If you’re a journalist, you’ve probably got a completely different point of view on the importance of events like E3. But what do you, the general public, the gamers really think about events like E3? That’s what I wanna know… here’s an excerpt from my original post over at GC dot com:

With E3 just around the corner (for the uninitiated, E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo), I’d like to find out what gamers think about events like E3. Sure, you can read all about what journalists and writers think of the events from just about any gaming related website on the internet but what do consumers/gamers and the general public think about events like E3? Do you think they’re important for gamers and if so, why? Do you enjoy reading coverage about up and coming games or do you think it’s all just a waste of time and money and simply a vehicle for easy mass-marketing of the latest games?

Read the entire article here. Thanks

I think gamers in general overlook Nintendo. I am definitely part of the problem having too much to focus on when it comes to the Xbox 360, PS3 or PC Although that may be the case with alot of gamers out there, Nintendo lovers do indeed exist (even in New Zealand) and some of them are even celebrities! Yes, even celebs get their game on for Nintendo it seems… I mean who would have figured Mary Lambie to be right into Nintendo?!

Don't think the screen is big enough tbh

We decided to trot along to the Nintendo Passport to Summer event held at the glamorous The Wharf venue in Northcote Point, Auckland. Five of Nintendo’s latest games were on offer to play and the presentation was delivered by journalist/celebrity/tv host Mary Lambie (who by the way, was very funny and very hip).

Those chandeliers could potentially be a problem

Even though we got told off for trying the games too early (lol) and the venue seemed a little too posh for gamers to be hanging out in for long (chandeliers everywhere and marble floors and walls in the bathroom…), we managed to get a good look at the new titles for the Nintendo season which looks relatively varied. Everything from fashion and business acumen (ahem) to Zelda and Mario, there’s something for every Nintendo fan. The latest Wii fit game called ‘Wii Fit Plus’ was also on display.

Do NOT sit on the toadstool!

Here’s a list of games that were shown at the event (some of which have already released in NZ):

1. Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box
2. The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks
3. Style Boutique
4. Wii Fit Plus
5. Super Mario Wii

We thought Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box looked pretty interesting if you like games that mix action/puzzles and a bit of adventure. Style Boutique looked very much targetted towards Japanese gamers in my opinion with overly ‘anime’ influenced visuals and voice acting.

Wii Fit Plus has been expanded to include a whole lot more customisation so you can customise your own workouts. But probably the biggest title of the night was Super Mario for the Wii which is the first time Mario has been ported over to the Wii so that was pretty exciting.

All in all we enjoyed ourselves and the venue was pretty swish. It was a totally different crowd to the usual gaming media types but I guess different strokes for different folks. Regardless, we made sure we were there reppin’ for gamers nationwide (gulp) and not there just to get drunk… no! Never in a million years…

There was no alcohol anywhere just loads of glasses...

Thanks to the lovely ladies from Nintendo Australia for the invitation. You ladies put on a pretty swish event (even if we did get told off for being too keen!).

As mentioned in our previous post, Game Culture was invited to cruise along to the Armageddon 09 Expo on the weekend held at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane, Auckland. If you’ve never attended an Armageddon in Auckland before, you’re definitely in for a treat. For fans of pop culture in general, there’s plenty to see and do at the expo. But if you’re a gamer, there’s usually a whole bunch of cool new games you can check out.

But before we get into the games, lets talk about the history of gaming’s involvement in Army and a little background on the venue. In previous years, the Armageddon expo has been successfully held at the Aotea Centre. If you’re a gamer that has attended Army before, you’ll certainly remember the event because it also used to be the venue for the BBS (Black Box Session) gaming LAN. The gaming LAN was held in conjunction with the Armageddon expo and was always a huge success with console gamers. There doesn’t seem to be too many decent console gaming LANs around these days, so the retirement of the BBS event was a very sad day for gamers. However, that said, this year there was another gaming LAN held for gamers which was sponsored by a relatively new outfit on the LAN circuit called ‘Gameplayer.’ Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to notice anything truly LAN gaming related happening in that corner of the expo when we checked it out:

Dude, where's my Xbox?

