News : Spiderman Web of Shadows

Activision should be proud of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows because from what I've seen until today it looks that it will pack a lot of action . Adventure ? That reamains to be seen , sometime in October , when it is dued for launch .Had you seen the new screen-shots with the black Kitty that looks de-le-cious , even better than Merry Jane. Spider-man it's a lucky guy ...

Learn Japanese very fast !

This is the craziest thing ever ! I don't know any Japanese , but I recently found on the net a book with pictures that teaches you Japanese really fast . Take for example this picture . It took me bout 3 seconds to understand what was written there !

Review: Viking - Battle for Asgard

For a game that doesn't do any one thing particularly well, why is Viking: Battle For Asgard so much fun?

Put simply, it's because the developers of this Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game understand what turns a player into an addict. Viking's medieval sword-and-axe combat is merely alright, the visuals won't wow you, and the story is barely there. But the game's gradually expanding world ramps up perfectly, constantly teasing you with one more goal just out of reach, then another, then another.

Next thing you know, it's three in the morning and you can't remember how many legions of monsters you've slaughtered.

Viking is the story of a lone warrior tasked by the Norse goddess Freya to beat back the horrific armies of the death-goddess Hel, who has taken over the land of Midgard. To do it, you've got to liberate your fellow warriors and take back key military locations like quarries and lumberyards, so you'll be ready for a series of full-scale, thousand-man assaults on enemy strongholds.

One reason why Viking is so compelling is that it realizes its core competency and sticks closely to it. Although the setup makes the game sound like some sort of military tactics sim, and the open world brings to mind role-playing games like Fable, it's really an unabashed action game. You're on your own mowing down the enemies with your trusty sword, and the only strategy you need to employ is where to slash next.

But it's not all mindless hack-and-slash. If you run smack into the middle of a Legion-occupied area, you'll quickly be overwhelmed and die. Stealth is key. Now, generally when the word "stealth" is brought up in the context of any videogame whose title does not contain the words Metal Gear, it's a bad thing. Not so for Viking. Yes, main character Skarin is basically a lumbering oaf without a sneaky bone in his body. But his enemies make up for this by having the approximate combined intelligence of half a potato chip.

This leads to several ridiculous but undeniably entertaining stealth situations in which you tramp conspicuously around the outskirts of an enemy base, picking off preposterously inattentive monsters one by one as you thin out their numbers and move inward towards the oblivious rest of them. If you get behind an enemy undetected you can one-hit kill him with a special move you earn later in the game; these are generally accompanied by a gruesome dismemberment and a feeling of delicious power.

Once you've accomplished all of the smaller goals, you and a thousand other dudes take on one of the enemy's massive strongholds. This is a sight to behold when you first see it -- insane numbers of soldiers from both sides flood onto the battlefield and start going at it. There's a tradeoff, though, because the action slows down noticeably as the console chugs to keep up with everything.

This is not to impugn Viking's tech, however. In fact, good technical tuning is a big part of the reason why the game is so addictive. When you first start the game, it loads everything it needs into memory, and from that moment on, you're never pulled from the experience. When you use the giant monuments that let you warp around the three large island maps, it happens instantly. When you die, you're immediately put back into action. Even when you clear out one of the giant enemy bases, it's seamlessly converted into a friendly one. The game never stops -- not for loading, not for lame cut scenes, not for grinding or pointless busy work.

At some point, you realize that looking back at each of Viking's qualities, it's hard to really put your finger on anything that's truly standout -- and yet it's compelling. In a way, it's very much like last year's Xbox 360 game Crackdown, which also nailed the carrot-and-stick approach to game design. Give Viking: Battle For Asgard an hour, then see if you can stop. I bet you can't.

Rating 8.6

Talk like a pirate day

Avast, me hearties!

19th of September is here ! Have a happy talk like a pirate day (week-end) .

Pirate National Song

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
And cookey's throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten;
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o'day in a boozing ken

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men of the whole ship's list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
And the scullion he was stabbed times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped down in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and foul sunrise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ten of the crew had the murder mark!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers' glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes
Looking up at paradise
All souls bound just contrawise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men of 'em good and true
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ev'ry man jack could ha' sailed with Old Pew,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
With a ton of plate in the middle hold
And the cabins riot of stuff untold,
And they lay there that took the plum
With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

More was seen through a sternlight screen...
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Chartings undoubt where a woman had been
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
'Twas a flimsy shift on a bunker cot
With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot
Oh was she wench or some shudderin' maid
That dared the knife and took the blade
By God! she had stuff for a plucky jade
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
We wrapped 'em all in a mains'l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight
And we heaved 'em over and out of sight,
With a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare-you-well
And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Review : Painkiller Overdose

Overdose of cliches

If you love real good action games than you must think at Painkiller. Only God knows how I destroyed and banished Diablo's minions for dozens of hours . Then the expansion pack , Battle Out of Hell , came and set the series as one of the best games in the genre , like Doom, Wolfenstein and Serious Sam: The First Encounter. Sadness and frustration are left away once you enter the grotesque and funny world of Painkiller – hell, as you never seen it before . Rarely you see a game where moments of terror are followed by funny moments , which determines you to go further , to approach step by step toward Satan's nest . I wont forget the orphan asylum , where little children on fire were following me , trying to set me ablaze and the little burned girls with their scream that would make you freeze . I can still see how they were running toward me , with their arms width open , thinking that in my arms they would find the salvation from Hell . After I escape the orphan asylum i meet new enemies , the clowns with grenades .

