All Gamers Consoles

Comparing The Playstation 3, Xbox 360, And Nintendo WII

2007-06-19T12:06:00.001-04:00

Finally, they’re all here. The Xbox 360 has had the next generation gaming market to itself for a year. Now its two competitors, the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, are here. No more speculating about speed. No more guessing about memory. Now we can take a look and see exactly how they stack up compared to each other.

Let the console wars begin again.

Price

The PS3 has two configurations much like the Xbox 360. The PS3 comes in a $499 version that comes with a 20 GB hard drive and a $599 version that comes with a 60 GB hard drive; Wi-Fi; and memory stick, SD, and Compact Flash slots.

The Xbox 360 has two configurations. It comes in a $299 core version and a $399 version that comes with a 20GB hard drive.

The Nintendo Wii is the cheapest of the bunch with just one configuration that costs $250.

Processing Power

The Playstation 3 comes with its Cell processor. It’s a PowerPC based core that runs at 3.2 GHz that also have seven DSPs that run at 3.2 GHz. This configuration can do about 2 Teraflops.

The Xbox 360 has a Custom IBM PowerPC processor. This processor also runs at 3.2 GHz. However, Xbox went with a true 3 core processor compared to the one general processor of the Cell and seven additional DSPs. This configuration can do about 1 Teraflop.

The Nintendo Wii includes its Broadway processor, a PowerPC based processor running at 729 MHz.

Disc Media

Part of the reason the PS3 is so much more expensive than the Xbox 360 is because the Sony decided to include a Blu-ray drive on the system. The drive can play both Blu-ray movies and regular DVDs. The Xbox 360 comes with a DVD player and an HD-DVD add-on is planned. The Nintendo Wii uses a DVD drive; however, the system will not work for playback of movies, just Nintendo games.

Backwards Compatibility

The Playstation 3 is just like the PS2 was. You’ll be able to play both PS2 and PSone games on the PS3. Nintendo is taking things a bit further. Their system will be compatible with the Gamecube games and also the Gamecube controllers since the two systems use very different controllers. Not only that, but the Wii will also have the ability to download games from the original Nintendo (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES), and the Nintendo 64.

Sweet Features

If you want high definition gaming, then the PS3 is the way to go. It comes with a Blu-ray drive built in and can output in 1080p. Although the PS3 controller may look familiar, it’s had some updates. The controller is now motion sensing so in some games you’ll be able to move your character or fly a plane just by moving the controller.

The Xbox 360 was built to work with Windows XP media center. If you have a computer that already has media center on it, you’ll be able to view pictures, videos, and even recorded TV by using your Xbox. You won’t need to put your PC in your living room to take advantage of having a Media Center PC.

The Nintendo Wii decided to completely change the way gaming controllers are built. In the past, one controller was always held with both hands. The Wii’s controller looks more like a TV remote control than a game controller. It has a built in motion sensor so, for example, to swing a sword, you simply move you hand just like you were really swinging a sword.

Hopefully this review has helped you compare the three next generation gaming systems. Each has its pluses and minuses, and feature that are unique to it. Ultimately, your decision will likely come down to which system has the games that most appeal to you. And that is a decision that only you can make when deciding on a system to buy.

About The Author
Gary Ruplinger is the editor of http://www.ps3asap.com, a resource for getting the in demand PS3 system. He also is a writer for http://www.gamesystemreviews.com where you can learn about all of the next generation systems.
Tags: games, gaming, console, playstation, xbox, nintendo, wii

RPG: Table and Computer

2007-06-15T23:45:00.001-04:00

It’s not a secret that table RPG games are not so popular as they used to be. However a certain number of amateurs are still fond of them. What is so particular about a pasteboard box or a book with rules? It seems that all the advantages have their ” younger computer brothers”: no manual calculations, no bricks ( the number of which is from one to almost 20). In general, no additional efforts are needed- just relax, play and don’t worry. But nothing of the kind- groups of maniacs with burning eyes run to the special shop( if there is any), buy another book, and having met in some dark place in the evening, start to crunch with pens and tinkle the dice.
Why are these poor things so attracted by this desperately ancient way of entertainment?

Let’s try to answer this question by displaying the most similar and different features of table and computer RPG.

Firstly, any RPG is a Role Paying Game, which is supposed to have a character, and a system of his development. This feature is typical for both the “brothers”. The character as the player’s realization in the created RPG world is very important. Your playing capabilities depend on his features.
Secondly, any decent RPG is based on some world (sometimes, realistic but more often-fantastic one). The depth of the world ( The card details, atmosphere entirety, detailed development of the world components) and , so to say, the mood (optimistic and colorful or destructive and gloomy, funny or extremely rigid, strict),- all this taken together defines the audience of the game.

These two points have a great meaning, they allow the player to associate himself with a certain character and being in his shoes to go through the situations which are impossible in ordinary life.

All this is very good but let’s return to our muttons: to the difference between computer and table RPG.

Probably, trite comparison of books and films will be to the place here. The former make us use our brains and imagination, the latter give us everything ready-made. The peculiarity of table RPG, its strong and at the same time weak point is hope for player’s imagination.. In the classical table RPG you’ll find a text, some illustrations and… all the rest you should imagine yourself. It’s true, that during the gaming process everything depends on the leader (Dungeon Master, Game Master, etc.) and on the players. The leader explains the situation, describes the characters and the events orally (yes, he does it with the help of words!!!) and the players perceive this information judging from their abilities. What are the advantages of such a game play? They are quite evident: everyone perceives the game in his own way (with the help of his imagination), but at the same time, if the game is rather good, a special “field” of common perception and mood is formed. It’s not an allegation as the author has great experience of playing table RPG and so he knows all ins and outs. When the game has a success, the players seem to be in the same “information field” and sometimes they don’t even perceive the events in real life. It’s just like reading a thrilling book. But sometimes such beauty turns into a terrible thing. What is so horrible about it? The trouble is, the game may be a complete failure if it’s leaded by a talentless and not very experienced master, or if the players turn out to be so-so (that is less critical). In such a case the game fails no matter how beautiful the original RPG world is. Everything gets wrong when after each word the master utters: ”well, eh, oh…” and it takes the players 10 minutes to think over each further act. The game reaches a deadlock, a perfect illusion is breaking into the small pieces of separate sentences.

I must admit, sometimes it’s all RPG developers ‘fault that such failures take place, especially when the rules of the game aren’t logical or overcharged with unnecessary details. May the fans forgive me, but the last time the author had to play AD&D, there was such a situation:
-Player:” I want to kill that Gobline!”
-Master: ”throw the dice for marksmanship. Uph, you shoot in the darkness-that means, the fine should be taken into account. Well.. have you got the bonus? Aha…I’ll find it, wait a bit… Oh…
throw these three bricks on D-20,…Hmmm…where is that table? OK, we are going to count all the damages and take into account his armor and the spell and that’s all!”
I don’t say everything was exactly so, but on the whole-just the way I described. What absorption into fantastic world can we talk about if you have to remember 20 figures and throw the dice dozen times for each act! But not all the table games have such a disadvantage. Besides, we may ignore too “hard” rules.
Now let’s analyze what we have in computer RPG.
From the first look everyt5hing is just the same-the game system, characters, the game world. But all these things are already made, you can see the picture with your eyes. Is it good or bad?
It depends. By all means, it’s pleasant to see “visual” character, a charming landscape, fire from shots, etc. But your own brains don’t work any longer since there’s no necessity in it. Besides, we won’t see “our own world”. We perceive things as they should be from the game developers’ point of view.

Their way of perception becomes ours as well. You will never be able to see the world with your own eyes and make the character really yours, no matter how hard the developers tried to improve the game. Such a situation has two consequences:
1) Tragic one: your imagination is completely blocked and you don’t like the others’ vision.( such a situation is typical for the most of projects).
2) Pleasant one: some painters and designers create real masterpieces and we can’t but admire their world vision ( here you perfectly understand the difference between your plain brains and a talented professional’s work).

But are there many games like that in the second point? Frankly speaking, I know only one-Fallout. And I appreciate not the graphics but amazing style, exact place of every button, picture, character.

Let’s also mention incontestable advantage of computer RPG. It deals with those calculations which make so many table RPG boring. Computer will calculate all the fines, bonuses and character’s features in a flash. Strange as it may seem but computer games are based just on the table systems and the developers of the former ones don’t aim to overcharge machines with numerous correlations and parameters.

At last we’ve come to a very sensitive problem of the computer RPG- opportunities provided in the game. Sometimes playing RPG on the computer you may suddenly want to act the way not offered by the plot of the game. ( to look into the hatch which is pictured on the background or to take the car you are not allowed to). I am sure that such things are familiar to every gamer. It’s great if the plot and the locations are well considered. And what if they are not ( as it happens more often)? We must admit that the developers of computer games are constantly improving the gamer’s opportunities in the installed worlds. But if the direction is not perfect, the game turns into hard work and it makes the player take advantage of all the improvements (even if he is not willing to).

Table RPG is another matter: the action there is equal to one word, no talks linearity ( you can communicate with the leader the way you like), no plot linearity ( you can do what you like until you are killed). Full freedom of the decisions and actions provided by table RPG will never be substituted by any perfect program. Here you can act as you like.

