Infinite Bits is definitely a consumer-oriented video game event. It's about the community and the gamers, rather than big-name publishers showing off their wares. It's about breaking records and friendly competition, with guests like Pac-Man champ Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies' Walter Day. Our favorite extreme console modder Benjamin Heckendorn will be there. They've even got concerts from chiptune artists Starscream and goatslacker, as well as video game cover band Random Encounter. It's basically a bunch of gamers getting together to have fun, play games, and buy stuff for an entire weekend, which sounds just fine to me.

Infinite Bits runs from October 23rd to the 25th at the Miami Mart Hotel and Convention Center, with tickets running you $30 for a weekend pass, or $35 at the door. I'd highly recommend ordering tickets beforehand, as wandering about Miami with cash in your hand is an invitation to get shot. Well, more shot than you'd normally be just wandering about Miami without it.

Infinit Bits [Official Website]

As I was standing there an ambulance pulls up, with medical technicians rushing into the building. A couple of minutes later they come up with an Asian teen writhing about in the stretcher, screaming the most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard, over and over again. I saw no blood, and his body looked okay outwardly - he was just screaming nonstop. I waited til they closed the door to snap the picture, out of respect, but even within the sturdy van I could still hear him wailing away.

I did ask around to see if anyone knew what happened, but no dice. I am just going to go ahead and assume he got hopped up on speed and attempted to play My Horse and Me 2.

Some of the highlights I noticed, from my quick perusal, includes:

Ken Levine's keynote
EndWar, Prince of Persia, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Dawn of War, This is Vegas, Dragon Age and Spore presentations
The Growing Role of Women in the Industry
Game Criticism and Old Game Journalism
The Art of the Dungeon Master
History of Harmonix
Family Feud PAX Edition
The Wil Wheaton Panel
GamerDad's Gaming With Children

Of course you've also got live music, movie screenings, the tourneys and a chance to see Tycho and Gabe create a strip live. Sounds like a fun time. Who's planning on going?

The PAX 2008 Schedule [PAX]

With an aging gaming population comes more gamers with money, which means ... money to spend on travel. Bonnie Ruberg takes a look at where gamers would go given $1,500 for expenses for a 'game-related' vacation. PAX? E For All? Tokyo Game Show? ... Disneyland? I can't remember the last proper vacation I had, but I can say definitively I wouldn't be planning it around a convention or expo. In fact, a weekend off with time to do nothing but hang out would be a treat right now:

Not everyone's so ready to move from the sofa and fly across the country though. Chris Furniss, a 26-year-old Web site designer at Microsoft Game Studios in Redmond, Wash., feels $1,500 won't get him far. "Since flights anywhere are so expensive and I already live in Seattle, I'd go to PAX and live it up," he says. "I'd stay at a nice hotel downtown, get tickets for all three days and go on a shopping spree on the show floor. PAX is the gamer destination of choice and always a really fantastic time."

Short piece with a nice little slideshow and worth a looksee on a lazy, overcast Saturday like today.

Top Travel Spots For Game Fans [Forbes via Heroine Sheik

Leipzig announces travel improvements [GamesIndustry.biz]

Target and E for All are teaming up starting today to host a $3,000 Guitar Hero 2 tourney at the public gaming convention in LA.

The tournaent will run from today through Saturday with the winner taking home more than $3,000 in cash and Target gift cards. Gift cards? Like 2,000 $1.50 cards?

Hit the jump for the full release and the South Hall of E4All to see it in person. Say Hi to McWhertor if you see him hanging about... and then poke him and tell him to get back to work.

WHAT: Calling all self-professed Guitar Hero® experts! E for All attendees are invited to bring their axes to compete as Target presents the first-ever Guitar Hero event at E for All. During the event, hundreds of competitors will showcase their shredding skills at one of the Guitar Hero® II kiosks on the show floor to qualify for the final showdown Saturday on the main stage. Gamers will even get the chance to play Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock before its release on Oct. 28. By out-rocking the competition and impressing the expert judges, the true Guitar Hero will walk away with more than $3,000 in cash and Target gift cards.

WHO: Target is giving consumers the chance, courtesy of Activision and RedOctane, to rock at E for All as industry experts judge for scoring, accuracy and performance.

WHEN: Guitar Hero Event
Oct. 18-20, 2007
Finals will take place Saturday on the main stage.

