Brain Hood

It’s not every day that your friendly neighborhood video gaming news blog gets up in the middle of a great game and decides to dash out a preliminary review of sorts, just to holler out to all you video gaming crazies just what a great time we’re having with this game. This is one of those times, when we meet a game that makes us send up a prayer of thanks (not always silent) to the patron saint of video gaming, if there’s one. So let us give you a look-in on Rage, the latest FPS offering from id Software, the people who brought us the Doom and Quake video gaming franchises. Rage continues in the same vein as the last Doom and Quake iterations to come out of the id Software Stable, particularly the dark humor and the visceral combat.

Attention Video Gaming Fans: Introducing Rage

At its most basic, Rage tries to bridge two popular video gaming genres: there’s the FPS fun we mentioned, but there’s also generous sprinklings of all the hallmark features of a role-playing-game. With a game world that’s larger than your average FPS, and the stark landscape lending credence to the setting being in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, you’ll find yourself driving from one centre of civilization to another and yet the video gaming experience hardly wanes. You’ll meet strangers who give you quests to complete in return for unique items and weapon/ armor upgrades.

A Sight for Sore Eyes

One could be forgiven for thinking that the large and beautifully done game-world could have also accommodated some good sandbox action. Agreed, that is one popular subgenre of the action gaming world that might have fit quite well into this already interesting blend, but the omission would seem rather deliberate on part of the developers. The open-world gameplay pioneered by the GTA franchise has been done to death, and yet, few games have managed to pull it off with any degree of success in what has become a veritable deathtrap for otherwise decent games, now that there’s also Red Dead Redemption setting a standard in the sandbox video gaming sub-genre. What we have instead is a fairly linear, corridor action first person shooter with the character and arsenal development afforded by the RPG-esque features lending the game a degree of video gaming immersion as well as a faux-sandbox aura of freedom. To add to that the game world is, quite simply, gorgeous. The skies change hue as per the time of the day, with colors of heartbreaking beauty  and with clouds so beautifully rendered you’d think it’s the real deal.

An All New Approach Down a Familiar Path

The game world’s sprawling dimensions notwithstanding, you mostly travel down a narrow valley, and the combat action is predominantly close-quarters (wouldn’t be much of a “rage” otherwise, would it?).

Quite similar to Gearbox Software’s 2009 hit Borderlands, the over-world, which you’ll need a vehicle to navigate, has little by way of resources or missions but simply connects you to the different combat spots or quest sources you need to reach.

Rage is in no way the first game to be set in a post-apocalyptic scenario; as a matter of fact it borrows freely from similar titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and Borderlands. What makes it absolutely rollicking fun, however, is the freakishly innovative and absurdly gory combat that is complemented by the insanely good graphics, thus making for an insanely good video gaming experience.

Our Final Word (for now) on Rage

It is a thoroughly enjoyable game that you’ll learn to love warts and all. That holds especially true if, like us, you swore undying loyalty to any game coming from id when you were an impressionable teenager fragging anything that moves to gory bits of virtual blood, flesh and bone with that railgun.

It will be a while before we can really get into the game and dissect it with all the surgical precision we can muster and give you a comprehensive video game review, analyzing the various aspects in greater depth. For that, wait for the next post on this video game blog, while we return to what has so far been a great video gaming experience.

As Rockstar Games released the first official game trailer for Max Payne 3, there was a mixed reaction of both hope and cynicism from video game lovers and one can hardly blame them. A look at the various gaming multimedia titles these days would reveal that the electronic entertainment industry is sorely lacking in the ability to surprise. That is especially true with the  video game industry’s carnival events, where established formulae and a tendency to play it safe with series iterations tend to win over any creativity inspired fresh ideas that the developers may have. A general rule of thumb is to stick to what works with minor gameplay modifications, and to leave it to the more enhanced graphic engines to give the feel of freshness. So essentially, fans of popular franchises are playing the same game, iteration-after-iteration, with a new skin.

