Game issue enters United Nation

As seen in United Nations Calls For Explicit Japanese Game Ban.
What are you guys thought in this? Feel free to write in your opinions here.

Brick Gamers 36 - Street Fighter Anyone?

New to BrickGamers? :) Find the comic balloons text too small to read? You gotta click the comic below to open it in a new tab/window, because it was converted from the print version which appears in GameAxis Malaysia August 2009 magazine.

Street Fighter is almost no strange game to gamers out there, having a long history from 1987 in the arcade days, though they've now moved on to the computing platform as well. However, the latest version 4 seems to be a little more tougher to defeat than it appears to be...

LEGO® 8-bit Gaming

For those of you who were gamers in the 8-bit console gaming (3rd gen) era, you might have very fond memories when you watch this LEGO® animation made by stop-motion of LEGO® bricks which took 1,500 hours (that's nearly a month!) of creation by Tomas Redigh! For those of you who are modern gamers, you might want to take a look at how gaming used to be - through the eyes of LEGO® bricks!

LEGO® Universe Screenshots

We first mentioned about LEGO® Universe way back in July 2008 more than a year ago here. If you don't already know, LEGO® Universe is LEGO®'s version of today's modern and popular MMO games, but using virtual minifigs instead of gaming characters in other online games. It will be out next year and uses a subscription model to play. Till we get more updates, enjoy the new screenshots here to have a better idea of how the game will look when it comes out!

By the way, if you didn't notice, the game's logo is a minifig's hand! Talk about having the whole world in your hand!

Star Craft 2 Adds DRM

Just when one thinks the news of StarCraft II won't support LAN (Local Area Networking) couldn't get anymore depressing, another news breaks out stating StarCraft 2 will be getting DRM. We'd think the online petition with 120,000 names would already deter Blizzard, sorry, Activision Blizzard, from trying to come up with anymore annoying tricks - but it's apparently not the case.

It's no secret that DRM, or digital rights management, has always been viewed by a large section of the gaming community as a sort of insult to a paying customer, as it has proven time and again if a game is to be pirated, protection like this serves little protection at all, but instead, is a constant source of annoyance and an inconvenience to legit users.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with the title of this comic strip, it is essentially the blow first (you don't get LAN feature), then the taunt (you gotta show us some ID before you get to play).

The way we see it, this will be a brand + title, versus patience of customers experiment on a Titanic scale :)

Brick Wars

If you haven't heard of Brick Wars before, it's a term refering to the utilisation of LEGO in a table-top war game scenario, making it a type of miniature wargaming, since you'll be using LEGO miniature figurines (minifigs).

Most table-top RPG (Role-Playing Games) are based around dices and a set of rules. This can be in the form of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and Wargaming (like Warhammer 40,000), but both usually either use their own figures (which can either be purchased or made yourself), or just using imagination (like using glass fish tank pebbles in D&D).

In Brick Wars, since you're using LEGO, unlike other forms of table-top RPG games, you can construct anything you want with LEGO! Want to play a game about forest folk invading a castle? Build the buildings and scenes yourself!

To give you an idea about Brick Wars, BrickGamers have in the past conducted our own Brick Wars games all the way back since 2006 - that's nearly 4 years of Brick Wars! Over time we have managed to refine the rules to cater more for LEGO and less for typical desktop RPG games.

If you're interested to conduct your own Brick Wars (or if you have a lot of LEGO and have no idea what to do with them), you might want to take a look at a sample Brick Wars below to see if it's your cup of tea. Remember - Brick Wars doesn't only have to be about medieval battles - you can have a modern-day City theme being attacked by terrorists with police!

If you're wondering what's the City Tower Crane doing there, it's to position and move the Dragon:

See how you can make use of your LEGO if you just collect them or don't know how/don't do MOC (My Own Creation)?

To see the whole battle of this one of many past BrickGamers' Brick Wars, visit our Brick Shelf Gallery here to see how this battle began - and ended! Just click the Next link on the page (top right) once you're there to go through the whole story.

New 2009 August LEGO Sets @ Brickboy Shops

BrickGamers visited Brickboy Toys @ MidValley Gardens recently to bring you shots of the new 2009 August LEGO sets now out at all Brickboy shops (including Brickboy Brothers @ Sunway Pyramid and Tropicana Mall). For more details of pricing check out the Brickboy Toys blog and more pics can be found in the Forum.

Employer in Crosshair

As reported on CNN Shooting the boss -- and getting paid for it.
Kinda make any gamer asking "why isn't my office one of it?" eh?

You want a piece of me next year, boy?

It is Official, no one is to get any pieces of the shiny new 3D StarCraft II marines until next year.

Brick Gamers 35 - Online Games

Opps...our bad! We slipped up the July posting of the converted Brick Gamers comic number 35 which appears in the GameAxis Malaysia July 2009 printed mag. So here it is now - delayed, but here for your enjoyment! To make up for it, we're stuffing in some extras below!

For those who "came in late", click on the comic below to open it in a new tab/window to read it easier, since it wasn't designed for the Web like the rest of the other comics here. Cross our fingers, knock on wood and other good luck spells that the August comic will be out on the 28th of this month as planned! Otherwise we have to pacify you with more extra stuffings! :P

Sadly, the bane of modern games is that they assume you have an Internet connection, and broadband at that, or shall we say fast broadband to be exact! While it's almost true if you have a computer you most likely have a broadband connection in today's age, not everyone has a fast Internet connection - and that's where the problem lies with these games which require online connectivity. Try playing a game with a poor Internet connection and you'll begin to realise how frustrating it can be!

With places like Malaysia having lousy Internet connection due to the monopoly of the Government-controlled Telekom Malaysia (which you can read more in this post over on BrickTech, our sister site), games which require Internet connection can be in today's world more of a pain than pleasure.

Let's not forget about StarCraft 2's announcement about not supporting LAN (Local Area Network) play, requiring gamers to be online to play it, which BrickGamers made fun of here, and has even appeared as another Hitler video using the famous Internet Meme, The Downfall. If you haven't seen it before, it's on our Sidebar Digg box (below, right):


Should you read this post too late and it's gone, you can view it here, or right below!

New games san boxes

Purchasing original games via downloading seems like a bold new trend for now. With service provider like Steam many games seem to find new sales on weekend price slashes and promotions alike. Sure it is more environmentally friendly and stuff... if you don't mind the box less package. What is more is that almost all these games are account binding... meaning you can't borrow them to your friends unless you are willing to share your game service access password and ID.

Score two for the game developers and nil for old time gamers.