Ben

Nice little write-up Rodi, brings back a lot of memories (it was indeed my and Lawrence's place Chris destroyed). Sometimes I can't believe it's been eight years since we started this - so much has happened.

No problem Forbin; have been gifted another one.

Seconded please! I actually have the Collector's edition on the way, but it's not getting to me for another week and a half so this would tide me over perfectly!

Mizuguchi gave a demo of the game during Ubisoft's conference - about five minutes of play. Here's the video (skip to 1:23:30): http://www.gametrailers.com/e3/livefeed/ubisoft So yeah, it's Rez basically (or at the very least), and if that alone isn't enough to suggest why this will be fun to play then I guess you're not a pretty pictures and nice music type of guy. Fair enough, move along. Also, it does support traditional controllers as well. Btw, here's the official site: http://child-of-eden.us.ubi.com/

For any UK based players preparing for Super Street Fighter IV and still considering buying their first arcade stick... Gamestation are selling the original SF4 Tournament edition stick for £50 (on PS3 and 360 for a few quid more), which is an incredible bargain: http://www.gamestation.co.uk/Accessories/PlayStation-3-Xbox-360/PS3-Street-Fighter-IV-Tournament-Fight-Stick/~r413622/

Cool - glad you guys enjoyed it. Sorry I couldn't come; I was all played out from the all-day SF event yesterday. Actually we all went to Casino afterwards but no one really felt like playing vanilla anymore, hehe; everyone just chilled there and talked about Super.

As Patters says the SE is a good entry stick and fairly easy to upgrade (it's been built with mods in mind). However as an alternative you may want to consider paying just a little bit more and getting the Tournament Edition stick - this is slightly bigger and comes with the arcade parts (i.e. sanwa buttons etc.) as stock. It's considerably better. I imagine buying an original TE would cost roughly the same now as it would to buy a SE plus the new buttons and stick for the upgrade. It's within your $100 limit and it's pretty much the best arcade stick you can buy at any price: http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighter-FightStick-Tournament-Playstation-3/dp/B001M22WN8 and http://www.gogamer.com/MADCATZ-Street-Fighter-IV-Round-2-Arcade-FightStick-Tournament-Edition-for-XBox-360-48-Hour-Madness-_stcVVproductId100090711VVcatId551271VVviewprod.htm

Well it's been a poorly kept secret for the past couple of months but Super Street Fighter 4's game director Ono-san has officially confirmed that the game will be getting an arcade release and not just a console release. This is good news, since arcade presence is integral to the development of both the game itself as well as the community/scene.

If you actually want to play Street Fighter 4 I would suggest Casino (on Tottenham Court Road, next to Goodge Streeet Station) over Troc: the cab's at troc are fewer and I believe one of them currently has a busted stick and another a dodgy screen. Casino has about 6 linked cabs and the equipment is all good. ...of course the downside is that Casino is also the home of the UKs top SF players and getting on a machine could take a while on a Friday or Saturday night.

Wishing you all lots of yuletide cheer Thumbs - let the bells ring out.

Inadvertantly. Basically he demoed some games made by his company (Gamelab?) during the experimental games session at GDC a couple of years ago, but none of the games shown were in any way experimental (definitely not in relation to the other games on display). After the presentation I asked some of the other guys if they thought so too and everyone agreed, but unfortunately there wasn't time to ask Eric about it during the session itself. Anyway later that evening we were at a party and I saw Eric. I was sincerely curious about why he was asked to demonstrate his games as part of that session so I approached him and asked... He was mildly offended. In my defence I was slightly drunk, and furthermore he admitted they weren't experimental. He then gave me "the hand" and moved away towards the dancefloor, dancing in an extremely provocative and seductive manner without a hint of self-doubt. Alex, Marek and I were amused.

Make it "Dan".

It was just another boring day at work. Spaff suggested we go out for some fresh air and grab a pie from the bakery. On the way there he said: "So Ben, since coming back from E3 and continuing discussions with Jake and Marek about it I've decided I want to do this new site, I want to move away from Mojo and create something that covers more; also most game sites are bollocks: they don't write about games intelligently or discuss them with any sense of fun like we all do when we're hanging out. Anyway, so you've got professional writing and editing experience and I want you on-board..." And that's where it all started. We didn't even have a name then. I've met some awesome people here and across the pond; shared some great experiences; argued (probably a bit too passionately) about the quality of our articles; tracked down Eric Chahi; slept on random floors and five-star hotels alike; survived GDC plagues; feared my friend was dead in a ditch in LA; insulted Eric Zimmerman; and risen through the ranks of publishers and developers alike. All thanks to that boring job and Spaff's bakery run proposal.

I make an appearance in this one

The guy next to Chris is known as Wrestlevania on the forum (i.e. the one who posted the pic). The girl is unknown to us at this time.