Mike's Trip to Cologne, Germany

Mike here. So I was asked to do a talk about the art direction for Driver San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference in Cologne, Germany. Because I was at a conference, I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures, but I did take a few...

Euros and pounds.

Five hour layover in Amsterdam. See the guy in the background? He's from
Russia, but currently living in Alberta, Canada. We had about a two-hour
conversation about politics, traveling, and family. He could potentially be
a best friend, except his plane left two hours before mine. He's on his way
to Barcelona on holiday.

Flying into Cologne. 

A lucky guess. We ended up just by chance at this great restaurant
and bar right across from the conference. I'm with two co-workers, Joe
(from London) and Danes (from Hungary). This is us at 7pm. We
didn't leave until 2am. 

The English call 'em bangers and mash. In Germany it's simply
pan-fried sausages with garlic mashed potatoes and crispy carmelized
onions.  It needed a name like awesome on awesomeness. 

This was chicken, pork, and steak medallions on a bed of creamy buttered
cabbage. I don't like cabbage, but I'll eat that cabbage all day long. The
potatoes were just freakin' awesome.

Totally random. While walking toward Cologne's city centre, we walked right up
to a Driver Challenger. (The car from the game.) A classic example of the right
hand not knowing what the left was doing. A press tour of the car all over
Europe--handing Tshirts out of the trunk--and us just happening to be in
Cologne at the same time. The car owners didn't believe we worked on the game.

Me trying to look cool.

I don't know what to say about this.

Danes was our guide through Cologne.
He's just that kind of guy.

Joe is very happy about his sausage... :)