The Top 10 F2p Monsters to Train On

  1. Lesser demons (Level 82) – Karamja Volcano (or Crandor Island) These demons have a low attack and defense level, have around 80 hp but can hit 8s without any weapons. They have relatively good drops and give great xp for mid to high level players, usually dropping from 40gp up to a rune med helm (usually happens once every 200 kills or so). There are several hiding spots for mages and rangers to use and the demons will become non-aggressive after around 10 minutes. If there are too many people, you can switch worlds or go to a german server (usually with 50-500 people).
  2. Moss giants (Level 42)- Eastern Ruins (Level 30 wilderness), Crandor Island, or Varrock Sewers

Moss giants are usually level 42 but can still hit up to 5s. They always drop big bones (worth around 300gp each) and can also drop black kiteshields, mithril stuff, magic runes, and a few other items. It is however not recommended that you go into the wilderness because of the revenants that can annoy you or even easily kill you (level 7 revenant imps can hit 8s!).

  1. Cockroach Soldiers (Level 81) – Stronghold of Player Safety

These are level 81 but are way stronger than lesser demons. They can hit up to 13s and will use whatever you use at it, so it’ll range you if you range, it’ll mage you if you use mage, and it can also melee you. However they have very high defense and are recommended for only very high leveled players but can drop a couple different rune items, magic runes, etc. Fortunately, they are not aggressive, unlike the lesser demons and moss giants mentioned earlier.

  1. Hill giants (Level 28) – Edgeville Dungeon

Unlike the previous three, hill giants are a low level 28 but still drop big bones every single time, like the moss giants. They can also drop limpwurt roots, other steel items, runes, and various cheap items. Like before, if it is crowded, then change worlds, preferably onto one of the German servers.

  1. Minotaurs (Level 10 – 12) – Strong of of Security first level

Minotaurs are great training for low-leveled players, especially those using ranged because you can usually end up with more iron arrows picked up from the minotaurs than you started with. They have around 10 hp and drop cheap runes, coins, iron arrows, etc.

  1. Hobgoblins (Level 28 and 42) – Southwest of Melzar’s Maze

Hobgoblins can be found along the water near Melzar’s Maze. They can drop several steel items, 1-150 coins, or a few runes (including law runes, cosmic runes, fire runes, water runes, chaos runes, nature runes, etc.).

  1. Al-kharid Warriors (Level 9) – Al-Karid

These are level 9 but have 19 hp. If you attack one of them, others will come and team up on you if they can see you because the area is a multi-combat zone.

  1. Goblins (Levels 2 – 25) – Almost Anywhere

Lumbridge has quite a lot of goblins. Again, it can be crowded, so switch worlds if many low-leveled players waste your time there.

  1. Cows (Level 2) – Lumbridge East cow pen or South Falador

Cows are only level 2, but have 8 hp. They drop cowhides which can sell for around 100gp off players and the grand exchange making them great for making money for low-leveled players.

  1. Chickens (Level 1)- South Faldador or Lumbridge chicken pen

Chickens have only 3 hp but the feathers dropped can sell for 4-5 gp each. However, unlike the cowhide dropped from cows, feathers are stackable, so you can carry as many as you want with you without having to bank them.

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NBA Live 09 for Xbox 360 Hands-on Preview

With Electronic Arts trying to buyout Take Two, this may be the final year in one of the hottest rivalry in gaming, 2K Sports’ NBA 2K vs. EA Sports’ NBA Live. NBA 2K had the upper hand last year. Can NBA Live 09 redeem the franchise in what may be the final year of the rivalry? Find out in this hands-on preview of the Xbox 360 version.

Graphics
NBA Live 09 doesn’t look all too different from last year’s version. While NBA Live still has an edge over NBA 2K in terms of player models, NBA Live’s animation aren’t as good as NBA 2K’s.

Sound
Despite his new job as the General Manager and President of Basketball Operations of the Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr will be returning to the commentary team with Marv Albert. The soundtrack for NBA Live 09 is still unknown other than that Flipsyde’s “Champion” will be in the game.

Gameplay
The biggest improvements in NBA Live 09 involve new features.

