Some exciting bloggage goin on down Gamespot road at the moment. NeoJedi has launched his new site, Brian Fishman has just been offered the oppertunity of his lifetime, resident user/reviewer please_write is driving forward in his quest to become a games reviewer, visionary is touring Europe and Boz got a Vasectomy!

In comparison my life is pointless, cheers lads - but none-the-less ive caught the bug, so heres whats been going on in casa O'Dwyer over the past few weeks.

Comepletely aware of my whoring the name of my website around these parts, ive decided to change my user banner and my picture too. You can come off as a self-obsessed moron with a picture of yourself online, so instead im going with a Grim Fandango / Orson Wells jumble. Its still a reference to my site i guess, but i still like how it looks. So get off my back!?!

Speaking of the site, we've just uploaded a 37 minute long video of our exploits at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris. The footage of the cosplay and dance events you wont find anywhere else, and overall im pretty pleased with it. I feel we mgiht have cheapened it a bit with the narration. That boils down to my lack of experience. Link here.

Last months hilarious debt situationhas passed as a web contract i was working on cashed in. After i paid off my debtors, i bought some nice games in the July sales. Pretty happy withthese bad boys;
- Serious Sam 2 on PC(Zavvi - 5 euro)
- Gunpey on PSP (HMV - 3 euro)
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on PC(HMV - 6 euro....no joke!)

Also finally completed GTAIV (spoilers inbound) and felt totally sick when my decision to work with Dimitri backfired in the most brutal of fashions. Amazing game, was sad to have to finish it. Also got Battlefield: Bad Company on a week long rental to review for the site. Looking forward to digging into it later tonight.

In DVD land i must have watched the latest Futurama movie around 20 times (The Beast of a Billion Backs). Its rip-pullingly hilarious from start to finish, the highlight being a soliloquy from a posh robot in a secret den (if uve watched it, u know!).

Without rambling on about it too much, my time at the Blizzard event was eye-opening. Myself and my mate Denis ran are asses off playing games, taking notes and recording footage non-stop for the 2 days and I have never had so much fun. Being surrounded with so many random games, let alone all the designers and producers, had an amazing enerygy. I have no doubt in my mind that i want to work in video-game journalism now. Havent stopped working on the site since we got back, im still high from the experience. If anyone reading is from Europe, seriously consider getting tickets to Leipzig GC this year.

Ive been having one those counter-culture months with a high ammount of media exploration pertaining to Banksy, Bill Hicks & Tool. Its to be expected in the weeks following the death of George Carlin. I now wear my hood up during the day 32% more, check every streetcorner for CCTV and talk to strangers about the positives of anti-capatalism as im waiting for the ATM to feed me.

Oh, if you play WOW, were giving away the free Blizzard Invitational pet on my website, click here for details. Its a fairly limited edition pet, only attendees of the event can have them. Blizzard burned down the Chinese the factory that made them after the last box was filled.

I also have another few drops for my revenue stream as the radio station from my home county i left back in May is now paying me to record and produce a technology and gaming section for thier weekly news highlight show. Around 100,00 people heard me talk about Solid Snake last week, aww i love radio

Thats about it, gonna hop into Bad Company and blow up some buildings now. And lads 'n' lassies ff your interested in doing some review/editorial work for a UK based website, let me know. Ive always been a fan of only being as strong as the people around you, and right now the site staff is pretty small. If your passionate about games and are willing to work for close to nothing (free email account! ) let me know.

Otherwise hope summer is going well for everyone. We had 3 thunder storms in a row last week. God bless Irish weather.

Slan!

-Danny

Currently Listening to:
Coldplay - Viva la Vida
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Creedence Cleerwater Revivial - Chronical

Editing all our footage of the Invitational for my own site, and said id throw this up because i havent seen it mentioned anywhere else. Amazing weekend, I cant recomend going to a gaming expo any more, its an experience in itself.

- danny

Also got this Video of the Diablo 3 Announcement from live inside the exposition hall. Way better when acompanied by thousands of cheering gamers

At 9:30 last night myself, Denis and thousands of Blizzard fans poured onto the streets of Paris with ignorantly big smiles. What a show.

