Again I leave the world of the internet for a few days! I travel to Bristol with my girlfriend for some time away. I shall return Sunday to my blogging!

Adios!

PEGI is better than the BBFC when it comes to games classification according to Microsoft’s head of corporate affairs in the UK, Matt Lambert. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Matt was at a recent Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee which is focusing on the effect of violence in videogames and is running parallel to the Byron Report.

“If there’s going to be one ratings system, it should be PEGI,” he said. “With PEGI, they think very carefully about age appropriacy…but the BBFC is set up to rate films, and it takes that approach for games when a different approach is required.

“PEGI breaks it down to a different level. If there’s bad language it will give you a specific symbol, if there’s gambling there’s another symbol, and some games will have a whole raft of symbols on the back. It’s a different depth, it’s more sensible, and it also has a European aspect to it.”

This is a very interesting story, read the whole thing here.

In a recent Press Release from the Department for Culture Media and Sport it has been revealed that the software and computer games sector are the biggest sectors and contribute the most growth among creative industries in the UK. Creative industries contribute £60 billion to the UK economy according to the report and the software and computer games sectors contribute massively to this.

Software and computer games comprise the biggest sector and contribute most to growth, accounting for over 50per cent of turnover growth between 1995 and 2005.

The report which can be found here also indicates that NCSoft, the company behind games such as Guild Wars and City of Heroes, has signed an agreement to help provide 5,000 formal apprenticeships by 2013 from the entire creative sector.

In a related report entitled Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy a Centre of Excellence for Computer Games is due to be set up. The report also details that there are over 100 further education courses in the UK dealing with computer games, it goes on to say that University courses dealing with computer games are looking for students with a mix of Maths and Art A Levels. This is an unusual mix and the Government plans to increase awareness of the skills required to University computer games courses.

Further the report says that;

The Government will also increase awareness of the current R&D tax credit scheme and investigate how to make it more user friendly for small business, with a particular focus on the computer games industry.

These are two very interesting reports, it will be very intriguing to see if they have any effect on the Byron Report. For now, we must wait and see what the next few weeks and months bring in what is sure to be a crucial time for the games industry in the UK.

“PC gaming as we know it is dead… secure gaming is the future.”

That is what Chris Taylor said in coverage of a GDC conference by Gamasutra, this is following on from a recent interview with IGN where he explained that piracy is killing the PC.

Ex-Sony exec Phil Harrison agreed with Taylor;

Ex-Sony exec Phil Harrison concurred, saying, “There is a generation of kids who are already on the planet who will never ever buy physical media,”

The advocacy from two leading figures in the games industry for digital distribution shows the platforms like Steam are the way forward for the PC.

The Birmingham Omega Sektor has recently announced that it is setting up a Pro Gaming League.

We want competitive gaming to be truly accessible to everybody and to use the wealth of experience we have here to not only cater for gamers but also to innovate within the league format by refining the rules and encouraging all elements of the games to be explored

Games currently being played include Counter-Strike:Source and Call of Duty 4. They are aiming to cater to all types of gamers, so if you are in the area it will be worth a look.

Site

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix has been officially announced by D3Publisher of America and is slated for a Fall 2008 release on PC, Xbox Live and the DS. Galactrix will be taking the Puzzle Quest franchise into space with a new sci-fi tone and storyline.

Being in space things are changing around with the puzzle board being effected by momentum rather than new blocks simply falling into place, this is just one of many changes you can expect to see in Galactrix.

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Bill Roper, boss of Flagship the studio behind Hellgate London has admitted that they didn’t meet expectations when it came to the game which arrived badly bugged and experienced a rocky launch. CVG have excerpts from his upcoming interview with PC Zone, and even in these small pieces of the interview he is frank about the game.

“…we simply tried to do too much with the game”, Roper says in retrospect. “Vista, DirectX 10, being both a single-player boxed product and a multiplayer online game, a simultaneous launch in seven languages across Europe, the US and South East Asia, and creating our own fully-featured online destination on top of all that.”

However he refuses to put the blame squarely on the publishers and admits that Flagship will continue working to improve the game. Worth checking it out here.

Word has reached me that Tide’s Reach has been officially unveiled! Being created by Pi Mu Rho and his small group of followers Tide’s Reach is an episodic mod based on the Source engine.

Space is a no man’s land; pirates, scavengers and private military roam the galaxy preying on a strewn and divided humanity. A living is made on the derelict freighters and cargo vessels, stripped to the bone by the needy and the desperate. For two brothers an innocuous salvage job turns out to be more than it appears and they are thrust into a growing conflict that see’s them pitted against vastly superior forces in an increasingly hostile galaxy.

Engage in a unique and innovative episodic adventure as a Terminal Operative. Work seamlessly with your brother’s combat support and use limitless systems to level the playing field in a growing conflict across the galaxy.

While the mod has been in development for quite a while now, it is only these past few days that Pi has come out and announced the name and launched the site a proper.

More on Tide’s Reach soon, and hopefully an interview with Pi too.

Remember Cliffy B commenting the other week that PC Gaming was dying? Well Mark Rein thinks he is an idiot for saying this! Speaking to Tom’s Games regarding the PC Gaming Alliance Mark explains his view and talks about much more.

TG: But then you have Cliffy B come out and say that PC gaming is in disarray and…

MR: Oh he’s an idiot [laughing]. No, he’s a great guy. Cliff makes console games though, right? He’s on a console team that makes what is primarily a console game.

This is a great little interview regarding the PC Gaming Alliance and Rein’s views on the PC at the moment. Find it here.

Thanks to my work on Half-Life2.net I have been able to get in touch with the guys behind the Half-Life Short Stories mod and have a chat with them. We covered a good few areas of interest, the genesis of the mod, talking about the different parts to the whole thing and much more. Interview after the jump

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