Team Ohai followed this architecture and created the click based games called Vampires/Zombies/Slayers/Werewolves. The objective of the games are simple, recruit as many of your friends as you can to become a more powerful being while ranking up and fighting your way to the top of the leaderboards. This is fun to do however it becomes a bit daunting because of the repeated amount of clicks you must perform day in and day out with resulting in little momentum of skill levels.

Ohai’s answer to the boring aspects of the click based game is a flash based MMO called City of Eternals. Currently, the game is still in its early Alpha stages and is perceived as an add-on to the click based game however you can expect a stand-alone version in the near future or at least that is what the developers at team Ohai have lead me to believe. Essentially there will be two versions within facebook, the hip joined click based vamps with CoE and then CoE on its own. Don’t worry, people from both version will see each other in the same world.

City of Eternals is really an MMORPG in nature. Essentially everyone plays the same role and performs all the same missions resulting in the same outcome however along the way you can trade & sell with other players, make items and rank up in skill level for every aspect of the game. You can even create groups in which all members get the same experience as you do and vice versa. More recently a minion concept has been introduced in which you assign your friends to do time based quests (the friend doesn’t actually have to do anything) which will gather booty and occasionally rare items like a fanny pack that adds two extra slots in your inventory or Ohai’s (most valuable currency in CoE). Minions, much like grouping will earn you experience points while you are way. In my experience, this is the only way to rank up minions at this time and I believe there is still a lot of work planned around this functionality.

Unfortunately the game doesn’t allow combating with other players however I assume in the near future it will. You can also expect features like the addition of slayers, werewolves and zombies. Currently, the game is solely based on vampires and this is probably because of the larger following of the genre and the constant blockbuster releases of vamp movies. Too get the latest news on City of Eternals, check out Ohai or the Vampires Digest.

As a little bonus to this article, I have created an evolving world map of CoE so that you can see how large the game is and refer to it on the occasion you decide to join me in my quest for world domination in the New Valencia.

Modern Warfare 2’s launch beat all previous first-and five-day entertainment industry box office, book and video game sell-through records*:

- The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million) – The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million) – The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million) – The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million) – The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million) – The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

Modern Warfare 2’s blast radius also extends to Xbox LIVE, in which the blockbuster title’s epic release established the following new standards, according to Microsoft:

- More than 5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day alone. – More than 2.2 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in one day on November 10th. A new one-day record for Xbox LIVE. – More than 11 million achievements were unlocked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day.

"In just five days of sell through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon," said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. "The title’s success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media."

Despite the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision Blizzard remains cautious about the U.S. and global economy as well as other variables that can affect industry fundamentals and our own performance, including consumer spending which remains a significant concern.

*All references cited are sourced according to www.boxofficemojo.com or www.guinnessworldrecords.com

I got so much inspiration from the presenters and other attendees at the conference; getting back to basics and realizing that you need to be the driving force behind ideas is what it’s all about. Don’t wait for the requirements of your projects to innovate, you’ll never get what you want out of that, unless you get lucky with a few here and there. What I really learned was that the fun lies in the exploration of new concepts and teqhniques, not in the “this doesn’t fit my current project, so I wont look at it” attitude. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve skipped over something just because I didn’t think I could use it right then and there. Keeping the big picture in mind – innovation, integration, and imagination – is key for me.

Here’s a link to the talks that were there. You can follow the links to get back to phparchitect, and all the awesome presenters that were there! If you’re a coder, you have to go to this thing next year, it was quite alot of fun!
http://cw.mtacon.com/schedule/city/new-york

The game starts off with a pretty cool cutscene about the world you find yourself in, basically a pseudo-post-apocalyptic world with a hidden secret. You are with a group of vagabonds searching for a treasure on the planet, and get to choose which one of the four player types you want to be. (I’ve been the soldier and the sniper so far, but will at least play one more I’m sure). The game starts out by slowly walking you through the basics, and if you dont wander too much at the beginning, you get up to speed and start collecting skill points pretty quickly. Stay on track at the beginning so you can do this, the game gets hard very quickly, especially the bosses. Pay attention to what you pick up, especially weapon mods, they will be very helpful in your questing!