We spent most of the day running between the superb open table discussions, writing notes, recording screens and checking the swag cue for our time to pounce. The exposition center is amazing; Every wall is covered with massive Blizzard artwork, speakers pump music form every angle with cosplayers posing at every corner. At the end of the night we managed to get into the front row of the main stage sitting beside the developers and owners of Blizzard. Mike Morhaime was taking pictures beside us as we recorded the cosplay and dance competitons up close.

We hit a snag not being able to connect to any wifi on site (and no access to the hard-lined press area) so these brief summaries in the worlds smallest web cafe is all we can do while on site. Suffice to say we have awesome news, pictures and video when we get back next week. We also have some nice swag to give away on next weeks late podcast so tune in!

Video Games Live and Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftan aare playing tonight, a perfect warmup to the European Cup Final afterwards.

So were about 3 hours into our Blizzvitational experience and its been pretty awesome so far. Denis owned me in a Starcraft II LAN game, we recorded the entire opening speach including the horrible presenter ladies lack of game knowledge and the announcement of Diablo 2.

A Diablo 2 demo followed the games trailer which totally blew the crowd away. The game looks amazing in its isometric heritage with 2 cl4sses confirmed (barbarian & witch-doctor), co-op play and huge battles. Nothing said about alternative platforms for the game but it seems very console playable.

The event is spread across é floors with hundreds of computers available to play Lich King and Starcraft II. Competitions and open panel discussions on soon so we gotta run.

More on swag, loot, sexy cosplayers and Lich King later.

I hate French Keyboards. This took 25 minutes to write.

Danny

Hey lads 'n' Lassies,

After about a year of talking,im finally doing some walking. A 50% build of my website has just gone live (link here) and im currently in the middle of packing for the Blizzard Invitational in Paris.

This is the first global games event ive ever covered, and im as excited as i am nervous. Been writing scripts, thinking of shots and hoping all the equipment works for the past week, which meant a few restless nights. But I really just cant wait to get overe there, its so exciting to think ill be surrounded by gamers, games and industry leaders on all sides. None of the big sites seem to be covering the event with video, so we have a unique opertunity to record content that gamers dont usually see.Were gonna record as much of the floor as we can, some of Paris and as many interviews as possible.

As i said last week im going to post copies of my daily impressions articles in here on Saturday and Sunday (hotel lobby Wi-Fi i think) but check out the site if you want more detailed ramblings. For now im dismantling & wrapping up the camera in various peices of clothing to make sure the baggage throwers dont ruin my weekend

See you in Paris!

- Danny

The first job I ever had growing up was in a tiny single-manned videogame shop back home called "Games Dimension". I'd wake up every morning before work and think "exellent...i have work today!", a feeling which I use as a benchmark for every job ive had since. Simply put, selling your hobby is the most easy and enjoyable job you can imagine, just ask any drug dealer or prostitute. Well, since ive completed my formal education (2nd cIass honours Grade 1, w00t!) ive naturally used my degree to full effect and now work in the same industry i did all those years ago; entertainment retail! Only now my wages are spent on rent, bills and alcohol, as opposed to stickers and crisps,

Granted i spend most of my day selling & stacking music and movies, HMV's game section still attracts a decent number of gamers. Unlike Games Dimension and my other retail experience Gamestop, HMV's gamers are a more eclectic bunch. Jumping at any chance to advise anybody on game or console choices, ive met some pretty refreshing gamers. Today a teenage girl came in with her boyfriend asking for any of the Monkey Island games on PC. Being a discontinued game i had no remorse in pointing her toward the internet. A bloke in his 50's was in yesterday buying Twilight Princess for his Wii, after some probing he told me he'd completed both the Windwaker and Ocarina of Time. Ive sold more three times more PS3's than 360's, easily double than in Wii's and more than all those combined in DS's. About 9 out of 10 of all the DS's i sold were either with Lego Indiana Jones or Brain Training. Our store has had about 7 Wii-Fit's sold in the month ive been there, proabably the same number of people ask me for it each day (someone in Nintendo needs to get fired). Parents who buy Guitar Hero or Rock band for their kids always smile, parents who spent half as much on GTAIV for their kids, never smile. Metal Gear Solid only sold to people who already had PS'3, more people bought them with Lego Indiana Jones than Solid Snake. A teenager bought Sins of a Solar Empire on its retail release morning, and the majority of people buying DS's are attractive women in their late 20's - 30's.

People generally smile when they're buying games. It does nothing but make you love your hobby even more.
Though its just a way of funding my life & site for the year, I feel the same way i did when i was waking up as a 15 year old.

