Warcraft III

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real-time strategy computer game released for Microsoft Windows by Blizzard Entertainment in July 2002. It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, and the third game set in the Warcraft Universe. Warcraft III proved to be one of the most anticipated and popular video game releases ever, with 4.5 million units pre-ordered and over 1 million additional units sold during its first two weeks.

Warcraft III contains four playable races, including the Humans and Orcs, which had previously appeared in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II. In addition to these are the Night Elves and Undead, which are new to the Warcraft mythos. Warcraft III's campaign is laid out similarly to that of StarCraft, being told through all four of the game's races in a progressive manner.

Blizzard Entertainment released two versions of the game: the regular edition and a limited Collector's Edition. The collector's edition box contained a Warcraft III cinematic DVD, including behind-the-scenes features and the cinematics of all prior Warcraft games; a Collector's Edition Soundtrack; a Collector's Edition instruction manual; The Art of Warcraft book; and Lithographic Prints.


One of the main innovations Warcraft III offers over the previous games in the series is the addition of several powerful units called Heroes. Heroes can find or trade items to increase skills, defense, and other abilities, and with each kill of an enemy, the heroes gain experience points, eventually resulting in increasing their level and gaining new spell options (thus introducing role-playing game elements to the series). Certain heroes also can apply beneficial auras to allied units. The highest level that can be gained in a normal game is level 10. At level 6, the hero can obtain an "ultimate" skill that is potentially more powerful than the others.

Another innovation is the addition of creeps, which are computer controlled units the player fights even in multiplayer. They guard key areas or neutral buildings and are designed to act as a resource for the players to kill to provide experience points to a player's hero and to provide hero items. The idea is to force the player to be aggressive instead of "turtling up" (spending all resources on defenses and technology, rather than attacking). In The Frozen Throne Expansion Pack, Heroes can reach a maximum of level 5 from killing creeps; after that they can only get experience from enemy units/towers, while the highest level allowed is 10.

Warcraft III includes four playable races: the Humans and the Orcs, who also appeared in Warcraft and Warcraft II, along with two new races, the Night Elves and the Undead. As an April Fool's joke before the game was released, Blizzard announced that the Pandaren would be the fifth race. The company didn't reveal the Night Elves until a month later, and pandas are now a running gag in Warcraft (to the point that a Pandaren Hero — called the Brewmaster — was available in the expansion pack, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne). A fifth playable race, the Burning Legion, was changed during play-testing to a set of non-player characters and monsters (with a playable "cameo" on the last level of the Undead campaign, as Kel'Thuzad summons Archimonde), and a sixth playable race was removed during testing before announcement of what race it was to be.

Warcraft III has a large online gaming community centered around Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net servers (called Gateways): Azeroth (U.S. East), Lordaeron (U.S. West), Northrend (Europe), and Kalimdor (Asia). Players meet other players to chat and set up multiplayer games through Battle.net. In addition to custom games, in which players have complete control over game settings (including map, teams, handicaps, etc.), Battle.net features a ranking system for certain standard game types: 1v1, or solo; various team games (2v2, 3v3, 4v4); and free-for-all (FFA). Ranked game play is facilitated by Blizzard Entertainment's Automatic MatchMaker, which pits players of comparable skill against each other. Players can also form clans comprised of ten or more players, which are also ranked. Unfortunately, the matchmaker does not always puts up the teams fairly, sometimes, there may be a level 20 player and a level 5 player versus two level 5 players.

Warcraft III also includes a very thorough scenario editor. It uses a scripting language similar to the trigger system used in StarCraft. As well as providing the ability to edit any aspect of the units, buildings and spells, it has advanced features as custom tilesets, custom cinematic scenes, dialog boxes, variables, and weather effects. Many custom maps, featuring a large variety of gametypes continue to be developed, and together with the expansion pack have contributed to the longevity of the game.

Halflife 2

Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game and the sequel to Half-Life, developed by Valve Corporation. It was released on November 16, 2004 following a protracted five-year development cycle[1] during which the game's source code was leaked to the Internet. The game garnered near unanimous positive reviews and received critical acclaim,[2][3][4] winning over 35 Game of the Year awards for 2005.[5]

Taking place in and around the fictional City 17 sometime in the near future, Half-Life 2 follows the scientist Gordon Freeman. Dr. Freeman is thrust into a dystopian environment in which the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident has come to bear fully upon human society. Freeman is forced to fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive. In his struggle, he is joined by various allies, including fellow Black Mesa colleagues, oppressed citizens of City 17, and the Vortigaunts.

