January 2008 Archives

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net WHEN it comes to game complexity, developer Ubisoft almost always lands on top of the list. Nearly all its action-oriented games require a considerable learning curve just to get through the controls. This is common in its Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter series wherein every aspect of the Xbox 360 controller is used. Nonetheless, these controls become essential to the entire gameplay. The company's latest game is Assassin's Creed (designed by no other than my favorite game developer, Jade Raymond), which melds together a lot of gameplay elements from Splinter Cell, God of War, Elder Scrolls, and Prince of Persia. Just as the gameplay is complex, so is the storyline; the plot is set somewhere near the future. Desmond Miles is a bartender but is a direct descendant of a long line of assassins from the days of the historic Crusades nearly 1,000 years ago. Miles is kidnapped and experimented upon by scientists of the Abstergo Industries, which has a machine called the Animus that pulls out memories of long-since dead people as long as their DNA structure remains intact with their descendants. Desmond holds the memories of Altair, one of the Assassins who knew the location of the "Piece of Eden," which seems to be an artifact that can cause mass hypnosis. Abstergo scientists want this artifact. In between the plot, as they say, thickens and the player might get confused with the integrated story between Altair and Miles. The story, while linear, is so complex that players can start their adventures just about anywhere in the map and still be able to continue the story. More than 90 percent of the action happens during Miles' usage of the Animus. The player/Miles becomes the Assassin Altair upon entering into a dream-like state then the adventure begins. The world is set in the year 1191 during the Third Crusade that saw the war between the real-life King Richard the Lionheart and the Muslim warrior-king Saladin. While the two kings battle it out, the secret society of the Assassins are facing off against the Templar Knights. Altair, having failed to kill the Templar Knight Grand Master, is stripped of his weapons and skills by the Assassins' leader Al Mualim. As such the player will have to complete tasks set upon Al Mualim to recover parts of his skills and weapons. Likewise, the missions will lead to the discovery of the "Piece of Eden" as well as a conspiracy set by Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. The plot can be likened to a video game version of a Tom Clancy novel and is surprisingly well implemented in a video game. As earlier mentioned, Assassin's Creed mixes a lot of gameplay elements used by past successful action games. The most prominent is the third-person camera use similar to Splinter Cell. Altair's movement can be controlled by the left thumbstick while the right thumbstick is used for camera movement. The rest of the controls will be for fighting, throwing, weapon selection, running and jumping. As in Splinter Cell, the game also requires the player to remain as unnoticeable as possible. Any untoward movement, such as bumping into pedestrians, accidentally fighting other people, running around and unsheathing weapons will draw suspicion from armed guards. If the worst happens, Altair must do two things: find a place to hide and do it without being seen, or fight the enemies. Hiding is pretty easy and there are lots of potential hiding places, such as haystacks or small tents up on roofs. But if fighting is unavoidable, Altair will have to use his weapons (a short sword or a wrist blade) and ward off the enemies. If fights happen early in the game, the player will have difficulty killing the enemies. Altair does have a countering ability, which happens to be a mini-game similar to God of War but this can be acquired after the second or third mission. Eventually, Altair will receive his entire arsenal of fighting techniques and weapons and he can be a formidable enemy. Among his strongest opponents are the Templars that are fully armored and have almost the same countering ability as Altair. Only a well-timed slash or counter attack will hurt a Templar and it'll take quite a number of attacks to put down one. Still, the majority of the game requires the player to conduct his missions with utmost stealth. The missions are spread across several historical cities, including a sprawling Jerusalem. Missions involve looking for specific persons that have been part of a plot against the Assassins and these are pointed out using a compass, which indicates main missions, side quests and specific areas of interests. He also has  "eagle vision," toggled by pressing the Y button on the controller. This is a sort of third eye wherein Altair can identify his targets, ordinary bystanders and enemies. Completing the missions involves eavesdropping, picking pockets, and interrogating/terrorizing suspects. If caught or found by Altair's quarry, the mini-mission is reset and Altair can continue finishing the mission. This is perhaps one of the very few drawbacks in the game as careless players can always go back to the same mini-missions to finish the game, taking all aspects of challenge. Still, some of the mini-missions are quite difficult to finish and may take several tries to get right. The game features a lot of platforming, much as in Prince of Persia. Altair also has some acrobatic skills allowing him to jump or climb walls, shimmy up on ledges, walk on thin platforms, and swing up overhangs. Luckily, only a few parts of the maps are actually high enough to kill Altair and so the Assassin can just run about after a bad fall and recover some lost "health" in the form of a synchronization bar.  Altair does not need to acquire health packs as the synchronization bar recovers after a brief moment. He does not even have to collect anything in the game, except information that he gathers from his targets. The game has dozens of side quests, some of which require Altair to climb up steep towers and use his eagle vision to complete a portion of the map. Trust me when I say this is very much needed as all the stages are huge and the only way to go about is to complete a map. Special missions also require Altair to find flags and save innocents. The rewards vary but are not always necessary. The side quests just give players more reason to play the game again as it can be finished in about 20 hours by just following the main quests. Assassin's Creed fully utilizes the Xbox 360's graphics engine with lighting, object physics and particle rendering all lending a visual treat. Loading time is also quite quick for a game of this caliber. Music is not altogether noteworthy but does give a sense of thrill especially when Altair is about to, and successfully finishes an assassination.

