Toronto Thumbs

FanExpo 2010
Item 3 - Checking Things Out

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…

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Posted in Events, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony | No Comments »

FanExpo 2010
B Number 2 - Tron: Evolution

Easy to recognize.

When Tron 2.0 came out, it was pretty clear to me that only those of us who saw the original movie would be excited, if at all; fans are a fickle bunch; resistant to change; any departure from the plot is met with a frown and an insistence that “this never would have happened in the original”. Monolith did a good job toeing that line between canon and the introduction of new material. Even with generally favourable reviews, Tron 2.0 underperformed from a sales perspective, and support was eventually dropped; a shame, really, since the faithful user community kept producing mods for it, as well as an expansion.

Tron: Evolution, though, is a whole other story, and has something going for it that 2.0 did not: an accompanying motion picture (Tron: Legacy); even though that film may not be as closely tied to the game as one might expect.

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Posted in Events, First Impressions, Move, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

X’10
Chapter 9 - Making a Kinection

Spread around the venue were a few stations that had no controllers. Some folks who were at these demos were waving their arms all over the place and jumping up and down like monkeys; some were dancing with abandon; some were even doing Tai Chi and yoga.  The common elements that they shared were curiosity and fun.

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X’10
Chapter 8 - Reaching the End

Xbox and Halo are two words that go together like bacon and bacon. Since the beginning of the lifespan of Microsoft’s console series, gamers have been enjoying Halo (and abusing in-game chatting). The game has been the subject of many a comic, and is even the driving force behind a hilarious webisodic show. Halo: Reach is the end of a successful line of games, and Bungie is making sure they go out with a bang…

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X’10
Chapter 7 - Spin Me Another

Music games and I have a love/hate relationship; due to the fact that I live in a relatively small house, I don’t really have a lot of space for games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. My gaming area is also located right under my daughter’s room, so playing games that involve singing are usually a no-no; this may be about to change. DJ Hero allowed me to get a music game that was awesome to play and had a controller that could be easily stored away (although I did buy the Renegade Edition). As I burned through the whole game, I wondered how they could possibly make this game better; I wonder no more…

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X’10
Chapter 5 - Need For Spider-Man

Sometimes a franchise begins and then, with every iteration, slowly loses the magic that made the initial title so awesome. I haven’t played a Spider-Man game in a long time that resonated with me. Also, the Need For Speed series, though consistently fun, never seemed to capture the magic that made Hot Pursuit so amazing. Luckily, it seems that two new titles may have reset my opinion…

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Posted in Events, First Impressions, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

X’10
Chapter 4 - We Are All Brothers

As I walked through X’10, I rounded a corner and my smile widened impossibly; two screens were displaying Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in vibrant majesty. As many who read this site know, I have a thing for the Assassin’s Creed series, and for good reason: it’s one of the best franchises in the history of video games? Some may think that this is a lofty statement: they obviously haven’t played it yet…

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X’10
Chapter 3 - Falling Out of Fable-ous Fear

So much to see. So much to play. It’s a tough thing, trying to decide where to visit. Luckily, this year I had time on my side, allowing me to spend more time at more stations. These three titles were not really on my top ten list of games that I want to play; this opportunity has made me wonder if I should change my mind…

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X’10
Chapter 2 - The Blackening

Following my XBL/Kinect session, I waited in line to get into a behind-closed-doors demo of a game that piqued my curiosity when it was first announced…

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