Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go check out the WonderCon comic book convention here in San Francisco. Basically it is a huge event held annually for the last 18 years to celebrate comics, sci fi, and movies. This year was WonderCon’s fifth year at the famed Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco after its early reign across the bay in Oakland.

Convention-goers from all over the globe arrived in droves to check out all the cool merchandise, artists, costume, and the huge hype surrounding the preview of the new X-Files movie and appearances by David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter, and Frank Spotnitz. In addition to the X-Files preview, attendees could also expect appearances by Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway promoting the new Get Smart feature, a first look at the new Street Fighter 4 game, and a endless bundle of other movie and comic related insider panels.

I arrived around 11:00 AM with camera in tow to be greeted by a totally massive line wrapping out the front door and out to the street. Luckily for me I had pre-purchased my ticket and just needed to hop in the speed line to obtain my badge and get the train a-rolling.

Once I walked into the main convention center, I was pretty overwhelmed by where to start my journey. I had a few definites on my agenda, but with about 8,000,000 of my my closest friends in attendance, I would have to wade through a sea of people to even begin to find some of the unexpected surprises that would await me below.

I gave my buddy ChillAura a call as he had just shown up as well, and we rendezvoused near the Artists’ Alley to check out some of the premier comic and sculpture artists’ work. We got the chance to scope out Jim Lee (one of my favorite X-Men artists), Tim Sale (Grendel, Hulk Gray), Mark Brooks (Arana, Marvel) and a ton of other great pencil and ink guys among the company of artists’ booths positioned in the hall’s northeast corner.

Chill and I were pretty stoked on all the Artists’ Alley stuff, but we had other things on our agenda that we had to take care of, so we headed to the far west end of the hall to check out the merchandisers, to see what new gear we could pick up. There was actually one ominously towering T-shirt vendor that caught our eye (along with the eyes of anyone not legally blind) and we made our way through the sea of fans and costumed heroes and villains to see what kind of deals we could score. Chill was able to add to and replenish his impressive collection of shirts, but one shirt in particular caught my eye — and it was on sale to boot!

Alright, now that we had dropped some cash and had some tangibles to bring home with us, it was time to take in some of the other sights. Not much effort was needed to be expended on our end, luckily, as the barrage of visuals and costumes was upon us whether we liked it or not. It just so happened I ran into Rex Adams, member of the USCM, a really cool group of guys dedicated to Aliens-inspired replica armor, weapons, and memorabilia that I’ve had the pleasure to get to get to know and meet recently. It looked like Rex had already caught the attention of a small group of people blown away by the detail of his USCM armor, pulse rifle, and working motion tracker — I know I was!

Rex and I headed over to meet up with his fellow USCM buddy David Wong over at his Sci Fi Military booth. We got to talk about all their gear and the differences between the types of armors and ways the guys have built replica weaponry to be as accurate as possible to the characters and movies. It’s amazingly impressive and I look forward to getting my chance to put together my own project. Rex also shared with me some info on this great Aliens movie project he and some of the guys have been working on called Drop Zone Copernicus, which judging from the trailer they have on their site and the passion behind its production looks to be pretty amazing once it is done. I was happy to get to share some of the work being done on the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines game here. They seemed really excited about the game and its direction, which was great, because I know these gusy are harsh critics when it comes to Aliens, the Colonial Marines and video games.

I parted ways with Rex and David to try and get over to the main hall, where they would be premiering the new X-Files trailer. Earlier in the day, the line for people trying to get front row was pretty incredible, so I had my fingers crossed that I would be able to get in quickly and find a reasonable seat. Luckily for me (seems I’m two-for-two on avoiding lines today) a friend had been camped out and had an extra seat next to her that would let me snag a great view. The first look at the X-Files movie didn’t tell a whole lot, but I think that the push behind this and the direction definitely sounds like fans who have been waiting for more X-Files will be pleased. The Q&A with David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter, and Frank Spotnitz was actually pretty great as well. I was slightly taken aback with Gillian’s candor as her role as Dana Scully is so much different than her relaxed and sarcastic presentation I saw during the Q&A.

A good hour or so had now gone by and I was pretty much starving — too much excitement on an empty stomach can be hazardous to your convention-going health, so Chill and I booked it across the street through the (now pouring) rain to grab some BBQ at the Metreon food court. After reliving some of our adventures for the day, we decided to head back over for one last pass through to make sure we didn’t miss anything and snag some more pictures of some of the cool costumes we saw there.

During our quest to find the coolest and most elaborate costumes, I stumbled upon a booth that had some pretty well-done Marvel masks. Unfortunately I didn’t see anyone actually dressed up as Dr. Doom or Iron Man, but word on the street was there were a few Marvel costumes I missed. I guess I will have to head to ComiCon in San Diego this year (which I hear has an even larger percentage of costumed fans) and bring my own motion tracker to seek them out.

