SquareEnix has released details of the official UK launch of Final Fantasy XIII. This event is taking place almost 3 years after the Final Fantasy XII (PS2) launch at the same HMV on Oxford Street, London which Weefz covered in her post.

Fans attending the UK launch event on 9th March will be treated to a very rare opportunity to meet both Yoshinori Kitase, the producer of the game, and Isamu Kamikokuryo, the game’s art director, who will be available to sign games and answer questions. High-profile DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane will also be entertaining fans as the MC for the event.

The first 50 people to attend the signing dressed in Final Fantasy costumes will be given a free Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack and everyone who attends the launch will have the chance to win goodies.

You will be able to check out the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and limited collector’s edition of Final Fantasy XIII at the event.

Event Summary:

• Date: 9th March 2010
• Time: 5.30pm – 7:30pm
• Photocall: 6:05pm – 6:15pm
• Address: HMV, 150 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1DJ
• Entry: Free to everyone

Final Fantasy XIII is released on the 9th March 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Just 9 days to go before the opening of London’s first Monster Hunter Gathering Hall. According to The Gathering Hall Twitter account the following is taking place:

• 1st July – Secret preview session
• 3rd July 12pm – The Gathering Hall opens to the public
• 3rd July26th Jun 2pm – Meet up in HMV Oxford Street

To sign-up for the secret preview session go to the forums on http://capcom-europe.com

Also check out the http://www.encyclopedia-gigantica.com for lots of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite game info.

Finally, if you are going to The Gathering Hall you MUST have a UMD of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and a PSP to play it on, otherwise you will be refused entry.

After a 2 year hiatus – ok, it wasn’t really a hiatus as business was done, but behind closed doors and without the need for a giant game/company related stand dripping with glamour models (possibly NSFW) – the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is back.

In keeping with a classic tradition of the games industry – cramming lots of stuff into a short period of time (e.g lots of games and the Christmas period) – the E3 of old (pre-2007) used to squeeze practically all console and games related announcements into just 3 days every year. Then it was made boring for 2 years in an effort to distribute the announcements throughout the year and help reduce games companies marketing budgets. Yeah, that didn’t work very well.

The main E3 2009 expo takes place between the 2 – 4th June 2009 in LA. Actually, you need to include the 1st June 09 as well as some of the major players hold their big keynote addresses before the show actually starts:

• Microsoft keynote – 1st June 18:30 BST
• EA press conference – 1st June 20:00 BST
• Ubisoft press conference – 2nd June 01:00 BST
• Nintendo keynote – 2nd June 17:00 BST
• Sony keynote – 2nd June 19:00 BST
• Konami press conference – 3rd June 23:00 BST

If you want to follow all the of the E3 news and announcements (this will be a lot!) then check out E3Feed which pulls together all the E3 related news from the major gaming sites.

Here at TAG we will be be bringing you just the super tasty bits of E3 for you to digest. Yummy.

Next weekend (23-24th May 09) the Movie Comic Media (MCM) Expo takes place in London’s Excel Exhibition centre. There’s a stack of stuff going on at the Expo for all comic and movie fans, even Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is turning up. There is also a games village expo there (otherwise I probably wouldn’t be writing this post!) highlights of which are:

• Playable Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires
• Dedicate space for Monster Hunter Freedom players – Exclusive t-shirt for those who play on the day
• See the new Monster Hunter Freedom Unite game in action
• Cosplay world record attempt – Video game characters
• Ghostbusters: The video game – Potentially playable

Looks like it could be worth a visit, especially if Ghostbusters is playable. Given that the game is due for release in a couple of months I don’t see why it should be by now! Also there should be some pretty amazing cosplayers at the show, given some of the pictures from last year’s event:

The above picture of Yuffie and Rikku (FFVII) taken from Pink Domino. You can see more pictures MCM Expo cosplayers on deviantART.

As mentioned several weeks back, HMV is hosting GameOn! London, a consumer-focused gaming event at London’s Olympia exhibition hall in June 2009.

Tickets for each of the 2 days are now available from the GameOn! London website, priced at £8.00 + £1.00 (payment processing fee).

Expo Info:

• Date: 20th – 21st June 2009
• Location: London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre
• Capacity: 25,000+

We’ve got our tickets for the 20th June 09, so hope to see you all there.

HMV have recently announced the existence of Game On! London, a gaming expo for the unwashed masses (i.e. you and me). Yes, I know they are rare occurrences in the UK, and even rarer outside London. Last year we had Play.com Live! which was planning on coming back bigger and better in 2009. Alas, no. It’s dead for the time being.

This new expo has HMV paying for headlining it, and UKeSA organising it. For those that don’t know, UKeSA are the United Kingdom eSports Association. You can join UKeSA’s season 2 gaming leagues at http://www.enemydown.eu/.

Details for this new expo:

• Date: 20th – 21st June 2009
• Location: London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre
• Ticket cost and availability: To be announced
• Capacity: 25,000+

To quote from the press release:

Game On! London will showcase the very latest games for all the major platforms and the most cutting-edge gaming technology. The expo-event will also play host to the Dell XPS Premiership Season One finals, which will see the UK’s top eSports teams clash in what has become the most hotly contested gaming league ever.

We will let you know when the tickets become available and hope to see you all there.

