Dressing up has never been more fun!

Today I crossed a very cool girl game site named Titter. They have a lot of dress up games which are quite popular with girls. You're amazed how many girl are playing dress up games like these. You can dress up celebrities like Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson and much more, but they also have created their own character Tessa, which seems quite popular. In each game you have a lot of choice in clothes, shoes and other accessories.

As far as I could see there are new games coming almost every day, so it's sure worth watching that site!

Football or soccer? Either way it is the beautiful game...

Like most of the world today, I love football. Always enjoy catching up on a Saturday evening what my team was up to, as well as all the drama of the other teams in action.

Well now I can enjoy my very own football experience (in the office where else?!) by visiting http://soccergamespot.com/. It features a wide array of football themed games, from a full on 11 a side match similar to its console cousins, to classic penalty shoot outs!

A recommended site for all footie fans. Football can be your very own beautiful game indeed, wherever you are :-)

Good clean gaming... literally!

Usually when you are bored at home on the Intarwebs, or like me are bored as soon as you start work ;-) you come across many flash sites that when you only want to play on their games, the interface is usually very messy!

I came across a site that has no such problem what so ever, which is quite rare I think. If you point your clickers towards Shockwood.com, I found its interface and user friendliness so clean that I wish my office was as clean as that! It also boasts a wide selection of games ranging from shooting to action and even sports! Perfect while you wonder where the forthcoming 2016 Olympic Games will be. My money's on Rio though ;-)

Game page customisation is great!

Just came across this flash games site which had a unique feature that I found quite appealing!

The fact that you can customise your very own game page, you can save your favourites on this page and have easy access to it when you are either bored on your own or want to show it off to your mates! A highly recommended gaming portal with a huge selection of games for selection too ;-)

Are you a Punk? Goth? or Emo?

For individuals who love to dress up as one of the above mentioned styles, I came across http://dollsrockit.com/, which is a really cool dressing up portal. There are other extras too such as a chance to adopt a doll as well as Punk, Goth and Emo glitters too!

But this is no ordinary dressing up portal. Styles range from Emo, to Vampires and even Hip-Hop. Very diverse indeed. I would recommend a visit as we all need a bit of a makeover from time to time. Even if they are outrageously over the top ;-)

Pop-up free gaming!

http://www.ussgames.com/ is a site which features tons of games that are easy to navigate and find. But what I liked most about it is that there are NO intrusive pop-ups when I am trying to find the perfect game to play during my 'unofficial' coffee breaks ;-). Recommended indeed.

Fishing games fun? Yes its true!

Gamespond.net is a flash gaming portal that I came across and I was thoroughly entertained by some of their wide selection of games. Typical games include fishing games, Bratz games, online war games, sniper, scary and even ninja games. I didn't even know half these categories even existed! What was noticable (and most entertaining) for me are their sniper and shooting games.

It seems that they are adding new sniper games and shooting games almost daily. I noticed this as I have been secretly visiting the site (while I should actually be working most of the time!) The site gets constantly updated with other new games as well.

Some of my favourite games are Shorty Covers, the Sift Head series and The Fisher. Do try them out and let me know if you agree.

Oh and their site has some really good fishing games too. I never imagined that I would be able to say that as I actually hate fishing!

Sometimes it is time for a bit of music

www.clubknowledge.com compiles a list of great good and coming artist. Perfect for a break between games. ;-)

Preview Ashes Cricket 2009

Ashes Cricket 2009 is the first rendition of the sport on PS3. Arriving at a time when England and Australia are gripped by their teams' battle for the real-life Ashes, it boasts deeply balanced gameplay and glossy presentation, letting players determine what happens on the crease.

Just like TV

A licence from the England and Wales Cricket Board, Cricket Australia and the Marylebone Cricket Club, means that everything is up-to-date and accurate, and you can play as one of 12 different teams - not just England and Australia.

Commentary comes from Tony Greig, Jonathan Agnew and Shane Warne, while Sir Ian Botham guides you through the tutorial mode. The level of detail pored into the match presentation is impressive and TV-style touches such as Hawk-Eye replays will delight fans.

The main attraction is the ability to play through the 2009 Ashes Series with meticulous accuracy. Test matches, One Day Internationals and 20/20 matches are also available, and there are three levels of difficulty.

