The Buzz

Well, I don’t know what really possessed me to play either one of these browser games. Perhaps, with all the hype of Café World; I wanted to play a game that would be nice and soothing that would also entertain my one year old son as I play [he enjoys watching me play Café World] So, looking at my options I ruled out Sorority Life, Mafia Wars, and FarmVille. I mean do I look like someone who would enjoy pretending to be in a Sorority? Farming isn’t really my thing and I’m certainly no gangster. So, that’s when I decided to try FishVille on Facebook and Happy Aquarium on tagged [this is also featured on Facebook, but I play on tagged because the tagged version is better].



FishVille is an online browser game brought to you by Zynga who also provides the ever so popular Café World, Mafia Wars, Farmville, and the list goes on.

In FishVille, you are giving a fish tank that is supposed to hold up to ten fish (but really only holds nine) that you take care of. The way of leveling up or gaining experience is that you feed the fish until they reach adulthood or junior status and then you sell them to obtain experience and more coins to build up your fish tank. You can also purchase items to obtain experience; as well as visit your neighbors [if you can find any] in which you can click on their treasure chest that pops up a wheel and gives you things [fish, coins, sand dollars, etc.)

Some of the items and fish costs what they call Sand Dollars [sand dollars couldn’t they have been a tad bit more creative?] which you have to obtain by purchasing them with a credit card or paypal account. The cheapest prices for the sand dollars are twenty-five sand dollars for $5.00 USD. The highest is $40.00 USD and get you 240 Sand Dollars. So, if you wish to upgrade your fish tank you’re going to have to have other neighbors or again purchase a new fish tank with sand dollars.

As far as I can see this is the only goal and purpose of this game. Buy fish, feed, sell; repeat. Oh, you can give your fish love in which when you do you are giving more coins to buy more things for your fish tank. So perhaps the correct formula would be:

Buy Fish, Feed Fish, Love Fish, Sell Fish; repeat.



On the other hand, Happy Aquarium is an online browser game brought to you by Crowdstar whom is a relative new company.

In Happy Aquarium, you are also giving a fish tank that literally holds up to ten fish [that’s one more fish then what FishVille will let you have without saying you have to upgrade.] You can also, play this game in full screen mode, as in Fishville you are only limited to the browser screen window.

In Happy Aquarium you can do all sorts of things with your fish. First and foremost, you can train your fish which you do so by playing a mini game that allows you obtain more coins and fish food and teaches you’re fish a new trick. Each time you train your fish you get a chance to win more coins and fish food.

You can also mate your fish, which is pretty cool because when they mate they just do this little spin around thing and hearts swirl around them and out comes a fish egg. So, you don’t necessarily have to purchase more fish you can buy two of each of the cheapest ones and then mate them and get new fish.

If you ever get tired of looking at one of your fish you can always choose to release the fish into the ocean [also known as sell the fish] and then purchase another.

The way for obtaining experience in this game is through training your fish, feeding your fish, cleaning your fish tank, so all in all taking care of your fish.

To purchase items for your fish tank you have to part with coins or pearls. This isn’t that bad because they start you off with so many pearls. Also, each time you level up you are giving another pearl and for those who just have to have certain items you can also purchase pearls using a credit card, paypal, Amazon payments and even at 7-Eleven. The lowest package is only $1.00 USD and gets you 12 pearls, the highest is $20.00 USD and gets you 365 pearls [which is $20.00 USD less then what Fishville wants for 210 Sand Dollars]

All in all if you decided to play one, I would have to say Happy Aquarium is most definitely the better of the two. You get to do more things with your fish and in the long run if you decided to pay to play it is the cheaper of the two.

I just thought that maybe you all would like to see what games where coming out this month, for all of the systems, So that you can make the necessary reserves and what not. Now, we all know as gaymers that sometimes this things are not set in stone. So, if a game that has been listed here has not come out then we know it has been pushed back, and will not get upset about this. This upcoming month’s release lists are a lot longer as the summer begins you know only some of the best of the best drop during the summer.

LOL

Anyway Here are the

New Releases in the Month of May

Playstation 3
5/4/10 Iron Man 2: Official Strategy Guide
5/4/10 Iron Man 2
5/4/10 Lost Planet 2: Official Strategy Guide
5/5/10 PS3 Intercooler Slim
5/5/10 PS3 Vertical Stand
5/11/10 Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands Official Strategy Guide
5/11/10 Skate 3
5/11/10 Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition 3D
5/11/10 Lost Planet 2
5/11/10 ModNation Racers Official Strategy Guide
5/11/10 Super Bike World Championships SBK
5/11/10 3D Dot Game Heroes
5/18/10 Red Dead Redemption
5/18/10 Red Dead Redemption Official Strategy Guide
5/18/10 Shrek Forever After
5/18/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
5/18/10 Split Second
5/24/10 Alpha Protocol Official Strategy Guide
5/25/10 UFC Undisputed 2010 Official Strategy Guide
5/25/10 UFC Undisputed 2010
5/25/10 Backbreaker
5/25/10 ModNation Racers
5/25/10 Blur

