The Select and Start News Report: 08.06.07
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 08.06.2007
GTA4 is delayed, Sony is sued again, Xbox 360 price cuts, major Smash Bros. update, CGS and more.
Welcome to the Select and Start News Report, now with way overdue CGS recaps. I don't have much else to say in this intro, so let's get straight into the news.
Grand Theft Auto 4 was going to be part of the Fall 2007 "Too Many Great Games to Buy" extravaganza, but Take-Two recently announced that the game has been delayed until Spring 2008. This puts a slight dent in Take-Two's estimated profits and losses for the fiscal year ending October 31st. Take-Two explained the reason for this delay is due to technological challenges and is working closely with Rockstar to make sure the game is perfected for both the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, however, says that the delay is the PS3's fault. "We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognize how far away from completion the game truly was until recently. We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favor competitor Microsoft by launching the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV prior to launching the PS3 version, and believe that any delay of the PS3 version necessitated a delay of the Xbox 360 version. In our view, this is the only plausible explanation of what happened, but management was reticent to provide any details during the conference call."
Well guys, looks like you'll have to wait a while before being able to play GTA4. But if you look down at the Gaming Calendar, you'll see that we've got Halo 3, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Crysis, and lots of other games I listed from E3 last week about to come out this fall. Not to mention that for the first time in a long time, this Summer (or what's left of it) is going to have Metroid, Blue Dragon, and Guild Wars: EotN. So overall, maybe a GTA4 delay isn't that bad for gamers.
But it's definitely bad for PS3, because it looks like their best games are going to skip the holiday season for an early 2008 release. It was already bad enough that Metal Gear Solid 4 got delayed, but now Grand Theft Auto 4? PS3 is going to have a very rought holiday season.
SONY IS SUED...AGAIN [credit: GameDaily, GameSpot, Gamasutra]
Yep, looks like Sony is once again being sued for using something that wasn't theirs. Sony is being sued by Parallel Processing Corporation for the Cell chip that is infringing on a patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory" that was approved on October 8th, 1991. The patent was originally assigned to International Parallel Machines of New Bedford, Massachusetts, while Parallel Processing Corporation describes itself as its "exclusive licensee."
This is starting to make me wonder whether Sony is nothing more then a bunch of thieves or everybody suddenly wants a piece of their pie. Hopefully things will settle outside of court because Sony has enough issues to deal with the PS3.
THE PS3 XBOX 360 PRICE CUT REPORT [credit: GameSpot, GameDaily]
Now that we're done speculating on the price of the PS3 (probably), now it's time to see if Xbox 360 is doing any price cuts. It's been rumored for a LONG while now, and with the PS3 dropping it's price plus Xbox 360 about to reach it's 2nd Anniversary, a price cut seems more and more likely.
As it turns out, yes, Xbox 360 IS getting a price cut. The rumors were made true from a Circuit City ad posted by Joystiq, which was also how the PS3 price drop news broke out. On August 12th, the price of an Xbox 360 Core is dropping $20 to $279.99, Premium $50 to $349.99, and the Elite $30 to $449.99. Circuit City is also throwing in a copy of Rockstar's Table Tennis with purchase.
Of course, Microsoft is doing the whole "We have no announcements, our games are cool, blah blah blah blah" kind of speech. Seriously, I don't understand why companies just can't come out and say what they're doing when these kinds of stories break out. Are they afraid that one of the other big names will steal their idea and get ahead of them with it? Or do they just love keeping secrets to hold the suspense? People, it's the year 2007: Nothing is a secret anymore.
THE FORMAT WARS [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]
The war is still continuing between the Blu-Ray disc and the HD-DVD. At the Electronics Merchants Association Home Media Expo 2007 (damn that's a long name), TDG president and analyst Michael Greeson has recently published his opinions on the war. He says that even though Blockbuster has sided with Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, that "will have little impact on how the format battle is decided," calling Blockbuster "a blip on the DVD sales radar."
What will make a major difference, however, is stores deciding to sell only one kind of player, like recently with Target and Wal-Mart siding with Blu-Ray. "The window of opportunity [for HD DVD] closes a bit more with each exclusive retail and content partnership that Blu-ray announces. Radical moves will be required by the HD DVD camp, such as major equipment subsidies (slice the unit price to below $200 - soon) or significant marketing investment on the part of Microsoft, Toshiba, Universal, and the other HD DVD players (something which we have yet to see happen)."
But Greenson also pointed out that of the 1.5 million Blu-Ray players in use, 1.4 million of them are PS3's instead of stand-alone units, and that Blu-Ray owners have purchased on average 1.3 Blu-Ray discs, while the 300,000 HD-DVD owners have purchased an average of 4.7 discs.
So overall, it's still a bit early to call, but it looks like Blu-Ray is currently taking the lead.