Selling Games is Awesome.

------------------------------------------------------------
PS - Totally in debt after saving for my flights, kip and tickets for the Blizzard Invitational in Paris next week. My Xbox Live has cut off cos my card is overloaded, so sorry to any1 sending me messages. Though im doing it for my own site, im gonna post daily updated on here too, more on that later in the week. Im giddy with anticipation at covering my first games event and sick that i cant share information ive learned about whats going to happen over the weekend. Now i know how poor Gamespot people feel when they cant break embargo's. AAAgh!

Hey everyone.

Life has changed utterly since the last time i splattered words here. Four years of college life is finally over and today i recieved my results (2nd cl4ss Honours Grade 1 - otherwise known as a 2.1) which i was delighted with. Not so much for me, but for my parents who i appreciate infinatly more to now that im living independantly. Since last time Ive moved 80 miles west of my hometown of Waterford to Cork City, the 2nd largest city in Ireland.

I love it here. Dispite the obvious satisfaction of living with my girlfriend after four years of being seperated due to college, the city is just amazing. Its buzzing with the smells and sounds of hundreds of cultures. Ive spent hours just riding around the city on my BMX, learning the streets (almost GTA styl3.....do I have a problem?) and going to a different pub for any Euro 2008 matches that are on TV.

I think im doing pretty okay for my first time independantly living. Myself and herself (Dee) have been cooking pretty all most of our meals with the raw materials sourced from the most exellent local "English Market". Its an indoor market of fish, veg, meat that must be seen to be believed. You couldnt imagine eating fast-food ever again after walking through this place once.

Ive also got a job working in the city's HMV (UK/Ireland based CD/DVD/Games outlet) and ive been given the job of working towards expanding their games sales in the city which is pretty exciting. With the cash not spent on internet/tv/electricity i joined the local gym too. Like everything here its literally less than 2 mins from our apartment which is just amazing. I couldnt be happier right now.

Been working frantitcally hard on the website too. Our latest podcasts have been suspect in audio quality since we lost use of the radio station after moving, but in the background ive been focusing my efforts on programming the CMS and website. Myself and Denis are all set to go to Paris at the end of the month to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, which will feature prominantly in the first episode of the Citizen Game show. Expect it the first week in July. Im also gonna be contacting all those people who to me wrote last year about doing articles for the site to see if theyre still interested.

On the games side, im stopped about 65% through GTA4, and halfway through the Dutch League in Pro-Ev, as im just totally hooked to playing Rock-Band. The game is exellent, the online is great, and local play is hilarious. I love them drums!

Nothing else to say really. Been entertaining myself by posting on the UK board and all your blogs for the past few weeks and thought id better post somthing to explain myself. Enjoying all the simple things right now. I hit the wall hard at the end of 4th year and realised i was working too hard on a lot of things that didnt matter. Life is good now, enjoying the simple things like cooking, excercise, Cider on a hot evening and sleep. Gawd i missed sleep... Really enjoying the summer and i hope all you guys are too. Look forward to playing on XBL/Steam with you guys once i get some proper spare time.

Stay cl4ssy

-Danny

One of the most satisfying aspects of being part of the video game community in the 21st century is the shattering of many tired ideas of who plays games and the shifting public perception of video-game's role in everybody's daily lives. For decades games have been thought of us a mere extension of children's toys, and game players the equivalent middle-aged husband who houses his train set in the cellar, pride outweighed by embarrassment.

When you look at where we have come from, the insular nature of gaming for the past thirty years is one created entirely by the games industry itself. Games are a means to play, and play has been around since we were swinging from trees & dancing around the fire continuing through history with chess, gambling and sports. It just so happened that games consoles were more complex than Joe Bloggs and Jane-Doe was able to handle, and so the developers and home-codies made games for their audience, which primarily consisted of, well…nerds. It's taken all these years to get to the point where gaming is a multi-dimensional entertainment which is growing toward catering to the needs of a vast and diverse range of gamers. Due to this, the idea of the "gamer" has blurred drastically in recent years, so most of us compartmentalize gamers into the genre's they generally play; sports, first-person, MMO, platformer and so on. I believe the industry shot itself in the foot a number of years ago when an entire generation of PS1 players were disenfranchised with the latest generation's overemphasis on technological innovations and increasingly complex game-controls. You know them, you grew up with them, and they don't play anymore.

