DICE 2010 in Pictures II: Writers, Business Peeps, and Adam Sessler

Yes, I used Adam Sessler’s name in the title to try to pick up some cheap SEO traffic. Sorry (but not). Ha! Anyway, here are some photos of other game writers, some journalists that moved to the business side of gaming, and two sexy girl gamers.

Wired’s Chris Kohler and Electric Playground’s Enzo Zanatta Are Handsome Men

Journos Turned Biz People: Ignition’s Shane Bettenhausen and High Road’s Darren Gladstone

GirlGamer Founder & CEO Mike Prasad and IGN’s Fran Mirabella III

New EGM Brady Fiechter and Former EGM Shane Bettenhausen

I Look Terrible (Drunk) in This Photo, But GirlGamer’s Rachel Horton Looks Lovely

Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo and Rogers & Cowan’s Marina Beck Before the Awards Show

The Excellent People at 1UP: David Ellis and Mr. (Sam) Kennedy…Kennedy

Alex Pham From the L.A. Times Looking Lovely as Always

Adam Sessler and I Have No Idea Why We Aren’t Male Models


DICE 2010 in Pictures: Cool Developers and an Awards Show

Here are some photos I snapped during DICE 2010. You’ll see some of gaming’s top talent, a sexy Italian cameraman, a tap gaming analyst, and a great comedian in this set. Enjoy!

Mark Cerny Was Inducted Into the AIAS Hall of Fame Because He’s Awesome

EAT Sleep Play’s David Jaffe Says “Egg”, I Say “Chicken”

Electric Playground’s Enzo Zanatta and the Legendary Designer/Producer Don Daglow

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich Was Great to Chat with — I Hope Bsukenyan Enjoys the Interview!

I Want This Flower Art!!!

Epic’s Dr. Mike Capps Didn’t Drunkenly Renew My Unreal Engine License This Year

Jay Mohr Rocked It (Again) As the Host of the Interactive Achievement Awards

Here’s a Shot of Jay From the Screen

Here’s What the Awards Show Looked Like From the Last (Troublemaker) Table

Attack of the Giant Interactive Achievement Award!!!


Coffee Talk #91: Why Am I Here (Part II)?!?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, U.S.A. trouncing the Royal Kingdom of Canadia in Olympic hockey, Bryan Danielson finally making it to a WWE broadcast show, or the WWE making Bryan Danielson change his name to Daniel Bryan, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Way back when I started this site, I posted an entry called “What Am I Here?!?”. It’s been what? About four months since I started? RPad.tv has definitely had its ups and downs, and lately I’ve been questioning why I’m doing what I do since I’m not making any money and bills are piling up. DICE 2010 was a brilliant reminder of why I love all of this. I’m definitely recharged from DICE and I wanted to use today’s Coffee Talk to tell you why.

First and foremost, I love interacting with you guys and gals (I think RPad.tv has three female readers now). I love talking about games, gadgets, and geek culture with you. I love that I was able to share some of DICE with you. It was like bringing you all to Vegas with me (though you didn’t see me drunk). Talking about OnLive and Bobby Kotick with you was definitely fun. I’m sorry I didn’t get to do more of that during DICE, but you’ll understand why when you read reason #2.

So yeah! The second reason DICE was reinvigorating was that it reminded me of how ridiculously lucky I am. I get to write about one of my favorite hobbies and talk with the people that create the games I play. It was fun catching up with people like BioWare’s Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Gas Powered Games’ Chris Taylor, Insomniac’s Ted Price, and so many others. I feel incredibly honored that these amazing people remember my name — I’m a nobody! To me, it’s the same as writing about movies or sports and getting to hang out with actors or athletes. The one difference is that gaming is still small enough and fun enough that I still get to interact with a lot of these guys on a somewhat social level.

So today’s Coffee Talk is late because I wasn’t sure about sharing all of this because it makes me feel kind of exposed…but then I remembered that you guys are awesome. As always, thanks for visiting!!!

DICE 2010: Richard Lemarchand Talks Uncharted 2

Before Uncharted 2 kicked everyone’s asses at the Interactive Achievement Awards, Naughty Dog co-lead game designer Richard Lemarchand gave a presentation on Uncharted 2. It was called “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves — How To Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants Without Crapping Them” It was a cool presentation and I’m pretty sure you’ll want to work at Naughty Dog after you see it. Check it out!

