Previous Posts:
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4: Sunday
This is gonna be a short one. Not only does Comic-Con close early on Sundays, the amount of panels left to see is small. That said, I didn't see any panels at all! I was planning on seeing the Castle panel, but we overslept so that was out. Instead we went for a nice breakfast at Cafe Diem (the Hard Rock's redone cafe in the style of the Eureka restaurant). I even have some of the menus.
I spent the rest of my time in the expo hall. I walked around for a bit, trying to find gifts to buy for my little brothers. I found some Pokemon figures and a Mario plushy that they wound up enjoying quite a bit. After that I went back to the Capcom booth and played more SFxT. I participated in another tournament for the game, but lost very quickly. I simply need more practice!
Unfortunately that was the extend of my day on Sunday. Our flight was early in the afternoon so there wasn't a lot of time for us to stay. In the end though I didn't mind that though. I was exhausted by Sunday and ready to go home. The only problem? We had two flights that felt very, very long. I didn't get home until 1 AM EST.
Overall though I really enjoyed my time at Comic-Con. I didn't see as many panels as I had planned but even better things filled with that time. If you've happened to stumble upon this post, I strongly suggest you go back through my previous posts on Comic-Con. There are many more interesting things over there. If you've read all of those then stay tuned because over the next two days I'll be putting up posts on the games I played at Comic-Con.
For those of you who have read everything, I thank you and I hope you enjoyed my retelling of Comic-Con 2011!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tales from Comic-Con 2011: Day 3
Previous Posts:
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3: Saturday
Saturday is the biggest day of Comic-Con. The most people attend on Saturday because it has the biggest panels. Ironically, I only saw two panels on Saturday. I spent my entire day doing two things: expo hall, and the IGN meet and greet. I wanted to go see the Chuck panel but the line was way too long and I was never going to make it inside. Instead I decided to stand on line with my sister to try and get tickets to the Chuck autographs.
WB ran an awful show last year in how people got autographs. You could wait hours on line only to have people who just showed up get picked to be put on line. It was horrendous and really demoralizing. This year though they got smart and changed the way they did things. This year you would stand on line for the chance to pull a ticket that would get you on the autograph line. It's different only in the sense that everyone has the same odds, and you could be first, or last in line and still not get in. We didn't get in, but we met a cool Asian guy who we talked to for awhile (I don't remember his name though lol).
I then dropped my sister off with my dad because he was trying to get autographs at the FOX booth and I wanted to go play more video games. Naturally, I made my way back to the Capcom booth. I participated in a Street Fighter X Tekken tournament. I made it to the round of 16 before I got knocked out. It was fun though, I just need to practice more with a fight stick (I'm actually planning to invest in one, they're just super expensive).
The highlight of the expo hall was getting the autographs of Katsuhiro Harada the producer of the Tekken series and Yoshinori Ono, producer of the Street Fighter series. Both were super cool and really funny. I really enjoyed meeting them.
After the tournament I headed back to the hotel to rest my feet and clean up a little. About twenty minutes later I got pretty bored just being in my room and decided to head down to the IGN Oasis which was in my hotel. I about an hour and a half early, but I had nothing better to do. I just sat at the table and rested until people started showing up around 3 PM.
A lot of people from IGN and 1UP came to the meet and greet. The classics, such as Greg and Daemon were there. Jack DeVries, Rich George, Chris Carle, Stephanie Lee, Jim Reilly, Erik Brudvig, Jessica Chobot, and Noami Kyle were all there. Greg and Daemon actually know my face now so it's like seeing old friends. I really enjoy meeting Rich and Stephanie. I talked with Rich about Capcom and Comic-Con for quite awhile and I discussed Spiderman and gaming panels with Stephanie.
Overall the meet and greet was easily one of the best I've been to (it doesn't beat the PAX dinner, but it was still really fun). I got plenty of pictures, as you'll see in a moment. I want you to notice Greg's expression here and tell me he doesn't make that face in EVERY picture you've seen him in with fans. I've taken four pictures with Greg over the course of two years and I swear his expression never changes.
Once the IGN meet and greet was over I headed back to the convention center to catch two panels before the day was over. I got in the room pretty early and sat through the Nikita panel before the Person of Interest panel started. Person of Interest is a new show from David Nolan and J. J. Abrams. It's about a man, Finch (played by Michael Emerson) who has a machine that only prints out a social security number. He only knows that the people who own these numbers are linked to a crime in one way or another. He hires John Reese (played by James Caviezel) to help him prevent the crimes.
Overall I really liked the show. There's definitely going to be a mythology behind it, which worries me only for the reason that the show has been picked up by CBS who has had the worst luck with serialized shows (Jericho anyone?). That said, I'm hoping the episodic core of the show will help it stay afloat.
The next panel was the Mythbusters panel. I've been a big fan of the Mythbusters for a long time now and they were great last year. Each year Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage cosplays and roams the expo hall. He tweets one hint and whoever finds him first gets a prize. Last year it was a custom iPad. This year... I don't remember what it was. Something not as important. Anyways, last year he went as one of the 501st Storm Troopers. This year he went as No-Face from Spirited Away. The costume was really good despite the fact that he got found out in half an hour.
The rest of the night was spent by us waiting for two hours to get into the Nobu, the Hard Rock's resident sushi restaurant. Now it's time to get a tad personal. For whatever reason, I am extremely texture oriented when it comes to eating foods. If something doesn't "feel" right, it immediately doesn't taste good. This unfortunately applied to the sushi tacos I got. So that was easily my least favorite dinner of Comic-Con. We then promptly went to bed because we had only a few hours at the convention tomorrow before flying back home.
