The Download Munkey

Games Thursday : Peggle – World of Warcraft Edition

Roys — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:00:04 +0000

Introducing Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition, a little freebie I found at the official World of Warcraft goodies page while looking for a HD version of Mr T’s old WoW commercial featuring his custom Night Elf Mohawk. (What? You don’t know Mr T?) While I’m not a fan of World of Warcraft, but hey, a free game is a free game

Popcap’s Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition is essentially a free sampler of their original best-selling Peggle comprising 2 stages of five colourful World of Warcraft themed levels each. Resembling pachinko or “Japanese pinball”, the player has to eliminate all orange pieces by play by shooting at them directly or indirectly (duh )

It differs from pinball in the sense that that are no flippers which greatly simplifies gameplay since it’s a game intended for casual gamers but apart from that, it’s loaded with lots of blinking lights, whizzy sound effects and insane scores in the hundreds of thosuands, just like being at a pinball table.

Despite its apparent simplicity, it’s oddly addictive since most of the later levels require more than a fair bit of logic and puzzle-solving skills – you can’t just mindlessly shoot and hope to clear the level with pure luck – just see this strategy page for Peggle. As for replayability, there’s really little incentive in replaying levels after you’ve completed them unless you’re aiming to bust the high scores table. There is however the Challenge mode to boost the longevity factor although it’s mainly aimed for the masters or hardcore fanatics.

If you like Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition, there’s always the original Peggle with 55 levels and playable on a mind-boggling array of platforms – PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, iPhone, mobile phones, online and even as a free 12 level World of Warcraft addon.

Download Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Faerie Solitaire
Stomping Grounds
She Asked … for a Bejewelled Clone
Bubblets – Jawbreaker for Windows
Filler (Puzzle Game)

Military Tuesday : Battleship WW2 Gold Edition

Roys — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:28 +0000

An enhanced shareware version of Battleship, the classic turn-based game for two in which each player attempts to be the first to sink all his/her opponent’s ships, Strategy Lights Series’ Battleship WW2 Gold Edition is an innovative PC-based version that adds substantial depth to the original game with a selection of well-thought out features.

Don’t judge Battleship WW2 by the archaic in-game graphics because under those utilitarian visuals lies a solid, engaging naval strategy game – or a wargame-lite if you will. Definitely more realistic than pencil-and-paper Battleship, Battleship WW2 is no hardcore naval stimulation by any means though – lightly-armed corvettes aren’t likely to sink a battleship, not in this modern age and definitely not back then in WWII, but they do in this game.

Loads of stuff to play with … if you buy the full version, of course

If you can overlook this slight lapse in realism, you’ll find Battleship WW2 perfect as a simple introductory naval strategy/wargame. With 50 types of ships, submarines, planes and coastal artillery and a larger fleet that can move around on a significantly larger playing area, you can simulate historical scenarios with ease – something you definitely cannot do with the original Battleship game.

Since ships have different radar ranges to detect enemy ships and planes and in addition, only select classes have sonar to detect those nasty submarines, there’s loads of strategy involved in tailoring your battle fleet before starting each mission and when manuevering during the actual mission – a battlefleet comprising only the mightiest battleships may look good on paper but will quickly succumb to enemy submarines which can approach undetected and then make quick work of the entire fleet of behemoths without any fear of retaliation.

Sure, you’ll still need battleships, heavy cruisers and their heavy firepower to destroy enemy capital ships and/or aircraft carriers with fighters to defend against marauding torpedo-bombers and bombers to attack coastal fortifications but a combined fleet with corvettes/destroyers steaming farther ahead to screen these larger ships from prowling enemy submarines stands a much better chance of completing the mission successfully. Other essential ships to reinforce your fleet include unarmed auxiliary ships to repair damaged warships and of course, submarines to hunt for unwary targets.

Battleship WW2 uses attributes like movement range, firing range, radar/sight range, number of shots per turn (simulating the number of guns/torpedoes on each ship) and armour (hitpoints) to represent the different classes of ships available. It does a very good job differentiating the various ships, but the fact that hits from a cruiser and a corvette both cause exactly the same amount of damage does jar the realism somewhat.

Hunting the Bismarck

Different mission objectives call for different fleet configurations and range from the direct annihilation of enemy shipping to liberation of enemy ports or the defense of friendly ports in the area of operations.