The game uses the Source game engine coupled with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine. Half-Life 2 has been critically acclaimed for advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics. When sales figures were last announced, over four million copies of Half-Life 2 had been sold.[6] Roughly 25 percent of all Half-Life 2 copies have been purchased using the Steam content delivery service; their exact number is between 750,000 and one million, depending on whether they are included in the figure of four million.[7] Overall, the Half-Life franchise, including Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, has seen over 15 million sales.[8]

To date, an Xbox port of the game has also been released. Two more versions to run on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are expected to be released during the first quarter of 2007

Tomáš Rosický

Tomáš Rosický (pronounced /ˈto̞.maːʃ ˈro̞.sɪʦˌkɪ/ (Tom-aash Ro-sits-kii); born October 4, 1980 in Prague) is a Czech international football player, who currently plays his club football for English Premiership side Arsenal.



An attacking midfielder nicknamed 'the Little Mozart', Rosický is known for his phenomenal work-rate and his eye for a pass. He started his career with Sparta Prague in 1998, where he won three Czech League titles, and became the youngest-ever winner of the Czech Player of the Year award. In 2001 he moved on to Borussia Dortmund; helping Dortmund to a Bundesliga title in 2002, and reached the UEFA Cup final (which Dortmund lost 3-2 to Feyenoord) the same season. His solid form in the 2004-05 season helped Dortmund climb the Bundesliga table and away from potential relegation. In all he played nearly 150 Bundesliga games for Dortmund and 23 games in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Rosický's reputation grew during his time at Dortmund, and during the latter stages of his spell at the club, Dortmund were in substantial financial trouble; they could not hold onto him despite recognising his influence on the team. Press reports linked him with big money transfers to Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal. Rosický expressed a desire for Dortmund to allow him to leave at the end of the 2005-06 season, and the arrival of South African Steven Pienaar was made in preparation for Rosicky's departure.

On May 23, 2006, Arsenal confirmed that they had signed Rosický on a long-term contract. The transfer fee was undisclosed but was rumoured to be in the region of £6.8 million due to a get-out clause in his contract at Borussia Dortmund.Rosický took over the number 7 shirt which was formerly worn by Frenchman Robert Pires.

On August 8, 2006, Rosický made his competitive debut for Arsenal in their first leg Champions League third round qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb, playing on the left-wing. On 13 September, Rosický scored his first goal for Arsenal in an away game at Hamburger SV, with a long-range effort from 30 yards.

Theo Walcott

Theo Walcott (born 16 March 1989 in Stanmore, London) is an English footballer who currently plays for Arsenal, having signed there from Southampton on 20 January 2006.


Arsenal

His performances soon attracted attention from the British media, who saw him as one of the most promising young English talents of his time. There was speculation that Walcott would move to the Premiership and media reports linked him with some of the league's top clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, as well interest from the likes Real Madrid, Juventus, Milan and Barcelona. After much tabloid speculation, and intense and protracted interest from Chelsea in particular, Walcott ultimately signed for Arsenal on 20 January 2006 for an initial fee of £5m, rising to a possible £12m based on appearances for club and country, making him the most expensive 16-year-old in the history of British football.

On 7 February 2006, Walcott made his debut for Arsenal reserves in a game against Portsmouth reserves at Havant; he scored, but Arsenal lost 3-2. Walcott was then named in an 18-man squad to face Real Madrid in a UEFA Champions League second round first-leg tie at the Bernabéu on 21 February 2006.

On 28 February 2006 Walcott was included in the England Under-19 squad alongside Arsenal team mate Kerrea Gilbert to face Slovakia in a friendly at Sixfields Stadium. England won 3-0 on the night with Walcott scoring on his U19 international debut, with an 80th minute penalty kick. His original kick was saved, but the referee ordered the penalty to be retaken and Walcott scored on his second attempt.

On 16 March 2006, Walcott's 17th birthday, he finally signed a professional contract worth a reported £1 million a year, which lasts until summer 2008 and includes provisions to extend it.

On 19 August 2006, Walcott made his Premier League debut on the first day of 2006-07 season. He came on as a substitute after 73 minutes against Aston Villa. He played a significant role in creating Gilberto Silva's equaliser in the 84th minute. Upon receiving the ball in the penalty area, he sent in a floating cross towards the far post. The ball skimmed Robin van Persie's head before falling into the path of Gilberto Silva, who made no mistake and scored the equaliser.

Walcott made his Champions League debut in the second leg of Arsenal's third qualifying round match against Dinamo Zagreb and became the youngest ever Arsenal player to appear in European competition, a record previously held by Cesc Fàbregas. Within minutes of coming on he received his first yellow card in Arsenal colours for taking a shot several seconds after the referee had already blown for offside. During stoppage time, however, his cross beat the Dinamo defence and Mathieu Flamini scored, giving Walcott an enviable record of two assists in two substitute appearances.