My absence from my blog is, at least, not entirely my fault: in the corner of my room sits a collection of parts from what used to be a computer. My computer, to be exact. For some reason, the sunovabitch just doesn't want to get past POST, and I have not yet had the money to replace it. Come August, I will attempt to continue my blogging ways, though then time will be a hard-found commodity. There are going to be some days when I leave for work at 6am and don't come back home till 9 at night. But why trouble you with my problems when there's actual fun stuff to talk about?
FANIME 2010: The Revenge
(Editor's note: It is the policy of this establishment that when a 2nd happening of something occurs that is an improvement on an already fun time, it shall be given the same subtitle as the sequel to the wonderful 1980's arcade game, Taito's Double Dragon. It is also the policy to not continue using the subtitles of the Double Dragon series for any happening after that, since those games were fucking horrible. My apologies to anybody who was looking forward to Fanime 2011: The Rosetta Stones.)
So, it finally happened. I had begun planning for Fanime 2010 roughly a month or two after the Fanime 2009 was over. Sadly, our plans to stay on an executive level room were squashed by hotel management, but we were still put fairly out of the way and didn't have to deal with a whole lot of noise.
Prep was actually quite amusing, and easier than I thought. I found out that Rayon shirts are ass for absorbing paint, but take fabric markers fairly well. After about 3 of them, I had completed work on my cosplay, and voila:
Black Lagoon! From left to right: Tiffany Gock as Revy, Jonas Fairfield (Me) as Benny, Jason Shaird as Dutch.
Not Pictured: Rock, due to logistical issues
My friends Tiffany and Jason, who were nice enough to come all the way from Arizona to partake in this madness, did a hell of a job with their outfits. We got noticed and photographed, even had a fellow congoer rush to recognize us. Sure, we didn't get anywhere near the attention as many other cosplayers, but A)we didn't drop in anywhere near the money they did on their stuff, B)we weren't there primarily to have our pictures taken, and C)that left us free to do other stuff. Our two California contacts, Jon and John, also got some recognition for great outfits from Speed Grapher and Trigun, respectively.
ANIME: One reason I go to these things is to get an idea of what to watch. Sure, I went on my Gundam kick for a bit, and I enjoyed it, but then ZZ threw up a nice brick wall. I'm still on self-imposed Tomino-exile. So at Fanime, I got into a few more series. Here's what I discovered:
K-On!: Okay, why is there so much hate for this anime? Not grimdark enough? Anyways, this was a very funny, kinda whimsical anime that I've continued to enjoy. I'll grant that the music certainly isn't always my taste ("Light and Fluffy Time"), but it's good enough and secondary to the plot anyways.
The Tower of Druaga: This one surprised me, since I'd actually played the original ToD in the arcade. It's not a particularly good game- the best thing about it is the fanfare that plays before each round starts. Here I thought we were going to have our typical medieval anime, and it turned out to be reallllly funny. The first episode was hilarious, and I'm kinda kicking myself for not following up, but in my defense, I did get sidetracked by the excellent Dennou Coil and Ramen Fighter Miki. Will pick back up on later.
Speed Grapher: This was shown in a cool down session we had in our hotel room. I don't really know enough about it yet, but I would recommend it just for the dark, supernatural mood and some of the more notable aspects of it, like a camera being a weapon.
Shangri-La: Didn't get to watch too much of this, but it looks like it could be good.
AVGN: Yeah, yeah, it's not anime (well, not yet), but I do have to say one of the most fun things ever was watching Angry Video Game Nerd in a room full of fans. I'd really like to stay for the whole marathon next year, as we only caught more of his recent stuff (Action 52, Street Fighter 2010).
Food-wise, we found a couple of awesome places up the street from the convention center, and best of all, they weren't death knells for our wallets. Our first stop was Iguanas, a small mexican food restaurant housed in a...well, a house. The food was excellent though, with my Iguana Nachos being very tasty. Next year, I think we're going to actually have to bite the bullet and order a burritozilla (their 5-lb burrito) just to say we did. Bonus points to this place for having a live soul band in the next room, belting out a great rendition of D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)".
