Archive for November, 2009

Art Friday : Magna Carta II

Wallpapers and character concepts from Magna Carta II (the RPG series, not the historical legal document) featuring the unmistakably distinctive style of Korean artist Hyung Tae Kim – note the extremely detailed costumes and shoes and of course, his trademark female character designs, all with excessively well-proportioned figures.


© Softmax Co, Ltd

Wallpapers are now out at the official Korean and Japanese sites for Magna Carta II with Hyung Tae Kim’s characters superimposed on environmental concepts for the game.


© Softmax Co, Ltd

Three styles of Juto & Zephie

The separate character (2D, 3D and SD) and environmental concepts can be found in the fansite kit at the official Japanese site and more artwork can be seen at an unofficial Hyung Tae Kim fansite @ www.hyung-taekim.org or at Chae Ji Yun’s blog where there’s several high-resolution versions of the same character concepts from the fan site kit. BTW, www.hyung-taekim.org and Chae Ji Yun’s blog are two of the many recommendations from artist Leonid Kozienko’s personal web site (well worth a visit if you’re into glorious eye candy :) )


© Softmax Co, Ltd

Download the wallpapers from the Korean and Japanese sites for Magna Carta. The fan site kit is only available at the Japanese site though (scroll to the bottom and click on the button that says 規約に同意してダウンロードする ).

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Endless Saga Concept Art & Wallpaper
Magna Carta (Korean RPG) Wallpapers
White Wolf Publishing’s Exalted Wallpapers
Rumble Roses Fan Art @ Ryu’s Form Site
My Favourite Pepper Project Entries

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Wallpapers Wednesday : Chrono Trigger

Wallpapers for Chrono Trigger, one of my personal top 3 RPGs for the Super Famicom (or SNES) – undoubtedly a very skewed list since I have only completed the same number of RPGs for that console – Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy V.


© Square Enix Co, Ltd

Memorable characters and an engaging storyline with a time travelling theme made this one of the most unforgettable RPGs I’ve ever played for any platform – spunky crossbow-wielding princess Marle being my favourite character. In terms of storyline and plot progression, one of the better RPGs that I played recently and heartily recommend would be SCP’s freeware RPG Exit Fate released just a while back (read my impressions).


© Square Enix Co, Ltd

Download these wallpapers from the official site for Chrono Trigger (look under Downloads).

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Square Enix Member Fanzone Exclusive Wallpapers
Exit Fate
Magna Carta (Korean RPG) Wallpapers
Namco X Capcom Official Wallpapers
White Wolf Publishing’s Exalted Wallpapers

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Random Monday : GIANTmicrobes – A Safer Way to Collect Killer Pathogens


© ThinkGeek, Inc

Discovered this collection of plushies which comprises some of the most deadly mankillers in the world (except man himself, of course) with the likes of ebola, tuberculosis (below) and the infamous bubonic plague which killed 75 million people during the 14th century, from the awesome selection of geeky wonders in the ThinkGeek catalog (above – look for page 18 under the Mad Science section).


© Giantmicrobes, Inc

These three micro-organisms or microbes are just a small part of a series of cute stuffed toys modelled after micro-sized critters both harmful and the not so harmful – I sure wouldn’t file Saccharomyces Cerevisiae / Baker’s Yeast under “Lethal” :) Blown up a million times into plushies 5 to 7 inches long (or wide) from the miniscule micro-organism/cell in real-life, it’s no wonder these toys are affectionately referred to as GIANTmicrobes (duh). If size does matter, you’ll be glad that some are also available as 15 to 20 inches GIGANTICmicrobes :D

GIANTmicrobes aren’t just frivolous little novelties since each comes with a picture and essential facts about their tiny counterpart – you could always justify these purchases as educational stuff :)


© Giantmicrobes, Inc

My favourite is the bacteria E. Coli (above) which can cause a nasty bout of food poisoning in humans and resembles the Mars People that come in near the end of Metal Slug 2 :)

Mars People : as appears on Neo Geo Battle Coliseum and illustrated by Eisuke Ogura

Now if you’re in Singapore and thinking of purchasing these lovable toys like me, note that Thinkgeek does not ship to Singapore unless you use services like Borderlinx or comGateway which provide free US shipping addresses. Alternatively, you could always make your purchase from the official GIANTmicrobes online store but be warned that shipping to Singapore will cost a hefty minimum of 25 USD.

