Day 4 - 12 meetings in 2 days and I’ve just finished the last. That means it’s my last night in Paris and I’m about 10% energy at the moment yet determined to see a bit of Paris before I’m off to Munich in the AM. If I’m to see the Eiffel Tower, it’s tonight or bust.
I had hoped to head out during the day but regretfully the moment I took a second to rest I passed out face down on the bed in the hotel. Woke up 3 hours later to housekeeping entering the room. I think I scared them off when I meant to simply say it wasn’t needing but came out “arghghirhr” as I lifted my face from the groove I’d formed in my coma.
Luckily I convinced myself that I HAD to get out and just hit the streets before leaving. So I headed down to the street and started walking. I made my way to the Arc de Triomphe just blocks from my hotel. From there, I could see the tip of the Eiffel Tower and started making my way through the streets in that direction.
Before long I was standing before it and it was glorious. I made my way up to the top to check the view and once back at the bottom was bombarded with hustlers selling cheap Eiffel Tower related souvenirs (lighters, glow up towers, keychains). They assault you with “5 Euros! 5 Euros!” as soon as you walk out and as you attempt to enjoy the sights underneath the tower.
I decided it’d be fun to turn the tables a bit so we haggled one of them down to 1 Euro for a lighter, a glow up miniture tower, and 2 Eiffel tower key chains. Once we had our loot in hand we made our way to the opposite side of the tower and anxiously awaited to be assaulted by another panhandler to buy some souvenirs. It wasn’t long before one came up shoving the Tower-shaped wares in our face asking for “5 Euros! 5 Euros!”. He was surprised when I pulled out some crappy souvenirs of my own and started offering to sell them back for 6 euros!
I was going for a 5 euro profit on what I’d paid for it all. It was great to see the table turn and him avoid me instead of me avoiding him, when I persisted, “Okay okay… good business… 5 euro… all of it for 5 euro!” before he ran away. Tables successfully turned.
Back at the hotel now (3 am) and have to be up by 7 am for a flight to Munich….. this will not end well. Damn that coma-nap mid day!
That said, I’ll see you in Germany. Goodbye Paris it’s been fun!
DAY 2 - Monday started early (a bit too early for me) and fast. Luckily though I got too meet up with some familiar faces to start off from our friends @OPM_UK (Official Playstation Magazine UK), PC Zone, OXM UK and many others. What exactly we talked about I can’t say. As I said, it’s all about pacing with this type of stuff and trust me, it works on in your favor in the long the run. While the middle of the day is under wraps, dinner that night introduced me to a new love of mine…. MEXICAN DONUTS. An absurdly delicious and near-deadly of donuty-powdersugared-toffeetdipped dessert served at the restaurant in our hotel. While 2 could probably be considered unhealthy consumption of sugar, I snuck about 8 more orders onto the bill and stuffed my face like I was dying the next day. (which I felt like doing after the 9th Mexican Donut)
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure where French Fries got their name or if France is related at all really, but these will the most killer Fries I’ve ever had. Fantastic homemade french fries. I also got a desert of ice cream in the form of French Vanilla (honestly, I wasn’t just eating food with ‘French’ in the title on purpose, it just worked out that way…… REALLY!).
Ended out the day back at the hotel fighting with the local wifi to try and receive some assets from the guys back at IW studio for approval. Once that was done, it’s time to get some well needed sleep before another 7 AM start to the 2 days in Paris. Rinse and repeat then we’re off to Germany!
I’ve booked a last minute flight into London / Heathrow Airport for Sunday night to attend this year’s BAFTA Awards (http://www.bafta.org/) which will be held in London on Tuesday the 10th. We were blown away on Feb. 10th when this year’s BAFTA nominations were announced and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was up for 8 AWARDS, including:
Best Game
Best Multiplayer
Best ACTION / ADVENTURE
Artistic Achievement
Best Story and Character
Best Gameplay
Best Use of Audio
and last but not least the GAME Year of 2008 Award! While the rest of the awards are voted upon and decided by the British Academy, the GAME Award is the only one voted on by the players ( http://www.baftagameaward.com/ ). Of course, it’s a great honor just to be nominated in the British Academy awards and I’ll be in Londay by 7 AM Monday morning ready to show our appreciation if we’re lucky enough to win. If you’re in the London area, drop me a line and say hey. As always I’ll be twittering live from the award ceremony via @fourzerotwo on Twitter.
It’s been a busy last few weeks, and it’s getting busier by the day. Tomorrow night though, I’m going to be taking some time out to attend a charity event I’m excited about called Twestival LA. It’s one of many Twestivals happening around the country that’s being organized through Twitter and supports the cause of Charity:Water. You can learn more about the event at http://givewaterla.org/ .
