3rd July 2010 - After all the hype and activity in the LA Convention Centre with this year's E3, parts of the world are still reeling from the slew of information for the coming year. Closer to home, we recovered from a full day of cos-play, comics, and characters both past and present as we hit up Supernova 2010 and took in some wrestling, some pizza and even a couple of new games. Below is what transpired.
GAMES
Considering the lack of any real commercial conventions for video games in Australia, the country would do well to plug Supanova for more than it is. Down-under we tend to padd these things out with a lot of comics, a healthy injection of cos-play, animae and as many B and C grade celebrities as we can keep enticing back. That said, sometimes a few new games are also on offer:
ARCANIA: GOTHIC IV was the most obvious and stand-out game on show. Currently in development, due for release sometime around October (hopefully) the game was curiously running on a PC as a debug version but with a n XBOX controller. This is all well and good to show off that it can work both ways....except that every time we went into the menu system (which is a lot in any RPG) we had to default back to a mouse just to select things. The menus will obviously need to be modified for consoles in much the same way as Dragon Age and hopefully it is done well, but none the less it is a good looking game.
It's almost criminal just how much grass and trees this Role Playing games has, not to mention beautiful lit skys, crystal water and a slew of unique creatures. What might also be criminal though, is how slow the character walks! Besides the graphics, the game feels decidedly old-school (read: last gen if you want). It is not a deal breaker considering many role-playing gamers like theirs older fashioned and 'authentic' but a couple of teleporting blue platforms in town doesn't make up for all the running through rather empty swamps and hills. Also he doesn't run fast. At all.
The creatures of Gothic IV are also stand-out as each one looked unique and lovingly made. Hard to put into words, each one just seemed to have their own animation, movement, environment and AI routine. Actual character animation seemed to involve a lot of 'rolling on the ground to avoid damage'. Cutscenes up close were reasonably well done while the whole game reminded of a Bethesda game or the Divinity series.
NO MORE HEROES 2 also received a lot of attention in the WII waggling, hack and slash variety. In this regard Supanova has little to no exclusives, so it was good to see some just released titles for people to sink their fists into. Although repetitive with the most moronic and yet amusing story line ever, from the same man who bought you the best boobs in babes fighting (Dead or Alive) the slighty fetish story of a wronged assassin reclaiming his ninjs status title of 50 kills, went off well in the crowded rather sweaty environment.
COMICS GALORE
We probably should also mention, that just for the record, a midst all the cos-playing cats and Doctor Who, there were a number of Boothbabes and all proudly wearing Ubisoft. In Sydney at least, Ubisoft has a strong presence and the entire GAME booth basically Ubi sponsored and owned. * The 'Babes' as we will call them, spent almost the whole day in front of the WII playing a rhythm game that would give Kinect a run for it's money... but I digress.
Almost every other stall and event at Supanova revolves around either 2 things: Comics or Science Fiction (or both). There were celebrities and voice actors on hand as well as a number of guest signings from suedo celebrities and TV personalities. Vic Mignogna primary voice of FULL METAL ALCHEMIST was on hand while the rest of the time was spent between the Kings Comics booth and 'the same collectibles they bring out every year'. Initially in Sydney it may look like the only store in town is the one, lonely King Comics, but Supernova aims to prove them wrong.
A whole street of no-name but talented artists are on display, pimping their wares and generally trying to make a buck, selling comics and singing photos. Most, as we found out work from home or out of their garage, so if you're an up and coming artist; maybe Supanova is the place for you!
CELEBRITIES
So just how many celebrities turned up to be glomped and otherwise asked Nerdy Questions? Quite a few actually, and the full list is detailed in our previous article but the stand out of the day, was a panel by Serenity and Doll House sweetheart SUMMER GLAU, and the original 'Hulk Smash' man himself, LOU FERRIGNO. We missed ELIZA DUSHKU by a day, but the producers of INCEPTION more than made up for it. Despite rumours to the contrary, Australia has a better than average film industry, and one that we should always be proud of. For those in the know here's a hot tip: The same guys who made Inception are remaking another 80's classic: THE DARK CRYSTAL 2!
Other things to note include: The Hulk coming back in the Avengers movie, probably with Edward Norton with our man LOU FERRIGNO reprising the voice again (as he has with the last 2 movies). He would like the Hulk to be 'friendly' and not an enemy. Summer Glau is equally spooked by loud noises and sweaty nerds, but is super sweet. The Dark Crystal 2 will be mostly CGI but with a lot of returning characters and characters (No David Bowie!) The big movie of the show pimped across almost every wall and flyer, was TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN, home grown and actually looking rather epic.
THE BEST OF THE REST
If sitting down listening to celebrities talk about body building with Arnold Schwarzenegger or meeting the cast of BIG BANG THEORY was not enough, there was still plenty on offer. The Australian division of the local Storm Troopers, were back in action using their force for good in a variety of charity events, as well as the Sydney branch of Star Wars building Robots (that actually work). New Robot this year was none other than Futuramas` Bender.
The AUSTRALIAN WRESTLING FEDERATION was also on show, centre stage, though every year they either seem to get older or more and more lame. Still, a bit of wrestling always breaks up the crowds a bit providing momentary distraction from the weapons, toys, loot and general vampire accessory on offer.
And that folks, just about wraps up 9 hours of pop culture shenanigans. Apologies to ABC 2 GOOD GAME we never did find HEX in amongst all the other pink hair dos. Until Next year – Stay Super!
Article By Ian Crane