hmvblogs - blogs by hmv

downloadable content worth killing for!

I’m loving my copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, which I picked up on Friday – the drums are amazing, and the track list is fantastic. We had friends round on Sunday night, and when you’ve got four people rocking out to good music, it’s a great experience (at least it was a great experience until the drums broke!).

Anyway, I found out yesterday that from November 25th you’ll be able to download three tracks from The Killers to play in the game. As well the tracks ‘Human’ and ‘Losing Touch’ from the new album, you’ll be able to play the awesome classic track ‘Mr Brightside’, which I think is just going to be incredibly cool. I swapped my broken drums over for some news ones today, so roll on the 25th!

The three tracks will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox for 440 Microsoft Points, and on the PLAYSTATION Store for the PS3 for around £4.

Starting with the girl in the mirror

Friday was such a good week for releases, with titles like Call of Duty: World at War, Guitar Hero World Tour and Football Manager 2009 finally getting released. However, if there was one game that I played all weekend more than anything else, it would have to be the massively anticipated Mirror’s Edge, which finally got released last week...

Click the 'more button' to find out what I thought.

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everyone's searching for wii fit

I was given some interesting stats from our marketing boys this morning. Online search intelligence company HitWise have pulled together a list of the most searched for games in well known internet search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo throughout October.

Rather unsurprisingly, Wii Fit was top of the list, with almost 17% of all internet searches for video games last month being for Nintendo’s much-loved, but hard-to-come-by fitness game. Though most titles in the list are multiformat releases like Guitar Hero and FIFA, it's nice to see the Xbox 360 exclusive title Fable II in second place, being responsible for almost 5% of video game searches.

Click the 'more' button to see the list in full. Good to see GTA San Andreas still being on a lot of people’s searches, despite being released four years ago!

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From the guy who gave you The Wire...

Generation Kill is a new mini series based on a book by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone reporter stationed at the front line during the invasion of Iraq. I've seen a trailer and it looks really exciting and full of the sort of traits that made The Wire so great. This is no coincidence, as the series was written and produced by David Simon, creator of The Wire. HBO have a history of making great television (probably the best America has to offer), and I'm expecting great things from this. Looking forward to watching it on FX in January.

To boldly go...to see Star Trek 11!

Yesterday, i was invited to a very special first screening of some scenes from the new Star Trek movie (Star Trek 11). In attendance (and introducing the scenes) was the one and only J.J.Abrams, who it has to be said is the man of the moment in Hollywood, and for that matter TV, having either produced or directed a long list of hugeley successful shows and movies including Lost, Alias, Fringe, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible 3, and many others. Watching him speak, you can really imagine him pitching a movie to studio bosses. He certainly has the gift of the gab, and was quite funny too. Like me, he's never been the number one Star Trek fan, but has a certain fondness for some elements of the show and movies. Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the new movie, was also there and said a few words too.

Star Trek 11 is a fresh take on the Star Trek franchise, and will tell the story of how the crew of the enterprise came together, and of it's maiden voyage. It looks fantastic, and i would say it will not only please long-time fans of the franchise, but will almost certainly attract plenty of new ones as well, in the way that Christopher Nolan's take on Batman has reinvigorated that franchise with Batman Begins and The Dark knight.

LOOK AWAY NOW!!! - SPOILER ALERT - LOOK AWAY NOW!!!

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wow! look at all these proper fans...

We’re hosting the official UK launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King tonight down at hmv Oxford Circus. We’ve got a load of cool WoW activities happening, including us welcoming Blizard COO Paul Sams and associate producer Lee Sparks, who’ll be there to meet the fans and sign copies of the game. We’ve also got a small amount of Limited Edition copies there to sell as well – so it’s going to be a good night.

Anyway, when I got into the office this morning I heard that there were already a few hardcore WoW fans in the queue over at hmv, obviously eager to be the first people through the door tonight. So I wondered on down to the store to meet a few of them. Click the ‘more’ button to read about some of the friendly folk who make up the horde of true Warcraft fans that I spoke to…

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How much do I want one of these?!

Loving Gears of War 2 as much as me? Then I guess you’ll be interested in these too. Epic Games art director Chris Perna and special effects and creature creator Jordu Schell have been hard at work building these life size 1:1 scale maquettes of a Locust Drone from Gears of War. Weighing in at 15 pounds (that’s over a stone!) and 19 inches high, you can expect to pay over £350 if you want to get hold of one for your front room.

Something tells me that the girlfriend won’t be allowing me to put one on the mantelpiece next to the TV in our flat. It was hard enough pleading with her to let my mini Marcus Fenix statuette live with us. Anyway, if you fancy getting one for yourself, head over here to website Triforce, where you can also buy a replica Lancer Assault Rifle. Pretty cool, huh?

A fond farewell to 'Mama Afrika'

I have spent the past couple of days reflecting on the extraordinary life of 'Mama Afrika', after Miriam Makeba sadly passed away over the weekend in Italy. She gave a voice to millions in South Africa, men and women alike, and bravely stood against Apartheid, resulting in her exile.

She was a great example of an artist who explored the African roots of other musical forms, and often fused jazz and soul, with traditional south African rhythms and melodies. She will be sadly missed by World music enthusiast and musicians alike, and was a great inspiration for a younger generation.

If you haven't had the chance to hear her music, or want a quick walk down memory lane then have a quick listen to one of my favourites Malaika ....

r.i.p. instock magazine

This afternoon we heard some extremely sad news that Skep Media, the publisher behind the wonderful industry games mag InStock, has gone in to liquidation. What this means is that unfortunately the magazine won’t be getting published anymore, which is a real shame as it was always a quality read, and was home to some of the nicest and most passionate people in the games industry.

I just want to say best of luck to everyone at InStock. Apparently games magazine MCV have scooped up a few of the staff and got them on their payroll, which is great news. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before everyone else finds themselves in a job again – best wishes to you all.

Bill Bailey's Tinselworm

I watched the new Bill Bailey live DVD, Tinselworm,  yesterday. Having never seen any of his stand up before, I have to say the man is a comic genius. Filmed at Wembley Arena (which is a huge place to put on a comedy gig), Bailey's use of music and video in his routine give him that special something that only true comedy greats have. He's obviously a very intelligent bloke, prone to over-analysing things to the point of them becoming hilarious. For instance, he pulls apart the Killers lyric from All These Things That I've Done (the one that goes "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"), saying that at first it's a good lyric, then you realise it makes absolutely no sense, it's like saying "I've got ham, but I'm not a hamster!" I've liked Bill Bailey since seeing him on Black Books, which is one of the best sitcoms in recent years in my opinion. I'm actually off to see another former Black Books cast member live soon - Dylan Moran. Looking forward to that one.

look who I bumped in to last night

We went to the Guitar Hero World Tour launch party last night, which was in a trendy bar in Hoxton Square, and was filled with the usual mix of indie Shoreditch fashionistas, the usual suspects of the games industry, and a bunch of media types. We drank. We got merry. We watched people playing Guitar Hero. All was good.

Anyway, there I was waiting for Bullet For My Valentine to come on and play (Activision had managed to persuade them to come down and rock the joint), when who should I happen to see? Click the ‘more’ button to find out…

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getting in to gear

One of the coolest things about my job is that I get sent video games a couple of days before they’re released, which is always a massive boost when you’re half way through a boring week, and Friday night seems a millions years away.

Well, I was lucky enough to get sent a copy of Gears of War 2 yesterday, courtesy of the very lovely people at Microsoft. And having given it a good go last night, I wanted to let you know what I thought about it. So click the ‘more’ button, and read all about it!

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