I feel like a lucky man because next Friday, I will be the sole representative of MEGATONik attending the first annual GEEX Show gaming convention in Salt Lake City. GEEX is short for Gaming and Electronics EXpo.
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Velvet Assassin, formerly known as Sabotage, loosely follows the real life story of Violette Szabo. Szabo was a World War II spy for the Allies, completing two major saboteur missions before she was captured and subsequently tortured and killed. So what will it be like to step into Violette’s shoes? Some details I learned about the game, though essential to the premise of the game, could be considered spoilers, so they will be placed after the jump.

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Yesterday morning I woke up and drove the two hours to Austin, TX, to attend Gamecock’s 2nd annual Expo For Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original, or EIEIO. EIEIO showcased all 9 of the games they are currently publishing, some of them playable and some only being shown off by the developers. Last year EIEIO was held in Santa Monica, California, at the same time as E3, but this year was moved to Austin, where Gamecock’s main offices are located. Hit the jump to find out exactly what happened at EIEIO 2008.

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Gamecock Media announced in a press release on February 29th, that the upcoming game from Replay Studios that was under the working title Sabotage has been renamed to Velvet Assassin. The game is based upon the real life hero of WWII Violette Szabo, who was instrumental in reorganizing the French resistance against German occupation. Read the full press release after the jump.

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Two hours ago, a press release showed up in my inbox detailing a Valentine’s Day Rock Band tournament organized by 1up, MTV Games and Virgin Megastores, and for the life of me I cannot decide why in the world they would possibly hold the “main event” of the tournament, at the Virgin Megastore inside of Downtown Disney in Orlando, at 12 PM in the afternoon on Wednesday, the day BEFORE Valentine’s Day.

Really, if they couldn’t get in there on the day of V-Day, couldn’t it at least be held off until Friday night or Saturday afternoon (or even at the same time as the other locations)? It just seems ridiculous to expect that a decent amount of people will show up right in the middle of the day, while the kids are in school and everyone else is at work, to come to Disney World to compete in a Rock Band tournament, even when a $500 gift card and “other cool prizes” are at stake.

The tournament will also take place in NYC and Hollywood at a reasonable time, 6:30 PM.

Hit the jump for the press release which contains all the details about the tourney and addresses for all 3 locations.

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For the past two days I’ve attended the third annual Otronicon at the Orlando Science Center here in Florida. The convention is a four day long event that showcases several simulations, exhibits, and the latest and greatest video games that have come out in the past couple of decades. I’ve attended the event for the past two years, and without a doubt, this year was probably the biggest improvement and most fun I’ve had.

Read on for pictures, text, and even a video from my adventures at Otronicon.

Note: Oh, and please excuse my poor photography.
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Video Games Live, the heralded video game concert series, has recently announced its 2008 tour dates. VGL is poised to perform more times this year than it ever has previously. With 27 scheduled performances and 25 still to be announced dates, gamers all over the world will have the chance to experience the concert.

Video Games Live covers gaming music from all eras and consoles, including fan favorites such as the Mario series, the Sonic series, Metal Gear Solid, and Warcraft. VGL is the creation of Tommy Tallarico, responsible for the music in Earthworm Jim and the Tony Hawk series, and Jack Wall, the man behind Myst’s soundtrack and the recent Mass Effect.

Call it selfishness, but I couldn’t be more thrilled that VGL is coming to Texas four times. I’ve personally never checked it out, but will have more than enough opportunities this year. The 2008 tour schedule kicks off January 24th in Orlando, FL. Hit the jump for the full 2008 lineup.

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With so much hoopla being brought up with the Iowa caucus electoral event looming in the imminent future (read that as tonight) and which savior the American people should choose as the next president of the US; one group has decided the ’ultimate’ way to decide who should be elected, with Mortal Kombat!

The game on the atom films website is about as fun as a game based on elected officials battling it out can be, however the area where this game truly shines is in the amount of political satire it has.  Like Giuliani’s projectile locking someone in a cell which is a reference to his arresting homeless individuals in New York City when he was mayor*.

Each character uses a weapon, Giuliani uses ninja claws, Obama uses a samurai sword, while Clinton uses metal fans (ala Kitana in MKII).  I put a good 5 minutes playing this game before growing bored with it, so if you’re in for a good laugh and a wasted 5 minutes of your life give the game a glance at www.kungfuelection.com.

(Many thanks to Razak for pointing out this little gem of the internet.)

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That is right ladies and gentlemen, you will finally be able to confirm all those rumors and speculations about crazy gaming records, useless facts and zany trivia when the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition gets released on Feb. 8. Amazon has the book listed at $13.57 with the list price at 19.95, but can you really put a price on hundreds of random gamers finally getting their 15 minutes of fame? No, no you can’t.

