Age of Empires Online TeraLook

By Michael Dunaway (Spunkify), OnRPG Tera rmt 

Remember Age of Empires? Well if you consider yourself any sort of RTS buff you should. The Age of Empires series in the past has been one of the most successful RTS franchises (yes there have been other popular RTS franchises other then Starcraft). The originals have won countless awards and have solidified themselves in the RTS hall of fame.

 

 

 

Being an old Age of Empires fan myself, I was quite excited to hear that a new Age of Empires Online title was coming out, and better yet for free! I will admit I was a bit skeptical as to how well the new game would turn out, but after getting the chance to play around with it a bit in the open beta I am confident where it is headed.

 

 

Age of Empires Online combines a progressive MMO setting with a traditional RTS single player and Multiplayer. This is all accomplished with the introduction of the player's home town. At the start of the game you are asked to choose a nation (currently only one nation is playable) and name your home town. This town serves as your base of operations as you take up quests offered up by different citizens in your town.

 

 

 

The quests themselves play out like your typical single player RTS campaign missions. They give you a few objectives and some starting resources and town folk to work with. Everything plays out just like it did in the original AoE titles but with an added layer of MMO sprinkled on top. Whereas the traditional Age of Empires introduced you to new unit types as you progressed. Age of Empires online allows you to complete missions to unlock new items and structures within your home town. On top of this your home town also levels up giving you access to the three skill trees to spend your skill points in. The skills range from opening up new unit types, to allowing your workers to build buildings faster or gather resources quicker. I can definitely see a huge potential for strategy here as players customize their home town to match their personal tactics.

 

 

 

I have yet to get a chance to test out the multiplayer components but I am curious to see how they play out. I do worry that because of the need to level up in order to gain access to new skill points and unlocks, newer players looking to play more than just the quests early on may be at a huge disadvantage. Still the game is being developed by some of the original creators of Age of Empires. So with any luck we will have a great free to play RTS with some awesome MMO elements mixed in! Be sure to check back in to OnRPG for new updates and a full review!

Spanish court wonders if CIA used airport

MADRID, Spain — The Spanish National Court has received a prosecutor’s report on allegations that the CIA used an airport on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca for its program of covert transfers of terror suspects, court officials said Monday. The chief prosecutor for the Balearic Islands submitted the report to the court in July, after a four-month investigation prompted by articles in a Mallorca newspaper,tera gold, the court officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because court rules bar them from giving their names.The newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, said earlier this month that Spanish police have identified three planes used by the CIA at the airport in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, in its “extraordinary rendition” program.The U.S. government has been criticized by human rights groups for practicing “extraordinary rendition” — sending suspected terrorists to foreign countries, where they are detained, interrogated and subjected to possible ill-treatment.