The biggest inclusion is NBA Live 365. For years, many sports gamers have complain about the lack of options when updating the league’s roster to match the real life counterpart.

With the internet playing a large role on next-generation video game systems like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, the gateway is finally open for easy updating. NBA Live 365 alleviates the problem by updating daily. All the trades, singings and other roster moves in NBA Live 09 will reflect the real rosters of NBA teams.

One of the main utilization for NBA Live 365 is the NBA Live Rewind mode. This allows you to replay yesterday’s game with the same circumstances such as certain tendencies and hot/cold streaks. So if last night’s basketball game was haunting you, you can replay the game in NBA Live 09 and change the results.

NBA Live 365 also lends a hand to the Dynamic DNA feature in NBA Live 09. Each NBA player is unique in the way they play the basketball game. Player DNA is an attempt to keep track of their styles by recording the amount of time the player use isolation, pick and roll, post up, spot up, off-ball screen and cuts. With Dynamic DNA, those tendencies will update daily.

Other features improvements include better online play and the expansion of teams in the FIBA mode.

NBA Live 09 also enhances last year’s gameplay. New to the franchise is the streamlined play calling, full pick and roll control and new ankle-breaking moves.

With so many improvements, NBA Live 09 may end up being the best basketball game this year.

Final Product
NBA Live 09 has made some significant strides from last year. It remains to be seen if it is enough to topple the reigning champion, NBA 2K. You can see for yourself when NBA Live 09 is released in early October.

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Resonance of Fate: The Best Game You’ve Never Heard Of

I’m not surprised if most people haven’t heard about this Japanese RPG, it came out at almost exactly the same time FF13 was released; that’s like trying to remember the movies that premiered the same time as The Dark Knight, games can be overshadowed by popular games just as easily.

Resonance is one of those RPGs that has unique elements to the game that oddly work, though they make take some getting used to: placing hexes of different shapes to open new paths to areas in a world built on giant plates in the sky (Midgar anyone?). The only weapons in the game are guns and grenades and coming from Japan, Resonance of Fate has all the stylistic action that accompanies gun play. The battles are fun and a little more difficult than your typical turn based fight, which can be annoying if you can’t win a seemingly easy battle no matter what tactics you apply. Players choose a direction for the character to run or jump to while shooting at enemies; jumping unleashes a sequence of flashy back flips, twirls, and trick shots.

The game is divided up into chapters that progress once the main mission is completed, each new chapter introduces new side missions assign on the message board at the guild. Heading over to the arena will pit your team against monsters that get tougher the higher the rank you go; winning fights nets you bronze, silver, or gold coins that can be redeemed for guns, accessories, or outfits. Since this game is all about style, there are also a number of different outfits available for each of the 3 main characters and while it doesn’t add much to the game itself, the player is welcome to experiment with different outfits and accessories.

The game stars 3 hunters name Zephyr, Vashyron, and Leanne who make a living by doing the dirty work of the upper crust of society, like finding vintage bottles of wine or protecting statues. As the chapters progress, more is revealed about each of the characters along with the main storyline. The game is actually pretty funny and has some humorous cut scenes after completing a chapter. More than a few times have I found myself laughing out loud watching the interaction between Zephyr, Vashyron and Leanne. An interesting element that keeps Resonance of Fate fresh is the player’s ability to customize guns with accessories that enhance their stats. Adding a scope will increase accuracy while an extended clip will allow the character to empty more rounds into the bad guys.

The damage system in Resonance is a bit peculiar; machine guns don’t do actual damage to the enemy, they do “scratch” damage which basically reduces the armor around an enemy. The hand guns do the real damage to the opponents, but only after the machine gun has reduced all the scratch damage. It seems a little counter intuitive but this way it makes the battles more strategic and requires a little more thought from the player. As far as graphics go, they’re your typical next gen visuals but the cut scenes especially stand out and look great. They remind me of Advent Children and its apparent the level of painstaking detail the developers put into those scenes.

If you’re an RPG fan, you can’t go wrong with Resonance of Fate; it isn’t your run of the mill RPG but that makes it so enjoyable and addictive, 8.5/10 from me.

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