We found a very interesting article in regards to a new promotion by Pepsi and Activision known as "Rank Up Your Game" where players can purchase Pepsi and Doritos products in exchange for a double experience time card.  I wanted to give my thoughts on this issue being a long time gamer and also a competitive player in online games.  Games are still vastly untouched by outside interference and they have become one of the only places where you can get hours of entertainment without getting bombarded by advertising.  Product placement and advertisements are everywhere now, even getting inserted in movies, TV shows and now invading our games.  When do corporations go too far with their product placements? 

Games known as "pay to win" are nothing new in the gaming world.  Often times "free to play" games incorporate the purchase of upgraded items using real money in order to give you a competitive edge to other player who just wants to play a free game.  This new promotion by Pepsi and Activision goes over the line.  Not only do you have to pay a high price of $59.99, but players are now being encouraged to buy unhealthy products to get an advantage over casual players or those that refuse to take part in the promotion.  I know from being part of a competitive online community that it takes time and effort to get that next rewarding upgrade and get the edge over other competitors.  With this new promotion, there will be no way of telling who put the time in and who bought a 12 pack of Mountain Dew plus a bag of Doritos to get their upgrades in half the time.



Blizzard Entertainment also announced a similar feature in one of their highly anticipated releases Diablo III.  They are introducing a real money auction house so players can trade items for real money.  Now, this isn't to say that the system wont be fair and balanced (like Fox News), but it gives the suspicion that gamers with enough money can buy their way to superior gear over those that put in the time to earn their rewards. 
Coincidentally both of these game publishers work under the same roof.  Activision Blizzard are two peas in the same pod.  It seems that Activision Blizzard don't have any issues with tainting the sanctity of competitive online gaming.  This is where we would like to know your thoughts.  As a gamer how do you feel about these big companies looking to make an extra buck off of you?  Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts. 

http://www.rankupxp.com/Teaser

original article : http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/09/28/modern-warfare-3s-pepsi-cross-promotion-steps-over-the-line/

A persistent MMO/RTS?! For most people that is intriguing, but there are also quite a few people who think that combination is an awful idea. The court is still out on that one, but Dawn of Fantasy is one of the first MMO/RTS's to be released in a long time and it's especially rare for one to not look immediately awful. I missed out on the beta, so I cannot give any impressions, but I'm here to give you an overview, show you some gameplay and see if I can get you interested. Dawn of Fantasy is being developed by Reverie World Studios, a new studio based out of Toronto. The game is for PC and just came out today on September 30th, for $30.



The game is set in the world of Mythador. You can play the game as elves, orcs or men, all of which have different play styles, mythology and stories. You start with a village and build it up continuously until you eventually have yourself a castle. The world is full of quests that you will do for various wizards, adventurers and kings, among other characters. The world is also full of other players, players that you can trade with, make alliances with and wage war with or against. You do resource gathering of wood, stone, gold and food, all of which is automated in order to allow the player to focus on other aspects of the game. Units will gain experience through battle, which will level them and allow them to gain skills. On top of that units can be upgraded by technology and be advanced into more specialized units. Every army is separated into battalions and formations, each of which is a different complexity based upon the race. There are hero units, your main unit, that you lead your army with; presumably the hero units are customizable as well.  Much of this doesn't get shown in most of the videos I've seen, but it does show some quests and battles. Check out this video to see some of the basics of the game.

The newest entry in the Aliens series has finally shown some gameplay, with commentary, and it's about twelve minutes long. This is the FPS upcoming Aliens game, not the smaller scale arcade title, that was shown at E3 and all of the other gaming conventions this summer. This game is developed by Gearbox Software, the guys that did the Brothers in Arms series and both Borderlands, and it looks to be a gorgeous version of the earlier alien games (alien versus predator specifically, the old one), the one's people like. Unfortunately, the segment shown in this demo is very action packed, which would normally be a good thing, but the Aliens series has done it's best work when it's managed to make people afraid, when it makes them feel like they must work in groups to survive, this game does not show that, at least not from this demo. What we get in this is a linear looking action packed shoot em up that has you running through a chaotic mess of gunfire, aliens and violence, but without any kind of fear or worry. This demo makes it seem like Aliens are no big deal, despite the fact that they are murdering tons of people all over, but to you they aren't all that terrifying.

