Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Machinarium - Snapshots

It is nice to get away from all the Facebook games and play other games for a change. One of the other games worth playing is Machinarium, a point & click browser game developed by Amnita Design. They are also the developers of the Samorost 1 & 2 games.

I like Machinarium. There is a storyline to the whole game and the simple interface helps a lot. The entire design gives the same feel as the Samorost series, i.e. a somewhat out-of-the-world atmosphere with the in-game soundtracks. This time round there is an inventory function in the game, which allows the player to store items and also combine the items for new functions.

Here's some of the snap shots of the game. Yes I played it last year in December. The in game hints, as well as the after the-mini-game tips are pretty useful.



Some of the scenes from the game:







One touching factor about the Machinarium is the occasional memories bubbles from the main character, that flashback some of the more 'romantic' events that happened in the past between the character and his girlfriend / fiancee. This adds a very human touch that is further emphasized because the characters involved are actually robots.



For those who are interested to play Machinarium, you can download it from their website. Free demo has limited scenes (of course), and the price of $20 for a full package will entitle the player to 30 locations / scenes. Quite worth it!



Go give it a try!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Warstorm - Simple Guide & Review

I was enticed to play Warstorm (by Challenge Games) when I saw a friend's Facebook meesage about giving away free cards. Well it has been suite some time since I last played a card game and so I decided to give it a try.



The experience is not too bad if you have time to spare and are interested in such TCG (Trading Card Games) - like activity. Basically the game play of WarStorm involves assembling of cards comprising of a Hero card and unit cards. The Hero card has restrictions and may allow the player to include a Spell card or artifact / item card. These unique characteristics are reflected in the upper right corner of the Hero card (no. of units, artifact, and spell respectively). A total of 6 cards (other than Hero card) is allowed for each Squad.





The Heroes are formed from many different races, including Human (the 1st card you have is a Human race card), Elf, Orc, Undead etc. When a new squad is formed, there will be 1 Hero with unit cards associated with the Hero's race. The race is indicated at the upper left corner of the Hero card.



After the 1st squad is assembled, voila the player can start the battles! At the tutorial section, the player will be introduced to the various special abilities of the different cards, e.g. regenerate means the unit can recover health points at the end of its turn. There are many abilities, and counter abilities. For example, a unit with Sap ability (reduce opponent's attack) can be used against opposing cards with Frenzy ability (increased attack). Drainbolt can recover the unit's health when the unit causes damage etc etc.



At the bottom of the battle scene in Warstorm UI, the player can opt to increase the speed of the game. This is particularly useful once the player has the hang of the game mechanics. There is seriously no need to observe how each card is drawn slowly, and wait for the animation.

Each day that the player owns some territories, the player will earn 'silver'. These silver can be used to buy more cards. The Shop tab has a couple of options, including buying small packs of 3 random cards, or 6 random cards. There are also pre-packed bundle with characteristics of the cards stated clearly. Of course, every day there will be single cards for sale and some of these cards can only be bought with 'gold'. Gold coins are bought with real life cash (well the game developers also need to eat right?).



There are other ways to earn cards, and one such way is to log in consistently everyday for 5 days. With that achieved, the game will give the player an 'Expert pack' with 6 random cards. Quite useful actually for the beginning player since it is really tough for the player before they assembled their ideal Squads.



As part of inducting the players into the game, there are special scenarios / territory fights where the players will be asked to 'conquer' territory. Often each fight is accompanied with a storyline. The storyline is not particularly exciting, nor is the story closely linked to the cards. However, it is nice to have some background to each activity rather than plain fighting.



When there are many squads formed, the player can assembled Defensive Positions, which will be Squads to defend against other players / friends' attack. Want to show off how good your Squads are compared to your friends? Atttack their Defensive Positions and boast of the victory!



Well, with the above knowledge, it is sufficient to start playing Warstorm. It is sort of satisfying to level up although I don't really see the exact benefits given with each level.

Some simple tips: Keep fighting and complete the daily quests to get silver. Silver is especially essential for the beginning player since the units you get as default will be weak. You need the silver to buy Expert packs with better cards. If you can have more silver, do go for the pre-packed decks since some of them give pretty decent Artifact / Spell cards. The option to fight other players with rewards of 1,000 silver is useful.