DICE 2010: Watch Bobby Kotick Be…Kind of Nice

You’ve read my notes on Bobby Kotick’s DICE 2010 presentation, now watch it for yourself! See Activision’s lord and master explain why he doesn’t play games anymore, admit that not buying Harmonix was a mistake, and come off as…kind of fun. After you’ve see Kotick live, I want your opinion on his performance. Half the people I spoke to at DICE thought he was being genuine, while the other half thought his whole schtick was staged. What side are you on?

DICE 2010: OnLive President and CEO Shows Off Streaming Games

OnLive president and CEO Steve Perlman showed off the latest beta of the company’s streaming game service at DICE 2010. Prior to the live demo, Perlman went over where he thinks gaming is going and why OnLive is the next logical step in home entertainment. While some of the content will be old to those of you that have been following the service, some of the performance gains and features are new.

As I mentioned in the comments section of this story, I saw a game of Crysis being observed on an iPhone. It looked great and ran smoothly. While a controlled demo is very different than real-world use, I’m getting more and more interesting in OnLive every time I see it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Perlman’s demo.

13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards: The Results

As promised, here are the results of the 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. As expected, Uncharted 2 did ridiculously well. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Scribblenauts did well too. As a huge BioWare fan, I was pleased that Dragon Age: Origins picked up an award (I was teasing BioWare’s Dr. Greg Zeschuk that he now has 52 of them).

Anyway, the results are in! Check ’em out and let me know what you think (please)!!!

Game of the Year
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Casual Game of the Year
Flower

Fighting Game of the Year
Street Fighter IV

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Dragon Age: Origins

Sports Game of the Year
FIFA Soccer 10

Racing Game of the Year
Forza Motorsport 3

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Adventure Game of the Year
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Social Networking Game of the Year
Farmville

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Brutal Legend

Action Game of the Year
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Family Game of the Year
The Beatles: Rock Band

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Scribblenauts

Oustanding Achievement in Animation
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Oustanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Outstanding Achievement in Story (Adapted)
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Outstanding Character Performance
Batman: Arkham Asylum — The Joker

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Oustanding Achievement in Story (Original)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Oustanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Oustanding Achievement in Soundtrack
Brutal Legend

Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Oustanding Achievement in Sound Design
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design
Scribblenauts

Portable Game of the Year
Scribblenauts

Coffee Talk #90: Mark Cerny is Awesome and You Should Know This

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the chicken or egg debate, sexual thoughts of Bobby Kotick, or Jay Mohr being awesome, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Last night Mark Cerny was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ hall of fame. The man is greatly respected by his peers and a few gaming writers know how incredibly important he is to the industry, but not enough gamers appreciate his contributions. My friend Sam from 1Up and I were talking about this at 3:30AM today (what happens when nerds are in Vegas). Mark Cerny is completely awesome and you, as a gamer, should know how awesome he is.

If you’ve owned a Sony console, chances are you’ve played and enjoyed a Mark Cerny game. He has contributed to great titles in the Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, and Uncharted series. If you’re old school, then you’ve probably enjoyed his work on Marble Madness, Sonic 2, and Kid Chameleon. He has helped numerous creators harness the power of the PlayStation 3 with various tools created by Sony’s Ice Team. He’s a big reason why two of the best PlayStation developers — Insomniac and Naughty Dog — are where they are today.

If you have some time, do a little bit of research on Mark Cerny. There’s an extremely high chance you’ve enjoyed several of the games he’s worked on, but you probably didn’t know he was involved in making them. It’s fantastic the he has been recognized by organizations like the AIAS and IGDA, but for writers like Sam and me, it’s important that gamers recognize his awesomess too.

With that in mind, let me know what Mark Cerny games you’ve enjoyed over the years.

Watch the AIAS’ Interactive Achievement Awards on Feb 26

If you missed the live stream of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Interactive Achievement Awards then make sure to watch it next week on IFC on February 26. Host Jay Mohr was excellent, skewering Activision and cracking on several of the top developers in gaming. (His joke about angrily masturbating to Bobby Kotick brought down the house.)

In addition to the comedic entertainment, it’s just great watching some truly awesome games and their creators being honored. Check it out!