Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series is one of the best for the games of the real-time strategy. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is the fifth installment in the series and a sequel to the 2006 game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, a massive hit. Just like the previous game it is developed by Relic Entertainment who are famous for their real-time games for PC like Company of Heroes, Homeworld and The Outfit. The game is published by THQ for only on Microsoft Windows. It is based in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. Dawn of War II was released on February 19 in North America and on February 20 it was released in Europe. It use the Essence Engine 2.0 and advance version of Essence Engine, first used in Company of Heroes. Single player and Cooperative Multiplayer are the two modes featuring in the game.

For the initial released version of the game four playable armies as Orks, Space Marines, Eldar, and Tyranids. Gameplay of Dawn of War II is different from the previous Dawn of War and its expansions. Game’s lead designer Jonny Ebbert has described the gameplay of Dawn of War II as it takes everything that was great about the original and combines it with the best that of Company of Heroes had to offer. Cover is the main focus giving more substantial defensive bonuses. Dealing of units fro cover is more stressed. Some weapons can destroy the cover like explosives and grenades, while some like flamers will ignore the cover bonus. Other differences from the previous game includes more realistic vehicles, improved physics engine and improved AI units. Dawn of War II is the first game to be released on Live server of Games of Windows – Live. Now player can connect to the Windows Live Servers in order to play the multiple features.

The game features a non-linear interplanetary campaign, can be played as Space Marines. You can play the campaign either as single-player or cooperatively with another player through an online connection. It starts with Sergeant Tarkus is send into Calderis to aid Captain Davian Thule and his initiates. After fighting away the Orks they are tackled by Mek Badzappa and his army. Mek escapes and Mine destroys the mine from where they were coming and take a victory. After these events they travels from Armageddon to a hamlet where Sergeant Avitus is waiting for them. After these events they travel to planet Typhon to stop Eldar activity. Orks are stirring up into a revolt and must be eliminated. Just as they were leaving Thule asks them to go back to Calderis because Mek Badzappa is back and launching an attack against the capital and citizens. Space Marines and finally kills Mek but as soon they are attacked by Tyranids. Thule is mortally wounded and Techmarin Maretellus gets them back to safety and Marines destroys the Tyranid force. The Space Marines return to Typhon leaving Apothercary Gordian in charge of Thule and kill the Eldar ranger Nemeran who has been stirring up trouble.

Reception for the game is generally positive, not as great as the previous one. Average Maetacritic score for the game is 86%. It was praised by the gamers for its good graphics fast paced tactical gameplay. Criticizing points were for lack of variety of single player campaign missions and very few multiplayer maps. One more complaint was for the True Skill ranked matching, with many complaints as less experienced player are pitted against those with higher skills at the game. However this was improved to great extent in 1.2.1 patch for the game.

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Good Games are hardly ever developed for PlayStation Portable. To solve the problem and to support most innovative hand held console of time Sony is coming forward and developing games for PSP. One of such game is LocoRoco 2. Genres for LocoRoco 2 are Platform and Puzzle. LocoRoco 2 is developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is a sequel to the LocoRoco, which was released in 2006 exclusively for PlayStation Portable. However, this time LocoRoco 2 is released for PC users also. The game was released on November 21, in Europe and for Japan on December 4, in the year 2008. LocoRoco 2 was released on February 10, 2009 for North America. The game has very budget cost of 20 USD.

There are several new features in the game then the previous game. Like squeeze through crevasses, ability to swim underwater and gaining new abilities. A new character featured in the game is Bonmucho’s mother Majoline. The character she is portraying is evil and scary. Controls of LocoRoco 2 are similar to the previous one. Once again the character you are taking control of is Planet. L is for left and R if foe right and when you press them concurrently causes the planet to bounce up and thus making the LocoRoco jump. The circle button when quickly pressed causes a thunder which separates the LocoRoco. If you wish to join the LocoRoco to one hold the circle button down. Holding the circle button causes an earthquake which combines LocoRoco back.

Most of the locations, known as ‘backgrounds’ are same as seen in previous LocoRoco. The few which are new are MuiMui Home and BuiBui Fort. Other locations in the game are The ice mountain (Shamplin), The tropical island (Tropuca), The Dark, spooky land (Dolangomeri), The sunny/rhythmic land, (CaloCaro), The large tree (Yamboona Tree), Fungus Forest (Kelapton), The Flower Garden (Franzea), and The big mountain. Other than the previous six previous from original game, there is a purple LocoRoco added. All the LocoRoco have names and descriptions: Viole – Confident Tomboy (purple), Kulche – Energetic Youngster (yellow), Pekerone – Exberant Geek (red), Priffy – Style Princess (pink).

