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This weekend I went to PAX for the first time. PAX is the Penny Arcade Expo, and it’s a convention devoted to nothing but gaming. I guess I didn’t know what I was getting into because I don’t hear as many people talk about it as San Diego Comic-Con. I figured I would have a good time, but it was many times better than I thought it would be.

I drove to Seattle Thursday night after working at home for the day. I didn’t know that anybody I knew was going until the week of the con, so I had already found roommates on the hotel share thread on the PAX forums. This was a mistake. I should’ve just ponied up the money to get a room by myself. The guy who booked the room asked for my share of the money soon after I responded to his post because he was short on money. When I got to the hotel, we didn’t have a room because his card got declined. He said that he was getting a direct deposit around midnight from his job and we would have a room then. He was there with his online gaming group. They were split into 3 rooms. Our room had 5 people and the other two rooms had 4 each. These people were freaking weirdos, and that’s coming from me. I hope they don’t see this. They even admitted that they were strange and apologized for how strange they were. The guys in my room were okay, but the others in their extended group were out there. I left my stuff in one of the other rooms and we went to a bar while we waited to get our room. As I expected, his money wasn’t available at midnight. He asked me if I had a credit card that I could that I could use and he would forward me the money later. I said something vague like “I can’t do it”, but the truth was I just didn’t want to. I thought about getting my own room somewhere nearby. I guess he found someone else willing to use their card. We finally got into our room around 1AM. One guy snored so loudly that it was hard to sleep. I think I got about 2 hours of sleep that night. At least somebody called him out on that. Not that it did any good.

The next day I got up to go the convention center. I had an idea of which panels I wanted to see, but I didn’t know what else I would end up doing. My roommates had talked about getting up early to get in line to play games, but I didn’t really know what they were talking about and I wasn’t really interested. When I got to the lobby, I asked the front desk to call me a cab. I saw some guys in Telltale Games shirts outside and they got in the first cab that came. It turns out that was supposed to be my cab. They invited me to share the cab with them and they paid for it. Neat, huh? When I got to the convention center, I just followed the flow of people. I ended up in the line for the Exhibition Hall where you can view and play games and see other stuff. While we waited in line here and everywhere else, the staff gave us stuff to do and entertained us. Comic-Con could learn something from this. I decided I wasn’t going to try to play any games because I didn’t want to wait a long time to play a demo I could play in a few months. Mostly, I walked around and watched other people play. I heard the wait to play Borderlands 2 was around 8 hours. I focused a lot on the cosplayers and props/decorations. I did see one of the Telltale guys I shared a cab with at the Telltale booth. The whole weekend I played maybe 2 or 3 games, but I did get cards with codes for games. I didn’t get much schwag other than this. There was so much to see. I tried to at least walk past every table. I spotted some guest stars from Supernatural at one point. Between visits to the Exhibition Hall I went to a couple of panels, like the Destructoid Live panel. I went to a party that night and had a great time.

The second day wasn’t as interesting because I had seen the Exhibition Hall. I went to the Major Nelson Live panel. There was stuff going on all over the convention center. Even though I had seen much of it the previous day, I was still discovering a lot of things. I found a dark arcade (the way it should be) and I played some board games. I really want to get into board and card games now. People were playing them in dedicated rooms and on the floor while in line. I bought 1 game at the convention and I’ve bought another 1 since I got back. I ended up going to a Harmonix panel late that because I wanted to sit down for a while and I didn’t want to go back to my room yet. It ended up being the best panel I saw the entire weekend. Right when I was about to leave the convention center for the day, I stumbled across the console freeplay room where they had tons of consoles setup and you could checkout games to play. I wish I had known about this sooner, because I would’ve spent a lot of time here.

I decided to come home Sunday instead of Monday morning. I had seen everything I needed to see and I wanted to give myself more time to recuperate. Also, I didn’t want to spend another night in that room. I was thinking about going to a popular museum in Seattle, but I’ll have to do that next time.

I had a great time at PAX. It’s a lot more relaxed that Comic-Con. I did learn a few lessons. Never go in blind on the roommate situation. That threatened to put a damper on the weekend and I’m glad it didn’t. Also, I shouldn’t go to cons alone. It’s a lot less awkward when you know someone there and have someone to hang with. I either need to make more friends who like to go to these things or convince more of my current friends to go. Lastly, this isn’t really a lesson, but I need to dress up for a con one time. I think it would be a lot of fun. I’m glad that I’m fortunate enough to be able to go on these little adventures. I’m looking forward to the next one.

I think I’m going to like this game.

With everything going on lately, I had kinda forgotten that Christmas happened this year. Since neither my mother and nor my sister were in Jackson this year, I didn’t even go home. It’s the first time I’ve ever spent Christmas alone.  I wasn’t completely alone.  Reese is always here, but you know what I mean.

