This year’s spate of gaming marathons and charity events for the now burgeoning gamer’s charity Childs Play has officially begun, with the now infamous Mario Marathon come and gone. But if you are in the mood for some shenanigans, crazy accents and sleep deprivation based entertainment, the fellows over at the Australian based gaming community GameArena are playing Borderlands for 48hrs; seeking tasty donations in return for crazy requests.

We all graciously appreciated your support for our successful Piece of Heart marathon that we very barely completed last year, and the guys over at GA would also appreciate your monetary and emotional support while they slog through the game for the next 18hrs. Bring your friends! Cause havok! Ask them to do anything for money, because it’s likely that they are the types of dodgy guys that would. We’re a different breed down here.

Point your browser here and join the party.

Our correspondents are all stocked up with laptops, free wifi, mics, cameras and probably far too much red bull. They’re ready and rearing to hit the floor and start reporting about everyone and everything.

Our coverage of E3 2010 is our second trip, and also is the first appearance of RAW. What the hell is RAW? Well, basically, there’s going to be a hell of a lot of everything going on at E3. You know this, we know this. So our emphasis is not to gloss it all up with funny little pictures and witty banter, like we normally do.

RAW is just that – the Raw feed. What the editors normally take from our journalists to mould will, for the week of E3, be posted directly onto the site. Our guys will tweak it a little bit to make sure its legible, but other then that – it’s going to be an information overload.

Which is a good thing right? (The answer is yes.)

So the second we hear it, you’ll hear it. If we see it, you’ll see it. Expect instant Twitter updates on show room impressions, as well as full length previews, with exclusive pictures and video.

So in the next coming month, look forward to commentary on the whole expo – from the conferences, to the games, to the weird and strange events that seem to occur every year. There will be podcasts, vBlogs, interviews from the floor, and heaps more.

Enjoy!

You’ve seen the trailer, drooled over the screenshots, and it’s now finally ready to leech your free time; Square Enix’s much anticipated original IP  ”Chaos Rings” has today made its exclusive debut on the iPhone, iTouch and iPad. The title clocks in at a controversial $12.99, tagged alongside some sweetener discounts on other SE App Store releases, including the ports of Final Fantasy 1 and 2, and tower defense clone Crystal Defenders.

While the slightly higher price point may cause many to pause, don’t be afraid to break the psychological barrier of your iTunes wallet. The game is worth the outlay. Impressive graphics, a well tuned battle and control system along with a great score puts the title leaps and bounds above almost any other title on the system. Stay tuned for an upcoming review, but for now, try and resist giving into the portable pleasure.

From the makers of FINAL FANTASY and FINAL FANTASY II comes a brand new RPG masterpiece for the iPhone and iPod touch!!

CHAOS RINGS takes full advantage of the iPhone and iPod touch’s capabilities. Using a classic game system that any RPG fan will enjoy, it presents an epic tale consisting of four different scenarios, all brought to you with gorgeous sound and unbelievably smooth 3D graphics.

The story revolves around a tournament where combatants fight for their lives: the Ark Arena. Upon choosing a pair of characters, one male and one female, you will then have to fight against the other pairs. Each pair has their own story, and the truth behind the Ark Arena will not be revealed until each story is completed.

Game Features
-Amazingly smooth 3D graphics

-Gorgeous sound that takes full advantage of the iPhone and iPod touch’s powerful hardware

-A deep story with unique twists for every pair and multiple endings

-Traditional game and battle systems polished to perfection
-Hours upon hours of gameplay, complete with hidden bosses, secret weapons, and more

When Avatar figuratively exploded onto the scene, many of us were taken aback by the re-introduction of decent 3-D effects in film. The exquisitely developed depth, glossy holograms, and delicious visuals quenched our appetites for a new form of visceral experience.

But in the usual, ridiculous overreaction by almost everybody in the media and general populace to what can almost definitely be defined as a fad, 3-D has re-emerged as the buzzword for the early part of this decade. Once again, content producers and hardware makers alike begin to rub their hands together with glee, as rabid tech nerds and people with too much money begin buying TVs in the hope that will will get to play Modern Warfare 2 with slightly more cohesion.