Essentially though, the goal of the charity is to collect donations that will help provide clean water via the construction of wells in underdeveloped countries. If you buy a child a bottle of water, you help them get through the day. If you provide them the means to build a well, you help their entire village for a lifetime.
So if you’re in the LA area tomorrow night and want to hang out, I’ll be at Club 740
I’ll be hooking up the volunteers of the event with some Call of Duty 4 water bottles while I’m there. I figured Charity:Water…. COD4 Water Bottles. Seems like a good fit eh?
If you plan on attending, let me know! I’d love to hang out while you’re there. Drop me an email, or hit me up on Twitter @ www.twitter.com/fourzerotwo
I’ll keep this short, considering I made about 10,000 tweets while there and I don’t want to repeat the entire trip, but I’m finally back from a week-long stint at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The quick re-cap is:
Black Dynamite is absolutely amazing. Instant classic, and apparently got picked up by Sony Pictures for a cool $2 Million just after the premiere screening. So congrats guys.
Second best part of Sundance was the premiere of the Nazi Zombie slaying flick from Norway called Dead Snow. Note the (slightly blurry) pic above with said Nazi Zombie. If you can’t tell, his costume was awesome. (UPDATE: Dead Snow got picked up for distro by IFC films!!)
Ran into Computer, from ThreeSixMafia’s crew. Seriously one of the funniest people I’ve met in all my life. Eventually he ended up just crashing out at one of the parties:
Also ended up playing a little Call of Duty with Efren Ramirez aka Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite back at our place.
(holy shit, why do I look like I’ve never been in contact with sunlight?! PALE!)
Park City was a beautiful town which I hope to revisit at some point when it isn’t being temporarily transformed into Mini-Hollywood w/ snow. Aside from Paris Hilton nearly making me piss myself; All in all, it was one hell of a trip filled with lots of snow, lots of shows, and lots of tweeting.
If you’re interested in the full story int he form of a day by day rundown of the festivities, hit up the twit: www.twitter.com/fourzerotwo
Will Arnett, Justin Theroux, and Jon Glaser swung by the studio late today to talk games, check out an early sneak peek of the project we have in the works, and to hang out to play a little multiplayer during our weekly Friday Night Fights. Arnett is best known for his role as Gob from Arrested Development while Justin Theroux and Jon Glaser are probably more known for their awesome writing. Justin’s most recent work was the Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. comedy Tropic Thunder, as well as being announced as the writer for Iron Man 2. Jon Glaser was a Conan O’brien writer for 5 years before breaking off to do various other TV shows and projects such as Assy McGee and the Human Giant series recently. Funny guys, but most importantly, fucking hardcore COD4 players.
I started playing MP with Will, Justin and their crew awhile back after a Conan O’brien appearance where Will spent most of the interview talking about playing online in COD4. Ever since, everyone pictured above have been meeting up regularly on COD4 for some RPG + Knife only private matches where we entertain ourselves by jumping off roof tops and attempting to RPG and / or knife each other as they fall (DON’T JUDGE US!) - as well as whatever other drunken rules can be come up with at the time.
Regretfully we all live on separate coasts (IW on West Coast / Will + Justin on East Coast), so this was the first time we all met in one place while they were in Los Angeles on some business. Jon Glaser typically isn’t part of the regular crew, but after today he said he’s going to finally give in and join our 10 pm - 4 am gaming sessions. So hopefully he’ll feed into the COD4 addiction and join in on the fun in future matches.
It was great to finally meet in person after playing online together for so long. We’ll be meeting back up, hopefully late Jan / early Feb, to blow shit up. I’m in the process of planning a weapons shoot for early next year and there is no better reason to get together with friends than to blow up cars, watermelons, and anything else we can talk the range owners into letting us destroy with automatic weapons and explosives.
It’s that time of year again, just after I stuff my face full of Turkey, Gravy, and an unhealthy amount of Pumpkin Pie - I sink into a blissfully lethargic state of being. This lasts for about three months. Three things are certain when this happens; I’ll become suddenly and overwhelmingly nostalgic for anything from my childhood (causing late night Ebay impulse buys of NES game lots )- It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story will be in my DVD player at least once - AND - My Christmas music playlist will become a permanent soundtrack of my life (on constant repeat).
Each year I recompile the playlist; giving me a chance to tweak it a bit and find different versions. I prefer a perfect blend of quintessential classics from my childhood, original one-offs from my teenage years, and modern remakes.
