We had earlier written about Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) LAN Party and gaming tournament which will be organised across the country. The event will be held on the same dates as announced earlier, so start packing your PCs or do some last min modding to add extra oomph to your rig. In the tournament section however, you will be able to use the systems provided by the organisers alone.

And all you console gamers, please don’t stay away, there will be a lot of console action as well at the BenQ Console Zone.

Meanwhile, Consoul might be arranging a few Xbox360 consoles which gamers can rent out at Bangalore. The organisers of BYOC will rent out PCs and monitors to gamers who find it inconvenient to carry their rigs along, but it’s not sure if it’s restricted to Delhi or if it’ll be available in all locations.

This is the first time the event’s being organised outside Delhi and we wish the organisers best of luck, as we need such events to really encourage gaming culture in India.

The venues and the dates for the event are as follows

Delhi : 7-8 Nov.

Venue: Global School, NBCC Plaza, Pushp Vihar, Saket.

Mumbai : 14-15 Nov.

Venue: Ajivasan Hall, Juhu Tara Road, Near SNDT College.

Bengaluru : 21 Nov.

Scared Heart School, Behing Good Shepard Auditorium, Museum Road.

Hyderabad : 28 Nov.

The games for the tournament

Counter Strike, DoTa, Call of Duty 4, NFS Most Wanted, Fifa09

See you there folks

PS: The organisers say there’s Rs10lakh worth of goodies for taking.. okay stop drooling

WCG India website has undergone a partial update to include the list of games which will be featured in this year’s tournament.

The list of games for this year’s WCG India includes Counter Strike, Trackmania Nations, Fifa 09, Carom3D, Asphalt 4: Elite Racing(Mobile), Wise Star2(Mobile).

The introduction of Trackmania Nations is a welcome change from the NFS series of games which have been dominating most gaming tourneys. If you haven’t played this game yet, you can download it for free from the main WCG site, the tracks which will be used in the tournament can be downloaded from here.

The console games featuring in this year’s tourney are Guitar Hero: World Tour and Virtua Fighter 5. But surprisingly none of these games will be present in Indian edition. This was unexpected considering the circumstances. Console manufacturers are trying to push their sales in the market and presence of console games at tourneys like WCG will only encourage more gamers to pick up a controller.

Now the next problem I have is with the schedule. What problem do I have with it? It says “Coming Soon” that’s my problem. What was the point of updating the site in such a way. Why not get all information and then update the site and then send out a mailer?

All I have to say is, I hope Indiagames doesn’t repeat mistakes of last year. Remember what happened?

Here is the coverage of WCG Bangalore stage, from2007, as appeared in Bangalore Mirror, Joystick page. I was supposed to cover it, but couldn’t as I had to go to Kerala on an emergency.

(click to enlarge)

The image of a fat, lazy guy button bashing sitting on a bean bag with a can of red bull in hand is soon about to change, or should I say it has already changed? Nintendo set the ball rolling with its Wii console which went out to become an all-out hit. Now Microsoft and Sony have followed suit with Project Natal and Sony with its own motion detection remote.

Microsoft’s efforts stands out among the lot because they have virtually done away with one of the crucial elements of gaming — the controller — that differentiated one gaming console from another. PC gamers always had special gaming keyboards and mouse while PlayStation always had Dual shock and six axis controllers. Xbox 360’s claim to fame in the controller department was the ergonomic controller which some referred to as the potato thanks to its bulky design.

The game has changed now as I see it, the next generation console won’t have a controller, just smarter cameras which will detect motion smarter and more accurately than it is done now. You could say good bye to special kits for games like Rock band and guitar hero and get used to air guitaring instead. I think I might set record scores if they do away with “guitar controllers” for I am a champ at air-guitaring. I have been doing it all my life never figured how to play a real guitar!

But the motion detection technology is not without its weaknesses. To win games earlier, you just had to fast with the controls and know which button to press when. But now with motion detection, its all about fitness and agility. Looks like my room mate will finally get to defeat weak me in Fight Night Round 3. May be this is a good excuse to hit the gym!

Must read: Microsoft games executive describes origins of Project Natal game controls