The Top 8 Tactics in Video Game History


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8. Baraka’s Blade Fury – Mortal Kombat II

Never have the words “Back, Back, Back, Low Punch” been used to such cheesy effect. Baraka’s Blade Fury is in many ways the ultimate defensive attack: the flurry of blades protects Baraka from any close-range attack, but also inflicts catastrophic damage. It also short circuits jumping or sweeping attacks, the bread and butter of Mortal Kombat II fighters. Short of jumping directly over Baraka’s bald head to attack from behind, the only way to stop this uber-cheap maneuver is to fling a few fireballs and hope for the best.

7. The Stick Trick – NHLPA ’93

“Move left, shoot right.” — that’s all you need to remember to score an endless amount of goals in NHLPA Hockey ’93 for the Sega Genesis. Due to a subtle engine flaw, exploiting an NHL goalkeeper has never been so easy — well, at least when the players are not on strike. Unfortunately, the error was cleared up in subsequent installments of the series, though it wasn’t that hard to trick your friends into believing you were playing ’93 or ’94. A little electric tape on the cartridge would do the trick.

6. The Life Snatch – Contra

Everyone’s favorite NES side-scrolling shooter not only had what is arguably the most memorable cheat code of all time, but it also had the cheapest of the cheap — a move that effectively snagged an extra life from your unsuspecting buddy. If you ran out of lives in a two-player game, all you had to do was perform a simple little tap of the A and B buttons after death to steal the life of your flourishing pal.
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5. Oddjob – GoldenEye 007

I’d bet dollars to donuts that, back in the day, any group of 007 split-screeners had a “no Oddjob” rule in their multiplayer sessions. Oddjob was the only GoldenEye multiplayer character with the distinct advantage of small stature. Like a flexible Gary Coleman in a limbo contest, a tall person just can’t win. Because he is so small, it was commonplace to shoot well over his noggin in a flurry of frustration.

4. Bunny Hopping – Quake III: Arena, Counter-Strike

As legend has it, virtuoso Doom and Quake programmer John Carmack coined this term in 1999 when he complained that “Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sigourney Weaver don’t get down a hallway by hopping like a bunny rabbit.” So-called “bunny hoppers” had already infested Carmack’s popular online shooters Quake and Quake II, and the programmer wasn’t about to let this cheesy tactic ruin his upcoming game Quake III: Arena. But after massive backlash from Quake-aholics, Carmack sheepishly re-added the feature with a cryptic note in his .plan file: “removed tripple bunny-hop protection, it was too arbitrary and didn’t accomplish its goal.”

The primary reason for bunny hopping is two-fold. First, it keeps the player from being an easy target, an especially important goal in a twitch shooter like Quake III, where rockets whiz by like falling leaves on a crisp autumn afternoon. Second, some games (particularly Counter-Strike and Painkiller) actually apply a slight movement boost by jumping; repeatedly jumping, as you might guess, stacked exponentially to give rampant bunny hoppers inhumanly fast speed. Though the worst bunny-hop exploits have mostly been smoothed out, it’s still a widespread tactic (cheat?) in online shooters.

3. The Koopa Troopa Jump – Super Mario Bros.

This Mario glitch basically provides you with a free ride throughout the rest of the game, and it’s incredibly easy to perfom. On world 3-1, all you need to do is continually pounce on the second Koopa to rack up as many lives as your little red-hatted friend desires. Ha, but the jokes on you! Now there’s no reason to run around like an idiot, picking up those shiny little coins, expect for meaningless points that is.

2. The N00b Combo – Halo 2

Anyone who’s played even a few games of Halo 2 online knows that the combination of a Plasma Pistol and Battle Rifle can deliver almost instant death. Even Bungie, shortly after the release of Halo 2, announced that they never intended for the so-called “n00b combo” to be so devastating. As a result, Bungie modified the matchmaking playlists to limit its frequency. It was initially taboo to use the combo at all, but now shameless players are slowly bringing it back into fashion. In reality, it’s just an easy way out against better players.

1. Dupe – Diablo

To “dupe” (duplicate) an item or anything else just put an item on the ground and go away a bit. After that, click on the item to pick it up. You will now walk forward to the item. In the same moment you pick it up, click on a square in your belt (it must be an item there). If you did this right the item will now be “duped”. Happy “duping”! Everyone favorite !



Game ads in real time


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Real as in streaming advertisements piped dynamically to games like EA’s forthcoming Madden 2008, NASCAR 2008, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008, NHL Hockey 2008, and Skate. An extension of Microsoft’s game ad company Massive Inc. (purchased by the Redmond software leviathan last year for $200 million), the new EA/Microsoft deal will allow advertisers to feed changeable ads live to virtual billboards or other promotional in-game constructs. Goodbye static, built-in, quickly outmoded huckstering, hello voguish virtual real estate with advertising space for sale by the hour, day, week, etc.

It’s working by tracking the number of seconds players have seen an ad, and then switch it every 10 seconds. 10 seconds of ads view in a game would cost 10$, to be view by millions of players around the globe. Yeah, it’s more advertisements (and who needs those?), but it will also make car-driving video games much more “life like”, when you’re driving through town and the billboards are advertising things that are actually relevant, or at least produced in this decade.

“We’re thrilled to be EA’s trusted partner for dynamic in-game advertising for these products,” said Cory Van Arsdale, Massive Inc. CEO. “The addition of EA’s leading titles to our network represents a tremendous opportunity for brands targeting the youth demographic and sends a clear message that in-game advertising has arrived as a compelling medium for marketers,” he added.

Yankee Group estimates indicate around $26 million was spent in 2006 on dynamic in-game advertising, with the number expected to rise up to $100 million before the end of the year – and up to $650 million within three years.



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