Went to a press event last night for Atari's Alone in the Dark. They held it at a restaurant in the middle of Central Park, an appropriate setpiece considering. I even got scared walking from Fifth Avenue to the restaurant because the park was awful dark and a bit chilly, and there was no one around.Only in the video game industry is New York, the most important city in the country (yes, I have that special breed of Manhattan-centricism), totally irrelevant due to its not being located in Silicon Valley. So I haven't had many opportunities to do events here, but Atari was in town demoing Alone in the Dark. I did not actually see the game because Gamasutra has covered it already, albeit a bit earlier in the process. I do know they're at least aiming to be creative with the survival horror paradigm, which is noteworthy regardless of whether or not it turns out to be good. I will, of course, reserve enthusiasm until I see it myself.
Anyway, for me the highlight of the whole night was when I came in and the door staff gave me an Atari T-shirt and told me where the bathroom was so that I could change. They also told me I could feel free to cut or pin the T-shirt in whatever style I wanted. I was a little alarmed, as nobody told me I'd have to change at this party and I was all dressed up. So I went into the bathroom to check my lipstick and it turns out there were all these real gorgeous gals in there changing into Atari T-shirts. Models, actually. Which would have been a highlight in and of itself, but the best part was realizing the door staff had assumed I was one of them.
"Tee hee, no, I am not a model, merely a journalist! Oh, tee hee!" Awesome. I told the story of the mix-up to anyone who would listen -- probably repeatedly in direct proportion with how much alcohol I drank.
I got to keep the T-shirt, too!
