Blasterforen

Teensies

2008-02-09T07:34:00.000-08:00

The Teensies are a race in the world of Rayman, resembling small blue fairy-like creatures with enlongated faces and beady black eyes. Take note that you can only see their mouths if you take a good look under the side of their heads. They exist in many forms and most of them have magical powers. Their purpose is to unveil all the roads in the world. The Teensies first appear in Rayman 2: The Great Escape, and later return in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc .

In Rayman 2, the first 3D Rayman game, the Teensies are introduced as a peaceloving race, who do nothing else then fight over who was once their king, since they all seem to have forgotten who it was. It is therefore not exactly sure they ever had a king in the first place. As they are unable to decide on a king, the members of the council of Teensies who communicate with Rayman all take turns wearing the king's crown. In Rayman 2, most Teensies are captured by the Robo-pirates, and put into cages. The goal in almost every level is to free a Teensie; or at least, to complete a level the Teensie must be freed. By freeing them all, Rayman gets some nice bonuses, due to the magic powers of the Teensies. Despite their silly looks and behaviour, Teensies are really wise and give Rayman advice on his journey.

The Teensies return in Rayman 3, this time in many more different outfits and with more elaborate cultures throughout the game. In Clearleaf Forest, they are seen in bright red hats and coats, wielding hooked staffs and dancing to bagpipe music. In the Land of the Livid Dead they are pale with ghost-like bodies (they appear as flying bedsheets with Teensie heads and hands). In the frozen mountains they wear thick furry clothes and constantly chatter their teeth as they talk. The Hoodlums have captured the Teensies and caged them up again, so Rayman sets out on a journey once again to save all Teensies as well as stop the Hoodlums. Technically, if you view the description in the camera-snapshot mode, it'll say that the Teensies themselves locked themselves up in cages so the Hoodlums wouldn't go through all the trouble of doing so. When they are freed from their cages they'll often say something along the lines of 'I have to go...' and state a certain chore, such as finishing their yogurt, ironing their clothes or alphabatizing their sausages. They'll also give a small reward for releasing them as well as a bonus addition to Rayman's health bar. The Teensies seem to have stopped fighting over the crown, even though it's not clear who's the king now. Probably they gave up the fighting and noticed they didn't need a king, though the ones that protect the magical Heart of the World all wear crowns and green robes like in the previous game. Teensies are still silly-looking in Rayman 3, but appear a little more intelligent and mature. They often advise Rayman on his journey.

Albeit one teaser trailer they are seen running from rabbids, they do not appear in this game. However in the handheld versions (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Mobile Phone) they appear just like in any other game.

Like most creatures featured in Rayman, there is little known about the history of the Teensies. Nobody can ever tell who was originally the king of the Teensies, and what the Teensies were like in the past in the first place, since even the Teensies themselves don't remember anymore. The only thing known is that Polokus created them to govern all the roads, shortcuts and secret passages. They also appear to have no gender and are all exactly the same height, giving light to the possibility that the Teensies are immortal.

The Allerian Empire

2008-02-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

The Allerian Empire (also Aelyrian Empire) is a play-by-post collaborative fiction website where players interacted by role-playing over an internet bulletin board. The game has been running in various incarnations since 1989 until the present day. The Allerian Empire, or Alleria as it is commonly referred to, takes place on the fictitious planet of Telath on the continent of Medonia. All facets of the game environment including culture, economy, and politics are entirely player created. Players assume a character in the World of Telath, customizing its race, age, and background and tell its life tale through a series of narrative interactions with others.

Each beginning character is given a limitation on possessions; carrying only 500 golden crowns (the coin of the Realm), an Imperial Visa (identification papers), one set of clothing, a simple dagger, and the deed to a one-room house in the city of choice. Citizens of Alleria are taught reading, writing, and mathematics in Schola, though further education is required to be played in-game, and Players can certainly choose not to take advantage of the opening benefits.

Telath is a planet that circles a rare trinary star system. It has thirty recognised moons, though only the largest is named: Chaendar. The largest sun is Majora, and the smaller two are Apas and Nepas. The face of the planet is covered approximately fifty percent with water, which teems with oceanic life including several sentient species of Mer and Sea-elf.

There are many continents, each of which play home to a race of beings, but the game focuses on the eastern half of the continent of Medonia. The Western half hosts the Archaxetan Empire.

The Empire of Alleria is divided into nine Provinces: Arium, Arakmat, Carmelyn, Centripax, Enamoria, Eunesia, Lauryl, Prime, and Sherian. The Capitol city of the Empire is Alleria Prime, in Prime Province. Each Province is governed by a Governor, appointed by the Emperor or Empress and held for life. The Governor is responsible for appointing the Provincial positions of government.

The Allerian Empire appeared on the internet as alleria.org in 1996 after a six-year stint on the Prodigy Online Personal Service, and was soon a featured website on Netscape.com. With the feature, Alleria attracted hundreds of players and its no-rules story telling had to be replaced by a moderation system. The Game Master Council was created and moderators called "Game Masters" were assigned to geographic areas within the game play field.

After a couple of awards and features on popular tech networks and publications, the format which housed the Allerian playing experience needed to be revamped due to its new player load. Infinitely threaded topics made for a long and confusing experience. In 1999, Alleria moved to a dot-com address and began using the Ultimate Bulletin Board for its gameplay. With the new look and streamlined gameplay, The Allerian Empire's player base quickly grew into the thousands, and was featured on more prominent publications including Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Late in Generation Two, The Alleria Company and its founder took a back seat to creative development and allowed the game and its volunteer staff to move the game forward autonomously. The Game Master Council began to elect its own members and leaders from the gaming population which some say created an air of favoratism to the exclusion of those not friends with already established Game Masters. Criticism began to surface by the summer of 2001 that the game's ultimate goal was to become a Game Master and that characters played by members who could attain this status were given unbalanced preferential treatment.

he Allerian Empire survived a schism in the Game Master Council between the entrenched, ideolisitic, more experienced staff and the newer, more liberal electees as well as growing criticism by players, but a spectacular website crash crippled the alleria.com site in late 2001 and advertising revenues were not enough to keep the free-to-players website operating. The creator of the game pulled the plug on the site, much to the dismay of thousands of players that participated regularly in the game. A small group of players even took it upon themselves to recreate as much of the game as they could on the ezBoard system and started an aggressive e-mail campaign to attract the original gamers. The product of their efforts was dubbed nu-Alleria.

In 2002, The Alleria Company reorganized and became Play by Post, Inc. The goal of the new company was to not only bring The Allerian Empire back to life but to expand the game's focus from a single country to the entire world of Telath, allowing players to create more of the world than they had been confined to in previous incarnations of the game. The result was a web address change to telath.com and the launch of Telath: The Quest for Eternity, or what players simply referred to as Alleria II. Play by Post, Inc. also intended to bring its company out of the fantasy role-playing genre by launching Star Prophecy, a new science fiction based game with roughly the same mechanics. Unfortunately, none of this was ever actually achieved.

Both Telath and Star Prophecy failed. Later that year, Mr. Gonzalez took the Telath project and overhauled it creating Alleria: The Quest for Eternity and went back to the original game format with one major difference - players could now start to develop the new nations promised in Telath in the hope of having the environments opened eventually for in-character gameplay. The engine and website layout were both re-done, and Alleria returned to the alleria.com address. The company also introduced a subscription system for premium content to make up for the advertising revenues that had failed to meet maintenance budgets which made certain community members criticize the lack of promised privileges. Two years later, the size and scope of the game necessitated a revamp of their moderation and volunteer structures, and in 2005 the website underwent another upgrade, including an integrated Wiki, RSS feeds, and user-customizable content. A system crash in November, 2005, prompted Play by Post, Inc., to strike up a partnership with a design botique and the website was taken off the internet into the new year. Players logging on to the alleria.com site were greeted with a message stating "Alleria is Propagating" with little other explanation.

Alleria returned as of February 2006, lacking in many of its features and website, but still playable. As in Generation Three, core players, moderators, and Game Directors have driven ahead with re-building their community, this time with the upfront encouragement and support of Mr. Gonzalez. On April 11th, 2006, the Directorate launched the new Aliares Engine, a variation of vBDrupal. Based on Drupal and vBulletin, this new Engine is able to provide many of the features that were previously available to Players and Contributors.

On January 9, 2006, after roughly fifty days of disappointed players and no revival of the game, Play by Post, Inc., announced their intention to reopen the site, dissolving their partnership with the design boutique citing a "clear material breach of [the boutique's] obligations to ensure that Alleria continues to operate." On January 12 of that same year, Aerysia was announced as the newest installment of The Allerian Empire franchise which had been in preliminary development since late 2003. Expected to be released later in the season, Aerysia is the successor product to the The Allerian Empire with a core based extensively off its parent game.