Besides, the standard of the game can be easily changed. For example, I can tell you from my own experience that once I started the game as a guard (pure RPG adventure) and finished as an emperor (RPG+tactics+strategy). That’s it.

It’s for you to judge what is better. What and how to play is also for you. But I’d like to say (from my own experience again) that table RPG develop our brains while computer ones don’t.

A friend of mine being an active table player suddenly began reading books( he didn’t use to do it since his childhood). He started to read not classical masterpieces or since fiction. That was fantasy. But anyway he began READING, and that’s the point.

Another my friend got used to computer and became a real fan and gamer. Now I constantly see blue areas under his eyes and our communication is bothered by a turned on PC.

Of course, these are separate examples and the author must admit, he is addicted to computer RPG . But nevertheless it’s table RPG which gives us the opportunity to communicate and improve. That ‘s what all the author’s life experience tells about.

P.S. I’m ready to an open discussion of the topic. You are free to write your thoughts to me.

By the way, an interesting question: does anybody see the opportunity to combine the two kinds of RPG described above? What if there is the golden mean? What if there is?

About the Author-Efimof Peter is a game designer of White Elephant, a great collection of shareware games. Please, visit his site www.elephant-games.com for only best games for you and your children!
Tags: games, gaming, gamers, rpg

Computer Monitor Buying Guide

2007-06-13T00:03:00.001-04:00

Although a monitor makes some of the least difference in terms of your computer's speed, it can make some of the biggest differences in terms of comfort and productivity. This guide aims to give you the details you need to know to choose the best monitor for what you need it for.

LCD flap panel monitors have become all the rage, in a matter of just a few years, the old CRT monitors have nearly become obsolete, expecially on new computers. The old monitors are not bad. There is much to be liked, especially in terms of value for money, and in terms of performance. But you can't fight the change. We will focus on the LCD flat panel monitors as there is often more to be considered.

Firstly there is the connection to the computer. Older monitors utilized a VGA cable that carried the signal from the computer to the monitor. The signal that goes along there is an analogue signal and it can become slightly degraded, and is just an old technology. Many flat panel monitors support this old style, but that is usually just for backwards compatibility. The newer cable type is a digital kind which is designed to be used for LCD monitors. The performance from this newer kind is better, but if you are upgrading an old computer, make sure your computer can run that monitor.

Secondly is the screen resolution. This is how many pixels can be displayed on the monitor. The higher the resolution, the more can be fit on the screen. This means clearer images with much smoother textures, but it also means that things appear smaller as an increase in resolution does not increase the physical dimensions of the monitor. Usual nowadays is 1024 x 768 or even 1280 x 960. Computers used to have 800 x 600, but that has all but disappeared, except on very old computers or those that are not maintained properly. I run 1280 x 960 as it gives room for a lot of working space on the monitor, but with less than a 19 inch monitor, 1024 x 768 would be more suitable.

Screen refresh rate is another factor that comes into play. CRT monitors used a process of changing the pixels on the screen to show the new images, updating from top to bottom in lines, at a certain rate per second. With that old style 60MHz (60 refreshes per second) would be the minimum before the screen started to flicker. LCD monitors do not have this problem and will look fine at 60MHz.When running games a refresh rate higher than that is required, often up to 85MHz or more. Make sure the monitor you plan to use supports at least 60MHz at your desired resolution for normal use and 85MHz if you want to play games.

A specification that is new for flat panel monitors that didn't effect CRT monitors is latency. Although the refresh rate may be high, the table of little dots that make up the LCD panel take a small time to change, that change is the latency. Obviously if this latency is too high it is possible that you get shot in games before you even know it, which is no good. Latencies have improved, but only monitors claimed with 8ms latency have been really good for games. Latencies tend to be exaggerated and a latency of 8ms actually averages out to 12ms. With most ratings multiply by 1.5 to get an average rating.

The actual brightness of the screen can vary from spot to spot on the screen. Certain monitors have obvious bright parts and dull parts while others are more consistent. Most have some variation, but the less, the better. Name branded monitors tend to give better results than cheaper no name brand versions.

Extras like little speakers are not worth talking about much. They have limited use and I would rather have separate speakers and keep the monitor simple.

After considering these, you should have enough to make a good purchase decision. Remember that a little extra money spent on a monitor is a good investment, and unlike many other computer parts, upgrades are not needed that often.

About the author:
Peter Stewart is a computer enthusiast, his interest in computers and focus on practical down to earth advice inspired his two web sites.
http://computer-buying-guide.com - Practical buying tips
http://computer-reviews.net - Fair and honest reviews and opinions
Tags: games, gamers, gaming, computer monitor

Should You Upgrade to an XBox 360

2007-06-07T18:22:00.001-04:00

The XBox 360 is going to be one of the most sought after gifts of this upcoming holiday season. However many people want to know is it worth upgrading now, or should you wait, here are some factors you may want to consider.

The base price for and XBox 360 is $300, the most common accessories are the 20GB hard drive ($100), wireless controllers ($50) and headsets ($20). Many vendors are offering packages with a variety of options with prices of $500 or more. While some of these options depend on your gaming style and preferences the hard drive is the one option we recommend you get right away. The hard drive allows you to save games to play back later and install updates that make many older games compatible on the new platform.

One of the advantages the XBox 360 will have over other game systems is graphics. The graphics of other gaming systems are top notch but on newer games like Project Gotham Racing 3, NFL 06 and Call of Duty 2 which were written for this platform, there simply is no comparison. When you compare the specifications the XBox 360 to any of its competitors, it?s anywhere from 2 to 10 times more powerful. If you are lucky enough to own and HDTV you will really notice the difference, although it will work on standard TV?s as well.

With this console Microsoft is also making a concerted effort to make the Xbox part of your media center. It can connect to any other windows networked computer in your house. It can be used to play movies, slideshows of pictures, and MP3 files. If you own and IPod or digital camera you can also connect them directly to the USB port located on the front game console.

Lastly you?ll want to think about Xbox Live. This is a paid online membership that allows you to get free trials of new games and play in head to head action against other players over your high speed internet connection. You also have access to updates and patches as they become available.

For hard core gamers there is no choice, they will do practically anything to get their hands on the newest and latest systems available. For others it may be worth waiting until 2006 when Playstation 3 is released to see how platforms compare.

This article was written by Colette Ianieri who runs http://www.Gamer411.net which features news and reviews of video games, game systems, and portable video games.

Tags: games, gamers, xbox, xbox 360, game console

Halo 2 Multiplayer Tips for Beginners and Advanced players

2007-06-05T15:50:00.001-04:00

Here are some general tips from an advanced player for all of you who are looking for an edge in this game. You may know some or all the things in this article depending on your skill level. Even if you are an expert player this article should help you remember the fundamental that make you a good player. This article focuses on individual fighting tips, perhaps a future article will address team strategy.

Weapon Combos:
From close range you can hit for a lot more damage when holding two weapons. From a distance, the battle rifle is the weapon of choice if you cannot get your hands on a sniper rifle. My favorite combo for quick kills is the plasma rifle/smg combo and the pistol/smg combo. If you aim at the opponents head and they don’t aim at your head, like most people, they will be wondering how they died so fast. The plasma rifle combo is better against multiple opponents and the pistol is more effective against single opponents. This is because the pistol runs out of ammo quickly. If you can find a plasma pistol, the plasma pistol/smg combo is not bad, but it leaves you vulnerable if you miss the charged shot or if there are multiple opponents.

Plasma Pistol/Battle Rifle:
This in my opinion is the ultimate combo. If you are at close to medium range, hit them with the plasma pistol and shoot them in the head with the battle rifle. At long range, pick them off with the battle rifle. This is a frustrating combo to fight against when the opponent is good. This is one of the reasons you see a lot of Human Slayer games now.

Grenades:
This is one of the things that separate good players from weaker ones. It takes a lot of practice to become an expert with grenades, but it is one of the easiest ways to kill someone. Use common sense, throw the grenade where the player will be not where they are right now. If you see someone running towards you, backup behind a wall and throw a grenade in their path. If you are surrounded, try to get off two grenades and you will sometimes get several kills. If you hit someone with a frag grenade, and you hit them in the head with a battle rifle, they die in one shot.

Melee:
If you are shooting someone and you can walk up to them, melee them if you can. Sometimes it is better to back up rather than melee. For example if you are dual wielding and did not get the first shot off against a single wielder, back off so you kill him rather than get meleed. Don’t forget that you lunge slightly when you melee, so use that to your advantage.

Where to walk:
Try to flank people as much as possible. For example if you are on top of big base sniping and you see someone on the radar coming up, look through or jump through the hole behind you and take them out. On ivory tower, if you are at the top and see someone coming from dark side, jump down a level and flank them. Do not run into rooms with more than one enemy, let them come to you or weaken them with grenades first, it is much easier to kill them that way.
Summary: The #1 tip I can give you is to aim for the head no matter what weapon you are using, except the shotgun. You will kill them a lot faster. Other than that, learn the maps and the weapon combos that work best in different situations.

About the author:
Tony James is a supporter of freeware games and runs (Freewaregames.net-free full version games) a well known freeware games resource
Tags: games, gaming, gamers, halo 2

Wii wins big among casual gamers (From USA Today)

2007-06-02T20:28:00.001-04:00

SEATTLE - In a slight crouch, Reggie Fils-Aime snapped off a left jab followed by a right hook.

