As part of my catch-up blogging, I want to flag attention to my March 7th Multiplayer entry at my day-job website. In it you can read the sad tale of one reporter's inability to play much of anything on Day Two of GDC (ah, remember Day Two? It's now the eve of Day Five and I'm dead tired).

I wrote this one more for color and entertainment value than anything else. No breaking news to see here, though if you squint you just might see a little something on everyone's favorite fast-food-themed games.

You can get your hands on some stuff. The Xbox hotel had a third-floor suite where Xbox Live Arcade games were being showcased. In that room you could play the stuff, just not film it. Microsoft Casual Games Project Manager Chris Early jockeyed through a few of the games, handing off the controller to players not distracted by the hotel room's free M&Ms. He passed the controller to one guy who wanted to try EA's Live Arcade game "Boom Boom Rocket," which plays out like "Dance Dance Revolution" controlled by fingertips instead of foot-taps on a dance pad. The reporter he handed it to did OK in my book. Early said the writer was the best he'd seen. People who demoed "BBR" for me in New York a few weeks ago said the same thing to me when I played. I think they say that to everyone.

What do you do when someone else is playing and there's no refrigerator to visit to fetch a distraction? I quizzed Early on anything that popped into my head that might involve his job, like those $4 Xbox 360 Burger King games that sold a couple of million over the last few months. The Casual Games team at Microsoft helped put that deal together. Early told me the games had initially been considered as downloadable titles, but Burger King higher-ups thought requiring people to go to their restaurants to get the games on disc would be better for business. Now, Early said, all kinds of companies are trying to get involved with Microsoft on this. How about a return for the King? "Burger King is definitely interested in doing more," Early told me.

There's more at the link above.

(If you're reading this entry after the week I posted it, you'll have to flip through the multiplayer.mtv.com site back to the March 7 entry)