Yeah, I know it’s taken me a week to write this up, even though I’ve not said a whole lot. I figure I’ll let the video and pictures speak for me…

Check out more Anaheim Comic-Con pictures at the official popculturegeek Flickr site

                   

Among the highlights of my weekend (in no particular order):

• Winning that Randy Bowen Wolverine statue from the Comic Bug and the Hero Initiative Wolverine 100 covers fundraising promotion.
• Getting to see the lovely Jennifer Wenger (aka Wonder Woman) again, an actress from the amazing Confessions of a Superhero documentary.
• Getting to play the newest entry in the Legend of Zelda series (i’m a Zelda fanatic) called Spirit Tracks for the DS and DSi.
• Getting the opinion of a real roller derby girl on the movie Whip It (short answer: it was funny, but not really realistic… but, hey, plumbers would say the same thing about a movie featuring plumbers. Hollywood always has to take a bit of creative license with everything.)
• Getting my Amazing Spider-Man #606 convention exclusive sketch variant signed by J Scott Campbell and snagging a sweet big format sketchbook.
• Seeing Thomas Jane looking down upon the crowd and urging the crowd to come to his 3D screening of Dark Country (directed by him).
• Meeting David Petersen and getting each of my mini format books of Mouse Guard signed by him.
• Did I mention all of those Wolverine 100 covers from the Hero Initiative fundraiser? So many I’d love to own when they go up for auction, especially Bill Morrison‘s full color recreation of the classic Captain America annual cover originally done by Mike Zeck.
• Seeing La Bamba from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien roaming the floor as a fan and repeatedly getting asked to have his picture taken with fans of his (he’s seriously part of the best band on late night television).
• Finally getting around to picking up The Boys by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. Upon learning that I had never read a page of The Boys and was buying it on reputation alone, Darick warned me of its graphic nature. I assured him I could handle it (I haven’t yet pulled it from the stack of books I got this weekend, but expect me to Twitter my disgust when I do).
• Even though I’m not a pro wrestling fan, it was fun to watch the acrobatics involved in entertaining the crowd.
• Grabbing more than a few trade paperbacks and hardcovers at HALF PRICE, including Runaways, All-Star Superman, and more. Plus, lots of other fun stuff.
• Getting to meet Bloom County and Opus creator, Berkeley Breathed, and getting to attend his panel. This man helped form my sense of humor in my impressionable teenage years (don’t ask when) through his comic strips (David Letterman, Monty Python, and Star Trek reruns had an influence too, but I digress).
• At every convention, I try to pick up at least one completely indie creator’s book (I wish I could grab all of them, but 1. not all of them are good 2. i’m not rich 3. and i really prefer unique concepts that look like writing skill is required, not the ability to draw big tits or fetish costumes. This time I picked up both issues of Punks the Comic by Joshua Fialkov.
• Finding artist Tom Hodges at yet another convention and still having a hard time picking just one of his many amazing works to take home with me (again, i’m not rich). In the end I picked up a Yoda. You should see the Princess Leia I have on my wall.
• Picking up these sweet dot painted 4×6 inch works of art featuring the Venture Bros henchmen of the Monarch. I have a feeling these won’t be the last ones I buy from Giddy Girlie.
• Seeing the now ubiquitious Lady Deadpool dancing to the music of Black Bolt aka Ian Frazier.
• And speaking of music, I got to witness the massive, lumbering bluesy rock of Bigfoot and geek rock heroes Kirby Krackle Saturday night at the Hero Initiative after party. I became an instant fan, bought a CD and shirt, and I plan to do a little feature on them here on popculturegeek in the near future. My only complaint is that they should have been put in a better venue where the lighting wasn’t controlled by whoever was leaning against the light switch at the time. But I have to admit, despite the tiny sound system, the bands sounded really good.
• Oh, and one last thing… so many gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous girls in costume. Not the least of which is the young lady I shot at the Auld Dubliner across the street at the after show drink up. Is that a great pose or what? There are so many more that I couldn’t put them all here (and still others that I missed!). Check my entire Flickr stream to see all of them! Thanks to all of the ladies (and the guys too) for being so gracious and standing still for me every time.

