General

* Removed "A Mask for All Occassions" as criteria for the "Hallowed Be thy Name" meta achievement.
* Replenishment: Players below level 50 can now benefit from this effect.

Racial

* Blood Fury: No longer triggers global cooldown.
* Shadowmeld: The cooldown will now start on use instead of on break.

Druids

* Druid talents points have been refunded. Players will need to visit a class trainer to relearn spells and abilities.
* The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned.
* Bash: The interrupt from this ability will now work on targets who are immune to the stun.
* Berserk: Now clears the cooldown on Mangle Bear.
* Earth and Moon and Moonfury (Balance) reduced from 5 ranks each to 3 ranks each.
* Eclipse: Buff duration extended to 15 sec and bonuses doubled. The cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
* Growl: Cooldown changed to 8 sec.
* Insect Swarm: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does not affect hit chance with spells.
* Nature's Swiftness: This ability will no longer give chances to trigger Omen of Clarity.
* Omen of Clarity: Will no longer be triggered by the Honorless Target buff gained when entering the world.
* Survival Instincts will no longer be on the Global Cooldown.
* Swiftmend: now benefits correctly from Genesis talent.

Hunters

* Aimed Shot: Added to Barrage and Improved Barrage talent.
* Animal Handler: Now increases your pet's expertise by 5/10. (No longer increases the pet's chance to hit.)
* Aspects now have a shared cooldown category of 1 sec and no longer have a start cooldown.
* Aspect of the Dragonhawk: New aspect added that combines the benefit of Aspect of the Monkey and Aspect of the Hawk, available at level 75 and 80.
* Aspect of the Monkey: The Dodge chance has been increased from 8% to 18%.
* Aspect of the Viper: The per attack mana regeneration has been reduced by 50% but this ability now generates 4% of maximum mana every 3 sec. In addition, the per attack regeneration now also works on melee attacks.
* Disengage now fails if you're rooted and is no longer on the global cooldown.
* Hunter vs. Wild: The attack power bonus from this talent now applies properly to Hunter pets. In addition, the bonus attack power will now be recalculated properly from equipping items.
* Improved Aspect of the Hawk: This talent no longer causes incorrect mana costs when interacting with the Rapid Recuperation and Improved Steady Shot talents.
* Mana cost of Disengage has been lowered to 5% of base mana, down from 14%.
* Pets
o Rake (Cat), Scorpid Poison (Scorpid): Lowered damage of all ranks.
o Stampede (Rhino): Lowered the knockback to 10 yards.
o Raised the damage of exotic attacks: Spirit Strike, Lava Breath, Froststorm Breath, Acid Spit, and Stampede.
o Lowered the cost of pet specials from 25 to 20.
• Thrill of the Hunt: The mana gained from using this talent with Explosive Shot is now 1/3 of the normal amount per critical strike (but gets 3 opportunities per cast.) • T.N.T.: Explosive Shot can now only trigger this talent when it is initially fired.

Mages

* Arcane Potency: The additional crit bonus is now consumed immediately on cast of a travel time spell, so it is no longer possible to make two spells benefit from one charge. (Ex. Fireball followed by Fireblast.)
* Blast Wave: no longer receives double the intended critical strike bonus from Combustion.
* Burnout: Now consumes extra mana as intended when livming Bomb gets a critical strike.
* Deep Freeze: Now consumes a charge of Fingers of Frost when used.
* Focus Magic: Now works properly when mages with this talent use the ability on each other.
* Frostfire Bolt: The periodic damage effect from Rank 2 of this spell now benefits from spell power gans.
* Living Bomb: Mana cost reduced to be the same as Arcane Explosion.. It no longer causes the caster to stand up when the final explosion occurs and it is now possible for each mage to have Living Bomb active on a target.
* Master of Elements: Now works with Living Bomb.
* Molten Fury: This talent no longer prevents Ice Lance ranks 2 and 3 from dealing triple damage against frozen targets.
* Reduced the mana cost of Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion.
* Torment the Weak: Now works correctly when the Mage also knows the Molten Fury Talent.

Paladins
* Art of War: No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm, instead increases all damage done by those abilities by a smaller amount.
* The Avenger's Shield bounce distance has been reduced to 10 yards (from 15).
* The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.
* Blessing of Might: Rank 8 points increased slightly to prevent from being overwritten by BattleShout 8 that has a shorter duration (also applies to Greater Blessing of Might 3.)
* Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have both Blessing of Sanctuary and Greater Blessing of Sanctuary active on a target at the same time.
* Crusade: No longer applies damage bonus twice to critical strikes.
* Divine Plea: This spell's duration is no longer affected by haste.
* Divine Purpose: Rank 1 of this ability will now correctly determine its chance of remove stun.
* Enlightened Judgments now increases range by 15/30 (was 10/20).
* Eye for an Eye: No longer breaks crowd control effects.
* Hammer of Justice: The interrupt from this ability will also be redirected when the stun is redirected. In addition, the interrupt will now work on targets immune to stun.
* Hammer of the Righteous: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does 4 times weapon dps instead of 3.
* Infusion of Light (Holy) now affects Flash of Light too, reducing its cast time down to zero and can be used while moving.
* Judgements: The debuffs from Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice will no longer be applied if the Judgement spell itself misses.
* Judgements of the Pure: Haste increased to 3/6/9/12/15%.
* Repentance PvP duration reduced to 6 sec.
* Righteous Defense cooldown has been lowered to 8 sec (was 15 sec).
* Righteous Vengeance: No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements and Divine Storm, instead applies a DoT effect similar to Deep Wounds.
* Seal of the Martyr: Tooltip for Judgement damage was incorrect and has been fixed.
* Sheath of Light: Now correctly benefits Judgements of Command, Blood, and The Martyr.
* Shield of the Templar now also reduces all damage taken by 1/2/3%.