Demonstrating how the hand controls of Nintendo's hot-selling Wii video game console work in a boxing game, Fils-Aime, the Nintendo of America president, let out a laugh.

He could well afford it. For now, Fils-Aime has put real-life business rivals at Microsoft and Sony at the receiving end of a pummeling.

Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 boast superior computing power, theater-quality graphics and loyal followings among hard-core gamers. But since its launch six months ago, the Wii has snared the most coveted prize of all: a sizable and growing following among casual gamers.

"The Wii has become a viral and cultural phenomenon all to itself," Fils-Aime told reporters and game reviewers who met in Seattle this week to preview Wii's summer lineup of 14 new games.

Casual gamers are a potentially huge, untapped mass market for video games played on TV sets. For most of the past 25 years, video game consoles attached to TVs were aimed primarily at children and hard-core gamers, 18-to-34-year-old males who failed to outgrow the gaming habit.

Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony continue to cater to hard-core gamers; they drive a multibillion-dollar industry that closely parallels the movie-making business. But in recent years, the console makers have also begun to reach out to the mass market of average consumers who might spend hundreds of dollars for a gaming console even to play occasionally.

Since consoles now also connect to the Internet, whoever sells the most consoles also gains broad access to consumers' living rooms, and a foothold to sell other digital entertainment. "The idea is to get more people to buy consoles and games, then get them to do other things," says Matt Rosoff, gaming industry analyst for Directions on Microsoft.

Microsoft is furthest along. It recently began selling high-definition movies and TV shows through its Xbox Live online gaming service. But selling consoles to play $60 games remains the heart of the business. And for now, the race is on to get the latest consoles into the most living rooms. That's where the $250 Wii is besting the $400 Xbox 360 and the $600 PS3.

A Conan O'Brien boost

Video game console sales usually fall sharply after the holidays. Yet, last month, Nintendo sold 360,000 Wiis, 39% more than in March, says market research firm NPD. Microsoft sold 174,000 Xbox 360s, a 13% drop, while Sony sold 82,000 PS3s, a 37% decline. April marked the fourth-consecutive month the Wii outsold the competition.

The Wii offsets its comparatively modest computing power by introducing an innovative motion-sensing controller. Wii Sports, the game included with the Wii console, features tennis, bowling, golf and boxing. The games work by swinging the remote control like a racquet or club, or swinging it in a bowling motion. Boxing requires gripping the main control and a similar-size attachment, then pumping both fists.

Wii Sports, which comes with the console, became a word-of-mouth hit among families during the holidays. Suddenly, Aunt Sally, with no previous gaming skills, could hold her own against little Billy, the family's gaming guru. All she had to do was swing the Wii controller; no furious button pressing or amazing hand-eye coordination needed. Wii edged into the pop culture limelight when TV talk show host Conan O'Brien donned white shorts and beat tennis star Serena Williams in a Wii Sports tennis match.

Still, skepticism persists that the Wii is a novelty item whose popularity will ultimately wear thin. "I think the Wii bubble will burst any day," says Steven Kent, a Seattle-based freelance journalist and author of The Ultimate History of Video Games. "It's overpriced, underpowered, and we haven't seen anything but Wii Sports."

There are now 52 Wii games for sale. But Wii Sportshas been the big draw for casual gamers, says Billy Berghammer, managing editor of GameInformerOnline.com.

'Boogie' game up next

Among the new Wii games to hit store shelves in the months ahead are a couple of titles developed by major independent game studios. Electronic Arts is working on a game called Boogie; instead of using the hand controllers to fight, the player uses them to sing and dance.

Cat Daddy, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, is finishing Carnival Games. Players will thwack at a strength-test pole, roll skee balls, knock down milk bottles and play other games to earn prizes.

"We wanted to design the entire game around the ability of the new control system to toss or flip things, and the carnival theme fit the bill very nicely," says Harley Howe, Cat Daddy CEO.

Fils-Aime gave no clues when Super Mario Galaxy will be ready. It's the blockbuster title that could cement the Wii's mass-market appeal.

"Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii is the crucial, crucial game," says Kent. Why? The plucky Italian plumber created by Nintendo has been a pop culture icon since the 1980s. Parents who bought the original game for their tykes are now grandparents, and those tykes are now parents.

But, like the movie business, timing is everything. "If it comes out late this year, that's very good for the Wii," says Kent. "If it doesn't, Xbox 360 could have a very good Christmas."
Tags: games, gaming, gamers, game console, wii

Odin Sphere looks sharp, but gameplay a little dull (From USA Today)

2007-06-02T20:18:00.001-04:00

Odin Sphere is proof looks can be deceiving. Atlus' action-RPG for the Play Station 2 boasts visuals that are majestic and breathtaking. Yet the game's core falls just short of providing an ideal match.

You control Gwendolyn, a valkyrie who must unravel a prophecy forecasting the destruction of Erion. Key to this prediction is the discovery of the Cauldron, a powerful relic pushing nations to battle for its ownership.

Right away, Odin Sphere's graphics captivate with deep color and lush landscapes. The cel-shaded animations are reminiscent of a children's storybook come to life.

The graphics convey the magnitude of the task at hand, particularly in terms of characters' stature. When you line up Gwendolyn with some of the larger villains in the game, you feel a strong sense of the daunting battles.

The plot reads much like a storybook, with acts and chapters for each level. Most of the heavy exploration found in RPGs is slashed, focusing mostly on battles and item collection. Maps are represented by smaller, circular landscapes with multiple exit points. Depending on how these landscapes are joined determine how you can move throughout.

Most of your time is spent either vanquishing foes or learning the game's skills. When you complete each, you'll be rewarded with items and cash.

Item creation is Odin Sphere's strongest suit. Food and other ingredients combine for a robust array of helpful potions and weapons, from napalm to poison antidotes. As you progress, you'll acquire recipes for each concoction. Unfortunately, organizing these items in your inventory is not as smooth. Storage options are also limited.

You'll control five characters throughout, each equipped with powerful weapons called Psyphers. Gwendolyn's, for example, is fashioned into the tip of a spear. Conquered foes emit phozons which you absorb with your Psypher. The energy is used to boost your character's experience and magic abilities.

Battles are usually entertaining, although sometimes grow tiresome during simpler levels. There's only one button for melee attack, which you'll press frantically to unleash combos. Magic effects and a draining attack meter keep battles from growing monotonous.

Boss battles are exhilarating. The attack meter is not as prevalent in low-level melees, but crucial here. Bosses also pack a huge wallop, so taking advantage of the circular levels and spells is key.

Most exploration is removed, replaced by far too many loading screens. Instead of traveling a rich environment, you're hopping from one circular landscape to the next. You can backtrack after completing a chapter, but the traditional exploration in RPG is missed.

Odin Sphere is a visually mesmerizing fantasy adventure, but the game's combat and exploration systems can't match the enchanting look.
Tags: playstation, odin sphere, games, gamers, gaming

Custom Gaming Laptops - Five Things You Must Consider When Building a Gaming Laptop

2007-05-27T06:12:00.001-04:00

Gone are the days when you would have been laughed at if you walked into an all-night LAN party carrying your trusty laptop and expecting to hang with the giant computer towers standing at everyone’s feet. The gaming laptop computers of today sport huge, crisp LCD screens, cutting-edge video cards and full-size keyboards. Not only can these gaming laptop computers hang with the standard clunky computer tower, but they can also be ordered fully custom to meet the exact specifications of any gamer.

Since there are so many customizable components in these laptops, a standard practice has been to create what some call a “system builder.” This is the page where you get to add and subtract components through drop-down menus in order to create the best gaming laptop computer for your needs and your budget. This type of page can be overwhelming to someone just starting the gaming laptop shopping process, but it is very manageable if you take it just one component at a time.

The Gaming Laptop GPU

This is the heart of a gaming laptop computer. The GPU (graphics processing unit) is a component that will make or break your gaming experience. If your GPU isn’t up to snuff, your games won’t play.

Without getting into specific models since they change all the time, the key is that the graphics card not share resources with the computer. A gaming laptop video card must have its own memory on board. Generally speaking, standard off-the-shelf laptops will not have this feature. The two current makers of laptop video cards are nVIDIA and ATI.

Without the Screen, You Don’t Have Much

What good is a gaming laptop without a screen that can actually render your games? Now certainly, you can connect an external monitor, but if you can’t actually play on your gaming laptop without that external monitor, then your laptop isn’t all that mobile.

While the technology and terminology for LCDs (liquid crystal displays) could take up an entire article in itself, there are a few key points to keep in mind when choosing from available LCD options for your new gaming laptop computer: native resolution, aspect ratio, rise and fall time, contrast, viewing angle, and size.

Native Resolution. The native resolution is simply the setting at which your screen will render the clearest images. Since games are constantly in motion, slightly soft edges may not bother most gamers, but keep in mind that while this is your gaming laptop, you will likely also use it for other things like surfing the Internet. If the resolution isn’t comfortable, you aren’t going to enjoy using it.

