[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we'll show you how to execute Kenshiro's 100 Crack Fist in Hokuto no Ken.]

Hokuto no Ken for the PlayStation 2 did the unthinkable for many long time fans of the anime: it took the hard-hitting fighting that defined the show and merged it with a deep fighting engine that actually satisfies. All previous attempts at a Hokuto no Ken game (from the Genesis’ The Last Battle to the Gameboy’s Fist of the North Star: 10 Big Brawls for the King of Universe) all hailed from the land of suck, so the SEGA-published PlayStation 2 title was quite welcomed.

One of the questions that I receive on a somewhat regular basis inquires how one goes about unleashing  Kenshiro’s 100 Crack Fist finisher. Certainly, it was the most memorable move in the series, and one that you want to smack your boys with when they begin to spout off a little too much. Just like the anime, you can’t simply whip it out at anytime – - that would end matches in seconds. You need to set up the scenario. Here’s how to execute Kenshiro’s 100 Crack Fist in Hokuto no Ken.

1. Your Opponent Must Be Weakened
Positioned below each character’s lifebar is a gauge with seven stars in the shape of the Big Dipper, which drains as they perform special moves, supers, a handful of command normals (like slam and stun attacks), and take star-depleting attacks. Once drained, your opponent is in a severely weakened state and a “Death Star” will light up.

2. Unleash Your One-Hit Kill, The 100 Crack Fist
QCF + HP and HK.

That’s it! The best aspect of the move is that it’s very, very combo-friendly due to the D, DF, F motion. Knuckle up!

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you survive the world of Lord of the Rings: War in the North.]

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Warner Bros. Interactive’s action-RPG recent hit store shelves, bringing a grittier take on the Tolkien’s fantasy world to the PC and home video game consoles. If you want to orc-slay with the best of ‘em, check out these tips which were provided by WBI. Have fun storming the castle!

1. Sick of that troll knocking you to the ground? Try using your rolling dodge to avoid unblockable attacks by pressing B (Xbox 360), Circle (PlayStation 3), or Spacebar (PC).

2. Did you know that skill attacks aren’t just limited to melee combat? Enter Ranged Mode to view your ranged skill attacks. Note: some ranged skill attacks can charge up to do extra damage.

3. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is all about loot. The color of the item’s name will tell you if it’s Common (white), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), or Epic (purple) – each with better qualities than the last.

4. Did you know Beleram can attack certain structures, like crossbow turrets or towers? Use Ranged Mode to target a structure and then call in Beleram by using a Great Feather.

5. Whichever weapon you use, landing a critical strike on an enemy initiates Hero Mode so you can gain more XP and do extra damage.

6. Missed an on-screen tutorial message? Visit the Log, and select Tutorial Messages to scroll through a list of helpful hints and tricks.

7. One of the best ways to perfect your combat skills is a Challenge Map, unlocked after Sarn Ford. Beat these challenges for extra XP.

8. There are many potions that give your character bonuses. Use Andriel’s racial ability to craft them, and then put them to use in a tight spot.

9. Want to tell your allies to defend their position, or attack a wave of enemies? Press up on the D-pad (or C on the keyboard) to tell your allies to go on the offensive, and down on the D-pad (or Z on the keyboard) to have them hold their ground.

10. Want Andriel to throw a sanctuary around you while playing solo? Move away from the fray and press down on the d-pad (so that your AI companions go into defensive mode). If there’s room from enemies, and she can break away, she’ll come to your aid.

11. Want to move an item around in your inventory? For console players, select the item in the Inventory screen, then hold the Ranged Attack button to move the item. For PC, simply left click, hold, and then drag and drop to a new inventory slot.

12. Keep an eye out for armor sets! If you equip multiple pieces of the same set, your bonuses will increase with each piece you wear.

13. Need to break the block of a tough enemy? Hold your block button then use your normal melee attack to push the enemy back forcefully, allowing you a chance to hit them.

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you defeat Skyrim's Mirmulnir.]

Skyrim. It’s captivated the collective gaming populace since release day, and if you’re like the millions who purchased the action-RPG, you’re probably busy exploring, hunting, or just dungeon crawling. Well, when you do decide to venture back to the main quest, you will eventually face off against your first dragon: Mirmulnir.