Rockstar Games is one development house that has, so far, managed to fight this tendency successfully in their games. Rockstar has been known, in the past, to tightly control information flow before a title release and to seldom indulge in pre-release media hype. The philosophy behind that is rooted in Rockstar’s inherent trickster persona, as VP and co-founder Dan House puts it: Letting people peek behind the curtain spoils the fun.

Max Payne 3: A Legacy to Live Up To

Due in March 2012, Max Payne 3 is the sequel to an action series that, in many ways, introduced cinematic aspects to the videogame world and remains one of the more story-driven shooting games to come out. Payne was a fugitive undercover cop: his cover busted, framed for murder of a colleague and hunted by both the NYPD and the mob. The first two games had a noir feel that contributed as much to the fan following as the ground-breaking gameplay. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne came out in 2004; eight years and one sloppy movie adaptation later, fans of the franchise have stuck to their guns.

That puts Rockstar, and Max Payne 3 in a somewhat complicated space: not only would the game have to compete against other titles in its genre, it also has to contend with the nostalgic memories of players who have long since forgotten any of its weaknesses.

Max Payne 3 Official Trailer Unveils Partial Storyline

The new game sees Max working as a private security specialist protecting an industrialist and his family in Sao Paulo. When gangs target the family, Max must battle not only the gangsters, but also the inner demons that have driven him for so long.

It’s a story that, on the surface, sounds formulaic, but both Rockstar and the Max Payne series have always taken pains to weave a complex tale into the games, rather than loosely tying event moments together with a threadbare plot.

Houser, who is also lead writer on Max Payne 3 (as he was on “Grand Theft Auto IV”), says he believes refining writing is essential to the maturation of the industry.

Maintaining control over story — and any cinematic qualities — is especially challenging as the gaming world moves toward a more multiplayer focus. Players still appreciate a good campaign, but if a game doesn’t have a strong online component where they can play with (or, even better, against) others, it hurts the game’s earnings potential.

Is Rockstar Seeking to Break New Ground with Max Payne 3?

Rockstar hasn’t talked much about the multiplayer aspects of Max Payne 3, but Houser hints that just because those elements of the game live outside of the campaign, it doesn’t mean they’re not part of the narrative.

“We wanted to put some elements of single player into the multiplayer so the multiplayer will have a lot more detail and have elements of story in it and have a sort of an immersive quality,” he says.

Max Payne 3 has done its time in development hell. First announced in 2009, with an expected shipping date of the winter of that year, it has been pushed back a couple of times to let the development team polish it and ensure the quality was up to Rockstar’s exacting standards. This includes an excruciating attention to detail, which Houser says is the real key to the company’s success, and would ensure that Max Payne 3 would live up to fan’s expectations and then some more.

When we bring the latest news from the world of gaming multimedia on our gaming blog, we consider it a duty to bring you the most unbiased opinions. We’d really like you to remember that. That’s why we tried to find any reason not to give Batman: Arkham City a perfect mark, and not because we get a thrill out of nitpicking. There’s that too, but mostly it is the duty thing.

So we went in looking for flaws, for mistakes. But hours passed and turned into days. Twenty-six hours of gameplay later, and only 67% complete by the game’s telling, we admit defeat.

You win, Rocksteady. Arkham City is perfect.

The City’s Slicker

This game, were you somehow not aware, is a direct sequel, building off of the already superlative Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2008. Essentially the entire combat system and most of the gadgets from the original make a return, immediately available to the player from the start. Still, improved AI makes things a bit harder. In return, however, each room has ever more ways to sneak around, unseen, picking off foes individually. The additions to Batman’s arsenal, meanwhile, are excellent: new, expanded movements off of the stun action, a dive bomb technique while gliding, and a vastly improved grappling hook that makes slinging around the city a breeze.

And what a city it is. Arkham City is a masterpiece of art direction, bringing to life a world even more fully realized than that of Nolan’s iconic films. Every section and building is wholly unique, every alleyway bristling with the Riddler’s well-placed trophies, every street a battleground between the warring factions of supervillains in Arkham City.