Couple of awesome things about the game. The cartoony textures give it a unique appeal, very absorbing in my opinion. The enemies and playable characters are also very innovative, and a fresh approach to the shooting genre. The amount of weapons is killer, along with weapon mods. The flaming bullets. The grenade mods (I’ll leave it as a surprise). The ‘fight for your life’ feature is awesome. Love the self-healing shields. Advancement is pretty quick if you stay focused and do quests. LOTS of loot. The list goes on.

A few things I don’t like:

1. Too much walking in the beginning
2. Too many of the same types of critters to kill (at least in the beginning).
3. Item pickup is slighly cumbersome.
4. “Fight for your life” sucks if everything is dead: you die anyway! so just respawn.
5. Paying for dying sucks, exp when it costs more the more you have.

Haven’t played coop, arena, or one on one battles yet but I’ll save that for part II (if there ever is one… if there isn’t… just buy it already!!!!)

Sure enough, this lovely gem should be annouced officially by Verizon today for release to their customers. I am always a fan of the fixed keyboard, and that’s what really kept me away from the iPhone (although I officially recognize its awesomeness). This offering from Motorolla shapes up to be a real beauty; too bad I don’t have upgrade ready – maybe I’ll be lucky enough to have the retail price under $300.

Here are a few more links for ya! Nice site Phandroid.com!

http://phandroid.com/2009/05/28/verizon-android-phones-are-officially-coming/

http://phandroid.com/2009/10/06/verizon-to-make-an-android-announcement/

There has been a lot of hullabaloo on the news lately regarding Kanye West’s humiliation of Taylor Swift on VMA. For those of you who don’t know what happened, Taylor Swift won a very prominent award when Kanye West conveniently came on stage, stole the microphone and said that Beyonce should get “Best Video” cause she had the best video in the competition in his opinion. Taylor was left standing in the midst of West’s outburst and never got to finish her acceptance speech until Beyonce later invited her on stage to do so. Apparently, Kanye finally issued a personal apology to Swift after his rude acts on national television.

I must say, I am very disappointed in his actions. While I’m not the biggest Taylor Swift fan he stole the spotlight from her when she rightfully deserved that moment. I’m glad Beyonce was there to save the day, though.

Obviously being a drunkard on television isn’t always the best thing. I’m sure West has learned a valuable lesson out of this.

The first Apple Macintosh Plus computer, given to Gene Roddenberry by Apple Computer, Inc. Bearing the serial number F4200NUM0001, this wonderful association between the visionary computer designer/manufacturer and legendary Star Trek creator is a stellar example of the powerful synergy between technology and entertainment. This amazing artifact, which is accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod, will be a special addition to Profiles in History’s October 8-9, 2009 auction of Hollywood memorabilia. It has an estimated sale price of $800-$1200.

About the Macintosh Plus
This is the very first Macintosh Plus 1Mb personal computer to come off the assembly line at Apple Computer in Fresno, California. It was presented to Gene Roddenberry as a gift by Apple Computer, Inc. and bears the serial number F4200NUM0001. The Macintosh Plus was a revelation among personal computers when it came on the market in 1986. With 1 Mb RAM (upgradeable to 4Mb), it supported the double-sided floppy disk format and was the first Mac with a SCSI port for fast data transfer to and from an external hard drive.

The Macintosh was the first mass produced computer to utilize the mouse and the Macintosh Plus was the longest-lived Macintosh with production until 1990. It features the beige-colored case with 9 in. display, 3.5 in. floppy drive and includes the short keyboard, external floppy drive, mouse and Apple logo deluxe padded carrying case. An incredible artifact with a wonderful association between the visionary computer designer/manufacturer and legendary Star Trek creator. Accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod. For more information about Profiles in History and to download complete catalogs from previous auctions, please visit http://www.profilesinhistory.com.

This morning, Massiverse, Inc. is announcing the launch of their first original transmedia property for kids: Dragons Vs Robots. Dragons Vs Robots is an expansive sci-fi / fantasy narrative that will be told across a number of formats, starting today with an online battle game and the first installment of the Dragons Vs Robots: Blade Guardian manga series, both of which are available for free at www.dragonsvsrobots.com.