Tomorrow is the post about the last day of Comic-Con. It might be the end of the show, but stay tuned after that because I will have at least two more posts about games I played during Comic-Con. Hope you enjoyed this post!
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3: Saturday
Saturday is the biggest day of Comic-Con. The most people attend on Saturday because it has the biggest panels. Ironically, I only saw two panels on Saturday. I spent my entire day doing two things: expo hall, and the IGN meet and greet. I wanted to go see the Chuck panel but the line was way too long and I was never going to make it inside. Instead I decided to stand on line with my sister to try and get tickets to the Chuck autographs.
WB ran an awful show last year in how people got autographs. You could wait hours on line only to have people who just showed up get picked to be put on line. It was horrendous and really demoralizing. This year though they got smart and changed the way they did things. This year you would stand on line for the chance to pull a ticket that would get you on the autograph line. It's different only in the sense that everyone has the same odds, and you could be first, or last in line and still not get in. We didn't get in, but we met a cool Asian guy who we talked to for awhile (I don't remember his name though lol).
I then dropped my sister off with my dad because he was trying to get autographs at the FOX booth and I wanted to go play more video games. Naturally, I made my way back to the Capcom booth. I participated in a Street Fighter X Tekken tournament. I made it to the round of 16 before I got knocked out. It was fun though, I just need to practice more with a fight stick (I'm actually planning to invest in one, they're just super expensive).
The highlight of the expo hall was getting the autographs of Katsuhiro Harada the producer of the Tekken series and Yoshinori Ono, producer of the Street Fighter series. Both were super cool and really funny. I really enjoyed meeting them.
A lot of people from IGN and 1UP came to the meet and greet. The classics, such as Greg and Daemon were there. Jack DeVries, Rich George, Chris Carle, Stephanie Lee, Jim Reilly, Erik Brudvig, Jessica Chobot, and Noami Kyle were all there. Greg and Daemon actually know my face now so it's like seeing old friends. I really enjoy meeting Rich and Stephanie. I talked with Rich about Capcom and Comic-Con for quite awhile and I discussed Spiderman and gaming panels with Stephanie.
Overall the meet and greet was easily one of the best I've been to (it doesn't beat the PAX dinner, but it was still really fun). I got plenty of pictures, as you'll see in a moment. I want you to notice Greg's expression here and tell me he doesn't make that face in EVERY picture you've seen him in with fans. I've taken four pictures with Greg over the course of two years and I swear his expression never changes.
Once the IGN meet and greet was over I headed back to the convention center to catch two panels before the day was over. I got in the room pretty early and sat through the Nikita panel before the Person of Interest panel started. Person of Interest is a new show from David Nolan and J. J. Abrams. It's about a man, Finch (played by Michael Emerson) who has a machine that only prints out a social security number. He only knows that the people who own these numbers are linked to a crime in one way or another. He hires John Reese (played by James Caviezel) to help him prevent the crimes.
Overall I really liked the show. There's definitely going to be a mythology behind it, which worries me only for the reason that the show has been picked up by CBS who has had the worst luck with serialized shows (Jericho anyone?). That said, I'm hoping the episodic core of the show will help it stay afloat.
The next panel was the Mythbusters panel. I've been a big fan of the Mythbusters for a long time now and they were great last year. Each year Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage cosplays and roams the expo hall. He tweets one hint and whoever finds him first gets a prize. Last year it was a custom iPad. This year... I don't remember what it was. Something not as important. Anyways, last year he went as one of the 501st Storm Troopers. This year he went as No-Face from Spirited Away. The costume was really good despite the fact that he got found out in half an hour.
The rest of the night was spent by us waiting for two hours to get into the Nobu, the Hard Rock's resident sushi restaurant. Now it's time to get a tad personal. For whatever reason, I am extremely texture oriented when it comes to eating foods. If something doesn't "feel" right, it immediately doesn't taste good. This unfortunately applied to the sushi tacos I got. So that was easily my least favorite dinner of Comic-Con. We then promptly went to bed because we had only a few hours at the convention tomorrow before flying back home.
Tomorrow is the post about the last day of Comic-Con. It might be the end of the show, but stay tuned after that because I will have at least two more posts about games I played during Comic-Con. Hope you enjoyed this post!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tales from Comic-Con 2011: Day 2
Previous Posts:
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2: Friday
Friday was supposed to be a really light day. On my schedule I had only two panels. The first was The Walking Dead and the second was Sony's Hall H presentation, which was to include The Amazing Spiderman. After getting up early again and rolling into the convention center, it became clear very quickly that I wasn't going to get into Ballroom 20, where the Walking Dead panel was. So I bailed quickly and met up with my dad and sister who were on line for a panel about "The Captains" a documentary by William Shatner about the life of all the starship captains after Star Trek. I've yet to watch it, but my dad did and he liked it quite a bit. You can watch the documentary here. Just sign up for the free trial and you'll be good to go.
Back to the panel though, it was moderated by Kevin Smith, whose comedy I'm not the biggest fan of. I heard though, that he was a much better moderator than he was panel participant. This was definitely true. He was hilarious and mixed well with Shatner and Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko from Deep Space Nine). Scott Bakula even made a surprise appearance on the panel. The panel was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I didn't really mind that I had missed the Walking Dead panel (also, the trailer for season 2 is on AMC's website now).
