Well, it is tough times for everyone… including us gamers. Where top of the line games cost quite a bit, we need to find ways to overcome time, while at the same time being able to play quality games. As gamer, here are a few things that I have done. (And I’m NOT talking about playing those crappy online flash games as an alternative)

1. Buy games online ( like from the PlayStation Network Store or from Steam )

You will be able to find some pretty good games for a bargain. And one of them is the futuristic racing game, WipEout HD for the PS3. The graphics are amazing and it has high re-playability with the online features and best of all it cost only US$20. Talking about replay value, its expansion pack WipEout Fury will be released sometime this week !

Have a look at the trailer from the latest WipEout Fury and experience this amazing racer in HD quality.

Well, besides WipEout, there are still quite a lot of these online games that are worth looking at (e.g. Street Fighter 2 HD, if SF4 is out of your budget)

2. Used games

There are been a lot of talk lately about buying used games and I think buying second-hand games could really do the trick. Most used games cost about 60-70% of the original price (from Ebay) and also depend how old its the game it will continue to drop. My tip is, if you are really into collecting the game covers or box arts, go for those used games without any manuals or the gamebox or even some slight scratch. That could really give you a good deal !

3. Rent !!!

Not all countries have videogames rental service, but I think it is a good alternative to buying the game, especially if you are just thinking for a playing for a short period of time. I normally rent games to try them out before I consider buying them.

4. Dig out your old games and play them over LAN

Games like Warcraft 3 and Starcraft are still very amazing. Grab some cool custom maps and a couple of friends and you have yourself a LAN party.

I hope this gives you an idea of what you try. Let me know what other ways that you can think of too !

With anticipation for StarCraft 2 heating up towards the end of the year, the only thing we gamers can do is hope for being beta testers for StarCraft 2. And that ain’t gonna happen is you keep playing WoW or StarCraft everyday.

To even have a chance to be beta testers for StarCraft 2, you will have to do the beta profiling on the Battle.net website. That involves downloading a software, which checks the information of the computer that you are using. I think Blizzard wants Beta testers from various types of computer performance.

To do that, you will have to log-in into your Battle.net account and look for the SC Beta icon (as shown above). That would lead you to the location to  download the stuff you need. From there on its pretty straightforward.

Well, I’ve done mine already. Hopefully you have done yours too. And if you happened to be selected, you are welcomed to BOAST that to me over here. All the best !

I’ve always found Command & Conquer Red Alert video clips very entertaining. And it really makes the game more engaging. As for the next installment of the Red Alert series, many famous actor/actress will be appear such as George Takei (Sulu !!!, and Hiro’s dad), Kelly Hu, J. K. Simmons (Johah Jameson !) , Jenny McCarthy and many more. I wonder if this is necessary actually.

What do you guys think ?

The wait is almost over ! At the meantime, enjoy this fantastic trailer.

Fallout 3 will be released on the 28th of October on Xbox360, PS3 and PC.

Just today Blizzard announced their latest…but rather unusual addition to the Terran forces. The Tauren Marine is said to have been created by the Confederates when they bumped into the planet Azeroth. Training up the those cows that they found to be mean fighting machines. Eat this Zerglings !

Check out the gameplay videos below :

Happy April Fool’s Day !

With all the hype for the soon to be released 1.22 Patch going on, I decided to put up this unconfirmed change log, from mymym.com . Of course, this is just the unconfirmed changelog as discussion with the esports teams and all are still going on. But from what it looks like Night Elf, my fav. race (not because its imba), it’s going to go down when the patch is released. No…the once cheap Dryads !!! Whatever the case is, it welcome the new patch and extra features (esports, tourneys) as players need to rework their strategies.

Human
-Tank will use 4 food instead of 3 and will give +25xp
-flying machine flac cannon will cost 200g/175w instead of 100g/150w
-masonry resarch wont increase human tower Hp, but towers will have 600 basic HP
-Orb of fire splash damage changed: from +5 to 45% of hero’s damage.

Night Elf
-Staff of preservation cost increased from 150 to 200, cooldown increased to 45sec
-chimaera will use 7 food instead of 5
-dryad will give +20% xp
-effect of orb of venom and dryads poison decreased to 50%

Orc
-spirit wolf HP will be 300/450/600 instead of 200/300/500
-speed scroll cannot be dispelled
-raider armor+1
-healing salves healing time decreased from 45sec to 25sec

Undead
-dk +3 agility
-all spell of casters will have reduced mana costs

and some non-confirmed changes:

Human:
-Archmage; Blizzard Mana cost increased to 85
-Bloodmage; Starting Agility Increased by 1
-Paladin; Divine Shield Duration Reduced to 12/24/36 Seconds from 15/30/45. The cooldown of this spell has also been decreased respectively
-Paladin; Devotion Aura also grants a 2/4/6% Chance to completely ignore damage on top of the Armor Bonus (This is introduced to make Devotion Aura used more often)
-Rifleman Hp Changed back to 525 Hp from 505
-Siege Engines no longer give experience for *buildings* they kill. This prevents a human player from literally ‘creeping’ off of a Night Elf base. Air units will still give EXP.
-Orb of Fire now also increases attack speed by 10%