There didn’t seem to be any Xboxes, Playstation’s or even a Wii for that matter… one must ask, ‘Is this a gaming LAN at all?’ Needless to say, the gamers at the tables looked extremely caught up in something... and after further investigation, it turns out that Gameplayer are big sponsors/supporters of Yugi-Oh in New Zealand. OK then… moving on.

While we have nothing in particular against Yugi-Oh (admittedly, I’ve never played the game nor do I have any inclination to do so in the future), we’re pretty sure the dudes in the photo appreciate what Gameplayer do on that side of things, but clearly, it’s no BBS. There’s a good chance we missed some of the ‘real’ gaming action (as we could only attend on one day of the event), so if you’re reading this and you know we’re wrong, feel free to let us know.

The next best thing for gamers had to be the display areas sponsored by various gaming distributors such as Sony, EA, Madman and Total Interactive. And I have to say, all of the distributors put on some great displays, Total Interactive especially with two stages! In the TI area various games were showcased including the upcoming ‘DJ Hero’ which looks and sounds totally fantastic, and also Guitar Hero 5 (which has already released).

DJ Hero was setup on a stage where you could get up and try it out for yourself. Although I was asked very nicely by Teresa to get up and strut my mixing/DJ skills, I thankfully declined to wait until I could embarrass myself in the comfort of my own home

DJ Teresa in the house, yo!

There was also a stage setup for the guitar hero fans where you could do the same thing if you really wanted to… and some of the people that got up and played were actually pretty good!

Buckethead started out the same way, I'm sure...

Sony had two separate areas setup for their games due to the R18 restriction on games such as ‘God of War III’. And there’s no way you could miss the Sony area with their big, bright Sony symbols pointing the way.

I'm really young looking for 18, honest!

Now that would look uber cool at my place...

We talked about the full list of games that were on offer at Armageddon here and if you attended on the second day, you could probably get close enough to even touch the consoles the games were being played on!

By all accounts Saturday was the busiest day for Armageddon where  it was literally back-to-back with people. So if you ever plan to go for the gaming, it’s better to go on the second day when there’s less people fighting over console time.

In general, it seemed like there was alot of space at the event that could have been filled by other things. Although there was more on display this year than last (due to the increased floor capacity), the Aotea Centre venue seemed a whole lot better to me. You could wander around and not get lost in empty spaces with arrows telling you that ‘You Are Here’.

I think on a personal note the loss of the BBS event for gamers is a big blow to the Armageddon event because without it, it’s not really a true gamers event to attend. The game distributors are great for organising their games on display to give gamers (and the general public) a taste of what’s to come which is awesome, but Armageddon just doesn’t seem like the same place for a gamer to hang out. It’s lost some of the atmosphere that made it exciting.

There’s no doubt that Armageddon is a great event for people to get out and see what’s happening in the world of pop culture and credit must go where it’s due. Kudos to Bill for organising the event every year and to all the distributors and sponsors for putting in so much effort to setup stages and consoles for everyone to play on.

Thanks to the Armageddon PR people from Paul Blomfield and to Sony for the media passes.

Armageddon, one of New Zealand’s largest gaming/animation and pop culture events will begin tomorrow at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland. Game Culture plans to rock up to the event with camera in tow. We featured an interview with voice actress Laura Bailey who will be at the event signing autographs for fans. Plus we’ll do our best to get snapshots of anyone remotely famous (no, random ppl walking around in Stormtrooper suits doesn’t classify as famous ) .

On the gaming side of things we’ve got several of the big game distributors such as Sony, Total Interactive, Electronic Arts, Madman and Microsoft to look at so there’s plenty of gaming goodness to be had and captured for those of you who can’t make the show.

NZgamer released a full list of games that should be available for gamers to take a look at:

- God of War 3

- Uncharted 2

- Ratchet & Clank – A Crack in time

- Forza 3

- Halo 3: ODST

- DJ Hero

- Assassins Creed 2

- Bayonetta

- Avatar (via 3D TV)

- Smackdown vs. Raw ’10

- NFS Shift (using VisionRacer)

- FIFA ’10

- NBA Live ’10

- The Beatles Rockband

- Brutal Legend

- Dragon Age Origins

- Left 4 Dead 2

- Guitar Hero 5

- Risen

- Cursed Mountain

- Stoked

- Divinity 2*

* Subject to availability

So if you’re in Auckland this weekend, be sure to get along to Armageddon because it’s usually a pretty solid event to attend – especially if you’re into gaming!

