The weekend is over, so it's back to the grind ....

Not much happened yesterday. We did our chores, watched some DVR (Human Target, The Good Wife), played some video games, and then we watched the premiere episode of HBO's new miniseries, The Pacific. Made by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, this is the successor, not sequel, to Band of Brothers. While it's also set during WWII, this miniseries focuses on the Pacific Theater of the war instead of the European part. It has mostly been an introduction to some of the characters and one minor encounter with the enemy, the Japanese Imperial Army. So far so good. Can't wait to see the next episode, and hopefully, they'll kick it up a notch.

We went to see Green Zone last night, an Iraq war-based drama with Matt "Jason Bourne" Damon, and I must say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's not exactly a war movie; it deals more with some behind-the-scenes politics and ideals, similar to The Hurt Locker. Most people were lined up in droves for Alice in Wonderland, but our movie still drew a full theater ....

We slept in late today and have no big plans, apart from watching some DVR, getting the car cleaned out and running a few small errands in Chinatown. All in all, a relaxing Sunday, just the way we like it.

Thank goodness the GDC is over! We had dinner with some publisher/developer friends last night, and it was a great way to end the exhibition. I got the hangover to prove it ...

Unfortunately, now we have to start looking forward to E3, so we can experience this mess all over again. You might think, "Wow, these guys really hate these shows," but we don't. It's the planning phase that we dread, organizing the flights, hotels, appointments, and making schedules for everybody.

But it's the weekend now, so it's time to catch up on sleep, DVR, groceries and maybe see Green Zone.

Two more days of GDC, and we're home free for a few more months until E3, not counting Wonder-Con in early April. Got a busy day ahead of us, and Saturday will probably be spent just walking around the exhibit, saying our goodbyes to people.

If we don't have too much catching up to do, we might see Green Zone this weekend, but our DVR is filling up quite nicely again so we might just plop on the couch and turn into potatoes.

Earlier this week, CrimeCraft finally received a major update, not only fixing a nasty virtual memory error that's been plaguing the game since beta, but also adding a new (huge and awesome) 32-player map and a feature for daily tournaments. It's a long overdue, but excellent, update (so far).

Two days into the Game Developers Conference, and it seems that we're already exhausted. A quick little nap turned into a full night's sleep, not even hearing any of the alarms set to wake us up and get back to work. At least we feel refreshed this morning, I guess.

Now that we're running late, we'll skip the pleasantries and get right to it.

Yesterday was quite a busy day. It was the first official day of GDC, with plenty of meetings and events going on. We'll have coverage on the new Transformers, True Crime, Supreme Commander 2, Puzzle Quest 2, and a slew of EA Sports titles coming up shortly, so keep an eye out.

Today we have another batch of meetings ahead of us, with Disney, Sony, LucasArts etc., so we've got our work cut out for us.

Not much else happening, as there simply isn't any time left.

Finalized our GDC appointments for this week, and I've kept it rather light since the conference is mainly about new technology, which is not our focus here. There are quite a few interesting titles to be shown, so keep your eyes out for a variety of interviews, previews and regular assets. Coverage might be a bit spotty as we'll be shuttling back & forth between locations, but we'll do our best to keep the news flowing ....

We made some headway in our DVR watching over the last few days, with 24, The Amazing Race, Caprica, The Good Wife, Kitchen Nightmares, Leverage and NCIS.

Our Oscar favorite, The Hurt Locker, cleaned up at the awards. We love war movies, so when I saw a clip for the movie, we HAD to see it and found that it was playing at a local theater weeks before its general release. I purchased the DVD a few months later and have been telling everyone who would listen about how good it is. I guess the Academy was of the same opinion for once. If you dig war movies, it's a must-see, but even if you don't, you should check it out because it's not a visceral movie like Saving Private Ryan, but it's more about the psychological aspect, the camaraderie and intense pressure of an often overlooked aspect of a war, defusing bombs.

Yesterday was a good day. Not only was it nice and sunny out (although still chilly), but we also managed to get to the Apple store and pick up a new iPod. There were so many choices that I had a hard time deciding which one to buy: Nano, iPod Touch or iPod Classic. Eventually, we settled on the iPod Classic since it has the biggest HD for all our music, which will be its sole purpose.

We have nothing planned for later today, so after breakfast, we might go for a run. The weather is better now, so it's time to get in some exercise.

Oh my, that nap sure was longer than we anticipated. We were (trying to) watch Running Out Of Time, and not 10 minutes later, it was lights out. Bet that was a snore-fest right there ....

We don't have much else planned this weekend — the usual errands, including picking up a new iPod so we don't have to listen to the radio in the car, especially morning radio, which hardly plays any music at all. No movies are opening that we want to go see, either. We're waiting for Green Zone next week, so we'll just have to hunker down and watch Netflix and the DVR. Life is tough. :)

That Infinity Ward vs. Activision debacle sure looks like it's turning into a pissing contest. It'll be interesting to read more info about what occurred to lead up to the firings.

