written by Blain Newport on Thursday, September 10, 2009
Some of you already know there was some Swine Flu at PAX 2009. I've had some flu-like symptoms but nothing serious, and I've taken precautions (mostly just staying home) not to infect anyone (except my family who picked me up at the airport before we knew what was going on. Doh).
I haven't been gaming much. I played a little Mercs 2 as comfort food. I bought Braid since it was on sale for $5. It reminds me of Rock Band. With as much effort as it would take for me to master songs in Rock Band on Expert, I'd be better off spending time with a real instrument. With as clever as I'd have to be to solve some of the puzzles in Braid, I'd be better off programming my own game.
I also tried Hello Kitty Online. They were handing it out at PAX and it felt rude to refuse it after being asked to take one so nicely. But it probably would have been less rude than what I'm about to say.
I'll stick with Free Realms. It's just as free and more fun.
Hello Kitty Online does, however, have the distinction of having the longest one line copyright notice I've ever seen.
© 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009 SANRIO CO., LTD.
Yeesh. Does this mean there were no Hello Kitty products created in 1978, 1980, 1983, 1997, and 2006-2008?
Anyway, time for some more water and food and rest. I cleaned out my fridge in anticipation of PAX and don't want to go to the supermarket full of flu. I've got some airplane snacks (yogurt raisins, and chocolate cranberries) and some pasta and canned sauce. But that stuff's getting old. I may just go pick up a face mask. :P
I also don't really want to play too many games. I remember ruining Phantasy Star II for myself by playing it sick. Now just looking at the pastel colors of the later worlds in that game makes me a little queasy. And sick or not, the Blood Walkthrough waits for no germ...
Showing posts with label PAX 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PAX 2009. Show all posts
11 September, 2009
10 September, 2009
PAX 2009: Random List of Cool People
written by Blain Newport on Tuesday, September 8, 2009
First off, here are a bunch of people I met on the Magical Mystery Tour (an unofficial pre-PAX tour of Seattle).
(And since you bothered to even begin to read this post, I recommend the Experience Music Project / Sci-Fi Museum highly. It was the best thing we saw by far.)
Cut off on the left side was Muttonhead. He was nice and was also a buttoneer. A lot of us meet new people through trading buttons. His button was from a game I hadn't played (but had heard of), Popful Mail.
Also not pictured are Poison and her new husband. They honeymooned at PAX.
Also not pictured are Apocaknits and John, a nice couple from Columbus OH.
Also not pictured is Emorimiko (Emo for short). I had listened to the Idle Thumbs podcast make fun of the "Time Bullets" explanation for Captain America not being dead and thought it was funny. He said the story was actually well written. But I was having more fun making fun of it! Poo.
Then there's Shiggles, sporting his Harry Potter scarf for the pub crawl.
I should know the next guy, but I forgot. He has great "Jewbeard". No wait! He's DM Magic! I love the idea of DM being an honorific like MC. :)
BlackDragon480 I never spent much time with, but trying to remember the number at the end of his name made it stick a little better.
"Derek?" had been to Iraq once and was probably going again. He talked a bit about how it's a crappy place to be and how the army lies to reporters. I think he said they told some reporters that guns being fired for a local wedding ceremony was an enemy attack. :P
Arno was one of the many people who had come too damn far (Aussies and Kiwis). I think he was an Aussie.
Ashridah was also an Aussie who had moved to Seattle a couple years back and now works on SQL Server.
Metaverse Nomad (along with the not pictured Eye-Shuh) organized the MMT.
Pinder allegedly has a mom who's "got it going on". He wore a pink bathrobe for much of the convention and was generally silly.
Tehnakki was a bundle of energy and seemed very sweet.
Frightfully English lived up to his name and was good to chat with.
I should remember the name of the guy between him and Anthony, but don't.
I should also remember Anthony by his forum handle but don't. I know his name because he friended me on Facebook.
Way in the back is PikaPuff. He's a nice guy but often keeps to himself.
Gary is also a nice guy and tolerated me making a Fallout 3 reference to his name that you don't get yet because I haven't gotten that far in my Fallout 3 journal. :)
Gilles (pronounced zhill. It's French.) was one of the many nice Canadians at the convention. The border is only two hours away (traffic permitting).
I'd remember the green haired guy's forum handle if you said it too me, but unaided, I'm drawing a blank.
I should remember "Dan?". He did well in Metaverse Nomad's trivia contest. Three of us ("Dan?", me, and Emorimiku) tied for second, so we had to do rock, paper, scissors, which he won. I think he was traveling with a woman named Melissa who was very nice.
Damian and DragonDevon weren't on the MMT, but were present to witness the arrival of the Cross Country SuperTrip (CCST). We chatted for a while and hung out in the convention center to kill some time before the pre-PAX dinner.
Pre-PAX dinner
The dinner was cool because I got to see Astayonix. She's been enjoying my video walkthroughs. (Yes, somebody does.)
Her husband Electric Turtle was also present and helpful when someone had a random question about the venue. (No naval stuff actually goes on there anymore.)
Astayonix and ET started the dinner. It remains to be seen who will organize anything for next year. I understand there was a successful post PAX dinner at The Taphouse, so maybe we'll do pre and post PAX there next year.
In line for food I met Shannon and Chad. I don't remember what we talked about, but it was very pleasant and I was very happy to run into them later at the show.
I was also next to Rob, a.k.a. Sum10Fishy from the forums. He was very nice, and we traded buttons. I had over 200 buttons to trade, so I was happy to do so. I may make less next year. I'd rather run out than bring home extras.
At the table I was sitting at were Rachel, "Greg?", Nick and Eric. And I went and visited with a lot of other people, most of whose names I will forget since I didn't have much to connect the name to.
At PAX I ran into Trevor, one of three guys from Manitoba who also happened to be on the Seattle Underground tour (also good) when the Magical Mystery Tour was there. He and his friends asked me to fill in the fourth slot for a Left 4 Dead tournament. They showed up late, so another group snagged me. I felt a little bad, but I think everything worked out okay.
One of the gals handing out shirts at Borderlands was cool. She said she was going to use some of her money from working the booth to buy the game (no free copies for working there). She actually watched me play for a while during my second visit to the game. I felt the love.
I saw Prof. Pangloss from the NorCal meetup. I also saw some of the Chico guys on two occasions. CaptainTapole was around. JonnyNero asked me to attend his live podcast taping after PAX (which I tried to find but failed).
I met a pseudo buttoneer named Sheri Danzig. She had a little zombie construction kit with a button for a head, which I was happy to trade two buttons for. Building it gave me something to do in line the next day.
I also met a guy who went by Bambooza who I'd seen in chat a few times. He and a couple other guys (one of which was an EverQuest 2 dev) were headed to a bar named Shorty's that I'd been meaning to check out. It's pretty cool. They've got some old arcade and pinball machines, and some of the tables are made out of old pinball machines. It was cool, and Bambooza was friendly.
Also, Liger was around, but I kept getting her confused with this other gal, refrag. It was awkward. It especially sucks because Liger doesn't much care for me and I may have given refrag the impression that I'm not fond of her on accident. I went to refrag's blog to try and fix that. She was nice about it. I'll make sure to spend some time with her next year.
There were also some people around the hostel I talked to a couple times.
Dan wants to be a game dev. He also has some ideas for sequels to Star Trek DS9 that are highly unusual. Nog as a combat monster is pretty strange. He's got a lot of enthusiasm. Hopefully it will take him far.
Kyle was another aspiring developer who gave me his card. It seems like a lot of people are making 2D engines these days, and he is one of them. We ran into each other a lot during PAX, in passing.
And that's as much as I can remember tonight. I'll probably remember less and less as time goes on. Some PAX friendships outlive the lines or events that spawn them, and some don't. Some people make it back to PAX and some don't.
I intend to make it back. PAX rules.
First off, here are a bunch of people I met on the Magical Mystery Tour (an unofficial pre-PAX tour of Seattle).
(And since you bothered to even begin to read this post, I recommend the Experience Music Project / Sci-Fi Museum highly. It was the best thing we saw by far.)
Cut off on the left side was Muttonhead. He was nice and was also a buttoneer. A lot of us meet new people through trading buttons. His button was from a game I hadn't played (but had heard of), Popful Mail.
Also not pictured are Poison and her new husband. They honeymooned at PAX.
Also not pictured are Apocaknits and John, a nice couple from Columbus OH.
Also not pictured is Emorimiko (Emo for short). I had listened to the Idle Thumbs podcast make fun of the "Time Bullets" explanation for Captain America not being dead and thought it was funny. He said the story was actually well written. But I was having more fun making fun of it! Poo.
Then there's Shiggles, sporting his Harry Potter scarf for the pub crawl.
I should know the next guy, but I forgot. He has great "Jewbeard". No wait! He's DM Magic! I love the idea of DM being an honorific like MC. :)
BlackDragon480 I never spent much time with, but trying to remember the number at the end of his name made it stick a little better.
"Derek?" had been to Iraq once and was probably going again. He talked a bit about how it's a crappy place to be and how the army lies to reporters. I think he said they told some reporters that guns being fired for a local wedding ceremony was an enemy attack. :P
Arno was one of the many people who had come too damn far (Aussies and Kiwis). I think he was an Aussie.
Ashridah was also an Aussie who had moved to Seattle a couple years back and now works on SQL Server.
Metaverse Nomad (along with the not pictured Eye-Shuh) organized the MMT.
Pinder allegedly has a mom who's "got it going on". He wore a pink bathrobe for much of the convention and was generally silly.
Tehnakki was a bundle of energy and seemed very sweet.