2nd tip: Observe the card play (use the high speed). When the enemy uses powerful cards that require high number of turns to activate, try using simple decks with 2 turns activation in order to win the fight quickly. Simple trick but it works!

3rd tip: Try different combination of Squads that complement each other. For example, use deck with protection (Earthworks, Protection 2 to Infantry, Immune) that works also for other Squads (i.e. more infantry units respectively for Earthwork).

Monday, March 1, 2010

Genesis & Skaar

Castle Age has recently launched two monsters for group fight - Genesis & Skaar.

One thing interesting about Castle Age is that each part of the game has an accompanying story plot that helps to explain why we are fighting the monsters.

So here I've captured the screenshots for Genesis & Skaar.

For Genesis here's it:



Here's a screenshot of the loot available when you defeated Genesis.



And of course the text you received when completing the fight.





For Skaar the format is slightly different. Instead of using energy to build up defence (blue bar), the players are supposed to use energy to dispel the protective forcefield of Skaar (purple bar). I guess Castle Age just want to introduce some variety into the fights.



Here's the text when Skaar is defeated.





So far so good. Wonder what more monsters will Castle Age introduce next, e.g. in the other maps of Atlantis.

Monday, February 8, 2010

'Specials' of Castle Age - Generals and Items

Players of Castle Age will know that the favour points can be used to buy 'special' general and items that are somewhat powerful. Every month or so there will be new 'specials'. It costs 30 favour points to buy a general and 25 points for the related items.

I'm not sure how the new specials work because I am sure there are a lot more specials for different players, i.e. different specials are available to different players?

Here's three sets in Castle Age that I've found so far:
December: Lyra (16 attk 13 def) and her related items.





January: Dexter (13 attk and 16 def) and related items. Descriptions about him are subsequently linked to the orge Gorlak because supposedly Dexter took the powerful axe from Gorlak.





Current: Gorlak (15 attk and 15 def) and his related items. Gorlak's cudgel is made because Gorlak lost his axe to Dexter.





Wonder what other creative generals and items can the developers think of.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Castle Age: Battle of the Dark Legion

Every now and then there will be new collaborative events for Castle Age players. After the Sea Serpent, there is this Battle of the Dark Legion where orcs threatened to overrun the castles.



Players will be invited to participate in this event, where a maximum of 130 players could engage the orcs at the same time. There is a limit place at different groups of players' levels, e.g. maximum of 30 players for levels 1-30, 30-60, 60-90, and maximum of 40 players for levels 90+. That is fair since it encourages more players to come on board. When more players come on board, new allies, e.g. paladins, archers ... will join in the battle.



The storyline is also interesting, and I think that is a big plus point for Castle Age, i.e. there is at least some effort to write out a story plot. So at the end of the battle there is this long narration of the event.




The rewards for this event is not bad, and it seems more worthwhile to spend the stamina for such events rather than the PvP battles. I wonder what next after this invasion of the orcs. From the way the storyline ended, the main character was wondering where did the Horde of Orcs come from. So I guess there will be more of such interesting events in the coming months.

Friday, December 25, 2009

FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 2

Castle Age – Stats & Achievements

The stats determine the playing style of Castle Age. As with any other RPG game, the stats will influence how well a player fight / defend etc. 5 points of stats will be given whenever the player levels up. Stats points will also be given when 100% Influence is achieved for quests, or when certain achievements are completed, or when the player reaches some of new rank in the Battle arena.

For a better sense of what these stats means, here’s some brief descriptions of the 5 stats attributes. Energy is described first since that is the more important (in my opinion) stat.

Energy – For each of the quest there will be an Energy requirement stated, and the player will consume that amount of energy to do the quest. The amount of energy needed, together with the rewards is stated next to each quest. Under some circumstances, Energy is also needed to fight monsters. Try to have a higher maximum Energy available, or the higher level quests may take much longer to complete. The Energy points regenerate once every five minutes.

There were forum discussions about the optimal amount of energy. The figure seems to range from 130 to 170 points. I guess it is up to individual player, but the main issue to consider is the rate of energy regeneration versus the amount of time you play Castle Age each day, which in turns affect how fast you can level.

