hmvblogs - blogs by hmv

User Interface changes in fm09

Today is Wednesday. And I've got to go back to the dentist. Again. One crown to fit, and a possible extraction, which sounds less painful than it actually is. So no Arsenal v Tottenham for me tonight, as I'm expecting to be in large amounts of pain once the anaesthetic wears off.

Have spent most of this morning doing press interviews, sorting out demo plans with Grant (FM's producer), sorting out a special treat for later this afternoon (check out our forums at community.sigames.com at about 6pm to be able to see the 70 second version of our forthcoming FM2009 TV ad), and trying to forget about the dentist, or else I start feeling sorry for myself.

Today's indepth blog is in 2 parts, from Craig (aka Ter) and Martin, and is about the user interface and changes therein this year.

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Football manager in 3d.

Today is Tuesday, and despite yesterday's announcement that we're in manufacture, there's still lots to do!

Having announced that the demo will go live at midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning, we now have to get all the demos built and tested.

It would be a lot easier if we just did one demo, with one league, and one language, but not everyone has great bandwidth, or speaks English, so we're sticking to our policies of 2 different types of demo, the second of which can be downloaded 3 different ways, so that's more builds to do, and bandwidth to find. It all takes a long time to get sorted, and can be very frustrating, but we'll get there!

Today's in depth blog is from Des, who joined SI just over a year ago to work on the 3d match side of things. Below this, is some answers to some of the hundreds of questions that have been sent in so far from people reading the blogs (blogs@sigames.com)

So, over to Des...

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football manager 2009 is gold!

We're gold!

It's Monday, and the weekend has involved a lot of waiting around for news about whether the game has gone into manufacture or not, doing interviews with various lots of magazines and websites, catching up on email, getting over man flu, and even managed to go to the cinema. And a drink. And watch football, although only on the TV.

This morning, I got to shave off my beard. Which means Football Manager 2009 is now in manufacture!

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Yet another Coen Brothers movie...

Good news for Coen Brothers fans - hot on the heels of Burn After Reading (which itself was pretty hot on the heels of No Country For Old Men), the Coens are already shooting their next film, A Serious Man. There are no big stars lined up for this one (the lead is played by Adam Arkin, son of Alan Arkin - you may remember him from the hospital drama Chicago Hope), and it's supposedly going to be another black comedy (i think you could argue that most of their films are black comedies, so that doesn't really tell you much). From early reports, it seems the film is set in Minnesota in the late 60s, and tells the story of a Jewish Professor (the 'Serious Man'?) whose life is compicated (and presumably made laughable) by his surrounding friends, family and work life. Apparently the film is, in part, based on the Coen Brothers' childhood years, and fans will be pleased to hear that cinematographer Roger Deakins is again working with the brothers on the movie. It's set for release in 2009...i'm looking forward to it already.

Heeeeeeres Jonny!!!

With Halloween fast approaching, I've been getting in the spirit and watching lots of horror films. I'm not sure why i like horror as a genre so much, but there's something deeply satisfying about a really good chiller that excites me. Many people cite The Exorcist as the best horror movie of all time, and i have to agree it's near perfect and manages to creep me out with each viewing. The Shining too has always been not just a favourite horror film of mine, but a favourite film full stop. I used to think it was all in Jack Nicholson's performance, but both the music and atmosphere of the film are equally nightmarish. I also really like the original Halloween as well. Something about the faceless killer, the brilliant main theme tune and the fact that it spawned so many similar (but generally far inferior) slasher franchises makes it a classic in my book.

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Never go to caravan club...

This show is hilarious!  The tag-line says that it's a cross between American Pie and Peep Show, I watched the complete six episodes in one sitting I loved it so much.  Saw the first show on E4 a while ago and managed to keep missing it so I was very pleased when Andy managed  to hook me up with a free one.They're making a second series as we speak and apparently there's gonna be a US version as well. Quite a buzz about it over here at Head Office, there really are loads of laugh out loud moments, especially the episode where the boys go off to Jay's caravan club and the school disco finale.  It's a must see and took me straight back to my teenage years!   

get stuff you love for less

Word up. Just wanted to let y’all know that today we launched our latest manoeuvre in our game of world domination – it’s called ‘Re/Play’, and it’s our brand new games trade in service at hmv. And it’s awesome.

