Pocket Change - Shopping Blog

Sunday, July 26th

Sunday is kids day, occasionally there’s something cool to see, but much of the time, programming is thin for those that aren’t children or parents.  In  my case, I had no plans for my day but obtaining random stuff, and specifically, my resident evil shirt.

I spent the morning eagerly anticipating the doors opening, and I was very bitter as they let in the upstairs without letting in the downstairs.  I was irked.  I was going to be very irked if this prevented me from my t-shirt.  However, my friend on staff saved the day by getting in line before open (she still wasn’t first in line, if that tells you anything about how hard these were to get), and so finally, I was scheduled to play the demo and I would get my t-shirt.

Since I had some time to kill, I was hoping to get another Hitchhiker’s Guide towel.  Alas, the booth was all closed up, they were out of everything.  Slightly dejected, I headed to meet some friends and go to general fulfillment for some random stuff I’d gotten from panels I had attended.  Afterward, the time was about right for checking in at the Capcom booth.  My friend and I hang out and discover there’s a line of people just praying for no shows.  I can’t say I’m surprised at this line, or that people would somehow fail to arrive for their appointment, so we chatted to pass the time.

It occurred to me slightly before I was going to start playing the demo that I hadn’t actually thought about playing the game yet, I just wanted the shirt.  Resident Evil, Darkside Chronicles will be on the Wii, and it fills in some of the story during Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica.  You can play as Claire or Leon, and Claire seemed far more intelligent in the cutscenes/dialogues.  The game is 1st person, and you point the Wii-mote at the screen to aim the reticle and shoot the zombies.  Aiming is rather difficult, some of it intentionally to simulate panic, but it can be picked up after a few areas.  The game physics are great, if you shoot a zombie in the knee, he crumples to the ground; I managed to shoot the hat off one zombie, which was pretty neat.  In the short sequence, I saw regular zombies, dog zombies and bat zombies, so species were well represented.  I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the game and was definitely happy to get my awesome zombie shirt.

The rest of the day was much less eventful, some random swag grabbing and some quick purchases.   Notably, I obtained 3 Spike and Mike Animation DVDs autographed by Spike himself! This pleased me greatly.  The last minute “Con is closing” deals/giveaways were underwhelming, but I was so laden with stuff at this point, it was probably a good thing.

And that wraps up my San Diego Comic Con 2009 experience.

-Zack is returning for SD Comic Con 2010. See you there!