Greetings, Galaxy Rangers!

Not a very big installment this week, as I am swamped with various bits of creative endeavors that need to be attended to.  But… I don’t want to leave you all with emptiness and solitude.  It’s so… empty and solitude-like.  And there’s no pie there.

For those of you who are going to Dragon*Con this weekend – have fun!  Come back in one piece, and get me Nathon Fillion’s autograph.

Okay, you don’t really have to.

So, where was I?  Oh yes – this week’s column.  Well, I haven’t had the chance to do much this week worth writing about, but I did manage to play one sweeeeet little demo on my PS3:

I’m talking about the demo for the upcoming Star Wars game The Force Unleashed.

Now, before you start groaning and rolling your eyes in that George Lucas raped my childhood kinda way, hear me out.  Say what you will about special editions, prequels, and CG animated movies sans the 20^th Century Fox logo.  This demo alone made me forget about all that.  I was too busy throwing stormtroopers around with the Force.

I’m not going to go into a full review, at least not until I get to play the full game.  Instead, I’m going to offer up a short list of things that made me giggle with excitement while I played the demo.

Yeah, so I giggled.  So what?

List of Things I Loved About The Force Unleashed Demo:

-  Smooth and amazing graphics.

-  Great orchestral score, some from the films, some brand new.

-  Taking out stupid Imp droids!  Gonk droid is enjoying his sandwich made of pure not-functioning.

-  Breaking the windows of the Star Destroyer and letting the vacuum of space suck my enemies out for me.  Bye, guys!  Hope you don’t mind the opposite of breathing.

-  I took out a dude by throwing a TIE Fighter at him with the Force!  Booyah!

-  The Force is crazy!

-  No good guy heroics this time.  I’m all SITH, baby!

-  Infusing my lightsaber with Force lightning ensures my enemies suffer a death reaction to lightning and being sliced in half.

-  All grabbing your trooper buddy does is give you company when I Force lift you and drop you into the no-bottoms below.

-  I split that AT-ST up the middle like there was candy inside!

Based on all the fun I had with the demo, I can’t wait until release day to get the full game.  It’s been awhile since I’ve been this excited about Star Wars, and I wanna jump in head first before that feeling wears off.  Who knows when it will come back again?  So, hurry up and get here, mid-September!  I wanna start trashing bozos now!

*sigh*

Fine, I’ll step forward so that I may see…

The Don was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father.  Wait, who are you again?

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Guh, it’s almost the end of a brutal Monday. I wish it was still Saturday night.

Because I went to 32-Bit Genocide, a video game music festival held annually in Baltimore! It was a blast! And to think it’s in this blogger’s hometown too! Cover bands like Year 200X stole the show for me personally, with heavy anthems of Journey to Silius, Lifeforce, the NES version of Ducktales (you read that correct, DUCKTALES.) and a Contra medley to finish it off. Cheap Dinosaurs was a one man digital melee, ripping the sound samples from a Gameboy cartridge to mix beats on the fly in a drum-and-bass-y style. Very, very cool performance, and about the most unique.

Other acts like The Megas, Ultraball & This Place Is Haunted brought more of the kind of gamer-meets-indy-rocker vibe that makes these shows so interesting. During those times, I was in the gallery hall to sample works by 2-D artists and craftmakers. The music acts got to graffiti the facing wall, while pretty much everyone with a working shoulder and chunk of chalk did their best. I got in the act too, dropping plenty of signature shooting game fanart. Oh yeah; Ironing bead art to the stars. You too, could have owned your very own Skull Castle.

Gotta say though, while not my cup of tea, The Protomen (one of the headline bands of the evening) impressed the heck out of me. They played hits from Queen, Kenny Loggins, a nice shift from the game-centric sound. Moreover, their stage presence, the way they handled rowdy crowds — by joining in the heady chaos(!), dealing with bum equipment; the Protomen just had a level of class that was really impressive, and one of the real highlights of the night.

