Word on the street is that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will be getting a price cut sometime before E3, which is in two weeks. Rumor has it that $50 will be taken off the price, bringing the 20GB bundle down to $299. There’s no word if the price drop will affect the Arcade or the Elite skus, but personally, I’d put money on it.
What do you guys think? Is this price cut real or just talk? Let us know by leaving a comment at the bottom.
Today Harmonix announced that they will be releasing Rock Band 2. The best part, it’s coming out for the Xbox 360 in September. That’s right folks, we are two months away from a new Rock Band. This is how companies should do release dates. Don’t announce a game until it is almost ready. But enough with my thoughts.
The last few days of Digital Games ladder play has been marked by some turnover on the South American Call of Duty 4 ladder, with Ready to Kill Clan taking over the top spot from O MAR ABRIU VEI! and Canibais. This is all despite the fact that R2KC hold a losing record–it just goes to show that activity pays off in ladder play, wins and losses aside.
On the European Command & Conquer 3 ladder, Technique has extended his win streak in first place, while knolz and spug3t bring up 2nd and 3rd, respectively. KiFireLedius still holds the lead on the North American C&C3 ladder.
Also, this is becoming old hat by now, but Paladyn continues to decimate the competition on the European Warcraft III scene. He now holds a 43-5 record, with no apparent intention to stop anytime soon. Ditto for North American Trackmania Nations Forever leader G2_Wolf, who stands at 8-0.
Last, but certainly not least, European FIFA stalwart dragua is clinging to a narrow points lead over icantplaygood; this drama will certainly play out in the weeks to come.
A rather uneventful Forza 2 race opened Sunday’s first franchise competition. Chicago’s team of crack racers, Jason X and Ch0mpr, almost immediately sped into first and second place respectively. Dallas’s players, Muffinman and Chaos, made a few futile attempts to knock Ch0mpr out of his second place position. Ultimately they were unable stop Chicago from finishing in first and second place. These standings gave the Windy City franchise an early 6-1 lead.
Next up was a Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) female bout between Phoenix and Kasumi Chan. Using Gen Fu, Phoenix schooled Kasumi Chan, 5-2, on the Seaside Market stage. This win allowed Dallas to close the score to within two points, 8-6. Undefeated DOA4 male powerhouse Master then pushed Dallas over the top with his 5-2 defeat of Black Mamba. Dallas was now winning, 11-10, after this pair of DOA4 victories.
With two games left, it seemed Counter-Strike: Source would be the remedy to this near deadlock. Dallas was first up as the counter-terrorists on the de_nuke stage. After the first half, Dallas led by a dramatic 7-2 margin. While the side playing counter-terrorists typically holds the advantage, this phenomenon seemingly did not apply to Chicago in the second half. As a result, Dallas won 5-3 as the terrorists. The overall CS:S score pushed Dallas to a whopping 24-15 lead. Even with the FIFA 08 game in the hopper, Dallas had effectively won the franchise match.
Despite their foreseeable loss, Chicago’s player Eafra managed to win FIFA 08, 2-0, over Dallas’s Barmoa. This win brought the overall score to 24-17 in Dallas’s favor. Chicago’s loss makes it extremely unlikely that the 2007 champs will regain their prestigious status in the second season.
Fans of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) will know Kat Hunter as the general manager of the San Francisco Optx. These same aficionados may be less aware of her career outside of the CGS. Most notably she was a member of the all-female gaming squad, the Frag Dolls. She has also produced game related content for AT&T Blue Room and served as a webmaster for Game Daily. She became involved in the video game community after a career in advertising.
Kat Hunter spoke with GGL recently at the CGS players’ village in Los Angeles. She covered a variety of topics including her team’s status, the management process, and the state of professional gaming.
GGL: Describe what it’s like managing your team on a daily basis. What sort of schedules and routines do you put the players through or ask them to undergo?
