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The World of Warcraft has just got its ultimate battle. Blizzard has announced a series of upcoming worldwide tournaments wherein WoW player v. player contingents will have the chance to beat each other with characters that have been designed specially for a share of cash prizes amounting to more than $ 200,000.

The tournaments are scheduled to begin in April and will pit players against each other using only their wits and level 70 characters that have been specially created and equipped with the finest possible gear and “placing the focus on tactics and execution rather than normal adventuring.” Each region around the world has its own buy-in fee which is reasonable and definitely low enough to ensure a large turnout of gamers in the tournament. According to Mike Morhaime, Blizzard CEO the tournament aims at expanding World of Warcraft’s tournament options to players who prefer to focus on the competitive aspect of the game.

Since the biggest complaint that Blizzard has received about World of Warcraft is the lack of Player v. Player options, this is probably an effort on the part of the company to appease the very vociferous minority which prefers PvP. Though cash tournaments cannot replace the demand and fan following that PvP gameplay systems in games like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online command, luring them with money is perhaps the only way of silencing the disgruntled masses.

For the time being it seems that the stage is set for the World of Warcraft to take over gaming all over the world and bring the WoW frenzy to never before reached heights.

There were a lot of doubts in between that Mario Kart Wii wasn’t going to meet its release date this spring. Rest assured, Nintendo has now added the game’s box art to its press assets site. This is probably as firm an indication as possible that Mario Kart Wii is indeed coming out- and its coming out sooner rather than later.

The question on everybody’s mind now is whether the game will be playable at the GDC 2008. That possibility seems kind of far off now since Nintendo seems to be backing Wii Ware, Smash Bros. and Wii Fit. So Mario Kart Wii doesn’t seem to be making that list right now.

The box seems right up with what one has come to expect from Wii. It looks like another part of the Wii Sports brand and Kart is after all one of Nintendo’s biggest hits. So I’m expecting a lot from this particular release.

The game which was officially announced at the E3 2007 Media and Business Summit has had a lot of questions raised about its release. The game will support the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service and will also support an online racing mode where players will be able to head to head with each other. There will also be online leagues and rankings.

In a move to expand gameplay the game will also involve motorcycles in addition to karts and players can choose either. The game also has new inclusions like performing tricks in the air, 10 new battle stages and 16 brand new tracks which are a remake of 16 older tracks.

The game which seems jam packed with features will now finally meet its April, 2008 release date as originally promised, something which will have many gaming enthusiasts waiting to try it out.

A game built around the legendary rock band Aerosmith has just been announced for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii. The game will feature all five members of the band namely Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer and is set to release somewhere in June of 2008.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a music rhythm game and allows players to take the place of Perry and Whitford on the guitar and Hamilton on the bass as they join Tyler and the drummer Kramer and belt out the band’s smash hit songs. The game will trace the growth of the band from the time they played small gigs to their meteoric rise which settled them as part of rock’s royalty.

The game is being developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, by Budcat for PS2 and the Wii version is being developed by Vicarious Visions.  Players get to hear Aerosmith’s greatest hits as well as songs from other musicians whom the band has either performed with or been inspired by. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is the first game to be made around the band and is a great deal for both the band as well Activision which stands to gain from this collaboration with the band which has sold more than 150 million albums worldwide.

To further promote this tie up, Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock players will also get to download and rock to “Dream On”, the band’s 1973 ballad. It will be available free of cost at the Xbox live marketplace for Xbox 360 owners and at the PlayStation Store for the PS3.

This deal could potentially help bring the record industry back in business as record companies are struggling to keep up with the changing music scene. This sort of exposure to music could help improve sales again.

Its one thing to be serious about gaming, but this is an entirely different thing.  A man from Philadelphia killed his daughter after an accident involving an Xbox. Tyrone Spellman aka Anwar Salahuddin pummeled his seven year old daughter several times, causing her skull to crack many times and ultimately causing her death. Reports also show that the child might have been flung across the room at some point.

The child apparently knocked over his Xbox after which Spellman reacted in such a manner.  He was convicted of third degree murder and child endangerment and faces up to 47 years in prison. Earlier an anonymous caller had called up the Department of Human Services to inform them that the child Aliyiah was in a household where she was abused, but even after routine investigations when there wasn’t enough evidence to support any intervention by authorities the matter had to be dropped.

