John Zeitler

So last night’s little soiree with Split/Second (also known as Concerto for Eight Automobiles, With Explosive Accompaniment) was notable, to me at any rate, for two reasons. The first was that, obviously, I managed to reach the long-hovered-over 15K mark for my Gamerscore. The second, though, was that it was a minor little brush with fame. See, Robert Bowling, the community director at Infinity Ward, is a well-known figure– he was just on Major Nelson’s podcast, and given the high-profile status of the Call of Duty games, he’s been in the public eye a bit recently, particularly in regards to Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer. So imagine my great surprise when I happened to stumble upon him in a random matchmaking lobby.

Yeah, he blew me up. Repeatedly, I might add. I think I got him good maybe once. But I managed to lose two races in a row. Not just lose, but come in dead last. The closest I’ve come to gaming with a quasi-celebrity, and I blew it badly.

Oh, you bet I still tweeted about it, and I’m still excited that I even had the opportunity (there’s, what, two zillion Xbox Live players out there? the odds were flagrantly against me ever seeing his gamertag, let alone playing against him). But, as far as introductions go, I kinda wish things had gone differently.

Incidentally, and I say this now with more conviction than ever, you want to play Split/Second. I mean it.