Frightfully English lived up to his name and was good to chat with.
I should remember the name of the guy between him and Anthony, but don't.
I should also remember Anthony by his forum handle but don't. I know his name because he friended me on Facebook.
Way in the back is PikaPuff. He's a nice guy but often keeps to himself.
Gary is also a nice guy and tolerated me making a Fallout 3 reference to his name that you don't get yet because I haven't gotten that far in my Fallout 3 journal. :)
Gilles (pronounced zhill. It's French.) was one of the many nice Canadians at the convention. The border is only two hours away (traffic permitting).
I'd remember the green haired guy's forum handle if you said it too me, but unaided, I'm drawing a blank.
I should remember "Dan?". He did well in Metaverse Nomad's trivia contest. Three of us ("Dan?", me, and Emorimiku) tied for second, so we had to do rock, paper, scissors, which he won. I think he was traveling with a woman named Melissa who was very nice.
Damian and DragonDevon weren't on the MMT, but were present to witness the arrival of the Cross Country SuperTrip (CCST). We chatted for a while and hung out in the convention center to kill some time before the pre-PAX dinner.
Pre-PAX dinner
The dinner was cool because I got to see Astayonix. She's been enjoying my video walkthroughs. (Yes, somebody does.)
Her husband Electric Turtle was also present and helpful when someone had a random question about the venue. (No naval stuff actually goes on there anymore.)
Astayonix and ET started the dinner. It remains to be seen who will organize anything for next year. I understand there was a successful post PAX dinner at The Taphouse, so maybe we'll do pre and post PAX there next year.
In line for food I met Shannon and Chad. I don't remember what we talked about, but it was very pleasant and I was very happy to run into them later at the show.
I was also next to Rob, a.k.a. Sum10Fishy from the forums. He was very nice, and we traded buttons. I had over 200 buttons to trade, so I was happy to do so. I may make less next year. I'd rather run out than bring home extras.
At the table I was sitting at were Rachel, "Greg?", Nick and Eric. And I went and visited with a lot of other people, most of whose names I will forget since I didn't have much to connect the name to.
At PAX I ran into Trevor, one of three guys from Manitoba who also happened to be on the Seattle Underground tour (also good) when the Magical Mystery Tour was there. He and his friends asked me to fill in the fourth slot for a Left 4 Dead tournament. They showed up late, so another group snagged me. I felt a little bad, but I think everything worked out okay.
One of the gals handing out shirts at Borderlands was cool. She said she was going to use some of her money from working the booth to buy the game (no free copies for working there). She actually watched me play for a while during my second visit to the game. I felt the love.
I saw Prof. Pangloss from the NorCal meetup. I also saw some of the Chico guys on two occasions. CaptainTapole was around. JonnyNero asked me to attend his live podcast taping after PAX (which I tried to find but failed).
I met a pseudo buttoneer named Sheri Danzig. She had a little zombie construction kit with a button for a head, which I was happy to trade two buttons for. Building it gave me something to do in line the next day.
I also met a guy who went by Bambooza who I'd seen in chat a few times. He and a couple other guys (one of which was an EverQuest 2 dev) were headed to a bar named Shorty's that I'd been meaning to check out. It's pretty cool. They've got some old arcade and pinball machines, and some of the tables are made out of old pinball machines. It was cool, and Bambooza was friendly.
Also, Liger was around, but I kept getting her confused with this other gal, refrag. It was awkward. It especially sucks because Liger doesn't much care for me and I may have given refrag the impression that I'm not fond of her on accident. I went to refrag's blog to try and fix that. She was nice about it. I'll make sure to spend some time with her next year.
There were also some people around the hostel I talked to a couple times.
Dan wants to be a game dev. He also has some ideas for sequels to Star Trek DS9 that are highly unusual. Nog as a combat monster is pretty strange. He's got a lot of enthusiasm. Hopefully it will take him far.
Kyle was another aspiring developer who gave me his card. It seems like a lot of people are making 2D engines these days, and he is one of them. We ran into each other a lot during PAX, in passing.
And that's as much as I can remember tonight. I'll probably remember less and less as time goes on. Some PAX friendships outlive the lines or events that spawn them, and some don't. Some people make it back to PAX and some don't.
I intend to make it back. PAX rules.
09 September, 2009
PAX 2009: Games
written by Blain Newport on Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Every year at PAX, I seem to pick a different focus. In 2004, it was the bands. In 2007 it was the panels. In 2008, it was freeplay. And this year, it was the expo. I, for some reason, was really dedicated to getting my hands on piles of games I probably won't play for a very long time.
Recommended listening for this post is the Borderlands Line Jam which I composed while standing in line for Borderlands. (Guh.)
The Scale
THE AWESOME = I must play this game.
THE GOOD = I want to play this game.
THE MEH = Bargain bin, maybe?
THE PYUCKY = My demo experience sucked. If it gets good reviews, I'll think about it.
THE AWESOME
Bayonetta (2010)
Oh. Dip. Bayonetta looks fabulous. It plays wonderfully. The demo is a bit easy, but that's adjustable. And the special torture attacks were cool. The loading screen is also a combo training screen, a very nice touch. I wish I was playing it right now. I also hope it has an adjustable nudity option. I don't mind when she fights in a one piece bathing suit, but when she's wearing less than that it feels exploitative and pointlessly so since the game is great without it.
Dust: An Elysian Tail (?)
A downloadable indie game for the 360, I thought the characters on screen were too big for a side scrolling brawler at first. But the game makes it work. I don't remember suffering any offscreen attacks. And the controls were both responsive and made me feel like a clever badass. Using the backward dash to flip around and dash forward, or zip under a monster trying to jump over me and attack me in the back, thereby foiling it's move and setting me up to hit it in the back was delightful. I want to see more.
Ratchet & Clank 6 (A Crack in Time) (2009)
They had separate stations for the Clank parts and Ratchet parts. The Ratchet parts were as one would expect. Run around. Blow stuff up. There was an addition by the way of destructible terrain that was welcome. But for the most part, it was what I know and love. More interesting were the new Clank time puzzles.
I stood on a time platform and hit record. I ran over and stood on a button which raised a lift. I stopped recording. Then I stood on a second time platform and hit record. I got on the lift which was activated by first me and hit a button which opened a door. I stopped recording. Then I went back to the first time platform and hit record. I went to the lift button to send second me up the lift. Then I went through the door second me opened, completing the puzzle. It feels to me like just the right balance of running around and thinking to be puzzly, but not bog down the game.
Dark Void (2010)
They got zooming around in a scarily overpowered jet pack so right in this game. I didn't even want to bother with the combat parts. I just wanted to see if I could fly straight down cliff faces and skim the water and pull off a U-turn right before hitting a cliff and just generally go nuts with the flying. The combat wasn't broken or anything, but flying was big fun.
THE GOOD
Borderlands (2009)
My first demo wasn't so great. Controlling the sniper with the game pad is lame. There's not enough fine control. I ended up using melee attacks mostly. But on the PC, it should be much better. And my second demo, I fell into a nice groove of blowing the crap out of guys with a giant shotgun which had a crazy "six shells on a round plate" loading mechanism. The random guns initially sounded like a pointless gimmick, but I found myself liking my gun a little extra because I knew it was a rare combination of components.
The game is a bit slow, which is fine for co-op, where there's so much going on that it needs to be slow to be manageable. I'm not sure if the single player game won't drag a bit, though.
Overall, it felt like the loot and shoot cycle will make it a grind that I will eventually love.
Diablo 3 (2011)
It's Titan Quest. I will play and enjoy it at some point. It sucked being the barbarian because I whiffed a lot. :(
Mass Effect 2 (2010)
The shooting in Mass Effect was decent. If it holds up, it will be the first BioWare game I'll play all the way through since Shattered Steel. :O
God of War 3
It's God of War. The demo doesn't go through the head pulling off sequence, so I still don't know if that's going to be unpleasant. But the centaur disemboweling didn't bother me. I also didn't find the combat to be much of an advancement, so it still feels like it's a class below Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.
The Saboteur (2009 maybe)
It's kind of like Mercs 2 in World War 2, which makes sense since it's also made by Pandemic. They do interesting stuff with color. Nazi controlled areas are in black and white. Enemies are highlighted in red. Friendly buildings (and troops, I assume) are highlighted in yellow. The overworld was a little large and I got lost. But the game itself seemed decent.
Uncharted 2 (2009)
There were some definite issues with the game. Aiming was decent, but not great. The bad guys seemed to have constant motion blur on them, even when they weren't moving. It was like being attacked by ghosts or enemies only partway in our dimension. The character conversations, which are supposed to be a strong point, were lost in the din of the convention center. The fact that this game didn't have headphones and Wet did was pretty messed up.
THE MEH
Muramasa: The Demon Blade (2009)
The Odin Sphere folks make another very pretty but not very fun action game. Dust: Elysian Tail makes this game feel very clunky.
Red Faction: Guerrilla (PC) (2009)
Available in PC Freeplay, RFG had some frame rate issues and the controls had not been well adapted to mouse and keyboard. It's better than Saints Row 2, which is unplayable on my machine, but I'll still hold off until I pick up a console as that's obviously where it's meant to be played.
Fairytale Fights (2009)
A brawler that combines cutesy style with extreme violence. I didn't find the controls that good. It was easy to misjudge angles and miss enemies.
Dante's Inferno (2009)
It's God of War, only not quite as good. The art style was cool. But every time a new big monster entered in a cinematic, looked at the screen, and roared it felt like such amateurish badassery I wanted to laugh. It's a good thing this game is coming out months before God of War 3 and on more platforms.
