NOMBZ - Headshot zombie blast iPhone, iPod touch
video game

post from Gamezplay.org - daily games news on 10 June 2009 08:47:00 AM. © Gamezplay.org - daily games news

PowerUp Studios proudly announces the release of NOMBZ: HEADSHOT! for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, available now through the Apple App Store.

Check it out in iTunes here.

The Night of a Million Billion Zombies virus spreads to the iPhone as a 3D tap 'n' shoot action game that challenges you to defend against mobs of zombies, all hungry for your delicious human brains!

Choose your weapon and battle for survival against different types of zombies in a variety of settings, including city, suburbs, mall... and a secret setting!

Fight! Survive! Escape!

We hope you enjoy the zombie apocalypse!ca-pub-5833246175841206

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http://gamezplay.org/2009/06/nombz-headshot-zombie-blast-iphone-ipod.html

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Make a fortune with this iPhone game

post from Gamezplay.org - daily games news on 10 June 2009 08:44:00 AM. © Gamezplay.org - daily games news

First iPhone Business Stimulation Game A Business Tycoon Arrives on the App Store

SherylApps announced the launch of its new business strategy game, A Business Tycoon, now available in the app store for an introductory price of $1.99. The title is the first investment-based business stimulation game in the app store that allows users to test their business savvy.

A Business Tycoon is simple to understand: the gamer?s sole motive is to maximize profits generated through buying and selling assets with the help of price charts and other tools.

The game offers users hundreds of assets to choose from across varying price ranges. Prospective tycoons start with initial capital of $10 million ? and with the app?s endless gameplay, they?ll soon find themselves addicted.

The game becomes even more interesting with the introduction of share trading? but the real highlights of the game are its luxury and mate sections that reward users for their successful ventures. These exclusive rewards can be unlocked one by one ? only the most successful entrepreneurs will reap the benefits.

?Eight months of obsession and labor has gone into the planning and development of this game, and we believe that it will live up to the expectations of strategy game lovers everywhere,? said Ankur Gupta, founder of SherylApps. ?Creating an addicting experience was our main priority since the idea of A Business Tycoon hit our minds. And with the kind of reviews the game is receiving for the lite version we believe we have fulfilled our goal.?

SherylApps has also announced a unique and unusual contest starting today where the first user to successfully unlock all available luxuries will be awarded an acre of land on planet Mars. The user is required to email the screenshot of the all the luxuries unlocked to contest [at] sherylapps.com.

The final price point for A Business Tycoon will be $2.99, but the game is being launched at an introductory price of $1.99. The reduced price will be valid for the first 15 days, offering a lot more value and entertainment than comparable strategy games available on the app store.

A Business Tycoon Features include:
-Virtually unlimited gameplay
-Hundreds of assets to trade in
-Best in class graphics and sounds
-Option to issue and buyback company?s shares
-In game rankings
-Games are saved when receiving a call, logging out, or shutting down the system
-6 beautiful & powerful ladies to unlock
-12 most exceptional luxuries to buyca-pub-5833246175841206

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http://gamezplay.org/2009/06/make-fortune-with-this-iphone-game.html

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EA's Peter Moore steps away from the Metacritic
to breathe

post from Destructoid on 10 June 2009 08:40:00 AM. © Destructoid

EA's Peter Moore steps away from the Metacritic to breathe screenshot

Where do you go for review scores on your latest game. Destructoid? I hope so. But Metacritic is also a handy tool. They incorporate the scores from several of the major gaming sites into on handy page you can determine if a game is worth your time and cash. You can also read user's submitted reviews. Thought you wanted PS3 RPG Cross Edge? Maybe not.

EA's Peter Moore is shielding his eyes from Metacritic scores, especially when it comes to Wii games. He says that Wii titles sell independentally of their Metacritic scores

"The thing is with the Wii, it seems to be for the gaming sites, it's the last platform they review," said Moore. "It takes a time to get an actual review score. I would pretty much guarantee that just about every Wii game ships without a Metacritic rating because [reviewers] haven't got around, to it or they're not interested in reviewing it."

Moore likes the user reviews...more. He says that while he still wants good scores, they're less important to the Wii than they would be with the other systems.

"I absolutely guarantee you, the thing we're watching most closely now [with Wii titles] is things like Amazon - and I'll go look at women's magazines that have powerful websites, and then we look at what we call 'mommy bloggers'," he says.

