Ok, let me first introduce you to what MegaCon is: Mega Convention (read: giant nerd fest). It’s held every year in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. They have something there for just about everyone: comics, manga, anime, movies, artists, collector’s items (action figures, figurines, etc…), video games, swords, dice, clothing, and plenty of miscellaneous stuff. One of the things you’ll also notice before you even get in is that there is a lot of cosplay; there’s even a contest for it! Now that you’re aware of the awesomeness of this convention, I took plenty of pics below for you to see what it’s like.

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Ah yes, the dreaded Day 3 of a good con.  Dread because it comes with an accompanying feeling of “Damn, I wish this wasn’t over so soon” as well as wondering if you should be there at all, because the last days of most cons are always notoriously lacking, for obvious reasons.  GameX did come with the feeling of wishing it wasn’t over so soon, but surprisingly, seemed to maintain about 90% of exhibitors and celebrities throughout the third and final day.  We left mid-way through the day only because of scheduling issues with getting back to Pittsburgh at a decent time.  Barring that, we would have, without a doubt, stayed the entire third day.
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Day 2 of GameX, while starting an hour late for us due to an alarm clock failure, has proven to be just as fun and successful as Day 1.  More, actually, on both fronts.  I’ve never managed to have this much fun at a gaming convention before.  The staff is smart, hard working, friendly and willing to help with whatever anyone needs.  The exhibitors were, with one small exception I will mention later, top notch and full of win.  The floor? Packed today, people old and young, hardcore gamer and people new to the scene.

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This was written Friday, but due to the Philadelphia having some apparent hatred for internet at both hotels and conventions, could only be posted a day late.  Apologies.

GameX, day 1 has been for the most part fun, organized and impressive. I would judge it on a peer basis with VGXpo (Useless piece of shit con, not worth the price of admission), but to be honest, from my first day here, it seems to be more on a peer with a PAX type event. Granted, it is a mini-peer of PAX, but the quality is here, do not doubt. There were a few minor organizational hiccups, not worth mentioning in specific really, but it seemed to be on the “Good” end of the disorganized spectrum. Meaning I just don’t think they expected this to be as large and popular as it has been. But, all in all, I cannot say enough about how much the con staff and volunteers have done an excellent job making this go so smoothly.

Before even receiving our press passes, Dave and I entered the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and our nerdy gamer senses were immediately overloaded by the beautiful seemingly endless field of Alienware computers set up as the LAN center here. Row upon row of sleek, shiny black alien motif computers that somehow reminded me of Gandalf’s description of the death and heaven to Pippin in Return of the King. In the evening, we attempted to get a Team Fortress 2 LAN up and running, but as with everything beautiful, ugliness sometimes lies just beneath the surface. Ugliness in the form of cheap power strips that kept blowing out and shutting down entire rows of computers, mid flag cap! They said the issues would be fixed by tonight, so here is hoping for another night of TF2.

The rest of Day 1 consisted of us wandering the floor some more, getting autographs from Brian O’Halloran and cast members of The Guild and drinking BAWLS. Oh, we also formed a Rock Band 2 team called SnoBAWLS, in homage to the delicious frozen slushie treat the BAWLS folks have us all addicted to. We did terrible, but hell, it was fun. Saturday we’ll be taking a close look at a new MMOFPS called Global Agenda, some of the new changes going on in WarHammer Online as well as getting the low down on some hardware and peripherals floating around.

I heartily recommend that anyone in the Philly area or in close driving distance try to make it out Saturday and Sunday. GameX is the one of the most fun conventions I’ve ever attended, and the best on the East Coast without a doubt.

Keep checking back for our GameX coverage.

Snooze you lose

If you are planning to go to Comic Con, you only have two choices for days to go to as of now. Thursday, the official opening of the show floor and Sunday. Which is usually the day when no one wants to go because nothing much goes on on Sundays.

To get in on one of these days, go to http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_reg.php