Invincible Tiger (2009)
A basic 2D brawler with the gimmick of 3D glasses to make things appear 3D. The effect basically worked, but didn't help the rudimentary gameplay, and hurt my eyes after a little while. Of course, the same could be said of nVidia's much more expensive 3D setup for Resident Evil 5, so at least Namco wasn't wasting too much money on their release.
Magna Carta 2 (2009)
As an action RPG, Magna Carta 2 looked fine. The guy demoing it was helpful and had a good sense of humor. It's just a very old school JRPG (androgynous teens saving the world while recovering from lots of amnesia) and therefore not for me.
Star Trek Online (?)
I'm not big into MMOs in the first place. But positive press from PC Gamer made me want to check this one out. I was not impressed. My ship couldn't maneuver for crap forcing me to rely on phasers and actually turn away from bad guys so I could shoot them in the back with torpedoes as they passed. It was not fun. The ground combat was better. I could run around and melee bad guys or snipe them or just blast away. But in both cases, the fighting was easy to the point that I didn't feel like I'd gotten much of an experience by playing the demo.
Split Second (2010)
Much like Magna Carta 2, this was an obviously solid game for its genre. It's just a genre I don't particularly care about. It's racing, but when you draft or drift you power up the ability to blow up parts of the track, dropping obstacles onto opponents and opening shortcuts. It looks good. It feels good. It may be a hit at future LAN parties.
Wet (2009)
The aiming in this game wasn't very good. For the most part it was easy enough that this didn't matter, but in the freeway sequence it made it difficult to actually finish. It'll probably be simple mindless fun when it's on clearance (and turned down to easy).
THE PYUCKY
Dead Space Extraction (2009)
My demo for Dead Space Extraction was lame. Apparently the person before me had used up all the good ammo and left me in a crappy situation. Also the game is harder if there's a second controller active, even if it's not doing anything at all, so I was extra boned.
Army of Two: The 40th Day (2010)
I haven't played Gears on 360. If you expect me to automatically know Gears controls to play your game, don't be surprised if I don't have any fun. To borrow a phrase from Dr. Zoidberg "Your demo was bad and you should feel bad."
Spyborgs (2009)
Some enthusiast press said this game might actually be good. The cinematics I saw online were so bad they gave me cancer, but I decided I should at least try it. Unfortunately the demo stations were left at the start of a lava level full of giant robots which was way too hard to just jump into. :(
Every year at PAX, I seem to pick a different focus. In 2004, it was the bands. In 2007 it was the panels. In 2008, it was freeplay. And this year, it was the expo. I, for some reason, was really dedicated to getting my hands on piles of games I probably won't play for a very long time.
Recommended listening for this post is the Borderlands Line Jam which I composed while standing in line for Borderlands. (Guh.)
The Scale
THE AWESOME = I must play this game.
THE GOOD = I want to play this game.
THE MEH = Bargain bin, maybe?
THE PYUCKY = My demo experience sucked. If it gets good reviews, I'll think about it.
THE AWESOME
Bayonetta (2010)
Oh. Dip. Bayonetta looks fabulous. It plays wonderfully. The demo is a bit easy, but that's adjustable. And the special torture attacks were cool. The loading screen is also a combo training screen, a very nice touch. I wish I was playing it right now. I also hope it has an adjustable nudity option. I don't mind when she fights in a one piece bathing suit, but when she's wearing less than that it feels exploitative and pointlessly so since the game is great without it.
Dust: An Elysian Tail (?)
A downloadable indie game for the 360, I thought the characters on screen were too big for a side scrolling brawler at first. But the game makes it work. I don't remember suffering any offscreen attacks. And the controls were both responsive and made me feel like a clever badass. Using the backward dash to flip around and dash forward, or zip under a monster trying to jump over me and attack me in the back, thereby foiling it's move and setting me up to hit it in the back was delightful. I want to see more.
Ratchet & Clank 6 (A Crack in Time) (2009)
They had separate stations for the Clank parts and Ratchet parts. The Ratchet parts were as one would expect. Run around. Blow stuff up. There was an addition by the way of destructible terrain that was welcome. But for the most part, it was what I know and love. More interesting were the new Clank time puzzles.
I stood on a time platform and hit record. I ran over and stood on a button which raised a lift. I stopped recording. Then I stood on a second time platform and hit record. I got on the lift which was activated by first me and hit a button which opened a door. I stopped recording. Then I went back to the first time platform and hit record. I went to the lift button to send second me up the lift. Then I went through the door second me opened, completing the puzzle. It feels to me like just the right balance of running around and thinking to be puzzly, but not bog down the game.
Dark Void (2010)
They got zooming around in a scarily overpowered jet pack so right in this game. I didn't even want to bother with the combat parts. I just wanted to see if I could fly straight down cliff faces and skim the water and pull off a U-turn right before hitting a cliff and just generally go nuts with the flying. The combat wasn't broken or anything, but flying was big fun.
THE GOOD
Borderlands (2009)
My first demo wasn't so great. Controlling the sniper with the game pad is lame. There's not enough fine control. I ended up using melee attacks mostly. But on the PC, it should be much better. And my second demo, I fell into a nice groove of blowing the crap out of guys with a giant shotgun which had a crazy "six shells on a round plate" loading mechanism. The random guns initially sounded like a pointless gimmick, but I found myself liking my gun a little extra because I knew it was a rare combination of components.
The game is a bit slow, which is fine for co-op, where there's so much going on that it needs to be slow to be manageable. I'm not sure if the single player game won't drag a bit, though.
Overall, it felt like the loot and shoot cycle will make it a grind that I will eventually love.
Diablo 3 (2011)
It's Titan Quest. I will play and enjoy it at some point. It sucked being the barbarian because I whiffed a lot. :(
Mass Effect 2 (2010)
The shooting in Mass Effect was decent. If it holds up, it will be the first BioWare game I'll play all the way through since Shattered Steel. :O
God of War 3
It's God of War. The demo doesn't go through the head pulling off sequence, so I still don't know if that's going to be unpleasant. But the centaur disemboweling didn't bother me. I also didn't find the combat to be much of an advancement, so it still feels like it's a class below Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.
The Saboteur (2009 maybe)
It's kind of like Mercs 2 in World War 2, which makes sense since it's also made by Pandemic. They do interesting stuff with color. Nazi controlled areas are in black and white. Enemies are highlighted in red. Friendly buildings (and troops, I assume) are highlighted in yellow. The overworld was a little large and I got lost. But the game itself seemed decent.
Uncharted 2 (2009)
There were some definite issues with the game. Aiming was decent, but not great. The bad guys seemed to have constant motion blur on them, even when they weren't moving. It was like being attacked by ghosts or enemies only partway in our dimension. The character conversations, which are supposed to be a strong point, were lost in the din of the convention center. The fact that this game didn't have headphones and Wet did was pretty messed up.
THE MEH
Muramasa: The Demon Blade (2009)
The Odin Sphere folks make another very pretty but not very fun action game. Dust: Elysian Tail makes this game feel very clunky.
Red Faction: Guerrilla (PC) (2009)
Available in PC Freeplay, RFG had some frame rate issues and the controls had not been well adapted to mouse and keyboard. It's better than Saints Row 2, which is unplayable on my machine, but I'll still hold off until I pick up a console as that's obviously where it's meant to be played.
Fairytale Fights (2009)
A brawler that combines cutesy style with extreme violence. I didn't find the controls that good. It was easy to misjudge angles and miss enemies.
Dante's Inferno (2009)
It's God of War, only not quite as good. The art style was cool. But every time a new big monster entered in a cinematic, looked at the screen, and roared it felt like such amateurish badassery I wanted to laugh. It's a good thing this game is coming out months before God of War 3 and on more platforms.
Invincible Tiger (2009)
A basic 2D brawler with the gimmick of 3D glasses to make things appear 3D. The effect basically worked, but didn't help the rudimentary gameplay, and hurt my eyes after a little while. Of course, the same could be said of nVidia's much more expensive 3D setup for Resident Evil 5, so at least Namco wasn't wasting too much money on their release.
Magna Carta 2 (2009)
As an action RPG, Magna Carta 2 looked fine. The guy demoing it was helpful and had a good sense of humor. It's just a very old school JRPG (androgynous teens saving the world while recovering from lots of amnesia) and therefore not for me.
Star Trek Online (?)
I'm not big into MMOs in the first place. But positive press from PC Gamer made me want to check this one out. I was not impressed. My ship couldn't maneuver for crap forcing me to rely on phasers and actually turn away from bad guys so I could shoot them in the back with torpedoes as they passed. It was not fun. The ground combat was better. I could run around and melee bad guys or snipe them or just blast away. But in both cases, the fighting was easy to the point that I didn't feel like I'd gotten much of an experience by playing the demo.
Split Second (2010)
Much like Magna Carta 2, this was an obviously solid game for its genre. It's just a genre I don't particularly care about. It's racing, but when you draft or drift you power up the ability to blow up parts of the track, dropping obstacles onto opponents and opening shortcuts. It looks good. It feels good. It may be a hit at future LAN parties.
Wet (2009)
The aiming in this game wasn't very good. For the most part it was easy enough that this didn't matter, but in the freeway sequence it made it difficult to actually finish. It'll probably be simple mindless fun when it's on clearance (and turned down to easy).
THE PYUCKY
Dead Space Extraction (2009)
My demo for Dead Space Extraction was lame. Apparently the person before me had used up all the good ammo and left me in a crappy situation. Also the game is harder if there's a second controller active, even if it's not doing anything at all, so I was extra boned.
