It all started a week ago when i saw (Thanks to @MusterBuster) there was going to be this thing called the BetaRooms in Birmingham aimed at bringing a chance for us midlanders in the UK to get our mitts on some pre-alpha games and some demo’s of games due for release later this year such as GT5, Killzone 3, MotorStorm Apocalypse (all in 3D) Little Big Planet 2, Dead Nation and of course some Move games. Straight away i sent the email to secure my invite then jumped on the phone and told my friend from up north (Damopointy) and my Dad to do the same (i had to attend this event and get my hands on GT5)
The next day whaddya know, Damo gives me a call asking me if i got in (which i didn’t) then bragging how i owe my chance to go to the betarooms to him as he’s the one with the invite. Then my Dad also tells me he got invited but i still yet didn’t have one. It turns out they both got slotted into the extra event they added on at the last minute due to the demand so it was set we were going to attend the BetaRooms on sunday evening August 1st 2010. A few hours later my golden email came through telling me i got into the earlier event on the same day and instantly thought OH-MY-GOD we’re going twice lol. Then it dawned on me. This would mean i would miss both Hungarian Formula 1 and the highlight of my week, Top Gear. Oh well its a sacrifice im willing to make 
besides ill just watch them both with the iplayer on my PS3 when i get home.
With monday booked off work and train tickets book everything was set. Me and Damo were going to BetaRooms where we would meet for the first time in person even though we’ve known each other since GTA IV approx 3 years ago. We would also be bumping into a couple other people from my friends list, Omac_Brother and TonyT3rry. The BetaRooms event was amazing it really was. Yes the games on show played a huge part in the event but it was also great to be surrounded by hardcore PS3 gamers with not an Xbox logo in sight ;P aswell as meet people you play with in person. Ive been wanting to go to an event like this for quite some time now and they always seem to happen too far away, thankfully it finally happened.
The event itself was Great. The staff were all very helpfull and friendly and It was great being asked for feedback on the games as you know theres a good chance that info will go somewhere and maybe make a difference. When i first got there i went straight for GT5 in 3D then moved to the PS3 Move section which is when Damo arrived, which you’d think would be a bit weird having not ever met in real life before but when you’ve spent as much time using the PlayStation Chat rooms with eyetoys as we have it wasn’t weird at all. Throughout the afternoon we hammered the MotorStorm Apocalypse practise consoles as much as possible while trying to get a taste of everything but wasn’t too worried about missing anything cause we knew we would get another chance to try everything we missed in the 2nd session. We also wasn’t worried about getting tired during the evening event as redbull was free.
Another thing i liked about the event was the design of the room. It looked like it was straight out of PlayStation Home with Giant cans of redbull for drinks chillers, funky seating at every console and they even had a giant Sackboy. By far the coolest thing there though has to be the tweetwall. Who ever wrote #BetaRooms in a tweet would have their message displayed on a wall for all to see, Genius idea!. Later on while i was waiting in line for another go on GT5 3D i Noticed TonyT3rry had written “@RobGroove i see you” which was brilliant as i did not yet know he was there.
The way this event allowed for hundreds of gamers to meet and interact in this way was lots of fun and i can’t wait to see this event grow into something bigger next year. Im sure this is the start of something special. Sony Playstation and all the BetaRoom staff i have to say thank you for a great day it was the highlight of my year, but only untill Gran Turismo 5 gets released 
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Make sure you check my blog over the next week or so as i will be blogging about each game and sharing both photo’s and video’s of my experiences.
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