PAX East 2010 Part 1: The Convention

PAX East. One word to describe it: Epic. Another: Awesome.

A Brief overview. Penny Arcade Expo is a gathering of the many fans of the webcomic Penny Arcade. Created by Jerry Holkins a.k.a. Tycho, and Mike Krahulik a.k.a. Gabe, the writing and drawing half of Penny Arcade respectively, the comic has grown to have one of the largest, if not the largest internet community in the world. The original, PAX Prime, takes place in Seattle, and the first PAX East happened for the first time this previous weekend in Boston. This show in Boston had 60,000 people in attendance, and broke the previous record of 58,000 of the latest PAX Prime (or so I heard from some random guy.) The inaugural PAX East sold out of passes before the show even began, and next year they will be moving to a larger convention center as to be able to hold more people.

Glossing the boring details, Beckett (@beckettnoyes) and I arrived at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston around 9, 9:15 AM, and got ourselves some nice blue wristbands guaranteeing us admission to the Saturday Night Concert. Not long after lining up in the Queue Room, the room where they put all the outrageously long lines so as not to block space where people needed to actually move, we were moved upstairs to the 3rd floor, where we were crammed into line like a can of sardines for the Bill Amend Panel.

For those of you outside the loop, Bill Amend is the creator of Foxtrot which I used to read all the time in the newspaper as a youngling. After the panel started, he greeted all of us, and told us how immensely grateful he was to be welcomed to PAX, referring back to nerd superstar Wil Wheaton's opening speech the day before where he greeted everyone by saying "Welcome home." During the panel he mainly showed us a selection of his strips featuring video game jokes, and educated us on how hard it is to deal with newspaper syndication as sometimes he'll want to use a vulgar word such as "sucks" which apparently they're very against. Also he told us how sometimes he'll have good ideas for a comic but he won't be able to use it because it would only appeal to the small percentage of his readers because it's video game related. A pretty solid panel, but we peaced out a little ways into the Q & A portion cause we were pretty eager to check out the show floor.

The place was PACKED. Featuring fan favorite booths such as Microsoft, Behemoth, Ubisoft, Nvidia, Nintendo and plenty of other booths of varying importance to nerdkind. Beckett and I browsed, photographed, and got as much swag (free stuff) as we could in a brief period, before we headed downstairs to get some sweet merch (official PAX stuff) before we headed back into the Queue Room to wait for the Make a Strip panel.

Every PAX, be it PAX Prime or PAX East, Jerry lays down a script and Mike draws the comic for the following Monday live all while taking Questions from the Audience. This was the first time Beckett or I had seen the duo in person, live, and the few hours we spent being entertained by them were some of the best of the convention. They took whatever questions, stories, or donations the audience had graciously and with a smile. They had funny quips at each other and at the audience, and it was an experience that just left me feeling like "no wonder these guys have amassed such a huge following." Example: One twenty-something got up on the mike and said the following, albeit with more quips from Jerry and Mike and stumbling to get out what he wanted to say: "Hey, a friend of mine graduated school, is working in technology but feels really lost and wants to try and do something internet based, but is having a really hard time getting things off the ground. Any advice for me- I mean my friend?"

Jerry responded, "After this is over, come over to this curtain on the side of the stage, and I'll talk with you at length."

I love those guys.

After the panel concluded, we got some lunch at the Prudential Center Food Court (Flamers FTW) and returned to the show floor. We jumped around some more, got some more swag, played a few demos, and next thing we knew it was 6 and the floor was closing. We dropped our bags off at the car, and wasted what was left of the next hour lounging and watching people dominate on Rock Band in the aptly named Rock Band Lounge. When 7PM rolled around, we returned to the Queue Room for the 3rd and final time to wait for the night's concert.

Waiting in line, or rather, sitting in line we were gifted with some free donuts from a fellow PAX-goer, as well as some pipe cleaners to pass the next hour with from the PAX Staff, the Enforcers, a fan volunteer security group who helps run the show. Shortly after however, the two large screens that were set up on the sides of the line started being filled with typed messages of how huge nerds we were for making pipe-cleaner crowns (I made a lizard, much cooler.) It soon proceeded to lead us in a series of text-to-vote games, which were certainly time killers, before handing our drawn attention over to the Frag Dolls, a group of women gamers sponsored by Ubisoft. We were then instructed, nay, mandated or whatever its female equivalent is, to follow the visual cues of a dancing MC Hammer outline on the huge screen, in order to break some sort of Line Dancing record. Though humiliating, the shame was lessened by the fact that almost everyone was doing it, and those who weren't were either morbidly obese or too busy playing card games that I've never heard of before.

Shortly after, at the apex of our line waiting experience, after everyone was on their feet ready to roll, our captors played "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton, better known as the theme song to Portal, and everybody, everybody, sang it. This phenomenon cemented the fact that I was among fellow nerds. I can remember this moment of clarity and a single remark left my lips, "I love my life."