By Lawrence Casiraya INQUIRER.net LOCAL game developers are looking to ride the outsourcing wave and likewise get juicier contracts from overseas. The global gaming industry is predicted to become a $30-billion market by 2010, according to Gabby Dizon, president of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines. As an industry, gaming has evolved into several sub-sectors and closely related to animation and graphics design. The main industry, though, remains the development of games (for gaming consoles or for the Internet) although the same principles apply to e-learning and even corporate training services. “There is a lot of business to be made. Advergaming (or advertising inside games) has been getting bigger and bigger,” Dizon said during a briefing. Next month’s e-Services conference marks the first participation of gaming as an industry, alongside other segments within BPO (business process outsourcing) such as call centers, software development and medical transcription. The local game industry is smaller compared to these other segments. According to Dizon, also president of Flipside Games, local game development companies employ only about 300 workers. “We are what can be considered as a start-up industry. But we are slowly growing and we hope to attract more foreign game publishers to locate here in the country,” he said. He also cited the popularity of online gaming locally as something that encourages software developers to work in the gaming industry.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net UPDATE: Editor's note: Added video and photo. I'M certain Internet-savvy Pinoys will have, at least once, read about "Cloverfield." The Web is already abuzz with information about the new JJ Abrams film that has been making the virtual rounds since the middle of last year and it won't be a surprise if giddy movie enthusiasts here already know a bit about "Cloverfield." Fortunately, all that viral marketing through various websites and social networking sites actually worked well with the movie's production as the movie became a record breaker for raking in the biggest opening gross ever for a January release. In countries where the movie was first shown last Jan. 18, it's actually a surprise that there were no user-generated clips showing what the monster looked like, despite the fact that the synopsis was already written, edited and expanded in information sites as Wikipedia. Even up to now, those who watched the film seem to have a conscious, unwritten non-disclosure agreement to even describe or mention what it looked like. Solar Entertainment Corp. and United International Pictures held a press and VIP screening for "Cloverfield" on Jan. 24 at the Gateway Cineplex in Cubao, Quezon City, and we were among the first in the Philippines to see this highly anticipated movie on the big screen. Here's a video I took of INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla interviewing Selina Gecolea, general manager of the Philippine office of United International Pictures, right before the start of the press screening of "Cloverfield."
