Some things are bound to happen at every family Christmas gathering: Grandma will complain that you don't call her enough; one of your uncles will have too much to drink and tell embarrassing stories about you to the person your dating; somebody's going to break outRock Band. That's when thingsreallyget interesting.

Old people and Rock Band are an odd mix. They're always curious about what the heck is happening, but because they're old, one of two things always seems to happen: They refuse to play because technology scares the hell out of them, or they decide to give the game a shot and you spend the next hour yelling at people to stop hitting buttons so you can navigate the menus.

I wanted to find out if there was any way to make the inevitable old people/Rock Band scenario less of a debacle, so I turned to the foremost expert on the subject: Alex Navarro.Alex is a publicist for Harmonix, and one of the primary duties of his job involves going to media events, bars, and even concerts to show off Rock Band to the -- gasp --general public. The man is a wizard; he could go to the Vatican and get them rocking in a matter of minutes.

Hit up Bitmob.com for Alex's expert advice on how to get your non-gaming, musically-challenged family members rocking:

http://bitmob.com/index.php/mobfeed/harmonixs-alex-navarro-how-to-get-your-dysfunctional-family-rocking-this-christmas.html

I swear, I'll soon get around to posting a blog about the various games I've been playing over the holiday break. It'll be a bit of a departure from my usual Been Playing list considering I've only brought portable systems with me on this trip back home to Washington.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to share a few excerpts from another, far more interesting blog than my own. Joe Posnanski is quite possible the best sports wirter in existence right now, and I love reading his personal blog for all the leftover thoughts that don't make it into his SI columns. He recently watched the new George Clooney movie Up in the Air and, as someone who travels a lot for his job, this sparked Posnanski to write about his own experiences with travel. I'm someone who also spends a lot of time on the road for my 9 to 5, and since I'll never be the writer Posnanski is, I thought I'd share a few excerpts from his essay. The extent to which these thoughts reflect my own is pretty startling. Hopefully, this will give you guys a little insight into what my job is like beyond what you read here on GameSpot. Here are a couple excperts:

• Travel sucks. Only it doesn't. And that's pretty much the everything I can say about it.

• You learn miles and points and clubs and programs … not at all for the large perks they provide — the free trip to Hawaii — but for the small conveniences, the early boarding, the negligible upgrades, the free water, the warm welcome, the name on the electronic board, the smaller lines, the spare moments saved. It doesn't seem like much, and it often isn't much, but the road is for small victories, tiny triumphs over the indignities, the occasional opportunity to say: "That unexpected layover in Indianapolis when my flight got canceled was not in vain."

• I beeped when going through the security X-Ray machine a few weeks ago. ... It's hard to explain, but I felt strangely humiliated. The whole thing took only a few seconds, and I went back through the X-Ray and I did not beep this time, and I wanted to shout: "It was YOUR mistake! See?" But there was no such admission. And I thought about it way too much the rest of the day.

• I worry before every trip, a wordless worry that taunts: This will be the trip where the energy does not come, the trip that leaves you staggered and tired and discouraged. But, the energy always comes. And on the other end, there's a clean hotel room and a pretty good restaurant reservation and an exciting new story to write. So far, anyway.

You may not believe this but just about every item you all received was thanks to the GS editorial and GS Live Production staff. While the last 5 blogs are deleted to clean up my profile, majority of the items you may recall seeing came from them.

Feel free to use this blog to check in with a huge thanks to them! All of them have contributed in some way, and obviously we wouldn't have had some of them items if it wasn't for publishers and developers continuing to make awesome schwag for their partners and fans. While I might have done the grunt work to packaging, here is our awesome crew worth applauding for their donations!

Editorial/News

Shaun McInnis
Ricardo Torres
Andrew Park
Justin Calvert
Brendan Sinclair
Brian Ekberg
Chris Walters
Tor Thorsen
Sophia Tong
Kevin VanOrd
Lark Anderson
Stanley Lin
Thomas Magrino
Giancarlo Varanini
Bethany Massimilla (former staff who donated Blizzcon goodies)

Video Production

Ryan MacDonald
Frank Adams
Dan Mihoerck
Homer Rabara
Takeshi Hiraoka
Jim Maybury
Tyler Winegarner
Justin Porter
Anthony Errisuriz

Last but not least, I wouldn't have been able to do any of the packaging without Charles Harrington's effort to round up boxes, packaging, and tape (difficult to get in the office!).