LocoRoco 2 received very good score on most of the game critic sites and magazines. IGN gave LocoRoco 2 highest of them all with 9.1/10. To run LocoRoco 2 on the PC the requirements needed are Firmware 5.02 and for the users in Europe PSP firmware 4.05.

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StarCraft II is an upcoming game for the PC users. It will be the game in the trilogy of military science fiction and will be released under the genre of Real-time strategy video games. StarCraft II is under the development of Blizzard Entertainment. It will be released as the sequel for the award wining game StarCraft, which was released in 1998. Initially StarCraft II was announced as a single game, but at BlizzCon 2008 it was again announced as a trilogy. The trilogy will consist of one game and two expansions. The titles are named as Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void respectively. StarCraft II is different from the original series as in the original series there were 8-10 missions campaigns, one for each race, whereas in the StarCraft II trilogy will have only one, 26-30 mission campaign centered around a single race. In the expansions the Terrans will be the centre of the first campaign, followed by Zerg and Protoss races in the expansions. According to the developers Blizzard Entertainment each expansion will be big enough to give you the feeling of a full game. Now release dates are confirmed by the developers. StarCraft II is developed for Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X. Parent company of Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard believes the game will be released in the year 2009, no official announcement are yet to be released by the developers.

StarCraft II is designed in such a style that will look like an ultimate competitive real- time strategy game. The game has an advantage of success of its forerunner, StarCraft. The famous three races of StarCraft will return to the game. The three races are Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These are the only playable races of the game. StarCraft II is mainly designed to focus more and more on multiplayer mode, as compared to StarCraft. There are few changes though as the Batlle.net is improved, a new ladder system is installed it will rank games. A new matchmaking mechanics is included for the purpose of match-up players of equal skills. The replay function of the previous game which allows players to record and review past games seems to be improved greatly. StarCraft II will follow its predecessor to use cinematic cut-scenes to press forward the plot. This time the quality of in-game cut scenes is also improved. These in game cut scenes are rendered on-the-fly and use the same game engine as the graphics in the proper game. According to Blizzard with the new graphics engine you can actually create in game cut scenes which will give you the look of near-cinematic quality. According to the developers they also made some changes according to the fan community.

StarCraft II starts four years after StarCraft: brood War and features the return of many of the old characters from the original series. It includes Arcturus Mengsk, Zeratul, Artanis, Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor. In StarCraft II players will revisit the world from old game like Mar Sara, Braxis, and Char, as well as new worlds like jungle planet Bel’shir. Xel’Naga will play an important role in the game, as this ancient race is responsible for the creation of Protoss and the Zerg. The game will continue the events of the previous game. The events of the previous will affect the game heavily.

Development for the game dates way back to May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. StarCraft II was developed under the code name of Medusa, for simultaneous release on Windows XP, Windows Vista and MAC OS X. The release dates are yet to be revealed by Blizzard. StarCraft II will support both DirectX 9 (Pixel Shader 2.0) as well as it is fully compatible with DirectX 10. The use of DirectX 10 graphic effects is not confirmed by the developing team. For the Mac users they will use OpenGL. One more feature that makes StarCraft II interesting is the use of Havok Physics engine. It will give game more realistic environmental elements such as “debris rolling down a ramp.” Furthermore there are plans to implement VoIP in the game.

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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is one of the best multiplayer game. It is a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is developed by Norwegian computer video game developer company Funcom for PCs. The game was launched at 11 p.m. (GMT) on May 17, 2008 in a limited way and was available only for those who had registered order game in advance. Age of Conan was fully released for North America on May 20, 2008 and for Europe May 23, 2008 for the PC version. Xbox 360 version was scheduled to release at the same time, but is running a year behind. Xbox version of the game may release at the end of this year. Hyborian Adventures is the first game of the planned Age of Conan series. The game takes place on a continent of the Hyborian kingdoms. It continues one year after the events shown in Robert E. Howard’s Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon. Release of Hyborian Adventures’ celebrated as the 76^th anniversary of the Conan franchise. You to have monthly subscription fee if you want to play Hyborian Adventures. A DreamWorld Engine along with SpeedTree is used in the game.

All the characters in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures are created on a user account on a particular server. The characters created on one account are inaccessible from other server. These characters are created by the players as their virtual avatars in the online world of Hyboria. You have to choose one of the three playable races before creating your character. The character is one of the four prototypes and one of the three classes is selected for each prototype.