Orc:
-Blademaster; Agility lowered by 1 at starting level
-Tauren Chieftain; Shockwave is now capped at 8 units of full damage (down from 12)
-Tauren Chieftain; Starting Strength and Intelligence increased by 1
-Farseer; Wolves now have about 15% extra life per level with Mana cost increased to 90
-Raider ensare now creates a Cooldown on the unit its cast called ‘Careful Footing’. This cooldown lasts for 4 seconds after the ensnare wears off to prevent spamming.
-Spirit walkers are now completely immune to magic (including magic attack dmg) *ONLY* when in physical form. This change will actually make orcs be able to fight mass casters efficiently
-Orc shop now has a new item. Wand of Desperation (Tier 3, 100 gold). It has an AoE Dispel effect and has only 1 charge. It deals 400 Damage to Summoned units

Undead:
-Dread Lord; Carrion Swarm Mana Cost reduced to 100 from 110.
-Dread Lord; Vampiric Aura now has a 2%/4%/6% to cause 100% Life Leech by level(100% heal based off of melee dmg not full life heal) on
a melee attack
-Acolytes have a new passive ability called “Citadel Ritual”. Whenever an acolyte is repairing a building it gains a temporary bonus +1 to armor. This is a cumulutive effect for each acolyte repairing and can stack up to 3 times. This can be very effective on meat wagons when sieging or when trying to save an undead gold mine.
-Ghoul Frenzy now also increases ghoul Life Regeneration by .5 and grants Ghouls a 5% Life Leech (Stacks with Vampiric Aura)
-Obsidian Statue build time increased to 60 from 45. Destroyer Form upgrade lowers Obsidian statue build time back to 45.
-Ziggurats (Non-upgraded) now have 2 armor up from 1.
-Necropolis Build time reduced to 105 from 120.

Night Elf:
-Keeper of the Grove; Thorns Aura now has a 2/4%/6% chance to stun any melee unit for 1 second when attacking by level
-Demon Hunter; Base Agility lowered by 1.
-Archers can now mount Hippogryphs without the upgrade, its a base ability.
-Glaive Thrower build time reduced to 45 seconds from 48.
-Chimaera build time reduced to 60 seconds from 65.
-Dryad Cost changed to 165/65 Gold/wood from 145/60.
-Druid of the Claw build time increased to 45 Seconds up from 35. Adept and Master DOC training reduces build time by 5 seconds each. Setting it back to 35 second build time after both trainings have been researched.
-Faerie Dragon Cost Reduced to 145 Gold from 155.
-Orb of Venom Lowered to 80 damage over 10 seconds.

Neutral:
-Alchemist; Acid bomb now slows units per level by speeds of 5%/10%/15% per level
-Alchemist; Healing wave now only heals enemy units by 50% while healing allied units by 100%
-Dark Ranger; All units that are Charmed now have a buff on them called “Charmed”. You may on them called “Charmed”. You may only have a maximum of 4 units charmed at a time. If you exceed that limit the lowest food costing charmed unit will become “Neutral Hostile” or a “Creep” and will attack you. If all the charmed units are the same food cost then it will judge by gold, and then wood. And if they
are all the same it will be randomly selected. Charmed units no longer add to your food supply cost as the Ranger feeds her minions herself.
-Firelord; Incinerate Mana cost reduced to 4 from 6.
-Firelord; Incinerate has a 10/15/20% Chance to cost Zero mana per level
-Naga; Mana shield grants spell immunity while active. (All magic attack units will be able to damage her still)
-Panda; Breath of Fire capped at 6 units for instant damage. However any unit that has haze will be ignited if hit by the fire even if it doesnt take the initial damage.
-Pitlord; Cleave now also increases Strength by 2/5/8 per Level
-Tinker; Cluster Rockets are no longer considered a magical attack. It is considered a siege attack so they are effected by armor and does extra and reduced damage accordingly. This should make this skill more viable vs. casters or to siege a base.
-Tinker; Cluster Rocket Damage increased to 40/80/120 by level.

Creeps:
-If creeps are chasing a target for more than 5 seconds they will automatically switch to another target if they do not land a successful blow. Also if they cannot hit a target for more than 5 seconds they gain a Temporary True sight ability also to prevent abuse.
-Creeps will attack nearby critters if the above is true and there are no other units than critters to attack. They have to take their anger out on something.

Source : mymym.com

Yes, you heard it right. This morning, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise when my Warcraft 3 downloaded an update and when I saw the changelog… its a NO-CD patch !!!

Time to put away my scratched Warcraft 3 cd and this makes lan parties much much easier

If you still haven’t already downloaded the patch, you can get it over here.

Cheers

If you can’t get enough of LOST, then you really gotta get this game. At first, I was kinda skeptical but looking at the trailer footage, I think LOST : Via Domus is an excellent game (superb graphics) that runs well together with the series. In the game, you play Elliott, a photojournalist with amnesia. With of course, all the original characters of LOST.

Do check out the trailers below and keep in mind the released date 26 February 2008 for the PC, Xbox360 and PS3.

Apparently, the patch servers for BioShock is down leaving gamers frustrated and unable to start playing the game. BioShock requires a patch update before it can be played.

I’ve tried going to 2K’s main site to see if there are any press released but it seems that their official site (www.2kgames.com) is down too.

Looks like gamers will have to wait while their fixed whatever was wrong. Keep your fingers crossed !