[via Gamasutra]

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Dungeons & Dragons online Eberron Unlimited -
Unlimited Free Play

post from Gamezplay.org - daily games news on 10 June 2009 08:37:00 AM. © Gamezplay.org - daily games news

Free Digital Upgrade Introduces Unlimited Free Play and Raises Level Cap; Beta Begins Today

Turbine announced the start of the Beta program for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited (DDO Unlimited), a free digital upgrade for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. DDO Unlimited will raise the level cap and add major new content, as well as make the game free to play for everyone.

The new DDO Unlimited delivers heart-pounding game play featuring the industry?s best combat system, a massive world with state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found only in premium subscription-based MMOs.

Launching later this summer, DDO Unlimited will introduce an innovative new pricing model that allows players to download and play for free, purchasing adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game?s content. Players interested in getting a sneak peak of the new DDO Unlimited can sign up for a chance to participate in the Beta program at http://www.ddo.com.

?Our team has spent years crafting DDO Unlimited into a powerhouse experience featuring cutting-edge graphics, a kick-ass combat system, high level content, and cutting-edge social tools. Today marks a major milestone as we prepare to launch the world?s most exciting free MMO,? said Kate Paiz, Senior Producer.

?Turbine is blazing a new trail with an innovative new pricing structure that will deliver a new era of choice for the growing market of online gamers, and we are very excited to invite players to work with us in the DDO Unlimited Beta program as we redefine how people play and pay for MMOs,? added Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer.

DDO Unlimited delivers the best combat of any MMO and the most heart-pounding action this side of a keyboard, plus a lot more!
Brand New Content & Features ? DDO Unlimited will deliver a new class, increase the level cap, introduce new adventure packs including a new 12-player raid, major combat improvements and more!
The Fiercest Combat ? DDO Unlimited features an extraordinary and heart stopping combat experience that requires players to fully engage in the battle by relying on their wits and reflexes in real time. No more clicking skills and watching the action from the sideline.
Mind-blowing Visuals ? Explore a vast and dangerous online world that features the most advanced graphics in the industry and is stuffed with the legendary monsters, glorious treasures, devious traps, mind-bending puzzles and endless adventures from the world?s best known RPG.
Full-featured MMO ? Experience sophisticated systems found only in the best games including auctions, arena death matches (Player versus Player), NPC hirelings, gambling, crafting, and powerful social tools for finding a group, forming a guild or planning an epic raid!
Easier Than Ever! ? DDO Unlimited gets you playing in minutes instead of hours, using new proprietary Turbine technology. Creating a new character is incredibly simple with guides and templates that speed you through the process. Features an all-new new player experience that gives gamers their first taste of excitement quickly while teaching them how to play solo or with a group of fellow adventurers.ca-pub-5833246175841206

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http://gamezplay.org/2009/06/dungeons-dragons-online-eberron.html

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Preview: Borderlands

post from Destructoid on 10 June 2009 08:20:00 AM. © Destructoid

Preview: Borderlands screenshot

Borderlands has been hot on our radar for a while now, even before the dramatic change in art style that recently saw the game gain huge publicity. We've been itching to see the game in action for a while now, and our wishes were granted at E3 when we had the pleasure of watching a gameplay walkthrough with Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford.

We all know how good the game looks by now, but does the gameplay match the visuals? Read on as Jim Sterling and Conrad Zimmerman share with you their thoughts on Borderlands.

Jim Sterling:

Ever since Borderlands changed its graphics to the amazing hand-drawn style that has made it famous, I've wanted to know one thing -- just how beautiful do those images look when they're in motion? The question has been answered, and I must say I am incredibly impressed with what I've seen. The characters and enemies look very striking indeed and the first-person perspective evokes memories of the cel-shaded shooter XIII, which is most definitely a good thing. Borderlands, however, looks even better than XIII did. The gameplay seems pretty bloody good to boot, as well.

The demo was a co-op session in which the female Lilith and the bulky brawler Brick took on some Skag Pups. When someone says "Skag Pup" I think of a dog on heroin, but these things are more like the walking worms from Tremors 2. They roam in packs and come in variants, such as acid and fire spitters. Elite enemies in the game are referred to as "Badasses," which gives you an idea about how seriously the game takes itself (not very).

The game presents itself as a straight FPS, but with heavily customizable characters, skill trees, experience points and, of course, plenty of loot. It is similar in many ways to Fallout 3, but with the VATS removed and replaced instead by far more robust shooting mechanics that don't need a gimmick in order to remain playable. Like Fallout 3, Borderlands has a very apparent sense of humor. It also has plenty of missions to be undertaken in an open world, and is suitably gory, with special skills that tend to make heads explode in a shower of artistic claret.

We were shown how players can drop in and out of games, with characters easily able to team up whenever they please. The procedurally generated monsters also scale with respect to how many players are in the game, becoming stronger to match the larger allied force.