More missions! … if you buy, buy, buy

The full version of Battleship WW2 contains a total of 110 missions, 4 campaigns of 10 to 15 missions each and allows the construction of all 50 types of units to equip your forces. The shareware version lacks the campaigns and most of the missions and ships. Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had experimenting with the optimum fleet build and testing them out in battle

Download Battleship WW2 Gold Edition.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel Fleet
Sea Victory Tugboats
WWII Anti-Submarine Warfare Tactical Lessons from BBC
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Turning Point – Fall of Liberty Trailer

Art Friday : Atlantica Online

Roys — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:00:47 +0000

There’s a lot of free-to-play MMORPGs nowadays – so many that I always see at least one ad for these games everytime I visit any games-related site (a good example is The Download Munkey, at least on Thursdays that is ) and that’s exactly how I found Atlantica Online

While the concepts and wallpapers aren’t distinctive enough to scream Altantica Online when you look at them, unlike how the art for major players such as Lineage II or Guild Wars do, the artworks here are of a consistently high quality (and high-res to boot). On top of that, there’s a generous selection of concepts and wallpapers available (24 wallpapers in total) at the official site with more in the fansite kit.

Now on to the concepts for Atlantica Online. The one below is my absolute favourite – a warrior monk wearing lamellar armour. This must be the coolest monk character concept for any game that I’ve ever seen

Download the Atlantica Online concepts, wallpapers and fansite kit.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Warrior Epic Concepts and Wallpapers
Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning Illustrations & Concept Art
Korean MMORPG Wallpapers (X) – Tera Online
Exclusive Hero Saga Laevatein Wallpapers @ GA Graphic
The Art Of Prince of Persia Screensaver

Wallpapers Wednesday : Dissidia : Final Fantasy

Roys — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:00:09 +0000

Dissidia : Final Fantasy is a long overdue fighting game featuring the heroes and villains from each of the Final Fantasy games from first Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy XI.

Final Fantasy V was the only one that I completed but I can neither recognize Bartz Klauser or Exdeath in both wallpapers – one for the forces of Cosmos and the other for Chaos.

In contrast, Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII are instantly recognizable despite the fact I never played the game

Download these wallpapers from the official website for Dissidia : Final Fantasy (choose Cosmos or Chaos and then click Multimedia)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Square Enix Member Fanzone Exclusive Wallpapers
Exit Fate – Excellent Freeware RPG
Warren Louw – Illustrator
Magical Orchestral Score, Wallpapers & More from Blue Dragon Fansite Kit
Magna Carta (Korean RPG) Wallpapers

Random Monday : The Macabre World of Parasitoids

Roys — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:28 +0000

Came across this interesting article at Neurophilosophy on parasitoids with the capability to “brainwash” or modify the behaviour of their unfortunate hosts. From Wikipedia:

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism which it ultimately kills (and often consumes) in the process. Thus they are similar to typical parasites except in the certain fate of the host.

That said, the behaviour of some of these plants and animals can be a truly engaging read although it’s best to leave this stuff alone until after lunch or dinner. For the same reason, graphic photos are kept to a minimum too

I’ve elected to provide a short summary of the contents of this interesting article instead of simply regurgitating what I read – you can jump to the actual post for the juicy bits

The article introduces the genus of parasitic fungi cordyceps, of which cordyceps sinensis is one of the most well known species for its prized healing properties in traditional Chinese medicine (I’m taking some pills made from it to speed up recuperation after a bad spell of eczema flare-ups, that’s how I found this article ).

At Neurophilosophy, the reader is introduced to another species cordyceps unilateralis which has a startling ability to influence the behaviour of its infected ant host to ensure its spores disperse over a wider area and increase its chances of infecting other ants. There’s more photos of cordyceps fungi and their hosts over at www.fruit.affrc.go.jp and www.utexas.edu if you’re so inclined.

Photo by L.E Gilbert @ The University of Texas

Camponotus ant with Cordyceps lloydii.

And if you thought that these plants were creepy enough, wait until you read about the gordian worm It appears that these two species are just the tip of the iceberg, just browse around in Wikipedia and check out freaky stuff like the suicide-inducing parasitism category, the phoridae family of flies or the Solenopsis daguerrei species of parasitic ants.

Learn more at Neurophilosophy.

Games Thursday : Federation Wrestling

Roys — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:04 +0000

Federation Wrestling is just one of Mat Dickie’s many games from a prolific game development career spanning nine years from 2000 to the present day. Essentially an one-man development team, you gotta respect someone like Mat who took it upon himself to code and create the accompanying graphics and sounds to implement his own gameplay ideas into real, playable games.

Mat Dickie, da Man!