This is the kind of demo I would rather see

There are aspects of this demo that I like. First off there are many fellow Marines in this demo, presenting a feeling that your not the only alive and that you might be able to make it out alive. You also get a chance at deployable defenses, which look pretty generic, but they have the great sound effects that you want to hear. They also show off coop a little bit, making it look like other recent games where you can easily drop in and drop out into someones coop, which is always a good thing in my book. There can be four players in coop and the other players assume the form of another Marine, suprisingly indistinguishable from the NPC marines, until they start moving that is. The environments look really great in this demo, showing the kind of landscape and environments that you would expect from the Aliens universe. Sounds are also done well, but they don't seem to create a sense of tension. All of my grips about this demo could be void in the long run, because this segment was all action with lots of friendlies and enemies around, but if they focus in on the small squad based action that made playing a Marine scary as hell, then they might succeed. The problem could be that it's just a video and that you don't have the tension and stress that would come with actually playing the game, I hope that's the reason. Adam has informed that this is the exact same demo that they showed at E3, so this may not be new for some people out there. Here is the demo and let me know your opinion. Thanks for reading.

I recently got Star Wars Republic Commando on sale on steam during a Lucas Arts sale and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Republic Commando, even for a game that is six years old. It is a first person shooter that was made by LucasArts, back in 2005, and it's all about commanding your squad through fairly familiar Star Wars environments. Originally it was available on PC and Xbox. It is easily comparable to the newer Rainbow Six games, where you have a squad of four that you can command around, use to blow open doors, hack consoles and are capable of plenty of other options. Since Republic Commando came out in 2005, it is not up to the standards of anything recent, obviously, but you can see the beginnings of some great squad based strategy, the kind that many people loved in the new Rainbow Six Games. It is a fairly length game, lasting about six to eight hours, with multiplayer (that no longer works), but was pretty generic. One of the main complaints about the game is that it is repetitive and that the multiplayer doesn't do anything exciting, both of which are still true, but despite that there is a good game beneath it all.


The story of Republic Commando is one that put's you into the shoes of a exceptional clone soldier, one of few, one that is a leader. You are put into command of a small strike force, with three clone soldiers under your command. Despite the fact that they are all clone soldiers, they actually have personalities and even at times question orders, but they don't ever disobey orders. The very first battle in the game flies you over a scene from Attack of the Clones, a great desert battle between the Seperatist and Republic forces. You land in the midst of it, alone, and fight beside other clone soldiers against a drone army. You do find your squad throughout the first level, slowly gaining member by member as you move from the desert into a Seperatist compound. The entire story is a complement to Atttack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, you even see General Grievous and his bodyguards at times. My one complaint about the story is that it get's a little boring and repetitive. Every once in a while there are new elements added to it, but mostly it's seven hours of fighting drones and Trandoshans. It is great to fight all the different types of drones and thankfully it only lasts seven hours, because beyond that it may have gotten a bit tedious and brought down the experience. My favorite part of the story was the grand scenes of battle that you get to observe every so often, they made me long for Star Wars and made the wait for The Old Republic even worse.

The gameplay is interesting, at times it seems heavily focused on the FPS aspect of the game, yet at other times it exemplifies the need for good tactics with your squad, but most important is your ability to stay alive. When you are critically injured you cannot command anyone, so if your troopers are in a tough situation then they will likely all die without your help. Although, you always have the option of ordering them to abandon their positions so they may revive you. Your three other soldiers following you automatically, but they do sometimes advance on their own if they detect enemies. The commanding of your squad has to do with cover, breaching doors and tactics. There is all kinds of cover in the game, sometimes even the body of a Wookie may be used for cover, and you command a soldier to take cover with hud highlights that show you where cover is available. Normally each squad member only uses his laser rifle, the generic main weapon of the game, but they have access to sniper rifles, rocket launchers and grenades through cover. Each type of cover will tell you what type of weapon the soldier will use behind it. For example a position may highlight, show a hologram of one of your soldiers behind it, and say "anti-armor position". It's a simple system but one that works surprisingly well. Even with a engine this old, your squad mates generally make good use of their cover and when they are flanked they focus on that enemy. It feels great to get a hallway, or large open room with a bunch of possible cover positions, get them manned and  watch as your squad tears through enemies faster than you ever could on your own.


