I don't know what to expect, I haven't a clue and the postal service hasn't exactly helped ahead of Saturday's MCM Expo at London Excel, Docklands. I'm literally scurrying around trying to get last minute business cards, lost all hope on our lanyards arriving in time, aswell as our jack converter for our wireless microphone. So, perhaps we'll be full guns blazing at the Eurogamer instead. But that's not to say we aren't prepared. We're ready to go here and are literally counting down the hours before total sensory overload. I'm looking forward to meeting the publishers, fellow journalists and freelancers and also enjoying a few pints at the Hotel Bar (Premier Inn, Excel).

I'm not sure what to expect from the MCMExpo but what I will say is that the announcements in the last week have got me excited, especially news that we'll be able to play L4D2 and some japanese titles before UK release. We're also very excited at the prospect of the UK exclusive reveal of the re-imagination of V, shame it's only a short reveal but none the less something we're looking forward to as the 80's series really was a landmark in SCI-FI entertainment. Our plans are to bring live coverage at the event ,where possible. We're forging a few technologies from social media that the gaming press haven't really touched base upon too much.

So what are our plans for live coverage?

STREAMING LIVE - Justin.TV for an hour on Saturday & Sunday at the event we'll be streaming live on Justin.TV along with evening Live wrap up hour shows. These will be available on the front page of our website in the video section.

UP TO DATE AUDIO BLOGS - Audioboo.fm We'll be delivering every fourth hour updates at the event to keep everyone updated and to bring some current/instant interviews. Thanks to the power of 3G.

REAL TIME STREAMING - Qik.com Qik is a mobile streaming device, which will enable us to use the power of 3G to stream real time, with auto upload of finished Qik files straight to our YouTube channel. This will ensure even when pre-occupied our audience will be kept up to date with content.

I'm very much looking forward to the event and would welcome anyones questions ref: these technologies to improve your live coverage of the event, i'll try and answer anyones questions before tomorrow. These truely are weapons in the world of journalism for delivering real-time updates.

Look forward to seeing those attending at the weekend :)

So...I'm fortunate enough to be in close contact with a Twitter user i met on seesmic called @Documentally. Christian Payne is well known on the New Media circa and there is no questioning his nouce for finding brand new social media applications and websites. One he's been using lately is Audioboo. It's a podcasting solution for Apple's iPhone (soon to be Android aswell) and it allows for you to post up 5 minute clips at the touch of your button over 3G. Firstly, for those wondering what the audio quality would be like, it's fantastic. I never appreciated the mic capabilities of the iPhone until i used this app. Secondly the app has Apple Store approval so no pesky jailbreaking is required.

The one thing I did find though is how very little people in the games industry are using it, there were no more than a handful and only one person I knew was using it CheapyD over at cheapassgamer.com So, if any of you out there are looking for a way to make your site more dynamic, freshly updated and expand into mini-podcasts or audio reviews. I cannot suggest www.audioboo.fm enough, its fantastic! There is also a Twitter killer out there now called Nurphy, but i'll go into that some other time. 

Is it fair to put a chunk of content on a retail release and then make your customer pay for it after they've already purchased the full game? It's a question I couldn't help but pose to Shaun White PR at EA Sports. When putting Live Season 2.0's trial through it's paces I noticed all that was downloaded was a 105kb file. This meant that it was all running from disk apart from the Thursday's squad file update.

Is this a fair deal for consumers? Arguably there is £40-50's worth of content on the disk without Live Season 2.0 there is no denying the quality of the game, but to have it locked away on the disk is abit like dangling a cake in front of Bernard Manning and making him run after it. EA's renound for microtransactions, you need to look no further than Dead Space. I can understand that they'll need employees working permanently until FIFA 11 working on ensuring stats are always up to date and perhaps that is what we're paying for. Fine for those that want that, but to bundle in one of the coolest modes in FIFA's history yet (where you can re-write history of games that have taken place this season) will irritate but eventually make people pounce and throw down 400 Microsoft or 800 Microsoft points for the additional content.

It's probably the same reason why Activision is charging £55 for modern warfare 2, as much as peoples initial distain will be to boycott the game out of principle, the majority will bite in the end. It's a shame that elements of Live Season 2.0 wern't completely free, had it been we may had given the game a perfect 10.

When it comes to our demographic, no game is more important than the releases of FIFA 10 and PES 2010. We're now less than 12 hours from the game releasing in midnight launch areas. With 12 hours to go, we still do not have a copy of the game. We've knocked on the doors of EA, left voicemails and e-mails but no response since we were assured review code back on August 3rd 2009. With hours to go we're that desperate to pick the game up before the midnight launch we've even tried some unscrupulous tactics at local game stores.

I don't want to be up till 6AM this morning reviewing the game and ensuring that we get out the most comprehensive review of the game on the internet. Yes, the major press get fantastic viewing figures but out of the reviews i've read for the game, none of them contain the detail that FIFA fans yearn for. The next 24hrs will be extremely hectic and I can see myself ultra fatigued at work tomorrow. My fingers lay crossed that we can get hold of this game before 9pm this evening, otherwise i'm going to feel like sweaty turd tomorrow.

Last night, after adding our review of DiRT 2 and Topatoi, I had to put the can on anything gaming related and clear my head. The last 48hrs I've been seriously close to burning out. On Monday I was so sidetracked with my e-mails that I completely ignored what was happening on The International box office movie I rented. I don't know whether it's the burden of having 5 outstanding reviews to write, or simply being caught in the whirl of the gaming autobahn between 9-6pm but i'd like to thank the guys behind Wipeout HD for letting me get away from it all. I kicked into the game for the first time last night and got lost in a relaxing game of Zone. For those that do not know what Zone is on Wipeout HD, it's basically a psycadellic lap mode where the game track turns into different colours and gets faster as every lap goes by. There is something intrancing about it as your retina's burn with the candy visuals. Beautiful!

So, tonight nothing holds up. I've got to get a review of Crane Simulator 2009 formatted, a review of Wildfire's Snowboard peripheral video edited and online, whilst also filming a few additional pieces for it. All the while 3 games have dropped on XBLA today, a pending download of Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta on my PS3 hard drive, i actually yearn for that time of year where the pass of the gaming industry slows down! Q4 is going to be relentless!

I cannot help but think that our latest hit piece may come to some detriment for our website. Our piece of the Top 10 Games Industry Douchebags is a rousing piece of commentary listing whom we believe to be those in the gaming industry, the gamers hate. For those unfamiliar with this piece, you can watch it here.

When you put out an article like this, you do wonder how many of those that were featured in the list will actually stumble across the article? It's a piece with the potential of doing very well on digg.com and other trend websites and whilst one side of me would love the piece to go viral, another part of me is second guessing the backlash.

It's out there now, so it's pointless worrying about it

The gaming industry this generation is running at such a fast pace that before you know it, another big gaming event is on the horizon. I log on to Xbox Live and another 3 Arcade games have dropped, another 40 odd indie games arrive, 5 new games on demand and another 4 demo's. It would seem the industry never sleeps. The DLC age has now left me in a myriad of eye candy, press releases up to my nose and 5 reviews already outstanding. All the time knowing that putting the final piece to a review, your missing out on the next newest thing. I already have 5 members of staff and that's not enough, someone help me before i drown in pixels!