ESRB: T for Teen
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Number of Players: 1-10
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: March 16, 2010

PASS

The game itself I hate to say is pretty lackluster. The graphics and soundtrack are nice and the gameplay itself is a bit better from the last game, but all in all I just wasn’t impressed. Considering this is supposed to be the finale for a storyline that’s been in the works for approximately 15 years I thought it would feel more epic.

Joe Kucan returns to play Kane, and does a good job of it. The cutscenes were pretty nice and the sets seemed better as well. The soundtrack also lent itself nicely to these scenes accentuating the mood of the game. However in the end these don’t help the campaign too much which leaves you feeling restricted. You begin with a few missions that start off as a tutorial and afterwords are given the choice to side with Kane and join Nod or to side with the Global Defense Initiative (GDI). But instead of playing a polished version of the mechanics in C&C3, we get to play a seemingly rushed mechanic based on capture points, fast unit production and mobile bases. The units are divided by classes: Offensive, Defensive and Support. The Offensive class gets ground units and upgrades, Defensive can build towers and garrisons, and Support can build aircraft and is the only class that can unleash powers on the battlefield.

To me I just don’t enjoy this type of fast gameplay. Granted the quick turn around with unit development was nice and never left me wanting a full squad, I just tend to prefer a non-mobile base. And weird as it sounds I missed the resource gathering mechanics. I also felt let down that the campaign was so short. Most of the focus seems to be on the online co-op play, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But when you want to wrap up a storyline and you don’t focus on the campaign? You’ve missed something big.

You will have to log onto the servers in order to play C&C4, even if you’re just doing a single player game. Not too big of a deal for me, but for some who don’t always have their computers hooked up to the net or who have spotty connections this may not be ideal. But in the end the focus on the online multiplayer shows. The fast and frenzied gameplay that comes with the new controls works better with the online matches where it fell flat in the campaign.

I have enjoyed previous C&C games in the past, but C&C4 really falls flat for me. I would have expected more from a game that’s supposed to be the finale for a series. I did enjoy the multiplayer and I do feel that this is where the meat of the game truely lies, but for fans who have been wanting to see what will happen to Kane I think that they will be disappointed. Honestly I’d pass on this game unless it’s in the bargain bin.

Review product was provided by EA, and does not affect the outcome of this review.

“The Graveyard offers a player the opportunity to imagine themselves in a certain situation,” explain creators Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn. “It’s not a game in the sense that there is a way to win or lose or a puzzle to solve, or even a story to uncover. But the interaction does immerse you in a virtual world filled with narrative, an equally powerful feature of the medium of videogames. The iPhone version of The Graveyard is the same as the PC version. Only a few elements have been removed or simplified to allow it to run on the iPhone hardware. But the fact that you hold the game in your hand and touch it with your finger, adds to the sensation of fragility and preciousness.”

The full version of The Graveyard is available through the Apple Apps Store for $1.99 or at http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheGraveyard.

The Lite version is also available for free.

The world has been filled with man great teams or team ups. I mean look at any great comic crossover, or artist combination and you know you have gold.

This if no different for Shuttle and the Clash of the Titans. Shuttle has partnered with the upcoming “Blockbuster” to promote their launch of their new PC series of entertainment focused PC’s. What the company has done is that in promoting their new J Series desktops and X50 V2 all-in-one PCs is that they are having a giveaway. Of course, we all know how much people love giveaways.

The giveaway will include a limited-edition PC will be wrapped in a “Clash of the Titans” theme and come pre-loaded with exclusive “Clash of the Titans” content, including wallpaper and images from the film.  In the press release Nicole Sedita, Warner Bros. Vice President of National Promotions states.

“Shuttle has come out with a collection of very distinctive and elegant lifestyle computers,with ‘Clash of the Titans’ being one of the premier films of the year, it’s a natural fit to work with the leader in small form factor entertainment PCs.

For more information on the giveaway and Shuttle PC’s  follow the links:
http://us.shuttle.com/event/ClashofTheTitans/
http://us.shuttle.com/Static_Images/Press/ShuttleCES2010_ProductGuide_XPC.pdf

Children are using personal computers at such a young age.  There are technology classes for primary classes, they play games, learn to surf the internet,  and email.  They are many products out there that support the teaching of computer to children, such as smaller mice, and keyboards. PeeWee PC annouced during the N.Y Toy fair a new addiction to their PeeWee Kit for children.
The PeeWee kit includes:

• A USB drive
• PeeWee Security suite for online and offline safety
• 7 different games and software titles

The PeeWee security suite is  ”software lets parents limit how much time their children spend browsing the Internet (on a daily or weekly basis), block inappropriate sites with any version of any web browser, take screen shots, view browsing history, and even control the laptop remotely.”

The goal is to create a safe environment for your child to game and surf the net.

The educational software that is included in the kits are:

• Science House
• Bailey Book House
• Trudy’s Time & Place House
• Sammy’s Science House
• Millie’s Math House
• Thinkin’ Things
• Mighty Math Carnival Countdown
• Zoombinis Mountain Rescue
• Reader Rabbit
• Where in the World in Carmen Sandiego?
• Oregon Trail

In short, this kit turns any PC or netbook into a computer that can be used by children in an educational and informative manner.
The retail price for the kit is 29.99 and includes free shipping.  The CD-ROM version will be available with 4 piece of software and will retail for 19.99
http://www.peeweepc.com/

Dragon Age: Origins had the most impressive options out of any game this year, the organization said. BioWare included three levels of subtitles, gamers can pause the action during battle and issue commands on a delay instead of in real time, various control options are available for the camera and characters, and the game itself is even colorblind-friendly. The fact that all of the previous options are available and don’t hamper the gameplay is key. The accessibility options only enhance the gameplay for disabled gamers, and they don’t dumb it down or make it any less fun.