Priests

* Binding Heal: Now only consumes one charge of Holy Concentration per cast.
* Borrowed Time: Charge no longer consumed by spells with a base cast time that is instant.
* Devouring Plague: The bonus coefficient has been increased to be on par with other DoT spells. Base damage on ranks 7,8, and 9 decreased to partially compensate for better scaling.
* Divine Providence: This talent now also reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending spell by 6/12/18/24/30%. With 5 points applied, it takes Prayer of Mending's cooldown from 10 sec to 7 sec.
* Divine Spirit: Now can be refreshed properly on self after logging in and out or zoning. (Also applies to Prayer of Spirit.)
* Guardian Spirit: A target may now have only one Guardian Spirit active.
* Healing Focus: Now works properly with Penance.
* Improved Divine Spirit: No longer improves Divine Spirit after untalenting sometimes.
* Inner Focus: Now works properly with Mind Flay, Mind Sear, and Penance.
* Prayer of Spirit: Will no longer stack with other raid spell power buffs.
* Shadowform: Devouring Plague, Shadow Word:Pain, and Vampiric Touch cast in Shadowform deal increased damage percentage equal to the player's chance to get a spell crit on their target.
* Shadow Word eath: The self-damage from this spell can no longer be reflected or redirected.
* Vampiric Touch: The Spell power coefficient has been doubled and no longer triggers Replenishment when other priests cast Mind Blast.

Rogues

* Combat Potency: Now only works with autoattacks (no more Shiv.)
* Fan of Knives changed to be castable with no targets, further improved the visual affect and it no longer plays an impact on the caster. Now benefits correctly from the Find Weakness talent.
* Killing Spree: The rogue is now untargetable during the duration of the spree. In addition, no longer sometimes selects dead targets and no longer breaks stealth on nearby targets.
* Riposte: Duration of this effect no longer reduced by other effects that reduce disarm duration.
* Shadow Dance: The cooldowns on Sap, Garrotte, Ambush, Cheap Shot, Premeditation, Pickpocket, and Disarm Trap are no longer increased while this ability is activated.

Shaman

* Flurry: Now grants the proper number of charges when it triggers.
* Improved Fire Nova Totem: Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova Totem by 10/20% and your Fire Nova totem has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets damaged by your Fire nova Totem for 2 sec.
* Lava Burst: The base damage has been increased by approx. 10%.
* Maelstrom Weapon: Tooltips corrected to correctly describe the chance for this talent to be triggered.
* Riptide: The initial heal amount has been increased on ranks 3 and 4 and periodic healing has been increased on all ranks.
* Stormstrike: Other shamans can no longer consume charges of your Stormstrike, and each shaman can have their own stormstrike on the victim.
* Storm Reach is now called "Elemental Reach" and now includes Lava Burst.
* Thunderstorm: Mana gain has been increased to 8%.
* Tidal Mastery: Now correctly applies its critical strike bonus to Earth Shield.
* Tidal Waves will now also proc with Riptide.

Warlocks

* The epic ground mount is now available on the trainer at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned.
* Demonic Sacrifice: The buffs from this ability will now be retained properly when logging out or zoning.
* Demonic Empowerment: This talent no longer gives excessive threat to the Warlock's Voidwalker.
* Destructive Reach: Now properly reduces threat on Chaos Bolt and Shadowflame.
* Drain Soul: Rank 6 now properly deals additional damage ot targets below 25% health.
* Haunt: The cooldown has been changed to 8 sec, and refreshing the Haunt will trigger the heal from the existing Haunt.This ability will no longer heal for incorrect amounts or fail to heal when the Huaunt damage was the killing blow.
* Inferno: The Infernal is now useable indoors and the tooltip has been updated.
* Master Demonologist (Felhunter) will now also reduce damage taken by Holy.
* Ritual of Doom: Now works correctly even when the Warlock already has a pet (dismissed the existing pet.)
* Shadowflame: Damaged increased approx. 75%. Coefficients unchanged.
* Shadow Embrace: Now works on ranks 1-4 and stacks properly with multiple applications.
* Soul Link (Demonology): Increased from 15% to 20%.

Warriors

* Armored to the Teeth: Grants only attack power( as intended) and recalculates the bonus immediately upon learning any rank of the talent.
* Bladestorm: Now breaks all snares and roots on the warrior when activated.
* Bloodthirst: Cooldown reduced to 5 sec.
* Deep Wounds: Now works properly with Heroic Throw.
* Heroic Throw: No longer gains increased damage from the warrior's agility.
* Improved Rend changed to 10/20%.
* Rampage: Can now be triggered by off-hand Whirlwind damage.
* Rend: Damage has been adjusted to be less base and more weapon based.
* Rend: Ranks 9 and 10 now do 35% more damage when the target is above 75% health instead of 4 times damage when the target is enraged. Sudden Death: Now has 3/6/9% chance on hit instead of 10/20/30% chance on crit.
* Titan's Grip: Changed to 12% penalty instead of 15%.
* Vigilance: Now properly transfers threat generated by heals.

