Flying at 35,000 feet, about ten minutes from the Rocky Mountains, our captain chimes in to inform us that we're experiencing "unusually" strong winds. I glance up from the computer just long enough to note that he said something about "50 miles an hour faster than expected" and that we're "getting nowhere fast."
Glancing at my layover boarding pass, converting ET to MT to PT, I determine I should still have enough time. Hopefully. Unfortunately, the other matter at hand isn't quite as forgiving as Mother Nature, the airline industry, and the vagaries of layovers combined: the GDC schedule that I've been pouring over for the last several hours... days... weeks.
It's impossible! What is it about Wednesday between 2:30 and 3:30? No less than a dozen sessions are being held during that precise time spot including a postmortem of Shadow of the Colossus and a look at experimental gameplay. Unfortunately there is no GDC TiVo or--better yet--real Sands of Time, to enable me to go back and redo the day several times over. Like Groundhog Day for nerds.
I'll be blogging solo until Thursday morning, when much needed reinforcements arrive in the form of one Mr. Vlad Cole. Anything you think we should be all over, let us know. I've heard there's some Iwata guy talking; Sony's got something about PS3's box scheduled, and this Will Wright fella apparently brought down the house last year, so I might give him a shot.
We also have the honor of being invited--along with some of our blogging colleagues--for a bloggers breakfast Wednesday morning with Microsoft's Peter Moore and Chris Satchell, so if you have any questions for either of them, post below. I'll be sure to take notes on what they're eating, how they're eating it, and whether or not they chew with their mouth open. Oh, and also the 360. That too.
Despite the busy schedule, full of sessions, keynotes, appointments, and the necessary free time to blog it all for you, I'd love to meet up with any Joystiq readers here for the show. If you're gonna be around and want to catch a drink, play some Metroid Prime Hunters single cart mode (or dual cart if you got it), or just shoot the breeze, post in the comments here and I'll get in touch with you.
(Image: for those of you who won't believe anything unless you see a picture, I snapped a driveby photo of downtown San Jose as I sped past it in the teal-green Hyundai Joystiq-mobile.)