Though stalking through the claustrophobic corridors of Arkham Asylum was undoubtedly fun, the player won’t feel like Batman but could be any action hero with some dazzling array of gadgets; however, in Arkham City, things were different.

Cast and Crew of Arkham City

Being Batman, however, is not so nearly as fun without his cadre of supervillains with which to contend. Arkham City, its very nature precluding any possibility of contrivance, manages to squeeze nearly every major ally and antagonist in the history of the franchise into one, glorious campaign. Revealing the specifics should be considered, of course, spoiler territory, but it’s worth mentioning that several major villains don’t even make an appearance until you tackle their particular side missions. These completely optional objectives feel so fleshed out and rich that you would be hard pressed to tell them apart from primary story missions.

The story is well deserving of the license, and opens with such production value that you wonder if you should rent out a local theater just for the experience. With regard to performance, Batman: Arkham City has brought together possibly the single finest voice acting ensemble in the history of gaming. Mark Hamill, of course, is a ludicrously talented standout as the Joker, but every voice of every villain brings with it gravitas and panache to Arkham City.

The Knight of Arkham City

While the primary campaign is more than enough, there are dozens of distractions to keep you otherwise occupied during your stay in Arkham City. There are, of course, Riddler’s brainteasers and trophies making a return from Asylum, as well a pseudo-achievement system that rewards the player well with experience, which is then used to upgrade any number of devices from Mr. Wayne’s arsenal. There are dozens upon dozens of character dossiers, stories, and various other items of bonus content unlocked constantly throughout the game.

Arkham City: The Final Verdict

Batman: Arkham City is a game so good that we’re amazed it wasn’t programmed by alien wizards. Truly, it deserves every accolade it is so sure to receive, every perfect mark it is so sure to tally.

We’ll certainly be bringing you more video game news in the future, but we’re already certain that no game review would be as effusive as the one we’ve written for Arkham City.

A glance at the latest video game news would reveal that Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, also known as MMORPG for short, are a relatively recent craze in the world of online multiplayer gaming. Although online multiplayer gaming had already been immensely popular by the time MMORPG titles made an appearance, this relatively newer genre has now outpaced all other online video gaming genres. The sheer scale of these games, and immersive environment and gameplay they offer to the gamers has led to a level of involvement for gamers that has confounded non-MMORPG video game developers and worried behavioral scientists.

Evolution of MMORPG

World of Warcraft : An Immesely Popular MMORPG

Spurred on by the rapid development of the Internet, which has, in general, led to a huge influx in the development of computer gaming.  You can play online games with people from different parts of the world. Over the years, titles such as Counter-Strike and Need for Speed have enjoyed (and continue to do so) dedicated online gaming communities. The MMORPG genre itself has evolved from console and PC based Role Playing Games ( RPGs ) such as the Final Fantasy series, involving extensive character development as you go along playing missions and completing quests. This concept was taken and put online, where every character you encounter in the MMORPG universe is a human gamer on quests of their own. The possibilities, therefore, are very real-world and virtually limitless.

In the MMORPG genre games, players from across the globe connect to a server and play as described above; excellent computer graphics are an added plus point that MMORPG game more exciting to play, but not the main consideration for MMORPG gamers.

We’ll now about two very popular MMORPG titles.

MMORPG: Vindictus

Vindictus is an action oriented MMORPG from Nexon with top notch graphics and fast paced bloody game play. The core structure of Vindictus is simple, with little time needed to introduce you to the basic mechanics, and more time involving you in the real combat.  Colhen is a place from where you can pick up tasks, buy and sell items, learn skills, and socialize with other players. In most of the missions you run through the same environments and areas over and over again, which sometimes might end up with a battle. With your enemies getting in your way every now and then and with traps littered everywhere the game becomes interesting as you try to reach your quest. When you are involved in a boss battle, for instance, your main focus should be on the teamwork to take your enemies out of your way.