What did I get this year?  I got Darksiders on the Xbox 360 and the first book in the Dresden Files series from a friend.  I got usual movie theater gift cards from my boss at MSU before I left there.  I got the Dresden Files TV series from a kind friend on Twitter. I participated in Twitter Secret Santa again this year and got an awesome USS Enterprise pizza cutter.  I don’t think I’m going to use it.  I think I’ll keep it as a collectible.  If last year is any indication, my sister will probably find the time to send her gift to me around February.

Overall, I just wasn’t into Christmas this year.  I hope it’s different next year.  I hope that whether I’m in Oregon or Mississippi I get to spend Christmas Day with people I care about.

This has been a good week to be a geek.  With E3 and WWDC going on at the same time, I now have a lot of stuff to look forward to.

E3 has made the gamer in me very happy.  I haven’t been keeping up with the announcements and videos as much I wanted to, but what I’ve seen is great.  I had already heard about most of the games, but seeing/learning more about them made me excited.  I’m most looking forward to Mass Effect 3, Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Bioshock Infinite, and the Tomb Raider game that made me think I was listening to a porno.  I’m sure there are many others that I’m forgetting.  I’m not that interested in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3, but I’ll probably give them a try at some point.  I’m lukewarm on the Kinect stuff that was shown off.  It could end up being fun.  I’m not all that excited about the console announcements.  PSVita looked okay, but I’m not into handheld gaming anymore.  Wii U is a weird name, but I thought Wii was a weird name when I first heard it.  I’m sure I’ll get one eventually, but will I use it?  It will be nice, though, to play Nintendo games in HD.

The WWDC is also taking place.  I’m not a big Apple fanatic, but I am interested in iOS5.  I hope the notification system is better than what they have now and I hope it doesn’t make my 3GS slow.  iCloud could be cool and exciting, but right now it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Back to drooling over stuff I can’t have yet!

Well, the PlayStation Network has been back for a little over a week. The PlayStation Store should be back soon.

I bought L.A. Noire for the PS3 and everything is fine so far. The only time it froze up was when I foolishly hit the PlayStation Store button. I’m returning the Xbox 360 version today.

I am pleased.

I was very excited to play L.A. Noire when I got it Tuesday. I pre-ordered it when I saw first saw footage of it at the beginning of the year. Everything I saw and heard about it after that made me think that this would be a great game. After all, it’s from Rockstar and they have a great track record.

When I finally got home from work and put the game in, it froze during the opening cut scene. I’m thinking that this is no big deal because every game freezes at some point. I started the game again and got to play for a little while before it froze again. This kept happening, but less and less time passed before it froze again. When I stopped playing I was at a point where I couldn’t progress because the game kept freezing in the same spot. I was MAD. Every once in a while I come across a game that won’t stop freezing on the 360. Call of Duty 4 and Ghostbusters are 2 examples. I figure that it’s something about my console and the game that don’t go well together. Maybe I just need a new Xbox? I was thinking about sending my copy of L.A. Noire back and getting the PS3 version. However, these comments on the Rockstar website and other articles I’ve seen show that many people are having the same problem on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Not everybody, but it seems like enough to show that there is a problem.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point. Maybe they’ll figure something out before my 2-week window to return the game is over. I’m just disappointed that I can’t play the game. What I did get to play was a lot of fun. I hope I can continue soon.

Remember when one of the benefits of console gaming over PC gaming was that you could count on any game released on a console to work on that console? I guess that’s not the case anymore.

I’ve received several notices a few weeks ago saying that my personal information may have been or has been compromised by hackers. One was from Ohio State, one was from Best Buy, and one was from another company that I can’t remember right now.

This PlayStation Network intrusion that happened a week or so ago has me pissed off the most. Basically, the network was hacked and our customer data was obtained. Sony took the PSN down, began an investigation, and began rebuilding the system so it would be more secure. First I was just a little annoyed by not having access to the network. But I got mad when 6 days later Sony told us exactly what information was accessed: name, address, birth date, PSN ID, password, security question, email address, and possibly credit card number and expiration date. Somebody can do some damage with the information. And it was 6 days before we were told this. I understand that they took their time doing a forensic analysis and wanted to know for sure what damage had been done, but still. And why aren’t passwords encrypted??? At least we now know that credit card numbers were encrypted. They still don’t know if those were accessed. It would be nice to know which credit card I have on file with them, but there’s no way I can find out from them because the network is still down. I’ve heard that you can’t even call and find out. I feel sorry for their customer service representatives.

They’re expecting to have some services restored by May 3, which is about 2 weeks after it was taken down. I wonder if they’ll give a partial refund to us paying customers. I hope their improvements will make PSN more secure. I’m eager to get back on, remove my credit card information just to be safe, and start enjoying the service again.

It’s been almost 7 years, but I have finally found another MMORPG that I can get into: DC Universe Online. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s not weird that I like this game because the last MMORPG that I really got into was City of Heroes. I guess I like being a superhero.

