Blizzard's StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft to implement Facebook integration

Filed under: Games, Internet

I could clamber onto my soap box and rant all day about Blizzard's pathetic, poorly thought-out Real ID implementation - but - as this isn't a games blog, I've been told to keep it short and sweet. So, straight to the diabolical point: Real ID is just the beginning. With StarCraft 2's launch at the end of July, Battle.net will also feature Facebook integration.

Real ID, if you haven't been apprised, is Blizzard's Orwellian approach to policing its community. In one fell swoop it removes the anonymity, agency and escapism that actually make massively multiplayer online games enjoyable. But again, I shan't go on -- read WoW.com's coverage, if you want to find out more.

Battle.net's integration with Facebook is actually quite neat, if you don't mind the whole invasion-of-privacy thing. You'll be able to connect to Facebook from Battle.net and import your friends, rather than having to know your friends' email addresses. Still, with some 2,000 pages of complaints on the official World of Warcraft forums, you can be damn sure that it'll be a while before the community is able to stand back, take stock and analyse at the bigger picture.

Incidentally, if you're a fan of StarCraft or World of Warcraft, and you're opposed to these proposed changes, go and register your discontent on the forum! It's not too late to force Blizzard to rethink their totalitarian technology.

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Blizzard's StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft to implement Facebook integration originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe Flash 11 will feature a proper 3D rendering engine and API

Filed under: Games, Internet, Adobe

The next version of Flash, amidst growing competition from emerging 3D-in-the-browser technologies WebGL and O3D, will feature support for 3D graphics.

But don't get too excited just yet -- we'll probably have to wait until October and the Adobe MAX 2010 conference before we find out more. There, on October 27th, a Flash player engineer will give a talk about "the next-generation 3D API coming in a future version of Flash Player." How exciting is that?!

It's an interesting move, and I feel that it's just in time too. WebGL and O3D might be exciting propositions in themselves, but they don't enjoy almost-100% saturation -- not yet at least. Every existing Web game maker uses Flash -- and you can be guaranteed that they'd rather code 3D games and applications for a platform they already intimately know.

It sure looks like Adobe isn't going to give up on Flash without a fight. First peer-to-peer transfers with 10.1, and now proper 3D. Assuming the 3D performance is good enough, we could see some very interesting FPS and MMORPG Flash games next year.

Adobe Flash 11 will feature a proper 3D rendering engine and API originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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KnifeTank is a cool illustrated update of Atari's classic, Combat - Time Waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

If you loved the classic tank battle game Combat on the Atari -- or even if you're too young to have heard of it -- you'll probably love KnifeTank. In this hand-illustrated battle, you play a normal tank versus other kickass tanks with huge knives attached. KnifeTanks increase in number as you advance in levels, and there are more obstacles on the battlefield to contend with, too. Hit all of the music blocks in a level to advance, but be careful which way your shots ricochet!

The two coolest things about KnifeTank -- other than a tank with a frickin' knife on it, I mean -- are the original 8-Bit soundtrack and the fact that the game's all HTML5. Yeah, that's right: it's not a Flash game, it's entirely HTML5 and JavaScript. That means you need a Webkit browser like Chrome or Safari to get the most out of it, but it also means you don't need Flash.

Of course, those technical details are second to the gameplay, and I wouldn't be endorsing KnifeTank if it didn't have some replay value.

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KnifeTank is a cool illustrated update of Atari's classic, Combat - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic Win app turns your life into an RPG to help you attack your to-do list

Filed under: Fun, Games, Productivity, iPhone

Many geeks view daily life and its challenges the way they view a role-playing video game. Clean up your apartment? Get experience points! Go to work? Collect gold! Work out? Increase your strength attributes! Well, a new iPhone app called Epic Win attempts to translate those imaginary points into real points in a game.

It hasn't been released yet, but the trailer shows how the game will work. Completing different types of to-do items offers different levels of XP and loot, motivating you to actually get things done. Your character develops based on what you do in your real life, and traveling to different locations opens up possibilities for new kinds of loot.

What do you think, DLS readers? Would an RPG like this actually help you get things done?

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Continue reading Epic Win app turns your life into an RPG to help you attack your to-do list

Epic Win app turns your life into an RPG to help you attack your to-do list originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is FarmVille maker Zynga about to become Google Games?

Filed under: Games, Web services, Google

Word on the internet this weekend was that Google has invested a huge amount of money in Zynga, the company that makes Facebook-centered games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and FrontierVille. Rumor has it that the $100 million-plus investment is part of a larger strategy that will end up with the launch of Google Games later this year. There's no more popular, more addictive collection of games on the Web than Zynga's, so it makes sense that Google wouldn't want to compete starting from scratch.

TechCrunch speculates that Google will be able to break up Zynga's partnership with PayPal, and push all those in-game purchases through Google Checkout. Of course, this is also a major development in Google's relationship to Facebook, because Zynga has gathered a massive amount of data from Facebook users, so Google could be using that as a backdoor to buy into Facebook's network and boost its own social offerings (like Google Me, maybe) [Google Me needs games too! -Ed]. In case there was any doubt Google Games is for real, TC also posted a link to a job opening for a Google Games product lead.

