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So I’m sat on a beanbag in my lounge taking a break from rockband to post (a long over due) blog entry, from my shiny new iPhone, using the shinier Wordpress iPhone app. Awesome sauce
How young, hip & trendy do I feel?

Despite my Xbox, Microsoft and my ISP’s best efforts to stop me getting an Xbox Live account I battled through the huge amount of (I thought pretty damn original) GamerTags already in use, filled out all my details via a system that’s much better for controlling characters in-game than entering text… Rummaged through my box looking for the one month free Gold membership trial, could find it, opted for Silver, was asked if I really wanted Silver or if I meant to click Gold, was rewarded with a free one month Gold trial anyway. Overcame mysterious ‘MTU issues’, eventually managed to pick up my failed session and get over my mild disappointment it doesn’t transfer any of the achievments from your offline profile and I’m not up and running as ‘Arty0′. *phew*

Yesterday I was wandering through town when I noticed Woolies (of all people) doing a great deal on GTA IV for Xbox 360. They were matching play.com’s bundle of Premium console and the game for £199. Bargain. I’ve been meaning to get myself a 360 for a while now. Xbox Live in particular seems like an excellent system and might mean I end up playing some more games online, which would be nice

Unsurprisingly they had sold out of the game, but could put me on a waiting list. To my surprise I received a phone call this afternoon, saying they had got new stock in! So I am now the proud owner of an Xbox 360 and Grand Theft Auto IV.

First impressions of the game are great. Rockstar have really approached this game, even more so than the previous titles in the same line, more like a movie. The cinematics are excellent, especially as they are rendered using the games engine, not some video which has been cut in. The graphics are gorgeous at 720p HD and the first couple of missions are good at getting you into the swing of things. The cars still handle like shopping trolleys, although this is, perhaps, more realistic - I can’t imagine that you really would be able to take that right-angle-city-block corner doing 70mph in real life

A nice victory for high street retailers I feel.

Just a quick mention of the fact that i34 has sold out all 2000 BYOC tickets in just under a month!

I suppose we’d best get on and organise it all now!

Last night amida frantic coding fury for some of us as we put the fininshing touches to the i34 web site in the server area at i33, the largest announcement in the history of the i-Series was being made. Craig ‘Wizzo’ Fletcher (aka Mr Multiplay) and Paul ‘Redeye’ Challenor were up on stage in the marquee in front of… many people (too many to fit in the marquee infact!).

All weekend we’d been running a marketing campagin under the simple guies of ‘respawn’ in white text on a black background. A bizzarre countdown (ok, not that bizarre, I just displayed the number of seconds to make it look like it was counting faster and try and obscufate the end date of the countdown a bit more :)) had been running on a page on the Multiplay website simply entitled ‘i34′.

The hundred’s of gamers had gathered to hear all about the launch of i34 & new home for the i-Series, direct from the horses mouth. Their has been a massive amount of speculation on the forums about the location for i34, and finally they were going to be put out of their misery. i34 is to be held at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.

Iain of quadv.com also deserves a mention for his sterling work on the i34 promo video. Check it out:

I may be a little slow off the mark with this one, but a teaser trailer for Deus Ex 3 has been released. The original Deus Ex remains, in my mind, one of the best games of all time and, despite Invisible War’s dumbed down console-tard interface, a fan of the series in general (although I have never played Project: Snowblind - Eidos’ ginger bastard child of the franchise).

I’m not getting my hopes up just yet, however. Rumour has it the third outing will be based upon the Crystal Dynamics engine, used in last years Tomb Raider: Legend. Yahtzee has some (as usual) excellent comments on this matter and the last thing we want is our prequel JC Denton handling like a cow in a supermarket trolley.

Time will tell, I guess.

In the mean time I’m happy there is something to look forward to on the horizon, although with a project release date in 2009 that might be so far on the horizon it hits me in the back of the head.

Last night saw Nintendo’s Wii Sports walking away with six awards from the 4th outing of the British Academy Video Game Awards (The BAVGA’s?), this year held at Battersea Evolution, London.

The family-friendly ‘putting the fun back into gaming’ title scooped: Best Multiplayer Game, Best Gameplay, Best Sports Title, Stratergy and Simulation, Innovation and finally Best Casual Game. Making it, I suppose, the most innovative casual sports, stratergy and simulation multiplayer game (ever! (volume 2)).

‘Sports did not manage to take the crown of Best Game, that honour went to 2k Games BioShock (I really must get round to playing that) and The Sims creator, Will Wright, walked away with a BAFTA Fellowship.

Full write ups can be found on SPONG and the good ol’ BBC.

Gerhard Florin, an EA senior suit, wants to see the console wars of recent years become a thing of the past - making way for an ‘open platform’ for which games can be developed and delivered.

It’s an interesting concept, with EA in particular re-packaging a lot of its games to as many of its 14 supported platforms as possible in an effort to rake in the cash make titles available to everyone.

I’m not sure the rest of the world will necessarily share his somewhat pie-in-the-sky dream though, people are too ambitious and the desire to be the best will always come first, perhaps this is more a scheme for Mr Florin to be able to lay off another couple of departments.

What I can see happening (and will be welcome with open arms), is the standardisation of net code within the games themselves, allowing people playing the same title, but on different platforms, the ability to shoot each other in the head.

Source: BBC News.