Professions

* The level requirements required to train gathering skills have been removed.
* Alchemy
o Reduced the effect of Elixir of Mongoose and Elixir of Major Agility.
* Inscription
o Glyph of Crusader Strike: Now reduces mana cost by 20% instead of increase damage on stunned and incapacitated targets.
o Glyph of Flame Shock: Now extends duration by 6 sec and prevents Flame Shock from being consumed by Lava Burst.
o Glyph of Lava: Glyph of Earth Elemental removed and replaced with this glyph. This glyph increases coefficient on Lava Burst by 0.1.
o Glyph of Mind Flay: Now sets snare to 10% instead of removing it.
o Glyph of Rejuvenation: Now works correctly when the target is not self.
o Glyph of Shiv: Replaced with Glyph of Vigor, which increases maximum energy by an additional 10 for those with the Vigor talent.
o Glyph of Shadow: Glyph of Mind Soothe removed and replaced with this glyph. This glyph increases spell power by 10% of spirit for 10 sec after critting while in Shadowform.
o Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain: Increases damage done by Mind Flay when SW:P is present by 10%.
o Glyph of Sinister Strike: Chance increased to 50%.
o Glyph of Souls no longer removes soul shard cost. It instead reduces the mana cost of your Ritual of Souls spell by 70%.
o Glyph of Spirit of Redemption: Tooltip corrected to 4 sec. extra when the glyph triggers.
o Glyph of Strength of Earth: Replaced with Glyph of Lava Lash which increases the bonus from having Flametongue Weapon by 10%.
o Glyph of Trueshot Aura: Now increases Aimed Shot crit chance instead of increasing attack power bonus.
o Glyph of Totem of Wrath: Replaced with Glyph of Elemental Mastery, which decreases the cooldown on Elemental Mastery by 30 sec.

User Interface

* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Items

* The war against spelling errors continues: many items have had typos removed or their functionality clarified.
* The item quality on several quest rewards was incorrect and has been altered.
* The phoenix summoned by Ashes of Al'ar has had his flame trains restored.
* Guardian's Band of Subjugation now correctly grants universal haste.
* Girdle of the Warrior Magi now has a socket bonus.
* Some one-hand spell power weapons are now main hand only.
* Heart of the Dragon should now provide a consistent amount of Ranged Attack Power.
* Loatheb's Shadow should now provide a consistent amount of Ranged Attack Power.
* Spirit-World Glass now correctly has a cooldown.
* Discerning Eye of the Besat procs should now be more obvious.
* Focusing Lenses now have a cooldown.
* The Horseman's Reings should again function in Dalaran.
* Haute Club Membership Card no longer prompts players to open it.
* The buff granted by Frenzyheart Insingia of Fury now has a correct tooltip.
* Harness of Carnal Instinct no longer has bonus armor.
* Boots of the Protector have been brought in line with protection paladin itemization changes.
* A tootip error in the Glyph of Spint has been corrected.
* Grilled Sculpin now correctly grants Ranged Attack Power.
* Libram of Souls Redeemed should now only affect Holy Light.
* Legacy items that had both melee and spell critical strike rating have been integrated to the unified rating.
* Held in hand books created by Inscription are now Bind on Equip rather than Bind on Pickup.

Bug Fixes

* Fixed an issue that was affecting terrain rendering on GeForce 3 and 4 Ti cards. Those that added the command Set fixedfunction 1 to their config.wtf file should remove it to avoid a decrease in performance.
* Glyph of Rupture: The tooltip has been corrected.
* Hunter: Ferocious Inspiration will now apply raid-wide, as intended.
* Hunter Pets
o Sonic Blast (Bat): Will no longer ignore LoS.
o Bad Attitude (Croc): Will no longer ignore the Longevity buff.
o Thunderstomp (Gorilla): Will no longer have a physical coefficient instead of a magical one.
o Gore (Bore): Fixed an issue where a wrong value was being applied.
o Savage Rend: Corrected typos in the tooltip.
* Mage: Burning Determination will now work properly.
* Mage: Living Bomb's "explosion effect" will now be properly classified.
* Priest: Holy Reach (Rank 2) will now increase the radius of Divine Hymn properly.
* Priest: Inner Focus will now properly increase the critical strike chance of the talent Penance.
* Shaman: Totem of Wrath tooltip updated to reflect that it affects all crit chance and indicate that it increases Spell Power (instead of just damage).

 ”Okay, so let's do a conservative estimate, and say even 1 million of these counted subscribers are still in their free month. That leaves 9 million paying subscribers who, at the $15 fee, are generating $135 million every month. Hell, even if you adjust that to, say, $120 million (since many subscribers may be paying for slightly discounted 3- or 6-month subscriptions), that still means Blizzard more than recouped their entire upkeep costs over a four-year period in just two months."

Get ready, the expansion (World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King) is due out in stores on November 13, 2008.

"We're looking forward to launching Wrath of the Lich King and finally giving World of Warcraft players a chance to take on Arthas and his minions," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Until then, we'll continue to refine and playtest the expansion content to make sure it provides a highly polished and entertaining experience."

The expansion will be available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.

• The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from the game.
• An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic with director’s commentary, and more.
• The official soundtrack CD, containing 21 epic tracks from the game, along with exclusive bonus tracks.
• A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
• Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion™  starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector’s Edition. 
  

Attention, World of Warcraft fans: WoW Insider is reporting that Wrath of the Lich King, the next WoW expansion, is no longer in alpha and will soon be entering beta. This means that those selected from the pool of entries for beta access should soon be getting their invites.

Blizzard has a website set up that contains information for those of you who get beta keys, like how to create a Blizzard account and access client files needed to play.

Remember, there are quite a few beta scams out there, so make sure you're careful with where you disclose your account information.

