From Wednesday the 24th to Friday the 26th of October, Electronic Arts took over London's Trafalgar Square as part of the London Games Festival. Essentially one gigantic, rain-soaked videogames commercial, EA's Be the One event featured celebrity hosts, a plethora of playable games, and a free bags of M&Ms for all.

With the promise of such goodies, and the London Games Festival really not having much else of interest, community member Wardrox and myself took ourselves off to Trafalgar Square completely unannounced last Thursday and expected to be treated as royalty. We did not get treated as such.

Just how far did one fat misanthrope and a northerner with a yellow mohawk get, how successful was the event and more importantly, was The Simpsons Game any good? All these questions and more will be answered with my less-than-dramatic retelling of our adventure available after the jump.

Also, make sure to check out the photographs of the day, and before anybody asks, my monocle got destroyed at the Games Media Awards, which is why I am sans-eyeglass until I get it replaced. Now hit that jump and stop squirming.

The life of a games journalist is an exciting one. We get to attend geek conventions and musical extravaganzas, as well as get to grips with upcoming videogames. Sometimes though, we have to become more refined, more fringe, slightly more reserved. Sometimes we have to attend rooms full of women in shawls who are nodding their heads knowingly. Sometimes we go to book launches and art discussions. Sometimes we go to both of those at once.

Videogames and Art is a new book that looks at works of art inspired by gaming. Edited by Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell, it's a collection of writing on the subject and includes interviews with the likes of Brody Condon and Julian Oliver, who are probably a big deal and known by intellectuals.

Community member Wardrox and I went to the London Knowledge Lab where the book was launched with a collection of talks from artists John Paul Bichard and S.E Barnet, as well as conceptual musician Paul B. Davis and games designer/writer/teacher Ernest Adams. There was also a bonus talk from a really rude Polish guy. I think he was Polish.

Hit the jump for my artsy fartsy thoughts.

I'm sure many of my countrymen have heard by now about the London Games Festival, a week-long event that celebrates our favorite past-time in the capital of this rotten island. Running from the 22nd to the 26th of October, a vast range of events from the musical to the thought-provoking are going to be on offer.

I just received the full itinerary of the week's events and I have to say that I am excited. Between myself, Lord Houghton and art-team member Atheistium, we should have you completely covered in what's shaping up to be some overdue public merriment in the name of games.  

While I hope to attend as much as possible, my particular desire will be the Videogames Live orchestral concert by the London Philharmonic, which will incorporate light shows and videos into a performance of some of the most famous tunes in videogame history. There will be two events at the Science Museum, one that compares the human brain to a computer and one that studies eye movements when playing games. Shut up, it might be interesting, you don't know.

Throw in the BAFTA Video Game Awards, the famous Golden Joystick Awards and an Ubisoft-hosted Battle of the Bands/Battle of the Gaming Clans mashup called Fuse 07 and you have one Hell of a week. Oh, and I almost forgot -- The Royal Society of Medicine will be the home of Ban These Evil Games, a debate on gaming censorship hosted by ELSPA.

For the full details, and informaton on how you can book any of these events, hit the jump. I hope to see many of you at the events I can make it to.