As is customary with all out tournaments, we will offer a pre-order prize of an upcoming game, specifically in this case GTA5. This is our first tournament of 2012, and one of a few more to come. As with all our tournaments, it will be managed and monitored by iD Management and Staff. The rules are as follows:

How it will work:
There will be 16 8 people in total for the tournament.

First Round - Saturday 17th March 2012
Total of 16 competitors, split into 2 groups of 8 per group
Top 4 from each group to qualify

Final – Sunday 18th March 2012
8 competitors, in one final group.
Winner takes all!

When will the groups be played?:

Stage 1
Saturday 17th March 2012 @ 5pm
Saturday 17th March 2012 @ 9pm

Final
Sunday 18th March 2012 @ 10pm

Group Allocation:
In this tournament, you will be have the ability to chose your group. It will be on a first come, first served basis. If you cannot attend your scheduled group, it is the discretion of the iD member of staff responsible for this tournament to assign you to the other group, however this may not be possible in some cases.

Spectating:
Up to 2 spectators will be allowed if the person responsible for the game permits it. The person responsible for each game will be a member of the iD Management Team, who will NOT be participating in the game they will be responsible for.

General Rules:

This tournament is only available on the Xbox 360 and to members of the UK and EU. All times are in GMT.
This invitation is only open to members of the iD Community their friends and selected others.
Registrations must be sent in first. No registration, no game. Fact! (See below)
All relevant iDGS Policies will be in affect throughout this tournament.
The map will be Dome throughout the entire tournament.
The winner will be the first to 30 kills, and second/third/foruth will be the next three competitors in the rankings.
A tiebreak will then result in a K/D Ratio tally, and then an assist tally. If everything is perfectly matched, then a tiebreak round between the two will be played.
All weapons and killstreaks are available, it is upto the player to prepare beforehand!
No person under the age of 16 will be permitted to compete.
Max of 8 players per group.
If less than 8 players per group are in a game when the time comes to start, the game will start regardless. At no time may a player enter once a game has started. Also, if a player leaves for any reason, they will forfeit.
Only one game per member is allowed.
Party chat is NOT allowed. Game chat only.
In the event a registered player does not show to a game, their place may be forfeited.

How to register:
You can register in one of three ways. Either, email register@idgaming.net with your GamerTag, Age, Name and group choice OR comment on this post below OR send an Xbox LIVE message to iD Statix

Queries, questions etc:
Any and all queries can be directed to iD Statix (warren.burton@idgaming.net).

Good Luck!!

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*** EDIT: 

As of 1pm GMT on Saturday 17th March 2012, the iDGS Senior Management made the decision to automatically put everyone who have fully registered through to the final of the FFA Tournament. Those who have not given their location have been disqualified. The GamerTags that have automatically gone through are as follows:

iD Blackbird, iD Kronix, BraverFuzzball, iD Nathan, iD Topmarx, BlasterWorm10, KAI 420x.

Therefore, a 7 man final will take place at 10pm Sunday evening.

Registration is now closed!

It took months to complete Ninja Gaiden 2, and I mean months. Playing it and playing it and getting frustrated and playing it some more made me a very sad panda. Eventually, however, it was done, and I saved the world from some evil thing popping its head out of a volcano or something. Now, Team Ninja want to return with Ninja Gaiden 3, making it that little bit easier for us mere mortals of the gaming world.

Okay, okay, sorry Ryu. What we’re referring to is the all new “Hero” mode. Basically, in this mode, once the good Hayabusa ninjas health gets to 30% or less, he automatically starts evading and blocking. Now, this may sound like invincibility, but it’s actually designed to help complete noobs like us to understand the mechanics of blocking whilst the game isn’t doing it for us. See! Of course for those immortal gamers out there (like iD PeNgUiN and iD Drifter), there is a hard mode, which negates this, and is apparently alot harder. Warren will be playing Hero mode then.

Some interesting game mechanics have been changed aswell. The “Moral Edge” concept allows AI controlled enemies to plead for their lives before you kill them. Okay, so you can leave them or kill them as it doesn’t really matter, but to be honest, I think they should die anyway. Well, trying to take on a ninja isn’t the best idea at any time, so serves them right really. However if you suffer from moral dilemmas, this might be an interesting challenge for you. Of course, killing everyone has its repercussions. Ryu Hayabusa’s sword is now part of him, literally. Its been kind of melded to his right arm (try explaining that one to iD Dynamix whilst he’s out on patrol!). It’s all thanks to a curse from the main antagonist, Regent of the Mask.

Yeah, he’s some shady looking bloke who wears lots of red and stuff. Moving on then. The setting for this game has been confirmed as different locations around the world, starting in London, where Ryu has to rescue the Prime Minister from Regent. After recent events however, they should really change that. I’d rather rescue someone else. Anyway, Ryu chases Regent across the world, including deserts and Japan. Sources say that each level will take about an hour (dependant on if you need to go and buy a new controller after throwing it out of the window in a rage), and will add new enemies and variety so it doesn’t get dull.

Ninja Gaiden 3 is due to be released 23rd March 2012 and can be pre-ordered here.

Everyone who has ever played with Warren knows he hates them. If he could go around and destroy them, he probably would. The thing is, it’s perfectly normal for someone to camp.

For those that don’t know, camping is a tactic in which a player will obtain a strategic position anywhere on the map, and wait for characters to arrive and then kill them. For example, a room upstairs where a player lays on the stairs and shoots anyone who comes up them.

