So GameOnNY finally took place, and I was there is past Saturday. Long story short: it sucked.
As expected, it was just an electronics shows with a video game component literally slapped on. Actually, video games had a far larger presence than I had anticipated, but it was still nothing to get excited about. One part of the floor had a bunch of PS2s and Xboxes, but all of the games are already available via retail, and none really grabbed my attention. They did have a few prerelease titles like Forza (I love how every Gran Turismo wannabe is go damn generic looking) and Conker (Furry animals that curse and piss on each other! I passed on the N64 version and will do so again). but again, nothing worth the $15 price of admission.
But I have to say, as far as I could tell, most everyone there seem quite happy with the event, which only further proves how starved the video game audience truly is in New York City. I hope to God something better comes along…
Anyway, there were some “highlights” if you can call them that. Here are mine…
- Seeing 1UP.com on a huge 50 foot wide plasma screen. So people from 100 feet away could see how slow, buggy, and ugly the thing is. I think I saw it crash like fifteen times before someone decided to finally pull the plug.
- The woman on the floor dressed like BloodRayne to promote the sequel, who looked more like a guy. He/she heard me voice my opinion, and he/she was pissed. Though the best part was seeing the semi-circle of nerds who where completely awestruck by the man-ish amazon (especially one short Asian guy who’s jaw was literally hanging) that followed him/her the whole time.
- Best game of the show? Technically, it was a Ferry Helim game that some kid playing on a high powered PC that was supposed to be demoing Windows Home Media Center or something.
- Worst game of the show? Easily Fight Club. Never mind how preposterous the very idea of a Fight Club video game is, it was also an extremely shitty game all in itself. I controlled Bob… you know, the character Meatloaf played, the guy with the huge man-boobs? The attention to detail was quite stunning btw; underneath the tits were sweaty. There’s really no point going down the list of everything that’s wrong/stupid with the game since it’s a safe bet no one is going to bother this one when it finally comes out.
- Virtually everyone who participated in the DDR tournament was some young black or Asian teenager, which I guess is why the real stand out was some middle-aged, bald white guy dressed like a Blues Brother and missing a front tooth. That guy rocked the dance mat like no one else.
- As for the rest, it was your average electronics show. There were cell phones, laptops, and high end plasma screens, which are never properly set up. I love how they expect people to play $3,000+ for a hue display that makes everything look like some low-res Quicktime move. Perhaps the dumbest thing on the entire floor was a fridge with a TV built in. I’m pretty sure that it’s a sin against God, some how.
- There were also robots, via New York-Tokyo of course (they wanted to have some Gamer’s Nite Groove related function onhand, but GameOn’s organizers couldn’t get their shit together on-time apparently). Taeko was on hand with a bunch a robots that you’re supposed to be able to talk to, but most only knew Japanese (the English speaking ones were “tired” and therefore unresponsive), yet my “mushi, mushi” got no real response.
- The ridiculously long line of people who wanted a Gmail account.
- Hardware of the show? An old Nintendo Game & Watch that David Goldstein brought along for me to check out.