Online Videos by Veoh.com And here's a photo I took of (left to right) Erika, Selina and INQUIRER.net multimedia editor Joey Alarilla. I've tried to make this review as spoiler-free as possible, but of course I have to touch on some details, so don't read on if you absolutely don't want to learn anything about the movie before you watch it. "Cloverfield" uses the same cinematographic technique earlier used in "The Blair Witch Project" way back in 1999, which uses a handheld camera to "document" what's happening and as such, produces a lot of jarring as the camera itself is held up by one of the actors. While shot digitally, the movie is made to appear like a home video with the actors being more natural. While this handheld camera technique could cause dizziness among viewers (keep those barf bags handy), it makes the experience more visceral and more personal. Incidentally, this camera technique plays around with the idea of voyeurism and it works especially well in the age of YouTube and other online video sites. Users of such online video services like it raw, unedited and in-your-face, which is why there is an urge to take "experiences" to the next level using camcorders, digital cameras and especially camera mobile phones. Many scenes in "Cloverfield" show people pulling out their video-capable phones and personal digital assistants to share their videos through any medium. From the get-go, "Cloverfield" is a monster film and the production team doesn't make an illusion that it is something better than other monster films in the past, especially from the early black-and-white flicks, which conjured among its viewers the fear of the unknown. The plot formula is still about a huge, seemingly invulnerable creature leveling a city and the human protagonists trying to survive the monster's rampage. It's as simple as you could get. However, there are bits of references to 9/11 as buildings collapse due to the monster's sheer strength, with people moving about like zombies. While the 9/11 reference is somewhat unnecessary, it conjures flashbacks of what transpired during that tragic day and what happens to people in and around ground zero. Regardless of whether the attack is coming from terrorists or a gigantic creature -- or in the case of this movie from the US military troops battling the monster -- it is the effect on people that is always the same. The first part of the movie notes that a video camera was found in an area designated as "Cloverfield Site US-447" (thus the title), an area formerly called Central Park. This points to what may seem to be a post-cleanup drive where the camcorder was found in the aftermath of the monster attack. The "Cloverfield" video shows a group of friends living in the island of Manhattan in New York City. One of the characters, Rob, is going to Japan, leaving his brother Jason, his girlfriend Lily, and his best friend Beth. Jason throws a surprise party for Rob and gives another friend Hud a camcorder to film the party. All this until the monster throws New York City into chaos. There are elements of a love story and personal tragedies along the way. Of course, it would be hard to summarize the story as it would literally kill the anticipation but rest assured that the human story, as told by the movie's characters, will not disappoint. And as for the movie's main attraction, let's just say it is huge and is nowhere close to that fan-made monster artwork that is making its rounds on the Internet. The monster's true nature is neither explained nor identified. Not even the US Army's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction could seem to make a dent on the monster. Its body will not become entirely visible but some of its parts, especially its legs, will be clear. Suffice to say that just one of its legs could break the back of the US-made Godzilla. And yes, it is not alone. I'll leave you with that. Just watch it.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net UPDATE: Editor's note: Article edited to correct top-up rates. LINEAGE II publisher Asian Media has reported a significant retention rate of players even after the massively multiplayer online role-playing game's transition from open beta to commercial launch. The game had its commercial launch on Jan. 22 at 11 a.m. Lineage II, which is a pay-to-play game (Editor's note: Changed "play-to-play" to "pay-to-play." Thanks to anomalous_underdog for pointing out the typo.), is distributed by Asian Media in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. Top-up cards are sold in denominations of P20 for 1 day, P50 for 30 three days, P100 for seven days, and P350 for 30 days. In a telephone interview, Asian Media chief operating officer Ronald Allan Aquino said the retention rate is pegged at 65 percent, the majority of which was from the Philippines. "We were expecting a lower retention rate but most players got engrossed with the gimmicks that we had during the launch," Aquino said, referring to in-game item offerings for players who bought their top-up cards, as well as the doubling of experience points during the launch. Aquino said they have distributed over P20 million worth of game cards, though the demand continues to be high. "We were getting calls from our distributors in the provinces that they were running out of cards, especially the P350 denominations." Aquino said they are expecting to start a year-long nationwide competition for Lineage II, which will culminate in a regional contest pitting Filipino players against their Singaporean and Malaysian counterparts.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net DIGITAL Media Exchange Inc. (dme) will soon launch its second casual online game, Goal or No Goal (GONG), developed by Korean Japanese (Editor's note: Made the correction. hackenslash regrets the error.) firm Tose Shanghai. dme vice president for Publishing Steven Coleman said GONG will be free to play and will be launched simultaneously in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, where dme has operations. Online Videos by Veoh.com GONG can be played by up to six players in two teams or as a one-on-one contest. It will also be item-based, with weapons and potions to either strengthen or improve on the players' avatars. Players can also cast spells on other players for certain effects. Coleman said the game will be targeted at all age levels. dme marketing director Eric Roceles said the game is currently in closed beta but will have a commercial launch by mid-February. dme is among the first online game publishers in the Philippines. Among the titles is has introduced are MU Online, Rakion, EVE Online, and Gunbound, their first casual game.