Mark Darrah, the Executive Producer of Dragon Age: Origins, acknowleged the importance of accessibility in a statement given to AbleGamers.com: “The Dragon Age team is honored to win this award. We try to appeal to as broad of an audience as we can and accessibility is certainly part of this effort. It makes me proud to have the game this well received by this community,” he said.

We can only hope that others will follow suit and bring even more mainstream gaming fun to the members of this oft-overlooked community.

The catch: You have to design the game.

The downsides: Well, there are none. A cash prize (current amount undetermined) will be awarded for the best Flash-based game based on and inspired by the characters, all of which can be found at the Sneables website. Michael Pellegrino, founder of 2day&2morrow’s Creations, isn’t expecting extensive gameplay testing or game design documents – right now, a fun and cute idea is all you need.

Ideas can be submitted at Sneables.com, where more information will become available this month.

Dell’s Alienware line of gaming PC’s have made an announcement about a partnership with Steam. Gaming Desktops and laptops such as the Area-51, Aurora, M17X and M15X will now have Steam pre-installed on each system. On top of that  that that ever so popular physics puzzle game Portal. You remember portal right? I mean how can you not!?

What does that mean for PC gamers? Well according to the press release,

With Steam pre-installed on all these PCs, Alienware gamers can expect a higher level of service from their gaming experience right out of the box as existing Steam gamers may simply sign into their account to access all their purchased products. Customers new to Steam will find over 950 games at their finger tips, all supported by automatic updates, the Steam Friends Community of networking services, and more.

That’s not too shaddy for those of us you enjoy our PC games. If anyone is a little vague on that Steam provides on their service of games, you should check out http://store.steampowered.com/.

NinjaBee has announced that they are being the addicting XBLA game, A Kingdom for Keflings, to the PC.

“Bringing A Kingdom for Keflings to the PC audience has been a priority for us.” said Brent Fox, NinjaBee’s Art Director. “It’s been a runaway hit on XLA and we are offering the same, high-quality game on the PC. We are proud and we’re excited to finally make it available to so many of those who haven’t been able to play before.”

The city-building game has been on Xbox Live Arcade for a year and won Best Family Game in 2008. While there is no release date for the PC version, NinjaBee is looking for beta testers. Find out how to apply here. All testers will receive a free copy of the game for their involvement.

From Nov 4 to the 8th you can download for FREE the PC version of the duo’s latest adventure, Muzzled! Help Wallace and Gromit stop con-man Monty Muzzle from making off with investment dollars meant for the dog shelter by signing up on the Wallace & Gromit site.

From today on, all four Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventure games are on Xbox Live. Each game costs 800 Microsoft points. There are also themes and gamerpics for you to check out.

You may also start ordering the Collector’s Edition DVD for PC as of today. The collector’s disc contains all four Grand Adventures episodes, behind the scenes video, game trailers and making of featurettes, and more from Aardman.

Most importantly, Telltale Games has joined forces with Child’s Play, and will be making donations to the charity based on every full PC copy of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures purchased between Nov 4th to the 8th. They will also be donating full copies of the games directly to the hospitals partnered with Child’s Play.

“We designed this innovative new headset specifically with PC gamers in mind,” said Able Planet’s chairman and CEO Kevin Semcken. “Gamers tend to spend significant periods of time playing online games and such extended play of rich multimedia sounds puts a cumulative strain on the ears this can cause hearing loss and fatigue.  Our technology minimizes this risk so that users no longer have to turn up the volume just to be able to drown out background noise.”

With this in mind I definitely wanted to try out the headset! It’s a decent looking headset with an adjustable mic, and it even comes with it’s own USB adapter which I don’t really see come with many headphones. So I eagerly popped open the package, connected the headphones to my Mac and proceeded to fire up WoW to test out the headphones. Over the next week I was able to get a good feel about this headset.

I can say that on the first day I could really tell that the sound quality was better than what I was getting from my usual headset. The ambient noises from the game sounded clearer and I didn’t have to have my iTunes volume as high as I usually did.  The microphone also seems to work quite well and projects clearly as I received comments from my guildmates that I sounded a lot clearer in vent. So I have to give it an A in the sound department as it has lived up to what it has promised to be and then some!

The area where I was a bit disappointed in was in the comfort levels. The headset has rather small earpieces and even after breaking them in for a few days, I have to take them off regularly as they begin to squeeze my ears a bit too much. Not good for when I want to play for an extended period, do a raid, or just sit in vent and talk with my guildmates. In this area they may want to take a page from other gaming headset makers and work on the comfort level. Most of the gamers I know who would use a headset like this tend to play for several hours at a time, and when you’re going to be wearing something on your head for that long you want to make sure that it’s comfortable.

But all in all I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the headset. I’m glad to see that a company is making a good headset that also improves sound while trying to prevent long term hearing loss. Even with some issues in the comfort level, if you’re looking for a new headset, I recommend taking a look at Able Planet’s! It’s also an added plust that this headset will work on both PC and Mac systems. The PS500MM retails for $99, so it’s relatively competitively priced against other manufacturers, and it can be found on their site or Amazon.

Headphones provided by Abel Planet.