In other game modes, camping can also relate to waiting for useful objects to appear in an area. A prime example of this is in Modern Warfare 3′s “Drop Zone” where camping the red smoke beings you and your team Care Packages.

Also, it is more frequent to camp on hardcore game modes than it is for normal ones, or at least that’s the opinion of some of the people in the office. Although, “Spawn Camping” can sometimes be found in versions of other games as well, especially the older generation of multiplayer games.

Of course, one could argue that camping in certain situations is deemed as defending. For example, the Headquarters game mode for Call of Duty and the “de” game for Counter Strike after a successful plant of a bomb.

In Team Fortress 2, however, the Engineer class is designed to “camp” as their class builds defenses and upgrades items. Also, the Spy class has the ability to look like a member of the alternate team, and they can then camp in an enemies base and cause chaos from there.

In MMORPGs, camping is commonly the practice where the camper stays in a location near where NPCs or otherwise enter the game world. In some games, these positions are easy to spot and once a player or group of players is capable of establishing their camp, they can gain more rewards with less risk to their play characters. Generally, it is accepted that camping enemies is just the way some games are, and by convention this is respected. There is no official rule granting players exclusive rights to a camp.

At the end of the day, there are two schools of thought on camping. People against camping believe it ruins the game, and that if everyone did it no one would get any kills. Many proponents of camping believe it’s a useful tactic when in key areas of the map, or when trying to achieve a particular objective. Some campers find the first room or corner they see on the map, and stay in that place until they’ve been killed.

1 – How did you get to be Xbox LIVE Editor?

As is customary, I challenged the previous Editor to a duel (challenger chooses weapon) and polished him off with a crossbow bolt to the heart. It’s his children I feel sorry for.

The truth is far more tedious, a mundane tale of recruitment consultants, countless interviews, six years’ prior experience at Sony and a smattering of luck.

2 – What’s it like to work for Microsoft?

Challenging. Daunting. Rewarding. It’s never dull, put it that way.

3 – How long have you been a gamer, and what was your first game/console?

From an incredibly early age, literally two or three years old. I vaguely recall being exposed to Pac-Man during a camping holiday in France, and then my folks picked up a Spectrum 48k soon after.

4 – If you could be a superhero, who would you be?

Krypto.

5 – How do you come up with the amazingly funny content for SENTUAMESSAGE?

As should be obvious to anyone who watches the show, it’s definitely not down to scrupulous planning and endless script redrafts. Andy and I have to work incredibly quickly to devise a concept for each episode, and then we thrash the script out. I think having zero time to agonise over the details benefits us in a way; we just have to have confidence that what we’ve done will amuse someone other than ourselves and then resolve to do better next time when it inevitably doesn’t. It’s an endless cycle of self-torment, basically.

6- Why do you have the gamertag of MrPointyHead, and would you ever consider changing it?

I’m going to need to template this answer! There’s a mixed-medium Japanese pop artist called Takashi Murakami whose work I admire, and I came across a sculpture of his while on holiday in Tokyo called ‘Tongari-kun’, or Mr. Pointy. The ‘head’ part came about as a result of my awful memory.

7 – What really “grinds your gears”?

Abusive online cowards. In general, I mean, not just the ones who pester me.

8 – Is there anything in this world you would change to make it better, and why?

Whatever it is in certain people’s minds that drives them to either become or support someone who values power, wealth and hatred over the lives and livelihoods of others.

9 – What’s your favourite retro game/console/machine?

The incredible Super Nintendo.

10 – Is there any message you would like to give to our members regarding Xbox, Christmas, Halloween or anything?

I hope you had a great Halloween. Yes, I’m quite late with these answers. If you’re reading this because you know who I am and/or watch the shows my team and I make, then thank you. We’re trying to make the best shows we can, and will continue to strive to make them better. All you have to do is keep watching, keep contributing and keep us on our toes.

When asked to sum up iD in the final section, Dan said (and we quote):

iD stands for everything that I love about gaming and gamers – fun, friendliness, fairness and frespecting fellow players. Frespecting is a real word.

Like previous games in the series, Global Offensive is an objective based multiplayer first person shooter. Each player joins either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist team and attempts to complete objectives or eliminate the enemy team. For example, in demolition maps, often abbreviated “de”, the terrorist team is given an explosive to plant at a designated location. The Counter-Terrorists must defend the location until time runs out and if the bomb is planted defuse it.

Global Offensive, like previous installments, operates in short rounds that end when all players on one side are dead or an objective is completed. Once a player dies they must wait until the round ends to respawn in most game modes. Players purchase weapons and equipment with money awarded based on their performance. Completing objectives or killing enemies earns the player money while negative actions like killing a teammate takes money away from the player. In addition when a round ends all players receive some amount of money, with players on the winning team receiving substantially more, obviously.

If you’re one of the lucky PC owners on Steam, then you would have been able to play the beta, which we hear was alright. Crysis 2 beta was “alright” and that game become amazing.

Of course, if you’re a hardcore PC Gamer, or even have casually dabbled in it, you’d know all this. The entire pretence of Counter Strike has been done on the Xbox before too back in March 2004, which was 8 months before CS: Source was introduced on Steam, based on the Half Life 2 graphics engine.

Of course, there has to be an ulterior motive here. Could CS:GO entrench on the Battlefield and Call of Duty Franchises and make a mark for itself this time round, or will it come in a mediocre 4th behind something else. Find out soon as it hits the shelves early this year!