Combat in the game is based on six directions of attacking an opponent with a sword: hacking down against the head, slashing diagonally down from the left and right, slashing diagonally up from the left or right and thrusting against the torso. All the directions used are designed naturally to strung together in combinations. Difficult combos cause extra damage and faster combat. According to Funcom their “Real Combat” system is designed to offer more real-time options than traditional Dungeons & Dragons-inspired turn-based commonly used in RPGs. This real time combat feature is the main attraction of the game and gives Hyborian Adventures a different look.

The “Real Combat” system is used in many combat of the game like one-on-one combat, spells casting, mounted combat, and ranged combat. Many places in the game players will choose to band together and unite their skills to face other bands of players or AI controlled armies. Player can take part in large-scale siege operations. However, work is being done by the developers on the siege battles due to the slowness with more than 20 participants in the battle. Adventures can cooperate with one another to build cities, with the help of towers, walls and catapults that can protect player’s taverns and other merchant facilities. According to the developers the world will respond appropriately to the rise of player’s cities with AI controlled enemies building their own cities. This gives a hint of city-vs-city combat as players try to knock enemy walls or defend their own homes.

System Requirements [Minimum]

CPU: Intel Pentium IV/AMD Athlon 3200+ or higher
CPU Speed: 3 GHz/2.1GHz
System Ram: 2 GB

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Terminator Salvation is an upcoming video game. Basic idea of the game is drawn from the famous movie series The Terminator. It will be a third-person shooter action game. Release date for the game is May 19, 2009 coinciding with the release date of the next upcoming movie of the same name on the same week. The game is under development of Halcyon Company’s gaming subsidiary, Halcyon Games. GRIN also helped Halcyon Games in developing the game. Terminator Salvation will be published by Equity Games and Evolved Games. The game will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC ,mobile and iPhone OS. The game is based in Los Angeles in the year 2016. The game is placed between the events of movies Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation. Although main character of the game is John Connor, it follows the character of Common’s Barnes.

Christian Bale has refused to lend his voice to the game. Rose McGowan is voicing the character of Angie Salter, an ex-high school teacher. Common and Moon Bloodgood are voicing their own characters from the film as Barnes and Blair respectively. Distributors for the game in United States of America are Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment. For the worldwide release for the game distributors are yet to be decided.

The game was first announced on November 15, 2007 when the Halcyon Company announced the formation of the Halcyon Games. Halcyon Company announced that the new part of the company would manage the gaming part of the game. Then game was under development for several months at GRIN and Halcyon Games. Development for the game will started even before the Movie starts. Halcyon Games were approached by the Disney executive to develop the game. The CEO revealed that Halcyon decided to develop the game internally rather than contract another studio to create the game.

Main Characters of the Terminator Salvation are:

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“Elveon” means “The book of elves.” It is based on a comprehensive fantasy saga, which goes back to the times of the rise of the advanced elvish civilization. Gods have left the world of Naon in a rush. The place they wanted it to turn into their paradise. Only one left back are The Neamas, the elves of the ancient times and fellows of the gods have remained their alone. A smoldering conflict is gaining more and more importance. This conflict leads to an era, which marked, with jealousy, malicious, and useless wars. These wars are preventing gods and descendants from entering upon their inheritance.

Elveon is an upcoming video game for action and real-time strategy genre. Release date are not announced by the developers. It will be released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. Elveon will be available in single and multiplayer. Unreal Engine 3.0 and Foliage – SpeedTree are the two game engines used in the Elveon. The game is originally developed by 10Tacle studious in Bratislava, Slovakia. Due to some financial difficulties of the 10Tacle group, they shut down the Bratislava studios. The game now is expected to be finished by an English studio in co-operation with 10Tacle. With the shift of the game development, it will only release for PlayStation3 and Xbox 360. The PC version of the game is not sure.

Gameplay videos and previews give a rough but clear idea about the game. Elveon is set to be a third person viewpoint combat game. The game is set in a high fantasy universe. Primarily game is about single player mode, however basic multiplayer options have been promised by the developers; such as one on one battles. Other updates about the option of multiplayer are still to be released by the developers. The April update for the Climax Group website hints an unnamed fantasy project for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. No official statements has been released yet, but the only small image released resembles the Elveon.

The Elveon is saga that tells about the rise of the Elvish culture. Whole story is told from a perspective of an experienced elite warrior. He is following his destiny and attempts to change his people’s fate. The only way to do so is to free the portal realm of the Gods the forgotten city of Nimathar. A task, which is normally reserved for the gods themselves.

