San Diego Comic-Con 09

SDCC = The BEST fan convention, EVAR.

My second San Diego Comic-Con was a SUCCESS!!! Despite being sore after the ridiculously fun, but exhausting convention experience, I came away with some really cool shit, a healthy amount of free schwag, and inspiration from being in the same room as the incredibly talented artists/filmmakers/idols/icons in attendance in San Diego. My trip was a BLAST!

I had planned on arriving in San Diego on Thursday for the official opening of the show, but because of other plans, I had to delay until Friday. I was actually a bit worried, that my entire SDCC trip would have to be canceled at the time, but luckily, I was able to get out of LA.

We caught the morning train from downtown Friday morning and rode it all the way to San Diego. Estimated trip time: two and a half - 3 hours. The train cars were packed with con-goers, without enough seats for everyone, so we ended up sitting in the cafe train car, which was meant for 'business' travelers. Free snacks! Immediately I could see that we were surrounded by industry people, and artists. Some dude was storyboarding an episode of the animated Avengers series, and I couldn't help but observe his art skills. While a couple of collaborating writers, were busy typing away at their laptops, looking over and editing some sort of screenplay. Next to them were two marketing ladies, talking about their experiences with organizing conventions. It was a neat group of passengers. Eavesdropping was fun. We played some DS games on this scenic ride to pass the time.

Arriving in SD at around 12:30, it was already too late to lineup for certain 'HALL H' panels, but because there was so much more to do in the day, (and in the coming days), I didn't feel so bad for not seeing the Miyazaki panel. The fun was just beginning.

My first priority at SDCC was to visit the NCsoft booth in the exhibit hall, with the intention of securing a Beta code for AION. Because I wasn't able to get one from my pre-order with Gamestop in Vancouver, I felt like I had to go directly to the source, all the way in San Diego. In fact, I managed to get two beta keys. SUCK IT GAMESTOP!

I then went to the Capcom booth directly across, to play some Tatsunoko for the Wii, but they had run out of Capcom Towels. Lame.

After taking a quick look at the exhibit hall, it was time to head over to the lineup for Hall H, for the District 9 panel. (Any panel in Hall H, becomes the worst lineup of the entire SDCC). With no shade, fans wait in the hot burning sun, for hours just to get inside. They should call it HALL HELL, because you literally get cooked, waiting in line.

The lineup was so long that we missed practically the entire panel, and only caught the tail-end of it. Peter Jackson introduced his Apprentice Neil Blomkamp, the director behind District 9, and showed the audience a 7 minute preview, or was it 10 minutes? I forgot.

After District 9, we sat through a Star Wars Spectacular presentation, which was boring, but immediately after that was a panel with Peter Jackson, and James Cameron, two incredibly influential filmmakers, with different ways of working. Their talk way AMAZING.

The rest of the weekend at SDCC, involved more panels, more free stuff, and more spending $. Saw some actors, and artists doing signings, and some really great booth presentations.

I found myself using Twitpic a lot, so if you were following me on Twitter, you could see the amount of #SDCC related tweets I made.

I didn't buy as much stuff as I did in 2008, but I still came away with some excellent toys, which I'll post more about later.

It was a pretty tiring, but entertaining 3 days. can't wait till next year.

Happy Thanksgiving now go play GoW 2 Multiplayer Flashback Players' Choice

Get yourself a turkey-sized 'beat down'.

The best way to spend your post Thanksgiving dinner is to play video games before the food induced sleep kicks in, and Gears of War 2 is the game to chill with. Sure Canada has Thanksgiving on a different day, in a different month, from that of the USA, (Oct on the 2nd Monday) but we can all understand and relate to the food feast, family, and the mandatory videogame downtime/beat down, that comes with the Holidays.

Recently I've been really getting into the whole Multiplayer Players' Choice Flashback Map pack, and now it's the only mode I'm interested in playing. Horde mode has become slightly boring to me, especially since I can't seem to get past wave 20. When the intensity of Elimination, Execution and Wingman far surpasses any AI driven locust attack, Horde seems kinda lame. I mean I still like Horde, but these other modes are pretty awesome. One thing that bothers me though is the lack of Team auto-Balance in-game, which is a must for multiplayer when people start abandoning the match. This among other issues.

Anyway, if you've got Gears2, play the shit out of it on Thanksgiving. While you're stuffed with a good meal (genetically modified turkey), be thankful that you have videogames to entertain you, I know I am, because after all gaming is a luxury, and as gamers, we shell out the dough for our enjoyment. Other people aren't as fortunate.

Happy Thanksgiving, and see ya online.

Gears of War 2 The Sequel that just won't end. (Contains possible spoilers)

I sense The Matrix Trilogy coming on... and you know how that turned out.

