Have you ever felt the need to kill someone? If not, you surely encountered only people you'd die for, instead of killing them, and I am really glad for you. Fortunately, the game I want to tell you now is not about random killings, because everything seems to have a purpose here, while the main goal is to kill other assassins. I know this is not completely original, but the story managed to make me smile, because I am sure a lot of gamers will identify themselves with the main character, as we're going to see right away...

No More Heroes, previously called only "Heroes," is an action game for the Wii console, directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, and published by no less than 4 companies: Marvelous Interactive Inc., Spike, Ubisoft and Rising Star Games. Now, let's get to the story, shall we?

Your character is Travis Touchdown, a stereotypical otaku(a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime and manga, and I think we could also add gaming to those, don't you agree?), who is living a poor life in the No More Heroes motel of Santa Destroy(yeah, right!), California. I wonder how come he didn't rent a room from a old gramma, instead of paying a motel room and living near poverty, but nothing is perfect, so we should also add that Travis Touchdown wins a beam katana in an Internet auction, so he becomes a hitman.


Once this starts, there's no way back, because the first job he accepts is to kill Helter Skelter, nicknamed "the Drifter," an assassin ranked 11th by the United Assassins Association, taking its place. Now, Travis has just became a target for other beginners, so the safest thing to do seems to climb up the hierarchy, and secure the top assassin position!

Handling the game is not extremely hard, since the Wii Remote is in control of the beam katana, while the Nunchuck attachment helps moving Travis. While playing, despite of using a katana, you should be careful to reload it. Why? Remember this is a beam katana, so it works...on batteries, which I can't say is extremely believable. Killers on batteries? Come ooon!

When talking about all the characters in the game, apart from the UAA assassins, there's Silvia Christel (is it possible for Mr' Suda to be a fan of the Emanuelle series???), a "mysterious" and "cold" woman providing ranks and setting up matches. Those helping Travis are a weapons maker named Doctor Naomi, the former pro-wrestler Thunder Ryu, and a drunk, Randall Lovikov, each with his own part in the larger picture.

No More Heroes is a title that you must try, if you're into manga and wrestling, but I think most Wii users will surely find something attractive in this title, so go ahead and give it a try as soon as you can spare enough time to dive into the universe!

According to Einstein, if I am not wrong, the 4th World War is going to be carried on with sticks and stones, if the 3rd one is started. Fortunately, the wars all over the world didn't turn into a world wide conflict, despite the so-called "war on terrorism" and its consequences. About six months ago, the 3rd World War was unleashed on computers, and this Fall will also start on gaming consoles. What am I talking about here? It's about World in Conflict, of course!

The action is set a bit back, placing the conflict in 1989, during the social, economic and political collapse of the Soviet Union. We all know this happened peacefully for the entire world, despite various local conflicts, but in the game, the plot uses an alternate history scenario where the Soviet Union pursued a course of war to remain in power.

While being generally considered a real-time strategy game, World in Conflict is a RTS which also includes gameplay typical to real-time tactical games. The part I like most is the lack of base-building and resource gathering parts you find in most RTS games, because I usually suck at those, and I end up beaten really bad by the AI. Anyway, back to Mr. Parker, now.

Who is Mr. Parker? Well, you are! In the game, I mean. First Lieutenant Parker is an United States Army officer, under the command of Colonel Sawyer, who was on leave in Seattle, when Soviet forces launch a surprise attack against the US.

During the single player campaign, you get to defend various key points, while the Chinese also enter the war, on the Soviet side. Well, this is not something to talk about, really - you have to experience it, and World in Conflict is a game you have to play, not read about!

While the initial release didn't allow you to play the Soviet side, a new edition, called World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, is going to solve the problem. Now you can finally invade the US and, hopefully, have a successful invasions. Oh, I miss Panzer General 2 and the invasion of the US in that game!

If you were wondering about system requirements, the official list says a 2GHz processor with 512MB of memory and a video card with 128MB video RAM and DirectX 9.0c support should be enough to play the game in Windows XP, I think at least a decent dual core CPU, 2GB of memory and a high end video card are required to allow a gamer to fully enjoy this game which deserves a Perfect 10 score, especially if we consider the upcoming Soviet Assault edition...

Since the dawn of time, mankind fought against something. First, it was a fight for survival, in a world where dinosaurs ruled the earth, water and sky, but as nature was slowly being brought down to its knees, man started to fight against himself. Empires started to appear and the crumble, alliances were forged and then vanished into the wind, people died without knowing what they were fighting for...and this still goes on as we speak.

Anyway, I don't want to get into a discussion about today's empires and wars - it's enough to wage a virtual war, because there won't be a single victim, except for those ours spent in front of our computers, playing Imperial Ages, the game I want to tell you about today!I know Imperial Ages may sound like something new to you, because it doesn't have years of existence left behind, but you shouldn't be afraid of the system requirements - this is not Age of Conan or Crysis, this is simply a browser-based game, so all you need is a computer connected to the Internet, capable of running a Web browser(unfortunately, you won't be able to play Imperial Ages in Links or another text browser...).

If you want to play the game, first step to take is to visit the Imperial Ages site, and create an account. Multiple accounts are not allowed, but I guess one should be enough. If you feel like having multiple personalities, you could always play some MMORPG game and create an entire gang of characters...as long as you have enough time to play with all of them! Anyway, back to our (future) empire now...

