Leaderboards. The simple yet incredibly deep symbol of who is better than who at something. For video games, these have been around for decades. It's a symbol of pride, the fact that you're better than anyone else in the world at something. With this position comes responsibility. The readiness to jump back in when someone beats you. The constant subtle thought that someone is trying to beat you. As video game fads come and go, from controllers to consoles, leaderboards seem to have stood the test of time through arcades and the introduction of the internet. Leaderboards have evolved so much that nearly every online multiplayer game has some form of one in it. While the leaderboards in these games can usually be taken as legitimate, some people and organizations go beyond that, and take measures to ensure the integrity of the scores. The devotion that these people have to the integrity of the scores is admirable, with the growing threat technology plays to these scores.

Enter the leaderboard organization Twin Galaxies. This organization has a huge website dedicated to keeping scores of thousands of cla-ssic games. The organization dates back to 1981, and was started by Walter Day, who has stuck to the company since. The unique thing about Twin Galaxies is the process by which one is ranked on its leaderboards. This is best documented in the 2007 cult-hit documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. The film chronicled the epic high-score duel between science teacher and family man Steve Wiebe, and video game veteran from the 1980's, Billy Mitchell. Wiebe practiced hard in his garage, desperately trying to beat the Donkey Kong high score set by Mitchell at 874,000 points. Wiebe broke the record at home and surpassed the previously thought impossible 1,000,000 points along the way. The media frenzy broke out and a full-frontal assault on Wiebe's score began. Alleging that the arcade machine's board (the CPU of the arcade cabinet?) was modified in his favor, Mitchell scoffed at the integrity of Wiebe's score, even though it was captured on video tape. In an effort to prove his skills to the world, Wiebe ventured to Funspot Arcade in New Hampshire to break the record in the company of the general public, and Walter Day. After nearly two and a half hours, Wiebe broke the record set by Mitchell but choked under pressure and didn't break the million point mark. To make a long story short, Mitchell sends in a video tape of him breaking One Million points via chroney Brian Kuh (Koo). The tape had some glaring issues, as the side of the screen with the score on it frequently went choppy and white. Mitchell claimed it was due to the fact of the tape being a copy. After a brief conversation with Walter Day, Mitchell's score was deemed legitimate and posted to Twin Galaxies. Something was amiss. In the days after the score was published, Mitchell became a recluse and refused to publically play Wiebe, even if it was just for fun. The two are fighting for first place, currently with Mitchell in first with a score of 1,050,200 points, and Wiebe with a high score of 1,049,100 points. Just 1,100 points separating the two. I highly reccomend the film, it explores just how legitimate Mitchell's scores may be.

While the Guitar Hero games are covered on Twin Galaxies, there is another site whose scores you can really fully trust. Score Hero, is a site that tracks every score by platform, percentage of notes hit, and note streak. The site allows for proof to be provided via results photo or video of the run of the song happening. This mostly rules out the possibility of false scores. As another strike against hackers, the site has a huge community, which I am happy to be apart of. If a new face comes along and has suddenly overtaken the leaderboards with no proof of his or her score, they're banned. While you can post scores without pictures, one must take into account who is posting the score. If they are a well-trusted member of the community, you can safely assume they are legitimate. Otherwise, I use the age old motto of: No screenshot, didn't happen. Take for example the well-known incredibly hard song Through the Fire and Flames by power-metal band Dragonforce. Player Chris Chike, whose online alias is IamChris4life was the object of the Guinness book of Video Game Records when he broke 900,000 points on the song in Guitar Hero 3 on the XBox 360. He played many times in public in order to enforce the legitimacy of the score and was officially placed into the record books earlier this year. Last month, Chris FC'd (full combo'd. he never broke his note streak and hit all notes) in the song, the first person in the world to do so and the highest score ever in a Guitar Hero game. His video was posted to YouTube and contested by many, but in the end was approved due to his good reputation and proof on video. His score has yet to be beaten even by the best players in the world. The possibilty of a bot used to obtain the score was ruled out as modified XBox 360 consoles are banned from XBox Live, and Chris was signed in when he played. I don't think he will ever be beaten.

While I will never see video gaming on the same level as a sport, the similarities are shocking when you look at them. Both of them involved incredible perseverance and determination, as well as lightning-quick reaction time. Consider that next time you look at the next MLG wannabe on XBox Live, PSN, Wii Wifi, or whatever platform you play on.

Thanks for reading,

-TheCritic9393

That is the question. I recently got a new computer and was fooling around with the "Can You Run It?" tests and surprsingly I can run Gears on PC well past the Minimum requirements. Seeing as how it recently had a price drop and I've been really wanting to play it again, what do you guys think? $30 for new campaign and multiplayer stuff plus that same ol' Gears gameplay I know and love, seems like a win-win, right? I just wanted someone's input before I bought it.