The main mission we were shown involved blowing up an enemy factory. It was being protected by Midget Bandits (yes, that is their in-game name) and creatures with, as Randy puts it, "tiny little gimp arms." Playing from the perspective of Brick, we got to see some first-person brawling, with enemies getting punched left, right and center. We also saw Brick's special "Berserk" power which, as you might expect, makes him an absolutely vicious bugger with his fists and causes him to laugh like a maniac with each kill. It's all very family-friendly.

The mission ended with the factory exploding, and what an explosion it was! It started small, but quickly became huge, with the building slowly being torn apart and structures crumbling before one's very eyes. It was a very impressive setpiece and one hopes that there are even bigger bangs than that one buried within the game.

My initial impressions of Borderlands are very positive indeed. It'll take me getting some hands-on with the game in order to properly gauge just how good it is, but so far it's looking rather excellent. This is definitely a game to watch as we head toward its end of year release. Don't let Borderlands slip from your radar.

Conrad Zimmerman:

I, too, am thoroughly impressed by what I've seen of Borderlands thus far. Having watched the same gameplay demo that Jim has, I took away much the same view of the game's visuals and gameplay mechanics.

The thing about Borderlands which stuck out most in my mind was the loot and experience system. Never before have I seen a shooter which so closely resembled Diablo II. As Jim points out, players who team up in groups face more difficult enemies but are rewarded with more valuable gear and granted greater experience points.

Also fascinating are the weapons available. The claim is that there are "more guns than every shooter on the PS3 and 360 combined" and this seems entirely possible. The way they managed to accomplish such a feat was by not placing the onus of weapon creation entirely in the hands of designers. The game's AI handles all of that for them, putting together weapons based on a variety of factors such as the company which made it, the materials used and what optional equipment is available.

What results is that every possible combination of these factors can result in a different gun. This calls into question whether or not the game can remain balanced -- the system is perfectly capable of churning out some god-like weapon at a moment's notice -- but that's some of the thrill of the experience in my eyes. Amusingly, when asked about the possibility of such a thing happening, the folks at Gearbox seem gleefully unconcerned.

That's probably because PvP combat is completely voluntary and holds little consequence. There are arenas within the world where players can battle one another if they so choose. A system for duels also exists to allow players to throw down with one another anywhere on the map but you have to opt in for any sort of PvP and that makes the weapon balance much less of a concern.

The game has a strong showing right now and looks to be a lot of over-the-top, hyper-violent fun. The thought of combining a shooter with Diablo tickles me in so many ways that I've already started making plans with my friends to have a team together when the game comes out late this year.

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Little Wheel Walkthrough

I have invited you earlier to play, if you have some spare minutes, a great flash adventure in your browser: Little Wheel. Now I have a Little Wheel walkthrough for you, even though the game is easy and you could certainly finish it by yourself. However,[...]

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http://www.unigamesity.com/little-wheel-walkthrough/

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Pondering An Effort At Exercise Software

As the "women 20-30" demographic goes, I'm an odd bird. My video game habits more closely resemble an adult male's rather than the "adult woman" demographic, and while I'm certifiably girly -- yeah, I easily fall for anti-aging skincare infomercials and read "women's interest" magazines to shut my brain off -- I've never been the type to be sold on so-called "lifestyle products."

I never tried Wii Fit largely because I had no interest in the Balance Board. In fact, in recent months my preferences have been trending more and more toward traditional control schemes; I'm waggle-fatigued and prefer DS games with button layouts where I don't have to use the stylus. So my assertion that the whole "get in shape with Wii" angle was entirely a gimmick is based entirely in ignorance -- at least, as far a the game aspect is concerned.

But as a Woman In America, people have been marketing me miracle solutions for my thinness, health and beauty ever since I was like eight years old. We ladies have been promised we can lose weight without trying, look young thanks to skin cream, attract men through key behavioral strategies, have nail polish that doesn't chip, have smooth legs without shaving, have all our wishes granted if we just read this book, take these caplets, try green tea, hoodia, Acai, teabags on our eyes, avocado in our hair, cocoa butter, this device, that device, this surgery, this exercise program, this diet plan, and whatever Oprah tells us to do this week.

So really, the reason I tuned out Wii Fit, My Fitness Coach and their ilk is not because I'm disinterested in them as video games. It's because I've developed a built-in noise filter for anything that promises me lifestyle improvement, or meaningful changes in my health that are "fun and easy" -- even though they overlap, intriguingly, with my chosen profession.

