Comic-Con 2K8: Making a list, checking it twice...
Posted by Gary Hodges at 1:12 AM Jul 24, 2008
Well after about 6 hours on the road, I finally made it to San Diego and settled into the place I'm staying, a bed and breakfast a couple miles north of the Convention Center.
Yeah that's right: bed and breakfast. Hey, when you're trying to find a room on the cheap for Comic-Con, you gotta think outside the box, people. Every other typical hotel room in the vicinity was either booked months ago or was charging $200+ a night. My spot is $130, plus they make breakfast for me. Suck it.
So anyway, after I dropped all my stuff off I decided I'd walk to the Convention Center. Random impressions:
- This was the "Preview Night", where people who bought 4-day passes and the press could walk the main hall and get a peek at the show before anyone else. It looked just as crowded as any other day I've been to Comic-Con: literally thousands of people milling about. Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare.
- Spent an hour and a half in line getting my badge, and passed the time by chatting a with Joe from Drunkrockers.com about the Watchmen movie, Comic-Con, and the general incompetence of everyone around us.
- The show floor looks more awesome than ever, and I was pleased to see most of the gaming booths seem to be located in one general area, like a mini-E3. Saw MANY Street Fighter IV machines set up (full, throbbing erection)... on a raised platform at the head of a massive, intimidating mob of people forming something that appeared to be a line (utter impotence).
- Also at the Capcom booth: watched some other press people play Bionic Commando (the "sequel", not the 2D remake of the NES game). Initial impressions from watching: Pretty graphics, sluggish framerate, questionable gameplay. The level being demoed - a forest/jungle environment - was not well-suited for novice gameplay, thus players often found themselves in a river where they would quickly drown unless the PR guy quickly seized the controller and saved them. Worrying.
- Afro Samurai (the game) looks great.
- Also, and this has nothing to do with gaming: Sideshow Collectibles - a company I have an expensive weakness for (my 1/6 scale Jabba and throne environment can vouch for this) - showed things at their booth I want. Too many things. As Carter said when he first glimpsed into King Tut's tomb: wonderful things. Their 12" Snake Eyes is just as obscenely awesome as it is expensive. I willed myself to resist. I then preordered one right at the booth.
By a sheer weird twist of fate, I bumped into Ultra Neko, who I mentioned at the end of my Metal Gear Solid 4 review. I said hi, told her about the site, gave her my card, and tried my best not to leer. But then later I ran into her again, this time as I walked by a pizza place just north of the SDCC.
"I'm really not stalking you," I reassured. "No need to be alarmed. No restraining order needed." Then, as I left: "Read Joystick Division."
Now I'm worried. The first time you run into someone you know in a crowd of 120,000 people, it's a nice surprise. The second time, it's a remarkable coincidence. The third, it's because you're hiding in a garbage can behind their house as you type a blog, waiting for a good chance to peek through that back window where they left the blinds up. Or something. Maybe I should change the subject.
So yes, I plugged Joystick Division with Ultra Neko, and Joe... the first two of many I hope to share the Good News with at Comic-Con. But it's Comic-Con, and words don't go far here... you need things. SWAG. So to better send the message, I've slapped together a little Joystick Division goody bag:
Yessire, Joystick Division buttons. 6 different designs in all, with a super-rare 7th variant almost nobody is going to get unless they either impress me greatly or are very damn attractive and in an awesome Catwoman costume.
These buttons will be passed out to all the different game company people I stop to talk to, as well as anyone else who expresses interest, as well as anyone else who inadvertently makes eye contact with me.
We're also trying to figure out a contest or something to award some of these sexy buttons to you readers too, of course. Stay tuned. Or beg and plead to me personally at gwhodges@hotmail.com, subject line "God I wanna hump dem buttons!". First 5 e-mails with that header gets a set of buttons.
