Halo 3 release party, 7-12pm Fri 9/28 UMBC Gameroom

There will be a Halo 3 release party Friday night September 28th from 7:00 pm to Midnight in the UMBC Gameroom. The event is sponsored by the UMBC Commons Gameroom, Microsoft, and the UMBC Game Development Club. The release party will feature a multiplayer tournament (4 vs. 4) in which pairs of four-person teams compete in a Halo 3 match and winners will receive Gameroom Free Play Passes. Up to five Xbox 360s will also be available for individual Halo 3 play. Microsoft will provide free pizza and Xbox 360 games to give away. Pool will be free all night.

Halo 3, a first-person shooter game developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox 360, will be released on 25 September. It follows and builds on the two previous successful Halo games.

Update 9/24: Matt Hurst notes that “Halo 3 is being touted as not just the biggest launch for a video game, but also the biggest launch of anything.” and backs it up with a graph of mentions on the blogosphere in a “comparison of the Halo brand with mentions of Resident Evil (the top release from last week) and The Bourne Ultimatum (one of the largest films of the summer).”

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World series of video games on CBS

This weekend CBS will air the first of four shows on the World Series of Video Games sponsored in part by Intel. The New York Times has an article, Video Game Matches to Be Televised on CBS that has a good overview.

“The magic of television has already transformed everything from motorcycle acrobatics to poker into living-room spectator sports, not to mention turning competitive singing into a national obsession. Next on the list: video games. Tomorrow at noon, CBS, the august home of the Masters and March Madness, will become the first broadcast network in the United States to cover a video game tournament as a sporting event.”

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Eurographics announces Game Physics Innovation Competition

Eurographics, the European association for computer graphics, announced a competition for the most innovative use of physics in games. Any individual or group can enter, as long as the entry is not part of a shipping game. Entries are due August 24th, 2007. Grand prize is 1500 Euros to the entry judged to exhibit the best combination of innovation and technical achievement. Details at isg.cs.tcd.ie/eg07.

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