Wii
5/4/10 Dance Sensation
5/4/10 Iron Man 2
5/11/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Official Strategy Guide
5/17/10 TrackMania
5/18/10 Trauma Team
5/18/10 Shrek Forever After
5/18/10 Attack of the Movies 3D
5/18/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
5/19/10 4 in 1 Racing Wheel Pack
5/23/10 Super Mario Galaxy 2 Official Strategy Guide
5/23/10 Super Mario Galaxy 2 Collectors Edition Official Strategy Guide
5/23/10 Super Mario Galaxy 2
5/25/10 Tetris Party Deluxe
5/25/10 Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers

Xbox 360
5/4/10 Iron Man 2: Official Strategy Guide
5/4/10 Iron Man 2
5/4/10 Lost Planet 2: Official Strategy Guide
5/5/10 Xbox 360 8GB USB Flash Drive by Sandisk
5/5/10 Xbox 360 16 GB USB Flash Drive by Sandisk
5/11/10 Alan Wake Official Strategy Guide
5/11/10 Alan Wake Official Strategy Guide Collector’s Edition Bundle
5/11/10 Skate 3
5/11/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Official Strategy Guide
5/11/10 Lost Planet 2
5/11/10 Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition 3D
5/18/10 Shrek Forever After
5/18/10 Red Dead Redemption
5/18/10 Red Dead Redemption Official Strategy Guide
5/18/10 Attack of the Movies 3D
5/18/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
5/18/10 Split Second
5/18/10 Alan Wake
5/18/10 Alan Wake Limited Edition
5/24/10 Alpha Protocol Official Strategy Guide
5/25/10 Sniper: Ghost Warrior
5/25/10 UFC Undisputed 2010 Official Strategy Guide
5/25/10 UFC Undisputed 2010
5/25/10 Backbreaker
5/25/10 Blur
5/25/10 Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers

Playstation 2
Not Applicable

PSP
5/4/10 Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake
5/4/10 Iron Man 2
5/4/10 What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? 2
5/11/10 Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3
5/11/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Official Strategy Guide
5/18/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
5/25/10 Hexyz Force
5/25/10 UFC Undisputed 2010 Official Strategy Guide

Nintendo DS
5/3/10 Picross 3D
5/4/10 Iron Man 2
5/4/10 Monster Racers
5/4/10 Dementium II
5/11/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sand Official Strategy Guide
5/11/10 thinkSMART
5/14/10 Satisfashion: Rock the Runway
5/17/10 TrackMania
5/18/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
5/18/10 Shrek Forever After
5/18/10 Imagine: Animal Doctor Care Center
5/18/10 Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow
5/25/10 Dawn of Heroes
5/25/10 Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville
5/25/10 Tetris Deluxe Party
5/25/10 Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers

PC
5/3/10 World of Warcraft Dungeon Companion I Second Edition Official Strategy Guide
5/4/10 Total War Battle Pack
5/11/10 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Official Strategy Guide
5/18/10 Split Second
5/24/10 Alpha Protocol Official Strategy Guide
5/25/10 The Sims 3 Ambitions Official Strategy Guide
5/25/10 Blur

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Fantasy Earth Zero is a MMO for the PC made by Square Enix and GamepotUSA that I manage to stumble across while searching toykopop.com. The game is a free MMO and when I first saw that the first thoughts that came through my mind was Square Enix made a free MMO get out of here! So, rapidly I downloaded the program to my computer, to see what this game was all about.

The game takes place in the Realm of Melpharia, which was a peaceful and prosperity land that has now been waged into war over the control of one ancient kingdom Ecetia, which once upon a time was the seat for the Mythical First King. The five other kingdoms who all believe it belongs to them are Hordaine- Controls the land of Oreole and are the youthful and most active kingdom, Netzavare – Controls the land of Victorino and is the home to non-human creatures., Yelsord-Controls the land of Pedestal and are all about knowledge, The Royal Alliance of Cesedria- controls the land of Akelnar and is ruled by an elfin queen, and The Gevrandian Empire- Controls the land of Strictor and are (just as they’re continent name says) strict and big on military.

The controls to the game remind me a bit of the controls from Guild Wars. However, the characters and scenery are very beautiful, and the game doesn’t take that long to download. It took me only about two hours to download it, and it holds all the characteristics of a traditional MMO. (You get to create your own hero/heroine, come up with a name, select a class etc.

