PAX 08 + Starcraft II
HOMG
PAX is over for the year and all I've got to say is: I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! It's sort'a sad that it's all finished now T____T I wasn't sure what to expect since I'd never been to anything like it, and Anime Evolution that I went to the week beforehand was a little disappointing. PAX was definitely worth going to see, and even though the lines were terrible at times (there was an estimated 45,000 people at PAX), I never actually felt bored. So shall I do a day-by-day account?
Friday: Caught the bus into the city with chibi-nataku around midday so then we could check into the hotel and go and get our tickets and line up for PAX - it officially opened at 2pm. The line to get your pre-reg'ed tickets was horribly long (we got there around 1pm'ish), and once we suffered through that line, we had to go and wait in yet another line to get into the con itself. So we waited, and eventually wormed our way through the line-room until we got into the exhibition hall. Where was the first place that we ran to once we got in there? None other than the Blizzard exhibition area. Do you know what I found when I got there? Playable demo's of... Starcraft II... I so totally fangirled, but the lines were stupidly long and it would have taken me 3 hours to even get a single turn D: I did stand around there and watch it for about 30 minutes. It looks so damn awesome and shiny, and now I so can't wait for the damn game to come out :D I ♥ SC2
Anyway! After looking around there, we searched around the rest of the place - picked up some awesome free stuff - until we got to an anime-plushie stall. Originally chibi-nataku and I weren't going to go in there until we caught sight of an actual Barret plushie... yes, you heard me correctly, they had a plushie for Barret. So I had to buy it of course >_>
We didn't get to make it to the Penny Arcade panel that day (all of the Penny Arcade panels were completely full well before they even started =\) but we did manage to get to the Rooster Teeth panel - which was downright hilarious and awesome. Some of the questions they were asked was retarded, but they had some good ones askd at them (which resulted in them handing out Griff-balls to the best questions) before showing everyone their newest RvB creation: RvB animated ♥ it had Griff, Simmons and Church in it (with aliens) and it was so damn hilarious.
After seeing that panel we just went to the PC-free area and checked our email and such, and after heading around looking at random things and having a late dinner (at PF Changs... man I love that place)... we finally got back to the hotel room around 11:30pm'ish.
Saturday: I managed to convince poor chibi-nataku to get up at 8am that morning to run over to the convention centre to line up she's such an awesome trooper. We got there around 8:30am and the line-up was already stupidly long! The convention didn't open until 10am :O Fortunately though, we managed to get into the exhibition hall relatively quickly and I ended up being second in line to play Starcraft II.
All I've got to say about that is: IT WAS FUCKIN' AWESOME ♥
I played the Zerg the first time around against the Protoss AI. They had some pretty neat new units and buildings, and I noticed that they stuck the Hydralisk unit in the second evolution area instead of the first (they have new units in that area now and you can't build them until the same time as the Mutalisks). I had fun playing around with a few of the new units, and saw the new Queen unit - HOMG that thing was huge! and this time it's a ground unit and not air O_o I had my little group of various units, and sent them out to kill and oncoming Protoss force heading towards me. They did their job well and killed them all, and just as I was bringing an overlord over to see their dark templar, I brought my view back to where my original units were and just saw them being absolutely slaughter by the Protoss Colossus O_o;; it was like 'Holy Crap!' (something I could hear being said behind me as my zerg were being destroyed) fortunately I had three mutalisks there which successfully killed the two Colossus', but I had no more time left on the counter to build up more units to battle with.
I walked away rather satisfied, but not entire so - since I didn't get to play the Protoss; the Protoss being my all-time favourite race to play ♥. I debated the whole day what to do about that, and after buying the RvB boxset and getting it signed by the guys and also after a few free plays of Starcraft 1 (where I taught chibi-nataku how to play), I decided that I couldn't walk away from it entirely happy until I played that race. There was little point in trying to get back on it on Saturday, so we went around to a few of the other panels and booths and pottered around until it was bedtime.
Sunday: Got up 30 minutes earlier on that day and made our way down to PAX by 8am. Got in line (which, fortunately, wasn't as large as the Saturday one) and managed to be about 40 people in (down to third person after we got moving XD). I got to the Blizzard booth (While getting a toy airgun and chibi-nataku a tshirt) and got second place for SC2 (they had some cheaters already playing on it before we even got into the exhibition hall). While waiting for my turn, chibi-nataku pointed out this rare Blizzard SC2 tournament being held that day at 3pm and sign up for it was today. So she pushed me over to sign up for it while she saved my place in line for SC2. I did it, and got placed 21st out of 24 positions before heading back over to play my game.