The FPS aspect of Republic Commando is pretty much what you would expect from any FPS with a bit of polish, except there is no regenerating health. You actually have to find health station's that you and your squad must use to regenerate your health, crazy concept huh. Every gun has some kind of zoom in function, a few of which have iron sights, and you have a fairly wide array of weapons available to you through the campaign. You always start each mission with your pistol, the unlimited ammo last defense weapon, and a laser rifle. Throughout the game you get to use sniper rifles, rocket launchers, trandoshan shotguns, trandoshan miniguns, wookie bowcasters, wookie rocket launchers and a couple of other weapons. Ammo is a little stingy in this game, which is nice to see, so you are always on the lookout for more ammo packs (each weapon has it's own type of ammo pack) and grenades. There are various types of grenades, all having their own uses, between grenades and weapons there are quite a few ways to fight enemies. There also is melee, something that they put time into with your squad mates. When yoru squad mates enter melee with enemies they often enter into an animation of struggle, something that feels right at home for newer FPS games. During the struggle you can actually kill the enemy, relieving your teammate, or you can just watch the expertly crafted animations. One of the best parts of melee is that it's quick and brutal, against your and against you. If you miss your enemy in melee combat and they hit you instead it will do a significant amount of damage, usually half of your health. The whole FPS aspect of the game is really familiar, for most every gamer, but it's different enough to keep the game feeling unique, especially when you take into consideration of it's release date.

Last Comments
If you can't tell, I am a bit fond of Republic Commando. It does a lot right and I'm a bit upset that I never played it back when it came out. The graphics are certainly aged, but they still present some impressive landscapes and textures. The gameplay is repetitive, mainly when it has you going room by room and hall by hall, but you are generally rewarded for it by getting to participate in some big battles that feel dynamic, challenging and exciting. The sound and graphics are Republic Commando were all top notch for the time, the sound is still good, but the same complaints about the game still remain. Republic Commando is back up to $10 on steam, but next time it goes on sale, probably Christmas or Thanksgiving, you should give it a chance. For how cheap it was and will be again, you get an enjoyable experience that makes you long for more of the Star Wars universe, it even does this without any inclusion of Jedi and that's a big deal. Thanks for reading and check back later for a news heavy day.


-Written by Sean Cargle

Seriously, get downloading already. Yeah this is going to be the shortest post in our history. The open beta started today and it will run into October 10th, 2011. You will need to download Origin to play, so if you hate that then forget about it, but from my experience so far it's not that big of a deal. Come play and join me on the battlefield! I've also been told that the open beta is also available on Xbox 360 and PS3 today as well.
Info: http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/09/29/welcome-all-to-the-battlefield-3-open-beta.aspx##


-Written by Sean Cargle

I just wanted to share two videos, one for BF3 that shows off Caspian Border (the 64 player large scale vehicle/infantry map that also is using conquest mode, not Rush) and the last of the official RAGE gameplay videos from Id, this one showing off an area called Jackal Canyon.

RAGE - October 4th (360, PS3, PC) $59.99

Developed by ID software and published by Bethesda, RAGE is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious and jaw-dropping out of all the games coming out this quarter.  After a meteor hits Earth, you emerge in a world that is trying to rebuild.  With the threat of raiders, mutants and the Authority, you must fight your way to restore civilization.  For more details on RAGE visit: http://www.rage.com/gate/?return=/#



The sequel to the immensely popular Demons Souls, FromSoftware and Namco Bandai want to take you back to the dark fantasy world with bigger dungeons, new terrifying enemies and the unique online experience from the original.  In this action RPG, players are encouraged to explore a vast world overtaken by a dark possession.  For more information check out: http://www.preparetodie.com/en/

This is a FPS, another one, that is coming out in October, except this is a smaller scale title. It is attempting to replicate the movie Heat, into a game. You control a bank robber, from a crew of four robbers, while you roam the streets trying to escape, fighting waves of SWAT officers and taking hostages. It look decent, especially for a smaller title (will probably be between $10-$20) but in the midst of all the October big releases it will be easy to miss. So, keep your eyes out for this one.
For more info: http://www.overkillsoftware.com/payday/





Might & Magic Heroes VI -October 11th (PC) $49.99 
I did a preview of Might and Magic Heroes VI, back when it was doing it first open beta. The game impressed me more than Heroes V did. Heroes VI looks to be bringing back some of the addictive and exciting qualities that the Might & Magic series is known for, but in the midst of all these October releases I worry for it. Here's to hoping this is a great turn based RPG, especially since there are so few good ones these days.
For more info: http://might-and-magic.ubi.com/heroes-6/en-GB/home/




