Hey guys,

As some of you know, I’m the founder, webmaster, graphic designer, and guest shoutcaster over at QuakeLive.tv. Quake Live TV runs very much like a business, but we’re all volunteers and our costs are paid for by donations (thanks to an awesome, supportive community).

So what is Quake Live TV? Well, it’s an organization that broadcasts live, competitive video game matches with some of the top professionals. While a lot of our coverage is of community-run events, a lot of our coverage is of the professionals competing in high-level tournaments. We’ve covered over 1,000 competitive matches in our one and half years of operation, with some of our more popular live broadcasts reaching thousands and thousands of live spectators simultaneously. In the past year, we’ve had over 400,000 visitors on our website.

To sum it up: we’re the #1 broadcasting organization in North America Quake Live coverage, and we’re slowly becoming one of the more reputable names in eSports.

While some people scoff at the idea of playing video games professionally, some do pretty well. For example, Anton "Cooller" Singov (who is coming to QuakeCon) has made more than $130,000 in his career. Sure, he’s not going to be able to retire on winnings from professional gaming, but it’s still a good chuck of cash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Singov

For those of you that are curious as to what competitive gaming is all about, I wrote a four-page magazine article that details the ins-and-outs of the scene.

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Back to the big news:
Quake Live TV is going to be the exclusive broadcaster of QuakeCon 2010.

So, what is QuakeCon? What does this mean?

Here’s a snippet of the Press Release:

Quake Live TV, a community-run broadcasting organization, is set to provide exclusive video coverage of QuakeCon 2010. QuakeCon, the largest LAN party in North America, is hosted annually in Dallas, TX and is home to the Intel® QUAKE LIVE® Masters Championship. Known as one of the most prestigious gaming tournaments worldwide, this year boasts a prize pool of over $50,000. After three years of main-stage action QUAKE LIVE® remains a top choice for competitive gamers.

Check out the rest of the press release on GamesIndustry.biz. I actually wrote the majority of the press release.

Essentially, QuakeCon is a big deal. Biggest LAN in North America, biggest free LAN in the world, and it hosts thousands of gamers at the event with tens of thousands tuning into the coverage from around the world.

My company is going to be that coverage.

I’m really happy to go there and be working alongside my fellow founders Steve "GreasedScotsman" Huff and Ben "FishStix" Goldhaber. These guys are legit. Also along with our promotion to the official coverage team means we get comped rooms, VIP passes, interviews with Bethesda and id Software execs, and a lot more really cool things.

In fact, if anyone has any questions for id Software, Bethesda Game Studios, Splash Damage, Respawn Entertainment (the founders of Infinity Ward, the guys who made call of Duty), Arkane Studios, or any of the pro gamers… let me know!

Anyway, I’m super excited about this and just wanted to share it. Hopefully you guys tune and I have your support!

Matt "Mattc0m" Richards
www.quakelive.tv

I’ve been going through a few different games lately, most of them are older games! However, all of them are pretty damn fun.

• KOTOR 2
  I’m super excited to get my hands on this one, because I’ve been wanting to try out the Restoration Mod for ages. Now I get to! I’m installing it right now, actually. Woo!
• Mercenaries 2
  The first Mercenaries was one of my favorite console games of all time. The destructible environments, the ability to hijack anything, the warzone environment, a huge arsenal of airstrikes, artillery, and bombing runs. the ability to drop vehicles anyway. There was simply a massive amount of carnage and a very cool sandbox approach to it that just worked. Sadly, that was the first one. While the second one promised all the same things, and more, it got crummy reviews, so I did not get it. However, on sale I picked it up for really cheap. and it’s turned out to be not so bad! I’ve made it a bit over half way through, and it’s pretty damn intense. However, it’s a bit buggy, the graphics are so/so, and the storyline is horrid. But, coming into this game with very low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised!
  Score: 7/10
  
• Company of Heroes
  I’ve been replaying this classic with a friend. Mainly, we’ve been digging into the LAN skirmishes and battles. Whether it’s a 2v2 versus computers, 1v1 matches, or any other sort of arrangement – we’ve been having a blast. I only had really focused on the single player when I played a couple years ago, and replaying with a focus on the multiplayer aspects has been fun. What a classic RTS! It’s really made me want to pick up World in Conflict, though. The macro-heavy, tactical RTS games have really gotten so much better, thanks to games like CoH and WiC!
  Score: 9/10

View some cool trailers of upcoming games by reading more.

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Such a simple concept. Play Quake 3 online, for free. Add in a friend’s list, matchmaking, skill levels, statistics, awards, and other community features? Nice. Did I mention it was free?

You play it right from your browser – only a quick, two minute install before you’re playing. You can play within the browser window, or set it up into full-screen. You can edit and tweak all the options to your heart’s desire – it’s essentially the Quake 3 engine.

The more I play it, the more I am addicted. It’s quickly taking over my “game to play” when I’m bored and need a 5-10 minute distraction (which often turns into 15-20 minutes). This was once a niche that Counter-Strike: Source filled for me. but now it is Quake Live.

Check it out at www.quakelive.com – it’s in public beta right now! Free, fast, and fun! I give it a big thumbs up – Quake 3 is a smooth, classic FPS gameplay that is very straightforward. It keeps to the basics, and that’s a hell of a good idea.

Also keep in mind we’re developing a shoutcasting website for Quake Live at www.quake-live.tv

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View my Game of the Year selections for 2008. A bit late, yes, I know… but better late than never!

Watch as Fable 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Sins of a Solar Empire, Call of Duty: World at War, and many other top caliber games compete for one of the top 10 spots on this year’s list!

Please give me your comments and feedback on my selections.

Thanks!

Ever since the invention of bots within Counter-Strike, people have been restricting them to use knives only. and putting massive numbers of bots. Nothing is quiet as fun as mowing down dozens of rushing bots. Well, that idea expanded into actual “Zombie” modifications within Counter-Strike, which provided a lot of replay value. The idea of battling zombies within the Source engine can be largely accredited due to these inventive modders.

So then the idea of Left 4 Dead was born: a teamwork focused game where you and three other survivors had to battle zombies throughout infested cities, towns, and countryside. And who doesn’t like destroying massive amounts of brainless zombies? It’s a lot of fun. Toss in “boss” zombies, the ability to revive fallen teammates, limited ammo and items, and a few other key features, it really gives you a fun gameplay experience.

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