eRepublik (Review)

eRepublik is a browser strategy game with elements of social media. Players begin as a citizen of one of the countries and must work and train battle skills which are useful during the war. To survive in the eWorld you need just two clicks a day, and if anyone wants to involve more with it - also has this capability through political and journalistic actions or by starting their own company and employing other players.

eRepublik is a difficult game for review because of the frequent changes that are introduced by a team of administrators creating this product. If you read this text in two months time, it will probably be already out of date as many elements of the game may change. Is it good? We’ll tell later…

Wake up. It’s time for breakfast and then to work. After work we’ll go to the gym and there, under the guidance of a personal trainer, workout a bit. We go back home and collect an award for being a model citizen of our eCountry. Such a routine in the real world would lead many people mad. However, the possibility of falling into a double-clicking routine makes eRepublik a unique game, a game that it’s not so easy to forget.

The unfortunate beginnings

A child born into the world does not fully understands what is going on around him. He’s taken out of the safe belly of his mum and thrown into the deep waters of life, which he learns for several years. It’s the same in eRepublik. The first days are very difficult - the game is very complex and it appears that the discovery of many of its elements will take many months. Fortunately, the community living within our eCountry is very helpful. It’s the community that makes the New World such a wonderful place to live in. At the beginning, apart from the tutorial run by Plato, a Greek philosopher, we get the necessary support from senior players. Because everyone is aware that the eRepublik is not the easiest of games and if we want our eCountry to grow strong, we need as many people as we can.

To find a job, just visit the job market to find the best offer. We can work once a day and we gain a salary for our good work. The better employees we are, the more the employer appreciates us, as a result, we are better paid. With time, we can open our own business to recruit others and earn more. Such a move would require from us a lot of entrepreneurship skill and market knowledge. Many players have lost all their savings, due to having problems with running the company or ignoring the market.

Each player has also the duty to - in case of emergency - defend his country or to conquer other countries. A relevant Ministry ensures the proper conduct of the war, the choice of strategies and a number of other factors. The common player’s main task is to participate in the fight every day, according to the published orders. Focusing our attacks on the wrong fight we waste not only money, but also the chance to influence the fate of an important battle.

The deep waters of life in the New World

The initial development is based primarily on a model walking to work, through which we earn bread, and training, which is needed in order to be the most significant on the battlefield in the virtual war. With each day in the New World we learn more about the very interesting aspects of life. The game gives the community a huge leeway in terms of impact on the fate of the world. Players are a part of the government led by President appointing ministers keeping a hand on various factors of the country's development. Those representatives guard that the treasury would always be full of gold and our borders secured.

The career of a politician or a businessman is not the only option we have. We can also be the editors’ of our own newspapers and publish your articles read by the players. You only need to spend some money to start and have something to write about. And there are plenty of topics - from humorous satirical comic amusement in the service of the nation, through the analysis of all wars and economic issues, to the criticism of our mercifully reigning government. You can also join the battle groups, which jointly train and synchronize their attacks. They’re known for their enormous power of destruction and their impact on various battles. Often, the state invests in the training of members of various groups so that they can train in the most efficient way, and thus – to inflict more damage. Groups can also have their companies, the income from which is earmarked for the overall development.

Briefly - we have enormous opportunities and it’s not possible to describe them all in such a short text.

To make ends meet

The basic currency of the game is the national currency - different for each country. Just like in the real world, the odds are dynamic and depend on the situation in the country. The stronger the countries are, the more their money is worth. The currency shared by all, and also being the Premium currency, is Gold. We can purchase it with real money, but the game offers us many other ways to obtain it. With every next level we receive a certain number of gold that can be used in many different ways, for example on improving the efficiency of one’s work or training and developing his own business. Many people active on the military level and trying to create the most successful businesses invest real money in Gold, but the game does not force anyone to buy it. Average citizen simply does not have to. The average citizen can give his gold to charity or even sell it on the black market in the form of online auctions (but it’s against the rules!). During my two years of playing this game I didn’t feel like buying the gold and that's certainly a big plus.