So I just beat Guitar Hero Aerosmith on expert. Was it hard? No, didn't fail a single song and didn't five-star about four or five. If you can play GH3 on expert (or are really good at hard) you should be fine with this. Personally, I liked the set list a lot, which is part of why I bought the game. The game is set up like Guitar Hero 3 but with a few key changes. You will have two songs (non-Aerosmith.) where you play as the opening act using the standard GH3 characters. Johnny Napalm, Axel Steel, Judy Nails, that Asian Girl, Lars Umlaut, Casey Lynch, are all back along with Run DMC (yes, you can play as Run DMC), Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, and the bass player whose name I can't quite remember at the moment. The next two songs will be Aerosmith songs, followed by an encore by Aerosmith. The venues are new and original, and help keep this game from feeling like a Guitar Hero 3 with Aerosmith paint job. This and a lot of other key changes help the game from turning out like Rocks the 80's in which everything was the same except for the character's clothes. The Vault, which is the in-game store, is where you can pick up guitars, characters, songs, and finishes for your guitars. There's over ten bonus songs available for purchase, some from Joe Perry's solo career and the rest from Aerosmith.

The achievements in GHA are much more user-friendly than Guitar Hero 3. In my expert playthrough, I got about 450 points. I think the full 1,000 is very plausible. A very welcome addition is the career stacking achievements (i.e., beat the game on expert, unlock the easy medium and hard achievements).

I'll have a full review up sometime this week. My bottom line for this is that if you are a fan of Aerosmith, even a casual one, and love Guitar Hero, then this is a buy. I kind of wish there were more songs, but 42 is good enough for me. I also wish they didn't want $60 for it, but hey, it's not as overpriced as Rocks the 80's was.

I made a video two days ago. It was for the song Stairway to Heaven, except 45 seconds in out pops Linda Blair from the Excorcist and a bunch of screaming. Just a harmless joke that everyone has fallen upon at some point in their lives. So, this morning, I woke up and checked my account to check out the views my vid was getting. I had two messages in my inbox, both with subject headings that are too obscene to say on this site. Even with censors. I open them up and the jist of it is that this guy, whoever he is, maybe be legitimately mentally unstable. He said that he wanted to cut my windpipe in two with a boxcutter, slam me in the head with a baseball bat, cut me open and rip open my entrails with a chainsaw, and then drag my "Useless effing corpse" down a road with a pickup truck. He then referred me to a link to a YouTube movie trailer called "Guine Pig II". I immediately closed it. The other message had the same style to it where he says that hopefully I get what's coming to me. To be honest, I was pretty creeped out upon reading it. I've gotten similar stuff on other sites, but none have been as gruesome as his. So I looked for an option on YouTube to report him. There was none. No way to make this sick b*stard banned so he can't continue threatening people over the internet. I chose to threaten him- with the law. I told him to never threaten me again, especially over the internet. I also told him that the messages have been reported to the F.B.I. Cyber Crimes Unit and that Internet Harrassment is punishable by 20 to life. Of course I don't know if that's true, but with a guy as stupid as he, he'll more than likely get spooked and believe it. I blocked him, so at least I'll never hear from him again. If any of you are interested I can send you the text of the messages.

I then researched the Guine Pig films on Wikipedia. Turns out that the video he reffered me to was a horror film from Japan that was popular in the '80's for having the most gruesome and realistic murders ever recorded on film. It was so bad, in fact, that Interpol investigated the producers to ensure that it wasn't actual murder in the films. Glad I didn't watch it.

My point with this is that there are some really, really sick mother****ers out there on this little 'ol place we call the internet, and I'll tell you right now if I ever hear from him again he's spending the rest of his life in a cell. It really revolts me that people like this exist.

Also, please take a look at the new blog from DouglasBuffone,as he had a similar experience.

Oh, and I beat Through the Fire and Flames on expert last night, pretty psyched about that.

Anyways thanks for reading.

......But it was too hot so I failed. Yep, today I finally managed to get past the intro and even up through the middle of the "What The.." section of the wretched Dragonforce song "Through the Fire and Flames" in Guitar Hero 3. I really want to beat this song and 5* Raining Blood before I get Aerosmith, but I highly doubt that the latter of those will ever happen. I like the song Raining Blood but it's just too damn crazy for me to keep a streak in. I four starred it a while back with 170K, and haven't beaten that score since. I'm 57K shy of the 5 star cutoff....Ugh...

Thanks for readin',

-Steve