Category Archives: Videogames

CREATIVE, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, RANDOM REVIEW, TECH, Videogames, Writing

Reviewing Musings

Reviewing videogames‭ ‬sounds‭ ‬like a‭ ‬really cool thing to do:‭ ‬you get to play games before they are released,‭ ‬you get to keep them if they are downloadable games,‭ ‬and well,‭ getting to play ‬games‭ ‬without having to pay for them is nice, too.‭  ‬I’m not lucky enough to actually get‭ ‬paid to review games‭ (yet‭!) ‬but‭ writing and editing ‬for original-gamer.com gave‭ ‬me the opportunity to attend E3‭ ‬back in July.  Totally worth it.

So yeah, on paper, reviewing‭ ‬games‭ ‬sounds like loads of fun,‭ ‬but in practice,‭ ‬it loses a little bit of its luster.‭  ‬When I’m not playing awesome games like‭ ‬Rock Band‭ ‬3‭ ‬or Kirby’s Epic Yarn‭ ‬I’m struggling through crapfests like Power Gig or enduring kiddie games like EyePet.

Yeah.  EyePet.  That’s hardcore.

The most direct effect of reviewing games is that it has turned playing games into work (albeit volunteer work).  Its a mental thing: instead of playing games because I want to, I now play them because I have to.  It gets a little annoying at times when I have a stack of games I need to plow through or when I get asked to play games in genres I don’t particularly enjoy such as fighting or driving.  The most aggravating bit about the whole thing that it takes time away from games that I want to play, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The first thing I do when I get assigned a new game to review is I write the review’s introduction.  I like to have it done before I even start playing, and in my opinion it should give the reader some context in regards to my relation to the game.  Is it something I have been looking forward to, or something I’ve never heard of?

When I play a game for review, I keep my laptop handy so that I can take notes while I’m playing it.  That way after I’m done playing the game I just have to flesh out the bullet points I have marked down.  I’m not sure if I should be admitting this, but I don’t always finish games I review.  Usually its because I don’t expect to see anything new after having played a game for so many hours.  Let’s be honest, after a certain point, few games really offer anything surprising in terms of gameplay.

One game that bit that strategy in the pants was Gladiator Begins. I played through about 30 days of the campaign, probably about seventy or eighty nearly-identical fights, figured there was nothing else in the game, and wrote my review.  I went back to the game and soon discovered that the levels did start to occasionally change up, and upon seeing the box in a store, I learned that there were even fights against animals.  D’oh.  It was either my fault for giving up on the game too early or the devs fault for taking too long to open up the game’s interesting parts. Probably a little bit of both, oh well.

Writing reviews is a balancing act.  On the one hand, I don’t want to look like a fanboy by gushing praise all over a good game, nor do I want to simply verbally vomit all over a bad one for the sake of being entertaining.  Great games have minor flaws that have to be explored, and bad games sometimes have good ideas that were not executed well.

Picking out a numerical score can also be a bit of a headache, because I want my score to reflect what I have written.  I still read reviews myself, and I get annoyed just like everyone else when the two don’t jive.  I go by what the site says on the “About” page, supposedly we work on the ‘bell curve’ model where the middle point is average.  Despite the occasional “10” handed out, nobody’s really perfect.

At the end of the day, though, the site editor is the guy that says what goes up on the site, and while I haven’t always agreed with Oscar, I think he’s doing a good job for the most part.  Working with him and the rest of the original-gamer.com crew has been lots of fun.

And now, back to EyePet…whee

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RANDOM REVIEW, TECH, Videogames

RANDOM REVIEW: Band Hero

Gamers often complain about ‘those bastards that buy Madden every year.’  Well, I have to confess, I am one of those bastards, but instead of Madden, music games are my sweet, sweet digital crack.

Of the thirty-eight boxed Xbox 360 games gracing my living room, nine of them start with “Guitar Hero.”  If we add five Rock Band games (no Green Day for me, thank you) two Karaoke Revolution games, and DJ Hero, that brings the total of music-based games in my Xbox 360 library to seventeen.

As I’ve written before, music and videogames are the two great tastes that taste great together.  So yeah, when it comes to music games, I am “that guy.”