There are two types of product innovation – one that takes something that already exists and improves it, and the that other invents a technology and tries to find uses for it. James Cameron spent ten years developing a camera that could create the film he had wanted to make for years. Samsung and LG developed 3-D televisions because people seemed to like Avatar. Hmm.

Don’t get me wrong, innovation within our industry is integral to its future success and viability. But every 10 years or so the industry constantly finds avenues to push the same useless and expensive technologies (Virtual Reality, anyone?) that provide a very basic and almost frivolous purpose. 3-D is one of them.

The reason I even have an issue with 3-D at all relates to the same reason I have (albeit less) issues with motion control and the absolute obsession with HD graphics; games will cost more, be shorter, and take longer to develop. In the case of 3-D, a game will spend months and millions of dollars in post production to develop an effect that, frankly, gives you a headache after 15 minutes and requires that you stare almost intently at the middle of the screen.

About 6 months ago, before Avatar was released, I had the unfortunate experience of playing the game on a prototype 3-D TV. Headaches aside, it’s a mechanism that requires you to wear glasses and sit in a particular position to get the faint illusion of depth or, in reality, blurry and dark out of focus shapes that are excruciating to watch and even more irritating to play.

What happened to creating games with more intuitive gameplay? When did we start falling back into the leaky boat of stupid gimmicks? Back in the early 90s, Sega went broke creating useless and expensive add-ons to their consoles to provide the illusion of progress, but when people quickly realised that their Sega CD and 32x provided nothing extra besides a hole in their wallet, they started walking away from their products.

“But wait, James!” you might say, sitting forward in your computer chair. “None of the major players are focusing on 3-D right now, aren’t you jumping the gun?”.

I wish I was.

Nintendo recently leaked plans for a 3-D successor to the DS. Sony‘s already started wasting money on creating designer glasses and a new range of Bravias that they want you to pay thousands more to replace your perfectly awesome 50″ LED TV. Microsoft quickly ran out and spruked that the Xbox 360 is “fully capable of providing 3-D”.

It’s inevitable that within the next 3 years, the focus will have left the real innovation of how we genuinely interact with our games, only to be replaced by the ability to see Ekans dance across your screen (OMG ITS LIKE I CAN TOUCH HIM) in the next iteration of Pokemon.

It’s such a shame, too. While indie developers experiment with new, exciting, and inexpensive techniques for immersion by using already refined sound and video techniques, major technological innovators default to old and previously failed tech to squeeze even more money out of you instead of improving or augmenting what is already available.

Let’s take Natal. Natal takes existing technology and augments it at a fraction of the cost that nu-3D is asking. As a result, you’re offered a significantly more immersive experience with the entire body mapped and exploited; your voice and even the direction of your eyes and minute features are taken into account.

Still not convinced? What about the completely unexplored use of binaural recording? Through the exploitation of how your brain decodes sound, you can create virtual channels that make it seem like someone is stalking you from behind or even throwing objects at you from the front.

I’ll just go out and say it, if it hasn’t been clear enough already: 3-D is a fad. Television makers have been waiting for a success like Avatar to quickly seize a bewildered and excitable community with regrettable purchases. But maybe I’m giving the industry too much credit, after so many years of genuine improvements to video and audio clarity, physical interaction, and gameplay mechanics.

3-D is a 60-year-old misdirection on an epic scale from developers and hardware makers to actually innovate. It’s a distraction (like HD) from developing interesting, original and creative gameplay experiences. It’s a gimmick, and a particularly boring and unimaginative one at that. It exists simply – and only – to make money, not advance technology; although it seems everyone is keen to take a big long sip of Snake Oil.

If this monochromatic 3-D is really the future of gaming, I’ll eat my hat. Hell, I’ll even eat a pair of 3-D glasses for dessert, as long as I don’t have to actually use them first.

It’s been more then 8 years since the original Xbox Live meandered into our lives and changed online console multiplayer as we know it. Sadly, Microsoft have deemed it too costly and irrelevant to co-exist with it’s modern successor; so as of Midnight (Pacific Time) tonight, XBL 1.0 will be no more.

