Nokia Gaming Night at WOMWorld/Nokia

On Thursday WOMWorld/Nokia hosted a gaming night at their 1000heads Soho HQ. It clashed with London Bloggers Meetup, which put me in a position where I had to choose. In the end I decided to go to the gaming night, but not before stopping by at the Long Acre pub to say hello to a couple of other friends and bloggers first. Based on the updates on twitter, it seems that the London Bloggers Meetup was a success, but enough about that...

This was the second gaming night hosted at 1000heads. The first one was held last summer and was a success. However I felt that it became more of a networking event rather than gaming focused. Despite having a N64, SNES, Wii and Xbox 360, people preferred to gather together whilst having pizza. Which was fine as many of us were meeting for the first time. Still it was a good first event and Lauren did well organising it.

More Angry Birds toys = win!

Second time around, the event has become a bit more gaming focused. The traditional consoles were gone, instead three Nokia N8 smartphones were set up, each running a different mobile game and were then output to three separate HDTVs via HDMI out. The games were Fruit Ninja, I Must Run and SpeedX. With Fruit Ninja, users simulate a samurai sword to slice fruits thrown around the screen. It is one of the more enjoyable mobile gaming, and that's because it is one of the few mobile games that is actually optimised for touchscreen gaming.

AR.Drone in action

SpeedX is a racing game, but you don't race anything. Instead it's a 3D tunnel game (similar to Flux Challenge, except without all the opponents - and textures). It plays a bit like WipEout's Zone mode and Flux Challenge. It's a game of speed, and quick reflexes. It uses the N8's accelerometer to steer, which isn't the most accurate method of controlling a video game.

Finally I Must Run is a side scrolling action running game. There isn't much to the gameplay (the character runs automatically). You will still be tested on reaction skills as your character will run into obstacles that require you to jump, slide or punch.

RC car competition with a N8

There were three Nokia N8 phones up for grab based for whoever could get the highest score in each of the games. The competition was simultaneously conducted online via twitter. Two of the games were won by twitter users via the online competition while one was won by Zayd, who attended the Nokia Gaming Night event.

Other fun stuff includes a small competition involving a scale RC racing car where whoever could drive the car around quickest would win a BeeWi Bluetooth Mini Cooper RC car. Also on show was a AR.Drone. People took turns controlling the drone using a N8. Needless to say, it wasn't easy to control a RC Quadrotor using touchscreen and accelerometer as this video below so aptly demonstrates.

There was also a generous raffle of, guess what?? Angry Birds plushies! You might have thought I would be bored of Angry Birds toys by now, but you can never have enough, even despite the hundreds (exaggerated) or so hidden in my loft.

Many thanks to Hugo, Paul, Rhiannon and Klara from WOMWorld/Nokia and 1000heads for having us. We had a great evening.