Top Free Online Games for 2013-2014

2013 was definitely a good year for online gamers – and there are so many to choose fromthese days – who knows where to start?  Not to mention the surge of online bingo sites – you can’t turn on your TV’s these days without seeing a campaign for one!   We thought we would let you know our top 5 for you to try for free!

DC Universe Online

This is perfect for those comic book fans out there!  You will see some of your favourite characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman as well as some villains too like the Joker! You get to choose whether you want to be a hero or villain and can utilise their weapons in your fight.  You can even create your own custom villain or hero, you can choose how they look and even their combination of super powers.  Have fun trying to conquer the universe.

Dungeons and Dragons

This is possibly one of the most famous online games around.  It is a multi-player game that allows you to visit the unexplored world of Xen’drik.  As it is a role playing game it allows you to essentially to create your own adventure.  It’s action packed so you can expect to meet all kinds of characters and creatures.  It does however feel very realistic – you can even change the camera view so you can see everything in a first person perspective.

Raider Z

After the kingdom of Rendel crumbles you will find that there are all kinds of vicious characters swarming the kingdom looking to make it their own. The tagline of the game is “Hunt Together or Die Alone”.  There is hope for you to save the kingdom but you need to join together with others and fight against those monsters.   You need to be careful though as these monsters are scary and will stop at nothing to complete their takeover.  

Age of Conan: Unchained

This game will introduce you to Conan the Barbarian!  In this game you will be allowed to explore Hyboria and know what it feels like to be one of the most renowned fantasy hero’s ever.  There are 12 different classes that you can choose from and you will have to engage in combat with all kinds of creatures and monsters in your fight to the top.  The graphics and animations are fantastic making everything feel realistic and more enjoyable to play.

The Lord of the Rings

If you were a fan of the Lord of the Rings books or movies – then you will love this game!  It allows you to be part of the action and even get your chance to explore middle earth in your own fight against the evil Salron.  You will find some of your favourite characters features such as Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, Strider and more.  Throughout the game at specific times the game will put you in control of one of those characters to earn rewards.  

We did mention that there are some great new casino sites that have launched too – so if you want to try something a little different, you can and for free with some of the best paypal casinos in this site paypal-casinos.co.

Nintendo says sayonara to the original Wii

Nintendo on Monday pulled the plug on the original Wii, a modest end to the best-selling console of the current generation. The company hinted at the move earlier this month, and it has officially followed through with a simple posting of the words "seisan shuuryou," or "production ended," on its Japanese Web site.

The Wii, the first video game console to make motion control mainstream, was considered an underdog when it first hit store shelves in 2006. It didn't sport high-definition graphics -- an exclusion that made it the butt of many Sony and Microsoft fanboy jokes -- and skepticism was the order of the day for its apparent indifference to the hard-core gaming community and for its eagerness to rope in fitness junkies and families. But it went on to both outsell the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with more than 100 million units sold worldwide...

Read the full story here... Source: CNET

Archos announces GamePad 2 gaming tablet

The original Archos GamePad didn't attract much attention, despite the fact that it offered what a lot of hardcore gamers seemingly wanted: built-in game controls in the form of dual control sticks and lots of buttons. It was, for all intents in purposes, an Android-powered Sony PSP, though with a bigger screen and a lot more games to choose from.

No doubt hoping for a better reception, Archos just unveiled the GamePad 2, which promises a host of improvements over the original...

Read the full story here... Source: CNET

GTA V is Cheaper in Britain Than Any Other Country

GTA's characters might be a bunch of villainous rip-off merchants, but the game itself is anything but. In an unusual reversal of the usual rip-off Britain, the UK is the cheapest place to buy GTA V.

Pre-orders here were around £35 for the hi-def crim-ulator, significantly less than our chums across the Channel are paying, and less even than in the US, which doesn't add VAT.

A copy of the latest in the larcenous series will set you back $60 in the US, which works out to £38 here. In France, this jeu video costs £41, while other euro-using countries are even more expensive: Germany is £47 (Xbox 360) or £48 (PS3); Italy is £45 or £47; and Austria is £47 or £50...