I think we all have our own memories that shall be cherished in glorious geek history; my own mostly consisted of Halo and MechAssault battles, along with futile efforts at configuring my router to perform properly. Meeting strange and, frankly, batshit crazy people on Crimson Skies who knew far too much about WW2 era fighter planes.

Rest in Peace, my friend, for we shall always have the Warthog.

For those who still have access to the original black beast, both Bungie and GiantBomb will be having “End of Days” events involving Halo and a bunch of other titles that will carry on until the second Microsoft flips the switch. I, frankly, will be far too choked up to attend.

It’s just too much, OK?

Final Fantasy, as a series and cultural phenomenon, has evolved far beyond its roots, growing and molding into something of an institution. The name alone invokes a thousand emotions, admirations, complaints and disturbing amounts of fan fiction and cosplay. Arguably, each and every game in the series has, in one way or another, altered the dimensions and scope of what a JRPG can accomplish and how bold, epic and apocalyptic stories can be told.

After 3 and a half long years, Final Fantasy XIII has finally arrived on the shores of the West, promising to bolster the increasingly irrelevant and dry genre that was itself birthed over 2 decades ago. Has the Yoshinori Kitase lead team succeeded in refreshing the stale stable of innovation that has been sorely lacking within this console generation, or is Final Fantasy destined to become its namesake?

Square Enix have never been afraid to defy the laws of a genre. Almost every single one of their titles features almost completely different methods of gameplay, from battle systems to character and plot progression, all of them becoming one-off experiments in the art of perfecting the “experience”. While some of these experiments work so well that they become standards, others find themselves pariahs within the development community.

Final Fantasy XIII finds itself in the precarious position of the Frankenstein of game development past. While it’s predecessor, XII, made drastic (some might say disastrous) attempts to completely overhaul the traditional battle and exploratory systems, XIII finds itself on an equally ambitious yet conciliatory path toward merging new and old players back into the series.

This is important, since XII had a notoriously difficult and complex battle system (Gambit), which tended to entrench hardcore players and prohibited new players from getting into the series. In XIII, many of the changes to the original ATB (Active Time Battle) system involve more active strategy, while at the same time encompassing elements of the Gambit system, which enables the player to direct the battle for their allies rather then directly controlling their actions.

This is done via the well known “job system” of previous titles. In XIII, characters are assigned a number of possible roles, such as a Commander (focusing on chaining together melee attacks), Ravager (damage focused magic user) or Medic (white magic healer). Encompassing a much improved version of the “license grid” from X, the “Crystarium”allows each character to be customised and focused to a particular job.

At the end of each battle, all characters, whether they were in your party or not, recieve Crystarium points. These points are used to acquire new skills, spells and stat improvements as you follow the path along your chosen job. It’s a great system; while job selection is limited initially, more variety is slowly available as the game unfolds itself, thus forcing you to get used to every combination and the appropriate synergy required, during battle, of the various roles.

Which leads us to the other game changing and strategically significant portion of the battle system, the Paradigm. Paradigms, essentially, are preset modes of 3 job types that can be changed within your current party at any time during battle. In most battles that occur after the first 8 hours or so, you’ll find yourself experimenting with different types depending on the weakness of your enemy. Moreover, as direct control over your party no longer exists, it’s imperative that a vigilant eye is kept on the health of weaker players, thus changing paradigms to suit the situation (one member takes damage while another heals the entire party).

The combat is what, ultimately, will decide where many will sit when it comes to enjoyment of the game. Personally, the hybrid construct removes the problems associated with random battles, (longevity, micromanagement and frequency) while allowing you to focus on the long-term objectives of the battle; as in, what “type of attack” works, rather than “what spell or spell category“. No longer are you stuck in a situation where you have to “healers” in your party; now everyone has an alternative.

Which is good, since you’ll be fighting, in true Final Fantasy style, a hell of a lot. Traversing the world of Cocoon and beyond is simple, making it almost impossible to get lost or distracted, and keeping you completely focused on the story at hand. That’s right folks, Square liked the feeling of directorial power that it held over the player in FFX, thus the never-ending corridor has made it’s second appearance, albeit with a bit of a twist.

