Much fun was had as the crew at Call of Duty: World at War (CoD5) launch which happened on the recent weekend and with the eGames expo coming up in the next week, this is the most busy busy gaming month for Melbourne and possibly Australia for this year.

Before I continue any further! the photos are available here at the gallery , and with the CoD promo girls in there as well you can't go wrong.

The event started out well enough. We met up with some great gamers from the community some of which we had met before, and others we were meeting for the first time. This included JuzzK1d and Obez from Team Immunity (insert shameless plug for intel and Geil here), the happy smiling line-eup from Wings of Destiny, the beer-loving crazy boys from Ballarat and GBu, Acme from AFO, the executive management team from CyberGamer.com.au and even of our old mates from clan H*EA*T. A big plus in attending these events is that it is so beneficial for the community. You've got the chance to meet up with people you'd otherwise only hear as a voice on your teamspeak or ventrillo server. So a big thank you to Alienware and Team Immunity for having this event for us.

Not sure of what the actual event was? It was the official launch of CoD5 in Australia. At Swinburne University in Melbourne, Alienware bought together 100 top-end gaming PC's and 100 Xbox 360s to give the community the opportunity to put CoD5 through its paces before it hit the shelves to the public. Guitar Hero 3 as well as the next Bond game were also there.

The event was set to start at 4pm on Saturday however as with most gaming events, its great to start late. The Gamestah team were inside volunteering to unpack all of the Xbox 360s and setup whilst outside there was a crowd and a mighty long queue of some 300 gamers building up. Once the doors were open, the Xbox 360 queue formed for gamers to get access to controllers and the PCs were quickly occupied. Those first through the door jumped on their machines for a long time and kept it - a real life version of capture the flag?

The atmosphere was electric inside the venue with everyone chomping at the bit to get some CoD5 action. It wasn't forseen that such a larger number of gamers would descend upon Swinburne right at the start and as such playing time was limited. The popularity of the CoD series however ensured this was to be a big event. Gamers and media flew from around the country to attend and cover what is expected to be one of the biggest games released in 2008.

Day quickly turned into night and the Gamestah crew were certainly mixing it around. Trying out both the PC and Xbox version of the games easily demonstrated the different skillset you need to master either one. But it wasn't just playing that was important for the team as the crew  set about taking photos, meeting the community and chatting with gamers from all walks of life. 

The gamers were fragging along however it was apparent there were two key disappointing factors about the event. Laser tag was expected to give the gamers the opportunity to shoot their mates for real (more real than in CoD at least) however wasn't available due to venue constraints. The more critical disappointment was that all of the advertising for the Launch Party had indicated that gamers attending would be the first to get access to the game and buy it on the day. This was an exceptionally big draw-card with some of the hard-core compeititve gamers attending only to get their hands on it and take it home. Overall however the community spirit was there, which you definately felt being in an area with 800 or more fellow CoD gamers.

Andy and crew from Gamearena were also at the show, getting some good footage of the event - I'm sure he will be using footage of when the DJ was pumping out the tunes and the CoD Promo girls were all dancing. Another hit episode hit when his weekly show covering the event arrives.

It wasn't long before one of the gamers was up to no good (should have been expected). There is only one sound that gamers liked more that the beat of the Dj, and that's a firealarm. One gamer didn't disappoint and it wasn't long before an evacuation of the building was ordered. Left behind were two people 1v1'ing it in CoD5 while firemen entered the building. It's one of those comedy moments that just begged for a photo and a caption saying "just one more round!". Shortly after that, some power trips added a bit of a zap, but were quickly fixed. The crowd was still almost as large by midnight, although some more free spots on the Xbox 360s had enabled the Gamestah crew to get some more game time. A one sentence verdict is that the co-op has some great levels, but as pc gamers, it is always hard forgiving the console's controls.

The glass roof at Swinburne took its tool on the hard-core gamers who usual cringe in the presence of direct sunlight. In the wee hours of the morning the sun was coming up transferring the gaming arena from the dark depths of frag central into an evacuation zone. It wasn't long before gamers were hitting the streets of Hawthorn on their way home for some much needed sleep. The uber-hardcore gamers continued on with greater PC choice now the crowd had diminished. Some great matches were had, and it was felt that the map sizes are far larger than standard CoD4. This shouldn't be too bad as Cybergamer.com.au, the home of Australian Call of Duty, isopting to have a standard Search & Destroy competition, as well as a 5v5 Capture the Flag ladder (with the perks such as dogs, and the tanks) are set to be covering most parts of the game.

Overall the Gamestah crew lasted through until around midday on Sunday. It was very quiet in the latter part of the 24-hour event and you could have had half the PCs to yourself. It was great to meet so many people in the community and chat to some gamers for the first time. We'll be back in Melbourne next week for the eGames Expo so until then... game on Australia and we look forward to shoutcasting your future games!