Last Chance to Vote for Kikizo in GMAs 2008

Voting for the Games Media Awards closes in a few days' time - make your vote count!

	Here's our attempt at explaining why you should VOTE KIKIZO!

Forgive us for posting this news as if you already know what we're on about, as until now we haven't made a fuss about being a finalist in the 2008 Games Media Awards. It's an event taking place in October run by Intent Media, publisher of fine industry magazines such as MCV and Develop.

"The finalists represent the best of the games media in print and online", explains MCV. And somehow, Kikizo is a finalist for Best Games Website. But we're also up against quality competition - the likes of Eurogamer, CVG and VG247.

Some people pretend they're too cool for the GMAs. But not us. It would mean a lot to win - the award plaque would look nice in our toilet, for starters.

Of course, begging for your vote will only make us look more stupid when we don't win, but then again, we've never been afraid of looking stupid in the name of promoting the site.

So, Best Games Website. Finalists are C&VG, Eurogamer, GameSpot UK, IGN UK, Kikizo, Rock Paper Shotgun, and VG247.

Now look, we know we're not technically the "best" among this lot right now. But here's the logic on why you should vote for us anyway: IGN UK and GameSpot UK both put out good UK content these days, but they wouldn't be here without their phenomenal US backing and successful US history - and this is meant to be a UK awards thing. Eurogamer won it last year, and their writers are also nominated in other categories, so someone else should get a turn - even though they are technically the best games site in the UK right now. VG247 is awesome, but its creator is also a fitting finalist for Best Writer - see below. CVG is staffed by lovely chaps, but come on, this is a Future website we're talking about, and they'll win awards for other things. Rock Paper Shotgun looks really nice, but in all honesty we hadn't heard of it before, and also it's just for PC gaming.

So that leaves the obvious choice of: Kikizo! Awesome.

We'd also like to recommend a few other finalists who definitely deserve your vote:

Games Magazine - Edge, and it irritates us when people give it such a hard time. Games TM won last year. Other finalists in this category are GamesMaster, Games TM, Official Nintendo Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, PC Gamer and Xbox World.

Specialist games writer Online - to be honest, everyone in this category is an outstanding games writer, however, special attention must go to Patrick Garratt who works his tits off making VG247 the definitive news source. This guy was also behind FGN Online back in the day, for those of you who remember it - so it should come as no surprise that Pat is on top of the game. His site is also up for best website, but you can't vote for him there because you're voting for us instead, obviously. Other finalists are Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell (who won last year), Guy Cocker from GameSpot UK, Matt Cundy of Games Radar UK, Gary Cutlack of UK Resistance fame (who also won a couple of awards last year) and the lovely Ellie Gibson from Eurogamer.

Games Broadcast - Games Night on Sky's XLeague TV needs to win this - no contest. If you've never seen it, you can view episodes on the XLeague website, but we've listed (with links to view) all the episodes we appeared on further down on this page, otherwise you'll be digging around for ages trying to find the episodes we ruined. The show was created by its initial presenter, Alan Boiston, and was later taken over by the often amusing Paul Vale. Other finalists are Click, Gadget Show, GameSpot UK Podcast, Johnny Minkley on Radio 1 (he won last year), and Resonance FM's One Life Left.

Check out the GMA 2008 finalists page here, and then drop an email to gma@intentmedia.co.uk telling them who should win.

About Us (Being All Serious)

Kikizo obsessively brings the industry's biggest names into gamers' homes with market leading interviews and breaking news from the frontline. (For example, it is currently the only consumer gaming site in the world to have sat down with all three platform's global bosses: Satoru Iwata, Kaz Hirai and Robbie Bach).

It was one of the first sites to take the Japanese market seriously, developing relationships in the nineties that continue to produce some of the most exclusive access in the territory today. (For example, the only interview Sega's legendary Yu Suzuki has done with any western media in the last five years or so).

It was one of the original pioneers of serious video content for gamers, providing unrivalled quality (60fps, high bitrate) before others even though about doing video coverage

Based in London's Leicester Square, Kikizo has always punched above its weight and is still passionate about the games business after a decade of coverage.

And here are those Games Night Episodes...

...featuring Kikizo. Apologies in advance.

Episode 30 (12 Jun 2008) All Parts
Guest presented by Dr Mike Reddy; Ninja Gaiden 2 reviewed.

Episode 29 (29 May 2008) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Sophie Blakemore presents the infamous Rock Band episode.

Episode 26 (17 Apr 2008) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Debut of latest studio set.

Episode 19 (10 Jan 2008) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Not our best episode.

Episode 17 (12 Dec 2007) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
On which we defend SingStar.

Episode 16 (27 Nov 2007) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
The Adam Hartley episode.

Episode 15 (15 Nov 2007) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Debut of an improved studio set; Simpsons review.

Episode 10 (4 Oct 2007) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Kate from Frag Dolls, Alex Verrey, Dr Mike Reddy.

Episode 8 (20 Sep 2007) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
First episode to feature Kikizo.

That's all. Thanks for reading.