This Week

Eric "PROBLEM" Wright

Thoughts on Winning the 2007 Madden Challenge

Eric "PROBLEM" Wright,19, hails from West Covina, California and is this years Madden Challenge Championship

Winning the Madden Challenge was by far the biggest accomplishment of my career. This is what every Madden player dreams of. The Madden Challenge is the SuperBowl for the Madden community, and to win it in Los Angeles makes it that much better. I've been in three Madden Challenges so far, and I would have to say this year was the best one I have experienced.

There were some classic games which included some classic meltdowns by some competitors. My toughest opponent was Billy "Secret" Wolf. He and I have had some classic games through out our careers. We both knew that our final four game were going to add to those classics and that the winner would most likely win.

Overall this tournament has been not only one of my biggest accomplishments for Madden, but one of the biggest accomplishments I have had in my life. If you think about how many people play Madden, and you are able to say you are the best out of all those people -it's real crazy. This is where I wanted to be three years ago when I first started playing competitively and I have worked hard to get here. Just like the saying goes "You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it". In the end though I would like to thank my family and friends for the support. I definitely wouldn't be here if it wasnt for them -

Thanks.

XAVIER's Take on

The State of Online Gaming Tourneys

Xavier Matos is an aspiring game designer living and studying in NYC.

Behind the scenes of many big name convention tournaments such as BlizzCon and Digital Life, thousands of online matches are being played by serious competitors hoping to climb online ranking boards for recognition. Centered around many websites, most notably gamebattles.com and battle.net, people are playing matches daily in preparation for various tournaments being held online.

With modern internet connections, and the online functionality of next-generation consoles, it is now possible to hold gaming competitions entirely online. Just because it’s possible however, it doesn’t mean it’s happening as frequently as it could. As it stands now, competitive gaming is still mostly a strictly LAN affair, and though the existence of these circuits is made possible by sponsors and the community of hardcore gamers watching recorded professional matches at various events, this doesn’t seem to have trickled down to fully online tournaments.

Which isn’t to say that the internet is devoid of tournaments, gamespot.com has held many one-time game-specific tournaments for their users to enjoy. Also, one of the less heralded niceties hidden in Halo 3 is the Tournaments playlist, though it has only been used recently for such gimmick promotions as the Valentine’s Day Couples Tournament. It is understandable however that a game developer would ignore such additions as the ability to set-up tournaments, since such a feature would likely only be used by a select subset of the end-users. This begs the question, do we actually need an established online-only tournament scene?

No particular game has reached the ubiquity of any physical sport, save arguably Starcraft as seen in Korea. And to be fair, the professional gaming scene is a fairly tight-knit one. Which isn’t to say that it’s elitist, but we speak our own language and unless you’re willing to learn, a viewing of Gameplay HD’s BlizzCon Warcraft 3 Championship will sound like Martians to you. The point is that the market for professional gaming tournaments is pretty much restricted to professional gamers, and these enthusiasts are the ones keeping track of the latest game expo where they can compete live over LAN, effectively taking online out of the loop.

As an anecdote, my slight dip into competitive gaming took place at the DigitalLife convention in New York City one and a half years ago. I participated in the Guitar Hero II competition that year, and the GH3 one this year. One of the most interesting aspects of that first year experience however, was Global Gaming League’s Mahmood commenting on the popularity of the Guitar Hero II Tourney. “Guitar Hero II was the most popular tournament at GGL's DigitalLife 2006 Pro/Am.” The easy to understand nature showed promise for televised gaming.

So it seems that for now, strictly online gaming tournaments are occasional and casual, and have no reason to stray away from that mold. The pros would rather play at conventions and LAN parties, and the general gaming populous isn’t really being sold into watching other people play games. There are presentation hurdles to televising any gaming event that are yet to be jumped, and the amount of knowledge needed to understand any of these games as they’re being played by the pros is enormous. One day we may have the little leagues of pro gaming being fought out over broadband cables, but not yet.

Ciji'sTake on

Rock BAND

Ciji Thornton is a 24 year old pro gamer based out of Los Angeles, CA.

Harmonix has yet another hit on its hands and the name of the game is Rock Band. From the creators of Guitar Hero 1 and 2 and many other hit rhythm games comes yet another hit game that combines guitar, bass, drums and vocals into one amazing package! While the games difficulty level fails to compare to the difficulty level of Guitar Hero, it is replaced with a stronger synergy between instruments making the game more fun to play with friends and the perfect party game!

Although the point is much higher then most games out now; ($169.99) the bundle comes with one guitar, one drum set and one microphone, so it’s like getting Guitar Hero, Drummania and Sing Star all in one!

Rock band has about 58 songs available out of the box, and a constant flow of downloadable content songs available every week. Players can find songs from bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins and many more, most of which are the original recordings by the artist.