However a number of years ago the last lock on the floodgates was unlatched when Nintendo, of all people, realised that the technology of Sony and Microsoft's latest efforts were reaching far beyond what most non-gamers really cared about. The casual gamers invaded.

----------------------------

Like when your favourite underground band hits the big-time, the popularisation of a long-beloved hobby can be a bitter pill, though it may be one we might all have to swallow soon enough. Men and women who don't consider themselves gamers in any dimension, are buying hardware and software at a rate that is soon to match those of you and I. On the front-lines this week I sold hundreds of copies of Lego Indiana Jones, The Sims, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and various brain, eye and elbow training tools. Many of these are great games, but I wasn't handing them to gamers as we know them. These were parents, older businessmen, sophisticated women, and young girls. I used to sell games a number of years ago, and enjoy the short but satisfying interactions with like-minded strangers, and although I still make the odd heroin joke to anybody buying a Warcraft subscription card, it happens far less often than when I remember. And it's awesome!

I love the idea that people are starting to play again. We pride ourselves on pushing our skill with a controller and with our minds while for years the rest of the world sucked on the television tube for entertainment and mental nourishment. The hazard I see is that we've created a genre for these new gamers when that's not what they want, and by compartmentalizing them so quickly as "casual" were setting them up for the fall. The reason so many people have started to play with us is because they can finally grasp a controller with confidence. Mobile phones have taught people of all ages how to use portable electrical devices and Nintendo took advantage of this with the DS. However the vast majority of new gamers who buy a DS go straight for Brain Training, Sudoku or Crosswords. It would be nice to that this is because these people are "casual gamers" who want "casual" experiences that television they still occasionally suck on tells them they should like, but that's not necessarily the case. People buy iPod's in spite of their awkwardness because it's the first thing they think of when confronted with the characters M, P and 3; people buy Brain Training for the same reason.

I was delighted to see a DS commercial which highlighted Hotel Dusk predominantly. There is a seemingly endless array of experiences everyday people can have with simple gaming devices, yet most immediately think of training themselves, big brother simulators or digital tennis. It's been 30 years since Pong and we're still on digital tennis!

In honesty I don't know where the holly grail to bridge our world with theirs, it's far easier to pontificate problems than deliver answers. What I do know is that we need to bring all these new gamers over to our side before they become disenfranchised and put down the controllers because I don't believe the games most new gamers are playing are enough to hold their attention for much longer. The majority of the games at the forefront of this revolution have "fad" written all over them; digestible, shallow, disposable and unremarkable in the long run.

I think we are a long way away from having Joe Bloggs and Jane Doe engage in games as emotionally as they might with film, music or literature. However, I hope more and more people stop simply enjoying games, and start loving them. If games don't start upping the anti for these players, I can see that bubble bursting and an amazing opportunity to expand our community lost.

Danny.

--------------------

> Use the comment box, let us know what you think:
Q: How do you think we expand the experiences of new gamers?
Q: Are casual gamers happy with casual games?
Q: Has one of your friends / family recently started gaming? What do they like to play?

EDIT: I didnt explore the controller as a barrier to entry idea much because ive written about it previously.

Hey Guys,

Cant stop for long, too busy investing ignorant ammounts of hours in Liberty City. Just posting to mention another GTA related radio peice i was involved in today. PARC (People Against Road Carnage-which after some googling is really only 1 person) got their knickers in a twist over the drunk-driving in GTA and want it banned over here.

I had a lot more ammunition prepared than what i was able to say, and only realised she said it was banned in Australia (which is wrong naturally) but im happy about what i got across. Ive since emailed her too, hopefully ill get a reply.

PS- Just found out Mr Vincent Caravella is unforunatly leaving Gamespot Towers. Just want to wish good luck to him in his life & future work as an admirer of how he turned around The Hotspot to create the best gaming podcast around. I also appreciated his PM's in relation to my own podcast; nice comments from people in journalism is what makes it all worthwhile. Looking forward to his activities within the industry in the future.

- Danny

Yowza!