Since my next panel was Sony's Hall H presentation at 4 PM, I had a few hours to kill before I had to get on line. Of course by now we all know what free time means right? Expo hall! I spent some more time playing more Capcom games, practicing my SFxT play on a fight stick. Fun stuff all around.
Around 1 PM we decided to jump on line for Hall H. In past years the line for Hall H has been so long you could be there the entire day. To avoid this problem, we got on line three hours early. Turns out the line wasn't all that long and after waiting half an hour we rolled right into the hall. Hall H sits over six thousand people so getting close wasn't really an option. That's okay though because they have giant screens projecting what everyone is doing/saying all the way in front.
I believe the first panel we sat through was for the fourth Underworld movie. Now, I've never watched these movies so this panel, and the following Q&A was pretty boring. The same was the case for the following panel, which was about two different movies. One I can't remember and the second was called "Attack the Block" or something like that. It's an alien movie set in South London. The footage they showed didn't look that good, so I'll be passing on that one. Either way it had Edgar Wright on it and all anyone did was ask them questions about Tintin, Ant Man, and the next movie he'll be making with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. No new info all around.
The next panel was the Fright Night panel. For those who don't know, Fright Night is a "remake" of an old horror comedy involving a vampire neighbor that is stalking the main character and his family. I somewhat of a Colin Farrel fan, so seeing him in the role of a villain tickled my fancy a bit. Unfortunately the rest of the movie looks a bit lackluster. So perhaps it'll be a good DVD buy.
Finally, after sitting through three hours of panels I wasn't too interested in, the main event was here. Sony's presentation consisted of four different movies: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, 30 Minutes or Less, Total Recall, and the Amazing Spiderman movie. First off, until I looked at the programming schedule about a week before the show, I had no idea they were making a new Ghost Rider movie. I never saw the first movie because Nic Cage makes my eyes burn and my ears bleed. That said, it seems like there will be more Ghost Rider this time around then last (from what I've heard) and that it'll a much darker/edgier movie. The trailer looked pretty crazy and action looked fun. Who knows. Depending on reviews, I might still see it. Oh, and for those asking: yes, Nic Cage is back.
30 Minutes or Less was next up. This movie looks pretty funny, plus it's by the same guy who directed Zombieland (a movie I did a speech on for a class). The only problem with the panel was that neither of the big names were present. Both Danny McBride and Jesse Eisenberg were off doing other films.
Total Recall on the other hand, really surprised me. The clips they showed looked a lot like Mass Effect (more than the Mass Effect movie probably will). The action looks fun and my hope is that the story will be good as well.
Last, but not least is Spiderman. I'm not going to repeat the beginning of the panel, if you don't know what I'm referring to, go here. It's the first item on the list. Personally, I thought it was refreshing to see such honesty from a Hollywood star. They showed the original trailer and then went right into some new footage. I'll say here right now that hte trailer that's out for everyone to see is terrible. It's an awful trailer that portrays a boring movie. The footage shown at Comic-Con though, shows a much more exciting movie. There was more action, more story, just better stuff all around. After the footage we bailed out because we had been sitting for quite some time and were rather hungry.
We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then went looking for dinner. We wound up at Dick's Last Resort. For those who were at Comic-Con last year, you should remember this as the restaurant that IGN had their meet and greet last year. It's basically a place where the waiters yell at you a lot of and make fun of you. It's so much fun and they actually make pretty good food. Dinner was awesome for another reason too. I walk inside and lo and behold, Epic Meal Time is inside. Naturally I had to get a picture with them.
We ended the day by roaming around the hotel lobby looking for more celebrities to meet. I only met two on Friday, but they were two very awesome people. They were Joss Whedon and Michael Emerson (LOST). Both were really cool and people I respect quite a bit. It was really fun meeting them.
That's me about done for Friday. Tomorrow will be my post on Saturday! Where IGN had their meet and greet. Stay tuned for stories and pics about that.
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2: Friday
Friday was supposed to be a really light day. On my schedule I had only two panels. The first was The Walking Dead and the second was Sony's Hall H presentation, which was to include The Amazing Spiderman. After getting up early again and rolling into the convention center, it became clear very quickly that I wasn't going to get into Ballroom 20, where the Walking Dead panel was. So I bailed quickly and met up with my dad and sister who were on line for a panel about "The Captains" a documentary by William Shatner about the life of all the starship captains after Star Trek. I've yet to watch it, but my dad did and he liked it quite a bit. You can watch the documentary here. Just sign up for the free trial and you'll be good to go.
Back to the panel though, it was moderated by Kevin Smith, whose comedy I'm not the biggest fan of. I heard though, that he was a much better moderator than he was panel participant. This was definitely true. He was hilarious and mixed well with Shatner and Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko from Deep Space Nine). Scott Bakula even made a surprise appearance on the panel. The panel was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I didn't really mind that I had missed the Walking Dead panel (also, the trailer for season 2 is on AMC's website now).
Since my next panel was Sony's Hall H presentation at 4 PM, I had a few hours to kill before I had to get on line. Of course by now we all know what free time means right? Expo hall! I spent some more time playing more Capcom games, practicing my SFxT play on a fight stick. Fun stuff all around.
Around 1 PM we decided to jump on line for Hall H. In past years the line for Hall H has been so long you could be there the entire day. To avoid this problem, we got on line three hours early. Turns out the line wasn't all that long and after waiting half an hour we rolled right into the hall. Hall H sits over six thousand people so getting close wasn't really an option. That's okay though because they have giant screens projecting what everyone is doing/saying all the way in front.