Tiger faces uncertain future

ponte vedra beach, fla.A forlorn Tiger Woods was walking gingerly toward his white Mercedes when PGA Tour official Stephen Cox approached him in the TPC Sawgrass parking lot.ROUND 1 RECAPTiger bowed out, Phil scrambled and surprise names stood out.Watney sets the paceTiger pulls out with injuryLusetich: Tiger an 'old' 35Lusetich: WD shocks Tiger palFS Florida: Tiger will win againFS Florida: History of Tiger's troublesPhotos: First-round actionCox told Woods, who minutes earlier had withdrawn from The Players Championship after just nine holes of his opening round, that he needed to go to the medical trailer for examination.“Do I have to?” a bemused Woods responded.Did they think he was faking it?Was it not obvious that Woods’ surgically reconstructed knee had given out as he limped his way to a 6-over-par 42, leaving him dead last in the field when he pulled out?Standard procedure when a player withdraws from a tournament, Woods was told.He broke into a sarcastic smile, shook his head and let out a sigh, maybe in acknowledgement that, these days, whatever can go wrong for him goes very wrong.Golf’s fallen star now faces a future more uncertain than ever after Thursday’s latest setback.“I have,” he replied when asked if he had concerns about his leg.Woods has had four operations on a knee that bears the impact of golf’s most high-octane swing.DOWN AND OUTThere was lots going on at Sawgrass on Thursday, including Tiger's WD. Get the video picture.Tiger re-injured: How it happenedTiger talks after withdrawingDr. Adickes: How long can Tiger last?Watney, Glover, O'Meara steal showThe joint was totally reconstructed in 2008, and then he injured the knee again — along with the Achilles' tendon — while hitting a shot out of pine straw in the third round of the Masters last month.The injury left him wearing a protective boot and needing daily treatment.Although his camp characterized the injury as minor, it was serious enough to force Woods to withdraw from last week’s Wells Fargo Championship, held at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow, a course he loves.Why he even showed up at The Players — a tournament he doesn’t have much love for and played on a course he dislikes — remains a mystery.Maybe he felt he needed to repay tour commissioner Tim Finchem for allowing him to use the Sawgrass clubhouse as the venue for last year’s televised apology for the wake of his scandal.Or maybe he just felt he needed to get in some practice before next month’s US Open at Congressional Country Club.Or maybe he was just trying to do the right thing and show up at the tour’s marquee event.Whatever the motivation,tera gold, it was clearly a mistake.Woods wasn’t ready to play this tournament, in any sense.Not only was there a real chance of re-aggravating the knee and Achilles', but he was completely undercooked, hitting balls Monday for the first time since the Masters.Woods played only nine holes of practice Tuesday and again Wednesday.LEADERBOARDHow did your favorite golfer fare? Visit our PGA Tour leaderboard.Neither did he seem particularly enthused Thursday morning.“He was not into this golf tournament,” said former tour player and television analyst Mark Lye, who followed Woods. “Looked like he was going through the motions.”Maybe Woods knew what was ahead.Although he’d had only “minimal” swelling after playing nine holes Wednesday and said he’d “felt fine” during his warm-up, things went pear-shaped from the opening tee shot.He sprayed a 3-wood way left.“I was just trying to draw that ball out there just a little bit. I pushed forward, and, you know, it just didn’t feel good,” he later said.“The knee acted up and then the Achilles' followed after that and then the calf started cramping up.“Everything started getting tight, so it’s just a whole chain reaction.”Woods hit only one green in regulation in nine holes and his short game, needless to say, wasn’t sharp. He chunked a pitch shot into the water on the fourth — after dunking his approach — and then made a 20-footer for triple bogey. NEW-LOOK LPGALPGA players show off their off-course style.Once he bogeyed the ninth, he handed his scorecard to Martin Kaymer and informed him and Matt Kuchar that he was withdrawing.He said later he should’ve come off earlier.Now his future’s in his doctors’ hands.“Give me a few days to see what the docs say,” he said.What he doesn’t need them to tell him is that it’s impossible to play golf with a knee that has been churned into hamburger meat.It’s far too soon to say, as some have, that Woods is in any way finished.He is still only 35.Even if it’s an old 35.

Syrian human rights group 757 civilians have been killed si

BEIRUT — Syrian human rights group: 757 civilians have been killed since uprising began in mid-March.,tera gold

