The comic is coming, Vance just has to actually draw it and everything. We got back this evening and are just getting unpacked. I've decided that I don't have to actually do as much as Vance does tonight, so I'll post first and with much gusto.
There were two things that made this trip to PAX different (and better) this year then years past. Technically, there were several little things that made this year better (such as the Sumo bean bag chairs that were spread around everywhere), but these two things really made my trip.
First, there was Guitar Hero. I have heard nothing but good things about this game and at PAX, in the console free play area, they had several stations that were setup to play only this game. So I gave it a shot and had a blast. I have never even picked up a guitar before but within half an hour, I could do the easy songs almost perfect and I felt that feeling that real musicians must feel when they get some great sounding music out of their instrument. This of course means that I will be purchasing Guitar Hero 2 when it comes out, because it has the co-op mode. The reason this is important ties into the second thing that made this trip fun for me.
My girlfriend came with me to PAX this year. Why is this important, you ask? I'm a gamer. I always have been. She has played a few games, but she doesn't always see eye to eye with me on the issue of gaming. Sparing you the details and getting to the point; she came and had fun playing games with me. This was what I figured would happen when she came, but all of her family, friends and everyone else I mentioned it to seemed to think I was inflicting some kind of horrid torture upon her, both to her body as well as her mind. Regardless of what they all thought, she had fun. We played Guitar Hero together and she even bought a DS Lite (I still have an original DS, so she has one-uped me on this). Now I don't expect her to become a total gamer or anything, I just like the fact that she has found a few games that she likes to play and they are games I can play with her so we can spend even more time together. All around good news as I see it. It may even help to soften her views on some of my gaming habits. You never know...
Of course Vance was there with me the whole time. This is our third year going and I don't foresee us missing this next year or the year after that. This was really our weekend to just check out the games we will be addicted to in the year to come as well as just have some fun playing games with everyone. We saw many great things, such as Pirates of the Burning Sea, which Vance described as Eve Online on the ocean. I can see the similarities, but I didn't do much with the game, except to blow Vance's pirate ship out of the water in the PvP demo they had setup. I'll give Vance credit, he was trying to talk to a developer while he was playing to figure things out and I had a strategy in mind from the beginning and was blowing huge chunks out of his armor. He was hosed the moment he started focusing on the fight and I had already gouged deep into his structure with my cannons. We'll see how that game develops. We also saw (and played) Warhammer Online. I was partly excited because of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that I had done in high school, but I have a hard time being impressed with yet another fantasy based MMO. I think that has to do with the fact that I have a girlfriend now and I don't spend 6 hours each weekday (8-12 on both Saturday and Sunday) playing games like I used to. It's not as important when you actually have a life (or at least the barely sprouted seedling that can develop into a life if properly nurtured).
Well, there were other things, but I'm still tired from the trip and will have to get back to them when and if I remember everything.
There were two things that made this trip to PAX different (and better) this year then years past. Technically, there were several little things that made this year better (such as the Sumo bean bag chairs that were spread around everywhere), but these two things really made my trip.
First, there was Guitar Hero. I have heard nothing but good things about this game and at PAX, in the console free play area, they had several stations that were setup to play only this game. So I gave it a shot and had a blast. I have never even picked up a guitar before but within half an hour, I could do the easy songs almost perfect and I felt that feeling that real musicians must feel when they get some great sounding music out of their instrument. This of course means that I will be purchasing Guitar Hero 2 when it comes out, because it has the co-op mode. The reason this is important ties into the second thing that made this trip fun for me.
My girlfriend came with me to PAX this year. Why is this important, you ask? I'm a gamer. I always have been. She has played a few games, but she doesn't always see eye to eye with me on the issue of gaming. Sparing you the details and getting to the point; she came and had fun playing games with me. This was what I figured would happen when she came, but all of her family, friends and everyone else I mentioned it to seemed to think I was inflicting some kind of horrid torture upon her, both to her body as well as her mind. Regardless of what they all thought, she had fun. We played Guitar Hero together and she even bought a DS Lite (I still have an original DS, so she has one-uped me on this). Now I don't expect her to become a total gamer or anything, I just like the fact that she has found a few games that she likes to play and they are games I can play with her so we can spend even more time together. All around good news as I see it. It may even help to soften her views on some of my gaming habits. You never know...
Of course Vance was there with me the whole time. This is our third year going and I don't foresee us missing this next year or the year after that. This was really our weekend to just check out the games we will be addicted to in the year to come as well as just have some fun playing games with everyone. We saw many great things, such as Pirates of the Burning Sea, which Vance described as Eve Online on the ocean. I can see the similarities, but I didn't do much with the game, except to blow Vance's pirate ship out of the water in the PvP demo they had setup. I'll give Vance credit, he was trying to talk to a developer while he was playing to figure things out and I had a strategy in mind from the beginning and was blowing huge chunks out of his armor. He was hosed the moment he started focusing on the fight and I had already gouged deep into his structure with my cannons. We'll see how that game develops. We also saw (and played) Warhammer Online. I was partly excited because of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that I had done in high school, but I have a hard time being impressed with yet another fantasy based MMO. I think that has to do with the fact that I have a girlfriend now and I don't spend 6 hours each weekday (8-12 on both Saturday and Sunday) playing games like I used to. It's not as important when you actually have a life (or at least the barely sprouted seedling that can develop into a life if properly nurtured).
Well, there were other things, but I'm still tired from the trip and will have to get back to them when and if I remember everything.
Ok, ok, it's Wednesday and I must say the prospects of getting the VR Comic @ PAX comic completed this week to the degree you deserve is not going to happen (life hit hard the second I got home). I can not in good conscious not post a comic this week. We haven't missed a week since we started this site over a year ago and I'm not starting now. So, you get a somewhat filler comic that goes along with PAX. I say it goes along with it, because I actually sketched it at PAX '05 and it's been on the blocks since then. So enjoy this simple, and I'll be it wrong, comic and tune in next week for our epic adventures at PAX 06!
I might end up doing a few traveling comics to finish up the trip, you know, a nice epilogue to the PAX collage comic.
I might end up doing a few traveling comics to finish up the trip, you know, a nice epilogue to the PAX collage comic.