With each day, it seems the IT world looks more and more like a jungle, with big fish eating the little ones, and the struggle for survival becoming more and more desperate for some companies. While there are also situations when companies gain their independence back after a time spent under a big brother's wing, like the recent Bungie-Microsoft case, the tendency is for the little ones to be acquired by the big ones, of course, and today we just found out about Electronic Arts next target, a developer of game client tools and applications called Super Computer International.

If you didn't hear about Electronic Arts or this name simply doesn't ring any bell for you, then I am sure that Need for Speed, The Sims or Medal of Honour should tell you more about this company, founded back in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, which also set the bases of 3DO and Digital Chocolate. Needless to say, EA is now a huge company, with over 7200 employees and a net income exceeding $236 million USD in 2006, and now they are getting a bit larger...Since gaming today becomes more and more online multiplayer-oriented, Electronic Arts wants to buy SCI to use their experience in gaming client applications to enhance online capabilties of a plethora of their titles. According to Nanea Reeves, COO of EA's Online Technology Group, "SCI's development expertise is uniquely suited to our online technology needs", so things should get better for every gamer having fun online with EA's games...or that's the plan, at least.
Time shall tell, but until a conclusion emerges, we'll keep our eyes on this topic and let you know as soon as something new pops up!

Ever since the Arena system was still a thought lingering the outer reaches of the Public Test Realm, WoW players hoped for some critical new release that will rekindle the sparkle of PvP in their hearts. Due to the state of the game, player structures weren’t ready to take on the challenges of 5 man teams, because you needed people to show up and play on demand, with a balanced setup to boot. I’m sure you remember that a good number of PvP guilds faded into oblivion if not outright disbanded, two months before the Burning Crusade was released, due to the High Warlord PvP item requirement removal. In short, everyone could solo farm honor to get them and the expansion was looming on the horizon. All in all that meant about three months of silence on the PvP front and resulted in the inability to setup a proper 5v5 team pool within battlegroups. While the arena point gain was considerably less, players started training and hoarding equipment through 2v2 and 3v3 arenas.

<-250x250 Square - left->This is where the “rock, paper, scissors” play comes in. You see, at the beginning of season one everyone was pretty much wearing PvE gear, a bit heavy on the stamina as resilience was dished in favor of damage. Low hit point targets allowed the rise of the popular Holy Paladin/ Arms Warrior combo. The extra damage gear really shines on those big Mortal Strike hits, especially when the warrior could not be snared due to blessing of freedom. The paladin could survive on his own using melee and global invulnerabilities while still being able to kite out of line of sight using pillars. It seemed a match made in heaven until players started to learn the automatic response to this dilemma.

In theory the strategy is quite simple and is best executed by this team’s natural enemy: Affliction warlock/ Shadowpriest. The synergy between these two casters is insane, basically buffing each other’s shadow damage by 25%. Between two instant fears, two silences and mass dispel for the bubble, a paladin can’t really heal anything. The choice is yours if you want to kill the warrior or the paladin. Killing the warrior is safer since he has to come out in order to deal damage and a lucky blackout from the shadowpriest will just annihilate the warrior rush down. Other setups would rather kill the paladin first and hope to survive long enough to duel the warrior 1v1 after.

Paper gets torn apart by scissors, another popular combo: Assassination Rogue/ Frost Mage. Mutilatite is for sustained burst on demand, without using important cooldowns like adrenaline rush in the combat tree. With help from the water elemental, mages can root opponents in frost nova from a safe distance, also benefiting from the effect removal and invulnerability of ice block. The rogue usually completely locks down the shadowpriest while the mage sheep the warlock repeatedly and uses a counterspell/burst combo when the target is low on life.

It’s here we go back full circle and introduce the Arms Warrior/ Restoration Druid, which will just annoy the hell out of the previous combo. You just can’t kill the druid between shape shift kiting and line of sight issues, while the warrior just bashes away at the - now defenseless - rogue. Such is life within World of Warcraft: someone with greater skill, better equipment, or a better team setup will eventually win you in the arenas and there won’t be much you can do about it, except getting backups for your ally. Restoration druids work well with affliction warlocks and holy paladins with demonology warlocks. Feral druids are reported to be effective coupled with hunters or frost mages.

As general guidelines, a healer team will have a greater margin for error in 2v2, thus win games easier in the lower and medium brackets. That is the greater truth now when every serious contender has resilience maxed out and a health pool of at least 10000 hit points. Pretty much any warrior combo will obliterate rogue combos, just as dual silence teams can take out healers easier. Paladins have trouble against priests since they can dispel the total invulnerability, just as warlocks get controlled pretty well by rogues. In turn frost mages will have no problem against warriors through repeated use of sheep, frost nova and chill effects. Hunters are the ultimate caster killers, better than rogues, yet they’re not that common in 2v2 arena play. Just as feral druid combos are scarce and prompt the class as an excellent healer for warriors or warlocks.

In the end, the choice is yours alone. You should use 2v2 arena play as intended and just have fun with your friends. Take every defeat as the next step in the learning process and you may discover that in every backpack lies the mount of a gladiator or - as Napoleon would say - the baton of a general.

I won’t bore you by explaining what the gameplay consists of; everybody knows how to play Scrabble.
The 2007 Edition follows the 2003 and 2005 versions, continuing the success of WIZARBOX’s creation.
The Nintendo DS version came out on September 14 and now it’s the PC version’s turn.

As a short overview I will say that the game was developed in partnership with the French Federation of Scrabble and published by Ubisoft, and offers you the possibility to play against the computer or other people.

The 2007 Edition has a new improved interface with new graphic themes for the board and letters, and also different angles of sight, and zoom.
The game is based on the official Collins dictionary which is updatable.

You have six game modes: Anagram, Enigma, Crossagram, Junior, and Standard and Duplicate Modes which are the ones used in clubs and official championships.
To improve your skills and become an expert you have a section with commented games, as well as a mentor who can analyze you game style and give you useful advices at a strategic level.

After you become a Scrabble addicted, you may call three more friends and play half night in multiplayer mode, and the rest of it in Duplicate mode with up to 100 players, over the Internet.

Franck Maniquant, world champion of French Scrabble and Champion of France in 2001, validated the game which uses Artificial Intelligence.

You like it?
Then enter here and get it at a price of $19.99.