Forza Motorsport 4 - October 11th (360 exclusive) $59.99
The next entry in the Forza racing series is upon us, with new graphics, new cars and new tracks. This a realistic racing game, so if you enjoy games like Burnout or Need for Speed, like myself, then you will probably want to stay away from this one. However, if you like racing games like Gran Turismo, then you have much to look forward to in Forza 4. It is slick looking with some excellent graphics, but it always comes down to how they balance realism with fun, so we will see when the reviews come out later in October.
For more info: http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/forza4.aspx



Ace Combat Assault Horizon - October 11th (360, PS3) $59.99
The Ace Combat series has you taking to the skies, engaging in modern dog fights with modern jet's. Ace Combat has a descent following but it has suffered for it's high difficulty, poor camera angles and for how unenjoyable it is for those who are not enthralled with idea of controlling jets in modern combat. We got to see this game at E3 this year and it impressed us both. For the first time in the Ace Combat series they implement controllable attack helicopters, mixing up the normally jet only game. On top of how fun helicopters  where, the jet combat is pretty smooth and engaging, adding a new dog fighting mode that makes it easier to stay with the action. Ace Combat Assault Horizon could be surprisingly good, so keep your eyes out for it. 
For more info: http://acecombat.namcobandaigames.com/

The Battlefield 3 beta starts tomorrow for everyone who has pre-ordered BF3 on PC, Xbox 360 or PS3. Those of who pre-ordered it through Origin got to start playing it on Tuesday, 9/27. I've gone through numerous matches and am here to bring you my impressions, plus the basic info about the beta.

A new Humble Bundle has arrived on the market, costing you anything from dirt cheap to thousands of dollars (people have payed that much, like Notch). This Humble Bundle only includes the game Frozen Synapse, which I would pick up if I didn't already own it, a game that normally costs $25. The charities that it will be donated to are EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and Child's Play (donations for sick children in hospitals in the US and world wide). If you spend more than $4.39, as of right now, you will get the previous humble bundle as well; The Humble Frozenbyte Bundle. That bundle included Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor, Splot and a bonus for the game Prototype. Take a gander at this trailer for the whole package.

If you are in the LA area and you are a fan of gaming than you have to check out INDIECADE going on in Downtown Culver City on October 8th & 9th.  It is the biggest open-to-the-public international festival of independent games.  In its 4th year, INDIECADE is gaining a lot of reputation to be the exclusive gathering of multiple independent game companies to showcase their releases in the coming year.  Located on the corner of Culver & Min, INDIECADE will feature multiple booths, games and fun activities.  Tickets are available for only $12 and visitors are guaranteed gifts and prizes and discounts for those that attend the event.  For more information or to get advance tickets please visit http://www.indiecade.com/index.php.  Hope to see you there!!!

It has finally arrived. Nuclear Dawn is the FPS/RTS hybrid that has been in the makings for many years, developed by Interwave Studios. It was being created as a mod for the source engine originally, but instead it turned into a full retail offering, much like Red Orchestra. I did a overview of the game back in July and I'm afraid I still don't know much more about it now than I did then. It sure looks interesting and fun, but that remains to be seen. It is available on steam, exclusively, and it costs $25, it also has a four player pack available for $75.
Official Website: http://www.nucleardawnthegame.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/17710

A futuristic space MMO is what Infinity is. It has been in development for three years and looks to have several more years left before they come to some kind of release. Why bring it up then? Well it look's stunning and intriguing, even at this point in development. It is MMO that is trying to make a seemingly endless universe that will allow you to explore, fight and fly into any planet (allowing you to land or explore it's surface). It's most impressive feature, at the moment, is the planetary exploration. The way you can fly a ship from space straight into a planet is fantastic, something I always wanted out of games like Mass Effect and Eve. The game will also have a storyline for players to follow, one that involves hundreds of corporations, reputation groups and organizations. All of which will be dealing with the games main three factions: the Centauran, the Deltan Federation and the Star Fold Confederacy. Much like Eve, you will start out with a small seemingly insignificant ship, but in time you can come to command great military ships. Infinity is being made by I-Novae Studios.

