So one of the cooler parts of going to GDC is hanging out at the developer parties in the evenings. These events usually consist of drinking a lot of free booze and having a really good time while PR folks butter you up and convince you that their game is the bestest thing ever. Normally this is all a lie.

But sometimes they surprise you…

I was hanging out in some overcrowded night club with a Kotaku guy on one side and a fella from The Game Reviews on the other drinking very fancy adult beverages and noshing on whatever weird foodstuff happened by when EA DICE blew my mind.

Obstensibly, the event was for Battlefield: Bad Company, that was the main event and the demo that was set up. However, right before that they showed a demo for a game called Mirror’s Edge that was so intriguing and amazing that everyone in the room had to pick their collective jaws up off the floor.

This was a world premier, so details are still scant, but you play as a “Runner” in a dystopian utopian world where a gleaming perfect city has been created at the expense of all civil liberties and free thought. The resistance movement can only communicate through hand-written and delivered messages, as all electronic communication is monitored. The game is all about speed and momentum, and standing still is a death sentence. There’s almost no combat in this game aside from sporadic hand-to-hand action, and you’re far more suited to flight than fight.

There’s normally one best way through a level, and that route is set off by bright red objects. Most of the world, you see, is in black and white, with splashes of color showing up only on occassion. The developers promised that red had a special significance, as finding the red pipes, doors, and walls would lead you toward your goal. Things in the demo started quietly enough with the heroine (yep, you play as a girl) running along rooftops and making some dangerous jumps. Things picked up quickly however, as you are spotted by a news helicopter, which brings the police hot on your heels. The rest of the level was a heart-pumping, adrenaline-fueled race to safety.

Afterward, EA went on to show Battlefield but nobody cared. The whole room was buzzing about Mirror’s Edge, it was all we could talk about. Do yourself a favor and get this game on your radar right now. Stop caring about MGS 4, GoW 2, and all those other silly abbreviated sequels. This is the game you want to play, so you’d best get ready for it.

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Thursday, Feb 21

7:30 am - As I ride into the city I’m struck by just how unpolished GDC is. Now, I don’t say that as an insult, what I mean is that this convention is not, unlike so many others, about media coverage. Sure, there are plenty of PR folks around and they’d just love to tell you how great their new games are going to be, but they don’t have the same power as they do at events like E3. This week is really about people who love making games, and that’s so refreshing when most gaming journalism is dominated by shiny new demos and glossy press packs. Uh oh, guess I haven’t gotten enough sleep, I’m turning into a softie.

11:00 am - My last appointment was with a Warner Bros. rep who was showing off LEGO Batman. I don’t know how those bastards at Traveller’s Tales do it, but every time I hear about a new LEGO game I just can’t wait to play it. It’s like some kind of brightly colored drug that takes me away to a special happy place.

2:30 pm - This was the weirdest press conference I’ve ever seen. Epic brought a bunch of us in to show off the new Unreal Engine, and starting off, everything was great. They displaying some Gears of War footage as rendered with the new engine, and then a cool demo of having a swarm of enemies onscreen at once and a wonderful little trick that earned the nickname of the “meat cube” from those who saw it.

Then, everything went horribly wrong…

For the next 40 minutes, Epic showed off some kind of weird social networking game featuring an eerily cute Asian girl in many different outfits and poses. Once they had dressed her as they wanted, they started up a dancing game featuring the new avatar. It was all kind of creepy, and everyone in the room wondered if we were supposed to feel dirty watching it. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to write…

Oh, and I’m convinced they were pumping cigarette smoke into the room, apparently the plan was to confuse and disorient the journalists, and then kill us with cancer.

3:30 pm - Heading to LucasArts, oh boy…

7:00 pm - LucasArts session is over and man am I ever pumped to play Force Unleashed and LEGO Indiana Jones. Fracture looks pretty good too, but the other two games stole the show. The Force powers in FU alone are so impressive I don’t even know why you’d ever want to use the lightsaber.

In another cool note, I met Game Informer’s own Nick and Bryan on the bus trip back from LucasArts. Nick paid me quite a high compliment, calling me one of the few articulate members of the GI Message Boards.

8:00 pm - I just left “Street Fighter IV Happy Hour” and it was a blast. Capcom held a tourney for all the journalists (I got there too late to sign up) and as everyone had more to drink the room got more boisterous and the action got more intense. I had a Jeff Gerstmann sighting while I was there. I couldn’t read his badge from where I was, but he had a media tag, so obviously he’s writing for someone now. Of course, I’m sure he could have just called the show planners and told them who he was and they would have given him whatever he wanted. At any rate, I’m glad to see he landed on his feet.

11:00 pm - Finally home after my longest day of the week. I also went to a party for Prototype but it blew so hard I’m not even going to waste time talking about it. Hopefully the game goes better than the party, bleck.

Thursday Games Recap
White Gold (Preview Coming Soon)
Precursors (Preview Coming Soon)
LEGO Batman (Preview Coming Soon)
Recoil: Retrograd (Preview Coming Soon)
Supreme Ruler 2020 (Preview Coming Soon)
Star Wars: the Force Unleashed (Preview Coming Soon)
Fracture (Preview Coming Soon)
LEGO Indiana Jones (Preview Coming Soon)

Wednesday, Feb 20

8:00 am - No repeats of yesterday, today I pack an umbrella. However, by the time I get to the city, the rain has stopped… and the sky is cloudless. Great, now I get to look like a moron all day long.

11:30 am - I just got my first look at Street Fighter IV in person and… woah boy, is this going to be a blast from the past. Fans of the original are going to fall in love all over again, and I can’t even imagine how many new gamers this will attract. Oh man, I want this to be out NOW.