Feel free to use my blog to post your pics if you have any worth sharing of your game rooms or decorations.

Thanks to Homer Rabara for the image.

This morning I was asked by Channel 4 to head over to their studios for a News at Noon segment about DJ Hero's launch (the game is out today in the UK in case you didn't know). Check out the piece below which appeared on today's News at Noon.

More than a year ago, I wrote this here in this very blog:

"A few friends and I built a site dedicated to games on the iPhone."

I was referring to a little iPhone gaming site we had built, called Slide To Play. There were four of us back then, with one guy doing the majority of the writing. Our pace was pretty leisurely, releasing a few reviews a week.

It's remained my side project, but over the past year, I've watched something amazing happen. The site started to get traffic. We then started to get some sponsors. Then we were able to get some freelancers, and were able to produce more content. And so on.

Well, the most gratifying event in our site's existence happened just yesterday, thanks to GameSpot. The announcement was made public that GameSpot is now covering mobile games, and editorial content, at least iPhone game reviews, is coming from none other than SlideToPlay!

I'll be honest. When I started building STP, and even after it launched, I didn't have an iPhone and didn't really plan on it. It didn't seem that important; I'm not an editor after all. But just a little exposure to some of the games on the system changed my mind. I got myself an iPhone and have been a believer in its gaming capabilities since! It can handle an intense combat flight sim in the form of FAST to flawless ports of old stand-bys like Myst and The Secret of Monkey Island or ports of great new games like Peggle or completely addictive simple pick-up-and-play games like Flight Control and Harbor Master and everything between.

I was a little skeptcal at first, but I gotta say, it's really hard to put down the iPhone: it doesn't hurt that it's always with me packaged into a phone I'd need all the time anyway.

Regardless, I'd just like to say thanks to GameSpot for giving us an opportunity to expose to a new audience all the cool things you can find on this platform! Keep an open mind and try it out!

The YouTube "behind-the-scenes" commentary trailer for the King of Fighters movie.

I always try to reserve judgement before seeing the final product, but after watching that trailer, well...it's like these people were trying to be as wrong as possible.

What I'm really torn about is whether I want to bother renting it when it inevitably comes rocketing to DVD. Good heavens.

So, I just got home and my plans to jump right into Aion: Tower of Eternity have been temporarily put on hold while I wait in a queue to get into my chosen server. Right now the wait time is sitting at 22 minutes, but it said something similar about 10 minutes ago, and when the number changes it's not always moving in the right direction. Anyhow, since I can't play just yet I figured I'd post an early impressions-style reviews blog entry about the game. And, since I'm having some trouble accessing the reviews blog right now, it's gonna end up here instead - at least for the moment.

In case you're unfamiliar with Aion, it's a new MMO from NCSoft that's been available in Korea for a while, but which officially goes live here in North America tomorrow. I preordered the game several weeks ago, so I was able to get in on the "headstart" launch that went live at noon yesterday. After seven or eight hours of play I'm still only level 12, but I'm starting to get a good feel for where the game is headed I think, and so far I'm liking it a lot. And here's why, in an easily-digestible bullet point format:

• Character Creation
  Aion's character creation tools are extremely powerful - like, EA Sports powerful. Sure, you can just pick a head, a body, and a hairstyle if you don't really care for this stuff, but if you want to recreate Pygar from the movie Barbarella, you have the option to tinker with just about every facial feature imaginable. The flipside of the character editor is that it gives you the freedom to make unrealistically proportioned characters with, for example, heads that are far too small for their bodies, or with tree-trunk arms and legs bolted onto a puny torso. Save for some presumably PVP-minded players opting for the tiniest character they can come up with, though, most people appear to be opting for something that at least resembles a human being.
• The Launch
  Perhaps it's not surprising given that the game is already out in Korea, but queues aside, Aion's launch has been an incredibly smooth one thus far. I was able to get into the game around 10 minutes after the announced midday start time, and although I was disconnected about 10 minutes later, I've experienced no problems since. With new players descending on the starter areas like a swarm of hungry locusts, content was getting devoured quicker than it could respawn, but getting quests completed was rarely a problem.
• Combat
  So far the assassin that I've spent most of my time playing as is a lot of fun - somewhat similar to a rogue in World of Warcraft, but with less emphasis on stealth. There doesn't appear to be a combo system as such, at least not in the WoW-rogue sense, but you can chain attacks together and, rather than having to map every move to a different button, every move in a chain is mapped to the same button. So, for example, after I perform my "Swift Edge" attack, I then use the same button to perform a "Soul Slash" and, when I reach level 22, I'll be able to press it a third time for a Rune Slash. It's been done before, but after sinking so much time into WoW and into organizing dozens of different buttons, it's a feature that I very much appreciate.
• The Visuals
  Even if I end up posting a dozen of these blogs before I'm ready to write a full review of Aion, I think I'll find it tricky to ever do so without mentioning how great it looks. The aesthetic is somewhat similar to that of Guild Wars, but with superior animation and the CryEngine under the hood. I posted some new screenshots, taken on my relatively modest home PC, to the gamespace today - definitely worth checking out.
• Flying
  Perhaps the most unique thing about Aion is that, from level 10 onwards, your character has angel-like wings that you can use to fly. Initially, you can only sustain flight for one minute, but my understanding is that increases as you level up. Also, you can only fly in certain zones, which seems a little odd, but is necessary so that you don't just bypass enemies and stuff completely.
• Gathering & Crafting
  Although I've trained as a weaponsmith, I've yet to spend much time crafting - there are a lot of materials that need to be purchased in order to work with metals it seems, and I came close to bankrupting myself long before I was able to craft a simple steel dagger. Gathering is interesting in that, rather than having to train in order to learn how to pick things up off the ground, everyone can do it. So, providing you take the time to pick flowers and fruit early on, you'll find that you're able to mine iron and gather other higher-level resources later on. Bag space is an ever-present concern, of course, but these things seemingly stack in massive numbers (I have 110 of one resource right now), you get big bags (known as "cubes" in-game), and there's a bank/warehouse system with both character-specific slots and account slots that can be accessed by all of your characters on the same server. I'm a pack-rat by nature, so bag space is always a "thing" for me, but right now it's not taking up nearly as much of my time in Aion as it always has in WoW.

And, with that it looks like I'm ready to get back into the game. Be sure to go and check out those screenshots, and expect more Aion coverage from me in the near future.

Cheers

No, I am not talking about the unending economic troubles, the impending energy shortage, credit and financial debacles, governments conspiring against their citizens, or a world destroyed.

Well, I guess I am talking about a world destroyed. Today's announcement of the new World of Warcraft expansion definitely sounds awesome. Changing the face of Azeroth sounds turbulent, but also promising for shaking up the world, the game, and the addition of some exciting new races. I am very much looking forward to playing a Worgen, almost as much as I had anticipated the arrival of the blood Elves.

Now if you will excuse me, I will go back to taking in Blizzcon, less people.

For serious.

The GameSpot UK Podcast has gone weekly in 2009, and we're constantly trying to think of new things we can add to the show. To this end, we'll now be uploading our show notes to the site alongside the podcast itself every Thursday.

As always, let us know what you think and whether you'd like to see anything else on the show! Here are the notes for this week's show.

It's a little late in the year, but happy new year, nonetheless! I hope everyone had a good winter break!

Right now I'm thinking about Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side Plus. Yeah, B's Log hasn't mentioned it yet, but I found it on the Konami site while looking for TMGS stickers ^///^; Yeah, I'm going to get it. It's amazing how stupid this makes me feel, but it's a lot easier playing TMGS on the DS than on the J-PS2 for me. I actually got the TMGS First Love on DS first....then Second DS title and then I went and got the PS2 versions because I wanted more. I haven't had a chance to play the PS2 versions at all...and I'm probably going to the the Plus. Gee. But you see, it'd be *so* *much* *better* full voice on the DS!

I wish they'd add a new character or more scenes, but it kind of doesn't sound like it from what they say :*( It's due out March 12th. I'm really surprisedit hasn't been mentioned in B's Log. Maybe I need to check a couple issues back when I wasn't reading it that closely...

So what does it say you'll get?!

1. Full Voice
With their 2GB ROM and their new compression technology, there's 3 times as much voice than in the prior version!

