Reply to this question- "who is the coolest Sonic sidekick ever? - Tails, Knuckles or Shadow? "Winner will be picked at random, and according to the right answer (which is my fixed personal opinion...and the obvious one really). There is only one sweet to give away per blog, per winner (yes this blog is available on both IGN and Gamespot) COMPETITION OPEN TO ALL INTERNATIONAL ENTRIES. I will announce the winner on this blog post comments section, please then leave me a contact whether it is a facebook or Xbox profile to arrange a delivery address. I'm under Mark Boss on facebook, you can't miss the profile pic.

P.s. I can't assure whether or not this sweet will still be edible. It's been a month or so since Eurogamer. Although it is a boiled sweet, and from my understanding these things can survive a nuclear holocaust.

Now onto the rest of the blog...

2009, for me this has been the year of the expo. And whilst the Germany Gamescom has rightly dominated all, 'said with my Gamescom camp wrist band still attached four months later', there have been some great expos over here in merry old London. Chief among them- the October MCM expo.

At the start of what were a somewhat hectic couple of weeks I attended the MCM expo on the 24th of October for the second time this year. And boy what a pile of awesome it ended up being.

What's always made the MCM expo are the cosplayers. It's here where they hold the world record attempt each year for the most cosplayers in one spot, and which they usually top each year round. And it's these guys that make up the atmosphere at the joint. At the first MCM expo of the year I encountered my first wave of video games cosplayers as can be seen in this great cosplay selection video I did.

Then there were the games present- Bayonetta, L4D2, Assassins Creed 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction. A pretty good turnout for what is a mixed entertainment expo event, with the real focus being once again on cosplayers.

Here's some of the videos highlights of the event as well as the Eurogamer event which was on the following weekend.

One of my favourite interviews from the show was this awesome Bayonetta interview where at the end I posed the question, was Bayonetta inspired by a certain Chobot?

I interview two hot cosplayers about doing it pro

What do gamers think of the Aliens vs Predator demo?

Watch as Ubisoft rep takes us through the Splinter Cell demo

The PlusXp and gamers-unite gang discuss their impressions on the new Super Mario Bros

And if you enjoyed those videos please visit PlusXP.com for loads more including my Mod War 2 marathon. Theres also the gamersuniteTUBE page on Youtube.

As you can probably tell I don't blog as much as I used to and the events that these videos were filmed at are from some time ago. Right now the main place for all my vids will be PlusXp.com the sister site to gamers-unite.com, my blog has now become more of like my diary. Which is still cool. And yes Gamers-unite.com is still on the way. After a false start earlier this year due to some poor filming equipment, I had to take some time and rethink my **** out. Right now the site is being worked on by two separate web designers and there's around 30 writers/ video hosts interested in participating including the guys over at PlusXp.com

But that's a story for another blog.

I shall leave you guys with this photo and one of the reasons I love being gaming video journalist.

Because the people in this industry are awesome.

P.S. just want to give a shout out to my mate James Gilmour whom has recently started as an intern on Gamespot UK, have fun there bro, and hopefully they will do the right thing and hire you full time.He's kindalike Justin Calvert...but awesomer. Heres a link to the news article he wrote recently and he can also be heard in the past weeks Gamespot UK podcast.

www.gamespot.com/users/markB0SS

www.blogs.ign.com/markB0SS

That's 'Boss' spelt with a zero

- ermmmmmm...AWESOME SAUCE WITH FRIES PLEASE!

Ok, who else can not wait for this peice of epic. Each trailer I see for it just adds to the overall anticipation of what could be the best game of this generation, NEIGH, BEST GAME OF THIS GENERATION!

But enough of me adding to the hype machine catalysedby smartly producde online trailers with compatent male presenter and shiny CGI pillars.