Read the full story here... Source: CNET

SimCity Finally Launches on the Mac With Native Version and Cross-Platform Servers

After being delayed for six months, EA has finally released the Mac version of the newSimCity. The game was originally set to come out in February of this year, but EA decided to delay it to "ensure a great experience" for players.

EA has repeatedly emphasized that the Mac version of SimCity is not a "port" of the PC game, but a fully native version designed specifically for the Mac using OpenGL. However, the game will include full cross-platform support to facilitate 'region play' where the cities of multiple players are connected to share utilities and citizenry, with PC and Mac Mayors able to play in the same regions...

Read the full story here... Source: Mac Rumours

Best of E3 – Gamergraphic

Did you enjoy the coverage of the E3? Sad that it is now over? Well not to fear as the creative chaps at NetVoucherCodes.co.uk created a brilliant Gamergraphic which highlights all the brilliant things seen at the E3. So expect it to be full of stats, tips and trivia on all of the next generation games and consoles. 

So what is a Gamergraphic? The Gamergraphic is a mini game littered with loads of interesting facts. You start the game with the choice of either next-gen console, PS4 or Xbox One. Once you have made your choice, you jump from platform to platform collecting game cartridges each revealing fun facts. If you can collect all of the E3 cartridges NetVoucherCodes will reward you with a single-use 10% Zavvi discount code - but make sure you hurry as there are only 1000 available! Click through to play  game.

Gaming - there’s never been so much choice

The rise of casual gaming over the last few years has changed the face of ‘video gaming’ and made it far more mainstream. Once the sole provenance of teenage boys, gaming has blossomed into a multi-million dollar industry with so many different choices, there is a way of playing games out there for everyone.

The emergence of wifi and hyper fast internet speeds have opened up online gaming to the masses, for example. Not that long ago, you had to be a dedicated gamer to want to get online and play with other people, necessitating as it did waiting for dial ups and tying up the phone line for hours. These days, anyone and everyone can hop online whenever they fancy - and from wherever they fancy with 3G and 4G making it pretty much instantaneous to play games from buses, trains, while shopping, eating and walking. In fact there isn’t anywhere where games can’t be played today!

Consoles are, of course, hooked up to fast internet as well, allowing players to play against people all over the world in complicated games like Call of Duty, requiring skill, dedication and many hours of gameplay.

Smartphones and tablets have given us simple games like Plants vs Zombies and Bejewelled Blitz, which are phenomenally popular with the casual gamer market - the vast number of people who have become interested in playing games, often following first exposure through social networking sites like Facebook. There are literally thousands of gaming apps available, catering to lots of different interests, from sport lovers to brain training experts and the number of people playing them continues to rise.

Added to these are online gambling and casino sites, which offer a different way to play games online. Although poker and casino games have always been popular, with console games and simple card games available for many years, the rise of online poker recently has seen a huge uptake in players. The ability to play professional players and play many hands at once has opened up real life tournament play to dedicated online poker players as well - they can win places in tournaments and go on to advance their game that way.

In a similar way, online bingo sites have also taken off in recent years, with many thousands of regular players discovering a way to harness an old favourite in a completely new way. It’s possible to play online bingo on sites like chitchat bingo and enjoy socialising with other players, as well as play bingo in many different ways.

With online games also aimed at children - for example Disney’s Club Penguin and Mind Candy’s Moshi Monsters proving phenomenally popular and introducing children to the world of online gaming at a very early age, it seems that no age group or interest group has been left out of the rise of online gaming. There really is something for everyone, and it;s fantastic to see something that was once so niche, become so popular and educationally important. You can’t underestimate what can be learned from video gaming and online game playing and, of course, the fun that can be had exploring all the different ways to play.

Next-gen EA games will skip Wii U due to performance issues with Frostbite engine

EA's Frostbite 3 engine, which underpins many of the company's next generation titles, looks like it won't support Nintendo's Wii U. Johan Andersson, Technical Director of the Frostbite project at EA DICE, says the company tested Frostbite 2 on the console and found the results to be "not too promising," to the point where it "chose not to go down [the] path" of porting the next version. Leaked slides from earlier this year revealed that EA has approximately 15 games in development that use Frostbite 3, the implication being that Wii U gamers are going to miss out on some fairly big titles, including Battlefield 4, Star Wars, the next Mass Effect and, as Joystiq pointed out last week, this year's version ofMadden NFL. It all adds up to a notable loss of support for the new console -- but hey, EA-style gaming was hardly a core part of the Nintendo experience in the first place.

