Tumblebugs 2 Game

Oh no! The black bugs are back, meaner, faster and nastier! They've crashed the garden party and are rounding up the colored beetles. Once again it's Tumble to the rescue... but this time she's got backup. Call on your frog, butterfly and rhino beetle friends to help you in battle. Tumblebugs 2...


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http://www.fenomen-games.com/tumblebugs-2.htm

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Spirit of Wandering: The Legend Game

Join an adventurous captain's search for her lost love in this romantic hidden object challenge featuring tropical locations, cursed sailors, and the power of true love. Sail the seas with the captain of the Spirit of Wandering to a variety of locations and search for hidden items. Spirit of Wandering: The Legend...


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http://www.fenomen-games.com/spirit-wandering-legend.htm

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First Impressions - God of War: Chains of Olympus

by: Charles Husemann
NEWS - I got a PSP this summer for two reasons.  The first was that as they were releasing a re-designed version with Darth Vader on the back and I'm all about the Star Wars.  The second was that I loved what I saw from the brief taste I got of God of War Chains of Olympus at E3 this summer.  I know there are dozens of other good PSP games out there but I was really smitten with what the folks at Ready At Dawn had done with the game and where they were taking the story line.

Today we received a preview build of the game in the mail and I've been playing it non-stop for the last ninety minutes.  I only stopped playing the game because my hands were sore from playing the game on the PSP and the rumble in my stomach for dinner has become too loud to ignore.  So far I've gotten through the first level of the game and defeated the Basilisk that you first saw in the demo of the game and a little bit into the second level of the game.  The final battle with the Basilisk is a lot of fun and it only took me a few times to figure out how to take him down.  It's standard God of War action as you have to weaken the bad guy first before finishing him off with the prerequisite button sequence mini-games.  Everything you've known and loved is here from the button mashing to open doors, to opening chests, and taking down bad guys. 

The second level is where things start to get interesting as the sun crashes to Earth leaving the planet in darkness.  The levels are now shrouded in a dark fog that you don't want to venture too far and you're now fighting undead soldiers.  What is really impressive about this level so far is all the fog effects and impacts when you hit the skeleton warriors.  You have to use fire to get through the fog and the swirling fog effects are very impressive for a handheld game.  There are also some cool animations and effects on the enemy soldiers that are extremely well done.

If you've played the previous God of War games you will feel right at home with Chains of Olympus.  The standard attacks and movement are what you would expect them to be with the nub moving Kratos around and the Square, Triangle, X, and O button handling the two attacks, jump, and grab respectively.  What takes a little time is getting used to the dodge controls which require you to hit both shoulder buttons at the same time.  It took me a while to get used to it but once I did it's become second nature.  Magic is done by pressing the right shoulder button and one of the face buttons and the modified attacks for your weapons are done with the left button.  I've unlocked the first upgrade for the blades of chaos so far and it's pretty easy to pull off after just a little bit of practice.

I've only got one nitpick so far and that is that there isn't a lot of "new" stuff in the game in terms of gameplay options.  The puzzles have all been the same drag X here to open a gate, spin control Y to open something.  I'm would imagine this stuff is coming up in further levels but so far the game hasn't exactly been a big challenge (I'm playing on the medium difficulty level). 

I have a feeling that God of War: Chains of Olympus is going to help sell a ton of PSP's when it's released in a few weeks.  The game is a ton of fun to play and unless the wheels fall off in a bit it's going to be hard to not see this as one of the top PSP games of the year.  The game is also a showcase for the PSP as the graphics and audio are outstanding.
More On : God of War - Chains of Olympus | Sony | Comment

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http://www.gamingnexus.com/Default.aspx?Section=FullNews&I=7593

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PWNED: Square Enix initiates battle against sword
replicators, waits turn

Square Enix is squaring (horrible pun intended) off against California and four retailers that have been selling replica swords based on the Final Fantasy series. Square has been working with Homeland Security and Customs who have recently seized a crate of swords. The retailers of the swords refused to cooperate with Square Enix which caused them to go file the lawsuit.

In regards to this situation, Square Enix general counsel Yasuhiko Hasegawa stated:

"We are actively pursuing those who commit intellectual property infringement against our company ... While Square Enix appreciates the enthusiasm of its fans, and values its relationship with them, it is also obligated to protect its intellectual property rights or risk weakening or losing the very rights that enable the company to continue to provide its fans with an exciting entertainment experience."

I totally understandable where Square is coming from. Last thing anyone would want is for someone to make money off of their property. Of course, this will hurt all future wanna be cosplayers ... which may or may not be a good thing.

Whatever. I used to be a sword guy, but now I'm all about the KNIFE EYE ATTACK!!!  

[Via Wired -- Image via Dr. McNinja] 

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TORRENT OR CARRIER PIGEON

Well, the good news was that yesterday, Codemasters released the patch for the eagerly-awaited Book 12 a day prior to the update going live on the servers. The bad news was that for some strange reason, they decided to only do so as a torrent - the problem with that being, as shown by the howls of anguish on the forums, that a great majority of players hate torrents with a passion. I have to admit to being one of them myself, but the passion doesn't seem entirely unjustified when you consider that many people were reporting estimated download times of between one and five days...

By early Thursday morning, the system seems to have collapsed gracefully, resulting in a flood of "tracker offline" or "torrent rejected by tracker" messages. One generous player, RevHellfire by handle, went so far as to mirror the patch himself and post the link on the CM forums, adding the warning "no promises as to how long I'll leave it up if it gets hit hard".

At the end of the day it hardly matters, since by early afternoon today we should be able to get the entire update off the servers, but it does leave you wondering why they opted for torrent when they could have used carrier pigeons - so much more efficient.

Read The Full Article:
http://lotro-chronicles.blogspot.com/2008/02/torrent-or-carrier-pigeon.html

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Brochure reveals more info on This is Vegas'
fictional Las Vegas

Sitting in my mailbox this morning was a suspicious, plain white envelope which contained a "This is Vegas 2008 Tourist Guide." Courtesy of Midway, the fold-out brochure and map reveals a bit more about the world and tone of the recently announced open-world title, This Is Vegas.

The map reveals that the game's world will not be a one-for-one of real world Las Vegas, but rather a reasonable facsimile that takes generous creative liberties (must like Rockstar's Liberty City to New York City). Littered across the strip are what will become the game's landmarks, with casino's like Big Top, the Mayan, The Avalon, and the Olympus Casino (the latter of which is an obvious nod to Caesar's Palace). The also notes that there are four districts: the Strip (where tourists go to gamble, eat, and be entertained), Freemont and Paradise (home to numerous pawn shops), and Naked City ("where tourists of low moral fiber can engage in dangerous, illegal, sexy activities no condoned by this brochure.").

Read more after the jump. 

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