Breakfast in America has little global competition. Of course it shares some similarities with our English breakfast, but there's two substantial components missing from ours - pancakes and waffles!

Why? I have no idea. We're on the exactly the same collision course with obesity as the Americans. Even I myself am a couple of stone the wrong side of my ideal weight, so how come we don't eat pancakes in the UK too?

Another aspect of the American breakfast that justifies mention in our diary is biscuits and gravy!

No I'm not talking about pouring Bisto over a packet of McVitees, but in fact an American breakfast speciality, that sadly I was only to witness at the end of our trip.

Biscuits and gravy (for the uninformed) are essentially grilled dumplings with a fantastic white sauce. For some strange reason they are also the perfect accompaniment to scrambled egg - I've no idea why.

And so, as if almost mirroring a similar sentence in last years diary, we headed back to the Hampton for the last day of QuakeCon 2001, tummies full of fried food, biscuits, gravy and about a litre of coffee.

First stop was Part Two of Bobotheseal's skinning and modelling tutorial. During the previous day he'd created the model, so today he focussed on the unwrap and skinning process. Also in attendance was Paul Jaquays of id Software, which prompted some very interesting discussions between Paul and Bobo about current versus future modelling and skinning techniques. As a side note, I do think an afternoon spent with Paul Jaquays discussing anything game related would probably teach you more in a few hours, than you'd learn in a similar number of months at most colleges and universities. If you ever manage to corner this guy, be sure to have a pertinent list of questions ready!

Shuriken dropped in to the workshop with me and Bobotheseal went on to demonstrate UV Unwrap techniques and then the various approaches to skinning the model. Sadly I had to leave early as Jan Paul (MrElusive) had arranged a tour for the rest of our guys at id, so I thanked Bobotheseal for what I'd learnt and we headed out in to the corridor. From what I understand, Bobo will be making his tutorials available on downloadable video shortly.

The Q3F and UT team, from left to right (lots of people).

Outside the whole of the Urban Terror team had gathered for their last get together before going their separate ways. We thanked Oswald for being such a sterling chap, took a couple of photos and then headed over to id Software for the third time in as many days.

Luckily this time there was someone in!

For many years id Software's previous home was legendary. A huge black monolithic and imposing cube on the horizon in Mesquite, Texas. Exactly what you need if you want to create a great image, and even if id weren't image conscious in those days, it appears to be the only office block in the area so they probably had little choice :). That said, Carmack drives a Ferrari so we might as well assume id suffer from the same insecurity complexes as us other mortals and wanted to impress the hell out of everyone :)

That's all changed now of course. These days id Software occupy a much more sober, though none the less impressive office closer to Mesquite's nightlife hot spot. The building it self is a large two winged, sand-coloured affair, with a large stone/marble tiled foyer and impressive carpeted stairs leading up to the first floor. With the foyer's ceiling rising 2 levels and the floor ultra polished, the feeling as you enter is not dissimilar to the show Activision put on with Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Remember the huge open hangar on the Deathstar leading out in to space? With the mirrored floor? That's exactly it. I would have tried to 'use the force' and attempt the two-storey jump as Graham Fuchs had done in JK2's demonstration, but sadly I was a little under the weather.

So taking the flight of stairs, I took up the rear of our procession in to id's Offices. BirdDawg, Vorrik, RR2DO2, Fluffy and Shuriken.

The reception area takes your breath away. Flanked by two pinball machines and a leather couch, you're greeted by a huge Quake 3 logo. Almost endorsing the area, the logo seemed to rubber-stamp the large display cabinets to the left, chock-full of awards and trophies for id Software's achievements, past and present. I'm sure if they also included awards that other developers had received for games based on id's engines, they'd need ten-times the space.

BirdDawg tries to look cool in my sunglasses.

Q3F Team visiting id Software. From left to right: BirdDawg, Vorrik, Fluffy, Locki, Shuriken and RR2DO2.

