The Holy Pasty?

So at the moment I have left the comfort of home behind and headed for the big smoke. Yes the city of London beckons this weekend with a weekend filled with gaming wonders, oh and I’m staying with a great friend.

Today I was invited to EA (that’s Electronic Arts for those not into gaming) to their Play 4 Xmas event. This was a limited invitational event in London giving EA a chance to show off their new and not so new family games. The event was just off Oxford Street, so it gave me an opportunity to have a look around some of the shops in the area, needless to say these particular London streets were absolutely heaving. I was quite glad to get inside to the the event.

EA know how to put on an event, and the kids waiting in line to get in were quite excited, and this situation wasn’t helped by the regular mention of things like an ice-cream machine! Once inside there were various EA games to try out. I have to admit that the one that was new to me and also looked like the best game on show was “Need For Speed Nitro” which has been developed especially for the Wii. From the couple of goes that I had it looks really good with some features that are unique, but also make the game a lot of fun to play. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before a copy of it is in the post for me and then I can give you a full review on www.soteriamag.co.uk.

The other upcoming release that caught my eye is the new Flip for DS. These comprise of a number of books on one cartridge and then can be read like a book using the DS sideways. Some of the interactive features of these include character bio’s that can be pulled up from the text and also sounds or music that add to the mood of reading some of the book. Although I personally can see a lot of features that could be added to this I do like this idea of finding another way of getting kids reading. To demonstrate how the kids could share chapters of the book on their DS they had a special Jackanory session, with special guest Ruth Langsford. This made me feel a little more at home here because she is originally from the South West!

EA have a pretty good Christmas line-up, but tomorrow is the Eurogamer Expo which looks set to be another excellent day of gaming.