Spending some time with Left 4 Dead – part 2 that contains Swamp Fever and Parish campaigns, one may wonder if in case of a zombie apocalypse he should after all choose wilderness instead of city. The Swamp campaign is about survivors running to seek for a refuge in a community which refused the help of some military forces. In the first moments you live under the feeling that you are OK, but shortly after this you realize that actually you are in a swamp with all the locals watching. The Swamp is the only mission in “Left 4 Dead” – 2 with the settings belonging to nightmares images and they actually resemble to the images of the swamps from American South.
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You can escape from the zombies that populate the areas through the shacks that are able to take you up out of the waters. But the shacks don’t seem to be that safe since they are easily crushed by the zombie hoards, and as a character in the game you have to try to stay oh higher ground in order to stay alive. The levels are rendered by the Swamp or Parish plays which alters according to the type of the zombies. In Swamp the zombies are mud men with different skills, that force the player to be very cautious while wandering as they could have come out of nowhere and draw your attention in undesirable location, thus distracting you from your purpose. The Parish campaign features zombies in the form of biohazard suit infected and present immunity to the fire and this is a tough situation especially when relying on molotovs in order to feel safer.

Beside these zombies, there is also a Spitter infected which can perform a ranged attack over a group of survivors in the form of an area where once you are caught within its limits you are damaged, well, not entirely but yet you can get really hurt. The Swamp’s finale resembles the original L4D, whereas the Parish campaign shows a new type of climax with a change of pace, when the players meet situations otherwise common to be presented in a different texture, forcing the players to change strategy or to act very carefully. The perception of time while playing this second part is somehow different compared to the one you have while playing the first part of Left 4 Dead.

More than that, the addition of ammo packs and adrenaline meant that the team while playing is delivered new options when they have to face disastrous situations. The fans of the first part may be taken by surprise while encountering these new situations, but be sure that you will be into a lot of excitement and surprise elements that will you going; ah, and one more thing, after you’ll be done, properly (!) speaking, the L4D2 makes you think that there is not a spot to deliver safety to you.

When the CG animated series of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Universe with its action of Republic Heroes was released it was said, according to publisher LucasArts, that it gained the rates of being the number Cartoon Network show in 2008. This Republic Heroes part is supposed to make the connection between the first season and the second season of the show preserving at the same time the official texture of the series and determining the Clone Wars to be an experience worth playing. The story of the game is created by one the writers from the show and the creators of the series have designed character models with Krome Studios, the developer.
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The Star Wars’ Republic Heroes part presents the missions divided into two main types: Jedi missions and clone missions and eight choices for play Jedi who fights hordes of droids in order to destroy the bad forces of the galaxy. The combats are set on a natural background, where Jedi is able to flip around, to cut droids with his lightsaber, using at the same time Force powers to determine real damages. Another set of choices is when you can select to play as one of the 10 clone troopers, this feature gives the perspective of a third point of view shooter, while the action transforms in heavy gun shootings.

The burden of doing all the work by yourself is removed in that you are allowed to benefit from a cooperative play with two characters displayed on the screen, this feature being similar to the one present in another name from LucasArts world: LEGO Star Wars. The Jedi mission reviewed in these lines is the one that takes place on the planet Ryloth, a desert that is also present in the world of Clone Wars TV series. Fighting as the character of Jedi you have a lot of advantages of power features such as Force Push to throw droids aside. One of the most exciting ability is to jack droids, a Jedi can jump atop of a droid and with the lightsaber stuck in the droids he can actually control it for a period of time, this revealing another feature in the systems of weapons: used for puzzle solving.
When it comes to the clone missions, the rhythm gets changed dramatically as you realize that start running and blowing things around with maximum predilection. This time the action takes place on a besieged space station that has droids coming out from all sides of the station. The players are allowed to use multiple choices of weapons, they can hide behind objects existing in the setting and easily throw grenades. On a 360 version of the game, the controls system was very trustworthy synchronizing itself with everything that takes place on the screen, this makes Krome Studios to gain one point in their favor.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes will be available on PS3, 360, PC, Wii, PS2, PSP and the DS and though it presents some minor problems mostly related to viewing angles, audio bugs etc, the game has a title that will definitely arouse the curiosity in the fans of the genre and who look to expand their experience.

Dustin Browder, the Lead Game designer for StarCraft II reveals some interesting insights into the design process that IGN Au has recently made public. Browder declares that the process of creating is starting from the scratch, the team doesn’t mind about the things that belonged to the StarCraft I trying to insert new changes with whatever they may influence in the process of designing. These new approach is at the same time challenging because it brings upfront problems that need balanced in a totally exciting and varying manner.
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He agrees with the fact that analyzing the gamers playing online with their own way of doing specific things was of a great help to the creators of the games making them realize how the modern RTS is defined and cast in the competitive gaming. The team is striving between what is good and what is bad and lately they have reached the point where they are aiming for the beta testing phase.

On a pre-beta version viewed by the designers team there were things to be changed, such as a Roach that wasn’t necessary meant to make tons of damage, maybe to name it a Zealot to take over its features, and you end up creating other characters which you haven’t thought about from the beginning. The purpose of these preliminary tests is to take you deep into the process revealing situations that you might have missed at the initial drawing, in this way enabling you to add or subtract features that change the set of the game.

The act of changing altered the way one Zerg feels, turning a Baneling into a much more adequate unit, for instance the changed Roach won’t be able now to step on him any more, Roach having Hydra to act together even though Hydra as a part of its own in that it can get a position in order to defense a base, and as such becoming a golden feature. The Roach in its turn has a combo that is very powerful and through this feature it can determine a strategy for the enemy player as well, defining this characteristic called the positional strategy, which can be very exciting for the fans of this game style.

StarCraft II is seen as a Team Fortress, as Dustin Browder likes to compare it to, and this because the game has class counters that allow you to establish what is the most important in your strategy: bringing the wrong weapon or how to use the weapons that a gamer has? But anyway RTS is still an RTS and the designers are aware of the fact that scouting is getting more and more powerful with stakes getting raised as well, that’s the reason why they start introducing units that do the killings in a balanced way of displaying the game.