3 Console Peripherals That Would Force You Not to Become A Slouch Potato

Alright, so is it just me or are game peripherals being designed to at least give us players some exercise - that, aside from making games a bit more interactive. Although the concept have been thought of during the earlier days of gaming, some accessories - like the SEGA Activator - were rather, as most people say, ill-conceived. These days with the newer generation of consoles, big companies like Nintendo and Sony had designed such accessories and have so far been successful.

Wii Remote - A good concept implemented by Nintendo on their latest console, the Wii. What’s good about it is that with the remote’s design and the variety of games that utilize it, even non-gamers and older people were attracted and are now casually playing games on their TVs. Good games I would suggest that would force you to stand and move would be golf games, like Tiger Woods ‘08 along with other golf or baseball titles, and also Wii Fit.

Eye Toy - Designed by Logitech for the PS2, the  technology uses computer vision to process images taken by the camera, which allows players to interact with games using motion, color detection and also sound (through a built-in microphone). Unlike the Wii Remote, the Eye Toy has not made commercial success and only a few games have been made for it. A shame, though, as it was one peripheral that could at least bring your image into the game.

Bemani Peripherals - If you don’t know what Bemani is, you must have been living under a rock for the past decade. Anyway, Bemani is Konami’s music video game division that was made popular by titles such as Beatmania (their first title) and Dance Dance Revolution, among many others. Although popular in arcades, there have been ports to consoles as well with the peripherals such as dance pads for DDR sold seperately (yeah, you can use the controllers but it wouldn’t be as much fun). Similarly, games such as Rockband and Guitar Hero have their own peripherals as well which are required to play the game - like the drums, microphone and of course the guitars).

3 RPG Flash Games You’d Like to Check Out

I used to work in an office environment and have experienced the boredom of just sitting there without anything to do. You can’t even watch videos simply because the IT guys blocked each and every video streaming site in existence. Proxies aren’t really a solution since even if you do manage to bypass the block, they’ll come to check up on you because you’re taking up all the bandwidth. So what we usually did was play some of those browser games like Archmage (Magewar), Travian, and Techwarrior among others. But the real ones I enjoyed were the many flash games I found over the Internet (no, not those adult flash games *snicker*). Here are my top 3 favorites as of current.

Caravaneer - The setting reminds me of Fallout. This free flash game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce and the area is populated by robbers and bandits. You start out with 50 rounds ofammo and $1000. It’s up to you how you survive. Very nice game.

MechQuest - If you’ve played AdventureQuest or Dragon Fable, you’ll find this a very similar RPG flash game …only with mechs. You gain experience and credits through quests and battles which you get by talking to NPCs. You can use the credits to upgrade your mech so you can fight higher level mechs. So yeah, you know the drill.

Feudalism - So yeah, you get to play as a conqueror for a change. Sounds cool huh? You can bring an army which is AI controlled. You can build structures to get more troops, bonuses, etc…just like your standard strategy game… made as a flash game. Cool.

3 Tips in Choosing a Class in an MMO

One of my dilemmas, aside from choosing a name, when I start to play a new game is what type of character to play as. Some people have it easy but when you’re paying for a monthly subscription in a game or taking advantage of the cash shop, you would want a class that you would stick to until you get bored after a year or so. With that in mind, choosing a character class becomes one of the more important choices that you make in the beginning. Here are some tips that I came up with when choosing.

Are you going to roleplay or not? Some people, like me, choose to roleplay in the game (no, I’m not making an excuse for creating a female character). If you are, then it’s a good thing to plan a background story for your character and design him/her based on the limits of the game. Also include name and speech pattern to make it a bit more detailed. If you’re not going to roleplay then this tip is not for you. Sorry.

How well do you go along with others? Do you like leading a party and taking all the damage while your partymates try to pick them off one at a time? Or are you more suited to being a follower and merely supporting your team either through Area of Effect damage spells or buffs? Do you like going solo instead? Try to answer these questions then read the character descriptions and choose. Remember that there is no best class in any MMO and they are usually designed for a particular role.

