MS prepares for Zero Hour

With just a few days to go until Microsoft's massive two-day launch party for the Xbox 360 kicks off in the Mojave desert, some rather interesting photos of the venue have popped up on Flickr.

It looks like the Zero Hour event is taking place in some kind of giant hanger - chatter points to the "Plant 42" hanger in Palmdale - complete with posh tellies, white bean bags, vast amounts of scaffolding, lots of green neon strip lights and, er, a tree. You can also see the stage where Californian rockers Louis XIV are set to perform.

Zero Hour will begin at sunset on November 20 and the partying won't stop until midnight the following day, when the Xbox 360 goes on sale in North America. Thousands of gamers and industry bigwigs are expected to attend, and there will be hundreds of console stations where partygoers can try out all manner of Xbox 360 games.

Fancy going along? Then you'll need to pay your own way to California, unfortunately, unless you're one of the lucky winners of the Origen competition - in which case Microsoft will fly you over to the States, where you'll jump on a private jet that takes you straight to the party.

We didn't win, so we'll be hosting our own Zero Hour party in a shed on a disused caravan site just outside Luton, where we will look at printed out screenshots of Xbox 360 games via the light of a single glo stick and probably have a bit of a cry.