Day 2 - I Can No Longer Feel My Feet.

Look, another Final Fantasy game, how original....yawn!

Today was an absolute whirlwind of activity. In fact, when I tried to think of several key points to blog about, my mind went blank! It's like having a vivid dream, but when you awake you find that you can't seem to remember anything from said dream.

Here are some bullet points:

• I met, got an autograph from, talked to, and shook Mickey Rourke's hand yesterday. Sadly, he wasn't allowing photographs to be taken with him (it would slow the line down too much). I forgot to mention this in yesterday's blog. I am glad to report that he was a very kind and gentle soul, and couldn't have been nicer to his fans.
• I tried in vain, yet again, to get some pictures of Splinter Cell: Conviction. Unfortunately, the game is so dark that all my photos look like terrible smudges.
• Did you know that if a dwarf in a rabbit costume falls on their back, they can't get up? They need to be picked up and placed back on their feet by their handler. This is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.
  
• If you laughed at that last bullet point, you're going to hell.

James Cameron's new movie Avatar is cloaked in secrecy. No one even knows what the plot is about, but there are whispers of mind-boggling special effects similar in scope to Star Wars, when it was first released in 1977. I was able to get a picture of one of the movie's props.

The most important game that I got to see today was Beatles Rock Band. I know, many of you are tired of music games by now. But I must say, they really went all out to make this game as enjoyable as possible. First, if you play on "easy" you can't lose. This is because they wanted to make sure that the elderly and non-gamers could jam along with the rest of us. The example given was an entire family playing together, even Grandma. Second, there are no songs to unlock. So you don't have to spend days unlocking everything before you invite others over to play. They expressly stated that they wanted people to throw a Beatles Rock Band party on the same day that the game comes out (9-9-09), without having to wait for a pay-off. Sadly, the only drawback is that even though the game will have many songs already on it, they will indeed have some Beatles expansion packs in the future. But that's hardly surprising, it is a business after all, and downloadable content for music games is the only thing that has made a dent so far in iTunes' armor.

I know that I sound like a cheerleader for this game by now, but I don't even own Rock Band, and only mildly had any interest in the antecedent Guitar Hero series. The best way to put it is that this game is just so inviting. You look at it and automatically want to play it, right away! Also, they have polished this game, and put so much love into it that it shows and glimmers above all that cam before it.

A couple of parting shots:

• The trailer for Star Wars The Old Republic looked amazing. Why couldn't the prequels have been that moving?

• Hideo Kojima's involvement in the Castlevania franchise seems to be exactly what the franchise needs.