In Response To: Extremely Awesome HaloFest Write-up (Days 2 and 3) (Avateur)
: This post is nowhere near as long as the one describing Friday's events, and
: I even included a decent amount of pics! Sunday's post is included below
: Saturday's. Enjoy!
: The Second Day - August 27, 2011
: Bungie: Hatching the Cosmic Halo Egg
: Wilshire and I made our way back to HaloFest just in time to meet up with
: t6ram and claim seats in the first row or two for HBO! I got to meet more
: HBOers before the panel started, and it was filled with a lot of
: interesting and hilarious exchanges between the Bungie members on the
: panel. The panel featured Dave Dunn, Joseph Staten, Marty O'Donnell, Chris
: Butcher, and Eric Osborne (otherwise known as Urk). The entire panel is up
: on Waypoint's YouTube channel and is absolutely worth watching, so if you
: haven't seen it, get to it!
: After the panel, Bungie, Tim Dabado, and Pete Stacker set up for autographs
: right beside the stage. The line for autographs grew so quickly, and sure
: enough most of the HBOers were near the very end of the line. That didn't
: stop people like the Grim Brothers or myself from going right to the table
: and having conversations with Urk on all manner of topics. Then I got a
: brilliant idea: I should go buy a Grunt plushie and get it autographed! I
: decided to go purchase that Grunt and meet up with my fellow HBOers in
: line, and while waiting I finally got to meet KP as he helped monitor the
: Forge contest. Hey KP, I didn't get the chance to play BF3 like you
: suggested. Two hour lines of doom! :(
: And then I got my autographs! Thanks again for signing the Grunt plushie for
: me!
:
: And a really, really big thanks to Urk for putting up with us. Thanks for
: making sure Kermi7 got his DVD collection autographed, and thanks for
: signing padraig's First Strike novel. Thanks for putting up with me asking
: you if you would mind signing these things for them and others. I really
: didn't want to be a bother, and you said I wasn't, but it's really nice to
: know that you have our backs and that you'd even take the time to do any
: of this for us! And also, thanks for just shooting the breeze and talking
: for that long while before all of those requests! It was greatly
: appreciated by everyone involved!
: PAX
: Wilshire and I were in such a hurry to get to HaloFest that we didn't even
: eat breakfast. Wilshire, t6ram, and I split up from the rest of the group
: to go and get some Subway and then finally check out PAX itself. It's no
: Comic Con, but the exhibit hall was still pretty nifty! Unfortunately,
: every game I wanted to play had lines of nearly two hours long, so I had
: to pass on ME3, BF3, and Counter-Strike. At least I got to watch people
: play them. Oh, and I also saw this:
: I can't wait for Gears 3! Luckily it'll be out on the 20th!
: This section is actually really short because although we spent an hour or
: two at PAX, it was mostly wandering around and looking at things. I don't
: really have anything to elaborate on or to go into detail about. It was
: actually fairly surprising at how fast Saturday went by compared to
: Friday, especially since Friday was filled with an endless amount of
: things to talk about. So it was time to head back to HaloFest!
: Bye Bye HaloFest
: PAX/HaloFest would be closing soon for the day, so I wanted to get some more
: time in there for the last hour. Although I had played the new Beaver
: Creek on Friday (and didn't write-up about it, but the map played very
: well), I still had yet to play my favorite Halo map of all time:
: Damnation. First, some feedback on the new Beaver Creek. It played really,
: really well. The air lift to the top of the bases needs work. At one point
: a player got stuck in it and couldn't get out without us killing him. This
: happened twice. Hopefully that issue is taken care of before launch.
: Now on to Damnation. I unfortunately ended up having to play the version of
: the map with the walkway installed at the bottom. Figures, right? The
: aesthetic changes do make a difference in some cases of how I approach
: ramps, and while I have my personal gripes with some of the rooms, the map
: played extremely well and was a lot of fun. It was so much fun that
: Wilshire ended up getting 23 kills on it and I ended up with 21
: (technically 22, but I had a really hilarious suicide in there). I also
: completely messed up an Extermination with the fourth guy right in front
: of me and dead to rights. I wasn't happy about that! But again, this new
: Damnation rocks and I can't wait to have it (without the walkway at the
: bottom) for real in Reach!
