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Marketwatch reports that data from the NPD Group indicates that April was another bad month for video game sales. Marketwatch says “relatively weak set of releases failed to entice consumers.” Sales were down 37% compared to April, 2009. NPD Group says part of the reason was the Easter holiday, but that doesn’t fully explain a 37% plunge. Read the rest of this entry »

Batman: Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady Studios won Best Game at this year’s BAFTA Video Game Awards. Here is a complete list of the winners.

2010 BAFTA Video Game Awards Winners

* Best Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady Studios
* Best Action Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Naughty Dog
* Artistic Achievement: Flower, thatgamecompany Read the rest of this entry »

The Game Beat first reported on May 11 that Best Buy plans to launch a gaming magazine called @Gamer. The first issue will launch in June. Kombo.com then followed up and got confirmation from Best Buy that they are indeed launching a gaming magazine. There is not much information available yet about what the content of the magazine will be.

Hopefully, Best Buy has the @gamer Twitter account if they are launching a magazine called @Gamer. The account has been registered by someone, but it is currently not being used.

(via Dealerscope)

Sid Meier’s Civilization game is coming to Facebook. The Facebook version will be called Civilization Network. It will be available on Facebook in 2010 according to the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/civnetwork).

I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished Civilization Revolution last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project Civilization Network and the full game will be available next year on Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment – you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.

We’ll offer a closed beta of the game soon, so stay tuned for details on how you can sign-up to participate. The full game will launch in 2010. For more information about Civilization Network, including development updates and behind-the-scenes posts from me and the Firaxis team, join our Facebook fanpage here.

The Facebook plan is interesting but maybe it would be smarter to have an open online game with a Facebook app. There’s no guarantee that Facebook is going to remain popular. The Civilization Network also has a Twitter account, @civnetwork. Information about Civilization Revolution can be found here:

http://civilizationrevolution.com/

(via Mashable)

You’re a gamer. You’re a role-playing game (RPG) fanatic.

But what if you are one of those gamers who want to keep up with all the latest stuff? Where can you get all the information about new releases?

There are many websites that offer gaming news, but what about ones that focus on keeping us up-to-date about RPGs?

First, let’s define a few terms. There are online RPG games, and there are RPGs that you play offline (board games and on computers and game consoles). The online RPG games include free games and those you must pay to play. MMORPG is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (the best kind, right? Just a joke, but my preference!).

In this article I’m not going to give you a huge list of websites. However, I want to share just a few that you may want to investigate in your gaming quest. These are sites you will probably want to bookmark if you really love to keep up on the latest news about RPGs.

RPGWatch

http://www.rpgwatch.com

This site could be described as a news blog, with additional features like a games database, forums, and articles. The database includes listings of new releases and expected releases. The forums are not huge, but there is a decent level of activity. There are game-specific forums so you may find these helpful for finding discussions about specific games.

mmorpg

http://www.mmorpg.com

This site is a flashy site that offers some different kinds of resources. Their Game List is a long listing of individual games that has an interface allowing you to create a custom games list. Your custom list can be such criteria as release date, genre, developer, and publisher. This site’s Features section gives you access to articles. Their Forums are fairly active, and defined by topic rather than by specific game. The forums include “The Pub” (discussion of MMORPGs), News Discussion, and LFGame (Looking For Game; for help in finding the MMO that suits you best). This site also has sections on news, photos, videos, blogs, reviews, and a huge Guild List.

ONRPG

http://www.onrpg.com

This site is quite “busy”, packed with features. The homepage shows news, videos, downloads, screenshots, events, and articles. There is a nice section on “Free MMO Games” that allows access to information by categories. There is also a “Quick MMO Menu” that is really an alphabetical listing of games. There is also an interface called “MMO Genres” that can get you started looking at specific games according to genre. Finally, the “MMO Boards” listing gives you access to fairly active forums that are mostly game-specific discussions.

Learn, Participate, Have Fun.

By digging into the above three sites, you will be immersing yourself in sources of online RPG game news. You will also be able to participate in active communities where people share an interest in MMORPGs or offline or online RPG games. If you’re a real RPG fanatic, you won’t want to miss these sites.

