Is It Almost A Year Already!?

Welp, it’s time for me to be taking a little summer break. I’ve been writing this blog nonstop, every week since its launch almost a year ago, and I’m about to go through some big personal stuff soon. I’m moving in 2 weeks, and also going to DragonCon in Atlanta. I’ll be back with a Travelogue about that on September 10^th. DragonCon is one of the largest conventions on the east coast, so it should be a good time. I’ll be back in a few weeks, enjoy your summer till then!

This Week In: The Internet

Too many things were announced in the past week so I’m going to cover a bunch of them! Here we go~

Riot Games and American Express are teaming up to create a League of Legends debit card. They’re doing a full reveal of it tomorrow but it looks like they are going to be offering a lot of Riot Points to customers. 22,000 points by my count, for signing up, adding money and making ten transactions. That’s almost $150 in Riot Points, which is a pretty damn good deal. It isn't a credit card, so there’s no credit check and no chance of it stealing money from you in interest. I’m still waiting to see more details, but if the American Express website is to be believed other than ATM fees and the one time signup fee it doesn't cost a thing. If it’s really on the up and up I’ll totally get one for myself.

Mark Whitten confirmed in a Reddit AMA that the Xbox One no longer requires the Kinect to be plugged in to function. This is fantastic news, because even if you love the Kinect and would always have it plugged in, you have to admit that losing your Kinect or having it break also resulting in the effective bricking of your console would be extraordinarily annoying. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft had stated in the past that it is possible to disable the Kinect on the software side, but if you could disable it but not unplug it, it leads to some questions about how much you can actually disable.

Finally, Nintendo announced a new element for the new Pokemon games; Mega Pokemon. This has been a big controversial point among Pokemon fans, mostly because we don’t have enough information about how they work mechanically. I like the designs from a visual standpoint, and from what we've seen the forms are activated in battle through the use of a hold item, which seems pretty straightforward. Nintendo probably won’t give too many details about this until the game is closer to release, but I’ll keep my eyes open. Another advancement for the new games is a system to track and build EVsin game, which isn't a big deal if you don’t play the game competitively, but if you do play competitively it’s a huge freaking deal.

Honestly though Mega Pokemon, good or bad, are totally redeemed by one thing: L'oreal Ampharos.

Because you're worth it

Travelogue - Boston Comic-Con

Boston Comic-Con was this past weekend, and it was pretty entertaining. It’s held in the Seaport World Trade Center now, as opposed to the Hynes convention center in previous years. This is good news for everyone, since the Seaport is larger, better laid out, and doesn't have the traffic problems that come with being connected to the Prudential Center. Last year BCC was small, taking up only half of the Hynes and only featuring a vendor’s room and a small hallway, but this year the offerings increased significantly.

Having been to both San Diego and New York Comic-Cons has spoiled me somewhat I suppose. Between those and PAX I’m used to large, sprawling convention halls with multiple main rooms and lots to do. Not that BCC is anything underwhelming, but it pales in comparison to the larger conventions. This is improving of course, and in a few years it’s likely that BCC will be big enough to rival the bigger cons, but this year it was still small. The convention hall was crowded, and the lines out the door went on for nearly a mile, but the convention still felt small and intimate.

The convention’s size did not stop it from attracting numerous noteworthy guests, however. The most exciting for me was the chance to meet Billy West, the man of a thousand voices, before the end of the final season of Futurama. We also got to meet the actors who played Fili and Kili in The Hobbit, as well as some famous models and cosplayers. All in all it was a good time, and even if you don’t think this convention is worth the price of admission, keep an eye on it. I have a feeling that Boston Comic-Con is going to become a very noteworthy convention in the next couple of years.

In other news, Pikmin 3 is fantastic, and I've put almost ten hours into it already. It’s so good that I can’t stop playing it, even with my Steam backlog staring me in the face and Tales of Xilia coming out today. I'm trying to find a way to fit all these games in, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. It’s so tough being me sometimes.