The Competition

This year’s competition was certainly more intense than [...]]]> Last Monday marked the end of the second season of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). The season concluded with the climatic World Final match between the San Francisco Optx and Birmingham Salvo. The Salvo won the match, making the British team the league’s first international champions. With the season finished, GGL is here to take a look back at the 2008 competition and provide a possible glimpse into what 2009 may hold for the CGS.

The Competition

This year’s competition was certainly more intense than that of season one. An influx of new talent combined with the improved performance of many season one vets resulted in matches whose outcome Nostradamus would be hard-pressed to predict. There were fewer players who absolutely dominated their respective fields. Returning players often faced tougher battles. Perhaps the best example is San Francisco’s Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) female player Vanessa, who experienced her first two regulation losses ever this season to Dallas’s new fighter, Phoenix. Likewise, Carolina Core’s DOA4 male player OffbeatNinja, who went nearly undefeated in 2007, stumbled a bit at the start of season two. OffbeatNinja’s missteps was one of the factors that allowed Dallas’s Master to rise up and dominate much of the DOA4 male competition. (more…)

Some interesting facts about this season’s Complexity team:

1) coL’s general manager, Jason Lake, moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles prior to the start of the season. His family came with him, too. One can only imagine what’s going through his head right now.

Here, let’s try: “Where’s my gun?”

All kidding aside, this has to be heartbreaking for Lake, who stayed loyal to his Season 1 squad wherever [...]]]> While 3D.NY continues to stride atop the Championship Gaming Series standings, the feel-bad story of the year has to be LA Complexity’s winless season so far.

Some interesting facts about this season’s Complexity team:

1) coL’s general manager, Jason Lake, moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles prior to the start of the season. His family came with him, too. One can only imagine what’s going through his head right now.

Here, let’s try: “Where’s my gun?”

All kidding aside, this has to be heartbreaking for Lake, who stayed loyal to his Season 1 squad wherever he could, and moved cross-country to boot.

2) After a year of derision for being among the worst players in the league, Megan “Belle” Cedar, LA’s female Dead or Alive 4 player, is…one of the worst players in the league. She’s gotten some points together for the squad, but has an 0-9 record. Is it time to give up the ghost?

I’m not trying to pile on Belle, but at some point, you just have to accept that certain players aren’t made for certain games. For example, if I tried to play Call of Duty 4 competitively, all I would do is Jerry Rice grenades from across the map with my mouth, thereby disappointing my team. That’s why I don’t play it. (more…)

Ok, I have to admit something right off the bat: I love this game. Seriously. So, I might be biased in favor of giving it a positive review, as I love it. You’ve been warned.

The Phantom Mansion: Spectrum of Souls series, by Gimme 5 Games, puts you in control of Hector, a little spiky-haired [...]]]> GGL has teamed up with casual games site Jayisgames to bring you fresh content about games that are quick and easy to consume–casual by definition. Check out Jayisgames.com for more casual game news.

Ok, I have to admit something right off the bat: I love this game. Seriously. So, I might be biased in favor of giving it a positive review, as I love it. You’ve been warned.

The Phantom Mansion: Spectrum of Souls series, by Gimme 5 Games, puts you in control of Hector, a little spiky-haired dude whose mission is to rescue the many spirits trapped in a giant, foreboding mansion. To do so he must conquer a number of different obstacles including the just released Black Sanctum.

One thing I really like about the series is that each chapter integrates new elements in order to keep the game-playing experience fresh; for example, the Orange Library adds mysterious portals that zip you to different parts of the chamber, the Yellow Tower adds cursed, non-crossable floors, and so on.

The full report and discussion on Phantom Mansion is available at Jayisgames.

Here’s djWHEAT’s opinion on the keyboard.

Vanguard sticks out as one of the biggest failures in MMORPG history. The game was praised as the hardcore player’s wet dream; promising as it was, the publisher made a crucial mistake by releasing the game before it was finished. The coding was largely incomplete, and the game required extensive polishing.

Without proper coding or optimization, the players who played Vanguard felt they had been sold an unfinished product. This lead many players to cancel their subscriptions and move on to another game. Furthermore,the developers were forced to spend their time fixing coding issues after the [...]]]> Continued from Part 1.

