Before we set out on our quest for cash, we thought we'd sample each of SkillGround's titles so we could find out which one we excelled at the most. We ruled out L.A. Street Racer and 3D fighter, Kung Fu: Deadly Arts as they both felt too clunky to control on the keyboard. In the end, we decided to go with WarPath, a sci-fi shooter, to see if we could outgun other online players for money. It seemed like our skills from playing Quake and Unreal Tournament over the years carried over well with WarPath. Plus, the introductory map was smaller than the one in SkillGround's other shooter, C.Q.C. (Close Quarters Conflict) and allowed us to quickly memorize the locations of ammo boxes and armor.
We figured we'd best get as much practice as we could to hone our skills before playing for cash, and concentrated our training in SkillGround's Score Based game mode. This is a single-player arcade mode, where you have three minutes to blast as many baddies as you can. Bonus points are also awarded for accurate aiming and avoiding damage. At the end of the match, your high score is pitted against the score of a recent player of similar skill %26ndash; which is determined by SkillGround's Skill Rating system to ensure that seasoned vets never get paired off against fresh noobs %26ndash; and the player with the highest score wins. After each match, your Skill Rating will rise or fall slightly, reflecting how well you you're expected to do against other players in the future.