Attack - This affects how good the player is in the battles against other players and monsters. In the initial levels there is less need to focus on this stat unless you intend to create a PvP character.

Defense – A good defence will be useful against other attacking players. When the player successfully defends against other attacks, there is even possibility for gold to be gained.

Health - This measures how long the player can last in a fight against monsters and / or other players. Once the health reaches 0, it means the player is ‘Eliminated’. Each PvP fight will only consume a few health points unless the player is whacked real hard for some reason. Once Health drops below a certain level, other players cannot attack you. It is quite easy to heal the player back to full health, and thus this stat is not as important actually. It regenerates 1 point every three minutes.

Stamina - It costs 2 stat points to increase the stamina by one point. Stamina points are used when the player fights against other players or monsters. PvP battles consume 1 stamina point, but for monster fights, the player has the option of a 5 stamina point attack. The stamina points regenerate at a rate of 1 every five minutes.

To help increase these stats (other than leveling), the player can also call for ‘Elite Guards’ to join his rank. Basically it is a call for help from friends who are also playing the game to join the player. Each Elite Guard that joins will help to boost attack / defence of the player, with increase of gold as well.

Castle Age – Demi - Powers, Alchemy & Items

Oracle - This is the ‘shop’ for Castle Age, where more powerful heroes and items are available for sale through Favour Points. The player starts with 20 Favour Points, which would be sufficient for simple services like a change of name, Energy refills etc. In order to buy the items or heroes, you will need typically 25 points and above. The player can get more points by praying to the demi-powers, completing quests, getting achievements etc. The more straight forward way of getting more Favour Points is to do surveys listed at the Oracle tab, or simply buy them at a rate of 60 Favour Points for $10. Well, the developers need real cash for their hard work and server maintenance too.

Demi-Powers – There are 5 Demi-Powers (Ambrosia, Malekus, Corvintheus, Aurora, and Azeron) with unique aspects in the game that can help the player in the game with their individual benefits. For example, Corvintheus is the demi-power of defence, and players who seek blessing from him will gain a defence point.

Via the Blessing function, the players can also get demi points linked to each demi-power. With sufficient demi-points, the player can gain access to demi-power quests that often offer items and magic. Many of these demi-power quests will require other heroes to gain influence in these quests. The players are limited to one demi-power Blessing each day, except for Azeron who gives more demi-points but the Blessing frequency is limited to once every 2 days.

Units, Items and Magic

Units - Army units / troops are essential because they form the pre-requisite for the quests. Moreover, they to defend / invade other players under the Battle tab. The troops can be purchased under the Town tab, and each troop will come with their own defence / attack.

Other than the initial troops, other higher level ones will have an upkeep cost, and players need to be mindful about their overall upkeep costs. There are also certain heroes, e.g. Penelope and Garlan, who will help to decrease the troops purchase costs by a few percent when you buy the troops in town. It is important to note that the discount applies only when the purchase is done in towns; if the player purchases the troops via the Quests tab, there is no discount.

Land – The upkeep costs of army units and heroes will need to come from somewhere, and that is mainly from income earned through Land. There are different types of Land, from simple Temple to Castles and Lake Fortresses. Each of these land will give gold per hour, ranging from 200 to 150,000. Attacking players or earning gold via quests will not be sufficient to maintain the troops upkeep, and land will be essential. Land can also be given when the player completed the fights against monsters.

The cost to purchase each type of land will increase based on the number of such land the player has in each category.

Items – I feel that many of the more worthwhile items are obtained via fighting monsters or getting them via Demi-quests, and thus it is not much point to buy them via the Blacksmith shop. One such example is the Holy Avenger sword that players may get after the completing the Land of Earth quest (12 attk / def).



Also see:
- FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 1
- Castle Age: Battle of the Dark Legion

Merry X'mas! X'mas Globes by Playfish!

A Merry X'mas to everyone! Thanks for visiting this blog.

Yupz, there are also presents by game developers for those playing online games. For example Playfish's Pet Society game is givign player a X'mas Globe!



The gift is available only during this X'mas, and thus those who want it, better get it fast!



Afternote: Restaurant City is giving the same globe to players too, except that the Globe is rendered in a slightly different angle.