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NBA 2k11 Review (PS3, X360)

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:30:06 +0000

Until recently, Electronic Arts has been the dominant developer in the field of sports games. In 2009 2K Sports took the basketball championship away from them with NBA 2K10, while October of 2010 saw the release of one of the best basketball games ever made – NBA 2k11. Basing a big part of the game on Michael Jordan’s career might seem like a hype move, but this title truly deserves to have His Airness on the cover.
Gameplay
There are several new modes based around the career of one of the greatest players of all time – Michael Jordan.
The first one is the Jordan Challenge mode, where the player gets to relive 10 of MJ’s greatest games, starting with his 1986 debut game against Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. We then move on to his 69 point game against the Cavaliers, The Shrug game that forever put the Trail Blazers’ Clyde Drexler into Jordan’s shadow, all the way until Michael’s last dance against the Utah Jazz. Michael doesn’t get to play his unmemorable seasons for the Wizards here, but that’s not a really big loss. Long time basketball fans will love the nostalgia and immersion of the feature, but that isn’t the only thing that the Jordan Challenge mode has going for it. Michael goes up against some legendary players including Dominique Wilkins, Karl Malone and Magic Johnson. This can lead to a lot of frustration, but it’s the good kind of frustration that has you coming back for more and feeling on top of the world after you finally pull it off.
Another mode is the MJ: Creating a Legend mode, unlocked after completing all the Jordan Challenges. It allows you to play as a young MJ as he puts all the flashy Kobes, Lebrons and Iversons of today in their place in the My Player mode. The My Player mode is great for anyone who enjoys a good RPG – you create your player, play in the draft combine to impress the scouts, get picked by a team for a few games in the summer league, after which you either stay in your team or get sent to the development league. Stat Points (essentially experience points) are awarded after drills and games. One of the most important factors in getting SP is your teammate grade. The game watches your every move and assigns you a grade based on your performance. This is both the low and the high point of this feature. If you don’t know much about basketball, get ready to lose a lot of SP (yes, you actually lose unspent SP if you mess up), especially since the game can get cheaper than Stephon Marbury’s shoe line and cheat you into making mistakes, like when you call for a pass and your teammate passes you the ball half a second after a defender gets between you and him, resulting in you getting a “bad call for pass”. Just like the Jordan Challenges, it can get really frustrating, but finally feeling like an asset to the team is a wonderful feeling that’s more than worth all the prior rage quitting.
Graphics
NBA 2k11 has amazing presentation. 90% of the players and coaches look exactly like their real life counterparts, complete with things like tattoos, sweat and realistic facial and movement animations. All the textures are very high resolution and very detailed even when the camera zooms in on the player’s face. The Cleveland Cavaliers court is outdated, but that’s been fixed in patch 1.2. The best part is that after patch 1.3 NBA 2k11 can be played in 3D without having to shell out on a 3D TV – all you need is a pair of red and cyan glasses.
Sound
Other than the main theme by Snoop Dogg and “Over” by Drake, most artists featured in NBA 2k11 are obscure. As expected, most of it is hip-hop artists like Dux Jones, Raaka, Sean Price and other rappers you probably never heard of. Even Ron Artest has a song in the soundtrack. There is also some indie rock – Two Door Cinema Club, Russian Futurists and others. Despite the obscurity, the soundtrack feels really fitting. In fact, some of the songs, such as “Crown of Thorns” by Raaka, feel like they’re there to help you cope with the frustration you’ll encounter early on.
The NBA Insider doesn’t bother you much after the summer leagues, which is a welcome change from NBA 2K10. The commentators are very smart, often mentioning the high profile things that the players did during their careers, such as Chris Bosh leaving the Toronto Raptors, as well as their performance in prior games.
Immersion
The presentation helps make the game really immersive. If you go to My Player mode and play a few games for the Heat, guarding the turnover-prone LeBron James from defenders, you’ll experience a strange sense of familiarity when you see the real LeBron on TV or YouTube. If you enjoy playing basketball in real life, the My Player mode may help improve your game by punishing you for making the wrong decisions and rewarding you for the right ones. In the Jordan Challenges, NBA on TNT is done very accurately with the broadcasters sounding exactly like their real life counterparts.
Overall Score – 9.5/10
While NBA 2k11 has a very steep learning curve that can lead to a lot of frustration, it’s more than worth it when you finally rise above it like Michael Jordan did. It’s the MVP of basketball games and more than deserves to have a legend like Air Jordan on the cover.

How to Power-Level a World of Warcraft Character

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:29:29 +0000

For those who have already played their first character to level 85, currently the maximum attainable level in World of Warcraft, completing the whole grind all over again can become boring, especially after the second or third time. Many avid players have multiple secondary characters, popularly referred to in-game as “alts.” Fortunately, the levelling grind has become somewhat easier and faster, especially up to level 80. To avoid boredom when rolling a new character, you should also consider creating a character with a class of a different role to what you are used to. For example, if you have always played a damage-dealing class, why not choose a class which can take on the role of healer or tank? You may even want to try playing a character of the opposite faction. This gives you the opportunity to experience a completely different side to the game along with thousands of different quests and storylines.

Power-levelling a character means getting to the maximum level as soon as possible, with this being the first and only priority. Whether you just want to get a high level character as soon as possible, or you need to get one to the maximum level for reasons such as levelling two new primary professions, power-levelling techniques will make much of the grind fly by. Following are some methods that you may want to try.

