Just what kind of gamer are you? You may be casual, ready for some instant fun with no strings attached to your lifestyle, or you may be hardcore, willing to sacrifice much for the save of your virtual life progress. Regardless of how you play, there is always that craving for more. I’ll be the first one to admit it that games are fun and eventually you’ll feel the wonderful thrill going through your bones, wishing you’d have more time off from school, job or family and just dig deeper into the game. There is little one can do when real life takes precedence over your selfish gaming addiction, yet some people got the best out the situation.

I remember seeing a really old post on the World of Warcraft forums that just blew my mind. There was this middle aged guy lucky enough to travel around the world and he decided to show us what he’s doing while being offline. Here he had all these pictures of him, with recognizable landmarks in the background, always staring down through his dark glasses to a book he was holding. He was reading next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, the Coliseum in Italy or by Mountain Rushmore in the US, always with a focused look, absolutely unaware of his surroundings. You get too see enough pictures of him in strange places to become really envious, until you see the last image and understand what he was reading. That’s when the punch line hits you like a truck, for tucked away in his hands for the past 30 pictures lays no other than the World Of Warcraft manual!

While that was a nice try, most of us just browse forums in our insatiable search for more game input, look for gaming blogs and read online magazines. Still, you may not be aware of the next best thing, the subtle mesh of humor, good graphics and game wit that comics bring to the table. That’s all the easier should you be a MMO fan, since within the multitude of players you can interact with, some are bound to go out of their way and show their gratitude for the game in with a pencil and a piece of paper. Multiply that by a couple of thousands, since current day online games range well into millions of active accounts, and you’re off to a place where boredom will never catch up with you.

For instance, take this wonderful piece of art called “The Noob Comic,” a strip dealing with OhForF’s adventures in the fictional MMO Clichequest. Courtesy of Gianna Masetti, you can witness each and every possible thing we learned to hate about online games, starting with l33t speak, on to excessive role playing and utterly childish behavior we sometimes slip into while playing. Toons are drawn in a simple manner which will appeal to both comic strip casuals and devotees, with humorous wit in an evolving storyline. Following in the footsteps of an evergreen noob over the 269 episodes Gianna has released, you will find experiences similar to your own, within that favorite MMO you’re been fancying. Need I say that the main character’s name is short for “oh for f*cks sake”? Universality is the main quality of her work, since it doesn’t matter if you’re a Guild Wars player, Acheron’s Call, Everquest, Anarchy Online or anything else. You will meet the helpful yet annoying elderly player, the aimless noob, the player killing bloodthirsty yet socially challenged geek, even the overweighed Tolkien addicted girl you’ve been leveling with, which you never wanted to meet in real life. At some point, maybe, just maybe, you’ll see yourself within the pages of this comic strip and laugh yourself away, for it’s just as addictive as a game. You can start here.

For those that enjoy playing Medal of Honor, EA Games announced the releasing of Airborne, the new game in this series. It is available in North America’s stores in Xbox 360 and PC versions.
Who lives in Europe, will be able to get it starting September 7.

Airborne transfers you into the boots of Boyd Travers, Private First Class of the 82nd Airborne Division, to engage in battles in Europe.
Each of your missions begins behind enemy lines.
After viewing the operation from the air, you will control your parachute to land onto the right place where you will assess the terrain with customizable weapons at your disposal.

The action surrounds the invasion of Sicily, and your unit received the order to drop into the town of Adanti to ensure the security and prevent the enemies from using it as a staging area for counterattacks against Allied amphibious landings on the coast.
The first goal is the neutralizing of the antiaircraft emplacements and drive out the enemy.

The experts that participated in the development of the game ensured creating its action historically accurate. At the authentic experience that Airborne will make you feel, contributed also Capt. Dale Dye, who was the Military Technical Advisor for the last 7 Medal of Honor games.

It is the first FPS where players airdrop into combat from a C-47 and land anywhere in an open battlefield.
The course of the battle changes depending on the player’s landing spot.

Patrick Gilmore, the VP and Executive Producer at EALA said that “In recreating the largest airdrops in history, Medal of Honor Airborne brings a dramatic change and opens up the FPS genre with the innovative airdrop experience" where ”Players have the ability to land anywhere on the battlefield, and choose their own tactics to achieve victory, delivering unprecedented variety and freedom to the combat experience.”

Non-linear gameplay of this FPS offers a different approach to this type of game, changing the way in which shooters are played.

The soundtrack, that is available for download on the official website of the game, is composed by Michael Giacchino, famous for its collaboration with Lost, Alias, M:i:III (2007), The Incredibles (2004), and Ratatouille (2007).
The full album in MP3 format costs only 9.99$ and contains 20 tracks.

Airborne was developed by EA Los Angeles and has the rating T for Teen gave by ESRB, 16+ by PEGI and 18+ by USK.

The Xbox version price is of 59.99$ while the PC versions of 49.99$. The PlayStation 3 version is expected in November.

The PC demo is available here and offers you the first operation of the game, named Operation Husky, where you’ll discover the first four objects of the game and experience the jumping.
The loadout weapon includes the Thompson and the M1 Garand.

    It seems Chinese officials are trying the propaganda scheme with new and modern means. I’m talking about “The Incorruptible Warrior”, a new MMO game commissioned by no other than the Chinese Communist Party Disciplinary Committee of the Haishu district in Ningbo city. The special thing is that the game itself revolves around fighting corrupt government officials instead of killing the next innocent looking rabbit you come across for experience. Since China is currently in the midst of an anti-corruption campaign, The Party saw the game as means of raising awareness among teens and teach them the way to properly fight it. At least that’s the main idea, but unless the officials expect people lounging at the mayor’s throat in real life, I’d say there is still a long way to go in this direction.

    The developers set up a single server for the game which was expected to hold up to 500 simultaneous connections. You don’t have to be a computer expert to figure out that having 100.000. downloads over a short period of time might pose a problem later on. Players started to experience severe lag as the game became unplayable within just a week after launch. Eventually the server was shutdown for a massive hardware upgrade. Regardless of the actual impact “The Incorruptible Warrior” has yet to have on the average gamers moral fiber, questions of copyright still remain, as the title rudely borrowed a lot of content from well known private Chinese MMOs, like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or Legend.

    The idea isn’t new in itself, but boy, do I love the thought of a free MMO game sponsored by my own taxpayer money, where I have the chance to crush my boss with the +9 Two Handed Mace of Doom. Think about it, the limitless possibilities, and the fun factor. Although graphics are mediocre and developers did a shabby job when creating the models, you still have a shot at completely obliterating your opponents. Not only you get to kill the corrupted officials, but you also get to pick on their children, wives and bikini clad mistresses. Unfortunately the skills you need to improve are a bit of a turnoff, reeking propaganda from a mile away. What would you like to improve this level up, “Combatting corruption,” “Moral character” or “Degree of being corruption free”?