: I also used this opportunity to take some pics of the display cases around
: HaloFest and the Master Chief statue: H1 display case:
: H2 display case:
: H3 display case (with a special Xbox signed by Bill Gates presented to the
: launch team, Halo Legends, and other not-very-H3 stuff lol):
: ODST display case:
: Reach display case:
: Master Chief statue:
: And with that, HaloFest was done.
: Dinner, With Class
: With HaloFest closed for the evening, Wilshire, CrazedOne, Kermi7, Das Kalk,
: and I knew we needed to get some dinner. Everyone else in HBO had
: originally planned on going to the Daily Grill to try it out before we had
: breakfast there on Sunday, but the wait was something crazy so they all
: relocated. By the time I found this out, we had already made our own
: reservation for the Daily Grill. It was going to be a 40-50 minute wait,
: which allowed padraig enough time to find us relaxing in the Sheraton so
: that he could join us for dinner. He made it just in time to watch Crazed
: attempt to cheat at a game of Chess to beat Wilshire. As far as he's
: concerned, hitting "undo" about a thousand times for the same
: two moves doesn't count as cheating and merely counts as stopping the game
: dead in its tracks. Sure Crazed, sure. :P
: When we got seated it became more than apparent that our table was
: "different" from all the other tables. Apparently the Daily
: Grill is a classy place, and people were all dressed up and out to eat. We
: were dressed up for a convention, which was hardly dressed up. Luckily for
: our group, we're all so classy in general that no one noticed how we were
: dressed, and I dare say that they wish they could be as eloquent and
: sophisticated as we are. It was great being able to spend that extra time
: with all of you getting to know you better over our classy dinner!
: And with that, Saturday came to a close.
: The Third Day - August 28, 2011
: The Ultimate HBO Breakfast
: We got to bed early in order to show up at breakfast somewhat well rested.
: Wilshire and I arrived around 6:30am at the Daily Grill, just in time to
: grab a table with Pete Cooper, Wu, Mig, and Levi. Slowly but surely the
: rest of us began piling in. Here's a list of everyone who showed up: Pete
: Cooper, Wu, Mig, Levi, Wilshire, CommanderTony, sorahn, nscuDuncan,
: Fyrewulff, Das Kalk, CrazedOne, ElusiveEagle, Kermi7, Stephen Loftus,
: Postmortem, Grim IV, Grim One, padraig, NsU Soldier, Domino Theory,
: Hitmonchan, GhaleonEB, INSANEdrive, Mad Cow, SilverBrin, Psyrixx, and
: myself. I'm also positive that Mad Cow had one other person with him (I
: don't know who, though. Sorry!) and I swear I'm leaving out someone who
: showed up a bit later and sat at CrazedOne's table, but I can't figure out
: who. That makes 29 people who showed up for the Ultimate HBO Breakfast.
: I'd call that a success!
: Near the end of breakfast (aka after everyone was done eating), chris101b,
: bryan newman, and AngelicLionheart showed up. Apparently they were too
: [not] cool to join us for breakfast and went elsewhere, but at least they
: managed to show up in some capacity at the end. Pics were taken, dollar
: bills were flashed, Wu was trolling, and people were photobombing. And
: then we all gathered up for a gigantic HBO group picture that I'm sure
: only enraged the already flustered Daily Grill associates even more. And
: then it was time for Wilshire and I to leave. Hands were shaken, hugs were
: exchanged, and then the rest of HBO departed for the Halo 4 panel.
: Epilogue - The Flight
: Something completely awesome happened on the plane flight home. We were on
: the side of the plane that happened to be facing Mt. Rainier, otherwise
: known as the nastiest volcano in this country that towers nearly three
: miles up from the ground. I've never seen a volcano in person before, and
: I can't say I've ever seen a mountain or anything that rose so high up.
: Check it out:
:
: That volcano is by far the most epic thing I've ever seen. Just wow. And with
: that, I bring this write-up to a close! I'd like to take the time to thank
: Louis Wu again for hosting HBO for all these years, Bungie for giving us
: Halo and thus making it possible for this community to exist, 343
: Industries for making HaloFest happen and for the future of Halo, and of
: course everyone from HBO who showed up and made the HaloFest experience an
: even more awesome one than I could have ever hoped for! See you on the
: forums and on Halo!
Just like to say that my Scottish Flag MC is my favorite piece of Halo paraphernelia ever. Thanks guys!
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