First of all I have to say that this con is just amazing who would have thought that a simple yet hilarious gaming comic strip on the web would grow into something so massive. Not I, but I am glad that it did. So I want to thank Gabe and Tycho for throwing it all together as well as the Enforcers who keep it from getting out of line and the Exhibitors and Artists who come out and entertain us! Keep it up, I can't wait to come back.
So lets begin!
Friday:Friday was an early morning as we wanted to be first on the floor... we made a quick trip down to the pike for a kick ass breakfast at Lowells
Dungeoness Crab Omelet FTW! From there we headed up to get in line for the con. Which at that point was wrapped around the building. I will have you know the omelet was so worth it. We take our spots in line which ended up being the wrap around point. Though at 10 the line started pouring in, that's when we saw how long it really was and were glad we showed early. Once inside the cue area it was like a party line loud thumping music and beach balls everywhere not to mention the ability to play mario kart with strangers! But it was short lived as the line moved really fast.
So began our first look at the expo hall. It was massive this year, it took up the old pc gaming area from the previous year. So needless to say there were tons of games to look at this year. I will post my favorite three at the end. So we start there wrapping our way around collecting all the swag we could carry. The vendors and exhibitors really out did themselves this year. So you would think it would get boring running around for three days looking at video games, but what you don't see is all the hidden games going on at the same time, like
Intel's GameOn which was if you were found wearing there button(s) you would receive a card that would be a chance to win shirts, hats, processors or other cool things (I got a shirt). Not to mention this year I got 3 full pc games,
Hello Kitty,
Shaiya, and
Lord of the Rings. Dunno if I will actually play them but hey they were free and someone might like it.
This is also where you get to see and play new games and expansions as well as purchase/observe new and upcoming gaming accessories. There was a gaming table that I thought Gary might like(it was like 3k though). Not to mention the
Peregrine glove controller which I will talk about more later, for now I will only say that I am getting one when it comes out. All in all this is most of what Friday was for us mostly expo hall wandering and testing.
Highlight~ Maida and I both played this new Wii dancing game and won! It was a blast video of it up on flickr.
Saturday:Saturday we still woke early but this time we weren't in such a hurry to get to the expo hall there were other things we were interested in! Today we decided to go a little farther for breakfast to the
Top Pot by far the best doughnuts and coffee I have ever had... I want to go back again. I had planned to take a picture but completely forgot. It was raspberry cake... and man it was fantastic!
At the beginning of the morning we all kind of split up. Sean went to the arcade, Justin and Maida went to the con proper, and I went to the handheld lounge to meet up with the 8 bit's and knits ravelry group. They were cool chicks! I even got to learn how to spin fibers on an extra spinner, now I need my own! After that I meet up with Sean in the arcade and we took advantage of there 2 hour unlimited play cards where we proceeded to play the coolest Initial D racing game ever, you are actually in a movement based pod that reacts to how your are moving in the game, left, right, uphill, downhill, crashes. It was a blast, we then browsed around, tried to play the Tycho drumming game but it was in Japanese and we pretty much botched it up, but we had fun trying. From there I found the most awesomely awesome game A capcom meets anime fighting game of awesome! To which I kicked some kids ass in royally. Morgana/Karas is my 1337 death team!
From there we went to our main goal of the con, today for the most part was tabletop day for us. We checked out the board game check out area, for those unfamiliar at the con many board game shops and vendors bring there board games and set them up in a check out room as well as have people familiar with the games to help teach you how to play so you can test them out before you buy them. My absolute fave of the con was Wasabi (which I now own) I had first seen it at home and thought it sounded fun but didn't buy it because it was like 40 bucks, but here I got it for 28 a far cry cheaper. Also we played it with some instruction as well as Sean's awesome how to from the instruction manual. I am glad he is a instructions kinda guy. So this game is actually more complex than first thought you are a sushi chef and are trying to not only make your recipe on the board but your are trying to do it with flare! (this means in the same order as on the recipe card) But you can only lay down one piece at a time while everyone else does the same. So it gets fun, and crazy!
Next up was crazy awesome Magic Tourney. Team Baldwin(because team skull fuck express wasn't allowed) vs the world. We made it to round two. Sad, but it was fun and I wanna try again. A brief rundown of how things go. You (the team) is given 8 packs of cards and a shared land fill to open and create 2 decks and play your way to victory. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for another THG to come into our shops back home so we can do it again!