Aspect Ratio. As you probably know, a movie theater screen and a TV screen have different proportions. Likewise, there are widescreen format gaming laptops and there are laptops that have a standard aspect ratio –- like that of a TV. A widescreen format gaming laptop (a 16:10 ratio) has advantages and disadvantages. Many games today do not have a widescreen mode. This means that the game may stretch across the screen and become distorted or you may run it with black bars that fill in the sides. There are ways to get around this, but if you want an out of the box perfect experience, the widescreen format may not be for you.

That said, a widescreen LCD does offer plenty of screen real estate for web surfing and other type of computer activities, and a game played in a wide format setting offers an expansive field of view. For this reason, there are some very loyal widescreen-loving gamers out there.

Do your best to find a balance between current and future technology and what your computer habits are beyond gaming. Even with its limitations, the widescreen format is found on most of the best gaming laptop computers.

Rise and Fall. The phrase ‘rise and fall time’ is used to describe how fast the LCD can respond to changes. In the past, LCDs have been plagued with the inability to render images as fast as computer games can spit them out. This presents a major problem for laptop gamers because if they can’t see the images properly, they can’t play the game properly. This lag can mean the difference between playing to win and barely playing.

Fortunately, gaming laptop LCDs have come a long way and they are only getting better. While once it was impossible to game on a laptop screen, the gaming laptop LCDs of today offer 25 milliseconds or less rise and fall time while generally off-the-shelf laptops have 40 milliseconds or less rise and fall time.

Contrast. If a gaming laptop LCD has poor contrast, that means that the black areas aren’t quite as black as they should be and the white areas aren’t quite as white. This is important to a laptop gamer because you have to see the game properly -– as it was intended to be seen -– in order to compete effectively. Look for a contrast ratio of 400:1 or higher in a custom gaming laptop computer.

Viewing Angle. This is an often-overlooked LCD feature, but it must be considered if you are building a gaming laptop computer. Many high quality LCDs on the market are difficult to see clearly at any angle other than straight on and at the right height. This can be a big drawback to gaming on a LCD screen because a screen with poor viewing angles won’t allow others to watch the screen as you play and also hurts your view when doing something as simple as adjusting your seating, which can require you to then adjust to position of your laptop screen to see it properly again.

But gaming on a laptop does not mean that you are doomed to have poor viewing angles. There are LCDs on the market that have amazing viewing angles –- up to 120 degrees. These screens not only allow gaming onlookers, but they also allow you to use that giant, crisp screen to do things like play movies and even make presentations.

Size. In a gaming laptop computer, size is everything. Most gaming laptops are large, robust pieces of electronics. Having a machine of this stature means you also get to have a large screen. The best gaming laptop computer LCD screens out there are at least 15 inches. A crowd favorite is a 17 inch widescreen (even with the challenges that widescreens present). Larger 19 inch laptop screens are just starting to be talked about with consumers expecting to see 19 inch or even large models on the market in the near future.

The best way to really get a feel for what laptop LCDs are all about is to take a trip to a local box store and play with the LCDs on the display laptops while keeping in mind what you have read here. While these laptops are not custom gaming laptops, you can see what the sizes really look like, what different resolutions look like, and what the viewing angles truly are so you can start to develop your own preferences.

The RAM – What Type and How Much?

The RAM (random access memory) found in laptops is called SODIMM (small outline dual inline memory module). The RAM is responsible for your processing power. If you are shopping for a custom gaming laptop, you will generally be offered DDR2 RAM with the choice of how much you want in your computer. Most high-end games being released today need 1GB of RAM for optimum, lag-free game play. Some people are going with 2GB to ensure that they can run multiple applications along with the game and not experience any slow down in response time. This is a large investment and you want to be able to use this gaming laptop for some time in the future. Most custom laptops are user upgradeable, but this should be left up to professionals.

The CPU – Not Just Mobile Technology

The CPUs (central processing units) found in many custom gaming laptops are identical to those found in desktops. These chips require a great deal of cooling power, which in turn can make your laptop louder than light weight, lower power ultra portables when the fans kick on and it can become somewhat warm to the touch. Don’t be alarmed by this -– it is normal. And with these desktop processors comes screaming power! Don’t waste your money on the latest CPU release that likely has an inflated price tag (and that price will likely come down before long). Stick with a current CPU speed that is offered by a reputable custom gaming laptop reseller, and you really can’t go wrong.

The Gaming Laptop Hard Drive

This is the final component to consider when building a gaming laptop. Laptop hard drives come in a variety of speeds and capacities ranging from 4200 to 7200 RPMs and 40 to over 100 GBs. For the most part, this is user preference. Whenever possible, go for a 7200 RPM hard drive, but if you need a capacity not offered in this speed, it’s okay to go for the 5400 RPM drive. Take a look at your current computer, and buy your capacity based on this. Also keep in mind that with many custom gaming laptop manufacturers, you have the ability to upgrade or add another hard drive at a later date.

At the end of the day, gaming laptop computers are all about power. Don’t expect a twelve-pound notebook with a desktop processor, numerous fans, a giant heatsink, and independent video card to last on battery power all that long. But do make sure to enjoy the jaw drops that you’ll get as you walk into your regular LAN party location with your new, screaming-fast gaming laptop computer. Crack that puppy open, fire it up, and stand clear of the drool as you take on your favorite game with fellow gamers gathered around to take in the action. Gaming is not just for desktops anymore!

About the author: Visit www.PCTorque.com for the latest in custom laptop news and technology. Make sure to stop by one of our system builders to 'virtually' build a fully custom laptop with real time pricing updates.
Tags: games, gaming, gamers, laptops, notebooks

Reviving Old Computer Games

2007-05-26T09:42:00.001-04:00

Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. I’ve also noticed that some of my old disks are starting to age and become corrupted. Enter the Internet.

The wonderfully technologically gifted and giving Internet populace is out in force in their attempts to preserve the older side of gaming. Remakes and Emulators for almost any old machine can be found around the Internet. Emulators act as a layer between old software and new hardware allowing modern PCs to run programs that such hardware was never meant to see. Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, Master System, Arcade Machines and more have all been emulated and the necessary programs placed online for download, usually for free.

Emulation is not a new idea. I had a hardware emulator for the VIC20 that plugged into the back of my Commodore 64 and allowed the use of the older VIC20 cartridges with the new hardware (I never actually owned a VIC20 or any programs for it but that’s another issue). Emulator popularity has been fading in and out for many years, only coming into many people’s attention with the release of Bleem!, a Playstation emulator for PC that was released while the PSOne still held a dominant share of the video game market. Bleemcast (a Playstation emulator for the Sega Dreamcast) soon followed causing one of the more interesting video game legal battles as Sony fought to have the emulator shut down. However, the emulators have a strong following and very active user base.

Emulators are easy to find and download. Simply search for the system you want and add the word emulator to the end (e.g. “SNES Emulator”) and you’ll probably come up with a lot of hits. Be slightly wary as some emulator sites will either be false links or may contain pornographic ads. Setting the emulators up to run is usually fairly straightforward and there’s a fair chance that you’ll be able to find some documentation and help. Some of the newer systems require a BIOS image to be installed with the emulator. This is to get around the legal issues raised by Sony in the Bleem! legal battles by requiring you to be in possession of a Playstation BIOS (and hence, presumably, a Playstation) in order to play the games on your computer. Making a BIOS image to load into your computer will most likely be beyond your technical expertise, but a quick check of your console’s case will reveal the file you need to get and then it’s as simple as searching the internet for a BIOS image that matches the BIOS you already own.

Of interest are the PC emulators now available. Windows no longer has very good support for older DOS-based games so there are a few emulators out there now to emulate the DOS environment. DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best known of the crop. There are also game-specific emulators such as ScummVM (www.scummvm.org) or DOOM Legacy (http://legacy.newdoom.com/) that focus specifically on certain games and hence are able to improve the experience for those particular titles.

Once you have yourself an emulator you’ll need to get yourself some programs to run with it. These programs are called ‘ROMs’ and are images of the original storage device that the program came on (be it a cartridge, tape, floppy or other). The process of creating a ROM is probably far too technical for the vast majority of computer users so you’re probably going to have to find a ‘backup’ from somewhere to download. This is where the venture gets slightly foggy. Basically the deal is that you can only have a program ROM if you own the original program. So if you have boxes of old Amiga disks, NES cartridges, or other old gaming programs stored away somewhere, you’re in luck, otherwise you’re treading on legally shifty ground. While it can easily be argued that the downloading of a 1987 computer game is of no real consequence to the company that has in all likelihood closed down, copyright doesn’t actually expire for 50 years and computer games just haven’t been around that long.

Online ‘emulation’ is a new area now being explored. The idea is that you simply play the game in your browser through a Java applet or Flash application. These might not always strictly be emulated programs but many remakes are feature perfect with the originals. The graphics, sounds, and game play remain intact. One excellent place to look for online games is Every Video Game (http://www.everyvideogame.com). While the site does not in fact contain ‘every video game’ it does have a very large list of old games from the arcades, GameBoy, NES, and Master System all playable through your browser. Many remakes can also be found at Shockwave’s site (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/actiongames/arcade_classics/).

Some of the old games have even been remade and updated for this modern world we now live in. Try doing a search for remakes of a game title you particularly enjoyed and you may be surprised at what you find. There are games that have been updated to be 3D, such as some old favourites of mine: Pac man (http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1292.html) and Barbarian (http://www.dgdevteam.tk/), and while these might not always be brilliant games or remakes in their own right, the thought and effort put in often leads to an enjoyable diversion. There are also more traditional versions of games that have just updated the code as well as possibly the graphics so that they can still be run.