Source: Engadget 

Microsoft’s Next Xbox to be Revealed on May 21st, 2013

Just think, in less than a month’s time, Microsoft will give us a reason to call the next Xbox something other than the Xbox 720. That might just be better news than anything they could possibly reveal at their upcoming showcase.

Both Game Informer and Kotaku have now confirmed that Microsoft is sending out invitations to select members of the press for their next Xbox unveiling. The presentation is set for 10am on May 21st, 2013 at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters.

We have reached out to our contact for more information. Until that happens, this is all we’ve got.

Update: Our contact directed us to Major Nelson’s blog. This is what he writes there:

On Tuesday May 21^st, we’ll mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. On that day, we’ll be holding a special press event on the Xbox campus and we invite you to join us via the live global stream that will be available on Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE and broadcast on Spike TV if you are in the US or Canada.

On that day, we’ll share our vision for Xbox, and give you a real taste of the future. Then, 19-days later at theElectronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, we’ll continue the conversation and showcase our full lineup of blockbuster games.

We are thrilled to pull back the curtain and reveal what we’ve been working on.

What do you want Microsoft to announce for their next console? For me, I just don’t want the thing to require an internet connection in order to play games.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

SimCity update 2.0 hits April 22, offers bug fixes, enhancements -- still no offline mode

Although SimCity has become relatively stable following its problematic launch, there are naturally still ongoing bugs that the folks at EA Maxis have been working to fix. Thankfully, that version 2.0 update that was teased just over a week ago now has an arrival date of April 22 at 4PM ET. Included in the update are 26 bug fixes, along with data map color filters, a color-correct HUD for the colorblind setting and the action of mayors traveling from their mansions to their jobs. Sadly, an offline mode is still no more than wishful thinking, but at least that OS X version should still be on track for a June 11th release. You'll find all the details about your virtual city's soon-to-arrive enhancements at the source link -- expect some server downtime, by the way, when the update itself hits.

[Source: Engadget]

NVIDIA May Launch GeForce 700 Series GPUs at Computex 2013

New graphics cards from Nvidia could be set for a summer debut.

Summer is just around the corner, and with it is the Computex computer expo in Taipei, Taiwan. Are you wondering what the event will introduce to the computing world? So are we, and word on the web is that Nvidia is planning to launch its next generation desktop GeForce700 Series graphics cards at Computex. In addition to pushing the performance envelope, the GeForce 700 Series is said to be in response to AMD’s aggressive game bundles.

We all know that the main reason to buy a graphics card is to improve game performance (or for design work), but for those on the fence in which direction to go, AMD has been tempting upgraders with its Never Settle software bundles consisting of AAA titles.

According to Fudzilla, Nvidia has seen enough and isn’t about to let AMD wrestle a larger share of the desktop GPU market than it already has. As such, the GeForce 700 Series might even launch ahead of Computex, the news and rumor site reports, though we’re skeptical Nvidia will be quite that ambitious. We’re also reluctant to get our hopes up of a summer release, as previous rumors pegged the launch to take place in 2014 sometime after the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but we’ll cross our fingers nonetheless.

As for the actual hardware, most assume the GeForce 700 Series will be based on a refreshed version of Nvidia’s 28nm Kepler architecture.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

New Prince of Persia on the way to iOS this summer

Here's a nice blast from the past: Ubisoft has announced new Prince of Persia game, which is a remake of the second title in the series, made specifically for smartphones and tablets. Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame is being remade as a 2.5D action title -- it seems to feature the same basic levels as the 1993 original, but the graphics are all completely updated, and there are going to be some new gameplay elements as well.

It looks like a lot of fun, as you can see in the trailer below. The game's being developed by Ubisoft Pune, and it'll have either virtual sticks or tap-to-move controls, depending on your choice. The game's also designed to be more accessible, which will be nice for those of us that weren't very good at the games back in 1993. But if you want a challenge, Ubisoft says, there will be timers on all the levels, so you can try to complete them as quickly as possible if you want.

[Source: TUAW]