Lhars Steck - BG's PAX Gamette 2010

The time has come for us to introduce you to our PAX Gamette. Yes, we know, we’re big teases, we’ve had her picture up on the sidebar for a month now but we’d like to point you to the first word in our name… Busy. We think you’ll forgive us as soon as you meet this lovely new addition to our Gamettes.

Lhars is a veteran Aion and World of Warcraft player with a wicked sense of humor and a way of making you feel at ease around her almost immediately. When it comes to MMOs (especially WoW), she knows her stuff. After speaking to her for a few minutes about her WoW character, we implemented a “no talking about WoW??? rule that had absolutely nothing to do with her having better gear than us. Really.

So take a few minutes out of your day to welcome Lhars to our site, read her interview, look at her pics, and remember… Her character is way better dressed than yours.

Give us a brief description of how it felt to be chosen as our first official PAX Gamette. We know we’re super awesome so it’s okay to faint a few times while you go over it.
Well uh… /passes out. It’s a super honor and was great to meet the group at such a fun event that I look forward to every year!

We know you’re a huge WoW fan. Tell us about your best WoW moment and your worst WoW moment. Extra points if you shed a tear while writing about either one.
Totally best WoW moments are server first boss kills, nothing feels better than progression before it gets nerfed for everyone else. Or wait… is my favorite moment wiping out a raid of the opposite faction… shit, tough call. Worst, hands down when any of your core people get hacked, especially yourself (or in my case my husband as well). Puts a real damper on things.

What’s your favorite WoW class?
Mage/ Warlock / Boomkin (I’m a DPS junkie)

Is your WoW char’s gear nasty?
She is definitely a nasty girl!!!! But in all honesty gear only goes so far, it comes down to the player themselves. Good player + Little Fire + Heroic DFO = Could probably eat people alive wearing nothing else.

Read Lhars’ full interview and see her pictorial here!

TRON!

The year was 1982. Imagine if you will a world where the Atari 2600 is King, the Commodore 64 has just launched, and Disney has created a movie with the best computer graphics ever seen on the Big Screen. If none of this is ringing a bell, you were either too young or not born yet. The movie I’m speaking of was Tron.

Yes, the graphics are crap now and the games it spawned from its vision of a computer generated world are dusty old relics that you can download to your Xbox 360 if you’re feeling nostalgic. That feeling lasts about all of three minutes when you realize how antiquated those graphics are. But the movie generated some of the best arcade games of the time and for that alone, we have to salute Disney. One of the better Intellivision games, “Tron: Deadly Discs???, which may have provided a means of competing with the more popular Atari 2600, came out the same year as the movie. Sadly, the home video game market would crash the next year and so the advances made in gaming wouldn’t see the insides of a home for several years to come.

The game “Tron 2.0??? would come out some 21 years later and receive a mostly lukewarm reception by those who were not already a fan of the movie and the original games. It died a quiet and noble death before it really generated a lot of mainstream interest. But, somewhere, there must have been enough of a spark for Disney to determine a sequel of the Tron movie was in order and with it, a new game.

Tron: Evolution is the tie-in that will serve as the story bridge between the original Tron movie and its sequel coming out at the end of this year, Tron Legacy. In it, players assume the role of “Anon??? (short for Anonymous, get it?) and journey through the computer world in order to… Well, that part we don’t know. The developers were tightlipped about the story line in order to prevent the inevitable spoilers that would end up online. There was mention by one of the attendees of missions directly from Flynn himself but a developer struck him down with a well thrown data disc and he derezzed before I could find out more. True story.

(more…)

The Reckon Crew speaks with Dave Haydysch, producer for Fallen Earth

In one of the noisiest corners of PAX Prime, we met with one of Icarus Studios’ representatives and were ushered over to meet Fallen Earth Producer Dave Haydysch who was kind enough, and patient enough in his talking throughout the blare of the music game across the way, to give us a tour of the MMO Fallen Earth. It was easy to see the enthusiasm Dave had for this game and it was hard not to get caught up in it as he told us about this post-apocalyptic RPG. Below is a small excerpt from the almost 30 minutes Dave was generous enough to spend with us talking about the game.

