By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

ONLINE game publisher Level Up! is bringing to the Philippines Crazy Kart, an online racing game developed by Shanghai-based Shanda.

Crazy Kart is one of the two online casual games that Level Up! is set to launch. It is also the first racing game to be introduced in the Philippines. The company has already put up a local website for their new casual game.

Level Up! marketing director Jake San Diego told hackenslash the game is modeled after some casual racing games, particularly the Mario Kart series. The games features customizable cars, track obstacles and even weapons for players.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE ASSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nation Foundation (AF) is set to launch in July a PC game that aims to provide a fun learning activity to the youth and give them useful information on the 10 member countries of the ASEAN.

AF executive director Filemon Uriarte Jr. presented the ASEAN Quest game during a memorandum of agreement signing between the AF and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Makati City. Uriarte showed a box version of the game as well as the opening cut scene.

Uriarte described ASEAN Quest as primarily a single-player role-playing game where players have to navigate through several, albeit short, levels. There are portions of real-time strategy, trivia, a spy game and even a “build” game. Much of the game focuses on the cultural nuances of the 10 member countries of the ASEAN.

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By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

YUP, we love playing games, but how about creating one yourself?

Nope, I don’t mean becoming a game developer (though you can if you want to), but going to a site that allows you to quickly customize free Flash games and embed them on your blog or social networking profile.

One site I tried today is Pictogame. It’s a fun site, and I tried making a game.

I have a six-year-old daughter, OK, so please excuse the choice of a cutesy game That’s Sam’s pic I used, and I’ve also embedded this game on my personal blog.

Another site you can check out is Sploder, though I haven’t tried it out yet.

Let me know if you’ve tried other sites that let you create your own games.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

LET’S see if an Iron Man video game based on the movie-comic book tie-in would save the world from the bad movie-video game curse.

Nope, it won’t.

Our faith in even the most beloved comic book franchises cannot save the poor gamer from having to suffer from the effects of playing video games based on movies. At some point you would ask, “Why do all movie-video game tie-ins suck?” Iron Man the game is a big joke. Which begs the question: why do developers and publishers bother releasing a title that they know will suck? Simple: some of us get suckered into shelling out a few bucks to satisfy our curiosity and at some point, to falsely believe that there’s a future for video game-movie tie-ins until they’re dashed the moment we chuck the game disc into our players.

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By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

JUST upgraded to the new version of RealArcade. Yup, I also love casual games

I like the new version, actually, because it’s a lot easier to navigate. Of course, it’s obvious they also did it in order to better present ads on their site, but as long as the design is uncluttered, I don’t mind.

In fact, I saw a video ad there from Chili’s. All you need to do is watch the short clip to get a free copy of Burger Rush. So, yup, why not? This really will be the trend — online video ads and free ad-supported games. And as long as the games are good and the ads aren’t annoying, I think many of us wouldn’t mind.

By the way, while you’re there, you can also sign up for a free 30-day trial of RealArcade’s GamePass service, in case you’re interested.

How about you, what do you think of the new RealArcade? And what do you think of more free ad-supported games?

Heck, maybe in the future free ad-supported versions of even AAA console, PC and massively multiplayer online games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto and World of Warcraft franchises would become the norm.