- To begin using Herbalism a player must start by being at least level 5, and then the player can learn Apprentice Herbalism by being visiting any of the numerous herbalism trainers.

- If you are having difficulties finding a trainer, you can ask any major city guard where an Herbalism trainer can be found.

- When you begin harvesting plants out on the fields make sure that you turn on the “Find Herbs” ability. By doing so, it will display every nearby herb on the minimap.

- To gain skill in herbalism all you would need to do is gather certain herbs that give you skill points. Each herb has a different color, and these will help you determine how likely you will gain a skill point after harvesting that herb.

- Like every other World of Warcraft profession, the World of Warcraft Herb guide tells us that Herbalism will give a player a unique perk. In this case, the perk is called Lifeblood. The best part of this perk is that a player can use it while they are invisible, and by using this perk a player can use the nutrients from the earth to heal wounds and increase speed.

- There is a great item that a few vendors sell that will give +10 into Herbalism. The item is called an Herbalist’s spade, and it helps herbalism profession players gain easy herbalism skill points. The World of Warcraft herb guide offers a list of vendors where this item can be purchased.

- If you raise your Herbalism profession level high enough, you can gain easy profit by selling the herbs you gather to Alchemists who did not choose Herbalism as one of their professions.

- Herbalism add-ons are great tools for any herb gatherer because it can remember locations where you have found gatherable material, and also tell you locations that you have not discovered yet.

The synergy herbalism has with alchemy can open many doors for both professions. Say an alchemist does not wish to rely on other herbalist or waste money buying herbs; it would be a great idea to have both alchemy and herbalism as main professions in order to be self-sufficient. Although this would be the best way of pursuing the alchemy profession, there are many alchemist professionals that lack the herbalism profession and always be supply deficient. A World of Warcraft herb guide suggests taking up herbalism to make loads of gold from marketing herbs to those needy Alchemists.

Using the World of Warcraft herb guide will have you mastering the herbalism profession and thus increasing your gold profit from trading with players who chose the Alchemy and Inscription professions.

The second step is to change “Connected Display Settings” on your PSP (Playstation Portable). If you have a widescreen TV select 16:9. If not, choose 4:3. If you have a HDTV the best Component/D-Terminal Output setting will be “progressive” which will use the TV’s 480p resolution mode. For TVs that are not HD the best option will be “Interface” – this uses standard definition 480i.

Now simply select the appropriate input source on your TV, turn on your PSP and hold down the “display” button for 5 seconds. Voila! you can play your PSP on your TV screen.

There is one major downside to the method mentioned above; if you connect your PSP to your TV using only an AV cable, you will not achieve a full screen picture, it will only take up a small portion of the screen; obviously this is not ideal if, like me, you are a serious gamer. Luckily there is a solution – a PSP to TV Converter. This device can connect directly to the HDMI port on your HD TV and will enable you to play your PSP in full HD and in full screen.

It is also possible to connect your PSP directly to your computer monitor, PC monitor or LCD display by utilising the monitors VGA (Video Graphics Array) port. Unfortunately a direct connection between the two has the same problem as connecting your PSP directly to your TV; you will not achieve a full screen picture. Thankfully there is also a solution for this problem in the form of a PSP to PC VGA Converter. This device will enable you to play your PSP in full screen on your PC VGA monitor.

Good quality PSP to PC VGA converters should also have a VGA pass through. This will enable you to keep your PC or Mac and your PSP connected to the monitor at all times. In my opinion this is essential so you don’t have to mess around with the wiring every time you want to play your PSP in full screen.

By Peter J Greenwood

Setting aside crossover games that focus on battles, there are games which are developed using crossovered characters to solve a mystery. One of the most prominent games is Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney. This was announced in Japan several months ago and the game will be released on the 3DS on November 29, 2012. Professor Layton acting as a detective while Phoenix Wright, the main protagonist (lawyer) in the Ace Attorney helping each other to solve a mystery of a woman convicted of witchcraft. The game is an adventure puzzle game requiring players to follow clues to solve the mystery of this woman and the main antagonist in the game. This game is expected to receive a wide array positive reviews as Phoenix Wright is a well-loved character in Japan. As a side-note, Phoenix Wright appeared in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as a new, playable combatant.

In other settings, crossovers appear in sports settings. Almost released at every Olympic event is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Players can control the cast of Mario and Sonic respectively to participate in sports and upload their scores onto leaderboards. With that said, the game is only fun for a short period of time before excitement dies out. Playing the games, choosing characters to participate in events is awkward and cumbersome. For example, using Doctor Eggman to participate in a 100 meter run does not fit his persona. This goes for the same with Mario, Bowser and the like. Crossovers such as this hurts the franchise more than helping it. Using loved characters to act out of character is not appealing, especially for gamers who grew up with these characters. To put it bluntly, these characters should remain in their own niche without further diminishing the franchise.

Crossovers are being overused as every year, a new crossover game is published drawing in fans of both franchises, representing their top characters. In the same time, fans of both franchises are compelled to purchase the game even if the game has no plot and it is a basic fighting game. Crossovers used to be something that fans looked forward to; how the mechanics will change in a brand new game but with the constant ‘crossingover’, the same characters appear and they do the same thing, repetitively. It can be easily said the concept is getting stale and quite frankly, boring. If companies are planning on doing a crossover, they should consider including a story with their characters rather create another beat ‘em up. There are undoubtedly many classic crossover games but with a list totaling over fifty titles with the same concept, crossovers are just the same as the last one.

By Yvette J Allen