THE GAMEWATCH 22. WE RECOMEND WE REVIEW
In the primordial swamp of pre online gaming, way back, before the first 16 bit sega lung fish crawled out of the slime and when the essance of gaming creativity was confined to the mirky brown (s)pools of zx81 and amiga cassette tapes. It was then that the first blue print for massive online universes was revealed in a forgotten title called 'elite'. For its time it was a classic, though most five year olds of today would mock its black and white, binary coded, square pixeled graphics, ln spite of this it had its own cult following drawing many in to its deep space adventure of exploration, inter planetary trade, piracy, bounty hunting, wealth and weaponary developement.It was like a good book you couldn't put down, forever teasing you into seeing what you could find round the next corner with hours, days or even weeks easily being absorbed in its alternative universe.Even though most modern day gamers may never have heard of it, you can be sure that the developers of most space genre 'massive multiplayer online gaming' systems have.The completely immersible game playing universes spread throughout the globe all seem heavily influenced (wether consciously or not) by the 'elite' concept( some even try to create the same dodgy graphic mapping sytems). Yet of all these concept clones ,one has developed an increasing global cult status as its alternative real time infinate universe sucks people out of ourworld through the worm holes of online immagination. In ONLINE-EVE you don't pilot your ship against a handfull from a regional server, you pilot your ship through real time space against the whole online world. So when you log out after a hard days empire building make sure you park your ship up somewhere safe at night because the rest of the world is still playing. The plot is ongoing and you can go it alone as a trader, bounty hunter etc or join any of the intergallactic political alliances.The real time graphics are stunning and you are given the rest of your life to explore the whole universe. The one big catch to this enormous game(the worlds biggest in online capacity) is that players could quite easily end up sharing the same fate as Oisin from the ancient Irish classic! - for the 90% who don't know it a quick summary = guy goes sailing, finds celtic heaven, has great fun for a year, decides to go home and tell freinds and family, sails home, turns to dust soon as feet touch ground, -whoops, oh dear he'd actually been gone five hundred years- moral?... time becomes a meaningless concept once you're in (celtic or online ) heaven untill you decide to leave it.Online Eve can easily draw you in untill you turn to dust. Conceptualised in Iceland by CCP with main hosting HQ in London, there are too many package and payment options to list.Click the link to try it for yourself, this will take you to a secure page where you can either sign up for a 14 day trial or check online eve's site out further and we'll see you in five hundred years.
EVE-ONLINE
A freind of mine went to a murder mystery weekend not so long ago, he was given a free ticket and decided to give it a go. So there he was in this lovely British stately home surrounded by strangers in 1920's upper class atire all talking pre world war two BBC when it suddenly struck him ( in his jeans, T- shirt and ever so slightly north of Watford accent ), that absolutely no one had any idea at all about who was who or what they should do. In fact, everyone was being so politely vague (bar the odd smashed glass and blood curdling scream), that he began to wonder if he had entered a holiday home for premature dementia sufferers. "The concept behind the weekend was brilliant" he said "and anyone with a half descent acting ability could have made an absolute killing, but the truth was the actors were even less prepared and less confident about their roles than their guests. The most exciting thing to happen was a bout of screaming from opposite ends of the house at about two in the morning, one was an old lady scared of mice, the other was caused by someone sleepwalking into the wrong room; I was so disappointed - and so were the police when they arrived just in time to see another bad actor fake his demise... they very nearly arrested him for trying to insult their inteligence and wasting police time. Next time, I'll either make sure the acting staff are with equity or better still I'll find somewhere that sells a descent plot and do my own murder party!"
Guess what?... he found somewhere that does 'descent plots', hosted a party himself with freinds, and had a night filled with the screams of people who were entranced, involved and were actually enjoying themselves.
