You see, I wouldn’t consider myself a sadist, and it’s not even that I don’t like replaying games– I love to, especially with a “New Game+” option. I just don’t like the idea that all the strategies and plans and skills I’ve devised and employed could soon become redundant just by replaying the game on harder. This is why FE shocked me so much.

I’m sure if you’ve found this blog you’re aware Nintendo currently is wearing it’s casual gaming hat. Easy games aimed at your mother and your sister are being developed faster than Fanfiction can be written which is much to the chagrin of us more hardcore gamers. I’m sure you’re wondering whether I’ll get to the point by now, so here it is.

Do you see this on the left? This is the menu I was presented with. After choosing hard mode. That’s right kids, FIVE variations of Hard mode. Now, I want the full experience first time, so I chose Merciless (which will here-on out be referred to as h5). Little did I know, Nintendo are actually capable of making a difficult game. I begun playing it like Advance Wars. Moving the archer behind the meatshield etc ready for them to hit the meatshield so I could strike with him and the archer back. This was my first mistake.

This game, is not Advance Wars. This game, on h5 is the mother of all hardcore SRPGs. The first soldier came, and SWAM AROUND my meatshield, and double attacked my archer. He was dead. I was on a IRC network at the time, and I had asked if I just suck or this really is that hard, I was informed that I did not suck, and my archer would be dead. Permanently. After the battle, he was not going to be magically revived. He was dead forever because of a mistake I made. I was also informed that this happens even on NORMAL difficulty.

At first, I was shocked and confused that such a thing could take place. I was angry at myself for not knowing that Gordin had met his fate so soon. I pressed the suspend button and restarted the battle. Clearly, Nintendo knew that if you choose Hard, you’re going to lose. As a result, all cutscenes can be skipped by pressing start making the time from quitting the FIRST battle to restarting it about 5 seconds long. Over a period of 24 battles, I devised strategies, formations, tactics all of which after every loss only made me more formidable. Soon I knew exactly what the AI would do if I moved Shiida into a certain square and lured them into the southern sea. I knew exactly who to rotate onto the fort and when to minimise downtime and maximise healing potential. Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, these strategies only cover the first 10 or so moves of the first battle. But I didn’t care. Onward I proceeded losing time and time again until it was me and the boss. Thankfully the Boss is incapable of movement (probably because if he did I could capture the throne and win the map.) and can only attack directly above, below and to the left and right. I set everyone who could hold a ranged weapon to hold one and after about 20 turns of misses and hits and regeneration, I got him to the point where Marth could run in and take the final slash, deciding the battle.

Marth ran in, sword in hand with the hopes of the entire company resting upon his caped shoulders. He swung and nay- it was not to be. The pirate leader evaded the attack and proceeded to kill Marth. Ending the mission. Six hours of effort and planning and failure, only to result in more failure. But I could feel the game overtaking me. It was a good pain. Eight battles later I had made it to the boss yet again, with only one loss (I’m sorry Shiida, I miss you and your winged horse but you were not strong enough for my army.) And finally..

Gazzak was slain, by no less than the brave warrior Cain.

The battle was over and I had felt a sense of accomplishment akin to that of finishing an entire game. When I realised that was the OPENING battle of the game. I smiled to myself, saved the game and went to bed.

Get it, and get it now.

2009 is the year, and we’ve got teams all over the bloody shop. MeetYourMakers, Fnatic, Complexity 20ID, Salvo, Dignitas, 4K, Reason and the list trails off into the ether with some successful.. and some less successful pro gaming teams. What does this mean? Does this mean professional gaming is now viable as a career? Can you earn money for headshots in todays world? Will I ever stop name dropping? How many commas can I write before you close this tab? Hit the jump to find out.

As with any story, you have to start at the beginning. The problem with this is, the beginning is a much debated topic. Some would claim it began around 1997 with the birth of leagues such as the much praised Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL). Some would also claim it died in 2007 when the CPL could truck no more. Alot of others would say ‘On my campus we invented pro gaming, we had Quake II Lan parties every week and gave out prizes!’ Thankfully, this is my article. So I’m going to tell you when it started. 1990. I’m aware prior to that numerous events were held, such as the 1987 Video Games Masters tournament, but I don’t care. Because in 1990, Nintendo held the World Championships.

Contrary to the title, the Nintendo World Championships were not actually World Championships. The Nintendo US Championship Tour would be a more fitting name, but I digress. There were age brackets from 11 and under, 12 to 17 and 18+. And if you’ve been into gaming for some time, you’ll certainly know of the famous gold cartridges Nintendo gave out as prizes, which fetch ridiculously high prices now on eBay.

