By John Walker on September 26th, 2008 at 2:18 pm.
PC Gamer launches the PCG Showdown this very night, with the doors opening to the public from 8am Saturday morning. What is it, you cry? It’s a combination of exciting game show, and uber-LAN party. The LAN is all sold out, but tickets are still available for everything else, and can be bought on the door. And three of RPS will be there.
So why come? Well, first of all there’s a whole bunch of fantastically exciting, unreleased games that you’ll be able to play. Seriously – these are top notch. There’s Far Cry 2, Battleforge, Dawn of War 2, Dead Space, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, Fifa 09, Multiwinia, Mirror’s Edge, and even Valve’s utterly incredible Left 4 Dead. That really is a remarkable selection of the most exciting things happening in big budget PC Game Land, and you can get your mitts on them long before release.
Secondly, there’s the PC Gamer Quiz – a panel game featuring the PCG crew, and two top developers: Mythic’s big-mouth extraordinaire, Paul Barnett, and one half of Old Man Murray, Valve’s Chet Faliszek.
Thirdly, Saturday night has the finals of the UT3, FIFA, and Warcraft 3 1v1 competitions, while Sunday sees the Call of Duty 4, Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 tournaments reach their conclusion. It all demands a live, whooping audience. You can find out which teams are involved (and they’re the biggies) by visiting Cadred.org. There’s a ludicrous £35,000 being given away, so see if you can spot a Future publisher crying in a corner.
And clearly most importantly, Kieron Gillen, Jim Rossignol, and I, John Walker, will be there milling about. Do come and tell us why we suck, and we’ll insult your mums in return. Kieron and I are on the panel game, and thus require chants of excitement and support. And possibly t-shirts with our faces on them. If anyone has any Lemsip, I’d appreciate that too.
It’s all taking place in a secret underground bunker (possibly untrue) in Warwickshire. The exact location is revealed by a click of these words. PCG has all the details you’ll need here.
So, flipping come along. It looks like it will be pretty amazing.
I have tickets but I can’t get thar BAWWW
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Kenilworth! Bane of Warwick students! Full of old people! Only exists to make the bus journey to lectures 10 minutes longer! Kenilworth!
Why on earth did they pick Kenilworth? Does the PCG Editor’s mum live there?
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I vote Newcastle for the next one, you too Eurogamer!
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if you dudes see a brown dudde with a camera there, say hi! im from Blitz Games studios down the road and an avid RPS fan
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I’m getting there in a few hours, caffiene shall be my best friend this weekend.
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Best of luck chaps.
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Was intending to go down for the saturday evening but can’t find any way to get back to Leam via public transport afterwards and a taxi won’t be cheap…
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I will be there, where I will personally say a big thank you to Kieron for linking to us in the sunday papers.
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If it hadn’t coincided with me moving to Uni, I would most definitely be there. I demand at least semi-hearted coverage of the event to dull the heartache I feel.
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Dean: Yeah, the taxi situation was i nmy head. Looking at the map, it’s “only” four miles. Which is still a chunk of change, but surely not a grotesque amount? I dunno.
KG
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In the same boat as Ketch. Would be so damn fine, but the Cove is a hard place to reach from here, and to sort out logical accomodation for in a very short space of time.
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Pull someone local.
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Do you guys have a timetable for the saturday? I am coming but potentially not until late afternoon – what time is this quiz for instance? Can we still check out the new games all throughout the evening? etc!
edit: Okay sorry didn’t read that link first because i’m a twat – the quiz is in the evening? Hurrah! But what about the awesome games? I want DoW2 action baby! Yeah. I’m pretty psyched now.
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I really quite fancied this (almost entirely for L4D and the panel), but the frustrating lack of useful information (such as an actual schedule showing when things like the panel were happening) on the official site until rather late in the day meant I never quite got round to it and, alas, am now entirely booked up this weekend with filming.
Which is a bit of an arse, as I was looking forward to making it my first gaming event since starting my little gaming blog. Next year, perhaps?
In the meantime, make sure you all take lots of photos and videos and pester the devs to tell you secret things. :)
I’m expecting hourly RPS updates.
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Next year, make it two weeks earlier.
Not that you organised it, I’m just doing it in a kind of internet-third-person-who-ruins-things sort of way. Screw you, transient events organiser! I know you’re reading this.
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I guess I should swallow the taxi cost given that I won free tickets, though it’s looking like I’ll be going on my lonesome due to my local geek-friends (including the one with a car) not being able to make it – anyone else heading back to Leamington the Sunday night and want to split a cab fare?
The irony of course is if this were further away like in Birmingham it’d be easier to get back…
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A taxi from Kenilworth to Leam on a Saturday night will set you back about 15 quid due to the robbing gits that run the taxis round here.
The showdown’s at Stoneleigh Park though, which is technically closer to Leamington than Kenilworth, so it should be a tad cheaper.
Thoroughly looking forwards to it, myself. I am coming armed with my free tickets that I won thanks to the heads-up on these very pages. Yes!
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I’ll be there, driving over 2 hours from the depths of Norfolk to spend hours queueing for L4D etcetera.
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I’ve got some free tickets, was considering it, but then decided I am not sure I could be arsed to mill around in a massive crowd trying to reach a sweaty demo station to play (and probably suck at) a new game for 5 minutes.
Sounds nice, but I’m just too patient and can happily wait for them to be released and play them in my own home rather than trust in public transport on the weekend.
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I don’t understand why the event wasn’t held near Minneapolis. Please explain.
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I now find myself with the sunday free, but can’t get down there particularly cheaply anymore… If only I’d just bought the train tickets weeks ago when it was cheap!
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Do we have a time for the panel quiz btw? I mostly just want to see Barnett being Barnett to be honest…
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Count one more RPS’er as turning up for the panel quiz and new games on saturday. I’m bringing several people and I promised them you guys would be your usual amusing selves. So… don’t disappoint :)
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