Once you are inside your account, you get to see your village. Around it, you have resources that need to be harvested - gold to the North, iron to the West, stone to the East, and wood, to the South. Each of these areas can be improved to increase production, and various buildings can be built with the same purpose(Deep Shaft and Gold Purifier in North, Iron Lore to the West, Stone Cutter in the East, and a Sawmill in the Southern region).All construction is made in real time, and so you may end up waking up in the middle of the night, just to click for a new building upgrade, but the idea is that, contrary to what happens with MMORPGs, you don't have to spend countless hours inside Imperial Ages.

Inside your village, the new building types available are the Warehouse, the Camping Ground, Consulate, Treasury, Castle and Fortress, and once you have built them, you can upgrade each of them. For example, you need a level 1 Consulate to join alliances, and a level 2 one to create your own alliance. Once you have created an alliance, the maximum number of members will be limited by the level of your Consulate, and you'll need to bring it up to level 5 to have up to 25 members in your alliance.

Oh, no, I forgot something! Anyway, if you created your account already, I am sure you noticed it - there are 4 nations available - Papal State, Hanseatic League, Mongols and Valachia, which can train and use 120 types of military units, but I won't say more.

From my point of view, things look good, and if you have a few free minutes to spare each day to build an empire, look no further - Imperial Ages is exactly what you were looking for!

When talking about photorealistic racing games, Burnout Paradise is another title in my long list of "games to play when I'm dead" (there are simply too many to enjoy in a normal life, really, so don't get me wrong with that!). Unfortunately, it's only available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so I guess a few gamers will run from the PC to the console again due to this title, but let's see what makes Burnout Paradise so special, shall we?

Started back in 2001, the Burnout game series was developed by Criterion Games, and published by Acclaim in first place, and later by EA Games. Formerly known as Burnout 5, Burnout Paradise was released back in January, and its open world is set in the fictional "Paradise City," while the game's title track, also featured on the in-game soundtrack is - obviously - Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City." I don't know about you, but I can't go wrong with that one in my car. Some songs are made for driving, and most of those in this game match the theme perfectly!

To race, simply drive around in Paradise City, stop at any of the 120 traffic lights to be found in the game, and then apply the accelerator and brake at the same time. Pretty easy, don't you think? As you race and earn experience, you are going to earn higher and higher licenses, moving up from the Learners Permit (E-Class), all the way up to the Criterion Elite, also known as the SSS-class.

Do I really have to tell you about the online racing mode? I guess not, because that's something you have to enjoy, not read about it!

All in all, Burnout Paradise is one more reason for those passionate racers still hanging on to their PCs to move on and get a console, and a great racing game that may soon get new paid downloadable content available, but we'll talk about that one when we know something for sure. Until then, you could also spend some time comparing what reviewers think, and create a more accurate opinion about this game, but I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Discovering Nature is not one of the hardcore gaming enterprises which we’re usually reviewing. It won’t charge an arm and a leg for you to play and doesn’t even require you spending long vicious hours on a daily basis to provide a sense of achievement. In fact Discovering Nature is the kind of game you pass on to your kids when they are young, in the hope that they’ll learn something when the day is done. Maybe the girlfriend or wife will enjoy it, and rest assured, when you have a break at the office you’ll enjoy its catchy casual scent just the same, dear reader.

Discovering Nature has been released by the independent Croatian game developer Ocean Media on October 24th, 2007. Since we’re talking about discovering nature, expect the game to have a strong educational value coming from the myriads of creatures and plants from all over the world. As the story goes, blonde Professor Jane Pinckleport needs to follow the leads and get samples needed to cure a deadly virus. Players are going to be of assistance by helping her in specific locations all over the world. Jane meets about 60 animal species to save from mortal danger by pairing and moving them to the lab. As you might have guessed by now, Discovering Nature is a puzzle game where wits gain you more points and a quick solution to reach the next level.

Each encounter faces you with the challenge of pairing up a certain number of creatures belonging to three different types. The simple drag and drop process allows you link them together according to the current level rules. This is to say, it’s ok to group three little squirrels together and take them out of harm’s way if we’re on a matching trip. But if we’re in the predator game, your advancement relies on triplets like snake – guinea pig – grass, like a food chain condition. All in all you can link as many creatures as the setup allows you to, start the chain wherever you like, and end it as shown in the screenshots.

There are even great bonuses if you manage to link every creature belonging to the current selection in the entire level. The intriguing part is that huge chains will grant you more points but won’t get you closer to the final goal. The yellow box is your trap and it can only be activated when two creatures of the same type share its bonds. Thus the Tetris-like movement of your puzzle pieces needs to clear the way for such pairing.

What starts off as a relatively easy task turns into a real challenge later on. Animals begin to get stuck in spider webs which need to be cleared by collecting and using water buckets, only to see trappers showing up and stealing your prize. It’s a real jungle out there and only the smartest assistants can survive. Should you get stuck in one of your attempts, you can reverse the latest move or even roll the dice once more at a hefty score penalty. You start off in the Amazon and quickly make your way into similar natural habitats. Professor Jane’s friends eventually show up and guide your progress as the virus gets treated in the end.

Discovering Nature is addictive and a great time killer should you need a pause from normal and slightly boring activities. Your kids can delve into a pleasant, mind stimulating, activity and learn a thing or two about ecosystems at the same time, food chains and native animals from all over the planet. There’s a demo available for you to try out and who knows, maybe you’ll even make someone happy with this present. A little bit of casual gaming never hurt anyone.