GGL’s Shea Smith got a chance to catch up with Natye “GG|Hamchook” Hatjas, one of the best World of Warcraft Arena PvP players, who is on his way to Dreamhack now to compete in the ESL Extreme Masters II Global Challenge. Hamchook has a long history of WoW competition, stretching back to Arena season one, and Shea picked his brain on a number of issues.
GGL Wire: Tell us a little bit about your gaming history.
Natye Hatjas: I picked up WoW after deciding that I hated Halo 2, and I’ve been playing WoW since release. Arena was added to the game and I knew I would be playing that for a while, especially with LAN events to attend.
GGL Wire: Prior to arena, did you actively participate in PvE?
Hatjas: I did PvE a good amount prior to the Burning Crusade expansion. I quit after that for PvP arena.
GGL Wire: You received the “Gladiator” title for your accomplishments in the Stormstrike battlegroup arena brackets, landing you a spot in the World of Warcraft Hall of Fame. Did you consider season one high-rated arena a difficult process? Read more »
Alex Yue contributed this news item.
Today Virgin Comics (7 Brothers, Gamekeeper) announced that they will be teaming up with computer animation studio Perspective (GTA & Ghost Recon series) to create a multi-format intellectual property.
According to the press release: “Virgin and Perspective will initially launch each new franchise as graphic novels and short-form episodic animation for online and mobile distribution, taking advantage of Virgin’s substantial relationships in these markets.”
I’m curious to see how this partnership will turn out. It takes a lot of effort and creativity to create memorable characters, especially ones that gamers are suppose to care about enough to follow several medium transitions. If done right, Virgin Comics and Perspective could be sitting on a gold mine. If done poorly … we all remember Domino Pizza’s Noid or 7 Up’s Cool Spot videogames, right? Oh, you don’t? I wonder why?
Read: Virgin Comics and Perspectives team for new IP.
Alex Yue contributed this news item.
Today Microsoft revealed details on the new Xbox 360 fall update. Due out Dec. 4, the new update promises some not so significant, but cool, features.
Taking a page from social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook, Microsoft will add a feature that allows users to see the friends list of other Xbox Live users. Regarding the feature, Microsoft said: “With the prevalence of social media websites such as MySpace and FaceBook, this type of capability has largely come to be expected from consumers as a means to relate in an online community. ”
Also in the update, Microsoft will be selling original Xbox games through their Live Marketplace for around 1200 Microsoft Points. The titles that will be appearing first are: Halo, Fable, Psychonauts, Crash Bandicoot, Burnout 3 and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.
I know I’m excited to power up my 360 on Dec. 4 and finally give Psychonauts a try.
Read: Xbox LIVE gets more social
Read: “Xbox Originals” Coming as 360 Downloads
Today on Epileptic Gaming:
Week 141 continues with Tuesday: 141.2!
Hosts Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham and Mike “Force” Dettman put Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) to the test! I’m certain Summa will run in and stick his unshaven mug into the camera at some point as well. Please make sure to log into live chat on Stickam and uStream and make fun of him.
Tune in live today at 7PM ET/4PM PT on epilepticgaming.ggl.com and wire.ggl.com, thanks to the magic of Stickam and uStream!
When it was first announced, the Razer Lachesis turned heads in the gaming mouse enthusiast community — but was met with significant skepticism on many e-Sports boards.
Razer mice, lately, have tended toward the ultra-sensitive, with large buttons and extremely high DPI. The Lachesis is no exception; it sports a max DPI of 4000, with a 1000Hz refresh rate and super-slick mouse feet. I spent quite some time playing first person shooter games with the Lachesis, so let’s dig in to see what I found out.
Laptop specs:
Intel Core2Duo 2.16Ghz
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 mobile
Razer Mantis Speed mouse mat (re-branded Everglide Giganta)
My test system is a decently powerful Macbook Pro laptop running Boot Camp and Windows XP. I’m happy to report no problems whatsoever with this unconventional setup and the Lachesis, which is a testament to the Boot Camp drivers and setup more than anything else. Read more »
GGL’s Toku Ogawa contributed this news item.
Sega Corporation has announced that it will release a full remake version of NiGHTS into Dreams on Feb. 21, 2008 for the PlayStation 2. The price will be 3990 Yen for the normal package and 5040Yen for the first limited edition. The CERO rating for this game will be A (for all the ages).
The PS2 version of NiGHTS into Dreams is a full remake of the original NiGHTS that was released on Sega Saturn in 1996.
NiGHTS is a popular title in Japan and is known for its invigorating game play that lets you fly freely through the sky. This story fascinated many people in Japan and t he vivid description of the characters’ growth touched player’s hearts. Even though 11 years have passed since the original was released, the public still loves this game. Read more »
Rumor has it Mykhaylo “HoT” Novopashin will be leaving SK Gaming to join up with Gravitas Gaming in January.
The Ukrainian player will probably not pen a new deal with SK. The organization has three other world class Warcraft 3 players in June “Lyn” Park, Kim “ReMinD” Sung Sik and Lee “SoJu” Sung Duk. The fact that SoJu and ReMinD are Night Elf players would also make HoT a little less useful in the Warcraft 3 Champions League.
Teams like Mousesports and Four Kings are said to have expressed interest in HoT, but Wire has found out that the player wants to go to Gravitas Gaming. The team that has gathered some of the best Russian Warcraft 3 players, with plans for the team to live in one apartment. The Ukrainian would fit into that team very nicely.
HoT’s contract with SK Gaming expires with the end of December 2007.
Do you remember what Games Media Properties said when the World Series of Video Games was shut down? They said that holding esports events is not profitable and running a website is a much better business. Someone pointed out at the time: if everyone goes in that direction, will there be anything left to write about? It is an interesting question to consider, especially these days.
Gameriot’s owners are not the only people that thought that an esports site is “the future.” Local sites are going international, old sites are being revamped and new sites are going to spring up as well. At the same time, there really are fewer events to cover… unless you want to start a new portal that focuses on the good old CPL bashing (yes, there is a great deal to cover here still).
Starting a new website is not the future. Starting a new website is like setting up a restaurant. In a town of 100,000 inhabitants. In a small street, with twenty other restaurants. In a world where cooks are in abundance. Read more »