Army of Two: The 40th Day (2010)
I haven't played Gears on 360. If you expect me to automatically know Gears controls to play your game, don't be surprised if I don't have any fun. To borrow a phrase from Dr. Zoidberg "Your demo was bad and you should feel bad."
Spyborgs (2009)
Some enthusiast press said this game might actually be good. The cinematics I saw online were so bad they gave me cancer, but I decided I should at least try it. Unfortunately the demo stations were left at the start of a lava level full of giant robots which was way too hard to just jump into. :(
08 September, 2009
PAX: 2009 - Initial Ramblings
written by Blain Newport on Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Okay. I'm back. I've got a lot of stuff stuck in my head and need to sleep, so here goes.
I met scads of people at this PAX. I will probably post a list you won't care about. I'm actually working on it now, going back and forth between entries. I don't want to forget.
So much happened though. It'd be impossible to keep track of it. Looking at some of my notes it's easy to see that by the end of the first day it felt like PAX had already been going on for two days. Of course, if you count the community events, it had already been three days.
There was the Magical Mystery Tour, which involved seeing the more touristy stuff in Seattle. Then there was the Pre-PAX dinner, which was full of people.
The Pre-PAX breakfast was really small this year. The normal organizer wasn't around, so most people just fended for themselves.
I ate most lunches and dinners in the convention center this year and ate well. The restaurants had staffed up and were ready for us. The food was pretty quick to get, good, and not super expensive, which was great as I didn't want to waste time walking to food. I was on a mission.
Every PAX I seem to have a different focus. The first year was music. The second was panels. The third was freeplay. This year was the expo hall. I didn't see everything, but I saw a lot. Expect a huge list. Only four games really impressed me, though. So you can probably ignore most of it. :)
There are so many other little details: eating hostel fruit and piroshkys in the morning (and in line), showering at night so I could wake up and go, the big after convention button trade, wandering with VT. The texture of PAX is composed of so many elements in such a short time that trying to convey the full impact is probably impossible. I'll just try and decompress it out of my brain over a few days time.
Okay. I'm back. I've got a lot of stuff stuck in my head and need to sleep, so here goes.
I met scads of people at this PAX. I will probably post a list you won't care about. I'm actually working on it now, going back and forth between entries. I don't want to forget.
So much happened though. It'd be impossible to keep track of it. Looking at some of my notes it's easy to see that by the end of the first day it felt like PAX had already been going on for two days. Of course, if you count the community events, it had already been three days.
There was the Magical Mystery Tour, which involved seeing the more touristy stuff in Seattle. Then there was the Pre-PAX dinner, which was full of people.
The Pre-PAX breakfast was really small this year. The normal organizer wasn't around, so most people just fended for themselves.
I ate most lunches and dinners in the convention center this year and ate well. The restaurants had staffed up and were ready for us. The food was pretty quick to get, good, and not super expensive, which was great as I didn't want to waste time walking to food. I was on a mission.
Every PAX I seem to have a different focus. The first year was music. The second was panels. The third was freeplay. This year was the expo hall. I didn't see everything, but I saw a lot. Expect a huge list. Only four games really impressed me, though. So you can probably ignore most of it. :)
There are so many other little details: eating hostel fruit and piroshkys in the morning (and in line), showering at night so I could wake up and go, the big after convention button trade, wandering with VT. The texture of PAX is composed of so many elements in such a short time that trying to convey the full impact is probably impossible. I'll just try and decompress it out of my brain over a few days time.
01 September, 2009
PAX 2009: In My Mind, I'm Already Gone
written by Blain Newport on Monday, August 31, 2009
PAX is imminent. I'm leaving tomorrow (today when this posts). I've got a couple more Blood posts in the queue, but after that I may not have any posts until I get back. The hostel has some web stations, but they're really old and slow and have random files and programs sitting on the desktop. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they had key loggers on them, waiting to steal people's passwords.
I'm still taking my little notebook and my camera (which I will probably neglect to use again), so there'll be at least one or two giant post-PAX posts.
My plan is to spend most of my time standing in lines. The *#%^ing thing sold out. 75,000 people. They say they've got more floor space than before, but I think it's still going to be horrible lines everywhere. We'll see if anything can top last year's 190 minutes in line for a 10 minute demo.
Which lines will I be in? Bless your contrived curiosity. :)
I'll be in lines on the expo floor, mostly. I want to get my hands on new stuff. I don't know why. A noisy convention hall is not a good environment and the need to get as much of the experience as possible in ten minutes doesn't help. But for some reason, that's what I want to do.
I won't be skipping the panels entirely. I'll check in on the Listen UP podcast guys to make sure they've got an audience. They're up against the concert and have expressed concern about having enough people there. Personally, I don't think they have anything to worry about. Anamanaguchi is the band they're opposite. The band rocks, but PAX is about games. Regardless, the expo will be closed, so I'll be a seat filler if they need one.
Since discovering the podcast around the time of the last PAX, I've become a fan of GeekNights. Rym and Scott will be conducting three panels, and I'm tentatively planning to hit up two of them. Beyond Dungeons and Dragons is basically about why old RPGs are lame and newer ones are awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if I never played a pen and paper RPG again, but I hung out with the people who were playing after this panel, and they were doing awesome stuff. One guy basically took five random people and turned them into a functioning writer's room in under thirty minutes. It was amazing and I want to know more.
They'll also be doing a panel that posits the question of how to make losing the point of a game. There's another panel about losing, but it's only one guy presenting, and seems a little theoretical. I tend to prefer the specific references gamers make. It's easier to get my head around.
There are other panels I wouldn't mind hitting up (especially if my feet stage a mutiny).
There's going to be a table top gaming panel with STEVE FREAKING JACKSON on it. Table top gamers of my generation grew up with Car Wars, the Illuminati card game, and GURPS, so even if I don't care much about the panel, it would be cool to say I saw it.
Likewise the Borderlands panel where the president, creative director, and vice-president of Gearbox will be showing off the game could be cool. I really want that game to rock the house down. But they should be having hands-on demos what with the game being roughly a month from release, so I'm pretty skeptical.
I don't intend to hit up any concerts. They're hot and noisy and I'll have been standing all day already. I suspect I'll wind down by hitting up console freeplay, then heading back to the hostel. I fully intend to get some sleep this year so as not to repeat my blunders of locking my lock in my locker and forgetting my new ATM PIN, leaving myself cashless. I had to use the refunded deposit on my room key just to pay for the bus back to the airport. :P
PAX is imminent. I'm leaving tomorrow (today when this posts). I've got a couple more Blood posts in the queue, but after that I may not have any posts until I get back. The hostel has some web stations, but they're really old and slow and have random files and programs sitting on the desktop. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they had key loggers on them, waiting to steal people's passwords.
I'm still taking my little notebook and my camera (which I will probably neglect to use again), so there'll be at least one or two giant post-PAX posts.
My plan is to spend most of my time standing in lines. The *#%^ing thing sold out. 75,000 people. They say they've got more floor space than before, but I think it's still going to be horrible lines everywhere. We'll see if anything can top last year's 190 minutes in line for a 10 minute demo.
Which lines will I be in? Bless your contrived curiosity. :)
I'll be in lines on the expo floor, mostly. I want to get my hands on new stuff. I don't know why. A noisy convention hall is not a good environment and the need to get as much of the experience as possible in ten minutes doesn't help. But for some reason, that's what I want to do.
I won't be skipping the panels entirely. I'll check in on the Listen UP podcast guys to make sure they've got an audience. They're up against the concert and have expressed concern about having enough people there. Personally, I don't think they have anything to worry about. Anamanaguchi is the band they're opposite. The band rocks, but PAX is about games. Regardless, the expo will be closed, so I'll be a seat filler if they need one.
Since discovering the podcast around the time of the last PAX, I've become a fan of GeekNights. Rym and Scott will be conducting three panels, and I'm tentatively planning to hit up two of them. Beyond Dungeons and Dragons is basically about why old RPGs are lame and newer ones are awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if I never played a pen and paper RPG again, but I hung out with the people who were playing after this panel, and they were doing awesome stuff. One guy basically took five random people and turned them into a functioning writer's room in under thirty minutes. It was amazing and I want to know more.
They'll also be doing a panel that posits the question of how to make losing the point of a game. There's another panel about losing, but it's only one guy presenting, and seems a little theoretical. I tend to prefer the specific references gamers make. It's easier to get my head around.
There are other panels I wouldn't mind hitting up (especially if my feet stage a mutiny).
There's going to be a table top gaming panel with STEVE FREAKING JACKSON on it. Table top gamers of my generation grew up with Car Wars, the Illuminati card game, and GURPS, so even if I don't care much about the panel, it would be cool to say I saw it.
Likewise the Borderlands panel where the president, creative director, and vice-president of Gearbox will be showing off the game could be cool. I really want that game to rock the house down. But they should be having hands-on demos what with the game being roughly a month from release, so I'm pretty skeptical.
I don't intend to hit up any concerts. They're hot and noisy and I'll have been standing all day already. I suspect I'll wind down by hitting up console freeplay, then heading back to the hostel. I fully intend to get some sleep this year so as not to repeat my blunders of locking my lock in my locker and forgetting my new ATM PIN, leaving myself cashless. I had to use the refunded deposit on my room key just to pay for the bus back to the airport. :P
30 August, 2009
PAX 2009: Meetup
written by Blain Newport on Saturday, August 29, 2009
I hit save instead of publish, so this post was six hours late.
