It seem that Nintendo have some bad rap for maybe buying material that were extracted by slave.

It’s not that nintendo it’s actually doing it but they are not denying it either.

A petition was formed to seeks assurances that Nintendo hardware doesn’t use slave-mined minerals, which can arrive on the global market from troubled regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, in any of its hardware.

The Human rights organisation Walk Free made a video and a flash game at http://www.slaveryisnotagame.com/ to draw attention to the issue.

Here the video:

Related news & link :

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/anti-slavery-campaign-targets-nintendo/0117367

http://www.slaveryisnotagame.com/

Yeah! new partner

I’m pleased to announce a partnership with our friend at The Gizmo Den and Live Points Direct.

The Gizmo Den is a shop for game and game accessories, mostly for console game but give it a look.

Live Points Direct is a shop to buy game and itune gift cards.

News : Counterfire 2 Close Beta

(Note that this article is part of a press-release that was set to us, I slightly change it to make it shorter but the essence is there)

The MMO real-time third person online shooting game, Free Counterfire (published by Gamebox) enters into 2 Free  Counterfire  is  based  on  the  theme  of  counter  strike  and  features funny cartoon style.

The player takes on the role of a retired soldier who is invited to join  a  secret  organization  with the  purpose  of  destroying  a terrorist  group.  Engaging  in  sophisticated  Real  Time  Strategy,  gamers progress  through  various  fun  and  four  action-packed  battle  modes including  single  player,  story &stage mode, team mode  and  capture the flag mode.Battle  system,  firearms  system,  global  action  and  quest  system  are four  systems  in  the  Free  Counterfire.  With  unparalleled  graphics  and gameplay,  players  will  battle  alongside  3  other  players  in  warfare using up to a hundred real guns, such as the AK4, M16, and more. Free Counterfire is easy to operate and all operations required only 7 buttons. The closed beta test start on June 19 PDT.

Tactical intervention on the whole is hardcore with fast-paced  gameplay that requires team tactics, careful plan and skills.
In  the  game,  players  will  fight  from  the  desert  to  the  jungle,  from  the countryside  to  the  city  all  over  the  world.  Moreover,  the  rich  special scene  effects  add  geographical  features  to  the  game.  For  more  details, see the link at the end of the post.

Link from this post :

Console Games :

www.thegizmoden.co.uk

Game Card Codes :

www.livepointsdirect.com

Counterfire 2

The official website: http://fc.gamebox.com/

Official Forum: http://forum.gamebox.com/index.jsp?gid=14

And facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/freecounterfire

From what I read and from what other manager told me it a balanced player is a player that have stats balance between the primary stat and the secondary stats like 100/70/70 to 100/30/30 and 100/50/50 behind probably the proportion the give the best result. On top of that you want to have your technique at the same number that aggression is to reduce penalty and be sure to train them in shooting or else they will be efficient in the opponent zone but wont be able get a decent shot on the net.

mortal kombat skill = very important

So a good player is a player that balance, with high attribute value (if you want them to help you right away), high quality of attribute and a high career longevity.

Having problem finding a coach ? You never get job applicant that want to be sporting director. you need a left handed defense man to play on your third line but the player from the sport academy keep giving you forward. Fear not, grab some money and you can try to recruit them on the market.

Be careful when hiring from the market, experience manage will try to sell you useless player, unbalance player or player at the end of their career at high price.
Be patient and search for some good deal. Scout some player or if a player is already scouted ask the manager who is scouting them.

Recruiting Player

Your need will change has you play but if you’re beginning you should definitely avoid player with low career longevity since you are in for the long-term these players do not worth your time.

On the other hand if you are aiming big this year you might get a cheap superstar at the end of their career, just don’t renew the contract.

Like we said before, be sure that the player has a high quality of attribute in the stat you need for the role you want to give him, that will help you with his training, and check that the stat are balanced so it will be easier to insert him in the team.

More Info: What a balanced player ? (check out this post for more detail )

Recruiting Staff

Recruiting staff is a bit easier since they have only 2 stats, keep in mind that they can cost a lot in salary, you can check their expected salary when you select the staff member you want to bid on. Since the market is over flooded with candidate you can most of the time get away with a member for 10-100k, I’ve read somewhere that player not from your country cost a bit more (I’ll come back to you on that) so keep that in mind when you are looking for new staff member.

I haven’t talked about it in my previous post about player but another very important aspect of the game is to make sure that your player play at the best position available and that the coach show them the right tactic.

How to make you line composition efficient? The basic way to do it is too simply put the best player on the first line, the good but not good enough for the first line on the second and same thing for the third and fourth line.

You can leave the fourth lines empty if you not planning on using the fourth line.

Note that your player will be more fatigue if they always play 3 line. You can check Sam Hansen post on the subject of using 3 lines instead of 4 at succeed2k.