Tidbit News
-Former Take-Two CEO Ryan Brant, who pled guilty to first-degree felony charges, has recieved a sentence of five years probation for his cooperation with prosecutors. I bet it was all thanks to Jack Thompson! After all, we STILL didn't get an explanation as to what happened in that secret meeting several weeks ago. CONSPIRACY~! [credit: GameDaily, GameSpot]
-In crazy racism news, people claim that Resident Evil 5 is racist because you play a white man who kills a bunch of black people in Africa, despite the fact that just about all those people have turned into zombies trying to kill you. Stay tuned for an asinine comment by Jesse Jackson followed up by an Al Sharpton press rally. [credit: Evil Avatar]
-Sony recently announced that Rockstar is about to debut new yet to be named franchise exclusively for the PS3, and it's not LA Noire. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]
-In the latest Halo 3 news, Bungie recently revealed that's there will be a four player online co-op mode. One player is Master Chief, one is Arbiter and the other two are new Elite characters. [credit: Gamespot]
-In stock news (and thankfully not stock OPTION news), Bluebay Value Recovery Fund has bought 22.5% of Infogrames stock, making them the largest shareholder groups in the company. [credit: GameDaily]
-After it was reported that about 90% of Nintendo's marketing team was not going to make the move to the new Redwood City offices, it's been confirmed that three of the top executives, Beth Llewelyn, Perrin Kaplan, and George Harrison, are not making the move. [credit: Gamasutra]
-Even though G4 named Call of Duty 4 the best game at E3, the "Best of E3 Game Critics Award" for Best of Show went to Rock Band. Other winners included LitteBigPlanet (Best Original), Mass Effect (Best Console and RPG), and Crysis (Best PC) amongst others. [credit: Gamasutra]
-First Star Wars got the Lego makeover, and now Indiana Jones will be turned into block form. The game will recreate the movies Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A release date has not yet been confirmed. [credit: Gamasutra]
Profits and Losses
EA: Despite the successful sales of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, total revenues came in at $395 million compared to last year's $413 million. Net loss at the leading publisher was up from $81 million to $132 million for the quarter, and gross profit was down seven% to $229 million. [credit: GameDaily]
KONAMI: The company saw sales rise by 5.2%, compared to the same period last year, to a total of ¥60.7 billion ($508.8m). Operating income rose by 16.8% to ¥7.01 billion ($58.7m), while net income rose by as much as 82.2% to ¥3.86 billion ($32.4m). The domestic Japanese market generated 50.35 billion ($422.0m) in sales, while North America contributed just ¥4.44 billion ($37.2m) and Europe only ¥4.14 billion ($34.7m). [credit: Gamasutra]
MIDWAY: The publisher posted a net loss of $14.3 million for the second quarter ended June 30. This is an improvement over the net loss of $31 million one year ago at this time. And net revenues were up from $25.9 million to $31.8 million, beating the company's guidance of $29 million. [credit: GameDaily]
THQ: THQ has announced that it saw first quarter sales down slightly from $138.8 to $104.5 million on sales of Ratatouille, Cars, and WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2007, with quarterly net losses of $9.3 million, down from the previous year's $12.1 million. [credit: Gamasutra]
SONY: Even though Sony's game division posted an operating loss of $237 million for the first quarter, Sony's chief financial officer, Nobuyuki Oneda noted that the company's loss was actually better than expected. "Because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our original expectation." [credit: GameDaily]
The Other Crap
PROGESS GAMING: Planet Puzzle League
So what happened to Final Fantasy XII? I'm starting to think there's no way I'm going to complete it by month's end, so that's on the backburner. Right now I'm raising my high scores in Planet Puzzle League.
OTHERLY GAME REVIEWS
Usually I would tell you about a flash game you should play, but instead I'm going to tell you about a flash game you SHOULDN'T play:
Dune Bashing in Dubai Genre: Racing Format: Flash Instructions: You ain't gettin' any!
Where do we begin? First of all, they don't tell you the controls of this game. Guess what key you have to push to move forward? If you said the Right Arrow key, you're WRONG, it's the Up Arrow key. The left and right key are to maintain the balance of the vehicle but most times you'll just do a 180 and "Loose" all your lives. And yes, they spelled "LOSE" wrong, and worst it's supposed to be "LOST" a life.
Tiger Flash Games has some great games, but this isn't one of them.
OMG FEEDBACK?
From Kevin Nguyen:
I know you guys couldn't cover every single game in this article...but it just goes to show how overlooked Zack & Wiki (wii) is.
I can't believe out of all the games I wound up missing, it's one I covered a preview about and was actually looking forward to. That was probably why I skipped it, I don't know. Busy weekend. For those not in the know, Zack & Wiki (formerly known as Treasure Island Z) is a Puzzle/Adventure game which uses the Wii remote in all sorts of ways to solve puzzles and use items. This could be one of the best console puzzle games to come out in a long while. Thanks Kevin for the helpful reminder.
Speaking of Zack & Wiki, Capcom recently had to remove the Islamic phrase "Allahu akbar" ("God is most Great") in the game. Even child friendly games such as Zack and Wiki are not safe from controversy! [credit: Gamasutra]
DOUBLE WEEKLY SMASH BROS. ROUNDUP
Another two-week dosage of Smash Bros. Brawl updates, and man did we get some HUGE updates! We now know about:
-Rumble Falls. It's DK's stage which plays similar to Ice Climbers' stage in Melee.