I was mildly interested in Band Hero when it was initially announced as a “family friendly” version of Guitar Hero, something for parents that weren’t interested in introducing their younglings to the musical stylings of Slayer or Nirvana.  While some of the songs on the Band Hero setlist looked like they would be fun to play, there wasn’t enough Good Stuff to justify dropping sixty bucks on the game.  I figured I’d wait for the inevitable price drop.  Fast-forward about a year later and I find that my Friendly Neighborhood Electronics Store has marked it down all the way to $17.99, so I figured, why not?

Band Hero isn’t quite what it says on the box.  It isn’t just “family friendly Guitar Hero.”  Don’t get me wrong, it is family friendly, but that phrase only tells part of the story.

Band Hero is Guitar Hero for girls.

Band Hero Interface

Its so sparkly!!

Seriously, there is no better way to put it.  Take Guitar Hero 5, coat it in pastel colors, dip it in glitter, drop several scoops of pop music on top and you get Band Hero.  There isn’t anything inherently wrong with making a music game for the younger crowd, though.  After all, their competitors at Harmonix made Lego Rock Band so that kids can have some fake plastic rock fun, too.  But for Pete’s sake, the interface looks like it was designed by Lisa Frank. I haven’t seen that much purple since the 80’s.

Also, Lego Rock Band, at least has some, well, rock with Lego versions of Queen, David Bowie, and Iggy Pop as well as music from those iconic performers.  Band Hero has Taylor Swift, Adam Levine and No Doubt.  Yeeeah.  I’m sorry, but except for maybe No Doubt, those guys don’t exactly bring the house down.  Even then, there are some pretty cool classics we haven’t seen in any of these games before like “Mr. Roboto” by Styx, “Black Cat” from Janet Jackson and Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

One feature that I found odd was the ability to perform as your Avatar in the game.  The Avatars look just

Xbox Avatar in Band Hero

SECURITY! There's a Muppet on stage!

plain weird on stage next to the other characters, like Muppets.  Otherwise, it’s Guitar Hero 5, which was pretty good from a technical standpoint but had awful music.  I actually had more fun playing this game than Guitar Hero 5, which says something about how lousy 5’s songs were.

Your decision to purchase the game (or really any music game, for that matter) will depend on how many of its songs you like.  A quick dash to Wikipedia will determine whether Band Hero is worth it to you.

If you have kids, or just really like pop music, there are worse games than Band Hero to drop a twenty on.  Underneath the sparkly presentation is a pretty good game.  Now if you’ll pardon me, I need to play some Gears of War in a feeble attempt to salvage what masculinity I have left.

Rock Band for the Xbox 360 gets a 3 out of 5: G00d

I grade on a 1 to 5 scale.  My “review philosophy” can be found here.

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JUST SAYING, TECH, Videogames

The Meaning of Game

I recently participated in the Extra Life fundraiser alongside the staff of original-gamer.com A few days left before the event, everyone was busy posting in various social networks around the Internets in an attempt to raise more funds for hospitals in the Children’s Miracle Network.

One friend’s plea for donations added the statement: “Make gaming mean something!” I paused for a moment after reading that.  To me, it insinuated that playing videogames otherwise had no meaning, and I wasn’t sure that I agreed with that sentiment.  While I am aware that those words were chosen to make a point about doing something for a worthy cause, it made me think just the same.

According to some people, playing videogames is an activity that serves no purpose except for burning time.  I’m fairly certain we’ve all heard it from parents, relatives and significant others: they’re a waste of time, they’re rotting your brain, they’re burning your eyes out, why don’t you shut that thing off already, and so on and so forth.

The question then becomes: Why do we play video games?

One reason I play videogames is that they challenge my mind.  From Tetris’ never-ending rain of shapes to the hidden pictures of Picross, puzzle games have always had a place in my game library.  Outside of the realm of puzzle games, action-oriented games occasionally pause the action with an occasional brain teaser and many action-adventure games incorporate problem-solving into their gameplay.  As an example, the Legend of Zelda series features dungeons that challenge a player’s mind in addition to their reflexes, often requiring the player to figure out how to use the tools they have available to reach new areas.  The Ratchet and Clank series has the lead character solving puzzles in order to unlock doors.

Secondly, playing a videogame that intertwines its story with its gameplay makes me feel as if I am a part of the story as opposed to just passively watching one.  This isn’t easy to accomplish by any stretch of the imagination, but when it is done well, a player can feel more emotionally attached to the characters and to the story as a whole.  Gears of War occasionally forced the players to walk so that the characters could interact with each other without interrupting the gameplay to show a movie clip.  Final Fantasy VII went as far as to permanently kill a player’s character partway through the game, which added a significant in-game consequence to the actions that took place in the story.

