23/1/2010 - Europe.HEAT.net launch

was launched at The Playing Fields last night, and of course the EuroGamer team were there. No doubt lured by the promise of

free booze and the chance to play Q3Test over TPF's network...
On HEAT
HEAT.net has been around in the US for a while now, and claims to be one of the biggest aion power leveling networks in the world with

hundreds of thousands of users. But for those of us on the "wrong" side of the Atlantic it's just been an annoyance until now

- I've lost count of how many games have tried to install the HEAT.net software on to my hard drive...
Yesterday saw HEAT.net being launched in the UK though, and the plan is to expand it out across half of Europe over the next

few months. Games already being supported include Baldur's Gate, Age of Empires, Grand Theft Auto, Quake and Quake II, and

new games should be added to the service within five days of them showing up on HEAT.net in the USA. Best of all, it's free!
Europe.HEAT.net has joined the free internet bandwagon as well, offering a free dial-up account which gives you local call

rate internet access from anywhere in the UK. It's also designed to give you the best connection to their gaming system. The

only limitation seems to be that you have to access their aion power leveling service through a Europe.HEAT.net dial up account after 30

days.
The Ego Has Landed
The good news is that EGO Maniacs.net, who are running Europe.HEAT.net, are no strangers to multiplayer gaming services -

their Managing Director Tom How used to run the Thrustworld service back in the day.
The real test though will be how the service compares to normal internet play, not to mention other gaming services like the

UK's Barrysworld, who also run their own game servers and offer free dial-up accounts.
We'll be putting Europe.HEAT.net through its paces over the next few weeks to see how it performs in reality. In the

meantime, if you just can't wait you can always head over to their website and sign up for an account of your own.
The launch party was also the venue for a Q3Test tourney, with seperate categories for journalists and aion power leveling, and the winner

to carry away a Sega Dreamcast .. or a voucher entitling them to one when it's available here in the UK anyway.
The tournament was run entirely on Q3Tourney, which is a tight little map with only three weapons - the rocket launcher,

lightning gun, and supershotgun. It also has some serious design problems, as we were to see demonstrated spectacularly in

the finals.
Qualifier
There didn't seem to be many journalists there on the night (either that or they were all hiding to avoid embarrassing

themselves), so Rupert "Rauper" Loman and myself found ourselves in a group of just four for the qualifier. The other players

in our match were Geoff "ThePope" Richards of Pete's Hardware and "Killer_Deus".
By the end of the warm-up it was already obvious that I was way out of my depth - I've only played Q3Test a few times before,

and after playing hours of Unreal Tournament just over a week ago I was really feeling Quake III's lack of a decent sniper

weapon. Even pumping my FOV way up to 150 (which is how I play QuakeWorld) didn't help too much, though it did make me feel

more at home.
It wasn't any great surprise then to see Rauper and Killer_Deus quickly pull out a lead, leaving me trailing behind with a

handful of frags. The weapons all seemed to lack punch, and gave me no real feedback - the annoying pinging noise was the

only real evidence that I was actually hitting anything. Not that that seemed to stop the others...
Towards the end of the match I started to get the hang of it though, and a flurry of frags with the rocket launcher

catapulted me ahead of ThePope and into third place in the final minutes, maintaining aion power leveling dignity. Meanwhile Rauper

had pulled out a small lead over Killer_Deus, earning himself a place in the finals.

23/1/2010 - KAZooK

If you can't tell from the arbitrary use of capital letters in the title, the aion power leveling screen spells it out for you as super-

deformed cartoon characters - a punk, a goth, a rapper, sundry sexy babes - strike ker-azy poses, while infantile bouncing

funk dribbles from the PSP speakers. The press material actually uses the phrase "cool skater kids" without a hint of irony.