-Yoshi. We already saw this coming, but now we know that his Egg Toss special can be used as his third jump.
-Skyworld. Pit's stage where the floors are constantly breaking apart.
-Footstool jump. You can now jump on the heads of your opponents like Mario on Goombas. The strategy with this is to jump on their heads while they're not on the stage and send them dropping out of there.
-Knuckle Joe. Kirby's friend comes out as an assist trophie with fists of fury followed up with a powerful special move (1 of 2 he has).
-Donkey's Kong Final Smash. DK breaks out the kongas and starts jamming. He can't be damaged during this and with precise timing with button presses, you just might deal extremely heavy damage to everyone around you.
-Pitfall. Not the Atari game, but rather the item from Animal Crossing where you can plant a secret hole in the ground and send opponents droping. Throwing it right at them will cause them to fall right away.
-Ike. Finally, a completely new character is announced! Ike is from the Fire Emblem games and carries around a two-handed sword with one hand. But does this mean that Marth and Roy are going to leave us?
-Castle Siege. Remember that castle shown in the trailers? That's the stage. This one has three different levels: The castle roof, inside the castle with statues everywhere, and a secret underground level...
-The Subspace Emissary. A couple weeks ago we were hinted at some sort of new Story mode for the game. As it turns out, it's the brand new Adventure Mode entitled "The Subspace Emissary." Apparently the characters of Smash Bros. unite to destroy this evil from...whatever it is they do. That thing from a couple weeks ago apparently are the minions/enemies you'll be fighting along the way. The screenshots also hint that maybe, MAYBE...you play as everyone in this mode instead of one character all the way through.
RANDOM RANTS
-So TNA's buyrates are down, they hired more ex-WWE guys, and they also signed PacMan Jones...
-So when the odds are against John Cena, he'll overcome them and win, yet when the odds are completely in his favor, he loses? Can somebody explain this to me?
-Personal Best at Throw Paper: 20
-Johnny Nitro changed his name to John Morrison to make himself look more like Jim Morrison, but the moment I saw him last night the first person I thought of was Mitch Hedberg. Now THAT would be an awesome wrestling gimmick!
"I want a candle with an ECW Title incense so I can make CM Punk wake up to false hopes."
-So with Pirate Master cancelled I'm watching it through CBS.com, and CBS fucking sucks at showing videos. In this day and age where YouTube, ThatVideoSite, and DailyMotion are popuarl, videos that BUFFER are stupid. Not to mention you can fast forward or rewind without resetting the entire video and you also have to sit through ADS! Fuck you CBS!
-Right now I'm deciding whether to get either Summerslam or Hard Justice. I haven't watched a WWE PPV since Wrestlemania since just about most of them sucked and Summerslam might look the same way, but with TNA likely to screw over Samoa Joe again and the *SPOILER*6-Man Russo-Riffic Cage Match*/SPOILER*, I think I'm going with Summerslam.
-After last week's episode of Naruto [the English dubbing], Shikamaru is officially my God.
GAMING CALENDAR
August 19th - Airdate for 2007 Season of WSVG on CBS Sports
I completely missed the first episode, but then again I don't really like how they aired it the last time anyway.
August 24th:
-Blue Dragon to be released
-Xbox 360 Elite Release Dated For Europe and Canada
August 27th - Metroid Prime 3 to be released
August 31st
-Guild Wars: Eye of the North to be released
-Auto Assault to be shut down
September 20th - Slimlime PSP to launch in Japan
September 25th - Halo 3 to be released
October 9th - Half-Life 2: Episode 2 "orange box" to be released
October 11th - Microsoft to release Xbox 360 Elite in Japan
November 5th - Area 51: Blacksite to be released
November 12th - Super Mario Galaxy to be released
NEW: November 16th - Crysis to be releaseed
December 3rd - Smash Bros. Brawl to be released
November 17th, and December 15th - Airdates for the 2007 Season of WSVG on CBS Sports
March 1st, 2008 - Metal Gear Solid 4 to be released
CHANGE: April 2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV to be released
And over at the Wrestling section, check out You're an idiot and Here's Why for The Great Idiot Debate on the Great Khali. It's a very interesting article.
With all that done, here's some recapping of the 2007 Championship gaming series. Direct TV Championship Gaming Series, Day 2 (originally aired 7/11/2007)
Due to a recording error I wound up missing the first day. But since the first few episodes are regular season games it shouldn't make much of a difference. This one is a double header with the Chicago Chimera vs. Carolina Core and San Francisco Optyx vs. Los Angeles Complexity. Your hosts are Stryker and Yoi Tanabe, along with Shoutcasters DJ Wheat, Fatal1ty, and ReDeYe.
The matches are split into five games: DOA4 (men and women), FIFA, PGR3, and Counter-Strike. Here's how the scoring system works:
Each goal in FIFA is a point, including shootouts.
In PGR3, first place wins 5, second place wins 3, third place wins 1.
In DOA4, each round won is a point. 5 rounds wins the match.
In Counter-Strike, each round is a point. All 18 rounds are played out.