E for All
Oct. 18-21, 2007

WHERE: Guitar Hero Event Area - South Exhibit Hall
Los Angeles Convention Center
1201 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90015

NEWS/VISUALS:

- Guitar Hero fanatics on stage dressed the part, rocking out for a large audience.
- Expert judges playing the game and interacting with fans.
- Ultimate Guitar Hero being presented with more than $3,000 cash and Target gift cards.
- Fierce face offs between event finalists on the main stage in South Hall.
- Perfect opportunity for broadcast outlets to film general video game footage in preparation for the holiday season.

Sony And Other Publishers Bypassing E For All Expo [Firing Squad]

With just a week to go before Kotaku invades Leipzig, the Games Convention is starting to take shape. The convention's official blog posted a slew of set-up pictures today showing off how the event center is starting to come together. Images from the Sony booth shows lots of space taken up for Eye of Judgment, Time Crisis 4, Ratchet, Uncharted and Lair. EA's booth looks a bit like the Sydney Opera House, while Blizzard appears to have space for WoW and Star Craft II.Lucas Arts look like they will be showing Star Wars Force Unleashed, judging by their signage.

While this list of amazing games has me pretty jazzed, the thing that's most psyching me up for the event is the fact that the Sony booth has a hot tub and that the hosts appear to be building a "Games Convention Beach." Did I mention this show still has booth babes?

Seven Days Left [GC]

Nintendo today announced that they are going to be an "anchor exhibitor" for IDG World's Entertainment for All Expo slated to hit the Los Angeles Convention Center this October.

Unlike E3 and many other industry events, this one is open to the public.

"The E for All Expo supports Nintendo's mission to reach as many types of consumers as possible to expand the world of video games to new audiences," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Our Wii and Nintendo DS systems are all about gaming for the masses, and the E for All Expo will give consumers a chance to try out the hottest new Nintendo video games." "Nintendo's early involvement in E for All demonstrates the importance of a broad consumer-focused event for this industry," says Mary Dolaher, executive vice president of IDG World Expo. "E for All has been shaped from the ground up with all gamers in mind, and Nintendo has proven its commitment to embracing the spectrum of gamers, as we've seen with their launch of the Wii. In addition to being our flagship exhibitor, Nintendo of America Executive Vice President of Operations Don James has agreed to serve on our Exhibitor Advisory Board. I couldn't ask for a more universally respected colleague in this new venture."

Sounds like E or All is building up a little steam. Still not sure if it's worth covering though. What do you think? Brian Crecente

E for All Expo

Old and old-shool gamers who have a fondness for The Longest Journey, Zork, or Gabriel Knight should clear their calendars for the August 28th and 29th get together as it promises some pretty big names... in the adventure game world, of course.

Registration is open now and the whole shebang will set you back $599 per person (including hotel rooms, meals, and con tickets), but cheaper packages are available. Hardcore adventure games hitting Vegas in the middle of summer? I expect a sexy, texty time! Michael McWhertor

AdventureCon Plans Adventure Game Celebration [Gamasutra]

Hiroshi Tobisawa, President of Capcom Europe, commented: "Over 400,000 Xbox 360 owners have already downloaded the single player demo from Marketplace showing that Lost Planet is already a highly anticipated title. The multiplayer mode shows Capcom's commitment to take full advantage of the Xbox Live service and deliver an absorbing multiplayer experience to its three million subscribers.

The title is due out early next year. How many of you are anticipating it? Brian Crecente

Lost Planet's Multiplayer [Xboxic]

It looks like Bethesda Softworks will be showing off some interesting stuff at this year's E3.

They say they will have Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (PC and Xbox), Star Trek Tactical Assault (DS and PSP), and Star Trek: Legacy (Xbox 360 and PC).

Legacy sounds tres interesting.

So if you had to rule out E3, but still wanted to hang with fellow gamers, which convention would you pick? QuakeCon, Penny Arcade Expo, BlizCon, Everquest Fan Faire?

