Monthly Archives: November 2010

Die 2 Nite

Die2Nite is a free zombie survival game set in a hostile world inhabited by zombies.

 

The players (or citizens) are divided into groups and are allocated a small town where they must organise themselves each day in such a way as to survive as long as possible against the zombies. The last remaining survivor will become the Hero of the town.

 

You are free do do whatever you choose, and to go your own way, whenever you like !

 

Razer Hardware

“Razer is more than just the world’s leading brand in gaming.

We were founded in 1998 in San Diego, California by our CEO Min-Liang Tan and our President Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff in a tiny shared office with a couple other gamers. We have grown today to hundreds of employees worldwide with offices in seven cities, including San Francisco, Hamburg, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore.

 

Our vision from the very beginning was to be the world’s greatest gaming brand and we’ve set out to achieve that by designing the best gaming products that any gamer has ever seen.

 

We believe that truly great products are based on technology, designed with extensive human factors and user ergonomic studies and then tested by the top professional gamers. In simpler terms, our own world class scientists and engineers develop cutting edge technology in-house or with partners, design phenomenal products around core technologies – and test the hell out of them in the field with our pro-gamers before we launch them.

We are the only gaming hardware company in the world with dedicated gaming user interface research and development labs, and our technology and designs are incubated in three dedicated design centers located in facilities in California, Singapore and Shenzhen. No other company boasts of technology like we do – because we’re the only guys who have what it takes under the hood.

 

We tell it like it is: some can pretend to co-develop products with professional gamers, but gamers don’t develop technology: scientists and engineers do (and ours just happen to be gamers as well). We develop and design our products in our own labs and then put them to the test with top professional gamers who use them in pro-level tournaments and then provide us with feedback. Then we iterate on the product, refining it with the feedback – over and over and over again. That’s how it’s done, that’s how a Razer product is built from ground up. No marketing BS and no hype.

 

We pioneered the eSports movement with the world’s first $100K tournament back in 2000 and we have continued to give back to the community by sponsoring top eSports athletes who give back to Razer by beta-testing our products. We remain one of the largest sponsors of eSports community sponsoring top global eSports teams worldwide.  

 

The people that work here at Razer are gamers just like you – some amateur, some ex-professional gamers, some just play for fun, just ask our CEO who will lay the smack down on you in Quake Live or our President, who has over ten level 80’s on his local server.  Hell, he will even take you on a raid in the middle of the work day. We are the same gamers who are told by the suits that we need adult supervision and we need a professional CEO or management team – and we’re the same gamers who tell the suits exactly where to shove it because we like doing what we do – and we do it on our own terms.

 

We hope our passion for gaming speaks to you like it does to us, through our products and we hope you enjoy the competitive edge we bring to your game.

 

For Gamers. By Gamers.
Team Razer”

Final Fantasy XIII

A New Fantasy Begins
Embark on an adventure beyond your wildest dreams – packed with breathtaking environments to explore, unique allies to befriend, and awe-inspiring enemies to conquer.

An Audio-Visual Benchmark

Harnessing the power of The Crystal Tools graphics engine, FINAL FANTASY XIII pushes the boundaries of high-definition cinematic presentation, sound and gameplay.

A Unity of Speed and Strategy
The familiar Active Time Battle system has evolved, granting players the freedom to execute numerous commands in a single turn in real-time. Now players can enjoy all the strategy and flexibility of a turn-based system, along with the visceral thrill of an action game.

Turn the Tide of Battle with Paradigms
A brand-new game mechanic known as the Paradigm System enables players to assign roles to their party members at any time during battle. By switching between a variety of roles – including Commando and Medic – players can respond instantly to the needs of an ever-changing battlefield, adapting their strategy to ensure victory.

Unleash Devastation with Enhanced Summoning
Introducing Gestalt Mode: an exhilarating take on FINAL FANTASY’s trademark summon system that elevates the action to a whole new level. In Gestalt Mode, the player uses simple button commands to unleash the combined might of the characters and their transformed Eidolons, inflicting massive damage to any who stand in their way.

Lose Yourself in the Drama

An immersive storyline draws the player ever closer to a cast of intriguing characters. Will they have the strength to face their fate, or are they doomed to destroy everything they love?

Darkfall Announces Offline Skilling

Darkfall Announces Offline Skilling

 

In a somewhat unexpected move Darkfall spokesperson Tasos has announced they will be introducing the ability to train certain character skills while offline. Is Darkfall trying to emulate EvE’s success with this system?

 

“The unnamed feature mentioned in the last activity report has to do with offline skilling. A lot of thought has gone into making this feature meaningful, useful, and balanced. The purpose of offline skilling is curbing macroing, giving newer players a better chance to close the gap, and to cut down on some of the tedious repetitive tasks that exist in the game.”


Is Darkfall trying to emulate EvE's success with this offline skilling system?

 

Tasos goes on to emphasize how careful they want to be with the introduction of this system:

“We’re hoping to launch it as soon as our next patch in a couple of weeks so there’s been a lot of activity around this feature, developer cooperation, feedback from everyone concerned, statistical analysis and all kinds of number crunching. Of course, the most important feedback will come from you, our players, and we’re sure there’s a lot more to be learned from your experience using this feature. We’ll also try to share more information with the community and get some feedback before we launch it.”


The fallout in the community was immediately felt and Talos quickly added a clarification:

“A small clarification: We’re not looking to upset the game’s balance by adding a convenience feature and this is why I mentioned there’s a lot of thought and balancing going into this. So on offline skilling, we’ll start with a small amount of skills and gradually expand it, and obviously many skills won’t be included.”


We’re curious to see how this will impact Darkfall in the long run.