O_ORight next door is a place called the Hydration Station, which, fittingly enough is an Asian restaurant. They had some great dishes, most less than 6 bucks. A lot of us opted for the Curry over Rice for a cool $4.50 and their seasonal Watermelon Juice with Pearls. It was all rather good, and much better than blowing the same amount on a value meal from McDonald's.
Oh, and props to Jason for blowing 40 some-odd on beers at Hilton. Next round's on me.
All in all, a great trip, though I would say my one big complaint is that it was impossible to get any decent internet speed in the rooms over ethernet. This mainly means that next year, I need to get a laptop full of media and an HDMI cord and play it that way.
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While I'm here, I might as well break out my E3 review.
Nintendo clearly had the best showing with the 3DS, but upon further review, I'm not sure the lineup's all that great. Super Street Fighter IV is a great game, but on portable? And after it's been out for how long? So, conceptually, it's awesome, but I need more concrete stuff before I consider whether to buy it or not. Leaning towards doing so, though.
PlayStation Move: Honestly, wouldn't even be interested if it weren't for Heavy Rain and Time Crisis Raizing Storm, but the allure of an ONLINE MULTIPLAYER LIGHT GUN GAME is too much to pass up. Seriously, that's incredibly awesome.
PSN+ sounds like it could actually be a great idea, but I'm still waiting to see what it's offering.
Kinect...woo, boy. There's already been numerous shitstorms over this, but the bottom line, as I've said, is marketing. That's going to determine whether or not it succeeds. I worry that it might.
As to its voice command feature:
I'm so doing that to my Xbox owning friends. >:)
I am considering picking up the 360 slim for the holidays.
Portal 2 is looking great, and one announcement that actually did shock me was the PS3 being its lead platform for consoles. Gabe Newell 180'd on his previous notion that the PS3 wasn't worth it, and now, we're even going to be getting cloud saves for P2. Very good news, though most likely I'll be on PC for Glados' second coming.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention what was my game of the show, Mortal Kombat.
Yes. You read that right. Mortal F'N Kombat.
Sure, Armageddon was an atrocity, and MK Vs. DC, while fun, wasn't enough to keep it afloat. But damned if Boon and Tobias didn't somehow get their shit together recently. Basically, the new MK (Simply titled Mortal Kombat, kinda like they did with Rambo) is going to be a revitalized 2.5d fighter, almost like a current gen version of MKII. Additions include an X-ray move, basically a super, which allows you to deal lots of damage in a heavily detailed way. One example showed Sub-Zero freezing a kombatant's liver and shattering it. Fatalities are back, and by back, I mean we're not dealing with the atrocious cookie cutter fatality system from Armageddon, nor the "heroic brutality" BS from MK Vs. DC.
No, this time, I mean Mileena drinks blood from your head. Seriously.
Also, they decided to reboot the storyline. It sounds a little convoluted, but honestly, if it gets them out of the mess they made in Deception, more power to 'em. Also, this means that any character past pt. 3 is probably not going to be in. Why is that good, that these character designs are gone? Well, they suck. And why do they suck?
Because.. THEY WERE MADE BY THE SAME GUY WHO DID THE CHARACTER DESIGNS FOR FUCKING BLOODSTORM!!!!!11!!
Really all that needs to be said. :/
I'm psyched, and I'm even considering picking up a 3D TV to enjoy the festivities. That's right, this and Gran Turismo 5 are both pushing me in that direction. We'll see what happens.
In the meantime, I've actually made some progress on my evil backlog. I knocked out Beyond Good & Evil, and I have to say, that's one hell of an excellent game. Good to hear Michael Ancel recently announced that the sequel does still exist and is being worked on, though per him, it will take "awhile". I also knocked out Resident Evil 4, which was a great game, though I'm starting to question the "horror" part in "survival horror". Packing an arsenal like Leon's isn't exactly a frightening prospect, though he starts out with a useless-ass handgun.
Anywho, for the meantime, I'm without computer, though I hope to remedy this come August if not sooner.
-Trakdown
P.S. SUMMER SUCKS!!!