Whew. It was hot today. I usually wouldn't care about that, but the restaurant we ended up in wasn't air conditioned. Yikes. And the reason we went to a non air conditioned place was because the Round Table Google sent me to doesn't exist any more. :P
Plus there was freeway construction and bad detour signs. I felt pretty guilty, driving up to a bunch of nerds standing in a hot parking lot around twenty minutes late. Luckily, VonXWolfenstein had a nice internet phone to look up a fallback restaurant. And thanks to donated materials from Prof. Pangloss and CaptainTapole, we put together signs to help any late comers find us.
At the restaurant with no air conditioning. Yikes. I took a shower before I left. I took another when I got home.
Overall, I think people had fun. Lots of geeky subjects were discussed and we had a good range of people. (My spelling may be wrong as some of the names I only heard aloud.)
CaptainTapole - Our only returning member from last year (besides me). She was annoyed with me for obvious reasons. I think we're cool, though. She still gave me bonus buttons. :)
Cerrato0426 - Brought his Chico crew of brand new PAXers, is looking forward to the Street Fighter IV tournament, and wrote up a nice review of the event in the forum thread that I appreciated.
Dan - Dan shares the name of my favorite Street Fighter character. He's been playing Disgaea. And he mentioned other things I should remember, but I'm a horrible person. Sorry Dan.
Dillon - He's a Halo man and Major League Gamer. He also read the jokes off the back of a container of string cheese to keep the other Chico folks entertained on the long drive down. They're all driving together for ten hours to get to PAX. That's a lot of string cheese.
Jonathon - Despite playing Batman and Shadow Complex most recently (and looking forward to Bayonetta at PAX), he's mostly into RPGs. He's obviously well rounded. And he had a cool Jack Kirby era Marvel t-shirt.
Khadre - My fellow Rosevillian, Kadre will be going as an exhibitor for space MMO EVE Online and playing board games after the exhibition hall closes.
Prof. Pangloss - Is wealth of information on things geeky, and can expound upon them at length. He could wear a mortarboard. :)
Upthorn - Could keep pace with Pangloss better than anyone at the table. I'll be checking out Six String Samurai and giving yet another chance to Babylon Five on his advice.
VonXWolfenstein - Another Chico person who just happened to be down in Sac to pick up her mom from the airport. She brought a clever Twilight hating button to trade. :)
I hit save instead of publish, so this post was six hours late.
Whew. It was hot today. I usually wouldn't care about that, but the restaurant we ended up in wasn't air conditioned. Yikes. And the reason we went to a non air conditioned place was because the Round Table Google sent me to doesn't exist any more. :P
Plus there was freeway construction and bad detour signs. I felt pretty guilty, driving up to a bunch of nerds standing in a hot parking lot around twenty minutes late. Luckily, VonXWolfenstein had a nice internet phone to look up a fallback restaurant. And thanks to donated materials from Prof. Pangloss and CaptainTapole, we put together signs to help any late comers find us.
At the restaurant with no air conditioning. Yikes. I took a shower before I left. I took another when I got home.
Overall, I think people had fun. Lots of geeky subjects were discussed and we had a good range of people. (My spelling may be wrong as some of the names I only heard aloud.)
CaptainTapole - Our only returning member from last year (besides me). She was annoyed with me for obvious reasons. I think we're cool, though. She still gave me bonus buttons. :)
Cerrato0426 - Brought his Chico crew of brand new PAXers, is looking forward to the Street Fighter IV tournament, and wrote up a nice review of the event in the forum thread that I appreciated.
Dan - Dan shares the name of my favorite Street Fighter character. He's been playing Disgaea. And he mentioned other things I should remember, but I'm a horrible person. Sorry Dan.
Dillon - He's a Halo man and Major League Gamer. He also read the jokes off the back of a container of string cheese to keep the other Chico folks entertained on the long drive down. They're all driving together for ten hours to get to PAX. That's a lot of string cheese.
Jonathon - Despite playing Batman and Shadow Complex most recently (and looking forward to Bayonetta at PAX), he's mostly into RPGs. He's obviously well rounded. And he had a cool Jack Kirby era Marvel t-shirt.
Khadre - My fellow Rosevillian, Kadre will be going as an exhibitor for space MMO EVE Online and playing board games after the exhibition hall closes.
Prof. Pangloss - Is wealth of information on things geeky, and can expound upon them at length. He could wear a mortarboard. :)
Upthorn - Could keep pace with Pangloss better than anyone at the table. I'll be checking out Six String Samurai and giving yet another chance to Babylon Five on his advice.
VonXWolfenstein - Another Chico person who just happened to be down in Sac to pick up her mom from the airport. She brought a clever Twilight hating button to trade. :)
25 August, 2009
PAX PAX PAX PAX
written by Blain Newport on Monday, August 24, 2009
PAX is just around the corner. Okay, it's technically more than a week away, but it's taken over my thoughts.
Last year we had a pre-PAX Sacramento lunch gathering organized by VThornheart. Because he moved away, this year we have the pre-PAX Sacramento lunch gathering organized by me. I'm generally not a fan of organizing (or people), but the process has been pretty painless so far. I attribute that to keeping it simple.
1) Pick a time
2) Get a list of interested parties.
3) Figure a geographically central location.
4) Use Google to find a restaurant.
2b) People who express a conditional desire to attend aren't considered interested parties.
That last one had to be added mainly for some Bay Area folks who were only interested if the event was held near to them. It made more sense to me to favor people who were enthusiastic. We'll see.
RT @Weezul Dante, Mass 2, Dragon Age, BFBC 2, Saboteur, Extraction, Warhammer, Brutal, Shift, Nitro, Nerf, MS Agents, Ao2, APB.
For those who don't use Twitter, that's the syntax for forwarding (RT = re-tweet) a tweet from EA.com Czar Jon Weezul, listing games Electronic Arts will be showing at PAX.
I wish all developers / publishers would do this. I'd understand if certain plans fell through and a game couldn't make it. But it still makes it a lot easier to plan my time.
Also, if it's not hands-on, I don't care. I should make that a T-shirt.
Dante's Inferno - I still want hands-on to see if it's worth playing.
Mass Effect 2 - If the action in this game is actually fun, it will be the first Bio-Ware game I'll finish since Shattered Steel.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Bad Company is a more story focused Battlefield series. The AI in the original was terrible, but the destructibility supposedly made for good multiplayer. I'll saunter by.
The Saboteur - World War 2 meets Okami. That's a weird enough concept that I'll have to take a look.
Dead Space: Extraction - Potentially the best Wii light gun game ever. :) We'll see.
Brütal Legend - Apparently this game is something of a brawler / RTS hybrid. I have grave doubts as I didn't much care for Sacrifice or Overlord. But I want to get some hands-on time to give it a chance.
And that's about it. I might wander by My Sims Agents to watch Jeff Green do demos. And APB is trying to be a Grand Theft Auto MMO, which is vaguely interesting.
PAX is just around the corner. Okay, it's technically more than a week away, but it's taken over my thoughts.
Last year we had a pre-PAX Sacramento lunch gathering organized by VThornheart. Because he moved away, this year we have the pre-PAX Sacramento lunch gathering organized by me. I'm generally not a fan of organizing (or people), but the process has been pretty painless so far. I attribute that to keeping it simple.
1) Pick a time
2) Get a list of interested parties.
3) Figure a geographically central location.
4) Use Google to find a restaurant.
2b) People who express a conditional desire to attend aren't considered interested parties.
That last one had to be added mainly for some Bay Area folks who were only interested if the event was held near to them. It made more sense to me to favor people who were enthusiastic. We'll see.
RT @Weezul Dante, Mass 2, Dragon Age, BFBC 2, Saboteur, Extraction, Warhammer, Brutal, Shift, Nitro, Nerf, MS Agents, Ao2, APB.
For those who don't use Twitter, that's the syntax for forwarding (RT = re-tweet) a tweet from EA.com Czar Jon Weezul, listing games Electronic Arts will be showing at PAX.
I wish all developers / publishers would do this. I'd understand if certain plans fell through and a game couldn't make it. But it still makes it a lot easier to plan my time.
Also, if it's not hands-on, I don't care. I should make that a T-shirt.
Dante's Inferno - I still want hands-on to see if it's worth playing.
Mass Effect 2 - If the action in this game is actually fun, it will be the first Bio-Ware game I'll finish since Shattered Steel.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Bad Company is a more story focused Battlefield series. The AI in the original was terrible, but the destructibility supposedly made for good multiplayer. I'll saunter by.
The Saboteur - World War 2 meets Okami. That's a weird enough concept that I'll have to take a look.
Dead Space: Extraction - Potentially the best Wii light gun game ever. :) We'll see.
Brütal Legend - Apparently this game is something of a brawler / RTS hybrid. I have grave doubts as I didn't much care for Sacrifice or Overlord. But I want to get some hands-on time to give it a chance.
And that's about it. I might wander by My Sims Agents to watch Jeff Green do demos. And APB is trying to be a Grand Theft Auto MMO, which is vaguely interesting.
01 August, 2009
PAX 2009: More Buttons, More Games
written by Blain Newport on Saturday, August 1, 2009
PAX is a month away. Button time.
I liked giving people a choice of buttons last year, one clean and one less clean. And while I like a lot of games, Jason from Blaster Master is my avatar on the PA boards, so I will stick to that theme.
If you don't remember, here are my buttons from last year.
At 1.5" across, my little depth of field trick gets lost. But I like knowing it's there.
The latest Rebel FM episode mentioned that some games that weren't playable at E3 had playable demos at Comic-Con. (On a related note, it seems like movies and games and other bigger business are pushing the comics out of Comic-Con. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone to start a smaller convention actually focused on comics in the next year or two.)