An expansion for Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell is still a distant possibility , while a handful of smart and crazy modders (I mean it in a good way) thought that it would be nice to give us a single-player conversion for Painkiller , to make waiting a bit easier . Slowly but surely , Painkiller: Overdose took shape and transformed itself in a game of it's own . They say that trying is without death .

Or is it ?

In Overdose you are Belial , a bastard born from the love between an angel and a demon . Belial is very pissed off because he is trapped in a cage for some thousands of years under the order of Lucifer . As soon as the hero from the previous game kills Lucifer , Belial is given the chance to escape , and he doesn't refuse it . On the way out of Hell he spills all the hate he accumulated over the years , over devils , skeletons , ninjas , mummies , demons and other hell spawns .

The locations as well as the enemies vary , but without a logic , and the weapons work the same like in the previous games , like if they changed only the skin . Even the saving system is the same : reaching a checkpoint and receiving the corresponding health boost while the hordes of evil continue their rampage Then , after you complete a task you are rewarded with a tarot card , one of the few reasons that make you replay the same level again . The whole game brings you over 40 new enemies which in fact are only four –head bashing monsters , hell spawns with bats , ranged demons that spit from afar and huge enemies that are easily killed . The enemies have almost no AI , because they don't hide , they don't use evasive maneuvers and they don't curse or swear . But still , I had the feeling as I played Overdose that this game is a version of Painkiller without stamina , without action , original weapons and without the smart punch-lines . After all , Overdose is nothing that a mindless FPS , with huge loading times . Loading times that are not excused by any high-end graphics or level design . The game is pretty hard to play , because you have the chance to die on any level on almost all the difficulties and very frustrating is the fact that you have to wait one minute each time you die . Don't ask me why ...

Read and burn !

For it wasn't for the huge loading time , Painkiller : Overdose would have been a tolerable game , but the rampage of mindless dead creatures without any personality is a grim site . Overdose is a game that is trying to beat the original Painkiller but it lack the action and the flavor that it's predecessor had . There are better ways to spend those 8 hours that this mod guarantees so how about some beer ?

Rating 6.3

Top 10 Sexy Moments in Games (5-1)

Previous 5 places

#5 Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne - [ Xbox ]

While most sexy gaming moments are there to simply get a rise out of the player (pun most definitely intended), the sex scene between Max Payne and Mona Sax is actually one of the most fitting ever seen in a video game. Two troubled souls are inexplicably drawn together and despite the violence and carnage around them, manage to find some iota of love. It's just too bad that Max can't use Bullet Time in the bedroom, according to Mona.

#4 Dead Or Alive Ultimate - [ Xbox ]

She kicks high, indeed. While an incredibly competent fighting game, it's hard to deny the sheer sexiness factor of DOA's fighting ladies. In fact, everything they do ends up being sexy as a result--kicking you in the face (sexy), punching you in the gut ( super-sexy), and even pile driving your skull in to the ground (unbelievably sexy). Who says you can't get your ass kicked AND have a good time, too?

#3 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty - [ PS2 ]

Even Solid Snake needs to make time for the sweet, sweet females, and what better example is there than his "secret" locker rendezvous with a pinup girl in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty? Gamers who ducked into a particular locker in the Tanker mission were treated to a lovely Japanese cutie and those brave enough to call up Otocon on the CODEC were treated to a particularly hot and bothered Snake. Now we know where "stealth action" really came from.

#2 Golgo 13 - [ NES ]

Before there was fancy CG, there were pixels--and big ones, at that. But that didn't stop super assassin Golgo 13 from getting down with some digital love in his first NES action title. While crude by today's standards, the sex scene in Golgo 13 goes to show you that with a few crude pixels and appropriately primitive MIDI-based mood music, even the most hardened of killers can make some time for a little dose of the old in-and-out.

#1 Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix - [ Playstation ]

Hong Kong becomes the stage for action, espionage, and hot and sweaty lesbian love - and we thought it was just a great place to buy bootleg DVDs! While the first game in the series focused more on the "blow 'em up" brand of action, the sequel makes the bold move of jumping into gamers' pants and plays the Rain/Hanna lesbian angle for all it's worth...up to and including sensual massage sessions. Just don't expect a "happy ending" when you get to the end of the game, if you catch our drift.