This article is a brief selection of shooter and strategy games for Linux. It’s not intended to be a complete list, but you can dig into much more information and links by checking the included references at the end of the article.

Shooter Games

AssaultCube is a first-person shooter
http://assault.cubers.net

Cube 2: Sauerbraten is a 3D first-person shooter with integrated map editing mode
http://sauerbraten.org

Nexuiz is a first-person shooter
http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz

Project: Starfighter a multi-directional, objective based shooter game
http://www.parallelrealities.co.uk/projects/starfighter.php

Urban Terror is a standalone Quake III Arena first-person shooter
http://www.urbanterror.info/news/home

Warsow is a Quake-like, fast-paced first-person shooter
http://www.warsow.net

Strategy Games

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game
http://www.wesnoth.org

Glest is a real-time strategy game, with optional multiplayer
http://glest.org/en/index.php

References:

Open Source Games at the Open Directory Project
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Open_Source/Software/Games/

Linux Gaming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_gaming

Open Source Video Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_video_game

I don’t know about your game preferences, but I sure do enjoy war games, especially those I can play online against other players. It really brings out my competitive spirit and it gets me away from the cares of daily life.

The Warrior Life.

To really get “in the groove”, I choose a game that lets me play the role of a fighter. A role playing game (RPG) is one that lets my imagination get into the situation, into the world created just for a particular game. An online war RPG game lets me live through the game character, fighting for my survival and struggling to do as much damage (earn the most points) as I make my way through the map.

Zero In.

There are lots of online war RPG games, so let me give you a guide of the features to look for so you will be able to get down to enjoying the kind of game that you like.

Free and Paid.

First of all, there are both paid and free online games. To play some of the games, you must pay first. If you choose the free games, however, beware that many are set up to entice you to pay for various features. These games let you start for free, but charge you for special weapons, maps, or enhancements.

Important Tip for Registering.

Many of the online games make you register, or sign up, for an account before you can play, even if playing the games is free. Especially when you are not too familiar with a site, it’s best to use a “disposable” free email address to sign up. That way, if the site starts spamming you and you can’t unsubscribe, you can just ignore it.

Security First.

Next, beware that you can play games that run in your browser, or games that run as programs on your computer. Unless you are short on disk space, there is no reason to limit your selections to browser games. However, be sure to scan any files you download with a good antivirus program before you install (run) them.

Read the Documentation.

Another thing to watch out for is that some online war RPG games only pit you against the built-in challenges in the game itself. Others let you play against other people online. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish which characters are generated by the computer and which are controlled by actual players (people). Find out who controls the characters by checking the documentation for the your particular game.

What it Takes to Start Playing – a Warning!

Another warning is that you should be careful when looking for games to play online.

Some of them require you to complete special offers before you can play. The offers may require you to buy things or sign up for services. Look at each screen when you visit a site for the first time, so that you aren’t caught off-guard.

Here’s How to Get Going.

What’s the best way to get started? Just visit a search engine (like Google or Bing) and put in the search term “online war rpg game”. You can then investigate the sites in the search results one by one.

Use Available Search Functions.

Another tip for finding a cool online war RPG game is to visit a site that shows many online games, then narrow your selection to war games. This is only possible on sites that let you search the games, or ones that display categorized listings of games.

One to Get You Started.

If you want to jump to a site right away, here is one to give you a head start:

http://www.mpog100.com

This site lists the 100 top multi-player online games as judged by visitors to the site. It covers more than war games, but you can usually find some good online war RPG games in their list. The bonus is that the games you find will be highly rated by other gamers, giving you a good chance for a positive game experience.

Have fun!

Kids have so many choices these days! There are so many games they can play, and there are many platforms they can use. These include a personal computer (PC) and the numerous devices designed especially for gaming. The game consoles include small portable devices, and larger ones suitable for home use. Read the rest of this entry »

Parents should learn about kids online game sites and be aware of the dangers. Here are some practical tips. Read the rest of this entry »

When visiting a video game store, it’s easy to feel lost in the many available products. If you’re new to gaming, it looks like a sea of color, and you will likely feel overwhelmed. When this happens, all the games start to look the same.

If you’re an adult trying to buy a game for a young person, you will appreciate some guidance. The following advice is meant to give you a practical plan. Read the rest of this entry »