Alternatives to games: Online Web-based games

Sometimes it is good to get out of those graphics-intensive games such as F.E.A.R and Prey, or those action-packed games that keeps your nerves active at all times, such as Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Also if you are tired of “walking” or “flying around” in World of Warcraft or Guild Wars, or even feel frustrated when unable to complete a quest in RPG games, it’s time to rest or take a step back so that you can find yourself back in the reality as the person your friends and family know of.

A much more relaxing way to play games is to play online web-based games, which does not requires your constant attention for hours in a day. Sometimes you really do not need to even log on to check. Below is some of the online web-based games that gathered my attention recently due to its short time commitment daily. On top of all the good points above, you can play these games any where wherever you are, you just need an Internet access.

Sports game (Alternatives to Football Manager or Championship Manager):

1. Hattrick *
2. Fantasy Premier League
3. Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
4. Fantasy Football (Currently unavailable)

MMORPGs

1. Kings Of Chaos *
2. Utopia
3. Earth 2025

Car tuning

1. Kingtuner (currently down)

Use your brain to think

1. the wicked
2. Sudoku

Currently these are the games that I heard of. If you have any web-based games to recommend, please kindly submit them via the comments.

The games with an asterisks beside them are the games that I’m currently engaging in. If you do play these games, you can comment too.

DotA Allstars 6.36b out

Within a week, version 6.36b is out.

Here is the change log for this new version. I expected some changes to the 2 new heroes, and now there is some changes.

* Fixed a Static Field bug and tweaked effect
* Nerfed Chemical Rage
* Reduced Gravekeeper’s Cloak a little bit more
* Less damage/armor on Acid Spray and a little more cooldown
* Slight base damage buff to Drow
* Reduced the max gold Greed can stack up to
* Soul Assumption early levels given a cooldown similar to the rest
* Fixed Purge tooltip
* Added status icon for Fatal Bonds on heroes
* Nerfed Fatal Bonds from 6/12/18/24 to 5/10/15/20
* Reduced Agility/Level on Spectre
* Lowered the recent XP deny changed a little
* Radiance damage reduced from 40 to 35
* Lowered Shadow Word damage on enemy a bit
* Nerfed Infernal a bit
* Added Shadow Word status icon
* Minor base damage nerf on Alchemist

To download this map, go to www.getdota.com.

DotA Allstars 6.36 New Heroes

DotA Allstars 6.36 has been released for a few days. For regular dotarians, you will realise that there is 2 new heroes added into the taverns. I’m going to introduce all of you to the 2 new heroes, right now.

Character

Razzil Darkbrew- Alchemist
Primary Attributes: Strength
Dmg/Armour @ Level 1: 58-67/3.4
Strength/Intelligence/Agility @ Level 1: 26/17/17

Heroes abilities
Acid Spray – Sprays high-pressure acid across a target area.
ostile units who step across the contaminated terrain take physical damage per second and have their armor reduced.
Lasts 12 seconds.

Level 1 – 10 damage per second, reduces armor by 4.
Level 2 – 20 damage per second, reduces armor by 5.
Level 3 – 30 damage per second, reduces armor by 6.
Level 4 – 40 damage per second, reduces armor by 8.

Unstable Concoction – Taking a few moments to shake up some chemical vials,
the Alchemist lobs one at the target,
stunning it based on how long he shook it up.

Level 1 – Up to 2 seconds channel.
Level 2 – Up to 3 seconds channel.
Level 3 – Up to 4 seconds channel.
Level 4 – Up to 5 seconds channel.

Goblin’s Greed – The Goblin converts the creep’s corpse into gold.
You get more gold for every extra creep you killed in the last 20 seconds.
Cap of 36 extra gold.
Level 1 – 2 bonus gold per enemy, 1 successive bonus gold.
Level 2 – 4 bonus gold per enemy, 2 successive bonus gold.
Level 3 – 6 bonus gold per enemy, 3 successive bonus gold.
Level 4 – 8 bonus gold per enemy, 4 successive bonus gold.

Chemical Rage – The Alchemist causes his Ogre to enter a chemically induced rage reducing base attack cooldown and increasing hitpoints and regeneration.
Lasts 20 seconds.

Level 1 – 1.45 Base Attack Rate and 200 Bonus HP and Regeneration.
Level 2 – 1.3 Base Attack Rate and and 400 Bonus HP and Regeneration.
Level 3 – 1.25 Base Attack Rate and 600 Bonus HP and Regeneration.

