Pocket Change - Shopping Blog

This weekend was a glorious affair. For 4 days, San Diego California hosted what can really only be described as the “Nerd Superbowl.” Comic-con international is a once a year tribute to all things comic book, video game, table top game, movie, and popular art. The weekend was very long, and sleep was a luxury for the weak, but from the lines and crowd I arise with news of this wonderful gathering.

First, I have somewhat of a complaint to the organizers of this event. It has grown far too large for its venue, and the organizers don’t seem to realize it. This year was the biggest Comic-Con yet, and the lines and crowds proved it. You are really only given 2 choices when it comes to what you are going to do on a given day. You can attend every panel leading up to the one you want to actually see in order to actually get in, or you could spend the day doing the 30 other things that you’d like to do. Every good even conflicts with each other, and they don’t seem to realize which panels would be popular and which would not. This became stunningly clear when the line for the Heroes panel drew the attention of the Fire Marshal and was dispersed because it had grown too large. As the weekend continued on and more people showed up the problem became even worse. When celebrities would come to do signings at the booths, the event staff would filter large groups of people into very small hallways making traffic on the floor come to a very cramped standstill. It just all seemed very unorganized and something needs to change.

With that aside lets talk about the good things that came from the convention.

The Floor:
Panels are usually the main source of juicy information at any convention, but I am a much bigger fan of walking the floor. The floor of a convention like comic-con is a wonderland of expensive displays designed to make you want to whip out your wallet. It is shopping paradise. Since gaming is my passion, and the MMO is the genre of choice my obvious first move was to head to the Warhammer Online booth.

I have been critical of Warhammer online in the past. I used to think that its choppy animations and sketchy combat systems would be its downfall. After getting some hands on time with the game this weekend I realized how terrible incorrect I was. The game is fun, it plays quite smoothly, and the characters are as unique as any MMO I’ve ever played. Flying around on a living disk (that bites) as a Chaos Magus is an experience that really needs to be had to fully understand. I really can’t wait to get my hands on this game in beta, or at release.

Next stop was the Playstation booth. There was nothing stunning about the booth, but it was a great chance to get some hands on time with a few upcoming Playstation 3 and PSP games. The Playstation 3 is a fascinating animal. Every game I played at that booth was stunning and beautiful. Lair, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank, Folklore, and Eye of Judgment all played as epic as they looked. It just happens that none of these games are actually out.

Staying with the Sony theme, we took a quick look at the Sony Online Entertainment booth. By quick look I mean that we walked into the booth, laughed and quickly walked out. Hey, that pirate MMO is coming along great guys, good work.

A few other things to mention about gaming in general. Tabula Rasa looks amazing, the Game Tap people are very friendly, Conan (the console game) looks terrible, and the Cartoon Network MMO looks like it will be great fun for the little ones.

On to the world of movies and TV. This year seems to be the year of Neil Gaiman. Beowulf and Stardust look like they have the potential to me incredible. He doesn’t seem to be stopping there, and is actively pursuing making even more movies. It also seems to be the year of Stargate and Star Trek. This year we will see two Stargate movies (with Richard Dean Andersen so they won’t suck), a complete series DVD release, and a new Stargate spin off. For Star Trek we’re getting a new movie about the early lives of Spock and Kirk. Of course the real star of the show was the Iron Man movie, which really does look like it’ll blow the skin right off your face.

There is so much more that happened at that convention, but as I said seeing everything is nearly impossible. I tried to get as much out of the convention for you all as I could, but the large crowd had other plans.