If you just have to have one, local online store ICONceptz does have limited range of GIANTmicrobes for sale but at least delivery is free :)

Check out GIANTmicrobes at the official site or at ThinkGeek (and while you’re there, don’t forget to download the catalog – it’s chockful of geeky goodness :) )

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Cytoplasm – A Game of Cellular Domination
Games Workshop 2009 Collector’s Guides
Corgi Diecast Catalogues
A List of Downloadable Firearm Catalogs for 2009
2008 Military/LE Firearms PDF Catalogs

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Games Thursday : Peggle – World of Warcraft Edition

Introducing Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition, a little freebie I found at the official World of Warcraft goodies page while looking for a HD version of Mr T’s old WoW commercial featuring his custom Night Elf Mohawk. (What? You don’t know Mr T?) While I’m not a fan of World of Warcraft, but hey, a free game is a free game :)

Popcap’s Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition is essentially a free sampler of their original best-selling Peggle comprising 2 stages of five colourful World of Warcraft themed levels each. Resembling pachinko or “Japanese pinball”, the player has to eliminate all orange pieces by play by shooting at them directly or indirectly (duh :) )

It differs from pinball in the sense that that are no flippers which greatly simplifies gameplay since it’s a game intended for casual gamers but apart from that, it’s loaded with lots of blinking lights, whizzy sound effects and insane scores in the hundreds of thosuands, just like being at a pinball table.

Despite its apparent simplicity, it’s oddly addictive since most of the later levels require more than a fair bit of logic and puzzle-solving skills – you can’t just mindlessly shoot and hope to clear the level with pure luck – just see this strategy page for Peggle. As for replayability, there’s really little incentive in replaying levels after you’ve completed them unless you’re aiming to bust the high scores table. There is however the Challenge mode to boost the longevity factor although it’s mainly aimed for the masters or hardcore fanatics.

If you like Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition, there’s always the original Peggle with 55 levels and playable on a mind-boggling array of platforms – PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, iPhone, mobile phones, online and even as a free 12 level World of Warcraft addon.

Download Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Faerie Solitaire
Stomping Grounds
She Asked … for a Bejewelled Clone
Bubblets – Jawbreaker for Windows
Filler (Puzzle Game)

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Military Tuesday : Battleship WW2 Gold Edition

An enhanced shareware version of Battleship, the classic turn-based game for two in which each player attempts to be the first to sink all his/her opponent’s ships, Strategy Lights Series’ Battleship WW2 Gold Edition is an innovative PC-based version that adds substantial depth to the original game with a selection of well-thought out features.

Don’t judge Battleship WW2 by the archaic in-game graphics because under those utilitarian visuals lies a solid, engaging naval strategy game – or a wargame-lite if you will. Definitely more realistic than pencil-and-paper Battleship, Battleship WW2 is no hardcore naval stimulation by any means though – lightly-armed corvettes aren’t likely to sink a battleship, not in this modern age and definitely not back then in WWII, but they do in this game.

Loads of stuff to play with … if you buy the full version, of course :P

If you can overlook this slight lapse in realism, you’ll find Battleship WW2 perfect as a simple introductory naval strategy/wargame. With 50 types of ships, submarines, planes and coastal artillery and a larger fleet that can move around on a significantly larger playing area, you can simulate historical scenarios with ease – something you definitely cannot do with the original Battleship game.

Since ships have different radar ranges to detect enemy ships and planes and in addition, only select classes have sonar to detect those nasty submarines, there’s loads of strategy involved in tailoring your battle fleet before starting each mission and when manuevering during the actual mission – a battlefleet comprising only the mightiest battleships may look good on paper but will quickly succumb to enemy submarines which can approach undetected and then make quick work of the entire fleet of behemoths without any fear of retaliation.

Sure, you’ll still need battleships, heavy cruisers and their heavy firepower to destroy enemy capital ships and/or aircraft carriers with fighters to defend against marauding torpedo-bombers and bombers to attack coastal fortifications but a combined fleet with corvettes/destroyers steaming farther ahead to screen these larger ships from prowling enemy submarines stands a much better chance of completing the mission successfully. Other essential ships to reinforce your fleet include unarmed auxiliary ships to repair damaged warships and of course, submarines to hunt for unwary targets.

Battleship WW2 uses attributes like movement range, firing range, radar/sight range, number of shots per turn (simulating the number of guns/torpedoes on each ship) and armour (hitpoints) to represent the different classes of ships available. It does a very good job differentiating the various ships, but the fact that hits from a cruiser and a corvette both cause exactly the same amount of damage does jar the realism somewhat.


Hunting the Bismarck

Different mission objectives call for different fleet configurations and range from the direct annihilation of enemy shipping to liberation of enemy ports or the defense of friendly ports in the area of operations.


More missions! … if you buy, buy, buy :P

The full version of Battleship WW2 contains a total of 110 missions, 4 campaigns of 10 to 15 missions each and allows the construction of all 50 types of units to equip your forces. The shareware version lacks the campaigns and most of the missions and ships. Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had experimenting with the optimum fleet build and testing them out in battle :)

Download Battleship WW2 Gold Edition.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel Fleet
Sea Victory Tugboats
WWII Anti-Submarine Warfare Tactical Lessons from BBC
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Turning Point – Fall of Liberty Trailer

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