The Game Developer's Association of Australia (GDAA) is announcing that early bird registrations are now open for this year's Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2007 (GCAP 07) conference. The conference - formerly known as the Australian Game Developers Conference - is hoped to be a gathering place for the discussion of best practice, learning, and growth of game development.

In line with these goals, the organizers have invited several well-known gaming industry personalities as guest speakers. Here are among the more notable people that were announced at the GCAP site:

• Paul Holman, Vice President of Euro R&D, Sony Computer Entertainment
• Pete Isensee, Director XNA Development Connection, Microsoft
• Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, International Game Developers Association
• Careen Yapp, Vice President of Licensing and Business Development, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
• Tony Albrecht, Senior Engine Programmer, Pandemic Studios
• Susan O'Connor, Writer, Susan O’Connor Writing Studio
  

We're also informing the readers that nominations are now open for the GCAP's upcoming GDAA and Independent Games Awards. The GDAA Awards is Australia and New Zealand's award for game developed by studios in their home territories. The Independent Games Award covers winners for both Best Unsigned Game (Professional), and Best Unsigned Game (Indie) categories.

Nominations for for the GDAA Awards 2007 will end October 31, while nominations for the Independent Games Awards will end October 26. Votes for both will be done so by the GCAP delegates from November 16 to 17, with the conference scheduled to run from November 15 to 17.

This year's GCAP event is expected to take place at the Melbourne Convention Centre, in Melbourne, Australia. Those interested can read up on the finer event details at the GCAP official site via the provided read link.

Over here at the QJ offices, we're not sure whether we should be jealous or angry. Jealous because a Bungie dev got to drive the actual warthog made by the folks at WETA. Angry because the said developer managed to scratch the beautiful warthog against a wooden shed.

That's right folks. We've got video today that should be rather exciting, because some Bungie developers got the chance to drive the well-known Warthog we covered earlier in July. According to Bungie Studios' Weekly Update, the devs were in New Zealand to help Peter Jackson on the Halo project, and managed to spend some time at WETA as well, driving their souped up buggy.

Of course, being developers (and not stunt drivers), one of the devs managed to mess up the paint job by hitting a wood shed while taking it out for a spin, but he still counts as one of the most awesome people in the world, if only because he drove a gamer's dream car.

In related news, Bungie Studios is reminding gamers to steer clear of player profiles to avoid spoilers because, as they say, certain people "could LITERALLY have the final frame of the game as a screenshot on their file share." For these and other Bungie updates, feel free to check the readlink below.

 He's not David Beckham, but in EA Sports' upcoming premiere soccer sim, FIFA 08, Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson will be the flag bearer for the A-League as it joins the FIFA series as one of the official playable competitions in the game.

Small compared to its other European counterparts, the A-League will finally get a chance at the limelight as it joins 29 other international leagues in this long-standing football sports franchise.

Also joining the roster of new leagues are Gambrinus liga of Czech Republic and FAI Premiere Division of Ireland. Archie Thompson will be carrying the name of Australia and New Zealand as their official ambassador for the game.

Thompson, perhaps most known for breaking the world record of most number of goals scored in a soccer game, was excited with the A-League's inclusion in FIFA 08. He had this to say:

I know that plenty of the boys at Melbourne Victory enjoy playing video games so it’s fantastic that we can now play as our favourite Hyundai A-League club either in a league or against other international Clubs.

Expect the release of EA Sports' FIFA 08 by September. It will be released on multiple platforms, namely the PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, DS, PSP, and Wii.

These days, GameStop has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It's working on an industry that's growing every day, it's posting some serious numbers financially, and has recently opened its 1,000th store outside of the US.

The Texas-based game and console retailer has opened new stores recently in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway to hit the thousand-store milestone. Prior to that, the company has already branched out to Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Guam, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

GameStop points to the booming hardware sales led by Kyoto-based Nintendo with its DS handheld and Wii console. Microsoft and Sony are also pitching in with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, respectively.

Total sales posted by the retailer last year amounted to US$ 5.32 billion and is expected to grow even more this year as hot demand continues for pole platforms. The first quarter of fiscal 2007 saw GameStop with its best quarterly performance ever with US$ 24.7 million in profits while gross sales were at an all-time high of US$ 1.279 billion.

Rejoice, cricket fans, and we know there's a lot of you out there! The other day, Codemasters just released Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 for the Xbox 360, the PC, and even for PlayStation 2 (PS2). For those who dig the sport and the video game version, this really is a reason to celebrate.

Anyway, Codemasters is rather proud of Brian Lara 2007. According to the company, this is the most authentic cricket title to date because the company was able to license more content than the previous version. By "more content", Codemasters meant a dedicated ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 mode that features all the official teams, stadia, kits, and equipment of the tournament.

Aside from this, Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 will also sport extensive online play with multiplayer tournaments and matches. These are all playable via Xbox Live, PC LAN and online. Other more exciting features include:

• A fully licensed ICC Champions Trophy 2006 competition
• Exhibition matches that include One Day Games and Test Matches
• Exciting 20-over run-fests
• In-game commentary from established cricket experts Jonathan Agnew, David Gower, Ian Bishop, Bill Lawry and Tony Greig
• Real player stats from Wisden
• Licensed cricket equipment
• The Hawk-Eye analysis system

The game is also known as Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007 both in Australia and New Zealand. Fans from India get it as Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007.

More screenshots after the Jump!