MMORPG: World of Warcraft

This is the role-playing game you should play; no matter who you are no matter what you do this is a game that everyone would like. This is because World of Warcraft brings out all the best aspects of this style of gaming. The game is set in Azeroth in a period that something near to Medieval Europe.  World of Warcraft is one of a kind of experience and it’s something that is recommendable to everyone. After playing this game you will feel glad that you are one of those people who play games and will feel sorry for those who don’t. This game is really easy to play. You do not need any tutorial to learn to play this game. Once you start playing you move along with the flow and will feel after sometime that nothing is tough in this game.  The interface is very user friendly and makes it easier for you to enjoy this game. This is an action packed game; you will never feel yourself doing something over and over. Regardless of which character you play you can greatly contribute to player groups or play alone and can even manage the monsters on your own. The variety of the game is one of the best parts. The type of character you play you’ll start out in totally different types of places.  In short if you have still not played World of Warcraft you have missed out on something great.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this latest gaming multimedia trend, and that you get inspired to play a MMORPG yourself.

Cloud gaming is a term fast becoming familiar to those who regularly follow gaming news blog posts.  So what is cloud gaming exactly? Cloud gaming can be loosely defined  as a video game that is played over the web, with no downloads and no specialized hardware or software required except of course for a thin client computer and a nominal web browser. Cloud gaming is also known as gaming on demand and is a new trend in online gaming. It allows you to play streamed games on demand using your computer (device) with the help of a client. The actual game software is stored with the operator or the gaming company’s server which is streamed directly to devices accessing the server (of course with the help of a client).

 This ground breaking development has enormous potential. A system that lets you play all the latest titles from almost any computer could be enticing for many gamers who are reluctant to invest in expensive hardware, and there are also opportunities here for software developers. With no downloads necessary for end users, games can be designed with premium optimization in mind.

Cloud Gaming : Part of a New Movement in Computing

The impact of cloud gaming has to be understood in the larger context the new technology that is changing the way we understand and manage our daily computing: cloud computing.

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, where shared resources, software, and information are provided to other devices over a network. These clouds are already present in most of our daily lives. Whenever we log in to our email accounts via a web browser, all the data is stored in the Clouds. Many of us may have also interacted with such Clouds when using Google Docs in which the docs, spread sheets and presentations are all edited online without ever being saved at our devices. ‘The Cloud’ is the ‘place’ where the files you view and use online are stored it saves your hard disk space and also allows you to access your documents from any place in the world.

How Cloud Gaming Scores over Currently State-of-the-Art Consoles

Since the inception of this technology of cloud computing, the gaming industry has seen several new changes for the benefit of the gamers. The technology of cloud gaming allows the user an access to numerous games without the need of a high end gaming multimedia and hardware like the Xbox360 and the PlayStation gaming consoles. You do not need to have a high end computer as the server runs the processing needs and acts like a system for the game to run upon. Just like any other game played on the computer the keys are assigned for all the moves, every move that can be made by the console is available on the computer. This allows you to enjoy the same game with the same moves without shedding out extra money. The controls and button presses from the user are transmitted directly to the server, where they are recorded, and the server then sends back the game’s response to the input controls.

Further adding to the fun you do not require an internet connection that is very high on speed, you can even enjoy the gaming experience with just another average internet connection needed for a standard definition television i.e. 1.5 mbps.

This was us introducing you to the concept of cloud gaming. We’ll be back soon with more details about cloud gaming, as well as other video game news and gaming multimedia trends.

Those of you who’ve been following the Counter-Strike tips on this video game blog would be pleased to note that we’ve finally come up with the long-promised advanced tips and tricks for Counter-Strike, a video game that very few people belonging to the post-80s generation can claim to not playing. So now that you have mastered the basics, we bring you the real-deal tips that you expect from any respectable video game blog.

Video Game Blog: Compensate for Recoil

Assault rifles can be deadly accurate or mere spray-and-pray weapons, depending on your trigger discipline

One of the major attractions of Counter-Strike has always been the realism of its weapon physics opposed to a video game such as, say Unreal Tournament. Weapon recoil makes your aiming reticule/weapon sight jumps rather quickly. If you’re not compensating for it, your aim will be badly thrown off. Once again, it’s hard to compensate on full auto, so use this with the burst fire technique already described. Any video game blog will tell you this.