As the years go by, I know that the crowds will grow and, sure, the convention’s proximity to LA will increase Hollywood’s presence at the show, but that certainly won’t be a bad thing as long as comics remain a vital part of this convention’s focus. Any opportunity for geeks to get together with those of their own kind, grab some rare collectibles, meet their favorite comic artists and writers, and get the chance to dress up in that revealing spandex outfit at any other time than just Halloween, is a good thing. Here’s hoping to many more conventions at the Long Beach Convention Center! Seeya next year, geeks!

The hallway in which we lined up for the exhibition hall must have been 100 degrees in there, but while the stench was strong with us, no one wilted or died.

I stood in line for more than an hour and a half to get a Harry Potter bag o’ goodies (giant RARE signed Luna Lovegood card!), but I missed out on lots of other swag that disappeared quickly (but hey, I did get a few of those shirtless dudes of Twilight card sets… Really Summit? Really?! *sigh* Well, I do have to admit they know who they’re marketing to…)

When the night was over, we grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant called Cafe Diem from the show Eureka on the newly renamed SyFy channel.

Pictures are uploaded to the Flickr site, but it’s this baby that makes me happy. Got to see Seth Rogen up close as he revealed the Black Beauty car from his upcoming Green Hornet movie to a exclusive gathering of press folks, including me. Here’s a little video I just threw together of the reveal…

If you’re going to the San Diego Comic-Con, you haven’t missed your chance to see the Battlestar Galactica Orchestra just yet. The tickets just went on sale for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances (July 23, 24, 25) at the House of Blues in San Diego. Space is limited, so get your tickets now! More information about the shows is available on Bear’s Battlestar Blog.

By the way, in earlier posts to our Twitter, I mentioned that they weren’t permitting pictures to be taken, even though Bear had expressed a desire to get photos from fans on his blog (UPDATE: now his blog says no FLASH photography. Too bad the folks running the show didn’t make that distinction or I would have taken more pictures and probably would have held the camera in a way that would have yielded me better results). And sorry for not getting any of Katee, but she was on the other side of the stage. In fact, she appeared on stage with so little fanfare, that I wasn’t even sure it was her until after the show when I asked one of the band members. Oh well, next time.

Check out our photos on Flickr

Today was all about filling in the gaps and making sure I covered all the bases that didn’t get covered on the previous days. I grabbed the swag (including a free pass to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in IMAX, limited to only 150 people total, a flying slingshot monkey from Woot!, an Alan Wake Xbox faceplate, and a handful of random t-shirts), talked to a few gaming companies including Konami (Silent Hill, Ant Nation, Saw, and lots more) and Xbox (Alan Wake, Halo 3 ODST), and collected my share of blisters (by the way, don’t wear Doc Martens to a video game convention and constantly walk non-stop 8 hours a day for 3 days straight). I even got a chance to play Batman Arkham Asylum, Super Mario Bros Wii, and Splosion Man. I also met some nice people at Peregrine (a glove game controller), SureDisc (fix your game discs or DVDs by sending them off to them for a low price!), and Woot! (they love giving out monkeys and spinning lights).

In the end, it was the Xbox media briefing that stole the show with their many celebrity guests and the announcement of Project Natal. But when it comes to deciding what was the biggest game of the show, well, there is so much cutting edge stuff coming to a console or PC near you that it’s hard to pick just one. There’s something for everyone, whether it’s psychological story-driven thrillers (Alan Wake) or racing (Need for Speed Shift, Forza Motorsports 3, Mod Nation Racers) or mindbendingly brutal action fighters/shooters (Assassin’s Creed 2, Halo 3 ODST, Splinter Cell Conviction, Modern Warfare 2, God of War III, and so much more… the list goes on and on…). So much good stuff. It makes me want to own every game console, game, and gadget I saw this week. I think I’d start reviewing things regularly if I got some of these things sent to me *cough* (hint,hint).