3:30 pm - Had a meeting with Running with Scissors about Postal 3. Those guys are totally warped, but they’re also hilarious and know their audience better than about any other developer. The preview will go into more depth, but right now I’ll say that this is one sick game, and I can’t wait to play it.

4:30 pm - I was supposed to meet with the developers of Edge of Twilight but they got called away to another meeting. Instead, I talked with the head of Queensland Games, which is a really cool concept they have down in Australia. You see, QG is a sort of developer co-op, with a bunch of different companies working under the same roof. It’s cool, because now employees of different companies can get together and brainstorm and work through challenges. One of the studios (Chrome) is actually working on the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed which I’ll talk more about in tomorrow’s wrap-up.

6:30 pm - Saw Gamecock’s two latest titles, Hail to the Chimp and Insecticide. Both of them look like they’ll be more fun than I had expected, and they’ve given me some of the best schwag so far. Yay for free junk!

Wednesday Games Recap
The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga
SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 (Preview Coming Soon)
Street Fighter IV (Preview Coming Soon)
Demigod
Deca Sports
Postal 3 (Preview Coming Soon)
Edge of Twilight (Preview Coming Soon)
Hail to the Chimp (Preview Coming Soon)
Insecticide

Tuesday, Feb 19

8:30 am - Time to get the adventure underway. But first, an adventure within an adventure in trying to get from Oakland to San Francisco. You see, in order to get into the city, I have to take the bus, and then the subway. Now, I’m a country boy, not big city folk, so when I need to get somewhere I’m accustomed to just hopping in the car and driving where I need to go. At any rate, the public transportation game is a whole new world. One thing I DO know, I’m going to need a lot of hand sanitizer…

9:00 - Alright, I made it into the city without any major muckups. Now then, I’m in a new city, by myself, and I have to find the hotel that’s hosting my first event. On top of all that, it’s raining… hard, and I don’t have an umbrella. I wonder if I’ll be the first person in 300 years to die from “exposure.”

9:30 am - I just came from a great meeting with Atari. They showed me a really cool demo for Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. I can’t go into the details now (blasted embargoes), but series fans are going to pee their pants. There are going to be a lot of happy anime fans in the near future.

10:00 am - I’m heading for my next meeting down the street. It’s funny, because a lot of developers are doing their demos and events in super swank hotels rather than on the show floor. These places are too ritzy for their own good, with front desks that are hidden way in the back, and elevators that won’t take you more than 3 floors up without a special keycard. I guess this is one of the few times when gamers and developers can pretend to be rock stars, so they may as well milk it.

4:00 pm - Long day with a lot of games to cover. Check out the recap to see what all was covered, with links to previews if they are available. The day’s not over yet, I’ve got another 7 hours of work ahead of me.

6:30 pm - Microsoft has called a press conference for Too Human to show off some playable content and a bit of story. They need a a strong showing here to win back some of the fans they lost from the E3 ‘06 trailer.

So the demo was pretty good, looks good but there’s no real “wow” factor. It looks like Microsoft is trying to ride on the Mass Effect coattails, but I don’t really know if there’s enough here to blow anyone’s mind. It may be that this turns out to be an amazing blockbuster, but so far it looks like it’ll simply be a good, but not great, game.

Now then, I’m off to an EA DICE event, time to get my drink on.

11:00 pm - So the DICE event was more than I hoped for due to one simple reason, a new title called Mirror’s Edge that is going to blow your mind. Unfortunately, all info about it is embargoed until March, and it’s kind of a hard game to describe, but I can guarantee you’re going to like what you see. Oh yeah, they also showed Battlefield Heroes and Battlefied: Bad Company but don’t worry about that, just remember Mirror’s Edge…

Tuesday Games Recap

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (No preview until April)
Age of Conan: Hybronian Adventures
Disciples III: Renaissance
Dark Sector (Preview in March)
Bangai O Spirits (Preview in March)
Puzzle Quest Galactrix (Preview in March)
Too Human (Preview this week)
Battlefield Heroes (Preview in March)
Mirror’s Edge (Preview in March)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Preview in March)

Mon, Feb 18

10:00 am - Arrive at airport for 11:45 flight. If all goes as planned, I should be hitting the gate just as boarding starts.

10:10 am - Sitting at the gate and playing the waiting game. Somehow it feels like I am losing. Funny, the one time I need security to take a while, they whisk me through immediately. Surely this will never happen again. While waiting for my flight I saw a lady running around the concourse raving because she had missed her flight and was asking every single ticket agent she could find to get her on the plane to Atlanta. When last I saw her, she was pleading with a janitor, as though he could throw his mop out on the runway and stop the plane from taking off.

12:15 pm - Arrive in Denver and check for next departure. Crap, flight is delayed. Oh well, time for lunch. Just as I sit down for my first real meal of the day I get word that the delay has been cancelled (WTF?) and boarding starts now. I have never had a flight that was delayed and then not delayed before. Oh well, who am I to complain. California here I come!

3:00 pm - Wheels down and I’m in San Francisco. It’s a nice city but of course I’m staying in Oakland so time to get moving. In other news, my luggage actually decided to come with me for this trip, that was awful sweet of it.

4:30 pm - After a subway trip and cab ride I arrive at the place where I’ll be staying. Also, I was only mugged 3 times on the way here, a personal record! That last guy must have felt pretty dumb, by the time he got to me, all I had left was an old lunch receipt and a membership card for a gym I haven’t been to in 6 years. He’ll have to learn to get there faster.

So ends the travel portion of our show, actual content will be coming as the week wears on. Should be a good trip, I’ll get to see some big titles like Too Human and Star Wars: the Force Unleashed this week, so it’ll be worth it even if I don’t know how to get around the city. Join me next time, as I try and find my way to the convention center without getting on the wrong train and ending up in L.A.