I got the Protoss this time around and HOMG they were so awesome and shiny. I noticed that a few of the original units were priced a little differently (Hydralisks were 100 minerals and gas/Mutalisks were 125 each etc), so that sort'a threw me into a loop - not to mention all of the new units and buildings for the Protoss race. It's one thing to read about them online, but a completely different thing to actually play them. I managed to kick some Zerg ass though, and after building everything other than the robotics factory (where the Colossus is made), I built the one thing I hadn't seen being played by anyone: The Protoss Mothership.
It was large, slow and impressive, but I'm yet to decide if it's as good as it originally was planned to be. From what I could tell, two of the main weapons have been taken from it (the Black Hole ability - which I knew - and the main focus beam attack - which is a shame).
The rest of the day was spent fretting about the tournament while doing other things. The time flew by and it was 2:30 before I knew it =\ It took us 10 minutes to get back to the Blizzard area (we'd gone out to have lunch) where all of the tourny players were gathering. It was then that I found out that out of 24 players, I was the only female going up against the Blizzard staff lulz it was a little intimidating, especially after seeing just how good they both were. There was one contestant there who was mouthing off his 'vast knowledge' on everything SC2 and how the AI could never defeat him while also boasting to the Blizzard Staff. Everyone (including the Blizzard staff) was pretty damn annoyed by him (he was number 17) right from the get-go, and chibi-nataku actually heard the Blizzard staff manipulating the Blizzard Vs Contestant challenges so that this guy's number would be put against Karune himself.
For those of you who don't know who Karune is, he's the Blizzard SC2 representative on the SC2 forums. He answers all of the questions from SC players as well as helped designed the games - so he knows absolutely everything about the new SC2 than pretty much everyone else on the face of this planet.
It was almost sad and terrible to watch that battle, but there was a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing that guy get absolutely slaughtered by Karune - he was entirely wiped out within 10 minutes of starting.
I had my turn, and while I did alright in the beginning, all of the new unit/buildings and unit prices were my undoing, and my base was eventually starting to get overrun after 15 minutes of playing (out of a 25 minute time limit). I was one of the longest lasting people in the game. One lasted 25 minutes and did nothing. About 2 others lasted around 20 minutes, but the rest were generally 10 minutes and under. The Blizzard players were absolutely brutal, and out of 24 people, only 1 person managed to win themselves a key - that one person being the first to play Bob (the other Blizzard player and the guy who's the rep for WoW). I had no hope by the time it got to me to play against Bob. At the beginning he was a pretty standard player, but by the time my number (21) was called, he knew all of the units too well and was simply too hard to defeat. But I was happy with that and knowing that I actually went up against Blizzard Staff and held my ground well enough :D
Playing SC2 has really wet my appetite and made me want this game even more than before. I so can't wait until it comes out, and I'll so buy it the moment it hits the shelves. I'll be hoping that they have a Diablo 3 at PAX 09 - if I'm still in the country to go to it - since that would be so damn awesome \o/
The most amusing thing at PAX? There were two:
- The RvB panel
- Darth Vader playing Starcraft II ♥
Wow, I can't believed that I fangirled so much over SC2 lmao I can't help it though since it's my all time favourite game :D PAX was fantastic, and I'm a little sad it's all over and done with, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and I'm rather tired. We went back to my sister's last night to sleep before chibi-nataku set out this morning. I doubt either of us got much sleep though. I had Choccie (one of my sister's pet cats) sleeping between my legs, while the other (Lynxie) decided that he was too excited to sleep and spent almost all of the night jumping in all of the plastic/paper/luggage bags in the room and keep us awake with the noise D: I threw him out of the room around 3:30am and shut the door, but the moment I did that, he began running around the house whining until I opened up the door to my bedroom -face!palm action- Add in a 6:45am wake-up call so then chibi-nataku could head back for the border early, and that = one tired and sleep deprived ozzypoos. I do have choccie resting between my legs now - which is cute - and.... HOMG!!
chibi-nataku I'M SO SORRY! I FORGOT THAT WE DIDN'T HAVE THE ICECREAM LAST NIGHT LIKE WE WERE PLANNING! I so totally fail at life when it comes to that =\ I'LL THINK OF YOU WHEN I EAT IT! ♥
Alright. Now I've lost my train of thought, but I think that I've babbled on enough -coughs- I'll see how my mind goes. I might try and catch up on my RP's, but I might be useless until tomorrow =\
PAX is over for the year and all I've got to say is: I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! It's sort'a sad that it's all finished now T____T I wasn't sure what to expect since I'd never been to anything like it, and Anime Evolution that I went to the week beforehand was a little disappointing. PAX was definitely worth going to see, and even though the lines were terrible at times (there was an estimated 45,000 people at PAX), I never actually felt bored. So shall I do a day-by-day account?
