Day 4-
Bittersweet as always, the final day had its mix of highs and lows. We hit these events so hard that by the end we have nothing left. It’s a good feeling to know that it’s over and we can go home soon. But it’s also sad to see another one end, not knowing if or when we’ll get to do it all again.
Knowing Sara and I were working the last half of the day with Official Pix we arrived early and took lots of pictures. It was a good opportunity to get shots of things we wanted to get all weekend but missed because of the crowds. During this time we took pictures of one another in the Rebel Legion’s snowspeeder. I also met Ryder Windham (author of many SW books, particularly young readers and compendiums) when he asked me to take a picture of him in the speeder.
My priority for the last morning was getting my hands on the LucasArts demos. LEGO SW3 is nothing new. If you’ve played a LEGO game you’ve seen it. There are new moves for Yoda but I didn’t notice any grand new mechanics. Release date is some time in 2011. I’m thinking spring just because it seems to have most of the polish on it already.
The more exciting demo was The Force Unleashed II. Scheduled for launch alongside Clone Wars season two DVD set on 10/26/2010, this game should be thrilling. I was disappointed by the first game since it was so hyped but turned out to be a God of War clone. I’ve since come to realize GoW is an awesome game and giving it a Star Wars skin isn’t really a bad thing. They’ve also updated the quick time events by moving the button signals to the sides of the screen, a la GoW3. I noticed a few camera shots and maneuvers that seemed more inspired by Dante’s Inferno instead GoW. That may not mean much since it is also heavily influenced by Kratos’ games.
As expected, there are new moves and an increased level of violence. An exciting bit for fans is that Starkiller’s lightsaber is no longer just a club. I removed lots of arms, legs and heads. Some of the moves I enjoyed may be returning tools but there are definitely new ones as well. Holding a trooper in the air with the Force and flinging two sabers into his chest is awesome. Suspending a trooper in mid-air, charging him with Force-lightning and flinging him into a crowd so he explodes like a grenade will never get old. A favorite new toy for me was the Jedi Mind Trick. My first use caused a trooper to become confused and throw himself out a window resulting in a splatterful death on the deck below. Later uses were disappointing as the troopers just attacked their friends. I’m hoping the suicide trick wasn’t just contextual. I would love to see the game include level traps that can be utilized as suicide options using this ability.
The demo ended with a cutscene of Starkiller taking off in Vader’s modified TIE. Combining this bit with the trailer that was launched a few weeks ago should give a clue as to the general plot of the game. It’s shaping up to be a fun game, if not ground breaking. That’s okay. Maybe this time I’ll be able to enjoy the game for what it is instead of what it could be.
Another little side note about these demos is that they were running on the PS3. This is a step forward to a fan like me. Lucasfilm has had strong associations with Xbox and Microsoft in the past. Having early builds on PS3 suggests they aren’t making a PC game and trying to port it. While many games have successfully done it, porting from PC or Xbox to PS3 tends to give the Sony version significantly less quality. Developing on PS3 and porting the other way can give all versions better quality.
Finally, being the sneaky bastard that I am, I may have noticed something I shouldn’t. Since I was early and waiting for the booth staff to start the demos I was able to watch them boot their systems. One of them had a file in the XMB with Indiana Jones in the title. I couldn’t read the whole title but I definitely recognized the most important part. I asked both members of the booth staff about this file. One told me outright, “There is no Indiana Jones game.” The other said it was old data “…probably from the LEGO game.” Probably? If it were old Indy data on the PS3 what else would it be? I’ll trust them for now, but my curiosity is piqued.
After the demos we wandered back to Ashley Eckstein’s Her Universe booth. She was there hyping the brand and I overheard a snippet of her conversation. She mentioned she was planning something based on GL’s comment from the Main Event about “Dare to be Cute.”
Building functional (remote controlled) Artoo units is great example of how passionate some fans can be. Droid races featuring home-made astromechs is an under the radar event at Celebrations. Not having much time left in the morning we decided to visit the races. We arrived during the set up and one of the owners was teaching the crowd how to drive his droid. I got hold of the remote and it was surprisingly fast, simple and responsive. If I weren’t a technical moron I would consider one for myself. We watched the droid races for a few minutes but they were poorly planned and one of the tasks was clearly not tested. It became so frustrating to watch that we actually left. It was getting close to time for our last shift with Official Pix anyway. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28216824@N07/4911231472/in/photostream/
The last shift we were helping with the sales booth. Just be clear, this is not the booth that sells autograph tickets. This is the booth that sells the official photographs. The main attraction at this booth is the 8×10 portraits that run $5 a piece. My expectation was that everyone had already bought their photos over the last three days and the booth would be slow. I forgot to account for last day markdowns. Those 8x10s were buy one get one free when we started. In the last hour they went to four for $5. The markdowns were happening on the larger posters and picture packs as well. On the other side of the booth the lithographs made specifically for CV were clearing out at two for a dollar. Clearly we were slammed. After a full weekend of pushing ourselves to the limit we suddenly found our final shift taxing our energy as much as the bounty hunt two days prior. Despite the hard work I still found myself enjoying it. Sara did not.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28216824@N07/4910629235/in/photostream/
As all good things must, our time at the Celebration ended. It was fun and full of memories. I’m a die hard Star Wars fan, but in these dark times with no new movies and a slight drought in the quality of books for the Expanded Universe a Celebration is just what I needed to renew my love for the saga. It’s inspired me to jump back into the cartoon currently running. I’m also thinking of doing some additional work on my costumes, maybe even build a whole new one. I’m confident that there will be a Celebration VI. At this point I’d be a fool to miss it. The loonies that have hit all five US Celebrations are a dying breed. Each time we go there are fewer and fewer people who raise their hands when an emcee asks who has made it to all of them. I intend to count myself among the energizer bunny crowd for as long as I’m able.