Formerly known as Ultimate Baseball Online, the game currently going under the Cal Ripken's Real Baseball name is the first and only one of its kind. What kind? Well, think about a free massively multiplayer online game involving sports. Obviously, we're talking about baseball, and this game here is the only MMOSG(massively multiplayer online sports game) available at this time! Today, we're going to talk about a new tournament in this game, but fiiirst...

<-250x250 Square - left->...you should know that Cal Ripken's Real Baseball has been developed for almost 4 years, and the current version of the game is expected to be replaced by a completely overhauled one pretty soon, probably in October.

The tournament announced today is a Home-Run Derby Tournament, being scheduled to begin on June 2nd at 12:00 PM PST. This is going to be a pretty long fight, because the Home-Run Derby Tournament is basically a revolving two-week competition, so we're going to have a new winner reaching the ultimate glory every two weeks.

If you're a beginner, you don't have to worry, because each player is competing against those having the same level, so in the end, it's all about skill.

Andy Wang, founder and CEO of Netamin Communication Corporation, said the Home-Run is "a single player tournament, and players will not just experience winning or losing but learn about playing the game of baseball as well. It will help players to have better experience when they start to play with real people!"

The prizes? A spot in Cal Ripken's Real Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as the option to place your own picture in the list of honorees. Sounds good to you? If so, just go to the Cal Ripken's Real Baseball website, register for free, and then get busy with it. Good luck!

"Design it. Build it. Drive it!"...no idea? OK, TrackMania sounds better? You don't know TrackMania? Well, no matter if you do or you don't, I have to tell you about the latest game in the series, called TrackMania United Forever. The big news is that, after a pretty long wait, Ascaron Entertainment has announced that TrackMania United Forever has been officially released, and can be purchased from retailers across the United States!

<-250x250 Square - left->Before moving on, I have to make a confession, and you should take it as a word from gamer to gamer, because I wasn't paid by anyone to say it. All TrackMania games I played were simply great, and I am not talking about how much fun can you get from a simple arcade racing game, but how well they scale to slower hardware.

Announced on the 7th of October 2007, together with TrackMania Nations Forever, TrackMania United Forever includes the classic Race mode, the crazy stunt mode that awards points for aerial manoeuvres, as well as platform/puzzle modes where you get challenged to create tracks before racing on them, closely following the "design, build, drive" approach, one of the most important parts that make this game series stand out of the crowd.

If you want to know more about TrackMania United Forever, I am sure the official page will satisfy your thirst for information, but I know one thing may seem to be missing from my article here, and that is the part regarding this game's system requirements. No, you won't get that info from me! Why? Because almost any decent computer built in the last 4-5 years should run the game without any problem!

These being said, I'll be waiting for your feedback. Do you think I should give TrackMania United Forever a try, or should I skip it? At last, since pricing can be different, depending on the retailer, give me a hint on pricing, please! I heard that a friend of mine got it on Steam for about 30 bucks, but I am not using Steam yet...so I'd be grateful for your help!

I don't know why, but I was never too much into superheroes, although I enjoyed Superman or other similar movies/cartoons/comics. To be honest, I didn't have the chance to try the City of Heroes game, because there was always something more interesting than it, at least on paper, but that doesn't mean this game doesn't have a lot of followers, and the last update comes to prove that City of Heroes is alive and well.

<-250x250 Square - left->The free expansion pack called "Issue 12: Midnight Hour" has been just announced by NCsoft, and its aim is to provide new Villain Epic Archetypes, as well as additional character slots for players, together with a new Greek and Roman-themed zone to explore.

Matt Miller, lead designer of the game, said "With the introduction of Villain Epic Archetypes, new costume options and Powerset Proliferation in Issue 12, we knew players would want to be able to create new characters. Expanding the number of character slots in this way ensures that our players can use all these new features. We think it’s a great solution that adds value to the service."

At last, you should know that there's even more to the Midnight Hour, since "the clandestine organization of mystics, scholars and mages who hold a secret that could bring the alien group, the Rikti, to its knees" called Midnight Squad has been introduced, together with a bunch of quests related to it.

One of the games I will never forget is Transport Tycoon, and despite the fact this can't be happening, every time I see a game involving the "tycoon" word, I have to take a look at it, even if it doesn't have anything in common with that brilliant title I just mentioned. Supernova 2: Spacewar is the game I want to tell you about today, and it comes from Tycoon Games, but this is not the only link to Transport Tycoon, because this space wargame is combined with a resource micromanagement simulation!



<-125x125 Button - left->According to Riva Celso, programmer/designer of Tycoon Games, "After the first title, I wanted to shift genre completely, making a turn-based space wargame, integrated with a resource macromanagement part. I wanted to keep the management part simple, with global variables affecting your whole empire rather than managing every single planet. It is my first game for the Tycoon Games website, which will feature exclusively strategy, simulation and war games."

Supernova 2 has the following features:

- Two selectable factions (Blue Army and Blood Legion) each one with unique tech and units
- Macro management part using resource distribution
- Tech research tree to discover multiple items
- Spacemap to explore and conquer other starsystems
- Full starsystem including planets of various kind: lava, barren, gaia, water, gas, and more
- Turn based battles with different battlefield conditions for great replayability and unique emphasys on turning / facing
- Easy Training Camp option to learn all the secret of the wargame part
- Upon study of alien relics you'll be able to use unique special weapons that do special damage
- Unlimited lifetime updates!

All the above is available for PC and Mac users, for a mere $25. If you want to purchase, download a demo, or find out more about the game, there's only one answer to that question: TycoonGames.eu!

If you say Codemasters, I can't help but looking back and remembering those great games that once were all those in the Dizzy series, 750cc Grand Prix, or the TOCA Touring Car series. Obviously, we can't forget the more recent Colin McRae series, or games that don't have anything to do with cars, like the ArchLord MMORPG, or Clive Barker's Jericho. Anyway, today it's about racing, and I got some great news - Codemasters' upcoming title, Race Driver: GRID, promises to take things even further than Colin McRae: DIRT did, and the firt proof is already here...

...because the number of downloads of the demo versions of this game is already larger than 1,000,000!!

<-250x250 Square - left->On the other hand, you should know that GRID is already Gold, being expected to start shipping on the 30th of the month. The final car list is pretty long, including the Dodge Viper SRT10, Toyota Supra, BMW 320si, Porsche 911 GT3, Lamborghini Murcielago and many others, while the tracks available will be no less than 15, from Donington Park and the Nürburgring GP track, to San Francisco, Washington DC, or Long Beach.

Most people that played the demo already consider this game an impressive one, with amazing graphics that won't require you to upgrade your computer, as long as you have a decent gaming machine for the year 2008.

Now...what else can I say? The demo can be downloaded from every major gaming site, so choose the one which allows you the fastest download, because the demo has almost 900MB in size, and that's it. Godspeed!!!