The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) 2007 has announced this year's Game Screening line up, featuring a plethora of highly anticipated AAA rated games. The Game Screenings will commence on August 14, 2007 at the Odeon Cinema in Edinburgh.

The event will play host to regional premieres of Codemasters' Rise of the Argonauts (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), along with Activision's Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii).

Other game titles to be featured at the Game Screenings are Midway's Unreal Tournament III (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), and Take-Two Interactive's BioShock (PC, Xbox 360). The official announcement via press wire clued in to more games lined up for the one-day exclusive affair, although some titles will not be rendered in playable or hands-on format.

In addition, the Game Screenings will also pool in gaming fans for sneak previews, to meet, greet, and converse with their favorite game designers, and even participate in panels such as the "How To Get Into The Games Industry" expert discussion to be lead by Rebecca Thompson. Brian Glasgow, EIEF 2007 screenings director, shared his excitement and stated:

The 2007 festival Screenings promises to be the best yet. We have a fantastic line up of games and sessions. If you want to find out how to get a job in the games industry, see what you'll be playing this Christmas or meet the teams who are creating games for the latest generation of consoles, you have to be there.

Not limiting themselves to core and mainstream gamers, the EIEF is now open to even non-gamers, introducing a track for casual gaming and familiarization of gaming - the first step for going into a world of interactive entertainment. The current Game Screenings line up follows, and we'll give you more updates as they develop.

Curious about the Games Screening tracks? Check out a published list at the full article after the jump!

A joint celebration of everything entertainment and artistic, the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) coming on August 13-14 will highlight the games industry through the eyes of the entertainment industry as a whole. To be held at the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh, the fifth EIEF will reflect upon what has been the game industry's significant rise of popularity today.

Pooling personalities in the world of entertainment, what the industry gamers call "home" will be examined by parallel creative industries which include music, art, and movies. Keynoted by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, the conference will also feature reflections from Simon Nelson of the BBC, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), Linden Labs' Jim Pubrick, and actor Steven Berkhoff on games as culture.

Together with Dare to be Digital game creativity competitions and Future Publishing's EDGE Awards, the event will also conclude with a Digital Interactive Symposium on August 15 at Edinburgh University. Chris Deering, chairman of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, concluded the announcement, saying, "This year we have much to be excited about. The festival is now firmly established as one of the most important events in the interactive entertainment industry's calendar."

No, that's not a typo. Yes, we realize that we just made a mathematically impossible statement. And yes, we're sticking by it. And the author will explain himself to us.

"Hi, my name is Chris, and I cry at video games."

A number of things can make or break a video game. Eye-popping graphics, sound effects that drown the ear in a world of its own, addictive, challenging and innovative gameplay from advanced control setups to sandbox environments, fully destructible environments, massively multiplay online environments, and more. The last decade of gaming alone saw an explosion of the culture into the phenomenon that it is today. Our world. And we revel in its glory.

But in the high-paced competition among platform and software developers where they publicize each innovation as the next hyperspace jump in video gaming, let us not forget that one element of the game, as 90% of the game is video, audio, control, game scripting, and gameplay - in fact the other 90% of the game may finally elevate gaming from being seen as eye candy and "unproductive" fun to a cultural icon that forms part of what makes us human.

We're talking about the human element. "Hi, I go by Aerith, and I cry at video games."


Read the battlecry of the video gamer after the jump!

David Gardner, chief operating officer of games publishing giant Electronic Arts, has lashed out at the games industry for "failing women" at a conference in Edinburgh. Gardner said "We have all been talking about this for a long, long time." EA's own research has found that 40% of teenage girls played video games versus 90% of teenage boys and most girls lost interest in games within a year.

He also said that women are somewhat an undiscovered market and that if EA cracked the problem they "could add a billion dollars to its sales." Mr Gardner said one of the biggest problems was that the content aimed at women gamers was not appealing. "They don't want 'pink games. Thy are not trying to play girly games where Paris Hilton and Britney Spears go shopping and put make-up on. Those kind of things have not been that successful."

As you may know, Sony have just announced the Pink PSP and PS2 for European gamers. If EA's David Gardner is correct, their new move into the female gaming market will fail. If EA's figures are correct, this undiscovered market could double the gaming economy, boosting sales for all. Let's see how Sony's pink additions to their console line-up go when they are released; the PSP in October and PS2 in November.