FanExpo 2010
Item 3 – Checking Things Out
By Jorge Figueiredo - August 31st, 2010
The Halo: Reach tent.
By noon, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was packed with people, both fans and superfans alike! In some areas were relatively easy to traverse, while others were like rush-hour in Taiwan. I do not pretend to understand how the sites for the different booths are chosen; whether they are picked by the companies that are represented, or by the governing committee of the event itself.
In our travels, we managed to visit a number of booths…
Sony
The Sony booth was located in a little nook beside what I call “The T-Shirt Emporium”; while small, there was much goodness to be had within. ModNation Racers was set up for people to play, complete with a Formula 1-style cockpit. Beside it was Red Dead Redemption, before which stood a guy who – no word of a lie – seemed to be there for a very, very, long time (why you would pay admission to go to FanExpo just to play RDR all day is beyond me; it’s a good game, but…). In the middle of the booth were two Move stations; one had a demo for a ping-pong game, while the other had one of the Sony reps showing off a building-blocks demo.
This picture took forever to compose. She kept holding them up higher and it looked really funny.
Jackson and I got to partake in a game of ping-pong, and I really enjoyed it; Move is very responsive, and accurate. For the record, I was spanked my Mr. Jackson, 5-0. As easy as it was to get into the queue for Move titles (there was not a lot of room in the through-way, thanks to the T-Shirt Emporium), it was infinitely more difficult to get into line to play Gran Turismo 5 on the 3D TV. That game looked pretty sweet, as did NFL 11, which was adjacent to it.
Microsoft
Earlier in the day, our motley crew (along with our friends from GameNorth, who are no less motley) entered the Halo: Reach tent to play an awesome round of the multiplayer mode. As with any FPS, as long as there is a sniper rifle, I feel very comfortable. We certainly took it to the Covenant – those bastards.
People Kinect-ing with each other.
Microsoft also had a few Kinect stations loaded up with Kinect Adventures. It was at a busy intersection, though, so it was tough to get into line (hard to tell where the line actually was). I had played that game not too long ago, though, so I didn’t feel right about hogging the experience. What was fun was the setup: Microsoft had two TV’s for each station, back to back, so both the player and the crowd could see what was going on; some very funny moments!
Nintendo
Nintendo had a tent with four Wii stations: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, and, Super Mario Galaxy 2. There was a pretty thick crowd trying to get their game on in that pavillion; and it was probably the easiest of the three to get to because it didn’t face a skinny thoroughfare; instead, it faced the G4 booth, which was very roomy.
I wonder if there were any green mushrooms in there?
There was also a DSi station at the end of the tent, and for those people who brought a DS and Dragon Quest IX: Sentry of the Starry Skies were treated to free content. It was amusing; people were walking around with their DS all day with DQIX in “tag mode”. Having had a black DS Lite before, and now a dark brown DSi XL, it was strange to see so many white DS and DS Lites.
Fox
Prior to the weekend, we had received an invitation from one of the reps for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment to partake in their Nostromo hibernation chambers. If you were there, you couldn’t miss it (unfortunately, I didn’t have a good angle to capture a shot); they looked like four futuristic coffins in an “x” layout, all connected in the middle. Once open, I slid inside and placed my head on the comfortable head rest. Inside the lid, directly facing the head rest, was an LCD monitor.
All this thing needed was a food/drink dispenser and a toilet and it would have been perfect.
I also noticed that there seemed to be speakers all over the place. The chambers served as a method of delivery for Fox’s trailer of their upcoming Alien Anthology release on Blu-Ray (that’s right, Alien fans!), which is coming out on October 26. The chamber was crazy awesome, with amazing sound.
Lego-Fett
Not much more than that needs to be said about this incredible statue of Boba Fett made entirely out of LEGO. There was a contest to see who could guess the correct number of blocks that made up the imposing figure. I didn’t even bother; as far as I am concerned, it is one big piece!
Somewhere, in this big wide world, there is a LEGO Sarlacc lying in wait.
Additionally, there was a life-sized statue of Darth Vader, also constructed out of LEGO.
A & C Games
I planned to visit these guys while I was hunting for Naruto Mininja for my daughter; it took a while, following the molasses-like movement of the crowd, but I finally got there. I was greeted by Gar and Jefferson, both wearing Power Gloves and sporting their bright shirts.
Gaming gangstas Jefferson and Gar at the A & C Games booth.
We have mentioned this store a number of times on our site (because it worth mentioning); if you’re looking for obscure titles, this is the place to go. These guys have the largest collection of rare and old-school games in the city. Best of all: they are very easy to get to! Don’t forget to check out their place!
South Tower Armouring Guild
My good friends Bill and Brenda Fedun from Metcalfe run the South Tower Armouring Guild. Both talented craftspeople, they make medieval weapons, armour and jewellery. Not only are they creators of excellent goods, Bill also teaches medieval fighting. They are also both excellent people, full of many stories and great kindness.
Mike Jackson and Bill, chatting it up.
I have personally been to their place; I visited a few years ago and ended up drooling all over the floor at the sight of their work all over their place. Bill even took me to his forge, which was pretty cool. If you’re ever looking for real weapons (not the rat-tail tang or half tang replica swords), look them up.
We did visit a few more booths, but I will touch on those in the next few posts.
Click here to check out our FanExpo Canada 2010 Booth Gallery! ยป>
