I promised a more in depth look at building in Landmark in my Landmark alpha preview, and here it is! Well, in a way. Since quite a few people have already asked me for regular updates about Landmark, I decided to keep up a semi-regular article series about it, and my first entry will be about building!

Similarly to my intro series about Eve Online, I will be writing introductory bits later on, for anyone looking to get into Landmark. Right now, however, my obsession is with getting enough marble and obsidian for my mountain temple complex, so it seems like a good time to talk construction!

I’ve admitted previously that I’ve never played MineCraft, so don’t expect to see any comparisons between the two games because I lack the knowledge to do a proper job of it. The most I can say is that from what I’ve seen being said on forums is that Landmark does provide many more tools for building than MineCraft does. It certainly looks a lot better; visuals alone have prevented me from ever trying MineCraft, but I can happily wander around Landmark for hours doing nothing but admiring the scenery.

And that’s the last thing I’ll say about MineCraft. Let’s move back to Landmark! Read more…

I’ve been looking for a solid card-based strategy game for my phone for awhile. Naturally, it was Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft that sent me down such a path, but given the company’s infamous reputation for taking forever I decided to play the field a bit. It ended up being perfect timing for the release of Elemental Kingdoms, the first mobile release from Perfect World Entertainment. Elemental Kingdoms is more akin to a deck-building game than your Magic The Gathering, which, again, is perfect since I’m a massive fan of Dominion.

The mobile game showcases the typical features of a solid title on the touch-friendly platform; a clean, intuitive user interface, natural screen pathing between features and options and various customizations. Screen space is used smartly, cards are well drawn, contain obvious fantasy staples and careful design has gone into their interactions. During the review time this critic was unable to repeatedly find opponents using the same card or strategy in the Arena. Quite a feat. But discussing balance and player-versus-player interactions is getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Read more…

Alright, it’s been a long, long time in an Internet far, far away since we’ve heard anything about Transformers Universe; the once MMORPG, now MOBA. Insert MOBA in disguise joke here. Anyways, the lid has cracked just a tad and we’ve been given a look at the State of the Game from Mark Gerhard, the CEO and CTO of Jagex, the makers of RuneScape.

Three years in and the company has reached tunnel vision. The process of honing in on what makes the title enjoyable and targeting those core gameplay elements with social connections. Gerhard promises that after putting the time in during 2013, the anticipatory community can expect regular updates.

The first of such update is that the team at Jagex is fully committed to launched Transformers Universe in Summer 2014. Not exactly crazy given its been in Closed Beta since December 2012!

As a commander in the Massive Online Tactical Action title, players will be in control of recruiting, maintaining and battling other Transformer warriors. Up next, the first in-game footage since the game’s directional change and a screenshot dump.

The astute reader that you are probably realizes that DarkOrbit Reloaded is not the first in the series. In fact, its marketed as the sequel to DarkOrbit, developed and published by Bigpoint as an “epic sci-fi” game featuring strategic “breadth and depth.” Of course, now that the browser-based game is out in the wild, you yourself can be the judge of such things!

The sequel features all the expected fixings, new maps, faction characters, a retailored user interface and high-res graphics make it an enticing switch from the original. The dev/pub hopes to lore new players with a new tutorial and assorted bonuses. Naturally, the true gift is being able to destroy various mega-corporations in the game.

If you’re a space or sci-fi strategy junkie yet still not convinced then I strongly suggest you check out the short trailer after the cut. It’s less than a minute and I’m absolutely positive you’ve spent more time on dumber things, like the last Super Bowl. Read more…