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Name of Site: AusGamers
URL: http://www.ausgamers.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Ausgamers is one of Australia's biggest gaming communities. Originally
set up to facilitate LAN gaming, Ausgamers Online has spawned into a huge
megaplex of action, excitement and need I say it...Games galore! It's
hard to know where to start with these guys because they really do everything...
On one level Ausgamers provide news, reviews, servers, features, press
releases, host events, and report on events and LAN parties. Dig deeper
and they have massive forums, play host to hundreds of gamer's websites,
provide email, forum & IRC facilities and there's more... You see
Ausgamers is the main site, but there is also the LAN sites such as MPU,
QGL and Shafted and also AusXbox, AusWolf, AusCounter-Strike, AusFortress
and so on, all full blown sites on their own. Ausgamers gives new meaning
to the term "Games Portal" and if you're even remotely serious
about online gaming, this a must visit! - SS
Name of Site: UnderGround Online Games Channel
URL: http://www.ugo.com/channels/games/
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Need a Map
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: UGO is a giant cyberworld catering to all sorts of cultural exploits,
among which is its games Channel. Featuring reviews, previews, interviews
and any other view possible, it's rather big to say the least and much
of the material is pretty mainstream. The channel has sections for different
platforms (Xbox, DreamCast etc) and game genres (Strategy, Roleplaying
etc) as well as game demos, shopping and the ubiquitous forums. Overall
while a good portal site, UGO tends to be let down by two major factors,
a distinct lack of usability (think pages with some 200 links in 9 point
text size) and an absurd amount of advertising. Nonetheless if you can
wade through banner-ads and large lumps of text links at the bottom of
the page, then there are masses of quality content well worth checking
out. - SS
Name of Site: GameSpy
URL: http://www.gamespy.com/
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: If UGO and Ausgamers were brahmin cows, then GameSpy would be
an oversized wooly mammoth. For the uninitiated Gamespy started out with
a product that allows punters to scan servers for action and then with
just a couple of clicks boot up the game and log on. While the Gamespy
software is still a major feature, it has grown to become a huge network
of websites. The sites offer many of the features you'd expect such as
reviews, features, game info, release dates, cheats, forums and so on,
but for my money the most interesting thing is the Humour section, home
of the NAMINATOR. When you're tired of your current screen-name, the NAMINATOR
will randomly generate one for you - CancerousBongrip was mine - and if
you wish, it will l33tify it as well into something like Can(3|2ousB0ngr1p.
I'm more wasted than I thought.- SS
Name of Site: Play Later
URL: http://www.playlater.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Shockwave
Review: My philosophy has always been why hunt around the net for things,
when you can find a site like Play Later that finds them for you? Play
Later is a site that locates and lists shockwave and flash games for you,
categorizing them up into general, top10, new and featured games. You
will find yourself led off to some really addictive little beasts that
suck up your time like vacuum pumped octopus tentacles. Play later? Why?
That 6 foot pile of dishes, festering heap of dirty laundry, jungle of
a backyard and stinking mound of maggots where my bin used to be can wait.
I want to play now! - SS
Name of Site: Pogo
URL: http://www.pogo.com/
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: Pogo is a site that lets users play a host of Java games for free
but with the opportunity of winning cash prizes. What a concept! The way
it works is you sign up, choose one of the hundreds of games running,
if you win the game then you get a spin on the Jackpot wheel. If the wheel
goes your way then you get the current Jackpot for that game. Jackpots
are between US$50 and US$5000, but be warned there's a lot of competition
for them (sometimes more than a thousand people playing at once) and you
have to sit through advertising between games to pay for the prizes. It's
fun, it's addictive and I really wish I had thought of this business model!
- SS
Name of Site: CleverMedia
URL: http://www.CleverMedia.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Flash, Shockwave
Review: CleverMedia is a company that makes addictive little Flash and
Shockwave games, which can then be licensed by outside parties for as
little as $100 a year for 50 games. It makes for a clever little way to
spruce up your UNIX FAQ or accounting website and keep people coming back
for more. But if you're not interested in licensing games, you can still
play them by going to either the Shockwave or Flash arcades, from which
you will be able to access everything from classics such as "LodeRunner"
to quirky titles like "The 'Make-your-Own-Game' Game". Clever!-
SS
Name of Site: Blizzard Entertainment
URL: http://www.blizzard.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Blizzard are makers of some of the most popular PC games ever,
including the world's fastest selling game, Warcraft 3, which together
with it's add-on has sold some 5 million copies - with God only knows
how many pirate copies made on top of that! The Blizzard site lets you
get up to date with whats going on with their products, download demos,
screenshots or, heaven forbid, actually buy the games. But most importantly
you can also view the amazing trailers Blizzard makes for their games.
If you've never seen a trailer for any of the Diablo, Warcraft or Starcraft
games, you haven't truly lived and you should immediately log on, turn
up your speakers, switch off the lights and download them, unless of course
you have a heart condition... - SS
Name of Site: Games
URL: http://www.games.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: If you like board games, arcade games, card games or dice games,
you'll love Games.com. Using some fairly quick loading Java clients you
can play all your favourite games - Yahtzee, Bridge, Asteroids, Breakout,
Scrabble, Sorry!, Battleship, Clue and - my all time favourite game of
greed and corruption - Monopoly. Games.com is officially registered with
some big name game makers - in particular Hasbro. They obviously got in
early on the domain name buying lark, but sadly there were a few errors
on the site at the time of writing, so watch out for those. But nonetheless
if you feel like buying up Park Lane and Mayfair at the only official
Monopoly site on the web, then look no further. - SS
Name of Site: Dungeons & Dragons
URL: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/welcome
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: If you thought Dungeons & Dragons was something that only
manic depressive sociopaths played, well you might be right, who knows...
but there is still plenty of fun to be had, and this official site will
keep any sane or otherwise D&D fan engrossed. With free adventures
to add to your campaign, an art gallery, maps, bardic knowledge, books,
games, events, spellbooks, a community and whole lots more you are living
the dream. There is a veritable treasure trove of goodies for any wannabe
Dungeon Master! You'll be the envy of your once close, now rather bewildered
friends. - SS
Name of Site: Shockwave
URL: http://www.shockwave.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Shockwave
Review: Using Macromedia's Shockwave technology, this site brings you
some very innovative and addictive games, categorized as action/adventure,
puzzle games, shooters, jigsaws, 3d games, multiplayer, arcade, sports
and even cash contests where you can win real money. The games are all
of a very high standard, but they operate on a sort of demo basis, where
you get to play a certain number of times for free and then you need to
purchase a key code to continue playing. Nonetheless if you can handle
some fairly hefty downloads, there are some pretty playable games here!
- SS
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