In all, I had a great time — it helps that my raiding party consisted of webcomic artists, game industry heads and Mr. Magfest himself. Speaking of which, Magfest strikes at the start of 2009, so I’ll be covering that too! It’s not everyday one can plug into some Mike Tyson’s Punch Out or throw on Lifeforce (Konami Code & all) while the crowd is jumping to to a cover of The Legend of Zelda.

By all means, follow the links, find a show and enjoy!

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“DO what they say, SAY what they mean, ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHE– *ahem* Sorry.

Gotta say, folks — this is a crazy time. Otakon 2008 kersploded all over the place.  The Monday before, this blogger had no chance of going.  By Thursday, the world was a proverbial oyster.  Friday, migraine.

And then in no uncertain terms, *gasp*

Jam Project Artist Alley chaos UDON Comics OMG doujinshi Orioles fans not knowing what the heck was going on with ZOMG a SWEET Touhou Cosplayer 10-dollar parking Holiday Inn Express ROCKS harder than the Inner Harbor sushi rolls and Sake Billiards at night Complimentary Breakfast in the morning Packed too much Still need to upload SDCC photos Didn’t bother taking any at Otakon Late bus rides Hyatt is sexy What the heck is Hoolihans Everybody’s got an IPhone look it plays Solitaire Nintendo DS Etrian Odyssey II hurts my soul How did I end up on Route I-97 where is the Dealer’s Room Watch me make 100$ disappear in an hour B & O Railroad museum Comic books Peace bonded swords everywhere Up at 9 am In bed at 3 Stupid cellphone Where’s my badge — oh here it is.

That was MY weekend.  And I’m spent.  Next week.

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Ever been within inches of a passing semi truck on a busy freeway, whipping past at 70 mph? Even in your car, you get thrown around like a leaf? Yeah, that was SDCC for the remainder of the weekend.

While I’d love to share pics, I’m still on borrowed time — my flight back home departs TODAY, thus I can write to you all, but I have roughly 500 pictures to sort, weed out and organize into a functional blog. In the meantime, let me tell you all — California rolled out the red carpet, and I had THE BEST — excuse me, *ahem* THE BEST time at a convention since the Blizzard of 2003 during Katsucon. That’s no small feat.

This was geek Mecca. Direct your prayers of Dr. Horrible and new episodes of Eureka just south of the setting sun, folks. While no show is perfect, and Murphy’s Laws prevail, I will say that the positives of the experience far, FAR outweigh the negatives. In other words, don’t feel bad. Everyone else is broke too.

So, in the meantime (while I’m 30,000 in the air for several hours) here’s my take on:  FIVE THINGS I LEARNED FROM SDCC.

(1): No one in their right mind should ever move an event or convention from San Diego. It’s PRIME real estate. I’m not the man behind the wheel, so there’s no telling what the future holds — but I will say that San Diego embraced the convention with open arms, and there was PLENTY to do and see beyond the convention walls. Go to lunch at the Tin Fish restaurant. Get around on the trolleys. Check out the best damned reuben ever at The Field.  Speaking of fields, the Padres play at Petco Park right up the street (say what you like about the Padres.)  Even the train station is a photo op waiting to happen!

(2): Your Mileage May Vary.  And oh, did I rack up a few.  Now, you can actually stop and get a breather throughout a good portion of the con, you just have to be… creative about it.  And not have any hangups about sitting on cold floors, corners of huge displays or just around the corner of an artist table.

(3): You have to be extra special, determined or crazy (or maybe a heady combination of the three) to actually get the Rare Collectable Merchandise Given Out Only At The Con Wherein You Must Stand In Line For Several Hours For The CHANCE To Get It.

(4): Besides, there are scores of people hired just to hand out free flyers.  Save the earth, collect them all!  I bet you could fill a phone book with all the mini posters, cards, flyers, and extra bits.

(5): Some personal tips to share with you all:

-Bring a camera, and break a bank book on batteries.

-When you’re done packing, open your bags again, take out half the stuff you packed.  You’re not going to need it.

-Say “yes” to whatever absurd means it takes to get there, short of risk to person or possessions.  This place is worth it.

