintendo NEC’s TurboGrafx-16, Sega’s Master System and Mega Drive/genesis, and SNK’s Neo Geo AES are also available on VC. Until December 2007 over ten million console titles have been downloaded.

Games downloaded from the virtual console library are stored in the Wii’s built in 512 MB flash memory. You can transfer games using a removable SD card for backup only. However, you can’t play games from this external memory. Virtual consoles games can be deleted if the internal memory is filled, to create more room and the games can be downloaded again later at no additional cost, or can be copied back from SD card. Virtual console games are locked to the Wii on which they are purchased-they cannot be transferred to another Wii via an SD card. Although it is possible to purchase games in the Wii shop channel and send them as gift to people on their Wii friends list. This procedure does not work across region. In the event that a Wii is damaged and the virtual console games can no longer played, Nintendo provides support. Serial number or console email can be provided. Game saving is functional and intact on the virtual console for all games, which originally had a save feature on their cartridge. Saved games on the Wii function as original cartridge did. A game on cartridge doesn’t show any features of saved game and it doesn’t show any feature on the virtual console.

Although being a commercial hit virtual console still faces criticism for few reasons. First is a complaint from American customers that there is a grate difference between the two online libraries for Japan and America respectively. Both in quality and quantity. The differences are now reduced to minimal. Other controversies with Virtual servers are that they release very few games and Virtual console’s ratio aspect ratio. It is given that their aspect ratio for games id mere 4:3, whereas for Wii’s system settings its 16:9 television. Pricing is also highly criticized as too high, especially for NES games. Given many of its game’s are near zero costs of manufacture and distribution. Nintendo has stated that Virtual consoles games are as same as the original ones, eliminating the possibility of graphical enhancements, customizable controls, or added online multiplayer features. However, for various reasons, the gameplay experience is not always identical to the original.

Over and all Virtual feature is an effort against the popular products Microsoft’s Xbox live and Sony’s Playstation network. However, after success in Asian, markets it doesn’t seem going ahead of Microsoft or Sony.

Game Server Social Bookmarking