Sure, sure, the kids are all excited about iTunes LP and their fancy “lyrics” and “album art.” You know what we’re psyched about? Finally being able to manage our iPhone apps directly from iTunes 9. It works pretty much exactly as you’d expect, although we were able to make it do some minorly wonky things — and we’re psyched about the AutoFill-esque music sync feature that fills any remaining space on your phone with music.

We’re also pumped about the new Home Sharing fearture in iTunes 9, which lets you transfer content between five different machines directly without screwing around with network shares or USB drives. We’ve seriously been waiting for a feature like this since iTunes sharing was first launched — it also works exactly like you’d expect, and we think it’ll make managing media across multiple machines much, much easier.

Once upon a time, playing video games was about as socially acceptable as owning a 12-sided dice (i.e. you didn’t get invited to many parties). It was something that nerds did in-between zit-popping and Star Trek marathons — or at least, that was the popular perception in the playground at the time. To talk incessantly about videogames was to invite wedgie annihilation from all directions. Needless to say, it was a dangerous time to be a gamer.

Thankfully, things have come along in leaps and bounds since then. Gaming has become one of the premier forms of entertainment, with game sales consistently outperforming movies and DVDs. These days, it’s kind of uncool not to be a gamer.

Occasionally however, the industry descends back into the tissue-strewn basement from its inglorious past. You know the sort of stuff we’re talking about. It could be a YouTube clip of a gamer in the throes of a berserker-like rage, or a ‘sexy-time’ video game consisting solely of poorly rendered nudity. No matter how hard we try to quell it, the spectre of the ‘nerdy gamer’ still lingers in the national consciousness. Sometimes, it’s the press’ fault, but usually, we only have ourselves to blame.

This title recieved game of the month according to to GameInformer Mag; I have to agree, the interface, display, and gameplay are phenomenal. Games like this should really be the measuring bar for ANY game that comes out – why are studios still putting out titles on the newest consoles with less than perfect rendering, clunky interfaces, terrible gameplay, etc? There are not excuses anymore, if you’re going to spend $50M on a title, do it right or get out of the game.

This title aptly takes you into the DC universe, the mind of batman, and specifically Arkham Asylum. The attention to detail here is spectacular, the special sensing mode you have available is very fun to just poke around your environment with an notice amazing things like the heart rate of characters around you, secret areas, breakable items, etc. This kind of ‘enhanced reality’ should really be leveraged more in games, I’ve been seeing it more in well done tittles, it should really become more of a standard.

I did not play this game too far in, but it is well worth a solid rental and playthrough for any DC fan, or really anyone who likes a superbly constructed action based title.

I myself am so addicted to Sacred 2 right now that I only have time to check other games out right now, unless i quite my job

I’m sure everyone has heard of the fairly famous anime series known as Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball GT in their life time. Not only was it a pretty violent 80s-90s anime series, but it was also one of the longest running series ever to grace the television screen. We all love, remember, and adore all those infamous beam-spamming scenes and unrelenting hollering matches.

Much to my surprise I discovered back in March and April that they created an actual live action rendition of Dragon Ball…this movie being titled Dragon Ball: Evolution. If you don’t want anything divulged about this film because you haven’t seen it yet, then I would advise against reading this unless you like spoilers.

Overall I really liked the movie for its entertainment value; however, I found a lot of it to be quite inaccurate with the TV series…granted we all know that not every movie created (that has its own TV series) fits the history correctly. First and foremost…I do not remember seeing Goku’s grandfather ever making an appearance in the Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z series…by the time Goku was born…or at least 3 years of age, his grandfather was killed and this movie displays him as a teenager. So technically that aspect of the film sort of contradicted the rest of the Dragon Ball Universe—yeah that does bother me a lot, only because I grew up attuned to the series. Not to mention they kept pronouncing “Gohan” (Goku’s grandpa) wrong.