I drove into town earlier and overtook a dump truck on the construction yard that used to be the main road. Too much GTAIV? I think those psychologists might be onto somthing

I cant quantify how amazing that game is yet, im just shoulder deep in its immersion. I traded in Army of Poo and so got the Lockbox Edition for 50euro. Seen as that is my usual rate for talking on Today FM, i guess a random interview i did earlier means i broke even lol. I think this may be my favourite radio interview for the show ("The Last Word" - Irelands most listened to radio show).

Very happy with the last bit, i couldnt let him away with saying teenagers mostly play GTA.

360 Gamercard now sporting a limited edition gamerpic, i know, how sad of me. The month free XBox Live and the free 500MS points was a welcomed surprise too. My sentences are short and meaningless because im just itching to go back to the console. Its an all nighter boys and girls, had my fill of single player so XBL here we go!

- Danny

PS: Any GS staff, well done on a fantastic review, and an extremely well produced, scripted and delivered video review.

PPS: Been practising my writing a lot lately. Less blogging in future, more discussion articles.

Hey chumps and chumpettes,

Sorry, cant refuse Bender humour. I just hit Level 30 today, w00t ect. Im especially happy my ranking is a reference from one of my favourite PC games of all time. Pity it hasnt unlocked any new guns or given me a few achievment points. However it does give me an oppertunity to thank all of you who have posted, visited and read my blog over the past year or so. This delicious site has been a safe haven of gaming discussion that im happy to have wasted hours of my life to. So thanks to the 509 of you who tracked me, the 81,717 visits you made, the many PM's and MSN additions, not to mention all the comments.

Back in RL, i was in a chipper last night and bumped into an old mate from my Gamestop years. He's been playing GTA IV for the past few days on his lunchbreak and told me 2 hilarious tid-bits about it:

1) When you crash hard, you can come through the windscreen ala' Flatout.

2) Once or twice when he jacked a car with a passanger, after pushing them out and closing the door, the poor sod's clothes got stuck in the door and were helplessly dragged down the road as he sped off.

Really looking forward to the Gamespot review, and sort of excited to see whos reviewing it; I think personally id love to see Kevin Van Ord have a go at it. The 10/10 on IGN really blew me away too, roll on midnight Monday.

Also in personal news, my presentation of my XNA game went really well last week, and we stopped filming on the movie/play im directing yesterday (after 6 weeks). Huge weight has been lifted off these shoulders, and spare a few minor college handups and a single test, im in the clear. I woke up today to a suitaby sunny, damp Irish morning, and im feeling fresh as a summer ham.

Moving away from home in a few weeks, which is gonna be heartbreaking for my parents and myself, but these things happen. Looking forward to another year of awesome comment and coversation on Gamespot. Also looking forward to a week of awesome GTA IV multiplayer action, so if your picking up the 360 version add me on XBL for a few games "dannyodwyer".

Pimpmobile!

- Danny

PS: New sounding CitizenGame podcast going up tomorrow morning for any of you who are interested. Thanks to everyone for the continued support!

Apparently this is only airing in Ireland, which is as bizzare as it is totally awesome. Just ths thing i need to distract me as i write a design document for this stupid XNA game ive been toiling over. Just TWO WEEKS left in college and whats my prize at the end of is? An Honours Degree! Though id trade it all in to have Niko Bellik in my arms right now.

EDIT: HERES A LINK TO THE EXTENDED VERSION OF THE AD (much better!)
CLICK ME!!!! !

Oh your still reading?
Well I hate to rabbit on about this but i feel giddy like a 5 year old on Christmas Eve! Ive had the most irritating, boring and soul-destroying four years in college life & i cant quite believe that in 2 weeks i can give a big "up yours" to formalised education and start working full time on things that actually matter. Naturally im going to be Christening the occassion with the stereotypical Celtic act of running around my mates various houses screaming in delight and swigging down various colours, measures and flavours of alco-mo-hol.

In the weeks following all that it its full steam ahead with moving to Cork (Denis my good friend is already down there) and setting up a website i mention too much here. In honesty i just cant wait to start living my life. Though i knew her for years before, I only started going out with my girlfriend the summer before she left for college so i think weve earned the right be live happilly together. With my great friend Denis moving in with us, and being able to start cooking my own meals, go running/cycling in a new city and not have to worry about college work i find totally pointless (our curriculum is an absolute joke) I feel like im going to burst with excitement. Its a wonderful feeling

The release of GTA IV is going to be extra special to me. It will herald the launch of what i think might be the best video game ever made, and also flag the day Ive dreamt about every day for the past four years.