I found the Comic-Con coverage by Arthur Gies a bit perplexing. I enjoy Devil May Cry but haven't been able to get into Ninja Gaiden (and not for lack of trying). He feels the opposite way. But he very much liked Bayonetta, which has the same lead designer as the original DMC (Hideki Kamiya). This has me extra interested to see what my reaction to the game will be.
Dante's Inferno is a game in the same genre (challenging brawler) that I'm also interested to see. EA's marketing for the game has been shameful. But Gies said the game underneath is actually very good, which is surprising. Usually marketing only gets that desperate / sleazy when the underlying game isn't worth the media it's printed on.
Also Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (which I will call R&C 6 to save typing) was playable. I love the R&C games. But playing R&C 5 in console freeplay at PAX was very disappointing. It actually felt worse than the PS2 incarnations. I'm hoping there was sun spot interference or emanations from evil psychic waffles that ruined that experience and that the demo for R&C 6 will get me wishing I wasn't too cheap to buy a PS3.
And last, but probably not least, Dead Space Extraction for the Wii may be playable. I recently purchased and enjoyed House of the Dead: Overkill for the Wii. It feels like a waste of the Wii's potential to relegate it to light gun games, but they're good for co-op, and people have been saying good things about Extraction.
PAX is a month away. Button time.
I liked giving people a choice of buttons last year, one clean and one less clean. And while I like a lot of games, Jason from Blaster Master is my avatar on the PA boards, so I will stick to that theme.
If you don't remember, here are my buttons from last year.
At 1.5" across, my little depth of field trick gets lost. But I like knowing it's there.
The latest Rebel FM episode mentioned that some games that weren't playable at E3 had playable demos at Comic-Con. (On a related note, it seems like movies and games and other bigger business are pushing the comics out of Comic-Con. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone to start a smaller convention actually focused on comics in the next year or two.)
I found the Comic-Con coverage by Arthur Gies a bit perplexing. I enjoy Devil May Cry but haven't been able to get into Ninja Gaiden (and not for lack of trying). He feels the opposite way. But he very much liked Bayonetta, which has the same lead designer as the original DMC (Hideki Kamiya). This has me extra interested to see what my reaction to the game will be.
Dante's Inferno is a game in the same genre (challenging brawler) that I'm also interested to see. EA's marketing for the game has been shameful. But Gies said the game underneath is actually very good, which is surprising. Usually marketing only gets that desperate / sleazy when the underlying game isn't worth the media it's printed on.
Also Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (which I will call R&C 6 to save typing) was playable. I love the R&C games. But playing R&C 5 in console freeplay at PAX was very disappointing. It actually felt worse than the PS2 incarnations. I'm hoping there was sun spot interference or emanations from evil psychic waffles that ruined that experience and that the demo for R&C 6 will get me wishing I wasn't too cheap to buy a PS3.
And last, but probably not least, Dead Space Extraction for the Wii may be playable. I recently purchased and enjoyed House of the Dead: Overkill for the Wii. It feels like a waste of the Wii's potential to relegate it to light gun games, but they're good for co-op, and people have been saying good things about Extraction.
20 June, 2009
Keepalive: TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Killing Floor, Shirt Stuff
written on Saturday, June 20, 2009
I finished the single player hard difficulty run through of TS:FP. There's an escort mission near the end that was a huge pain, but for the most part, it wasn't too bad.
My brother jumped online for some more Killing Floor. When you're in the middle of a hallway holding back a wave of monsters with your chain saw, and the guy next to you whacks a guy with their fire axe and everything goes slo-mo, that's awesome. When that guy is your brother, that's an extra level of "$*#^ YEAH!"
I'm halfway through the first Republic Commando book. I like the consistent reality of books. If the author makes you really curious about something, chances are they'll explain it later. It's so much nicer than normal reality, where you often go your entire life without ever knowing why things happened as they did.
I'm wondering about the wisdom of my shirt project though. I have this idea in my head about what a Republic Commando 2 game could be, but to be honest, I haven't even watched Episode 3. Maybe Order 66 (the order for the clones to turn on the Jedi) turned Delta Squad into jerks, and I really don't want to see any more of them. Personally, I wouldn't mind a game contradicting any prequel, but I also know it would never get made, and the game I want would be not just a fever dream, but a scary, crazy fever dream. I try to draw the line at scary, crazy. I'll ask Chris to bring Episode 3 by, and I'll read the rest of the books quickly.
I finished the single player hard difficulty run through of TS:FP. There's an escort mission near the end that was a huge pain, but for the most part, it wasn't too bad.
My brother jumped online for some more Killing Floor. When you're in the middle of a hallway holding back a wave of monsters with your chain saw, and the guy next to you whacks a guy with their fire axe and everything goes slo-mo, that's awesome. When that guy is your brother, that's an extra level of "$*#^ YEAH!"
I'm halfway through the first Republic Commando book. I like the consistent reality of books. If the author makes you really curious about something, chances are they'll explain it later. It's so much nicer than normal reality, where you often go your entire life without ever knowing why things happened as they did.
I'm wondering about the wisdom of my shirt project though. I have this idea in my head about what a Republic Commando 2 game could be, but to be honest, I haven't even watched Episode 3. Maybe Order 66 (the order for the clones to turn on the Jedi) turned Delta Squad into jerks, and I really don't want to see any more of them. Personally, I wouldn't mind a game contradicting any prequel, but I also know it would never get made, and the game I want would be not just a fever dream, but a scary, crazy fever dream. I try to draw the line at scary, crazy. I'll ask Chris to bring Episode 3 by, and I'll read the rest of the books quickly.
14 June, 2009
PAX 2009: Small Shirt Demo
written on Sunday, June 14, 2009
THIS SHIRT DESIGN CONTAINS SPOILERS. DEAL WITH IT PINK BOY.
First, this is technically not about gaming and doesn't belong in this blog. Sure, the subject of the shirt is gaming, and I'm making it to wear to a gaming convention, but it's not gaming. It's an art project. Still, I'm guessing this process will be more interesting to some of you than discussion of games I'm playing right now. If it's not, skip this post.
Second, a disclaimer. This is amateur design. With as much time as I've spent around web interfaces and mucking with GIMP and Photoshop, I haven't done anything approaching serious art since freshman year of high school, and I was bad at it back then.
Third, I hate everything I have ever done, am doing, and will ever do. If I don't hate it, it's done and needs to be released before I change my mind and hate it again.
This I still hate.
Front
The front is based on the heads up display from Republic Commando. The borders are transparent. You can see by how they get brighter where they intersect. The text does not have a back reflection like the borders. This is accurate to the game interface, but looks rather odd in this design. I'm not fixing it.
For those not familiar with the game, these are the members of Delta Squad. You play as Boss (RC-1138). Your second in command and computer expert is Fixer (RC-1140). Your explosives expert is Scorch (RC-1262). And the fourth box stands empty to indicate the absence of Sev (RC-1207). The colors used for Fixer and Scorch are taken directly from the game. The color for boss is extrapolated from screen shots that show orange markings on his armor.
It may seem odd that there's so much empty space at the top. That's because I want the design to be in the middle of the shirt and Printfection's process starts pretty high up. I have the image files for other shirts I've made with them and am using those files and the shirts made from them to position the design.
Back
The text on the back states the imperative of the game. It uses the red color which designates Sev in the game interface, brightened and saturated slightly to better offset the blue of the game logo. When the game ends you technically have at least one mission that you'll be required to do before going after Sev. But recovering Sev will be a primary emotional focus of the second game. Every time I read those words, part of me says "#*$& yeah we are. Just give the order, and get out of our way."
The fact that the game establishes that there will be at least one mission before a rescue attempt begins, and the way Sev was established as having some serious blood lust in the first game leads me to believe he was being set up to become an antagonist in the sequel. The phrase "going after" is meant to have two meanings. We're recovering him. We're hunting him. Also, the commandos may be coming to realize that the Empire are the bad guys and may decide to join Sev, which would add a third meaning. I can almost hear Scorch in my head. "I hate to say it, Boss, but the psycho's starting to make sense."
The large number two, floating between the name of the game and the imperial symbol in the background was made using a font called Anklepants. Some nice person on the internet (Ray Larabie) took the time to make a font based on the Republic Commando title. I've done a fairly amateurish job of giving it a bevel, some texture, and some splashing / scarring to make it look like the rest of the logo. It looks okay at this resolution, but I'll probably need to take another pass at it for the final version. Their texturing looks like splashing and charring and scraping, possibly a reference to the way the game shows cracks and blood on the player's face shield. My texturing looks like scribbles. :P
Most of the text also looks terrible, even at this small size. The only resource I've found for the "OrbitBold" font LucasArts created is an Unreal texture file. Because it's a bitmap, it looks terrible at larger sizes. I've downloaded a free font editing program and will teach myself how to use it to create a true type version of the font. It'll be more work than just massaging the text I need by hand, but it will scale perfectly and give me more flexibility to move stuff around. And it will be a cool thing to put on the net for others to use when I'm done with it. Plus I haven't done anything remotely technical in a long time, so it'll be good for my self esteem. :)
The positioning on the back is subject to change. Originally I wanted the text higher, to go between the shoulder blades. But then the logo would be warped, unless I separated the two with some blank space, which seems like it would make the back of the shirt feel sparse. I'll think about it some more. It may just be that no t-shirt hangs well on me. :P
THIS SHIRT DESIGN CONTAINS SPOILERS. DEAL WITH IT PINK BOY.
