Contoller add-ons: FPS FREEK Review

Having been apart of the competitive gaming community I always see people peddle some useless product to gamer thinking it will "step their game up" well I managed to get my hands on some Kontrol Freeks and I must say they are the most useless item a person could purchase. Yes they do help with your aim but if you're like me and have been gaming for years with no assistance (and still owning) then these add-ons will do nothing but annoy you.

Don't get me wrong though I am all for what the company does but I feel it's mainly for those desperate enough into thinking they will be the next Snipedown with them. I also want to point out that these FPS Freek add-ons don't really work for a game like Halo or Gears of War if anything they will get in your way. To be honest they really only work for Call of Duty 4 and World at War because of the insane amount of aim-assist your given already, so of course you think your stepping up your game (but your really not). I know I sound like I am being ultra harsh on the product but I am glad that people are trying to innovate and help out competitive gamers any way they can. After all the product is only $9.99 so it's not like your losing a leg to buy them

This product will get a lasting score of "TRY" from me because I feel you should try before you buy if you have a friend who invested a few dollars into it.

Here is the link to their website

MLG: Timeout with Ghostayame

So yesterday MLG posted their next portion of the Timeout series, but this time with Classics Ghostayame. While I love the team name (seriously it's an awesome name), seeing Ghost on the roster is a little weird. I know he is an incredible player and a good person, so what the hell happened with him and Instinct?

They touch up a little on it during the interview but not enough to answer some of the obvious questions like; why this was done? Of course I didn't expect MLG to do this (they don't want to seem like angry journalist now do they) but some light could have been shed on the issue.

On another note, it's kind of weird to see these old school Pros shifting around like gamebattles online warriors, but such is the way things are with Halo 3. For those who didn't catch it here is the link:

Timeout with Ghostayame

P.S. I think the story of how he obtained his name is ironic in a way.

Editorial: Call of Duty kills competitive gaming

I like Call of Duty, in a sense, it's a fun and fast paced game. Sadly, it isn't competitive at all. If it isn't the ridiculous perks system that rewards people for sucking (see "Deathstreaks") or the heinous magnetism that you experience when firing your gun this game offers no challenge to the player. Of course this is all well and fine when you are just going out there to have fun but the fact that gaming leagues like Gamebattles/MLG actually like and promote Call of Duty 4 (and World at War) as a "competitive" game makes me throw up in my mouth.

Of course no one will agree with my opinion because they are too blind to see that the game offers nothing original to the genre and if anything takes leaps backwards in areas that games like Goldeneye, Counter Strike, and even Halo have strive to innovate in. As you can tell I am a huge fan of competitive gaming and I wish to see the "scene" grow but to see Call of Duty be the reason for it makes me wish this wasn't the case.

The reason I wrote this article is due to a little forum thread on the Official PS Forums where a poster stated:

yea I already have a team set up there although once MW2 hits shelves don't
expect the UC2 ladder to be around too much longer - CHAOTIC-

This thread was pertaining to Uncharted 2 players signing up for Gamebattles ladder for the game. It kind of brought to light everything that I see wrong with competitive gaming right now and I hope that a game like Uncharted 2 can prove to developers that if you do make a game that is actually good (and competitive out of the box) people will buy it.

Like I stated before I enjoy playing the Call of Duty games but to see this game being considered "competitive" makes me question what does competition really mean anymore.

How do the major competitive gaming sites rank in Alexa?

I figure I do an interesting little article about the Alexa ranking for 3 major U.S. competitive gaming sites. We have MLG vs. WCG and GGL vs. Gamebattles.

So we start this off with MLG and the WCG:

MLG
Alexa Traffic Rank = 12,247
US Traffic Rank = 4,057

WCG
Alexa Traffic Rank = 1,273,701
US Traffic Rank = 77,545

As you can see MLG wins hands down with an audience mainly coming from the North America region and some of the folks across the pond. Of course the WCG is still a popular avenue for gamers in the NA but they mainly skew positive with the gamers in the European territory.

Now it is on to which online competition site do gamers visit the most. For this duel we have Gamebattles vs. GGL:

Gamebattles
Alexa Traffic Rank = 4,957
US Traffic Rank = 1,827

GGL
Alexa Traffic Rank = 12,344
US Traffic Rank = 16,884

It seems as though MLG strikes again (GB is owned by MLG)! This comes as no surprise because of the massive popularity here in the United States and Canada that Gamebattles sustains. Of course, the GGL is popular in Europe with an amazing rank of 521 in Finland alone! So while in the states the WCG and GGL may not be as popualar, gamers from around the world are enjoying the benefit of online competitive gaming through other means which is never a bad thing!

Of course there are plenty of other gaming sites on the internet like the ESL, EVO, Cevo, and much more but I just randomly chose so don't jump down my throat!