So if you’re feeling nostalgic or just can’t get the hang of these new-fangled games that require you to push fifty buttons in a precise configuration just to jump, you may like to check out the emulation and remake scene. It’s surprisingly entertaining to go back in time to when games were simple yet fun.

About the author:
Daniel Punch
M6.Net Web Helpers
http://www.m6.net
Tags: games, gaming, gamers

Playing creative games for fun: a great way to relax

2007-05-25T10:59:00.001-04:00

Play is a state of mind that is safe, inquisitive and exists in the moment. It is also a bodily state of relaxation and an uplifting and engaged emotional state. Some say play is a spiritual state of profound connection and joy. Play can be something we do by ourselves or with others, but it is also something we can watch others do. Play is often described as a time when we feel most alive, yet we often take it for granted and may completely forget about it. Play can be entirely positive, or have a negative.

Most people believe that play is unproductive, and therefore inferior to “productive” activities. Perhaps this is because we equate play with feeling –happy joyous feeling –that traditionally is seen as less important than thinking. Many of us have lists, at home and at the office, prioritizing tasks by how productive they are. When we run out of time, we cut the fun stuff and do the “productive” stuff because we may feel guilty or bad if we play hooky or goof off by playing a game of golf or chess, taking a hike in the woods or daydreaming for an hour. New research on the brain contradicts this cultural dismissal of play, by emphasizing the importance of feelings and the necessity of feeling safe and relaxed in order to think clearly and productively. Play teaches us how to
manage and transform our “negative” emotions and experiences; it supercharges learning, and is a foundational factor in good mental and physical health. And, it can make work more pleasurable.

How can play trigger the flow state?

Psychiatrist and writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, (pronounced "chicks send me high”) studied play in Sidney, Australia and described it as a flow state that requires just the right balance of challenge and opportunity. If the game is too hard or too easy, it loses its sense of pleasure and fun. Maintaining a flow state in games with others requires all participants, regardless of age or ability, to feel challenged, but not overwhelmed. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has been undertaken and confirmed in several countries, and now reaches 250,000 surveys. In the flow state we feel:

Why is play an important part of our lives?

Humans are designed by nature to play, and have played throughout evolution. Playfulness is an inborn ability that is hardwired into our genetic code. Play is part of how humans have adapted and survived everywhere on Earth, from the tropics to the great deserts to the Arctic Circle. We want to play because it is instinctive and fundamental to our existence; it is one of the evolutionary mechanisms that enabled us to
develop as a species. Playing helps us survive by connecting us to other human beings and to sources of energy and excitement within ourselves. Play is simultaneously a source of calmness and relaxation, as well as a source of stimulation for the brain and body.

Play will be important to our future. Some futurists have said that we'll need to be more inventive, creative, and flexible to handle the tasks, flow and rhythm of life in this century and beyond. A sure (and fun) way to develop these abilities is to play – with your children and grandchildren, your officemates and friends.

Why is it important to play at work?

When researchers follow pre-teen children’s attitude about play, they discovered that some children called almost everything they did “play” while others called almost everything they did “work”. Reconnecting with the children at the end of adolescence, the children who thought of everything as play were more successful and happier in school and were more content socially than the people who saw everything as “work”.

Success at work does not depend on the amount of time you work. It depends upon the quality of work, and the quality of work depends on the level of well-being of the workers. The level of well-being depends significantly on the how often they replenish themselves through play in any of its forms. Work is where we spend much of our time. That is why it is especially important for us to play during work. Without some recreation, our work suffers. Most of us have been working faster, harder, and smarter, and with diminishing free time. We first thought that working faster, harder, and smarter would handle our increased workload, but that is not the case. We still got behind and became chronically overwhelmed. When the project you're working on hits a serious glitch (as they frequently do), heading out to the basketball court with your colleagues to shoot some hoops and have a few laughs does a lot more than take your mind off the problem. If basketball isn't your cup of tea, having a model airplane contest, telling stories, or flying kites in the parking lot will also allow your relationship to the problem to shift and enable you to approach it from a new perspective. Interjecting play into the work cycle: keeps you sane and functional during times of stress; refreshes your mind and body; renews hope; triggers creativity; and increases energy.

Playing non-violent computer games can be a great way to relax and combat stress, at home and at work, by children and adults. There are many sites on the Internet with free or reasonable priced non-violent computer games, such as:
http://www.fungamesplaza.com
http://www.fungamesplaza.com/pc-kids_games.html
http://www.fungamesplaza.com/pc-addicting_games.html
http://www.amicgames.com

About the author:
Alexandru Marias is an IT student maintaining software sites: www.amicutilities.com, www.downloadsplaza.com
Tags: games, gaming, gamers

J2ME developers and programmers: The mobile game industry winners

2007-05-24T04:41:00.001-04:00

Who could have predicted that the 80’s game of Pong would spawn a multi-billion dollar gaming industry complete with PCs, PDAs, and wireless phones that are specifically designed to handle the speed and graphics that today’s games demand?

If you think that current gaming technology is hot then, as they say, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Wireless or mobile gaming is the future and the future is now. 2004 saw an explosion in mobile gaming technology which redefined the mobile phone as a gaming device. Handsets capable of displaying graphics equal in quality to the GameStations and GameCubes of the 1990’s were available everywhere, and game developers like Synergetix and It's Alive! were on everyone’s radar screen.

Now, just a year later, Real-time multiplayer games, some offering high-quality, 3D graphics, can be played over most telecom networks at prices that won’t put you in the poorhouse.

Never one to be too far behind the bleeding edge, even the Adult Entertainment industry is turning out PDA and cell phone-based games including gambling programs and a variety of role-based and action games where lots of sexy women end up losing their clothes. The graphics are, shall we say, stunning.

A peek under the technology hood

While the average gamer may be ignorant of the technology that is driving the wireless gaming industry, the geeks among us are very familiar with terms like J2ME, Symbian, and Brew; the development and distribution platforms upon which the wireless gaming industry has built its success.

J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) is a derivative of Sun Microcomputer’s JAVA development platform. J2ME is specifically designed to build applications that run on portable and wireless devices including cell phones and PDAs. It’s also finding wide acceptance among companies that develop applications for TV boxes and many of the new embedded devices which are flooding both the consumer and industrial markets.

BREW, another development language from QUALCOMM, provides a development platform that’s also suited for the wireless industry. BREW’s claim to fame is that fact that the developer can write device-independent applications which do not need to be recompiled for different phone manufacturers.

SYMBIAN is probably the most commonly used OS in the game-enabled wireless telephone market. Embraced by all major phone manufacturers, SYMBIAN supports J2ME, BREW, C++, and JAVA.

So, what does the future hold for this high-tech blockbuster that’s still in its infancy?

According to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, the “global mobile game industry, which generated US$436.4 million in 2002, will balloon to US$9.34 billion by 2008.“ Asia is at the epicenter of the wireless gaming explosion where an estimated 500 million people are wireless Internet subscribers and two out of five are wireless gamers.

Some gaming fortune tellers predict that the convergence of GPS and wireless gaming technology will result in live-action and role playing games that will adapt themselves to the player’s physical location and include geographic-specific scenarios that change as the player moves to new locations.

Judging by the progress that’s been made in the last two years alone, the future of wireless gaming may be the most revenue and employment-generating technology of the 21st century.

About the author:
Chris Palau is CEO of a j2me programmers and developers software company http://www.techcoders.comwhich offers offshore software development services.
Tags: games, gaming, gamers

Finding friends by playing online games

2007-05-23T06:59:00.001-04:00

There are tens of thousands of websites offering free online games for those who want to have some fun online or find friends online. Don’t believe me? Make a simple search through your favorite search engine and you’ll see the vast amount of websites offering free online games. Finding friends through online games is easy and simple because you get to understand each other while playing games and connect with each other through the website’s chat or communicate function available right there in the website.

Although not all online games website requires you to sign up in order to play their online games, some websites do require a simple sign-up. The information that you input into the online games website will become your member’s profile. Other members will be able to view your profile. Your likes, dislikes, favorite games, favorite movies, location (not address, please. Never enter your complete address online, anywhere), and personal characteristics will help you find friends through online games.

Engaged in a competitive battle with each other, you are in a better position to gauge the kind of person that your opponent is, for instance, is he/she an aggressive person? Is he/she a strategically-minded person who is capable of planning everything from scratch? What is his/her favorite character and how does he/she use that online game character to his/her benefit?

The reason why finding friends through online games is easy is because there are forums and chat rooms that online game fans can use to connect, share tips, communicate, make alliance, and chat with online. They share a common interest, a common goal...and the online games that they like become the foundation for their friendship. Not only do they battle it out playing online games but they essentially turn into friends after chatting and communicating with each other.

It’s also safer finding friends through online games. Because the common interest is online games, basically, they just want to have some fun online and not lurk around endangering the lives of others. Although we should still be careful about revealing too much of ourselves online, we generally feel safer when we make friends through online games.