Character
Demnok Lannik – Warlock
Primary Attribute – Intelligence
Dmg/Armour @ Level 1: 46-56/2.4
Strength/Intelligence/Agility @ Level 1: 18/10/24

Hero Abilities
Fatal Bonds – Bonds up to 5 enemy units together,
causing damage dealt to any of them to be partially felt by the others.
Lasts 25 seconds.

Level 1 – 6% damage to linked units.
Level 2 – 12% damage to linked units.
Level 3 – 18% damage to linked units.
Level 4 – 24% damage to linked units.

Shadow Word – A single word causes powerful magics to envelop the target. Creates a healing mechanism on a friendly target or damages an unfriendly one. Does not dispel on attack.
Lasts 8 seconds.

Level 1 – Heals 10 or damages 10 hit points per second.
Level 2 – Heals 20 or damages 20 hit points per second.
Level 3 – Heals 30 or damages 30 hit points per second.
Level 4 – Heals 40 or damages 40 hit points per second.

Upheaval (Channeling) – Stirs up inert magic in a target area, channeling the force into a powerful slowing current that grows more powerful with every passing second it’s channeled. Can channel up to 10 seconds and up to 84% slow.

Level 1 – Slows by 7% per second.
Level 2 – Slows by 14% per second.
Level 3 – Slows by 21% per second.
Level 4 – Slows by 28% per second.

Rain of Chaos – Calls an Infernal down from the sky, dealing 100 damage and stunning nearby enemies for 1 second. The infernal lasts 45 seconds, takes reduced damage from spells, has Permanent Immolation and a chance to Pulverize an area on attack.

Level 1 – Summons an Infernal with weak Pulverize and average attack.
Level 2 – Summons an Infernal with a mighty Pulverize and powerful attack.
Level 3 – Summons an Infernal with a devastating Pulverize and deadly attack.

As these 2 heroes are new, you guys can post your own build in the comments below, and let’s share the experience of playing with these 2 heroes.

F.E.A.R Combat 1.07 Multiplayer

Join the F.E.A.R Combat Multiplayer game now @ http://www.joinfear.com/main. It’s free and you can play with your friends with the original F.E.A.R. The download weighs 1.9 GB, so you will need a fast broadband connection in order to download it. And you will need a CD-Key in order to install it, get the CD-Key from the website above. Join the F.E.A.R now!

DotA Allstars 6.36 released.

***DotA Allstars 6.36b has released. For more information, please proceed the following post.***

Once again, it’s DotA time. This mod map has been in World Cyber Games for the Singapore stage. This map has become very popular in LAN centre as well as Battle.Net players who wants to relax from the stressful ladder games. Below is the change log for version 6.36.

Change Log for Version 6.36

* Added two new heroes (both disabled in -lm)
* New loading screen

* Gravekeeper’s Cloak reduced from 7/14/21/28 to 6/12/18/24
* Nether Ward HP reduced from 100/200/300/400 to 75/150/225/300
* Searing Arrows cooldown from 0 to 4/3/2/0
* Dark Ritual cooldown from 45 to 60/55/50/45
* Nightmare casting range from 650 to 500/550/600/650
* Storm’s Dispel damage increased from 200 to 350
* Chakra cooldown from 25 to 19
* Viper’s Poison Attack cooldown from 0 to 4/3/0/0
* Denied units now give off minor Experience instead of none (planned for improved league play from a while back, unrelated to the recent forum postings for those wondering)
* Improved Mana Burn cast range on neutral Satyr (only meaningful when converted since it does not autocast anymore)

* Ogre Magi base damage improved
* Redistributed Crystalys/Buriza recipe costs from 1000/750 to 500/1250
* Improved base Intelligence on Phantom Lancer
* Increased Mask of Madness lifesteal from 10% to 17%
* Track cast range improved per level
* Increased Battlefury cleave aoe from 160 to 200, damage from +50 to +65 and a little more HP/Mana regen.
* Increased Leshrac’s agility
* Improved how Doppelwalk levels
* Monkey King Bar’s bonus damage increased from 90 to 100
* Luna attack range from 300 to 330
* Drunken Haze’s duration from 5 to 7 seconds and slightly reduced mana cost
* Increased duration of level 2 and 3 of Doom by 2 seconds
* Changed level 2 and 3 Phantasm to take the same 200% extra damage as level 1
* Buffed Ursa’s strength gain per level

* Fixed the old incorrect Chaos Damage ladder tooltip to reflect the DotA custom settings
* Rebased Lightning Bolt due to it sometimes causing allies to lose their issued orders on the target
* Fixed a recent bug with Chronosphere that froze his images
* Fiend’s Grip now properly stops the effect when you run out of mana
* Swapped the locations of Dusk and Twighlight Taverns to be consistent with the Sentinel side
* Temporarily disabled -lmap
* Fixed -vr to random inside the voted hero vs hero set, so for example, blue/pink don’t always get the first one listed anymore. Don’t confuse this with the 10 heroes being randomized, only the order which they are assigned once the lineup is voted on. This removes the voting bias that previously existed in informal games
* Fixed a Clinkz Searing/Windwalk exploit
* Fixed Perseverance undo ability and Reality from triggering Essence Aura

You can get this map from www.getdota.com.