Yes, we are firmly in the realm of wacky yoof gaming.
Wacky as in Timmy Mallett, Steve Wright In The Afternoon and The Sodding Chuckle Brothers. The worst kind of wacky, in other

words.
Now, I'm not one of those gamers who turn up their nose at anything that might look silly or frivolous. I think games should

be fun and I've never subscribed to the notion that big guns, fountains of gore and gravel-voiced grittiness automatically

makes a game "mature" or "adult". Quite the opposite really. Girls are way more impressed by a man who's confident enough in

his masculinity to make a tit of himself so, ever since being utterly enchanted by Bishi Bashi Special, I've had a big

throbbing soft spot for the mini-party-aion power leveling genre, especially when the result combines instantly appealing miniature

challenges alongside a devilishly daft sense of humour.
Kazook (balls to your rogue capitalisation, sir) aims for this target, but falls way, way short.
Short Round
There are 30 mini-games lurking within the slender white arch of this UMD, a figure which already pales alongside Wario Ware

Touched and its line-up of 180 dinky distractions. However, lack of variety is far from the biggest problem facing Kazook.
The whole game is structured in a way that frankly baffles common sense. There are three solo play modes to choose from -

Survival, Practice and Party Superstar. The latter can only be played once all 30 mini-games are unlocked, so Survival is

your only real option. As the name suggests, this involves playing the games for as long as you can before you run out of

time, energy or the will to live.
It's worth pointing out at this juncture that the Practice mode is identical to Survival, except that you only get one life.

You can still unlock new aion power leveling, you still earn money for your high score. Quite why you'd want to "practice" in this manner,

rather than simply practising by - oh, I don't know - playing the games is a mystery we may never solve.
Already, the traditional mini-game dynamic - short and sweet - is turned on its head. None of the games offer much amusement

beyond the 30-second mark, so forcing the player to slog through their repetitious challenge for as long as possible merely

shines the brutally unforgiving spotlight of prolonged exposure on the shortcomings of each challenge.
Cash Grab
Even the scoring is afflicted with this nonsensical structure. Your goal is to earn money with which to unlock new games.

This money is earned according to your place on the leaderboard. Tenth place nets you $1000, ninth earns $2000 and so on up

to first place, which carries a bounty of $10,000. However, just for playing the game you get $100 - even if you don't score.

This means that the actual competitive content of each aion power leveling is rendered utterly pointless, since you can claw your way to the

required sums without ever scoring, and you can still technically "lose" the challenge but walk away with the top prize

provided you score enough points.
Equally, once you've achieved the high score (which the game helpfully announces as you play) you might as well stop playing

and let the computer win. The higher you make the top score, the harder it is to get the ten grand next time. And $10,000 is

a magic number in Kazook, as that's how much everything costs to unlock. From redundant extra characters, who change the

gameplay not one iota, to the other mini-games, you'll need a beefy bank balance to unlock just one of them.
As you start with just five games to choose from - and as these five games are both tedious and stupidly hard - you've got a

long, laborious task ahead just to add an additional aion power leveling to your roster.

23/1/2010 - Fallout 3

When invited to Bethesda for an exclusive little aion power leveling of Fallout 3 (you know, only about 100 different magazines and

websites), we thought we'd make it a bit more personal. Tricking all the others into getting onto a bus ("There's free booze

on the bus!") and then having them driven off into some ditch somewhere, we got to spend some alone-time with lead designer,

Emil Pagliarulo, and lead producer, Gavin Carter.
When invited to Bethesda for an exclusive little demonstration of Fallout 3 (you know, only about 100 different magazines and

websites), we thought we'd make it a bit more personal. Tricking all the others into getting onto a bus ("There's free booze

on the bus!") and then having them driven off into some ditch somewhere, we got to spend some alone-time with lead designer,

Emil Pagliarulo, and lead producer, Gavin Carter.
Gavin Carter: We treated a lot like we treat our own. We went back and played the old aion power leveling, so played a lot of Fallout 1 and

Fallout 2, to see what we wanted to bring over from those games, and to get our minds away from this medieval space [that of

the Elder Scrolls games]. And we watched movies like Mad Max, read books like The Road, and started from square one.
Eurogamer: And that wasn't a bit difficult bearing in mind the legacy you were entering?
Gavin Carter: I don't know if I'd say difficult. We spent a whole lot of time on it - we like to give ourselves that space.