With that said, I present to you, my 2008 Christmas Playlist:
Things I Want - Tenacious D (Feat. Sum 41) [Listen]
A Wicked Hardcore Christmas - Big D and the Kids Table
The Quintessential Classic Christmas Tunes -
Little Saint Nick - The Beach Boys
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Burl Ives
Silver and Gold - Burl Ives
Christmas Don’t Be Late - The Chipmunks
Let it Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Dean Martin
Here Comes Santa Claus - Doris Day
Frosty the Snowman - Jimmy Durante
Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms
Sleigh Ride - Ella Fitzgerald
Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Perry Como
Silver Bells - Bing Crosby
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra
The Twelve Days of Christmas - Harry Belafonte
You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Thurl Ravenscroft
A Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives
If you’re looking into compiling your very own Christmas playlist to drown yourself in cheer, then you can grab the majority of these songs from the following albums:
The MTV Game Awards is this weekend in Berlin, Germany and we’ve been invited to attend thanks to our nominaton for the “Let’s Play Together Award” for Best Multiplayer Game. Regretfully, we won’t be able to make it out to Berlin for the live show, but we’ll be recording a little video tomorrow morning to show our appreciation and thanks to all of our German players who voted and supported the game in the awards, just in case. So if you’re part of our German game community, be sure to check the show this weekend, more info here www.mtvgameawards.de.
My Fallout 3 character. (Feral Mask + Chinese Spy Uniform)
Over 60 hours of gameplay later, and I’ve finally finished Fallout 3 this weekend; Holy hell was that an amazing game. You can definitely beat it in half that time, but I savored the gameplay, and completed every main and side quest before beating the main story line - as well as maxing out my character at the level 20 cap. I love the amount of detail and thought that went into every aspect of this game. Bethesda did a great job of really immersing you in their world and I’m kind of depressed it’s over. I still need to find a few bobbleheads and do a few random achievements, but for the most part it’s over, and I’m gonna miss it.
Although, thankfully I can get back to living a productive life now that it’s over, not to mention focus on finishing up Gears of War 2 (on the last level) and Mirrors Edge (on Chapter 6).
Hopefully I can finish them both up before Friday, because my entire weekend is being spent in Vegas. I’ll be flying in to attend the first ever LIVE tournament for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at the MLG’s National Championships. There will be over $340,000 in cash prizing up for grabs overall this weekend - which will promptly be blown on hookers and blow immediately following the event. So be sure to drop me a line if you’re in Vegas or competing in the tournament. I’ll be held up at the Hard Rock where the event is taking place, so stop by and say hey. We can get together and gamble our life savings away in a horrible drunken rage.
Friday went by pretty quick today. It kicked off with our standard weekly Leads meeting, where all dept. leads sit down and talk about what’s happening in their individual deprtments; but once that was wrapped, I headed to the lobby to meet up with this years World Series MVP and Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels. Seen above (on the right) with one of our resident baseball fanboys and animators, Chance Glasco (left).
For being the most highly sought after player in league right now, after securing the MVP award at the World Series recently, he’s an extremely down to earth guy and a most importantly a huge gamer as attested to by his wife who confirmed he’ll disappear for days only to reappear fully bearded from a week of uninterrupted gaming. A life style I can relate to.
Although, from talking to Cole, it seems those game-a-thons are few and far between, especially when preparing for the World Series. He said gaming during the season is typically reserved for the early hours of the morning after games, when him and fellow team mates jump on. So if you’re playing between 11pm - 2:30 am and hear an abnormal amount of baseball talk, then you know why.
We gave him a tour around the studio while he was here, and it was especially interesting when we were showing off some of our Motion Capture. Cole started talking about how he’s done it before, but not for a game. He uses Motion Capture to record and analyze his pitching form, so that they can determine how to further improve his pitching and prevent injuries.
It was a good visit. It’s always nice to meet fans of the game, especially if were fans of theirs. Cole admitted he’s not alone in his COD4 addiction, saying he typically parties up after games with fellow team mates like Adam Eaton or teams they’re facing that day like the legendary Ken Griffey Jr.
Just goes to show, you never know who you’re going up against when you log on.
Democratic, Republican, Independent, or None of the Above.
Vote.
Tomorrow (Nov. 4th) is Election Day here in the United States, which means we’ll all be taking a bit of time out of our day to go down to our local polling stations and provide our feedback and cast our opinion on who and how our country should be ran. In addition to voting and casting our opinion on important propositions in our individual states.
I understand that’s it’s easy to be cynical about politics and regardless if you feel neither of the major parties deserves your vote, still go to the polls to vote on important issues and propositions on the ballot.
While the Presidential candidate is obviously the most important decision at the polls, there are countless propositions you can give your opinion on. Whether you care about advocacy for the homeless, early childhood education, equal rights, or any other issue affecting our nation. It’s important that all of us give our feedback and opinion.
I implore you to vote.
