Go play games at the Edinburgh games festival

Details have been announced of the key public event at the inaugural Edinburgh International Games Festival this August, with the city's Royal Museum playing host to the interactive Go Play Games exhibition.

A selection of some thirty games have been selected from across all the console platforms, representing the diversity of gaming and the quality on offer in the medium, and PC games - both released and forthcoming - will also be on show as part of NVIDIA's "The Way it's Meant to be Played" campaign. Personally, we're delighted to see some of the more unusual titles of the last few years showcased, including Sega's innovative games, Samba de Amigo and Rez, Treasure's Ikaruga and Sony's forthcoming Eyetoy.

As well as the hands-on gaming, visitors will also be able to attend a series of lectures and workshops throughout the week which explain the game development process, and will also get a chance to vote for their favourite game, the winner of which vote will be awarded the Gameplayer's Game 2002-2003 award.

Over 45,000 visitors attended the Game On exhibition which was staged at the Royal Museum from October to February, and taking part during Edinburgh's busy festival month, the Go Play Games exhibition will undoubtedly be hoping to attract significant interest.

Of course, Go Play Games isn't the only major game-related event happening during the festival week - the Edinburgh International Conference Centre plays host to a major conference as well, featuring a variety of serious and entertaining talks, panel discussions and presentations on the games industry, including the awarding of the inaugural Edinburgh International Games Awards for Excellence and Innovation - and, of course, a party.

Confirmed speakers for the event include Seamus Blackley, Jez San and Peter Molyneux, so it's certainly guaranteed to be interesting. If you're interested in attending (and remember, this runs alongside all of Edinburgh's other famous festivals), it's probably worth trying to book early - the Scottish capital gets rather busy in August. Find more information at the EIGF website, www.eigf.co.uk.