"what realy made the night wasn't our acting (which was just as lame as the stately home crowds), it was the plot we picked from this excellant murder games writer -she sent everything we needed to my pc, it was realy easy to sort out and ran like a dream with some excellent twists that realy kept the ball rolling... We've got half my kid's school coming over next month and were going to do her 'Harry Potter' game for his birthday." Guess what else?... he's right! We think this lady's collection of of brilliantly executed murder mystery and fantasy themed games deserves a Golden Globe and numerous Oscars.She has excelled in her genre for quality games for adults, teens and children and it would take a whole site (tempting though that is) to be able to do a proper walkthrough of of them all.So we think the best thing may be for you to have a good look and discover them all for youself. Her name?... Mary Lee the founder of Dinner Murder and a Mystery
For some excellantly crafted material very well priced in $ US click and see.....
MARY LEE DINNER AND A MURDER
The world of console gaming is continualy evolving, with most of the industry plotting away to find the newest technology to incorporate into their systems . Sony are at the forefront of plotting, with their psp , playstation 2, and the long awaited playstation 3 consoles, it won't be long before they announce another new developement to leave their customers queing at the shops and booking months in advance. There is allways a rush at the malls and online for the latest game title too. With differing international release dates and versions worldwide, some nations can be left slobbering at the mouth for weeks or even months waiting for the latest treasure. So if you can't master Japanese or afford to emigrate, or if you think you've been hard done by because the Yanks,Brits or Paddies have landed a much better version for themselves... what do you do?... where can you go?
Aha!...
After being expelled from language school and failing immigration ourselves we have found a solution !! ...Well actualy, we found quite a few so in an effort to hone in on quality for Playstation and PSP we've put our pointers on just two sites. Our first site title says it all in the name, Unlimited PS2 Games, and after a $24.95 US sign up fee that is just what you get - over two hundred thousand of them ready and available to download to disc and pop in your PS2.
They are available for mac and windows format pc without the regional game restrictions and the sign up fee is a one off lifetime membership. This site is not just limited to PS2 format either , other software downloads include music, movies and other, not so Sony, console titles. For Unlimited PS2 Games.com ... click.
Our next international and multi lingual barrier breaker is
specialising in downloads of international, cross regional, games, music and movies formatted specifically for PSP.All you need is your PSP memory stick to tap into what claims to be the largest downloadable PSP data base in the world. Again there is a one off, lifetime membership fee, with no other charges for anything ever. The good news is that lifetime membership currently stands at $37 US.The name of this software master?... PSP Blender , and we'll swap it with our Kenwood any day. For a genuine smoothie click the link.
PSP BLENDER
Got an iphone yet? then why not get your thumbs spinning with the biggest, bestest and newest iphone downloads online. Yep, you got it...,it's the iphones answer to psp blender with every concievable download immaginable- games, music, movies, the lot...See what you think and have a browse. Secure payments via clickbank etc...
IPHONE DOWNLOADS
However,... you might fancy making your own bestselling blockbuster games yourself.If thats the case or you'd like a window into the technology behind their creation try this page..here...
Flash games, mini games, adventure and puzzle games have seen a massive boom online in recent years and new mini-game sites are opening every month(or even week) worldwide ...and just like buses they usualy turn up in batches of three or four in each nation or state. Most mini games are usualy between four to twenty megabytes( so they wont clog up your pc), can be tried before you buy and often turn out to be surprisingly addictive (which could very well explain the boom and the sudden growth in the number of cash tournament sites). We've picked out two sites for quality and content the first of which is probably the most famous and is Real Arcade.All games can be accessed in a free demo mode
so you know exactly what you're getting if you do decide to buy or alternatively, if you join up with a Real Arcade Gamepass, you get to keep and download a game of your choice every month -which could save you quite a bundle if you are a serious mini-gamer! To explore RealArcade go here....
The second option is Zylom - which has become almost as famous throughout Europe (like RealArcade, Zylom is accessable worldwide regardless of currency). Again there are similar options and Zyloms answer to the Gamepass is a Funpass (with similar features).The main area where Zylom differs in in the added availability of mini cash paying tournaments ( the games may not be typical gambling or casino games -but even so it's worth double checking to see if participating is legal in your particular state if a US citizen) which can yeild some fairly high payments from time to time.
Unless you decide to join on a Funpass Zylom (like RealArcade) is totaly free to join and both networks have the 'lions ' share of the worlds best game makers. To explore Zylom click here...
