GDC in review

I decided to write a separate account of my trip to GDC. You can read it here. Some photos included!

gaming as usual

Dear gaming diary, I did not bring Ninja Gaiden from the States as promised. (Why? Well, I spent too much money on anime...The Fry's store at San Jose had a surprisingly good collection of it!)

Instead, I bought Pac-Man Vs. which I haven't had a chance to try out yet. Also, I finally got Mario Kart DD, a game I need to play and analyse before the Copenhagen Design Research Symposium.

Otherwise, nothing spectacularly new to report: I've been getting my daily fix of WE7I since getting back, and yesterday we also embarked on another session of BG2. For the first time, we got a bit stuck...

... and back

... a day later than planned. I missed a connecting flight in Chicago due to delays, and ended up having to spend a night there. Now I'm back home, exhausted but happy.

GDC was excellent. Game Tuning Workshop totally rules. I'll post pics and my take on the event later this week. (Actually I began writing an entry while I was there, but then Gonzalo's laptop ran out of battery power...)

Anyways, a quick hi to all the great folks I was hanging out there with! Keep it real!

BG feva!

Breaking news: No, it's not the Bee Gees but Baldur's Gate that is captivating today's youth!

You see, Dark Alliance (the sequel) seems to be gotten a hold of my friends, too! Besides myself and Satu, at least Frans, Laura, Paula and Joni are cleaning up the caves! And the game is average at best...but what the hell, people obviously seem to enjoy it. Actually, all these guys started playing it without knowing the others did, and I've learned about this virus from comments among casual conversation. There's an emergent gaming community for ya :)

Oh, I hope Paula's hack'n slash thumb is already doing better ;)

Going DC

All right, it's been a stressful week to say the least, with a crunch of getting things done before leaving for the Game Developers Conference. At the moment, all should be done and I'm packing. *phew* My flight for San Jose leaves early Sunday morning - we'll see if I get any sleep... I'll be back with some impressions, beginning of April!

Keep the memory alive

I beg you to check out the Madrid game the Newsgaming.com folks did. It's beautiful.

baldur's eleven

Yep, I got the new Winning Eleven 7 International. I do not quite know how I feel about the tweaks Konami has made...have to play more. I took the challenge of guiding Atletico Madrid to European fame and fortune. Folks in Madrid need all the support they can have today, anyway.

Oh yeah, we played some board games in Tampere last weekend. A round of the Buffy board game, which was fun, but it lasted quite long as most people hadn't played before...Then there were some rounds of light card gaming: Guillotine. Finally we played a round of Sunda to Sahul, but our posse was becoming pretty tired at that stage. Overall it was nice - should try to organize these things more often!

We continued the cave dwelling in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2... in small doses it's good fun, but the there are some definite design flaws in the levels which tend to add to the already repetitive nature of the game. The cut-scenes suck, by the way. Still, it's quite ok, and as Satu likes it, I'll tag happily along with my flaming arrows ;)

On Sunday, we'll play some hockey and football with the guys from Pelaaja magazine! We're doing a piece on the up and coming ice hockey world championships, and Euro 2004 in Portugal this summer, by playing different games of both sports and trying to get at which one is the best to simulate the actual events. Should be good fun :)

broken wings & dungeons

My week in the 'studio' got me back to Vice City. Fittingly as Rockstar just announced GTA: San Andreas, I've tried to make some progress on VC, another game left to gather dust due to lack of time some year or so ago...What can you say: the game feels fresh as a daisy. Broken wings sounds better than ever. Driving into a blinding sunset still gives me the vibes - or cruising in a thunderstorm with Crockett's theme as the soundtrack.

Oh, and we've played some Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (the sequel) with Satu. It's pure hack'n'slash, but the co-op mode is good fun, especially when you play with your loved one :)

Other notes: I see that Ninja Gaiden has gotten rave reviews. I promise to pick it up from the States during GDC, my dearest diary.

the deadline comes and goes

I've been co-organising a Game Design Research Symposium and Workshop with some good folks. It will be taking place in Copenhagen in early May.

What else is up, I hear? Well, I finished the Rules of Play review, gave a short lecture on game rhetoric, been sketching theories about that and different forms of pleasures games afford...the next couple of weeks before GDC are going to be incredibly busy planning a research project at work, and reviewing submissions for the Copenhagen workshop.

Oh, the thesis deadline. I should change it. June, before my summer holidays, is realistic...just maybe.