Anyway, the last of my pictures have been uploaded to Flickr, but lots of video footage is still to come. Just give me this weekend. Expect a pretty extensive collection of crazy stuff from the last 4 days. I’m actually excited to review 328 individual clips that I shot in HD to help me remember what I actually saw this week. My memory is all kinds of blurry now as I’ve reached the end of my physical and mental rope. But enough of my bitching. After a little bit of sleep, I’ll be digging in and serving up something pretty fun by next week and slapping it up on YouTube. Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words on my pictures and videos. You can look forward to the same coverage coming this July at the San Diego Comic-Con International. But you can expect almost twice as many pictures and video. This was only a warm up…

Check out our pictures on Flickr

I’m tired. The rest is up to you. Go check out the pictures. Expect some video this weekend as it takes a bit longer to cut together a montage of EVERYTHING that happened at E3 than it does to upload 200 pictures.

One more day and it will be GAME OVER for E3 2009! My weary bones can’t wait (but I really am enjoying myself… seriously).

Check out our pictures on Flickr

• Super Mario Bros Wii will let you play as 4 characters at once, working together or against each other on the same side scrolling screen.
• Metroid the Other M, which looks to be both a third person and first person shooter/fighter, is coming in 2010.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 is coming soon!
• The DSi will soon let you upload your embarrassingly distorted pictures to Facebook from the console.
• The Nintendo Vitality Sensor. Apparently it checks to see how the games are affecting you and will work with some games to help you stay relax or even sleep. I’m just saying… if your game puts people to sleep, you made a bad game.
• Golden Sun DS is coming soon!
• Wii Sports Resort will come with the Wii Motion Plus controller add-on by this holiday season.
• Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again will allow you to build and share your own custom levels.
• Wario Ware will allow you to create your own mini games and share them.

Then came the Sony media briefing at the Shrine Auditorium immediately after Nintendo finished at Nokia. We would have gotten there faster if we had driven, but the complimentary shuttle buses were more convenient. When we arrived, they even had food, water, specialty drinks, and even alcohol! I only had enough time to grab a few bacon wrapped sausages and some tasty little desserts before we were rushed inside to the glorious old auditorium. Sony gets the award for the biggest single screen (if you don’t add up the sizes of the multiple screens at the other events) and they made use of it. They repeatedly made it clear that only games on a PS3 could look this good on a screen this big. And everything they showed us did look good. It looked amazing! I’m not a Playstation gamer, but I wish I was sometimes. Many of these games are moving works of art and they showed them off as if they were, but with a bit more violence. If you get a chance to catch any of the E3 footage that Sony is making available on their website, do it. You’ll be stunned by what you see, whether you’re a gamer or not.
More than a few unexpected surprises were shared today, despite the prevalence of leaked rumors and secrets. Here’s just a few:

• No longer a secret at this point, the PSP GO is the next generation for their handheld devices, but the original, bigger PSP won’t be leaving the market anytime soon. They’re partnering with many new companies to provide a wide variety of video content as well as origina, exclusive games and more.
• I was actually impressed with their still-in-development demo of the new PS3 motion controller, which looked like a wand with a glowing tip, but was amazingly attuned to the action happening on screen. It’s biggest selling point was the subtlety of movement from the slightest of gestures, allowing precise interaction with the virtual environment on screen.
• They surprised everyone with the official announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, exclusively for the PS3.
• Final Fantasy VII is just one of many classics being made available through the Playstation Network.
• Rockstar Games, the creators of Grand Theft Auto, will soon have a new game called Agent. And while they didn’t show any footage, I imagine it will be similar in scope as the GTA series, except maybe you’re not a criminal this time around.
• They demoed Assassin’s Creed II for the awestruck audience.
• In the spirit of Big Little Planet, the PS3′s newest create/play/share game is called Mod Nation Racers, which allows you to create your own characters, cars, and even elaborate tracks in just minutes.
• The Last Guardian was breathtaking in my opinion. It’s a fantasy world with photorealistic detail and a story with characters that remind me of the Neverending Story (the trailer was light on story, heavy on atmosphere), but more realistic looking, if that makes sense.
• They finished things off with a mind-blowingly violent God of War III demo that had the crowd oohing, ahhing, and gasping at almost every action on screen.

Well, that’s all I have for tonight. No video tonight, because you can probably get much better quality videos straight from the creators on their sites right about now. Plus I don’t have the patience to sit through an upload at this point. I haven’t even published any of my pictures from the floor yet on Flickr. Today was all about finishing up the coverage of the media events. We’ll save the floor footage for tomorrow. Now I’m going to bed. It’s insanely late (don’t believe the time on this post) and we’re hitting the road at 8:30. I might get almost 6 hours sleep tonight. woohoo!!!