They promised a demo and were good on their word. I did an overview of Demolition INC. back when it came out, talking about the basic aspects of the game that are described on their website. The developers of this are Zeroscale, whom did some other games that I'm very unfamiliar with (maybe because they are from Germany), but feel free to check out that hyperlink and see their catalog. Demolition INC. is a PC indie game all about destroying cities and restoring nature, but not for any moral reasons, just because it's your contract and you are the demolition crew. You must destroy 100% of the map and you have various different tools at your disposal in order to get this done, all of which are indirect tools that you use manipulate vehicles in some way. They made destruction feel pretty satisfying, especially when destruction is caused by chain reactions that take down half a city block. The game has a very cartoon like style to it, one you would expect to see that's about an alien demolition crew, while it doesn't look spectacular it certainly make's the game feel like an arcade game, in a good way.

Each map is pretty much entirely destructible and every time you destroy buildings you get rewarded with cash (for score), occasional items and the area will get turned into a delightful little park. The maps in the demo are fairly simple, yet I still had to restart them once or twice. I've read a couple of other reviews that liked this game quite a bit, but they claimed that there was occasional gameplay bugs that screwed everything up, especially when you are relying on that one item to work correctly. The demo was pretty smooth and bugless, but that doesn't reflect the full version, nor does it reflect the difficulty of this game. The farther you get into the game the better you have to plan the use of your items, items like oil cloud, cow bomb or goo spot. Oil cloud and goo spot both directly affect vehicles, making them slide into buildings or explosives based on where you placed them, while the cow bomb is used to create chain reactions that will hopefully take down buildings. These are only three of the items in the game, of which there seemed to be at least ten (based on the spots on the item bar).

There is a bit of strategy to the chaos of Demolition INC., but that's mainly for the main mode. There is also a rampage mode, which let's you use items that you've unlocked on any level you have beaten on the main mode. What makes rampage mode carefree is that it gives you an excessive amount of items, so you don't have to worry about strategy too much, instead you can just enjoy destroying the map with whatever tools you have unlocked. I can definitely see the later levels in Demolition INC. becoming quite challenging, but I am uncertain of how long of a game this is, it seems like a may be short game, based on how it took me twenty minutes to go through three levels twice each. However, there does seem to be at least some options for replayability, one of which is a universal scoreboard that allows you to match up against everyone else in different categories, I surprisingly managed to get first place in time on a couple of the levels (somehow).


Demolition INC. plays on your want for chaos and destruction, and it does it well, but it needs to remain diverse and challenging throughout the entire game to be worthy of a purchase. After playing the demo I don't really want to go out and purchase this game right away, unfortunately, but I did have fun playing it and I wish the demo had been longer so it could have got me properly hooked. Check out the demo yourself, it came out on steam today. The full game costs $10, which isn't bad at all, but my worries about replayability and repetition still remain. If you want to check out the Rock Paper Shotgun review of the game, then I will include it below. Thanks for reading.
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/98600
RPS Review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/19/wot-i-think-demolition-inc/


-Written By Sean Cargle 

OIO is 3d side scrolling puzzle platformer for the PC, similar to how Little Big Planet looks, but indie sized. First thing I think when I see this game is what a weird name, but the name resembles the head of your character and it is also his name. You control a wooden character that uses the power of life to grow wooden beams off of plants. You travel through a world that seems to have stopped in time, a world that has many other wooden characters all of which are seemingly frozen. There isn't much information about the game, but luckily it has a decently long demo that I've played through to 100% competition. OIO is made by Uncanny Games, a French developer, and this is their first game. It was released on September 23rd and it costs $10.


One of the first thing's I noticed about OIO is that the 3d meshes with the side scrolling aspects really well, creating a seemingly layered world that looks vibrant, alien and interesting. Unlike Little Big Planet, the world is not actually layered, you only have one layer to deal with, which could be for better or worse, especially since some people hate the different layers in Little Big Planet. The art style of OIO is pretty unfamiliar to me, but I find it to be very enjoyable despite how odd it is, even without the AAA budget. The later levels, that aren't in the demo, look especially impressive. They have levels that look to be out in the world, under the sky, with moving 3d objects all over the place. The levels in the demo all you have underground traversing through caves, and caves aren't the most exciting thing in the world, but they managed to make that environment at least slightly pleasing to the eye.

Today Certain Affinity announced a new DLC pack called "Vengeance" for their hit XBLA RPG Crimson Alliance.  The Expansion pack contains new campaign levels where players must race against time to hunt down and kill two dangerous new threats to the world of Byzan.  Also included is a new Challenge Map called "Fistful of Coins" which players can test their skills against increasingly deadly onslaught of enemies.  There will be loads of loot, enemies and challenges coming to this first DLC pack for Crimson Alliance.  Be sure to check  it out on October 12, 2011 for 240 Microsoft Points.

