*Update*

So the reason this was required was because in my copious spare time I put together a Dr. Horrible costume for Halloween. I think it came out rather well although almost no one recognized the costume and I was called everything from a spaceman to sperm man.

I ended up arriving late and had to wait for over an hour in the will call line to pick up my pre-ordered
badge. Which was mildly annoying since it was only a two minute wait to buy a badge. Right after I got out of the badge line I got in line for the keynote, there were a lot of lines at PAX.

Ken Levine’s keynote was entertaining. He gave a brief overview of his history as a nerd. From his early days of wanting to fuck the scarlet witch and his first awkward experiences with D&D all the way to his failed screenwriting career and his decision to go get into the game industry and join Looking Glass Studios. The theme of the whole boiled down to “We’re all geeks, love it, embrace it and go have fun together”.

I skipped the Q&A panel to hit the exhibit floor. After a quick walk around I stopped and checked out Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour . I discovered that Brawndo The Thirst Mutilator, did indeed have what I (and plants) crave. It’s pretty tasty but oddly not got sale. (I’ve since learned that it wasn’t for sale because the convention center doesn’t allow non-convention vendors to sell food or drink)

Nintendo was nearby so I checked out some of their stuff. WarioLand: Shake It seems like a decent platformer although depending on how much it’s used; constantly shaking the controller could get annoying. Kirby Superstar Ultra was fun but there really isn’t much new about it. After that, I had some fun creating a creature in Spore Creature Creator for the DS. I couldn’t do anything more than walk around with it once it was created which makes me what the game play would be like in that game. I finished off my day in the exhibit hall with Left 4 Dead which was amazing.

Next up I hit the concerts. It was probably the strangest concert I’ve ever been too. No one was really getting into any of the bands mostly everyone was just sort of hanging out listening. The OneUps were kind of neat but it sounded a lot like they were just jamming the whole time and not really playing songs. Freezepop isn’t really my thing but they ended up being pretty good. During their entire set, there was a guy nearby playing Final Fantasy Tactics which was odd. Freezepop’s encore ended up being a cover of The Final Countdown and it was really good.

Finally Jonathan Coulton was up. I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing him but figured it would be cool to see “Still Alive” from Portal performed live. Of course, I was completely wrong and he ended up being the best of them all, I suppose that’s why he was “headlining”. I enjoyed all his songs, my favorite was “re: Your Brains” there is nothing cooler than a room of people out of sync and groaning “All we want to do is eat your brains”. He also managed to Rick Roll the whole audience twice. The first time the video played over the projectors and most of the crowd started singing along. The second time was mixed in the middle of “Mr. Fancy Pants”. For “Still Alive” Felicia Day, who is like geek goddess, came out and sang with him. He ended the night with a sing along cover of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” which was unexpected and really cool. Over all, Day One was amazing.

Pictures still to come.

Today I discovered that RandomFool.Net turned 4 on May 2nd 2008.

I also discovered that all my years of hard work on this site have been worth it according to this site, the estimated value of http://www.randomfool.net is: $437

The last thing I discovered is that Randomfool.net hasn’t actually been working for about 2 weeks or so…I hope that doesn’t affect my value… OK! cake time!

2007 was a big year. I graduated college, got a crappy job, got an awesome job and had a few ups and downs. It was also the year I returned to gaming. In 2006, aside from the occasional round of CS:Source, or Mario 3 Battlemode, I didn’t do hardly any gaming. I’m not even sure if I bought any games that year. This year; however, I got 3 video game systems (Wii, DS and 360) and more games than the past five years combined (30+). All that and there’s still a rather beefy list of games I didn’t get around to checking out. Here’s my top 5 games played in 2007:

1. The Orange Box (PC)
   Portal and Team Fortress 2. Enough Said. I’ve already talked about TF2 and gave a brief mention to Portal. Combined together in one box this package is almost unbeatable. Portal was short but the most inventive game I’ve played in a long time. TF2 has already replaced CS: Source as my go to game on the PC. A great value and a great time!
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
   This is easily the best game released for the Wii to date. The controls are great and use just the right amount of motion without feeling tacked on. The gameplay is fun and I constantly find myself saying “just one more star”. There’s also tons of variety in levels, I haven’t found a level yet where I thought the game was overly difficult or broken. Although Two player co-op is somewhat disappointing.
3. Rock Band (360)
   Despite only owning the game for six days last year it’s easily one of the best. Guitar/Bass is a bit easier that GH3. The drums are wicked fun to play (despite my lack of coordination). Singing is fun when you have someone who can sing. The track list is better than GH3 despite having less songs. There’s just something undeniably awesome about getting a bunch of people together and rocking. The downside, It is a huge pain in the ass to carry around all that crap; My original guitar was defective and I’m waiting on a replacement; and I can’t use the same characters for different instruments.
4. Guitar Hero 3 (Wii)
   Before Rock Band there was Guitar Hero 3. I bought this game twice, just to get a second guitar for multiplayer. Even after Rock Band it’s still a blast. (It’s also much more portable) Despite the Wii version getting screwed over with mono sound, no DLC (until later this year), and crappy online multiplayer, I’m still happy I got the Wii version. It’s waay more portable and GH3 (and Rock Band) are meant to be played with people in the same room.
5. Paper Mario (Wii- VC)
   Initially I was going to put Super Paper Mario here. The dialogue was great, I had fun playing it and have no regrets buying it but realistically it’s not top five material. It was waaay to easy. Less like a game and more like a story with a lot of walking and jumping. It did get me interested in it’s great granddaddy, Paper Mario. So Paper Mario came out six years ago, I never bought an n64 so it’s new to me. Anyway back to the game, It was a lot of fun but I’m still disappointed I got a fish instead of getting to ride Yoshi around.

Close but not quite:

• Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
  I like the game so far especially the controls but haven’t had a chance to play much of it yet.
• Halo 3 (360)
  It’s pretty looking and I hear the multiplayer is good but this is another game I haven’t had much time to play with. I plan on using this game to learn how to play console FPSs.
• Bioshock (360)
  Supposedly one of the best games this year, I want it and I want it bad but I don’t have to time for another game right now.