DOA4 Men: Ryan "Offbeat Ninja" Ward (CAR) vs. Jeremy "Black Mamba" Florence (CHI)
Ninja is Ein, Mamba is Helena. Stage is the electric arena. Rounds are 60 seconds long.
Round 1: Mamba starts off with a string of hits leading to a 40% health drop for Ninja. With Helena's ability to duck high strikes Mamba gets more hits in on Ninja, but now Ninja strikes back with a powerful 4-hit combo. Both are blocking each other's attacks, then Ninja hits a huge 6-hit combo and both are tied at 20%. Ninja rams Mamba into the wall with a 5-hit combo and takes it.
Round 2: Mamba gets a strong combo in, only for Ninja to counter right back and both are at 70% health. Mamba counter throws Ninja to the ground, tries to throw again but is blocked. Ninja hits the devastating chop dropping Mamba to the floor, and uses his 6-hit combo to drive Mamba into a wall for the win.
Round 3: Slight glitch in the programing, but once we're back Mamba has got Ninja at 50% already. Ninja corners Mamba into a wall and then uses a multi-punch throw that deals a devastating amount of health. The score is tied with 30% health. Then suddenly Ninja seems to have accidentally paused during the game, and that's leads to an automatic DQ. Mamba takes the win.
Round 4: Mamba starts again with a string of combos and Ninja is at 50% health. Mamba hits another 5-hit combo driving Ninja into the wall, but now Ninja fights back with a 7-hit combo into the wall. Mamba hits a counter blow and finishes Ninja off with a combo.
Round 5: Mamba tries attacking but is countered and Ninja hits his 6-hit combo into the wall. Mamba is now at 50% health. Ninja drives Mamba into the wall, Mamba counters and backs off. Mamba tries to take out Ninja in the middle of the ring but Ninja elbows Mamba into the floor and wins.
Round 6: They start with a few hits on each other. Mamba gets a 6-hit combo driving Ninja into the wall. Ninja goes for his 6-hitter for Mamba counters it and Ninja is at 20% health. Ninja users a 5hit combo driving Mamba into a wall, and constantly keeps throwing him into the wall for the win.
Round 7: Ninja gets a 4-hitter into the wall, then a throw to the ground, then a counter throw, then a 4-hitter and a driving double punch that leads to a PERFECT win. The match is over.
Score recap: Carolina Core 5, Chicago Chimera 2.
The Chimera teamed are asked if they know what a Chimera actually is, and most of them seem to have no clue. Wow.
FIFA 2007: Nick "Peekay" DePalmer (CAR) vs. Andrew "Anomaly" Brock (CHI)
First Half: Anomaly has the ball, goes for a goal at 0:14 but is blocked. Peekay has the ball, drives it up the field, passes it towards the goal but now Anomaly gets the ball. Peekay's goalie grabs the ball, kicks it down the field. Peekay passes back and forth but loses the ball to Anomaly. Peekay's goalie kicks it up the field, Anomaly is cornered. He passes back to the middle, tries for a kick but Peekay's defender blocks it. Peekay runs the ball, goes for a close range goal but misses. He gets a corner kick and head butts it for a GOAL at 2:15. Anamoly tries to score right away but Peekay's goalie gets the ball, rolls to a player and runs up the field. Peekay is close to the goal but is blocked by several defenders. Anomaly kicks out of bounds and Peekay throws it in. Peekay goes for a pele kick but misses! Goalie kick for Anomaly. Peekay's goalie gets the ball and kicks it to the middle of the field. The first half ends with only Peekay scoring a goal.
Second Half: Peekay starts with the ball, passes back and forth. Peekay runs it up but Anomaly takes the ball, tries for a goal but Peekay's goalie knocks it away. Anomaly gets it right back but loses the ball to Peekay. Peekay is surrounded by defenders on Anomaly's side and loses the ball, but Anomaly loses the ball to Peekay. Anomaly takes it back, runs it up the field, cross kicks from nearly out of bounds, and head butts it for a GOAL! Peekay has the ball, runs it up the field, goes for a goal but is blocked by the goalie. Anomaly's goalie kicks it up the field and Anomaly kicks it out of bounds. Peekay has the ball, Anomaly takes it right back, goes for a long range goal but misses. Peekay has the ball, kicks it far but losses the ball. He gets it right back however only to be surrounded while running up the field. Anomaly kicks it out of bounds, and the ball is thrown into a very crowded penalty box, and Anomaly knocks it far away. Ball is going back and forth. Anomaly gets the ball, breaks through the defender and kicks it in for a GOAL! Anomaly is now winning 2-1 at 3:37. Peekay desperately tries to get a goal but hits the post. Gets a corner kick, Anomaly gets the ball and control goes back and forth until the game ends.
Score recap: Carolina Core 6, Chicago Chimera 4.
Pro Player Tip from Jared "Calijared" Reyes of NY: In DOA4, you can do an evasive spin with Ayane by pressing down and away twice. This move definitely comes in handy.
DOA4 Women: Kat "Mystik" Gunn (CAR) vs. Marj "Kasumi Chan" Bartell (CHI)
Mystik is Hayate, and Kasumi Chan is obvious. The stage is the forest temple.
