General gaming

General gaming

Bo Knows...Gaming's Original God Mode

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 10:29 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 23 | THE WIDE WORLD OF VIDEO GAME SPORTS

Bo Knows...Gaming's Original God Mode

Cover Story:How the Tecmo Bowl athlete became an invincible idol.

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veryone has their own reasons why they play games -- some of us want to be challenged or moved. Others want to flex their creative muscles or explore a fantastic world. There are those who want competition, and those of us who crave the evolving technology. And then, you have those gamers who simply want to have fun. For that final group, the early '90s ushered in a surefire way of ensuring that desired outcome of entertainment by the implementation of a God mode. For those who've lived under a rock for the past few decades, God mode is a form of cheating that bestows unlimited power upon the player, oftentimes in the form of the character gaining infinite health and allowing them to coast freely through a game without any real threat of death. There's a good chance that, like me, one of your first true experiences with God mode took place on red shores of Mars as you nervously made your way through the halls of Doom. Being able to survive the hellish onslaught by using divine intervention allowed the player to appreciate the game in an entirely new light.

But after writing about Tecmo Bowl for the NES last week for our Essential 100, I came to the realization that I had experienced God mode long before I stormed the various monster-infested compounds of Doom. I felt that same rush of unbridled power well before the concept of an FPS had entered my gaming vernacular. In fact, my first experience with an in-game deity ironically came in the form of the digital representation of real life athlete that any sports fan would be familiar with.

Cover Story: The Wide World of Video Game Sports

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 04:46 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 23 | THE WIDE WORLD OF VIDEO GAME SPORTS

Cover Story: The Wide World of Video Game Sports

This week, 1UP gets ready for some serious sports talk.

The upcoming 2012 Olympic games has us thinking abut sports a lot, and the divide between video games and their real-life equivalent. Sports in the real world require certain levels of physical coordination and endurance. They demand that players stay in good shape and push them to perform athletic feats purely based off of reaction time and muscle memory. In an outward display of love and dedication, athletes endure hours and hours of rigorous drills and instruction in order to perform when the time is right.

Obviously, we all weren't born to be athletes. At least, I feel I understand this more than most. As the tallest person writing for 1UP, I can tell you dozens of stories about the unrealistic expectations I faced in my youth as a 6'1" high school freshman. People whispered all kinds of crazy stuff when my elongated frame passed by: A kid that tall must play for the school basketball team right? You're going to make it to the NBA someday kid, just you wait. Looking back, I realize the people who said those things had good intentions, but they also didn't consider one important fact: in order to play any sport, even chess, you must have some talent or appreciation for it; a core desire that fuels your passion to train hard every day.

Madden Through The Eyes Of...

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 04:45 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 23 | THE WIDE WORLD OF VIDEO GAME SPORTS

Madden Through The Eyes Of...

Cover Story: Letting unlikely developers loose on the mega-popular football series.

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t's a tale as old as time. Well, at least as old as sports video games. A new Madden game comes along with an updated roster, new menus, a slightly tweaked offensive or defensive feature, and improved sweat physics. There simply isn't enough time for much else on a one-year development cycle. For every valid criticism leveled against the series' incremental progress, ten thousand copies fly off the shelves.

Let's say the critics get their way. The franchise turns into a biannual affair, each installment given enough breathing room to set itself apart. From EA's perspective, something with the Madden name has to hit the shelves in the off years. Established developers are brought in to apply their unique creative visions to the game of football.

EA Losing NCAA Exclusive Rights Presents a Positive Opportunity

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 04:03 PM PDT

NCAA Football

Should a proposed settlement to a lawsuit against Electronic Arts be approved, the publisher would no longer be the only one allowed to create games using the NCAA license for at least a five-year period. This will come as welcome news to those hoping to see another developer get a crack at making a college football game, something this settlement would make into a real possibility. At the same time, this doesn't ensure that future iterations of EA Sports' NCAA Football will suddenly be faced with any serious competition.

A lawsuit first filed on June 5, 2008 has morphed into a class action suit that now has a settlement awaiting court approval. EA is accused of violating antitrust laws with its exclusive agreements with the National Football League, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and Arena Football League which made it the only company with the right to create games using these respective licenses (including their teams and players). This also included the matter of price fixing, as EA allegedly forced a premium upon consumers with the Madden series following its acquisition of the NFL's exclusive rights, a move which came on the heels of competitor ESPN NFL 2K5 being sold for $19.99 (rather than $49.99).

Posted by Shri Krishna

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