Rays Tigers Preview

With an opportunity to add to their winning streak, the DetroitTigers are also looking at a franchise first.The Tigers will try to complete their first three-game sweep ofthe Tampa Bay Rays at Comerica Park while going for a fourthstraight win Wednesday.Detroit (25-23) followed a 6-3 victory Monday by rallying for a7-6 win Tuesday. Alex Avila's second homer of the game, a two--rundrive in the eighth inning, helped lift the Tigers after his solohomer in the sixth made it 6-5.''In order to be a championship team you've got to be able tocome from behind and win one-run games and withstand that kind ofpressure,'' said Avila, who's recorded two hits in four of his lastfive games following a 1-for-13 slump from May 10-16.Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run homer, his ninth of the year andfirst in Detroit since April 10. The Tigers have scored 15 timesduring a three-game winning streak following a five-game slide inwhich they totaled seven runs.Detroit's only sweep of the Rays came Sept. 4-6, 2009, in St.Petersburg, Fla., and the Tigers' Brad Penny (4-4, 4.45 ERA) willtry to get his fourth win in five starts while perhaps making somehistory.The right-hander yielded five runs over 21 2-3 innings in hisfirst three May games en route to wins over the New York Yankees,Toronto and a fantastic outing against Kansas City on May 14, whenhe allowed five hits in eight innings of the Tigers' 3-0 win.But Penny failed to keep his surge going Friday at Pittsburgh.In 5 2-3 innings, he was tagged for five runs and six hits with aseason-high five walks in the 10-1 loss."Just too many walks and they got three infield hits off me,''said Penny, 2-4 with a 4.95 ERA in six career starts against TampaBay.Ex-Tiger Johnny Damon is 0 for 6 and Evan Longoria 0 for 5all-time against Penny.Matt Joyce had three hits Tuesday for the Rays, including hiseighth homer, to raise his AL-leading batting average to .367.Joyce, who hadn't hit higher than .252 in any of his three previousseasons, had 12 homers in 92 games as a rookie with the Tigers in2008.''It has been a tough week,'' Joyce said after Tampa Bay's sixthloss in eight games. ''We've got to find ways to win thesegames.''Andy Sonnanstine (0-1, 4.21) will make his fourth start in placeof the injured Jeff Niemann (back) for Tampa Bay.As a reliever,tera gold, Sonnanstine had no record and a 2.19 ERA in sixgames this year. Since returning to the rotation on May 10, he'sfailed to go past the fifth inning while posting a 6.08 ERA.Following a loss to Baltimore on May 15, Sonnanstine did not geta decision in the Rays' 5-3 setback to Florida on Friday. In fiveinnings, the right-hander was reached for three runs - two on solohomers by Logan Morrison and Mike Stanton in the fourth - and sevenhits.Sonnanstine has served up five homers in 13 1-3 innings as astarter compared to one over 12 1-3 in relief.He has not faced the Tigers since splitting two starts in 2008.The loss came at Detroit after he allowed five runs and five hitsover 5 2-3 innings as the Rays (26-23) fell 6-4 on Sept. 26.

Livan Hernandez faces scrutiny after PR drug trial

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)Federal justice officials will meet with Major League Baseballrepresentatives after the name of Washington Nationals pitcherLivan Hernandez surfaced in the trial of a convicted drugdealer.Prosecutors presented evidence at the trial ending Tuesday thatPuerto Rican drug dealer Angel Ayala Vazquez had a Porsche, aLamborghini and a warehouse containing a recording studio, a barbershop and a car repair shop registered in Hernandez's name.U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez and Javier Pena, specialagent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Caribbeandivision, said Wednesday they will meet with MLB officials in twoweeks at baseball's request.MLB officials had made the request during the trial, theysaid.Federal prosecutor Jacqueline Novas, who investigated the case,said it is possible that federal officials will further investigateAyala's connections to celebrities, including Hernandez.''We are going to look closely at those individuals,'' she said,declining further comment.Hernandez told The Associated Press that he wouldn't comment onthe matter. He said all questions should go through the Nationals'public relations staff.''The Nationals are aware of and are monitoring the situation asit pertains to the Angel Manuel Ayala trial in Puerto Rico,tera gold,'' teamspokesman John Dever said.Hernandez defected from Cuba in 1995, and went on to help theFlorida Marlins win the World Series two years later.Evidence presented during the trial showed that Ayala allegedlypaid Puerto Rican reggaeton singers, including Daddy Yankee andWisin y Yandel, along with merengue singer Elvis Crespo, in cash toperform at Christmas parties at a public housing complex.Ayala, better known as ''Angelo Millones,'' was once consideredthe island's top drug dealer. He was found guilty of conspiracy todistribute cocaine, heroin and pills at public housing projects inthe community of Bayamon. Also convicted was his brother, Luis CruzVazquez.Sentencing was set for Aug. 8.---AP Sports Writers Howard Fendrich in Washington, D.C., and HowieRumberg in New York contributed to this report.

where gold came from?

No one knows exactly whtera goldere gold came from, but one theory posits it was forged in collapsing stars,tera gold traveling millions of light-years before becoming part of the earth's formarift platinumtion. So far we've mined 166,600 tons of the metal, more than half of all rerift goldcoverable gold. Gold doesn't generate earnings and its price is volatile, burift goldt as an inflation hedge it holds appeal. --Tara Moore