Created in 1996, Play by Post, Inc., is the legal entity that was created to protect the copyright interests of the web sites it owns. Originally called The Alleria Company after its flagship game, the company reorganized and changed its name following the crash that destroyed its site in 2001.

Play by Post, Inc. credits itself for pioneering the play-by-post role-playing format and being the industry leader in such games.

Vyrium

2008-02-05T16:43:00.000-08:00

The Vyrium are a spacefaring race of sentient lizards from the real-time strategy video game Conquest: Frontier Wars.

Originally, "Conquest: Frontier Wars" was to be a game with 4 playable races, but this was later reduced to three: the Terran Federation, the Celareon, and the Mantis. The fourth race, the lizard-like Vyrium, were at first going to be included, but then cut. The result was that they became a "ghost-race"; rudimentary elements of their programming code existed in the game, so if someone was modding the game with custom setting they would appear as a possible, half finished ship.

Although cut from Conquest 1, it had been announced that "Conquest 2: The Vyrium Uprising" is in development as a sequel, and its plot will feature on the titular Vyrium.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but it appears that the Vyrium were once slaves of the Celareon (who are normally thought of as a benevolent race), and they no longer control their homeworld. As the game begins, 40 years after the Frontier Wars against the Mantis, the Vyrium have started a revolt. This effort is bolstered by the Vyrium discovery of a treasure-trove of technological marvels left over from a "precursor" race (Progenitor of a sort), which has vastly improved their military capability.

Details about their unit and tech tree are also severely limited, but it is known that they possess the awesome Vyrium Leviathan, a massive vessel that augments its firepower through use of tractor-beams, which pull an enemy ship into close range for more concentrated attack.

Nukm Radio

2008-02-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

Nukm Radio is an online radio station that was made by Guild Wars players for Guild Wars players. Nukm Radio currently does 50k gold give aways every Friday. They have been active and around for 4 months. Nukm Radio is a growing community of gamers and music lovers alike. Often listeners are referred to use 3 different websites to answer questions on air. Those websites are: Wikipedia.com, Guildwars.com & Nukmradio.com. This radio station also has a team speak on which they communicate with people from all over the world. One of the DJ's of this station is from Australia. While others are From the United States. They have people who tune in From Canada all the way to Japan. This is a very fast pace and constant growing community. The environment is friendly and all the people are friendly.

Nukm Radio has quiet a few DJs'. Their DJs' are: DJ Nocturne, DJ Ama, DJ Paralyzer, DJ Gemini, DJ Vegas, DJ Gunner, DJ Tesla, DJ Warhead, DJ Danger, DJ Evil, DJ Madison, and DJ Wilko. Currently, most of their Djs' are from the United States. How ever, DJ Wilko is from Australia. Though these are not the only people who make Nukm Radio a safe and fun environment for all ages. Other people your should know: DJ Evil is the CEO & Owner of Nukm Radio. Wolfie is the Co-founder & Co-owner of Nukm Radio. Bad Lag Mum & Tommy Twofingers are the Head Admins of the Nukm Radio Team Speak. There are many people involved with nukm radio, but that is because they are a constant growing community. They were made by Gamers for gamers, and they are your only source for in game Guild Wars music as well as constant give aways. Dont forget though, that any listener can whisper the current Dj in game and request a song. Nukm Radio actually play the music that the people want to hear and that they request.

Megacorp Weapons Company

2008-02-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

Megacorp Weapons Company is a fictional weapon company in the videogame Ratchet and Clank Going Commando.It has 35 types of weapons.The more successfull Gadgetron Company appears in most Ratchet and Clank games while Megacorp only appears in Ratchet and Clank Going Commando.The protopets were made by Megacorp to be pets but until they turned evil and Ratchet had to fight the Mother Protopet at the end of the game as the boss.Abercrombie Fizzwidget is the C.E.O of Megacorp and appears in many parts of the game.

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/446/446568p1.html is a list on all the Megacorp weapons.

Blue Shift 2

2008-02-05T16:33:00.000-08:00

Blue Shift 2 is a third-party sequel the Valve's Half-Life: Blue Shift, the story closely follows that of Half Life 2 and its world. Barney is undercover with the Civil Protection. It is set during the events of Half Life 2, you play as Barney Calhoun, a former mid-ranking security guard in the Black Mesa Research Facility, during the week Gordon and Alyx are teleporting back from Nova Prospekt. While seeming instantaneous to them, the trip took a week. After learning of the destruction of Nova Prospekt, the citizens of City 17 (and perhaps other cities as well) have begun to resist and are violently overthrowing the Combine. Barney has a major role in this. Thus begins the story of the mod.

Features:

* Enhanced AI - Your enemies will now be tougher using smarter tactics and working together to outsmart you.
* Enhanced weapon graphics.
* Stealth Gameplay - Enhanced AI now requires you to be more sneaky in your attempt of aiding the rebels.
* New Weapons - Barney will have full access to the Combine arsenal. New weapons include: Stun Stick, Combine Sniper Rifle, and Man Hacks.
* New Characters - Barney will have to interact with new characters not previously seen in Half Life 2.
* New Locations - Explore new areas of City 17 and Nova Prospekt not previously seen in Half Life 2.

Altair (Assasin's Creed)

2008-02-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

Altair Ibn La-Ahad, commonly Altaïr (الطائر in Arabic), is the main character and protagonist of the fictional Assassin's Creed universe, created by Ubisoft Montreal, and is a player character in the third-person stealth video games Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles. Outside of video games, there were plans for Pocket Books to novelize Assassin’s Creed into a book trilogy, written by Steven Barnes and featuring Altaïr. There has also been speculation of a movie based on the game. Philip Shahbaz is responsible for Altaïr's voice in the game. The character's figure is modeled after David Fumero.

Character design

The name Altaïr is an Arabic word, which means "the flyer." In recent interviews, the game's producer, Jade Raymond has stated that while in mid-air, Altaïr's shadow is intended to resemble that of an eagle.[3] This effect is as a result of the design of his attire, which includes a point at the front of the hood (to resemble a beak) and cuts through the back of the outfit (to resemble tail feathers). The second part of his name, Ibn La-Ahad means 'son of no-one', reflecting his mysterious origins.

Attributes

Weapons

Altaïr is intended to be a master assassin, capable of extraordinary acrobatic feats, and a member of the Hashashein sect. In the game, Altaïr travels between the game's four cities (Jerusalem, Masyaf, Damascus, and Acre) and kills his victims with a variety of weapons. Altaïr's most used weapon is a concealed dagger similar to that of a Katar used for close-range assassinations. It is mounted on the inside of his left hand gauntlet, and when deployed, extends between his middle and little fingers through the space left by his amputated ring finger. This amputation was part of the initiation for becoming an assassin of the Hashshashin sect.

Altaïr also uses a combination of throwing knives, a sword, a small dagger, and his fists. The throwing knives are very useful when taking down archers as you approach an assassination target. The sword is slower than the dagger but when attacking is much more powerful. The dagger is fast and light and can be used in tandem with the knives.

Personality

Developers have stated in interviews that Altaïr is not religious but rather "spiritual" and is the son of a Christian mother and Muslim father.

Outward appearance

Altaïr is said within Assassin's Creed to 25 years of age. It is also stated that he is approximately six feet tall and weights 170 pounds. Altaïr is also missing his left ring finger, explained in Assassin's Creed to have come as a result of an initiation ceremony towards his entrance into professional assassinations.

Codex of Ultimate Wisdom

2008-01-31T19:39:00.000-08:00

The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom is a fictional book in the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. It first appeared in Ultima IV.

True to its title, The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom is the sum of all knowledge. When a reader opens the book, they are always able to read it, and can always find the exact piece of knowledge they needed - though this is not necessarily what they asked for, or what they wished they had found out.

The Codex appears to be a large leather and gold bound book. Emblazoned on the cover is the symbol of the Codex, a set of six lines and two circles arranged to touch three central circles in different manners. This symbol represents the eight virtues and three core principles of Britannian and Gargish virtue, which the Codex inspired.

The Avatar retrieved the Codex from the Great Stygian Abyss at the end of Ultima IV, thus completing the Quest of the Avatar and attaining his title.

The role of the Codex shifted through the series, from being a prize of enlightenment in Ultima IV, to a book of wisdom in Ultima V, to an object of conflict in Ultima VI.

