PAX , CoX, and other things
Putting most of this behind a cut, since it's going to take up some space.
So, right before I left for the airport, I saw a tweet from Wil Wheaton that Duke Nukem Forever was really happening; the exact tweet being thus: "And Duke Nukem Forever was released ... and the rivers turned to blood and the sky became like fire, as The Horsemen began to ride. #PAX".
And the wait lines to play the demo? Longest wait I heard about was 4 hours. 4 HOURS. I'm so not surprised.
The wait lines for Portal 2 capped out, to my knowledge, at nearly 3 hours. Waiting for SW:TOR was at least 2 hours as well.
Let's just say that the sheer amounts of awesome at PAX Prime this year were so incredible that I'm still blown away that I was even present for some of it.
Like TRON: Evolution. Oh. My. GODS. The game looks AMAZING. It's going to be released right before the movie is, and best part? They're taking cool things that have been happening in the game beta and they've been adding them to the movie. That's right. Disney's really taken a huge step forward with fan feedback, I'd say. The game will be released on Playstation, XBox, and the Wii, and every copy will come with a set of specially made controllers that go with the game--slick black casing with the ever-recognizable Tron blue inset lighting. Gameplay is, what little I was able to see, very fluid and beautifully done.
Rift, End of Nations, RAGE, Portal 2, Eve Online, Fire Fall, Aion, Guild Wars 2, TF2... The list goes on. Much of it falls into the "you had to be there" category, but still. The news is spreading like wildfire through a rocket-fuel factory. I watched a 12-player game of TF2 in which the Red Team held defense of Point E on a map for 10 minutes--it was EPIC. The new Mortal Kombat looks like it's going to be ridiculous and possibly rather fun because of that fact. LEGO Universe is shaping up, as is the Marvel Superhero Squad, both equally cute and done by Gazillion.
The cosplay was also very well done, and although there was less of it than, say, you'd find at places like Dragon*Con or SDCC, it was all relevant to what was there. I found myself an import copy of Soul Caliber for the Dreamcast, since Steve got me the console for my birthday.
Overall, I'm still reeling from the experience, but it's the sort of reeling that has me grinning. Photos are grouped up in my flickr if you wish to see what I saw.
But wait! There's more!
Also found in the flickr link are photos from the City of Heroes/City Of Villains Meet 'n Greet, which took place at the Elephant & Castle pub--located in the Red Lion in downtown Seattle.
We got to hang out with people who lived in the area, folks who had shown up for PAX, and generally geek out. I will forever be impressed with the players/fans of City Of. Every one that I have met, most especially those I have met in person, have always been polite, nice, calm, and fun to talk with. Futhermore, I find that these same fans know the pains of holding down jobs like mine on top of the in-game related pros and cons.
While at said gathering, there was a raffle.
See, War Witch and Positron apparently donated some of their in-game time so that it could be spent with some of the players. 4 winners of 1 hour each, 2 hours total from each of the devs.
I won an hour online in-game with Positron.
I'm still wondering just how I managed to be the one with the ticket. Because really, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. This sort of thing just doesn't happen to me, or didn't prior to this point. And everyone was so certain that Samurai Ko was going to win it. Much to my surprise, I didn't melt into a puddle of useless goo at the knowledge that I'm going to be hanging out with a dev, and I also didn't melt into goo while talking to Avatea, who is one of the most stunningly beautiful women I've ever met--seriously, she's beautiful, and if you can find photos from that Meet 'n Greet or HeroCon 2009 you'll see for yourself.
And then there were some other things.
Sunday afternoon was one of napping. Jer and Caradoc were both out cold, I was bored out of my skull and wide awake. I took photos of the dice I bought from Chessex at that point. I wandered into the Westlake Mall and played mallrat for almost an hour. Plotted. Tried to squash the boredom and figure out what we could all do once the guys were awake again.
Which turned out to be the three of us going down to the Space Needle and heading up to the top. $18 a person. So glad that we only did that once! Took a bunch of photos from the observation deck, oggled the Bumbershoot concerts from overhead, and realized that it's been 13 years since I was there last. And after getting in a dose of height, we headed back down to earth in search of dinner.
I had asked the folks in the Westin if the Old Spaghetti Factory was still in fact on Broad Street down toward the waterfront from the Seattle Center, to which they replied "but of course!" and I was grinning. We wandered down the hill, ate, and then staggered our way back up to the Monorail. I even had a moment where Jer and Caradoc became a bit zombie-ish and lurched after me--yes I caught a photo of this.
Monday was our departure. After re-packing and checking out of the hotel, we made our way via the Link Light Rail back to the airport and then had food with Samurai Ko and Bloodspeaker at an IHOP. It's still strange to know that they live there now. Stranger still is that I no longer have to take two or three trips to Seattle in a given year for the sake of having proper gear or clothing for day to day survival of elements and or job. Seattle was my home away from home for so long, and overall so little has changed, and now it's strange that I might spend a handful of days there out of a handful of years.
So now I'm home again. My allergies are giving me trouble, and Jer had minor stomach ick that may or may not have been some con-crud. Photos have been posted. People have been talked to. Robert Schimmel is dead (gods rest his soul) and I still can't find a youtube clip with his Golytely rant. I did, at some point, have something on my mind in regards to art, but have since forgotten most of it and I figure that's probably for the best. Now I'm going to go and continue my evening of recoop and planning for the weekend's adventure.