Happy Crawling!

Screenshot of new content!

A Game of Thrones- Genesis is a PC real time strategy game that many people have likely heard about. It is based around the Song of Fire and Ice Series, the books by George R. Martin; the series that was made into the HBO show called A Game of Thrones, which just finished it's first season not too long ago and did quite well for itself. Most people who have read or know Song of Fire and Ice/ Game of Thrones, have big questions about how any company can make good RTS game based on series that is not just about war, but also politics, humanity, inhumane situations, evil, sorcery, magic, backstabbing, religion and faith. Well, they could start doing that by actually working with George R. Martin, and allowing him to help them with the world and story. This game is being made by Cyanide Studio (creators of Blood Bowl), they are also making a RPG based on Game of Thrones. This game is slated for a release of 9/29/2011.



In Genesis they are claiming to have successfully mixed military strategy and political prowess. The game takes place in Westeros, the main landmass from the series, with all of it's features. I must say, they are downplaying some features while making other features seem huge. For instance, huge castles on the map, but  The Wall is very tiny looking, compared to how big it should be. The single player campaign will take place before the Song of Fire and Ice books, but contains much of it's history and will allow you to play out the campaigns of famous characters like Aegon the Conqueror. It will take place during the year -750 to the year 299, I have no idea how their years work but it all supposed to be during the origin of Westeros. You can play eight of the great houses from the books, most of which fans will know, houses like: Stark, Lannister, Tully, Arryn, Tyrell, Baratheon, Targaryen and Martell. Each of which have their own special starting locations, unique house bonuses and special units. House stark get's direwolves, which is awesome, but then again I'm sure plenty of people would be pissed if they hadn't included the direwolves in some way. For more on the houses check out this guide. They also have an interactive map showing where each house starts and some of it's history.

The Wall

The goal of the game is to take the Iron Throne, which can be done numerous ways. You can of course use military force, but you can also use politics, the economy, backstabbing and deception to help you gain power, while also weakening your enemies. Each house has prestige, prestige must be built up in order to gain the Iron Throne. You can gain prestige by building alliances, being overly wealthy, controlling Sept temples and defeating your enemies. You can also lose prestige and I must say if this is implemented well it could be interesting. Prestige can be lost by having your bastard sons discovered, laying siege to an enemy city or castle when you are not war with them, being the victim of a secret alliance and several other ways that they have not divulged. Peace and War are a huge part of the game, each game starting with everyone at peace. Peace can be kept by making alliances, marrying your Great Lord in a town or castle, sending envoys, creating secret alliances, freeing captured enemy units and other actions will all maintain peace. When a war starts all the towns and castles that you have been working to influence will show their allegiances, the more on your side the better, because once a war starts many of the peace time options disappear.You can play the game either way, apparently, both peace and war being better for different grand strategies.

There are many different units that are unique throughout Genesis, so let me detail some of them. The Great Lord is your leader and if he is killed, and you have no heir, then you will lose the game. If you take too long to marry your Great Lord then a bastard son may appear, a bastard son who may be made into a legitimate heir for a specific amount of money. There is the envoy, basically the diplomat from the Total War series, that is used to send peace messages and build alliances, but he is susceptible to enemy spies and rogues. A merchant, also basically the same as the Total War series merchants, makes money by traveling between towns, mines and the seat of your house. The farther away the merchant is from your kingdom the more money he makes, but if an enemy defeats him then they will take all of his money. Spies can enter an enemy house and become a turncoat, or they can do the opposite and search for turncoats among of your own units. When you are not at war you can have spies set up secret alliances with towns or castles. Noble ladies can be married to towns or castles in order to secure an unbreakable alliance, they can also seduce enemy lords and try to bring them over to your side. Mercenaries are a interesting bunch in this game. You purchase three different mercenary units, men-at-arms, bowmen and calvary, all of which are not as strong as normal unit. Mercenaries can be bought by anyone who has enough money, so it sounds like if you take a mercenary near an enemy, but the enemy has more money than you, then they can buy them no matter what you are doing with them. This is about half of the units in the game, all of which sound a lot like units from Medieval Total War 2, but that could be a good thing for a game that looks a little bland.