As the song ended, we paraded out towards the Main Theater to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Proudly, everyone sang until the time whence they entered the Theater, eager for the night to continue, by enjoying the semi-final round of the Omeganauts Tournament, and listening to the musical stylings of the Video Game Orchestra, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton himself.

To Be Continued...

But if you can not wait, feel free to peruse my pictures of the festivities via either Facebook or Picasa; read my tweets of the night's events; or watch the video blogs (vlogs) I made with Beckett of our day over at my brand-spankin' new Youtube site.

Review: Green Zone

Well, Green Zone was most certainly a movie. I can tell you that much. Deeper than that though, I really don't think there is much else to say. The movie wasn't bad, in fact I thought it was a pretty good movie, employing the shaky-camera technique that's become popular in all those war movies. But when it came to the plot and the action, there was never that critical moment where everyone watching really got into the movie.

In terms of action, there's a pretty solid chunk full at the end of the movie, but other than that it's kind of lacking. Being a movie based in 2003-04 Iraq, there's only so much you can do without throwing continuity to the wind. That being said the movie does a good job of tying in real events to the story being told.

I really do want to say more, but there isn't anything to say. There was nothing in this movie that made me hate it, but at the same time nothing that made me love it. The acting was solid, I thought the plot was pretty predictable, and the action wasn't bad. The movie I think was more focused on making a political statement about the war in Iraq, than on being a movie which isn't bad I guess, but it just meant that anyone trying to get into the movie was beaten over the head with political ideals when all they really wanted was a nice action flick. All things considered, if you don't end up seeing this movie, you're not going to have to worry about it in the long run. 5.5/10.

Review: Shutter Island

There are some movies where you go and get so immersed in the plot that you forget you're in the theater. Shutter Island is not one of those movies. Indeed, this is the kind of movie where you spend the entire movie trying to soak up every detail, track every plot point, and uncover every hidden motive, all in a fruitless attempt to figure out what is going to happen next.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, you know that there is a plot twist or two down the line. But even knowing that,you're still going to get blindsided when the plot culminates. This is a masterpiece of the mind, playing sleight of hand with your cinematic experience, and operating at least 4 layers under the surface. If you don't like having to think when you go to the movies, this is not your kind of movie.

Even though the trailers make the movie look like some sort of psychological paranormal thriller, the movie falls more into line with psychological experience. The movie is littered with false leads and misleading dialogue making our pathetic attempts to predict what would happen next utterly pointless, and that was one of the things that made the movie so riveting. Though you might guess a plot point here or an action there, for every one time you guess right there are at least 5 things you won't see coming.

Going into this movie, I was pretty unenthused. I figured, this is just another film meant to mess with your head, ending with some twisted outcome that no one sees coming for some obtuse reason. And while it does mess with your head, the turnaround just works. Not works in the sense, "Oh yeah okay, I can see that," but more in the sense of, "Mother of God. THAT'S BRILLIANT!"

There are some movies where after the credits roll, you and your friends hop in the car, and you talk about the movie for about five minutes before changing the subject to where you want to stop for late night burgers. Shutter Island is not one of those movies. We talked about it all the way home, and most of the day today.

If you go and see this movie, you'll have something to talk about at the water cooler the next day, with friends when you're sitting around doing nothing or with all your buddies online. Whether you loved it, hated it, didn't get it, this movie does a great job of starting talk, which is probably why it evolved from a small release into number one at the box office. I'm going to go ahead and give this a 9/10.

Review: Bioshock 2

So, I got Bioshock 2 a while back, and I've been meaning to write a review about it forever, but you know me, I skip back and forth between games, the Internet, TV, and Class like a jackrabbit on speed. However, I was browsing around today post-class and I stumbled upon this video (Heads Up, NSFW Language wise and Plot Spoilers). It pretty much sums up my thoughts and feelings on Bioshock 2, but for those who don't feel like watching the video (or can't) and/or feel like hearing my futhered opinion, I bid you please, read on.

Bioshock 1 was a great game. I got it for maybe 20 bucks, Game of the Year edition, last Christmas. So I'd been anticipating this sequel for over a year, less than some, but long enough to know that when I got Bioshock 2, pumped around 20 hours into it on the hardest mode, and beat it within 48 hours of purchasing it, that I was disappointed. And it wasn't that it was a bad game, but after the rich story of Bioshock 1, that fully submersed you into the depths of this underwater city of Rapture, and the lives of the inhabitants, that it became apparent that this new story, picking up 10 years later, was lacking in the substance department.