Keep Secondary Weapon Ready

Counter-Strike is one video game that gives you a specific control to switch between any two weapons and that makes it much easier to switch to your pistol when you’re under fire than it is to reload your primary weapon. It might not always be a case of ammo either; a handgun is often more suitable for close-quarters combat if your aim is top-notch.

Video Game Blog: Use the Good Old Tap-Double Tap

For those who like to lean on the left-mouse button and just sweep through enemies ala Serious Sam, however, it also has two unfortunate side-effects: the realistic recoil of the weapons would mean that you end up hitting very little that’s worth hitting and secondly, you run out of ammo very quickly, exposing yourself to certain ‘death’. Unless you’re at point-blank range, in which case you may by all means let loose the full-auto, you must fire in short bursts of three-four rounds; this is particularly effective when using the SMG. With an assault rifle like the M-4, you could also use a technique that real-life military operatives call the tap-double tap. As the name suggests, you tap the trigger once, followed by two quick squeezes. Result: three precisely aimed shots.

Use Grenades to Good Effect

Any video game blog would tell you that grenades, in the right hands, are effective for softening up large groups of enemies. There are three types of grenades: frag grenades can injure or kill a number of enemies, depending on how many are in proximity to the blast (and how close) while a flash grenade temporarily blinds and disorients those caught in the blast radius, rendering them open to attack. Flash grenades have to be used with particular care, as one can end up blinding their own team: this happens even if friendly fire is off. Smoke grenades are used to form a smoke screen; this may come in handy to block the vision of enemy snipers so they have to move in closer, as a cover for retreat or even as a distraction.

Video Game Blog: Try to Work as a Team

Lone action heroes do not last long in CS. If you decide to go Rambo on your teammates and your enemies, you’re likely to run into a hail of gunfire (and snickers) without any backup at all. Also, team members would do well to carry a variety of weapons to give the team evenly balanced firepower. On a personal level, try to master one weapon, but only after you’ve had a go at most of them. The machine-gun, for instance, is heavy but can be used to deadly effect.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice makes perfect. Need we say more?

These are all the individual gameplay tactics that you can use to triumph in CS. Naturally, there are a number of class-specific, weapon-specific and map-specific strategies and tips that are best discussed with somewhat advanced Counter-Strike gamers.

So do you have any gaming tips and tricks to share with the readers of our video game blog?

Video Game Blog: The Rebirth of  Deus Ex

When we decided to review Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the readers of this video game blog, we were admittedly excited (the visuals we’d seen so far looked cool), but also apprehensive due to the once-bitten twice shy mentality that countless high brouhaha series sequels of late that have fallen flat. However, we wanted to be understanding and to look at the game objectively. After all, with so many things having changed in the years gone by, it would perhaps be wise for the denizens of this video game blog0 to get rid of baggage from past Deus Ex games before we judge the latest iteration. Or so we thought.

Video Game Blog: Challenges Galore

Ion Storm, the celebrated game development firm that was the breeding ground for the earlier Deus Ex games among other highly acclaimed games, no longer existed; Warren Spector and Harvey Smith, mainstays of the original team, have long moved on to bigger and better things; after two delectable games in the series, and a long gap since the second, fans have been clamoring for the third iteration and the expectations are high. These and more were the challenges that developer Eidos Montreal faced when they decided to revive one of the most widely loved series in video game history. They met all of them head on, and came out with Human Revolutions.

To begin with, Eidos does well to stick to the age old wisdom that dictates- “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”- and offers a gameplay that tastefully merges the best elements of stealth, combat, exploration, with the overall game progress structure seamlessly merging all the features of a role-playing game such as upgrade and conversation systems. Your tactical approach in a given situation can impact the storyline as well as further gameplay experience on many levels: narrative sequence, goodies you can plunder, shape of the game world can all be varied. Regrettably, though,  it has been observed on many a video game blog  that all game components aren’t equally well-polished; and we have to agree with that assessment.