World Of Warcraft 1.12 patch released.

Well, the most populated online game in the world, World of Warcraft has released its version 1.12 patch.

Summary of World of Warcraft 1.12 patch.

• Cross-realm Battleground:

You will be able to play against other players from other realms in the Battlegrounds, linking Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin so that players from several realms will be pooled together as a big pool for matchmaking. Check out the full battlegroup list to find out which realms you are competing with.

• World PvP

New World PvP content for those interested in this World PvP. “The stage is set for intense, objective-based land battles as Horde and Alliance vie for control over important strategic positions and resources around Azeroth. Stay tuned for more news about these new world PvP enhancements coming to World of Warcraft.” – quoted from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

• Rogue Talent Review

Find out more on review of Rogue’s talent here

• And much more generals changes and balances of different races in the games

For more information on the patch change log, please visit the offical World of Warcraft 1.12 Patch notes.

To download this patch, follow the links below:

Incremental patch:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/download.html?sid=6156155&tag=feat_dls;title;0
http://files.filefront.com/World+of+Warcraft+v1112+to+v1120+US+Patch/;5441284;;/fileinfo.html 
Full patch: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/download_ini.html?sid=6156162&id=6156162&mode=patches
http://files.filefront.com/World+of+Warcraft+v1120+US+Patch/;5441790;;/fileinfo.html 

F.E.A.R v1.07 patch released

F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault Recon), Gamespot’s PC Shooter game of the Year, with a rating of 9.1, has released version 1.07 patch. Below is the updates notes quoted from VU games website.

This game is also available to Xbox 360 and the upcoming PS3.

And F.E.A.R Combat, a multiplayer mode for the game, has released. It will allow gamers who do not have an actual boxed copy of F.E.A.R. to take on those that do online with an arsenal of 12 weapons. The download contains 19 multiplayer maps but will support the download of user-created content such as original maps and mods. It features 10 different gameplay modes and will contain the same anticheating software as the boxed copy of the game.
Update notes:

• Added Friends List functionality to the main Multiplayer options menu.
• The FEAR.exe executable has been split into two parts, FEAR.exe and FEARMP.exe to be compatible with F.E.A.R. Combat. The only differences users will notice is a short pause when switching from single player to multiplayer and vice versa, and the change in desktop and Start Menu shortcuts.
• Team autobalancing has been added to the options for multiplayer team games. The new options are the last few entries in the game mode options menu. They are set to be off by default. Teams can be autobalanced up to every quarter round by team size, and up to every round by score. The score ratio used for autobalancing is also adjustable.
• Added Favorite Servers option on server browser screen. Servers can be added to the favorites list by selecting them in the server browser menu and clicking the add to favorites button.
• Added support for the Message of the Day. This can be accessed from the “Message of the Day” option on the main server browser screen.
• Added in-game option to mute selected players in Chat. This is accessed from the main in-game menu screen.
• Changed minimum player requirements for votes to succeed. If fewer players than the set minimum are on the server, a unanimous vote will be allowed to suceed.
• In-game graphics for votes have been modified to better show when they are starting and underway.
• Players and teams can now receive points for picking up or stealing the enemy flag in CTF. This option can be set from the CTF and Slowmo CTF game options screens.
• Added two new DM/Control maps, Stockpile and Waterworks.
• Added a new CTF/Conquer All map, Depot.
• Details for standard information such as player names, version, and mod can be displayed for server versions other than the current game client.
• Added options to the version filter. Available options are now “All”, “Same Version”, “Same Mod”, and “Same Version and Mod”.
• Fixed a bug where the server message and briefing override strings would sometimes display a null character instead of a carriage return.
• Added server option to allow setting a time delay for how long a player must wait between calling votes.
• Added support for a special NavMarker icon to designate the flag carrier to his or her teammates in CTF.
• Added indicators to the Team selection screen in MP to display the current team scores and make the current player count more obvious.
• Made the end of round delay timers for round ending and scoreboard visibility adjustable in the server options.
• Updated some MP HUD elements to scale at higher resolutions.

You can download the patches, game demos (including multiplayer) from VU Games website, or from the following links to Gamespot.