Everything I liked about the first game, the hidden backstory, the characters, the twists, the fear inducing aspect; Gone. Sure, you have a somewhat hidden backstory, but almost all the characters are gone, there's almost no plot twists, and the fact that they made you the baddest mother this side of the planet being able to shake off splicers (bad guys) in your sleep, really just sapped the story to the point where I felt as if I were just going through the motions.

Why am I fighting this person? Oh? Generic Reason A? Alright. This one? Generic Reason B? Guess so.

After waiting so long to return to Rapture, though the actual gameplay and handling was somewhat improved, the overall game felt like they basically kicked the legs out from under the original, sucked out everything good, leaving it sputtering on the ground, threw in some generic plot, and then watched as the old game tried to pick itself up again. They decided to give it a crutch in Multiplayer, and while they may have skimmed on rehabilitating the core game, they decided to go all out on this part.

Playing the role of a Splicer, you basically go around messing with other splicers in your normal types of gameplay, Free for All, Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, etc. all renamed to fit within the Rapture world. Unlocking more Weapons, Plasmids (fireballs, electric bolts etc.), and Gene tonics (ability upgrades) as you go allows for some fun gameplay, and I must admit that I sunk a pretty good amount of time into Capture the Sister. However this just made me feel more depressed about how lacking the core was. They gave the hobbling game an ornate golden crutch, which drew more and more attention to how ragged the game was.

Overall, I liked the game. The world is spectacular, some plot points were interesting, and I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun playing it. However, it was too short, too linear, and too shallow, giving you a glimpse of prior glory, now faded and cast aside. I'm going to say 6/10. Rent it, unless you feel like playing multiplayer. And if you completely disagree with me? Go play the original again, or for the first time. I think you'll see what I'm talking about.

Oh Look! Another Lecture on Plagiarism. Great.

Today was just another ordinary day, in the Second month, of my Second semester, of my Sophomore year, of College. Notice, I've capitalized all the words that emphasize the fact that, not only have I been going to school for the last 13 years of my life, but I'm also more than half way done with my 14th year. That just makes the fact that today in my discussion, we had the Plagiarism talk, again, all that much more ridiculous.

As anyone who's been to school since middle school, arguably elementary school, knows, Plagiarism is bad. For some god awful reason, in every single class, in every single grade since I can remember, the teacher has had the Plagiarism talk, or the Plagiarism hand out. I know, Plagiarism is bad, and if I do it, I'm going to get in trouble. I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. But what nobody seems to realize, is that much like drugs, if people are going to do it, they're going to do it regardless of whether you warn them against it or not. It's not like I didn't understand the need for the refresher lecture when I got to college, but when I've gotten the exact same spiel in almost every single class for the last year and a half, I think I've deserved the right to comment on the idiocy of it.

If everyone is concerned that plagiarism is going to be that big of a deal, make everybody take a mandatory class that has plagiarism covered in it. That way, everyone takes the class, and doesn't have to hear about it again. As it stands now, it becomes one of those things, where if they keep shouting, "Don't Plagiarize! Don't Plagiarize!" at us, eventually we're just going to stop listening. And unless you want more students to stop listening to their teachers, that would be an outcome to avoid. There's really not much more to say. I don't need another teacher to tell me how bad I'm going to get it if I get caught plagiarizing my sophomore year in college. If I've gotten this far, and I plagiarize and I've never been caught? Chances are that it's become an integral part of my writing, and I'll never be a good writer without it. So then do you punish me, the student who's been plagiarizing for years without getting caught? Or all the teachers and the system that have let me get away with it?

It's a circular problem. Either the problem isn't there, or it is there and your little speech about how I'm going to flunk out of college if I get caught isn't going to do jack either way. So please, teachers, save it. Don't lecture me about something that you can't possibly affect. Maybe just go back to what you're getting paid to do, and teach me something. Or at least mark the day you're going to lecture about Plagiarism so I can sleep a little longer.

Review: Mass Effect 2

Over the summer I was lucky enough to pick up Mass Effect 1 from my friend, after being told multiple times that this was one of those must play games, that I had missed when it launched due to lack of a Xbox 360. So I played it through, and while it was definitely a good game story wise, a few elements, namely the inventory system and planet exploration system needed a little retuning.

If it sounds like I didn't like the game, I bought the DLC for it, and I don't even own the game. It was definitely worth playing, if not solely for the chance to play the game through as the paragon hero saving lives or as a renegade vigilante punishing the wicked. Being able to determine if one of your character lives or dies is one of the highlights of this system, but also knowing that decisions I made in this game would have ramifications that would echo into the next game in the series was just one of those things that made making hard decisions that much harder.

I heard great things about Mass Effect 2, regarding the refined inventory system, the improved exploration system, and the epic-ness of the story. Great things indeed. Not 10 minutes in to this new game you can tell that the game has transcended its past life, into an entirely new game, leaving the bad, taking the good, and filling in all the missing spots with something akin to video game gold. The way they linked the story of the first to the second, as well as the new path that they lead the series down builds upon the what-I-thought-was galaxy exploring greatness and takes it to an entirely new level of galaxy exploring grandeur.

