l e n s b o x s t u d i o s

Well, for this first time visitor to rAge, I must say that I’m in absolute awe…

Sure, it’s not E3 or any of the other overseas gaming conventions… but my word… it’s impressive nonetheless.

The plan for the day was to head through to rAge with Rozz and Nick (Kellia and Ulat from my old Affliction guild) but Rozz ended up going through alone earlier and I followed by about a half-hour… the drive through to Northgate (just up the road from me) was uneventful, until I tried to find parking. 3/4’s of an hour later I eventually gave up on the idea of trying to find parking near the Coca-Cola Dome and parked underground… on the other side of Northgate. My legs and feet are still complaining…

Anyway, I eventually got to the Dome, stood in the queue to get my ticket and started wandering around. I found it rather amusing that the first thing I saw that caught my eye was the female Night Elf Druid statue at the BT Games stand. Clearly I’m more addicted than I thought… though that purple hair does stand out a mile.

Anyway, getting back to my tale… Lo and behold, the first familiar face I run into is my good buddy, Craig, videotaping a presentation about Assassin’s Creed (I want that game so badly, it’s not even funny). Chatted to him for a bit before he headed back to his Xbox 360 stand then resumed my meanderings. Shortly after that I ran into Rozz who then proceeded to act as tour guide for me. We went to go see Louise (a.k.a Chronic) at the Intel stand where she was Tournament Director for the weekend. Poor girl was looking somewhat flustered by the time we got there.

On with the tour… I got to see the new Playstation 3… nothing spectacular in my mind, but still a pretty piece of hardware. The Wii… now that looks cute… some fun looking games. But by far, I think the star of the show was the Xbox 360. Sure it’s been around a bit longer than the other 2 platforms but damn, I have to admit that Microsoft have done a good job on this one. Halo 3, the other big attraction (they even had a Master Chief actor marching around), looked pretty damn good, even though I’m not the biggest fan of FPS games. Transformers caught my eye though…

Let’s see, what else… ah yes, the obligatory expo bag to collect brochures and cards in. Well, mine has a bit more than that in now. I subscribed to Popular Mechanics while at the show, getting the latest issue free and a cap. I got a copy of the new look SA Computer Magazine (SACM now)… and somewhere in there are my entries into several competitions. So if Lady Luck feels like being nice to me, I could walk away with… let’s see… a HP Laptop, the Xbox 360 Elite, a copy of Halo 3, a portable movie player… but who am I kidding… not with my luck.

Ran into some guild mates from Affliction (Sythenia and his lady) and Awakened Guardians (Jakalas, Papillon, Kiteena, Malystra, Serpentza, etc) there as well. We ran around for a bit, looking at all the things we could not afford (Oh to be a rich man!) before they went off and I looked up Rozz again and kept her company for the rest of the afternoon.

Had a look at the AnimeWorX stand as well as they seemed to be hosting a mini-comic con as well. Saw a lot of anime that I would love to get my paws on… but it will have to wait for a bit. However, I think I need to get AWX to book Ghost in the Shell : SAC2 and Solid State Society for me. Was quite amused to see some cosplay going on as well.

Oh, the one negative thing I have to say about the show… the pricing of their drinks and food. R8 a tin seems a bit steep for me, and R8 for bottled water is even worse. Or R30 for a hotdog that is more bread than anything else… the only real value may have been in the pizza’s from the mobile pizza van, but they were so damn slow it was painful. That and the fact that they seemed to screw up more orders than get them right and often the end product was burnt.

All in all, though, it was a good day, which I enjoyed with good friends. I will definitely make a plan to go again next year.

For an insider’s viewpoint on rAge, head on over to Craig’s blog entry.