PC Gamer Showdown: This Weekend

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.