• AWAY Shuffle Dungeon
• Babysitting Mania
• Cooking Mama World Kitchen
• Major Minor's Majestic March
• Marker Man Adventures
• Our House
• Wonder World Amusement Park
• Zoo Hospital

The expansion added a rich new taste to the already great World of Warcraft which proved to be "The MMO to end all other MMO's". It's easy for any person to pick it up and enjoy it. It's well balanced and receives updates every so often as well. The decisions you make here are going to affect your character in the long run -- but you always have the option to change your mind. Overall, Blizzard did an excellent job and further enhanced the experience for older addicts and for those who are soon to become them. If you haven't tried this MMORPG, you need to head over to the site and check out the trial version to see what all the hype is about.

Why You May Disagree: World of Warcraft being a few years old, it's hard to believe that an expansion pack could be better than any original RPG or strategy game released this year. MMOs only appeal to a certain type of person. Most of the content is for level 60 players anyway.

But We Say: Burning crusade adds so much to the game that you could spend a whole year ignoring other RPGs just to hit 70. RPGs only appeal to a certain type of person too... RPG fans. And yes, the bulk of the new content is for people already at level 60, as the point of an expansion pack is to "expand" the game beyond its previous limit. The fact that there are two new classes and other treats for beginners/lower-levelers is a bit of a bonus.


Runner Up:

Hit the link to view more images.

Microsoft is adding two more Xbox Live Arcade releases this week: Tempest and Sensible World of Soccer.

Tempest is a shooter where you destroy waves of enemies in a "fluorescent geometric battlefield" whereas Sensible World of Soccer is a title that features a Career mode for both single and cooperative play on Xbox Live.

Tempest and Sensible World of Soccer will launch on Wednesday, December 19 at 9 am (GMT) for 400 and 800 Microsoft Points respectively.

Ed Fries, ex-Microsoft Game Studios VP, has garnered much attention with the grand opening of FigurePrints, a business that specializes in the crafting of 3D World of Warcraft character statues.

As reported by CVG, Ed Fries has issued this comment:

"For the first time, we are taking this new technology and using it to bring objects out of a virtual world and into the real world through 3D printing. We are turning the actual characters that gamers play into something that is tangible and physical, no longer just online, and frankly, we just think that is really cool."

The statues carry a price tag of $99.95 for North American buyers. Those interested in finding out more can visit the site here.

“The growing Sword of The New World community has been waiting for this day and it’s finally here,” said Grantley Day, Vice President of Development at K2 Network. “Until now gamers could only read about the unique and exciting experience that is Sword of The New World; but now they can experience this truly exceptional game firsthand.”

Gamers who are interested in being part of the open beta which is now live and continues through until early July should visit http://www.swordofthenewworld.com/register-beta.php ]]> Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:27:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/at_worlds_end_games_launch_this_summer http://www.gamebump.com/go/at_worlds_end_games_launch_this_summer http://www.gamebump.com/go/at_worlds_end_games_launch_this_summer#
"Fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise will experience adventures inspired by the second and third films while going far beyond the events of those films," said Craig Relyea, vice president of marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. "With the action, excitement, unforgettable characters and expansive locations from the blockbuster films, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will be the definitive 'Pirates' video game experience for fans. Our games go beyond the films to introduce legendary pirates, new locations and unique endings that will satisfy the pirate in each of us."

Each version will be specifically tailored to its system, with the Wii version making use of the console's unique remote for sword-fighting while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions will utilize "innovative dueling controls as well as special moves."

Details for the movie follow:

"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" picks up where the record-breaking 2006 smash hit left off, with our heroes Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) allied with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in a desperate quest to free Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from his mind-bending trap in Davy Jones' locker. With the terrifying ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman, and its commander Davy Jones under the control of the East India Trading Company, there is havoc on the Seven Seas. Navigating through treachery, betrayal and wild waters, the heroic trio must forge their way to exotic Singapore and confront the cunning pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Now headed beyond the very ends of the earth, each must ultimately choose a side in a final titanic battle - as not only their lives and fortunes, but the entire future of the freedom-loving pirate way hangs in the balance. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski from a screenplay written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, our beloved cast sets sail again on a fresh new adventure in May 2007.

Developed by Las Vegas-based TopWare Interactive and Reality Pump Studios, Two Worlds is an evolution of the role-playing genre. Combining unlimited character development and fierce, spectacular combat, Two Worlds brings a new kind of gameplay experience where players are encouraged to experiment with the world, test the results of good and evil deeds and find the most satisfying way to face challenges. Never before has an RPG given gamers such an unprecedented level of freedom to change the world and shape the story within it – for the first time, choices made in an RPG game are actually meaningful.

World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer - All In is the third iteration of the World Championship Poker series. The game features plenty of card sharks to battle it out with along with some nice features and improvements, but in the end it’s still just another poker game on the market.

First and foremost, the game does feature a nice career mode that allows you to create your own player from a wide variety of unusual creation options. My personal favorite is the bag on my head. After that is over, you’ll battle through game after game of poker and work your way from a lowly apartment to a lavish one. While you do that, you’ll move up the pro circuit and finally end up on televised matches in Vegas casinos. The career mode goes much further than just playing cards as you will earn respect amongst your competition and attributes like an ability to read bluffs. Overall the career mode is pretty deep and is solid for a card title.

To go along with that, there is a nice variety of poker games featured in WCP, 18 in all including Texas hold’em, Omaha, Pineapple, five card draw, seven card draw and more. Even better than that, the game allows you to fluctuate between various game types in a poker match. If you haven’t played the various games of poker before, the game does give you some nice tips and a solid tutorial mode too. Another nice feature in the game is the inclusion of some of the world’s best poker players like Lederer, Annie Duke, Greg Raymer, Erin Ness, Marcel Luske and Paul Darden.