You’re given a small minimap, along with a wider map available at the push of a button, which lays out your path along with any possible enemies, save points and cut-scene carryovers. Within this path, you fight, you save, you shop and yes, you get to play mini-games. The illusion has finally been pulled out from under us, dear players. The humble town, along with its inn, empty houses and weapon stores, has been put out to pasture.

Where towns were already nothing more then blips on the point-to-point system of old, they did provide somewhat of a break from the intense amount of lore that was sliced thick and served on a bed of cinema. That said, removing the humble tavern from the formula provides a welcome sense of continuity to the story and forces the designers to stay on message. Where it was almost impossible to remember where you had been and what you had done in FFVII after you came back from a break, there is definitely no such problem in XIII.

For those who are determined to get their fill of an open world, your patience will be rewarded. Once our heroes reach the world of Pulse, the linearity tends to be relaxed and players can indulge in side quests, experience grinding, and even a couple of minigames. I found this compromise to be somewhat trivial, since re-adding the illusion of an open world doesn’t help to convince players that the decision to change the status-quo was an unequivocal one.

For the sake of those who like their storylines untainted and pure, I’ll keep it brief. FFXIII takes a much more serious and darker tone then more recent episodes in the series, focusing on topics involving exclusion, fear, trust, loyalty and resistance. Square has heard the cries of the masses; thus, the adventure that revolves around the central character, bad-arse albeit slightly emo Lightening, is remarkably deep. It’s impossible to ignore the ties to series favourites  VI and VII, which both featured more mature themes.

But the problems begin when the characters begin to talk, and it’s almost instantly obvious that some lines just don’t translate well from Japanese. While many of the characters are able to communicate without the awkward one-liners and corny catch phrases that JRPG’s seem to find so enduring, there are still far too many examples of derivative and almost completely useless dialogue. Actions speak louder then words; thus, sometimes silence can be enduring rather than an opportunity for comic relief.

Dialogue aside, the plot expands from a relatively slow beginning and opens up (almost literally from a gameplay perspective). After the first ten hours or so, the narrative begins to firm and you understand what your mission ultimately is. The game peaks, and stays that way until the conclusion, which is satisfying in a way that only Final Fantasy can be. It’s not the revolutionary tale of sacrifice and loyalty that we had been eagerly awaiting, but it’s a great ride all the same.

What does, however, live up to almost every expectation are the graphics and sound. It’s no mean feat to make cutscenes and real-time effects look completely seamless, but it hasn’t been since FFVII blew us all away with it’s cutscenes that I’ve seen a game look this good. Everything, from the incredibly well animated and choreographed  action scenes, to the intense, constant 60fps battle scenes in glorious HD look crisp, sharp and beautiful.

There has been some discussion of the quality differences between the PS3 and the Xbox360 editions, and there are. A Digital Foundry review of both found that while the PS3 version is displayed in beautiful 720p, the Xbox 360 version, due to storage issues, is stuck at a very last-gen 576p. Both, in any case, are upscaled to 1080, but if you have both systems and are looking for a slight edge, this (along with disc swapping) would be it. FFXIII was designed for the PS3 and it shows.

Final Fantasy XIII has the ability, like every one of its predecessors, to polarise casual and hardcore fans alike. It makes drastic and sweeping changes to what many would consider essential genre staples, and its slow, tutorial heavy beginning threatens to scare away twitchy gamers that are used to quick and easy repatriation. There are no levels to gain, no towns to explore, no brick and mortar shops to peruse.

But the dilution and disillusionment that has plagued the genre as of late required drastic action, and the developers here showed they had the balls to do just that. Changes aside, there is no doubt that there is a gorgeous, thrilling, and well designed game here, one deserving of more kudos then many have been willing to provide. XIII has blown new life and energy into a dying genre, along with creating another world and cast that we can lose ourselves in, once again.

The reviewer played the Playstation 3 version for the purposes of this review, although has also briefly played the Xbox 360 version as well.

As many of our regular, devout readers have noticed, we’ve been borderline obsessive on the debacle surrounding the push for an R18+ rating in Australia. Recently, the EveryonePlays campaign, headed up by Australian gaming site PALGN, has teamed with national retailer GAME to keep the government in the spotlight.

