So I’ve had Jetix email me and now the Guinness Book of Records! Guinness World Record’s Gamer’s Edition will be attempting the ‘Largest gathering of Games characters’ on March 18, 10.30 for 11am at the Millenium Bridge, London and are looking for all cos players and gamers to come down and make Guinness World Record history!

SEGA are teaming up with Guinness to support the event, with Sonic himself in attendance to wow the crowds as well as one of his other fellow SEGA Superstars NiGHTS. 

So if you think you could maybe make a good Dr. Eggman, Knuckles, Amy Rose or even be someone non-SEGA like the King of All Cosmos (Katamari Damacy), Master Chief (Halo) Dante (Devil May Cry) or Gabe Logan (Syphon Filter) then we want to see you there so we can bust that record! To register please e-mail gamesgathering@guinnessworldrecords.com

All characters will appear in the Guinness World Record Gamers Edition 2009 plus on the website as well as receiving a gift for their efforts!

The record attempt celebrates the inaugral Guinness World Record Gamer’s Edition that is on sale now and is bursting with new records, high score statistics and fascinating facts.

In addition Guinness World Records are also searching for the next new gaming record breaker to join the hallowed ranks of the book. Applicants are being encouraged to upload their scores on the Gamer’s Edition website, http://gamers.guinnessworldrecords.com  to enter the challenge. 

As you will know if you take a look at our profiles one of my many duties includes looking after our upcoming Marvel titles - which when one of them is Iron Man involves me going to and discussing things with the peeps at Paramount.

The game is looking very tasty and we’re all rather excited about the movie - a new trailer of which has gone live. This trailer is currently an exclusive on myspace.com, but I’m told it will be on the Iron Man movie website (www.ironmanmovie.com) from 5pm today.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=29294971

We’ve got some pretty groovy things coming your way for the game as well, so keep an eye out for those.

SEGA Superstars Tennis is heading your way (very soon as it happens) on PS2, Ps3, DS, Wii and X-Box 360. A snazzy new trailer has been released showing various Superstar state moves which you can observe from this Youtube link here - BEHOLD!

Now the main point of this post was that I’ve been able to get permission to grab for you 360 owners the full list of 360 achievements so you know just how to up your Gamerscore point totals. I’ve split them up mainly due to the fact that there are so many - that and there are some that are to do with features not neccesarily revealed yet, as well as ones that are secret. Oooooh.

Play Ball - Win your first Match. (10GP)
Starting Grid - Win with all starting characters in any mode. (10GP)
Beat Them All - In any mode, beat all characters in Singles matches. (30GP)
Original Teams - Beat all the classic Doubles pairs. (30GP)
Cameo Appearance - Hit a SEGA court cameo! (20GP)
To The Max - Hit 3 Max serves in a row. (20GP)
Seeing Stars - Enter Superstar mode 10 times in a match. (20GP)
SEGA Rally - Hit a 40 shot rally in any mode. (20GP)
Top Gun - Hit 100 aces. (20GP)
Afterburner - Hit a serve over 124mph / 200kph (20GP)
OutRun - Run a total of 6.2 miles / 10km (20GP)
Step Into SEGA World - Complete your first Challenge (Rank A) (10GP)
Classic Complete - Complete all Challenges in one SEGA game (Rank A) (20GP)
Challenges 101 - Complete all Challenges in all SEGA games (Rank A) (30GP)

Keep an eye out for the second half coming next month! The trailer can also be seen on our SEGA Europe Community Team Facebook group - check it out.

“I am writing to you to announce my arrival into the XFA. I am a fantastic young manager who will almost certainly unbalance the existing status quo and establish myself as probably the most talented man in Game World 3.”

The decision to mark my entry into Football Manager Live by mailing this statement to every other manager in the game world was perhaps slightly abrasive. Some might (and did) label such a move arrogant. It was, however, a calculated move on my part to create a launch pad for a dynamic dynasty for my team - Electronic Hearts.

The responses came thick and fast, and I was soon inundated with accusations of delusion from the collective player base. This was my first glimpse at the potential that the game has. When I heard about the concept behind FML, I was both excited
and expectant, but this first experience of real interaction between players actually drove home that it’s no longer a case of Human vs. CPU.

I was up against some stalwart managers with a sense of pride that did not take kindly to my self-proclaimed brilliance. The responses that went back and forth were indicative of the good-humoured banter that the game world is riddled with; from team names to chat room messages and e-mails offering players for auction, the personal touches that stem from the interaction in an MMO is most definitely what is most apparent in FML.

