Edinburgh goes interactive

August 7, 2006 9:50AM PDT

Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival returns this month; public game screenings and industry conferences confirmed.

The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival takes place again this year on August 21 and 22. Chaired by Chris Deering, former president of Sony Europe, the event will offer a first chance for the public to see games such as Reservoir Dogs, as well as lectures and panel sessions for those in the games industry.

Now in its fourth year, EIEF is one of the few major events on the UK calendar, despite the UK computer and video game industry now being valued at over £2 billion, the third largest in the world after the US and Japan. Deering describes the objectives behind the festival as "creating an atmosphere where the interactive computer and video games community can celebrate the latest creative milestones, challenge themselves to set ever higher standards of innovation, and to share that vision with the public."

The Odeon cinema on Lothian Road will play host to the consumer arm of the event, with confirmed titles that include Reservoir Dogs from Eidos, Lord of the Rings Online from Codemasters, and B-Boy from FreeStyle Games. The event will offer attendees the chance to see these games and many others first-hand, as well as being able to speak to their creators. Codemasters has also announced that The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will receive an exclusive premiere at the festival on Tuesday, August 22. A question-and-answer session, titled "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Videogames, But Were Too Afraid to Ask," will round off the festival for those looking to get into the industry,

The event will see a variety of leading industry lights talking about the wider issues that surround gaming. The conference kicks off with a keynote speech from David Gardner, executive vice president and COO of Electronic Arts' Worldwide Studios, who will be discussing the challenges presented by next-generation hardware.

Other highlights include sessions from Margaret Robertson, editor of Edge, hosting a session about games that make her cry, and Serious Games' Ben Sawyer, who will be explaining how games are increasingly endorsed by doctors to help medical patients. There will also be a mobile gaming tournament designed to highlight the long-touted "next big thing" in gaming, and a machinima how-to session that will also include the premiere of the next Rooster Teeth movie, which will be a follow-up episode to the team's Red vs. Blue short that is currently available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

The final part of the conference is the Edge award, which aims to highlight games that have marked out innovative new paths or achieved new standards of excellence over the past year. An international panel of game industry insiders will pick a winner from a shortlist drawn up by the UK games magazine, including Amped 3, Brain Training, Dragon Quest VIII, Electroplankton, Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US), Guitar Hero, Killer 7 and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

GameSpot UK will be attending the event and reporting back directly from the Scottish capital in a couple of weeks' time.

By Guy Cocker, Editor

Guy Cocker is the Editor of GameSpot UK, a handheld gaming fan, and someone who actually managed to use video games to lose weight. He recently took up the position of games expert on BBC 5 live and is a BAFTA games judge.

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25 comments

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_Sam_

I wish I could go

hsmyth

I live in Scotland and would love to go, but it doesnt even sound like they have anything you can play, no demos or anything. Whats that all about? Its just people talking about games then..? Is it worth going, and does anyone know the cost per person??

keppup

sounds kl! shame i dont live in scotland, some1 send me a e-mail if they no of any in london!

dodgyd55

still wanna go :D.....its the only fest i know of in scotland :(

SteelSamurai101

Unfortunately, the demo event 'go play games' will not be taking place this year. Instead, there's just a 'game screenings' event, basically a video montage of E3. I've been going since the first year and now they've gotten rid of the only reason for going. I was really looking forward to playing the wii aswell. :(

comthitnuong

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan....ive never heard of it

hemakm3

Sounds cool.

SteveTwo

I know it won't win but I'm glad that Amped3 was in there. That's a really great game, especially from a development standpoint. It may not have the most cutting-edge of next-gen graphics, but if you've been playing snowboarding video games since they existed, you can really appreciate how much the developers jammed into that game and how many things they were able to implement that they've probably always wanted to in previous titles. Too bad they were laid off when IndieBuilt was dismantled. Great job IndieBuilt, we will remember!

JimmyKudo2

Holy Crap, Ouendan is on it too! GO OUENDAN!!!!!!!!!!!

jman183

GO GUITAR HERO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

damz

i might go if they have the wii playable there

daqua_99

Great ... wish they had something like that in Sydney, Australia ...

Nulify

Tokyo Game Show?

giantfryingpan

I've been secretly hoping for several months now that Nintendo would have the Wii demo units that did the rounds in Europe recently, set up at the EIEF. It appears there is little chance of that happening though and there isn't even a playable exhibition this year.

Platyphyllum

sounds fun!

Techno_Burn

Exellent, I went last year with a mate, time to go and ask mum for another birthday present!!

arfy2

I'm going!!! I've got resits at Heriott Watt Uni on the 24th but I'm still going!!! sOck69 make that 400 mile trip DAMMIT!!! :) Just jokin'

HyperMetaDragon

Hopefully, ESA doesn't take this away, too.

kinncolts

ok.....why isnt there game festival/show near New York.....i can understand E3 being in L.A. but why isnt there like a Broadway Interactive thing?? remeber in fall 2005...gamespot had their own convention in San Fransico....they said they were bringin that around the country wat happened to that

man-of-mystery2

Yay! I went to it last year and it was very good (got to be one of the first members of the public in Europe to play Twillight Princess, Burnout Revenge and Nintendogs) so i'll definetely be making the trip there again!

MetalFilter

This is the first new news in about 3 days!

Zaxex

Sounds good, a lot of those games are deserving of awards and i recognise each one. Can't wait for the coverage, thinking about getting osu!... & Brain training and have been strumming away with guitar hero since i got it last week. Good to see Gamespot UK have already settled in and are getting into the fray. :D

OmegaOrtega

Cool.

Gaming_Prince

wow!! that's great news that Osu Tatakae Ouendan gets some publicity in the UK!!. Yay first!

s0ck69

seems like if they had more surport more people would go id love to go to a big event in the uk but scotland is too far to travel for such little of the industry to see bring the wii the ps3 and the 360 and maybe ill make the 400 mile trip

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