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The Official GDC 2005 thread.

Cheesemeister said:
WasabiKing, what suggestions for eats do you have for those of us on a really tight budget?
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Define really tight. :D One thing about SF, it's an expensive town...

There's Blondie's Pizza across from the cable car station. Go up 5th, cross Market, and you'll see a GAP about 1/2 block on your left. Next to the GAP is the cable car line. Walk up until you get to an intersection, Blondie's is on the left. There's hot dog stands, but one I know for sure is at the Women's Macy's Building. Also, if you go to the basement, there's a food court down there.

Let me tell you, I don't know how the hell Rachael Ray did $40 a day in San Francisco, but it will be hard to do that... If you really want Chinese, go to Henry's Hunan and order that combination friend rice. Has everything, pork, chicken, beef, and shrimp, for about $9, but the portion is huge and you should be able to have some left over. Problem may be that your room isn't equipped with a microwave. :D

Oh, I never did mention your fast food options... Jack in the Box is on 4th and Mission. There's a new Del Taco on between 2nd and 3rd on Market. The Carl's Jr. near 5th and Market is expensive.

Unfortunately, most of my knowledge of great eats in the city is outside of Moscone Convention Center area. I'm a roamer throughout the city, so I know of a few great places, but they're way out of reach if you don't have a car. If you do have friends or a ride, check out North Beach, a wonderful mix of great restaurants, bitchin' bars, strip clubs, and the Italian influence of the neighborhood.
 
I give Blondie's the thumbs up for price+taste.

I don't eat downtown that much. If you've never had In-N-Out and you're on Fisherman's Wharf, definitely make it a point to go. And I didn't know there was a Cheesecake in Macy's. Will have to examine that at some point.

Now, if you want to do videogame shopping while you're around, definitely check out the first floor of Rasputin over by Blondie's and EBGames. Sometimes their preowned games are ludicrously high-priced, but sometimes they're bizarrely cheap. You never know what'll be in there...
 
Thanks for your advice.

My budget is really tight, as in... I might as well panhandle or starve. =P

Seriously though, skating by on fast food will probably be the best option for me. That $9 Chinese deal sounds really good; I don't think I'll have access to a nuker staying at The Mosser Hotel, but hey, cold Chinese food hasn't scared me off yet. Anyone wanna feed me? :lol
 
WasabiKing said:
Define really tight. :D One thing about SF, it's an expensive town...
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Tell me about. I Lived their as an exchange student for a couple of years. You can say that the bay area robbed me of a dollar or two, especially that rent.
 
well if you panhandle, you'll fit right in. But yeah, anyone who works/worked in South of Market knows about Henry's Hunan, and that place is wonderful. Being Chinese, I don't like to spend a ton on Chinese food when it's made by someone else, but Henry's is a lock. BTW, you can just go with Shrimp or Chicken Fried rice and the portions are the same size, but the Combo is the crown jewel of the place...

Oh, and I forgot Lee's Deli. There's like, 3 or 4 of them in the City, but one I know for sure is by the Courtyard Marriott, which is on 2nd and Lee's is between Folsom and Harrison. I've spotted a few GameSpotters out there when I was working in the area. cNet's not far from there, BTW.
 
Awsome tips Wasabi, thanks.

My flight just landed an hour or so ago so I'm all here and settled in. Granted, I haven't slept in 24 hours outside of the limited naps on the plane, so you know what time it is...

Nothing keeps you awake like a good glass of scotch I always say :lol

Anyway, i'm gonna go walk around a bit and check some of these places out. If anyone wants to grab food or a few drinks anytime this weekend next week (if the GAF meet up doesn't happen)

shoot me an e-mail at either feward@sprintpcs.com OR feward@tmail.com and i'll give you my number.
 
What a fucking dump this place is.
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Hehe, thats what I say about the city all the time, walk down to the Civic Center area on Market and you'll see just how ugly the place is.

I'm curious to see how the city will do regarding all the homeless bums and if they keep them away from the Center or not. Oh well, should be very crowded anyways, if going by the numbers from last year at San Jose, gonna be a lot of people walking around. Definately not gonna be a good week to drive around that part of the city (not that driving in the city is recommended any day of a normal week :))
 
Wasabi: Have you been to R&G Lounge as of late? Still any good? I remember back in the first half of the 90's, we used to go there all the time for their Peking duck... having to call like 48 hours in advance...

If I have the $$$ for it, still want to hit Churrasco sometime this week.
 
I can't really say i've been to a major US city that wasn't a total dump in parts.

Canada's a different matter, but eh.