Finally, videogames are fun to play.  I play video games to have fun whether it is by myself or with friends.  Early video game advertisements featured pictures of happy families sitting around enjoying games instead of watching television.  That ideal lives on in the family-friendly multiplayer games of Nintendo.  Rock Band can also provide hours of  enjoyment for a group of friends.

Many other games play to compete, those that relish the near-endless competition that is found online are catered to by Sony and Microsoft.  Across the country, video game tournaments large and small are held and there are even professional gamers (such as  this one) who make a living playing games.

One can also learn from video games, and indeed, one of the current trends in workplace training is to use simple games to teach repetitive tasks to employees.  On a more personal note, playing Pikmin taught me a lesson that I’m not sure I wanted to learn about war, of all things.  More on that later.

Video games are not meaningless, and the act of playing them is hardly a passive activity.  Just like any other form of art, a videogame can mean different things to different people.  As long as videogames continue to provide compelling experiences that cannot be reproduced in other media, we will keep playing for whatever reason they mean to us.

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RANDOM STOPS, Videogames

RANDOM STOPS: “Play Again” At Corpus Christi’s Classic Video Game Store

On any particular day on the corner of Everhart and Corona in Corpus Christi, Texas, you may find Link or Master Chief beckoning you over to a store called Play Again Classic Video Games.

Come on Down!

In business since 2007, Play Again specializes in classic video games, currently defined as everything from the Playstation 2 going all the way back to the original Odyssey.

Odyssey

Where it all began...

Upon entering, you see that two walls of the interior are almost completely covered with shelves of cartridges and some CDs.  The store is decorated with video game and anime memorabilia: atop those cartridge-filled shelves are board games based on popular 80’s titles and boxes for various systems both old and relatively new.

Games!

A few tables and seats by the front door invite customers to come in and talk shop, and accessories for older systems can be found in the back.

Classic Accessories for Classic Systems

Those Wonderful Toys...

Store owner Marco Castillo is always happy to talk shop.  He asked not to be photographed for this article, saying that “we are one big team and not just one face.”  With several years of working in video games, he has some interesting views on where the industry is currently at and where he feels it should be heading:

R9: How did Play Again get started?

MC: Play Again Classic Video Games got started by two friends of mine that owned independent game stores in California, where I was living at the time.  I was working at Sony Electronics in Silicon Valley and got tired of working for others and felt my life needed some new direction.  I would visit my friends’ stores and noticed that they seemed very happy and often counseled young folks through life’s big and little challenges.  I think it was that concept of helping and counseling people in this environment that was the thing that snapped me into action per se.  I can safely say that we have been in business now for over 3 years and I have helped out all kinds of people from the simplest technical problem to the deeper relationship issues as well.  While it may be an endless job I, would not ever want to give it up: its just too much fun and fulfilling.

R9: Do you play current-gen titles, or are you strictly a retro gamer?

MC: I own a DS, Wii and PS3 and will be getting a 360 since we will soon start to repair the current gen systems.  I really like the DS the most of this generation of gaming, there is just so much to choose from and companies appear to feel comfortable to make games for it that often would not make it to the larger consoles.  I really do try to play everything I can get my hands on and make it a point to try everything from the first person shooting games to the cheerleading and DDR style games.  I hear the word “hard core gamer” being bandied around, in my opinion a hard core gamer is a gamer who is willing to try any game and is not tied to any genre or system or platform.  When I used to work in the video game industry people defined hardcore as people who play first person shooter games, I really think that is a bit myopic.  I think the term should be dropped because lately it seems to me that it is taking kind of a negative tone to those types of people who have no real human social life and are becoming socially inept.  I think gamers are neat people; I wanted to create a place for gamers to come out and meet people in person and find a girl or guy and play games in person.  Call me old fashioned but meeting people and interacting with them while doing the thing you all have in common is a fun way to live life.

Ok, I see I went off topic…to answer your question I play a lot of classic games because they are quick fix get in and get out games since I work 7 days a week at the store.

R9: As an independent store, how has the consolidation of the brick-and-mortar videogame chains (EB/Gamestop merger, Gamecrazy going under, Blockbuster on the ropes) affected you, if at all?

