I can't believe that I wrote my first Cblog post a year and 26 days ago. I never did make a proper intro post for the site, my first entry was just a few opinions on Metal Gear Solid 4. It's actually super interesting looking back at the comments. Since I was such a noob back then, I really had no idea what to expect from the community, especially since I actually know some of you in real life from meeting you at PAX! Some people were nice like MaxVest and EternalDeathSlayer, while others just told me to GTFO. =D

But I'm glad I stayed around cause I learned better. I became a better writer, and this site landed me a gig over on NegativeGamer as a news writer, and a place on the Backwards-Compatible gaming podcast.

But nothing matters more than my Dtoid homeboys. One of the best decisions I have ever made was going to PAX this year. I met some of the most amazing and nice people on the entire planet there, and I really do consider each and every one of you good friends. I love you guys so much I'm working at McDonald's to save up enough money to go to Boston in March for PAX East. I love you guys that much :P

I want to travel all over the world and see all of you, at some time in the future I plan on going to San Fransisco, New York, Los Angeles, Australia (GHost is lonely), and the UK (BUNNYRABBITMIKEY!). Even though I seen all you guys under a month ago, I miss you more than words.

I really can't put into words just how much love I have for the Destructoid community. I'm so glad I stumbled on the site all those months ago during my grade 11 computer class, I can't wait to see what Dtoid can evolve into the future!

<3

I love you, Dyson, but I'm gonna have to go with Chad on this one ...


[via: @gatorsax2010's twitter]

I seriously don't even know where to start when it comes to making a post on the amazingness that was the Penny Arcade Expo of 2009. The whole thing was just such a positive experience for me, I am totally at a loss for words just how amazing it was.

Definitely my favourite part of the entire weekend was meeting all these people who I interact with online every day in real life. It really was a surreal thing finally putting faces to names.

There really isn't anything else that I could possibly put in this introduction section that probably hasn't been said in someone else's previous PAX blog, so I'll just post a shit load of me with other Dtoiders, along with random stories that pop into my head. I hope that isn't a problem for you guys.




One thing that I couldn't help but notice was just how sexually attractive everyone in the Dtoid community is. From Mama Donna, to R3Y, to Necros, to Nukka Jdav, to Stella Wong, to Mikey, to Dale North, to Niero, to Knives, to Tactix, to Funktastic, to Hamza (especially to Hamza ;), and to everyone else, I want to feel the warmth of all your bodies at once. This really does sound like a Chad Concelmo style exaggeration , but I'm really not kidding. The Dtoid community is probably the hottest group of people on the internet.




It was totally mindboggling, the sheer amount of people that showed up. As most of you probably know, this picture was taken just moments after Destructoid's panel. OH! I almost forgot about this story. When I was waiting in line with some Dtoiders to get into the panel, Niero just walks up to me randomly, intorduces himself, and says "Hi Garison". It was literally the first time I ever seen him, and it means the world to me that he thought to come say hi.

I'm probably just being the over-emotional person that I am, but it really was awesome. Also, later, when they were handing out the "Become" t shirts, there was a mistake with my order, and it got left in Miami. Niero offered me the shirt right off his back, I had to decline, but the fact that he would do that just proves how awesome of a guy he really is.

We really are lucky to a guy like him running Destructoid. If it weren't for him, none of us would have even met each other. <3




I'm pretty sure I was the youngest member to show up to the event, but did that stop me from having a nice cold glass of grape drink? No sirree.




One of my favourite parts of the weekend was being able to meet the adorable Colette Bennett. We've talked online a number of times before finally meeting for the first time at PAX, sonit was totally obligatory that we took a cliche MySpace style scene-kid photo. :P




A picture of The GHost proposing to me, replacing the engagement ring with Funkstastic's Domo-kun plush. Yeah.




Another highlight was meeting the beautiful EternalPlayer. We had many good conversations sitting on the bench outside the 21 and over bar, on account of we couldn't get in on account of we weren't 21.

But seriously, EternalPlayer is the best.




I remember the first time I ever seen Chad Concelmo. There was a big group of Dtoiders walking down the sidewalk, when we came to another large group of Dtoiders. Chad happened to be in that other group, and one of the first things he did was ask Phoenix Blood if he could put babies in her. She said yes, and they had sex right there on the sidewalk.




It was Funktastic's idea to get a Cblog recap team photo toghether. And boy was it an awesome idea. From left to right: Pendelton21, Funktastic, Qalamari, me, and ScottyG.

Sadly, this photo is no longer applicable, as I have stepped down from the position as Friday's official recapper. Who knows though, maybe I'll take back the responsibility again one day ...




Stella, Bleach Boy, and me. Funny thing, actually PAX weekend was the first time I ever played Mega Man 2, Bleach Boy and I went to the Console Freeplay area and we plowed through 3 or 4 levels before I got too frustrated and started screaming f-bombs at the screen. People were staring.




On Saturday I casually stopped by The Behemoth's booth, only to find my favourite person ever, the Clown Princess from Castle Crashers! Weird thing, actually, when I walked up to her for a chat, she says "HEY! You changed your hair since I last saw you!" I was like, "what, I've never even been to a con before", so she said that she remembered me from Comic Con. Definitely weird. But we hung out for 15 minutes, then I peaced out. I wonder if she will remember me next year?