Round 1: They start off blocking each others hits until Mystik hits a couple powerful combos knocking Kasumi down to about 50% health. Mystik hits a double kick and knocks Kasumi down the stairs for more damage. Mystik counter throws and finishes Kasumi off.
Round 2: Mystik gets multiple 2-hit combos that deal a lot of damage. Kasumi is blocked and Mystik gets a powerful 6-hitter into the wall. Kasumi is weak but then suddenly counters, gets a 6-hitter and goes for a cartwheel kick but is finished off again.
Round 3: Mystik starts by driving Kasumi into a wall. Kasumi flip kicks Mystik, only to get hit with a 4-hit combo into the wall. Kasumi throws Mystik but does little damage. Kasumi throws Mystik away and backs away. Both are playing defensively now. Mystik gets a powerful 2-hitter, and Kasumi counters with a frankensteiner. Kasumi gets a throw to tie it up, but Mystik hits a triple kick for the win.
Round 4: Kasumi starts with a 5-hit combo into the arch. Both are blocking each other, Kasumi gets a hit but is then countered by Mystik. Both block each other again, Kasumi throws Mystik and takes a slight lead. Mystik hits a high counter throw, both block each other again, and then Mystik does her 2-hitters and takes the 4th win in a row! What is wrong with Kasumi Chan?
Round 5: Mystik starts off by knocking Kasumi down the steps, and then does it AGAIN, knocking Kasumi to nearly 50% health. Mystik counters, then hits a 2-hitter for a PERFECT, knocking Kasumi over the fence and tumbling to the roofs below. What an amazing victory for Mystik!
Score recap: Carolina Core 11, Chicago Chimera 4.
The biggest news from Carolina was when during the draft, Carolina decided to draft Team Pandemic for Counter-Strike, one of the lowest ranked teams for Counter-Strike. A lot of people called it the WORST pick of the entire draft, but Carolina's GM plans to prove them all wrong.
Counter-Strike Source: Carolina (Daff, Devour, Elusive, Torrez, Sonny) vs. Chicago (Laury, Trip, Da Bears, Sunman, Stevenson)
Stage is Nuke. Carolina starts as terrorists, Chicago are anti-terrorists.
First Half: Round starts off a bit slow. The Terrorists make it to away and a fire fight starts. The bomb is planted but the terrorist are losing guys one by one. Devour is the only man left and can't stop the CT's from defusing the bomb, taking the first round. Round 2 starts off slow as well. One of the terrorists is killed off, but then Torrez gets a kill to tie it up. Torrez is in site B and winds up being the only guy left. He's soon killed off and CT gets another win. Round 3, starts off a bit faster but Carolina gets killed right away. Carolina gets into the lobby slowly and throw grenades at site A to possibly kill any CT's. Carolina is making their way win but are all killed off one by one. Round 5 begins. Core goes into two separate ways as they fire at CT's. Da Bears snipes Torrez on the roof and now Core is down one man. A CT is down, a fire fight breaks out and one from each side is killed. Terrorists plant the bomb and the CT's are getting killed. Eventually they're all taken down and Carolina finally takes a win. Round 6 beings as the one Core member rushes in. One of the terrorists is killed, then another, then another. Fire fights break out and now both teams have two men each. A terrorist is killed and now it's two on one. The last terrorist is killed and now it's 5-1. Carolina splits up in the lobby and head towards the radio room. One CT is down. Fire fighting breaks out at site A and now it's 3-2 Terrorists. The bomb is planted and only Laury is left. Devour kills Laury and now the score is 5-2. Round 8 begins with some fire fighting and one dies from each team. Another CT goes down near the ramp area, and two more CT's get taken down. The last CT is dead and that makes three in a row for Carolina. Round 9 (final for the half) begins and fire fighting breaks out, killing three of the terrorists. Only one terrorist is left but Da Bears stops him and now the half ends 6-3 Chicago.
Score Recap: Carolina 14, Chicago 10
Second Half: Now Chicago are the terrorists and Carolina are the CT's. Round begins as Chicago are splitting up everywhere. One CT is taken down. Trip goes to the ramp room and is killed off. Two more terrorists are taken down and two CT's are sniped. The round suddenly ends with time running up, and since Chicago did not plant the bomb, Carolina gets the point. Round 11 begins and Chicago spread outside. The terrorists reach site A but the CT's were hiding and they take all of them down! Round 12 and now Chimera make their way through the lobby. Smoke grenades are everywhere and nearly all terrorists are dead. Stevenson is the last man left but can he stop four CT's by himself? Apparently not as he just backs off and time runs out. Round 13 begins and one CT is already down. Then another is shot down, then another two, and now there's only one CT against four terrorists. The bomb is planted and the last CT is killed off. Next round starts as Chicago split up outside. Two CT's are killed and they move into site A. More CT's are killed and Stevenson makes another pistol kill. The score is 8-6 Chicago. Chicago using the same strategy as before. One CT is killed, then a terrorist is killed. Fire fighting breaks out in site A and now only Laury is left. He's killed off and now it's 8-7. Chicago makes a strong ruse into site A and hell breaks loose. Both teams quickly lose members and soon enough all the CT's are killed. Stevenson is a master with that pistol. Chicago try the rush strategy again but all five of them are killed easily. One round left and it's 9-8 Chicago. Chicago go for the outdoors strategy, and one from each side dies. One terrorist dies and another goes downstairs. Another terrorist dies. He throws some grenades and gets a kill. It becomes a 2-1 situation and Carolina gets the final kill. It's 9-9, and now it's overtime!