MC: The big chains are a very interesting case to me, we really do go out of our way to try to make friends with all game stores in our area.  Since Wal-Mart, Gamestop, etc are all selling modern games, it has not really affected Play Again too much.  We often send people to our friends at the other stores when they are looking for anything in this generation of gaming and it seems to be a real friendly relationship that we honor and enjoy.

For the record, I don’t think it’s a good sign for gaming that stores seem to be closing up, it might be a sign that the industry is changing again.

We have noticed that since so many people are growing tired of sequels of games many are going back to their roots and wanting a SNES, PS1, Genesis  or any other retro system.  I think gaming coming back to its roots is a great way for us to be reminded that in the end of the day, its not just about the graphics, it all about the game play.

R9: You appear to be primarily a brick-and-mortar operation; do you have any plans to increase Play Again’s online presence?

MC: We do indeed; when I first opened I was pushed by so many to have a very robust online store and to get it opened immediately.  I had noticed that after research and falling back on my Silicon Valley experience the only way to do a website is the right way, and in this case to make it work well from the beginning.  When I first opened it was just me and one employee and we didn’t even really have enough games to satisfy the local market much less the worldwide one, but we saw the importance of getting a website done right.  In the end we held off the idea until one can be done correctly taking into consideration logistics, mailing, communication, labor and product supply.  We hope to hire our web person when we do our expansion.

R9: The industry seems to be in a bit of a rut right now, with sequels upon sequels littering the release lists.  What do you think needs to happen for the industry to move ahead?

MC: That is an interesting question; I think the rut of the industry is a many faceted problem.  I think the market has become too saturated with games and game making people.  People often call the “Golden Era” of games the times of the 8 and 16 bit system days.  I think it was a bit different back then; games simply were not coming out as fast, reusable / licensable game engines really did not exist on a very large level.  The idea of taking someone’s engine and doing a graphic mod really kept the games coming out to a smaller amount with longer design times.  I think that was the biggest strength and weakness of gaming back then, but games often were quite fresh and original many times.  With the dawning of rapid design tools like flash, games come out quicker than ever and all have that simple flash look that the cartoons of today are so unfortunately saddled with.  I yearn for the time of hand drawn animation and games on a wider scale again!

The other day I saw a commercial for a tech school that claims, “Hey you! Unemployed person, stop playing games and start making them!”  I realized that once gaming became the next gold rush, there were going to be a lot of people making them and not necessarily a lot of people becoming the overnight millionaires that many believed the Silicon Valley tech bubble of the late 90’s and 2000’s tried to be as well.  When you have too many people rushing to make money it always comes at the cost of quality and originality.  I hate to say it but I think some of the best games came when game makers were not the millionaires but the lower salary people who were doing it simply because it was what they really believed in.  Can you imagine if paintings all of a sudden became real money makers?  People would swarm in and paint like there is no tomorrow, and what would we have, a whole bunch of paint on canvases and very little art.

I personally think one of the best things that can happen to this industry is to scale back. I think it should cut the people who really should not be in that business/art field and regroup and decide that it’s ok to take time to make a game.   It will be ok not to rush it out, and its NOT ok to make too many sequels.  Its sad but we live in a “sure bet” world of: “if your game cannot project to make over $1 Million dollars than we simply wont do it.” Thus, we have lots and lots and lots of sequels and very little originality.  Seriously people, you pay good money, (often $50 – $80) for a game.  Don’t you deserve a new and fun experience every time?  It should not be an accident before we get another original game like Katamari Damacy.

R9: Is retro gaming is making comeback, and if so, why?  Is it because of a desire of younger players to find out where it all began, nostalgia on the part of first generation gamers, or a combination of the two?

MC: Humm.. I think that retro is kind of making a comeback in some ways.  We get the luxury of being able to talk to many people, men and women, young and old alike and we have found one thing: people really do want straightforward games.  You will notice I did not say simple games.  People say that to make games for families or girls and women that the games need to be simple, but I have to very much disagree.  I think families and women want straightforward games, games where you don’t have to learn complicated moves or remember esoteric key combinations to do the simplest stuff.  I think the moment some nerd figured out the dragon punch for Street Fighter II and decided that he wanted to impress the exact girls that were playing the game by thoroughly handing them many defeats, gaming changed forever…and not in a good way.