You not only make new friends through online games, you can also connect with and play online games with your friends without having to visit an internet café. Even if your friends have gone to college or are working elsewhere in the world, you can still log on at the same time and enjoy a couple of hours of fun, unbridled fun through online games.

About the author: Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.toy-fun.net on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
Tags: games, gamers

Get Started In Creating Computer Games

2007-05-22T23:56:00.001-04:00

I’ve always loved video games, ever since I first played them on a friend’s computer after primary school. There’s something almost magical about the fact that we can move images around and interact with virtual worlds, a living fantasy presented for us to interact with however we please. I’ve also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn’t have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I’m a second year software engineering student, so if I weren’t able to code a game without too many dramas there’d be something drastically wrong. But what about the common person? The person for whom the term ‘memory leak’ conjures up images of their grandfather, ‘pipeline’ is where the water flows and ‘blitting’ is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don’t even need to learn ‘real’ programming to do so.

So where do games start? With an idea. Games, like all fiction, require an idea to be successful. Sure, in the same way you can just sit down and write a story without foresight you can jump on in and slap a game together but, unless you get ridiculously lucky, the best works are usually the ones that have been thought out.

There are two methods of planning a project; you can start from a known technological standpoint and build your project on top of that or you can just go for the design, add as many features and ideas as you like and then remove the ones that you can’t use when you’ve decided on the technology you’re going to implement the game with. In general, the second one is probably the best one to go with when designing games. When you’re first starting out, however, the first option will save you many headaches.

So, for a first game you’re going to want a pretty simple idea. Don’t get me wrong, crazy-go-nuts game ideas are fantastic, and there should be more of them out there, but you’re not going to be able to create a real world simulator with fifty billion virtual people all interacting real time and your actions having a butterfly effect on the future of the virtual universe when it’s your first game. Really. Many people try it; none that I know of have succeeded. Imitation is the best way to start out. Simple games, such as ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Pacman’ or even ‘Pong’ are great places to start. All are largely simple to create but have some inherent challenge. ‘Pacman’, for example, requires path finding for the ghosts. I recommend that you start even simpler than that for your very first attempt. ‘Space Invaders’ is a nice point to jump in. You can make a simple, complete game without much effort and it’s almost infinitely extensible.

If you’re stuck for an idea, pick a genre that you enjoy. Do you love adventure games such as ‘Monkey Island’, ‘Grim Fandango’, ‘Space Quest’, ‘King’s Quest’ etc.? Design one of those. Are you into fighting games like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Tekken’, ‘Soul Calibur’, ‘Mortal Kombat’ and so on? Come up with an idea for that. Do you like first person shooters such as ‘Quake’, ‘Half Life’ or ‘Doom’? I don’t recommend it as a first project, but you can always give it a go. Feel free to be as generic as you like, this is a learning experience after all.

Now that you have your idea it’s time to flesh it out. Don’t worry about the technology or the fact that you may not know how to actually implement a game just yet, just grab yourself some paper and a pencil and go crazy with ideas. Describe the main characters, game play, goals, interactions, story, and key mappings, anything you can think of. Make sure you have enough detail so that someone can read through the notes and play through the game in their head with relative accuracy. Changing game design during the coding process is almost always a bad idea. Once it’s set, it should remain set until the tweaking phase (I’ll go into this more later) or you’re likely to enter ‘development hell’, where the project goes on and on; more and more work is done with less and less outcome.

At the end of this period of your game creation, you should have the following:
- A written outline of the game’s characters and possibly a sketch or two (be they space ships, yellow circles, cars or the prince of the dark kingdom of Falgour, you need to know who or what the player will be and who they will compete against)
- A written outline of the story (if there is one, this isn’t too vital for ‘Space Invaders’ or ‘Tetris’, but for ‘Uber Quest: An Adventure of Awesomeness’ it’s a really good idea)
- A description of game play, written or storyboarded. Storyboards are visual representations of ideas. Draw your characters in actions, with arrows showing the flow of action and short written descriptions detailing the events occurring in your image (because some of us aren’t fantastic artists and our images can be a little… open to interpretation…)

Now that you have a fleshed out idea, it’s time to work out how this will all get put together. If you’ve gotten to this point worried that you’re going to have to spend years learning complex programming languages in order to implement your idea, fear not! Others have already done the hard yards for you. There are many RAD (Rapid Application Development) Tools available for game creation, a number of which are available for free online. Some of them still require you to learn a ‘scripting language’ (a simplified programming language made for a specific task) but in general this isn’t too complicated or involved. I’ve compiled a brief list of some of them that can be found at the end of the article. The free ones are listed first, organized by game genre.

Well, that should be enough to get you started in the creation of your game. The most important thing to remember once you’ve gotten this far is that you need to complete your game. Many, many people start a project and then lose interest and it fails, or they keep moving on to one new project after another without finishing anything. Start small, build a working (if simple) game that is, above all else, complete. When you get to this stage you will always have a huge number of things that you wish to change, fix etc. but you’ll get a great feeling from knowing that it is, in its way, finished.

From this point, you can start the tweaking phase. Play your game a few times, ask others to do the same, take note of what isn’t fun or could be better and change things here. At this stage, it is more important than ever to keep backups of previous versions, so that if a change doesn’t work you can go back and try something different without losing any of your work. It is at this point that you can add all new features, improve graphics and sounds, whatever you please, safe in the knowledge that you’re working on a solid foundation.

When you’re happy with your game, why not share it with the world? There are many cheap or free places out there for you to host your files on and then you can jump on link lists and forums and let everyone know about your creation. Well, I hope that this has been a helpful introduction into the art of creating games. It’s a great deal of fun, and can open whole new avenues of creative expression for you to explore. Jump in and have fun.

Links:
General Game Creation:
(Tools that allow easy creation of many different game types)
Game Maker: http://www.gamemaker.nl
MegaZeux: http://megazeux.sourceforge.net/

Adventure Games:
(Games such as Monkey Island, King’s Quest, Space Quest etc.)
Adventure Game Studio: http://www.bigbluecup.com
AGAST: http://www.allitis.com/agast/
3D Adventure Studio: http://3das.noeska.com/
ADRIFT (for text adventures): http://www.adrift.org.uk/

Role Playing Games (RPGs):
(Games such as Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Diablo)
RPG Maker:
OHRPG: http://www.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/
RPG Toolit: http://www.toolkitzone.com/

Fighting Games:
(Games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc.)
KOF91: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kof91/
MUGEN (unfortunately the site is largely in French): http://www.streetmugen.com/mugen-us.html

Side-Scrolling Games:
(Games such as the 2D Mario Games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Double Dragon etc.)
The Scrolling Game Development Kit: http://gamedev.sourceforge.net/

Web Games:
BYOND: http://developer.byond.com/

There are many others available as well. One particularly useful site for finding game creation tools is: http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html

Also of note, although not freeware, are the excellent game creation tools available by Clickteam at: http://www.clickteam.com/English/
Klik and Play and The Games Factory in particular are the programs to have a look at and download the free demos of.

If you really want to do things right and program the game yourself, there are some excellent programming resources available at the following locations:

Java Game Programming:
http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1262.asp
http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Java_Game_Programming/

Visual Basic Game Programming:
http://markbutler.8m.com/vb-tutorial.htm

C++ Game Programming:
http://www3.telus.net/alexander_russell/course_dx/introduction_dx.htm
http://www.rit.edu/~jpw9607/tutorial.htm

General Information:
http://www.gamedev.net/
http://www.gamasutra.com/

About the author:
Daniel Punch
M6.Net
http://www.m6.net
Tags: games, gaming

The Future of Video Games

2007-05-21T21:54:00.001-04:00

I’ve recently been thinking about where video games could be going in the future. I’m hoping to work in the game industry one day after I’ve finished university study and I’ve been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen in the future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I think may come into ‘play’ in the not too distant future.

Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They’ve tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick in doing so. It’s probably never going to work very well in its current form. They’re still around and you can still buy them but they really don’t seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally immersed and involved in a new form of game play. It’s threatening to lose touch with the outside world and the people around you aren’t going to appreciate it much either. The Sci-fi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a majority of the general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug into my brain.

A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at the local ‘Science and Technology Centre’ (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours truly) is that of ‘Augmented Reality’. Augmented Reality is essentially the overlaying of virtual elements onto the real world, such as a pair of transparent glasses that can display certain elements over the top of what is actually there. I agree with the presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all the socially beneficial applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games point of view. This technology could provide gamers with the ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at things that aren’t actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in the film ‘They Live!’ The upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun. A group of people from the University of South Australia created the ‘ARQuake’ project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/, merging the classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with.

Technology has driven the games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead of the competition. It started way back at the dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose the ability to impress like they once did. The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors in the same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar problem; there comes a point where you just can’t do much more with graphics technology. It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying the game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun… but that’s just one person’s view…). Technology plays a certain part in the conveying of emotions and story but it’s quite hard to focus on everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we’ll hopefully see an increase in games that cast a lasting impression.

Somewhat unfortunately the rise of the ‘Casual Gamer’ will probably lead to more simplistic games being released. While personally I would love to see depth of story and characters, there are a significant number of players out there who want to pick up a game for twenty minutes or so, have a bit of fun, and then put it down until another time. These gamers are generally less interested in the latest greatest technology and more interested in a ‘fast food’ kind of entertainment that satisfies the moment, despite the lack of quality or the lasting effects. Hopefully the two game types can co-exist peacefully although recently it has been seen that some developers are cutting down on some of the planned depth of a title in order to accommodate the more casual gamer.