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net AN EXECUTIVE from the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) said it will hold its Pinoy Indie Games game development competition from Feb. 1 to 3, nearly a month after the event was postponed. In an interview, GDAP president Gabby Dizon said the delay was due to the low number of participants who could form a group, which is a major requirement for joining the competition. Dizon said they are currently marketing the event. So far, about five teams of three have signed up. The event will still be held at the iHooked Café in Recto. The independent game development contest is organized by GDAP, with the support of Intel Philippines, and the Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CreaM). The idea of the project is to entice budding game developers to create games using a set of provided applications within a 48-hour period. The project is the third in a series of activities that GDAP, CREAM and GDAP and conducting to promote original digital arts creation. The first two were on comic book development and machinima, a concept wherein mini-movies are made using video games clips. INQUIRER.net/hackenslash one of the event partners for the competition.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net AFTER showing positive growth in 2007, kid’s channel Cartoon Network (CN) revealed its plans for the Philippines in 2008 that will include the introduction of several new shows as well as a relaunch of its localized website. Turner Entertainment Networks Asia general manager Soumitra Saha described their growth in the Philippines as phenomenal as over 80 percent of children watching cable TV are tuned in to CN, with their target market tuned in for an average of 44 minutes per day. Saha attributed their success to strong content, which they have continued to localize for the Philippine market. For this year, the company will be introducing a slew of shows, under a new slogan “Todo na Toons.” New cartoons are "Class of 3000," "Naruto," "Ultimate Muscle," "Skunk Fu," "Chowder," "Ben 10," "Fantastic Four," and "Transformers," among others. Saha said they will be organizing a special series dedicated to the iconic Powerpuff Girls, which will include a new series called "Powerpuff Girls Z." Likewise, there will also be timeslots for full-length films such as the Jurassic Park trilogy, "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial," "Polar Express," "Curious George," and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action." Saha also emphasized the company's re-introduction of its local website, which will now be enhanced with Flash and multiplayer games, user-generated content tools, a blog system and video-on-demand service. Saha said the website logs in approximately 3.4 million pageviews per month, which is expected to grow as they introduce new online services. “Eventually, the Internet will become the source for their favorite shows for them to watch anytime and anywhere,” Saha said.

I DISCOVERED this series of YouTube clips thanks to my multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla. Check out these "Street Fighter: The Later Years" webisodes -- they're hilarious :) Lots of effing profanity, OK (hey, it's the Web). Check out CollegeHumor's CHTV for more videos.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net DE La Salle-College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) is taking steps to implement a full degree on game development, starting with preparing to secure a permit from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to allow them to offer the course hopefully by school year 2009. CSB's Game Design and Development will be a 10-term program spread throughout the school's trimestral system. In an interview, CSB Dean for School of Management and IT Benhur Ong said the course will cover all the basics of game development, software programming, digital arts, animation and storyboard development.
Online Videos by Veoh.com There will even be programs on designing game engines, the building block of all video games. Creative writing will also be integrated to help future students of the course in developing stories for video games. Ong said the course was developed with the assistance of experts from the Game Developers Association of the Philippines, a young organization of local game developers. He said some of the members there have even offered to lend their expertise, both as members of faculty or to further develop the course. "We always make sure that our offerings are always in accordance with the current industry requirements and so we work with the industry experts to impart their knowledge to students who will be part of their companies in the future," Ong said. CSB Dean for School of Design and Arts Gerard Torres said that majority of the curriculum's content is already being offered by the school, which is a combination of at least two separate departments, the School of Design and Arts and the School of Management and IT. "What we need is to have a formal course to offer game development," Torres said. On the other hand, he stressed that what they are offering is to expose interested students to game development as there are no schools yet offering such a degree. Furthermore, the growing number of game development firms would need fresh workers who will have specific skills. Torres said that part of their plan is to build the materials and resources of the curriculum as they go along. They would also be building up their infrastructure, which would include more powerful computers to handle the high computing requirements of game engine development and 3D rendering. Likewise, the CSB could eventually partner with foreign schools that also offer game development for student and teacher exchange programs in order to build up the school's capabilities. Torres added that while game development is still in its infancy in the Philippines, it could open new economic opportunities for budding game developers.

IT was quite a crowd last Saturday at the Mall of Asia Music Hall, where gamers were on hand for the commercial launch of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Lineage II. Check out this video taken by INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla, as Asian Media Development Group COO Ronald Allan Aquino talks about the Lineage II commercial launch. hackenslash/INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania conducted the interview.
