Enough with The Cake already!

Well last weekend, I finally had enough time to finish up Portal, and what a fantastic ending. It was surprising to me that a game so focused on puzzles could have a solid storyline, and a great soundtrack(specifically referring to the song within the end credits). I cannot stress enough how enjoyable this game was, I cannot wait to get the time to play through the bonus levels, and I simply cannot imagine that the community will not come up with some great maps.

And while the fall quarter at school is ramping up, and I'm swamped with work as usual, my roommate just had to go and purchase Bioshock. Now toward the end of the summer I played a little bit at a friends house, but never really got to the meat of the game(past level two). But now that I've been able to really sit down and play, I've fallen in love with it(that scary kind of love, like you aren't sure if some crazy lunatic isn't going to pop up behind you when the lights are off, that kind of love). I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys spooky first person shooters, and crazy twisted metal golems with spider eyes.




In other news, yesterday I finally received my official FanFaire 2007 t-shirt, and in my size! When I attended FanFaire over the summer, they did not have my size, and asked me to fill out a form, include my email address, and size. I almost thought they had forgotten about me until three weeks ago when I received an email from SOE telling me that they had received a new shipment, and were going to send it to me. It is a little thing, I know, but it just made me feel good, knowing that I hadn't been left in the dust.

Of course with "The Orange Box", not only was Portal included, but also the revamp of the classic Team Fortress, aptly named Team Fortress2. Oh what fun it is! My friends and I have had a fantastic time blowing each others heads off, over and over again. The graphics are fantastic, and very in the spirit of The Incredibles. Again if you haven't, and you have the means, you should check out "The Orange Box", it is an incredible value. Also my Steam user name is "Chestone", if you see me on send me an invite, I love playing with new people. Well it is now time to finish this paper I've been procrastinating with so badly.

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Cheston

FanFaire Recap!

Yes, its true, though limited I did make an FanFaire appearance!
Proof:


I have to say I only attended for one day, and half a day at that(curse you Vegas hangovers). But I was impressed, there was a much larger crowd than I was anticipating, and the setup SOE had was pretty snazzy, especially for the cost of admission which wasn't all that much for the event and panel list. So I only attended a few panels, they were held in very tiny rooms with chairs for about thirty people. It was a very personal experience, unlike DefCon whose talks were given in huge lecture rooms fit to hold hundreds. I wasn't able to hang around as much as I wanted to, mostly because of the hangover, but I chilled out in the vendor/game/etc.. area for a bit and wrote blog posts meeting a few people along the way.
The crowd was certainly a mix bag, spanning all ages and professions, with a few costumed folks running around. The panels though were great, very informative, and the speakers were very open to answering any questions. I really enjoyed the level of detail some of the questions received it really gave me an idea of how things happen behind the scenes and the relationship different departments have with each other. All in all, coming out of FanFaire I have a very positive view of SOE and their upcoming releases and cannot wait until next year(hopefully it will not conflict with DefCon as it did this year) where I will be able to attend without having to split my time, because although I did get quite a lot out of FanFaire, I feel like I really missed out on some good times and good people.

P.S. Sorry Cuppy for not getting in touch, my phone battery died the second day in Vegas and I forgot my charger at home(note to all travelers, don't leave your charger behind it will plague you throughout your vacation) .

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Cheston

New SOE MMO?

Seriously all gaming companies, we have so much news to filter through right now and I know I'm feeling overloaded. What with FanFaire and Blizzcon having just concluded there is just so much time in the day to rummage through the line of tabs I have open in FireFox.

Anyways, in my rummaging I came across an announcement from SOE about an upcoming MMO. Now I couldn't believe it when I first saw the story, with The Agency and Pirates of the Burning Sea(though not developed by SOE they are still pushing it) on the horizon along with the upcoming EQ and EQ2 expansions, not to mention the overhaul that is being done on Vanguard it seems a little like SOE is overextending themselves with so much in development. But after reading the announcement I believe that this is a move in a different direction not directly aimed at their current demographic. Ramayan 3392 A.D., looks to me like SOE is taking aim at the emerging tech-wonder India and attempting to tap that market and establish itself before any other firm. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but this makes more sense to me as they did not announce this at FanFaire as it is not really aimed at its current customer base. I am really interested in how this will turn out if I am correct as it is quite a risk to open up to a new market like this. Anyways if you have any other opinions I'd love to hear them so drop a comment.

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Cheston

Fan Faire!

I have always wanted to attend a SOE's FanFaire ever since I was an EQ junkie, and I might actually have the chance this year. The thing is, I'm going to be in town for a conference(Defcon) on the exact same weekend, this presents a serious dilemma for me, as FanFaire is appealing but Defcon is a yearly event for myself and a bunch of college friends from RIT. The thing that would really seal the deal is if I had someone to hang out with or at least meet up with at FanFaire, so if any of my legions of readers are attending maybe we could have a drink or whatever, so leave a comment if you are attending, and hopefully I'll see you there.

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Cheston