NowGamer Podcast Competition Prize Unboxing

I regularly read articles on the NowGamer.com website and visit its forum daily (I post under the name sorenlorensen). It's is a videogame website, owned by Imagine Publishing (the publisher of gamesTM, Play and 360, among others). Informative previews and authoritative reviews of forthcoming games (together with an intelligent, informed forum. Ahem), it also has its own, fortnightly(ish) podcast, which is the best videogame podcast that I've listened to (imagine a videogame version of Football Ramble). The podcast includes a competition, where listeners have to recognise a electro-synth cover version of a piece of classic videogame music. Last time out, I guessed (and it was a guess) correctly - Final Fantasy VII - and was the lucky recipient of a prize that money simply could not buy.

The literal, if not the metaphorical truth...

Much like Blankety Blank, the podcast revels in the crapness of its prizes, the truth of which the host, Dan Howdle, cleverly does not reveal until announcing the winner. I think that gives the prizes an additional cachet - any entrant, based on previous experience, knows the prizes will be, mainly, a load of rubbish but still enters.

My prizes arrived today and, in best Bullseye fashion (two 80s game shows in successive paragraphs!), let's have a look at what you could have won.

Mr Postman, that is no standard parcel!

And what a cornucopia of, of, of, stuff it was -

Heart of Faerie tarot cards. Coming soon to an Oxfam near me

Assassin's Creed II on PC. Not bad. I've put over 40 hours into the 360 version, so this'll be off to to my local second-hand games shop tomorrow. Ninja Blade is in there as well, another game I've completed on 360 - Game Focus, in Goodge St, if you're interested ;)

Yes, there are two copies of Africa 1943: Theatre of War. Once just wasn't enough

There were a whole load of PC games, as you can see, including UK Truck Simulator, wherein you can experience the life of a haulage contractor (according to the blurb anyway, though no mention of roadside fry-ups, unfortunately) in all (yes, all) major cities of the UK. And Grimsby.

Bioshock 2 flask. For plasmids. Probably

Some of the stuff was actually quite good, if you like games-related tat (and who doesn't?). Among those was a Bioshock 2 flask (above), The Conduit portable MP3 speakers shaped like a hand grenade (one for my next trip on an aeroplane), Crash Bandicoot fridge magnets, the Dead Space animated movie, Finnish developer Top Trumps (RedLynx rock!), Fall Guy DVD and the Solomon Kane movie novel by Ramsey Campbell (I like Ramsey Campbell - Cold Moon was excellent - but I wonder if he took that gig to pay the rent).

The full haul, featuring huge gloves. If a chilly gorilla comes to stay, he'll be laughing

One of the 'nearly best' items was the Bioshock 2 Special Edition on Playstation 3. Except it didn't have a copy of the game, or the soundtrack CD!

That's an actual LP! My daughter didn't know what it was. Tsk, kids today

The Special Edition extras (that I do have) are impressive. As well as the soundtrack LP (not that I've had a record player for about 15 years), there are some art prints (in 50s-style Rapture designs) and a high-quality 'Art of Bioshock 2' book, all in a sturdy box. All I need now is the game! And the CD...

Download the latest NowGamer podcast at iTunes now and you too could be the happy owner of such treasures in future! I've already entered for the latest one - I have no shame...