Anyway, other little pet peeves in the movie that really bothered me. First of all, Piccolo did not have any noticeable antennae…he’s a Namekian, you’d think those would be mandatory to have. Even though that was a major disappointment for his character I am really happy about the actor that was hired to play him. James Marsters; if most of you don’t recognize the name, you may remember him as the vampire Spike from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was very impressed with his performance because he fit the character perfectly.

The other characters were done superbly as well. Goku seemed to have the exact same personality as his anime counterpart granted they mentioned nothing of him being a Saiyan, Bulma, Master Roshi, Chi-Chi and Yamcha also had personalities similar to that of their anime counterparts. One thing that really angered me though was the absence of the character Krillin…who is technically supposed to be Goku’s best friend and the most powerful of the human fighters.

Overall, I found the movie to be very entertaining; however, it has received a great deal of negative reaction from a lot of die hard Dragon Ball Z fans. Voting on IMDb has given it a rating around 3.3 out of 10. So if you are the type of Dragon Ball fan who isn’t to concerned with the movie following the anime universe, then you’ll probably like it. Although if you are a die hard fan who wants it to fit the series exactly, you’ll likely be disappointed.

This shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise, but anyone wanting to enjoy Twitter and Facebook on Xbox Live will have to pony up for Gold member subscription, the same premium prerequisite currently needed for Netflix Instant Watch and pretty much all online gaming. Silver membership will be given a “free trial,” but exactly what limitations that entails, or if they’ll be an option to “upgrade” to the full version, is anyone’s guess.

Iomega just expanded its StorCenter NAS line with the new-four bay StorCenter ix4-200d. Just like the smaller ix2, the ix4 can handle pretty much whatever you throw at it: filesharing over a laundry list of protocols, streaming to iTunes, an Xbox 360, handling your Time Machine backups — it can even take video directly off Axis-brand IP surveillance cameras. On the hardware side, you’re looking at dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, three USB ports for printer sharing and additional storage, and a “QuikTransfer” button that’ll let yo copy files directly from a flash drive to the NAS without a computer. The downside? You’ll have to pay for all that power: the 2TB version costs $700, and the top-of-the-line 8TB model will set you back a whopping $1,900. Yes, you can just get a dedicated server for that kind of money, but then you wouldn’t be able to say you were rolling with NAS, now would you?

This is a very well done game, immensely satisfying on many levels. Very cinematic, perhaps not as well as Metal Gear Solid, but nonetheless exceptional. The constant action is very absorbing, and the advancement ladder is very well done.

I’m not always a big fan of games designed around movies, but this title is by far an exception, notwithstanding the Xmen franchise, which I’m sure helps its case – the marvel universe has been very well implemented into the video game world for years now. The maps call to mind drakes fortune / heavenly sword feel to them, and add an element of mystique to them that is enjoyable. The feral senses are also great when you get lost I’m about 1/3rd the way through the game and have already fought a few bosses – on the easiest difficulty the challenge is just enough to give you a run for your money, but not overwhelm you with complexity. This is undoubtedly one of the best rentals I’ve played, though I’m not sure it has too much replay value. That’s really up to you though, if you’re a wolverine fan you will love this title.

Perhaps my opinion stems from my love of Tarantino’s work so far, but Inglourious Basterds was easily the best film I’ve seen this year.

Inglourious Basterds

Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Sam Levine (“Freaks and Geeks” represent!), Christoph Waltz, and many more.

Rated: R (for violence, language, a brief (but hilarious) sex scene, and lots of Nazi-killin’.

IMDb Rating: 8.3
RottenTomatoes: 82%

The film is told in the standard five chapter plot that viewers have come to expect from Tarantino (see: Kill Bill). It begins in the Nazi-occupied French countryside, where a dairy farmer must choose between the safety of his family and revealing the whereabouts of a missing Jewish family.

From there, the film flash-forwards four years to 1944, to the last struggles of the war. Aldo Raine, played by the continually surprising Brad Pitt, gathers a team of very angry Jewish Americans to show the Nazis just how angry they are. There is some excellent violence, and, of course, the by turns funny and grave dialogue that audiences have come to love.

The film definitely kept me guessing. Just when I was busting a gut laughing, someone would be killed off, or a tense scene would be cut with something funny and I couldn’t help but laugh. I loved that I was never really settled into the movie. Another thing that I loved was that this film featured two very strong female characters.