Obviously after such an outspoken announcement, I had to back up my self-assurance with results. No problem, I thought. After all, having played FM in its various incarnations since the Amiga days, I’ve won every accolade going. Surely it would just be a question of throwing together some bright youngsters with promising stats and letting my tactical wizardry bring in the silverware, right? Well, after combing through the ranks of unattached players, I offered provisional contracts to a fairly small squad of promising international mercenaries. My faith was rewarded by a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Spurs FC, which I put down to poor refereeing decisions and adverse weather conditions.

I had to turn my patchwork of players into a team quickly. If Sven could manage it at Man City, it should be no problem for El Magnifico. After a stint toggling my tactics and setting up what seemed to be an impenetrable defensive style, I knew my next fixture against Sebastian M FC would set things right. Surely the form book could not be upset again. But, to my astonishment, I was beaten 3-1. Of course, the unfair dismissal of my key attacker did not help, but I was beginning to doubt whether my defensive approach was suited to the FML match engine. Furthermore, my loss streak was making my cocky opening message look even more ridiculous.

A switch to Keegan-esque gung-ho attack was in order, and it was with this in mind that I approached my game with Ossett Wanderers. My objective was to impose my team more offensively on the match, and after changing my tactics, I was heartened when this came to fruition before my eyes. The only downside (and a somewhat minor and irrelevant one) was a final score of OW10-4 EH, but at this stage I was just pleased to have got 4 in. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and sometimes conceding 10 goals to a mediocre team are just what a true champion needs.

Wanderer’s manager pointing out that I was playing my goalkeeper up front for the entire first half was not going to detract from my certainty that I had turned the corner with strategic nous.

That ‘corner’ took a further two games to turn. A 5-game losing streak finally came to an end with a 1-1 draw against ‘PC Gamer UK’. I’d settled on a cautious, counter-attacking style to try and bridge the gap between my bargain bucket brigade and the longer-running teams with well-known players, and it seemed to be working.

The initial budget of £500,000 is balanced well, in that it allows a player to get involved without really being able to have immediate success. As always with FM, it’s the ‘one more match’ mentality where the player is constantly striving to get one more step up the ladder that makes this game so addictive. A bigger budget with access to world class players not being just out of grasp would no doubt water down the challenge, and the carrot-on-the-stick of finally signing big-name stars. 

After a second draw, I finally registered my first win, against my first opponents, Spurs FC. A victory that heralded a 3-win undefeated streak clearly warranted my fellow manager’s attention. Capping it off with a scintillating 6-6 thriller in my first competitive match cemented my Keegan approach as a free-scoring force.

 So, I signed off my second day as El Magnifico, the future of FML, with the following message:

“Dear Fellow Managers,

Since my well-received debut in FML yesterday, I am well aware that my career has been closely observed by both my few detractors and many admirers.

After a few very unfortunate and somewhat undeserved false-starts, Electronic Hearts recorded their first win after a well-fought ’smash and grab raid’.

This is, of course, the beginning of a new era in football management.

Thank you for your time.

El Magnifico

P.S Do not hesitate to contact me if you need managerial guidance from an astute veteran.”

The day closed with an invitation for my team to compete in a competition organised by a Stuart Sampson:

“Mexican manager David Hanson’s obscure Electronic Hearts have been invited by Stuart Sampson to enter the sixteen-team you wish you were David Hanson Competition

There is no entry fee and there is no prize fund.

Stuart Sampson was quoted as saying ‘in honour of you’ after making the invitation.’”

Finally, I was getting the recognition I deserved.

SEGA Europe Ltd. and SEGA of America, Inc. today revealed details of the highly anticipated squad-based first-person shooter video game, Aliens: Colonial Marines™. Licensed through an exclusive agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising and developed by Gearbox Software, the game will be available on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Windows-based PC in late 2008.

In Aliens: Colonial Marines, players are part of a United States Colonial Marine squad and must prepare to face an alien assault more intense and horrific than ever before. Driven by a compelling and original story penned by renowned writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle Aliens: Colonial Marines will retain the atmospheric look and feel of the original films while leveraging next-generation technology to create an entirely new interactive Aliens experience.

Packing classic Aliens weaponry ranging from pulse rifles to flamethrowers as well as brand-new equipment and skills all within a squad-based combat system, players will become an elite United States Colonial Marine. Featuring claustrophobic environments, a brooding soundtrack, and a multitude of surprises and shocks, players will battle against menacing alien hordes in strikingly detailed levels that include the stark interiors of the abandoned Sulaco and unique environments created specifically for the game.