The Codex was placed in the Ethereal Void at the end of Ultima VI. Though neither the Britannians nor the Gargoyles physically held the book, their leaders were each given a lens that could be used to read it.

The Codex went without appearing in Ultima VII and VIII, though the lenses were used to suck the Dark Core of Exodus into the void in Ultima VII's expansion pack.

In Ultima IX the Codex was mysteriously stolen from the void, and returned to the physical plane. Much of the game is spent chasing after the book and obtaining the lenses to read it.

The symbol of the Codex in Ultima IV explains the relationship between Virtues and the Principles. Outside of the game, the symbol is typically shown in single color. The actual symbol is colored according to the following rules.

In the middle of the symbol, there are three circles, shown in blue, yellow and red; these symbolize the Principles of Truth, Love and Courage. The tangential lines are colors that are mixed from the colors that they touch, and each line touches the Principle circle the corresponding Virtue is based.

There are three lines that touch the Principle circles singly; these are Honesty (blue, based on Truth), Compassion (yellow, based on Love) and Valor (red, based on Courage).

There are three lines that touch two Principle circles; these are Justice (green = blue + yellow, Truth and Love), Honor (purple = red + blue; Truth and Courage), and Sacrifice (orange = red + yellow; Courage and Love).

In the middle of the symbol is a small white circle, the mix of all colors; this is the virtue of Spirituality, which is based on all three Principles.

Finally, surrounding everything is a black circle, absent of all colors; this is the virtue of Humility that exists independently of the Principles and is their foundation.

Some have noted a continuity problem arising from the fact that players spend the entire game in Ultima IV following the virtues, meditating at shrines dedicated to them, and retrieving the Codex at the end. However, the events of Ultima VI imply the Codex's wisdom was used in the formation of both the Britannian and Gargish virtues.

In Ultima IX, the Codex was unreadable without the use of both the Britannian and Gargish lenses, and requires the Avatar to ask a question to the book. This seems to be contrary to its nature in previous games, where it was always readable without any special aid when the book was in Britannia. The lenses were supposedly only required to read the Codex while it remained in the void, and operated independently, not in tandem. The lenses were only used together previously when you wanted to throw something into the void. Ultima VII also seemed to imply that the Codex required both lenses to be read, but the facility to read the book was never implemented in the finished game, rendering the inconsistency moot.

These situations may be resolved however by understanding that the Codex was not created in Ultima IV, but merely allowed itself to be retrieved by the Avatar. Being an item of immense powers (magical and otherwise) it has its own history that spans many periods in time and many different worlds, and has continually adapted itself to fit its own needs towards shaping the universe towards its own goals.

GATEWAY - The MU* Community

2008-01-31T19:37:00.000-08:00

GATEWAY - The MU* Community (fomerly Online Gaming Resource) has provided a positive place for MU* players, staff and newbies to the MU* community to gather and share information and ideas since 1998. GATEWAY is a recognized leader in resource and social MU*s, and offers a variety of services to its regular and new visitors alike. GATEWAY runs on the MUX code base.

To connect to the MUSH/MUX, a MUSH or telnet client is required. The host address is connect.mu-gateway.net 6677.

Previously known as Online Gaming Resource, the MUX opened in 1998 under the leadership of Coordinator Siobhan. The game has operated continuously for 9 years, although in 2003 OGR switched from using PennMUSH to the MUX codebase.

In October, 2007 it was first announced that OGR would be closing on the Announcements bboard. From there it was further announced that the game would remain open, but would be changing to a new name on the changeover date of December 19, 2007. From there it would be known as "GATEWAY - The MU* Community."

Under the Online Gaming Resource banner, the MUX was won several awards for their efforts.

GATEWAY/OGR has been a resource to the community in many aspects. It provides a home where players can gather if their own games/mud's are experiencing downtime, or outages. As well it is well known for its Embassies where any mud may set up a place to recruit players and staff, and have their own players gather. Mini-mu*'s are available for those who want to test out a concept for a mud, but may not have the space appropriate to test it. There's also the freestyle roleplay areas, and the tabletop gaming areas. GATEWAY/OGR was meant as a resource for both mu*'s themselves, and for their staff.

Middle East Coalition

2008-01-31T19:36:00.000-08:00

The Middle Eastern Coalition (aka. MEC) is a fictional army in the PC game Battlefield 2.

Thay appear asa playable army in both single player modes and multiplayer modes. They look very well funded with the types of and amounts of advanced equipment they posses while, their size is unknown.

The MEC use alarge collection of russian technoligy here is some equipment they use:

* T-90 Main Battle Tank
* BTR-90 Wheeled APC
* 2S6 Tunguska Mobile AA sytem
* Mi-28 Havok Attack Helicopter
* Mi-17 Transport Helicopter
* MiG-29 Fulcrum Fighter
* Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber
* GAZ-3937 Vodnik Truck
* FAV para-car

Splatterball

2008-01-26T05:57:00.002-08:00

Splatterball (or "Reg" as it was often referred to, meaning "Regular" to denote its difference from it's provisional and eventual successor "Splatterball Plus") was a popular paintball-style online game provided by AOL (America Online) and GameStorm (Mythic Entertainment) services beginning in 1997. The game, developed by Mythic Entertainment, the creators of the popular MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot was one of the first successful massively multiplayer online shooters. Splatterball was a capture the flag format and was played in one of four virtual arenas: Splat Lake, Splat Park, Castle and Splat West. Players could score team flag points by keeping the flag on base, and could score personal points by shooting other players with various virtual paintball guns (the Pistol, the Burst Gun, the Balloon gun and the Rifle). The type of paintball gun utilized was a personal preference, though most highly ranked players preferred the Balloon gun. Splatterball later had a sequel known as Splatterball Plus on a separate proprietary gaming service run by Mythic Entertainment. Originally Splatterball was available through America Online, using keyword "Splatterball". AOL users could log on and were charged by the amount of time they played, which was then directly billed to their AOL account. British residents did not pay for Splatterball in the same way, instead they paid roughly 1 pence sterling a minute and it came directly off their phone bill. At roughly 60 pence an hour the toll was generally the same as their United States counterparts. Splatterball became extremely popular for about three years and managed to generate a huge following. The Splatterball message boards on AOL were heavily frequented and active, creating a feeling of community amongst the players, followers and fans. It was this close-knit community which kept people coming back. Splatterball was a modification of Mythic's "Magestorm" and initially contained identical code with several modifications. This development made possible by the suggestion of Mythics Mark Jacobs. The splatterball client software was roughly 7mb big and on average took 25-30 minutes to download via dialup through AOL's service.

Squads

A squad could be formed by any player. A denotion of which squad you were part of was initially represented by acquiring a character rename to attach a prefix or a suffix or both.

Examples (Squads chosen to represent different styles of tagging):

S_Name_X (A player belonging so Splat Xtreme) Name^IK (A player belonging to Immortal Killers) SF_Name (A Player belonging to Splat Force)

Initially the Prefix or Suffix was down to squad preference, however changes in Squad rules restricted players to only use either a Prefix or a Suffix, not both. Additional changes in squad naming rules required an updated Squad Roster to me emailed to the designated Squad Co-Ordinator or Renamer, eventually named "SPLAT_NAME". This rule was set in place to prevent fraudulent name changes and to deal with the volume of renaming requests a game op would receive whilst online.

Squads would generally follow a heirach. With the President or Co-Presidents being the Squad Leaders, and several other designated officials such as Vice Presidents, Captains and other ranks. Squads would often offer trials, or probation to new members before inducting them into their team.

A Squad would generally keep close contact through AOL's community message boards, Instant messenger and Email systems.

Boot camp

Boot camp was a provisional message board area on AOL's community message boards. A new squad would have to apply to join boot camp and pass a months probation before being promoted to the Splat Barracks where they would also be inducted into the Official Splatterball Ladder.

To successfully pass Boot Camp a team would have to demonstrate sportsmanship, orderly conduct, adherence to in game Terms of Service, correct protocols when dealing with official Splatterball squad issues and good bookkeeping, essentially keeping up to date rosters.

Splat Barracks

Splat Barracks was essentially a community message board for fully inducted and official squads. Squads would have to adhere to the same terms of service as Boot Camp however under less scrutiny. A team was rarely removed from Barracks unless repeated Terms of Service violations occurred, the team disbanded or players were found to be Hexing/Cheating.

Ladders and Tournaments

Fierce competition due to the formation of Clans (Squads) led to the introduction of an official Splatterball Ladder. The ladder consisted of 20 or so teams who had proved their commitment to the game as a serious squad by demonstrating that they were active through AOL's community message boards. After graduating from "Boot Camp" a squad would then be inducted to the bottom of the ladder.