And to continue that theme, it’s late. Here’s hoping I get through this before falling asleep (pre-6am wake up time to drive into LA for the Nintendo and Sony conferences tomorrow). But today, everything was centered around the star-studded Xbox media briefing. No one knew just how star-choked the event would be, but WOW did Microsoft deliver! They kicked off the day with the new Beatles Rock Band game and got the Beatles widows Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono to wave to the crowd just before the surviving legends Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney stepped onto the stage to thunderous applause. I’m dying to play the drums on this new game, just because I love playing Rock Band and the Beatles songs are just iconic. They just feel like they’d be fun to play.

The rest of the morning included more than 10 new world premiere announcements of new games and lots of other goodies (more on that later). Among the games featured, in no particular order:

• Tony Hawk RIDE – Tony himself showed up to introduce the new skateboard controller included with this game, lending a whole new level of realism to the skate game genre that he helped pioneer.
• Left 4 Dead 2 – The quick trailer they showed us was scarier than almost any other zombie movie I’ve seen, set down in the Bayou. Intense action and more gore than you can shake a chainsaw at.
• Forza Motorsport 3 – Stunning lifelike racing action that the series is known for. Plus, they showed off a sexy car on the stage!
• Modern Warfare 2 – The Infinity Ward guys showed off an extended arctic battle that involved crazy vertical mountain climbing, ice pick-axe thingy take downs, an integrated HUD on your weapon, and an insane snowmobile shoot and chase scene.
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising – introduced as the first appearance ever of a Metal Gear Solid game for the Xbox by creator Kojima, but it will star Raiden instead of Solid Snake.
• Shadow Complex – They showed off this complex (duh) side scrolling puzzle shooter with surprising depth.
• Halo 3: ODST – They showed a lot of cinematics and some in-game play from the new game set prior to the entire Halo series. Plus, when the game is released this fall, gamers will get the opportunity to take part in the multiplayer beta for the new Halo Reach game.
• Actress and girly gamer geek Felicia Day announced that Xbox would be teaming up with Facebook and Twitter to bring their content to Xbox Live, allowing you to interact with your profiles in all new ways and in some ways incorporating your profile into your games, allowing you to post your status, scores, and performance as it happens.
• Plus announcements on Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox, the truly creepy Alan Wake game will finally see the light of day, Crackdown 2 will be released in 2010, a new avatar-friendly game called Joy Ride that lets people race around over Xbox Live, and so much more! I wish I had time to cover it all in detail.

But the big announcement was something called Project Natal. Steven Spielberg even showed up to discuss his involvement in the project. I know it’s been said before, and I expect a ton of negative backlash to crop up between now and the time it actually hits stores (because that’s what the ignorant masses do), but I believe we witnessed history today. There had been rumors that Microsoft would be introducing a new motion sensitive controller today, but no one had any idea that the controller would actually be… YOU! With a new motion sensing camera attached to your tv (and existing 360, which means no new console to buy), your Xbox will actually sense you when you walk into the room. You will command it with your voice and move things around the screen with a wave of your hand, from picking a movie to watch via Netflix to communicating with friends through a video connection to painting a picture using virtual buckets of paint and giant stencil pages to interacting with the game environment in ways that don’t require a controller. And each time we thought that they had showed us everything, they went a little further, until they showed us Milo. In this game, we witnessed a woman communicating with an artificial boy on the screen. She was able to interact with the boy’s immersive environment, even seeing her face reflected in a pool of water on the screen as she waved her hand through it to create ripples. And when she drew a picture on a piece of paper and held it up to the camera, the boy took it into his virtual world, identifying the image as a fish, which she had drawn on the physical page. It may seem like sleight of hand at this point, but the possibilities at this stage are limited only by our imaginations. This is the next step toward a new world of interactivity, not only for gaming, but for communication via the Xbox like no other console or computer has done before. There is no release date just yet, but you’ll know when it hits because it will be the only thing people will be talking about, unless Nintendo or Sony has something big up their sleeves for tomorrow.

I know I’m missing tons of other stuff, such as the new 1080p digital quality picture for all video, including movies (which will instantly play with no download delay), Sky network programming for those who want to see what’s happening on the other side of the pond, and lots more.