There's a lot of horror art too, one sculpture looking strangely like a Freddy Krueger bust, but probably concept art for something or other. Almost perfectly countering the gore, an array of children's photographs decorates the reception desk, indicative of id's coming of age I guess. I suspect it's also Miss Donna's way of fighting off the demonic art that surrounds her. While my own mother would probably enjoy the art at first, I could see her doing exactly the same thing with photos too.

We were greeted by JanPaul and given a tour of the offices. Inside we met up with Graeme Devine again and were introduced to Kevin Cloud id are naturally secretive about the going's on within their personal space, and I'm respectful of that, so I'll just say that we had a good time and confirm that it's an experience we'll never forget.

as does Fluffy...

So I try to look cool in BirdDawg's Oakley wrap-arounds....

Graeme and Jan Paul invited us for a beer, so we headed over to Friday's. TTimo also turned up as did David Koenig, lead programmer and CTO for Low Earth Orbit, a games company based in Spring, Texas working on a Lithtech based project.

And man do I succeed!!

We worked our way through several glasses of Guiness, ate more food than is healthy and had an interesting discussion about realism in game engines, which prompted a fair amount of research by RR2DO2 and I since our return.

After Graeme, Elusive and TTimo leave, we settle down for a few beers...

Even better still, Graeme picked up the tab! Top bloke he is.

Heading back to the Hampton for the closing remarks, we all considered the likelihood of our team's submission to the map modelling contest. With the map model created by Naz, the skin by Fluffy and the scripting/RoQ handling by RR2DO2, we were sure we'd win - I mean how could we not!

And get the same waitress we had last year! How cool is that!

...and Naz won the prize for most original model!!

You can have guns in America! Real ones!

What had we won? Sorry what had Naz won :) GIVE US OUR PRIZE!

A copy of Max? No! A new PC? No! A GeForce3!!! Nope :/ What then?

A signed copy of Team Arena!!! Woohoo! LOL :)

As if to put the icing on the cake, they renamed the award to "Least expected model". Might as well have said "Naz young man! You're a weirdo!!" hehe :)

Watching the Hampton disappear in to the distance was a little saddening, even though we were grateful for an experience-packed 4 days, I do wish sometimes it could be QuakeCon every day. Actually perhaps I just wish I lived in Texas :)

As we weren't flying back till Monday, we decided to continue having a good time. We had two choices for Sunday evening; go to a gun club that Vorrik knew had an MP5, or head out to a massive multiplex cinema and watch American Pie 2. Tough call - for me anyway, but everyone else wanted American Pie 2, so that's what we did. We could have shot an MP5!

It was an 'OK' film. Not a patch on the original though and I couldn't help feeling surprised when the entire audience would regularly erupt in to laughter and I'd be left worrying that I had missed a funny bit.

Upon leaving the theatre, I stated diplomatically (and partly for the benefit of our hosts) that I'd liked the film. Fluffy was nowhere near as kind...

"That film was rubbish!"
"Fluffy, shush!!" I whispered quietly...
"But it was crap! I can't believe people were laughing at it!"
"Rich shut up for fucks sake, just chill! You'll offend the Americans"
"But it was soooo bad!" shouted Fluffy.
Vorrik: "Is he in a bad mood or something?"
Me: "Nah, he's always like this" I smiled.
Fluffy: "It really was crap though! I can't believe it was such a bad film!"

A good ten minutes later Fluffy was still whining on about it. I need to spend some time with Fluffy teaching him the art of diplomacy with my sledgehammer :).

We decided to end the evening at Razoo's, the only place in Mesquite's Hot-Spot that we hadn't yet tried - a Cajun/Creol bar that sold some weird stuff!

Take for example the alligator's tails! Made from real alligators! You know the reptiles! In America they eat Reptiles! Ahhhh! Get me out of here!

Vorrik tried to convince me that I should try one and that even though I was a vegetarian it wouldn't really matter, as alligators were pretty stupid :). I declined.

With an appointment at Ritual for 10am the following day, we decided to call it a night and head back to the Courtyard. Luckily my uvula was back on form and so I was able to drown myself in coffee for an hour or two while watching one of the many channels available on the hotel TV.

I think I finally dozed off leaving the phone off the hook to my London house because my room 'incidentals' bill hit $400 :)