HALO 3 EGAMES FFA REVIEW The eGames Halo 3 FFA Tournament took place recently and we have a writeup by one of the people who attended - Roman from GoSolid!

The biggest electronic games and entertainment expo in Australia went down in Melbourne last weekend and it was fragtakular! If you did not attend, you missed out big. Don’t let it happen again J.

A massive list of yet to be released and just released games were on play for the thousands of enthusiasts impatiently waiting to get on and have a go. Halo 3, COD4, PGR4, FIFA 08 and Naruto were all playable in the Xbox 360 Zone. It was truly a celebration of all things ‘e’ and a prime opportunity to taste the gaming goodness soon to come our way!

Spectre World in cooperation with GoSolid did a fantastic job of running the official Xbox 360 Zone. 20 Xbox 360 stations with gleaming Samsung LCD TV’s just wasn’t enough to satisfy the onslaught of people wanting to try their hand at the new popular titles. The Gosolid crew was there and ready to show the public what gaming is really about.

Mini FFA and team based Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 competitions were running all day over the 3 days. The public demanded it! So we gave it to em! Both games attracted huge numbers of FPS fans who celebrated in what must have seemed like frag heaven. COD4 is definitely the real deal and proved to be a real test of military based skill for the boys. Some guys left red faced as one female gamer managed to consistently destroyed them all -over and over again! Girl powner! We let her stay on till someone defeated her. It took a while. LoL.

 Project Gotham Racing 4 had us mopping up drool from the carpets of the exhibition centre floor as onlookers marveled at the pretty pixels embedded in the new motorbikes and realistic new weather effects. Fifa 08 produced some competitive matchups and with the new shooting system and natural and authentic moves it was like watching a real match!

Ubisoft’s Naruto; Rise of a Ninja was a big hit with both the experienced and casual gamers combing an addictive story mode with a street fighter style vs mode makes this title a must have. We actually found ourselves almost fending people off Naruto as once they got on, they didn’t want to leave! The vs mode had plenty of gamers come back to rechallenge their buddies in an attempt to regain glory lost from their last sitting.

The expo also played host to the Spectre Halo3 FFA tournament, run by veteran lanners Smajser and Roman from GoSolid. As pre-registered players checked in for battle Saturday morning, newcomers wanting to try their luck in the comp were also slotted in making up a pool of 25 bloodthirsty competitors. Subsequently divided into 5 groups, the 25 hopefuls fought to the death in a mix of slayer and objective gametypes in a double elimination style play-off. 7 points were awarded for a group win, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 point for last place.

Groups 1 and 2 played off first in 3 successive rounds. First was slayer on the ever popular Guardian with 2L2Q teammates Toph and Str8 Ripwn heading out the top places in each group. Ripwn dished out some major pain in the next two rounds defeating all in group 2 and taking away a maximum 21 points. He was followed by the young HCE Hunter who at only 8 years of age demonstrated amazing maturity and decision making skills. Definitely a future pro. Group 1 saw some very tight fighting in the second round with The Specialist edging out Jimbonius and DaBigBoss to win Crazy King while in round 3 Toph re-established his slaying skills by pwning the group once again.

Groups 3 and 4 were much tighter with only a few kills separating the top players. After 3 rounds, group 3 saw Prime ops, Exc355um and Cryptic winters all landing within one point of each other! In group 4 Milkman was victorious losing out only once to AK Anthony in a ball game on Guardian. In Group 5 Jetss blitzed the competition across the board managing to pull out a win in each round and securing a tidy 21 points.

Final standings after Day 1 (3 rounds played per group)

The top two players in each group moved onto the winners bracket which were subsequently divided into 2 groups. The brave carried their battle scars into the losers bracket for a chance to make It into the finals with the best. After 3 rounds desperate battle Tec solo army and Cryptic winters arose victorious from the losers bracket to meet with the top 2 of each group from the winners bracket to play in the finals the following day. Thus ended day 1 and the preliminary rounds.

 

Losers bracket

The sting of defeat proved too much for some competitors who chose drop out rather than face the fury of day 2. This is why we always say LAN separates the Spartans from the men. With Jetss pulling out of the comp, Prime ops was ranked next in line to play in the finals and was given entry. Similarly, Magical Shrooms dropped, giving his spot to Exc355um.

We had finally narrowed down our final 6. Ripwn, Milkman, Cryptic winters, Exc355um, Tec solo army, and Prime ops. What followed was 5 rounds of absolute intense, nail bighting, close as you can get, action packed mayhem! Game 1 of the 5 round finals was a slayer played on narrows which was Taken out by Ripwn. I must admit I wasn’t doing the other players any favours with my running commentary eg: “… Milkman picks up the rocks from spawn… oh err, I probably shouldn’t have said that… maybe he didn’t pick up the rocks, maybe he picked up a smg…” sorry guys, lol. Round 2 was a crazy king on snowbound which was again taken out by Ripwn. Things were looking good for Ripwn until round 3 where came dead last giving the other competitors a leg up. Cryptic could not be stopped, pulling out w.i.n to all who crossed his path. Round 4 was a ball played on construct and proved to be one of the most exciting games of the whole event! (and is the reason why my voice is hoarse today) The lead changed hands so many times I think everyone had a go at leading at one stage. Due to the openness and accessibility of the map no one was safe with the ball. Interestingly Milkman managed to find himself an interesting spot outside the bottom of the map and had a hard time proving he got there by accident. Nah, jokes, it was a pure fluke. At the end of the 4th round Ripwn and Milkman were both leading the charge, tied on 18 points a piece! Cryptic winters was only a whisker behind on 17 points. This was as close as you could get! It all came down to the last match! Exc!afrigginmationpoint!!! The final was played on the pit. Slayer. The score went back and forth several times. I was so into the game I could not commentate. That was until Ripwn scored a massive no-scope triple kill that brought the house down! Unfortunately for Ripwn his brief moment of brilliance could not outshine the consistent play from Milkman who won the match and the title of Melbourne e games FFA champion! Congratulations Milky, you didn’t sour today!

 

 

Competitor R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total

Milkman 4 3 4 7 7 25
Ripwn 7 7 0 4 4 22
Cryptic 3 4 7 3 2 19
Exc355em 1 2 2 1 1 7
Prime ops 0 1 1 2 3 7
Solo Army 2 0 3 0 0 5