Throughout the lifespan of Splatterball teams SF (Splat Force), M (Malice) and FtP (Fi Theta Psi) were notably dominant. Towards the end of Splatterballs life, particularly after the closure announcement, the rules of the ladder were taken less seriously, and with members using aliases to play for other clans, the Ladder closed with SX (Splat Xtreme) finishing top despite this squad being a consistent 7th place in the ladder over the past two years.

Splatteball's official Ladder was generally hosted on a Game Operator's AOL member webspace, this operator (known in game as a "SPLAT" denoted by their in-game prefix and bright pink colouring) would generally administrate the ladder and deal with all correspondence, disputes and updates. The site was generally of poor quality however contained adequate content.

In addition to a regular ladder, events were held however relatively infrequent. Notable events include:

July 4th independence day Tournament where players would face off against in game OPS (SPLAT's) mimicking British vs American conflict during the American war of Independence. This event was often criticised by the British community for generally trivial issues such as not being able to play as the British, in addition was deemed as nationally insensitive.

Splat West Tournament - This tournament was a traditional team vs team conflict in a less popular map named "Splat West". Splat West's lack of popularity was possibly due to the size of the map and odd layout.

Elite Status

Elite Status was essentially a title given to Splatterball Squads who had demonstrated notable success, dedication to the game and very good in game etiquette both on AOL community message boards and in the game itself.

Elite Status squads would be gifted an AOL Keyword and official AOL area for their squad. Elite status was notoriously difficult to achieve. After the closure of Splattball it became apparent that "Elite" squads often had Game Operators as members, suggesting that there was some sort of fix, although this was never proven.

Memorable "Elite" Squads include:

- SOLO (SOLO) - Fi Theta Psi (FtP) - Splat Force (SF) - Splat Bombers (SB) - Degeneration X (DX) - Splat Warriors (SW) - Malice (M)

The End of Splatterball

In 2000 Splatterball players were notified that the game was to be removed from service. Later that year Splatterball was removed as an AOL game and the entire AOL gaming area outsourced to EA (Electronic Arts) much to the despair of the 400+ membered Splatterball community.

An attempt was made by several enthusiasts to purchase the rights to use Splatterball and run it themselves, however Mythic would neglect to let go of this game as it contained code used in some of their other developments.

Late in Splatterball's lifespan, the game suffered serious playability issues due to both its aging interface with the AOL servers and its exploitable bugs. Mythic Entertainment, likely desiring to diminish its reliance on AOL, neglected to properly address the major issues and eventually suspended support.

With evident inadequecies surfacing, such as the transatlantic latency rates, billing issues, fraud and hexing, Splatterball on AOL was disbanded and Splatterball Plus, the games immediate successor, came to life through the Mythic Entertainment website. On Mythic's site, players could enjoy unlimited play for a flat fee of around 10 dollars a month. Splatterball Plus, however, had a palpable lagged pace, diminished playability and lack of AOL marketing support. As a result, Splatterball Plus never enjoyed anywhere near the popularity or notability of the original classic game.

Ekapshi light atmospheric fighter

2008-01-26T05:57:00.001-08:00

The fictional Ekapshi light atmospheric fighter is a Kilrathi light fighter from Chris Roberts's Wing Commander series of computer games. Its first appearance was in the computer game Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger.

In the fictional Wing Commander universe, the Kilrathi Ekapshi light atmospheric fighter was introduced as a planetary defense fighter for planets under Kilrathi control. Christopher Blair encounters several of these fighters on numerous occasions during planetary strikes in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger.

Ekapshi fighters were designed for atmospheric defense for facilities located on a planet. These fighters were well-equipped and had the speed to perform the job with good results. An Ekapshi fighter had a front-mount weapon array that includes four lasers and two Meson blasters. Their missile payload includes four heat-seeker missiles. An Ekapshi could reach a max velocity of 430 km/s, which was fast enough to pursue most enemy fighters. Unlike most fighters however, the Ekapshi was not designed well for space combat, and thus performed rather poorly while in space, where most starfighters were capable of both space and atmospheric combat. Despite this fact, the Ekapshi fighters were perfect for the job as an atmospheric fighter.

It is unclear whether or not the Kilrathi still use these fighters for defense of their planetary facilities after the Kilrathi War because the Ekapshi fighters never made an appearance after Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger.

List of terms in Tales of the Abyss

2008-01-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

The following is a list of terminology that is used regularly within the Namco Bandai console role-playing game, Tales of the Abyss.

A

* Absorption Gate: The second Sephiroth, and the second part of the Planet Storm (see: Planet Storm). The memory particles of the planet flow back into the planet's core through here.

D

* Dawn Age: An era 2000 years prior to the start of the game. In this day, scientific research and fontech were highly advanced--even creating entire buildings (the Tower of Rem) and cities (Yulia City) that self-operate using fon machinery. It's not clear at exactly which point this age ended, but it seems to coincide with the appearance of the miasma and the creation of the Outer Lands.

F

* Field of Fonons ("FOF"): An accumulation of Fonons that appears on the ground. Each FOF represents a specific element. By using a Fonic Arte that corresponds with that element, the level of the FOF will increase, allowing some Fonic Artes to multiply in strength.

* Fomicry: A field of science created by Dr. Jade Balfour, or now known better as Jade Curtiss, as a means of cloning people and objects. Originally, fomicry was performed using the first six fonons, but after the results proved unstable, the Seventh Fonon began to be used exclusively. Replicated objects almost always have some sort of inherent flaw that makes them inferior to the original, and, on most occasions, even the "fonon frequency" differs between the original and replica.

However, on rare occasion, it is possible to create "perfect isofons" which share the exact same fonon frequency. This is only seen twice within the story: the first isofons being two cheagles and the second being Asch and Luke. Perfect isofons are granted a number of useful conveniences, such as the ability to communicate telepathically over great distances or to lend one-another power. However, at the same time, it comes with a heavy price: the Contamination Effect in which the the fonons and elements of matter separate and fuse together. Perfect isofons are subject to this effect and are therefore unstable. Eventually, perfect isofons become one through a fusion event known as the "Big Bang."

* Fonic Artes: Abilities which draw upon a person or thing's innate Fonon and allows them to cast spells, heal, or attack with power provided by that Fonon.

* Fonic Hymn: Hymns sang by Seventh Fonists which use the only the chanting portion of Fonic Artes, combined with melody. Because of this, they are generally weak, but there are special hymns which contain power equal to or greater than normal Fonic Artes. (See: "Grand Fonic Hymn")

* Fonist: One who uses Fonic Artes.

* Fonon: The basic particles which make up all living and non-living matter. There are seven types of fonons altogether, each representing a different natural element.

* First Fonon: Shadow -　Dark
* Second Fonon: Gnome -　Ground
* Third Fonon:　Sylph - Wind
* Fourth Fonon:　Undine - Water
* Fifth Fonon: Efreet - Fire
* Sixth Fonon:　Rem - Light
* Seventh Fonon: Lorelei - Sound

With the exception of Lorelei, the fonons are each named in reference to the summon spirits seen in previous Tales (series) games.

* Fon Master: The leader of the Order of Lorelei and one of the most powerful Fonists alive. Also, the Fonmaster is the only person capable of using Daathic Fonic Artes, opening Daathic Seals, or reading the Score from fonstones. Throughout the adventure, the only real Fonmaster the party encounters is Ion.

* Fonslots: The part of a person's body that allows Fonons to enter and exit the body--permitting the use of Fonic Artes. It is possible to close them by use of a special seal, thus hindering a Fonist's abilities. In addition, another special type of fonslot, called a Cursed Slot, can be placed on a victim. This type of fonslot reads the memories of its victim and allows the manipulator to overcome their inhibitions. It then drives the person to act on subconscious feelings, such as murdering someone they have a buried hatred for.

* Fontech: Machinery which make use of fonons.

G

* Grand Fonic Hymn: The seven-part hymn written by Yulia which conveyed a deep wisdom and message hidden within its lyrics. The hymn itself was Yulia's pact with Lorelei. Anyone may learn the lyrics and sing the hymns, but they hold no power unless the singer understands the hidden symbolism of the song. The only two people known to have sang the hymns in the game are Van and Tear Grants, though only Van initially understands the song's symbolism.

