We got to the Hynes relatively early, enjoying the slightly-warmer-than-yesterday weather. We arrived too late to get wristbands for that evening's concert, which was disappointing but I was more accepting than yesterday about the fact that we weren't destined to see everything.
Saturday was Friends Day for Justin and I. We met up with Juan (future contributor here on LGOD), his kids, and Tom and Tracy Marston. We then wandered around the Expo Hall for a while, checking out in more detail the stuff we had breezed by on Friday. Some product highlights will be detailed in separate posts here, but some highlights for me:
- Antec showed off some gorgeous cases, including a fully modular one that (gasp!) enables you to have the motherboard on the right OR left side of the case. I feel embarrassed about the fact that I find this simple fact so utterly amazing.
- Much like CES, 3D was the name of the game here with many vendors showing off 3D technology. I was pleasantly surprised at how mature the technology appears to be.
- GeekChic was there with their gaming tables (as mentioned in PvP). Gorgeous furniture.
- Skate3 had probably the best demo participation of the event: participate in a contest to get the high score on a bone-breaking competition and win a skate deck.
- Wizards of the Coast had a fun demo area where you could walk through a simple D&D encounter with a basic character sheet.
We broke for lunch at which point I realized I hadn't taken my pills for the day, so I walked back to the hotel and got back just in time to get in line for the Rooster Teeth panel. Highlights of that panel
- A live-action video short where the Rooster Teeth guys drive a truck third-person-perspective style
- The debut of the new season of Red vs. Blue: Revelation.
- Announcement that Monty Oum of Haloid fame was joining the Rooster Teeth team.
Wow, could we take any more? But yes!
We had a delicious dinner at PF Changs, where Justin and I talked with the Marstons about getting a D&D campaign going. Everyone seemed excited about the prospect, so I decided to head back to the con after dinner to see if I could buy a DM guide. We passed the Main Hall where the concert was getting set up to find out it was wide open. We guess that after the wristbands ran out in the morning everyone decided they wouldn't bother trying to get into the show, and thus there was plenty of space.
Highlights of the evening concert:
- Video Game Orchestra were very talented and had some great arrangements of classic video game themes. I have to admit I got a little misty when they played the intro music from Final Fantasy VII. I was surprised they didn't feature the Halo theme, perhaps it's copyrighted. They were asked to play an encore and didn't have anything prepared.
- Paul and Storm were utterly hilarious. I had heard plenty about them through Jonathan Coulton but had never heard any of their music before.
- Jonathan Coulton wrapped up the evening with some fantastic music. Highlight for me was his take on Mr. Fancypants using a Zendrum:
It was also interesting watching the Fire Marshals who appeared to be in their 50's taking this all in and having fun trying to make sense of it all. I have to hand it to them, for being knee deep in a completely alien experience for them, they were very professional and friendly.
