Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta

Once again, I managed to score an early invite to this most awesome video gaming event! Here are some first impressions...

- The first few menus are very busy. Armor and emblem customization take a little getting used to.

- Joining people just out in the world seems a bit hit or miss. Mostly miss, as the only way I was able join was via invite.

- The game is extremely good looking. This is a big step up from Halo 3 and ODST. Everything is intricately textured, from the terrain to the weapons. This game gives Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) a run for the money in the visuals department.

- I understand that this is Halo and a beta, but I really miss the driving music that MW2 has in all of the multiplayer levels. Everything in Reach seems quiet and subdued. That said, the weapon sounds are heavy, solid, and awesome.

- The new flag-gathering multiplayer mode is tons of fun, and the different load-outs make for many different styles of play. The guard mode seems very under-powered, as you can just wait for it to run out.



That's all for now! I gotta get back! See you on the bounce, Spartan! :P

Treme

Treme is not The Wire. It's not Caprica, and it's not Battlestar Galactica.

I bring up Caprica and Battlestar as an example of two television shows, both made by the same people, both excellent, but very different from each other. Battlestar was more a drama than a space opera, but there was always the possibility that you'd get treated to a space battle or two. Caprica has no space battles, yet still manages to be entertaining because of the drama between the characters and the story that it's just beginning to tell.

Treme and The Wire have a similar relationship. Both are David Simon products featuring excellent casts, writers and stories of poverty and struggle. The Wire also had its share of action. It didn't happen often, but there was always the possibility that a gun fight would break out. Treme has none of that, and the most violence that's happened so far has been a single justified beating of a lowly thief.

So why watch Treme? With the possibility of violence almost gone and an apparently complete absence of special effects, what's in this show for you?

The music.

In order to like Treme at all, you have to either like or at the very least appreciate jazz. You have to possess some reverence for the city of New Orleans and her culture if you want to relate at all to Treme. The show will spend a significant portion of time devoted to featuring the stylings of many different musicians of New Orleans. Between the music, and the subtly-told storylines of the varied and increasingly complex characters, this is not a show for everyone. Like The Wire, Treme demands that you pay attention for its entire hour and rewards you with the best TV show at the moment.

If it's not for you, then it's not for you and that's alright. It's not a stigma to dislike jazz, and if you don't like jazz then you will hate Treme. Jazz is integral to the experience and the two are solidly intertwined. If however you are a fan of jazz or open to music in general, you owe it to yourself to check out Treme.

Post-PAX Post - Sunday, March 28th

After the epic Live Late Nite JengaJam, we stayed for a while to hang out in the lobby of the Sheraton Boston. There was an after-party atmosphere that was extremely cool to be a part of, as we continued to visit with old friends and get to know some new people as well. The night was well-spent, and afterward we broke down our make-shift studio and headed back to our hotel.

Our night wasn't quite finished. See, we'd been playing around on ChatRoulette a couple of nights before, and now that we had the stunning Barbara with us, we couldn't resist trying again. Our little prank was simple. Barbara would be the only one of us visible on the camera, and the rest of us would be out of frame. Barb would chat the unwitting mark up, and then would ask if they would like to see some boobs. Now, even though Barb would imply that it was her boobs that would be seen, this was obviously not going to be the case. Barb would then ask the mark if they were ready, count down, reach for the bottom of her shirt, and then...

John would pop out with his shirt up. The rest of us, including our cameraman Joe, would pop into frame and surprise the victim. Surprisingly, all of the guys that we did this to were very good-natured about it. It made the whole thing very fun and worthwhile. After repeating this about a dozen or so times, we called it a night.

The next day was somber. Don't get me wrong, it was still fun and all that, but it had an air of creeping finality to it that was kind of sad. We didn't get to the convention center until much later than we had originally intended, and once there I skipped all of the panels that I'd planned on going to. I figured the best use of my time was to hang out with my friends as much as I could. That said, I did spend some time waiting in line for the Closing Ceremonies with Joe and Ian, and I wouldn't have traded that for anything. As luck would have it, the line ended up taking way too long, and they were forced to leave for their drive back to Canada. We said our good-byes, and I left to return to the RT Booth.