Aliens: Colonial Marines will feature a story driven single-player mode and an all-new four player co-op mode allowing players to share the chilling experience with three friends. In co-op mode, each player will assume the persona of a Colonial Marine and have a distinct role to play in the completion of every mission. Additionally, more multiplayer modes will be revealed later in the year that will complete the Aliens video game experience.

Since its 1979 debut, Alien and its three sequels have grossed more than $557 million worldwide, garnering numerous awards, including two Academy Awards®.

The prospect of going from a tax-dodging layabout, or ‘student’ to use the official terminology, to full-time employment is a daunting prospect for any avid gamer.

Days spent merrily devoted to the simple pleasures of games, football and various tasty treats were standard fare for me and many friends, stretching from the days of SEGA’s Master System through to heated duels on Virtua Fighter 5 and the fantastically enjoyable Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. So, it was with trepidation that I approached the prospect of going out into the big bad world to collect my gold rings and make my fortune once the time came.

The idea of going to work in a bank or an accountancy firm, as many of my friends had done, struck me as somewhat akin of ‘The Condemned’. So it was somewhat ironic that when browsing the SEGA Europe website for Condemned 2 updates that I chanced upon the ‘jobs’ section. Community Team Assistant had just been added and it caught my eye. Hmm, I thought. I’m a member of the community, as a football fanatic I have lived by the maxim ‘there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’, and assisting, well that’s what any creative midfielder does, right?

So, I speculatively sent out my CV to SEGA, along with a hastily put together cover letter. In retrospect, this possibly resembled a teenage girl’s fan-mail to a boy band than professionally-crafted, career-defining correspondence.

Fortunately, my lifelong love of games, and all things SEGA must have shone through, as I was phoned the next day and invited to the Community Team’s Offices in London for an interview. The scenario of working for a company that had entertained me through many a rainy day (and many a blazing hot summers day too!) was becoming a tangible reality.

Upon entering the building, I was impressed to see that Sports Interactive were based on the floor below SEGA’s offices. This brought a smile to my face, as I’d played Football Manager for many years, and even in a state of semi-retirement due to trivial distractions like ‘studying’ and ‘girlfriend’, I still kept an eye on the incredibly active and well-supported forums over at SIgames.com.

So, you can imagine how my smile broadened to something reminiscent to Samba de Amigo’s eponymous monkey when I was told the job would be principally on Football Manager Live. Ever since playing the game on my ancient Amiga 500, the vision I’d always had of the dream FM game was playing against hundreds of other managers. As engrossing as playing the Computer was, or competing with a friend, having all the teams being run by humans was kind of the Holy Grail for me, as a fan. Like with most games, multi-player is simply more fun. With an open-ended title as ambitious as this, the potential is tremendous, and that’s exactly what came across when I met the team. Everyone on the team is brimming with ideas to implement into the game and make it as immersive as possible - Marc Duffy at SI told me during the interview that he has a file as thick as a novel full of ideas for the game.

Needless to say, with the track record of those involved, this game has all the makings of a massive, massive title. Where traditional Football Manager is a 5-course dinner for one, this is more like a huge, tasty pizza where there is enough for everyone to have a slice. It’s snackable, and you can fit it in with all the other distractions a typical routine has. There’s just so much that can be done with the games and the thousands of people that will be playing it. So, I tried to get across my enthusiasm for football, SI’s catalogue of management sims, and ground-breaking games across to the guys interviewing me.

I left SEGA that day with a real buzz. The icing on the cake was being invited to take part in the Beta test, so even if I wasn’t offered the position, I’d get to try FML out and join in the fun straight away. As it was, I’d barely had a chance to name my team and start scouting for players before I received the fantastic news that the job was mine. In just a couple of weeks, I’d be working for SEGA on Football Manager Live.

We’re literally a few days from getting our release candidate ready and pushing the build into the certification process for both PS3 and 360. Many of us on the team have been pulling some long hours since September of last year – and we’re ready to wrap it up. Even though we’re still dealing with numerous last-minute issues, we find ourselves starting to reflect on how we got to where we are today on the project; what went well, what went poorly, and what we promise ourselves that we won’t do to ourselves – yet again.

One such issue that we dealt with, as any team has dealt with, is called ‘feature creep’. This is that feature or set of features that come up during development that just sounds so cool that we can’t imagine shipping without it. Feature creep can also be the ultimate schedule killer – a gallon of gas poured on an already raging fire out of control – but it can also be that emergent feature that cements a product’s success and even the excitement the team needs to keep together for that final push to get the game out the door.