Just like real-life

The two components of a cricket game, batting and bowling, are both easy to pick up and have underlying complexity. At the crease, the batsman controls his position with the right stick and the direction of his shot with the left stick. Pressing the appropriate action button plays defensive, attacking and lofted shots. Advanced players can use the L1 and L2 buttons to play the shot from the front or back foot respectively.

Bowlers can select between swing, seam and slow delivery types - different variations of spin for spinners - and select the length with the right stick. They must then stop a meter before it hits the red segment to bowl with accuracy.

At a catch opportunity, the action slows and the fielding player must press the X button at the correct time to take the catch.

Building a partnership

Up to four players can get together for any of the match types in local multiplayer; online, you can play limited over matches.

Overall, Ashes Cricket 2009 is a detailed and absorbing recreation of the biennial test series between England and Australia, and the ability to play as other nations, in other match types, adds longevity.

The TV-style presentation, official licenses and Hawk-Eye add polish and provide a wealth of statistics between overs - just like in real life.

Overlord II Review (Xbox 360)

Many actors have confirmed in past interviews that playing a bad guy in a movie or TV show is a lot of fun. You get to do all the things you wouldn’t normally do and get paid for it. While you might not get paid for playing Overlord II—though some of us are, so to speak (sorry)—you can get the same thrill of doing nasty things for fun and merriment. Oh, there’ll surely be some who’ll look down their noses or shun you (and Overlord II), but you just keep on fighting the bad fight. Someone has to…

From the moment you start up the game and are eased into the action as a grammar school-aged overlord-to-be (or a derisive “witch boy,” as he’s commonly called by other school kids and townsfolk—they just don’t understand) and see his glowing eyes and pointy pile of hair, you know that you’re in for a roller-coaster ride of humorous and gaming. It’s a rare combination in video games, and while Overlord II doesn’t have any side-buster laughs, it does at least put a smile on your face at times and occasionally will get you to snicker or snort.

No actual pandas—or overlords—were harmed in this game.

Examples of this are when you cross paths with the plus-sized mermaids (with their…uh, second-floor balconies a bit too large for the awnings, if you get my drift), the many encounters with the rainbow-clad party of elves wanting to save all of the “fluffy” creatures and, yes, even the times you have to clear your path by taking out those same fluffy creatures—rabbit, seal and panda bears, the latter being definitely fluffy and especially life-threatening. I have a feeling Codemasters and developer Triumph Studio (and, by proxy, we) will be hearing from PETA on this one, the latest in its seemingly current mission to clean up video games (despite the lack of brutality and blood that comes with the various kreature-killing that gets done).

As I said in my review of the first Overlord, it’s was a game that did its best not to land in a single genre and it also was mostly a gameplay mix between “Gauntlet (though with a full 3-D presentation) that mixes in the wild concept of Nintendo’s innovative Pikmin.” That same description works for this sequel. If you enjoyed the caricatured characters of the initial game, you’ll probably like this one for more of the same. And I also criticized the original for “some weak spots in the design and execution” and that “the concept is there in spades; it’s the execution that doesn’t go the distance.” That’s one criticism that doesn’t quite match the premier Overlord, but there are still things that don’t work out as well as they should.

For instance, many 3-D games suffer at the hands of their camera, and Overlord II is a good example. There are times when you’ll be leading your pack of “Gremlins”-like minions (in appearance and in sound) through the world, when suddenly the camera will zoom in, because you’ve moved into a narrow passage or enclosed area. It’s more a cosmetic annoyance when that happens, but with control often being tightly connected to the camera, it’s more than cosmetic when you’re locked on a character in a battle, and the camera does a radical swing of closer to 180 degrees as it tries to stay locked, which can throw off the desired movement of your character.

It gets a little worse when you’re being pounded and can’t lock on the right adversary to stop the beating, because the locking system doesn’t always targets the closest one or doesn’t move the targeting to the enemy you want to switch to. Suffice it to say that it’s much better than the first game, which was very sloppy with a number of its aspects, but there are still glitches here—just not as many and not generally as severe.