That night we ate like kings at the
Red Fin dear god it was the best sushi I have ever put in my mouth and we were all in agreance. The Tuna melted in your mouth it was so tender, and the spider roll, well lets just say we ordered two of them they were so good. And for dessert I had a berry cobbler with coconut ice cream and a caramel glaze I thought I died and went to heaven. From there we went to the freezepop concert, earlier that day I sat first in line waiting to meet Liz and buy my FP loots. Everyone was awesome and I got a cool pic with Liz!
There concert this year was great, the sound was much better then the year before, minus that amp up of drum that about blew out my ear drums... silly sound guy you gotta pay attention to that stuff *tsk tsk* They even played Get Ready to Rock which is my favorite. The only problem was while I sat happily enjoying them in the sitting area some doofus tried to jump over me and landed directly on my shin.... didn't even turn around and apologize or anything... I think I saw an enforcer run after him but I don't know my leg hurt to bad. I tried to enjoy the rest of the show but when it was time to leave I had Sean help me hobble back to the hotel. I wanted to go wait in line for them again so I could get a group shoot of them all together but such was not meant to be.
Update on the leg: It isn't broken but it does still hurt really bad, I have been hobbling around sense. Going to have to go get it checked out when we get back home.
Sunday:The end of the con and even though it isn't the end of our trip it was still sad to see the con coming to an end. Though the exhibitors went out with a bang today was shirt day on the hall floor I think I got like 10 free shirts just that day, and they are all printed on the nice American apperal shirts. So soft! It was nuts. I was excited to go ride the big demon horse they had. But it was broken so they weren't doing rides, but they were doing photos with a big ass sword... I opted for that instead of nothing. Sean was glad it was down I think. Something about me flying off and cracking my head open.... he is so over dramatic. lol!
Today I mostly hung out with Justin and Maida, Sean was off playing Magic for the better part of the day. We wandered the floor grabbing buttons testing games, played Beatles rock band on a stage. It was alright we won't be getting it as we aren't really Beatles fans, but it's made well so those of you who are should probably go get it. Got to meet Gabe and Tycho and got my badge and game cover signed/drawn on. Hooray gonna have to clear coat that shit so it doesn't fade! They were awesome and super nice. All in all it was a slow day. Oh I almost forgot to mention the Bioshock 2 puzzle, I played, and beat it. a nine sided spinning slider puzzle it was fun, and I won a cool book with info from the game. Woot!
Though we got some crepes that rocked my socks. if nothing else the food of Seattle makes all the bad go away! I got banana's foster and Justin got ratatouille both were amazing... I ate mine and finished off Justin's so tasty! Found a 99cent sushi bar which was actually really good. It's amazing how the cost of fish products goes down when you are so close to the open ocean. We wondered the con till the very end, and then said farewell... it was a good con... I will miss it greatly.
=( I miss my con.
Alright so my top 3 favorite games in no particular order:
Death SpankThis game was not only shown by some entertaining fellows but its really unique in a lot of game play. The world is set on a cylinder instead of a sphere or a flat plane, and if that isn't enough to give it it's own unique feel they have the game play what I like to call 2,3-D The buildings are all drawn 2-d but they are spaced 3-dimensionally. Not to mention the game play is nice and smooth and the humor in it is just well hilarious. Definitely one to keep your eyes open for.
Capcom vs. Tatsunoko: Cross Generation of Heroes:This was the before mentioned fighting game of awesome and I played it for about an hour. God it was fun! Not to mention there are some awesome characters in it. Karas, a lot of G-force, mega man who looks extremely creepy in 3-D it's even rumored they my throw in speed racer. Now the down side it's only coming out for the Wii. Not to bad of new just that we have to get Wii arcade sticks now. But yes it is coming to America they say this winter but probably not until next year.
Just Dance:The Wii dancing game I mentioned earlier as well. This was a work out... but a fun one. I can also see this being a blast at a party drinking or not! There are some awesome older songs on it and you just can't help but move your butt to the beat. It was the game that wore me out the most at the con, but even tired I still had a huge goofy grin on my face.
Game Accessory favorite of the con:
Peregrine Gaming Glove:Guys I am getting this thing the second it comes out! It is by far my favorite thing at the con. It just blows me away. With the simple motion from the hand it can do up to 26+ different keyboard commands. How flippin crazy would that be for healing in a raid... amazingly awesome that's how! Here is a link because no matter what I say wouldn't do it justice. It was just too damn cool.
http://theperegrine.com/As always pics and vids are up on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kagzilla/