2. Voice has been added to Album Mode
When you look through the CG's in Album Mode, you will hear your guy talk to you like he's flipping through the pages of the album with you. I guess this wasn't in the PS2 or 1st DS version.

So well, this fan girl wants it anyway *sigh* ...so I can play it on my new DSi

Sometimes, in my travels of the internet, I come across something that I must share with the world.

This is one of those times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UChQ5QPTYXo

Its Biz Time.

I been watching the E3 coverage for years and it really seems to be going downhill. While the presentation of the show here on gamespot was good the content being shown wasn't a shocking as in years past. Most companies already announced what was going to be seen at the show ..... and most of the trailers were already on the net before the showing. The hands-on stuff was really nice and I did like the stage demos ...... but where where the big shockers. Yeah there were a few surprizes like Resistance and Super Stardust on PSP, the Wii motion plus adding improved motion controls, Xbox 360 getting FF 13, Little Big Planet becoming the new power-point, and an online video store ...... but somehow it doesn't seem to measure up to past shows. Maybe a quiet show isn't the place to hype such big announcements.

Has the show lost it's meaning in the internet age. Or is this just a sign of the changing focus by gaming publishers? Is a Big Show necessary when it's so easy to get information out to the masses? Well IMO a big showing like E3 of the past is necessary, it hypes up the main stream media, the retailers, the consumers. Gamers get to see what's to come .... which is always a great thing. Good job this year Sony for show off stuff this year and beyond, Microsoft really needs to show more than this holiday season, Nintendo need to show off what made them great and stop pushing the gimmick, I'm hoping 09 is bigger and better.

E308 just didn't seem so big with the tone down show this year! The big show hype just make everything seem better IMO.

Steve Nash - The Showdown from 13thWitness^TM on Vimeo.

Not a big Steve Nash fan even since the Santa Clara days but the video concept of 13thWitness is dpretty dope. It's like stop motion snapshots taking you through a day with an athlete. Not too far from what we do here when we're out on the road covering events. BTW the music track itself is worth a listen. Still trying to find the producer who created it, will update once that is done.

I want to play MGS4 to finally get some action on my PS3... but I haven't played any of the other games in the series.

How troublesome.

We've been witness to a lot of things in the last two years. Scorsese finally won an Oscar, there were at least 3 good episodes of Lost and we saw the fall of the Berlin Wall (not really, but as a Cold War kid I'm legally required to include that in every flashback). Nestled in there, somewhere, I came to work for GameSpot. While working at GameSpot will never compete with something as momentus as the release of Doomsday, the last two years have been among the most important and fullfilling of my career.

This Friday ( 05/09/2008 ) I produced my last GameSpot show, our Guitar Hero 3 Tournament TV. I'm happy to say that it was as fun, out of control and rewarding as anything I've done here in the last two years. I feel really good moving on with GameSpot where it is today. I've always been a user of GameSpot and when I finally landed my job here I tried my hardest to add a little something to one of the classiest places on the intertnet. Through the fun times and not so fun times my feelings for GameSpot, and the people that work here, have never changed. This is still one of the greatest sites on the internet manned by some of the greatest people in the business.

I got to work with folks I had spent years reading and laughing with as a user and then got to meet and work with all of the other people that make GameSpot tick. And though the GameSpot machine has many important pieces that you rarely see, like Frank, Jim, Tyler, Takeshi, Jan, Wernher, Dan, Dave and so many more, the essential gear that keeps it all working has to be Ryan MacDonald. I cannot say enough about his enthusiasm, trust and dedication, both for the site itself and its employees.

Then there are all the people I have to thank for letting me point a camera at them. When I think of the things they've agreed to do, and the energies that they've put into those projects, it really makes me appreciate what lack of sleep can do to a person's inhibitions and common sense.

I still get a kick out of a lot of the stuff we did. Below Stupid? Boss of Bosses? Bliss Island? Les Wampas? Why Naruto? Why Now? I'm pretty sure my girlfriend thought I was crazy because I sat at work and cracked myself up all day. Personally, I think I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world.

As always, thanks for listening,

Vinny

You can keep up with Mr. Caravella at the following:

http://www.mostlyforme.com

http://www.mindcavity.com (Currently on hiatus. To be updated after the next election)