This is a pretty fun game. Basically, you build a bridge for cargo. People walk across it and transport cargo. It’s more difficult than you might think.

Play Cargo Bridge

This is a really fun game! Hold the “A” key to switch. Hold the “S” to bounce. Hit the space bar to reverse.

Swing and bounce from dot to dot to progress through each level. Your goal is to get to the bright star. Avoid enemies and obstacles!

There are two ways you can play:

1) Hit as few of the dots as possible on your way to the star.

2) Be sure to hit all of the dots on your way to the star.

Save the access codes to jump back in the game at the level where you left off!

For many game lovers, this may ring a bell: A spin off of a game that allows players to form words in order to score points was made. When RealNetworks, one of the many companies that have claim on Scrabble, tried to introduce an online Scrabble on Facebook, its attempt was overshadowed by that of an existing version of the game. The popular, yet unauthorized Scrabulous.

RealNetworks is quietly introducing a version of Scrabble on Facebook, despite pledging to save Scrabulous, the wildly popular, unauthorized online version of the board game.

In recent weeks, Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks, introduced “Scrabble by Mattel” on the social networking site Facebook. The game, an online version of Scrabble, is technically available only to players outside the United States and Canada, though it relies on users to be honest about their location to make that distinction.

The rights to Scrabble are owned by multiple and competing companies, a situation that seems to be hobbling the game’s introduction to Facebook and other social networking sites, and complicating negotiations with the creators of Scrabulous.

Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, and Mattel in the rest of the world. RealNetworks of Seattle has signed deals with both companies for electronic rights, but Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif., also has a deal with Hasbro.

As of Sunday, the official Scrabble game had attracted fewer than 2,000 daily Facebook users, in contrast to more than 600,000 on Scrabulous.

Scrabulous’s popularity attracted the attention of Hasbro and Mattel earlier this year, and they threatened legal action to shut it down. The game companies’ actions spurred tens of thousands of Scrabulous players to sign petitions and join online clubs supporting the unauthorized game, and many have pledged to stop buying Mattel and Hasbro products if the companies shut Scrabulous down.

RealNetworks said in early March that it was working with the creators of Scrabulous to save the game. The introduction of a competing game on Facebook seems to indicate an about-face in strategy.

RealNetworks would not make an executive available for an interview for this article, but the public relations manager, Ryan Luckin, said in an e-mail message that the company had been “working with Mattel for a few months now on a version of Scrabble for Facebook.” Scrabble by Mattel is “in beta,” the message said, meaning it is still being tested.

RealNetworks said that “it is important to remember that even if we reach an arrangement with the Scrabulous owners, both Hasbro and Mattel must approve” any Scrabble-related game.

Rajat Agarwalla, one of the brothers in Calcutta who developed Scrabulous, said that he could not comment on the status of discussions with Mattel, Real Networks or Hasbro. Rajat and his brother Jayant have recently introduced a version of chess for Facebook, and Wordscraper, a Scrabble-like game in which players make up their own board configuration.

Facebook Scrabble takes a long time to load, it does not always update quickly to show recent moves, and the words the game will accept do not reflect the Tournament World List Scrabble dictionary. In a recent game, for example, Scrabble by Mattel accepted “feen.” Right now there is no way to challenge opponents’ moves, and no way to play commonly used words like “zen” that are not officially sanctioned Scrabble words.

So far, Facebook users’ response to Scrabble by Mattel has been split. One user wrote that it had “a few bugs, but over all it’s excellent,” while another said, “Beta Testers: View the Scrabulous site; see how well it works; and build your beta off of that.”

Sorry that is has been such a slow month but I finally have a new article to post. It’s about a great website that I have learned about called Freerice.com. This website was first created by a man in Indiana who wanted to help his son study for his SAT. So he created a website to help him study his vocab. But now millions of people are visiting the site everyday to study their vocab, or just for fun. But the best part about the website is that when you get a word correct, the website donates 20 grains of rice to a country that is in need of food. And with millions going to the website each day, there is tons of rice being donated to needy countries. So if you’re one of those people who like to help the needy, or you just need to study for a test, go to www.Freerice.com

This post from Kotaku (more pictures there) explains itself:

This new batch of Soulcalibur IV screens features the next-generation look of three fan-favorite fighters! The quick and formal Xianghua, the brutish Lizardman, and the man with the giant stick, Kilik! Kilik’s name is generally either greeting with a whooping cheer or a pained sigh, as for every fan of his powerful Ling-Sheng Su Style there is another player sick and tired of having a giant rod slammed down on his skull. Kilik is certainly looking formal this time around, isn’t he? Xianghua still dresses as skimpy as ever, and Lizardman is still part lizard, part man, but Kilik seems to have gone and gotten himself a real job in-between games. Good for him!