Full patch download link:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/fear/download.html?sid=6155874

Incremental patch download link:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/fear/download.html?sid=6155873&tag=feat_dls;title;0

Not recognised.

Singapore just held its World Cyber Games competition from 10 August to 13 August at Suntec City. World Cyber Games is Olympics equvialent in the gaming world. Singapore, being a small country, is trying to produce its army of gamers to compete with the top notch gamers from countries such as the United States, South Korea and Japan.

This year World Cyber Games features 6 PC games and 2 Xbox 360 games, Counter Strike 1.6, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Warcraft III : Frozen Throne, Starcraft : Broodwar, Dawn of War : Winter Assualt and FIFA 2006 are the PC games, while Dead or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3 are the 2 Xbox 360 games.

The Singapore phase of the competition featured previous defending champions from last year’s competition, such as Team Titans, last year’s CS 1.6 champion.

Upsets came after upsets. Team Titans were ousted out of the competition when they lost to Bestmadewarriors, a new team. Team Titans was without the leader, Prasad Paramajothi, due to his commitment for National Service (NS). However, Wilson Chia and Dennis Ooi defended their title for Dead or Alive 4 and Dawn of War : Winter Assault respective. 8 out of 10 defending champions failed in their attempt to retain the title.

Prasad Paramajothi failed to attend the competition due to depletion of his annual leave of 14 days used in the past for various trainings and competition. Moreover his military unit declined to grant him time off to attend such a prestigious event in the gaming arena, although he is a Singapore respresentative for World Cyber Games. Many organisations do not recognised gaming as a sports equivalent games like soccer, badminton and swimming. In contrary, Singapore is trying to promote itself to be a digital hub for digital media such as cybergaming, which is on the rise for the past few years. Why are sport athletes such as swimmers and soccer players granted off to train and take part in competition while gamers (considered as cyberathletes) are not allowed to follow the same rule? Why can’t he granted off to take part in training and competition? Are gamers not representing Singapore as a representative of the country? Gamers do bring glory to the nation too. Last year, Wilson won the 2nd place for Dead or Alive in the international World Cyber Games competition. Isn’t that cool?

On the contrary, another gamer in the Cyber Team Singapore who is serving his National Service was granted a week off for his competition.
In the past, gaming has been restricted to personal circle of friends. However, developments of Internet technologies and computer hardwares have bring gamers together from around the world. In this rapidly growing community, Singapore government is starting to provide local gamers to have the chance to compete with foreign players by bringing competition such as the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), to local stage only recently. Gamers are no longer children or teenagers who skipped schools or do poorly in examinations. In the past, parents and teachers always warned children from playing too much computer games, as it is a “waste time” activity, but this is no longer the case. Gaming does bring in money, a source of income. A number of gaming clans are being sponsored by big companies. Gamers are provided with good equipment to train and play.

The gaming industry is raking in millions of dollars each year to the economy, and the figure is increasing tirelessly. Gamers should be given the same platform as any sportmen or sportwomen in the sporting arena.

Recognise the gamers, recognise us.

More comments?

There has been a while since I post a new post already. I will update tomorrow when I can get all the necessary information.

But I need more comments in order to improve this web site to help every one out there. Please post ur comments regarding anything, whether it is the design of the web site, the contents, the frequency of updates and the coverage of the updates.

I hope that every one will participate to make this a better place for every one to visit. Although I am not very well-versed in designing or computers programming stuffs, but I will try my best to make sure it improves.

Greatest games of all time

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6155700/index.html?tag=topslot;action;1

The greatest games of all time belongs to……… (drum roll) ………. Final Fantasy VII, as featured by Gamespot in their review.

In my opinion, I think that this is one of the best game I played so far in my life. Considering the gameplay, story development, characters and graphics (at that moment of time, not now), Final Fantasy VII simply exceed expectations of many gamers.

Final Fantasy VII was released in 1997 for PlayStation and PC by Squaresoft, now Square Enix. Produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, directed by Yoshionori Kitase, character designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Tetsuya Nomura is also the character designer for several games under Square Enix, such as Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X series, Final Fantasy XI and Kingdoms Hearts. He directed the CGI animated movie, Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children.

Final Fantasy VII was one of the few games in the market at that time with more than 1 playable discs.

Here is the tech demo for Final Fantasy VII:

There is a previous post that I talked about this remake of FFVII for PS3 in CGI instead of the squarish looking Cloud Strife and Tifa. How cool will that be? I looking forward to this remake. Hope that Square Enix will not disappoint the Final Fantasy fans around the globe.

Let’s us look forward to Final Fantasy VII remake for PS3 and Final Fantasy XIII.