STA’s unprecedented 15th Season of Competition is here! After much debate and deliberation, we’ve decided to return to hosting competition for at least one more season. The first week of the regular season play will kick off Wednesday, October 28th!

Today xbox360achievements.org released the first part of a four part mega interview with with Splash Damage Creative Director, Richard Ham, where they cover everything there is to know about the upcoming spring 2010 shooter.



Episode 1 looks at the game's background, including story, what we can expect from the setup of the title and more.

BRINK Mega Interview, Episode 1: The Background
BRINK Mega Interview, Episode 2: The Mechanics
BRINK Mega Interview, Episode 3: The Rest
BRINK Mega Interview, Episode 4: Achievements

Also in Brink news, Splash Damage recently had a small press event , with several journalists getting a closer look at the game and some special interview time with the people behind it. The resulting write-ups are now starting to pop up and you can read first-hand impressions in Will Porter's two-pager on Eurogamer, Alec Meer's extensive preview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, as well as the latest issue of PC Gamer UK.

If you're still hungry for more Brink information I suggest reviewing Beggins post here at crossfire titled "Brink in September" for a massive collection of articles, interviews & videos.

Q&A thread with Richard Ham
Summary of Q&A with spam removed -thanks dohfOs

After last weeks frequent DDOS attacks that nearly brought the anti cheat site to a screeching halt & brought announcements of it's closing, the crew at PBBans is back & hopefully better than ever.All services have been moved to a new host in New York & are currently back online at pbbans.com

Quote by MaydaX

Welcome back everyone; hope you enjoyed your time off. As you can see we are online ahead of schedule thanks to the speedy install from our host and the servers arriving a day early. Hub is online and seems to be running smoothly. Please bear with us over the next few days as we fix any bugs and update docs to reflect the new Hub info.

Be sure to check that your servers are streaming http://www.pbbans.com/account/index.php
New hub profile information can be found http://www.pbbans.com/info-center-hubguide.html
New Webtool can be found http://www.pbbans.com/account/webtool.php

We received a great outpouring of support during our time of need and we want to express our sincerest thanks to those that donated, continue to donate and to those that offered to help.

I also want to thank Art of War Central and Wolf Servers who provided a temp hosting solution for our status site.

ESL has released a new tool free to download! ESL Wire is an instant messenger as well as a tool that simplifies playing on the ESL and combines a lot of very helpful functions. This includes Matchmedia Upload, a Screenshot Tool, integrated Aequitas, Buddy-, Lobby- and Teamchat as well as virtual LANs and Video Broadcasting.

Nearly two years have been spent in developing this program including a long orientation phase that went through what should & should not be included in Wire. Since the first version of the Open Beta last year a lot has happened. While a lot of users were lacking reasons to use Wire, now we already have many more users regularly using Wire. More than 10,000 users online per day and over 20% of all matchmedia being uploaded with Wire tells a story of real success.

[b• ESL Wire Features[/b]]

• Matchmedia Upload
  Automated upload for screenshots & replays
  
• Screenshot Tool
  For all games without screenshot functionality
  
• Integrated Aequitas
  Never forget to start aequitas again
  
• Buddy-, Lobby- und Teamchat
  Chat with your buddies or opponents
  
• Virtual LAN
  Online gaming as easy as playing in a LAN
  
• Video Broadcasting
  Video streaming live from your PC

Quake Live is opening its doors to all for the next phase of its beta testing, starting today. Quake Live is a specially adapted version of the legendary multiplayer game Quake 3: Arena, streamlined to make it playable in a web browser window, even on a low-end PC. It’s free too, so anyone can play – even while you’re at work… at least until five seconds after your network admin finds out.

id Software, the brains behind the seminal Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein series, hopes that Quake Live’s free-to-play model will earn its keep via unintrusive advertising around the game, instead of the subscription / micro-transaction model used by other titles. The fact that it can run in a browser, should give it an immediate advantage for getting new players on board, because no new software is required at all.

Today’s launch of the open beta concludes the closed beta stage – all player statistics from the closed beta are going to be wiped. But for stat junkies, be aware that this is the last time id plans on doing a total wipe – you’ll have to stick it through the open beta phase if you want to be on top when the final version is made ready.

If you want to sign up, join in the hype and find out further info, go and check out the official website and the Facebook page. Anyone who wants to enter the open beta will be able to sign up later on today.

A study conducted by the University of Rochester has concluded that challenges and "meaningful opportunities to interact and work together" are more important to videogame enthusiasts than violence.

While their results seem to fall well within the realm of the obvious, the data provides interesting talking points for fans of our particular hobby. Researchers worked with virtual environment think tank Immersyve, Inc. to conduct a pair of surveys with 2,670 "frequent game players," and carried out four experiments involving over 300 University of Rochester undergraduates.

[/b]

Videogame company id Software has now confirmed QuakeLive for QuakeCon 2009.

id Software will hold its annual QuakeCon event from August 13-16, 2009, in Dallas, Texas at the Hilton Anatole Hotel.Described by the developer as "the world's ultimate video game festival and party", QuakeCon 2009 will, as always, be free.The event will host North America's largest bring-your-own-computer LAN party, according to id, with places for almost 3,000 gamers to hook their systems up and play on the company's network.

First of all it is with a massively heavy heart that must inform all of those involved, weather participants or those that have offered their assistance along the way that Don is no longer with us. He passed this morning around 5:30am EST, peacefully & in his sleep.

At the beginning Don was acutely aware of the cup but paid it little attention due primarily to a lack of understanding. Unbeknown to me when my wife transferred all the funds we raised for Gateway from our Paypal, there was an option to send the the Honoree a letter notifying them that a donation had been made on their behalf. When he asked my wife about & it was explained to the best of his understanding he simply said "Tell them all I said Thank You"

Secondly I would like to extend my apologies to the remaining teams for lack of availability & communication over the past few weeks. With Don's condition deteriorating & having to be admitted to Hospice & my best friend whom we buried yesterday being put on life support a few weeks back, these have been difficult & trying times for me & my family. I know this is a gaming community & I apologize for the gloom nature of this post but I just want all the participating teams to know I have various reasons for being afk & that I will be afk later on this week as I have travel to Ohio for Dons funeral services.

Lastly on to the business of completing this cup. With 8b1ts FiFg attending CC5 this weekend & the cup being stalled trying to get an international match in (8b1ts FiFg vs excel) with the only ideal day that works for both teams being Sunday, my plan is as follows to get the remaining matches in on Sunday Dec 21, back to back. There is only 3 possibly 4 matches that remain that need to be played.

Beginning with...

8b1ts FiFg vs excel
Sunday Dec 21 @ 14:00 EST (20:00 CET)

We will make an afternoon/evening event of it with all matches being broadcast & shoutcasted by Mistaken. I will then release prizes at the conclusion to the winning teams.

8bits & excel have already agreed to this I just need confirmation from VAE & mamut.si. Please contact me if this is an issue for you.I will get a map schedule & make another post this coming weekend after I confirm everything. Your co-operation is greatly needed in this as we need to get this cup wrapped up & prizes awarded.

Thank you

Don Baker GCRC Week 5

Week 5 has seen a slight progression in the cup. Excel made easy work of & disposed of NET while FIFg surprisingly upset the heavily favored FatGames.

NET vs >> 0-4
FIFg vs TFG 4-0

I would like to extended a special thanks to NET & FatGames for participating