I found a fine article on C|net for Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, a game that is best described as follows:

“Fans of the space game genre haven’t had much to cheer about in recent years, but Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a game that any self-respecting space game fan needs to play. This gem of a space tactics offering is everything that fans of the genre have been waiting for, as it takes gorgeous, next-generation graphical technology and applies it to an exciting game about starship combat, rogue artificial intelligences, galaxy-spanning wormholes, and more.

The Angelwing is your personal ship throughout most of the game, and it evolves considerably under your command.

In Nexus, you play as Marcus Cromwell, an already legendary figure employed by SpaceTech, one of the megacorporations that’s colonized the galaxy. Put in charge of the frigate Stiletto, you must patrol the far corners of the solar system while on the lookout for rival corporations. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the plot, because before you know it, you’ll be sucked into a galaxy-wide war between alien races and a lost remnant of humanity.
Read the rest of this entry »

A new game engine is coming out for Codename: Panzers in the Cold War series, the Gepard3 engine. Evidently it features pools of water reflecting the sky, rain, glistening ice on aircraft, and overall a much more graphical experience, combined with visibility effects. I guess this means a single cloud could slightly decrease the brightness of the HUD. It will also affect weapon speeds and ranges, etc. 

“Developers continue to squeeze more and more out of PCs, Xbox 360s, and PS3s. Games like Crysis and Call of Duty 4 look to make every detail look as life-like as possible. And on the Wii, although the graphics aren’t always top-notch, there are real weather effects; at least, you can set games such as Madden NFL 08 can have snow or sunshine based on real-world conditions.”

We don’t really notice the weather much in video games, but I suppose we will soon. I notice the skyboxes, though. We really need more graphics for skies, most of them really suck and then when you stick birds in they suck too. Suck on that.

The MPAA has never been too high on college kids — remember the dishonor roll? — but it looks like Hollywood set is bummed about not being invited to that last kegger, because the MPAA is now admitting that it drastically overstated the effect of college downloading in previous studies. Back in 2005, the MPAA claimed that a whopping 44 percent of revenue losses came directly at the hands of carefree coeds nationwide, and used that number to pressure colleges into enforcing harsher downloading policies and even propose legislation currently before Congress that would tie federal education funds to copyright enforcement requirements. We’re not sure why the industry is now backing off that 44 percent number, but it’s now saying that “human error” resulted in a miscalculation, and the revenue loss from college piracy is more like 15 percent — a number which is further disputed by campus IT groups, who say it should be more like three percent. Of course, while it’s good to see the MPAA take an upfront stance on this, simply admitting you’re sleazy doesn’t actually wipe the slime off, so let’s see how the industry approaches future studies, shall we?

Thanks Engadget.

MAKE THIS YOUR SIG: Human error: An excuse for lying and justification for nigh-extortion, but not for downloading a movie you would never pay for.

Right-o, so here I am, to make a review on Team Fortress 2. Now, you’ve probably heard about this game. If you haven’t, you are not a true gamer/geek, and should be executed at sundown. Anyways, this game became famous after being delayed for 8 years. It was announced as a sequel to the still-popular Team Fortress Classic, a mod for Half-Life, and went into development hell until 2007, when it was eventually released on October 10, 2007. In the developer commentary on Dustbowl, one of the maps, an employee stated that it took so long because they were trying to find a version they were happy with. Apparently, there was an idea for a commander, but it was scrapped due to the fact it could ruin the players’ fun if there was a terrible commander, or vice versa.

I picked up the Orange Box from my local Best Buy on Black Friday, when it was priced at a measly $20. I also got a copy of BioShock, which is pretty fun too. (I have yet to finish it.) I played Portal while waiting for Team Fortress 2 to download, which took a while. Portal was epic, and I suggest you play it if you haven’t already. Read the rest of this entry »

The sneaking around and giving wedgies is the best part.