- Danny

Hey guys,

Splash pages and new MarioKart marothon up on the site as of.....right........now!

http://www.citizengame.co.uk

Im totally wrecked at the moment. The weeks of filming on the greenscreen are taking their toll, I had to record and edit the mariothon on Friday night, do the same for the podcast last night and my final year project (an XNA game) has to be handed in on Friday.

Perfect time to load up those new Cod4 maps

-Ynnad

Gonna keep this short, as im weary of overusing my blog for Citizen Game whoring purposes (though theres no denying a large segment of our visitors are from GS). Just a quick one to say that this Thursday night we will be recording a MarioKart Wii marathon which will be viewable (download & stream) on the site come Friday, and iTunes soon after we hope.

Were gonna sit down for over an hour with the Wii enabled MarioKart, but im sure you guys have as many questions as we do. So please, either post a question here or email us at podcast(at)citizengame.co.uk with any/all questions and we'll fire through them over the course of the marathon.

The marathon is gonna be uploaded at the same time as a BETA version of the full website.

------------------- ------------------- -------------------

NOW to balance things out, here are a few GS updates Im loving:
> Under Review Blog: Justin Calvert has set up a blog to update Gamespot users about reviews in development. Fantastic idea which should help stop people going insane over ZOMG LAT3 REVIEWZZ HAXOR!!!

> Spam Filter: Don's at it too! A new central blog for all Gamespot Community Content. Another one to bookmark!

> PAX 07' Haze Guy: The Haze demo on OTS this week reminded me of Ryan's hilarious interview with the English haze scriptwriter at PAX last year. Its been edited (understandably so for all you who saw the live feature) but its still a winner.

> New Start/Select: GTA5 Prologue (sorry Laura! ), Wipeout HD, Buzz and Haze. Yup thats right, Haze...WITH THAT CRAZY HAZE GUY!! He's back in a solid episode by Gamespot UK.

------------------- ------------------- -------------------

I stayed up last night and watched Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, followed by Zoolander. My desire to drive a cadillac across the US is stronger than ever. Though so too is my desire to wear skintight pants and dance to George Michael while spraying petrol on my friends. Great film night overall.

- Danny

CLICK HERE FOR STORY

Though weve been hearing insider news for the past few months through Chinese whispers, this sounds like good news to me. Hopefully the departure of this forgetable figure will help towards building spirits in Gamespot towers. Dont let the door hit you on the way out Josh.

EDIT: Ugh, we might just have a case of "out of the frying pan into the fire":
http://valleywag.com/376402/jeff-gerstm...

- Danny

Hey all,

First off thanks to everyone who subscribed to the podcast over iTunes! It seems your efforts have managed to kick us up the daily video-game podcast table ahead of Joystik, Game Trailers, Gianb Bomb and even Criterions Crash FM! Fair enough, its a daily table and no doubt we will be in the triple figures soon enough, but were pretty delighted to be anywhere near these big guns (click image for full table). If you havent subscribed are are interested, feel free to click here and join in

EDIT: Just found out iTunes top lists are region specific, so unfortunatly that was only the top list for Ireland. Good news is we have overtaken every other podcast to reach Number 1 in video games and the overall "Games and Hobbies" sections of iTunes in Ireland. Help us get up the US and UK chart by subscribing!

It falls in nicely with the launch of our 4th podcast (Citizen Game Podcast - 30/03/08) which i feel is at least the most funny one weve managed to do. Also, later this week were going to be launching the first teaser trailer for our upcoming show, just to emote the content and mood of the show, and also drum up some more interest. Please let us know if its good or if we suck hard.

Im trying not to spam this blog with info about CG, as that wasnt the idea of writing here (in fact, if anything its the other way around) but people PMing and commenting seem to enjoy hearing how were doing, and we appreciate it.

--------------------

Ive only got 6 weeks left in college and im giddy with excitement. The past 4 years have been tough, as most of my friends left the city i live in, but its also sped by incredibly fast. The idea that in 7 weeks ill be done in Waterford, moving out of home for the first time to Cork City and setting up shop for a year is so liberating.