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The Sims I will not explain this universal term. Yes Sims is more then a name, it’s a pillar of the gaming world. One of the elements which made our gaming industry such a huge hit. There are more then eight games and expansions in the franchise, and these games makes Sims the largest selling franchise in the gaming history. After three long years The Sims is back with their latest installation in the franchise The Sims 3. Just like all the previous games of the franchise it will be a computer game. Sims 3 is created by the EA Redwood Shores and just like all the previous games it will be published by Electronic Arts. It will release on June 2, 2009 in North America and June 5, 2009 in Europe and Australia. This time with little changes the game will allow players to explore and interact with their neighborhood without loading time, because the houses and neighborhood will be seamless. Earlier The Sims 3 was set to be release on February 20, 2009, but on February 2 it was announced that the game will now release on June 2.

Sim houses and neighborhood will be entirely in one continuous map. The developers of the game stated that “What you do inside your home now matters as much as what do you within.” All the Sims in the neighborhoods age & live out their lives simultaneously, irrespective of the fact where the player in the game is. Comfort and environment are removes from the eight needs of The Sims 1 & 2. The other needs remaining in the game are bladder, hunger, social, energy, fun, and hygiene. All These needs requirements are represented as moodlets-attributes which are required special events, such as minor events like tooth brushing and major ones like wedding, and affect the Sims behavior. The needs will have three levels starting from Red (low), yellow (moderate), and green (full). Many minor features from The Sims 2 expansion pack will appear in the game, like private cars and restaurants, fishing and gardening and mobile phones, jewelry and beaches, tooth brushing and ceilings. Sims can paint just like the previous games, but the paintings will be more unique this time.

There are twelve carriers to pursue in The Sims 3. They are aw enforcement, crime, military, science, politics, journalism, business, entertainment, culinary, medical, athletic, and music. Each career will have a workplace, which Sim will have to travel for their shifts. Like the previous Sims the job yields “opportunities” –tasks that could be finished for reward. There are part time jobs also. Sims can increase their productivity when not doing work, like bringing work home or overtime. Not like the previous games Sims 3 will have many career rewards.

Main features of The Sims 3 include:

Create-A-Sim – is the character builder. Here the polygon 3-D models of Sims can be modified by changing a wider variety of properties. This time there are more options of modifications than what was available in previous installments. You can modify many parts of the Sim and likewise can create a unique Sim, regarding fitness, hair, weight, and clothing e.t.c. You can customize nearly everything in the game. Prominent birthmarks such as freckles can also be added to Sims.

Build and Buy modes – this mode is completely restored by the developers. The square outlines that appear on the ground – apparent when entering build or buy mode – are smaller by four times to give players freedom to place object where they want. There is an option of turn off the grid. This feature will make objects easier to locate at the players desired location instead of being restricted to bigger tile.

Neighborhood exploration – on March 19, 2008 EA revealed this new feature of The Sims 3: neighborhood exploration. Sims can now explore the world outside their homes without having to face strenuous load time. Every lot is now synced to the main neighborhood time, whereas before the time of day was different in each lot and would continue from the last time it was played. You can interact with every building in the neighborhood.

The game is developed by EA Redwood Shores. Music for The Sims 3 is written and composed by Steve Jablonsky. He recorded the score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at the 20^th Century Fox. The Sims will release for desktop operating systems like PC, Mac OS X and mobile and multimedia devices like iPhone and iPod Touch. System requirements for the game on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X are:

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Cities XL or previously known as Cities Unlimited is a city-building simulation computer game. It is under the development of Paris based company Monte Cristo. Prior to Cities XL Monte Cristo developed City Life. Cities XL was planned to be launched in Q1 2009, but the released date are postponed to later part of 2009. Cities XL allows players to do many things related about a City, like manage the economy, care for need of citizens, and most importantly shape the city. Online play mode enable players to interact with online members of the game.

Both the features of city designing to lay out a city of plopping and the automated growth aspect of zoning. Mass Placement tool which allows player to select tags that will decide what they want to build in a zone. This feature adds control and flexibility to the game. These tags will describe many things including building functions to important characteristics. Buildings functions described by these tags are Residence, Hotel, Industry, Commercial Services e.t.c. Important characteristics included in the game are level of wealth, size, architectural style, geographical origin and so on. Each building is marked with a tag so that you can choose specific buildings. There is an option of players choosing and creating their own tags.

City XL allows players to play on persistent online virtual community known as Planet. As a member of the Planet you can do many things like build cities in a virtual world populated by the inhabitants of different players, trade with the players, host events and visit cities. There are competitions and events to make sure player will return to the game. However there is a monthly playing online and community.