So with the rain letting up, Chill and I decided it was time to split. Before we left, however, I had to find this guy I had heard about earlier from the USCM guys, who was rocking an Aliens T-Shirt with a real 3-D chestburster coming out of it. I had nearly given up with my anxiety levels rising with the tide of the crowd, but just as I hit the last booth before the door I found him! How cool is this?

For more pictures of the event, check out my Flickr set here. If anyone else was at WonderCon, what cool stuff did you see? Miss anything on your ‘must see’ list of things to check out, or find any really good merch scores? Epic.

-EggShen

SEGA Super Stars Tennis is set to release very soon, and we’ve got an all-new website to show of the game!  Okay, okay, so the site’s actually been up a for a few days now, but if you haven’t had a chance to check it out and are looking forward to this upcoming mascot-fueled-tennis-extravaganza, then you owe it to yourself to give it a look.

http://www.sega.com/gamesite/segasuperstarstennis/us/index.html

The site features some quality images of our friends Ulala and Beat. Both are a welcome addition to any SEGA website or game, in my opinion.  Inside the site you can look over 30 or so screenshots, the new trailer, and get some information on what to expect in the game.

Today a new Press Release was sent out in regards to the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines game. It contains some basic background on what to expect from the game and some stuff on the movie series as well. Hopefully we will get some more stuff on this soon I can share, but for now — check it out!

SEGA REVEALS DETAILS OF UPCOMING ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES VIDEO GAME

First-Person Shooter Based on Popular Motion Picture Franchise Coming to Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3, and PC in Late 2008

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (February 21, 2008) – SEGA® of America Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today revealed details of the highly-anticipated squad-based first-person shooter video game, Aliens: Colonial Marines™. Licensed through an exclusive agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising and developed by Gearbox Software, the game will be available on Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Windows-based PC in late 2008.

In Aliens: Colonial Marines, players are part of a United States Colonial Marine squad and must prepare to face an Aliens assault more intense and horrific than ever before. Driven by a compelling and original story penned by renowned writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, Aliens: Colonial Marines will retain the atmospheric look and feel of the original films while leveraging next-generation technology to create an entirely new interactive Aliens experience.

Packing classic Aliens weaponry ranging from pulse rifles to flamethrowers as well as brand-new equipment and skills all within a squad-based combat system, players will become an elite United States Colonial Marine. Featuring claustrophobic environments, a brooding soundtrack, and a multitude of surprises and shocks, players will battle against menacing alien hordes in strikingly detailed levels that include the stark interiors of the abandoned Sulaco and unique environments created specifically for the game.

Aliens: Colonial Marines will feature a story driven single-player mode and an all-new four player co-op mode allowing players to share the chilling experience with three friends. In co-op mode, each player will assume the persona of a United States Colonial Marine and have a distinct role to play in the completion of every mission. Additionally, more multiplayer modes will be revealed later in the year that will complete the Aliens video game experience.

Since its 1979 debut, Alien and its three sequels have grossed more than $557 million worldwide, garnering numerous awards, including two Academy Awards®. In 2002, Alien was deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Aliens: Colonial Marines is also available for pre-order at www.gamestop.com.

Link to full Press Release here

Now that the long weekend is over and we’re back to the swing of things at SEGA HQ, I finally have a little time to catch up on what’s going on around these parts.

Holiday weekends are always fun, and I got the chance to finally go see There Will Be Blood, which is a loooooong movie, on Sunday night.  Speaking of ‘there will be blood,’ The Club is now shipping to stores and should be at your nearest local retailer no later than Thursday or Friday, if it’s not there already.

I just played it for about an hour and came away liking it.  I’m not good with FPS games on console because I really struggle to control aiming with the sticks — I much prefer playing FPS on PC so I can use the mouse.  That said, the PS3 version of The Club is pretty cool.  For those of you that don’t know much about the game, this is not a title that values stealth and meticulous play; no, quite the opposite on this one.  You are given a score for every level, and the best way to advance your score dramatically is to kill your opponents quickly, and string together ‘combo’ kills that involve dropping a series of opponents in a short time frame.

Ultimately, the most successful players of The Club will learn how to quickly navigate through each level, finding the shortest paths to kill the most opponents in the least amount of time.  As I wrote in a previous post, this is going to reward gamers for replaying each level many times over to learn all the various tactics and secrets the level has to offer.  At the end of the day, you’ll be able to stack yourself up with other games based purely on your final score.

Of course, you can stack yourself against them in the more traditional way, too, with head-to-head combat in multiplayer.  The various environments should make for a wide variety of great multiplayer shootouts.

Anyway, order it online or pick it up at your local game store and give it a go; the early reviews have been quite solid (19 of 29 media reviews on Metacritic show it at 80 or above).  You can learn more at the official game site, where all the sections are now fully unlocked: http://www.theclubgame.com.

