London Games Festival Announced

Following two successful previous outings the London Games Festival is back, with this year's event promising to be the biggest yet and scheduled to take place the week commencing October 25.

"Last year's London Games Festival was a huge success," said Chairman of the London Games Festival Keith Ramsdale. "We've got plenty in store for 2008 and a whole host of major partners lined up with full support from the industry. We're really looking forward to bringing the gaming industry to life in the capital again."

Expect the return of large-scale events in both Leicester and Trafalgar Square, as well as the return of the Careers Fair for those keen to find their way into the industry. We'll have the full details of this year's festivities as soon as they're announced, so check back for the full run-down on the capital's biggest gaming event.

source : www.ign.com

Guitar Hero 4 Drums Shown

The newest issue of Game Informer Magazine apparently has pictures of the drum kit destined to ship with the upcoming Guitar Hero IV. As previously rumored, the GH4 drums will add cymbal pads to the package to one-up (and make incompatible) the Rock Band drum kit.

From the looks of the scanned magazine page, the drums will in fact have just one more pad than the Rock Band drums, arrayed in three main drums and two cymbal pads in addition to a kick pedal. We'd call this something of a bummer, as we're not terribly keen on having two hard-to-store drum kits kicking around the house.

source : www.ign.com

Flamini Bids Farewell to Gunners

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger must plan for life next season without Mathieu Flamini.

The 24-year-old midfielder completed his move to AC Milan on Monday, agreeing a four-year contract with the Italian club.

Flamini, out of contract at the Emirates Stadium in the summer, underwent a medical and has reached an agreement over personal terms.

Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani revealed the signing was imminent after his team's 2-1 triumph over Inter in Sunday's derby.

Wenger admitted on Sunday he was not "super-confident" Flamini would still be at Arsenal next season.

Despite the offer of a lucrative new five-year deal - understood to be worth around £55,000-a-week - from the north London club, his head was turned by Milan's interest.

Juventus were also reported to be tracking the France international, who formed a fine partnership with Cesc Fabregas at the heart of the Arsenal team this season having seemed to have been on his way out of the club at the end of the last campaign.

He put in a fine performance at the San Siro as Wenger's team knocked Milan out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage in March.

The former Marseille man will compete for a place in Milan's midfield alongside Brazil star Kaka and Italy trio Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Massimo Ambrosini.

Milan climbed into the final qualifying place for the Champions League on Sunday, leapfrogging Fiorentina who lost 2-1 at Cagliari.

Flamini's last match as an Arsenal player will be Sunday's Barclays Premier League trip to Sunderland, before he officially joins the Milan ranks on July 1.

Milan sporting director Ariedo Braida said: "I have to say Flamini was a player that Ancelotti really wanted and Milan is like a family, where decisions are made jointly."

New Portal Map Pack Offers 40 Levels

Portal: The Flash Version, released shortly after The Orange Box, was a fun quirky side-scroller based on Valve's game of the same name. Much like the original iteration, the flash version allowed players to solve puzzles by shooting orange and blue portals to traverse across seemingly impossible areas. Portal fans might be happy to hear that all 40 flash levels will be playable in the 3D version via a new map pack.

This map pack, created by flash game designer Hen Mazolski, puts players into the role of a different test subject and prefaces the events of the original game.

All 40 levels can be downloaded here. For more information on Portal, check out our review of the game.

source : www.ign.com

Kimi Leads Home Ferrari One-Two

Kimi Raikkonen cruised to victory in a Spanish Grand Prix that was marred by an horrendous accident involving Heikki Kovalainen.

The McLaren driver miraculously suffered nothing more than concussion after ploughing into a tyre wall nose first at 150mph at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

The McLaren driver was eventually airlifted to a nearby hospital with his neck in a brace to undergo a series of precautionary checks.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, led from pole to flag, the eighth successive occasion that has occurred at this track to strengthen his lead at the top of the drivers' standings.

The main concern, though, surrounded Kovalainen who was heading the race on lap 21, although he had yet to pit compared to the leading trio at that stage.

Suddenly, Kovalainen flew off the track at turn nine before burying the front half of his car in a tyre wall.

On-board camera footage showed what appeared to be a part of the car breaking off, which instantly led to the front-left tyre deflating, and with Kovalainen unable to turn out of the smash.

Not only was the safety car immediately deployed, but also the medical car such was the severity of the impact.

When Kovalainen's car was eventually hauled out of the tyres by a tractor, there was nothing left of the front of the McLaren.

Kovalainen at least gave a thumbs-up sign as he was taken away on a stretcher to the track medical centre before being moved to the hospital.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren F1 CEO, remarked: "He banged his head and has concussion, so as a precaution will undergo tests.

"There are no other visible signs of injury, although he says he is aware he has hurt his elbow."

When asked as to what caused the accident, Whitmarsh added: "There was a sudden deflation of his tyre.

"Part of the rim was machined off, potentially by some debris or by something that got lodged inside the wheel.

"Until we get the data back then we don't really know at this stage."

Either side of Kovalainen's accident, it was a race of attrition such was the casualty rate as a spinning Adrian Sutil took the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel out of the race on lap one.

That led to the first introduction of the safety car as marshals cleared debris off the circuit.

The second Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais was bundled off the track on lap six by the Renault of Nelson Piquet who had tried to dive down the inside at turn 10.

Piquet, who had dropped towards the rear of the field due to an earlier spin, retired immediately, and although Bourdais made it back to the pits, his race was also run.

Anthony Davidson then retired after a stone punctured the radiator of his Super Aguri, which was a sad way to exit in what may be his last race if the cash-strapped team are unable to saved from their financial crisis over the next few days.

Rubens Barrichello suffered a collision with the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella as they exited the pit lane, dislodging the Honda's nose cone.

For an entire lap, and with the safety car on track in the wake of Kovalainen's smash, Barrichello was forced to trundle back to the pits again with the nose lodged under his front-right suspension.

Although the veteran Brazilian was given another new nose, it was clear his car had also suffered further damage as he too retired soon after.

The biggest disappointment for the majority of the 120,00 crowd was the sight of Fernando Alonso's Renault engine blowing on lap 35.

Alonso had started second on the grid, but off the line was unable to defend his position as Massa passed him.

Although he was also predictably running light on fuel, he was on course for a decent points finish as he was running in fifth when he pulled off the track, as did Nico Rosberg in his Williams that also sustained a blown engine.

At the head of affairs it at least proved a close run thing, but on a track where it is notoriously difficult to overtake there was never a chance for the top order to be reversed in any way.

Raikkonen now has a nine-point lead over Hamilton, with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica a further point back in third after he came home fourth.

Red Bull's Mark Webber was fifth, with Jenson Button picking up Honda's first points of the season in sixth, while Kazuki Nakajima broke his duck for Williams in finishing seventh, followed by the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

source : www.sportinglife.com