Saturday 26 March 2011

[Update] Press Pass? Don't Mind if I Do!

A few days ago, I spotted that Eurogamer had put the early bird tickets for this years Eurogamer Expo on sale to the general public. I went to one of those a couple of years ago (when they used to do two, one of which being in Leeds, much closer to home). I had an awesome time, highlighted by the fact I got to play a demo version of Heavy Rain quite a while before it was released. Last year they switched the event to London's Earls Court, and as tempted as I was to go along...I instead jetted off to Gran Canaria for my parents anniversary.

This year however, I had no plans for around that time of year. Now, I was quite happily thinking about paying for my ticket...but then my eye spotted the Press page. Wouldn't harm to take a look right? So I did.

Turns out you can apply for a press pass one of two ways. The first was open to your proper/full time/industry journalists. The second, interestingly, was entitled Enthusiast Media, basically a chance for small part time journalists and websites to register for the chance to get a press pass. Without a moments hesitation, I applied on behalf of BlastProcess.com. Our cheesy videos and general geekness would sway them right?

Surprisingly...it was. 2 days later I received an email, with two printable Press tickets for the Saturday and Sunday of the show. Fan-flippin'-tastic! It's awesome to see Blast Process growing and developing into a bigger and better game site, one it seems that is good enough to get approved for a press pass.

I'll be going, hopefully, with Blast Processor Mike and ofcourse plenty of paper for notes, my laptop and camcorder. It'll be a great opportunity to talk to various people ranging from fellow gamers to (fingers crossed) industry developers/etc...

Watch this space too, as I'm currently in talks in regards to a radio show...or failing that...creating a podcast. Exciting times ahead!

Sunday 13 March 2011

[News] When TV's Fall...

...Xboxes may break...

The other evening I took my shiny Halo limited edition Xbox round to my friends house. He was using one TV, while I used another. As good as playing games online can be, you can't beat a bit of multiplayer gaming in the same room.

So there we were, working as a team on Battlefield Bad Company 2, when completely out of the blue the TV I'm using falls forward and hits the floor.

Only..it never made it all the way to the floor, as my Xbox cushioned its fall:


Although you may not expect it to survive such a beating, it indeed has. Apart from the crack along the top all seems well. It goes without saying my copy of Battlefield has more than a couple of laser burn marks, but it's a small price to pay.

A lesson can be learnt here. Make sure your TVs are secure folks, I'd hate to see this happen to one of you...