Overtime: 1 Round to decide it all. Chicago will still be the terrorists. After what seemed like a long preparation we finally begin. Chicago still going for the outside strategy. Devour takes out two of the terrorists. One more terrorist is dead and now there's only two of them left. Sunman and Stevenson are the only ones left but they both die and Carolina Core proves everyone wrong about being called "the worst draft pick" by beating the #1 C-S team in the CGS!
Score Recap: Carolina 21, Chicago 13
Before we head into PGR3, here's how the stats stack up in this game for Best Driving Duos:
Chicago Chimera: 7-0
Los Angeles Complexity: 6-2
Dallas Venom: 3-5
New York 3D: 3-5
Carolina Core: 2-5
San Francisco Optx: 2-6
PGR3: Brent "Rex" Dimapilis and Joe "Phantom" Tackett (CAR) vs. Wes "Chompr" Cwiklo and Jason "Jason X" Excelby
The race beings with Phantom out in front and Chompr behind him. Heading into a tight turn Jason X and Rex swerve off and Jason X takes 3rd. Chompr is able to make Phantom spin out and take 1st and Jason X takes 2nd. Chompr is now way out in front by 2.5 seconds at the checkpoint. This will make the 8th race in a row Chimera won. Rex is behind Chompr by over 3 seconds and is not likely to catch up to do anything. But despite picking up the 8 points, it's not enough as Carolina wins the match overall 22 to 21.
The Mountain Dew "Move of the Match" is OffBeat Ninja's perfect victory on Mamba. Now we're going into the second match of the double header: San Francisco Optx vs. Los Angeles Complexity. Surprisingly we start with the game that ended the first match, PGR3.
PGR3: Erika "SSK1TTL3SS" Galegor and Noslen "Beisbol" Perez (SF) vs. Javier "Chavisan" Gutierrez and C.J. "GTO" Nelson (LA).
Race begins with a fight for first. In turn one Skittles bumps Chavisan into the wall but GTO takes the lead. Skittles is in 2nd and Chavisan in 3rd. GTO is ahead by nearly two seconds into Lap 2 with the positions still the same. Chavisan tries to pass Skittles but bumps into the wall and Skittles is still in 2nd. GTO is now ahead by over 3 seconds as Beisbol tries to take 3rd place. Beisbol winds up spinning out of control and finishes last. GTO take 1st, Skittles takes 2nd, and Chavisan takes 3rd.
Score Recap: San Francisco 3, Los Angeles 6
FIFA 07: Alex "Stermy" Avallone (SF) vs. Felipe "Kreeganbg" Stoyne (LA)
First Half: Stermy starts with the ball. Kreegan takes the ball and is running up the field. Stermy takes it back of Kreegan recovers. Kreegan tries for a goal for Stermy blocks. Goalie kicks it far and Stermy tries going for a goal but is blocked as well. Kreegan kicks it all the way acorss the other side and Stermy winds up kicking the ball out of bounds. Kreegan gets a corner kick, Stermy knocks it OOB again. Corner kick, into the penalty box and Kreegan scores a GOAL at 1:24! Stermy runs it up the field, goes for a long range goal and misses. Kreegan now has control. Stermy knocks it out of the penalty box, control is going back and forth and Stermy kicks it OOB. Stermy kicks it halfway but loses control to Kreegan. Stermy defends the goal but Kreegan takes control of the ball. Now Stermy has the ball at 3:00. Stermy goes for a goal but the ball is caught. Kreegan gets the ball, control is going back and forth. Stermy is within striking distance but loses the ball. Kreegan goes through the defenders, kicks from close range and gets a GOAL! The first half ends with Kreegan winning 2-0.
Here's the CGS League Standings for Region 1 as of this episode:
Chicago Chimera: 6-2
San Fransisco Optx: 4-4
Carolina Core: 4-4
New York 3D: 4-4
Dallas Venom: 3-5
Los Angeles Complexity: 3-5
Second Half: kreegan starts with the ball. Stermy's goalie gets the ball, kicks it midway. Stermy gets it out of bounds. Kreegan kicks to the penalty box, kicks it from there to score another GOAL at 0:40! It's now 3-0 Kreegan. Stermy gets control of the ball, loses it easily from Kreegan's defender. Stermy gets the ball, loses it again. Stermy defends but kicks it out of bounds. Stermy gets the ball back, ball goes into the penalty box but Kreegan's goalie gets the ball. Kreegan runs it up the field, Stermy kicks it OOB. Kreegan runs it up the field again, Stermy defends. Stermy gets the ball and is very close to getting a goal when he's suddenly called for offside! Stermy gets the ball and tries again but fails. Ball goes back and forward, Kreegan's defense kicks the ball to Stermy by mistake and Stermy scores a GOAL! Remember, each point counts for the match. Kreegan gets the ball and gets a GOAL in less then ten seconds! There's about a minute left in the game. Stermy has the ball, Kreegan takes it, Stermy kicks it away. Stermy goes for a goal but misses. Kreegan tries to get another goal in the last minute but doesn't, and the game ends with Kreegan winning 4-1.