Aside from that, there is online play too. You’ll be able to play with up to seven online players or hook up with ones via the PSP although you may find it hard to find someone playing online. Nevertheless, there is a nice feature included here as your player will be able to take their accumulated bankroll into the online universe. There is also the ability to actually watch your competition with the EyeToy.

Finally, one nice feature in WCP is the ability to play a quicker game with turbo mode. The game really speeds up and allows you to play a lot faster and not waste nearly as much time waiting for your competition to make a move.

The real problem with All In comes from its AI. The computer in the game is dumb as a door and will hold poor or even miserable hands and continue to bet high. I found myself often betting every maximum raise and the computer follows me every step of the way when it has no hand at all. Just when I started playing the game, I quickly took a large majority of the computer’s money. Not to say it isn’t satisfying still, but it isn’t very realistic.

On top of that, the graphics in WCP are still pretty poor by today’s standards. There is a nice diversity of environments to play in including my personal favorite a dark room with glow in the dark chips. Meanwhile, the characters you play with and face are decent, but the animations and movements are terrible. They are way too jerky and hardly reactive enough. The one thing I did like in this regard though is the caricature style menus, for me it worked in the game.

Even worse of a problem than the graphics, is the audio in the game or should I say lack thereof. The music when present is bad and the voiceover in the matches seems unnecessary. I usually believe the commentary should do with the hands on the table, not to announce checks and folds. To go along with that, the voice acting is pretty bad too as it is very repetitive.

Finally and most important of all, this game is still just poker. You can easily find much cheaper games of poker on the internet and actually play with real people.

World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer - All In gets the job done if you’re a poker fan. It does feature a nice variety of games, a solid career mode and online play, but struggles in the graphics, audio and artificial intelligence which take the title down. Unless you’re a diehard poker fan, All In just doesn’t have enough to make you go out and buy it.

AI is pretty poor in the game, but there is a good tutorial mode and playing cards is well done

The characters and environments are solid and diverse, but animations and movements are poor.

The music is terrible and the voiceover work seems unnecessary. Voice acting is mediocre.

All In is one of the better poker games on the market and does what it intends to.

There is a deep career mode and a wide variety of poker on top of the online option.

]]> Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:49:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_of_warcraft_in_stores_again http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_of_warcraft_in_stores_again http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_of_warcraft_in_stores_again# World of Wacraft . To find out if this was true or not, we called a bunch of our local stores and they did indeed have a few more copies to sell. So what are you waiting for? Go grab yourself a copy before its too late. Originally written by Tim Grube]]> Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:05:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_world_tour_soccer_06_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_world_tour_soccer_06_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_world_tour_soccer_06_psp# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

World Tour Soccer was one of the first titles to be released for the PSP last year and it was relatively well-received with its interesting point-based reward system. With a year experience under their belts, SCEE London takes another stab at a PSP soccer game. While it’s not much different from last year’s offering there are plenty of reasons to choose it over last year’s edition, most notably wireless play.

The point-based reward system introduced in the last game makes a triumphant return in the 2006 iteration. For those of you not in the know, the game rewards you points for good clean play and punishes you for a sloppy ball. An example would be +10 for a completed pass, -10 for an intercepted one, and a decent chunk of negative points for a foul or penalty. Goals are worth a few hundred, but it’s a double-edge sword because goals against will take off quite a bit of points too. Playing a good game usually spells victory, but you’ll definitely want to keep thinking of going for high scores because the two major modes rely heavily on the point system. Those of you looking for a strong sim soccer title may want to look elsewhere, because WTS offers some solid pick up and play arcade-style soccer.

WTS offers the usual quick play and exhibition modes, but world tour and medal mode are the ones that will eat up most of the playing time. In world tour, you’ll take on different opponents on different continents, however some of them feature twists that sometimes make matches a whole different beast themselves. In medal mode, you’ll come across the same match types, though the goal here is to score as many points as possible to get that gold medal to open up a new, more difficult task of the same sort – and man they can get quite difficult.

There are a total of nine match types – all rounder, shot clock, the zone, totally outnumbered, time attack, challenge plus, pass clock, check point challenge, and player tag. All rounder requires you to pass the ball to every team member before shooting on goal. Shot clock is just like a basketball game with a limited time to get a shot off. In the zone has you shooting from highlighted zones to add point multipliers on a potential goal. Totally outnumbered is just as it says. Time attack plays out like a racing game in that the timer is constantly counting down and each goal is like a checkpoint that restores time. Challenge plus plays like a standard match but has a random stipulation added. In pass clock, individual players can only have possession of the ball for a limited time before it must be passed. Check point challenge turns the field almost into an obstacle course as passing through a checkpoint will add multipliers on a potential goal. Finally there’s player tag in which you have to pass the ball to certain players before a shot can be taken. That’s plenty of modes to play in and the variety keeps things fresh for a little while, especially in medal mode where the limitations are squeezed tighter as you progress, like going from a 15 second shot clock to a 5 second one. However, having world tour and medal mode share the same match types has its downfalls, which will be addressed later.

Graphically, World Tour Soccer isn’t that great looking, but it animates quite well. It’s also nice being able to see differentiation amongst the players so that you can actually tell who is who. It’s unfortunate, however, that they all share this ghostly blank stare that really takes away from the realism. The music is unforgettable, but the announce team does a fine job. It tends to get repetitive because there seem to be only a few lines dedicated to specific actions, but at least the speech sounds fluid and natural.