But when it goes right, it’s a lot of fun. It’s very Diablo-like in its playability, in that it often throws a lot of opposition at you, but with a full complement of minions and a powerful weapon, you’ll usually cut through them nicely. When you lose some minions, there’s almost always a place to refill your supply just around the corner. If you’re low on health or mana, they may not be as close as minion dispensers, but there are plenty of transport gates that also boost your gauges when you get close to one. The puzzles aren’t incredibly intricate, and they don’t force you to go back and forth across the map for you to complete them. And, yes, there is a nice, detailed map provided, which enables you to see where objectives are located (with big exclamation-point icons) and to track the status of your various active quests.

Your overlord often gets a little hot under the collar.

There are also plenty of upgrades that were made in Overlord II from its predecessor. First, it looks like the basic game is just bigger than the first, with hours of action (expanded by a lot of cutscenes, though they can be as much fun as the gameplay…or skipped with the tap on the A Button). There’s more that you can do outside the main and side quests as well, such as resurrecting previously lost minions (for a cost, but with their at-death experience level intact, which enables you to bring back a more powerful batch of assistants, if you want to pay for it). Forging weapons and armor is certainly helpful when things get tougher, and you’ll be able to pop back and forth between areas to blast crates, barrels and casks for all of the various currency you need to make those purchases. Also, the multiplayer component has been boosted with four games—two “versus” and two “cooperative”—for those who are interested in getting busy outside the main questing portion of the game with or against a friend.

Sure, there are some glitches and foibles, but some of the best games (Grand Theft Auto, for instance) have a lot of those and still provide plenty of enjoyment. While Overlord II might not match up as evenly as GTA in the glitch-to-enjoyment ratio, it certainly does entertain during its closer-to-greatness gameplay. The key is that Codemasters and Triumph improved the gameplay experience, so hopefully they’ll nail down the loose ends by the time the next Overlord is ready to rule.

Review PS3 Game - Ghostbusters

US, June 8, 2009 - Let's get this out of the way: I'm a Ghostbusters Super-Fan. It's my favorite movie, I own a jumpsuit, a movie-accurate Proton Pack and I even cried during an episode of Extreme Ghostbusters when Slimer accidentally killed Eduardo... keep in mind that this was a cartoon that aired when I was in high school. Personally, I like the idea of people reviewing games from franchises they love because I feel like they'll be tougher on a property than your average reviewer, but that's my opinion. You're an IGN reader -- you get pissed when a non-fan reviews a game and you get pissed when an admitted fan reviews a game, so there's no way to win.

Anyway, still here? Awesome; Ghostbusters: The Video Game is very good.


Are you a god? Watch our video review.Set in 1991, two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2, this title finds the boys in gray moving onto the next chapter in the world of paranormal investigations and eliminations -- namely, expanding the team. You'll join the squad as an experimental weapons technician with the sole purpose of testing Egon's latest Proton Pack modifications. Within moments of showing up on the job, a strange wave of ghostly energy emanates from a museum packing a Gozer exhibit and spreads across New York City. The spiritual spike gets every ghoul in the five boroughs riled up, the boys get to work and a devious master plan is set in motion.

This game is meant to be the third movie in the franchise, and with that in mind, we have to talk about presentation right off the bat. The game opens detailing the ghostly explosion in a beautiful cutscene -- all the computer-generated movies look great with lots of detail and animations -- and we're launched into the Ghostbusters theme just like when the Gray Lady scared the librarian in the first movie and when Dana caught up to Oscar's carriage in the second film. These nifty scenes will continue along with the soundtrack from the original movie throughout the game and setup the tale. There are dips in this presentation value -- which I'll get to in a bit -- but these touches are pulled right from the movie and drop you into this third-person shooter with a specific story to tell (i.e. don't expect to choose your next job GTA-style).

To immerse you in the experience, your noob Ghostbuster character doesn't speak and isn't given a name other than "rookie." In the game, it's explained that this nameless move is to keep the core four from getting attached in case a device goes haywire and puts the whippersnapper out of commission, but in reality, it's so you can just sit back and play your part as the real Ghostbusters banter with each other in the tech-heavy dialogue and comedic one-liners you'd expect.

Maybe now you'll never slime a guy with a positron collider, huh?