Cities XL are promising to provide bigger, more beautiful landscapes. The terrain is composed of textures, a normal map, and heightmaps. To generate unique realistic terrain Cities XL uses existing Third-party tools like World Machine, GeoControl, and EarthSculptor. These terrains are then moved to their terrain editing software. Adding to that middleware like SpeedTree is used to make game look better. A lot of attention is put into the 3D engine of the game to make it available on low level PC.

First announcement for the game was made by the developers on April 15, 2008. It was announced that official title for the game would be City XL not City Life 2. The new game is expected to have more features and graphics. It was also reported that Monte Cristo had worked hard to remove the building repetition that haunted the City of Life. According to the developers the game will focus on transport, economical realism, and variety through building numbers. A map release of Aspen describes that there will be snowfall in the game. Official trailer of the game was released on June 4, 2008.

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LEGO Universe is an upcoming massively multiplayer online game. NetDevil is the company developing LEGO Universe. NetDevil is famous for Jumpgate one of the best known massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Releasing date is uncertain, it was scheduled for a 2009 release. This date was postponed from its earlier scheduled date of late November 2008 and first release date of mid 2008. The NetDevil are considering releasing only the PC version of the game. Lego Universe will be available on DVD and internet.

A trailer showing concepts of the game was leaked on the internet. These include many features of the game like character customization using the traditional Lego method, a Lego city populated with sets from numerous different themes. A short theatrical battle between an eye-patched Lego minifigure and a “Darkling” was also shown in the trailer. It was confirmed by Lego that Lego Universe will be cooperatively played with others to complete various tasks. Just opposite to the player versus player (PvP) gameplay. Players can also customize their weapons once they reach level thirty. Although customizable weapons will be less powerful.

The Lego Universe website has gone through two main changes. First it was a website with a gallery, front page news, and an archive of past letters. In June 2008’s newsletter a new update along with the revelation of the Lego Universe was launched on Lego Universe’s new website. Lego is allowing fans to upload photos of Lego creation they have made into the Creation Lab so the Lego Universe Staff will have an idea of what to include in the game.

Wonderland is one of the Lego Universe areas. It was stated according to an image in the map section. The currency used in the game is plastic, which can be used to create Lego Bricks. On the main page of the Lego Universe official site there is a box to enter in VIP codes. You cam get these codes from the newsletter and from the events. You have to be careful while entering these codes, they are shown in all caps but do not have to enter in that way. They will allow you to downloads such as pictures and videos. It has been confirmed on the official website of Lego Universe that Lego Universe will be based on a subscription model. That means you have to monthly to play.

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Evodom is an upcoming game in the world of Real-time strategy. Once released it you will be able to download it from Internet. It will be different from other games of Real-time strategy because instead of human or mutant races you have to control a colony of insects known as Evolets. Another difference is that the players are not required to buy units or buildings to form a base. All of the missions of the game will be based around a queen; she will continuously lay eggs that will hatch into new units. Game will progress after player succeeds in capturing enemy territories and finally driving opposing species to extinction. It only be available for PC users.

Each and every Evolet will have a set of qualities, which will decide its success in the battlefield. Possible combination of attributes in basic gameplay are over 352,000 may be they will run well into millions. Players are encouraged to ‘splice’ the genetic code of the queen in order to produce fighting units. These fighting units are better suited to their ever-changing environment. Camouflage will allow units to creep around undetected, feet will be more effective if they are adapted to environmental conditions and armor will offer you extra protection. Weapons are also included in the game, as if you can poison your enemies, or impregnate them with larvae to weaken their armor and spreading plagues. Each Evolet will have its own personality that will enhance certain attributes in a specified condition; foe example the Honor psyche (personality) will boost attack power when the number of allied units is low.

Attributes that are successful during one season or during time of day will not remain that effective. This will make players to evolve in order to prevent enemies taking advantage. Another important factor is weight; if you equip the Evolet with both strong armor and powerful weaponry, it will slow down and will be easily picked up by enemies.

When Evolets hatch, they will be small and weak but grow as the game progress. Other then natural growth, all Evolets will gain experience from battles in order to increase the levels of skills, armor and attack power. This however not includes queen. Evolets also need to be fed in order to survive. They starts with eating berries and later starts eating small mammals, some even eat other Evolets. Berries comes from various regions and each berry will have different effects when eaten. For example, some will strengthen your armor, some will restore health, and some are poisonous.

In general, gameplay of the game choices and allegiances made during the campaign will affect the path and allow you three alternate endings. Just like the real life all, the units are unique. They differ from each other in strength, speed, and color shades. Each season will have its own problems and benefits. Your unit have to manage and adapt well in the changing environment in order to take advantage in the battle.

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