This is a particularly difficult battle, especially when you play on higher difficulties. Why? As it’s very early in the game, you aren’t properly equipped for the battle. But fear not! This guide shall guide you toward victory. Let’s get it started.

1. Make sure you buy a few health and stamina potions.

2. After you receive the quest from the Jarl, follow Irileth (the Dark Elf in your group) to the attacked watchtower. Once at the watchtower, inspect the area a bit and you should hear a NPC shout that the dragon has returned.

3. Let Mirmulnir concentrate his aggression on Irileth.  If you’re an archer you should have an easier time with this battle because you can keep your distance; the same goes for mages. But if you’re a close range fighter try to stay at the dragons rear or at its side. Focus on attacking the beast when/where ever you can.

4. If Mirmulnir turns toward you, head for cover or just turn around and run out of range of its fire breath. If you’re engulfed in flames, make sure to heal yourself quickly. Also, keep your eye on your stamina, this way if you are the focus of attacks you can quickly sprint to safety.

5. Repeat this a few times, and victory is yours! Make sure to collect the dragon soul and learn your first shout, and begin your journey towards becoming one of the greatest dovahkiin.

[Editor's Note: This two-part series fell into my lap rather serendipitously. I reached out to Jeremy W. Kaufmann, who you may know as the host of the hilarious Destroy All Podcasts DX show, as he dabbles in the chiptunes world with I'm Insincere and Violence Mars (he's also one of the creators of the upcoming Homeless Dinosaur comic). He replied with a pair of epic e-mails that were so chock full of goodness that I decided to use them more of less in their entirety. I now turn you over to Jeremy for some technical background on the C64's sound chip.]

Warning: This is really fucking long. Another warning: I heavily favor the Commodore 64, because when I started out, I was using an actual C-64.

COMMODORE 64: THE ADVANTAGES

The C-64 has its advantages–you can program it directly using BASIC, assembly, or machine language, and you can use old C-64 music creation software. Some of that software even lets you play it in real time as if it were a music keyboard, but there are some pretty big disadvantages to using a real C-64 as well.

COMMODORE 64: THE DISADVANTAGES
The first problem is getting the sound out of the C-64 into something useful. The real problem is the C-64 is designed to use a TV RF switch adapter, and that is just shit for sound or video. You can use it with a C-64 monitor, but the connection to those is a mono RCA adapter. You know those three colored TV adapters like on a VCR, red, yellow, white? This has just two, red and white. One line is video, one is audio. It kind of sucks, and you still need to adapt that back to something a computer or mixer can use. You can also hack a regular RCA cable to work with the C-64, but it’s not actually real stereo, just faked.

COMMODORE 64: THE SOUND CHIP BREAKDOWN
The C-64′s sound chip, the MOS Technology 6581 SID, is actually really elegant and cleverly designed for the ’80s. Unlike the sound chip in the NES and the Genesis, the SID was custom designed and is actually a subtractive synth, which is an analog/digital hybrid. It’s literally a mixed circuit chip with both digital and analog circuitry. I love it.

I don’t know how into electronic music you are, but analog and digital synthesizers sound pretty different. A famous example of an analog synth is the old school Minimoog. Analogs pretty much always have tubes in them and are expensive to keep going and maintain. Digitals are cheaper and more reliable. Analogs have a warmer, more “human” sound and digitals are colder and more precise. Analogs can actually slip out of tune and have lots of little peculiarities. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, a good example would be analogs are the sounds used in old ’70s prog rock like Pink Floyd (especially Dark Side of the Moon) or whatever and the colder, harsher digitals are frequently used by industrial rock guys like Nine Inch Nails (especially ’90s stuff like The Downward Spiral).

How this relates to the C-64 is that while the SID is a digital chip on a motherboard inside of a computer without tubes or anything, but subtractive synthesis is the method analog synthesizers like the Minimoog generate noises. Wikipedia’s article on subtractive synth explains the concept: Digitals don’t have the same limitations but like the old cliche goes, the limits set you free. You’ll also find that the precision digital offers is not available in analog/subtractive based synths. What I mean in practical terms is when you tell a digital to play an A note, it will hit that note immediately and precisely. If an analog/subtractive is playing a B and you tell it to play an A it does not just jump from the B to the A like it does with digital. There’s actually some degree of “sliding” between notes and depending on what “instrument” you are using, this is more or less pronounced. I love this.