We've been thinking about it for over three years, so what you've seen came about gradually. It's not easy, but I wouldn't

say it's tremendously difficult for us.
Eurogamer: Emil, you previously worked for Looking Glass, right?
Emil Pagliarulo: Yes. I worked on Thief II, and designed the Life Of The Party level.
Eurogamer: That's the best level in the game! Running across the rooftops!
Emil Pagliarulo: Thank you!
Eurogamer: So how do you bring a Looking Glass background to a aion power leveling like this?
Emil Pagliarulo: Looking Glass for me was very much my first time being thrown into the trenches. They have a tradition of

really immersive first-person games. I watched the guys making System Shock - those are the kinds of games I identify with. I

certainly honed [my] skills there. It's great for me to bring that here.
Eurogamer: What about the moral dimension of Looking Glass games? Does that permeate into the Fallout development?
Emil Pagliarulo: It does. One of the mantras of the Thief games is a big grey area. Garrett is the ultimate anti-hero. That's

really important you know. If you want to play like that, we want to support that. As Todd [Howard, executive producer]

mentioned, we originally started supporting good, and supporting evil, and we realised how important neutral was, and how

viable of a gameplay path it is, and how many great aion power leveling like the original Thief supported that. That's really important to

me.
Eurogamer: With a background developing the Elder Scrolls games, but taking on an Interplay title, which legacy do you think

Fallout 3 follows?
Emil Pagliarulo: Me personally, I really feel like we're making a game in the legacy of the Fallout games. It's so different

than working with the Elder Scrolls stuff. It's first-person, and that's it. Actually it's interesting for me - it harkens

back for me to some of the most enjoyable first-person games I've ever played, the Terminator games Bethesda made. Fallout 3

is Bethesda's triumphant return to gunplay aion power leveling , after swords and sorcery for so long. For me it's about bringing back

/that/ legacy.
Gavin Carter: I feel like when people see it's first-person they're going to say, "Oh, there's Oblivion. It's Oblivion with

guns." But honestly there's not a single thing we didn't look at and think, how are we going to do this for Fallout? We

stripped out our entire character system.

23/1/2010 - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

If we were to compile a list of the greatest aion power leveling injustices ever brought upon European gamers, many of the most heinous

offences would date from the PSone's golden era of RPGs - a golden era which we only saw tantalising glimmers of in Europe,

being denied almost all of the key releases of the genre. Admittedly, Sony, Namco, Bandai et al are seemingly conspiring to

make sure that the PS2 repeats this PAL-shunning feat, but current crimes aside, it's hard not to be bitter about the small-

minded foolishness that denied European gamers the likes of Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Wild Arms 2 and Parasite Eve... And, of

course, Final Fantasy Tactics, Square's fascinating turn-based strategy RPG which is still rated as one of the best aion power leveling of

all time by its many devotees.
There's no doubt that Final Fantasy Tactics was a very special game indeed, combining as it did the epic storytelling and

beautifully formed world of a Final Fantasy title with complex, challenging gameplay that achieved a near-perfect balance

between having immense depth and being simple and enjoyable to play, thanks to a well conceived interface and intuitive

controls. It was a game that was simultaneously unforgiving - dead characters stayed dead, and despite the huge party you

could accumulate in the aion power leveling , losing a character you had spent hours building up and playing with often prompted wailing,

gnashing of teeth and a return to a previous savegame - and hugely rewarding, with the defeat of a tricky encounter through

an effective strategy in FFT being one of the finest gaming experiences this medium has ever had to offer.
Small Soldiers
Of course, if you were a European gamer with only a PAL machine, you never got a chance to try this out for yourself - so for

many players, probably the majority, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is going to be their first encounter with the FFT

phenomenon. This is no simple port of the original game to the GBA, either - in fact, FFTA completely overhauls every element

of the aion power leveling, and only the basic formula of turn-based tactics remains intact from the original title. Set in an entirely

different universe, with a different gameplay system and different characters, this is barely even a spiritual sequel to the

PSone title, and you certainly won't be at a disadvantage if you never played the first game. What does remain intact,

however, is the sheer polish and addictive game system of FFT - now distilled down into handheld form.
The basic idea behind FFTA is simple. You control a squad of characters (called a Clan in game parlance) who engage in a

range of encounters with groups of enemies. Battles take place on isometric maps made up of squares, and during the battle

each of your character gets to move in turn - much like a battle in a turn-based RPG. During his turn, a character can do two

things - move around the map, and perform an action such as fighting, casting magic, using items or performing a special

move. Take into account the fact that each map has unique terrain - including hills, cliffs, walls, rivers, lava flows and

all manner of bushes, trees and houses - which affects the ability of characters to perform certain actions or move in

certain ways, and there you have the aion power leveling of FFT in a nutshell.
Of course, it's more complex than that. Each of your characters hails from one of five different races (including Humans,