Once at the expo hall, I got to see Jesse, Mary, and Chantell before they headed out. Again, today was mostly about saying good-bye and it was starting to take its toll. I did get to see a mosh pit started by the MEGA 64 guys before the expo hall closed, which was a riot. After the hall closed, we returned to the Sheraton lobby to have one last meal as a group. Everyone was there, games were still being played, and we even ran into Gabe and Tycho while we were hanging out. My focus was firmly on this motley group of people that I'd spent the last 72 hours with, and how leaving them was going to be harder than ever. Right before dinner, Jack, John and I decided that it would be best to hit the road before it got too late. The 5 hour drive back to Philly was arduous enough to warrant an early exit.

We said our farewells, and each one got harder than the last. I'm not sure how we pulled ourselves away, but before I knew it we were on our way to Philadelphia. All the while I was still messaging and texting my friends that I'd just left. These kinds of things are always bittersweet, because I'm leaving one group of friends to return to another. Speaking of which, I even got to call one of my buddies to clarify a Dominion rules question. The guys playing Dominion in the lobby were impressed that a boardgamegeek admin would take the time out of his busy day to answer there question, which apparently I had gotten wrong. :D

At about 1 am, we arrived in Philly for the night. About 10 hours after that, I was at the airport getting ready to fly back to OKC. There were more hard good-byes, but there was also a growing sense of appreciation for the experience I'd just had. Though I was tired and though having to leave was most difficult, I was happy to be returning home to my family and friends, and to share my stories with them. I was getting the notion that I was extraordinarily lucky to be able to do something like this, and I was already looking forward to doing it again.

That's my PAX East story, and I'm sticking to it.

MC Frontalot + Doppelgangstas + Brandon Patton

Although the Friday PAX East impromptu karaoke party was truly awesome, I was a little peeved that I had missed MC Frontalot's show that very same night. My buddy Jon has been a huge fan of Frontalot for several years, and was also peeved that I'd passed up the chance to see him live in Boston. So when he found out that MC Frontalot would be passing through OKC, Jon let me know that this was something I shouldn't miss. At the risk of inflating his ego, Jon was spot on.

The show opened with a solo performance from Brandon Patton AKA BL4k Lotus. Normally the bass player for Frontalot's band, his opening act was inspired. Kicking off with an acoustic cover of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up", he immediately commanded the attention of the audience. All of Brandon's songs were intensely personal, and he performed them with a sincerity that allowed us to enjoy this little window into his life.

Next up was the nerdcore improv rap group The Doppelgangstas. Normally working under the name Twinprov, Buck and Clint Vrazel become The Doppelgangstas when joined by beat mistress Dr. Spach. It's sort of like when the Megazord combines with the Dragonzord to become the MegaDragonZord on Power Rangers. As improv artists, the duo made good use of the audience for the majority of their act. The tight improv rapping that ensued was most impressive, even if they did mishear my suggestion of "cupcakes" as "earthquakes" as a means by which the world ends. :P The brothers were augmented by the tracks provided by Dr. Spach, making for a complete nerdcore audio assault.

Finally MC Frontalot took the stage, and after a few songs revealed that he was quite sick. Frontalot had strep throat, and had briefly considered cancelling his performance that night. Never the less, he endured and ended up putting on a fantastic set. His songs were catchy and this rhymes were deft as hell. As much as Frontalot brought his best, his band of keyboardist Gminor7, the before-mentioned bassist Bl4k Lotus, and drummer The SturGENiUS deserve just as much praise for their adept performance. As someone who was largely unfamiliar with Frontalot's work, this small and intimate venue was the perfect place to see MC Frontalot and company for the first time. I had spotted Frontalot around PAX East despite missing his show, and it was refreshing to see how approachable and accessible he is. The confortably confined spaces of The Conservatory only enhanced this and after the show he stuck around and interacted with his fans, ignoring the sickness that was visibly and rapidly draining him.

After the show, my buddy loaned me the entirety of MC Frontalot's discography to listen to during my drive home. Since the concert, I've found that while "Final Boss" was my favorite album as a whole, "Living At the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe" is definitely my favorite song. What's even more awesome is that the live version was as good or better than the production track, which is truly a testament to MC Frontalot and his band as live musicians. I have been converted. I have been made into a fan, and there's no turning back now.

Kick-Ass

We interrupt our PAX East reminiscing to bring you my first midnight movie review of 2010! Enjoy!

Post PAS Post: Saturday, March 27th Part 3

The concert was epic, and before we knew it the time for my first live Late Nite JengaJam was upon us. I say “my” first live Late Nite JengaJam, because it wasn’t quite the shows first live taping. Regardless, everyone was still nervous and the generous amount of booze that we were steadily consuming was finally starting to help us out.