Im here writing this whilst listening to the recently announced song to the game; Leona Lewis- My Hands. And I have to say I like it, its kinda cool to have a recognisable artist signed up to a narative based game, plus the song aint too shabby. It has a deep uplifiting theme to it which should hopefully fit the themes of FF13.

Listening to the album as a whole, I can't decide whether or not 'Brave' would have been a better choice of song, but non the less, this is a great move by Square Enix.

Of course not only was this song announced, but the fact that the game itself will be released on March 9th is pretty cool too. What has become the delayed timeslot for many games that could not make the much desired xmas launch has in recent years over shone it. Not only this, but FF13 is in perfect timing for my bday game slot. A tradition started off by Mario 64 released on March 1st 1997 aka my 13th birthday. Something you probably don't care about.

But the point of this blog post is that Im excited about FF13. Alot. In fact its been a while since Ive been this excited about a game. From what I can gather from trailers the game has the similar 'underdog rebellion'theme that was present in the ****c FF7. Then theres the female lead and the rest of the characters who seem quite conceptiallyplain in comparison to previous but endering and real. I am also liking the mix of technology and nature in the FF13 universe which brings about the whole natural evolution vs human creation therom.

Thats it for now my fellow FF13 anticipation fans, oh and hey, your probably wondering how epic this game could truly be. Well they didnt tell me, but I can asure you, as soon as they tell me, I'll let you know.

(CAMERA ZOOMS OUT FOR SHINY CGI PILLARS TO MOVE OUT FROM UNDER THE GROUND)

UBER EPIC

And if you don't get that fairly poor inaccurate reference, please watch this latest trailer which was revealed last week.

- The Mod War 2 poster taunts me right outside my work place.

This past Tuesday I booked the entire day off work to queue up at Sainsbury's, purchase Modern Warefare 2 and play it all day. I gaming tradition I have not embraced for some time. Another tradition that I decided to start up, was to film it. All of it.

I filmed the entirety of my play through that day, and below lies the link of me playing through the game and completing it complete with obligatory rap music. Check it out! (BEWARE POSSIBLE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT COMPLETED THE GAME YET)

MOD WAR 2 MARATHON VIDEO

Whilst the it is not my best video production technically, I think it is deffinately something Id like to do again in the future with future releases.

As for the game itself, it was a blast! It almost felt like Christmas day, you know when you just play all day long but never get bored, still enjoying it all the way.

Although I have to say looking back at it now I do have a few dissapointments, and mostly in the multiplayer I think, which was my favourite aspect of Mod War 1. But I'll leave that for another blog entry.

The single player campaign, whilst a blockbusting action epic it was, the story itself felt more contrived then that of a Tom Clancy novel for the MTV generation.

But it is a good sequel. And its only Saturday, Ive got loads to do on the multiplayer and Campaign to do on Veteran. Oh and did I almost forget...SPEC OPS! which has to be probably my favourite aspect of the game right now. The AC30 covering fire mission is bordering on Awesometacular.

Thats it for now, keep an eye on my blog for the 'slight postponed Eurogamer post' and 'I almost forgot to post on MCM' posts.

Stay frosty!

- The security was out Tuesday morning to make sure no one got to rowdy!

LIKE A BOSS.

Ive finally made a new blog post, and to kick it all off again, its my Gamescom post.

I'm back once again with dry mud from Germany on my trainers and my worn camp festival band loosely dangling from my arm. And yes there actually still is dry mud on my trainers from two months ago. That's just how special the Germany gamescom is. And also, how weird I am.

And even though last year was pretty fantastic; taking the tram with Jessica Chobot, eating out with Gamespot, Fallout demo. I actually preferred this years event. To cut a long delayed story into a short photo blog post, here's how it went...

-Me getting pumped for the Gamescom! And yes that is a NES controller.

-Reuniting with Fran

-Preshow setup

-Cool tent

-Retro gaming clothes day

-Gamespot golden age member number 3

- The unofficial IGN fan club

- German girls FTW!