Video Game Blog: Story & Gameplay

The storyline is a rich, well-written narrative that starts off 25 years prior to the events of the first Deus Ex game, a prequel to the current storyline. Its an era where the society is still coming to grips with the marvels of mechanical augmentation of the human body and the ethical questions it presents. The answers to these questions, however, are unfortunately going to be decided by the corrupt biotechnology firms.  The player takes on the role of ex-SWAT officer Adam Jensen,  who’s now a security consultant with one such firm. An attack by a rival firm leaves our protagonist badly hurt and in the unenviable position of being a guinea pig for the augmentation technology.

There are those among the readership of this video game blog who’re coming from the Metal Gear Solid school of hard knocks for stealth gaming and would appreciate the sneak tactics implemented in the gameplay of Human Revolution. The cover mechanic is well designed, while the AI is unpredictable enough to keep you on your toes. Any video game blog worth their salt would tell you that being a mere shadow among other shadows as you move through enemy strongholds can do your adrenaline levels as much good, if not more, as going in guns blazing.

The conversations system lets you control the tone and the tempo as well as the direction of conversations and negotiations, ala Mass Effect. The conversation can be gradually built up through choices that let you take a given approach. Besides these choices, body language also plays a role.   The conversation system is a product of writing ingenuity, and all of the writing within it is world-class.

Video Game Blog: The Good come with The Bad & The Ugly

There are blotches too, as noted by the resident gaming experts who populate our video game blog. Jensen’s mechanical arms, for instance, run on cheap batteries that drain after every stealth takedown. Since he’s without a spare one for most than half the game, he has to stand by and charge in the eventuality of a stealth takedown. You don’t really need a video game blog to tell you that that sucks. Upgrading these augmentations gives you immense advantages that makes you wonder what the designers were smoking when thinking of weapon balance mechanics.

Speaking of upgrades to the augmentations, this part also influences how you ultimately shape up for the game; how Jensen’s abilities develop by progressive upgrades is also how the narrative shapes itself. The gamers on our video game blog finished every side mission they came across and were not shy about exploring, and still had about 30 upgrades unactivated at the game’s conclusion.

The computer hacking mechanics also suffers from balance issues. It is fairly easy to get to hacking stealth level 3, which dramatically hampers his chances of getting caught (lessens the excitement, duh) the thrill of hacking is gone for good until the fag end of the game when you’re up against level five security rating terminals toward the end of the game. Hacking in this video game is a huge portion of the gameplay rather than just optional side-missions, as it is used to break into systems without proper access. Breaking into security systems can be a lot of fun when it’s balanced just right but the gamers at this video game blog are sad to say that’s not always the case in this video game.

Video Game Blog: Blaze of Glory

There’s a school of thought on many a video game blog (adherents of which would probably send this video game blog “Stealth sucks” messages) who think Rambo was a pussy in the First Blood 2 movie because he used stealth in a couple of places. They need not turn away from Human Revolutions as they can choose to engage in firefights as well; weapon design is cool and gun mechanics are responsive enough. Be warned though that alerted enemies, by some stretch of Murphy-esque logic, seem to lose their intelligence (maybe they just get nervous) and behave in ways that only serve to embarrass the developers. They’d either rush our hero or just get into cover, bobbing up long enough to get picked off one by one. This, however, is balanced by the fact that Jensen cannot take too many bullets before he goes down, as also the fact that ammo is a commodity that’s hard to come by.

Video Game Blog: The Final Analysis

No matter how much we may dwell on the faults of this game, we cannot take away from it the fact that this is a solid offering by Eidos who have managed to take and conquer the challenge of taking another franchise, one as well-loved as Deus Ex, and making it all their own, all the while remaining true to the original. All in all, something to enjoy for the fans as well as those who’ve not played the previous video games.

Goodbye till the next time, then. For more game reviews, keep watching this video game blog space!