I still don't have a Balance Board, and I don't plan on getting one; I really, really do not want my video games to tell me my weight, first up. Aside from that, I'll explain in a future blog post why, as exciting as new interfaces are, I like to sit down and push buttons while gaming, thanks very much. But I've had a review copy of EA Sports Active lying around here, which doesn't use the Board, and I'm figuring on giving it a shot.

I'm in decent shape, but while I was in acting school I was absolutely a fitness nut -- with no gimmicks. I ran 30 miles a week, did strength training, yoga and sure as hell drank and smoked a lot less than I do these days. I'm still somewhat active and in okay shape, but I kind of miss how fitness used to be one of my hobbies before I developed a job that made me sit on my butt and type all day.

Granted, I no longer have the kind of time I did as a student, and that kind of regimen is neither possible nor necessary in the lifestyle I have now. But it makes me look at EA Sports Active, a fitness Wii title that comes with all the peripherals I need, as a possible happy medium between work, play and health.

I'm super, super skeptical, both of my own committment to fitness (I am not very disciplined anymore) and of a video game's potential to support my goals, but we'll see. I am the target audience, after all.

So maybe I'll try it. Y'know, when I feel like getting up.

As an aside, last year I was totally dared to try and quit smoking with My Stop Smoking Coach. I was too chicken (probably because I suspected it might work).

And finally, I must stress I mean no offense whatsoever to the many-many males who are likely giving Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and such a fair shake. Obviously it's not a girls-only product, I'm simply referring to what the software publishers clearly consider to be their primary target audience from a marketing standpoint.

Read The Full Article:
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2009/06/pondering-effort-at-excercise-softw
are.html

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Pondering An Effort At Excercise Software

As the "women 20-30" demographic goes, I'm an odd bird. My video game habits more closely resemble an adult male's rather than the "adult woman" demographic, and while I'm certifiably girly -- yeah, I easily fall for anti-aging skincare infomercials and read "women's interest" magazines to shut my brain off -- I've never been the type to be sold on so-called "lifestyle products."

I never tried Wii Fit largely because I had no interest in the Balance Board. In fact, in recent months my preferences have been trending more and more toward traditional control schemes; I'm waggle-fatigued and prefer DS games with button layouts where I don't have to use the stylus. So my assertion that the whole "get in shape with Wii" angle was entirely a gimmick is based entirely in ignorance -- at least, as far a the game aspect is concerned.

But as a Woman In America, people have been marketing me miracle solutions for my thinness, health and beauty ever since I was like eight years old. We ladies have been promised we can lose weight without trying, look young thanks to skin cream, attract men through key behavioral strategies, have nail polish that doesn't chip, have smooth legs without shaving, have all our wishes granted if we just read this book, take these caplets, try green tea, hoodia, Acai, teabags on our eyes, avocado in our hair, cocoa butter, this device, that device, this surgery, this exercise program, this diet plan, and whatever Oprah tells us to do this week.

So really, the reason I tuned out Wii Fit, My Fitness Coach and their ilk is not because I'm disinterested in them as video games. It's because I've developed a built-in noise filter for anything that promises me lifestyle improvement, or meaningful changes in my health that are "fun and easy" -- even though they overlap, intriguingly, with my chosen profession.

I still don't have a Balance Board, and I don't plan on getting one; I'll explain in a future blog post why, as exciting as new interfaces are, I like to sit down and push buttons while gaming, thanks very much. But I've had a review copy of EA Sports Active lying around here, which doesn't use the Board, and I'm figuring on giving it a shot.

I'm in decent shape, but while I was in acting school I was absolutely a fitness nut -- with no gimmicks. I ran 30 miles a week, did strength training, yoga and sure as hell drank and smoked a lot less than I do these days. I'm still somewhat active and in okay shape, but I kind of miss how fitness used to be one of my hobbies before I developed a job that made me sit on my butt and type all day.

Granted, I no longer have the kind of time I did as a student, and that kind of regimen is neither possible nor necessary in the lifestyle I have now. But it makes me look at EA Sports Active, a fitness Wii title that comes with all the peripherals I need, as a possible happy medium between work, play and health.

I'm super, super skeptical, both of my own committment to fitness (I am not very disciplined anymore) and of a video game's potential to support my goals, but we'll see. I am the target audience, after all.

So maybe I'll try it. Y'know, when I feel like getting up.

As an aside, last year I was totally dared to try and quit smoking with My Stop Smoking Coach. I was too chicken (probably because I suspected it might work).

And finally, I must stress I mean no offense whatsoever to the many-many males who are likely giving Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and such a fair shake. Obviously it's not a girls-only product, I'm simply referring to what the software publishers clearly consider to be their primary target audience from a marketing standpoint.

Read The Full Article:
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2009/06/pondering-effort-at-excercise-softw
are.html