First, this is technically not about gaming and doesn't belong in this blog. Sure, the subject of the shirt is gaming, and I'm making it to wear to a gaming convention, but it's not gaming. It's an art project. Still, I'm guessing this process will be more interesting to some of you than discussion of games I'm playing right now. If it's not, skip this post.
Second, a disclaimer. This is amateur design. With as much time as I've spent around web interfaces and mucking with GIMP and Photoshop, I haven't done anything approaching serious art since freshman year of high school, and I was bad at it back then.
Third, I hate everything I have ever done, am doing, and will ever do. If I don't hate it, it's done and needs to be released before I change my mind and hate it again.
This I still hate.
Front
The front is based on the heads up display from Republic Commando. The borders are transparent. You can see by how they get brighter where they intersect. The text does not have a back reflection like the borders. This is accurate to the game interface, but looks rather odd in this design. I'm not fixing it.
For those not familiar with the game, these are the members of Delta Squad. You play as Boss (RC-1138). Your second in command and computer expert is Fixer (RC-1140). Your explosives expert is Scorch (RC-1262). And the fourth box stands empty to indicate the absence of Sev (RC-1207). The colors used for Fixer and Scorch are taken directly from the game. The color for boss is extrapolated from screen shots that show orange markings on his armor.
It may seem odd that there's so much empty space at the top. That's because I want the design to be in the middle of the shirt and Printfection's process starts pretty high up. I have the image files for other shirts I've made with them and am using those files and the shirts made from them to position the design.
Back
The text on the back states the imperative of the game. It uses the red color which designates Sev in the game interface, brightened and saturated slightly to better offset the blue of the game logo. When the game ends you technically have at least one mission that you'll be required to do before going after Sev. But recovering Sev will be a primary emotional focus of the second game. Every time I read those words, part of me says "#*$& yeah we are. Just give the order, and get out of our way."
The fact that the game establishes that there will be at least one mission before a rescue attempt begins, and the way Sev was established as having some serious blood lust in the first game leads me to believe he was being set up to become an antagonist in the sequel. The phrase "going after" is meant to have two meanings. We're recovering him. We're hunting him. Also, the commandos may be coming to realize that the Empire are the bad guys and may decide to join Sev, which would add a third meaning. I can almost hear Scorch in my head. "I hate to say it, Boss, but the psycho's starting to make sense."
The large number two, floating between the name of the game and the imperial symbol in the background was made using a font called Anklepants. Some nice person on the internet (Ray Larabie) took the time to make a font based on the Republic Commando title. I've done a fairly amateurish job of giving it a bevel, some texture, and some splashing / scarring to make it look like the rest of the logo. It looks okay at this resolution, but I'll probably need to take another pass at it for the final version. Their texturing looks like splashing and charring and scraping, possibly a reference to the way the game shows cracks and blood on the player's face shield. My texturing looks like scribbles. :P
Most of the text also looks terrible, even at this small size. The only resource I've found for the "OrbitBold" font LucasArts created is an Unreal texture file. Because it's a bitmap, it looks terrible at larger sizes. I've downloaded a free font editing program and will teach myself how to use it to create a true type version of the font. It'll be more work than just massaging the text I need by hand, but it will scale perfectly and give me more flexibility to move stuff around. And it will be a cool thing to put on the net for others to use when I'm done with it. Plus I haven't done anything remotely technical in a long time, so it'll be good for my self esteem. :)
The positioning on the back is subject to change. Originally I wanted the text higher, to go between the shoulder blades. But then the logo would be warped, unless I separated the two with some blank space, which seems like it would make the back of the shirt feel sparse. I'll think about it some more. It may just be that no t-shirt hangs well on me. :P
13 June, 2009
Keepalive: Free Realms, PAX Shirt
written on XXXday, June XX, 2009
Free Realms launched on April 28th. I got an email from them (just because I created an account, not because I'm on anybody's press release list) announcing that a million people had registered on May 18th, twenty days later. The two million email came out on June 5, eighteen days after that. And I just saw an announcement that it's now hit three million, only seven days after that. I wondered after the first announcement if it was going to eclipse WoW eventually. It's accessible. It's got variety. It's well made. And it's free. If it even keeps close to this pace, it'll have more players inside of a year.
So what does that mean? I'm sorry, but I don't really know.
I've said for a while that core gamers are a niche. And whereas we used to be a niche because we played video games, we are becoming a niche because of the types of games we play. So it could be argued that Free Realms and the Wii are succeeding are succeeding by playing to the broader market. But it could also be argued that Free Realms is free. :)
Microsoft and Sony have always been making attempts to be more family friendly and get to the mainstream. With Free Realms, Sony appears to have a strong franchise to leverage in that space. They've already announced that they're going to put it on the PS3 as well. If Sony's rumored price cut in August includes a Free Realms bundle, maybe they'll be able to make some headway with the thing. Then again, bundling an online only title could be difficult. But if Sony is getting retailers to stock the "PSP go", which downloads all it's games, cutting retailers out of the profitable part of the game business, they can probably pull off a Free Realms bundle.
I'm working on my shirt for PAX 2009. It has occurred to me that while my previous design might have got me punched by people who didn't get it, my current design may get me punched by people who do get it.
For reference, (and because I still enjoy it) here's the old design.
Only one person on the streets of Seattle gave me any guff about it, but let it go when he saw the back. No one but gamers will even care about my new shirt.
It's about a game. It contains a major spoiler. And it is a tragic and hurtful lie.
I should get back to it. I should have a first pass at the artwork by my next blog entry.
Free Realms launched on April 28th. I got an email from them (just because I created an account, not because I'm on anybody's press release list) announcing that a million people had registered on May 18th, twenty days later. The two million email came out on June 5, eighteen days after that. And I just saw an announcement that it's now hit three million, only seven days after that. I wondered after the first announcement if it was going to eclipse WoW eventually. It's accessible. It's got variety. It's well made. And it's free. If it even keeps close to this pace, it'll have more players inside of a year.
So what does that mean? I'm sorry, but I don't really know.
I've said for a while that core gamers are a niche. And whereas we used to be a niche because we played video games, we are becoming a niche because of the types of games we play. So it could be argued that Free Realms and the Wii are succeeding are succeeding by playing to the broader market. But it could also be argued that Free Realms is free. :)
Microsoft and Sony have always been making attempts to be more family friendly and get to the mainstream. With Free Realms, Sony appears to have a strong franchise to leverage in that space. They've already announced that they're going to put it on the PS3 as well. If Sony's rumored price cut in August includes a Free Realms bundle, maybe they'll be able to make some headway with the thing. Then again, bundling an online only title could be difficult. But if Sony is getting retailers to stock the "PSP go", which downloads all it's games, cutting retailers out of the profitable part of the game business, they can probably pull off a Free Realms bundle.
I'm working on my shirt for PAX 2009. It has occurred to me that while my previous design might have got me punched by people who didn't get it, my current design may get me punched by people who do get it.
For reference, (and because I still enjoy it) here's the old design.
Only one person on the streets of Seattle gave me any guff about it, but let it go when he saw the back. No one but gamers will even care about my new shirt.
It's about a game. It contains a major spoiler. And it is a tragic and hurtful lie.
I should get back to it. I should have a first pass at the artwork by my next blog entry.
09 June, 2009
PAX 2009: E3's Leftovers
written on Monday, June 8, 2009
It's not very glamorous, but much of what we see at PAX is simply the E3 demo, only a few months later. I don't mind. I'd rather developers worked on the games than cranking out a bunch of demos. Plus I can now look at the E3 coverage and pick what I want to see.
Bayonetta is a must. It's the creator of the original Devil May Cry making a new action game with a transforming protagonist, who happens to be female. The concept and early trailers seemed exploitative enough that I might pass on the whole thing. But subsequent gameplay trailers and enthusiast press comments make it seem not any worse than God Hand. We'll see.
What I've seen of God of War 3 is pushing different boundaries. There's disemboweling and slowly ripping a man's head from his shoulders. I've heard the combat's improved to the point where the game may finally step out of the shadow of DMC, but when I was watching the head ripping my impulse was to stop pushing the button and fail the event. Kratos, you've got huge knives chained to your wrists. If you need his head for something, just cut it off and be done with it. It used to be cartoon violence. Now it looks like real violence, and I suddenly find myself looking at Kratos with disgust.
That may sound weird considering I was recently enjoying the gore in Killing Floor, but those are monsters, and they don't suffer. The guy getting his head slowly ripped off suffers. Maybe he was really bad. Maybe I'll find out first hand.
Other games I'm interested in getting a look at:
Red Steel 2 - It's the only Wii Motion Plus game I'm interested in playing.
Lost Planet 2 - The original was a fun, if slightly cumbersome, action game. The sequel apparently features co-op giant monster hunting. Monster Hunter is a super huge franchise in Japan. If Capcom makes this a more action based take on that concept, (No grinding please.) it could be fun.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - It's a very different Wii take on the original Silent Hill, which was the only Silent Hill game I really enjoyed. They're trying a lot of changes to the formula. There is no combat, which on paper is great because Silent Hill combat sucks. But I'm not sure they can make a game out of running away. Also, the way the player answers some questions at the start determines what their monsters look like. I'm curious.
Scribblenauts - It's a game where you type in the name of an object, and it appears. Then you use the object to solve puzzles. I'm actually a little leery of the concept, but people have been going nuts about it at E3.
Finally, there are some games that may not make it to PAX that I would love to see.
Borderlands - It wasn't playable at E3, and it's supposed to be out in October. Gearbox is a small developer. I don't think they'll have time to polish a demo and still ship a good game when they're supposed to.