Being advocates for the rights of gamers the world over, Gamer Limit has teamed up with EveryonePlays to spread the word, chalk up support and hold both the South Australian and Federal administrations to account. Since public submissions closed on the 28th of February, it’s critical that the issue doesn’t float of the public realm.

If you’re interested in keeping abreast of the campaign, hit up “EveryonePlaysAU” on Twitter, and head over here for Facebook.

For those who don’t know about the situation, a short rundown, courtesy of the campaign, is below.

In Australia it is illegal to sell a video game or movie that has not been classified by the Classification Board (formerly the Office of Film and Literature Classification – OFLC). [1]

Under the National Classification Code 2005 [2], games must be refused classification if they;

1. depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified; or
2. describe or depict in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not); or
3. promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence; or
4. are unsuitable for a minor to see or play.

It is important to note that point (d) in the classification code explicitly states that any game only suitable for people over the age of 18, must be refused classification in Australia.

We’ve been reporting about the R18+ rating debacle for the last year or so, where adult gaming in Australia has become hampered by an outdated, complicated and generally ridiculous scheme that bans any title that doesn’t fit the requirements of your standard 15 yr old.

In December last year, the federal government of Oz released a discussion paper on the subject and invited the public to make submissions for or against the introduction of an R18+ rating for gamers. 3 months on, and there has been a resounding response from the gaming community, local industry and general concerned public in support of the rating.

How successful has it been? Most public submission calls usually rope in a few thousand responses at the most. This one has brought in a whopping 22,000+ submissions. These aren’t just signatures folks, since they can range from a simple template based response, to full blown 17 page researched and referenced essays. In any case, every single one is obligated to be published and submitted to the Attorney General.

Based on answers to questions asked from the Senate Estimates committee (Page 23), over 6000 valid submissions had been received by department at the end of January. Of those responses, only around 1000 had been processed, with an amazing 99% in support of a R rating. That’s not only unanimous, but what many pundits would call a freaking landslide.

Additionally, Pro-R18+ lobby group “Grow Up Australia” teamed up with retailer EB Games to push the campaign into hundreds of stores. Signs and staff directed customers to a website where the submission form could be filled out quickly and easily.

At the conclusion of the campaign, which only went for about a month, an astounding 16,055 submissions were completed and submitted to the department.

Submissions close in 3 days, on the 28th of February. If you’re an Aussie and want to make your voice known, now is your last chance! Get the submission forms here.

In 1989, a movie was released that promised to be the ultimate film about the gamer. A movie where Fred Savage and his mentally impaired brother would fight against the powers that be (their parents) to become the video game champions of the world.

Where Nintendo would shamelessly flaunt every product they had, and at the end launch the most anticipated game of the late eighties. Where 10-year-old kids were able to travel across the country alone without ringing any bells. Where the Power Glove was king.

This movie was The Wizard, and I’m here to tell you how much it rocked. Please note, there are spoilers. Awesome spoilers.

Any retro gamer worth his salt has either heard, seen, or actually owns a copy of this flick. Next to the Super Mario Bros. Movie, it’s a classic representation of how utterly crazy people were about Nintendo in the 80s. But for those who haven’t seen this masterpiece, here’s the lowdown:

Fred Savage is Corey, a 13-year-old kid in a broken family. His half-brother, Jimmy, is autistic, and is about to be sent to a home after his parents separate and split custody of the kids.

Corey, being the headstrong kid that he his, decides to abduct his brother and run away with $20 to California, because that’s all his brother will keep babbling on about. Along the way, Corey finds out his brother is a video game genius and decides to enter him in the Video Game Championships at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, which conveniently begins in a week.

Unfortunately, the asshole side of the parents aren’t too happy with this fantasy and decide to enlist the aid of possibly the creepiest looking freak to track down Jimmy and drag him back home.

After a run-in with the freak, Corey’s dad and brother decide to take matters into their own hands and find the boys before this “runaway expert” gets his hands on them. Meanwhile, the two boys run into a young girl, Haley (Jenny Lewis, who grew up to become insanely hot), who decides to join them on their little adventure and get a piece of Corey.