Even with this game four days away from release, there is surprisingly little information and very little actual gameplay shown or discussed anywhere. That is pretty worrisome, but Genesis looks better than how I originally thought it was going to be. The first time I saw this game all I could think of was how they were going to ruin a great series with a poor RTS, but after reading and learning about this game I'm a bit more hopeful. From the tiny amount of combat they have shown, I can say that it looks like it's going to have RTS combat like Age of Empires, but it seems to have the unique and individual units like that of the Total War series, so we will see how that combination turns out. Here's to hoping this is a great game, but the best I can hope for is a good game that is generally fun to play. Genesis will also have eight player multiplayer, one player for each faction, but there is no information available about that. I really hope that this game has a demo, but for some reason that feel's like I'm asking for too much. It will cost $39.99 retail, and it is available on Steam, Green Man Gaming and through their main website (it is by far the cheapest on Green Man Gaming). Thanks for reading and for more information check out the main website.
Main Website: http://www.agot-genesis.com/index.php?rub=news



-Written by Sean Cargle

Burnout Crash is a top down arcade version of the crash mode from many of the old Burnout games, of which Burnout Paradise was the last to come out in 2008. All of the Burnout games are driving games, except without any realism holding them down. Instead, they all embraced crashing in glorious ways, destroying other cars during a race and doing ridiculous stunts. I never cared much for racing games, but the Burnout games were always pretty fun to me, and seemingly most people (they were rated pretty well). My favorite mode from them was a mode that had you crashing into traffic and trying to cause as much mayhem as you possible could. Burnout Crash takes that mode, builds on it, and makes it top down and more arcade like. Burnout Crash is made by Criterion Games, the same developers who made Burnout Paradise but not any of the other burnout games, and is for XBLA and PSN.

Burnout Crash starts you with a simple looking truck a truck that you control top down, with the joysticks of a console controller, and your main goal is to drive into a intersection in order to cause as many crashes as you can. Once you drive into traffic and hit a vehicle then your vehicle will stay put. Every vehicle has a different power and a different level of crashbreaker. Crashbreaker builds up overtime, quickly, and let's you blow up everything in your close vicinity, while also allowing you to move your car a little bit. Crashbreaker is really useful, but it's not horribly easy to use. If you want all of the damaged cars to stay in a intersection, so they could therefore block many other cars from passing through safely, then crashbreaker can cause you problems. If you used crashbreaker in a intersection fulled of damaged cars, then it will launch them all away from your car and possibly out of the intersection entirely. If you five cars get through the intersection to the other side of the map safely, then you lose. I like the crashbreaker and it essentially is the same as the crashbreaker from the previous Burnout games, except it felt like you had more control over it in the previous Burnout games (the 3d ones). Being able to do it in 3d was a lot more fun, but maybe that's just because hitting vehicles had a much bigger impact. At any given time you can look up in the top left corner and see how many cars are left, each level has a limited amount, essentially acting as a timer.
Throughout each level there are different power-ups that will be activated after a certain number of crashes.The power-ups start out small, but eventually lead to an ultra power-up (like a tornado or alien space ship that destroys most everything in the map). They definitely add to the feeling of it being an arcade game. Some of the normal power-ups are things like call in ambulance, cops (block off a section of the street, causes many accidents) or a car magnet that draws all cars to you. Ambulance's randomly make an appearance and if you let an ambulance make it through the map without getting hit, then it will take away one of your failures, x's that can get marked off each time you miss a car (causing you to lose if you miss five). The ultra power up uses the number of failures you have to determine it's power, the stronger it is the more it obliterate. Every level is entirely destructible, buildings, parked vehicles and everything that you can see. If you can manage to destroy as much of that as you can during a level, then you will end up with a much higher score. Each level has challenges to complete for stars and a certain score to reach, amounting to five stars for each level. The more stars you achieve the quicker you will unlock new vehicles, new modes and new maps.

Burnout Crash takes the great, horribly fun, fundamentals of crashing and explosives, except now it add's destructible buildings, unlocks, power-ups and different modes. I like the game, that's for certain, but it still feels inferior to the crash mode from all of the other Burnout games. The previous Burnout games crash  mode just felt so much more exciting in 3d with larger vehicles and a better feeling of impact. One aspect of the game that I didn't write about is called Autolog; it is a online mode that is supposed to allow you to easily challenge and find other players. I can't say much about because it didn't work in the demo, but it looks fairly easy to use and possibly fun if you have other friends who have the game. There is a demo on PSN and XBLA, so be sure to check it out, but it only let's you play one level of the 15+ levels. Thanks for reading and hope you give this game a chance, it certainly is fun, it's not just excellent feeling nor does it have the best graphics. Burnout Crash costs 800 Microsoft Points or $10 on PSN.