Vanguard sticks out as one of the biggest failures in MMORPG history. The game was praised as the hardcore player’s wet dream; promising as it was, the publisher made a crucial mistake by releasing the game before it was finished. The coding was largely incomplete, and the game required extensive polishing.

Without proper coding or optimization, the players who played Vanguard felt they had been sold an unfinished product. This lead many players to cancel their subscriptions and move on to another game. Furthermore,the developers were forced to spend their time fixing coding issues after the game was released.

Players left the game in droves, and Vanguard would become just another failed MMO.

Hellgate: London had many of the same problems. Many players had the feeling that the game was unfinished when released and the developers should have been given more time. Even now, Hellgate: London players feel that the developers are still working to finish their game. (more…)

Will World of Warcraft still be on top? Will a WoW killer be released in 2008? What can kill a MMO? To find out, we must look to other MMOs who have withered away and [...]]]> Looking back at 2007, we can see that a record amount of MMOs have been released. As World of Warcraft hit ten million subscribers — setting a new milestone in MMOs — many people look forward to see where the MMO will be in ten years.

Will World of Warcraft still be on top? Will a WoW killer be released in 2008? What can kill a MMO? To find out, we must look to other MMOs who have withered away and examine their deaths.

Studying what kills an MMO can be an involved process. The life of an MMO is affected by countless variables and changing just one of these variables could result in a game’s upheaval. In 2007 alone countless MMO titles have died; Vanguard, Fury, Hellgate: London, and Tabula Rasa were all very promising, yet somehow they fizzled out.

While some MMOs have a dedicated audience that will allow a game to live on for years, other MMOs have had their population decimated in a matter of months. Many MMOs are destined to burn out quickly in a crowded and turbulent market. (more…)

He goes the way of emulation! I decided to pull out the Dreamcast and take a trip down memory lane with one of the first games I ever played: Shinobi.

I fired it up, dropped in some virtual quarters and shazam! I was eight years old again. I also realized something else. After twenty years of playing video games, I still suck at the bonus game.

Damn you, non-animated generic ninja! [...]]]> Where I live there are no arcades, so what is a guy supposed to do if he wants to relive his childhood?

He goes the way of emulation! I decided to pull out the Dreamcast and take a trip down memory lane with one of the first games I ever played: Shinobi.

I fired it up, dropped in some virtual quarters and shazam! I was eight years old again. I also realized something else. After twenty years of playing video games, I still suck at the bonus game.

Damn you, non-animated generic ninja! I had finished this game before on the Sega Master System (yes, I was one of a dozen people to own it), so that helped me finish it once again.

There are a lot of patterns, so playing through the same areas a few times helps to figure out where to jump and when to attack. Kind of like Ninja Gaiden for the NES. Now, continuing in the game at home isn’t the same as the arcade. I dropped like ten (fake) bucks in a couple of hours.

I sure as hell wouldn’t have done that when I was a little kid, because my mom never gave me that much for the arcade. Regardless, I grew up to be a lifelong gamer.

That’s all for this week, but are there any suggestions for next Thursday night? Is there a beloved game you want me to check and see if it stood the test of time? Make a suggestion and I will try to get my hands on it one way or another.

Phew! I’ve been keeping up with the latest news and have been trying to get in some quality gaming time, but there is one genre [...]]]> I was supposed to write this on Sunday, but couldn’t. It was my son’s first birthday and we had a little shindig for him. Then on Easter I got together with my family and that ended up being an all day thing. On top of all that were my two midterms yesterday and having to finish reading a book for tonight’s class.

Phew! I’ve been keeping up with the latest news and have been trying to get in some quality gaming time, but there is one genre that I did give up on that I’m thinking maybe I should give another try: RPGs. The last one I really got into was Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

For a while, all I used to play were RPGs.

Now I don’t even own one! Anyone got a suggestion? Next week is spring break for me and I wouldn’t mind putting in some quality time with an RPG that breaks the mold.

I definitely need to put in some more time with Professor Layton, my wife has already completed close to a hundred of the puzzles and I’m stuck on thirty! Such is a life of responsibility…

This is certainly interesting, but D-toid’s only concern here is, will it be worth it to try to play all 200?

First off, I’m suspicious that those 200 are actually all variants of a handful of real endings. “I reached the final level with the blue armor, and got the cut scene with the guy in the mustache. Now I’m going back for the red armor and the guy with the pompadour.”