Oh yes, sports fans, there is even a tiny, really awkward love story in this movie too.

Along the way, it’s mostly just kid movie slapstick – the freaky guy grabs the wrong kid at a lookout, the family learns to love Nintendo, the kids hitchhike in cake vans, there’s a camp-out in death valley, and they win money by placing bets on arcade games. It’s all quite stupid, but it’s watchable purely for the 80s hilarity factor.

That, and watching Corey’s dad getting all excited playing a NES; it reminds me of what my dad used to be like when he played Zelda. He also throws a shovel at a car. There are some classic scenes and great music. Also a lot of adults attacking children too. Very weird.

But, okay, I’ll admit the movie is pretty poor, (aside from the amazing soundtrack). The acting, plot, story, and dialogue are all laughingly dreadful, but that’s not why the movie was developed, nor why it has such a cult following. The main reason this movie kicks so much ass is because it’s a 1.4 hour Nintendo advertisement. From about 20 minutes in, everything in this movie is Nintendo.

Corey’s older brother and father are both seen in random, completely unnecessary scenes playing Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda 2. The scene when Corey discovers his brother’s epic gift is in a restaurant on a Double Dragon arcade machine (50,000!!). Haley is later blessed with the idea of the contest after watching him play Ninja Gaiden.

But really, it all comes down to one epic scene in the middle of the film. Some kid watches Jimmy play and remarks that he “was good, but he’d never beat Lucas“.

Apparently, Lucas is the Nintendo Kingpin of that particular desert town and brags to our trio that he has 97 games and is an elite at all of them. He even wore a black trenchcoast before Neo. Ahem. Lucas takes them back to his house where a shiny silver box is produced, garnished with Lucas’ full name.

The box is opened to display a Nintendo Power Glove. Now, it was universally known that the Power Glove was hands down the most useless Nintendo peripheral ever made. It killed the arm and wrist of the wearer, had pretty much zero advantage over a normal controller, and looked like a prop left over from Battlestar Galactica. But for Jimmy, it was his goddamn Kryptonite. Lucas kicks ass in Rad Racer with it and utters the words so famously associated with this movie.

“I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”

I have no idea how he manages to say this with a straight face, especially while holding the glove to his chest like he’s being knighted. Pictures do it no justice; this part is a must see. In any case, Haley stares dreamily at Lucas while Jimmy turns and runs while being flanked by Corey. Lucas advises Haley that he will also be competing in the championships, to which she then walks off in a huff. Then, to be honest, nothing interesting happens till about the last 30 minutes.

Well, except for Christian Slater getting into an argument with his dad before going off to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In fact, it’s pretty much all he does in the movie anyway. His dad also has a go, playing like a spastic five-year-old while excitedly exclaiming how he got “the scroll weapon”. He later does the same thing when playing Zelda 2. Very strange. They also share a bed. I can’t even count how many extremely creepy moments are in this kids movie.

Just before they hit LA, there is a cameo by one of Nintendo’s famous Game Counselors. The trio realise that Jimmy needs to learn up to 70 games in 3 days if he is going to win the championships, so they contact a game counselor to give them all the hints and tips from a hotel phone. He’s extremely helpful for someone who speaks to kids on the phone all day.

How the hell Jimmy managed to master 70 games in three days, I have no idea, but all of them also seem to be in an arcade in Reno, Nevada. They also seem to have 13-year-old bar girls, too. For the record though, the most games in the movie feature in this part – TMNT, MegaMan 2, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Off Road, Contra, Operation Wolf, F1 Dream.

Creepy guy finds them at Reno, in which the second best line in the movie is uttered by Haley.

“He TOUCHED my BREAST!”

The cops arrest the freak. He somehow comes back to abduct Jimmy a bit later, but Haley’s trucker friends beat the shit out of him. He still manages to come back again to be a pain in the arse and punch Jimmy’s dad in the face.

Eventually the kids get to Universal Studios just as the competition is about to begin. After a super excitable guy dressed like Mario signs them up, Jimmy blitzes his way through the heats, with Lucas right on his tail. The tournament seems to work on a points system; whoever gets the most points in that particular NES game wins the round.