“The game is set in the year 2154 and there’s been a virus called Shiva released on the planet. Amid the confusion that set in after the virus was released, all the countries of the world blamed one another for the outbreak and ended up launching their nuclear weapons. The character you play is a clone, and along with the remaining 1% of the world’s population, you’re trying to rebuild the world.???

“There are seven different factions in the world now and each faction is attempting to rebuild the world based on their ideals creating conflict among the factions. For example, there is a faction called the ‘Enforcers’ who are very militant, very martial law, and very police state and that is the means by which they intend to rebuild society. Their opposing faction is the ‘CHOTA’ which stands for ‘Children of the Apocalypse’ who are all about chaos. They say, ‘Screw your rules, they didn’t work the first time around and chaos is the way we’re going to rebuild this,’ so they’re obviously at odds.???

“Now you don’t have to align with a faction in the game but you miss out on so much of the depth of the game that we really encourage players to get involved. Our game is very free flowing so it adds a lot of different aspects to the game when a player along some cells with one of the various factions. If you do choose to align with a faction, it changes the story that you’re playing through, it adds depth and a different twist on the game than someone who chooses a different faction might experience.???

“There are three sectors to the game right now, sectors one, two, and three, very basic names. Sector One is what you might expect from a setting that we’ve placed the game in. The game is set in the United States and what we’ve done is take a real map of the Grand Canyon, set it down, and put our game on top of it. In theory, you can pick a spot on the map, look around, and then go there in real life. Of course the spot you visit in real life isn’t going to look anything like our post apocalyptic version but the fact is you’d be looking at the exact location that we’ve put in the game.???

Dave then showed us how immense the game world actually is from the point of view of the character we were “test driving???. At this time, they’ve only used 2/3 of the map and the game still covers over 1000 square kilometers. Even from the viewpoint of a hardcore MMO player, it’s easy to see how big this world already is.

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BG Crew with Pax Gamette Lhars Steck, Ross Steck and Rob Welkner of Coin-Op TV.

Well, the Reckon Crew made it back to Texas in more or less one piece but thanks to a bout of “Nerd Flu??? (for which I am totally blaming Rob Welkner) I’ve been a bit out of it since getting back on Lone Star soil. But never fear, dear readers, because we have returned with news of the sights we’ve seen and games we’ve played. Over the course of the next few days, we’ll be posting up interviews and previews.

Before we begin those, however, I thought we’d do a quick list of things that really caught our eye or caught us off guard. PAX Prime was an overwhelming amount of gaming goodness with some very nice surprises and a few major disappointments. Below you’ll find the quick and dirty version of what we found to be the best… and the worst.

Biggest PAX Prime Surprise: Duke Nukem Forever. Seriously. Even the guys from Penny Arcade didn’t know this one was going to be there and after 13 years of false starts, screen shots, reported delays, and the rumor that the game was total vaporware, Take Two Games and Gearbox caught the entire convention off guard with their Duke Nukem booth. As I walked by the sign on day one, I thought someone was out of their mind to play a joke like that but the whole thing was on the up and up and the demo was playable. Throw in the fact that the wait was almost two hours to get in for the demo and no one from Take Two/Gearbox was mangled by anyone and that tells me it was legit. There was so much we were scheduled for that we didn’t get the chance to check it out but everyone was raving about it so we’ll be keeping an eye out for it.

Tron Evolution The Game - Photo By Mitch Ahrens

Biggest PAX Prime Letdown: I’m a Final Fantasy fan so I was really looking forward to the playable demo of Final Fantasy XIV. The problem here was that even though I was prepared for the inevitable fact that it was going to be another MMO version of the franchise, I had hoped for some improvements over the last MMO entry. I was disappointed. I’m certain there will be some “polishing??? before it is released but it was hard not to get the “been there, done that??? feeling from the demo. I wasn’t a fan of Final Fantasy XI and it doesn’t appear much has changed from that rendition. Unless there’s a major overhaul before the release, I’m going to be giving this one a pass.

