For a brief five days, San Diego becomes the center of the geek world–or nerdisphere–as San Diego Comic-Con takes over the downtown area around the San Diego convention center. For those lucky enough to get badges, you get to enter the magical wonderland that is SDCC and cocoon yourself in geek and nerd culture. While the rest of us, who didn’t get badges, had to sit outside the convention center and cry into out Batman capes, right? Wrong! This year the offsite events were the best that they’ve ever been. Hit the jump and join me on a tour of the best things to do away from the show floor!
So you’re standing outside the convention center watching droves of Comic-Con attendees enter the forbidden land that is the showfloor. Instead of cursing them aloud like some sign wielding fanatic, you could’ve have just headed on over to the New Children’s Museum where Nerd HQ was located. Last year, Nerd HQ was inside Petco Park and it was only open to SDCC attendees (at least, that’s what the security guards told me).
This year, however, Nerd HQ was open to the public. Of course, you had to get a special bracelet that was fitted with an RFID chip which allowed all who entered chances to win various prizes. NerdHQ was an awesome place to just hang out and relax with fellow geeks and nerds as it was essentially a lounge fitted with comfy couches and bars. The bottom floor housed Nerd HQ’s various panels as well as IGN’s live shows. The other two floors were also covered with PS4s and PCs with Star Wars: Battlefront running on all of the stations. Whenever I felt like resting for a few hours I would always go to Nerd HQ to relax and play Battlefront.
Or course, when I was ready to be on the move again, I headed over to Petco Park to check out the goings-on at Nerdist’s Conival. The stadium was rented out by Legendary Pictures (yes, that Legendary Pictures), and it’s subsidiaries–Nerdist and Geek and Sundry–and said subsidiaries’ sponsors–Totino’s, Teefury, etc.–had activities set up for all to enjoy. There was a booth dedicated to 2K Games’ latest shooter, Battleborn, as well as a Dragon Ball Z themed booth called “Frieza’s Boot Camp”. The boot camp had Conival were tasked with doing three different tests that were designed to measure their respective power levels all while being yelled at by men and women dressed in Saiyan battle armor,
Further into Conival was the Geek and Sundry booth that had a gladiator arena that pit two people against one another in a battle for a blow up sword. There was also a dragon there for some reason, but no one was afraid since it was a friendly dragon. Next to the Geek and Sundry booth was the open panel area where, you guessed it, panels took place throughout the week. And all the way in the back was the Battleborn laser tag arena which was quite a hit.
Across the street from the convention center was Ubisoft’s area. As with last year, an Assassin’s Creed themed obstacle course was set up for anyone who was old and tall enough to try out. This year the course was inspired by Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the latest game in the Assassin’s Creed series that is due out later this year. For a select few people, mostly press, there were stations situated next to the obstacle course that had working copies of the game running. So, after someone braved the leap of faith, they had a chance to try the new game for themselves. Also, just a short distance away from the obstacle course was the Hilton hotel which housed a line that would bring you into a room where you could play Rainbow Six Siege a few months before it’s launch in October.
A few blocks away from the convention center Square Enix filled a parking lot with the “Square Enix Experience”. This was an area that had activities based on the upcoming games that Square Enix is publishing–Just Cause 3, Hitman, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Completing each activity awarded those who did particularly well with prizes. Just Cause 3 gave out shirts, Deus Ex gave out figurines of series protagonist Adam Jensen and a photograph, and Hitman gave out Agent 47’s iconic red tie and a photograph as well.
The Just Cause 3 booth consisted of a zip line with targets set up in it’s path. Before going on the zipline you’re handed a gun and are tasked with shooting the targets as you travel down the zipline. The whole ordeal takes a few seconds, but it was still a lot of fun to do. The booth for Deus Ex was an industrial area that had bottles scattered across it. Finally, the Hitman booth was divided into three parts, assembling a gun, shooting mannequins, and hiding dead bodies. Fun fact, I was apparently really good at stowing dead bodies in various places.
At this point you should be seeing a pattern, all of these activities were free and they all offered something to do that would at least help satiate one’s need for social interaction. However, there was really no replacement for being on the showfloor where all of the exclusive collectibles resided. Personally, I opted to not look into what exclusive collectibles were available this year so I didn’t feel particularly left out in terms of buying said collectibles. However, I do wish I was able to at least walk the floor for an hour or so just to see the booths. But, alas, I didn’t get to.
Aside for those free things mentioned about, there was another event happening just a few blocks away called Gam3rCon. I went to Gam3rCon last year and I shared my thoughts on it here, and I hung out at Gam3rCon for a bit this year as well. This time around, Gam3rCon had a lot more video games to play on the first floor and a bunch more table-top games upstairs as well. And of course all kinds of shenanigans happened on the rooftop of Gam3rCon, but that’s something you should experience for yourself so I don’t want to spoil it here.
In any case, not having a badge to attend San Diego Comic-Con isn’t as bad as it used to be. I remember when not having a badge meant that you just weren’t going to be in downtown San Diego at all because there was nothing for you to do there. Nowadays, there’s plenty of things to do, and you can do those things with other like-minded people. For the time being, San Diego Comic-Con will stay in San Diego for the next few years, which means it’s potential to grow is still undefined. And that goes for the offsite events as well.
What were your favorite offsite events? Let us know in the comments and enjoy this mini gallery of pictures I took on my offsite adventures!