Federation Wrestling is a freeware release of one of the older games in Mat Dickie’s portfolio. While the 2D sprites may turn off gamers used to the photorealistic 3D graphics in today’s games, I find these old-skool graphics nostalgic as they remind me of a time when pro-wrestling was more entertainment than bloody violence that the current WWE has become.

While there are no licensed wrestlers in Federation Wrestling, any wrestling aficionado will surely appreciate the sheer customization options offered by this game. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Federation Wrestling was developed by a big wrestling fan

After tweaking your wrestler’s appearance, fighting animations and moves (and even the entry theme music) to your heart’s content, lead him (sorry, there’s no option to create a female wrestler) to fame and glory though a 12 month contract to prove himself as the best in the game. Thankfully, the story in the 48 match Contract mode isn’t half bad either (for a wrestling game, that is )

action

Standard moves like punching, kicking and grappling are available to everyone together with loads of different bodyslams, suplexes and submission holds and other special moves for each wrestler. While climbing up the turnbuckle for more risky aerial moves is possible, there’s unfortunately no way for running clotheslines and the like since the ropes are static (and your wrestler can’t run).

Aku Rinne staring intently at a stick of dynamite as he enters the arena. It’s gonna be one explosive match tonight

As you make your entrance into the ring with your custom theme music blaring in the background, note the bewildering array of handy tools like microphones, baseball bats (and wait, dynamite??) lying around conveniently outside the ring for the dirty players. Some of the largerprops like glass panels and crates are interactive too – try tossing your opponent through the glass and see what happens next

Aku Rinne just busted Benjo onto a long table

Watch out when you use your dirty tricks though since not every match allows the referee to turn a blind eye to your wrestler bonking his opponent over the head repeatedly with a microphone. Different rules, scoring systems and optional gimmicks like steelcage matches will ensure that the matches in Contract mode never end up being overly repetitive.

Download Mat Dickie’s Federation Wrestling (scroll, scroll, scroll).

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Kungfu Action with Dragon Fist 3 : Age of the Warrior
Zeno Clash Concepts & Screenshots
Mini Ninjas Demo Impressions
Legion of Man Demo Impressions
Dark Horse Comics Goodies (I) – 300 Wallpapers

Military Tuesday : Supercavitating Torpedoes

Roys — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:00:36 +0000

I recently read about supercavitating torpedoes being used in fictional near future global conflicts in Dragon’s Fury and Shotgun One and thought that it was a too much of a coincidence to be a fictional weapon so I went Googling and well, this stuff really exists!

The white area depicts the gas bubble surrounding the moving black object. Water resistance against the moving object is redirected away by the gas bubble.

Simply put, supercavitating torpedoes are rocket-propelled torpedoes which create a envelope of gas around the body of the torpedo to significantly reduce water resistance and drag, thus enabling incredible speeds of over 200 knots per hour – nearly 5 or 6(!) times faster than most warships, even new ships like the futuristic-looking USS Independence designed by General Dynamics.

There isn’t much information on the Internet about these ingenious weapons though since the only two types of supercavitating torpedoes in active service seem to be the Shkval/Shkval-II (above) developed by the Russians in the 1970s and an alleged Iranian copy of the Shkval-II.

Surprisingly, the Russians did not intend to use these weapons in the anti-ship role as depicted in the abovementioned novels but only as defense against enemy torpedoes instead. The Shkval probably wouldn’t be practical for attacking enemy warships in real life due to the limited maximum range of around 13 km (the American Mark 48 torpedo while slower, has a more useful maximum range of around 50 km) and the significant noise signature created by the ignition of the rocket motor which would have greatly compromised the launching submarine.

More information about the Shkval at Military Periscope, Articles Extra, World Affairs Board and of course Wikipedia. Or read the novels : Dragon’s Fury and Shotgun One

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
WWII Anti-Submarine Warfare Tactical Lessons from BBC
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Sea Victory Tugboats
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel Fleet
Kyoshi Harada’s 3D Renders of WWII War Machines

Art Friday : The Weird and Wonderful World of Afu Chan aka aznmextofu

Roys — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:33 +0000

Afu Chan or aznmextofu @ deviantART has a knack for conjuring up some of the most wildly fantastic artwork that I’ve ever laid my eyes on – quite reminds me of several of my dreams in the past, only much weirder, more violent and most definitely much more fascinating and intriguing

One of my favourites is Fishbones Attack – a tie wearing horseman lets loose a blast from his shotgun on the rolling gunmen-infested deck of a ship with giant fish (tuna?) leaping into the air in the background. Also notice the nice little detail where the rear hoof of our horseman’s black charger has stomped on the left hand of one of the fallen gunmen. And that unfortunate guy’s probably isn’t dead yet because his face has just turned very red All very odd which makes Afu’s stuff so interesting.