As technology pushes forwards boundaries are slowly being broken down between systems. We saw the Bleemcast a few years back enabling the running of Playstation games on the Dreamcast, and the PC is able to run almost anything given the right emulation software. Consoles are able to emulate other consoles and new consoles are being announced that promise the ability to play PC games. The Xbox 2 is reported to have a model in planning that comes in a PC case and with the ability to run both PC software and Xbox software. Macs can emulate Windows software and vice-versa. We’ll probably start seeing less of a distinction between consoles and PCs as the price of technology continues to drop and consoles continue to become more and more powerful and able to compete with the more expensive computers. Ideally we’ll see a single platform come into prominence so that everything can be run without purchasing a copious number of different machines, although that does have a downside in that it can establish a monopoly for one particular company.

The technology price drop and increase in power has also lead to more powerful hand-held machines than before. Real games, not just simple toys are now available for the portable market. The advent of PDAs and mobile phones with the ability to play games raises awareness of portable gaming and new competitors are starting to get in on the field that was once primarily dominated by Nintendo’s GameBoy. There is a new product, the gp32, that can run many different emulators and hence, many different system’s games (including some PC games).

I can’t say for sure what’s going to happen but these are just a few ideas that I’ve had recently. Hopefully the games industry will continue to strive towards new heights with new and interesting game play, stories, characters and ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few years.

About the author:
Daniel Punch
M6.Net

Tags: xbox, nintendo, gameboy, games, playstation, dreamcast

Gaming Laptops - The Five Essential Features To Consider When Buying A Gaming Laptop

2007-05-20T10:57:00.001-04:00

Gone are the days when you would have been laughed at if you walked into an all-night LAN party carrying your trusty laptop and expecting to hang with the giant computer towers standing at everyone’s feet. The gaming laptop computers of today sport huge, crisp LCD screens, cutting-edge video cards and full-size keyboards. Not only can these gaming laptop computers hang with the standard clunky computer tower, but they can also be ordered fully custom to meet the exact specifications of any gamer.

Since there are so many customizable components in these laptops, a standard practice has been to create what some call a “system builder.” This is the page where you get to add and subtract components through drop-down menus in order to create the best gaming laptop computer for your needs and your budget. This type of page can be overwhelming to someone just starting the gaming laptop shopping process, but it is very manageable if you take it just one component at a time.

The Gaming Laptop GPU

This is the heart of a gaming laptop computer. The GPU – graphics processing unit – is a component that will make or break your gaming experience. If your GPU isn’t up to snuff, your games won’t play.

Without getting into specific models since they change all the time, the key is that the graphics card not share resources with the computer. A gaming laptop video card must have its own memory on board. Generally speaking, standard off-the-shelf laptops will not have this feature. The two current makers of laptop video cards are nVIDIA and ATI.

Without the Screen, You Don’t Have Much

What good is a gaming laptop without a screen that can actually render your games? Now certainly, you can connect an external monitor, but if you can’t actually play on your gaming laptop without that external monitor, then your laptop isn’t all that mobile.

While the technology and terminology for LCDs (liquid crystal displays) could take up an entire article in itself, there are a few key points to keep in mind when choosing from available LCD options for your new gaming laptop computer: native resolution, aspect ratio, rise and fall time, contrast, viewing angle, and size.

Native Resolution. The native resolution is simply the setting at which your screen will render the clearest images. Since games are constantly in motion, slightly soft edges may not bother most gamers, but keep in mind that while this is your gaming laptop, you will likely also use it for other things like surfing the Internet. If the resolution isn’t comfortable, you aren’t going to enjoy using it.

Aspect Ratio. As you probably know, a movie theater screen and a TV screen have different proportions. Likewise, there are widescreen format gaming laptops and there are laptops that have a standard aspect ratio – like that of a TV. A widescreen format gaming laptop has advantages and disadvantages. Many games today do not have a widescreen mode. This means that the game may stretch across the screen and become distorted or you may run it with black bars that fill in the sides. There are ways to get around this, but if you want an out of the box perfect experience, the widescreen format may not be for you.

That said, a widescreen LCD does offer plenty of screen real estate for web surfing and other type of computer activities, and a game played in a wide format setting offers an expansive field of view. For this reason, there are some very loyal widescreen-loving gamers out there.

Do your best to find a balance between current and future technology and what your computer habits are beyond gaming. Even with its limitations, the widescreen format is found on most of the best gaming laptop computers.

Rise and Fall. The phrase ‘rise and fall time’ is used to describe how fast the LCD can respond to changes. In the past, LCDs have been plagued with the inability to render images as fast as computer games can spit them out. This presents a major problem for laptop gamers because if they can’t see the images properly, they can’t play the game properly. This lag can mean the difference between playing to win and barely playing.

Fortunately, gaming laptop LCDs have come a long way and they are only getting better. While once it was impossible to game on a laptop screen, the gaming laptop LCDs of today offer 25 milliseconds or less rise and fall time while generally off-the-shelf laptops have 40 milliseconds or less rise and fall time.

Contrast. If a gaming laptop LCD has poor contrast, that means that the black areas aren’t quite as black as they should be and the white areas aren’t quite as white. This is important to a laptop gamer because you have to see the game properly – as it was intended to be seen – in order to compete effectively. Look for a contrast ratio of 400:1 or higher in a custom gaming laptop computer.

Viewing Angle. This is an often-overlooked LCD feature, but it must be considered if you are building a gaming laptop computer. Many high quality LCDs on the market are difficult to see clearly at any angle other than straight on and at the right height. This can be a big drawback to gaming on a LCD screen because a screen with poor viewing angles won’t allow others to watch the screen as you play and also hurts your view when doing something as simple as adjusting your seating, which can require you to then adjust to position of your laptop screen to see it properly again.

But gaming on a laptop does not mean that you are doomed to have poor viewing angles. There are LCDs on the market that have amazing viewing angles – up to 120 degrees. These screens not only allow gaming onlookers, but they also allow you to use that giant, crisp screen to do things like play movies and even make presentations.

Size. In a gaming laptop computer, size is everything. Most gaming laptops are large, robust pieces of electronics. Having a machine of this stature means you also get to have a large screen. The best gaming laptop computer LCD screens out there are at least 15 inches. A crowd favorite is a 17 inch widescreen (even with the challenges that widescreens present). Largr 19 inch laptop screens are just starting to be talked about with consumers expecting to see 19 inch or even large models on the market in the near future.

The best way to really get a feel for what laptop LCDs are all about is to take a trip to a local box store and play with the LCDs on the display laptops while keeping in mind what you have read here. While these laptops are not custom gaming laptops, you can see what the sizes really look like, what different resolutions look like, and what the viewing angles truly are so you can start to develop your own preferences.

The RAM – What Type and How Much?

The RAM (random access memory) found in laptops is called SODIMM (small outline dual inline memory module). The RAM is responsible for your processing power. If you are shopping for a custom gaming laptop, you will generally be offered DDR2 RAM with the choice of how much you want in your computer. Most high-end games being released today need 1GB of RAM for optimum, lag-free game play. Some people are going with 2GB to ensure that they can run multiple applications along with the game and not experience any slow down in response time. This is a large investment and you want to be able to use this gaming laptop for some time in the future. Most custom laptops are user upgradeable, but this should be left up to professionals.

The CPU – Not Just Mobile Technology

The CPUs (central processing units) found in many custom gaming laptops are identical to those found in desktops. These chips require a great deal of cooling power, which in turn can make your laptop louder than light weight, lower power ultra portables when the fans kick on and it can become somewhat warm to the touch. Don’t be alarmed by this – it is normal. And with these desktop processors comes screaming power! Don’t waste your money on the latest CPU release that likely has an inflated price tag (and that price will likely come down before long). Stick with a current CPU speed that is offered by a reputable custom gaming laptop reseller, and you really can’t go wrong.

The Gaming Laptop Hard Drive

This is the final component to consider when building a gaming laptop. Laptop hard drives come in a variety of speeds and capacities ranging from 4200 to 7200 RPMs and 40 to over 100 GBs. For the most part, this is user preference. Whenever possible, go for a 7200 RPM hard drive, but if you need a capacity not offered in this speed, it’s okay to go for the 5400 RPM drive. Take a look at your current computer, and buy your capacity based on this. Also keep in mind that with many custom gaming laptop manufacturers, you have the ability to upgrade or add another hard drive at a later date.

At the end of the day, gaming laptop computers are all about power. Don’t expect a twelve-pound notebook with a desktop processor, numerous fans, a giant heatsink, and independent video card to last on battery power all that long. But do make sure to enjoy the jawdrops that you’ll get as you walk into your regular LAN party location with your new, screaming-fast gaming laptop computer. Crack that puppy open, fire it up, and stand clear of the drool as you take on your favorite game with fellow gamers gathered around to take in the action. Gaming is not just for desktops anymore!