It doesn’t take long to get to the final round, where $50,000 is up for grabs, and the the unveiling of a new game. A curtain is raised and Super Mario Bros 3 comes up to complete awe. It’s worth knowing that SMB3 released soon after this movie opened in theatres, so it was exciting for everyone. I personally, being eight at the time, was thrilled.

Of course, Jimmy wins, they find out why he’s mental (dead sister, who is never mentioned or referenced in the entire movie, traumatized him) and they all live happily ever after. The one thing I want to know is how the hell Jimmy knew exactly how to get the raccoon suit and fly up to the top on the first world.

I didn’t even know how to do that. Prodigy my ass, he just got lucky.

The smart fellows at sister gaming e-zine Pixel Hunt realized, like the rest of us, that a significant amount of great, or at the very least “anticipated”, games are coming out this year. They also thought it might be a good idea if someone took at look at, well, all of them.

So, they rounded up some of the best writers from the likes of IGN and Hyper to tell you why you should, or shouldn’t, take a second look at the plethora of titles hitting our streets over the next 12 months.

The best part? 60 pages of easily packaged, produced and gloriously coloured previews are yours for a single dollar. I liked it so much I paid $10, so you can take my word for it. You can grab it here, or hit the jump for more info.

60 pages. All commentary based preview from some of the best writers in the Aussie gaming media. God of War 3, Bioshock 2, Alan Wake, Dead Rising 2, Heavy Rain, the list goes on. Hell, there might even be a few that might not even be on your radar.

What else do you need to know? Grab it now!

Many apologies for the lack of content as of late; Gamer Limit has been moving from our old, sluggish and generally craptastic Chicago host/datacenter to our shiny, new and speedy LA datacenter.

As a result, we’ve had a few issues with transfer, DNS propagation and a bunch of other technical issues. Everything should be completely resolved within the next few days, so please bear with us.

Look forward to a significantly faster site and forums at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for your patience!

Real Time Strategy: heroin of the hardcore gaming landscape, its consumption not only draining, but soul destroying; its almost sensual draw is intense and powerful. Addicts are careful, for detection is the first step of their inevitable intervention.

The smart ones hide their gear; Red Alert 2 are discs “misplaced” in the depths of a desk drawer, Zero Hour permanently in the drive. Starcraft cracked and shortcuts forged because the mind alerting Zerg are the highest grade of purity known to gamer.

Have you ever been addicted? I was, before I was saved. Saved by the power of gaming diversity itself, the divine being that dripfeeds that cleansing variety, the wonderous balance.

But one cannot truly be cleansed. My past was a sordid one, full of micromanagement, nuke cannons and overlord tanks. Zerg rushes and cannon spams. Follow me as I detail my road to ruin, and my subsequent path to redemption.

Things were never always like this. My path to ultimate ruin began with a simple speculation, a simple flirtatious curiosity. A friend of mine in high school invited me around to his house in 1994, praising the merits of a certain game. He knew I had a penchant for strategy, a certain intéressant in anticipating the movements of my adversaries. Eventually, my inquisitiveness peaked and I gave in to sheer wonderment; my evil friend grinning at another potential convert, as I began to play Dune 2.

What got me interested in this particularly intriguing concept was the idea of constructing a base. Never before had any game I played provide you with the tools to construct your own army in your own way, in real time. Before long, I was slapping down concrete foundations like the best of them, pumping out little soldiers to do my bidding, extracting spice, and softly cackling as my plans developed to fruitition.

That was it. I was hooked. For three weeks I found ways to get invited to my friend’s place. With each play, completing yet another mission, edging closer to the promised control of total domination. Eventually, I took control of the Death Hand; I imagined my enemy commanders weeping uncontrollably, their subordinates looking as each other awkwardly as I dropped missile after beautiful, long range missile on top of their bases. Victory, as it were, was mine.

I ended up finishing Dune 2 about seven times overall, but it did nothing but whet my appetite for more. The release of Command and Conquer forced me to move my new obsession into hiding, as my parents were not fans of violent games. My dad’s old Pentium 75 relished the task of outputting glorious pixel death, and behind closed doors, I took control of the GDI and was again transported into the realm of glory.