Lastly, there’s the multiplayer aspect. You can play with a buddy through an ad hoc connection or take your game online using infrastructure mode. It’s an excellent addition to a fun playing title because the AI can get predictable sometimes, but there’s no telling when you’re facing off against another human opponent.

Unfortunately, the number of teams has been reduced a lot since the last game – down to 71 from around 240. The reason for this is that there are no club or league teams included. Instead, to play off the recent World Cup fever, only national teams (and unlockable national all-star teams) were included. However, they did manage to get a FIFPro license so who’s supposed to be on the field really is on the field, meaning you’ll see the likes of Landon Donovan, David Beckham, and Thierry Henry on the US, English, and French squads respectively. So while the number of teams was cut, the effort to get real players on the pitch is still evident.

This is nitpicky considering that this is an arcade-style title, but it would have been nice to have some sort of season or club mode included. World tour and medal mode can only hold one’s attention for so long because they both essentially play the same – play well to score as many points as possible to earn a gold medal. I mean yes there are plenty of medals to earn and achievements to meet, but in the overall scheme of things, the gameplay stays fresh only for so long.

Finally, the controls are pretty simple, but for some reason, they didn’t feel very responsive. However, that was only in certain situations like chesting a long cross or threading a pass to a wide open striker. The controls themselves are rather intuitive, especially on shots. Holding the shot button down longer causes a high trajectory, so there will be times when you shoot the ball over the goal – just like in real life. Luckily, there’s a shot meter to help you gauge what kind of angle you want to give the ball.

If you’re looking for a straight soccer sim, then you may want to think hard about whether or not to pick this up. However, if you’re looking for a fun, fast-paced arcade-style soccer title, then World Tour Soccer 2006 is something you’ll definitely want to pick up. It has easy to pick up gameplay, an interesting point reward system, and wireless multiplayer support, for both ad hoc and infrastructure mode. Now let’s see what SCEE London is cooking up for next year.

Easy to pick up. Arcade-style play means games are fast and furious. Point system is great.

Rough around the edges, but the individual players are modeled decently and animate well.

Generic unforgettable music. Announcers sound fluid and natural, but gets repetitive.

Again, fast moving, high-scoring games are fun – even better with multiple players.

World tour and medal mode are deep, but adding ad hoc and infrastructure is a huge plus.

]]> Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:20:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/free_animal_crossing_downloads_at_toys_r_us_next_week http://www.gamebump.com/go/free_animal_crossing_downloads_at_toys_r_us_next_week http://www.gamebump.com/go/free_animal_crossing_downloads_at_toys_r_us_next_week# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.The original author is Evan Lahti.

Beginning this Sunday, July 23, at Toys 'R' Us stores in North America, fans of Nintendo's popular DS title Animal Crossing: Wild World can take part in a free promotion that allows them to connect to Nintendo DS download stations to receive six virtual "gifts." The Mario-themed items, not present in the game otherwise, are: a 1-up mushroom, star, fire bar, goal flag, question box and pipe.

Each can be used to decorate the inside of the player's house, finally helping us complete that "video-game themed" living room we've been working on. And even if you don't plan on using the items within your home, we're guessing they'll net you a good number of bells at Nook's shop. "Free Download Week" at Toys 'R' Us runs until July 29. ]]> Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:49:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/yugioh_world_championship_2006_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/yugioh_world_championship_2006_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/yugioh_world_championship_2006_announced# Konami has announced a new card game based around the new television series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters World Championship Tournament 2006.

The game will include over 2,000 cards including ones from the new GX universe and the latest Structure decks. Each game upon release will also feature three limited edition trading cards from the GX universe.

World Championship Tournament 2006 will include a few new gameplay modes such as Duel Puzzle, Limited Duel, Theme Duel and Survival Duel. Duel Puzzle has players complete specific objectives per turn to win, while Limited Duel sets restrictions on the structure of each deck and moves available. Theme Duel forces players to accomplish certain conditions to win while Survival Duel has players taking on various opponents with a limited number of life points.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters World Championship Tournament 2006 is scheduled to release in March.

The game is set to feature 30 classic card games including Bridge, Cribbage, Gin Rummy, Hearts, Soltaire, Spades and more. Cards will feature multiplayer support via online play and allow the use of the USB headset and EyeToy camera through the PlayStation 2.

World Championship Cards will release this fall for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable retailing at $14.99 and $19.99 respectively.

Pandemic Studios announced that they have released the official website for their upcoming shooter, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

The website includes forums, video blogs and developer diaries along with a contest allowing players to design a tattoo for Mattias, the Swedish merc. Mercs 2 puts players in Venezuela and has players battling for the area's oil. In the game, players will be able to utilize a variety of military and civilian vehicles and destroy just about everything in the game.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is set to release for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Check out more at the website here.]]> Fri, 12 May 2006 21:52:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/scarface_signs_on_big_voice_talent http://www.gamebump.com/go/scarface_signs_on_big_voice_talent http://www.gamebump.com/go/scarface_signs_on_big_voice_talent# Vivendi has announced that a host of big name actors will provide their voice talents to the upcoming video game version of Scarface.

Of course, Vivendi picked up Al Pacino's likeness, but have yet to announce if they have also obtained his voice. Actors who's voices are confirmed include Steven Bauer, Robert Loggia, Jay Mohr, Chech Marin, James Woods, Miguel Sandoval, Robert Davi, Michael Rappaport and Michael York.

Cindy Cook, chief strategy and marketing officer for Vivendi said, "Al Pacino brought the character of Tony Montana to life onscreen in a very powerful way, and the inclusion of his likeness as Tony Montana is a critical component to the authenticity of the Scarface game experience."

