Lefty Side of the Dial

The game event at the Russian consulate was very well attended, and you definately knew you were on Russian soil. As soon as you passed through the security gates, all of a sudden everything was in Russian, including fire alarms. The event was in the basement which had a small stage set up. We went through a video presentation about the company and the games they were showing. Then we were told about a game we'd be playing. As we were checking out the games, we were supposed to search for a CIA agent, and having found him we were then supposed to find a British agent. It was a bit uncomfortable playing this game, because we were so new at being games press folks, we couldn't tell the difference between other journalists and the folks we were supposed to be finding. I think we ended up being one of the last folks there to find the two agents and follow their instructions, and I even managed to win a drawing for a toy tank (which I'll be giving away on our video game podcast).

There were games to be seen, and it seemed that the PR folks went a little overboard and showed way too many, that they have very little people on hand to show you their unique features. Being primarily a console video game podcast, I concentrated on the two games that would be coming to the major gaming consoles (Xbox 360, and PS3). One of the games looked fantastic, even though I suck at flight simulations. The other was fun, but you could definitely tell that the game needs a good spit n polish to get rid of some bugs and make it look prettier.

After the event it was back to the hotel room, and to bed because the next day we were off to San Rafael to visit a games studio and get an early hands on to a game coming to the Wii and PC. We had a heck of a great time at Telltale Games. We sat down with their PR person and played through a build of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. It is a very funny game, and it really did build my interest in it. After the Wii hands-on we interview their lead designer on the game, and then got to see a demonstration of the game on the PC in a more recent build of the game. All in all it was an incredible experience, and the highlight of our trip to the Bay Area.

The drive back home included a detour through my old haunts, Fairfield, for some Chick-Fil-A, and then it was home again jiggety-jig, just in time to celebrate my wife and my eleventh anniversary. Which I am very happy to say was happy, celebratory, and included playing Rock Band for over four hours in their game mode called Endless Setlist, which meant we had to play 58 songs in a row. We didn't go out to eat, we did order in, and with money tight we celebrated in a way that was very enjoyable. I love my Gamer Chick!