After Van is defeated by the party at the Absorption Gate, he falls into the planet's core, where he is certain to die. However, he begins to sing the Grand Fonic Hymn and, as the pact ordained, Lorelei entered his body to save his life. Late in the game, Tear finally remembers and learns the Grand Fonic Hymn in its entirety, and comes to comprehend the message hidden within. It is revealed that the Hymn is Yulia's warning for the world to find a way to break free of the Score she herself had written. As the party battles Van, Tear sings the Hymn, awakening Lorelei and allowing Van to be defeated.

H

* Hyperresonance: A very powerful ability that is used when two Fonists of the same type use their abilities in tandem. In essence, a hyperresonance allows its user(s) to tear apart the fonons of any matter and then reconstruct them. Normally, it takes two Fonists to cause one, but there are two characters within the story (Luke and Asch) who can cause one on their own.

A hyperresonance is a very dangerous ability, as it normally cannot be controlled. Jade explains that it's an ability that is so powerful, it is almost useless in battle because it would completely disintegrate everything within range--including the atmosphere. In fact, it was a "quasi"-hyperresonance, which boasts roughly 40% of the power of a "real" hyperresonance, that destroyed the entire island of Hod. Hyperresonance also occurs when the replicated island of Hod begins sharing space with the original world.

A second form of hyperresonance is second-order hyperresonance. In addition to the capabilities of normal hyperresonace, this has the ability to completely neutralize any Fonon. It is first used by Luke on Eldrant while saving the party from a trap and again used by Luke to defeat Van. Luke is the only character known to be able to use this ability, and he only gains the ability after absorbing Asch's power following the latter's death. Unlike normal hyperresonance, Luke is able to call upon and control this power at will.

J

* Jewel of Lorelei: (See "Key of Lorelei").

K

* Key of Lorelei: A mighty weapon created by Lorelei which allows the user to summon Lorelei when used along with the Grand Fonic Hymn. It also allows the user to use Lorelei's power at will. The complete Key is actually in two parts: A sword, (also called the "Key" of Lorelei) which concentrates Fonons, and the Jewel of Lorelei, which disperses them. Both halves of the Key are almost useless unless combined.

The Key of Lorelei was given to Yulia as part of the pact. It was used in order to create the Planet Storm, and possibly, the other Sephiroth as well. During his imprisonment by Van Grants, Lorelei sent both parts of the Key to Luke and Asch. Asch received the sword itself while Luke was to be given the Jewel. Luke however, did not receive anything to his knowledge, and both Asch and the party desperately search for it. However, on the Tower of Rem, it is discovered that Luke received the Jewel as he was meant to. It just so happened that Luke accidentally absorbed the Jewel into his body, as both the Jewel and himself (being a replica) are made of Seventh Fonons.

After defeating Asch on Eldrant, Luke wins the sword, which combines with the Jewel to form the "Incomplete Key of Lorelei". Later, after Luke gains the power of second-order hyperresonance, that ability allows him to fully complete the entire Key. He uses the Key and his own power in order to defeat Van and free Lorelei.

L

* Light of the Sacred Flame: The title given to the "chosen hero" who, upon being born in the year ND 2000, is to inherit Lorelei's power and lead his country into "prosperity". Described in the Score as being a royal Kimlascan boy with red hair, it is assumed by most characters to be Luke fon Fabre.

When it is discovered that Luke is a replica, the characters realize that is Asch, not Luke, who is named in the Score. (Asch was born in ND 2000, while Luke wasn't created until ND 2010.) Yet, having rejected his former life, Asch has shunned his title as the "Sacred Flame", as symbolized by his new name.

M

* Memory Particles: The particles that exist within Auldrant's core. Resembling falling snow when viewed up close, they are drawn out and used by the Sephiroth in order to push the Outer Lands into the atmosphere, forming Sephiroth Trees. In addition, the Planet Storm radiates and absorbs memory particles through special Sephiroth called "Gates". This allows the particles to enhance fonic energy throughout the world, increasing the potency of Fonic Artes and fontech.

O

* Outer Lands:

The Outer Lands is the entire landscape of Auldrant, which has been artificially raised into the atmosphere in order to protect its inhabitants from the poisonous miasma below. The original surface of the planet, known as the Qliphoth, has become mostly inhospitable for millennia. When Luke destroys the passage ring at Akzeriuth, he starts a chain reaction which causes the Outer Lands to fall one by one. In a race against time, the party use the Sephiroth to slowly lower the Outer Lands, thus protecting the populace. They then rid the world of the miasma, allowing everyone to function within the Qliphoth normally.

P

* Passage Rings: The support rings for the pillars that support the various sections of the Outer Lands. If destroyed, the Sephiroth will fail and the entire Outer Lands will begin to fall.

* Planet Storm: An artificially constructed cycle that recycles memory particles through the use of two special Sephiroth called the Radiation Gate (which draws out the particles) and the Absorption Gate (which feeds them back to the core). The Planet Storm was constructed as a means of gaining additional fuel for Fonic Artes and fontech.

It is later discovered that the Planet Storm is what originally caused the core of Auldrant to liquify and transform into miasma, necessitating the separation of the Outer Lands and the Qliphoth, as well as the creation of the Score. In order to save the planet from further liquefaction, the party attempts to counter the core's vibration with the Tartarus landship, though this fails. Ultimately, they are forced to shut down the Planet Storm itself, which will slowly render many Fonic Artes and fontech useless over the next several years.

Q

* Qliphoth: Tear's home, and the location of Yulia City.

The Qliphoth is actually the original surface of Auldrant. When the Planet Storm caused the land of Auldrant to liquefy and transform into miasma, Yulia created a plan to push the remaining land into the atmosphere, thus keeping everyone safe from the miasma for a time. However, the Qliphoth still remained hidden away underneath the Outer Lands, and was kept secret by all except the maestros of the Order of Lorelei. Late in the game, the miasma is halted and the Outer Lands are lowered back into the Qliphoth, putting things back as they originally were.

R

* Radiation Gate: The first Sephiroth, and the first part of the Planet Storm (see: Planet Storm). The memory particles of the planet are drawn out of the planet's core through here.

* Replica: A clone created by the science of Fomicry (see "Fomicry"). Any matter can be replicated, although the inventor of the procedure, Dr. Jade Balfour, placed a ban on its use on organic matter due to "technical and ethical problems". Despite this, it is revived by Van, Dist and Spinoza some years later.

Replicated organisms do not share the memories of their originals, and are practically the same as newborns. They must learn to walk, speak, and perform other basic functions from scratch. However, it is possible to "program" them with limited memories and subliminal suggestion. In addition, replicas are not accounted for in Yulia's Score, and it is their existence which causes the Score to inevitably go off-track.

At the time in which the game takes place, all replicas are made by use of the Seventh Fonon. Because of this, if the Seventh Fonons within the replica begin to separate, it will fade away and die.

S

* Sephiroth: The ten ancient devices used in order to support the Outer Lands. The memory particles spewed forth by a Sephiroth forms a structure called a "Sephiroth Tree".

The Sephiroth draw memory particles from Auldrant's core, which are used to push up the land that comprises the Outer Lands. Luke accidentally causes them to fail at one point in the game, triggering a chain reaction that causes the Outer Lands to descend. From that point on, the party is in a race against the clock to find all of the Sephiroth and reprogram them to let all of the lands down slowly, so that they will not freefall into the miasma below.

* The Score: A form of prophecy that is given by "scorers". Though there are many different types of Scores, the most pivotal (and, arguably, the most accurate) is the one written by Yulia. Yulia's Score (also known as the "Planet Score") was developed as a last-ditch effort in order to save the world from being swallowed up by poisonous miasma. It dictated the next 2000 years of human history and, in the end, promised to bring prosperity to the world. Because of this, the world at large has begun following the Score religiously, even forming a church (called the Order of Lorelei) to regular read the Score to the masses.

In truth, the Score is merely the memory of the planet (also known as Lorelei). The Score, as dictated to Yulia by Lorelei, is written in six parts on objects known as "fonstones". At the time in which the game takes place, all of the fonstones, save the Seventh, have been found and read. However, it is later revealed that the Seventh Fonstone does not actually promise prosperity as originally believed. Instead, it actually predicts the destruction of Auldrant and the demise of humankind.

This revelation, in addition to mankind's controversial dependence on the Score, is what motivates Van Grants into rejecting the score and striving to destroy it. To this end, he intended to replace the entire world with replicated people, creatures, and landscape in order to escape the "Score of Final Judgement" by ensuring that the Score is fulfilled while creating a new world on top of the old.