1990 through 1997 was nothing serious. A few local arcade tournaments in the US, Blockbuster did their thing with a few gaming championships through the early 1990’s, but it is in 1997 when the internet exploded. This was the beginning of professional gaming. (The birth and the beginning are two different things my child. Think about it.)

A tournament by the name of Red Annihilation was held, the game was Quake, the host was Micheal Shearon and the prize.. the prize was John Carmack’s very own Ferarri 328 GTS Cabriolet. And the winner? Thresh (Dennis Fong). Some of you may have heard of him, most of you haven’t. Thresh went on to win tournament after tournament, prize after prize and has now co-founded Xfire (which got purchased by Viacom for some $102 million) and is now worth millions of dollars.

Also in 1997, a man named Angel Munoz invented the CPL, hosting Quake II to Quake III and many other tournament focused games. As with any great idea, there were always imitators. The turn of the millenium rolled around and the first World Cyber Games was hosted in Korea, Quake III, Starcraft, Age of Empires II and FIFA 2000 were the games. 174 hopefuls entered to win a part of the total prize share of $20,000 (for comparison, by 2006 the WCG’s total prize fund was $462,000.) And by 2003 the Electronic Sports World Cup began, with 358 participants from 37 different countries entering. The prize fund here was no small feat at €150,000. The ESWC also was the first league to have a game specifically created for it, Trackmania Nations.

In 2006, professional gaming went mainstream. MLG was invented and brought the fight to the consoles, also being the first televised tournament for any league, with Halo 2 being splashed across TV screens nationwide. This year also saw the birth of a CPL spin-off, the World Series of Video Games, which gave host to big names such as the oft-heard Fatal1ty, FoV, Grubby and Team 3D. Times were good, there was money to be had if you had the skill to compete, the fresh blood had never stopped flowing, teams fought hard and shook hands, but times were not to be all smooth sailing.

From 2006 to now, the CPL has managed to die to be succeeded by its sister league, the CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League). The Championship Gaming Series was invented, and also managed to die, Halo 3 went massive on the console scene and the PC scene has splintered into the best of the best, and the smaller leagues like TWL.

Today, there are literally thousands of teams from every country with decent internet. Only the top 10% of those teams play regularly in leagues, and only the top 4% of those teams manage to find regular sponsorship. It’s not a good idea to go out and say ‘I want to be a pro gamer’ just as in 2004 it was not a good idea to go out and say ‘I want to be a game designer’. But perhaps, in the coming years we will see the rebirth of the CPL and the rise and rise of tournament gaming.

So no, teabagging your friend after he dies and proclaiming ‘pwnt*’ as many times as you can does not make you a professional gamer. A pro is judged by the amount of sponsors he has, the level of sportsmanship he represents and first and foremost, his skill at the game. And go forth, with this knowledge, pick up your keyboards/pads and proceed to get your ass whooped in COD4 some more.

*Fun fact, did you know pwnt is just a mispelling of ownt? Look at your keyboard. See how the O and P are close together?

Packing heat at a whopping 2GB (this is a demo after all..) the two missions included are guaranteed to be beefy with corpses littered atop what was once a perfectly good corn field I’m sure you can’t wait.

For those of you fuddy duddies who are still sitting at home, tin-foil hats firmly upon their heads– the demo only comes in STEAM choo choo flavour, so don’t bother looking because unfortunately gentlemen, you cannot find it.

Look forward to some demo impressions within a couple of days once I’ve had time to explore every nook and cranny and stick my head into every orafice.

A link for the lazy

Get this fellows. I-Fluid, Multiwinia, Trials 2, Gravitron 2, and Eets all in ONE pack. For the price of £6.95.  80% off. EIGHTY PERCENT.

Just a quick summary for those who have no idea what the hell these are and why they need them. First up, Multiwinia is the fantastic sequel to the wonderous Darwinia, something of an RTS lite. I-Fluid is a lovely little casual game wherein you control a drop of water trying to get to the end of various fun levels attempting to avoid absorption from various substances, such as the dreaded meat. Trials 2 Second Edition is just that, a trials motorbike game. Racing and flipping has never been so fun. Gravitron 2 is the game designed to make you mutilate your keyboard with your face, you know those games where you control a spaceship.. in a cavern and across planetary surfaces (I wonder why these retro games use a goddamn spaceship to explore planets.. on the inside.). Annoying it may be, but it’s really- really fun and wondrously rewarding when a level is done. Eets is a cute little casual game that can only really be described as Lemmings meets The Incredible Machine.

Buy them, get them, play them.

If you don’t use Windows, you can stop reading here.