You can flip through a few pages of the book at the Guinness Web Site and you’ll probably notice it looks pretty shiny, even if it is basically full of a whole metric ton of filler like awards for the largest Tomb Raider enemy and giving Myst the record for the “least violent action game”, a title that is both impossible to judge and strangely attributed to a game most people would say falls into the puzzle category. Still, there are two whole pages of pretty Lara Croft pictures, along with some truly impressive game records, to distract you from the fact that some of these records might not be totally up to snuff.

Along with all this Guinness is offering a chance for you (yes, you!) to be part of the longest Guitar Hero Marathon Relay ever. Hit up the Guinness site above to see details about how to participate in the fake guitar passing action on Feb. 6.

[Via Wired]

Although the channel is filled with horrific programming that has nothing to do with gaming whatsoever, G4TV is planning on revamping their only video game related show, X-Play, and turning it to a block of television that will provide gaming news, reviews, tips, and other bits, that’ll give G4TV a bit more credit for being “TV for gamers.” Kyle Orland got a chance to interview Adam Sessler on the new revamped X-Play, and reveal a bit more about the show’s new style.

Sessler talks about the revamping of the show:

This is the show I’ve always wanted to do. Obviously I’m very, very deep in games, and I find that many aspects of the industry that are newsworthy are very interesting to cover, and I’d like to get in the middle of it. I happen to like our show’s perspective when it comes to reviewing games, and I think we can offer that exact same perspective as to events inside the industry.

Sessler also comments about G4 and all of its crap:

I think [covering] games 24/7 would always be a little bit tough. You see other kind of genre-focused networks out there, they have to start rehashing and rehashing and rehashing. I’d just as soon see a network with a lot of fresh content that’s not always consistent on one topic rather than the same three hours repeated ad nauseum.

The new X-Play will premiere on Jan. 14, 2008. The show will now be airing 5 days a week. Oh, and fans of the odd humor of the show don’t need to panic. Sessler says “there’s still going to be comedy.”

(Author’s Note: This article was originally written for the Alexandria Gazette, a community paper in Northern Virginia. Thus the assumption made is that it was being read by people who are not gamers and is written as such.)

From Jan. 3-6 for 86 hours straight the Hilton Mark Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, will be stuffed with gamers; gamers listening to live video game music cover bands, gamers jamming together, gamers watching movies, gamers sitting in on panels and discussions, gamers playing in tournaments and, most importantly, gamers playing video games together. That is the weekend that the Music and Gaming Festival 6 (MAGFest 6) arrives in Alexandria, delivering a place for anyone who loves to play video games to go to and immerse themselves in almost every aspect of gaming.

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Various Best Buys will be open at midnight for Rock Band’s anticipated release just over a week from now, to make sure people can get the game as early as possible. Here is the list of all the Best Buy stores that will be open at midnight for Rock Band, so you can get it in the first few minutes of November 20th instead of having to wait until it’s actually light outside:

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If you think you’re man enough to compete against other people in a Guitar Hero III tournament, Activision, Inc., Pontiac and Hot Topic are teaming up together to help you do exactly that. Fans that are 16 years old or over have a chance to win 2008 Pontiac G5, and a chance to show off their amazing Guitar Hero powers. For one month the tournament will travel to various Hot Topic stores in the following locations/malls:

11/08 Orland Park, IL (Chicago) — Orland Square
11/12 Paramus, NJ (New York/Newark) — Garden State Plaza
11/15 Buford, GA (Atlanta) — Mall of Georgia
11/19 Austin, TX — Barton Creek
11/26 Phoenix, AZ — Metro Center Mall
11/29 Las Vegas, NV — Meadows Mall
12/03 Northridge, CA (Los Angeles) –Northridge Fashion Center
12/05 San Francisco, CA — San Francisco Center

Rules on the press release are as follows:

Winners at each of the eight stops will receive a $100 gift card from Hot Topic. Additionally, winners will submit their high score on an undisclosed song to determine the two national finalists to advance to the Grand-Finals Round. The two Grand-Finals Round participants will win a trip for two to Los Angeles where they will compete in front of the game creators at Activision for the right to drive away in a 2008 Pontiac G5.

Individuals interested in participating can pre-register for the tournament by visiting the designated Hot Topic store starting at 10:30 a.m. five days prior to the tournament date. Pre-registration will close at 5:00 p.m. the evening before the tournament date. Pre-registering is highly recommended as space is limited.

There were huge Halo 3 launch parties across America and the rest of the world (although later). Those were the ones that got covered, that everyone wanted to be at, and that no doubt had by far the worst lines and wait times. While those select cities may have made the biggest deal out of Halo 3’s launch, thousands of other retailers were open across the country to make sure everyone got their copy as early as possible (without being incredibly lucky or downloading it illegally). One such midnight launch happened in Prescott, Arizona, and I was there for it all.

It may not have had the flash and flare of the big city launches, but there were less people to wait behind and it was still plenty of fun.

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