Online Videos by Veoh.com Philippine-based Asian Media, the regional publisher of Lineage II, held simultaneous events at the Mall of Asia, Baguio, Cebu, Davao and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net GAME publisher Level Up! will not be renewing its license for the online casual game PangYa with Korean developer Ntreev and publisher Hanbitsoft, effectively closing the game after two years of operations. The company's PangYa servers will be closed by Jan. 27, as stated in the game's Philippine website. This is the second time the company has announced the closure of a game, after last year's R.O.S.E. (Rush on Seven Episodes) Online. The closure was confirmed in an interview with hackenslash by Level Up! marketing director Jake San Diego, who said PangYa players are being encouraged to migrate to other Level Up! games. The company also publishes Ragnarok, Khan, Perfect World, FlyFF, and Freestyle. San Diego explained that the decision was made to give the company "more focus" and align its direction with its existing games. PangYa is a 3D golf game introduced in the Philippines in February 2006 by publisher netGames, before the company was later merged with Level Up! The game enjoys a 2,800 concurrent user peak and 71,000 unique players per month.

HERE'S a new clip from our partner, Animax.
Online Videos by Veoh.com Vote for your favorite outfit in Animax Fashion-ability and get a chance to win exclusive Le Chevalier D'Eon book covers. You can only vote once and voting ends on Feb. 2, 2008 at 6 p.m. (Philippine time). For more details, check out our Animax Fashion-Ability microsite.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net THE PHILIPPINE Online Gaming Summit held on Jan. 13 is the annual spectacle organized by GAME!, the gaming magazine of INQUIRER.net sister company Hinge Inquirer Publications. This year, the company decided to bring the event closer to the huge online gaming and anime communities in the Philippines by holding it at the TriNoma mall in Quezon City. The event showcased several titles published by Level Up!, IP e-Games, Amped Games and Z-Zone. There were also competitions for online gaming and cosplay (costume play), with dozens of participants dressing up like their favorite anime characters. Other sponsors included PC Express, Intel and Globe, all of which had gimmicks of their own to entice the event attendees.
Online Videos by Veoh.com Items were also raffled off to the attendees, including a Nintendo Wii and a gaming PC. In an interview, GAME! editor in chief Howard Paw said this year’s event was expected to increase the number of attendants as it was held in a much more accessible area. Previously, the event was held at the Philippine Trade and Training Center in Roxas Boulevard or at the NBC Tent in Fort Bonifacio, which were inaccessible to many gamers.
Online Videos by Veoh.com "Before there were about 3, 000 attendees but now we’re expecting more than 5, 000," Paw said. Although POGS is the only major event that GAME! conducts every year, Paw said it is possible that they might also hold other events in 2008, such as gaming tournaments, though he did not give any details.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net AFTER several months of beta testing, the multiplayer online game Lineage II will soon go commercial, according to an executive of game publisher Asian Media. In an interview, Asian Media chief operating officer Ronald Allan Aquino said the announcement to go commercial will be on Jan. 12 but the actual commercial start will happen soon after. The game will also have a simultaneous launch in the Philippines and Malaysia. Singapore, where Asian Media also distributes Lineage II, will have related activities after the launch in Malaysia. Aquino noted that the game will be pay-to-play and will make use of top-up cards. For the Philippines, the denominations will be P20 for one day of playing, P50 for three days of playing, P100 for one week and P350 for one month. The top-up cards will be available days before the Jan. 12 announcement. There will also be different sets of top-up cards for Malaysia and Singapore. Aquino said Lineage II currently has 400,000 registered players.

MAN, I can't wait for February! I'm really excited over "Justice League: The New Frontier," the original animated movie from Warner Bros. Animation based on the graphic novel (and if you haven't read this awesome DC Comics graphic novel, please do so ASAP). It won't hit the big screen, but will be available on DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray and on demand on Feb. 26. Here's the official trailer to whet your appetite. And here's the New Frontier Sizzle Reel. JUSTICE LEAGUE: The New Frontier - Sizzle Reel

Add to My Profile | More Videos Check out their MySpace and go to the DC Comics New Frontier site for more info on New Frontier-related stuff.