1 –Heirloom Items

It is generally safe to assume that, if you are interested in power-levelling a character, you have already levelled a character or two to the maximum level before and thus experienced the process as it was meant to be. If this is the case, you will have a high-level character which can purchase heirloom items that you can hand down to your new characters. Heirlooms are purchasable with Justice Points. These are easy enough to get by running normal dungeons and heroic dungeons at level 85. The heirloom shoulders and the heirloom chest-pieces are available to purchase from level 80 and, combined, they give a 20% experience gain, allowing your alts to level 20% faster. However, this effect wears off at level 80.

Joining a high-level guild and getting a high reputation with it is a must if you are interested in power-levelling, since it gives you the opportunity to purchase heirloom helms at level 85. They give another 10% experience gain and the effect remains until you reach the level cap. Heirloom cloaks are also available once you reach Honoured with your guild and they give an extra 5% experience point gain. Additionally, a high-level guild rewards a perk which provides an extra 10% to experience point gain in addition to heirlooms. Of course, you will need to get your power-levelling alt into the guild. With this and a full set of heirlooms combined, your new character will enjoy a 45% experience gain until level 80 and a 25% gain thereafter.

2 – Levelling Add-Ons

Levelling add-ons can greatly increase your levelling speed, especially if you are not very familiar with the game. They will constantly point you in the right direction for picking up new quests, carrying them out and completing them. While the latest expansion pack, Cataclysm, has made the level 1-60 grind far more straightforward, a levelling add-on is still very useful.

You should not have to pay for such an add-on, although there are some top quality guides which cost a modest amount of money. Alternatively, you can try free add-ons such as TourGuide combined with TomTom. This solution will always tell you what to do and where to go, constantly pointing you in the right direction with an arrow at the top of the screen.

3 – Random Dungeon Finder

Throughout much of the level 1-60 grind, running random dungeons is ideal, especially if you are getting tired of questing. The first seven random dungeons completed in every level bracket of ten levels awards you with a considerable extra experience bonus upon completion. Killing dungeon bosses and completing the dungeon quests will also offer a generous amount of experience.

Relying on the Random Dungeon Finder for power-levelling is only suitable if you are playing a tank or a healer, since the queues for damage-dealers are typically much longer. If you are playing a damage-dealer, you can stay queued in the Random Dungeon Finder while completing quests during the wait.

4 – Other Tips

Avoid random battlegrounds if you are power-levelling. They offer very little experience, although there is one exception to this: Alterac Valley when it is on the battleground holiday weekend. If you are lucky enough to happen to be level 40 or above at this time, the experience you can get from completing Alterac Valley is enormous.

Avoid grouping with other players, unless you need to group for an elite quest which is worth doing because of particularly good rewards. Although World of Warcraft is very much a sociable game, grouping with other players will generally only hold you back while power-levelling.

Battlefield: Bad Company

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:26:15 +0000

Strategy Informer – Electronic Arts announced the public beta test for Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer on Xbox 360. This public beta test is only for gamers from North America or Europe who has Xbox Live Gold account.

Just go to FilePlanet, there are a limited amount of keys, but they will also be available through IGN.com, GameSpy, TeamXbox, Planet Battlefield and Voodoo Extreme. So if you are too late for the FilePlanet batch, keep checking those sites. Additionally, for those in North America, Gamestop will offer 5000 keys.

PS3 Firmware 2.20 Will Include BD-Live Interactive Blu-ray

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:24:42 +0000

Engadget – Sony Inc recently announced that the next PS3 firmware update (v2.20) will add the new interactive features to the console. Playstation 3 owners should expect downloadable video content, interactive movie-based games, and the always intriguing “more” when the software is released in “late March.” In other words, in the next 11 days. The update will also allow you to copy photos and music playlists over USB from your PS3 to your PSP.

Rock Band Music Store Coming This Week!

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:23:29 +0000

Destructoid – While the question remains as to how long Harmonix and MTV Games will continue to support the current iteration of Rock Band, it’s evident that they’re committed to providing additional game content on a frequent basis. Prior to the game’s release, I was told — in so many words — that there would be no “f**king around” when it came to downloadable content, and there’s no question that they’ve delivered.

Parents Are Worried With Violent Games in Wii

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:21:51 +0000

The Onion – The incident involving 13 years old boy’s limp-wristed attack on his classmates in United States raise concerned among parents. Parents blaming several violent games in Nintendo Wii for that incident. They claimed that those games are a prissy little menace to the society.

Condemned 2 Demo is Out

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:18:08 +0000

IGN – EGA Europe Ltd. today announced gamers can sample the highly anticipated Condemned 2 video game from esteemed development studio, Monolith Productions, via a demo released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Prediction: GTA IV Will Sell 6 Million Copies in a Week

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:16:48 +0000

gamezine.co.uk – Games industry analyst Michael Pachter has claimed Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) will sell six million copies in its first week of sale.

He also predicted GTA IV will be responsible for recouping $450 million (£221 million) of Take2′s expected $1.073 billion (£0.52 billion) revenue in 2008, generating a total of $135 million (£66 million) of the firm’s overall profit.

Capcom Announced Plunder for PC, Xbox Live Arcade and PSNetwork

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:14:58 +0000

Capcom announced that its developing Plunder for the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC. Developed by Certain Affinity, known for their previous work on the Halo series, Plunder is a real-time multiplayer strategy game that puts players in command of a pirate ship with the goal of destroying your enemies and capturing towns for your pirate faction. Plunder is currently scheduled for release this summer.

There Will Be No Blu-ray for Xbox 360

adminis — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:14:02 +0000

Microsoft recently said that the world-known game console Xbox 360 will not support Blu-Ray. “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience,” Greenberg told Reuters in an interview.”