Quick thoughts on Heroes of Ruin for the Nintendo 3DS

Square Enix's latest Nintendo 3DS release, Heroes of Ruin, has occupied my time lately. Here are my thoughts on the game so far.

Hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers like Heroes of Ruin are all about the loot, and this game has plenty of it. There are hundreds of items available, although a fair share aren't usable depending on which character you choose in the beginning. There are four available and I chose the Vindicator, which relies on big sword types to unleash destruction upon enemies.

Controls are responsive and easy to use. The circle pad moves your character, and the in-game menus use the D-pad or touchscreen. Your regular attack is the B button, and three separate skills unlocked through leveling up can be mapped to the X, Y and A buttons. The character moves slower than I want it to, but rolling around speeds things up a little.

My biggest complaint about this game is the difficulty. It's just too easy. In most cases, enemies can be annihilated in no time. Plus, the game hands out health and energy potions like candy, so little skill is needed since you can pretty much go into a crowd of enemies and whack away at them without a fear of dying.

Watch out for my full review at www.theoaklandpress.com.

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Michael Phelps loves playing Call of Duty, but is he addicted to the game?

Associated Press photos

As U.S. Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps prepares to go for the gold again in the Summer Olympics in London, he sat down for an interview with ThePostGame a while back to give some insight on his life. While he talked about training and swimming, the subject of video games popped up since he has a Kinect game entitled Michael Phelps: Push the Limit.

Phelps said his game of choice lately is Call of Duty on the Xbox 360. "I find myself playing like 30 hours a week," he said in the interview. Apparently he's not to hot at the game. "I just get crushed. I always find myself getting heated, trash talking. And you know it's a 10-year-old kid on the other line that just demolished me. It's so frustrating. But it is fun, and I'm very competitive in everything I do," Phelps continued.

Yep, your American hero and role model for children all across the U.S. does a little trash talking online. Obviously, we don't know his Xbox Live gamertag, but since he apparently plays so much, some Call of Duty players may have gotten yelled at by the swimming guru.

Of course, the topic of video game addiction was brought up by none other than Liz Woolley, the founder of Online Gamers Anonymous, who warned that Phelps should put the controller down. Video game addiction isn't as deadly as drugs or alcohol, but it still can be a serious thing.

Are the warning signs there for Phelps? No way. He's probably exaggerating the 30-hour comment, and even if he wasn't, that's no where near addiction levels. An addict would be playing for more than 10 hours a day, and despite whatever amounts of free time Phelps has, he's got a long ways and a lot more trash talking to go. Unless he misses his scheduled time at the pool because he's playing some Xbox at the hotel - then we got a problem.

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Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition coming in September for PC, Mac, iPad and Android at a cheap price

The wildly popular Baldur's Gate PC game that took the world by storm in the late 1990s will be releasing again with hundreds of new improvements for the PC, Mac, iPad and Android devices, titled Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, which comes with the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion.

The PC/Mac version will cost $19.99 and feature a new adventure called The Black Pits, where you take your party and tackle 15 battles, facing unique challenges and characters. There are three new characters available along with a collection of player character voice sets, more than 400 improvements from the original game, and improved multiplayer support.

This game will only cost $9.99 for the iPad and Android devices, but a couple new characters cost extra as in-app purchases as well as the voice sets and player portraits. Players can keep track their friends and invite them to play through Gamecenter Support.

The Windows version is scheduled for Sept. 18, with the iPad and Mac versions expected in September. The release on Android is to be determined. I played a lot of Baldur's Gate back in the day, so $20 is a great price to relive some memories, and playing on the iPad sounds even better.

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Nintendo reports another quarterly loss, but profitability likely on the horizon

As expected, Nintendo posted another quarterly loss in their latest financial report, this time to the tune of $220 million from April through June. And again as expected, the shouts of "Smartphones! Smartphones! Smartphones!" can be seen all across the Internet. While their rise have no doubt been a factor, the bigger reasons are falling Wii and DS sales, lack of compelling software to move 3DS units, R&D costs for the upcoming Wii U, and a very bad foreign exchange rate.

But there is good news out of this: Nintendo confirmed that the 3DS, which has sold 19 million worldwide, will now be sold at a profit. Nintendo historically sells hardware at a profit out of the gate. The 3DS was when it first released, but a massive price cut put a red mark in Nintendo's financials. This is a huge step forward for Nintendo getting back to profitability, especially with the upcoming releases of the 3DS XL and New Super Mario Bros. 2.

The remaining unknown factor is the price of the Wii U, which will release this holiday season. Regardless of what it is, it's looking good for Nintendo. They will be kicking off a much-needed new generation of consoles all by themselves with potential hot selling games like New Super Mario Bros. U, Pikmin 3, Wii Fit U and NintendoLand. Video game sales always skyrocket during the holidays, and with a new console release, Nintendo should have no problem getting back in black.

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Atlus releases new screenshots for The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

Atlus' upcoming game The Testament of Sherlock Holmes will release in September for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Below are four new screenshots just released.

Players will be thrust into the world of London where Holmes is suspected of being the culprit after what should have been another case solved. Doctor Watson even is suspicious of the famous detective. Crime scenes will be investigated, clues will be collected, and witnesses will be questioned in this adventure game.

THQ releases new screenshots for South Park: The Stick of Truth. I hope it lives up to expectations

THQ has released four new screenshots for South Park: The Stick of Truth, expected to be released in March 2013. They look good ... real good. The game pretty much looks just like the TV show.

We've seen our share of rough South Park games in the past. There was a first-person shooter I played in the late 1990s that was horrible. South Park Rally was an embarrassing racing game that should have never existed. Pretty much all of them are blah and feel like cash-ins.

But for some strange reason I have faith in The Stick of Truth. Maybe it's because creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are heavily involved in this game. They're writing the script and, of course, voicing the characters. This new game will have players create their own character and join Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny on an "epic quest."

I really want this game to be good, and hopefully the long wait will be worth it. Please, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, deliver the South Park game we've all been waiting for.

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Developer of Game for Cats for the iPad accused of making it easy for felines to buy DLC

Game for Cats is a silly app for the iPad that allows our feline friends to play games like chasing around a laser or a butterfly. But according to reports, Hiccup, the developer of this app, got into a little trouble when complaints surfaced that the cats were actually buying extra content for it, costing their owners some money.

Fearing an uprising, Hiccup decided to make it a little harder for cats to purchase extra content. A person's fingertips will have to be held in the same spot for a few seconds to activate the DLC. Unless there are some very smart cats out there, this should cure the problem.

The thought of a cat buying DLC is funny to me, kind of like a toddler inadvertently purchasing extra content. But if I owned a feline and an iPad I wouldn't let it anywhere near my expensive toy, fearing a heavily scratched-up screen.

If you think people allowing their cats to play on the iPad is crazy enough, watch this video below of tigers and lions playing the game. I was secretly wishing they would have ripped the things apart.



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