So, right before I left for the airport, I saw a tweet from Wil Wheaton that Duke Nukem Forever was really happening; the exact tweet being thus: "And Duke Nukem Forever was released ... and the rivers turned to blood and the sky became like fire, as The Horsemen began to ride. #PAX".
And the wait lines to play the demo? Longest wait I heard about was 4 hours. 4 HOURS. I'm so not surprised.
The wait lines for Portal 2 capped out, to my knowledge, at nearly 3 hours. Waiting for SW:TOR was at least 2 hours as well.
Let's just say that the sheer amounts of awesome at PAX Prime this year were so incredible that I'm still blown away that I was even present for some of it.
Like TRON: Evolution. Oh. My. GODS. The game looks AMAZING. It's going to be released right before the movie is, and best part? They're taking cool things that have been happening in the game beta and they've been adding them to the movie. That's right. Disney's really taken a huge step forward with fan feedback, I'd say. The game will be released on Playstation, XBox, and the Wii, and every copy will come with a set of specially made controllers that go with the game--slick black casing with the ever-recognizable Tron blue inset lighting. Gameplay is, what little I was able to see, very fluid and beautifully done.
Rift, End of Nations, RAGE, Portal 2, Eve Online, Fire Fall, Aion, Guild Wars 2, TF2... The list goes on. Much of it falls into the "you had to be there" category, but still. The news is spreading like wildfire through a rocket-fuel factory. I watched a 12-player game of TF2 in which the Red Team held defense of Point E on a map for 10 minutes--it was EPIC. The new Mortal Kombat looks like it's going to be ridiculous and possibly rather fun because of that fact. LEGO Universe is shaping up, as is the Marvel Superhero Squad, both equally cute and done by Gazillion.
The cosplay was also very well done, and although there was less of it than, say, you'd find at places like Dragon*Con or SDCC, it was all relevant to what was there. I found myself an import copy of Soul Caliber for the Dreamcast, since Steve got me the console for my birthday.
Overall, I'm still reeling from the experience, but it's the sort of reeling that has me grinning. Photos are grouped up in my flickr if you wish to see what I saw.
But wait! There's more!
Also found in the flickr link are photos from the City of Heroes/City Of Villains Meet 'n Greet, which took place at the Elephant & Castle pub--located in the Red Lion in downtown Seattle.
We got to hang out with people who lived in the area, folks who had shown up for PAX, and generally geek out. I will forever be impressed with the players/fans of City Of. Every one that I have met, most especially those I have met in person, have always been polite, nice, calm, and fun to talk with. Futhermore, I find that these same fans know the pains of holding down jobs like mine on top of the in-game related pros and cons.
While at said gathering, there was a raffle.
See, War Witch and Positron apparently donated some of their in-game time so that it could be spent with some of the players. 4 winners of 1 hour each, 2 hours total from each of the devs.
I won an hour online in-game with Positron.
I'm still wondering just how I managed to be the one with the ticket. Because really, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. This sort of thing just doesn't happen to me, or didn't prior to this point. And everyone was so certain that Samurai Ko was going to win it. Much to my surprise, I didn't melt into a puddle of useless goo at the knowledge that I'm going to be hanging out with a dev, and I also didn't melt into goo while talking to Avatea, who is one of the most stunningly beautiful women I've ever met--seriously, she's beautiful, and if you can find photos from that Meet 'n Greet or HeroCon 2009 you'll see for yourself.
And then there were some other things.
Sunday afternoon was one of napping. Jer and Caradoc were both out cold, I was bored out of my skull and wide awake. I took photos of the dice I bought from Chessex at that point. I wandered into the Westlake Mall and played mallrat for almost an hour. Plotted. Tried to squash the boredom and figure out what we could all do once the guys were awake again.
Which turned out to be the three of us going down to the Space Needle and heading up to the top. $18 a person. So glad that we only did that once! Took a bunch of photos from the observation deck, oggled the Bumbershoot concerts from overhead, and realized that it's been 13 years since I was there last. And after getting in a dose of height, we headed back down to earth in search of dinner.
I had asked the folks in the Westin if the Old Spaghetti Factory was still in fact on Broad Street down toward the waterfront from the Seattle Center, to which they replied "but of course!" and I was grinning. We wandered down the hill, ate, and then staggered our way back up to the Monorail. I even had a moment where Jer and Caradoc became a bit zombie-ish and lurched after me--yes I caught a photo of this.
Monday was our departure. After re-packing and checking out of the hotel, we made our way via the Link Light Rail back to the airport and then had food with Samurai Ko and Bloodspeaker at an IHOP. It's still strange to know that they live there now. Stranger still is that I no longer have to take two or three trips to Seattle in a given year for the sake of having proper gear or clothing for day to day survival of elements and or job. Seattle was my home away from home for so long, and overall so little has changed, and now it's strange that I might spend a handful of days there out of a handful of years.
So now I'm home again. My allergies are giving me trouble, and Jer had minor stomach ick that may or may not have been some con-crud. Photos have been posted. People have been talked to. Robert Schimmel is dead (gods rest his soul) and I still can't find a youtube clip with his Golytely rant. I did, at some point, have something on my mind in regards to art, but have since forgotten most of it and I figure that's probably for the best. Now I'm going to go and continue my evening of recoop and planning for the weekend's adventure.