The GameShadow Blog

GamesCom 2009 took place last week and it featured a plethora of games that are forthcoming over the next 12-18 months.

The talking points from the event featured the first footage from the likes of Guild Wars 2, Fable III, Silent Hunter 5 and Napoleon: Total War.

There was also a glimpse at the forthcoming movie-based title from Ubisoft, James Cameron’s Avatar.

GamesCom, 2009’s biggest European games trade show, takes place in Germany this week.

All the big publishers will be there to show off their upcoming titles, as well as to provide a few surprises.

Cologne is the city where it will all be happening, moving from the previous GC destination of Leipzig.

GameShadow was in attendance at the recent M Festival 2009, held in Warwickshire, UK.

The likes of Guitar Hero: World Tour, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Street Fighter IV were on show and available to sample.

Section 8, the 2009 TimeGate shooter was also on show for PC and XBOX 360 players.

It has been confirmed that there will be no Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, this year – or ever again.

The main European computer games show for 2009 will now be gamescom, held in another German city, Cologne, during August.

The formation of gamescom was announced last year and will see all major publishers present their portfolio of games for 2009 and beyond.

There will be a spin-off from Games Convention though, it has been named Games Convention Online, offering a trade show for online and casual gaming and will be held at the end of July.

GameShadow was in attendance to see (and play) some of the top future and present games at the recent M Festival, held in Stoneleigh, UK. These included Spore and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, as well as Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. 

The event also included the largest LAN party ever held in the UK, with 2000 dedicated gamers battling it out for top prizes.

NCSoft, the computer games publisher/developer, has announced the Immortality Drive (a time capsule with the digitised DNA of selected US computer games players and space enthusiasts) will be launched into space when the game designer and man behind Tabula Rasa, Richard Garriott travels to the International Space Station in October 2008.

An Operation Immortality website has been setup that includes a weekly poll where visitors can vote on humanity’s greatest achievements, such as, what is the greatest technological breakthrough of all time? These winning features will also be included in the Immortality Drive. Tabula Rasa players will additionally be able to enter a personal message for inclusion on the Drive.

The Olympic Games begin on the 8^th of August and in the build up to the world’s biggest sporting event, we’ve had the computer games spin-off, with Beijing 2008 and Summer Athletics. 

This summer has also seen the recent Euro 2008 Championships and the usual tennis and golf majors too.

It is not just the summer movie/games blockbusters, such as Iron Man, that can steal the show. Sporting events can easily rival and outpace them and it is not just throughout the summer either. The latest Madden, Tiger Woods and FIFA franchises, amongst others, are arriving later in the year to continue a great sporting theme in 2008.

Last weekend marked the first Play Live event - a London consumer show hosted by Play.com, and attended by the world’s top publishers.

For my sins, I was there. Check out our coverage right here. Want to know more? Just ask!