-Water.

-Plan ahead.  There is for even the regular attendees, four whole days worth of events to attend and people to see, things to buy (or have a conniption over whether TO buy) and while you CAN do it all in a day, if you’re around for the whole thing, space it out.  Get some rest.  Eat hearty.  Because TONIGHT WE DINE IN — *ahem*

I’ll be back with photos, folks!  Sorry for the delay, but right now it’s time for me to say goodbye to perpetually sunny San Diego!

(Oh yeah, and there was an earthquake yesterday.  Most bizarre damned thing I’ve ever experienced.)

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…Which, depending on your outlook was either a disaster or a success for this blogger.    So, the previous night, we capped off with a bender — and paid the price in the morning, being too tired or too hungover to risk fighting the crowds — and the crowds are struggle!

But I spent my afternoon in style, with the crew of Lava Punch, including Alex Ahad!  I hope to try out his demo for his game, “SkullGirls” tomorrow.  Likewise, there will be mad scanning and photography to show at the end of the day tomorrow.  Prepare for the weekend media blitz, when I return.  Somehow, I’m seeing Friday & Saturday as a non-stop affair.  Which is cool, considering I must have slept at least… 12 hours today…

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Otherwise known as the first day of the convention!

Hey readers, coming to you live from after the convention!  It’s 2am, Thursday morning of SDCC, and ALREADY it looks to be a phenomenal event.  The best of comics, animation, illustration, video games and more are front & center in sunny San Diego for — and I’m really avoiding hyperbole here — an epic, auspicious event for all of geekdom.

[0] San Diego itself deserves mention for being an absolutely BEAUTIFUL piece of real estate.  I’ve been to many, many conventions; this one is loooong on looks.   Also — and bear in mind this was the exception, not the rule — most of the registration lines were very quick and despite the sheer scale of it, for a pre-registered guest, the wait never exceeded an hour’s time.  Most of the convention center staff; much less the staff for SDCC itself seemed pretty open and receptive.  If there was a place to be, they’d point it out.  If there was somewhere someone wasn’t authorized to go to, it was handled quickly and fairly.  Kudos to San Diego for making the show a true EVENT.

[1] Did you know, I have an entry in the Street Fighter Tribute artbook by Udon Comics & Capcom?  Please ignore the shameless self-promotion, and pay attention to an encyclopedic, 320 page monster of an artbook, with nearly EVERY notable artist in the world today — from Udon’s inner circle, to most online artists, to even the likes of Jorge Gutierrez (El Tigre!)  Simply marvelous!

[2] It’s telling that the video game creators man one of the main entries to the convention floor.  Capcom, Square/Enix, Konami, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, all within spitting distance of each other, and it isn’t until you’ve plowed through the first five or so minutes of people that you reach the television and animation venues.  Just an interesting note — by all means, there are enough people to really, REALLY fill in  the space.

[3] There is no number 3.

[4] This will be a day-to-day update affair.   I’m VERY excited to upload and post pictures for you all to see!  This is more or less one of the great geek Mecca of the world, so it’s not just one minor day’s post worth of material.   I’ll be back tomorrow night with more on SDCC!  If there’s any questions you all want to ask, I’m all ears!

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Hello, loyal Spwug readers!

Katy and I apologize for not posting much recently, things have been crazy at home.

This is not a post saying that Spwug is ending, because it’s not. Nor is it a post saying that Katy and I will be posting more, because that’s in the air.

However, it IS a post saying that in a week or two, there will be a call for writers! If you’ve ever wanted to write for a geek culture magazine, here’s your chance!

Just keep an eye on this space, and I’ll have the details up as soon as I can.

Thanks!

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No no, get your mind out of the gutter, I’m not talking about THAT sort of dungeon. I’m talking about that bastion of geekery, Dungeons and Dragons. Now, I don’t play myself, but many of those whom I have been privileged to call friend over the years have played, so I am somewhat versed in the culture that is the role-playing game. However, even if I was coming to it cold, unaware of any of the language or cultural touchpoints involved, I would still have enjoyed the book “Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress” by Shelly Mazzanoble.