I believe the first panel we sat through was for the fourth Underworld movie. Now, I've never watched these movies so this panel, and the following Q&A was pretty boring. The same was the case for the following panel, which was about two different movies. One I can't remember and the second was called "Attack the Block" or something like that. It's an alien movie set in South London. The footage they showed didn't look that good, so I'll be passing on that one. Either way it had Edgar Wright on it and all anyone did was ask them questions about Tintin, Ant Man, and the next movie he'll be making with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. No new info all around.
The next panel was the Fright Night panel. For those who don't know, Fright Night is a "remake" of an old horror comedy involving a vampire neighbor that is stalking the main character and his family. I somewhat of a Colin Farrel fan, so seeing him in the role of a villain tickled my fancy a bit. Unfortunately the rest of the movie looks a bit lackluster. So perhaps it'll be a good DVD buy.
Finally, after sitting through three hours of panels I wasn't too interested in, the main event was here. Sony's presentation consisted of four different movies: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, 30 Minutes or Less, Total Recall, and the Amazing Spiderman movie. First off, until I looked at the programming schedule about a week before the show, I had no idea they were making a new Ghost Rider movie. I never saw the first movie because Nic Cage makes my eyes burn and my ears bleed. That said, it seems like there will be more Ghost Rider this time around then last (from what I've heard) and that it'll a much darker/edgier movie. The trailer looked pretty crazy and action looked fun. Who knows. Depending on reviews, I might still see it. Oh, and for those asking: yes, Nic Cage is back.
30 Minutes or Less was next up. This movie looks pretty funny, plus it's by the same guy who directed Zombieland (a movie I did a speech on for a class). The only problem with the panel was that neither of the big names were present. Both Danny McBride and Jesse Eisenberg were off doing other films.
Total Recall on the other hand, really surprised me. The clips they showed looked a lot like Mass Effect (more than the Mass Effect movie probably will). The action looks fun and my hope is that the story will be good as well.
Last, but not least is Spiderman. I'm not going to repeat the beginning of the panel, if you don't know what I'm referring to, go here. It's the first item on the list. Personally, I thought it was refreshing to see such honesty from a Hollywood star. They showed the original trailer and then went right into some new footage. I'll say here right now that hte trailer that's out for everyone to see is terrible. It's an awful trailer that portrays a boring movie. The footage shown at Comic-Con though, shows a much more exciting movie. There was more action, more story, just better stuff all around. After the footage we bailed out because we had been sitting for quite some time and were rather hungry.
We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then went looking for dinner. We wound up at Dick's Last Resort. For those who were at Comic-Con last year, you should remember this as the restaurant that IGN had their meet and greet last year. It's basically a place where the waiters yell at you a lot of and make fun of you. It's so much fun and they actually make pretty good food. Dinner was awesome for another reason too. I walk inside and lo and behold, Epic Meal Time is inside. Naturally I had to get a picture with them.
We ended the day by roaming around the hotel lobby looking for more celebrities to meet. I only met two on Friday, but they were two very awesome people. They were Joss Whedon and Michael Emerson (LOST). Both were really cool and people I respect quite a bit. It was really fun meeting them.
That's me about done for Friday. Tomorrow will be my post on Saturday! Where IGN had their meet and greet. Stay tuned for stories and pics about that.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Tales from Comic-Con 2011: Day 1
Previous Posts:
Day 0 of Comic-Con
Day 1: Thursday
Thursday was the first official day of Comic-Con. We had decided to wake up around 7:30 and get out around 8:30. The Hard Rock Hotel is literally across the street from the convention center, so it's not like we had to account for travel time. My dad wanted to hit the expo hall and my sister and I wanted to see the Psych panel. Psych was in Ballroom 20, the second biggest room in the convention center (the first being Hall H). So we divided up amongst the lines and waited.
The wait to get into Ballroom 20 wasn't long, perhaps an hour at most. Psych was the third panel in Ballroom 20, but we'd gotten there just in time for the first panel, which happened to be Burn Notice. The goal is always to get in the room at least a panel ahead of the one you really want to see. We were two ahead.
Now, I don't watch Burn Notice, but last year when I attended the panel Bruce Campbell was there and he made it all worth it. This year was no different. He and creator Matt Nix made a panel about a show I don't care about a joy to watch. It was a lot of fun, which is only to be expected with Bruce Campbell on your panel.
The next panel was Covert Affairs, yet another USA show I don't watch. This panel wasn't nearly as exciting as the Burn Notice, but Bruce Campbell is a hard act to follow. I did my best to not pay attention during this panel and instead passed the time by playing Cut the Rope on my iPhone.
Finally, after two hours of waiting, the Psych panel was here. They opened with a video with Shawn and Gus wondering how they could top their act from last year. So naturally, they got William Shatner to be in their video (he's guest starring this season as well). The video was decent and then they had the band come out and play the theme song. Then the cast rolled out and the panel started for real. They showed a sizzle reel of next season which looks pretty cool, then a clip from the first episode of the new season. This season looks to be much better than last year's, which I felt was tired and overplayed. Overall the Psych panel was decent. It wasn't nearly as good as last year's though, which had Kurt Smith and a tap dance off between Gus and his dance instructor.