Changes in some elements of the game are also worth mentioning. With the support of the community in the form of a number of ideas sent in a public forum, the creators have implicated a lot of "improvements". Sometimes, however, these amendments are really unnecessary and are a killjoy, including many who force people playing for several years to commit a virtual-suicide because of starvation. It has already happened that administrators made ​​their changes, which deterred a large part of the community. The only solution was to restore the old practices. Therefore, frequent updates are difficult to clearly identify as a disadvantage or advantage. They just occur. Some worse, other better. Changes from the past several months can be also seen in screenshots, so I invite you to become acquainted with the gallery, which you can find in one of the tabs.

eRepublik is undoubtedly a game that you have to give a chance. Despite difficult beginnings, which every citizen of the New World must go through, we won’t say goodbye to this title for a long time. Even if we don’t have time or don’t feel life being active, we can drop by once a day to feed our citizen and work. Even if we let him die when we no longer desire to play – it’s no problem to make him come alive once again.

Source: mmoparadise

Burgundy ( Bourgogne ). A voyage to Burgundy, France, Europe - Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Nevers, Auxerre...

Burgundy is the spiritual heartland of two of France’s raisons d’être – food and wine. The vineyards along the Côte d’Or and the Côte des Nuits are littered with some of the most prestigious names in French wine­making. It’s also renowned for rich, meaty cooking – this is the place to try quintessentially Burgundian dishes such as bœuf bourguignon and escargots (snails).

 But it’s not just a place to fill your stomach – the historic city of Dijon is famous for its glorious Renaissance architecture and excellent museums, and the city of Beaune is home to the country’s finest medieval hospital. 

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Fliplife (Review)

Pursue your dream job, meet the love of your life and become a star, all in the browser based game Fliplife. Fliplife is a free-to-play simulation browser game, with colorful graphics and endless fun. You decide which career path you will follow, what hobbies and sports you will pursue in your spare time, and just how you have fun! Not only can you create the life you've always wanted, but you can make a whole bunch of new friends from all over the world, to share your fun Fliplife with!

You start the browser based game by customizing your Fliplife avatar – you decide just how you look and what your new style will be, customizing everything from eyebrows to hairstyle, facial hair to funky clothing. The options for character customization are endless in the free-to-play browser game Fliplife!

 

At the beginning of the adventure we need to create a character. Before us a silhouette appears which can be modified. Game developers have prepared more than a dozen styles to choose from. Select one of them and go on - well it's time for the nose, mouth, face shape, eyebrows, eyes, ears and beard. As you can see we have a lot of options – it depends on us whether our hero will be looking like a hustla or a smart boy brought up without any worries. I’ve chosen the first option, although I do not know whether I succeeded. But…you’ve to go crazy from time to time!

Work, leisure time, shopping

OK, we customized the appearance of our character so lets introduce him to the game. We begin with a magic sum of $ 100. What next? It would be nice to find a job. As going through the job ads we notice right away that it takes time to become Mr. Manager. A washer, a hack writer, a test object, a nurse or maybe a pickpocket? The last would fit best, but to avoid boredom lets work a bit for the idea itself, by supporting research in the cosmic “NOSA” laboratory! Of course, we were promised a promotion right away – perhaps we’ll be the first to set foot on Mars. But first we have to show that we are creative, open and able to work in a team. The first task will be to check what happens after throwing Mentos into the Diet Coke. Incredible! Well, but we’ve to start somewhere. After this task, we get our first salary and experience points. We begin to understand how our hero will reach further levels.

After a hard day at work, it's time to relax. Maybe football? I think we have no choice at the moment, after all, we’ve just got to the second level. And what about sports in Fliplife? Our hero will develop his skills not only by working, but also by having free time, life is not just a duty you know! A match against an invited friend of yours is really something. But lets go back - bookmark 'leisure time’ offers us the banal mini-games that do not require from us more than a few clicks - I think they are just boring. After the first match we need to confirm the email that we’ve gave when registering. As a result, we can go shopping and finally change this hopeless t-shirt! And again, we decide which path will our character go. Choosing a Christmas sweater with reindeer certainly we won’t gain respect in the neighborhood. Hmm, the range is large but unfortunately we cannot afford anything yet ... Well, maybe I exaggerated, the gold chain, which already lies on the neck of my character, seems cheap.

Stores!
Fliplife’s stores are like heaven. In addition to sweaters, shirts and other inventions, there are also shoes, drinks (adding energy points), or even real estates (tents, rural cottages, residences), because after all we have to live somewhere. In your free time you can go to the barber. The choice is enormous, and here again we see the creativity of the team working on this game (I mean not only the amount of accessories but also the terminology). In stores, of course, everything has its own value. Not every item can be bought right away, for some we will have to pay with the ordinary currency, but some need credits which are a bit harder to get.

