Getaway premieres in London

Eurogamer got to mix with the great and good of the C list showbiz world last night at the West End 'premier' of Sony's long-awaited The Getaway

Shoehorned into a function room at the Leicester Square Warner Bros. cinema, and plied with as much Champagne as we could guzzle, it was a rare delight to find ourselves admiring the, *cough* charms of a certain Nell McAndrew at close quarters, who was sporting a sparkly white dress that revealed more than was strictly good for us.

Meanwhile, Dan Sullivan (ex Eastenders, aka Craig Fairbrass) wandered around desperately looking for someone he recognised, while fellow journos also observed other minor celebs doing the rounds, pondering aloud at the tragedy of the out of work actor finding themselves at a gaming launch on a cold, wet Thursday night.

And fully an hour behind schedule, we were herded into one of the cinema's screens to listen to Phil Harrison and Brendan McNamara remind us what a long road it has been to deliver Sony's most ambitious game to date.

And with that, we were basically given a 40 minute run through on the big screen the first five missions of the game. But such are the game's cinematics, and lack of any on screen icons or interface, the chronological run through worked surprisingly well, although anyone who hadn't played the game before would have had approximately a quarter of the game totally ruined for them.

But it didn't end there. We were then whisked off in a London bus to the trendy nightclub Fabric to party the night away mashed on endless amounts of free booze, purchased with special Getaway money.

Strictly speaking we should probably still be in bed sleeping off the mother of all hangovers, but we dutifully sloped off home before chucking out time to make sure that you, dear reader, are kept up to date with such decadent activities.

Interestingly, Eurogamer spent most of the evening watching fellow journos from Edge, Official PlayStation 2, etc to gauge their reaction, and the consensus was mixed, with some gleefully picking holes in the perceived flaws of the vehicle handling and fiddly combat system, while others marvelled at what they saw as a technical breakthrough. One observer was overwhelmed by the fact that he could walk up to his own accurately rendered house. Yes, the London you see in The Getaway is that accurate - who said the PS2 couldn't cope with textures?

Us? We've waxed lyrical about The Getaway already here, and reckon the game is shaping up to be a stormer. Expect a full review of Sony's next big thing shortly before its December 11th release.