After the Psych panel we moved into the expo hall. This is where they have booths set up across a building the size of two football fields. It literally takes about 25 minutes to get from one end to the other without any people in front of you. It's crazy. That said, there's also a lot of really cool stuff. The first booth I stumbled upon was the Konami booth, which brought Silent Hill Downpour with them. Naturally, I had to play it. My opinions on the game will be in a separate post later in the week though. The same goes for Capcom's games such as Street Fighter X Tekken, Ultimate MvC3, and Street Fighter III Online Edition. They had their other non-fighting games there as well (like Operation Raccoon City, Asura's Wrath, etc), but I never got a chance to play those.
While roaming the expo hall I found the booth of my artist friend Jason Palmer. I met Jason Palmer back in 2005 at Celebration 3. Somehow he remembered us two years later when I attended my first Comic-Con. He makes really cool art based on a lot of my favorite Sci-Fi shows. The only problem is that this year he didn't draw anything new, so I never bought anything.
Before leaving the expo hall for the day there was at least one thing I needed to accomplish, and that was getting Felicia Day's autograph. Sure, the rest of the Guild cast is there too and they're awesome, but let's be honest here. On my way to their booth though, I ran into one Casey Hudson. Yes, THE Casey Hudson who makes those Mass Effect games everyone loves so much. Usually this would be an awesome thing for me, since you know... I kind of like those games. The problem though, was that Casey Hudson was a bit of a jerk. I saw him passing by and I was like, "hey Casey Hudson." and so on right? Well he just completely bypasses me and keeps going. So I was like "No? Really?", and then he turns around. So I know he totally heard me.
Look, I don't mind if people don't want to take pictures or whatever. Just do me the favor of telling me you're busy or on your way to another panel, or something. Don't just blow me off, 'cause then you come off a bit like a douche. This happened plenty of other times throughout the day where people were on their way to something and couldn't stop. That's totally cool.
Anyways, back to the story at hand. So I finally get on line for the Felicia Day thing and get the autograph and picture (below). Done for the day, I decide to head back to drop off my swag bag and rest my feet for a bit before dinner. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Allison Scagliotti from Warehouse 13. So that was really cool for me.
After heading back to the hotel, we went and grabbed dinner. Before leaving I had learned there was an IGN party happening at the Hard Rock Hotel. The one and only Walter Lopez was working community for IGN and had helped coordinated this party (I apologize if some of the facts here are wrong, my memory is a tad fuzzy). Alas, this was mostly a corporate party, so there was no getting in.
Thankfully, that didn't matter! As it turned out, people had to actually get to the party through one of two entrances. I happened to be right in the middle of them. In total I met and took pictures with over 13 different celebrities which include most of the Game of Thrones cast, Dominic Monaghan, Mikey Tuttle, Jon Favreau, Piper Perabo, Jewel Staite, and Justin Timberlake. I also ran into Adam Sessler from G4 and Hideo Kojima of MGS fame. (the other girl in the photos is my sister)
These people were so nice and awesome, meeting them was so cool. Stay tuned for Day 2 where I miss a panel and somehow watch three more than I planned. I also meet more celebrities.
Day 0 of Comic-Con
Day 1: Thursday
Thursday was the first official day of Comic-Con. We had decided to wake up around 7:30 and get out around 8:30. The Hard Rock Hotel is literally across the street from the convention center, so it's not like we had to account for travel time. My dad wanted to hit the expo hall and my sister and I wanted to see the Psych panel. Psych was in Ballroom 20, the second biggest room in the convention center (the first being Hall H). So we divided up amongst the lines and waited.
The wait to get into Ballroom 20 wasn't long, perhaps an hour at most. Psych was the third panel in Ballroom 20, but we'd gotten there just in time for the first panel, which happened to be Burn Notice. The goal is always to get in the room at least a panel ahead of the one you really want to see. We were two ahead.
Now, I don't watch Burn Notice, but last year when I attended the panel Bruce Campbell was there and he made it all worth it. This year was no different. He and creator Matt Nix made a panel about a show I don't care about a joy to watch. It was a lot of fun, which is only to be expected with Bruce Campbell on your panel.
The next panel was Covert Affairs, yet another USA show I don't watch. This panel wasn't nearly as exciting as the Burn Notice, but Bruce Campbell is a hard act to follow. I did my best to not pay attention during this panel and instead passed the time by playing Cut the Rope on my iPhone.
Finally, after two hours of waiting, the Psych panel was here. They opened with a video with Shawn and Gus wondering how they could top their act from last year. So naturally, they got William Shatner to be in their video (he's guest starring this season as well). The video was decent and then they had the band come out and play the theme song. Then the cast rolled out and the panel started for real. They showed a sizzle reel of next season which looks pretty cool, then a clip from the first episode of the new season. This season looks to be much better than last year's, which I felt was tired and overplayed. Overall the Psych panel was decent. It wasn't nearly as good as last year's though, which had Kurt Smith and a tap dance off between Gus and his dance instructor.
After the Psych panel we moved into the expo hall. This is where they have booths set up across a building the size of two football fields. It literally takes about 25 minutes to get from one end to the other without any people in front of you. It's crazy. That said, there's also a lot of really cool stuff. The first booth I stumbled upon was the Konami booth, which brought Silent Hill Downpour with them. Naturally, I had to play it. My opinions on the game will be in a separate post later in the week though. The same goes for Capcom's games such as Street Fighter X Tekken, Ultimate MvC3, and Street Fighter III Online Edition. They had their other non-fighting games there as well (like Operation Raccoon City, Asura's Wrath, etc), but I never got a chance to play those.
