Video Game Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween everyone! I'll make this post short and sweet, everyone should check out these slick pumpkins over at Wired, eat lots of candy, and have a fantastically spooky day!

Pumpkins!

\\drew

Competitive Gaming Hit the Big Time

While competitive gaming has been going on for years there has never been a pot so laden with gold at the end of the arduous road the winners will walk. Paved with the bodies of their fallen adversaries, the road will now lead to a chest filled with a cold hard million.

On December 18-22 the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) will be hosting a Halo 3 tournament in Dallas Texas, working with X Factor Tournament to organize the event.

"The winner of the $1,000,000 “Halo 3” Xbox 360 competition will receive a $250,000 instant cash payout at the CPL Winter event. Other prizes will be paid to at least 64 places. The competition is open to gamers worldwide and does not require pre-qualification or previous tournament experience."

Online registration begins today, you can enlist here, on the CPL website.

For those who thought that professional gaming couldn't be done they should check their bank accounts and see if they can claim to have pulled in $250k in one weekend's worth of time.

\\drew

TF2 Halloween Costumes!

Thanks to Digg this morning I stumbled upon these pretty sweet Team Fortress 2 Halloween costumes.

While I've never been big on dressing up these are pretty fun, and reasonably well made.

Check out the full selection of images here.

\\drew

EA Pinching Pennies

Thanks to intrepid reporting over at Destructoid.com we find out that EA is now in the process of hacking off the fat from two of their developers, namely Mythic (Dark Age of Camelot) whom they purchased in 2006, and their Redwood Shores studio (Ultima Online).

While I won't get into the nitty gritty of the article, you can hit the link at the bottom to read it in its entirety.

Here's a quick excerpt from the EA internal e-mail that was forwarded from a Destructoid fan who works there:

Given this, John Riccitiello, our CEO, has tasked the company to get its costs in line with revenues ... Every studio, group and division of the company has been tasked to review its overall headcount and adjust its organization to meet the needs of the business moving forward.

EA tends to have a bad reputation within the industry for its hiring and layoff practices and events like this tend to be why. While most developers make no attempt to sound as though we have a stable job, there is a certain realm of safety that is desired in one's primary income, and EA has not yet managed to make a majority of developers feel as though it's a safe place to work. The games industry is absolutely fantastic and I highly encourage creative minds to seek employment here. New blood is needed to keep upcoming titles fresh and to ensure the envelope is constantly being pushed, so I don't want to dissuade anyone from seeking out this life. But I would recommend doing your research and feeling solid with your decision of where to clock in every day.

I wake up and know I have a job today, perhaps those at Mythic did too. But guess who's sipping coffee this foggy morning at their desk at work?

Full Destructoid Article Here

\\drew

Puzz Pinball

There have been countless pinball games throughout the ages for PC, but I haven't seen one quite like this yet. The game is Puzz Pinball, a new flash game developed by KERB and your goal isn't to play pinball, it's to use pinball mechanics to make a ball traverse a level.

The game starts off fairly simple, using solid blocks and such but quickly gets very complex using things like air blowers and bumpers.

I highly recommend checking the game out.

Puzz Pinball

\\drew

Luck in Video Games

For those nay sayers out there who don't believe in bad luck check out this video. It's rather cool how the event transpire and compound to make a killing blow in a game of Halo 3.

You know, I probably wouldn't have liked this video as much had it not been playing Blood of Cu Chulainn in the background.

So on first inspection, if I was this guy who was randomly fragged I would have been pissed. But once reviewing the tape and seeing how it all went down I would simply have to tip my hat to fate and possibly swear under my breath.

\\drew

More US WoW Players than Farmers

No, I don't mean gil farmers either.

In a new study it turns out that the US has more citizens playing World of Warcraft than growing us food. How sad is that?

Check out the BoingBoing article here.

\\drew

Feel Good Japanese Advertisement

It's Monday, I haven't been to work in 12 days. I think it stands to reason that I'm a little bummed out, and mildly overwhelmed by the flood of e-mails that were smiling their insidious smiles at me as I opened my Outlook this morning.

Well thanks to an article over at Kotaku, and those zany Japanese my day is a little better thanks to this advertisement for the Denestsu no Stafy 4 DS game released in Japan. I have no idea what's going on in the video, but everyone is so damned happy and sometimes that's enough.