How to choose the right player for the right position, goaltender have their own unique goaltending attribute so you no1 goaltender should probably be the one with the highest value in goaltending (Duh!), but remember to train technique and passing to make your goaltender a better goaltender overall than one with 500 in goaltending and 10 in passing/technique.

For defenseman, it easy it’s their defense skill that important and their passing and technique afterward. For your forward it depend on their position, they all need high offense but center must have a high passing and technique while winger need to have a high aggression and technique. Don’t forget to train you player accordingly to and take account the quality of the skill too like we talked in the previous article. A good example of that is a player with the following stat (25(10)pas., 20(50)tec. and 5(88) agr.) is a good center at the time because of his current skill but with time it will become a better winger since he will train much faster in aggression than passing).

Side note if you have the pro-pack you can create different set of line, one for game you know are easy, one for big games and one for friend game.

I personally tend to keep the same line-up whatever the game but, when you are playing a team you are sure to win maybe it’s a good idea to put your rookie and bench some veteran. It will reduce energy lost on your main player and will build chemistry and experience on your youngster.

These are mostly beginners tips, if you want more advance tips on line check out another post by Sam from suceed2k on line

Related :

My article on the players

Succeed2k post on line

Succeed2k post on 3 lines vs 4

Mini Commando

Mini commando is a point-and-click action game intense enough to keep you on your toe. It’s set in the WW2 were your family is kidnapped by German, and you have to save them. The game is pretty short and you’ll probably finished really quickly but it worth your time, trust me.

Link :

http://indiegames.com/2013/06/stop_nazi_soldiers_from_taking.html http://www.begamer.com/flash-game/242816/mini-commando

Inca blast

Inca blast an action-puzzle game that you can play on your browser or on mobile. Your goal is to clear the gem on the board using the blast surrounding it. If you clear a gem with a blast that not the same color you will lose time.

Game are quick they rarely last more that a few minutes. You start with 60 second and the only way to gain time is to finish a level which gives you only 3 second.

Link:

http://indiegames.com/2013/06/inca_blast_is_snack-sized_puzz.html

http://gamejolt.com/games/puzzle/inca-blast/14245/

Occupy Vampire Wallstreet

You’re Edward (joking…) the vampire that needs to gather blood to increase your vampire-ness. You have a blood bank that human will attack and destroy your bank, you need to protect it by killing them and collect their blood (how convenient). You can trade blood stock at the right time in between rounds.

The game is a bit buggy, you can just push the human and they get stuck on the wall. Give it a try if that kind of game is your style. The idea of a blood stock market is pretty neat, we might start seeing it in more flesh out games.

Link :

http://davidevansgames.com/OccupyVampireWallstreet/

http://indiegames.com/2013/06/occupy_vampire_wallstreet_towe.html

Upcoming

Lune

Lune is is an exploration game where the players manipulate the moon along two axes, which you’ll notice first affecting the gravitational pull and the sea level. This floods rooms and free stairways and allows your avatar to traverse further and push boxes when they are less heavy.
It’s a work-in-progress, you can try what whey have done so far on their website http://lunegame.com/.

Link:

http://lunegame.com/

http://indiegames.com/2013/06/in_lune_the_moon_affects_gravi.html

http://vimeo.com/63233558

The arena it’s where everything come down to, if your team win and have decent players you arena will be full. And the more place in the arena the more tickets you can sold Ka-Ching $!

Include some snack bar and souvenir shops to increase the profit.

Be sure you can fill your arena because the arena come with a cost of maintenance that increase has you build more places and get a better Zamboni^tm.

Don’t forget to upgrade your facilities has well, a good training center will help player progress faster in their training, while the sport academy will help you get better recruits every week.

The takeaway point here is to always be upgrading your arena and facilities but always keep so cash at hand for your player and staff salaries. You don’t want to go in the red because if you do you have 21 days to fix the team finance or you lose the team.

TKO Server Release/Merge Dates

XuSheng had some time on his hand and decided to make a list of all the merge and the time before they merged. That can be useful to know how long will your server will merge.

Seem that the fastest was 5 month after opening (s37) and the longest time was 23 month (U10) and 18 month (s1). Almost 2 year before a merge I’m surprise people were still playing the U10 server.

Check out XuSheng thread for the complete list: http://forum.koramgame.com/thread-80950-1-1.html

Multiserver Battle

MSB recently finished and there been some talk about how MSB is boring because two big league just join together, you can read the whole forum thread for more info. Note that since the Gladiator have disbanded their league that might be different next time.