You can take back any of your old games into pretty much any hmv store and trade them in for ANYTHING we sell, like other games, CDs, DVDs, iPods etc. I’ve made a page with all the info you should need, with a nice little FAQ section too, which you can read here to find out more.

Now, at this point I could show you pictures of some of the exciting launch activity happening in our stores today, or some of the cool creative we’re using in our marketing. But I thought it would be better to show you a picture of the guys who actually made this all happen – so the picture below is of two very happy-chappies indeed, who go by the names are Martin and Tim. And it’s thanks to them, and a girl called Hannah who’s on her hols, that all of this has got off the ground – well done guys!

You can’t get much closer than that, can you (unless you have the pleasure of sitting opposite them every day!)

Say goodbye to your social life

There are so many great games getting released tomorrow. There’s almost too many, but that’s never a bad thing. The only problem is that I’m now going to have to say goodbye to my social life, girlfriend, maybe even the mighty X Factor, if I’ve got any chance of giving half the games released tomorrow any of the attention that they deserve.

Allow me to round up this week’s highlights, in what may or may not be a regular fixture, that I’m going to call “Duncan’s-Thursday-Round-Up-Of-All-The-Great-Games-Getting-Released-Tomorrow” (it’s catchy, donchathink?)…

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london's fav videogame character...

The London Games Festival is going on in town over the next few days, and as part of it, over 500 gamers have been asked to vote for their favourite videogame character ever. Speeding out in front is the iconic spikey hedgehog Sonic, beating the likes of Lara Croft, Pacman and Mario to the top spot.

Here’s the top ten:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog - 24%
2. Mario - 21%
3. Lara Croft  - 16%
4. Donkey Kong - 11%
5. Pac Man - 10%
6. Link - 5%
7. Max Payne - 4%
8. Pikachu - 3%
9. Niko Belic - 2%
10. Blanka - 1%

Whoooaaaa sweet child o'mine !

Get ready to ROCK dudes ! Guns & Roses are back!! After what seems an eternity, the official word from the horses mouth is that Chinese Democracy is finally getting released on 24th November.

Little big problem with littlebigplanet

No doubt you’ve heard news that the massively anticipated LittleBIGPlanet, which was originally scheduled for release on PS3 this Friday, has been delayed, because the game soundtrack used a song that featured lyrics taken from the Quran. Not wanting to cause any offence, Sony are taking the song out of the game and rebuilding the stock, which has caused a delay to the release date. We’re told it should be on the shelves by the 7th November though, so you won’t have to wait too long!

Apparently Media Molecule, the UK developers who actually make the game are absolutely gutted about the situation, and I’m sure you are too. I promise you though, it’s worth the wait, the game is simply phenomenal. To me, it’s kinda like a Mario for the 21st century, with loads of creativity and the like. So hang tight for now, you haven’t got long to wait

What a week!

My my, i've got a busy gigging week ahead, and i just wanted to share my excitement with you. Tonight i'm off to see Los Campesinos, No Age and Times New Viking on what they're calling the 'Shred Yr Face' tour. I don't remember a multiple headline tour like this happening for quite some time, and the quality of the bands harks back to the almighty Rollercoaster Tour of 1992 (featuring Blur, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr). OK none of the bands tonight are that big, but i expect great things from all three in years to come, and they've all released really good records this year (Los Campesinos have released two in fact!)

Then tomorrow Steve, Paul, Louise and i from the office are off to see the premiere of Anvil in Leicester Square. It looks like a brilliant rockumentary, Spinal Tap type thing, but it's all real. I love that sort of thing. My favourite film of this type is Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, which really has to be seen to be believed. If you're not familiar with GG Allin, stick his name into wikipedia and prepare to be shocked.

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