Eri Kasamoto

2008-01-19T00:28:00.000-08:00

Eri Kasamoto (エリ・カサモト, Eri Kasamoto?) is a fictional character from the run and gun series Metal Slug. Appearing alongside with Fiolina Germi as new female characters in Metal Slug 2, Eri has been a classic character in the series, fighting with her companions in all the Metal Slug games, albeit that she was unplayable in Metal Slug 4.

Eri was abandoned on the steps of a church in Hiroshima, Japan and subsequently raised there until she was old enough to escape. After leaving the Church she became the leader of a street gang, in which her actions had later brought her the attention of the Intelligence Service; they hired her as an assassin and spy for the government. Though she excelled at her new role, the missions began to weigh heavily on her conscience and she asked to be transferred to S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S, a request that was granted in light of her exceptional performance record.

Starting from a rank of Sergeant 2nd class in S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S., she too like those she worked with have climbed up the ladders of ranks. Although her partner Fio is of a superior position, Eri has been known to show a sort of parental love to her officer from her experience of leadership in the past life.

Since Metal Slug 2, Eri has appeared in almost all games of the series, except in Metal Slug 4 as a playable character, being replaced by Nadia Cassel and only appeared in some cameos in this game. Apart of Metal Slug series, Eri appears in all the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series. Like Tarma and Fio, Eri appears as a cameo in one of the Marco's wins in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum.

List of James Bond video game locations

2008-01-19T00:19:00.000-08:00

GoldenEye 007

* Arkangelsk, USSR
* Kyrgyzstan
* Monte Carlo
* St. Petersburg, Russia
* Cuba
* Teotihuacán, Mexico
* Egypt

Tomorrow Never Dies

* Russian Border
* Germany
* China
* Vietnam

007 Racing

* Unknown

The World is Not Enough

* London, England
* Azerbaijan
* Kazakhstan
* Istanbul, Turkey

007: Agent Under Fire

* Hong Kong, China
* British Embassy, Romania
* Switzerland
* Bucharest, Romania
* South China Sea

007: NightFire

* Paris
* French Alps
* Japan
* Outer Space

James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

* Tajikistan
* London, England
* Egypt
* Peru
* New Orleans, USA
* Moscow, Russia

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

* Fort Knox
* Switzerland
* Jamaica
* Japan
From Russia With Love

* London
* Romania
* Istanbul

Boxhead the Rooms

2008-01-18T23:10:00.000-08:00

Boxhead the Rooms is a free internet video game. The objective of the game is for the player to destroy as many zombies as possible while avoiding being killed by them. It can be a quite challenging game, since if the zombies manage to kill the player's character, the game is over, and the player will need to start again from the beginning.

Boxhead the Rooms is quite popular, especially for children who love going on the internet to play free video games, but also for many adult users.

After the big success of the game there was a second boxhead game produced called Boxhead More Rooms, in which the concept of Red Devil (a kind of super-strong enemy) is introduced alongside the ever-present zombies. After the success of the sequel, the producers even made a third game called Boxhead 2Play Rooms, which adds the two player capabilities, in either cooperative or deathmatch modes. According to Sean T. Coopet (the creator of the game) the 4th game in the series will be released in January 2007, this game, called "Zombie Wars" will not be multiplayer, but will now include the use of a base as well as different weapons.

The title of the game comes from the look and animation of the characters; in fact, all characters of the game are "made" out of boxes. Boxes are used to make the characters' bodies, heads, etc., which is one of the characteristics that make this game unique.

This game has no clear concept of level; instead, the player is expected to play for a highscore or simply for fun, since the game will only end when the player loses. However, in some games in the boxhead series, enemies arrive in waves, which are referred to as levels. The player has the choice to pick a map (among five in the original Boxhead the Rooms but more in the sequels) in which he wishes to play. These maps are overall very similar in look and feel, but each one has its own tactics and tricks, so choosing a map well can really make a difference in the final highscore.

The amount of points earned for killing zombies is determined by the "combo meter". This is a meter at the top right hand corner of the screen which always ticks down to 1, ticking faster the higher up the combo meter goes. The faster the player kills zombies, the higher up the meter goes, the more upgrades are unlocked, and the more points a player can get.

It is impossible to win the game because the zombies are continuously respawning. Every level, the enemies become more numerous (especially zombies) and also slightly faster. Also, at a certain level, when all the zombies are gone, several extra red devils spawn and attack the player before the level is complete.

Description of Weapons

* Pistol: The first gun the player receives. It has a slow firing speed but has unlimited ammunition, serving as backup if all other guns run out of ammo. Key=1

* Uzi: Basic machine gun that fires in a line. Its speed can be upgraded to rapid fire and can have up to 400 ammo. It also upgrades to unlimited range. Key=2

* Shotgun: Fires ammo in a cone-shaped but limited distance path. It can be upgraded to 80 ammo and rapid fire. Key=3. The shotgun is regarded by most as the best boxhead weapon.[citation needed]

* Barrels: Explosive barrels that explode when shot. These can be destroyed by both the player (players if co-op in 2Play Rooms) and Red Devils. Their explosive power can be upgraded, as well as their ammo. Players can block only zombies with these, which, as a key strategy, players block spawn points, dealing with only one at a time. Key=4

* Grenades: Black dots that the player throws. The distance they travel is determined by how long the space bar is held. Their upgrade fragments the grenade into smaller bits that also explode, covering a sizable area. Their ammo can be upgraded to 80. Key=5.

* Fake Walls: Fake walls that do nothing but obstruct the player(s) or the zombies. They, like the barrels, can be destroyed by both the player(s), zombies and red devils. Many players construct forts with these to manage easier in later levels. However, these can prove to be space consuming if the player is playing a small area. Key=6

* Claymore: A mine in the true sense. These explode a second or so after a zombie or red devil steps on them. Their power is equal to a grenade, and both have similar upgrades. Key=7

* Rocket Launcher: A very explosive and dangerous cannon that fires rockets. The speed, ammo, and power of this gun can be upgraded. Its power is strong enough to kill both zombies and the player easily. Key=8

* Charge Pack: Explosive charges that can be placed only one at a time. Pressing the spacebar once places them, pressing it again detonates. Key=9

* Rail Gun: A laser that fires briefly, but destroys any and all zombies and red devils in the path of the laser. Can be upgraded to more ammo and rapid fire. Key=0

Characters

* Bambo: The only character who appears in the whole series.

* Bon: Only appears in 2Play Rooms.

* Bind: Only appears in 2Play Rooms.

* Bert: Only appears in 2Play Rooms.

Enemies

* Zombie: A regular enemy that appears in large waves and attacks the player in hand-to-hand combat. Killing them earns the player 100x the level of the "combo meter."

* Red devils: Larger red zombies which shoot fireballs at the player. They have much more health than regular zombies. They can shoot and destroy barrels and their own teammates. Every Red Devil killed earns the player 1000x the level of the "combo meter."

Battle Arena Toshinden 5

2008-01-18T23:06:00.000-08:00

Battle Arena Toshinden 5 (working title "Warbudokai", meaning roughly War Tournament) is the announced fith installement of the Toshinden Series. It is the first game of the series that will be released for all seventh generation consoles: the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. The Wii version features different controls due the nature of the Wii Remote, and it is announced that all versions include different guest characters in cameo appearances. It is also clear that Tsukasa Kotobuki doesn't make the Charadesign for Toshinden. The release date hasn't yet to be announced, but its presumable way later than Street Fighter 5.

Toshinden 5 will include a new Story Mode called "Adventure of the Toshin" which replaces the traditional Battlemode, and according to the developers, it will play like Dynasty Warriors (which also starts as a fighting Game).30 Fighters are planned with own Weaponstyles unlike the third Game. Most of the characters from Toshinden 1 up to Toshinden 4 will return. It shoulded be noted that many from the previous Games turned to the "Evil" Side. Ellis as sample, will be very cold blooded and has a new weapon called "MultiBladewing" a bizzare weapon which resembles wings. The reason for this was not explained yet.

Interesting is, Warbudokai will follow the Storyline of Toshinden 3 and not Toshinden 4. Its confirmed the Game begins in the Vietnam War in 1968: Sergant Dunn, a highly skilled solider who later kills all of the Organization members (Toshinden2), Cupido and Sho also then the Gerard Foundation (Toshinden3), must fighting against Robots. This will set in the first of the planned 15 so called Events.

