It's been more than 24 hours since PAX ended, and by this point I probably can't say anything that hasn't already been said. But naturally I have a lot to say, so hey, I'll givitashot.

PAX was the last of five total conventions I attended this year (GDC, WonderCon, E3, Comic-Con were the first four), and by leaps and bounds my favorite of them all. While the clusterfuck of folk at these cons will always overwhelm me, PAX is the only convention that, for me, makes the clusterfuck of folk actually what's worth going for. As the future leads to me to a divergent path from where my former game journalist self would travel (I'll get to that in a sec), I am pretty sold on the fact that I will be returning to PAX annually for the very reason that PAX and its people are for the fucking win.

This of course is largely in part to you all, the Destructoid Community. I had an incredible time meeting a *ton* of you this past weekend, and although I've met many from the Dtoid army before, I'm *always* impressed at how consistently great the people are who contribute to this community. Aside from asking the initially awkward "Hi...uh...Whats your screenname?" that typically follows with an eventual hug-attack (or drunken Katamari roll, as it were), there was never a moment where I second guessed that we all hadn't been friends forever. That's quite a bizarre, unique, and wonderful sentiment to have towards a bunch of gamers who met each other through a blog started by some Cuban dude, one that I would have never guessed I would be privileged to be a part of.

That unique experience has colored my entire time at Destructoid, from the moment I got know Colette as a friend, and my game journalist idol about a year and half ago, to my final showing as a Destructoid editor at PAX this last weekend. Unfortunately the time has come for me to focus my powers more specifically on making the blogocube a better place at my day job, and sadly leave moonlighting as a game journalist aside in the meantime. While attending PAX was somewhat bittersweet for me this year, knowing that I'd be hanging my editor's (bear) hat upon returning home, after leaving you all I was convinced that this community wasn't going anywhere, and naturally, neither am I! I might not be contributing to Dtoid's front or getting harassed weekly by the Podtoid cast, but Dtoid's for life and I'll be hanging around here forever.

So, until the next PAX comes around and I have a more successful run at rolling you all up into a star for my own selfish devices, Destructoid has been, is, and always will be unlike anything else out there, and I can't wait to see all of you (and more) at community events in the (near?) future. Till then I'll leave you all with a large photo mosaic of me attacking various Dtoder's faces (not everyone, unfortunately...but there is always next year).

Harts, farts, and multi-layers,

.tiff

(P.S. I'll try to keep blogging on my c-blog about my gamer-like habits and whatnots, but I'll probably be blogging at my personal blog more often now. Also, I'm always down for pillow forts. ALWAYS. <3]

Of course, nothing's at E3 is amazing as Chad Concelmo

The first thing I did upon returning home Thursday evening from E3 was go to Destructoid and read what happened at E3. No joke. While I certainly had my share of getting a live, on the scene impression of the conference, it's rather tricky to keep track of everything when you're running around from meeting to meeting, trying to keep the on-site updates flowing. I'm still catching up with the trailers I missed and all the other shenanigans that happened while simultaneously trying to finish the last of my E3 coverage. But while I sometimes catch myself rather overwhelmed with the all the E3 aftermath, what can I say, I'm glad I went.



Rev. Anthony, myself, and Aaron Linde. All that's missing is Mr. Sterling

Niero said it best when he compared E3 to a sort of high school reunion for the gaming industry. Not only did I get to see and hang out with some of my favorite Dtoiders, but I also go to run into my favorite other folks from Gaygamer.net, 1up, MTV Multiplayer, AOL Gamedaily, and more. Fun! Laffs! Games! A huge thanks to the Destructoid team for being the best around, and making E3 totally worthwhile between the chaos and the muck. Here's a bonus E3 video of Chad opening his AMAZING gift from RetroForce fan Stella Wong!:


Chad gets a special gift at E3 from .tiff on Vimeo.

If interested, check out my Day 2 and 3 personal recap of E3 (The video is 10 minutes of me blabbing on and on about stuff. Sorry. Long video is long.) You can also find more photos and
videos on my respective Flickr and Vimeo accounts.

And finally, a question for you Dtoiders: What did you think of the personal impressions/videos that we put up during the coverage? Did you like the causal v-log approach? Would you like to see more of this style of coverage in the future?

!!! HARTS !!!

Attention ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! I've survived the first day of E3 2008 and have lived to tell about it! Here is the first of (hopefully) many video updates regarding the happenings of E3 and my personal reactions to it. Let me know what you think!


E3 2008: Day 1 from .tiff on Vimeo.

Disclaimer:[i]The following video may or may not be tainted by the fact that I recorded it immediately after leaving the Bethesda party that evening.

And, for good ol' times sake... Also, Cocks.[/i]

Oh Hellowz! With plenty of badgering from my Comic-con friends and an unexplained impulse to spend money on airfare, yesterday I decided that I am going to Comic-con! Unfortunately I have only the weekend to spare, so I will be arriving late Friday night and returning early Monday morning to head straight into work. It will be my very first Comic-con, but I will be helping the likes of Dan Paladin and the Behemoth folk at their booth during my stay there. I will also be stealing copious amounts of Crizastle Sha-shmasher figurines, but don't tell Dan that.

I know there are a few folks from Tomopop showing their hides at the con, but which of you other boogers will be there? Either way, come and say hi, and if I miss you this time around, I better see you at PAX. Suckaaaaaas.

THE ARTS For reasons entirely unbeknownst to me, I have begun to draw and craft at a greater frequency than normal. This includes an upturn of sketches and prismacolored drawings of many different varieties. I've begun to churn out pieces such as the above tribute to my most recent obsession, Battlestar Galactica, as well as such creatures as LittleBigPlanet-like dolls in Super Pants, as displayed below. Joy!



THE FARTS Farts. (Must click on first track to listen)



THE CRAFTS It seems to me that the extremely complicated craft process of assembling Plushtoids has considerably burned me out in the sewing department. I have to work on revving those lvl. 50 Running Stitch skills before I dive into it again, but in the meantime I'm starting small with these tiny felt Happy Tears (which, admittedly, resemble the Taiko no Tatsunin folk a bit).

As I lamented in my previous post, my day job has gotten increasingly difficult over the last few weeks. I'm usually stressed out all of the time, so it was a really nice surprise that my co-worker Ayako, a product manager from our Japan offices, brought me this awesome set of 3-D Cat Cards as a gift!

3-D Cat Cards are totally in the same basket as Holo-Dino-High-Fives, so I figured I'd demonstrate them just so you all knew that Holo-Dino technology is totally LEGIT and in the vein of things to come.

If you couldn't care less about cat cards, go suck a shark. Because I have enabled 3-D cat card technology and you have not.

Oh, and Vimeo is sexy:


3-D Cat Cards from .tiff on Vimeo.