Penny Arcade Expo Prime 2012: Part 2

Day 2: Slow Redemption

We found amazingly cheap all day parking that morning at the convention centre ($10 flat rate!). Had absolutely no idea why that was cheap the way it was. Never again did we find it.

• Dishonored: Ran into electricity-barriered doorways constantly and died a lot; the people who were watching must've had a good chuckle... and I threw grenades at point blank just because I could.
• Injustice: A great take on fist-fighting with DC superheroes. I was intrigued.
• Sleeping Dogs: Running and fisting is all I remember doing.

Another strangely short list but it was mainly Kojima day. We lined up early to get ourselves some good seats at Kojima Hideo's panel where he talked about his MGS franchise. Very scripted but it was still a great interview to listen in on. We followed to line up for his autograph (and obligatory handshake) right after. It was unfortunate he didn't sign personal items as my friend lugged his MGS PS3, but we all got a standard poster instead.

Gee-off, Kojima-san, Translator-san

For evening foods, we ended up having a strangely huge group of people but still managed to get a table at a Thai place at Pacific Place. We then spent the rest of the night playing Key Largo with the few of us who stuck around.

Day 3: Progress
The last day ended up being the best of all days as we all knew which games we wanted to tag.

• Last of Us: We watched the employee in the back play through the demo live. Another amazing cinematic-feel movie game.
• God of War Ascension: The multiplayer looked interesting so we joined as a team and beat the crap out of the other party. :D
• Lost Planet 3: This demo was a whopping 20 minutes. The main character's design bugged me to no end; too clean and too good looking for a guy in his situation.
• Hell Yeah!: Super entertaining game with great humour and a variety of fun randomness.
• Adventure Time: Strangely fun for a 3DS game. I need a 3DS.
• Hawken: Amazingly fun game. I would've truly loved swag for this great game. Definitely looking forward to this one.

During the last bit of the day, we stumbled around to buy ourselves any last minute swag of whatever that was left.. and unfortunately there wasn't much. Yeah, probably should've done that earlier.

Taphouse nummehs.

Taphouse happened and then it was off to the event of the night -- bowling... with beer. We enjoyed ourselves fries and beer while we waited for enough lanes to accommodate 15 of us. I played like poo. Then we followed to play a few rounds of Dominion back at Rift's afterwards. Can't let the weekend end so... zzzz

The Post-PAX Thoughts

Yet another vastly different PAX experience. This year felt abnormally busy yet, when looking back, we didn't get much done at all. Not my most favourite but it was an extraordinary weekend to hang with friends. The expo has yet again expanded in size and clearly also in fandom considering the speed of how fast it sold out once tickets were available. They dedicated almost a whole floor to the League of Legends nationals tourny, moving the freeplay PC and BYOC to the hard to locate basement area. [Good] swag seemed particularly harder to get ahold of. One freebie I would've loved to get was a Borderlands 2 t-shirt but, for a game that's to release within the same month, the line for it was stupidly long.

The games featured there this year felt rather underwhelming, considering how close the release dates were/are for a good chunk of them. Some of which have already released since this post.

Serious LoL business.

Final notes:

• Missed: SimCity was playable at the Nvidia booth, and I WAS THERE! D:
• Tempted to try but didn't: Fable the Journey, Devil May Cry
• Favourite game of the show: Hawken
• Favourite swag: LoL water D&D Neverwinter glass mug
• That's a super NEAT idea: Cards Against Humanity t-shirt matching game!
• Bamco, why no treat us with delicious TALES?!
• Will continue to keep my eyes peeled for the very scarce Japanesey things.

Last but not least, the roots:

Penny Arcade Expo Prime 2012: Part 1

Day 0: The Pre-PAX
This year was yet another different crew of PAXers. A notable new recruit, Y2James, joined the fray to get a taste of the event and get another helping of Vancouver (and join me for the way down). We had ourselves some nummy dim sum and filled up on Starbucks before we began the journey, and was making some great time until we encountered a series of unfortunate events: traffic crossing the border was rather nasty for a Thursday morning; we didn't think too much of it until we got detained in the border crossing customs office for an additional few hours where they took a ridiculous amount of precious time and our pocket money from us to let us through (reality: needed a Visa for land travel). The longer the line got, the less people there were working at the desks as they seemed to love taking their sweet ass time.