The movie’s greatest strength was the acting. I mentioned that Brad Pitt was great, but Diane Kruger, who played a turncoat actress named Bridget Von Hammersmark, surprised me as well. She spoke German through much of the film, and when she switched to English she maintained a beautifully subtle accent. Not only is she stunning, her acting was remarkable. Even director Eli Roth, who plays the vengeful “Bear Jew,” was not as awful as I predicted!

But the actor who stole the show was Christoph Waltz as the “Jew Hunter” Hans Lander. He is the lead villain, not Hilter as I initially thought. He played the role brilliantly: frightening, perceptive, ironic, sardonic, and even humorous. He toyed with almost everyone in the movie, but in the end got what was coming to him. He won the best actor award at Cannes Film Festival this year. Expect him to earn a nomination, if not win, for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars.

A great film, and one that I will surely be adding to my collection when it is released on DVD. I may even go to the theater to watch it again. It’s well worth the price of admission and then some.

Like a few of Enya’s albums, a lot of people form the idea that a lot of her music is very similar and redundant a lot of the time. Even though I do not share that narrow view, I do find parts of the album Shepherd Moons to be rather repetitively similar. Like her first album, there is a various assortment of fast beat songs and slow beat songs (granted the slow beat ones are more prevalent) as well as very memorable pieces like Caribbean Blue, How Can I Keep From Singing?, Lothlorien, and Book of Days.

Despite how similar a lot of the songs are in this album, like Enya’s first album it achieved a great deal of success when released. Three hit singles were released in its success which are the three bold songs stated above. In the United Kingdom, Shepherd Moons reached #1 album, while in the United States it was in the Top 20 Musical Hits, coming in at #17. Conveniently the album was a major success and managed to sell at least 12 million copies world wide!

Due to the songs in this album being more laid back and slow as compared to her previous, I prefer listening to this batch of music on rainy days where everything seems almost slow and sleepy—in fact, it is fairly good meditation music if you enjoy that sort of thing.

So all in all, I give this album a rating of 4.0/5.0. While it is not my favorite, it is a very relaxing CD to listen to—but then again, Enya’s voice is always relaxing to listen isn’t it?

Once again, the good people at You Too Can Cthulhu! allowed me to sit in on a few of their events. An awesome time was had by all.

The first event I attended was a brand new campaign this year entitled, “A Time of Crisis.” It takes place in Revolutionary France, where the head of the Committee for Public Safety has collected a team of individuals to track down a formerly well-respected doctor and philosopher. The team travels to a picturesque village, chasing the now mad doctor to arrest him, but find unspeakable horrors instead.

Six players participated in the campaign, including an actual medical doctor and his bookish companion, a coquettish spy, a ladykilling (allegedly) actor, a former soldier, and a no-nonsense inspector. Everyone did a fabulous job, and I was entertained the entire time.

Listen to some of the audio from the event here*:

1.) Introduction
2.) Thomas
3.) Afflictions
4.) Thomas (Again)
5.) Inspector
6.) Mysterious Boils
7.) Identifying Gustav
8.) Back at the Inn
9.) Climax/Big Finish!
10.) Black Letter Winner

*You may need to turn your speakers up or down accordingly. Pictures to follow.

Stay tuned for audio and character interviews from Sunday’s “Black Letter Game.” Trust me, you don’t want to miss it.

Had a fun-filled day full of interviews, booth-scoping, talking with authors and artists, and participating in writing seminars. Listen to some of my thoughts after the jump!

1.) An introduction to Day One of Gen Con Indiana.

2.) My thoughts on the population of the convention.

3.) Interview with Atari games about their upcoming release Champions Online and soon to be announced Star Trek Online.

I’ve brought you full pre-convention coverage of new events, interviews with event holders and booth dwellers, and breaking news. Now it’s time to experience GenCon ‘09! I’m currently traveling to Indianapolis, Indiana for five days (well, four and a half) of gaming goodness.

Throughout the weekend, I’ll be bringing you interviews, opinions, and reviews of games and those who play them. Stick around for the juicy scoop!