Well, we had an eventful morning today. You may have heard about Capcom Europe’s “Treasure Hunt” to promote Resident Evil 5’s release tomorrow. TheFluffyFist and I did our bit to help out the NHS by spending our morning searching London for Infected body parts. Apparently there was a bit of an outbreak…

14 clues were sent out last night, with instructions to search for body parts from 9am and get them to Westminster Bridge by 11am:

1. Hidden near a pub? Elementary, my dear Watson…
2. More drinks, this time with digging sailors
3. A Standard location on Villiers Street – and it’s a laughing matter…
4. A Proudly photographic display
5. Samuel Pepys dwelled here, his street a palatial namesake
6. Rubbish? Find out, where Chandos and Bedfordbury cross
7. 8 Bedford Court
8. Rubbish? Find out, where Bedfordbury and New Row cross
9. Make a call on St Martin’s Lane
10. London’s narrowest street
11. Sir Isaac dwelled here, with a view of the National Portrait Gallery
12. Captain Scott’s memory is keeping this safe
13. Take a seat between (IC)Art and the Arch
14. Seek out the pub with no name on Warwick House Street

Some serious Googling got us this map and route.

View Larger Map

Despite getting to Embankment at 8:50am, we didn’t find any body parts on Villier’s Street, nor the Sherlock Holmes pub. In fact, we cleared all 14 sites by 9:38 and didn’t find a single head, torso or limb that wasn’t firmly clutched in the paws of fellow socially-conscious individuals… The first ones we saw were in the hands of a couple of guys at 4 minutes past 9 who had found at least 3 (THREE!) parts already. Hmm… :|

No matter, it was a great way to spend the morning. Much more fun than a normal Thursday. Plus, everyone who turned up on Westminster Bridge got a free RE5 bag, copies of the game and photo ops with the body parts ;)

Met a friendly couple on Northumberland Avenue – Ricky Smith and Katherine Halls:

Ricky, risking himself to keep London safe:

Evidence, but no joy:

The winners:

The losers:

The Infected:

Resident Evil 5 is out in the UK on Friday the 13th (Ooooo!) March 2009.

Most amusingly, Gamezine reports that a bunch of the body parts were taken by people who didn’t then bring them to the drop-point on Westminster Bridge. What would you do if you found a bloody fake torso stinking of raw chicken liver?

Games development competition Dare To Be Digital (previously covered here) is now open to applicants. This is the 10th year of Dare and to celebrate, they’re throwing their metaphorical doors open to the community.

There are two formats for the competition this year, Do and Dream.

Do is the traditional development competition. Teams of 5 students or recent graduates are chosen from around the country to develop a game from scratch in 6 weeks over summer. The big difference this year is that they choose from ideas submitted by the community.

Dream is the new community section. Anybody can register on the website and pitch their game idea. Other people will vote for their favourite ideas and add comments. The Do team will then choose an idea each and develop the game for the competition. Those dreamers who submitted the chosen ideas will win the following:

• £500 cash prize for the originators of games subsequently chosen by the teams for development.
• An invitation to to the Dare Awards ceremony to receive the prize
• A single return UK flight and 3 nights’ accommodation to Edinburgh to take part in Dare ProtoPlay during the Edinburgh Festival period. Terms & Conditions apply. (If you are from overseas, you have the option of taking £200 in cash instead or we can fly you from London)
• Exposure to the top notch games companies and partners that Dare is associated with
• A showcase opportunity in Dare ProtoPlay
• Publicity

For more information check out the Dreamer’s FAQ and the Do-ers FAQ

To celebrate the release of F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin there’s going to be a Project Origin LIVE event on the 12th Feb 09. There are 8 places up for grabs on the Project Origin Dead Echo team. The team members will be flown in to London, UK and escorted to a secret location to play F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin in the scariest way possible.

You are asked to describe your biggest fears in no more than 200 words on the whatisfearlive.com. If you are selected you will then have a further health and safety screening before being subjected to:

…physical and psychological challenges whilst playing F.E.A.R 2.

Sounds like fun, seeing as I entered my biggest fear as being surrounded by women dressed as Lara Croft in her swimsuit outfit. Mmm, I don’t hold out much hope for my chances!

Update 9th Feb 09: Don’t forget to log onto whatisfearlive.com on the 12th Feb 09 to watch a live broadcast of the event from 19:00 GMT. You can also vote on which fear the contestants will face. Hehehe. Oh, I didn’t get picked, unsurprisingly. Boo :-(

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin is due to be released on the 13th Feb 09 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Sony are running a series of LittleBigPlanet workshops in Covent Garden, London from the 10th Oct 08 until the 15th Nov 08.

Here’s the important details:

• Is it free: Yes!
• Is LittleBigPlanet playable: Yes!
• Opening Times: Tues – Sat 11.30am – 7pm, Sun 12pm – 6pm
• Location: Unit 1&23 Thomas Neal’s Centre, Covent Garden, London, WC2
• Play and Create sampling areas: Create your own levels in the game
• LittleBigPlanet Creative Cupboard: Bring your game creations to (real)life
• Sunday chill-out: On 12th, 26th Oct and 9th Nov – Live music and arts and crafts
• Family day: On 19th Oct and 9th Nov there will be family themed activities

There will also be some super-user tutorials (must be pre-booked on site) where you can get a one-on-one demonstration of LittleBigPlanet.

Hope to see you all there!

LittleBigPlanet is released for the PS3 on the 24th Oct 2008