MC Hammer has left the building

After a whirlwind visit, thanks to Xbox 360 to launch its new karaoke game Lips: Number One Hits, a short but powerful performance and a brief interview with me, MC Hammer has left the building. Well, left New Zealand anyway.

And during my brief interview with him he admitted that he's a gamer from way back and loves EA's Madden game. He said the game was a regular fixture on his tour bus during the early 1990s and he's still a regular player of it. He also said that he's keen on playing Modern Warfare 2 and when he found out I'd already played it, asked me what I thought of it.

We chatted about Twitter a lot - he's a heavy user of the social networking site - and he said he replies to fans when he can. He's uses the service whenever he can, often to the point of draining batteries in mobile devices and having to move on to a new one. He's got five TVs in his bedroom - yes, his bedroom - so that he can keep up to date with what's going on.

I forgot to take a photo of him - things were so frantic - but I've got video of the press conference and of him performing last night at the Sales Street Bar in central Auckland. It was a brief but incredibly powerful performance. He didn't wear the Hammer pants, though, but said that they are still the rage, with top fashion designers still making the clothing.

At the Xbox do there were also big-screen TVs set up with Xbox games - Episodes from Liberty City, Modern Warfare 2, Forza 3, Borderlands - and also Avatar, the game based on the upcoming James Cameron movie.

At first, when I saw it in action I thought: "What's up with the picture? It's all blurry" but then realised it was being played on a 3D television, the only one in NZ. The game will also be playable on standard TVs but when you put on a pair of special glasses the 3D effect was pretty impressive. In an opening level you have to pilot a drop ship through a canyon and you could have almost reached out and touched the tail rotors, it was that immersive.

OK, have to go, the internet is almost out on my hotel connection (which doesn't seem that reliable to start with). I'll upload the vidoes on my return to Christchurch. What are you planning to play this weekend? I thought I'd continue through MW2, have a look at New Super Mario Brothers Wii and perhaps hunker down with the new Ratchet and Clank game. How about you?  

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