-Written by Sean Cargle

King Arthur's Gold is a free indie multiplayer PC game; a game with an emphasis on base building, large maps and teamwork. It is presented with a side scrolling 2d style of graphics, but like many other indie games that use minimal graphic systems, they've managed to make it look great. Everything in this game is destructible, so if you build a entire tower and its base is only connected to two pieces of stone, then you can expect the enemy to break those two pieces of stone and collapse your entire tower.You may have seen articles previously about this game on Kotaku or Rock Paper Shotgun, I did and I don't know why I never tried it until recently. This is a game with a great deal of customization, whether it's map size and type or modifying the terrain. King Arthur's Gold was made by Michal Marcinkowski (he developed the 2d shooter Soldat), Max Cahill and David Pencil.

Everything is the game is controlled with simple controls (W,A,S,D as it's main movement controls), made especially user friendly by the ingame help chart that is automatically enabled. Every game, except for creative mode, has two teams, red and blue. The teams are identical other than color, but it's all up to the players to warp the map to their will. The modes are capture the flag and creative mode, plus three tutorial modes. In the future they plan to make creative mode better, add a team deathmatch mode and add some single player challenges/tutorials. Capture the flag is the main mode you see on the multiplayer servers. It is pretty simple, except it's very hard and once a team captures the enemy flag once then the map will end.


You have three classes to choose from in the game: the builder, the knight and the archer. The knight is the solid class, the one who can handle the most by himself, especially since he can break through walls (slowly) and decimate's every other class. The knight has his sword, shield and bombs. He uses the shield to block arrows, falling debris and bombs, while the sword can be used to destroy enemy buildings, wall, traps and can be used to stab people, of course. As of this version, each knight spawns with one bomb and the bomb is devastatingly strong against other people, but not so effective against defenses or terrain.  The archer does a lot of damage with arrows and has a very long range, but he is weak (low health). The archer is mainly used to tower above the knights and rain down fiery death upon them, but if the archer get's within range of melee then he is done for, especially since he doesn't have a melee attack, just the bow and arrow. He is also very versatile, while the knight can easy get stuck in ditches, the archer can shoot his arrows against a wall and then climb up his arrows. These two classes are the fighting classes, classes that work great together, but not so well on their own.


The builder is fairly defenseless, relying on his teammates to keep him safe while he runs around and collects resources to build. The builder is by far the most interesting class to me, because he get's to build castles, towers, catapults, outposts, traps, bridges and all kinds of fun stuff. He has axe/hammer contraption that allows you to cut down trees and dig through the earth to mine resources. Maps are randomly generated (except for the pre-made ones), so you can dig all over the map and create tunnels or huge chambers beneath the surface (kind of like Terraria, except there isn't much that is already opened up). People get really creative with the builder, making anything from larger towers with pit traps or to giant bridges that stretch across the map. I've also seen ridiculously large underground mines, one's that must have taken hours to dig. The builder can create team specific bridges and doors, the bridges will fall if an enemy touches them, while the doors only open for allies. You can use the bridges to make some great spike traps, but you have to be very careful not to impede your own teammates. One of the most important things that the builders can make are outposts, they allow your allies to spawn and change classes. So, the team with the closer secure outpost to the enemies main castle is usually the winning team. You have to protect outposts carefully though, any enemy soldier can make it their teams outpost by capturing it, which requires that they stand on the outpost for a short period of time. I can go on for many paragraphs about all the various possibilities of what builders can create and devise, but even builders must rely on other builders to get real projects done. The best teammates work together to keep the wall strong and the doors up, so that your teams knights and archers can continually assault the enemy without fearing the loss of their spawn.


This is a free game, a seemingly excellent one. I've only played for a couple days and there are a couple confusing mechanics, like knights killing me in one hit when I am also a knight with full health, but this game is a great multiplayer game. The mining and creation feels a lot like Terraria, except that objects have physics and are highly destructible, while the combat is simple enough to allow new players to be helpful. There is a premium version of King Arthur's Gold, but only four hundred people out of the fourteen thousand registered users are using it. The premium version actually sounds really fun, but it all sounds like future plans and not anything that's already done. Check here to see the list of the premium features, all of which you can get in on for a one time price of $10. Thanks for reading and give this game a chance, it's free and pretty damn unique.
Main Website: http://kag2d.com/

-Written by Sean Cargle