The reason the C-64 rules is you have all the benefits of analog and none of the problems. It won’t slip out of tune, there are no tubes, it’s not likely to break. You can even buy or build synth modules that are just the C-64 SID sound chip chip removed from the C-64 and placed in a dedicated synth module (I’ve seen both MIDI and USB) or even a sound card doing the same you can plug into a PC.

Regarding the analog/digital synth stuff, a lot of that is from experimentation and hearing about it from more experienced musicians. My friend in college had a ’70s Minimoog Voyager he swiped from his old high school teacher and it was always glitchy and liked to slip out of tune.

[In part II Jeremy will explore the tools needed to make the Commodore 64 sing.]

 [How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you find Gears of War 3's Easter Eggs.]

Most of you have already rid Sera of the Lambent and the Locust horde by now, and are probably wondering what else there is to do in Gears of Wars 3 besides mix it up in online multiplayer. The developer has included an epic amount (see what I did there?) of Easter Eggs on the disc that require you to hunt quite a bit to find them. If you don’t want waste precious time searching instead of shooting, check out this guide. Warning: there are SPOILERS ahead!

Audio Clip of Dom crying and a picture of Dom with Maria

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. Set up a private match on the Mercy multiplayer map.
2. When the match begins, head over to the chapel. There you will find a platform near the back wall, right under the window. You should also see a few books on the platform. When you hear the bells ringing, the photo will appear.
3. Shoot the photo and you will hear Dom sobbing. It broke my heart  to hear you cry, Dom.

Cooking up swine on Gridlock and listen to “Mad World”

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. During a multiplayer private match run up to the left most tower, look through the wooden panels and you should see some ash people.
2. Shoot them out of the way, and you should see a pig on the stick roasting. Yum! If you shoot the handle the pig will rotate on the stick.

Listen to “Mad World”

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. While we are still on Gridlock, let’s unlock another Easter egg. Restart the private match and begin a new one on Gridlock.
2. Finish the round without destroying any of the ash people.
3. Now sit back and listen to one sweet and touching tune. Mad World was also the song from the original Gears of War trailer.

Ticker Fighting

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. Place your bets everyone. On Act 2 Chapter 4, after you enter the area with all the Tickers in cages, kill all of the enemies.
2. Now you should look for a boarded up area with a ticker painting. Approach this picture.
3. In that area you should see a yellow light. Go near it and press the action button. Enjoy the Ticker on Ticker violence.

This Wretch has some smooth moves

Click here to view the embedded video.

This Easter requires a bit of work but its one of the funnier ones out of the bunch.

1. Set up a private match on the Checkout Map. When the match begins pull the fire alarm near Home Goods then head to the electronics section.
2. When you arrive at the electronics section, look for an open door with a lot of debris. There should also be an open box there, shoot it, and a fire extinguisher should appear. Go ahead and grab it, and turn off the fire alarm that is now on fire in the pharmacy.
3. On the other side of  the gated area you should see a shopping cart with a hat inside of it. Shoot the hat and it should reappear in a window between the pharmacy and checkout area. Shoot the hat again and it will explode, setting a car on fire. Extinguish the car.
4. Head to the bathroom and there should be a scythe on the ceiling. Shoot it and it should disappear into the ceiling in a mist of blood. Head back to the electronics area.
5. There should be microwave on fire. Extinguish the fire and you will hear an explosion by the door where you first picked up the extinguisher. Look through these doors and you should see a dancing wretch. Now shoot it!

CluckShot, mother cluckers!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Easily the coolest Easter egg and weapon in the game and can only be obtained on Insane difficulty.

1. First start a new game and select Act 4 chapter 1. Make sure to avoid all the ash people on your way to the tower.
2. If you avoided all the Ash people you will be given access to the towers weapon stash. Inside the stash room there should be a chicken with a pirate hat on, press X and you’ll know you started the Egg hunt.
3. During Act 2 chapter 2 walk up to the car with ammo on it. It should fall, that’s fine don’t stress it and continue on. You should reach an ammo crate on broken railroad tracks, the ammo crate should fall again.
4. Act 4 chapter 3, walk up to the ammo crate on the top of a box and barrels, press X and watch it fall. After this crate falls you will be treated to a cool scene, and four Cluckshots. Now go wreck some cluckers.