For me, this works quite well. If you haven't been paying attention, the four original Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson) are back to lend their voices along with the team's receptionist (Annie Potts) and the dickless wonder known as Walter Peck (William Atherton) so you really don't need some new guy getting in the way of the dialogue, which was penned in part by the films' original writers Aykroyd and Ramis. I'm sure many would want to create their own character, but when you see some of the facial animations in the CG cutscenes and how the experience plays as a whole, I think you'll forgive the omission.

OK. So, the game feels a lot like a movie -- we've even got a new love interest for Venkman in Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, who is voiced by Alyssa Milano -- but you're probably more concerned with how it plays. A third-person shooter, your Ghostbusters experience is told from the behind-the-back perspective. Rather than have the screen littered with health bars and HUDs (the screen will get red as you take damage and display a running damage total as you blast objects in an environment), your Proton Pack will serve as your hub of in-game information. By monitoring the meter on the right side of the device, you can see how close to overheating you are; yes, to give you some restraints, liberties were taken with the device so that you now have to vent the pack to keep it from overheating and taking you out of the game for an extended period of time.

The pack is also your visual representation for which weapon mode you are in. Rather than limit you to just a proton stream, Egon will have outfitted your pack with a total of four firing modes by the time all is said and done. The first mode is the classic Proton Pack from the movies but packs a Boson Dart (a ball of condensed energy that explodes on impact) as a secondary fire. By tapping left on your D-pad, you'll switch to your dark matter functions, which causes some blue lights and gizmos to pop out of the pack. These dark blue attacks include the shotgun-like Shock Blast and Stasis Stream that slows enemies to a crawl. The Meson Collider is assigned to Right on the D-Pad -- which causes an antenna crackling with electricity to come out of the pack -- and tags a ghoul with a tracker and then rapidly fires particles at the enemy. Finally, the Slime Blower is down on the D-Pad and can be used to coat enemies and objects in positively charged goo or as a Slime Tether that draws two objects together. This beaut turns the four red lights green and causes a slime reservoir to rise out of the pack.

Killzone II review

The Good

• Well-paced campaign keeps you in the thick of action
• Great online play constantly rewards you
• Intricate, balanced multiplayer maps
• Weapons are beefy and fun to shoot
• Visually stunning, both technically and artistically

The Bad

• Forgettable story and characters
• Tacked-on motion controls.

No one could have suspected that the sequel to 2004's Killzone would be this good. Killzone 2 is a tremendous package, offering an exciting campaign and terrific competitive online play, neither of which create new paradigms for first-person shooters, but rather set new standards in subtle but significant ways. From groundbreaking visuals to well-crafted multiplayer maps, most of Killzone 2's individual elements stand out in a crowded genre, making its meager attempts at storytelling easy to ignore. PlayStation 3 owners looking for a shooter to keep them busy for the rest of 2009 and beyond need look no further: The fierce action will keep you glued to your television screen for some time to come.

The M82: Is there nothing it can't do?

What makes Killzone 2's single-player campaign so much fun? First and foremost, the weapons are a lot of fun to shoot, even the standard assault rifles that form the core of your loadout. The M82's effective scope makes zooming in on your target a breeze, yet this rifle is effective at close range as well, establishing itself from the beginning as a formidable firearm. The LS13 shotgun is also powerful and rewarding to fire; though you may only shoot off a foe's helmet with other weapons, you'll watch entire heads explode with a single blast from this close-range powerhouse. The bolt gun is another favorite, skewering enemy soldiers onto surfaces and exploding a short moment later. Though you're traversing a sci-fi setting, your weapons are decidedly modern-day, from the sniper rifle to the vicious flamethrower, with one exception: the lightning gun. This mighty instrument showers enemies with overpowering jolts of electricity, and though it's not available for long, it makes short work of robotic and humanoid foes. Each of these weapons feels just right; fantastic spurts of blood, outstanding animations, exquisitely detailed weapon models, and explosive sound effects fuse seamlessly and give a satisfying sense of impact every time you land a shot.