Joe was kind enough to help me haul equipment, and Jack came with us on our final run. The subway was much slower and more crowded than during the day, so the trip took a little longer than normal. Also I got hit in the face by some old guy trying to ask for directions. As his errant hand accidentally smacked me, I think the native Bostonians expected me to jump his shit. I had no such inkling, as we were on a schedule and I’m not as tightly wound as these East Coast types. I gave him the death look, as moved on. We had to move and we were fast approaching our midnight start time.

We got to the Sheraton Boston Hotel, where Lauren had already secured us a corner of the lobby as well as a small crowd. As I set up, I got more and more nervous. This was really about to happen. We did a quick sound check, and we were off. It was one of the fastest and yet longest hours I can remember. We had some quality guests and some great conversation. Some of the guests we had were people that had noticed us doing our thing, and yet others were people we’d actually just met at PAX. It was amazing, and what was even more amazing was the impromptu after-party that we had right then and there. We MIGHT have been drinking a little, who knows? The point was that fun was had by all and it was a magical night.

After the party, we took down our equipment and caught a cab back to our hotel. After getting up to our room and setting down all of our stuff, we realized that we were quite hungry. It was 3am in downtown Boston, so surely something was open. Not so much, as we quickly found out. We wandered around for a good 15 minutes trying to find us a good or even decent downtown diner. Nothing. The late night pizza place we went to Friday? Closed. The 7-11? Also closed. We were bummed to say the least. So we went back to the room, did some chatroulette, using the lovely Barbara as bait, and then called it a night.

…

Wait, you actually want to hear about our chatroulette session? Really? Well first off, there are lots of penises. I hear that they’re looking to fix this, but for now there are LOTS of penises. Every once in a while you’ll see someone and chat, and occasionally you’ll even talk to a pretty girl. Well we had our own pretty girl and we aimed to misbehave a little. The gag went something like this. Barb would smile and wave our new chat partner, assuming they were not showing us their junk. Barb would ask if they wanted to see some boobs, and when she got a YES and acted as if she would flash the camera, the rest of us who were hiding off camera would hop into view. John even took it upon himself to provide some man-chest flashing. Surprisingly, most of our marks ended up finding our gag funny, which was incredibly cool.

Post PAX Post: Saturday March 27th Part 2

After the RoosterTeeth panel, there was much hanging out with the RT guys before they kicked us out of the main theatre. The people that I’d been seeing in discrete little packets were all of a sudden in one place, and it was awesome. After chatting, and doing some stage dives into the sumo chairs, we adjourned to the expo hall. There was much to do before dinner, the Video Game Orchestra concert, and the live Late Nite JengaJam.

I had a different plan in mind. See, there was a group of Carnegie Mellon students that were at PAX to show off their school project. This project happened to be a Microsoft Surface, which was used to play Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. The SurfaceScapes Team had been on the radar since about November, but this would be the first time since then that their project would be on display. I stopped by the room where the demo was going on throughout the day, and was immediately stopped by PAX East personnel. Apparently the small room was at capacity and people needed to leave before more could be admitted. I waited patiently before being let in, and was awed by what I saw. The table was surrounded by players, while the SurfaceScapes team looked on. One of the students was at a laptop controlling the action, while a team of four players fought off goblins and then a dragon.

After a few rounds, the session was reset and I got to sit down and play a Goliath Barbarian. Since we knew that our “encounter” would only last for a few rounds, we nova’d immediately, blowing all of our available dailies and encounter powers on the initial group of goblin minions. If nothing else, it was cool to see the different powers being animated. After about 4 rounds, the dragon showed up and our session ended. I got to briefly talk to the team and even invited them onto the Late Nite JengaJam recording, but more on that later. For being in a beta state, the animations present in SurfaceScapes were polished and the controls flowed rather smoothly. One notable omission was the Charge action, which had yet to be implemented. Another issue was less with the SurfaceScapes and more with the Surface itself. The touchscreen required a very specific amount of pressure to activate. Too hard or too soft, and your input would not be recognized. The future of this project is also in doubt. Once the team graduates in May, it’s unclear just how much more work will be put into this, or whether or not this might become a product that Wizards of the Coast would make available to Surface owners in the public. If nothing else, we’ve seen the truly geeky side of the Surface, and it looks rad.