Elsewhere in the SEGA universe, we have Brain Assist, SEGA Bass Fishing and Peter Venkman’s World of the Psychic shipping later this month (okay, I’m just kidding with that last one), and we’ve also posted some more screenshots on the Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer page.  As you may have heard, the Game Developers Conference is taking place here in San Francisco and I think one or two of our community managers will be attending tomorrow (I might swing by there myself, time permitting) and should have a blog report on that by week’s end.

Today, SEGA of Europe posted an announcement for an upcoming event to pull ideas from the Sonic Community. In this event, Sonic fans will have a chance to name an all-new race within the Sonic Chronicles universe and see it featured in the final Nintendo DS game! Read on and check out the details about this event, and start thinking about what you’d name this enemy race.

http://blogs.sega.com/sonic/2008/02/19/sonic-chronicles%e2%84%a2-a-race-to-name/

Itching for more information about the upcoming Sonic Chronicles? Well, you’re in luck; IGN posted an interview with Mark Darrah, the game’s producer, and included 20 all-new screenshots!

http://ds.ign.com/articles/852/852731p1.html

The article is pretty interesting and gives some insight into how the story gets started, as well as some of the combat basics. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this new media release, so post your comments below!

And so it is! The current issue of Game Informer has a HUGE feature on the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines game that is due out next year. I have say, after seeing the article with the screens concept art and some commentary on gameplay, I am super stoked on this one. I’m generally not a big FPS guy, but I AM a huge Aliens nerd and this one looks particularly awesome. But, instead of just gushing about how cool I think it looks, maybe I should just pass along the tangibles. So here you all go, one-stop shopping for the first look at Aliens: Colonial Marines!

The magazine ships today in the US, so subscribers should be seeing it as early as this weekend. If you don’t have a subscription and want a peek, you should be able to pick this up in the periodicals section of your local bookstore or newsstand. For now you can check it out online at the Game Informer website.

This should stoke the coals of my excitement for a while at least. Anyone else looking forward to this release? For you FPS fans, what do you hope to get out of the game? And for all the Aliens diehards, what key elements from the series do you expect to have incorporated?

EggShen

First things first — we’ve posted the PC demo for The Club in the Downloads section of our official game site, so download it now and check it out:

http://www.theclubgame.com

Also, we’ve opened up the final two characters and added videos for them, so give that a look too.

This game is getting a lot of good buzz for its scoring mechanic.  See, it’s not enough to just blow away your opponents — you have to do it fast and you have be accurate.  The better you are in both categories, the higher you’ll score.  A lot of the response I’ve heard on the demo indicates that people are finding the replayability very compelling — finding the quickest way to eliminate your enemies and rack up the scoring bonuses is getting a lot of players to play the demo levels again and again in that search for perfection.

The Club hits stores next week and I’ll have more on it then.  The other update I have is on the Happy Tree Friends game, which I finally saw in action yesterday.  We had three of the show’s writers and creators come into the SEGA offices for some video interviews, so I was able to tape a two-part video podcast that I’ll be posting in the next month.  As for the game itself, the basic mechanic is guiding several of the Happy Tree Friends through various pitfall-laden levels as you control the environment and try to keep them from (or, if you prefer a different playstyle, force them into) dying gruesome deaths.

The video podcasts and actual game footage will be coming up in the next few weeks and I’ll post the links when it’s ready to go.

It’s not all bloody pipes and cringe-worthy finishing moves in Condemned 2: Bloodshot; the game also features some revamped forensics to help bring out your inner detective. To help illustrate how much this has changed, IGN posted a great article and video highlighting the major changes and giving you a first look at one of the early crime scenes.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/851/851591p1.html

Be sure to check back at IGN throughout the week, they are delivering some quality info on a lot of the bigger changes to the Condemned series.

As many Sonic fans probably already know, our favorite blue hedgehog is featured front row center on the February Nintendo Power cover! For those that aren’t aware, the article features Sonic and his new adventures in the upcoming role-playing game from BioWare for the Nintendo DS, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. To help get fans excited, both SEGA and BioWare have released teaser pages promoting the Nintendo Power release:

http://sega.com/gamesite/sonicchronicles/us/

http://sonic.bioware.com/

If you haven’t picked up the Nintendo Power article yet, I recommend checking it out. The seven-page piece features a ton of information about The Dark Brotherhood game, and even has an interview with BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk. If words don’t move you, then you’ll be happy to know that there are several exclusive screenshots and a few concept art releases as well.

I personally cannot wait to get my hands on this game and see what BioWare has in mind for our little blue friend. I’m a huge fan of BioWare games, RPGs (especially handheld), and Sonic, so I think it’s pretty much a surefire hit. If you feel the same, please join the SEGA and BioWare community pages and express your opinions on this upcoming release!

http://boards2.sega.com/sega_board/viewforum.php?f=59

http://forums.bioware.com/forums/viewforum.html?forum=126