When that mess was over and done with, we continued our journey down to Seattle, encountering disgusting long weekend traffic, and stopped at Rift's new place to find out that he wasn't quite home yet. Since our karaoke plans were ruined, we figured we'd check out the Gearbox & Joystiq Pre-PAX party at Pink's, near the convention area. Ion met up with us and then we chugged our way through that disgusting traffic again, which further added to all the delays that day. We parked near Ion's friend's place, who lived in walking distance to the downtown core where it was held, and met up with more of his friends before we walked our way there.

There was a stupid long line that wrapped around the mall's floor of the lounge when we got there but hey, we had nothing else to do, so why not join in on the lining. After a good hour we finally got in, figured out how this "open bar" thing worked and ordered away. We all knew it was a bad idea to drink on an empty stomach because we (or at least I?) regretted it very much afterwards. Oh the party itself was, well, just a drinking fest. Borderlands? What Borderlands? Oh, yeah, it was some video trailer that was played on repeat on the TVs. The rest of the night was extremely unpleasant but we did manage to get back to Rift's place to pass out on his couch.

The Joystiq & Gearbox (Borderlands 2) Party @ Pink's

Day 1: Hate you, Pre-PAX

Okay, learnt my lesson to not get greedy with an empty stomach because, ugh, not only did I not sleep well, but I felt like shit all morning. The hangover feel did end up delaying our wake and prevent us from getting our usual close parking at the convention. Day 1 notables:

• Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event: This was quite the disappointment. For a few hour line, standing outside under the heat, we got a poster, a silly photobooth opportunity to pose with giant head-only plushies of their mascots (chocobo, gob, mog, mandy) and a meaningless fizzy drink which we didn't even bother finishing. The only thing to do there was a ring toss game and consoles of each  main numbered Final Fantasy games for you to play.
• Phantasy Star Online 2: There really wasn't a need to play this game, but me and Ion were off it for a few days so there was an itch. We wanted that free mousepad too anyway.
• D&D Neverwinter Nights: The freebies for demoing this game were definitely different from the norm so we tried our luck at getting one of the random prizes. Oh, the game itself was okay. Can't say there's much to be impressed about. Just another MMO?

The first day felt pretty unproductive, as we walked the floor for most of the day. We were extremely hungry come 4ish, so we decided to have food early at no other than the Cheesecake Factory! Regrettably, we checked out Triton's PAX party right after to find FREE food available (and more open bar). Finally we ended the night with the Giant Bombcast Live but ended up missing the VSO (they might have played Chrono Cross AGHRGHGRHGH).

Healthier.

Triton's party.

With the official first day behind us, we looked forward to some better times in the next two days...

Anime Revolution 2012

That ceiling!

There was a strange level of expectation for its launch year: first being their ridiculously priced registration, second for their departure from their former self as AE (taking many minions with them), and lastly the slow trickle of guest announcements (although all western guests at the time) throughout the year. Not until the final few months did they finally give us want we really want and brought one amazing Japanese guest to our shores. Whether that one amazing guest justified the rest of the con is another story completely however...

The day before:

Thought I'd be smart and stop by to grab my badge early at the pre-reg, and but nope, not as smart as one would think. Got there after work, joined the silly long line, and waited like a sucker for an hour and a half. Alright!

The first day:
The morning I got a ride from LightningSabre and got there to lineup again for another hour or so for his badge (not that there was anything else happening during that time anyway, which actually became a reoccurring thing). We made our way to the dealers hall first thing, strolled around, said hi to some of LS' friends, and stayed on the lookout for cosplayers that caught our eye.

When lunch rolled around, we met up with one of LS' friends who worked in the actual building itself for food at Mahony & Sons, then headed back. We sat in on the Ghibli panel where the dude just showed clips that were badly clipped. What seemed like not long after we had lunch, we went to grab dinner at the neighbouring food court (more to waste as much time as possible). The only other interesting panel we thought we'd stop by was the Terri, Ron, and Sugar Q&A (mainly for Sugar). We couldn't help but notice the frequent disruption from the adjoining panel "room" (room = an actual room divided by a cloth wall, to make the separate "rooms"), which was rather annoying.