Although there's a great variety of weaponry, you won't encounter that many different kinds of enemies as you fight your way across the war-torn landscapes of the planet Helghan. As in the original Killzone, your enemies consist largely of Helghast soldiers, yet though this limited selection led to monotony in the past, an assortment of factors in the sequel hold tedium at bay. The action is constantly pushing forward, leading you from one quality scripted event to the next and pitting you against bright AI opponents that have a remarkable grasp of battlefield tactics. These soldiers put up a fight and exhibit authentic behavior as you rain bullets on them. If you set your sights on a soldier peeking from behind cover and fire off a few rounds in that direction, he'll patiently wait until all signs of fire have vanished. Helghast will flank you and shoot blindly from behind cover, and should you toss a grenade in their direction, they'll quickly scatter. You'll normally be fighting alongside a computer-controlled teammate or even entire squads of fellow infantry. Enemy AI is just as concerned with your comrades as it is with you, so you'll never feel as if you have a bull's-eye plastered on your forehead, as is common with many other team-based shooters. As a result, Killzone 2's thrilling large-scale battles unfold dynamically and offer a legitimate challenge while rarely feeling unfair--a frustrating rocket-heavy final battle serving as the only exception.

Some excellent turret sequences and other segments also provide welcome variations on the shooting theme. At one point, you'll climb into a robotic shell and mow down infantry and tanks with machine gun fire and rockets. The way your transparent protective shield exhibits cracks as you take damage and the remarkable fire and smoke effects that light up the screen add to the excitement of the level. In another fun and visually stunning sequence, you'll use an antiaircraft turret to take down squadrons of enemy fighters. Even operating a standard turret is more appealing than you would expect, which is a result of great map design and well-scripted enemy entrances. If you're just using your standard arsenal, missions are diverse and engaging. You'll take aim at tanks (and in one boss fight, a hovering aircraft) using Killzone 2's potent rocket launcher, and you'll fight your way through a besieged air base in which winding corridors and intersecting passages have you battling multiple enemies on multiple levels.

Most levels take their cue from the usual first-person shooter formulas, and though it takes place in the spacefaring future, Killzone 2 feels more akin to a modern-day FPS by way of its standard weapons and mostly humanoid enemies. It's an interesting blend of two disparate sensibilities that works far better than in the original, and it's further ripened by gameplay touches that feel authentic within that framework. Movement and turning speeds have a real feeling of weight, which is appropriate considering the heavy armor burdening you. This can make the controls feel somewhat sluggish at first, given that you take a moment to gather momentum. It doesn't take long to get accustomed to this sense of overall bulkiness, though, and it's consistently delivered across multiple mechanics. For example, when you jump, the way that you bend into the leap and cushion the landing with another slight crouch feels surprisingly realistic. That weight also informs movement in and out of cover. Killzone 2's cover system is solid, and it never removes you from a first-person viewpoint. Though some objects can obscure your view if you try to take potshots from behind them, sticking to cover and leaning out from behind walls is generally effective and intuitive.

This armored suit is the ultimate death machine.

Whether you go for a pop-and-shoot approach or just gun your way through, the mission design keeps you constantly moving from one objective to the next. The quick pace is one of Killzone 2's finest facets; battles don't wear on too long, and they aren't so brief as to be anticlimactic. Like many other shooters, mission objectives often involve turning a crank or pushing a button. In Killzone 2, this may mean rotating the controller to simulate the onscreen activity. These moments feel unnecessary and ironically disrupt the sense of immersion, but as tacked-on as they are, the actions are too brief to be especially annoying. You'll also use your gamepad's motion sensitivity to stabilize the sniper rifle, though the implementation here is subtle and therefore relatively harmless.

It's a real pity that there is so little context for the exceptional action. If you're familiar with the original Killzone, you'll at least have an idea why the ISA (International Strategic Alliance) is attacking the Helghast homeworld; if not, it's clear that as Thomas Sevchenko, you are on the side of the good guys--just not clear why they are the good guys. The dialogue is rudimentary (a discussion regarding sandwiches jumps immediately to mind), the characters forgettable, and the plot serves purely as a thin framework to move you from one environment to the next. Yet the cutscenes are top-notch, and unlike their counterparts in fellow PS3 shooter Haze, there's nothing intrinsically offensive or wearisome about the fist-pumping grunts at the core of the story. The story isn't deep or involving--it's just there, neither enhancing nor diminishing Killzone 2's action

review Call of Duty: World at War

So it's come to this. Right at the very start of World at War, you're a helpless prisoner of the Japanese, saved from execution at the last second by a rescue squad of US Marines. Handed a rifle, you begin to exact your payback. As you move from hut to hut, one of the game's many scripted moments occurs. Directly in front of you, a Japanese soldier, his uniform ablaze, bursts out at a fellow US soldier. Should you manage to shoot the assailant quickly enough, and thus prevent your team mate from burning alive, you're awarded your first Achievement or Trophy - Saved Private Ryan.

