E3 was fun, but different. I was a little envious listening to Bill Abner and Tom Chick and Gus Mastrapa all my other friends talking about the great stuff they saw at the show, since I was mostly tied down and I hate waiting in lines. I did get a couple of breaks to just walk the halls and get a feel for the noise, but as a PR person, my show was about selling the stuff we were there to show.
1) Witcher 2 on the Xbox 360 really sells itself. The PC game is just amazing (check the reviews – this is not just me talking) and CD Projekt Red is committed to seeing Witcher 2 adapted to the console environment. There are a lot of things to be worked out, but it was great to see it in action, running so smoothly. The CDP people are a lot of fun and give a good demo.
2) Sword of the Stars 2 is the client right in my sweet spot and it was fun to see it in action. I was very happy to see the response to it, as well. It got a GamePro nomination for best strategy game at the show, producer Chris Stewart kept up a very demanding schedule with good humor and I want to play this game very soon. It looks good and we will be promoting it heavily over the next couple of months. Tons of E3 previews are out, read them and watch this space and others. Kerberos is building a very special sequel. Martin Cirulis and his dev team should be proud.
3) Crusader Kings 2 is not an Evolve client, but I somehow got roped into helping Paradox with demos for the press. I loved it. This is a game I am very excited about and getting the chance to poke around in it and sell the idea of a role playing strategy game right when HBO’s Game of Thrones is a huge nerd culture event was awesome. My boss was good enough to loan me out for a few hours a day and my appreciation for the growing family Paradox has built among its team increases with every encounter. They also had a fridge full of Red Bull and water.
And, of course, always good to see people you only see once or twice a year. Did not do a lot of partying, since I am old and uninvited. Mostly old. But had some relaxing nights at the hotel chatting with people and watching TV.
Then I was off to Las Vegas for the weekend to hang out with my good friend Henry. It was the decompression space I needed after E3. It’s been a very emotional year and I’ve often felt like I had no downtime. This was all downtime. Brotherly chat, awesome ribs and holy crap did we drink a lot one night…The 9:00 AM text the next morning will be avenged somehow.
So that was last week. This week, I excitedly get back to work at a job I think I am slowly getting the hang of.
I’ve seen a few videos of CK2 and it looks really, really great. Is it true what I’m hearing about the in-game character pages linking you to Wikipedia pages?
If so… as a recently graduated history major – that’s a little concerning. We spend a lot of time discussing Wikipedia in all of my classes and it’s potential for misinformation (and the internet in general). I know a fair amount of gamers who consider the Paradox games to be fairly competent in terms of historical accuracy, so this seems risky.
Would it be too absurd for Paradox to hire some historians to write short abstracts for the game instead of “outsourcing”? I’ll do it for cheap. ;)
Crusader King 2 from the comments on GWJ is shaping to be a great game. It’s on my radar.
I was surprised to see your name on The Witcher 2 manual Troy. ;) Another reason to love the game. hehehehe Good to see nice people gravitating in such a wonderful project.