Words could not describe the immense feeling of power I felt controlling such enormous armies. For at my very whim, a soldier would gladly undertake what could only be described as a suicide mission, without complaint or restitution. Finding sneaky, subversive routes through impenetrable defenses made my adrenaline rates soar, thus forcing myself to not cry literally out in joy as my tanks rolled to success. For if my father found out about my dirty fixation, it would be likely that Red Alert would not find its place onto my hard drive.

Over the next few weeks, months and years, I found myself up till the wee hours of the morning, my eyes almost baked open by stimulants like No Doz and Jolt Cola. “Just one more mission,” I would tell myself after coffee cups staining the half-hearted attempts at schoolwork that littered my desk. I would day dream about German Shephards and razor wire, constantly thinking of new and exciting ways to tank rush. I couldn’t get enough.

But the worst was yet to come. Because I was only being fed the average gear, the rough stuff, cut with basic tactical advantages and spliced with similarity between factions. As I settled into an existence littered with moments of social occasion in between sessions of Warcraft 2 and Total Anniliation, I began to feel numb. I had begun to grow a resistance to the dripfed excitement that had begun all those years ago. I needed something stronger; I now craved exuberance, euphoria, and that blind sense of cannibalistic power.

I didn’t need to wait long for that fix. Starcraft found its way into my veins on the 31st of March, 1998, beginning the first and only love story I’ve ever had with a piece of software. If you can call relentless devotion “Love,” that is, since I spent the next year with my fingers on the hotkeys climbing up the Australian Bnet ladders. My addiction had left the alleyway and entered the crackden; I now had fellow junkies to share my electronic air with. Only this time, I did the unconscionable: I passed on the terrible affliction to my best friend.

It started innocently. Back then, access to the internet wasn’t cheap, nor fast, and it was charged by the hour. Yes, hour. Unfortunately for us, Battle.net was on that same internet. For a period, both of us would sit on Bnet for hours at a time, raising the ire of our fathers, furious at the three figure bills from the ISP. But we were hooked, thanks to Pegasus and Blizzard teaming up to serve us a virtual rock of silky crack. Banned from the web, we needed a solution quickly.

Lucky for us, Starcraft allowed for direct connection.  At the price of a local call, we would dial into the others’ PC and the matches would begin. In a sense, we had scored. Hour apon hour each afternoon, night and weekend, we would fight. 1v1, 2v6(AI). We would download new maps on our pittance of allowed net time, and continue playing. Before long, we had divised 2v2 strategies so fullproof, that the odd times we could get back on Bnet, we would dominate. This was life.

But, like every addiction, a toll must be taken; my body and mind could accept no more abuse. I banned myself from the PC, forcing myself to branch out and move on. Gaming could not supply me with life’s bounty; I needed a job, a girlfriend, a life. My brain could no longer stand the sight of a terran marine, nor a zerg hydralisk. It rebelled. I quit.

Years rolled by and time moved on. I would occasionally pull up the odd skirmish of Red Alert 2, but it was only playfully. Dancing with the idea of taking up the habit again, I could feel a part of me that was empty that longed for the sweet, seductive embrace of a night long session. I resisted, until 2003. Everything changed in 2003. Westwood had decided to release a new product into the market. It was flawed… but different. It felt… familar. Generals.

I had managed to last three years; I was free of the scourge that had taken over my life. But now that the internet is cheap, I lived out of home, and my roommate was a fellow junkie; everything fell into place like the perfect storm. My bedroom once again became a den with cigarette smoke swirling around my head as I carefully planned bombing runs and commando sabotage. The window between our rooms shared the cool mix of winter air and carbon monoxide along with our exclamations of joy and horror.

I never really recovered from that relapse. Learning to control my addiction became easier than trying to avoid it. Over the years, new elements entered my life and pushed the boundaries of how I dealt with my vice. Supreme Commander, Rise of Nations, and Sins of A Solar Empire all contained their initial challenges, but in the end, I felt I was always the one on top.

In the end, I admit it. I am an RTS addict. I will always be in the iron grip of these tools that provide me with that element of micro-managing control I crave. But it’s important to know when you have a problem. So the question stands; are you an addict?