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First Day Complete.
Posted By: Leviathan <levihoffmeier@gmail.com>Date: 8/27/11 2:12 a.m.


Waking up was terrible. 6 hours of sleep after 48 awake does not help. At all.

Free breakfast at hotel helps a little.

Meet Kanbo at 8 in line for Anniversary panel. Get awesome HBO shirt. Get to meet a few other HBO visitors/lurkers as we sight HBO shirts on one another.

Long wait...

But worth it. Anniversary was great. How they talked about the original and its evolution into what we're seeing now was very respectful and with genuine love.

Still not sure about the design of the actual ring....

But the graphics of 343 Guilty Spark are actually pretty amazing seeing it move and be played in real time, and in person. The lighting engine that they've put in seemed like the best lighting I've ever seen in a Halo game. The Jackal's shields really felt glowing and juicy. The thrusters of the Pelican scattered blue light across the ship's hull and the tall tree trunks. The glowing plants threw me off at first, but then as I investigated them, I really enjoyed how you actually see the energy surging through the plant, and then reaching its tips. It was great detail.

I hate 3D movies, but my brief viewing of Halo CE A in 3D was actually pretty amazing. I was literally ducking to the side as a Jackal shot a charge-up plasma blast at me. I'm sure I looked stupid. :) The 3D really felt like something 'new' and an interesting way of re-experiencing an older game. It's not something that will revolutionize the series, or even something you'll want to play ALL the time (if you even have the money to afford a 3D TV - I know I can't afford one) but I think it would allow for a pretty unique and immersive experience - a great addition to your memories of Halo.

After the Anniversary panel, I got to meet with Louis Wu and Miguel Chavez and chat as we wandered over to HaloFest proper. Simply meeting those two legends have been worth the trip alone.

The HaloFest area is awesome. Super-sad that I can't actually sit in or drive the Warthog, but oh well. :) The pieces of the Believe Diorama are beautiful. Seeing the 'explosions' close up is ridiculously cool. New Halo multiplayer maps are being played all around you at all times and lots of new items and toys are for sale in their store. They've got a cool Mega Blocks corner and a Halo timeline (just having ALL the original Halos up together, almost as a shrine- it's such a simple thing to do but it really made me happy). Another corner of the area is a smaller theater where the Halo Community Panel happened. Got to hear stories from lots of cool community leaders and sit with a number of fellow HBO-ers and cheer on Louis Wu and chant our community's name! Louis Wu even gave a shot out to Fistful of Arrows and me, which was pretty freaking cool. Very humbling (and embarrassing - I think I got very red when they made me stand up! :) )

Halo Universe panel was awesome. The two terminals I saw from Anniversary were ridiculously good and I saw no canon-conflicts that I had heard about that I could tell. There was a beautiful shot of the Halo rings floating about the Ark - amazing! Also, we got another glimpse of the Forerunners. I liked the design of these - Life-Builders (I think). They took the concept design featured in Legends-Origins and really bulked it up a bit and detailed it with a lot of realistic touches. I love continuity - especially continuity that improves upon its predecessor without overwriting it.

I got to talk to Kevin Grace, the writer of the terminals the night before and he seemed like a really nice guy and really knew Halo and what he was talking about. He seemed to care. :)

Nervously shook hands with Marty O'Donnell and Steve Downes. Steve said "Nice to meet you, Levi." Hearing Master Chief say that to you is an amazing experience I have to say. :D

Quickly gave a copy of Fistful of Arrows (what's been released anyways) to Frankie. Also got a copy to Cocopjojo later on. One more to give out!

Dinner with HBO! Got to sit at a table with girlfriend, Kanbo, and Loftus. As the rest of the group joked and chatted, me and Loftus got down into the gritty details like scale, measurements, and lots of other fun stuff! It was awesome. I even got to correct Mr. Loftus on something - hah! (yeah, yeah he corrected me on like ten other things, so what...)

But that was a lot of fun. I've been wanting to pick his brain for a long, long time - way before I even started posting here and just read the front page.

VIP party was MUCH bigger at first, but then it trickled out and I got to meet a lot of cool people. Vic DeLeon, mission designer from Bungie and 343i who worked on Halo 2 through Halo 4 gave me a dead zebra, hah. It was a rare 3d print he made of the zebra model from Uplift Reserve (which he worked on). It was awesome, and I got to talk to him for a bit - turns out he designed a LOT of my favorite bits of the Halo series! Also got to briefly talk to Johnny O'than, Urk, Dan Miller, and many members of the community.

Got to see Frankie give Claude 'Louis' Errera a "Claude Errera" award. Apparently it's the start of a new tradition of 343i, to give such an award to an outstanding member of the community. And he definitely deserves it AND such a legacy. He's an awesome dude. :)

And that's just the first day. Now I shall collapse. (Photos will come after the trip!)


Message Index




Replies:

First Day Complete.Leviathan 8/27/11 2:12 a.m.
     Re: First Day Complete.necro2607 8/27/11 2:32 a.m.
     Sounds awesome, thanks for the recap. *NM*Sqorck 8/27/11 2:51 a.m.
     Fantastic writeup dude *NM*Dubbl3.utoo 8/27/11 2:54 a.m.
     Re: First Day Complete.mattroe 8/27/11 5:39 a.m.
     So.... Exhausted...padraig08 8/27/11 5:57 a.m.
           Re: So.... Exhausted...SonofMacPhisto 8/27/11 12:04 p.m.
                 Re: So.... Exhausted...Louis Wu 8/27/11 12:26 p.m.
                       Re: So.... Exhausted...Devin Olsen 8/29/11 8:58 p.m.
                             Re: So.... Exhausted...Narcogen 8/29/11 9:37 p.m.
                                   what happens at PAX, stays at PAX *NM*rglass 8/29/11 10:08 p.m.
                                         ^ A truer statement has never been said. *NM*NsU Soldier 8/30/11 3:38 a.m.
                                   Re: So.... Exhausted...Devin Olsen 8/30/11 1:47 a.m.
     Re: First Day Complete.DEEP NNN 8/27/11 9:16 a.m.
     Levi:world's most intresting manjo 8/27/11 11:08 a.m.
     Great writeup. :DAngelicLionheart 8/30/11 6:04 p.m.
     Re: First Day Complete.Stephen L. (SoundEffect) 8/30/11 8:37 p.m.



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