By Relly Carpio, hackenslash Contributor INQUIRER.net "I will not be dictated to, I will not be threatened. I am the morning and evening star, I am Pharaoh!" -- "Prince of Egypt" IT is by your will and decision where the city shall lie along the great banks of the Nile. It is by your wisdom what crops shall be sown after the inundation. It is by your leave when the priests will have their joyous celebrations, exulting the gods. It is by your command how those who dare challenge your rule will fall. Pharaoh may not be a game for everyone, especially now that the fad for "gamers" is first-person shooter Half-Life clones (which any real gamer will instantly recognize as Quake 2 progeny, but that's another review). Riding on the fame of the SimCity game fad which took the world by storm then, Pharaoh and its predecessors, the Caesar series were a historical alternative to the present-day sprawls of Will Wright and the boys and girls at Maxis Software. It was a fair alternative to SimAnt and SimFarm. This game is part of the City Building Series that was published by Sierra Entertainment and Myelin Media. This particular game was developed by Impressions Games and those familiar with it will instantly see that it uses the Caesar III engine. Pharaoh was released in October 1999, and has an expansion, Queen of the Nile: Cleopatra. The game received fair acclaim when it was launched. Surprised? One should consider that the game was released after the movie "The Mummy" was shown in the summer of 1999. And the year before that, Disney's "Prince of Egypt" came out. You begin the game as a "person in charge" of an area that has to be developed. Success means you get promoted and you move on to the next mission. Failure means death. No, you can't hold a snap election and extend your terms. The elite Royal Guards storming your city gates and slaughtering everything in their path should be enough evidence that Pharoah is not pleased. As you progress your Family slowly gets entangled in the politics of ancient Egypt until eventually you become Pharaoh. But even then, you answer to the people, the priests, and the gods. Yes, there are gods. Crime is the least of your problems in this game. As with Caesar, Pharaoh also has its share of divine problems. There are gods in the game that have to be constantly appeased and worshipped. Should a god find itself lacking a temple in any of your city areas, there will be trouble. In the city grid, temples and eventually the massive temple complex will occupy the most space second only to designated living areas. There is usually a patron god aside from the other gods in every mission. Being mindful of the needs of this specific god above the others will ensure the survival of your city. Each of the missions has goals that need to be fulfilled before you can move on to the next city and mission. If any of the goals are not fulfilled, then the game just goes on and on. Usually the requirements include a certain population, the better the city, and the better the quality of the housing allows for more people to live in a smaller area. Then there are the ratings that you need to fulfill, namely: Culture (making your city close to the Egyptian standard), Prosperity (making your people happy), Monument (making pyramids, obelisks, the Sphinx), and Kingdom (making the rest of the kingdom view your rule favorably). Now the population doesn't idly sit around and watch you; they actually do the work. No population means no workers, thus the city will fall into ruin. There are overseers (the city council/computer) that automatically tell everyone what to do after you assign areas and buildings for what they are. But most overseers can be overridden and one of the most important is the Overseer of the Workers. Left alone it tries to spread the workers all over the place. But realistically there are more people in food production and industry. Left alone, unless there is a surplus of workers (a.k.a. unemployment), you will have starving people on one side of the city and people swimming in it on the other. Oh, and commerce grinds to a halt as goods get stuck in the storage yards. On that note, we get to the most important part of the game, trade. In Pharaoh you trade with other cities in the kingdom and with other kingdoms like Greece and Babylon. You begin the city with a certain amount of start-up money (they call it debens, not gold). If you don't export something soon, this will run out. Early in the game, the missions will not need trade. But later on, without it, expect the soldiers of the Pharaoh in your city, to "collect" on his investment. There will be goods that you might need to import to improve your city, and you need something to export to make money. Sometimes you actually import the cheap raw materials and then export the expensive finished product. The economy system of the game is actually very good in teaching the realities of how import/export works and how it affects the economy of an area. With trade and economy comes the end result: battle. Yes, there is battle. This is what sets Pharaoh apart from most of the city building sims. You have to build an army and/or navy and actually use it to defend your city, sometimes, defend another city by sending them there, or yourself from the Pharaoh. This fact is what gives Pharaoh its real-time strategy facet and woe betide a city that finds itself defenseless. The combat is laughable and at times is annoying as the graphics border on the comic; but the effects are all too real. If an enemy force attacks a building, it gets destroyed; and as long as there they are on your map, no one will immigrate to your city. No population means no workers, thus the city will fall into ruin. As a whole the game is fantastic as it actually