Game from PAX Prime most likely to be enjoyed by the Reckon Crew while drinking: This one was an easy choice. Slam Bolt Scrappers from Fire Hose Games is one of the most chaotic (and enjoyable) games we sampled at PAX. Scrappers is a mashup of strategy and brawling with a touch of Tetris thrown in for flavor. With a multiplayer versus mode as well as a co-op mode, Slam Bolt Scrappers may find its way into our drinking games soon after its launch at the beginning of next year.

Best PAX Prime After Party: Hands down, the guys from EVE Online have the market cornered on After Parties. Last year they went all out but this year they managed to top even that epic party. There were fire twirlers and eaters along with cute girls dressed up in leather and lace dancing the night away. Of course, all this awesome comes with a price and that price, when figuring in the open bar, is the largest collection of “white boy??? dances you can imagine. Aside from the horror of watching some of the most uncoordinated drunkards across the world congregated in one place dancing off-rhythm, CCP Games knows how to throw a mixer and may very well hold a special place in the Reckon Crew’s hearts for a long time to come.

Chatting it up with the Devs from Fallen Earth.

Best PAX WTF Moment: We drink. Seriously, I mean that. When we imbibe, people who try to keep up with us often end up hiding from us. We’re also good at getting into places we’re not meant to be when we’ve been drinking. So there was a moment when we realized at one party that we had made a beeline for the VIP area, made it in, and proceeded to get sloshed off the free booze. It was only after about an hour that we realized where we were and there was a look that passed between the Reckon Crew with no one daring to ask how we had ended up where we were. There was a loudly proclaimed “WTF???? once we had left which lead to laughter… Shenanigans continued.

Best PAX “Where the hell have I been???? moment: Nestled amongst one of the noisiest corners of PAX Prime was the developers of a little gem called “Fallen Earth???. Admittedly, we’d heard of the game early last year but we’d failed to follow up on it and we’d not really thought of it since then. Sitting down with one of the crew from Icarus Studios LLC, we were introduced to one of the most lovingly crafter MMOs I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Set in a post apocalyptic world, this game has some of the features I’ve always wanted to see in an MMO. There’s also a real passion among its developers to create a unique world for players to wander about in. We’ll be running an interview with one of the game’s developers and we’re already chomping at the bit to review the game. More to come on this in the near future.

Biggest PAX Fan “Boi??? moment: To say the Reckon Crew is a bunch of Star Wars fans is an understatement. We’re absolutely certain that we collectively know more about the Star Wars universe than some of the writers who have worked with George Lucas on the EU books. So it was with a very critical eye that we approached the Bioware booth and proceeded to get our fill of the playable demo. The graphics were gorgeous, the actions and skills were smoothly animated, and there may or may not have been a moment when I loudly made the sound of a young girl presented with a birthday present of a real live unicorn. Those of you who are as critical of Star Wars’ games as we may rejoice should the final product be anything like what we witnessed at PAX.

There it is in the briefest of glimpses into our experience of PAX Prime. As I stated earlier, we will be presenting much more from our visit to the Mecca of gaming conventions as well as introducing our official PAX Gamette in the coming days… so sty tuned.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

All photos by Mitch Ahrens 2010.

Here’s the deal, we’re going to be in Seattle for PAX, you’re going to be in Seattle for PAX. We’re geeks with a photographer, you’re a geek who’s photogenic. We like geek girls, you just happen to be a geek girl. It’s simple math. Might be time for us to talk.

We’re looking for someone who wants to be our official PAX Gamette and you could be that someone. We were going to shorten it to PAX-ette because we know how people love when we get “cutesy??? and add “-ette??? onto the end of words to feminize non-gendered words but we’re just going to stick with the “Official PAX Gamette???.

