Gaming World

Have you ever fantasized about building a video game environment of your own?

A place where you and your friends could spend hours and hours playing your favorite games without interruption? Or how about a place that really shows off your game skills? It’s really pretty simple to create such a place and you don’t need to rent out a video game hall to do it. I will introduce a few ideas you can use to build the ultimate gaming center.

The first thing that you want to do is maintain a happy household if you’re family member. Trying to play a pro-family game like Super Mario Tetris or Halo 2 can be impossible with kids running around the house and screaming bloody murder. You won’t be able to enjoy the latest role-playing game when the wife’s nagging you about bills or undone chores too. Keep a happy home, keep a happy marriage, and your time spent playing video games is heaven away from heaven.

It’s no secret that some games require as much concentration and focus as when studying for a calculus exam and there’s nothing more frustrating than when you can’t figure out how to get through to the next level of a game. This is no time to be distracted and if home life isn’t what it could be, you’ll never be able to concentrate on your game. Strive to make home a place to unwind first and then work on enjoying your games.

You can next dedicate a place in your home as your exclusive game room. This will not only emphasis the importance that gaming is to you and to your family members as well. It will also become conducive to the mentality that you need to play a fun and relaxing. If budget permitting, decorate the room with all the amenities that you want. You could add a recliner or two for your friends, a small stand to hold snacks, a bookcase for your games, and you could even add a small refrigerator and microwave. Your intent here is to declare the space as yours and that it serves only one purpose: pure gaming pleasure.

What you’re after is a place that’s completely and totally pleasing to you, both aesthetically and functionally so that you’ll enjoy your time there.

With your own space dedicated to gaming, you will want to do what’s necessary to maintain it and keep it in a condition that’s inviting not only for yourself, but for others as well. Keep your equipment and games clean. Take care to keep wires from tangling and organize your magazine subscriptions, books, or Internet cheat-sheet printouts. Maintenance is a task that doesn’t have to burden you as long as you make a daily routine of it. The advantages of keeping a regular maintenance schedule shows that this space is important to you and that you have a right to keep it that way.

But take special care not to alienate yourself from the rest of your family. We all can have a favorite hobby and we can even dedicate a special area of the home to that hobby. However it’s extremely important to regard this place as a haven but not a hide out. It’s not an area to hide from the kids, it’s not a place to shun home responsibilities, and it’s not a place to live. If this special space is approached in the latter manner, you’ll soon discover it as a place of resentment, uncontrollable habit, or even depression. Be careful, schedule time with the family, and enter your playroom at appropriate times. Cooperation from others will then come naturally.

In a year chock-full of great multiplayer experiences like Supreme Commander, Call of Duty 4, and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, to name a few, the Best Multiplayer Award was a contentious subject among the editors. After much debate, we eventually settled on Team Fortress 2.

It not only captured more of our collective multiplayer time than any other game but also brought us night after night of pure joy. TF2 delivers in every way that is important, allowing you to torch an entire scout rush with a pyro, build a turret that takes out the whole other team, or simply heal your pals so they can keep fighting.

With nine very different classes, each with its own specialty and Achilles’ heel, there are literally thousands of strategies to master in the game’s six maps. And at no time did the limited selection of maps feel limited. Oh no. The game’s sublime balance and exquisite design would have made a single map sufficient as long as it was 2fort.

Build your Team Fortress 2 now

Source Max PC, March 2008

Like the famed Japanese soldier who did not surrender his post until 1974, Medal of Honor: Airborne desperately holds to the notion that gamers still want to play WWII-era shooters. Armed with a new parachuting gameplay mechanic and sheer force of will, MOH: Airborne defi es its anachronistic shortcomings and delivers a fairly gripping shooter experience. We salute its zeal and conviction, even if less honorable gamers haven’t given it the recognition it deserves.

If Unreal Tournament 3 gameplay feels strikingly similar to that of its previous iteration, it’s because UT3 is pretty much the same game wrapped in a fancy new graphics engine. Not that we’re complaining, since Epic arguably achieved death match perfection with its 2004 classic. We’re more peeved that we waited so long for UT3, only to find several of our favorite multiplayer modes missing, including Assault and Onslaught.

Go for your Unreal Tournament III now

Within four short hours of gameplay, Portal reminded us of a time when game developers could afford to take chances. By eschewing the run-and-gun mechanic that’s integral to first-person shooters and replacing it with a series of increasingly difficult physics-based puzzles, Valve created the first new game genre in years: the first-person puzzler. This new gameplay mechanic, combined with a subversive and irreverent sense of humor, not to mention the best baddie since Bowser, makes for an experience that appeals to newbs and hardcore gamers alike. And by selling Portal as an itsybitsy part of The Orange Box, Valve proved that taking a chance on something new doesn’t have to be risky.

Click for more: Portal