Yep, everything will be ok.

\\drew

Trumpets and Horns, Whistles and Wombats

I'm back! Thank you, thank you. I know I've been missed.

My wedding was fantastic as was my honeymoon, all except for the seethingly evil squirrel who resided in the tree in front of the nearby castle.

Updates start again today so thanks for being patient!

\\drew

On Break

Hey everyone, I'm getting married on Saturday and then going on my honeymoon, so idiosyncrasy Today will be lacking updates until the 22nd of October when I'll come back with all sorts of thrilling tales and exploits.

See you on the other side!

\\drew

Battlefield 3 Info Leaked

According to the guys over at digitalbattle.com info for Battlefield 3 has been leaked from the developer, and all in all things are looking pretty exciting.

• Release in late 2008
• Powered by "Frostbite DX"
• Set in year modern day
• Will ship with 8 maps, each supporting up to 40-players per team
• Two playable factions, NATO and MEC (Middle Eastern Coalition)
• Same "ticket-based" gameplay style as before
• Maps are mostly urban, based in Middle East
• Squads and Commanders are present, introduced are "Battalions" which consist of three to four squads.
• Five playable classes; Sniper, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Support
• Will feature 48 different vehicles (24 for each faction)
• Will feature 34 different weapons (17 for each faction) and another 22 unlocks (for both factions), in total 56 different weapons.
• Other unlocks include different types of ammunition, body armor, helmets, camouflage and accessories.
• Possible public beta in "Summer 2008"
• Online stats tracking, awards and "real world ranks"
• "Soldier" feature, looks like MMO-styled characters and avatars
• Ranked servers will be available for resellers weeks before the game ships
• In-game replay and recording feature
• VoIP, friends list, in-game IM-client and "extensive clan support"
• Built-in auto software updater
• Windows Vista and OS X
• Announcement and teaser trailer in January 2008.

80 player multi-player.... that is going to be pretty intense. Hope this is true!

\\drew

Meet the Demoman

Well TF2 officially launches tomorrow, and with it we get another video allowing us to better understand the characters. Here we get some ideological insight into the mind of the demoman.

He calls himself a "black scottish cyclops"! How fantastic is that?

\\drew

Wired's Guide to Portals

With Portals launching on Wednesday, the hype is going up and up. Thankfully the good gents at Wired have made an easy to follow guide to Portals to prevent you from getting lost in something like Cube.

If you haven't yet I highly recommend pre-ordering the Orange Box through Steam, it's a great value for the amount of gameplay you get, including the Half-Life 2 series, Team Fortress 2 (shaping up to be one of the best multiplayer FPS's on the market) and Portals, an FPS puzzle game that will make a great design study.

\\drew

Folklore Review

There may actually be a game coming out worth owning on the PS3, perhaps mine will do more than play Persona 3 and Growlanser. Yes, PS2 games. My $500 system plays new last gen titles. No I'm not ashamed, heck, I just started a new Final Fantasy Tactics game.

Check out IGN's review of this new action RPG title coming out next week for the PS3. It seems to blend well directed cinematics with action sequences similar to what you'd see in standard action games but with a bit more depth.

\\drew

Unique Halo 3 Helmets

For those currently in rapture, no not with Bioshock but instead those enjoying the cornucopia of multiplayer goodness available in Halo 3, you may have seen a soldier running by with a flaming helmet.

Gamer's first response, "I need one! That would truly show how BA I am!"

Well unfortunately gentlemen the helmet is an exclusive for Bungie employees. This spells two iterations of doom for any sod who sees it. First, the unrequited love of the helmet. You love it, you want it, and it wants nothing to do with you. Second, you're playing a Bungie employee, and in turn they may be using your face as a springboard to higher leader board stats.

\\drew

Making Little Big Planet Avatars

In Sony's upcoming release Little Big Planet (developed by Media Molecule), players will be able to customize their little big denizens in many ways. This most recent trailer demonstrates some of the features.

\\drew

Flash games get deep

If you have a large amount of time to invest I highly recommend checking out this new flash game called "Feudalism". It's a pretty lengthy and heady game.

See, flash games can be more complex then tower defense.

Play Feudalism Now

\\drew