(l-r) Terri Hawkes, Ron Rubin, and Sugar Lyn Beard

With nothing else interesting lined up, we found a place to chill for a few hours without being yelled at by AR staff for being a fire hazard. Our final panel for the day was the swimsuit contest which, is strange for me to say but, was quite entertaining and worth the wait. A bit overboard on the innuendos and puns but the contestants counterattacked them all pretty well.

The next day:
Ended up joining LightningSabre again that day and caught the tail end of his ball joint meet. Found Lester (and Ty eventually) and got our Nakata Jouji autographs. With nothing better to do, we checked out the Aniplex panel but, as a consequence, we were unable to get into Nakata Jouji's panel because of the silly underestimated person capacity. We spent the rest of the day chilling at KL-chan's booth when Tofu joined in on our exciting lack of festivities. Also, interestingly enough, discovered that PiggyHoHo, from way back when of the online CCS community days, is a local and had a booth right beside us in the AA. Small world. ;o

Nakata Jouji

That night we deferred night market fooding to the next day and decided to finish up in the downtown area with Sanpachi Ramen for dinners.

The Sanpachi Ramyuns.

Seeing how the first two days were already a snore, I opted to skip out on Sunday to get errands done. The hanging out and stuffing our faces with street food at the night market later that day was more engrossing than the two days prior combined.

I'll still give them credit for being able to pull together a huge guest line-up for their first attempt, which is rather impressive in comparison to their competitors. However they get negative points for their ugly usage of the venue and the lack of activities available. Their pre-registration line is also inexcusable; on-site registration should NOT be available on a pre-register day and that manpower and booth space should also be solely used for that pre-reg line present. Providing some proper seating area would also be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, good try. Now try harder.

Summer Travels: EVO 2012 World Championships

Day 1: Warming Up

Come early Monday morning, the tournaments were well on their way. I headed to the Caesar Palace's to catch Kozu's first match for KoF and to also scope out the floor. Sty finally woke up hours later and together we met up with some people we used to play with in a private Ragnarok Online server many years ago. We opted to have some quick food at the food court and then went back to catch more of the matches, such as the showdown between Noah and Mago, Air well representing Canada, Tokido getting beat by a fellow Canadian, and our .bRO keyboard-playing friend, Roogle's, match against Uryo.

Noah (left) vs. Mago (right)

Playstation All Stars was readily available for playing so I gave that a whirl and unfortunately I wasn't particularly fond it. Also, Street Fighter X Tekken is only amazing because of Toro and Kuro. That's all.

Later that night I convinced everyone we had to do the 24 hour buffet and thus our buffet adventure started with Paris' because of its location. It was sad Paris' has continued to drop in quality; it was a bit of a disappointment but still satisfactory nonetheless.

Day 2: Wandering
Our next buffet was at the Flamingo for brunch. The afternoon consisted of a round of P4A, getting an autograph (and photo) from Daigo Umehara, and wandering around the floor. The room was more packed than the day before so we had less opportunity to sit down to observe the matches.

Capcom's fancy car display plus bored car guard man

Our final buffet was at Planet Hollywood, which was safe to say was the best of the three we had. I also picked up a Evo 2012 T, which ended up becoming my autograph shirt. On the way to and from places, we encountered "celebrities" (sans locals except Air and JWong) which Kozu helped identify.

Day 3: The Finale
After having a string of buffets, we decided to get some fast food before heading to the last and most exciting day of all matches. The floor was cleared of exhibits and was all filled with chairs. Next door was the overflow room where the livestream was set up. Although the commentary was nice, the unexpected streaming failures were rather annoying. Without a doubt, the KoF and MvC3 matches were the most exciting games to watch whereas AE had very little battering between the two players, thus rather underwhelming.

Daigo's final AE match

The Prologue
After having experienced a fighting game tournament in person, it really inspires you to pick up a fighting stick and play some fighting games yourself. The energy, emotions, and rivalry in the room is incomparable to a mere livestream. As for me though, I may have an accessible fighting stick and may get my hands on a game or two, but I would sadly have no one to play/practice with. Despite saying that, I will consider dropping by LV for EVO again next year since flying to LV is rather affordable compared to other US destinations.

