Procrastination Galore

So, I never actually got around to posting those FanExpo Costume pics.  I've been too busy playing Halo Reach.  I haven't got much time right now, so consider this "the review light".

Six and Kat (and some gunner no one cares about) travel in style.

Firstly, the Campaign is EPIC.  True, the voice acting can be a bit weak at times, but the story and the visuals make up for that fact.  Also, it's the only Halo game (not counting ODST, because it's an expansion) that isn't "Human Happy".  Let's be quite clear here.  It's Reach.  It's one of the greatest bloodbaths in the Halo universe.  Humanity doesn't win.  Humanity gets absolutely BRUTALIZED by the Covenant.  It's touching, in a way, watching people fight for their planet when you (and many of them) already know they can't win.  Still, LONG LIVE THE COVENANT!

To briefly sum up the rest of the game, Matchmaking is okay, a lot more balanced than Halo 3.  Firefight has been greatly improved from ODST, with the inclusion of a ton of options and even a versus (Spartans vs Elites) mode.  Custom games, however, have gone downhill quite a bit.  Suffice it to say, infection games have been greatly hampered by barely visible teammate icons, bizarre new Energy Sword physics, and several other glaring issues.  The most obvious of these?  No matter how you set it up, Active Camo seems to only make you invisible when you aren't moving.  Predator gametypes are officially dead.

Also, Forge Mode is now confusing as hell.  Sometimes there can be such a thing as too much variety, as is evidenced by Bungie's HUNDREDS of options.  That said, once you get past the initial learning curve, there's a lot you can do with the Forge.

Also on the subject of Forge (Halo 3 Forge, but still), here something to read.  Click to enlarge.

Before anyone asks, it's not my work.  It was done by a guy called Alfred Lam.  Here's a link to the first one, on his site.  There's an archive of them there as well.  Click!

Anyway, I'll be out of town for about a week.  Maybe I'll put up some more FanExpo pictures when I get back, if anyone's still interested.

FanExpo 2010!

Okay, so FanExpo is over. Three days of chaos at the end of the summer break. I met a lot of great people and saw a lot of neat stuff (pictures below). However, before I continue with this account of what I saw and did there, let me just say that Hobby Star Marketing (the company that runs FanExpo) really screwed up on this one. They're known for not giving a damn about what their fans think, but this time was really bad. If I've pre-ordered a Deluxe Pass, I shouldn't have to wait in a three hour line to get in. It was bad to begin with, but on the second day the building filled to capacity, and anyone who left (ie. to get lunch or something) was forced to wait in a massive line that could only move when a large group of people came out (so that's three people at a time with a wait of several minutes in between. You do the math!). The problem is, Hobby Star kept selling tickets! Now, I'm all for letting everyone have their turn, but if the building is full to capacity and you've got eight hundred people waiting to get back in, I think that's a pretty good sign to stop selling entry passes.


Anyway, now that I'm done ranting...

I apologize if any of the pictures are grainy/blurry/too bright etc. It's amazing that I got my camera too work at all.

I decided I should wear my Union costume again (that I wore to Anime North). It's really comfortable, and I love the colours (that's Canadian spelling for all you Americans out there). Not to mention that Canada is a member nation of the Union in Gundam 00, so it seemed befitting.

I took the train into Toronto every day, because it was simpler than driving, and cheaper than staying in a hotel.

Real men take the train.

Upon actually entering the convention, the first things made evident were the large booths in the middle of the showroom. For the sake of simplicity, let us call these the TRON booth and the ALIEN booth.

The Tron Booth, in all its glowy glory.

Stuff at the Tron Booth

Black Guard's Helmet

Just a side note, these suits and helmets are apparently what they actually what they wear onscreen. No CG involved here, folks!

The Alien Booth was in fact meant as a promotion for the new Alien Anthology BluRay. It featured four opening cryo pods, where you could "sleep", and be sufficiently terrified out of your wits.

Weyland-Yutani is bad people.

Some employees of "The Company".

Oh, and they had free cardboard facehuggers. What's not awesome about that?


Hasbro also had a booth, which included numerous dioramas dedicated to their products. Perhaps the best one was the battle of Hoth diorama.

It's no wonder the Empire won.

Trench Warfare

One of the caves

A view of one side of the hangar

The whole diorama was filled with interconnected tunnels, and even had Han and Chewbacca shooting at the Probe Droid.


The Gaming section had a Halo Reach booth, but I couldn't be bothered to stand in line.

All they had was Firefight... I want Forge!

Convention guests this year included Stan Lee, William Shatner, Peter Mayhew, David Cronenberg, Summer Glau, and Ogata Megumi. If you don't know who even a single one of those people is, shame on you (and go look them up). Unfortunately, due to the Con being overcrowded, I have no pictures of any of them. I do, however, have pictures of THE BATMOBILE!

Dadadadadadadada Dadadadadadadada BATMAN!

Of course, as with any convention, FanExpo is really about spending money. Of course, that means there's plenty of awesome merchandise to go around.

Perhaps the most interesting dealer's booth for me was this place that carried video games not released outside of Japan. Of course, most of it was extremely expensive (for my budget anyway).

Haruhi has a game? I didn't even know that.

Code Geass!

I was especially pleased to discover that they had this in stock.

A brand new copy of A.C.E.: R!

Properly called Another Century's Episode: R, this is a Mecha Fighting Game featuring machines from Gundam, Code Geass, Macross, Full Metal Panic, and Armored Core, to name a few.

Some Gundam Games

And that's just one vendor! They had everything else geek-y under the sun.

More stuff! More I say!

I think I'll talk about costumes next... Or maybe just show you.


But since I'm incredibly tired right now, I'll save the costumes and loot for part 2.

Oh, and for those who met me there and want my email, it's Jern_Gundam@hotmail.com

Fan Expo 2010 Preparations & New Look!

Finally implemented those changes I said I'd be making, as I've been nagged into posting again. Unfortunately, my photography booth was taken down months ago, and my Camera hasn't worked properly since Anime North (that was in May!). For these reasons, I felt there was no point in continuing this blog. However, public demand on Xbox Live has convinced me to start it up again. And so that's exactly what I'm doing.

Anyway, FanExpo 2010 starts on Friday, and I'm trying to fix the camera so I'll have some pictures to talk about. I'll be going as a Union Officer from Gundam 00, the same costume I used at Anime North (I really like this one). But because I feel there's always room for improvement, I've worked up some props to take with me. Here's one for your enjoyment.

It's designed to be some kind of Union public service announcement/propaganda article. I'll probably hand some of them out (in hopes of people taking pictures of me).

Anyway, if you're going to FanExpo 2010, let me know with a comment! You may see me there!

Oh, and you Xbox Live guys will have to keep nagging at me to post, it helps a lot.

Happy New Year!

I'm sorry. I've been neglecting this blog lately. I had been occupied with starting up a new series on YT. And then I caught swine flu. And then it was Christmas. So yeah....

Regardless, I figured I had to at least wish you all a happy new year, 2010. There's most likely going to be some changes around here, so keep your eyes open!