The Sony PSP Gran Turismo launch was held at the snazzy European Motor Distributors in Auckland on the 30th of September so we decided to take our camera along to check out Sony’s latest PSP title.

The venue for the event was the underground parking lot at European Motor Distributors which is where they hide all their cars and included some pretty slick looking vehicles that looked something like this:

I drive this on weekdays

And this:

And this is my weekend car... oh yes

But we were there for the gaming as well as drooling over race cars. We eventually got hold of the PSP to try out Gran Turismo and I must say, the game is extensively well set up in terms of content and looks to be very similar in look and feel to the PS3 version – which is great considering GT on the PS3 kicks major butt.

Gran Turismo for PSP features 800 cars and 35 different tracks to choose from. You can start out as a novice on starter tracks until you get the hang of things but as we discovered, you have to have some pretty slick reflexes to pass some of the driving challenges…

Yeah I got this baby beat... er kind of.

Gran Turismo Special Edition for the PSP releases in New Zealand tomorrow so if you’re any kind of driving game fan, you’ll definitely want to be checking it out. If you’re a fan of Gran Turismo, you’ll enjoy this extremely faithful port from the PS3 to the PSP.

The TGS is well underway in Tokyo so we’ve got loads of highlights from the show courtesy of Gametrailers.

Here’s one of my favourites, Left 4 Dead 2 which I can’t wait to play. Check out the gameplay video fresh from the Tokyo Game Show:

The Penny Arcade Expo 2009 (PAX) was held last week in Seattle, USA. It’s a three-day event that features gaming and presentations by some of the world’s biggest game developers. It’s not E3 but it is kinda like E3 in the sense that it’s for gamers and about video games. E3 caters more to the media than the public whereas PAX is open to anyone that gets in to register.

So we thought we’d take the best PAX 2009 had to offer and highlight some of those presentations here at Game Culture.

On with the show!

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Here’s a demo video clip for Star Wars: The Old Republic as featured at PAX 2009, courtesy of GameSpot.

Twisted Pixel’s Comic Jumper

I hadn’t heard of this game before looking at the content from PAX this year. Here’s the video clip of gameplay taken from JoyStiq’s coverage of PAX 2009. Captain Smiley is the hero of this game along with his side-kick named Star who is stuck to the captain’s chest! Sounds rad? Check it out:

The Secret World from the makers of Age of Conan

I played Age of Conan and whilst I didn’t play it for long, it was still alot of fun. Here’s the latest and greatest title from the developers of AoC called ‘The Secret World’. The Illuminati class looks insane!

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Ratchet and Clank fans will be happy to see images of the latest instalment coming our way entitled Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time:

Highlights of PAX – Part 2 follows tomorrow!

One of the main goals of Game Culture is to serve gamers with information about local events and competitions nationwide. And one of the biggest problems gamers face in New Zealand is the lack of information about gaming events. The media can be a good source of information but will usually only cover big events that have an international scope or focus (such as xLAN and the WCG). We support these events and organisers as well, but we’re also trying to provide support for the local gamers and smaller gaming events.

We’ve come up with the idea to create a directory of contacts which will consist of individuals and other organisations that support video game culture in New Zealand.

If you’ve got a gaming event, LAN or just want your clan or news advertised somewhere to gain support from the public, this is the place to do it. Game Culture will upload your details to the gaming directory which we’ve  dubbed as the ‘New Zealand Gaming League Directory’.

The directory is located here. If you would like your organisation or event to be added to this list, contact us here. Be sure to include all relevant details about your event or organisation including contact details (phone, email etc), names, addresses. If your event is a one-off event, that’s fine too, just be sure to let us know so we can keep the directory up to date. If you are charging an entry fee for your event, please include these details also.

Competitions

If your event is a competition rather than a LAN or social get together for gamers, PLEASE include details of what type of competition it is and for what type of console (that is PC, Xbox 360, PS3 etc).

International Competitions, events and gaming leagues

We will also be including details of international organisations (such as the Aussie Xbox competitive ladder) to the directory. If you know of any competitive gaming leagues or organisations that we haven’t added or you think should be listed, contact us here.

Thanks for your support and gameon!