So, the next morning we had a pasta buffet. Don't do it; it's a trap! Pastas are so filling! What were we thinking!

Also on the way back, I saw Air while crossing customs. He's a Vancouverite!

And finally, loot picture which lazily includes Anime Expo shtuff too:

Thus ended my summer travels adventures and back to work I went, successfully still pale as a vampire. Take that 45°C Las Vegas weather! However, I did have to deal with a cold/flu/cough attack which lasted me a good 2 1/2 weeks. I'm beginning to see a trend in my health post-travels...

Summer Travels: Geek Downtime

Between two fun & geek-filled weekends of Anime Expo and EVO, Sty and I made the effort to keep ourselves occupied. In hindsight, we could've devoted some of that time to sleeping and just chillaxing a bit more. Maybe I'm just getting old but, boy, was I sleepy!

Tuesday, July 3
Sty and I decided to take an "official" tour of LA during our downtime between events considering the number of times we've visited and would never do the real touristy things. We picked a decently reviewed tour online before we left on our trip and left it at that. We were running late that morning, so we called in to the tour group to confirm the time. They suggested we go straight to their office but we stayed on track and headed to the hotel pickup location we originally picked at booking. For some reason they figured that we agreed to meet them at their office and decided not to pick us up at our pickup location. We waited over an hour and then an additional hour after we called them to ask wtf was going on until their bus finally came by to grab us.

When we got to the office we were forced onto the other later tour that featured less an area of LA, which fortunately wasn't that huge of a concern. On the tour, we stopped at the Farmer's Market where we had "real" donuts for the first time (vs. Canadian "donuts"), Hollywood where we took pictures of the stars we cared for (BIG BIRD!), and Venice Beach for fake merch window shopping (and the beach too). The rest of LA, like Rodeo Drive, was driven through on the tour bus, so there wasn't much to that part.

It finished up earlier than we expected, so we called up Ken to come and grab us. Considering it was high traffic 4pm, he ended up getting stuck for the longest time, which we felt super bad for. :( When he finally did manage to make it to us, we decided to make a stop at Fry's again for some time wasting before meeting up with HB for dinner.

As we were already starving by then, we had a small snack at Jogasaki which was right outside the Fry's; it was really good! After some shopping, we made our way to Ramen Yamadaya and met up with HB. We also had a side of sake with our ramen to celebrate the occasion.

Jogasaki rolls~

Yamadaya ramen~

Btw, we wrote in to the tour company and got the difference in tour costs back.

Wednesday, July 4
We didn't realize our planned Universal Studios day was right on Independence Day (combined with the summer holidays) so the place was packed.

The park was peppered with water mist spray areas, but fortunately it wasn't THAT excessively hot that day. I made Curious George upset for not wanting him in the photo with me and Fievel. Yeah, was never really a fan of Curious George, so too bad for him. Transformers the Ride was the best out of the bunch, second was King Kong, and the third was probably the Studio Tour (bonus points for having a cute-looking tour guide ;)).

Thanks to our front of the line passes, we managed to see everything by the end of the day. We walked the city walk but didn't manage to decide on dinner so we left the park to find food elsewhere. Ken called up his friends who were checking out some local fireworks and they brought us to Umami Burger where we had delicious high-end burger and fries. P:

Thursday, July 5
We packed up our shtuff and made our way towards Korea town where we were to be dropped off for our bus trip to our next destination, Las Vegas! We had some pretty authentic (or so I think!) Korean tofu pot to-go from BCD for our ride there. The tofu was really quite good, btw~

The ride itself was a bit rough – the seats weren't particularly comfortable, the bus was super packed, the movie they played was super loud – but I was so tired, I just forced myself to nap while I could. For the cost of the one-way, hassle-free trip, it wasn't that horrible of an experience.

Upon arrival, me and Sty hung out at the casino/bar area of the Bally's hotel where we were to stay at before Kozu and crew showed up. We drove out to grab some nummy late night fast food at Sonic's after dropping off our stuff and got to check out the tail end of a motorcycle meetup that took over the whole drive-in parking lot. The peach and coke was my winning drink combination. <3

Sleep happened probably. I think some Sengoku Basara did too.