Melee, Ranged, Magic, Healing skills? Like above, plan ahead and determine what kind of character you want to play as. Also, you might want to check the community for suggestions on what class is good to start with. Some characters have trouble dealing with cash at the start of the game so you might want to avoid a character that spends a lot of money on potions, ammunition, and other stuff.

The best way for me is still to try a little bit of everything then decide which one I really like. That way, I make my own choice although a bit of time could be wasted by doing so.

3 Top Selling Mobile Games

As a gamer who travels a lot, there’s really not much I can do about console or PC gaming on the road. So I consider it a blessing that games have been made for handhelds and even cellphones. The problem with cellphones is that the graphics capability of the hardware isn’t up to par with handhelds and consoles. What they lack in graphics of course, they make up with gameplay. Here are the current top 3 selling mobile games.

Block Breaker Deluxe - Remember Arkanoid for the NES? The concept is basically the same - a bar moves at the bottom which you use to bounce the ball back and forth to break the blocks. Classic. It sold 8 million worldwide.

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Brain Challenge - The game, being similar to Big Brain Academy, features “brain exercise puzzles” in four categories: Logic, Math, Visual, and Focus. There are three difficulty levels and the puzzles grow more complex as you solve more. The game was well-recieved, especially the mobile versions. All-in-all it sold 1.5 million.

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Bubble Bash - Remember Puzzle Bobble for the arcades? Well, this is similar, but instead of an arbalest, you control the direction the bubble will take when the character on the bottom of the screen hits it. The objective is simple, you line up 3 bubbles to pop them. Clear everything to complete the level. Another classic. It sold 1 million worldwide.

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3 Flash Games To Test Your Reflexes

I just noticed that I’ve been writing a lot more about games these past few weeks. What can I say, gaming is really one of those things that stuck to me since I was little (aside from traveling). Anyway, there are certain good things that could come from playing and it depends on what you play. Here are some games that could train your reflexes.

Bubblephobia - The premise is simple, you control a “bubble” and you try to avoid the other bubble that would move around the area. The longer you stay in the game, the higher your score will be.

Rainmaker - Similar to the first one - you have to avoid birds as they fly from one side to another. While doing that, you have to make rain fall on the birds to make them white (they can still hurt you at that point). Hitting 2 or more birds in a single rainfall would give bonus points. Also, the longer you stay in the game, the more birds that would appear. A power-up is also available in the form a red ball that when you hit it by rain, you will be temporarily invincible.

Reflex Test - Not really a game but are you curious about how well your reflexes compare with others? Well take this test with 4 minigames. Mine was 50 seconds on the second try (had to repeat it because of the last test - my keyboard won’t allow 3 simultaneous presses), how about yours?

3 Fun Ways to Treat Beggars in MMOs

Admit it, you’ve had your fair share of these people. They run to you, often add you as a friend, then suddenly ask you: “can i hav som gold and items plz?”. What’s worse, even if you tell them no, they’ll pull you in to a lengthy debate on how you are more well off than he is since he’s new and you’ve been playing far longer than him. His conclusion, you should give him some stuff. I used to tolerate them before, giving them money or some old items but they just keep coming back. Annoying. So these days, I’ve devised some methods on how to shoo them without engaging into a shouting competition.
1. Have them go to an area where they’ll most likely die - Here’s how it goes: when somebody asks you for money, say “Sure, lemme just kill some mobs in <insert high level area here>. I’ll give you the loot.” More often than not they’ll agree to this. Bring him along cast some movement speed buffs then try to leave them in the middle of the area. They’ll have no choice but to die and respawn. Add him to your block list.

2. Trade with them but cancel it - Try to trade him some nice rare items then cancel it. Ask if he got it, he’ll say no of course. Then do it again. After the nth time, say “WTF?! Why isn’t it working?!” Then claim it may be a bug. Tell him you’ll try again next time and leave him there speechless.