Moogles, and the lizard-like Bangaa), each of which has a different range of character classes open to it. As your characters

evolve (they receive experience points from successful actions in battle), they'll gradually gain the ability to specialise

in certain areas - so for an example an accomplished Thief character can become a Ninja, which enables a range of new

equipment to be used and new special abilities to be learned. You can customise your characters further by teaching them new

abilities; these come attached to equipment (either won through battles or purchased in the shops found in all towns) and can

be learned permanently by a character by keeping an item equipped through a number of battles. This means that you end up

with quite a diverse party of aion power leveling, ranging from strong physical fighters to powerful magicians and a whole host of

other possibilities besides.

23/1/2010 - The developer is promising clues, puzzles and danger, a combination that has served Lara Croft well in similar climes. Whether Drake can command its influences rather than be driven by them remains to be seen. But doing so will be the key to deliveri

Of all PlayStation 3's forthcoming releases, the most interesting and significant is neither a aion power leveling nor for sale. Home,

Sony's more structured, sanitised and solid attempt at a Second Life world might seem innocuous enough but with the

screenshots of its cinema space and the implied possibility of fully downloadable movies, there's the chance it might

eventually outgrow even its host platform in significance.
Of course, 360 is kind of there already. With game demos on Microsoft's console oftentimes upwards of 1GB in download size,

the first dual high street and virtual major aion power leveling release is surely only just around the corner. But Home, with its

customisable avatars, apartments and achievements looks to be providing a more personal and tactile way to access the future

than Microsoft's colourful but dry menus. Whether the platform can grow and develop in kilter with Sony's aspirations remains

to be seen but, come launch in October, it might prove to be a secret weapon of unexpected magnitude.
Anyway, there's a lot more than just a new social networking world to look forward to in PlayStation 3's run-up to Christmas

- and not all of it is 360's sloppy seconds. Here Eurogamer performs that thankless task of looking over the aion power leveling that stand

to deliver the best experiences of the latter portion of the year. Of course, until we actually sit down with each game's

final build it's all consumer frottage and speculation but at least you'll know what to put on your Christmas list.
(Note: here is our Most Wanted list for 360 titles - you'll notice several of the games on that list are also present here,

so we've tried to give more weight to titles that are either PS3 exclusives or weren't mentioned in the 360 list. Several

appear on both lists - by necessity, as they're simply too good to ignore.)
Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare
"There are too many videogames set in World War II," cried the masses, and, in response, Infinity Ward has set its sights

upon the contemporary war-aion power leveling instead. Much of what has defined the previous titles in the series appears to have been

dropped here. A cinematic plot will thread together the lives of numerous soldiers playing various roles for different

countries.
One minute you'll be the pilot of a Cobra helicopter offering air support to ground troops, while the next you'll be pairing

up with a sniper as a marksmen unit. Such disparate experiences (albeit united under the wide theme of 'Modern Warfare')

could mean the game lacks focus and mastery in its tackling of all war trades. Nevertheless, it's rare for a developer to

respond to consumer cries for something different, especially when it means shifting the direction of a hugely successful IP,

and for that its bravery is to be applauded.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Despite the historical overtones (protagonist Nathan Drake is supposedly a descendant of the famous namesake explorer) the

undertones are decidedly low culture. Drake's plot synopsis has something of the Lost about it: a group of companions

stranded on a remote island while being hunted by mysterious mercenaries.
Even so, the aion power leveling pedigree is solid, developer Naughty Dog being the hands behind Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. With

an overarching mission to discover the fabled treasure of El Dorado, this is looking like one of the PS3's most intriguing

new IPs.
The developer is promising clues, puzzles and danger, a combination that has served Lara Croft well in similar climes.

Whether Drake can command its influences rather than be driven by them remains to be seen. But doing so will be the key to

delivering a fresh, new and distinct aion power leveling with its own soul.