Forum thread: http://forum.koramgame.com/thread-81863-1-1.html

New server

There a new server up S87, check out the related thread: forum.koramgame.com/thread-82026-1-1.html

I did a quick check around the web to find nice new and upcoming mobile game. Here a quick list :

Sonic the Hedgehog (2.99$)

Sega made a new sonic game for iOs and android, it’s not free (2.99$) but it worth a look if you’re a fan of the franchise. Check out the full review at Inside social game here. (Full Review)

Defense Technica (free/0.99$)

Defense Technica despite having a really weird name is a full flesh out 3d tower defense like there is a million of them. The graphic are actually really nice for the ipad.  Where you put your turret is on predefine spot on the map and you use your tower or barricade to bloc some path from your enemies. You check  the video they made, it’s awesome and will give you a idea of the gameplay. (Full Review)

Kingturn rpg (free)

Kingturn is a nice tactical RPG that look a little like final fantasy tactic (that I’ve talked recently) you move each turn your troops and you can cast spell. From the prologue campaign you have access to a few class, the main character is Nicolette a mage and her follower are warriors, archers, a paladin, a trickster, and summoner. From the enemy you meet you already know that there is more class available has you will progress (knight, wizard, thief, etc)

The prologue campaign is free and the full campaign can be unlocked for $4.99.

(Full Review)

Other notable game that I didn’t have time to play

Warhammer Quest (4.99$) – Full Review from Indie Game

Mansion Run (0.99$) – Full Review from Indie Game

Upcoming

Plant vs zombie 2 (free)

While there is no shortage of zombie game (link to previous post), plant vs zombie was a fresh take on the tower defense and zombie genre at the time it came out. The formula might seems a bit rehash but since I’ve liked the original game I will probably give a shot to this one too.

It seems that it will be free with in-game purchase and it’s come out on the july 18th.

If you liked the original you should definitely check it out when its out.

Related news :

Touch arcade review : Plant vs zombie 2: it’s about time

MCV Uk : Plant vs zombie 2: Free to play

Terraria (?.?? $)

I love terraria, it’s like a 2d minecraft game with boss. I’m very happy to know that there is a mobile version of the game coming. If you’re fan of this game or you just want to try it on mobile, you will only have to wait until this summer to get a grip on the mobile version.

Related news:

Touch arcade: 2d Minecraft Terraria out on mobile this summer

MSV Uk: Terraria hit mobile device this summer

It’s been awhile I haven’t done any weekly update, here what caught my eye in the last month.

Browser game

Mashup of scrabble + simcity = verbocity

Here a game with a really cool concept it puts together the word game genre (like scrabble) and the city building genre (like simcity). You build buildings which cover an area and you get the letter under the area. To build another building you must have the letter to build the given building. If you want to build a “house” you must have all the letter in the word house.

And there is a little  extra twist you must balance between population, job and fun (recreational) building to get extra value for your town.

So far here are the word I’ve found :

House, hut, park, mine, factory, stadium, arena, statue, tower, skyscraper, condo, zoo, pub, bar, club, museum, court, barrack, field, townhall, dump.

Link to the game : Verbocity

Related : Spell ‘tower’ and more in SimCity and Scrabble mashup VerboCity

Scrounger: another Zombie game

Another zombie game that caught my eye with his retro style.

The game play is actually really fun even though the controls are squishy and that you sometime was ammo for no reason. You got from room to room collecting ammo and food. You can shoot the zombie but there is more zombie than ammo so it’s better  to run from them most of the time. You clear an area when you collect everything or kill all the zombie.

Link to the game : Scrounger

Related : Scrounger, if starvation or fatigue doesn’t kill you, the zombies will

Final Fantasy mobile news

Not browser related since I’ve already wrote about final fantasy tactics in the past there some new here.

There’s an update for final fantasy tactic, new graphic, new animation, support for the iCloud and it’s half off woohoo 🙂

Click here for more info from toucharcade

Another Free final fantasy tactic is out in japan on iOs, we don’t know if there will be a release elsewhere in the world but I hope it will.

It seems it has the race and class from Final Fantasy tactic Advance 2 on the DS, which I’ve loved, but the combat system seems much simpler missing the tactical advantage of moving around the terrain and going behind your enemy back.
You can check out the trailer :

Finally if you are a Fan of the final fantasy series there a talk next week (june 11th 2013) about the future of the franchise.

More info here on MCV

Has a Final Fantasy  fan you can check the development of game The Black Tower, a final fantasy nod that have a similar combat system to Final Fantasy 7

World of Tank: from free to play to free to win

Wargaming the maker of Word of tank, has made a announcement that it won’t give in game advantage making the game “more equal” for paying/non-paying user.

From the article :

“Free-to-play games have the challenge of being sometimes viewed as low quality, and we want World of Tanks to serve as proof that a quality and balanced free-to-play game is possible. However, breaking down deeply-rooted stereotypes is no easy task.”

Check out the full article on Gamasutra