I’ve been back from my trip to Dallas for a little over a week and never really talked about it here. I guess I should.
THQ invited me to Dallas last weekend to check out their new game, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011. I left early Saturday morning from John Wayne and got in around noon. Airport procedure is so simple and easy now. Before I had ever flown, airports seemed hectic from what I knew from TV. It was a big lie! Anyways, a car picked me up from Dallas Fort Worth and took me to the hotel. I checked in at the Sheraton and then decided to find lunch. There was a Whataburger not far from the hotel so I looked up how to get there. The metro line had a stop right next to the hotel and another close to Whataburger. The trip didn’t take long, and I was excited to try what I heard compared repeatedly to In-n-Out. It was alright but not really anything like In-n-Out. California wins! After getting back to the hotel, I took a nap before the event.

 
At 6:30 I met the THQ representatives downstairs. After signing an NDA they took us to the event. There was a short presentation followed by food, drinks, and game playing. The food was super delicious! There were all sorts of burgers, sandwiches, and chips. There were chicken burgers, mushroom vegetarian burgers, and Kobe beef burgers. I suspect the Kobe burgers were Kobe-style and not actual Kobe beef. The chips were really good and included sweet potato chips! There was also a delicious turkey sandwich served on a muffin rather than sliced bread or bun. I can’t remember everything that was there because there was a lot, but it was all really good. Unfortunately they didn’t have soft drinks. A lot of the other journalists were rather upset by this. I was surprised by how few people were willing to drink beer. Sadly the beer was limited to the usual large, domestic beers, but it was still okay. While playing the game, people would come around to refill drinks and offer more food, including cheescake lollipops, chocolate cake/fudge bites, and more. That’s the life – playing games one foot from a big, HD screen while someone comes around with sweets and beer. (I’d prefer soda though of course). My preview of the game is at Game Boyz, so read it there if you’re interested. After getting back to the hotel, I read Eragon before going to sleep.
On Sunday I didn’t have anything to do until 5:00! I had a coupon for $5 off a meal in the hotel because I declined room cleaning, so I went down to the buffet for lunch. It was good but nothing special really. Then I took the metro down to check out the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated. I spent a little time at the memorial and exploring around the few blocks near there before going to the museum proper. I wasn’t expecting the museum to be so powerful. I’m not sure how to describe it really. Usually I don’t care about these things. A man who did some good things was killed. He was murdered just like many other people are murdered daily. It’s sad, but it’s hard to feel sad over it when it’s so common, especially when it all happened before I was born. But when I was actually there at the site of shooting learning about it, it really hit me. Of course I’m not saying that I sit around crying over it now or anything. I’m just saying… you should go if you’re ever in that area. I think it’s good to see. You can see the place from which Oswald fired in the museum (then the Texas School Book Depository), and the places in the street at which JFK was hit have been marked. I even went out to the Grassy Knoll (which, sadly, reminded me of Clone High.
After rushing back to the hotel, I checked in with the THQ representatives before getting on a shuttle to go to the America Airlines Center, an arena in Dallas. We were watching a wrestling match, Hell in a Cell 2010. Honestly, it was incredibly fake and stupid. I spent the whole time IMing Shaun and Andy on my phone, making fun of it. But it was strangely entertaining. It’s like bad anime. The story is kind of interesting, but it was full of really long fight scenes that should have been condensed! Also it reminded me of Pokemon. One fight was between someone named Cena and a member of a group called The Nexus. The Nexus seriously looked like Team Rocket. If Cena lost, he’d join Nexus, but if he won, Nexus would disband. I joked that apparently Cena had to join Team Rocket and do Nexus runs if he lost. It was pretty entertaining actually. I don’t think I’d go out of my way to watch, but I’d be happy to attend again if my ticket was once again paid for!
And then on Monday it was back to the airport! The car that took me to the airport also took a writer from GamingNexus.com and the PS3 lead from IGN. They were both pretty coo, and I traded business cards with the writer from Gaming Nexus so we could stay in contact. All in all, a really great weekend!