While roaming the expo hall I found the booth of my artist friend Jason Palmer. I met Jason Palmer back in 2005 at Celebration 3. Somehow he remembered us two years later when I attended my first Comic-Con. He makes really cool art based on a lot of my favorite Sci-Fi shows. The only problem is that this year he didn't draw anything new, so I never bought anything.
Before leaving the expo hall for the day there was at least one thing I needed to accomplish, and that was getting Felicia Day's autograph. Sure, the rest of the Guild cast is there too and they're awesome, but let's be honest here. On my way to their booth though, I ran into one Casey Hudson. Yes, THE Casey Hudson who makes those Mass Effect games everyone loves so much. Usually this would be an awesome thing for me, since you know... I kind of like those games. The problem though, was that Casey Hudson was a bit of a jerk. I saw him passing by and I was like, "hey Casey Hudson." and so on right? Well he just completely bypasses me and keeps going. So I was like "No? Really?", and then he turns around. So I know he totally heard me.
Look, I don't mind if people don't want to take pictures or whatever. Just do me the favor of telling me you're busy or on your way to another panel, or something. Don't just blow me off, 'cause then you come off a bit like a douche. This happened plenty of other times throughout the day where people were on their way to something and couldn't stop. That's totally cool.
Anyways, back to the story at hand. So I finally get on line for the Felicia Day thing and get the autograph and picture (below). Done for the day, I decide to head back to drop off my swag bag and rest my feet for a bit before dinner. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Allison Scagliotti from Warehouse 13. So that was really cool for me.
After heading back to the hotel, we went and grabbed dinner. Before leaving I had learned there was an IGN party happening at the Hard Rock Hotel. The one and only Walter Lopez was working community for IGN and had helped coordinated this party (I apologize if some of the facts here are wrong, my memory is a tad fuzzy). Alas, this was mostly a corporate party, so there was no getting in.
Thankfully, that didn't matter! As it turned out, people had to actually get to the party through one of two entrances. I happened to be right in the middle of them. In total I met and took pictures with over 13 different celebrities which include most of the Game of Thrones cast, Dominic Monaghan, Mikey Tuttle, Jon Favreau, Piper Perabo, Jewel Staite, and Justin Timberlake. I also ran into Adam Sessler from G4 and Hideo Kojima of MGS fame. (the other girl in the photos is my sister)
These people were so nice and awesome, meeting them was so cool. Stay tuned for Day 2 where I miss a panel and somehow watch three more than I planned. I also meet more celebrities.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Tales from Comic-Con 2011: Day 0
I have returned from Comic-Con fellow bloggers! I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be able to blog during the trip because I'm out all day and then I sleep and repeat the process. So what I'm going to do instead is tell you everything about my trip over the next few days. Today I'm going to tackle Wednesday, the day we flew out. I also played a few new video games that I will make some separate posts about. This will simply be about the events that took place during Comic-Con, and the panels that I saw.
Day 0: Wednesday
Wednesday morning I woke up at 4 AM. Our flight was at 7 AM and my dad wanted to be at the airport at least an hour and a half before the flight. I should probably explain now that I went to Comic-Con with my sister and my dad. Now after waking up and getting ready to go, we made our to the airport. We didn't have to wait very long before we were able to board and get going.
A few details to mention here before I continue. The first is that a normal flight from Virginia to San Diego is a little bit over five hours. This time around we had a connection to San Fransisco, so the flight was about four hours. The second detail is that I hate traveling, especially flying. I hate long drives, I hate trains, but most of all, I hate flying. It's extremely boring and cramped. I also get super motion sick while traveling. So I can't read books, I can't write, and I can't watch movies or play games. I'm literally confined to my iPod and whatever I've brought on that audio-wise.
Thankfully our flights to San Diego weren't all that bad. We had a bumpy landing at San Diego, but after that all was well. After we gathered our bags we took a cab to the hotel. The hotel we stayed at the last two Comic-Con was the Manchester Grand. It was a fine hotel, but last year we heard that most of the stars attending the show were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel. Naturally, we had to stay there this time and as you'll see later on, it was worth it. On Wednesday we did spy two stars as they arrived at the hotel. We saw Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who played Jamie Lannister, as well as True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll who plays Jessica Hamby.
Wednesday was all about three things: 1. Flying 2. Badge Pick-Up and 3. Dinner. We'd already accomplished the flying aspect of the day, so next on the list was picking up our four-day badges. Every year Comic-Con allows people who have bought four-day badges (and Thursday badges) to pick them up the day before. The only annoying fact is that the badge pick up is at the Town and Country Hotel, which is a bit of way's out. So in order to save on time my dad decided to get a cab. It seemed like a good idea at first, but as we found out pretty soon, everyone was on the road headed to the Town and Country Hotel. So what should have been a fifteen minute ride at most turned into a half hour ride in traffic.
Finally at the Town and Country, we strolled right in and got in line. After a two hour wait, we had made it all the way through the line and got our swag bags and badges. As we left we noticed a very large line curled around the hotel. The farther we went, the longer the line got. We started to realize that this was the line we were supposed to have gotten on in the first place, and had in fact cut in line originally. Here's the thing though: when we walked in the door there was a hotel staff member standing there, watching the line. He saw us walk in and didn't say a word, he just kept ferrying people in. Whatever the reason though, I'm not particularly sorry about it because a two hour wait could have easily turned into a much longer wait and we were already cutting our dinner reservations close.