Kat Hunter: Every day is something completely different. You have to take into account what happened the day before and the day before that and where your players are mentally, emotionally, and physically. As a general rule, I wake up around 10 AM and start working with the other general managers on setting up our practice schedule for the Counter-Strike players. We set up the practice schedules amongst ourselves for at least Counter-Strike and then watch them practice. We also go into the consult rooms and watch our Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) players. Then we’re off to the matches at night. We usually get there about two hours before the matches start. We play and then come back and deal with the aftermath. We finish off our day with a team meeting at 11 pm. Read more »
The night’s opening competition would determine the European region’s third place finisher. London got off to a early start in this regard as its player Strobe beat Stockholm’s Miss, 5-2, in Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) female. The following FIFA 08 match was even more one-sided. London’s ChrisyB scored his first goal on Istvan roughly half-way into the first half. ChrisyB followed this up with another goal in the second. Istvan was unable to make up the point differential, resulting in ChrisyB’s 2-0 win.
Stockholm trailed by five points, 2-7, going into the Counter-Strike Source (CS:S) match. The Nordic team was first up as the counter-terrorists on the map de_tuscan. London squeaked into an early lead with a score of 5-4 at the end of the first half. Stockholm likewise led 5-4 at the end of their tenure as the terrorists. This 9-9 tie resulted in an overtime round. With pistols blazing, London broke the stalemate and won the match, 10-9.
With two games remaining, London led by a margin of 17-11. Paddaman and SkatanMilla traded rounds in DOA4 male until the former gave London a 5-4 win. This brought the overall score to 22-15. Even with a perfect run in Forza 2, Stockholm would lose by two points. To add insult to injury, Stockholm’s iBrYce only placed second in the race while its other player MadneSS came in fourth. Meanwhile London’s NT 101 and Stune placed first and third respectively. This 5-2 victory brought the overall score to 27-17 with London victorious.
It’s been a long time coming, but I’m ready. I’m never going to leave my house again once this game comes out.
I am, of course, speaking of Diablo III. Blizzard has just announced the title at the WorldWide Invitational held in Paris. Speculation was rampant in the weeks heading up to the event, but no one was really certain until early this morning.
Here’s a small amount of gameplay featuring everyone’s favorite Barbarian. More media is floating around out there as well, and Blizzard.com has the full preview up and some lore to go with it.
Competitors have one day to change their fates in GGL’s Warhawk tournament, as only the top 32 teams will advance to the bracket phase of the competition. In other words, judgement has arrived.
Let’s take a look at who’s making the cut right now!
In 32nd, we see East Coast Killaz holding onto a narrow points lead over Detonators. If the standings don’t change at all, ECK will make it, but will have the unenviable privilege of facing off against [WAR!] in the first round of the bracket. That’s going to be a difficult match.
[NUKE] and Strategic Assassins, meanwhile, have lifted their stock to 27th and 26th, respectively. They will face strong teams in the bracket, but can give them a good fight — both [NUKE] and SA are recent comers to the ladder, and SA sport a 16W streak!
Who’s out? Who’s in? We’ll find out for sure tomorrow, June 29!
The night’s opening Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) female match featured a bout between two real-life sisters, Birmingham’s Sarah Lou and London’s Strobe. Sarah Lou’s liberal use of Kasumi’s agility prevented Strobe from landing many hits. As a result Sarah Lou decimated her older sister, 5-0.
London needed to score some serious points in FIFA 08 to catch up with is rival. Unfortunately for London, its player ChrisyB embarrassingly shot the ball into his own goal. This gave Birmingham’s Bazza the first point of the match. Bazza followed this by earning a point of his own making late in the first half. London finally got on the board with a goal late in he second. However ChrisyB was unable to score the tying point, resulting in a 2-1 win for Bazza.
Birmingham now held a sizable 7-1 point advantage going into Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S). London’s CS:S team needed to perform remarkably well for the franchise to remain competitive. This did not come to pass as Birmingham’s counter-terrorists annihilated London the first half, 7-2. Birmingham then replicated their 7-2 score in the second, bringing the final CS:S score to 14-4.