After the demo, we tried to go to dinner as a big group, but we found that almost every where had 3+ hour waits for a group our size. Defeated, we eventually ended back up at the Sheraton lobby, eating hotel food. I managed to order a pizza, and we ordered some s’mores as a desert with Chantell and Casey (Jeff William's precocious daughter) . Hanging out was fun, and was a welcome rest after a long day that was not even over. I got to see some wonderful friends that I’d missed dearly (Martha!!) and before I knew it, it was time to go to the concert.

If you’d listened to the last episode of Late Nite JengaJam, you’d know that The Video Game Orchestra was not to be missed. I for one love hearing my favorite video game soundtracks performed in an orchestral format, especially the 8-bit and 16-bit stuff. We were in for a treat, from Mario to Chrono Trigger to Final Fantasy and even a metal version of Castlevania! We even got a bonus orchestral metal version of the Final Fantasy boss battle. This was totally awesome, made more awesome since talking to Shota and Jeff.

After the show, we couldn’t rest for long. Finally, at long last, it was time to do my first live audience recording of Late Nite JengaJam…

TO BE CONCLUDED. Well, the Saturday part will be concluded. :)

Post PAX Post - Saturday, March 27th Part 1

Previously on Lost The Wandering Gamer:

PAX was met.
Lines were waited in the cold, but yielded awesome results like being practically first.
Wil of the Wheatons spoke.
Allies were gathered.
Songs were sung.

The sun rose on Saturday, and as I woke I realized that because I could see the sun, I was already running late. I was first into the shower and first out the door. I arrived to the convention center to find it open to the media, but not to the public. Note to self: get a fucking media badge for next time. I managed to score some extra concert wristbands for my compatriots, and left to get some breakfast.

While wandering around, I caught one of my friends in her Harley Quinn costume and let me say that the girl can really rock the slutty, insane nurse look. After saying FUCK THAT to sitting in another line, I followed another line into an area of the convention center that was originally closed off to me. I found the D&D area, and lounged in a Sumo bag for a while, until I was told by an event official that I needed to get the fuck out. It was a little more diplomatic than that, but not by a lot. FINE. I continued my wanderings, and eventually found some friends at the Sheraton. After hanging out for a bit, I headed back to the convention center for my preview of the D&D Dark Sun Campaign Setting.

One of the few things that I absolutely refused to miss was this little adventure in a new world. This new world of Athas is actually not new at all, but simply the update of an old 2nd Edition setting. The revised setting seems just as brutal and while my group that I played with survived the adventure, it seemed like we were constantely on the verge of total destruction. Fortunately I was assisted by the utterly relaxing shoulder rub given to me by the lovely OboeCrazy, who stopped by to see what all the D&D fuss was about. Also, the other guys at the table were totally jealous. :D Overall, it was quite fun, and I can't wait to get my hands on the full campaign this summer.

I'd also like to say that the guys I played with, including the DM, were refreshingly cool guys. I was a little worried that I might get stuck with a manical PC-kill-happy DM, or that I'd get a few unsociable types on my team as PCs. Fortunately everyone was extremely chill, and it was an absolute pleasure to play with those guys. Also, the quality of the guys I normally play with clearly has rubbed off on my, as I was able to answer and correct just about every rules question that we ran into. Obviously I was double-checked several times, but my accuracy was always there. Props to my home-town D&D group for helping to bring my game to a very high level. The players at the table were also very skilled, as we not only won the adventure but did it in the fastest time to that point.

After rocking the Dark Sun adventure, I met up with my group in line for the RoosterTeeth panel. Once again, we were near the front thanks to some selfless efforts. Also, people were playing Magic: The Gathering, as all of the swag bags had a different color starter deck in them. So I played M:tG for the first time in a while. The decks were pre-built, and the cards were actually reasonably powered. It was a fun destraction while having little else to do. Hanging out with everyone was also fun, and that's really what made waiting in line bearable. I tried to avoid it, but queuing up with friends was always worth it.

Getting into the RT panel, we got the choicest seats in the packed Main Theatre. Getting in, we finally got to chat with some of the staff, and Barbara who'd been busy tirelessly working the booth in the Expo Hall. It was really cool, and we even got invited to sit in the VIP Sumo lounge area just off the stage. Truly awesome! The panel was entertaining, but the highlight was finding out that Monty Oum, creator of Haloid and Dead Fantasy was now working on Red Vs. Blue as a CG motion capture artist. His work on RvB has so far been outstanding, and I can't wait to see more of his stuff.

TO BE CONTINUED...