This book follows the birth of a brand new gamer- a woman who works for Wizards of the Coast and yet has never rolled a 20-sided die before in her life. She takes you with her from her initial spark of interest (’hmm, maybe I should learn something about this thing we do here’) to her attempt to force her newfound passion upon her friends (ok, so homemade chocolate volcano cake is a pretty good bribe, I think.)

I really enjoyed this book, I have to say. I liked her sense of humor about the whole thing, and her attempts to dispel the myriad stereotypes that swirl around this game. My S.O. (who has played so far as to even DM games himself) even found it amusing to read through, so there seems to be something to satisfy even experienced players while being a pretty good read for those who perhaps have someone in their lives that they love, but don’t quite understand when they go on about loot drops and tanking. Hey, it might even spark enough interest to inspire conversation- I know I actually managed to deepen my understanding of the game, which has helped strengthen my knowlege base for my WoW playing.

So there you are, an actual book review. If we get really energetic over here at Chez Spwug, the next book review will be on the new 4th edition books…. Once I get my DM, I mean my sweetheart to explain them to me.

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Waugh!  Yesterday was Wednesday wasn’t it?!  Don’t you hate it when one day transposes itself over another?

Anyways, quite a few things going on worth mention:

 -The Demon Mages, Issue #2 is on the threshold of completion.  Took a little extra time, but significantly less OT than before.  Look for that in and around the time of…

 -SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!  I’ll be happy to give you readers the extended post-con coverage (August 2nd.  Let’s be fair; jet-lag) , but in the meantime, a few lead-up articles will get passed around, starting next week.  There’s not much to say here, except that packing for ten days in two bags will be… interesting.

-Almost directly afterwards is Otakon 2008.  This blogger lives moments away from it, so like the event horizon of a black hole, it seems many individuals may be drawn into it’s vortex.  Convention roundup on that one as well will be posted, come August 13th. 

-Pixiv.net & Nico-Nico Douga are neat!  Even if your Japanese is lackluster, it’s easy navigation & content abounds!  I’m there most every day!  Google searches readily turn up non-native registration instructions, so there’s little chance of getting lost.

-BONESAW IS REA-DY!!!  Tough as heck with a keyboard, a little imprecise, but still an impressive game and I chuckled at most of the humor.  A cool homebrewed time waster.

-In the spirit of our nation, I watched Paul “John Adams” Giamatti in probably my most favorite role I’ve seen him play — as the whip smart, buck-nasty Mr. Hertz in Shoot ‘Em Up.  Funny to me to see commercials for his HBO special, and super-impose Mr. Hertz’s cellphone ringing.  Or maybe an extended gunfight with Ben Franklin. 

And now, some new art!  Both done by hand, with markers & pens — the second from back on June 13-15th for the Anime-Mid-Atlantic weekend.

That’s all for now!  See ya next week!

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(Many apologies for last week, folks!  I thought it’d posted, but something must have fouled up along the way.  Still relevant info though…)

Japan rolls out the first robot girlfriend.  So soon?!  Man, trying to get up to walking & talking PVC models by 2010, I see.  Robots.  Destined to be our steel plated, glowing-red-diode-eyed apocalypse.  And the first step, to win the hearts and minds of humankind.  Or at least, charm the hell out of us with plastic perfection.

 Now, considering the idea is not even remotely new, I was entertained by how matter-of-fact, the news blurb seems.  It’s barely even two pages of text!  Nothing to see here, folks.  Wait for the Mac OS version; she’ll be a lot more stylish and have a punchy on-camera role in the Mac vs. PC commercials.  To be honest, it’s amazing to me that the premise of artificially intelligent, robotic companions isn’t a far fetched idea.  Heck, here we see the concept is already commercialize-able — SOMEBODY out there bought those robotic toy dogs!  It’s only a matter of time, I tell you!  Only a matter of time till Asimo is tooling around our homes, plotting our demise!

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