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Is FarmVille maker Zynga about to become Google Games? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Swerveball is part of a new Web game that helps you be better at life (Time Waster... or not!)

Filed under: Games, Kids, Time-Wasters

Swerveball is part of a new game called SuperMe. If you think it sounds a bit new-age self-helpish, don't worry: it is. With the rather hopeful headline of 'Be better at life', SuperMe is a collection of mini-games, quizzes, inspirational interviews and 'cheat codes for life'. And, despite it being angled at teenagers, I think there might just be something for everyone on SuperMe.

Anyway, because this is a Time Waster slot, I ought to talk about the actual game: Swerveball. Chances are you've played something like it before, but Swerveball adds another element: reflection. Without giving away the 'trick', not only is the game fun, but it also teaches you a little something about life. The game itself actually gets quite tricky if you fail the 'reflection tests' at the end of each level!

As a Time Waster, Swerveball is great -- but if you want a little more, connect your Facebook account to SuperMe and dive in! And if you have a teenage son or daughter, sit them down and force them to play.

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Swerveball is part of a new Web game that helps you be better at life (Time Waster... or not!) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IQ Ball is a cute, grappling hook Time Waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

IQ Ball is a fun little time waster that casts you as a fuzzy ball with a long, sticky tongue; your tongue serves as a grappling hook, and you must use it to navigate through levels and reach specific targets (or pull them to you).

However, your tongue is only so long; it can't reach everywhere, so you need to try to reach what you can. It also won't stick to everything; you find something that it can reach and stick to, and then use your tongue to walk through the level until you reach the target (or pull it over to you).

In the screenshot above, you can see the level number on the bottom right and the number of clicks that you've performed in the level on the bottom left. On this level, you need to swing like a monkey on the wire in order to reach the target. So, you have to grab and release until you get to the end.

Another nice touch is that the game instantly pauses and mutes when it loses focus. I see more and more developers doing this, and it's a welcome and thoughtful feature. I'll leave you with a tip: on level five, mind the cable car that's going down at the very beginning. If you don't stick to it, the level is lost forever (or until you restart it).

IQ Ball is a cute, grappling hook Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Black And White is a cat-tastic platform Time Waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

In Black And White you control two cats, a black one and white one, which move simultaneously in opposite directions as you use the arrow keys (and Z to jump). The goal is to bring each cat to its own door (the black cat goes to the black door, while the white one goes to the white door).

The only problem is that the cats are inseparable. Every movement made by one is mirrored by the other, and this gets tricky because the way to the door is not always the same for both cats. The cats sometimes have to help each other: one cat would hold down a button, which would then disable a wall so that the other cat can move through it. But then, as soon as you move the other cat through the wall, the first cat (who was holding the button down), also moves. And then the wall becomes solid again. Pretty tricky!

Black And White is a cat-tastic platform Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Challenge your friends in Crack Attack -- a fun, furious, and free Time-Waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

As you can gather from the title, Crack Attack is not a Flash game. It's a time waster that you have to download; we don't see too many of those around here. Having to download a game is a pretty hefty barrier to entrance, so a downloadable game has to be really good for me to cover it.

This one is. In fact, my girlfriend (a leading authority on Crack Attack) goes so far as to describe it as "engaging and breathtaking." Your goal is simply to join three blocks of the same color and make them vanish. This sounds like the same old same old, but Crack Attack manages to make the process really interesting.

Granted, the single-player mode is not that much cooler than your simple Tetris or Bejewelled. You need to keep the screen clean while the blocks keep rising, and the blocks that you clear keep turning into "garbage" (which is just bars, really) of various sizes and colors that falls on you from the sky. There are three different types of garbage (red, blue, and gray), and as you will find out, it takes a different trick to make each kind vanish. This gets more challenging as things start to move faster and faster, and the bars keep stacking up.

Continue reading Challenge your friends in Crack Attack -- a fun, furious, and free Time-Waster

Challenge your friends in Crack Attack -- a fun, furious, and free Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entanglement is an engaging, HTML5-powered Time-Waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

I am really enjoying watching HTML5 come into its own and mature into a full-fledged platform for video, Web apps, and now some games, too. Entanglement is an HTML5-driven puzzle game, and it feels just like Flash.

It's a simple brain teaser. You start with a hexagon in the middle of the board. An orange line comes out of that hexagon and touches another hexagon right next to it. That other hexagon shows several possible paths that the orange line could take, depending on how you connect it. You can rotate the second hexagon using the mouse wheel or arrow keys. Once you hit the space bar or click the mouse button, the orange line "flows" into it, and the path becomes longer. You now get another hexagon to rotate and connect.

The goal is to make the path as long as you can without going back to the source point, allowing the path to cross itself, or touching the side of the board. My record is 23. Post your (undoubtedly higher) records below!

Entanglement is an engaging, HTML5-powered Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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