Wasabi, you said past 6th street was bad on foot.. compared to? I went to HS on the DC line and I went to college in Savannah which has one of the highest violent crimes per capita in the world. So between that, DC's ever fluxing murder capitol status, and Baltimore's general hell-holeish asthetics, I'd say i'm used to some pretty shady areas.
 
Don't know much about your commutes, but it's not as violent, that's for sure. It's just that in that area (Tenderloin) you have homeless people, druggies, and crazies. And of course some people have all 3 things going on. For your safety, I'd avoid, especially when some friends of mine who are SFPD avoid that part of their beat...

Priz: Not for quite some time, like I said, for the most part, I don't buy Chinese food when I go out. It's usually something American, or some Japanese from time to time. Definitely a steak if I can swing it. ;)

Oh shit, forgot about one of my favorite stop-overs. Dave's, on 3rd right before Market, great Happy Hour spot, crowded right after work. small hole in the wall, but all sorts of people hang there... Again, I'm a simple man who just likes his drinks, could really give a shit about ambience and clubs.
 
I'll have to check that out. I'm in Rickenbackers as I type (sidekick) and I have to say this place is definitely right up my alley. I'm more the pub type and hate clubs.

If you want to go out for drinks tonight (extended to everyone in town) first rounds on me.

Oh and did hunan's for lunch. God that place rocks.
 
If you're in the city tomorrow with nothing better to do, my band is playing some con at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway (which I believe is on Van Ness near California) - http://www.animeod.com/

Hopefully there'll be some other interesting things going on at the con.
 
Okay... I'm having fun, I dig the city.. but WHY in the name of christ is Quizno's closed at 7pm on a Saturday?

I dont' care what district it's in. The deadest town i've lived in, savannah, kept subway open until 2am on A WEEKDAY. Ridiculous.
 
Vark said:
Okay... I'm having fun, I dig the city.. but WHY in the name of christ is Quizno's closed at 7pm on a Saturday?

I dont' care what district it's in. The deadest town i've lived in, savannah, kept subway open until 2am on A WEEKDAY. Ridiculous.
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Quiznos is closed at 7PM on weekday. Financial district closes by 5PM, so staying around is pointless. Rent + utilities + wages in SF > Savannah is my guess, BTW. This is the one by the gym, correct? SOMA (South of Market) is DEAD for most of the weekends, mainly because SF is very spread out, and there are many places to go. People who live here try to avoid downtown on the weekends.

If time and money permits, and you got some change for a cab ride. Go to North Beach. Plenty of great bars. If you get in a cab, it should be a straight shot up 3rd street to Broadway. Don't let the cabbies take you for a ride that involves more than 7 turns. I got some spots you'll enjoy up there: Grant and Green, Lost and Found, and Amonte. Amonte just changed ownership though, I haven't stepped back in, but I'm sure they wuldn't ruin a good thing with the money they were pulling in.

North Beach is also heavily influenced by the Italian culture, so you know the food will be great. Steps of Rome and Stinking Rose are tourists faves, and traps, but are both very good. Buster's serves some bitchin' Philly Cheese Steaks and they're open until 4AM.
 
Time to party.

shiggykaplanDisco1.jpg
 
for good japanese, there are some decent places in j-town. my favorite japanese place in the bay area though is tanuki on california in the richmond. about a block away (on california) there's also a great burmese place, mandalay. the best chinese in the city is debatably ton kiang on geary and 23rd (great dim sum too, but get there early), although there are a lot of good places on clement. there are some good burrito and taco places too, the best i've been to is la tacqueria (get a couple of steak tacos with everything) on 25th (.. i think) and mission. the brazilian place prisoner mentioned sounds pretty damn good too.

if you make it into the east bay, there are some good korean bbq places with the grill on your table and everything. i haven't been to any of htem in years though, so you may have to find someone more current for that. there are also a couple of good chinese places in oakland chinatown. if you want japanese though you have to stay in the city.
 
Apparently Ton Kiang (which is like three blocks from my apartment) is Martha Stewart's favorite dim sum restaurant. Take from that what you will. Pretty expensive, though, and there's a place like right next to it that's cheaper and delicious.
 
Bumping to say it has just turned March 7 on the East Coast. Soon, GDC will begin. And soon thereafter, we might finally have our first real taste of what's to come with Xenon.
 
Dont expect any big news until Wednesday at least, the first two days are primarily summits and all-day tutorials (and mobile games). Wednesday is the first keynote from J. Allard and Thursday is Iwata.

I won't be at the center until Wednesday bright and early in the morning. Wednesday is mainly my "check out booths" day while Thursday is chock full of seminar's I plan to attend.

I know that a lot of people are all hyped about tommorow nights FF concert, but since I'm not an Uemastu fan (or an FF-music fan in general) its all pretty "meh" to me.
 