About the author:
PC Torque Ltd is a leading authority on laptop gaming news and technology. For more information on how to to build the best gaming laptop, or to check out the latest offerings in the custom gaming laptop industry, visit
Tags: games

Evolution of Gaming - Graphics vs Gameplay

2007-05-19T23:26:00.001-04:00

If you are old enough to remember the early days of computer gaming you know there were a lot of great games that were fun because of the exceptional gameplay and not just the graphics. Gaming started to become a little more popular in the 90s once people started buying computers. In the early 90s games like Maniac Mansion, X-com 1, and Civilization were extremely hot because of their addictive unique gameplay. Today gaming is mainstream and marketed towards a mass audience. In order to market to everyone, many games these days focus on the graphics and special effects rather than unique gameplay. You see many games that seem to be carbon copies of each other with slightly different twists.

These days, a lot of games try to be as realistic as possible and have the most textures and polygons jammed in to wow your eyes. In order to market to everyone, many games these days focus on the graphics and special effects rather than unique gameplay. Although there is nothing wrong with a game with beautiful graphics, once the novelty of the graphics runs out, the gameplay is what keeps you playing. You see many games that seem to be carbon copies of each other with slightly different twists. There are a few games like Halo 2 where the developers obviously spent a lot of time fine tuning to make sure the gameplay was as enjoyable as possible. With Halo 2, the two things that give it an edge in my opinion is the fact that the movement of players is slower than most games and the weapons are highly balanced. Also, rather than throwing tons of multiplayer maps at the player, the developers focused on making a limited number of quality maps.

Freeware games are an option for people on a small budget who value gameplay over graphics. A freeware game is simply a game that is completely free with no fees attached. Freeware developers usually don’t have the million dollar 3d engines to run their games so they must make the games as fun as they can without all the bells and whistles of retail games. These developers make games simply for the love of making them and sometimes come up with some unique and quality games that are definitely worth a look. Especially considering that these games are completely free. These games span all the categories of retail games from Massively Multiplayer to 3d First Person Shooter. Some companies also release production quality games as freeware because they decide not to put the game into production or as promotion.

About the author:
Tony James is a supporter of freeware games and runs (Freewaregames.net-free fullversion games) a well known freeware resource with the hottest free games

Tags: games

Different Categories of Computer Games by: David Chandler

2007-05-18T16:39:00.001-04:00

Computer games can be categorized mainly into PC games that are played in your computer after installation using the CDs that contain the software, downloadable pc games, and the online games. Many websites provide you with the downloadable version of the PC games.

Category based on permission to use

The games can be categorized based on licenses. Some of the games are free and they can be downloaded on the internet free. Some pc games are free downloadable games but are shareware. Shareware games have limitations in the features. Some of the shareware can be used for only 30 days time and some are limited by the number of times that software is used. Trial versions of the software are also available which are time limited or feature limited.

Online Games

Online games are those that are played online. The user who is playing the online games should have an internet connection in his PC. You should be aware that your internet bill is on the rise during the time you play the online games. Yahoo games are one among the popular online games. Many websites provide you online games. Some of the sites require you to become a member to play these online games. Some charge you on per game basis for playing.

PC Games

PC Games are those that require an installation through a CD to play the pc games. Some of the games even require the CD to be present in the CD drive to play the game. These software CDs are to be purchased by the user. There are many pc games available like Tomb Raider that requires you to purchase the CD. Most of the games that contain Car races and Motorbike races require the software to be installed through the CD bought by you.

Downloadable PC Games

These games can be downloaded from the internet and can be installed in your computer. Most of the free game downloads are small enough to be downloaded from the internet. There websites like www.download.com that can be searched for free game downloads. A good search engine would give you thousands of links to free downloadable games.

What you need in your PC to play these games

Most of the games can be played without any additional hardware. If you are having the latest configuration of the PC, which has the software pre-installed in your computer, then you might not need any additional software to be installed. Some of the online games require you to install plug-ins to run the online games. Plug-in is additional software that is required to run an application in your computer. You will be provided appropriate links to download the plug-ins required by your browser or your computer. You need to check the system requirements for the computer games that is downloaded or installed in your system and install them before you start playing the game.

About the author: For more information, visit http://www.ComputerGamesInfo.com

Copying XBOX Games by: Terry Dunn

2007-05-17T05:43:00.001-04:00

There really is no shortcut to copying XBOX games. In fact, this is a mightily complicated process and has stumped some really techie people. This is evident with the prevalence of the question on copying XBOX games in Internet message boards and tech chat rooms. But why does one need to be going about there and copying XBOX games? Is this not legal?

If you have an XBOX and you have purchased original games to play on it, chances are you must have ran through a huge chunk of your savings. Original games are very expensive and because CDs are not exactly immortal, you can eventually wear out a game especially if you use it every minute of the day.

To give value to consumers, most countries allow original CD buyers to make back-up copies of their XBOX games in case their original got damaged or got lost provided that they are aware of the law against pirated software and that they actually own an original cd and are only copying XBOX games for their personal use only.

While it is relatively easy to do the copying of XBOX games, the same cannot be said in actually using the XBOX games that you have copied. Most software contain an encryption that must be met when inserted in an XBOX. Copying an XBOX game, however, does not copy this encryption. This is a protection system that most XBOX consoles have as protection against flagrant copying of XBOX games.

To be able to run XBOX games that you have copied, you need to modify your XBOX. This can be a daunting task especially to beginners who are afraid of destroying their XBOXes with their tinkering.

According to most tech experts, there are a lot of ways to modifying your XBOX in order to accommodate the practice of copying of XBOX games. Some are quite complicated and only a tech expert could do while other ways can be expensive but easy.

One is to buy and install a MOD-chip. This will allow your console to play XBOX games that you have copied as well as play imported games from other countries with perfect sound and video with no problem at all. While it may seem that all you have to do is purchase a MOD-Chip and then voila, you have another think coming. There are actually a lot of things that you should consider when buying a MOD-Chip. Most recommend the Divineo Modchips, which are purported to be really reliable. Some of the popular brands are the Xecuter 2 and 3, Xenium, SmartXX, X-bit, Alladin, Chameleon and Xchip.

Another way in copying and using XBOX games is to change the BIOS of the XBOX so that it will no longer read the requirements of the digitally-signed software. This is basically reprogramming the whole BIOS.

You might also consider purchasing a bigger hard drive and just save all your games inside the XBOX. This way, you already have copy of your favorite games inside and would no longer need to swap CDs.

The third way is to do the game swapping technique, wherein you will first boot the original CD and then swap the copy once it has already booted up. This might be very complicated and will not actually serve your purpose in copying your XBOX games… that is to preserve your original CDs.

About the author:
Terry Dunn is webmaster of an informational resource on software to Copy Xbox Games.

The New Age of Video Game Rentals by John Hinkle

2007-05-16T14:12:00.001-04:00

Ever spent your hard earned cash on a game that just didn't perform and entertain you as much as it should? Did you get caught up in the hype of a popular new release, and it just failed to deliver the quality you were looking for? In the world of gaming, the new reigning consoles Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii have captured the attention of video gamers across the world. The fame of these new consoles has formed a new trend in video game rentals across our nation.

There are some titles that you end up finishing within a few hours to a few days worth of play and never receive any true sense of enjoyment or accomplishment from the game. For this reason alone, video game rental is becoming an increasingly popular way for gamers to test out their most sought after game before shelling out hundreds of dollars on a game that doesn't make it past its first few hours.

To rent a video game, some major rental chains like Blockbuster allow users to rent titles for a few days with charges that are usually $5 and more depending on if you need to keep the game longer. But nowadays, there are many different places that provide cheaper rentals offering a vast array of games within their selection for just $1 per customer.

The best part is that you can keep the game as long as you want. So, if you need a little more time to get acquainted with certain levels, accomplish different goals, or just don't have the time to hammer away at a particular game for too long, you now have more options.

Why Rent Video Games Online?

Being a gamer can be expensive at times if you are paying full price for multiple games a month. Some games cost more than $50 and if it is a highly anticipated release, some will pay inflated amounts of money just to be part of the first to play this specific title. The biggest disappointment is when the game is a complete flop. You can always resell it for a few dollars, but you never recoup the loss of the first purchase.

Online video game rentals allow you to spend the least amount of money on a game without giving a full commitment of cash upfront. Plus, you can always return the title the next day if it ends up being a dud.

When it seems like you've found a great game that allows you to be entertained for hours on end, you end up spending less than a few dollars to find it. If the thrill of a game has gone once you've defeated all levels, then online video game rentals are the best approach to take.

With the new release of the PS3 console and Xbox 360 games, there will be plenty of gamers out there looking for their new release titles for these great video game consoles. Another great aspect of online video game rentals is that you pay the same price for newer video games rentals compared to older video game rentals. It's all the same price across the board.

With the new consoles being released almost every other year, you may also compare the graphics and presentation of your favorite games on a wide-range of consoles for the low membership costs of $5.95 on up to $14.99 per month. Rent as many games and portable video games for Nintendo DS and PSP as well. Portable games are just as popular on the rental scene as their counterpart console games.

With so many video game consoles and portable games on the rise every year, its hard to stay away from some playing your favorite games. Nowadays, with online video game rental companies like GameFly and Gottaplay , you can maintain your video game habit without it effecting your wallet.

For detailed reviews of the latest online video game rental clubs on the net, plus cash back rebates for signing up, come visit us at Game Rental Guide.