When Brookelyn and I first arrived at South By Southwest, we found a guy to escort us back to pick up our event badges.  At the end of the event hall, he led us through a curtain where the warehouse opened up and revealed a spectacular sight - a vast ocean of mushroom-colored bags stretched on like a ravenous sea, craving the flavor of human flesh.  My heart secretly shuddered as I imagined all the cloth handles wiggling to life and flopping against my legs. I curbed my fears as Brookelyn and I happily skipped into the depths of the goodie bags where we giggled and took pictures.

The Seagate booth was set up perfectly for some two-on-two Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 action.  A massive TV, facing a comfy little area with bean bags, displayed the screen of one of the GRAW 2 stations so spectators could watch the games.  Brooke and I took our seats and waited while people streamed in and formed a line to play against us.  We played 5-minute Team Sharpshooter games on Headquarters, Riverbank and Shoreline. For any team that could collectively score 10 kills, we gave each team member a copy of GRAW2; 5 kills received an “I Play With Dolls” t-shirt; and if they beat us we gave them each a Maxtor 160 GB OneTouch III portable storage device (mini edition!).

I spent half the day playing GRAW2, and the other half at the JAM Sessions booth showing off the new guitar game coming out in June for the DS. 

Yes, it is a guitar game, but it’s not Guitar Hero.  Where Guitar Hero is a rhythm game, Jam Sessions is like playing an actual guitar.  The top screen on the DS displays your guitar chords which you can select using the Directional Pad. You strum the bottom touchscreen with your stylus or a pick.  You can have up to 16 chords on your palette at one time and customize which chords you’re using and where they are located.  It’s a simple drag and drop interface.

I went online and pulled some Modest Mouse chords off the internet and within five minutes I had all the chords in the places I wanted them and I was playing and singing!  We hooked the DS up to an amp and you would not believe the sound quality it produces.  If you weren’t watching the person play on a DS you wouldn’t know they weren’t playing an actual guitar.  So, what I’m wondering is, who is going to be the first band to use a DS guitar to play in concerts?

Back to the Seagate booth where we were kicking major butt in GRAW 2. We did a camera interview with KVUE.com while we played.  During the two days we were there playing, we only lost one game.  By the end of the second day, we had to split Brooke and I up on different teams so we could actually give stuff away.