Perhaps the single most successful user-created mod in video game history, as any video game blog will tell you, Counter-Strike (CS) has a cult following; in fact, even that word doesn’t do it justice.

Those of you who remember your college dorm video game days would recall how pwning everybody else at Counter-Strike on the LAN was one way to get some serious respect among your peers. Of course, so was being on the football team or being able to chug more beer than everybody else — depending on which crowd you ran with — but let’s not digress.

Anyway, in case you’re still living those days instead of reminiscing about them, or are considering graduating from LAN gaming with familiar players to proper tournament play, here are a few tips that should improve your game; some of these are of course universally applicable to the FPS video game category.

Follow Video Game Basics: Crouch & Walk

A crouching stance steadies your aim and makes for a smaller profile to offer to your enemies; this applies to other tactical shooters as well. Also, walking is silent in CS. Crouching and moving at the same time may seem slower, but increases your surprise factor as you can approach the enemy position stealthily.

Plan Your Reloads & Take Cover

These seemingly unrelated factors go hand in hand. You carry a finite amount of total ammo in this video game but more importantly, like real-life weapons, you have a weapon clip that must be reloaded (as long as you have spare ammo); as an aside, you’d do well to keep an eye on clip ammo levels as well as total ammo being carried. Remember that Counter-Strike is a video game that is unforgiving on those who play carelessly. So while you must reload regularly instead of risking the chance of getting into a firefight with half-a-clip, you can’t afford reloading in the open either: for that 3-second interval, you’re totally vulnerable.

Also, in a tactics-heavy video game such as CS, making a mad dash down a corridor is… well, plain mad. Just so we’re clear, so is camping in one obscure corner. Of course, it is fun taking some of your opponents by surprise but guess what your biggest disadvantage is once enemies wise up and gang-up on you? Surprise… you’re cornered! And then there are online video game servers, especially the ones for organized tournaments that routinely kick campers. So you must keep moving, but be aware of your terrain (and surroundings) and plan your cover stops in advance. When in cover, you may reload to make up for any ammo you may have expended.

Do the Zig-Zag Video Game Swagger

There would be many a time you’ll find yourself in a man-a-mano close-quarters shootout; the trick to surviving is being quick on that trigger finger and making yourself a hard target to hit at the same time. A good way to do that without throwing off your own aim (that’s why jumping is a bad idea) is by alternately hitting the left and right strafing keys, shooting at the same time. It might look funny to observers, but your enemy won’t be laughing when you kill him and come out tops.

Here ends our first post on basic Counter-Strike tips and tricks. We’ll be back again pretty soon with more advanced tips, pertaining to better fire control and efficient weapon usage. Until then, keep following this video game blog and keep practicing!

Normally covers the items of information are a bit of a strain, but two things on a recent launched an impassioned personal appeal: I rely on playing the Civilization series and I rarely bother to read the user manual. These do not necessarily resemble topics that could be solved by computer science, but some researchers have decided to let a computer itself learn to play Freeciv and in the process, even learning to read the game manual. Simply by establishing if the movements that it was ultimately a success, not just software researchers was to better play the game, but figured out much of the manual as well.

Civilization is not the first game to capture the attention for computer scientists. The new paper, “The authors, who are based at MIT and University College London, Cité past literature, where computers have been able to teach them the Go, Poker, Scrabble, multi-player card games, and real-time strategy games. The method is used in all these is called the search in Monte Carlo.

In each possible move, the game runs a series of simulation games, which is used to evaluate the potential usefulness of the different movements. He uses it to update a utility function that estimates the value of a given movement in a specific state of the game. After several iterations, the utility function should improve the identification of the best move, although the algorithm will occasionally insert a random motion, just to keep trying new opportunities.

All this seems simple enough, but the challenges are big enough computer. The author’s estimate that the average player in general, will have 18 units in the game and each of these can be one of the 15 actions. This creates what is called an “action space” of about 1021 possible moves. To evaluate the usefulness of one of them, things were 20 moves and then check the game score (or if you won or lost before that date). It took 200 hours to generate these numbers yield.