Scarface: The World is Yours is scheduled to release for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. We'll have more on the game as Gaming Horizon heads to E3.

World Tour features two new cental modes of play in medal mode and world tour mode. Within each of those is a point-based game that offers unique challenges to utilize various sets of soccer fundamentals as you try to take on the world. Challenges in the game include classic, zone, challenge plus, totally outnumbered, time attack, pass clock, checkpoint, shot clock, player tag and all-rounder. Each of them offering a very different goal to accomplish.

Of course the game features traditional soccer in exhibition match mode as well. Overall World Tour features over 70 international teams, over 1,500 players and eight stadiums. The game is set to include ad hoc multiplayer for up to four players along with game-sharing for head-to-head matches. One other addition to the game is the trophy room which shows your world tour trophies, medals and achievements.

2K Games has released four first screenshots of Dungeon Siege II: Broken World today for your viewing pleasure. Check them out below.

]]> Wed, 03 May 2006 00:18:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/pacman_world_rally_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/pacman_world_rally_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/pacman_world_rally_announced#

“'Pac-Man World Rally' delivers the most complete kart racing experience yet with incredible speed across outrageous and vibrant courses from well known Namco games,” said Jeff Lujan, business director at Namco Hometek Inc. “The refined power sliding mechanics allows for tremendous handling in any situation, while a roster of more than 15 classic characters ensures that every race is memorable for players of all ages.”

Pac-Man World Rally will be released in the summer of 2006.

The game is based around the Cold War and takes into account that the Berline Wall never fell. Based in 1989 the Soviets decide to head into Europe and then invade America. In the game players take on the role of a field commander who must reclaim American cities.

World In Conflict is scheduled to ship in Spring 2007.

"Poker has become a cultural phenomenon as shown by the increasing popularity of the World Poker Tour television series," said Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio. "The World Poker Tour brand is an integral part of our game as it brings unmatched credibility and familiarity to millions of poker fans. With the integration of World Poker Tour pros, commentators and presentation elements, the World Poker Tour video game delivers the most authentic poker experience found on any gaming platform."

The World Poker Tour video game is rated "E" for Everyone and has a retail price of $19.99. The game is available for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance.

The company has announced that 10 different players will grace the cover of the game depending on where you live. Zhi Zhen, China, Frank Lampard, England, Lukas Podolski, Germany, Alessandro Del Piero, Italy, Jamie Lozano, USA, Canada and Mexico, Simao, Portugal, Arjen Robben, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg, Ricardo Cabanas, Switzerland, Xavi, Spain and Claudio Reyna, USA, Mexico and Canada.

"We are thrilled to have the world’s top athletes representing 2006 FIFA World Cup in each of these countries,” Clive Downie, vice president of marketing at Electronic Arts said. 

The game will build upon the original that released at the handheld's launch by providing players with 11 modes of play, better graphics and Wi-Fi support for up to four players.  Various modes include the classic challenge mode which gives you points for perfect passes and shots, the all rounder mode which requires you to bring in teammates to the game, time attack mode which has you gain points against the clock, checkpoint tests your distribution skills and finally shot clock where your eye for goal is tested in a race against time. The game is set to include eight new stadiums and 71 international teams.

World Tour Soccer 2 is scheduled to ship sometime in June 2006.

Originally written by Brian Mohr]]> Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:43:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_cup_2006_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_cup_2006_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_cup_2006_announced#
Due in April for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, DS, PSP, and Game Boy Advance, the game will feature 127 world teams and all twelve stadia that will host the tournament, as well as major arenas from the qualifying nations. Player likenesses will also appear, with the playing styles of almost 100 players captured for the game.

Standard tournament modes will be available, along with the ability to play famous moments from World Cup history and eight-way multiplayer.

You can check out three screenshots of the Xbox 360 version below.
Originally written by Olly Dean]]> Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:13:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_war_ii_combat_road_to_berlin_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_war_ii_combat_road_to_berlin_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/world_war_ii_combat_road_to_berlin_announced#

"With World War II Combat: Road to Berlin™, Direct Action Games has once again delivered an engaging storyline based on some of the most exciting historical events of WWII," said Jon Walsh, CEO, Groove Games. "Gamers of all skill levels will love the quick pick-up and play action and amazing gameplay variety delivered at a great value price."

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin will be available September 27, 2005 for a suggested retail price of $19.99 (USD).

Namco Business Director Jeff Lujan said, "We are excited to bring one of the most popular rally racing franchises to the handheld market."

World Rally Championship will allow players to race in 16 countries like Japan and Mexico. The game will include 36 drivers, 30 destrucible cars from manufacturers like Ford, Subaru and Mitsubishi, six different game modes and 64 stages to play. WRC will support feature ad hoc multiplayer support as well.

World Rally Championship is scheduled to release this March.

The folks over at Streamline Studios were kind enough to send over two hot looking screenshots of HoopWorld, which is expected to hit Xbox Live Arcarde on the 360 in just a few months. It looks to be coming along very well. Have a look below and we will have more HoopWorld information as it comes in.

]]> Thu, 12 Jan 2006 12:43:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kong_the_8th_wonder_of_the_world_game_boy_advance http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kong_the_8th_wonder_of_the_world_game_boy_advance http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_kong_the_8th_wonder_of_the_world_game_boy_advance# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Matthew Call.

It’s time for another movie blockbuster, and with the movie come the videogame tie-ins. Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World is the GameBoy Advance’s claim to the Kong franchise, and unfortunately isn’t able to compete with its console counterparts. For starters, unlike all the other Kong games out there, the GBA version isn’t titled Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, as if to emphasize that Mr. Jackson perhaps didn’t have as large a hand in the shaping of this game as he had in the others. While the console versions of Kong are being widely hailed as some of the best movie tie-in games of all time, this handheld version is only a mediocre game. Perhaps the PSP version, which releases this week, will have better luck at hitting the Kong sweet spot.

