Announcement: It’s 2009, we can now officially start getting excited about the console release of Street Fighter IV.

It might sound a bit odd but despite having plenty of opportunities to have a quick shot on Street Fighter IV I still haven’t played it, not even once. The reasons are, let’s say, two-fold. Firstly I always end up super busy at events, or in the case of the second day at Battle of Destiny, too hungover to get up early enough.

The second reason is more plausible, despite being a huge fan of everything Street Fighter I’ve never managed to develop any truly ‘mad skills’. Sure I can beat my mates if we crack open 3rd Strike near the end of a party, I can hold my own on Live in sessions of HD remix but places where Street Fighter IV has been available to me have always been attended by ‘The Elite’. Not to mention the ever competitive Leo Tan from Capcom, despite only ever having played a few rounds of 3rd Strike against him I consider him my nemesis. So my second reason is good old performance anxiety, I want to learn to play Street Fighter IV. I have no delusions here I don’t expect to become a master, I just want to be able to hold my own. I want to understand the new game mechanics, I want to pick a fighter and practice, I want to learn how to Focus Attack & Dash Cancel.

So to get myself started I have decided I need a few things…

Collectors Edition	MatCatz FightPad	Awesome New Stick
	Some Time Off Work!

I better start saving up my pocket money! Roll on the 20th of February.

Back in November as I’m sure you all know we saw the launch of the New Xbox Experience.  Some of us liked it, some of us hated it and we all made sure everyone knew our feelings on it.  After a while of mucking about with it I have discovered its greatest feature which seems to have had very little in the way of praise.  So here you go: the Community games are excellent. 

In the last few weeks I have been downloading loads of trial games and even buying a few that I felt were worthy of my playing.  Let me explain briefly that before the dash update the community games were known as XNA games, games where people like us could make their own games and share them online.  You had to download the XNA player programme to play the games, but now it’s as simple as downloading an arcade game.  The quality of the games do vary from ’simplistic but fun’ (Sin Surfing) all the way up to ‘just one more go’ (Petank Party).  Best of all some of the cheapest games start at only 200 MS Points which is a bit of a bargain.

Some of us here at Ready-Up! witnessed what goes into these type of games at last year’s Edinburgh Interactive Festival and believe me, it’s a hell of a lot of work.  Indeed one of the games that I played has just been put up for download called Planet Panic. It sees you guide a planet around the screen trying to destroy your opponents in an Asteroids type manner. Amazingly lots of those games are available to download some of my favourites were Vegemee and Origamee, they really did showcase what can be achieved.

If you haven’t yet looked at the Community games, stop reading this and head on over to your Xbox 360, you really will be amazed at what you find.  Be warned though, the simple start and quick loss of life on your first try at Machiavelli’s Ascent hides the amount of hours you will put into trying to get higher, you’ll soon see what I mean.  Another thing that I have noticed is that the makers of the games are trying out new things, ever used your Chatpad to play a game?  Well you can here with Type Attacks, where you have to type in the onscreen words to be rid of them, it gives me hope for Typing Of The Dead!

You can see the influences of playing games on the people who make the games, some are blatant rip offs but some can also be seen as homages to some great games of yore.  It’s possible that the Community games will overtake the Live Arcade games as the most downloaded, but I really hope they don’t.  At the moment, the games are cheap and playable, they don’t promise anything fancy or modern, they are there for the pure fun of it which at its essence, is why we play games.  So support the small programmers and download some of these games, I need an opponent for Petank Party.

A rare opportunity is available to work on the UK’s fastest growing gaming community website.

READY UP needs a passionate, talented and committed writer to join our team and contribute to the blog and review sections of the website. Applicants must be willing and able to attend press events.

Requirements

As a Staff Writer you will be responsible for researching, writing and editing your own regular blogs for the site, bi-monthly. You’ll produce lively, clever copy, infused with your own personality and style.

Applicants must have solid spelling and grammar.

Most importantly you must be able to display a keen knowledge of and interest in gaming.

What we can offer you

If you’re looking to make your break into journalism, Ready Up offers you the chance to build up a body of work, benefit from the coaching and support of established journalists and the opportunity to attend many industry events where you’ll have the chance to spend time with game developers and other industry insiders.

This is an exciting opportunity to hone your writing skill and take the first steps in a career in journalism.

Ready Up is a non-profit organisation and as such there is no payment for work however you will be provided with promotional copies of games for review purposes.

About Ready Up Community Gaming Site

Ready Up is a gaming website staffed by industry professionals and passionate amateurs each bringing different skills like photography, writing, web design and of course professional gaming to the site, our content and media. With daily updates to the website’s blog and review pages Ready Up’s large staff work closely together to produce fresh, topical content with a personal slant and with passionate style. With a policy of maintaining roughly equal numbers of female and male staff, Ready Up provides the broadest range of experience you’ll find in the industry utilising the experience of clan leaders, professional competitive gamers, award winning videogame journalists, games programmers and even the UK’s Frag Dolls. In Britain, Ready Up is one of few gaming media websites covering gaming events such as tournaments, conferences and game launch events - all filmed in High Definition video. Recent projects include a mini documentary on Video Games Live, the live gaming music concert, screened at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival over three days. Ready Up video features also make regular appearances on Official Xbox 360 Magazine’s cover disk. Currently Ready Up is producing several videos of industry lectures and panels for Channel 4. For more information visit www.ready-up.net.

How to apply

Email us letting us know who you are and how you think you could contribute to the site at applications at ready-up dot net.