It's an obvious gag, and a revealing one. World at War, it seems, is not a game concerned with avoiding the obvious. Quite the opposite in fact. For a game that goes out of its way to rub your nose in the grisly underbelly of war (opening, rather tastelessly, with what looks like real archive footage of Japanese military executions) it nevertheless nestles snugly inside the predictable comfort zone already established by over a decade of similar WW2 shooters.

That's not to say that World at War doesn't impress. Much like its predecessor, Modern Warfare, this is an exhilarating and painstakingly designed journey through the smoke, flames and dust of armed combat. It's linear and scripted, as all shooters must be to some extent, but the series has always succeeded by hiding the strings better than most. That success wavers here, but there's still plenty to enjoy for those who enjoy shock and awe more than surprises.

The dual storylines follow Private Miller, an American soldier in the Pacific and the subject of the opening rescue, and Red Army soldier Private Petrenko, pulled from the rubble of Stalingrad by the grizzled Sergeant Reznov, brilliantly voiced by Gary Oldman. It's the Russian story that is most interesting, tracking the Soviets as they push the Germans out of the motherland all the way back to Berlin for the climactic assault on the Reichstag. The American story, on the other hand, feels a bit piecemeal and offers a less than satisfying conclusion.

There are thirteen levels in all, although thirteen set pieces may be a more accurate description. If the early Call of Duty games were aping Spielberg, this is videogaming in the Michael Bay style. Each level seems designed to drop you into an instantly thrilling combat scenario, delivered with maximum speaker-rattling intensity and all the particle effects the game engine can muster. When it works, it's as ferociously thrilling as ever. One level, seemingly unrelated to either story, finds you scampering up and down a US seaplane, manning the various turrets to fend off Japanese gunboats and fighters. At one point, you land on the water and must pull the survivors of a Navy convoy to safety while explosions rattle the fuselage.

Good thing there’s a convenient last minute rescue about to take place, or this would be a very short game.

But when it doesn't work, the game can feel disjointed and disconnected. Levels are connected by swooshing animated segues, which are presumably inspired by the opening credits to the George Clooney thriller, Syriana, but it doesn't do enough to explain who your characters are, or why they're hopping from one location to another. That the levels rigidly herd you in the right direction, only triggering the next sequence once you've passed some invisible trigger, only heightens the artificiality of the scenarios.

Call of Duty has never been about freedom, though. It's a theme park ride, and if you keep your eyes in the direction the game is herding you then you'll get the full effect. Try and deviate from the prescribed path and the illusion is broken, with AI team mates who only advance once you've killed an unexplained number of specific enemies, respawning soldiers that only stop appearing when you trigger the next section by moving in the right direction and lots of other tricks of the trade.

Call of Duty isn't alone in disguising its corridor construction with this sort of thing, of course, and there's a lot of skill in the way the game directs your gaze and engineers staged pseudo-spontaneous moments, but it does seem more reliant on these methods than other shooters. We've seen and beaten these tricks too many times before, and while it's easy to be entertained by the dramatic flourishes we're no longer fooled by the construction, especially when playing through the same section for the fifth time thanks to crude sudden death moments and checkpoints just harsh enough to frustrate.

This aerial sequence is breathtakingly staged, but appears to have no connection to anything else in the game.

Grenades are a recurring problem, often landing close enough to kill but too far away to be reached and tossed back safely. That your character has a habit of snagging on small objects as you try to backpedal away from the blast zone simply makes these moments even more annoying. The game also brings back the timed reaction tests from Call of Duty 3, with Japanese troopers screaming "Banzai!" and trying to stick their bayonet in your warm fleshy bits. As the levels get wider, and the battles larger, it's easy to be caught from behind by these guys, at which point you have a split second to bash the button to counter their otherwise instantly deadly attack. The timing is fiddly, and the whole concept still feels cheap, especially since your team mates rarely do anything to help.