Eric-GCA said:
Dont expect any big news until Wednesday at least, the first two days are primarily summits and all-day tutorials (and mobile games). Wednesday is the first keynote from J. Allard and Thursday is Iwata.
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Yeah, I expected as much. But this is the GDC thread, so I thought maybe there will be one or two things worth noting from the first two days.
 
Amir0x said:
Bumping to say it has just turned March 7 on the East Coast. Soon, GDC will begin. And soon thereafter, we might finally have our first real taste of what's to come with Xenon.
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doubt it. I'm expecting a few more XNA demos and Microsoft's general vision for creating new games. I don't expect any sort of Xenon hardware unvieling. not the external shell, or the internal hardware specs. maybe a few words about Xenon in the broadest possible terms. along the lines of what Bill said at CES plus maybe a tad more. Microsoft is not going to blow its wad at GDC.
 
Kobun Heat said:
Soon enough.

I'm more excited about tomorrow. Uematsu interview!
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So is Smile Please working with Mistwalker (I can't remember) and will you be able to ask him about it or will it be off limits?

doubt it. I'm expecting a few more XNA demos and Microsoft's general vision for creating new games. I don't expect any sort of Xenon hardware unvieling. not the external shell, or the internal hardware specs. maybe a few words about Xenon in the broadest possible terms. along the lines of what Bill said at CES plus maybe a tad more. Microsoft is not going to blow its wad at GDC.
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They used GDC for Xbox.
 
doncale said:
doubt it. I'm expecting a few more XNA demos and Microsoft's general vision for creating new games. I don't expect any sort of Xenon hardware unvieling. not the external shell, or the internal hardware specs. maybe a few words about Xenon in the broadest possible terms. along the lines of what Bill said at CES plus maybe a tad more. Microsoft is not going to blow its wad at GDC.
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I don't know. The window of opportunity to start the hype train in Microsoft's court is closing.
 
Man, I wish I were there. Sounds like good times, kicking things off with a Uematsu concert, speeches/lectures from so many people in the industry, possible next-gen unveilings, good food, good drink. Bah.
 
Time to bump the thread up. My flight leaves in a few hours to sunny San Francisco. Hopefully I can get internet there somehow, if not at my crappy hotel than at the convention center.

I hope I can meet up with some of you guys at GDC. Especially you Chris Kohler, since I'll be bringing your book and hoping you can be so kind to autograph it (incredibly geeky no?).
 
I suggest this thread is made a sticky. Especially if Xenon is shown, in any way. Might as well keep it all in a easy to find thread.
 
So what's going on? GAF meet-up?

While I'm not going to be at GDC myself, I have a friend who's studying game design who's going to be there. GDC seems like a much bigger deal this year than in years past.
 
android said:
I suggest this thread is made a sticky. Especially if Xenon is shown, in any way. Might as well keep it all in a easy to find thread.
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eh? I would rather have seperate news in GDC in their own seperate threads.. That would be like having one E3 thread or something.
 
And I'm in...

waiting for the tutroials to start, nothing terribly exciting yet.


Chris, when are you doing your interview? I've got the all access pass for the concert tonight so I'll be at the after party deal, I assume you'll be hitting that up too?
 
I have my interview at 1, then I'll probably head down to the conference and get my press credentials before the concert. I'll be at the afterparty too.
 
Boogie9IGN said:
So uhm, what's this about a new Zelda video being shown? Purely rumour, yes?
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Seems like it's true (:
I think Epic will show some more UE 3 stuff, maybe even officialy announce the game they are working on.
 
Highlight so far was the Final Fantasy concert, of course. Not much happens on Monday; the booths are still being constructed and there's just a few not-incredibly-interesting-to-the-layperson all-day seminars.

I was pleasantly surprised that they had a GDC bookstore and very pleasantly surprised to see a stack of Power-Up there.
 
"That said, Wednesday will make up for it. Like I've been saying in N-Query, some cool stuff is coming. And I'm pretty sure you know what it is. Be happy."



So maybe we'll see the new Zelda trailer tommorrow?
 
Henry's Hunan was a great place, thanks to Wasabiking for the tip. Had the pork fried rice, awesome amount of food for the price.

Nothing has happened thus far, skipped the FF concert and have gone sightseeing for the most part (the Yerba Buena Museum has a neat installation art exhibit going on that's worth the $3 dollar for students).

I forgot my USB link with my digi-camera, so I'll try to buy another one tonight. Hopefully I'll have some neat pics later. San Fran offers wireless access just about everywhere. Is there some sort of general GA meet set up yet? Seems like a few people are here, but I haven't had a glimpse of anyone familiar yet.
 
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