After the Microsoft briefing, it was hard to think that anyone could outdo the buzz surrounding Project Natal, but Ubisoft and EA gave it their best shot. I didn’t get into the EA event (sorry), but I heard they had some great new Star Wars: the Old Republic footage among some other stuff. I would have loved to have covered it, but oh well. Ubisoft was much more accomodating, but man was the whole registration process more than a little muddled. Regardless, host Joel McHale from Talk Soup showed off a number of big projects, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, which after seeing the gameplay twice (it was also featured at Xbox), it was no less stunning. They showed off the brand new and much improved Red Steel 2 game for the Wii, the new Rabbids Go Home game, a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up game from the makers of Mario Smash Bros Brawl, and even a new fitness game that includes a camera called Your Shape, that watches you as you work out, giving you tips and pushing you to a better body. But one of the big stars of the event was soccer legend Pele, speaking mostly in Portugese through an interpreter about his new game Academy of Champions, which looks like a cartoony Harry Potter world if they played soccer instead of Quidditch. The only person who might be slightly bigger than Pele (in North American minds) was director James Cameron, who showed up to talk about the evolution of his new Avatar movie and the video game that has been developed in conjunction with the film. He didn’t show us any footage of the stereoscopic 3D game, but he did say that it would be playable on the floor this week, so it will be a must-see, even if the lines will be too long to actually play it for this impatient one.

Okay, well, it’s off to bed for a few hours. Tomorrow it’s Nintendo, Sony, and the official opening of E3 2009! Check back tomorrow for more coverage of this massive event!

Check out our pictures on Flickr

E3 was always known as the big, noisy, glizty monstrosity for the video game and electronics entertainment world, calling industry insiders, investors, and of course media (go PCG!) to it’s darkened halls with its siren song, tempting us with previews of the latest and hottest games due in the coming months and years. There isn’t much to say right now other than that if the banners hanging outside are any indication of how huge this event will be, then yeah, reserve two seats on the plane for this mutha, because she is gonna be big. Take a look at our pictures posted to Flickr so far, using the image links below or just click here. Expect lots more pictures and video in the days to come, even before the Expo officially opens its doors on Tuesday.

I’m heading to a number of the media events to cover all of the latest big announcements from Xbox, Sony, Nintendo, and more! And while I’m there, I’ll be tweeting my ass off about anything that catches my attention the moment it happens. Sure, some of the companies have live feeds on their websites, but wouldn’t you rather get your news at a 140 characters at a time? I hear it’s all the rage with the kids. So keep an eye on this site throughout the week for all of the latest and greatest from the video game world!

Check out our pictures on Flickr

They talked about the various relationships on the show, on screen and off, as well as revealing a number of the things to come in the last few episodes of this season. During a clip presentation, we learned that, in a brilliant casting move, Quantum Leap actor Scott Bakula will be joining the cast for at least 3 episodes as Chuck’s long lost dad. We can also expect to see Chevy Chase appear in at least 3 episodes and we will see Chuck’s ex-girlfriend Jill (played by Jordana Brewster) return for at least one more episode this season.

I have uploaded 14 brand new videos from the convention panel that cover all of the big questions for the day (and a few of the usual lame ones). As always, the cast is funny and friendly (and Yvonne is just stunning sitting there quietly bored). Look below to see a few of the videos from our YouTube site along with all of my pictures from the event, now available on our Flickr site.

           

I am pleased to announce the release of the second assessment in the Dharma Initiative’s Volunteer Recruitment Program.

This new test is a broad-spectrum knowledge analysis. It is a multiple-choice test covering a range of topics.

YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT AT THIS TEST WILL BE THE ONLY ONE THAT WILL BE RECORDED AGAINST YOUR OVERALL TEST RESULTS. THE TEST WILL BE TIMED – DURATION WILL BE FACTORED INTO THE FINAL RESULT.

I would also like to encourage recruits to take the opportunity to earn extra “Dharma” points. These points WILL contribute to your overall test results and the eventual position you will be assigned within the Dharma Initiative.

(All this is, of course, part of the latest alternate reality game put on by ABC to promote Lost. You probably knew that already but I thought I’d share just in case.)