Kong is essentially two separate platform games combined into one. The main portion of the game is seen through an overhead view similar to the 16-bit Zelda games of yesteryear. In this mode the player controls Jack, Carl, and Ann as they travel through the wild environments of Skull Island, solving puzzles and killing creatures. The second portion of the game enables players to take on the role of King Kong in a side scrolling, button mashing minigame. Both modes are interspersed throughout the game, so players will play as the human characters for a couple of levels, then as Kong for a short minigame and so on.

While this game isn’t going to win any awards, it does have some redeeming qualities. Its best aspect is the amount of variety available to the player. Each of the human characters has his own special abilities and players can choose between them at will. The group doesn’t have to remain together, and players can split from their fellow group members as long as they don’t try to enter a new area without them. Players will spend most of their time as Jack, since he is the fighter of the group and can shoot a machine gun, throw spears, and swing a machete. Carl can throw grenades, push large objects, and carry torches while Ann can stun enemies with her screams, use a grappling hook, and heal group members.

The most enjoyable portions of the game are those in which players must use the abilities of two or more group members to negotiate puzzles and traps. For example, in one puzzle Jack must hold a button down with his weight to open a bridge for Carl. Carl then crosses and must move some blocks in order to hold down a button for Jack. These puzzles, while never very difficult, do require some thought, which makes the game much more entertaining than it would have been as a mere action title. Unfortunately, for every minute spent solving a puzzle there are easily ten minutes of wandering in the game, which can feel tedious at times.

Another entertaining aspect is the ability to create items. Over the course of their travels, players frequently pick up items such as vines, sticks, insect shells, and stones. Through the game’s item menu stones and sticks can be combined into spears, while other item combinations give players grenades and healing items. This does add a bit more entertainment to the game as players get a little “I made this” feeling when throwing their first spear. The game could have easily enabled the player to simply find spears or grenades, instead of making them, so kudos to the developers for trying to add a little more depth to the game.

The sound in Kong is decent, but once again won’t win any awards. Ann’s screams are fairly real sounding, as are the native’s “Kong” chants. The music is very percussive and fits with the jungle theme of the movie/game, but can get repetitive at times. The sound does do its job for a GBA game and players will want to play with the volume turned up, although the game is perfectly playable without sound as well.

The graphics are the first noteworthy problem in Kong. While the GBA is certainly a dated piece of hardware, it would be nice to see games that don’t look like they are 10 years old. The character animations are of the choppy and pixilated variety and the environments look like a jungle interpretation of an old Super Nintendo game. However, gamers don’t usually buy a GBA expecting amazing graphics so that may not be a turn-off for everyone out there. The short cutscenes do feature comic book style storyboards which are well done and look good on the GBA, but that’s about the extent of the “good” graphics in the game.

Above I mentioned that for every minute of puzzle solving there are easily 10 minutes of aimless wandering, which can lead to hours of frustration. Often players will wander through the same area several times trying to figure out where to go. This can be especially frustrating when the player realizes that all this wandering was caused by not seeing a branch of a path because it was hidden by a tree or some other form of vegetation. The level designers should have realized that certain areas are difficult to navigate as it can be unclear where to go or what to do next. The in-game map can also cause confusion because to reach certain objectives you have to travel away from them on the map. The game’s path takes a point A to point C, then turn and hit point B approach, which can be confusing.

The Kong segments in the game feel like an afterthought. Controlling a 25 foot giant ape should be fun in any game, but here the majesty of King Kong is reduced to short, side-scrolling segments. In each Kong level there is a timer counting down. Before the time reaches zero Kong must run from the left side of the level to the right, dodging obstacles and killing dinosaurs. That’s really all there is to it. It’s a shame the developers didn’t think of a more entertaining or thoughtful way to include the ape into the game, as he should steal the show. Instead the Kong levels feel like the designers threw them in at the last minute in order to say, “See, you can play as Kong, too!”

The last major problem with Kong is that it has little to do with the new movie. While Peter Jackson’s film heavily influenced the console versions of Kong, the GBA title feels like it has more in common with the classic film than the Peter Jackson remake. Skull Island in the film is surrounded by rocks shaped as skulls, while the GBA game’s Skull Island features a giant skull-shaped mountain. The gate on the island that keeps Kong from destroying all the villagers also looks different than the gate seen in the film.  None of the side characters seen in Jackson’s film are in the game, such as Lumpy, the cook or the tough first mate. The only real similarity the game has to the new film is that the characters in the game look similar to the actors in Peter Jackson’s film, at least during the cutscenes.

Kong on the GBA just doesn’t meet the standard set by its siblings on other consoles. The game is fairly entertaining, but doesn’t set any new standards in the industry. It simply feels like the developers tried to make a halfway decent game that uses the Kong name to sell a higher number of copies. If you’re a huge King Kong fan and can’t play it on any other console, go ahead and give it a try on the GBA. However, there are better versions of the game out there, and if you insist on having a portable copy Kong should release on the PSP this week.

Puzzles can be fun, but there aren’t enough of them to really make the game shine.

Looks like an SNES game, and only a decent one at that.

Not bad for a GBA game, but certainly doesn’t raise the bar.

Can be entertaining, but easily passed over in favor of other games.

No multiplayer or unlockables to offer an incentive to play the game again.

]]> Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:39:00 -0600