Characters

* Sgt. Dunn (new, main Character)
* Rungo Iron (main character)
* Kayin Amoh (main character)
* Ellis
* Cupid
* Chris Iron (new, son of Rungo Iron)
* "NLucy" (new, confirmed as highly intellegent Girl, a working title)
* "Wii Chan" (confirmed chara soley for Wii, a Cyber Girl, also an working title)

Battle Arena Toshinden series

Main series

* 1. Battle Arena Toshinden

Battle Arena Toshinden (a.k.a To Shin Den): Sony PlayStation

Battle Arena Toshinden Remix (a.k.a To Shin Den S): Sega Saturn

Battle Arena Toshinden PC

* 2. Battle Arena Toshinden 2

Battle Arena Toshinden 2: Sony PlayStation

Battle Arena Toshinden 2 Plus: Sony PlayStation. Japan only

Battle Arena Toshinden URA - Ultimate Revenge Attack: Sega Saturn

Battle Arena Toshinden 2 PC

* 3. Battle Arena Toshinden 3 Sony PlayStation

* 4. Battle Arena Toshinden 4 (a.k.a Toshinden Subaru): Sony PlayStation. Japan and Europe only

Spin offs

* 5. Battle Arena Nitoshinden (a.k.a Toshinden Kids): Sony PlayStation. Japan only
* 6. Puzzle Arena Toshinden: Sony PlayStation. Japan only
* 7. Toshinden Card Quest: Sony PlayStation. Japan only
* 8. Toshinden: Gameboy
* 9. Toshinden: Tiger Handheld
* 10. Toshinden - The Anime: VHS, DVD

Anthem Game Group

2008-01-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

Anthem Game Group is a subsidiary game development outsourcing company of commercial design firm, Anthem Design Group , located in Atlanta, Georgia. Anthem Game Group is a graphics contractor; they have worked on Greg Hastings's Tournament Paintball MAX'd mobile and PlayStation 2 as well as PREY Mobile 3D, 3D Hunting: Grizzly 2008, Stand Down!, and most recently developed the art on Guitar Hero III Mobile

Theme Park Builder 3D

2008-01-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

Theme Park Builder 3D is a community project to create a free amusement park construction game. It is currently in the planning phase. It is being programmed in C++, while the graphics are being made in Blender 3D and a host of other 3D programs. The project was originally started by DoctorJ and "Mark Paul" Sebar, however several coders as well as many modelers and sound recording people are now involved in the game's development. Key features will include user created content and expandability. Players can take a first person view to "ride the rides".

Illegal Danish - Super Snacks!

2008-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Illegal Danish: Super Snacks, is a story-line based machinima production created and produced by Dementia-Myndflame. It is recorded in World of Warcraft. Primary credits go to D.W. Hackleman (editor, producer, actor, and visual effects), Clint Hackleman (Music, Sound Editor, Script actor & Producer).

This work of Machinima created in January of 2006 was inspired by the first collaboration of Dementia Myndflame, Zinwrath: The Movie. A widely distributed video that has won numerous awards and recognition as one of the most popular fan-based Machinima videos using the World of Warcraft game engine. Super Snacks originally premiered in the first Xfire Blizzard Movie Contest in 2006 where several hundred entrants were considered to receive awards valued in excess of $10,000. Super Snacks was nominated in seven categories including: Best Comedy, Best Dance, Best Editing, Best Pun or Line, Best Original Music, Best Dialogue, and Best Action Scene and ended up taking home five first place awards (Best Comedy, Best Editing, Best Original Music, Best Dialogue and Best Action Scene and one second place award, Best Dance nearly sweeping every award category in the competition. Super Snacks has also been nominated as the "Best Machinima Video" in the GameShadow Innovation in Games Festival & Awards and is currently in the #1 position voted by the People's Choice.

Since its debut, Super Snacks has been distributed widely throughout Machinima and Gaming websites, and viewed at least 2.5 million times on popular sites like Youtube, Google Video, and Warcraftmovies.com, establishing it as one of the most widely distributed Machinima videos in history. Even Paul Della Bitta, the community manager of Blizzard Entertainment has referred to Dementia Myndflame as producers of "Mega Machinima Masterpieces".

The movie begins in the undead capital of Undercity, where the villain High Warlord Van Kraken, an undead warlock, decked out, as his name would imply, in full High Warlord pvp gear, is introduced. Van Kraken expresses the lament that many in-game engineers have in the World of Warcraft, that engineering gadgets are not very profitable. In his soliloquy, Van Kraken reveals that he switched to alchemy and is now in competition with a local merchant for people’s business. His monologue continues as he describes how acquiring the “illegal danish” will enable him to finish his new elixirs and put his competition out of business for good. (The “illegal danish” is an object that looks like a glowing pastry. Whether it actually is a pastry or not is never explained.) As part of Van Kraken’s plan, he has constructed a mechanical replica of the dwarf Floivan, who is a member of a guild called “Illegal Danish,” so named after the object that they protect. This replica, while sophisticated, is not all that convincing… at least to the viewer.

The movie then shifts focus to the human paladin Basutei (introduced in Myndflame’s previous machima film, “Zinwrath: The Movie”) and a night elf druid named Rasi. The two attend the latest Illegal Danish guild meeting, in which their guild master, Puff (a night elf hunter) brings the guild, and the viewer, up to speed with a recent world-problem involving portals, summons and other spells malfunctioning. (This problem was also evident in the “Zinwrath” movie as well.) Also at the meeting, a gnome mage reveals that there is an imposter of Floivan somewhere in their midst and that the danish is not safe. The real Floivan arrives late and is mistaken for the imposter. The guild forms an angry mob and chases the confused and fleeing Floivan from the meeting. Floivan, being true to the habits of dwarves, gets himself drunk while being pursued and in his beer-induced mental state, commandeers a dwarven steam tank, driving it haphazardly throughout Ironforge. Also at the same time, the annoying gnome rogue Dirti is shown feebly attempting to recruit people into his guild (much as he tried to do in “Zinwrath”), pestering the denizens of Ironforge in the process. Just when it looks as though he may have found his first recruit, he is hit by Floivan’s runaway steam tank. Outside of Ironforge, a human is having a mage create a portal to Stormwind City for him. The portal doesn’t look right and before anyone can use it, Floivan’s runaway tank enters it and vanishes.

Meanwhile, back inside Ironforge, the guild meeting has concluded and Puff gives Rasi the assignment of locating the source of the spell disruptions. He believes the source to be in Astranaar and asks her to take Basutei. The two of them find a dead-end when, upon finding the alleged location of the spell disruption source, they instead find a snacky machine with goblin cakes. Basutei then breaks open the snack machine and begins eating all of the goblin cakes (saying he is fulfilling the prophecy of the Danish) until Rasi throws the machine into the brush below.

Floivan’s steam tank emerges from a malfunctioning portal high above the tree tops of central Stranglethorn Vale and he discovers upon emerging from the wreckage that Dirti, who was still clinging to the tank after being run over, has also arrived there with him. The two resolve to head to Booty Bay so that Dirti can get himself back to Ironforge and continue his recruiting effort. They leave the steam tank behind, where it soon becomes an idol of worship for a native tribe of murlocs. Dirti’s personality traits eventually get the better of Floivan and he vainly tries to help Dirti refine his recruiting technique.

Meanwhile, back at Ironforge, Van Kraken’s imposter steals the danish but is caught by the returning Rasi and Basutei. The robot then morphs into a colossal monster and utterly destroys the Arcanite Reaper-wielding warrior Killjoy (who also appeared in “Zinwrath”) in a single blast from its shoulder-cannon. Basutei attempts to flee, but the robot launches him right through the roof of Ironforge and into the sky (Basutei had his paladin shield bubble up at the time). When Basutei finally lands, he finds himself in the middle of Club Thrall, in the heart of the Horde capital of Orgrimmar.

Unlike most tradition fan-based Machinima, the entire score was entirely written specifically for the movie by Clint Hackleman also known as Myndflame. The soundtrack, "Illegal Danish: Super Snacks Soundtrack" features about 30 minutes of original music inspired and written during the creation of the movie and Clint's personal experiences in the World of Warcraft. It features several popular titles including "Club Thrall" and "MC Raiders", a rap parody of a raider's experience in Molten Core, the first 40-man raid dungeon released in World of Warcraft and has sold more albums than any other Independent Machinima video.

Dementia Myndflame has been interviewed by Xfire, Warcraftmovies.com, Machinima.com, own-age.com, and WCRadio and have also hosted public chat sessions with their fans. Their movies have appeared on popular Warcraft related sites like allakhazam.com, goblinworkshop.com, and featured many times on the front page of worldofwarcraft.com and tens of thousands of blogs and myspace pages. They are currently working with several major gaming companies and networks which have yet to be released to the public due to confidentiality agreements.

