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The release version of XNA 2.0 is now available for download from the XNA Creators Club. This means that the XNA 2.0 beta was actually only around a month or so, which I reckon is just how long a beta period should be. This version lets Creators Club members run Version 2.0 games on their Xbox 360s an also provides networking support for games, including Xbox to PC gaming.

They had a big yellow crane at the university today. It looked really good in the sunshine.

But they wouldn't let me have a go driving it.

I took some time off from the glossary to have a go in our Deathmatch challenge today. We've run these before and they are always great fun. We write C# programs that control bots in Unreal Tournament and pit them against each other. I'd not had much time to write any code so I quickly knocked up a "happy camper" who grabbed a gun and then took pot shots at anyone who wandered past. If you want to run your own challenge you can find out more here. The going was tough.

A tense moment

Darren's Ripper Santa does the business (note my best score)

Zoe takes first prize from Darren

I'm presently writing the last, last, bits of the XNA book at the moment.

Pre-order it here in the UK and here in the US. You know you want to. You know I want you to. So go on. The best book on programming ever written. And the only one with cheese based gameplay.

The plan is to have a glossary at the end which describes all the programming terms. Good idea, except that I have to write it. Each time I used a term that I wanted to expand on I put a note in the glossary file that I needed to go back and fill that bit in. And the time has come to do the filling in. That means over 40 pages of writing.

I'm around half way through ("N is for Namespace") at the moment. It is due for the end of tomorrow.....