Brütal Legend - It's been playable, but it is also due in October, is from a fairly small dev, and is being tied up in court by Activision. I'll wait to hear more details about the legal battle before making a final judgment, but my gut says Activision is evil and must be destroyed... possibly by Kratos.
Heavy Rain - I don't know why, but I don't think Heavy Rain will be at PAX. But a lot of gamers are skeptical that an entire game based around Quick Time Events can work, so the game definitely has something to prove.
Just Cause 2 - You remember that video I posted of Just Cause 2? Well it's good that you don't because this one is so much better. It's ten minutes long, and it's worth watching the whole thing. But it's not out until 2010, so it won't be at PAX. I just wanted an excuse to post a link to that video. It makes it look like you get to be Spider-Man with a rocket launcher. Now it just needs co-op. :)
It's not very glamorous, but much of what we see at PAX is simply the E3 demo, only a few months later. I don't mind. I'd rather developers worked on the games than cranking out a bunch of demos. Plus I can now look at the E3 coverage and pick what I want to see.
Bayonetta is a must. It's the creator of the original Devil May Cry making a new action game with a transforming protagonist, who happens to be female. The concept and early trailers seemed exploitative enough that I might pass on the whole thing. But subsequent gameplay trailers and enthusiast press comments make it seem not any worse than God Hand. We'll see.
What I've seen of God of War 3 is pushing different boundaries. There's disemboweling and slowly ripping a man's head from his shoulders. I've heard the combat's improved to the point where the game may finally step out of the shadow of DMC, but when I was watching the head ripping my impulse was to stop pushing the button and fail the event. Kratos, you've got huge knives chained to your wrists. If you need his head for something, just cut it off and be done with it. It used to be cartoon violence. Now it looks like real violence, and I suddenly find myself looking at Kratos with disgust.
That may sound weird considering I was recently enjoying the gore in Killing Floor, but those are monsters, and they don't suffer. The guy getting his head slowly ripped off suffers. Maybe he was really bad. Maybe I'll find out first hand.
Other games I'm interested in getting a look at:
Red Steel 2 - It's the only Wii Motion Plus game I'm interested in playing.
Lost Planet 2 - The original was a fun, if slightly cumbersome, action game. The sequel apparently features co-op giant monster hunting. Monster Hunter is a super huge franchise in Japan. If Capcom makes this a more action based take on that concept, (No grinding please.) it could be fun.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - It's a very different Wii take on the original Silent Hill, which was the only Silent Hill game I really enjoyed. They're trying a lot of changes to the formula. There is no combat, which on paper is great because Silent Hill combat sucks. But I'm not sure they can make a game out of running away. Also, the way the player answers some questions at the start determines what their monsters look like. I'm curious.
Scribblenauts - It's a game where you type in the name of an object, and it appears. Then you use the object to solve puzzles. I'm actually a little leery of the concept, but people have been going nuts about it at E3.
Finally, there are some games that may not make it to PAX that I would love to see.
Borderlands - It wasn't playable at E3, and it's supposed to be out in October. Gearbox is a small developer. I don't think they'll have time to polish a demo and still ship a good game when they're supposed to.
Brütal Legend - It's been playable, but it is also due in October, is from a fairly small dev, and is being tied up in court by Activision. I'll wait to hear more details about the legal battle before making a final judgment, but my gut says Activision is evil and must be destroyed... possibly by Kratos.
Heavy Rain - I don't know why, but I don't think Heavy Rain will be at PAX. But a lot of gamers are skeptical that an entire game based around Quick Time Events can work, so the game definitely has something to prove.
Just Cause 2 - You remember that video I posted of Just Cause 2? Well it's good that you don't because this one is so much better. It's ten minutes long, and it's worth watching the whole thing. But it's not out until 2010, so it won't be at PAX. I just wanted an excuse to post a link to that video. It makes it look like you get to be Spider-Man with a rocket launcher. Now it just needs co-op. :)
07 June, 2009
Keepalive: Bully, New Super Mario Bros., PAX
written on Sunday, June 7, 2009
Mmmm. Seven hours late. Lazy Sunday.
The Bullying continues. I took boxing lessons. I now hit very hard. This is good because I'm fighting a lot of preppies lately, and they also know how to box. Luckily boxing skills don't help them against my leg sweep, kick to the groin combo. :P
I've been wandering around, running errands for people. The gym coach just sent me on a laundry run to the girls' dorm (a.k.a. panty raid). It's not as exciting as it sounds. Outside of one girl who wears pajamas (which are decidedly unsexy), all the girls in the dorm wear their street clothes at all times. The only main difference is that they freak out because I'm not supposed to be there. But sometimes there's a moment where they just act normally, and in that window I managed to get a nice long kiss in the middle of the hallway in full view of everybody. Plus the scary old hall monitor lady came down the hallway just as it was ending and chased me outside. It was perfect. :)
Sometimes I'm finding the way the game paces out content frustrating. There are some go kart races at the carnival and around town. But some of them are locked until I progress the story, so I can't finish them all and get my go kart, which would drastically reduce my travel time, and just generally be awesome because nobody else has a go kart. Neener neener neener, etc.
I checked the "stats" page for additional stuff to do. Long before there were achievements on Xbox Live, Rockstar Games (or rather DMA Design) had implemented stats pages which gave you a rundown of all the things you had and hadn't done in the game. I'd totally forgotten I could stuff kids into lockers until I saw "Kids Stuffed Into Lockers: 0" on my stats page. Yay! A new mission! Must stuff preppy in locker! Too bad they never go to class. :P
I never go to class either, which is another frustration. I would love to finish photography class to earn a color camera, but it's locked away behind story missions. Phooey.
I'm almost done with New Super Mario Bros. World 8 is a pain. In the other worlds I (mostly) enjoyed collecting all the hidden coins in a level, but in World 8, I'll be happy just to blow through the levels and call it done.
I bought my plane tickets for PAX. I suppose it's time to revisit my button designs and make whatever other preparations are needed. I suppose a new t-shirt is in order, as well. Hmmm. And I probably should have been paying more attention to what games were playable on the E3 show floor as many of those demos will be shipped to Seattle for PAX. I'll start working up a list.
Mmmm. Seven hours late. Lazy Sunday.
The Bullying continues. I took boxing lessons. I now hit very hard. This is good because I'm fighting a lot of preppies lately, and they also know how to box. Luckily boxing skills don't help them against my leg sweep, kick to the groin combo. :P
I've been wandering around, running errands for people. The gym coach just sent me on a laundry run to the girls' dorm (a.k.a. panty raid). It's not as exciting as it sounds. Outside of one girl who wears pajamas (which are decidedly unsexy), all the girls in the dorm wear their street clothes at all times. The only main difference is that they freak out because I'm not supposed to be there. But sometimes there's a moment where they just act normally, and in that window I managed to get a nice long kiss in the middle of the hallway in full view of everybody. Plus the scary old hall monitor lady came down the hallway just as it was ending and chased me outside. It was perfect. :)
Sometimes I'm finding the way the game paces out content frustrating. There are some go kart races at the carnival and around town. But some of them are locked until I progress the story, so I can't finish them all and get my go kart, which would drastically reduce my travel time, and just generally be awesome because nobody else has a go kart. Neener neener neener, etc.
I checked the "stats" page for additional stuff to do. Long before there were achievements on Xbox Live, Rockstar Games (or rather DMA Design) had implemented stats pages which gave you a rundown of all the things you had and hadn't done in the game. I'd totally forgotten I could stuff kids into lockers until I saw "Kids Stuffed Into Lockers: 0" on my stats page. Yay! A new mission! Must stuff preppy in locker! Too bad they never go to class. :P
I never go to class either, which is another frustration. I would love to finish photography class to earn a color camera, but it's locked away behind story missions. Phooey.
I'm almost done with New Super Mario Bros. World 8 is a pain. In the other worlds I (mostly) enjoyed collecting all the hidden coins in a level, but in World 8, I'll be happy just to blow through the levels and call it done.
I bought my plane tickets for PAX. I suppose it's time to revisit my button designs and make whatever other preparations are needed. I suppose a new t-shirt is in order, as well. Hmmm. And I probably should have been paying more attention to what games were playable on the E3 show floor as many of those demos will be shipped to Seattle for PAX. I'll start working up a list.
09 January, 2009
PAX 2009: Dates
I don't know exactly where or when, but the dates for PAX 2009 (Sept. 4th - 6th) were announced. I'm already posting button designs, making reservations, and wondering when tickets will be available for preorder.
Jump the gun much?
You don't know the half of it. I also spent part of the evening in the IRC channel, just to see what the PAX folk are up to. They're mostly killing time on the internet. :)
You know it's bad when the best thing going on in a chat room is people posting links to an archive of funny exchanges from other chat rooms (and some from the same chat room). Still, it was nice to see familiar handles and hear familiar discussions.
I got a smaller camera, so I may actually start taking pictures again this year. Aren't you excited? Okay fine. I'll just be excited for both of us. I've definitely got some to spare. :)
Jump the gun much?
You don't know the half of it. I also spent part of the evening in the IRC channel, just to see what the PAX folk are up to. They're mostly killing time on the internet. :)
You know it's bad when the best thing going on in a chat room is people posting links to an archive of funny exchanges from other chat rooms (and some from the same chat room). Still, it was nice to see familiar handles and hear familiar discussions.
I got a smaller camera, so I may actually start taking pictures again this year. Aren't you excited? Okay fine. I'll just be excited for both of us. I've definitely got some to spare. :)
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