Friday: Caught the bus into the city with chibi-nataku around midday so then we could check into the hotel and go and get our tickets and line up for PAX - it officially opened at 2pm. The line to get your pre-reg'ed tickets was horribly long (we got there around 1pm'ish), and once we suffered through that line, we had to go and wait in yet another line to get into the con itself. So we waited, and eventually wormed our way through the line-room until we got into the exhibition hall. Where was the first place that we ran to once we got in there? None other than the Blizzard exhibition area. Do you know what I found when I got there? Playable demo's of... Starcraft II... I so totally fangirled, but the lines were stupidly long and it would have taken me 3 hours to even get a single turn D: I did stand around there and watch it for about 30 minutes. It looks so damn awesome and shiny, and now I so can't wait for the damn game to come out :D I ♥ SC2
Anyway! After looking around there, we searched around the rest of the place - picked up some awesome free stuff - until we got to an anime-plushie stall. Originally chibi-nataku and I weren't going to go in there until we caught sight of an actual Barret plushie... yes, you heard me correctly, they had a plushie for Barret. So I had to buy it of course >_>
We didn't get to make it to the Penny Arcade panel that day (all of the Penny Arcade panels were completely full well before they even started =\) but we did manage to get to the Rooster Teeth panel - which was downright hilarious and awesome. Some of the questions they were asked was retarded, but they had some good ones askd at them (which resulted in them handing out Griff-balls to the best questions) before showing everyone their newest RvB creation: RvB animated ♥ it had Griff, Simmons and Church in it (with aliens) and it was so damn hilarious.
After seeing that panel we just went to the PC-free area and checked our email and such, and after heading around looking at random things and having a late dinner (at PF Changs... man I love that place)... we finally got back to the hotel room around 11:30pm'ish.
Saturday: I managed to convince poor chibi-nataku to get up at 8am that morning to run over to the convention centre to line up she's such an awesome trooper. We got there around 8:30am and the line-up was already stupidly long! The convention didn't open until 10am :O Fortunately though, we managed to get into the exhibition hall relatively quickly and I ended up being second in line to play Starcraft II.
All I've got to say about that is: IT WAS FUCKIN' AWESOME ♥
I played the Zerg the first time around against the Protoss AI. They had some pretty neat new units and buildings, and I noticed that they stuck the Hydralisk unit in the second evolution area instead of the first (they have new units in that area now and you can't build them until the same time as the Mutalisks). I had fun playing around with a few of the new units, and saw the new Queen unit - HOMG that thing was huge! and this time it's a ground unit and not air O_o I had my little group of various units, and sent them out to kill and oncoming Protoss force heading towards me. They did their job well and killed them all, and just as I was bringing an overlord over to see their dark templar, I brought my view back to where my original units were and just saw them being absolutely slaughter by the Protoss Colossus O_o;; it was like 'Holy Crap!' (something I could hear being said behind me as my zerg were being destroyed) fortunately I had three mutalisks there which successfully killed the two Colossus', but I had no more time left on the counter to build up more units to battle with.
I walked away rather satisfied, but not entire so - since I didn't get to play the Protoss; the Protoss being my all-time favourite race to play ♥. I debated the whole day what to do about that, and after buying the RvB boxset and getting it signed by the guys and also after a few free plays of Starcraft 1 (where I taught chibi-nataku how to play), I decided that I couldn't walk away from it entirely happy until I played that race. There was little point in trying to get back on it on Saturday, so we went around to a few of the other panels and booths and pottered around until it was bedtime.
Sunday: Got up 30 minutes earlier on that day and made our way down to PAX by 8am. Got in line (which, fortunately, wasn't as large as the Saturday one) and managed to be about 40 people in (down to third person after we got moving XD). I got to the Blizzard booth (While getting a toy airgun and chibi-nataku a tshirt) and got second place for SC2 (they had some cheaters already playing on it before we even got into the exhibition hall). While waiting for my turn, chibi-nataku pointed out this rare Blizzard SC2 tournament being held that day at 3pm and sign up for it was today. So she pushed me over to sign up for it while she saved my place in line for SC2. I did it, and got placed 21st out of 24 positions before heading back over to play my game.
