So I’m finally down here in Murrland at the “lovely” Inner Harbor for Otakon and god dammit is it hot down here. Makes Jersey look really tame in comparison.

Anyway, we left my friend’s place around noon and got here at about 3ish. Somewhat lucky for us that we actually got upgraded to a suite instead of just getting a normal room, so that was a nice plus. We could actually save a fortune on food because we actually lucked out getting a fridge and a microwave in our room. So $1.19 Easy Mac for the win!

So what’s new with me? Being here at this convention actually makes me feel normal, hence the title and such. Honestly though, it was WAY too fucking hot today to be wearing heavy and dark costumes today. Not a lovely combination by any chance. Plus, the con hasn’t even officially started anyway, so why the fuck would you waste your costume today? Such a waste.

So the pre-reg line took about two hours… Sucked for one of my friends though since we waited in line that long, only for him to realize that he forgot his ID in his car. So he actually had to go back later that night to get his badge WITH his ID in hand. As far as unfortunate luck is going, the air conditioners in our room have been acting pretty shitty. It’s BURNING in this damn room. I don’t think I could actually stand much more of it at the moment. Both control panels have the ACs at 68, but I haven’t felt a god damn difference all day. FML.

I guess this con is a bit daunting for me since it’s my first time attending it. I’ve been hearing from everyone that you wait in line EVERYWHERE just to wait in line somewhere else, and on top of all that, the con is huge. I suppose I’m excited for it, but I guess I’ll have to do a bit of exploring first and get myself familiar with the convention center. I’m pretty excited though. I hope to find some good stuff in the Dealer’s Room which is probably one of the first spots I’m hitting when I get to the convention center later in the morning. I NEED SOME NEW SHIRTS ANYWAY. Hopefully limiting myself to 40 dollars on Day 1.

So what else? I’ll be meeting up with Kasumi, Ashe, and hopefully Kari at the con as well. All of them, hopefully on Saturday, Kasumi, maybe earlier. If anything I’m certain we’re doing that Saturday is that Tales of Panel. Why?

1. Kasumi actually wanted to go to that one. I have no objections since that’s actually the panel I met her at when I first met her at Katsucon.
2. One of my friends I went to college with is actually ON the panel. Since I haven’t seen her in ages, I’ll be dropping by to say hello and stuff.

Exciting, exciting stuff. I’ll probably be doing the DDR tournament as well tomorrow. Dunno if I’m gonna just do the Standard tournament or just suck it up and do the Heavy tournament. Whatever.

Enough ranting for me tonight. I’ll have more an update after Day 01.

Until then, later~

This is just fucking lovely, the sound card on my laptop just fucking died on me and now my computer is quite mute right now. Really sucks, but hopefully I could fix this up tomorrow and stuff… Otherwise, Mach needs to save up for a new laptop. One that actually fucking works.

Anyway, time for an actual gaming rant on my part, something that’s been pissing me off as of lately as well. Probably because this seems to be a trend in EVERY FUCKING ARCADE I GO TO. Except the one that I work at because my boss is a little to cheap for that… But as you might recall, I did a hands-on review of Guitar Hero Arcade back in January. It left an extremely sour impression in my mouth and to this day, it’s still extremely bitter and there’s almost nothing that would change my mind to even think this is a remotely good game.

So what am I bitching about? Why the fuck do we need Guitar Hero Arcade to begin with? Essentially, on paper, it looks like Guitar Hero 3, plays like Guitar Hero 3, and half the world already owns Guitar Hero 3. Why do we feel the need to spend ONE dollar on ONE song on a game we probably already have at home?

As mentioned in my hands-on review and still holds true today, the game is just Guitar Hero 3 with a shorter songlist and another reason to stab someone in the neck for choosing Through the Fire and the Flames. Why? You actually paid a dollar to play a song you probably can’t pass on the heavy, lunky ass guitar that the game provides. Also, why the fuck would you want to listen to Dragonforce? All their stuff sounds the same.

But I have a deeper reason for this rant. This piece of crap arcade game overshadows games that deserve to be put into the spotlight instead of being a shitty cash-in for something that already exists. Here in Jersey, we got Six Flags: Great Adventure. A friend of mine works at the arcade there and told me about a DJMAX Technika machine that was being put on Location Test there to see if there was any generated interest in the game. As of today, the Technika machine is no longer there.

Why?

It was put next to Guitar Hero Arcade machine. According to my friend who worked there, the Guitar Hero Arcade machine made about $1,000 in ONE week. As for the Technika machine, probably about $90. It’s a realy tragic because such an amazing arcade game is being overshadowed by this cash-in by Konami and Activision.

It’s a real pity that the arcade scene seems to be dying out over here in the US. Instead of getting amazing, new innovative games that challenge the everyday gamer, we get crappy arcade ports of shit we’ve already spend about $80 to get. It makes me angry because they chose a particularly bad version of Guitar Hero to port to the arcades. I wasn’t amazed by the songlist in Guitar Hero 3 either.

So again, I ask, what’’s the point of Guitar Hero arcade? You play a four minute song to get your name on a list that no one is really gonna care about. Do you attempt to make up for the lack of a whammy bar and just grab your penis and wham that off and hope you get star power overflowing out of you? Seriously, the only time I’ve ever played Guitar Hero Arcade was back in January.

I’ll probably keep it at that and not support this piece of crap game. I’ll invest my money is something that’s more worth my time.

Until then, later~