The Temple of Dysonism

The Magic Kingdom (…Sort Of.)

Yesterday I sent a tweet to the European editor for Xbox LIVE on a whim.

Today I went to Disney Interactive studios in Hammersmith, London. I sat next to Iron Man, and opposite Mickey Mouse. After getting myself a visitors ID badge made that would be valid for only a couple of hours and looked more official than my student ID, I was lead upstairs to a room that was fully decorated with the Lion King in mind…except that it had 8 screens, 8 devkit Xbox 360’s, 8 gamepads, 8 extremely high quality pairs of headphones and a handful of people there to play an as of yet unreleased game, Split/Second.

For those not in the know, Split/Second is a racing game and your typical action movie rolled in to one and spat out in a very playable format. You drive your car very fast and with plenty of style around a race track - before proceeding to blow shit up. Be it other cars, barrels or other obscure obstacles, you will mess up the driver in front. Unless you save your energy for something really special - the chance to change the track layout in spectacular fashion. Usually this involves taking down a building, having it lay in the middle of the track, and there being a new section of course to drive on.

Basically, it’s good fun. We were there to give the multiplayer portion of the game which hasn’t been shown before in Europe, and despite me turning up with only an hour left to go I still had enough time to get in several races around a few tracks, all of which were exciting from start to finish, thoguh this was because I was able to stick with the pack for all of the races. Pulling off a successful powerplay and just snatching 3rd place at the finish line feels about as triumphant as finishing in first with no incidents. All the while, there were a few developers lurking around speaking to people who weren’t in the game at the time, or bringing us water in suitable Disney themed tumblers. Unfortunately I apparantly arrived just after a competition they ran to win a pair of the headphones we were using which is a real shame as they were kick ass (note to self: must find out what model they were..) and had to have been a pricey bit of kit.

Following this, we were treated to an early look at something special they’ve added to the game. I’m not allowed to say what it was just yet as they haven’t even announced it to the press and they asked us extra nicely, but it definitely showed promise. With polish it could be super impressive. After leaving the building and stashing the temporary ID card mentioned earlier (it has Mickey Mouse on it, can you blame me?) I got the tube home with someone I had met at the event, and had a rather good chat. One of the topics that came up was, strangely, my blog. I realised whilst talking that I’ve not done this thing justice recently and this is one attempt at rectifying that.

So that was my day, today. I did something different and it felt great. And if the experience wasn’t good enough, they’re sending the attendees promo copies of the game when it’s released at the end of May. I can’t help but think that no matter who I play it against I won’t be able to beat the feeling of playing it with other like-minded enthusiasts in the same room with the developers watching on. And I’d be willing to bet that they had a blast too.