Something’s about to turn real ugly soon as these two girls stand by patiently with weapons loaded and ready to ROCK!

Street Fight 07 – a martial arts movie-like scene set in the streets with the ragdoll-like agility of Matrix.

A day out in Zombie City

Street Fighter II done in Afu’s distinctive style.

The Lugaidh Brothers and Sisters – a band of unconventional pugilists with totally unkungfu-ish sounding names From left to right : Frank, Stephanie, Cindy, Paul, Monica, David and the guy up front is Lugaidh himself. The word Nepenthes is also the genus name for the carnivorous pitcher plants.

Swordfights in the sky – City of Violence – ever seen a punch so powerful that it breaks a passing airliner into two – Bruce Lee’s famous one inch punch doesn’t even come close

More chaos in Fight Back to School,

… in a forest with Daruma dolls hanging from the trees (Heaven & Earth),

… and in a church with walls pockmarked with bullet holes (Battle Royal 08). The funny thing is no one seems to have managed to hit and shatter any of the stained glass windows yet

Check out more of Afu Chan’s fantastic artwork at deviantART.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:

Warrior Epic Concept Art and Wallpapers
Kai (Ukitakumuki) – Concept Art for Nuclear Dawn and More!
Zeno Clash Concepts & Screenshots
Kal Online Wallpapers
My Favourite Dominance War III Wallpapers

Wallpapers Wednesday : Dominance War IV

Roys — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:07 +0000

A small selection of my favourite wallpapers from this year’s Dominance War IV art competition. The general theme for most of the entries takes on a decidedly darker and more morbid feel than previous years’ works with a host of imaginative infernal or mechanical implements of death and destruction being entered for Dominance War IV.

There’s a total of 29 wallpapers in all but I’ll just feature my favourite five – you can check out the rest at the Dominance War website. The selection below also exhibits a personal bias towards 2D concept art – hence the total absence of any of the wallpapers featuring the 3D entries – they’re not bad of course, just that I prefer 2D

I’ve attempted to provide links to the Dominance War IV entry page and personal website for the artist of each of the featured wallpapers below for those interested in exploring further

Tu Bui @ 2buiart.com (DW IV page)

Fedor Losev @ feddark.deviantart.com (DW IV page)

Huang Guang Jian @ hgjart.com (DW IV page)

Chung Yee Ling @ syncmax.deviantart.com (DW IV page)

Simon Dominic @ www.painterly.co.uk (DW IV page)

Download these and other Dominance War IV wallpapers. The champions and other entries for Dominance War IV can also be viewed here.

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My Favourite Dominance War III Wallpapers
Project Coo! Wallpapers
LeoArtz.com – In Art We Trust
Artzmania – Free Arts E-Mag

Random Monday : Fight or Flight

Roys — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:00:37 +0000

Trailer for an award-winning documentary Fight or Flight tracing Irish filmmaker/producer Peter McCarthy’s journey to learn Muay Thai in the gyms and training camps of Thailand. Made over the period of five years, Fight or Flight is much more than just Muay Thai and the often fascinating Thai culture, it’s also an attempt to try and understand the issue of conflict and violence in the world today .

A flurry of fists and knees – the trailer definitely captures the intensity of Muay Thai action much better than this static shot

Freshmeat!

The collection of snippets from the film includes a particularly memorable scene where Peter passes by some of the queer stuff for sale at the many roadside stalls of Thailand, to glimpses of the Lanna Muay Thai boxing camp in Chiangmai and actual Muay Thai fights (legal of course) in Thai stadiums – one thing I noticed here and in a recent visit to Lumpinee Stadium (some photos at thoo2’s blog) was how quickly the referees in grey-brown uniforms moved in to separate the fighters when required.

KOed.

Punishing knee strikes

Not much to comment about Fight or Flight since I haven’t actually watched the film yet – I’m keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that it will be screened at one of the film festivals here eventually

Check out the trailer at the official site for Fight or Flight. The film is available for sale on DVD from this official site only.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Muay Thai Wallpapers
Kungfu Action with Dragon Fist 3 : Age of the Warrior
Street Fighter IV Wallpapers
The King of Fighters XII Wallpapers