"This is nothing like a porn convention."

This past Saturday, I went to my first video game convention, excuse me, "expo". Along with 2 friends, we thought that this would be a fun day of sights, both old and new and perhaps hours of fun. Of all the coverage that things like CES (Consumer Electronics Show) or E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) would get, our expectations were high.

Turns out, our expectations were too high.

We were expecting to see new games that were slated to be released this year or early next, a bunch of people huddled together, trying out hundreds (or at least dozens) of demos of the new games, developers endlessly hawking their wares for consoles and PC's. But that was not to be. The only new game demos were for Sega's Bayonetta and EA's God of War clone Dante's Inferno, both being released for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. There was also a new game for the PC, Warhammer Online but that was the extent of the games coming your way this holiday season or for early 2010.

There were consoles set up at this thing, they were just kind of spread out and playing random things. The newest available game that I could see was Batman: Arkham Asylum, and that was released in August. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was recently released for the Playstation 3 and has been highly regarded as the game of the year, but I never saw it there. Maybe it was there, over by the Jedi. Oh, you heard that right; the Jedi. This group of Jedi to be specific. Why are Jedi at a video game convention, but not a Star Wars game in sight? I thought that they were all wiped out. And why did the Jedi have a table? They were not selling anything. The Army was there too, doing recruitment and had a game of Halo running in the background. It would have made more sense for the Army to be running Call of Duty 4 or even their own game since the Army has that now. I guess the Jedi were competing with the Army for recruits. Both were getting the same amount of table visits: none.

I did meet a budding artist there. He was hoping that his creation might get picked up as an animated series. Personally his art style was not for me, as it looked like a comic book that was drawn by an 8 year old. A slightly talented 8 year old, but one that knew nothing of how the human anatomy worked, or how bodies were put together. Also, the story looked to be a mix of Thundercats, Mortal Kombat and the Lion King. All of that together is not a good thing. Hell, Thundercats alone is not a good thing. But the man has his dreams and I wish him well.

There was a classic game section there, but it was run by a church, and afraid of being told I would be saved by playing Ms. Pac-Man, I stayed away from that section. The kids that were trapped there looked like they wanted to be free from that section too, but were stuck because of the parents. I bet the parents saw the big Dante's Inferno display and steered the kids to the older game section. Good thing too, as the demo on display was for the Lust level.

QVC was there, hawking a bunch of accessories for the Nintendo Wii. Whether this took place or not, one can only hope. One day people will realize that you don't need a bunch of sports accessories for the Wii's controller. Some stuff may be fun to have, but you don't have to go nuts.

All in all the day the expo was hideous. I wasn't able to find any of the old games that I was looking for, and one of my friends wondered if this is what a porn convention would have been like. The 3 of us left, dejected and feeling more than a little dirty, possibly like we would have having left that porn convention. The highlight of the entire day was being able to see my friends (one I hadn't seen in years) and eating lunch at the Brick House. Eating there makes everything better.

Public Service Announcment

The new season of the Venture Bros will debut October 18th at midnight on Cartoon Network. If you used to watch the show and have missed some of the greatness, it can be purchased here. If you are unsure as to what the show is like, you can sample some of the awesomeness right here.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (played on the Playstation 3)
Available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii
Players: 1-4
Published by Activision

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the sequel to 2006's Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This time, you are (mostly) playing through two storylines from the comics: Secret War and Civil War. Before its release, the game's developers Vicarious Visions announced that this time the game would be following the popular Civil War storyline, but ultimately the game was a bit of a letdown, in so much as if you played the prior title (or X-Men Legends or X-Men Legends II) there is a distinct feel of been there, done that. This is not to say that the game was bad, just maybe a little too familiar.
You start off with the crew of Iron Man, Captain America ,Wolverine and Spider-Man who are currently being led on a secret mission by the head of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury. The 5 are currently in Latveria operating only on Fury's word that they need to be there. This mission is essentially the training level and set up leading to the drafting of the Super Hero Registration Act. It is not until the super hero group called the New Warriors botch the capture of a super villain (during the live broadcast of their reality TV show) that the Act becomes law, and divides the heroes. Here the player will have to choose a side: go with Iron man and the Pro-Registration heroes, or tell the government to suck it, and side with Captain America and the rebels. ***Spoiler Ahead!!***The game sticks close to the premise of the Civil War storyline, but suddenly deviates from it to a lame one note villain, put there simply for the purpose of bringing heroes back together. ***End Spoiler***

Depending on whose side you choose to take will determine the heroes (and villains) that you have access to through the majority of the game. This by no means dilutes the selection of good heroes however. It just means that you will have to wait a bit to control Mr. Fantastic if you sided with Captain America. No matter which side you choose, you will have access to the new combo this time out, which are the fusions. These are the combination of two characters powers, which when unleashed do a pretty good amount of damage. The powers fall into 3 categories: Clearing Fusions, Targeted Fusions and Guided Fusions. With the amount of heroes to control in the game (25), there are multiple combinations that you can try out, but some of the fusion animations are pretty similar. The game does support online play, so you can get three other buddies and hero it up.

The problem that this game could not overcome (for me) was escaping the feeling that I had done all of this once before. Once again you are in the 3/4 top down format, following your four chosen heroes as you pound on generic soldiers and then participate in a boss battle against another hero or villain (or group of heroes or villains) on the other side, just like in the previous entries. Powering up your heroes is still done by collecting experience from your victories, answering trivia questions and collecting the odd hidden power up icon. The "If it ain't broke" axiom may apply in most cases, but I am beginning to see cracks in the structure. And if there is a Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, (possibly following the Skrull Invasion storyline), Vicarious Visions may need to do a little more than the option of combining powers to save the franchise.

Final Verdict: A good rental, that will fill a good 8-10 hours if only going through it once. Not a hard game by any means. Decent graphics though not groundbreaking. The Civil War storyline is here in spirit, but has been changed from the comics, and not in a good way. Overall, I'd give the game 3 stars out of 5.