Hunt away and let us know in the comments below which Easter Egg is your favorite.

What you get in the box.

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you PS3 and Xbox 360 gameplay videos.]

Are you a Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition king who wants to share your numerous victories and health-draining combos with the rest of the nerd world? If so, Hauppauge has the solution for you in the form of the $199 Hauppauge HD PVR. The box records video feeds from a PS3 or Xbox 360 to a computer’s hard drive in a compressed H.264 format (PS3 records in the .M2TS format, while the Xbox 360 records in .MP4). You can connect the console (or numerous other boxes) via component video, S-video, or composite video, and record in 480i standard definition all the way up to 1080i high-definition. If you’re ready to rock, here’s how to record PS3 and Xbox 360 gameplay videos.

1. Connect your console of choice to the HD PVR using the appropriate cables.

2. Connect the HD PVR to your PC using the included USB cable.

3. Power on your PC. After the computer boots, connect the power supply to the back of the HD PVR. Power on the unit.

4. Return to your PC. Install the HD PVR drivers from the included disc.

5. Click “Install Software,” which will place the Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme, HD PVR Scheduler, and IR Blaster applications onto your hard drive.

6. Double click the TotalMedia Extreme icon to launch the software. Click the video cassette icon to open the Arcsoft Capture Module recording. Make certain the source is set to “Happauge HD PVR Capture.”

7. Select your A/V source. Be certain that the component connection is set to 1080i.

8. Click “Format Settings” to adjust the bitrate. You can select from 1 Mbps to 13 Mbps. The higher the bitrate, the better the quality and the larger the recorded file.

9. Begin the recording session by clicking the Capture button.

10. You can find your video clips in the My Documents\My Videos folder. Note: If you want to preview the video you’re recording, click Enable Preview On Recording.

There you go. Now upload to YouTube, Vimeo, or other online video repository of your choice and share your clips with the world (check out our Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online video capture as an example of what this device can do).

Click here to view the embedded video.

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you upgrade your PS3 hard drive.]

Hard drive space is valuable in the digital download age; even the 320GB HDD that’s available in the highest-priced PS3 can rapidly fill as you purchase games, add-ons, and video. But there’s good news! Your PS3 isn’t bound to its out-of-box capacity. I’ll show you how to increase storage by upgrading my PS3′s 60GB HDD to Western Digital’s WD Scorpio Blue–a massive 1TB drive which you can purchase from Western Digital for $120. Here’s what you’ll need:

• A Playstation 3
• A 4-inch, Number 1 Phillips head screwdriver
• A 2.5-inch internal hard drive
• A PS3 Hard Drive Caddy Cage (optional)
• Time

Ready? Let’s get started:

1. Turn the PS3 on. Back-up your saved data in XMB’s system settings options (Settings>System Settings>Backup Utility).

2. After the backup process is complete, shut down your PS3 and remove all cables.

3. Locate the HDD latch on the bottom of your PS3 and carefully remove it. Note: If your PS3 is laying vertically the latch will be on the bottom of the Playstation, if it is laying horizontally the latch will be found on the left side of the Playstation.

HDD latch located on bottom of PS3

4. Remove the blue top screw with a Phillips head screwdriver. Note: Be extremely careful when removing this screw as it is prone to being easily stripped.

Blue top screw and HDD inside of PS3

5. Flip up the latch (next to blue screw in picture 2) of the hard drive cage and slide it to the right. Pull it out of the PS3.

6. Locate the four silver screws on the side of the hard drive cage (there are two on each side) and using a 4-inch long, number 1 Phillips head screwdriver. Carefully remove these screws as they are also prone to being stripped. Note: This step is optional if the new hard drive is already in a PS3 hard drive cage.

Carefully remove these silver screws

7. Place the new hard drive into the cage correctly and replace the silver screws you originally removed in step 6 (if you did step 6).

New hard drive in cage

8. Put the new hard drive back into the bottom of the Playstation 3 and once again, carefully, screw back in the blue top screw. Now place the HDD latch back on the ps3 and reconnect the system.

Inserting new HDD into the PS3

9. The Playstation will state the hard drive needs to be formatted. Select “Yes” and continue.

10. When the format is complete restore the data back onto the Playstation. Settings> System Settings> Backup Utility> Restore. Note: You be missing some game saved data due to the fact that some games are copy protected (such as DJ Hero 2).