So what do you need to do to apply for this once in a lifetime (well, until the next PAX) opportunity? It’s easy, first, just send us an email at gamettes@busygamer.com letting us know you’re interested and attach a photo. Tell us a little about yourself like why you’re attending PAX and what you’re most interested in seeing while you’re there. You don’t have to be a professional model to land this opportunity, just a geek or a nerd.

And what will you get if we pick you? Well, you’ll get to hang out with the Reckon Crew and we’re awesome but, if that’s not enough, here’s what we’ll do… We’ll set up an impromptu photo shoot somewhere in the nearby vicinity that will allow us to capture your inner nerdy. Once that bit is done, we’ll drag you around the convention and use you as a distraction to cut in lines for the games by yelling, “HEY, LOOK! A REAL GIRL!???  If that doesn’t work, we may have you beat up someone to get us a place in line because we’re lovers not fighters.

Seriously though, if you’re interested in getting to see a specific game or event, we’ll pony up a BG Reckon Crew pass and see about getting you to the front of the line. We may even chronicle your reaction to said game or event as part of the whole experience. And then, if you’re not sick of us already, we’ll introduce you to Hailey Bright, our Gamette of the Year 2009, and take you out for something fancy to eat, like McDonald’s.

And, since we just happen to know where all the cool parties are, we’ll be more than happy to let you tag along to anything we happen to attend. So you’ll get to attend some of the epic PAX after parties if you so desire.

In addition to all of this, you’ll also be entered into our Gamette of the Year competition for 2010 as one of our official Gamettes for… well, 2010.

Now, there are some rules we have to abide by and they’re kinda important:

1. You must be 18 years of age. This is non-negotiable. You have to have ID showing you are 18 or older. If you want to go to the after parties, it would be best if you were 21 or older. We can’t guarantee we can get you into the parties if you’re under 21, sorry.
2. You must be in Seattle on one of the days we will be there. Provide us with a schedule of when you’ll be there and we’ll work around it in order to do the shoot.
3. You must be attending PAX. The idea for this is to have a young lady rep our site and the PAX convention. Even if you’re only going up for one day, you have to be attending.
4. This isn’t so much a rule as a guideline… Have a sense of humor. We tend to poke a lot of fun at one another, call each other names, and have good natured arguments. If that sort of thing offends you, it isn’t going to disqualify you but hanging out with us for any period of time may grate on your nerves.

Dem’s the rules and now that they’re out of the way, it’s time for the PAX FAQ (which I totally just made up):

1. Will the photo shoot be at PAX convention? We’re hoping yes but it might be too crowded or too busy to set up for a shoot. If we shoot somewhere other than the convention center, it will be outdoors, weather permitting, or near the convention center itself.
2. Can I bring someone with me to the photo shoot? By all means, please do. We want you to be comfortable and if bringing someone with you makes that happen, then bring the whole family if you want.
3. If I bring someone with me, will they get BG Press Access? Most likely not. We’re going to be doing this on the fly and we’ll have to see what we can swing as we go in regards to access to events. We’ll do what we can but if you show up with ten extra people, then no.
4. Will the Reckon Crew marry me? Whoa, hey, we just met, let’s try to keep this friendly. Besides, there’s a lot of things about us you don’t know anything about, Dottie. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you *shouldn’t* understand.
5. Will there be booze at the after events? Heh. Heh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ahem, yes, there will be booze. If you don’t drink, we respect that. We won’t force you to down a bottle of tequila or anything. We drink. We’re good at it. We’d recommend not trying to keep up with us if you want to wake up at a reasonable hour the next day. If you do try, we warned you. If you outdrink us, we’ll say we were recovering from a stomach virus in public and call you the “Goddess of the Bottle??? in private.
6. Do I have to hang out with you jerks if I win? Absolutely not. Your level of hanging out is completely up to you. If you just want to do the shoot and be on your way, that’s completely fine. But ask anyone who knows us, we’re pretty fun to hang out with.

So that’s it. You want to give it a shot? We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Gritskrieg – End of Line