Wow, it has been a while since my last post. Yep, I’ve been a slacker. The reason for the long dry spell is because I’ve been “heads down” in work for the last couple of weeks. We’ve got a big press event coming up where we will be showing This is Vegas as part of Midway’s “Gamer’s Day” shin-dig. The content we will be featuring is looking awesome and has really come together so we are all excited about showing it.

In other news, we got a new car! It’s a 2008 Ford Mustang GT California Special convertible lovingly named “Crazy Horse”. It has a 300 horsepower V8 that does 0-60 in 5.1 seconds with a top speed of 143 m.p.h. Mean! Here are some pics with info: 1, 2, 3, 4.

So things are good…very good.

Now, back to work…

This video of a game pitch meeting in 1979 from Cracked is hilarious.

After reaching into the fridge and pulling out a PBR tonight my wife informed that I was about to drink a stolen beer.  Apparently the woman at the checkout stand forgot to charge her for the case which my wife hadn’t realized until after leaving the store.  Now, since I know you are probably wondering and thinking about going out and stealing your own case of PBR, I’ll save you the potential trip downtown with officer friendly; a non-stolen PBR tastes as good, if not better, than a stolen PBR.

The fine folks at Game Informer have put up a cool preview and GDC interview article.  Rawk!

It was 1990 give or take, I don’t remember, when the news of revolution hit the air. The girls hadn’t even started taking down our posters when the boys started cutting off their hair. The radio stations all decided angst was finally old enough it ought to have a proper home. Dead, fat or rich nobody’s left to bitch about the goings’ on in self destructive zones. The night the practice room caught fire there were rumors of a dragon headed straight for Muscle Shoals. “Stoner tries to save an amplifier” and it’s like the dragon’s side of the story is never told. When the dream and the man and the girls hang around long enough to make you think it’s coming true, it’s easier to let it all die a fairy tale than admit that something bigger is passing through. The hippies rode a wave putting smiles on faces that the devil wouldn’t even put a shoe. Caught between a generation dying from its habits and another thinking rock and roll was new till the pawn shops were packed like a backstage party hanging full of pointy ugly cheap guitars, and the young’uns all turned to karaoke, hanging all their wishes upon disregarded stars. My Grandaddy’s shotgun is locked in a closet and it never shot a thing that could have lived. An old man decided that you couldn’t choose your poison till you’re nearly old enough to vote for him. They turned what was into something so disgusting even wild dogs would disregard the bones. Dead, fat or rich nobody’s left to bitch about the goings’ on in self destructive zones.

Woop! My wife and I booked a week-long road trip to Glacier National Park in Montana this summer. This will be her first time but I drove out there a number of years ago with my brother and met up with my mother and step-father.  We’ll be taking our little two-seat convertible and so we won’t be camping for most of the trip except for one night when we meet up with some friends in Idaho on the way.  Once we get to Glacier we will be staying in a little-ol’-lodge kind of place for most of the trip which should be a cool experience and then we’ll be spending a night in Missoula to check it out.  Neither my wife nor I eat fish but I’d like to give fly fishin’ a try while we’re there.  At any rate, I’m excited.

I’ve been wearing the same belt most of the time for a couple of years now and it was time for a change.  I had looked around in some stores and stuff but they weren’t really at all what I wanted so this morning I went down to Seattle’s Pike Place Market to poke around.  I had seen people selling belt buckles of all sorts there and I felt my chances were pretty good that I would come home with a new one.  It turns out there were a few different vendors with tons of them and after hemming and hawing over what to get I ended up buying two.  It was pretty cool to be able to pick out the buckle and the belt you wanted and then have them make it to order.  I had also been wearing generally the same Smith wrap-style sunglasses for like a decade and decided that with the weather starting to turn for the better it was time to finally switch it up.  I ended up getting the new Maui Jim “Akoni” aviator-style shades in a bronze frame with mirrored, rose-colored lenses.  I wanted something that looked like what a redneck cop might wear or something heh and after trying a few different brands the Akoni’s tuned out to be the perfect fit.

Here are some pics: Crab Guys, Crab, Sometimes I feel like a…, Belt Girl, Two New Belts, New Shades

My long-time friend and co-worker Dre has a post up with his impressions of the seminars he went to and some pics from last week’s Game Developer’s Conference.

I’m old-school because I still buy CDs. However, they are really starting to pile up and take up more room than I would like so I’m going to stop doing that and will be buying my records as 256kbps MP3 downloads (not iTunes ACC files, Amazon primarily yo) when possible from now on. I’ll miss having the booklet that comes with the CD but I won’t miss the additional boxes stacking up in my garage, and hell, the downloads are usually much cheaper. It’s better for the environment too. You audiophiles are probably getting ready to spam me with emails about how the audio quality isn’t as good. Yeah, I know, but after playing drums for 30 years I don’t think my ears can tell the difference so save your breath. Besides, I end up listening to it all on my iPod anyways. I can’t remember the last time I actually played a CD. To start out my new foray into downloading records here is what I grabbed today:

• Scud Mountain Boys: Massachusetts
• The Whipsaws: 60 Watt Avenue
• Two Dollar Pistols: Hands Up
• Frog Holler: The High High’s and the Low Low’s
• Malcolm Holcombe: Gamblin’ House
• Dick Curless: Traveling Through

The folks over at Gamespy have an article up from the Game Developers Conference in which they interview studio head Alan Patmore and project creative director Andre Maguire about This is Vegas.