Hi Gamespot! I'm sat here watching EA's press conference and thought I would note down some of my thoughts and opinions. The line up looks really good so far, some great games shown, Medal of Honour and Dead Space 2 to name a few. Medal of Honour. EA brought out a 24 person stage team to show off the DICE produced multiplayer, and I have got to say it is looking good graphically, but game playwise, from what was shown, it could easily be mistaken for Call of Duty or Battlefield Bad Company 2. EA have announced the multiplayer Beta begins on the 21st June 2010 for all formats, so look out for Beta key give aways and Fileplanet deals. Although short, the demo did give away quite a bit of detail about the multiplayer game itself. Along side the staple kill streak bonuses and points for kills so prevelent in modern day multiplayer shooters, I also noticed one scene where it looked like someone was driving a tank. Could this be another shooter where vehicles will be deployed in multiplayer to great effect? If anyone can pull it off it's DICE. Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam. Well this is one I saw a mile off! after the release of Battlefield 1943 and the critical acclaim that received it was only a matter of time before EA rebooted it's other franchise, namely Vietnam. The original was released in 2004 and allowed you to use your own music while inside vehicles. The map selection was large and graphics a mass improvement over the Battlefield 1942 franchise. This rebooted version didn't show off much other than a short scene of a Huey helicopter and a Vietcong village being napalmed. If it's anything like the original PC version, players are in for a treat. Crysis 2. This is game I have dreamt of running on my lowly PC. They started by introducing Crysis 2 as a sandbox experience FPS, and then went onto claim that the game has ''The most intelligent enemies ever in any FPS''. A bold claim indeed. The game play itself looked amazing, with crisp graphics and fast paced action. The HUD seemed very unobtrusive and most of the time I was watching I forgot it was even there! One thing that marred the presentation of Crysis a tiny bit for me was the use of in game advertising for the Iphone and Sega, both on advertising boards in the area around the players ammo crates. Hopefully the final version will be less intrusive as we all know in game advertising doesn't work! The final part to the demo was the unveiling of that the game will be in Stereoscopic 3D. Well, that's all from me on EA's press conference, I hope to Blog some more when the other developers have their shows. Until then I'm off to buy Sonic The Hedgehog on the Iphone.

I have never been a massive fan of pop or dance music, my tastes have always led me to American Country music, Rock, Blues, Jazz and The Rat Pack. Neither have I ever been into Classical or Opera...... until now. Let me explain. A long time ago, when I was around 15, a group of my friends got me to go to a Live Action Roleplay event (see the film Role Models). Yes it involved dressing up in high fantasy armour and pretending to be Elves, Werewolves and the like while beating ten bales of sh*t out of each other with rubber swords, but my god did we have a laugh. Now I have many memories of my years Live Roleplaying, from the roar of 600+ people running towards each other at the Gathering Battle, to the spooky Dragons head and shoulders appearing in the Ritual Circle at midnight (trust me, the special effects were amazing!) all these memories have been brought into sharp focus in my mind recently while playing Dragon Age Origins. The soundtrack to that game is amazing and worthy of film so I bought it on iTunes. Listening to that while writing this blog entry is quite frankly inspiring stuff. It's even making me want to go rummage in the shed for my armour and swords after all these long years. This got me thinking of other video game soundtracks. Heavy Rain is another whose production values are so high it would be worthy of a Hollywood Blockbuster and I'd be surprised if someone doesn't write the screenplay for it. With musical scores of this sheer quality how can people say that Video Games are not an art? I've seen plenty of films with sub-par soundtracks and yet Film is considered art. Do yourselves a favour, go and listen to Heavy Rain and Dragon Age Origins, I guarantee it will get the old imagination going.