DICE 2011 Outtakes: Jay Mohr Sings Van Halen

I was trying to interview actor Jay Mohr about hosting the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards at DICE 2011…but that never really got started. He liked my microphone and thought it was cool that I also use it to belt out Journey songs in karaokoe. This led him to singing a bunch of Van Halen songs. I thought it was cool that he did one in his Christopher Walken impersonation, as per my request. I thought it was cooler that he cut off his interview with Kotaku’s Brian Crescente because he remembered what song he wanted to sing. Ha!

Check out this clip of outtake footage when you have a chance. Bonus points will be awarded if you can name the famous gaming people in the background!

Nokia Announces Windows Phone 7 Partnership with Microsoft

Here’s a video of Microsoft and Nokia announcing their partnership on Windows Phone 7. Nokia has been lagging on the software side for years, but still makes some of the best hardware in the business. Windows Phone 7 has tons of potential that can be realized — in terms of sales — through Nokia’s hardware and global reach. This is a huge, huge deal with tons of ramifications for the mobile phone business.

Kindly check out the clip and let me know what you think!

RROD vs. YLOD

Here are some excellent photos from RPadholic RRODizHere, chronicling his encounter with the PlayStation 3 yellow ring of death. Congrats to him on fixing his console!

Here are some excellent photos from RPadholic RRODizHere, chronicling his encounter with the PlayStation 3 yellow ring of death. Congrats to him on fixing his console!

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DICE 2011 Day Three: Raymond’s Rants

DICE 2011 Thursday was capped off by the 14th annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption cleaned up, with the former getting game of the year. Legends Bill Budge and Bing Gordon were honored, winning the Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement awards, respectively. Gordon wrapped up his acceptance speech with a 10-minute poem full of excellent videogame references — it was entertaining and inspiring…but for some reason I kept thinking about Reverend Jesse Jackson reciting Green Eggs and Ham on Saturday Night Live.

My personal highlight was watching Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk get inducted into the AIAS hall of fame. I am such a fan of these two men on several levels. After playing through Baldur’s Gate for the 18th time, I kind of became a fan. Then I got to meet these guys and was immediately impressed with how sharp they were. As I’ve gotten to know them a bit over the years — and witnessed several of Dr. Greg’s…unfortunate hairstyles — I was floored by how nice they are. Not only was I fan of their games, I was a fan of them as human beings. They’re trained physicians, brilliant game creators, and two of the nicest people I’ve ever met in this business. Watching them receive this honor from their peers was fantastic.

After the after-party, I ended up with a bunch of old G4 production friends, a dear friend from Sony, an oceanographer’s son, and some cool developer from Mexico that brought tequila that was numbered by hand. The evening ended with Fatburger. Now onto day three!!!

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I’ll be flying home tonight after an excellent DICE 2011 and I’m positive that I won’t play any games tonight. I’ve been getting by on a couple of hours of sleep for the last two nights, including one night of crazy partying. My body is looking forward to a nice night of sleep.

That said, I’m sure as hell going to jump back into DC Universe Online on Saturday. There are a bunch of level 30 missions waiting for me and the rest of the Super Buddies. Random DCUO observation: when I’m waiting for friends to join me online, I love beating the crap out of random Sinestro Corps members. As some of you know, I’m a big Green Lantern fan. Pounding the crap out of Sinestro’s minions and his dreaded lieutenant Arkillo is just gratifying. Getting Kilowog’s approval is pretty excellent too.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

DICE 2011 Day Two: Raymond’s Rants

Man, that was way too much alcohol last night. I’m finally starting to feel like a human being again. As expected, DICE 2011 is awesome. It’s fantastic chatting with incredible developers, catching up with friends, and watching RPadholic N8R. We just had a fun lunch with some major players in the videogame industry. I can’t wait for him to tell you his impressions of Michael Pachter. I’m positive you’ll be surprised.

I’ve said this several times over the last few years — DICE is my favorite videogame conference by far. It’s a relatively small show that’s attended by some of the most brilliant people in the business. It’s truly an honor to attend. To give you an idea of how intimate the setting is, the first person N8R and I bumped into at The Red Rock Hotel was BioWare’s Dr. Ray Muzyka. This morning we shared a cab with the amazing Mark Cerny. I respect and admire the hell out of both of these guys. I’m having my usual excellent time at this year’s show, but it’s fascinating watching N8R meet these people and imagining what he’s thinking.

As for me, it was cool catching up with former Nintendo of American VP Perrin Kaplan. She’s an awesome woman and she shared some great Nintendo stories during our interview. EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich — the number one analyst in the video game business IMHO — shared his thoughts on the upcoming Nintendo 3DS vs. Sony NGP.

I’ll update the comments section of this post throughout the day. Thank you guys for keeping the site active while I’m at the show!

Off to DICE 2011, Any Questions For…

I’ll be heading to the airport shortly and catching an airplane to Las Vegas for DICE 2011. RPadholic N8R will manning the camera. I’ll see if he wants to write some stories about his DICE experience. For now I wanted to see if you had any questions for the people I’m meeting up with. If it fits into the conversation, I’ll try to use it. Some of the people I’ll be hanging out with include:

  • Ted Price (Insomniac)
  • Mike Capps (Epic)
  • Chris Taylor (Gas Powered Games)
  • Mark Cerny (Cerny Games)
  • Perrin Kaplan (Former Nintendo of America VP)
  • Jesse Divnich (EEDAR)