Hitini

post from Escape Games 24 on 07 August 2011 11:05:43 PM. © Escape Games 24

Hilgreed - Hitini Escape is another Japanese/English point and click type escape the room game from Hilgreed. In this game, you are locked in a room and you must escape the room by finding items and solving puzzles. Good luck and have fun!Note: Click the yellow button in left corner of the text window to switch between Japanese and English.Play This GameAlternative Link

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/escapegames24/~3/Xse8VglHmQ4/hitini-walkthrough.ht
ml

Digg this

Dreamland Walkthrough (PC, Mac)

post from Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More on 07 August 2011 10:11:21 PM. © Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More

Welcome to the Dreamland walkthrough on Gamezebo. Dreamland is a hidden object/adventure game played on the PC created by Nevosoft. This walkthrough includes tips and tricks, helpful hints, and a strategy guide to how to complete Dreamland.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamezebo.com/games/dreamland/walkthrough

Digg this

Surprise! Pokémon continues to dominate in sales

post from Destructoid on 07 August 2011 09:06:48 PM. © Destructoid

Surprise! Pok?mon continues to dominate in sales screenshot

While bathroom accoutrements are certainly one indicator of brand ubiquity, there's nothing quite like cold, hard sales numbers. Pokémon, that other monster-hunting game series, is still trucking along with no signs of slowing down. In Nintendo's most recent annual report, the company announced that Diamond / Pearl has exceeded 17.57 million in sales; Platinum, 7.43 million; HeartGold / SoulSilver, 11.90 million; and Black / White, 11.51 million.

Now, these numbers are current as of March 2011, which means the games have had a few more months to rack up sales. Another Nintendo briefing that tracked sales through June has Black / White at 12.87 million globally, an incredible figure when you realize that the game was just released last September in Japan and this past March in the rest of the world. That's what I call domination!

To all those still wondering how Nintendo will turn the fortunes of the 3DS around, look no further than the next Pokémon update. Money in the bank.

Here’s How Much Each Pokémon RPG Sold On Nintendo DS [Siliconera]

Read The Full Article:

Digg this

Section 8: Prejudice Review

post from MonsterVine on 07 August 2011 07:11:08 PM. © MonsterVine

Section 8: PrejudiceDeveloper: TimeGate StudiosPrice: $15.00Platform: PS3, PC, & Xbox 360Section 8: Prejudice is a sequel to 2009′s Section 8 which did surprisingly well for a downloadable shooter. You once again star as Alex Corde who is a part of the military group known as Section 8 who are SPEESS MUHREENS who drop into battle [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://monstervine.com/2011/08/section-8-prejudice-review/

Digg this

Divnich Divines: Do free games make business
sense

post from Destructoid on 07 August 2011 06:05:22 PM. © Destructoid

Divnich Divines: Do free games make business sense? screenshot

_{[In Divnich Divines, EEDAR Vice President and videogame analyst Jesse Divnich traverses the bogs of sales data, hype, and good old fashioned game geekery to give you his two cents on hot topics in the game industry]}

At a time when the games industry is starting to embrace free-to-play models in favor of subscription models on an increasing amount of platforms, while publishers still treat the second-hand market as a cancerous disease instead of the potential for brand-loyalty it may provide, the concept of "free" is simultaneously a hot and a touchy subject for different parties involved.

In EEDAR's July 2011 Retail Buyer Report, which focused on the success and effects of Sony's "Welcome Back" program that the company positioned to regain consumer trust in its PlayStation Network following the hacks, the research firm found that more people acquired downloadable titles on the PS3 in June compared to March this year -- even when accounting for the free games on offer.

While that might be surprising in itself, the firm also found that consumer interest for other titles within the same franchises was increased in the period these games were offered for free. When marketing budgets are bloating the cost of AAA projects more and more, just to fight for the average consumer's precious bit of conscious elaboration of content, perhaps making a certain game free might end up making (or saving) you more money than you might expect.

For this edition of Divnich Divines, the question for EEDAR's Jesse Divnich is:

"What are the benefits of offering a game for free?"

Divnich: "Unlike ten years ago, the consumer of today has a copious amount of choices when it comes to interactive entertainment and as such, traditional forms of video games must transform itself to reflect new business strategies to keep the traditional gamer engaged.

"As we noted in our July Retail Report, the PlayStation Welcome Back program produced an interesting by-product in that the free titles offered actually increased the purchase intent of their sequels, even when a sequel wasn’t available (i.e., Dead Nation 2). This has led to an idea of sequence, something that is prominent in other entertainment sectors and something missing from ours.

"Movies, one of the more mature entertainment sectors, seems to have perfected this idea of sequence.