Speaking of dinner, that's where we went next! After taking a long train ride back to the convention center, we dropped off our bags and got changed. The restaurant we had reservations at was Ruth Chris Steakhouse. For those that don't know, Ruth Chris Steakhouse is a very expensive, but well worth it restaurant that serves - well - steak. They have the most tender meat I have ever tasted. Attending Ruth Chris Steakhouse is actually a convention tradition of ours, so I've been there a number of times over the past few years. It never gets old.
After that we went back to the hotel. We had never stayed in the Hard Rock before so my dad and I were a bit curious about what was in the rest of the building. They had a few clubs that weren't very active and the second floor is mostly made of conference rooms, so nothing spectacular yet. Once we were done we went up to our rooms. We were wiped from the flights and ready for some rest, especially since we had to wake up early the next day to get into the convention center.
Tomorrow I will blog about our first official day at Comic-Con and how I met a ton of celebrities!
Day 0: Wednesday
Wednesday morning I woke up at 4 AM. Our flight was at 7 AM and my dad wanted to be at the airport at least an hour and a half before the flight. I should probably explain now that I went to Comic-Con with my sister and my dad. Now after waking up and getting ready to go, we made our to the airport. We didn't have to wait very long before we were able to board and get going.
A few details to mention here before I continue. The first is that a normal flight from Virginia to San Diego is a little bit over five hours. This time around we had a connection to San Fransisco, so the flight was about four hours. The second detail is that I hate traveling, especially flying. I hate long drives, I hate trains, but most of all, I hate flying. It's extremely boring and cramped. I also get super motion sick while traveling. So I can't read books, I can't write, and I can't watch movies or play games. I'm literally confined to my iPod and whatever I've brought on that audio-wise.
Thankfully our flights to San Diego weren't all that bad. We had a bumpy landing at San Diego, but after that all was well. After we gathered our bags we took a cab to the hotel. The hotel we stayed at the last two Comic-Con was the Manchester Grand. It was a fine hotel, but last year we heard that most of the stars attending the show were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel. Naturally, we had to stay there this time and as you'll see later on, it was worth it. On Wednesday we did spy two stars as they arrived at the hotel. We saw Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who played Jamie Lannister, as well as True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll who plays Jessica Hamby.
Wednesday was all about three things: 1. Flying 2. Badge Pick-Up and 3. Dinner. We'd already accomplished the flying aspect of the day, so next on the list was picking up our four-day badges. Every year Comic-Con allows people who have bought four-day badges (and Thursday badges) to pick them up the day before. The only annoying fact is that the badge pick up is at the Town and Country Hotel, which is a bit of way's out. So in order to save on time my dad decided to get a cab. It seemed like a good idea at first, but as we found out pretty soon, everyone was on the road headed to the Town and Country Hotel. So what should have been a fifteen minute ride at most turned into a half hour ride in traffic.
Finally at the Town and Country, we strolled right in and got in line. After a two hour wait, we had made it all the way through the line and got our swag bags and badges. As we left we noticed a very large line curled around the hotel. The farther we went, the longer the line got. We started to realize that this was the line we were supposed to have gotten on in the first place, and had in fact cut in line originally. Here's the thing though: when we walked in the door there was a hotel staff member standing there, watching the line. He saw us walk in and didn't say a word, he just kept ferrying people in. Whatever the reason though, I'm not particularly sorry about it because a two hour wait could have easily turned into a much longer wait and we were already cutting our dinner reservations close.
Speaking of dinner, that's where we went next! After taking a long train ride back to the convention center, we dropped off our bags and got changed. The restaurant we had reservations at was Ruth Chris Steakhouse. For those that don't know, Ruth Chris Steakhouse is a very expensive, but well worth it restaurant that serves - well - steak. They have the most tender meat I have ever tasted. Attending Ruth Chris Steakhouse is actually a convention tradition of ours, so I've been there a number of times over the past few years. It never gets old.
After that we went back to the hotel. We had never stayed in the Hard Rock before so my dad and I were a bit curious about what was in the rest of the building. They had a few clubs that weren't very active and the second floor is mostly made of conference rooms, so nothing spectacular yet. Once we were done we went up to our rooms. We were wiped from the flights and ready for some rest, especially since we had to wake up early the next day to get into the convention center.
Tomorrow I will blog about our first official day at Comic-Con and how I met a ton of celebrities!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Google+ and the Cosmic Panda
I'm one of these people who loves new tech. From the new iPhone to the redesign of Facebook, I'm all for trying out new features on a phone or new ways to improve social networking. So you'd imagine my excitement when I heard about Google Plus, as well as YouTube's Cosmic Panda.
Google Plus is essentially Google's attempt to do Facebook but better. Cosmic Panda is YouTube's new interface for watching videos and view channels.
While I wasn't able to get into the initial beta of Google Plus, I got in once they opened it to all people who had a Google account. I've had one for years now so that made things pretty easy. When inside I dove right into figuring everything out. I know a lot of people were having trouble in the beginning, but I'd read a lot of initial impressions on Google Plus so I wasn't completely blind.
The most interesting thing about Google Plus so far is the circles feature. The feature is designed so you can separate who sees what whenever you post. For example, I have a circle that separates my friends where I live from my friends on IGN. Maybe I want to post about something that only the IGN folk will understand and vice-versa. There's also the option to just post into the open space of the internet if I wanted to.
