Feel free to stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

So we’ve been hearing about it’s development for a little while now, but today was the big PR push for Mana Bar, Brisbane’s one and only gaming ‘n’ grog nightspot.  Being an admitted fan of combining games and alcohol, the idea was always going to intrigue me.  Here’s some delicious press release:

Opening in February 2010, The ‘Mana Bar’ is the first licensed venue that will allow people to enjoy a drink while playing the latest video game systems.

Located Australia in the heart of Brisbane’s entertainment district the Mana Bar will feature a stylish geek chic interior design with multiple LCD screens attached to the walls with playable next-gen console systems. The venue will be accessible to a wider casual market, while still catering to the hardcore gamer crowd.

Entry to the venue will be free, with no charge to play the games. The Mana Bar has a 50 person maximum capacity, and will host many special events such as game release parties, guitar hero tournaments, trivia nights, launch events, and many more.

The whole concept has been cooked up by four Australian gaming enthusiasts: AustralianGamer’s ‘Yug’ Blomberg, Creative Assembly’s Pras Moorthy, Shay Leighton and … some other guy I didn’t quite catch the name of.  Must have slipped my mind.  Oh well, I’m certain some other site may have dropped his name at some point.

In all seriousness, I’m interested to find out how the whole thing goes when the bar opens up in late February.  Is it going to be a fun, creative place where gamers can hang out and drink, or simply a controller snatching console camp-a-thon?  I’d seriously love to find out the structure the boys are putting into place for use of the machines.  Meanwhile, I’m going to assume that the dubious drinking profits from a maximum of 50 engrossed gamers will be nicely offset by lucrative gaming industry functions and events.

Still, with no cover charge and free games on tap all night, it certainly sounds like something to check out for all you Brisbane folk.  Head over to the official site for more details as they come to hand!

Mic's over there, buddy!

Have you ever fancied partaking in your own plastic rock science experiments?

Well Harmonix agrees with you, so they’ve started up a tentative program for bars and pubs to begin their own Rock Band: Bar Nights.

You know how everyone was saying that a poker table was the new pool table for night-clubs?  Well shelve those newly felt-covered beauties, club owners, because Harmonix would prefer you to replace those with a Rock Band set.  The registration site is now open for any bars who want to register their interest.  On top of receiving free promotion from the Rock Band support team, clubs will also apparently be given full access to the complete set of available DLC.

It doesn’t sound like too bad a deal, really, every bar needs a Tuesday night activity, and if Harmonix is providing the PR it could turn out to be a crowd pleaser.

Just a final reminder for all gamers in the Victorian metro: Tonight is the Xperience Xbox fundraiser at the State Library of Victoria, which is been organised by the team over at OzBoxLive.  Entry is free, and tickets will be sold to raise funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital.  There’s a whole tonne of Xbox swag to be won, including an Xbox Pro bundle and heaps of games. Full details of the raffle can be checked out here.

Both Mark and I will be in attendance, feel free to come up and say hello.  We’ll be wearing brown polo shirts (plus the giant shock of blue hair I have at the moment can be a little hard to miss!).  You can probably find me skulking around anything related to Guitar Hero.

Tickets are still available up until 3pm EST today, so if you fancy a night of gaming for a good cause, head over and reserve your place.  We’ll catch you there!

For all our Australian readers (Victorians in particular), this piqued my interest when I read it on Twitter: The crew over at OzBoxLive are helping to organise a fundraiser called “Xperience Xbox” to take place at the Victorian State Library.

All the proceeds are going towards the Royal Children’s Hospital. Entry is free, and raffles will be held through the night with prizes and giveaways.

Me and Mark already have our spots reserved. After all, of the many places we’ve played Xbox, could any of them be as classy as the State Library? The answer is no, of course.

The event takes place on the 17th of July, from 6.30 through to 9pm. Raffles and games throughout the night. To book your place, pop over to the event site, and we’ll see you there! As much credit as we can to OzBoxLive also, for helping to set up this shindig!

Last night the missus headed off with friends of our from the Herald Sun Geek Panel to see the preview of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.  Whilst in attendance, she also got to have a play of the movie’s game equivalent, and offered me up a rather quick preview of the game via text message.  I’ll repeat it here verbatim for the readers:

News for your blog: Transformers game just as good as movie.  Cryptic!

-Wife plays game, damages sarcasm detector

While she did have some rather amusing pictures for me, the “nasty” security type person ended up making her delete them from her phone, so no such luck there.  But if any of the colourful language she used to describe the film also applies to the game, well, you might want to hold on until the reviews on this title folks!  She wouldn’t tell me if this movie included Roddimus Prime lighting anyone’s darkest hour either.  Some of the secrecy surrounding the game must have worn off on her.

Ball-breakers!

If you’re a Melbournian like myself, you’ve probably heard about the current scheduling war going on over AC/DC’s upcoming tour and the Australian Football League’s preseason games.

First of all, how many people actually go to the NAB Cup games?  It’s certainly not going to be 180,000 people paying at least $100 each for a ticket, that’s for sure, which is why I think AC/DC won’t be going anywhere.

Secondly, AFL should shut their mouths and look at the positives.  Preseason has long been the domain of stupid trial rules, and this shouldn’t be an exception.  Can anyone actually imagine the level of awesome an AFL game played around an AC/DC concert could be?  Here’s my proposal: AC/DC will obviously be taking the centre of the stadium, so that can leave each end of the field free for the goal posts.  To cross the field to their goals, players must navigate the 20,000 stong general admission mosh pit.  No rough conduct fouls, and while “For Those About To Rock” plays, every time the cannons fire another three footballs are fired into the playing field.  M-M-M-MULTIBALL!

Sounds epic to me.