Hit the jump to vote away and feel free to throw in your own suggestions in case we missed one.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

I'm expecting at least one blockbuster bit of juicy news to pop free from the show. I mean, look at the line-up:

Peter Moore: The Changing World of PC Games"

Reggie Fils-Aime: "Expanding the Market for Interactive Entertainment"

Will Wright and Peter Molyneux : "The Battle of Bunker Hill"

Lorenzo DiBonaventura, producer of the DOOM movie, Lyle Hall, producer of The Incredibles video game, David Franzoni, writer of King Arthur, and Moderator Larry Shapiro of CAA will delve into franchise crossover between films and video games

Gabe Newell: "Half-Life and the Struggle for Survival"

David Jaffe: "Chasing Perfection: The Making of God of War"

Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido : "Outside the Shadows: A Conversation with the Creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus"

As BlizzCon approaches the folks at Blizzard have announced the cool bag of goodies everyone attending will receive. The list includes a virtual baby Murloc for World of Warcraft, beta test code for an upcoming Blizzard game, a BlizzCon T-Shirt, BlizzCon playing cards, a show guide and a bunch of other neat little toys.

Man, I'm a sucker for swag.

BlizzCon Goodies [Blizzard, via Blues News]

We all still love your PC games. Just because we own Xboxen and PS2s and even a few GameCubes doesn t mean we don t still have room in our lives for a hulking, memory cranking computer tower of doom. We know we take you for granted, but sometimes we just need a reminder of all you do for us.

Enter Flagship Studios president Bill Roper, who back-handed the gaming world back to reality with a peppy keynote at the Games Convention Developer Conference about the place PC gaming has in the world.

I'm going to get on my PC soapbox for a few minutes. PC games are on the verge of a major market shift, as PC developers and publishers start to move from selling CDs of single-player games to retail outlets, to selling online games to those with broadband connections. We're already seeing primitive multi-platform games on the PC... Players want to get online and play.

That was followed by another shout-out to the PC by Intel's Germany Segment Manager, Consumer Software and Solutions, Arne Peters.

When it comes to playing games, there are more devices than ever before. But one thing I would subscribe to is that the PC platform is very much alive. Despite all the discussions surrounding the next generation consoles, PC has always been there, and will remain... PCs are the centre of online gaming.

Ahh, I needed that. I m going to run home right now and crank up a my copy of Guild Wars and get to crawling. (I could always return to World of Warcraft which I still have somehow managed not to cancel yet. Oh my God, what is wrong with me?)

Roper predicts major PC games market shift in Leipzig keynote [Games Industry]

Xbox Live's Major Nelson is on scene at the Game Show Convention in Leipzig, Germany preparing for today's big Xbox 360 press conference. With a little time to kill, the Major wandered the halls of the convention center, which features an entrance hall the size of an aircraft hanger, and shot some great pics of the place.

The Xbox booth is one of the largest at the show and looks like a city park complete with fake grass, real trees and a sand path that wanders through the center of it. The booth features 20 to 30 demo stations with park benches and Samsung plasma screens to check out the games on.

Stay tuned for news of today's announcements.

Major Nelson's Preview of the Game Convention in Leipzig [Xbox]

The Girlz of Destruction dished out some major QuakeCon-flavored pwnage over the weekend in Dallas. The all-women clan took the first three places in the tourney, netting a total of $30,000 in cash.

The trio had to take down about 125 others in Free-For-All and a variety of other bouts. The group is sponsored by Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer VIA, which has got to be pretty damn happy right now with their investiment.

VIA's Keith Kowal sure was:

On the gaming front the action could not have been hotter. In the Ms.Quakecon competition coming from the loser bracket Missy faced off against Trito with a very tight game. In the end Missy prevailed and proceeded to the finale with Trito automatically taking 3rd place. At the evening finale Missy and Ms.X (the reigning Ms.Quakecon champion) went head to head. As Ms.X came from the winners bracket she just needed to win once, while Missy had to win twice.

For the first game Missy was on fire playing on her favourite map soundly beating Ms.X 12-2. After a short break a second map was chosen that turned out to be Ms.X s favourite. The action was very nail biting with the girls going one-for-one for two thirds of the game. Then towards the end Missy racked up a bunch of kills and ended the game 11-4. All in all the Girlz of Destruction had a very impressive tournament finishing 1-2-3 and firmly established their clan s dominance in the first person genre.

Teen blasting machine and clan leader Jamie "Missy" Perevda, 18, of San Jose, took first place and $15,00 of the loot. All that ass-kicking and people are still calling them girls. Sigh.

VIA Girls in QuakeCon Clean Sweep [Bit Tech]