- Germans are always trying to make me laugh

- on the Main pretty bridge at Koln, there's this tradition of locking padlocks on the grill fence. Hopefully next year I can revisit this location and unlock the padlock.

- Playing Mario Kart DS with some random fellow gamers at the queue for Dark Void.

- The coolest.

-My wrist wear attire for the show.

-Once again we beat the Germans

These are just some of the photo highlights from my Facebook photo album where you can catch the whole shindig.

Ive even got some fantastic videos behind the scenes of 'The Daily Fix' shot at Gamescom this year (yet to be put up). Oh yeah and that was me at the intro and background of both Fix videos at the con.

So yeah, it was pretty fantastic. Chobot taught me how to have sex with multiple partners in Fable 2, Fran introduced me to Peer, I showed off my cool Nintendo belt to Matt Casamasina, all the gamers that had taken photos of my space invaders t-shirt and when I told Alex Navarro how awesome Gamespot used to be and, well, the list goes on.

Your probably thinking wheres the games talk/photos. But I think at this point in time a more personal blog on the event was more appropriate and well a better read.

And it was a much more personal holiday then that of the previous also.

Having left planning to last minute, I was once agian left to huddle in my small tent 'little Britain' at the official camp grounds.

And what a great decision it was, I can genuinely say that from my experience this year, I will now attend every future Gamescom at the camp grounds. My experience totally excelled that of the lone wolf adventurer of 2008 Leipzig. It was a much more social ground. And thanks to Red Bull sponsoring it was a much more comfortable ground too.

Bean bag tent, open camp fire, volley ball net, outdoor/indoor showers and toilets, adventure park, youth center building. This was a great camp site. The move to Koln was a good one based on this alone.

Then the Gamescom itself. Whilst there weren't as many playable game demo's as there were in Leipzig, the air con at the expo halls was fantastic. That's right, I'm putting air-con over playable game demos and if anyone reading this has been to the Leipzig Gamescon before, they know what I'm talking about.

The Leipzig expo hall was essentially one giant green house.

But it was the overall experience that made this con stand out to me over last year and pretty much any expo this year. Little things as well as the above such as the PC parts that decorated the morning breakfast tables. Making a ton of friends with gamers from all around the world. Seeing the main guy behind saboteur (the one with the awesome Mohawk) sit at dinner with his crew like a king, and pulling that hot German girl whom was way above my league.

I cannot recommend all gamers to attend Gamescom enough. No matter where you are in the world, whether or not your going to E3, and especially if you like Fanta; You should go to Gamescom.

It a gamers event. And the campsite brings a great festival feel to the event which none other offers. And seriously German Fanta is so much better then crap they give us.

That's it for now. I'll leave with something more present. A photo of my Halloween costume.

And a link to a video I did on Bayonetta.

You know that scene in 'Last Action Hero' when the main kid walks ino the police station for the first time and and then Sharon Stone walks past him followed by the T1000, and he kinda just follows them with a turn of his head in disbelief. Thats what it was like when I saw Alex at the Gamescom 'Germany' this year.

I just didnt expect to see him, even though I knew that Rockband Beatles was making an attendance and the knowledge that Alex works for them (or at least some form of music game). As huge fan of the oldschool 'original' Gamespot, it was a great moment I wont forget any time soon.

I stopped him, told him Im a fan of his gamespot years, and that himself and the rest of the crew (Rich Gallup. Greg Kasavin, Jeff Gerstmann etc) were at the top of their game when they were at the helm, and overall that they rock. This photo soon followed.

Unfortunately I didnt see Alex again, dispite his invitation to perform at Rockband Beatles. But I'm happy enough just bumping into him. Bumping into one of the old school crowd could be compared to finding Deoxys in Pokemon, they are spread out and are rarely found in public expos like this since leaving games journalism.

Next up on on the spot, Rich Gallup. I wish.

p.s. should be getting photos and vids up on here on the next following days