Big news coming in for Europe, as we announce that preparations are underway for this year's London Games Festival. Wondering exactly when 2008's celebrations begin? Visit the full article for the rest of the details!

We'll be laying down announcements for two more events expected to kick in during the upcoming London Games Festival 2007. The first will be a gaming workshop titled Design Rules!, and will have attendees taking part in a simulated professional design environment. Attendees will be randomly assigned a specific role to play, as their team attempts to create a designated game idea. The workshop will be hosted by Ernest Adams, who had this to say regarding the event:

In this workshop you gain the knowledge to develop compelling and emotive games through interactive group working with your peers. It is open to all who have a love for games whatever their background or professional interest.

Moving along, we also make mention of the ongoing preparations for the It's Showtime - with Machinima workshop. As its title implies, this workshop will educate its visitors with the finer lines of making Machinima, from learning how to make a tidy profit from your works, to understanding new creative techniques within this art. Attendees will also be treated to a tutorial of the MovieStorm engine, as well as the appearance of several noted personalities in the Machinima industry:

• Ricard Gras (LA Interactiva)
• Hugh Hancock (maker with WoW, Halo 2, Sims 2 & Never Winter Nights)
• Matt Kelland (Moviestorm, engine developer)
• Chris Carella (Electric Sheep)
• Dr Tracy Harwood (Machinima Festival Europe)
  

Later on in the day, the Machinima workshop will culminate in a screening of the winning and nominated  films from the European Machinima Festival. Both Design Rules! and It's Showtime will take place on October, and are scheduled to run from 10 am to 1 pm, and 2 pm to 5 pm respectively. The events are expected to take place at 76 Portland Place, London W1, close to Oxford Circus tube. Festival visitors interested in booking a place for either of these workshops may do so via the read link below.

Intel has announced that their upcoming major event on the World Series of Video Games circuit will be called the "UK Gaming Championship" and will be held at the London Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus. In store for attendees are a tournament area where they can watch the world's top gamers work their magic on gameplaying, an experiential zone for free gaming and walk-on tournaments, a music and games party, and tons more.

The said event will feature professional gaming tournaments in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, Counter Strike 1.6, and the Xbox 360's Quake 4. Those who decide to attend the event can choose to compete, or just simply watch the world's best players strut their stuff and battle it out for over £40,000 (that's roughly 76 grand for us) worth of cash and other prizes.

The top gamers from around the world including Fatal1ty, Stermy, Toxic, Team Fnatic, and England's own 4 Kings, will be flying in for the event, where new games and technologies will also be featured, with prizes and free giveaways from sponsors including Intel, Fatal1ty Brands led by Creative, and ATI.

The music and games party will be held on Saturday night from 7pm-10pm, featuring a DJ and a contest for the “Miss World Series of Video Games.”  If you wanna join in on the partying, all you have to do is link the World Series of Video Games as one of your top 8 friends at the said event's Myspace page.

The UK Gaming Championship will be featured as a part of The London Games Festival, and will showcase the hottest games, seminars, and prominent people in the gaming industry.  The World Series event will also feature the World’s Largest Joystick, which measures 3 metres, and is actually playable. Now that's definitely something worth checking out, don't you think?
 
The UK Gaming Championship will run from October 6-8 and hours of operation will be 10-10 on Friday and Saturday, and 12-5 on Sunday. If you and your friends do decide to grace the event as a spur of the moment thing, all you have to do is pay a two-dollar door fee.