teaches the basics of politics, providing basic services, concept of immigration/emigration, realities of import/export, effect of warfare on an economy and population, and the religious festivals and culture of an ancient race. There is even a section in the Game Help that discusses the real history on which the game is based on, in case you need a National Geographic fix along the way. Game Tips: If at the start it seems slow and daunting, be patient; soon there will be so many city options you won't be fast enough to set up services before trouble starts happening. There are numerous missions that you have to go through, and in the later missions it will take time and planning, the pause button and safety saves will be your best friend. It's okay to play the game on "Very Easy" difficulty setting as the game engine only increases cost of building and ramps up the chaos engine with every difficulty increment. If your city planning is quirky from the start it won't matter what your difficulty setting is, your city will not work, and the monuments will still take a thousand years to finish. On that note: it will eventually come to a point that you will fall asleep waiting for the monuments to finish. Waiting for the monuments to finish will be the most challenging part of the game as you will spend hours doing nothing but maintaining the city and watching your populace place one block on top of the other. Planning the construction sites before hand will make a very big difference, and the finished monuments are worth the wait, always. Use roadblocks; they concentrate services throughout areas. Lastly, it is better to have a burning house than an angry god; keep the faith.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net The casual fighting game GetAmped is set to go commercial by Jan. 9 and will be in hybrid free-to-play model, according to an executive from publisher Amped Games. GetAmped is Amped Games' first casual game and its third game after Tantra and WarRock. It was developed by Japanese firm CyberStep Inc. The game, which was launched for beta testing in October 2007, has about 50,000 registered players, with a concurrent user base of 6,000 players. In an interview, Amped Games product manager Caloy Alejandro said players will only need to use Amped top-up cards to purchase virtual weapons and items through the game's item shop. Likewise, there will be some items that can only be purchased by playing the game. So far, the shop has about 20 types of items but Alejandro said they will add more items every month. He also noted that there are at least 500 items for GetAmped. "There’s what we call the game money and the real money and the equivalent will be one is to one so players don’t have to convert the prices of the virtual items. Some items can only be bought using game money, others using real money from the top up cards and some can be bought using both," Alejandro said. Alejandro also hinted at GetAmped updates that could be launched in the coming months. Amped will also prepare for regional competitions, which could start in February this year. The winners of these games will go on to compete against foreign players for the GetAmped World Festival in Singapore either in July or August. GetAmped is already being played in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net HOW will the new year turn out? That's always the question that people ask about themselves, the people they are with and the industry in which they work. The gaming industry's 2007 performance was nothing short of groundbreaking, with many new games launched, new ideas such as advergaming making headway, and more people getting interested in the wild, wide world of gaming. For some of the pundits in the gaming industry, 2008 is still a year of high hopes. Late last year, hackenslash sent questions to the Who's Who of the Philippine gaming industry, those who are making history and who know where the Philippines should be headed. Gabby Dizon, current president of the year-old Game Developers Association of the Philippines, said 2008 is heading towards more projects for local game developers, who he said need more international recognition. Citing the success of GDAP's attendance in the first Games Convention Asia in Singapore, Dizon said they are expanding the local industry's reach toward the big players, this time by attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California this February. He notes the organization's promise to band Filipino developers together, reminiscent of the activities of the contact center companies during the industry's formative years. GDAP and the Manila chapter of the International Game Developers Association have also been active in working with the Creative Media and Film Society (CreaM) created by former Ilocos Norte Representative Imee Marcos. In a separate interview with Marcos, she said that game development is as much an art as any other form of entertainment, thus the need to consolidate the developers. But Marcos insists that developers create their own original content, which she said could take a while but will surely happen within the year. Ranulf Goss, Philippine coordinator for IGDA and founding president of GDAP, said he expects more development work coming from the Philippines, both for the local and international markets. Goss, who works for Matahari Studios, which develops arcade games, said he expects more arcade products to come out this year, as well as handheld games from Philippine developers. He also expects more schools to become interested in offering game development courses. Incidentally, Nobuhiro Fujii, GDAP member and head of the group's education initiative, said he is closely working with some schools to expand game development as