Rock Band works much like Guitar Hero in that the player must hit the corresponding color buttons on their instrument that matches the color of the notes that are coming down the highway on the screen. Singing is much like karaoke and tracks a player’s pitch to determine their score. The better the group does the more points and stars they’ll get which in turn yields fans. As the band gets more fans and their popularity raises, they’ll go from a beaten down van traveling to local bars, to having a tour manager, roadies and their own jet to fly to gigs around the world!

World Tour is the main focus mode and is meant to be played with a minimum of two players, which may complicate things for the occasional gamer. Luckily there are individual guitar, drum and vocal solo tours that can be completed to unlock all of the songs as well as score them some achievements and unlock new outfits. There is also tug of war and duel matches that can be played online against other opponents that are similar to Guitar Hero’s face off and pro face off matches. Also much like Guitar Hero you can play co-op with friends online, but cannot complete the band world tour online.

One of the coolest features is that band members looks, attitudes and instruments are 100% fully customizable. Onlookers also find that Rock Band is a fun to sit down and watch if they are waiting for their turn to play or just passing by since the different camera effects like black and white, and the old school film look combined with scripted on stage pyrotechnics, laser shows, smoke machines and stage diving band members gives off a feeling like that of a real rock concert.

While the price is a bit steep this is a definite must buy for the gamer who is a fan of rhythm games and loves to jam out with friends.

He Said, She Said - Maddy & Danny debate Guitar Hero III

Maddy is an 18 year old college student in her freshman year.
Danny is finishing up high school and lives in New York.

What She says about Guitar Hero III:

Maddy

Admittedly, I've been skeptical about the whole Guitar Hero series- OK, I've been skeptical about this type of game since DDR came out and maybe even before (whack-a-mole anyone?). Games that involve pressing buttons as they reach a spot on the screen seemed even less entertaining than hitting plastic rodents, and I wasn't even good at that. Still, when Daniel picked it up one day for his Xbox 360, I had to try it. After playing Guitar Hero 3, I admit, I was wrong. This game is amazingly fun and surprisingly addicting. Even though I play the cello and played a real guitar for a few years, it was harder than it looked. It made me appreciate most music I listen to more: if I can't play the song using three colored buttons, actually playing it must be impossible! And despite how tempting it is to play easy mode with three fingers, playing with just two makes it easier to shift once you play on harder difficulties. It takes some practice to use the whammy bar, but the controls are easy enough for even the least coordinated player to manage a song or two.

Playing songs I grew up listening to (Santana's “Black Magic Woman” and Metallica's “One” just to name a few) was satisfying and a duet With Guns and Roses' Slash took my eight year old birthday wish and almost brought it to life. Even failing is somewhat amusing- butchering songs can be frustrating, but hearing a song suck beyond belief eventually leads to the irrational satisfaction of getting it right. It's even more fun when other people screw up: watching Daniel scream over Dragon force's “Through the Fire and Flames” was funny, even if he threatened to strangle me with the guitar strap. However, as Daniel mentioned, this is not a game to be playing at 2AM: if you want to do that, play Halo III.

The one other drawback with GH3 is that, after playing for a few hours, my wrist was painfully sore from holding the guitar. The game is popular among my school's dorms too—every girl I asked plays this game, making it more popular than the previous procrastination aid Mario Kart.

What He says about Guitar Hero III:

Daniel

After months and months of telling myself I wasn't going to play Guitar Hero, I finally gave up and went out to buy Guitar Hero 3. My initial view was that I was going to hate the game. I sat there like an idiot attempting to match up the little buttons to the screen and failing miserably! But in the end the game turned out to be a true masterpiece. Some songs are fun and others make you want to smash your little plastic guitar into your TV. Getting used to the timing and the position of your hands on the guitar takes a little time and practice, but the game is easily mastered by anyone. The song selection has a little bit for everyone, and while you might not find your favorite song on it, with new songs being added often via the web, you are bound to find something you like.

This is one of the few games that require concentration and some coordination. Therefore, I would not suggest playing it extremely late into the night: you'll only succeed in frustrating yourself, a mistake that almost cost my TV its screen. I would agree with Maddy, Guitar Hero is possibly the ultimate procrastination aid (I mean, why study for semester exams when you have to show the devil who the TRUE god of rock is?). This is one game you shouldn't miss and I would highly suggest grabbing some friends as the co-op is a lot of fun (and the look on their face as you show them up is more priceless than imagining the look on the friends of Leeroy Jenkins). And as for the guitar battle with Slash that Maddy swoons over, all I have to say to Slash is: “WHAT NOW?!” Personally I believe the only good rocker is one kneeling at my feet! The only negative thing I can say about this game is that “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragon force (unlocked by beating the game on any difficulty) is possibly the most evil song ever… Don't expect this game to teach you how to play guitar (or substitute it) but if you want a fun game to play, look no further than GH3.