You see, the concept of women playing games or even fighting games, while may seem very foreign now, was not so foreign back in the early days of arcades.  Gaming and arcades in the 80’s were full of games like Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Street Fighter II etc that were straightforward games, not simple or easy, and they were just fun to play for everyone.  I think we lost our way in some respects and I think many people are getting back to when gaming was just fun and straightforward.  There is a good reason that at one point it was cheaper to shingle your house with the Mario/Duck Hunt cart than it was for actual shingles, but today that game goes for quite a bit more money.  People want to return to the days of easy to get into, get in-and-out-of, straightforward gaming.. at least that is what we see in our store.

R9: How do you feel about the current trend of “new arcade” games, such as Geometry Wars?  Are there any that have succeeded in capturing the feel of the classic games that they clearly draw inspiration from?

MC: I really do like games that are an homage to the game they are honoring.  I loved Geometry Wars on the DS and the Wii. I am really enjoying the new version of Sin and Punishment on the Wii as I was a big fan of the Japanese N64 version.  I did not try a Boy and His Blob yet but would like to give it a run since the first one was such a cool game.  I think it might be harder to remake a game than just make a new one in some ways, because with a remake people have expectations and sometimes our memories are fonder than the game itself.  Go back and play some of your most well remembered games, I am betting that a few of them like movies will now turn out to be kind of flat experiences.  When we create the legend of a game or movie in our head that is often bigger than the actual game,  any remake of it will have a very rough time meeting those tough expectations.

ES: How long have you been involved with gaming?

MC: I am happy to say I am a child of the 80’s, I was a teenager during the original video game wave and was pretty much born with an Atari joystick in my hand.  I was always that kid that was always reading the magazines and saving his money for the game he wanted and never seemed to have enough for all of the ones I actually did want!  I have been doing this store now for over 3 years, and have worked in the game industry for another 3 years and in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years… I have to say its been quite a ride and one that I would not mind doing over again!

ES: Are there currently any plans for expanding Play Again?

MC: We are currently planning to expand the store into our sister store where we are hoping to give our locals a place that is focused on meeting people of the opposite gender and share the love of gaming in friendly competition in a relaxed anime inspired café gaming shop.  I am working with the person who is going to open it and it looks like everything is going well and we hope to have lots of community based events and fun things for people to do until the wee hours of the night in a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

R9: Is there anything else you would like to say?

MC: Gaming, anime & cartoons are lots of fun, meeting people for real, going on dates and discussing things in an adult manner are the cornerstone of what we as gamers are. Somewhere down the line we have been pigeon-holed as less than that and lost our way.  I just want to help us find it again and enjoy ourselves at the same time.

I would like to thank Mr. Castillo for taking the time to answer my questions.  If you are in Corpus Christi and are looking for a long lost cartridge, need a system repaired, or just want to rekindle the old SNES vs. Genesis debate (or Atari 2600 vs Intellivision for us older gamers). then check out Play Again Classic Video Games located at 5301 Everhart Road, just one block off of South Padre Island Drive.  With a knowledgeable staff and a love of all things classic, they will be more than happy to take care of your retro gaming needs.  Play Again Classic Video games can be found on the Web at: http://www.playagaincvg.com

Contact Eduardo “RANDOMIZER9” Soliz at edsoliz@gmail.com!

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CREATIVE, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, TECH, Videogames, WORDS

Why So Serious? WHY NOT?

I’ve been writing opinion pieces, game reviews and doing voice-overs for Original-Gamer.com (and occasionally here) for a few months now, and for what its worth, I always try to play it straight.  Well, except the voice-over stuff, unless its something I wrote myself, I don’t have much of a choice there. -shrug-

I play it straight because I don’t believe in pandering to the least common denominator.  If gaming is an artform that is just now ‘growing up,’ as some claim, then the people that report on it are probably just a few steps behind.  As I said at the end of my second article, The Numbers Game: “if we want others to take games seriously, we must take them seriously ourselves.”

But why aren’t videogames taken seriously?  Is it because of their relative youth compared to other artforms such as television and film, or is it because of the immaturity of those that cover it?  Granted, this is the internet, but there are very few places where videogames are covered without a wink and a snarky attitude. What the gaming press needs is the equivalent of The Wall Street Journal or Variety, but what we’re getting is Mad Magazine.