One more day to go through until the weekend. Can't wait for the few days of peace and quiet before GDC starts. Shortly after that madness, we're planning on a long weekend break to see the sights in Seattle. There will be the obligatory hike on Mount Rainier, for obvious reasons.

No major plans for this weekend. There are no movies coming out that we want to see (waiting for Green Zone the week after), but we are picking up a new iPod.

Man, we're not having very much luck with our gizmos these days. A few weeks back, our DVR was tweaking, then my iPod goes on the fritz, and now our replacement DVR is having hiccups as well. Nothing serious, but a few of our recorded programs jump right to the end when we fast-forward through the commercials. Weird stuff.

Think I may take a break from CrimeCraft later today and check out Supreme Commander 2, or finally give AvP a whirl. Of course, as soon as my PC copy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 arrives, everything else has to move over.

That Infinity Ward story sure is weird, isn't it? I'm curious what sort of breach of contract and insubordination led to the firing of executives who just delivered the best-selling game ever, right before they were supposedly to be paid their royalties. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of that story.

This is turning out to quite an excellent week for gamers. Bad Company 2, Supreme Commander 2, a few MLB titles, and even the Alice in Wonderland game look exciting. I'm mostly interested in the first two, and while I already have SC2, I have yet to check it out. Better get to it before the next batch of titles ships ....

I've finally given up. The old iPod's on its way out, and a new one is coming in. When I went in to get it repaired, the Apple customer service rep said they would give me a discount if I were to replace my current iPod, so you can't beat that deal.

Passed a quiet evening watching 24, Leverage and nothing else.

Going to be making my schedule for GDC; lots of meetings and press events to go to. I'm not looking forward to it because that only means that E3 is not far behind.

We saw Inglourious Basterds yesterday, and it was as good as we expected, albeit maybe a little bit more visceral than we'd anticipated. The Oscars have increased the number of Best Movie nominees from five to 10, and Inglourious Basterds is in the running. While it was good, we don't really consider it to be a contender.

We didn't really do much else today. We like to sleep in on Sundays, and then we went to breakfast, ran some errands, and watched the latest episodes of Lost and Amazing Race.

My iPod issues crept up again today, and I realized that it happened each time my computer rebooted without me properly disconnecting it. It was never a problem in the past, since I usually never disconnect it from the computer before rebooting. So far, formatting and resynchronizing it seems to fix the problem, so I guess I'll save myself the expensive of buying a new iPod until it totally breaks down.

Yesterday, we went to the Chinese New Year Parade, and by golly, it didn't rain for the first time in years. The parade itself was kind of a mixed bag; while it was fun to watch, it wasn't really anything too exciting, either. There were too many commercial floats for all sorts of casinos, insurance companies, McDonald's and the like. Of course most of the fun was to be had afterward, during dinner and after a few beers.

Later today, we might go check out Inglourious Basterds, which is available on DVD, but due to the long wait on Netflix, we have yet to see, and the local theater is having an encore showing in preparation for the Oscars.

We went to see Cop Out, a movie by Kevin Smith starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, and while it isn't going to be breaking any box office records, it is quite entertaining with a few good laughs.

Later today, we might go see the Chinese New Year parade. It depends on the weather, as rain is expected, and if the parade's track record holds true, it will come down in buckets. If we end up not going, well, we still have a few Netflix movie and a DVR full of TV stuff to catch up on, so no loss ....

Our tickets for the Faith No More concert arrived! I'm very excited about that concert, since I haven't seen them in a long, long time, mostly because they split up several years ago, so I'm looking forward to it.

Not much else is going on. Our press trips are over for this week, and we look ahead to GDC for the next batch of gaming goodness. This weekend will start in style with, hopefully, a good movie, and apart from that, nothing has been planned, so maybe we ought to catch up on our DVR, and if there's any time left, we can squeeze in some sleep.

Today was quite the busy day. Not only did we attend Nintendo's Media Summit but a Sony event for God of War III. We'll have stuff up over the next few days, starting today with the Metroid: Other M preview and interview.

This weekend, we're going to try and catch Cop Out, a movie by Kevin Smith starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. This had better not disappoint, or I'm going to start yelling "too fat to fly."

Today was another busy day, and not so much working on the site for a change. I had to help a friend load up his furniture in a truck since they are moving clear across the country. Unfortunately, it was raining cats & dogs all day long, which in turn made the pathway to their house muddy and slippery, so it was tricky to haul stuff back and forth. Glad that's over with!

That didn't leave much time for anything else, but we managed to watch Pandorum, which was a pretty decent sci-fi flick.