This weekend THQ released codes to members of their website to download the Red Faction: Guerrilla demo via either PSN or Xbox Live. Codes are available on a first-come-first-serve basis and are in limited supply and the demo is single player only. I don’t know how many codes they will allow but I can tell you that they are still available. My download is 48% complete. I suggest you make your way over by clicking the link below and registering on the THQ website. Don’t waste your time if you are outside Europe, the codes are region locked.
I’ll write-up my impressions for all you poor bastards living in the land of free and Canada when I get the chance, but I will probably be busy destroying EVERYTHING!
Happy days are here! The wonderful couple from Kent who have been selling fake DS consoles and games are now spending some quality time with the folks at Bromley Trading Standards Department and the local Kent Police Department. A raid on the happy homestead netted a seizure of 150 counterfeit games and 40 counterfeit Nintendo DS consoles with potentially dangerous power supplies. The games were for the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance. The early investigation indicates the couple earned in excess of GBP 50,000 in December 2008. I’m happy to hear these two are on ice for all the people they have screwed over this holiday season, all the kids who opened their gifts and got crap or got hurt from dangerous and poor equipment.
Chris Hartmann, the President of 2K Games made an interesting comment in an interview with MCV
“UK retail slashes prices if something’s not quite hitting its numbers,” he said, “I’m not talking about a big gap – I’m talking about expecting to sell 1,000 and selling 950.”
As a consumer in the UK, I say hell yeah this is great news. I’ve seen Fallout 3 tumble in price at GAME to GBP 27.99 from it’s RRP of GBP 49.99. While it’s a shame to see retailers drop quality titles to make shelf space for the next AAA, I do appreciate the discount. Retailers should keep some stock of back titles to entertain discount buyers, the latest releases are not always the best for the customer.
If you have been living in a cave recently or at least not in the UK, it’s a bit of news for you to hear about the collapse of retail giant Woolworths. The windows and doors will be boarded up shortly after the holidays.
Why should you care? Woolies, as it is affectionately known, is one of the top three game retailers in the UK. They fit a nice little niche of not a game store but being the kind of store mothers from all demographics drag kids in to buy school gear. And what do kids do in these situations? They throw a fit until they get their video games as well. Who will cover this gap now?
The good news is if you have a Woolies near you, there is a huge liquidation sale on right now, so to our UK readers get down to your local if you are willing to brave the fearsome bargin hunters. Now with Woolies gone, where do our UK readers end up going to get games? For me it’s the ASDA by the train station down the street and the GAME near my office since the Woolies by my house already boarded up a month or so ago.
With the London Games Festival kicked off in the capital, of course politicians needed to say a few words about the game industry and get their face plastered in the papers.
Brace yourselves.
As per the Guardian, Dan Foster, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament in the UK has said,
“I hardly play any games – I’m not from that generation – but because of my job, I had to research the industry. The vast majority of my parliamentary colleagues are always wanting to ban the latest game, but they don’t know the details of the industry. Few people in this country realise how important it is to the UK economy.”
It’s nice to finally see a political statement that is not trying to sink a game or industry but let me tell you some of the background to his comment.
In UK news, the London Games Festival 2008 has kicked off this week and will be running until the beginning of November with a series of workshops, public events, and more. Some of the events include a LittleBigPlanet Creative Cupboard, a creativity workshop, which is being run in Covent Garden all week and the Eurogamer Expo 2008 which will allow you to play all of the big upcoming Christmas releases, and not to forget the Girl Gamer Tourney. Get in there ladies.
I will try to get myself over to a few of these events and get some reporting back to you all, but if you are in London you can check it out here which I do suggest. This is not a closed event, it’s a festival, there are plenty of free and public events all across the city. A few events are asking for donations to quality causes, but remember they are providing to you plenty of gaming and swag. Get lootin before I get there son.
I like it when people organize things into lists. The UK gaming site, Button Bandits, has revealed the top 100 games of all time as voted by gamers. Here is the top 10. Click through to get the rest of the list. I don’t know about the #1. Super Mario 3 not even in the top 10. Blasphemous!
A British toddler managed to lodge himself inside of a Lucky Dip claw game the other day. How the kid managed to get stuck inside, I have no idea. The child who is obviously distraught, is searching for a way out. The kid ended up being fine, but he might have the most inattentive parents on the European continent. Here is the news feed.
As the server capabilities of Xbox Live continue to be upgraded, especially after the Blackout of Winter ‘07, there have been promises made that the time it will take for an HD movie rental to be downloaded will be vastly reduced from about 4hrs to 30 minutes by the end of this year. According to a statement from a Virgin Media spokesperson, their upgraded service will reach more homes than ever before, 9 million by their estimate. Usually a HD movie is about 15GB on the short end. This may be a problem with those who do not have a anything over a 25GB HDD.
Thats right Europe. Ubisoft has a new release coming that only our friends across the pond can get. The game? My Health Coach: Weight Management for the Nintendo DS. So instead of getting all booted up and hitting the rugby or football pitch, you can watch your weight via your handheld. Put down the Fish and Chips and skip that extra side of Bangers and Mash. The road to wellville starts here. They even give you a pedometer. Think I am full of bollocks? Click here you bloody wanker.
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