Now, I openly admit, I don’t practice what I preach: I crack jokes in my reviews and perhaps I shouldn’t ‘write myself’ into them.  The latter, I do because think it is important for the reader to get a sense of where I am coming from.  For better or worse, my score will be influenced by whether the game was something I was REALLY REALLY REALLY looking forward to or was just something that got tossed into my lap.  I think it also helps the reader if they are made aware of my biases for or against the game coming in.

Am I impartial? Admittedly not, but let’s be honest, nobody truly is.

In any event, while I am pointing out the problem, I don’t really have a solution.  The best that I can hope for is that the ‘serious guys’ get popular enough to, well, be taken seriously.  Now, does everybody have to take gaming seriously? Not really, there will always be a place for the snarks and clowns, and if worse comes to worse I can always go back to joking about how much I suck at fighting games.

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CONS, RANDOM REVIEW, TEXAS COMICCON, Videogames

RANDOM REVIEW: Texas ComicCon 2010

Bustin' makes them feel good!

I went to the Texas Comic-Con to support a new con, support my friends, and to check out what was there to see.  The con’s homepage featured a menagerie of guests ranging from indie comic artists, actors, and even The Honky Tonk Man.

I wondered what else awaited me on Friday after lunch as I turned left onto Marbach Street on my way to the San Antonio Event Center.  First-time events are something of a crapshoot.  At best, everything goes off with a minimum of fuss, at worst, it can be painful to both watch and to be a part of.

Even though I was fairly sure I was not going to make it out Sunday, I purchased a three-day pass.  I was disappointed to find that I did not receive a pass to wear around my neck, but instead I was given a red plastic wristband that I apparently would have to keep on my wrist until Sunday afternoon.  Ew.  To make that first impression even worse, the gentleman that took my money didn’t even help me put it on!

After I fumbled with the wristband for a few minutes, I entered the convention proper.  The San Antonio Event Center provided a fairly large space, but one could tell its glory days were far behind it.  As if to emphasize this point, I would find that some of the tables and chairs provided to the exhibitors were a bit on the rickety side.  As is often the case with cons, Friday was a slow day, and indeed, some of the exhibitors were in the midst of setting up their tables as I walked around.

The Texas Comic-Con can best be described in two words: Nerd Gumbo.  While the phrase “something for everybody” is frequently overused, it fits here.  Just off the top of my head, there were comics, videogames, action figures, Star Wars, Lego, Ghostbusters from two cities (Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth), costumers, tabletop gaming, one retired wrestler and a few actors, including San Antonio’s own Jonathan Joss of “King of the Hill” fame.  I wondered if “Comic-Con” was the right description for an event that had such a variety of things and people to see.  To be fair, though, there were a number of booths featuring comics, collectibles and a artist’s area which included my friend Austin “Redbeard” Rogers of redbeardcomics.com

Austin told me that in order to get a table, an artist had to submit examples of his or her work and if they were “good enough” then they were granted a table.  I don’t know if other cons do this, but it is an interesting idea and it seems like a good way for  con organizers to maintain a level of quality.  The dealers were the usual assortment of comic book stores, collector stores and the occasional person trying to make a few dollars by selling their personal collection.

Of particular note was Antarctic Press, a San Antonio-based comic company.  They had many books for sale and some of their artists were present.  I purchased some books and spent a few minutes chatting with Fred Perry and David Hutchinson about geeky things.  I must admit though, I felt a little bad telling Mr. Perry that while I had frequently seen his popular “Gold Digger” comic in stores, I had never purchased it.  What can I say?  I’m just not a very good liar, so I don’t even bother trying.

One of the books I purchased was “Oz: The Manga” by David Hutchinson.  I finished reading it last night, enjoyed it immensely and look forward to purchasing the additional books in the series.  It follows L. Frank Baum’s story more closely than the movie “The Wizard of Oz” and was a great read as well as an interesting visual take on the classic tale.  Next, I will take my first step into the world of Fred Perry’s “Gold Digger” as I start reading “Gold Digger MAX Vol 1.”

The con also held a Street Fighter contest on Sunday which I did not see, but they did have a few videogame consoles set up where folks could take a seat and play a round or two of Street Fighter or even some of the old classics like Mrs. PacMan.

Just like the anime conventions I have been to, there were plenty of folks dressed up in costumes, however, these were more recognizable, there were quite a few Green Lanterns, Imperial Stormtroopers, Jedi, and even GI Joe’s Baroness and Street Fighter’s Cammy.