3. Agree but give him some hard work to do - Well, not really. Here’s something I did back in iRO (International Ragnarok Online). A beggar comes up to me and asks “can i have some zeni?”. I said “Sure, I’ll give you 10k, but of course there’s some sort of a catch”. He asks what it is so I continue with, “Well, just to make it a bit harder for you, I’ll give it to you 5z at a time.” I was pleasantly surprised he accepted the deal so he went on trading with me. After a few rounds he got tired of it and went on to find his next target.

3 Games That Could Blow Your Mind

I’ve been posting a lot of physical fitness tips and exercises lately so I thought of taking a break from all that and train one of the more important parts of our body - the brain. Here are some puzzles that could actually make you scream out of frustration in trying to solve them. Just a few tips: relax, focus, use all available resources (except looking for solutions over the Internet), and get some snacks and drinks when you feel like it.

Not Pron - A browser-based game that requires you to look for clues from every single page (including images, URLs, and page source - some levels even require you to use specific programs to solve). It has been years since I last tried to solve this and forgot what level I got stuck at. The solutions seemed to have changed since I last tried, although the methods of getting them are the same. It is very, very difficult and I highly doubt anybody can solve it in one sitting. Try it.

Nintendo on price cuts for the Wii

I read this particular article about Nintendo not cutting prices on the Wii gaming console and DS handheld game system. According to Nintendo’s CEO, Satou Iwata, “While the price of hardware is usually reduced over time, that could leave gamers who bought early feeling ripped off.”

Personally, although I agree with Mr. Iwata, I still believe that the advantage of gamers who bought the console early is the amount of time that they were able to play the Wii compared to those who waited until later. Still, everybody has their own opinion on the matter and for that I agree with the decision of the company.

Speaking of the Wii console, the much expected Mario Kart Wii just recently came out in the US. The package (sold at a retail price of $49.99) comes with a Wii Wheel to get a better feel of the driving experience.

The best thing about the Wii is that the controller or Wii Remote was designed to create a more interactive experience for players. The motion detection feature of the remote alone has attracted casual gamers, women, and the elderly.

Another good point to it is that some games require players to move in a certain manner giving the player a bit of an excercise compared to other consoles where you could play the game while sitting comfortably. A good example would be the game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008. In order to play it using the remote (without the nunchuck extension), you will have to perform actual golf swings. Although some player’s cheat by swinging the remote like a bat (which would actually give you a better performance in the game when done right. There’s always an option for those who don’t feel like moving around or does not have enough room to play - that option being the nunchuck.

PSP - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Although the game has officially been out last month, it was only recently that I managed to complete it. And man, was it fun while it lasted! I’ll admit, I’ve been a long time Final Fantasy fan and 7 is my favorite among all of them (along with Final Fantasy Tactics). So undoubtedly, after it was announced, I looked forward on getting my hands on a copy. So once it hit the shelves, I immediately got one.

Crisis Core revolves around the character Zack Fair, a First-Class Soldier and Cloud’s (FF7 Main Character) friend. Basically, the game is a prequel to the original Final Fantasy VII.

The gameplay is pretty simple, you move Zack around the field and often times you’ll randomly encounter enemies. The battles are also fairly simple, you attack enemies and use items while a “slot machine” (called the Digital Mind Wave) spins. Depending on the matches, the DMW could give Zack a good status effect or allow him to perform a special attack called a Limit Break.

The missions in the game are very easy and involves killing a bunch of enemies, getting a few chests, then claiming the rewards afterwards. The missions could be done in a few minutes, so as someone who’s always on the go, I could play one or two missions before heading off to do something important.

Crisis Core’s graphics are pretty good for a PSP game - the CG cutscenes themselves are well done - while the soundtrack can get pretty repetitive. The classic FF7 tunes are still pretty good, though!

Overall, I will say it’s a must have if you own a PSP. Otherwise, read a few reviews and decide if you’d like a purchase.