I have to give a shoutout to my Backwards-Compatible podcast buddy, James (or Nukka Jdav). I miss this guy :(




Funny story about me and Rev. As I was checking into my hotel on Thursday night after a long day or travel, I hear the famous Anthony Burch's voice behind me. I turn around, to see him sitting majestically on this big throne of a chair, surrounded by Ashley Davis, Ashley Burch, and Aaron Linde. I walk over to them, shake their hands, say hi, and then collapse on the floor. I pretty much fainted.

Most embarrassing thing ever! ^_______^




Yashoki and I had this fascination with the sparkly sidewalk outside the convention center. it doesn't really show up that well on camera, but trust me, if you see it IRL, you will SHIT BRICKS.




I punched a shark in the face.




Then a shark carried me around for a while.




TACTIX <3 We had a good cuddle sesh.













One of my favourite person I got to meet at PAX this year, Miss Stella Wong, <3 You're the best.




GHost ... :O




Even Tactix' dick wears a fedora ;)




And last but not least, Hamza butt rapes Suff0cat.







So, I"m going to try my hardest to make it to Boston in March for PAX East, but I definitely can't make any promises right now. I hope to see everyone then! <3


[EDIT: I decided to throw a bunch more pictures in. Just cause.]

When you ask a normal person on the street what they think of when you say "Rhythm Game", 9 times out of 10 they will probably say Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Not enough people know that the Rhythm Game can be something other than plastic guitars and drums. This is why I love Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip series, they take the simple Rhythm Game concept and turn it completely upside down on it's head.

I play the first two games in the series all the time, I would probably have to say that they are some of my favourite games of this generation so far, so when I found out that the new game, Bit.Trip Void was going to be playable at PAX, I was fucking ecstatic.

Right when the doors opened on Friday, I sprinted over to the Nintendo booth to get my hands on with the game (well, right after Scribblenauts lul), and the WiiWare guy was happy to show me my way around the demo.

As far as I know, the version playable only had one finished level, but I don't think anyone is absolutely positive of this because no one actually finished the whole level. Trust me, this game is tricky.



The gameplay is very simple. You use the Nunchuck's analogue stick to move a big black blob around the screen, while black and white pixels fly onto the screen from different directions and in different patterns.

Your objective is to collect only the black pixels with the blob. As you collect more black pixels in a row, your blob get's bigger, thus making it harder and harder to avoid the white pixels. If you hit a white pixel or miss a black one and let it run off the screen, your combo runs out, and it gets easier to die. You can press A at any time to reset the size of your blob, but in turn you do get a significantly less amount of points per black pixel you hit.

One thing I noticed about the game is that it almost completely gets rid of the HUD. The first two games had very noticeable numbers fixed over top of the action, but in Void, your score just kind of floats around, semi-transparently in the background. Definitely a plus in my eyes.

Now that I think about it, it seems like the developers tried to make Void almost a little less rhythm gamey than the first two. You can definitely tell that Gaijin was heavily influenced by bullet hell shmups. If you think back to Beat and Core, you had to hit each note at the exact right time in order to hit it, and if you missed, you had no chance to get those points back. But in Void you have almost like a movable object on the screen that you can move on a full x/y axis to chase the dots around if you miss one. (I realize that this might sound really confusing if you haven't played the game yet, but I assure you it will make sense when you play it for yourself.)

OH, another thing about the game is that each level has checkpoints now! If you've played the other games in the series, you will remember that that it get's really frustrating if you always die in one spot at the end of the level, and you have to restart after every death. I believe each level now has 4 checkpoints so that really makes it quite a bit easier to get through the levels.



I kept finding myself going back to the WiiWare booth multiple times a day just to play the game. It's seriously so fun and addictive, I totally could have been the first one to beat it, if the Nintendo people didn't make me go to the back of the line every time I died >:( I still feel resent towards those cheeky bastards.

This PAX 08 recap video was recently posted by the beautiful Hamza CTZ over on the Dtoid PAX 09 Meetup Google Group. Apparently when Destructoid started uploading all it's original videos onto YouTube, all the videos that used the old video player were rendered obsolete. Shit's getting re-uploaded, bitches.

I know I'm gettin hella excited for September 3rd to roll around, what about you guys?

Hey, it's another teaser site put up by Square-Enix! SHOCKER! This time wielding nothing but the roman numeral "VII" accompanied by the word "DAYS". What could this mean? Well, it's OBVIOUSLY the remake of Final Fantasy VII that was confirmed back at E3 2006. What else could it be right?

But in all seriousness, I actually think this could actually be be it this time seriously. Some people are not really that fond of the idea of a FFVII reamke because of their love of the original game and don't want their original vision of the game to be tarnished. But I'm all for a remake, I got no problem with that shit, son.

I guess we'll all find out in about 9 and a half hours anyway, well, unless SE just decides to do that thing where another countdown unlocks after it hits 0. Douchebags.

[Stolen from Samit Sarkar's Twitter]