Score Recap: San Francisco 4, Los Angeles 10
DOA4 Women: The #1 Draft Pick Vanessa "Vanessa" Arteaga (SF) vs. Megan "Belle" Ceder(LA)
Vanessa is Hitomi, Belle is Helena, stage is the city street. An interesting note is that Vanessa has beaten Belle 10 times in a row in DOA4.
Round 1: Vanessa starts dishing the damage and already has Belle at less then 50% health. Belle tries fighting back, but Vanessa counters, knocks Belle into the sign, and wins yet again.
Round 2: Vanessa starts a combo only to be countered by Belle. Belle is rammed into the signs as Vanessa deals many critical hits. Vanessa continues hitting a string of critical hits and wins the round.
Round 3: Vanessa is cornering Belle into a wall and keeps knocking down her health. She backs off a bit only to strike with critical hits over and over and over again she ends it with a PERFECT! When it came to DOA4, I was wondering why Master, the 2-time CGI DOA4 champ, wasn't the first draft choice, and now I know why. I would love to see Master vs. Vanessa go at it sometime.
Round 4: Just like last round, Vanessa just keeps striking until she gets a PERFECT.
Round 5: Belle must have her controller unplugged because Vanessa ends this with a THIRD PERFECT! Un-freaking-believable! I officially declare the greatest female gamer ever.
Score Recap: San Francisco 9, Los Angeles 10
Later on in DOA4 Men, it'll be Cheppelle vs. Swoozie. Cheppelle is not only a good gamer but apparently also good with the sax as shown in a player profile.
Counter-Strike: San Francisco (Clown, Moe, POS, Phamtastik, Warmachine ) vs. Los Angeles (Frod, Storm, Warden, Zet, Rambo)
The map is Inferno. The terrorists are LA, the CT's are SF
First Half: Round 1 begins with Optx quickly finding the terrorists and takes out three of them at once! Only one terrorist is eventually left and is killed quickly. That was fast. Round 2 begins and the terrorists almost get killed quickly again, but this time only one was killed. The terrorists makes their way to site A but are all finished off. Round 3 begins and now the CT's are getting killed off quickly. The bomb is planted and is counting down as the CT's are getting killed. One CT is remaining and the bomb explodes, ending the round. Round 4 starts. Moe kills a terrorist as they sneak slowly to the site. The terrorists make their way and plant the bomb with two CT's down. Fire fights break out and the CT's are finished off. Round 5 starts. Terrorists stick to the banana path and get two killed off so they back off. They go into the apartments but are killed off in the end due to some accidental friendly fire by Frod. Way to screw up! The terrorists try going through the apartments in Round 6 but all out before they all can get out. Next round and the terrorists go back to the banana path. Grenades get launched everywhere and a firefight breaks out. The CT's get killed off one by one as the bomb is planted at site B. The CT is sniped and the terrorists win. The score is now 4-3 San Francisco. Both teams fight it out at site A and each team is losing members. There are now two CT's and one terrorist left. Storm kills one CT and then the other for the win. Final round of the half and one CT throws a flash grenade and blinds them but is killed too soon to follow it up. The bomb is planted as the terrorists outnumber the CT's. The bomb counts down as the CT's are all finished off and Complexity takes it 5-4.
Score Recap: San Francisco 13, Los Angeles 15
Here's a pro player tip from Dallas Venom player Corey "Hanes" Hanes: There's a trick in Counter Strike called the bunny hop. To bunny hop, jump-strafe left, then right, then left, then right over and over and you'll barely get hit.
Second Half: Now San Francisco are the terrorists. First round starts out a bit slow as both play defensively. Grenades are being tossed as a CT is taken down. Terrorists reach site A and plant the bomb. It's a 3 vs. 3 situation but the CT's are killed one by one and the terrorists tie it up. The terrorists spread themselves out and one CT is taken out. The terrorists head to site B but all of them are taken down before they can do anything. Round starts with smoke grenades being launched and the terrorists are being taken out in the smoke. Only two terrorists are left again five CT's. POS is the only man left but is killed by a hidden CT. The score is now 5-7 LA. Round 13 starts with the terrorists rush to site A and are about to plant the bomb but the planter is killed. Then the last three terrorists are killed at nearly the same time and the round is quickly over. Next round and the terrorists split up. One is killed before reaching the staircase but he takes the CT with him. Two CT's are taken down as the terrorists reach site B. The bomb is planted but then the last CT is grenade'd and now it's 6-8. The terrorists go down the ally as Moe is waiting back. The CT's are waiting for the terrorists at the bomb site and nobody is dead with 28 seconds left. The terrorists plant the bomb in a very sneaky fashion as the CT's don't seem to realize the bomb was planted! The terrorists stay back and the bomb goes off giving them the win. Next round starts and one CT is already down. Terrorists toss smoke grenades as one terrorist dies. The terrorists reach the site and both teams lose two members. Terrorists try to plant the bomb it 's too late and both remaining terrorists are killed. Two rounds left. Round 17 begins and a CT is killed. A terrorist reaches the site B and plant the bomb. There's only one CT left and three terrorists left. The CT is out of time so he backs off to save his weapon and money as the terrorists take another point. We're down to the last round and we could be seeing another overtime. Final round starts and the terrorists are going in multiple directions, taking out two of the CT's. The teams start fire fighting as the bomb site and the CT's are killed. It's 9-9 and we're going into ANOTHER overtime!