On the games front im still making my way through Army of Two (infinatly more fun in co-op than single player) Burnout Paradise, and finishing up my first full season in the new Pro Evolution Soccer. Speaking of which, Denis has gotten his hands on the wii version of pro-ev and its pretty exellent. Sticking with the Wii i had my first taste of Smash Bro's last week, and i enjoyed it very much. The variety of characters and levels is fantastic, and it blows my mind how game designers keep the balance when there is so much going on. I still hate the friends codes but its a title i think i might get when its launched over here officially (the lads are using Freeloader).

Also got the new official map-pack for Unreal Tourni 3, which has a new version of the CTF cl4ssic "Facing Worlds". The level didnt age well in my oppinion, but i havent played against anything but bots yet, so maybe im not being fair. No sign of Morpheus yet (the 3 huuuge skyscrapers) but they through in its similarly sounding pal "Morbius" which is a good laugh. Its available on both PC and PS3 versions, which is pretty cool for sony console owners (are u listening Microsoft, stop being so tight with your 360 harddrive).

Im also recording a film to acompany a theater show im co-directing at the end of the summer. Were using green-screen to isolate the actors and eventually insert theminto CG backgrounds which will run alongside the on-stage actors. Were having a blast at it, which is a good thing considering were recording for the next 6 weeks. Its a play bsed on a book, based on an old irish hero called "Cuchullain". The film is very much in over-intense action of 300. Heres some unedited footage of some of the work ive just thrown together- its nothing near the finished version - 4 months of editing away in fact! Its mostly been testing with the screen and messin about (many thanks to windows vista for the backgrounds, haha!)

So thats it for now, looking forward to the next few weeks, getting college over and done with, having time to get fit again, moving, the summer and launching Citizen Game. I hope the rest of you are keeping well with your crashed cars, triplets, new jobs, old jobs, wifes and husbands.

And to think i used to come here for just game info...

- Danny

PS: podcast(at)citizengame.co.uk if you have any questions for next weeks podcast.
Thanks again to all who have been contributing!

Hey All,

For those of you who enjoy hooking up to the horribly structured world of iTunes (lol sorry, it confuses me) you have the choice of another podcast to subscribe to. Myself and Denis have managed to get the CitizenGame podcast accepted onto iTunes database and we need as many people as possible to subscribe/download/shout about it as possible to get it noticed.

CLICK HERE TO ENJOY THE ITUNES PODCASTNESS

Thanks to everyone for their support on the podcast, as i said before its nothing in comparison to what we have planned for the show, but its an education in itself.

Any comments or questions, please direct them to our soon-to-be-spammed email address as podcast(at)citizengame.co.uk

Thanks all
- Danny

1) I suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) for a while as a kid. Waking up and flicking the lightswitch downstairs a hundred times so my parents wouldnt die.

2) My name is Daniel.

3) Myself and a friend were mutually responsible for saving a kids life about 6 years back. He crashed his BMX nearby and an unprotected handlebar rim tore open his thigh and the artery within. Ive never seen so much blood bleed so quickly, it was everywhere.

4) Im scared of heights and nothing helps; annual snowboarding trips & exposure to chair lifts, using 25foot ladders in the theater, loads of plane trips etc.. Still hate them.

5) I spent 6 months working in the local AOL-UK callcenter. We dont like talking to you either.

6-thats right!) New podcast up on CitizenGame.co.uk, let us know what you think. So, any questions for next weeks podcast, please stick them here or email us at podcast(at)citizengame.co.uk

Sidburn, mayordenis, cubeofmoon, ratherdashing, and you readings this.
consider yourself tagged.

Happy St.Patricks Day!

A very special Paddys Day Citizen Game podcast is onlien for your downloading pleasure at http://www.citizengame.co.uk/. This week 2D Becomes 3D as Denis and Danny are joined by Denis's older sibling David. We talk about GTA4 Multiplayer modes, the short lifespan of average rated games and collecting & selling. We also attempt to speak some Irish and in this weeks audio-clip quiz Denis and David have to guess the game, with this weeks looser forced to sing the Irish national anthem at the end of the show.

Im on air from now (4:00 GMT) untill 8:00GMT hours if anybody wants to tune in. http://www.beat102103.com/. Cant promise much, im battling a hangover with fresh fruit. Who will win in the end, tune in to find out!

Again thats to everyone for sending in questions, they really help drive the discussion. Keep them coming along with the critical analysis, it helps a lot. podcast@citizengame.co.uk or post comment here.

Hope you all had a La Fheile Padraig deas!- Danny