Even though Spellman spent six to seven hours playing on his Xbox, the incident is more a result of a violent temper rather than addiction to gaming although that might have played a small part. The child’s mother was sleeping in the next room. He confessed to the crime the day after the child’s death and his lawyers argued that he had done so only to protect the child’s mother.  He claimed that the confession was coerced and had earlier claimed that the child had fallen off the bed.

Though the incident reflects more upon Spellman’s dangerously violent temper, critics of gaming will only have one more incident to their growing list of arguments against gaming and its adverse effect on society. While such incidents happen everyday, the fact that it happened over a Xbox is likely to cause a much bigger issue than it would in normal circumstances.

Need for speed is one of the mot popular games in the history of gaming. The makers have now come out with a new version of the game.  NFS2 was immensely popular and Most Wanted also managed to cash in on the NFS mania. But Need for Speed: Pro Street just falls flat.  The game is solid but wholly unspectacular.

The problem with this version is that the game’s premise isn’t particularly, there is too much of advertising happening within the game and it doesn’t run too well either. The controls are sluggish and much worse than the previous version.  This game centers around a certain Ryan Cooper where you have to go to different events, win them and then take on some person called Ryo.

There are a lot of races you have to go through before you finally catch up with Ryo and these are pretty easy if you’ve played NFS before. There is some drag racing and quite a bit of drifting in this game and this part is pretty cool.  There are a lot of events and races in this version but they’re all the same. You can only get the cool cars later so early on you’ll be racing some lame car. Also there is a lot of focus on damaged cars and you have to repair them and do things so that sort. Not very enjoyable.

The audio on Pro Street is very great either because the announcer’s aren’t very good and neither is the script they’ve been given.  It is just another racing game and nothing more. It isn’t any different and features almost the same things as the last version with very minor changes. Its more a platform for advertising than an attempt at making a decent game.

At last- a real life hero. Who says video games are always bad. They taught one man essential survival skills. A man from North Carolina was able to provide medical aid to victims of an accident last November. Paxton Galvanek saw an SUV roll over on l-40 and immediately rushed to provide medical aid to the victims. He learnt medical aid from America’s Army, the makers of the videogame said.

He found one of the victims missing his fingers after the accident and the area was bleeding profusely. He used a towel as a dressing and asked the victim to hold the towel over his wound and raise his hand above his head to lessen the blood flow while he assessed the other injuries the man had suffered. A few minutes later an army soldier who was medically trained arrived and he took over the medical aid.

Galvanek said that he learnt how to control bleeding after playing section four of the “medic” class training in America’s Army, a game which has been developed by the Army to recruit people. He said that he had received no medical training and that it was only because of the training and presentations in the game that he was able to save the injured men by providing first aid care.

“Because of the training he received in America’s Army’s virtual classroom, Mr. Galvanek had mastered the basics of first aid and had the confidence to take appropriate action when others might do nothing. He took the initiative to assess the situation, prioritize actions and apply the correct procedures,” said Colonel Casey Wardynski, America’s Army Project Director. “Paxton is a true hero. We are pleased to have played a role in providing the lifesaving training that he employed so successfully at the scene.”

In order to get the role of a medic the players have to go through virtual medical training that the soldiers go through in real life.

Many Xbox enthusiasts have been waiting keenly for the game version of the world’s favorite spy James Bond. Rare was supposed to bring its seminal first-person shooter (FPS) Goldeneye 007 to Xbox fans. The Nintendo 64 game was to be adapted for Xbox Live Arcade by Rare but it hasn’t happened yet. Rare was supposed to add online multiplayer options and were even going to re-up the licenses for some of the actors who were part of the movie.

1up says that the reason behind the delay is the fact that Microsoft and Nintendo couldn’t quite reach an agreement as to how much Nintendo should receive for the new version of the game. Nintendo is the game’s publisher and also co-developed it. The main bone of contention in this matter is whether Nintendo should be given a one-time payment or whether it is entitled to royalty on the sale of the games.

Microsoft seems to be trying to use its superpower status to browbeat Nintendo into agreeing to a one-time payment so that it can rake in the profits from the sales that are sure to be very high. The only way around this dispute is if one of the parties compromise on their monetary gain.

