I thought this week would be press event free. But it wasn't.
Last night, after work on MTV Multiplayer had wrapped, I walked over to the launch event for Codemasters' new racer, "GRID."
I knew little about the game, but Codemasters promised an exciting competition between the gamers who had mastered "GRID"'s demo and a view of a San Francisco sunset. I hadn't seen a good San Francisco sunset yet.
Codemasters delivered on that, and continued a amusing trend of press events having drinks themed around the game shown. Tonight, it was "GRID" drinks.
The full drink list is below.
You'll have to click on the drink list to the right to make out the ingredients, but here are a few samples available from last night's bar.
"Street Legal Sour": A Whiskey Sour that looks innocent enough on the outside…but wait until you see what's under the hood.
"Nitrous Oxide": For serious racers only! The special ingredient of this Mojito is 151 rum! Be careful not to blow your engine.
"Redline": They say it's dangerous to run a race car in the red, but this Cosmopolitan will definitely keep you relaxed.
Yes, someone was paid to write those drink descriptions. I'd like that job.
But before I entered San Francisco's elegant Hotel Vitale, I noticed Codemasters has snuck a car promoting their invite-only event near the hotel lobby. While not a fan of the enormous stickers, at least I knew I was in the right place.
While the event was to celebrate the game's launch, more fascinating were the five gamers flown out by Codemasters to race off against one another. These five represented the top racing times in the Xbox Live demo of "GRID." Each time was within tens of a second of one another. I didn't have time to stick around until a winner was crowned, but my money was on the youngest, 16-year-old Timmy.
Scheduled plans meant an early exit from the event, but as with any event, there's a bag filled with mysteries that you're asked to grab on your way out. The "GRID" launch event was no different. It's not often these bags are shared with the public -- though honestly that's because what's inside them isn't worth writing about -- but I thought I'd let you guys take a peek.
How exciting was that? Maybe I shouldn't scoff, though. I do lose a lot of pens.
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Have a hot tip? Is there a topic that Multiplayer should be covering and isn't? Maybe you want what's in the swag bag. Drop me an e-mail.
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