The World Cyber Games is widely regarded as the Olympics of the computer gaming world and more than 700 players took part in the event, which was held in Singapore from 16-20 November. Those qualifying do so by winning national events in the 67 countries competing. The games revolve around six PC games and two console titles. The USA won gold in the Counter-Strike and Halo 2 events and took silver in Warcraft III. Between them the players won a total of $80,000 in prize money.

Games Played

Unfortunately British players that attended the event struggled to match the high standard of competition. The Britons in the Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, Starcraft, Fifa Football 2005, Need for Speed and Dead or Alive events did not make it past the opening group stage. For those players that made it to the elimination stages of the completion, unlucky draws stopped their progress.

In their first elimination match UK Halo 2 players Mark Thurston and Dean Ruffell met American’s Dan and Tom Ryan who, after beating the British pair, went on to take the gold. A similar fate befell John Bryce who was taking part in the Warhammer competition. In his opening elimination match, Mr Bryce was pitted against Brazilian Andre Zilio, who won the silver medal.

Even the UK’s top pro-gaming clan Four-Kings suffered disappointment as Dutchman Manuel Schenkhuizen who won gold in 2004 failed to take the top prize again. On the way to the closing stages of the Warcraft III tournament, Mr Schenkhuizen knocked out two other Four-Kings members (Daehee Cho and Yoan Merlo) but lost in the semi-finals to Dennis Chan. Along with the bronze medal, Mr Schenkhuizen also takes home $5,000.

Source:The BBC

When you’re rich and famous, you get more free things than you can shake a stick at… “The party of the year” — That was the statement whispered among entertainment industry insiders and celebs Nov. 16 at a private party celebrating the launch of Xbox 360. At a private home in the Hollywood Hills, Snoop Dogg, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas and Wilmer Valderrama hosted guests from the worlds of TV, film, sports and music. DJ AM spun tunes while the crowd got to play the line-up of Xbox 360 games. An Xbox insider said, “Sugar Ray Leonard chilled out poolside. David Justice was like a little kid on Christmas and all he wanted was ‘Perfect Dark Zero.’ Matthew Perry said he lost his soul, but that didn’t stop him from playing ‘Project Gotham Racing 3.’ Greg Grunberg from ‘Alias’ freaked out when he heard his own voice in the game ‘Condemned: Criminal Origins.’”

Check over to the right, you’ll see I’m sporting my brand new Denver Bronco’s picture for Xbox Live. How did you get it I hear you ask… Well lets just say I’m in posession of a couple of the most powerful game-consoles ever produced. Thats right, Xbox 360 is in UtahSaints house and I’m suffering from a serious lack of sleep due to Gun, Call of Duty2, Tony Hawk and several Beta games - Amped 3, King Kong and NHL 2006….

All I can say is wow… The console looks great, the controller is about as good as it gets, Xbox 360 talking to my network via Windows Media Connect (pictures and music streamed direct to the 360) and sore thumbs. It doesn’t get much better than this.

If you want to get busy against me online, my GT is UtahSaintX365 - see you on the battlefield.

Ever wondered whats underneath the sleek packaging of your video-games console? Anand, the very cool website for techies and techie wannabees (like me) have opened up their Xbox 360 and taken a photo-diary to show us all just what Microsoft has used to make the ultimate games machine. Whilst I’m sure Microsoft will be pretty pissed that somone has already stripped down their yet-to-be-released console, I’m sure they’ll be pleased with the high quality journalism detailing what goes on under the hood. As for me, I’m glad, as it means I don’t have to open up my Retail or Debug Xbox 360’s and blow my NDA!

BTW, COD2 rocks, Gun is… er… so-so and Tony Hawk is huuuuuge!

Unless you have a pre-ordered Xbox 360, the chances of you scoring one on launch day (Nov 22), are about the same as you scoring a hot date with Liv Tyler… mmm Liv… Oops, I digress. Here’s something cool, some dude, we’ll call him “Jeff” has decided to mount an Ebay aution whereby he’ll fly to your hometown and head over to your local electronics store (read: best buy, circuit city etc) and line up days before in order to get you a tasty Xbox 360. Not a bad idea, except he wants payment for the travel (inc airfaire), a tent, food (probably) the Xbox 360 itself, and of course whatever fee you want to give him for standing in the rain (assuming you live in Seattle) or the snow (here in Colorado). Check it out for yourself!