WoW Stat Hack

2008-01-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

WoW Stat Hack and related products are scams (fraud) often sold through internet bots from within the World of Warcraft gaming environment. Other sales techniques involve YouTube videos, and Google ads.

New users are targeted and offered a means for quickly achieving very high player stats or experience points with little effort. The product they buy does nothing to help them.

The hacks are downloadable products that claim to make the player invincible. The downloaded products frequently do nothing at all, or create a false appearance of increased player strength. Documentation provided with these products is designed to confuse users and delay any attempts at a refund.

In cases where users are able to make apparent changes to their characters' capabilities, these changes are local only to their client and have no real bearing on character performance at the game server. In effect, the software provides the user with the illusion of new strength. Characters operating in this mode are killed as easily as if the illusion were not present.

Stat hacks are big money fraud that feeds on the popularity of online games and on naive users of such games. Products have low prices in the hopes that most buyers will not seek a refund or other remedial action once they discover that the purchased product has no real value.

The following exchange touches on key aspects of the fraud, including observations on technical limitations of the "hack" products.

Legacy of the Dragons

2008-01-13T00:31:00.000-08:00

Legend: Legacy of the Dragons is a browser based, on-line fantasy MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game). Upon entering the game, you show up on the world of Faeo. This is a world where there are two dominant races: Magmars and Humans. Their enmity goes back long ago, and there have been constant wars throughout the many years, despite the constant thrashings of the Magmars. Many races of creatures and peoples including elves, dwarves and halflings have perished in the wars between them leaving the Humans and Magmars as the remaining races who will have to learn to live together if there is to be peace.

Playing the game
You can also download the Game Client which has extra features such as background music and buttons made to help the game run better. It has been found that some browsers run the game better than others, but using the Game Client will run it well either way. The browser will open up a location screen and a chat window below it, with HUD on the top of the screen with buttons for things such as character stats, items and maps. Being friendly and helpful to each other is promoted within the game to keep a friendly atmosphere so that all people can enjoy the game. Those who do not follow the chat rules are warned and then stopped from chatting. Players can do this themselves but there are Moderators who have more abilities to deal with the 'offender's. People who ignore the warnings are reported to the administrators and are investigated and then blocked from the game altogether.

Combat and PvP
Combat is represented through turn based 'hack n' slash' fights that occur on-screen, including PvP (player-versus-player) combat, with customisable PC's (player characters). There are hundreds of strange and beautiful locations to explore and battle through, with many weird and monstrous creatures to encounter, and a handy map to help guide you through your quests. You can even join a clan with your friends and participate in group battles to bring down bigger foes or to challenge other players in PvP combat.

Professions
By choosing one of the professions, such as Jeweller and Sorcerer, you can expand your experience of the game, taking on quests and meeting the folk of your selected race. Every choice reflects your characters position in the game. Each path you choose will lead you on quests of treasure and rewards. And you can only be level 3 and up to get one.

Chat
Players can also converse through the chat window and gain tips and help from the online administrators and broadcast news.

Weekly Battles
Every week the dragons of each race lead raids into enemy territory and lead even larger battles at the Battlefields where players can collect Valour points' and use them to achieve Ranks. The score of the battles on the Battlefields are added to the main page where a scale of Victories is shown. Players can help one another with special items, help to heal each other with scrolls and even call upon beasts to help out when the fight gets tough. Players will also meet the Dragons in combat, but they won't be fighting them singlehandedly for very long, for the Dragons will eat them up! But, with a combined effort from other players, they can be brought down eventually. Raids into enemy territory can also be led to rob banks, and the spoils of combat shared out amongst the winning side.

Forums
There are many forums for different areas in the game and include a new one where people who's native language is not English can contact others for help in the game. Players should contribute and read the forums to know more about the game or to ask questions and take part in polls and register their interest to join the Legion.

Contacts
Players can add friends to a contact list and help each other when needed. They can also add 'enemies' to add a bit of fun and rivalry.

Clans
After reaching the required level, players can create Clans that their friends can join. You have to use the in-game money to register your clan and supply a cool picture for your own clan symbol. It has to be small, 13x13 pixels, so something distinctive and bold would be best.

Moderators and the Legion
Players can register join the Legion to become an authorised helper in the game, called a Legionnaire. Those in the Legion are there to help other players and moderate the chat window. They start off on a probationary period as Mentors and are paid for doing a shift where they help players and report any errors they find in the game. Reports that are helpful to them are rewarded too and any player can make these reports. Their pay is then increased after two weeks and they have the choice of either remaining as a Mentor or joining the clan of the Guards. If you join the Guards you would have to leave your clan, since this is a special group of players who 'police' the game, checking for people who could be hacking the game, looking after the chat window and putting players in the dungeon for in-game 'crimes'.

News
Players can see what's new and access the forum for more help from the main page or from the Forum button within the HUD (Head Up Display).

Gamer Time Radio

2008-01-11T00:24:00.000-08:00

Gamer Time Radio was established in 2007 by Brad Jewell. The show is an independent podcast that discusses and comments on news related to the gaming industry across all systems, and is typically 30-40 minutes long. The show's personalities usually consist of host and creator, Brad Jewell, co-hosts John Mowry and Aaron Vidal, and often a guest, sometimes from another podcast or network.

As of October 10, 2007, Gamer Time Radio has produced 20 episodes. The show is normally posted on Saturdays or Mondays, and is accessible through iTunes, Facebook, myspace, or through their website, Gamer Time Radio.

The Realm of No!

2008-01-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

The Realm of No! (Q1) is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. There is no module code as this work was submitted but not published by TSR.

The Realm of No! is an unpublished adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game set in the World of Greyhawk. Gary Gygax could not believe anyone at TSR would be interested in such a module.]"The Realm of No!" was originally hand printed and later typed and submitted to TSR in an amount of 10 copies. These 10 copies are printed on heavy stock paper and are signed, numbered and dated by the author Kim Ryan. This module was originally written in 1984 but printed and submitted to T.S.R. in 1985. It is believed that the first 6 of the 10 copies were submitted with a hand written letter to Gary Gygax. While it is claimed that this module was submitted to TSR, Gary Gygax was not overseeing and creative submissions.

"The Realm of No!" takes place in the Kingdom of King Bill who has gained power by his discovery of The NO! Staff. King Bill has enslaved the new races he has created with his staff and savagely holds onto his power by any means possible.

"The Realm of No!" incorporates radically silly creatures such as the V8 monster and the Tomato Warrior into the Dungeons & Dragons landscape and which also parodies people and items from the mid 1980's. At the very end of the module, the players face a final confrontation with King Bill and realize who in is friend and foe & what is true and not true.

Unfortunately and without official reason, "The Realm of No!" was embraced by the staff at T.S.R. at the time but was never released. The was possible due to the strange nature of the module.

Through staff changes and company changes within T.S.R. in the later 1980's and early to mid 1990's, the 10 Realm of No! modules found their way into private collections of some T.S.R. staff and into collectors collections in the United States, Germany, and Canada. The locations of the ten The Realm of No! Modules are unknown aside from lordan's and Degassy31copies.

In 2004, a member of The Acaeum, known as lordan posted information on his 4 of 10 The Realm of No! and inquiring about its value and origin. It is unknown whether he sold his copy or threw it in the garbage.

Sorudo

2008-01-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

Sorudo is a derogatory term used among members of the online gaming community to indicate someone who is a consistent troll, yet doesn't overstep the established line of the community enough to result in a ban. Sorudos often claim ignorance to avoid reprimand, even after being corrected several times, generally by noted members of the community. Sorudos have been compared with so-called '/b/tards', from the well-known 4chan imageboard. General consensus on the internet is that they are posters in the pre-troll phase and destined to troll forums.

Sorudos are intensely disliked by many, especially among those communities which are dedicated to helping new gamers within the community, since the Sorudo is likely to mislead new players, providing them with false information. Most Sorudos have a tendency to think of themselves as better gamers than others, however through the spreading of faulty information and their general anti-social attitude (as described above) they are in fact worse. 'Fail' is an internet meme often used to describe Sorudos. In general they also think of themselves as qualified programmers and game developers, as they equate modding experience to actual programming. Furthermore, they have trouble using Internet based resources like Wikipedia, instead using their own opinion as fact, which has led to a derivation of Sorudo's known as Trollpedia's, who specifically target Wiki's with their actions.

The origin of the word Sorudo is unknown, though the most popular explanation is that it was named after the first Sorudo, who used Sorudo as his forum alias. Some think it is a derivation from popular anime, manga and similar japanese art. It is also a common Dutch household name for pets.