However, the capitalist machine marches on, and a new athlete must appear on the cover of EA Games’ NHL 09. Phaneuf is the man this year.

NHL 09 features a number of cool gameplay elements, including the return of the Skill Stick system, as well as the new Defensive Skill Stick, which allow you to [...]]]> Real hockey fans may know who Dion Phaneuf is, but I’d wager he’s no Wayne Gretzky. That is to say, he doesn’t transcend his sport in the manner of other superstars.

However, the capitalist machine marches on, and a new athlete must appear on the cover of EA Games’ NHL 09. Phaneuf is the man this year.

NHL 09 features a number of cool gameplay elements, including the return of the Skill Stick system, as well as the new Defensive Skill Stick, which allow you to make fine-tuned adjustments to your puck-slapping skills. It also has 6v6 online play, which could be pretty amazing if everyone plays their positions properly.

See this excerpt from the press release:

Players new to the series can now shoot, pass and check with ease. NHL 09 features Be A Pro, a game mode that will put you on the ice with a dynamic new 3rd person camera that allows you to play the role of one player. With a performance tracker grading your progress in more than 50 categories, you will know exactly where you need to improve to become the next NHL superstar.

The full press release is available from EA as a PDF. (more…)

View all DigitalLife 2007 videos at our DL07 video page.

In these videos, you’ll get to see djWHEAT’s “real” job outside of Epileptic Gaming; he’s not called the Head Broadcaster for nothing. You might also be interested to know that the Epileptic Gaming crew basically doubles as a traveling pro gaming broadcast team. Yeah, yeah, pro gaming doesn’t resonate with many [...]]]> I’m pretty sure many fans didn’t see our back-to-back trips to New York (the DigitalLife Pro/Am, a tournament we run every year) and Seattle (World Cyber Games 2007) back in October of this year, so I thought it would be a good idea to re-showcase the videoblogs from those events.

In these videos, you’ll get to see djWHEAT’s “real” job outside of Epileptic Gaming; he’s not called the Head Broadcaster for nothing. You might also be interested to know that the Epileptic Gaming crew basically doubles as a traveling pro gaming broadcast team. Yeah, yeah, pro gaming doesn’t resonate with many gamers. We know. This stuff is behind the scenes, and some of it is solid f’ing gold.

You’ll also see footage of fan-favorite Rance Costa in these vids. The GGL Wire crew is in New York City for DigitalLife 2007, but not without our fair share of travel woes. Watch this sequence of videos to get an overview of our journey, from LAX to JFK Airport in New York City. You’ll find out who the Swedish Fish really is, why Amir Haleem will never go pro again, how to properly self-medicate for six hour flights, and more.

The Wire crew includes: Amir “Hakeem”Haleem, Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham, Rance “Rome” Costa, Hogan “kam-RA” Carter, Robert Summa, Chachi Ramirez, Don Andrews, Ben Watkins and myself. We’ll be updating you with more videos as the week goes on.

On set-up day, Amir got foul-mouthed with the camera as he searched desperately for Joe Moss, our director of competitions. When we were finished, I spoke to Chris at the Javits center about our progress.

The following day, I caught up with Spirit Moon … or rather, [...]]]> DigitalLife 2007 is over, and we thought it would be best to highlight some of the zany characters that make the GGL Wire’s productions happen.  Check out these videos of Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham, Hogan “kam-RA” Carter, Rance “Rome” Costa, Robert Summa, Amir “Hakeem” Haleem and more at the event.

On set-up day, Amir got foul-mouthed with the camera as he searched desperately for Joe Moss, our director of competitions. When we were finished, I spoke to Chris at the Javits center about our progress.

The following day, I caught up with Spirit Moon … or rather, caught up with the eyes of “the fifth race” as he checked out Checkpooh’s practice games. Moon, naturally, went on to beat Sweet in the WarCraft III final. (more…)

During this year’s DigitalLife, GGL had the biggest and best area at the convention. Not only did we have the best of the best pro gaming going on, but we also had Epileptic Gaming and some rockin’ music to go along with each and every day we were there. In case you missed it, here are the highlights of the event:

See all of our videos at the DigitalLife 2007 video page.

Over my past few years as a tech journalist, I’ve come across the Novint Falcon many times and the same thought still sifts through my mind as I was faced with it here at DigitalLife: It’s a cool concept and fun to play around with, but for actual mainstream gaming use it’s useless. This mammoth motion-feedback controller is designed to make its users feel more immersed in the environment, but because it’s so free floating, trying to achieve a proper level of accuracy is impossible for the fickle PC gaming audience.

By far the most interactive and visceral demo station here at DigitalLife is the America’s Army area tucked in the corner of the convention hall. Called the Virtual Army Experience, groups of attendees are ushered in, registered, tagged, and placed in a real-life situation with real-life weapons — only instead of bullets, everything is laser sighted. I had a chance to not only stop by the booth, but take part in the entire experience myself.