PAX East Day 3
I was feeling pretty on top of things Sunday. The alarm went off and I staggered over, hammered the button and slept until 7:45. Woke up, got everything ready to leave, glanced at the clock, saw that it said 8:27. Feeling really good at this point. I'm trying to decide in my head if I want to sit down on the hard concrete of the queue line again or pretend to be waiting on carpet for the opening of the Wyvern Theater for some presentation I don't know if I really want to see. I pull into a nice parking spot about a block from the BCEC and realize two things.
I forgot about Day Light's savings and I'm a complete idiot.
PAX East Day 2
So I had to wait until Saturday to go to PAX, which sucked but I did get there early and left late so I feel like I got at least a taste of the convention's awesomeness.
The opening of the PAX East, standing in enormous roped off lines is how I imagine a colony world being evacuated in the far far future. When the word was given, in a gentle, loving stampede, the nerd herd advanced into the convention area. There was a great rumbling cheer that spread through out the crowd. There were far fewer steampunks here than Arisia; the dominant visual meme appeared to be these orange traffic cones from plants vs zombies.
I walked through the table top area first before taking a dip into the expo area. This was my first gaming industry con so I just did the whole gap mouth tourist thing blundering from one epic line to the next looking at the enormous pretty screens. There is just a stupid number of upcoming games, and eventually I realized I had entered the shell-shocked state of a walking coma and decided to find something else to do.
PAX East Day 1
So it's 2am and I'm really tired and must get geared up for tomorrow, but here are some picture highlights of Day 1 at PAX and I will provide more details at a later time. (Click for larger images)
PAX East 2011
The Geekery will be at PAX East this weekend!
To be precise three of us will be there and we will be covering many things from the new Guild Wars 2 demo to Gamma World and anything else that just seems fancy!
Keep checking in throughout the weekend for more updates.
Dragon Age 2 Initial Impressions
That eagle is looking pretty spiffy up there (Click for larger image)
So yesterday was the release of the much anticipated Dragon Age 2. Let me say first that I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins a lot so it goes without saying that I have been really excited about the release of the sequal. I was able to get a solid 6 or so hours into the game before sleep overcame me so here are a few quick impressions.
Video Game Music Nets First Grammy Win
Civilization IV's opening theme, "Baba Yetu," is without a doubt a modern classic. Its soaring majesty and haunting vocal track are seared into the brains of countless Civ-maniacs the world over. It was recently re-released as part of composer Christopher Tin's first solo album Calling All Dawns and was subsequently nominated for the just-aired 53rd annual Grammy Awards in the category of Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) (the album was also nominated for the Best Classical Crossover Award).
In a historic moment, "Baba Yetu" went on to win the Grammy (as did the album as a whole, certainly making Tin's evening), making it the first video game song or composition to ever win such a prestigious award. Tin, after thanking his family and girlfriend, made note of this fact in his acceptance speech, earning him an impressive bout of applause and cheers.
Check out the acceptance speech and a video of the song after the break!
Nintendo 3DS “Launch Window” Titles Announced, Disappointment Sets In
Like virtually every launch in recent memory, it looks like the software lineup for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS American debut is decidedly underwhelming. Given that Nintendo is also claiming that anything released between the 3DS's opening day (March 27) and a seemingly random date in the future (June 7) is part of the handheld's "launch window," one has to wonder why they're in such an awful hurry to get it out the door.
Think I'm too pessimistic? Well, I'll let the 23 announced titles speak for themselves, after the break.
Starcraft Tournament Updates
While Starcraft 2 tournaments are largely a Korean affair, between casters like HuskyStarcraft, TotalBiscuit, and Day[9] and major events like the MLG Pro-Circuit, the game is picking up steam in the West. Non-Koreans were in the news this week. As this does spoil the results of some recent high-profile matches, don't click through unless you already know the results of the SCRI Finals and GSL S4 Round of 8.
Review: Ghost Trick Phantom Detective
After being trapped at home by mountains of snow today I decided to take the opportunity to spend some quality time with my DS and the new game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. With Shu Takumi, the creator of the Ace Attorney series, as lead developer I dove in with high hopes for this title. There’s a small corner of my heart that will forever love the Phoenix Wright games and any of the related titles and Ghost Trick, while not a part of the series, is no exception to this. Throughout the game I found myself consumed from time-to-time with a bought of chortles while playing this delightful title.
An E-Sports Call to Arms
For many a Starcraft player (Both Brood War and 2), Sean "Day[9]" Plott is something of a legend, and thanks to his recent "Gamer of the Year" award from PC Gamer UK, he's getting noticed outside of the competitive RTS's already impressively large community. A tireless champion of gaming culture, Plott has transitioned from a respected professional Brood War player into one of the most popular game-casters and instructors on the net. Now, he's looking to leverage his popularity to help bring about a new age: an era of E-Sports.