Aside from the dealers and the artists were what I could call the “enthusiast” tables, these represented a variety of fandoms including a Stormtrooper platoon, a Halo costuming group, two Ghostbusters fan groups, the Texas Lego User’s Group and even a group of Sith that I apparently overlooked.  Everyone seemed to be glad to be there and enthusiastically posed for pictures.

Some panels were held, but the lack of a room to host them in made it difficult to hear and see what was going on, especially when the more popular guests were presenting.  There was also no seating set up, hopefully this is something that will be addressed for next time.

I think that the Texas ComicCon got off to a good start.  There was a wide variety of things to see and buy, lots of great artists and fun guests.  With some minor tweaks and adjustments (*cough* BADGES *cough*), I think this could be the start of something big, and look forward to attending next year.

NOTE: The author received no compensation for this review.

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CONS, E3, TECH, Videogames

PRE-3

I’m at the airport with just an hour until my flight leaves and I am starting to get really excited.  I understand some of the boys had a few hiccups getting to LA but its all good now.  I look at the “golden ticket” inside my laptop bag and smile.  As I go to a news website to see what’s happening in the world, an eyebrow raises as I read about a 5.7 quake near the California-Mexico border.

“This ain’t gonna be Texas.” I think to myself.  This is only the second time I will be in California, the first being a forgettable trip back in college to a conference I really could have gone the rest of my life without attending.  I think the amount of suck involved makes it more of a “symposium.”  Any way you slice it, it was a waste of a weekend and I also didn’t get to see much outside of the hotel.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, though, I remember the Saturday night when we all hopped into a cab to go somewhere.  Upon asking the driver what was in the area, he told us that The House of Blues was nearby. I was excited, I have never been to The House of Blues and it sounded new and exciting.  If nothing else, live music is always a treat.  Sadly, it was not to be, the jackasses I was with wanted to go to a crappy club that was just like every other crappy club I’ve ever been to in my life.  I don’t know, maybe I was supposed to be excited and be all “Oh my gosh, we went to a crappy club but its a crappy club IN LOS ANGELES!”

Whoop-dee-freaking-doo…okay, maybe I’m just a little bitter.

Luckily, I have more in common with the crowd I will be hanging around with this time.  That is to say, we’re all a bunch of socially awkward weirdos.  Actually that probably isn’t completely true, I think we have one or two “cool kids” in the group, you know, balance of the universe and all that.

The thought of occupying the same place with over forty-thousand other socially awkward weirdos is a pleasant one, though, and I can’t wait to get there.

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CONS, E3, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH, Videogames

WHEEE-3!

A few months ago when I got the e-mail from Oscar of original-gamer.com saying that I was part of the crew going to E3, I got excited.  Soon, the feeling had died down.  The constant stream of emails from various and sundry game and peripheral companies served as constant reminders that I was going to E3, but they failed to get me excited again.  As I opened my credentials in the mail, I got hyped up again, but once again, the excitement slowly ebbed away.

The stream of “Please come to our booth!” emails continued, and before I knew it, this past Sunday was the planning get-together and pre-E3 podcast.  I was happy, but not quite “OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD I’M GOING TO E3!” excited.

Yesterday, I received an email asking me to go to a booth to check out a certain music game.  I’m not sure if I can say the name or not, so I will say that it does involve rock but won’t make me a hero.

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD I’M GOING TO GET TO PLAY THIS GAME AT E3!”

I drove home yesterday with a big-ass smile on my face as I banged the drum beat to “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves on the Reliant’s steering wheel.  I was excited again, and I still am.  By this time next week, I will be in the midst of forty-thousand plus fellow members of the industry checking out all the Cool New Stuff and helping to report on it to all the happy-shiny people out in Internetland.

It feels a little odd to think of myself as “part of the industry” though.  In my mind, I am just the “voice guy” for original-gamer.com, and a writer and editor for them as well.

Then again, maybe it isn’t that big of a stretch.

Despite the fact that I will admittedly be (big finger quotes here) “working,” next week’s trip to E3 is my summer vacation.  I had recently been grousing about how I haven’t taken a ‘real vacation’ to somewhere far and/or different in a few years.  Well, if going to California to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a bunch of developers, peripheral makers, Really Important People and fellow website multi-hat wearers doesn’t fit that bill, I don’t know what does!

Ready or not, here I come!!

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