Over the past couple of weeks a virus known as the Conficker, Downadup or Kido worm has been multiplying at an alarming rate. A recent headcount shows it at around 9.5 million infected computers. A botnet that size could probably bring an end to the internet.

No, I’m exaggerating.

However, it’s not all terribly bad. Just as with all epidemics, virtual or real, all that is necessary are precautions. If a friend comes over and wants to plug his key into your machine (No, that was not a euphemism), ask him how his internet’s been recently, and if it’s been acting slower than usual. This a symptom of the worm abusing his internet connection for it’s own ends — See: infecting more people.

Now, I’m sure you’re tired of my rambling and you want me to make the pain go away, right? Well – for those of you that have Windows Automatic Updates turned off, turn them on. The main update you’re looking for (If you want to prioritise.. or just to turn the darn thing off ASAP) is KB958644. Find it, install it – and you’re safe. For the most part. If someone comes and plugs in their USB Key you are still susceptible to it.

For those of you that have got it or fear you may have it, it’s nearly invisible. It only leaves one or two trademarks and those being

• A slower internet connection and/or consistently using bandwidth. If you suspect something, close all unnecessary processes and download a bandwidth monitoring program.
• Automatic Updates suddenly being turned off and disabled.

If you suspect you are infected and are experiencing the symptoms, try this first.

If you are infected, a logical course of action would be reformat. Back up onto a external hard drive (but absolutely NO autorunning files.), and reinstall Windows anew on a formatted hard drive. Once everything is kosher, you can try taking your data from the external hard drive. If you notice the symptoms appearing again then you’ll have to start over. This time, with no backup.

You know that addictive as sin medival warfare/life simulator released by that indie group founded by a husband and wife team? It just got better. They’ve announced a new expansion.The main focus of it is going to be not a campaign, but multiplayer battles.

Yes children, you read right. Multiplayer battles in Mount & Blade. The main thing everyone has ever wanted, to joust with their friends and couch a spear right into <insert friends username>’s crowned jewels will be available as soon as summer, as late as autumn.

They’ve also promised

• Improved Strategic AI
• Extended diplomatic options allowing the player to wield more power
• State-of the-Art rendering technologies introduced for the first time, including the addition of High Dynamic Range (HDR)
• Brand new multiplayer feature including the ability for 32 players (possibly more – TBC) to play on a single map in team death-match style battles

Heh, and Darkfall hasn’t even been released yet.

PS: The graphics in the screenshot were from the Graphical Enhancement Mod, the blag isn’t responsible for any conflicts or crashes that may ensue from using it. However it is a known issue that the HDR mod (a repackaged ENB series) will cause your game to crash after you exit (I don’t understand either) and will stop the steam overlay appearing. It also looks way too bloomy anyway so install it without the HDR mod.

Just for the unsure the collection includes GTA1, GTA2, GTA3, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas,  GTA IV, Manhunt, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Midnight Club 2 and Wild Arms.

It’s not all of it – I know, but for the low low price of £38.49/$69.99/€69.99 it’s hard to not buy it.. except for our European bretheren, you might want to find a good trusted friend from either the US or the UK to gift it to you and you send them the money.. Steam is kind of skewed against the europeans at the moment.

Click Here to buy it.

And click here if you feel that 1€ ≠ 1$

Just looking at it makes me teary eyed..

That’s right folks, you read right.

Microsoft following budget cuts has closed the ACES studio, the minds behind the highly successful Flight Simulator series. But fear not, for the series will continue although Microsoft have not yet stated which studio will head up the project from now on.

From Humble Beginnings..

Pictured left is the original Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0, released in 1982. Few of we gamers (sadly, I am not one of the few) were around or even out of nappies (diapers to you yankee) when this was released, and even fewer of us even knew it existed in its time. But little did we know this would become the giant it is today, and was believed to be going from strength to strength in the face of naysayers.

I guess it just goes to show you, nothing truly is for certain.

]]> http://giantenemyblog.com/casualty-ms-closes-flight-simulator-studio/feed/ 0 http://giantenemyblog.com/world-of-goo-soundtrack-now-free-no-strings-attatched/ http://giantenemyblog.com/world-of-goo-soundtrack-now-free-no-strings-attatched/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:00:03 +0000 NovaSyx http://giantenemyblog.com/?p=3705 One of the most innovative and clever little games of 2008, World of Goo’s soundtrack is now free for all to obtain and listen to, free of charge and free of that awful guilty feeling you get from the evil, evil world of piracy.

Personally I actually really like the soundtrack, not outstanding when compared against other games such as Metal Gear Solid, Bionic Commando Rearmed or even Pheonix Wright, but listening to any track is 100% guaranteed to make you want to solve a puzzle shortly after.

Get it here.