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Apple Games recently posted two new game feature articles. The first article enters the world of City of Heroes Mac Special Edition for an examination of the super hero themed MMO, while the second reviews the colorful tower building iPod title, Wonder Blocks.

The City of Heroes feature includes an overview of the game's features, comments from lead designer Matt Miller, a description of the archetypes available to characters, and a history of Paragon City. Apple Games' Wonder Blocks article provides an overview of the game's main features and a list of tips and tricks.

City of Heroes Mac Special Edition:

If you’ve read even a few superhero comic books, you’ll probably be tempted to emulate your favorite character. Miller and the rest of the development team know how you feel. “My influences started out very Marvel-centric, but once I started working on City of Heroes, I started reading some DC books,” he recalls. “Comic books have covered a lot of cool themes, and we try to do the same thing, but translated into game terms for the players.

“Take our Sidekick feature, for example. It allows a character who is lower level to actually fight at almost the same level as the character they’re sidekicked to, so players who have characters with radically different levels can still play together. You’ve got numerous examples of that dynamic in comic books.”

NCsoft also took a cue from comic books by calling its expansion packs “issues,” complete with numbers and titles. Each one grows the game world with new features, including zones to explore, NPCs and storylines, powers and items, and more. Three to four are scheduled each year — the latest one, issue 13 (“Power and Responsibility”), introduced several improvements, including day jobs, which grant your character bonuses even when you’re logged off.

When you install issue number 14 (“Architect”), you’ll have access to the new Mission Architect system, which Miller says “will allow our collective community to create more content than we ever could. We know we have a lot of creative players out there, and not only do we think that they will enjoy using this robust set of tools, but they will want to share their creations with other players.”

While building a tower, place two or more blocks of the same color so they’re touching to create a combo and earn bonus points. The more blocks you connect, the more points you’ll score, and if you group four or more, you’ll earn a gold block that automatically sticks to any block in that combo, regardless of how it’s placed.

Combos also free bonuses that are occasionally trapped in blocks. Touch the floating bonus with your next block to unleash its power, which might be a reward of more time or extra points, the ability to change the current block’s color, an increase or decrease in the flood level, or the stickiness of a gold block. The bonus could also blow the blocks, making them difficult to place on the stack.

Apple Games: City Of Heroes Mac Special Edition

Apple Games: iPod Wonder Blocks

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City of Heroes

iPod Wonder Blocks

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