"When a movie is first released, it stays in theatres for about a month where it generates the majority of its revenue (at the highest average price per user). Five months afterwards, the same movie is launched on Pay-Per-View, a month later it comes to DVD with some bonus features, and finally after a few years, when all possible revenue generation has been exploited, it lands on network television, which is free for anyone to watch."

"In video games, however, this idea of sequence is nearly lacking. A game goes from premium retail shelve space, to the bargain bin, and finally out the door for ever. Sure, in a lot of cases we see a digital release on XBLA or PSN, but the content is identical and generally parodies the current retail price point. In other cases, we do see a 'Game of the Year' addition that includes all previously released DLC, but that is generally reserved for the top 1% of titles and of course still holds some form of pricing barrier.

"What I believe the movie industry understands better than video games is the free sequence and its power to draw new consumers into a brand by offering no barriers of entry. A recent example is Harry Potter (or any big AAA movie series). Over the last few weeks the first two Harry Potters were made available on network television, free for anyone to watch, and while Warner Bros. received some compensation from the network, it was minimal compared to the hype and excitement it built around the new Harry Potter movie in theatres, and of course the likelihood it drew in new consumers into the Harry Potter universe, who would eventually spend $20+ to see the newest release in theatre.

"The people at Rovio understand this 'free' concept well. In a recent statement, Rovio set a goal to get over '1 billion' fans for Angry Birds. Nowhere did Rovio mention some sort of revenue target -- for good reason. Rovio understands that regardless if someone pays for Angry Birds or they receive it for free, each new set of eyeballs adds value to the Angry Birds brand. That brand value can then generate several different revenue streams, whether it be through ancillary items (plush dolls, t-shirts, movie licenses, etc.), word of mouth that brings in new (and full paying) consumers, or through generating revenue on future releases (Angry Birds 2 or the season packs)."

"The results of the Welcome Back program are crystal clear, offering a free game for a limited period of time increases the awareness, engagement, and excitement around other products within the brand’s hierarchy (i.e., sequels) and if a publisher could plan a free limited time release about six to eight weeks prior to the next iterations release, the data would suggest that it would positively impact sales of the next iteration (at the benefit of a full price).

"I've seen arguments where such a 'standard' would only discourage the purchase of new releases because it creates an ecosystem where consumers could simply 'wait for the free release', much like some do when it comes to a movie as it sequences to network television. The truth is, however, that if someone is truly willing to wait 2+ years to play your game, they are unlikely to have ever purchased it to begin with. I simply do not foresee any type of lose-lose scenario for game publishers or consumers.

"If I had to provide an accurate but rather harsh description of the mass consumer as they relate to video games, it would be equivalent to an adult with ADD on the Las Vegas Strip, and the casino with the biggest flashing neon sign wins. Oh and I am sure there is no coincidence that aside from the word 'casino' the second most advertised word in neon on the strip is the word 'free'.

"I've been very vocal on this strategy to publishers and I can only hope one takes a leap of faith and experiments with these ideas.

"Free, it works."

How do you look at games that become free for a (short) period? Do they remind you of IPs you had completely forgotten about? Do you simply grab a game purely because it's free while would never have considered paying for it, even though you know you'll probably still never play it? Or do you sometimes find a gem of a game that you want more of in the future, realizing you never would've known it was actually that good if it hadn't been offered for free?

Read The Full Article:

Digg this

Fate of the Pharaoh Review (PC, Mac)

post from Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More on 07 August 2011 05:46:24 PM. © Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More

Gamezebo Rating:

City-building exploded into one of the top genres on Facebook, so it?s not surprising to see it also blossoming in the more traditional world of casual gaming. Fate of the Pharaoh is a take on city-building that?s designed around tactics rather than strategy, asking you to develop a variety of settlements along the river Nile that meet specific goals.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamezebo.com/games/fate-pharaoh/review

Digg this

GenCon 2011: Hands-On with D20 Pro v2.4

post from Gaming Nexus on 07 August 2011 05:42:00 PM. © Gaming Nexus

by: Russell Archey
NEWS - Being a Dungeons & Dragons fan, I'm always looking for software that can help run or play a campaign, or even automate character creation. Unless you know the process inside and out, creating a character can be a tedious process. Well, while at GenCon I came across a couple people who created some D&D software for campaigning and character creation. I haven't looked too much into Hero Lab and Fantasy Grounds, but they seemed a little complex, as they can cover multiple systems that use the d20 system. The one I looked at the most may not have a character auto-generator (that's what my programming skills are for...eventually), but is actually quite useful for campaign creating and running, and that is D20 Pro by Mind Gene. I realize that Gaming Nexus did a couple interviews at past Origins events, but being my first time with the software, I figured I'd give it a shot for those who have never heard of it...like me.