I got the Protoss this time around and HOMG they were so awesome and shiny. I noticed that a few of the original units were priced a little differently (Hydralisks were 100 minerals and gas/Mutalisks were 125 each etc), so that sort'a threw me into a loop - not to mention all of the new units and buildings for the Protoss race. It's one thing to read about them online, but a completely different thing to actually play them. I managed to kick some Zerg ass though, and after building everything other than the robotics factory (where the Colossus is made), I built the one thing I hadn't seen being played by anyone: The Protoss Mothership.
It was large, slow and impressive, but I'm yet to decide if it's as good as it originally was planned to be. From what I could tell, two of the main weapons have been taken from it (the Black Hole ability - which I knew - and the main focus beam attack - which is a shame).
The rest of the day was spent fretting about the tournament while doing other things. The time flew by and it was 2:30 before I knew it =\ It took us 10 minutes to get back to the Blizzard area (we'd gone out to have lunch) where all of the tourny players were gathering. It was then that I found out that out of 24 players, I was the only female going up against the Blizzard staff lulz it was a little intimidating, especially after seeing just how good they both were. There was one contestant there who was mouthing off his 'vast knowledge' on everything SC2 and how the AI could never defeat him while also boasting to the Blizzard Staff. Everyone (including the Blizzard staff) was pretty damn annoyed by him (he was number 17) right from the get-go, and chibi-nataku actually heard the Blizzard staff manipulating the Blizzard Vs Contestant challenges so that this guy's number would be put against Karune himself.
For those of you who don't know who Karune is, he's the Blizzard SC2 representative on the SC2 forums. He answers all of the questions from SC players as well as helped designed the games - so he knows absolutely everything about the new SC2 than pretty much everyone else on the face of this planet.
It was almost sad and terrible to watch that battle, but there was a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing that guy get absolutely slaughtered by Karune - he was entirely wiped out within 10 minutes of starting.
I had my turn, and while I did alright in the beginning, all of the new unit/buildings and unit prices were my undoing, and my base was eventually starting to get overrun after 15 minutes of playing (out of a 25 minute time limit). I was one of the longest lasting people in the game. One lasted 25 minutes and did nothing. About 2 others lasted around 20 minutes, but the rest were generally 10 minutes and under. The Blizzard players were absolutely brutal, and out of 24 people, only 1 person managed to win themselves a key - that one person being the first to play Bob (the other Blizzard player and the guy who's the rep for WoW). I had no hope by the time it got to me to play against Bob. At the beginning he was a pretty standard player, but by the time my number (21) was called, he knew all of the units too well and was simply too hard to defeat. But I was happy with that and knowing that I actually went up against Blizzard Staff and held my ground well enough :D
Playing SC2 has really wet my appetite and made me want this game even more than before. I so can't wait until it comes out, and I'll so buy it the moment it hits the shelves. I'll be hoping that they have a Diablo 3 at PAX 09 - if I'm still in the country to go to it - since that would be so damn awesome \o/
The most amusing thing at PAX? There were two:
- The RvB panel
- Darth Vader playing Starcraft II ♥
Wow, I can't believed that I fangirled so much over SC2 lmao I can't help it though since it's my all time favourite game :D PAX was fantastic, and I'm a little sad it's all over and done with, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and I'm rather tired. We went back to my sister's last night to sleep before chibi-nataku set out this morning. I doubt either of us got much sleep though. I had Choccie (one of my sister's pet cats) sleeping between my legs, while the other (Lynxie) decided that he was too excited to sleep and spent almost all of the night jumping in all of the plastic/paper/luggage bags in the room and keep us awake with the noise D: I threw him out of the room around 3:30am and shut the door, but the moment I did that, he began running around the house whining until I opened up the door to my bedroom -face!palm action- Add in a 6:45am wake-up call so then chibi-nataku could head back for the border early, and that = one tired and sleep deprived ozzypoos. I do have choccie resting between my legs now - which is cute - and.... HOMG!!
chibi-nataku I'M SO SORRY! I FORGOT THAT WE DIDN'T HAVE THE ICECREAM LAST NIGHT LIKE WE WERE PLANNING! I so totally fail at life when it comes to that =\ I'LL THINK OF YOU WHEN I EAT IT! ♥
Alright. Now I've lost my train of thought, but I think that I've babbled on enough -coughs- I'll see how my mind goes. I might try and catch up on my RP's, but I might be useless until tomorrow =\