We had such a feature creep with the ‘Bloodshot Fight Clubs’ in Condemned 2. Our game designer created a demo ‘fight club’ for SEGA PR purposes so they could load up enemies and weapons from a list for demoing purposes last June. It worked out really well. Both the game designer and SEGA got very excited about the Fight Club concept. It was messaged as ‘using a section of the current levels allowing a player to grab an enemy or two and some weapons and allowing players to practice.’ Seemed simple enough… but it then quickly grew in June and July to not only a Practice Arena but to also include five different environments with five unique challenges, and a slew of unique UI work that was needed to pull it off. It all seemed simple and straightforward enough that the payoff was worth the risk – plus, people were really enjoying them. I always kept the Fight Clubs on the CUT list in case we ran into issues with the schedule – just in case.

We hit our Alpha with the five unique Bloodshot Fight Clubs in place. The game designer created the subset environments and did all the wiring himself. This took some of his time away from the core combat experience and the single player experience but probably only a few days at most. In addition, one of our multiplayer Level Designers found some ‘free’ time to go through the Fight Club levels, where he spent time heavily improving performance, fixing bugs and tweaking the environments into shippable states.

The Fight Clubs are as follows:
1. Practice – a general purpose practice arena that lets you try various weapons, enemies, combos, attack chains and so forth.
2. Riot Control – You can only used ranged weapons for this fight club as you try to protect the police below as long as possible.
3. Smoke ‘Em – This one is my personal favourite. Your goal is to kill three enemies as quickly as possible.
4. Deadly Day Care – You’ve got to blow up 100 of these little toys, er…uh, ‘dolls’ as quickly as possible.
5. Streets of Rage – You need to keep yourself and 5 guards alive while killing as many thieves and vandals as possible.
6. Lockdown – This one is my second favourite. You’re locked in a demented-looking cage and you need to kill as many enemies as possible in 5 minutes.

So here we are, running a few weeks later than originally planned. We were originally going to be on the store shelves in late February but now we are currently scheduled for end of March. In the course of a multi-year schedule, being about 3 weeks late is probably considered early by most developers working on quality titles in the industry. Was it worth it? Was it worth taking on the ‘feature creep’ of the Bloodshot Fight Clubs? I let you be the judge when we get Condemned 2 on the store shelves next month.

Hi guys, I’ll soon be furnishing you with the first half of an exclusive overview of the 360 achievements for SEGA Superstars Tennis - so keep them peeled for that!

In the meantime the SST website has gone live, we’ll be updating it with bios and various other things when we get the opportunity.  Check it out here: www.sega.co.uk/sst

Being the boss of this rabble is a tough life; I have to sit here waving my silver cane shouting at them to play more games, while I try to fathom out what delicacy to eat at lunchtime.

Well, it’s going to get harder as we now have another new person to look after. Welcome to David Hanson, who’ll be given the massive responsibility of playing Football Manager LIVE all day. Check out David’s blog here soon.

Another important part of the day is deciding who makes the tea/coffee. Because of the gravity of this task, a few months ago we incorporated a serious method of brew creation management. It’s Tee for Tea!!

A quick dash over the road to Argos, purveyors of cheap sporting goods, allowed us to unlock the “putting green acquired” achievement. A slower dash back from Argos (the road was busier) was followed by a frenzy of cardboard ripping and sellotape picking. We now owned our very own Belfry.

Rules are simple, Tee off from the carpet near the printer, get on to the green and then putt uphill into the hole for glory. Glory is basically taking fewer goes than anyone else, the unlucky or “rubbish” golfer who takes the most putts is sent to the kitchen to make hot warming drinks for the winners (or a glass of water for ArchangelUK who likes cold things).

We’ve also been tracking the stats on whose been the tea maker fool the most (come on we all play FM, how could we not make a league table) and here they are:

Martin The Fat Ninja - 26
Dave - 11
The Big Cheese - 9
ArchangelUK - 6

As you can see from the picture below, Martin the fat ninja hasn’t quite grasped the concept of golf.

Keep any eye out for more office updates, thanks for reading!

If you’re into The Club as we are, you’ll no doubt be steadily climbing up the game’s online leaderboards. But are you good enough to win a SEGA swag bag?

The peeps over at the Eurogamer.net forums are running a weekly score challenge and we’ll be giving the top-scorer each week a much sought after SEGA swag bag.

So, if you think your shooting skills are good enough, head on over to their forum.

For hints n tips on getting those killer combos, take a look at our in-game videos.