That’s it! Now download to your heart’s content.

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you beat Limbo's spider boss.]

Limbo is a game filled with eerie and, at times, disturbing imagery that makes you just a wee bit hesitant in pushing forward into the unknown. For many gamers entering its dark world, the first encounter with these emotions comes with the battle with the monstrous spider boss.

This nightmarish battle preys upon all that humanity fears: isolation, darkness, helplessness, and large arachnids. But should you keep your wits about you and manage to avoid a skewering by the beast’s sharp legs, you can defeat Limbo‘s spider boss with ease. Here’s how to do it.

1. As you approach the spider boss, you’ll notice a bear trap resting on a tree branch. This is not an arbitrary move on Playdead Studios’ part; this bear trap is your key to victory. The hard part? Getting it down.

2. Before the spider boss reveals itself a white butterfly will flutter away. This is not only acts as a warning that a world if hurt is approaching, but showcases that objects in the environment react to the spider bosss’ presence.

3. You need to coax the spider boss to strike at you. This not very hard. What you need to do is have it strike and miss so that it’s leg taps the ground. This may be hard.

4. Return to the tree. The bear trap will have fallen out of it. You have your weapon.

5. Push it toward the spider boss. Strategically place the bear trap on a place on the ground within the spider boss’ striking range. When the spider boss rears its legs to strike, quickly drag the bear trap to where it’s leg will hit the ground. The spider will strike the trap, damaging itself.

6. Repeat until you claim victoly. Or have you…?

Nope. Check out to really kill Limbo’s spider boss.

How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we focus less on gameplay tactics and more on pure entertainment as we show you how to find video game music online.

Music is a vital component of the video game experience. It can provide the perfect sonic backdrop for a moving scene, compel us to drive at over 100 MPH, or decapitate the undead. If you’re a true gaming nerd, you have your favorite melodies memorized–but wouldn’t it be nice to hear them audibly when you aren’t tied to a controller? Here are four streaming video game music sites that will make love to your ear.

8BitFM
The Nerdy Show’s streaming radio channel (compatible with iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, and Real), plays a mix of video game soundtracks & remixes, nerdcore hip-hop, and a heavy rotation of “chiptunes,” songs composed and played on retro video game hardware like the Commodore 64.

AOL Radio
AOL Radio is known for its more traditional music, but it has a robust video game catalog as well in “Video Game Scores.” Unlike many other  streaming video game soundtrack sites that simply list the name of the track, the game, and occasionally the composer, AOL Radio offers sizeable bios that give you the background on the sonic creators, granting a deeper learning experience. Due to licensing agreements, AOL Radio only lets you skip six songs per hour.

Radio SEGA
Radio SEGA isn’t just a streaming music site; it’s a true one stop shop audio smorgasbord. The site lets you stream tunes to iTunes, Windows Media Player, VLC Player, Winamp and Foobar 2000, as well as downloaded themed podcasts. There’s a good blend of classic SEGA arcade and console tunes, plus remixes. Signing up for a free membership lets you tune into playlists and request songs.

Rainwave
Rainwave touts itself as the democratic streaming video game music station as it lets logged-in listeners request and rate songs, and actually vote for the next tune to be played. You can learn about the service by reading our interview with Rainwave founder Robert McAuley.

Those are our suggestions. Do you have any to add to the list?

How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you unlock Hsien-ko and Taskmaster in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Currently, there are over three dozen known brawlers in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but all aren’t available to engage in fisticuffs right out of the box. For instance, Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath (who starred in Marvel vs. Capcom 2) are available to those that purchased the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Special Edition, but will be presented to gamers as a whole as DLC in coming weeks. But there are fighters on the disc that can be unlocked by earning in-gaming Player Points (or PP).

You can gain PP in a variety of ways, but the easiest method is to set the game on the “Easy” setting, comboing characters into oblivion, and making it deep into the game–in fact, you don’t even have to beat the game’s final, Galactus to player points (although, it certainly helps). Hsien-ko and Taskmaster will be the second set of fighters that you’ll unlock. Here’s how to do it.

• To unlock Hsien-Ko, the Chinese zombie, you’ll need to 6,000 PP.
• To unlock Taskmaster, the part time baddie/part time hero trainer, you’ll need 8,000 PP.

That’s it! Get to cracking skulls.