Importing my save game from the original, I was able to see the ramifications of each and every decision I made, whether it was in an email from someone I helped, doing a side mission for someone from the first game, or even just overhearing someone talking about my past actions. Knowing that every decision I made really made me think about a few choices I had to make, but with the introduction of the new paragon/renegade trigger actions during conversations, made me make a few decisions that I had to jump on. Some I regret, some I regret missing, but all in all I can't say the spot opportunities didn't make the game that much more enticing to play.(Hint: Because it did.)

To avoid any spoilers, I'll say in this game, the fate of the galaxy rests on your head, and whether you half ass it or go the distance to gain your team's loyalty is going to make all the difference in the world. Or galaxy. Whatever. You get what I'm saying. The game isn't perfect, and personally I'd like a few more changes to the inventory system; That being every teenage boy's problem, I want more guns. The new system is definitely an improvement from the inventory clutter and resource hunting tediousness of the first game, but now there's a lack of inventory, and a different kind of resource hunting tediousness.

The weapon selection is somewhat limited, gaining one or two types of gun in the game, the second gun being only marginally better than the first, with the main method of obtaining a better gun through finding different upgrade modules, and researching different upgrades. So while yes, by finding all these nameless, shapeless upgrades, and spending resources found through tedious planet hopping you can get a better weapon, but personally I like it that much better when you can just go out and buy a shiny new gun that looks all BA and new, with credits that you get from killing bad guys. The game has structure. A lot of it. One might argue too much, but it's not to the point where it detracts from the game. In fact seeing that Mission Complete screen is pretty great after a long mission.

If you remotely like 3rd Person Shooters with RPG and Sci-Fi Elements, and like the pressure of the fate of an entire galaxy on your shoulders, this game is your bread and butter, just like it was for me. Hell, it's even got re-playability not only being able to import your ME1 save game, but your completed ME2 save game as well! Sure, it's not perfect, but if you look at how much better they made ME2 than they made ME1, I'm scared for how good ME3 is going to be. I'm giving ME2 a 9.5/10. Definitely one of the contenders for Game of the Year 2010.

Conan

I've been Team Coco as long as I can remember. Way back in the day, whenever I found the time, or remembered, I'd tune into Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And whenever I caught the end of Jay Leno, I'd just get that look on my face. You know the one. The one when you just took a swig of milk, and you're not quite sure if it's spoiled or not; But you drink it anyway, cause it's your milk. Then Conan would come on, with his String Dance, and Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7, and the show would go off from there. As I said, I didn't tune in regularly but when I did, I thought it was always well done and I loved it.

So when I heard Conan was taking over the Tonight Show, I knew he'd earned it, and though I might not watch, I knew Conan deserved it, and that though, it takes time for audiences to adapt to their new host, they would eventually come to love him as I had. NBC didn't give him that time. I love a lot of shows on NBC, but they blew it on this one. They gave Conan three years of low-ish ratings at the beginning of Late Night, but because of their mistake with Leno, they cut him out of his dream job a mere seven months after giving him that spot. I was fully on Conan's side since I heard about this issue. He deserved the spot, and by trying to push him back to play the ratings game with Jay Leno, they blew it. Now Conan's going to walk with the late night community he developed over to another network, and I don't blame him. In his Letter to the World, seen here, he was gracious and thoughtfully and genuinely displayed his thoughts on the matter for everyone to read. I agreed with him on every point.

The Media coverage that followed him his last couple weeks as host was nothing short of ubiquitous, and on both Twitter and Digg.com, Team Conan or Team Coco topics were always at the top of the chart. I declared my loyalty on Twitter, and did my due diligence digging Pro-Coco related arguments on Digg at every opportunity, but the support of myself along with what seemed like tens of thousands of internet goers was not enough to change NBC's mind regarding changing his time slot, eventually forcing Conan to leave the network.

I just watched Conan's last episode as the host of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, (for those who missed it you can check it out here,) and it was fantastic. He took a few pot shots here and there at the network, but at the end graciously and earnestly thanked NBC for the opportunity to do the job he loved so much. Then he proceeded to blow everyone's mind by playing guitar behind Will Ferrell during his rendition of Free Bird. If there's a better way to go out than that, it has yet to be done. So, here's to you Conan. May you have a joyous and peaceful seven months off with NBC's 33 million dollars, but I for one, am expecting you to be back this fall. Fox? Cable? I don't care. But I want my Coco back, because I know that even if I can't watch every night, some day some kid will tune in and you'll make him or her laugh with your smart humor just as you did with me when I was their age.

Thanks for everything Conan, and godspeed.