Conclusion

Fliplife is based on guiding your character though life. The game is quite simple and does not require much commitment from us. Certainly white-collar workers who have enough of solitaire and have already achieved everything in Farmville will be pleased with this game. In Fliplife as in life we work, relax, do shopping, watch the game (play the mini games), go back home, back to the house (tent / house) and so over and over again. With time, we raise the level of our character. We reach higher levels, we get a better salary and the game gives more possibilities. Is it worth playing? I think it's a matter of taste. On these day I trust it. Feel free to play!

Source: mmoparadise

Smashmuck Champions (Review)

Sometimes it’s nice to play something completely and utterly out there, so far from the norm that it becomes fun by default. Smashmuck Champions is one of those games: totally unique and a blast to play. Part fighter, part MOBA; Smashmuck doubles the action, reduces the size of the playing field and pits champions against one another in a battle unlike anything else you’ve ever played.

The history of the MOBA genre is infamous for being difficult and inaccessible, thanks in part to an angry community and too many characters to choose from. I’ve heard more than a few stories about people playing a single game and never coming back. Smashmuck Champions minimizes all of that, making the goals more readily achievable and the characters easier to control. This is a game that takes the stress out of MOBA and should be massively suggested to those unable or uninterested in League of Legends, DOTA 2 and Heroes of Newerth.

That’s Not All… - Of course, if it was just an “easy MOBA,” it wouldn’t be fun enough to warrant playing. The fun of that particular genre is in strategizing and learning the characters, so taking those two aspects away would not make for an entirely entertaining experience. To fill the gap left by reducing the focus on long battles with loads of objectives, the developers of Smashmuck Champions have looked towards simplifying the genre, making it more enjoyable to casual players, and they’ve managed it.

So Many Characters – There’s a lot of characters in Smashmuck, and although not all of them are massively unique, there’s an interesting backstory for each and every one of them. Each character has its own moves and voice over. In this sense, the game is very MOBA and all the better for it. Although only the most dedicated will use more than a few favourite characters, the fact that the choice is there should be celebrated.

Looking Good – The graphics for Smashmuck are more than passable – the sort of visual style that isn’t necessarily fantastic looking, but that suits the game and does its job – and look great with everything on full. If you’re looking for some influenced-by-Cryengine game, look elsewhere, other than that, enjoy the quirky art.

Given that Smashmuck seems at least loosely based upon the MOBA genre, I expected the worst from the community. It seems without the passion of a second-by-second fight for survival keeping emotions flared, people are much… well, quieter. There are people out there that will talk your ear off, but most people just want to play and be left alone. It’s better than being abused, of course, but it’s not all it could be.

Level Design – There are multiple modes to choose from, some of which are more fun than others. Most are fantastic, a few are a little dull, but you can choose which maps/game modes to participate in and that, of course, helps towards keeping you entertained. Whether you want 5v5 battles where you destroy enemy turrets or try to capture certain areas, or if you want to play the more easy-going Pluderball (a variation on Capture the Flag), the folks at Smashmuck have you covered.

Running Ads – The first time I played Smashmuck, I fell in love with the voice over. Many of the game modes have a commentator who, in classic fighting game style, narrates the match without specifically saying anything. There are some hilarious line sin there, but once you’ve played two or three matches you realize you’re going to hear the same pieces of commentary time and time and time again. That’s definitely not very amusing.

Lack of Choice – I write this negative in perhaps the most halfhearted way I’ve ever written an entry in this review structure at all. You see, Smashmuck is stuck between a rock and a hard place. MOBA fans will dismiss it as too simple, perhaps even childish (although I don’t really see the things that would lead people to say that as necessarily bad things). Non-MOBA fans will be put off by the lack of variety in the game modes and in the overwhelming amount of characters. There will be a pretty specific group that will manage to enjoy this game and play it constantly and it worries me that this might have a negative effect on the long term life of the game.

The Verdict

Smashmuck Champions is a game that’s not only great fun, but it’s extremely clever as well. Like Awesomenauts, they’ve successfully managed to make a genre that is famous for being difficult to enjoy into something loaded with humour and quick action. The risk is that it’s a game for an audience that won’t ever look for it, and that’ll mean long time community prospects are fairly low. Still, for what it’s worth, it’s a great game to play today, you’ll find a game fairly easily and, chances are, you’ll enjoy it. What more is there to say?

Source: DevilsMMO