part of their curriculum. Given the demand for skilled programmers and artists, Fujii, who also heads his own development firm Pixelstream, said he expects more students to enter game development and feed the demand locally. Fujii himself has said that he intends to increase his manpower for his company. He emphasized an original game that Pixelstream is developing for the Nintendo DS, though he is keeping mum about it. He promised to reveal more details about it as soon as possible. Handheld games are easily done by Filipino developers but a few are heading toward the big picture, and that is creating games for the current generation of consoles, such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Niel Dagondon, founder of Anino Games (which developed the first commercial PC game in the Philippines), said the goal should be to add more capabilities for console gaming development. The company did just that in early 2007 when it made an early demonstration of an Xbox 360 game, which they called Project Phoenix. It was shelved eventually but it did not mean that it has been abandoned. It will just be a matter of time before Anino, or any game development firm in the Philippines, will go back to work on a console game. Even independent game developers are aware that there is much to be done. Ranier Umali, president of Virtual Titania Amusement Software (VITAS), which is developing the first Filipino online casual game, Bangu-Bang Mania, said there is still a modest growth in the online game development business, even with the launch of new triple-A titles from the dominant publishers. However, he believes that most of the growth will come from casual games in 2008, as opposed to role-playing games. He has said that casual games will provide more opportunities for companies such as VITAS, which independently develops games. Apart from game developers, publishers are also well-entrenched when it comes to making gaming a huge revenue-generating industry. Level Up! Philippines CEO Jane Walker already hinted on new titles that the company will be launching this year. Perfect World was just the start but there are at least four other titles being worked out, though she declined to discuss any more details. Level Up! International gameboss Ben Colayco said the company is "pumped up" for the year. He has already presented great opportunities coming from advergaming, a relatively new form of advertising that could potentially bring about more opportunities for traditional advertisers and game companies. ABS-CBN's Amped Games is also jumping on the advergaming bandwagon. Amped Games head Mitch Padua said that advertising spending on the Internet will grow as brand owners become aware that their target markets have shifted from the traditional to the interactive. These can be in the form of social networking sites, online games and e-commerce sites. Padua also expects that Internet infrastructure will get better, costs will go down, and professional gaming will become more of a reality than in the past. IP eGames President Steve Tsao also firmly believes that for publishers to succeed it should work closely with other content developers and providers. In particular, IP e-Games tied up with GMA Network to form an online gaming company and casual game portal developer. The initial capitalization for the partnership, as reported, is P200 million but with a capital stock worth P800 million. The media is also aware about the prospects for the gaming industry in 2008. Independent game reviewer Joan Guevarra focused more on the home and handheld console business where she predicts that Nintendo will continue to dominate with the Wii and the Nintendo DS. The PS3, for her, will make a mark on the software side eventually, as future titles promised by Sony will be released this year. On the other hand, Guevarra stressed that she's more of a Nintendo maniac at this time. Ed Geronia, who headed the first multiplatform game review magazine GamesMaster, said that the popularity of high-definition TVs will be pushed more by the gaming industry as consoles, particularly the Xbox 360 and PS3, demand better picture quality from TV sets. This demand for both high-definition TVs and consoles will eventually cut their prices allowing them to be more accessible to other gamers who wish to join the console gaming fray. INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno made multiple predictions for the local publishers, console gaming and even the mobile phone gaming market. Some of his points include more intense competition from the top three publishers, no end to the game piracy problem, and more opportunities for mobile phone gaming, though not as much as handheld gaming. During the recent Asian Gaming Journalists Association workshop, hackenslash.net editor and AGJA founding president Joey Alarilla stressed how serious the gaming industry has become to the point that it is already a sector calling for more attention from the media, as well as others who are interested in the business. The media is at the forefront of reporting about the good, and even the bad about the industry, and in helping ensure that people understand why the industry exists and where it is going. As Alarilla aptly put it, "gaming really is serious business."

HAPPY New Year, everyone! Here's good news for gamers to start the year right. The Philippine Online Gaming Summit 2008, which is the brainchild of INQUIRER.net sister company Hinge Inquirer Publications, will be held on Jan. 13 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the TriNoma Activity Center. A copy of the November 2007 or December 2007-January 2008 issue of GAME! will serve as your ticket. Oh, and did we mention that you'll get the chance to win a gaming PC or Nintendo Wii?