The game play is a tad bit difficult at times, because the game does not use the traditional arrows keys to move the character, but the keys they use shouldn’t be that big of a problem w is up, a is left, d is right and s is down. So at least they are not all over the place. Sometimes it can get quite confusing because I accept what I thought was a quest, but in yet the quest did not pop up in my quests log.  How it goes it that you accept a letter red for beginners, blue for intermediate, and yellow for advanced and these are how you obtain your quests.  They also make it to where you have to really read the quest and take in the information; for those who have a bad memory you might want to write it down, because there is no going back to the quest giver to re-read the quest. It took me almost 15 minutes before I asked where I was supposed to deliver the letter too. Although, looking at the board does give you some insight on where the letters are delivered too, because each of the places will be in red, blue, and yellow.

All in all minus these few minor setbacks, I still gave it a try and I ended up really liking it. So, if you would like to find out more on this game and/or try it out you can visit the website at http://fez.gamepotusa.com/ and/or watch the trailer which I’ve posted here.

Fantasy Earth Zero: Trailer

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Nier: The Official Trailer

Well doing what I do best which is search for music and video game trailers and news; I stumbled across the trailer for  NIER; which is set to release April 27, 2010 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Nier is published by Square Enix and is set in a crumbling world plagued by disease and dark, unrecognizable creatures. Players assume the role of the unyielding protagonist, NIER, resolute in his quest to discover a cure for his daughter, who is infected with the Black Scawl virus. The game also has a hermaphrodite as a character; which I want to say is a first, because I don’t know if you could call the guy Vincent from Resident Evil: Code Veronica a hermaphrodite because he just dressed as his sister. Anyway, all small details; but here goes the trailer; I just hope it doesn’t play like Final Fantasy XIII which personally, I found to be a tad bit disappointing.

NIER: Official E3 Trailer

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I just thought that maybe you all would like to see what games where coming out this month, for all of the systems. Now, we all know as gaymers that sometimes this things are not set in stone. So, if a game that has been listed here has not come out then we know it has been pushed back, and will not get upset about this list.

LOL

Anyway enjoy

New Releases in the Month of April

Playstation 3

4/13/10 Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

4/19/10   Nier Official Strategy Guide

4/20/10   Super Street Fighter IV Official Strategy Guide

4/20/10   Dead to Rights: Retribution Official Strategy Guide

4/27/10   Dead to Rights: Retribution

4/27/10   Nier

4/27/10   Super Street Fighter IV

4/27/10   2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Wii

4/20/10 Wii Classic Controller Pro (White/Black)

4/20/10 Monster Hunter Tri

4/20/10 All Star Karate

4/27/10 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

4/27/10 Free Running

Xbox 360

4/13/10   Xbox 360  Elite Splinter Cell: Conviction Bundle

4/13/10   Splinter Cell: Conviction

4/13/10   Splinter Cell: Conviction Official Strategy Guide

4/19/10   Elders Scroll Oblivion: Platinum Edition

4/19/10   Nier Official Strategy Guide

4/20/10   Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper

4/20/10   Super Street Fight IV Official Strategy Guide

4/20/10   Dead to Rights: Retribution Official Strategy Guide

4/27/10   Dead to Rights: Retribution

4/27/10   Nier

4/27/10   Super Street Fighter IV

4/27/10   2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

4/27/10   Record of Agarest War Limited Edition

Playstation 2

Not Applicable

PSP
4/13/10 Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley Official Strategy Guide

4/13/10 Blood Bowl

4/20/10 Harvest Moon: Hero of Lead Valley

4/27/10 PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe

4/27/10 Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake

4/27/10 2010 FIFA Word Cup South Africa

Nintendo DS

4/13/10 Pokemon HeartGold and Soulsilver The Official Pokemon Kanto Guide Pokedex

4/20/10 Think Smart

4/20/10 Beat City

4/20/10 Dementium II

4/20/10 Mean Girls

4/20/10 Mind over Matter

4/27/10 Farmtophia

4/27/10 My First Dollhouse

PC

4/13/10 Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

4/13/10 Splinter Cell: Conviction Official Strategy Guide

4/27/10 Splinter Cell: Conviction

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Recently, I just watched a trailer for ModNation Racers on my PS3. I really only watched it because, one I was taking a break from my copy of Heavy Rain and had constantly seen it on the home page for Playstation.com. Seeing a little tiny size Kratos and the first thing that ran through my mind was “What in the blue devil is this game?” So, when I saw the trailer I thought that I would share it with all of you here at MCG.

The game looks like a Version of LBP; the exception being that you are creating and customizing little tiny racers, as well a race car and even your own tracks to share with others [hence it being similar to LBP.] I haven’t had the chance to play the game as I am searching for a beta code online to actually play the demo. However, if you couldn’t find a code the way that I am trying too (which is looking like a lost cause); it was that said that ModNation Racers BETA codes were obtained through the purchase of LBP: GOTY editions, but were only in a limited of the games. So, in sense think of the BETA code being Willie Wonka’s Golden Ticket and if you got one you got into the factory (The Game.)

For, the rest of us who were not lucky enough to obtain a code; the full game is schedule to drop 5/25/10 and is exclusively on Playstation. Until then enjoy the trailer.

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