EA's contribution to the London Games Festival 2008 featured live performances from Natasha Bedingfield, The Automatic and McFly among other musical luminaries, but the main focus was giving gamers the chance to get hands on with new releases.

The plastic dome hosted to the launch party for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, attended actress/presenter/lingerie model Gemma Atkinson (aka Lt Eva McKenna), which gave hundreds of gamers the chance to play the game before its launch at midnight on October 31st.

Game assault on Trafalgar Square [BBC News]

A huge plastic BattleDome will be erected under the stony gaze of Lord Nelson in which gamers can try out the latest releases, including the UK premiere of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Mirror’s Edge, Battleforge, Spore and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has decided to ignore his previous comments about videogames "rotting the brain" to welcome the event, adding that he found last year's Be The One "an undoubted highlight of last year's festival, which reinforces London's position at the center of one the most fastest-growing creative industries in the world.”

EA to take over Trafalgar Square [MCV]