This brought the overall score to a whopping 21-5 in Birmingham’s favor. Even with perfect scores in the remaining two games, there was no way London could make up its huge point deficit. Ironically enough it was at this point that London really began to shine. The intense DOA4 male match pitted London’s Padaman against Birmingham’s Messy on the Kyoto in Bloom Stage. The match was close, as both rivals were tied 3-3 going into the seventh round. Padaman won the next two rounds, winning the match, 5-3.
The final Forza 2 match was even more frantic. Birmingham’s Daveyskills acquired an early lead over the other three racers. London’s Stune and NT 101 knocked Daveyskills into third. However Daveyskills managed to make it to second by the end of the race. Stune finished first, Daveyskills second, and Birmingham’s second racer Picaso brought up third. London won the race 4-3, but lost the overall match by a devastating 27-14.
Wii Love Golf is one of the most anticipated games for the Wii this summer. It was announced today that if you preorder Wii Love Golf at most retailers, you will get a little golf bag for your Wii remote. This may not be as cool as some other preorder promotions, but you have to love the creativity.
I am a big fan of little videogame collectibles and this one is defiantly on my list to pick up. What do you guys think? Do these preorder promotions help urge you into stores? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Today EA Sports announced a new brand of Wii exclusive titles. The “All-Play” series of games will take familiar franchises, such as Tiger Woods, Madden, ect., and give them a more casual gaming twist.
What does that mean exactly? Well the gameplay will be simplified and focus on a more party style of gaming. For example, there will be a 5-on-5 mode in All-Play Madden.
5-on-5 football? Are you kidding me? I hate to be one who jumps to conclusions, but come on. I hope that they have some great game designers on this project because if they don’t all I see are bargain bin games. Don’t get me wrong, I want nothing more than to see these games succeed, but to me, this just seems like a half baked idea. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
33rd place Agents of Kush have two days to reclaim a top 32 spot in GGL’s Warhawk tournament in order to advance to the bracket phase of the tournament. 34th place Red Dragon face the same dilemma as well. Ditto for NNN and /7.
Contrary to reports of their inactivity, Murder/Own/Destroy have redeemed themselves and snapped the losing streak they were courting earlier this week. They are now in (drum roll) 32nd! And [NUKE] find themselves tied for 30th with Frownie Face–as long as this situation remains, they should both make the bracket. However, anything can happen in the next 48 hours.
Lastly, in a smart move, Strategic Assassins are still trying to climb the ladder, extending their win streak to 13 matches. Whoever comes in 32nd will most likely face off against the powerhouse [WAR!] in the first round of the bracket…which is not going to be a good place to be.
Stay tuned for more news about these highly active ladders in the two days!
Word on the street is that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will be getting a price cut sometime before E3, which is in two weeks. Rumor has it that $50 will be taken off the price, bringing the 20GB bundle down to $299. There’s no word if the price drop will affect the Arcade or the Elite skus, but personally, I’d put money on it.
The last few days of Digital Games ladder play has been marked by some turnover on the South American Call of Duty 4 ladder, with 
Dallas Venom vs. Chicago Chimera
Fans of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) will know Kat Hunter as the general manager of the San Francisco Optx. These same aficionados may be less aware of her career outside of the CGS. Most notably she was a member of the all-female gaming squad, the Frag Dolls. She has also produced game related content for AT&T Blue Room and served as a webmaster for Game Daily. She became involved in the video game community after a career in advertising.
One.
Wii Love Golf is one of the most anticipated games for the Wii this summer. It was announced today that if you preorder Wii Love Golf at most retailers, you will get a little golf bag for your Wii remote. This may not be as cool as some other preorder promotions, but you have to love the creativity.
Today EA Sports announced a new brand of Wii exclusive titles. The “All-Play” series of games will take familiar franchises, such as Tiger Woods, Madden, ect., and give them a more casual gaming twist.