Pardon the extended absence on my part; as mentioned previously by both myself and Chuf, I’ve been on vacation in San Diego for both family, friends, and Comic Con since last Wednesday evening. For some reason though, the kind folks at Sony Online Entertainment invited me by their booth at the convention to talk with the developers there about both Pirates of the Burning Sea and Gods and Heroes and get some hands on time as well. You’ll have to wait for my full impressions, but for now, suffice it to say that Pirates is going to be just as great as people thought it would be before the internet exploded over Flying Lab’s distribution agreement with Sony Online Entertainment, and my opinion on Gods and Heroes made an almost 180 degree turn from “dildoes” to “I think I want this game” after getting a chance to sit down with it and with some nice folks from Perpetual (and I only mention the dildoes thing because of how impressed I was with the game).

In the meantime, I have a few other con-related thoughts, not all as gaming specific. First, Comic Con was ridiculously huge this year. For what I believe is the first time in its history, every day of the convention sold out, and there was more floorspace than ever, since the organizers moved the art auction upstairs. It was harder than ever to move around.

Second, comics specifically were less of a presence than ever before this year, while Video Games were huge; just eyeballling it, Square-Enix had a larger booth than Marvel Comics, and Marvel certainly had a large booth. Gaming announcements that should have been at E3 were also at Comic Con, especially from Microsoft, who announced both a price drop for the HD-DVD add on, and Viva Pinata for the DS at the show. I think it’s indicative of the vacuum created by E3’s reshuffling, and after this I fully expect big announcements at Blizzcon, PAX, and E for All in the coming months.

Third, the whole event, save for a few of the panels and the various Game Publisher booths, felt a lot like a carnival/farmer’s market for nerds and geeks of every persuasion. Which is fine, really. But the flea market vibe was stronger than I’ve felt or heard about in the past. Anyway. I had a great trip (and I assure you the vacation was much needed), but I’m glad to be back and writing. I’m waiting on some media from Perpetual for my Gods and Heroes impressions, but those and my thoughts on Pirates of the Burning Sea should be up during the week.

-Aegies