Video game event offers pure joystick

Last week, rockers Ozzy Osbourne, Mark McGrath and Travis Barker were paid (probably by game maker Activision) to go on stage at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and pitch the upcoming "Guitar Hero: World Tour." In the audience: nearly 6,000 store managers from GameStops and EB Games.

That event was not unusual. Game companies can afford to be splashy because games are the third-biggest moneymaking entertainment field, behind music and films.

And Las Vegas is constantly playing host to promotions inside hotel suites and at private concerts, where publicists try to convince video game columnists such as myself that their new games are the best games of all time, yada yada.

But this store manager convention at Mandalay Bay was way more fun. In a huge ballroom, every serious game distributor, from Rockstar to Electronic Arts to Southpeak onward, set up booths and tents, where I spent hours playing games that will be released within the next few months.

This was a sneak-preview paradise. I'll give you a run-through of upcoming games in my Game Dork column soon. (Game Dork runs in the Living section on Sundays now).

But suffice it to say the new "Call of Duty: World at War" is remarkable and comes with one of the best double-barrel shotguns ever, plus an excellent online cooperative mode.

Also keep an eye open for an EA game called "Mirror's Edge," in which you play as a girl running from the law but not really shooting a gun. Instead, you're sort of a Jackie Chan/parcour athlete. You jump from rooftop to rooftop, shimmy tall walls, and skid through buildings. It's truly unique.

Game 'Banger': 'It's How I Used to Pay My Mortgage'

On Friday and Saturday, hundreds of guys who usually play the golf game "Golden Tee" in bars competed at the Las Vegas Hilton during the world championships. If you've been to almost any bar in this town or across America, you've played or ignored "Golden Tee" golf.

Las Vegas's Brant "Oso" Arrington played on Team USA, beating the World Team 32-16 during doubles and singles rounds, which are scored akin to the Ryder Cup.

Back in 2001 and 2002, Arrington used to play "Golden Tee" golf so well, he earned enough competition money to cover house payments.

"It's how I used to pay my mortgage," said Arrington, a 29-year-old in commercial real estate. "After that, why stop playing?"

But he did stop playing for cash until this weekend when he qualified for the world championships once again, vying for purses of up to $20,000.

"I came out of retirement for the World's," Arrington said.

When I talked to Arrington at 3 p.m. Saturday, he was holding both a beer and a Diet Coke in one hand. A guy behind him pinched two Coors Lights in his left hand. If you're accustomed to playing "Golden Tee" while lubricated, it might not hurt to compete likewise.

"Golden Tee" is easy enough to win by yourself, if you're playing casually. You pick clubs, choose "roll" or "backspin," then spin a track wheel with your thumbs or palm. You can spin the track wheel in various directions to swing straight or to swing into a slice or hook to get around trees.

But competitive "Golden Tee" is tough. (The winner, Ohio's Andy Haas, sunk a 165-foot putt at one point.) James Thielfoldt, a 27-year-old from Indianapolis, said this tournament drew a lot of men such as Arrington.

"They call those guys 'bangers.' They make their living off of 'Golden Tee.' They are a bunch of them here, like probably a quarter of the people here," he said.

Thielfoldt, not a "banger," won a regional qualification (best average handicap) to earn a free flight and a room at the Venetian, where he added excitedly, "We have remote control drapes, which is pretty cool. I don't know if you have remote control drapes, but I don't" at home.

Thielfoldt's best game ever was a 25-under. He pointed to the leader board, showing golf score averages of 28-under. He marveled at how they all navigated impossible greens, sometimes featuring holes sitting at the base of steep downhill grades, next to ball-thirsty ponds.

"These guys are too good," he said, standing in the unofficial "Golden Tee" uniform of T-shirt, shorts and sneakers. "Just insane."

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.