Other circles, such as "following" are more like twitter. They help you follow celebrities in the same way that twitter or a fan page on Facebook does. All in all it's a handy feature that's nice to have.
The other two big features of Google Plus are the Sparks and Hangouts. The Sparks page acts exactly like fan pages on Facebook, but for much broader topics. They have things like "movies" and "recipes" on there. It's neat, but I see about as much use for it as I did on Facebook: none. The other problem is that the Sparks is a separate stream all together. While this is nice because it stops the main stream from getting cluttered, I'm not going to actively search out what's new under "movies".
The last feature, Hangouts, is something I've been unable to try just yet. From the impressions I've read though, it's a worthwhile feature and works much better than Facebook's attempt at Skype integration.
Of course since this is beta, so things don't work exactly as they should just yet. Sometimes when you make changes to your profile, the changes won't stick at first. The same applies to when you add new people to circles. Sometimes the system won't recognize that you've added them and you have to relogin before they appear.
Overall I've been really enjoying my time on Google Plus so far. I currently have less than fifty people between all of my circles, but the small number doesn't bother me. Right now Google Plus is clean and easy to sort through. There's also the lack of a lot of people I wish I hadn't added on Facebook.
Now it's the Cosmic Panda's turn. This is YouTube's new way to view videos and channels. If you look on the main page of YouTube, practically nothing looks different. That's about the only thing that looks the same though. Once you open up a new video screen, everything's changed.
As you can see from the pic, the view area is more centered now. Everything is a lot less cluttered around the video itself. The only annoying thing is the ad on the side of the video, but going to the third screen size pushes it away. You'll notice the sidebar has the playlists and similar videos list like it did last time, but formatted much neater than before. You get a larger preview of the video instead of a small thumbnail that's impossible to see.
The channels themselves have been cleared up as well. There are now three different templates you can choose from that have separate formatting options depending on what videos you make. There's also a fourth that combines the three. The one you see below is the "Creator" template.
You'll notice that the videos are easily displayed, with the playlists below. The right side now has all the bio information and the tabs up top clear up all the subscribers and comments you don't really care to see.
While I'm enjoying the new format so far, I still think the ads right next to the video is obnoxious since most videos have an ad before them already. There's also an annoying side effect where if you click the "like" button while the video is in a larger view format, it goes back to the smaller. It's a bit frustrating, but hopefully that will be corrected when the full update rolls out.
So what about you guys? Have you enjoyed Google Plus? Are you enjoying it? What about YouTube's Cosmic Panda? Do you think this update is better for all of YouTube? Let me know in the comments!
Also, if you've got Google Plus, find me on there! Peter Freeman is where you can find me.
Google Plus is essentially Google's attempt to do Facebook but better. Cosmic Panda is YouTube's new interface for watching videos and view channels.
While I wasn't able to get into the initial beta of Google Plus, I got in once they opened it to all people who had a Google account. I've had one for years now so that made things pretty easy. When inside I dove right into figuring everything out. I know a lot of people were having trouble in the beginning, but I'd read a lot of initial impressions on Google Plus so I wasn't completely blind.
 |
| The main page view of Google Plus. |
- It's really nice to have this option because I don't have to worry about saying something that may not be understood properly or may not have anything to do with certain people. I now know exactly who is going to see it, so makes creating conversations a lot easier.
 |
| Adding people to your Circles is simple. |
Other circles, such as "following" are more like twitter. They help you follow celebrities in the same way that twitter or a fan page on Facebook does. All in all it's a handy feature that's nice to have.
The other two big features of Google Plus are the Sparks and Hangouts. The Sparks page acts exactly like fan pages on Facebook, but for much broader topics. They have things like "movies" and "recipes" on there. It's neat, but I see about as much use for it as I did on Facebook: none. The other problem is that the Sparks is a separate stream all together. While this is nice because it stops the main stream from getting cluttered, I'm not going to actively search out what's new under "movies".
 |
| Sparks, while easy to find, are too broad to be interesting. |
Of course since this is beta, so things don't work exactly as they should just yet. Sometimes when you make changes to your profile, the changes won't stick at first. The same applies to when you add new people to circles. Sometimes the system won't recognize that you've added them and you have to relogin before they appear.
Overall I've been really enjoying my time on Google Plus so far. I currently have less than fifty people between all of my circles, but the small number doesn't bother me. Right now Google Plus is clean and easy to sort through. There's also the lack of a lot of people I wish I hadn't added on Facebook.
Now it's the Cosmic Panda's turn. This is YouTube's new way to view videos and channels. If you look on the main page of YouTube, practically nothing looks different. That's about the only thing that looks the same though. Once you open up a new video screen, everything's changed.
 |
| YouTube's new way to view videos. |
The channels themselves have been cleared up as well. There are now three different templates you can choose from that have separate formatting options depending on what videos you make. There's also a fourth that combines the three. The one you see below is the "Creator" template.
 |
| The "creator" template is one of three new ways to have people view your YouTube channel. |
While I'm enjoying the new format so far, I still think the ads right next to the video is obnoxious since most videos have an ad before them already. There's also an annoying side effect where if you click the "like" button while the video is in a larger view format, it goes back to the smaller. It's a bit frustrating, but hopefully that will be corrected when the full update rolls out.
So what about you guys? Have you enjoyed Google Plus? Are you enjoying it? What about YouTube's Cosmic Panda? Do you think this update is better for all of YouTube? Let me know in the comments!
Also, if you've got Google Plus, find me on there! Peter Freeman is where you can find me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)