Overtime: San Francisco remain as the terrorists. The round begins as Optx goes in a bit slowly. Complexity gets the first kill. The terrorists go slowly in the banana path, but all four are killed very quickly and Complexity wins it! That was sudden.
Score Recap: San Francisco 18, Los Angeles 20. Cheppelle will have to beat Swoozie by three rounds in order to win for this team.
DOA4 Men: Cardell "Cheppelle" Thomas (SF) vs. Adande "Swoozie" Thorne (LA)
Swoozie is Kasumi, Cheppelle is Ayane. The stage is the street market.
Round 1: Cheppelle starts off with a strong two-hitter. Swoozie knocks Cheppelle to the ceiling and get a 3-hit combo. Cheppelle gets a combo in and almost knocks Swoozie down the stairs. Swoozie knocks Cheppelle into the ceiling again and gets in another combo. Cheppelle gets a low counter blow and gets in some critical hits to take the round.
Round 2: Cheppelle counters Swoozie's attack, Swoozie replies with a cartwheel kick into the double-legged launch and a 6-hit combo. Swoozie corners Cheppelle and gets in many critical low hits. Cheppelle counters a hit but Swoozie soon finishes him off.
Round 3: Swoozie starts off with a high throw and knocks Cheppelle away. Cheppelle gets a throw driving Swoozie into the wall, then kicks him into the wall again. Cheppelle comes out with a series of spinning kicks that finishes off Swoozie for the round.
Round 4: Swoozie almost knocks Cheppelle down the stairs but Cheppelle backs him away. Cheppelle tries a combo but Swoozie blocks. The blocking eventually stops and Cheppelle gets some damage in. Swoozie hits a flip kick and fights back but Cheppelle counters. Swoozie knocks Cheppelle into the air but misses the juggle and Cheppelle wins again. The overall match score is now tied.
Round 5: Swoozie gets two throws in a row and Cheppelle deals a bit of damage. Swoozie gets a counter hold on Cheppelle, so Cheppelle hits with a counter blow. Swoozie is knocked into a fruit stand, Swoozie is against the wall, sneaks away and counters Cheppelle. Both get a couple hits in but then Cheppelle jumps up and soccer kicks Swoozie's head and take the lead for his team! One more win and the Optx are the winners.
Round 6: Swoozie starts with a small air juggle, but Cheppelle hits an impress 9-hit combo that knocks Swoozie into a fruit stand, dealing nearly 50% damage. Swoozie teleports behind Cheppelle and slashes across him dealing heavy damage. Swoozie starts getting in a series of hits, another throw and air juggles to get Cheppelle down to very little health. Cheppelle gets a high counter throw and now Swoozie is at very little health. Swoozie blocks a hit and gets in a frankensteiner throw for the win!
Round 7: Swoozie knocks Cheppelle into the gate twice, counters Cheppelle's attack, then knocks Cheppelle over the gate again. A critical combo and a cartwheel kick wins this one for Swoozie. If Cheppelle doesn't win the next round, Los Angeles takes the match.
Round 8: Swoozie gets in a small air juggle, Cheppelle counters with a combo of his own. Swoozie gets in another air juggle, leaving Cheppelle at 50% health. Another throw, then a combo, then another hurricarana throw into a wall and Cheppelle is very weak. Swoozie gets another hit and pulls it off and Complexity literally tackle Swoozie down in celebration! Swoozie is ecstatic for the match victory, but the game still has the end with someone reaching 5 wins.
Round 9: Both are blocking each other's attack at the start but Swoozie gets in a throw. Swoozie gets another throw in and does an air juggle into a cartwheel kick. Cheppelle hits a high counter and a reverse frankensteiner. Cheppelle hits that soccer kick to Swoozie's head as both players trades blow for blow. Cheppelle gets a 6-hit combo and wins the game over Swoozie, but LA Complexity are still the loses.
Mountain Dew Move of the Match: Swoozie's finishing blow to win it all.
Updated standings:
Chicago Chimera: 6-2
Carolina Core: 4-4
New York 3D: 4-4
San Fransisco Optx: 4-5
Los Angeles Complexity: 4-5
Dallas Venom: 3-5
Be sure to tune in next week for more recaps of the 2007 Championship Gaming Series.
