Games Toaster

Dublin Pro Evo tournament ends

Winners of the M&M’s Challenge, a Pro Evolution Soccer tournament, were revealed today in Dublin.

The organisers have said that 300 players played in what they called the Ireland's largest ever football game tournament.

€25,000 Xbox 360 game tournament launched in Dublin

Lisa Geiran, UCD; Barry Dolan, Shamrock Rovers FC, Karina Kelly, UCD.

- €25,000 in prizes
- Xbox gaming centers to be roll-out "across Ireland"

A computer games football tournament with a prize fund of over €25,000 was launched in Dublin today, it is one of the largest marketing spends on a games competition in Ireland to date.

PS3 to Dublin - Is this living?

Since the Irish PlayStation 3 launch, a huge amount of advertisements with the slogan "This is living" have occupied advertisement spaces across Dublin, backed by TV spots – pictured above is a bit of a twist.

On Grafton Street, one of the main shopping areas in Dublin, Sony asks shoppers and commuters who have just departed the near by Luas tram, "is this living?". The advertisement also points to the thisisliving.ie website.

Meanwhile, we never expected an answer to “what’s the strangest way to make sure journalists will try your game and enjoy them selves?”

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 publisher Ubisoft answered by rounding up some journalists and bring them to a paintball arena in the Wicklow Mountains (pictured below, and more beyond the fold) – there’ll be no escape.

Add to the mix were a few competition winners, Sarin and Jam from the publisher’s ‘Fragdolls’, and eight Xbox 360s and flat-screen TVs from the Xbox Live Gaming Centre. 

Playing with Xbox 360s in an open shed in the Wicklow Mountains just after paintball, Games Toaster was thinking it must rank as one of the strangest PR events. Surprising the staff at centre weren’t that shocked, another publisher had held a similar event a few years ago.

Gaming dolls and super men at Xbox centre

Superman Returns will be free to play at Dublin's Xbox Live Gaming Centre this Saturday, while next week Ubisoft’s girl gamers will be making an appearance.

A promotion for Superman Returns will see the centre host to free play of the game from 11am till 5pm on Saturday, all thanks to publisher EA.

Meanwhile, on next Saturday, December 2, Ubisoft’s Rainbow 6: Las Vegas will be promoted by the company’s ‘Frag Dolls’ (pictured – wasn’t there once five of them?). If you’re up for the challenge, they will be playing the game sometime from 12pm till 2pm [insert tabloid-like joke about boys not playing with dolls here].

The centre is at 51 South William Street, Dublin 2, more info can be found at xboxlivegamingcentre.com.

Cork’s RedFM set for Gears of War special

Thursday night’s ‘Cork Talks Back’ on RedFM, a Gears of War special, will include an interviewer with the game’s lead designer.

Epic Games’s Cliff Bleszinski (or Cliff B) will feature in an interview on the show hosted by Victor Barry. The show will also be giving away copies of the game.

Cork Talks Back broadcasts at 9pm from 104-106FM in Cork and online vie www.redfm.ie. After the show goes out the interview will be available for download on the station’s website.

The European “Emergence Day” – Epic’s and Microsoft’s marketing name given to the release date of the game – is Friday. The game is one of Microsoft’s triple-A titles on the Christmas line up.

Victor Barry will be playing over Xbox Live in a public session on Saturday between 3pm and 5pm. Barry (gamertag: vicbarry) will follow in the footsteps celebrities worldwide, and Today FM DJ Ray Foley (gamertag: Ray Foley).

Foley says on his blog that Gears of War “has changed my life”. After introducing himself in a YouTube video “getting my ass kicked” (in the game), he says he’s “shit at games”…

Barry has also been blogging about Gears of War – here, here, here, and here.