Games Review – World of Warcraft Cataclysm

The third in its series, World of Warcraft Cataclysm features the return of Deathwing the Destroyer, an evil dragon last seen in Warcraft II. Having previously suffered from a horrible defeat, Deathwing returns from the elemental plane of Depholm to plot his revenge, tearing through Azeroth’s dimensional barrier, reshaping a huge chunk of the world’s surface through creation of a sweeping cataclysm.

Other major characters in the Warcraft Lore are planned to return as well. Figures like Ragnaros, Nefarian, and Onyxia are expected to make their re-entrance in Cataclysm as well. Ragnaros, having been defeated in the Molten Core, plans to wage ware on Mount Hyjal with the help of his summoned legions.

It would seem as though World of Warcraft Cataclysm is not short of characters seeking revenge for, Nefarian, son of Neltharion, like Ragnaros and Deathwing, also seeks vengeance for his previous downfall. Having been defeated in the Blackwing Lair, Nefarian will begin anew in the “Blackwing Descent”, which is one of the new dungeons awaiting players in this new Warcraft release.

Blizzard Entertainment expects to deliver a lot of new content in this release, including new quests, new dungeons, new raids, and two new races. The Alliance will get a new “Worgen” race while the Horde will get a new “Goblins” race. The game will feature approximately 3,000 new quests and expanded race/class combinations.

Nine new dungeons and six new raids are planned for this release as well. The level cap on players will be raised to 85. The enhancement is closely related to the two currently existing dungeons, namely Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep, that will get an additional “Heroic Mode” for level 85 players.

The game will feature a new statistics system. This new system removes “mana per five seconds”, defence rating, and armour penetration. These traits will instead be re-integrated as talents. New statistics will be added like Master, enhancing active and passive abilities in such as way that depends on a player’s individual characteristics.

In addition to “in-game” features and enhancements, World of Warcraft Cataclysm plans to take advantaged of a totally-revamped Battle.net, a community platform that is being integrated into other Blizzard titles like Diablo III and StarCraft II.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm was officially announced for release on August 21, 2009, at BlizzCon. How, its publisher, Activision Blizzard, leaked out unofficial news of the release months beforehand. In fact, Alpha testing for the title began on May 3, four months prior to the official announcement. Invitations for closed beta testing were sent to Battle.net gamers a month later.

It is planned for online play on both the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X desktop platforms.

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Game Review – Call Of Duty Black Ops

Due to hit the streets in November 2010, Black Ops is a sequel to the award-winning World at War title, bringing back the same excitement CoD players have come to enjoy together along with new features all placed within new settings.

Black Ops takes place during the Cold War era, with players taking the roles of black ops soldiers performing missions in locales like South America, Cuba, the Arctic, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.

In this sequel, however, players will find themselves involved in much more important roles than they may have experienced in previous Call of Duty titles, as black ops characters get involved in more significant duties than the common soldiers of previous CoD titles may have been.

The game, based on an improved IW engine, offers a multitude of new weapons and gear, like a scoped crossbow that can fire various types of ammo, a customisable, early-model Steyr AUG, and Dragon’s Breath rounds for combat shotguns. The playable character gets a “first person” voice for the first time ever in a Call of Duty game, thus bringing more of a personal feel to the combat experiences of your character.

It has been confirmed by Activision that players will be able to pilot aircraft like the Hind helicopter and SR-71 Blackbird. It is rumoured the dismemberment feature, in which tanks, grenades, artillery fire, and some larger machine guns could rip limbs off of unfortunate enemies, will be present in this release.

Many gamers also believe that Zombies will return. Several multi-player modes (such as four player online co-op) are also scheduled for development.

Although scheduled for publishing by Activision, Black Ops is actually being developed by Treyarch. Unlike times before, it is the only game they are working on at the moment. They are taking advantage of full-performance capture technology similar to that used in the film Avatar. This technology will allow Treyarch to capture an actor’s entire performance, including facial expressions. They have even gone as far as consulting Cold War Special Forces veterans from both the US Army and former Soviet Union to enhance the game’s realism.

Black Ops is scheduled for release on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii gaming platforms with a separate version also planned for the Nintendo DS.

Plants vs Zombies Game Review

Released on May 5, 2009, Plants vs. Zombies puts the player in the shoes of Crazy Dave and his neighbour in the role of defending their house from a continuous onslaught of zombie attacks. Zombies attack the front yard, back yard, swimming pool, and even the rooftop of the player’s house non-stop, day and night. The only way you can defeat the massive hoard is by planting a variety of offensive and defensive plants and fungi around the house that help fend off these evil, nocturnal creatures.

Hilariously-named weapons like Potato Mines, Peashooters, Hypno-shrooms, and Cabbage-pults provide attack and defence capabilities you and Crazy Dave need to prevent the entire neighbourhood from having its residents’ brains eaten by the zombies.

As a tower defence game, Plants vs Zombies divides the playing field into a number of tracks the zombies use to move towards your house. You use seed packs to sow the plants needed to provide your offense and defence. These seed packs require sunlight either from sunlight-generating plants or natural sunlight offered during the daylight hours. Night-time defence is generally provided by fungi that require less light (i.e., mushrooms).

These random seed packs are designed to make the player work out how to best make use of them to survive. The game offers a few one-shot “power” moves like a lawn mower or pool cleaner to completely obliterate all zombies should they get too close to your house. This feature is only usable once per level. Some levels give the player a random seed pack that requires no sunlight at all.

Just as there are a number of weapons to choose from, there are also a large number of zombie types you will encounter throughout the game, each differing in speed, abilities, and the amount of damage they can sustain. Some zombies will bear armour, while others will be able to jump and fly.

In a previous version, there was a zombie that was inspired by Michael Jackson in his world-famous “Thriller” music video. This “MJ zombie” was able to summon other zombies from the ground. Unfortunately, due to pressure from Michael Jackson’s estate, this feature has recently been removed from the game.

The main game mode is an adventure mode where the player fights off wave after wave of zombies. At each level zombies attack at random intervals, with a special point in which a massive wave of zombies will attack the player “en masse”. The player is warned of this killer onslaught with a meter indicating the approximate time when the zombie assault will occur.

Plants vs. Zombies is available on a multitude of platforms, including Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. There is even a web version that allows you to play it directly from your web browser. A version for the iPhone/iPod platform (now known as iOS) was released February 2010. The Xbox Live Arcade version is scheduled for September 2010.