For the tests, the Monte Carlo search was set to play Freeciv AI is based on a one-on-one game in a network of 1,000 chips. A single turn 100 game took about 1.5 hours to complete a Core i7, so all this time, the simulation is not trivial. But in general, the algorithm worked quite well, being able to win in this short time of about 17 percent of the time (from left to play a game until the end, the search for Monte Carlo won a little less than half the time).

However, the authors questioned whether the algorithm can make better decisions more consistent if he had access to the owner’s manual, which contains several bits of advice on the strengths and weaknesses of different units, as well as some general tips on how to build an empire (cities near post near a river, for example). So they decided to make your program RTFM.

“Reading” was held using a neural network that takes the game state, a proposed move, and the owner’s manual input. A set of neurons in the network analysis to find the manual condition / action pair. These pairs are things like “active” or “full path” (he says) and “improve the ground” or “strengthen unity,” such as stocks. A neural network separate to understand if one of the points identified for the first applied to the current situation. These are then combined to find relevant advice in the manual, which is then incorporated into the utility function.

The key to this process is that the neural network does not even know if it is correct to identify the pair status / action when it starts, it does not know how to “read” much less whether it has correctly interpreted the advice , the intermediary (if you choose to build near a river, or you have never built a river?). Everything must go on what the impact of his performance on the match result. In short, he must find a way to read the instruction book just by trying different interpretations and see if they improve the game.

Despite the difficulties, it works. When analyzing text were included, the success of software authors have taken so far won over half his games in 100 moves, and hit the game’s AI nearly 80 percent of the time when games were played at the end.

To test how well the software, the authors, is powered by a mixture of phrases owner’s manual, and took the Wall Street Journal site. The software used phrases correctly more than 90 percent of the time early in the game. However, as the game progressed, the manual has become a less useful guide, and the ability to withdraw her hand fell to about 60 percent of the End Game. At the same time, the software has begun to rely on less tangible, and the gaming experience.

This does not mean that the Journal was useless, however. Feeding the complete software package random text instead of an instruction also strengthened their algorithm is winning percentage; it increases by 40 percent in the 100-Move games. It is not as good as 54 percent obtained with the manual, but it is much better than the rate of 17 percent to win the algorithm alone.

What is happening here? The document does not say, but more importantly to note is that the neural network is just to try to identify rules that work (ie, built near a river). No matter how these rules will be transmitted only the text associated with a random action and determines whether the results are good. If you’re lucky, you can end combination of a useful rule with random text. He has a better chance than with non-random bits of text as the owner’s manual, but can still provide useful information, no matter what it takes to work.

The authors note that the software successfully learned to build its presence in the rich language of the game manual to perform better, learn to interpret the language as it went along. This is certainly true, the best software hoitaisi when he received the user manual as it was fed with a random text, and the difference was statistically significant. But simply providing a text resulted in a higher relative speed. This means that it is better to have some rules to work, no matter how they are derived, which have no instructions at all.

U.S. retail video game hardware, software and accessories fell 10 percent last month, U.S. $ 995 million (1.18 billion dollars) over the same month last year.

The second consecutive month of decline in industry sales was due primarily to a list of mediocre game releases.

NPD Group market research, said in its monthly report yesterday that sales of video game hardware fell 9 percent to U.S. $ 366.6 million. These include portable game systems and game consoles like the Wii.

Software sales, the games themselves, fell 12 percent to U.S. $ 469.5 million. When including PC games, total sales of software fell 10 percent to U.S. $ 508.9million.

Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen & Co., planned June sales disappoint, although he said several titles for hardcore gamers did worse than expected.

These include Duke Nukem Forever by Take-Two Interactive Software and Red Faction: Armageddon by THQ. Both the negative reviews hurt, he said.

Sales of game accessories, meanwhile, fell 11 percent to U.S. $ 158.9 million.

Month two best-selling game was LA Noire, which is also published by Take-Two, Sony and Duke Nukem Infamous seconds.