In doing some research, I couldn't find an exact release date for D20 Pro, but the first Release Notes post I saw was for v2.0.3 back in December 2009, with a Gaming Nexus article/interview from Origins 2008, so it's been out for quite some time, but I only heard about it at GenCon. See, this is what happens when I can only afford to go to Origins each year, I miss out on this kind of stuff. Anyway, the latest version is v2.4 which looks to have been released back in late April, so that's the version I'll be looking at. After playing around with it a bit, it's actually quite a good program, with a couple little bugs here and there. You can create maps, items, setup characters, NPCs, and monsters, and pretty much run the campaign with a game log and even dice to roll. The Judge (ie. DM) version can even have the option of approving player moves and decisions, so they can deny your idea of using magic missile on everyone in the inn because your food tasted terrible. If you need to help create a character, you can't create it in D20 Pro, but you can do it through a separate program called Hero Lab, which is produced by Lonewolf.

The only issue I had seemed to be with the tiling system. You can import tiles for "painting" on your map (so you can use custom tiles for the ground, sea, meadow, etc., or can place a tile and scale it for things like traps and monsters. The files can be placed in separate folders, so you can easily keep track of tiles for terrain, tiles for a castle or dungeon, enemy tiles etc. The problem is though, that if you DON'T use separate folders and just keep everything in the root folder, the scaling option displays the tiles just fine, but the painting option will only show one of the images (NOTE: right now, it seems to have fixed itself, but I'm not sure if it'll happen again, so I'll leave this paragraph here just in case). What was recommended to me though is that you create a map with software such as Cartographer (developed by ProFantasy), then just import the map into D20 Pro. I've never used Cartographer, but have seen some of the maps created by it, and they look awesome.

The software actually has four different licenses for it: Trial, Full, Guest, and Player. None of the licenses expire (except for Trial) and can be run on Windows XP or higher, OS 10.4 or higher, or Linus. The licenses and pricing is as follows:

Trial License - Free
The trial license has everything the full license has, except it expires after 30 days and you must have an internet connection when you use it to validate the trial license.

Full License - $30+
The full license is what's used for DMs (or Judges as the program calls them) as it comes with the functions and abilities to create campaigns, maps, and pretty much anything else needed to run the campaign, as well as let you join a campaign as if you had a player license. It also comes with two guest slots and additional slots can be purchased for $10 each (hence the $30+). The guest slots I'll talk about below.

Guest License - Free
The guest license will only allow a player to join a campaign, and only if the DM has an open guest slot available. If no slots are open, the guest can't join that campaign. A guest license comes with the trial as well, and it will not expire.

Player License - $10
The player license allows you to join a campaign without the need for an available slot. If you get the player license, you can upgrade to the full license at any time.

Overall, the program looks really nice and I do plan to at least plunk down the $10 for a player license for when my friends decide to come up with a campaign, but will eventually upgrade to the full license, because you just never know when your creative side will come out. If you want to take it for a spin, head over to their site at www.d20pro.com and download the 30 day trial.

Images courtesy of www.d20pro.com.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/GenCon-2011-Hands-On-with-D20-Pro-v24/Item237
44.aspx

Digg this

Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale
Review (PC, Mac)

post from Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More on 07 August 2011 05:38:33 PM. © Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More

Gamezebo Rating:

Blue Tea Games just keeps getting better and better. The developer responsible for the amazing Dark Parables and Enlightenus series has once again hit a home run with its newest franchise, Macabre Mysteries. The first title in the series, Curse of the Nightingale, takes what Blue Tea does well?gorgeous graphics and an intriguing storyline?and manages to crank them up to yet another level; the result is one unforgettable hidden object adventure.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamezebo.com/games/macabre-mysteries-curse-nightingale/review

Digg this

Dump on this: Monster Hunter toilet paper holders

Dump on this: Monster Hunter toilet paper holders screenshot

It's official: the Japanese can't even take a sh*t without thinking about Monster Hunter. This October, for a mere 1000 yen (about $13), they'll be able to purchase a toilet paper holder based on either cat species from the Monster Hunter series. Holy crap.

Personally, anyone who actually buys this and uses it for its intended purpose ought to be administered a psychiatric evaluation. Who else but a crazy person would want that vacant, soul-sucking gaze directed at them while trying to do their business?

Monster Hunter Felyne Toilet Paper Holder - Felyne / Melynx [AmiAmi]

Read The Full Article:

Digg this

This QWOP cosplay is brilliant in its simplicity

This QWOP cosplay is brilliant in its simplicity screenshot

Anything can inspire cosplay, and I mean anything. Like keyboard-smashing Flash game QWOP, for instance. This dude was QWOP-ing it up at Comic-Con, and God bless him for that!

My Favorite Cosplay at Comic Con [YouTube]

Read The Full Article:

Digg this