I bought the PS3 version and it is taking time to get used to playing an MMORPG on a console. I pre-ordered this version before I got a new PC in November. My old PC wouldn’t have handled it well. I never thought to change my order. I don’t really like playing computer games these days anyway. I think the lengthy download that takes place before you can play the game might not have taken so long on the PC, but I don’t know that for sure. Menu navigation and chatting is awkward (even with a keyboard) on the PS3, but combat is as easy as any other game. I have heard about some issues that have caused them to have to take the servers down, but those seem to take place when I’m not playing.

The missions usually are “defeat x number of this kind of enemy” or “do this action x number of times”, but that’s pretty standard for this type of game. I just like going out and using my superpowers on people, leveling up, and gaining new powers. I did my first arena mission yesterday with 3 other players and it was a blast. I want to do some pvp stuff, but the wait time on those is too long.

I think the main reason I like this game so much is that it’s set in the DC Universe. You start out in either Metropolis or Gotham City. You also have access The Watchtower. I have a feeling they’ll add more areas later, but you have plenty to do as it is. I geek out every time I see a DC character standing around and it’s cool to fight alongside them.

I have two characters, both on the Crisis server. One is Heatstorm, a fire-based character. The other is Dr Destiny, a sorcery-based character.  I think I’ll get a lot of play time out of this game.  I might’ve bought a lifetime membership, but that option isn’t available on the PS3. Oh well.

Well, my PS3 died Sunday or Monday night. Today is Thursday and I just received the coffin that I’ll use to send it to Sony for repair. I was in the middle of playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune when it happened, so I won’t get to beat that during Christmas break like I wanted to. I also have to scrap my plans to watch the new Sherlock series on blu-ray this week.

I know there are videos online that show you how to open up the PS3 and fix it, but I don’t want to do that. I have a feeling that I’d damage it more and have to buy a new one, which is more expensive than the $100 Sony is charging me to fix it.

I’m kind of disappointed that this happened, though it isn’t that much a surprise. People criticize Xboxes for having a high failure rate, but consoles in general don’t seem to last long these days. I bought my on Tax Day in 2008, partially because I was mad at owing the IRS money. I would’ve gotten one eventually even if I didn’t get it on that day.

I hope they can fix it fairly simply and return the disc that’s stuck inside, but my biggest concern is that I’ll lose all of my data. The lady on the phone said they won’t format the HD if they don’t have to, but the material that came in the coffin said that they will definitely format it. I don’t want to have to download everything from the PlayStation Network again on my slow Internet connection, and I really don’t want to lose all of my save games.

I’m hoping for the best.

Microsoft Kinect finally was released at midnight last night and I’m so glad that I can finally talk about. I was in the beta program, but because of the Nondisclosure Agreement, I’ve been pretty quiet about it except for a few mentions on Twitter. I didn’t want to risk having it taken away from me. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. My dog looks at me like I’m crazy when I’m using it, but that’s okay.

Setup was easy. I started out positioning it below the television but moved it to on top so that it could see me better. That brings to mind the biggest problem so far: space. You need to have plenty of space in your play area. They say at least 6 feet between you and the sensor, but the more the better. We were able to download beta/demo versions of 3 games: Kinect Sports, Joyride, and Kinect Adventures. I’ll probably buy Kinect Sports eventually. I didn’t like Joyride. I didn’t get to play Kinect Adventures much, but I’m getting a free digital copy for being in the beta. I had to download updates 1-2 times a week during the beta and I noticed improvements over time. I think Kinect is quite a bit better now than it was when the beta first started.

Dance Central is the only game that I’ve bought so far. It’s a lot of fun. You just have to get over looking like a fool. It’s made by the same people that made the first few Guitar Hero games and Rock Band. It’s not an easy game since I have no dance skills. It’s also physically demanding. Maybe 1 or 2 days a week I’ll skip going to gym and dance to “Poker Face” or “Poison” or something. I like the menu navigation in this game better than the 3 beta games. I can see companies getting pretty creative with navigation.

Speaking of navigation, I like being able to use voice commands and gestures to control some of the tasks on my 360. Neat features. One feature I have yet to try out is Video Kinect, which lets you have video chats over Xbox Live. You know how people are going to abuse that, so I don’t even have to say it.

Microsoft released a big dashboard update last week in preparation for Kinect. I got some of the updates when I got Kinect around the end of August and they rolled some of the others out later. I like that the audio quality will be better even though I haven’t chatted with anyone yet. ESPN on the 360 sounds cool, but I can’t watch live games since my ISP isn’t affiliated with ESPN3. It probably won’t be much use to me until something changes. Netflix search is the new feature I like the most. It’s a no-brainer, especially since I could already search when I used Netflix on my Roku. Other than better looking avatars, I can’t remember any other new features, but it seems like there were some.

I’m enjoying all the Xbox goodness that’s come lately. Of course, the games are going to make or break Kinect. I hope they come out with a lot of good games soon, so I don’t get bored with it like I did with the Wii, which I believe has been made obsolete by this device if it wasn’t already before.