I’m personally inclined to side with Nintendo since they are after all the co-developers of the game. Moreover the game is one of the most popular FPS in the market and bringing it to Xbox is worth any price they might pay for it. Moreover the immense popularity of the game will ensure that the Xbox adaptation is a hit too and that Microsoft will earn from the sales whatever they paid Nintendo many times over. For now there is no sign of a compromise and like all gamers we’ll be waiting for any good news.

Most games these days are MMORPGs. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games is a form of online gaming where players from all over the world interact through the game. The players take up the character of a certain fictional character and control all his actions and behavior. MMORPGs are different from single player games or even small multiplayer games because these games are hosted on servers and many thousands of people take part in it, so even when a player exits the game it doesn’t cease to exist.  MMORPGs are very popular and more than 15 million people play these games and the revenue from these exceeds a billion US dollars.

Though the first multi player games came out in the 70s, the first MMORPGs only started in the early nineties.

Most MMORPGs are based on fantasy and fiction and involve the performance of certain tasks and reaching certain goals.  Thus players accumulate points, wealth, buy weapons and combat each other. Most MMORPGs also have built-in support on the site and form guilds which players join. Most players join within a few months of playing on that MMORPG.  Most MMORPGs have similar environments and elements and even though there are different games a common culture has developed among players of MMORPGs.

MMORPGs are developed on a client server system wherein the game runs continuously on a certain server and players use client software to connect to the game. Some client software may provide access to the entire site while some may be restricted. 

MMORPGs however have had more than their share of criticism. Parents fear that the addiction to the game might severely affect their children’s development. Many people put in huge amounts of time and lack any real social skills. It has been urged that a time limit be put on gaming.

One of the biggest obsessions between people, especially males these days apart from gadgets and bikes is probably CS or Counter Strike. Counter Strike is a tactical, first person shooter game and now is available on almost all platforms including PCs, Xbox and has a number of variants.

The game is one where a group of anti-terrorists fight terrorists  and each round is one by either completing the given mission or my annihilating the opponents. Players join one of the two teams and try to eliminate the other. All players are given some money in the beginning to buy things, ammunition, guns etc. During the freeze time which is given for players to buy things they cannot attack or be attacked.

This game can be played by a single player and is also available in multiplayer option and is also played on the internet. It is played very often on Local Area Networks (LAN).

Counter Strike is an extremely popular game and there are professional players and leagues formed to play it on a serious basis. People earn money from playing CS and servers hosting it earn a huge amount of money through advertising revenue and sometimes through membership charges. Cheating and violent behavior is known to happen due to CS games. There are number of very well known cheat codes which are employed to considerable effect.

CS has also gained so much popularity worldwide that it has influenced several other games but none of them have been able to match the popularity of Counter Strike.  CS has also attracted its own share of controversy and people have blamed disruptive influence on CS saying that it affects the minds of people.  CS addicts however remain unfazed through all this and their devotion to the game strengthens day after day.

Online games refer to games that are played over a network and in the present times refer to games that are played over the internet. Online games can be simple games which are available all over the internet and can also be complex games with graphics and virtual worlds which are played by many players at once. Thus online gaming has in a way brought about a new facet to gaming and has in some ways made single player gaming obsolete. While some sites offer games for a fee there any many sites where gaming can be done for free and the site owners make their money from advertising revenue instead.

In the early 1990s games were played over a Local Area Network (LAN) and by the late 90s games began to be played on the internet. As the internet became more and more improved and the quality and standards of browsers also improved more and more browser games began to be invented where games could be played by using HTML & HTML scripting technology while more complicated games were played on a web server. The kind of games and the level of online gaming improved with the advances in technology.

With the development of web-based graphic technology such as Java and Flash came a new era for online gaming which allowed browser games to become far more complex than before and these games became immensely popular and were being played increasingly and all over the world. Games created earlier were also recreated with the new technology so as to improve the playing experience. In recent times a technology called AJAX was invented which allowed complicated multiplayer gaming through browsers, something which was impossible until then.

With the spread of broadband internet, massive multiplayer online games became popular and involved people from all over the world in a single game.

Now multiplayer games can also be played through browsers with a technology called Massive Multiplayer Online role-playing games (MMORPG) which have taken gaming to an never before reached level. Thus online gaming has come a long way since the 1980s with the rapid strides made by internet based technology.