On Campaign: Gears of Unreal Tournament Evil

I like Gears of War. I like Gears of War 2, but after reflecting on the campaign experience, there are a few things about this sequel that has me kinda disappointed. Not so much the game itself, but rather a few design decisions made on the developers part, that deflated my otherwise high expectations.

While the first game had this fresh feeling about it, not only in art direction and style of play, the story wasn't anything more than your average battle for survival against an alien race, with shit going wrong that gets in the way of your ultimate objective. That's all fine and dandy, but the game still felt 'different' from other games out there.

Much has remained unchanged from the first title, but Gears 2 seems like it's going in an odd direction losing a bit of that uniqueness that made the first game so awesome, venturing into formulaic territory even more so than the first. Sort of like the awe of the first Matrix movie, compared to the sequels, and for those have seen the matrix trilogy, you should be able to see where I'm coming from. Of course Gears of War never was that mysterious, or philosophical, but like the Matrix it references different sources, and it's those influences that I think makes Gears a mishmash of stuff. Gears is becoming your typical shooter game, just with a little more bells and whistles.

**SPOILERS**

I think where the campaign started to lose me was when the player gets eaten by the Worm, and you're inside it. Granted it is a bloody fantastic part of the game inside the guts of a worm, but I couldn't help but think, WTF? What is this Pinocchio? Citing the reference to Monstro the whale.

Immediately following the part of the game, was the laboratory that made me think of Resident Evil, and all similar Sci-fi. Experiments on humans, creatures in capsules, and tidbits of info on patients. I felt like Gears ended and Resident Evil started.

Then, later the part with the underground ruins on the mission to defeat the alien queen who mind you happens to have a British accent, looks like she stepped out of a Square Enix game.

As for the environment art... I swear to you that I thought there was some serious reusing of assets from Unreal Tournament, and I have played a lot of UT. I wouldn't be surprised if assets were tweaked and used for Gears. The map felt like it belonged in UT. I could have sworn I played this map before. The textures, the atmosphere reeked of Unreal Tournament. Was I playing Gears of War? If it wasn't for the duck, cover, and shoot gameplay that makes Gears of War what it is, this game would probably just be another addition to the UT series.

And then the game kept going on, and on. Deeper and deeper into the earth. Dragging on.

Though these observations don't overshadow what a cool game experience Gears 2 is, they definitely removed me from the experience, at least temporarily.

Seems to me for now that the third Gears will be the same with the usual stuff we expect from a trilogy wrap up. I wonder if there will be a prequel?

I didn't know middle school kids could get their hands on this game.

On Multi-player: Invasion of the middle school kids, and wannabe leaders who like the sound of their own voice.

So I've been playing a lot of Horde lately perhaps a little too much, sometimes with XBL buddies, other times with random strangers. There were a few times I joined a game and ended up playing with what seemed to be middle school kids. High pitched and prepubescent with nothing but swear words coming out of their mouths. They took over the mics, and just kept talking. The other people in the game started leaving, and I too soon followed. Shouldn't these kids be playing Halo or something...

Another thing that bothers me about the online multi-player world is the Leader who thinks he's a leader, but doesn't do much killing, and only barks orders from a safe spot. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm totally a team player, but when it comes to strategy in horde waves, sometimes you gotta take things into your own hands, as in breaking from the usual strategy. The player who immediately tries to rally everyone around him as if his way is the right way usually comes off as a jerk. I can't stand people like that. I can understand if the team sucks and needs direction, but if I'm playing that's not the case.

All I gotta say is "Quit whoring the Mic, and play the damn game biatch!"

Rez2cool enters the Gears of War 2 Arena Gears! Gears! Gears!

I spent my Friday night getting reacquainted with the badasses of Gears of War, Marcus, Dom, and the horde of locusts burrowing in the planets core. In a only few hours I've made it to Act 3 on Solo-Campaign normal difficulty, and as the end soon approaches, the fun really has only begun. The Multi-player remains a highlight of Gears, and I've made it to Wave 15 with my band of fellow online players, in Horde mode.

I picked up my copy from EB, having pre-ordered the limited edition one weeks before, thinking that I'd get one of those replica CoG tags. Too lazy to do the midnight launch bullshit, I decided to get it on Friday afternoon. All they gave me was a lousy poster. What's the point of pre-ordering if it doesn't come with the swag?

My impressions of the campaign game will spoil the experience for anyone who hasn't picked up gears yet. All I gotta say is Act 2 of the game had me confused on the direction the developers were taking Gears... I'll save that for a later post.

In the mean time, my facebook status reads "Albert is BUSY Gears of War 2ing w/360 Elite... Don't bother contacting me. Unless you wanna join the fight."